As our spam filter continues to learn, sometimes posts and comments will be held until a docent logs on and moves it from spam filter to published. Nothing personal. Sorry about the delay that will sometimes happen, just the nature of the beast/spam filter.

We regularly weed out spam accounts and I've noticed a rise recently in spam activity. If you have registered for an account and you still are not able to log on relatively soon, let us know, there is a possibility an inadvertent mistake was made. We can easily get you all fixed up.

While the Geoducks hosted their own Arno Zoske tourney, the Saints men's and women's side travelled down the Northern California and didn't do too bad.

Well, actually, the Saints men took and old fashioned thumping by Humboldt State, something I think we might want to prepare ourselves for more of as the first year program rolls out. From the Saints themselves:

Saint Martin’s was unable to hold off hot shooting Humboldt State University as they fell 7-0 in the opening game of the HSU Quiznos Soccer Classic Thursday afternoon.

"A John Lennon song with the lyrics ‘nobody told me there would be days like this' summed up the Saints' afternoon against Humboldt State,” said head coach Rob Walker. “The 2-0 half time was pretty positive. There was quite a bit of good soccer played and a couple of little mistakes had proven to be the difference at half time.”

The Saints men won their next game against Notre Dame de Namur. When the Saints came home this week, they dropped a game against Whitman.

The Saints women likewise split their tournament time in California, losing to Humboldt, but beating Notre Dame de Namur.

Enjoyers of modern art (impressionalist to surrealists) should run to the bus stop immediately to head north for the Monet to Dali exhibit at Vancouver Art Gallery (that's Vancouver BC eh).

The pieces on loan from the Cleveland Museum give a fantastic narration through the development of modern art sensibilities starting with early Monet's (you get a great sense of Monet's progression beyond the customary waterlillies stuff), plus Manet, Pisarro and Renior (including some from the original Paris exhibitions) - then moves on to a Cezanne, two van Goghs a sculpture room with a few Rodin bronzes before Matisse, Gauigan and a half dozen Picassos and a room of German experimentalists and Dadaists then surrealist collection with a huge canvas by Henri Rousseau, a couple of Dalis and finishes with a Henry Moore sculpture. Whew.

The exhibit ends on Sept. 17th so rush up as the crowds are growing as the deadline looms.

Here's a fine camera phone snap to *really* convince you to go:

By the way, the Gallery Cafe is a great place to have a glass of wine and a cheese plate while listening to jazz al fresco and watching the Vancouverites stroll by.

Former Olympian and Zhonka guy DaveO here. I am livin/working in Vancouver BC for a Drupal development shop Raincity Studios and a drupal community site called Happyfrog.ca a brand-new, hyperlocal eco-biz directory and info-clearinghouse. I also make heaps of podcast on my own (hemp, literature, hockey, etc.)

Anyhow, all this background is to say that I'll be in Olympia tomorrow (Friday Sept. 7th) and would like to record a podcast episode with an Olyblog docent for Raincity Radio.

I seek to interview OlyBlog from both a community interaction lens and a technical angle. Topics will include: who is the community?, the challenges of management, tweaking site performance, best practices, and the results of the project.

So who's up for this? Preferably a docent who is comfy speaking to a mic and has some long experience with the site and some compelling stories to tell. Not to fear though, as a drupal-entusiast and community builder, i'll lob you up easy topics to riff on and my Zhonka colleagues Jay and Nat will be participating as well.

We can do this from a convenient Zhonka Surfbreak downtown, preferably early afternoon (say 1 or 2pm) and the process will take about an hour.

Holler back to dave (at) raincitystudios (dot) com or add a comment to this post.

John Drebick bought the downtown Safeway property for $2 million and the property next door for $650,000. He is asking the city to buy these properties for $3.3 million plus two thirds of one percent for each month that passes without closing. He’s giving the city until September 24th to make a decision before marketing to others and intends to sell the property no later than November 1st. He also demands a non-refundable $200,000 deposit. Drebick now owns a block of downtown which could be utilized for purposes other than opening new businesses or hosting a new city hall. The city is contemplating buying the property for the latter. Essentially, we play no part in this decision making process.

I suggest we take back the land. It wasn’t Safeway’s. It isn’t Drebick’s. And it doesn’t have to belong to city counsel either. The property belongs to all of us. We now have a unique opportunity to reclaim a small piece of what has been taken from and sold or rented back to us. What we need is a clear assertion of our right to a downtown which is progressively being sold to developers, businesses, and the upper-class. We deserve a downtown that is our own. A space which is not owned by those who will continue to impose their bougie beliefs and ways of living on us. These people continue to make Olympia uninhabitable and inaccessible, especially for those of us who have no other place to live, sit, rest.

So, what can be done? How can we take back our town? And what should we do with that space?

It’s up to us to decide.

Any input is welcome.

Updated: 1 hour, 49 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department on Thursday said Internet service providers should be allowed to charge a fee for priority Web traffic.

The agency told the Federal Communications Commission, which is reviewing high-speed Internet practices, that it is opposed to "Net neutrality," the principle that all Internet sites should be equally accessible to any Web user.

Read more here

When: This Friday, Sept. 7, noon to 2 pm

Where: Baird's Olympia office, 120 Union Ave (off Capital Blvd, downtown). Park on adjacent streets.

Also, tune in to KAOS, 89.3 FM today (Thursday) from noon to 1 pm, to hear a discussion with Gail Johnson, Steve Niva, and Phan Nguyen, about Baird's current Iraq position.

Last week, Congressman Brian Baird announced his position switch on the occupation of Iraq. Following a recent trip to the region (his 5th), he has gone from opposing the 'surge' to supporting it (thru next Spring).

Last week in Vancouver over 500 attended a Baird town hall meeting, the overwhelming majority were vehemenently opposed to his position switch. In Longview, hundreds attended a similar public meeting with similar results. Why didn't Brian Baird hold a public meeting in Olympia? We think we know why.

Read more

From the Olympian

OLYMPIA — Just a couple of weeks after Olympia's homeless camp moved to St. John's Episcopal Church, another church has agreed to play host to the tent city after that.

The council of the First United Methodist Church of Olympia voted Tuesday to bring Camp Quixote, as the tent city is called, to its grounds starting about Oct. 1, said Jerry Smith, a parishioner who is working to move the camp. Smith said the church's Christian beliefs compel it to take on the camp.

This makes me very sad,

Sep 6, 9:05 AM (ET)

By ALESSANDRA RIZZO

On Tuesday at about 5:20 p.m., I was driving my family home from the park at Percival Landing. We drove up 5th Avenue and came upon a strange sight. A protest of the Olympia Police Department was taking place at the bridge along the street. Almost every one of the twelve to fifteen protestors were holding a white tag board with black paint writing on claiming racism and calling the police officers 'pigs' and so on.

Does anyone know about this protest who could give some back story to it? I watched the posts for the last two days, however unless I missed something I didn't see anything about it. I am a little surprised about that to say the least. I also did not see anything about it in the Olympian.

Among other things, I am just wondering what it was all about.

C.