Not of Macy's Quality

I'll always have a special place in my heart for Macy's.  They did, afterall, employ Santa Claus.  The other day in my walk through Tukwila, I noticed this:

Right there on Southcenter Pkwy., surrounded by retail, is Macy's Logistics and Operations Center.  You can see it here on this map:


View Larger Map

It's such a disconnect from what you think of when you think of Macy's.  At the very least, you think a pretty decent retailer.  But then what's this?  For reasons that boggle my mind (I'm weird like that), they think this is good enough.  A bunch of busted-up old trailer trucks left out to rot, backed up against Southcenter Parkway and a completely strip of dirt and weeds and mangled trees devoid of any sort of effort whatsoever to make it look nice.

Now... Tukwila doesn't win awards for urban planning or visual appeal, but why on earth would Macy's want to proudly advertise that this mess right in the heart of retail is theirs?

If they aren't interested in cleaning it up and no one from the city is asking them to, you'd think someone would realize maybe they ought to remove the sign and operate anonymously.

Vacation Day

I take the first week in December off from work for vacation each year.  It's just something I do.  It's served a few purposes over the years... a bit of a breather before our big Christmas play at church, a chance to start (or nearly finish) my Christmas shopping, time to get stuff done around the house, either generally or in anticipation of Christmas.  One of the components has become an annual trip to the mall, which I did yesterday.  I wasn't feeling it and was tempted to go to the light rail station and catch a train into the city instead.  I didn't, but I will need to do that again soon.  Another thing I didn't do today was go to Starbucks.  I knew I'd be eating unhealthy as it was, so I had coffee it home before I went.  But I took dropped the children off at their schools, came home, traded cars and off I went.  The mall was surprisingly quiet.  Many of the stores weren't open and everything seemed subdued.  I got some candy and walked around for awhile. Then I made an appointment to have someone at the Apple store look at my iPhone.  The rocker switch that turns off the ringer doesn't work.  I'm torn about whether or not I should report it as broken at work, since everything else works fine.  Maybe I'll just live with it and maybe it'll last me until the iPhone 5 comes out.  So then I walked around a bunch more eating candy and looking at stuff.  I really missed having a Starbucks in my hand, but I didn't die.  After they looked at my phone and confirmed it's not something that can be repaired, I walked to some other stores.  While not a long walk, I've never walked in Tukwilla before.  It's such a car-centric place.  It's been said that almost no one lives there, everyone just goes there to work or shop and I'd believe it.   I walked some large blocks trying to burn off some of the candy, picked up a few things and then dropped them back at my car.  By  then it was time for a late lunch.  For the second year in a row, I went with Sushi Itto Go.  I had that last weekend as well.  I think it's now finally time to try the other Japanese place or the Caribbean place next time I eat at the mall.  And then after lunch, I did another thing I had wanted to try to do this week - I got in a nice run.  The nice thing about Tukwilla is that it has long car-centric blocks and it's flat and it does have decent sidewalks.  I was able to do almost 4 miles.  I would have done more except that I ended up at a non-working crosswalk.  It was lit, but pressing the button did nothing.  At that point, I had been stopped to long to really want to start again.  That left me with a really long walk, but that's fine.  While it was freezing today, it wasn't raining this year as it has in some year's past.  On the way back home I swung by Home Depot and got some Christmas lights and paint.  Later this week I'll be painting a bathroom a color called Dashing Boulder or something.

The Sift 326-330

The Sift 326: Security, Safety, Privacy and Crime

• How to Protect Yourself from Fraud and Identity Theft Offline
• Easy and Cheap Ways to Increase Your Home’s Security Based on Burglars’ Habits
• What to Do if Your Ereader Is Lost or Stolen
• Cordon multi-target photo-radar system leaves no car untagged (video)
• Disable AutoRun to Stop 50% of Windows Malware Threats

Read more...

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The Sift 327: Google Music

• Google Music Store
• Google Music is open for business
• Google Music available on T-Mobile devices, track purchases can be direct billed
• Google Music Artist Hub helps musicians promote, sell music
• Google partners with Universal, EMI, Sony Music, 23 independent labels on Google Music, scores exclusive content

Surprised Expectations

(Cross-posted to YouVersion)

Surprised Expectations
Message #1 of "Surprised by Christmas"
Pastor Jeff MacLurg, Our Savior's Baptist Church; Federal Way, Wash.; www.oursaviorsbaptist.org
Sunday, Dec. 4, 2011 (My notes from the 10:45 am service, I pray they will be helpful to you. Would love your prayers for me, our church and our pastoral staff)

"They Didn't Get It"

For over 100 years, ulcers were thought to be caused by stress, spicy food or alcohol. In 1982, scientists who claimed it was an infection were laughed at.  A new truth is sometimes hard to accept when you've lived so long with what, until then, was to believed to be the truth.

--- A People in Trouble (Isaiah 9:6-17) ---

700 years before Jesus' birth. The king of Asyria was bent on destroying every inhabitant of Jerusalem. They asked for a sign that God had not abandoned them.

Isaiah's Sermon High Points - this is what they were supposed to get
* A Child would be born
* A Son
* His Name - he would be called by some amazing names
* His Greatness
* On David's Throne
* King of an unending Kingdom

God's message: God is sending you a KING! (All he wants is to rule over your life.)

Judea heard: God is sending us a RESCUER. (Then we can get on with life as we please.)
Thier complication: SPIRITUALLY INDEPENDENT - Access to God when they wanted. "God is here for me, but I don't have to be there for God." "I'll look into this God thing later near the end of my life." "I can do things on my own."

Open Letter to Pacific Lutheran University: Disband The Mast

Dear PLU Alumni Department,

As a former Mooring Mast staff member (and just about every other student media and the school's first webmaster), I would respectfully like to make a request that the Mooring Mast be disbanded for the rest of the year and the faculty adviser be replaced.  I don't know a lot about this recent incident where their website was temporarily pulled -- except based on their own coverage on Facebook and their inexplicably obtuse apology*, but it's that very apology that seems to suggest that maybe a bigger lesson need be handed down by the University.

I know such actions (were they even to be considered) wouldn't be considered lightly and no actions would be taken on the basis of a single former alumni, but this is really embarrassing and a slap in the face to legacy and history of this publication and all the students and advisers over the years who have participated in it.

James Lamb '96

*https://www.facebook.com/MooringMast/posts/10150452414354721?notif_t=feed_comment_reply

Happy Arbor Day to You, Too, @Spotify

Hmmm... got an interesting email from Spotify yesterday... about some holiday in 24 days.  Some merry holiday.  Seems to involve jingly stuff, snowflakes, packages, ornaments, a red and green theme.  Some kind of seasonal holiday of some sort.  A festive holiday, even.  Sometimes people are so afraid of offending that they go to great lengths to all but say it.  To the point that it borders on offensive to us who do celebrate it.

Merry Christmas, Spotify.  Was that so difficult?  Even if you don't want to acknowledge Lord baby Jesus, lyin' there in his ghost manger, just lookin' at his Baby Einstein developmental videos, learnin' 'bout shapes and colors, this still is a real holiday lots of people celebrate.

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P.S. Spotify - it's not November.  Did you forget to change that on your template?  Oops.
P.P.S. If you don't already get the ghost manger reference, it's probably not one you'll ever get.  Don't worry about it.  Hilarious movie but not for everyone.

Seven-year-olds everywhere are giggling...

While not offensive, when did that become commonplace?

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