gonewest

The test photos were really crappy, but the fireworks they lit off for the New Year’s celebration at the Space Needle gave off enough light to produce some rather good pictures; you can find the rest of them here.

Definitely worth the measly ten minute walk to the Seattle Center and definitely one of the things I will miss when I move away from such a large metropolitan area (assuming that I do make that decision). Now I need to get to bed as I have a road trip to make tomorrow if I can drag myself out of bed early enough.

May the new year bring a return to sane governmental policy in this country, an end to the insane war in Iraq, many good times for my family and friends… and a really big boost to my income ;-)

Oh, and did I forget to make a Christmas post? OK then, merry Christmas too.

My one year lease at the current apartment (and my first year living in Seattle) will be up in just about two months. I’ve been quite happy with the current pad: the rent is much higher than I want to pay (everything decent in Seattle is) which makes buying a boat in the near future much less likely, but it is a nice unit in a good neighborhood and within walking distance of downtown. My lease here was one of those “specials”, however, which basically means that you can count on a rate hike after the lease runs out.

I did not plan on staying in this apartment long term; this place was a snap decision made on a very short apartment hunting trip, and so I assumed that I would find a better deal or another neighborhood that I would prefer once I had been up here a while. Still, I have gotten quite tired of the whole pack-move-unpack routine and was hoping to stay for at least two years before moving on. Basically, I had decided that if the rent raise was $100/month or less then I would definitely stay one more year and if it was $200 or more I would definitely leave.

Well, I got the renewal notice a few days ago and they came down smack in the middle of the grey area between stay and go. I haven’t made a decision yet, but my mind has been frequently wandering to the topic of new areas to try out since I got the notice, so I guess my unconscious mind is already made up and the only real question is where do I move to next?

I am not ready to consider leaving Washington yet, so I can either try to stay in/near the Seattle metro area or try some other part of the state — I definitely want to stay close to the coast, however. I would prefer to stay near Seattle, but the whole reason this apartment is expensive is because everyone else does too and so finding a much better rent (why do the move hassle just to keep the rent the same?) in this area means that I would either be renting a so so apartment in a questionable neighborhood (not interested) or have a long commute whenever I wanted to go downtown (the whole reason to stay close to Seattle). A long commute would not be that bad since it would not be a daily work commute, but if I have to deal with the hassle of driving, traffic jams, and paying for parking when I finally get downtown, then what really is the difference between a 30-60 minute drive and a two hour drive aside from the increased car-radio time? Either way, if I can’t walk to downtown Seattle, I doubt that I will go there more than several times a year rather than several times a month as I do now and so the reason for staying close more or less evaporates.

At the moment, I am doing a little web research on Bellingham and am thinking about making a drive up this week to scope out the town (less than 100,000 people) to see if there is enough of a there there to keep me contented for a while. As for satisfying the occasional need to wander about a large urban center, Bellingham is roughly midway between Seattle and Vancouver so I would actually have two to choose from. Amtrak even has stations in or near the downtown area in all three cities so I should be able to forgo a car on those outings; the commute would still be a couple of hours each way, but I understand that the train hugs the coast for most of the route so it would probably be a very pretty ride. Real estate prices have been increasing fairly rapidly in Bellingham in recent years (apparently leveling off now), but it seems that the rental rates should still be much lower than Seattle which gives me the option of renting a decent place and still being able to buy a boat in the next year or two (the main reason I moved to Washington).

Oh yeah, Bellingham is apparently very close to the San Juan Islands, so it just might have a lot more to offer, not to mention some very very good sailing, than I would normally expect from a city of its size. I’ll just have to check it out and see.

Abandoned pier on Lake Union with Queen Anne hill in the background.

For all you Firefly fans disappointed that there will almost certainly be no new series or movies to look forward to, it can only be good news that the rights to turn firefly into a MMORPG have been purchased and so there is a decent chance that you’ll be able buy a Firefly and do your own crime in the next year or two.

I caught a showing of Casino Royale yesterday at the Seattle Cinerama (an old school big theater with a great big screen). They say this movie is as good as the old Sean Connery Bond flicks. It has been so long since I’ve seen Connery as James Bond that all I can say is that this is the best Bond flick that I remember — it has all the action and high class intrigue that you would expect from Bond without going overboard on gadgets and too-big-for-life villains that plagued most of the previous films.

Casino Royale is the first installment of a re-imagining of the Bond franchise which looks to be off to a very promising start. In many ways it reminds me of last year’s Batman Begins which marked a similarly successful fresh start for the Batman series. Both films are darker, grittier, and more realistic than the original series and both bring plot lines and leading performances to the table that are strong enough to make one actually look forward to the next installment, which I think is something that neither Bond nor Batman fans have been able to do for quite a while.

I went to see Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Kazakhstan a few days ago and I must say that it is the funniest movie that I’ve seen in a while. Anyone who is easily offended should think two or three times before seeing it though because it makes a movie like South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut seem rather tame by comparison.

This is the first time that I have seen anything that Sacha Cohen, the comedian behind Borat, has done but it appears that he has taken up the mantle laid down by Andy Kaufman so many years ago. Both practice a form of ambush comedy (which is apparently actually called anti-humor or Dada) which is hilarious when the setup works but almost always uncomfortable to watch; but it is also a unique brand of comedy that has the ability to reveal more about who we are than any other.

My only complaint about the Borat movie is that there was too much toilet humor, gay humor, nudity scenes that set new standards in bad taste, and not quite enough of the dupe making ambush comedy that I had come to see. There are several really good bits that make the whole movie worth seeing though.

Update: I changed the title to this post because the original was too long and didn’t say what I wanted to say

I bought a flashlight the other day when I was out shopping for fireplace accessories. It has six LEDs, takes 3, 6, or 9 batteries (your choice) for up to a claimed 200 hours of light, and it converts from a standard flashlight format to a tripod for when you need both hands free.

If Tim and Jeff don’t have one of these yet, then they better find one as they can’t let me be the one with the coolest LED light ;-)