Weird

I'm working on a group project for my podcasting class. We're doing a podcast that focuses on Seattle culture. In the course of my research I came across this piece of info about Frances Farmer, an actress who was involuntarily committed to mental institutions: "Frances Farmer went to West Seattle High School and the University of Washington. At one time she lived at 312 Harvard Ave East which is believed to be behind the current Washington Mutual on Broadway." That's where we used to live! Crazy.

We built a house

Umm... kinda. David and I volunteered at Habitat for Humanity today, as part of the Bates' (my alma mater) Day of Service. We got a ride to the site from two Bates girls who live in Capitol Hill and go to my gym, though I didn't know either of them in school. We spent most of the morning carrying and putting up drywall, and the afternoon doing the same. All in all, I think we did two walls and put up 8 roof brackets in 6 hours. I'm not super gung-ho about alumni events, so this was more an excuse to do some volunteer work. After a two hour nap after our return home, we've almost recovered, though my knee has just started hurting because I accidentally whacked it with the back of a hammer on the site. Whoops.

The new internship is going well, as are my classes. I pretty pumped up for both of them, though the increasing workload has got me a little worried. This week is going to be a little intense with deadlines, but I've been working at it (as in, I did homework on both Friday and Saturday night while David played his computer game) and feel that I've got a decent handle. I don't intend to make weekend nights work nights, it's just that with Habitat for Humanity taking up all of my Saturday and some moving yet to be done tomorrow, I wanted to make sure I got everything done. Working at a food website has got me really excited for new things to cook, so I'll try to make time for that too. I've managed to work in exercise by walking everywhere, which also saves a few bucks in bus fare.

The apartment is also pretty sweet, with a few slight drawbacks. I don't mind not having a garbage disposal, though having one would be better. The oven doesn't cook evenly, but as long as you rotate the food it's fine. Plus, having gas instead of electric totally makes up for that. The only thing that is worse than our other place is that water pressure in the shower is a little weak and the water doesn't heat up very well. David had to tighten the screws on a couple of the cabinets, since they would swing open and The Cobra would get in them and knock stuff over (like the trash). I heard a scratching in one the other morning and opened it up, expecting to see a mouse; instead, The Cobra came out. I must have shut her in without realizing it. It's kinda funny to see her pawing fruitlessly at the doors. She seems to really like the place.

ScribeFire

This is a test of ScribeFire, a Firefox add-on.

First Day at Second Internship

First day at the new internship went well; I'm considered a contract employee and am earning a sizable amount more than I was at my last internship. It's still not much, but it's higher than minimum wage, and if I am really, really frugal I may just make ends meet.

I'm going to be helping them with social networking and editing: I'm really excited. It's going to involve contacting bloggers, editing and adding content, and maybe some Facebook stuff. Most of it is going to be from home too, so that's nice. I really enjoy sitting around in my pj's and bathrobe.

New Beginnings

We're (mostly) in our new apartment! There is still a bunch of stuff that we have to move but that'll happen over the next few weeks; the most important stuff has been taken care of.

I start a new internship tomorrow with a start-up called Foodista, a recipe sharing site and food blogging community. I'm excited: it seems like a really neat company and it's pretty much exactly what I want to do with my career. I would like a real job instead of another internship, but while I'm still figuring out my needs for school, I figured that another internship would be best.

Thanks!

Thanks to Mollye for hosting such a nice Easter Sunday dinner! We had a lot of fun with the Island folk (as usual) and (also as usual) I am amazed by how much kids grow in such a short period of time. The cooking was excellent, as were the leftovers, and I am looking forward to using some new Body Shop products :)

Recent Stuff

The odds of me ever playing my cello again have become drastically reduced. I was in a rare musical spirit this afternoon and decided to tune up the old girl. While tightening my stubborn C-string, I heard a crunch and the string popped up. It didn't seem possible that I had broken the string, because C-strings are about as thick as a rat's tail and I have never met a cellist who actually broke one just through tuning. Sure enough, I looked down and noticed I had instead snapped the bridge in half. Whoops. I have also never heard of that happening! I went to the local violin maker and he said that a new bridge would cost $175; David said that wood glue only costs $1. I think that's what I'm going to go with if I ever hope to play again.

This past week has been great; I read, worked on projects for school, went to classes, and blogged. I wasn't working but I was really busy the whole time. I am getting really excited about my classes. Last night, the CEO of the Seattle Habitat for Humanity chapter pitched us a problem, and we need to turn in a proposal by next week's class. I woke up this morning and just wanted to work on it; I don't think a school assignment has ever interested me so much. I actually want to learn more.

Ooh, gross story: we got a sample of all-natural food at the Green Festival and fed it to the Cobra this week. She's really picky about what she eats, so I was surprised when she liked this stuff. It, however, didn't like her. She had some digestive issues that required serious treatment: a bath and manual feline fur scat extraction. It was probably the grossest thing I've ever done. Granted, I've never changed a diaper, but babies don't have hair on their butts either. Wet cats are funny though, so it was worth it.



Also, go see Monsters vs. Aliens! We saw it 3-D at the IMAX and it was awesome! I love Pixar. Also, I wrote my best beer blog yet: http://www.examiner.com/x-5933-Seattle-Craft-Beer-Examiner~y2009m4d10-How-to-Host-a-Beer-Tasting-Party. I am just really excited about the internet right now.

"Historic Low Usage Sunday"

Oh Seattle Public Library System, you are a tricky one! By renaming Easter "Historic Low Usage Sunday" you have cleverly maintained our society's Christian dominance under the guise of municipal non-denominationalism. Good job. Learning doesn't take a break for religion! In fact, Easter is a great day to hit the books, since all the fun privately-owned places are closed. Plus, there are always bums looking for a free place to warm up, even on major Judeochristian holidays.

It's not the fact that the library is closed that gets to me or even that a governmental body is closed for a religious holiday: what bugs me is the PC facade. Just say you're closed for Easter instead of making something up

Taste WA, etc.

I'm still recovering from the weekend. Not in a hungover way, though I was probably around more alcohol than I have seen in my life. Sunday was Taste Washington, and even though it's just a 6 hour event, I put in more than 15 hours on Sunday alone making it happen. We set up all day Friday, then checked in the restaurants, wineries and exhibitors on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Sunday was intense, but really fun. Doors opened at 2, and I even got to enjoy the event a little; I couldn't really drink since I was working or eat most of the food since it was mainly meat-based (WA Beef was a big sponsor) but I cheated and ate stuff that I knew had eggs or dairy and even sampled a couple of beers. The only crappy part was manning the gift bag table when the event closed at 8, since we ran out of freebies and people were pretty drunk by then. I didn't see it for myself, but the men's bathroom had turned into a vomitorium by the end of the night. Tear-down was the fun part; WA has a law that open containers can't be left after an event, so we collected any bottles that had more than an inch of liquid left over, but since I wasn't driving I also did a bit of sampling at this point. It helped make the clean-up a little more fun. I also picked up a bunch of corks that I am going to turn into a memo board for the kitchen in our new place.

So now my internship is over and I am just a student. Classes are going well so far. I am really interested in the material and excited to learn more. I have my second Podcasting class tonight; by the end of the course we will have learned how to pitch business ideas to companies and also will have produced our own group and individual podcasts. The Thursday night "Social Production" class also seems interesting; it's about applying social media to businesses as well, though this focuses more on social networking. The professor is the director of the program, which is essentially why I signed up for it, though I also expect to learn a lot.

It's really too nice of a day to sit on the couch in front of the computer, so I am going to take my books to the park. I've had it sitting on my lap all morning and my legs are starting to sweat. I wrote a beer blurb this morning if you want to check it out.