Morning Musical Mood: Friday, May 22

This is part of my morning musical focus. Ambient, triphop, and such are styles I’ve long delighted in. From back in the early days of electronic music. I find the graphics accompanying this to be cool, too.

Do You Know Where Kenna Harris of Monroe is?

The Snohomish County Sherrif’s office are trying to find Kenna Harris of Monroe. She’s been missing for a few weeks, so her family is concerned. She suffers from some “mental and physical limitations”, which adds to the concern. He was last seen in Snohomish on a CT bus around 2pm.

Q13 has a post with more details. 

Anyway, if you’ve seen her recently or have heard something, call Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound at 800.222.TIPS.

 

Kenna Harris of Monroe
Kenna Harris of Monroe Missing Poster

 

Quote of the Day

Found this very compelling today. It’s easy to sit back and wait for others to act, to be comfortable with the status quoa. We’re not called to the easy path.

Seattle Cycling Video: Mayday Unrest

Two Seattle cyclists getting, um, wild…er, mild…

Anyway, it’s kinda fun and only a few minutes long. Go, give it a watch!

Locally Produced Video: 360 Thursday #7: Bellingham Washington Travel Edition

Local musician Evan DeVries produced this little 360 video shoot showcasing one of my favorite towns: Bellingham. I thought it was delightful.

What do you think?

A Behind The Scenes Look At The Clone Wars: The Phantom Apprentice

​I have really enjoyed the final season of Star Wars: Clone Wars. The animation is amazing, and the stories, well, for me at least, perfect. I’ve reconnected with the characters enough that it’s going to hurt when Order 66 goes down.

Last week’s episode, The Phantom Apprentice, was powerful. Part of that was bringing back Ray Park, who performed Maul in the Phantom Menance, and an exceptional martial artist. The team used motion capture to create this dynamic, engaging piece of film (can I call it film if it’s only digital?).

Below is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the episode. Well worth watching if you’re fascinated by the production of movies and tv.

Why I’m Launching A New Career In Web Development

Just over a month ago, I learned I was being let go from my current role. I’ve wandered this path before, so I, initially, wasn’t terribly concerned. However, the more I thought about it, the more concerned I became. Mainly, I’d been laid off twice in less than a year. Thinking further, since 2009, I’d been laid off 4 times. I’m a bit tired of that. Yeah, even being a tech-savvy executive assistant/project coordinator, that work is too easy to outsource. Plus, with digital assistant growth, the lessening of friction for scheduling, the ease at which most folks can book their own travel, and you see the recipe for a dying career. I’m ready to be, shall we say, more essential.

Pretty much all of my life I’ve had a fascination with technology. As a young boy, my love of robots and radios (I had a particular fascination with shortwave radios), evolved into space and aviation, then into computers. Early PC games and BBSs then morphed into a vocational certificate in Information Processing (mainly databases and spreadsheets). Looking back, my biggest contribution to most of my past roles has been digitally based. Whether it’s my ability to fix a copier, 90% of PC issues, set up and manage a network, use things like Photoshop and AutoCAD, or build a website, those were the things that added the most value to the world around me.

I believe that the web holds our future. We will interact with most systems and data with web tools. SaaS models are already driving there…in the fast lane. Web development is a fast-growing path (projected 27% growth over the next 10 years), with decent salaries to boot.

So, it looks like fun, and there’s a need, which seems like a great combination. Thus, off I go.

Getting Takeout: helping our beloved local restaurants stay afloat

Today we went and got take-out from one of our favorite local places: Mel and Mia’s (they’re offering takeout and curbside pickup). In the madness of these times, it’s critical to support our local businesses. Especially those that you adore.

Check out the macaroon Rebecca crafted! Isn’t it stunning? One of many reasons why I love these folks.

Getting Takeout: helping our beloved local restaurants stay afloat

Today we went and got take-out from one of our favorite local places: Mel and Mia’s (they’re offering takeout and curbside pickup). In the madness of these times, it’s critical to support our local businesses. Especially those that you adore.

Check out the macaroon Rebecca crafted! Isn’t it stunning? One of many reasons why I love these folks.

Life With Coronavirus Update

​With covid-19 disrupting so very much of life, I thought I’d take a moment to rehash what I’m working on to keep busy. My family has been home due to school closures. I have been unemployed since the February 28th.

First, I’m signed up to study web application and cloud development at Edmonds Community College starting next quarter. There are still pieces to pull together, but I’m moving forward. Classes start on April 13, so it’s coming quickly. I also need to get my math skills back up to snuff. I struggled mightily on an assessment test and was pretty mad at myself. Then it hit me: the last math class I took may have been calculus, but it’s been several decades since. One of the folks at the school connected me with a website to help that along, so I’ve been working on getting those skills back up to snuff.

Also, I’ve spent time refreshing some skills. I had purchased a CompTIA training bundle last summer that I haven’t had a chance to start with yet. And I have a Adobe Creative Suite bundle as well. I’ve been carving time for each of those as I can. I also discovered IronCAD, which apparently has a free download, so I might try and squeeze some more CAD work in as well. That’s one big thing I miss from my Eagle Country Construction days.

As for entertainment, I’ve been binging on “Traveling Robert“, a YouTuber traveling the US with his trailer. I really have enjoyed the show. There’s a genuineness that’s delightful. I discovered him via YouTube’s algorithm. It dished up his trip to Seattle this past summer, which I found nice.

 

There’s plenty of other things that I’ve been working on, too. Keeping several websites up to date, as well as a couple of email communication campaigns (about the covid-19 closures and such). And I’ve helped a few folks with their WordPress sites, and with setting up Facebook business pages and trying to pull together some kind of marketing plan in the midst of the pandemic. I mean, how do you market in such a way that you’re being, well, a decent human being.