this is dogtown

Portland is one of the most dog friendly cities anywhere. I recently read a magazine article that ranked Portland #2, just below Colorado Springs, as the most dog-friendly city in the US. I’ve heard that we have the most doggy daycares per capita. Go Portland!

There’s a new pet store opened up on Division, which I’ve been passing by for months now because it’s on my walk home from work. I’ve been writing it off as some upscale chain store because it looks pretty sharp from the outside. Today I stopped in and realized that it’s an independent, locally owned business with pretty cheap toys. I bought Dean-o a squeaky stuffed squirrel and a nice tug rope with a ball attached for around $10 total. I definitely recommend this place! It's located at 2505 SE 11th Ave.

an eco-terrorist superhero

I love superheroes. I'm an adolescent at heart that way. Superheroes' stories are often a lot deeper than you would imagine and are chronicled nicely (although not always consistently) in comic books. While looking up misanthropy on Wikipedia a while back, I came across Poison Ivy from the Batman lore. Poison Ivy isn't a comic book figure I have given much thought to but I decided to look into her background. Most of the stories that she is involved in have her saving land and nature from developers and being labeled as a villain for doing so. Also, Wikipedia refers to her as an "eco-terrorist" which makes her a superhero in my book.

Today, I bought "Batman and Robin" for our ATE room. I bought it primarily because Poison Ivy is in it, although her character is written poorly. However, the movie isn't dark and is client-appropriate, not matter how lame it is. It's the first movie I've ever bought for the program and donated to work. Hopefully this doesn't become a habit. While we watching it today, I found myself geeking out and trying to defend everything Poison Ivy did, much like I have found myself doing for the Wicked Witch of the West, another misanthrope and also an animal activist. Also green. I guess I'm just partial to green.

timbers' army

I went to another soccer game today. Is it possible that I could actually become a sports fan?

As far as sports go, I do enjoy basketball. If given a choice though between watching sports on TV or watching any soap opera, I'd choose the soap easily, even if it was a boring one like Young and the Restless. But I do enjoy basketball live. I used to go nuts watching my high school team play to the point where the coach had to instruct me to sit down to keep us from getting a "T."

And I think I like soccer live as well. Yesterday, we went to a Timbers vs Seattle game. We never beat Seattle. Plus, Seattle was chosen to get a MLS team over Portland even though Portland's average attendance dwarfs Seattle's. Usually when I go to these games, I spend most of the game standing. I just feel more involved that way. My friend Jesse who I've seen every game with stands the entire game. We always sit close enough to the Timbers Army (the rowdy fan section) to where it's usually not an issue. However, it became an issue tonight.

As per normal, I started out standing. But I got tapped on the shoulder from someone behind me and I turned to see the guy directly behind me was motioning for me to sit. Whatever. I did but only because the guy was directly behind me. Jesse was two seats to the right of me and remained standing. Jesse's only 5' tall so usually this isn't an issue. Some tall, drunk and loud guy two rows behind us tells Jesse to sit down. Jesse says no and the guy directly behind me won't shut up about it.

After the first half, tall, drunk and loud dude comes and stands on the the chair in front of Jesse and opens up his jacket. Without hesitation, Jesse moves to the chair next to TD&L dude and keeps cheering. TD&L then puts his jacket in front of Jesse's face. Jesse pulled the jacket down and to the side and TD&L was so D that he followed the jacket into a bunch of empty seats. He gets up, finds security and I go with Jesse when they ask him to come with them. One cop, five security guards and a vice president of operations later, we are asked to so sit in any seat of our choosing with the Timbers Army away from TD&L.

Really, it wasn't fair but I liked the seats better and enjoyed that part of the game a lot more. The Army is very rambunctious and pretty much makes the game. One of our guys scored and suddenly I was immersed in a loud sea of green and gold. It was very festive and contagious and it's the only way to watch a game!

futbol!

I went to a Portland Timbers game. This was my second game but the first game I got to see where anyone scored. And we won. I've been to a few hockey games in Portland as well and this is the first time that I've been to a Portland sporting event where Portland has won. It makes the game a lot more exciting. I even participated in the cheers. My favorite was the "Flopper" chant.

When I told my mom that I went, she reminded me of when I played soccer in fourth grade. They kept yelling at me to take my hands out of my pockets when I ran around. It got to the point where she just bought me shorts without pockets. You gotta love a mother's recollection and her ability to hit you with your embarrassing childhood moments at the drop of a hat.

field trip day

I took a group of clients to the Rose Quarter Arena on a community business tour. We call it a “CBT” but it’s really a field trip which is great. Field trip days were always my favorite part of school and I figured most of our clients look at work the way I looked at school. It’s a place where you’re supposed to get something accomplished and supposed to be learning things but the socialization is the main reason for going.

When we choose place to go, I like to make sure we go somewhere nice and fun. I’m supposed to gear it towards their vocational goals but a lot of my clients don’t actually have vocational goals, other than to show up to work at the store and not get in trouble. Some of them don’t have any long term goals or ambition. It’s usually hard for me to get a good answer out of them when I tell them to think of a place they’d like to work and to tell me so we can go there. Most of the time, they repeat whatever I suggest. “We could go to someplace like a store, such as Bi-Mart…” “I want to go to Bi-Mart!” “Or a pet store…” “Let’s go to a pet store!” “Or maybe the fire station.” “Oh! The fire station!” They’re pretty open to any suggestion so I try to make suggestions based upon their interests. And a lot of them like sports.

One of my guys in particular loves wrestling and has a lot of Trailblazer pride. He also doesn’t have a lot of people in his life that socialize with him and he doesn’t go on group outing outside of work so I decided to make his annual tour better than a run to Bi-Mart. It was a lot of fun too. I took twelve clients and three other supervisors and they showed up the ground level and the locker rooms, the gym and the med room. It was something new anyway and for most of the clients it was probably their favorite part of work for the year.

a bad parent

When I was eight or nine years old, my parents left me. I was socially akward even then so I crawled onto the couch and lost myself in the TV while people were chit-chatting all around me at my great uncle's house. He only lived a few miles from my Grandma's farm so all of my cousins and aunts and uncles were there visiting all of the second cousins and such. After a while, I snapped out of TV land and began to wander around the house. My dad's cousin-in-law saw me and asked what I was still doing there. They called the farm and someone had to come back to get me. Everyone had assumed I was in someone else's car so it was understandable how they left me but I still give them a hard time about it.

Well, today, I lost all room to talk because I left Dean today. I walked to the gas station with him and my roommates and I walked back with only my roommates. When I entered the house and realized he wasn't there, I freaked and ran the four blocks back. He was fine, although he was a bit confused. I felt and still feel awful about it but he really didn't seem any worse for wear and I know it'll never happen again. At least I didn't have to get called about it.

(I am only kidding about the 'bad parent' thing. I don't really hold any grudge against my parents for forgetting me years ago but it's fun to throw it in their face every now and then.)

merry seder!

Tonight was Seder. Seder is the other jewish holiday that I participate in. I don't know why going to Catholic church was a chore and Jewish rituals are fun. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Seder is basically a drinking game and as I've said before, we drink on Hanukkah as well. And I actually like Manischewitz, although now I can only stomach it once a year.

Besides the drinking though, I like the company and I like having new people around to experience their first Seder (it's my fourth). I got to meet some new people tonight and I enjoyed their company. Plus I tried chocolate matza for the first time!

defining misanthropy

It's a difficult balance, being involved in social justice movements and being a social worker while also being a misanthrope. I can't help it though. I hate to see injustices in the world but then again, I know that the world would be a much more harmonious place without the blight of humanity here.

Misanthropy is defined as a general dislike, distrust, or hatred of the human species, or a disposition to dislike and/or distrust other people. And I helped contribute to that definition. For the first time, I added a few bits to a definition in Wikipedia, specificaly under misanthropy. (see the link) I love Wikipedia as a source for information. I use it way too much.

Anyhow, before I start getting concerned calls, I love all of you (you being those I know that read this blog). Just because I think that we are a virus doesn't mean that I don't love my family, friends and a lot of the people I work with. I love myself but I consider me to be part of the problem as well. I don't like and don't trust people as a species. I'm much more of an animal person. Animals are victims to humanity's ignorant barbarianism. Plants are too but it's easier for me to sympathize with animals because I can tell they like me.

The picture above is not altered at all. It was a shot I took of the inside of a pipe that leads into the Willamette River. It's kind of neat-looking, until you realize that the colorful streak at the bottom is sludge and crap that is being dumped into the river. Fucking humans.

walking it off

As paralyzing as the 11th hour was, I can't just sit around. So I went for a walk.

As I've stated before, I hate using my car. I hate it because I hate traffic and I hate paying for gas. But I also hate what it does to the environment.

I have gotten lazy and I will drive every now and then when I could walk, bike or even scooter. Today, I even bussed. I had to make it up to NE Portland for another one of my client's photoshoots. He's going to be on the cover of the company newsletter because he rocks. Rather than drive up or even scooter up there. I took my car up MLK until I reached Killingsworth. Then, I walked 55 blocks to his house. I love walking anyway and I haven't strolled down Killingsworth before so it was a great opportunity.

What shocks me is how shocked people at work were when they found out I *gasp* WALKED to an event for a client. Walking is completely out of the realm of possibility for so many people. This is why I believe that humanity is so beyond screwed. Well, despite our eventual fate, I am going to continue walking and continue talking about it to my co-workers in hopes that maybe they'll try it...soon.

just one person

I'm too depressed to really write. Hell, I don't even know how I made it to work today. We're all going to die.

I watched The 11th Hour yesterday. It's Leonardo DiCaprio's inconvenient truth. It's a documentary about the state of the world and how we are heading for disaster. I know all of this information but to see it so well put-together and just laid out there like that was a bit mind-blowing.

It's pretty bad when the positive side of it all is that while man will destroy ourselves within the next generation, at least the earth will live on, although with only a small fraction of the diversity of life that lives on earth now.

Mankind's only hope depends upon not only corporations changing their ways but every person altering their priorities (ie abandoning capitalism) and I don't see that happening. We are so fucked. Fuck.

hurray for...

We went to the Hollywood Theater this evening for a viewing of "A Little Bit of So Much Truth," a feature length independent documentary on the Oaxacan struggle. It was an awesome documentary and the theater was packed which was really nice to see. I also love being in a theater full of people whom I can guess aren't fucknuts. Being in safer spaces has become a lot more valuable to me these days.

On a side note, going to the Hollywood isn't my new thing. My new thing is getting three fortunes in my fortune cookie afterwards. Don't forget. You're supposed to say '...in bed' after each fortunes. Ick because my fortunes were "You will bring sunshine into someone's life" (not bad), "Contentment is just around the corner for you. Look forward." (okay) and "This year your highest priority will be your family." (EWWWW!)

momma mia! it'za pizza pie!

Sorry for the cliched italian stereotype but I made homemade pizza today for the first time!

The summer after my freshman year in college, I went back home to live with my folks. They were fine with that but my mom insisted that I get a job. I worked for the high school the previous summer but they only hired recently graduated seniors so I had to look out of town for a job. I applied and was hired at Valentinos Italian Restaurant in North Platte as a prep cook. I had to get up at 4am, drive 45 miles to North Platte so I could start sometime between 5:30-6. I worked for 10 hour shifts, preparing italian food in a small back room with a scary guy with numerous tattoes who talked about being born again a lot. My only link to the outside work was a radio tuned eternally to a country station. I got one break, for fifteen minutes but I was told I couldn't go anywhere because I was on the clock and I couldn't bring any food in because it would be "outside food contamination." They told me I could have the buffet food if I got to it between when the buffet got broken down and when it got thrown away. Yes, it was highly illegal but I was young and naive. I lasted for three days. It rained all three days too. When I quit, I swear that angels parted the clouds, the sun finally shone and I could hear harps.

Despite the bad association, I quite enjoyed cooking my pizza today. It didn't turn out the best. I could have worked the dough better. Still it was a respectable first attempt. Well, a first attempt on my own terms anyway.

103.24

Today, I got hit hard with a fever. I can be a slight hypochondriac at times but I haven't been afraid of a fever like I was of this one. I changed into some decent clothes and got my stuff ready to spend a few days in the hospital. It went from 99 degrees to 103.24 in a few hours. Fortunately, that was about the peak of it. After it peaked and my housemates convinced me to wait a bit and try to cool it down before going to the hospital, I drank some cool water and had cool thoughts and it went down. It was some scary-ass shit at the time though.

Also, fevers don't usually make for good visuals so that's why I put the Madonna video out there instead. Enjoy.

like any other

The above picture could be any bar. It is completely lacking any distinction from most other bars to the extent that I felt completely comfortable there once I scoped out the patrons and deemed most of them harmless. It is as if the bar is part of some franchise, like McDonalds, where you can't tell which one you're in until you get out and look at the neighborhood and even then it can be hard to judge if you're in a suburb.

This picture happen to come from Joe's Cellar in NW Portland. It was a nice bar and I could definitely see going back there if I was in the neighborhood or it was closer. The staff was nice, the patrons were mellow and the food and drink was cheap. However, there are probably at least a dozen other bars between my house and Joe's that looks and feels just like this place.

Despite it's cliched aesthetic, Joe's Cellar was a new thing for me. However, I also hit a new dumpster tonight that made a greater impression on me. Vegan food, individually wrapped, set aside in sanitary blue bin. Now that's something to remember.

this used to be my bike-shop

I went to Papa G’s Vegan Deli for the first time today. Normally, the idea of a vegan deli in the neighborhood would be really appealing to me. Papa G’s however reminded me of a good Food Not Bombs day where the volunteers decided to get really creative and then overcharge you for it.

question of comfortable living

I haven’t been as comfortable in a living situation as I am now. In fact, I like it so much that I don’t even think about it as an issue. Occasionally I’ll pass by a house and think, ‘Wow, that’d be nice to live in,’ or ‘Damn, look at that space,’ but there’s always something (usually the location and the busy street outside) that isn’t near as nice as our house. That’s why I was kind of surprised that my housemates brought up the idea of moving to the place pictured above. We drove out to see it today and we were all sorely disappointed.

Here’s what it has working for it: It’s five-bedroom and the rent is only $300/month.

Here’s what makes it undesirable: It’s right off of McLoughlin in Sellwood. You can only take a right turn out of the dead end street that it’s on and end up going further east until you can turn around. Also, it’s enough big junk in the lawn to obscure the view of the house.

I didn’t get a chance to look inside the house so I can’t determine how much work is needed in there but I imagine it has to be a lot if the place is renting for so little. The money savings would be really really nice but it’s a question of a quality of life. I’ve quit nice paying jobs because they made me miserable. I don’t think I’ll let money jeopardize my happiness at home either.

small town portland

Growing up, when watching Days of our Lives with my mom, sister, aunt, Grandma or English teacher, we used to always comment on the odds of the chance encounters that happened so frequently. For example, in a town of unknown size, but one that was large enough to have skyscrapers, a major airport and several newspapers, how is it that a group of 20-30 people kept running into each other around town?

However, I've realized that Portland has all of the above and still, I run into people all the time. In fact, it's rare for me to walk and not see at least someone I know. Today, I happened upon Dominic at a video store and we went and had dinner and drinks all on my walk home from work. It's nice to have that small town feel without having the small town constrictions.

Oh yeah, my new thing was meeting a prospective client and her parent for the first time. And I suppose that's the key to making a larger city seem smaller; by meeting more and more people.