They Don't Exist

I may be moving back to civilization!

2010-10-03T15:09:00.000-07:00

Having done nearly ten months in exile, an opening at my old house may be opening up in the next few weeks and I've got dibs on the room! While I enjoy living by myself, the need to scrimp and save combined with only being in driving distance of anything cool meant that I hardly ever went out and spent much of my time alone. Again, I enjoy that, but only to some extent and it'll be nice to live someplace where there are people to chat with downstairs, and things to walk to down the street. The MAX is only a few blocks away, even! It only takes me 45 minutes to get back from a Timbers game, not nearly three hours!

As you can tell, I'm pretty excited. In the meantime, I've got school to worry about and a week long hunting trip for which my dad is picking me up tomorrow at SIX AM. He lives a ways away, meaning he will have to leave his house at around 4 am. That's lunacy if you ask me.

My classes this term are all online. That's nice because I wouldn't be able to do this hunting trip otherwise, but they seem to require more work than an ordinary class. I'll probably have to take a hit on participation points this week as I don't particularly want to drive into some hick town, steal a wireless connection and do some bs just for a few points after spending ten hours hiking in the mountains. I get paid just as much for Cs as I do As.

Next term, I've decided to go back to PSU, change my major to geography and use up every last bit of benefits. And since the new GI Bill has gone through I now have an extra 12 months of those bennies! As much as I hate school and am bored to death of it, it pays better than a minimum wage job, and I've yet to get so much as a phone call about one of those anyway, so I may as well continue. Hopefully the economy will have stopped sucking by the time I'm done.

Mouseland

2010-09-28T18:47:00.000-07:00

This was making the rounds on Facebook today and since it made me chuckle, I thought I'd share. It's a great speech of course and it's probably lost on many people, but the really interesting part is that even after all this time, what has changed? Well, perhaps a lot in Canada. Not a whole damn lot down here, though. I love the way people talked back then, too. Makes me wonder what people will make of our accents 60 years from now when watching old film clips (on whatever the future youtube will be).

The Camping Wrap Up

2010-08-16T11:54:00.000-07:00

There's a new post over on my travel blog on my last camping trip. Click on the doggy for the link.

Camping

2010-08-14T12:14:00.000-07:00

The camping trip I just took with the family went about the same as all our camping trips. There was a lot of driving, lots of pretty things, at least one disaster, some fighting, but no one nearly died. I don't want to go too deeply into the disaster, but suffice to say, Yosemite is really overrated.

Over on my travel blog, I'll get some pics posted.

I'm back now in Portland, doing not much of anything. Still looking fruitlessly for a job and running out of money. Hopefully I can get some GI Bill money for the next term, but that's not a guarantee. No prospects for employment on the horizon. I hope moving back in with the parents isn't in the cards, because that would be agony for someone in her late 20s.

At least it's that time of the year when just about every soccer league in the world is going, so there's something to absorb myself in that doesn't involve stressing over anything consequential.

It was 91 degrees by 11:30 am today. What the hell? It was chilly and cloudy just about all summer and just when I get back from camping up in the mountains it gets all nasty. Sure, the camping was in the desert, but we were high enough in elevation that it was only hot in the sun, cool in the shade and chilly at night. In other words, it was perfect up there. This is sticky and gross.

Hello

2010-07-26T19:25:00.000-07:00

I'm boring.

No, really. I'm not much of a fiction writer, so I blog when I have something worth blogging about happen in my life. Happenings haven't really been happening, so there's been no blogging.

Here's my daily life. Please don't die of boredom while reading it. Take breaks, if necessary.

Get up around 10. Undarken the computer screen and check usajobs for my dream (read: part time underpaid entry level crap) job. Upon it's inevitable absence in the listings, I close the tab in a huff.

Time to make coffee. While heating water and grinding beans, marvel at how gross and smelly the kitchen has gotten even though I swear I just cleaned it yesterday. Or the day before. Or something.

After coffee is in my cup, head back to the computer to open all the new tweets posted since last night. Click on every interesting soccer blog entry and read for awhile.

Sit, contemplate what to do with the day. Check TV listings, weather report.

Suddenly it's 2pm, which means it's hot and rush hour has started so there's nothing worth doing outside the house for at least several hours. Maybe tomorrow I'll go fishing or camping. Maybe.

Evening rolls around and I get on my bike or get in my car and head to the college campus to kick around the soccer ball for a little while. When it gets too dark or there are too many mosquitoes, drive home.

Contemplate bed, since there's absolutely nothing to do. Nothing on the tube, nothing really worth reading on my bookshelf or online. Finally get to sleep way late/in the early morning.

Repeat.

Would you want to read about that on a daily basis? I thought not.

Next week I'm going camping for a week with my parents in California. Somehow, I've never been to Yosemite, so we're going there as well as the Lava Beds National Monument. Haven't been camping yet this summer, so that should be good, plus I get to see my dog again.

My Absence

2010-07-01T15:12:00.000-07:00

I'll admit it: I'm a nerd. I was so emotionally drained from the just the group stages of the World Cup, not to mention the USA's run at it, that I simply could not write about it or anything else. While I'm feeling much better, I'm still not entirely healed and I'm upset that I have to miss the Germany-Argentina match on Saturday that I had hoped would finish off my cure. Alas.

No, nothing has really been going on other than that. I've applied for a bunch of jobs and gotten exactly zero phone calls. Why advertise for a job if you don't actually have one available? Do they get some sort of financial or tax compensation for listing employment with state agencies? Well, I guess they might. Figures.

4th of July is around the corner and as usual, I will be at my grandparent's lake house up in Washington. Should be good times even if it rains again, which judging by the current conditions and what's been happening since winter supposedly ended, is likely. Hooray for fireworks, beer and for standing on top of my car with my phone in the air, hitting refresh on the Guardian's minute-by-minute report of the Germany match!

Things I Learned During My Cold

2010-06-08T12:28:00.000-07:00

I just had a short, but unexpected and nasty cold. For some reason, even though I don't have a job and school is done so I don't have anything to do anyway, this gave me the opportunity to try some new things.

-- I like reading. I know I like reading, so why don't I do it more? I finished Lies my Teacher Told Me, which has a rather misleading title, because the focus is on history textbooks, not the teachers themselves. I also started A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, who is one of the funniest writers around right now. A Short History is a history of science type of book that focuses as much on the scientists themselves as the things they discovered. He has an easy writing style that lends itself to explaining even the most convoluted of ideas - like string theory in physics - to those of us who never made it through a chemistry of physics class. And from the stuff he describes that I already do understand, it seems pretty accurate too. Some things I didn't know that I've taken from the book so far: The same guy who thought it'd be a good idea to add lead to gasoline also invented CFCs, those things we banned after we found out they ate a hole in the ozone layer (Bryson says the guy had "an instinct for the regrettable that was almost uncanny"); even in 19-friggin'-88 (I was alive then!) more than half of American paleontologists didn't believe the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid strike; humans today have 685 times more lead in our bodies than people a century ago.

-- The sleep aid in nighttime pain relievers, the cough suppressant in overnight cold syrups and the antihistamine in others is all the same drug. Benadryl. I kind of felt sorry for Benadryl, because once the world invented an antihistamine that didn't make you unconscious, Benadryl faded out of use fast. It seems to have taken its greatest flaw, it's hypnotic effect, and made it its greatest asset. Well done to it, I guess. I remember fighting the need to take antihistamines as a kid, even if I could barely breathe or see due to hayfever, because even a half of the children's dose would knock me out in the middle of a sunny, summer day. I normally hate taking medication and avoid it until absolutely necessary, but by night three I really needed some sleep and sure enough I was out cold until the early morning when I woke up soaked in sweat, but feeling much much better. Amazing what a little rest will do ya.

-- A potato has 45% of your daily vitamin C. I had no idea! So during the cold I ate at least one potato a day, covered in raw garlic (also a lot of vitamin C and sure cleared my sinuses!) and washed down with some echinacea tea. God I'm a hippie sometimes.

-- I need more fishing line. We finally had a sunny day, the one where I woke up feeling cured, so after I watched the Americans beat Australia in a World Cup warm-up match, I drove up to Mt. Hood to fish at Timothy Lake. Surprisingly, considering how crowded it was not far away, there weren't a ton of people. Still, I took my small pole, since the big salmon rod seemed a little excessive for a stocked lake, and went for a bit of a hike to a secluded spot a ways from where I'd parked. It wasn't until after I'd settled down, had a bite to eat, baited my hook and cast that I realized that I only had about 30 feet of line on the reel. It reached the end mid-cast and as it jerked to an abrupt halt I watched the bait fly off into the lake. I wasn't about to hike all the way back just to exchange rods, so I made do for an hour before I reluctantly acquiesced to the reality that I just wasn't going to catch anything in twelve inches of water. On the way back no less than two fish did some spectacular flying triple jumps to bid my adieu and every child with I walked past had a fresh catch on his/her hook. Yeah, rub it in.

lake weekend

2010-05-31T18:10:00.001-07:00

After a weekend during which my diet consisted entirely of fried or deep fried meat, fried or deep fried non-meat products, coffee, beer and a high fructose corn syrup containing pop I most definitely needed a recovery afternoon. Since arriving home three hours ago, I have drunk about a gallon of water, heated up some veggies, went for a short run and ate a salad. I almost feel human again.

My grandparents have a cabin on a lake up in Washington. Since my mom was a little kid, it's been the site of numerous family reunions, swim fests and 4th of July parties. Some of them have had upwards of 100 people attend, with a core group of us staying the night, cramming our sleeping bags next to one another's on the basement floor and taking up all the couch and tent space available. One year there was even a live band! These days things are more mellow. The adults go to bed at ten, leaving us cousins to drink beer around the fire for a few more hours.

This weekend, Memorial Day, was really laid back, due to the continued atrocious weather. Above all, this family is known for cooking and bringing massive amounts of food. If it's hot out, we all get a little swimming or water-skiing in (not me for the latter), but since it was cold and rainy, we just ate. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious and I enjoyed catching up with everyone and seeing the little kids, but since I've been more careful about eating only real foods recently, this change of diet and lack of exercise was pretty killer.

Seeing my grandpa carry around his oxygen tank and hearing my uncle talk about having to starve himself into order to make the weight limit for a horse-riding trip he'd planned with his kids made me realize that I need to work on staying healthy, because my genes aren't going to do it for me. I'm better off that most in that side of the family, but in all honesty, I could be in better shape.

Hiking

2010-05-27T23:37:00.001-07:00

A few weeks back we got a spring teaser. The sun was out, and though it was a bit cool, it lured many of us to buy sunscreen and light beer that goes well with lime, put away our long pajamas and flannel sheets in exchange for lighter linen and shorts. I may as well have washed the car for all the jinxing I put into it. But in any case, my friend and I managed to get in a few Friday hikes and I did some on my own on the weekends. Occasionally, I remembered to bring my camera.

This set is from the Columbia Gorge. The Columbia river flows from Washington south and then west all the way out to the ocean. A good part of the river, including this section, forms the border between Oregon and Washington. A freeway on the Oregon side parallels it for quite a ways and it's one of my favorite routes in the country as the further east you travel, the more dry and deserty the conditions become. You can fall asleep surrounded by fir trees and waterfalls coming off of moss covered cliffs and wake up surrounded by bald, brown hills. I used to imagine that the desert hills looked like someone had taken a giant erasure and took off all the trees and green bumps.

Rest break a little ways off the trail, looking west. It was quite the hike up to this point, so we took a breather and some photos.

Did I mention it's a big river? You can see a very tiny speed boat in this picture as well as a buoy. I was also impressed with the color of the water that day.

Typical Forest Service signage and map markings caused us to end up on a different trail than we had intended. While the road noise was a little annoying, the views were pretty good from this spot. This shot is facing east and little north. That parking lot way down on the right? That's where I parked.

Same shot as above, zoomed out. The climb was hell, thank you.

The next few came from a couple different trips to a park along the Willamette River. While the Columbia flows west through the north portion of Portland, the Willamette (rhymes with "dammit") flows north right through the middle of Portland and then intersects with the Columbia. The park is in the southern suburbs where the hoity toity have their waterfront mansions and docks. It's usually full of fishermen, but for the life of me I can't figure out why anyone would eat something out of a river full of toxic heavy metals that are there due to our years of heavy industry. Maybe it's catch and release.

It was a wet winter. It just seems so typically Oregon that there would be a dead tree over the path that has ferns growing on it.

White legs need some sun.

I was trying to photo an elusive bird here. It's in the picture, but you'll never find it, because it looks just like a rock. In the background you can see some fishing boats and some of those mansions I referred to.

Here's a blurry close up of that rock-like bird.

Rainbows!

2010-05-20T19:29:00.000-07:00

It's been this kind of day. I lucked out while working out earlier as it was pouring while I stretched and lifted weights, but by the time I'd driven over to the school with the running path, the sun was out and massive amounts of steam rose from the trail. Birds were singing, the power lines were making scary crackling sounds and a whole fleet of - I mean, at least thirty - ground squirrels had to make a mad dash for cover when I so rudely ran through their sunbathing strip.

This shot was from just a few minutes ago when there were sheets of rain falling and yet the sun was brightly shining through. The site more than made up for having to tolerate the trashy neighbors' domestic fight in the parking lot that happened about an hour earlier. These two incidents put together perfectly illustrate the benefits and downsides to living on the suburban edge of rural: your neighbors may be alcohol/meth-dependent domestic abusers with a penchant for really loud, shitty music, but hey - the views are great!

The Sun! It's Out!

2010-05-16T14:11:00.000-07:00

I can't tell you how happy I am that the sun is shining every now and again these days. School is absolute shit and I wish they'd just give me my degree already instead of tricking me with the fine print. I've been working on these same three credits for over a year now without success. That's not great for one's self esteem, you know.

Anyway, it's been sunny here and there and I've gotten out to run, hike, and hopefully this week, bike. The trees have leaves on them, finally, and I actually had to open the windows when I came home from the soccer game last night, as it was actually hot and stuffy in the apartment.

I'm waiting for a particular job to open up in the Portland area and while I know they're not going to update their job advertisements on the weekend, I can't help but check the listings every few hours. It's a compulsion at this point. I'd just really, really like to remain in the Portland area. While I love lots of other areas of the country and know that I *could* live in those places, that doesn't mean I necessarily *want* to. In the meantime, I'm living off of credit and trying to distract myself from my financial, job and school woes by working out, going to soccer games and catching up on various TV series that I've missed through the years.

Perhaps in a bit I'll post some photos from the last few weeks.

more work AND more play

2010-04-11T19:55:00.000-07:00

It became obvious Thursday night, and certainly Friday morning, that I had a lot of shit to do. But this is me we're talking about, so of course I wouldn't just sit down and get it done, would I? Instead, I made new plans and kept the ones I did have. Even though I'm going to two schools this term doesn't mean I have to continue to be a hermit.

By Monday I have to finish writing a song for my electronic music class, get on the bus from downtown and then get into the computer lab enough time before the class starts in order to play it on the keyboard and record it into the school's computer system. Have I mentioned how terrible I am at the piano? Awful.

Earlier Monday I have an archaeology assignment due, the details of which I don't really understand, other than it involves doing some observing on campus which is inconveniently located in a place other than my living room. I may have to get up really early and skip my morning class in order to get that done.

Sunday (tonight) I have two assignments that I have to email in to the instructor. The class as I registered for it was in the music department, but is also cross-listed in the business and digital media communications departments and none of those had a link to the online class itself. I had to find it by googling and didn't get enrolled until a week and a half into the term. Turns out, it's a law class. What the fuck do I know about law? We have to do case studies! I'm not a goddamn lawyer, nor do I intend to be. Case studies in a 100-level community college class? Hay-zooss, I just wanna get paid.

Despite all this stuff, I kept my promise to hike with a friend after class on Friday and while we didn't tromp out to the middle of nowhere, it ate up a good chunk of the afternoon and after a tiring week that involved a lot of walking up and down hills to bus stops in sudden downpours and riding on the bus for an hour at a time, each way, with seedy co-passengers, it was both a physical challenge and a mental release.

Saturday I reluctantly went to my indoor soccer game. I say reluctantly only because I really was feeling my schoolwork obligations weighing on me, but it sounded like without me my team wouldn't have any female subs and I hate it when I have to play without a sub. And it's a good thing I showed up, too. The team manager, of all people, showed up thirty seconds from the finish, as she'd written down the wrong time in her calendar, so we had to play without subs anyway. Somehow, we managed to not only win, but to do it by five goals. I had an assist, a good pass that led to an assist, and saved a goal with my head. I just had to mention that last one, because I'm really proud of it.

Instead of going home after the game, we all stuck around to watch the Barcelona-Real Madrid match on the tv at the arena. Someone ordered a pitcher and then I ended up ordering another one since it seemed like my turn, and there went my Saturday. While watching the match I invited the girl who missed the match to come hiking with me the next day so she could get a workout in anyway. Why I did that I don't know, but it worked out well. The hike was pretty, though tiring, and we got back just in time to catch the last quarter of the Blazers-Lakers (basketball, for you foreigners) match, have a beer and watch Portland win at the last second, away from home and without their best player.

So, instead of working on all those things on Friday, I didn't start on them until 4:30pm Sunday and I'm tired and sore to boot. Do I regret it? Not a bit. In fact, I think I'll look to make my weekends even busier in the future.

Update

2010-04-07T11:28:00.000-07:00

I'm skipping class today and I actually feel rather bad about it, so I'm trying to do some productive things with my time to have made it worth it. So far, I've experimented in a radical concept where I store the clean dishes in the cabinets and dirty dishes in the dishwasher. Whoa! Next perhaps I'll try the equally radical idea where I put my clean clothes in the dresser and dirty ones in the laundry bag. At the moment the clean clothes are in the laundry bag and dirty ones on the floor.

Life out here in the 'burbs is all right, I suppose. It's far enough away from the city that it has a lot of rural characteristics, which isn't really a good thing. Yes, I like birds and the woods and things, but the people in rural areas are just dicks. I lived or walked through some nasty areas of Portland on a regular basis and the amount of times anyone honked at me, hollered at me from their car or revved their engine and swerved at me totaled about four. Here, it happens once a week. There are bike lanes, but drivers don't actually expect bicyclists to be in them and when it happens, the bicyclists are subject to a torrent of horns, shouts and abuse. Anything different must be punished! Another thing people don't understand about rural areas is that they're full of criminals. When we think crime, we think cities, but there are enough other people in cities to dilute their effects. Here, everyone in the back half of the bus I ride in the morning know each other because they served in prison together. Awesome! It's difficult to get an apartment as an ex-con so they're often forced to buy a place and that's difficult without much money, so they end up in the cheap areas, which tend to be rural.

Because of all of that and the distance I live from my friends, I've been keeping to myself mostly. This term I'm enrolled in the community college in my new town doing stuff with music recording and production and I'm finishing up a few classes at PSU. That schedule makes for a lot of commuting and a bit of homework as well, making it easy to not go out too much.

If this stupid weather ever improves I'm going to take my newly fixed up bike out for regular rides, do some fishing on the weekends, and weekly hikes with my Portland friends.

an example of someone who is not lazy

2010-01-29T11:30:00.000-08:00

Talk about a motivational story! Or one to make your excuses for not working out seem really trivial. This guy, Charlie Davies, is now jogging. It was only October when the soccer player on the USA national team was a passenger in a horrific crash that severed the car in two and killed the other passenger. Davies broke his leg - both the tibia AND the femur - his elbow, multiple bones in his face and lacerated his bladder. And he's already running and doing agility drills. I ran about a mile on Monday and thought I was going to puke or pass out and spent most of the time since then sitting on my new couch. According to the article, a few weeks ago he could barely get out of his wheelchair. I understand that he's a professional athlete, but it's still pretty incredible that in only four months he's getting back up to speed.

In completely unrelated news, I've got birds! Inspired partly by MC's recent diaries on her amazingly beautiful property and the birds that occupy it, and partly from a discussion with my ex-roommate about her mom's African gray parrot, I decided to get a birdfeeder. It takes awhile for anything to show up in new feeders, so I've tried really hard to not get impatient. Yesterday, I finally got a few birds. Still not entirely sure what they are, but my best answer are bushtits. They're tiny little brown to olive birds that make small tsee tsee noises and flutter around. Hopefully, they'll spread the word around to their avian friends that there are some good eats on the second floor balcony.

Indoor soccer game tomorrow! After that embarrassing attempt at a run on Monday, I'm a bit worried about my first game back in months. It's disheartening how slowly 26 minutes tick off the clock each half when you're struggling for breath. It may be a long game.

Still Moving

2010-01-07T19:43:00.001-08:00

I finally found an apartment near my new school and I'm finally moving into it this week. So far I have a random collection of things that I've moved over - a few crates of books; receiver, records, but no record player; plates, but no silverware - and my dad is coming up this weekend to help me move the big things with his pickup. In the meantime, I'm hanging out at my old house in order to sleep on my bed and to use the internet. I don't get a connection at my new place until Tuesday. Poo. You know how difficult it is to do online classes without an internet connection? To make it even more difficult, the classes require Word, which is not compatible with the current programs on my Mac, so I have to buy some expensive system. Double poo.

I'm still deciding what to do about furniture. So far I have a fold out camp chair to sit on and crates with boards stretched across to serve as shelves/desktop.

Sorry about the sporadic posting on here recently. I'll try and do better. Now that I'm living all alone again I'll probably have nothing better to do than blog away the time.

Overheard

2010-01-06T21:53:00.000-08:00

Two boys, reading in bed.

9-year-old: Wow, I want to go to Europe. Don't you?

6-year-old: No!

9-year-old: What? Why not!?

6-year-old: Because they have vampires there.

Short Adventure!

2009-11-21T23:02:00.001-08:00

I've been poor for the last few months and have done a good job of acting like it. I haven't been out to eat except for cheap happy hour, haven't been out to the bars at all and I've limited my impulse shopping to a pair of jeans (they actually sell straight leg girls jeans now!) and a few t-shirts. So when I found out that the MLS championship would be held in Seattle and that tickets were only $25 I thought maybe I could justify it. Then I watched on TV as the LA Galaxy qualified, meaning David Beckham would be in the final and that sealed the deal. $25 to see Landon Donovan, Beckham, Robbie Findley? To what other championship game can you get a ticket for $25? I only hope there won't be too many douchebag Seattle fans there (fat chance).

My roommate's disgusting, old, smelly dog vanished last week. Perhaps she was sick of being old and smelly and found a crevice to duck under and call it a day. Perhaps someone kidnapped her. More likely, some noseybody took a look at her patchy fur, assumed she was abused and took her away "for her own good". My money is on the Crazy Cat Lady across the street. In any case, the house smells infinitely better, but we were still getting whiffs of Wiley every now and then, so I set about vacuuming today. The adult boys' band had a show tonight, so I used the opportunity to vacuum around where their equipment normally is in the basement. I'm fairly certain that the basement has never actually been vacuumed before. The poor machine nearly exploded! No wonder I have sneezing fits down here so much.

Still looking for a new place to live, but at least my current roommate secured me a couch and a loveseat at his moving/delivery job. I'll have a place to sit! I'm looking at December and Christmas break to get a place and move in. It'll will have been over three years since I've lived alone and even then it was only for nine months. Nine months in 27 years... for a loner that's a pretty surprising stat.

Ya know what's cool?

2009-10-07T11:49:00.000-07:00

Ya know what's really friggin' awesome? Having more money in your savings account than you owe on your credit card, that's what! I'm leery, though. The government just deposited a ridiculously large sum of money in my account. I was expecting some, but about an eighth of what they gave me and I can't quite work out how they came to that amount. It's wonderful of course, but I'm afraid they're going to realize they made a mistake and demand it all back at an inopportune time.

Plop

2009-10-06T20:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a blogpost, since I've been so spotty recently. I've spent nearly every waking moment today on the couch. I only got up to flush the toilet repeatedly (it's partially clogged and nothing has fixed it entirely), making myself some food and coffee, and taking the gross dog out to poop. The gross dog (my roommate's dog, not mine) has developed a sudden fear of grass and so instead of pooping on the lawn she's been depositing her crap on the sidewalk, the basement carpet and the office floor. I have to physically drag her onto the grass and stand there for twenty minutes until she gives up and drops a load. God I dislike that dog, and it pains me to say that about any canine. Oh and I broke up a cat fight, which surely embarrassed our boy Butters, but I can't let our kitty get stomped on! While sitting on the couch I did a bit of homework, so let it be known that I wasn't being completely lazy, just mostly immobile.

Moving and Stuff

2009-09-12T14:04:00.001-07:00

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was stressed out and looking for a new apartment. No, nothing's gone wrong with my roommates; I love living in this house and think my friends are the best roommates I've ever had. It's just that my main downstairs counterparts have just found out that they're expecting a baby. Good news for them! But it means that there will be three adults (including me) living there full time, two kids part-time and a baby fulltime on the main floor. It's simply too much and since infants aren't quite capable of getting their own damn house, I'm going to make way.

It's come at a bad time for me financially, too. When I came back from Europe early, I spent that money I'd saved on some stuff that I'd wanted for awhile, thinking I would pay it back with money for school. But the first setback came when the people who give me school money informed me that I'd taken too many electives and thus couldn't be certified for the term. So that left until November for me to get a full paycheck. I then had to put the trip across the country on my card and with the other stuff already on there I accrued quite a bit of interest to pay back.

And now I need to have some money saved up to move into an apartment. Lovely.

On the bright side, it's been awhile since I've lived by myself and I'm kind of looking forward to it. Hopefully I can find a small place nearby so I can still visit my friends and use the basement for music making and recording.

Oh Come On!

2009-09-12T13:52:00.000-07:00

The Timbers lost last night and while they didn't play very well at all, the other team, Austin, spent far too much time lying on the field with phantom injuries and taking all night for goal kicks and free kicks. The Austin goalkeeper was the biggest culprit with the timewasting and the idiot ref let him get away with it.

So this morning I wake up early and follow the English games online for a bit and then decide to go to the bar and watch the later match. I get there and once my eyes adjust to the dark interior, who should I see sitting a foot in front of me? The Austin goalkeeper and one of their forwards. How unfair is that, the perfect opportunity to tell a coupla cheats what I think of them and it's 9:00 in the morning and I'm totally unprepared! I settled with glaring at them and am pretty proud of myself for not bursting into laughter when at halftime one stood up and said he needed to walk, else he'd get a cramp. Yes, then he might have to spend twenty minutes lying on the floor and that'd be fairly embarrassing. I'm also consoled by the fact that the keeper has an absolutely awful haircut. It was a mullet AND a fauxhawk! You'd think someone would let their poor Euro teammates know that those styles are simply not done in America.

Sometimes I'm Mildly Productive

2009-09-08T13:31:00.000-07:00

Give me a bit of time by myself and I will actually become productive (eventually). A lot of things have happened recently that were slowly adding up the stress and so this last holiday weekend I was looking forward to going to the lake and forgetting about things for a few days. However, it poured all weekend at the lake and the power was even knocked out Sunday night, so while everyone was cheerful, joking and we made a great time of it anyway, we were all crammed indoors and none of the floating on the air mattress or going for pleasantly slow boat rides in the evening that I had envisioned occurred. My parents, who I had caught a ride with, and I opted to cut out early and I accompanied them all the way back down to their house so as to actually get that break I'd been looking for.

This morning I woke up just after everyone left to the sound of someone drilling concrete or maybe there was a monster burping across the street. In any case, there was a strange sound happening seemingly right outside my window at far too early an hour for there to be such noise. Normally I would not be awake at 8am, beautiful morning or not, but I pulled myself out of bed then had to mediate a dog-cat fight.

There's a lot of floor space at my parent's house, one of the things I love about it, so I used my dad's weight set and worked out my shoulders and lats before hopping in the shower and giving my hair a serious conditioning. Then I lounged in the sunny room and read a National Geographic all the way through, slowly. After I put that down, the dog and I had a chase-the-ball-around-the-house game and I finished off the coffee. I caved eventually and brought out the laptop I'd been avoiding and while perusing the apartment listings I tried to convince myself that I really could fit into a studio and after a few minutes I actually wasn't morbidly depressed by craigslist. I even contemplated furniture!

It was about then I looked at the clock hoping that my mom's show (she watches some soap opera) had finished recording so I could flip channels and I realized that it hadn't even come on yet because it was only 11:20. There are many days that I don't even get up until then. So I made a deal with the dog that at noon we'd go for a walk to try and kill time while it was taping. Meanwhile I found a download for Weeds season 4, which I'd been itching to watch and got it set up. We walked, I made lunch, fixed some things on iTunes and found a new Top Gear episode on the tv. It's not even two.

Timbers live-ish!

2009-08-28T17:18:00.001-07:00

So I was going to live blog the Timbers game, since it'll be the first time this year I've seen a Timbers game all the way through on television. It'd be no use recalling matches I've been to live. Every call against the Timbers is crap, no matter how far away from the action I am and the action in teh stands (recently there have been a lot of fights or at least shouting/slapping matches) often overshadows the rest of the game anyway.

But I got caught up trying to figure out why I couldn't get any sound from the guitar amp through my recorder and to my headphones monitor. I guess the phones jack is broken. Crap. Anyway, better late than never....

FULL TIME 0-0

Well, the Timbers have certainly played better, haven't they? They looked slow and even though they were running in at least an inch of water in places, so were the Battery and the Timbers were still slower. Who knows what would have happened if there hadn't been an iffy red in the first half.

In any case, the streak continues with 24 games unbeaten in league play. I'ma finish off this beer and go back to musical endeavors. What's next for the Timbers? Thirsty Thursday at home against Rochester and then away on the 7th in Austin. The next three games after that (11th, 13th, 17th) are all at PGE Park. If they manage to take first place - and they should! - they'll get a by-week the first round of the playoffs. Much to look forward to! Thank you, virtual crickets, and good night.

90:00+2 - Another corner for the Timbers. Hayes to take it. It's headed away, McManus loses it and the counterattack is only thwarted by One T.

90:00+1 - Pore kicks the ball off a defender from a corner. Great kick, but it gets cleared anyway. McManus gathers in midfield and launches it out of the park.

88:00 - Charleston player goes down in the box and appears to be injured or at least winded. Never a penalty though.

86:00 - Ohhh! Great play - one two passing in the middle, then out to the wing - but Forrest somehow misses. Finally some attacking threat.

85:00 - Will someone please score (from the Timbers) so that I can go back to fiddling with my broken electronics in the basement? This is dull and I'm a bit worried we're going to concede at the last moment due to playing for a draw even with a man up. Ooo, scary screaming woman is back.

83:00 - Portland given a freekick for a foul and someone on Charleston gets a yellow for.... I dunno, making a mean face at the ref or something. Nothing happens from the free kick.

81:00 - Kevin Forrest is on the field. I imagine he's the one who replaced Nimo. Farber is hauled down and the ref calls advantage..... for Charleston. Oh USL refereeing, how I won't miss you.

79:00 - Farber called for a foul when replays show he got the ball and the player jumped over him. "Ummm, maybe it touched his little finger or something," offers the commentator.

78:00 - Aside from some strange screaming sounds from a female member of the audience, not much is happening. Nimo just came off for somebody.

75:00 - Keita off, McLaughlin on. Hmm.

72:00 - Charleston are being allowed far too much possession and too many crosses for having only 10 players. C'mon Timbers, pick it up.

69:00 - Some Timber made a nice slow square pass right at the top of the box for Charleston's Yoshitaki to rocket into Portland's Stephen Keel. Dreadful pass there. Portland's lucky to get away with that. Again, I'd like a goal or two.

67:00 - The band is now playing that "nah n-n-n-nahhhh n-n-n-nah" song. Are they warming up for college football season? Are they always there? Why?

65:00 Ref calls a foul on Charleston that probably wasn't a foul and then places the Timbers freekick about thirty feet behind where the non-foul occurred.

62:00 - Charleston almost score, but thanks to last ditch defending by Keel they didn't. Poor clearance though and they have another opportunity to kick the ball into the stands. Or, whatever those tent things are behind the goal.

58:00 - Cronin catches the freekick, Portland plays keep away for two minutes. Whoa, is that a forward pass??? Whoa. I'd like to win, please. Ooo, Savage out for Rodrigo Lopez. Lopez as you may recall scored on a gorgeous dipping freekick against Burnley last month. Immediately Timbers almost score.

56:00 - Yellow card for Hayes. Charleston get a free kick in a dangerous area. Suzuki off, Farber on in his place.

51:00 - McManus shoots(?) and it nearly goes out for a throw-in. Yikes.

49:00 - Keita whiffs a shot, then Hayes trips over the ball. Let's settle down, ok?

47:00 - Good build up for Timbers, Pore just offside. More of that, please.

46:00 - And we're off again. This better be more exciting than part one.

HALFTIME RAMBLINGS

Whoa, they just showed the commentator. He's probably 20 years younger than I pictured.

FSC has, without a doubt, the worst commercials of any television network. It's all balding cures and penis enlargement quackery and how to reduce your credit/tax debt. The worst right now though is the long distance calling card ad with all the people from foreign countries with THE WORST fake accents ever. Like they couldn't find ONE woman actually from India for five seconds of monologue? Lord.

Ryan Pore is talking. Said something flattering about the fans. *Pats self on back*

So I'm drinking a 16oz can of Rolling Rock. Mmmm, "Premium Beer". Didja know they're selling six packs of these big cans at the beloved Grocery Outlet for five bucks? Speaking of cheap beer from PA, if anyone knows where I can get some Iron City in a bottle, please let me know.

HALFTIME

45 + 2 - Ball bounces around in the Portland box making Timbers fans at home (at least me) nervous. Nimo then finds Savage who does really well for such a long-range shot. Aaaand after three minutes of stoppage it's halftime.

45:00 - Charleston have a shot on target and given a corner. Timbers knock it behind for another corner. Into stoppage.

43: - Announcer just called Suzuki a "rangey" winger. Okeeee... Battery goalkeeper shown yellow for timewasting. I say that just isn't smart to waste time in the first half. Karma says you'll need those wasted minutes before the end of the match.

42:00 - Ugh. Nimo has his great moments, but he does have a tendency to do a great move, dribble down the pitch and then hoof the ball into the stands, which is exactly what he did a moment ago.

40:00 - Boring. As you can tell by me live blogging for the online crickets I'm pretty bored today and at this point in the match, the game isn't helping. Portland has a breakaway but Pore is offside. I'd feel a lot better if the Timbers could get a goal against the 10-man Battery before the half.

35:00 - Good spell there for the Timbers. Someone in the middle finds Suzuki on the left who wins a throw in the corner. It gets back to the middle and McManus tries a nice through pass that gets broken up. Pore has tried to beat five defenders at once several times this match. Maybe passing to the open man would be the better option.

32:00 - Charleston have moved into their own half allowing the Timbers to have more slow and steady possession. Pass pass pass, not a lot of shots for the Timbers.

30:00 - This game ain't gonna be pretty. Late tackles galore. Probably doesn't help that it apparently deluged right before kickoff. Lots of standing water on the field. I just heard Nimo's name, he must have started again.

Is it strange living in a time when the Timbers are given calls and not on the receiving end of phantom red cards and suspensions? And by phantom, I mean the cards and suspensions were real, just not so much the fouls that caused them.

RED CARD!!!

26:00 - Battery player who hit/headbutted Pore is sent off. Might not have been much there on either end. Hmmm. Of course it works out well for the Timbers.

24:00 - Pore challenges the ball by running at the keeper, Battery player takes exception and hits Pore in the eye.

20:00 - Timbers fans hold their collective breath as Keita goes down with an injury. He went into two challenges and seemed all right, but then went down a few steps later. Did he twist an ankle? He jog hops off the pitch and looks like he'll be back on in a minute. Whew.

18:00 - Charleston had a corner and didn't do anything with it. Portland attempted a counter attack and made it halfway down the field before giving it away. Lotsa bad passes and giveaways by both teams. It's different watching this after Champions League all week.

13:00 - Charleston has a shot on goal, Cronin collects it.

12:00 - Charleston has a marching band. From the sound of it, not a small one either and they've been playing all game. Bit too much possession by Charleston for my tastes. Dude with English accent is doing the play-by-play with no color commentator backup.

Good things about home

2009-08-24T22:51:00.000-07:00

- Home grown tomatoes. How can they be so good and so so so much better than anything from a store? When I got home there were four big tomatoes ready to go, three past their due dates and no good, a couple to be ready soon and many more to come. The sungold, cherry tomato plant had gone crazy and there was a bucket's worth of the orange candy-like fruit. I ate two tuna sandwiches over the past couple days that each had an entire tomato. There were pretty much tomato and a bit of tuna and cheese between bread.

- Stars? Strangely, the stars are out tonight. I have to escort the roommate's stinky dog outside now, as she's too ill-behaved and stubborn to simply go out, pee and come back and she'll end up down the street or disappeared entirely for hours. It's not often one can see the stars in Portland, due to clouds, pollution and street lights everywhere. Usually, the sky is an eerie orange at night. But while presiding over dog's nightly pee-on-the-blueberries I spotted the Big Dipper. And right where it should be, off the handle of the Big D, was the North Star. There were even some other less famous visible stars scattered around the sky. Wish that happened more often.

- Doing nothing. I'd say that I was multitasking today, but I don't think that reading with tv on or downloading things on the computer can be called "tasks". Multilazing I guess.

I'm Back!

2009-08-20T19:38:00.000-07:00

Yes, I was gone for twenty days and didn't write a single blog post. Obviously, I have some make up work to do. In my defense, I did an awful lot of driving, didn't have much wireless and my days were generally pretty long. I'll try to update in the next few days. As of now, I'm chilling out at my parents' house, waiting for them to get home before I go back up to Portland and attend another wedding.

Time for another cold shower

2009-07-28T00:06:00.000-07:00

I was going to write something interesting about these neat devices they have in Spain (I'm sure it's an old, simple and common technology for everyone outside of the US), but all I can think now is OH MY GOD IT'S HOT. It was 102 degrees today and now that it's one in the morning it's only cooled to 82. To put things in perspective, the average high for July in Portland is 78 and the low 56. The basement is coolest place in the house, so I decided to sleep on the floor until the biggest spider I've ever seen crawled over my face. So now I'm on the couch in the basement. I'm not sure why I think that giant spiders won't make it up onto the couch, but I'm sticking with it.

Anyway, in Spain they have these things outside of all the windows that look like mini metal garage doors. Some roll up and down and some just flip up like blinds. Now in the US we have shutters on the windows, but they're purely for decoration in any house built after, say, 1840 and no office buildings have them at all. These high(er) tech Spanish shutters are on literally every window in the country. You can sleep all day in total darkness or be completely unaware of anything happening outdoors. Whyyyyyyyy don't we have these here? Imagine how much cooler the house would be if every window blocked the sun completely. Those with air conditioning would hardly have to use it and the rest of us poor AC-less folk wouldn't have to share the basement floor with the spiders.

New Post

2009-07-17T12:26:00.000-07:00

There's a new post up on the travel blog. As the trip nears and begins, expect some periodic updates - internet accessibility dependent, of course.

Some pictures

2009-07-08T19:54:00.000-07:00

From the Portland v Seattle match.

Before the gates opened. Notice there's already streamers in the sign.

Right after the national anthem. It's a party in the smoke!

Look at how many people are there!

I flung up my arms with my camera pointed behind me. Apparently the smoke was getting to some people.

After every game, win or lose, the team jogs over to the north end to thank the fans. If anyone has scored a goal, they get a slice of the log that's been sawed off for them by Timber Joey. It's a pretty nice tradition and I hope they continue it even after we move to the MLS.

Fire on the Water

2009-07-07T00:52:00.000-07:00

My grandparents have a cabin on a lake up in Washington and every year there’s a party up there with family and their guests. There’s an indian reservation nearby so all the uncles and cousins pool their money together, pile into cars head over to stock up on fireworks that are illegal off the reservation - stuff like bottle rockets, roman candles and mortars. This year we plopped down five hundred dollars on the stuff. The kids spent literally all evening firing rockets and didn’t even come close to finishing them off. The mortars were cool as always, even if the neighbors on the lake showed us up. I can’t imagine how many thousands of dollars those guys must have spent on their display.

Most of the weekend was spent cheering up my dog who is tolerated but not exactly adored by that side of the family, swimming and trying not to get sunburned. It was hotter than I can remember it ever being at the lake, most everyone seemed to be in a good mood and I got to ride in my uncle’s new ski boat. Oh, and when I took the dog for a walk the first night I found a five dollar bill next to the road! That’s ten unearned dollars I’ve pocketed in the past week.

During the main part of the fireworks time, I scampered between the roman candle/bottle rocket lighting area and the dock, where I could see fireworks on both ends of the lake. Occasionally some of the firework lighters from our house would light a mortar off the dock and we’d have to gather up on the gangplank to avoid any shrapnel. Otherwise, it was perfectly safe. Except that someone accidently knocked over the pipe that was firing off the roman candles. Of course it would land in such a way that it was then aimed directly at the dock. My sister and I were caught in its path and I didn’t quite realize what was happening until a piece of fire went down my pants and burned my ass. Yes, that’s right. I was wearing thick, reinforced combat fatigue pants (I wore these things in Afghanistan!) with a belt, but it didn’t help. What really are the odds of one random spark ending up DOWN MY PANTS? There’s a burn mark on the inside of the pants, but not the outside. There’s a blister on my ass. I’m not joking. One in a million shot, that was.

I may head up there again this summer, since it’s only a few hours away and I’ve let everyone know that I’m bored bored bored and would love a place to swim and canoe and hang out by the fire pit, even if there are some chores involved.

Cup Night

2009-07-07T00:46:00.000-07:00

Since the school thing fell apart this term I’ve been pretty restricted in my activities. Not only do I have nothing to study for or anything to do downtown every weekday morning, but I don’t have any money either. But last week there were a few events that I’d either prepared for before the school crap or I was willing to splurge on.

Wednesday it was the cup match against Seattle. We’ve known for awhile that there was the possibility of this matchup, so long as we won the previous rounds of the Open Cup against some amateur or low-level pro teams. The Timbers Army did a lot of work in talking up the match and I’d even convinced three people who aren’t regulars to show up. However, a few days before the match they announced that they’d be capping attendance at 16,000 and that there weren’t many tickets left. Then the advanced tickets sold out. I called my friends and told them not to bother showing up unless they could get there well before kickoff, as it’d be miserable trying to find a seat, use the toilet or buy a beer otherwise.

One of my roommates and I got to the park fifteen minutes before the doors opened - over an hour and a half before the game was set to start. There were already hundreds of people lined up to get in and by the time the gates opened the line was stretched out of sight down the block and the crowd was chanting “Let us in! Let us in!” and booing passing Seattle fans. The singing started as soon as we got into the section and it didn’t stop until we’d left the park three hours later. Seattle actually brought down some fans this time, so we had people to chant at, even though we couldn’t hear them from our end. The people in the North End set up some pretty awesome tifo that included new flags and a display of giant cardboard cutouts that featured Timber Jim chainsawing the Space Needle. There were more smoke bombs before the match than I’ve been around all season, including one of the nasty kind that last forever and make your eyes and throat feel like it was a CS canister chucked instead of colored smoke.

Right before kickoff, the group of wannabe skinheads (the anti-racist kind at least) that are currently the bane of my existence picked my row to crowd into, despite the fact that it was already full. These guys are like my own personal black cloud; they appear at every show I go to as well as Timbers games, don’t chant (unless it’s yelling “fuck you” to the ref), don’t dance at the shows and jump anyone (male, anyway) that catches their eyes the wrong way. Immediately after shoving everyone who’d been there for over an hour out of the way, one of them got into a fight. I don’t know who started it (and frankly, I don’t care. Fact is, it wouldn’t have happened if the assholes hadn’t been there), but everyone around was pissed at the guy, tried to have him thrown out and his friends moved him closer to me to try and keep him out of trouble. During this ruckus Seattle scored a goal. So, one minute into the game, we’re losing and I’ve got a drunk, coverd-in-beer asshole squished in next to me. It threatened to ruin my evening, but when we got a goal right before halftime the celebrations cheered me up and I tried my best to not let them put a damper on the night.

In the end we lost, but it was still a good game and closer than the gap in talent between the two leagues would suggest it should of been. Portland got over 16,000 people to come out to a soccer game on a weekday evening on short notice and about a thousand Seattle fans made their first trip down for an away match in the Rose City. Not too shabby.

Weirdness and Coolness

2009-06-30T16:07:00.000-07:00

After last night's post from the side porch I came inside and took a seat near the front door and the television. My roommate and his girlfriend were cuddling and tickling each other on the couch and we were all half watching the Daily Show when some weird light patterns on the window caught my eye. Our living room is mostly windows and as we live on the corner of an intersection (is there any other kind of corner?) there are often cars passing by. I watched out the front window waiting for a car to come by and explain the dancing lights and when it eventually did it illuminated a figure across the street. It startled me and when I squinted in the dark I was made even more uneasy. The man was sitting under a tree with a weak flashlight, staring in my window. "Any reason you can think of why a man would be sitting on the ground across the street?" I asked my roommate. He frowned, took a hurling bat and walked around the side of the house and caught a glimpse of the man as he scurried down another street. What was the guy doing? I felt really uneasy the rest of the night and didn't sleep well, even after locking my windows. I *hate* sleeping without the windows at least cracked, even in wintertime. Officially creeped out.

Today though, one half of the couple who have been living in my basement gave me five dollars for giving him a ride down the street and helping him carry some pillows. Pillows! I felt bad for taking the money, but I'm not in a position to turn down cash these days. He seemed genuinely grateful for the help too, so what the hell.

sort life out

2009-06-29T21:53:00.001-07:00

I've spent the evening reading on the porch. A moment ago the sunset was a brilliant orange-pink swath behind the houses across the street and the faint smell of pot wafted out of the house, presumably from my roommate's girlfriend. There are a few tasks I need to complete. Come to think of it, there are several tasks I need to complete ranging from the right now to the before-I-go-to-bed to later this week to the indeterminate future. I feel a lot like Shaun in Shaun of the Dead when he puts a to do list on his refrigerator before passing out that reads, "Go round mum's, get Liz back, sort life out." Minus the impending hangover and the zombies, of course.

So let's see. I need to bring in the cactus, definitely, and probably clear another path in my room since I was rearranging the already post-earthquake-looking apocalypse earlier. I don't know what to do tomorrow. At some point I need to return that stupid stereo receiver and one day head to the airport to exchange the pounds, Euros and Swiss Francs for legal U.S. tender. Wednesday evening the Timbers are playing Seattle in a cup match, which is bound to be epic considering they're our biggest rivals and since we're now in different leagues it's a matter of luck that we get drawn together at all. There's a possibility that we won't play each other again until 2011. Thursday is another Timbers match, but this one is an exhibition against Bayern Munich's reserve squad, and my roommate's hurling team is playing a short demo match at halftime. I'm sort of obligated to be there.

Then there is the mess of the holiday weekend. I've been locked into going up to my grandparent's lakehouse since before I left for Europe by my grandpa. For some reason, he's really excited that I'm going to be there. I have no idea why. My cousin is plotting something elaborate and probably dangerous and definitely something I won't want to participate in and he's involving my youngest sister in it, possibly because he knows I'm a big party pooper and don't like to see my family members do dumb and illegal things while inebriated. Ironically, I will probably just get smashed so as to be able to ignore everything stress-free and end up hanging out by myself for most of the weekend. I like the lake, but I like it for apparently different reasons than the rest of my family. I like to chill out and look at the trees in the breeze; my family thinks I'm depressed. I like to take the canoe out in the morning; my family likes to drive the speedboat fast and inner tube or water ski all day. My cousin especially likes to push things just slightly too far. He's always wired and has ambitious plans that require the collaboration of nearly everyone else. It's not a fault really, it's just the way he is. I'm just way too laid back and lazy for it. Just lemme alone with my beer and let me roast marshmallows or something!

Before I go camping again I need to remember to buy new batteries for the flashlights that all died at the same time (while putting on the rainfly in the dark after it suddenly started raining, of course. When else do flashlights die? Convenient times? Ha!), plus dish soap and paper towels. I also need to rinse out the gross cooler that's been stewing in the sunshine of the car.

Before the roadtrip this summer I need to get my brakes checked out and possibly replaced. I have no idea how I'm going to swing that financially after the school certification debacle.

School starts at the end of September. I have one term until graduation. Then what? Fuuuuuuuuuck dude, I dunno.

Well Shit.

2009-06-23T19:22:00.001-07:00

I was all ready for this intense month of school. A whole term in four weeks! Yesterday went as well as could be expected. I woke up on time, showered and caught the bus. After two and a half hours of French I filled out my VA (Veteran's Affairs. They run the GI Bill - college money for former servicemembers - among other things) certification, picked up my transit pass, bought my books and still had enough time before my afternoon history class to surf the web a bit in the computer lab.

But then this morning, I got an email from the VA office at my university. Typically, the GI Bill gives me money so long as I'm taking 12 credits. It turns out though that there's a limit to bullshit classes that you can take and I've exceeded that limit. As there are no classes offered this summer that are required for my graduation, I can't get certified for any credits, which means no money, which means I had to withdraw from all of my classes. It also means that the next pay check I was expecting isn't going to happen until maybe October. That's an awful long time to be living nearly entirely on credit. Crap crap crap.

There are a couple things I can do right away to help out financially: return the stereo receiver that finally shipped, of course, ten minutes after I gave up waiting for the backordered item and walked down to another electronics store and bought a different one; return the textbooks I just bought, though I cracked up the plastic on my $220-non-returnable-after-opening French book last night, so that's a loss; sell some older textbooks on ebay or something (though honestly that sounds like a pain in the ass). Other than that, it's eating cheap canned food and rice from the grocery store.

Any ideas for entertaining myself on the cheap/free? I do have some new gadgets related to music that I bought before I found out I wouldn't be getting paid, but I don't know if I could just do that all day.

Lazy Day

2009-06-21T20:53:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow I start school again at 8am. It’s been three full months off and six months since I’ve put any serious effort into anything. Thankfully for my academic endurance and attention span, I’m doing all 12 credits in just over four weeks. I then have a few weeks to do nothing before heading out on a cross-country road trip in August. So today has been spent vegging in front of the television, first watching the Confederations Cup soccer games and Top Gear, then some BBC show on nature and Sky Sports.

The U.S. soccer team, sentenced last week to “virtual elimination” from the Confed tournament (in the Guardian’s words), somehow made it to the next round. They needed to win by three goals and needed Brazil to beat Italy by three goals in order to move on, and exactly that happened. Considering how the U.S. played the first two games, they absolutely did not deserve to advance, but since it came at the expense of Italy, the country whose soccer team I despise more than any other, I’ll take. I’ll take it with glee. I hope Guisseppe Rossi is crying right now, that goddamn traitor!

The starters I put in my garden are doing quite well, but of the seeds I planted, only one has done more than simply sprout. Every one of my peas was dug up shortly after planting. What the hell did that? I’m disappointed because even though beans and peas may not be my favorite vegetables, I get more satisfaction out of growing something from seed rather than just hoping I don’t kill the starter.

I went camping earlier this week and didn’t get back to my parent’s place until after three and I didn’t feel like leaving immediately to Portland, so I missed the Timbers game. And what a match to miss! The Timbers won 5-1 and Minnesota got THREE red cards! I don’t even think I’ve seen on tv one team get three red cards in a single match. Incredible!

This is pretty cool

2009-06-15T19:30:00.001-07:00

The Guardian may infuriate me on a daily basis, but their photo galleries are usually impressive. This one is about all the species that are being reintroduced to the UK, some of which have been gone for up to 500 years. I didn't know there were lynx and wild boar and beavers in Britain! I just love this sort of stuff.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/jan/28/wildlife-conservation?picture=342253033

Well hello!

2009-06-09T21:43:00.000-07:00

I've been back a grand total of three weeks, but it feels like forever. I was worried that when I came back I'd fall into my old routine of sleeping in too late, watching 'Scrubs' all day, then drinking too much and having a headache for the next day causing me to sleep in too late, watch 'Scrubs' all day, then... you get the picture. But I've been pleasantly busy and even productive on occasion. I renewed my driver's license, got a fishing/hunting license, fished, tore up the garden and its eight inches of demon sod and planted some veggies - beans and peas are sprouting! I also spent a great deal of money on some new electronics - a laptop, turntable, stereo receiver, the like. I figure they'll last me forever so I took the band-aid approach and did it all at once, so I only have to go through the sickening feeling of spending wads of money one time. My youngest sis graduated high school this weekend and I came down for the ceremony and to visit with my grandparents who also made the trek. I now have just under two weeks to waste until school starts and I intend to spend it doing some hiking and figuring out this new computer.

Also, I'm having impure thoughts about joining the Coast Guard. See, it counts as military service in terms of pay and retirement, but is far less... what's the word.... painfully stupid as the army. If I joined in the next year, I'd retire when I'm 42. Sigh... I don't know. Someone will talk me out of it, I'm sure.

I tried to catch up on politics since returning to the US, but it's a little overwhelming. Why are people letting Dick Cheney appear on television? Are there really people who think murdering a doctor that performs abortions is justified? Did the BNP really win seats in Europe? Sometimes I think I don't want to understand such things.

I've been asked to note that right now in my living room I'm blogging on my new Mac, my roommate's girlfriend is knitting, my roommate and my upstairs roommate are playing Magic and the History channel is on the television. What nerds.

The Next Few Months

2009-03-29T21:55:00.000-07:00

As you may know, I'm headed off to Europe soon - in a few hours, to be more precise. My flight leaves at six a.m. and the earliest MAX (light rail) leaves my stop at 4:20, so I get to leave the house at the lovely hour of 3:50am. I'm attempting to just stay up (it's already ten) so I can sleep on the flight from Atlanta to Manchester.

Anyway, I have this travel blog that often gets neglected, but I'll be posting there for the next few months as I wander around Europe. Here it is: http://maps-shmaps.blogspot.com/

It's like Christmas,except that it only comes once in forever and may actually be a terrible, no-good event

2009-03-09T18:35:00.000-07:00

Wednesday the Portland city council votes on the plan to bring an MLS team to the city. We currently have a USL team, which is of course tons of fun and I go to all the games when I'm in the country. But with a higher level league, we'll get more recognizable stars, more international tournament slots, and more exposure for our great city. The deal - in a very short synopsis, as the details and the trials and tribulations of putting forth the plan would take days to run down - would build a small, separate stadium for the minor league baseball team the Portland Beavers, and upgrade PGE Park to be more soccer/football/rectangular-field-sport friendly. The owner of both teams, Merritt Paulson pays the MLS entrance fee of $40 million out of his own pocket and wants the city - who own PGE Park and refuse to sell it - to put up bonds for renovations and the new baseball stadium to the tune of $85 million. These bonds would be paid back through ticket sales, player income taxes, etc etc. A bond in this case is like a big loan the city can take out - just like you can take out a loan, except that in the city's case the loan is more than you'd ever dream of making and the credit limit for the city is pretty much unknown. In the days of billion dollar ball parks, two for $85 millions is practically free. Paulson has also guaranteed the bonds, in the event that the league goes under, with his own family's fortune, even going so far as covering for construction overruns (which would be the fault of the city in negotiating poor contracts anyway).

Really, why say no? Even though I admittedly started in favor of the proposal as a local soccer fan, I've come to realize that even without the added benefit of having a top-level (well, for North America, anyway) soccer club, this deal is great for the city. The naysayers seem to be clinging onto the "roads schools drug rehab centers!!!!" mantra, regardless of the fact that these sorts of things need to be paid for somehow and refusing to accept that businesses and the jobs that they bring are exactly the kinds of things that allow us to pay for roads/schools/drug rehab centers. While it doesn't surprise me that build-our-way-out-of-the-Depression liberals become head-in-the-sand Hooverists when actually confronted with the opportunity to do so, it continues to disappoint me.

Anyway, the benefits far outweigh the risks and it seems plain as day, and yet the vote isn't seen as guaranteed. Because this has the potential to make me either incredibly happy and excited or incredibly angry and disappointed for a long period of time, the suspense in the run up to Wednesday is killing me. I'm torn between getting up early to pack into city hall to hear the testimonies of my fellow fans and the results of the actual vote itself, live, or to hide in bed until noon, at which point I will get up and make coffee, turn on ESPN Classic in preparation for the Man Utd vs Inter Milan Champions League match and then, with great trepidation and shaking hands, load the talktimbers website to see if the posts are titled "WOOFUCKINGHOO!!! LET'S SELL SOME SEASON TICKETS!!! TIFO PARTY!! I LOVE THE CITY COUNCIL!!" or "BASTARDS!! BOYCOTTBOYCOTTRECALL!!! NEED BAIL MONEY!"

And it's not even until Wednesday, which I keep thinking is tomorrow. My new shoes that got here this afternoon are simply not enough of a distraction. What to do to while the time away that doesn't cost a great deal of money, hmmmm.......

tick, tock, tick

2009-03-07T16:27:00.000-08:00

Just over three weeks until my Europe trip! So far my travel plans only cover the first few weeks and the remaining itinerary is still up in the air. I got my renewed passport this morning, my rail pass a few days ago, and nearly everything I'll need to bring along already. The good folks in Glasgow - I'm sure you know who I'm talking about - have agreed to put me up and show me around for awhile and I'm almost more excited about that as I am about the whole trip itself. A cousin of mine who lived in Portland for years up and quit her job a year ago and moved to Spain. Didn't speak any Spanish and had never been to Europe. She loves it so much that she's still there and has offered a place to crash and some punkrock entertainment. I booked a few nights at a hostel in Malaga, on the south coast of Spain where I hope to find the sun again and thaw my feet on a beach. And, I while I haven't booked anything yet, I plan to spend my birthday weekend in Amsterdam. I'm so pumped about this whole thing that I've forgotten how to use transitional sentences or separate paragraphs! Next subject!

Shoes. I love me some Sambas. You may or may not be aware that there are two different varieties: Classics, and the fancier and slightly more expensive Millenniums. I usually just buy whatever happens to be available (in the kids' section. So I have freakishly small feet, what of it?) and for my first few pairs that happened to be Millenniums. I wore these things nearly every day and they lasted about two years. Last time out, however, I came home with the Classics. What pieces of shit. They took a month to break in, leaving bruises on the tops of my feet, and barely six months later I've worn the heel down to the rubber. Totally not worth the measly ten bucks savings. So now that I'm in the market for a new pair, I set off on the usual tour of stores, only to come home seven hours later empty-handed and still holey-heeled. Yes, you read that correctly, I spent seven goddamn hours SHOE SHOPPING! That couldn't be more out of character if I'd done it in a pink dress and donated to the Republican party on the way home.

I ended up ordering a pair online. Lesson? Never leave the house.

And if the above anecdote weren't enough to prevent you from venturing out of doors, the weather reports are calling for snow. Again. It's already snowed about 17 times more than it is ever supposed to in the Portland area, and here it is MARCH and it's coming again! The storm also thwarted my plans to drive to the coast, as the mountain passes are supposed to get hit, along with THE BEACH ITSELF. Snow on the Oregon beach is supposed to be a rare phenomenon and yet this isn't even the first time this winter. What.The.HELL!

OK, happy hour ends in twenty minutes, so I've got to finish my drink and head home to stare at Eurail maps and scheme.

BBC Booklist game/tag

2009-02-17T00:02:00.000-08:00

Rumor has it, though I can't find anything to substantiate it, that the BBC thinks most people have only read 6 out of the following 100 books. I'm sure my two readers will more than meet the average.

Official Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.
2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total at the bottom.

Here's the list:

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien Now that's THREE books, isn't it? Not fair, I read one!
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (x,+)
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (x) - OK, I read 3/4s of it, then read the back which gave away the ending and I refused to read any further. I know what happens. Men are jerks, especially in England and especially Way Back When. There, now you don't have to read it either.
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller(x,+)
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (x)
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (x) Ugh, I hated this book.
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (*)
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchel
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (*)
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (*)
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (*)
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (x)
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (X)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (x,+)
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert - (*) I try and try.
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (*)
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon (x)
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (x)
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (x,+)
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac (x)
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (x)
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson (*) I love Bill Bryson. Read nearly everything else he's written.
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath (x)
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (*)
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White (x,+)
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (x)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (x,+)
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

SCORE: 17 and 1/3 read,

OK, so this list is a little Brit-centric, as evidenced by the million Jane Austen books and the absence of any Vonnegut, but still, a kind of fun game. Your turn! (I won't actually tag anyone)

Shameless advertising

2009-02-09T13:01:00.000-08:00

My roommate is really into hurling these days. Hurling is an Irish sport that looks similar to field hockey or lacrosse. I came out to practice once and have a stick of my own that I play with every now and then, but really, I'm more into Gaelic football so I don't pay quite as much attention to our local club as I might. In any case, the club has a new website and Google doesn't seem to be recognizing it yet, so I thought I'd post it on my blog to generate some sort of reaction to the url. Here goes:

Columbia Red Branch Hurling Club. The website is hosted by the GAA, which makes it more official, but also means it has a complicated url that no one is going to remember to type in directly, but can Google for.... if Google knows about it.

Poo

2009-02-08T00:48:00.000-08:00

So I didn't finish one of my papers. There were two due, back when I wrote the last post, but one of them proved a lot more difficult than I anticipated and by the time I got it written and dealt with the hexed electronic equipment (more on that later), it was far too late to start the next paper. This means that I have to withdraw from the course and I won't graduate when I had applied to (June). I was planning on going to school in the summer anyway, since I still have G.I. Bill funds left - and why not use them? - but I was so looking forward to taking a fiction writing class and maybe a foreign language or something. Anything but anthropology and it's stupid papers. But that's the way it goes I guess.

Have I mentioned that I'm going to Europe at the end of March? The term is over (obviously I was hoping I'd be done), I have a week of spring break to clean up my room, gather funds for rent while I'm gone, make some plans, buy some gear.... and then I'm off for 2 and 1/2 months! I'm so excited I really can't articulate it. I'm probably going to spend all of my savings, but oh well. Really, have you seen the economy? My savings is gone anyway; now it won't just dwindle away on rent and booze and supporting myself between crappy jobs. I would resent every single day my bank account edged a little bit lower on absolutely nothing.

Oh yes, the hexed computers. I refuse to accept that computers are inanimate objects. There's just no way all the shenanigans that went down the morning of the due papers was all a coincidence. I wrote the paper on my desktop. I dug it out because it has a fancy keyboard and so I could use the laptop for internet research and anything else. The printer our house uses is down in the basement, so I'd have to move the files to my laptop when it came time to print. It's a bit of a pain since the desktop has Word Perfect and the lappy Word, but nothing too serious. Except that two different thumb drives wouldn't transfer the files in any form! WHY????? So I dug out a printer in my closet, but that was out of ink. So I went down to the basement, climbed on top of the refrigerator and got a face full of fiberglass from insulation on the wall while trying to unplug the printer. But then! The desktop wouldn't recognize the printer and refused to work until it had the installation software CD. Luckily, my roommate had it handy and found it before he ran off to his own class. Twenty minutes later the stupid thing was printed and I was twenty minutes late to leave the house. All before even starting the other paper! Tell me it's a coincidence.

#$%^&(&^%$# Papers!!

2009-02-04T21:58:00.000-08:00

Have I ever mentioned how much I despise writing papers for school? I am, first off, somehow completely incapable of writing them during daylight hours. Oh, I try. Not a word will come out. I always have to wait until the night before, and often, like tonight, there will be more than one paper due the following morning. This usually results in me typing a few useless lines, going to sleep with the alarm set for five, hitting snooze until seven, when in a panic, I'll get up and type something that borders on coherent.

It's gotten to the point where I don't like writing at all. I hardly write in my journal anymore and I only seem to update my blog so that people know I'm not dead. I can't wait until I can enjoy writing again, because I do love it, when I'm given the freedom to do what I want with it. I worry though that the joy may not return. Will it always be a chore? Agghhhhhhhhhh.

Oh who's a handsome boy?

2009-01-05T16:04:00.000-08:00

Harper rockin' the People's Republic of Portland scarf.

What? Monday?

2009-01-05T14:07:00.001-08:00

The holidays were equal parts lazy and stressful, which is I suppose exactly what they're supposed to be. I don't have the energy to narrate the drama that has been the weather the past few weeks, but suffice to say I've never seen anything like it in western Oregon.

At the moment I seem to be suffering from the virus called I Partied Too Much on New Year's and The Following Few Days, Too. Symptoms include:

- Fatigue
- Inability to quench thirst, no matter how many gallons of water consumed
- Confusion as to date and time; internal clock stopped at an unknown time
- Confusion about nearly everything else
- Sore throat
- Absent mindedness, manifested primarily in the consistent misplacement of one's keys, wallet and phone
- Hair, clothes smell like bar

Fortunately, one of my classes is online only, allowing me to sleep in til 12:30 on Mondays (and Wednesdays and Fridays as well) and lounge around until I feel sufficiently well enough to venture out of doors and possibly into downtown. Yes, it's a rough life, this mid-twenties college student thing. ;)

Whoa, sorry

2008-12-10T19:03:00.000-08:00

I didn't realize it'd been so long since I'd posted. The school term is over, but I came home from my last final and turned on my current addiction, the computer game Civilization IV. The game uses so much of my computer's memory that it takes like an hour to shut the game down and get back on the internet. Besides that, it's so enveloping and consuming that I can play for, literally, hours and hours before pausing to eat or go to the bathroom, returning shortly to play for more hours.

Otherwise, things are boring here. My roommate has had his hours cut - but they won't fire him, so he can't collect unemployment, either - so he's been milling around the house, grumpy. There aren't jobs to be found anywhere, even the trusty UPS which seems to always be in need of at least part-time employees. I'm trying to decide what to do when (if) I graduate in March. There's a temporary Federal job I could apply for, but I'm not sure on the dates; there's also a couple field schools, stateside and abroad that would be good for me in the archaeological field. Mostly, though, I'm sitting around thinking about what to get people for Christmas.

Relief

2008-11-05T15:56:00.000-08:00

My hangover isn't nearly as terrible as I thought it was going to be. In fact, after some burritos for breakfast, Champions League on the tv, and a ton of coffee, it's hardly even noticeable.

Originally, OB - one third of the upstair's residents - and I planned to go to a bar and drink until someone was picked a winner, but those plans were scuttled in favor of heading to a friend's place. But I figure if I'm going to hang out with a bunch of married people I may as well not leave home to do so, especially when there are friends coming and going and leaving booze on the counter.

By four pm I was on my third drink, embroiled in a text message conversation with my dad about my sister's playoff match which had gone to a penalty shootout, the couch was filled with people, the boys were fighting over a Pokemon game, two tvs were on, and I was hitting refresh on all the pollsters pages. Thankfully, the boys were banished to watching cartoons in the basement (after a dramatic falling out over the Pokemon game, highlighted by the younger one declaring "You're not my brother anymore!!!!"), and the crowd left to their other party.

That left three of us to munch the steaks my wonderful roommate had thrown on the grill and sip the bourbon someone had left us. When Obama was announced the winner at 8, even my quiet neighborhood erupted in cheers. Fireworks were lit off at at least three different places, children were chanting "O-BAM-A!", someone screamed, "THANK YOU AMERICA!" and every bicyclist who rode past whooped a congratulations. I tried sending a text to my family, but the network was down, something that has only happened on New Year's Eve.

What a change from election night four years ago. Not only was I still in the army back then and under the impression that I would be held nearly two years beyond my contract for a deployment to Iraq, but that particular night my unit was in the field. It was an elaborate 7-day live fire exercise, something rare for a noncombat unit and we were generally thrilled that we got to sleep indoors. But as I unfolded my cot, I realized that unfolding his next to mine, was Rob the archconservative and the antithesis of everything I stand for. (Well, except for music. We oddly agreed on most of that. We made a pact that no matter who won, there would be no gloating. It turned out not to matter; though we spent most of the night huddled around our humvee using elaborate military intelligence technology to eavesdrop on NPR, the election wasn't decided for a few days, thanks to stupid Ohio. What a difference four years makes!

Back to last night. We brought the boys upstairs for Obama's acceptance speech and they watched quietly. I wonder how much of this they'll remember when they're older. Likely, the youngest won't remember a thing, but the seven-year-old might. I was younger than him back when the first Bush was elected back in '88 and I vaguely remember the unhappiness and disappointment that filled the house afterwards. Of course, unhappiness and disappointment filled the house anytime the news came on the tv back then. Let's not do the Reagan years again, kids.

Later in the evening the rest of the house returned from the party and we cracked open a bottle of champagne that the original occupants of the house had been saving for an occasion at which they were all present. Last night was that night! After the bourbon, the champagne tasted like bubbly ice cream it was so sweet. Almost as sweet as victory!

Game Day Setlist

2008-11-04T15:17:00.000-08:00

This election, more so than any other I can remember, is like a big soccer game. There are winners, losers, sending offs (sendings off?), and me toe tapping nervously and guzzling beer. Oh, and hollering expletives. And, like before Timbers games, it requires a soundtrack. Here is today's:

"The Idiots are Taking Over" - NOFX
"Dirty Harry for President" - MDC
"Help Save the Youth of America" - Billy Bragg
"Reagan Youth" - Reagan Youth
"Got the Numbers" - Anti-Flag
"Hope" - Descendents
"Against All Odds" - Resistance 77
"American Jesus" - Bad Religion
"What Will the Revolution Change" - Youth Brigade
"No Difference Anyway" - Youth Brigade
"Where are They Now?" - Cock Sparrer
"Watch you Back" - Cock Sparrer
"Campaign of Hate" - Libertines
"(I Think) My Baby is a Communist" - Briefs
"No More Presidents" - Briefs
"Kill the Poor" - Dead Kennedys
"Kill the Poor" - Matthew Grimms and the Red Smear
"Leaders of the Free World" - Elbow
"From Her Lips to God's Ears" - Against Me!
"Red White and Brainwashed" - Anti-Flag
"'Merican" - Descendents

I'll Take a Big Mac and a President, Please

2008-11-04T15:07:00.000-08:00

The library, which ordinarily would serve as the site for ballot drop boxes doesn't have a parking lot, so instead the boxes are at a nearby McDonald's drive-thru. It even has an official construction sign! Oh, America...

To Do vs. Did

2008-10-28T20:00:00.000-07:00

To Do:

- Go to class.
- Come home, eat lunch and study.
- Finish two papers that were due on Monday.
- Study a bit for test on Thursday, maybe go out for a drink in the late evening.

Did:

- Went to class.
- Came home, watched half of Newcastle v West Brom game.
- Went to coffee shop with roommate and his youngest boy.
- Helped friend move couch upstairs.
- Tried to recruit players for our indoor soccer team.
- Helped roommate cut some insulation for the basement walls.
- Showered to get fiberglass off my arms, ankles.
- Helped (kind of) friend change all of our locks (long story).
- Walked to store to copy keys.
- Currently watching Blazers game and typing a blog.

Will I ever write these stupid papers? I can't wait to have a job that doesn't involve homework.

Moonset

2008-10-22T19:01:00.000-07:00

This pic is not from my cell phone, but a fancy-shmancy digital SLR camera. The problem is that it was early in the morning and therefore still kind of dark, and yet we were traveling 70+mph, so slow shutter made it blurry.

Anyway, this is Salt Lake City on a beautiful morning in March during a spring break roadtrip to Texas.

cell phone pic of the day

2008-10-21T22:36:00.000-07:00

I have recently realized that I have a large collection of pictures on my phone, most of which I don't remember even taking. Some of them are kind of cool for having been shot with a crappy cell camera, so I thought I'd post a few every now and then.

Here's the first of the series: Downtown Portland, overlooking the Willamette River from the Broadway Bridge. Date: Unknown.

Aggghh

2008-10-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

I was warned that getting through the paperwork connection with graduation at PSU is an arduous and maddening process, but I really thought it wasn't going to be a big deal. I applied for graduation for fall term back at the deadline in, like, July or something - quite awhile ago. I didn't hear anything other than receiving a degree application charge on my account until today. And it says, 'thanks for applying for a Bachelor of Science degree!' Or something like that. But I didn't apply for a Bachelor of Science, I applied for a Bachelor of Arts. Christ above, I don't even pretend to have the credits for a science degree. Of course the email gives no direction of who to talk to and even if it's too late to do anything about it. Uggggggg! I hate bureaucracy!

Meanwhile, I'm taking 20 credits this term - a ridiculous amount at one time - to try and finish this degree I apparently didn't apply for. This doesn't help my motivation to study any.

The good news pertaining to all of this is that even after this term I will still have about 12 months of GI Bill leftover. As it pays quite a bit more than my tuition costs, it's sort of like a job. And if I go traveling, that means when I come back I can sign up for a postbac at PSU or the community college and have an instant job. Bah, and if this stupid Bachelor of Science crap persists, then I guess I won't even have to bother with the postbac thing, it could just be a regular undergrad degree schedule.

Rainwater

2008-10-14T08:51:00.001-07:00

Apparently the downside to ecobuildings is that you can no longer drink out of the toilet bowl. Damn environmentalists!

Found in a toilet stall on PSU's campus.

Worlds Collide!!!!

2008-10-13T13:28:00.000-07:00

An old army friend ran into me today on campus. I was stunned. I couldn't think of his name, where I knew him from, other than generally 'the army' (though I could, strangely, tell you his hometown), or if he was married/who he was married to. What's odd is that I thought I saw him in a class a few days ago, and I thought, "man, that guy looks familiar. Who does he remind me of? What was that guy's name?" What's even more odd is that that guy from my class wasn't him.

Anyway, with some facebook/myspace sleuthing, I took a guess at his name and eventually put it all together. Only a few times have my army friends met and hung out with my civilian friends, and even then it was a planned event. This unexpected collision of worlds that were never meant to intersect leaves me feeling woozy. I like to have a general sense of order in the world and in that order certain people do not belong in certain places. It's sort of like a character from a book I've read long ago appearing in a new and completely different story. Weird, weird, weird.

Well, crap

2008-10-06T12:57:00.000-07:00

For those of you who were unaware, for the past couple years I'd been planning on taking up a working holiday visa with Ireland (4 months) and the UK (6 months, and repeatable once) when I graduated university. With a little bit of effort I should graduate in December and would therefore be looking at late January or early February for departing on ten months of work abroad. I even had a sort of job offer in the UK. But when I clicked on the programs website a few days ago in order to get the application started, I read, "As a result of changes in UK immigration rules, the present Blue Card program ends on December 31st, 2008. However, the deadline for the issuance of 2008 Blue Cards has now passed and we regret that no further cards can be issued. ...It is hoped that an agreement will be reached in the near future and that the BUNAC Work in Britain program will be available to US participants for 2009."

After then reading up on these changes on the official British government site on immigration and work permits, I have very little hope in that last sentence. It is a masterfully tangled web of bureaucracy they've created over there and it seems to be a work in progress, with only increased levels of convoluted direction in the future.

So now I just don't know what to do. I'm stuck back in the old problem I've avoided since high school: what the fuck am I gonna do with my life? Working abroad was sort of a delay tactic to avoid joining the real world (as was the army, college, etc) and now the real world will be here in January.

I suppose though that I still have a bunch of money saved up from my army days and that I could still go over to Europe and bum around for a few months. Instead of coming home with a small dent in my savings under the work program, I'll come home truly in need of a job. But hell, what am I gonna spend that money on anyway? Food, rent, gas, car insurance? That sounds awful. If my military-bound self heard my whining university self say that she'd be bitterly disappointed. I didn't work that hard and save up so that I could continue the same later. Nah, I wanted a vacation and an adventure! I'm looking for optimism here, as you can see.

It's been a good couple days

2008-09-13T22:03:00.002-07:00

Earlier this week I was considering taking the train up to Canada for a few days, since I was getting so bored sitting around in the basement, downloading music and generally being a lazy slob. And because my natural state is a lazy slob it's quite a feat that I reached a limit. But I stuck around here because it was the Timbers last home game on Thursday and I promised my indoor soccer team I'd actually show up this weekend (forgot last week. oooops.), making any trip to Vancouver rather short and expensive. As it turned out, I'm pleased I didn't run away to Canada.

The Timbers put us and themselves out of our collective misery on Thursday by eliminating any chance of making the playoffs, losing 2-1. It was both a heartbreaking game and typical of how this season has played out. We scored first and continued to dominate the game. Then one of our central defenders was given a red card in the first half. I've only seen players get red cards in the first half maybe a handful of times, ever, but it's happened to the Timbers four or five times this season. Though a man down, we continued to possess the ball and outplay Charleston, and yet Charleston got hold of the ball and scored two, the winner coming in the 89th minute. Despite the loss, it was a fun night. The team tried, there wasn't a lot of negativity in the stands and I was just happy to be surrounded by a group of people that love to yell and sing and support a team through thick and thin. There were a few smoke bombs, a lot of pogoing and of course gallons of cheap beer. And it's always nice to see 13,000+ people come out on a school night to cheer on their local club, even if a lot of them are only their for the $2 beers.

Friday, the hangover caused me to hangout in the cool, dark basement and read the news most of the day. The roommate came home and dragged me out to our mutual friend's band's show, and I left from there to head downtown and watch one of my all-time favorite bands, Bad Religion, for the first time. Well ok, I saw them at the Warp tour in Texas a few years ago, but that hardly counts, right? They put on a pretty decent show, and aside from the dumbass that dove off the fifteen-foot tall amplifier stack and crushed a bunch of oblivious people on the dance floor, the crowd was decent, too. There were a few kids there, which is always heartening in these days where it seems punkrock is only followed by a bunch of old-timers.

Today was one of those days that makes me glad to live in Portland. Warm and crisp, downtown shone in the backdrop of a clear blue sky, and my indoor soccer team drank beer in an open-walled bar after our game, soaking in both the sun and the breeze. I had a delicious beer and a cider I'd never tried before, and when I came home from that there was a stack of new CDs that mailman had delivered.

There's another show tonight with my roommates' band, but I was content to stay at home and write you this very boring blog. You're welcome. :D

a few pics

2008-09-08T13:24:00.000-07:00

Click for a larger view.

Mt. Hood. Dunno how many times I've posted a pic of this thing, but it's so close to Portland that it's usually the first area I head to when I want to camp. At the time of this picture I was trying to find an alternate route to a remote campsite and wasn't quite sure where I was.

Now this is how logging should be done, leaving lots of big trees scattered about. Often logggers will leave the required number of trees only along the edges and clear out the middle Difficult to tell if it was just a fire, logged, or logged and burned. Fireweed (the purple flowers) makes it all the better.

Summit Lake, the campground I eventually ended up at. No one was there the entire three days I camped. Fish were jumping, ducks playing with each other woke me up at dawn, and the campsite was right up against the water.

fingers-in-my-ears time

2008-08-29T14:18:00.000-07:00

Now that the presidential candidates have made their picks, it's time for me to stop paying attention. I didn't even have to wait this long, really; I knew who I was voting for since Obama got the nomination. Everything from here on out is pointless, and anyone who has a couple of brain cells to rub together and reads the news more than twice a year knows how the candidates stand on the issues already and have made up their minds. I firmly believe that those wavering on voting for Obama because of "inexperience", or "is he the right kind of candidate" are covering for their racism, possibly racism they don't even know (and certainly won't admit) they have.

But I let myself get angry this morning while innocently turning on the television to watch a soccer game. McCain's pick for VP just infuriates me. The utter contempt McCain and the rest of these people show for women is unbelievable. He really thinks that if he puts a woman on the ticket that he'll get women to vote for him. He thinks we're that dumb! I'm not going to vote for someone simply because we share the same anatomy, and to think that I'm going to overlook the fact that we have nothing in common in our background (other than hunting and living on the west coast) and certainly nothing in common for our vision of the future, and vote simply for some sort of solidarity with my gender is insulting to say the least.

Having said all that, I have a terrible feeling that Obama is not going to win. This joke of a pairing McCain/Palin are going to run our lives for the next four years. Can you imagine what depths they'll pull us to? I was devestated and mind-blown that Kerry lost four years ago. I simply could not believe the majority of Americans could vote for that bastard again. But I won't be surprised this time - disappointed, yes, but not surprised.

Hurl! (and then whine in pain later)

2008-08-13T18:21:00.000-07:00

Just when I think I'm sort of in shape... I go and start a new activity. A few weeks ago, that activity was sawing logs and chopping wood while camping. I know how to chop and saw, it's just been a really long time since I'd done so. This week my roommate has suddenly become infatuated with the Irish game of hurling, which if you're unfamiliar with it, is similar to field hockey or lacrosse. It's played with a big stick, called a 'hurley', and a ball that's slightly smaller than a baseball.

The hurleys got here two days ago and I've ended both nights with a large dose of Ibuprofen and about half a bottle of Arnica (rub-on hippie medicine). My hamstrings are sore, my groin is tight, my obliques and lower back hurt and the muscles in my forearm are so tender that I can hardly make a fist. The outside of my forearm is so covered in bruises from the hurley handle and last week's soccer game that, as my roommate put it, it looks like I have a disease.

But it's a fun game involving some familiar movements like positioning on the field and using one's body to shield the ball from opponents, and completely unfamiliar motions like picking the ball off the ground using only a stick, and swinging the hurley with one's hands in the opposite grip as in baseball. Those new movements have totally tweaked a few muscles who seem to rather have been left alone.

planes, dreams

2008-08-08T22:31:00.000-07:00

I've had a reoccurring dream for years, every few months or so, about planes falling out of the sky. Sometimes they come for me and I try to run to one side or another, but there's just no dodging a huge jetliner bombing towards your head. Other times, like last night, a plane on the horizon just dips and falls into a fiery mess and I try and pick people out of the wreckage. I'm sure it's a metaphor for something and I could probably look it up somewhere. I just wish I was smart enough to undo the riddles my own brain has created for me.

Anyway, this might have had something to do with my urge to go to the airport today. I do that every now and then. I get some coffee from Coffee People, find a seat near the window and watch the planes take off while reading or writing in my journal. I had a book to finish (American Gods, if you're wondering. It was fabulous, too.) and I kind of wanted to rid myself of the lingering disturbing thoughts of last night's dream by watching planes go up, up and away, exactly as they're supposed to.

Like most of my time this summer, today's events did not have a point and neither does this blog post. I'm struggling to find a conclusion here, but really, nothing happened other than some nice thoughts and a few overheard conversations, and certainly nothing reaching the revelation(s) with which I'd like to justify this post. But that's what I wanted this summer. Timeless, pointless, rambling, wandering...

A camping pic

2008-08-02T11:41:00.000-07:00

Ah, eastern Oregon. Home of desert, cattle ranchers, 9,000 ft peaks surrounded by ponderosa forests, rushing rivers full of trout, and of course... a few people. Who like guns with their ice.

More pics to come...

Summers rule, too

2008-08-01T20:16:00.001-07:00

I've been camping and stuff. Will post some pictures when I get a more reliable connection and before I head back out again. Summer breaks are the best. They ought to be mandatory in the employment world.

Birthdays rule

2008-07-19T20:54:00.000-07:00

The oldest little boy that lives in my house, Pete, had a birthday yesterday. This provided his dad, my housemate, the opportunity to get a gift for him a month ago that would enrich everyone's lives: a Wii. Don't you hate those gifts, those that were given because the giver wanted them more than the receiver? Pete didn't care. And today he had a party. By the time I got up this morning both his parents had combined to clean the kitchen, the bathroom, even the intimidating dining room table. There wasn't an ant in sight! He invited a bunch of classmates, all of whom were cute as pie, and we played soccer, and ate hot dogs and watermelon, and they had a massive water balloon fight. His mom tried in vain to establish order and rules in a game format involving the balloons, but there was a whined "awwwwww!" of disgust that could be heard clear over in the next neighborhood and the game quickly became established as a free-for-all. Then Vegan Rob showed up, the vegan weighlifter that was featured in one of the premier weekly newspapers in Portland this week. He's a longtime friend of the family, so he dropped by to say hello to the kids and the their parents. He quickly became a target of every kid's waterballoon, and was forced to take his shirt off and run around the yard, dripping wet.

To reiterate (that phrase will forever remind me of an evil 1sg of mine, so I apologize for using it, in case it brings up unpleasantries in your life, too.), the house was cleaned spotless and a weightlifter ran around my yard without a shirt. I've instructed Pete to have a birthday at least every other month from now on.

Discharge!

2008-07-19T10:55:00.001-07:00

My dad informs me that something that appears to be discharge papers arrived on my parents' front door step yesterday. hoots and hollers I couldn't tell ya how many times I've changed my address with those people8 and yet they continue to mail their important things - and my important things! - to my parents. Good thing they haven't moved during these past eight years!

Going on a camping trip tomorrow! I ransacked my room to re-find my fishing license, put line on the reel, bought a cooler and a pup tent (so as to not have to squeeze into my one-person backpacking tent), and now I just have to find some yummy treats. We're heading over to the Wallowas, a mountain range in northeastern Oregon. It's a mountainous desert, lots of Ponderosa pines, rushing fish-filled rivers and hiking galore. Man, I'm excited.

*In case you've just tuned in, "these people" mean the U.S. Army.

It's a bit warm

2008-06-30T17:55:00.000-07:00

I feel like kind of a wimp complaining about the heat considering I've been bitchin' about the cold and damp for so long and considering 102 is on the mild side in some parts of the world. But goddamn have I been useless these past few days. The peak day for the heat I woke up unusually sick and hungover from the not-so-heavy drinking the night before. I tried to stave off further ill effects by guzzling water, only to get sick about a half hour after crawling out of bed, so I ended up in the hole as far as hydration was concerned. In the evening we had an indoor soccer game at the facility with no air conditioning and even though it had cooled to about 90 outdoors, inside it was probably still 120. And we had no girl subs, so I had to play the whole game. As soon as the other team scored I felt spent and looked at the clock... a whole minute and a half had ticked away. By the time the game ended - we lost, of course - I was entirely useless, having spent the previous fifty minutes or so lumbering in front of our own goal hoping that if the opposition shot the ball, it might deflect off me and away. All that seemed to accomplish was to cover me in bruises.

The cat isn't enjoying it either. He keeps sprawling on the kitchen floor, making himself about four feet long, and shooting me disgusted looks and hollering whenever I'm within earshot as if I've done something to make it so miserably hot. I continue to assure him that it's not my fault, but being a cat, he's got to blame someone. He did seem momentarily cheered up earlier today though, when I caught site of him gleefully flinging some poor dead sparrow up in the air, feathers swirling all about, then pouncing on it again, tearing chunks of fluff and generally acting like some tough lion who's caught hisself a zebra.

My roommate got a Wii, ostensibly for his little boy, but we've played it more than the kid has even seen the thing. I have to admit, the boxing game actually made me sore. I mean, my muscles actually hurt, lame as that is. It's the same part of my back where I was shocked to discover recently that I could feel my ribs. It's not that I've ever been fat or anything, it's that I used to have muscle there. Enough of it and for so long that I wasn't aware that one could ever feel ribs in one's back. What a spindly sack of wimpitude I've become.

Friday

2008-06-20T15:36:00.001-07:00

Why did I agree to babysit on a Friday night? Ok ok, I know the answer to that: the kids' mother is a long time friend of mine and she just got a new job and couldn't find anyone else available. Even with only a promise of pay sometime in the future, I still can't turn down a friend like that.

Normally, I hate Friday nights on the town. Clubbers, once-a-week drinkers from the suburbs, drunk drivers and all other obnoxious types flood the streets and I just really don't like those people. On the other hand, I could use a cute drunk boy to stagger my way, if ya know what I mean. He doesn't need to be a *cool* cute drunk boy - he could even be from the suburbs - as I'll take what I can get at this point. Guess I'll have to wait for Saturday. Sigh. There'd better be shows galore.

Summer tiiiiiiiiime

2008-06-19T18:38:00.000-07:00

School's out, the sun's finally out, and I'm not doing a whole lot other than watching Euro 2008 in the mornings, reading a bit and walking around in the sun. I'm taking the summer off from school to have a real summer vacation for once. Should be fun! I plan on fishing, camping with the family, traveling (within N. America), going to lots of Timbers games, and actually playing a few shows with my band.

Yeah, I'm in a band. It's embarrassingly nerdy. It's an Oi! band with songs inspired by our local soccer team, the Portland Timbers. That's right, it's a Timbers Oi! theme band. Told you it was embarrassing. I'm the drummer and terrible.

I applied for graduation today. I'm not necessarily done with school after that. I still have a few months of benefits left on the GI Bill (possibly a whole year's worth), and I do eventually want to use that up. The thing is, I'm bored. And when I get bored I start to do poorly at whatever it is I'm working on at the time and right now my grades suck. I need a break until I get bored doing something else and school starts to sound like fun again, but I want a degree in my hands before venturing out to the work world, in case something great comes up and I don't ever get around to more schooling.

So that's me. Haven't felt like blogging much either, but perhaps that will change as the summer progresses.

Dear Timbers,

2008-06-07T23:46:00.001-07:00

Are you not aware that my emotional wellbeing is dependent on your results? Please stop losing. Please score some goals.

Thank you,

Fighting 106th Regular

ok fine! a tag

2008-05-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

List 5 things in my bag:
Which bag? I picked the first one on the floor in my room. This is the travel bag, the part that detaches from the top of the backpack that I keep with essentials.
1 first aid kit
2 deodorant
3 Emergency-C packet, orange flavored
4 D-ring, "not for climbing", green
5 roll of toilet paper

List 5 favorite things in my room:
1 window - big, easily openable, weatherized window. totally out of place in the non-insulated, poorly wired bedroom, but I'll take the view out to the yard/garden nonetheless.
2 desk - it's one of those Ikea things, meant as a dining table that folds down against the wall when it isn't being used. That's a nice option, but it's never uncluttered enough to fold it down. It's listed as a favorite because of all the labor that went into make sure it was straight, getting the right damn screws (Ikea and it's European measurements and shitty screws!) and working with the weak battery-powered drill.
3 London Calling poster - probably the third iteration of this particular poster, due to plumbing leaks and hurried moves, etc.
4 my plant, lily thing - my last housemate wouldn't let me have pets and now I'm not sure if I'm going to travel and stuff, so I don't want to own a dog. Hence the plant. I put a lot of effort into rehabing this thing after I left it in my room with the heat off over Thanksgiving weekend last year. When I came home, it was nearly black and droopy. Then when I brought it with me over Christmas my sister's kitten ate all the outer leaves. It's lookin' pretty good these days.
5 the book "shelf" - a system of milk crates and particle board. It kind of forms and "L" shape and I can sit on it. Real shelves are expensive and I don't have the patience or equipment for carpentry.

List 5 things I've always wanted to do:
1 time travel
2 go to Alaska
3 tour with a band
4 win the lottery
5 see North Korea other than at the border.

List 5 things I am currently into:
1 being a lazy piece of shit
2 not blogging
3 playing Civ IV
4 Timbers!
5 relearning the drums and trying to not bring down the rest of the band.

Good God

2008-05-13T22:50:00.000-07:00

...but is the news depressing! It's a wonder there's anyone still left alive in Asia, what with floods, earthquakes and bombs bombs bombs. There are also tornadoes somewhere in America, a drought in Spain, and Clinton won W. Virginia.

The amusing story of the day for me though is the "Terror Law Used to Spy on Fishermen". It's amazing how irate people get when they realize that the laws they so fervently clamored for actually apply to them. "What? You mean you're not just using this law to spy on brown people as they come back from the mosque? You're wasting my tax dollars and abusing your authority!" Wahwahwah...

Seattle was a Riot

2008-05-13T22:11:00.000-07:00

The last time the Timbers Army invaded Qwest was an enjoyable experience, and a lot less nervy than the previous two trips I've made there. On the other trips, all of the security in the entire building surrounded the Portland fans, taunted us, and randomly threw out people for "swearing." The Timbers management warned the Sounders FO about our treatment up there and this time they backed off a bit. Overall, I'd give them a C. It'd have been higher save for the incident at the end of the game when they let all the fans out at once, instead of escorting the away fans after everyone had left like they do abroad and like we did when Seattle fans came down a few weeks ago. Instead, the concourses were packed with drunk rowdy boys and girls of both teams, families from Seattle and hordes of preteen soccer teams. The Timbers contingent had at least three different chants going, teenager Seattlites ran up to me and screamed in my face, and a few wannabe hooligans from Seattle ran through the crowd, shoulder charging people and knocking over kids of their own fans. The Army gathered outside in a sort of formation, scarves held over head and sang "We'll be coming down the road" for about ten straight minutes. Even the Seattle families were impressed, smiling, shaking hands and taking pictures. The same few assholes who charged through the concourses then tried to start a fight in the middle of this formation, but were outnumbered about 100 to 4, and it ended like a tame mosh pit with nothing but some shoving.

In all, about 400 Portland fans made the trip north, sang, danced and drank to witness an otherwise inglorious 0-0 draw. Portland may never get an MLS team due to market size and economics and blah blah blah, but soccer means something to people here, and I feel like I was a part of that history Saturday night.

Ok, enough sappiness. After the game my army buddy Owen and his girl took Tim and I out to a rugby bar where his sister's team had just finished a lube wrestling contest. The tap selection was superb, but I couldn't turn up the Strongbow, so I sipped a few of those while drooling over a hot guy across the room. Back at Owen's apartment we tried to watch the film Military Intelligence, but Owen and I, perhaps because we once were military intelligence, were the only ones to find it the least bit amusing and both Tim and Laura were passed out about five minutes in.

For whatever reason I couldn't sleep at all, and gave up at about six, surfed the net and waited for the Premiership final games to start. What I wanted to happen from these games was for ManUtd to win, Chelsea to spontaneously combust, and Fulham to miraculously beat Portsmouth to avoid relegation (I've got a soft spot for Fulham due to all the Americans on their team). All of that happened except for Chelsea combusting (but it was apparently really hot there), but honestly the most exciting part of the ManUtd game was watching the bizarre weather unfold - heat! deluge! ponds! rain! monsoon!

The drive home was uneventful. We stopped at a Denny's for breakfast and were served by a sweet old woman, which made me really sad. No one that age should have to work in a shitty place like Denny's anyway, but especially not an old lady on Mother's Day! Please, if there is a god, do not let me be serving at Denny's on a Mother's Day when I'm that age. I hope someone takes me to the tar pits before it comes to that.

quick update

2008-05-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

My birthday yesterday began with cleaning someone else's vomit out of my sink. That would ordinarily imply that it was a good night, but really it was just ok. Timbers game and a trip to the Bullpen afterward sealed the fate for my sick friend. His wife wanted him home two hours prior to when he staggered into our house and then he had to be at work the next day at 7am. Poor guy.

The rest of my birthday was spent doing as little as possible, mostly playing that awful addictive game, Civilization 4. I found a People's Republic of Cork mod online and thought it was so funny that that's all I've been playing with. Keano, of course, is the leader and its special unit is Rampaging Hurlers.

Today! Shittle away! Love it! heh, last time the Timbers play in Seattle, possibly ever, as the evil bastards to the north are getting an MLS club and the USL one is then disbanding. No one goes to their games anyway, I guess it's just as well. So this is our last chance to get hassled by security, taunted, spit at, and called foul names in provocation. Woopee! An added incentive is that I get to see an old army buddy. Though raised in Seattle he is wisely a Timbers supporter.

OK, off to change clothes, get coffee and head to Vancouver (WA) to meet the housemate so as to carpool to Seattle.

PS. sorry bout the moody last few months. God I hate winter in the NW.

whatever

2008-02-28T16:03:00.000-08:00

Since no one reads my blog anymore anyway, I'm just going to post here and be moody in privacy.

Nihilist, Pessimist, Optimist...

2008-02-04T11:09:00.000-08:00

Sure, sure, the song actually says "YOU" don't exist, but I originally heard it as "they" and it made sense to me at the time, as it does now. So, who are your 'they'?