Drinking Buddies

Does anyone know where I can find Mamenori? It's a alternative to nori (seaweed sheets) that's made out of soy. I haven't tried Uwajimaya yet. I was hoping for something in the North End. Thank you! 

hello all.

i live in nj right now, but i'm planning a move to seattle by early september (a good friend of mine, who might actually be reading this right now, will need a roomate, and my rent here, on my own, is pretty steep). i already, obviously, will have somewhere to live; any ideas or hints of where to look for jobs when you're out of state?

or, even better... anyone on here have any connections to local newspapers or magazines? (i've been an editor or reporter for the past four years, and i'd like to stay in my field. don't let the lack of capitalization on here throw you. ;) )

obviously, i can poke around journalismjobs.com and careerbuilder and monster, but has anyone done this before? has anyone moved cross-country and had a job waiting on the other side?

any help, of any kind, is greatly appreciated!

It's been a long time, and I feel like since this damn journal is mostly one way communication these days, that this is my chance to Give Back(tm)!!
The dreaded and obligatory LJ meme!

If you'd like, comment, and I will honestly answer the questions below.

1. Tell you why I friended you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a colour, a photo, etc.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
7. In return, you must should post this in your LJ.

Obviously I will not reply until tomorrow at the earliest.

-C.
PS: Lurking readers can play too, but you need to post your name so I know who you are!

So The Fall is showing at 4:30 on Friday May 23rd at the Uptown and again at 6:30 on Sunday May 25th. Man, I wish they were showing it at the Egyptian. Ah well. Because I can't wait, and because it will likely be less crowded and unlikely to sell out, I'm going to see the showing on Friday, May 23rd.

If anyone would care to join me, let me know and I will save seats! :-)

If it blows my fwagile wittle mind, I might actually go see it again on Sunday.

I helped my friend Alpha Heather (aka: whataboutprom) move tonight, sometimes it's nice to be the "friend with van", and I got a delicious Calzone and some beer for my troubles as well as some good time hang out sessions with the Alpha Heather and er... man, what is Onerik Heather's nickname anyway?

It was Parliament of Heather, that's the important thing.

the other important thing is that some people will give away anything:


yes, this is a prisoner duck with crazy hair, smoking a blunt and apparantly doing oil painting.
an oil painting of YOU!

We all kind of marveled how such a masterpiece. A masterpiece that is so truly tacky and horrible, it almost starts to cross over into the world of the brilliant, would ever be left outside, my take on it was that it was owned by a (stoner, obviously!) dude, who lived alone and then had his girlfriend move in, and who insisted that he get rid of it.

anyway, good times were had, and my vehicleless friend is now moved.

Excellent!

-C.

So I love last.fm, awhile back I got to the point where I was pretty much only listening to music digitally, right?
I had already been used it, I kind of become a little obsessed with it, to date it's one of the only web 2.0 products i like (aside from this one). So I just upgraded the software...
during the install something went haywire...

I'm glad that ipod integration is pretty much seemless now, but i've got this weird... glitch now.

Check it out:

Actually with the exception of the kinda "eh" White Stripes song it's a pretty decent set of songs, but why everytime?

Every time I sync up right now, I get a cavalcade of songs from random points over the last couple years...
It's very strange!

check out those dates!
Even if there is nothing new it shows up...

I wiped and restored my ipod and reinstalled last.fm no luck.
I'm hoping I don't have to reinstall itunes altogether and wipe registry settings altogether.
However it seems like that could be possible.

It's very odd!

-C.


PS: i'm down to only 66 missing tracks!

So I'm nearly done working through the SIFF 2008 lineup, going day by day and picking out any and all movies that look interesting to me. I find it curious that for the second year in a row, though, I find myself overall not all that excited by the selection. Last year the festival was a lot more even than it had ever been before - a large number of fair to good movies, but not a lot of great movies ... and fortunately not so many suck ones either. So far there is only one movie that I MUST see, and only a handful more that I'm really interested in seeing. There a whole lot of, "That might be good" movies, but I have to admit there's not a lot that's pumping me up and getting me excited.

Hopefully some of those 'might be good' movies will turn out to be great movies.

Has anyone seen any freezer paper in the area of Seattle? If you don't know what it is, it's a paper that has a thin layer of wax on one side. Great for butchers for wrapping meat, and great for people like me that want to use it to make stencils for painting t-shirts. You iron the waxy side to the shirt and then just peel it off when you're done.

However, I'm having a hard time finding the stupid stuff.

Reynold's makes it, and it looks like this:

( Picture here... )

I'm looking to go anywhere within the Seattle, or Shoreline, city limits, or even as far south as Puyallup since I will be going down there tomorrow night.

Thank you ever so much!

Anyone know a place in Seattle where I can pickup some Cyrillic keyboard stickers? They're cheap online, but it's barely worth the wait...

Just managed to locate all my VIDEO footage of the Phantom Limbs, The Subtonix, and Akimbo AND found a friend who is willing to sit through it all to post the best songs on Youtube. We went through three hours tonight and I'm going to attempt to post at least one show.

All the footage is from THE YEAR 2000!

We are thinking about contributing at least a portion of our "stimulus" check to charity. What are your favorite local organizations? I'd prefer to give locally, where the money is likely to go directly towards the recipients rather than administration, and generally lean towards children's issues or human rights. But I'll take any ideas -- who are your favorites?

LOLs about you needing beer,etc are accepted but not necessary. Tags were not useful. Yadda yadda.

So I will be new to the Seattle area. I have lived all over this freakin state! Started out in Clarkston, went to Spokane then spent most of my life in Spokane before I came to the prettier side of the mountains. Since living on the western slope of the cascades I have lived in Oak Harbor, Sedro-Woolley and currently Bellingham. Obviously, I know jack about Seattle and the surrounding area. My husband just got a job in Kent and I am looking at the possibility of a job in Federal Way. We looked at a townhouse in Federal Way, but we have no idea if the neighborhood is good or not. We all know looks can be deceiving. So can you help a sister out? It is on 334th S, kind of by Virginia Mason, not far from the Commons area. There are some places closer to the Commons area that look a little shady, but this place looks pretty nice and off the beaten path. We just really don't want to live in a crappy neighborhood!! Thanks for any help!

I know it's a long shot but I need a new panel for part of my scooter that broke when some jerk knocked it down. It's a 1986 Honda Elite 80.

The panel I need is highlighted in red on the photo. I need it in red. I'd consider black but would prefer red.



I've posted on craig's list and ebay etc... but I know my community is the best ressource so...

Snark about how ugly elite 80's are and how scooters keep you from driving your big suv around will surely be read but ignored.

Fanks.

I went to my doctor.

It wasn't my thyroid problems.
It wasn't my vagina.
It wasn't anemia.

Cholesterol! Plenty of the good stuff, and a bit too much of the bad stuff. Not a big deal.

Well, she says if I exercise more, I can continue to eat pretty much whatever I want, but maybe I should cut back on the soft cheeses when possible. Okay. Of course, I'm professionally obligated to eat some soft cheeses.

And I bought some vitamins. Usually I don't take them because a) I forget and b) I suspect they don't do anything. I just took niacin for the first time, and in fifteen minutes, my whole body turned sunburn-red, hot, and itchy. It's very distracting and weird. I'm unsure whether I like it or hate it.

That's what I could use right now, a tall, cold can of High Life.

So here is a list of movies that are playing at SIFF 2008 that we already have for rent at Scarecrow Video. This is a list that I have cobbled together myself, so it will be expanding as I do more digging and we get more stuff in, which we usually do. ;-) WARNING: Movies marked PAL or with a Code will require an all-code DVD player or a computer with DVD software that allows for regions other than Code 1. Bon appetite!

Alexander Nevsky
Alexandra (PAL - Code 5)
Becky Sharp
Blind Mountain (Code 3)
Blood Brothers (Code 3)
Brick Lane (PAL - Code 2)
Cecil B. DeMented
The Drummer
Epitaph (Code 3)
Faces (1968)
Five Senses (1999)
Games of Love & Chance
The Home Song Stories (PAL)
Island Etude (Code 3)
It Always Rains on Sunday (PAL - Code 2)
Katyn
Love & Honor (Code 2)
Mad Detective
The Mother of Tears (PAL - Code 5)
Night Tide
Romeo and Juliet
Saga of Anatahan
Seachd: the Inaccessible Pinnacle listed in the Times as Seachd: the Crimson Snowdrop (PAL Code 2)
Sexy Beast
Still Life (PAL Code 6)
Sukiyaki Western (Code 2)
Sunset
Triangle (Code 3)
Vexille (Code 3)
Young Adam
Young Master

What do you do when you want to help people who are in a situation even worse than the one that almost killed you, but you have every reason in the world to be suspicious of aid groups? Well, I guess you just suck it up and try to trust someone who has researched the situation.

For example: After the post-Katrina failure of the federal levees, church groups and other private citizens' groups were down here feeding people and handing out supplies while the Red Cross was still trying to find its ass with two hands and a flashlight. A dear friend of mine wanted to come and volunteer in the post-storm days, but the Red Cross kept obfuscating and postponing her training so long that she finally gave up. After we'd returned to New Orleans, just out of curiosity, I stopped one day and got one of the free meals the Red Cross was handing out at various locations around the city. It consisted of minced white chicken or turkey meat (I couldn't tell which, as it was absolutely flavorless), soggy white rice, and one slice of white bread. I wasn't expecting Galatoire's, but it would have been nice if the thing had contained some flavor and/or nutritional value. (I gave it to Colm, our now-deceased old cat with the weak stomach, who enjoyed it quite a bit.) More than a year later, the Red Cross did give me a $2000 grant for mental health services I sorely needed, and I am very grateful to them for that. When it comes to on-the-spot emergency help, though, I can't say I have much confidence in them.

I've seen Habitat for Humanity building houses here, and I have a few friends who received help from aid groups while they were still in exile. There are also local groups doing a lot of good: for example, The Tipitina's Foundation has done wonderful things for local musicians. Other than these isolated instances, though, I've seen very little evidence that the millions of dollars donated by compassionate folks from around the world has actually made it into the hands of people in South Louisiana.

Anyway, in this entry, my friend Louis Maistros lists some organizations that he believes will actually get money, supplies, and help to the people of Burma. (Or Myanmar, if you like -- I don't.) Send something if you can. I never thought I'd say this about any natural or manmade disaster*, but they make us look lucky.

*Like what happened here, the events in Burma are a combination of natural and manmade -- natural because of the cyclone itself; manmade because their government made no attempt to warn them of the impending danger and still seems very cagey about letting in foreign aid.

I need to find a wrestling action figure tomorrow morning as a birthday gift for a kid. I'll be confined to Capitol Hill/Downtown Seattle. I checked Zanadu Comics on 3rd: no dice. I checked the video game store at Westlake Mall (lower level): nothing. I even ducked into Hot Topic. Nothing. Is there a store around that sells mass-produced toys? I can't make it to Northgate or Factoria Target and refuse to step foot inside a Wal*Mart.

I just spent about 45 minutes helping an elderly lady advisor from my company from the east coast here on vacation with a VPN problem with software versions. This is after she was given the high hat by the help desk that is supposed to be the be all end all of tech solutions.

The technology help desk.

We call it the technology helpless desk.

She came over the transom in a desperation call to whatever office was close by to us.
You see they upgraded the VPN client, and the old one is shut off, the main problem is for her to GET the VPN client normally, she'd have to be connected.... with the VPN clinet.

There was only one catch, and it was catch-22.

I didn't need to do this, in fact, I had several very strong arguments for why I shouldn't, but she was struggling and needed help and nobody else was around to do it. The help desk's answer was literally "oh well, wait until you get home in 2 weeks."

So I took the time and helped her out, I sendspaced her the files to her personal account and walked her through each and every one of the very painful and deliberate steps to get the access she needs.

She was very, very grateful and when all was said and done and seemed mystified that I even helped in the first place.

"hey, you know, we're all in this together right?" I said.

-C.