Portland post

Traveling to a new city is alway fun and exciting, even if you go for only a few days. Actually, if you are forced to manage your time, you tend to get more out of it, and plan better.

I recently hit up Portland, OR for a business trip. These days I have been traveling more, so I am back in the swing of nightly jaunts into the unknown. This worked out to my benefit in Portland; little did I realize that my hotel was a block away from 23rd Ave, a 27-block stretch of street which is full of coffee shops, sushi dives, pubs and gelato joints. They even have a little trolley that you can take to this place from others parts of the city. They stuck me in the Silver Cloud hotel, which is not bad for the price (even though I don't pay).

This place is booming with coffee shops and gelato specialties. I stopped in for a quick desert and some coffee before hitting the ridiculous amount of after-hours work I've been receiving lately.

After fattening myself with espresso and gelato, I headed down to Portland's landmark: Powell's books. This fine establishment is the largest privately-owned bookstore in the free world.

As I browsed the endless shelves of marked paper, I stumbled over to the red section, where I found myself engulfed in language and religion reads, two of my favorites. There's certainly a book for every different taste here. I'm not much for fiction books... I never liked reading novels; I feel there's too much in the real world to learn about, than to read stories that someone made up in their head. That's a theologian for you, I guess.

I also stopped into Mio sushi one evening. The air was brisk and cool, far cooler than what I am used to in LA. The parking was also surprisingly difficult, despite the overly residential feel of the area around 23rd ave.

I also hit up another sushi place called "Umenoki". I was across the street from a locally owned natural food market. Umenoki was far superior in quality, but a steeper bill. The chef made me a baked roll, something not offered on their menu. He said he makes it at another restaurant he cooks at, but could whip up just about anything for the price of a specialty roll.

Looking back at the few days I spent there and the overall area, I would definitely go back. Portland had a definite "cozy feel" to it. Through my travels, I have learned that people from the Midwest tend to go toward Seattle or Portland, and I can see why, if they are looking for a place that has a similar lifestyle.

Everyone had sport racks on their cars, with mountain bike or kayak mounts. I even notices someone at the hotel with a couple of well used maverick (shortboards) surfboards in their car. This seems to be a place serious about their outdoor activities.

I was also surprised by the number of homeless people there--so many that it made me feel like I was in downtown LA during some walks.

Now I have some books to read for the next couple of months...

reunion

I hate jumping back in after not writing for a while.

Here's the highlights since last post:

1. 10 year high-school reunion went down: I killed 2 birds with 1 stone by taking my girlfriend back to my hometown. She got to meet my parents, and in addition, attend my high school reunion with me. As I walked in to the reunion around 7PM, I noticed a few familiar faces. Jes M., Tami F., Marvin V., and other people I never really knew. I did the normal run-of-the-mill chat "What are you up to these days?" for about 2 hours. One thing that must be understood is that I grew up in a very small town, and most of the people at the reunion lived around or near that small town in MN, where the high-salary jobs are scarce, and manual labor is the cornerstone of every farm for 90 miles in any direction, so there was not a ton to speak of city-wise, but most of the people were cool. While many people did complain a bit about their situation, most of the people are happily married with a child and getting by. Many baby pictures were shared. I also feel that most of what I talked about was lost in the conversation, since introducing my girlfriend from "Taipei" was a little foreign to them; Asia isn't a place that many of my former classmates are interested in. One girl got a Chinese tatoo, but couldn't read what it said. :(


For the most part, the reunion went as expected, and it was really good to see the people that I was looking forward to see, such as "the sara(h)s", and their new mates, Sean, and some other unexpected dudes. Matt D. didn't show, but you can't expect everyone to roll in.


I thought it was really funny to see most of the class hotties and cheerleaders in a state of gerth. It is to be expected... 10 years of marriage, stresses from college and first-time jobs and access to MN cuisine will do that if you let it. I had a great time introducing my beautiful girlfriend to people like Michelle K., Catie O., Stacy O., and others. Adam, one of the organizers, had a few too many and went up to one of the "enlarged" girls and asked her "So, are we expecting?" and she said "No, but she is" and kindly pointed to another pregnant woman from her high school click. I felt bad for the people who got really fat; it was like a scene of beached pacific whales, and they could do nothing but turn their heads as people nimbly moved around them.


2. Deleted my MySpace account, cursed the numerous blond bimbo advertisements, vowed never to return - enough said. Besides, I'll always have facebook and linked-in as proven network sites.

3. Started looking for a place to move, closer to everything in my daily routine
My job, my friends, my girlfriend are all in Northwest LA, so I'm making a move. The problem is, I'm not sure where. I've got roommates lined up, but they are hard to get a hold of. I guess I'll keep searching craigslist and hopefully find a nice place in the area that doesn't break the bank.

from SETI to Drug research

Every since the nerd-popular Seti-at-home (believe it or not, these space geezers are still pumping packets like never before), companies have a number of options to call upon the biggest super-computer in the world: the internet. Companies do so in order to solve problems that are mathematically intensive. These days the most popular "distributed computing" application is BOINC, and a most-excellent application running on it is being developed by World Community Grid, and non-profit organization who is calling on the world's "wasted CPU cycles" to join forces for good. They have even included a screensaver so you can read about what your computer is doing while it crunches the math. Recently my computer was checking the elasticity of a particular molecule to determine it's feasibility for a specific research application. Go get it and do your part to save humanity... or better yet, run world community along site SETI to help E.T. phone home!

7:50PM... Desert and Work

Lately I've been sucked into the vortex of evening work, and weekends are my only getaway. I have been working very late for the summer months. During the month of June, I vowed that July would be to maximize downtime, and declared it the month of beach evenings. It's now July 30th, and I have yet to make it to the beach on a weekday. I seem to be pulled in to "last minute objectives" or just simply piled on with work, to the point where I simply can't leave in a reasonable time. What a waste of sun; I think about all of the UV I could be collecting, but instead sit here, making my eye prescription worse and pedaling the bike of corporate crud.

My work has been very repetitive lately, and it takes it's toll. Though I have agreed not to speak specifically about my job anymore (see blog post #1), I feel that if something consumes so much of your life that you don't have time to do the things that give you life, then it's worth mentioning as a complaint.

On a good note, my girl and I have been able to spend nearly every weekend together since her student residency here in California. It's been nothing short of amazing getting to know her, her culture, and simply spending time with someone who has similar life goals. It seems that if I'm not working, I am spending time with her. We are already booked on a late summer vacation, and planning another one later in the year.

It's also been good to spend time with someone who likes you for who you are. Most of my Minnesota friends I've managed to maintain are like this; they are pretty open minded and accepting in regards to personal taste, lifestyle, etc. This is something I've found is more rare in LA. I've found a few good friends, but a majority of them don't call unless they benefit somehow.

In the last 2 months, I've managed to go surfing a staggering one time. Actually, I've gone several times this summer, but the ocean was like glass on the other days I had a chance to break away. When work schedules you to fly on a Sunday in July, that is 1/8 of your free time that goes down the tubes. Looks like I'm flying again this Sunday... What a waste of a summer...

Motivation

I was kicking back on the (chair-like object insert here) and reading Maximum PC magazine. It's the first time I've picked up a computer magazine in a few months. As I was reading, I realized that I still have a relatively large interest in this stuff. Reading about ATI, NVidia, Intel... blah blah blah. After a while of reading my thoughts merge into a heap of corporate affairs and marketing, Microsoft consumerism and software for things people don't really need. It's no wonder I don't care much these days; the "cool" has worn off.

I don't know why... my busy job usually kills any desire I would have to use a computer outside of work. I think that if I had the money, I still would not spend it on computer stuff. I just can't see spending a majority of my paycheck on video cards and processors like I did in college. I don't even own/play games any more. I guess when you work full time, priorities change and time becomes more valuable. At some point during early career-hood, your life changes. You no longer are finding ways to spend time, but instead seeking ways in which to gain it back.

Lately, it seems if I'm not using my computer to communicate or study Chinese, I'm doing other things, like reading a book or other new found, non-computer-related activity. I've been wanting to surf more, but can't find the time lately. Instead, I find myself out with my girlfriend every weekend, because she lives so far away. I usually stay because of the long drive. It is definitely a change to spend my weekend in another city, and I'm usually busy helping her study or run errands, so it's not all fun and games. Still, I would rather spend time with her than the other choices I have. Of course, the beach and surfing will always be my second and most-solid choice, but spending time with her makes putting off surfing an easy choice... now, if I could just get her to learn surfing....

routine returns

Braces

After chipping a tooth repeatedly, and discovering that other health problem are a result of bad teeth shaping, I made the move to go in a get braces. I was baffled by the number of choices you have in the 21st century, to correct your teeth. The main contenders were traditional metal, ceramic and clear. They also had Invisi-line, which I would argue are more permanent retainers than braces.

Since I speak alot publically, and travel alot to meet with clients, I decided to get the clear braces, where only the metal wire is visible during the 2 year recommended treatment. I think this is the right choice for price, visuals and form of treatment. It's amazing that just 10 years ago, none of these options were available.

Get the skinny on braces here: Straight talk on Braces

Using distillation to hydrate the poor

I love to see technology used for this sort of purpose!

They have build some cheap solar contraptions to help the poor in Africa. They have trouble reaching freshwater in the prairie, so a European company built collection pyramids to multi-task in the filtration process. Full story here.