Doug’s World

Recent photos

I’ve been too busy to post much lately, but here are a few photos from a delicious dinner with the Orcmids a couple weeks ago, and a few others from around the house last week …

Good news: the surge is working

A young woman surrounded by well-armed soldiers, “more boots on the ground than John McCain had,” helicopters patroling overhead, talks of how exciting it is to be here in a Baghdad market, something she couldn’t imagine doing not long ago. Compelling.

Update: added today’s latest Iraq story.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — The death toll in the suicide bombings Tuesday in northern Iraq has risen to at least 500, local officials in Nineveh province said Wednesday. … The Tuesday truck bombs that targeted the villages of Qahtaniya, al-Jazeera and Tal Uzair … were attempts to “break the will” of the American people and show that the U.S. troop escalation — the “surge” — is failing, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon said.

Goodnight, Karl

Karl Rove has decided to “spend more time with his family” as the saying goes. Some are calling it the symbolic end of the Bush era.

His first plans after leaving the Bush team: go dove hunting. If the policies he has supported the last few years are any indication, he better bring lots of ammo!

I must admit, I’m rather happy to see the end of this particular era.

Random videos

I saw this and thought “what can you say?” …
http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2007/08/net_neutrality_censorship_and.html

Then I saw this, and decided I had spoken too soon:
http://www.1938media.com/where-are-the-black-tech-bloggers/

Lifeless suburban gasbags can live in the city too, you know.

Monkey business

I’ve wondered for some time how much security we’re really getting for all the money we’re spending on TSAs and DHSs and other acronyms. And now I read the story of a guy who made it into the United States with a pet monkey hidden under his hat on his flight from Peru.

And that scares me. Because I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark, so I know that monkeys are evil little Devils who enjoy doing evil things.

Picture an angry monkey sneaking into the USA with a folded-up scrap of paper in his pocket that says “Al Qaeda fed up with ground-zero construction delays.” Chilling, eh? Now next time you’re at the airport, notice all the hats a monkey could fit under.

I’m sure enjoying not traveling this summer.

Curing tardiness in Thailand

I just heard from my friend Wendy about Thailand’s answer to China’s cartoon porn patrol (whose cute symbol I found so endearing): Hello Kitty armbands. If anyone can get me one of those, I’ll wear it with pride.

And yes, it’s true: not to brag, but I am personal friends with Intern Wendy. She is one of the only persons who has ever accompanied me and Megan to our top-secret regular lunch spot, where we never run into co-workers unless we bring them there ourselves.

Based on that last post, Wendy, lunch with Tucker is sounding better all the time!

Switching sides

An award-winning narcotics cop decided that the war on drugs does more harm to society than drugs do. So he’s working for the other side now.

Can’t believe this guy’s not on Oprah. Give it time.

Seafair air show

When we moved in to this house, we thought we’d have a Seafair party. We talked about it for months. Then, after I had traveled so much the last few months, we decided to lay low and not make plans. Megan did some babysitting on Sunday, and we also went to Aidan’s party on Saturday.

Here are a few photos I snapped on Saturday afternoon.

I’ve not watched the Seafair air show live since the late 70s. And that got me to thinking about something …

I remember lying on the Lake Washington beach between I-90 and Genesee Park, sunburned in the late afternoon, hearing the fighter jets buzz the beaches. Did they come closer then? None of the action this weekend was as close to the shore as I remember it, or as low. But, truth be told, I’m not sure whether I trust my recollection of those beer-drenched days of summer.

Any other old-timers have an opinion on whether the planes fly further out in the middle of the lake now than they did many years ago? And do I remember correctly that we had sonic booms back then too?

You know you’re getting old when you have to ask.

Aidan’s Party

Aidan turned one, and thus started a tradition: sharing the birthday spotlight with Megan. He seemed to take it well, and now the two of them are bonding with some quality babysitting time on a Sunday afternoon. They were last seen in Fremont around 1:00PM.

Hugo House Cottage

Here in the US, as in many places, the creative literary lifestyle and the degenerate drug-addled lifestyle have often come together in a single person. Ernest Hemingway, Hunter S. Thompson, Jack London, and Jack Kerouac are typical: men who spent their time recovering from prolonged fits of self-medication or writing, each of which served as the inspiration for the other.

That lifestyle can prove stressful, however, as the suicides of those four clearly attest. So in in laid-back Seattle, where we always put safety first (have you ever tried to jaywalk here?), we have a sane and responsible approach based on specialization. Our authors write, and our addicts ingest, and each is happier and healthier for not straying from their chosen path.

But what about the stories that Papa found in those bottomless mojitos, or the characters Duke dredged from his ether binges? Isn’t self-medication at the core of many of the greatest writers’ triumphs? No worries, Seattle has a simple and straightforward solution for that, too: Cody lives in one of the Hugo House cottages.

Last night Cody was kind enough to invite a few friends to step over the used needles and urine stains to join him for a party, photos of which will appear in a separate post shortly. Meanwhile, here are a few photos of Seattle’s oldest and finest urban residence …