West Seattle, Washington
15 Tuesday
-Some especially excellent comments today, and we want to call your attention to them in case you don’t usually read the comment sections of WSB posts. Below our report about the Northwest Art & Frame broken window, we just heard from “TR,” the early-morning dog-walker who spotted the damage and called authorities. And after this post updating the “West Seattle Art Attack” pumpkin surprises, we heard from people (Randie and Ben) at two of the houses “hit” by WSAA. Thanks to everybody for coming to WSB and adding new information!
-Several people e-mailed us yesterday about a mysterious sign near “Walking on Logs,” close to the relentlessly patrolled area where political signs have been turning up, and coming down. Last night we did pull over to check out that sign — it is a printout of the city sign ordinance, with the relevant section highlighted in a marker color that we can’t help describing as “angry red.” We’ll see shortly if they have gone after the signs just put up by a certain City Council candidate who seems determined to let us all know she (hearts) The Viaduct. (Including in-person sign-waving at 35th & Fauntleroy this morning.)
-If you’re interested in acupuncture, a reader e-mailed us recently suggesting that more people might want to know about a community acupuncture clinic at The Mount on Monday afternoons, run by Angie Hughes. “Reasonable price and an underutilized resource,” according to the reader, so we’re tacking it up on our equivalent of the virtual bulletin board, with this post.
For everyone who just couldn’t wait to find out more about this suddenly much-advertised condo conversion south of Morgan Junction … the website is now up. (As are [illegal] sandwich-board signs all along southbound 99 going at least as far back as the Battery Street Tunnel.) If you’ve got some time to kill, take a look at the site and (a) find the errors and (b) tell us if you recognize the coffee shop on the “contact” page.
In celebration of “great vis,” this blogging diver went out at night this week in West Seattle waters and reports seeing not just one Giant Pacific Octopus, but six, “within a 25-yard area.” A photo of one is included (scroll down to the entry dated today).
Gorgeous nearly full moon in the western sky this morning. 1000 year headache (one of the dozens of sites on our Other Blogs in WS page) has two excellent pix.
Two notes from our weekly check to make sure the Other Blogs in WS page links are still good (and to see what all those other lively West Seattle writers are up to!):
-Looking for a West Seattle house for less than $300,000? One blogger’s house just went up for sale, and she’s started this blog [wsb note: link removed 12/26/07, no longer active] to get it a little extra attention.
-Dropping by the JetCityOrange blog reminded us that JCO’s Jerry had sent us a link earlier about some mysterious graffiti he spotted around town, wondering if anyone knows what it stands for. (Check it out here.)
UPDATE from originally posted RRR: WSB reader Kmac wants advice on the best HOME wireless internet provider. Kmac elaborated in a comment on our previous post:
… I’m looking for PROVIDERS of wireless internet service at HOME. I really don’t want to call Comcast and sometimes I can’t go out and need to stay home. Yes, I’m one of the few folks still without internet service at home and bizarre, bizarre – I only have one wireless network close to home I can “link” to, but I have to be out on my balcony. I think I remember a year or so ago a company new to WS offering internet service, but they weren’t offering it everywhere – at least not yet in Alki. So…that is my need….wireless internet at home that isn’t from Comcast.
The company Kmac refers to is likely Clearwire. How’s that working for WS users? And how about the wireless phone companies who also offer wireless broadband? Plus — any little-known options? Comment away!
REVISION FROM ORIGINAL POSTING: WSB wants to know your favorite spot for free wi-fi in WS (originally attributed to a reader who actually was asking about home wireless internet, so we are posting a separate item). Back when we were all quaking in anticipation of Freeway Fright ’07, we had intended to come up with an official list — but as we all know, FF ’07 never did explode into a commutastrophe, so we dropped the effort. Some readers noted their faves at the time in comments on this post, and Jerry at JetCityOrange pointed everyone to a WS-wi-fi Google Map he put together on his “About West Seattle” page. Various other websites aren’t necessarily reliable — this one, for example, lists at least two WS places that have been closed a while (Bikes & Brew and Carosello). So what’s your fave? Let’s see if we can crowdsource the latest list.
The marketing website is now up for Strata, the condo conversion (first mentioned here in June) formerly known as the Graham Street Apartments, at Cali/Graham north of Morgan Junction. Always fascinating to take a look at how these sites market the buildings and the neighborhood — in this case, the page about “the location” pitches The Junction (mentioning Elliott Bay and Uptown) rather than much-closer Morgan Junction; “the building” is described as “Northwest Contemporary” (though built in 1987); the page about “the design” mentions “tidy modern landscaped spaces for ground floor homes” (we’ve noticed fences going up on the Cali side of the building). The home page describes Strata as “priced within reach”; prices aren’t on the site right now but the promotional e-mail announcing the website says “from the low 200s.”
As Mars Hill Church-West Seattle expands to two Sunday services starting tomorrow, it appears MHC has gone to 100% video preaching for its satellite locations such as WS, with the “campus pastors” opening & closing the services, and the sermons all given on video by MHC leader Mark Driscoll. This is detailed in the newest blog post by West Seattle’s campus pastor Adam Sinnett, who points to an explanation from Driscoll — in the form of a 36-minute video, available online. We just watched it out of curiosity; it’s a long ramble that goes back into history, starting by contending that Christian leaders going back to Jesus himself were tasked with “using the opportunities that culture provides us,” then going on to discuss technological breakthroughs with religious ties, such as the printing of the Bible and the invention of the film projector by Thomas Edison (described by Driscoll as a “devout Christian” though we’re having trouble finding corroboration online). Driscoll notes that video preaching “frees up” each campus pastor to spend more hours each week “shepherding” the local flocks, and he notes generously that the campus pastors are “allowed” to preach “live” during the 10-12 times each year that Driscoll himself doesn’t do the Sunday sermon. BTW, the new MHC-WS service times as of tomorrow are 9 am and 11:15 am, so be on the lookout for more white-bus traffic, earlier and later.
Finally, another live cam to add to our WS cams page! Hotwire Online Coffeehouse proprietor Lora Vickrey e-mailed us to announce Hotwire’s new baristacam. Unless you’re on a Mac (which unfortunately in this case we are), you can check it out here — Lora notes you likely will be prompted to download ActiveX in order for the live video to work.
-Today’s Times features West Seattle cancer survivor Anita Mitchell, whose art will be on display Tuesday at Swedish Medical Center.
-Event that didn’t make it to the latest WS Weekend Lineup: Four Aims Center, which took over the ex-Cat’s Eye Cafe near Lincoln Park, has an open house this afternoon/evening, with free yoga, meditation, and refreshments.
-The West Seattle Birdcam has flown away. Sorry to see it go. Can’t believe we have so few linkable live cams in WS; if you know of one that’s not on our WS “Live” Cams page (nothing too “adult,” sorry), please let us know.
-WSB reader Gayle e-mailed us to make sure everyone knows about West Seattle’s newest food option, which you might miss unless you frequent ActivSpace on Harbor Ave: River House, open Mon-Sat at ActivSpace. Gayle says, “They serve crepes (sweet and savory), sandwiches, salads, daily specials, espresso drinks, baked goods and gelato … Also offered are homemade sauces. Try the Fresh Pear – no sugar added. Coffee served is from Vashon Island Roasters. … Yummy!”
The West Seattle Junction Association e-mailed us to help get the word out about its job posting for an event planner to help with Hometown Holidays (Christmas, after all, is just 3 months away); checking out the listing, we noticed WSJA revamped its website sometime in the past week, with features including an updated Junction business directory. On a semi-related note, we discovered another Junction business is blogging; we’ve mentioned the Clementine blog before — now meet the Friends and Company blog (belated congrats on the store‘s 10th anniversary).
Congratulations to new Alki News-Beacon editor Cami MacNamara on publication of her first edition – you can check it out online here. Cami is also webmaster for AlkiNews.com, where you can always find a link to the latest Beacon as well as other info from the Alki Community Council, which is preparing for its regular bimonthly meeting next Thursday (have you joined yet?).
–Taco Del Mar in Westwood Village has opened.
-Also in Westwood Village, Pet Pros — one of the 6 pet stores WS now has, counting the newly opened All the Best Pet Care on Alki — says it’s having a grand-opening sale 9/28-9/30.ÂÂ
-Another business is celebrating a grand opening: We just heard from TouchTech Systems, which has moved into the former West Seattle Helpline spot (they’re now in the WS Community Resource Center) in The Junction (along the corridor at 4517 Cali). Company president Brian Presser, a WS resident, describes TouchTech Systems as:
We are a small local company that provides multimedia marketing and communication solutions for the internet (such as websites) as well as interactive kiosks for a multitude of uses. We sell and provide service for essentially all Apple computer equipment and are a reseller of most major hardware and software brands including Xerox, HP, Adobe and Microsoft.
Continuing today’s unplanned “in other blogs” theme … beware the F-bombs if you are sensitive, but that said, if you drive the WS bridge, you might identify with this driver’s fury.
The breast-cancer-fighting 3-Day Walkers who traveled WS shores on Sunday are posting their stories online. Among those we’ve found: Two bloggers from our Other Blogs in WS page (Courtney and Kristina), and another blogger with WS ties. Good job, all.
We promised during WSB Pledge Day that we would keep working to make the site worth your time and trouble (not to mention the $ that many readers were kind enough to invest). We’re working on several upgrades. The first successful one fixes a somewhat secret (but annoying) problem: Until now, comments on WSB were not searchable; if you remembered reading something in a comment and tried to find it with the WSB search box, no dice — “search” would only look at the posts (though comments at least were indexed by Google and other offsite search engines). Now, this is fixed, so whatever you put in the WSB search box, you will get back a page with any posts featuring that text in either the body of the post or its comments. (Test it by searching for the name you use to leave comments!) NEXT UP: We’re working on the oft-requested “open discussion” (forum/bulletin board) feature — thought we had one earlier tonight, but it blew up the site, so we had to cancel it — stand by for eventual triumph!
Some folks grump at us from time to time for deciding to refer to the venerable California Avenue Southwest as “Cali.” Yes, we admit, we made it up, although there is at least one business that uses the shorthand (Cali Nails, south edge of The Junction). Other new abbreviations have started to appear in the past year or so, such as SOA. But now, here’s one we have never heard/seen before — interested if you have — a blogger who apparently moved to WS recently is calling it “WeSea.”
GIANT THANK YOU to everyone who reads and/or participates in WSB – contributors and non-contributors alike. 
As promised, at the stroke of midnight, the Pledge Day posts stop, the “Support WSB” contribution “button” will drop to the bottom of the sidebar, and we’ll get back to posting at a dull-roar pace (a few notches lower than today’s frenzy). And stand by for a picture of the forthcoming video cam as soon as we find the right one in which to wisely invest some of the $ you entrusted us with to make WSB better! West Seattle, and everyone who’s part of it, absolutely rocks.
As we mentioned in WSBPD update #1, the first thing we will invest in, to improve WSB, is a video camera. Some West Seattle people, places, and events just beg for moving pix and sound. Even still pix are a relatively recent addition for us — we bought a small Nikon with 10x zoom on closeout a few months back, and it’s enabled us to get beyond what we were managing to eke out with a combination of a dying decade-old Sony plus a cell-phone cam. Speaking of which, we also will invest in a low-cost blog phone line, since we’ve found that some information providers just don’t want to do business via e-mail. But that’s all “infrastructure” stuff, as our governmental friends might call it. We have tried to enhance the features you see — adding “live” screengrabs to the WS “Live” Cams page, refining and expanding the categories (list on the right-side sidebar) so you can subscribe via RSS to just the categories that interest you (Admiral Theater, Elliott Bay Water Taxi, Alki Statue of Liberty, among other topics, all have their own categories now) or bookmark the specific category page, and continuing to update the Other Blogs in WS page, currently with 91 blogs (and we’re always ready to hear about more!), as well as researching and posting the WS Weekend Lineup every Friday morning. For a while we were deluged with lost-pet announcements and about to create a pet page — that’s still in queue — and we’re mulling a few other ideas. Most important — is there anything you wish you could find at WSB? We can’t promise everything (some things aren’t scalable for a small family-run site) but we would love to hear your wish list.
If you’re just joining us, welcome to WSB Pledge Day (it ends @ midnight so if you don’t want to hear about it, it’ll be safe to come back then). 
MEGA-THANKS to everyone who has chipped in so far. The other type of contribution that makes this more interesting every day are your e-mails and on-site comments – from “news tips” to rants/raves, and way beyond. Right now, we wanted to call your attention to the comments on our favorite post from last weekend — the one about the yard-sale signs. Several members of the family that staged the sale have come to WSB to post some very touching, lively follow-up comments, just another example of how finding out more about our neighbors, whether through a website or through in-person conversation, gives us big thrills, every day, and we hope you get a kick out of it too; e-mail us any time with something interesting you’re seeing, hearing, planning, doing.
Half the team is napping to recover from overnight Eclipse Watch (what a sight, especially when the moon turned smoky shadowy rust-red during “totality”), the other half is out gathering new pix and info to share on a stepped-up posting schedule in honor of WSB Pledge Day. Meantime, an artistically promising associate proclaimed the original “Support WSB” graphic (seen in the sidebar at right) “too dull” and cooked up the one making a cameo here:
As mentioned earlier, we’re calling today WSB Pledge Day — riffing off those public-tv pledge drives, and we’re starting early since we’re up late awaiting the lunar eclipse. Here’s what “Pledge Day” is about: For the first time since we fired this thing up more than a year and a half ago — when we had no idea it would take the thrilling turn it’s taken, becoming a forum for info and input from all of you, as well as a place to report the things we see, hear about, and check into — we’re accepting contributions. Full disclosure, we are NOT starving artists (you already probably figured out, we’re not even artists); also, we expect to eventually accept some ads — local, relevant ads, not those annoying spammy national types. Moderating WSB’s metamorphosis into a community news/info/discussion hub has taken a ton of time and an increasing amount of $, so we feel less sheepish about giving you a way to contribute, but only if you really want to — no hard feelings if you don’t.
If you click that button, which will appear on the site multiple other times today, it will take you to the page for our new PayPal $-receiving account. You do NOT have to be a PayPal member to contribute; you can give PayPal a credit card number (which will NOT EVER be seen by us). Please note that you will see the name “A Drink of Water and a Story Interactive” atop the page; that’s the name we’ve given our fledgling umbrella operation. (The first item on our wishlist for whatever this all brings in is a video camera; so much of what we see begs to be recorded on video, so we all can share the sights and sounds of WS people in good times as well as in bad … from the Hi-Yu Parade to important community meetings, and way beyond.) For all those of you who chip in, THANK YOU!!!! and let us know if it’s OK to put your name on a supporters’ page that we hope to set up, just for posterity’s sake.
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