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Double Rainbow Guy sells out to Microsoft

What does it mean? Possibly, as the High Definite says, "Next up: Antoine Dobson’s Windows security commercials." They rapin' errebody's home PC out here!

The freaky D&D BUS!

God bless, Mark. He used scans of *my old D&D books* for the epic D&D bus, which is completely covered in old-school, space-van-worthy illos from Dave Sutherland, Larry Elmore, et al. Apparently, the old-school books are hard to scrounge up at Wizards these days (which I guess makes sense, after so many upheavals), so Mark keeps his own private library—of my old books from junior high. 

So why does Mark have my books? He never had his own D&D books in junior high, because his mom thought they were Satanic. Traveller was okay, ditto Star Frontiers, Gamma World, Top Secret, and the James Bond and Indiana Jones RPGs. (Did I mention we were nerds? We both had C64s, too.) But D&D was forbidden. Mark played secretly, though, and whenever we talked about playing D&D in front of his mom, we used the codename "Alpha Dawn"—to the point we actually called it "A.D." for years. (Again: did I mention we were nerds?)

When I became too cool for my D&D books later in life—high school? college?—Mark gladly took them off my hands. Fast forward to now, when Mark works at Wizards (Mark's mom has come a long way) and he's putting together the D&D bus.

I'm going to go see the bus at PAX as son as I can this weekend. That "Paladin in Hell"—on the back right—just about brings tears to my eyes....

"Building a New Scene in Seattle"

A NYT slideshow on Seattle's jazz scene. Related article here.

This pic below is of a Roosevelt grad who's leaving for Julliard ("'I was very, very close to staying here,' Mr. Clausen said of his hometown. 'It was a tough decision, because I’m excited about what’s happening. There’s all this momentum here now. It’s a really exciting place to be.'"):

Seattle International District Night Market

FYI, it's tomorrow night from 6 to 11pm:

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in different Indian styles

I overestimated how entertaining Silas would find this. He's a fan of the song, in general, but I don't think he was amused as I was by the laugh track and reaction shots. (And I'm sure *I'm* missing the intra-India/Desi humor, although even I can see the Punjabi version is magic.)

Hear every different accent in English

The Speech Accent Archive is *awesome*. They basically have a map where you can hear a native speaker from just about anywhere—from Pensacola to Helsinki to Spokane to Brisbane—recite a special "elicitation paragraph" in English. The paragraph is a weirdly concise string, containing "most of the consonants, vowels, and clusters of standard American English":

Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob. We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids. She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station.

King Street Station is looking better and better

Just went by there yesterday to look into tickets for a Silas train ride. My ticket for a roundtrip to Tacoma would be $36 (with a 2.5h layover) because rail is so efficient.

The "Ground Zero Mosque" on Taiwanese CGI news

FiveThirtyEight.com has been assimilated!

This...

...is now this:

Um, okay. As you were? The full story here.

R.I.P. Jack Horkheimer (a.k.a. the Star Hustler)

So sad, just heard about this. Here is his last dispatch from the rings of Saturn:

News Corp (i.e., Fox News) gives $1M to the GOP

This is hilarious (and short, worth watching):

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
News Corp. Gives Money to Republicans
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Seattle doctor recommendation?

As one of my birthday presents to HB, I updated my insurance (to a similar HSA plan with Regence, but which waives the deductible for preventive care) and I'm getting a long overdue checkup—so maybe my once-a-decade checkup will instead become annual.

Since I haven't been to a doctor in so long, I don't really have a regular one. I started searching in the Regence "Preferred Provider" list, and I got 458 search results near my ZIP code. Does anyone have any recommendations, and/or a general practice doctor they like? Regence Preferred is... preferred... but not necessary. I mostly just want to find a good doctor.

Obama at Grand Central Bakery

The whole story here, with pics, e.g.:

 

And he ordered a jammer! HB is still recovering from a longtime jammer addiction.

Obama is off to the Westin

And I never saw him. I was at the wrong end of the building for any excitement, although I apparently could have seen (and didn't) a pit bull attack. Here is some incredibly boring video—you have been warned!—of his motorcade rolling out of Occidental Square:

No Obama yet

Grand Central Bakery is right below my office, so I'm getting to see all the presidential prep. All is still quiet in Occidental Square, but there are throngs behind the police tape all around the block, like two or three deep, probably several hundred in all. I actually saw a Secret Service agent talk into her wrist radio (or pretend to!) while walking with two uniformed SPD cops. There are dozens of Bellevue and Redmond cops all around the Square, so I'm assuming there's looting in the Microsoft company store right now.

I don't think I've ever seen this part of the park completely hobo-less (note the cop cars and satellite trucks in the background):

 

There is no such thing as a "Ground Zero mosque"

It bears repeating. A mosque is being built two blocks from the site, in a neighborhood where there are *already* two mosques, not to mention strip clubs, porn and electronics stores, off-track betting sites, and tens of thousands of other establishments. And it only bears repeating because (WTF!?) it's becoming a mid-term election issue. 

Relatedly, nearly nine years after 9/11, we still don't understand our supposed enemies.

Obama is in Seattle today

And he's meeting with the owners of Grand Central and Tutta Bella—presumably because they are wholesale arugula-purchasers who cater to the librul elite.

Solipskier

I just wrote about the iPhone version of this free Flash game for work, and it's even better on a touchscreen.

From the Department of Passive Aggressive Network Names

 

Doot doot!

As my friend Jason Parker says, "Whether you know this song has everything to do with whether you were an '80s rocker or an '80s new waver":

We were trying to figure out what instrument that guy on the left is playing. I think it's a magic surveyor's pole.

Republican taxes vs. Obama taxes

This is an illuminating graphic. So if you make $200K/year or less, the *Democrats* are the party that will give you a bigger tax cut.

The Bush tax cuts are set to expire this year, but the Republicans are trying to extend them (thereby adding $36B to the deficit they claim to worry about). The Bush tax cuts are the single biggest structural—i.e., ongoing—contribution to the deficit.

 

LED bulbs get below $20

Way ahead of schedule, available at Home Depot. So $20 might sound like a lot, but the bulbs are supposed to last 30 years. 

If I'm like 90 years old and my lights burn out, I'm just going to ride it out in the dark. I'm not going to pay for decades of unused light.

"Driving is why you're fat"

That might not strictly hold up, but it's still a pretty fascinating chart:

 

(via TIH) 

iPhone users have more sex

Or at least more sexual partners. As the story says, "File this under 'icebreakers, MacWorld '11.'"

  

Cat armor!

If you've been wondering how to involve your cat with your LARPing....

 (via Slog)

New apartment building at Colman Dock

More good news for sort-of my neighborhood:

The newly proposed apartment building, the Colman Tower, would have about 200 units on the sixth through 15th floors aimed at "young urban professionals," according to plans filed with the city's Department of Planning and Development. Parking and street-level retail would occupy the lower levels.

A giant worm vs. Britain's smallest owl!

An epic battle, accompanied by even more cute pics:

 

(via Bookshelves of DOOOOOM)

  

"Confessions of a Tea Party Casualty"

Fascinating ruminations from a South Carolina rep who got ousted in the primary. He talks about meeting with Tea Partiers at a fund-raiser, and hearing bizarre conspiracy theories:

I sat down, and they said on the back of your Social Security card, there's a number. That number indicates the bank that bought you when you were born based on a projection of your life's earnings, and you are collateral. We are all collateral for the banks. I have this look like, "What the heck are you talking about?" I'm trying to hide that look and look clueless. I figured clueless was better than argumentative. So they said, "You don't know this?! You are a member of Congress, and you don't know this?!" And I said, "Please forgive me. I'm just ignorant of these things." And then of course, it turned into something about the Federal Reserve and the Bilderbergers and all that stuff. And now you have the feeling of anti-Semitism here coming in, mixing in. Wow.

Kevin Drum has preserved a great wingnut comment thread (and revealed the actual purpose of the number) here. 

Deer steals wife

The reaction noises are the best part:

Northern Lights in Seattle?

It's possible tonight, since the sun done blew up this weekend. I saw them once over Lake Washington, years ago. They were faint and weird and mostly monochromatic, but I'm sure much more impressive out of town.