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

Was one your New Year’s resolutions to “‘blog more”? If so, you’re in luck. We’re looking for a few good Seattle-obsessed types to join the crew of Team Metblogs. The main requirement is that you have time and interest to volunteer to contribute to the site a few times per week about whatever Seattle-related things fascinate you. For more information, send a note to seattle.metblogs (at) gmail.com with a bit of information about yourself and the topics that you’d be interested in covering.

Snow Star by Smohundro via our group pool [#]

Due to the weather, many Seattle buses have been rerouted or cancelled today- a full list is up at the Metro homepage. Of course, not all the reroutes are entirely publicized. For instance, I usually take the 30 from Fremont to the U-District- this morning it never showed up at my stop, and I heard a rumor that it was either up on 45th or down on 35th, so I walked up hill. Of course, I never saw it along 45th, and wound up just walking in to work eventually. I checked the Adverse Weather Info for the route before I left, but it makes no sense to me- I suspect the same is true for many of the reroutes.

This afternoon, I went to my normal bus stop again, to take the 30. After several rounds of other buses, I started asking drivers if it hadn’t been rerouted. The first driver said no; the second said he thought it might have, so I should head down to the Campus Parkway hub. Fortunately, after doing so a #30 showed up within about ten minutes and took the normal route home. I was happily surprised that it wasn’t rerouted on the return trip. I asked the driver about getting to the U-District for tomorrow, and her response was that many of the drivers wouldn’t go up the (steep) hill on 40th, and she herself had been taking 45th instead. It sounded more like it was an individual driver decision, than a true reroute, but who knows?

It would be helpful if Metro would publish online maps of the adverse weather routes for their buses, though I’m sure that’s a lot of work for very few days of the year- though if the routes don’t change too much from year to year, it might be nice to do it for the major routes. Alternately, they could post adverse weather reroute information on the poles at the stops- that would certainly be more effective for many riders who may not have access to the Internet from the bus stop or from home, for that matter. Additionally, it wouldn’t hurt to have drivers be more informed about the rerouting for other buses along their routes, just in case, though that would take a lot more effort than posting notices on the poles.

Still, all things being said, I’m very grateful that the buses were even running this evening, and that I didn’t have to walk another two miles home. And all the bus drivers I spoke to were very cordial, which isn’t always the case when they’re being interrupted. For that matter, the passengers were a lot jollier too- people were chatting at the stops, and voluntarily sitting together, even cheering for others at their bus stop when the bus they were waiting for finally arrived. I hope everyone riding the buses is getting home safe and sound- if you have any Metro stories, feel free to leave them in the comments.

In just one week, Seattle’s finest bloggers and the blog-lovers who love them will be getting together to celebrate the most beloved of all holidays: Blogsgiving. Set right in the middle of November, Blogsgiving is a completely made-up occasion (just like “nablopomo” and “thanksgiving”) for drinking seasonal beverages, coloring hand turkeys, and hanging out in art gallery bars.

If you’re among the millions afflicted with a weblog (or related pathologies: livejournal, tumblr, twitter, et c.) or just a curious onlooker, we hope that you’ll join us at Grey Gallery on 17 November starting at 5 pm.

We’ve teamed up with our pals at Capitol Hill Seattle, Neighborlogs, and Seattlest to organize this evening of certain revelry in the spirit of bringing lots of people together and raising some money for Northwest Harvest along the way. Happy hour lasts throughout and if you have $5 or a non-perishable food item to spare we encourage you to bring it to throw into the donation hat.

Grey Gallery is at 1512 11th Avenue (between Pike & Pine); RSVP at blogsgiving.org.

“The First Thanksgiving”, painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris by way of the wikipedia. We will leave it to you to apply appropriate Seattle weblog labels to the link the depicted to their modern day counterparts.

Ahoy and good tidings Metblogs readers, friends, lovers, enemies: we’ve been conspiring in trilateral talks with the likes of Seattlest and Capitol Hill Seattle to hatch a plan for a big Seattle weblog get together in early November. Dates, times, and locations remain uncertain but are trending toward a weekday in mid-November. If you or someone who owes you a favor knows of a wonderful venue that might like to host this grand event, please direct your advice to me (josh at metblogs dot com) or the esteemed Mr. Van Baker (editor at seattlest dot com) so that we might advance this Blogsgiving Festivity most expeditiously.

If all the haunted houses and scary movies weren’t enough to frighten you this October, the P-I reports that some Pierce County wastewater treatment workers proved an urban legend true this week, finding a 4.5 foot long white corn snake in one of the water treatment facilities. (#)

Yes, kids, there are snakes in the sewers, so just be sure to check the toilet before you sit down. Eek!

ETA: If you want to see a photo of the sewer snake, go check out The Big Blog’s post.

Need Housing? courtesy of Wesa [flickr] via our group pool [#]

Nickelsville, the tent city made up of homeless people, moved once more over the weekend to a parking lot owned by University Christian Church in the U-District, where residents hope they’ll be able to remain until year’s end.

Inside the encampment, residents, advocates and organizers gather and scatter, taking care of various tasks. Each resident has to contribute to the running of the camp, doing chores or working a security detail, according to one resident, Kailli.

“All people need is a chance… it makes a difference feeling like you’re part of something,” explained Aaron Colyer, a resident and unofficial spokesman for Nickelsville residents. Colyer himself was busy sorting food donations, cooking, and stabilizing the pavilion being used as a kitchen by the residents as he spoke about the programs offered at Nickelsville. Every Monday night, the residents have a Bible study, and organizers are working on setting up an AA meeting specifically for Nickelsville residents.

Some social service programs have come on site to offer assistance, something Colyer says seems like a wise idea- he believes it would save the city time and money by not sending the homeless to services located in different areas of the city, but instead bringing the services to a large group of homeless. Nickelsville had only 42 residents earlier this month, and is now up to 65. Colyer believes they will hit 100 in their current location, and he would prefer it if they could set up a permanent encampment large enough for 1,000.

Currently over 2,600 people sleep on the streets every night, according to figures from the One Night Count. Those numbers are up 15 percent from last year, and are unlikely to get smaller given the current economic situation. Many shelters only allow men or women, and there are very few shelters that allow families to stay together. Even when those shelters are found, Colyer says, many families will only stay for a few nights, rather than dealing with Child Protective Services. Additionally, the hours some shelters keep disallow residents from getting night-shift jobs.

The camp can still use tents, wooden pallets to put the tents on top of to keep the rain from soaking underneath them, blankets, clothing- particularly men’s clothing, sleeping bags and food donations are always accepted. Colyer said Big Five, the sporting goods store in the U-District would give a discount to those purchasing items for Nickelsville, but that has not been made official yet, so potential buyers may want to verify that information.

(more…)

I just received an urgent notice from a volunteer at Friends of the Seattle Public Library. It reads as follows:

The library’s collections budget has been severely cut in the Mayor’s most recent budget. There is a 2.2 million dollar shortfall – this in the face of registrations that are up and a growing city population. The library’s collection budget is still at less than 2002 levels.

The Friends are asking for support from the public to let City Council members know how important the library is. People can write letters, send emails, or best of all attend the Council meetings tomorrow between 4:30 and 5:30 (or call during the same time frame). We put out a call for support last year and it made a big difference.

Seattle Public Library

Here’s how you can help: 1) send a handwritten letter to your councilmembers: Jean Godden, Jan Drago, Nick Licata, Bruce Harrell, Tim Burgess, Richard Conlin, Tom Rasmussen, Richard McIver, and Sally Clark at Seattle City Hall, Floor 2, POB 34025, Seattle Wa 98124-4025. Tell them what branch you use, how you use the library, and why the branch is important to you and/or your community. Thank them for past support and ask them to consider increasing the library’s collections budget. 2) Email council members. Their emails are in the form: firstname.lastname@seattle.gov Tell them your name, the branch you use, how you use the library and how it is important. Thank them for their past support and ask them to increase the library’s collections budget. 3) Call City Council between 4:30 and 5:30 on Oct 8 at 684-0481 or email in the same time frame to: council.live@seattle.gov messages received in that hour count as “official testimony” in the first public hearing on the mayor’s budget.

More information available on the Friends of Seattle Public Library blog.

OH, Archie! by Seattle Daily Photo [flickr] via our group pool [#]

As reported by FremontUniverse this afternoon (#), Archie McPhee is moving to the no-man’s land between Wallingford and Fremont, right into the spot currently occupied by the state-controlled liquor store.

Since I walk past that store almost daily, I’m pretty excited that I’ll have something other than Not A Number to amuse me on my way home. However, I am minorly concerned about where I’m going to buy my liquor on the way home if Archie’s takes over that space.

On the other hand, the combination of liquor and Archie McPhee seems like a really excellent business plan.

So… if McPhee’s moves into the liquor store, do they just get to keep the liquor license?? They already have the cocktail supplies, so perhaps they could supply the cocktails as well? My walk home is looking better and better every day!

English Breakfast at Voxx by culinaryfool [flickr] via our group pool [#]

The Seattle P-I, along with City Club, hosted a panel tonight on neighborhood blogging. Panelists included Tracy Record of West Seattle Blog, Cory Bergman of MyBallard, Amber Campbell of Rainier Valley Post, Scott Schaefer of B-Town Blog, and Heather McLeland-Wieser with the Seattle Public Library’s Shelftalk.

Moderator Monica Guzman of the The Big Blog asked the panelists a number of questions involving how they generated readership, moderated comments, used advertising, worked with the local media, and how local blogs have been able to cover local neighborhood issues in ways that traditional media is unable to cover.

Many of the panelists shared different stories about how their blogs are engaging their community. Campbell mentioned that Rainier Valley Post was recently able to contribute to a fund for the funeral of a local child that was killed in their neighborhood through PayPal donations, and Record shared her passion for the pets section of West Seattle Blog. The amount of information available through these local (and sometimes hyperlocal) blogs is amazing, and many of the bloggers, like Record, Bergman and Campbell have devoted a lot of hours and lost sleep to their neighborhoods.

As Record mentioned, neighborhood or place-blogging has become a kind of ‘calling’ for some Seattleites. If you’re out and about on the Internet, be sure to check out your local blogs- a lot of them are doing some really amazing things in their communities, and if there’s not one in your neighborhood, there probably will be soon (or hey, you could start one yourself- many panelists stayed afterwards to lead a workshop on creating your own blog). Happy reading- and be sure to mention any neighborhood blogs you think are worth reading in our comments- the more, the merrier!

_{Gaming Squad, courtesy of Sparky}

Lessons Learned at PAX 2008:

1. The lines are long. Really long. (Unless you’re trying to use the women’s restroom). Know what you want to do ahead of time, and don’t try to get into Gabe and Tycho’s Make-A-Strip Panel 10 minutes before it’s scheduled to start.
2. The Console Freeplay rooms aren’t nearly as cool as the PC Freeplay rooms (pictured above) and take about twice as long to get into.
3. Don’t skip the Omeganaut competition, because you might get to see Gabe, Tycho, Khoo and Kara from Penny Arcade playing Journey songs on Rock Band.
4. Make sure to get bacon salt, among all the other swag.
5. I really suck at video games, unlike certain other bloggers.
6. If you’re riding the bus home, get on at 3rd and Virginia, before all the Bumbershoot people flood in!
7. The sumo beanbag mats are the best idea anyone’s ever come up with for PAX.