Summer is here and gas prices are up - more of us are on bicycles. Remember to use lights for night. Here is some local inspiration: Night riding

What I really dig is when a company takes something that is beneficial yet boring, like safety, and makes it fun. Drivers give you room like you won't believe, kids will love you, everybody else wants to talk to you and riding around on a cloud of neon light is just plain fun.

• lots of crazy crocheting to create an eerie Pacific Northwest rain forest-like environment with various shades of green yarn, beads, and other materials
• "What's your plan for academic success?"
• Note to the weather: thank you.
• We don’t have the capacity to solve every problem at once.
• Tonight I completed a household task... in triumph!

Pour yourself a cup of coffee and sample some local blogging:

• Ruby Re-Usable muses on plastics
• The Musing Conservative has advice for celebs
• Gabi Clayton has webspinner advice
• PJ Moon blogs about his youth ministry
• Being Frank - read it

This is actually very close to where I stand nowadays. This guy heard from Olympia 2012 at a Kiwanas meeting:

It seems I am not the only one that feels it could be so much more than it is now, which is basically a very small collection of good stores and restaurants, but otherwise a ghost-town come 5:30 PM except for several bars and tattoo parlors that bring in customers in the evening time. Every Arts Walk I see the scores of people walking the streets and think that this could be the case every weekend if there was something interesting to bring people in.

...

Dowtown could be so cool. I know people already think it is now, but it is not my vision of it and I am glad to hear I am not the only one. I had a coworker say she did not want “my kind of people” downtown anyway so she didn’t want it to change. I don’t know what she meant by my kind of people (I guess that meant over the age of 26 with wife and 2 small kids) and I chose to ignore that bigotted remark, but my friends, my family and I would all spend more time and money down there if it was vibrant place in the evenings and weekends; live music more often, outdoor cafes, a nice theater showing better movies (no, not Hollywood blockbusters, but something along the lines of a Laemle) are all things I would love to see- but of course this is all just my opinion. Everyone is open to share and fight for theirs if the proposals the Oly2012 group come up with matches up.

This is a very interesting, and to me, sad post. The "my kind of people" remark in the last graph was especially troubling for me because it seems to represent a lot of the emotional baggage people are brining to the isthmus debate.

My Favorite Cut-Outs by tricyrtis hirta.

Other local blogging:

Olympia Salvage Blog: Arts Walk This Weekend!

Earball Visions: Oly, here I come!

Oly-Rafa: Arts Walk Celebration - Tile Painting and Performance for Olympia Rafah Mural Project

My webpage that is. I'm working on getting content up for it. Give me a little time, especially as I work with the new development tools. If you have something really interesting to say, I will be putting up a "guest blog" section as well.

Edit: "Vermin of the Week" is up as well.

Here is a sample of several local women who blog. I've closed comments here so as to encourage readers to comment there:

In the 1930's, my great-grandparents owned Iverson's Grocery. Amy and I visited there today!!! The girl that was working there showed us pictures, and an article from the newspaper in 1999.

Meanwhile, Whirligig, that wonderful shop in downtown Olympia where Ms Re-Usable not only displayed her upcycled art work but also offered recycled art workshops, is closing this month. We are heartbroken, since there is no where else in town where Olympia Dumpster Divers and other indie/green artisans can gather to sell their unique wares and also teach their crafts.

Amanda and I went to Alex's school yesterday for an assembly. It was the second grader's turn this month. The school has certain values they are trying to teach the students, and each month, they learn about a word. March's word was "honesty", so the second graders put on a little program about honesty.

In traditional Byzantine iconography, there is little room for personal expression, which is not a bad thing–it’s a different type of energy that works through prayer and fasting. You get out of the way to serve the Mysteries.

Funny little tidbit... My 4 year old is fully starting to appreciate all holidays. However St. Patrick's day was perplexing to her. She didn't quite understand why there was a day to celebrate Sponge Bob's best friend, Patrick, and why we had to wear green.

I'm impressed with the Thurston County Democrats. They have a nice lookin' web site, easy to use. They've opened up their platform writing process so that anyone can watch and observe and even discuss.

Emmett O'Connell writes about this on his own blog: Thurston County platform writing open to the public

...and also on the TCD site: Help us write our platform!

A while ago I got a flat tire because somebody used the bike lane as a beer bottle drop.

This is a very cool story from local blogger Derek, read how the City got involved. Maybe more people will get inspired and do the same.

(comments are enabled there so I've disabled them here)

The Interfaith Works site (also check their new site redesign in progress) is a great place to visit when doing a survey of local faith communities.

Here is their statement of purpose:

Interfaith Works promotes interfaith understanding, and serves the community through charitable, social and educational endeavors.

Their list of members is especially helpful. Awhile back I went through the list to see what groups were running blogs and rss feeds. Along the way I've also found other faith communities that blog.

Why blog? This post 4 Ways Blogging Can Change Your Church from a Washington DC pastor has some ideas.

Some local faith blogs include:

• The Canaanite's Call
• Common Bread
• livingwater
• St. Ephrem Harp of the Spirit

Local faith bloggers use their blogs for outreach, reflection, discussion, and plans for worship. If you know of a local faith community that blogs, please let us know.