Ben and I released a little project we’ve been working on over the past two weeks: ridepenguin. It’s a mobile webapp for finding cab shares from SeaTac Airport to Seattle/surrounding areas. And I think it beats shouting at a crowd outside the airport.
We’ve been poking around with location-based apps for a while and this is our first to be released. The most fun part of it was something highly reusable that helps quickly decide if two locations are ‘close’ in a practical sense, as in if you went to one would you mind going to the other on the same trip.
The project has already gotten a bit of press on TechFlash and Publicola. Thanks especially to Todd Bishop from TechFlash for talking to Ben about the launch. New media > old media by a long shot.
This woman sits outside the ice cream shop below my apartment most nights, and rarely asks for anything. Like a hybrid from BSG, she talks constantly about things beyond sense. The best thing is she wears this light pink sequined top that is awesome.
Havana has all of a $5 cover, but why pay when the whole street is your dance floor? He will routinely stand right outside a window and dance to the music that bleeds through. I recently wanted to go dance with him, but Annie nixed the idea.
“Save the lies for your dad or for her,” he yells and gestures to Corey. This guy got me thinking a lot about how important politeness and saving face are in our society. I usually have cash on me, but I prefer to say “Don’t have any” when people ask me for change. The alternative would be “Listen, I’m not stupid, I know that it is impossible to go hungry on the streets of Seattle and you’re going to spend this money on drugs.” In the end I think this is okay behavior, just a fully-acknowledged white lie like the many others we tell (“I have to wash my hair”). But props to this hobo for inciting this thought.
Benny is Fremont’s chief hobo. Any given night of the week, he will gather huge stones and stack them five feet high. There isn’t anything special about these rocks and there’s no trick to it, just mad concentration and some sort of Hinduism he subscribes to. He also yells at passersby sometimes, though usually just bros who fuck with him and he says nice things to me (he digs my ‘stargyle’ hoodie). He’s pretty much an institution around here and everyone knows his work.
This is my favorite hobo in a sincere way; no snark about it. He sells those hobo newspapers in front of the grocery store below me, and I buy one every week. He lives in a rehab center of some kind getting help, and selling the paper is part of his program. He talks to everyone on the street and is mad cheerful. I’m pretty sure that there are days there he is the only human I interact with in person, which probably says more about me than him.
After Obama’s victory speech I went down to 1st and Pine outside the Showbox with Ben and Talia, and it was amazing. A decent-sized crowd marched from there down to Pioneer Square, chanting and dancing and playing music the whole way.
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And then on Saturday I attended the local march for civil rights and marriage equality.
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