Away From Portland

nevver: Share Some Candy

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 20:44:12 -0400

nevver:

Share Some Candy

In flight meal

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:56:13 -0400

In flight meal

beeriety: Beer Belongs We’re not so sure if the animals and...

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 23:57:52 -0400

beeriety:

Beer Belongs

We’re not so sure if the animals and children should be enjoying beer (and it looks like that guy is pouring his on the floor) but we like this ad’s style.

(via: buzzfeed)

This is awesome

Beacon Hill

Sun, 02 May 2010 17:30:56 -0400

I’ve finally made the move downtown! It only took 7 or so weeks…

Here’s the bottom of my hill. It’s a bit of a walk, but probably good for me.

My new front door!

Street View

Me View

It’s nice to be home.

thisiswhyyourefat: Peep Sushi (via SeriousEats) Easter looks...

Sat, 03 Apr 2010 17:53:34 -0400

thisiswhyyourefat:

Peep Sushi

(via SeriousEats)

Easter looks delicious!

Boston Week 1

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:04:50 -0400

The first week of work was pretty great. The job is fun, I like the people I work with, and it’s challenging. The only issue right now is the drive. It takes about a hour and a half to drive to work, and another hour and a half to drive home…

But there are some nice views on the way into town

This weekend I took a little stroll through town. This is the view when you cross the Charles river from Cambridge into Boston.

The gold dome is the state capitol, and below it is Beacon Hill, all very historical and cool stuff. Hopefully I’ll have a place to live near here soon.

Oh, my car hit 100,000 miles too!

I’ve never seen so many cool numbers before!

YAY!

Road to Boston: Day 5

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 21:28:17 -0400

Day 5 started outside Cleveland OH. After finding the local Starbucks to get yet another mug we headed out on our final day on the road. It turns out that all of New York is a toll road which is just awesome. It’s about $18 to get all the way across the state. Sales tax is roughly 8%. Bullshit.

After a few hours on the road we found out that Niagara Falls was pretty close by so we decided to stop in. It added about an hour to the trip, but it was pretty cool to see the falls. Everything around it is closed in the winter, and you can’t do much but just look at the falls.

The rest of the trip was pretty standard and boring until we got closer to Boston. After taking a ‘scenic’ route we finally arrived at Uncle Jack’s. The guest house is pretty awesome, and I’m happy to not drive non-stop with my mom in the car.

Things I’ve learned on the road that my Mother doesn’t like:

Driving Fast
Driving in the Rain
Driving in the Snow
Driving through mountain roads
Driving at night
Any combination of the above

Road to Boston: Day 3 & 4

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:37:51 -0500

Day 3 started out pretty relaxed. We had some typical Hampton’s breakfast, then went to find a Starbucks so Mom could grab some Fargo mugs. The drive from Fargo to Minneapolis was pretty easy, about 4 hours. This will be our easiest day.

I decided I should check out the snow, since I need to get used to it now…

We arrived in Burnsville around 3pm (we started late) to meet the fam. As this is the midwest everyone within 200 miles came out for dinner on a Wednesday night. I got to meet a new cousin and we had a nice Chili dinner!

After a nice days rest we headed out at our usual 6am (7am) leaving time for day 4. This would be the most arduous day yet. I strangely miss the empty roads of Montana and North Dakota. Now the roads have reasonable speed limits and lots more traffic.

We got a little turned around in Chicago, but I’m a human GPS so I got us out alright. We also found out about the I90 toll system. Starting in Illinois we have to pay tolls. Everywhere. It’s ridiculous and I hate it.Tollway…

I do like all the weird pit stops though, it’s nice to have convient places to stop every 30 miles that let you get right back onto the freeway.

Tomorrow is Boston!

I can’t wait!

Road to Boston: Day 2

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:55:00 -0500

Boring Boring Boring.

East Montana become bland as we came out of the mountains, then as entered North Dakota the snow and fog set in to make everything gray.

Highlights of the Day:

6AM Wake up
12 hours of driving
Mom almost hit a bald eagle with my car
Mom telling me to turn up the wipers because she couldn’t see well
Mom telling me to slow down
Fargo…

I hope to never drive the I94 again. Tomorrow is Minnesota and much less driving. It’s time for a mid-cross-country-road-trip-break.

Road to Boston: Day 1

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:51:35 -0500

Last night I packed all my belongings into the back of my Civic and headed over to Mom’s house for my last night in Oregon. Today we got up at 6am and headed out. Yes we, my Mother opted to pay for all my hotels on the way out to Boston, so she’s in on the trip too. We’ve got 5 awesome days of Interstate Highways and Mother-Son bonding.

Our first stop today was in Spokane for lunch at The Onion. LP recommended this place as she has previously lived above them back in her Washington days. I had the onion burger on an onion bun with more onions. It was delicious.

After a short drive through Idaho we we’re finally in Montana. According to Google Maps, Butte Montana looks pretty big, and like it would have some sweet places to eat. It did not. I chose John’s The Original Pork Chop Sandwich Shop. I had the Pork Chop Sandwich. I don’t think I’ll ever be in Butte Montana again.

We then drove another hour to Bozemen, Montana where we found a much more civilized community. Not only do they have an Outback Steakhouse, they’ve also got an Old Chicago Pizza, Perkins, and Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Q! So dinner was a fail, but at least we found a nice place to sleep, the Hampton has free Hot breakfast, starting at 6am!

Tomorrow we take on I94 and Fargo, ND…

I'm gonna miss this...

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:21:46 -0500

“I never eluded to not wanting to bang” -Justin...

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:50:43 -0500

“I never eluded to not wanting to bang”

-Justin “The Laser” Davis

Obama!

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:49:03 -0500

Obama!

china part 1: go big or go home

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:29:58 -0500

lovealwayslindsay:

The late night made for a late start today. The three of us went to an excellent English brunch and then across the street to the Lama Temple. Also called the Yonghe Temple, it is one of the largest and most important Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the world.

It also houses a Guiness World Record-holding Buddha, standing at almost 60 feet tall and carved from a single piece of white sandalwood.

Next stop was the Temple of Heaven where we discovered legions of elderly Chinese singing in large groups, playing Chinese poker, and holding massive outdoor DANCE PARTIES.

We arrived for sunset (lovely) but the temple was already closed (bummer). The grounds were vast and full of awesome old trees. They install steel pipes to support the aging branches. Love!

I couldn’t believe we slept away most of they day, but lucky for us Beijing still has a lot going on after dark. We browsed through the knock-off stuff at the Pearl Market (while evading the intense salespeople) then through the more upscale shopping district of Wanfuijing. Which is where we found this.

For real. Twitching, live scorpions on skewers, waiting to be purchased, deep fried, and EATEN. We did not partake.

The walking tour led us to the gate of the Forbidden City and to Tiananmen Square. For some reason the Square was blocked off tonight. We planned to return to both spots during the day anyway.

All-you-can-eat & drink Japanese for dinner, with Peter’s friend Nick.

The night was just getting started though. The four of us returned to a bar we’d gone to the night before. Good thing, because I had been eyeing a collection of Mao pins on the wall. Mission accomplished.

We met some of their Chinese friends, who spoke minimal English. Drinks, drinks, shots, shenanigans. Acquired a hat from the bar (?), and insisted everyone wore it.

When I gave the hat to ‘Anarchy’, the Chinese journalist and my current drunken admirer, he saw the hat as a symbol of my intention to marry him. Now the boys have ammunition for the rest of the trip “hey remember when you got engaged?”

Location change, food, drinks. Sugar on tomatoes, not bad!

Everyone + hat.

Location change, corner store drinks, dump trucks.

What I said: hey boys, I’m going to go see what’s in that dump truck, don’t leave me here
What they heard: hey boys, leave me here

They did. I panicked. Found them across the street, crisis averted. And now I have ammunition for the rest of the trip “hey remember when you left me inside a dump truck in CHINA?”. Tie.

Quite the first day. I like Beijing.

Lindsay seems to be doing a much better blogging job than I am…

Google recommends that I drive to Seattle, kayak to Hawaii,...

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:10:45 -0500

Google recommends that I drive to Seattle, kayak to Hawaii, drive around Hawaii, kayak to Japan, drive around a bit, then kayak to China and drive into Beijing. All in all it should take about 36 days, according to Google.

Hidle!

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:54:06 -0500

Hidle!

Weekend Movie Reviews

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:08:00 -0500

Men Who Stare at Goats:

I’d give this movie a so-so. I enjoyed my time watching it, but I wouldn’t watch it again. I’m not a fan of narration in movies, and this has plenty of it. It’s film. Use the film as a medium to show us how the character feels. Don’t just read some dialog that tells us he’s not happy. Other than that I thought it was pretty enjoyable. I’m a big fan of movies that involve the Middle East, and also George Clooney. He’s a great actor, and doesn’t let us down in his role the somewhat loony army veteran on a new mission back in Iraq. Also, it could have been louder, but that’s more a critique of the movie theater than the film itself. Anytime Boston comes on I think the volume should go to near ear bleed levels. Also, a flashback within a flashback is pretty sweet, good work.

Recommendation: Watch it once if you have spare time

Primer:

This is a great little indie movie that I found especially appealing. It was made on a budget of $7,000 and delivers a great story. First off, it involves time travel and some higher level math, but I liked this. The director didn’t dumb anything down, and you don’t necessarily need to know the concepts to get what the characters are doing. However, the movie is admittedly quite confusing. It centers around two engineers who spend there free time working in their garage trying to develop some advanced technology. They don’t have a lot of money, but they think that they really might be on to something. After some advanced math, we find out that they’ve accidentally discovered time travel. The story only gets more confusing from here, but it brings some good moral questions. The characters aren’t shown to be immoral in there normal life, but what happens when you have everything you could want? Money is no longer a problem, all of your basic needs are met, so what do you do? Well, you go back in time and try to re-script events so they work out favorably for with girls. I guess for guys it always comes down to girls, and this is at the heart of the problems that develop in the story. I recommend that you watch this movie, then read the description on Wikipedia as it will clarify many parts of this film. I ended up having dreams/nightmares about the time travel explained in the film, and I was just as confused in my dreams as I tried to unwind the events of the film into a logical pattern.

Recommendation: Must see for anyone who’s taken a physics class. Wins best movie of the weekend award.

Che Part 1:

This was really a great film. I’m surprised it didn’t get a wider release, but I guess when your movie comes in two two hour parts, it presents some challenges. I really liked how this was filmed, and Benicio Del Toro is perfect as Che. The film follows two stories, the pre-Cuban Revolution, and Che’s trip to the UN. The filming is great, the acting is great, and after the movie was over I was excited for the revolution. Even though we know how this all ends, it’s still nice to relive it for a couple hours.

Recommendation: Set aside 2 hours on a Sunday afternoon and watch this.

Che Part 2:

Part 2 deals with the post Cuban revolutionary period when Che traveled to Bolivia to start a working class revolution there as well. This film has a completely different tone than Part 1 which is appropriate for the story. The entire time I did not feel enthused for the revolution, and I kept wanting Che to go back to Cuba and live the good life with Castro. Speaking of Castro, that’s exactly what Che was missing in Bolivia. He was able to train good fighters, but he had no political leader to rally everyone behind him. He needed a Castro. The movie left me feeling pretty down, and I missed the enthusiasm I had after Part 1.

Recommendation: If you see Part 1, then you have to complete the story. Set aside another 2 hours and get it over with.

Dinosaur Lawyer!

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:01:45 -0400

Dinosaur Lawyer!

Raaawr

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:23:09 -0400

Raaawr