earthquake

I experienced my first earthquake yesterday, but since I neither have photographs of it nor anything interesting to say about it (other than to note that my cat eagerly ran and stood in the doorway while I stood in the middle of the living room watching my shelving unit wobble), I'll share these photos from the John Lautner architecture tour that I volunteered for on Sunday. Amazing!

I have about 450 more pictures of the three houses I saw, but I'll spare you, and our bandwidth.

*L

my new neighbor

So it looks like the new place is a go. I saw this guy park on the street, near the hydrant. * k

Roundup...

I was scooting in the Pearl section of Portland when I saw this sign. Imagine a smaller Soho: ganz commercial based on shopping, everything is new, with the requisite galleries and occasional interesting stuff sprinkled in. I was in the area scoping dog care options for Forrest and Luke while we're in Ely, MN learning about black bears. Although, I suspect these dogs would be very popular with bears, for like two minutes.

The sign helped me see the parking spot, so thanks job done!
Dedicated scooter/'cycle parking is great, it really saves space (as you park perpendiucular to the curb) and me from dirty looks when I take a car space.

I didn't notice the ticky-tacky car wheels in the background at the time.... *k

local branding

spotted at the 99 cent store.
are the cleaners in other cities "totally awesome" too? or maybe it's "wicked awesome" for boston, j?
*L

You'd think God would be unlisted? * k

com-post

This article may be trashy inspiration for K (and maybe for the rest of us lazy asses also).  I know J composts, and I horde reusable plastics and packaging materials like a pack(aging material) rat, but this takes it a few steps beyond.  I'm fascinated by the idea of a community actually being so well functioning as to even consider not having trash pickup.  Even if the idea was initially inspired by financial savings rather than environmental.

Judging from J's link below, I'm guessing this would be especially disastrous in Baltimore.  *L

This will bring you back to our drunken disagreements in L's Brooklyn living room...

Well, i finally found my way to a computer with sound and thus finally heard the yogurt post. I figured i should just create a new post, as the comment section of that one might not be viewed any more.

I have to say, as usual: Ich bin verwirt. All ads are aimed to target audiences. Watch daytime tv: its all cleaning and food and kids stuff w/ women in the ads. Watch manly programing (like football, which we all know i watch a lot of but am still not talking about due to the endless, burning heartache from last winter) and the beer and car ads are all aimed toward and about men. And, frankly, if i were a man i would find them way more offensive than this yogurt commercial. And really, it is women who buy this stuff more. And probably need it. Though, eating yogurt 5 days a week has not stopped the monthly 4 straight days i spend having diarrhea due to my stupid "womanly" problems. Thought maybe the cyber world would like to know about this...

I digress.

So, i ask, what is the anger directed towards? You mentioned the women in the ads, but if someone offered to pay me $30,000 to be in one of those ads (or any ad for that matter) i would run to the filming studio. Any money made from ads is more than likely thousands of dollars more than my yearly salary. Hell, I'd probably do it for a few thousand.

Is it the company? Because you really can't blame a corporation for wanting to get the most bang for its advertising buck by targeting ads to the most likely audience. Better corporate profits help society through dividends and the wealth-inducing flow of capital goods! Ya boyz!

Is it society? This makes a little more sense to me, but after 3 years of living in my neighborhood i find it shocking that our society isn't even more ignorant and dysfunctional than it already is. [Ooops! snob alert. Don't be hating. Move here first.]

Any how, i sincerely wasn't really sure what was upsetting, so i thought i'd start a little dialog. Much like that fun one we had about the emes chair. j

Used Rat Dog

I spied this at the start of a failed camping trip about 40 miles or so west of Portland. I liked the friendly utility of ads and notices scrawled on a classroom size blackboard outside of a rural store. A whiteboard would not have been the same. Dogs were a popular listing.

Spay and neuter your pets. *k

i dream of a world...

...in which living near a touch of greenery doesn't necessitate gas-guzzling, fume-spewing leaf blowers screaming every day.

...in which people don't make toy leaf blowers. period.




top photo credit here.
we'll let the kid remain anonymous until someone buys him a toy rake and puts him to some use.
*L