The Mutated World of Eclectic Disarray

The House That Stood Still

2012-01-16T08:09:00.000-08:00

I really enjoy science fiction. I like reading old novels, I love watching movies from all eras, robots and aliens and other galaxies and anything else that seems remotely futuristic. In my opinion novels are the best because they are easy to get sucked into--while the setting, storyline and character details are provided there is still a great deal of interpretation performed by your brain. I have started and stopped collecting science fiction paperbacks throughout my life and recently counted and scanned in the covers of my collection. I have 59 sci-fi paperbacks and hope to increase that. When I buy new books I totally judge the book by its cover, I love the pictures of the alienscapes or a depiction of the pinnacle moment.

The Prodigal Sun is one of my favorites--I thought the cover was totally awesome and the story is great too (which is also a bonus). The story is about a human boy who is abducted and raised by Martians, only to be returned to Earth as a young man. He is super smart and also possesses certain mind abilities from growing up on a different planet. Instead of being welcomed and celebrated there is trouble and it really plays out well.

A. E. Van Vogt is one of my favorite authors and this is one of the first paperbacks I acquired by him. I really really like the cover and was even recently considering this as a design for my next tattoo.

Jhereg is the first in a long series written by Steven Brust. It is a story about a guy named Vlad Taltos who is an assassin, a sorcerer and a witch. He is hired to kill people but each novel he is also solving a mystery. He lives on a planet like Earth that has several species and a hierarchical system that humans are kind of outside of. Vlad has a familiar named Loiosh who is pictured on the cover. Loiosh is really sarcastic and gives Vlad a hard time.

I'm currently reading this one So far it is a quick read and I swear I read half the other day on the bus. And so far the cover has nothing to do with the story but I thought it was creative so I picked the book up. The book is actually about most of North America waking up to find they've been turned to metal and the rest of the world has a blue hue to their skin. There are giant alien enemy invaders of some sort the rag-tag group of charachteres are trying to figure out.

Another interesting thing about this book is that it was written in the 50's so there's a lot of slang, sexism and subtle racism written into it--not so much slurs but general attitudes and phrasing that was accepted at that time but since regarded as inappropriate. For example, there's a charachter who is a Japanese Servant and throughout the book the author refers to him as "The Japanese." At first I thought that referred to the entire culture (i.e. The Japanese People) but by chapter 3 realized it was just written in a different era. Also there's a lot of jokes about how women aren't capable of fixing or doing stuff.

I haven't read this one in a long time and I think it's worth a re-read. I bought it because I thought the cover was great!

This is another great one, it talks about life on Mars and a Martian culture, and inevitably at some point there's an Earth/Mars conflict that occurs and someone who unites the two or neutralizes the situation.

This is book 5 of a very awesome 5 part series called The Cluster Series. Of course anyone who reads science fiction and fantasy knows that Piers Anthony is a genius and writer of many many books and series that are easy to get sucked into. I can't say enough about this series and think it's one of the more exciting and well thought out series I have read. I haven't been this exited about a series since Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman came out with The Deathgate Cycles books.

The Cluster Series also has a second set of covers with alternative artwork which I am in the process of trying to obtain.

Rest In Peace

2010-09-24T14:27:00.000-07:00

Helen Sollebello was a loving mother, grandmother, aunt, cousin, sister and friend to many people. She passed away either late last night or this morning; I just received the news from my cousin. Helen was my aunt, my great-aunt to be exact, born in the late 1920’s. Hard to believe she first set foot on this earth so long ago and now her existence has come full circle.

Aunt Helen was a very prominent adult in my life, when I was a kid I have tons of memories of often visiting her and her husband, my uncle Lou. I went through a rough adjustment patch when I was 14 and as a result at one point was hospitalized. Not really understanding but wanting to be supportive, Aunt Helen sent me a get well card from her and Uncle Lou. That card is really special to me because many other members of my family were hesitant or afraid to deal me, or would treat me disrespectfully and leave me to be victimized by the stigmized views of mental health. What I understood about Aunt Helen at that moment is that her love for me was unconditional; no matter what I did or how I was doing, perceived she was there for me.

A couple of years after my hospital incident, luck would have it that Aunt Helen and Uncle Lou lived in the same apartment complex as my father and I and I would frequently stop by, mostly to get something to eat as Aunt Helen always had something or didn’t hesitate to make something. I remember she used to make a really mean Lemon Chicken. I would pass her apartment before getting to my apartment after I departed the school bus and would just drop in to see if she had some tea water on or extra cookies I could take off of her hands.

My father has gone through his own “rough patches” as well and there were a few particularly difficult years in my later teen years. I had the support of Aunt Helen and Uncle Lou as I explained what was going on (and they were already aware) and they offered to talk to my father about straightening his path out (and he did for about 5 years!)

When I started college in Florida, like most young 20-somethings I had a crappy car. This car would overheat at the drop of a hat. By that time Aunt Helen and Uncle Lou lived near the college I attended, and it was great to be able to stop in and let my car cool down if it was overheating. She never had a problem with me stopping by, always welcomed me even though I didn’t call first.

Aunt Helen was a great lady and towards the end I think she was in a lot of pain, both from the loss of her dear husband, my Uncle Lou in March of 2009 and from her own health complications. She also had some degrees of progressing dementia occurring. I am going to miss her but am glad I got to see her in May of 2009. Even though it is sad that she has passed on, I feel ultimately she is at peace and free of pain. She is with Uncle Lou again probably doing the things they loved: watching wheel of fortune, hanging out and drinking coffee, talking and welcoming people (like me) who drop in unannounced and are looking for something to eat.

Aunt Helen and her cousin in 1931. Aunt Helen is on the right.

Aunt Helen's super wedding dress! Very classic, she looks like an angel.

Aunt Helen and Uncle Lou, married in 1944.

Aunt Helen with her father, my great-grandfather in 1930.

I found these pictures (and many more) at http://www.duryeapa.com/, a great website set up to explain the history of this town.

George Hincapie

2010-07-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

Someone needs to put this guy on a Wheaties box (if they haven't already).

This guy is like Captain America on a bike!!

the rear fender dilemma.

2010-05-21T22:24:00.000-07:00

It's raining again and I don't mind the rain, I mean it kind of sucks when you are on your bike and don't have a rear fender--but if you are inside and listening the sound of rain can be a comforting and soothing white noise of a sort. But back to the rear fender thing, yeah, nothing beats the gritty dirt, asphalt and dirty rainwater stripe up your ass crack and half way up your back.

I highly recommend investing in a fender for your rear tire on your bike, it may be one of the the best $14 investments you ever make.

This is Ric's new bike. Rather, the bike isn't new but he bought the frame about 10 years ago, and recently picked up the yellow wheels and tires. Notice there isn't a rear fender, but this is because Ric does not plan on riding this in the rain.

I also really like eggs.

2009-05-10T08:41:00.000-07:00

I've been eating them every day for a while now. I don't know why I am so into them; they just seem to satisfy some biological nutritional calling. I know that probably makes me sound like I'm a walking cholesterol heart attack nightmare, but usually I only eat one egg a day. On the weekends, I'll eat more than one, usually on Saturdays and Sundays I eat eggs prepared in another fashion. I especially like going out to eat and getting omelets, scrambles, and Benedict's I'll eat sunny side up, poached, and once over (over easy?) also. I think that covers it (?) I also eat runny yolk, I sop up potatoes and toast and bacon (see previous entry) with it.

The raw, runny yolk think is also a constant dilemma because it's so gross. I conjures up gruesome images of salmonella chicken bacteria. Raw chicken embryo, ugh, it sounds so gross.

But so tasty. Velvety smooth, I even eat the accidentally undercooked hard boiled eggs. There was a time when my eating was stricter, vegan even for a brief time, and I would never believe that in the future I'd consume eggs at the rate I do. I eat so many eggs I think it would be nice to have a house with a little property so you could have a chicken coop. Chickens seem relatively harmless and independent anyway. And if any of them get out of line, you could butcher and eat them (future post material).

vegetarian turned bacon eater

2009-05-06T21:07:00.000-07:00

and the funny part is that bacon was only the beginning. I find that I really like pork products and calorically speaking they're not too bad, many of the different packages I've read aren't too bad. Bacon and a few other forms of pork the exception though. A co-worker and I joke about a mutual acquaintance's love for pork but I have to say I'm guilty. I was shopping tonight and bought some carntias. They're out-of-this-world good, I was stunned. Last weekend we had Proscuitto-wrapped cantaloupe and a quiche made with fresh spinach, parmesan cheese and pancetta. I love a good New England clam chowder or black bean soup made with ham or pork in some fashion.

This whole bacon thing came out of nowhere. I forgot how good it is. I stopped eating pork in 1990 and started again in February of 2004. Don't think there's any going back. Mmmmm mmmm good!

and here are a few bacon links for your viewing pleasure:

http://erincooks.com/2009/02/22/bacon-cupcakes/

http://www.holytaco.com/if-i-die-bacon-related-death-id-it-be-because

http://www.baconsalt.com/

http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2008/02/27/bacon-cups/

http://www.beerorkid.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/bacon-_flowchart.jpg

http://bacolicio.us/

an excerpt from the soundtrack of my life

2009-04-14T20:57:00.000-07:00

I like the sound of trains, playing in the background
on the soundtrack of my life;
sets of tracks running along the waterfront
27 blocks away, and on both sides of the river.
Amtrak's Coast Starlight line
en route daily between Seattle and Los Angeles
(I love to wait at the traffic signal and wave to the passengers)
and various freight trains
delay my arrival to work at the most inopportune times.
The sound soothes me subconsciously and I realize
I’ve always lived within earshot of a train
I remotely notice the constant

innocuous blaring horn
issuing a warning
or exclaiming an arrival

(maybe just passing thru?)
getting louder and nearer,

then fainter and farther
while I am sitting quietly (supposedly) finishing homework.

Easter is a funny time of year.

2009-04-12T17:18:00.000-07:00

I don’t take it seriously because it seems like such a contrived holiday; the unnatural marriage of eggs and chocolate, rabbits and Jesus nailed to a cross, the whole "rising from the dead" thing...it all seems so random mixed in with an extra early and long church service.

My father used to really get into Easter. As a kid, I remember waking up to a wicker basket filled with plastic bunny grass, jelly beans, chocolates and peeps. For some strange reason, he would buy my mother and me corsages and a boutonnière for my brother and father. He would get up early and pick them up from a florist, each in their own clear plastic container. The corsages and boutonnières would rest on a doily, and they would wait in our refrigerator’s crisper until the moments before we left to go to church. Then he would pin it on my lapel or shoulder strap of my dress. I wasn’t really allowed to eat any Easter candy prior to attending church so for the entire hour long service I would fantasize about which chocolates I would try first. Some years I would get smart and sneak some of the smaller candies into a pocket or purse and discreetly munch on them during mass.

Years later, post divorce and well into the years my brother and I started down our paths of individual self-destruction, my father attempted to rekindle some Easter tradition for our broken and dysfunctional family remnants. As teens, our love for chocolate only intensified, so my father would get us chocolate rabbits, robin eggs, peeps, some of the usual Easter candy fare. One year my brother and I put together a basket for our father—but instead of chocolate and candy we filled it with pastel colored Tums and Rolaids, summer sausage, cheddar cheese and crossword puzzle book. My father likes to have an Easter egg hunt, and would get the fillable plastic eggs and hide them all over the house. Some would have candy in them and some would have money—quarters or singles. He also hid two twenty dollar bills—always in the same two spots. He would hide one in the litter box and one in the garbage disposal. I would always get the $20 in the garbage disposal because I was the only one in the family with a hand small enough to fit down the drain. My brother, being such a giant hulk of a guy realized he would never get the $20 out of the garbage disposal and would always go straight for the twenty in the cat litter.

Those were some good times.

On a completely different note, have you ever microwaved a marshmallow peep?

change is the only constant

2009-04-07T18:58:00.000-07:00

I have been blogging less freqentley then a few years ago and every time I log in I notice they've adjusted the format/layout of this website slightly. The theme is generally the same but now I have a "Monetize" tab in my toolbar. I can only imagine what that tab does. Facebook recently pulled the "slightly modify the layout" thing and I'm a little off. I don't quite like how it looks and it feels awkward.

That is true of change, right? Some changes are better in the long run and after a while most people yield and accept the new way of doing things. Other fight it bitterly to the end with every last breath they can muster. Good change usually sucks at first and means working longer, harder or both. If things are organized, change can result in building something that has the capacity to grow and be useful and well maintained.

One example of change gone wrong is the old Coke/New Coke thing. They shouldn't have tried to market Coke with a new flavor, they should have introduced it as an expansion of their product line. It probably would have been more well received and if it wasn't it wouldn't be nearly at the magnitude of disaster it turned out to be.

People were right to reject changing to the New Coke. I tried it and it was gross, I don't remember details but I do remember switching to Pepsi. I guess that was the unintended change, instead of going with the flow people found an alternative. I don't drink those types of sodas anymore and don't think I had one in about 10 years. Maybe longer. I do drink soda once in a while but it's the all natural no high-fructose corn syrup organic fru fru stuff. I highly recommend Santa Cruz brand Ginger Ale, it's amazing.

In any event, I just hooked my scanner up to the computer I'm using, and to test it out I scanned in some of my favorite science fiction novel covers. I really enjoy reading this kind of science fiction; it's a fun, easy read and plentiful at garage sales and book store discount paperback racks. I'd love to have a whole room filled with bookshelves of these kinds of gems:

guns

2009-03-11T20:48:00.000-07:00

I'm afraid of guns but I respect them. I'm afraid of guns in the sense of if I had one and used it to protect myself, my attacker would get it from me and shoot me with it. I suppose if I had some sort of training or certification I'd feel more comfortable too, but that isn't anywhere near the top of my list of stuff to do. Maybe in 10 years it will be closer to the top. Hopefully there won't be any zombie rampages or reigning anarchy between now and then. I know a few people who are into guns, have had training and know what they're doing. I really admire that but for some reason get a bad feeling about guns. Maybe it's the finality of a gunshot wound. And even if you are shot but not killed, the chances you are paralyzed or have to spend the rest of your life shitting in a colostomy bag are pretty high. I think there's a lot of people running around with guns that shouldn't have one in the first place. And I know that's a good argument for getting a gun (to protect yourself from these screwballs) but again back to my theory that the attacker will beat me up and take my gun and shoot me with it. Maybe that's where martial arts would come in handy. But I guess martial arts would negate the need for a gun, and if your attacker had one you could just kung-fu yourself away or the gun out of his hands.

If I did have a choice of weapon, I think I'd pick a bayonet. I like that you can shoot or stick someone with the blade on the bayonet. I wonder how heavy one of those are, and how comfortably it handles. If I had the option of having ridiculous Turok-style weaponry I'd go for a sniper rifle and an RPG and death blossom projectile explosion type of bullet. If it came down to a zombie or alien invasion, or anarchy, I'd also like to be well versed in a couple of types of martial arts. If gun type weaponry wasn't an option (for example, the zombie invasion lasts so long the majority of guns and bullets aren't as readily available) I'd like some sort of staff with a blade or a staff with the option of pressing a button and an array of blades protrude from the end.

finally got a 2009 calendar

2009-01-16T18:37:00.000-08:00

I was starting to feel lost in the new year without a wall calendar in my apartment to keep referring to. I'm a very visual person and it helps to have a calendar with nice neat squares to write in my schedule or upcoming events. Especially school. I'm taking three classes this semester and homework and due dates can get real confusing quickly without the assistance of a calendar.

My cubemate is listening to Tom Leykis. I don't mind his show but I know many women who think he's offensive or a pig. I don't think he's either; but he is kind of jaded. But aren't we all in some respect, or at some point in our lives? I also listen to Howard Stern, so I doubt Tom Leykis can say anything that would really offend me.

I'm not easily offended, at least by language. I have the propensity to inappropriately curse too, so I have to watch myself at work. The other day I accidentially called an erroneous driver a "dildo" while one of my co-workers was in the car with me. The sad part is I meant to call the other driver a douche, but for some reason dildo just came out. Nothing like trying to backpedal out of a slip like dildo. I've also been watching Deadwood lately and a couple of different C words have been slipping into mainstream conversation. I'll have to keep a close watch on the use of that word.

On a completely unrelated note; I just gave a drug screen to the biggest sweatiest kid I ever met. Then he shook my hand and it was a big sweaty moist mitt. Like a warm pork chop. I know he washed his hand after the pee test but I washed after he shook my hand because it left a funny feeling with me.

Dad says "sell the cat to a Chinese restaurant"

2009-01-10T07:47:00.000-08:00

So my brother did a little drunk emailing the other night, and I was a recipient of the following correspondence:

Subject: Dad says "sell the cat to a Chinese restaurant"

Eh well,your right AZ is Mcain area... but flippin alaska...his running mate?These are great areas of out country. people of the US obviously have pressd towards a new era ; I feel proud to be a voting memer of society, Obama all the way.. In the mean time; I'm supporting every flippin native american tribe since the dawn of man in AZ if I am living in the desert area .I think it might be like "Natural born Killers"....only without the killing lol! Technically, we are all living on a country bought for bracelets, food and simple gems....as far as I know. Anyways ...We have a lot of calls for our poor kitty that we cannot take with us, but i'm sure things will be cool. lol. Dad says eat the cat.I painted lots of the roof areas today. It looks better.

Perception is Everything.

2009-01-07T21:43:00.001-08:00

So one of the reasons my blog frequency has been steadily decreasing is due to my going back to school about 15 years later then when I started. Funny thing about school, when I last went I could give two craps and didn't know what I wanted to do. The difference now is I am really invested in attending college; I'm learning new things, meeting new people and empowered by getting good grades and feedback. Each new semester is a challenge and brings out my anxiety--it's funny all the things I'll worry about that are really no problem. For example, some of the thing I worry about are:

completing the homework and getting credit for it
doing the correct homework assignment
remembering my homework
remembering to turn in my homework
getting good grades on the tests and quizzes
doing well on the mid term and final
getting credit for any extra credit issued
scoring well in those ambiguous areas, such as "class participation"
forgetting to do an assignment I missed

Funny the physiological symptoms I'll feel--I get a little jittery, like a coiled spring full of tension and potential energy. My hands also get sweaty and sometimes I get a little dizzy and dry mouthed. I have an increased urination frequency too, and yes I know that might be too much information but it's true. So sorry if girl pee offends you.

But realistically, logically, I can rationalize all of those things I worry about:

a) I have good study habits so inevitably I will do well

b) I'm detail oriented

c) I'm not shy so if I'm unclear I can get help,

and

d) It's really not that important.

This is a school scenario, but you could apply the worry list and rational justifications to any aspect of my life. It is definitely generalized. I worry when I leave for work that I left the stove, heater or coffee pot on. Realistically, if all three were on ultimately there would be no harm done. The apartment wouldn't burn down, and the coffee maker has an auto-shutoff after two hours. My iron has an auto-shutoff too; when it's down and there is no activity it shuts off after 30 seconds. If it is upright and I don't use it for 3 minutes, it also shuts off. It's a pretty state of the art iron and I like it a lot, but more about that later.

Picture two miniature versions of me on my shoulders, one sitting on each. Like the devil and the angel we've seen so much on TV and in the movies when a character is facing a moral dilemma. So instead of a devil and angel, it's like anxiety and the voice of reason. Anxiety is screaming and jumping up and down about something on one side of me, where Rationalization is lounging on my other shoulder, reassuring me that just about everything that Anxiety is telling me is bullshit. It's an interesting dynamic to navigate in the middle of a tense busy workday. I had Anxiety and Rationalization show up today while I was in a meeting at work, and I accidentally said something I was thinking, then as soon as I said it I felt so uncomfortable I wanted to implode. And I said it to my boss in front of my superiors and colleagues, it's officially the first choke of '09. It was really bad, I totally lost my train of thought and my boss was looking at me like I was some kind of flake. I swear everyone else looked embarrassed for me, and I swear the lady next to me started to blush.

Anyway, Rationalization appeared and saved the day. I ended up plowing through and confidently reading off the rest of my report. I also engaged in good solid conversation with another division head about a common interest. Next thing you know I'm joining the group discussion and throwing around one-liners. Before I knew it the meeting had moved on and things seemed comfortable again.

Or maybe they never were uncomfortable and the whole thing was in my head. In any event, that's how I get through most of these situations and it seems to keep me off of medication. Dealing with anxiety this way also helps me enjoy things, I was able to enjoy parts of that meeting after I choked, and I enjoy school and everything else I do. I feel like I am moving, not stagnating and that feeling alone is bigger then anything anxiety can throw at me. I like the things I do and eating well, taking care of my body and the satisfaction of a good work out. These things hold great value and transcend anything else I've encountered so far.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-07T13:08:00.000-08:00

So it's been awhile. I've been active on various social networking sites and have been linking my [dead] blog, so I thought I'd be responsible and at least make some of these entries semi-current.

I joined Twitter. I fought it for a long time because I'm not particularly promoting anything; no product or nothing about me that needs promotion. I'd read an increasing amount of articles about Twitter and how it can enhance your networking and your productivity. One article in particular by the NY Times spoke of how Twitter can help you at work, either at a current job or in finding a new job. I thought at the very least I could join to read and get updates from anyone who is tweeting or blogging about anything I find interesting.

So I did that, and got my cousin JD Glass to join too. She's a writer and in a band, she has things to promote so it's another great place for her to network. Up to this point (tweeting for about 2 days now) my posts are kind of inane, for example: "I think the Starbucks lady and the Oil Can Henry's guy should hook up" and "my heater only has two settings: hot and off."

Somehow people find me and are subscribing to my feed. Now I feel obligated to triangulate all of my social networking sites and make sure they are all relatively current. This blog was by far the most delinquent, so since August I've started fall semester, completed fall semester with a 4.0 (whew) successfully made it through the holidays, endured a pummeling of snow storms (for this area anyway, the snow here is nothing like NYC's Nor'Easter of 96) and started the Winter Term as of Monday. I'm not working too much with glass anymore because school is taking the front seat and I closed my studio to budget for tuition. And most significantly, we've elected a new President who starts working this Friday.

Once again I rang in 2009 without incident and was in bed by 10 PM. I briefly woke up at 12 because someone was lighting off fireworks, which surprised me because we had some steady constant rains all day and evening and projected into the next couple of days. I don't make New Year's Resolutions because I feel the time is always now for a change.

I guess if I had to make a resolution, I reslove to not use commas and exclaimation points so frivously in the future.

crash!

2008-08-13T19:08:00.001-07:00

I attended the Twilight Crierium in Portland's NW Park Blocks Friday night, and was able to capture a wreck on camera. It happened very quickly, and my camera is barely reliable at best, so I only managed to get 4 photos:

Here's a shot of the actual wreck; it occurred as the pack of riders turned the corner. The majority of the cyclists were able to strategically escape unscathed, however an unfortunate four became a tangled mess of spandex and metal.

These guys had to quickly get off the course because there were more cyclists quickly approaching. A few spectators ran out to help the guys up. The guy in the white got back on his bike and completed the race. He was in last place, but you got to give the guy credit for getting back on his bike all road-rashed up and finishing. I think the guy in the blue and orange rejoined also, but dropped out before the race finished.

This guy sitting here was really dejected and just scooted over to the sidewalk. I couldn't tell the extent of his injuries, but it seemed like his bike was rendered unridable.

He ended up sitting there for a while. We were mobile and moved around the course through the duration of the races, so after about 15 minutes we moved up the block for a different perspective. The corners were fun to hang out at because there were 10 near-wrecks for every wreck that happened.

If you're in Portland next August I'd definitely recommend to check this out. It's free to watch, there's a few booths with food, sponsors and vendors occupying them. It happens on a Friday night about the middle of the month, and is from about 6 PM to 8:30 PM.

I'll also be posting some more pictures over at Flickr soon.

Climbers Bivouac

2008-08-11T06:57:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend we ended up hiking on the south face of Mt. St. Helens. We originally wanted to head over to Lahar Viewpoint and Ape Canyon, but the road out that way was washed out and we had to settle for Plan B. Plan B started at Climbers Bivouac trail head and trekked through the old growth forest up to the junction where the Loowit trail (east-west) picks up. From that point, we headed east on Loowit to June Lake, then grabbed a cross-country ski trail back up onto Loowit to hike a large circle. Besides offering different scenery, this loop avoided the treacherous tiresome boulder field we encountered in the Worm Flows on the high trail over.

I still have to process the 100+ pictures I took, but here's a few to preview. It was an overcast type of day, the mountain top was socked in the entire day and it was hard to get good mountain top and distance pictures. That wasn't a problem though; there were so many other great views and scenes to photograph.

Prehistoric flower?

trekking through the misty forest.

heather

Heather (at the edge where the Worm Flows meets forest)

Chocolate Falls (canyon created from the 1980 eruption)

the end of the mystery ritual (?)

2008-08-10T21:25:00.000-07:00

I think (hope) the neighbor's mystery ritual has come to an end. It's been a week since I said something, and I haven't heard a thing.

Last Sunday things came to a boiling point. I had been tolerant, for the most part, while the neighbor behind me has been keeping his obnoxious mystery ritual to a minimum. Maybe I didn't hear it for a week, then the annoyance would commence for two or three nights in a row, starting at 10 PM or later and carrying on until midnight or 1. And the past few weeks it had been occuring on nights where I would have to get up extra early or have an extra busy day, the times when it's most important to be as rested as possible.

Sunday was one of these night. I had a big test on Tuesday that I had been studying intensely for, and had a really busy Monday planned. I went to be early Sunday evening, maybe around 9:30 and I was completely relaxed.

I was jolted awake by banging behind me about 11:30. I listened to the symphony of drawers sliding open and slamming shut, cabinet doors opening and slamming, the water turning on for 10-15 seconds, then shut off for the next 15-30 seconds, to be replaced by banging and really loud squeaking. I continued to try to ignore the noise behind me for about 15 minutes, then abruptly decided that tonight was the time for the confrontation.

I stumbled over to the bright lights of my neighbor's apartment patio door. I can see a pile of sauce coated pots on the counter near the door. I knock and the water shuts off; Harry Potter's girlfriend opens the door and I notice she looks really tired.

"Hi, um, I'm the neighbor behind you, the one on the other side of the wall," I explain, "and I"m not sure what you're doing over here, but it's really loud and woke me up from a dead sleep."

Harry Potter's girlfriend rolls her eyes at me and says, "I'm just doing dishes."

"I understand you're doing dishes, but my headboard is literally behind the wall where your sink is, and every time the water turns on and off every 15 seconds, the pipes make a loud thud. And I also hear alot of crashing, slamming, banging and loud squeaking." [Uncomfortable pause here] "So are you going to be doing this much longer, because I have to get up at 5:30."

Harry Potter's eyes roll again as she retorts, "I have to get up at 5." Well whoop-de-doo.

"So...are you going to be doing this much longer?" I ask again.

Harry Potter's girlfriend sighs heavily with one last eye roll, "No, I guess I can stop."

"Thanks!" I enthusiastically said, and gave a smile that wasn't returned. I went back to my apartment and now was so keyed up from the confrontation I laid in bed and tried to shut my brain off for the next hour. But that's not really a problem because for a whole week from 10 PM forward it's been nothing but golden silence between my headboard and the sink behind me.

The next morning my alarm went off at 5:30 and I hit the snooze bar until 5:45. I didn't hear any noise behind my wall until about 6:15, so I guess Harry Potter's girlfriend overslept too. I bet if she got the dishes done sooner she would have gotten to bed at a decent time. Our paths crossed again about 6:45, as we both were heading to our cars on the street. We briefly made eye contact and quickly looked away. For about five seconds I thought maybe I might have been bitchy last night, but then put it out of my mind when I think about the torture I went through.

I wonder if I'll run into them at the neighbor hood picnic next month?

Happy Birthday Le!

2008-08-01T22:12:00.000-07:00

Today was Le's 64th birthday. I went over her house and joined some other neighbors earlier for some cake and ice cream.

Bus passenger beheaded seat mate, witness says

2008-07-31T21:02:00.000-07:00

What the hell went on there??? This story seems so surreal, like something out of a B slasher horror movie. I wonder how much time it took for him to saw off the head. This is really freaky.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/07/31/canada.bus/index.html

and here's a video, I don't know how to embed CNN videos so I'm posting the link:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/07/31/natpkg.can.bus.decapitation.ctv

exciting and scary!

2008-07-31T19:28:00.000-07:00

well, not too scary, but momentarily exciting!

There are some huge trees on my street, trees so big you feel as if a really significant storm blew threw here they'd fall and wreck whatever was in their path. My car and apartment are in their path. I'm not as at risk as several of my other neighbors are, but I still have a little anxiety about it.

About 10:30 PM a month ago, I heard this really loud crash. It was warm and my windows were open, so it sounded like it was happening right out front. I immediately checked my car, and all was well. I noticed my cat bolting down the street, so at first I thought he was responsible for the loud noise that I just heard. Then I noticed up the street a little there were a few neighbors outside standing around what looked like giant branches. So I joined the group and we talked about the situation a little. I went to bed and early the next morning as I was leaving for work, I went over, surveyed the damage in the light and took a few pictures.

It wasn't too bad and only took out the cable line for the people across the street. I don't even have cable so it's no worry to me. In comparison to the size of the tree, one of the medium-sized branches fell, and landed mostly on the strip of land between the sidewalk and street. Things could have been worse, especially given the size of the tree. I don't know who was responsible for cleaning it up, but when I got home from work that day the whole thing was gone without a trace, as if it never happened.

off the radar!

2008-07-31T19:19:00.000-07:00

yeah I've been off the radar lately. I guess I've been so caught up in life offline that I'm not updating my pictures and blog as much as I should. Tons of things are going on and I have a camera full of pictures, but I'm not home as much, and when I am I'm doing other things, like homework, now that I'm back in school. I've also been really busy at work lately. Some evenings when I get home I'm just burnt out from using a computer all day, so I read or cook elaborate multi-step dishes, such as marionberry turnovers or potato salad. On weekends I've been doing a lot of hiking or out-of-town stuff; I want to maximize my summer and explore this incredible and beautiful part of the county.

...so tonight I had some time to upload pictures and thought it'd be a great time to update. I also plan on uploading and updating more regularly. I have some ambitious hikes planned for the next couple of months and have a few great hikes behind me so far...so far it's been a nice and fun summer.

the further mysteries of dreamland

2008-07-07T20:27:00.001-07:00

I've been having some more strange dreams lately. In some cases I wake with a full recollection of my dream but as the day progresses they slip away like a tide taking out a sandcastle too close to the shoreline. In other cases (like the last dream I wrote about) some elements are so shocking they clearly stand out in my mind.

I can remember a really intense dream I had when I was about 7 years old. It had such an impact on me it was as if I dreamt it last night. I don't remember all the details of it, but I remember basically I was in my room and the house was on fire. The fire was working its way over to my room and my door and wall around the door started to burn. I also distinctly remember a fern plant I had hanging on a hook in my room. I remember some setting details so vividly it's as if my old room still exists somewhere in the space/time vacuum. I had pepto bismol pink walls, and a giant map of the world on the wall space above my bed. There was some molding affixed around the map and painted pink to give the appearance of it being a framed picture. I had a twin bed with a tiny pink checkered bedspread. Immediately to the left of the bed was a closet door; a single door with a brass colored knob. Dark brown cork covered the upper half of the door that was missing and ripped off around the bottom edges.

This was the wall where the fire had breached my room. I remember feeling very afraid and anxious. I also remember acting quickly and fashioning my bedsheets and bedspread into a makeshift rope to escape from. As I climbed up into the window to free myself, I remember knocking the fern off of the hook. It fell to the floor and half-spilled out of the pot it was in.

After I reached the ground, I noticed that the neighbor's house was on fire too. I remember starting to feel afriad again, but then having an epiphany that really makes no sense. In this dream, the epiphany was that the fire I was seeing on the neighbor's house was only watercolor paint. This makes no sense whatsoever to me, but in the dream it was a real "duh!" moment. Somehow that relieved me because I drew the conclusion that the fire on my house must have been watercolor paint too, and my house was going to be okay.

The dream I had last night has just about completely washed away; I remember jumping through these wormhole portals, but having no control over where I was ending up. At one point I came up in a construction site, and another time I emerged into an unfamiliar city park. I also returned a few times to the foyer of a large old house.

I really enjoy having science fiction dreams or action dreams where I generally have the advantage or get some serious vengeance. Too bad I couldn't get a handle on the wormhole thing before I woke up.

I'm a slacker

2008-06-29T18:32:00.000-07:00

A big slacker, it's been over a month since I last updated my blog with a new entry. But that doesn't mean that I've had about 10 half-started ideas I wanted to expand upon; and the amount of significant bloggable things I've neglected to mention and let just pass by is amazing. Space Shuttles have launched and landed about 2 times since my last entry--2 for 2; none blew up this time. We've got all these theories about Mars flying around and there's all sorts of political things going on, the weather's going crazy, gas prices are exorbitant (and expect to reach $5 a gallon by the end of summer) and I've a lot of pictures and had a couple of notable adventures.

And last Tuesday was my first day back to school in about 13 years. They tell me most of my old credits are transferable, but I have yet to notice them show up in my web-based student password portal place. School (so far) is fun, much more fun then I remember from 13 years ago. Of course so far I've only been back for not even a week, but it feels different. I feel like this time around I have a passion to learn, where before it was more a matter of registering with my friends, and signing up for the same classes they had to take or whatever randomly sounded good. That's why I have credit for an oceanography class. I also took a class called "Biological Issues." I don't have much of a recollection of some of these classes, but I seem to remember watching a lot of movies in Oceanography and opting to sleep.

Looking at my transcript now, I can't imagine I ever would have been interested in some of the subjects I took if it weren't for Curt and Jesus registering for it at the same time I was registering. I think my last college experience wasn't serious and I treated it more like I was hopping on the high school part II bandwagon.

I've developed a strong affinity for bacon lately. So strong it compelled me to purchase a package of bacon last weekend. I made the entire package for breakfast and what I didn't eat for breakfast I put on my chicken pizza for dinner. Damn it was good and I know of a few fellow bacon lovers who would agree and ask me why I hadn't made this discovery sooner.

I've had some weird dreams lately too. Maybe it's all the bacon I've recently consumed? I also think when I am dealing well with anxiety in waking life it has to come out somewhere and dreamland is the only place more unpredictable then the awake world. At least the awake world follows general rules of order, gravity and logic. Not in dream world though. And in true chaotic fashion my dreams are not complete dreams, but fragmented portions of dream that distort reality and blur the line between the waking world and the sleep world.

I had a dream last night I was in a big pool at night, hiding from some people in a building who were shooting at me. I kept swimming to the bottom, and would come up in the corner and quickly gasp for air before swimming to the bottom again. But underwater was all clear, it wasn't the blurry murky world below the water's surface. The real disturbing part of this dream (as if someone shooting at you wasn't enough) was whenever a friend came into the water to see me or help me escape, they would get shot and before long there were 4 or 5 bodies of friends floating around. But they weren't friends I currently know; they were the manufactured dream world of friends, for example one of my "friends" was a personal trainer I see at the gym every morning. I've never talked to him and don't know what his name is, but in my dream his name was Larry and he drove a Volvo. And was wearing plaid shorts. I'm not sure about the shirt, I'm thinking a white argyle shirt, but I'm positive about the shorts. Now I've only seen this personal trainer wearing the red and black garb or our gym's trainer colors, so I find it interesting that I dreamt he was wearing something other then the only thing I've ever seen him in. I think before Larry was shot he brought me a strange set of several keys, not your run of the mill house or car keys, but weird elongated keys with weird teeth patterns cut into them. I think this set of keys eventually opened a panel underwater in the wall of the pool and I was able to access a door and escape into the building (which I perceived to be a guard house) where the shooter was shooting from. I woke up after that, but I remember not feeling scared in my dream at that point, I think I was determined to kick the shooter's ass.

It's really beautiful this cloudy Sunday afternoon. Yesterday it was really hot, perhaps the hottest day of the year. I think it got up to 98 degrees, it was great. Today was a bit cooler (about 87 degrees) and started out sunny, but this afternoon thunderclouds moved in. We rarely have thundershowers here and today is one of those lucky occasions. I haven't seen any lightning yet but the old familiar rumbling has been lingering for about an hour now. Happy June 29th.

dropping by and The Big 80's

2008-05-21T17:02:00.000-07:00

I have a pet peeve…it is work related as I’m sure a great percentage is. Someone “dropped by” to find out if I could print out their work history. Usually that’s the kind of thing that I can’t pull up on a whim, I need time to read through scanned documents to find relevant materials. So I’m super busy and tell the receptionist to get their contact information and I’ll look into it and contact them when I have something.

So now I have time to look up this person’s info and they’ve been working with us for a while, and there’s not too much in their personnel file so I don’t know why they didn’t just call me. I printed off the application the employee filled out when he first applied to work with us and the employment section is blank! What the fuck are they expecting me to produce in regard to “employment history?” and why do they want me to call them so they can come pick it up? Can’t I just tell them over the phone what day they started?

So I call this person in question and he (or she, I’m not sure which and the name doesn’t give a clue) isn’t home. Someone else answers who seems like they’re still in the learning phase of English. I ask I can leave a message and am met with silence. So I say “work history?” and the person on the other ends says, “yah, yah, the work stuff.” So I say which work stuff, because there’s not a lot I can print out, the application is blank. Again, silence. “Okay,” I resign myself to the communication barrier, “I’ll call back tomorrow.” I noticed on the message the receptionist took there was a message number. So I dial the message number and on the fifth ring I am subjected to the longest rap song-message intro ever. Seriously, all chock full of mother-fuckers and weapon references, for so long I contemplated hanging up. But I hung tough then left a detailed message. I hope the person receiving the message understands more English then the person who answered at the other number. Based on the intro song, they at least understand some element in rap music. Not that I have anything against it, I think I was more annoyed at the length of time I had to endure the song before I could leave a message.

On a side bar, I’m all up and down the satellite radio channel but keep going back to “big 80’s.” Am I trapped in the 80’s? I’m sure on some level I am. I have been considering getting my hair feathered lately. Big 80’s is the only station in which I know every song that’s playing. Now I also like the old school rap station and the heavy metal stations, I’m also open to electronica stuff. But I keep gravitating back to the 80’s. I’m not sure why; I’ve been into decades of music. I mean the 80’s station is even beating out the classic rock station, and I spent several years listening to classic rock.

And on a completely different note, I just noticed there’s a booger on my mouse. I hope it’s mine.

mystery ritual part II

2008-05-12T19:06:00.000-07:00

The neighbor behind me was at it again last night. He started the ritual at 9:30 and it didn't end until about midnight. I was so annoyed and tired while I listened to the repetitive water on 20 seconds/water off 30 seconds followed by the weird banging and occasional squeaking.

I planned to sleep in about a 1/2 hour to I wouldn't be so tired when I got to work when I was woken up by the strange ritual again at 5:30 AM! Based on some simple math, this neighbor guy (who looks an awful lot like Harry Potter) had gotten just as much if not less sleep then I last night. I got out of bed and started my day, there would be no rest for me listening to that. I can't for the life of me figure out what he is doing in there.

Well, let me be honest right here and let you know I'm a big chicken. I had the opportunity to ask Harry about what he was doing and I blew it. Harry came down to put his laundry in the washer just as I was moving my last load into the dryer. He asked me if I had more to go and I told him the washer was all his. I thought for a moment about the water ritual and almost asked him, I was going to put a "curiosity" spin on my question, not a bitchy "you're keeping me awake asshole" remark. I opened my mouth and hesitated; then some other words came out. I made weird small talk about how lost laundry socks have a way of finding themselves back to their owners. He exchanged some commentary about the washer and then I left. And here I am, still wondering what Harry Potter's up to behind me.

I know someone commented that he might be running a meth lab in my last post, but now I'm thinking he's conducting some kind of strange experiment. Maybe he's trying to energize water droplets with radioactivity so he could mutate and become the next comic book hero. Radioactive H20 man!

great weekend.

2008-05-04T17:02:00.000-07:00

This weekend was great. I've done fun and new things with new people and it feels like spring is finally really here. The shining sun is a welcome sight after this extended winter we had. Hopefully the sun is here to stay. I've spent the weekend outdoors feeling the elements and enjoying the blooming foliage.

Yesterday I went for a hike with my new friend Bridget to Dog Mountain, located on the Washington side of the Columbia River gorge. Dog mountain wasn't blooming with yellow balsamroot yet, there were still snow patches and snow fields to contend with. The higher we got, the worse the weather got. Not that it was bad, the peak was enveloped in fast moving densely moist and chilly clouds. As we ascended the wind whipped harder, my layers felt heavy with moisture and the colder the breeze was. I want to go back in a few weeks when the snow is mostly gone to see the mountainside in brilliant bloom, but I'm glad I went on Saturday because the phenomena of snow and cloud was amazing:

Nice view at the summit, ha! About a 2820 foot climb from the trailhead. whew!

The weather was strange in that at lower elevations everything was mossy green lush Pacific Northwest typical woods. It's been so uncharacteristically chilly lately that the snow line is still relatively low. We literally packed a variety of things, I wore layers from t-shirt to sweat shirt to jacket and at one point I could have used gloves too.

I have a more pictures of yesterday's adventure on Dog Mountain on my Flickr photoset.

I also met some great people on Sunday.

Armando is a graphic artist who recently moved to Portland from Washington, D.C.

Lefty is a street musician originally from Long Island, NY.

Christina (also known on Flickr as "Barbiecore") designs, makes and sells her own clothing and accessories. I met her on Flickr about 6 months ago, but today was the first time I got to meet her in person.

Ashley makes and sells fused glass jewelry. She has a booth in the Portland Saturday Market sort of under the Burnside Bridge. She works a day job in an office but her true passion is to make and sell her jewelry.

It was beautiful today; the weather couldn't have been better.

mystery ritual

2008-04-27T22:47:00.000-07:00

the neighbor’s kitchen is behind my headboard, on the other side of my bedroom wall, and right around when I want to go to sleep they begin a strange ritual of running the water for 10 to 20 seconds and follow up with an unidentifiable something noisy for about 30 seconds. They repeat this process for at least an hour. Sometimes they mix up the running water and banging cycle with foot stomping, then walking to the other end of the kitchen, pause for a few moments, then pound back to the sink where the 10-20 seconds of water on resumes. When I’m in bed and this is going on, I’m so distracted I can’t sleep. Last night it woke me up; they started performing the weird water ritual about 12:30 and I swear I had just dropped off into a pleasant and relaxing R.E.M. cycle. It’s about 10:30 and I’ve wanted to go to bed for about a ½ hour now but I’m waiting for the strange ritual to cease.

If they were just doing something normal like dishes I don’t think I would care and could get to sleep. But when they turn the water on and the off so soon there’s a noise the pipes make, a kind of pressurized thud that happens in the wall separating me from the sink of origin. That “thud” is what jolted me awake last night. It’s a real inconvenience and it’s not even something I can really complain about because it’s not like they’re deliberately having a drunken party or playing video games too loud. They’re just doing something with the kitchen sink every 10 to 20 seconds.

I have no idea what is going on back there. At first I considered that maybe the people that lived there were doing dishes, but the amount of time spent repeating this cycle would either indicate they are doing a boatload of dishes (which I doubt) or they were filling up a 50 gallon aquarium. And I can’t imagine they’d have to fill the aquarium up more then once. I thought maybe the guy who lived there was mentally ill but you can hear conversation sometimes, like it’s a guy who lives there but his girlfriend is hanging out in the kitchen while he’s doing the weird water thing. You can hear normal mundane conversation in the background while all this sloshing, banging and stomping is going on. I thought maybe they cooked elaborate meals and then had to clean up an excessive amount of dishes, but even if only one person was over there doing the dishes they would still get done sooner then the amount of time the water ritual is going on.

Sometimes the strange water ritual is so loud I can hear the water in the pipes and the stomping in the front of my apartment. I can’t for the life of me figure out what is going on and am really intrigued. This has been going on for over an hour now, and I really want to inquire as to what they are doing. I went outside before when I first noticed the ritual walked past my bedroom window and their kitchen window. Their blinds were drawn but I could see a silhouette of a guy in the kitchen at the sink. Doesn’t the girlfriend get bored? What could possibly be going on?? Why does this happen several times a week?? Why can’t this guy just play video games or watch TV like every other normal 20-something.

sping is in the neighborhood

2008-04-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

It's been really beautiful lately, all of a sudden the cherry trees outside of my apartment are starting to bloom, the irises are growing, Rosemary's been in her garden and when the sun shines it's really warm. Spring and summer are especially nice out here in the Pacific Northwest. It's like nowhere else I've been so far; everything is so green and blue, the air smells extra fresh and faintly of a mix of pine needles and freshly baked bread (I think the bread thing is partly due to the fact I've been lucky to live near bakeries in a couple of apartments). I've been spring cleaning and getting rid of things and rearranging, giving my home and work a feel of moving energy.

Going through my old stuff evokes some interesting memories. It feels good to analyze something and determine that I can shred it; it's something behind me and something that won't come up again. I've shredded a ton of stuff in that category, for whatever reason I'm holding onto a decade's worth of stuff.

I think it's time to let it go.

4,000 Americans killed in the war with Iraq

2008-03-24T19:07:00.000-07:00

An article is on CNN.com regarding the president's comments about the 4,00o American servicemen and women killed in the line of duty in this out-of-control violent war with...nobody really in particular...Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, terrorists, an extensive variety of jihad extremists...

While reading the article, this passage caught my eye:

"Of the 4,000 U.S. military personnel killed in the war, 3,263 have been killed in attacks and fighting and 737 in non-hostile incidents, such as traffic accidents and suicides."

I'm sure this article isn't mentioning the amount of servicemen and women who were injured in battle, then go to the hospital for a while and succumb to their injuries. There's many people who have lost limbs, have PTSD, and sustained brain injuries who don't die but hang on for years, trying to get a job, be part of their family, not be freaked out and try to remember what "normal" was.

I can't believe the number of casualties is up to 4,000. There's no exit strategy for this war with Iraq, or War of Terror, or whatever they're calling it, but what's even more alarming is that there has been no measurable progress. The government isn't assembling itself or even remotely running, everything there is a mess, the "Green Zone" is a joke, and every day one or two or more of our friends, family members, neighbors and co-workers doesn't come back.

today is the 5th anniversary of the beginning of the IRAQ war

2008-03-19T19:05:00.001-07:00

When originally pitched to congress, G.W. said it would cost 50 to 60 billion, and take about 18 months to topple Saddam Hussein. Five years later, the war's price tag is up to 600 billion, and by the time the war actually ends, it's expected to cost up to 1 to 2 trillion dollars.

3,992 members of the us military have died. Currently there are 158,000 troops in Iraq. There is still no exit strategy and no clear accounting of how and what the budget is spent on.

It has been 1,833 days since George W. Bush declared the end of the war.

"major combat operations have ended"

There's no system in place or anyone ready to step up and take over Iraq.

For more information, visit http://icasualties.org/oif/.

Remember Afghanistan? News about what's been happening over there can be viewed by visiting http://www.icasualties.org/oef/.

Here's a link to a CNN article about Bush's new all time low approval rating.

oh yeah, and this is my 500th post!

Happy Pi Day!

2008-03-14T18:45:00.000-07:00

Happy Pi Day! What did you do for Pi day? I had some pie, of course.

Le.

2008-03-02T22:16:00.000-08:00

Le is my neighbor, an older woman I met at work a few years ago. I worked pretty closely with her at work and got to know her well. Through the course of small talk I mentioned that I was thinking of moving out of the place I was at. She suggested I come by where she lives because there are a couple of open apartments and the landlord is nice. My current landlord at the time (who is a whole story on it's own) was not taking the news that I was moving out in a month and a half very well and was making things difficult. The prospect of a nice landlord almost seemed like a myth, like unicorns and leprehichauns.

Well, I met the new landlord (Ray and his wife Jill), and I got a good vibe about them. Shortly thereafter I moved to my present apartment, and have to say Ray is the nicest landlord I have ever had in my entire life.

Since Le's older and my neighbor, I feel obligated to be neighborly and help her out from time to time. I never mind though; helping her doesn't take long and one day I’ll be the old lady. Hopefully there will be a young person around the corner available when I need a piece of furniture moved or a light bulb in a ceiling light fixture needs to be changed. There is an incredible abundance of farmer's markets in this city and on Saturday mornings in the spring and summer, Le and I would pick up fresh fruit, produce, smoked salmon and baked goods. Last winter we got a bit of snow, so I swept her porch and walkway, and picked up some groceries at Safeway for her.

I think Le has something going on. Some elderly type of thing. Maybe early dementia, Alzheimer’s…something is definitely is going on. I first suspected this late last summer; I noticed she repeated a story she had literally just told me. About half way through I interrupted and told her the ending. She caught herself, "oh, I just told you that." I thought nothing of this really, I thought maybe she was tired or had something on her mind.

Last year I stated going out to lunch with her and a couple of other old ladies who live nearby. We would do this monthly and all meet at a Village Inn, Denny's, or some other type of divey place. I started to realize that even though Le is the same age of these other women (mid 60's), Le seemed a little slower then the other ladies. Le's reaction time to questions and actions has been steadily getting longer. The other two old ladies are still employed and are very computer savvy. Albeit they pursue research of cat photos and busybody message boards, they are active and involved—their minds are sharp. Le kind of knew how to use a computer, but has lost the skills she had a few years ago and has no interest in owning one. Her health has deteriorated a bit since I've known her, and she seems to often be a little swollen or shaky, so her fine motor skills for computer use are restricted in some way. Sometimes Le looks a little tired or swollen. She seems to get out of breath going from her apartment door to my car, which I park right in front of her apartment. And any closer and I'd be on the grass between the curb and her door.

So maybe last month Le and I went out to lunch without the other old ladies. We went to this great greasy spoon diner place up the street called "The Brite Spot." They serve good ol' American Breakfasts and have a straight up no nonsense menu. I ordered a spinach and Swiss omelet, and waitress goes through the motions of asking me what kind of potatoes and toast do I want. I answer, and then she turns to Lee and asks her what she'd like to order. Le looks up at her, and said, "I'll have what she's having." The waitress poses the same toast and potato query to Le, and Le stares blankly ahead and doesn’t answer. After an uncomfortable pause, the waitress asks her again, and then looks at me. I started to get a little concerned, and said to the waitress, "just give her wheat." Le looks at me and snaps out of it, and asks, "Oh, did someone say something?" So I told her the waitress wanted to know what kind of toast you want. Le looks at the waitress and says, "Oh, I'll have wheat please."

The remainder of the ordering and breakfast seemed to go off without a hitch, but I thought the way she spaced out was odd.

I ended up missing out on our February lunch so rescheduled again with Le for today. I usually call and confirm with her the day before our lunch, but was busy and forgot. In the past, Le had been very meticulous about writing our lunches or plans in her calendar, so it didn't occur to me that she would forget.

So, as scheduled, I show up at 10:45. I knock at her door; no answer. I ring her doorbell, and after a minute Le opens the door. She looked as if she had literally just gotten out of bed and threw a robe on. Her hair was all disheveled, buttons on her robe were buttoned wrong, and she had a real confused look on her face. "Oh, were we supposed to go somewhere today?" she asked with a worried look on her face. Boy, this wasn't a good sign. “Yeah, we were supposed to go to lunch,” I tell her, “but we can reschedule if you want.” I didn’t think she was in any shape to go out to lunch.

Le insisted: “No, no, I want to go, I need to get out of the house.” I asked her if she was sure, she was adamant about going to lunch and invited me in while she quickly got ready. “I’ll just be 20 minutes,” she yelled from the bathroom while I made myself comfortable and pet her cat.

20 minutes later Le emerges and we head out to Applebee’s. I usually try to steer her away from these types of places, but she had gift cards she wanted to use. She did ordered the same thing I did, and I ordered the healthy option with fresh fruit instead of fries. Le seemed a little pale and out of it on the ride over, so I asked her how everything was. She said fine, but I’d have to forgive her if she seems a little tired because she just got home from the hospital. She went on to explain how she ended up in the hospital, but it was conveyed by means of a bunch of disconnected fragments. Le also said that the landlady and neighbor came over to her house and said she needed to go to the hospital. The way she described it, it sounded like an intervention. I think Le’s words were, “Jill brought Vicki as backup to make me go to the hospital.” In the middle of all of this, Le mentioned they did a cat scan and found a brain aneurysm. That definitely doesn’t sound good.

In my observations I have to say Le’s gone from keeping a meticulous calendar and often arranging lunch or events on our block to not remembering dates or appointments. Earlier today I saw Jill (the landlady involved in the intervention) and her husband Ray, and asked them what they could tell me about Le and shared my experiences and observations. Ray said that Le was really upset the other day thinking someone had stolen her laundry when actually she hadn’t brought it down to the laundry room at all. Jill noticed that she has a hard time remembering dates and following though on things to completion. Jill also told me Le’s brother and sister in law were heavily involved, and Le didn’t mention her brother at all when we had lunch.

I don’t think this is a good sign. I told Ray and Jill to call me if anything comes up or if they need anything with regard to Le. Le’s sold her car and isn’t getting out as much these days. A while ago Le was thinking of moving to an assisted living facility but then changed her mind because she loves this neighborhood so much. She’s lived here for over 16 years, and I have to agree it is a great neighborhood. I wouldn't want to move either.

bissextile

2008-02-29T22:01:00.000-08:00

what the hell is leap year all about anyhow?

why is it every 4 years we tack an extra day onto the end of February?

after briefly consulting wikipedia, it has something to do with the amount of time it takes the earth to travel around the sun. Apparently it takes approximately 365 days and 6 hours to complete a revolution around the sun, and when they were figuring out the calendar I guess someone came up with a system to just add a day every 4 years to compensate for the extra 6 hours. But the wikipedia entry is kind of convoluted because it then goes into how it's not exactly 6 hours and that leads me to believe the whole leap day thing is some weird bullshit thing we weird humans do. It's like a ritual or tradition or something.

On a side bar, the bissextile wikipedia entry argues and attempts to justify the leap day by stating. "Because seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of full days, a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would, over time, drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track."

I think it's strange that as human kind we observe this Gregorian calendar with it's leap day quirks.

I find it interesting that it takes approximately 6 hours beyond 365 days for the earth to complete a revolution around the sun. Everything always goes back to space. Since man has been around and recording things, it seems he's looked at the sky and stars, evolved and developed technology that allows us to travel into space, land on the moon, and now we're building a space station (when we're not busy shooting down "weather" satellites).

I've had a busy month and missed out on blogging about all the space stuff that's been going on. I did closely watch the shuttle launch and latest endeavor, the lunar eclipse (very cool), and of course, the bullshit "shoot the dangerous weather satellite" situation. Which seems very intersting, especially since they did more harm then good by shooting it. I read an article somewhere (that I forgot and can't cite) that stated that any particles more the 4 inches in diameter pose a hazard to spacecraft (read "hazard to all future shuttle missions"). I don't know why the military and others who think this was a good idea can't equate that

blowing something up = changing it from 1 big piece to many many small jagged pieces

I mean this concept just seems like common sense. You don't need no college degree to figure that one out. So, okay, we have some anti-missile and satellite weapons we're itching to use. Why is what we did any different from what the Chinese did on January 11th, 2007? Who are the U.S. to criticize and get their panties in a twist over suspected demonstration of military capabilities when here we are just a little more then a year later doing the same thing?? It's amazing.

And how about the moon the other night, the lunar eclipse. could you feel the pull of the eclipse? I sure did. I totally felt it sucking my life force. I went onto my front porch and was overwhelmed by the pull; it felt completely magnetic. I do believe that the moon has an effect on many things, definitely all animals and plants. The moon has such an powerful impact on the tides, the globe's oceans and the weather; the moon is an amazing, continuous force. Since humans are comprised of between 55% and 65 % water and our brains are comprised of 80% water, I have to think that effects us somehow.

It's all connected.

Space is so much bigger then us. We have no clue and are wrapped around our condensed existence. We can't even comprehend space, I don't think at this stage of our evolution we don't have the capacity tu comprehend space. We're off to a crude, shaky and dangerous start, but we've also made progress and are learning things. But the whole world has to work together. None of this "China can't shoot down a satellite but it's okay if we do it" bullshit. It's counter productive and impeding technological progress. I don't think space is where it's at, but I do think there are other civilizations existing on other planets in different galaxies or dimensions. Space is the place you have to go to get there. I wonder who first thought to call it "space." I suppose that comes from a shortened version of the word "outer space."

Remember that bad movie with Martin Short, "Innerspace"?

Remember when the Challenger blew up? I was a horrified 8th grader, sitting in science class watching the launch on TV with the rest of the class. We remained silent after it blew up on TV, not really understanding what went on, when some kid in the back of the room asked out loud, "did it just blow up?" That was in 4th period. By 7th period, all of the jokes were going around. I still know a bunch of them.

lunar eclipse

2008-02-20T19:16:00.001-08:00

can you feel the pull of the eclipse? Humans are comprised of between er, the moon has an effect on a globe of oceans and weather, I have to think that effects us somehow.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_of_the_human_brain_is_water

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_water_is_in_the_human_body

a different side of google street view...

2008-02-18T08:37:00.000-08:00

Invisible Absurdities

2008-02-06T20:55:00.000-08:00

A co-worker and I were laughing today about the amount of paper clips in this tray:

We have to clock in and check our mailboxes every day; this tray BRIMMING with paper clips sits on the counter along with the time clock and giant mailbox slot thing. I think I first noticed this when I started working for this company. My first day on the job I was learning how to clock in and looked over and saw the tray in the picture above. I thought "boy, they must use a lot of paper clips here!" After I settled in at work I learned there's many small containers and boxes of paper clips scattered throughout the facility.

While we were laughing we never noticed or addressed that orange brown block. I think it's an eraser; I'll have to investigate further tomorrow.

Funny thing though, over the years this paper clip tray kind of blended into the rest of the environment and subsequently became invisible. I wonder who originally put that there? I'd love to play a prank for a day and hide it to see if anyone notices. I've never seen anyone grab a handful and haven't even heard anyone comment about it before. Why is every compartment filled with paper clips? Is someone using the paper clips from here? If so, who's replenishing them when they run low?

I think pens maybe would be a more sensible item to leave out and available; I'm always looking for a pen that writes. I usually have my own "special pen" but it ran out of ink and I have to get another one.

I'm sure there's other examples of this weirdness all over my work place in different forms, and it's probably in yours too--all these strange nuances and informal customs...my gosh, what do the aliens think about all this?

interesting people

2008-02-04T21:01:00.000-08:00

There's a lot of interesting people who go to a job fair. It's a whole sub-culture that exists in it's own timeless bubble. We are all players in a locally traveling troupe of employment, recruitment and opportunity as if we were Cirque Du Soliel.

snow day

2008-01-28T22:09:00.000-08:00

I was greeted this morning by a thin layer of semi-frozen slush on my windshield. It was a little inconvenient because I haven't broken down and invested in an ice scraper yet, but after about 5 minutes warming up the car the defrost cleared the windshield and I was on my way to work. The Portland area generally has a handful of days where we encounter winter-ish precipitation, and in most cases the small mess melts or dissipated in 24 hours. So this morning I didn't really notice anything unusual, maybe a little accumulation of wet slush to cover front yards and dormant vehicles. The roads were clear and it the air didn't feel as cold and dry as it had been--even though the sun was out last week the temp averaged in the mid-20's, everything was frozen. It didn't seem that cold today, I didn't feel I needed my scarf as I began my day.

After I get to work, I quickly scan the local news and find out that several schools in the area either have a 2-hour delay or are closed completely for a "snow day." I didn't see which communities had the delays and snow days; of course if the part of town has more altitude then the valley floor I understand if the weather's different. But I really think that some of the Portland area schools that had snow days could have opened. Nobody had to plow anything for Chrissake! I think they threw some deicer out on some treacherously curved roads and the interstate. I made it to work on time and I even stopped at the coffee shop on the way. I think all the school closures are just silly. The news spends all morning giving special coverage, blow by blow descriptions by live and on-the-scene reporters. "Hi I'm Suzy Smith in front of Franklin Elementary which has closed due to the dangerous weather out here..." meanwhile the property Suzy is standing in front of has barely any white patches of snow on it. I don't know why people freak out around here, especially with them all being so close to Mt. Hood and everyone so into skiing and snowboarding. Every other Subaru driving around has a snowboard box on the roof rack.

A significant amount of snow fell here in 2003. It wasn't too bad, but they don't plow right away around here and it causes a bigger mess. When they do plow, they only plow main streets, no residential streets. The main streets aren't plowed well because they had spent two days becoming a packed frozen block. I had the opportunity to watch a bus collide with the traffic light pole at the end of my block. It was kind of funny and it happened in slow motion. The bus driver got off the bus, lit up a cigarette, and I asked him if he was okay. "Yes, " he replied, puffing on his smoke, "and right now ends my shift today." I asked if he needed to call anyone and he said no, he had called and was waiting for another bus to come pick up the passengers (who were still all on the bus). I said goodbye and went on my way.

When I was a young lass going to school in the Northeast, I don't remember many snow days. I think once when I was in kindergarten the winter of '78 we stayed home a day. But I distinctly remember my father shoveling all day long. I remember the car was buried. I think when I was in 3rd grade we also had a snow day.

Big Jake and Jerome

2008-01-22T20:58:00.001-08:00

the Big Jake alternate

I need to get the chocolate Jerome to complete Jerome's set.

hook, line and sinker

2008-01-10T19:37:00.000-08:00

U.S. Airways sucks Ass with a capital "A."

...so I'm marooned in McCarran airport in Las Vegas right now, waiting to get on the next departing plane to Tampa to visit my dad and family for a long weekend. When I made the flight plans initially, I had a close connecting flight (like 26 minutes to get from one plane to the next) so as you can imagine I had a siginifcant amount of anxiety. I took several steps to ensure that I would make my connection, or at least have the chances of making that connection in my favor. Some of these steps included calling U.S. Airways and trying to get an aisle seat towards the front of the plane and neurotically pestering every flight attendant I encountered at the ticket counter, at the airline gate and on the plane. Of course when I got to my original departing gate I noticed there was a 1/2 hour discrepancy between the time the plane was leaving on the marque and the time on my ticket (not in my favor either). I reiterated my concerns to a batallion of flight attendants and some of the reassuring bullshit they fed me were lines such as:

"Don't worry, we'll gain time going to Las Vegas because we're riding on tailwinds."

"We'll get there a 1/2 hour earlier the scheduled, so you won't notice the difference and still make your connection."

"Well, you connection is running an hour late from it's point of origin so you'll have time to spare to get to your next plane."

In my naivety I bought the reasoning they gave me and as we were landing the captain made a sort of back pedal comment to the affect of "uhhh...some of you may have missed your connecting flights, we will have a U.S. Airways representative at the gate to help you make arrangements for the next flight.

Great. The first thing I thought was this message applied to me. The eternity that passes from the moment the plane parks and the time the doors open and passengers start filtering out is amazing. So after I get off the plane and into the terminal wing there's no agent waiting for me, and it's a really unfamiliar place. I have to get my bearings and there's no maps or any clear signage to direct me to where I need to go. I confirm with the monitors that my flight had taken off 10 minutes ago. So the bullshit about my connection being behind an hour was something to placate me and after I weed my way through the maze of slot machines I find the U.S. Airways customer service desk.

The people working at the desk seemed extra tired, like they were pulling double shifts or something. The woman who helped me had dark circles under her dark circles. I explained the whole thing to her and she shook her head and said, "never believe what the flight attendants or the pilots tell you." Great, next time I won't I guess. I mean, what are my options? The customer service woman prints up my tickets and informs me that the next flight to Tampa is the red eye, which leaves about 7 hours from when I was standing there. 7 hours?? I asked if I could have a free round trip ticket or a meal or something, but my request was met with an "nooo, I'm sorry ma'am, we can't do that for you."

I take a seat briefly to call my ride in Tampa and let the family know my new arrival times. While I was on the phone, the crew who were on my last plane who assured me I would make my connection walked by. I started harassing them, I said "thanks for the flight guys. Guess what? I missed my plane. Thanks, yeah, have a great night, enjoy your next probably on time flight." They didn't even acknowledge me. Jerks.

So I take my ticket and leave, annoyed but trying to make the best of it because I really don't have any options. I noticed the departing gate on the ticket was F28, which seemed weird to me because I don't remember seeing an "F" wing. After wandering around here for a 1/2 hour, I asked a TSA agent if there was a map or floor plan somewhere. He looked at me as if I had 6 heads, so I proceeded to explain what brought me to the point of meeting him. I showed him my ticket, and the letter "S" is stamped all over it. The TSA guy told me that means I've been singled out for extra security screening and I won't be let on the plane.

What?? As you could imagine I was really annoyed now. I marched back to the tired lady who printed this ticket for me and relayed the conversation with the TSA guy. She was annoyed and told me he was wrong to tell me that. Then she was asking me who told me that. I didn't get his name but I told her it was the guy who was sitting by the exit to baggage claim. She reassured me again that I wouldn't need extra security screening and the gate information would be released a few hours prior to departure.

Okay, problem solved, now I just have to bide my time.

At one point I played $2 on slot machines, won $12 then lost it all. Ahhh, such is Vegas. I'm not a gambler and feel guilty even giving up that $2. But I'm sure I spent less then some of the other slot zombies spent.

Las Vegas is an interesting airport. I haven't been here for about 10 years, and didn't really remember anything about it except there were slot machines right in your face as you stepped off the plane. That hasn't changed. I'm trapped behind the security area, going between Terminals A and B. I sit in a spot for a while, watch people, use the internet (McCarran Airport's only saving grace is free wi-fi) and watch TV shows on my computer. Then I move to a different spot and do the same thing all over again.

City of Las Vegas

The power outlet situation here is kind of weird; there's no outlets in the gate areas. I thought I found some floor outlets but after I flipped the brass lid there were only empty holes beneath. There are places to use electricity hough; there are these uncomfortable metal bar stools in front of a Verizon display touting free electricity, a bar with about 12 outlets on it. So I sit in the comfy chairs and wear my battery down then move over to the uncomfortable metal stools and recharge.

I'm sitting in the Gate B2 area, where I think my plane will depart from (unless there's another gate change or problem). This areas pretty empty with the exception of a few lone travelers like me and then there's two chatty flight attendants sitting a few rows in front of me. It's a pretty man (wearing a lot of jewelery and has really nice hair) and a heavy set woman. They seem to be talking about co-worker or something that's coming off as gossipy. I have my headphones in but no music playing (thanks for the idea cuz!) so I can be aware of what's going on around me. I'm paranoid and lived in NY for a while so I'm constantly surveying my surroundings, watching people in window reflections to see if they're watching me, to make sure no harm comes to me. Not that it will, it's just the paranoid part of me speaking now.

Speaking of paranoia, I only brought carry on luggage with me for this trip and I'm glad I did because I don't know if I checked luggage when it would ever get to Tampa. I've heard horror stories from people about having their luggage lost for days.

There's an amazing variety of people coming through here. The travelers could be divided into two major groups--people moving fast, catching planes, arriving and getting to their hotels or home, then the slow movers (like me), dejected, despondent individuals killing time until their delayed or next plane leaves. Those two groups could be divided into sub-groups--fancy dressed people who smell like money, average joes connecting to flights, degenerate gamblers, people from foreign countries (again, sub groups--big families or business travelers), and old non-descript people who could fit into any of the sub-groups.

I just looked up and the heavy set flight attendant was staring at me, then quickly looked away. I'm not getting anything to eat or drink on this next flight because she'll put her dirty poo finger inside my cup and serve me water with those E.coli germs mixed in my beverage.

Okay they left. I heard her say something about the break room so I'm off the hook from that stare-fest.

Another flight update--my departing gate has been moved to gate A23. Trust me when I say it's a journey from B2 to A23. Not much in the way of stuff to do here, and for the Las Vegas area I must say I'm disappointed. There's a Fox Sports Bar, The Budweiser Lounge (barf), 2 Starbucks, a Burger King, some sandwich place I got a Southwestern Turkey Club from, a frozen yogurt place, an oxygen bar, a fancy candy by the pound place, and several empty areas that seem like they are waiting for an airport improvement. Many many slot machines, either in glass walled rooms or just out in the open.

One thing that's really annoying is there's these really aggressive U.S. Airways customer service agents standing at these tables all over the airport, opening up a conversation by asking if I'm interested in something free, a free flight or cash, some kind of ridiculous hook to get me to stop and hear the rest of their schpeil. So everyone at these tables that asks me I bitch to them how I'm stuck at this airport for over 7 hours and nobody from U.S. Airways offered me a free flight, free meal, sincere apology for abusing my trust...the least they could do is give me a free stuffed animal or pilots hat.

There's signs all over the place here advertising shows in Vegas and one that caught my eye was this game show event people could go to. It seemed audience members are picked to play some kind of games for money by either Bob Eubanks, Chuck Woolery or Jamie Farr. Now I get Bob Eubanks and Chuck Woolery. But Jamie Farr?? Corporal Klinger from M*A*S*H? What does he have to do with game shows? I'm glad those guys are working and all, but the big advertisement is scary. Bob Eubanks' pants are practically hiked up to his armpits. And all three have several crows feet on each eye. It's a whole flock of crows on their eyes. They look way too tan and very creepy.

So I'm over at gate A23 now, and there's another group of gossipy flight attendants. The night is much quieter the the day. I can clearly hear the distinct different dings and beeps from different slot machines. There's constant loudspeaker announcements that are so hard to hear and understand I think the NYC subway announcements are clearer. I like watching people play the slot machines; some of them look so determined. Everyone's carrying a Starbucks cup. If I drink coffee now I'll be up on that entire red eye. Hopefully I can sleep and wake up in a warm, sunny, tropical place. It's about 52 degrees in Las Vegas right now, I have 2 shirts and a hooded sweatshirt on and I'm cold. I keep putting my hood up like Obi Wan Kenobi. I wish I could have used a jedi mind trick earlier to get the plane here on time, or at least get something for my trouble.

I have a good seat and don't want to get up and go to the bathroom and risk losing it. My ass is starting to hurt. I can't wait to get there.

say it isn't so

2007-12-12T22:27:00.000-08:00

I was surfing around some entertainment news when I stumbled upon this article:

‘Knight Rider’ is back

Wondering what you’ll do with your February if there are no new TV shows to watch? Well, one night is taken care of. NBC announced that “Knight Rider” will return Feb. 17 as a two-hour movie event. Among the stars of the film: David Hasselhoff will reprise his role as Michael Knight, and Will Arnett of “30 Rock” will be the voice of Kitt.

Boy I hope it doesn't come to this. I'm kind of curious, I have to admit. That David Hasselhoff is quite a character, and back in the day he was quite the cheese. He's still cheese, but also kind of scary, sad, drunk, pompous and vain.

I used to really be into this show. I thought the technology was really advanced, but re-watching this intro makes me realize it's just lame special effects. I like how there was the standard 'hot chick' mechanic who worked on K.I.T.T., leaning over the hood of the car in a provocative way. I completely forgot about that old dude. Who was he, the placement agent?

What was with the mobile garage in the tractor trailer? Even as a kid I suspected they had that just to add to the cheese stunt driving effects. It seemed so cool at the time. I never had a clue that K.I.T.T. wasn't speed driving, the people producing the show just sped regular film up.

And what was with that steering wheel?? I would not feel comfortable driving that car with a steering wheel like that, but I guess if K.I.T.T. could drive himself I wouldn't worry as much. I'm sure it's in K.I.T.T.'s best interest to correct any erroneous driving that could cause damage. I guess if Michael Knight drank the way David Hasselhoff does he wouldn't have to worry about driving home drunk.

light mayonnaise's polar opposite

2007-12-08T20:39:00.001-08:00

at least they're honest about it.
This product was sold in the convenient 30-gallon bucket size.

portion control?

2007-12-08T19:04:00.000-08:00

When I arrived at work the other day, I was greeted by random hunks of cake on plates. I have to be honest, I don't trust the person I suspect put this cake out. I think he might be one of those "not washing hands after using the rest room" type. Even if they wash their hands, I'm positive they're not conscious of touching door handles, railings, and elevator buttons. I've written before from a workplace where there is public food available. And I don't like it; I'm sure a finger or two was used to get the square of cake out of the pan, and I'm sure the frosting on those dirty fingers was licked off too.

My cube mate took up this offer of community work cake. She took two bites and said, "you know, this really isn't good." It did look weird, the cake seemed like a combination of mixes and the frosting seemed a little glopy and weird. Some pieces of cake on the table had extra glopy dollops of frosting on the cake exposed side of the square.

The only community table of work food items I really trust are things in wrappers. Or if I personally know who made it and get the first or second piece.

NASA is at it again...

2007-12-06T20:32:00.000-08:00

Just in case you started to forget about NASA and their zany antics, here's a link to an article that came out today. It seems they were ready again to launch when someone noticed a faulty fuel sensor or something. As a result, they postponed the launch for a couple of days. News of the postponement particularly disappointed Europeans because The Atlantis was scheduled to lug a bunch of their techno-space stuff up to the International Space Station.

I was reading part of the article that discusses the issue with the fuel sensor and how it works, when I read this line:

The launch could have gone forward if only one of the sensors failed — but two of them gave bad readings on Thursday.

What's that all about??

That's about a blatant lack of quality, that's what. How could they justify launching a shuttle into space with only one sensor working? I think that's a lot different then driving around with one headlight or something. Whether or not the sensors work properly could mean the difference between living or becoming a fiery ball of space dust.

And I can't understand why the Europeans are disappointed. Their space furniture could have been included in the fiery ball of space dust. If they're so concerned about getting their stuff in space why don't they get some other space program to bring it up? What's Richard Branson up to, I'm sure he'd fly the stuff up.

tupperware trading party

2007-12-03T21:43:00.000-08:00

I want to have a Tupperware trading party for everyone who has a bunch of mismatched lids and bottoms floating around their kitchen cabinets. I swear every time I go to put leftovers or tomorrow's lunch away, I find the perfect bottom but no matching lid. And while I'm sorting through both of the places I keep all those crazy things jumbled up, I find lids that seem to cover awesome bottom pieces that are mysteriously gone.

There's go to be other people out there facing the same dilemma. Like you, I can't part with those odd, incomplete misfits and keep tossing them back into the cabinetry abyss in hopes one day the other piece turns up. Rarely do I experience this reunion; once I forgot I put a leaky plant inside of a container with the intention to eventually re-pot it. It was pretty cool to make that discovery.

On a side bar I think Dilemma is one of the tougher words to spell. If it were a game show question I'd more then likely get it wrong. I really put the spell check to the test with the mangle attempted spelling, which came out as "dillema." I guess that isn't too far off the mark. The funny thing about spell check is the possible replacement words it provided were "Guillema," "Guillema's," "Willemstad", "allemande" and "Willem". Those choices really threw me off and it took another couple of stabs spelling it to get it.

Anyway, back to the Tupperware party, I envisioned a bunch of people showing up at some apartment, and maybe it'd be a pot luck bring snacks type of thing. Cookies, appetizers, cheese, crackers, cakes, fruit...possibly beer too, but I'm also open to tea and coffee parties. You could even store some pot luck leftovers in your newly completed container set! Maybe there'd be a big table in the center of the room with a giant piece of paper on the table , and each person who showed up set their pieces on this table and wrote their name next to it to identify who's container it is. Then each person would have to negotiate with the other, but I think a good general rule of thumb would be to give up the lids to the owner of the container, unless the owner of the container declined and let the lid owner keep the set.

In any event, everyone should go home with some leftover snacks!

R.I.P. Evel Knievel

2007-11-30T19:38:00.000-08:00

So long, Evel Knievel. You've inspired us all to try to jump the canyon in a home made rocket. May your broken and weary bones rest in peace.

writer's block

2007-11-25T21:42:00.001-08:00

I noticed this poster on a telephone pole while walking down writer's block.

A lot's been happening and it definitely warrants posting an update soon.

anti-dentitie

2007-11-07T20:49:00.000-08:00

I went to the dentist today and I can't say it was an entirely good experience. I made an emergency appointment yesterday because one of my teeth were hurting and I appreciate that they got me in so quickly. I ended up enduring a variety of medieval torture methods marauding as dentistry for the hour and a half I spent in the chair.

Actually I was in two different chairs--the first was for my x-ray. Why technology can't catch up with this procedure is beyond me. The assistant throws the 500 pound lead apron over my chest that knocks the wind out of me. Then she jams the hard rectangle of x-ray film into my mouth and tells me to bite. I can't bite down because the cardboard is wedged between the roof of my mouth and under my tongue. She repeats for me to bite down a few times as she pulls it out and jams it back in. I try to say "I can't bite down because it's wedged under my toungue and causing a great deal of pain" but all that comes out is "aaarrhhghssc khaaaankd ddnnn." After a few more minutes of her repeating the prompts to bite down, she tells me not to move and runs out of the room. I've always felt that it can't be a good sign if technicians are running away while you're getting an x-ray.

Is anyone working on a safer and less torturous way of getting pictures of our insides??

After the x-ray nightmare I'm escorted into the examination area. I reclined in the chair and wait for the dentist and assistant come back and tell me what's causing the pain. I spent about 40 minutes alternately looking out the window and looking around the room. I thought about taking a nap but I was too jacked up on coffee to sleep. I noticed that several things in the room had a clear plastic bag covering it--the light fixture on the super sun mouth light, the movable tray housing different looking instruments, a small pressurized water tank and a few other things I couldn't really identify. I also noticed a couple of strange looking instruments that weren't covered. Upon closer inspection, I noticed splatters on the splash guards.

That kind of grossed me out. I started thinking about the shared arm rests on the chair and other shared surfaces and became even more grossed out. I suspected that they didn't sanitize too much stuff, I mean how can they possibly clean things between patients? I can't really see in the examination areas too well but I'm pretty sure I didn't see someone go in there and quickly wipe everything down. I know when they work on my mouth there's a fine mist of spray from the use of water tools. That tiny napkin fastened around your neck with roach clips is hardly sufficient and I often have to wipe dental runoff from my neck after I'm proclined (the opposite of recline??)

So after poking, prodding, scraping and drilling (without novacane), the determine that my #30 tooth is cracked and needs to have the filling repacked, needs a crown and possible root canal. I asked about pain killers and my dentist told me to take ibuprofen. I made my next appointments on the way out and can't wait for the next dental adventure. This dentist's visit left me feeling as if I've been chewing on tin foil all day, now in addition to the jaw pain. The chew on tinfoil feeling is one of the worst. It's tied with scratching nails on a chalkboard, or scraping plastic on styrofoam.

I didn't even get a free toothbrush this time! I'll have to be sure to grab two next time. I love doctor's office swag.

coyote at work!

2007-11-05T21:12:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest differences since the clocks were changed an hour back, it's darker earlier in the evening. When we were leaving work today about 5:30, the sun had just set and the sky was a brilliant dark turquoise. One of my co-workers spotted a coyote in the parking lot, and I took this barely recognizable picture:

It appears the only thing the camera documented were two glowing eyes! I wasn't about to get any closer to get a better shot, I got a little nervous when he turned to look at me.

in case you were wondering about the Space Shuttle

2007-11-04T14:10:00.000-08:00

The space shuttle has been docked at the International Space Station. While they were there, the crew of the Endeavor assisted in fixing the screw with the renegade metal filings. To fix the screw, the giant solar wings had to be retracted and the space shuttle moved (I'm still not solid on this one). After the job was completed, as they attempted to re open the wings, they "noticed" a tear in the solar blanket:

Yesterday, an Endeavor crew member engaged in a risky 7 hour space walk operation to fix the tear. The repair spacewalk was supposed to happen sooner, but they've had minor problems I'm not clear about causing delays.

(picture taken from astronaut helmet cam)

When they finally were able to do the space walk, it involved standing near a large field of electric current that couldn't be shut off. The actual task was something to the effect of cutting wires and improvising a jerry rig to hold the tear in place.

After the job was complete, the astronaut returned inside the International Space Station and the crew successfully opened the solar array. The space shuttle is scheduled to return to earth on Wednesday, unless of course something else comes up.

Another article I found explains that the astronauts brought Luke Skywalker's light saber with them. It's not even a real one, it's only a replica. That's really not going to help them in the event of an emergency. I wonder if anyone told the astronauts that it didn't work. How much extra fuel the space shuttle used to launch that extra 5 lbs or so into space?

NASA sure seems confident the shuttle will successfully re-enter the earth at the end of the mission (or at least they're not addressing any concerns). They've been up there for 12 days so far.

E.coli, salmonella, and botulism, oh my!

2007-11-03T19:12:00.000-07:00

Is more of our food being contaminated or has the amount of contaminated food always stayed the same, but the media's reporting of food recalls and poisonings has increased as time goes by?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15587340/

battered halibut rip-off

2007-11-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

The last time we were at Trader Joe's, Ric bought a box of "Battered Halibut." I was going to throw some in the oven the other night, but when I opened the box I couldn't believe my eyes. The size of the fillets and the amount in the box occupied less then half the box space. Over half of the box was empty! What a waste.

Here is a comparison photo of the bagged fillets next to the box that contained it. We started talking about how there's wasted box materials, twice as many trees and plastic and whatever else they're using to make the box, half as many are shipped but take up the maximum amount of space. I'm sure we paid an amount that led us to believe there'd be more in the box.

This is what was in the bag. And the quality of fish wasn't good either.

When was a kid, I used to love tartar sauce. We didn't make any for this battered halibut, but it would have definitely helped. We went to the supermarket last night and couldn't find any sweet relish or bread without high fructose corn syrup in it. What's up with that?

happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T21:20:00.001-07:00

(the pumpkin on the right is lopsided because it is rotting).

One Halloween when I was a teen-ager, a group of us armed ourselves with Supersoaker water guns filled with jalapeno pepper juice. We piled into our friend's station wagon and drove around neighborhoods that were busy with trick-or-treating children. Our mission was to seek out and subdue the 13 year old bullies that were on their bikes, known most for riding around harassing and stealing candy from the younger kids. The look of surprise on their faces as we drove alongside them and blasted them was priceless. Kind of like that credit card commercial--

Super Soaker Aqua Shock HydroBlitz: $34

5 gallons of Jalapeño pepper juice: $37.59

1/2 tank of gas: $7.00

facilitating justice on Halloween: priceless.

the benefits of smoking

2007-10-29T20:56:00.000-07:00

who knew there were benefits from smoking? from wikipedia--

Health benefits of smoking

Some studies have discovered health benefits correlated with smoking. These studies observed a reduction in the occurrence of some diseases, but all such studies stressed that the benefits of smoking did not outweigh the risks.

Several types of "Smoker’s Paradoxes",^[50] i.e. cases where smoking appears to have specific beneficial effects, have been observed; often the actual mechanism remains undetermined. For instance, recent studies suggest that smokers require less frequent repeated revascularization after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).^[50] Risk of ulcerative colitis has been frequently shown to be reduced by smokers on a dose-dependent basis; the effect is eliminated if the individual stops smoking.^[51]^[52] Smoking appears to interfere with development of Kaposi's sarcoma,^[53] breast cancer among women carrying the very high risk BRCA gene,^[54] preeclampsia,^[55] and atopic disorders such as allergic asthma.^[56] A plausible mechanism of action in these cases may be the nicotine in tobacco smoke acting as an anti-inflammatory agent and interfering with the disease process.^[57]

In mice, studies have shown nicotine can reduce the amount of DOI-induced head twitches (meant to model tics) related to Tourette's Syndrome.

A large body of evidence suggests that the risks of neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's disease might be twice as high for non-smokers than for smokers.^[58] Many such papers regarding Alzheimer's disease^[59] and Parkinson's Disease^[60] have been published. A plausible explanation for these cases may be the effect of nicotine, a cholinergic stimulant, decreasing the levels of acetylcholine in the smoker's brain; Parkinson's disease occurs when the effect of dopamine is less than that of acetylcholine. Opponents counter by noting that consumption of pure nicotine may be as beneficial as smoking without the risk.

Other Alzheimer's studies, however, challenge these epidemiological studies on methodological grounds.^[61] A prospective Rotterdam Study found that the incidence of Alzheimer's disease is more than double for smokers as compared to non-smokers^[62] and the Honolulu Heart Program (a longitudinal cohort study) also found more than twice the risk for Alzheimer's disease among medium and heavy smokers as compared to non-smokers.^[63]

Though the negative correlation between smoking and Parkinson's disease is recognized, the causality has not been established. The relationship may be artifact (observational) based on clusters of behavioral and personality differences in the pre-Parkinsonian population versus the smoking population.^[64]

Considering the high rates of physical sickness and deaths^[65] ^[66] among persons suffering from schizophrenia, one of smoking's short term benefits is its temporary effect to improve alertness and cognitive functioning in that disease.^[67] It has been postulated that the mechanism of this effect is that schizophrenics have a disturbance of nicotinic receptor functioning.^[68]

today was a great day

2007-10-28T21:01:00.001-07:00

another great fall day here, all the rain we've been getting made for the greenest grass I've ever seen. The air smelled fresh, and like fall leaves. Many people were out today taking advantage of the nice weather before the days of rain set in.

glad I'm not a diplomat

2007-10-27T08:35:00.001-07:00

It's a new era, different world, new kind of war...

CNN is running a story that tells of a shortage of employees at the U.S.Embassy in Iraq to the point that they are drafting diplomats who are working in the U.S., and making working in Iraq mandatory. Diplomats who refuse will be fired for "failing to uphold their oath to serve the United States and the Constitution." Can you believe that? I found similar articles covered by ABC News, the Baltimore Sun, and the BBC News, as well as several other global sources.

I did a little research, and a "Foreign Service Officer" or diplomat, begins a career entry level with no previous experience at $40,365. Masters Level starts at $45,000. Is that enough income to be drafted and put your life on the line? How much is a life worth? You think most people would say you can't put a price on risking your life, but people do it every day all the time. It seems that if you end up going to Iraq (volunteering to or otherwise) there's a 35% foreign post-differential pay and 35% danger pay in addition to your base compensation.

don't switch the blade on the guy in shades, oh-no

2007-10-26T21:44:00.000-07:00

how funny were the 80's? I'm pretty sure I was in middle school when this song came out. What a funny and unique era in time. Corey Hart's somewhat brief wiki-ography can be found here.

food can make or break a luncheon

2007-10-25T16:16:00.001-07:00

I attended a luncheon the other day and the food was horrible. The luncheon location was beautiful, it was in a banquet room at the World Forestry Center. Every window surrounding the octagon shaped room yielded views to a variety of trees in fall colors mixed with deep evergreens. The lighting was nice and the wait staff were really attentive, but I didn't eat much.

click on the picture and get a real close up view of the salad situation.

So lunch was basically this: Three piles of mayonnaise based salads on a plate. Nothing else, no salad, no fruit...it was really strange. It was essentially a pile of egg salad, a pile of macaroni salad, and a pile of tuna salad. I started eating the tuna with my fork because it looked like the best bet on the plate, when I noticed a plate in the middle of the table with a pile of bread and butter packages stacked on it. What was that all about? Were we supposed to eat bread and butter with our tri-salads, or make our own varied sandwiches? What's with all the mayonnaise anyway? There was a pitcher of coffee on the table that wasn't too bad but I started thinking that tuna and coffee would give me really bad breath, and after the keynote speaker they'll be time to network. Nothing like breathing fishy coffee breath all over someone.

When we were served lunch, I looked over at a couple of my co-workers and saw they were grimacing back at me. One woman mouthed the words, "what is this?" to which I audibly replied, "This definitely isn't Simply Thyme." Simply Thyme is a great place our company used for catering a large function a couple of weeks ago. The polar opposite of what we were eating at the luncheon.

There also was a plate of gross looking cookies and brownies. The brownies looked artificial and had visible droplets of condensation on them. The cookies looked unappetizing also, they looked as if they had milk chocolate chips in them as opposed to the semi-sweet chocolate chip.

Very disappointing. Who thought that was a good idea?

Quality.

2007-10-23T21:37:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling extra cynical lately and came to the conclusion that there is an incredible lack of quality everywhere, all the time. The only consistent factor is that you can count on some aspect of quality of some good or service you receive to be shitty. Plan on something being late, or wrong, or over billed, broken parts shipped, poor customer service, wrong item, the list goes on infinitely.

We have this issue at work with a vendor who is not giving us what we need, bringing us things late, wrong, ripped, broken, and we've been mis-billed every way you can imagine. Charged $53 for shipping when the company is literally 10 blocks up the street. For $53 bucks I'll walk up there, pick the order up, bring it back and spend less time getting it there sooner. Of course we're going to change to another vendor, but trying to finalize the final order has turned into a complex nightmare. And I've called managers and general managers and so far nobody's calling me back!

This is only one example of many we experience throughout our lives. There are about a hundred tangents I can go over illustrating a complete lack of quality. I guess I'm experiencing whatever the opposite of quality is (inferiority?).

The only saving grace out of all of this are the infrequent pockets of people who take pride in what they do. Like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day, you'll run into that great example of order, consistency, and courtesy. Of course somewhere along that example of quality's line there is a slacker screwing up the quality somewhere else, but that's okay.

In a similar quality-related story, the Space Shuttle Discovery launched again to deliver parts to the Space Station. As usual, there are concerns about the safety of the shuttle:

Minutes before the final countdown, launch crews discovered a 4-inch-long chunk of ice on a connector between Discovery and the external fuel tank.

The flight went ahead after safety officials decided the piece of ice was too small to pose a hazard, even if it came off during launch and hit the craft.

The whole story can be found here.

After much thought, I feel like I'm observing that there's not a lot of quality around. If there is I'm just focusing on the negatives. I remember thinking about this in depth the last time I traveled on vacation. The lack of quality started in the airport with the e-ticket check in and ended somewhere on the plane between the seat-back tray tables and the recycled pillows and blanket.

Anyway I hope everything goes well for those astronauts. What a dangerous profession, it's a real throw of the dice. I checked with NASA and yes, they are hiring astronaut candidates. The job announcement mentions a salary range for an astronaut from 59,493 to 130,257 a year. Is that salary worth flying into space on the gamble that you may or may not re-enter the earth's atmosphere intact?

Brockman Lights 02: Wild Mammals

2007-10-22T21:05:00.000-07:00

my latest collection:

Brockman Lights 02: Wild Mammals

rainy on Saturday

2007-10-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

It was pretty rainy yesterday. We saw police cruisers and fire truckes up the street and went for a walk to investigate. It turned out to be a house fire that didn't cause too much visible damage.

autistic teen found alive in woods

2007-10-18T22:07:00.000-07:00

Over the past few days I've been following the story of the 18 year old autistic young man who wandered away from his family on a hike in West Virginia. He is non-verbal and functions at a 3 or 4 year old level.

The teen, who has the mental capacity of a 3- or 4-year-old, opened his eyes and rolled over to meet his rescuers when Reneau's son, Jeremy Reneau, called out his name.

"He was very quiet, he was nonverbal," said Jeremy Reneau, 25, the first to spot Allen. "But you could tell by his body language he was hungry."

Rescuers fed him candy bars and peanut butter sandwiches and tried to walk him out of the wooded Dolly Sods Wilderness Area, part of the Monongahela National Forest.

When he became too tired, they carried him out on a litter, Reneau said.

you can read the view the whole article here:

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/10/18/hiker.found.ap/?iref=mpstoryview

recent adventures with the Red Cross

2007-10-15T22:03:00.000-07:00

I donated blood on a couple of Mondays ago; there was a blood drive at my work and I got in on the blood action. It was no problem, I've donated blood in the past and I usually appreciate the raisins, crackers and juice they provide. I was really brave; I watched as they inserted the 16 gauge needle into my art. It was kind of freaky and interesting watching my blood spirt into the tubes attached and fill the translucent bags on the other end. I should have photographed the event, but alas I missed my window of opportunity. I guess I had a good strong flow because it only seemed like I was in the chair for 10 minutes.

So on Tuesday I notice that I missed a call on my cell phone and instead of checking the message, I just called the last number back. A switchboard operator answered and said, "Hello, Red Cross, how may I direct your call?" I hung up. I started to wonder about why the Red Cross would call. Was there something wrong with my blood? Did they detect pregnancy? Did I have a disease?? My mind raced through a number of irrational possibilities while I dialed to check my voice mail to see if the message shed any light on the situation. When I finally accessed the message, it was from a volunteer calling to thank me for donating blood.

a beautiful autumn tree

2007-10-14T23:11:00.000-07:00

All the trees are beginning to change color and a fall feel is definitely in the air. A lot of pumpkin things going on -- pumpkin bread, carving pumpkins, and Halloween.Why does spell check insist on capatilizing Halloween? I just scanned through wikipedia , and it seems that spell check and the general public capitalizes Halloween for the sake of capitilizing it.

I made an awesome pumpkin bread the other day, I added some pumpkin butter to the recipe and it was so delicious and dense. I ate a piece and it sat heavy like a lump in my chest until I could wash it down with some hot coffee.

Below is another picture of the yard sale mascot. This cat wouldn't stand still for a picture so the best I could do was his front with his head turned. I think he had ADHD. He wasn't skittish; his behavior could better be described as easily distracted.

yard sale today!

2007-10-13T20:03:00.001-07:00

My friend had a garage sale today, and I came by and brought a car load of things I wanted to get rid of. A third friend also brought her stuff by to sell, so we had a mega sidewalk sale.

Quite a few people came by, and it was a beautiful day. It had been cooler and rainy recently, but today we entered a high pressure system and it was sunny and about 70 degrees.

At one point I met a homeless woman who escaped a domestic violence situation, and drove from El Paso to Portland with all of her possessions packed into an 85 LeBaron with thick plastic covering the areas where the passenger side windows were. I gave her a stereo with 4 speakers and a skirt for $1.00. I also gave her a glass cross; I'm not religious but made one as a test project. I got the impression there might have been demand for this after I received a few requests. I tried to make a prototype, and decided that the process was too time consuming to consider for production. I didn't know what to do with the cross, so I just hung it on the wall.

After I met this woman, I felt that she the person I had to give it to because she kept telling me how blessed she was. She started off thanking me excitedly because of the deal on the stereo, but went on to explain that along the way recovered things she had to leave, has a storage space and has been filling it with free household furnishings. She's been coordinating assistance since she came here and is about to get her own apartment. I gave her the cross and told her it was a housewarming gift.

We also had a yard sale mascot, this little black cat. He seemed like a juvenile and was the friendliest cat I'd ever met. Nobody knew where he came from, he just appeared this morning and spent the day with us and all of the yard salers. He was all over the many boxes of things stacked around, on tables, in clothing piles, and climbed all the trees around the yard sale.

Google Street View

2007-10-12T18:46:00.000-07:00

So have you looked at Google's latest gadget and addition to the map feature, Google Street View? It's pretty neat and scary, all rolled into one. My friend and I were looking at our houses, and the clarity is scary. You can kind of see my couch through the window of my apartment. If you haven't already, you should check it out. Many cities are mapped out: Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, Denver, Las Vegas, and about 10 more cities and nearby areas.

It really does seem like big brother though every time I think about the clarity and details in the view of my apartment. Some street views have cars or people in the frames, so now I'm thinking "what day did they take these pictures, and where was I?"

One frame has a homeless man and his shopping cart in it. I wonder how many views in how many cities have a similar view?

I found this picture by accident; I was trying to recall the name of a thrift store on this corner for a friend, and while looking at this picture she pointed the guy and his cart out to me.

Another funny thing we watched last night was giraffe fighting. I can't believe I haven't watched this before now.

it all happens so quickly

2007-10-07T16:43:00.000-07:00

here we are again, early almost mid October and there's clearly a seasonal change occurring. It's been a little damper and cooler, and we cranked the heater on earlier this week to dry out our clothes and hopefully combat the mold starting to grow again in the corner of the ceiling in my room. I like fall but I have to say that I like every season--they all have a distinct vibe and feeling, and seasonal foods are great too. It seems like just yesterday I was eating nectarines and cherries. I clearly remember where I bought the last bag of cherries; it was from a roadside stand, somewhere on rural hwy 26 between Portland and the coast. The guy was packing up and it was a instant impulse to pull over at see if I could get some cherries, and he sold me a quart for $6 bucks. They were delicious.

I was shopping earlier at Trader Joe's and bought pumpkin bread mix and some fresh pumpkin butter. I don't regret seasons changing; instead it reminds me that time marches on and I'm getting older. I don't feel old but I do feel that I have some experience in life that I can look back on. When I was in my 20's many of my experiences were new beyond the controlled environment of my teenage years, and going forward from present I have a variety of things to compare current events to. It's interesting and often I think about where I'm living, where I lived, people I've known and current relationships, the history of things, observing change, all sorts of things. It's amazing how complex humans are.

I also have a theory that as we spend more time on the planet in our bodies, our perception of the speed of the earth's rotation is faster and the amount of speed in which time and events pass is faster with each passing moment. Like a gradual fast forward. I consider this theory because I clearly remember being in my 9th grade algebra class and time just really taking it's time, the 56 minute class lasted a minimum of an eternity. There were times when I was younger when I couldn't believe how long Sunday mass was. Or going to catechism on Tuesdays after school. Shopping with my mom. Now the days, weeks and months whiz by. If I blink too often I miss something. I find I never have time for all the things I want to do. And it just seems to get faster. It's not too bad now, but I'm sure it will sneak up on me and I'll be 67 before I know it.

happy autumn equinox!

2007-09-24T21:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the first day of Autumn, and I could feel the crisp cool undertones in the air as I rode my bike around town. I can see that the trees are in the early stage of transition, all of the flowers and produce growing are either dying or dead, waiting to be cleaned up for the season change.

We're back from our New England adventure, and after traveling across the United States and back, I have to surmise that there are two distinct classes of people: the people who have extra and everyone else. This was really evident during aircraft boarding procedures and observations of the actual level of customer service both on the plane and in the airport. Funny, the strange and unspoken relationships you develop with the people sitting near and around you.

My New England pictures can be viewed by clicking here.

live free or die

2007-09-13T05:59:00.001-07:00

I've been in New Hampshire since Saturday night, and I have to observe that it's absolutely beautiful here. The weather for the first part of our trip was cool and really rainy, but yesterday the sun came out and the blue skies opened up.

Buckets of rain when we first arrived!

cutthroat scrabble game (and I won both games!)

I really like visiting different towns and reigons of the country to observe the small differences--supermarket names, the way the streets are set up, common franchises, all the strange accents, and especially in New England there's a lot of a colonial element, towns founded in 1623 and 1637. Many old stone walls, some I'm sure are at least 300 years old. The houses and structures have a distinct look that I've not seen anywhere else.

I have hundreds of photos I'm going to post soon. I'm still behind from the pictures I took last weekend!

distant lighthouses hard at work today!

The first part of our trip we stayed with one of Ric's sisters who lives in a remote country area. It's still in town, but you can see every star at night and don't hear much besides the frogs chirping. There also wasn't a cell signal, but it shouldn't matter because I'm on vacation, right?

Lots of $6 lobster. I've had a great deal of delicious chowder and seafood since I've been here.

Portsmouth, NH and the Memorial Bridge.

stuff, things, places and linoleum

2007-09-08T08:44:00.000-07:00

This morning, approximately 5:2o AM Ric and I embarked upon a cross country adventure to New Hampshire. We are flying indirectly into Manchester, via Phoenix and Charlotte. Right now we're in Phoenix (PHX) awaiting our 9:05 AM boarding call to our Charlotte (CLT) connection.

To catch up again, I've been using a great deal of vacation time to enjoy the end of the summer. Last week my friend Tom from NYC visited, and Ric and I toured him through all the varied landscapes Oregon has to offer.

Stuff: I'll have pictures, or at the very least links to pictures coming soon.

Things: My friend Nisa has turned me on to taking photos of stencil graffiti throughout Portland. Many of those intersting finds also coming soon.

Places: While Tom was in town, we visited Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, eastern Oregon, the Oregon Coast and Ft. Stevens, and of course visited around town. Also, I'm sure I'll have a plethora ('scuse me senior, what ees a Plethora?) of New Hampshire (Noo Hampsha) coming soon. The coming soon part all depends on the reliability of my internet connection of course, but I'm sure there's at least a wifi coffee house where we're going.

Linoleum: I just like the word linoleum and thought I'd add it.

Even though my blog goes through stages of dormancy, I'm still constantly jotting down ideas, the wheels don't stop turning and I'm always distracted by the shiny glimmer of other unrelated thoughts.

Nisa is a great friend, she volunteered to drive us to the airport at 4 AM this morning. I had to wake up at 3:30 to shower and get ready, which was a real challenge. I caught about an hour of other level of consciousness while on the flight to Phoenix, but it wasn't sleep because I was still aware of what was going on around me. I was listening to pre-recorded radio programs in a relaxed and semi-comfortable state. On the ride to the airport Nisa shared airline horror stories with us, such as the amount of fecal matter that was detected on the tray tables (thanks Dateline). Another story she shared which really grossed out Ric was when she was flying and requested a blanket from the stewardess. She unfolded the blanket and it was covered in dried puke. I can't seem to get that story out of my head, and recalled the story as I watched the woman behind me snuggle up in her airline blanket.

Very fun! They're about to call us for boarding so more from Charlotte.

happy landings (sort of)

2007-08-21T06:27:00.000-07:00

The shuttle survived re-entry, those lucky astronauts. Upon inspection of the Endeavor, maintenance crews noticed the gash on the belly had increased in size, but not to the point where it allowed dangerous gases to be exposed to the re-entry heat.

How come I feel the US Space Program can be compared to a game of roulette? Isn't it time we re-engineer and design the space vehicles we're using to reflect updated technology?

Holy mackerel.

circadian rhythms

2007-08-20T17:44:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow's the big day, the day that the Space Shuttle returns to earth. I'm anxious to see how it all pans out; there's a giant gash on the belly of the shuttle and NASA has determined that it's not critical, and won't affect shuttle re-entry. I have to say that I'm holding my breath for those terrified astronauts.

I wonder how it will all work out.

The space shuttle seemed so amazing when I was learning about it's first flight as a kid, way back in 1981. I was impressed that it took off like a rocket and landed like a plane. I don't know why, but I thought it was very innovative. Even when the teacher in space thing ended horribly, I still didn't lose faith, thinking that it was a glitch, an unfortunate by product of technology and space advancement. I was so tuned into Star Wars and had a strong affinity for science fiction, I accepted that you need to make a few mistakes to learn from them. I thought the Challenger disaster was a short leap to personal space crafts, or seeing many Millennium Falcon's in the sky as commonplace.

My naivety and positive outlook polarized in 2003 when the Columbia disintegrated over Texas upon re-entry. I allowed adult cynicism to wash over me and surmised that NASA, like everything else in life, is sub-standard, doing the minimum to get the job faster and save a buck. I'm sure someone, somewhere knew that controls and all the checks and balances weren't computing, but for whatever reason--human error and the law of infinite reactions with regard to unforeseen cosmic forces--the situation (and shuttles) have deteriorated to something less then a desired outcome.

Good luck, crew of the Endeavor.

new action figures!

2007-08-16T18:39:00.000-07:00

Amanda Lepour: The latest addition from the Heatherette Empire. Here's the photo shoot that took place at my apartment:

another new acquisition, Agustus, the smoking Monger from Series II: The Menthols

and of course Marcus had to get in on the photoshoot action. He's doing his best to look as if he's not going to knock my action figures over.

it's been awhile...

2007-08-13T06:42:00.000-07:00

Practically a month! So much has happened in such a short time. Let's see...

I went to the Country Fair:

It was fun, a great time. There was great music and dancing, a positive energized atmosphere, and many smiling people there. I went with a friend who introduced me to one of her friends, who was working at the fair at a booth. The booths weren't like typical festival 10x10 canopied spots; they were these elaborate wooden two story structures strategically nestled into groves of trees and woods.

The great thing about knowing someone who works at the fair is you can spend time in the back of their booth relaxing during the hottest part of the day, meet other people who are sharing the workload at that particular booth, and listen to great music. My friend's friend (introduced to me as "Squirt") was really friendly, knew her way quickly around the fairgrounds (on my own I felt as if I were going around in circles) and never ceased to offer me food and drink. The hospitality I received was amazing.

I went to Seattle again for work:

That was the last time I ate a solid meal. I ended getting sick early in the morning after I returned. When I wasn't vomiting or hallucinating, I spent much of my time suspecting any number of things I ate in Seattle as being a food poisoning culprit. All it takes is one dirty bus boy who didn't wash after he wiped his ass to accidentally touch the inside of my water glass. Yuck.

Could it be possible that the cupcake I ate made me sick??

The very last thing I ate before I became violently ill was a chocolate cupcake. The second to last thing I ate before I became sick was BBQ chicken. I now gag whenever I think of chocolate cupcakes or BBQ.

One of the things I ate the day before I became sick...could it have been the spinach? the chicken?

I got really sick [sorry, no pictures of this]:

According to Kaiser Permanente, nothing was wrong with me. My reality was spent at least 3 days out of work, mostly on the toilet with a bucket in my lap or writhing in agony on my bed. I couldn't drink or eat anything for 3 days. By the 4th day, I was successfully drinking sips of water, vegetable broth and ginger ale (the organic kind, not the high fructose corn syrup kind). I also had a migraine so severe any smells, sounds, or light would make me vomit or cause my head to pound. After 5 days I felt pretty good, just very weak from starving and still had diahreha so severe I felt as if someone was dumping a bowl of water into the toilet. My lack of solid stools after so many days started to concern me.

In the middle of all of this, I went to the doctor and submitted a "sample." At this point I suspected a mutated super-virus, food poisoning of every type, and cancer. (I didn't consider cancer until about the 4th day of feeling horrible). It took Kaiser a week to determine the results, and by that time the illness was all but a bad memory. They charged me an additional fee on top of co-pays for the useless lab results, and I'm sure they think I made it all up.

I'm so glad to be better.

I displayed my glass art again at the Utopia Cafe:

I didn't sell too much this time but also didn't have much time between shows to produce a whole new series of material. I don't mind if I don't sell too much, it's nice to have my art showing at a business and impressive to take a friend out to breakfast where my art is showing.

I saw the new Harry Potter movie.

I also read the synopsis and end to the final Harry Potter book. I know who dies!

I bought more action figures from The Missing Link!

Photos coming soon, but here's photos of my most recently acquired Heatherettes to hold you over:

I think that catches things up. I anticipate doing a great deal of hiking and visiting other places soon, so that will generate more interesting photos.

oregon country fair

2007-07-22T15:03:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went to the Oregon Country Fair. The Oregon Country Fair isn't your typical county carnival with rides and midway games, but more of a hippie festival, with a focus on music, sustainability, hand made art and crafts, ideas, and fun. The weather was nice and I had a lot of fun, I listened to a variety of musicians, spent time with new friends, and engaged in an immense amount of people watching.

As fun as the country fair can be, my experience is it's more fun when you work for or know someone who is a vendor. Many years ago I spent the weekend there working for a vendor, a food vendor selling grilled sausages. I had free admission to the fair and could camp in the space behind the booth, and in return I worked three 2 to 3-hour shifts chopping onions and peppers and prepping supplies. The fair is only open to the general public from 11 AM to 8 PM, but after the fair closes a different sort of party commences. The whole entire campsite is illuminated in candlelight, lamplight and reflections off of disco balls. It was like floating around a beautiful city of lights. There were a whole new schedule of musicians playing on a few different stages, people were dancing and drumming, there seemed to be much more energy at night. One of the nights I was there I saw a midnight break dancing show that was the most incredible display of break dancing talent I haver ever seen. These guys were full-on flipping around were acting just like robots. It was awesome.

My friend that I went with last weekend knew a few people who were working at a recycled clothing booth. From the front of the booth, it appeared to be a roughly a wooden storefront, with a second story open windowed structure allowing for private camping or living space. We went behind the curtains and there were few people up on the second floor of this "fort," talking and/or playing musical instruments. The hospitality from these newly made friends was incredible; without really knowing me I'm offered drinks, food, hugs...it was great hanging out behind this booth because it seemed as if it were in the trees, with a tent-mesh enclosure that permitted us to see the crowd walking by outside, but rendered us invisible to the crowd up in the hideaway,

Rumor Control

2007-07-16T23:22:00.000-07:00

Just in case you needed clarification...

...and more on hospitality coming soon!

earthquake!

2007-07-11T23:07:00.000-07:00

We had an earthquake this evening about 8:45 PM, which ended up registering 3.3 on the Richter scale. The epicenter was in Canby, which is about 20 miles south/southwest of Portland. The whole thing must have lasted 4 seconds; it set forth a geological shudder that seemed more significant then a large truck driving by or a neighbor stomping around. At the time it happened, I was sitting on the floor watching TV and I felt a sudden and strong shaking. The windows creaking for that second resembled a great pressure, as if a tremendous force were pressing against the frame while the frame pushed back. But something strange I noticed was that the glass ornaments hanging from the window latch didn't kilnk against the glass. And none of the pictures on the wall moved, and the hanging plants remained stationary. My neighborhood seemed exceptionally quiet.

The earthquake started strong for 2 seconds, and then tapered down to nothing, leaving a quiet emptiness that had me wondering if that was just an earthquake.

Misty Mountain Farm

2007-07-09T07:02:00.000-07:00

The weekend before last I went to visit a friend named Lynn who lives along Hwy 30 in Oregon, the road you take from Portland to Astoria and the Pacific coast. She lives in a small town named Clatskanie (pronounced Clat-ska-nie), and it wa absolutely beautiful. Lynn and her family have 2 horses, 1 llama, 3 goats, 2 peacocks, 2 turkeys, many chickens, a rabbit, a dog and a cat. At first I was scared of the llama, because when I parked near his corral, he came running over. I was expecting him to spit on my windshield or something, my only knowledge of a llama is what I saw on Napoleon Dynamite. Lynn reassured me that their llama, Mocha, is nothing like the Napoleon Dynamite llama, and I soon discovered that Mocha was the friendliest animal I have ever met. He was like a 4 year old crossed with a big cat or something. He was very expressive and receptive, and seemingly had facial expressions of happiness, concern, worry and anger.

At one point Mocha was so overly excited that he sneezed a mouthful of llama saliva, snot and grass on my face. And as timing would have it, my mouth happened to be a little open when this happened. I wanted to vomit, it was so awful. My only saving grace is that I was wearing my ridiculously big sunglasses, which took the brunt of the snot grass mixture.

The other animals were great too. Lynn's farm was really nice and well kept, and didn't smell like a farm at all. If the horses shit, I had no idea where.

happy 7th of july!

2007-07-07T06:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm still researching firework related accidents. I read several articles all citing a 27 year old mother of 3 who had some illegal fireworks blow up in her face, killing her instantly. That was about the only article I repeatedly saw. There were a bunch of generic articles about drinking and driving, and traffic related accidents, but those accidents don't really count as firework related accidents. The people in my neighborhood are still lighting off fireworks, I can't believe they still have stuff to light off. Since the 4th of July was on a Wednesday this year, many of us had to work on Thursday. The small percentage of people who didn't have to work made sure they carried on the festivities throughout the night. And since it's been hot here, we all have open windows. The result was every time I'd start to fall asleep, another explosion or high pitched whistle would jolt me awake and I would immediately wonder if my car was still intact. I can't even imagine what the people with PTSD go through, especially if they're recently back from the war.

I think the media and news outlets downplay the fireworks accidents, unless they're particularly injurious or gruesome. I did stumble upon rideaccidents.com , a comprehensive website keeping you up to date with any amusement park related criminal activity, ride accidents, injuries or deaths.

So I've been going out to dinner twice a month with a few neighbors--the old ladies of the neighborhood, I'm easily 1/2 the age of the other dinner-goers. We went out on that Thursday and devoted about 20 minutes of conversation about bitching about the fireworks that kept us all up. I can't believe any of these women didn't suffer a cardiac arrest. I like to spice things up a bit when I go out with these women, so I'll throw a fiery topic into the mix. I transitioned from "how the fireworks annoyed me last night" to "do you think it's appropriate women breast feed in public?" One of the ladies in our group elaborated and said she was out at a restaurant eating lunch when a woman sitting at the table next to her whipped out her breast and started feeding her infant who was "just out of the chamber." Jesus with all the talk of airborne pathogens and germs in this world I probably wouldn't bring a squalling raisiny fresh infant into a public place with me. I think there's a difference between the immune system of an infant and a toddler. Breast feeding's a private thing and if you really can't help it you should go to a discreet part of wherever you are and commence lactation. How can you not know your child enough to know when the breast feeding times are and plan for it?

Anyway, other hot transition topics have been:

What was on Oprah today (I miss out on this one because I work)
What's been happening on "Days Of Our Lives" (I have been watching this soap on and off since 1983, and stay updated by visiting http://www.prevuze.blogspot.com/).
The war (any of them)
The president and the government (usually segwayed from the previous topic)
People putting pressure on women to have children (how come society's doesn't promote adoption?)
Jobs that haven't worked out and why
Growing up with multiple siblings we fought with (okay, this doesn't really apply to me but fun to listen to)
How late the medical transport service got me to my medical appointment (this doesn't really apply to me)
Prescription drugs and combinations that give you a buzz (this also doesn't apply to me)
Gossip about the other women who couldn't make it
Critiquing what the remainder of the group has ordered

Each time we're out we decide on where to meet next, and usually go to some Denny's type of place. The area of town we meet in is known for having a variety of restaurants in a few block radius, and is a half way point for those of us who live in my area, and the other women who live in the suburb east of here. It's usually more fun then I think it will be when I go out, at least the conversations are funny and I can always find something to eat on the menu.

Happy 4th of July

2007-07-04T22:18:00.000-07:00

Fireworks are dangerous, loud and incredibly polluting. Every year there are tons of injuries and deaths associated with fireworks. Just generically peruzing the news this morning, I read that a 4 year old boy lit off a closet of fireworks in his home around 7 AM. I couldn't believe that, what a horrible thing to happen to someone so young. How did the kid know there were fireworks in the closet? How did he know to get and light matches to set off the fireworks?

Apparently, there were so many fireworks packed into this closet (I'm sure with many other fuel sources, too) that when the kid lit one, the entire closet blew up into a fireball. The boy was trapped in the closet and burned to death. There were a couple of adults in the house at the time of the fire, parents I think, or roommates of the parents. Everyone else got out okay, but the boy's father sustained several serious burns trying to get the boy out of the burning closet.

But anyway, I'm sitting outside on a nice cool 78 degree breezy evening, and the waterfront's grand firework finale is clearly audible. The amount of carcinogens and flaming toxic debris that a firework display sets into the air is incomprehensible; now imagine that happening all over the enitre country, north, south, east and west.

When I was a teenager and living in Florida, it was kind of a neighborhood tradition to go to the Safety Harbor Rec Center's firework display. It was the nicest in the immediate area, and year after year I was impressed by the caliber of colors, effects and sounds. It was put on annually by the Safety Harbor Fire Department and everyone from Safety Harbor and nearby towns BBQ'ed in the parking lot all day to prepare for the show at night.

One year the show was much more interesting then in years past. In the middle of the systematic launching of fireworks, there was a strange noise, then it seemed as if quite a few fireworks went off on the ground. The flash was so bright it seemed like a supernova, or a tear in the time-space continuum. After that, the show stalled, then the ambulance came roaring across the field to where the firework launchers were. It seemed pretty serious, and the next day we learned that guy's arm was blown off. Freaky.

Now the grand finale at the waterfront is over, and all the amateur drunk neighbors are launching off their explosive investments. Many people who live in Portland drive to Washington to get the really good fireworks. Lucky for them it's a 20 minute trip north on I-5. Washington fireworks are illegal here, but that doesn't stop at least one person per block from setting off 6 dozen between 10 PM and 12 AM.

Anyway it was nice to have the day off. I think I'm going to follow up on how many firework related injuries and deaths occurred this past 4th.

Mt. Hood Scramble -- results and aftermath

2007-07-02T06:14:00.000-07:00

Well, the Mt. Hood Scramble results are in, and I finished in 290th place (out of 374). My actual racing time was 1 hour, 46 minutes and 59 seconds, which doesn't seem bad seeing as how I injured my ankle about 1/2 way through the race. Maggie stayed with me through the rest of the race, and she finished 289th place. Maybe a good goal for next year would to finish in the top 200.

Anyway, after the race...the next day my ankle swelled up to twice its size, and took on an ashy-bluish color. I honestly think it looked a lot worse then it felt. I was able to hobble around on it, but many people were strongly suggesting that I go get an x-ray. My boss saw it, and after I explained that I don't have time for an x-ray, he said to me, "You know, the funny thing about x-rays is that doctors can see inside your foot to determine if anything's broken or wrong." If only you could have been in the room when he delivered that dry sarcasm, it was really funny. So reluctantly I went to the Urgi-center to get some professional care.

I ended up sitting in the Urgi-center for about 3 1/2 hours, and was seen by 6 different people, not counting the cashier who forgot to give back my insurance card. After I was x-rayed, the doctor met with me for about 4 minutes to show me the x-ray, and explain that I didn't break anything, but tore all the ligaments in my foot. The doctor actually said "you tore ligaments." and I said "Oh, really? which ones?" and he replied "all of them." I'm not sure how many there are, but I sure can feel them when I sleep on my foot wrong or step funny.

After the diagnosis, the doctor left and the cast-and-leg brace-ologist came in the room to fit me for a KISS army boot. Seriously, this boot was designed to keep my ankle stable, went half-way up my thigh and had several velcro belt straps the whole way up my leg. It was also quite a few inches higher then my other foot, and I was warned by one of the nurses that I'll be experiencing hip and back problems from wearing the brace.

So 20 minutes later, I peeled the boot off and mentally vowed to be as careful as possible. So far it's been about weeks and I feel pretty good. I'm able to walk up stairs, bike ride, go for walks with hardly any discomfort. There's another scramble on July 15th (McCubbins Gulch, also on Mt. Hood), and maybe I'll have recovered enough to participate.

Mt. Hood Scramble

2007-06-21T18:45:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, my friend Maggie and I participated in the Mt. Hood Scramble. The event was put on by X Dog Events, and 374 people ran in the race. The course was on Mt. Hood, right off of Hwy 35 a few miles from the Hwy 26 turnoff, in White River Sno-Park. The ride up to the Sno-Park was wet, rainy, foggy and cold, but as soon as we reached Hwy 35, our elevation gain permitted us a window of niceness above the weather line. Mountain ecosystems are amazing.

The race was 6 miles, through boulder fields, glacial rivers, mud pits (that seemed more like the LaBrea Tar pits), snow and ice, forest and tall weeds. It was a blast, and after I warmed up I felt very confident. I began to bound through the forest, scramble over rocks, push myself up hills, and leap over logs.

About 3 miles into the race, I lept over a log and landed on my right ankle, which rolled under me. The pain might have been excruciating if it wasn't numb from plunging through streams, cold mud and snow. As soon as I fell, Maggie turned around and asked me if I was okay. I replied that I wasn't I needed to sit for a second. I felt nauseous as soon as my ankle rolled, felt a gross "pop" inside of my foot. Of course the second things went wrong, an X-event videographer was there, asking me who I was and how I felt. I repllied as cheerily as possible, given the circumstances, "I'm okay. Pan away, pan away!" Some people asked if I needed a stretcher, and I said no, I was still numb from the race (and too impatient to wait for people to trek in to help me out). So I kept on running, kind of limp-jogging, through more obstacles, up and down hills, climbing up riverbanks, sliding down snowfields, it went on forever.

I finally crossed the finish line about the 90 minute mark, which isn't first place but still far from last place. Thankfully there was a keg of beer and first aid guys waiting for trail weary runners to seek assistance. My friend drove, so the beer perpetuated the numbness long after the effects of the glacial rivers wore off. I wouldn't change anything, except hurting my ankle, of course; the event was awesome and I'm hoping I'm better in time for the July 15th scramble event.

All of the Mt. Hood Scramble pictures can be viewed by visiting the photoset on my Flickr site.

By the way, happy first day of summer! Now it's all downhill after today...

Brian Baxter

2007-06-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

Did he feel any pain, or was it as if he passed from one state of being to another? I heard it was a cooking related fire, in his top floor apartment, in an old converted house, three stories up. If that volunteer firefighter hadn't been walking by, more lives would have been lost. Two other women who lived in the 2nd floor apartment, and a family on the ground floor were helped to safety by everyone that had been summoned by the volunteer fire fighter on his way to Plaid Pantry for a cup of coffee before his early shift, around 5:30 AM.

So I'm at work a couple of days ago, and my co-cube mate takes a call from the County Medical Examiner. I hear her ask a couple of questions and then asks the caller to hold for a moment. She turns to me and asks, can we give information about an employee out to the medical examiner? I tell her no, not unless we have a signed consent from the employee. My cube-mate pauses, returns to the call and re-iterates what I just told her. "Uh huh....uh huh...oh, my....okay.......can you hold again please?" She turns to me and says, "They've identified a guy who died as Brian Baxter, found my business card in his wallet, and are trying to contact his family.

What??

I swear this guy had called me every couple of days for about 6 months. Then my Recruiter/cube mate joined our workforce, and I turned his file over to her. Brian was really polite, I'd have to say the most polite person I've ever known. He'd always end his conversations (no matter how long or short) "Thank you. God Bless You," in a robotic monotone. I think he had some degree of mental illness, maybe schizophrenia, but not so severe that he was walking around talking about conspiracies and getting shots in his eyeballs to improve his vision. A few other people at our workplace who knew of Brian would quote his, "Thank you, God Bless" whenever his name was brought up.

Brian was an honest, good guy. He really tried and worked hard, but it wasn't enough. Our company tried him out in many different positions, and a variety of managers tried to strategize how to best utilize Brian's strengths to keep him employed, but he was finally let go for unsafe work practices. I'm not sure exactly what incident led to his final termination, but I heard it involved a weed whacker.

Well, a few of us in our department had grown to really know Brian, so we helped him fix up a resume, got him job leads, tipped him off to job fairs that were occurring and let him know where we'd be to lend support and encouragement, introduced him to our contacts at other companies and connected him with information about services and resources he didn't know about.

It had been about a month since I heard from Brian, and I never thought for a split second that the house fire reported on the news Sunday morning was Brian's place. He was the only one who wasn't saved that morning. One of the volunteer fire fighters interviewed afterward said they suspected the fire started in the top studio apartment, they were unable to get to the person inside because the room was engulfed in flames.

What a horrible way to die, unless he passed out from smoke inhalation and didn't feel a thing. I mean, it's still a horrible way to go but I would feel a little better about it if they could confirm that he was unconscious when he caught fire or whatever happened. I can't get over how nice he was, what a strange, random process of selection life makes. What's Brian doing now? Nothing? has he been reborn? Did he achieve nirvana? Is he at the pearly gates, holding a ticket and waiting to get in? Brian was in his mid-thirties and about 5 foot 6. He had blond hair and a goatee, and a stocky build. He must have told me "Thank you, God bless you" at least a hundred times.

The whole thing really makes me think about how quickly circumstances can change, in the blink of an eye something about your life can change drastically.

more on disgruntled job seekers

2007-06-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

It's always fun dealing with people applying for open positions at our company, especially when our positions are made possible through a federal program providing employment opportunities for people with disabilities. We definitely come in contact with different job seeker personalities: people who think we discriminate against regularly-abled people (we are perfectly legal), people that are angry that you haven't considered interviewing them--when in reality you've received 150 applications for an open position and the person complaining has no relevant experience and didn't completely fill out the application--and the people who are angry because they are unemployed and just spend their day on-line picking apart employment ads. Below is a letter we received from someone who obviously fits in the last criteria mentioned.

----Original Message-----
From: Cre Cre
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2007 5:31 PM
Subject: Inquiry/question regarding Courier Position

I recently read an ad that your company ran on Craig's List, seeking to fill a courier position.

This is part of the description:

"This position is made possible through the JWOD program, and requires the applicant has a disability... Position requires applicant to be able to define and design delivery routes with attention to optimization. Pick up and delivery materials to multiple locations on a daily basis. Additionally, applicant must be able to pass a drug test and a background check, lift up to 50 Lb easily, be able to climb stairs and/or ladders, and be able to provide documentation of a disability. Position requires, twisting, stooping, squatting, bending and walking long distances."

How on earth is a person with disabilities supposed to "lift up to 50 Lb easily, be able to climbs stairs and/or ladders", and perform "twisting, stooping, squatting, bending and walking long distances"?

This company comes across as insane with a description like that. It's clear you people don't know what you're looking for, or understand what the word "disability" means, or need to further define what you mean by "disability". Anyone who can officially DOCUMENT their disability would not be able to perform any of those duties - certainly not to the degree you're requiring.

Please go back and revise the requirements and while you all do, be sure to devote some time actually utilizing your brain cells. You'll be doing all the people with disabilities a favor.

Unbelievable.

Our general protocol when we receive something like this is to not respond--first of all, adding to the bullshit just creates more bullshit. If someone felt strongly about what information was conveyed in a job posting, a more appropriate way to go about getting a response would be to call the numbers included in the job announcement and have a decent conversation with someone who could answer those questions. But we're not dealing with a rational or intelligent person here, we're obviously dealing with a coward empowered by internet anonymity. So, without further adieu, here's my passively annoyed, anonymous response:

Dear "Cre Cre":

I don't know where to begin after reading your letter. The sheer magnitude of your ignorance seems unreal, and I can't figure out if you suffer from mental illness or if you are just uneducated. It's a shame that you can't see beyond your narrow-mindedness when it comes to disability, and it's apparent that your idea of "disability" is some poor crippled person in a wheelchair or someone drooling and limping around...maybe you're envisioning us threatening to fire Chrispoher Reever unless he climbs a ladder while carrying a 50 pound box of files?

You chickenshit asshole, it's obvious your small mind couldn't consider that maybe a great candidate for this job would be one of our returning military servicemen, you know, many of those guys are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, having developed PTSD, or had a physical injury, such as amputations, deafness and blindness? Maybe we're a good fit for these guys because the company I work for provides a supportive work environment and an opportunity to make a federal prevailing wage with great benefits. Maybe someone with schizophrenia or autism would be successful, why would you discount any of these qualified candidates? You can be diagnosed with mental illness, or have a learning disability, and still be in shape, and be comfortably ambulatory. Maybe the ideal candidate can function better in a physically active job.

And why not credit people for knowing who their doctors are, or how to obtain documentation of their disability? Our company is the largest employer in our state of people with disabilities; approximately 800 of our 1100 employee workforce has a documented disability. If you did any research before emailing us, I think it would be clear to you that we know what we're doing, and it's working for over 50 years.

Thanks for your inquiry and go fuck yourself.

Utopia Cafe -- glass art show

2007-06-09T16:22:00.000-07:00

I was the featured artist at the Utopia Cafe in the month of May, and below are pictures of some of the things I've been working on, and a picture of my work up at the cafe. The cafe is located in SE Portland, Oregon, in the Belmont district. If you missed my May show, I have been invited back for the month of July, and again later in the year.

Dog Mountain

2007-06-08T05:06:00.000-07:00

We went on a hike on Dog Mountain last Sunday, and below are some pictures of that hike. Dog Mountain is located in SW Washington, along the Columbia River, about 12 miles east of the Bonneville Dam. It was a warm and beautiful day, and the hike consisted of grueling steep switchbacks. It was brutal, and a lot more then I expected, but as you can see below it was worth the hard work. I never would have forgave myself if I would have turned back before reaching the top.

I've also loaded up a new set of photos to my flickr account, and you can access those by clicking here.

science fiction vs. fantasy

2007-06-04T22:57:00.000-07:00

If I had to pick a genre of book to live the remainder of my life by, and after carefully considering all of my choices, I would have to narrow down the possibilities to two: science fiction and fantasy.

I've always liked fantasy; there's something about magic and medieval times that I thought was pretty cool. Some of my earliest interests in reading were the Dungeons and Dragons books. When I was in middle school, I think I needed to do something to kill time in class. I must have finished a test early or something, and my teacher happened to have a book loan library. I noticed a Dragonlance book, it was the first from the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy, entitled "Dragons Of Autumn Twilight." That book sucked me into a several book commitment of understanding and enjoying an alternate universe.

To make matters funnier (nerdier, whichever you prefer), I used to play Dungeons and Dragons. The first time I played, I was 18 and got together with some friends I worked with at Kentucky Friend Chicken. The last time I played was about 10 years ago; I lived on Staten Island in New York, and I played with a group of people who put a lot of effort into hosting the game. I think the group in Staten Island were much bigger geeks then the work friends from Florida, but the geekiness made the whole thing more fun. We once spent 2 weeks rolling out new characters and drawing up dungeon maps. We also branched off and played a Shadowrun role playing game, which was like a science fiction dungeons and dragons. That was one of many fun times in my life, and playing Shadowrun seemed like the best of both worlds.

As fun as fantasy land can be, I think science fiction land would be the better choice. If you are existing in a science fiction genre, you can use a time machine to go back in time to the medieval period and when you're done, you just hop into your time machine and go where ever else you work. Many other things would be easier, too, such transportation (both locally and universally), places to see, variety of species to interact with, advanced technology and of course incorporating magic into a science fiction world isn't unheard of, I am a fan of Steven Brust's Jhereg Series and I think they do a great job combining science fiction with magic and fantasy world. I also think it would be much harder to justify something futuristic and science-fiction-y in a fantasy world.

On a completely unrelated note, I've always thought that Paul Shaffer from "Late Night With David Letterman" seemed like he was jacked up on speed or something. Maybe a little acid too, judgin by the way he dresses and his crazy sunglasses. This is entirely my opinion and assumption, and is in no way connected with Blogger or any other entity that I may or may not come in contact with.

Anyway, just an observation.

Miss Universe

2007-05-29T06:44:00.000-07:00

The "Miss Universe" competition was on TV last night, and I, for one, was offended. I wasn't offended because they parade beautiful scantily clad women around under the guise that they are "competing" for a useless title, but I was offended because the only species that was competing were humans. I feel the competition was fixed, because the officials have created a situation where only a human can win. I didn't see any Martians, Vogons, or Trafalmadorians...no Rodians, or Mon Calamari, no Romulans or Klingons, it really is a miscarriage of justice in beauty pageantry. The only thing I noticed (besides the insane amount of humans competing) was just a blatant disregard for other alien races who may want to compete in the "Miss Universe" competition.

And when can we finally stop discriminating against robots and invite some droids to these competitions?

the deathstar biosphere

2007-05-19T17:18:00.000-07:00

Recently I flew to Texas for a work conference, held at a resort called “The Gaylord Texan.” The conference was organized by a couple of federal agencies we work with, and all of the attendees were people like us from companies like ours, all over the united states. I had only been to Texas one other time in my life, and that was over 12 years ago when some friends and I traveled around the country for a few months. I didn’t really remember what it was like, because we had been traveling by train, and I was either drunk or really hung over when we went through Texas. I remember the train stopped for a while in Dallas and Austin, but have no recollection of either stop. At any rate, I was excited about the prospect of going somewhere new, even if it was a work function.

I shared a flight in with one of my co-workers and my boss, so after we retrieved our baggage we shared a cab to the resort. As we were pulling up the compound driveway, we all remarked at how massive this place was. My boss said, “wow that place is really big,” and I remarked, “It looks like the deathstar biosphere!” On cue, the looming complex blotted out the sun as the cab rounded the driveway to the main entrance. Valet staff and bellhops were dressed like cowboy stormtroopers, strategically dancing around—jockeying vehicles (and there were a lot of cars and vans there, it was worse then the airport), pushing or pulling carts of luggage, talking to and directing people, speaking into walkie-talkies, or just standing and observing everything. We checked in, and the hotel clerk handed me a map and explained to me how to find my room. It was a really long walk; I seriously couldn’t believe how far it was from the main lobby. The hallway maze to my room had an identical repeating pattern and theme, and as a result twice where the hall split, I realized after walking for a few minutes that I went the wrong way.

infinity hallway

My room was awesome. It was beautiful, large, clean, very upscale interior design, comfortable huge bed, down comforter, flat panel large screen TV, and a balcony! I went on to the porch and my room overlooked…the inside of the biosphere! It was so weird. After consulting my hotel map, I learned that this area was called “Hill Country.” I was overlooking a very large indoor glass dome ceiling space, a big landscaped plains scene, and an indoor river complete with waterfalls, fountains and small ponds, large trees, walkways and fences, and a few independent structures, such as a small farmhouse, a tall weather vane, and a margarita bar. It reminded me of Disney World, the manicured controlled artificial environment reproduction, complete with shopping and restaurant options.

view from the balcony in my room--

--my room is the top right balcony

The pathway through Hill Country meandered through to another even larger room, I forgot what this room was called, but it had higher waterfalls, a complete Alamo reproduction (I thought this really especially ridiculous), more structures, restaurants, and things to look at.

part of the Alamo reproduction

There were more pathways into another room, which was very similar to Hill Country, but it was called “Riverwalk.” As you could probably imagine, there was a large river flowing through the room, filled with large Koi fish, and a man-made boardwalk with different stores for a shopping experience. The Spa, Fitness Center, Indoor Pool and another restaurant were also over here. And not to deviate from the oversized theme, I saw the largest bird of paradise plant I have ever seen in my entire life.

Koi..

indoor themed landscaping

What a strange, large, excessive resort this was. After I settled into my room, I took off to wander around and see first hand what was going on. In a state where most people don't talk about or accept homosexuality, I found it ironic that the resort was named The "Gaylord Texan." Everything was so big, large, jumbo, and super sized…it was overwhelming. I felt like Alice after she encountered the “drink me” bottle in that crazy hallway. I felt disproportionate in scale compared to ceiling heights, hanging lamps, door frames, food portions, everything. There were speakers placed in the ground, hidden in the landscaping, belting out country music everywhere you walked. No matter which atrium you were in, or what store you were shopping in, or where you were, there was some crappy country song playing, pumping out twangy guitar and nasally gravelly vocals.

the largest bird of paradise plant I have ever seen in my life.

The center of the resort was this giant biosphere dome, glass everywhere to allow in a lot of natural light (UV filtered, I’m sure). In the center, there was a giant yellow glass star in the glass ceiling. I started to notice these single stars everywhere, in the carpet, wall papers, in pictures, in murals and mosaics, carved into furniture and welded onto railings. It was pretty scary, I felt like I was dealing with the 4th Reich or something.

symbol of the 4th Reich.

The actual hotel rooms were within the thick biosphere perimeter; if you started jogging down the hall from wherever your hotel room was, you would eventually completely circle the resort and return where you started. The perimeter wasn’t completely circular; there were areas where the different atriums met, and the hall split in two or three different infinite directions, identical carpeting, light fixtures, wall and door colors as far as the eye could see. On my first night there, I wanted to map out the route to the pool so I could go swimming, and I was lost for about ½ hour. The only way I could reorient myself was to have several people show me the way to the main check in lobby. By the way, there are very large fireplaces in the lobby, so large that a few people could stand inside side by side. And even though all the fireplaces displayed a roaring fire, the climate was controlled to a comfortable 78 degrees. The only place the temperature wasn’t comfortable was in the actual conference center part of the resort, where the conference and sessions were taking place. I had to bring and wear a light sweater in every room I was in over there. I suspected that they kept it cool so the conference attendees don’t fall asleep during a class or presentation.

the conference area at The Gaylord Texan

The place where the conference was located through the main atrium, and through a network of halls, up a couple of escalator banks, and in a very, very large lobby. I think you could safely park a few airplanes in this lobby. Our conference had use of a huge exhibit room, a super big theater/ballroom with a stage and curtains, and many smaller partitioned ballrooms for the class sessions and trainings (you know, roundtables, committee updates and all that). The conference included food, and the food was generously served in large or help-yourself portions. During breaks between classes, the hotel staff set up large snack areas for the attendees to help themselves. One break there was cookies, coffee, tea, and milk served. Another time several ice cream freezers were loaded with boxes of individual Dove or Ben and Jerry’s chocolate-covered vanilla or chocolate ice cream bars. Breakfast was always a smorgasbord of fresh fruit, coffee cakes, cinnamon rolls, eggs, breads, bagels and spreads. The only thing that wasn’t covered were alcoholic beverages, but being a lightweight and also having a fear of drinking too much around co-workers, I only had a margaritas and a beer during my visit.

partial outdoor view--this is just a fraction of the resort

I spent a lot of time observing everything; I definitely felt a different vibe from Texas. I was really aware that this region was not Portland. For example, most of the local males brandished very large belt buckles. From young to old, gold, silver, painted, ornate, plain…it almost seemed to be part of the Texan uniform. But it’s not just because of the belt buckles they were wearing; it’s was the whole Texan package—the boots, the cowboy hats, saying things like “y’all” and “reckon” and “those Mexicans.”

The local women weren’t as bad; they had a whole different passive snootiness going on. It seemed more like a righteous religious thing, and was easily ignored. Other then quantities of make up and hairspray, there wasn’t too much out of the ordinary about Texas women. Most seemed to have that Laura Bush look.

I can’t believe the amount of people who are wearing those stupid cowboy hats for real. I think very few people can pull off a cowboy hat wearing look, but as soon as I stepped off of the plane in Dallas, I saw a crowded sea of tan, white, black, gray, and brown cowboy hats bobbing up and down with the flow of foot traffic.

This place was an amazing example of gluttony and excess, the scary brave new future is upon us.

The area around the hotel vast expanses of flat greenery, with the occasional shrub-like scrub oak tree dotting the landscape. The scary element that broke up the rolling desert plain was about 4 other partially constructed deathstar biospheres; tall gray ominous structures, in various stages of assembly jutting defiantly into the sky, accompanied by a huge crane or two, and several small scattered support structures, vehicles and equipment.

To see many more pictures of this ridiculous, excessive resort, visit my Flickr set devoted to The Gaylord Texan.

skeevy hotel

2007-05-17T10:15:00.000-07:00

I had to go to Seattle for a work function recently, and we stayed in a skeevy hotel, the Best Western Evergreen Inn in North Seattle. I've stayed at this hotel before and my experience wasn't so bad, but this time made up for and negated any good experience I might have had. The customer service was horrible, the clerk who checked me out had an attitude the size of Montana. She kept insisting that I pay the pet fee (I didn't bring pets, unless you count my co-worker), and after I refused she insisted that I give her my credit card to pay for the visit. I explaned that my boss' Executive Assistant made the reservations with a credit card, and that ws the only one that could be used. The last time I gave my credit card over at a hotel to cover "incidentials" they ended up charging my card, and several over-the-limit fees later this situation was finally resolved (and yes, I did get all the fees covered but it took a while and a lot of legwork).

The hot tub was milky, the beds were on an angle, the carpet smelled musty, and the comforter on the bed creeped me out (but then again it could be that episode of "Dateline NBC" that really instilled feelings of being creeped out).

There was a coffee maker in the bathroom, and a tray with 4 coffee mugs on it, and 2 packages of "Wolfgang Puck" coffee. My co-worker remarked that she wanted to change the "P" to and "F," which I didn't get a first, but then thought was pretty funny. On top of the coffee mugs were paper covers, and we noticed when we first got into our hotel room that one of the paper covers had a suspicious, small, curly black hair on top of it. I was so grossed out I could have gagged. Below is a picture of the hair and cup in question.

I think the bigger question is, why is there a coffee maker in the bathroom? Who thought this was a good idea? Making coffee in the bathroom is almost as gross as sharing reading material in the bathroom.

I took this picture, and went downstairs to show the clerk on duty what we were dealing with. He laughed when I showed him the picture, and said (I'm not making this up) "oh, well, we have Mexican housekeepers, what do you expect? Umm, don't use that cup." I'm glad we were only staying overnight.

What an experience. Don't waste your time or money in this place. There's about 10 places like this (and probably cleaner and less racist) within a stone's throw from this place.

open letter to the woman who ties her dog up outside of the coffee shop

2007-05-14T16:16:00.000-07:00

So, I get that you like to take your dog everywhere. You can't leave the apartment without him, and "he" happens to be an overgrown Rotweilier/Pit Bull/German Shepard mix who also has a wicked case of PTSD. I can tell you think it's cute to bring your dog to the local coffee shop, and while you're inside lazily sipping your latte and eating your smoked cheddar and apple scones, your scary dog is outside barking at everything that barely moves. It's apparent that you don't work in the morning because no matter what time I stop by, the story is the same. I'm sure you're hoping that maybe one of the available single bachelors in this town will skateboard up to the coffee shop and be impressed by your large companion. Whatever the case may be, I'm sorry if I offended you by reflexively shouting "JESUS CHRIST" because Cujo lunged to the end of his lead-rope and barked loudly and frothily at me. I have to be honest, I couldn't help it and if Cujo came any closer then his lead rope would allow, he probably would have suffered a punch in the snout. Anyway, just sharing a piece of my mind, please, go back to enjoying your morning.

Touché, pussy cat!

2007-05-09T06:20:00.000-07:00

I have to confess, I’m holding onto guilt about something that happened a long time ago.

When I was about 5, I really hated cats. I think the hatred mostly came from watching Tom and Jerry; I felt that mice were nice fun animals and that a cat’s primary purpose in life was to bully, torture and eat mice.

You wouldn’t believe what a big Tom and Jerry fan I was. I think I’ve seen most, if not all of the episodes, but prefer the older cartoons, anything pre-1970. After consulting wikipedia, it seems that my memories are with cartoons made during the Hanna-Barbera era (1940 – 1958), and the Gene Deitch era (1960 – 1962) I didn’t really care for the Chuck Jones era (1963 – 1967) of cartoons, which had a distinct animated look to it. I couldn’t watch any Tom and Jerry Cartoons that came out after the Chuck Jones era because I felt the animation and the story lines were sub par.

My favorite episode of Tom and Jerry is “Mice Follies.” That was the episode where Jerry and his little friend overflow the kitchen sinks and stick the refrigerator coil onto the wet floor, thus freezing everything in the kitchen. When I was younger I actually thought this was possible, and fantasized about freezing and ice skating around my kitchen. Lucky for my parents I didn’t try it.

Watching some of these cartoons now that I’m an adult, I notice that there was a lot of political incorrectness incorporated into the cartoons, where an unsuspecting child with an impressionable mind can learn that it’s funny to blow something up in someone’s face, because when the smoke clears they’ll be standing there in black face.

Anyway, back to the confession—

With this cat bias coursing strongly through my veins, one day I took my dislike out on a neighbor’s cat—named Mickey. I clearly remember picking up Mickey by his tail and swinging him around and letting him go—from the feel of his tail between my small hands, the weight of his body swinging around, to the smell of the autumn air and the feel of my sweater against my skin. After I let Mickey go he ran off, and he was fine. He suffered no repercussions from that incident, other then being more cautious around me in the future. I’m sure Mickey’s been dead a long time now, but Mickey, wherever you are, I am sorry I was such a jerk to you.

train wreck

2007-05-04T17:46:00.000-07:00

The Hasseled Hoff. I know it's probably wrong to exploit the footage his daughter shot, and I agree it's only a big deal because he's a high profile media kind of guy, but jeez, what a mess.

some more spring photos

2007-04-29T20:23:00.000-07:00

springtime is very nice, of course once the flowers start blooming they're fast on their way to dying. But for the brief blip in the time-space continuum they are here and displaying their beauty, I thought I'd capture some of it with my camera. These irises aren't mine, but my neighbor Rosemary's. She is the owner of Toby, Marcus' nemesis.

the water at work

2007-04-24T16:34:00.000-07:00

The water here is very strange; if you wash your hands, or have to wash something out (like your lunch dishes) it either smells like metal or rotten eggs. Sometimes both at the same time, if you can imagine that. There are a lot of shared doorknobs, printer buttons, pens, and other overlooked items, and there isn’t any way you can go through the day without washing your hands. Metal smell and everything; I tried going the “hand sanitizer” route and found it to just make my hands feel like I was wearing an Elmer’s glue glove of thick slime.

I have some citrus smelling lotion that simultaneously relaxes me and moisturizes my skin, and seems to keep the rotten egg metal smell at bay.

hindsight is 20:20

2007-04-23T17:39:00.000-07:00

When I was at work one day venting about something that frustrated me, my boss told me that I was “just too agitated about it.” That reaction to my rant subsequently deflated my annoyance, and ever since, whenever I get annoyed about something I have a flash of my boss telling me that I’m just too agitated. It’s hard to be firm and effective when you are imagining your boss behind the person you are talking to, scoffing at whatever I’m on a tirade about.

So an incident occurred earlier that I probably got too agitated about. Looking back, I think I was annoyed about a number of things, mostly lack of communication and incompetence, but hardly anything to be annoyed about. Instead of acting I reacted, and in retrospect I could have handled things a million different ways. Of course that’s any story; how does that go, hindsight is 20:20? At least I didn’t do anything regrettable, like curse at someone, or run around screaming, or throw things. At these points in my day I like to focus on what went right.

And we passed the audit, 100%. I really only played a small part, organizing the information and playing hostess, but I’m still relieved it’s over. I couldn’t have done it without a lot of help from the people I work with (but not the ones who annoyed me earlier).

agency audit part one.

2007-04-18T17:24:00.000-07:00

Relay call right before 5, the operator providing the verbal relay has a heavy accent, and it seems the party on the other end of the line is having a hard time making the transition from sign language speak to the idiom of spoken language. This conversation is an extra challenge because I was up late last night, didn’t get to bed until 2:30 and I’m all jet lagged east coast to west coast time zones. Throughout the day I felt as if I have crust in my eyes that won’t clear out, a frog that won’t leave my throat, a fuzzy coherence as I tackle a week’s worth of catch-up, familiarizing myself with what’s been going on, the day to day, hirings, firings, adjustments, changes, updates, etc.

On top of it we’re being audited, and some of the things the auditor needs to review seem like elements of a foreign language, all riddled with acronyms and numbers, spreadsheets and access reports slowly suffocating me and making me gasp for air. I just want to take a nap. I brought back two pounds of Italian cookies from New York for everyone in the office, and they were an immediate hit. Everyone oooed and aahed, took a few cookies back to their desks, temporarily increasing their productivity on the crescendo of a sugar high.

The buttery smell of those cookies initiated such a strong nostalgia, of times when I was a kid and would gorge myself on those buttery delights, holidays at my Aunt’s house eating all the sweets in sight. Now that I’m older, I still enjoy those cookies, but also appreciate the art of baked goods. The shapes, colors, and combinations of jellies, chocolate and sprinkle adornments make them almost too good to eat, they become an extreme visual and olfactory stimulation.

In the near future I’m going to upload my bakery pictures. If I wasn’t doing what I’m doing now, I might have been a baker. Cooking is an art, but baking is a science.