Day 59: Washington Trivia (Name-Dropping Edition)

More bits from the book of Washington state trivia.

1. Washington is the only state named after a US president.

2. David Letterman once phoned the president of the Washington Association of Pea and Lentil Producers to ask what a lentil is.

3. Kyle MacLachlan of Twin Peaks was born in Yakima.

4. Bing Crosby was a native of Tacoma.

5. Adam West is from Walla Walla.

6. Bob Barker is from Darrington.

7. The Frank Zappa song "Jewish Princess" makes reference to the aroma of Tacoma.

8. Matt Groening, creator of the Simpsons, attended Evergreen State College.

9. In 1910, Harry Houdini leaped while manacled into the Spokane River.

10. Alice B Toklas (of magic brownie fame) and her partner Gertrude Stein both studied music at the University of Washington.

11. Before appearing on Dallas, Patrick Duffy went to Cascade High School in Everett and trained at UW.

12. Bruce And Brandon Lee are buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Seattle.

13. In 1926, Bertha Landes was elected as mayor of Seattle and became the first woman mayor of a large American city.

14. Washingtonian May Arkwright Hutton became the first woman delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1912.

15. Serial killer Ted Bundy was from Washington.

16. The oldest house in Tumwater was built by Captain Nathaniel Crosby III (Bing's grandfather).

17. Washington cartoonist Gary Larson (The Far Side) has had his work displayed in the Smithsonian.

18. Crime writer Dashiell Hammett was once a detective in Seattle.

19. Frank Herbert, author of Dune, once lived in Port Townsend.

20. Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard attended Union High School in Bremerton.

21. Modern dance legend Martha Graham was a faculty member at the Cornish College of the Arts.

22. EB White, author of Charlotte's Web, was a reporter for the Seattle Times.

23. Seattle artist Hank Ketcham drew the Dennis the Menace comic strip.

24. Novelist Thomas Pynchon was a technical writer for Boeing in the 1960s.

25. Mark Twain once said, "The nicest winter I ever spent was a summer in Seattle."

26. Rudyard Kipling once said about Tacoma, "They are all mad here, all mad."

27. True crime writer Ann Rule is from Washington.

28. Jack Kerouac had a job as a firewatcher at Desolation Peak in 1956.

29. Kitty Kelley, best known for her unauthorized biographies of famous public figures, is from Spokane.

30. Wilt Chamberlain was briefly a member of the 1978 Seattle Smashers volleyball team.

31. Actor/comedian Danny Kaye was one of the original owners of the Seattle Mariners.

32. The first American to climb to the summit of Mt Everest was Washingtonian Jim Whittaker.

33. Bruce Lee attended UW and set up a martial arts school in the U-District.


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Day 58: Mythical Creatures, Even Less Realistic When Drawn By Me

These are some drawings I made based on step-by-step instructions in a drawing book.




The steps weren't as helpful as I would've liked. They basically expected me to make the leap from circles and lines (see pic below) to fully detailed creatures.




I specifically could have used some tips on making the hands look not stupid.

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Day 57: A Wordle Conceived in Liberty

I felt like making a Wordle from a famous speech, so I picked Lincoln's Gettysburg address.

For some reason, I'm fascinated by this Wordle thing. I love seeing which words occur most often. I also love hitting the 'random' button over and over again until a layout looks right. 

In fact, I liked it so much, I just now went back and made another Wordle, this time from Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech. I thought it was appropriate to put the two together. 

Day 56: Martini Glass Doodle

I love the shape of martini glasses. There's something about them that makes my eyes happy. So today's doodle is surrounding a martini glass.



This one is larger than the other doodles I've made, so it took quite a while.

Looks so good, I want to fill it with vodka and vermouth and olives.

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Day 55: Sparkling Grapple

Another tasty grape vodka concoction. This time it's green.









3 Olives Purple grape vodka
Apple juice
Tonic water

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Day 54: Guinness 27 Ways

Here's what happens when you combine a picture of my adorable cat with an iPhone.

1. The original



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Day 53: Doodling on Words

I tried to doodle on something other than plain white paper. I don't like how it turned out. Maybe it's that I don't like the doodles, or I don't like the un-crispness of it. Maybe it's a combination of the two.



I have a whole box full of discarded book pages, so maybe I'll have to try again sometime.

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Day 52: Washington Trivia

I've been reading a library book of trivia about Washington State. Here are a few of my favorite bits:

1. Since the February 2001 earthquake, Seattle is 5.5 millimeters closer to Vancouver BC.

2. There are 4 cities in the world named Walla Walla. One is in Washington and the other three are in Australia.

3. Dungeness is the largest land spit on earth.

4. Washington has the largest ferry system in North America. It connects 2 peninsulas and 13 islands.

5. July 26 is the most likely date it will be sunny in the Puget Sound.

6. The Olympic National Park is as big as Rhode Island.

7. Washington's Long Beach Peninsula is the longest natural beach in the US.

8. The first Birkenstock store in the US is MJ Feet at Pike Place Market.

9. The Pend Oreille is the largest US river to flow north.

10. Ape Cave, near Mt St Helens, is the nation's longest lava tube cavern.

11. Mt Shuksan, in the North Cascades, is the most photographed mountain in the world.

12. Spokane is farther north than the northern tip of Maine.

13. Snoqualmie Falls is 100' taller than Niagara Falls.

14. Volcanic lava lies a hundred feet below the wheat lands of central Washington.

15. La Push is the westernmost town in the contiguous 48 states.

16. Alaska imports 99% of its fresh milk from Washington.

17. Rattlesnake Mountain (3560') is the world's tallest treeless mountain.

18. Linda Emery, Bruce Lee's wife, was homecoming queen at Seattle's Garfield High School.

19. The Puyallup fairgrounds once served as a Japanese internment camp (Camp Harmony).

20. The first gas station prototype was set up at the Seattle yard of the Standard Oil Company in 1907.

21. Jimmy Carter was at the Sea-Tac Airport when he learned that he had lost the 1980 presidential election.

22. Seattle's Northgate Mall was the world's first covered shopping mall.

23. Almond Roca was created in Tacoma during WWI.

24. The Seattle Police Department was the first in the nation to employ bicycle cops.

25. Washington was the first US state to pass a law prohibiting the forging of digital signatures.

26. The King County prosecuting attorney's office was the first in the country to form a sexual assault unit.

27. The source of the picture of George Washington that appears on the state seal was an advertisement for Dr Jane's Cure for Coughs & Colds.

28. Edward R Murrow attended Washington State College at Pullman; it offered the country's first course in broadcasting.

29. Pilchuk School is the world's only school devoted to glassworking.

30. The Seattle area has the country's highest per capital concentration of boats (1 boat per 5 people).

31. Skywriting was invented in Seattle in 1913.

32. The Okanagan region of Washington produces 90% of the world's supply of baby's breath.

33. Puget Sound is home to the world's largest species of octopus, which grows up to 12' across.

34. Yakima resident Floyd Paxton invented the small plastic squares that keep plastic bread bags closed.

35. Mount Vernon, Washington, is the iris, tulip, and narcissus capital of the world.

36. Power from Grand Coulee Dam's hydroelectric turbines produced the aluminum to build 1/3 of the aircraft the US sent to war in WWII.

37. The Tacoma Dome is the world's largest wooden dome.

38. Mt Rainier is the tallest volcano in the lower 48 states.

39. A species of chewing louse found only in owls is named after a cartoonist from Washington (Strigiphilus garylarsoni).

40. The world's largest flea (0.13") was found near Puyallup.

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Day 51: 36 Not Bald Heads and a Few Noses

This one was less fun than the bald heads. Maybe hair and hats just aren't my thing. The faces seem to get misshapen when I try to do more.



I think I may be doomed to an artistic life full of bald stick people.

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Day 50: A Map of My Distant Classmates

I've never made a custom Google map before, but it seems like an interesting tool, so I decided to experiment. I've made one of my classmates in grad school at SJSU. Since it's entirely online, the students are spread out across North America. I'm sure there are students in the program from farther reaches of the galaxy, but none of them are in my classes this semester. 

I hope to find the time to update this each semester with all the new students I "meet." I like to live vicariously through the lucky people who live in Hawaii or Orlando or San Diego. 

Day 49: 46 Bald Heads and One Nose

I filled a page with circles and ovals, and then tried to make each face different.



Maybe next time I'll try hairstyles. Baby steps.

Oh, and I numbered them after the fact, in no particular order. I think my favorite is 25. He's up to something.

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Day 48: Alexander the Grape

At the Halloween party at the PNK Ultralounge in Seattle, our bartender made us way too many deliciously sippable shooters using grape vodka. Today, Mat bought some grape vodka, so I had to try to re-create that dangerously awesome concoction. I think I nailed it, but my memory of that night is a bit fuzzy. Of course, mine's a cocktail in a martini glass instead of a shot.

All hail Alexander the Grape:



Basically, it's a cosmopolitan using Three Olives Purple vodka. And its name comes from the fact that it tastes a lot like a grape Otter Pop. Yum.

(And doesn't it look lovely in Mat's Dorothy Parker martini glass?)

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Day 47: Small Animals On Paper

A bit of drawing. Some things needed labels to be recognizable, so I just went ahead and labeled them all.



If you're a gallery owner and would like to feature an exhibit of my work, I'm open to offers.

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Day 46: Another Doodle, Now With More Sharp Edges

Yes, back-to-back doodle days. This one has pointy bits and nothing goes outside the lines. Somehow matches my mood today.




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Day 45: Recuperative Doodling

As it turns out, focusing on my doodling distracts me from the acrobatics and pyrotechnics of the circus that's temporarily set up camp in my gut.



So you may not appreciate this little work of non-art, but my sanity does.

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Day 44: Clay Play Pseudo-Me

Having the stomach flu isn't really conducive to being creative. This was the best I could do. Sadly, she looks better than I do today.



Of course, I do have arms and legs.

Oh, and the clay extruder I used for the hair is not nearly as fun and easy and I remember the Play-Do Fuzzy Pumper being. This one's more like the Handy Cramper.

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Day 43: Bacon Scarf Test Strip

Here's a small chunk of bacon scarf I made to try out the pattern. I definitely need to be more careful about my stitches in the real one.




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Day 42: Popcorn

It's been a tough day, so I made popcorn. That's nothing new, but I also made a little paper popcorn box from a template I found online.




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Day 41: Frog in a Blender

Today's drink is brought to you by the letter L. For laptop death. Again. So I need a drink.

I give you...Frog in a Blender.







Ice + vodka + Sunny Delight + blue curaçao in the blender. Then drizzle on some grenadine.

Poor frog. Poor dead, delicious frog.

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Day 40: Zombie Pals

More creations from an iPhone app.

Emo kid:




Unlucky number:




Business as usual:




Shipwreck:




Shannon:




Worst birthday ever:




Ninja got ninja'd:




Angry for many reasons:




Yes. Yayssss:





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