Category: General

Late lunch at the Limelight, a bonus because I was finally free of my jury duty.

S., the waitress I had bantered with for what felt like forever, walked up, pad and paper in hand, sat down opposite me in the booth and took my order (Sante Fe Chicken sandwich, so spicy and delicious, and a salad).

She seemed sad or distant, and before standing up and taking my order back to the kitchen, she blurted out, “Today’s my last day…” and trailed off.

“Oh! Wow, you’ll be missed,” I said. “Moving on? Another job?”

“Yeah, another job, movin’ on.”

“Good reason? Bad?” I felt like I wasn’t picking up on her mood.

“No, it’s a good reason. I’m going to work for a friend who has his own restaurant. He’s been having trouble filling his day shifts so I’m going to help him out.”

“Oh, that’s good,” I said.

“Yeah! And it’ll be more money, and stuff…”

“And you’ll be working with a friend.”

“Right! It’s just… I was OK with it, and now I’m starting to feel a little sad. I’m going to miss my friends and customers!”

I smiled. “That’s cool. You will be missed. Hey! Do you have email?”

“Actually, I do!” She sounded surprised at herself. Or maybe surprised at me for asking. She tore a sheet off her pad and started writing her email address down. “I didn’t for a long time, I didn’t even have a computer, but a while ago someone asked me about it and I tried to sign in, and I realized I had forgotten what it was! I had to make a new one.”

“Oh. Funny.” She knew me as being the kind of guy glued to my iPhone when I was in alone. I poked my finger at the table to punctuate my point: “But… you do have indoor plumbing, don’t you?”

Still hunched over her piece of paper, she laughed. “I do have indoor plumbing, yes.” She laughed again, then handed me her email address.

Thank goodness Sho Dozono lost the mayor’s race.

After the ridiculously clueless way he ran his campaign, from start to finish, with so many stops of ridiculousness along the way I’m unable to link them all, I just couldn’t have handled it if Portlanders thought he was the best candidate.

Buh-bye, Sho.

Might be quiet around here for a couple of days.

After a subpoena, and a fierce round of voir dire, I’ve been empaneled. Gonna last at least until Thursday.

And now you know some legalese.

My favorite non-political blogger John Scalzi took the time to notice Sen. Obama’s rock-star-like rally here in Stumptown:

75,000 people at a single Obama rally in Oregon. Yes, they may be all pot-smoking hippies up there in Oregon, but honestly, even if they are, when was the last time 75,000 pot-smoking hippies managed to get it together enough to be in the same place at the same time? I’ll give you Bonnaroo, but after that it gets dodgy. Certainly anything without a scraggly-haired rock guitarist hasn’t rated this for a decade or two.

I wasn’t the first commenter over there to mention that local band gone big The Decemberists did open for Sen. Obama, but I believe I was the first to mention that Colin Meloy, their front man, has indie rock hair, which is very nearly scraggly.

Nice of Scalzi to notice! (That’s not snark.)

As of my typing this, CNN Politics’ top story shows a picture of Sen. Obama in front of the gianormous crowd in Portland, but buries the number of attendees in the sixth paragraph. Fascinating. Boo to CNN.

I’m standing in line at a local taco place. I see the punk rock girl behind the counter, ready to take my order.

Punk Rock Girl: Mr. Mooooooooooooooooon!

Me: Heh. How are you?

PRG: I’m good, Mr. Moooooooooon!

Me: [embarassed] You know, I’ve forgotten your name…

PRG: It’s Suzy.

Me: Hi, Suzy! By the way, my first name is Brian.

PRG: OK, Brian. But “Mr. Mooooooooooooooooooooon!” is so much more fun to say!

Via Ihnatko, this video showing a practical use for giant multi-touch displays:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwZ2Oe6hOxo&hl=en]

I’m sold.

This is the first election ever where I made liberal use of googling for candidates and issues.

I knew where I stood on the major candidates, but this time, instead of ignoring (or, worse, guessing) about the smaller races and issues, I did some internet research and read up on all of the options on my ballot for which I did not already have strong opinions.

Made it mighty satisfying to be done. I like participating.

At a typical US energy cost of ~$0.10/kiloWatt hour, an average cubic light-year of space generates $460,000,000 worth of power, according to a post by Phil Plait, Bad Astronomer.

I read Athena’s post while on the bus home and empathized with her immensely. I know how that feels.

And then a beautiful woman sat down next to me.

I realized that the universe was telling me something, so I put away my iPhone and struck up a conversation.

Her name is Sam, and, yes, it’s short for Samantha.

Thanks, Athena, and Universe. I listened this time.

Here’s why protests matter. Mayor Potter is obviously rattled by all the attention being focused on him for his continuing mishandling of this situation, and is making even more mistakes in response.

Shame on Mayor Potter for stonewalling and not stepping up and serving the needs of ALL of the community. Mayor Potter used to have a blog, but but it hasn’t been updated in a while. But I did find his contact page. Be sure and drop him a note to let him know what you think.

Leonard, too, apparently, since he stood by Potter in today’s blatant disregard of the City Charter. That’s too bad; Commissioner Leonard seems like a nice enough guy. Give him some feedback, too.

Anyone hear from Sho Dozono on this topic in the last week?

And I’d like to re-iterate the thanks to Amy and Matt and the Merc for the continuing coverage.

I’m biting my tongue and clicking “Publish” before I go off on a rant about the lack of response from the Christian community…