Holy crap, it's October.

Hello, Fall! Which means it's out with the old and in with the new.

• one photo walk a week - ehhh... my intentions were good... see below
  
• weekend at the coast - check!
  
• survive Hood to Coast - check!
  
• anything on The List -#31 should happen any day now... and if this doesn't I have another plan lined up... it's all work-related, but it counts!
  

I wasn't really feeling the photography goal over the past three months. I won't make too many excuses, but it was pretty darned hot for a while there (and I hate hate hate the hot, so I tend to stay immobile), and there's not much excitement in my 'hood these days (though I did go out of my way to get that one shot), and I think my weekend excursions sucked up all my photography creativity.

Otherwise, I'm quite pleased with my accomplishments over the last three months.

4Q2011 goals:

• write something, anything, every single day - yes, this goes against everything I believe in as far as these goals are concerned but I am quite serious about this, so even if it's work-related or an email to a friend or FTTDS or a mere 17 syllables, it will count
• reduce my energy bill by $3 every month - at $32/month it's not exactly breaking the bank, but there has to be more that I can do... like turning my modem/entertainment center/computer power strip off when I go to work and remembering to unplug all the kitchen appliances I use sporadically
• re-establish my gym routine - after Hood to Coast I completely slacked off, and while this has been good for my wardrobe (which hung off me pre-May but has started to fit really nicely now that I've gained several pounds), it has wreaked havoc on my sleeping habits and general mental health
  
• anything on The List!
  

And here... we... go! What are YOU going to do by the end of the year?

Also embarrassed for Ben Folds.

embarrassed to say
i watched the whole episode
hoda is a freak

Three point five hours shy of a Wednesday three.

Three films I saw over the weekend, in no particular order:

• Pearl Jam Twenty: probably only for die hard fans so it's good that I am one - Cameron Crowe did a really, really great job.
  
• My Own Private River: a compilation of extra shots from My Own Private Idaho that Gus Van Sant (in a possibly ill-advised state of mind) consented to James Franco making into a movie.
• My Own Private Idaho: to remind myself that the original was really brilliant and I miss River Phoenix.

I can't leave the last two at that though. The original was filmed in Portland twenty years ago, so the "remake" screening was a benefit for a local nonprofit theater, and I happily paid a hefty price to be able to sit 10 feet from James Franco and Gus Van Sant for 30 minutes while they explained Franco's interpretation of the film. The film itself... Well, I hadn't seen the original in years and I meant to watch it before the benefit but didn't get around to it, so I'm sure some of it was lost on me.

(Digression: As a result, after the viewing I tried to Netflix the original ($^%& new Netflix! NOTHING WORTH WATCHING IS STREAMING!) and then drove to the local rental place to snag the last VHS copy they had.

Yes, I still have a VHS player. In case you needed more proof that I am behind the times. End of digression.)

All in all, I thought Franco did a much better job capturing the intimacy between the two main characters and explaining the overall story... but I also thought it was about an hour too long. A combo of the two would have been amazing.

The original is still brilliant, although somewhat misguided in its attempt to incorporate Shakespearean dialogue. (Our street folk are good, but they're not that good.)

I was actually a bit surprised to learn it was filmed in downtown Portland. One of their frequent run-down haunts is a frequent more-upscale happy hour haunt for us twenty years later.

Kinda neat.

Kinda weird.

Little me will start a joke.

Normally I would think this is weird-bordering-on-annoying, but this particular evening* I find it charming that Ritchie is wearing his own band's t-shirt in this clip.

And the clip makes me wish I was their neighbor so that I could see stuff like this all the time.

And I want one of those t-shirts.

________________
* I did spend a few hours cleaning mold out of my windowsills today, after spending the last few days hacking up a lung or two and getting dizzy when I stood up too fast. So take this opinion with a grain of salt.

Not even remotely Wednesday three.

Three movies I saw in the last week, for $3 at our local pizza pint picture house, and my favorite new way to review them, in no particular order:

• Super 8: JJ Abrams has officially redeemed himself for Lost: Season 6 (and maybe 5), and it fills me with joy to know that today's youth have the equivalent of ET and The Goonies.
  
• TrollHunter: Adding Norway to the list of places to visit in the near future, and Norwegian Ninja to the list of movies to see immediately.
  
• The Tree of Life: I have probably seen about 500 movies in the theater and never once fallen asleep... until yesterday.
  

I think it's called "middle."

i have reached that age
where hiking downhill hurts more
than hiking uphill

Serene Lake Loop ~ Mt Hood National Forest

I laughed out loud when she said it tonight at the end of yoga class.

the best magnet I've seen all year

Belated Friday five.

But this one is OK because it wouldn't have made sense to do last Friday, and if I wait until this Friday I will have forgotten everything. So. Five good decisions I made during this year's MusicfestNW, in no particular order:

• Stayed on the east side, mostly. I wandered over to Backspace for a decent rock show Saturday night and headed downtown briefly Sunday for one set, but otherwise I parked in about the same southeast spot every night and wandered. In that area there are at least six venues I frequent within a 10 minute walk (and another dozen featuring music I don't usually listen to). I love Portland.
  
• Ditched numerous sad bastard indie pop shows Saturday night for mix-mastry and related dance fun instead. (I know, right, who am I and what have I done with me?) Local faves Boy Eats Drum Machine and Jeffrey Jerusalem were really fun, and Y4CHT was amusing for the extra 20 minutes I could bear to stand in that unventilated warehouse when it was 90 degrees outside. I need to do that more often... in the winter.
• Ditched the Pioneer Square show after a good set by Morning Teleportation and saw Hey Marseilles instead. (You may remember them from such festivals as MFNW 2009.) I was supposed to see Cass McCombs and Band of Horses that night, but after such good loud fun the nights before, and a particularly dull start to Cass McCombs' set*, and learning that HM was doing a free set in southeast, I wasn't in the mood. The crowd at the Square seemed like they were only there because they got a ticket with their MFNW wristband, but the large group of people in front of HM was there to see them, and it showed, and it was great fun.
  
• Gave live Helio Sequence another try. You may recall from the above MFNW 2009 link that I was underwhelmed last time I saw them, but I do love them and the Doug Fir was the perfect venue Saturday night. The bar brawl during the set was amusing - a confused hipster flew past me followed by a drunken angry frat boy, the chaos lasted about 60 seconds while beer flew and audience members tried to figure out what the hell was going on, and then it was back to this. Their drummer gives Animal a run for his money.
  
• Met up with some random people through a Meetup group for some of the shows. Didn't hit it off with all of them but a few were pretty awesome and I hope to see them again soon.

Thus ends another fine festival. Good job, Portland.

________________
* He's a Baltimore guy and I really, really want to like him. Just isn't happening...

Oh, and also? Thursday is the new Friday.

Five things that did not suck today:

• Thursday is the new Friday.
• Thursday is the new Friday.
• Thursday is the new Friday.
• Thursday is the new Friday.
• Thursday is the new Friday.

Once again I packed a full 48 hours in advance. I was antsy and distracted all day. I fear this using-long-weekends-to-make-up-for-a-9-to-5 could become a habit. If only I had more vacation days...

Wednesday three.

Three things that did not suck today, in no particular order:

• being extremely hungry around 10am, lamenting the fact that people only seem to bring in food when I've eaten a proper breakfast, then happening upon a non-advertised batch of yummy fig/blueberry muffins by the printer
  
• a random high five from a coworker as I passed him in the hallway
• using the secret phrase* with another coworker to get off of a post-5pm, long-winded, non-work-related phone call

Bonus TTDS to round this out to an even five:

• shoe shopping at lunch (but OMG, can someone please explain these to me?)
  
• the last of the leftover pepperoni pizza from Sparky's

________________
* I'd tell ya, but then I'd have to kill ya.

Oh, and also? No &%^$ glittery vamps.

Subtle, understated, engaging, enthralling, mostly unknown actors (except that Richard Jenkins... must watch everything else he has ever touched immediately)... which is all to say that I liked Let Me In a lot.

Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the positive.

I'm in need of perspective these days, so I'm hereby reinstating the daily FTTDS. Five things that didn't suck yesterday, in no particular order:

• running across this after a coworker sent an email saying "for all intensive purposes..."
• finally finishing draft posts I started weeks ago
• finally getting my Hollywood Fringe Festival t-shirt (a gift for donating -the shirt is awesome)
• Family of the Year (they never suck but I particularly appreciated them yesterday)
  
• leftover pepperoni pizza from Sparky's
  

Five things that didn't suck today, in no particular order:

• waking up late and still catching the early bus
• coworkers with warped senses of humor
• 67 degrees and cloudy
• leftover pepperoni pizza from Sparky's
• two more days and then four-day weekend

This hasn't happened yet but in about an hour, I'm pretty sure that hearing Colin Meloy & Carson Ellis discuss their new book is really not going to suck either...

Living in Portland? Definitely does not suck.

Survive Hood to Coast: check.

In case you don't know, Hood to Coast is the world's largest relay race. Twelve hundred teams run from Mt. Hood to Seaside, a total of 197 miles. Entry is a competitive sport in and of itself and I was lucky enough to have a friend who made this year's cut. I'd originally only offered to volunteer, but since I was training for the July 4th half marathon and it was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity, I mentioned that I'd be an alternate if needed. Lucky for me, I was needed.*

Even luckier for me, I got the easiest legs of the race. And the shortest. And some of the prettiest, too. I got to run down the road that leads to Timberline Lodge (of The Shining fame) with views of Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams in the distance and lovely wildflowers lining the road. I got to run along the Willamette River in scenic downtown Portland. And I got to run through Mist, OR as the sun was rising and the mist was clearing. Despite running and then sitting for eight hours until my next run, and despite getting a total of about four hours of sleep over a 40-hour period, and despite my lack of training post-half marathon run, I kept my predicted pace and was able to drive us all back to Portland afterward. And I was able to walk (fairly) pain-free the next day.

However. The last third of the race was a total shit show. Somehow they messed up logistics on traffic, and we found ourselves dropping off runners at one spot, heading to the next drop-off point 5-6 miles up the road, and watching our runner blow past our van as we sat in miles and miles of traffic. My last leg was supposed to be in the dark through Mist, but because of the delays I didn't end up running in the dark (which I was a little disappointed about - I mean, when else am I going to run on a back country road at 4:30am?). On our van's last leg we ended up handing our runner "the clipboard" (the one set of papers we used to track time that would need to be turned in at the end of the race) as he passed us, and he ran for a mile holding the clipboard so that the runner in the other van wouldn't have to wait an hour for us to arrive. We also had to wait for about an hour and a half at the end for the rest of the other van to arrive so that we could all cross the finish line together.

But we all finished (fairly) injury free, I spent 40 hours in a van with four total strangers and a distant coworker and we all got along (fairly) well, and I can say I participated in the world's largest relay race.

I never need to do it AGAIN, but I participated. And survived. Check.

not our shirts

________________
* Lest you think I'm callous for being happy about someone being injured and having to drop out, the guy I replaced ended up recovering just fine and replacing someone else who got injured. Win win! Er... win win lose.

Blowing your mind all over your face.

I recently remembered this web comic and have been enjoying it immensely. But the following blurb under this day's strip caused me to do a double, and then triple, take:

In summary, a fictional character I made got turned into a computer program, and now another computer program exists solely to psychoanalyze it.

He thinks this is awesome. I, on the other hand, am selling all of my shit and moving to a cabin in the woods IMMEDIATELY. But first I have a sudden urge to watch season 4 of Buffy...

Friday five.

Five movies that actually did justice to their book predecessors, where I've actually read the book and seen the movie in a short enough time span to make such a judgment*, in no particular order:

• Fight Club
• The Princess Bride
• The Virgin Suicides
• The Godfather
  
• Bridget Jones' Diary (hey, I didn't say the book and/or movie had to be high quality)
  

Movies based on short stories don't count but if they did, The Body/Stand By Me and Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption/Shawshank Redemption would definitely be on the list.

Inspired by this news. I'm not sure how I feel about a movie version of one of my favorite books ever. The movie version of one of my other favorite books actually made me angry (and I do mean angry), and I didn't even see it.

But The River Why is playing at the theater in my 'hood so I'm sure I will go... even if it's just for the free air conditioning.

________________
* meaning the LOTR trilogy and the Narnia series don't count, although I suspect the LOTR trilogy might trump Bridget Jones' Diary on the list above when I read it again

Weekend at the coast - check.

The kayak trip was canceled (OMG I KNOW RIGHT, AGAIN?! or maybe that was just MY reaction) but since I'd booked a room and got the email message 12 hours before the trip and couldn't cancel the motel without financial penalty, I decided to make the most of the weekend at the coast.

Saturday morning I loaded up on carbs and caffeine at Kettleman's and headed out early to try to find some waterfalls around Wilson River.

it's a trap!

For the record, this is apparently the Bermuda Triangle of hiking trails. After wandering unsuccessfully for about three miles, I got really frustrated and headed back toward the parking lot. On my way I came upon someone squatting on the trail. (And by "on the trail" I mean ON THE TRAIL. Really? You're surrounded by trees and THIS is where you choose to squat?) That made me dislike this hike and area even more. So I headed to Kings Mountain.

Kings Mountain, if you don't know, is a training hike for the summit to Mt. Hood. I did not know this when embarking on the hike. I just knew it was "difficult" and there was a 2700 foot elevation gain in just 2.5 miles... which, in hindsight, probably really should've been a big clue. It ended up being one of the most challenging day hikes I've done in Oregon - possibly harder than South Sister (but definitely not harder than Misery Ridge).

It's been four days and my legs are still a little sore. That's how hard the hike was. It was worth it, though... the views were stunning despite the slightly overcast skies.

imagine the views on a clear day!

After the hike I checked into the cheap motel, settled in and cleaned up. Research showed that Munson Falls was nearby and only a .25 mile hike, which sounded right up my alley.

worth the short drive and even shorter walk

Next, I drove the Three Capes loop near Tillamook and made a few stops.

the aptly named Octopus Tree

After a well-earned fish 'n chips dinner and beer at a local dive, I headed back to the motel but got sidetracked by the moon.

I've got your full moon kayak trip right heah

Free cable entailed a Hoarders marathon on TLC, which I absolutely do not recommend under any circumstances. But eventually I found a Scrubs marathon and got to bed in more pleasant spirits, and Sunday morning I got to the Oregon Coast Aquarium right as it opened in an attempt to avoid the kiddies. I spent two hours enjoying the bizarre crabs, sea horses, fish and oh-so-AHDORAHBLE sea otters. The aquarium was surprisingly well done and I'd recommend it to anyone heading out to the Newport area.

{heart}

And then north toward home... but not quite ready to head home. Between the World's Smallest Harbor and the World's Shortest River, I found Drift Creek Falls. A short hike leads you to a really great visitor center and a really long suspension bridge, which ends at a really great waterfall.

"world's smallest" entry #1


Drift Creek Falls suspension bridge and falls

"world's smallest" entry #2

And finally, on the way to a 5-mile hike I happened upon Roads End beach and decided that was a much better use of my time than more leg torture.

Note to self: do not end the weekend lounging on the beach. It will wreak havoc on your mental perspective and make you especially cranky at work the following week.

I'm so lame, I bet I think this post is about me.

I don't remember the last time I heard a song for the first time and it not only blew me away, it also accurately summed up my mood at that very moment in time. (There's a fairly good chance that the last time this happened it was 2008 and it was Built to Spill's Strange - yeah, I was a little late to the BtS party. There's another pretty good chance that it was 2009 and it was Dr. Horrible's My Eyes - his part, not hers.)

Today it was Andrew Bird's Lull.

I first heard Bird when he opened for the Decemberists in 2009. I liked him and was quite impressed with his array of musical instruments as well as his whistling skills. But then I kind of forgot about him, until recently when he came up on Pandora and I queued a bunch of albums at the library and loaded them onto my iPod. But then I kind of forgot about him again, until today when I had the iPod set to "shuffle."

And I had to listen to this song again, and then again.

The link has the song and the lyrics if you want one or the other...

Really late Wednesday three.

Three things that did not suck today, in no particular order:

• Muppets: the Green Album on NPR's First Listen... I love about half the songs and this sentence makes up for the other half: "The kids who grew up with them are now adults and want to give back. We live in cynical times, but listening to The Green Album is a nice reminder of the joy and beauty that remains."
• deciding that actually? my living room arrangement is just fine the way it is, thank you very much, and scrapping plans to move furniture tonight
• still hurting from the Kings Mountain hike two days ago
  

All that said, I do not recommend Sunday early evening beach lounging. It was so hard to leave last night, and I was cranky the whole way home, and I realllllllllly did not want to get up this morning. I've got to do something about this.

The suspension bridge is actually pretty darned cool.

not worth five dollars
but with an annual pass
check it out for sure

Drift Creek Falls near Lincoln City

The owner wanted to know if I wanted a refund *and* a gift certificate.

kayak trip canceled
for the third time in a row
just the refund please