Seattle, Potlatch, Cedar's, Murkworks

Tuesday, 29 February 2000

I took off from Crossover at 3:30 PM Thursday, which got me to JFK at about 5:20 for my 5:55 (EST) flight. Half that time was the shuttle bus to the airport from the Howard Beach subway stop. Picking up the ticket I'd bought through Potlatch was smaller than I expected -- 200 people, maybe. Lots of toys in the registration room, and lots of folks who knew me from the Net. Bill Humphries and I chatted some about weblogging. I got to meet Aahz Maruch, Lenny Bailes, Kate Schaefer, Ulrika O'Brien, and many other folks who'd previously been rows of 80-column type.

Sunday it was off to Mimi and the Murkworks. Met Anna, Paul, and Dar, got settled in. Logged a quick telnet session to fix a bug that had slipped into this site's PHP during some last-minute editing Thursday. Watched the usual Sunday night TV, including a truly awful episode of The X-Files -- the one with the killer woman in the VR game. Mimi labelled it a "Jump the Shark" episode.

Monday: Took a bus down to Pike Place Market. The market itself is nice, but the waterfront looks so much like New York's South Street Seaport that I suspect the same design firm was hired. Came back to the Murk to find that I had dinner plans. I'd been planning to get in touch with some local gamer folks I knew from Alarums & Excursions -- Rob Heinsoo, Chris Pramas, Nicole Lindroos, and Jonathan Tweet -- but hadn't gotten to it yet, and they'd all figured out that Monday was the only day it could work out, so they went ahead and arranged things for 7 PM at Cedar's. Fortunately I got in around 6, and Cedar's is only a few blocks from the Murk. We chatted about gaming, New York (city) and Washington (state) politics, Palm Pilots, and other things, and I decided that I could really get used to a place that serves hot chai.

Today: More sight-seeing. Took a bus to the International District, the most orderly-looking Chinatown I've ever seen. It started raining in earnest, so I got back into the Metro Tunnel (which looks like a subway from an alternate universe) and headed over to Pioneer Square and wandered around there for a bit even though it was still raining. It was either at the Grand Central Arcade or the Occidental Mall that I decided Seattle was the most seductivly beautiful city I'd ever seen. I'm strongly tempted to move here, but I'm not gonna.

Back to the Murk, listened to CDs with Mimi for a while then it was time for Buffy and Indian food. Then off to the Net, for to check email and write Natter. Lise Eisenberg called to set up a sushi expedition for tomorrow.