Monthly Archives: August 2012

How to get from SeaTac Airport to Downtown Seattle

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I know several friends and people from twitter are coming to PAX from different parts of the country. Some have asked how to get from point a to b, and I'm here to write up a rough guide on how to do so while I wait for my boyfriend's flight to arrive. Keep in my mind I am writing this on my iPad without a keyboard, so it might come out weird. Here goes!

Your options:

Rental Car: honestly, this is a waste of damn money. Downtown Seattle is very walkable and you do yourself a disservice by renting. There are parking fees, gas, and a slew of other things that I would personally not want to deal with.

Taxi: I believe ALL the taxi services offer a simple fee of $32 (thanks to @jediguybob for the correction!) for a trip from the airport to downtown Seatte. I have ridden some taxis here and the guys are usually very friendly and nice. You'll get to downtown anywhere from 20 – 45 depending on traffic. Give or take more or less depending on the prior condition or who your driver is.

Light Rail: this is by far your cheapest option. You should only have to pay $2.75, takes 40 – 50 minutes and you don't have to really worry about transferring from one place to another. I highly recommend this option.

If you choose the later option, here are some tips and directions on riding:

– You MUST pay your fare before you board. If the security happens to do rounds when you are on and you are without a ticket? Your fine is $124. The ticket machine is usually in an area above or below the platform you are to board on. In SeaTac, it is on the floor before you ride up to the station itself.

– If you still have the ORCA card I gave you for Sakura Con, you can preload your card online. Look up ORCA card and follow the directions on their website. Remember to tap before and after boarding the the Light Rail! Failure to do so, and you can expect to pay the $124 fine as well.

– Don't be stupid. Seriously. Watch your phones and small devices. There might be cameras and the random security checks, but that doesn't stop people from being jerks and taking your shit.

How to get to the station from SeaTac: from baggage claim, head all the way to the end of the baggage claim (if you are at baggage claim 1, you are on the wrong end!) and head up the stairs. Cross the sky bridge and turn left. Walk alongside the path until you get to a clearing with a floor above you. This is where you will board the rail. Purchase your ticket making sure you select that you are getting off at the West Lake Center station. Head up, board when they are ready, and keep your ticket!

From here enjoy the scenery until you find yourself going underground sometime after the Beacon Hill station. The electronic ticker signs are plastered almost everywhere so you can't really miss what stop is what. But what you are looking for is West Lake Center station. It is the last station, so you CAN’T go wrong! Get off of here and go to the set of stairs that is on the furthest left side or whatever brings you to the Nordstrom side of the area. If you find yourself peeking at Macy's and then McDonalds then you are on the wrong side.

If you are staying at the Grand Hyatt, go left and up the street about two or three blocks. The hotel is on the corner to your right. If you are staying elsewhere… You are on your own unless you leave a comment of pester me on twitter with your hotel name and I will do my best to help you out.

OMG PAX 2012

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I would be lying to say if I weren’t amped, because I am. Several friends will be attending this year, the boyfriend will be there, and I’ll get to experience a bit of the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary for myself at the ACT Theatre.

Of course, there are some things on my mind that I’ve been worrying about:

– STUFF. Like, actual stuff. If I need to worry about bringing a laptop, what clothes to bring or how many (I’m factoring in if I want to dress up a little if I go out to dinner with the boyfriend), what to pack my shit in, etc etc. Thankfully the boyfriend will be there and can carry things. This is what is great about having a boyfriend. He acts as a humanoid pack mule. Too heavy for me to carry? Give it to the boyfriend. Too much to carry? Give it to the boyfriend? Need to use the restroom? Give everything to the boyfriend. The boyfriend is great. He may be bored and meh that he is being used in this way, but I will ensure he is properly compensated for his efforts!

– On a more serious note, I am worried about actually going to PAX and staying out. My father is having major surgery this week and he and my mom need help getting things done and making sure he’s taken care of. I know that the thought of them will always be on the back of my mind, and I’m tempted to go home at the end of the day just to check in on them with my own two eyes. I just… don’t really know what to do about it. I want to be with the boyfriend and friends, but family is damn important. I’m sure they’ll be fine and I may not have to go check in on them all the time, but I can’t help but worry. This is a big flaw of mine. I’m a worrywart. Thankfully there are cellphones and hopefully decent reception at the convention center…

– Meeting people. That anxiety of, “Will they like me?” sometimes fill my mind when I realize I’ll be meeting certain people for the first time in real life. I want to run and hide, so it will be a miracle if I stand my ground and force myself to get social. Most likely I will end up doing the later rather than the former, but I still think running away for the high lands should be an acceptable course of action.

I’ll be taking pictures and maybe trying to record certain things of my adventures at PAX. But more importantly, I’m going to try and have as much fun as possible. I’ve been looking forward to PAX since the 2011 PAX Prime event ENDED, and knowing friends will be coming has made the whole con seem even cooler than before.

 

Thoughts on blogging

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I’ve made resolutions in the past to blog more and have many random thoughts and desires of wanting to blog more. I often open up WordPress, Word, or any number of programs I use to write with, and more often than not I end up not publishing whatever gibberish I wrote or planned to write. Funny thing is, I wasn’t always this way. I had a Livejournal and another self hosted blog that I would write in whenever the mood struck me. Random things, short things, long things, whatever. It was written and published without so much as a second thought. Ah, to be young, naive, and free of inhibitions!

I am older now, more conscious, more aware, and more conflicted. Many blogs I read are written very eloquently, themed, have deep thoughts and me!? I’m some putz that just writes about weird shit no one really cares about and in a way that makes one kind of wonder how the hell I earned my degree (I know I do).

I’ve thought about this for a very, very long time. This thought about my thoughts on blogging, my views on it, and how I’ve approached it. And you know what? I’m kinda tired of it. I miss the days of blogging just to blog. Twitter has taken up that space, but sometimes there are things I want to write that need more than just 140 characters. Sometimes I want to just ramble and rant and rave and seem like a lunatic. Where can I do that without restraint? Duh, here.

And you know what? I have nothing to lose. I have no viewership. I have no dedicated readers. I just have me. Me and my damn blog. I’m blogging the way I want to, dammit, and no one is gonna stop me!