Pike Place Market. We found a small french cafe and started our day with some crepes. We walked all throughout the market, and yes, saw some fish throwing along the way. Beautiful inexpensive flowers. Honeys and jams. Various trinkets and handmade goods. It was full of people from end to end. We caught the overwhelmingly strong scent of fresh doughnuts around the corner from the fish store, and had to get a half-dozen, bite-sized, powdered, and frosted.

After we were content to have seen most of the vendors, we ventured into downtown. Walked past several more stores, including the world’s first Starbucks, a handmade cheese shop, and at least 4-5 more Starbucks. We hiked up to the Westlake Plaza area and sat in the open square for a while, people-watching and saw the city horseback cops making their rounds. We walked around for a bit in the mall and stopped into a coffee shop (not Starbucks!) and had some molten dark chocolate mochas.

At this point we were feeling a bit tired from all the walking so we came back to the hotel and crashed. We didn’t realize it, but we were VERY tired, and slept until late in the night. Since it was Sunday night, most restaurants were closed, but a local place a block away from our hotel - Blue Lake Bistro - was open until 1AM, so that was our place. Krissy had mushroom soup and salad, and I had a chicken parmesan. The rest of the night was just spent hanging out in the room, watching TV. Chilling out. It’s ok to just chill on vacation, right?

So today, now that the weather is good, we plan to head over to what is supposed to be one of the world’s best zoo’s. Woodland Park Zoo. And possibly meet up with Amber for lunch or dinner, since the zoo is blocks from her house.

After a fairly decent continental breakfast, we ventured down to Seattle Center.

Our first stop was the EMP (Experience Music Project). Now from reviews on TripAdvisor.com, we weren’t sure if it was going to be a so-so experience as many people found it boring (absolutely not) and overpriced (it was worth the $$). There was an excellent gallery showcasing the birth of rock as it related to the Northwest, and showcased very exclusive memorabilia from the 50’s all the way up to modern rock. An entire wall was devoted to the “grunge” scene.

Other highlights included an wing devoted to the birth of hip-hop in the 70’s, a gallery of show posters from all eras, an incredible wing devoted to Hendrix, and a huge room that held many of history’s most important and most peculiar guitars. It was awesome to see some of the earliest known guitars, the first Martin, first Les Paul, first Strat… a really amazing collection. The most awesome piece of the entire museum was a sculpture comprised of over 700 different guitars, basses and a few random drums, keyboards, and computer-controlled guitars that performed a live music soundtrack using MIDI. It was at least 2 stories high and really amazing to view and listen to.

We ate lunch at the brand new Revolution Bar & Grill (it was the their 2nd day open). Krissy after scraping off a few fish eggs, she enjoyed her “Seattle Rolls” sushi and a very flower-tasting iced tea. I had a Prime Rib and Cheddar with au jus. Yum!

We then strolled over to the Science Fiction Museum located in the same building. This place was excellent! All kinds of weapons and aliens and books and videos and movie memorabilia. The best stuff for me were the “Alien/Aliens” egg, facehugger, Alien Queen (she was HUGE!) and Power Loader. Really surreal to see them up close.

After about 3 hours spent meandering through the museum we walked across the street and Rode The Ducks. They took some WWII tankboats and converted them to tourist-carrying tour buses that took us all around Seattle and right into the water for a lap around Elliot Bay. The guide had plenty of lame jokes and unique tidbits about the city.

We headed back to the hotel via our great complimentary hotel shuttle and decided what we wanted to tackle next. We chose to stick to the Seattle Center area and drove over to the Space Needle area and ate a cool little pizza place called Zeek’s. We did the usual - half veggie, half meat. It was a little light on sauce, but fresh and tasty with hardly any grease.

Now that the sun had gone down we walked over to the Needle. It was a fast 45 seconds to the top. It had been a light rain all day so we figured a night view would be better than a cloudy day view. Walked around the observation deck and looked at some of the inside descriptions of the history and construction. It’s something you’d only ever need to do once, but still interesting and a great view of the city.

Our last event of the day was at the Pacific Science Center Laser Dome. When we were at the hotel I was looking up info about the center and noticed they had a new show playing that night. A TOOL show! Krissy and I are big fans, and we wanted to do something cool to end the night, so it was just the ticket. We stood in line with about 50 other young hipsters and then once inside, sat in the reclined seats and waited. The new single, “Vicarious” started the show. It was LOUD. The visuals were trippy and an epileptic’s nightmare. The show had songs from all throughout Tool’s discography and had some really cool fog and light effects that created swirling clouds of light and made what appeared to be 3D blocks and lines all throughout the dome. The music lended itself so well to the format since Tool’s rhythm is clearly defined. I talked for a bit with the laser operator and was surprised to find that he not only created all the animations, but most of the show was performed live, on the fly. He must have been a real fan himself because it was so well timed to the music.

We drove back to the hotel, took a quick dip in the indoor hot tub, and then went to bed. So now it’s Sunday morning. Our plan is now to check out the Pike Place Market and some more of the waterfront, and possibly hook up with Krissy’s friend’s sister, Amber, who lives out here in Fremont.

We’ve arrived here in Seattle. And yes, the famous rainy weather was
here to greet us. Budget provided us with a cool little black Chevy HHR. Looks like a PT Cruiser, but boxier. Low visibility, but it’ll do.

The drive into Seattle on I-5 showcased an excellent view of downtown and its many unique buildings and the water. After a few missed turns and map checking, we’ve located our home for the next few days - Silver Cloud Inn. Our room is quaint with a waterfront view, faux fireplace, and complimentary high speed internet. Krissy recounts our day of flights and initial drive through town to her mom on the cell.

Our dinner outing is a local eatery reccomended by the kind woman who checked us in - Duke’s Chowder House. We should be starving since it’s 10:30pm FL time, but it’s still an early 7:30 here. Time for food! And what a treat! Krissy had a halibut special and I had award-winning baby back ribs. I also had a cup of cajun chicken chowder which was spicy and flavorful (can’t go to a place with chowde in the name and not try a cup of chowder!). We both had a pint of their local brewed amber which was smooth and tasty. For dessert, we had an immense slice of Butterfinger ice cream cake. It was a fantastic meal.

So its about 7:30am the next morning. Krissy is sleeping in as usual. Today will be our first jaunt into the city to really see some of what Seattle has to offer!

I came across an article on Digg about an alternative way of showing a captcha using pictures of kittens. This got my brain thinking on how would I devise a better captcha.

My solution is this:

What about putting a sequence of UP, LEFT, RIGHT, and DOWN arrows over a grid pattern. Then the user would just push the arrow keys in the sequence shown. All of the angles would be impossible for a computer to decipher what combination would work - but a human could distinguish the arrows and press accordingly.

It would be like entering the Contra code as a captcha.

This would also work on keyboards worldwide, as non-western keyboards might have characters outside of the English alphabet - but all keyboards have arrow keys (as far as I’m aware).

This doesn’t solve the issue of accessibility for the blind however that all captcha’s suffer from. The best solution I’ve found is an audio file that reads off what’s visually shown. This presents another issue - what language would it be read in? What if you are blind and deaf? What if you have no keyboard? At what point do you stop?

A truly worldwide, accessible captcha - Is it possible?

“all rhodes lead to roam”

the first solo track of 2006.

take a listen.

Merry Christmas!