Seattle's Metro Transit is changing a number of routes in South Seattle. They're proposing to close the #39.

Here's my letter to Metro:

To: metro-feedback-se@kingcounty.gov

Subject: Please keep the #39 open

I live two blocks from the busstop at 15th and S. Nevada, served by routes #39, #60, and #36. Metro is proposing to close the one really useful route, the #39 which takes me to work in Pioneer Square. The #60 gets me to 12th and S. Jackson, nearly a mile from work. The #36 only runs down 15th in the evenings; otherwise it runs through Jefferson Park, half a mile away.

The new #50 route will be a poor re­place­ment, getting me …continue.

I tried to take the bus into work today, but no bus showed. I later learned that the #39 had been “tem­porar­i­ly suspended”. Emma drove into downtown Seattle, getting off at the James St. exit. James is steep and it was closed to traffic. She let me out at 7th and James and I walked down to the Smith Tower.

Other people were not so lucky on the steeper streets, as you can see in the photo of a bus hanging over the interstate.

This is the worst snow we've had in several years, and Seattle is not equipped to handle it. Most years, we only get a day or …continue.

It snowed in Seattle yesterday. We drove over to Sammamish last night to my CEO's house for the Holiday Party. The snow wasn't sticking to the roads, so although visibility wasn't great, getting there and back was not difficult.

It was cold today and colder tonight. I saw only a light dusting of snow fall today, but the snow that was melting earlier has refrozen.

We had to go out this evening, over to Burien to see Frank. The main roads were fine, but we had a slightly alarming descent on a hill near us as we headed over there. Coming home, we had a couple of unpleasant minutes trying to get up a hill …continue.

As I mentioned last month, I par­tic­i­pat­ed in this year's AIDS Walk this morning.

I raised $1106 online, handily exceeding my goal of $750. I also raised another $115 in cash and checks at the fundrais­ing barbecue that we threw on September 27th.

Thanks to the 20 people who sponsored me!

This year is the 22nd an­niver­sary of the Northwest AIDS Walk. A whole generation has passed. Twenty years ago, AIDS was a gay man's disease and a death sentence. The Reagan ad­min­is­tra­tion was just beginning to ac­knowl­edge the existence of AIDS, half a decade after it had first been recognized and thousands had died.

AIDS is still a serious problem, but the de­vel­op­ment of an­ti­retro­vi­ral drugs a decade ago means that people with HIV are living longer, healthier lives than before. More than 1.5 million Americans are now living with HIV/AIDS: 9,000 of them in King County. 40,000 people are infected every year, and most new infections are among African-Americans. The U.S. is getting …continue.

Time for another Odds & Ends.

Well-known evo­lu­tion­ary biologist PZ Myers (Pharyngula) was expelled from a viewing of a new cre­ation­ist doc­u­men­tary, Expelled, last night. Wait until you read the punchline. There is a God!

Lost, one MacBook Air: Steven Levy explains just how he (thinks he) lost his MacBook Air.

It was St. Patrick's Day on Monday. Peter sent me the Muppets' Danny Boy video. Andrew told me that the Irish bishops had moved St. Patrick's Day. Monday was a holiday in Ireland, as is today (Good Friday) and next Monday (Easter Monday), so many people took Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday off this week. Bastards!

Emma and I walked with the Wild Geese Players in …continue.

Mis­cel­la­neous links.

• I've uploaded Vim syntax high­light­ing for Socialtext, the wiki we use at Cozi. Amusingly, it's derived from code that I found on the Socialtext website, which in turn is derived from my syntax high­light­ing for Flexwiki.

• Ignite Seattle is back on 2/19. There were lots of in­ter­est­ing, geeky talks the last time I went.

• Via Slashdot, Walter Kirn on the failure of mul­ti­task­ing

  Through a variety of ex­per­i­ments, many using functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain activity, [sci­en­tists have] torn the mask off mul­ti­task­ing and revealed its true face, which is blank and pale and drawn.

  I have a moderately bad case of mul­ti­task­ing myself.

This year is the 21st an­niver­sary of the Northwest AIDS Walk. A whole generation has passed. Twenty years ago, AIDS was a gay man's disease and a death sentence. The Reagan ad­min­is­tra­tion was just beginning to ac­knowl­edge the existence of AIDS, half a decade after it had first been recognized and thousands had died.

AIDS is still a serious problem, but the de­vel­op­ment of an­ti­retro­vi­ral drugs a decade ago means that people with HIV are living longer, healthier lives than before. More than 1 million Americans are now living with HIV/AIDS: 9,000 of them in King County. 40,000 people are infected every year, and most new infections are among African-Americans. The U.S. is getting …continue.

Ignite Seattle is a series of geek nights in Seattle, hosted by O'Reilly Radar and Make magazine. The third one is coming up on Thursday, April 5th, at CHAC, the Capitol Hill Arts Center.

Could be in­ter­est­ing. I think I might go.

Last year, the Washington State Supreme Court handed down its wrong­head­ed decision on same-sex marriage.

In a delightful piece of political theater, WA-DOMA has just filed ballot initiative I-957:

If passed by Washington voters, the Defense of Marriage Initiative would:

• add the phrase, “who are capable of having children with one another” to the legal definition of marriage;
• require that couples married in Washington file proof of pro­cre­ation within three years of the date of marriage or have their marriage au­to­mat­i­cal­ly annulled;
• require that couples married out of state file proof of pro­cre­ation within three years of the date of marriage or have their marriage classed as “un­rec­og­nized;”
• establish a process for filing proof …continue.