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Welcome to Orcmid's Lair, the playground for family connections, pastimes, and scholarly vocation -- the collected professional and recreational work of Dennis E. Hamilton
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2009-10-31Mornings in the Temple of Perpetual ReconsiderationIn a fit of governmental economy and limelight avoidance, King County in Washington State has gone to mail balloting exclusively. For this election day, Tuesday, November 3, 2009, Vicki and I have already mailed in our ballots. We waited for the televised debates for Seattle City Mayor and King County Executive to be held, considered that we then knew enough, and submitted our ballots. Waiting for Election Day is Different NowAn odd peculiarity of mailing in our ballots is, now that we’ve voted, it doesn’t matter what happens between our mailing and the official end of voting on November 3 (although ballots with acceptable postmarks will continue to be accepted and processed). What’s missing beside the ceremony of voting is the ceremony of knowing what the results are. We have to wait. We are lame-duck voters and there is no value in paying attention to the still-continuing campaigns for the various contested seats. What’s not missing is the continued arrival of robocalls telling us how important our votes are and what scoundrels the opponents are. There is also no letup in the delivered mail pieces that continue the bickering. I assume this is all targeted to the large undecided numbers that are sufficient to sway the election one way or the other. A just-arrived attack piece was surprising to me and I almost wanted to reconsider a vote already cast. Anti-candidate material tends to lower my stock in the attacker, not the victim. In this particular case, I rationalized that the attack piece was appropriate. Stamping out the Party LineThe current election is the first one under a spanking new primary and election approach. All of the positions up for election are supposed to be non-partisan. However, there are certainly party endorsements, and the Governor, a Democrat, has made her preferences known in the election for Seattle Mayor and King County Executive. The way the new system works here, until overturned by a court appeal as had our previous efforts at electoral reform, is that when there are fewer than three candidates at the primary election, they automatically advance to the general election. If there are three or more candidates, the top two at the primary advance to the general election. There is no party registration in Washington State, and any primary voter selects among all of the candidates. This led to the incumbent Seattle Mayor failing to advance to the general election, the final contest being between two candidates who have never held public office. As a referendum on the mayor, this does say something. This system can lead to a general election where the two candidates are aligned with the same political party. That happened in one district here. Reconsider This!As part of our shared Western-States distrust in government, we have an initiative and referendum system that is designed to hamstring government as much as we want. Fortunately, the legislature does have the power to declare a fiscal emergency and ignore some of the contradictory stuff that gets passed this way until it can be thrown out in the courts. This election, we have an example of a way that the people can preempt the legislator without throwing the rascals out. It is possible to petition that a passed legislative act be submitted to the voters for approval. In the past legislature, a comprehensive civil union law was passed that provides all of the benefits accorded to married folks to civil unions among unmarried seniors, gays, lesbians, and other flavors. This grants everything that civil law can grant short of calling it marriage. The legislation is quite extensive in terms of all of the various laws that are adjusted. Referendum R-71 to have the electorate affirm (or disapprove) this legislation was placed on the ballot by petition. Although it is in the nature of this kind of referendum that it follow the wording of the law, so a yes vote will affirm the law, an no vote will repeal it. The petitioners were interested in the repeal, but unlike Proposition 8 in California, it takes a win by the No Votes to accomplish that. It will be close. An interesting sidelight is that people in favor of the legislation demanded that the names of the petitioners be released to the public, with the clear intent of outing the signers of the petition as bigots. This request and the refusal of authorities to comply has made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court which has issued a stay on the release of the names. I didn’t need R-71; I am happy to vote to affirm it. However, I am not at all keen about releasing the names of petition signers. To do this in the name of freedom-of-information is an indirect assault on the secrecy of the ballot, considering the chilling effect it can have on the petitioning for referendums and initiatives on controversial matters. We do not have to account for how and why we vote a particular way on some measure, and it is frightening that we would have to do so as signers of petitions. And the automatic presumption that the signers are bigots and they are to be hounded is itself a despicable act. I’m against it. One of the more common use of initiatives is the constant attempt to throttle government spending by denying the ability to raise taxes except in very difficult ways. These are often passed concurrent with other initiatives that require additional spending for something people want, usually more bigger better highways in support of an unrepentent suburban lifestyle. It would appear that the public is tiring of this game, since the tax-restriction measures haven’t been doing very well and at the local and regional level, Seattle voters seem quite willing to tax themselves for initiatives that are important to them. This election will let us know if that is a sustained The Institution of Reconsideration Reconsiderations ReconsideredOne problem with initiatives is the constant reconsideration of legislative action and of previously-approved initiatives. There’s seemingly no bound on the number of times one can go to the polls to stop something that has been approved and re-affirmed any number of times before. This happened with the Seattle Monorail Project where the voters had to constantly reapprove that which they’d approved before, over the same entrenched objectors. The nay-sayers finally prevailed, and I confess the Monorail Project authority did break faith with the public in what allowed for its undoing. In some sense, that was a victory for this process, but I fear it is simply institutionalized and we are unable to deal with major development issues because of it. In many ways, the Seattle City Council and Mayor elections are a referendum on the now-funded and approved tunnel project for replacing the decrepit Alaskan Way Viaduct running above the Seattle waterfront area. It is true that, when a preference poll was placed on the ballot, the voters indicated that they wanted a less-expensive non-tunnel solution and there were State funds in hand for that. That was before the economy tanked last year. Now we have an agreed tunnel replacement for the viaduct, and funds are committed for this too. There are complicated arrangements between the State, with its responsibility for the tunnel as part of a State arterial highway, and the City and its responsibilities for surface and breakwater improvements related to the seismic vulnerability of the area. We are, of course, nervous about the prospects of this project costing far more than the allowances provided for it, and that was made an election issue. Here the Governor also stepped in, endorsing the candidate who favors getting on with it and making it work, not going into our pattern of never-decided decisions that have needed infrastructure development impeded at every turn. From my perspective, the nervous opposition is too strident and pays no heed to the strides made, within Washington State, in having major transportation projects come in on time and under budget, with the right scrutiny for intervening when a project seems headed off the rails. Since it is the issue that some campaigner have staked their election on, I have obliged them. No one who is negative about the current tunnel project has my vote. Labels: civil society and democracy, neighborhood and Seattle, trustworthiness 2009-09-05Friday Cat Picture: The Return of Shmoo CatI started calling a neighborhood cat the Shmoo Cat based on this encounter back in April, 2005. She wanders through the yard from time to time, moving furtively when she sees me. That is not the case for Vicki. Sometimes the cat sits on our back steps, provoking a small amount of excitement from our indoor cats. The cat will move away if anyone comes out, but she will return to Vicki’s call. She’ll also accept a dish of water from Vicki as a neighborly offering.
Labels: cats, neighborhood and Seattle 2009-06-18Let It Rain, Let It Rain …
[Update 2009-06-19-08:47 –0700 (pdt) Let this be the end of silliness about rain-free-days records. There was a steady though light rain overnight. This morning at 07:15 the streets and grounds were wet except inside the drip line of some heavily foliaged trees. The rain has changed from light sprinkle to mist now, with the morning temperature just crossing 60F (15C). The forecast is for occasional light rain through Sunday, 06-21. This may not assuage the agricultural concerns.] [Update 2009-06-19-01:54Z I got it all wrong. The first paragraph has been corrected based on information from King5.com for 2009-06-18.] As of some time overnight on June 17-18, we had officially gone 29 consecutive days without rain, The rainfall that we drove through yesterday afternoon did not count. The test is weather or not a sensor at the Seattle-Tacoma airport detects measurable rainfall. This shower we ran into was while driving on the I-90 floating bridge toward its connection with I-405 and our continuation North to Bothell, Washington. The rain did manage to make drivers nervous, apparently because most knew the roadway can be dangerously slippery when wetted for the first time after a long dry period and accumulation of surface oils and greases. Cloudbursts and lightning strikes in the mountains to our West and East also don’t count as an end to our dry spell. (Can you say “forest fire?” Sure you can.) Now, how the heck will we convince tourists and other visitors to stay away because they think the sun never shines in Seattle? Labels: neighborhood and Seattle 2008-12-06Almost Friday Cat Picture: Catnip Camera TooCatnip Camera is a a photo-documentary series created by attaching a camera to the collar of Cooper, a Seattle neighborhood cat. The CAT CAM set is available on Flickr. The Seattle Weekly also covered Cooper’s catumentary.
Athima Chansanchai’s Are You on Catnip Camera? article is the most read and most e-mailed seattlepi.com article at the moment. I can’t find any pictures that have free-to-post distribution or reproduction rights, so here’s the consolation prize from my recent cat photographs:
 Labels: cats, neighborhood and Seattle, photography 2007-10-14The Last Solo Instrument You'll Ever Need?
On September 30, we took the Argosy Cruises Jazz Brunch voyage featuring Michael Powers. This was the occasion of my sister-in-laws birthday and I fancied the presence of a jazz combo as a nice addition, but not particularly special. That was, until Michael Powers started playing. I knew there was no pianist, and I couldn't figure out where the keyboard player was hiding -- the grand piano in the boat's lounge was covered and serving the combo as a coat rack. When the horns started, I figured this was some new form of jazz karaoke until Michael held up his amazing instrument and said "that's me." You can see that his guitar is unusual, but the sounds are interesting too.
Listening to how much fun Michael Powers was having with this instrument, and how convenient it was for this small performance setting, I experienced serious geek envy (though not enough that I have mastered any instrument). The variety and creativity that is available, along with the clear enjoyment of the combo, led us to plan our New Years Eve celebration where Powers will be performing. I am puzzled by the different ways you must learn to finger the instrument to provide appropriate sound patterns depending on the choice of synthesis off of the guitar pickups. It is very impressive and looks to be a lot of fun. The power of this solo instrument is amazing, although it is richer to have accompanists rather than attempt a one-man-band (except in your own basement or garage, of course). As much as I marvel at how much digital and synthesized music instruments have advanced, there remains a great deal to appreciate in ensembles of acoustic instruments and the fascinating mixtures that are possible, as this reminded me today: Hip Hop Violin (via Doc Searls via Scobleizer).
We enjoyed the two-hour cruise, the music, and the great company so much that, beside planning to reconvene on New Years Eve, Vicki and I finally planned to take an Alaskan Cruise in Spring 2008. Listening to: Peter Green, Supernatural - An Anthology followed by The Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers, all on Windows Media Player via Amazon MP3. [update 2008-11-29: This is part of the Orcmid’s Live Hideout material that I am salvaging to Orcmid’s Lair. It is being filed under the original date, but it will appear in the intended categories on Orcmid’s Lair.] Labels: music, neighborhood and Seattle, suono 2005-04-23Neighborhood Cats
![Neighborhood cat exploring outside my office [March 2005]](http://nfoCentrale.net/orcmid/viaggio/2005/08/F050801a.jpg) Having three black cats leads to our noticing how many other black cats there are in our neighborhood, and how many pass through our yard. I'm sure it is partly the yellow-Volkswagen phenomenon: It is noticeable for us because we have black cats in the house. All the same, I don't remember seeing many black cats when I was growing up, and now it is not an unusual occurrence. I can remember wanting to see a truly-black-all-over cat because I'd heard all of the stories about them, including the role we give them in Halloween, but it was a long time before I encountered a genuine black cat. Our cats are of the nondescript breed known as "Bombay," and I am not sure how the blackness is accounted for. The two litter-mate "kids" of our pride have a tiny pure-bread Burmese mom, Cleopatra, who's never told who her first fling was with in Mountain View, California. Cleo's genes are expressed in the sable reflection that you can see sometimes in the kids' coat, and also in their golden eyes. Her daughter is also tiny like mom. Our senior cat, Askani, was born in the Baltimore area and we have no clue to her lineage. When black cats stroll by in the neighborhood, it can be startling to see. We often wonder whether one of our cats has jumped out a window and is exploring the yard. This leads to a hurried census of the household, especially if we don't get a close look at the outdoor critter. In many cases, the visitor resembles Askani, who has been a hefty cat, as many of our outdoor passers-by are. I can also recognize Askani, our couch commander, in the postings about Dorothea Salo's cat, Didi, right down to the few light hairs on her chest. The appearance of a black shmoo is a pose that Askani has perfected too, one also affected by the well-fed neighborhood Bombays. My home office is in the basement level of the house, and I have a wide, low single-pane window that gives me a ground-level view out the side of the house.  Seated at my computer lab I feel a little like the commander of the spherical lunar craft depicted in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Since I finally removed the insulating plastic film from the interior of the window (it had come loose and was sagging down after two years in place), I now must raise the blinds every morning to prevent our cats from bending and mutilating them as they climb through to see outside the window and walk along the narrow sill. I've been trained. Now the cats take turns sitting atop the tower of my desktop system where they have an unobstructed view of the passing scene, especially squirrels and birds and intruder cats. They have never seen a cat wander by this window, because there would be a certain memorable mayhem in such an event. But when I am working quietly in my office, I often see a neighborhood scout stroll past. They are usually startled to see me there, and are often not so nonchalant about it. My March visitor had been examining something in the plantings off to the side of the window when I noticed. I managed to reach my camera and work to the opposite edge of the window for a snapshot. It was unexpected for the cat to remain in one place so long, and I was able to focus the camera, more-or-less, and get a picture through the angle of the window. I think the cat heard the shutter mechanism and noticed my movement, because it slumped down in a kind of timid wariness. My second snapshot was quite enough and the animal scuttled off under the corner rhododendrons and out of site. Similarly, our Askani was a timid indoor-outdoor cat when she first joined our household in 1995. She retains some of that furtively alert quality ten years later, although she seems completely at ease most of the time. There was a black Bombay kitten that visited our back porch last Fall, and Vicki would put water out for her. I wonder if this is that little one, grown and wiser in the ways of the street life of cats. There's no collar and we don't know if there's a household haven nearby. She seems clean and well-fed enough to be someone's outdoor cat. Labels: cats, neighborhood and Seattle
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