Worn and Bruised after defeating Klarg and his minions, the party collapses in the cavern and recovers with a long night’s rest.  They search the cave for  treasure and clues about the whereabouts of their dwarven patron Gundren to no avail, only the spoils of a recent raid are evident.

Spoilers below the fold.

This post is guest-posted on Dave Knows Portland as well. When Dave asks, it is imperative that you do the right thing. Especially when it’s “Hey, Rick, would you like to checkout this new restaurant that serves tasty BBQ and delicious grown-up beverages?” So, I did the right thing: show up to Southland for a preview of their tasty menu. Southlandis a new project by the folks who brought the Casa del Matador to Portland located just a couple doors down at 1422 NW 23rd.

I’ve recently started contributing to a nifty new iPhone app called urbandig. It is the app that I wanted when I was in NYC earlier this year. It’s the app that I want when I visit Memphis and Denver later this year. Basically, they’ve gone out and found people who know the city, or parts of it, really well, and gotten them to created nice little curated morsels of experience. Portland’s urban dig experience has just been release, and in it you can enjoy my delicious noodle crawl, in which I explore some of Portland’s more exciting Ramen joints.

I’ve been riding the bike a lot lately, and it’s been great. It’s not just good exercise to ride for my commute, it’s also a far better way to relax than driving to and from work. I’ve been doing it so much lately (driven to work once since early August) that I’m kicking around selling one of the cars. We’re currently a 2-adult 1-baby 2-car household. I’ve registered for ZipCaraccount, though I’ve yet to use it.

Well, today was the due date. I haven’t talked about it much, but N and I are expecting a little girl here anytime. She’s been a trooper, we went out to a Christmas party last night, walked to NePo42for a tasty breakfast. She got gorgeous fluffy pancakes with apple (real apples hunks…bigger than chunks) and I got the biscuits and gravy and a bloody mary. Augie got pet but no food.

and I learned a lot. And met some nice people. There were a lot of major themes. I was happy to see the internet future includes thoughts on how all this stuff will work inside business too. As a corporate lacky, this is valuable stuff for me, and for a long time it has seemed neglected. The main focus here was around corporate culture and the roles of communities and community managers.

N and I are heading down to Austin shortly to catch the SxSW interactive conference and spend some time with her sister who moved there from somewhere I didn’t want to visit about 6 months ago. So I think I can find my way around a conference. But what about the city? Any tips…beer, BBQ, texmex, or whatnot. Cheers. PS. Just saw the Tron Legacy preview and it looks pretty awesome.

Jeff at Beervana poses a question: what five beers are a connoisseur’s must-haves visiting Portland. I might have to tackle that, but really, Jeff is really on top of that in his post. I suggested a different route, a road trip around Mt. Hood. But I also threw in a crawl that I think is really worth sharing with your Portland visitors. Begin at Rontom’s. If it’s nice out, enjoy the patio.

It’s been an amazing year. In some ways great, but there were some painful times. It seems that there’s a cycle where every now and then I need to go through some changes. Change is painful, and this was no exception. I didn’t always handle it well, and at points I handled it very badly. I’m not sure that I was built with the emotional fortitude to maintain the stoic coolness I’d need to manage the changes.

I was pretty excited about V. It was bringing back what in my mind was the original miniseries, and a nice bit of sci-fi. But this time with a budget and awesome effects and some hindsight on making a great series. Plus, I wrapped BSG and 4400 up pretty recently and need a new sci-fi serial fix. I watched the pilot last night, and was a bit disappointed. 4400 was great, and there are some strong ties to that show here, between Joel Gretcsh and Scott Peters they really raised the bar.

I just finished BSG, the whole shebang. It was awesome. Here’s a tip if you’re viewing the final DVD of season 4.5: Daybreak extended is like the Director’s Cut of Daybreak episodes 1-3. I was unsure if it was all, or part of them, and spent some time searching the internets for that info (carefully avoiding spoilers). So watch whichever you prefer, you’ll get about the same content told differently.

The debate has been serious this summer. From touchy questions on sides of buses to annoying comments on blog posts to occasional legal debate. The community has been vexed by this question: Is a bicycle a car or a pedestrian? To help shed light on this problem, beerdrinker has gone undercover, actually riding his bicycle most days, frequently more than 25 miles. I’ve been thinking about this question for quite awhile, but it really came to a head (or mine) when Webtrends posted their controversial question on Portland’s public transportation: Should cyclists pay a road tax?

My wife wanted to support what sounded like an interesting idea. Pay it forward cards. I’m not going to go into the idea, because they’re not worth my time. It sounded like fun, she ordered some. Somehow she ended up with the wrong cards. She called, they blamed her. A company that deals in karma points should have a somewhat better perspective. Akoha, I’m playing it forward to you…you fail.

I am terrible at identifying plants, yet at the same time I’m really susceptible to poison oak. For some reason, it is very difficult to find a decent image of the toxic weed. Guidebooks all have the same line drawing as can be found at trailheads. Pics on the internet are obscure and frequently hidden behind broken links. So I found a plant I think might be poison oak. Can somebody please confirm?

Had a great weekend with some buddies camping over on the other side of the Cascades. We got out of town right after work on Friday and beat most of the bad Portland weather. At the top of 197 there was some gnarly snow and I was a bit concerned that we’d get stuck, but it let up surprisingly soon, and we saw no more precipitation for over 24 hours.

Word travels fast. Shortly after this was announced, we decided to crash it. You can see some more photos on my photostream or picasa. Some are a bit more adult than my usual fare, but nothing that’ll get you fired. Jane Wells has an entertaining summary also, featuring a shot of me and a few other crashers. . Thank you, Etnies!

‘”Change has come” and we can all work together for a better and united future for all in our country and worldwide.’ That was my mom in the comments tonite. We had a fun little election party, and for the first time in a long time, we ended up happy, not just wiser. And we cheered. McCain’s speech was great. That McCain may have won the election. He was honest, sincere, honorable, clear, and inspiring.

Oh, the disappointment. Later and later it got at the Yukon Tavern, drinking Pabst after Pabst, watching the states black out one after another. The red carpet on the walls and the mannequin legs dangling above. Great conversation as we drifted further and further into desperate (to know!) drunkenness, and then even further into it with desperation not to know. Doin’ it bourgeois-style at Everyday Wine. Grimmer and grimmer.

Kali, one of my favorite pups in the whole world passed on this morning. She was always so sweet, and just wanted to be loved as much as she loved you. A great personality, she’ll be in my heart. And my love goes out to ACUC, I can only imagine how you are hurting today. Here’s my effort to help you celebrate her. And this video I came across just tugged at my hearstrings…it’s not Kali, but I think you get it.

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks. Got my Universal Life Church ministry certificate because a couple friends had asked me to perform their wedding services. This past week was the week. The first was on Sunday, and the second on Friday. I’ve been just a wee bit busy with all of that…meeting families, drinking beer, BBQing, clamming, crabbing, camping, cooking, eating, driving, playing hookie, and petting my dog and smooching my lady.

My Minnesota buddy Don had a crazy time in Peru…read the tale of his questionable guide Roberto Penny Cabrera (Desert Man of Ica) as they defied death in the desert. He has a few gorgeous photos to help capture their experience as the drunken guide barreled through the dunes to show them a lone skeleton, send them on their way to explore alone, and rescue a hapless cyclist traveling the desert.

This is pretty sweet. Now if only my credit union will get on that! props amanders.

woohoo! It’s no longer an unslayable dragon! I just finished my first ever bicycle ride from Beaverton to home on the Portland eastside. It was about 17.5 miles. Here’s a link to basically the same route, thank you bycycle.org. Instead of staying on Tillamook, I cruised up at 60th to Sacramento and rode along the nice Alameda Ridge.

Well, it was definitely Moist over the Memorial Day. We had a great showing of ballers and their friends and family. As seems to frequently be the case, the various Moist squads had some difficulty putting the ball into the back of the net. I don’t think it’s due to any shortage of talent on the teams, probably more because all of the teams are just mixes of dudes and ladies who haven’t necessarily played together.

If any of y’all are interested in checking out an interesting social phenomena or just partying along with soccer, head out to Delta Park this weekend during the daylight hours. Our little subculture called the Moist Coalition is gathering to play in the Classic tourney over Memorial Day. It’s ridiculous, great fun, and full-on immersion in something beautiful. It’s really pretty amazing…so many people, often many have never met, and just good times.

Stepping out of Powell’s technical yesterday, I was a bit confused by the gleeful roar I hear in the distance. As I turned onto Couch from the park blocks, the noise grew louder and more distinct. Looking towards the Willamette I was a bit astonished by the source: a colorful crowd of people running shopping carts down the middle of the street. At first I thought this was some sort of guerilla theater event, but as I watched, the roar grew louder, and the crowd kept coming.

Gorgeous snowshoe weekend celebrating oregon mountain ninja’s birthday out on the south side of Mt. Hood. The OMN acquired access to some remote huts through Cascade Huts. It was about 5 miles each way, to arrive at the huts, which were fitted with bunkbeds, propane (heat and stove), and other basic gear. Our group met at the snow park where we began the route at around 11, and were on the snow shortly after.

Went to Ignite last week, it was pretty sweet. The premise is a bunch of presenters get up and talk about something presumably interesting for a little while. The catch is that they have exactly five minutes, 20 slides (power-pointish), 15 seconds each, and they roll automatically. That keeps things moving and keeps you on your toes. And from experience (not at Ignite), talking about something for five minutes can be tough.

Other than being a generally good weekend, certain events made it absolutely terrible. The hard drive on my personal computer failed, yielding no effort at booting. Shortly after, the hard drive on my work computer failed, giving an effort at booting, but being pretty darn corrupted. Then I got a flat tire. ugh. Other than that is was pretty nice, we threw a good party, I scored a goal, went for a nice hike, and got stuff done around the house.

Been a crazy busy time recently, been moving, hiking, camping, skiing, snowshoeing, drinking beer, and squeezing in a bit of work. I actually have a few posts written, but my hard drive is full and I haven’t had a chance (motivation?) to clear out some space to get the photos onto it. blah. cheers.

After leaving the Mendenhall Glacier, we drove immediately to a beerdrinker’s mecca, the Alaskan Brewing Company, home of the delicious Alaskan Amber and a number of other tasty beers. I was surprised that the Alaskan brewery had no brewpub. From the sound of conversations (though nothing explicit or even really implied), they’ve chosen to respect local pubs who supported them as they grew. It’s a sensible division of labor.

We arrived in Juneau after a long flight on the milk run, stopping in Wrangell and Petersburg on the way to deliver supplies and mail to these smaller outposts. The flights lasted 15-20 minutes each, but the wait at each airport was much longer. I asked if I could get off and take some photos on the tarmac (it was beautiful) and they told me “sure. If you want to be arrested.

“Hey dude, what’re you doing next weekend?” Jay asked me. “Uh, just getting ready to move. Why?” “We were wondering if y’all wanted to go to Alaska or Denver.” “Totally. Which one?” “We’re taking a vote.” “Alaska” No doubt. So we got hooked-up with buddy passes to Alaska. Standby flights, no carry-ons. A lot of airport time. Portland to Seattle to Ketchikan, overnight in Ketchikan, to Wrangell to Petersburg to Juneau.

Me and some fellas hit up some cold-weather camping the other weekend up near Bagby. It wasn’t quite as cold as we’d hoped, but we had a massive fire anyway! On the way up, we saw a bald eagle. We drank some beer, with predictable outcomes. Augie got really sick and wanted to stay in my tent. I ended up taking the poor guy to Dove Lewis.

Halloween was a blast this year, here are some pictures of my adventures. For Halloween lunch, some I went to Popeye’s to check on the competition. Inside, I investigated their operation. I did not expect them to use 11 secret herbs and spices. The key was to find out how many they were putting to use. They weren’t cracking. It became apparent that I needed to dig deeper. So I got me a box o’ chicken and some mashed taters.

You’re in the Pearl District meeting some folks, it’s going to be hours. But you need to park, and it’s the Pearl so you have to pay to park. Two hours max. So you figure out the green monster and get your two-hour slip, and stick it to your window where it will eventually be sucked inside the passenger door. You pull out your cell phone and make a call: “Remind me to pay parking in two hours,” and go off to your meeting.

We had an unexpected guest this weekend. Driving down Sand Blvd. after picking up some food for dinner Saturday, a small dog darted across the street in front of me. I turned off to follow and see if there was a sign of his owner around, but he was on his own. He did have a small leash dangling behind him and a collar, but no tags. A passerby and I got him into my car and I took the small dog home.

N and I braved the I-5 bridge into Vancouver Friday night to see the Smashing Pumpkins play the Clark County Amphitheater. Perry Farrell opened with his new band Satellite Party, and they were good and fun. I kept thinking…wow, I’m watching Perry Farrell sing Jane Says or Pets or whatever. But the Pumpkins hit the stage and they absolutely killed it. Heavy, heavy shredding guitar. Huge rhythms with their classic psychedelic licks.

light lately, but that’s because I’ve been writing little mini-fictions over at ficlets. Here’s me. The account system is pretty neat, let me know if you have trouble getting signed up if you’re into it and I can help you out.

Oh wow, it was a crazy week. I’m only just recovering. And I’m talking about last week, not the one we’re in now. It started off Friday with a bachelor party. Me and some dudes went up to Vancouver BC to send Dustin off with style. It was a good time, we ate, wandered, laughed, drank, and did some obligatory bachelor party things. Good times. Sunday night after the baseball game, I got dropped off at YVR (Vancouver’s airport) where I caught a flight to San Diego (SAN, in case you’re checking).

Continuing on this odd consumption-oriented kick I’ve been on, Trader Joes moved out of their old location and into a new one two blocks away. And it is way better. Truly, seriously an improvement. Trust me when I tell you that even though I’ve not been closer than 100′ from the new location. Because the old location sucked eggs bigtime. It was cramped way beyond cat-swinging range. That many Joe’s shoppers packed that tightly just radiate bad mojo, and I feel it and it makes me want to go outside and sit on the curb and sulk, alone with the package of tamales that I managed to snag, holding it, realizing that I hadn’t paid and that I really really don’t want to wait in that line and do I really want the tamales that bad when I can go get cheaper better ones at Taqueria Don Pancho and so I drift into a pit of nihilistic despair I don’t care about the tamales or the lines or that I’m on Sandy Blvd on my knees beating the paved earth grinding the chicken tamales into my forehead yelling wishing (but not caring!

Okay, this is going to sound like heresy, but I did not attend the beerfest this weekend. At some point I made a hasty promise to the lady that we could hit Ikea on Friday in the afternoon. And I made good, got out of work early, and we cruised over to the massive furniture store. And we had a good time. It was pretty exhausting examining 4 billion pieces of furniture, but I really enjoy Ikea.

No pics. Maybe there’s one, but I don’t have it. Anyway, I was responsible for putting together a bachelor party to happen last Saturday, for my buddy Sean. We opened it up at the Jolly Roger for various booze, fried things, and jello shots, followed by a nice afternoon tubing down the Clack…can’t imagine why we had the river to ourselves…? And then we went out for steaks. Details omitted to honor the guilty and protect the innocent.

Santa Cruz is a pretty sweet city. It’s gorgeous. There’s a beautiful beach, tons of restaurants, shops, and things to do. A few good breweries. Nice views, hikes nearby. It was selected as one of Outside’s most desirable places to live (Portland too!). But after a few days here, I’ve found myself wondering: where is the soul of this city? And I haven’t found it. Time on the beach is great, the sand is pleasant with the sound of the surf and the seagulls, a heavy sun radiating powerfully, beautiful people building sand structures to watch them erode with the tides.

This lackluster season of 24 is finally over.

Thursday was a beautiful day to ride my bike. Things soured a bit on my way home. Crossing Halsey around 47th (near the Daily), I was absently putting my foot into the stirrup, when upon looking up, I was almost on top of the curb. I attempted evasive action, but clipped it and fell. Dumb, oh well. I got back on my bike and continued down the bike path (designated shared…happily there was no traffic).

Well, I’ve closed the injury trifecta by breaking a metacarpal last night in a bike accident (single vehicle). I went to the urgent care last night and the good Dr. told me to see a hand/wrist specialist. Calling around today, it just feels like nobody’s broken a bone here in Portland before. I can’t get in to an appointment until next week, nobody can answer any questions…shoot, they don’t even understand the questions.

Two recent projects of mine came together recently, with pretty nice results! I’ve been making sourdough bread for a couple months now, and it has been working well. In addition, I visited New York recently. As we all know, bread+NY=pizza. Except in alternate axiom sets where bread+NY=bagels, but we’re in my reality. Plus, while bagels were all over New York, most of them were nothing special. Not that I didn’t find some grub ones, it’s just that most were delivered from somewhere, and really not that great.

Just got back from NYC. It was a lot of fun, but catching up afterwards with regular has kept me from getting everything current. I do have a bunch of pics up, so just click on this one to get to my picasasite. I will be posting some info on my experiences with New York pizza, and probably some tales of good times. cheers!

It’s looking to be a pretty sweet Spring, if I can just get myself healed. I put together the hammock N gave me for my bday last Fall, and have gotten to relax in it just a little bit, as you can see… I’ve also gotten into bread making a bit. Well, today I’m making my second batch. This is sourdough, and it came out great. In the first one I forgot to add salt, so it was really just flour and water (and starter).

Just got back from a conference in Vegas. I played hard and learned a lot. And I drank a bunch of crappy light beer. At the craps table one time, asked what I’d like to drink I responded “light beer.” I had a brief out of body experience as the words escaped between my lips. She returned with some form of Miller. We have it really good here in the Northwest.

Went with some friends to Bend this weekend for some sweet skiing and casual times. We stayed at the Holiday Inn (express?) Thursday night, checked into our place at the 7th Mountain Friday morning, and hit the slopes for an absolutely gorgeous day. The snow was pleasant but well-worn. The day was gorgeous, I started off with a sweatshirt, T-shirt, and windbreaker, but dumped the sweatshirt after sweating down two runs.

I went to see the Iranian film Offside last week at the Portland International Film Festival (henceforth it will be PIFF). It was showing at the Broadway, which while of a much lower brow than the Portland Art Museum where I saw Hear and Now, it is a far better venue for watching movies. Especially ones with subtitles, which is one way to evolve them from movie to film. Sometime ago, I saw a soccer matchinvolving Saudi Arabia getting somewhat pummeled by the Ukrainian side.

Alright, so I got LASIK two weeks ago. The next day I caught a miserable cold and have been exhausted ever since. But I’m finally about over it. And my eyes feel great! I can now see really well. I wake up and can read the clock. That’s a big thing. I think I can see now better than I’ve ever seen in my life. My fun new game is to challenge “sighted” people to see who can read smaller things further.

Going in to get LASIK done today. That’s it. I’ll letcha know how it goes. cheers.

My backyard, of course! Man, it totally snowed in Portland this morning! I drove a bit and my recommendation is stay of the road, it’s like frogger out there. Anyway, I went to grab a shovel to clear my sidewalk and noticed some beer chilling in the yard. Good times.

Oh, man, we got styled this weekend for the foodstuffs! Friday, N and I cruised over to our friend Treung’s place for some risk, where he’d ordered a TON of chinese food. Oh man, it was good, and so much variety! Chinese like that is fun when you aren’t ordering because you get to try a bunch of new things. Some beans, shrimp, chicken, oh my! Saturday, after waking up late and hungover from playing Risk until 4am eating Chinese food and drinking Wild Turkey, we picked up my car and cruised over to Mike and Leona’s place.

Sweet! My buddy M@ hooked me up with a ticket to GnR Monday. Being one of my favorite all-time bands, I was stoked. Honestly I wasn’t that excited about the opener, Sebastian Bach (Skid Row), who I’d seen open for GnR some 16 years ago. I’ve always considered Skid Row to be wussy rock, a sort of precursor to Incubus (who should’ve stuck with the funky stuff they put out early).

Thanks for all the well-wishes and such. My toe is healing, soccer is a long way off but I’m planning to return to work tomorrow, and drove a car today for the first time since Thursday. woohoo! Pain is way down, pretty much completely off the meds, but stinky because showers are a hassle! cheers.

Sitting on my ass today because I had surgery this morning. Nothing too significant, but I am missing the rest of the soccer season. Three season, I guess. There was some bone matter and cartilage mucking up the joint in my big toe. My kickin’ toe. I asked to bring the pieces home in a jar but I guess it’s hospital policy no to alow that. I was good and didn’t play soccer last night in hopes of not bashing it up worse than it is.

So I’ve been in Oakdale and Modesto the last few days for my high school reunion. 15 years holy crap. I think I’ll submit my denial in the existence of time right now, and if you’re the noting type, please note that. But that’s not what I’m here for today. I need to send props to my classmates for being a super-cool bunch of people. I saw a ton of people (metric) who I haven’t seen in a long time.

Alright cave-dwellers, time to explore beerdrinking venues for the merit of their tunes rather than their ales. And lagers if that’s what you’re into. The Musicfest NW is going on, and there are a lot of great acts to see. Last night the Black Keys rocked. That’s the only show I saw, getting a late start and opting out of the Dandy Warhols. Tonite, there are so many bands conflicting that I am a bit conflicted myself.

After hiking the other week, I found myself lacking skin on my heels, a condition which makes exercise with shoes less appealing. In an effort to keep on keepin on I found a new activity- yoga. Bright-eyed and barefoot I followed Ann to my first class, some Asstangle or something. Halfway through sweat was just pouring off me as I struggle to go from downward dog to somehow unsuccessfully jump my feet in front of my hands.

These are pics from our hike in the Bull of the Woods Mountain wilderness area. The story is below for you wordy types. This came out alright. Me and dave pretequila. I don’t think he’s that much taller than me…? This is me as the Kool-Aid man. Oh yeah. Dave post-tequila Here I was fishing. Those trout are lucky there’s just one of me. This is at the fire lookout on top of Bull of the Woods Mountain.

106 degrees (41C for you euros out there) in Portland. A bit cooler at the coast, and frickin hot in the gorge and the Cascades. Sounds like the perfect weekend to get back into backpacking and beat the crowds. So I’m figuring a solo trip into the gorge, but I got my buddy Dave into it. He’s experienced and we hit the Bull of the Woods Mountain area. Which is huge, diverse, and has a bunch of lakes.

I arrive Friday late afternoon. We drink coffee at his house and ride the train to the city. My card is not working so I have no money. We drink beer on the train, many people do. Often there are little stores conveniently located to sell one a bottle of beer. Not many cans here. We walk around and have what appears to be lebanese food, similar to a doner. Which is not too different than gyros bot more cabbage and sometimes different bread.

I predict Germany will be the winner of the world cup this year. And here is my proof. Word on the street is that Brazil is favored and I accept that. But is their probability better than 50% to win? I think not. Thus, we must say that a team other than Brazil should win. Looking at the field, Germany seems to be the strongest and carry the greatest odds.

Heads up, I’m just posting these as I have time and in whatever order I feel like. If you’re hoping for up-to-the-minute scores, check out FIFA’s website. Lunched with Nina’s family, had the white asparagus so popular here for the first time. It was really good and made my piss smell different that regular asparagus. Then off to Lasser’s for sone BBQ with some friends and to watch Germany play Ecuador.

On the way to the Fan Fest downtown Hamburg I saw a woman jogging in a turquoise Ramones T-shirt. Something was about to happen. Tobi started singing ‘yellow — yellow — yellowred’ and I joined it. Just a made-up song for the game, early in the second half. But that described it. Four red cards, all of them double yellows, and I felt mostly ridiculous. In fact, there were a couple red cards I felt would be deserved, but they didn’t get raised.

so, you may have noticed by now that I’m not talking about German beer that much. Well, it’s there and it’s good and there’s a lot of it. Not necessarily in me at the moment but passing through. Lots of Pilseners. Beck’s Gold has been really popular with the circles I’m running with, as well as Radlers which are some sort of lemon/beer mix. I enjoyed a nice Koenig Pilsener last night when I got back from Berlin in time to watch the extra time in the Argentina/Mexico game.

Today I was mistaken for a Swede for the first time. Watching them play England, I’d noticed the mullet was more popular on their side. Still sporting it. After watching the early games (Mexico v Portugal and Angola v Iran) with Tobi, Flo and I cruised down to the Hamburg Fan Fest. Much larger than the ones at Cologne and Hannover, there was a great festival atmosphere with food offered from each of the 32 countries.

Monday, second game ticket. Probably the last, Ukraine vs. Saudi Arabia. In their first game against Tunisia the Saudis played remarkably well. They are certainly capable of applying pressure up front and occasionally pull together some really pretty soccer. This was true against the Ukraine as well, nearly scoring on several occasions. Unfortunately, the defense, quite porous against Tunisia and rarely winning in the air, remained weak. A keeper error placed the ball in a dangerous area, which Ukraine capitalized on.

Just found out I got a ticket for Czech vs. Italy. I’m excited, it’ll be a great game, but a little sad not to see the US game live. Watch for me, I’ll be in the US jersey with the US towel. btw, I may not be saying much about beer, I’m way behind on writing so it’s just World Cup adventures so far. oboy, what an awesome game this will be!

The fellow from Ghana summed it up painfully sweet: “I can’t root for the US, you don’t have any songs!” So our merry band of wanderers did what we could with what we had. Three letters and a movie. For the most part we spent the day shouting U-S-A U-S-A over the roar of ee-tahl-ya ee-tahl-ya until our throats were hoarse, moistened only by sweet German lager. Then we realized that We have a fight song.

Today you should look forward to some of the best and most importand matches of first-round group play. The games are the third round of Group E, which some have dubbed this year’s group of death. Others have debated it, but now I think the debaters have shut up because it is pretty clear. Czech beat US. US tied Italy. Italy beat Ghana. Ghana beat Czech. For standings, Italy has four, Czech and Ghana have three, and the US has one.

13 June 06. Impatiently she shakes her head. Why haven’t they helped her yet, she has children! Not with her…but she does. Continuously shaking or grunting, she stalks the window. To my left security guards chuckle. She stands up, steps, glares, and sits again to shake her head more. Still shaking, the window clears, she is there before the numbers change. Friendly as can be, smiling, talking about her four kids under two.

I slept the entire drive from Hamburg to Hannover and woke still tired. I’d just arrived in Germany that morning due to the passport mayhem I’ll fill you in on later. Jetlag was definitely impacting me but I’m a trooper! We parked maybe a kilometer from the stadium and wald to the Fan Fest, these town square setups in each city with a huge screen, beer (cheaper than water or soda), and food.

At this time I will attempt to put fotos on the interweb. Update: looks like I need to do a bit of cropping…you can see the whole picture by viewing it in a new window in the meantime. Of course, I’m on a German Mac right now, so who knows what y’all back home are seeing. (more) sorry, I’m going to need help to figure out the annoying kodak foto editor in German, so y’all will have to deal with odd views of the pics unless you view the whole thing (I’m seeing just the far left edge of the pics here).

well holy crap I’m on day four of my beer drinking world cup tour, and having an awesome time! I’ve seen Mexico tie Angola (wished for a goal to hear the stadium explode there were so many Mexican fans) live, stood 20 americans yelling over 10,000 italians in Cologne watching the USA outplay Italy with a man down at the Fan Fest drinking copious beer making day-long friends for life I’ll never see again, hung out with some true old friends, driven the autobahn, and travelled to three great cities…Hannover, Cologne, and Hamburg.

I am super-excited, leaving for Germany tomorrow morning. I probably won’t post many pics while I’m there because I won’t have the camera dongle, but maybe my german buddy will throw me a bone on that. I’m seeing two games, Mexico vs. Angola and Ukraine vs. Saudi Arabia. Oh boy, I’m really gonna miss my lady and pup and folks back home, but I don’t think I’ll have too much time to pine away on it.

well holy crap I’ve been lazy about posting latetly. Plenty of beer drining has been going on, I just finished up one of my big projects for the year: the Moist Tournament. Anyway, it was an awesome friggin time, and don’t get me wrong, I don’t run the tourney. We just put three teams into it and a lot of blood, beer-laden sweat, and tears. That was over memorial day. There should be some excellent pictures coming out of it.

Mt. Bachelor had many wonderful things but they didn’t have free beer!

Just got back into town after a sweet weekend in Bend with some buddies. Went skiing two days, and it wsa great…couldn’t ask for a better day than Saturday! Just a nice time…a little gaming, cruising the town, and eating/drinking beyond the ski good times. Went two two really great spots…the first was a kickass restaurant/lounge called The Grove right across the street from the Deschuttes brewpub. I got this steak with chimichurri sauce that was out of this world.

tater tot casserole mac’n cheese chili 2lbs of bacon (w/Hamm’s) cheetos with cheese hot out of the microwave tots condiments beer I don’t think that’s love in the air I’m smellin.

A lot of playing today, after a Saturday workday. Played an indoor [soccer] game last night, and went out for a few beers after…turned out to be a buddy’s bday so my plans to get to bed early (before midnite) were thwarted. Crashed around one, so not too bad except I’ve been fighting a cold and had to get up at 6:30am to go skiing (two planks). The other mountain warriors arrived 7ish, and we cruised up to the mountain…an uneventful drive, and smooth!

I’ve written about the roller derby before. And here it is again.  Last time was an exhibition. This weekend, these ladies were for real. The league has begun, and they kicked ass. The Rose City Rollers is Portland’s roller derby league, and it is currently comprised of 4 teams: sweet Breakneck Betties, ritzy High Rollers, compassionless Heartless Heathers, and the evil Guns ‘n Rollers. Sometime since the exhibition match these ladies became athletes.

and happy stinkin new year! Now go replace one bad habit with another.

Just recovering from a kickass broomball party last night. Lots of good friends and new friends showed up, and we drank my keg ‘o homebrew and a pony of India Pelican Ale, a very tasty IPA, with plenty of hops and flavor. I received many nice bottles of beer, so look forward to some reviews in the days to come…I have to reclaim some space in the fridge (I’ve had worse problems tho!

Portland now has a roller derby team. The Rose City Rollers. Well, we’ve actually got four teams. And they’ve been around for a year or two. But Saturday night marked their first real competition. I’ve been going to their fundraisers since the beginning, and harassing my buddy D-Day about having an actual competition. I was having my doubts that it would ever happen. It did. Oh my, did it happen. That shyte went off.

fixin my friggin bathroom. Okay. So I’m not that savvy on home repairs, so when N noticed a leak going from the bathroom to the basement, I knew I was in trouble. I might’ve gone a bit nuts. Fearing that the whole thing was rotted through and through I started tearing shyte apart. Fun! Then I realized, crap, I don’t know what I’m doing. And my man M@ came to the rescue.

There’re a lot of nice benefits about working at a place with lots to do with athletics, but one of the best is one that I take advantage of the least: lunchtime soccer. Today I went out and it was absolutely beautiful. The weather was cool, the ground was soft, but it wasn’t sloppy. We’re not to the diehard season yet, but the people who’re out there are more serious and thoughtful, and love the sport.

It’s taken be awhile to write this up, but before heading off to Boston I hit the Oktoberfest at Oaks Bottom Park with some friends. It was the usual good time, singing, beer, brats, beer, and cup pyramids. Until we went off to the big tent, where we found more singing and beer. And some yelling. And then it happened. They called for participants in the sausage eating contest. Two humans formed a tag-team style pair of consumers…the one feeding sausage to the other, and then switching after the first is completed.

Off to Boston for the week. Should be good times, and workin times.

My German buddies were in town the last week. It’s always a pleasure to hang out with them, they’re such fun fold. This time they brought along their small child as well…wow, what a sweet little handful. Flo and Nina got into town last Thursday, direct from Germany so they were a bit tired, otherwise I would’ve taken them by last Thursday on Alberta, my hood. I took Flo to see the Timbers tie Vancouver (ugh…what a bummer of a lame-ass red card in the 24th) and we hung out with the Timbers Army.

I’ve been in Anaheim all week long at a convention. It’s been pretty cool, I came down with one other fella. Being a convention we had minor convention-like adventures, including, but not limited to: eating at the mall drinking at the mall wearing a name tag drinking at a bar named after something baseball competing to obtain the most useful/cool/bizarre free crap Yes, there were adventures a-plenty. On Tuesday we went to Disney’s California Adventure, where the food and rides were free, but the beer had a shorter line (and was free too…eat your heart out OLCC!

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a Skip Barber racing class. A friend’s friend had a birthday and basically sported a bunch of us for a day class. That had to be one of the most exciting things ever! D and I flew to Cali, into San Jose or something, and rented ourselves an ’04 convertible mustang. Yellow. As the class was starting early the next morning at Laguna Seca, some couple hours south of us, we deemed it appropriate to head north into San Francisco to hang with some friends.

ok. blog spam is a blight on my life. It’s been so bad that I haven’t even been able to look at my poor little bloggy. Well, I did the upgrade of the software and spam has not been much of a problem so far. Since I last spewed a few things’ve changed. I got a new job at a little shoe store a bit west of portland. It’s been a good time, I’ve been working a lot, but diggin it and getting things done.

Yesterday was one of the more unique days of my life. It was my last day at Qsent, the culmination of my two weeks and a day notice. I experienced quite a range of emotions throughout the day, and into the night as I saw people who have been friends and coworkers for quite sometime, not for the last time, but for the last time in that phase of my existence.

Last night I got home and went with N to give Augie a walk…well we just cruised over to the school to toss the ball. Anyway, on the way out I noticed this warm breeze, I assumed it was one of those grates venting some warm air, because it was really warm. But on the way back home the air was still venting but there were no vents around. So I figured it was swamp gas and hurried home and locked the door before some swamp beast came and grabbed us.

I have no doubt that this is 2005 now. None of the usual last year being written down for the first 30 days or so. 2005 up and whacked me with a ‘luminum bat. Maybe it’s my NYE resolution: 2005 is gonna rock. It has, but wow, it’s been serious about it. I’ve done some heavy damage control with the men’s soccer team I manage…a player made some odd decisions that I didn’t like much and affected the team and that’s required a lot of work and is still ongoing.

Today is sysadmin appreciation day. I’d forgotten, but some people in our office didn’t, and they gave us cookies and yum-yums! Thanks all! Maybe I’ll go out to beers later too. Yeah, maybe.

Last night I went and saw Portland’s beloved Timbers, an A-league soccer team, kick the crap out of the Earthquakes, one of the top MLS teams. For about 20 minutes. That’s when a horribly biased or incompetent officiating staff booked the Timbers with a red card, while simultaneously giving the Earthquakes a free goal in the form of a penalty kick…only me, Dave, and Beckham miss those. But anyway, we were rocking the quakes in terms of possession, position, shots, and similar, up until the bogus booking, and then even after that, we held a strong showing.

I got me a Utilikilt while I was working the Augie Bag tent at Pride. I like it lots, and recommend that all you guys rush on out and get some. No pics of it yet, maybe I’ll get one and toss it on for an update.

Ah, a happy busy weekend, I tried my hand at golfing on Saturday with my buddy over at Ojingo. It was loads of fun, actually, because I found that I could this the stupid ball more than ten feet this time! I improved drastically between hole 1 and hole 9, and actually got a par 5 in 6 strokes…not bad for my third time golfing I think. After golfing, we went back to my place and started up a batch of homebrewed IPA.

Can’t believe how the week just flew by! Well, it’s been a good one. The Memorial Classic soccer tournament happened last weekend down at Delta Park. My buddies and I put together two teams to play in it– the Moist Coalition, consisting of Moist United and FC Moist. We setup camp at the far end with two canopies, tons of coolers and chairs, and plenty of sweaty fellas. But you didn’t need to know that last part.

Got out and did the ole windsurfing lesson yesterday. It was great fun. And really friggin hard. I’d expected to be far better at it far faster than I ever was. I don’t mean that I thought I’d immediately have the ability to ‘shred’ but I thought I’d be able to zip across the lake, execute a simple turn, and come back. Lake/river/whatever it was, it was called The Hook, and was somehow associated with the Columbia River.

Ugh, I’ve been pretty quiet lately. Here’s a hint of why. Not that I’m complaining…it beats being bored. 6:45 woken by work,after getting to sleep after 1am, because of customer issue (no worries tho…you know who you are ;). Work problem, identify that it’s not ‘our problem’, shower, get to work late at 9:30. Work work work. Go home, pet Augie. Vote. Go to soccer practice. Get home at 8:30, cook dinner, watch 24…almost forgot!

Interesting event yesterday. My buddy Kevin, having built a small motorcross track in his backyard held the first (and, sadly last) annual Hawthorne Classic. Many individuals showed up with their 50 and 100cc dirt bikes to show their mettle in Kevin’s yard. Men, women, and children competed for the coveted awards. The weather was great, the Pabst stayed cold, nobody got hurt, and when the cops came, they left shortly afterwards and never came back.

They sure know how to make you feel special up in Redmond: Getting married? Find tips, tools and the latest trends at MSN Life Events. (from an MSN email footer). Maybe next they’ll have: Dying soon? Visit our online mortuary! Well, it was a busy ole weekend. Had the matriarch side of my family up, and that’s always a good, exhausting time. My bro and I hit it pretty hard when we go out…though I was really good saturday night, mostly because I was pretty well spent from Thursday and Friday.

so, I’ve decided to learn a new sport this year. I’d originally thought kiteboarding, because it looks awesome (like the funnest thing in the world), but after much deliberation I’m leaning 90% towards windsurfing. Right now I’m planning to take a lesson on mid-late May. So, if anyone has any tips for me, or opinions, or just feels like typing something, leave a comment. Particularly useful would be lesson experiences, equipment buying experiences, and general woes and elations.

ah, the joys of the short week. I was out healthy (but sore) Monday and Wednesday. Monday I spent a lot of figuring out how an industrial sewing machine works. Figured out some of it and fixed the problem at hand. And now I know what terms like bobbin and needle mean. Tuesday evening I had a men’s soccer game, much fun, but we lost in a strange game against Thunder.

Poker night last night, some good friends were gonna be there and I had an idea. I needed a way to get the edge. To unleash a barrage, a cavalcade if you will, of devastating emotional attacks. I needed to beat down the spirit, to get the jump on the enemy. Well, knowing the enemy, Taj, I came up with a plan, simple in scope, masterful in execution. As you can see, my plan was not so subtle.

An old friend was in town this weekend to show a film at the Longbaugh Film Festival at the Hollywood theater. I only saw his film, title “Never Say Die”, which wasn’t just his film but his lady-friend Katie also. It’s a documentary about a Black Sabbath cover band called Sabra Cadabra who plays out East in Jersey and/or New York. It was a fun film, with a lot of funny moments, tension, sadness, and information.

What a gorgeous day for a wedding Saturday was. I was fortunate enough to be invited to the rapidly planned wedding of two of the nicest people I know, Bill and Bob. I, of course, was quite late, but showed up tastefully immediately before the ceremony took place and in a fit of class hugged the groom(?) and tried to shove a bottle of Johnny Walker Red into his hands. It was a very nice time, with some very cool people present, tasty treats, a yummy stinkin cake (and another I didn’t try), some noontime champagne (where’s the beer?

Sunday night. Woman with eyepatch hitchhiking on Sandy Blvd. What to do?

Walking into work, there was a light drizzle. A beautiful Portland-style rain, not the binge and purge that we’ve been having this season. I smiled, and loved it, with the water matting my hair. Things went well, I accomplished a lot, and I had a general sense of well-being, even through the mild headache I had briefly. After work I cruised over to SE to coach the kiddies in soccer. It started at 5, so I was late, but not too late.

in a rash display of irresponsibility I drained all my dollars out of my checking account. Happily, I discovered that I had done so at lunch today. Mmm, chile burger, and when I discovered my problem I asked the nice waitess to ‘cancel the cheese’ to put the total below the $5 I was toting in my pocket. She was nice and said she’d cover the cheese, which puts me short for tip and cheese not (woe is me), probably because the sandwich was pretty much ready anyway.

Well, I’ve been in mega-mode lately, sorry about the light postings. I’ve had a lot of little projects going on, mostly life-internal. Two of the big ones involve the house…one is that we’re trying to refinance…maybe it’ll all be well there, and we can save some dollaz. The other, far more time consuming one is that we’re actually trying to clean the place a bit. We’ve been in a bit of a sty since we moved in here, and now we’re actually trying to make it a nice place to live.

Last night was something special. Other than being out far too late on a Thursday (read: Wednesday) I got to see my buddies play their first venue gig. And they rocked in a big way. Way to go Corner Office Suicide. The show was at Conan’s at 39th and Hawthorne, which is a big place. I thought the sound was pretty good…and my boys (and Sara) whooped it up quite nicely.

Well, despite the sucky aspects of the weather, there’ve been some really positive outcomes also. In case you’re reading this and have no idea, East Portland has been pretty much closed since Monday night. I’ve been working from home, because I can and because it’s been pretty nasty out there. So, N and I are getting a bit of the ole cabin fever. But we’re also meeting our neighbors, which is cool.

oi…I’m back from my California trip. It was pleasant, but we got stuck at the Siskiyou pass coming into Oregon. It was an adventure worthy of an entry, so you’ll hear about it. woo. In the meantime, here’s a little twitcher from the Dept of Homeland Security, vi Abrichar, beware of people carrying almanacs. That probably includes Thomas Guides, beer lists, and the Guiness Book of World Records.

hello again! After a wonderful holiday, spent largely behind the wheel on the open highways (well, pretty much just I-5) I’m back and happy and rested and busily re-exhausting myself. N and I went down to visit the grandparents (dad’s parents) and had a jolly time, though there was disappointment that my bro flaked out on the thxgiving festivities. Oh, well, life goes on. My grandad gave me a quick refresher on making peanut brittle, so once I score a nice hunk ‘o marble, I’ll be smearing candy over it.

Went and saw the Polyphonic Spree the other night. It was a really cool show, with a wide variety of acts. The opener was an acordian player who sounded somewhat like Meatloaf, and told tales like Jack Black, while I probably wouldn’t rock out to it in the car, I quite enjoyed his set. He played an amazing We Are the Champions cover (most tunes were original). The second band, The Sleepy Jackson, was fantastic.

I got to go fishing today on a guided trip in Tillamook. I’ve never been much of a fisherman, in fact, before today I had never even hooked a fish. Well, with a hook, that is. Once on a camping trip I caught a trout with my hand (true!) because there was an eddy that they’d pass through on their way downriver. I think that I was as surprised as the fish, which went back into the river.

Seemed like there was something in the air yesterday making people a bit aggro. On my bike I got honked at and a basketbal thrown at me, all with no provocation. At soccer practice we had a pretty good practice, but at the end some of our guys heard a ruckus and went to check it out, three guys had jumped and kicked the crap out of some other dude to the extent that they called 911.

Blogging can be used as a trumped up Bookmarking tool sometimes, if you don’t want to remember which computer, which browser, and which profile you used to mark that page that looked vaguely interesting 17 months ago (9yrs, internet time). So, Utterly Boring mentioned a cool site about sleeping in airports, tips about doing it, and reviews of many airports. I’ve usually just slept in international airports, and that tends to work well except when the obnoxious French Family parks on the other side of your bench in a sparsely populated room and plays the screaming game with the pre-pube hyper up-all-night-in-Istanbul child.

Music is pretty cool stuff, it appeals to something deeper, which I imagine is why it is so pervasive around the world, and through time. You don’t need language for music, and music can be a language, it can be so much, so deep, so affecting. People have their songs, and some take them back to other times, or put them in different moods. Scenes have soundtracks, just like movies. It is pretty amazing the effects of music.

I have returned from the big H, which followed the big W, also known as the big M. H was resting time to recover from W/M. Now I’m back at work (little w, also the big E). More later, but for now poring over a few hundred emails. woohoo.

As I’m going to be married in less than a week my friends threw me a bachelor party yesterday. We had quite a good time but nobody got any photos so for the record, I’ll talk about it here. I was already a bit hungover before it even started, so N and I went to the gym (!?) to work out some of the previous night’s alcohol…oddly enough, the strategy worked and I felt a lot better.

One might expect tattoos and piercings to be in abundance a Lollapalooza, and this is quite true of tattoos. Piercings were not a notable decoration this year, however. Of particular note was a couple (who may or may not have been together in any way), one of whom, the male, had a really cool tattoo of a turtle on his back. It was intricate and large. The lady next to him had one consiting of words only, large letters, reading Queen Pain.

The Lollapalooza spectacle swooped down on the Portland area this Sunday. Many bands were there to rock the fields out at Colombia Meadows out west of St. Helens, and the kiddies were prepared with counter-culture in tow. I went with some friends (N, W, L, H) after having a few pints and a chicken sandwich at McBeer’s. We totally missed the first act, but that’s okay because we were down with catching the Donna (2nd), which we did in full.

Ugh. One of the worst shows that I’ve ever seen. Scratch that. Hands down the worst show I’ve ever seen, it was worse than Bob Dylan’s following of Santana that I walked out of. Worse than Mortal Combat the Movie (double feature with Days of Thunder) in which a couple behind me talked through the entire movie. Even worse than the Japanese noise band that I stumbled upon in the student union when I was in college, and that hurt.

Friday was a nice evening, dropped the car of with my dad, had a scotch with him, then went to Sean’s house and had dinner with his folks and Nedra. Tasty BBQ, (wasabi steak, but not too pungent, just tasty), taters, corn (really), happy puppies, tho Augie stayed home. Had some beer, some wine, ah, the good life. Got home and reflexively walked in to check my email, and blinky blinky went the LED on my monitor, blank as a White House check to Haliburton.

3:57 all is well. A hectic week coming to a close, and I’m close to finishing my todo list wooohoo. Still truckin’, trying to get closure on a phase of backup implementation in time to enjoy an outside margarite. Gotta pick my dad up in a bit, he’s getting into town on boat. I’m sad about that, though, it seems that he doesn’t have the time to hang out. I dunno, you make time for what’s important, and it bothers me when I hear he’s driven through town without even a phone call.

Not a regular client of strip clubs, I ended up on the road to Union Jack’s on Lower E Burnside the other night at the prodding of some friends. I thought I remembered seeing it next to the dance studio there so I parked in a lot on the west side of the building, to discover that I was several blocks short of the destination. Walking up the street, I saw a small group of people on the street corner, three of whom walked one way, and the fourth sort of came towards me, and the nice man greeted me and engaged me in some light chit-chat…it was interesting the smoothness with which he changed direction, to match my gait.

Browsing the ole referrer log, I found a link from Wasguckstdu, a German blogger. Sadly, despite listening to several hours of the Pimsler German set, I’m still not proficient enough in German to understand much of what is written…especially because there’s no reading/writing component to the set, and the German words are spelled with a different convention than American words relative to their pronunciation. So, welcome friend, I’ll see if I can puzzle through some entries.

It’s been in the works for a few months now, but this is the first direct mention here…I’m gettin’ hitched to one lady Nedra. There’s an info link over to the right, the big day’s 9/6 (3 days before Augie’s bday so it’ll be easy for me to remember). Good times.

Following the most hectic workday in quite some time, the boss took the whole company to a Beaver’s game. It was coincidence, really, that a pleasant team-building experience should follow on the heals of such an unpleasant one. I don’t care too much for baseball really. The best thing about a game is that the clanking bat gives a clear signal of when you should look and cheer or boo, leaving one to drink, eat, or chat the rest of the time.

After years of focusing on my tone, my style, my presentation, and my walk, I’m ready to embark on a new career. No longer a Unix jockey, at the desk, puzzling over patches and outages, but soon I will be a man of the world! Nedra’s Augie Bags have gotten some publicity in the Willy Week, and given the choice of several photos, the talented writer/editor/whoever chose me to ride atop the article.

It’s been a rough week of soccer…last night was the third game in a row, and those were preceded by a night of broomball insanity. I was feeling pretty sore and even a bit fatigued before the game. No time to stretch, out on the field, about ten minutes in I stretch for a high ball, make contact for the shot, and <pop !>, I feel my hamstring go. On the side, my thoughts migrated from pulled muscle (annoying) to torn tendon (pretty bad) as I found that the back of my knee was smooth where I expected stuff to be.

(10May03) Flo was working filming this game and was able to get us press passes to catch the game for free. We arrived early with Flo so that he could setup his equipment. He gave us our passes and introduced us to the fellow who would show us to our seats, then turned us loose for a couple hours until the game started. We wandered about and had a warm Holsten. Not too tasty that one. Nedra wanted gummy bears (only German ones would do) so we looked for a store, but there were none around.

Fans started to arrive in large numbers an hour and a half early, wearing scarves, singing songs, drinking beers, arms on shoulders. The scarves are special team scarves, and many of the fans donned several scarves. Jean jackets with sewn team patches were popular too, as well as the usual team jerseys. Personally, I don’t care for the newest HSV jersey nearly so much as some of them from the recent past.

I coach a boys U-9 soccer team with a friend of mine. While in Germany, the following conversation went down. Marcus: “Where’s the other coach?” Coach Jim: “He’s visiting Germany!” Marcus: “Oh…I thought you said he was in jail!” So of course when I got back today, they asked me questions like, “why were you in jail?” and, “how did you get out so soon?” The little darlings won today though.

We went out Friday night with Flo´s brother Niki and his friend Malte for some beers. He took us to the Gröninger brauhaus, a quaint and beautiful ´brewpub´ across the avenue from the famed Chilehaus (for its architecture…it has nothing to do with the chiles I thought). The brauhaus is just under ground level, darkly lit by candles and yellow lamps. We felt fortunate to get a seat immediately on a Friday night. We walked past huge copper brewing eqipment to our seats.

We sat and the waitress asked if we would like beers, to which the four of us replied in the affirmative in varying degrees of Deutsch. I was surprised when she walked away and returned shortly with four .2 liter steins. Gröninger only comes in one flavor, even when it comes in two. The Gröninger Pils is very good, a light and rich German Pilsener, not heavy on the hops, but its mellow bitter melds wonderfully with the golden malt. They are proud of the natural cloudiness of their beer, which I attribute to its not being filtered, but really couldn´t explain for sure.

I was ill the first few days here…I guess a relapse of my previous cold brought on by not enough sleep and recycled air on the airplane…the lady next to me was such an active sleeper, ugh. But I just slept a whole lot and got past it, though the daytrip to Bremen was not so fun because of it. I hid out in a church and tried to rest until it closed, wandered about and fell asleep on a park bench in a light rain, then found my way into a cafe or two for shelter until the ride showed up.

It´s been good times and good beers so far here in Germany. Internet access has been sporadic so I (obviously) haven´t been running the travel log I´d hoped for. Plus I can´t seem to upload fotos so those won´t be online till I get home. Last evening I got to go to soccer practice with Flo and his team. It was much fun, and good to see that they aren´t so different than here in the states, wasting no time in getting to drinking and smoking afterwards.

Well, considering that I’m feeling a bit better, I figured it was time to venture out again. Met up with some friends at Produce Row, and had a few pints. True evidence that I’m ill: none of the beer tasted good…I ended up with pear cider after failing with MacTarnahan’s (not a favorite) and TG IPA (up top), as well as (note to Emma) a sample of Full Sail Equinox.

I’m here in Idaho this weekend for a wedding. Really good folk, good times all that stuff. Anyway, tonite there was rehearsal for all the people in the wedding, of whom I’m not one, but I’m close enough that I got to go to the rehearsal dinner. They had a little room chained off to keep the rabble-rousers out until we arrived at the restaurant. N and I got there first, so had a beer and waited outside.

Really nice day. And I’m going to go out and recover from playing. I recommend that everyone does the same.

Funny story, my friend Amanda and some of her buddies are at a bar and RV stop in a small town nowhere in Washington. Amanda, a few sheets to the wind is admiring this lady’s Coors Light Racing Jacket, which the lady is pleased with, and they’re chatting up a storm. Amanda suggests that the only thing that would make this jacket even cooler is if it were a PBR Racing Jacket.

Rabbit-Proof Fence is a true story of human spirit and the overcoming of adversity. The film tells the story of three young Aboriginal girls who are torn from their homes because they are of mixed decent, and taken to a camp where they are to be trained to integrate into proper society, in particular as servants, with the intention that white blood will scour the aboriginal blood from their line in a few generations as they reproduce with whites.

A typical Pearl District interaction. (Choose scenario:) me sitting on sidewalk eating burrito me walking with friends/coworkers to bar or from burrito run me wandering aimlessly avoiding work, often with coworker r, driven by one person, or a delivery truck driven by two. They slow down, seeing harmless streetpeople (walkers), smile broad, and chime, “Excuse me, could you tell me how to find…

Oh yeah! Went and saw Star Wars 2 last evening at OMSI on the bigass IMAX theater. It was beautiful. A tear welled in my eye when the Star Wars crashed onto the screen, and then the prologue scrolled past, up and into the screen. The resolution was fantastic on that huge screen. You could see the pores on Natalie Portman’s shoulder. Had there been a chunk of food in her teeth it would’ve been the size of my head.

I’ve recently started contributing to a nifty new iPhone app called urbandig. It is the app that I wanted when I was in NYC earlier this year. It’s the app that I want when I visit Memphis and Denver later this year. Basically, they’ve gone out and found people who know the city, or parts of it, really well, and gotten them to created nice little curated morsels of experience. Portland’s urban dig experience has just been release, and in it you can enjoy my delicious noodle crawl, in which I explore some of Portland’s more exciting Ramen joints.

I struggle with portion size. I’ve known for a long time that my “stop eating mechanism” does not work. I love food, I love making food, and I love eating it. That makes for a dangerous combination when you’re trying to lose weight. For one thing, the food that I cook doesn’t break down into easily identified portions. So, I’ve always just eaten too much. The discovery that is helping me is that many premade foods are made in discrete portions, whether large or small.

Poaching an egg is really easy if you just know a few tricks to make it work. Since I’ve been doing WW I’ve been eating a lot more poached eggs since there’s no frying, but you still get a lot of the benefits: filling, low points, healthy, cheap, and goes well with lots of things. Set some water to boil in a medium saucepan. The egg wants a little depth.

This is brilliant! props chris h from the OBC

Word travels fast. Shortly after this was announced, we decided to crash it. You can see some more photos on my photostream or picasa. Some are a bit more adult than my usual fare, but nothing that’ll get you fired. Jane Wells has an entertaining summary also, featuring a shot of me and a few other crashers. . Thank you, Etnies!

K-smacky alerted me to this. Prohibition ended 75 years ago, an event which opened the door to true American innovation. After the innovation of Prohibition expired…speakeasies, booze runners with false bottoms, etc, opened the doors to a new age of enlightenment. In fact, some would argue that it was the repeal of Prohibition that directly contributed to the space program, nuclear physics, and the internet.

But this makes me miss being a nerd! Read more about Wednesday’s upcoming excitement here. Props nader for the links and the reminder.

Well, it was definitely Moist over the Memorial Day. We had a great showing of ballers and their friends and family. As seems to frequently be the case, the various Moist squads had some difficulty putting the ball into the back of the net. I don’t think it’s due to any shortage of talent on the teams, probably more because all of the teams are just mixes of dudes and ladies who haven’t necessarily played together.

**Introduction: **this is a campaign set loosely in The Forgotten Realms following on the heels of The Lost Mines of Phandelver. We are using D&D 5e. For the most part I’m just using maps from Forgotten Realms, some locations, and pivoting off some interesting parts that I’ve come across. This is a summary of the first two sessions that we had. Having vanquished the baddies of Wave Echo Cave, the party returns to Phandalin.

Recap of the party’s latest adventures in Phandelver.  Spoilers below the fold.

This is the story of our little group’s journeys in the areas surrounding Phandalin.  Please be aware that spoilers lie behind the fold.

This is the story of our little group’s journeys in the areas surrounding Phandalin.  Please be aware that spoilers lie behind the fold.

Worn and Bruised after defeating Klarg and his minions, the party collapses in the cavern and recovers with a long night’s rest.  They search the cave for  treasure and clues about the whereabouts of their dwarven patron Gundren to no avail, only the spoils of a recent raid are evident.

Spoilers below the fold.

I just finished BSG, the whole shebang. It was awesome. Here’s a tip if you’re viewing the final DVD of season 4.5: Daybreak extended is like the Director’s Cut of Daybreak episodes 1-3. I was unsure if it was all, or part of them, and spent some time searching the internets for that info (carefully avoiding spoilers). So watch whichever you prefer, you’ll get about the same content told differently.

‘”Change has come” and we can all work together for a better and united future for all in our country and worldwide.’ That was my mom in the comments tonite. We had a fun little election party, and for the first time in a long time, we ended up happy, not just wiser. And we cheered. McCain’s speech was great. That McCain may have won the election. He was honest, sincere, honorable, clear, and inspiring.

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks. Got my Universal Life Church ministry certificate because a couple friends had asked me to perform their wedding services. This past week was the week. The first was on Sunday, and the second on Friday. I’ve been just a wee bit busy with all of that…meeting families, drinking beer, BBQing, clamming, crabbing, camping, cooking, eating, driving, playing hookie, and petting my dog and smooching my lady.

If any of y’all are interested in checking out an interesting social phenomena or just partying along with soccer, head out to Delta Park this weekend during the daylight hours. Our little subculture called the Moist Coalition is gathering to play in the Classic tourney over Memorial Day. It’s ridiculous, great fun, and full-on immersion in something beautiful. It’s really pretty amazing…so many people, often many have never met, and just good times.

Okay, I’m a bit late to the party, but this is pretty sweet. How many of that bad boys haven’t you plugged two bits into? They’re on tour, the bizarre thing is the order of cities. They are all over the map. Must’ve been the original Pacman algorithm.

After leaving the Mendenhall Glacier, we drove immediately to a beerdrinker’s mecca, the Alaskan Brewing Company, home of the delicious Alaskan Amber and a number of other tasty beers. I was surprised that the Alaskan brewery had no brewpub. From the sound of conversations (though nothing explicit or even really implied), they’ve chosen to respect local pubs who supported them as they grew. It’s a sensible division of labor.

We arrived in Juneau after a long flight on the milk run, stopping in Wrangell and Petersburg on the way to deliver supplies and mail to these smaller outposts. The flights lasted 15-20 minutes each, but the wait at each airport was much longer. I asked if I could get off and take some photos on the tarmac (it was beautiful) and they told me “sure. If you want to be arrested.

“Hey dude, what’re you doing next weekend?” Jay asked me. “Uh, just getting ready to move. Why?” “We were wondering if y’all wanted to go to Alaska or Denver.” “Totally. Which one?” “We’re taking a vote.” “Alaska” No doubt. So we got hooked-up with buddy passes to Alaska. Standby flights, no carry-ons. A lot of airport time. Portland to Seattle to Ketchikan, overnight in Ketchikan, to Wrangell to Petersburg to Juneau.

Halloween was a blast this year, here are some pictures of my adventures. For Halloween lunch, some I went to Popeye’s to check on the competition. Inside, I investigated their operation. I did not expect them to use 11 secret herbs and spices. The key was to find out how many they were putting to use. They weren’t cracking. It became apparent that I needed to dig deeper. So I got me a box o’ chicken and some mashed taters.

There’s a movement to rename NE 42nd Ave to Douglas Adams Blvd. I’m on board, Douglas Adams got it, wrote great stories, and did good things. My only request is that we get to call my street (NE 40th Ave) Infinite Improbability Dr.

In response to NaNoWriMo, an event in which you write a novel in a month, Defective Yeti came up with NaNoReMo (same but read a novel in a month). The event starts today, and the book is Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. I just picked mine up at Powell’s and have read a whopping 2 pages (~15/day is the target). So I’ll be reading along and writing my ficlets.

Something beautiful and Zen about this. And beer+Zen must be good. Credit to marriedtothesea.com

This is genious geek humor. Props anners.

God’s writing checks.

Now shut up and eat.

Just asking…

Beerdrinker zen.

holy cow, this is amazing!

I predict Germany will be the winner of the world cup this year. And here is my proof. Word on the street is that Brazil is favored and I accept that. But is their probability better than 50% to win? I think not. Thus, we must say that a team other than Brazil should win. Looking at the field, Germany seems to be the strongest and carry the greatest odds.

Thisis pretty entertaining. thx moistee.

Ojingo has referred me to perhaps my ideal job. I don’t think I could handle the commute. Another solid opportunity has presented itself with Google.

thx anners for sending me this sweet link from google–it’s the moon!. The first manned lunar landing (remember that game) was 36 years ago today – Apollo 11. Make sure to zoom all the way in, the surface detail is remarkable!

Today had been going pretty well until Fritz sent me this. Let’s just hope that we never face something like this again. The shattered dreams, broken souls, where are they now?

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve achieved one of my longterm goals in life a little early! Go to Google and enter beer drinker OR beerdrinker. You can expect news of other great accomplishments in upcoming posts.

From the IFOCE website: “There is an century-old prophesy within the competitive eating community, dismissed by most, that foretells the rise of the One Eater, a woman who will electrify America.s gurgitators and lead them to international victory once again. Like Joan of Arc before her, this eater will be slender of stature, but mighty in strength. In recent months, the prophesy has been mentioned more and more frequently as the eaters have watched Sonya Thomas excel in nearly every contest she enters.

Happy holidays from WTB?R. Props JP for the link! Anyway, I hope that everyone’s holidays have been safe/fun/relaxing whatever it is y’all’re looking for in a holiday.

thx rayray for pointing out this cool site of balancing rocks. I’ve tried such things and now had nearly the luck as this guy!

I have some fond memories of the election last Tuesday. The last one that comes to mind, thus the one I have to write about first is of the news report (NBC local @ JK’s local HQ, I think) relating the tragedy as it has recently occurred while two guys are making out good’n heavy in the background with some sly salsa dancing. Slowly the camera panned left until the reporter was at the far right of the picture, and then she sidestepped to the center.

via Blue Oregon, a nice little rant responding to the usual conservative hoo-haw. PG-13, but work friendly bee-yatch!

all this poker and medication spam makes me yearn for the days of pr0n and MMF garbage

Bad idea, good story. However, if that’s what you _have_ to do in order to show up, go ahead, just don’t screw it up. Have a fab Halloween.

Beer is good for you! Maybe even better than wine. Or vitamins! Happy friday! It’s good to be healthy again…I think I battled off the remainder of my illness with several yummy beers last evening.

what a clever idea! It’s very retro to actually write. props Kurt, and happy friday from a sick beer drinker.

It’s here. It’s probably been here for awhile. But now you can look up you favorite bands, get their discography, and link to official and fansites. Check out the Encyclopaedia Metallum. I looked up Lacuna Coil immediately. Next I think I’ll check out Tesla, just to see if they count, and then maybe onto a few of the other great hard bands. thx albatross, and have a great long weekend!

This is a fun story. A bear caused some mischief. props Fritz and PStew for the 411.

it’s been awhile. Actually, I’ve been out of town for a week and a half. And I didn’t check email once. It was fabulous. Withdrawals and stress aside, it was cathartic. But I got back and tonite I enabled Spam Assassin on my email account. Hopefully that will prevent the 50+ frickin spams I get everyday (I know, I don’t have it that bad compared to many, but not so long ago, I had almost none).

Little Lost Robot has a link to a fantastic movie that shouldn’t be missed: Office Space Wars in which some guys to a mini-office space with star wars people.

The albatross sent me an entertaining article by the last Queen Fan in America. Be warned, the highs and lows that you’ll share might bring you to the highest plains of Valhalla and the lowest canyons of Iowa. I’ll be in LA for awhile, so posts will be just as consistent as they have been.

This is beautiful, from a sunmanager post, pointed out to me by deetor: Hi Gurus! Maybe perhaps someone can help me with a strange problem on my E10k machine. I install program on machine that run Oracle DB for to my company has get big outsource contract from America. Program I run is called BitchX and here is my problem Gurus: ….

Does anyone have any idea why a chicken cordon bleu is called that? I found a crapload of recipes, none of which contained bleu cheese, which I would have expected, though I saw everything else from gruyere to cheddar to provolone to some crap Emeril likes that I’ve never heard of. I looked it up on babelfish, which said that cordon bleu means cordon-bleu cook. Not satisfied I went nuts and looked up the words individually.

via albatross, an exposition of the Two Things outlook. With examples. Here’s mine. Two things about sysadmin: 1) always be ready to undo what you just did (rollback), 2) google’s responses are as wise as they are hidden…use them often and wisely. What are your two things? Make sure you say what they relate to!

Poor poor kitty. Not sure why I had to post that (thanks to daveed for the image), but prepping for the soccer tournament, actually showing up for work, and wistfully recalling my painful day windsurfing have been occupying all of my brain cycles that I’d normally dedicate to posting all the mega-clever material you’ve come to expect from me.

Today I wrote some haikus for some odd reason but this is not one. really.

I’ve been reading a book on parasites…or was, I put it down for awhile after I started having ‘parasite dreams.’ Abrichar sent me a nice link about one of the classic parasites, the tapeworm. Check it out, it’s a lighthearted romp through this guy’s intestinal tract you won’t want to miss. And the illustrations will just burrow into you retinas.

They sure know how to make you feel special up in Redmond: Getting married? Find tips, tools and the latest trends at MSN Life Events. (from an MSN email footer). Maybe next they’ll have: Dying soon? Visit our online mortuary! Well, it was a busy ole weekend. Had the matriarch side of my family up, and that’s always a good, exhausting time. My bro and I hit it pretty hard when we go out…though I was really good saturday night, mostly because I was pretty well spent from Thursday and Friday.

In an effort to connect with what he quaintly refers to as ‘the people’, prezzo has hit the road with a swagger and some starch in his collar. He scored a brilliant trade at a car lot outside Jersey City where he was able to get the dealership to throw in two pieces of intelligence regarding WMDs along with the ’76 Winnebago he got in exchange for Air Force One. In an effort not to be out-down-homed, he bought 2 sacks of Krusteaz at the local Wal-Mart, espousing the virtues of local business and quality jobs creation.

SHARON FACES KEY PARTY TEST. While I realize that most of the rest of the world hangs onto discos, I didn’t realize that tupperware and swinging were so much the rage. Yes, I realize that I’m totally inappropriate, but I thought it was funny. I wonder how Ariel will stand up. This is the article btw, but the headline was in my cnn international edition daily email.

They wisely left it short but sweet. Titled “Does it matter?” the I received the following text: “Your photo, uahhh…. , you are naked!” with with some jibber-jabber zipfile that I left alone. But anonymous spammer, thank you, that’s the best piece I’ve ever received. On another note, I think most spammers should be imprisoned, fined, and despised, especially for the nasty nasty things they send to people they’ve never met, including children and nuns!

Well, the autonomous race, while cool and scary, can only lead to one thing. Autonomous mobile beverage refrigeration units. I need one of these for my next party. And just to get through the pressures of everyday life. So, if y’all are interested in helping out, let me know in the comments and I’ll setup a paypal account or just figure out a way for you to send me a check.

It’s been awhile. I’ve had this one in my pocket for a day or two, but the steady stream at my cube has prohibited posting. So, a couple weeks ago, Hox and I grabbed lunch out at some west-side Tex-Mex joint, Cactus Jack’s or Willie’s or somesuch. Anyway, the radio was playing a nice 70s-80s selection of tunes, including Heart, Loggins, and then, the crux, Starship’s We Built This City. Hox insisted that WBTC (on Rock and Roll) was the worst song ever.

I’m not sure what/why/how this is, but it’s got a chicken and may be associated with Burger King. via hox.

We learn how it wentwith getting Condi “Tank” Rice on the stand over at Zeros and Ones.

But this is truly the NYT’s finest work. Best. Headline. Ever. thx abrichar.

The Albatross reminded me today of the exitence of the great comic, Get Your War On. The link is to the latest, use your internet wiles to find the rest!

Hasser got his car back. It’s such a violation to have you car broken into, I really feel for him. Kinda makes you feel dirty. So don’t go violating people’s sanctity by busting into their cars and trucks and houses. Better would be to say funny things to them on the bus or the street downtown. Maybe offer up a bite of your sandwich, if you’ve got one. Otherwise, just leave them alone or do something interesting.

okay, this is way cool. I hear that it’s featured in Scientific American, but I haven’t cracked mine yet. Twenty-some teams or more have assembled vehicles to race from SoCal to Vegas. Big whoop…right…there’s no driver, and no remote control. These things are given routes and waypoints, and it’s up to them to navigate. Way cool. The projects involve some tech and robotics firms, universities, and other groups of smarties. My fave so far is Red Team, I like their site.

Maybe not happy. Maybe not fun. But it sure is surreal. They cleared the benches at the buffet table. via Abrichar.

Great news, same-sex marriages are now permitted in Little Beirut. I heard some dude griping about it over lunch. I’ve never heard an argument against that was remotely sensible to me. All that I could do was shake my head. I guess I could’ve said something, but I really wasn’t in the mood. Anyway, way to stay progressive Portland! And no, marriage is not weakened. If anything marriage is strengthened because now it’s even closer to being about love.

“This is the third nomination and first Oscar for…Canada.” Beautiful. As usual the Oscars were full of ludicrousness and hijinks and whacky times watching the big hoohaas pat each other on the back. I did pretty good with predictions, only getting 3 wrong (best actor, one of the sound ones, and something else). For two I was just trying to give the whole LotR thing a rest..jesus, there’re more movies out there, what a bunch of crap.

My Uncle, UC, sent me a story he experienced/wrote. It’s a nice little meditation on the importance of the small things and teh connectedness of life. I’m better for having read it, so (with permission) I am sharing it with you here.

worly world

In a landmark announcement today, prezzo announced plans to move forward with his intentions of ramming through a new constitutional amendment. While the text of the amendment remains unclear, the its substance has been well-communicated. Disturbed after shopping at Bloomingdale’s Country Annex and noticing that the right and left boot salt and pepper shakers were available separately, prezzo declared that he needed to protect “Meals from changing forever” and that “for millenia wars have been fought over spices, so that they could accompany common iodized table salt, and now some renegade trinket manufacturers and merchants are presuming to arbitrarily change the nature of America’s most fundamental family-time.

nice link sent by ciaran, the many fighting styles of Donald Rumsfeld.

From Tair-ists. vie The Left Coaster.

Minnesotans constitute one of my favorite subcultures. Most of the Minnesotans that I’ve met have been really decent people, maybe even all of them. So, it makes me wonder, when I see things like this if maybe we aren’t the ones with the wrong idea. I mean, the entire city of Minneapolis can’t be all wrong. At first it seemed ludicrous, that such a good people would have this bizarre drinking problem, but then I stepped away from the problem.

Funny guy from Defective Yeti has the essential IKEA walkthrough.

via rayray…Dio for America. As a bit of a rocker type myself, I am fond of Dio and see him as a breath of fresh air for the Party of his choice. From his brilliant performances with Sabbath to Holy Diver and beyond (to where…?) I’m with you man, I’ll ride in that van.

I’m posting this for my buddy Travis who doesn’t read this, so you all have to suffer for absolutely nothing. But I just saw that Feb. 28 is the Lebowski Fest in Las Vegas. I don’t know if Travis bowls or not, but that’s not what matters. I don’t know if he’s seen the movie (I’m sure he has), but that’s not what matters. What matters is that The Jesus’s bowling partner will be there, and that they’re serving white Russians.

thanks grandad!

Everybody loves bubble wrap. via abrichar.

Kuro5hin has a neat-o article on guerilla gardening, which is basically to sneak out somewhere and turn some unused plot of land into something useful or beautiful. I have enough trouble maintaining my own little chunk of dirt, so I likely won’t be engaging, but it’s still an inspiring idea.

The good people over at Portland Brewing have released a no girlie-man beer in honor of California’s latest governor, who I’m guessing isn’t much of a beer drinker. I wish they’d release some of it here though. props crafty girlie.

Just thought of something, N and I didn’t send out xmas cards this year because our wrists were already exhausted from all the wedding invites and thank you cards. Since this is pretty much the same list as our xmas card list, just grab you card, scan it into your OCR-capable computer, as merryxmas.txt, and then run perl -pi -e ‘s/Thank You/Merry Xmas/’ merryxmas.txt and that should fill the empty space in your heart.

Be sure to hop onto Sony’s site and vote for the programs you’d most like to see Coming Soon; to D-V-D. I got there because I occasionally work with a nice fellow and today realized that he shares the name of one of my childhood heroes, Silver Spoon’s Ricky Stratton. So, in that internet manner, I googled, clicked, followed, and now, much more so than in a national election, I have control over my fate.

sipping nectar sweet puckering again with glee tangelo come back

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from prezzo it’s that boasting produces results. My article yesterday was sort of my own personal ‘Bring. It. On.’ to the vast potency of mother nature and the oil companies carrying her leash (right?), so of course it was still dry outside when I got on my bike to ride home. Which was right before my pager went off. And I went back into the office.

Per Iggy’s request, I’ll be drinking more beer. Look forward to it.

I generally spell pretty alright. But I’ve found that with spelling in blogs, my best search engine draws happen when I mispell. Take this article. It was my first real draw. It was brief and lame, but they flocked to it. And now this one, that I wrote July 1st has been my top googlor ever since then by a long shot. Unfortunately, I find that sad on many levels. How many kids are there thinking they need ritalin because their friends are on it and they’re sucking down sugar water and sugar cereal and, like me, can’t even spell it.

This is pretty sweet. Props abrichar.

All my blogland friends are invited. Dave and I are having a party at Dave’s place (kinda co-bday, but not really it’s just an excuse, party).

A nice artistic site, Happy Pencil by the guy that’s done a lot of Tool artwork. The lite side is the store (support the artist if you like), and the dark side is the fun, with art, games, and more. via Kieran.

Thank god somebody’s maintaining The National Beard Registry List. If you’ve got a good one, it’s your duty to share it with the world. Me, I can’t really go ZZ because I’m all patchy and stuff. Weird tufts and bald spots. Oh, well, thanks for caring. props abrichar on this one.

Stop what you’re doing. Read this. A gripping tale of tragedy, deception, and, ultimately, betrayal. With a happy ending of course.

Haven’t gotten any research done (though check out Jack Bog and Portland Communique, but browsing Pacific Power propaganda, one thing reached out to me and stuck a thought in my brain: I’d pay an extra $.007/kwh to have my power company be called Surprise Valley Electrification.

but this one’s pretty weird.

Sean at ojingo blog sweetens the stew with a heartwarming tale of Easter fun. Definitely worth a read.

Something’s got to be wrong with me for putting this link under happy fun, but it’s my blog. Actually, something’s probably wrong with me for posting this at all, it’s pretty odd and a bit sick. via the albatross, and it’s always worth posting stuff he sends me, right? Anyway, happy Friday.

In addition to the immense damage GWB has caused to the middle class, the poor, the environment, and foreign relations, he is a poet!. Check this out: Roses are red Violets are blue Oh my, lump in the bed How I’ve missed you. Roses are redder Bluer am I Seeing you kissed by that charming French guy. The dogs and the cat, they missed you too

My grandad was kind enough to send me some funny pictures over email. Here’s a few hand-picked by me because they’re really cute/funny. Update: uh, looks like the imge update thingy doesn’t work as I thought it might, so after I finish what I’m doing, I’ll try to fix it or nix it.

Oh, hey, in case y’all find such things interesting, my dog has a blog. His name is Augie, he’s a sweetie, and he posts weekly (Mondaysish).

Nedra from Crafty Girlie blog has laid the challenge to Sean at Ojingo blog. For one month they have to post regularly (by regular I don’t mean on a monthly basis!), and the loser must treat the other to either the dessert (blech) or 6-pack (yay! my favorite currency!) of the winner’s choice. So who will it be, mild-mannered Nedra, crafty lady, webgeek, or Sean, visitor of foreign lands, wild-eyed and frothy from adventures in the far East?

This is a sweet little tale of love, mischief, commitment, and kangaroo. Certainly a nive way to start the week.

I’m going to see if they’ll code up a less buggy Windows. Happy Friday.

You’re Mexico!While some people think you’re poor and maybe a little corrupt, youknow where it’s at, enjoying good food and nice beaches. You like to take things alittle slower than those around you, and you really wish the air were cleaner, but sometimescompromises must be made. For some reason, Chevrolet keeps trying to sell you Novasas well, even though they don’t really go.Takethe Country Quizat the Blue Pyramid

A tall friend (the albatross) sent a nice link to a NYT (you need registration) article. Check it out, it’ll make you chuckle.

embarked on this little mental exercise: “imagine the world without google.” The freaky part was when I moved from going forward to backward. When I came out of my space-out I shuddered.

Sean over at Ojingo Blog has written a nice bit on My Presidential Life. It’s a good little piece, and I’m particularly pleased because it seems partially inspired by my come again? post. yay. Oh…and we appear to be having a bit ‘o trouble with the anchor links so you may need to scroll down a bit to get to his…it was on the 15th. Update: permalinks happy now. No scrolling necessary!

It is little known that the Bush family refrigerator holds the key to many pieces of neocon poilicy. On a small cream-colored magnet decorated by hand with a rainbow, above a photo of the girls, are the words, “If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, cherish it, if it doesn’t it was never meant to be.” There you have it, the Bush economic and environmental policies. “What about foreign policy?

Type ‘French military victories’ into Google. You feel lucky. So press the button that says so. It’s work-friendly in most of the world. Let it be funny, no matter how you feel.

I’m sitting here looking at BBQ recipes for later today. It’s looking like jerk pork and maybe this gooey burgers in Chile Pepper magazine…pimiento cheeseburgers, a Carolina recipe so you know it’s gotta be good for you. The ingredients run to cole slaw (homemade, of course), mayo, cheese, beefy goodnes, and the oft maligned can ‘o chile. Yeah. But anyway, if you get the chance make sure you lift a pint for our country’s forefathers to thank then for winning and building the freedoms.

BoMa tosses out this funny onion-ish link about next steps in the war on terror and the obvious liberal Hollywood link. Guess I added that last bit myself.

I’m so happy someone got it on film. This is too beautiful .

I couldn’t think of a better title for this post, pointing you to a quicky, must-read article, the content of which I’m not going to spoil for you. Just read it. And thank you Utterly Boring.

for dinner, you’ve gotta have this for dessert.

via defective yeti, a nice web-based geography quiz.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to get good and loaded, while supporting the troops. Here’s what you need to play. Some friends, a twelve-pack of beer for each of you, a bottle of tequila, dice, some poker chips, and a television. Turn the teevee on, and switch it over to local war coverage if it somehow isn’t already.

Here’s what to do. Veg out on the tube with a beer in your hand. Just like most teevee drinking games, most of the action revolves around people on teevee saying and doing stuff.

Walking back from Cha Cha Cha after lunch today, we started discussing our dream burrito. It started with a burrito drenched in a tangy green sauce with cheese, but quickly evolved into a burrito wrapped in bacon and deep-fried chimichanga-style, eventually to culminate in a burrito covered with cheese, dipped in batter, wrapped in bacon, deep fried, then covered with guacamole and just enough vegetables to have that I’m eating vegetables!

This is a fun article from some British people. Take a gander.

Will it suddenly convince GWB that he’s a remarkable twit? Thanks Matt for that one.

The deceptive Iraqis had better watch out…Optimus Prime is heading over.

This is just too darn cool. Not a poll for what kind of toothbrush you would be, it’s a way to find your lego soul.

A fun little post about an evil blimp. I’d thought the guy was going to demonstrate the Hindenberg tragedy to his daughter. Enough rants for now…though I feel one welling up right now about schools and teachers.

Okay, Dave Barry has a blog. It’s pretty good, and has some funny links. Here I shamelessly and honestly offer a number of highlights. In which some Harvard guys fish for squirrels In which we know who to blame when we can’t get our pr0nography Thanks Dave! Cool column too!

Kay, this was fun. I do Unix systems administration. It was pretty fun to attach this to the products here. It’s mildly entertaining just for the variety of packages and the uses of the word Unix. So when you think of me, imagine me manipulating a gaggle of unisex diapers.

I came across this link, which happily reveals all the garbage in my collection for me that I should sell. These guys are doing a real service for humanity here. I’m just fed up with having to hear some of these albums again and again, and have gotten to the point where I can barely stomach seeing some of these albums lying idly on the shelf. I am going to miss my Beastie Boys and Chili Peppers albums though.

Just a reminder that the NAOBFis happening this weekend, starts at noon Fri-Sunday at Overlook Park. This is my favorite brewfest of the year. It doesn’t get crazy crowded, there are tons of fun beers to try, and it’s always an all-around good time. I’m helping Dave Knowswith his story about it this year, so double-stoked. See you there.

okay, police violence sucks. It’s a drag that unarmed people get shot. Lately, I’ve been putting together some tips I’ve picked from my years of experience not getting shot at by the police in an effort to help people avoid the short barrel of the law. First, you can take a preemptive strike and keep the police away in general. Try to avoid situations in which housemates and loved ones feel the need to call the police in regards to you.

Okay, I’m pretty frustrated with the more liberal party right now. Tuning in, there are two major themes right now. Health care and Fort Hood. These are both important issues, but I am not liking what I’m hearing. First, Fort Hood was a tragedy, plain and simple. But the theme that I’m hearing on the (left) radio is almost a defence of of Hasan for the pressures he was under. Laying the onus on the military, that they didn’t listen enough.

I was pretty excited about V. It was bringing back what in my mind was the original miniseries, and a nice bit of sci-fi. But this time with a budget and awesome effects and some hindsight on making a great series. Plus, I wrapped BSG and 4400 up pretty recently and need a new sci-fi serial fix. I watched the pilot last night, and was a bit disappointed. 4400 was great, and there are some strong ties to that show here, between Joel Gretcsh and Scott Peters they really raised the bar.

The debate has been serious this summer. From touchy questions on sides of buses to annoying comments on blog posts to occasional legal debate. The community has been vexed by this question: Is a bicycle a car or a pedestrian? To help shed light on this problem, beerdrinker has gone undercover, actually riding his bicycle most days, frequently more than 25 miles. I’ve been thinking about this question for quite awhile, but it really came to a head (or mine) when Webtrends posted their controversial question on Portland’s public transportation: Should cyclists pay a road tax?

Thank you City Hall fold for helping us to bring Major League Soccer to Portland. Just so you know, we’re all really excited about it. We have a massive underground presence here. Not that you’d know it from the sad lack of soccer bars in this town. The funny thing about that is that ballers like to drink. With a bit of love, you’ll have a well-supported locale. But enough about that.

Rob L of the Oregon Brew Crew posted this to our listserv in a conversation about a new beer tax proposed in Oregon. He makes a number of lucid points. And doesn’t just complain but proposes action. Oregon HB2461 surprised me. Actually, at first it was shock, then disbelief and anger. Now I’m ready to do something about it. Jim P wrote: Cost of producing each keg (tax is production cost) would go up $25.

K-smacky alerted me to this. Prohibition ended 75 years ago, an event which opened the door to true American innovation. After the innovation of Prohibition expired…speakeasies, booze runners with false bottoms, etc, opened the doors to a new age of enlightenment. In fact, some would argue that it was the repeal of Prohibition that directly contributed to the space program, nuclear physics, and the internet.

So, I’ve been working on an idea. Devalue the dollar. Print money. Lots of it. My idea is to print money and use it to help people pay mortgages. Bottom up principle. Save people’s houses. Keep the notes good. The banks stay solvent. Everybody’s happy. Of course, what if you don’t have a mortgage? I guess that’s a bummer for you because your dollars are being devalued as well. I’ve been trying to think of a better solution.

‘”Change has come” and we can all work together for a better and united future for all in our country and worldwide.’ That was my mom in the comments tonite. We had a fun little election party, and for the first time in a long time, we ended up happy, not just wiser. And we cheered. McCain’s speech was great. That McCain may have won the election. He was honest, sincere, honorable, clear, and inspiring.

Okay, last email here. Hopefully I can make it count. The topic for today is what are you afraid of? I’ve had a lot of conversations with people who “don’t like either candidate” but are voting for McCain. My question for them is — Why? What’s wrong with Barack Obama? Sometimes you don’t trust him, sometimes he’s not experienced enough, sometimes, you can’t really express it. What has Obama ever done to break your trust?

A good article by a conservative voting for Obama. Cliff notes version: It’ll devalue Jesse Jackson. He’s more fiscally responsible. Better foreign policy Better relationship between foreign policy and the military Obama is cool, calm, and collected. He’s intellectual about his Christianity I’m not sure what he’s getting at here…I think it’s that he’ll help ease the generational divides.

Sent: 10/22/2008 It appears that internally, at least, al-qaeda and other terrorist organizations support McCain’s candidacy. Makes sense, considering how successfully the war in Iraq has divided the country, emptied our coffers, exhausted our military, and alienated our allies. “Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election,” said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said the Arizona Republican would continue the “failing march of his predecessor,” President Bush.

Sent: 10/15/2008 Okay, I just can’t resist commenting on this, because it is such an absolutely clear illustration of Sarah Palin and her in-your-face lies. Sarah said: “The report that came out also was very clear in that there was no unethical or unlawful behavior on my part,” Palin told a local CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh, adding, “No abuse of power there at all.” Actually she said things like that multiple times.

Okay, there’s so much going on, Palin on SNL, righty attack dogs saying any insanity necessary to preserve their jobs, and all I can this is… Thispsycho woman looks ridiculously like Max Headroom. To be honest, she’s been driving me up the wall for awhile. Notice how she smiles as broad as her face while spitting fork-tongued venom. And this is mellow.

fyi…the scammers are on the loose….in general don’t follow emails that _ask_ you to login to your bank or similar. the new ones in particular are falsely coming from one institution that may have acquired another institution, and therefore needs to update their records. Don’t believe it!

McCain will show up to the debate, and there will be more than one “fist pump” on the approach to the podium. You heard it here first. But Obama will still hand him his ass, probably still with fist pumping.

But this makes me miss being a nerd! Read more about Wednesday’s upcoming excitement here. Props nader for the links and the reminder.

Not sure if any of you get the forwards digging into Barack Obama…his secret code references to Muslim jihad and his non-citizenship and all, but I came across his personal site addressing the smears. It’s pretty good. Even more interesting is reading the ones that I haven’t heard yet.

The North American Organic Brewers Festival is this weekend, beginning tomorrow at 3pm. I had a great time last year, but I generally go to these events early and leave early. This is one of my favorites. I’m surprised that they picked this weekend since at least one of the organizers is a huge soccer fan and the Euro cup final is Sunday. His boys aren’t in it this time around, though Spain vs Germany should be a pretty awesome match.

If any of y’all are interested in checking out an interesting social phenomena or just partying along with soccer, head out to Delta Park this weekend during the daylight hours. Our little subculture called the Moist Coalition is gathering to play in the Classic tourney over Memorial Day. It’s ridiculous, great fun, and full-on immersion in something beautiful. It’s really pretty amazing…so many people, often many have never met, and just good times.

Went to Ignite last week, it was pretty sweet. The premise is a bunch of presenters get up and talk about something presumably interesting for a little while. The catch is that they have exactly five minutes, 20 slides (power-pointish), 15 seconds each, and they roll automatically. That keeps things moving and keeps you on your toes. And from experience (not at Ignite), talking about something for five minutes can be tough.

Personally I don’t really give a crap about who Iowans think should be president. I know one or two people from there, but that’s as far as it goes. But man, did they just hammer some hork into the republican gameplan. Romney just got hosed by Huckabee, and Giuliananinaniani didn’t even show. A couple other dudes got some votes. I missed Ron Paul, who despite my serious issues with libertarians (in brief I believe it’s a great philosophy for an ideal world) is better than all the others.

There have been a number of tragedies involving bikes and motor vehicles around Portland recently. Very sad for all involved, I truly feel for the families of the victims, and for the drivers of the vehicles as well. But setting up bicycle stings at innocuous intersections is just not the right way to go about fixing the problem. Why are the victims being punished? Cyclists, watch out at Flint and Broadway, the man is waiting to swoop in and wreck your beautiful day.

In response to NaNoWriMo, an event in which you write a novel in a month, Defective Yeti came up with NaNoReMo (same but read a novel in a month). The event starts today, and the book is Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. I just picked mine up at Powell’s and have read a whopping 2 pages (~15/day is the target). So I’ll be reading along and writing my ficlets.

Well, the iPhone dropped in price way faster than I expected. I’d figured they had a price point figured out and would keep the phone around there. But they had the trendsetters figured out and took their cut. The 8GB iPhone is now $399 instead of $599. So tempting. But for all of you who are upset that you paid the extra two hundred bucks to strut it around for two months, I’m still not rushing out to buy one.

A great man has passed. I raise a toast to the memory of Michael Jackson, beer connoisseur.

God’s writing checks.

Hey! Hope is was nice. If you’re not into xmas, cool. I hope it was a good day for you anyway. Also, James Brown rest in peace. A true star and visionary.

anners sends me this. What a disaster.

Could it be true? Word on the street is that beer will be flowing from the Skidmore fountain in about 10 minutes….3pm, September 22. I haven’t found any real confirmations, but a lot of rumors and such. And me bound to the house. arrrr! Always the bridesmaid, never the fratboy doing a kegstand over the Skidmore Fountain.

Beerdrinker zen.

This is sad: Arrested Development is getting canned. Dear Fox, You create and maintain some great shows. 24 has been awesome, Prison Break is good, The Simpsons is a classic, Family Guy is amazing. But Arrested Development. Please don’t do it. Keep Arrested Development. Sometimes a joke comes to me days later. I laugh at strange times thanks to your show. Keep it. Laugh at me laughing. The characters are amazing.

Wow. Is this true? prezzo has borrowed 1.05 trillion dollars, which is as much as the previous 42 presidents combined. Holy crap. That’s pretty scary. It’s a lot of money. It’s basically around 5000 bucks per american. Sweet. And now he wants to get rid of my mortgage interest writeoff. That writeoff is huge for the middle class (which I work hard to maintain my membership in), and the loss will dwarf any gain I ever saw in his tax cuts.

The flippant flopping that I’ve been witnessing has been astonishing. After working so hard to save the institution of marriage from the gays who would destroy it, Republicans now seem to be working to destroy it themselves. Listening to Tony Snow this morning, he asserted that Terri was not Michael’s wife because he’d taken up with another woman, with whom he had lived, had kids, found comfort, and if that’s not marriage then what is.

sorry, I’ve been trying to keep out of the political arena since I’m not that good at it. But this seems a bit messed up: Iraqis are voting in the first free elections in half a century as mortar and suicide attacks rattle polling booths in Baghdad and beyond..(CNN news) I totally agree that free elections are a good thing, but doesn’t it seem just a bit messed up that there are mortar and suicide attacks?

What the heck? We have some nerve passing judgement on anybody else’s election at this time. Our elections over the last 4 years have been corrupt, failed disasters. And now we’re calling out the Ukraine? If we’re not able to do it right ourselves, we just need to STFU and go sit in the corner. And we couldn’t. Let’s figure out our elections mess for ourselves before we try to bring democracy to the world, because right now it’s just not working.

This one here. If nothing else, it builds nicely. But it is also quite plausible, there’s no telling.

via Blue Oregon, a nice little rant responding to the usual conservative hoo-haw. PG-13, but work friendly bee-yatch!

I no longer believe that Bush won the election fair and square. That’s a bad thing. I thought that there would be problems, and wondered why the heck the conservatives were fighting so hard to _not_ have printed receipts from the electronic voting machines. Well, here we are. There have been numerous accounts of more votes than voters in Florida and Ohio. Here’s the latest. If it turns out that there’s nothing we can do, or if Bush won anyway, we at least have to make sure that there is a paper trail for every vote cast.

It’s over. And not much good came out of it. W won the presidency, apparently fair and square. That’s what the people wanted, I guess. So now begins the great experiment. Four years of the same group with significantly less opposition, probably 1-2 supreme court nomination (maybe more….shiver). He now has the popular vote and the electoral vote, so he doesn’t feel obligated to play the middle like he did so well over the last four years, and his career politicking is done, all he is concerned with for next election is getting his brother in there.

Amazing. As far as I can tell this is the most anticipated voting day for generations. Many generations. So many people have put in so much effort to help the Good Guys win (and I hope they do). MoveOn, Dean for America, bloggers, and more have really built the grass roots effort. The volunteers helping people get to the polls, making calls, knocking on doors, it’s been truly amazing and heartening.

The great earth mother or God or somebody may be trying to say something. I don’t know, but it’s a pretty nifty view of the hurricane situation on Florida. (note: I hope that this tragedy ends with as little damage and suffering as possible). thx kruff. kruff updated me, Snopes says this is a hoax.

Have you ever seen The Office? It’s this genius British comedy about an office run by this totally schmaltzy character, very funny but in a painful not laugh-out-loud way (leading to occasional explosions). Well, with Cheney’s recent terrorist comments methinks it could’ve been based on the USA. Holy cow. Vote for Kerry and be attacked by terrorists? Wow. They must’ve heard in the chatter that the bad guys are enjoying their Haliburton jobs and will stop at nothing to keep their sweetheart deals.

Soccer may actually get played over here on the Olympics TV broadcasts—prezzo has coopted their story as a massive photo-op, using it in campaign ads and speeches. Unfortunately, the team isn’t that happy about it. I’m amazed about a few things in this article. First, it’s awfully political for SI. Second, it’s awfully long for a soccer article in SI. Third, it mentions Beaverton, OR, which means that the Beav will likely get two mentions in two weeks since I hear that the winner of lady’s fencing is from there too.

as usual, Krugman has interesting things to say. This timely piece regards the Reagan presidency, and some comparisons to prezzo’s. rec’d by the albatross.

Like the Phoenix, Al Gore emerges. Very good speech (lotta words to read, but it’s good!), and he pretty much stopped just short of bringing up treason.

This is an interesting article in which the author, a lefty, immerses himself in right wing media for 30 days, and discusses his feelings throughout. I listen to several right wing talk shows in a similar vein, and have made many similar findings personally. However, I tend to find both the left and right wing talk shows to be repetitive, biased, and lacking in significant objective insight. And they have too many commercials…I still listen to both, but not as much as I’d been trying to in the past.

In an effort to connect with what he quaintly refers to as ‘the people’, prezzo has hit the road with a swagger and some starch in his collar. He scored a brilliant trade at a car lot outside Jersey City where he was able to get the dealership to throw in two pieces of intelligence regarding WMDs along with the ’76 Winnebago he got in exchange for Air Force One. In an effort not to be out-down-homed, he bought 2 sacks of Krusteaz at the local Wal-Mart, espousing the virtues of local business and quality jobs creation.

We learn how it wentwith getting Condi “Tank” Rice on the stand over at Zeros and Ones.

Oregon is leading the charge in more than just gay marriage. We’re also helping to keep jobs from going overseas. How? My unemployed friends are still unemployed, you may wonder. Well, your prison friends aren’t! Rather than moving call centers overseas, we’re contracting out prison workers to answer phone calls. I wonder what happens if they violate the DNC list…they’re already in jail. Cheap labor, less turnover. That sounds like a win to me.

Great news, same-sex marriages are now permitted in Little Beirut. I heard some dude griping about it over lunch. I’ve never heard an argument against that was remotely sensible to me. All that I could do was shake my head. I guess I could’ve said something, but I really wasn’t in the mood. Anyway, way to stay progressive Portland! And no, marriage is not weakened. If anything marriage is strengthened because now it’s even closer to being about love.

I’ve found that I pretty much enjoy the classic plays best when I know what’s going to happen already, and am able to ride the elegantly structured language to the conclusion. Yesterday I listened to Victor Balk on Portland’s 860. His show was entirely about a question asked of John Kerry, “Do you believe God is on the United State’s side?” The answer, I never heard from Kerry’s mouth, merely Vic’s weasle-like paraphrasing, so I won’t comment on it now.

“This is the third nomination and first Oscar for…Canada.” Beautiful. As usual the Oscars were full of ludicrousness and hijinks and whacky times watching the big hoohaas pat each other on the back. I did pretty good with predictions, only getting 3 wrong (best actor, one of the sound ones, and something else). For two I was just trying to give the whole LotR thing a rest..jesus, there’re more movies out there, what a bunch of crap.

So, the land is abuzz with talk of Nader running. Sure, I don’t like the fact that he might take votes from some undetermined Demo candidate, and I’m pretty sure that he can’t win on his own, and I really strongly think that prezzo has to lose or we’re in a lot of trouble. The rest of the world may be able to forgive us as long as they know that 1) we never really elected him and 2) when we realized how bad he was, we voted him out…but if he’s elected for sure this time, then there’s going to be little turning back.

Zeros and Ones has an interesting post discussing the differences between real and issue candidates, that also has an interesting Dean perspective (just a wee bit outdated from my side, but short and good).

It seems to me that there should be regulations to precent this kind of thing. Comcast should not own Disney, Disney should not own Comcast, and they shouldn’t merge either. Disney’s sphere of influence is too great already. The genius of the separate spheres of influence placed in out government need to be implemented in the business world. Instead, in a brilliant maneuver, the corporate world has been dismantling the safeguards in the government.

I’m posting this for my buddy Travis who doesn’t read this, so you all have to suffer for absolutely nothing. But I just saw that Feb. 28 is the Lebowski Fest in Las Vegas. I don’t know if Travis bowls or not, but that’s not what matters. I don’t know if he’s seen the movie (I’m sure he has), but that’s not what matters. What matters is that The Jesus’s bowling partner will be there, and that they’re serving white Russians.

In another nod to the photo-op, prezzo has demonstrated one way and then acted the opposite. Can you spell apawlang? via World Wide Pablo (fab OR blog). I had something more original to say today than rip a local blogger, but it’s slipping my mind at the moment. I noticed Dean’s little machine did an endo tonite though…third is gonna hurt (not predicting an end…but the ensuing infighting will hurt our battle against the nasty).

via Slashdot, Yahoo has an article reporting about companies moving jobs overseas. This is nothing new. It is scary though. As executives demand higher and higher salaries, those on the bottom get axed and replaced by cheap foreign labor. This is a scary trend that needs to be regulated. The lobbyist arguments that the problem is that tech workers are not willing to work for the low wages, and that makes moving the jobs overseas okay is simply not valid.

Yes, I suppose that it is a necessary evil. And a very profitable one for him, the closing of companies, trashing of dreams, the dismissal of incompetence, but Martin here looks like he’s carrying quite the big stick.

David Mamet has written a nice little piece on names. It’s a bit rambling at times, but he’s trying to express some pretty abstract concepts. Not too long, and it addresses something that’s interesting to think about in a way that applies to our lives on several levels. via the albatross.

and then the days start getting longer again. Is it just me or has this been a really dry fall here in beer drinker’s paradise?

Because Arnold won the election, it is now clear that he is an innocent man. There is no need for an investigation, after all, he’s apologized to anyone he may have offended. blech.

Fill in the blank. If those people came by my perfectly manicured lawn and took a crap in it in the middle of the day like they did to the frickin Queen of England I’d be extraordinarily pissed. But, while my lawn is nowhere near perfectly manicured, I’ve been reading up on such a thing, and have an idea of what a massive chore requiring planning, knowledge, and perseverance it is to maintain an exquisite garden.

Could this CNN headline have been an accident? U.S. REASSURES SEOUL OVER TROOPS. I think not.

Busily making P Diddy look like a lonely guy, GWB maintains a hearty entourage. No wonder we’re running a deficit, it has nothing to do with tax cuts.

Can anyone out there turn this into a statement that contains meaning? It certainly strains my suspension of disbelief. And we never heard from it again. While we’re at it, let’s consider deeply this paragraph from the liberal media: Californians, angry over a flagging economy and disenchanted with Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, cut short his second term by recalling the career politician less than a year into his second term and selected Schwarzenegger from a field of 135 candidates to succeed him.

bastards. So, via Atrios the Senate’s vote on the 87bil was unrecorded. Some ten bothered to show up. The rest, we don’t know how they voted. Cowards. These men should all be fired. Like GWB, they are all fired in my mind. Ron, I fire you. Gordon, I fire you. George W., I fire you. Dick, you go out with GWB, you may control him from his coattails, but you’re fired too.

Not.

Alright, a pleasurable analysis on how prezzie is squandering the resources of our country, smart, not too long, not too short. Well, maybe a bit short, but that’s because it’s so good. Nathan Newman, via Kos. Ya know, it’s articles like these that truly lend fodder to the war. Hard data, not fluffy hearsay, presented in a cool but passionate manner, clearly. Argue against them in their own terms. None of this bumpersticker crap…no “One cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war” doo-hickey.

big posting day…WWP talks about another great sadness: the church’s heinous treatment of gays. Follow the link to Sullivan’s article as well, it’s a should-read.

Makin cookies, makin friends. We vetoed the recent UN security resolution regarding the wall in Israel. I’m not sure who we’re trying to convince about what with us being on their side and making peace. Nice work.

This is a quite scary must-read. via genfoods, Calpundit analyzes the insane Texas Republican platform. While his statements about the Texas Republican party being the guiding light, the trailblazer, or whatnot, for the national republicans, may or may not be fully accurate, I think it’s more accurate than not considering the current administration. The thing is that, as I’ve said before, many Republicans that I know have quite reasonable and respectable views (though I often may not agree), but the direction of the party is towards an extreme and frightening right-wing, fundamentalist fringe.

Beyond the horrible gropings that Arnold has committed, Greg Palast has uncovered some real scandal that has been largely ignored by major media. It involves conspiratorial meetings between Ken Lay, Arnold, and others to overturn a lawsuit againt the power companies that would free California of much, if not all, of the debt owed to the power monopolist scumbags who fleeced the entire state. Bustamonte and Davis are doing what they can to get the money back (just as they did what they had to to get the power back at the time).

via genfoods, OSpolitics has a lucid overview of the White House’s Plame mess. I’m quite curious to see how they spin this one, but even the most staunch supporters of these jerks will at least have to to take a step back if they are at all capable of critical thought.

Wow, one of the Bush’s people who has really gone about wrecking this country may be stepping down. This is great news, as this Michael Powell sucks ass and maybe he’ll relieve a bit of the stranglehold round daddy’s privates from the pressure on his coattails. Yes, I feel strongly about the frickin evil horrible non-representing of the people, corrupt, base legislation he was hired to force upon the American people like[insert tasteless sexual reference here].

wow, via TBOGG, some guy (World ‘o Crap) lays the smackdown on some other guy’s (Dennis Prager) twiddling sexist, racist, imbecilic rationale regarding why women might vote some way or another as regards weddedness. Entertaining reading the dismantling of this fallacious right-wing spew.

This depressing little tale of a soldier’s disillusionment with the war in Iraq is a pretty good read. I hadn’t heard the words Shock and Awe in quite awhile. That’s probably for a few reasons. When you’re busily rewriting history so that your atrocious war is a humanitarian effort rather than an anti-terrorist homeland security activity, shock and awe doesn’t mix well with humanitarian. It also continues with this administration’s never look back (except in the case of 9/11) policy–who needs 20/20 hindsight when you’ve blacked out the rear window?

A painful interview with Paul Krugman. I’d put this one high up on your to-read list. via the albatross (vi robot wisdom methinks). No chance to rant on it now, but holy cow, I think he does a good enough job.

The albatross sent me a depressing link about a first-time teacher’s summer school experience. Ouch, what a panful experience she describes, an intellectual woman of experience wanting to give something to the community (symbiotically, she admits), who is thrust into a classroom of students who just don’t want to learn. They have their reasons, and you can’t hate (most of) them for it, as so many have horrible home lives, but she has to battle so many sides her job is nearly impossible.

Bigair Fred has a disturbing, lucid rant about the anti-tax scams and where they’re leading us. A good read, so get on it.

Iraq continues to be ugly. Maybe it grows uglier. The situation there, that is. The one created by prezzo and his keepers. Soldiers keep being shot, and building continue to blow up. People are dying. Sure, that’s part of war, I understand that. It does not appear that we’re on the way to stabilizing the place. I now read that the US has asked for increased assistance from that horrible, outdated, useless drag of an organization, the UN.

Some non geniuses have cleverly put together a scheme to add a bit of chaos to the happy right world of prezzo. (note to self: ooh, I’ve been searching for the right nick for W, and I think I may have just hit on it….ahhh, prezzo). Check out this bit of action that is only possible through the internet because even if I could’ve made the protest today I couldn’t so all I can to is TYPE LOUDER.

Greg Palast writes some pretty infuriating articles. I’ve been reading his book, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, and browse his site from time to time. But this article, tying together Enron, GB, GWB, England, the CA blackouts, and the NY blackouts had me shaking with anger. To hear about these looters who have somehow managed to position themselves at the top of the country and paste on facades of honor and decency, it makes me furious, sad, and hopeful, and defeated all at once.

oboy oboy. Join Arnold for a new era of bipartisanship. What a bunch of hooey. How did bipartisanship get redefined as Republicans doing what they want and getting their radio thugs to make whoopee if someone thinks twice about undoing already weak environmental protections. But the best part of the site is how it looks in my browser…the images split so Arnie and consort look like a coupla South Park Canadians.

After the fact, the Post brings up some interesting points, and a nice summary of some of the Iraq war BS pulled by those in charge. via Atrios.

Last night, I was listening to the strongly Republican-slanted liberal media, a local station (normally it’s satellite, but not my car) and heard the following snippets…loosely quoted, but pretty close to what was said. Shawn Steele (CA Republican party chair): speaking of the democrat presidential hopefuls, how they’re a bunch of nobody’s who will embarass the democratic party. In the next sentence, regarding the recall of Gray Davis, and how he’s not sure what they’re going to do now that [arnold] Schwarzenegger has [likely] withdrawn.

Pretty informative LA Times article takes a freaky twist at the end. Read it to the end. Or just skip to the end, but the rest is good too. via Atrios.

Just got word that Ashcroft is paying a sneaky sneaky surprise visit to Puddletown, probably to buy some grass. Here’s the scoop: John Ashcroft will be in Portland tomorrow. [US Attorney General John] Ashcroft also plans to meet with the Portland Joint Terrorism Task Force and hold a press conference at 11:30 a.m. in the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, Duckett said. That’s the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse at 1000 SW Third Avenue in downtown Portland.

go to this article.. Read it. Do what it says. McChesney’s a sharp cookie, and Nichols is no slouch. The FCC is ganging up with the media giants against the people, don’t let them get away with it.

Ari: “I think the burden is on those people who think he didn’t have weapons of mass destruction to tell the world where they are.” huh?. This make absolutely no sense at all. I suppose par for the course. via Atrios. **Update:**One thing that gets me, that so much of the world appears to be missing– Bush says he is “absolutely confident” that he’s done the right thing. I ask you to show me one time that Bush didn’t push forward with absolute confidence, whether or not it was conveyed or warranted.

Our president is a cowboy macho man. Referring to the attacks in Iraq on our troops ‘post-war’ he has told the world and the would-be attackers to “bring ’em on.” To me this is not okay. Sure, he was piloted onto the aircraft carrier and could have seen the conditions of the boys and their frames of mind if he could find time away from photo ops, but to in-your-face challenge people like that is reminiscent of a high school brawl, or a WWF/WCW title bout.

Kids are just out of control these days. Between swearing and sex and partying and dancing and music and rebellion, I swear, what we need is a good gulag-style lockup to set them straight. Make sure that there is plenty of demeaning punishment, physical and mental. Make them wear signs advertising that they’re still f-ed up. Lie them on their faces for 24-hours, and if that’s not enough, do it again.

Robert Anton Wilson seems to be a pretty sharp guy. Well-researched, he often sounds a bit wingnut, but there’s soundness to his ideas that I find intriguing. This is a pretty interesting article about the CIA and their involvement in our national politics, as well as the drug trade, the war on drugs, and the dismantling of the Bill of Rights.

Pretty good news here, McDonalds is phasing out antibiotic-fed animals. Partially and loosely. But still, this is a good thing. They’re working with their suppliers to phase out some percentage of antibiotic-fed animals by the end of 2004. Livestock is fed antibiotics in their diets to enhance meat production. The problems that can arise from this are many. The most significant in my opinion is the Darwinian immunity we are encouraging through this practice.

A recent lawsuit has been won by consumers against music manufacturers, in which a la The Jerk several million plaintiffs will receive some $10 each. The recording industry jerks have basically been found guilty of price fixing, which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. I’ve slowed down on my cd purchases a bit since I got satellite radio, but I’ve been ripped off by those people in the past. Knowingly. I just tire of albums with one or two good tunes, and a bunch of crap, but I guess everyone does so I don’t have a lot to add to this thought right now.

Continuing a long string of actions in which Bush’s support (read: photo op) of a public service or similar is followed shortly by the cutting of its funding or being axed in general, BoMa has a wonderful link to a nicely defaced propaganda billboard. I think the only way for services to survive this regime is to remain unnoticed. Compassionate conservativism my ass, quit the doublespeak. Sometimes I wonder if their strategy isn’t just to propagate such atrocities, lies, and doublespeak, along with a colorful collection of labels, that speaking of these things sounds ludicrous and brands one as lefty wacko.

turned out to be a few pages torn from an old Cleveland Thomas Guide.

You know bad shit’s going down because the funny blogs are really funny. Check out defective yeti’s and Izzle Pfaff’s recent observations. Must have something to do with 4000 billion deficit we’re exacerbating with the taxcuts. Makes me feel funny too.

Emma at the Oregon Blog points us to an article describing how beer and beverage distributors are trying to circumvent the successful, 30+ year-old bottle bill. The article describes a generally cynical Salem that is willing to tear down a hallmark of Oregon legislature. Look forward to OSPIRG showing up at your doors about this. The most interesting bit in this article is in a quote from Paul Romain, a lobbyist:

Bohemian Mama has a nice shit happens rundown of some current events. Permanent link broke for me, but it shouldn’t be too hard to find, it’s the most recent at the time of this writing.

I don’t know if he is guilty or innocent. Never did. Never met the guy, don’t really care to. But. It is not okay to arrest somebody and detain them without charges in the manner in which he has been detained. A solid month of solitary confinement without charges being brought up. Not okay. Maybe he’s guilty. These tactics are the antithesis of American civil rights, and should not be practiced against a citizen of this country.

The IRS has identified the working poor’s Earned Income Credit as an area of fraud they need to address promptly (NYT link, requires free registration, props Nader). This tax credit has been instrumental in raising a vast number of families above the poverty level. Now many of these families will be required to furnish proof of eligibility in a manner likely to make obtaining the dollars too difficult for many properly eligible families.

Howard Dean is quite serious in his bid for the presidency. I am so pleased with what I’ve seen before, and now he’s written an article at Common Dreams explicitly stating his strong disapproval of Bush’s foreign policy. This is fantastic. It’s nice to see the combination editorial/campaign speech style in his words. It’s not just a complaint, it’s an offering up of a solution, written passionately, but with the reserve needed to win a broad support base.

Googlin around for info on the No Child Left Behind Act, I came across an interesting caveat mentioned by Mother Jones. If a military body requests a school for student contact information, they must furnish it. This is a huge violation of rights. While I was not significantly harrassed by recruiters, I know people who were, and these people would not stop…phone calls everyday, mailings, and now probably mass emailings. And what is next?

Go Tim! A nice speech in which he lays out several of the issues with protesting the war and the manner in which the current administration has impeded dissent, without once using the word protest.

another swell article. happy friday.

Patriot Act II. Need I say more?

via Robot Wisdom, a very interesting rundown of White House conspiracy possibilities.

this is a fun page in which a warmonger educates a peacenik.

Alright, this is totally ludicrous. Big Air Fred links us to an article in which the Pentagon asserts that a) Saddam Hussein is the worst ruler in world history, and b) his rule is unprecedented in oppression and torture. The Iraqi people will be free of decades and decades and decades of torture and oppression the likes of which I think the world has not ever seen before (Victoria Clarke, Pentagon)

Crazy work times, so light blogging in this time-smear. But came across this link (via Robot Wisdom) to a well-done quiz.

Operation Shock and Awe, the Big Show, the one we’ve been waiting for, has begun. Everyone is also happy to know that only seven oil wells have been set afire, not 30 as previously though. Also, Emma writes a lucid post on why we shouldn’t be in this war now, even suggesting some gestures that would have made our agression more palatable.

In a surprising turn of events, internet searches for war have outnumbered searches for sex, though I can’t say that they surpass the combination of all mispellings of Britney. That’s reported in England, but I’m sure that American thirst for knowledge is comparable.

This one snuck up on me. Apparently Iran wants in on the nukes game as well. I don’t know what to think, with Ari justifying our accusations with reasons like “After all, Iran has been in possession of a great amount of energy of a non-nuclear nature as a result of their gas and oil supplies,” he said. “There is no economic justification for this, and it does remain a matter of great concern.

This guy really kicks butt. Vermont governor Howard Dean, speaks well, actually says stuff, and believes in some important issues, such as reproductive rights, preserving the environment, sensible foreign policy, and well though-out education policies. And he says things like, “Another example of the Administration’s ineptness is on the Korean Peninsula, where U.S. policy has been incoherent, inconsistent and dangerously disengaged.” If there’s anybody out there to restore hope in the Democratic Party, it going to be someone like Gov.

In an astounding statement of their distate towards all things UnAmerican and therefore anti-Freedom, an elite school has updated their menu, renaming French Fries and French Toast to Freedom such-n-such. Also, the district office has renamed Russian Roulette to Reagan Roulette, and is now referring to Mexico as New Texas. The sad part is is that part of that is true! Of course, the school is the House of Representatives. This tactic is unacceptable.

Setting aside the undisputable fact that President Bush and his supporters are the leading experts on Iraq’s military positioning and nucular programmes, this article suggests that perhaps the inspections are maybe possibly worthwhile enough to continue considering an increase in compliance from Iraq. It also makes the controversial point that Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction aren’t really a threat to us. Alright, that’s most likely true, but they fund terrorists and harbor them.

This was linked from slashdot, so to help you avoid the slashdot effect, which will likely mean they’re going to move it or it’ll be slow as molasses over a 28.8 modem. Anyway, it’s by this Newsweek reporter, and is supposedly just an email that she sent to some friends but it ended up on the interweb for all to see. Very interesting overview of that the global shot-callers are thinking.

Now we know why their coffee costs so dang much! (props abrichar)

I just read that we’ve bombed Iraq!. Don’t go nuts, we’re not in all-out war yet that I know of, but as I listened to International News I heard that marines around Iraq were reacting to the various chemical/biological warfare alarms in the area.

Much of the world is considering George Walker Bush to be a greater threat than Saddam. I was already feeling that way. Not to say that Saddam isn’t kinda crazy-mad because I have no reason to say otherwise, but he’s not the one who has been driving the war machine full-bore at himself. George seems to have only taken the idea of war to the UN to find out who he needs to bribe, bully, and coerce into consenting.

Alright, it seems to me that everyone else has their thoughts on Joe Millionairre. Well, I watched it all, and here’s what I think the surprise twist should have been. Fox shows two different endings (ala Clue), and depending on focus group research they show Evan (that’s his real name!) choosing Zora or Sara.

This is a very interexting piece on potential motivations for the current war on Iraq. There are a number of interesting bits in this article, and it is fairly long, but well worth the read. Quick overview: The Euro standard is making grounds against the dollar as the oil exchange currency, which is a bad thing as the market will be flooded with dollars, devaluing our already hurting unit. Iraq made that switch already, and that in conjunction with the Caspian Sea being far under expected yield (suddenly Afghanistan is much less interesting!

I’ve been in caves, but have never been down into a mine shaft. After all the Hardy Boys mysteries and AD&D I used to play, I sure have a romanticized ideal of them, though! Deep, winding caverns, bizarre echoes surrounded by muffled silence, creaking, underground waterways. And groovy headlamps! And don’t pass on all those treasures and wandering monsters. Then there’s the remembrances of the Americans who built this country, toiling underground in coal mines, suffering blacklung, cave-ins, suffocation, and other horrible fates.

Having been a science guy and geek, this whole space shuttle Columbia disaster has been on my mind a bit. There’s so much to think about and to say. So many facets of the human experience uncovered. Of course there are the teen-age vigils that bring tears to GWB’s eyes, and the bizarre press coverage of people finding helmets and wheels. Also, the whole hero thing and the family’s stories. And NASA playing CYAssa.

I’ve come across an interesting article today, in which Bill Gates speaks out against the estate tax. It is quite well-written, succinct, offering up a spattering of fact, some opinion, and a fair amount of implication. There’s something fairly convincing about the wealthiest man I can think of arguing that we should take his dough. Of course, he also writes this with full knowledge of who our manufactured leader is and the inevitability of a vast array of tax breaks for the wealthy.

Like most people, I do my best thinking in the restroom. Quality time in the shower, meditating on a shave, reflecting on my day while brushing my teeth, or just relaxing, it’s a place where my mind has the opportunity to meander peacefully. Some of my most creative ideas have come to me while showering, and while taking my junior qualifying exam at Reed I figured out the path for two of the problems I was stuck on during restroom breaks.

It’s not one of the topics I cover here much, but I enjoy hobbying in computational analysis. Mathematica is one of my favorite tools for this, and I’ve used it for a number of projects, including building a pretty nifty game with the goal of making the world a better place. Related to that, I was given the opportunity to review a pretty cool book about Data Visualization in Mathematica, aptly titled Mathematica Data Visualizationby Nazmus Saquib.

Hired by the dwarf Gundren Rockseeker to escort a supply wagon to the Forgotten Realms frontier town of Phandelver, the party comes across the wreckage of a goblin raid.

Spoilers below the fold.

http://www.internationalbeerday.com/“I thought that was every day.” – Kevin

Up front, I am far from being a chess master. If you’re experienced enough to know that you’re not very good, we’d probably have a decent game. But, I’ve done some research on chess openings, and played quite a few games, and would like to put together a quick, accessible summary of some sound opening principles. These opening principles are guidelines: you will find plenty of exceptions as you play. But faced with so many options, this should help to narrow them down.

Well, I have to say, I’m a bit sad. I have really enjoyed MS Flight. It seemed to be targeted at the casual Flight Simmer. I suppose that would be me. I like FSX as well, but it’s a bit clunky, and very full-featured. When I feel like some defined missions or lightweight adventures, MS Flight is great. The graphics and performance are nice on my system. I just read today that they’ve cancelled the program, which is too bad.

I’m embarking on a new mission with my family to simplify our lives and get out of debt. We’ve somehow managed to drive our credit card debt well into the 5 figures, and that’s not sitting too well. We are working on becoming aggressive towards our debt. Here are the initial steps we’ve taken to eliminate this burden. Stop using credit cards Move cc balances to 0% interest account Kill debt with savings Consolidate subscriptions Question purchases This is where we’re at after an initial paydown, and the consolidation in progress.

was just thinking about my commute since I’ve been riding regularly, and how much I enjoy my morning time on Portland’s light rail, the Max. It’s really the only time of the day that I can count on to be my own time. I can read, write, get some work done, chat with strangers, or just stare blankly. When I work, it’s without fear of interrupts, so that 30 minutes can be more productive than a whole day in the office.

I recently received my new Flip camera. I ordered online and got the custom design. Sorta half-assed that, but that’s okay. The first thing I noticed about it after picking it up is that it is lighter than I’d expect. As in it feels somewhat plastic. I immediately plugged it into my computer to charge it and play with it. The charge happened pretty quickly, so the playing did as well.

After the US’s disappointing (yet thrilling) tie against Slovenia, you can be sure that there will be a clamor for instant replay in soccer. On the surface, it seems like a great idea. Matches will end with the true winner victorious, honor will be restored to the game. This is a terrible idea. There is a purity about soccer. 23 men on the pitch, and only a few rules on how to play the game.

okay, police violence sucks. It’s a drag that unarmed people get shot. Lately, I’ve been putting together some tips I’ve picked from my years of experience not getting shot at by the police in an effort to help people avoid the short barrel of the law. First, you can take a preemptive strike and keep the police away in general. Try to avoid situations in which housemates and loved ones feel the need to call the police in regards to you.

Like Jeff, I recently followed a thread at the OBC about the price of beer. It was surprisingly heated, considering that nobody was forcing people to drink specialty beers, and these are people who spend a lot of time making beers of their own and promoting the craft. Jeff’s article is very thoughtful and reasonable (as usual) , and we both draw similar conclusions. But I wanted to toss in a few more pieces.

Okay, I’m pretty frustrated with the more liberal party right now. Tuning in, there are two major themes right now. Health care and Fort Hood. These are both important issues, but I am not liking what I’m hearing. First, Fort Hood was a tragedy, plain and simple. But the theme that I’m hearing on the (left) radio is almost a defence of of Hasan for the pressures he was under. Laying the onus on the military, that they didn’t listen enough.

I was pretty excited about V. It was bringing back what in my mind was the original miniseries, and a nice bit of sci-fi. But this time with a budget and awesome effects and some hindsight on making a great series. Plus, I wrapped BSG and 4400 up pretty recently and need a new sci-fi serial fix. I watched the pilot last night, and was a bit disappointed. 4400 was great, and there are some strong ties to that show here, between Joel Gretcsh and Scott Peters they really raised the bar.

Portland has been a Gen-X city for as long as I can remember. Which is as long as I’ve been here. We’ve had a lock on cuisine, fashion (?), transportation, attitude, periodicals, entertainment. Pretty much the whole shebang. Sort of a Gen-X wonderland. Don’t get me wrong, PDX is a city of variety and range, there’s a lot of of other stuff too for Y’s and boomers and everyone in between.

I’ve been riding my bike a fair amount this year, pushing 30 miles 2-3 times a week, from where I work in Beaverton to home in fairly far-east Portland. The route that I take has a variety of paved terrain, from busy suburban and downtown streets to cozy residential streets to dedicated bicycle (and other non-motorized activity) paths. There’s a lot of controversy around bikes this year, as more people take to the pedal path, they remain misunderstood.

The debate has been serious this summer. From touchy questions on sides of buses to annoying comments on blog posts to occasional legal debate. The community has been vexed by this question: Is a bicycle a car or a pedestrian? To help shed light on this problem, beerdrinker has gone undercover, actually riding his bicycle most days, frequently more than 25 miles. I’ve been thinking about this question for quite awhile, but it really came to a head (or mine) when Webtrends posted their controversial question on Portland’s public transportation: Should cyclists pay a road tax?

I’m a fan of social media sites. Sites like twitter and facebook are loads of fun, and great for staying in touch with old friends, new friends, and potential friends. In a recent post I commented on what I felt were the differences between facebook and myspace. In the end, I believe that myspace is primarily a vanity site, whereas facebook focuses on relationships. A more subtle comparison happens between facebook and twitter.

I am terrible at identifying plants, yet at the same time I’m really susceptible to poison oak. For some reason, it is very difficult to find a decent image of the toxic weed. Guidebooks all have the same line drawing as can be found at trailheads. Pics on the internet are obscure and frequently hidden behind broken links. So I found a plant I think might be poison oak. Can somebody please confirm?

I’m completely aware that Facebook is pretty handily kicking the figurative ass of Myspace. I am pretty excited about this, because I’ve never been a fan of Myspace as a social networking site. I’ve enjoyed visiting band sites, and I managed to connect with a few people there. On the other hand, I love Facebook. I talk about Facebook. I advocate its use, and might occasionally be obnoxious about it. But the conversations are interesting.

There are tons of ways to share photos (and videos) on the web. I currently use three main sites to share my photos, each for different reasons. Picasaweb – I’ve been using google’s photosharing the longest, largely because I didn’t want to deal with getting a yahoo id. Which isn’t that tough. I like the album nature of picasaweb, and put most of the photos that I take onto there, treating it like as a bit of a cross between a backup and a social network.

So, I’ve been working on an idea. Devalue the dollar. Print money. Lots of it. My idea is to print money and use it to help people pay mortgages. Bottom up principle. Save people’s houses. Keep the notes good. The banks stay solvent. Everybody’s happy. Of course, what if you don’t have a mortgage? I guess that’s a bummer for you because your dollars are being devalued as well. I’ve been trying to think of a better solution.

I’ve been thinking about social web stuff a lot today. The good folks at Nemo Designs were good enough to have a long chat with anners and me about their social interweb. But that’s just the setup, I’m not really going to go into that…it was interesting though.

What I wanted to hit on is the kids and their lack of email! Which is something that’s come up in conversation, and it came up sometime after the aforementioned meeting, but not during. So the argument that I hear goes something like this:

– Email is going away.

– Why?

– Because kids don’t use email.

– Huh?

– Yeah, they’ve studied kids and they use facebook and twitter and stuff and they don’t even have email accounts.

So, my response is…So what? I mean, did you have a mailing address as a kid? I don’t recall getting much mail. And most of it was highly temporal, non-transactional information. Birthday cards, Ranger Rick, um, I think that’s about it. I was way ahead of my time and couldn’t stand sending letters because the transit time was ridiculous and I didn’t want to pay for a stamp.

‘”Change has come” and we can all work together for a better and united future for all in our country and worldwide.’ That was my mom in the comments tonite. We had a fun little election party, and for the first time in a long time, we ended up happy, not just wiser. And we cheered. McCain’s speech was great. That McCain may have won the election. He was honest, sincere, honorable, clear, and inspiring.

Oh, the disappointment. Later and later it got at the Yukon Tavern, drinking Pabst after Pabst, watching the states black out one after another. The red carpet on the walls and the mannequin legs dangling above. Great conversation as we drifted further and further into desperate (to know!) drunkenness, and then even further into it with desperation not to know. Doin’ it bourgeois-style at Everyday Wine. Grimmer and grimmer.

Okay, last email here. Hopefully I can make it count. The topic for today is what are you afraid of? I’ve had a lot of conversations with people who “don’t like either candidate” but are voting for McCain. My question for them is — Why? What’s wrong with Barack Obama? Sometimes you don’t trust him, sometimes he’s not experienced enough, sometimes, you can’t really express it. What has Obama ever done to break your trust?

A good article by a conservative voting for Obama. Cliff notes version: It’ll devalue Jesse Jackson. He’s more fiscally responsible. Better foreign policy Better relationship between foreign policy and the military Obama is cool, calm, and collected. He’s intellectual about his Christianity I’m not sure what he’s getting at here…I think it’s that he’ll help ease the generational divides.

Sent: 10/22/2008 It appears that internally, at least, al-qaeda and other terrorist organizations support McCain’s candidacy. Makes sense, considering how successfully the war in Iraq has divided the country, emptied our coffers, exhausted our military, and alienated our allies. “Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election,” said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said the Arizona Republican would continue the “failing march of his predecessor,” President Bush.

Sent: 10/15/2008 Okay, I just can’t resist commenting on this, because it is such an absolutely clear illustration of Sarah Palin and her in-your-face lies. Sarah said: “The report that came out also was very clear in that there was no unethical or unlawful behavior on my part,” Palin told a local CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh, adding, “No abuse of power there at all.” Actually she said things like that multiple times.

Kali, one of my favorite pups in the whole world passed on this morning. She was always so sweet, and just wanted to be loved as much as she loved you. A great personality, she’ll be in my heart. And my love goes out to ACUC, I can only imagine how you are hurting today. Here’s my effort to help you celebrate her. And this video I came across just tugged at my hearstrings…it’s not Kali, but I think you get it.

McCain will show up to the debate, and there will be more than one “fist pump” on the approach to the podium. You heard it here first. But Obama will still hand him his ass, probably still with fist pumping.

Playing with google ads. I don’t have any illusion that they’re going to make be rich, or even more than a few pennies a year, but I’m not in this blog thing to retire early. I’m in it for the fame and notoriety. So you’re probably better off pretending they’re not there.

Not sure if any of you get the forwards digging into Barack Obama…his secret code references to Muslim jihad and his non-citizenship and all, but I came across his personal site addressing the smears. It’s pretty good. Even more interesting is reading the ones that I haven’t heard yet.

Personally I don’t really give a crap about who Iowans think should be president. I know one or two people from there, but that’s as far as it goes. But man, did they just hammer some hork into the republican gameplan. Romney just got hosed by Huckabee, and Giuliananinaniani didn’t even show. A couple other dudes got some votes. I missed Ron Paul, who despite my serious issues with libertarians (in brief I believe it’s a great philosophy for an ideal world) is better than all the others.

There have been a number of tragedies involving bikes and motor vehicles around Portland recently. Very sad for all involved, I truly feel for the families of the victims, and for the drivers of the vehicles as well. But setting up bicycle stings at innocuous intersections is just not the right way to go about fixing the problem. Why are the victims being punished? Cyclists, watch out at Flint and Broadway, the man is waiting to swoop in and wreck your beautiful day.

I love Google. I use a number of google applications. Google’s search is and has always been fantastic. I have a gmail account and a picasaweb account. Blah, blah, google’s does a lot of great things and makes my life better. Thank you google! However, I’m feeling more and more that google just isn’t getting it like they used to. The internet has changed, it grows more dynamic, more personal. But while new sites keep popping up that enable users to do more, google looks the other way.

Something’s wrong with NE Broadway. There are a lot of cool little businesses along there. I love the Rose and Thistle. But for the most part, they are underperforming. Almost every stop along NE Broadway is a bit too…bland. I gave this some thought awhile ago, and my conclusion then was that Broadway and its surrounding area is the westside invasion. A few weeks later the Broadway Brewery and Grill opened up.

So now you’ve got some big channel or contract or something to make it a bit tougher to watch games. Well, I didn’t watch many anyway. But now I hear some controversy and you need cable and Monday night football is on cable…at least Dennis Miller is gone I hope. But dangit! Now I get so many stupid sp@m emails about football this and football that. I guess I should watch more football.

Well, the iPhone dropped in price way faster than I expected. I’d figured they had a price point figured out and would keep the phone around there. But they had the trendsetters figured out and took their cut. The 8GB iPhone is now $399 instead of $599. So tempting. But for all of you who are upset that you paid the extra two hundred bucks to strut it around for two months, I’m still not rushing out to buy one.

Hi Dave. I’d email you but amazingly I don’t have your address. Weird. Anyway, I always forget to mention this when I see you, but I’d comment on your blog but I am not going to register. I’ve registered for enough crap and I’m not gonna put my crap into your system and wait for you to generate a password and email it to me and then click on a link to verify and then leave my f’ing comment.

Not really, but metroblogging has the dirt on Portland’s Ikea installation. Honestly, I’ve been looking forward to getting an Ikea for quite awhile now, and now that the date is almost here, I’m starting to look at my closets and corners just a bit differently. Long ago I linked to Defective Yeti’s genius Ikea Walkthrough (at The Morning News). Here it is again for the local Portlanders. A bunch of folks seem upset about the new big box store.

Santa Cruz is a pretty sweet city. It’s gorgeous. There’s a beautiful beach, tons of restaurants, shops, and things to do. A few good breweries. Nice views, hikes nearby. It was selected as one of Outside’s most desirable places to live (Portland too!). But after a few days here, I’ve found myself wondering: where is the soul of this city? And I haven’t found it. Time on the beach is great, the sand is pleasant with the sound of the surf and the seagulls, a heavy sun radiating powerfully, beautiful people building sand structures to watch them erode with the tides.

I’ve been shying away from political posts, but that Imperial IPA loosened my tongue a bit…so this is a comment I left in response to this. After reading your post I’m amazed that at the end you still refer to Bush as a Republican president, as he is only republican in the disappointing social values perspective that your party embraces for votes alone (else why such hypocrisy in your leadership).

I wrote this to my grandmother in response to an email she forwarded me talking about how in North Dakota when they have a huge storm nobody complains to the government. More or less telling New Orleans to quit their whining. of course ideally we’d all be prepared for a disaster. And it wasn’t the rains themselves that were the problem but the fact of the levee breach. It had been recommended to the Bush administration to improve the levee, and the disaster that occurred had been laid out to him ahead of time.

This is sad: Arrested Development is getting canned. Dear Fox, You create and maintain some great shows. 24 has been awesome, Prison Break is good, The Simpsons is a classic, Family Guy is amazing. But Arrested Development. Please don’t do it. Keep Arrested Development. Sometimes a joke comes to me days later. I laugh at strange times thanks to your show. Keep it. Laugh at me laughing. The characters are amazing.

Wow. Is this true? prezzo has borrowed 1.05 trillion dollars, which is as much as the previous 42 presidents combined. Holy crap. That’s pretty scary. It’s a lot of money. It’s basically around 5000 bucks per american. Sweet. And now he wants to get rid of my mortgage interest writeoff. That writeoff is huge for the middle class (which I work hard to maintain my membership in), and the loss will dwarf any gain I ever saw in his tax cuts.

The flippant flopping that I’ve been witnessing has been astonishing. After working so hard to save the institution of marriage from the gays who would destroy it, Republicans now seem to be working to destroy it themselves. Listening to Tony Snow this morning, he asserted that Terri was not Michael’s wife because he’d taken up with another woman, with whom he had lived, had kids, found comfort, and if that’s not marriage then what is.

sorry, I’ve been trying to keep out of the political arena since I’m not that good at it. But this seems a bit messed up: Iraqis are voting in the first free elections in half a century as mortar and suicide attacks rattle polling booths in Baghdad and beyond..(CNN news) I totally agree that free elections are a good thing, but doesn’t it seem just a bit messed up that there are mortar and suicide attacks?

It’s been a long time. It’s weird. Lately I’ve been reading a lot more than writing. Pulled down some good books, though, including Sometimes a Great Notion and The Miracle of Castille di Sangro. Both are fantastic, the first being a fairly Objectivist (yuck) tale of the Stamper family doing what they’ve got to do, logging the Oregon forests despite the rest of town being on strike. It’s got a lot of powerful themes, largely dealing with hardship and revenge, leading to perseverance.

Read what I have to say to Wild Oats below. Fred Meyer is a fine name for a store.

It was some time ago that you purchased Nature’s from the local owners. good choice, great job! Nature’s continued to maintain the same level of service and similar pricing to when it was run locally. I remember an evening some years ago, going over my credit card bill and seeing a charge to ‘Wild Oats’. My first thought was that my card number had been stolen and somebody was using it for internet pr0n.

This is from an email conversation I’m having with a buddy of mine. His side is very interesting as well, but I haven’t asked him for permission to post. So this is just me. We’re chatting about what the left needs to do in order to overcome the religious right juggernaut in the future. My thing about the religious right is that it is a self-perpetuating system. Like a whirlpool, it may not have a large impact quickly, but once ensconced, few escape.

As opposed as I was to so many of prezzo’s actions over the last four years, I feel that the best way to come through the disappointment of the election is to pull out a clean. Not a pessimistic slate. And not totally clean, but to treat this like a new day. Bush’s words make him sound like he’s going to try, but they have before. Perhaps he’s embracing the ‘centrist’ as I’ve heard it said on the strong right talk shows: religious right.

It’s over. And not much good came out of it. W won the presidency, apparently fair and square. That’s what the people wanted, I guess. So now begins the great experiment. Four years of the same group with significantly less opposition, probably 1-2 supreme court nomination (maybe more….shiver). He now has the popular vote and the electoral vote, so he doesn’t feel obligated to play the middle like he did so well over the last four years, and his career politicking is done, all he is concerned with for next election is getting his brother in there.

Another reason to vote no on 36 (for non-Oregonians, 36 basically modifies the Oregon Constitution to explicitly state that marriage is between a man and a woman). One may enter Mary’s Club from El Grillo (which means the grillo) if one is 21 or over or accompanied by a spouse who is of legal age. Thus speaketh the sign. True story…but seriously, this measure is quite possible the one in which I have heard the least rational arguments for in my entire life.

It was amazing…I watched a bit of the GOP convention, and it reminded me of an Amway convention. It was amazing, people applauding this talk of dreams and amazing wealth. They happily pay too much for the same old crap.

I’m in class the last few days and tomorrow (or today, dunno). So, it’s been quiet, but here’s a nice passage from the book I’m reading now, something nice to think on, it’s from The Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller. If we could just eliminate newspapers a great advance would be made, I am sure of it. Newspapers engender lies, hatred, greed, envy, suspicion, fear, malice. We don’t need truth as it is dished up to us in the daily papers.

…for the Nobel Peace Prize! On the off chance that Moore is able to battle through Disney’s stonewalling and get his film released enough, but not too much for our brief cultural memories, before the November elections, and Bush is somehow defeated, and the film is linked to said defeat, I can see now that Michael Moore will be considered for the Nobel Peace Prize. All the more so considering the hurdles he’ll have to clear now.

Don’t recall where I got this link, it was up on my browser when I came into work this morning, but it’s a pretty interesting and dark observation on the state of the housing market and its relation to the economy. I hope that the fears are exagerated, but there’s no telling. I wonder what a bubble burst in the housing market would do to the Pearl District and proposed Macadam development projects?

Just listening to the radio (sirius streaming….yeah!) and the DJ (Madison) mentioned a couple ‘…of the year’ awards from some organization or other. The first: Michael and Janet J. being the most foolish. The second, the Story of the Year: Martha Stewart. What? Didn’t we instigate a war? It seems like 2003 was a pretty huge year for ‘stories’ and while Martha was there with her sunglasses on, it certainly wasn’t the story of the year.

A small Vermont resort town is move to New Hampshire instead, according to Silt, who mentions various other scenarios involving other cities and states. Makes me wonder what would happen if Portland started talking of this, and moving to Washington. It seems like everyone would be happier.

I’ve found that I pretty much enjoy the classic plays best when I know what’s going to happen already, and am able to ride the elegantly structured language to the conclusion. Yesterday I listened to Victor Balk on Portland’s 860. His show was entirely about a question asked of John Kerry, “Do you believe God is on the United State’s side?” The answer, I never heard from Kerry’s mouth, merely Vic’s weasle-like paraphrasing, so I won’t comment on it now.

In a landmark announcement today, prezzo announced plans to move forward with his intentions of ramming through a new constitutional amendment. While the text of the amendment remains unclear, the its substance has been well-communicated. Disturbed after shopping at Bloomingdale’s Country Annex and noticing that the right and left boot salt and pepper shakers were available separately, prezzo declared that he needed to protect “Meals from changing forever” and that “for millenia wars have been fought over spices, so that they could accompany common iodized table salt, and now some renegade trinket manufacturers and merchants are presuming to arbitrarily change the nature of America’s most fundamental family-time.

So, the land is abuzz with talk of Nader running. Sure, I don’t like the fact that he might take votes from some undetermined Demo candidate, and I’m pretty sure that he can’t win on his own, and I really strongly think that prezzo has to lose or we’re in a lot of trouble. The rest of the world may be able to forgive us as long as they know that 1) we never really elected him and 2) when we realized how bad he was, we voted him out…but if he’s elected for sure this time, then there’s going to be little turning back.

It seems to me that there should be regulations to precent this kind of thing. Comcast should not own Disney, Disney should not own Comcast, and they shouldn’t merge either. Disney’s sphere of influence is too great already. The genius of the separate spheres of influence placed in out government need to be implemented in the business world. Instead, in a brilliant maneuver, the corporate world has been dismantling the safeguards in the government.

Checked out the Trib’s headline today, and stopped well short of reading the article: “Porn and Handcuffs found at PU suspect’s house”. Stop the presses. Who ever considered that this is front page material? (btw, the quote is close, but it’s from memory so might be off). It’s like that nabbed it from the Onion’s throw-away bin. While not everyone has handcuffs and/or pr0n at their house, I hardly think that that’s any more newsworthy than if ‘Sheed (bye-bye, baby) had gout.

I was too conflicted on Measure 30. I support all of the great things that our tax money goes to, and was quite against (still am!) prezzo’s ludicrous tax cuts. More irresponsible than ludicrous. But, I’ve voted for this tax and that and bonds and said yes, and all the while, rural Oregon is voting them down and causing havock in Salem and generally making things worse than they need to be.

Calpundit expresses so clearly this concept that I’ve been trying to verbalize, about how the middle class is fundamental to the economy, and job growth there is the true indicator. He only hints at (in this article) the wanton destruction by prezzo of the middle class in his tax cuts and elimination of goverment services and regulation. I believe that the middle class is largely driven by the existence of goverment jobs…perhaps not driven, but anchored.

just had to get that out I guess…been feeling all wadded up. As far as I’m concerned there are two things that win two-party elections: winning the fence sitters and motivationg your voters. Quick look at those. Sitters on the fence, they’re out there, but who’s winning them? I’d say that with the unified propaganda machine, GWB is the clear winner now. Nobody’s questioning Bush, so there must be nothing wrong…the economy’s ‘good’ unless you look at the numbers, the war’s ‘good’ according to their revisionism and propaganda, tax cuts are good, and the Dems haven’t posed a unified front…prezzo gets Everything He Wants.

new (to me) oregon blog, Hasservision. It’s better to write about such things than why Dean tanked, how even though I gave him money he totally lost my interest, possible an act contributed to by the A-holeness of Joe L. who sucks and should shovel sh!t at the Bush ranch. But it looks like a good time over at H.vision, so go check it out. Exhausted and defeated I managed a chuckle out of some of his stuff, which is tough for me right now…my body feels as botoxed as Kerry’s upper face looks.

via Slashdot, Yahoo has an article reporting about companies moving jobs overseas. This is nothing new. It is scary though. As executives demand higher and higher salaries, those on the bottom get axed and replaced by cheap foreign labor. This is a scary trend that needs to be regulated. The lobbyist arguments that the problem is that tech workers are not willing to work for the low wages, and that makes moving the jobs overseas okay is simply not valid.

alright, I’m tossing the towel in, so I can use it to dry off, or something else. Maybe I’ll start rat tailing people in the arses with it. But hanging onto it at the edge of the ring is senseless. I’m giving up on the Dems for now. Really. No more money, no more time, no more, ‘you can do it, guys.’ I’m done. The infighting is ridiculous. Liebermans’s spider-hole comments about Dean, this is asinine.

I love how the right-wingers bash the liberal Hollywood actor set, but as soon as they identify a right wind spokesmodel, they hype them as much as possible and make them their poster-child (and governor, or president).

An interesting little rant from Kim du Toit on The pussification of men. While I don’t agree with much of what he says (particularly tying with politics and such), some of it is actually pretty well stated, if not bigotted and harsh, but oh well, I think that’s much of his point. via Seething.

“Hey, what’re y’all doin’ in the bike lane for?” I commute on bike. I’m not die-hard…I’ll drive in if I feel like it. The number 2 in the title suggests that I’ve talked about this before. Well, I have, and my basic point was don’t be a jerk, it’s not necessary, they’re not out to get you. But then sometimes I ride, and as nice as it is to be on a bike, some guys just wreck it.

I just reponded to an evite, and after I submitted the site redirected me to an ad (“brought to you by our sponser”). The funny thing was that just an image came up (HP, somethin somethin), but on the sidebar in poorly wrapped text was a demand that I obtain the latest Flash (not available for my Sun box, nor my Linux box, btw) in order to experience their ad. This seemed ludicrous.

I used to be really into professional wrestling. The strong guys doing crazy, pretty realistic, wrestling moves in the air, or spinning them over their back, with figure four leglocks and chairs and sleeper holds, it was dazzling. And then they discovered politics, and that was fun, who’s on whose side, which manager is slipping a roll of quarters in, is The Macho Man good or evil, what about the Four Horsemen and their constuents.

Crafty Girlie links to a craigs list post about a vegan cat rescuer who is looking for a new home for the cat. The requirement: the home must be vegan and willing to feed the cat a vegan diet. This is absolutely ludicrous. A cat would never choose a vegan diet over a comparably non-rancid carniverous one, because that is what they have evolved to consume. Meat contains the nutrients, microorgganisms, proteins, and enzymes that they need to survive in a healthy manner.

Does anyone have any idea what the heck is up with all these spams that have zero intelligible content, in any language for all I can tell. Spam me, that sucks, but now you’re just wasting. I suppose at least they’re not sending l3wd pictures to children. I hate all spammers.

An interesting article on the widely varied conditions of two schools in Iraq. I think that what we learn from this is a reminder of the liberal stance from the VERY BEGINNING of this fiasco. And this is something that is being twisted once again by the lying Bush administration. That we wanted the war to go through the proper channels. Or not at all. But the mad rush, the insanely driven mad rush to shove this war down everyone’s throats using FALSE evidence (which was considered suspect from the first…so don’t act innocent and blame bad intelligence, if I was suspicious, you HAVE to be!

I hear that Dignity Village submitted a proposal to the city of Portland today regarding a 10-year extension to whatever they already had. I heard this on the Victor Bach show, one of the most appalling pieces of talk radio I know. However, this is one of the very few issues on which I’ve had some agreement with Victor Bach…something which a say with a sense of shame after hearing his disgusting abortion stance yesterday.

Okay. I’m getting pretty frickin sick and tired of the conservative comments on liberal concerns on Arnold S. Bill Clinton has nothing to do with it. He engaged in consensual whatever with a consensual person and that’s that. End of story, except that he then went on and lied about it, which was wrong, and messed up, and a very bad decision that can and will and does reflect poorly upon him.

Listening to talk radio the other evening and there was mention of a checker strike in Los Angeles. I’m not totally aware of the details, but that’s not the point. There was a brief interview with an ordinary Joe (Jane, actually), who supported the strike. The interview went something like this: “Do you support the checker strike?”. “Oh, yes, definitely, my heart goes out to them.” “Would you cross the picket line?

It just crossed my mind that we’re pretty lucky to live in a place, and amongst items, that are not widely varying in their pH. It would really stink to be perpetually burned and worse by acids and bases in our homes and around town. Sure, they’d generally reduce each other to salts and gases, but that’s not my point, nor does it change the fact that I’m really happy to live in a chemically neutral environment.

I like bumper stickers. Some say some very witty things, some are wise, and some just piss me off. There are two that have bugged me for a long time, and I think I’ve finally gotten it. You see, while I like bumper stickers, I don’t necessarily approve of the pithy sayings on them just because they’re catchy…I like to apply a bit of critical thought to them. The first, ‘Minds are like parachutes, they only function when they’re open,’ is a load of hoohaa to me.

The albatross sent me a depressing link about a first-time teacher’s summer school experience. Ouch, what a panful experience she describes, an intellectual woman of experience wanting to give something to the community (symbiotically, she admits), who is thrust into a classroom of students who just don’t want to learn. They have their reasons, and you can’t hate (most of) them for it, as so many have horrible home lives, but she has to battle so many sides her job is nearly impossible.

I know that you’re cool, and you have the moral high ground over all those gas-guzzling pricks. I know that you pedal away, and you’re a target to all those steel dragons. I know that pedestrians don’t notice you and step into your way. Sometimes other bicyclists do things to piss you off as well. Know what? Quit being an asshole. I bicycle to work myself, but seeing some of these jerks on their bikes, it’s no wonder that relations with vehicles are somewhat strained.

Thus speaketh Ann Coulter of Saddam Hussein. Well, the rest of her article is a bit meatier that than but holy crap, what a bunch of antagonistic flag-waving, divisive drivel. This lady really sucks. I hadn’t really read much by her to this point and if this represents the quality of her work, how the hell did she ever get out of Denny’s or wherever she crawled out of. The sad thing is is that this represents a fair quantity of the conservative talk-show/newswriter tone—some ornery, overconfident righty who spews very contrary conclusions out of unrelated evidence.

So, I’m a bit upset with Powell’s Books lately. They have a mountain of freakin books, a city even, yet three of the last four books that I’ve gone there looking for (actually maybe more) have been out of stock. What is particularly frustrating is that I see by the website that they are located in this warehouse or that. What are sixteen copies of Parasite Rex and ten copies of the armchair economist doing in warehouses when they are popular books that are not available in your flagship store?

What the heck are the leading Republicans trying to accomplish? Utter destruction of this nation? The creation of a slave nation? Or are they simply so utterly corrupt that they do the bidding of the corporate leaders? It has become so utterly clear to me that deregulation of power and media are not just bad ideas, but horrible, disastrous ones, that I cannot comprehend how they could even suggest it. The effects of deregulation have made themselves totally clear in California, New York, Brazil, and in the media as quality gets worse, news coverage thins, commercials become more prevalent, and reporting more biased.

It’s amazing, the spin that can be put onto an observation. With the ‘just sixteen little words’ stance, the right-wing spin has been that ‘oh, how can you point to those sixteen words and say that we went to war based on them?’ It’s really frustrating to see people gettting sucked into the sixteen words argument, because that’s not what it’s about at all. This particular statement is more a fulcrum than a lever.

Wal-Mart is one of my most hated corporate entities. They drive local business out, create horrible jobs, and are an eyesore and blight. Shopping there makes a person pasty. In compter-fake-internetland a DOS is a denial of service attack, in which a hax0r does something to make a server unusable by others for a period of time, generally without actually cracking the system. The other day, while munching on tacos at Cha!

There’s been a fair amount of talk about gay rights of late. Here’s a little bit to help clear up all the misconceptions. It’s ok. The operative word in ‘gay people’ is people. Let them get married. I’m sure that they’ve thought about what they’re doing at least as much as heteros are expected to. The ZPG people should be thrilled. Don’t worry about the gym lockers. They don’t really care that much, and if it’s that important to you, bronze it.

A nice BBQ, grill, ribs, chicken, clinking glasses, friends, good times. The scene pans out slowly, some casual conversation, check the food. Panning further still, a door, mosquito netting, it’s all indoors. A cool friendly female voice asks, “West Nile virus keeping you indoors?” Buy Off. A nod to the Bush administration’s fear-driven marketing campaign for the war. This tactic is very powerful, subtle, and pervasive. Television exists to sell ads.

Where the heck is reality heading these days? I try to keep up with it, stay in touch, and all, but sometimes reality just slips right past me. I’m not talking virtual reality or internet reality, or even fictional reality. I mean space/time/television reality. The one inside the glowing box that determines what much of America talks about when outside their cubicles. The tagline, ‘latest reality dating show’ or somesuch appeared inside my peoplenonmover the other day (during Amistad) and then proceeded to show some bizarroworld in which a couple follows clues inside a secret ‘diary’ a la Die Hard 3 to find out how much they hate each other or want to have sex but can’t because they’re on national realityvision.

I watched the second half of Amistad the other evening. It was pretty good…though it may have been better or worse if I’d seen the whole thing. The thing that got me was Morgan Freeman in the film. Looking serious or nodding approval with some pretty horrible chops. I don’t know that he had a line the whole time I watched, they just stuck him in there every now and then, much like the robot in Logan’s Run.

Orrin Hatch is a dangerous hypocrite. After declaring recently that copyright holders should be permitted to write code that will destroy the computer of someone improperly downloading copyrighted materials, he’s been caught using unlicensed copyrighted code on his virtual office (website). What a jerk. What he doesn’t understand is that it is actually difficult to unintentionally avoid using copyrighted material sometimes. Whether you’ve been hacked and some $cr!pt kiddi3 is downloading pr0n and disting photoshop from your box, or you happen to have a virtual in a server farm, or even if you’re just grabbing some software or tunes to try before you buy, some people may not even realize that they’re in violation.

ok. enough is enough. I’m feeling pretty neglected here, along with the hundreds of thousands of others. where the f!&k are the weapons and imminent demist that our president swore to the nation were there, learned of through advanced millitary intelligence. I’m totally friggin baffled. There are two amazing things to me here. Maybe three. The first is that this a-hole can just keep cruising along without so much as an f-ing shrug or nod that there is the slightest doubt of the existence of these munitions despite the capture not only of several high cards but most of the casino as well (mission accomplished…thought we’d bagged Harrah’s!

It’s been awhile I hope that nothing conspiratorial has befallen him, and that instead he is lying on a beach somewhere that takes only American Express.

Just thought of something…with all this WMD talk and the fact that they’re not being found. It doesn’t even matter, because I didn’t agree with the war to begin with (though with the fairly moderate stance that if you can get the UN to be down with it, I’ll go along ;), so the fact that the WMD’s don’t even exist when their words explicitly stated that a) they exist, b) they know where they are, and c) they’ll turn up quickly and easily should be evidence of shady motives to the rest of America.

Now the war is over and the reconstruction has begun. This is what all the corruption has been building up to. The emotional charge is less fiery now. The USA’s middle finger is still pointed at the rest of the world. Campaign contributors are realizing the value of their investments in reconstruction contracts and tax cuts. The Democrats are still holed up. We confuse victory for justification. Never forget the wrongness of this war.

Googlin around for info on the No Child Left Behind Act, I came across an interesting caveat mentioned by Mother Jones. If a military body requests a school for student contact information, they must furnish it. This is a huge violation of rights. While I was not significantly harrassed by recruiters, I know people who were, and these people would not stop…phone calls everyday, mailings, and now probably mass emailings. And what is next?

Had to add a new section to the blogroll over there for Phillip Greenspun. He was one of my earlier internet heroes (though losing points for embracing .NET) more for his outspoken views and concepts on usability and community-driven web sites than for the ArsDigita (now RedHat property…blech) software itself. Expect quality, though sometimes wordy and egotistical, opinions and banter.

This is a good little post about the work lives we are forcing on our teachers. Illustration of the huge inequities abounding for them, and the hurdles they need to overcome to do their job, one which might be considered important. I witnessed this in my own student teaching (I later decided that teachers are treated too badly here to actually get a job as one), with many teachers being moved from room to room, not having a home, nowhere to have a preparation period. Believe me, preparing classes and grading papers takes time, and that’s not even doing things like setting aside time to talk to kids in an effort to get through to them and pay attention to special needs. It is truly difficult to foster a positive learning environment like this. Teachers need props. The room is more than just a place with a ceiling and places to sit and write. It is a place for visual aids to be setup. For personalities to be expressed. To keep your lunch. My heart goes out to teachers.

All around, people are becoming more and more indignant about this war. It’s astounding, the way in which war supporters are taking arms against people who question or questioned it. The animosity towards France is pretty severe, elevating far beyond Freedom Fries and returning the Statue of Liberty. The positions that I find truly amazing are those that scorn the Iraqis as dirty cheating law-breaking fighters. What an arrogant, hypocritical stance this is.

Wow, active day today. Well, my buddy Sean has started blogging also, so welcome aboard man. In one of his latest articles, he explores some controversial ideas about whether or not it is logically and morally consistent to support the troops and the war in this case, and I’m not speaking of the correct yet vaporous ‘Support our troops, bring ’em home’ slogans. He raises some valid but incomplete points on this.

We are pretty certainly going to war very soon. Saddam has blatantly refused to do any disarming per GWB’s requests entirely whatsoever and the weapons inspectors are over there with their abacus counting the number of nukes in Iraq because they’ve run out of fingers and toes, so it’s perfectly reasonable that we demolish their sorry asses, and hopefully take a pretty good chunk of their culture and history with them, not to mention a pretty good haul of oil.

I came very close to being one of the teachers suffering through the current abuses of our state. Earned my MAT in 1999 from one of the most bizarro places I’ve ever spent a year, George Fox University. I had little idea of wtf I was getting into, recently out of one of Portland’s small liberal arts colleges. Oddly enough, at that time I decided that teachers here (don’t get me wrong, they’re treated bad everywhere to my knowledge) are treated too badly, and decided to geek out instead.

I’ve written a few anti-war on Iraq articles, but haven’t really talked about my position. I am somewhat torn on this issue, as I can imagine circumstances in which I could believe that war is a good idea herenow.

My strongest argument against the war is that I really don’t trust the people who are pushing us straight into it. The antics of Bush and Cheney are well-documented (where they haven’t been able to suppress the records from their employers, the public). These men have been players in a world I cannot conceive. Try to imagine calling the Minister of Public Works and Services of Argentina and gently suggesting that you and your father, the President of the United States, feel that it would be a good idea to award a multi-million dollar pipeline deal to Enron.

I need to review another beer. But not tonite. I hear about globalization, and I hear about the economy. The economy is bad. So why does it seem like a good idea to move all of our good jobs offshore. Why do we shop at places like Wal*Mart, where we transform the self-respecting film store owner into Robin William One Hour Photo man? Wal*Mart sucks the life out of your town.

SUVs are everywhere. They are particularly popular amongst those who live here in the Pacific Northwest, many of whom live fantasies that they are Ford Tough or Like a friggin Rock. This issue points to a theme that I will be iterating and building upon for some time. It is not okay to do what you want when you want. You should not be as rich as you can possible be.

Finally we know what the Homeland Security Office has been up to, other than phoning in orange alerts whenever we need a new bill passed or one of the warmonger elite need to get some pep for the war (like just after Colin Powell pitched his war). They’ve been learning about the internet. Here’s the stop, drop, and roll for a new millenium. The warnings and admonishments have been a great boom to Wal*Mart, as their customers stack duct tape and Hefty Bags on top of their Doritos and Ding Dongs, which should preserve them through a nuclear winter.

I just cannot keep up with all the bad things that are happening right now. It’s really amazing. We’ve spiralled from a crappy biased dirty election to piss-poor economy and massive layoffs to terrorism to corporate scandal (involving so much political inbreeding it’s awe inspiring) to undeclared undefined wars to undeclared defined wars. And that’s just nationally. Here in Oregon, we’re busy screwing ourselves right and left. The whole Measure 28 failure is a fiasco.

It truly does. Once again. In bold. Portland Radio Sucks. Bigtime. I could stop this story right here, and probably have said all that I need to, but then what would be the fun in that? I am just freakin’ so sick and tired of all the damn commercials and the stupid DJ’s mackin on strippers for 47 minutes out of each hour. And the three songs that I do hear…if my timing was good and I get to hear any on my commute…are the same ones by the same ‘artists’, rotating between Rage Against the Machine, tool, System of A Down, Korn (sorry deep guys can’t do that kewl ‘K’ thing they do), with maybe a bit of Metallica blended in.

Marriage. Topping the list of What’s Hot right now. Fox is premiering several new blockbuster mega-hypo shows where the winners and losers get married to each other, themselves, and total strangers. Not to mention the past classics like marrying millionaire monkeys and throwing turtles at wed-shops in vegas. And ThankYou Joe (Evan). It’s freakin bizzarro to me, the trend. Now that the concept of marriage has been totally despoiled by the likes of wadded up right-wing Family Values groupies pulling anti-gay anti-choice propaganda, and our (me being pretty solid Gen-X) parents’s generation treating them like Kleenex, snotted or no.

Life is getting better all the time. Drink beer from your kegerator and it will let the world know. Spark Fun makes it possible (I’ll have to checkout their toys!). Link via Kelly of the Oregon Brew Crew.

I am terrible at identifying plants, yet at the same time I’m really susceptible to poison oak. For some reason, it is very difficult to find a decent image of the toxic weed. Guidebooks all have the same line drawing as can be found at trailheads. Pics on the internet are obscure and frequently hidden behind broken links. So I found a plant I think might be poison oak. Can somebody please confirm?

This is a strange situation. The logistics alone are mind-boggling.

This is pretty fascinating if it works, if it’s real, if it is applicable. Applying radio waves (I don’t yet know the specifics around them) to saltwater allows it to burn, as the hydrogen is somehow offered up to the fire gods.

thx anners for sending me this sweet link from google–it’s the moon!. The first manned lunar landing (remember that game) was 36 years ago today – Apollo 11. Make sure to zoom all the way in, the surface detail is remarkable!

A cool update on the Mars rovers’s status, they are finding pretty solid evidence of liquids. Water that is. And as we all know, where there’s water there’s beer.

Hidden in the Andes, researchers excavated an ancient brewery.

This is cool, sent by my grandad, pics of Space Ship One and its posse. The crowd pic at the start is pretty darn great too.

okay, this is way cool. I hear that it’s featured in Scientific American, but I haven’t cracked mine yet. Twenty-some teams or more have assembled vehicles to race from SoCal to Vegas. Big whoop…right…there’s no driver, and no remote control. These things are given routes and waypoints, and it’s up to them to navigate. Way cool. The projects involve some tech and robotics firms, universities, and other groups of smarties. My fave so far is Red Team, I like their site.

This stuff is so cool. We’ve put A couple of really nifty toy cars on another planet. While we’re still in the stone age of interstellar travel, this is pretty huge, even though we did it before some 6 years ago. Each time, we overcome new obstacles, learn new information, and feel new victories. When was the last time that we, as a country, had something that we could collectively be excited about?

thanks grandad!

Check out this post over at zeros and ones. Pretty freaky implications about cross-species blood transfusions. Someday, you may receive a blood supplement that was derived from an anteater.

There just aren’t enough hours in a day. I actually have experimental evidence (that applies to myself) to support this. At one point I realized that my awake hours always push up against the latest possible time that I could go to bed and still get a functional amount of sleep for the next day (5-8, depending on my deficit, which generally means 1-3 AM). I hypothesized that, without needing more sleep, I could stay up a couple extra hours happily.

Portland is finding itself on the map for science fairs. Youth Exploring Science is hosting Intel’s big-ole international jr. geekfest. This is way cool news for Portland. props N.

via Slashdot via DJ Alden Aslett (and probably 100000 others), letters in words can be scrambled and still read. Just keep the first and last intact. friggin amazing, check out a link. I’m going to have to give some thought as to what this means.

well, maybe not, but it is a great pinball machine, and Mars will be as close as you’ll ever know tonight. Here’s the JPL’s site on viewing Mars. Cheers, and happy gazing.

via TBOGG, an article which describes research into the underlying psychological characteristics of conservatives. Funny, the points apply pretty directly to our current prez. They also explain a lot about the national (local is generally owned nationally too) media, if you care to note that so much of its reporting is designed to instill fear and oversimplify complex problems.

what if…? has an interesting link about ovulation.

SETI@Home has announced a milestone in their distributed computing experiment: they are going to use the data that they’ve gathered together. They are going to look at the spots in the sky that people have helped to identify as likely alien hotbeds. Very cool, and something of a breakthrough. Distributed computing is a piece of the future that has barely been scratched. Spamming is not the only way to make money with your computer’s idle time.

A fascinating article recounts strategies to examine space and time at what is believed to be its most fundamental level, the Planck scale. It is at this level that we believe the universe is granular, ‘we’ being those who interpret quantum physics in that manner. Not all physicists believe that the Planck scale means precisely that, but nearly all do believe that these measures in space and time do have a special and eerie significance.

I’m embarking on a new mission with my family to simplify our lives and get out of debt. We’ve somehow managed to drive our credit card debt well into the 5 figures, and that’s not sitting too well. We are working on becoming aggressive towards our debt. Here are the initial steps we’ve taken to eliminate this burden. Stop using credit cards Move cc balances to 0% interest account Kill debt with savings Consolidate subscriptions Question purchases This is where we’re at after an initial paydown, and the consolidation in progress.

I’ve been riding the bike a lot lately, and it’s been great. It’s not just good exercise to ride for my commute, it’s also a far better way to relax than driving to and from work. I’ve been doing it so much lately (driven to work once since early August) that I’m kicking around selling one of the cars. We’re currently a 2-adult 1-baby 2-car household. I’ve registered for ZipCaraccount, though I’ve yet to use it.

After the US’s disappointing (yet thrilling) tie against Slovenia, you can be sure that there will be a clamor for instant replay in soccer. On the surface, it seems like a great idea. Matches will end with the true winner victorious, honor will be restored to the game. This is a terrible idea. There is a purity about soccer. 23 men on the pitch, and only a few rules on how to play the game.

Thank you City Hall fold for helping us to bring Major League Soccer to Portland. Just so you know, we’re all really excited about it. We have a massive underground presence here. Not that you’d know it from the sad lack of soccer bars in this town. The funny thing about that is that ballers like to drink. With a bit of love, you’ll have a well-supported locale. But enough about that.

woohoo! It’s no longer an unslayable dragon! I just finished my first ever bicycle ride from Beaverton to home on the Portland eastside. It was about 17.5 miles. Here’s a link to basically the same route, thank you bycycle.org. Instead of staying on Tillamook, I cruised up at 60th to Sacramento and rode along the nice Alameda Ridge.

Well, it was definitely Moist over the Memorial Day. We had a great showing of ballers and their friends and family. As seems to frequently be the case, the various Moist squads had some difficulty putting the ball into the back of the net. I don’t think it’s due to any shortage of talent on the teams, probably more because all of the teams are just mixes of dudes and ladies who haven’t necessarily played together.

Woohoo! Great game tonite, beautiful day. The Timbers faced MLS’s Toronto in a post-season friendly, and what fun it was. The Moist crew showed up in force, and the Army was bitchin tonite…they were loud. The beginning of the game was distressing, as Toronto looked to be outclassing the Timbers pretty well. But the defense was solid, and Timbers snapped a sweet goal chipping the Toronto keeper to open it up.

Caught the Galaxy vs Pachuca match tonite for the SuperLiga final. Painful painful first half. Got there late, just in time for an own-goal and the team to fall apart. But halftime was near. I got a dos equis and got tense with some soccer buddies. Half two was amazing. Both teams had a ton of chances. Tough to say who got the better of it, but then we were in for a surprise.

Hi Dave. I’d email you but amazingly I don’t have your address. Weird. Anyway, I always forget to mention this when I see you, but I’d comment on your blog but I am not going to register. I’ve registered for enough crap and I’m not gonna put my crap into your system and wait for you to generate a password and email it to me and then click on a link to verify and then leave my f’ing comment.

Alright, beerdrinker got a shiny new red iPod Nano for xmas from my mom. It totally rocks. It synchs with my iCal and address book (surprise! yay me!), it plays music, it’s tiny, and it sounds good. Pretty much kicking my Zen Micro to the curb. The only thing it doesn’t have is a voice recorder…and that is a bummer. But what I’m really stoked about is the Nike+ addon. (Disclaimer: I am a Nike employee.

Well, GPSD had its championships this weekend, my team Top Hammer GDST (Green Dawn Soccer Team) played Ninja for the Men’s open D-1 championship. It was an excellent game, our squad played well and hard. An unlucky break early in the game led to an own goal to put us down 0-1, which is how the game finished, despite some very strong midfield play, and good showing for our defense and offense despite the freezing conditions.

We got a squad (Moist) in at the brand spankin new futsal jointin SE Portland for this season. In fact, our team had the honor of winning the very first league futsal game ever at the new arena. It was a bit of a blowout at 28-2. Not very nice, I think a few guys had some frustrations to unleash after our men’s team was crushed by PSU the day before.

holy crap, two days without soccer! In a row. It’s not my fault, I suppose they’re giving the teams a quick breather before jumping into the quarter-finals. Yesterday I travelled for someodd 24 hours from Hamburg back to happy Portland town. Nice to be home, but I miss the adventure some. Now I have to mow the lawn and go back to work and watch the games on tv with maybe 20 people instead of tens of thousands.

I arrive Friday late afternoon. We drink coffee at his house and ride the train to the city. My card is not working so I have no money. We drink beer on the train, many people do. Often there are little stores conveniently located to sell one a bottle of beer. Not many cans here. We walk around and have what appears to be lebanese food, similar to a doner. Which is not too different than gyros bot more cabbage and sometimes different bread.

I predict Germany will be the winner of the world cup this year. And here is my proof. Word on the street is that Brazil is favored and I accept that. But is their probability better than 50% to win? I think not. Thus, we must say that a team other than Brazil should win. Looking at the field, Germany seems to be the strongest and carry the greatest odds.

Heads up, I’m just posting these as I have time and in whatever order I feel like. If you’re hoping for up-to-the-minute scores, check out FIFA’s website. Lunched with Nina’s family, had the white asparagus so popular here for the first time. It was really good and made my piss smell different that regular asparagus. Then off to Lasser’s for sone BBQ with some friends and to watch Germany play Ecuador.

Okay…they’re late, but these are my predictions from this round on. 1/8 —— Germany v Sweden – Germany Argentina v Mex – Argentina Eng v Ecu – Eng Por v Hol – Hol Bra v Ghana – Brazil Ita v Aus – Italy Spa v Fra – Spain Ukr v Switz – Switerland 1/4 ——— Ger v Arg – Germany Bra v Spa – Brazil Switz v Ita – Switzerland

On the way to the Fan Fest downtown Hamburg I saw a woman jogging in a turquoise Ramones T-shirt. Something was about to happen. Tobi started singing ‘yellow — yellow — yellowred’ and I joined it. Just a made-up song for the game, early in the second half. But that described it. Four red cards, all of them double yellows, and I felt mostly ridiculous. In fact, there were a couple red cards I felt would be deserved, but they didn’t get raised.

so, you may have noticed by now that I’m not talking about German beer that much. Well, it’s there and it’s good and there’s a lot of it. Not necessarily in me at the moment but passing through. Lots of Pilseners. Beck’s Gold has been really popular with the circles I’m running with, as well as Radlers which are some sort of lemon/beer mix. I enjoyed a nice Koenig Pilsener last night when I got back from Berlin in time to watch the extra time in the Argentina/Mexico game.

Today I was mistaken for a Swede for the first time. Watching them play England, I’d noticed the mullet was more popular on their side. Still sporting it. After watching the early games (Mexico v Portugal and Angola v Iran) with Tobi, Flo and I cruised down to the Hamburg Fan Fest. Much larger than the ones at Cologne and Hannover, there was a great festival atmosphere with food offered from each of the 32 countries.

Came across two bloggers tracking the World Cup as well, I’m sure there are more so as I come across them, I will update this. Bunco Parade and A Pretty Move. Jack Bog is keeping up on it too, and having a pool for the next rounds (link is on the sidebar). Update1: I like 11 devils too and I’m excited to hear what Zach’s secret mission is. And Shawn Levy’s blog.

Monday, second game ticket. Probably the last, Ukraine vs. Saudi Arabia. In their first game against Tunisia the Saudis played remarkably well. They are certainly capable of applying pressure up front and occasionally pull together some really pretty soccer. This was true against the Ukraine as well, nearly scoring on several occasions. Unfortunately, the defense, quite porous against Tunisia and rarely winning in the air, remained weak. A keeper error placed the ball in a dangerous area, which Ukraine capitalized on.

Just found out I got a ticket for Czech vs. Italy. I’m excited, it’ll be a great game, but a little sad not to see the US game live. Watch for me, I’ll be in the US jersey with the US towel. btw, I may not be saying much about beer, I’m way behind on writing so it’s just World Cup adventures so far. oboy, what an awesome game this will be!

The fellow from Ghana summed it up painfully sweet: “I can’t root for the US, you don’t have any songs!” So our merry band of wanderers did what we could with what we had. Three letters and a movie. For the most part we spent the day shouting U-S-A U-S-A over the roar of ee-tahl-ya ee-tahl-ya until our throats were hoarse, moistened only by sweet German lager. Then we realized that We have a fight song.

the winter olympics are over. I wasn’t very excited coming into it, honestly. Mainly because there’s alway always always too much ice skating. Way too much. This time was way better. I can dig speed skating, I love the skiing, the snowboarders do cool stuff, curling is a fun twist and a some ice skating is tolerable. I got into it. Kinda. But anyway, good coverage this time whatever network you were!

So, I’ve gotten back into skiing this winter. After a long hiatus. I’ve tried to get into it a couple times in the past, but it just didn’t take. Back in the day (very young beerdrinker through high school beer drinker), I skied a fair amount. Then college happened, and my K2 4500s just sat, and then they disappeared. I scored my dad’s old skis but operative is old. Though the Pre’s are pretty sweet with the Look bindings.

Yay ladies! You kick ass! I love looking at the little school comparisons…everyone you play is like 10x your size. And you bust their chops. Drop a line if you ever want to setup a scrimmage…my men are down. Y’all outclass us, but I think it’d be a fun match. Update: I heard on NPR that there’ll be a celebration at Pioneer Square today (Friday) around noon (or slightly before). Way to go ladies…keep on smilin’!

My men’s team won the D-2 championship on Sunday (at the same time, the Pilots were showing UCLA a thing or two. This is pretty much the recap I sent the squad (I only mentioned goals, but we had a kickass game, and our opponents played with class…it was a good game). Goals were tough to come by in the first half, and the sides withdrew 0-0. The second half, GDST opened flat, but didn’t allow

Soccer may actually get played over here on the Olympics TV broadcasts—prezzo has coopted their story as a massive photo-op, using it in campaign ads and speeches. Unfortunately, the team isn’t that happy about it. I’m amazed about a few things in this article. First, it’s awfully political for SI. Second, it’s awfully long for a soccer article in SI. Third, it mentions Beaverton, OR, which means that the Beav will likely get two mentions in two weeks since I hear that the winner of lady’s fencing is from there too.

Last night I went and saw Portland’s beloved Timbers, an A-league soccer team, kick the crap out of the Earthquakes, one of the top MLS teams. For about 20 minutes. That’s when a horribly biased or incompetent officiating staff booked the Timbers with a red card, while simultaneously giving the Earthquakes a free goal in the form of a penalty kick…only me, Dave, and Beckham miss those. But anyway, we were rocking the quakes in terms of possession, position, shots, and similar, up until the bogus booking, and then even after that, we held a strong showing.

My men’s soccer season has started back up. Our first game was Tuesday. Much fun was had, we played against Nike’s Swoosh team and fairly dominated the game. We won most 50-50 balls, were faster, and, in the end, we scored more. One of my goals this winter was to come out of it not in worse shape than I started it, which is what normally happens when I sit on my ass for 4 months.

He’s going pro, to play with DC United next year. And so continues the media’s facination with speculating on the very young. Good luck, Freddy, make a good thing of it.

So, more women’s world cup action in Portland today. Very exciting, very cool, very much ignored by the city. How sad it is that we couldn’t muster up any of those quaint neighborhood flags like for the Greek Festival (so crowded as to suck) and the marathon (to each his/her own). But instead, it seems nearly ignored, relegated to the back pages. Oh, well, I’m jacked for it. Today China plays Canada and Germany plays Russia (pretty sure on those).

Some weekends end up totally devoted to soccer, and, happily, this was one. From my coed indoor game friday night (we won, though we were a lady short! woohoo!) to coaching the kiddies saturday morning (they’re looking up) to playing outdoor on Sunday to watching the ladies play world class soccer in P-town. What a treat it is to have women’s World Cup soccer here. Yesterday we had two matches, the first between Australia and Ghana, and the second between Russia and China.

The women’s World Cup is coming to Portland. Pre-release tix are available at fifa’s site, just follow links. The password is breakfast4. Oh, soccer by the way. I have to say that women’s soccer is really fun to watch (playing isn’t an option for me). The games are smart and accessible, the plays tend to be extremely crisp and smooth, the action exciting and real. Often I prefer watching women’s soccer to men’s, mainly for those reasons.

$90,000/year for 1,000 years. That’s what it would take to gross what recent high schooler LeBron James will be pulling in over the next five years in his Nike endorsement. Put on top of that his salary and other endorsements, and this kid is pretty much guaranteed 1/10 of a billion dollars before he’s 25. Straight from crib to MTV Cribs. For playing basketball and having his picture taken. The fun part is that he’s never even played a professional game.

Overall, it was a fantastic time. By game six, I was exhausted. My legs had grown heavy like McFly. Muscles all over my body were sore. The pulled hamstring had bruised up nicely. My kicks had lost their accuracy, and when I executed a sliding tackle I was happier staying on the ground. But I got up and played. Just like the rest of the team. Sluggish, maybe. Tired and sore yes. We gave it the last bit we had, and walked off the field having lost, but with our heads held as high as our necks would hold them.

The Oregon Classic soccer tournament was this weekend, so three days of exhausting fun in the sun (despite the meteorologist predictions) were lined up for poor injured me. I played anyway, despite my better judgement. It started Saturday: I’m not gonna play at all today. Then why’d I’d suit up? So I could jump in the first game and play some ball. After that game, which I played about half of, I played the entirety of the remaining five games in the tournament. Two games Saturday, three Sunday, and one on Monday. Ibuprofen was my friend, though I’m cold turkey today to assess where I’m at.

I hadn’t played in a soccer tournament since high school. What fun it was! Total immersion, it was like a vacation without going anywhere. Generally we’d have about two hours between games, during which we’d watch other games, eat tacos, refluidate, and have a beer or two. Every now and then someone would heckle a referee for no apparent reason. The team was put together by my friend Ben, and consisted of players from three different area pickup games, so a lot of us didn’t know each other at all. It kinda showed, especially in our first game, but we improved dramatically after that, and actually place 4th (of eight teams) in the 3rd division.

Like a cork on water, I followed the latest installment in the Man vs. Machine saga. Following shortly on the heels of Fox’s special of similar name (M vs M, that is), Kasparov and Deep Junior, a chess machine of Israeli origin, squared off in New York. The match was to consist of six games. And it did. The prize for each was some odd hundred thousands of dollars depending whether you win or lose, plus Kasparov got aroung half a million just for showing up.

In which grown men race old cars with pigs in their arms. A thing of beauty, the Pig-n-Ford of Tillamook County, I’ve only seen videos of it on televsion, and pictures on the internet. A lucky man I am, having a friend Jamie Dixson, who is a great Pig-n-Ford competitor, and a good man. Perhaps I can convince him to offer up a few comments on the Pig-n-Ford. Perhaps, I can obtain an interview.

Well, I have to say, I’m a bit sad. I have really enjoyed MS Flight. It seemed to be targeted at the casual Flight Simmer. I suppose that would be me. I like FSX as well, but it’s a bit clunky, and very full-featured. When I feel like some defined missions or lightweight adventures, MS Flight is great. The graphics and performance are nice on my system. I just read today that they’ve cancelled the program, which is too bad.

I’ve recently started contributing to a nifty new iPhone app called urbandig. It is the app that I wanted when I was in NYC earlier this year. It’s the app that I want when I visit Memphis and Denver later this year. Basically, they’ve gone out and found people who know the city, or parts of it, really well, and gotten them to created nice little curated morsels of experience. Portland’s urban dig experience has just been release, and in it you can enjoy my delicious noodle crawl, in which I explore some of Portland’s more exciting Ramen joints.

I recently received my new Flip camera. I ordered online and got the custom design. Sorta half-assed that, but that’s okay. The first thing I noticed about it after picking it up is that it is lighter than I’d expect. As in it feels somewhat plastic. I immediately plugged it into my computer to charge it and play with it. The charge happened pretty quickly, so the playing did as well.

I’m a book lover. By nature. I find flipping pages, browsing aisles, and even falling asleep on a book, to be comforting. But I’ve been eyeballing the Kindle (and the Nook and the eReader) since it came out. With the price dropping to under $150 (sans 3g), it was suddenly accessible. I started to think about it, but never quite pulled the trigger. Which was fortunate, as the lady got me one for my birthday.

N and I are heading down to Austin shortly to catch the SxSW interactive conference and spend some time with her sister who moved there from somewhere I didn’t want to visit about 6 months ago. So I think I can find my way around a conference. But what about the city? Any tips…beer, BBQ, texmex, or whatnot. Cheers. PS. Just saw the Tron Legacy preview and it looks pretty awesome.

I’m a fan of social media sites. Sites like twitter and facebook are loads of fun, and great for staying in touch with old friends, new friends, and potential friends. In a recent post I commented on what I felt were the differences between facebook and myspace. In the end, I believe that myspace is primarily a vanity site, whereas facebook focuses on relationships. A more subtle comparison happens between facebook and twitter.

I’m completely aware that Facebook is pretty handily kicking the figurative ass of Myspace. I am pretty excited about this, because I’ve never been a fan of Myspace as a social networking site. I’ve enjoyed visiting band sites, and I managed to connect with a few people there. On the other hand, I love Facebook. I talk about Facebook. I advocate its use, and might occasionally be obnoxious about it. But the conversations are interesting.

Twitter is getting some hype lately. The fun part of the hype is that it lacks any real explanation of what twitter is about, and generally any real understanding. So I’m going to help out by offering some examples of how twitter can positively impact your life, and not just by getting endless tweets sent to your phone or browser. Twitter for sports teams This one is for the soccer moms and team managers.

There are tons of ways to share photos (and videos) on the web. I currently use three main sites to share my photos, each for different reasons. Picasaweb – I’ve been using google’s photosharing the longest, largely because I didn’t want to deal with getting a yahoo id. Which isn’t that tough. I like the album nature of picasaweb, and put most of the photos that I take onto there, treating it like as a bit of a cross between a backup and a social network.

I finally broke down and got me a flickr account. Now I have photos at picasaweb, facebook, and flickr. So, now I have wonder…what goes where? I’m thinking that the picasaweb will continue to be my library-type space. Pretty much all my photos go there. Then facebook gets the goofy fun ones, the parties, whatever. And lastly, flickr will diplay my favorites. Some I think are good photos, some are representative of what I’m about, and some just end up there.

I’ve been thinking about social web stuff a lot today. The good folks at Nemo Designs were good enough to have a long chat with anners and me about their social interweb. But that’s just the setup, I’m not really going to go into that…it was interesting though.

What I wanted to hit on is the kids and their lack of email! Which is something that’s come up in conversation, and it came up sometime after the aforementioned meeting, but not during. So the argument that I hear goes something like this:

– Email is going away.

– Why?

– Because kids don’t use email.

– Huh?

– Yeah, they’ve studied kids and they use facebook and twitter and stuff and they don’t even have email accounts.

So, my response is…So what? I mean, did you have a mailing address as a kid? I don’t recall getting much mail. And most of it was highly temporal, non-transactional information. Birthday cards, Ranger Rick, um, I think that’s about it. I was way ahead of my time and couldn’t stand sending letters because the transit time was ridiculous and I didn’t want to pay for a stamp.

But this makes me miss being a nerd! Read more about Wednesday’s upcoming excitement here. Props nader for the links and the reminder.

Playing with google ads. I don’t have any illusion that they’re going to make be rich, or even more than a few pennies a year, but I’m not in this blog thing to retire early. I’m in it for the fame and notoriety. So you’re probably better off pretending they’re not there.

Okay, this is one of the coolest tools I’ve come across in awhile. Still trying to see how well it integrates into my workflow tendencies, but I’m really hoping that it does. Because it’s pretty awesome. TiddlyWiki is a wiki/blog that exists completely inside of a single file. It’s all DHTML and such, so it requires no server-side processing to work. What that means is you can just save the file to your computer, and open it in your browser, and it works.

Okay, I’m a bit late to the party, but this is pretty sweet. How many of that bad boys haven’t you plugged two bits into? They’re on tour, the bizarre thing is the order of cities. They are all over the map. Must’ve been the original Pacman algorithm.

Went to Ignite last week, it was pretty sweet. The premise is a bunch of presenters get up and talk about something presumably interesting for a little while. The catch is that they have exactly five minutes, 20 slides (power-pointish), 15 seconds each, and they roll automatically. That keeps things moving and keeps you on your toes. And from experience (not at Ignite), talking about something for five minutes can be tough.

You’re in the Pearl District meeting some folks, it’s going to be hours. But you need to park, and it’s the Pearl so you have to pay to park. Two hours max. So you figure out the green monster and get your two-hour slip, and stick it to your window where it will eventually be sucked inside the passenger door. You pull out your cell phone and make a call: “Remind me to pay parking in two hours,” and go off to your meeting.

I love Google. I use a number of google applications. Google’s search is and has always been fantastic. I have a gmail account and a picasaweb account. Blah, blah, google’s does a lot of great things and makes my life better. Thank you google! However, I’m feeling more and more that google just isn’t getting it like they used to. The internet has changed, it grows more dynamic, more personal. But while new sites keep popping up that enable users to do more, google looks the other way.

Storm is a next step in evolution of computer virus. Basically, it’s more organized than your typical trojan horse or virus, having three (?) different roles: breeder, brain, and drone (my terminology). The drones are the most common, and basically install on your computer and await instructions from the brain. The breeders try to spread, and the brain acts as a command and control center. The scary part is that lying dormant, this thing has access to pretty much everything (secure or no) you do on your computer or the internet with that computer.

light lately, but that’s because I’ve been writing little mini-fictions over at ficlets. Here’s me. The account system is pretty neat, let me know if you have trouble getting signed up if you’re into it and I can help you out.

Alright, beerdrinker got a shiny new red iPod Nano for xmas from my mom. It totally rocks. It synchs with my iCal and address book (surprise! yay me!), it plays music, it’s tiny, and it sounds good. Pretty much kicking my Zen Micro to the curb. The only thing it doesn’t have is a voice recorder…and that is a bummer. But what I’m really stoked about is the Nike+ addon. (Disclaimer: I am a Nike employee.

After running Gentoo Linux on my personal machine for several years, I’m leaving it. Done. Not looking back. I’m installing Ubuntu right now. I’ve battled Gentoo with every significant upgrade. I like to do things the right way, but I found myself reconfiguring my wireless LAN and video card way too often. Nothing fancy, but with every upgrade, samba broke, I could no longer print, and usually I had to figure out a cascade of failed dependencies.

this is pretty funny. worlds largest windows crash. thanks m@. btw, I run linux at home, and prefer solaris for the bigstuff, but HPUX works too.

Alright, enough about Windows. But not enough about beer. But that’s another tale for another time. Recently I received a copy of the latest edition of Running Linux (number 5 is alive). The author credits go to Matt Welsh, the author of the original, and Matthias Kalle Dalheimer, and it is published super-recent. Before I get started, full disclosure is that I do some work occasionally for O’reilly and they sent me this copy to check out (but not do any work on).

This is pretty sweet. thx to broomball player for this one.

Tons of people haven’t been asking me what software I run on my Windows boxen. This little ditty isn’t for them. Before jumping into recommendations, I should give you an idea of what I’m about when it comes to the software I run on my computer. As a Unix guy I have a strong appreciation for simple tools to solve simple problems, and are able to work alone or with other tools to solve (or create) complex problems.

okay. I am not a Windows user. I am a Unix admin by trade (solaris/HP-UX/Linux), but whenever I go home I try to help my family out with their machines. It seems that everybody is running XP now, and I helped out with a few things. Ryan got a new laptop. It’s a Dell running XP. Brand spankin new, and he wants to install all sorts of crap on it and, you know, connect it to the web and stuff.

The ubiquitous Hello World is getting a new twist with this frickin virus. Watch out for emails that are Subjected Hello, Hi, hi, or nothing. Those are what I’ve seen…at about every minute or two now. Oh, and I’m seeing bounces saying they’re from me, they’re not. Really. It’s quite annoying, so please don’t open those emails. I beg of you. I don’t need more garbage. Between the spam and the viral clogging I wonder if this stuff isn’t put out by the USPS in an effort to make email so annoying as to be ineffective.

This is insane. An e-card to spy on your lover. It’s appallling, rude, jealous, base. Here are some details. Don’t do it. Bad. Of course it was only a matter of time, but I hope they all go to jail. props Abrichar.

yay! I’ve finally gotten my computer back up and running near to my satisfaction. After a misdiagnosed dead cpu (replaced with an athlon 2200+) and a splurge of a new case, several hours of puzzlement swapping known-goods back and forth, I replaced the motherboard (was a Gigabyte) with an new one (ASUS A7N8X Deluxe). I think that I’ll be happy with this, especially once I get all the firewire, USB, multimedia, and RAID working (I run Linux so it’s not quite as plug-and-play).

Hey, I’ve noticed that a lot of folks are moving off of blogger/blogspot/whatever. I recently got a bulk domain reseller account. It’s a great service, if any of y’all are interested in hosting reliably and cheap (like <=$35/year…I’m just looking for help with the costs) drop me a line. You’ll have full access to admin your site, but I can help out if needed.

Accoriding to this article the White House is backing a plan to associate phone numbers with internet-related addresses using DNS. I read the RFC and it basically introduces a new record to DNS, the NAPTR record, as well as defining a new domain, E164.arpa, to which a phone number including area code and international code will be reversed, dotted between all digits, and prepended. This is an interesting idea, but I’m having difficulty identifying how it will be implemented.

2010 hit like an angry bull in a brillo tornado. Well, not that bad, but it’s been pretty freakin’ nonstop. Work’s been crazy. Picked up some tech reading on the side. Been finishing the basement. A few ski trips. Daily-ish gym trips, yoga, and cycling. Lots of brewing. Sorry I haven’t been sharing. I’ve been somewhat holed up in many ways. Anyways, I apologize. It’s not you, it’s me. But I hope to be visiting more often again.

It’s a new year and I have a lot of resolutions on my mind, and I’m working through what I want to really focus on. But two really stick in my mind as relevant and important. The first is to continue on the path that I set out on mid-year last year, cultivating relationships and habits that really help me move forward. The second is to make and drink more of my own beer, and specialty beers, and to spend less time drinking commodity beers, even from the great microbreweries.

wow…current inventory in the basement: 10 gallons imperial alt (carboys), 10 gallons dubbel (carboys), 5 gallons IPA (carboy), brown, IPA, porter (cornies). The 10-gallon batches are destined to go into barrels for aging.

Spent the night at my Aunt and Uncle’s place on the Sandy. It was a beautiful night, surprisingly warm in the tent, the sound of the river rushing past was soothing. Augie woke me up a bit early, and I joined my Uncle Corbett on a drive up to The Reel Tackle, a nice local tackle shop for some lures. Good thing, because I would soon be going through them quickly.

Life is getting better all the time. Drink beer from your kegerator and it will let the world know. Spark Fun makes it possible (I’ll have to checkout their toys!). Link via Kelly of the Oregon Brew Crew.

Sparks is no longer being produced. Get’em while they’re cold.

pdxpipeline has a nice bit on the party as well.

I finally broke down and got me a flickr account. Now I have photos at picasaweb, facebook, and flickr. So, now I have wonder…what goes where? I’m thinking that the picasaweb will continue to be my library-type space. Pretty much all my photos go there. Then facebook gets the goofy fun ones, the parties, whatever. And lastly, flickr will diplay my favorites. Some I think are good photos, some are representative of what I’m about, and some just end up there.

Date: 10/19/2008 Colin Powell has endorsed Barack Obama for president (of the United States). Personally, I think this is huge. A Republican who has always provided a steady, well-reasoned approach, he is widely respected on both sides of the aisle. But this is more than “a rightie supports Obama.” This is support from a figure broadly and recently well-regarded in national defense. “As gifted as he is, he is essentially going to execute the Republican agenda, the orthodoxy of the Republican agenda, with a new face and a maverick approach to it, and he’d be quite good at it,” Mr.

Tired of all the right-wing emails I’d receive, and especially the fact (yes, fact) that most of them contain gross inaccuracies or straightout lies, I began writing and sending my own emails. I am trying to keep them as factual as possible, and while they highlight issues more popular on the left than on the right, I am trying to present facts in a “think about it” approach, rather than an editorial.

Jack Bog kinda asked about my beer cellar. This is the real deal. Inside: Hercules Double, Elysian Avatar, assorted homebrews, and lots more fun stuff. cheers.

After quite a bit of work I’ve got a new version of beerdrinker.org ready to rock. Some of the new features are pretty obvious…a new banner and some random photos. But there are other new features. I’ve included a feed of my latest ficlets so at least you can tell I haven’t been slacking too much if I haven’t been posting. Then there’s the beer grab bag on the right, so if you’re ever thirsty and not sure what to consume, just checkout that doodad and let you thirst be forever quenched.

Upgraded the site, and got a new theme, and made a new banner…it’s just a trial run, but let me know whatcha think (I know, I need to clean it up a bit). cheers.

have to keep the cast on an extra week…I go in Wednesday 8:30am. Yay, cuz it’s starting to get a bit nasty.

sorry to have cut back so much…one-handed typing is a pain in the ass. Looking to be freed 6/20.

Hey! Hope is was nice. If you’re not into xmas, cool. I hope it was a good day for you anyway. Also, James Brown rest in peace. A true star and visionary.

I had a bunch of stuff to say today, but I ended up having to do a bunch of maintenance on the site. One of my buddies, who has a subdomain from me is getting hammered and it used up all my bandwidth. Sorry ojingo, had to turn you off for a few days until we can figure out what’s causing it. A few other little things, and now I have to get out of here.

Alright, so according to google I’m now the #1 repository for “scared kitty” and it’s taking quite a bit of traffic. Beer drinker gets plenty from the internet community, so I’ll keep holding onto it. BUT I’ve lowered the quality of this pic…saves me about 10KB per transfer which is more than it sounds like. You can still get the original at http://www.beerdrinker.org/images/scared_kitty_orig.jpg. By original, I don’t mean that I created it, because I didn’t and I have no idea who did.

ugh…my machine went down hard last week. Problem turned out to be a bad stick of RAM and is fixed now, so I should get stuff back up. Still recovering because some system stuff was upgraded during the bad memory time and now some things are hosed. In the meantime I got me a new friend, a MacBook.

woohoo! found a really cool script called bbipsto handle scaling down all my images. I’ve replaced all the big ones from before with blog-friendly pics, so scroll down and take a gander at them all happy on one page. And I’ll get some more up here asap too!

yep. I did it. WordPress had a new major upgrade, and I did it. It was easy. Amazingly smooth. In particular I’d setup the database in an old b2 installation manner that I concocted to have multiple blogs on the same domain, and that has been a pain in the instalASStion process for a long time…I modified my table names (after backups) and all came out alright. I also spent eight minutes and threw together the banner and the mod of a much nicer www.

been super busy at work lately. Doesn’t mean I haven’t been drinking beer, just been taking in the waning summer too much lately to write about it. I haven’t even brewed in awhile. Go Timbers.

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve achieved one of my longterm goals in life a little early! Go to Google and enter beer drinker OR beerdrinker. You can expect news of other great accomplishments in upcoming posts.

added two new Oregon links: simple subjects and Slacker Manager. The first is just about a guy and/or his family living a low-impact lifestyle (environmentally speaking) and has some thoughtful words. The second is a guy with a job writing about it the way he knows. Seems pretty sharp. He also wrote this nifty manifesto, Slacker @Work.

sorry about the hiatus. Been way quiet lately, even though I have a few good things to post. Partly busy, partly trying to lessen computer/rick time, partly just beaten down dealing with all the frickin blog spam.

Came across a coupla cool blogs through Sun. Jonathan Scwartz is COO there and says lots of smart things. The DivaBlog is an open source advocate at Sun as well.

A perhaps depressing, perhaps enlightening article in the New Yorker on the Unpolitical Animal: we. The people. It discusses a number of ideas that I’d been kicking around for awhile, and introduced a lot of new ones to me as well. There are a few fantastic quotes in there as well.

That’s right. Leonardo DiCaprio is coming to town. He will be accompanied by Jon Bon Jovi and some guy named John Kerry. I’m sure it’ll be a good time…remember, you need a ticket, but it’s free and all you have to do it print it out. Props P Stew for the link.

We learn how it wentwith getting Condi “Tank” Rice on the stand over at Zeros and Ones.

Well, my buddy abrichar finally got her own blog up. It’s quirky, quaint, lifelog and linkroll, with a fab colour scheme. So I probably won’t get to rip the links she sends me nearly as much since she’s got them up herself. cheers.

So long to one of my favorite linking blogs…genfoods. Iggy, drop a line if you get back on it. Oh, and I’ve been dying to know if that’s your car with the GEN FOO license plate.

hi, one of those busy weeks, and the sun is shining, and we just got the Sopranos second season from the library, and blah blah blah, so light on the posts, sorry. That and I’m trying to be a little lighter on the political…kinda busted at the seams on the gay marriage thing. Oh, and none of the autonomous vehicles got very far…the Red Team got the furthest in the least time…though I’m not sure if it was the furthest…because it was just down to miles.

Adding Silt to my list (under altblogospheres) who is an ex-Oregonian. Referred to my views on Measure 30 as a nihilistic rant, which I particularly enjoyed 😉

Zeros and Ones has an interesting post discussing the differences between real and issue candidates, that also has an interesting Dean perspective (just a wee bit outdated from my side, but short and good).

whew. Stupid newline. One blank line after the closing bracket in a file and the whole thing blows up. Well, all should be alright now. Yay. Please drop a line if you notice any problems.

Oh, it’s so nice to have my old look and feel back. Finally, I found both the time and the motivation to fix it. Coupla changes, but nothing big. There’s probably a hundred broken parts in the background and this post will corrupt my whole db. Life goes on.

Finally got around to adding Little Lost Robotto my list ‘o blogs. Check it out, another Oregon/PDX blog, and a lotta fun stuff. woohoo!

The headlines today are all touting how Bush is backing off the weapons claims. It’s appalling. Does nobody remember his claims last year, as if he’d seen them with his own eyes? Amazing. He’s now saying that we went to war because Saddam was a bad man. Once again, I’m down with that…Saddam is a bad man who was bad for his country and the world may well be better without him.

via rayray…Dio for America. As a bit of a rocker type myself, I am fond of Dio and see him as a breath of fresh air for the Party of his choice. From his brilliant performances with Sabbath to Holy Diver and beyond (to where…?) I’m with you man, I’ll ride in that van.

happy new year everyone! It’s started off with a bang, making up stuff after the ole freeze, and xmas, and all, so the beerdrinier’s in, drinking beer even, but shuffling through the madness makes for light bloggyness.

Testing a feature that makes blogging easy. Here’s a link to beerdrinker.org is a beer drinker here. As you might guess, I’ve just upgraded the software! Don’t be scared! I’ll have the beerdrinker.org that y’all love and drink beer and wassail soon enough. cheers! Oh, that and the ruckus wrough by holiday mayhem is unrucking.

wow…it’s been all week and I’ve only posted once! methinks I’ve been working too much cuz I know I haven’t been drinking enough beer, and still no time to blog.

lots to do, and heading out for thxgiving soon, so like last week I’ll probably be light blogging till next monday.

argh! I’ve gotten on someone’s happy list, and they are spamming the heck out of my comments. Take it to Hawaii, they love it there, jerks! But anyway, I’m trying to figure out a solution. One is to have a little image with some text in it, and then you, the commenter would need to type that text into a field, like a password, but public, just something the spambots can’t replicate.

A new Oregon blogger find…he’s into law (are they all?), has an incomprehensible view on Sirius radio, and might be a Newcastle FC fan. Sounds like fun. Hi dicta.

In a follow-up to this post, I checked out my googlation for ‘beer drinker’ and actually came up on the first page. Inspired and blindly hopeful, I changed the title of my blog from the inspired ‘beerdrinker.org’ to the functional ‘beerdrinker.org is a beer drinker’. Everybody, stay calm. cheers.

looks like pablo’s got a new home…hope it’s warm and cozy, I’ll fix me link.

Just upgraded to the latest wordpress version (link at bottom of page), so I’ll need to get my old ugly-ass look and feel back. This is a heads-up for my friendblogs too…you’re next. But don’t worry, I made backups.

I’ve uploaded the gallery photos, upgraded the s/w, and made it work. cheers.

like my buddy at ojingo blog, I too am the top google result for my name: beerdrinker. I’m pretty pleased about that. Now if I could just get rid of that “Did you mean: beer drinker?” question I’ll have achieved my goal for world domination, or at least an acceptable life accomplishment.

If you’re seeing this then the transition is through and you’re seeing this page from a new server…not the one in my office any more.

Having been a rough and tumble soldier himself protecting the Great Nation of Texas in an elite military squad, GWB understands the squalor that soldiers have to live in…which probably explains his year of non-reporting for duty. But the degree of soldier-abuse by his flag-waving administration sounds utterly unacceptable. Despicable even. They are filling the coffers of their cronies so fast that nobody has time even to count. These people are so blatant about the atrocities they are committing against the American people (and the world) that it is nearly transparent.

wow, I’ve just been slammed here lately. I’m totally out of touch with all my blog buddies, the news, the world, beer, whatever. Work’s been nonstop. I feel like I have meetings or appointments or whatever every night. Last night we talked wedding plans, tnite I have a bizarro hearing about some players on one of the teams that I manage. And if that wasn’t happening I’d be at a coach’s meeting for the under 10’s team I manage.

very busy lately…work’s been demanding, preparing for wedding, soccer’s been nuts, the beer festival (as a consumer) was pretty engaging, an so on and on, so light blogging lately and the near future.

cpr and AED (automated external defibrillator) training today in the office so did that instead of interesting posts. Also listened to the Rogue Hour this morning, pretty good stuff, I’ll tune in again next week. And the beer fest is this weekend, so I’ll be downing a pint or 2. or so. I expect to see all my favorite blogland friends down there, brett, emma, fred, rob and have no idea which you are.

I saw in the PDX Tribune that the good people at Enron have rejected Portland’s bid for PGE. I’m sure Jack Bog is full of glee about this, and I’m going to go over now and see if he’s redefined his intention to not talk about various issues based on this info. I don’t have too much of my own opinion on this, thought his viewpoint seems pretty reasonable.

I’m heading down to Bend tomorrow to play in a soccer tourney with some friends. If I can arrange it I’ll have no access to the internet. Looking like a nice trip…camp out, drink beer, play soccer, get sunburned. A very dehydrating weekend. Jake has suggested some nice happenings down in Bend, so my itinerary is getting fleshed out: get in car, drive, find camping, setup camp, register team, drink beer, sleep, play soccer, drink beer, sleep, play soccer, drink beer, go home, sleep, wake disoriented wearing 1-2 shoes, shower.

Is there a protocol on bloggers meeting bloggers through blogs? I’ve just suggested to another whose town I’ll be in soon that we have beer, and after sending the email I wonder to myself if I haven’t crossed an invisible magic line. Personally, I’m almost always up for a pint, so if anyone ever feels like crossing the line, just let me know and I’ll try to meet you there. Of course there is a certain mystique to the anonimity of the blog too.

took the day off. it was a very weird day, one of those weird in a bad way ones. that’s all. here’s to brighter tomorrow.

BoMa metioned crossing the 3000 visitor mark yesterday after blogging for three months. Well, through a combination of lower-quality posting and poor UI aesthetics I too just managed to cross that point like ten minutes ago or something after blogging for about twice that long. So, cheers, BoMa (the link’s over on the right), and race you to 10K!

yee-haw. cowboy’d through a coupla big updates last night. First, configged and installed a new linux kernel on the server. It was a security release, so I figured it’d probably be a good idea. It went pretty well, except that I installed the wrong ethernet driver the first time, so had to boot on the old kernel and do it again, but right. Second, WordPress released a new version so I had to go ahead and install it.

been busy at work lately, and some family’s been visiting, so posting time is limited. Hope to be back to normal soon.

I’m upgrading the blog software. It’s a significant version change, so I need to rebuild the template and links and stuff. Bear with me, the words themselves should work out just fine. Update: all looks well, the template is sloppy but functioning. props to the fellas at WordPress for picking up the work on b2 and getting these fixes out. Now I just hope that random sec. holes haven’t made me one of the net’s larger Qu@ke 3 m1rr0rz

okay…I’m getting close to done putting the fotos onto internetland which means that there’ll be something to link to for the little stories I’ll be posting, so those’ll be appearing soonish. It should all be in the gallery though. phew!

Hello! I’m back from Germany, so now begins the process of transcribing notes to blogland and getting hundreds (including a few good ones!) of photos online. Well soon. I have to work first though. The quesion in my mind before I begin is, should I timestamp them as they’re posted, or as they happened, is there a precedent on that for blogging?

I’ll be in Germany for awhile, so expect sporadic posts. I’d like to put something up daily in a travel log effort, but we’ll see what happens. Leaving tomorrow, woohoo!

beerdrinker’s been lamed with illness. That’s kept me from posting much due to lack of interesting thoughts. On the up and up now though, so I should be back on track.

Not extraordinary news to stand out among the atrocities, but I noticed that West Linn-Wilsonville School district is making a good decision and even handling it well in disallowing students tranferring to other schools outside their area. The good part is that they are letting next year’s seniors finish with their current school. This decision will save the district hundreds of thousands of dollars and is a good example of positive changes that are available to help with the current budget crisis.

This fancy bloggin software lets me use a more tag. Expect that more. For your bloggy pleasure you’ll have less scrollbar mileage to get to the bottom of the page and find what you think you’re looking for.

Been sick the last coupla days, plus I’ve been actively trying to spend less time in front of the computer on weekends. Once I’ve gotten the hang of not checking my email incessantly I think I will be able to blog on weekends without clocking 7 hours of idle computer time, but in the meantime I am fearful and weak, like a recently quitted smoker at the Sandy Hut. I’ll be heading out to Idaho on Thursday for a fabulous fun-filled getaway in Wendell, gateway to Twin Falls, to observe a wedding.

Service outage this morning…due to online banking confusion with Comcast/AT&T switchup. All is well now.

Friend surprised me by getting older by a year on short notice so all smart thoughts went out the window and you get this instead. cheers. Discuss amongst yourselves, the partridge family were neither partridges nor a family.

Finally got off my butt and put the beerdrinker.org gallery up after the migration. Check out some photos. If you want an accout to put up some pics, let me know, I’ll set you up.

Almost done with the key parts of the migration. I moved over comments tonite. email addresses other than mine are false. Still need to setup a little game reminder doodad so I show up to soccer, figure out what to do with the few not-me posts from the legacy site. That’s all I feel like I need to do…but there’ll be some looksy/feelsy changes of a minor sort coming along.

Hello! I’ve been thinking about this site in blogland, and decided to move more towards a blogging content solution than a community solution as I’d been previously running (postnuke). Basically, I found that certain features were not particularly utilized, so I slowly pared down the site. I found that I was left with a solution far larger than what I needed, and theming it was a severe pain. So, I’ve switched (back) to b2 which is a pretty nice little php/mysql-based blogging solution, far as I can tell.

Yesterday was Nedra’s birthday, and the festivities were rolling. We spent most of the day doing bday related odds-n-ends. Like how I took Augie out to play soccer with me for a few hours, or how I slept in late because I’d been out bar hopping late the night before. I would’ve been in big troube if I’d woken with a disabling hangover. Anyway, it was great fun. Nedra and some of her girlfriends made a crapload of Asian food like phad thai, sushi, garden rolls, and all sort of other good stuff.

Art is cool. Sometimes awkward. Rarely liberating. Is it coffee house art that is full of penis and twat? Or is it normal that challenge and beauty are found primarily in bizarro interpretations of sex organs and other private areas? Much less often the butt. Eyes are a popular target too, much more understandably. Never the focus, just part of the scene. Eyes are pretty cool, I can get into them.

This post is guest-posted on Dave Knows Portland as well. When Dave asks, it is imperative that you do the right thing. Especially when it’s “Hey, Rick, would you like to checkout this new restaurant that serves tasty BBQ and delicious grown-up beverages?” So, I did the right thing: show up to Southland for a preview of their tasty menu. Southlandis a new project by the folks who brought the Casa del Matador to Portland located just a couple doors down at 1422 NW 23rd.

I’ve always enjoyed Lompoc beers. Many sunny afternoons have been misspent sitting on the porch at New Old Lompoc, and I’ve had quite a few pleasant cool-downs from soccer and riding at Hedge House and the brilliantly named 5th Quadrant. Tuesday the good people of Lompoc held a tasting event for their holiday beers, and it did not disappoint. Eric and I arrived early and snagged seats at the bar. From there I was able to snag good glassware and chat up the bartenders (who also happened to be brewers, owners, or Dave).

Nice little audio blog piece on beer in Portland, OR. Go ahead and take a listen. It covers the whole gamut from enjoying to making in our little beer mecca.

Just a reminder that the NAOBFis happening this weekend, starts at noon Fri-Sunday at Overlook Park. This is my favorite brewfest of the year. It doesn’t get crazy crowded, there are tons of fun beers to try, and it’s always an all-around good time. I’m helping Dave Knowswith his story about it this year, so double-stoked. See you there.

My brother and his sweet gf showed up at my place today. Wisely, they came bearing gifts. Wiser, they came in the form of tasty and interesting beer. His lady is from Long Island, NY, home of Blue Point Brewing Company. And a town called Blue Point. Anyways, I’m quite impressed with the first beer I’ve tasted from them. Personally, I prefer calling it Cascadian Dark. But we know what they’re talking about.

Lisa the beer goddess has called my attention to an article in which GQ calls out the 50 best beers. These things are such a matter of opinion and experience it doesn’t make sense to argue much, but I think they hit a lot of good ones. I’ve previously mentioned the Duchesse as a favorite. I’m also a fan of Southern Tier who didn’t make the list. Que sera.

Over the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some outstanding homebrewers on some barrel projects. Basically, we get 10 or so people to each brew a batch(es) of a particular beer, then we get together to siphon it into a bourbon barrel. The beer then ages over a month to many months, changing in character and gaining oak and bourbon flavors. So far I’ve reaped the benefits of a baltic porter and an imperial IPA.

The process of turning raw ingredients into delicious beer is an extremely complicated one. It involves chemistry, biology, physics, and magic, plus a potentially infinite budget for copper, stainless, and rubber whizbangs. I have only scratched the surface of the possibilities. That is by design. So, completely neglecting the science involved, and getting to the sequence of events that need to take place to make beer, here is the brewing process in a nutshell.

I cannot believe how long it took me to build my mash tun. In then end I think I was a bit intimidated, partly because I didn’t really understand what a mash tun was. Whenever I set down to research it, I’d end up on some long-winded analysis of manifold efficiency and sparge mechanics. What I’ve since learned is that a mash tun is a container that keeps water and grain at a stable temperature.

Like Jeff, I recently followed a thread at the OBC about the price of beer. It was surprisingly heated, considering that nobody was forcing people to drink specialty beers, and these are people who spend a lot of time making beers of their own and promoting the craft. Jeff’s article is very thoughtful and reasonable (as usual) , and we both draw similar conclusions. But I wanted to toss in a few more pieces.

I’ve been thinking long and hard about writing a series on homebrewing. By no means am I a great homebrewer…in fact I am only beginning to dabble in brewing all-grain beers. However, after surveying the various writings on the internets about the subject, I have found that most have one flaw in common: they go too deep. To make good (often very good) beer, it doesn’t take a deep understanding of flocculation curves or the dynamics of viscous fluids.

My old college buddy Tiffer brought me a few bottles of this choice ale. It serves along the lines of of hoppy amber. It is hazy, and despite the head fading quickly, it maintains its carbonation nicely. Not particularly balanced, it remains unoffensive, and is quite nice for fans of the western style IPA. Jolly Roger does open up during the course of consumption, sweetening a little, and smoothing out from the earlier faceoff.

This is brilliant! props chris h from the OBC

Rob L of the Oregon Brew Crew posted this to our listserv in a conversation about a new beer tax proposed in Oregon. He makes a number of lucid points. And doesn’t just complain but proposes action. Oregon HB2461 surprised me. Actually, at first it was shock, then disbelief and anger. Now I’m ready to do something about it. Jim P wrote: Cost of producing each keg (tax is production cost) would go up $25.

The North American Organic Brewers Festival is this weekend, beginning tomorrow at 3pm. I had a great time last year, but I generally go to these events early and leave early. This is one of my favorites. I’m surprised that they picked this weekend since at least one of the organizers is a huge soccer fan and the Euro cup final is Sunday. His boys aren’t in it this time around, though Spain vs Germany should be a pretty awesome match.

At the HUB grand opening. Sounds like it’s going to be hopping. While their beers have been pouring at better local pubs for awhile now, they haven’t had a place to sit down and enjoy the full spectrum of their goodness. The brewpub and restaurant sounds like a monsterous undertaking. It’s a huge space, and they are going green. Very bike friendly. Lots of organics. Recycled this and that. Hopworks brews are big, bold, and tasty, and I’m excited to see them taking on this ambitious task.

After leaving the Mendenhall Glacier, we drove immediately to a beerdrinker’s mecca, the Alaskan Brewing Company, home of the delicious Alaskan Amber and a number of other tasty beers. I was surprised that the Alaskan brewery had no brewpub. From the sound of conversations (though nothing explicit or even really implied), they’ve chosen to respect local pubs who supported them as they grew. It’s a sensible division of labor.

Off to the winter beerfest. Personally, I find it too crowded and the beer too strong to stay long, so I try to get in early before it’s completely packed. But gotta get a few tastes in.

Alaskan Amber is an easy-drinking amber that tastes good. Light on hops, and full of sweet malt without being sticky or thin, this gorgeous amber-hued nectar is a pleasure. The head pours thin but full and dissipates quickly, but the body remains consistent. I wouldn’t call Alaskan Amber spectacular, it isn’t riddled with layers of flavor or surprising subtlety, but it is a fantastic go-to beer. Which is nice because I often find it at pubs and pizza joints as the only non-Bud, non-Hef offering on draught.

Blonde and a bit cloudy, with a resilient head, Delirium tremens is a very tasty Belgian. It drinks smooth and crisp. Well, it’s smooth, trails slightly yeasty but not in an offensive way, and I like it. Other than that I’ve been totally distracted during this so that’s all I’ve got. I’ll update with a photo when I get a chance to upload it. rick

The Alameda Brewhouse has released their ales in bottles to ease general consumption. Which is really nice because that way I don’t have to actually go to their brewhouse to enjoy their tasty beers. The brewhouse is a family-friendly joint on NE Fremont in Portland. Sometimes a bit too family-friendly for my taste, a fact that may change someday, but its foundation remains solid so far. The East Village Amber pours a thick but temporary head out of the bottle.

Something’s wrong with NE Broadway. There are a lot of cool little businesses along there. I love the Rose and Thistle. But for the most part, they are underperforming. Almost every stop along NE Broadway is a bit too…bland. I gave this some thought awhile ago, and my conclusion then was that Broadway and its surrounding area is the westside invasion. A few weeks later the Broadway Brewery and Grill opened up.

Fredbeer. That’s how I’ve always known this classic Portland microbrew. You could easily swap classic for potent because holy crap this baby’s got bite…it’s tempting to order Fred on the rocks. The aroma is rich and amazing, scented smoothly of light malts. Fred pours a rich, beautiful head that lasts and lasts. The body is a a bit heavy, giving it a slightly syrupy character. My first tastes of HOTD’s Golden Special Ale, I find that the strength is a bit of an affront.

St. Peter’s English Ale comes in a sweet old-style medicine bottle. This organic ale from England opens with a nicely rounded bitterness and has an interesing fruity finish. It drinks clean, not syrupy at all, and has a nice light carbonation with the medium body. This beer is less sweet than typical English ales, and a bit more bittered than I typically find in the genre. No complaints here.

Lazy Boy…just jumped out at me tonite as I picked up some veggies to make a lentil curry. “Locally Brewed,” they claimed. Where the heck is local because I’ve never heard of you. Everett, WA. I guess it’s kind of local. But what about those guys getting their Vermont bottle deposit back? Enough of that crap…I’m caring about what’s inside the bottle. A lightly amber-hued IPA is what I found.

For weeks I’ve been anxiously watching a space on Alberta at about 10th. They were working hard to convert a pretty dismal spot into what would clearly become a bar. It looked like they were pouring some serious heart and soul into their work. A buddy of mine was at Binks having a pint when he saw someone he knew walking past. Not uncommon in NE Portland, except that he knew him from Georgia.

Beautiful Frank Freakin’ Zappa. You’d wish anyway, staring at that mug on the bottle, trying to figure out what the heck you’re going to get when you open it. Well, you don’t have to step too far onto a limb…those Petaluma brewers are pretty consistent at putting something together that’s in your face, but well integrated. The Kill Ugly Radio does not stray. Very fruity in its aroma, stinking pleasantly of apricot, this IPA (I think) guides you through the whole drinking process.

A great man has passed. I raise a toast to the memory of Michael Jackson, beer connoisseur.

Okay, this is going to sound like heresy, but I did not attend the beerfest this weekend. At some point I made a hasty promise to the lady that we could hit Ikea on Friday in the afternoon. And I made good, got out of work early, and we cruised over to the massive furniture store. And we had a good time. It was pretty exhausting examining 4 billion pieces of furniture, but I really enjoy Ikea.

plagerized from an email Nader sent me: This Friday & Saturday (June 8th & 9th) Roots Organic Brewing presents the 2007 North American Organic Brewers Festival, at Overlook Park on N. Interstate and Fremont. Similar to many other pdx beer fests, admission is free and tasting cups are just $5 (you can get $1 off if you bring a validated Tri-met pass – handy since this is right on the MAX yellow line, and you don’t want to drive home after tasting a ton of good beers – or a can of food for the Oregon Food Bank); 4oz.

Go Full Sail. A yummy lager with multiple layers of flavor but not trying to mimic anything German or Czech I’ve ever had. Golden, light, bubbly, slighty sweet. Delightful but not challenging. It get on the tongue and jumps right off. This one will also work for your friends who won’t touch a bitter beer, though I think it would be helped with just a little more bitterness. But if you’re looking for a beer to share at a BBQ this summer, this one could be the perfect choice.

This cloudy beer is a treat for a broken wrist. Easily opened using my wall-mounted bottle opener, I managed to pour it gently down the side of the glass, extracting only a slightamount of head. Which is fine because I can’t (or won’t) shave and less head keeps the foam out of my ‘stache. The Republic consistently turns out hoppy heavy hitters, and this is certainly big. A mouthful of hoppiness with a nice body to boot, this golden-hued ale is of medium bitterness and fairly aromatic.

The label tells us to “Go big or go home,” but at 9.1% ABV, this certified organic 22ozer out of Chico, CA is more likely to send you home. Big certainly describes this Imperial IPA well. Big and potent. And pretty enjoyable. If you like your beers strong, and you’re fond of IPAs (I’m guessing you probably are), you will dig BCB’s X IPA. The aroma is surprisingly meek in introducing this ale.

Score today! N prepped up some provencal braised cod (ala Test Kitchen cookbook) and potato-leek gratin (from The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen, my current favorite cooking tome), and I spoiled myself with a 22oz bottle of Rogue’s Morimoto Soba Ale, “A perfect accompaniment to lighter cuisine.” It’s meals like that that just make you stop and think and blog that Life is Good.  Even better, the meal is over and the ale lives on.

Kegged up my honey wheat ale this week and tossed it into the kegerator yesterday. You’re looking at a tasting of it. Well, unfortunately, I have to say I wouldn’t buy this one myself. It’s a bit too sweet, I think the yeast didn’t convert as much of the malted wheat as I’d like. It definitely has wheat beer characteristics, and some honey love going on. At this time it’s lacking body.

Ah, Full Sail, we’ve had out ups and our down, good times and bad. We’ve been through a lot together, and though we don’t see a lot of each other lately, it’s always nice to sit down and catch up. Full Sail beers are good. Not really spectacular, but good. Potentially really good. Depending on what you’re into. And right now I’m pretty into this pale ale I’m drinking. It’s light and refreshing, and hitting the spot after riding home.

Ah, the first day of Spring. Flowers blooming, the sun is shining. A perfect day to drink my last winter ale, the offering from Elysian. A gorgeous gold hue, this one pours a lot like so many ales not of the winter ilk, only a bit bigger. In fact, this one is drinkable any time of year, so yay Spring! And yay Elysian for producing a winter ale that isn’t packed full of nutmeg and other odds and ends to drown the an overly strong beer.

I’m always excited to see something new come out of Anchor Brewing. Their steam beer is fantastic, and I just love the small beer. They are extraordinary at putting out varieties other American breweries don’t. While you’ll see some bocks around (Shiner? Go back to Texas 😉 Anchor’s bock pours dark, with a light head, colored with a hint of chocolate. Its body is full in the mouth, and is warming me up wonderfully on this happy equinox eve after running the dog in the chill air.

This is not a session beer. It’s not that it’s heavy or dark. It is a bit spendy. But really, it’s not a session beer because it tastes quite a bit like vinegar. But I love this beer. It is totally unique. It doesn’t taste like any beer I know of brewed in the States. Or any other beer at all. But somehow it satisfies like a beer. The Duchesse is Flemish.

I got a bottle of Trappistes Rochefort 8 tonite down at New Season on a lark. I’ve been drinking more Belgians lately, and this one was grubbin. Pretty potent at 9.2%, it’s fruity and full-flavored. The aroma is fantastic, a bit sweet and malty, it’s got something that many winter ales strive for but do not achieve. Try not to serve it too cold, and sip at it because the flavors change significantly over the course of a glass, though I’m finding that it’s flattening out just a bit towards the end.

My next batch of beer will be a honey wheat beer. Consequently, I picked up a 6-pack of Mac’s Honeybeer to get warmed up. The ale is colored a very light gold, nearly tranparent hue, with a light head. I do not detect any honey in the nose as a take a sip, and only the slightest hint of it on tasting. Something seems amiss so I jam my nose into the now empty bottle and there I do detect a hint of the honey I expected.

Yay me, I received the gift of beer! So, this one’s been in my fridge for a bit, waiting for just the right occasion, and when I opened it, it was eager to get free, foaming out the top of the bottle, just a bit. So, its freshness may be in question. Brewed in San Diego by Alesmith, I was looking forward to this one, as the brewery is new to me.

Another Fall beer in Winter? This one was a bit of an accident, thought I was season-agnostic, but hey, I like Fall beers! And I like the label on this one…a bit nostalgic for a more innocent time. um, yeah. Well, it’s a sharp label, and I’ve had good luck with Deschute’s Bond Street line in the past. I cracked this one open, excited after a nice day working from the kitchen table.

Visiting my dad up north in Port Hadlock, we cruised to Port Townsend for the afternoon to grab some lunch and walk around. On a previous trip, we’d stopped by for beers and I remembered the food looking good, so I suggested we stop by Water Street for some grub. The Water Street has a great feel to it. A bit hippy, a bit hipster, it’s a really nice local joint.

North Interstate keeps getting better. No longer do you have to brave karaoke and blue curacao to get a drink at a fun place in the area. Lovingly builty by Low Brow alums Mike and Cap and (??), they’ve browed it up a notch here but kept the prices very inviting. High ceilings, a well-stocked bar, and a good menu with not a tot in sight add the material items to a pleasant environment.

Wooo…presentation presentation. This .75 liter ale is packaged beautifully in a corked (as in champagne) frosty brown bottle with one of those postmodern regal fonts embossed in gold. With a nice light pop, the cork is freed, followed by a light vapor rising from the bottle. The head pours nicely, somewhat short of creamy, but pleasant and unassuming. The hue is a deep rusty-golden color, slightly cloudy and showing some carbonation and smaller particles.

anners sends me this. What a disaster.

Nearly porter-deep this beer from Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing is a hearty brown ale. My first thirsty quaff objected a bit to this one, a bit harsh and unrefined, but I’m quickly warming to this get-well gift from some colleagues. Fairly bitter, with deeply roasted roasted malt, I’m not finding it to meld quite right, possible due to lack of body. For a beer this deep, the frontend is awfully wet.

Could it be true? Word on the street is that beer will be flowing from the Skidmore fountain in about 10 minutes….3pm, September 22. I haven’t found any real confirmations, but a lot of rumors and such. And me bound to the house. arrrr! Always the bridesmaid, never the fratboy doing a kegstand over the Skidmore Fountain.

The Guiness Surger. What will they think of next? props broomball player.

Just got back into town after a sweet weekend in Bend with some buddies. Went skiing two days, and it wsa great…couldn’t ask for a better day than Saturday! Just a nice time…a little gaming, cruising the town, and eating/drinking beyond the ski good times. Went two two really great spots…the first was a kickass restaurant/lounge called The Grove right across the street from the Deschuttes brewpub. I got this steak with chimichurri sauce that was out of this world.

Rogue. Ah, the fines ales that come from that craft brewery. Their brewhouse in Newport is one of the main attractions of the Oregon coastline. I find their Portland location a bit pretentious and overpriced (maybe I can look the other way when I’m on vacation, but $16 for a pitcher is a bit much). Actually, it’s fairly friendly, it just seems pretentious. At this moment I’m consuming their Juniper pale.

Skagit River Brewery is a new one to me. I was looking for something fun the other evening at New Seasons and I happened upon this one from our northern neighbors. Pouring it, my thoughts were: looks like a brown, smells like a brown. Tasting it, it certainly tastes like a brown as well. Good, now that that’s established, let’s rock. By brown, I’m talking about the somewhat fuller hoppier version popular out west here in the states (say Moose Drool or Downtown Brown).

I really like this beer. Anchor’s small beer is crisp, light, and refreshing, but also a bit bold in its bitterness. Brewed by remashing their barleywine mash, this ale presents a surprising amount of bitterness and a very pleasant, well-integrated aroma. It is a light gold in color, with a hint of amber, and carries a good amount of body for a ‘second pressing.’ Honestly, in taste, I feel that this ale stands awfully near the fence between ale and lager (especially czeck pilsners).

This is pretty sweet. thx to broomball player for this one.

Still dragging my feet on the fall ales, I pulled this one out of the ‘beer cellar’ this evening. Elysian has a knack for introducing interesting flavors into their ales without making them overbearing. This one tastes like a good pale ale with hints of pumpkin and pumpking spices rounding it out. Because of this, Elysian’s infusions work more to broaden beer horizons than to supply fraternities with pints with which to ply their ‘sisters’.

My men’s team won the D-2 championship on Sunday (at the same time, the Pilots were showing UCLA a thing or two. This is pretty much the recap I sent the squad (I only mentioned goals, but we had a kickass game, and our opponents played with class…it was a good game). Goals were tough to come by in the first half, and the sides withdrew 0-0. The second half, GDST opened flat, but didn’t allow

sorry, didn’t go. honestly, I don’t really like it that much. Unless you hit it early in the day, which I maybe could’ve done, the lines are horrorshow, you are elbow to elbow with everybody to the point of spilling anything more than half full, and the beers are so strong that you can only have a few…it is at the winer beerfest that I’d prefer to go with taster sizes, but refer to my comment on the lines…even with a full cup, you can finish it just waiting in line for the next.

You don’t see pilsners popping through here too often. I don’t have anything against pilsners as people, but I just don’t generally like them as much as ales, so that is more often what I have in my rotation. But in any case, I was happily gifted with the Uber Pilsner on my birthday so long ago, and checking in the crisper (not just for vegetables anymore!) I came across this beauty.

The first in my series of birthday beer reviews is Ayinger’s famous Doppelbock, Celebrator. Honestly, I’ve never had it before, so now I offer serious thanks to Wally and crew for this gift. What a fantastic Ale! The malt and hops meld prefectly to create a great beer drinking experience…the 6.7% ABV is definitely not obvious, and is almost understated. Pouring this German brew into my beer glass, the head formed beautifully, about thumbnail thick, light, but not creamy.

I visited the Sandy Hut for the first time last night. Well, the first time this week. Shuffleboard, strong drinks, and lively hipster fusion make the handy near and dear to my heart. For all I can tell, nothing has changed about this place since the 70s. The interior is classic drab, the exterior is some forgotten lavender, which ghostly writing advertising steamers and great food and such. But this place is friendly.

Surprisingly large inside, Zaytoon’s has a good selection of beer and booze. Before I’d ever gone in, I was apprehensive, the place looks like it was meant for the Pearl District. And it has a bit of that feel afterwards. However, Zaytoon’s was very friendly, J (sorry…can’t recall the full name) the bartender/manager was cool and cares about beer quite a bit. It might’ve seemed she expressed disappointment at the smaller quantities of fine beers consumed vs.

It’s taken be awhile to write this up, but before heading off to Boston I hit the Oktoberfest at Oaks Bottom Park with some friends. It was the usual good time, singing, beer, brats, beer, and cup pyramids. Until we went off to the big tent, where we found more singing and beer. And some yelling. And then it happened. They called for participants in the sausage eating contest. Two humans formed a tag-team style pair of consumers…the one feeding sausage to the other, and then switching after the first is completed.

I must be blind. I’ve driven past it the last three days. They’ve been open. The Mash Tun opened on Tuesday on NE Alberta and 22nd (just south of alberta). They have only ‘guest taps’ now, but the brewing area is mostly setup, or at least there’s a bunch of shiny copper. The folks working there were busy (a bit more slammed than they were used to) but very friendly, and I got my beer plenty fast.

[12:42] m8ryx: ok, I had an amazing beer last night [12:42] m8ryx: avatar from Elysian [12:42] m8ryx: it’s a jasmine IPA [12:50] anners: where did you have the beer? [12:51] m8ryx: home…it was a random pickup at new seasons [12:51] anners: ah [12:51] m8ryx: look for it tho, it’s really pleasant [12:51] m8ryx: the jasmine is very subtle [12:52] m8ryx: not like in your face “I got Jasmine!” [12:52] anners: 🙂

Brown is the new black! I was quite surprised to see this brown ale lined up at New Seasons when I stopped by for ‘milk and bread’. I didn’t know that Lagunitas made a brown, even as a seasonal. Lucky me! This one is pretty clearly done in the Belgian style, which is proclaimed loudly on the label. The bouquet is fruity, the aroma luscious, lighter than a traditional Belgian, tempered by the mild sweetness of an English Brown.

I don’t think there’s an apostrophe in the name. Binks is a sweet little place, with abundant and loyal clientel. The bartenders are cool and nice, and smile. There’s a slick little garden out back that you can see but not get to, but fortunately there’s some seating out front and on the small patio. It fills up quick on nice days, so get there early or good luck. The layout of Binks is a bit different.

The Spare Room (NE 42nd and Alberta) used to be a bowling alley, so legend tells us. Far far removed from the kingpin now, this northeast dancehall mecca sports two bars (one active), a fireplace in the pool room, karaoke, and video poker. With its mirrors, and twinkling lights, the Larry and Terri lounge act, and older crowd, I believe that this would be David Lynch’s favorite spot. By no means is that meant to disparage The Spare Room, but instead to highlight just how different it is.

Don’t forget your ID if you’re planning to grab the Marathon’s cheap gyros after a Timber’s game, there’s no getting past the gatekeeper. This divey bar on W Burnside has provided many a good time to me, my friends, and complete strangers. The space is immense, providing room for a sports bar area focused on the big three–football, baseball, and basketball–and generally populated by a different cultural subsection than I tend to run in.

Pool tables, beer, vast, smokie. That’s the Rialto I’ve known for years. At the corner of 4th and Morrison in SW Portland, the Rialto has always been a favorite spot for the after work pint, as well as some late night grub and pool (and beer). Some year or so ago they closed the place to do some renovations, and I got to visit again for the first time in ages.

I totally dig Fire on the Mountain. It’s a smallish hotwings joint down on Interstate just south of Skidmore (and a bit north of the Alibi on the other side of the street) that serves up some honest friggin food. Honest because it’s good. Honest because it’s fried. And honest because it’s hot. Sara and Jordan deliver some 12 plus flavors of wings, ranging for sweet BBQ to jerk to El Jefe, with spicy peanut, mild and medium, and raspberry habanero in between.

The first wine bar to be featured on beerdrinker, Beth’s sweet little shop just east of the light at 15th and Alberta is quite possibly the ideal wine bar. In the back are comfy chairs to recline while on whilst sipping your favorite Spanish wine (or whatever) if you can convince Porter (the sweet lab) to share. The chair, not the wine. Everyday Wine focuses on quality affordable wines…very few bottles are over $30, with many fine choices under ten bucks!

so the Alberta Public House isn’t new. Not like the Concordia. It also doesn’t have the beer selection of the Concordia. But I still like the place. It’s totally chill, a geographical mess (on the inside), and full of pigs. The pink cartoon kind. They have some fun music, a good patio, and pretty alright food. Their happy hour (OLCC, can I say that?) last until 8pm on weekdays, which means that even after driving back in from the ‘tron I can still have time to get my happy swerve on for a discount.

A new pub has blessed my little neighborhood, and I strongly recommend that you get out and check it out. Located at NE 33rd and Killingsworth in Portland, it’s in the same spot as the old Et Cetera Tavern, a chronically underperforming watering hole…now gone. The new ownership has done a fantastic job of making the place more pleasant, having given it a major facelift, a new menu, and a renewed focus on beer.

coworker Stu has made me aware that the nearby (to work) Bridgeport pub will be closing for major renovations for ten months in order to pass more Pearl denzens through faster. I have to say that they’ve been on a downward spiral ever since they replaced the Far Side comics in the me’s room with those ads shortly before their 25th anniversary party. Which was followed by the implementation of table service.

Wandering throught the beer aisle at New Seasons looking for something tasty and new, I happened upon a nice fellow who was giving samples of some tasty ales. The first that I tried was also my favorite of the bunch…Big Sky Crystal Ale. This ale is really good, having a very crisp flavor, complicated by bursts of sweet and bitter, the latter reminding me of the pleasant hopping of a Czech Pilsner.

This is a fun story. A bear caused some mischief. props Fritz and PStew for the 411.

The lady and I went to Taqueria Nueve last night. It was excellent. We had maybe a bit more food than necessary, but the variety was fantastic. We opened it up with the ceviche and a salad with buffalo, avacado, stuff, and not too much lettuce. Both were fantastic, especially the ceviche. The they brought us out some tacos. I had the pork and chicken tacos, while the lady had a fish taco, both again were fantastic.

Hidden in the Andes, researchers excavated an ancient brewery.

The Widmer Brothers are producing Drop Top Amber. This is an aromatic, lightly hopped amber ale with a well-rounded flavor. This beer is pleasant, but I’ve never considered it to be strikingly good. Tonite I am looking at it with a fresh and untainted eye. Weighing in at 4.85% ABV, I’d say that the Drop Top is a bit more ‘drinkable’ than several of its cousins in the amber market. It rolls across my tongue with a hint of the honey malt velvety sweetness, before effervescing into the great beyond, pleasant and discreet.

A bit late on this, but BiX informs us that Portland is in the finals for cities to host the permanent home of the beer hall of fame. Very cool, vote here, you may need to register first. Here’s the text that I included with my entry. In Portland, in ways unlike any other place, beer is cherished. It is how we live, it brings us together when the weather is fine, and it keeps us together when the skies are clear.

Ah, a happy busy weekend, I tried my hand at golfing on Saturday with my buddy over at Ojingo. It was loads of fun, actually, because I found that I could this the stupid ball more than ten feet this time! I improved drastically between hole 1 and hole 9, and actually got a par 5 in 6 strokes…not bad for my third time golfing I think. After golfing, we went back to my place and started up a batch of homebrewed IPA.

blog, I command thee to pop into my mind once again and remind me to go visit this homebrew wiki so that I make good on my next batch of beer (that I have the grain for already!).

Walking into work, there was a light drizzle. A beautiful Portland-style rain, not the binge and purge that we’ve been having this season. I smiled, and loved it, with the water matting my hair. Things went well, I accomplished a lot, and I had a general sense of well-being, even through the mild headache I had briefly. After work I cruised over to SE to coach the kiddies in soccer. It started at 5, so I was late, but not too late.

Went to BJ’s the other night because I’ve been driving by it for quite some time now and never stopped in. Also, I’d been to their LA establishments and had a good time. So, I cruised on over with a coupla friends. We got a taster selection of the brews, and I quite enjoyed several of them. The blonde was light and fresh, the amber was pretty good, the pale very hoppy, perhaps a bit much…but the IPA was very nice.

Barely timely, Zeros and Ones reviews some winter beer tastings that we engaged in one night not long ago.

A pleasant offering from the Lost Coast Brewery, Indica IPA is a little less bitter than many of its peers. Not much mind you, it still has the characteristic bite of an IPA, filling your mouth like a ginger snap. I am quite enjoying this beer, it is fairly rich, but remains light. Its scent is good, a little sweet and caramel, but it lacks depth there in a pleasant way.

Deeply amber-hued, Bridgeport’s Ebenezer is a smooth ale to swallow, which is nice considering it’s 6.8% abv. Possessing an almost smoky bitterness to it, the flavor is complex, with hints of a number of spices subtly flavoring this beer, and leaving a pleasant spicy aftertaste that moves around the tongue and leaves my mouth seeking another sip. The lightly hopped, sweet aroma is not forward about the tastes it precedes, but hangs around to complement the flavors nicely.

Full Sail has produced a yummy new holiday brew…Wreck the Halls. Most likely it’s a repackaging of their old one, but WtHs is in a nice big 6.5%/vol 22oz’er. Full Sail is one of Oregon’s finest large microbreweries (huh?), along with Bridgeport and Deschuttes, producing a range of tasty malted beverages. This one is quite good (it’s the 2003 reserve that I’m tipping, btw), with a rich flavor not drowned out by the lame application of a bunch of cookie flavorings.

In what will likely become an annual event, I was going to write about Jubelale tonite (that’s what I’m drinking) but I checked, and ooops, I already had. So check that one out, or quit wasting valuable time reading this and go get some of the Jubel. Deschutes does it right, and thanks to them, I spell Deschutes right like 1/3 of the time. cheers. Oh, and notice that ‘Jubel’ is generally introduced with ‘the’, sorta like the Queen’s ‘We’, it garners respect, and weighing in so smoothly at 6.

Oh, yeah, it’s back. Deschutes Brewery’s Jubelale. In my mind this is the optimal winter brew. Strong, lightly spiced, aromatic, and not too heavy, and like Christmas it seems to begin earlier every year. A gentle smoked caramel flavor serves as a base to this medium-bodied ale, and the aftertaste lingers lightly, even pleasantly, reminding me to take another swig, tantalizing all the parts of my tongue, and on into my throat.

Jever is a town in northern Germany, home to the Friesian Brewery. They have been around since 1848 and brew a pilsener called Jever. I found Jever, while sitting on a balcony in Hamburg overlooking a farmer’s market, to be slightly sweet and pretty bitter–a contrast both crisp and refreshing. The beer itself is gold and clear, with a silght amber tint. The beer has a medium body with light carbonation, giving it a very liquid sensation.

Yesterday I was thinking about PBR. It has long been my cheap beer of choice…the one that I’d get for soccer outings and bbq’s, or for when I was planning a long evening of drinking beer. You may notice one of my soccer teams is PBR FC. PBR brought us together, to a level that soccer alone wasn’t able. But I was thinking, and sensing, and thirsty. My sense told me change.

This beer has a nice medium body, and is a crisp clear pale gold in color. It is fairly bitter, but the flavor rounds it out nicely. The aroma is fitting for this beer, advertising its hoppiness. Warsteiner retains its carbonation well, offering a consistently pleasurable experience, ideal for viewing sports (Canada vs Sweden for the world hockey championship, 2-2 in overtime at the time of drinking…final was Canada wins) or for tilting down at the watering hole.

Me: what do you have on tap? Waitress: uh, Bud, Bud Lite, Coors, Coors Lite…you wanna look at a menu? They actually did have Alaskan Pale on the guest tap. cheers.

Emma has a sober post about the pending beer tax. I’ll post more on this one when I get back from Idaho and have a chance to read the bill. btw, her permalink no worky so scroll down to it (4/11 posting).

Emma at the Oregon Blog let me in that the County Cork has Equinox ESB on tap. I’d seen this one around here and there, but it was replaced as Full Sail’s spring seasonal. I’d been meaning to get there for a few days, seeing that the County Cork is in my neck of the woods and I hadn’t been there since I was a smoker, which turned me off to the place due to its clean atmosphere.

This is a light but complex lager, a lovely golden color with a hint of amber. Very easy drinking, which is nice, but I may finish the glass before I finish this review. The head persists as a thin film of fine bubbles, pervasive and fine. The flavor strikes me somewhere between a Pilsner Urquell and Dos Equis, but turned down a few clicks. A pleasant taste lingers slightly, urging one to take another swallow.

I have discovered a new store to buy beer at. Sadly, I don’t remember its name, but it’s out in Multnomah Village, and it’s a great enough place that visions of moving into the area have been dancing in my head. Other than the nondescript ‘we have a lot of beers’ sign, this place is pretty plain. Inside, it’s a mini-mart, with beef jerky and magazines and the works, but in the back there are over 900 (nine zero zero) different beers.

I picked this pint up at New Seasons on the top shelf, where the spendy beers and the larger singles live. Not that it was that spendy. Being Friday in Portland, I’ll likely be hitting the pub sometime after I write this review. So, in New Seasons (it’s our locally-owned groovy high-end supermarket. Good place, good meat, pretty good beer selection) I’m checking out the fancy beers, and I see that Lagunitas has a new flavor.

Oh, I love my Mirror pond. This pale ale came my way some several to many years ago, and has remained at the top of the short list ever since. A nonoffensive brew, yet hoppy enough to offer a light, rewarding bite, Mirror Pond is suitable as a transition beer, probably after the Widmer Hefeweizen stage. No lemons in this one, folks. The Deschutes Brewery is in Bend, OR, a very beautiful part of the country.

It has been awhile since a Saxer beer crossed my path. Opened, at least. On this occasion, I am sampling their Bock, a tasty golden treat. This beer, weighing in at 6.2% alcohol (volume) goes down far smoother than I would have expected. A light sweetness is the strongest sensation, but coupled nicely with a faint bitter flavor. The combination comes through with a very old-European flair, more so than other American beers.

Short post tonite. Had to work tonite so a frien brought in some beers for a bit of beer tasting. A couple of them were very interesting, and I’d never even heard of them before. I did get to taste them, but this environment is a little funky for writing a review. I’d put these under the category of needle beers just because of the needles in them. The first I tried was Alba Scots Pine Ale.

I sit down anxiously to enjoy this beer. It has graced my refrigerator for some time now, but I have yet to taste it. I pour the winter ale into my Rogue pint glass and receive a rich, frothy head. The events of the day go through my head as a meander to my computer, nothing particularly exciting or dismal today, but I’ve just been feeling a gloom. The beer is sounding quite good at this point.

White Hawk IPA pours aromatically, hued yellow from the bottle, but slightly cloudy. The inviting scent is tempting me to taste a swallow. This beer has the sharp bite associated with India Pale Ales, with perhaps a slightly more burnt and fruity flavor, making it somewhat complex. The head dissipated fairly quickly, leaving a nicely integrated carbonation behind. I find the bitterness to be a little on the strong side, but I am sure that over time it would grow endearing.

Finally! The beer is ready to be tasted. And I don’t mean the stray cheat that I’ve been sneaking since last weekend, but it should be sufficiently aged at this point. So, here I go. The pour yields a thick creamy head, with slightly uneven bubble distribution. Whatever that means, just calling as I see ’em. The ale is fairly dark, and slightly anber-hued. So far, so good. The aroma is is distinct with that unfiltered scent so often associated with homebrew…perhaps slightly unpleasant to those new to it, one quickly becomes accustomed, possibly even nostalgic with it.

Blue Ridge’s amber lager pours a nice, amber hued beer. The head dissipates quickly, making the fine carbonation of this beer visible. The aroma complements this tangy beer nicely, of which both the scent and flavor have a home-brewed element to them. The body of this lager is full, introducing itself immediately to the tongue with a rich sweetness, and leaving behind a gentle bitter aftertaste. All the while, the flavor is integrated nicely with the carbonation.

My eyes grew wide at the first drink of this Pale Ale. A nice full flavor, complemented by its mild fruitiness makes for a fine, smooth drink. A gentle bitterness from fine Cascade hops blends well with with the pale malt, making an all-around pleasant beer. The color of this beer is, as implied by the name, quite light hardly even darkening the glass. The light, fresh qualities of this beer make it a fine choice for any occasion.

A smooth pour to a dark, frothy head. This beer promises a richness that it doesn’t quite achieve. The bite focuses towards the tip of the tongue, and the aroma is not full enough to be complimentary. The flavor is pretty good, though I believe it more likely to appeal to a Starbuck’s denizen than a beer lover. There is a slight hint of mocha, but limited character is apparent here.

This isn’t really my first time homebrewing. But it sure felt like the first time. It had been probably 8 years or more since my last foray, and I’ll say now that it didn’t go particularly well. Overzealous and underequipped (I recall transferring the brew from the carboy into a waste basket I pulled from a dumpster and sanitized), I gave a go at malting my own barley, and made a huge mess everywhere.

was just thinking about my commute since I’ve been riding regularly, and how much I enjoy my morning time on Portland’s light rail, the Max. It’s really the only time of the day that I can count on to be my own time. I can read, write, get some work done, chat with strangers, or just stare blankly. When I work, it’s without fear of interrupts, so that 30 minutes can be more productive than a whole day in the office.

Nice little audio blog piece on beer in Portland, OR. Go ahead and take a listen. It covers the whole gamut from enjoying to making in our little beer mecca.

Just a reminder that the NAOBFis happening this weekend, starts at noon Fri-Sunday at Overlook Park. This is my favorite brewfest of the year. It doesn’t get crazy crowded, there are tons of fun beers to try, and it’s always an all-around good time. I’m helping Dave Knowswith his story about it this year, so double-stoked. See you there.

Jeff at Beervana poses a question: what five beers are a connoisseur’s must-haves visiting Portland. I might have to tackle that, but really, Jeff is really on top of that in his post. I suggested a different route, a road trip around Mt. Hood. But I also threw in a crawl that I think is really worth sharing with your Portland visitors. Begin at Rontom’s. If it’s nice out, enjoy the patio.

Portland has been a Gen-X city for as long as I can remember. Which is as long as I’ve been here. We’ve had a lock on cuisine, fashion (?), transportation, attitude, periodicals, entertainment. Pretty much the whole shebang. Sort of a Gen-X wonderland. Don’t get me wrong, PDX is a city of variety and range, there’s a lot of of other stuff too for Y’s and boomers and everyone in between.

I am terrible at identifying plants, yet at the same time I’m really susceptible to poison oak. For some reason, it is very difficult to find a decent image of the toxic weed. Guidebooks all have the same line drawing as can be found at trailheads. Pics on the internet are obscure and frequently hidden behind broken links. So I found a plant I think might be poison oak. Can somebody please confirm?

Rob L of the Oregon Brew Crew posted this to our listserv in a conversation about a new beer tax proposed in Oregon. He makes a number of lucid points. And doesn’t just complain but proposes action. Oregon HB2461 surprised me. Actually, at first it was shock, then disbelief and anger. Now I’m ready to do something about it. Jim P wrote: Cost of producing each keg (tax is production cost) would go up $25.

This is pretty sweet. Now if only my credit union will get on that! props amanders.

The North American Organic Brewers Festival is this weekend, beginning tomorrow at 3pm. I had a great time last year, but I generally go to these events early and leave early. This is one of my favorites. I’m surprised that they picked this weekend since at least one of the organizers is a huge soccer fan and the Euro cup final is Sunday. His boys aren’t in it this time around, though Spain vs Germany should be a pretty awesome match.

This is a strange situation. The logistics alone are mind-boggling.

Stepping out of Powell’s technical yesterday, I was a bit confused by the gleeful roar I hear in the distance. As I turned onto Couch from the park blocks, the noise grew louder and more distinct. Looking towards the Willamette I was a bit astonished by the source: a colorful crowd of people running shopping carts down the middle of the street. At first I thought this was some sort of guerilla theater event, but as I watched, the roar grew louder, and the crowd kept coming.

There’s a movement to rename NE 42nd Ave to Douglas Adams Blvd. I’m on board, Douglas Adams got it, wrote great stories, and did good things. My only request is that we get to call my street (NE 40th Ave) Infinite Improbability Dr.

It’s been an interesting Fall so far. I’ve got a few fairly exciting projects in the works, and there’ve been some bizarre twists, so I’m not going to put anything on digital at this point. But looking out the window, my mind wanders. The squirrels have been extra-busy this Fall. I’m thinking that’s an indicator that winter is coming early, and it’s going to be pretty serious about it when it shows.

Continuing on this odd consumption-oriented kick I’ve been on, Trader Joes moved out of their old location and into a new one two blocks away. And it is way better. Truly, seriously an improvement. Trust me when I tell you that even though I’ve not been closer than 100′ from the new location. Because the old location sucked eggs bigtime. It was cramped way beyond cat-swinging range. That many Joe’s shoppers packed that tightly just radiate bad mojo, and I feel it and it makes me want to go outside and sit on the curb and sulk, alone with the package of tamales that I managed to snag, holding it, realizing that I hadn’t paid and that I really really don’t want to wait in that line and do I really want the tamales that bad when I can go get cheaper better ones at Taqueria Don Pancho and so I drift into a pit of nihilistic despair I don’t care about the tamales or the lines or that I’m on Sandy Blvd on my knees beating the paved earth grinding the chicken tamales into my forehead yelling wishing (but not caring!

Not really, but metroblogging has the dirt on Portland’s Ikea installation. Honestly, I’ve been looking forward to getting an Ikea for quite awhile now, and now that the date is almost here, I’m starting to look at my closets and corners just a bit differently. Long ago I linked to Defective Yeti’s genius Ikea Walkthrough (at The Morning News). Here it is again for the local Portlanders. A bunch of folks seem upset about the new big box store.

This video of mayhem in downtown Portland is ridiculous. Hoping that nobody got hurt. I think this is in the hills above the MAC. Why oh why?

Could it be true? Word on the street is that beer will be flowing from the Skidmore fountain in about 10 minutes….3pm, September 22. I haven’t found any real confirmations, but a lot of rumors and such. And me bound to the house. arrrr! Always the bridesmaid, never the fratboy doing a kegstand over the Skidmore Fountain.

I’ve written about the roller derby before. And here it is again.  Last time was an exhibition. This weekend, these ladies were for real. The league has begun, and they kicked ass. The Rose City Rollers is Portland’s roller derby league, and it is currently comprised of 4 teams: sweet Breakneck Betties, ritzy High Rollers, compassionless Heartless Heathers, and the evil Guns ‘n Rollers. Sometime since the exhibition match these ladies became athletes.

Yay ladies! You kick ass! I love looking at the little school comparisons…everyone you play is like 10x your size. And you bust their chops. Drop a line if you ever want to setup a scrimmage…my men are down. Y’all outclass us, but I think it’d be a fun match. Update: I heard on NPR that there’ll be a celebration at Pioneer Square today (Friday) around noon (or slightly before). Way to go ladies…keep on smilin’!

Pretty sweet, a number of the more active local bloggers on local issues have put together Blue Oregon. So far it’s looking like a pretty darn good spot for editorial, and looking forward to it as a solid source for localish news. Check it out, it’s on the sidebar for future use.

Oregon is leading the charge in more than just gay marriage. We’re also helping to keep jobs from going overseas. How? My unemployed friends are still unemployed, you may wonder. Well, your prison friends aren’t! Rather than moving call centers overseas, we’re contracting out prison workers to answer phone calls. I wonder what happens if they violate the DNC list…they’re already in jail. Cheap labor, less turnover. That sounds like a win to me.

Alright, I’m now pretty convinced that PUD is where it’s at. I’ve been leaning yes but wanted to catch some opinions and maybe a fact or two in the haze. Here’s my take: power companies are greedy, and want to monopolize. The government handling utilities may not be perfect, but as long as we need to pay for them, there’s probably not a lot of better ways to do it. PUD will honor existing contracts/employment, though with caveats I’m sure.

alright, I’m really not sure which way to go on the upcoming ballot measures to introduce public power. On one hand, I really like the idea of PUD, it seems reasonable, efficient and less corruptible. Also, I’m pretty happy with Pacific Power. Service is good, I can buy wind power, and I’m not aware of the ole’ Enron baggage. I need to do a bit of investigation on this, but I’d love to hear others’s opinions on this touchy subject.

Kudos to the Organizers of Portland’s ‘First Fashion Week.’ I was just down at Pioneer Square and caught some of the show, it looked well done and stayed fun. It has been going on all week, but I’m not sure if it’ll be at the Square tomorrow or a big one at the museum. Anyway, everyone looked great, the designers made some cool garb, and I ate a yummy burrito. Go team.

It’s decision time. So we’ll probably be committed to something one way or another by the next time the Diamondbacks with the World Series. I read a lot of conflicting opions on whether a baseball stadium (pro, with team) would be beneficial of parasitic to our little town. This has been one of the more interesting issues to watch because the lines in the sand are totally skewed from the usual stances.

Check out “The Rogue Hour” Friday morning 9am-10am on KBOO. Emma and BigAir Fred and some others have put together a radio program, and I’m sure it’ll be up to their high standards. I plan to be listening over the interweb. These are two of the best Oregon local bloggers, full of great info and arguments and rants and such, so I’ll expect a lot from their radio project 😉

Emma has posted an interesting bit on Oregon’s refusing of federal assistance in a few areas…to the tune of twenty-some million. The problem has to do with our legislature being bull-headed egomaniacs who are oblivious to the problems in the state. But read the article, it’s much more eloquent than that, and pretty brief too. You can get a few details at The Oregon Blog, which left my head spinning. There’s some business about the Republican from Lake Oswego and how he feels bad about how the national gumment has gone haywire with spending and doesn’t want to impose on them for a few buck here and there to create jobs and alleviate pain for some people who need it.

This is probably out there already, but I have to use the voice that I have to warn people. Some sick bastard is poisoning dogs at Laurelhurst Park by leaving poisoned meat in the bushes. If you have a dog, beware. As a dog-lover and companion, all I can say is that death is too good for this person or group. Update: here is KOIN’s story.

Matt Baldwin (of Defective Yeti fame) has written an interesting piece about copyright laws and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Basically, he discusses how the League was made possible by copyright laws allowing works to fall into the public domain (originally 28 years), which is being made more difficult now as congress regularly extends the copyright periods (now 70 years posthumous). to me extending copyright periods seems like the wrong way to go.

good times. I came across two new portland bloggers…hilsy blog and timberlog. The first is a beerdrinking runner, and the second writes about soccer, which is almost the same thing. The links are over to the right, I’d rather type this sentence than do an href thing even though this blogware has handy dandy clickies to make it easy. Enjoy, they seem like good people.

Some interesting, albeit scary thoughts on taxing drivers are being researched here in backwoodsy Oregon. Well, looked into, at leat. The ideas derive from an increase in fuel-efficient cars (not sure where they’re seeing them?!) which is causing a decrease in gas tax revenues…so they want to track mileage. To do so, they’d use techniques such as GPS and other little black boxes that need to be installed into cars. Besides the obvious privacy issues, which About it All has probably already covered, there are some interesting possibilities here.

The phrase dot-com long ago began to sound, similar to ‘milk’ said a few dozen times consecutively, amorphous and lacking in true meaning. Whenever I heard the subphrase I would expect a punchline, even in a Merrill Lynch ad or coming from some VP. Coming from my own mouth, the word would make me double-take with the surprised look of a young dog farting. While the dot-com ookiness will be with me for awhile, remembered like a rough tequila night, it’s coming under control, new terms like ROI and TCO have risen to teh challenge, racing towards meaninglessness, and my dot-com fits are less and less frequent.

Howard Dean is coming to Portland. I don’t have too many details at the moment, but he’s scheduled to arrive on 5/12. The good folks of the Meetup are planning to get out there and show support in an effort to get a bit of press coverage for him. This is a great way to build the grassroots movement, so if you can be there, do it. I don’t have a time for his arrival yet, but I’ll find out and post that.

but I guess we had one today.

That was very cool. I got there early, so managed to get a table right in front and quaff a pint before the ruckus. Ninety-some people showed up to Mississippi Pizza in North Portland to hang out and hear about Howard Dean, the man who I believe will bring character back to the Democratic Party. Really. I’m even considering giving up my registered Independent status in order to support Dean in the primaries.

While not my local Home Depot, the one located in Clackamas may be becoming my regular stop for home maintenance bulk runs. And I’ll have to start doing the maintenance in the morning, around breakfast time. At least do the equiment and supplies runs then. That has nothing to do with the Krispy Kreme opening up in front of the store there. I’d been giving serious thought to changing Home Depots anyway.

Creates crime of terrorism. Punishes by life imprisonment. SB 742 is being sponsored by Senator Minnis. This bill is an insane and reactionary piece of legislature fueled by the paranoia and division inspired by out national leaders and the media, and will work to fan the flames of fear and mistrust on both sides. Basically, SB 742 defines terrorism in a loose and broad terminology, which could just as easily apply to reckless driving as to pipe bombing city hall.

It looks like Portlanders will need to continue their hour-long drive out to Spirit Mountain in order to throw away retirement funds, savings accounts, and milk money. Our Governor Kulongowski did not approve Portland’s plan of allowing the Grand Ronde tribe to build a casino in town in exchange for some hundreds of millions of dollars for a baseball stadium. I am somewhat mixed on this issue. In theory it seems a fine idea.

In light of all the nastiness we’ve been hearing about Oregon, the schools, the economy, the infighting, timber, power, baseball, gambling, and such, I was really happy to see this article, in which the Senate put the (at least for-now) smackdown on GWB’s energy/budget plan to drill pristine Alaska. The article tells us that Gordon Smith cast one of the key votes to shift the win over to the powers of good.

Perhaps it will stay beautiful as I journey to the Oregon Coast in search of Jack’s blue plastic beach decorations. Wish me luck, back tomorrow sometime.

I live across the street from Meek elementary on NE Albert, one of Portland’s closing elementary schools. It always seemed like a cool place, with gardens in the front, little crossing guards in orange, and colorful signs all around the brick building (sadly, they all plead save our school now). So this make me somewhat sad. Now, I am puzzled though about something. In the face of closure, someone has decided to tear about the sidewalks and nearby lawns.

Here’s a must-read from Jack Bog. Details of the sorry situation of Oregon Courts from a fine blogger. I knew there were problems, but wasn’t really aware of the extent of the problem. Think I’ll be parking in the driveway from here on out…one vehicle breakin (this car) is plenty for me. Education has been much more my issue (it’s all bottled up inside!) to this point, but this is freaky stuff.

It truly does. Once again. In bold. Portland Radio Sucks. Bigtime. I could stop this story right here, and probably have said all that I need to, but then what would be the fun in that? I am just freakin’ so sick and tired of all the damn commercials and the stupid DJ’s mackin on strippers for 47 minutes out of each hour. And the three songs that I do hear…if my timing was good and I get to hear any on my commute…are the same ones by the same ‘artists’, rotating between Rage Against the Machine, tool, System of A Down, Korn (sorry deep guys can’t do that kewl ‘K’ thing they do), with maybe a bit of Metallica blended in.

A priest, a rabbi, and a monk walk into a bar. The priest orders a a beer and a burger (it’s Friday), the rabbi orders a pickled sausage, and the monk gets a non-Belgian beer. Maybe I’ll come up with a punchline later, but that’s a good illustration of just how bizarre this post gets. We (three omnivores) went to Nutshell, a completely vegan restaurant. They were fairly busy. We could’ve sat at a table, but opted to wait on the couches in the back gallery section for a booth.

Mississippi is sporting a shiny new Mexican restaurant, with Oaxacan regional cuisine. Actually, I think it’s up where the street is actually Albina, just south of N Alberta. Trebol has a decent little patio, it’s painted a nice shade of green, and overall looks tastefully done. Though, I actually never set foot inside the actual restaurant. We sat outside, it was a gorgeous day. We drank margaritas and mojitos. They were pretty tasty, and somewhat reasonably priced, though the well tequila is pancho.

Just wanted to callout this tasty little Vietnamese deli located at 6846 NE Sandy. Their menu is pretty small, mostly serving up a varety of meat sandwiches, but there is a vegetarian option as well. Their sandwiches are $2.75-3.00, and the perfect size for a light meal. Just think, even if you ordered four sandwiches, a hum bao (sp?), and a drink, your meal would still still be a Cheap Eat by WW’s standard (what a disappointment that issue was!

Two recent projects of mine came together recently, with pretty nice results! I’ve been making sourdough bread for a couple months now, and it has been working well. In addition, I visited New York recently. As we all know, bread+NY=pizza. Except in alternate axiom sets where bread+NY=bagels, but we’re in my reality. Plus, while bagels were all over New York, most of them were nothing special. Not that I didn’t find some grub ones, it’s just that most were delivered from somewhere, and really not that great.

Went with some friends to Bend this weekend for some sweet skiing and casual times. We stayed at the Holiday Inn (express?) Thursday night, checked into our place at the 7th Mountain Friday morning, and hit the slopes for an absolutely gorgeous day. The snow was pleasant but well-worn. The day was gorgeous, I started off with a sweatshirt, T-shirt, and windbreaker, but dumped the sweatshirt after sweating down two runs.

There’s a new Mexican restaurant in town, and it’s pretty much what I’ve been waiting for. While there’s not really a shortage of decent taquerias in Portland, there is a dearth of what I call chips and salsa sit-down restaurants. Los Baez is the Portland location of a classic Salem restaurant located just above SE 24th on Burnside. Walking in, the first thing you’ll notice is that this place is huge.

I didn’t discover Por Que No. I read the review in the Mercury, and as it is my duty to check out all new taquerias, I made it down today. Located on burgeoning N Mississippi, it is across from the rebuilding center, a bit north of Fremont. Good spot. Well, good news first. They are friendly, they care about the food, the location rocks for rockers, and they cater to beer drinkers.

I totally dig Fire on the Mountain. It’s a smallish hotwings joint down on Interstate just south of Skidmore (and a bit north of the Alibi on the other side of the street) that serves up some honest friggin food. Honest because it’s good. Honest because it’s fried. And honest because it’s hot. Sara and Jordan deliver some 12 plus flavors of wings, ranging for sweet BBQ to jerk to El Jefe, with spicy peanut, mild and medium, and raspberry habanero in between.

My buddy Mark brought this fantastic taqueria experience to my attention. Nestled in the back of the Tortilleria Y Tienda De Leon’s are a few tables and a lunch counter displaying a wonderful selection of Mexican specialties. I stopped by there (not the first time by any means) the other day after hitting some balls at the driving range with my German buddy and his small child. One of the things that he wanted to do while visiting was hit up some good Mexican food, and the Taco Del Mar experience from the day before simply didn’t cut it in my book.

The lady and I went to Taqueria Nueve last night. It was excellent. We had maybe a bit more food than necessary, but the variety was fantastic. We opened it up with the ceviche and a salad with buffalo, avacado, stuff, and not too much lettuce. Both were fantastic, especially the ceviche. The they brought us out some tacos. I had the pork and chicken tacos, while the lady had a fish taco, both again were fantastic.

This little restaurant at 3226 N Lombard is easy to miss, but worth a stop. I’d noticed it before one night driving home from the St. Johns area, but it was closed and eventually slipped my mind until we stumbled upon it this afternoon looking for a lunch spot. Always looking for a new place for tacos and burritos, there was no hesitation about changing from our previous destination. And our spontaneity was well-served.

A new taqueria opened recently near 56th and SE Woodstock, Super Torta. I stopped there after coaching the kiddies the other evening and had a red chile burrito. I must say that it was dissapointing. The shredded beef was not shredded enough, lending a toughness inappropriate for this burrito, and the red chile, which looked to be added only as an afterthought was lacking in flavor, quantity, and spice. The salsas served with the burrito were alright, but still lacking in any true depth of flavor.

La Cruda is located in SE Portland, near the hipster node 26th and Clinton. It does hold up the credo of the neighborhood with its tasty margaritas (not as cheap as they seem like they are) and late night menu. They serve food till midnite on Thurs-Sat (and maybe the others too). The food is pretty tasty. Good quality ingredients, marinated and grilled meats, and a salsa bar with a decent range of salsas but far too small of cups (the kind that a friggin chip doesn’t fit into) to carry it in, make this a marginal recommendation.

Located out on deep Killingsworth, near where it runs into Lombard or Portland Blvd, this taco truck is one of the finest. The tacos are fantastic, and that is what I most highly recommend. These succulent morsels of meat-stuffed corn tortilla are superb, served classically with lime and radish. In particular, I enjoy the pastor, but I am a bit of a pastor freak. The chicken is great too. I’ve enjoyed the asada and lengua as well.

Nestled in at the edge of the shopping distrinct of upper NE Fremont is the quaint Cool Runnings Cafe, owned and operated by Cal Ferris and his wife. The character and food of the place, while inspired by the Islands, is varied and lends itself nicely to flavors from many regions, particularly those of the American South. Cool Runnings Cafe has been open since August of 2002, but has been serving dinner only since early 2003, which I feel is their true calling.

The Pearl District is finally coming into its own. It has gotten a fantastic Mexican Restaurant. The environment is casual, nicer than a taqueria, but hardly larger. The colors are a subdued fall. You order at the counter when you come in, which is fine. The menu, which is no longer a large board hanging aboce the front counter is succinct. Most of the standards are there, pastor, pollo, asada, lengua, burritos, tortas, tacos and so on.

Dang…it’s amazing what can change in three little years. I’m not going to recap it here now, but it’s been pretty mind-blowing. Some wonderful things have happened, some terrible things have happened. The amplitude has been high. And the nice thing is that I’m a better person for it, and in many ways, I’m in a better place. I’ve learned a lot about myself, and it’s helped to make my family closer, my relationships better, and life more authentic.

We at beerdrinker.org work hard to stay on the high road of good taste. Last night’s show at Dante’s is clear evidence of that. From songs about drugs to ladies playing (rockin’) guitar in their underwear to not-so-tragic references to recent tragedies to deep-throating light beer bottles while playing rockin guitar, this show was beautifully highbrow. Nashville Pussy kick ass. Their guitar smacks of ACDC, with a southern twist and apathy and mean-spiritedness thrown in, as well as sexy guitar and bassist.

I became so fed up with the horrible situation of radio here that I actually took a significant step in alleviating my pain. I cut my ears off. Actually, I bought Sirius satellite radio. Sirius the second-to-market competitor to XM radio, which I don’t know much about, except that it has some commercials, is stightly cheaper (per month), and has one less satellite beaming down on us (two). I am going to say right now that Sirius has put a damper on my learning the German language.

The Catheters rock. Nedra pointed out their album at a listening booth at Tower Records when I was getting my stereo replaced after some jerk broke into my car and stole pretty much the whole center console, along with the air bags. I only listened for a couple minutes before deciding to buy the album, as it rocked really hard. They have a bit of that rock-n-roll rhythm blended with some searing punk-rock vocals.