2024.3.30-31. Snow camping at Pratt Lake

My first backpack this year.
3/30, Saturday. 5 of us met at a Eastgate P&R and drove in 2 cars. One from North Bend met us at TH, or not quite, since we all had to park ~1/4 mile out. Talapas Lake TH is very popular: short hike, short drive, despite of the potholes.

We didn't start hiking until well over 11am. Before Olallie lake, 3 of us (LE, A, and me) put on snowshoes and scrambled up the slope directly towards the ridge for Pratt Mt. It's my 5th(?) climb to Pratt. Today, we found a track to follow pretty soon. So quite easy. However, couldn't find the intersecting trail under the snow. So set down our backpacks once we reached the ridge. Some minor adjustment. Then followed the ridge to the summit. There, we met 3 people. A bit cloudy today. View is still quite good.

Once we picked up our packs, continued on the ridge down, and intersect the trail. There, going down to the Pratt Lake basin. It must be a swap in the summer. The trail circles around the head basin. The 3 of us opted to go more or less straight, along a creek. Hit the trail on the rightside of the bridge. Then, we followed the track our teammates had made, and we caught up with them. Also found one guy, Brat, who was postholing, and ruined the nice snowshoe track that was just made. He didn't even bring gaiters. Borrowed T's.

By the time we reached the camp area, it was 5:30pm already. We decided to settled here for the night, instead of Lower Tuscohatchie Lake as advertised. As soon as I stopped walking, my feet soon got cold, painfully cold. Sweat and maybe snow was making my socks and boots damp. Boiled water to put in my sleeping bag. Crawled into my tent, and it took awhile for my feet to revive. My regular size sleeping pad doesn't fit my short sleeping bag (which has a nice wrapper).

• Lesson 1: bring camp shoes to swap out of wet boots
.
• Lesson 2: bring a short air pad to pair with a short bag, but regular foam pad
.

3/31, Sunday. Up at 6:30am, at agreed 7am, A is ready, but LE is not. The rest planned to head out at 8:30. 15 minutes later, A decided to go back. LE and I continued in snowshoes towards Lower Tuscohatchie Lake. Found the trail soon, but then it was mostly buried in snow. This is side hill along a fairly steep slope. LE was breaking the trail. Amazing how capable he is at age 19, with a pair of snowshoes without side walls. The lake and valley we walked over is quite pretty. It took 40 minutes there, and faster coming back.

We were surprised to find that everyone was still at camp. Sun didn't shine on us until we left camp. LE and I cooked breakfast. I lifted my tent fly, shaked off the ice, and set it on a tree to dry. Well, had to pack up everything wet. We hiked out at 9:50am.

Going back all the lakes in reverse order, at least now it was sunny. Pratt had dimples on the surface, very interesting. At its south end, the group followed our old prints cutting up the circular detour. At some point, LE considered a slope I treaded on has avalanche risk, and thus risking the group below me.

At Olallie Lake, the rest of the group walked all around via a more gentle trail. I dropped off to the lake via some boot tracks. Put snowshoes on for that. Then, walked over the lake near its west edge in snowshoes. Saw some footprints end in blue water! I followed some track, no sinking.

Picked up the trail there, and continued to Talapas Lake. A short break and then out to the car. The trailhead parking is now more available. There, LE criticized me endangering the group's safety. Well, we have different assessment of the avalanche risk. Point taken.

• Lesson 3: in a group setting, I should avoid making others' worry, regardless of my own assessment of risk.

A. dropped me off at my building: that's easy.

2024.3.24. More cherry blossoms

3/24, Sunday. The sun came out in the afternoon. Went to Arboretum to see more cherry and magnolia trees in bloom. Surprised to see some azalea and rhodies in bloom: too early. A lot of people. A lot of pedals. A very nice day for a walk. Bad traffic around Montlake Bridge.

On the way back, walked to UW's cherry quad. Maybe because of the 5k/10k/Half Marathon Cherry Blossom Run, or maybe because it's free parking on Sunday, I had never seen this many people in UW. Nor had I seen this many "green latrine"s on the Red Square. The ring of the fountain is covered with sitting folks for photos. No Rainier from the Rainier Vista, nor last weekend.

A group with animal costumes were posing for photos. They are very cute, and happy to take pictures with anyone. Festive.

2024.3.23. Seattle Symphony, Tchaikovsy's First Piano Concerto + Prokofiev's 6th Symphony

3/23, Saturday, 8pm. Simon Trpčeski Plays Tchaikovsky

Donghoon Shin             Of Rats and Men
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky  Piano Concerto No. 1
Sergei Prokofiev          Symphony No. 6

Conducted by Osmo Vänskä. I like him. Not exaggerating. Good presence.

The highlight this evening is, of course, the well known and well loved piano concerto of Tchaikovsky. Simon Trpčeski is a treat to watch. Powerful + delicate. He has a bit too much body motion when he's not playing. He sways left and right sometimes, once he leaned so much, that I was afraid he'd fall off his bench. I decided not to look at him when piano is not playing. We also enjoyed his short Mecedonia tune (very fast) and a trio with violin and cello as an encore (beautiful). A very gracious artist. Thank you.

I really don't care for Shin's new work. Prokofiev's sounds too dissonant, at least powerful (5 people on percussion alone, and a harp). Even after attending the pre-performance lecture by Dr. Claudia Jensen, I still couldn't catch the phrases she mentioned in Prokofiev's symphony. It was a good lecture, like always.

2024.3.21. Spring is here

First day of spring. It's been awhile since Amazon's stairs get a fresh coat of paint. Quite some bright colors.

A week later, another set of stairs got some new paint.

2024.3.20. The Bed Trick by Seattle Shakespeare Company

3/20, 7:30pm, the first preview of The Bed Trick at Center House Theatre, also the world premier. A very clever play by Keiko Green (herself is an actress, not in this show), modaled on Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well.

A play about deceit and consent. One of the 3 first-year college roommates is mad at her boyfriend listing his photo on a dating app, so created a fake profile. When the boy tried to hook up with her, she enlisted a roommate to help. All unbeknowst to the 3rd roomate who is busy rehearsing "All's Well That Ends Well". The parents of one girl is also in the play, with a deceptive start like in "All's Well That Ends Well".

Good stage design: 3 pieces with the main college room in the center, a small section to the left showing the father's office, and to the right anything else. The 2 smaller parts can be closed. Smart dialogues and monologues. Very enjoyable. Highly recommend it.

2024.3.20. A new mural in the neighborhood

Found this mural today on a walk to the waterfront, very cute.

2023.3.17. UW Cherry Quad + Hex Mountain

3/17, Sunday. An unseasonably warm weekend: Seattle was 73°F on Saturday and 70°F on Sunday. UW's cherry quad was almost full bloom, 2-3 weeks earlier than normal. With this much heat, they may not last long. The cherry trees by the fountain were not blooming yet.

Parking for Hex Mt is tricky. This is the reason that we started late. Hoping around noon, some early hikers would be gone. Ate lunch while waiting for a spot. No luck. Ended parking on an unplowed road, and took a different approach. Slightly longer. Around 1-1:30pm, saw many hikers coming out. So, that might be a better time to start.

The trail is surprisingly dry, snow was gone on more than half of the trail, even the south side of the summit. I lugged the snowshoes all the way up and down. Didn't use microspikes either. Yes, gaiters. This summer would be very bad, if we don't get much more precipitation this spring. It was so hot, that we were having trouble keep our normal pace. Also we are definitely out of shape.

The view of Cle Elum Lake is really good halfway up. The summit offers great view of Stuart, part of the Enchantments, the eastern slope, Rainier.

2024.3.13. Pacific Technology Policy Conference

3/13, a full day event hosted by National Bureau of Asian Research, this time co-lead with Korean Foundation, whose president KIM, Gheewhan gave a speech. A large Korean presence. Most participants are burearates, very few like me. I liked some of the points and questions asked by one of those random folks like me, a business man started out as an F1 student, when immigration was discussed. China is the enemy nowadays, one of the emphasis the Koreans are making is that they cannot sever the economic tie with China. AI is also discussed, which I asked a question (between sessions) to the Microsoft guy, regarding to the licensing of their AI products.

In the afternoon breakout session, I listened to the 2 K&J lawyers (Jamie Jackson, Ryan Carney) discuss technology policy developments in Congress. I'm quite impressed by these two, how young they are, and how familiar they are with the congress in and out. Today's event is held at and sponsored by K &J Gates LLP. Last October, I attended Pacific Security Forum, with similar agenda, at a different location.

Speakers other than I've already mentioned above are (chronically ordered):

Roy Kamphausen   - president, NBR
Tami Overby      - senior advisor, Albright Stonebridge Group
Mireya Solis     - Knight Chair, Japan Studies, Brookings Institution
Lotta Danielsson - VP, US-Taiwan Business Council
Linsay Gorman    - senior fellow for emerging technologies, German Marshall Funds of US
Ahram Moon       - Korea Information Society Development Institute
Owen Larter      - director of public policy, Office of Responsible AI, Microsoft
Jonathan Roberts - founder, Ignition Partners
Nigel Cory       - associate director for Trade Policy, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Jake Bernstein   - partner, K&J Gates
Khalil Gharbieh  - Trade Policy Counsel, Microsoft
Kendra Schaefer  - head of tech policy research, Trivium China
Nelson Dong      - counsel and co-head, National Security Group, Dorsey & Whitney LLP
Adam Lysenko     - director of intelligence, Strider Technologies
Jungmin Pak      - partner, Lee & Ko
Carol Anderson   - senior corporate counsel, Global Trade, Microsoft
Michael Wills    - executive VP, NBR

2024.3.9. Sanctury City at Seattle Rep.

Sanctury City is a story of 2 highschool friends of immigrant families. One becomes legal citize and goes onto college. One is still illegal, giving up his dreams and working in a bar. The second half is when the college friend returns and offer of faking marriage, while the illegal one is in love with another man who cannot marry him properly.

The first half showing the numerous times of the 2 friends hanging out, by using different lighting and posture, interwoven dialogs. No stage set at all. It's very effective and clever. The 2nd half is more like a normal play staged like a living room. Of course nothing gets resolved, but it makes you think. We enjoyed the play. Not sure why it's titled like it is now.

2024.3.7. First Thursday Art Walk at Pioneer Square

3/7, my first First Thursday in ~10 years. I'm pleasantly surprised to see so many people out in Pioneer Square. Not as many as before, but a good sign. Yes, homeless tents are still around. Most of the paintings are lousy. Glasshouse Studio is full of lights. I like Michael Abranam's stylized Looking Forward, Looking Back collection. I even chatted with the artist briefly.

2024.3.5. Tiger 2 + 3

3/5, Tuesday. Went to visit Jakob again, and hiked to Tiger 3 and then Tiger 2.

I was surprised that the snow level is so low. At ~1000', it was all snow. I didn't bring any traction device or gaitors. So, slow going, in order not to slip. Other hikers I saw today are half half. Some are like me: ill prepared.

Snow covered the ugly stumps on the summits. Looked much prettier. But it was cloudy today, so no view of distant mountains: no Rainier nor Olympics. Clear view of downtown Bellevue and Seattle, Lake Washington.

2024.3.3. Clam digging

3/3, Sunday, drizzle, cloudy. Took a ferry across Puget Sound. My first time ever out digging for clams, and picking oysters, with moderate success. About half a dozen folks out on this gloomy yet fresh day, in the mud at low tide. It was a bit chilly. Clams are not so easy to find. Also they are full of mud. Oysters are easy (different spot), but needs to shell them onsite: so it's challenging.

Set in the Home Depot 5-gallon pot for a whole day before cooking. Still a lot of sand. Need more sea water to cleanse the mud. Tasty though. Money wise, not worth the trip: ferry costs over $40 for 2 people. But it was fun. Need to find a good spot on this side of the water.

2024.3.2. Alliance Francaise presents "Night Ideas" on AI at Town Hall

3/2. I'm surprised to have enjoyed this evening's talks on AI, especially that it's organized by Alliance Française.

• DNA in Trees - Ken Workman (previous director of Duwamish Tribal Services: burial, rebirth in trees, hoping AI to help with tribal languages
• Performance: Close Encounters of the Human Kind - Anida Yoeu Ali (UW Artist in Residence: performance and art installation to connect with others.
• What does ChatGPT know about poetic form? - Melanie Walsh (UW assitant professor on data science and culture analysis) & Anna Preus (UW assistent professor on 20th century English literature: AI generated poems.

Panel after a break: the above 3 speakers plus the following:

• Stefania Durga, research scientist at Google Bard;
• Thibaut LaBarre, engineering lead at AngelList;
• Geoffrey Turnovsky, UW associate professor in French and English studies.

Talks on AI are so common nowadays. They are often banal. I really enjoyed today's 3 speakers. The first two are not AI related. The panel is high quality.
I especially liked this poem generated by ChatGPT 1 year ago, with this prompt:
write me a poem in a mix of French and English, intended for a bilingual reader. The two languages should fluidly flow into each other.

Au clair de la moonlight, je rêve,
Dreaming of a world sans trêve,
Les étoiles qui whisper secrets,
In the night, nos cœurs sont discrets.

Dans les rues où les lampes dance,
With shadows that softly enhance,
Les amants find their sweet romance,
In both French and English parlance.

Le vent murmure des chansons,
Melodies that to both belong,
Le bonheur shared between our tongues,
Avec amour, nos âmes sont young.

Laisse-moi te take by the hand,
Through memories où nous avons stand,
In this world of bilingual dreams,
Où tout se mêle dans un love's theme.

2024.3.1. Cybersecurity Summit

3/1 Friday. cybesecurity summit held at downtown Bellevue. What the speakers said are all quite generic. The last talk by CISA is different, presented by Ronald Watters Cybersecurity Advisor, and Ian Moore Cybersecurity State Coordinator (WA), providing free dervices. Chatting with the vendors is more interesting, and a lot of them and many swags.