My Phone Is Dying, 4M Dollar Memorial Service Will Not Be Paid By The City Of Portland 5:28 PM

My phone has been loyal and reliable for nearly 3 years now. We've been through bad and good, rain and shine, and a whole lot of unexpected collisions with concrete. Unfortunately, it's on its way out. It started about a couple of weeks ago and has progressively gotten worse. At first, I could still do everything, but the buttons wouldn't always respond. Just a few days ago, I could no longer read or send text messages. And as of today, I can no longer send phone calls. All that my phone is capable of is receiving calls and speed-dialing...too bad I only have voicemail programmed into speed dial.

She's been a good phone and when I got her, I had just started my journey here in Portland.

Certainly an end of an era.

Mt. Rainier Is Less Fictional Than Rainier Wolfcastle 11:01 AM

This past 4th of July weekend, I had the privilege of doing some camping out in Mt. Rainier organized by Ian. Ian, Janel, Julien, Michelle, Melvin, Anne, Jason, and myself made the trip from Portland and met up with Kevin and Andy out in Seattle.

We went on a pretty sweet hike to Comet Falls. We were actually fooled for a little while. We reached a set of falls that we thought was Comet and spent a good amount of time there until Andy pointed us in the right direction. It was good to chill out by the water anyway. Melvin took the time to practice his modeling skills. Is that Melvin on a hike to Comet Falls or is it a budding young model in a remote tropic location doing an intense photo shoot? I can't tell.


Ian, Kevin, Andy, Michelle, Julien, and I took the extra adventure to really get to the bottom of Comet Falls. It was pretty intense watching the water crash into the rocks and see the snow/ice around it. We got pretty soaked from all the mist. Here's Kevin priming for a wet t-shirt contest at the falls....ok, maybe he's just enjoying the ambiance.


The next day, Melvin, Anne, and myself did a day hike up to Muir Camp on Rainier. Summitting Mt. Rainier is generally a 2-day affair. The first day is spent getting to Muir Camp(the base camp) before the really technical stuff starts. We ran into a sign saying only 2.7 miles to go. Melvin and I were like "oh shit" while Anne was more like "hooray!". The thing is we hadn't ascended all too much and with only 2.7 miles left, that could only mean some pretty steep stuff was up ahead. Every flatish step was another reminder of the impending doom ahead.

We reached the Muir Snowfield and that's when we really started to climb. I can't say I've ever hiked slower, but we did reach Muir Camp in the end. It was the 4th of July and Melvin's first as an american citizen, so he felt it was appropriate to bring an American flag.


The views all along the way were pretty amazing. We were fortunate to have a clear view of Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Hood.

As strenuous as it was to get up to Muir Camp, the reward was nearly as sweet. Glissading!


Once we were nearly down, we tapped into our inner thespian. Michelle has kindly named this "Mort d'Allen".


That night was pretty great. We feasted and had some fun with sparklers especially since it was Melvin's first 4th of July as an American. We wouldn't be obnoxious self-absorbed americans if we didn't have fireworks of some sort. Sparklers are probably my favorite low-key firework representing freedom, independence, and secession from the land of tea and crumpets. We really shouldn't have had our only non-american(Julien) write the "S" in USA....but he got it right the 2nd time around.


Good times. Good trip had by all.

Ashton Kutcher Shares My DSLR....Not My Sex Appeal 8:40 PM

As of a week ago, I became the proud owner of a Nikon D90. How is it, you ask? Basically, it's awesome. It is really odd, but the feeling is probably similar to being a wise and all-knowing sorcerer with a wand of power in his/her hand. Except, in my case, the wand is a camera.

It's sweet cause now I can take some pretty great pictures. They make the pictures that come out of a point and shoot camera look like a pile of fuzzy and out-of-focus monkey feces.

Here's one I took at the apartment...


I took it out of the house for the first time this weekend to take pictures at the farmers market. It was pretty cool since some color is starting to hit the farmers' goods. Here's Melvin with a gigantor zucchini...


I was also able to take my camera out on a sweet bike ride I went on with Ian and Janel. We went to Kelley Point Park. Kelley Point is where the Columbia and Willamette Rivers meet/split. It was a really cool park and a lot larger than I would've expected. What made it nice was that it wasn't a zoo or nothin'....a lot more quiet and peaceful than the usual popular waterfront areas.

Here's Ian and Janel brushing up on their map-reading skills at our lunch spot.


Ashton Kutcher is jealous.

Shubham Mukherjee - Man of Many Professional Skills 12:11 AM

Big congratulations to Shubes on graduating from law school.

Easily the most decorated man I know. I'm proud to even be associated with him.

Kids 9:56 PM

Often times, I get really sick of a song after a few months of hearing it every direction I turn. But once in a while, a song's awesomeness is wrapped in an immunity against being overplayed. Most recently, that's been MGMT's Kids. I listen to this all the time. It's played on KEXP, youtube, and portland radio stations for well over a year and I haven't gotten sick of it. I'm no big MGMT fan. I think most of their stuff is mediocre, but they really hit paydirt with Kids.

Well, Weezer decided to cover it and mix it with Lady Gaga's Poker Face. It's pretty kickass.



Is it just me or does the audience seem like the exact opposite of a sausagefest. Young adult females love them a bowlful of Weezer in the evening hours.

The Forest Queen Isn't Very Tall 9:23 PM

I've noticed the Decemberists making their rounds on talkshows lately to play "The Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid" from their latest album. Their latest album is done in the form of a rock opera. A continuous story is told from start to end with some help from Shara Worden(My Brightest Diamond) and Becky Stark(Lavendar Diamond). Apparently Jim James is on the album too. It makes sense to have him provide vocals for tracks where they're just rocking out.

I think Shara Worden's role as the Forest Queen is pretty awesome. I'm not a big fan of her stuff as My Brightest Diamond, but whenever she plays an accompaniment role(Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens, Dark Was The Night), I've found it to be ridiculously good.

Here's a recent video from Leno.



I think it's really cool that the Decemberists were able to get Stark and Worden to come and play their roles. I don't get why Worden decided to wear flesh colored lipstick. It looks like she doesn't have lips. Is this a new thing that I'm out of touch with?

Ethel 11:59 PM

I started a sourdough starter about 2 weeks ago(April 20th). Every sourdough starter is a reflection of the area it resides. Sourdough starter is just a collection of wild yeast feasting on sugars. This wild yeast just comes comes from the air around us. This is why San Francisco sourdough is so famous/popular. It has a unique taste that people have found to be just flat out good. I've wondered what sourdough may taste like in the pacific northwest, so I took action and harvested my own wild yeast.

Believe it or not, it's ridiculously simple. It was un-nerving at times because I thought it had died on more than one occasion since the starter wasn't feeding and doubling as vigorously as I expected it too. But Ethel(my starter) has survived and is nothing short of strong.

I've made two loaves to date with her and the taste has noticeably matured between the two loaves. The bread made from Ethel will surely just continue to mature in taste over time. This is pretty exciting.

Portland sourdough....this is gonna be big.