Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Year of Yes

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Northwest native Maria Dahvana Headley lived an interesting dating life when she was a drama student at New York University in the late 1990s. At one time she only dated intellectuals, which didn’t turn out so well. As she told Publishers Weekly, “I felt like I’d dated and then hated every man in Manhattan.”

At that point she did something that could have come straight out of an old Sex and the City episode. She decided that for one year she would agree to go out with anyone who asked her on a date. The only exceptions were drunks, druggies and cheating husbands.

Headley went out with some interesting people: a mime, a homeless man who thought he was Jimi Hendrix, a man who only spoke Polish, a Microsoft millionaire who still lived with his mom, and a divorced man — 25 years her senior — with two children. The divorced man stole her heart, and they eventually married.

Headley, who is an author, wrote a book chronicling her adventures a few years ago. The Year of Yes remains in print. If you’re single, 2013 is still young!

Loitering Naked and Other Health Club Crimes

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After a great deal of angst and threatened legal action, our neighborhood homeowners association is getting a promised clubhouse and swimming pool. Construction started this summer and should be completed next month. Since this asset will function as a mini-health club, now is a great time to review etiquette — considering the things I’ve experienced in actual health clubs and gyms. We want to stay good neighbors!

  • Even if you’re only on an exercise machine for a few minutes, please wipe it down. Your sweat doesn’t bother you, but it bothers me if I sit in it.
  • Don’t take magazines from the workout room into the restroom with you and then leave them on the stall floor.
  • Turn off the shower when you leave the shower area. Just turn the knob in the opposite direction!
  • While we’re talking about showers, how about buffer zone etiquette? If I’m on the end of an otherwise unoccupied shower nozzle row, please don’t choose the nozzle directly next to mine.
  • Yes, it’s great to see you again, too. But, if you don’t mind, I am trying to get to the workout room. You’ve completely undressed during our conversation and are now just hanging out — literally — chatting with me in the nude. Frankly, this situation has become awkward.

Can you relate? Is there something that bothers you about health clubs?

Allow Myself to Introduce…Myself

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I’m not a big fan of the Austin Powers movies, but that line the character used in one film made me laugh out loud. The writers did a great job of poking fun at how we can and do mangle the queen’s good English.

At some point we decided that “me” and “I” were too egotistic and started using “myself” rather than the correct personal pronoun. This tactic may soften a sentence, but it also sounds wrong in the best cases. In this instance it just sounds ridiculous.

That being said, allow ME to introduce myself….

My name is Clarke. I’m a broadcasting and consumer packaging veteran with a background in other communications-related areas — including writing and editing. (Ahhh…now the mini-rant makes sense!) Years ago I kept a blog and wrote daily entries. Eventually other commitments led to fewer and fewer posts until I stopped writing completely.

A lot of things interest me that cannot be summed up in a quick Twitter or Facebook post. So, here I am again. This time it’s my own website, and while I won’t write every day, I will post regularly.

About the website. What’s up with the name, you ask? Around the turn of the century, I started taking classes in web design. At one point I thought I’d be a full-time web developer, but doing the occasional job for friends or small businesses interested me more. It also fit my skill set a lot better. Every budding web person needs to have their own website, so in 2003, StormyWeatherDesign.com came into being. My cat’s name is Stormy, and I used to live on the Oregon Coast, which has some fantastically stormy weather during the winter. A name was born!

Until recently my website housed portfolios, resumes, vacation documentaries, old Flash practice pages from my online classes, and even some blank pages. Writing a blog is how I decided to completely revamp the site. Doing it with WordPress is like hitting the Easy Button. It allows me to focus on content and its management, rather than messing around with code.

Oh, and about the blog’s header photos. Those are mine, too. I’ve been an amateur photographer since I was a kid. While the pictures may suggest that I live in Hawaii, I don’t. I’m in the booming metropolis of Portland, Oregon. Hawaii just happens to be one of my favorite spots on earth, and I love shooting the landscape there. I’ll refresh those pictures every few months with new subject matter, but for now enjoy the aloha of the islands.

That is a whirlwind introduction. The topics I write about will be just as eclectic. We’ll laugh, cry and maybe even think a little. Feel free to leave your comments as we go.