Category: Uncategorized

 

For more photos, go to the Album located HERE …

 

 

It’s a warm sunny day in Portland (some are complaining that it’s TOO hot) in the low to mid-80s (buncha whiners..)

I’m sitting here, having a nice cup of coffee (or seven…) at

Here’s a panorama of the view from my seat: …

(click on the big white spaces to view videos)

https://vimeo.com/42052192

Please excuse the video quality: I took this video with The Cheapest Phone in the Store™ (a Huawei from MetroPCS).

And now a video from Hawthorne Blvd. (a street with an “ambiance” somehat like Solano Ave. in Berkeley or College Avenue in the Rockridge District of Oakland). Again, please excuse the poor audio. I just wanted to give a sense of said “ambiance” on Hawthore:

http://vimeo.com/42052415

I took a BUNCH ‘o pictures with my Huawei POS86™ camera, and I’ll be posting these soon. Stay tuned!!!

I didn’t have my computer at the time (dead) so I didn’t post about this when I took the walk (beginning of December last year).

I had to leave the photographs with an acquaintance, and he took the opportunity to try his hand at color correction using an off-brand (Microsoft) photo editor. I wasn’t able to reverse the damage, and hesitated to post the photos. Anyway, I have them posted here.

Shout out to all my friends in the Bay Area!

While you’all were enjoying the Spring weather in the Bay Area this past weekend…

It was the beginning of the Boating Season here on the Columbia River

 

Of course, now it’s back to raining again…

On 1st Street in St. Helens:

(click on image, enlarge if necessary and scroll to right of photo to view detail)

These photos were taken this afternoon (Easter Sunday):

 
More photos of St. Helens HERE

Click on photo to navigate to full album

 

I just moved into a place in St. Helens, OR, overlooking a marina on the Columbia River, northwest of Portland. One interesting thing about St. Helens is that it is the location where they filmed much of the Teen Vampire Romance™ trilogy, Twilight.

Apparently it makes an ideal location for a film set because the downtown is almost entirely devoid of anything resembling commerce. It is also apparent that some viewed this temporary state of affairs as the basis for an economic renaissance. This (not my photo, but this was open when I arrived in this area)

 
became this:

And I don’t know if this place

 
existed before Hollywood came knocking, but this is definitely NOT Beverly Hills, but rather a particularly seedy district along Hollywood Boulevard:

 

At least this place appeared in one of the movies (or so I have read), but was decked out as a dress shop or something.

 

Other than the foibles of a handful of delusional individuals, though, this is a quaint little town, and I look forward to spending a few quiet months here, at least until Mount St. Helens blows its top, and we are all barbequed in an enormous pyroclastic cloud.

More photos, of places which may or may not be identified in the Twilight saga, may be found HERE.

btw… there aren’t really any vampires in St. Helens. Just some people with REALLY bad teeth…

I “re-purposed” a cartoon the other day to this effect:

From (quoting the Boston Globe):

The Occupy Wall Street movement may be starting to lose its luster with the American public [as of Novenmber 11 of last year], with four in ten now saying they have an unfavorable view of the protests, a new nationwide UMass Lowell/Boston Herald poll shows.

The online poll of 1,005 American adults reveals that 35 percent still have a positive impression of the Occupy movement, but 40 percent now say they have an unfavorable opinion. About one quarter of the poll respondents had no opinion or were unsure.

and…

Half of American adults say they have an unfavorable impression of the Tea Party, while just 29 percent hold a favorable view, according to the poll. A total of 31 percent say they have a “strongly unfavorable” view, indicating the intensity of feeling against the Tea Party movement is relatively high. Just 10 percent view the Tea Party movement in a “strongly favorable” light.

Just 13 percent have a “strongly favorable” impression of the Occupy movement, while 21 percent had a “strongly unfavorable” view. Surprisingly, lower-income voters have the least favorable opinion of the Occupy movement, while those making more than $100,000 are more supportive.

This isn’t really surprising. Both the Tea Party and Occupy tapped into popular resentments at the outset but gradually wore out there welcome as the protests became more associated with the yahoos who showed up than the legitimate complaints that spawned them.

The poll does show one common thread between both movements, however — a strong dislike for both Wall Street and the federal government.

The problem, of course, is that there isn’t 86 percent or 72 percent support for any particular public policy solution to these issues. That makes it easier for political action committees and large corporations to prevent action.