The Thursday Beef

This photo strikes me. Also, I wanted to get something in for Thursday since some folks complained about no content. Geez!

Also, the contest for the corner photo has sadly ended with no winner. Strangely, I knew the location of the photo, since I took it, and on the way home today, I found a dollar.

Humpday update

Arrived at work on the bicycle without incident.

Grounds are for the most part dry. However, the other day the machine had a fit and spewed the espresso machine equivalent of diarrhea all over me, the counter, the stove and the machine itself.

Gov. Christine Gregoire is working on a policy of how to get farm-a-cists to simply do their job without their morals getting in the way regarding filling prescriptions for the plan b pill. How about this: Fill the script or lose you job!

Still no winner in the corner photo contest! Suckers.

Keys are still lost, however just to spite them, I bought an entirely new lock for my front door. The car keys and mail box keys are still copied.

That's it.


Crow

As the Crow Flies

A few days ago the Crow was minorly involved in a discussion about accidents and responsibility.

One side of the discussion involved the stern and firm stand of, “Don’t do this thing again.” And, “Take responsibility for what you’ve agreed to be responsible for.” The other side of the conversation involved the understanding that humans will naturally have accidents, forget keys and misspell jest about everything given enough time. Knowing that, we, (society or the workplace) should problem solve so that either the outcome of a mistake can be mitigated or that the mistake can be avoided.

For the sake of my sanity and protecting the identity of the innocent, Crow will refer to the two sides of this discussion as Stern and Understanding respectively.

Understanding noted that when a professional in Understanding’s line of work makes a mistake, people die. It’s kinda hard to argue with that. Stern noted that when you agree to sign on to Stern’s crew, you agree to being responsible for whatever occurs on your watch, so to speak. It seems that in Stern’s perspective, the expectation is clear. For example, Stern would say, “Do not lose your keys or you will pay to re-key this facility.” Understanding might say, (in Stern’s position,) “Hey, I understand that given enough time you may lose your keys, so we have done away with keys and replaced all locks with a key pad. Now, just don’t forget the secret pass code.”

Crow brings all of this to your attention because on my way to work, a Big F@#$#@ Suburban raced through a fully red-light and almost killed the Crow on his bicycle. Of course, Crow immediately thought of Understanding, and perhaps Crow should problem solve the situation so that the outcome could be mitigated. Then, Crow realized that we (in this case society) had already problem solved the shit out of the 4-way, traffic control lighted, stop line painted, paved, police patrolled, beeping walk signaled, time delayed green, yellow warning lighted, pedestrian cross walk identified intersection.

Sure, if the outcome would have been different and Crow was dead, then this would have been an accident. But there was no accident this morning. It was the Crow who was vigilant and took extra responsibility at the problem-solved intersection so that the outcome wasn’t death. Crow avoided death with the Understanding that Big F@#$#@ Suburban would likely be irresponsible. So it is to Big F@#$#@ Suburban that Crow Sternly says, DON’T RUN RED LIGHTS!!!

Circus - Rant

Happened to be out with the Pixie one day and took this photo. Actually, it was the day of the final World Cup game. The odd thing about the day was that there were virtually no people on the streets of Seattle.

Rant Warning!!! Have you heard of HPV otherwise known as human papilloma virus? It’s an STD. You should know about it, since something like fifty percent of women 18-22 years of age develop the infection after sexual contact. The numbers go up after that to the point that most doctors will tell you that by the age of 30, male or female, you're likely to have or have encountered HPV. Epidemic? Anyway, for some women, the infection persists, impacts reproductive health and can lead to cervical cancer. From the American Cancer Society, "About 3,700 women will die from cervical cancer in the United States during 2006. Cervical cancer was once one of the most common causes of cancer death for American women."

I give you this background because, once again, conservative religious folks - the catholic church – doesn’t think a new HPV vaccine is a good idea even though it has a really high success rate. If administered before sexual contact and any potential infection, a variety of new vaccines currently in development are capable of virtually 100 percent effectiveness against HPV. No HPV means less cancer later and certainly less transmission in the present. The rub for the church is that the vaccine, to be effective, must be administered to young girls, and to the church, this means promoting promiscuity. PS, the vaccine has no effect on folks who are currently infected. Sorry.

Here is the grit. Religious conservatives want to impact your sexual and reproductive health by blocking a vaccine that could prove effective against the most prevalent STD out there. By blocking the vaccines use, they are attempting to limit your choice for a safer alternative if you should choose to have sex prior to marriage. By blocking the use of this family of vaccines, they are condemning yet another generation of women to HPV, reproductive challenges, and potentially cancer. And dudes, by blocking vaccines such as these, religious conservatives, will be praying for you and the warts on you cock. Yes, HPV also causes the dreaded male and female genital wart.

Two Roads

Summer night photography. If anybody knows the location of this photo, I'll send the first person who logs in a blog answer one dollar.

Weekend Blog of Death...just kidding

Crow is tired. Crow hoofed it all over Seattle today in the hot hot sun.

Shameless Crow

Arrggg, In a futile attempt in blogging this AM, I I wasted 20 minutes writing a shameless, self promoting entry. Then, I, aka Crow lost it. Actually, I should say google’s blogger tool lost it, or the crappy computer system lost it. In any event, it’s now gone likely floating aimlessly around out there in cyber-space.

So, back to shameless self-promotion. I’ve often referred folks to search the terms Crow and Crank or even Crow’s Crank. Those same folks often tell me Crow, when I search GOOGLE for those terms I’m directed to some dark porn site. Admittedly, Crow’s Crank is a dark site, but it’s the articles that are important and not just the Photography. Right?

Crap, the now-lost-post was much funnier than this one. Oh well, you’ll just have to deal. Crow’s Crank. Geofoot Photography! claw to the top!

Flow

IT"S ABOUT F@*%^&#$ TIME!!!

The FDA finally released the Plan B pill for over the counter sale...to 18 year-old women. It's a mixed blessing, because now, some Target pharmacist can't impose his or her "morality" on your sexual/reproductive health, provided that you are 18 or older. If you are not, ya still gotta get a note. Of course, you and I both know that nobody has sex prior to 18...right?

Enter managed care, which, is an entire other rant. Surfice to say, that the plan-b pill is most effective with in 72 hours of action. So, keep your doctor's office on speed-dial, and maintain a good relationship with the office staff so that they will process your request quickly!

Special thanks to senators Patty Murry and Hillary Rodham Clinton for holding yet another administration lapdog to the fire. If you are so moved, please use the links to their respective websites and send them a quick note.

For the sake of clarity, the fact that this administration wants to control the sale of an over the counter birth control at any level, is just one more example of its desire to restrict your freedom and impose a conservative, right-wing, religious moral code on to your life.

CROW

Added creepy photo for dark effect. Crow

Guess what I've removed.

You might have noticed that the small mapping icon on the right side of your screen at home, under the Blogger button, is now gone. It's gone because, like many free things out there in the world, it sucked. It was supposed to track traffic at the Crank and show the geographic location of visitors. It did not. What it did was leave a strange feeling in my gut that the some tool in a dark, basement computer layer was tracking my every computer move. I suspect the NSA is already on my tip so, I don't need any privateers.

Here are some free recommendations!

Good EATS!!

Chiso
Gorditos
Alligator Soul
Cupcake Royale

Smell you later!

Buuhhhh!

It's Monday what can I say? My fingers are tired. For some strange reason I got the cleaning bug. I cleaned, all the toilets, the showers, tubs, faucts, counter tops and anything else bathroom related in my house using Comet. It kinda makes my hands tingle.

Nice RACK and stuff!

What's up gang? So just a reminder, do not run down police officers, or shoot at them, or you're likely to have the entire Everett police department up in your grill. I spoke with my postal carrier, who happened to be walking through the area the suspect was apprehended. He was told to watch out for a large stain on the sidewalk. I guess the suspect leaked some fluids in reprisal for driving over two cops.

It occurred to me that I'm not painting a very good picture of historic Everett. So, in an effort to pull your attention away, please check out my rack. I had to use a nautical theme for it's suspension from the ceiling due to fact that I had to orient the rack on a 45 degree angle to the studs (there are many in the ceiling but only one in front of the sink.) At any rate, the rope, facilitated the delicate balancing act of getting the dam rack level. Of course, this was yet another late night project, as is most of my home improvement. Rack photographed in the lead slot.

Meanwhile in another city at another time, a more peaceful bunch sits down for dinner.



Enjoy!

Just be glad you aren't living next door to this!!

Kicking out your own walls and windows - free
Plenty of air movement throughout the house - also free
Hot rod in bushes - standard equipment!
Sticking it to your neighbors by dismantling your own house over the course of a year - priceless!

Hump day blog

Hump day blog.

Just a few items today. This photo was a true snap shot. Believe it or not it's a bunch of wild,peace loving daisies along the road outside a large plane manufacturing facility. It's too bad they didn't include a photo of the Growler!.


Another thing. Now that I have new keys (see previous posts for an explanation) the lock in my front door is on the fritz. In a flurry of frustration fueled home-handy-man excitement, last night at 9:30 I purchased a Schlage maximum security lock and handle kit. Ouch on the maxi-price and it was not an easy three step installation as claimed on the box. Needless to say, at 10pm with approximately 1000 parts spread over the floor of my entryway, I re-installed the crappy old, not-so-maxi lock and handle kit so I could go to bed without worrying about "visitors."

Sperm

So, if you find youself frozen in an ice-breg for say 20,000 years fear not!!

Keys Update

The keys, are not in the bathrobe pocket. Darn. Keys also not in Fremont, BP's house, his lawn, the House of Zorak, Pixie-mobile, any of my pockets, or in my car which is at BP's abode. Luckily, I have planned for this eventuality, and keep a master set of keys in a secure location.

IN other news, check out the Yard Dogs Roadshow! Crazy good stuff is my take on the group.

Anybody seen my keys....?

Dam it, somehow in a daze after a Saturday of drinking Belgium style ales I managed to lose my keys, again. So now, Bill P's neighbors in the prestigious neighborhood of Queen Anne must, once again, deal with my crappy stuff parked on the street until I can figure out how to fix the problem. Last time, it was my boat trailer that suffered a severe wheel problem which, caused me to leave it parked in front of BP's house for a few weeks. Sorry. To get an idea of my wheel issue, think your finger in the hole of a doughnut, rolling down the road with sparks shooting out the center. Ok, for those of you went straight to the gutter, come back. As I drug the boat and trailer behind my unlikely looking towing vehicle it sounded as though I was killing a flock of seagulls. I bet the entire city of Seattle was likely wondering what the hell was going on, as I screeched through town. Oh well, what do they know?

So back to the keys. I've got a few more places to check in the city before I go home and look in my bathrobe. Should you find them, follow the standard drill and contact me as soon as possible.

Nose Picking

Searching goggle for your last name is the electronic or blogging equivalent of a good self-serving nose pick. Here is what I found. There is lots more of me than I previously suspected. High percentages are found in NY state and Minnesota. That may explain my lust for Nordic skiing and such. Not so much CROW in the bible belt. Surprisingly, there are 11-31 crow's nests in Washington State.

So, now I'm wondering about my friends noses: CRAIGERIFIC posts a high percentage of kin in the PA area. Makes sense. PRUDOG sprouts from the south and mostly Texas. Is that right?

Exhausted with my nose and the noses of my friends, I decided to check out the nose of a politic type: BUSH. TX, NY, PA, These states are responsible for the spawn of BUSH. Checked out the name boner just for fun. Strangely enough there is an eerie, half erect phallys formed by the states IL, IN, OH, with the tip being NY.

Congratulations are in order!!!

craigerific, for buying a home, in the waning hours of your 33rd year, hats off!!!

Good job boyeeee!

And for the rest of you, I scoured the archives for the photo. Given that the craigerific is a home-owner, pending inspection, please comment on what you think the thought bubble above craigerific's head might be in the photo.

Red Alert!! Just kidding. Red Alert! Just kidding...

So, I missed a day or so of the blogging, and the whole world comes to a screeching halt, over such mundane items as toothpaste and bottled water. W notes, and I paraphrase, "...We are safer than we were before 911..." W then goes on to say, "...that the world is an extremely dangerous place and the US government will do what is necessary to keep the American People safe." I don't get it. Are we safe, or is this a dangerous place? Clearly the skies are safe, it's just that I now have to be suspicious of hair care products and chapstic. I'm confused. Wait, I feel an idea coming on... Ah yes, for a quick, concise, color coded answer to clear up my confusion about security issues, check the current threat level at good old home-land-security-dot-gov.

Just in case you didn't check out the link, pleased consider the following quote from the same site:

"All Americans, including those traveling in the transportation systems, should continue to be vigilant, take notice of their surroundings, and report suspicions items or activities to local authorities immediately."

Good advice, I'll be riding the bus later today, and I'll be sure to note and report all suspicious characters on my route. Let's see, perhaps I should just start now. There are the dudes that get out of jail and hop the bus at Pacific and Oak. Suspicious. Then there is usually some drugged-out dude mumbling into his beard. I'm sure he's taking oral notes on how to exploit the sophisticated security package in place to protect the bus riding community. Then there is the varying crew of white collar folks who race to the same seat everyday and scowl and anybody they find in "their" seats. I'll be sure to report all of them. Of course, while I'm writing all this down, I'll have to be careful conceal my activities so as to not alert any nefarious operatives to my All-American-vigilance. I hope sound transit doesn't think I'm crazy when I turn in my list of suspicious characters who ride the bus.

Hair

Taken just before Easter, this photo reveals a proud father, an unwilling child and a seasoned barber. I'm considering this photo for an upcoming show of American Icons. What do you think?

Weddings - tiz the season

So, now that I've been outed by Prudog as Crow the blogger, AKA some other last name, I might as well put a shameless plug for my PASSION. I've been a photographer for years. Some of you may recognize me from NW Race Report where I played an internet based cycling photo correspondent. My earlier years were spent behind the camera at a little paper known as the The Peninsula Gateway. I've since taken to shooting weddings, graduations, babies, parents of babies and most recently a Boy Scout Eagle Ceremony! So if you are interested, give me a Shout!

Gone Fishing

The Drug Questions

It's an odd thing to look out over you neighborhood, in particular one that is self described as transitional. For those not in the know, transitional means that the neighborhood has really good spots and really bad spots. Remember cars parked on the lawns? I'm assuming that other activities go along with that bad parking habit.

So, I was looking out over the hood last night when I saw a pimped landcruiser pull up. I didn't recognize the ride as local. LC stopped midstreet just down the block from my place. A driverside window "conversation" ensued between one of the neighbor kids and the driver of the LC. Within a few minutes a purple Cadillac, rolled on to the scene and parked on the corner opposite the LC. Evidently, the "conversation" was taking too long so the PC took a lap around the block. Upon its return, the block kid jumped into the Cady and headed off in the opposite direction of the LC.

Perhaps some directions to a local party were being exchanged? Perhaps the driver of the LC knew the block kid and they were just catching up? I don't know.

My assumption is that that the interaction I witnessed was some sort of transaction. You know, ddrruuggs. Crap, I don't want that in my neighborhood.

The question is, did I jump to any conclusions based on the limited information I saw? Did I assume that because the neighbor kid, who has weeded for me, was dealing or buying because he is black? Is fear getting the better of me?

On a side thought, it really isn't the drug dealers that cause the problems in a neighborhood, it's the stupid customers. These are the idiots who cruise the local block looking for anything that isn't bolted down to steal so they can pay the local drug buisness person.

So, any help with these questions is appreciated. BTY, Leon Berman, KEXP's Shake the Shack DJ had a bunch of CDs lifted from his truck in the central District, Seattle,WA. Probably drug related. Either that or just an extreme thirst for rockabilly music. Got info? Use this link. KEXP
Cheers

Hey World!!!

This pretty much says it all.

Grinds, Stink, all new!!

Yes, its was all new this week. Here is a quick recap of the week. Rants on lawn parking. Camaro driving. Stinky, poopy lawn comments from some shaft greaser. Zorak talking nonsense about bazacon. Grinds, soupy grinds, and my quest to solve this pesky issue including tamp pressure tests. My first attack on the current administration. Let's see, what else? Buttons. Oh yeah buttons.! Believe it or not, I'm missing a button on the Crank's dashboard. When I started earlier in the week there was a cool Rubix Cube lookin' button next to the photo import button. Now it's gone. I know I'm not imagining it because the initial post of the site was done in red. There is a green post too. Check it out for yourself so that you know that I'm not crazy....Oops, correction insert "a liar" in place of "crazy." My first thought was that this stupid button is like my keys; capable of willful disappearances. I can walk in to my house set my keys down and forget where in the hell they are for a two days. Once, I lost my cell phone in the same manner on a day that I had also turned the ringer to one beep, and a few days after my land line had been disconnected. I had to email all my friends to call my cell phone so I could locate it one beep at a time. It turned up in a bathrobe hanging in the bathroom. I don't recall how it got there, and it's not likely that it was a result of late night, drunken robe wearing debauchery. So, if any readers out there (all 2 of you) know the location of my button please send it back to me in HTML or perhaps CSS.

Things That Stink

Throughout today I'll be considering the following list: THINGS THAT STINK! First off on this list is the practice of parking your car on the lawn. So, just for the record, it is not cool to park on the front lawn!!! I'm not sure that any explanation or rational is necessary other than lawn parking is certainly in the same vein as mullets, Camaro driving and hauling your own garbage. All of the aforementioned, by the way, can be done at the same time.

So, more on THINGS THAT STINK!!! As promised. BTW, if there are any readers out there who would like to submit to the THINGS THAT STINK list, BMG.

Second on the list of things that stink is the current administration and it's flunky's desire to prevent the release of the Plan-B pill to the OTC status contrary to the fact that FDA scientists, unanimously find plan-b pill to be a safe form of birth control. The drum beat of the FDA higher-ups (puppets of W et all) is that Plan-B requires more bureacratic process before it can be sold over the counter. In other words we (substitute the current administration, the right wing conservative religions base, and folks like pill-popping Rush Limbaugh) believe that plan-b is a form of abortion.

Grinds up-date

In a word, "not-so-sloppy-grounds" this morning. I'm finding that at 2-3 clicks past medium, towards fine works well. Additionally, my tamp is more even. I have yet to figure out how heavy it is in pounds, as I don't have a bathroom scale. I can imagine squatting over a scale at some retailer with my grinds gear to test my tamp. Sales person: Can I help you? Me: No, no. I'm just gathering data here about my tamp. SP: Tamp? Me: (flustered because I've realized that the sp probably thinks I'm talking about tampons or some weird new diet) Uhhh, I'm trying to figure how hard to pack my grinds, so they don't come out soupy....douughhh. SP: You need to go now.

Dreams

For some strange reason I dreamed last night that I had left a bunch of stuff in a rented car in a location far away from my home and the rental car's home. I made a bunch of calls to try and have some-dream-one drive the car back home and bring me my stuff. As you might imagine, I awoke with no resolve.

Now I'm off to attemp a non-soggy-after-ground shot. what a nightmare. I'll let you know how that goes.

Recently I had the opportunity to photograph a family as they reacted to rain at the wedding. Kinda ironic. Rain, that is.

Bike for Peace Plug

For those interested, check out the side bar of links on this blog site. There you'll find several cool links. However, I'd like to take this opportunity to guide you to the Bike for Peace link.

Just a bit about these Hippies. I say hippies because in this modern world they have managed cast aside the normal grind of making a living to march...er ride across America in the name of Peace. Additionaly, you can imagine the hippy like smell after riding many miles a day in the hot, hot sun across the American breadbasket. Sounds Hippy cool to me.

Anyhow, Ron the leader of the group and the idea man of bike for peace is endeavoring to complete his second trans-American bicycle trek for the same reason. This morning they wheeled off to Seattle and then on to more eastern locals in the following days. But enough of me prattling on about their adventure. Bike for Peace has their own website and blog where you can read all about it.

Cheers and good luck!!