So the other day, I wrote about how I got to see my first snow (see blog 238). I've since learned that snow has an ugly, evil twin called ice.
Monday night was amazing. The snow fell and dusted the world in white. The next morning, my roommate wakes me up and says he can't make it out the driveway because his car keeps slipping on the embankment (our apartment is situated on the side of a hill). He suggests I call in to work to tell them I'm going to be late.
But I'm stubborn and I don't like to miss work and my Scion xB comes with traction control so I decide to take my own chances on the road.
I don't know if it was the traction control or how slow I was going but my car made it out the apartment complex just fine. I mean I could tell it was slippery, but I got over the hill. Once over the hill I thought I was safe but "over the hill" means I'm now heading downhill. I thought that would be no big deal until I hit the brakes to stop at the stop sign at the end of our street.
Now while Scion's traction control system got me over the hill, it was the antilock braking system that kept me from flying into the intersection. Granted, I didn't stop right at the stop sign (I skidded a couple feet beyond), but I did stop. I could hear a muffled chattering sound coming from beneath the car. It didn't take long to realize that was the ABS system pumping the brakes to keep the tires from locking up.
So in the course of two short minutes, I tested two systems on my Scion that I never thought I'd use, and they both performed flawlessly. Thankfully, this meant I didn't have to test out the airbag deployment system. I love my car.
Oh, I forgot to mention the walk up to my car. All that lovely snow turns otherwise innocent sidewalks into a Keystone Kops banana peel routine. I'm innocently walking to my car, thinking about what I'm going to do if I can't get out of the driveway like my roommate, when all of a sudden I feel my shoe lose all its grip and my body starts doing this awkward, angular panic dance complete with windmilling arms. Luckily my (Okinawan) ninja reflexes kicked in and I didn't fall.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Sunday, November 26, 2006
238. first snow
Now when I title this blog, "first snow," I don't just mean the first snow of the season. I mean this is the first snow I've seen, EVER. There's not a lot of snowfall in Hawaii, especially on Oahu. I mean I think I heard a news report once about hail falling somewhere on Oahu, but that was probably punk kids throwing ice cubes over their apartment balcony.
Before today, the closest I came to seeing snow was on a high school trip to the mainland. We went on a trip to DC and Virginia. On the bus trip from DC to Arlington, we went over some mountains (at least I remember them as mountains) and on the top of one of the passes, we saw white stuff on the ground. And all the kids in the bus went nuts (myself included) because at least half of us were born and raised in Hawaii and like I said above, it doesn't snow there. The bus driver thought we were crazy because to him, it was just ice on the ground. Well, they stop the busses, we all get out and start throwing snow (ice on the ground) at each other.
Today I got to see the real thing.
And it was beautiful.
And it wasn't as cold as I though it would be. Never having experienced snow before, I always thought that if the weather was such that it was cold enough to snow, I would have to be bundled up like people on arctic expeditions, complete with Gore-Tex parka and seal skin mukluks. I went to church wearing a long-sleeve t-shirt, long-sleeve dress shirt, sweater, and a jacket, and although I wouldn't want to be caught outdoors for any long period of time, I was warm enough to get by.
Did I mention it was beautiful?
At first I watched it fall from my window. Then I went outside to get a closer look. It's kind of like watching rain fall, only in slow motion. I caught some of it in my hand. It's soft and melts on contact. When you look up at the sky, the snow looks like thousands (millions?) of tiny dark grey dots swirling about in the wind. Then I went back inside and my jacket looked like I had the worst case of dandruff ever.
No, I didn't make snow angels or yellow snow.
I don't know how often it snows up here. It was my understanding that it was a rare occurrence in Seattle so I was surprised to see it, especially since the coldest part of the year is still a couple months away. Another rare occurrence I'd like to see is the aurora borealis. I believe Seattle is far enough north to see the event, but I'm thinking I probably need to get away from all the light pollution to get a good view.
Before today, the closest I came to seeing snow was on a high school trip to the mainland. We went on a trip to DC and Virginia. On the bus trip from DC to Arlington, we went over some mountains (at least I remember them as mountains) and on the top of one of the passes, we saw white stuff on the ground. And all the kids in the bus went nuts (myself included) because at least half of us were born and raised in Hawaii and like I said above, it doesn't snow there. The bus driver thought we were crazy because to him, it was just ice on the ground. Well, they stop the busses, we all get out and start throwing snow (ice on the ground) at each other.
Today I got to see the real thing.
And it was beautiful.
And it wasn't as cold as I though it would be. Never having experienced snow before, I always thought that if the weather was such that it was cold enough to snow, I would have to be bundled up like people on arctic expeditions, complete with Gore-Tex parka and seal skin mukluks. I went to church wearing a long-sleeve t-shirt, long-sleeve dress shirt, sweater, and a jacket, and although I wouldn't want to be caught outdoors for any long period of time, I was warm enough to get by.
Did I mention it was beautiful?
At first I watched it fall from my window. Then I went outside to get a closer look. It's kind of like watching rain fall, only in slow motion. I caught some of it in my hand. It's soft and melts on contact. When you look up at the sky, the snow looks like thousands (millions?) of tiny dark grey dots swirling about in the wind. Then I went back inside and my jacket looked like I had the worst case of dandruff ever.
No, I didn't make snow angels or yellow snow.
I don't know how often it snows up here. It was my understanding that it was a rare occurrence in Seattle so I was surprised to see it, especially since the coldest part of the year is still a couple months away. Another rare occurrence I'd like to see is the aurora borealis. I believe Seattle is far enough north to see the event, but I'm thinking I probably need to get away from all the light pollution to get a good view.
Saturday, November 18, 2006
237. it's official, but is it home?
A few weeks ago I got my Washington driver's license. Today I got my Washington license plates attached to my Xb. I guess that makes me an official resident of the state of Washington.
It's not just the official documentation though, life here feels somewhat normal. What I mean is, I don't wake up in the morning thinking, "what the hell am I doing here?"
I'm sure that part of the reason life feels normal and somewhat routine has to do with the fact that I'm working now. My hours are from 9AM to 5:30PM, Monday through Friday. I really like the job. The people are cool and the work has me walking and climbing stairs all day (it's basically a warehouse job). I don't have a scale at my new home, but I know I've lost some weight by working there.
Which reminds me of something else I've been meaning to write about: the provision and providence of God.
A few months before moving to Seattle, I bought a pair of walking shoes. See, one of my philosophies when it comes to fitness is the maxim, "no pain, no pain." Although I did some running (and plan to take that up again once summer comes around), I did just as much walking (often on my lunch breaks). I didn't want to wear out my running shoes, so I purchased a pair of New Balance walking shoes. I also bought gel-type insoles for them.
Fast forward to the present and these shoes turn out to be perfectly suited to my warehouse job. Like I said, I'm on my feet all day but my feet never get sore. I thought I was buying walking shoes for exercise, I now see God's subtle hand, preparing me for the job I have now.
I can't call them to mind right now, but there have been lots of little things like that - little "coincidences" that help me to know that as big of a change as this is for me, God is in control.
As for things with my band, we found a rehearsal space and unless something really strange happens, we'll be in there starting Monday.
Back in Hawaii, most of the rehearsal studios rent out space by the hour. There are places up here that do that as well, but also common is the setup where you actually rent out a room by the month and that's what we're going with. Basically, it's like renting an apartment except that we're renting it for our musical equipment, not ourselves. So our rehearsal room is OUR rehearsal room for as long as we pay the rent.
The cool part of this arrangement is that as a band, we don't have to worry about finding an open slot. We can practice pretty much whenever we want to. Also, even if we're not rehearsing as a band, I can go in there and bang away on my drums (aka practicing).
It's hard to convey what a benefit that is to me. See, the other guys in the band, they can strum their guitars and practice all kinds of scales and noodle around whenever they want. Granted, they can't turn up their amps as loud as they'd like, but still, the physical mechanics of playing their instrument is the same whether they're playing unplugged or through a screaming stack of amps.
Drummers don't have that luxury. There's no volume knob on the drums and there's no substitute for playing at performance volume level (aka loud). The drums are a very physical instrument. If I don't get to practice on my drums at the same volume I play during a gig, I'm going to cramp up on stage - something that's happened more often than I'd like to admit. In fact, even when I'm able to practice somewhat regularly at full tilt, I still sometimes cramp up on stage because the rush of performing makes me play even harder.
But back to the idea I started with - that living in Seattle is getting to feel normal.
Another thing that's helping me feel that way is the fact that I don't need to consult my map or the GPS unit that I bought to get around.
Now I know I didn't blog about the GPS unit, so let me digress (again) to talk about this amazing little device. After a bit of research, I picked up the Garmin Street Pilot. Main selling point for me was the fact that Garmin is the only GPS company that was providing any kind of indication that they were pursuing support for the Mac OSX platform. All the other companies only support PCs (boo). Now Garmin doesn't support Macs yet, but at least they say they're working on a solution.
Anyway, the GPS unit is a fun little device. After you turn it on, it takes about a minute or so to link up the the GPS satellites. Once it knows where it is you tell it where you want to go and it does it's best to give turn by turn, street by street directions. It's not perfect (I occasionally program a destination I'm already familiar with to see how it will get me there and sometimes that results in a really bizarre route) but it certainly beats wrestling with a map while doing 60 on the I-5.
About a week into owning the device, I saw that I was becoming dependent on its directions. I wanted to learn how to get around Seattle without using a technological crutch, so I started to limit its use to getting me to places I'd never been before. Apart from that, I've been trying to find my own way and more often that not, I get to where I want to go.
And so, Seattle is beginning to feel familiar. I'm not quite ready to call it home. I mean, I know I live here, but it doesn't feel like home yet. I have no idea how long that will take. A part of me suspects that I'll be back in Hawaii before I get to that point, but who knows. I always tell people that I want to end up back in Hawaii, but I wonder if the only reason I say that is because Hawaii is familiar and it's where I was born and raised.
I don't know. I don't need to make this decision tonight. I'm just glad things are going well and that I'll soon be able to rehearse with my band again.
It's not just the official documentation though, life here feels somewhat normal. What I mean is, I don't wake up in the morning thinking, "what the hell am I doing here?"
I'm sure that part of the reason life feels normal and somewhat routine has to do with the fact that I'm working now. My hours are from 9AM to 5:30PM, Monday through Friday. I really like the job. The people are cool and the work has me walking and climbing stairs all day (it's basically a warehouse job). I don't have a scale at my new home, but I know I've lost some weight by working there.
Which reminds me of something else I've been meaning to write about: the provision and providence of God.
A few months before moving to Seattle, I bought a pair of walking shoes. See, one of my philosophies when it comes to fitness is the maxim, "no pain, no pain." Although I did some running (and plan to take that up again once summer comes around), I did just as much walking (often on my lunch breaks). I didn't want to wear out my running shoes, so I purchased a pair of New Balance walking shoes. I also bought gel-type insoles for them.
Fast forward to the present and these shoes turn out to be perfectly suited to my warehouse job. Like I said, I'm on my feet all day but my feet never get sore. I thought I was buying walking shoes for exercise, I now see God's subtle hand, preparing me for the job I have now.
I can't call them to mind right now, but there have been lots of little things like that - little "coincidences" that help me to know that as big of a change as this is for me, God is in control.
As for things with my band, we found a rehearsal space and unless something really strange happens, we'll be in there starting Monday.
Back in Hawaii, most of the rehearsal studios rent out space by the hour. There are places up here that do that as well, but also common is the setup where you actually rent out a room by the month and that's what we're going with. Basically, it's like renting an apartment except that we're renting it for our musical equipment, not ourselves. So our rehearsal room is OUR rehearsal room for as long as we pay the rent.
The cool part of this arrangement is that as a band, we don't have to worry about finding an open slot. We can practice pretty much whenever we want to. Also, even if we're not rehearsing as a band, I can go in there and bang away on my drums (aka practicing).
It's hard to convey what a benefit that is to me. See, the other guys in the band, they can strum their guitars and practice all kinds of scales and noodle around whenever they want. Granted, they can't turn up their amps as loud as they'd like, but still, the physical mechanics of playing their instrument is the same whether they're playing unplugged or through a screaming stack of amps.
Drummers don't have that luxury. There's no volume knob on the drums and there's no substitute for playing at performance volume level (aka loud). The drums are a very physical instrument. If I don't get to practice on my drums at the same volume I play during a gig, I'm going to cramp up on stage - something that's happened more often than I'd like to admit. In fact, even when I'm able to practice somewhat regularly at full tilt, I still sometimes cramp up on stage because the rush of performing makes me play even harder.
But back to the idea I started with - that living in Seattle is getting to feel normal.
Another thing that's helping me feel that way is the fact that I don't need to consult my map or the GPS unit that I bought to get around.
Now I know I didn't blog about the GPS unit, so let me digress (again) to talk about this amazing little device. After a bit of research, I picked up the Garmin Street Pilot. Main selling point for me was the fact that Garmin is the only GPS company that was providing any kind of indication that they were pursuing support for the Mac OSX platform. All the other companies only support PCs (boo). Now Garmin doesn't support Macs yet, but at least they say they're working on a solution.
Anyway, the GPS unit is a fun little device. After you turn it on, it takes about a minute or so to link up the the GPS satellites. Once it knows where it is you tell it where you want to go and it does it's best to give turn by turn, street by street directions. It's not perfect (I occasionally program a destination I'm already familiar with to see how it will get me there and sometimes that results in a really bizarre route) but it certainly beats wrestling with a map while doing 60 on the I-5.
About a week into owning the device, I saw that I was becoming dependent on its directions. I wanted to learn how to get around Seattle without using a technological crutch, so I started to limit its use to getting me to places I'd never been before. Apart from that, I've been trying to find my own way and more often that not, I get to where I want to go.
And so, Seattle is beginning to feel familiar. I'm not quite ready to call it home. I mean, I know I live here, but it doesn't feel like home yet. I have no idea how long that will take. A part of me suspects that I'll be back in Hawaii before I get to that point, but who knows. I always tell people that I want to end up back in Hawaii, but I wonder if the only reason I say that is because Hawaii is familiar and it's where I was born and raised.
I don't know. I don't need to make this decision tonight. I'm just glad things are going well and that I'll soon be able to rehearse with my band again.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
235. big week (part 2)
Two big news items for me this week. First, yesterday (Monday) my big shipment of Hawaii stuff got delivered. That means my drums, my recording equipment, my tools, and more of my clothes came in. I forgot how much stuff got shipped so opening all the boxes was a bit like Christmas. Everything was wrapped (packed by professionals back in HI - my mom hired a shipping company) in large sheets of heavy paper (they don't use packing blankets anymore) and so it really felt like unwrapping presents only these were items that I already owned. But it had been so long since I'd seen them that it was fun nevertheless.
Second news item, I started my new job today. Guess I passed their background check. It's a very active, physical job. Very different from the clerical work I've been doing for the past three years but that was the point of taking the job - to try something new and different. I work at a warehouse where they store boxes of files. Lots of them. Today, they gave me a list of boxes and files to pull and my job was to try and find them. The place is really well organized so it wasn't too hard to figure out what was where but still, there were lots of times when I must have looked like a man who didn't know which way was up.
There's tons of walking involved with this job - the warehouse is freaking huge (actually two big warehouses stuck together to make one huge one) and some of the boxes are maybe 40 or 50 pounds. Not a lot, but they're stacked three high and three deep and sometimes the box I need is in the back, on the bottom so I have to pull out eight boxes to get to the one. And then I have to put them back.
I'm hoping a few months of this job will make me a buff warehouse dude.
Oh, and as for the NaNoWriMo, I've already given up on it. My writing style is just not suited to the event and now I feel stupid because there were a few times, before the event, when I felt the pull of a story but held off in the hopes that it would still be there when the NaNo started. But the muse is a fickle maiden and try as I might, she would not sing again what I would not hear when first offered.
But I'm not bummed or frustrated like I was last year (see blog 117 for example - caution, potty mouth). I know it goes against the whole point of the event, but I didn't put a lot of pressure on myself to maintain my word count. The way I see it, writing is something I enjoy and to twist myself into knots just to "win" an event that isn't a competition is actually counter-productive.
Now I know I've written before that I want to try and get published (see blog 229), and I know most professional writers have a strict work ethic, but...but...but it's not like "winning" the NaNo has any prize money attached to it and I'd like to think that if I was writing for a paycheck (or after receiving an advance) that I would place nose to grindstone to spin golden threads of prose.
Speaking of a writer's work ethic, this past Sunday I got to hear Aimee Bender read one of her unpublished stories at a place called Hugo House (see what an amazing city Seattle is?). In one of the write-ups on the event, someone mentioned that she attributes her success to her discipline: "I write in the morning, two hours, that's the law." I really need to pick up her books because her slightly bent view of the world is something that I see in my own work (albeit, nowhere near her level).
One last bit about Aimee Bender and Hugo House. She teaches there and on the first Monday of every month, they hold a gathering for people looking to join up with writers groups. Part of what excited me about Seattle was the writing community that they have here and a writer's group is just what I was hoping to find. I know this past Monday was the first Monday of November but like I wrote above, all my stuff arrived from Hawaii and I was busy trying to find a place to put all the stuff. I'll try to make it to December's meeting.
Oh, and I might have found the church that I want to attend here in Seattle. More on that soon, but for now you can see their website at www.seattlequest.org.
Second news item, I started my new job today. Guess I passed their background check. It's a very active, physical job. Very different from the clerical work I've been doing for the past three years but that was the point of taking the job - to try something new and different. I work at a warehouse where they store boxes of files. Lots of them. Today, they gave me a list of boxes and files to pull and my job was to try and find them. The place is really well organized so it wasn't too hard to figure out what was where but still, there were lots of times when I must have looked like a man who didn't know which way was up.
There's tons of walking involved with this job - the warehouse is freaking huge (actually two big warehouses stuck together to make one huge one) and some of the boxes are maybe 40 or 50 pounds. Not a lot, but they're stacked three high and three deep and sometimes the box I need is in the back, on the bottom so I have to pull out eight boxes to get to the one. And then I have to put them back.
I'm hoping a few months of this job will make me a buff warehouse dude.
Oh, and as for the NaNoWriMo, I've already given up on it. My writing style is just not suited to the event and now I feel stupid because there were a few times, before the event, when I felt the pull of a story but held off in the hopes that it would still be there when the NaNo started. But the muse is a fickle maiden and try as I might, she would not sing again what I would not hear when first offered.
But I'm not bummed or frustrated like I was last year (see blog 117 for example - caution, potty mouth). I know it goes against the whole point of the event, but I didn't put a lot of pressure on myself to maintain my word count. The way I see it, writing is something I enjoy and to twist myself into knots just to "win" an event that isn't a competition is actually counter-productive.
Now I know I've written before that I want to try and get published (see blog 229), and I know most professional writers have a strict work ethic, but...but...but it's not like "winning" the NaNo has any prize money attached to it and I'd like to think that if I was writing for a paycheck (or after receiving an advance) that I would place nose to grindstone to spin golden threads of prose.
Speaking of a writer's work ethic, this past Sunday I got to hear Aimee Bender read one of her unpublished stories at a place called Hugo House (see what an amazing city Seattle is?). In one of the write-ups on the event, someone mentioned that she attributes her success to her discipline: "I write in the morning, two hours, that's the law." I really need to pick up her books because her slightly bent view of the world is something that I see in my own work (albeit, nowhere near her level).
One last bit about Aimee Bender and Hugo House. She teaches there and on the first Monday of every month, they hold a gathering for people looking to join up with writers groups. Part of what excited me about Seattle was the writing community that they have here and a writer's group is just what I was hoping to find. I know this past Monday was the first Monday of November but like I wrote above, all my stuff arrived from Hawaii and I was busy trying to find a place to put all the stuff. I'll try to make it to December's meeting.
Oh, and I might have found the church that I want to attend here in Seattle. More on that soon, but for now you can see their website at www.seattlequest.org.
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