Anyway, we made it to the beach, and, as usually, I didn’t feel much like going into the water. It was just too cold for my blood. I really tried to go in, but I couldn’t stand it, so I was sitting on the sand again in no time (we didn’t bring a towel). The previous night, Kevin had told us that Broward County had launched a bicycle-rental program with stations in various places, and we found out that we’d be right near one of the stations, so when we were done at the beach, we checked it out.

There were some bikes locked up, and you could unlock one after swiping your credit card in this machine that was next to the bikes. So Kate and I each got one to ride around. The first thing I noticed was that the bikes were small and low to the ground; even Kate, who’s probably about average height for a person, found hers to be uncomfortable. The second thing I noticed was how sturdy and fully equipped they were. Each one had a basket, a bell, a lock, a light, fenders, three speeds, and other frills my childhood bicycles would have envied if only bicycles could feel. (I’ve always preferred single-speed bikes, so anything more than that seems lavish and unnecessary.)

But the best-equipped bicycle in the world can’t prepare you for a cruise down the bike lane of an American street. I had never actually ridden next to traffic before, and it was slightly unnerving. After we had gone a short distance, I proposed we turn back because it looked like the traffic next to us was only going to get worse. So, we brought our bikes back to be locked up again for someone else to use, except I guess I didn’t push mine into the locking thing all the way because I got charged an extra ten bucks on my credit card later.

That evening, our host made spaghetti for dinner, and then we all went out to a local bakery for coffee and light noms.

And then it was December 31. We were flying out from Miami International Airport, which I had never actually flown in or out of before. Early, early, early in the morning, we left our host’s place and took a taxi to the nearest Tri-Rail station, and then we took the Tri-Rail to the station before the airport because the station at the airport is closed, and then we had to take a connecting bus to the airport. Because the Tri-Rail doesn’t run very much on Saturdays, we had no choice but to get there very early. We were so far from MIA that I don’t even think we could have taken a taxi the whole way.

At the airport, I had time to dash off most of 2011: The Year in Review, and then we flew to Chicago. We had a long layover at O’Hare, but I didn’t want to go out into the city because it was cold and snowy and I didn’t want to have to go through security again. We managed to kill some time just by walking around and having a meal. And then we took good old Alaska Airlines back to Seattle.

Eventually, we were back at my place, and I was getting ready for guests to arrive for New Year’s Eve. I had been looking forward to this night for months since I knew I’d have one of the best views of the city’s fireworks show. Kate, understandably, wanted to enjoy the view of her eyelids, so she retired early as a few of my friends showed up. I tried to make sure it was nice and quiet for Kate (which was difficult, since several of the guys had already been partying), but Kate later said she didn’t hear a thing.

Three of my friends and I stood on the balcony and watched as dazzling fireworks erupted from the Space Needle for a good six or eight minutes. And so it was the new year.

Kate and I spent the first few days of the year buying things that she needed for cooking that I didn’t have. So now I actually have mixing bowls and pans and things like that. I had January 2 off because New Year’s Day was a Sunday, and then it was business as usual on January 3. I went to work, while Kate did her own thing. That week I had lunch with her every day, usually at home, but once she met me at work and we went to nearby 13 Coins.

Saturday, January 7, was the last night of Kate’s visit. In the evening, we went to see a foreign film (nothing romantic, just some boring movie about a kid) and then had a romantic dinner at Amore Infused. Since Kate wanted to make mulled wine after dinner and I didn’t have a corkscrew, we brought a bottle of wine with us and asked the waitress to uncork it. After our meal, we stealthily brought it home. (It was a good idea to eat there. I had never been there, it was great, and there was a fire in the kitchen a week later. It’s been closed since then.)

When we got home, Kate made mulled wine (I’m including the Wikipedia link since I had never heard of it), and we drank it out on the balcony. Even though it was cold outside, the mulled wine kept us warm. I didn’t think I would ever like hot wine, but it was pretty good. I managed to drink half a mug (I don’t have wine glasses), and I would like to have it again, when hopefully I’d be able to stomach more.

We slept for a few hours, and then it was almost time for Kate to go to the airport. I helped her pack (she’s a last-minute packer), and we headed there together. We arrived early, so we had a few minutes to kill before she had to go through to security. We savored those minutes, though I knew there would be many more soon.

Kate has quit her job in Russia and is coming here again on Friday. She’ll be staying with me for almost three months. I’ve never done anything like this before, and I’m excited for what the future holds.

It was my first Thanksgiving away from my family. Lots of people travel on and around Thanksgiving, and I didn’t want to be caught up in all that stuff when I’d just be visiting them in a month for Christmas. So I stayed here instead.

All of my friends either went away to their families or had their families visit them. I entertained the thought of volunteering at a soup kitchen or something like that, but I didn’t really try too hard to find out about it. I’d also heard that they would turn people away due to a surplus of volunteers. (It sounds like nonsense now that I think about it, but whatever…)

I slept in. I caught the Macy’s parade (tape-delayed, I guess), and I had been watching it for a few minutes when some singer missed his cue to start lip-syncing his own song. That’s when the TV went off. Not long after, I video-chatted with my family.

Once it was getting to be around dinner time, I went to the famous 5 Point Cafe for dinner. I was pretty sure that they had a “Thanksgiving dinner” on their regular menu, but they actually didn’t. They were in Thanksgiving mode there, though. It was pretty crowded, so I sat at pretty much the only seat I could find, which was at the far end of the counter on the restaurant side. On the wall next to me, where the daily specials are usually listed, was written each employee’s name and what he or she was thankful for.

For Thanksgiving, they were serving actual Thanksgiving dinners (i.e., for more than one person), but there was no way I was going to buy or eat that much food. I ended up getting the chicken fried steak, which I had never had there before. I could only eat half of it (they say they have the biggest chicken fried steak in Seattle, and I believe them), so I saved the rest and ordered a slice of pumpkin pie. I kind of like pumpkin pie, and we’re not a pumpkin pie family for whatever reason, so I figured I might as well.

After that, I went to the Cinerama down the street and saw The Muppets. Even though it’s common for movies to be released on Thanksgiving, I’m pretty sure I’ve never been to the movies on Thanksgiving, so I didn’t know how crowded it would be. It wasn’t very (although the theater is huge). The movie itself was great fun, and I’d recommend it to everybody.

That’s about all I did on Thanksgiving. The next day, I didn’t have the day off, so like most of my co-workers who didn’t take the day off, I worked from home. That went pretty well except that I had just changed my password and my laptop decided not to accept either my old password or my new password after I had locked it. I actually went to work with my laptop to see if I could log in there, and I could, so I went back home immediately and continued working.

Interesting/creepy: every Beatles song played at the same time. (Via waxy.org)

I rounded up everyone I knew who wanted to come (i.e., a couple of people), and we went. Well, first we had a brief board game night at Mark’s place, and then we set out for dinner and then went to the show after that. It was pretty cool to be handed a free book along with our ticket, although the book wasn’t particularly interesting. I mean, I guess you would love it if you dig philosophy (paging Peter). It basically consists of a bunch of philosophical questions, and you’re supposed to ponder the answers and fill them in yourself, or something like that. There’s also a great deal of art on every page.

So that was something to look at as we sat in our seats. I wouldn’t have bought it, but yeah, it will look good on my shelf. By the way, our seats were pretty bad. We actually were given tickets for seats in the very last row, right in front of the sound people. Apparently the people giving out the daily-deal tickets were giving them out randomly, so if things had been different, we could have gotten much better seats just by coming earlier or later. (Or we could have gotten seats in the same row, of course.)

Anyway, eventually the show started. Phoenix Jones, Seattle’s (in)famous real-life superhero, talked about the bad press he’d received lately and decided to unmask himself… as Rainn Wilson! The real Phoenix Jones came out later and shared some of his more amusing missteps in his history of fighting crime. Of course, he kept the suit on and didn’t mention his real name, although it has been revealed in the press.

There was some music, including this band that was playing its second-to-last show, some pop guitar guy (you know the type), and the singer from the Decemberists (who played some sad country songs). In between those were monologues and dialogues with Rainn Wilson and others, including Mindy Kaling (also of TV’s The Office—she read from her new book) and Anna Faris. And in between those were videos: several by this foundation that the whole show was put on for, and a couple of blooper reels from recent episodes of The Office.

There were also raffles during the show. Prizes included gift certificates to local businesses (I think) and a Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson’s character on TV’s The Office) bobblehead signed by Rainn Wilson. (He humorously dismissed it as a meaningless prize.) Additional lulz were had when the impromptu decision was made to raffle off Mindy Kaling’s Seattle gear (she appeared onstage looking, in Rainn Wilson’s words, as if “grunge threw up”). A few minutes later, Mindy Kaling appeared onstage again to ask the lucky winner for her BlackBerry back; it had been in her ugly sweater or something.

So, what was the point of the whole thing? Well, apparently Rainn Wilson is from Seattle, and the purpose of the show was to draw attention to this group called the Mona Foundation that promotes education for kids (mostly girls) around the world. All the proceeds from the show went to the foundation, so I paid them half as much as I could have. That’s kind of amusing.

It’s really cool to live in a big city where big-name events like this are practically in my neighborhood. I look forward to many more (and hopefully more of my friends will want to go with me next time).

And now, here’s a mesmerizing time-lapse video of the Earth as seen from the International Space Station.

I’m also a freak when it comes to remembering dates. I got my first guitar ten years ago today, on August 13, 2001. It was a Hohner acoustic that my parents bought for me, almost on a whim, when we were visiting my aunt in Gainesville, Florida. It was a beginner’s guitar—the case cost more than it—but, having started a band with my friends, I practiced a lot and would get three more guitars within the next two years.

I wrote songs, but we never performed them as a group. (I can’t remember exactly why, but I think the others just weren’t interested in playing them. We couldn’t agree on anything. It’s a red flag when five people can’t agree on one of several hundred names.) We broke up, but I kept writing songs.

One year, I backed up my friend in our school’s talent show, and the following year, I wanted to perform one of my own songs with one of my other friends. During our audition, the teacher who was organizing the show interrupted us mid-song. She asked me, the singer, whether I had written it. I said yes. She said I should try singing it in a lower key. Instead, I didn’t come back.

As I entered college, my songwriting output slowed down. No longer was I free to crank up my amps as loud as I pleased. (Mom and Dad, thanks so much.) I was living in dorm rooms with strangers and, later, in an apartment with strangers (for the record, a terrible way to save money). By my junior year, I was playing the guitar maybe once every few weeks, and finally, about a year ago, I stopped. I just had other things to do in the way of schoolwork, and with graduation looming, I knew that I was never going to be a rock star.

Every day for years and years, whenever I’ve heard a good song, I’ve thought about being on stage again and performing it. What if I had played my own song in the talent show? I had dreams of recording an album with my band. What if we had shaped up and actually done that? I’ve asked myself those questions, and I’ve also doubted myself. I do try to sing higher than I’m actually capable of, and my voice is whiny. I’ve never been a virtuoso at the guitar, either. You’d see me play some chords, rarely deviating from a particular rhythm, or maybe a simple solo. I’ve always had some ambition, but never enough to put any of those roadblocks out of the way.

But now that I’m an adult and I have no roommates to annoy (only neighbors), I thought I’d get back into it today, ten years on. To my relief, it was like riding a bicycle. I was just as mediocre as I had ever been.

It’s still my hope someday to record an album. I don’t think I could handle all the starving-artist stuff that goes with really being in a band, but I’d just like to get my best songs out there with the treatment they deserve. I don’t care if I have to eat the costs of producing the album, either. I just want to meet some people who are easy to work with and fun to play with so we can make some great music together. And they’d better not tell me I’m singing too high.

First, a little background: Amazon is headquartered here in Seattle, but it’s grown so fast in its short life that it has office space in buildings around the city. A few years ago, Amazon decided to build its own campus in South Lake Union, a formerly industrial neighborhood close to downtown that’s on its way back to being cool for the first time in, like, forever. Those plans have finally come to fruition, and most people are working in the new campus now. (It’s an urban campus, so it’s really just a set of buildings among some other unrelated buildings and they call it a campus. It’s not like the sprawling suburban campuses like Microsoft and Google have.)

Anyway, my first date was May 31, and I was due to attend New Hire Orientation in the morning. A whole bunch of us new people had an ice breaker about Amazon trivia and got information about health benefits and pretty standard stuff like that. One of the guys in my session had also come from the University of Florida, but with a master’s degree. He said he recognized me, but I didn’t recognize him. I hate when that happens. Each of us also got an ORCA card paid for by Amazon, so we can use most of the region’s public transportation on their dime.

When New Hire Orientation was over, I met my supervisor. It was lunchtime. Since more and more people are working in South Lake Union these days, especially with Amazon moving in, a number of restaurants have sprung up to cater to the weekday lunch crowd. Near the building where I work, an enterprising local restaurateur has set up three new restaurants, so we went to one of them for a quick bite. My supervisor told me about the kind of stuff I’d be working on and asked me about myself. I was pretty nervous, it being my first day and all, but I didn’t collapse into a heap or anything.

I had chosen to work in Retail Systems, so within that area I was assigned to a team that’s working on software to manage inventory orders. My supervisor leads the team but isn’t detached from it; he’s a member of the team like everyone else. At first it was kind of intimidating being around so many adults all the time, but everyone’s cool. I’m not the only young and new person on the team, either. An intern started at the same time as I did, and another one joined us last week. If I had to guess without counting, I’d say there are about ten of us at this point. We probably won’t get too many more people because Amazon likes to have what it calls “two-pizza teams.” It seems like a good rule of thumb.

So, what’s a typical day like for me? I can get in whenever I want; I don’t even have to clock in or clock out. (As long as you’re doing your work, they don’t mind.) Actually, I like to leave my apartment between 7:40 and 7:45 so I can make it to my desk at 8:00 AM. And then I work on software, mostly fixing bugs or adding features I’ve been asked to add. I like to take an hour for lunch, and I usually eat at one of the restaurants within a few blocks of my building. Then, if I have time left over and the weather is nice, I go to Lake Union Park and just sit and watch the seaplanes, sailboats, geese, or whatever else happens to be hanging around. I can’t believe the park is less than a year old; it’s a real treasure.

In the afternoon, it’s back to coding. Some afternoons, I guess about every week or two, a band or author will come to Amazon to plug their latest album or book, respectively, so I figure that’s a fun thing to look forward to. (I’ve been to one so far: The Airborne Toxic Event gave an intimate performance and even had an opening act.) But invariably, at 4:30, my team has its daily stand-up, where everyone fills everyone else in on what they’ve done during the day and what they plan on doing next. I think other teams do this in the morning, but we do it in the afternoon so we can teleconference with one of our teammates who works in Amazon’s Beijing office. And with that, my day at work is over, so I walk back to my apartment, where I arrive 15 to 20 minutes later.

I’m loving it so far, especially because I got my first paycheck today. Yes, I get paid monthly. The check (well, direct deposit) includes half of my signing bonus (the other half comes in a year). It’s been kind of a tough month for me since moving-related expenses were draining me dry. But I don’t have to worry about that anymore.

If you have any other questions about what it’s like to work at Amazon, fire away!

And on an unrelated note, the answer to a question you’ve been wondering about: When did prisoners start dressing in orange?

As I mentioned previously, I finally chose an apartment. I wasn’t sure if I had made a good decision since I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it, but now I believe I picked a winner. But, of course, that’s not the end of the story. You see, I’ve never owned my own furniture. My previous apartment, which was also my first, came fully furnished. I had to buy all new furniture.

So, the weekend after signing the lease, I headed out to IKEA because they seem to have a pretty big selection and their stuff is pretty affordable. (I’m not really sure since I’d never bought furniture before—see above). It was a pretty long bus ride away, but I had to do it. I spent upwards of eight hours there (it’s a good thing they have a restaurant), making my selections for an entire living room and bedroom.

When I got to the warehouse, I realized that not everything I wanted was in stock and that I couldn’t even haul around everything that was. So I took what I could. The total: over $2,000. I don’t know how it makes some people feel good to spend lots of money. When the cashier told me the total, I felt like I had the wind knocked out of me. And then: “What payment plans do you have?” “We don’t.” “…Okay…”

To get everything else I needed, I had to place a phone order to the store a few days later, and since some of the stuff I wanted still wasn’t in stock, they had to have two separate shipments. Yes, IKEA delivers, and this particular store also recommends a third-party company to assemble your furniture for you if you want. I decided to take advantage of both services. I don’t trust myself to put furniture together. I have my strengths, but when you put a screwdriver in my hand, I become a complete idiot.

The furniture came on Saturday and Tuesday, except for a couple parts of the bed, which they said wouldn’t be in stock for another month. So, whoopee, I have no bed for at least a month but probably longer. (Or, I could return the parts of the bed that I have, meaning I would have to take them on a bus somehow and then carry them for a mile, and then

1. buy another bed that doesn’t match my bedroom furniture.
2. buy the whole bed from IKEA’s website—they don’t seem to sell the individual pieces there—and pay an exorbitant delivery fee.

No.)

At least I have the mattress, I keep telling myself. At least I have the mattress.

Everyone has been asking me what the timeline is, so here it is. This Tuesday, the furniture assembly people will be coming to put my furniture together, so this is the date I can actually move in. It’s also the day I have to move in, since that’s when I have to move out of corporate housing. (Couldn’t have timed that better.)

As for my actual stuff, I called the moving company this week, and they said it was still in the truck and that it could only be delivered on Sunday—otherwise, it would have to go into storage, and they didn’t know how long it would have to stay there. I didn’t want to get all my stuff before I had my furniture set up, but it’s much better than having to wait an indeterminate amount of time before considering myself officially moved in.

I could have moved in over two weeks ago if I had played my cards right, but I guess I just wasn’t clever enough with the timing of everything. So this whole moving process has been a waiting game, and that has contributed to the stress. Knowing when the next step is coming, even when it’s a long way off, is better than not knowing at all and having to wonder. And wonder and wonder and wonder…

So everything has pretty much come together, but I’m still wondering how best to arrange this furniture that I bought. The living room is square, with the kitchen on one side, a window on the opposite side, a wall with an electric fireplace (aaawwww yeeeaaahhh), and a wall with nothing. I was thinking of having my dining table (can’t call it a dining room table, I guess) on the side closer to the kitchen, and my desk facing the window so I can have a nice view because honestly, I’ll be sitting there a lot. That leaves the couch to face the fireplace, but it would be pretty far away, and I think it would be pretty closely flanked by the table and the desk. Hopefully it’ll all look okay or I’ll come up with a brilliant idea while everything’s being put together (since I’m not going to be able to move everything by myself).

Yes, hopefully everything will be okay, but anyone who fancies herself or himself (see what I did there?) an interior designer should totally help me out here. Please.

(Fun fact about this post: I was going to call it “Movin’ on Up” until I found out that that’s what I called the post where I talked about moving in to my previous apartment. Clearly I am continually moving up.)

And now, some lighthearted viewing: Worst Band Ever Butchers Pink Floyd.

It was Tuesday, May 24, for those of you keeping score at home. For lunch, we decided to check out an Asian buffet not far from the apartment. It turned out to be a winner, especially because we were there while it was closing and everything was cheaper.

After that, each of us got a CityPass so we could check out a bunch of local attractions for a low, low price. Andy and Kate had never been to Seattle, and I had barely been there before, so it would be fun for all of us. The first thing we did was go on a tour boat around Elliott Bay. The weather was great, we saw some interesting things (like Mount Rainier and a bunch of sea lions), and I learned some fun facts. It was an hour well spent.

Next, we went to Pike Place Market, which, of course, is free to visit. It was getting late in the day, so many of the vendors were packing up, but we still got to see some cool things. But after that, we lounged around in nearby Victor Steinbrueck Park and then went to a tea shop for some tea tasting. Needless to say, it was quite a tease!!

Amazon had hired a company to manage my move to Seattle, and that company had in turn hired a company to research places to live. So my consultant had set up some appointments to check out condos for rent. Andy and Kate went with me, which was good because they noticed some things that I didn’t. It’s always good to have a second set of eyes. Neither of the condos was perfect, but they each had good and bad things about them. Time was running out, and I was feeling pressured to make a decision.

Later, we met my friend Mark for dinner at a trendy restaurant that was actually pretty good. Mark is my closest friend in Seattle, so it was good to see him again. I had seen him the last time I went to Seattle, which was only a few weeks before, but still.

The next day was rainy. Andy, Kate, and I went to the Seattle Aquarium and then hurried to the Pacific Science Center to watch an IMAX movie about underwater volcanoes. Andy and Kate were really tired (maybe because of the travel?) and dozed off during the movie. I, for one, thought it was fascinating. The depths of the ocean, after all, are the last frontier on Earth and have barely been explored. But I don’t blame Andy and Kate for wanting to discover the insides of their eyelids. I wish I could fall asleep as easily as they can.

After waking up my friends, we stayed at the Pacific Science Center, which is like one of those children’s science museums with all the fun exhibits and stuff. To my surprise, there was a butterfly garden. The three of us had been to one in Florida when it was extremely cold and the butterflies were all lying around dead. This time, it was pleasantly warm (thanks to some sort of magic), and butterflies were flying around everywhere.

The next day, Thursday, was Andy’s last full day in Seattle, so I was determined to make the most of it. But Andy and Kate were both tired, so I went to some condo appointments by myself. None of the places I saw impressed me very much. Afterwards, I wandered around Pike Place Market, and I called Andy so he could meet me there. In doing so, he got a second chance to explore the place when there was more going on.

We didn’t do much for the rest of the day, and in the morning, I accompanied Andy to the train station. I even helped him with one of his bags, which I forgot to give to him before he got on the train. Luckily, there wasn’t anything too important in there.

It’s sad when you don’t know when you’re going to see someone again, but fortunately, technology can help keep people close. The world really is getting smaller: I imagine with wonder that a trip between the US and Russia would have taken weeks in the past (please forget about Alaska and Siberia for the purposes of this demonstration), and I can talk to someone in Russia like they’re right here, and I can actually be there in a matter of hours. Of course, New York State is even closer.

Anyway, after seeing Andy off, I had an appointment to check out some apartments at a complex I had visited during my first trip to Seattle. I really felt like I needed to make a decision that day because I had already been in the market for a long time, and I was about to start my new job, so I’d have much less time to devote to the search.

So, it came down to two apartments at this one complex that I liked. One was a two-bedroom, two-bathroom corner unit on the fifth floor, overlooking an intersection. The other was a one-bedroom, one-bathroom unit on the 26th floor, with all new furnishings and a 30-foot-long balcony with a view of Puget Sound and the entire Space Needle.

It was a tough decision. I wanted enough space, but the view, and the new everything, was hard to resist. I didn’t want to make price too important in my decision (that’s what I did the last time I looked for an apartment, and it didn’t turn out so great), but it wouldn’t have mattered because the prices for both were about equal. In the end, I decided to go for the smaller apartment with the great view. I rationalized my decision by telling myself that it was facing a nicer street and that the upkeep would be easier because it was smaller. And I really did want a cozy place all along.

I was kind of irrational with the decision, and I was worried that I regret it. But my decision wasn’t necessarily final yet, so I decided to think about it a bit. Fortunately, I was able to relax a bit as Kate had planned an excursion to Olympia and Aberdeen, to see places important in the history of grunge music and Nirvana in particular.

On Saturday morning, we got a ride to Olympia thanks to Craigslist and had a place to stay thanks to CouchSurfing. But we had some time to kill before we could get to our host’s place, so we went to a restaurant he had recommended: a place called Darby’s. The food was pretty standard greasy breakfast/lunch fare (I had chicken fried steak), and the decor was eclectic (e.g. a wall covered with Wizard of Oz memorabilia). The staff and the patrons were pretty eclectic as well. It reminded me of Gainesville.

The whole place reminded me of Gainesville, what with the music scene and college students roaming the streets and the secondhand clothing store/record store with a stack of voter registration forms near the counter. Our host turned out to be super nice (they always are with CouchSurfing), and he didn’t live too far from everything else, so we were able to walk everywhere. A house that Kurt Cobain had rented wasn’t far away, so we checked it out too (trying to be discreet because someone seemed to live there).

Having spent Saturday in Olympia, we set out on Sunday morning to take a bus to Kurt Cobain’s hometown of Aberdeen, Washington. It was a small city under a gray sky with strip malls, bridges, and not much else. On our host’s recommendation, we visited the Star Wars Shop, which had a section called “Kurt Cobain Memorabilia & Infocenter.” The owner of the store saw which part of the place we were more interested in but asked us to sign both guestbooks. He was a cool guy, though. He gave us directions to a park that had been dedicated to Kurt Cobain, but we had other things to do first.

After Kate got a cool pair of shoes at Ross, we walked around trying to find the bridge that Kurt is said to have slept under as a youth. We checked all the bridges we could find (there weren’t too many), until we noticed another one on the map, far away from the others. We had to go down a residential street to get there, but sure enough, we struck gold. There was the park that the guy from the Star Wars Store had told us about. The area under around the bridge was a park dedicated to Kurt.

Aberdeen is a sleepy town, but there a few other groups of Nirvana fans had found the park, which wasn’t even on our map. Together we stood underneath the bridge, watching the Wishkah River flow by. This was the bridge mentioned in the song “Something in the Way”:

Underneath the bridge, the tarp has sprung a leak
And the animals I’ve trapped have all become my pets
And I’m living off of grass and the drippings from the ceiling…

A sign had the lyrics to the song, and on the ground was a plaque with some quotations by Kurt, including a four-letter word that had been subsequently scratched out. There was also a brand-new statue of a guitar by a local artist. There were some benches where Kate wrote a couple of postcards, and that was about it. It was a small park with a lot of emotion contained inside.

After spending some time there, we continued down the street through the neighborhood where Kurt grew up. We found his house, which looked just as sad as all the others, and I imagined what it must have been like for him there as a child. I wondered if it was just as bleak of a place in the ’70s. I figured it probably was. It was hard to imagine that there had ever been any signs of life there. The whole neighborhood was perfectly still and quiet. It was almost creepy.

Some of the addresses we looked for didn’t exist; instead, there were empty lots. “You lookin’ for Kurt Cobain’s house?” a man shouted to us from a distance as we stood where the first house he rented was supposed to be. They tore it down, he said. Too many kids having parties in there and causing a ruckus.

It was time for a late lunch, so we went to a restaurant called Billy’s, which our host recommended to us. He had said that it wasn’t particularly good but that it was the best restaurant he had eaten at in Aberdeen. I found it to be thoroughly okay. I had a yak cheeseburger. Yak meat tastes similar to beef, and according to the menu at the restaurant, has one-sixth as much fat.

After seeing the music store where Kurt’s first guitar had come from and dropping off Kate’s postcards at the post office, we were on the bus back to Olympia. Except it was Sunday evening and the bus didn’t go all the way back, so we had to get off in an even smaller town and call for our host to pick us up. Fortunately this outcome was completely expected by everyone because we Were Prepared™.

On Monday morning, Memorial Day, our Craigslist ride picked us up again and dropped us off in Seattle.

The next day was my first day of work. I didn’t get to spend much time with Kate after that, and I didn’t take any more pictures. Thursday, June 2, was Kate’s last day in the US, and I met her for lunch. She had all her bags and was going right to the airport after that. I had confirmed my decision to take the apartment with the great view, so while we were waiting for our food, I darted across the street to start the paperwork, which had to be done that day. But, looking back, I wish I had been with her the whole time. Parting isn’t such sweet sorrow. It’s just sorrow.

Now I’m sure you’re wondering what it’s like to work at Amazon. I’m eager to tell you, and I’m eager to tell you what it’s like to work full-time at all, but more than that, I am tired. Soon, though.

A few days later, some copies of this flyer appeared next to the existing ones:

I thought this was just about the funniest thing I’d ever seen. But one of my Chinese roommates (I have four of them) failed to understand the motivation for it, not to mention the cultural reference. (“‘Just call Jaffer’? Who is Jaffer?”)

The next day, the parody flyers were gone. Peatree, meanwhile, remains at large.

Sounds from Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs are sampled to form an impossibly beautiful track: “Wishery.” (Via waxy.org)

Anyway, not everything is settled yet, so it would probably be best if I didn’t comment about it at length.

One of the things I’ll miss about UF is their ability to attract great speakers and entertainers. On Wednesday, magicians Penn & Teller came to campus.

To get a free ticket, I had to stand in what was probably the longest line I had ever been in, from the entrance of the Phillips Center all the way out to the street (which you’ll have to believe is a really long way). But the line moved quickly because they were just handing out tickets to everyone. Then I had to stand in another really long line for an hour to wait for the doors to open. Some people behind me ordered a pizza. No joke.

Preceding Penn & Teller was a montage of various TV appearances they’d made over the years, and then they came out wearing orange and blue baseball caps. Throughout the appearance, they did a couple of tricks, the most impressive of which consisted of Teller taking an apple with needles sticking out of it, swallowing the needles, eating the apple, swallowing a thread, and then pulling the thread out of his mouth with all of the needles threaded on it. Well, that’s what he seemed to be doing. But he was wearing short sleeves! Nothing could have been hiding in those sleeves, man.

But mostly they were answering questions from a guy who was coming up with them on the spot and reading some that he claimed to have collected from people waiting in line. Then audience members got to ask some questions. A lot of questions dealt with their origins, their philosophies, and their TV show. And although Teller’s trademark is being silent, he did speak. Turns out he’s soft-spoken, as you might have guessed. Well, Penn can make anyone else sound like that.

After the show, Penn came down from the stage, ran through the aisle high-fiving people, and stood outside the entrance of the theater so people could take pictures with him on their way out. I assume Teller did the same thing on the other side of the theater, but he’s a lot less conspicuous, so I don’t actually know. I thought it was pretty cool that a celebrity is so willing to have his picture taken with fans. I’d think he would have gotten bored of it by now.

Speaking of celebrities, my friend Reid Ewing (whom you may have seen in a bunch of episodes of ABC’s hit comedy Modern Family) has a song out and a video to go with it! I don’t really get it, but check it out! And here he is on some guy’s YouTube video vlog show thing. It’s really funny! But don’t watch it at work!

Lately, we’ve been having debates in class. We’ve had to pick a debate topic (and position) from a list. The debates have to do with legal and social issues in computing, if you can believe it. The topic I chose was “Whether people who would never consider shoplifting a music CD from a store are correct when they argue that there is difference between that and downloading the same material for free off a P2P network.”

The fun part is that the debates, for the most part, have two people to a side. My debate was yesterday, so I e-mailed my debate partner beforehand for some ideas about how to argue our position. My main idea was that downloading isn’t stealing because it doesn’t deprive the owner of the original, and my partner had the really ingenious idea of arguing that they aren’t the same because the law gives (vastly) different penalties for each.

I started by making my point, and our opponents countered that downloading should be considered stealing because you’re enjoying the music without paying the author what he or she requires. I had anticipated this response, so I laid out the point that downloads are not equal to lost sales. Or, as I have often seen it said, downloads != lost sales. (It’s a geek thing, really.) My partner also offered her argument.

I thought we were doing pretty well, but our opponents had found that the definition of stealing in the law included using someone’s copyright or something of that nature (I don’t have the exact wording). I couldn’t think of anything to say to that, but by then, the audience (the rest of the class) was busy berating our opponents over some obscure point they had made about RIAA settlement fees.

That was it, really. I think the professor preferred our opponents’ argument, so I consider us to have lost. Still, I feel like we did a pretty good job. I had never been in a debate before, so it was kind of fun.

A Facebook-related link: If Historical Events Had Facebook Statuses.