Come join your fellow citizens, bloggers, and other concerned parties at the Olympia School District's Knox Center for a community forum to discuss the ongoing budget crunch. Be heard! (More info here.)

I would like to start this next entry by offering my kind regards, to those who had the time to read my last piece. It is my understanding that some folks did not like it, and it was removed for content. I guess this took only a couple of minutes. So, I value your kind words and your ability to speed read. Clearly, in your instances, the public school system did not fail you.

I guess that I am a square peg, trying to force fit myself into a round hole, on this sight and in this town. It's funny, a lot of folks here, preach tolerance and say what we think and say counts, but I guess when you buck the trend, or latest fad, you get tossed out on your bum here on Olyblog and in Olympia. I am amazed at how in-tolerant this community is, when it comes to opposing popular thought.

I think this town stinks and it isn't getting any better. I have lived here now for 5-years, and it just seems that I keep hearing folks whine about how bad things are outside of this place, and because of that line of popular thought, we all have to suffer with public temper tantrums like last week and in November. The fact of the matter is simply this, most folks who are down to earth don't care if you are gay, straight, black, white or whatever... Folks care about how you conduct yourself, and how it impacts them in their daily life. I mean hey, if you want to make love to knot-holes in pines fences, go for it, just make sure it isn't my fence, and watch out for those splinters.

When I'm out and about, I'm often on foot or on bike. Periodically, I'll get yelled at. "Get a car!" or "Grow up!" At least I think that's what they said... most often it's completely unintelligible. It seems like yelling out car windows is a popular pastime, especially on the Westside. For clarification, they're not yelling at my behavior - I'm a strict rule-follower.

Does anyone else have similar experiences, or am I just a magnet for the loud ones?

OK, it is time for non-lethal duels at OlyBlog-

Call out your opponent or critic and meet for honorable duel at one of many public sites in Oly (including historic Sylvester Park, the scenic waterfront district, Capital campus, and the exotic Japanese garden).

Employ high-tech laser-tag technology, traditional paint-guns, or padded melee equipment to settle disputes, before engaging in prodigious public celebration (inebriation available for those 21 and over).

"For-hire" DM services also available on request (with reasonable prices starting at $5/hour, with group pricing based on number of participants), to allow contestants the option to settle disputes with "pencil, figures, & dice" on the war-game table (the only civilized way to duel =).

The Rev. James M. Lawson, Jr., will speak to peace and justice supporters, local government officials, and the general public 7pm at Temple Beth Hatfiloh, 201 8th Ave SE in Olympia at 8th & Washington, in downtown Olympia.

He will share what he's learned while in Olympia. He will also share his thoughts about activism, nonviolence and responisible citizenship in a democratic society. He will talk about building a community that both values activism - to promote better quality of life and greater equity among citizens - and ensures civility and respect for the rights of all.

The event is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the city of olympia, The Evergreen State College, The Hispanic Women's Network, Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation, Olympia Movement for Peace and Justice, participating members of Olympia Port Militarization Resistance, the port of olympia, Unity and the Community, and Veterans for Peace.

On KIRO 710 today, Dori is calling for the de-funding of TESC, with all the expected "foo-fur-rah"~

I think that the topic is just an indicator of how short the big D-Man is on material., but...

...I'm part of the the TESC community, along with over ten friends from the Puyallup area that attended from 1989 on, all eventually =) earning degrees & starting businesses, buying homes & having kids. TESC is really not that "radicalized".

I fluttered around at TESC and accumulated many credits, but ended up transferring to the UW Tacoma, which is also a neat place. I had no prob transferring 120 credits from my BA at TESC to UW, and my schooling at TESC connected me with many adventure and lots of high-paying work, whereas my experience at the UW Tacoma as a commuter student from Olympia was less "complete", but I was able to access programs centered in urban studies.

I just wanted to post (almost needlessly) some stuff here to counter-balance Dori's POV.

To some extent, I wish that our state & institutional government had a team of charismatic, verbose, jocular lawyers that could & would call-in to talk shows and monitor the blog-o-sphere, just for that sake of elevating the dialog with folks like Dori...

>cheers<

I think the vandals of May 1st gave the general public too much credit. Perhaps they assumed that the connection between these two monuments to capitalist gluttony, thievery, exploitations, wealth hoarding etc. and the plight of workers & immigrants would be obvious, and that the action would speak for itself without needing to be spelled out for people. They were wrong. Instead of making a connection between banks and oppression, it seems that many people (so habituated to identifying with their oppressors and letting T.V. and newspapers do their thinking for them) have simply made a connection between activists and what they erroneously call "violence". As such, i think that it would have been better if the banks were attacked on April 30th or May 2nd, so as not to have tied that level of militancy to something like Mayday, which is supposed to be a venue for above-ground-no-risk organizing & community building between immigrants/workers, and activists/advocates. These relationships are important because people from the activist/advocate community tend to be more privileged as far as race and class are concerned and therefore have greater access to rights and resources than do immigrants and poor people, thus making them very useful allies. In the wake of the May Day vandalism, as I understand it, some folks in the immigrant community are too sketched out to want to have anything to do with the mostly white activist community.

So today is way out beyond gorgeous. Supposed to get up close to 70, and looking out the window right now...not a cloud to be seen. It's a joy to ride in nice weather, which I suppose is why they run the Commute Contest in May, rather than, say February or August. :)

The last couple of years, I've hung up my bike (for commuting anyway) in November and not picked it up again until late February - early March. And then I'm really erratic with the spring rain. I rode one really clear day in January, which was exhilarating, but whoa! cold. Got to work with ice in my hair, on my knuckles, my knees, my forearms.

I think about riding in the rain, because it's not like it usually pours around here as it does some places. Right now, I just haven't gotten around to getting new rain paints, but I've also had the experience of getting my glasses entirely fogged over.

Which leaves me in the lousy situation of either not being able to see because my glasses are covered in mist or not being able to see because I can't see without my glasses.

I've heard that a longer helmet visor or a cap with a long brim could help. Does anybody have any suggestions for riding on days that are, well, the opposite of today?