Little House on the Prairie

Hey Jebediah, flip it over to Ice Road Truckers, will ya?

A couple of weeks ago I turned in my digital cable box to Comcast. At the time, and in fact up until the very moment that I handed the box to the guy at the counter, I was still wrestling with just what I was going to do. I was waffling hard between just cutting off the digital cable or getting rid of cable entirely. I imagined living without cable to be not unlike what Laura Ingalls Wilder's life was like on the prairie. I had imagined myself reading books by candlelight, going to bed at 7:30 and waking at 4 to milk cows or work the fields. For whatever reason, I went this route rather than continue to pay for TV.

There are several reasons I chose to get rid of cable. First and foremost, I was watching too damn much TV. And I'll watch anything, seriously. Ever heard of Ice Road Truckers? I knew I had a problem when I started to really care about what misadventures Bear and the boys would find themselves in this week.

Secondly, I hate paying for TV. I have never enjoyed giving my money every month to Cox or Comcast. And cable is expensive. Hell, I was paying close to $50 a month and I was still under a discount plan I signed up for when I moved to Portland. In another month or two it was going to creep up to close to $80.

Lastly, all the best TV is free! OK, so this isn't exactly true. I mean, if that were true then I'd be able to receive Ice Road Truckers through my newly purchased Radio Shack antenna and clearly I cannot - and believe me I've tried. But for free I do get The Office, 30 Rock, SNL, OPB, etc. I can even get Hole in the Wall, which is like the Ice Road Truckers of Fox.

My biggest concern with going off the grid (or as close as I wanna get) was not being able to receive NFL football games on Sunday. As many of you probably know, I'm kind of a big football fan. It's my only vice. OK, that's a lie. But it's my biggest vice. Not true either. Anyway, I went pretty much without football all last season when I was working in Mississippi and it sucked. Fortunately, I can get most of the games (the exception being ESPN's Monday night game) and with relative clarity. At least clear enough that, for free, I can live with it.

So for now, I'm living the simple life. Spending more time with the kitties (well, Pants anyway), reading more, and watching a hell of a lot of crap on free TV. Have you seen Hole in the Wall? It's funny as hell.

Ugh, sick

I haven't been sick in FOREVER. Seriously, it's been years and I've been like a super-human, but last night it started - sore throat, stuffy head, the works. I'm not sure if I picked up a bug form the HSUS workshop or on the very cold bike ride last night to the Oregon Manifest Filmed by Bike movie showing. Either way, I'm screwed now.

The Filmed by Bike movie showing last night was awesome - almost worth getting the plague for. It was shown at a huge advertising agency in the Pearl District (Portland's swankiest area.) The advertising agency's space was incredible. It's a huge converted old warehouse. When I walked in it seemed like a pretty small space - crowded with hipster douchebags wearing all manner of bicycle related stuff - but when I walked upstairs to the viewing area - wow. It was a gigantic space. The viewing area was like a basketball court with two huge projectors and giant screens. The warehouse must be 8 stories tall at least. All their work spaces were in this area, too. It was just really an amazing space. Here's are a couple of photos from my iPhone of the movie viewing area.

This is a shot of the entrance.

This is the screen and some of the bleachers.

Workshop

I'll be in Everett, WA for the next few days attending a DART workshop with my coworker Connie. Connie comes from a huge family of something like ten brothers and sisters, so she has family all over the Pacific Northwest and we'll be staying at her cousin's house.

I'm looking forward to the training, but I will miss my cats like crazy. Working from home this past year I've gotten so attached to having them around and it's hard to leave for any length of time. Hopefully her cousin has a cat I can use as a stand-in while I'm there.

In the meantime, enjoy Jens Lekman. I love this guy, his music is corny, but awesome.

Fasting

I woke up Tuesday and for some unknown reason decided I would not eat for the entire day. I didn't include coffee nor did I include the smoothie I had around 2 o'clock. I figured if I drink the bananas, mango and strawberries it wasn't cheating. I was hungry sure, but felt really good. I damn near made it, too, but with mere hours to go, I remembered the chips and salsa in the kitchen and threw in the towel. I sort of felt bad afterward, but not really. What can I say, I'd make a shitty muslim.

Tomorrow I'll take what I learned from my first failed attempt and try again. I'm hoping to make this a weekly thing. No idea why. Perhaps in preparation of the leaner times to come in the economy - better to practice now, right?

On a completely unrelated topic, I was working on a short edit for work which included a video my predecessor, Gabe, put together shortly after Hurricane Katrina. It was three years ago today that I arrive in Waveland, MS to help. Crazy how time flies - enjoy the video.

Portland Public Access TV

I just finished watching "Farrakhan Teach!", Minister Louis Farrakhan's program recorded in Chicago and rebroadcast here in Portland on public access TV. Immediately following Minister Farrakhan? Sister Paula. Sister Paula is a 70 year old transgendered 'woman' who reads from the bible and sing hymns. Now, I hate religion, but for some reason I'm absolutely enthralled by Louis Farrakhan and can watch him for hours, even when he calls me devil. I feel the same way about Sister Paula, I hate religion, but I can watch Sister Paula and for whatever reason I have more respect for her than for any other preacher I've ever seen.

Community Organizer

Some of you may have seen Rudy Giuliani dismiss Obama as a 'community organizer' with no experience at the Republican National Convention. Smug little toadie that Guiliani is, he even snickered at the comment, no doubt so proud of himself for thinking it up. I think the image above should serve as an adequate enough response.

This whole Sarah Palin thing makes me want to jump off in the deep end of the liberal pool. If you aren't outraged that this person is on the ticket, you aren't paying attention. I guess I'm just all riled up because I'm sick of these fucking neocons. Of course it aint helping that I'm reading, Deer Hunting With Jesus right now.

Bonnie, Beer for Soda, Vegan Pesto and other Musings

The weather has been really nice, so I've been leaving open the sliding glass door so the cats can enjoy the balcony. They really like going out and on the few occasions it's gotten too chilly to keep it open, Pants walks the apartment crying about not being able to go outside. Unfortunately, Bonnie has gotten so used to it being open that on 3 different occasions she has run full speed and slammed into the closed door face first. It makes a loud, hollow sound, not unlike that of a cat hitting a glass door at full gallop. In an effort to try and reduce the number of collisions, I've posted the sign above on the door to let her know when it's closed. So far it seems to be working.

I pretty much gave up drinking diet colas for the month of July in hopes of being able to beat my 3-5 can a day habit. The good news, I've pretty much done it. The bad news is, now I'm drinking a lot more beer. Is that bad?

Today at New Seasons, I spent $180 on groceries. That's a new high and one I hope never to eclipse. I was shocked and a little sad when I saw the total. On my list was to try and get something for some noodles I bought like a month ago. In the refrigerated section I thought pesto might be nice, but of course pesto has cheese in it. Well, not in Portland, at least not all the pesto in Portland. There on the shelf was a pesto labeled as Vegan Pesto. I couldn't believe it. I bought it and tried it for dinner and it aint bad. Unfortunately, it aint cheap either.

I had a really boring three day weekend. I really didn't do much of anything. Yesterday I poured through Last.fm looking for new music and shows coming to Portland. I'm a huge Neko Case fan and never really paid much attention to her work with the New Pornographers, but that all changed yesterday. They're really good. Below is a video from their latest album.

I'm also very into Taken by Trees and their video is also below. Enjoy.