Seattle

Ahh, my first stop on the West Coast. I thought.



I had planned on being in Seattle for a few days.

Instead, I realized I was running behind to meet Brian in LA.. I had only an afternoon downtown.

'Twas interesting (even the folk giving me tragically wrong directions)

















Its a caffe and beverage town fer sure.























Next time, Im gonna go there and eat well....

Make up for lost time.
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I noticed, as I went south - I saw travellers with their blankets.. traditional woven folk cloth. I even saw an ornate velvet one at the bus station in LA.

I thought they were pretty cool.

I was transfixed, staring at every one I saw.

I liked what this girl had. *cough*

I coulda definitely used a blanket or pillow on the buses.

One of those blankets goes in my travelling kit on the next car or bus trip.

It was a small indicator I was in a different side of the world...

Wonder where I can find 'em?

All The Kitties Ive Luvved Before

Fred's cat, BunnyCat, just meowled at me.

Apparently I wasnt responding properly to her cries for attention.

Eh. She ignores me 99 percent of time anyways.

I wanta cat.

*sigh*

Not gonna happen for years yet, durnit.

At least there were cats around with the folk I hung with along the trek.

Not the same thing tho.

A joeyCat will have to be awhile.
.
,

,


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Kate's cat



Nikita



Tim's cats



Lil Kim



Tollo







Heh. The cats were standoffish, until I went to the window... and all of a sudden I was a favorite uncle, mewling and rubbing up against me.

Yah, they just wanted to go outside, and I was the sucker by the window.

and BunnyCat



Treats me the same way.. unless I have chicken in my hand.

Hehe. Fred explained.. "She CAN be bribed."

And to think I never liked em growin up..

VIRGO

According to the planets you are now very close to making a success of something you nearly gave up on just a short time ago.
Stick with it just a little bit longer and before the Sun leaves your birth sign at the weekend you will be celebrating a remarkable success.

Remember: Earth signs never give up.

No, we dont.
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User vs Mechanic.

Most professional mechanics I know dont drive fancy cars for their daily use.

They'll pick a car that will get them back and forth and they hardly ever screw around with it.

Ive kinda lived by that philosophy. I may have used and worked on a diverse variety of machines, Ive only actually owned a small number and variety of computers.

So, even though Ive owned a Mac before (A PowerComputing clone) - I never actually used it 24-7.

In fact, the last mac I used on a daily basis was back in 96 - a 6100/100 at my cubicle @ AOL.

Heh. Back then I really hacked the Mac. :-)

In fact, that was a personal sore point. I never really had time to enjoy the machines I used - because i was always working On Other Peoples Shytte. Ive assembled, troubleshot, upgraded, tweaked, jury-rigged everything from Mac Performas to Dual G4's.

Now, Im a mere user again. Its a wholly different perspective.

Back in the day, I grew to like the Mac because it was both useful and entertaining. Part of the fun of Macs is personalizing it to your own taste.

Im re-acclimitizing (sic? madeupword?) to being a Mac user now (instead of being a Mac admin), and its been rough. This Mac has been on the incompetent side of useful and far from entertaining.

One of my favorite little Mac apps was a smiley face, that I could shred, beat and mutilate in all sorts of different ways.
It was called Smile:The Splattering and Ive always recalled it with fondness.
Heh. Lowered my blood pressure daily just hearing the roar of the blender and plaintive screams of the smiley face. Hehehe.

Oi would wager to say that it was the memory of the little proggie (and because I couldnt find a PC version), that made me have such a fondness fer Macs in general.

Took me awhile to find a copy of this old program ... but .. thanks to the efficiency of the germans who keep EVERYTHING.... heheheheh...

* whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinne*

Ah yes.

Good Times. :-)
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Per request, on the 20th anniversary of the smiley emoticon.. a way to feel better by taking it out on the smiley face.

Download here:

MacOS


Win95


Dont bother sending money to unlock the full program. The guy is no longer supporting it.



Smile is a fictional character that cant really be harmed. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely irritional.

G'head. You'll feel better. :-)

Downtown LA

When Brian came by to pick me, he was nervous.. the greyhound station was in Skid Row.

Later, when I looked at a map... it wasnt just a phrase, Skid Row is what the industrial side of LA is called.

He never visits that side of town.

Apparently, most Anglenos dont go there if at all possible.

Yeah, its rough lookin.

And I was enchanted.

Reminds me of downtown Brooklyn, with the hustle and bustle of regular folk going about their business.

I could see that downtown Los Angeles, at one point in its history was not unlike New York.

The textured sidewalks, the tall buildings, the cheap commerce.

And the newstands.

When I see newstands, I see vigor.

And because its cheap - the artists and intellectuals are there.

As the yuppies always follow the artists, invariably raising the values of the neighborhoods - downtown is already turning into gold.

Skid Row and all.

I wanna check out downtown LA before it becomes San Francisco.






































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We were both getting hungry, so B suggested we stop by an LA institution.. Phillipe's French Dipped Sandwiches.

Wot?

Basically a deli that serves hot carved meat, with the bread dipped/layered with the meat sauces.

I had Lamb :-)

















And then there was Chinatown a block away...

We really only had time for a quick walk







Look over there, said B..



A picture for GG. :-)





We noted that there seemed to be a massive vietnamese presence in this chinatown...















But then we hada take off cuz there was much more...