Monday, August 30, 2004
Saturday, August 28, 2004
Freaking IE and blogger. I had a post all loaded and ready to go. For some reason IE interpreted a [backspace] off the text box and navigated me away from the "create post" page without saving any of it.
Anyway..... I was saying how I am keeping a list of topics and words that have come up in conversation, media, whatever I'm exposed to. Topics that you wouldn't expect to come up frequently.
For instance, I had two independent sources inform me on the same day about a story Paul Lindman(local news guy) did on a beached whale that was detonated on an Oregon beach many years ago. Just this weekend I was in a bookstore, wondering to myself who came up with the phrase, "Author, Author!" Not 4 hours later I saw an ad on a satellite TV channel for the movie of the same name.
One that really caught my attention was a thought I had about single front seat cars, as opposed to left-hand drive position as we have here in the States. A week later, the next Car and Driver I picked up had a nifty little article in it about center-drive cars. (My personal favorite is the Maclaren F1.)
It only goes on the list if I cannot see a correlation between the two occurences of the words or phrase. The classic example of this is wondering about someone from your past, just before getting a call or email from that person.
Anyone else notice anything similar? Don't use anything from the news- those losers don't even write their own copy anymore. They'll just read it off the Rumsfel---I mean Reuters feed, without adding even a punctuation mark.
Anyway..... I was saying how I am keeping a list of topics and words that have come up in conversation, media, whatever I'm exposed to. Topics that you wouldn't expect to come up frequently.
For instance, I had two independent sources inform me on the same day about a story Paul Lindman(local news guy) did on a beached whale that was detonated on an Oregon beach many years ago. Just this weekend I was in a bookstore, wondering to myself who came up with the phrase, "Author, Author!" Not 4 hours later I saw an ad on a satellite TV channel for the movie of the same name.
One that really caught my attention was a thought I had about single front seat cars, as opposed to left-hand drive position as we have here in the States. A week later, the next Car and Driver I picked up had a nifty little article in it about center-drive cars. (My personal favorite is the Maclaren F1.)
It only goes on the list if I cannot see a correlation between the two occurences of the words or phrase. The classic example of this is wondering about someone from your past, just before getting a call or email from that person.
Anyone else notice anything similar? Don't use anything from the news- those losers don't even write their own copy anymore. They'll just read it off the Rumsfel---I mean Reuters feed, without adding even a punctuation mark.
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Sunday, August 22, 2004
We had our first ridiculously rainy Oregon experience in quite a while last night.
Shawn Colvin opened for the Cowboy Junkies last night at the zoo, an outside venue with no shelter. A little before Shawn took the stage, it started to sprinkle. Then it rained. Then the wind picked up and it rained horizontally. We were out there in shorts and t-shirts, having poo-poohed my mailman's assertion that it would rain "later tonight." Apparently nearly everyone took the same weather report to heart, because instantly, there was a sea of umbrellas in front of us and water dripping down the in side of my shirt. After about a song's worth of feeling like a drowned rat, and watching several pissy interchanges between grumpy concert-goers, I had a flash of brilliance. I would drive home and get fresh, waterproof clothes!
I don't need to tell you that, after missing 30min of the concert and most of Shawn, it had stopped raining. But having dry clothes and a little bit of gore-tex really made it possible to enjoy the rest of the show. It still didn't entice me to go stand in line to talk to Margo afterwards, with 30lbs of sopping clothing and picnic supplies to hold.
The Junkies are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, and it shows. Hearing them live is little differrent from hearing a studio cut (in a good way), except when Margo forgets the words, which she did twice. I still love to see them. The last time I saw them live was probably 8 years ago at the Electric Factory in Philly. T was in Portland still, and I had Margo sign my ticket to her. A week after, T did the same for me. So sweet, isn't it?
I was just amazed at the number of people who did stay despite the truly nasty rain conditions, even by Oregon standards. An added bonus was that the two 50+ couples sitting next to us did not get into a physical fight over whose feet belonged where. That would've been ugly.
Shawn Colvin opened for the Cowboy Junkies last night at the zoo, an outside venue with no shelter. A little before Shawn took the stage, it started to sprinkle. Then it rained. Then the wind picked up and it rained horizontally. We were out there in shorts and t-shirts, having poo-poohed my mailman's assertion that it would rain "later tonight." Apparently nearly everyone took the same weather report to heart, because instantly, there was a sea of umbrellas in front of us and water dripping down the in side of my shirt. After about a song's worth of feeling like a drowned rat, and watching several pissy interchanges between grumpy concert-goers, I had a flash of brilliance. I would drive home and get fresh, waterproof clothes!
I don't need to tell you that, after missing 30min of the concert and most of Shawn, it had stopped raining. But having dry clothes and a little bit of gore-tex really made it possible to enjoy the rest of the show. It still didn't entice me to go stand in line to talk to Margo afterwards, with 30lbs of sopping clothing and picnic supplies to hold.
The Junkies are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, and it shows. Hearing them live is little differrent from hearing a studio cut (in a good way), except when Margo forgets the words, which she did twice. I still love to see them. The last time I saw them live was probably 8 years ago at the Electric Factory in Philly. T was in Portland still, and I had Margo sign my ticket to her. A week after, T did the same for me. So sweet, isn't it?
I was just amazed at the number of people who did stay despite the truly nasty rain conditions, even by Oregon standards. An added bonus was that the two 50+ couples sitting next to us did not get into a physical fight over whose feet belonged where. That would've been ugly.
Friday, August 20, 2004
A Prost:
To the barista at Starbuck's Best downtown.
Let's preface by saying that I'm just a little bit of a smartass. So when I wasn't quite sure what form I wanted my caffiene to take yesterday, I stalled for time by ordering something from the holiday season, no longer on the menu. The cashier gave me the blank stare I was going for, but the perky little barista chirped up that she remembered how to make the special flavor from the syrups they had available. She came through with the cup of holiday cheer I was looking for.
Maybe if Starbucks buys every single coffee store in the nation, we'll all get the same service?
To the barista at Starbuck's Best downtown.
Let's preface by saying that I'm just a little bit of a smartass. So when I wasn't quite sure what form I wanted my caffiene to take yesterday, I stalled for time by ordering something from the holiday season, no longer on the menu. The cashier gave me the blank stare I was going for, but the perky little barista chirped up that she remembered how to make the special flavor from the syrups they had available. She came through with the cup of holiday cheer I was looking for.
Maybe if Starbucks buys every single coffee store in the nation, we'll all get the same service?
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