Christmas In The Northwest

A few days past but happy holidays everybody!

The immediate family headed up to Olympia on Wednesday.  After meeting up with Amanda and Jody who came down from Seattle, we headed over to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner.  We had some delicious crab cakes and fried oysters along with the best bread rolls I've ever eaten.  Yum.

Christmas morning, we headed over to my grandma's house to open presents and eat more delicious food.  After a few hours, the large group moved over to my other aunt and uncle's house.  My cousin, Grant, and I were in charge of making margaritas (which was a success) for the Mexican themed dinner.  Once again, the food was amazing.  After food, Jody taught some of us how to play Chrononauts which is made by the same people who made Fluxx (which I've likely made you play before).  Similar to Fluxx, it's confusing at first but then gets to be fun.

It wouldn't be Christmas without the Yule Log

Jody found the food

Presents

The day after, we headed back to my grandma's place and I broke open the game Amanda and Jody got me, Munchkin, and figured out how to play.  Once again, slightly confusing at first but ended up being really fun.  I had to work later in the day so once the game was finished, we headed back to Portland.

Hope everyone had a happy Christmas/holiday!

That's all for now.  Bye.

Goodbye England

Very short one this week.

On Thursday I got to meet up with an old friend from high school, Summer, who is visiting town.  Summer is going to school in Liverpool, England but is back for the holidays.  The last time I saw Summer was in Europe.  I got to fly over to Liverpool from Dublin and she showed me around the town for a day.

Summer wanted to see the climbing gym where I work so we had a little climbing session and then headed on down to Bridgeport Brewery for some food and festive beverages.  

Getting on the ramp

Crushing it

Cheers

After wandering around REI, we made our way up to 23rd to browse the shops and Summer had her first ever Salt and Straw.  It was a fun day.

Salt and Straw

That's all for now.  Bye.

Galway Girl

I haven't done one of these in a while and I thought it was about time to revive it.

This week's "featured friend" is about Kerry Braisted.

Last night in Ireland

My first interaction with Kerry was via Facebook.  She was studying abroad in Dublin for a whole year with the same program I went through.  Our resident director told Kerry that someone else from Colorado State would be coming in the spring (me) and so Kerry sent me a quick message.

Our first in-person meeting was, I believe, in a Vodaphone shop the day I arrived in Dublin.  I don't remember this too well since I was suffering from some intense jet lag and almost fell asleep standing up.

Scotland

We spent a fair amount of time out in Dublin along with the trinity trio and traveling with the API group around Ireland.  Fun times.
 
After getting back to the states and making it through summer, I got back to Colorado and we met up at the always great Fuzzy's.  It was always nice to have someone to reminisce with about Europe.

This past semester, we just barely survived Campus Corps and were able to vent about what crazy things one of the kids had done that week.  We also got to play in a day long soccer tournament.  It was not well organized but ended up being really fun.

Now we stay in touch by trying to do a monthly festive beverage Harry Potter game via Skype.  Technology really is amazing.

Things I've learned about Kerry:

1. She's all about the craic
2. She knows a lot about super heroes
3. We can't sit through Campus Corps orientation without leaving early
4. Rumor has it she's very good at French
5. She's one of the most dependable people I have ever met

And here are some of my favorite memories:

1. Her constant looks of slight disbelief of me being way too excited during a Harry Potter walking tour in Scotland.
2. Dublinia followed by Guinness followed by tea day.
3. My 21st birthday (or at least it's kind of a memory...)
4. Crushing at Fuzzy's trivia.
5. When we went to a cider bar in Fort Collins with two others and played cards games for a few hours which ended up being really fun.

Winning at trivia

Congrats on the upcoming graduation, Kerry!  We'll have to do another Harry Potter game soon.  Miss you!

That's all for now.  Bye.

The Imperial March

I'm going to seriously nerd out on this one.  In case you missed it, the first trailer for the new Star Wars movie was released last week.  I am a massive Star Wars fan so I got probably a little too excited watching the trailer.

Yes, I still own this.

The trailer starts out with an overly dramatic voice over, followed by an exasperated Stormtrooper popping up on screen, appearing to be on Tatooine. Not going to lie, I genuinely thought the trailer was a parody at first as the first lines of voice over are slightly cheesy and the actor who plays the Stormtrooper at the start looks an awful lot like Tracy Morgan at first glance.

We then see a R2D2-esk droid with a ball shaped body rolling speedily across the sand.

Next up is a few flashes of the new Stormtroopers riding on a ship.

Cut to a worried looking female taking off on some sort of speeder.

Rebel pilots are shown flying X Wings across a body of water.

The voice over continues as a cloaked figure stomps through the woods and ignites the best fictional weapon of all time, his/her red beamed lightsaber.  Apparently the new design of the sith lightsaber has caused some controversy.  If you get the chance, check out what Stephen Colbert had to say about the new design.  

Then there it is folks.  The Millennium Falcon comes roaring on to the screen with Tie Fighters firing away.  Han seems to have learned some new maneuvers since we last saw him.

And these.

Yes, it was just the first trailer but I wish we had gotten a glimpse at one of the familiar characters.  A shot of R2D2 being his awesome self would have made me even more excited.  I can't wait for the next trailer and for next year when the movie comes out.  Here's hoping Disney delivers.

May the force be with you.

That's all for now.  Bye.

Turkey In The Straw

Bet you didn't see this coming.

This year Thanksgiving was with my mom's side of the family at our house.  Due to people being in different parts of the country/world, this was the smallest family gathering I can recall.  Despite the small group, the food was, as always, delicious!

Skyping with Amanda and Jody

Yum

To go along with the cliche idea of saying what you're thankful for, besides the usual, the two things that I'm most thankful for at this current moment in time are:

• Having a job
• Friends who make an effort to stay in touch

Hope people had a good Thanksgiving!

That's all for now.  Bye.

I Won't Grow Up

I forgot to write this yesterday and just got back from work so it's a short one today. 

On Friday I made my way back to the old stomping ground of Westview High School to see the theater department's production of Peter Pan.

It's always impressive watching how well put together the Westview performances are.  I think the theater group that was 1-4 years older than me was the golden era but for a high school, everyone always does a great job.  

This retelling of Peter Pan was a slightly modernized version with a little more gender equality and a little less peace pipe smoking.  The flying rig was quite impressive and it looked like the kid actors were having a blast soaring back and forth across the stage.  As with any production, there was some overacting from extras and a kid or two who had two left feet, but overall it was a fun throwback to my days of running around in my Peter Pan Halloween costume and watching the cartoon and Mary Martin version over and over when I was 4.

That's all for now.  Bye.

It's The End Of The World

The following is based on true events:

 November 13, 2014

5:30 AM
There's an eery cold in the air.  Many school districts have declared late openings.  What is happening? 

7:15 AM
Schools are shut down across the metro area.  Many businesses have closed.  It's been advised to stay indoors.  It seems like we're on the brink of a statewide emergency.  I don't know if we'll make it to nightfall.

8:24 AM
I have my window locked shut and the blinds pulled tight.  I don't want to see what is happening outside.  The sound of cars on the street going about their everyday business must just be a trick.

8:33 AM
It has to be done.  I need to see what is going on out there.

8:34 AM
It has happened...the snowpocalypse has reached Portland.  We got hit hard but it looks like the neighborhood might pull through.  Our neighbors seem to have taken the brunt of it.  Hopefully they're alright.

I'm hoping our deck can recover

The neighbors got it the worst

12:22 PM
This strange, wet substance keeps falling from the sky.  I've never seen this before in the Pacific Northwest.  The roads are covered in this odd liquid but don't seem affected at all.  It could all be just a clever trick.

Terrifying

It's spreading!

12:47 PM
I hear sirens outside.  This must be even worse than I thought.  I've seen things like this happen in other places and in movies but never this bad.

2:02 PM
I've tried to reach the outside world.  The internet cut for about 8 seconds, even though it does this pretty much everyday, but I was able to see how the rest of Portland was faring.  It seems like things are rough Portlanders are standing strong.

 

2:59
I think it's getting worse...

3:54 PM
It's over.  We've done it.  All clear.  We survived.

-----

But yeah, it's been four years since I spent a winter in Oregon and I almost forgot how ridiculous they take "snow."  In Colorado, we would have over a foot, tree branches falling on people and sending them to the hospital (true story), icy roads, negative 20 degree weather, and still have to go to class.  In fact, in my 3.5 years at CSU, I only had an entire day of classes cancelled one time for weather and that was for heavy rain (which I was laughing about the entire time).  

Hope you people in Colorado and the rest of the country are surviving the actual harsh conditions.

That's all for now.  Bye.

Fancy

I'll start this off by admitting yes, this is a little biased.  I'll do my best not to make it sound like an advertisement because that is not my intention at all.  I've climbed at gyms all over the country and can honestly say that Planet Granite Portland is the best climbing gym I've ever been to.

The gym has 18 cracks, 4 of which can be hydraulically adjusted.  There is over 30,000 square feet of climbing space.  Many of the routes allow for both top roping and leading which is great.  The 55 foot walls are only set to about 60% capacity right now but eventually there will be more than 150 roped routes.  That's a lot.  All of the routes are incredibly fun and varied!  I haven't gotten on one I didn't like yet and I'm fairly picky about routes so that's an achievement.

Pictures taken from the PG PDX Facebook page

Upstairs, the entire second floor is devoted to bouldering.  With over 200 boulder problems, this would make me happy as a standalone gym itself.  I'm used to climbing on walls with sharp angles so it's taking a bit of adjustment to learn the curved walls but it's nice to have something new.  There's a systems wall upstairs that is able to hydraulically adjust its angle.  I haven't used it yet but when I try to get back in peak climbing shape, I'll put in some time.

The other prominent feature of the second floor is the 40 foot long ramp.  It's essentially climbing a roped route but with a very small fall and no rope.  After three laps on this thing, I'm done.  The problems are long but still so much fun and a great workout.

Bouldering ramp from the top

On top of climbing, there's also the equivalent of a traditional gym on the first and third floor as well as a huge yoga and fitness studio.  The locker rooms are amazing and even have saunas.

If you haven't made it in yet, come try the place out!  I promise this will be the last thing about work but I needed to share and I had no other ideas.

That's all for now.  Bye.

Thriller (Part 2/2)

I think my brain has officially melted.  In case you missed it, two weeks ago I made the terrible decision to watch a horror movie every day in October.  Blogger decided to erase this entire post when I was three movies away from finishing the list but I tried my best to recall what I had previously written.

Once again in no particular order, here are the last 16:

16.  Carrie (2013)- A young girl who lives with her religious mother and is bullied at school discovers she has telekinesis.  I've seen the original many times and although the original does a better job of building terror, this is a solid remake. 

17.   The Ruins- A group of friends vacationing in Mexico go to a hidden Mayan temple where they are attacked by a parasitic plant.  I went into this with low expectations but it actually wasn't too bad.  It didn't adhere to most horror movie conventions and my interest was held.

18.  *Sleepaway Camp- Recommended by my sister, Amanda, two cousins go to summer camp where deadly events start to occur.  You have to watch this movie!  It's so terrible it's brilliant.  The twist ending was genuinely shocking and I didn't see it coming at all.

19.  The Exorcism of Emily Rose- Set primarily in a courtroom, a trial commences against a priest who performed a botched exorcism.  This is more of a courtroom drama/horror film but despite its length, I was interested the whole time.  There are some definite creepy moments as well.

20. Evil Dead (2013)- A group goes to a cabin in the woods to help their friend go cold turkey until they discover a mysterious book in a boarded up basement.  If sassy demon talk is your thing, this movie is for you.  Nothing special but fairly entertaining.

21.  Extraterrestrial- Friends go to a house in the woods to party and end up finding a crashed UFO.  Throw every alien cliché into a film and you've got this movie.  The jump scares were the only "scary" parts but they were so predictable I didn’t even flinch.  Between the corniest ending of all time and what I'm pretty sure was plagiarized dialogue from Titanic, do not watch.

22. V/H/S/2- A 9 part anthology, two investigators try to find a missing college student and end up discovering a series of mysterious tapes in his seemingly abandoned dorm room.  I haven't seen the first one because I read the sequel was better. Since the movie is told in short segments, the action happens fast, which could be a positive or a negative.  It does leave a lot of unanswered questions but overall a fairly decent movie.  The camera work on the penultimate segment was atrocious.

23. Candy Man- A graduate student gathers information for her thesis on urban legends and finds that one of the legends may be real.  A rarity for horror films, this has a well written script.  Parts of it were slow but overall a good watch. 

24.  Jug Face- After a girl is slated to be the next sacrifice for a backwoods community, she tries to escape.  Unless you enjoy hearing stereotypical southern accents accompanied by the actions that typically go with them, avoid.  Also, it wasn't really a horror movie.  The story is really slow and boring and the ending is unsatisfying.

25.  Would You Rather- Trying to make money to better their lives, a group of strangers attend a dinner party and are forced to play a twisted game of "would you rather."  I've seen some pretty messed up movies but this one might take the cake.  It's very graphic and disturbing.  I had an idea for the ending but thought, "There's no way that would happen, it's too messed up" and of course, that’s what ended up happening.

26. The Fog- Recommended by friend Nicole, a town happily celebrates its centennial but unbeknownst to the residents, the town’s founding is coming back to haunt them.  This is unmistakably a John Carpenter movie.  Being a huge fan of the Halloween series, my expectations were high and they were met.  There is a great buildup  and it doesn’t rely on overly graphic content. 

27.  *Vacancy- A couple’s car breaks down near a small motel and they decided to spend the night but there may be a reason why they are the only people checking in.  Has it happened?  A horror movie where the lead characters actually make smart decisions?  Indeed it has!  That alone made this enjoyable to watch along with the fantastic tension build and satisfying conclusion.

28.  The Hills Have Eyes (2006)- A family gets stuck in the desert on their road trip to California and encounter violent mutants.  This movie is stupid.  Overreliance on jump scares, unnecessarily graphic, way too long, and didn’t really make sense.

29.  Silent Hill- Based on a video game series, a woman searches for her adopted daughter in a seemingly deserted town.  This movie feels like it will never end.  It’s incredibly long for no real reason.  It may be because I haven’t played the games but it also made no sense.  It seemed like the plot changed every half hour.  After reading tons of discussion boards online, I think I kind of understand it but no movie should require that much outside research.

30.  The Devil Inside- A woman travels to Rome to see her believed to be possessed mother in a mental institution.  I remember when this came out and I really wanted to see it until I heard how terrible it was.  Jump scare after jump scare after jump scare, the rumors were confirmed.  Putting aside the terrible acting and bad attempt at making this a “documentary,” this has one of the worst endings of all time.

31.  *Paranormal Activity- A couple starts to experience strange happenings around their home and set up video cameras to try and capture who or what is the culprit.  I was trying to watch movies I hadn’t seen before but for my last movie in October, I wanted something I knew would be good.  I’ve seen this five or six times and can easily say this is the scariest movie I’ve ever watched.   The buildup of tension is incredible and the events seem like they could have actually happened.  This movie does get a lot of hate but I think many people who call it boring or say nothing happens are too used to jump scares and blood/gore.

* mark my top 3, once again, in no order

And with that, I'm probably never watching another horror movie ever again.  Hope everyone had a good Halloween!

Halloween ended up being really fun!

In other news, Planet Granite officially opened today!  Climbing, gear rental, and belay 
lessons are free all day tomorrow if you didn’t make it today or want to come back.  It was a crazy busy day but great to finally see people climbing in the gym.  Hope to see you there!

That’s all for now.  Bye.

Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

When the rain decided to take a break on Tuesday last week, my friend Nicole suggested we go letterboxing.  What is letterboxing you might ask?  That's a great question because I didn't really know either.

A little bit like geocaching, how letterboxing works is someone hides a little box somewhere out in the world and they leave clues online of how to find said box.  Inside the box is usually a stamp along with a booklet of paper.  When you find the box, you stamp the booklet with your personal stamp you brought along and then if you're really into it, you can stamp your own book with the box's stamp.  Apparently the hardcore people make their own stamps but we used a generic Christmas one I found lying around the house.

Inside one of the boxes

Nature

There's a nature park close to our houses and we found a series of clues around the area so we spent a few hours walking around the forest looking for boxes.  Most of the boxes were fairly easy to find with the exception of two.  I'm pretty sure someone decided to ruin the fun and removed those two boxes.

Nicole found one!

In other news, my sister Amanda came down from Seattle to visit for a few days.  That's always fun!

Also, Planet Granite officially opens a week from today!  Although it's probably going to be crazy busy, I'm really excited!  If anyone is interested, we are doing free day passes, gear rental, and classes for opening weekend if you want to do some climbing and learn how to belay for free.  I finally got to climb a bit at the gym and it's amazing! 

Hope all you Portland people are surviving the wind!

That's all for now.  Bye.

Thriller (Part 1/2)

I love horror movies.  My issues with horror movies are that most scary movies are not scary, they have terrible writing and/or acting, they rely way too heavily on gore, the endings ruin what was a decent movie, and the list goes on.  However, I always get a kick out of them no matter how horribly bad they are.

Earlier in the week I decided I wanted to watch a horror movie everyday for the month of October to get in the Halloween mood.   The only problem was we were already almost two weeks into the month so I had some serious catching up to do.  Besides going through the painfully slow process of fixing my Europe blog after all of the pictures decided to erase themselves, I've been watching movies pretty much back to back to get on track (although it was fun to reread those Europe posts).

In no particular order, here are the first 15:

1. *Sinister- An author who writes about unsolved crimes moves into a murder house, unbeknownst to his family, and starts to see a connection between a series of murders.  I really enjoyed this one.   
2. Eden Lake-  Set in Britain, a couple goes away for a weekend only to be continuously harassed by a group of local teens.  Apparently this caused some controversy in the UK over class prejudice against the working class.  It was alright, nothing too special.  The ending was unsettling.
3. The Mist- Based on the Stephen King book, a group of people are trapped in a grocery store when the town becomes engulfed in a mysterious and deadly mist.  I like Stephen King but this got boring real fast.  It does show an interesting conflict of religion vs. rationalism in a crisis.
4. *1408- Another Stephen King inspired film, a skeptic author who writes about haunted locations stays in room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel where no one has ever survived more than an hour.  I liked it.  I felt like the back story with the family took away from the suspense and the ending was sub par but overall, I recommend.
5. Signs- After mysterious crop circles appear around the world, a farm living family must deal with the strange occurrences happening outside their door.  I had seen this one before.  It has some really dull parts and relies a little too much on religion for my liking but it does build good suspense.
6. World War Z- A worldwide zombie-like virus outbreak forces an ex UN investigator to help figure out a cure.  Good action throughout with a great last scene.  I don't like zombie movies that much but I enjoyed this one.
7. Willow Creek- A couple makes a documentary trying to seek out the legendary Bigfoot.  A bit slow to start but the tension builds quickly towards the end.  A decent and entertaining found footage film.
8. Missionary- A Mormon missionary becomes obsessed with a separated mom trying to reconnect with her husband.  I still don't know how I feel about this one.  It was alright.
9. The Sacrament- With a few changes, this is pretty much the story of the Jonestown massacre.  It's a found footage setup and is quite disturbing seeing as most of what they act out in the movie actually happened.
10. *The Tunnel- Set in Sydney, a reporter and crew go into underground tunnels to figure out why the government suddenly stopped plans to use the tunnels to help with a water shortage.  Another found footage deal but it's made like a documentary.  The documentary style makes it seem more real although you will know from the start who survives due to the interviews.  Good stuff.
11. You're Next- A black comedy/slasher, a family reunion leads to people being picked off one by one by mysterious killers.  Really over the top but if dark humor is your thing, you should like it.  Make sure to pay attention to the dialogue during the chaotic scenes.
12. Wolf Creek- Set in the Northern Territory of Australia, an Aussie and two British friends road trip up north and find themselves stuck in the Outback after their car mysteriously breaks down.  This was pretty terrible.  Very predictable and the girls were incredibly annoying.  Supposedly based loosely on a true story.
13. The House of the Devil- Desperately needing money, a college girl accepts an odd babysitting job and soon finds out it's not what she signed up for.  Made in 2009, this is a great throwback to 80's style horror films.  Although fairly predictable, it was still entertaining and kept my interest.
14. Home Movie- Found footage tapes show the home movies of a couple (pastor and psychiatrist) and their twin children who are displaying disturbing behavior.  I want to like this but there are some major plot holes and the couple wins the award for dumbest/most obnoxious people of all time.  I found myself rooting for the "bad guys" half the time just to hopefully get the parents off screen.  There are some interesting plot elements though, most notably the debate between if the kids are possessed or if they have a mental disorder.
15. The Abandoned- An adopted woman goes back to Russia to learn more about her dead parents' past.  This took me two sittings to get through and I think I fell asleep a few times.  Some people on IMDB loved it but I thought it was beyond boring.

* mark my top 3, once again, in no order

There's a good list to get you started if you want to watch some horror this month (and here is part 2).  Maybe sleep with the lights on tonight.

Going into a creepy attic to take this after watching a bunch of horror movies was not the best idea

That's all for now.  Bye.