My Friday Afternoon Commute

This was at about 5 pm, so just a handful of hours after the verdict. Fast. Weirdly fast.

Denny, near Belmont. I can only assume this was one step of a summoning spell.

Art, Across from the Gum Wall

I’ve been scroogey this holiday season. The first Monday I walked downtown after Thanksgiving, I surprised myself by looking up at the glittering lights, the newly installed tinsel, and the freshly opened Santa’s Cottage and thinking:

“Oh. Oh god.”

It wasn’t a strong rejection – instead, worse, it was a flat sigh of observing something I was uninterested in but powerless to stop. Continue reading →

Forbidden Photos of Ancient Peru

I can hear you from here. “My darling Standard Deviation, those cars are not Peruvian, ancient, or forbidden. What fresh hell is this?”

“Well,” my natural reply comes. “As those are Ford Tauruses, you are correct on all accounts. But I was able to take so few pictures of the main exhibit itself that I chose to use this as the title card instead.”

“Oh,” I hear you say. “Ok?”

Good enough.

Here are some things I don’t do as often as I’d like:

Go see readings at Richard Hugo House
Go to the Frye or the Henry
Go to the Seattle Asian Art Museum
Go to SAM

I could go on at length. But really, the list would just be a selection of likely upcoming blog posts for the next year, so I’ll spare you for now. What I’m saying is that there are basic cultural things I miss in the way of everyday life, same as most people. This past Sunday, I was reminded of how rad SAM is. Continue reading →

I Should Buy Lottery Tickets

Because I encountered this on my way to work today (from across the safe distance of an intersection), and yet I was not exterminated.

A Dalek, spotted outside the Westin in downtown Seattle, a day before Geek Girl Con.

Life Just Destroys Me Sometimes

Yesterday, I was transferring between the light rail and the 49 downtown, lugging awesome Uwijamaya groceries with my neighbor. As we walked down Fourth, we encountered a battle royale.

A boy of about five, wearing one of those half-face Batman masks and brandishing a toy katana, was engaged in a swordfight… with an old man in an impeccable suit and hat, who brandished his cane for self-defense. As he was much more enthusiastic than the kid, who couldn’t quite seem to wrap his brain around this much awesomeness, I am thinking the old man picked the fight. And then lost it on purpose.

I stood and stared and felt my heart grow three sizes.*

I’ve looked forward to being older/old for a long time now. And it makes me happy to see exactly the kind of old person I want to be, out there, being rad and making life so much better for everyone.