Savor the Moment.

Ok ok ok. So I couldn't help myself. But, apparently, there is ALSO a storm trooper Mr. Potatohead. How COOL is that??!?!?

Alright, so you guys know I work for Amazon.com, and from time to time I see really really awesome stuff that I just have to share with you.

This is one of those things. Happy Monday!

DARTH TATER!

So today I embarked on a right of passage usually reserved for, well, stinky boys. I finally went to my first car show.

As if it was Christmas morning, Andrew sprang out of bed with quite a skip in his step. We had spent the night before talking about cars with his father and cousin, much to Kimmy's despair (Andrew's mom). We arrived at the convention center about 7 minutes after the show opened (thank God it was a 10am open, Andrew would have been there at 8 sharp if it opened that early), along with a couple of Porches, Mercedes and Audis...

The car show, mind you, this wasn't one of your hot-import-scantilly-clad-women car shows... Just about every major car manufacturer was there, (excluding Peugot, Citron etc which don't currently sell cars in the US) covering every square inch with sports cars, utility vehicles, economy cars and stupid-expensive cars. We made our rounds for about FIVE HOURS, testing out passenger seats and driver seats... We checked out the ponies, the torque, the fuel economy... And at the end of it all, only one car really did steal my heart away.

May I please introduce you to the Saturn Sky, otherwise known as sex on wheels.

SELAMAT HARI RAYA 2006: SEATTLE WASHINGTON

This Idul Fitri, I was blessed enough to have a whole slew of halfies takeover the city. If you think us three sisters look alike, wait until you meet the Morries sisters. Quoting a friend from highschool (I think it was D'Shaun Foster) "Wow! Arty looks like a mini-Wury!"

Although Seattle weather is known to be CRAP we did a little magick-muslim voodoo and cleared the rain for the weekend. (So next time you want good weather, you stick a onion and an upside-down chili on a skewer and jab it into the ground, and say a couple of prayers. I swear, it works like a charm).

Since there is a CRAP load of awesome images (that I painstakingly altered in Picasa to make sure they did indeed look awesome) I thought I would break it down a little.

The Players

Here's a list of the people who were present...

Townshend sisters: Danielle, Estelle and Riani.
Morris sisters: Wury, Runy & Martini (yes, that is actually her name).
Boyce brothers: Alex made it, his brother didn't.
Toby the Wallaby from Australia
Nick-the-guy-who-used-to-go-to-school-at-Swarthmore with-Wury-and-then-used-to-work-at-amazon-like-me


Alex actually came out on top... Most the time, the lucky bastard had SIX WOMEN all to himself. Hence, we had to take plenty of images to document the occasion. Apperently, it doesn't happen that often.

The Agenda

Are you kidding? Did you really think we thought this all through and planned in advanced? Oh hell no. We're Indonesian. That means we suck at planning and we're always 1/2 hour late. So, since we all knew this, we were content with just hanging out with each other and enjoying each other's company. We went to a plethora of venues to catch up, all of which is documented and showcased in my Albums. (You can access them below).

Here are a couple of cool digs:

Pike Place Market

We ended up at the market with the girls for some killer Terriaki and some photos with the Market piggy (as shown below). Nick (Swarthmore-Amazon-Wury-guy) met us there and we eyed the beautiful flowers (which Danielle prompty got from Toby since he's whipped) and enjoyed our time together.


Gasworks Park

As if the market wasn't enough, the girls and I thought taking them to Gasworks park would be an awesome idea, and it really was. We ate blackberries, rolled down the hill, sat in the glorious sun, and I went crazy with Alex's awesome-possum Digital SLR Canon Camera. I hadn't met the notorious Boyce yet, but it was like seeing an old friend from long ago...






University Of Washington Campus

Danielle, Arty and Alex had some time during the afternoon to explore the UW campus (I bet our campus is nicer than yours). Some of the images came out wonderful. If you are in the area and have a chance to look around the UW campus, I would highly recommed it. It BEAUTIFUL!

A friend of mine sent this to me at work, and I thought it was adorable! I don't know where it came from though, so I can't cite the source.

I'm thinking of going as Wonder Women for Halloween, but the costumes are mostly really dorky or waaay too scandalous. =(

Alright - this is supposed to be a short post. Have a good fall night, y'all.

Today was a pretty usual day for the most part. I got up late and had to scurry to make the bus, got to work and made the same cup of tea... Earl Gray with two fake sugars. I wrestled with my vendors and tended to an ever-growing to-do list of things that will never really make a difference in the world. (Alright, so maybe I've been wearing my grumpy pants for most of today).

But after the long cold dreary day, I was fortunate enough to take a long walk with Andrew to Seattle's Town Hall (on 8th & Seneca) for a lecture on Shaping Globalization by Joseph Stiglitz. The talk was more a book tour for the Nobel-prize winning professor from Columbia, but it brought me back to my college days where I would get up early on Saturday mornings to have breakfast with other passionate internationalists and development guru-wannabes. Catch phrases like "systemic issues" and "public or private goods" were tossed out like candy to a very agreeable audience.

Although it was great to see the man behind the ideas of countless college papers, I found his agruments lacking the impericial evidence (another favorite term) to support his claims. I also found it interesting that most of his ideas weren't really that new - just recycled ideas I've heard over and over again. Stiglitz reminds us that globalization creates both winners and losers, and (more importantly) the losers are rarely compensated. Globalization to him, is not a rising tide lifting all boats - but a rip tide pulling under those without a life jacket. Although I tend to agree with this argument, he didn't really elaborate on this point and what courses of action were available to us as concerned citizens of the global economy.

It seems that his lecture was geared more at whetting Seattle's appetite for his newest book, "Making Globalization Work," and perhaps the pearls of knowledge seek are within those pages. I'll let you know, once I finish reading a copy of his latest book.

For those of you interested in watching the lecture I attended (and thus agrue with me, which I would be very open to) you can access his speech from the Seattle Channel Organzation. The webiste has a slew of videos across multiple topics which I find very interesting and highly informative.

Also, you should check out The World Affairs Council which hosted the event. They are a great organization that hosts various lectures and get togethers throughout the year. They even have a cool little survey that you can take concernin the lecture and Stiglitz's views.

So overall, I had an alright day. Perhaps I can't save the world from behind my little desk in corporate America. But at least I can ponder the issues that we face, debate them with other passionate people and perhaps get others to start thinking.

Others, such as yourself.

Ok, ok, ok.... I know its been AGES since I last posted. But it's really not my fault! My wireless has been down at home, and I've been unable to post any images to my Blog. I figured, not pics no post.

So I finally broke down last night and hooked up my computer to the internet with old-school tactics: plugging in.

So... Here are some images from my trip to Cali. Since I'm at work, I figured I should stop wasting company time - so I'm keeping this short.

I'll be back later today with more images and a story to tell you. =)

Riani