adventures of a tired coder

I had such a great SIFF last year, and I really wanted to note down all of my impressions, but then life kept moving and I never got around to finishing it. It’s probably going to be the same this year, but it doesn’t mean I can’t give it a shot. :)

I volunteered two shifts for SIFF before I started seeing films. The first one was a special events shift, working the opening gala in Renton. SE is a nice change of pace from ushering… there’s a lot more to do, but it’s much harder work for the number of vouchers you get. I was clearing trash from tables, changing the coffee dispenser, and stuff like that. On the plus side, I got to eat the gala food, sampling some yummy stuff from Renton restaurants like Tea Palace, Naan-n-Curry, and Papaya and chatting with the restaurant people. Miss Washington was at the gala, too, but I didn’t talk to her. :) And… the owners of the venue offered me a job, in case I wanted to pick up some extra server shifts on weekends! (My mom laughed for a full minute after I told her this)

Second shift was a pretty busy one at Pacific Place. We were running pretty late for the first film, so it was really hectic getting everyone in, but I got to see a giant panda. =) Still not quite sure why Kung Fu Panda 2 was screening at SIFF, but oh well. They let us run off for an hour in between films, so I rushed down to Pike Place Market to stand in the Piroshky Piroshky line (potato onion cheese FTW). After the shift, I bummed around Seattle for a little while before seeing my first film.

Cairo 678 (Egypt, 2010) – I really liked this film. I really did not like the circumstances under which I got to see this film. Apparently, Pacific Place had technical issues in the second film of my volunteer shift (I’d left by then) and they took a lot of time to try to resolve the issues afterwards, resulting in this film starting at least 20 minutes late. And they didn’t seem to resolve it because we saw green bars and screen flickering a number of times through the film. Several people walked out. What a pity. Then I had to haul ass over to Seattle Center to catch an opera, and I would have had plenty of time if things had been on schedule. Annnnyway, this film followed three women and their responses to sexual harassment, which apparently is common (but not commonly spoken of) in Cairo. A wealthy woman goes with her husband to a soccer game, and she gets pulled away in the crowd and men sexually assault her. Afterwards, her husband says the pain is too much for HIM to deal with. Right. So they separate and the wife starts these courses on how to deal with sexual harassment and advertises on TV. The second character is a well-behaved Muslim wife who tries to take cabs to work instead of buses because she’s groped every day on the bus. She attends some of these classes, and eventually she gets so pissed off that she starts stabbing the gropers in the groin (audience cheers!!!). The third woman, against advice from her relatives, files the first sexual harassment case in Egypt. And of course, people put the blame on her. Men suck.

Apart Together (China, 2010) – Made the journey down to Renton to see this one. Nice that the IKEA Performing Arts Center has a huge parking lot! Not a ton of dining options in that part of Renton that were open for Sunday lunch, but I happened to stumble upon a hole-in-the-wall called Geri’s Casual Dining and picked up a catfish sandwich that brought back some Louisiana memories. Okay, the movie. While I was watching it, I didn’t love it. The acting was good, but it was slow. Even being Chinese-American, I think there were a lot of subtleties that went right past me. The background is one that would resonate with a lot of Chinese people. There’s a couple with a baby on the way, and they’re really in love. Unfortunately, they’re separated when all the KMT soldiers have to quickly flee to Taiwan, and they’re unable to reunite until many years later, when they allow people to return from Taiwan to visit their relatives. By that time, both have remarried. The woman’s family is closeknit and gathers at their house in an old neighborhood  where everyone knows everyone. The man’s wife has died, and his visit has a mission – to bring his old love with him back to Taiwan. The woman’s new husband is a well-developed, fantastically-acted charactor, definitely my favorite part of the film. The other characters seemed not very well developed – or did I miss the little nuances in their speech and behavior? Afterwards, I thought more about the film, and there was more to think over, ideas about sacrifice, the closeness of family, and differences between “old Asia” and “new Asia.”

How to Die in Oregon (USA, 2011) – Everyone talking about this film kept saying that it was a hard sell to get people to see a documentary about doctor-assisted suicide. Maybe I’m just morbid or something, but I didn’t need any convincing. It’s compelling subject matter, and I knew it would be a high quality documentary because it won the top documentary award at Sundance. Since I do live in one of the few states that already has a Death with Dignity law, that aspect of the film didn’t really affect me significantly. What did stand out to me was the how devastating a terminal illness diagnosis is to the person and his or her family. There were very different viewpoints about end-of-life treatment. One guy really wanted to die. One guy was extremely offended that Death with Dignity was an option offered to him. Then there were the in-betweeners, mostly people who would prefer a natural death unless it got to the point of extreme suffering, for themselves or their families. It was heart-warming to see the love in the families, but an important observation was that this love sometimes didn’t show itself when people didn’t understand or agree with the end-of-life decisions. I think it’s an important topic to be knowledgeable about and to discuss with your loved ones beforehand. This documentary has now been shown on HBO (not sure about the future schedule).

Wow, this post took way too long. I am never going to finish this series. :)

Film count: 3, Volunteer vouchers: 5

Did you know that there are about 7000 languages spoken in the world today?

And that about half of them aren’t being taught to children anymore?

Which means that soon, half of the languages in the world will be gone.

The estimate is that, with the death of an elder, a language dies every two weeks.

 
(Oregon Shakespeare Festival - left: The Language Archive; right: To Kill a Mockingbird)

There’s some interesting things to think about in The Language Archive by Julia Cho. There’s the elderly couple who are the last two speakers of the fictitious language Elloway. Rather than speak in their native language to document it before it disappears, they choose to bicker in English. When they discuss their use of English, they say that English is the language of anger (Elloway is a language of love) and that they choose to use English to fight and to say things they don’t wish to have permanence. Hah.

But George, one of the main characters, who’s a linguist and the main person behind The Language Archive (dedicated to documenting and preserving rare languages), mourns the loss of language. He explains to his wife, who is puzzled about his lack of reaction to world tragedies, that he finds the death of a language far more sad than the loss of single lives because a language represents an entire society and its worldview. Later on, when his wife leaves him and he’s trying to get her back, he says that there is a special language that only they understand – the language of their relationship – and he doesn’t want that to die.

What he fails to realize is what one of the elderly Elloway speakers clearly understands. George thinks it’s sad when a language dies because a world dies with it. But the elder says that it’s the opposite – the world dies first, and then the language fades away.

 
(left: Lithia Park in Ashland; right: historic Jacksonville)

On my trips to Ashland, I keep talking to people who make the Oregon Shakespeare Festival a yearly tradition. This time, we talked to a woman who had been going for about 20 years! She organizes a group that always goes for the same week each year, and they see all of the plays showing at the time. But even that is not enough – some of the plays only run for half of the year, so she makes additional trips to see some of those. I’ve been going twice a year – this is my fifth trip – and I am not tired of it yet. I think I’ve gotten my mom hooked, so hopefully we can continue this mother-daughter trip tradition… for the next twenty years?

The plays are fantastic. The town is a lovely getaway, full of B&Bs, cute shops, and delicious restaurants. Tax-free shopping in Oregon. And lots to see on the way – Portland, Crater Lake, and this time we stopped by historic Jacksonville. Ended up buying three loaves of bread! There’s still the whole Rogue River Valley to explore. Hiking? White water rafting? Hmmm…

  
(left: black cod at Larks Restaurant in Ashland; right: tofu chilaquiles at Morning Glory Cafe in Eugene)

And of course, the food is very important to me. My mom rolls her eyes at how far out of the way I’ll drive to make sure we’re not eating at Denny’s for lunch. “Izakaya” style small plates in Portland, hippie vegetarian breakfast in Eugene, fancy seafood in Ashland.

Looking forward to the next trip! Highly encourage any of you in the Washington/Oregon/NorCal area to make the trip as well – it’s totally worth it.

A very kind marathon runner gave me a Nike+ SportBand for my birthday to encourage me with my running progress. Ever since my 5k events last year, I’ve maintained the ability to jog 3 miles, but I haven’t pushed myself further. In fact, before today, I believe the longest runs I had done were the two 5k events. Even though I’m not actively training towards something now, I knew it was time to take it up a notch.

I do not run in Nike shoes, which is what the sensors that go with the Sportband are designed for. In order to use the sensor without a Nike+ enabled shoe, you have to find another way to attach the sensor to your shoe, preferably in a flat-laying position (NOT how the picture shows it). There are many pouches available, like this one or this one. I ended up getting the the Grantwood pouch because it was inexpensive and had good reviews. Unfortunately, it looks like it won’t make it to me for another few days, and in the meantime, I was eager to try out the Sportband.

There are a bunch of tutorials on how to attach your Nike+ sensor to your shoe online. Going for the easiest solution possible, I tried the “Quick Tape Method,” pictured above. While it did get the sensor to lay pretty flat, it did not end up working out well. Not only does tape make really annoying noises when you move, it also doesn’t stay on the shoe well. I got about half a block before the tape fell off.

For today’s run, I tried a lace-in approach similar to the one described here, and it held perfectly. I went for my first 4 mile run, which took me into Bridle Trails State Park, a wooded equestrian park close to my normal running route. It’s fun to see horses, and the trees made me feel far away from the city. It’s not the best place to run during the winter because the rain makes the trails muddy, but once summer comes, I’m sure I’ll be spending more time in there.

It’s really easy to upload running data to the Nike site, which also provides you with cool visualizations of your running habits, social features, and challenges to keep you motivated. I was a little frustrated at first by the speed and a few bugs on the site, but I will admit that the designers did a great job making it look cool. If you’re hooked on Farmville, there’s Nike+ Active, where you use “fuel points” from your activities to conquer the world. You don’t even need the Sportband to use these features if you have a compatible iPod or iPhone and the Nike+ sensor.

As you can see from my screenshot, the run data isn’t accurate. Since the technology doesn’t use GPS (and since I’m not using it in the intended way), there’s potential for inaccuracy. Supposedly once it’s calibrated against a real run, the accuracy improves. We’ll see how it goes on the next run!

I’ve seen Kendi’s 30 for 30 Remix mentioned a lot in the blog-o-sphere lately, and making a month of outfits from 30 items seems like fun. Except I’m not very fashionable in my everyday attire, and even on a normal month, I might not cycle through 30 items. Instead, I signed up for SIOL.

That’s right, Six Items or Less. Six items. One month. Accessories, outerwear, underwear, exercise clothes, and loungewear don’t count towards the six. You’re allowed to have exact duplicates for laundry purposes – I have a back up pair of jeans, but I haven’t had to use it. And notable differences from the Remix challenge are that shoes don’t count towards the item count, and I am allowed to shop during this month, which I have done. :)

Why in the world would someone want to do this? The site asks you to choose your primary reason for wanting to participate when you sign up. The choices: anti-consumerism, personal uniform, curiosity, and creativity. I’m definitely in the curiosity camp. I wondered: how hard will this be for me? Will anyone even notice?

 
on the left: what I normally wear, on the right: SIOL outfits, outerwear included
click for larger images

Basically, the answer is no. The only people who see me regularly enough to notice are software engineers, almost all male. I still have two workdays left in this challenge, and afterwards, I’ll post this blog article more publically to see if people actually did notice and were too afraid to tell me. But I’m thinking not. The moral of the story is that people (men, at least) don’t notice when you wear the same thing. But they notice when you wear something different.

The only difference people noticed between my two sets of outfits pictured above was the dress shirt I threw in as one of my six items, just in case I needed to dress up during the one month. Two people noticed something different: “Something I should know about?” and “Is it laundry day? You normally wear T-shirts.” Hah.

It’s been a less interesting (almost) month than I expected. Basically, I’m tired of wearing maroon shirts and am eager to get back to my Threadless/Woot rotation. I still like the idea of wardrobe experiments, but I think the next one I do will need to be one that pushes me further out of my comfort zone. No T-shirt or jeans month? Hmmm…

I think most of us are pretty jaded about air travel these days. Airlines are trying to cut costs wherever they can, and it’s usually safe to say that anytime something goes wrong, you can expect to end up unhappy without any signs of concern from the airline. This is especially true when the problems are related to weather.

Iceland Air is by no means a generous airline. The weight limit for carry-on bags is absurdly low (like 6kg) and they actually enforce it. Headphones cost a few euro, and there is no free food, even on an 8 hour flight. So when our flight out of Seattle was delayed 3 hours due to snow in Seattle and the airport’s lack of ability to find the proper deicer and everyone missed their connections, I expected a long stay at the Reykjavik-Keflavik airport. My hopes were that they could fly us out the same day, and if not, that the benches in the airport didn’t have armrests.

Amazingly, they managed to rebook everyone I heard at the desk for flights out the same day, and they offered either food vouchers at the airport or a day room at a hotel, including a taxi ride to and from the airport. We had at least 5 hours, so we took the day room option to get some rest and walk around town. Upon arrival at the hotel, they informed us that the lunch buffet was also included, so we got to eat some Icelandic food. Potatoes, meatballs, rice casserole with pickled fish surprise, sweet chili noodles, etc.

Keflavik isn’t the most happening place in the world, and it was pretty freaking cold, but they had a nice park along the water that was nice for walking. Weird lava rocks. Flying into Iceland, from the air, the whole thing looked like a volcanic park. Upon landing, it was painfully flat – not even trees! The country looks really wild, with terrain that I’d love to explore some day (as a tourist and not a stranded traveler).

This is one in a series of trip reports that I’m back posting.

Book stats: 8.5 miles, 1078 ft elevation gain
GPS stats: 9.2 miles, 2392 ft elevation gain
Trailhead directions and other information on WTA.

Two things you should never fully believe: the weather report and the elevation data in a hiking book.

(left: lots to hike to on the Wonderland Trail, right: MARMOT!)

Most people seem to go to Paradise when they visit Mount Rainier. If you’re willing to do a little hiking, I wholeheartedly recommend Sunrise more. It tends to be less crowded during peak weekends, and there are so many great hiking options in the intermediate difficulty range.

Leaving from the Sunrise lot, we took the Sourdough Ridge trail to Frozen Lake, where it starts to branch out. There are lots of possibilities from this beginning – Berkeley Park, Fremont Lookout, Burroughs Mountain, Dege Peak, etc. There’s something great for any hiking skill level. We took the Wonderland Trail from there, past the Berkeley Park turnoff, all the way to Skyscraper Mountain. Lots of pretty flower fields (perhaps a bit past their peak, but still in great shape) and views of Mount Rainier. Not a ton of people on the trail, and probably over half of the people we saw were people on multi-night backpacking trips.

(left: Skyscraper Mountain, right: clouds come quickly on Mount Rainier)

I think it would be pretty hard to top the conditions during my trip to Mount Rainier last year (pics), and the overcast weather on this hike definitely made for more challenging picture taking. However, there were two things that were better: no mosquitoes (because it was so cold) and marmots! I think we passed about 5 marmots total… probably all eating.

Above, you can see our destination, Skyscraper Mountain. Not too many people go here – it’s not on the map at the lodge – and the ones who do tend to stop at the bottom and enjoy the views from there (which are really good). We took the unofficial trail up to the top.  The creepiness starts here – you can see from the pictures that the mountain went from clear to cloud-covered, and it did that quite a few times since the clouds were moving so fast.

(left: flowers! one the best things about Mt. Rainier, right: the unofficial boot path up Skyscraper Mountain)

Basically, unofficial trail means there’s an obvious path, but it sucks. This one was pretty steep, with rocky, short, somewhat randomly-placed switchbacks. The picture above shows an example of the “trail.” The next two pictures show the creepy view down from the top – it’s a long way to fall, and there wasn’t much between the rocks we were on and DEATH. At one point while we were eating, the clouds surrounded us, and we were on a small rock island with all white around us. I guess it makes sense why no one joined us up there. :) The views are probably pretty spectacular on a clear day, but it was pretty cool being up there with the clouds. We didn’t stay too long, though, because it was probably about 35 degrees up there and windy. Got some misting on the way back, light hail in the parking lot, and the rain started on the drive back. Great timing! But this weather compared to the continuous rain we expected from the weather forecast was a really welcome surprise.

(views looking down from Skyscraper Mountain)

This being the first cool weather hike of the season, I took the opportunity to try a little experiment. My dad got me a Ms. Bento jar during one of his trips to Taiwan, and I’d been itching to try it out. (I also have the Mr. Bento jar, but it’s a little big and heavy for hiking use). I packed my lunch 7 hours before eating it, and my risotto and mac & cheese were still very warm when lunch time came. Not piping hot, but warm enough. Definitely more nourishing than a cold sandwich. I think this has great potential for ski season as well!

(left: lunch, right: more Rainier flowers)

Rainier really lives up to its national park designation as a hiking destination. I’d really love to get out here more – if only it was an hour closer!

(view of Rainier from the saddle before going up Skyscraper)

This is one in a series of trip reports that I’m back posting.

10 miles, ~2300 ft elevation gain
Trailhead directions and more information on WTA.

A less popular area of Snow Lake.

Snow Lake is a really popular hike and for good reason. The trailhead is at the Alpental parking lot, which means it's not too far down I-90 and there's a huge parking lot. And it's a big, beautiful lake that you can get to by hiking only about 8 miles with 1300 feet of elevation gain. It's crowded and loud getting to the lake basin (a NWHikers trip report referred to this as the "Conga line"), but most people stop there. Even if you follow the trail up a little around the right side of the lake, you can find a segment of the lake where you'll be relatively undisturbed. On a hot day like I had, it's really tempting to jump in the cool water (and a lot of people were). But if you like pain, you'll decide that the 1300 feet aren't enough and head towards Gem Lake.

Left: trail to Gem Lake. Right: Looking down at Snow Lake.

It's only about 1.5-2 extra miles to get to Gem, but you get some nice elevation gain that starts to hurt really quick. It goes like this: "Ooh, a puddle. Is that Gem Lake? No. Ooh, I see blue water, is that Gem Lake? No, that's still SNOW LAKE. Grr... Ooh, a bigger puddle...." But despite all that, this part of the trail is probably the most beautiful segment. There are little sections of alpine meadow with small tarns, mountain views, plenty of flowers and bushy beargrass, views of Snow Lake from above, and some nice rock paths that couldn't have been easy to put together. And there aren't nearly as many people who go this far. Gem Lake is much smaller than Snow Lake, maybe a little less showy. But it's peaceful and the water's pretty.

Left: Gem Lake (a real gem!). Right: Butterfly.