I’m still roaming around the world on my sabbatical (currently in Thailand), but I was excited to hear from my good friend Aaron today. He and his fellow green startup-ers have officially launched EnergySavvy, a portal for homeowners to get information about making their homes more energy efficient. The site will inform you about government tax rebates for home efficiency projects, and connect you with contractors who they have pre-screened and who can make those projects a reality. You can go there right now and answer a few questions to get your home’s energy efficiency score and then start using their tools to improve it. Of course, I’m homeless right now, so no score for me. ;) But I know I’ll be an active EnergySavvy user when I get back to Seattle.
On my sabbatical this year, I’ve been fortunate enough to learn about many ways that innovators are using technology to make people’s lives better, and this is another fabulous example. Plus, it features a cute orange dinosaur!
Sound Transit has a countdown until light rail service begins. As of this writing, fewer than 8 days, 17 hours, and 17 minutes to go (although I imagine that avoiding the first weekend would be prudent, as it will be free and should be extremely crowded). Finally!
Yesterday there were marches in over 300 cities across the US protesting the passage of Proposition 8 in California. We marched in Seattle (from Volunteer Park down to Westlake Center) and I got a few photos of our fellow marchers. A few below and more in my Flickr set.
Published on
September 22, 2008 in
Seattle.
Over at the Slog, Eli reminds us that the Washington state voter registration deadline is fast approaching:
Since 2006, Washington’s Republican Secretary of State has canceled more than 450,000 voter registrations in an effort to “clean up” the voter rolls. Sure, many are duplicate registrations or persons who moved out of state. But many are persons who think they’re properly registered and intend to vote in November. I personally know people this has happened to!
It doesn’t take much to get removed from the voter rolls. You may have been removed if, for example:
(1) you haven’t voted in a long time,
(2) your signature on your absentee ballot envelope wasn’t deemed a match with the signature on your registration card, or
(3) your absentee ballot was returned by the post office (the post office doesn’t forward ballots to your new address).
Everyone should check to make sure you are currently registered at your current address. You can do this online, and in most cases you can update your registration online. But you must make any changes by October 4!
Please take a minute to check your registration by clicking here.
Please forward this message to your friends and family! Everyone should check their registration before October 4!
Thanks!
Published on
May 11, 2008 in
Seattle.
Gio and Kenny and I decided to stop at Honey Moon Tea (in the Uwajimaya Food Court) after dim sum in the I-District today for some of their delectable black tea ice cream, and the stand was gone. One of the other food stand proprietors told us that it had moved “around the corner,” but could offer no more specifics. We scoured the surrounding blocks, stopping in at every bakery to ask for information, but were ultimately unsuccessful (one of the bakery employees told us that she’d love to know where it went too!)
According to an entry on Yelp, the stand disappeared sometime in the last week. Their phone number doesn’t seem to be working. If you know where it went (or a good black tea ice cream recipe), please drop me and email or a comment.
Published on
April 23, 2008 in
Seattle.
Super sale on Cheerios at QFC – $1.50 per box if you buy 4 boxes – but it’s Passover. What to do?!?
We bought 4 boxes and hid them in the closet. We’ll bust them out next week.
I received the following query via text message from my friend Gio this weekend:
Lauren did you write a letter to seattle weekly about steve scher? Check out mar 26 apr 1 edition
No, I never wrote a letter to Seattle Weekly, but the letter in question certainly looks like one that I could have written:
Dear Uptightness,
I’ve lived in Seattle for three years, having previously lived in the Bay Area and L.A. I love it here: the outdoors, the music, the friendly people. And like you, I’m a huge fan of NPR. However, I can’t stand Steve Scher. I have to run to the radio at 9 a.m. to change the station to avoid his rambling and pointless introductions to dry segments that seem to waste everyone’s time. (And why so many segments on gardening?) I’ve been told natives like him, but every other California transplant I know agrees with me. You were interviewed for his program, so maybe you have some insight. Should I get over myself? Or should I be the vanguard of the “Fire Scher” movement?
Cali Transplant
Gio knows that I can’t stand Steve Scher. He was especially struck by the comment about gardening-themed shows, as he’s heard me complain about them on more than one occasion. And the profile fits – I did move here from California after living in L.A. and the Bay Area.
However, there are a few tip-offs that this wasn’t actually me:
- While I suppose I technically am a “Cali Transplant,” I wouldn’t be caught dead using the actual words “Cali Transplant.”
- I’ve lived in Seattle for nearly 5 years, not 3.
- If I were to write such a letter, I would submit it to Seattle’s Only Newspaper – the Stranger – rather than Seattle Weekly.
But still, pretty weird.
Published on
February 24, 2008 in
Seattle.
I ended up spending my photography day two Sundays ago at the Volunteer Park Conservatory, UW campus, and the main branch of the Seattle Public Library. I had a great time at the Conservatory (aside from the one room where my lens kept fogging up), an okay time at UW (I really don’t know my way around campus, and I had to run back to my car early because my camera battery died), and an absolute blast at the library.
The library is obviously wonderful because of its unique amorphous exterior, the shapes formed by its blue metallic frame and panes of glass, and the views of the city that it offers. But I had the most fun playing with the bright colors of the red stairs and electric yellow escalators.
Published on
February 8, 2008 in
Seattle.
I’m taking an “Introduction to SLR Photography Class,” and my assignment for this week is to take photos of scenes containing interesting geometric shapes. The assignment can be interpreted loosely — e.g., a pine tree can be a triangle, and the geometric shape in the photo may exist only because I’ve cut off the edges of an object in the way I’ve framed a shot. I kind of copped out on my last assignment because I was so busy and out of town for a few weekends in a row — I ended up finishing my assignment by taking photos around Microsoft campus during my lunch break. As you might expect, they weren’t very interesting.
This time around, I have all day Sunday free and I want to go do some shooting in various parts of Seattle. Here are some thoughts on places to go (mostly very obvious spots):
Any other ideas?