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This weekend started last Thursday with a trip to Portland. Some of my long time friends (Lucas, Logan, and Aaron) had their first show since moving to the most sustainable city in the USA. Aleson Tap is made up of true musicians, which allows them to put on an awe inspiring show.

Lucas, making stuff up

Then, on Friday afternoon, I headed out with my new fishing buddy, John, to the McKenzie. We didn’t have any luck, but it was nice to get out on the water.

John on the McKenzie

Saturday was equally exciting. I got on the bus. Well, kind of. “Team Corvallis” of the Oregon Bus Project headed up to Washington County (somewhere in Beaverton). We met up with the rest of the 50ish volunteers there. I canvassed for Tobias Read, a democrat running for state representative. All said and done, I knocked on 52 doors. Canvassing was new to me, so it was a little intimidating talking to strangers about a candidate I had just met. It all worked out — nobody beat me up or sent their dog after me.

THEN, once we got home it was time to party it up with some friends. First, I went over to the lovely Andrea’s to carve pumpkins.

Firefox pumpkin!

After watching American Beauty (awesome movie) we headed over to Nelson’s for his birthday party. There, I got to catch up with a bunch of friends I had not seen in awhile.

Things did not slow down on Sunday. Team “pale hax0r” (Brandon, Stuart, and I), banded together to compete in the Beaver Fever Duathalon. The race consisted of a 5k run (me), 30k road race (Stuart), and another 5k run (Brandon). Brandon and I both PR’d (vs. our race last weekend). I even won a $25 gift certificate during the raffle!

I’m totally airborn!

Stuart dashing in to start Brandon off

And I thought the Rouge rafting trip two weekends ago was going to be hard to beat!

… ohh, and I’ve been working on the OSEL a lot. It is sort of the pinnacle of everything I have been working towards related to free software on campus. Check it out!

I guess now I just need to study for midterms. :\

I normally do not write about news/politics, but this whole North Korea issue is getting out of hand. Seemingly out of the blue, we found out that North Korea had tested nuclear weapons. Guess what happened!? Other countries got upset. Big surprize! Oh wait, what’s that, Iran was involved? According to this news article, “North Korea did have one defender yesterday. Iran, which the United States and its European allies say is running its own clandestine nuclear weapons program, said on its state radio that U.S. ‘pressure and humiliation’ had led North Korea to conduct the test.” It’s like the grade-school playground, “Despite numerous warnings from his peers, ten-year-old Kim went ahead and tested a firecracker he had somehow obtained from the Chinese kid.”

Ok, so at this point everyone is upset and watching North Korea and looking for a reason to blame Iran. Sure enough, both parties act-up. The media tells us that Korea is at it again! They are getting ready for another test. Next, Americans (all of us) found a ship! Supposedly this ship has “something bad” *cough*nuke*cough* on it. Oh, and, to just get everything setup perfectly we find out that “Iran [is] determined to become nuclear”. Quoting the story, “We will produce our own nuclear fuel over the next five years, and sell it to them at a 50-percent discount.”

I’ll go ahead and write the next news story for you:

North Korea buys discount Iranian Nuclear Fuel

Amidst sanctions, North Korea “just can’t afford better”
SOMEWHERE IN ASIA — North Korea allegedly purchased discounted nuke juice from Iran. Iran, long time friends with North Korea, said, “We really like trouble, so we broke them a deal”. North Korea said that its decision was not because they want to annihilate anyone, but simply because the UN sanctions made it too expensive to buy it from Al Qaeda.

Here is my prediction: Media will tell us that a nuke from North Korea flew but was shot down by our super space guns or missile defense warships. USA wont fire back, instead choosing to invade both Iran and North Korea. Soon enough we will have monopoly on the Middle East and a square in Asia. Our gas prices will drop, surging SUV sales, and everything will go back to normal.

What is really funny though, is even by the end of this post consumers have already forgotten about North Korea.

Why the heck isn’t there a “if you liked this movie, you’ll like this movie too” console at rental places? It is waaaay to hard to pick out a movie.

Wouldn’t it be neat if Goodwill offered an opt-in service that let you know when your donated items had been purchased? Or, as a buyer, you could see the life cycle of the item you are purchasing. I think it would keep people more involved with the donation process, and make it feel less like an alternative to the dump.

My old excuse for shopping at Goodwill was because it was cheap, my new excuse is that it is sustainable. Post-consumer products! Woo woo!

First, before I even get started, I have to say thank you. There are sooooo many people that helped me make this summer awesome. You might be thinking to yourself, how did I help? Well, think about it a bit more, you’ll come up with something. Anyway, yeah, thank you. It was rad.

Where I lived

I worked and lived in Manhattan (NYC). I really feel like I got the experience or at least as much as I could only being there three months. My apartment was on the upper west side, right across from the American Museum of Natural History. I lived with fabulous couple in their spectacular pre-war apartment. I got a kick everytime I watched the doorman operate the manual elevator.

Where I worked

I worked as a Linux System Adminstrator for Google. Yep, I can confirm, Google is an amazing place. My first two jobs were pretty much start-ups; both workplaces at which I could be super idealistic and make crazy ideas happen. Moving to Google I was nervous that I would lose this. Well, I sort of did. I was an “intern”. Parts of the company were off limits. However, they were very open with what they could be. I got to see behind the iron curtain. I feel like I am better system administrator because I can now think at a scale much larger than I had before.

What I did

I went out a lot. My co-workers were very good at showing me around the city. Some of the more memorable times include running across town in torrential down-pour with sandals on just for a slice of pizza, getting kissed by an overweight 40 year old lesbian (she “wanted to know”), and the bar the Irish women forced us to stay at.

Then there were all the concerts. Here are some of the bands I saw, in no particular order: Say Hi to You Mom, Ozomatli, Panic! At the disco, Dresden Dolls, Jose Gonzalez, Damien Rice, Fiona Apple, We are Scientists, Belle and Sebastian, Martha Wainwright, Gomez, and Bloc Party… to name a few. Everybody plays in NYC, so I got to see TONS of great bands.

What else happened

I went to Europe! Spain and Italy were cool, but I think I liked Vietnam better. I’m glad I went… it opened my eyes a little bit. I mean, those places are OLD. I need to post photos. Katrina and I had a lot of fun.

OK, this is incomplete… but I’m posting it anyway.