cinema done right

Last weekend, we were looking for a movie to go to and saw that Tarantino's new film 'The Hateful Eight' was playing at the Hollywood. When we got there, we saw there was already a line and apparently it was a line for people with tickets already. The show was sold out for a number of showings throughout the week already so I bought tickets online for tonight.

We got there an hour early and stood in line for a while before we were let in from the cold. It ended up setting the tone nicely for the film which takes place during a Wyoming blizzard. The film had a 4-5 minute long overture before it and a 12 minute intermission built into the film. The intermission worked well with the action and the pacing and it helped with the movie-going experience. I took the picture above as the guy was introducing the film. Apparently, Tarantino had stopped in a few days before to introduce the film and praised the Hollywood Theater, which has the biggest screen capable of showing 70 mm films. If I'm going to go out to the theater, this is how it should be done.

What else?

We maxxed, walked, and then bussed to Victory's NYE party but didn't stay until midnight because we didn't want to leave Ava in the kennel that long. We had a nice brisk walk back to the house afterwards as well. It was a nice and chill way to spend the holiday.

coming out of the dark

 

It's been a rough time for me these past couple of weeks which is why I haven't been posting (also, the holidays are crazy-busy). It's been rough due to a number of things, primarily the weather, the dark days, and my busted ribs. 

My bike accident three weeks ago ended up hurting longer and more than I had anticipated and caused me to work shorter work days. I'm very lucky to be in a workplace where that's possible. Mostly, I would have to bail after 6-7 hrs and go home and medicate with pot. What's also been hard for me is not going to the gym. I was on such a good streak before this but any lifting was discouraged by Dr Google plus it hurt when I did minor lifting at home so I skipped the gym for three weeks. But I returned today!

Over the weekend, I felt better and at the last minute today, I decided to go in and see what I could do. I didn't bench and I couldn't do my inclined sit-ups but I managed to do all of my free-weights, albeit at a lower weight. Still, I feel good for going in and this way I'll be able to get in almost two weeks before I go back to Nebraska! My new thing was bussing (and then walking) to the gym.

What else?

Most of the days, my new thing was a new work contact but I'll touch on the highlights:

On Tuesday, 12/15, my office mate brought in her baby who is about 6 months old so I couldn't help but pick him up a few times (and parade him down the hallway).

On Wednesday, 12/16, I finally finished "A Tale for the Time Being." I really need to read more books and less comic books this next year.

On Friday 12/18, I DJ'ed the work party for Ashes. This is the first year in seven years that I haven't DJ'ed the client party for GW so it felt good to have one gig. It was nice and chill and I got to get better acquainted with people that I had only met briefly before. Plus there was a pug.

On Saturday, 12/19, I went to Tim and Sophia's and we played a bunch of games. I tried Exploding Kittens and we also played 'werewolf' which I had played years ago as 'mafia.' I was originally only planning on being there for a few hours but I stayed all day because I liked the new people that I met.

On Sunday, 12/20, I spent most of the afternoon working on Hayleigh's x-mas present. I can't go into more detail because I haven't given it to her yet.

On Monday, 12/21, I tried two new-to-me dark beers at NWIPA's dark beer fest, one of which had coffee in it. I don't think I slept that night except for maybe two hours.

On Thursday, 12/24, I walked all of the way home from work which was only possible because A) we got out early for Xmas Eve, B) it wasn't raining, and C) Andrew worked from home that day so he was with Ava. It took me just over an hour which isn't too bad. Also, for dinner, we went out for Bejing Hot Pot. Neither of us had done Hot Pot before so it was quite an experience.

On Christmas Day, I got up early-ish and made coffee in the house! Since we've been living together, we have never had the capability to make coffee in the house but Andrew bought a French press the day before so I made coffee (and pot chocolate chip cookies) first thing. He got me a bathrobe, underwear, and a new vape pipe. I got him a shirt, a sweater, and rain pants. It was nice just to have an easy Christmas morning. Afterwards, when we were both high on cookie dough, we walked around Tabor with Ava. We took her into the dog park quick and she did not attack another dog! It's a Christmas Miracle!

On Saturday, 12/26, we tried to go to the new Tarantino film The Hateful Eight but it was sold out. I had to buy tickets on-line for almost a week later (New Years Eve) instead. However, we did go to the upper part of Sam's Billiards to have a drink.

On Sunday, 12/27, it snowed! Plus I went to Tim and Sophia's where we played Power Grid. It was fun but I don't have a strong inkling to play it again.

the ornament

 

Every year at Christmas, there's a small box under the tree for each of us kids. They're our ornament gifts. My sister gets ornaments featuring cats, my brother gets angels, and I used to get drummer boys but then had to switch to snow men. For the last 14 years, I've been getting the Snow Buddies pictured above which had snow men and a cute animal together.

When I was home for the summer, my mom asked me about the ornaments and I said that I had them all but I don't put up a tree so they just sit in a box. I told her that I would get them out this year tho. I should have 39 ornaments but only counted around 36. I guess a few got lost over the years or they're still with my parents (my mom shipped the ornaments out a few years ago to me). Today, we bought our first holiday tree. It's the first time I've had a live tree since I've been an adult. It's a small 3-4 foot tree so I only used the snow buddies to decorate it and put the rest of the ornaments on a shelf. I also hung the stockings on a book case.

I haven't been too big on Christmas and definitely not decorating. It typically seems so wasteful to me but the tree's not plastic and we bought it at a school fundraising site on Hawthorne. Plus I had the decorations and it looks good. It glows and puts me in the mood for holiday cheer. Now I just need presents under it!

What else?

We saw the movie Brooklyn tonight at Cinemagic, walking most of the way there and all of the way back. It was a wonderful movie and great exercise! 

i coulda been an engineer

 

When I started my job almost two years ago, I went for a home visit with one of my supervisors and he had a phone holder attached to his windshield as pictured above. It's a simple fix and I'm sure it's been around for a while but I went over a year without having a car so I never had one. When I got my last car, I got one of these things and it's been great. However, if you stop or accelerate suddenly, the phone flies out of the holder.

While I was heading to a customer's house in Washington County a few weeks ago, I set my work phone to give me audio directions in addition to the visual map. I was listening to music over the radio through my personal cell but I had the work phone up loud enough to hear the directions. I hit the brake early on in the trip and my phone went flying out to the holder and in between my seat and the console. My seats in this car are big and the spaces are small so I couldn't get to the phone. However, I would still hear "In 200 feet, turn left" shouted out from under my seat.

A few days later, my personal phone flew out of it, hit my cup holder, and scratched the screen. At that point, I had had enough. I came up with the solution above a few months ago and just never acted on it. I even have had thumbtacks at work but keep forgetting to take them out to my car. Well, today for some reason, I thought of it and it worked! Occasionally, I come up with some simple and satisfying solutions, even if it does take me months to act upon them.

sweet 17

 

Overall, I'd say that Portland has great mass transit. However, the North-South lines tend to be few and far-between. Because of this, I haven't commuted to work via mass-transit only since I started nearly two years ago. Today though I was willing to give it a shot.

Andrew's home sick so that lets me off Ava duty. Since I'm still injured from my bike accident, I decided biking wouldn't be the best way to get in and I'm still leery about my car so I took the bus. There is no close route. If there was a good North-South route anywhere between 60th and 82nd that circumnavigated Tabor, I would be able to get to the MAX line where I could bus in from there but, since there's not, I was forced to go downtown.

The 17 stops a few blocks from my house and less than 1/2 mile from my work. I just have to take it thru SE, SW, NW, and into NE Portland to get there. It took about an hour which makes for a long ride but I was just glad to not have to drive. I'll probably do this more often. There are routes that are less than 10 minutes shorter but I would have to transfer and I'm not on a time-crunch so I think the 17 will be my ride.

What else?

Yesterday, my new thing was using Virtual DJ to extract the audio from a movie. I've got a secret project I'm working on!

this year's wreck

Today was the wettest day in recorded history for Portland. It seemed like a hard rain but it didn't seem that bad so I decided to bike in it.

On the way to work, I was driving and dropped Andrew off near the MAX stop so he could head into work that way. It works out well cuz it's technically on my way to work & the traffic would be ridiculous around his office. Anyway, my car made a couple of new noises which made me real nervous. This weekend, it didn't want to start while we were out running errands. We opened up the hood and determined it wasn't a glaringly obvious problem that could be fixed by two mechanically disinclined gay guys so we closed it. I tried starting it and it miraculously worked. I'm not a complete idiot tho so I know there are problems just waiting to surface. So, when I went home at noon to let Ava out, I switched car for bike.

At first, it was a great ride. There was a definite solidarity with the few other cyclists I saw and the warm rain felt great on my face. I was making good time and headed down the incline on Lincoln towards 50th. The light was still green but I saw it was going to turn soon so I sped up to make it but so did an SUV that I could see out of the corner of my eye. I think he made me nervous or my foot slipped off the pedal. I knew I lost control before I hit the ground. I yelled "Oh shit!" and bounced off the pavement with my ribs and thighs taking most of the blow. I wasn't wearing gloves so it was fortunate that I didn't slide & tear up my palms. My right leg got trapped between my frame & my handlebars tho so I took my bike with me.

Somehow, my left shoe flew off and I got up quickly and hobbled down the road to pick it up. There were a few cars around but nobody stopped. I sat down on the step on the side of Yoga Union and caught my breath. I put my shoe back on and did a quick visual inspection of my bike. The seat was crooked and the bell (pictured above) was busted but it otherwise escaped unscathed. I continued on slowly to work and put in a couple more hours. My supervisor offered to drive me home but I knew I could make it, even if I did have to go very very slow.

I think I may have fractured or bruised my ribs. I don't think they're broken. My right thigh also hurts as my keys were in my pocket when I landed flat on the pavement. I also managed to scrape the skin off the side of my big toe on my left shoeless foot. I've had worse falls and worse injuries but I'm really too old to keep banging myself up like this.

just too much

The pic above is of John Paul. He was one of my favorite guys at GW. Last summer, he was hit by the MAX train and was killed. I have many John-Paul-isms in my head and think of him quite frequently. Whenever someone says my name with a W instead of an R or whenever I hear the phrase, "baby boy", he's the first guy that come to mind. I was looking for a photo to illustrate my emotions right now and this one comes close because I'm feeling heartbreak.

Yesterday, I toured a facility, very much like the one that JP used to attend at GW but it was very nice and organized and I didn't have the baggage with it like I have at GW. I also found out that GW is no longer serving clients in their stores starting in January. This will have an impact on many people I know and care about and it makes me furious.

Then, today, there was another mass shooting. This one was at a facility like the one I toured and like the one that I used to work with JP at. Last I heard, 14 people were dead. It's awful when there are shootings anywhere but this was just so random. And it's killing me. I don't want to keep reading about these things. I don't want us as a society to see about these on our Facebook feeds, have a moment of silence, and then scroll past. I don't want prayers and I don't want people to move on. I want to not feel like this is a threat. I want to feel like this isn't commonplace. Fuck, I mean, our last major mass shooting in the US was just this last weekend at a Planned Parenthood. Goddamn it!

I'm just sickened and I don't know what else to say.