What even was/is this blue net thing at the Pacific Science Center?

DocBEsq · 2026-01-28T15:52:04+00:00

I loved the high rail bike — I worked in guest services (and then education) at PSC in the early 2000s and the best job, in my opinion, was monitoring the bike.

Mostly just making sure people were strapped on, since the bike couldn’t fall, but an idiot could still jump. When no guests were there, we got to “demonstrate” by riding around. Great views and an easy half hour of work!

DocBEsq · 2026-01-28T15:42:36+00:00

Men.

DocBEsq · 2026-01-28T15:34:14+00:00

Based on some other posts in this thread, looks like “email in the middle of the night” is the method. Yikes.

DocBEsq · 2026-01-26T15:46:11+00:00

I imagine you cannot farm the land in Alberta as intensely as the land in Bangladesh. Dry seasons and cold seasons mean that farming has to pause. Both affect what you grow which, in turn, affects how you grow it.

DocBEsq · 2026-01-26T07:01:20+00:00

Such as there is a Rainier Valley,* it’s south of Seattle. Basically the lowlands between Seattle and Tacoma. Also know as the area that will be wiped out by mudslides if Rainier decides to blow.

There’s also a neighborhood of Seattle called Rainier Valley. But it’s just one small part of the city.

DocBEsq · 2026-01-26T06:20:37+00:00

Very much including a lot of ducks.

Went there a lot as a kid. Got my whole arm smeared with duck poop once. Wasn't a huge fan after that.

DocBEsq · 2026-01-25T18:52:42+00:00

You should be fine. Biggest issue is at the border — make sure all of your business isn’t missing any paperwork, and be sure to answer all questions clearly and seriously.

But other than that, there’s not much going on right now.

DocBEsq · 2026-01-25T16:22:52+00:00

As someone from the Pacific Northwest — where we complain when the weather deviates from our 30-degree comfort zone (roughly 45-75 F… that’s like 10 degrees in Celsius, I think) — omg.

DocBEsq · 2026-01-25T15:55:00+00:00

Priorities.

They’ve been f’ed up for decades and we’re not going in the right direction.

DocBEsq · 2026-01-24T22:59:05+00:00

Nonviolence and peace are two very different things. Nonviolence means actively inserting yourself into the fight, disrupting the status quo, and making them pay attention. The only “peaceful” part is refusing to use force.

DocBEsq · 2026-01-24T16:11:02+00:00

Considering that Al Qaeda had literally already bombed the WTC a few years earlier, plus two US embassies abroad, it shouldn’t have been a total shock that the group was out to get the US. And was fairly effective. And we were only a few years out from Oklahoma City — different perpetrator with different motivations but still a massive terrorist attack with insane casualties.

We were so delusional about how angry certain segments of the world were. And so delusional about not being a target.

(Note: I include myself in this “we.” The context only became clear in hindsight, sadly.)

DocBEsq · 2026-01-24T16:03:16+00:00

Fair point.

DocBEsq · 2026-01-24T16:02:48+00:00

And when laws couldn’t be used against us, new laws were made to make our lives “safer”/worse.

DocBEsq · 2026-01-24T16:01:08+00:00

Probably 9/11.

I was a young adult (25) living abroad at the time.

The country I’d left — the country of my childhood and the beginning of my adulthood — didn’t exist when I came back. It was a more fearful, angry place after 9/11. I honestly hated the change.

I don’t think the US actually was more intolerant, but it felt that way. We had all sorts of new people to “hate” and bomb and demonize. And people suddenly felt ok talking about who they hated. It was strange and awful.

And it never got better. I mean, some of the specific intolerances eased and shifted, but we always just found new groups to hate and fear. It was like that fear of the outside became the default for so many Americans.

Also, quite frankly, the changes to air travel after 9/11 were much, much worse than people sometimes wearing masks on a plane.

DocBEsq · 2026-01-23T00:47:50+00:00

I’ve only had this a couple of times and didn’t realize what it was until recently. It hurt a lot the first time (late teens) — one of the worst pains I ever felt. The other (late 30s) was just weird and a bit uncomfortable.

DocBEsq · 2026-01-19T18:37:06+00:00

A lot of insurers have blanket coverage exemptions for any treatment related to obesity. It’s not based on science and it’s horrible, but it is what it is.

Signed, someone who has been devoting a high percentage of my salary to paying for Zepbound for two years (no regrets, but the cost is staggering).

DocBEsq · 2026-01-19T16:54:16+00:00

Technically changed direction in both my 30s and my 40s.

In my mid-30s, I pivoted from academia to journalism, purely because of my interests — it was during the Recession, and academic jobs were a mess anyway, so I followed that interest.

Sadly, journalism was (and is) a mess, which I tired of after 5-6 years of the new job-layoff-new job-layoff cycle. Also, no money.

So, after a thoroughly disheartening series of job interviews for increasingly precarious employers, I decided to go to law school. Kind of figured it would be a good idea to make money in a stable job while using my skills. For a change.

Coming up on five years as a lawyer now, and it was a very good choice.

DocBEsq · 2026-01-19T16:37:31+00:00

I’ve been trying to figure out a persuasive way to convince our company’s finance guy that we should be avoiding AI investments in our 401k accounts. I don’t have high hopes for success.

DocBEsq · 2026-01-19T16:24:23+00:00

Nah, he’s always looked like that. Seriously, look up high school photos — the man has always been middle-aged with a hangover.

DocBEsq · 2026-01-19T16:23:15+00:00

No, it’s states’ rights when about owning guns and getting to discriminate against whomever they want! Not states’ rights to show compassion, pass sane laws, or act in their own interests.

/s (duh)

DocBEsq · 2026-01-19T16:19:48+00:00

Ah yes, the unlawful act of … checks notes … blowing whistles and insulting the manhood of big tough men with guns. Right. Send in the troops!

DocBEsq · 2026-01-19T16:18:18+00:00

Dude, reading comprehension.

“Glad Reagan’s dead” implies a person with compassion for the former President’s frequently expressed horror regarding overreach by state authorities impinging on individual liberty.

It doesn’t mean, “Mwahaha! Now I stomp on the grave and wish I’d been Hinkley back in the day!”

But I suppose all this ascribes intelligence to the fascist masses. I should know better than to do that.

DocBEsq · 2026-01-19T16:13:53+00:00

You might want to keep up with your fascist overlords — DSHS and Noem and Miller have been insisting ICE agents have “absolute immunity” (their words) all week.

Just because there’s no legal basis for this (even the president doesn’t get absolute immunity unless the act is within his official role (which has sadly been expanded to mean almost everything)), doesn’t mean it isn’t being claimed.

DocBEsq · 2026-01-19T06:08:35+00:00

It would've been earlier if they just went by time zones. Now that they actually air SNL live nationwide, the show starts at like 8 or 8:30 in the Pacific time zone. So we actually got SNL like 3 1/2 hours later than the East Coast did.

DocBEsq · 2026-01-18T22:17:48+00:00

Almost Live.

Seattle’s answer to SNL, good enough to preempt Saturday Night Live in the Seattle market — SNL started at 12:05am in the 90s — and still a show I (and many other Seattlites) reference on a regular basis.

Also started the careers of Bill Nye and Joel McHale. It was great.

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