Month: November 2010

Leaves on “shelter”

I’ve written about how little shelter the new “shelters” in the transit mall provide. They do, however, make a nice flat place for fall leaves to land on and rain to form droplets, making a pretty autumn picture. And then the “shelter” leaks and drops rain on my newspaper while the winds buffet me from every side because THERE IS NO PLACE TO GO TO GET OUT OF THE WIND AND RAIN.

Walk to the Alberta Rose Theater

The plan was for me to meet Matt at the Alberta Rose Theater at 6:45 so we could see Live Wire. It was a warm day, still light outside and not raining. When will I have that combination again? I decided to walk the 4-ish miles to the theater. Here is what I saw along the way.

I’ve always loved that the homeowners left this tidy snag standing in their yard. Snags are an important part of the ecosystem that do not often appear in cities. Their yard is also filled with interesting yard art, of the “real art” kind, as opposed to the “old lady bending over showing her bloomers” kind.

I liked how this simple porch and house numbers in a nice font dress up this house.

“Shhh. Stay quiet and no one will have any idea there’s a house back here.” I can’t imagine how dark this house must be. There are no windows in the front, and both sides of the house are in shadow from trees and bushes.

This cute house seems to have a cute garage to go with it.

Until you look closer and see that it is a separate residence, complete with house number.

This was a bummer find. I’ve been keeping my eye on this empty lot for years, but now it seems it will be turned into surface parking for a nearby church. Permeable surface parking, but still kind of a bummer.

I like how this church sort of looms over the freeway. The cross is illuminated and makes a nice contrast to the “going home” traffic headlights.

A very fun art car.

With great fish actually leaping out of its sides.

At that point it really did get dark. I enjoyed the rest of the walk. Alberta has a lot of fun shops that look very warm and inviting.

Wind eddies and leaves

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays I take two buses to far North Portland to volunteer at a Middle School. My bus stop is right next to “Big Pink” which is the tallest building in Portland. I think Big Pink messes with the air currents a bit, because today the wind was swirling all the leaves into a tidy pile.

Vote!

Some election years I carefully map out who I’m voting for and carefully research the issues long before the ballot is due. Other elections I rip open my ballot at 6:40 am on election day, shriek at how many things are are to vote for and start flipping frantically through the voters guide.

My first election was in 1992. I had turned 18 only a week or so before. I was able to register, even though my birthday was past the deadline, because I would be 18 by the time the election happened. I put off registering for a long time, mostly because I was afraid of voting. At that time, I thought I would have to carefully research each and every candidate or issue and come to firm conclusions so I could defend my choices when people asked my reasoning. It seemed like a really big deal.

Voting is a big deal. But it’s not quite the big deal I thought at 18. Some years, I come close to approximating how I thought voting would be. Other years, I make some decisions by moving the pencil back and forth between two candidates and then going with the one who didn’t push poll me. I follow politics in general, which I think is important for spur-of-the-moment voting, but this time I wasn’t super nuanced in my reasoning. I felt a bit frantic all day, but it felt very good to drop my ballot in the box.

Three sentence movie review: Paranormal Activity


A well-crafted, tense “scary movie,” it had it all: creepy things happening; sympathetic main character; awful, unsympathetic other character. I enjoy scary movies that rely on very few special effects to tell their story. It also kept me from sleeping very well that night.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2009/paranormal_activity.html

Three sentence movie reviews: Open Water


In a group setting, the job of the person who has seen the movie before is to sit quietly, with a Cheshire Cat grin on his or her face, while everyone else experiences the movie. The job of said person is not to give a spoiler every two scenes. I probably would have enjoyed this movie much more if the person in the room who had seen the movie knew what his job was.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2004/open_water.html