The Hermit

Olympia, WA - This marks my first ever Hermit post from the Oly homestead, having finally gotten around to installing internet this morning after a four month post-Politicker hiatus.

And what a way to ring it in - feet up, door open and bottle of Anchor Steam in hand. Sunshine and a large window inches from my head recall summers in Quabbin Qountry, while the bare warmth of a Toshiba laptop bring back the glory days of sitting on a dock at Snow Pond, stewing over some way to trifle with the latest campaign foible.

But here, on The Hermit, there is no audience; there is no subject. Not yet. In the meantime, there are a few more sips of Steam left. And another one in the fridge.

NBA Playoff Predictions

Tacoma, WA -

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Lakers over Jazz in 5
Nuggets over Hornets in 6
Mavs over Spurs in 6
Blazers over Rockets in 7

Lakers over Blazers in 6
Mavs over Nuggets in 7

Lakers over Mavs in 5

EASTERN CONFERENCE
Cavs over Pistons in 5
Celtics over Bulls in 6
Magic over Sixers in 5
Heat over Hawks in 7

Cavs over Heat in 4
Magic over Celtics in 7

Cavs over Magic in 5

NBA FINALS
Lakers over Cavs in 7

Oly

Olympia, WA - Yo, I really need to start diversifying my datelines. For real.

Not Peepers?

Olympia, WA - I came into town tonight to check my e-mail and listen to some Creedence. Specifically their version of The Midnight Special, which I first heard on Chronicle Vol. 2, which has since been lost to me along with disc 2 of Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits and a bunch of other classic cds when I had one of my cd cases stolen or misplaced.

Given the hurricane aftermath state of my Nissan Sentra's backseat and the amount of travel I did last year, into Republican strongholds and otherwise, it could have been either.

Still, here I am. And once I'm here it is always easier to have one more hot toddie than it is to have one fewer. There are many arguments for why this is, but one of them should involve spring peepers, because the sound of them will always play a major role in my life.

About three weeks ago I had what I thought at the time to be a completely no sequitur notion that I wouldn't hear any spring peepers this year, and the silence would be deafening to my spirit, causing me to break out in a mad dash for Gulf Road in Belchertown, Mass., where I would spend at least a full week lounging on a rock next to Knight's Pond and repleneshing my soul with the consistent evening croak of the peepers (Pseudacris crucifer).

Yet within days of that thought I began hearing frogs in Olympia, and just as the weather was starting to turn toward the better. Simply on faith I had assumed them to be my own little peepers, but a quick internet search just now reveals that my guys don't live much further west than Kansas.

Again I am fooled, but who can blame a pacifier?


P.S Long live the Chuggypig Unlimited Express. I am glad that I came into town to write tonight, but I still have some regret over missing the second half of the show. KAOS comes through in the most mysterious ways.

The Snake.

Olympia, WA - Back to politics: Do we realize that Terry McAuliffe may become the next governor of Virginia? Not that all politicians aren't scum, but Heaven help us.

Dew Point

Olympia, WA - That old nicknameless backwater city of the Puget Sound, Olympia, has been humid the last two days, and I don't know if it is because the legislative session is nearing a crippling, blue-balled and grumpy end or if it is some sign from the Gods telling me to beat a path to Eastern climates, and fast.

Still, when I step outside my front door in sandals, underwear and a cum-stained t-shirt at 9:30pm, I feel ten degrees short of a heavy sweat.

It is still early April, after all.

Nevertheless what a stark reminder, that kiss of humidity, of the vast difference between winter and summer even in a Marine West Coast climate like this.

I should mention that I am glad to have felt the onset of stickiness. Nothing gets you down the line like some swamp ass and a moist head of hair.

Basketball Dungeon

Olympia, WA - I just noticed the striking difference in attitude between the cavernous insides of the China Clipper and the gold-reamed sunset dusk I just walked in from ten minutes ago.

There was street chatter and the whisper of a light wind off of the black hills. Here are bellows of drunken laughter and classic rock and country guitar riffs.

But its also day 2 of March Madness. And outside doesn't have any TVs.

Madness

Tacoma, WA - Rain down, glory. Tipoff just went down in the play-in game, Morehead and 'Bama State.

Mohawks, long braids, team-colored suits and Chief Kickingstallionsims, the Norwegian Navajo.

Picks below:

Midwest Region
2nd Round
Louisville over Siena, Wake over 'Zona , WVU over Kansas, Mich. St over USC
Elite 8
Wake over MSU

West Region
2nd Round
UConn over BYU, UW over Purdue, Mizzou over Utah St., Memphis over Maryland
Elite 8
Memphis over UW

East Region
2nd Round
Pitt over Tenn, Xavier over Wisconsin, UCLA over 'Nova, Duke over Texas
Elite 8
Pitt over UCLA

South Region
2nd Round
UNC over LSU, Gonzaga over W. Ky., ASU over 'Cuse, Oklahoma over Michigan
Elite 8
UNC over ASU

Final
Pitt over Memphis 71-66

Headlines

Two great headlines from today's Seattle Times:


Police search for suspect in Metro sexual assault

Recession's silver lining? Less Seattle-area traffic

After a Trip

Olympia, WA -Two weeks have passed since I left for my latest adventure in the Olympic National Park with my college roommate Angus, the kind of thing where, in times past, I would have reveled in bringing along my computer and logging in from small town outposts (Amanda Park, Forks, Sequim) regaling the web with descriptions of my travels and perhaps manufactured tales of hijinx at the road houses along US 101.

Instead, sapped for time before daylight, intrigued by changes in logging towns that I hadn't seen in more than a dozen years and joined by an old friend who I hadn't seen for more than a day or two in two years, my laptop bag found itself trapped in the trunk gasping for air over a long week.

This was followed by a return to the work week, where the few precious internet hours I scrounged were full of back-dated news gathering and a suffocating sense that I was irreparably far behind on the political, newshounding, social, and perhaps even sports circles that I had left behind two weeks ago.

That first foot forward after a three week daydream is always one of the hardest steps, weighed down by nerves, doubt, ignorance and frightened by unfamiliarity and the now-distant memory of when it was easy.

That same sense of distant memory has been magnetically attached to my mind all day, ever sine I realized late last night just how long I have been out of the pro journalism game.

At this time last year I was still high off the eighteen Guinnesses I drank after the Seattle St. Patty's Day Dash, and preparing to dive heard first into the state legislative races with the goal of becoming the go-to voice on the topic. Today I try to remember the last time I made an actual press inquiry, and wonder if it is something I will ever do again.

I feel like a climber, toproped but not thrilled about it, pondering how wise it is to let his fingers burn while he fidgets with a beautiful but shaky foothold.

Perhaps the NCAA Tournament will act as a weathervane. My initial picks favor 1 seeds and 4 seeds, and remember, always remember, the truth of the 12 seed. I'll die by it just as I've lived in the past.

No Excuse

for the lack of posts in the last three weeks. Advantage: Reader.

Cutoff Day, or, A Legislative Body's Conscience Gets an Autopsy

The state Senate Democrats released a compilation of the bills that died in committee yesterday, a sepulchral list with topics ranging from the too good to be true, like civil marriage and electric car tax breaks, to the cringe-inducing.

Cutoff Day hits Olympia

Josh at Publicola has the full list of thwarted bills, and a slightly more appropriate cutoffs picture.

Included in the list of killed bills are dozens of would-be laws that casual observers might call non-essential, but which clearly held some importance to a little-known constituency or some ill-funded interest group.

More importantly, the list speaks volumes about the legislative consciences of the two parties, and some of its particular members.

Aside from a few non-sequiturs, cutoff bills tend to be those that reach a little too far. In other words, they represent what the party activists really want.

Here is where the Democrats ran afoul of themselves.

Sen. Ed Murray’s (D-Seattle) SB 5674 would have recognized the right of all citizens to obtain civil marriage licenses, and had his SB 5476 not been cut off, Washington would have joined 14 other states (including progressive hotbeds like Iowa, West Virginia, Alaska and North Dakota) in abolishing the death penalty.

The Dems also apparently reached too far with one of the most intriguing (and risky) aspects of the Senate Dems’ green energy package, SB 5418, which was Sen. Fred Jarrett’s bit about providing tax breaks for companies who installed electric car charging stations in their parking lots, and would have directed state agencies to install them as part of a move to become full electric and bio-fueled by 2016.

Still some of the castaways are mildly Draconian, like Sen. Steve Hobbs’ SB 5183 to increase child porn cases to include people who voluntarily view it on the internet, as if the courts could prove that some innocent porn browser didn’t accidentally click on a tantalizing link.

And others border on the nanny state, like Sen. Rodney Tom’s SB5857, which tried to ban artificial trans fats from restaurants with local permits. But hey, it’s the thought that counts.

And then you’ve got the dead Republican bills.

SB 5362, brought by Sen. Linda Evans Parlette (R-Wenatchee) who hails from the state’s most conservative legislative district, would have suspended the component that currently requires our state’s minimum wage be tied to a Consumer Price Index and required it to stay at $8.55 per hour until further notice.

Val Stevens (R-Lake Stevens), against whom the Democrats poured a lot of money this past fall in the guise of disgraced Sultan Police Chief Fred Walser’s candidacy, put forth a bill that would prevent the Legislature from working on any problems not directly related to balancing the budget.

Because, you know, who needs forward thinking?

Stevens also proposed a WASL-worshiping bill that would have require school districts to pay for remedial education for students who graduate from their school but still move on to college.

Saving the best for last, Sen. Janea Holmquist (R-Moses Lake), wanted the state Senate to officially petition President Obama and others to reverse the 2005 9^th Circuit Court’s ruling that stated that requiring children to say “under God” in the pledge of allegiance is unconstitutional.

Besides the general party flavor, cutoff day also gives us a chance to see which Senators suffer from Allen Iverson syndrome, whereby, no matter how successful they might be otherwise, they still heave up a bunch of forehead slappers.

Long-serving Sen. Ken Jacobsen (D-North Seattle), who is both prolific and Quixotic in his legislative writing, led the way with seven failed bills.

Jacobsen’s bills touched on important, if slightly errant, topics like reinstating WWU’s football team, labeling cloned animals sold as food, limiting bank fees, allowing dogs in bars and coffee shops, creating an airline passenger’s bill of rights and creating a fund for local students heading to historically black colleges. Another, SB 5128, would increase the driving age for ORVs from 13 to 18 and designate some state money to look into the costs of ORV usage.

Runner up to Jacobsen in the failed bill department is Sen. Mike “Law & Order” Carrell (R-Lakewood), who represents the swinging 28^th District that covers portions of Tacoma, Lakewood and the area west of the South Puget Sound’s major military posts, Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base, and aside from Carrell has elected two Democratic State Representatives.

He had five bills miss the cut, and based on their content, it really causes one to wonder how this guy continues to be re-elected in a light blue district.

His SB 5213 would have required people who register to vote to provide proof of citizenship, and his SB 5217 wanted to make sure that no money was spent on art in state prisons, just in case someone was thinking about committing a crime but then before pulling the trigger thought, “a ten-year prison sentence on McNeil Island without the possibility of looking at a Rembrandt, or even a Betty Mears, is just too much to bear!”

He also wanted to increase sentences for criminals who wear body armor, and require the state to build and maintain monuments outside all military bases in the state. Sir, yes sir.

Anyway those are the laws that the legislature definitely won’t be passing this session. As for what will come through the hatch, we’ve got two more exciting months to find out.

Work Out

Olympia, WA - Yeah, baby, work it out.

I ran my first workout of the year AD 2009 tonight after a sturdy spaghetti supper and a few long hours spent in Olytown this afternoon on what would best be described as a whim.

Three blocks down Tullis Street I decided that, instead of my usual Capitol loop, I should double back to my house, grab my watch and hit up the track at Reeves Middle School for the interval workout that has been haunting me ever since I made my commitment to mediocrity back in December of last year.

I held true, perhaps to the detriment of my long-term mental health, with a 6x400m at :80 seconds with equal rest workout on a dark, muddy, messy, puddled, slick and thin track.

Going on, old pride told me that I might be able to crank out a few :75s to close out shop, or even extend the session to eight repetitions, but after 900m my body told me the truth.

Still nothing beats the feeling of the middle section of that second rep, when your body knows the pace but still has ignorance enough not to fear it.

I was able to hit :79 for my first two reps, followed by an :81, two :80s, and finally an :82 that made me realize it was probably in my best interest to stop the watch and just head on home.

The first 400m made me know my pace, and by the end of the second I knew to alter my form. Not in order to accelerate on the turns or power through the puddles, as I may have done once upon a time, but rather to maximize efficiency and do the least amount of work possible to reach the goal of an eighty second quarter mile.

O, how times have changed.

But one can never be too unhappy with a completed workout, especially if one shares the current relative lack of fitness that I have.

After six I walked to the end of the track then, crossing paths with the early stragglers from the middle school gym's Monday rec volleyball league, jogged up the parking lot and down Quince Street on a path that would bring me down and around Bigelow Park before returning to my house with a complete cool down.

I strutted around my kitchen in tights and a t-shirt, warmed up some food, drank some water, cleaned and took a shower.

A circle, more or less, but still it starts from a very low point.

Fear and Loathing

Olympia, WA - There have been two distinct periods in my unemployment (Dec. 12 - present) when my general feeling could be summed up with a would-be book title. It started in mid-January, after the holidays and the departure of my college companions, when the full-bodied shame of not being given compensation first hit acutely, and then reared its ugly head again this past week after I had successfully squelched it before the turn of the month.

The working title, of course, is Fear and Loathing: On the Unemployment Trail '09.

Today, for instance, I waked up at 11:30, baked up at 11:35, washed my face, put on clothes, hopped on my bike and headed into town. Once there, I took out some money from the bank.

The actual bank, not that ATM, since I lost my card in the BECU cash machine at the Olympia Co-Op last week. Some four times prior to my mistake, I had witnessed high and/or absent-minded hippie types almost forget to pick up their cards, only to be bailed out by the person standing in line behind them. And with this sort that I speak of, there would invariably be someone standing behind him because, stoned hippie-type that he is, this generic fellow likely took some five minutes to use the machine.

I, however, used the box quickly and rushed away irresponsibly. How fitting.

Upon leaving the bank I walked over to Cafe Vitta, ordered a coffee, an orange and dark chocolate-covered graham cracker, delicious all around, and proceeded to be too paralyzed with fear and self-loathing to actually get the things done that I wanted to get done.

All that I wrote was trite, a comment I'm sure has been said about me before and won't stop now.

Still, the painful self-awareness was heavy on my shoulders.

...

Now here I am with a temporary paid gig to assuage my worries, but still a little bit of the title remains.

On the front that dictates the rest of life, its funny how each random time I see a smiling girl who talks cheerily enough, I get the sparkle in my brain that I might believe in love again some time.

It fades, but still it creeps.

The Width of a Circle

Olympia, WA - My curiosity is what keeps me from getting home in a timely, and cost-effective, manner.

The song on the stereo here, right now, is Bowie's The Width of a Circle.

So I cried for all the others til the day was nearly through
For I realized that God's a young man, too.

Beside me are three Evergreen girls talking about school evaluations, boys, and living situations. Once was the time that I could talk of such things.

But now I don't really care, which is kind of frustrating.

I care about the man who calls himself Uncle Mike and sings New York, New York during karaoke at the China Clipper. It was the best rendition I have ever heard.

blog

does this work?

If You Wanna Be Happy

In advance of the Seattle-area Williams-Mystic reunion in just over a week, I'll be giving a series of shout-outs to the things that remind me of those days in the winter and spring of 2003.

My roommate Faisal and I listened to this song at least fifty times that semester.

A Band Travels

Olympia, WA - Here at the Voyeur, a bar I have spent a grand total of 20 minutes in before tonight, they have a lineup of traveling bands from all over the West Coast.

All of them, or at least what I can hear over my headphones blaring Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, are good.

But still, no one is here. Maybe ten people are listening in the lounge, and they didn't charge me to sit in the square bar. Thank God.

Anyway, to quote INXS, "makes me wonder. Wonder, wonder."

How do small local bands make money by touring? I mean, they probably don't and are just trying to raise their status by word of mouth. But still, I kind of feel bad for them.

But not bad enough to pay a cash cover to get closer.

Not when I am broke, and can hear them just fine from here.

Suckers.

I love you, but you're suckers.

Also, the Bulleit Bourbon is real cheap here. Real cheap.

Miles

Olympia, WA - I won a battle tonight in what has become, in the last two weeks--and last 6 months, really--a lopsided battle between fitness motivation and expanding my mind with one foreign substance or another.

The war, however, may never be over.

Still, battles are battles.

I went out for a 5-miler after my morning with the dregs, my afternoon with the bowl and my last night with 7 miles. Despite all of these trivial hurdles, I went out. I even tacked on to my original plan.

Obviously it is depressing to cite this as a highlight. Catharsis, though, is the key.

Sometimes, at least, it is the key.

But my brain continues to return to the notion that five miles, six miles, seven miles is easy. Today, my body tells me different. It whispered it into my lower back last night. It tapped me on the knee a mile into my run tonight. It yelled it into my lower calf as I ran up 4th Ave after 4 miles.

Now, four hours later, I revel in the fatigue. I use it as an excuse to have another drink. I use it as an excuse to write. I use it as an excuse to take a second shower.

I hope I have that excuse more often.

Swan Dive

Today was a challenge for me. I should say, instead, that my morning appointment was a challenging thing to get through.

I was being audited by Washington state unemployment, which is no big deal, especially since the work contacts I made during week they called me on were front and center in my gmail outbox.

The hard part was just being there.

Worksource.
Tacoma.
Hilltop.

At 9:45 this morning, when I arrived what I consider to be well shy of my 10:00 summons, the place was already packed with people who legitimately needed assistance creating a resume and, even, using the internet.

I made it a point to refrain from wearing a $200 shirt (which in my defense I only bought for $60, and at a time when I thought it was necessary to own such a thing), unlike my first trip to the unemployment office in Holyoke, MA where I had to undergo a job training session, but I still felt overdressed given my lack of a beat up old windbreaker and mud-stained sweatpants. Lacking a neck tattoo I also stood out, as I now recall.

The corner of High and Jackson in Holyoke, coincidentally, wasn't much different than the corner of Tacoma Ave. and So. 13th.

Tacoma is just a little bit busier, fitting for a city ten times the size of Holyoke.

Nevertheless it was today that I felt the helplessness of being grouped with my WorkSource colleagues. They, the limousine drivers and the security guards, the dime store mortgage brokers and the apartment cleaners.

I was no different, out of a job and looking to stay afloat.

But I know how to use a computer. Quite well.

Still, seeing the parade of neck-tattooed men in sweats, fat white women laboring to get through the door, and immigrants of either gender who struggled simply to read the directions on the form sheets, was a tough pill to swallow.

On at least three different occasions, the depression train started steaming up so hot that I almost ran straight out of the building, no longer willing to witness the plight of the unhappy, uneducated, unsophisticated lot that filled the rooms that make up the Pierce County WorkSource building.

But I stayed. I needed the money. Just like everyone else.

The parade of tired and poor made me think once more on the idea of government education. In times like these, when an overeducated sod like myself can't find a job, it is easy to shit on society's ideal that all should be educated.

But then, as you watch the line at the unemployment office wander through their morning, you see that what may be a loss on the margins for some, is a boon to society as a whole.

In the stumbles, the "habla Espanol?"s, in the shame, in the hope, you see it.

Today I saw it, and it was all that kept me from running away.