this is my blog

i am right at the start of my 10 day stay in seattle. i have been wanting to check out the city for sometime now. it has always been compared to austin so my curiosity has been piqued for some time now. my good friend melody moved here almost two years ago but i haven’t seen her in almost three years. this trip is sort of a perfect storm because i get to experience seattle and see a good friend.

while i’ve only been here for three days, seattle is not what i expected. for example, i now better understand what the seattle “rain” is all about. while there has been something falling from the sky about 80% of the time i’ve been here it hasn’t exactly been what most people call rain. it’s not really a mist either. i like melody’s description of the moisture: gleeking. i am really amused at the idea that god is gleeking on his people. this weather will likely be the same for the entire time i’m here.

melody and her friend nedra have shared that it’s a bit hard to get to know people here. it’s not that they haven’t met people here it’s that seemingly for a town of transplants the town/people are not very welcoming. it’s as if everyone keeps to themselves. i had assumed that a town with such a good reputation would be more embracing.

the town does seem to please with a cool neighborhood set up and a compact downtown. quite a few of neighborhoods i’ve seen so far boast their own main street/town square sort of thing. i really like when neighborhoods offer unique to offer than ethnic diversity. most people including myself enjoy culturally diverse neighborhoods but it seems wholly generic instead of a reflection of unique individuals that envelope a culture. while some of the neighborhoods reflect the generic culture of wealth, there seem to be a fair amount of neighborhoods that reflect a lot of funk and i’m done with that. i will be exploring more of downtown in the upcoming days.

today is sort of a day off for me. i’ll probably just stay on mercer island (home of bill nye science guy not bill gates) which is were mel lives. she lives down the street from an indoor pool and a hike/bike trail. i’ll post pictures soon.

the j-school is hosting a speaker series again this semester. i haven’t gone to any of the speakers so far (other than to set up cameras and then leave) even though they have included michele norris, anna quindlen, and james natchway to name a few. i did go to a see a speaker last night by the name of alexandra robbins. i wasn’t certain i was going to see her speak but i went to a mid-day reception in her honor and watched the q & a. i enjoyed how she interacted with the crowd and found that she had a down to earth demeanor.

even though i was pretty tired after work i went to see her speak about her book “the overachievers”. this is a topic i have been fairly interested in recently as noted in the whole honors student rant i posted before. during this week i was asking people around the school if they were going to see her speak and largely the answer was no. usually it’s people asking me if i’m going to see the speaker and i am the one saying no usually because i’m so tired after my work day.

i got to the venue about 30 minutes early to see if anyone on the communications staff needed help. i was an event planner for two years so i understand how valuable it is to have people around that you can grab for help if needed. anyway, as i watched the venue fill up i noticed almost no one from the j-school (other than students) present. as the speech got underway, i really enjoyed hearing about the people in her book in addition to her thoughts has an overachiever. a question one of the high school students asked in her book as she was deciding what college to attend was “i guess i have to decide if i want to be happy or if i want to be successful.”

this of course struck a cord with me because, as i’ve written about before, all i’ve ever really wanted in life is to be happy and i’ve yet to know exactly how to obtain it. the short version of the speech last night was that happiness in its self is success. and that if you fight happiness by pursuing the things you think you should pursue instead of the things you want to pursue you will likely achieve unsuccessful happiness or unhappy success.

the point of this post other than the message of the speech is that i feel like a weirdo compared to the other people in academia. the speaker series is just a tiny way that it shows i guess. the speaker that has interested me is the one who is probably considered to be less prestigious than the other speakers in the series. while i find it fascinating that she has written a lot from the behind the scenes perspective, i guess somehow it’s not considered real journalism. or maybe it’s the groups she’s written about aren’t considered important enough in our society and that reflects on how she is viewed as a journalist.

anyway, i say: big ups to alexandra robbins.