So, I have a problem. I would like some of the computers in this house to go through a caching preprocessor, and others to have direct access to the Internet. Specifically, I'd like to throttle Yamaraashi-chan's music video watching enough that the rest of us can actually get work done; my daughter is a bandwidth hog. Any suggestions?
Jul. 4th, 2010
The Burien Independence Day Parade
Jul. 4th, 2010 09:02 pmToday was the annual Independence Day parade for my home town of Burien, WA, a sleepy suburb a few miles south of Seattle. Since Omaha is a political operative for the local Democratic machine, she was obliged to walk in the parade on behalf of her local senators and representatives, and my being the dutiful husband walked with her.
It was a fun walk, waving to people, throwing candy, seeing all the stores thrown open and offering their wares, or samples, or "introductory check-ups" for medical services, or whatever. The winery wasn't open-- it was Sunday, after all-- and there were new stores, including a hopeful "take home a pre-made ready-to-cook meal made with local and organic ingredients" store that wouldn't look out-of-place near a Whole Foods, but was somewhat weird in our more blue-collar neighborhood. There were pretty boys and girls, and lots of grizzled retirees, and families, and kids begging for candy thrown from floats and presenters.
The groups in the parade were political— Dave Upthegrove, Karen Keiser, Tina Orwall, Adam Smith, others, almost all of them Democrats... the Republicans in this town don't even seem to bother. I should go to a 33rd District Republicans meeting just to find out how dysfunctional they are; social and professional— The Masons (they run the world, you know), local clubs, local amateur theaters, fraternities (not the college kind); and educational— high school clubs and organizations. As well as the local police, fire, and emergency services. Oh, and our local Metro service, which is introducing a new firey red-and-yellow line of buses for rapid transit (photo down below). We'll see if it works, but I don't know why they touted it to Burien now— my town's not slated to get one of these until 2013.
Kouryou-chan and Yamaraashi-chan walked with us (what else were they going to do?) and handed out some of the candy we'd brought-- 40 pounds all told. Not all of it went into Kouryou-chan's mouth, I'm proud to say.
The weather turned ugly as we headed home, but we still made it out to a friend's after-parade barbecue, where there was more talk of politics, and much drinking of beer. I had to teach someone the meaning of the word "bandwidth." She was shocked to learn that all Internet traffic from the US to Europe and Asia goes by undersea cable; she'd thought it was all satellites by now.
( Many photographs )
(Aside: I Am A Camera. This is not the Buggles doing a cover of a Yes song. Yes does a cover of this Buggles song. Given that the Buggles were made up of two guys, one of whom eventually went to Yes and the other went to Asia, things seemed to have worked out for what was nominally a one-hit wonder.)
It was a fun walk, waving to people, throwing candy, seeing all the stores thrown open and offering their wares, or samples, or "introductory check-ups" for medical services, or whatever. The winery wasn't open-- it was Sunday, after all-- and there were new stores, including a hopeful "take home a pre-made ready-to-cook meal made with local and organic ingredients" store that wouldn't look out-of-place near a Whole Foods, but was somewhat weird in our more blue-collar neighborhood. There were pretty boys and girls, and lots of grizzled retirees, and families, and kids begging for candy thrown from floats and presenters.
The groups in the parade were political— Dave Upthegrove, Karen Keiser, Tina Orwall, Adam Smith, others, almost all of them Democrats... the Republicans in this town don't even seem to bother. I should go to a 33rd District Republicans meeting just to find out how dysfunctional they are; social and professional— The Masons (they run the world, you know), local clubs, local amateur theaters, fraternities (not the college kind); and educational— high school clubs and organizations. As well as the local police, fire, and emergency services. Oh, and our local Metro service, which is introducing a new firey red-and-yellow line of buses for rapid transit (photo down below). We'll see if it works, but I don't know why they touted it to Burien now— my town's not slated to get one of these until 2013.
Kouryou-chan and Yamaraashi-chan walked with us (what else were they going to do?) and handed out some of the candy we'd brought-- 40 pounds all told. Not all of it went into Kouryou-chan's mouth, I'm proud to say.
The weather turned ugly as we headed home, but we still made it out to a friend's after-parade barbecue, where there was more talk of politics, and much drinking of beer. I had to teach someone the meaning of the word "bandwidth." She was shocked to learn that all Internet traffic from the US to Europe and Asia goes by undersea cable; she'd thought it was all satellites by now.
( Many photographs )
(Aside: I Am A Camera. This is not the Buggles doing a cover of a Yes song. Yes does a cover of this Buggles song. Given that the Buggles were made up of two guys, one of whom eventually went to Yes and the other went to Asia, things seemed to have worked out for what was nominally a one-hit wonder.)
Given that this was a parade, and we're a working-class town, a lot of time is spent spiffing up old cars and keeping them running. Below are some of the awesome vehicles that were in today's parade.
( Dragsters, Model Ts, Old Chevys. )
( Dragsters, Model Ts, Old Chevys. )
Of course, there were politics involved, and I had to take action photos.
( Karen Keiser, Tina Orwall, Dave Upthegrove, CAIR )
( Karen Keiser, Tina Orwall, Dave Upthegrove, CAIR )
Girls with Bright Things
Jul. 4th, 2010 10:23 pm
Lighting them off
Up until about 10, I thought that was a bad decision. The rain had stopped. Things were drying up. We went outside to light sparklers.
And then it started raining again. Well, my prudence was rewarded. None of us will be getting drenched while watching an under-funded light show at a city presentation with no band and no vendor space— the city couldn't afford those this year.
Still, the sparklers were fun. Our neighbors clearly have access to illegal fireworks, as they're going boom and bang in volume sufficient Omaha has called the cops.
But sparklers are still legit.
Sparklers!
More pictures of girls with sparklers.
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