saint_monkey

this eclipse is the second rare thing i've seen in recent weeks. the week before last, one of the UW's three "Corpse Flowers" bloomed, (a rare event, the last of the trio to bloom did so in 1999,)it's a huge flower, and the bloom is three feet across, which filled the greenhouse with a stench that (according to the UW police) exactly mimics the smell of a rotting human corpse. (the plant works by luring carrion beetles and flies inside, where a complex system of plant trapdoors holds the bugs and covers them with pollen for three days, at which point it releases them-- the ressurected flies then go one their merry way, to get trapped in, and pollenate any other nearby corpse flowers.) thinking that i might never get the chance to smell a flower that blooms every four years, i ventured in and took a whiff. truly impressive. i don't think it's an experience i will repeat.

nope
not dead yet. (just checking.) isn't it funny how i persist in doing that? (don't worry, i'm just bored.) i have a plate in ferric chloride now, trying to do a "White ground" (a partial resist copperplate etching.) this will be the third try. it has failed on two other occasions. since i have nothing else to work on, i'm hiding from my instructor in the computer lab..

while i was waiting i made this picture:



made an apple pie last night. just to break the monotony of work/school/home/work/school/home. mystery's allergies have forced us to abandon our bedroom for our foldout couch in the livingroom. we really need to move from our basement mold experiment.

would you like to make an apple pie? it's very simple.
( recipe follows )

now a break from the bad news and slight paranoia below. recently, i wrote about all of my adventures with my old Ford Escort, which died an uncertain death on my birthday, August 20th. the resulting series of events resulted in the purchase of a 2002 Saturn that i really can't afford right now, and i left my story there, supposedly finished.

except...

when we filled the car up with gas for the first time (at 221 miles,) we started noticing an odd sound, sort of like a tiny whiney puppy or a sound that a car alarm would make, several blocks away. this gradually began to become a constant sound, and it increased and decreased in volume, sometimes drowning out the radio and the freeway noise. A concerned call to saturn produced some ridicule from the service department, who seemed suprised that we would be complaining about a tiny noise. And since the noise was intermittant, they told us not to bother bringing it in until it became constant enough to "verify." Otherwise, we could just be someone attempting to abuse thier service centers.

We planned on asking about it at one of those repair tech seminars. But the next one was held on ... September 11th.

We all know what happened then. We called to find out when it was rescheduled for, and they told us that they had actually held the seminar, and that we had missed it. We would get a postcard letting us know when the next one would be (more about that in a minute.)

By this time, the noise had become more than intermittant, it was present whenever the car idled. Figuring that this was a good time to bring it in, since it certainly could be "verified" now, we made an appointment, and i took a day off of work (the job i was forced to take in order to make the payments for this car.) And i brought the car in. Several technicians came out and listened to the whiney puppy under the hood...

"huh. sure is a squeaky sound. Can we get steve over here? Steve?"
"yup"
"sounds squeaky, like a mouse."
"more like a chihuahua."
"yup sir, you got a chihuahua in there."

After this witty reparte, they decided to tell me that we should just wait until the car had about a ten thousand miles on it. maybe by then it would "go away" or "get worse." Yes, it was an ODD sound, and yes, it wasn't NORMAL, but there was no reason to believe that anything was WRONG. After discussing this with Mystery, and remembering that there was a 90 day no-questions return policy, we decided not to risk a lemon, and exchange this vehicle for another. Oddly, we could find no mention of the return policy in our paperwork, and when we confronted them, we found that they had a 60 day policy. (which is very odd, since Mystery and I BOTH received the impression that this was a 90 day return, independantly, and without corroboration, which makes me think that we were intially told that it was 90 days, in a sort of slip of the tongue.) In any case, we had gone over our days by two weeks.

They told us that we could call the corporate office to appeal, and so i began a two or three week battle with Saturn corporate. At first they would offer nothing but after some cajoling, they agreed to offer us an extension to our warranty. In the course of the discussion, Saturn corporate told me that i should not be so upset, since it was clear from the service record that our local dealer had hooked our car up to a "diagnostic computer" and that it had passed with no problems. I had to infomr them that unless ridiculing my concerns and belittling me is now a diagnostic method, that this was patently false. BUT, I would certainly be willing to have this diagnostic performed. So i set up the appointment for the next possible day, and I asked for the offer of warranty extension in writing to be faxed to us by that time.

So i once again took a day off of work, and brought the car in for a diagnostic. They then discovered something wrong, and made another appointment to bring the car in and tear it down, and set us up with a loaner.

When i arrived home, saturn had called and rescinded thier offer of the warranty, or at least held back on it, until the results of the repair were known.

This began to look like they would not offer us anything. But Mystery said that she would be fine if they would just fix the damn car.

So we brought the car in, got the loaner, and by the end of the first day, they had located and replaced the faulty part. The car runs perfectly, and we were willing to leave it at that. But then Saturn corporate called, and told us that they had heard that our car had been fixed, and that they would fax us the extended warranty anyhow, so that "thier words would not be hollow." (Saturn's customer rep's words, apparantly thier blurbs are now written by indian chiefs.)

So by and large, this problem was largely smoke and mirrors, but i am pretty dismaye4d that this trouble, which could have clearly been simply and quickly resolved with an investment of less than a week on Saturn's part, took almost three months to clear up.

got a stoopid job today.
boo yah!
i was up for many a cake job at the university, they need all manner of student assistants in various departments. if you are a student, they literally employ hundreds of students per quarter, and they understand (they have to really,) that school comes first, so the jobs are all soft on commitment. it's really just financial aid. one that i particularly liked the look of was for one of those audio-visual nerds that gets called in to change light bulbs in projectors, and runs the camcorder or vcr from a little booth in the lecture hall if needed, mostly scheduled work for 12 hours, but 8 more hours of on-call a week if you want it. i applied monday and got it today. whee! it will patch up the hemmorrages in our finances, and still allow me to go to school. Plus, no wicked commute, i'm always on the same bus... and all the free time for art that i desire.

to be frank, i think the "military handshake" got me the job. the hiring guy had the look of old military, (he had a "love-me-wall" or a the wall immediately in back of his desk hung with all his little plaques and certificates. in the military, it is standard practice, but out in the world it seems to give an impression of arrogance. (unless you are a CEO with your own office, this was in a cubicle So when i see that out in the civvy world i think: "hmm... old staff sargeant, play the military card" ) so a mention of "learning discipline, pubctuality and respect in the service" perked his ears a little. the military really is an old-boy network in that regard. it's like the biggest frat in the world. It allows the hiring guy to project his own virtues, his own prejudices, his own hazy happy memories upon you.

So, we had about had enough of car dealerships, but we still needed a car. So we went back home and looked at some other "similar" cars to the Accent on Autobytel.com. One of the things we came across was the Saturn SL series vehicle. We had overlooked it before as too expensive, but the base model was just a little above our price range. So we did the same thing we had done before, gathered the options we wanted, looked at MSRP for that car, worked out the budget, found a local dealer (Saturn of Bellevue) and I went out in the morning (once more, in the rain) as sort of an advance scout. Ther prices on the sticker were the same as the ones we scouted on the net (with a slight allowance for profit. Now I don't want anyone to think that my previous diatribes are part of my usual anti-capitalist rants, and i'm trying to short the often troubled American Auto Industry. I'm not going to begrudge anyone thier profit, as long as it's fair. A certain amount of profit is good for everyone. But greed for greed's sake really drives me crazy, and dealing with your customers in a manner that insults thier intellegence and frustrates them intentionally is a simply foolish thing to do.) In any case, our experience with the Saturn dealer was actualy quite painless. I noted as I said before, that the prices were in line with what I expected, and that the model with options and color that we wanted was available, and to my suprise, a special financing rate (1.9%) is in place until the end of August, on the exact model we wanted. So we bought one.

Mystery says that the lack of dealer hassle, and the delivery on each and every promise without any obfuscation was one of the main reasons that Saturn got our business.

in our last adventure, we went out to look at Honda Civics, and we found them to be well out of our range. So we went home and called it a night. After an hour or two on the internet, we discovered that the tiny, underappreciated Hyundai Accent, starts out at around $9888, and garners some suprising accolades from various sources, like autoweb.com, and cartalk.com) All sources seemed to think that the extensive Hyundai factory warranty, which is a simply unheard of 11Year/110K Miles, made all of the minor imperfections in the vehicle worthwhile. So after some searching, we found a Hyundai dealer in Bellevue, (Sound Mazda, or more accurately, "Sound Mazda, Suzuki and Hyundai." It pays to be a jack of all trades, I guess.) Whose website promised that the 2001 model would run us $10,448 with a base option package that includes automatic transmission. (Check it yourself, www.soundmazda.com) So we set out in the worst rainstorm of the year to test drive and inspect the vehicles, and see if they kept their money anywhere near thier mouth. (Or at least near their website.) We were hoping to find a 2001 model since special financing is available on these (6.9%) until the end of August. (According to Hyundai.) When we arrived, all of the salesmen were lined up outside like those long-haired hoodlums on the corner, smoking and joking. All except one, who seemed to be the little dog on the porch. The others looked at us and our battered Escort, and seemed to shrug us off instantly on Little Dog, who rather tentatively approached us, (I thought he might run away at any moment.) Instead, he showed us the Accents on the lot (All 2002 models, for which there is NO special financing.) Oddly all the stickers on the lot started at about a thousand more than the website and competetor's sites, even for the 2002. In addition, a second sticker added another two thousand dollars in dealer costs. (Advertising, Dealer Transportation, Dealer Prep, Dishonesty Waiver, Stupid Tax, and the like.) We looked at that oddly, but Little Dog rushed us on to other vehicles any time we looked like we were inspecting things too closely, and when we finally looked like we were going to get to speak to each other, he suggested a test drive of one of the base models. All the while, a tall man from the row of Usual Suspects tailed us at a discreet distance (or at least, I assume he thought it was a discreet distance in his private detective fantasies... as it was he was as conspicuous as a bird in a punchbowl.) So we took the little Hyundai around town and up onto the freeway. The car was noisy and rough around the edges, but not much more so than the used Civics. It would truly be a bargain for 8K, but rather outrageous for 13K. After the drive, we asked about the possibility for a search of Hyundai dealers nearby for the 2001 base model plus automatic for $10,448. Since Little Dog couldn't handle this level of transaction, he rushed us inside, and then went to fetch his "Supervisor."

i'm taking pictures of things i see throughout the day on my little digital camera jobbie. i got this interesting shot of broken obelisk this morning at about 0730 or so...

Broken obelisk was sculpted by Barnett Newman in the 50's and and cast in 1967, Newman had to wait until steel casting technology could catch up with his design to see his work in it's final intended state. The Obelisk isn't unique, three were cast. One is at the Rothko Chapel in Houston Texas, Another is currently at the Nassau County Museum of Art, where it is on loan from it's permanent home, the Museum of Modern Art in New York. And of course, this one is at the UW. It's here because of the efforts of Mrs Virginia Wright, who was a close personal friend of Newman's and talked him into donating the sculpture shortly before his death. (The Wright's are really very wonderful people, anyone who lets someone as scruffy as i am into a private museum to look at incredibly expensive and fragile works of art worth more than it would cost to hire someone to kill me, have to be treated with some respect.)

There is a lot of speculation about the sculpture's meaning. During his life, Newman himself dedicated the sculpture to a few causes, the one in Houston is dedicated to MLK Jr, the one at the UW, to the students, and their vision of the future. It's most common interpretation? Perserverance. The idea that against even physics, one can triumph, it's a thing that should not stay balanced, and yet it does.

I have always read it differently. There is an old statement that used to float around in Washington DC... "The Forty-Nine States and the Soviet of Washington," referring to the State's long and deep ties to Labor and socialism. You see, Newman was always sympathetic towards Anarchists and (I've often thought, but can't corroberate, Socialism.) He was often disgusted with our country.

When our founders built Washington DC, they envisioned an obelisk structure standing in the capital, (We know this now as the Washington Monument,) this is because every great civilization has had an obelisk standing in it's capital. As long as that obelisk stood, the country remained sound. I've always seen the Broken Obelisk as a sign of his dissatisfaction. He's created here an obelisk that stands but shouldn't. A broken empire, skewed from it's intent, but impossibly strong. Resiliant, and somehow fragile too. I think that the UW sculpture is there to represent the hope that students in this radical state might be a catalyst for deperately needed change.

As an illustration of the success or failure of this, a term or so ago, the drama department staged a small production of "The Vagina Monologues." I don't know who they hired to promote it, but they sent a troope of little helpers about to scrawl the name of the play all over everything. They did less than a good job. When I walked through campus on my way to the art building, I saw "Cum to the Vigina Monologues!" (sic) scrawled all over the face of the poor obelisk. Sadly, this isn't the first time poor Barnett's work has been subject to waggish forms of criticism.