Jul 31, 2003 4:00:09 PM

I got caught up looking up this article today - we've been making fun of it in the office all day and I wanted to have the definitive link.

Seven Stupid Things Bosses Say (I can just hear the guy from ING Seattle - was it Brian? - breathing down my neck)

"Just make it happen."
"You need to work smarter, not harder."
"That's a no-brainer."
Well, duh."
"I don't want to hear any excuses."
"I've got my eye on you."
"I don't pay you to think."

Are these counteracted by the Seven Things to Tell Workers Every Day?

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Posted by webcowgirl @ Jul 31, 2003 4:00:09 PM [Link]

Jul 28, 2003 2:45:47 PM

I became convinced about a year ago that Seattle was heading down the toliet but no one wanted to admit it. The problem is that the rich people who live in Seattle have a very nice quality of life, with these extremely friendly neighbors who say "hi" to each other as they walk around their well manicured streets, picking up garbage as they go. They live in a bubble about the rest of Seattle, where junkies break in through the back door (while you're gardening out front) and make off with your purse and TV set, where your street-parked car is like a $1000 bill just waiting to be set free, and selling drugs on the street corner is just another summer job. What kills me is how complicit the Seattle police are in this problem. Look at 3rd and Pine, Occidental Park, 2nd and Pike, 12th and Jefferson. I've been around long enough now that I know people aren't just "hanging out." They're dealing. They're shaking people down when they can get away with it. But as long as it's just poor folks that get troubled, rich, white Seattle doesn't care.

Was it three years ago that packs of black kids were beating up random white guys in Belltown? They had been roaming 23rd and Cherry earlier that year, but they were just picking on old Asian grannies with their pension checks, so it didn't get coverage. I think these were the same type of folks that came to Seattle for Mardi Gras in 2001 and killed Christopher Kime. (This is based on a comment I heard from the business owner I talked to who said he heard kids in the parking lot near his business saying they'd come up - from Tacoma? - to "break up whities party." This comment has disturbed me for years.)

Anyway, the latest is that two people were stabbled and one shot after the Torchlight Parade. But this incident has received very little coverage. Is it because the victims weren't white? (In fact, at least one of them was.) I suspect it's because 1) it happened after the newscasts were done and - more importantly - 2) because it doesn't fit in with the Seattle view of "how great our city is." Look at this coverage in the Seattle Times - don't they seem to be skipping the real news story? There are three paragraphs of news and 20 of fluff!

Seattle is never going to dig out of the problems it is having until the police and the city council admit there are real problems out there, problems that won't just go away if we turn our backs on them. As long as the police continue their policies of tolerating illegal activities -- as long as they occur in places where the neighbors don't complain about it -- this city will continue to have crap like this going down.

Speaking of which, I've appended a letter I wrote to the city opposing a proposal to open up my neighborhood to more low income housing. Give me a fucking break, we already have way too much!
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Jul 28, 2003 2:45:47 PM [Link]

Jul 21, 2003 8:31:09 AM

I've added my review of the Seattle Asian Art Museum's "Discovering Buddhist Art" exhibit.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Jul 21, 2003 8:31:09 AM [Link]

Jul 6, 2003 3:54:07 PM

Yesterday I went to the SOIL and Pound art galleries to see the Speak & Spell group show, which I had been asked to write about. I've appended my story in the raw form ... the final form should show up in about four days.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Jul 6, 2003 3:54:07 PM [Link]

Jul 4, 2003 1:32:01 PM

Last week I was at my friend Cathy's house, and she had a book that had a page of a bunch of fake book titles. One of them was 'Zen and the art of Menstrual Cycle Maintenance,' but for some reason I read it as 'Zen and the art of Unemployment.' And, you know, I should write that book (although for some reason I'm actually feeling blue-ish and not very zen right now, and I am convinced it's because I haven't really pulled myself out of the unemployment thing yet after getting only 2 days of work from Q*** this week). I'm starting an outline here, and maybe I can flesh it out later.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Jul 4, 2003 1:32:01 PM [Link]