Andrew Lee

I enjoy any constructive debates of issues, and normally, I enjoy the banter between candidates, as long as they are able to clearly articulate their positions, based on the questions asked.  (The quality of the questions seems to be lack luster on quality and relevance, however, that is a different matter.)

I just watched the King 5 Television Debate, between the two candidates who remain for the Mayoral position of Seattle.  They two sat at an angle from each other, with Gene Enersen, moderating.  She had a terrible gig, sitting and trying to ask questions, which I would assume she even realized were slightly meaningless to most people in Seattle, at least in my opinion. 

Almost all the questions asked, were singularly focused on transportation. Nothing that relates to balancing the budgets, and improving the general quality of Seattleites.  Sure, it’s important that we try to fix our transportation problems, and we DO need to make things happen, but we have to have the realism and perspective on the realities of implementing major changes to the way we move people. 

Neither candidate seems to understand the problems at hand, or maybe perhaps can clearly articulate an answer that us “regular” people can understand.  At least, when Nickels was around, we knew exactly what we were getting, a elected hustler who strong armed his way to getting things done for the city. 

I have accepted the fact that our candidates, are getting money from companies, and it stands to reason that their backers have an agenda, normally one which the candidate already fields.  That’s why they are backers of that person, ya?

I don’t want to give a penny about attacks, doesn’t help me decide, just tells me, you are mean spirited.

Tell me what you are going to do, to help with my taxes, be honest, if you might raise them, tell me, if you want to build a road, tell me how you are going to pay for it, and how much it might cost me, as a citizen of this city. 

Lastly, let’s find some people who are willing to ask serious questions, about the quality of the city.  If the best they could do is this lot of reporters, who are disconnected from the people, the Seattleites they report to, then I’m just wasting my time, watching these “debates.”

There is a great beauty, in that there are so many things that keep my busy.  There are so many things, the fill my time.

With that said, time is not something I feel is really on my side anymore, with the rush of the immediate, I’m sure there are things that are more important, like God, and family; and I should be focusing more on building those things, but when you spend most of your time, at an airport or at an hotel, you lose a few of those needs, and the simply become wants.

So my life remains closed, hardened by the need to be. 

"Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again." (Eccl. 11:1, NIV)

Carolyn earlier today posted something most interesting about Love.  “Before you can grow up, you must fall in love 3.” It’s like her to post something as profound as such, enough so, that it made me think about my past relationships.  I didn’t really seek anyone with commonalities that would be reminiscent with a growing relationship.  I was engrossed in the outer personalities, that in a way, I compromised my faith.  Asking, “What would Jesus do” at that time, was the least of my worries, but over the course of the past few years, I have grown much closer to Him.

So I sit here, thinking about taking a chance, a risk, and perhaps wanting to try this relationship thing, and seriously trying to find, that love 3, a person who would legitimately, I feel, might share some myself with.  The biggest worry is that, I waste my time, but in these matters, it’s worth the risk of being hurt again, if the end benefit is that I can share my time and love with that person, whomever that might be.

I freely admit that I’m a bit of a hopeless romantic, a bit naive also, it seems.  I used to give flowers, purchase heart shaped boxes with chocolates, and spontaneous, random drives to random places, to just explore, and share in the company of another.  Why is that naive?  I didn’t expect anything in return, but mutual affection. (You can deduce what happened instead)

My priorities have changed slightly, the foremost, would be someone who also lives through God’s Grace.  If that is important to them, the rest, I think falls into place.  Someone, on occasion, will find moments to grow together, embracing that very Grace, and realize the true beauty of just admiring the world around us. 

I’m sure that person is around, I just have to take a chance, and hope she does too, whom ever that person is or might be.

The nature spender of the Pennsylvania highways, it’s unmatched, in the sheer beauty with the sun is setting, except of course, but the amazing and more beautiful spender of Washington State’s Highway 101.  The forth hotel, in four days, I feel like I don’t have a home, or a place I can call home.  Maybe it’s because I’m traveling so much.  I have spent months on the road, and two at home… it’s a weird feeling to have been in hotel rooms, more than my own bed.

I’m here, in Pennsylvania, which is nice, next Saturday, my first real vacation.  Going down to Davis, California; for a week, hopefully I can meet up with old friends, and a old friend who I will met in person for the first time.  Then spending a few moments in town, possibly going down to Irvine, CA for a week; then looks like a week in Seattle, then Minneapolis for a week, or at least a few days, then Las Vegas, two weeks at the Monterey Bay Casino.

So that’s that, leading into the last weeks of august, which will get me into Bumbershoot; then 18+ cities, in a month and a half; per eDog’s email, it’s going to be a BUSY September.

By the time I end July, I will have trained on Windows 7, Windows Vista, Xbox, Hardware, Office 2007, Office for Mac and Windows Mobile… just to name a few.  

My request, just let it keep coming! I love these kind of months!

It’s been a while, but I think I’m losing my ability to cook food… perhaps, my desire to play with food, and make something grand. 

A few years ago, when I started attending the UW, I decided that on the weekends, I would come home, and cook something, from a cook book, and play around with it, make it a few times, and experiment. It doesn’t help that I watch the Food Network, as much as I watch Discovery Channel, and with that said, if it wasn’t for my love of technology, I would either be a teacher, or a chef.

So since I’m home for at least a little while longer, I should take advantage of an empty kitchen, find something that I can decently cook, and then play around with it.  So what should I try to do?  I used to love cooking American comfort foods, which means, meat loafs, biscuits and gravy, macaroni and cheese, or pretty much any pasta with cheese. 

Lately, I have been thinking about what I haven’t made or tried.  I have a great idea, but I’m going to need a steamer, and lots of Asian ingredients.  Maybe if I spend a little time on this, I can make some restaurant worthy dishes?

I more often than not, find myself, with ample moments of quiet time, and reflection.  The benefits and curse of being a frequent flyer, is that I look back at my actions with greater scrutiny.  With that in mind, I give you a few of my thoughts from 31k feet, traveling on Alaska Airlines 102, Destination Seattle, from Anchorage.

I don’t often write, rather, I write less then I used to, I guess a few years, I felt the need to set some level of privacy.  My mind is full of thoughts, of the people around me, the people in the main cabin, and the flight attendants.  I love watching human interaction, with makes me a bit of a watcher, for a lack of better words.  Wondering what drives a person to do a certain action, what makes them choose decision “A” over “B”, or what motivates a person to enter into a conversation, and what they talk about it.  There is so much you can learn from just listening, and from the opinions of those who I have been friends with, that is one of the better things I do.

Why do people tend to always to seek the negative?  Who do people always seek the positive? A contradiction to be sure, but we are all, I think excited by the “going-ons” of others.  It’s oxymoronic, but we hare fascinated, everyone of us, about what is the current issues and moments in other people’s lives.  Look at the news, we like to be involved in the problems of others, and give our opinions, even if it isn’t our place to criticize.  That is the ultimate in human strength, is the empathize with others, and their struggle.  We like to see our culture, which of course we always feel is right, applied when others struggle to break free from tyranny.

Anyway, I digress, my point is that, I, like many others in this world, sometimes have moments, where we feel the need to just think about what goes on in our counterparts around the world, or just in our social group, and make some commentary to reflect our views.  I don’t see it as a bad idea, to think about the people around us, but rather, it should be carefully done, that we don’t interfere with others, unless we feel that it morally objects in a manner which causes some level of pain or suffering.

It is for God, king and country, as the British would submit, but perhaps, they are entirely off base, well. except for the king part.  We have pride in our God, lord above (and if you didn’t know, the Christian God and Muslim God, Allah, is the same God, at least according to what I read), and our republic.  We enjoy the freedoms which this Christian nation is founded on, equal respect, a version of the Golden Rule, and we live in a place that we don’t get attacked because of our Faith, or the religious leaders which rule with an Iron hand. 

I’m a Christian, and perhaps that leaves me in a slightly biased place, but then again, I live in a country, where it’s okay for other faiths to thrive.  It’s equal respect between faiths, and people, and maybe that isn’t intrinsically Christian, but I give credit to my family and my pastor for giving me that perspective.

I am admittedly a gadget hound.  I like to have new technology at my finger tips, and for some reason, I like the technology that people tend to toss away.  Like my father, I like older gadgets as well as the new ones.  I have had the iPhones, the RAZRs, Palm Treos, and a wide variety of Windows Mobile based phones, and while there is always something, I tend to see where people don’t, and the little things which engineers put in, their finer touches.

Specifically, when it comes to a phone, I have been tremendous loyal to my solid companion, the Motorola Q9h Global. 

People constantly ask me, why I carry this old piece of ancient history (two years old), but I just answer, it’s a solid phone.  In a sea of phones, and technology, surround by people with iPhones, I just enjoy a phone that can call the people I care about.  I would actually get a RAZR2 if i could, but alas, that is not to be.  I love my Motorola, and I love using Windows Mobile.  While others may seek the latest and greatest, I think that it’s hilarious that many of the latest of the iPhone’s features, like MMS and voice record, I could do on a RAZR from almost 4 years ago, and it’s the major features of the 3G(S).  The compass is a good idea, but between a $600 and a $5 dollar pocket compass at REI, I think I would choose the $5 dollar option.

I’m 26, according to the number of solar years, which I have lived on this planet.  I feel 25 still, or maybe 21, but in any case, I’m numerically older now.  I think the most common thing now is to look back at the past year, and reflect and review the developments which occurred, to find some epiphany which will help explain the direction which I am heading. 

To that end, I guess this year has been one filled with change.  A change in work, a change in my personal life, a rediscovery of what it means to be friends, and a renewed outlook at the positive.  I’m a little more calm and mature, take that as you would.  I would like to think that I have a deeper understanding of God also.  I have taken more time to re-discover the bible; and before you come to conclusions, I don’t go about preaching to everyone in a vocally disturbing manner; my Lutheran upbringings and my conservative nature, is not like that.

In the same light, I have become more private in my faith, I am reserved, in that, I don’t make judgments, and rather would take a neutral viewpoint.  I can’t change another person, but I can be there for them.  If there is something which hasn’t changed in my life, is that I still strive to be there for my friends. 

In this time, when birthdays are about what gifts we might get; I would rather have the gift of service, to have another year of opportunity to serve others.