What do you do, anyway? Part 2.5

Fatman: The movie

What do you do, anyway? Part 2.

Check it out, we're in the Oregonian!

Details

The bathroom at Hopworks.

Two things I like about this bathroom:
1. The secret message
2. The superior hand dryers

Friends of mine might already know how much I love next generation hand dryers

The Mitsubishi Jet Towel - "The first air blowing hand dryer that can make the following claim... IT WORKS"

Dyson Airblade - "Finally, a hand dryer that works properly"

And now the Xcelerator - "FINALLY... A FAST HAND DRYER"

I absolutely agree with the premise of these products' tag lines - hand dryers don't dry your hands. At least three companies put forward solutions, but in my world these dryers are a rare exception rather than the rule.

Columbia Astronauts

From an elementary school in East Multnomah County.

Here's the photo they used. Do you think the Columbia Disaster impacted kids in 2003 the way Challenger did in 1986? Space exploration is on my mind a lot, having just watched When We Left Earth. Oh, and WALL-E.

School Courtyards

Things that school courtyards have in common:
- not used regularly by students or staff
- visible to students and staff thanks to a breezeway or hallway
- very pretty
- some sort of project has been started, possibly abandoned

Case 1: George Middle School, Portland Public Schools, North Portland, built in 1952, 328 students




Case 2: Lynch View Elementary School, Centennial School District, outer Southeast Portland, built in 1958, 492 students

Marks the Spot

Built in 1960. It looks like there are about twenty 600 square-foot apartments here. An interesting sight in a neighborhood overflowing with upscale condo conversions.

May 21

For our four-year wedding anniversary, we took the day off work.



We had coffee, of course


We visited the Pittock Mansion. But not the inside because $7/person seemed like a bit much.


The view of Portland.


That's quite a door.

Laika's Vacation

Photos by Double Dog Ranch.

Skinny House 1: Bend, OR

A few months ago I got interested in narrow houses in Portland, thanks to spotting one in NoPo.

Spotted on US-97 North

This weekend I found that they have also appeared in Bend. A June 2007 CNN article ranks Bend as the most overvalued real estate market in the US.

This development is named Bend Ten.


Conveniently located across the highway from Wal-Mart.


That's right, I went in the back yard for you.


Is this blog an excuse for nosiness?

Woodhill Homes is offering these 1711 square foot homes at $250 - 270 K, thought the brochure I picked up had the upper price at $314. You can look at a floor plan on their site. There are four built, it looks like there are utilities in place to add at least another four. Maybe the goal is to build ten.

The narrow homes I've seen in Portland are on nicer sites. I think they do better as an addition to a neighborhood rather than as a new development.

Do they remind you of this, too?

what a time to be alive

I always told you Moses Lake was like the surface of the moon. Apparently NASA thinks so, too.
Big photo set here.
I have lots to blog about. It's been a busy last few weeks, what with the end of the school year.

Ant War: Day 3

Ants

• Grand Marnier
• Bailey's
• Chambord
• Balsamic Vinegar
  
• Honey
• Maple Syrup
• The time when I am supposed to be hanging out with Dan, reading, cooking, looking at pictures of cats on the internet, etc.

Laura

• 100,000 ants (sponged then drowned)
  

Hope on a Sunny Sunday

so that's what 75,000 people looks like

Yes, we went to The Obama Rally. We biked down to the park, then walked 1.2 miles to the back of the line. We waited in line from around 11:30 - 2:30 and got into the park just before the speech started.

where's waldo?




after the rally, Dan almost met Steve Novick.

Just watched the 1999 Spike Jonze Mini-Doc about Al Gore. You could watch it, but it might make you a little bit sad.

view from the back of the boat

I've been tilling lately. This is the view on a calm day.

wall-painted animation

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

I can't say it, but I'll eat it

I made Quinoa and Black Beans Salad this weekend. It's delicious! I subbed red onion for the bell pepper, which was perhaps too much onion.

Yes, Actualize Them!

This caught my eye while waiting for breakfast.

NE MLK and Graham, Part 1

All sorts of development has happened over the past few years in the neighborhood where I work. It sometimes seems to be on the verge of becoming another cute Portland gentrification.
Part one of the story of the intersection of NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Graham is about a bank building built in 1955.

The building has been empty for a long time. The main feature of the building was a mural above the bus stop.

The picture tells the story. Worth checking out at a higher resolution.

As you can see, somebody has big plans for this space. Thanks to the magic of Portland Maps and other internet resources, I know that the building was valued at just under $1.2 million, but sold for $2.2 million. What did they get? 6000 square feet on the main level on just over half an acre of land.

One of the owners isn't new to the neighborhood, they recently renovated the former county coroner's office into a dermatology clinic on the same block.

view from the Nike Factory Store

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe the new banner advertising potential boutiques and a boulangerie arrived shortly before the tags (now painted grey.)

SE 28th and Pine

One thing I think about a lot is the development I see in Portland. New construction and rehabilitations in Portland seem to be trending towards density and ownership, which reflects the increased value of property and the increasing population (a million new people in the region in 25 years.)

This building is a small apartment complex that was remade into condominiums. The sign says the "5 Luxury Condos" cost between $229K and $299K, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath.

The prices are about right for a condo in this area. I couldn't find enough information on this property to give an accurate cost for square foot. For $350K you could buy a single-family home in the same neighborhood. That's where I get confused.

April Hail-Showers

Oh Portland, will you ever get warmer? Apparently not this year.


haildrops keep falling on my dog

What do you do, anyway?

I get asked what my job is all of the time, and generally I say that I run a project that visits schools, after-school programs, and community-based organizations and teaches young people to make videos. This project is called OLLIE.

Then the other person looks vaguely confused by all of this and says, "Oh... cool."

This is the kind of project I get to make at work. Not all of them are this entertaining, but they have one thing in common: young people learning to use a new tool (video) to express themselves.

Every school we visit has a different theme. This group's theme was school lunch, and my group was particularly concerned with nutrition issues. Because they are kids, of course the students had a laundry list of things they didn't like about school lunch. Finally we settled on one area of focus - the prepackaged Jamwich peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

even more disgusting in real life...

This particular project was really special to me because I got to work with my second cousin, Isaac. We didn't really know each other before this project, it was great to get to know him.

cute runs in the family

What I did on my 28th Birthday

For my birthday, I got an awesome tiny digital camera from Dan. Of course we had to take lots of photos to document the day, here are a few: