AM Mystery

A bad picture due to early morning light, but the car on the right was left running, with its lights and windshield wipers on (although it wasn’t raining.) The trunk was open and the driver and passenger seats were flung forward. It looked like it had run into something, though nothing around it looked as though it had been hit. I approached cautiously, but there was nothing to see, so I walked away. There was a gentleman outside a business and he told me that one of his employees had seen the car roll to a stop and a guy jump out, grab something from the back and drive off. Someone had called 911, so I continued on my way to work. I could hear the sirens approaching while I was at the Max stop, but I will never know exactly what happened here.

Three sentence movie reviews: Cyrus


Excellent performances by all three actors, this was like watching three great character studies. It was fun to notice the parallels between John C. Reilly and his ex-wife and Jonah Hill and Marisa Tomei. Plus, any movie with Catherine Keener in it is for me.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2010/cyrus.html

Probably the last place I would want to eat breakfast.

The Dancin‘ Bare is what I see when I stand at my Max stop. It’s one of those neighborhood institutions that I don’t want to get all huffy and protest-y and start petitions and force it to close, but I would be quite happy if it ceased to exist. (Portland International Raceway is the other one.) I can tell you, though that I will not be eating any meal there, even if they are offering a plate of eggs and hash browns to go along with their strippers.

An important notice from Director Park.

I checked in with Director Park back in a cold month. Now, of course, I can’t find that post to link to. Suffice to say, I wasn’t thrilled with the scale of the architecture or the sterile nature of the park. The Oregonian had an article about the park on 9/9/10 “A year after Director Park opens in Portland, visitors consider it a hit” which coincided with this picture I snapped the day before.

According to the article, “as many as 500 [people] visit on a nice day during lunch” with July’s total tally being 30,000 people. The article goes on to say that this park is the only park which has a full time event programmer and it also has part-time hosts who staff the plaza twelve hours per day.

Well. I’m sure if the much-neglected O’Bryant Square a few blocks north had someone scheduling festivals, art shows, lectures and classes, it too would be a popular park. The article closes with the following:
“Though Director has been popular in balmy weather, what happens in the rainy months ahead is uncertain.

But Rouse is so proud of the way the park has been embraced that she’s convinced Portlanders will enjoy it in winter.

“Come back in January,” she said, “and I bet you there’ll be someone sitting under the awning with a latte.”

I’m sure if the full time event planner is still planning things, there will be people about. I don’t begrudge Portland a successful park. However, I still think the scale of the park is “off” and I’m wondering why focus so much money and attention on just one block when there are other parks in the vicinity without such resources.

Hallelujah!

I’ve been putting money into a savings account to fund an emergency fund of three months of living expenses for more than 10 years. The emergency fund has been depleted time and again over the years, mostly because of emergencies. There have also been periods of employment where I could only save $25.00 per month. When you are shooting for $5100 in savings, depositing $25.00 per month can be particularly disheartening.

Still I persisted. And this month, I’m proud to say that I have reached my emergency fund’s first goal. Yip-yip-yipee! My next goal will be to have six months of living expenses in the bank.

What should I do to celebrate? Perhaps buy a pony?

Kidding. I’ll probably read another personal finance book.

A redoubling of efforts.

It’s been 18 days since I started my two-posts-per-day regimen. The good news is that I have posted 41 new posts since that time. The bad news is I am just now tip-toeing out of May.There are roughly 3 weeks until PSU school starts, and I want to be within a month of present day at that point. I need to be to August 29 or further. So I’m going to strive for four posts done per day. If I can do that, there will be 88 new posts published and we will hopefully be into September. Right?

Ugh! Never again will I get so behind.

10/3 note (date I’m actually hitting the “publish post” button): Hey! According to this blog post, I met my goal! Good job me!

Three sentence movie reviews: Happy-go-lucky.


I was uncomfortable during most of this movie, first because the main character is so cheery-weird that it is off putting. Then, the escalation of the oddness of the driving instructor combined with the cheery-weirdness of the main character was very jarring. I’m sure that was all the point, and I was engrossed the whole time, but I felt exhausted by the time the movie was over.

Then, I got to feel uncomfortable all over again because my domestic violence cousnselor boyfriend disagreed quite emphatically with the main character’s choice. Geez.

http://www.impawards.com/2008/happy_go_lucky.html