beef

I travelled down to Portland this weekend to go to the Shakedown Music Fest (This page is now new with an explanation form the promoter side). When I was about 20 minutes outside of Portland, Jason, who was going to meet me down there, called.

Jason: You’ll never guess what I just heard.
Beef: No, I won’t guess.
Jason: They cancelled shakedown.
Beef: (awkward silence) Those son of a #$@!%. (Feel the hatred rise.)
Jason: I just read it on the internet.
Beef: (sigh)

I know, that was a dramatic reenactment.
This is what you were greeted with when you tried to find out further info.

So, I was down in Portland with no plans. But, I had an few days to blow in Portland. It was just a matter of waiting to see what would pan out as far as artists already in the area for the festival. Thursday night was filled with an adventure with Mandi. Rossi and I went and saw Robert Walters’ Super Heavy Organ at the Doug Fir Lounge. Both the band an venue were fantastic. Check out super heavy organ if you get a chance. I’d have to say the Doug Fir is pretty high up there in venues in the NW.

Saturday involved a little disc golf with John, Frank, Brandi, Kyle, Julia. and Piper. The following photos were taken to commerate this fine occasion. I don’t have anybody to throw disc with in Seattle so this was my first outing in a couple years. It was hot and dusty on this Saturday afternoon.

Saturday night, we went and checked out the band that opened for super heavy organ on friday night, Triclops. They were fun organ funk jazz. The guitar player was great. He had a slide guitar. His regular guitar would be played at whatever angle he felt. (normal, set on his lap, standing up on his lap, etc.)

Tra la la. Overall a good weekend. No festival, but probably for the best in the end as it was in the high 80s, low 90s with blazing sun.

for those of you who want double the fun…..sackvsbeef.com.

this will let you explore the glories of my website combined with the wholesome fun that can be had at bohnsack.com. sack is the master of most(all right probably all).

If you are interested in some good science writing, simon singh has written three excellent books. All three topics – the universe, crytography, and mathematics – are covered in some detail. He is able to write in an easy te read style. The main enjoyment of the books are the telling of the history of each subject from the past. He introduces you to the major milestones in history of each of the subjects. He is able to provide some technical background as you go along but without leaving one’s head swimming in the hard science of it all.

Simon Singh / Fermat’s Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World’s Greatest Mathematical Problem
Simon Singh / The Code Book: The Evolution of Secrecy from Mary, the Queen of Scots to Quantum Crytography
Simon Singh / Big bang : the origin of the universe

a last minute decision to go see panic at the gorge (on the 2nd of July, I know – long time ago.). i had downloaded a set from bonaroo ( i think) and listened to it. wheeee, i was sucked in again. tasty licks and the whole shebang. luckily the show was about a week out.

really, the gorge has got to be the single best place to see a concert in the us. out in the rolling plains of eastern washington, next to the columbia river. red rocks has its own selling points but as far as nature and the escape from civilization, the gorge can not be beat. denver is to close to red rocks for you to really feel like you are in the middle of nowhere.

continue reading…

Closing the door, turning the key, walking to the car. Sigh. An errant scrap of paper loops through the air, wind pushing it towards its make-believe destination. Fumbling keys pulled out of deep pockets. Ipod, cellphone, book, check. The key turns the magic lock, the secret world of vacuum pushes the other locks open. Sliding into the captain’s chair. Select the right key, push it into the ignition. The glow plug light tells me to bide my time. Start the engine. Blue smoke pours out the exhaust. Wasted fuel that doesn’t get to fully realize its dreams. Engine roars to life. Slowly shift into drive. Push the accelerator. Pull away from the curb. Move down the hill . The car rolling over the terrain. A moment of weightlessness as the car powers over bumps in the road. Slow down as I reach the bottom of the hill. Speeding around the curves with the industrial magic slipping by in the corner of my vision. Stacks of containers waiting for their return trip to the orient. Others file from their modes of transportation. Approaching their places of livelihood. Nourishment in hand, attitudes in brain. The road floats above my head. The bridge carries my vision, crossing the forgotten realms below. The car enters the leaf of the clover, depositing me onto the final approach to the days task. The viaduct carries me over the stop and go below. Cars and trucks rearrange to reach the proper escape at the appointed time. Off to the west, the water and the mountains swim together in a geologic gathering. My ride slips into the darkness of the tunnel. Downtown is left behind as the final approach is underway. Forces pull me outward as the tunnel bends and gets ready to spit me out into the bright sunshine once again. Pushing the accelerator, I exit the corner and the tunnel with a burst of speed. Frantically assessing the surroundings, the benz moves inside out. The brakes impede the movement. Maneuvering the auto onto the driveway of the parking lot. A magnetic pass slides through the reader, allowing access to the asphalt day spa. The car glides into its destination. The last notes of the funky beat play through my head. Turn off the ignition, remove the key. Exit. Repeat.

My monitor crapped out on me over the weekend. Wheeeee. Now, I am able to get a LCD monitor. Being the cheap ass I am, I’ve resorted to getting a refurbished Viewsonic from Outpost.com. $150 plus shipping. My cat, Aiko, will be disappointed as the top of the monitor was her previous favorite place. It currently has been taken over with the top of the dryer and top of the recycle bin.

update jerks, it took them a whole day to realize that everyone and there mom wanted one at this price. they emailed twice today. once to tell me my order was processed anda second time to tell me they didn’t have anymore. booooooo.

update of updatewell instead i went with neww egg and got this monitor instead the DCL9A. Eh, it works well after one day. The big screen is nice and the colors are definitely bigger than the 15″ CRT I had previously. I used to have a problem seeing the days with posts on my calendar in the sidebar. Now they are clean and crisp and easy to pick out.

–6:19– A cruel time on a cruel morning. A ray of sunshine flitters through an opening in the shade. Little pugs lie restless in their bed. Occasionally prancing on the floor. The time clearly apparent to them. The covers are pulled tighter around my head.. The pillow is scrunched up to support my weary rest. –6:20– Sigh, the alarm is set to go off at 6:22. It’s not really 6:20, only in my mind. The clock is set exactly 22 minutes flat. Why? Maybe to fool my self into believing I’m getting to sleep an extra 22 minutes than I actually am. Of course, at that time in the morning, the brain isn’t awake enough to fully process the ramifications of a clock moved forward. –6:21– My bladder tries to motivate me to get up. The little puggies whimper in the distance. Feed me. Let me go outside. Just a few more minutes. No really. A stray hand moves across the ground. Aimlessly hoping to bump into the glasses on the floor. No luck. I may have to lean over the edge of the bed to find them. –6:22– The clock radio powers up and a story comes to life on the radio. Do I want to figure out what the topic is or do the sound waves penetrate my ears and go unprocessed. A sweeping arm reaches over, fumbles with the clock, and deftly touches the three inch snooze bar. A nine minute reprieve. Sorry pugs, breakfast has got to wait.

Things happen for a reason and I’ve yet discover what it is at this point. In general, I rarely use my horn while driving. Most times it doesn’t seem worth the effort. People don’t take it for what it is. Whether it is a rude driver cutting me off or someone staring off into space at a green light. I usually restraining from sounding off for a variety of reasons, usually it’s that I prefer to stay non-confrontational. I think through the responses of my action – in most cases, the horn honking will really piss someone off or they will be frightened by my action.

So to my dismay, a weird electrical glitch ( aren’t they all strange for the most part) has caused me to lose the functionality of my clock, hazards, power antennae, and horn. I assume that they are all related as to the best of my knowledge they all occurred at the same time. But since this time, I have been increasingly agitated at not having the option to use my horn. At least 10 different instances, I’ve found myself wishing bodily harm on drivers who have performed a task that has not been too my liking. Of course the obvious solution is to fix my horn and then the security of the loud noise would be in my corner again. I really haven’t done anything to rectify the situation. I don’t have a good feel for where the wires may lay except for under my dash steering column. As with most electrical problems, I loathe to let any professionals look at it. Electrical problems and auto repair shops generally don’t go together well. It is rarely done right the first time which frustrates me further. But hopefully I can take a look this weekend and then I can at least say I’ve tried. Right now, I’ve only got myself to blame.

I have been negligent in supplying new material to the legion of four or five people who stop by this site for the insightful and entertaining posts that I provide from time to time. For the last couple of days, I’ve tried to figure out why this is the case. In general, I like to provide pictures with anything I post. It often provides more insight too my story when I know that words can not do it justice. Taking the effort to get those pictures ready are my biggest barrier. Photoshop takes a while to load on my old computer. Resize and touchup pictures if necessary. Upload them to the site, I think I may have found a better solution, I will see how it works this evening.

It’s not like I don’t have a bunch of things to post about but lately I’d rather read a book, take a nap, visit with family, play a video game, etc. Tonight, I will see if I can get three posts up about recent things. The following is a list of topics for possible inclusion. A couple of these ideas go all the way back to the beginning of July but were entertaining enough that I don’t want to let them get left behind.

I tried to include a funny story with this rambling but nothing came to mind. I think I try to keep my self out of “funny” situations. No wait…I do have one item. Tiberious (our pug) loves to eat. He’ll eat just about anything other but behind carrots, tomatoes are his favorite thing. As the summer rolls along the tomatoes in the garden continues to grow. The pugs get let loose in the backyard to frolic around and take care of business but leave them out there for more than a couple of minutes and they gravitate to the garden. Slowly sneaking through the beds and the flowers that surround them. He takes a few cautious steps, makes the 8-inch jump into one of the raised bed and pauses by the tomatoes. His squirrelly pink tongue darts out and lashes against the slowly ripening tomatoes that hang low to the ground. The pace quickens, the pug brain knowing that the shout from across the yard is soon to come. But Tiberious loves his sweet precious tomatoes. The call comes, he pauses for a moment, steals one last lick, and trots out of the garden and back through the yard. Alas, in the coming weeks, the tomatoes low to the ground will slowly disappear as they ripen and find there way into little puggy’s tummies.