An Interesting Robbery (in Its Details)

From a Seattle police report:

Sometime during the listed dates, unknown suspect(s) defeated the lock on the rear sliding glass door and entered the residence. Once inside, suspect(s) removed the listed items exiting through the front door. While inside the residence, the suspect(s) ransacked the entire home, smoked several cigarettes leaving behind the butts, consumed an orange and packed up several items in two of the victim's suitcases leaving one suitcase near the front door and the other just inside the room which housed all the Buddha statues.

Some Thoughts Concerning Youth Activism

It frightens me that people believe that creating and/or becoming "fans" of Facebook (or other online groups) will bring about any real change in this world. Filling in some boxes on a ballot will do more than clicking a button. Think about it.

V.P. Biden in Israel to Smooth Things Over

I'm still unsure as to where I stand on the Israeli-Palestine conflict, considering the circumstances surrounding it change nearly every day. However, to put it mildly, I do not support the Israeli government and its actions toward the Palestinian people. That being said, I do not support the Palestinian Authority, and the actions that it takes towards the Israeli people. Both parties are guilty.

If Israel does something that the U.S. government doesn't like, we tell them so. However, we quickly retract our statements, and act as the dog with his tail between his legs, feeling scorned for having done something wrong. Basically, we let ourselves be owned by the Israeli government.

The L.A. Times reports:

Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday began an effort to mend strained ties with Israel, pledging a total U.S. commitment to Israel's security and declaring that the bonds between the nations were "unbreakable."

...

Biden, the highest-ranking administration official yet to visit Israel, was dispatched by President Obama to try to restore Israeli confidence in the American government that has deteriorated over the last year. Relations between the governments were strained by the Obama administration's attempts to halt completely Israeli settlement growth in the West Bank.

Un-fucking-believable.

Said to Me at Work Today

"You smell like my grandma."

Things That Annoy Me

I work with the public; and so, for eight hours a day, I am forced to endure the crimes of fashion that our customers unknowingly commit. My biggest annoyance is when people insist on wearing shorts in cold and/or rainy weather. This happens all the time, and it drives me nuts. Now, I know I am not exactly Mr. Couture when it comes to the things I wear, but I have enough common sense to know that you just don't wear certain things. Clearly, I am very outspoken about these grievances, because a coworker of mine left me the notes to the left on my work computer.

It reads: "Jon - Last night I saw a guy with SHORTS and A HEAVY COAT! Also SANDALS and SOCKS! Also LONG HAIR and a BALD SPOT! Also a fake cat tail hanging out from under his coat. I thought of you + how you'd probably want to stab something." -Jessica

This Is Neat!

Via Sullivan.

Latest Washington State Legislature Cutoff Date

Any bills that are not passed out of their house of origin by 5 p.m. tomorrow, February 16, will be dead until the next legislative session, which begins January 11, 2011. Stay tuned for my forthcoming Slog post on which prominent bills made the cutoff, and which ones did not.

Update: And here is the post.

Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh Will Not Seek Re-Election

Today, two-term Democratic Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana will announce that he is going to retire at the end of the 2010 congressional session. This is another loss for the Democrats, seeing as how news outlets are reporting that Bayh could easily defeat Republican Dan Coats, who announced only five days ago his intent to challenge Bayh for his seat.

From Talking Points Memo:

R.J. Gerard, communications director for the Indiana Democratic Party confirmed to TPMDC that the state Democratic Party would be able to select a new candidate to run in November's general election if no one files petitions with 4,500 signatures (500 within each of the state's nine House districts) to run in the primary.

The petitions must be filed with the county clerk's office by Tuesday. Then candidates have until Friday to file with the Secretary of State for the primary ballot. The lack of another Democrat will mean there is a vacancy, leaving it to the state party's State Central Committee to choose a candidate at its June 30 meeting.

Are we going to have another Martha Coakley situation? We can only hope.

Furthermore, I'm puzzled as to how I feel about Bayh's decision to not seek re-election: that work in Congress is too divisive, and he would feel more accomplished working in a different capacity elsewhere. Okay, I would allow you that much. However, this is not the time to bow down in the face of opposition or difficulty. Democrats, suck it up, and get things done.

Man Stabbed And Robbed Three Blocks From My Apartment

Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reports.

Play Review: "Speech and Debate"

I am fortunate enough to have at least one friend that I can always drag along to certain events--plays, lectures, concerts, etc. (Read that as me having a handful of friends who share at least one similar interest with me.) In this case, it didn't take much of my persuasive charm to sell my friend--a theater major at Cornish College--on seeing "Speech and Debate" at the Seattle Rep.

Synopsis from SRT:

An aspiring teen journalist, an awkward wannabe popstar, and the openly gay new kid in town all have secrets. But when their squeaky clean small-town high school refuses to acknowledge the messy parts of being a teenager, this ragtag bunch of misfits starts an after school Speech and Debate team to expose a possible scandal—and sparks more debate than their high school ever bargained for. Tackling issues of politics, homosexuality, and self-expression, young playwright Stephen Karam has written a completely modern, hilarious and heartbreaking look at the struggles of being a teen today.

The play was quite obviously written by and for the 16 to 25--I picked those numbers somewhat arbitrarily--crowd. Given that, I felt as though my friend and I were carrying the audience's role alone. The majority of the patrons were above 40 years old, and thus, could not fully appreciate the thematic elements that are present in the performance. They sat there silent and unamused, while my friend and I laughed to our heart's content.

I could see a bit of myself in all three of the characters; the eager and bumbling school journalist, the all-alone-on-a-Friday-night reject, and the hot, young gay guy, who gets blowjobs in the woods. Okay, let's maybe tone down the last character with regards to me. Either way, it allowed me to connect with in a way that most plays cannot. It plays through next Sunday, and tickets are only $12 if you are under 25. Click here for showtimes.

Film Review: "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men"

While I have not yet read the book by David Foster Wallace--I intercepted my sister's copy from her before she sold it back--I did rent the movie based on said book. John Krasinski, of The Office fame, in addition to making his directorial debut, wrote the screenplay.

After a bad break-up, a female graduate student decides to interview random men in an attempt to find the true intentions of their being. They are "hideous" in the abstract, not the physical. One man--who was maybe the movie's only saving grace--had the problem of shouting "VICTORY FOR THE FORCES OF DEMOCRATIC FREEDOM!" whenever he would climax. "I don't even vote." Aside from that, and a few other moments of laughter, the movie was more of a fragmented and poorly executed drama than a human satire.

I had much higher hopes for this film; sadly, it let me down more than it lifted me up.

Apropos Of My Inner Being

Drinks At Vessel, Talk At Benaroya

Last night, my friend and I attended Dr. Abraham Verghese's talk at Benaroya Hall, as part of the Seattle Arts and Lectures Literary Series. You can read my review on Slog here.

Prior to our arrival, I thought it would be nice to grab a drink at Vessel on 5th Avenue (between University and Union). I've walked by the place a few times, and was struck by it's unusual window setup. My friend thought of it as there being "window models" on either side of the entrance. That is, there are about five chairs situated immediately in front of the large glass window, with an almost intruding wall placed directly behind the chairs.

I arrived before she did, so I found us some private seating upstairs. It was very 'Seattle' of me; sitting near other people... how foreign and unnatural. The place was definitely swanky, but it was fun to pretend that we were sophisticated, if only for an hour or so. She had a glass of champagne, followed by a Stella Artois (in the bottle). I tried my very first Manhattan (rye, vermouth, bitters, and a cherry). It was drinkable, but I was definitely a boy pretending to be a man. Next time I will stick to what I know and enjoy.

We were a bit hungry, so we ordered the Croque Monsieur, which, I believe, is french for "Fancy Grilled Ham and Cheese". Feeling a bit tipsy, hunger marginally satisfied, and our wallets rapidly thinning, we asked for the check and headed over to Benaroya. It was a good night.

The Best Line I've Ever Read In A Police Report

"On 020510 victim invited the suspect and a couple other friends to come to his apartment to partake in some substance abuse and to stay the nights."

Rad, dude.

It's Time To Get With the Program

Okay. Enough is enough. I used to write posts for this blog on a daily basis. Why have I stopped? Frankly, there are a few reasons. First, I have been overwhelmed with many personal issues for the past few months, and I only feel like writing about those menial things. When I revamped Lacking Creativity--focusing more on news, politics, and opinion--I decided to purge any personal posts and never write another one. I have been successful in keeping with the promise that I made to myself. However, in so doing, I have neglected my, albeit small, audience of readers.

It's 12:28 a.m. on Monday morning. I need to write something. Anything. In fact, several times I have tried to write and post those very sentiments. But I failed. The time is now over. I have a large stack of books that are going unread; I have news stories that I have failed to keep track of; I have an apartment that is in desperate need of some cleaning; I have a laundry list of personal problems to resolve. I can go on forever, but I won't.

Today, while at work, I was reading about Sarah Palin's speech at the Tea Party convention. I became terrified. I am not joking. Imagining Sarah Palin (or someone just like her) as the next President of the United States terrifies the shit out of me. Now, you may ask yourself why I would worry about that. Yes, I absolutely agree, she is inexperienced, she uses emotion above reason, and she manipulates people to gain support from the electorate. While we are nearly three years away from the 2012 election, there is still the chance that Sarah Palin may win the Republican nomination and win.

Again, why does this worry me? Better yet, why am I terrified at the possibility of it? It's quite simple. I am gay; and under a Republican (Tea Party) administration, I can guarantee you that gay rights will be stripped away without hesitancy. In the "Real America" there simply is no place for LGBTs.

My Wasted Years With Newspapers

For the longest time, my mother would get the Sunday Seattle Times, and sift through it to look at all the shopping catalogs. I don't recall her ever reading an actual piece of news printed throughout. The saddest part is that I never took advantage of the pieces she recycled. That is, I never read the damn newspaper. Now that printed news is rapidly disappearing, I find myself regretting all those years that I could have been learning about the world, but did not.

A Backdoor Attempt at Pushing Out Undocumented Immigrants?

Tomorrow, Rep. Tom Campbell (R-2) will introduce a bill in the state House that, if passed, would require anyone applying for a driver's license or instruction permit to provide "[p]roof that is satisfactory to the department that the applicant's presence in the United States is authorized under federal law." It should come as no surprise that all of the representatives that are officially backing this bill are Republicans.

I posed the following question to a coworker of mine: what is the intended purpose of issuing driver's licenses? His response was something to the effect of ensuring safety on the road. Now comes the followup question: what does proving whether or not you are legally recognized by the federal government have to do with maintaining safety on the road? How is this not, in my view, a backdoor attempt at pushing out the undocumented immigrants from our state?

Furthermore, what qualifies as "satisfactory proof"? We need some answers.

How I've Spent My Evenings for the Last Three Weeks

Drinking lattes, writing, and reading news.

Overheard At Work

"What are you working on, mam?...TPS reports?"

A Job Application Gone Awry

Some of my readers may or may not know that I recently interviewed for and was given the opportunity to be the Stranger's next News Intern. Everyone has asked me "what exactly does a news intern do?" Well, here is the job advertisement that was posted a few weeks ago:

"Do you spend your days dreaming of digging through court records to find out terrible things about secret Republican politicians? Or following the often mind-numbing actions of the city and county councils? Or perhaps fighting grizzly bears?

How about doing two of those three things for free? (You have to pay to see the bears.) If so, we have the opportunity of a lifetime. The Stranger is looking for a news intern.

Just think—the Slog posts you will post! The arcane information you will look up! The Morning News-es you will post on weekends still slightly drunk with a screaming headache at 8 a.m.! I have lived through all of those experiences, and emerged stronger.

Interested? Send an e-mail telling us why you should be the chosen one (with two or three clips or other writing samples, if you've got 'em)..."

Today was my first day, and it went well. My assignment was to head over to the SPD East Precinct and obtain hundreds of electronic police report copies. After that, I spent a few hours skimming through them all trying to find something worthwhile. There were hardly any interesting ones. However, I picked one, and did a short write-up of the incident. It's a rough copy, but we all have to start somewhere. And I present it as such:

In these troubled economic times, dropping off a job application can get you mugged on the side of the road. A Seattle Police report obtained from the East Precinct indicates that on November 19th at approximately 2:20 p.m. the victim in this case was driving from Renton to North Seattle in order to deliver an application for employment. "He was then driving south on 3 Ave NW from Holman Rd NW and hit a pothole, flattening his right front tire." After pulling off to the side of the road, he went to his trunk to obtain a can of flat repair spray. Soon thereafter he noticed a "large sidewall hole" on the flat tire. The victim reported feeling a blow to the back of the head, but initially thought it was the side-view mirror. The victim turned to notice an unidentified suspect standing over him with a kitchen knife--"possible black handled steak knife, stainless blade, with a copper colored cap where the blade joins handle"--pointed, at close range, at the victim's neck. The suspect took the victim's cash and fled the scene on foot. "Victim thought about driving after the suspect but then recalled that his tire was flat," the report concludes.

Thoughts? Comments? Criticisms? This is all a work in progress, and I hope to get the most out of this internship before it ends in three months time.

[Update] - Here is the actual post.