seattlejo.com

I’m taking a business writing course at Big  University. and enjoying taking a closer look at my writing. This is exciting and educational  opportunity, and I’m finding that not only is it good for work, but it also  has me looking at my blog writing a little differently too.

I maintain a number of blogs as well as a personal journal. If asked I’ve always said that the  blogs are written for the public and the journal is written for me.  Reviewing my writing has revealed  that while I focus on different topics between the two locations,  my posting style is the same. I dont spend much time in thinking about how I’m going to write about my topic. I think about the topic and realize what makes it different enough to post here, but thats about it. There is no thought given to why my readers want to read about it, what I want them to get out of it, or how I’m going to approach it.

So that’s going to change. When writing my posts for both Seattlejo.com and FatandCrafty.com/fac I’ll sit down and look at the topic and figure out what I want you to get out of it, and what I think you want to learn out of it.   My goal is to keep posting as frequently as I am ,but to be posting in a more organized professional manner, to post something that is enjoyable to read.

I hope you stay around for the changes.

I’ve been a Cooking Light read for years and have been a subscriber for the past year. I enjoy the effort that goes into the magazine and the recipes, though I do question some of the advertisements used. One feature I have always disliked is the Fit House feature the magainze publishes annually.

For the Fit House feature they build or remodel a home and make it more appropriate for those aiming to live a healthy lifestyle . They improve the kitchen, add a fitness area and typically add extra activity space. This years Fit House also claims to be green and good for the environment. They claim that using green building materials, an urban area with local resources, low emission pain ,  effecient windows heating and cooling, water use,  and recycled materials make this house green.

From the Magazine itself : What makes it green

1. Exterior Materials :Locally sourced.
2.  Location : In an urban area so you don’t have to drive.
3. Low Emission paints and carpet.
4. Heating and Cooling systems :Efficient appliances.
5. Water use regulated: efficient applicances
6. Triple paned windows.
7. Recycled Roofing
8. Extra Insulation
9. Natural Light for less electric use.
10. Green Roof , for extra insulation.
11. Recycled decking.

I call bullshit. First of of the 11 items the magazines lists as “green “   are duplicates or achieve the same result.  Items 1, 7, and 11 are about the exterior of the housing being locally soured and recycled materials. Items 4,5,  can be summed up as efficient appliances.
6, 8 and 10 are all about extra insulation.  Trying to make it look better then it really is I think.

The amount of wasted space and the incredibly high price of this house are what make its “green status” that much more of a farce. Looking at my magazine this years green house has 6 bedrooms, two kitchens,  6 bathrooms,  A wine cellar in the basement a wine bar in the “penthouse” (I’ve counted that as a bedroom)  A family room, a rec room, a living room and  a sauna.  Perhaps appropriate for a commune of 3-4 couples, but not really  a single family home.

Last year’s fit house was 4,836 square feet. According to this article, this years is about the same size and is selling for a mere $4 million dollars. Perhaps you get fit from running from floor to floor.

These articles are supposed to be inspirational. symbols I understand that. However the insinuation that such overconsumption,and waste of space is “Fit” and “Green”disgusts me.

The Belgian Frites place  in Capitol hill has closed (The Stranger Article is here)

I’ve no clue what this is but its pretty nifty.

I was walking down to the library on Sunday and ran across this parked on the street. I can tell it’s from the King County Fire Distract #50. Beyond that? no clue. Any idea what it is?

One of the things I just don’t understand is comment spam. Each day when I check in on the blogs I have about 20-30 messages of comment spam to delete. Since it never gets posted no one sees it beyond me. While I understand that these are just bots doing the posting, at some point I would think they would stop.

I’ll have to do some research to see if I can reduce the amount of comment spam I’m getting.

Harry and the Potters hit the stage at the Seattle Central Library on Friday. I’d seen that the event was going on and asked  Miss Thing if perhaps she wanted to go. To my surprise  she was interested and we headed down there . WE arrived at 6, and thinking we were really early for the 7pm show we settled in for our picnic dinner. Shortly after arriving we realized that  I was mistaken and in fact there was a line.

A line that would end up wrapping around the buiding in fact. Harry and the Potters had this fun ernestness and  enthusiasm that kept Jasmine jumping around until her feet hurt and we headed busward towards home. I’d never heard of Wizrock until a couple of weeks ago. Now I’m gladly singing along .   There music is nothing to write home about, but the enthusiasm of the movement is something to smile at.

I’m waiting for the new book to come out next week, and will be happily at the University of Washington Bookstore until  Midnight to usher in the end of the book series.

We’ve made some changes at home that resulted in getting rid of our cable service. At $140 a month including taxes. We had the super cable with a second set top box a DVR, and cable internet service to boot. While high speed internet is a requirement for my household, paying that much for television was not something we wanted to continue to do. Considering the service was crappy, the DVR would cut out and  we’d lose whole episodes  it was not worth the money. So we made some changes.  Clearwire internet service was the first change.  We picked up a great promotional deal and are pleased to know that our internet service can go on vacation with us, depending on what area we are traveling in.

What do you watch then if you dont have cable? First it’s the movies. Borrowed from Scarecrow Video, the best video store in Seattle. It’s going to the library and renting movies from there. It’s borrowing movies from friends, and its going to public movie nights at our favorite cafe. It is buying movies for ones private collection at an accelerated rate.

Televison itself is harder and is a little bit sticky. Some television can be rented or purchased. Some can be purchased from Itunes,  and bits of others can be found on You Tube to be watched in chunks.

However we’ve found that a lot of what we like to watch is not available. Not many  Food network shows available for purchase by episode, very few discovery channel shows have full seasons available. . Old cartoons can be hard to find,  (Rocko’s modern life) Even finding whole series can be hard. What use is the 10th season of Stargate on  Itunes if you  haven’t seen  all of 1-9? ? Is it ok to find  televison available streaming online ?

Is it ok to download bittorrent and watch that way?

I’m not one who is going to download the latest POTC movie  taped fresh from a movie theater then thrust online. But what about a copy of a movie I already own on VHS, or laser disc? After all haven’t I purchased the liscence to watch it? Or what about television that a friend could have shared with me by  taping it for me? Or television I could have taped and saved myself?

My ethics are fuzzy as i figure out what’s ok to do and whats not ok. For the time being we’re going the above board route, buying things whenever we can.

In the meantime I’m wishing for a database that actually showed what was available legally where and for what format.  As a mac user, not all of these online TV options work.

It’s funny. Last summer i was invited to two or three weddings and knew two or three other people who were getting married. I found it funny that I was just now catching the cycle where all your friends get married at the same time. See I always thought that happened in your early mid twenties, and I’m about 5 years to late. Of course, with my friends it turned out to be second marriages, and marriages after the babies. The people I know don’t wait for a ceremony to continue on with the happiness in their lives.

Unfortunately this summers trend is the direct opposite, and I’m feeling like I was the first of the wave of my friends to go through a divorce. It’s not like divorce is uncommon in our society, but that does not make it any easier to experience. So with that in mind, I’m sharing the things that worked for me.

1. Accept sympathy but don’t wallow in it. You’ll find that people are sympathetic and want to be helpful, but dont often know what to say. Accept their kind words then move on to something else.

2. Pick up a hobby something productive. Now is a good time to pick up knitting, crochet, toile painting, stamping etc. Something new is best, sink yourself into it, and let yourself use it as an escape.

3.Get out of the house. Hiding in your bedroom for days on end will do no one any good. Get out to a movie, see some art, visit local parks. And dont just throw yourself into your work, do something enjoyable.

4. It’s ok to talk about it. Seriously, use those closest friends as you need to bend their ears, and talk it out.

5. it’s also ok not to talk about it. Just because you can talk about it doesnt mean you always have to.
6. Let your friends worry about themselves. Not sure which side of the fence your friends will fall on? Well don’t. Ultimatly things will sort themselves out and as long as you are treating each other with respect they wont get drawn into the middle and feel like they have to choose sides.

These are the things that worked for me. One last thing i guess i’d say, is if it didnt work during marriage, dont expect it to work during the divorce. if communication, trust and respect werent their during the marriage, they wont suddenly appear as you move down this path. Protect yourself as you need to.

Yesterday while working around the house I came upon a bunch of pictures, a lot of them taken while on vacation with my ex-husband, and i’m sort of at a loss. I remember the conversation I had with a Canadian Kitty friend of mine, when she was working on her scrapbook from her marriage.  I told her that I couldn’t imagine scrapbooking something as painful  as a past relationship.

Yet looking at these photos, both the physical and the digital that I’ve found, I can’t imagine doing anything less. I think i’ll do something in between  a scrapbook and a box. I think i’ll draw together the photos of our time together, and  bundle them by category. I’ll write out my my memories of the event and link that together with the bundle. I don’t want to forget, but I also don’t want to dwell over the past.

My present has so much good, and my future has such potential. I think its time to start documenting who I am and where I’m going.

Did you know that in the average American works 5 weeks more than the average Brit, and 12 weeks more then the average German. Are we really the no vacation nation?

It’s been years since I’ve gone on a vacation. It seems like it’s not something most of my friends or family do. I remember growing up thinking that everyone else’s families went on these extravagant 2-3 week sojourns over the summer, and I felt sad and neglected at home since we never did that sort of thing.

Looking back at it as a grown up I wonder if I was just imagining the sitcom life. Instead of long vacations exploring exotic destinations I instead got the opportunity to go camping, hiking, canoing and fishing. There was a trip to the Smoky Mountains, that I sadly dont remember a lot of. There was also an exotic trip to Nebraska for my moms best friends wedding.

What do I really remember of my summers?

I remember going camping with my dad, to “Our Campground” It had an upper campground portion and a lower, and getting up the hill to with our trailer the first time was hard because the hill was so steep.

I had a bigwheel and we always had big bonfires. When I was able to ride a big I went tumbling down the giant hill and had to go to first aid to get patched up.

I remember riding on the back gate of the truck and playing go fish in the trailer in the rain.

I remember when the campground changed and the upper portion became “adults only” I thought it was because they all wanted to be naked and do adult like things. In reflection they probably just wanted quiet. I remember a new campground then, with a creek and it being much flatter.

With my Mom and Step dad we’d go to “The Club” instead. It was a fishing and hunting club we belonged to in Joliet. We’d drive down there often to just spend the weekend, and my brother and I would often stay a week or two there with my cousins and my uncle in their popup trailer.

In later years  when Al was working at the Cemetary we’d go out to the Fox river and go boating with Rich , the foreman he worked for. I never got up on skies but tubing was always fun. We also had a canoe, and would occasionally take that out as well.

When I was not visiting my dad and we weren’t heading down to the club we mainly stayed home.  We lived on a golf course and had the front five acres at our disposal. So there were picnics and days spent out playing in the grass. I’d also bike over to the cemetary and climb in a tree to read, or picnic or write.

It never was the extravagant exotic vacation I’d imagined, but looking back on it i’d say those days were good.