Portland Hodgepodge

Some of these or their lookalikes someone took the liberty of using on their blog, but i'm republishing a few here 'cause i like them and i want to show some of the scenes i've been seeing of late. Typically one would be able to see the span of the Morrison Bridge in this shot and probably some others in the background but for the thick, delicious fog:

Hawthorne Bridge. Go!

Hood (r) Tabor (l). Sorry about the highrise.

Die Festung Hohensalzburg??

(the real deal)

Note helicopter to right

Getting flown per Hubschrauber to pill hill. Love how the blade just floats there in photographs.

The only redeeming factor about that bridge is that it appears in Elizabethtown. Most everything else about it is atrocious (design, year, variety of transit options, i.e. one). It is kind of fun to ride over the top though. Building in center, Twelve West, has on-site wind generators and is purportedly a very energy efficient building. Haven't met Gus Van Sant yet so i can visit him, though i am rumored to have had a brief non-encounter with him at Laughing Planet Cafe on Belmont (i've heard it said he lives there?) but maybe i can get a tour some other way.

B EAST

We recently took Sierra to a new doctor and let me tell you, the experience was something like the label we found in the parking structure for a particular section of the thing. Needless to say, we are still looking for a good doctor on this new plan. Hopefully we can find someone who is not a:

An Annoyance (a further foray into bathroom ponderings)

Don't get me wrong, i am all for water efficiency but allow me to take this opportunity to outline a little annoyance i've experienced in the stalls lately. Newcomers to this blog should please not be alarmed by bathroom scenes, while old-timers will appreciate the timely bathroom reference (where have they been hiding out all this while?).

You're familiar with those automatic toilet flushing devices? The ones with the sensors and probably a little black button so one can flush the thing in the event the sensor does not work? Probably a good invention because Joe Schmo and Josephina Schmosephina sometimes don't flush that #2 bomb which now lies in wait for you the next time you open the stall door.
But sometimes such well-intentioned technology can go awry. That little black button in case of emergencies for example: totally pointless! When has that button ever been necessary? I suppose we need to take a poll on this point. Also on the following situation: I was, you know, sitting on the commode, doing what needed to be done, and then gathered the necessary TP to clean up shop and did standard lean on the left cheek elevating the right and...*flusssh!*. Yes folks, that's right, NOT DONE WITH BUSINESS, UNPLEASANT SPLASHING, *flusssh!*. Not once, not twice, but at least three times before finishing up: *flusssh!*. *flusssh!* four times?
I couldn't help but thinking to myself: Are these things really saving water? But i guess that is not the point of such devices. The point of such devices is to protect you from the bomb, which i still experience on a regular basis at other less technologically equipped locations. Am i grateful about being protected from the bomb? Probably so. Especially when i think about the fact that i have probably been spared from more bombs than i realize, not to mention nuclear fallout.

Still, i prefer the two-button option where the #2 button option is rarely if ever needed. I also like the two-directional green handle, though think that the #1 option should be the down direction, not #2. It makes the water-conscious people do all the work and the uninformed unwittingly use more water than they need to or might otherwise.

This would be a good idea if it weren't for the noise pollution factor. I'd take it over triple or quadruple flush surprises that splash the tooshie:

Keep This In Mind

Inspiration

(Morgan Freeman as) Mandela: "Tell me, Francois; What is your philosophy on leadership? How do you inspire your team to do their best?"

(Matt Damon as) François: "By example. I've always thought to lead by example, sir."

Mandela: "Well that is right, that is exactly right. But how to get them to be better than they think they can be? That is very difficult, I find. Inspiration, perhaps. How do we inspire ourselves to greatness when nothing less will do?

Bad Weather?

Here is a proverb i've heard before, but really like how i was able to form it in Spanish:

No existe tiempo malo, solo vestido no apropriado.

(There's no such thing as bad weather, just improper attire)

Günter de Bruyn, an old East German author i'm reading for one of my courses this term, puts it this way: "Schlechtes und gutes [Wetter] gab es für sie nicht: nur Kleidung, die ihm nicht entsprach."

Here's to riding all winter!

Happy 2011

Auld Lang Syne

Getting Beat at Scrabble

is kind of annoying, but I'm also thankful for it because I know it means that I can try harder next time, or, more specifically, can rematch to avenge myself! At any rate, it can be humbling, and I'm grateful that many people I love and care about have beaten me.

Final Score: Aaron - 251, Dillon - 325.

OUCH.

Firstly, congratulations, sir.

Secondly, to justify myself a little, let me tell you all something amazing and/or entertaining that happened as a result. Toward the bitter end of the game I tried my darnedest to play a bingo on a triple word score to catch up, alas to no avail. I DID, however, end up coming up with some great near-words.

MIRTHAGE - this was the word I ended up playing as I thought it was the closest to a word (and therefore maybe a word) of the near-words I'd created. I did know that mirth was a word, though had misunderstood its definition to be something like muck or mire. Now I know that it means happiness or jollity (who knew?). Anyway, Dillon challenged me and we looked it up. Surprise! Not a word. But one can definitely add the suffix "age" to most words, whether they be nouns or verbs, and create one's own! For example, "CHURCHAGE" "RAINAGE" "BIKEAGE". Another stellar would-have-been-great-had-it-been-a-real-word Bingo I thought of was "GRIMATHE" which is, of course, poor math, said like grimace, except with a lisp. Too bad I didn't have an "S" instead of an "E" then I could have made "GRIMATHS" (the British version of the same). If I find the score sheet again I'll add my other brilliant inventions.*

Anyway, then we stayed up talking, as we're apt to do, until 3:45am. Good times, good times...




*Found 21 January, 2011 --> GOTHIMER, kind of like GOSSAMER, but with a lisp. THERMING, the art of keeping oneself at the proper temperature.

Leaping Lizards!

Did your mom nonchalantly capture a tiny reptile this holiday season and store it in a hand-painted jewelry box for safe-keeping until she could show off the treasure of a creature to her granddaughter before releasing it into the wild? I didn't think so. But mine did.

Cafe date and a lil walk

Stacking Functions: Deleted Clip from an Essay

In order to fit a piece to a page limit I decided to ax this section, but wanted to give it new life here, à la deleted scenes on many DVD menus. Probably it was a little too pompous or perhaps not true enough to the prompt. In browsing deleted scenes, I am often struck by some element of the clip which makes it obvious why it would be cut from the film. Perhaps there is some insight shared or some tidbit worth saving, but by and large it's a part of the creative process which better serves society by being placed in the recycle bin rather than put on display as part of the finished product. It's a step up from just tossing it in the trash I reckon, as there must be something in there that can be recycled and repurposed.

"Stacking functions has also been important in my transportation choices. I know that the majority of the trips that I make to anywhere in the city are going to be by bicycle, and thus it is necessary for me to schedule tutoring appointments, work hours, and other events around the knowledge that it can take me up to 30 or 45 minutes to get from one location to the next. It makes the most sense for me to consolidate work within a certain distance, which not only saves me time, but also the energy and stress of having to travel across town multiple times per day. In a car I might not think twice about that wasted energy, but on a bicycle one gains greater respect for distances and the energy it really takes to power transportation from point A to point B."

Worst Day of the Year Ride - promo shots

Thoughts via Charles Dickens on a hopefully forthcoming post

If these were Dickens' observations in the early 1800s, I shudder to think of what he'd have to say about today. What the Dickens?!?!

I was led to this quote via a German etymological search for the word "ballast", which in addition to English and presumably elsewhere also appears in the German language. At the very bottom of this post I've included some ballast of the word's etymological info for your philosophizing enjoyment. :-)

"Dollars! All their cares, hopes, joys, affections, virtues, and associations seemed to be melted down into dollars. Whatever the chance contributions that fell into the slow cauldron of their talk, they made the gruel thick and slab with dollars. Men were weighed by their dollars, measures were gauged by their dollars; life was auctioneered, appraised, put up, and knocked down for its dollars. The next respectable thing to dollars was any venture having their attainment for its end. The more of that worthless ballast, honour and fair-dealing, which any man cast overboard from the ship of his Good Nature and Good Intent, the more ample stowage-room he had for dollars. Make commerce one huge lie and mighty theft. Deface the banner of the nation for an idle rag; pollute it star by star; and cut out stripe by stripe as from the arm of a degraded soldier. Do anything for dollars! What is a flag to them!"


-Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens (1812–1870), British novelist. Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. 16 (1844).

Remarking on a company of New Yorkers.


-------------------------------
more from dictionary [dot] com:
ballast
[C16: probably from Low German; related to Old Danish, Old Swedish barlast , literally: bare load (without commercial value), from bar bare, mere + last load, burden]


"heavy material used to steady a ship," 1520s, from M.E. bar "bare" (in this case "mere") + last "a load, burden," or borrowed from identical terms in North Sea Gmc. and Scand. (cf. O.Dan. barlast, 14c.). Du. balg-last "ballast," lit. "belly-load," is a folk-etymology corruption.

Fall Series Part Two: Pedestrian Bridgeviews.

A very brief panorama on the pedestrian bridge going over the train tracks. Of note: the colors, a few buildings downtown, Oregon Health and Science University (aka OHSU, aka Pill Hill, which I visited for the first time yesterday riding the Aerial Tram) and of course mode of transportation.

The copper building is the Koin Center, the white one is the tallest building in Portland/Oregon and sports the name of a stupid bank.

Trees, OHSU, and the tower up at Council Crest

View from pedestrian footbridge at PSU, south toward hills

same, north toward downtown

A gorgeous autumnal tree masking a not-so-much parking structure.

An October Hodgepodge

Opa und seine Enkelin

A VERY delicious meal. Yet one of many things I am thankful for...

Those cupcakes happened to be very delicious as well. Danke Susan für das Geburtstagslied.

Some of the last sunflowers of the season from the garden. There *may* be a few more this week, we shall see. We actually have some carrots left and will be planting some garlic, shallots, and onions which can grow through the winter. The fava beans are taking off like crazy.

Some delicious figs courtesy of Mike Meyers and of course the Lord of the Harvest

Casey would waltz with a strawberry blonde (Can you complete the phrase?! <-- Well, that is what happened.)

Zero Emissions Race Comes to the Choates! (oh, and Portland)

The team arrives

zero-race.com
http://zero-race.com/en/teams/ (there is a team from Adelaide! I met a guy named Nick who talked about living in The City of Churches.)

Sven charging the Team Vectrix Elektroroller in our garage last night.




Here I am less than an hour ago with Louis Palmer, the first man to circumnavigate the world using 100% solar power (2008). Now he's at it again with a different tactic, the Zero Emissions Race teams, and has a bigger, fascinating plan for next year as well. Shaking his hand last night and hearing him speak to a(n embarrassingly) small group of about 15 EV enthusiasts and others in downtown Portland, I learned that I am now one degree separated from the likes of James Cameron, Ban Ki-moon, Jay Leno, and, among others, various princes, kings, & emirs from the Middle East.
http://www.zero-race.com/en/louis/
http://www.solartaxi.com/

The Transportwagen in front of our place. Meendert, who also stayed with us, can be seen to the right.

Same, but with my excited mug in the shot.

Fall Series Part One

Mine and others' favorite stretch of canopy down ol' 99. Beatiful year round, including this time of year. Well planned planting, now forms huge mature trees and excellent leafy tunnel!

Frenbone Taurecord

From an on-campus display. Cream of the crop meiner Meinung nach.
The Frenbone Taurecord:

Die Meistersinger, (Master Singer) by Victor Talking Machine Co. I'm not sure if "Prize Song" is a translation of "Die Meistersinger" or the name of the track.

I guess you could also just call it "Horn".

The "His Master's Voice" logo and the original painting by Francis Barraud has a very interesting backstory which I learned while teaching high school about 2 years ago now.

In the Treepot...

...it is fall.

hopefully someday
a mighty tree
will you be

Autumnal Night Shot!

Snapped this beauty on the 31st and loved how it turned out. Enjoy, world!

Late Season Produce

Midweek harvest

Entwined carrots perspective I

Entwined carrots perspective II

Entwined carrots vertical view. Before:

After:

VOTE! (part II)

The Ballot

The Delivery

The ballot box + mode of transportation

The scene plus "that lit'le flagger on it" (pronounced à la Nigel Tufnel). The Pioneer Courthouse stands in the background, yet another piece of the system. The courthouse is part of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals headquartered in SF, and, as one can learn on a walking tour of Portland, it is the most overturned appeals court by the Supreme Court of these United States.

The time-stamp on my camera for the delivery snapshot reads November 2, 2010, 7:16:30pm (the 30 = seconds). Better late than never, they say. The deadline was 8 pm! A friend of mine said he loves to wait till the last minute to vote "to keep 'em guessing" (love it!). Another friend of mine said, "Ich liebe das System hier in Oregon. Es ist sehr benutzerfreundlich" (user-friendly). Definitely a true statement, but somehow much funnier in German. I suppose part of the hilarity is due to the personality who said it.

All in all, I would have to say that this has been my most pleasant and informed election experience thus far in my voting career. I also heard that a few local races are very close and that we may not know the results until late tonight since so many people voted late! Hooray democracy!

During the pre-election period, we got an enormous "VOTE!" note on our doorknob, which was generally annoying except that someone had handwritten in the blank: "_____ percent of voters in your neighborhood voted in the previous election cycle." Our neighborhood was 90.7%! Wow! Imagine how very differently things would turn out if the rest of the country voted like that. And if those who don't typically vote did.

Fahrrad fahren?!

One of Sierra's favorite phrases is "Fahrrad fahren?!", which she says with vigor and a slight bit of nervousness, hoping each time she asks that we will go for a ride ASAP.

Here we are after our ride to Imago Dei yesterday: