Whenever I've walked across the 4th Ave bridge while the dam is open, I've seen harbor seals popping their heads up between the bridge and the dam. They only seem to show up south of the bridge when the dam is spewing out water, which makes me wonder: are they there just to play in the eddies? Or does the dam push out a fishy free lunch for the seals?

I've been having an idea for an Olympia city wiki floating around in my head for a while; while on tour, I decided to do some research and see how hard it would be to make one. Well, turns out the folks at Davis wiki (the largest English-speaking city wiki) have already expanded their wiki server to be used for any purpose, and, being totally inspired by their wiki, I set up an Olympia wiki: olywiki.

This could become an incredible community resource, allowing anyone to access specific information about local culture, businesses, politics, events, activism, and more, always in a contextual environment. It's really bare-bones right now but with your help, it could be amazing, and it could serve the entire community, whether you're an activist, a business owner, a secretary, a musician, or anyone else with an interest in local affairs.

Right now, the URL is oly.wikispot.org but I'd be willing to shell out some cash for a catchier domain and attach it to the wiki, if a lot of people show interest.

What do you all think?

An article in today's Olympian, "Constant evolution in the arts", doesn't even mention the monthly art walks that have been occurring since January. Interesting. The last one was around 15 or 16 houses and lit up the whole neighborhood with people of a variety of ages.

I do wonder if maybe the house party art walks aren't promoted along certain avenues (for instance, press releases to the Olympian) because certain segments of Olympia society just "aren't invited." Or maybe the Olympian knows that its main audience does not include greeners.

Thoughts?

Just move to Olympia's east side from Seattle by way of a 7-month detour in Florida. Here are some initial observations about the folks in this town.

Tons of new jobs are opening up in Olympia for the legislative session from January to April! It seems as if just about anyone that has anything to do with state government is hiring for just those four months. It's quite handy for me, since they all start very shortly after I pack up and leave to Oly. I'm sending in the resumes! Of course, I have no idea what I'll do for work after the session, but hey, one thing at a time.

I'm an ex-Seattlite and current Floridian moving back across the nation. I will land in Olympia.

I'm giving notice to my employer in early December, then shopping around for an office job and, ideally, a 2-bedroom house to rent. Then I'm taking off about 4 days before Christmas, and landing my station wagon in the Pacific Northwest just in time for New Year's Eve.

Escaping the conservative torpor that I live in will be the easy part, just requiring a little bit of patience and time. I'm much more worried about what to do when I get to my destination.

Hopefully I'll have a job and a place to live lined up, but if I don't, my savings are going to be dwindling quick. And even if I can take care of both of those things, there will be only one person I know within 40 miles... which doesn't seem like much, but I am a little afraid of having to travel that far just to see another familiar face. And yet, what I've experienced of Olympia and what I've heard about it both seem to suggest that I should have an easy time making friends—or at least acquaintances—and feeling at home. Whatever the case, Olympia will be a much easier home to acclimate to than the place I'm stuck in now.

So there's my hodgepodge escape plan. I'll post periodically here about how it's working out.