Posted in Culture, Seattle, tagged hometown pitchman, jack roberts, robert thielke, Seattle, vern fonk on 21 Aug 2015| 6 Comments »
It’s the end of an era in Seattle. Our last great hometown pitchman, one of Seattle’s best-known faces died this week, though most people don’t know his name. Show his picture to any person on a Seattle street and they’ll tell you: “That’s Vern Fonk.”
Except, he isn’t. Or, now, he wasn’t. (more…)
Posted in Movies, tagged charlize theron, hector and the search for happiness, ian mckellan, mad max, movie reviews, mr. holmes, simon pegg, tom hardy on 04 Aug 2015| 3 Comments »
Going to the cinema is a less-than-optimal experience for me. Rude audience members, sticky floors, cell phone bleeps and ringtones, and neighboring theater boom-boom-bleed-through make the experience rather … challenging … for a purist. Last week, however, I took a couple of days off for our anniversary and, since Seattle is currently suffering under a heat wave and we’re both a couple of heat-wimps, we opted for midday movies at the cinema. First showings on a weekday mitigate the downsides of the cinematic experience while leaving the upsides (massive screen, surround sound, that distinctive popcorn smell) intact.
We saw two movies in the theater and watched one at home and they were — as this post’s title suggests — excellent, good, and great.
Posted in Culture, Hi Tech, tagged Gaming, hello games, no man's sky, ps4, video games, xbox one on 20 Jul 2015| 4 Comments »
Let’s take a break from news about my career change (because there’s no news to report) and turn to a quandary solved. I speak, of course, of the answer to the crucial question: “Xbox One or PS4?”
I’ve been asking myself this question for a while now, but with the cut in income that this career change will inevitably bring, the issue has reached the fish-or-cut-bait point. In the past, “Both” would have been a viable answer, but now that’s no longer an option. I must make a choice, and soon. So…this one? The other? Or neither? (Yes, neither is an option.)
Currently, I have an Xbox 360 and a PS3, acquired over the course of several years (I am not an early adopter), and I can’t say I favor one over the other. The differences are largely insignificant to my playing style, and those differences are far outnumbered by the similarities (both good and bad). As a result, I really don’t have a preference, leaving “Neither” as the strongest option.
As an Old Man Gamer, I don’t have large circles of online friends with whom I go RPGing or MMOing or FPSing. I occasionally run with a couple of guys on Xbox Live and a couple of other folks on the PSN circuit. That’s it. I’m more of a lone wolf, in that regard and thus, when pondering the question of console upgrades, knowing what my peeps are planning to do carries some, but not a lot of weight (especially since none of them are planning to upgrade anytime soon). So, again, “Neither” looks to be the best answer.
With this in mind, you might then ask me why, last week, I suddenly decided to purchase a PS4?
Answer: game availability. Specifically, one particular game. (more…)
Posted in Movies, tagged Bill Paxton, Dennis Quaid, Doc Holliday, Gene Hackman, kevin costner, kurt russell, movie reviews, tombstone, val kilmer, westerns, wyatt earp on 08 Jul 2015| 2 Comments »
Remember those miniature license plates for your bicycle? The personalized ones with your name on them? Cute, right?
Yeah, I hated those damned things because they never had one with the name “Kurt”. I also hated Romper Room because at the end when Miss Nancy took out her magic mirror and searched to see who was out there in televisionland, she never saw me. No Kurts in televisionland. Not once. Not ever.
So, when I learned that my kid-universe included an actor named Kurt Russell, he immediately earned a soft spot in my heart.
Which explains why I have a copy of Tombstone in my video armoire.
It does not explain why I have also have a copy of Wyatt Earp.
Nor does it explain why, this past weekend, I watched them both, back to back.
Posted in Culture, Writing, tagged being poor, budget, career change, copyeditor, copywriter, creative jobs, downsizing, economy, job stress, living on a budget, living wage, software developer, stress management on 06 Jul 2015| 9 Comments »
I used to love programming but it’s changed so much in the past 25 years, I can’t stand it anymore. When I only stay at a job for the salary and the time off, when I hate everything about what I do, when I wake up at 4AM with my heart pounding because my brain is preparing me for the day’s fight with a surge of adrenaline, it’s definitely time to go.
But, as I posed it in the previous post in this series, what career to I pick instead?
Posted in Culture, tagged being poor, budget, career change, downsizing, economy, job stress, living on a budget, living wage, stress management on 29 Jun 2015| 5 Comments »
Your reactions to Part I landed in one of two camps: Most readers remembered fondly their own youthful creativity when funds were thin, while a few wondered why the hell I’d even contemplate this at all.
I enjoyed the anecdotes you shared, and it reinforced my belief that being short of cash when young is a good thing; it helps us appreciate things more and teaches us skills we need later. As for why I’m considering this at all, well, that’s the subject of this installment.
Why be poor, if I don’t have to?
Posted in Culture, tagged being poor, budget, career change, downsizing, dumpster diving, economy, living on a budget, living wage, Structured Vegetable Protein on 19 Jun 2015| 13 Comments »
I know from poor. Not poverty–I’ve never known poverty–but I know what it is to be poor.
As a music major at SF State, I earned money playing orchestra and quartet gigs, worked minimum wage jobs, but still didn’t have much by way of money. To supplement my meager budget, I used to go around the back of United Market in San Rafael and pick fruit and veg out of the dumpsters. The produce manager was kind enough to turn a blind eye to my forays, occasionally even handing me old orange crates to pack up my booty. Beans and rice were the mainstays of my diet (I was a vegetarian, then), and any extra money I was able to cadge went to new strings for my viola and gas money for friends taking me to symphony gigs in Stockton or Santa Rosa. (more…)
Kurt R.A. Giambastiani 