The average weekend

Dear Diary,

Earlier this week I was at my weekly meeting for the large scale project that I'm in charge of at work. Our contractor on the project said that the capstan (essentially a large winch that hauls a vessel into dock) they are installing as part of their project would be complete this week and we were invited to to attend the initial start up on Friday morning. There was some potential in this.

The first step was obvious. I got back to the office and immediately organized a happy hour for that afternoon. At the aforementioned happy hour I mentioned the start-up testing to my supervisor and how it would be a good experience to attend and to see where the capstan was made and to also witness the start-up. With my smooth talking and a few beers I got the okay to attend along with my backup on the project.

So on Thursday night I hopped on a ferry to Seattle. I took my Seattle girlfriend out to a dinner on the waterfront. It's restaurant week and that means I get to go to restaurants I normally can't afford. On Friday I slept in and then went down to the start-up test. The company that built the Capstan was in South Seattle in an industrial area. It was my Camaro and a whole bunch of trucks.

As Frank Sobotka once said "We used to build shit in this country, now we just put our hands in the next guys pocket." We'll this was one of the few times that I actually got to see something actually get built in this country. The company that built the capstan has been around over 115 years, and served America so well that the city of Seattle actually threw them a parade after WWI. We took a tour of their plant and got to see how the piece of equipment was built. One of the great things about the Government is that we demand that every material that we get is produced in this country. It felt really good to see government money getting spent on a much needed piece of equipment that is made by a local company with local materials and local workforce.

What also felt really good was having it take enough time that going back to the office was out of the question. We got done a little before noon and instead of going back to the office I decided to take a few hours of leave and hang out in Seattle. I drove over to Alki Beach for lunch. People don't tend to associate Seattle with beaches, but there are a number of good beaches in the area, and many more places that feel like a beach town.

It was a little chilly at the beach, but it was nice and relaxing. That is my signature picture face, which I entirely resent. I had plans to hang out in Seattle and go to the Mariner's home opener that night. After lunch, I got a call from the bossman asking if I could come in on Saturday for a little overtime. I love me some OT, so I said of course. It was easy work, just watch some guys work. So I cancelled the Mariners plans and drove home.

After I got home, I got a message that I no longer needed to come in on Saturday. So this meant I could get crazy Friday night. I got home right about the time that everyone else was getting off of work. We decided to go down to our local bar right on the waters of Liberty Bay. We drank there and got some dinner. Then we moseyed on down to the next bar and played some pool. I left a little early to go home and watch Full Metal Jacket.

On Saturday, I woke up and decided to tidy up around the house and thought about what flowers to plant this year. In the afternoon I called some buds and had a cookout. I went and bought some pre-marinated meats and hosted a pretty good meat grill. Afterwards we went out to see 21 Jump Street.

Sunday I had planned a Picnic with my girlfriend. We packed a cooler and we went to Fort Ward State Park in Bainbridge Island. The state park used to be an Army Coastal Defense fort and then a Top Secret Radio Listening Post in WW2. The day started a little cloudy, but quickly cleared up to become a terrific day. We played Frisbee and ate sammiches.

It was a freebie 3 day weekend and I didn't do anything crazy, but I still made the most of it. It was the type of weekend that as a mid-20 year old I should come to expect.

Putting down roots?

Every summer for the past 6 years I've packed up everything I owned and moved. I found that a yearly move pretty much shaped my mindset on materialistic possessions in two ways. First, everything I owned had to fit into the back of a car. Second, I couldn't ever become attached to anything. Everything I owned was temporary and I only owned what I needed.

This is the first summer since I was 17 that I won't be moving. It's a strange feeling knowing that I can purchase furniture and expect to still own it in 5 or 10 years. In my parents house they still have furniture that my dad owned when he was in college. It's a little bizarre thinking that some of my possessions could follow me that long.

I think that at a certain point people become so bogged down by what they have that they can never escape. It's more than just furniture and shit on the walls. When people stop moving and settle into a house, a job, and relationships they eventually become bound by the same things that make their lives comfortable. Item by item, paycheck by paycheck, date by date they slip into the routine.

What scares me is that I can see myself slowly falling into this settled down life and it scares me. Yesterday I bought an ice cream scoop. I don't even have any ice cream in my house. It just makes me think of a scene from the wire where Dennis "Cutty" Wise goes to The Deacon. He sits down and says "I've had this feeling for a long time and it's like I'm standing outside myself watching me do things I don't want to do." Now he was probably talking about murdering people and whatnot. But I see my life falling in this rut where 20 years from now I'm sitting in the same office, driving down the same roads home and wondering how despite all having everything I want, why I still feel like my life was a little too predictable.

Before Cutty says that line above he starts out the conversation by saying "The truth is I don't know what I want. I know I'm looking for something but I can't even tell you what it is." In a certain way that's how I feel. I have a good job, lots of nice things and a pretty awesome girlfriend. So it bothers me that I feel like I'm not living this life to the fullest. Last weekend when Dave was here he told me that I'm going through a quarter life crisis. I don't know about that but I think I need to keep mixing it up before it's too late.

The Wire

I had this wierd quirk to watching The Wire. Whenever I would decide to start a new season I would force myself to watch every season up to that one before I could begin. Then once I was finished, I would give myself 4-6 months to reflect on the awesomeness of that season before starting the process all over again. It took my two years to get through the series, and I've now seen season one 5 times.

I watched my first episode of the wire in 2008

How do you describe the wire. It's an engrossing series. Even

Some Notes:

• Favorite Character: Bode Broadus. I liked Cutty and Landsman, but Bode was the one character I really felt his achievements and defeats so viscerally good or bad. I felt worse when he died than when real people have died
• Season rankings: 4 and 3 are far at the top with 4 getting the slight edge. Then 2 followed by 5 and 1. I think 1 was hard, because it had to set up so much, and 5 was hard because so many characters were gone by the end.
• Best season closing song/montage - Steve Earle "I Feel Alright" from Season 2. Steve Earle also plays Walon, Bubbles sponsor.
• The one thing that was apparent throughout the series was the importance of leverage during a negotiation. In season 5, when Lester has the head shot on Clay Davis he uses it to get Clay to give him information. Clay has no idea that the US attourney has refused to prosecute Clay because of beef with Carcetti. But Lester still uses this against Clay Davis. The best example of this is when Pearlman goes in to Levy's office to negotiate the plea against Stanfield. Levy knows that the charges are from an illegal wiretap, and Pearlman knows has leverage against Levy for his purchasing grand jury depositions illegally. Both have leverage against the other, but a Rhonda reminds Levy, he will go to jail for longer than he will. It's like a prisoners dilemma where Rhonda is reminding levy that if he stabs her, he will get stabbed worse. Just a great climax of an episode.
• Despite how Marlo came off as brutish and hard to watch I have to feel that he was the best at playing the game. Sure Stringer was good, but he was meant for a different game than the drug trade. Avon was to territorial, Prop Joe too willing to compromise, Cheese too aggressive, White Mike too white, Slim Charles is to weak and unable to make a move. Marlo knew what he wanted and wasn't afraid to do what it took to take it. This was written by someone else, but sums up my feelings of Marlo. The first time Marlo makes an impact is when his underlings are about to punish Bubbles and Johnny for leaning on their car, threatening them with a handgun. Marlo takes in the situation and says simply 'Do it or don't. I've got places to be." He instantly puts himself above trivial concerns; he shows neither anger nor compassion. He has merely sized the situation up, judged there is no threat or benefit to him therein, and leaves it as not worth his time. His decision-making is calibrated to winning "the game". Marlo's utilitarian analysis is perhaps most marked when he decides Michael's fate. He clearly has a slight fondness for Michael (he chose him after all), and agrees with Chris he's unlikely to be the snitch. "But you willing to bet your life on it?" he asks, and the decision is made. He acknowledges his inability to put human relationships first in his last exchange with Joe, who he clearly also felt some bond with: "I treated you like a son" "I wasn't made to play the son. Close your eyes...it won't hurt none".

I've watched so much of the wire that I made a few fan video's which I have posted below. The last one took me the longest and may be the one thing on the internet that I am most proud of.

The Wire has changed my life in a way no other TV show has been able to since Walker Texas Ranger. Everything that happens in my life I can relate to a moment in The Wire.