action figures sold separately

in an effort to get more exercise and further reduce our footprint, both A and i recently converted our commuters to the sturdy, fun, and unbelievably useful xtracycle.

and yesterday, as i was getting ready to leave my office i pulled up the handy byCycle.org page for portland. if you’ve not tried it out yet, i recommend giving it a whirl. with the caveat, though, that you may not always get the best or safest, or even possible route:

for anyone who doesn’t know the area, one can not actually get across the highway/approach to the ross island bridge like it’s shown. there is a pedestrian bridge there on 9th, but there’s not really (yet?) a way for byCycle.org to reflect that.

in any case, as the traffic on my family’s email list has emphasized, it’s a giddy, joy-filled time for so many of us. a bitter reminder of bigotry and homophobia in many states, as well. in any case, yes we could, yes we did, and like the man kinda said, the road ahead is very steep and treacherous. it’s like Ramona Africa said at Kent State in 2000 (and other times…) –

This hypocrisy has to stop but it will only stop when we stop it. These people running this system are out of control and it is up to us to bring things back into control. back into focus. It is the only way it’s going to happen. And what these people are banking on is that all we will do is come out. They don’t care if you have a demonstration with ten million people for one day or two days. They don’t care about that. We have to set an example every day, every day, anytime this system comes at us by shooting an innocent person down, putting an innocent person in jail, anytime we see injustice, terrorism, treachery, we must rise up against it, We must!. We have to send a strong, clear message, clear message to those running the system, that their reign of terror is over, that the people are awake. We’re on our feet, we have stretched and yawned the sleep out and we are ready to deal with them.

venceremos!

“it’d be illegal,” i used to say. And yet, of course, to say that the results of this election are extremely important is the mother of all understatements. Here’s some good trackers and mashups to keep track of the vote. I’m not a twitter user, so i left that one out, but the others are not only constantly updated info, but very cool to watch.

1. From CBS News / CNET:

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2. Our Vote Live tracks voting problems that people are reporting as they happen, by calling a toll-free number. Approaching 100K reports total thus far (including pre-election day issues). You can mouse over a state on the map to see live numbers. Very instructive: California = 1,785 reports; Oregon = 6 reports. Yeah, we’ve got voting down people.

3. Pollster.com shows a live-updated map of the US and who’s winning where in the polls.

4. The Associated Press has a page devoted to their election coverage, this will have videos apparently.

5. CNN.com also has a nice little national map.

6. The NYT has an excellent “What to Watch for Tonight” slideshow, with state-by-state analysis.

7. And here’s the results from the Live Results google map:

yow!

Instant Grant Program from Steve Lambert on Vimeo.

Sol on 9/21 as we were getting ready for a camping trip: “I’m going to get married. With blue underwear. And nipples. And I’m going to cover up my belly button a little bit.”

also: “mama bird is going down to the river to get this baby bird a cinnimon fish. I’m in my cozy nest.”

how can i believe anything from this otherwise somewhat interesting site, when they not only state an incorrect mpg for my vehicle, they don’t allow for alt fuel types, or the fact that one’s fuel may have an even smaller footprint/impact due to being totally from recycled veggie oil. whatever. it’s just an ad gimmick.

check out the video (it’s 10 mins but very much worth it i think) — or if you want the super quick and dirty info there’s an article at sanfranmag.com — and of course, their web site.

on the page for the first campaign, Brent addresses some FAQs, including the offensive content:

“So yes, that part of the video was made from some offensive raw materials, but I think context is everything. The context here is celebration that we can “throw up more cash, and change the forecast,” whether you take that to mean an “economic forecast” or the climate itself. In this context, any offensive messages from the original video should be long gone.”

not that this is the ULTIMATE organizing strategy, but it’s a good (and fun) start.

Both the NYT and the Austin Statesman have pieces on the a recent stay of execution in a case, where, as it happened, the DA prosecuting the case and the judge had been (for several years before trial) sleeping together. Brings a whole new sick angle to the pun of “just-us”, not justice.

oakland mofo blogs about the similarity between the cranes and the AT-ATs (All-terrain armored transport of course) in star wars. links to an article where a journalist interviewed lucas and lucas says nu-unh, no connection. dude. of course he’s going to say that. but just look at them! nice pix, too.

heard about the new green micro gym in pdx. dude, duh! all gyms should generate electricity, has it not been cost effective? well, cool say i.

phillips that is… stumbled upon this great series of paintings called americans who tell the truth and i really like this one of utah with the accompanying quote: “Kids don’t have a little brother working in the coal mine, they don’t have a little sister coughing her lungs out in the looms of the big mill towns of the Northeast. Why? Because we organized; we broke the back of the sweatshops in this country; we have child labor laws. Those were not benevolent gifts from enlightened management. They were fought for, they were bled for, they were died for by working people, by people like us. Kids ought to know that. That’s why I sing these songs. That’s why I tell these stories, dammit. No root, no fruit!”

Over at Wooster they have some good pix like this one of new work by Banksy on the streets of New Oleans. Recently got Wall & Piece from the library. Highly recommended. For sure going on my wishlist.

but I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised that clone wars was an inevitable step down on a phenom ever-spiraling to dumbsville. but i cant help but feel like my 10 year old self whose life was transformed in 1977 just got a(nother) suckerpunch.

gosh can’t believe there wasn’t a hit

if (i hope not when) it goes…

terrific idea. seems really odd to me however to devote an entire domain (four actually) to a single string of unchanging text. a hard to recite or recall domain (that doesn’t have any spanish in it anyway) at that.

i always counsel people i work with to plan this way. except the prayer part. but i should. cuz prayer changes things, right?

In my days as a project manager (and in another life as a freelance designer), I got into a habit that has served me well to this day: get the best estimate of both job requirements and time-to-completion that you can find. Then add 20%. Then, when nobody is looking, add another 20%. Then pray.

my old hosting provider, whose name i won’t even use it hurts me so, was causing me so much grief: frequent email outages, frequent web blackouts, and support that was at times laughably incompetent, at other times frustratingly bizarre. two examples for your entertainment / education:

here’s the ACTUAL text one finds on the page one goes to to escalate a trouble ticket. i can’t make this stuff up…

=================
Dear Customers:

There can be different situations in a working process of a support system. Some issues are resolved rather quickly and some may need additional time which cannot be very pleasant.

Our company has multiple levels of support, you even can call them tech staff and supervisors.

From time to time you as a customer may feel like you are not receiving the appropriate support assistance and as a result of this you may be on the verge of getting upset and certainly frustrated. Such matter especially happens when you need your problem to be resolved in a short time frame and it seems to be legging behind.

In order to resolve such situations we want you as a customer to be able to inform our supervisors about the problem you are facing and now you can do it.

After long time of poor support assistance and when you are getting frustrated/upset, you can click the Complaint button on the menu and the ticket will be reassigned to one of our supervisors. It means that from this point a supervisor will work on your ticket and will make to you the explanation about the status of a problem and will punish the tech staff which won’t help you.

Our supervisors will give the answer to your complaint as soon as possible, but bear in mind that they don’t deal with technical issues, but mostly resolve the reason of ignoring your request by our tech staff.

We sincerely hope this will increase your support experience here at Hostony and will help you to feel like you can better communicate with us when you are starting to feel the need to make your issue a prior one.

=================

and here’s the transcript of a recent support chat i had when my email went down again…

SUPPORT: How may I assist You?
eli rosenblatt: at least the third time this week, mail and web are both down. please fix asap.
SUPPORT: Could you please open a troble ticket on this issue, our representative will assist you soon via ticket
eli rosenblatt: ticket = da07eb628895
eli rosenblatt: call id = 128423
eli rosenblatt: what’s going on?:
SUPPORT: FD-******
eli rosenblatt: FD-******? what does that mean?
SUPPORT: i Need call id of the ticket FD-******
eli rosenblatt: i just gave you the call id. it has no FD in front of it.
eli rosenblatt: [url pasted]
eli rosenblatt: that’s the ticket i opened
SUPPORT: please check it again - FD-128***
eli rosenblatt: look at it! that page has no FD on it at all!
eli rosenblatt: it says Call ID and in the next field the number i gave you before
SUPPORT: maybe request ID
eli rosenblatt: the “Request Key”, which i gave you already, also has no “FD” — it is da07eb628895
eli rosenblatt: but none of that actually helps get my web and mail back up, it’s just a way of confirming that i’ve put in a ticket on this issue.
SUPPORT: ok , I see your ticket 128423
SUPPORT: we will answer you in the ticket soon
eli rosenblatt: fine, but please tell me, EXACTLY WHY is this happening?
SUPPORT: ok
SUPPORT: we will answer you ASAP
eli rosenblatt: and can you confirm that i will be getting credit?
SUPPORT: have a nice day

=================
now i know that supportdesk people work hard and get a lot of flack, but come on. common courtesy, and some common sense would be good.

rant over. thank the makers for A2 Hosting. the best!

NSA_3

Originally uploaded by Billboard Liberation Front.

oh. the blf is one of the things i miss so about the bay area.

bridgetown, puddletown, stumptown, thorn city.

Whichever name you like to give it, this place is pretty amazing. There’s so many incredible things going on here, and so many of them we didn’t know about when we first moved here. Recently, we’ve had a couple times when pals from far away moved to Portland, and I wanted to give them an orientation to some of the stuff I couldn’t have learned about just from looking around, or from the official visitors guides. So here’s what I put together for them:

• The Portland Bike There! Map from Metro.
• The Trip Tools, Ticket Sales Outlets, Explore Portland, and Riders Guide brochures from Tri-met
• “Your Guide to Multnomah County Library“
• The Museum Attractions and Membership brochures from OMSI.
• Zipcar brochure.
• My seven favorite mapclicks neighborhood maps.
• The You Can Own and Supporting Business Guide brochures from Peoples Food Coop.
• The SE Portland Walking Map from the Office of Transportation’s Getting Around Portland section.
• The current season’s brochure from Portland Center Stage.
• The (no longer available?) 7-page Fix-It Fair Resource Guide from the Office of Sustainable Development.
• An Advantis Credit Union Membership Kit.
• The Office of Transportation’s Portland By Bicycle map and Neighborhood Bikeway maps for Northeast and Southeast.
• The Map & Guide to Powell’s City of Books
• Brochures for the Portland Classical Chinese Garden and the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden, along with a 4-garden promotional that also includes the Japanese, Oregon, and International Rose Test gardens.
• The ReDirect Guide
• A copy of the Portland Gay & Lesbian Community Yellow Pages.
• …and finally a page of links to all kinds of cool, interesting things on my del.icio.us “Welcome to PDX” page.

what would be in your “welcome to portland” packet?

one no longer needs to know html to make a web form that anyone can fill in with data that you want to collect. details of how you can use this cool new feature of google documents are on their blog.