Emily Stewart, over at Vox.com, wrote up a good look at the anti-mask folks. It’s done respectfully and with taste, which I greatly appreciate in the current climate. I’ve been struggling to comprehend this mindset, so deeply appreciate such an article. With today’s environment of “gotcha journalism” and “pwning” your opponents, Ms. Stewart’s approach is refreshing. I’m reminded of Steven Covey’s principle of listening with the intent to understand. An uncommon yet critically needed approach.
Tag: News
A Reflection Upon Rage
In the face of rage
We need to face each other
The birds sing for all
With so much rage, how do we grow and nurture, especially the “others”?
In tonight’s haiku, I try to deal with today’s news
Such wretched sadness
Pained hearts and tears aplenty
Cold rain falling now
Horrible News
Early in the day
Witnessing such suffering
A surreal day
The Amtrak derailment about 60 miles south of me dominated the news, and my awareness yesterday.
For Tom Petty
At first, resistance
Everyone I knew
Adores all those tunes
Which , in my mind
Trite, vacant, and “No”
Glad to say that’s wrong
Gritty dissonance
Akin to Dylan
The honest seeking
Within his lyrics
Brought out the sunlight
In this darkened world
A Truly Horrific Day
Filled with painful news
Death, destruction and much pain
Manifest sorrow
A few recommended Real Estate articles
As you may know, I work in the real estate industry. I’m a licensed real estate agent, though currently don’t have my license with a brokerage, and work in the construction sector. With that, I watch the industry closely. These articles below cover national trends, which do impact us at a local level, somewhat.
- New home sales continue upward course in June: The number of sales increased while the price decreased. Again, these are national numbers.
- Case-Shiller: Housing is not repeating the bubble period: this is good news. Of course, home prices outpacing inflation and, critically, wages, is troublesome, regardless of whether we’re in a bubble or not.
So, a few interesting articles about the national market.
Enjoy!
Footage of the Mukilteo Plane Crash
Yesterday I wrote a bit about the plane crashing in Mukilteo, just north of Seattle. Well, a dashcam caught the dramatic moment.
Impressive, and a little scary, video.
Note: no one was hurt. Though at least one car was burned out.
Plane Crashes, Commutes, Construction and Taekwondo: My Week So Far
It certainly has been interesting around the North Puget Sound area the past few days.
First, bigger, news-worthy thingie: plane fell out of the sky. Well, that’s how it was described by an eyewitness. Most important detail: no serious injuries. Reminds of the old pilot joke:
“A good landing is one you can walk away from. A great landing is one where you can reuse the plane.” Not sure if this plane will be in the air again. Not my skillset.
I live about 5 miles from the crash site, so this messed up my commute, as well as my son getting to his choir rehearsal yesterday. Minor things, I guess.
A couple of my construction projects are coming together abruptly. Great news, really, but I’ve spent a bit of time running around dealing with loose ends. It’s been awesome, though. It’s pretty great to get people into homes. Right now one of the best projects is a custom home we’re building on Camano Island. The proverbial dream home. These folks have worked their whole lives for this. It’s really wonderful, and somewhat humbling, to be part of helping them turn it into reality.
With that, another project’s coming together rapidly. Got to head out to the county admin building twice today! I do enjoy the folks there. Sure, not everyone is bright and cheerful…but that’s true of everywhere…even Starbucks!
I ended the evening at taekwondo (editor’s note: I love my school in Lynnwood: YS Lee Martial Arts! Full Disclosure: I manage the website, Mailchimp and Facebook communications there). Spent our normal class time working with new students, introducing them to their poomsae. It’s fun and an honor. I’m also reminded how much there is yet to learn. I know the structure of it quite well. However, knowing the art doesn’t mean you know how to teach it. Pedagogy is something I don’t know that much about. I’m trying to teach them, keep them excited and interested in the martial arts (there’s so much to learn in the beginning, it can be overwhelming). I want to keep it fun and interesting.
I also got to judge a colored belt test this evening. It’s another privilege of being a blackbelt. I deeply adore being part of these milestones. One of the testees was a girl I’ve known since she was, basically, a baby. It was great to see her making such progress. And I judged a woman I’ve known for the better part of a year now (egads, maybe more…), and I love the power she has. You won’t want to be hit by her!
Above I briefly mentioned poomsae, equivalent in karate to kata, and we translate it to “form”. Poomsae are a key differentiation between fighting and martial arts. Graceful styles, which, when done well, exude grace, strength and beauty. Below is one school’s demonstration of the first 8. I’ve enjoyed this one for years.
Do great things, be excellent to each other!
Our First Autumn Storm : PNW Weather
Up in Lynnwood and Marysville, where I live and work respectively, we’ve had a few significant wind gusts and some heavy rain, but nothing too dramatic. So, I’m fine and so’s the rest of my family. However, below are a few things to show the progress of the storm throughout the region. 
- Here’s a better report of what’s going on: Record rain, 100 mph gusts calm down Friday before second storm
- A little over 200 miles to the south, though, we’ve had the most dramatic event so far. Manzaita, OR got hit with a tornado. Pretty dramatic footage out there.
- And here’s the Weather Channel’s look
- I’ve created a Storify for this. I’ll keep it updated as things progress.
- A friend of mine created this storm preparedness guideline. Good advice here
