I saw this at the movie theater in Lacey:

Join the National Guard - it's practically like being a race car driver or a rock star.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold it right there!

- Actually, when you join the military, you will be trained to kill human beings.

While there are some similarities with race car driving, the truth is that it's very, very different.

Peaceful music video shot in Olympia, I am thinking that this has been posted here before, maybe by Rick.

from the description: a short video of Olympia, Wa. Features the music of M. Ward.

I have never been to Port Point Defiance Park in Tacoma before today, other than to go the zoo, and I was very positively impressed.  Its expansive design and the variety of what it had to offer reminded me of other urban parks such as New York's Central Park and Vancouver's Stanley Park.

We started off at the Fort Nisqually Living History Museum, which was quite interesting.  Formerly, the fort was situated in Dupont, but it's been moved to the park and is staffed with people in period dress, and is full of interesting artifacts and period vegetable gardens and a sheep grazing commons, etc.   

After we left the fort, we tramped around some of the many many trails that wind through the old growth forest, primarily madrona, fir and juniper.   Quite unexpectedly, we came upon a view of the Sound, with the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the distance. 

I posted a couple of comments on Peter Alden Stroble's OLY 2012's Final Position Paper Endorsing the Urban Waterfront Rezone post (about the Isthmus rezone.) I want to separate them and post them here. The first comment is in response to my effort to deepen the discussion about OLY 2012's advocacy of Smart Growth in regard to the furtherance of sustainability. Can "Smart Growth" further the goal of "sustainability?":

Deepening the Discussion

Yes, I would like to deepen the discussion. It's not easy for me. This is really difficult. I don't want this to get personal, because I know there are good people on both sides of this issue, and most people on both sides are honest and genuine when they think their way is the best way.

I would love to respond to every point in your paper. I would love to respond to every point in your above statement. I just don't think that I have it in me. I don't right now. I might not anytime soon. Maybe it will be easier for me to approach these points one by one after Tuesday's Council Meeting.

I just looked up Smart Growth today. I don't know all the details. I just know what it said on wikipedia - my understanding of which is that Smart Growth basically is a meme that seeks sustainability through dense urban living. That sounds great to me. And I am glad that we don't have any disagreement here.

If we standing on the top of the capital campus facing the ocean. We might not be able see the ocean if a wall of new development stretch along the water front between the ocean and capital dome.-----We need to protect the view for our future Washingtonian.

If the city of Olympia allow the developer to build narrow (20% of the proposed area facing the ocean and capital) and tall building (tall enough to let developer to build enough units that allowed) than it will block less view of ocean.

If the developer let the city own the sky right on top of the building and create a trail and elevator for public access the park in the sky.It will connect the ocean and capital lake through clime the entire height of the building. from the ocean to the lake, It will become part of the trail for public to enjoy the wonderful view of city Olympia. (The top of the building can be a out door stage for artist of the State of Wa.

It will be ideally to build two sky bridge to connect two streets with elevator for.

If the city provide some incentive to the developer for them to make good profit and help the community----name the park to the people who made it happen such as mayor of Olympia or city councils. It might be a win win situation to benefit all the people visit to downtown Olympia. Incentive such as more commercial space or more units allowed to be build.

All the trail climb to the top and going down the building should plant with trees, It will make the building looks like a forest in the sky if you look from the ocean or from the capital campus.

During the Michigan trip...

I called "Clash" (Anna Wilinski) of Jest Party (Kazoo Party Crew), and she said she'd help arrange for a CLOWN FIESTA! I desperately wanted to connect with other clowns for National Clown Week. I told her that a photo opportunity would be worth a great deal. We'd come 2000 miles already, so I could easily manage another 200 (Round Trip).

Jusby in Kalamazoo! Jusby in Ypsilanti! Jusby sketching a giraffe at the zoo and it looks like a balloon giraffe! LMAO! It was an exhilarating conversation. I was on fire with ideas.

She thought that she could learn a lot from ME! It turned out to be the complete opposite. Anna is a great teacher! She's an award-winning face painter. I was a doodler and dabbler.

88.6 miles from Grumps to Kalamazoo! In a Toyota Camry with no air conditioning.

And the driver's window doesn't roll down. At mid day on August 31st.

We stopped in Battle Creek after Orion had fallen asleep. I took him to see Wall-E at the mall.

LOVED IT!

When we arrived in Kalamazoo it was time for a swimming trip with Anna and friends at the public park. I also brought the PVC stilts to walk on the beach with our new friends.

I just posted a story about the Isthmus rezone issue: Isthmus Meeting on Tuesday.

Remember the City Council meeting at the Washington Center for Performing Arts on Tuesday! It's a public hearing on the Isthmus rezone, which has already been recommended by the Planning Commission. Doors open at 5pm and it is scheduled to get underway at 6pm. There is much at stake, maybe even the future novelty of this city. Do you want Olympia to homogenize and conform? Or do you want something different for this special place?

At a time of massively increasing economic disparity between rich and poor, is the development of a luxury condominium wise, or even appropriate? Smart Growth sounds great to me. But the Isthmus [and the rest of the city] must be preserved for the benefit of all - it must be kept affordable for all - not just made so only a few can afford something, which the vast majority cannot.

Not everything revolves around finance and property. The true path to happiness is love, and a meaningful sense of work and belonging in community - not materialism. The Isthmus would be a perfect place to monumentalize that concept. A public park in the sacred heart of Olympia. A place to learn, to relax, and to memorialize our relationships as individuals, and as a society, with the natural world upon which we depend...

I created an Isthmus photo set, which I will embed in a slide show below the fold. But first let me leave with you some excerpts from an article I recently posted on In the Course of Events:

[Forward from TESC Media Relations]