Happy Halloween

Over the course of three different Kindergarten art classes where I was explaining how to paint borders and backgrounds in order to then paint a picture on top in layers ... and to use pencils or markers to assist ... this is the painting I managed. Happy Halloween!

Cold Cold Heart

Here's to this getting off the ground. On October 23rd I was able to attend the third of three socials where the design and concept were laid out ... nice.

BSG Member Preview Night at EMP 10-22-10

A couple of notes ...

1) Getting a few autographs was cool, but had I simply bothered to grab my own Sharpie I would have had 5 of the 6 panelists on the program.

2) So, instead of getting a Ron Moore autograph I got a handshake, which actually is kind of cool. However, I only managed a weak, " I am really enjoying Caprica," comment.

3) Edward James Olmos took over the ceremony briefly, and it was very cool to chant, "So Say We All!" back at him. He used the Adama voice.

4) Yes, that is a dress worn by Tricia Helfer, sadly not being modeled by her in person.

Sampled it, liked it, bought some ...

Woodinville Whiskey Co. Grand Opening
October 16, 2010

I got to enjoy a little tour of the distilling process, hang out with some friends from my martial arts school, sample some really good vodka and whiskey, and ask some questions of Dave Pickerell (long time distiller for Makers Mark who could talk whiskey forever it seemed), and get my free tee shirt.

The view from the trap house ...

Portrait of the artist as a 4th grade teacher

I don't have a lot of funny subbing anecdotes lately, so I will note one and post it along with this portrait of me done by a 4th grader in class recently.

Basically, I have been subbing for a few years now and so I have seen some kids over this time in different settings. In class at a high school I was recently asked, "Are you the model?" Ummm ... a few years ago I was on Esquire's site in re a well dressed real men thing and a student had googled me and found it. Three plus years later it is still remembered. No, I am not a model.

The Largest Crowd in US Open Cup History

Seattle Sounders FC 2
Columbus Crew 1
Lamar Hunt US Open Cup - FINAL
October 5, 2010 - Seattle, WA
X-Box Pitch at Qwest Field


31,311 sets a new US Open Cup record!












In 1977 I was ten and my parents took me to the Sounders versus Cosmos NASL Soccer Bowl game. I was now able to take my eleven year old daughter to a Sounders championship match.

The US Open Cup is now the second title Sigi has won as a coach on the Qwest Field site, even if the 1985 NCAA title with UCLA was a different building in the same place.

Frankie Hejduk is ageless.

It's Sanna Nyassi's world right now, and we all just live in it.

This was the third final to be played in this building with the first two both going to extra PKs after a 1-1 draw. It was 1-1 at the half.

At the prematch rally I got to meet the new SSFC prez, see Drew Carey, and have my flag be noted enough that several folks took pics of it ... then the flag ended up on the screen during the pregame in the stadium. Nice.

Everything is not just a friendly until the playoffs, because the 6 seed in MLS actually has the potential to host a conference title game if all the lower seeds win in the first round. Also the top 6 in MLS got to avoid Open Cup play-in games this season so that is not a bad prize too. In 2005 we got the USL-1 Final as the fifth seed out of six teams when teams five and six were all that was left.

Nkufo was player of the match to me the way he was everywhere, even directing defensive efforts on defensive corners. He was simply a force out there, the way a DP should be.

Winning the Open Cup puts them officially into Concacaf again too ... which I find cool. I went to two of the CCL matches and really enjoyed seeing a Salvadoran and Mexican team in Qwest in competitive fixtures.

The Crew goal was a bit against the run of play, but a nice sequence by a very good team. There are clubs that take tourneys like this more seriously and want to win trophies and clubs that seem happy to just plug along. The Crew, SSFC, and a few others seem like they want to win whatever they can whenever they can and that is simply not a mentality all organizations have.

This was a great game. You could tell by every tackle. The ref let them play, and although that meant some things went unpunished and pissed off the Seattle fans, I think it was the right reffing approach to a match like this. The bonus money for winning is a nice prize for these guys and that ups the intensity ante quite a bit.

Billy Cox - EMP 10-7-10

Billy Cox Q&A at EMP October 7, 2010

Billy Cox was the bass player for Jimi Hendrix, the Band of Gypsys, and many other notable acts. This Q&A session was mostly filled with teens from the EMP music camps, so not only was the bulk of the audience too young, even the parents that brought them were too young for Woodstock ... but we all were interested and respectful of this amazing musician and his stories from back in the day. Very cool.

Book List 2010 ... month nine

This month had been the grind month I worried would happen earlier in the year and screw up the goal of 100 books. So, while this is also the month I hit #100 (September 11), it is also the month I went days at a time without actually reading anything. In part, not reading is because I am writing more again, which is good. But, it was also because as a goal-oriented person the goal was complete and I tend to lose my way.

Dexter by Design by Jeff Lindsay
Book 4 of the Dexter books that led to the TV series. The details are different in a number of ways from the show, but the voice and tone are spot on. These read fairly quick, I think in part because I can hear the TV voice and picture the actors and locations from that.

Captain America And The Falcon: Secret Empire by Steve Englehart & Mike Friedrich (Authors), Sal Buscema (Illustrator)
This is a collection from a storyline in the 1970s that I think I can now only appreciate as I look back in time.

Among The Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix
This is the first - of apparently 7 - books in something called the Shadow Children series that looks at forcible population control measures in a dystopian future and is written to a Young Adult audience. The story is actually pretty heavy thematically and came to me from my son. I am not certain, but I might find myself reading the rest of this series.

The Thieves of Manhattan by Adam Langer
A novel about fraud and the amazingly thin line between fiction and non-fiction in memoirs. There was an episode of "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" I watched at about the same time that dealt with this very theme.

Kick-Ass by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr.
The collected graphic novel version of the 8 issues that led to the movie. Mark Millar as a comic writer has moved into some seriously elite company in the comics field in recent years and this is part of why. Not for the squeamish.

The Inaugural Address, 2009 by Barack Obama
This is actually a collection that includes both inaugural addresses of another Illinois senator that became president, The Gettysburg Address, and a piece by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The Song Is You by Arthur Phillips
I found some of the thematic elements of this to be interesting given the novel I am currently writing and am glad I stumbled upon it. Art should remain important in life even as we "mature". I will be reading other books from this writer.


All My Sins Remembered by Joe Haldeman
I got this for a quarter and the first section held my interest much later than I wanted to be up reading the night I cracked this open.

Dork Diaries 2: Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl by Rachel Renee Russell
I read the first of these this Winter with my daughter and the 2nd one was brought to me to continue this trend. As I was never an 11 year old girl, it is probably a good idea for me to read stuff like this so I can get an idea of what is going on there.

100 Things Seahawks Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die by John Morgan
I am more of a Seahawks fan in the sense that I am a Mariners fan ... they are the local teams and so I root for them. This is still enjoyable, but I am much more of a college football fan and just don't have that same level of emotional attachment.

The Terminal State by Jeff Somers
Book 4 of what will be at least 5 of this techno-dystopian future sci-fi series. Somers does a nice job of painting a vivid and detailed picture of the world after technology and war and politics have wreaked havoc. This would make a great Syfy Channel series.

Among The Impostors by Margaret Peterson Haddix
As my son works his way through this series so will I. I am really enjoying the viewpoint of a 12 year old as we get the details of a world that is "over-populated". In this second book our main character has assumed a new identity and is living at a boarding school.

September total = 12 / YTD = 108 (goal 100)

This list needs some explanation

My son and I talk music, pretty much all the time. We share some common ideas, even if our tastes are significantly different. I know more about Hip Hop than I ever expected to. Recently, list making has become a bit of a hobby of sorts and after reviewing several of his I was encouraged to make a Top 100 of my own. I am not listing my entire Top 100 here, as I made two separate Top 100 lists for Heavy Metal/Hard Rock and Other Music. So ... this excerpt is from my Heavy Metal/Hard Rock list, with my own definition of what constitutes said genres implied ...

I also did some detail in a list we went over where I picked out favorite songs and lyrics from each record, but typing that up seemed incredibly tedious and OCD ...

... and for the record, lists like this are fluid and open to change and revision and updates at any time. Also, this is a favorite list, a list of the records that i would and still can play over and over again and in some cases have purchased in multiple formats over the years.



Jeff's Top 50

1 - Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime
2 - Black Sabbath - Never Say Die
3 - Blue Oyster Cult - Imaginos
4 - Mother Love Bone - Apple
5 - Iron Maiden - Powerslave
6 - Lacuna Coil - Comalies
7 - Soundgarden - Louder Than Love
8 - Warlord - Deliver Us
9 - Metal Church - The Dark
10 - Riot - Born In America
11 - Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard Of Ozz
12 - Blue Oyster Cult - Fire Of Unknown Origin
13 - Alice In Chains - Jar Of Flies
14 - Sanctuary - Refuge Denied
15 - Stone Temple Pilots - Purple
16 - Dio - Holy Diver
17 - Black Sabbath - The Mob Rules
18 - Psycho Motel - Welcome To The World
19 - Raven - All For One
20 - Queensryche - Rage For Order
21 - Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force - Marching Out
22 - Saxon - Power And The Glory
23 - KISS - Destroyer
24 - Pearl Jam - Vs.
25 - My Sister's Machine - Diva
26 - Nightwish - Once
27 - Within Temptation - The Heart Of Everything
28 - Mudhoney - Mudhoney
29 - Paradise Lost - Paradise Lost
30 - Iron Maiden - The X Factor
31 - Led Zeppelin - In Through The Out Door
32 - Halford - Resurrection
33 - Motley Crue - Too Fast For Love
34 - Bruce Dickinson - Tattooed Millionaire
35 - Iced Earth - The Glorious Burden
36 - Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force - Odyssey
37 - Guns 'n Roses - Appetite For Destruction
38 - Anthrax - The Sound Of White Noise
39 - Slayer - South Of Heaven
40 - Def Leppard - High 'n' Dry
41 - Cinderella - Long Cold Winter
42 - Lacuna Coil - Karmacode
43 - Metallica - Death Magnetic
44 - Green River - Rehab Doll
45 - Motley Crue - Girls, Girls, Girls
46 - Ratt - Out Of The Cellar
47 - Bulletboys - Bulletboys
48 - Jerry Cantrell - Boggy Depot
49 - Joe Satriani - Surfing With The Alien
50 - Apocalyptica - Plays Metallica By Four Cellos

Book List 2010 ... month eight

I must admit that going into August it seemed plausible that I could hit #100 by Labor Day. We will find out next month, but I am still on a really good pace. It seems odd to think that reading 11 books in a month feels like a letdown of sorts and yet it almost does. 100 beckons.

Seattle Sounders FC Season One by Chad Mack (Author), Richard Morrison Ph. D. (Photographer), Drew Carey (Foreword)
This is a nice look at the inaugural MLS season of the Seattle Sounders FC. If you look closely in some of the pictures you can see me, I am the guy in the jersey wearing a scarf.

Uncertainty: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science by David Lindley
These are some of the most rational thinking minds of the past hundred or so years and yet they were capable of moments of petty bickering that can make even theoretical physics seem like a soap opera.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
I recently began watching the Dexter TV series on DVD and decided to read the original novels. It is always interesting to me to see the changes from book to screen. I do mean interesting, as I am not one of those readers who go all unhinged at changes.

Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
Once I have actual actors in mind I can picture them when I am reading. In this instance it means I am constantly picturing Julie Benz ... so I am okay with this.

The Making of Toro: Bullfights, Broken Hearts, and One Author's Quest for the Acclaim He Deserves by Mark Sundeen
Jorge loaned this to me and I can hardly describe it. So, the best I can do is to say that this is a fictional memoir about a non-fiction book that was never written via a pen name and we are to read it as a first person narrative from the perspective of the fictional character that did not write this non-fiction book. About Bullfighting.

Cyborg by Martin Caidin
This is the original science fiction novel from the early 1970s that led to The Six Million Dollar Man franchise. I really loved that show as a kid and to go back and read the source material was quite nostalgic. Caidin wrote a story about a guy being rebuilt at a time too many young men were coming home with pieces missing from war. It is not hard to see why this resonated with an older crowd than I was at the time.

The Mocking Program by Alan Dean Foster
I have always enjoyed Foster's work and this book is no exception. Near future novels that deal with the way the world might become are interesting to me. There might just be ghosts in the machine after all.

The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios by Yann Martel
Four short stories by Yann Martel ... not a bad way to spend a few afternoons.

Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay
The third book in the series ... I am reading them quickly it seems.

Dead As A Doornail by Charlaine Harris
The fifth in the Sookie Stackhouse novels. The differences are not great in the characterizations between the books and the TV series, other than maybe Tara. If I write too much it might be a spoiler to those who have only watched on the telly ...

Shaggy Planet by Ron Goulart
More silly 1970s scifi that I have picked up at used book stores ... this one cost me 47 cents. Well, 47 cents were deducted from the credit slip anyways.

August total = 11 / YTD = 96 (goal 100)

Herbie Hancock 08/29/10 at WPZ

Thanks to the bass player from The Scarecrow Effect I ended up with a pair of tix to see Herbie Hancock at WPZ. I got to enjoy this show with my son. However, I feel like I owe my bass player a bottle of wine ... on principle.