Just me and my Daddy and a kid named Cole.

International relations are routine in a county like Whatcom, and policing it takes teamwork.

With four drivable border crossings to and from Canada in Whatcom alone – cooperation between state, local, and federal law enforcement is important to keeping the community safe.

Watching over a border county is a tough task for one outfit to do alone. Flanked by Cascades and the Pacific Ocean, Whatcom is a geographic choke point for international travel in northwest Washington. Last year over 13 million people crossed Whatcom County ports of entry, according to the United States Department of Transportation.

That’s why law enforcement like Washington State Patrol and Bellingham Police Department work regularly with Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection. Together they share information, train jointly, and plan for potential emergencies.

They also work day-to-day business together. One agency may be the first to an incident typically handled by another. State Patrol even helps Customs with port runners, or people who drive through border checkpoints without stopping, according to Trooper Brandon Lee.

Border Patrol, which covers 252 miles of land in Washington state alone, frequently swaps information with several state agencies.

“Since 9/11, a lot of things have changed in the way law enforcement officers do business,” said Chief Border Patrol Agent Dan Harris. “What we found in 9/11 is that I might hold that piece of the puzzle that could save lives or prevent something from happening, or another agency might hold that piece.”

The Bellingham Police Department is one of those agencies. Local police maintain a good relationship with Border Patrol, according to Lieutenant Robert Vander Yacht.

“If we knew that someone was leaving Bellingham and going to the Canadian border and they were really dangerous or they were armed and making threats to hurt somebody, we wouldn’t want to just sit back and go ‘Wow! I’m glad they’re out of Bellingham!’ and not tell anybody about it,” said Vander Yacht.

Hands-on training is another major piece of collaboration. Border Patrol also works with local police on how to respond to shooters in schools and malls. After the Bellis Fair Mall closes, they sometimes conduct drills with Bellingham Police.

Emergency preparation is the largest aspect of federal and state cooperation. Almost every agency has a plan in the case of problems from school shootings to natural disasters. Training, information, and preparedness all come together when it comes to emergencies.

They think of everything, and often together.

Customs and Border Protection keeps a Continuancy of Operations (COOP) document on file in case of serious disasters. Washington State Patrol, Whatcom County Sheriff Department, and the Whatcom County Department of Emergency are all listed as potential emergency contacts. They also have the contact information of Lynden, Sumas, and Ferndale police departments.

In 2008, Vander Yacht worked helped to prepare for the 2010 Olympics. Though two years ahead of time,  several state and federal agencies got together and asked questions, such as how to keep the roads open and what to do with enormous amount of people anticipated to be staying in Whatcom County.

At the time, Vander Yacht was the commander of the bomb squad. He did a “tremendous” amount of work training with Customs agents at all border crossings, providing classes on explosives recognition and response plans.

When they moved onto drills called full scale exercises, Western theater students were used as practice patients. Some played dead, others acted out losing limbs and other traumatic injuries as law enforcement practiced on how to take care of them in the event of an emergency.

Thankfully, nothing like that ever happened at the 2010 Olympics. Hopefully, events like that never really happen, said Vander Yacht. Regardless, you can’t just cross your fingers. State and federal agencies often get together to come up with “what if” scenarios so they know how to handle them – in case “if” becomes a reality.

“If you think there’s six people sitting in a room, they all have ‘X’ amount of knowledge. And they all have ‘X’ amount of information from their perspective,” said Vander Yacht. “When we pool that all together it’s really powerful.”

COMEDY MIC NIGHT: A COMEDIAN’S OPEN MIC

‘Don’t worry, but I am a hostage right now,” said Summer Storholt, standing on stage at the Underground Coffee House. The crowd sat in mismatched sofas on a Thursday night, listening to her expectantly. “It’s okay, I’ve escaped. But there’s a bee in my room. I don’t know where it is. He’s been in there for a day now.”

Storholt, a Western student, was performing at Comedy Mic Night: A Comedian’s Open Mic. The program, redundantly named on purpose, provides a comfortable, casual platform for new and veteran comedians alike to perform. Jake Foerg, president of the Stand-Up Comedy Klub (SUCK), explains that he came up with the idea to give new people the opportunity to try stand-up and experienced comics a place to keep trying new things.

“I ran into a lot of people that said they really wanted to try stand-up and then never really followed through with it,” said Foerg, “because they didn’t want to either commit time to a stand-up club and then go through the process to actually get cast in a show.”

This makes it easy for anyone to try or practice-stand up. Comedy Mic Nights happen every first and third Thursday of the month. Sign-ups are available at 6:30 p.m., and the show starts at 7. Western Washington University has been described by many student comedians as a casual, comfortable place to perform.

“The students are so eager to laugh. And I can’t really do my school comedy jokes elsewhere in bars or in anything like that,” said Anna Snedden, an experienced comic who has done stand-up for over a year. “Because when I say I’m a student it’s like, ‘oh’. They check out immediately. But this crowd loves it.”

Benjamin Crabill, another veteran comic and member of SUCK, also feels comfortable performing at the Underground Coffee House. He feels that when student comics perform to fellow students, who are often supportive, it helps them relax. “Everyone here at the Underground is very receptive as opposed to some people at bars and clubs, where here we want you to try to be funny and we want to laugh at you,” he said.

Comics of varied styles and experience can come up to the stage. Some tell stories, others tell one-liners. Some move around stage making wild gestures, others speak in deadpan tones that add to their humor. One performer, Gabe Reardon, accidentally kicked a rug on stage while acting out his story.

“Sorry, carpet,” he said.

Though dirty jokes are certainly not off-limits, many of the jokes told are about school, hometown, parties, drugs, video games, and sometimes even race.

“I look more black, my brother looks more white, and my sister looks like Beyonce,” said Phil Burton, explaining his mixed ethnicity to the audience. “Brothers with different skin tones that are not adopted can be really hard for people under 10 and over 60 to understand.”

Most of the comedians who perform at Comedy Open Mic come up with their material in their day-to-day lives. For some, a funny idea will “pop” into their minds. Others get jokes from real-life experiences. Regardless of where they get it, they always write it down.

“I have a philosophy that I think most people are hilarious, comics just write things down,” said Crabill. “They look for deeper meaning and insight into things. They extrapolate things to the point of absurdity.”

Comedy Open Mic is available for anyone who wants to try their hand at comedy. SUCK also meets on the second, fourth, and sometimes fifth Thursday of the month in Humanties 108.

Walking across campus, you can see Western Washington University’s sculpture collection almost everywhere you look, from the waterfalling stalactite of tiny figures in the red and white hues of Cause and Effect to the little green men with cartoonish faces in Feats of Strength.

The collection is considered among the top 10 university sculpture collections in the nation. And with famous artists like Isamu Noguchi and Mark di Suvero decorating the school, there’s little wonder why.

The artists whose sculptures dot the campus typically create pieces based on the space they work with. “You’re working with the environment around you,” says Paul Brower, interim director of Western Gallery. Nancy Holt’s Stone Enclosure: Rock Rings for example, highlights the directional axes of a compass. With its rust-colored rock walls dominating an almost hidden, solitary corner of Academic East, the towering Rock Rings was placed where it was according to the layout of the north star.

Another piece among campus is Feats of Strength, created by Tom Otterness. All along Haskell Plaza are the “little green men”; small bronze figures with features like something out of a comic book. With their cartoon faces and comically large shoes they work and relax along the plaza. One exceptionally well-dressed figure with a tie and tiny top-hat sits on a ledge with a large rock in its lap.

Architects and school management often have to coordinate and compromise with artists in order to find the right locations for a piece. But maintaining an already-existing sculpture is not without challenges. According to Brower, many of the pieces are partially owned by the Washington State Arts Commission. WSAC keeps a maintenance and repair budget, but Western must also provide its own money for the upkeep of sculptures. “We have an endowed fund that provides us some money, but it’s not very much,” says Brower. “We have to sort of pick and choose which ones we’re going to do.”

Also sitting in the grass, flanked by Academic West and the Communications Facility, is Stadium Piece by Bruce Nauman. Influenced by a mountain view on a plane ride through Washington, Nauman created the piece to stand out among the circle of buildings that was then under construction. Stadium Piece is a massive, multidirectional set of white stairs resembling two jutting mountains. Climbing the piece lets one to sit, relax and watch people come and go. On nice days, even teachers will bring whole classes out to sit on the bleacher-like steps and lecture.

Along with a general budget, the university has set aside $30,000 to deal with vandalism. Even more money has been put into this fund during the past two years, says Brower, “So it takes out of programs that could go to the students.” One particular example of attempted vandalism was when Feats of Strength was first installed. An unknown person tried to smash all of the pieces. Though they succeeded in breaking one of the bronze figures, there hasn’t been an incident since. Instead, Feats of Strength gets Brower calls “the kind of vandalism that I love to see”. Scarves and sweaters of all kinds are given to the little green men during the winter. 

Holy hell. My blog was depressing and whiny last year.

Also tumblr and plurk have pretty much taken over all my blogging needs.

Grand Theft Auto x25
Reservoir Dogs x24
Jackie Brown x15
Borderlands x11


GRAND THEFT AUTO








RESERVOIR DOGS

  
    
    
    
    



JACKIE BROWN

    
    
    


BORDERLANDS

    
    

OH OH OH OH OH OH OH

BY THE WAY



This is the product of my internship. Me and two other partners put the idea together, arranged the interviews, and filmed it last spring quarter and I spent most of this summer editing it all together.

I'm seriously so proud of this holy shit.

Watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas for the first time was one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life.

Last summer I was in the hospital for pneumonia. Then a month later I got MRSA. Then I got a sunrash because having to take two strong antibiotics in a row for so long screwed with my body pretty bad. I mostly hid inside after that and watched movies, one of them being Fear and Loathing, which I had been meaning to see for forever.

While I was watching it my rash started acting up. It was a BAD bad rash all over my bad so the entire time I was driving myself crazy like the characters were. The tripping scenes and the itching was so so so so so bad. I love the movie but holy that was the weirdest combination of things I had to deal with at the same time.

[x31] Reservoir Dogs (mostly Mr. Blonde)  
[x14] Grand Theft Auto 
[x10] Max Payne I 
[x03] Mafia II

As always, all icons are up for grabs! With credit, please.

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