Winding down

Now, I have officially ended my internship with the local paper, the La Conner Weekly News. The internship was through the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association (WNPA), and it all started back in March.

(Sorry for the dirge of links).

Today I received the second and final check, which was sent to me after I had completed 240 hours of interning, and I had written an exit-essay/letter to the Internship Board at WNPA. To celebrate, the owners of La Conner Weekly News, Sandy and Cindy, took me out to a very good (and filling) Mexican lunch with one of La Conner's best writers, Jim Smith. Yes, the Jim Smith that writes "Notes from Pull-and-Be Damned" and hangs around and gives "college lectures" the local coffee joints.

This week I also had my last day at the local library...

It feels very weird to be wrapping everything up and moving on to college life. Yesterday I spent a few hours turning the pile of stuff in my room into a bigger mess and pile, and then strategically reordering everything to fit in boxes. Somewhat.

Experience (2):

My roommate and I didn't started talking until a few days ago, and we move in together this week. Before then, he had been on vacation, and I hadn't been able to contact him at all. But it all worked out in the end.

Advice (2):

Once you know who your roommate will be, try and contact your roommate as soon as possible.

Before you move in together, you should get to know them, as well as plan who will bring what, and establishing ground rules, etc. The best part of starting as soon as you can, you have more time to contact them if they happen to be on vacation. Also, a lot of colleges let you request a roommate (if you both request each other), so if you know someone that's going to the same school, you can talk and see if you want to live together. Could be a classmate from high school, someone you met at a concert, or a player from a rival team you happened to befriend. Whatever works.

Countdown to Dormlife!

As of today, there are eight days until I move north to Western Washington University.

I'm excited, nervous, ecstatic, and anxious; and a whole slough of other, random emotions. But overall, I am looking forward to school again. The year off was definitely a great idea! Not only did I dodge the mistake of going to The Art Institute of Seattle (less school than company) and having a huge amount of debt, I also spent time with my girl, worked a bunch, and even expanded my knowledge and interests to include writing for the local paper.

Hopefully in the next several months I can report on my college experience and younger, high school-age kids can read these experiences and use them to better plan their own lives.

---

Experience number one:

If you feel rushed to jump straight into college out of high school, don't do it.!

Last summer I felt stressed out about going to a big, expensive college. I didn't want that crushing debt, and wasn't even completely sure what I wanted to study there.

The more my mom and I talked about it, the plan of taking the year off to work and look for alternative plans sounded more and more appealing, so we did it. I took the extra time to shrug off the stress, take up extra jobs to save money, and research other colleges. By March, I was pretty damn sure of where I wanted to go, and took the appropriate steps to get me there.

Talk with your parents and see what they think of you taking a year off. Don't use this year to sit around and chill out; you still need to work to save money and plan your next steps, but the added months really do help you get priorities in order, as well as try new experiences.

Advice number one:

Don't rush yourself into "the next step." Take your time and figure out what you want to do next.

If you're stressing out about college straight from high school, talk to your parents about it. If you include them in your thought process, they will more than likely support this endeavor. Just don't take the year off to couch-lounge and procrastinate until the following August.

You need to be proactive and productive if your parents are going to let you stay another year. Use the extra months to work and save up money, and find a college or next step that you really want to do.

Now, get offline, take a deep breath, and relax!

Colleges

Lately I've been prepping myself for a new chapter--College!

Been running around gathering things for dorm-life, getting classes settled, trying to contact my roommate, and wondering about my new teachers. And then it hit me, I've already had college experience!

In high school my Creative Writing, Native American Carving, and Computer classes count for college credits, so technically I've taken college classes before. Also, I've had lecture classes--however informal they are. Just today I sat down for twenty minutes and had a mini-lecture from four "life-teachers" that happen to teach over a few cups of "joe" at the La Crema Life College (LCLC, if you will).

Today's class had mini-lectures from Kevin Sunrise, Curt McCauley, Jim Smith, and Fred Owens. Kevin is the only teacher that was new to me today; I've had plenty of Life Lessons with the others. Here's a little brief description about each of today's teachers:

• Kevin Sunrise is a well-known man in town. Until recently, he and his wife Amy ran a free food-exchange in their yard in town. They both love to walk and ride bikes in town.
• Jim Smith is a favorite columnist in the town's paper, who always has some funny story or quote to share with everyone. "History at a Tangent 105" and "Anecdotal History 124" seem to be his favorite subjects.
• Fred Owens is a freelance writer, blogger, and general "go-getter" in town. He just released a book, which is an anthology of blogs he's written the last few years (see link). Usually it's "Current Affairs 125," "Farming News 231," and "Related History 300" with him.
• Curt McCauley is a local artist, who you will most likely find at the coffee shop, drawing on napkins with a brush pen. He tends to focus more on "Art and the Real World 102," "Eastern Philosophy 304," and the occasional "What to Do in Life 245."

Today's lesson included "Sage Advice 239," with the discussion of what parents tell their children--which evolved into a sort of round-table between these four wise and experienced men. Some notable advice included:

"Don't date a girl with bigger problems than your own."

"Don't date a loser."

"Don't waste your time on losers. I don't care if you get your heart broken, as long as it's not a waste of time. If you do get your heart broken, at least you know you're following your heart."

"Find the tallest, smartest, and most beautiful girl in the room, walk up to her, and say: I'm the answer to your prayers."

"You have to tell your kids important stuff when they're ten, because they believe you. By twelve they start to argue, and fifteen everything you say is wrong. You have to imprint it on them--not too much--but while they're younger."

I don't know about you, but it's fun to see that there are teachers like this all around us--and most of it is free of tuition and registration fees. All you need is a comfy seat, good ears, and the occasional beverage of choice.

Typewriter to trade

I recently received an IBM Correcting Selectric III from a neighbor that was moving, and now I am looking to get rid of it.

I'm off to college soon, and I want to give it to someone that will put more attention into it. When I first received it the typewriter could type and everything, but once it got to the end of the row it wouldn't reset itself on the next line.

I don't have time to fix it up or go in-depth with tinkering before college, and I want to give other people a chance to mess with it. So, I will be accepting offers to trade for something else.

As far as trading, you can offer various things, like artwork, a meal, a working manual (non-electric) typewriter, a set of pens, cash, anything! Get creative and maybe I'll accept your offer.

Just know you'd have to cover shipping expenses if you don't live around Skagit County, WA. By the way, its heavy.

I'll put pictures up soon, I'm on my way to bed at the moment.


Comment or email (AlexanderRKramer@gmail.com) your offers.

I love...

...being able to wake up one morning, go to the newspaper to help distribute papers to vendors for an hour, going to the library to get my schedule, and then later that day going to the local art museum to help out with something, and when I go to the post office they know I have three places I work for.

...being able to walk from the office, to the bank, the drug store, the market, go eat lunch at the Channel-side park, go to the post office, and back to the newspaper office before my lunch hour is over.

...being able to walk up to the mayor in the street and him knowing who you are. I swear, he has eidetic memory.


[Added]:

...being able to shake hands with two cops walking during lunch break: One I've had a ride-along with, and the other goes to the Town Council meetings when I do.

...getting tours in the local museums.

Small towns. Gotta love them.

My roots have definitely found good, nurturing soil here, and no matter how far my branches grow, this place is where I'm going to keep drawing from in my mind

More Jones appreciation

I've had my ongoing Jones "Saying of the Day" section on the upper-left column for the last week, and I'm liking it.

Oh, and here is the shirt I got from the appreciative company. Totally rocks! Gonna be showing this one off in the Southwest!

If just looking at this awesome shirt design by Wotto makes your lips dry and your tongue ache for Jones, why don't you just click to their product page here? You know your tongue wants it.

Gotta Love the Manuals

On Fourth of July, there was an estate sale within the area, and I decided to go check it out to see if there was anything good/cool (aka, hopefully a typewriter, rotary phone, or button maker). So, early that morning, my friend woke me up at 7:30 (the sale started at 9...), played some Fourth of July Muppets, and then we went to the sale.

When we drove by, it looked like any other garage sale, but we still checked it out all the same. In front were boxes of rocks, and not like awesome rocks, like geodes, just river rocks. Behind those was a table of airplane models (in boxes), and then the rest of the garage. As I walked through, there was a pile of stuff, and in between the junk I saw keys. Like typewriter keys.

After finding out my haggling/money-saving skills are pretty much zilch, I had another working typewriter in my possession. Behold!

Notice the sleek carrying case, the black-to-red ink toggle (on the right side), and that awesome red button! What does it do, you ask? You press it, and it sounds like a machine gun, and the carriage rattles it's way to the end, and that satisfactory ding sounds. I call it the super-tab button.

That super-tab button makes it that much cooler. My brother isn't really one for typewriters, but he loves that button. Rattatatatatatatatatatat!

This machine, the Olympia Traveller C, is in almost perfect condition, no dust or grit--just a used ribbon--but it still types cleanly. It lacks the personality of my Skyriter, but it feels a lot more...business-y. My brother says I can use the Skyriter for personal letters, and the Traveller C for business letters. Sounds good.

The Traveller C is a relatively new typewriter, from what I've found it's like 2005-ish...I think. There's not really a place that says it outright. All I know for sure is it's not manufactured anymore, and eBay and a few other places has it priced as $109 (which is actually a few times more than what I paid for it at the estate sale).

Anyways...

For comparison, my Skyriter in the same light and position. By the way, the Skyriter is hereby dubbed Magnus and the Traveller C...has no name just yet...

More to come...at some point.

Enduring Jones

Jones Soda is such a wonderful drink. And it's such a Washington drink! Practically everyone I hang out with loves Jones, whether its for the flavors, the ever-changing and unique graphics, or the funny sayings on the caps.

This wonderful drink used to be easy to find in La Conner. Then, about two months ago, the Pioneer Market stopped buying them. When I asked cashiers I knew what was the deal, they had no idea. I presumed I lost my only source within walking distance of my work. I debated whether to go into Mount-Burlington and buy a huge case of them every couple of months.

There was a stirring rumor Jones was not extinct in La Conner: I found that the local drug store had a small supply in their cooled beverages section. This selection was only like two or three flavors, and the cashier said they were probably not going to resupply, because "Jones isn't doing so well."

I looked at her funny, and bought a Cherry Jones. And kept at it for the next several days on my lunch break. I've been doing this for a few weeks now, and the stock has grown to about seven flavors. They're making a comeback in La Conner!

This is truly a tribute to the soda's qualities of awesome.

To celebrate, I will be posting the humorous (and very accurate/appropriate) Jones soda quotes I find on the caps of the Jones I buy. These will be posted in the column to the left, and archived on a different page. I might even add in comments about how the quote fits with my day.

Enjoy, and become a fan (or "like"...but I prefer to "become a fan") of Jones Soda on Facebook!

Impressive Finds

As a strict rule to myself, I wasn't collecting any books from the library (donation or otherwise), because space has become a problem. I finally decided to go against this principle when I discovered a copy of the graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman.

In freshman year, our English class was assigned the ever-popular (to assign) Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. As a supplement to this, our teacher also offered a few graphic novels related to the Holocaust and survivor stories. Of these were Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, and Maus I and II.

I read Anne Frank, and Persepolis, but have yet to read Maus. If I like it, I'll donate it back to the library and recommend they secure the sequel, and if I really like it...I might keep it for myself.

Lately I've been doing a lot of reading of graphic novels...mainly Batman and other superheroes, I must confess...but it has still let me to believe that our local library doesn't have enough support for graphic novels. We may have one or two of them, and display a few issues of Shonen Jump, but we have yet to really get behind buying and displaying large amounts of graphic novels, in all forms.

Graphic novels usually get a bad connotation because of comic books, with their often violent and gaudy material. Peh. I say graphic novels have the capacity to be just as enthralling and "deep" as "real literature."  They should have a large support of our local library because graphic novels can be used as a very good transition into heavier reading, and getting teens interested in reading selections other than what the English teacher assigns.

Anyway, that isn't what this post was supposed to be about. The initial target of this post is about a thing of beauty that I found this weekend.

There was a community-wide garage sale on Saturday that lots of people get involved with. Rather than having our own sale though, my family and I decided to spend the day looking at other people's wares. I found one of our neighbors had an IBM Selectric in good condition, with a few font balls, too. I told our neighbor that if she didn't sell it, I might be interested--but manuals were my main focus.

About half and hour later I was walking down the street when I happened upon this sitting on a table.

It ended up being a 1950s era Smith-Corona, Skyriter. For a staggering $10! Of course, I bought it right on the spot, even when the lady selling it to me said the question mark key was broken (she found out that morning).

"You'll have to type in all sentences, you can't ask a question," she joked.

"I can just draw in the squiggle when I'm done typing," I replied.

Keep an eye out for what I'll be doing next with this fine piece of manual technology.

La Conner needs...

For the past few weeks, I have been listening to what people have been saying, and pondering the question myself: What does La Conner need?

Lots of people will have varying answers, some of them implying big chain companies should elbow-in and erect one of their stores so people don't have to drive 20 minutes to Mount-Burlington. I don't think this is a very good idea, personally. La Conner needs, and thrives, on the small-town appeal. Although, sometimes the small-town personality is, well, a little too small. (Or at least small in a different sense than it should be).

Here are some of the ideas I have put together in a list (in no real order of importance):

Theatre/movies - Sure, there are movie theatres sprinkled all around La Conner, but La Conner needs its own venue. True, there are times when a movie is played in Pioneer Park, Maple Hall, or even the school district's auditorium, but its not as often as it should be.

I think the best venue could be the school auditorium. It is usually perfect for the school and community plays, but there would need to be a larger screen and a little better sound system in order to get a quality that is worthy of consistent community attention. Maple Hall is a close second, but again there would have to be an upgrade on the visual and audio systems, and a larger community support to fill up the extra seats. Pioneer Park gets too cold at night, even during the summer, and the mosquitoes eat people alive.

I'm not saying La Conner needs to show all the newest movies, but even a movie once a month, with the right community support will add a whole new appeal and charm to La Conner. Remember when going to the movies was a big deal, and it was a mini social event all on its own? La Conner needs that as a variation from the plays--as brilliant and excellently performed as they are, there's just a certain appeal to watching a movie on a screen.

Writer's Loft - I know a few people that have a hard time trying to find a decent place to just sit down and write when they need to. True, the coffee stops like La Crema Coffee and Next Chapter have seating (not to mention America's Energizer: caffeine), but sometimes writers really need the isolation and silence (that might not be obtainable at home).

La Conner really needs a place reserved for writers to go and just write. I imagine a large room with a good view of the town, a table in the center of the room, and maybe even a few "cubicles" (or divided spaces) for those that need the extra bit of isolation. This could also really be a place for students to go for a conducive studying environment.

If the La Conner Regional Library gets the right funding to construct or buy a new building, the writer's loft would be a perfect addition. Maybe there could even be a beverage vendor for the creative minds that crave their morning wake-up call. And just for kicks, there should be a small, sound-proof room with a table, and maybe like three manual typewriters that could be rented out in half-hour increments. It would be very interesting to see if this would catch on.

Covered Space - There has been too many times when I'm walking around town that I want to just sit down, maybe write or enjoy a sandwich, but I can't because it's either rainy, windy, or some other ill-driven weather. Gilkey Square is often a really good place to sit around and eat a sandwich, but as soon as it starts raining I'm pretty much out of options. True, there is the La Conner Fruit and Produce Market, but I'm pretty sure they'd frown upon me eating a home-made (or worse, Pioneer Market-made) sandwich in front of paying customers.

A covered space to just hang out and get away from bad weather would be an excellent addition for the town, and wouldn't be that expensive. I can see it becoming popular with kids hanging out after school, but the shelter would have to be easily monitored by any passerby--to discourage against abuse.

Green Power - La Conner has recently been gearing itself up with more alternative-power lifestyle choices. Just recently, the Giovanes installed a solar panel and solar-heated water system, and the town's own solar panels are just about up and running at the water treatment plant. Once everything is squared away with the town, there will be a public workshop to hopefully pull in more people to looking at alternative options for everyday power.

While writing on this topic, I ended up going on a very long tangent associated with all of this. Due to the length, I will save all of that for another time. For right now, let's just say I'm all for using more green options in everyday La Conner life.

Community Dances - Again, with the cultivation of the sense of community in La Conner, there needs to be a bit more of it more often. Sure, during the annual Arts Alive! weekend shops stay open later, people mill around socializing, and there's an event at Maple Hall, but this isn't enough for the other 360+ days of the year. There needs to be some type of filler that brings everyone (or most people) in our community together to have fun.

More dances (for all age groups) is a very good option, and I don't think people would mind paying around $5 every couple of weeks for a night of fun and entertainment. It might even help the younger generations from using their electronic devices so often, and encourage them to socialize with people around them, rather than on the other end of the digital-line.

As far as events where people are encouraged to mill around town later in the evening, possibly stopping in a shop or two on the way, we need another handful of weekends--and I have the perfect idea for the first one.

The Museum of Northwest Art is having a Fishtown-themed show, starting in July. I think it would be awesome if local shops worked together to stay open later, and get people walking around town a bit more. We could definitely make this like a weekend (or week-long) event that celebrates La Conner's history and community.