Little North Beach at Deception Pass — we saw pigeon guillemots nesting in the cliff!
Highlight of the week: we had a great day out on Whidbey Island with some internet friends (where I repeatedly failed to guess what mountain we were looking at then finally landed on Kulshan which I did not realize was an indigenous name for Mt. Baker)
Looking forward to: resting this weekend, busy week!
finally hooked up my 20-year old monitor as a secondary (I know monitors are cheap nowadays but $200 is $200 and hey, it still works 🤷♀️) — it flickered a bit at first but resetting to factory settings fixed it, back-compat is de-lovely
grabbed takeout and went to eat at the park one nice night
met with the window treatment people again to finalize color picks and get measurements for the exterior shade
had a moment of political despair so rerouted my feelings into advocacy — emailed State Parks about some inaccessible bathroom features I noticed and submitted a comment to the governor about Right to Repair bills
breakfast burrito + ginger beer (not a great combo)
Taco del Mar fish burrito — in college someone told me they got Irish food on Cinco de Mayo and Mexican on St. Patrick’s Day to avoid crowds, and since then I’ve generally followed that flip but this year we were going to get fish and chips from the Irish pub then were like burritos would cost half this
Moroccan-spiced chickpea soup from Let’s Do Lunch
black bean burgers + (overdone) curly fries — I recently hung a new smoke alarm that was meant to have fewer false positives but it’s gone off like five times in the past two weeks (these weren’t burned, just a little dark at the tips! 😤)
vegetable salad at a fancier than expected restaurant (conveniently had eaten a bunch of snacks right before)
pasta with premade sauce and chickpeas
Reading:
Read Compromised into a Scandalous Marriage by Lydia San Andres
Re-read Chasing Cassandra by Lisa Kleypas
Started reading More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI by John Warner, The Plenitude of Distraction by Marina van Zuylen, and Cooking As Though You Might Cook Again by Daniel Licht
DNF’d The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond and Witch Hat Atelier 1 by Kamome Shirahama
Ordered and received The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan: Kurdistan, Woman’s Revolution and Democratic Confederalism by Abdullah Öcalan
I recently followed George Penney on Mastodon and have been charmed by their joyous slice of life observations from Aotearoa NZ
Pretty stuff I saw:
charmingly aesthetic barn at our friend’s Airbnb where we watched swallows hunting and a hummingbird zoom low across the lawn like something out of a kid’s cartoonsunset ferry ride home
New music I listened to:
Purity Ring – Obedear 👍
Nature notes:
camas in the ground are starting to bloom! (the camas in raised beds opened a week or two ago)
pink rhodie is starting to open
spotted a garter snake warming up on our front walk
saw a kildeer fly by at the park! 😍
saw a bunch of neat bird stuff out on Whidbey! Pigeon guillemots nesting in the cliff below Deception Pass bridge, a bald eagle landing on the road in front of us to grab something, a hummingbird drinking from madrone flowers, a kingfisher calling as it zipped by, an owl hooting at our friend’s Airbnb in the late afternoon
found a detached chiton (with creature still inside 😳) at Ebey’s Landing in the wrack line
I saw EFF had a call to action for two Right to Repair bills that are on the Washington governor’s desk. They had a prewritten letter to sign onto, but since I have experience in the industry I decided to write my own through the direct contact form. I haven’t followed these particular bills but I figure if EFF is supporting them they’re probably decent.
I’m writing to urge the governor to sign the Right to Repair bills HB 1483 and SB 5680.
I worked at the City of Kirkland in the recycling program for nearly eight years, and even in a well-off community, there is significant demand for repair. We hosted Repair Cafes in collaboration with King County which were extremely popular — since leaving the city I attended one as a resident and despite signing up in advance, the event was so busy they couldn’t guarantee I’d receive help.
People don’t like things to go to waste, and it’s disheartening when a minor issue means an item must be replaced altogether. Additionally, cell phones are not covered by Ecycle Washington so there are fewer places to recycle them — many households have a pile of old devices. Keeping materials in use is also beneficial for the environment, and reduces demand for rare earth minerals that are often mined in areas with limited protections for workers.
I urge the governor to sign these and support future right to repair policies.
In a future British dystopian society, a shadowy freedom fighter, known only by the alias of "V", plots to overthrow the tyrannical government - with the help of a young woman.
Somehow I forgot the Wachowskis wrote this script. Great adaptation of the comic IMO, paying homage to quintessential scenes while shaving away the indulgences and dated elements. There are several quotes and moments from this I still reference… “for three years I had roses and apologized to no one” for some reason lives rent-free in my head. Stellar performances too — Hugo Weaving emoting with body and voice behind the mask, bringing V’s crazed, impassioned theatricality.
Fight scene at the end still looks cool, with the tracers on his dagger tips. Love the dramatic lighting, especially in the Chancellor meetings. Don’t love the dialogue needing to be set to 40 to hear and action sequences to 20 to not be blasted. We rented a digital copy even though I’m pretty sure we own the DVD because we don’t have a DVD player… curious whether the audio is this shit on the DVD too or Amazon does something wonky to the levels.
The romantic subplot was not convincing, unfortunately. It is unclear why Evey would go with him at first meeting (also why she was willing to go out after curfew in the first place), and why she would forgive him. Cringe profession of love.
Where the hell is he growing these perfect roses?
I was struck by the brief domino sequence, which according to IMDB involved four professional domino artists… you know most studios wouldn’t bother with that today and would just CGI it.
Watching this today made me think of what Mark Fisher wrote of the way people must acknowledge the flagrancies of (I’m interpolating) fascism while obeying in practice, and the idea of interpassivity, allowing art to hold — and effectively dissipate — our rage for us… but I’m not sure if that’s just a cynical read, because isn’t it better to make art calling attention to the bad than not? Sure, some people are incapable of grasping the spirit of things and think fascism requires a swastika (even denying Sieg Heils ffs), but there are plenty of media savvy people too who are able to see commonalities without being distracted by the trappings.
I got drawn for a $300 rebate for an ebike from the state, and I have through June 11 to buy a bike or I forfeit it. I’ve considered getting an ebike for a long time, though I wasn’t actively looking. The rebate isn’t big enough that I feel like I *have* to use it — for the price range I’m willing to look at, that’s a bit more than sales tax — but I’m concerned that bike prices are going to skyrocket with the tariffs, so it might be worth just going for it. Drawbacks: I have to buy in-person from a participating local bike shop, so I’m limited to whatever they carry, and I’m not allowed to return it. That could be the deal-killer.
Considerations
Do I need an ebike?
My Specialized road bike has pretty skinny tires so it’s not ideal for the unpaved path near my house — I’ll ride it, but it’s a little slippery and there are some concerning tire popper looking rocky sections. So it would be an improvement from my current bike for errands, but not strictly a need.
If my husband and I could share an ebike, that would make it more justifiable. Unfortunately, he’s 9″ taller than me so most height ranges don’t suit us both. He says he could just ride it with his knees scrunched up like people do on BMX bikes but that sounds not ideal 😂
We only have one car, so an ebike could be an upgrade for real transportation, but honestly we only need the car at the same time like twice a year. Would I choose to bike on errands if the car were available? 🤔
Would I ride an ebike more than my normal bike?
We have some gnarly hills here that mean I don’t want to go pick up library books or groceries because of course I live at the *top* of the hill 😉 A throttle would make braving the hills with 20 pounds of books feel much more doable. It would also be in keeping with my values to bike rather than drive more often.
I mostly stopped biking for transportation five years ago because a) I stopped going anywhere 😅 and b) after one too many close calls, I decided it was unreasonable that I should have to risk my life because roads are designed unsafely for bikes. The car-free infrastructure near me is getting better: a bike path is finally opening on the nasty route I used to take to the coffee shop in the next town over (six years* after I wanted it 🙄) and my city is building a safe crossing for a heinously dangerous intersection as well as a new car-free route downtown this year. In the next five to ten years*, there will be a couple more major connections in the bike network on the Seattle Eastside. But is it enough?
I don’t think an ebike would necessarily make me feel safer to ride more streets than I currently do on my standard bike. But hopping on the ebike might feel like less of a barrier than the nonmotorized bike, in that I wouldn’t have to put on my special lil clippy shoes and get all sweaty.
Would I like an ebike?
I test-rode a Rad bike and a Propella before the pandemic, but didn’t like either. I didn’t like the feel of starting from zero on such a heavy bike, and I didn’t get to test it out starting on a hill — but I’d probably get used to it. I prefer a road bike’s handlebars since they have a lot more options for hand placement, but I could suck it up 😂
Ebike features I want
step-through
Class 2 or 3 (not only peddle assist), preferably with throttle
cargo rack
preferably a removable battery
preferably about 50 pounds
around $2k price range is what I’m willing to spend atm
Suitable ebike options at local shops
I’d need to call to check availability for test riding.
