vlog, take 42

(my first, and most likely last, video post announcing video commenting.)

Hey there, loyal readers: you were probably looking at your calendar and thinking that it was the second Thursday of the month, remembering that this has been the traditional day o’ Metroblogging meeting up for years, and wondering what was up tonight. Well, it turns out that today is some sort of day or romance and celebration of martyrs. As much as we’d love for you to be our Valentine, we thought that it would be better to not force you to choose between us and your one true love.

That means: Tuesday 19 February at 6:30 pm is the new night of the Meetup. Come one and all! We might be pasting together a trophy for the tournament winner! There could be snacks. It will be at Bimbo’s because margaritas and nachos are the way of the future. [facebook]

A few days ago, I called the King County Democrats to find out where my caucus location was [m-b]. After repeated busy signals I got through and provided the nice lady with my address. She immediately replied, “Oh, you’ll go to the Fremont Public Library.”

Last night, I double-checked her information using the handy Google Maps overlay at the Washington State Democratic Chair Organization website. I entered my address and, yep, the Fremont Public Library it was. It was in bold letters at the top of the page and the red pin was stuck in its location on the map. “Great, that’s probably 300 yards from my front door,” I thought.

Today, I arrived at the library at 12:30, a full half hour before the caucus was set to begin. The room was full and there were people congregating at a fast clip outside. A lady, without asking, put an Obama sticker on my jacket. I noticed a caucus worker announcing something but all I could hear was, “…you…precinct…know…lines…here.” Then he started using hand gestures in much the same way a flight attendant does.

I just moved from Capitol Hill to Fremont and I wasn’t sure of my precinct number. Sensing that what he was saying applied to me, I walked up and asked. Sure enough, he was asking everyone to verify they were at the correct caucus location and if you didn’t know your precinct number you’d better ask. Come to find out, I was at the wrong location. Despite what the lady at the King County Democrats told me and despite what the Washington State Democratic Chair Organization website indicated, my precinct was caucusing at a Buddhist Church about a mile from where I was standing.

By then it was 12:50 and I was frustrated. Having read several posts over the past week warning me to get to my caucus location early or risk being shut out, I jogged home, hopped in my car and drove to my new (and hopefully correct) location.

I got there right at 1:00 and was relieved to see about 100 people standing in line and more walking toward the church from all directions. I hopped in line and ten minutes later was inside. Once there, I found my precinct table and hopped in another line. The room was packed and sweltering. And if I didn’t know better, I would’ve mistaken it for an Obama campaign office. His signs were plastered everywhere while Clinton’s were conspicuously missing. It took another twenty minutes to get to the front, fill out my name, address, email, phone number, choose whether I wanted to divulge my ethnicity or whether I’m LGBT, and select my choice for President. At that point, a woman began yelling from a small stage that, “Anyone who isn’t going to change their mind can go!” To that, a small cheer erupted and tens of people began leaving. Stressed out and tired, I joined them. As I exited I saw at least 100 people standing in line outside. The time was 1:35 and the caucus hadn’t even begun.

A graph, by way of What I Learned Today [dihard] (which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite tumblrs), on the occasion of a week that saw McDonald’s announcing the addition of minimum-wage baristas to their stores and Starbucks announcing their foray into bottomless 8 ounce cups of drip coffee. [wsj]

(Actually, it sounds like the “short brew” has been around at Starbucks for a while [thestreet ], but like all of their other “short” versions that are often challenging to obtain at airports and other secondary locations, it’s not on the menu and required knowing about it to order.)

Announcing the first ever Metroblogging Seattle photo contest! Hopefully this will become an ongoing way for you, our dear readers to get involved around here. You may even have a chance to win a prize, pending our ability to come up with something to give away.

Our first photo contest is going to be all about New Years Eve Parties. We want to see how you bring in the new year! Whether you are going to this year’s epic party, the space needle, your friend’s dinner party, or whatever; we want to see it!

The Rules:
1. All photos must be posted into our Flickr Pool
2. Photos must be tagged with seattlemetblogs_contest01
3. Photos must be taken on December 31, 2007 and January 1st, 2008
4. Keep it clean-ish. The winning photo must be able to be featured on the site!
5. Metroblogging Seattle authors are not eligible to enter photos, but bonus points to anyone who can catch one of us tearing it up somewhere!

Deadline for submissions will be January 10th 2008. This should give everyone enough time to sober up and post some pics. We will select a winner and announce it here on January 20th.

By now, you’ve probably heard that the maven of Seattle blogging, Anita Rowland, finally lost her battle with ovarian cancer. I was all set to make the post announcing her death on Monday, but Samantha beat me to it. I’ve been meaning to write up my own post, but I still can’t put something together that sounds cohesive.

So, I will say two things.

Anita was the Great Connector. I wouldn’t know a bunch of people, by sight or by blog, if it weren’t for her. She was the gatekeeper for blogging in this town, only it wasn’t about keeping people in and out of blogging, it was about making sure people were welcomed, accepted, and plugged in. I’ve been amazed at how many bloggers here in Seattle — and beyond — who say that she was instrumental in getting them to start writing online, or instrumental in getting them plugged into community here.

The other thing is that I regret not knowing her better. I always have felt like I’m not one of the “cool kids” in town, so I really was hesitant to “friend” her. It took me a while, too long really, to learn that with Anita there was no such thing as the “cool kids” vs. the “uncool kids.” Everyone was welcome, and she was always ready to engage and encourage. I wish I’d learned that lesson earlier. Maybe my daughter and Riley could have hung out more, like they used to at blog meetups.

One other little detail that’s been running through my head the last few days is Christopher Wren’s epitaph in St. Paul’s Cathedral:

Si monumentum requiris, circumspice
If you seek his monument, look around you.

Some part of me feels that in this internet world we live in her monument is on Technorati. But that sells short the communities she helped foster, from us bloggers here in town and beyond to Potlatch and the sci-fi community to her many tours of duty at Microsoft to her days in swing-dancing class. In every one of these circles, she left it far better than it was when she got there. She connected people to people. Her monument is those relationships that will continue on long after she’s forgotten like abandoned LiveJournal accounts.

She will be missed, greatly.

I recently had the chance to attend the launch party for the third “mission” in the Xeko card game. Local business Xeko is the Fremont-based producer of a trading card game aimed at teaching children about animals while exposing them to the concepts of biodiversity and responsible ecology in a fun way.

Game creator Amy Tucker was inspired by the work of Conservation International to focus each Xeko series, or “mission”, on a different “hotspot”–a species-rich part of the world. The first two Xeko missions were Costa Rica and Madagascar, both award-winning games. The game is played in the style of other popular trading card games like Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh and is designed to be easy to learn but challenging to master. The idea behind the game is that people tend to care more about places and things with which they’re famliar; by exposing kids to the flora and fauna of these far away lands, Xeko hopes to influence them into caring about conservation.

The beautifully designed cards consist of three types. Species cards represent plants and animals found in the series’ locales. Species card values are related to each plant or animal’s real-life sttus: the rarest, most endangerd species are the hard Species cards to get. Xeko cards are wild cards with special powers. Boost cards give Species cards more energy when involved in the Turf Wars challenges that provide the competition in the game. The Xeko website [site] is an additional component of the game, allowing Xeko players to set up tournaments, and also announcing and retiring cards based on real-world events. The site also links to more information about the animals, biodiversity and conservation. As an added bonus, Xeko’s producers live the conservation that they preach: cards are printed on 100 percent post-consumer recycled paer using soy-based inks. In a first for the toy industry, Xeko booster packs come in recyclable paper and players are rewarded for recycling their packaging by sending packs to Xeko in exchange for special bonuses.

The good intentions behind the game don’t mean a thing, however, if children don’t actually enjoy the game so I spent most of the launch party watching children actually play the game. A diverse group of grade school aged kids played the game with the help of game coaches to teach them the rules and all of them looked to be having a good time. Collectible card games are very popular with kids these days and most kids have an innate fascination with animals, put to good use in Xeko. The cards are understandable and written to a child’s understanding without being preachy or condescending. In fact, I think that some adults might enjoy playing the game as well.

Seeing is believing, so Xeko have been presenting launch events all around the area; if you’d like to see the game yourself, you can check it at on Saturday, September 29 from 1 to 4 pm at Queen Anne’s Blue HIghway Games or at Planet Happy games in Ravenna.

Sakura img by [heathbar]

I only sit upon the periphery of gaming culture. That is to say, I date a gamer, and so have a window in, but am rarely a participant. Thus, when I saw the flags around downtown announcing the Penny Arcade Expo [paex], I knew what it was, but that’s about it. Enter wikipedia [wiki] (what ever did we do before the Internets?).

The ExpoPAX starts today at 2, but there were gamers hanging about the convention center as early as 8 a.m. this morning when I rolled into the office. I have to say my first thought about the gamer-geeks I saw was that thankfully they had not overcrowded my coffee shop as many conventioneers are wont to do. Point: gamers. The second thought was to remark to myself that it was interesting that gamers are as recognizable as the Sakura-Con people, but far less flashy [wiki].

So, I just went down for another stroll to see what’s going on in the final minutes before launch and there’s a weird tour bus sitting outside with The Spoils emblazoned upon its side. Band? Apparently not. Nope, it’s a tournament card game [spoils]. Okay, there’s another bit of geek culture that I had been heretofore unaware of. At this point, I really feel like I’m in the deep-end.

But what is this I see? Scrolling through the schedule for this weekend, a shining beacon of geek pierces through my outsider’s fog: one Wil Wheaton, who is giving this year’s Keynote Address [wwdn]. Oh if only our little blogging enterprise here had warranted me a press-pass. Alas, if I want to see Wesley Crusher (@ 4 p.m.), I’ll have to shell out the $30 daily fee just like everyone else.

Other notable events for today [paex]:

• 7:00 - 8:00 Girls and Games, the Growing Role of Women in the Game Industry

• 8:30 - 10 Trivia! Okay, I only ever get 1 point on the quizzes in the back of the EGM, but I do so love trivia.
• 9:30 - 2 a.m. the first night of the PAX Nerdcore Concert Series:
  “Break out your cell phone and handheld gaming screens to welcome Freezepop and the OneUps as they join our PAX musical guest veterans Optimus Rhyme and the NESkimos for night one of our PAX Nerdcore Concert Series. The first 4,000 attendees at PAX on Friday afternoon will receive wristbands for guaranteed entry, with the remaining seats being given away on a first-come, first-served basis.”

Nerdcore definitely sounds like it’s in Seattle’s wheelhouse. So, who’s going to this? Any thoughts or recommendations from ExpoPAX veterans?

Update: I’m such a dork. I called it the wrong name! What little credentials I have are gone. Thanks for the head’s up.

photo by danny ngan [flickr] via our group pool [#]

• Rocktober starts early: LCD Soundsystem + the Arcade Fire, coming to Seattle on 24 September. Tickets to sell out promptly on Friday morning. [soundonthesound]
• Brian Miller, unable to figure out “How are shorter showers are connected to the environment?” without a bigger corrugated heat sleeve on his latte, questions the Starbucks tie-in with Arctic Tale (which, shockingly, is something of a narrative fraud [slate]) [dailyweekly]
• Lady Liberty going to the Alki Bathhouse? [westseattleblog]
• A nice history of the origins of KEXP, even though it reminds us that University of Washington students used to have a terrestrial radio station of their own instead of internet-only rainydawg. [washington]
• be brief. win bumbershoot golden tickets.[bumbershoot]
• End of an era? Brad leaves SixApart [brad.lj]

this vision of harbor island courtesy Manuel Wanskasmith [flickr] via our group pool [#].

• Excellent question: Why is the Stranger’s Queer Issue written mostly by men? [ericacbarnett]
• Seattle, home of the 3.5 day workweek? Looking at traffic patterns and seeing long weekends [sightline]
• Seth K. confesses to public urination, bringing a little bit of Paris to Greenlake [seattlest]
• You’ve seen the parodies of Microsoft’s new Surface computing by now, right? [sarcasticgamer]
• Spend Saturday morning with the Saturday Knights and a whole lot of Top Pot [reverb]
• Is summer driving the style (or stylish) out of town? [pikepine]
• Real headline: Nickels Orders Probe of a Probe [times]
• Bumbershoot wants more Myspace friends. And not just any friends, Top 4 friends (as if choosing a top 8 wasn’t momentous enough). If you’re willing to risk waves of seething internet drama among your online friend catalog, go ahead and evict a lifelong pal for a local mega-festival and you might win great prizes. [bumbershoot]