So Seattle is in earthquake country. It's not like Northern California with tons of active plates and the "fall into the ocean" scenario but since I've lived here there have been small quakes up and down the coast. Not the kind that you notice or would wake you up if you were asleep but still quakes nonetheless. A few years back, in 2001 I believe, there was a pretty serious quake called the Nisqually earthquake, which was nearly a 7.0 on the scale, which is getting pretty far on the shaking and banging scale and it did some serious damage.
I'm not scared though. My building just had it's annual earthquake simulation at work. I work on the 13th floor of a 80 story building that reaches nearly 1000ft up so practicing for various emergencies truly makes sense... but I'm not sure this test was the best example. The intercom starts clicking and goes static-y for a second which is weird because the intercom is never used, so something is up. A creepy voice comes over the air stating,
"This is an earthquake. The building has just started shaking, you realize what is happening and you crawl under your desk or find a doorway if you are away from your desk. BANG! A book has fallen of a shelf and crashed onto the floor. Eeeeeeeekk! People are screaming. CRASH! Someone's monitor just fell over a smashed the glass. Dust is everywhere AND the building is still shaking. Pause for a few seconds. It has only been 20 seconds and the average earthquake lasts 30 seconds, can you handle the stress for that long? 5 second left. 3 seconds left. The earthquake is over. In the event of a real earthquake, you should find your floor captain and begin to evacuate the building in an orderly fashion. Thank you participating in our annual earthquake preparedness test."
Nothing like dialog to simulate an earthquake. I know they have to do it that way but people didn't follow any of the guidelines AND when people were "screaming" people started screaming in jest on our floor, well, actually I started running around screaming "it's an earthquake, the rapture is upon us, repent sinners, we're all going to perish." I enjoyed this way more than everybody else in the office I think.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Park Checkers: just jerks,or minions of the devil?
I got a parking ticket the other week and my reaction reminded me of all the things you see or hear about interactions with the devil.
They hand you contracts that are nearly impossible to contest without appealing to a higher power who has much better things to be doing with his spare time.
They do a bulk of their work when you're not around and more specifically in the dark of night when nobody is awake.
No one really believes you when you explain your side of the story. All people see is the mark (on the tire/of the devil) and the rest is just excuses.
The list goes on and on but I'm pretty sure park checkers are either huge jerks in real life or modern day minions of the devil. Assholes.
In real life that was the first ticket I got in nearly 2 years in Seattle and with the amount of street parking I do by my friends place I'm surprised I haven't gotten a ticket prior to now, that doesn't make me hate parking checkers any less though.
In real news, it would appear my hometown of Lisbon ND is going to survive the flood of '09. In 1997 I sandbagged around the town and our house with various members of town and my classmates. The river got almost 20 feet that year and it was a record high; and it sucked because that was the second major flood since we had moved into the house. Well, my parents moved to MN in '01 and left Lisbon behind, but the house and the river remained. This year the flood waters got nearly 3 feet higher than in '97 and the town passed on the sandbagging and moved onto clay dikes and some serious barriers. I'm going back to ND for a wedding in July and I'm going to make a detour to Lisbon to see what everything looks like.
I would download and link a bunch of pictures but that would be a lot much harder than just linking to a website of somebody from Lisbon who lives pretty close to me. Like this one and the actual blog with a ton of pictures is 3brats.
Last Sunday I spent a bunch of money to go see the Seattle Symphony play with Joshua Bell, a really excellent violin player. This Sunday I'm going to play kickball in a few hours and probably watch a lot of sports. I'm weird and I know it.
I promise to post more.
They hand you contracts that are nearly impossible to contest without appealing to a higher power who has much better things to be doing with his spare time.
They do a bulk of their work when you're not around and more specifically in the dark of night when nobody is awake.
No one really believes you when you explain your side of the story. All people see is the mark (on the tire/of the devil) and the rest is just excuses.
The list goes on and on but I'm pretty sure park checkers are either huge jerks in real life or modern day minions of the devil. Assholes.
In real life that was the first ticket I got in nearly 2 years in Seattle and with the amount of street parking I do by my friends place I'm surprised I haven't gotten a ticket prior to now, that doesn't make me hate parking checkers any less though.
In real news, it would appear my hometown of Lisbon ND is going to survive the flood of '09. In 1997 I sandbagged around the town and our house with various members of town and my classmates. The river got almost 20 feet that year and it was a record high; and it sucked because that was the second major flood since we had moved into the house. Well, my parents moved to MN in '01 and left Lisbon behind, but the house and the river remained. This year the flood waters got nearly 3 feet higher than in '97 and the town passed on the sandbagging and moved onto clay dikes and some serious barriers. I'm going back to ND for a wedding in July and I'm going to make a detour to Lisbon to see what everything looks like.
I would download and link a bunch of pictures but that would be a lot much harder than just linking to a website of somebody from Lisbon who lives pretty close to me. Like this one and the actual blog with a ton of pictures is 3brats.
Last Sunday I spent a bunch of money to go see the Seattle Symphony play with Joshua Bell, a really excellent violin player. This Sunday I'm going to play kickball in a few hours and probably watch a lot of sports. I'm weird and I know it.
I promise to post more.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Too Long
I know the posts have been pretty few and far between. That's a problem because if I'm not posting something fairly regularly this gets to be a pretty boring infrequent read, but, if I post smaller stuff more frequently posting won't seem like work and it will give people more reasons to visit I guess.
A few random thoughts of late worth mentioning.
1. In almost every way Chipotle is superior to Qdoba, unless you're talking about nachos. Qdoba has the best chicken nachos and Chipotle doesn't even have a queso sauce and with a Qdoba on my way home now I know where I'm going to be getting my chain Americanized Mexican food. Mmmm. Queso.
2. Kickball has started again and there is something about kickball that means you have to have a great team name. In Milwaukee I played on team Kick Me In The Junk or KMITJ and the team I play in Seattle is the Sexual Harassment Panda's and/or the Habitual Offenders (HO's). There is just something about kickball that leads to clever nicknames. We don't have a good logo for the Panda's like we did for The Junk but I'm sure one will be forthcoming.
3. It was 70 and sunny today in Seattle. Winter here isn't bad at all and I wouldn't trade it for.... Goal! Calgary goes up 2 - 1! .... winter in North Dakota or Milwaukee but it really does last a long time. The sooner it's 70 and sunny everyday the happier my pale self will be.
I'll work up to longer and better posts once I get into the swing of things. Maybe even some pictures will be forthcoming! I swear they will.
To John, Happy now?
A few random thoughts of late worth mentioning.
1. In almost every way Chipotle is superior to Qdoba, unless you're talking about nachos. Qdoba has the best chicken nachos and Chipotle doesn't even have a queso sauce and with a Qdoba on my way home now I know where I'm going to be getting my chain Americanized Mexican food. Mmmm. Queso.
2. Kickball has started again and there is something about kickball that means you have to have a great team name. In Milwaukee I played on team Kick Me In The Junk or KMITJ and the team I play in Seattle is the Sexual Harassment Panda's and/or the Habitual Offenders (HO's). There is just something about kickball that leads to clever nicknames. We don't have a good logo for the Panda's like we did for The Junk but I'm sure one will be forthcoming.
3. It was 70 and sunny today in Seattle. Winter here isn't bad at all and I wouldn't trade it for.... Goal! Calgary goes up 2 - 1! .... winter in North Dakota or Milwaukee but it really does last a long time. The sooner it's 70 and sunny everyday the happier my pale self will be.
I'll work up to longer and better posts once I get into the swing of things. Maybe even some pictures will be forthcoming! I swear they will.
To John, Happy now?
Thursday, April 2, 2009
On my desk
I have a picture of me with my friends as we went out to dinner the day before I moved to Seattle. I also have a dancing cow, a Bratwurst Beanie Baby, a Drake the duck Beanie Baby, a Dwight bobblehead, a Miller Park racing Hot Dog bobblehead, a can of inappropriately named energy drink that makes me laugh, 3 Mr Bill plastic dolls that are shrink wrapped together. Odd indeed, sort of like me,
Yesterday, for April Fools, I posted a status in my various from of electronic communication implying I was going to be moving back to Milwaukee and I was sad about it. I feel this is a good to say April Fools to the people who might have noticed that but not asked.
I've been in Seattle just over two years and things are going well. I have no plans to leave and it's been an interesting time all the way around. Onward and upward I guess.
Yesterday, for April Fools, I posted a status in my various from of electronic communication implying I was going to be moving back to Milwaukee and I was sad about it. I feel this is a good to say April Fools to the people who might have noticed that but not asked.
I've been in Seattle just over two years and things are going well. I have no plans to leave and it's been an interesting time all the way around. Onward and upward I guess.
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