blog.circusgeek

a personal blog with nerdy bits thrown in

  • Last night smoking at the pub

    Tonight I met my brothers and my friend Snooks at my favorite pub, Moon & Sixpence, for what will be my last chance smoking inside. Last night I met Snooks at Kennedy School, tonight it’s Moon. It’s my ‘farewell tour’.

    The photo pretty much sums up how I feel about the situation.

    Ever since the law passed (a year and a half ago) I’ve been a little angry about it. Not just because of the smoking ban itself, but because of how it was passed and the hypocrisy of a giant, gaping loophole.

    The law was passed by the Oregon legislature, and wasn’t put to a public vote. Those kinds of laws always piss me off a little anyway, just on principle. It’s not that a proposal to ban smoking in bars wouldn’t have passed (however the failed proposal to increase cigarette taxes just six months prior makes me think that even non-smokers aren’t vote-zombies when it comes to anything related to smoking), it probably would have passed. However, what would have certainly raised some questions has been my biggest issue with this bullshit law: cigar bars are exempt. Apparently, the vast amounts of smoke; the strong, musty, thick plumes of particles that are pumped out of cigars, are NOT harmful to Oregon bar employees. Nope. Nosirree.

    At one point I asked an employee of one of Kennedy School’s bars (that tomorrow will be a cigar bar) if cigarettes will be allowed. He said no, and that he’d be responsible for playing bad cop and telling smokers to put out their cigarettes, while others continued to puff away on their cigars. If that doesn’t make you ardent anti-smokers angry, it fucking well should.

    This new law was trotted out as a big, happy, “flowers and puppies” public health win, Oregon bar workers no longer had to suffer at their chosen place (and line) of work.  But apparently their health is only a top concern as long as they don’t work in the kinds of places that rich, white politician-types like to frequent. You know, a place where they can suck on a big fat turd and drink whiskey. In that case, Oregon bar workers, fill up them lungs with cigar smoke and deal. What’s worse, is that most articles about the ban forget to mention this exemption. Interesting omission.

    Public vote or not, there would always be part of a ban like this that I will never agree with, the state is taking business decisions out of business owners hands. Last Sunday’s Oregonian front-page article about the ban says, and I quote “Oregon officials tout that most bars and restaurants already ban smoking.” This tells me that the system has been working exactly like it should. If business owners realize that they can make more money by catering to smokers/non-smokers, they run their business accordingly. Regarding workplace safety, obviously (as I mentioned above) that only counts if you aren’t stepping on the vices of those who pass laws. Besides, not all bar employees are happy about it either. I’ve asked employees at the places I frequent, and while a few were looking forward to it, most others weren’t. Some said it all came down to choice. Several of the workers I spoke to over the year were also smokers, and chose to work in a smoking establishment. To quote Leisa Vierling from the Oregonian article, “it should be a choice where we want to work”. Amen.

    I never went into coal mining, or logging, or deep-sea fishing because I deemed it too dangerous. I don’t drink and drive because it’s too dangerous (and stupid). Hell, I don’t drink hard liquor because for me, it’s dangerous. It’s all part of being a grown-up. It’s called making choices. I choose to smoke. I know it’s bad for me, no smoker has any illusion about that. But I enjoy it, and I especially enjoy a smoke when I’m having a beer or two. Hell, even non-smokers enjoy the occasional smoke when drinking. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had non-smokers (even those who’d give me shit about my smoking) bum a smoke from me after they’ve had a few. Bar owners know that people smoke when they drink. For some bar owners, there’s significant financial incentive to allow smoking in their establishments. And now, they can’t make that choice. It’s been made for them.

    I wish bars and taverns luck. Non-smokers already had options, and unless there’s a whole army of non-smokers who’d never gone out before the ban, and they suddenly come sweeping into your now-smoke-free establishments, things could get tight.

    Given the current economic climate, with everybody tightening their purse strings, us smokers were just handed one less reason to go out.

    Speaking of which, I need to order another keg. 🙂

  • Christmas with the family (finally)

    Finally had Christmas at my folks place today. The snow in Portland is pretty much gone, and it had finally melted enough in my hometown that the family thought we all might manage to get to my parents house safely. Even then, there was no way I could have driven my car up there (there was still over a foot of snow on the ground and lots of deep slushy roads) so Kelly & I met my brother C in town a few miles away and left our car. This year we’d all agreed to do a small Christmas, with the goal of making things more than buying things. This lead to some nice gifts (Kelly made jars of cookie mix with attached recipies, my mom knitted stocking caps, that kind of thing). It was very nice and relaxing. We also had a large brunch and I ate way too much. Still full.

  • Christmas at home

    Due to the unusual amount of snow that’s hit the greater Portland area this past week, Kelly and I were unable to make the usual trek out to my folks house today.

    My hometown, which is nestled in the foothills of the Oregon coast range, had more than two feet of snow. This is the most snow my folks have ever seen, and that’s saying something. When I was young we’d fairly regularly get about a foot of snow, though over the past 15 years getting more than six inches of snow, especially before Christmas, has been a rare thing.

    This meant that this was the first Christmas that my family hasn’t spent together opening gifts, eating breakfast, eating pies, and gorging ourselves on far too many cookies. It had my family pretty bummed out, especially my younger brothers.

    If it warms up and the snow continues to melt (which is the forecast) we’ll be out there in a few days (maybe Saturday) to celebrate Christmas. It’s only a few days delay, no big deal. Fortunately I have family who all live in the same area, and nobody has had to travel long distances. I can’t imagine the hell it must have been for people trying to get into (or out of) Portland the past few days. The inconvenience of postponing Christmas a few days isn’t that big a deal.

    Tonight Kelly and I met Snooks at Kennedy School for a couple beers, which was a nice break away from home. On the way back Kelly and I helped a cab get un-stuck. Poor fella tried to turn from a relatively cleared street onto a snow & slushy mess and got stuck. It’s still a mess out here.

    Anyway, Happy Holidays everyone. Hope you all had a great day. And only a week away from 2009. Maybe this year will be better than the last.

  • I’ve added a photo gallery of all the snow

    I’ve added a gallery of photos, documenting the snow storm that Portland has had over the past week. Most are of my house and the local area, including some photos I took while Kelly and I walked down to Kennedy School a few hours ago. It’s funny to see the progression from last week, when I was taking photos of a light dusting (as if it were a big deal), and then to see where it is now (12 inches or more of snow).

    I’m now sitting home, sipping on some beers, just having eaten a delicious chicken korma dish Kelly cooked up (yummy!) and listening to Christmas music. Nice.

    Anyway, enjoy the photos!

  • Crazy, it’s still snowing!

    Here’s some updated versions of the photos I took the other day.

    We’ve now got a LOT of snow. More than I’ve seen in this neighborhood since moving to northeast in 2004. More than I’ve seen in Portland in a long time. Apparently the amount of snowfall for Portland is reaching the previous record high for this time of year, which was in 1969. Golly.

    Yesterday was a bit crappier, in that there was a sheet of freezing rain from the early morning hours, which put an icy glaze over everything, including power lines and trees. Fortunately it was less than a half inch coating at our house, but other areas got hit pretty hard, major freeways were closed, and lots of people lost power (and/or tree limbs). However, by the afternoon it started snowing again, and it seemed to snow all night and continues now.

    So the strata of this winter blanket around my neighborhood goes something like this:

    • 5-8 inches of snow
    • .25 – .5 inch of ice
    • 3-4 inches of snow
    • + still snowing

    In some spots it’s deeper (due to the winds creating 1 to 2 foot deep piles). Either way, it’s just nutty, and very unusual, to get snow like this in Portland.

  • Still snowing

    Here’s some more snow pics from my house, taken at around 1 PM today.

    Had a nice, relaxing day. Slept in nice and late, got up and realized I didn’t have creamer for coffee (yeah, I use creamer, wanna fight?) so I got cleaned up and braved the snowy weather and walked to the local grocery store. The snow is that really fine, powdery stuff that you get when it’s very cold, and the wind was blowing, which meant that my clothes were covered white by the time I got home.

    The powdery snow makes it difficult to get a clear sense of how much snow we’ve gotten (it blows into piles as deep as a foot, and then blows some spots nearly clear), though I’d guess we’ve gotten about 4 inches so far. Maybe more. Not sure. Doesn’t matter because it’s still nice to look outside and see everything covered in a blanket of white.

  • Wintry weather, and some well earned vacation

    Snow in NE Portland, 2008The past week has been very wintry here in Portland, unusually so. We had snow over last weekend (as Kelly mentioned), some 24 degree days, and again over the past day or two, more snow! I always love the snow, makes the world feel a bit softer somehow. We had more yesterday, a bit of a warming today, and then more snow tonight. I got home to a white neighborhood again. Love it.

    Work has kept me insanely busy over the past few weeks, which explains why I’ve been ignoring the blog. I’ve been working late hours (more than a few 1 AM night, and one 16 hour up-til-4 AM code-fest, urgh), trying to get a bunch of feature work done for SuperSweetCo’s upcoming release. The late hours were partially because I really wanted to get something added that wasn’t officially planned for, so the only way to do it was to work late nights. We did a demo today, and the release is really coming together and looking fantastic. Mad props to everybody involved. I’m super excited to see this next version launch in a couple months.

    Fortunately (for my sanity) I’ve got the next two weeks off of work. I look forward to lots of sleeping in, gaming (Team Fortress 2 and Call of Duty, here I come!), and generally doing nothing (except the usual holiday season activities). Hopefully I can get some shopping done, finally.

  • A day at home, a night at Goose & Moon

    Yesterday I got a few Blu-ray discs I picked at Amazon.com for fairly cheap (on black friday). Watched two last night, Batman Begins and Sunshine. Can’t wait until Dark Knight is delivered in a week or two, I’ve been waiting to see that again since I saw it in the theater.

    I woke up early today and got quite a bit done around the house. It was a nice sunny, and cold winter day, and was good for puttering about the house while Kelly was out shopping with friends. Among all the housework and bill-paying and other nonsense, I discovered how easy Handbrake makes it to convert DVD’s to iPod-friendly files, and added a movie to my iPod Touch. Hooray!

    Tonight Kelly and I went back to the famous Goose Hollow Inn for dinner and drinks with friends. Had a great time out, eating reuben sandwiches, drinking beers, and chatting the night away out on the heated patio. After we left for home, Kelly and I stopped at our local pub (Moon & Sixpence) for a couple more pints before heading home.

    Had a great day, and a great night out.

  • Winter brewfest, and Moon

    After a few days of very intense and focused work (meetings galore!), today several coworkers and I went to the Portland Holiday Ale Festival at around 3pm to sample some tasty, malty, and strong holiday ales. The Santa Baby Stout from McMenamins was my favorite, but I sampled a few stronger, smokey stouts that were also pretty darned good.

    I was going to go to dinner with my coworkers at Clyde Common, which I hear is fantastic, but I had a prior engagement with my brother T at Moon & Sixpence to have a few more beers and some dinner. I hope to go to Clyde Common soon, however. A coworker says that even their burger is fantastic, and well worth a visit. Fortunately it’s right up the street from my office.

  • A second turkey day, and some bowling

    Last night Kelly prepared our own Thanksgiving dinner, cooking a 11 lb turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing. While the turkey prep and cooking was a bit involved it turned out delicious. After an early dinner we plugged ourselves into the living room furniture for an evening of movie and television watching. Nice relaxing night. I ate too much.

    Tonight we went out to Beaverton for my friend Eric’s birthday, meeting at a McMenamins for dinner, and then heading over to Sunset Lanes for some Cosmic Bowling (you know, music played loud with videos projected above the lanes, black lights, etc). It’d been quite a while since I’d bowled, and I never have been very good, but it was fun anyway. Top score: a pathetic 128. That was almost double the first game (70), so I figure that if we’d played a third game, I’d have gotten 240. Or, more likely, I would have gotten another 70. But again, whatever, it was fun.