the bar hop

A gay bar hop used to mean going down the street. As insular as a gay ghetto may be, at least it meant that everything you were looking for in a night was all in one neighborhood. Of course, that did have it drawbacks when it meant that you may pay $20 per person in cover charges one night just because there were so many good bars in one quick walk. Now they're a little more spread out. Still, I was determined to make a go of it.

I don't feel comfortable at the bars anymore. I don't know what my problem is. I guess a lot of it has to do with the fact that my two favorite gay bars (Silverados and Eagles) packed up and moved this past year. Now they are the great unknown to me. Embers has also undergone some interior changes and I've never liked the Red Cap. It was weird realizing that I didn't have a bar downtown to go to where I could feel completely comfortable. I think that Silverados has the most potential out of all of the bars. Tonight, I tried Caseys which was occupied by maybe twelve patrons and two very bored looking go go boys. And the Eagle downstairs was heartbreaking. The Eagle used to be a place where I could always count on a lot of people hanging around but there was NOBODY there on a SATURDAY night! Plus the interior is just weird, as evidenced by the picture above. Why would you have that behind the pissers?

Really, I just want to go back three years when my bars were still the same and Embers still had goth night but I guess we all have to change at some point.

it's mii!

Meet my mii.

After playing the wii so much at work, it was pretty much inevitable that we were going to get one at our house. We bought it the Wednesday before Harvest Dinner but we didn't unpack it until today.

I haven't owned a video game system since the Playstation 2 which I sold soon after moving to Portland. I realized that video games were a form of escapism that I didn't need anymore. I've always been partial to Role Playing Games like Final Fantasy. While I had my characters climbing mountains or running along beaches, I realized that with a short drive, I could be doing that.

However, the wii is a bit different. We only have the sports wii game. I will never box in real life but it's really fun on the wii and it gets you active. I was all sweaty after a couple of rounds. Also after a night of playing tennis, my right arm aches like I just worked it out good. I'm going to have to figure out how to play left handed so I don't end up all Hellboy.

In the picture above, my mii is just about to bowl a six-pack (six strikes). That's something I've never done and probably never will do but it's fun to seem like I did it. Plus it's a lot cheaper than the golf course or bowling alley.

the most wonderful time of the year

Traditionally, the most wonderful time of the year is Christmas. However, I'm not a traditional guy. I absolutely love Harvest Dinner. We counted 60 people at the dinner this year. There was a record number of tofurkies this year as well. I broke with tradition and brought a vegetarian ham log instead of a cheesecake (although I didn't cook the log myself). I think that I'm catching whatever bug is going around but I wasn't going to miss out on this day for anything. Also, I'm happy that this is my 400th post.

the food court

Today, I got paid to be a mallrat. There once was a time where I would have said that is totally awesome. Of course there's also a time where I would have said the same thing about Milli Vanilli. Now I know better. I don't get paid enough to hoof it around the mall for hours.

One of my participants at work really really wants to work at a clothing store in the mall so I took her and her boyfriend there. I ate at an overpriced mediterranean food court restaraunt. The people were cool but the food was mediocre. This trip could only be saved if something like the above video happened.

Food Court Musical from ImprovEverywhere on Vimeo.

one more try

I want to like the Paradox cafe. I really really do. They seemingly have a great menu, alright staff and a great location. However, their food just isn't very good. I haven't been there for a while and tonight I remembered why. They've expanded since I was there last and added an extra room on the side which is cool because seating there has usually been an issue. Also, now you can use their bathroom without having to walk through their kitchen. But it's not enough to make the place a good choice.

I had a vegan chili cheese dog with sauerkraut tonight. It was edible which is more than I can say for their homemade vegan sausage patties. However, it wasn't anything special. I may give this place another try some time down the road...way down the road.

won't you meet my neighbors?

Today, while eating at the Red and Black cafe, we met our neighbors. We know a few people around us such as our neighbor to the right and left and directly in front of us but those are the only people even on our little street whose names I know. Today, I met the residents of the house around the corner. We call it New York House because a lot of their license plates were from New York.

New York House seems like a pretty cool house of people that I'm frankly surprised we didn't meet sooner. I know that our friends have crashed their house parties but proper introductions were never done. Their names, so I can look back here and remember them later, were Tom, Emily and Adam. Obviously we have stuff in common as we met them at the Red and Black. It feels good to tighten up the neighborhood.

the things my art teacher never taught me

I used to love art class in school. I loved various mediums, from ink to watercolor but I was particularly fascinated with etching on mirrors. It seemed so neat, to be able to take a plain mirror and put an image on it that would never be removed. Maybe I liked it better than paintings or drawings because mirrors could also be useful. Practically every house has at least one mirror. You might as well put something cool on it.

As of the last few years, I've been applying that mantra to t-shirt printing. Besides the fact that I basically have unlimited palates with the clothing donations, I like to have funky shit on my shirts. So far, I've been a part of the designing, printing and drying process but there are a few steps that I've been avoiding. So I'm all DYI, I decided to tackle one of them tonight, Photo Emulsion Remover. This isn't always necessary in the process of making a screen for screen printing but I hate to have shit sit around and I had at least two screens that I'm not planning on using again. I went to the Columbia Art Store and got me some emulsion remover. With this, I can clean up some older screens to reuse. There's always the possibility that the screen can't be cleaned but I at least wanted to try. Maybe I'll have two new screens to test my art on!

my grandpa's tools

My grandpa passed away 13 years ago. Last year, my grandma moved off of the farm and into a retirement home. Earlier this year, my family went to clean out their stuff. They asked me what I wanted and, aside from Grandma's car, I really didn't know. I basically just asked for some of his old tools just to remember him by. I wasn't actually thinking that I would use them. However, they came in really handy today.

We rearranged the living room today and used different shelving for our entertainment center. That meant we had to drill holes for cords. We tried the electric drills but they were out of batteries. We were going to wait for a while but my housemate remembered the old tools we had sitting in the back. I was really happy to actually use them. I've never used an old fashioned drill before but it worked really well!

hamilton mountain and the pool of winds

Today, I took a sick-of-work day and climbed a mountain instead.

First, we went to Rodney Falls and the pool of winds. The pool is a pool of water in the middle of the waterfall, where water fall into and wind and water visibly fly out of. It was awesome.

Along the hike up the mountain, we got several great views of the Columbia Gorge

which Dean enjoyed as well.

From the top, we could see Mt Adams and Mt Hood.

And then we made it to the top. That's Mt Hood Behind me. I've only been hiking in Washington one other time. In the picture of the Gorge shot, you can see a rock bordering the river in the middle of the right side of the picture. That's Beacon Rock, the only other hike I've taken on this side. This one was way more extensive and it felt good to do a considerable hike where I was the prepared person who found the location and the route (and also brought fire, a compass and extra clothing in case we got lost). We only got momentarily lost once when we got to talking and blindly following Dean. Fortunately, he had taken us to the path that we wanted to take in the first place. It's good to have another waterfall under my belt too. I love this area.

apple poop

One of my favorite articles on Indymedia ever was the DIY fan article. You should read it if you have the chance. It's a simple article about the rewards of doing something yourself instead of just running out and buying it.

Today, I helped make apple juice. I've done this once before but not with this type of equipment. First, we used a large apple press that could have been mistaken for a torture device used in the Salem witch trails. That produced juice and a lot of apple bits. We drank the juice and put some of the bits on a tray for dehydrating. We also had to fix the dehydrator, using a fan from the back of a computer to replace the fan in the dehydrator. We ran the rest of the bits through a juicer which gave us apple poop and some more, thicker juice. We spread the poop onto a few more trays and ran the thick juice through AGAIN which gave us apple sauce and some thinner juice.

Overall, it was an extensive project that used practically all of the apples and turned them into various products that will long outlast the shelf life of an apple. The best part is we did it ourselves and we will do it again!

hideaway

When I was a waiter at Red Lobster in the mid-90s, our jackass boss kept getting on us about how people don't come there for the food, they come for the service and the atmosphere. And that's why I went back to Chaos today. Work has been hectic and I needed a getaway and I'll be damned if Chaos didn't do it again. There was different staff there at a different time. I sat in a different chair with a different view and ordered a different item (the roasted goat (cheese) wrap) and was completely satisfied. The environment and the staff were absolutely divine. I love this place. It feels so inviting. The food isn't drool-worthy but it's good for the price. The food is secondary to the place though. It's convenient that I can use lunch as an excuse to go there but honestly I could just sip on a coffee and be content as well.

polly wants his wings back

Today, we had a speaker come talk to the clients (My work can sometime seems like a daily school assembly). Its human said that it could say 300 words but most of all, it said "four." It was kind of funny because the human was trying to get it to count, sing and whatever but it mainly just said, "four." What wasn't funny was what the human said.

I love pets. In my hometown, I could tell people what the names of the dogs were in town before I could tell them the names of the owners. I've had at least one pet my entire life. However, that has been dogs and cats. Birds, fish and rodents are another story. They're cute sometimes but I really question their quality of life.

Take our fine feathered friend for example. This bird's wings were clipped, probably at an early age. Its humans decided that it didn't need to perform the most natural action for a bird because they wanted to keep it. Dean and the cats have free roam of the house and the yards. Growing up, our dog and cats were completely independent outside. That's always been the difference between pets as property and pets as companions to me. I don't understand keeping a rodent in a glass cage with minimal items to entertain it or to give a fish the same cubic feet of water to live in it's whole life.

It's just not natural.

just one new president

I'm not a democrat but I feel like I just got out of a bad eight-year long relationship.

Bush was bad, really bad. He fucked this country up proper and we are so much better off without him. Obama may screw things up as well but it's difficult to believe that he could work against the people's interests as ferociously as Bush did.

I watched history last night. Like it or not, it was history and at a very crucial time. I know that Obama will give people a somewhat false sense of hope but it's what's needed right now. People need to feel good again. The upcoming Depression isn't just financial. If people can be hopeful and positive for a while (until they realize not much has changed) then so be it.

unnatural (s)election

In 2004, when Bush was reselected, I went out for coffee with several members of Code Pink, a relatively radical group, comprised primarily of older women. There was going to be a protest later on that day and we were meeting to strategize. When I got there, one of them announced that the Democratic Patsy had just conceded. I don't think that whats-his-name would have been great but after four years of the Bush, it was appalling that people were going to let him have another four years. We sat around the table, held hands and said some words. It wasn't a prayer necessarily but it was a call to Mother Earth to give us strength. It may sound hokey but it's the only thing that really got me going that morning and for the next four years. I'm worried now because I'm not meeting with Code Pink tomorrow.

I think that Obama will get the majority of the vote but I believe that McCain will steal it. They're already having problems with the voting machines. I voted today at the library instead of the election office (pictured above). At least in Oregon, we have paper ballots which are more difficult to alter. Whatever the outcome, I just want this to be done now.

the night the lights went out in portland

I think it's the soap opera influence but I've always been keen on disasters. I don't want anybody hurt but I love something that shakes things up, especially when it used to get me out of school/church/work. Portland's weather is so damn mellow that any little shakeup is a welcome change of pace.

Tonight, the lights went out in whole neighborhoods. Street lights, businesses, residences and street signals all lost power for an indefinite amount of time. It wasn't a blanket blackout and it fortunately didn't last for more than a night but it was pretty damn sweet seeing a busy street like Hawthorne completely dark. I was picking up clothing donations at the time and the store went dark with very very minimal window lighting. I was prepared though as I had my headlamp for my bike in my pocket. I'm always ready for a little chaos.

gettin out of the house

On Halloween, we stopped at Palio's coffeehouse in Ladd's Addition for our mid-trick or treatin' break. As per normal, I hung outside with Dean while all the adults and kids went inside and got properly caffinated. Dean can usually hang outside by himself but Halloween is probably really freaky for dogs with all of the people out at night and all of the masks. After my crew started to come out, I left one of them with Dean and went inside.

If I have a superpower, it is the ability to be overlooked by wait staff and to have the prep people/cooks lose my order. After I saw one guy walk in two or three people after me and get his drink pretty much instantly, I asked if mine was coming up. The guy acted pissed I asked but the dude that took my order apologized a lot. Still, the coffee-making guy made the other guys drink first even though we both ordered an irish cream latte. I must have looked visibly pissed because I got a free drink card out of it. So today I went to cash that in.

I barely left the house yesterday. I didn't have any coffee either because it was a mellow mellow day of sitting around and getting thoroughly confused by The Prisoner. Therefore a four mile quest for coffee with the dog was in order. Normally, that would be an excessive walk with very little payoff but a free Huckleberry Mocha was totally worth it.