With Proper Training…

There are actually a couple other versions of these pics that I decided not to post here because they’re mainly variations on the same theme, but if you’re interested, you can check out the Gary Visits Seattle Photoset on Flickr. For larger versions, just click on the image and you’ll be taken to the Flickr version available in a variety of sizes. Also on a couple of these I used the note feature on Flickr for the first time.

Anyway, in case you couldn’t tell by the title, Yaeka and I were lucky enough to play tour guide with Gary who was out in the Puget Sound for his sister’s wedding. We did a good amount of sightseeing as well as some fine dining at Mama’s Mexican Kitchen and Frites.

Before we headed to Seattle, however, it was crucial to start our day off with some excellent root beer at XXX. This may be the biggest landmark in Issaquah, plus it’s mentioned in a Modest Mouse song. The Flickr version is normal, but I got kind of experimental here and oversaturated the background and desaturated Gary for fun.

Of course you can’t go to Seattle without getting a shot with the Space Needle. (Remember when Matt visited?)

Also in Seattle center is this huge fountain that goes through sequences along with classical music. It’s pretty cool and Yaeka and I couldn’t wait for one of those dramatic timpani hits so that the big water cannon shot would go up into the air. It actually turned out to not be as dramatic as we remembered, but these pictures still make it look a little exciting.

On the way back from Mama’s we passed by Sub Pop Records HQ. They’ve done some nice window displays since the last time I was there. Here’s Gary admiring posters for some his recent favorite albums.

Under the bridge in Fremont lives a troll. Yaeka thought it would be a great idea for Gary to pose with his head in the Troll’s nostril. If you look at her face as she walks away, she seem pretty amused that he actually did it.

To close out the night we headed over to The Garage for some happy hour priced drinks and cheap $10/hr bowling. That’s $10/hr for the lane, not for each of us! It took a while for Gary to hit his stride, but he won the second game with a score of 126. While he didn’t actually squeal like one of the middle-aged women a few lanes over after hitting a couple of strikes, I’m sure he was squealing with joy on the inside.

That’s all for now. Maybe you will be the next to get to do all of these exciting things when you visit Seattle!

So in the last Colgate Scene in the books and media section, I noticed that a guy by the name of Douglas Cowie ‘99 has written a new book titled Owen Noone and the Marauder. The plot reminds me quite a bit of Jeff Gomez’s Geniuses of Crack or maybe it’s just because there aren’t too many books I’ve read regarding an indie/punk band trying to make it big. I actually highly recommend Gomez’s book Our Noise though.

Anyway, I was curious if you guys new about this or have had a chance to check it out. Are any of you still in touch with Doug? The book is available for ridiculously cheap at Amazon.com.

Okay a quick Blingo (did I mention I won again?) search yielded the following reviews that I’ll check out later:
Laura Hird
NY Times

And also a brief bio:
http://www.bloomsbury.com/authors/default.asp?id=887&section=2

Via Rocketboom, I found this awesome live reenactment of the NES game Paperboy.

I think my favorite part may just be the kid rolling the tire back and forth, although the guy juggling flames is also very impressive. What ever happened to the good ol’ days when paperboys rode bikes?

A few months ago, a little bit after I had started utilizing RSS feeds, I came across a post by Lee LeFever regarding his approach to RSS. Basically if he hasn’t read a post a few days after it came out, he just deletes it.

Since I had just got into subscribing to feeds, I had no idea how someone could get so far behind, but now that I am subscribed to a ton of feeds, I’m running into the same problem. There was a while where I spent at least 30-45 minutes a night just reading feeds, however, I don’t have this much time to dedicate to that everyday so I started falling behind. Unlike Lee, I feel bad just deleting everything. I have the mindset of a collector so sometimes even after reading things I have trouble deleting them. I’ve been working on this though and I think I’m ready to take a step even more extreme than just deleting posts.

Starting last night, I am re-examining my subscriptions and just deleting the ones that I feel don’t make the cut. When I started subscribing, I’d read about another blog in one subscription, go check it out and then just subscribe. I think once I get everything cleared out to just the essentials I’m going to create a second folder of subscriptions “in review”. While a feed is “in review” I can analyze whether the content of it makes me feel like I must read it frequently or if I subconciously let the posts accumulate unread. If they just pile up, I’ll delete the subscription, or if it is something I feel I must read I’ll just move it to my main subscriptions folder. If there is a subscription I have in my “must read” folder and it starts piling up then I’ll decide whether to just clear it out like Lee or if I should demote it to “review” status.