2023.3.31. IP Conversation at Sphere

3/31, Friday. A so-called IP Conversation at Amazon's Sphere.
First half hour: 3 panelists (not enough time to speak to anything concrete):

• Will Covey - Deputy General Counsel of US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). He advertised the pro-bono program.
• Jomarie Fredricks - Trade Public Advisory Committee (TPAC), Deputy General Counsel, Chief IP and Brand Counsel at Rotary International. She talked about diversity.
• David Cho - chair of TPAC, Assistant Vice President Legal Counsel-Trademarks and Copyrights at AT&T.

Next ~45 min 1-1 interview of Susan Del Bene, which is the only advertised speaker for today. The interviewer and the house representative arrived in the middle of the first half hour. The high heel of the interviewer knocked on the floor all around the room until they sat down.

The last few minutes is Q&A.

Will Covey brought some postcards with QR code for pro-bono programs for patent, patent trial and apeal board at USPTO (income requirement is 3 x proverty level). He mentioned that we visited the legal program at Seattle University yesterday, and advocates legal professional and students to volunteer in this pro-bono program.

I mainly signed up for this event to get inside of the Sphere. It's open to public twice a week. You can sign up here, but I never bothered. So after I registered at the front desk, instead of taking the elevator to the top (4th) floor, I walked the stairs. However, I had to hurry, was thinking I'd have more leisure after the event.
The plants are lush. Quite a few have labels. I was told that these plants are from mid and south America's rainforest. There are multiple steam vents pumping out visible and audible steam every few minutes. Here and there, there are tables and chairs. All very nice and airy indeed. No other visitors at this time (3-4:30pm). Unfortunately, on the way out, we weren't allowed to walk around. The only way down is the elevator.
Amazon also provided some petit four (all sweets) for this event, since Sphere is functioning as a restaurant, called Willmott's Ghost, named after horticulturist Ellen Willmott.

2023.3.30. Carmina Burana with Seattle Symphony

3/30. Fabulous.

Gioachino Rossini - William Tell Overture
Qigang Chen       - L'éloignement
Carl Orff         - Carmina burana

I really enjoyed the concert. A rare occasion to have a company. Carmina Burana is my all time favorite choir work. I like all 3 soloists. The baritone Hugh Russell is so funny. The suprano Jana McIntyre is very elegant. First time I see superscript used for the chorus, finally understand what they are singing about. Reading the notes is not the same, never sank in.

William Tell is also a familar and cheerful piece. Not sure about this new(ish 2003) work by the Chinese composer Qigang Chen (陈其钢). I like the Chinese conductor, Xian Zhang (张弦). Small in stature, but full of energy. She looks like a Mao era character: black head to toe!

I made a mistaken buying tickets close to stage on the left side. Percussion is on the left stage, and used extensively tonight. Protect your ears!

2023.3.30. White House Economic Initiative for AA and NHPSI at Seattle City Hall

3/30. This particular White House Initiative held an economic summit at Seattle City Hall Thursday monring. It's a half day panel of speeches by representitives of various agencies. At some point, after the Mayor's short speech (I no longer remember what he said), all was put on hold so people can take a photo with him, even though, as usual, things were running quite behind the schedule. After this, we had a breakout session, so part of the attendees go to a smaller room downstairs.

It seems like a good turnout. The main conference room was maybe 3/4 full. It was also livestreamed. The audience is for Asian American and Pacific Islanders. So everyone looks like me, even most of those on the panel. Most of the attendees are second generation though. No one talked about immigration. A Hawaiian lady flew here from CA to attend. A few from Tacoma, and other part of the state.

A lot of agencies, with their tables and brochures outside. I'm pleased to know all these resources available in both the Federal and local level. Even in the bathroom, a lady gave me a piece of printout of a grant for community projects. I probably should just quit my job and start a (most likely money lossing) business.

One thing I'm disapointed to notice is that bottled water was provided, no filling of drinking water. I brought my water bottle, but couldn't fill it. Ended up drinking coffee instead. Well, it helps, as I was still trying to work. I brought this to the attention of 2 organizers, one young dude was geniunely surprised.

2023.3.26. Rock Mountain snow scramble

3/26 Sunday. Cloudy, partially sunny. I left home at 6:20am to meet the others 7am. 5 of us piled into one car. The driver was a bit late, but he drives fast. Reached the road-size pullout around 9am. See the arrow key on my GPS app, and that's where we started. The red track of Rock Mountain is downloaded, not my track, but almost the same except the beginning.

After we scrambled to the road, followed it for 1 zigzag, and then trail for a little bit. We could see the trail from time to time for maybe 10 minutes. The rest (below tree line, ~4500') is very steep, up and up. Some of us put on crampons, because it was snow on either rock or frozen ground. I (2nd time) used a pair of corded aluminum crampon, but couldn't fit my shoes properly, or got knocked sideways. Redid my crampon twice, still not the best fit. Well, ice-axe helps. With not much view and such a steep climb, redoing crampons gave me time to catch breath. I was lagging behind MH and LL.

Once reached the ridge line, the slope eased a great deal. Snow gets fluffy and deep. So switched to snowshoes. There's one section (circled on the GPS map) is a traverse on a very steep slope. Avalanche danger. After that, some more trees and more elevation gain, but nothing bad, until a large open area. LL sat down under a tree for his lunch, already afternoon. Here's MH heading to the false summit in the clouds. It's rather steep, but the deep snow provded the option to zigzag. From my GPS map, I could see that the slope just a little north of it is less steep, but without any visibility, I followed the track to the false summit. It turns out the entire top ridge is corniced on the right (east) side.

Dropped down on the the flat-ish ridge towards the summit that I couldn't see. Half way there, MH already came back. I reached the summit at 2pm, quite exhausted and cold. As the clouds were lifting, I waited for LL to come up, and we walked back together, at least now I could see the ridge.

MH was waiting at the false summit. Here's her photo of DR and his teenage sister (her 2nd snowshoe hike) on their way to the false summit. They are tough. This is not a normal snowshoe hike. We regrouped here. I put on my rain jacket (on top of a fleece vest and a wind breaker) for the wind (not too bad). This photo was taken ~2:45pm.

I glissade down the false summit, and LL followed. MH had her crampons on, so she walked. I put on snowshoes below. Going down on powery snow on snowshoes is easy. Making good time. Finally we had some view. The peak in the middle of the left photo is the false summit.

Here's the ridge above the highway. Yes, go straight down. I switched from snowshoes to spikes. LL and I glissaded a few short sections. Very bumpy ride. Snow was too deep, and not powdery. Then it's a steep decent over rock/snow/plants. Eventually we found the trail, and then road. Reached the car at 6:50pm.

I was feeling very cold, because my back, pants, socks were all wet due to the glissade. Put on my puffy, and a wool sweater, hiding in the car. Should have brought a book. It wasn't until ~7pm when the other 3 showed up. It rained on our drive back to Seattle.

Got dropped off at the P&R. Took the lightrail back. Forgot to tap my Orca card on my way out: so paying extra $1 for no reason. Got home a little after 9:30pm.
Not sure about the stat of today's hike. The elevation difference between the road and summit is about 4000'. I think I walked ~8 miles for the hike, because my phone only logged ~20k steps (other than walking to and from the lightrail station). My leg muscles were sore for 3 days afterward.

2023.3.24. Every Brilliant Thing - ACT

3/24 Friday. A one man one act play of Every Brilliant Thing is about depression and suicide. Very well done, not depressing. If you sit at the first few rows, you may be asked to participate. The vet, the teacher, the dad, the husband are all random people from the audience. Sometimes hilarious, especially with the husband. The real wife was asked vacate her seat, so the actor could sit next to the "husband"!

The few episodes of a seemingly normal life: The 7 year-old, when his dog was euthanized. Also at 7, dad drove him to see mom in the hospital, who just tried suicide. Began to write notes about the nice things in life for his mom. The reserved 17 year-old who confided with his teacher. In college, falling in love in the library with exchanged notes on "brilliant things". Marriage and separation.

Before the show, the actor gave out many cards to audience, he called many of them to read the card.

After the show, you are welcome to write your "brilliant things in life" and put on this board.

2023.3.23. Boundless - PNB

3/24, Thursday. Boundless at McCall Hall. I liked all 3 acts. 3 new works. Very modern, innovative. I also like the costumes, very fruid, almost genderless.

Wonderland | Penny Saunders
Funny hand movements, staccato. 2 dancers in 2nd tier box seats at one point.

Black on Black on Black | Alejandro Cerrudo
Not sure about the title, black and white, same for men and women. Lots of curtains up and down, with lighting creating separate spaces. Drums.

Let Me Mingle Tears With Thee | Jessica Lang
More classical with classical music. 2 singers.

2023.3.20. First Day of Spring

Is this part of the revitalize downtown effort? Pike Place Market is letting anyone pick 2 daffodils today and get a photo taken for the first day of spring. There is a steady (not very long) line of people queuing up for the flowers.

Even the banana stand has a new look. A new design on the stairs was completely recently.

2023.3.18. Excelsior Peak

3/18, Saturday. Weather continued to be decent, in fact, the forecast said "decreasing clouds". The organizer picked me up at the Starbucks on Mercer at 5am. It's a long drive, but still didn't need to meet this early. 13 of us gathered in Ashway P&R and piled into 3 cars.

After a bathroom stop at the Safeway at exit 227, we arrived at the parking lot first. The small parking lot here has a stinky outhouse, with garbage scattered on the ground outside. I walked up to the picnic table area to use the trees, while waiting for the other cars to arrive. Chilly in the morning waiting for all to be ready.

The trail starts off in snow, and after a short stretch of dirt, we were on packed snow. I'm slow today, but not the slowest. The trail in the trees are well trodden, easy to follow. At some point, I switched to snowshoes, and tried to cut a zigzag. Same as yesterday, not worth the effort. Following the track all the way to this flat area. The summer route is to the left (west), and the winter route is to the right. Everyone ahead of me went left. But the right (east) approach seems shorter. One lady snowshoed passed us said that in winter, the right is better, and it avoids the avalanche. So the rest of us (minus 1) took to the right. The view is actually better from here, you get to see Shucksan and Baker earlier.

It reaches a ridge, and a gentle travers to the north ridge (see the track on snow to the right), and double back to the peak. The snow today is fairly sticky (warm), so I headed straight up from here. There's one very short section that was hard to get up on soft snow. I ended up slower than those routing to the right. The summit is absolutely gorgeous. However, the sun of high noon is making Baker very white-washed. Our last person wouldn't show up for another 20 minutes.

Almost all of us took the alternative route to go down. Once in the trees, I started cutting zigzags. Going down is fairly easy to make fresh track. Surprised to run into TH who was also cutting, and B.Y. followed my track down. 3 of us continued to go down fairly quickly and surpassed everyone on the way out. The lower part is better on packed trail, because the snow was getting thin, and trees were less sparse with more exposed down logs and dead branches.

Only shortly after 3pm when we reached the parking lot. After everyone arrived and changed, it was still only 3:30pm. I moved to another car to go back without stopping for dinner. This driver, A.S. only eats his own food, because he counts his calorie intake. Even though I hiked with him a few times last year, never knew he was obese before. He was 240 lb in 2009, and now 140 lb! He showed us his photo in 2009, and he looked completely different. His conclusion: eat less + excercise. He cooks his own food (wife and children eat separatly) sets a daily calorie limit +/- a few hundred depending on what excercise he does on that day.

I took a bus and then lightrail to go home, arrive at 7pm. Not bad.

2023.3.17. Mt. Ararat snowshoe

3/17, Friday. Sunny. Took a day off to hike, after 2+ weeks of hiatus. Only got one interested person, V, who drove. He picked me at at 6am at downtown, by an I-5 exit.

Kautz Creek TH has a median size parking lot, 3 miles before Longmire. Elevation ~2400'. Still chilly a little after 8am. Not much snow left on the group. We were the first car. 2 vault toilets, very clean, full of TP. ~8:30am, we started hiking. The trail starts on the opposite side of the road. The trail branches off the boardwalk a minute into the TH. It is flat in a young forest. A mile later it crosses Kautz Creek, which doesn't have much water. There are 3 small single log bridges, one has a hand rail. You can see Rainier from here.

For the next ~2300' and 2.5 miles, we were in the trees without any view. There's a boot track to follow. Switched to snowshoes pretty early on. I tried to cut one zigzag, but it wasn't worth the trouble. Sinking too much, even on snowshoes. At the first openning, finally have some views. ~11am.

Still had track to follow. After some small zigzags, we dropped down to another flat area with some tracks going to 2 different directions. We took the right one, it follows the summer trail to about 5600'. The cuts left zigzag up a steep-ish slope for 200'.\ Adams and St Helens loom to the south. The last bit is quite flat all the way to the summit.

There is metal post underneeth the summit, now in the snow hole. Someone obviously dug it out, otherwise, I woudn't have seen it. I brought a Rainier beer for the occasion. Trees block half of Rainier, so have to step to the side for better view. To the south, it's completely open, can also see Hood, faintly. For better view of Rainier, need to go back to the flat area. It looks so close, almost can touch.

On the way down, we took a more direct route. The snow is soft, so we just cut down, fairly easy on steep-ish slope. Soon connected to our original track at the bottom of the flat area. The rest is retracing our track, fairly boring. Found a couple talking staning by the trail, about 1-2 miles from TH, then again 2 people at the Kautz Creek crossing. Near the TH, we saw a few more people.

Got back to the car and changed ~3:30pm. Ealier than I planned. So we walked the short "nature trail", reading the displays. Learned that Kautz Creek was mostly diverted due to flood, and disappeared into the woods.

Some traffic coming back to town, because we were too early. Quite cloudy by now, and warm. Should have started the hike an hour later, but at least at 6am this morning, we didn't have any traffic.

Total, maybe 10 miles, 3700'.

2023.3.16 Arts and Culture Townhall with Congresswoman Jayapal

3/16, Thursday, 6-8pm. Inspire Washington hosts a Arts and Culture Town Hall at Seattle Art Museum. The main guest is Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. 3 other on the panel are all women. The only guy on stage is the moderator Manny Cawaling. Not much of a real discussion per say. Everyone is praising each other. The Q&A is very short, maybe 3 comments disguised as questions. I like the update by Manny Cawaling, but I don't remember much. Not an effective town hall.

I was a little late. I arrived when this Mexican dancing troup was performing. I like their colorful clothing. My only impression out of this event is that Ms. Jayapal is a very good speaker, likeable and capable.

2023.3.15. Henry IV with Seattle Shakespeare Company

3/15, Wednesday, 7:30pm. The first preview of Henry IV at Center House Theatre, by with an all-BIPOC cast. I had to Google BIPOC. I wish they wore more disguise, so I can tell who's who more easily, as each actor/actress is playing multiple roles and cross gender. King Henry IV all the lords are played by women, and they still look very much like women despite of the change of clothing. The acting is quite good, and words are announciated very clearly. No real stage set (a table, some chairs, and a bed). Lighting is used in great extent, and reasonably effectively. I did enjoy the play.

2023.3.8-11 AWP conference in town

Association of Writers and Writing Programs hosts its annual conference in Seattle's Convention Center. There're many events held in different restaurants, bars, and meeting rooms all around town. I went to a couple of these off-site events. I didn't quite like them. Instead of one author talking about a book in-depth, these are mostly a bunch of authors (often by the same publishing house) reading a piece of their works, so not much Q&A can be had. Maybe I picked the wrong one to go to. This particular one is at Folio in Pike Place Market, which I had wanted to check out. I only liked the one poem by this lady whose birthday happened to be that day. Too bad, I forgot her name.

2023.3.8. Moth

3/8, International Women's Day. Gates Foundation hosts Moth for an evening of storytelling in the subject of motherhood, to accompany its exhibition. I missed the first story, because, as usual (and often practical), I arrived late. They wouldn't let anyone in until the first story is finished. That's a good policy.

The 2nd story is Hannah giving birth to her first child, a 10 lb boy, at the age of 41, at home. The 3rd story is Ryann's 3 births and becoming a midwife. The last story is Kenya's Roseline speaking of being childless. The panel discussion is too long, and got boring very quickly. Bio + recording of the event. Snack and canned drink (no alcohol) was provided, but not as half as good as at the openning reception of this exhibition.

2023.3.7. Between Two Knees - a play

3/7, Tuesday. Seattle Rep staged the first full-length play, Between Two Knees by the intertribal sketch comedy troupe The 1491s. It followed the story of one family from Wounded Knees, covering massacres, forced education, fighting for America in the wars. It's funny, but crass. I'd prefer they pick half of the stories and make them more developed. The lighting is cleverly employed. Actors are good.

2023.3.5. A series small performances around downtown

3/5 Sunday. Cloudy. Orquesta NW is hosting a 2-hr performance titled as "Roots Without Borders" at SCC's Broadway Performance Hall. Funny that I took "re-education" for 1.5 years here, but never went into this theatre.

Before the 2pm concert, a group of and an Aztec dance group CeAtl Tonalli danced, chanted, and drummed in front of the building. Thankfully, the weather held up. Very colorful, and energetic, but simple movements.

On stage, first was Lummi Nation violinist and storyteller Swil Kanim. He's pretty funny.

Then, early music artists Guo Ke, Gus Denhard and Antonio Gomez of Trio Guadalavin performed 3 songs, one each of Moorish (Lamma Bada Yathatana), Jewish (Ija Mia) and Catholic (Strela do día Cantiga de Santa Maria #100, by Rey Alfonso X, El Sabio, 13th century). Each song was prefaced by an intro. I very much enjoyed these 2 parts.

The 2nd hour is Ballard Civic Orchestra. First piece is Sensemayá (new to me), 2nd is a Haydn's No. 1 Symphony, when I took off. They are not the best orchestra.

Walked to Trinity Parish Church for a celebration of 15 years of Sine Nomine, a renaissance choir. The last concert with the current conductor Anne Lyman. A very young lady from Italy will lead the group from now on. I arrived, luckily, right before the intermission, as this new conductor was being introduced. All the songs are quite pretty, voices are arranged nicely. I especially like the last song If ye love me by Thomas Tallis (16th century). Again, I lived in Seattle for half of my life, and never visited this pretty church, nor heard this choir.

After the concert, I was pleasantly surprised to find an array of food and wine for the "celebration".

2023.3.3. Wold Premiere of "A Thousand Splendid Suns" at Seattle Opera

2/24, Friday, I went to an "opera talk" on the creation of this new opera A Thousand Splendid Suns, adapted from Khaled Hosseini's 2nd novel. From left to right in the photo:

• moderator: Humaira Ghilzai, Cultural Advisor
• composer: Sheila Silver
• librettist: Stephen Kitsakos
• conductor: Viswa Subbaraman
• stage director: Roya Sadat

I enjoyed hearing some inner works of making the lyrics, the many months of the composer attending an Hindustani music class, the challenge of conducting operas. Most surprising is hearing Afghan film director Roya Sadat talking about her first time watching a movie in a theatre is the screening of her own movie in Cannes Film Festival; as well as she has never watched an opera until this opera.

All of them praised how beautiful the music is, which really intrigued me. My last experience of a new opera was very disappointing.

3/3, Friday, Seattle Opera has a special sale for today's performance only, so I went to see the highly-anticipated production.
Yes, the music, at least the orchestra part, is indeed beautiful. Sounds like an epic movie score. Sounds definitely different from others.
The stage set is very nice: the market scene in this photo, the little shack in the mountain, the rooms of Mariam's and Leila's on either side of a wall (which, they are rotating it at least twice too many).
The costums, lighting, acting, the music conductor, all great.
The stage direction is excellent: the story plays out very well, dramatized like a movie. Audience were captivated by the plot development. However, it down played the political background, and emphasized the personal story.

Now the negative parts:
Unfortunately no memorable songs, except one (1) early in the 1st act, when the wives of Mariam's father take turns of urging the 15 year-old her marrying a mid-aged man. I don't like the libretto, maybe because it's in English. Even the one the librettist so proudly spoke of, that was borrowed from a Persian love poem, fell flat in the duet. English is really a terrible language to sing opera in. How can you pronounce "courage", "daughter"? No arias, duets or any other singing parts are pleasing to my untrained ears. They almost sound like shouting above the orchestra.

After the opera, I stayed on to listen to 2 singers talking about their experience. They praised Seattle opera a great deal for its support and planning. The culture advisor and Johnathan Dean were also there. I haven't seen Dean for ages. He has certainly aged. I was late for the pre-concert talk with the composer. Nothing interesting to report. I really like her: soft spoken.

There're posters in the lobby about Afghan history over the span of the story, photos and newspaper clips. Overall, a very good production. Treat it as a very slow movie, and you'll enjoy it.

As for the novel, I read it when the book first came out, because I liked Hosseini's first novel "The Kite Runner". I didn't like this 2nd novel, felt more engineered, more contrived. Even the title (taken from a poem) has little relation with any part of the story.