Ian Pierce

Tag: tiny shards of light in a bleak and unforgiving universe

  • CHOO CHOO MOTHERLOVERS

    It was a huge day for transit nerds in Seattle this Saturday! Well, not in Seattle specifically, but the wild border country between the airport and Tacoma. Yes, as an early Christmas present, the Federal Way Link Light Rail extension opened, and since I had the day off, I spent the afternoon riding it!

    I began at the light rail station near my home, U District Station. Immediately upon entering, something was different. Instead of saying “Angle Lake” as the terminus for the southbound line, the transit signage said “Federal Way”.

    Even knowing that the signs would change, it was kind of a shock to see. I’ve lived in Seattle for nearly a decade, and seeing anything other than “Angle Lake” was a little startling, in a pleasant way.

    After passing through downtown Seattle, Rainier Valley, and the airport, I got to see the new section of track and the new stations for the first time!

    Speeding past cars on I-5.
    Kent De Moines Station.
    Star Lake Station.

    Then, after a scenic trip past interstate highways, RV parks, and patches of bog surrounded by damp hemlock trees, I arrived at the terminus of my journey in the exotic southern climes of distant Federal Way!

    Since I had come all this way, I spent a pleasant time shopping at Federal Way’s premier bookstore, a combination bookstore/cafe called Barnes and… something? Barnes and Mobile? Not sure what mobile phones have to do with books, but it had a pretty good selection!

    After shopping and getting a li’l soupçon of writing done, it was 4:30, well past nightfall, and time to head home. Overall, an excellent excursion! If ever you are forced to be in Federal Way, the Link is an excellent way of getting there. And I’ll be able to take it all the way to Tacoma someday! Hopefully before I’m 50, but you never know in this town…

    Goodnight, Federal Way and all of South King County! I probably won’t ever visit you again for years, but it was nice while I did!

    ~ Ian (listening to Strega by SubRosa)

  • i like to be here when i can

    I was just down in California last week, visiting family and friends for the traditional autumnal bird consumption ritual festival. It’s always a little weird going to California for me. I spent years being miserable there, trying to get out. I’m surprised how much I enjoy it, although that’s probably just because that’s where my family lives, as well as most of my friends.

    The story of my moving to Seattle basically boils down to “I wanted to move here, so I did”. What I didn’t know is how quickly it would become my home. Seattle felt like home to me within six months, something that never entirely happened in my hometown. I feel a kinship with this place, despite its flaws, and whenever I return here, no matter how fun the trip was, I always feel a sense of unclenching, of being in a place where I belong.

    This begins as soon as I get off the plane for one reason: fonts.

    This was the view as I left my plane from San Jose at SeaTac Airport. The font on the sign up there is called Humnst 777. All the signage in the airport is in that font, which isn’t unusual, since all airports have some manner of unified typography. But the use of this font continues once you leave the airport and get onto the Link light rail. All the station signage is in this same font. So are the signs in bus stations across King County. In fact, I’d argue that this font is as much a symbol of Seattle and the larger Puget Sound as the Space Needle, Starbucks, and annoying tourists who refuse to drink any beer that doesn’t have enough hops in it to turn it green.

    It’s funny how we create these signifiers of home within our minds. Maybe someone who doesn’t ride the Link every day like I do wouldn’t have such associations with this font. But for me, it’s just a reminder of the human element of good design.

    ~ Ian (listening to I Heard It’s A Mess There Too by Aesop Rock)

  • Desert Bus!

    Every year, I look forward to the second week of November because of one amazing thing: Desert Bus For Hope. This event, put on by Canadian streamers and sketch comedians LoadingReadyRun, is a tiny fragment of joy in a dark, cruel world, and it’s one of my favorite things in the world. The gist of it is that a team of funny internet people play the most boring video game ever made for a whole week in order to raise money for children in hospitals and domestic violence shelters.

    I could explain how the event works and why it’s so special, but honestly, the About page on the Desert Bus website describes it far better than I ever could:

    Started in 2007 by internet sketch comedy group LoadingReadyRun, Desert Bus for Hope combines video games and tedium to benefit charity.

    Desert Bus is the world’s longest running internet-based fundraiser and has raised more than $10 million for Child’s Play over its eighteen-year history.

    What started as an impromptu event broadcast from a living room is now a professionally organized fundraiser; it takes more than 13 people to plan the event and another 55 dedicated volunteers to keep the whole thing running once it starts.

    Our viewers direct the action, talking with us via live chat, challenging us to sing, dance and generally make fools of ourselves in front of thousands of viewers. The Desert Bus Craft-Along allows people from all over the world to help us raise money by donating incredible handmade art and goods for auction.

    Desert Bus is a great example of what happens when a huge community of people from all over the world – organizers, volunteers, crafters, sponsors, and viewers – come together to achieve a common goal.

    Desert Bus the Game

    Desert Bus is a mini-game from the never-released Sega CD game Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors. Challenging the player to drive a listing, unreliable, virtual bus on an endless, eight-hour-long strip of highway between Tucson, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada, it is widely regarded to be the worst video game ever made.

    We play it for as long as donations come in. In order to keep things interesting for our viewers we have live and silent auctions, giveaways and contests, celebrity guests, and a lot of silliness.

    Child’s Play – What is Child’s Play?

    Child’s Play is a registered charity dedicated to improving the lives of children undergoing treatment in the hospital with toys and games. The charity supports a network of over 180 hospitals worldwide.

    Child’s Play also supports domestic violence support facilities and aims to provide opportunities for positive engagement, distraction, and play for children in domestic violence shelters and advocacy centres.

    Personally, I’ve been watching Desert Bus since 2012, when I was in college. In fact, while I was taking a class in computer graphics, I made this image as as assignment:

    As far as an image made by a twenty-year-old amateur taking a breadth requirement class, I think it’s not too shabby, Alonso! And it shows that my love for this deeply strange event, which has grown like a beautiful pearl around the annoying piece of grit that is one of the world’s worst video games.

    If you want to check the stream out and join in the fun, go to desertbus.org! And if you want to chip in with a li’l bit of financial support, I would appreciate it muchly. These are dark times, after all, and if we can provide just a little bit of kindness to children in need, it’ll make the world a little lighter.