Compendiumites of Washington, BY OUR POWERS COMBINED...!!

[Lord J Esq]

This is a thread for the high number of Compendiumites who live in Washington State. It doesn't have any single topic. Anything which relates to life in this state is fair game. Out-of-staters can participate too, but I'd like the discussion to turn mainly on things that are relative to the people who live here!

[Lord J Esq]

Of course, I did have something in mind when I created this topic. And, perhaps not surprisingly, it is a political item.

If you live in Washington State, it is imperative that you vote NO on Initiative 1033 in the upcoming election. If you're not one to take an order from someone else on how to vote, then at the very least it is imperative that you do your homework on this item. Tim Eyman's latest initiative not only would place the kind of permanent cap on spending that has helped devastate the economies of states like California (see Proposition 13); it would do so during a time when Washington State's budget is artificially low because of the recession. We've suffered excruciating cuts all year, across the board, and if I-1033 passes then that money won't be coming back. Our temporary austerity measures would become a way of life in this state.

This is the single most important item on the ballot this year, and, economically, it is probably the most important item in several years. If you are so inclined to vote against 1033 yourself, tell your friends and family how important it is that they too reject the Eymaniac allure of lower taxes without regard to the costs. Lowering taxes by itself can be a good thing or a bad thing, which should be decided on a case-by-case basis. Permanently imposing the I-1033 degree of restriction on the legislature's authority to raise taxes in the future would cause critical long-term damage to this state's economy.

[Radical_Dreamer]

Last night, Richard Dawkins spoke at UW Seattle. I missed this (not knowing about it until it was too late, but I was at work anyway). Did anyone at the Compendium attend?

[Kara Kazeneko]

That kind of reminds me of how I despise the fact that any time something really cool (that I'm greatly interested in) happens in this state, I find out about it AFTER it took place. >_<

(like when there was a Daft Punk concert at Key Arena; I'm pissed off for missing that)

@ Lord J = Yeah, I'm with ya on voting 'No'. I'm sick & tired of folks (not just Tim Eyman) coming up with ideas that seem like they'd help the state, but in the long run would actually hurt everyone. It's frustrating.

[Zephira]

Maybe we could use this to post any news of events like that, in case someone misses it.
In that vein, this Wednesday is the last day of the Kirkland Wednesday Farmer's Market. If you want to stock up on fresh produce, you'd better hurry!

[Kara Kazeneko]

Good idea, Zephira!

Speaking of events, if anyone from around here is a fan of cosplay or fond of hanging out with fellow otaku & gamers, then I highly recommend attending the awesome monthly group that I'm part of - "GasuKan". It's mainly for cosplay fun, meeting up each month in a different location (which is decided, along with the date it takes place, by attendees who're members of the message board at Cosplay.com - in the forum for SakuraCon), and there's also a cool theme to use for what cosplay to wear (but not necessary; lots of folks don't follow it...LOL). Also, it's not totally necessary to cosplay either, since some folks aren't able to afford it (or don't have enough costumes for variety's sake, etc.). Just coming to have fun, eat tasty goodies (folks bring cookies & such), and make new friends is certainly worth the effort in attending (I've been truly blessed by it; I have A LOT of great friends now and have become less socially awkward).

This month's shall be epic - GK's 2 year anniversary. It'll be on October 24th, at Gasworks Park (the place of its birth), and it's cosplay theme is "Madness/Halloween Mayhem" (also, a bunch of folks will be doing some horror/goth interpretations of Alice in Wonderland characters for the hell of it, too; I'll be joining them with a freaky 'shinigami' version of the White Rabbit...Bwa ha ha!).

(NOTE: To give you guys an idea of how popular this is, last year's 1 yr. anniversary event had over 80 cosplayers show up; & on a normal basis, about 30-50 people attend)

[Lord J Esq]

Ugh. I would not customarily sit through an entire prayer breakfast sermon, but this one happened to be given by someone who, if she wins the election next month, will become my County Executive, and arguably the second most important person in the state after the Governor. I already knew her conservative leanings and religious problem, but I didn't know how bad it is until watching this video. If you're voting in King County, this is one of most important items on the ballot, after I-1033 (Eyman's anti-tax initiative) and R-71 (the gay rights referendum).

If you can't bring yourself to sit through the video (it's fairly long and utterly repulsive), you can read a cogent analysis of her style that may help you to inform your opinion when it comes time to vote.

[Lord J Esq]

Yay! Big storm rolling in for tomorrow and Friday, according to Cliff Mass, Weather Blogger Extraordinaire:

Sometimes I look at the computer forecasts and just have to say WOW!.  Take a gander at the sea level pressure forecast over the NE Pacific on Thursday--an amazingly intense low center dropping below 950 mb.  And the SUSTAINED winds SW of the low center are roughly 55 kts  (other plot)--certainly with hurricane force gusts.   Look how close the isobars are (and how strong the corresponding winds are) for a vast area of the Pacific.  Just plain impressive.  They don't call these storms hurricanes because they aren't tropical, but they pack a bigger punch.  Huge size and big winds.   And very, very dangerous to be near them on the water.

And can you imagine the waves?  Well, you won't have to imagine anything..they will hit our coast.  Wave development requires strong winds, large ocean area to work on (fetch), and time.  This storm has it all!  The NWS runs the Wavewatch3 wave model, which is driven by the output from the atmospheric model forecasts.  I have included some sample forecasts.  Huge waves develop--reaching roughly 40 feet--and these waves propagate as swell towards our coastline.  It will get pretty amazing along the Washington coast this weekend...I am sure the NWS will be providing marine warnings of 20-30 foot waves.

For a while the Weather Channel was predicting thunderstorms on Friday, although that has since been revised to rain. Still, for that forecast to have been raised at all tells you something about the nature of this storm (most Washington storms have nothing to do with thunder). And they may revise the forecast again!

Thursday and Friday will be excellent days to go for a walk on the beach and maybe have a barbecue.