Real Change

I'm bad at this.

To be fair, my day-to-day life for the last week hasn't been very noteworthy. For the most part, I've been working away in front of a computer for 8-10 hours a day, designing a Map of the Universe (which apparently has quite a bit of information). I took a short break on Sunday, and was able to do some shopping. The only thing I was able to find was a pair of corduroy jeans for 10 dollars, which were basically new. It was a pretty good deal. Afterwards, I sat around and watched two movies on Netflix. This was on Sunday, the last day of Seafair, and apparently the last time they're having the hydroplane races on Lake Washington. I could have seen that, but instead, I stayed inside and watched movies. Luckily, Seafair is not worth it. Apparently there's just way too many people that go to it.

So, it's just been sitting in front of a computer. It's amazing how I can travel so far, be in such a beautiful place, and yet still all of my time in front of a computer.

Here's a few pictures of what I've been working on:


Here's roadside attractions.

This is a little header thing for the Solar System side.


This is part of what the cover will look like for the whole thing.


A detail of the map of the galaxy.


A fake ad for a preexisting GSTSC product (I still designed the ad though).

One last story. There's this guy that sit's out in front of the Safeway that I go to to get groceries. Everytime I walk past him, he asks, "Real Change?" At first, I thought he was just a panhandler who preferred the quality stuff. But after I noticed that he'd been in the same location for the last three days, I asked the managers at Safeway if they allowed panhandlers to sit out in front. To which they replied he wasn't a panhandler, but was selling a newspaper called "Real Change". Kind of an unfortunate name for a newspaper.

Are You Mocking Me, Life?

Wow.

It was 103 degrees today. Combined with crazy humidity, this was THE hottest day ever recorded in Seattle's history. Oh the irony...

It started pretty bad earlier this week. The first day I went in, I spent brainstorming ideas for how to organize the Map of the Universe that I'm working on. By the end of the day, I think I was losing my mind. I thought what I needed to do was some sort of complicated 3D imaging, so I logged onto second life and starting building orbital prims.

It wasn't until later that night that I realized how useless that was.

The next day, I was feeling much better, but by the time noon rolled around, I couldn't take it being in the office anymore. As many of you may or may not know, Seattle isn't usually accustomed to this type of heat (last summer, there wasn't a single day that broke into the 90's), so there are virtually no buildings with air conditioners. However, there was a city library just a few blocks up the street, so I hiked up there at 1pm, and was able to get a surprising amount of planning done. I've posted pictures of them with my last upload on Picasa. There's a boatload of other images in that folder, but I'm far too lazy to organize them.

After work, I thought it would be a good idea to hike down to Lake Washington. This was not a good idea (I don't have many, if you haven't discovered already), because I ended up walking for about 2 1/2 hours all told, and never found a public beach front.

Today, I got to work rather early (8:30, the office usually doesn't open till 10) and was able to get a large chunk of work done on the map of the solar system. This is only one part in what will be many many different parts that will all fold up into what will essentially be a 50's inspired road map of the universe.

After work today, I thought it would be a good idea (again) to go down to Lake Washington with Nicole's Uncle Bob without any shoes on. I now have enormous blisters on the bottoms of my feet.

So, that's about it. Having a BLAST in this wonderful, COOL, GREEN Seattle weather (no one waters their lawns??).

On the plus side, Seattle is completely overrun with enormous blackberry bushes. They are like weeds here. It's amazing. I'll take pictures once they've ripened (they're all still a bit green).

Arrival

Well, I got here alive. It was a 19 hour bus ride all told, but I'm just glad to have my feet on solid ground again.

The bus ride itself was fairly uneventful. I slept mostly until the sun came up around 6 or 7 in Idaho. Basically, the bus ride between there and pretty much most of Washington looked exactly like Utah: shrub, sagebrush, etc. Naturally, I didn't want to take very many pictures, so I waited until about 100 miles outside of Seattle to start snapping photos. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries right about then, but I was able to get a few good photos.

Right when I got into town, I met Nicole's Uncle Bob at the Greyhound station downtown with his friend Dawn, and we went over to Alki to Spud's to get fish & chips. They were fantastic, as was the clam chowder, and I want to go back and get some of the pricier halibut and chips.

When I got back last night, he showed me around the room (I'll upload pics later) and I walked down to the Safeway about three blocks from here to pick up groceries. Their selection was surprisingly bad, but I'm far more excited to visit the Fish Market and the Farmers Market, which are both only a few blocks away from here.

This morning, I got up and went on a jog down this ravine just north of where I am staying. I was trying to get to Green Lake, but I went in the wrong direction. Not that it was a bad mistake, the ravine was incredible. I've got some photos uploaded from that as well.

Check out the pictures here, here, and here.

It's alot of information I'm still trying to digest, so sorry if I have missed anything. I'll have more photos and stories later tonight. Right now, I'm going to check out the Greenwood area and possibly the downtown area as well.

Ta ta!

Here we go...

Welcome to Through Space to Mars. This blog is a visual, textual, and possibly auditory record of my internship and stay in Seattle from July 25th to August 14th.

A little bit of background about myself: my name is Spencer Charles, I currently live in Salt Lake City, UT, and am attending the University of Utah as a Senior Graphic Design major. This whole hair-brained scheme arose from a desire to find somewhere unique and out of state to participate in an internship. The place I happened on and ultimately decided on was Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co. They are a part of the McSweeney's umbrella/universe, and I have long been a fan of their publications and writing. Their love for writing seems to blend over into the realm of design, which is awesome.

So, check in every day or so, I'll be posting pictures, writing, and stories here pretty soon. I'm leaving this Friday at midnight, and will be going to Seattle via Greyhound. The only reason I won't have any crazy stories is because I'll be dead and unable to tell them.

I leave you with this story, Bon Voyage!