http://ignoregon.com/rss/eugene Aggregated Blog Posts From Eugene Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:45:24 +0000 en http://winesfamily.blogspot.com/2010/07/duck-stuff-morning-mud_30.html http://winesfamily.blogspot.com/2010/07/duck-stuff-morning-mud_30.html Fri, 30 Jul 2010 07:04:00 +0000 • Here are some of last years highlights for Tacoi Sumler, the 4* WR who gave his verbal to the Ducks yesterday.GO DUCKS! http://oregonflyfishingblog.com/2010/07/30/your-chance-to-be-heard-oregon-board-of-forestry-meeting-friday/ http://oregonflyfishingblog.com/2010/07/30/your-chance-to-be-heard-oregon-board-of-forestry-meeting-friday/ Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:31:00 +0000 Do you think our state forests offer any value to Oregonians other than timber revenue? Does clean water matter? Do fish, wildlife and recreation matter? Of course they do. That’s why Oregon’s Department of Forestry correctly identifies the “greatest permanent value” of our forests as: “healthy, productive and sustainable forest ecosystems that over time and [...] http://beerandcoding.com/last-of-the-summer-beer/ http://beerandcoding.com/last-of-the-summer-beer/ Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:51:00 +0000 Here we are, just over a month into summer and at the market, I am greeted by a floor display of Okto. With the seasonal brews being rotated off the shelves, I figured I should post my summer beer roundup before they all disappear. Starting on a positive note, none of the seasonal beers I’ve tried this [...] http://eugenesaturdaymarket.blogspot.com/2010/07/saturday-market-17-musics-edge.html http://eugenesaturdaymarket.blogspot.com/2010/07/saturday-market-17-musics-edge.html Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:09:00 +0000 Saturday was a stage-centric day for me, no doubt about it. It was a swirling succession of musicians, amps, guitar cases and assorted gear all day long from the first set onward. There was even a magician with all his gear thrown into the mix.The true tidal wave of gear hit about 1:15 PM. The Music's Edge Rock Campers had arrived. It took a while to get the kids to move their stuff away from my neighbor Dotti's booth, but eventually we got it jammed in around the sound board. This is about half of it, three bands worth:That being done, they commenced to wait...and wait...Finally after quite a bit of setting up, they commenced to rock. These are a couple of kids from John Shipe's band "Black Market."They were followed by "Things That Happen In The Basement," mentored by Ehren Ebbage."No Hands," Tim McLaughlin's band, wrapped it up.Some of these kids I recognized from last year, some were brand new. I was so impressed by them all! They had six days to form a band, learn the tunes, and get it all together. Heck, I know bands that have argued over a band name for more than six days... However Tim, John and Ehren managed to make that happen, I applaud them. The crowd was full of relatives and friends, all supportive, but lots of Market-goers stopped to watch too. Not to see if cute young kids could play old familiar rock tunes, but because the performances were really good. Another Rock Camp week is coming up, wrapping up with another showcase on the Market Stage on August 14 at 2. Come check it out, you'll be impressed too. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ToTryANewSwordOnAChanceWayfarer/~3/u_7XNDGqxXk/musical-interlude-gordon-lightfoot-if.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ToTryANewSwordOnAChanceWayfarer/~3/u_7XNDGqxXk/musical-interlude-gordon-lightfoot-if.html Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:00:00 +0000 http://winesfamily.blogspot.com/2010/07/pac-10-media-poll-oregon-1.html http://winesfamily.blogspot.com/2010/07/pac-10-media-poll-oregon-1.html Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:42:00 +0000 • Thought I would get one last post up before we head out of town. Ted Miller just posted this from his blog.In a tie for the second-closest vote, Oregon nipped USC to top the Pac-10 media poll, but it's a sign of perceived conference parity that seven teams received No. 1 votes.Here's the poll (No. 1 votes)   1. Oregon (15)... 314   2. USC (12)... 311   3. Oregon State (3)... 262   4. Stanford (1)... 233   5. Arizona (2)... 222   6. Washington (1)...209   7. California... 175   8. UCLA (1)... 134   9. Arizona... 81  10. Washington State... 39GO DUCKS! http://oregonflyfishingblog.com/2010/07/29/wisdom-from-the-trout-hunter-rene-harrop-talks-about-his-new-book-learning-from-the-water/ http://oregonflyfishingblog.com/2010/07/29/wisdom-from-the-trout-hunter-rene-harrop-talks-about-his-new-book-learning-from-the-water/ Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:08:00 +0000 Ever hear of a trout stream called the Henry’s Fork? It’s a trib of the Snake River that flows through our neighbor-state of Idaho. It’s one of the most challenging trout streams in the world–a large, often glassy spring creek, loaded with huge, highly educated rainbows. If you’ve read John Gierach, you know all about [...] http://winesfamily.blogspot.com/2010/07/duck-stuff-morning-mud_29.html http://winesfamily.blogspot.com/2010/07/duck-stuff-morning-mud_29.html Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:26:00 +0000 • Rob Moseley notes that a report out of DuckTerritory.com have 4* WR Tacoi Sumler from Miami committing to Oregon. Here is a video interview with Sumler from ESPN.“There is no better sports marketing program than the Warsaw program Oregon offers. I think it’s one of the best fits for me on the field as well. The combination of what they offer on and off the field is simply the best overall opportunity for me."• Rob also posted  his fall camp preview of the running backs.The question for James entering fall camp is, what does he do for an encore, now that he’ll be the centerpiece of Oregon’s offense, to the extent that there even is one in a spread.• Here is another indication that Masoli is headed for Ole Miss.• Chip Kelly took the time yesterday to do an interview with ESPN Radio and says we'll only have one QB come opening day. You can listen to the complete podcast here.• Heading out for our annual Man Camp trip today and will be back Sunday afternoon. I have a couple of posts scheduled for Fri-Sun but will not be able to report any breaking stories until I get back. GO DUCKS! http://culinariaeugenius.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/culinaria-eugenius-in-london-full-english-calling/ http://culinariaeugenius.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/culinaria-eugenius-in-london-full-english-calling/ Thu, 29 Jul 2010 05:53:00 +0000 I’m in London, en route to Zurich, eating a full English breakfast minus the fatty bacon, burnt sausage, watery black tomato, and Heinz beans (i.e., poached eggs on toast).  Cherish your cage-free eggs, mates, because the alternative is tasteless. Worse yet because I’ve spent the last week reading up on Victorian food adulterations.  Ick. ps.  [...] http://sgttanuki.blogspot.com/2010/07/four-rooms-1995.html http://sgttanuki.blogspot.com/2010/07/four-rooms-1995.html Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:29:00 +0000 I rewatched this because of my recent Quentin Tarantino project, but of course it wasn't his deal alone. It's an omnibus, somewhat reminiscent of the much-ballyhooed (if you were around to remember it) New York Stories of a few years prior. Like that, it seemed to want to function as a sort of thumbnail guide to the sensibilities of the leading film lights of a certain generation, or at least a certain scene, although of course it came much earlier in the careers of its principals than did New York Stories. Partly for that reason, it's more effective. It was the first I knew of Allison Anders and Richard Rodriguez, and it's still the only thing I know of Alexandre Rockwell. ...Anders I still need to seek out more of, since Grace of My Heart is the only other thing I've seen; Rodriguez I may like even better than Tarantino. Certainly I concur with the consensus that his segment here is the best of the four. "Did they misbehave?"Tarantino's segment, "The Man From Hollywood," isn't the best of the four. I think I've said that. But it is a fitting conclusion to the movie. I like how it brings back Jennifer Beals: it helps emphasize the subtle (and nonsensical) connections between the four episodes in a way that really does help them add up to a whole film, at least for me. More than that, though, she's a very intriguing presence in this segment, evoking classic femmes fatales even better than she does in her own segment."The Man From Hollywood" is all about intriguing presences, textures, rhythms, details. The plot is completely simple - as the characters acknowledge, it's based on an old TV show, but without even the twist that the TV show had. The twist is that there is no twist, and it's a very effective payoff. You know, it's all about will they cut the guy's finger off, and, surprise: they do. The End. Really funny, actually. But it's funny because all the odd details - Beals, Bruce Willis, the business about the champagne, the patter about the Alfred Hitchcock show, the setup with the cash - have you on the lookout for something weird, something hidden, something besides just the obvious ending. (It's also funny because of the timing: you know, you just know, that they're going to keep building the suspense through nine shots with the lighter.) In its own way, the ending is just as good a punchline as "Did they misbehave?"(Which tells you what kind of filmmakers Tarantino and Rodriguez were, and are, that for all their experiments with tone and subject matter, they never neglect to give you a good punchline.)Of course there's something else to watch here, too, which is Tarantino's character, which is - has to be - some kind of parody of himself in the first rush of Hollywood stardom following Pulp Fiction. Chester Rush clearly has something, but he's also clearly losing himself in excess and ego. He's already so jaded that he's resorting to bloodshed for thrills, he's so lost in his own obsessions that he's recreating obscure old TV shows in his own life, he's utterly blind to the power differential that his new wealth creates between him and his friend: I don't know and don't particularly care if any of this was true about QT himself, but it certainly captures a certain kind of mythical Hollywood decadence that one could believe QT was now in a position to experience, and that from his movies one could imagine him enjoying very much.So, Four Rooms is minor Tarantino, but well done. It's major Robert Rodriguez, though. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ToTryANewSwordOnAChanceWayfarer/~3/Kf3qi2d3_Oo/thursday-haiku-refudiated.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ToTryANewSwordOnAChanceWayfarer/~3/Kf3qi2d3_Oo/thursday-haiku-refudiated.html Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:01:00 +0000 Refudiated! A terrible thing wasted: My mind, you betcha! Follow me on Twitter http://robinwonders.blogspot.com/2010/07/federal-program-expanding.html http://robinwonders.blogspot.com/2010/07/federal-program-expanding.html Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:27:00 +0000 AP --467 jurisdictions in 26 states have joined a federal government program called Secure Communities to identify illegal immigrants using fingerprints from arrests for anyone who was booked into a jail for a crime and compared with FBI criminal history records and the Department of Homeland Security immigration records to determine their immigration status. "It has the potential to http://robinwonders.blogspot.com/2010/07/thanks-to-judge-susan-bolton-illegal.html http://robinwonders.blogspot.com/2010/07/thanks-to-judge-susan-bolton-illegal.html Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:26:00 +0000 US District Judge Susan Bolton issued a temporary injunction to halt key parts of Arizona Senate bill 1070 that would have required police to check immigration status of anybody suspected of being an illegal alien if they are stopped by police. "the number of requests that would emanate from Arizona as a result of determining the status of every arrestee is likely to impermissibly burdened http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MyEugene/~3/MezlEDxZTiY/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MyEugene/~3/MezlEDxZTiY/ Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:28:00 +0000 The Eugene public parks system is vast �" and so is the information that’s available about our local green gems. Here’s “Part 1” of a three-part series of tips we pulled together �" based on community inquiries �" to help you on future visits to the parks. PUBLIC GRILLING is available in only two parks that were [...] http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ToTryANewSwordOnAChanceWayfarer/~3/F6VzY8Gd5LE/musical-interlude-moody-blues-ride-my.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ToTryANewSwordOnAChanceWayfarer/~3/F6VzY8Gd5LE/musical-interlude-moody-blues-ride-my.html Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:00:00 +0000 http://winesfamily.blogspot.com/2010/07/masoli-going-to-ole-miss.html http://winesfamily.blogspot.com/2010/07/masoli-going-to-ole-miss.html Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:47:00 +0000 • George Schroeder just posted that he talked with Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt this morning regarding their interest in Jeremiah Masoli joining the team. It looks like they are very serious about taking the chance with the former Duck QB.“We’re just looking into the entire situation, from the background, to his (academic) transcripts, to his graduation (from Oregon) to graduate school�"the whole bit,” Nutt said. “We’ve made no determination.”Nutt said he didn’t expect resolution for “a couple of days,” but a decision must be made in a hurry because preseason practices are less than two weeks away.“Time is a factor,” Nutt said.Wow, they must really be hard up.GO DUCKS! http://oregonflyfishingblog.com/2010/07/28/winston-announces-new-rods-for-2010-2011-season-biix-model-gets-discontinued/ http://oregonflyfishingblog.com/2010/07/28/winston-announces-new-rods-for-2010-2011-season-biix-model-gets-discontinued/ Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:31:00 +0000 One of Winston Rod Company’s most successful rod series of all time is being discontinued as four new rods are introduced. The BIIX has been one of our favorite rods available for 7 years now. We have put our remaining stock of BIIX on sale. For now this is all we have on hand, [...] http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/antsaint/~3/OkcBO5pkdMo/24-hours-in-portland-beers-movies-secret-diners.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/antsaint/~3/OkcBO5pkdMo/24-hours-in-portland-beers-movies-secret-diners.html Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:57:00 +0000 Photo Credit: richtpt "How about we meet up at the Brew Fest in Portland?" asked my Seattleite friend Matt. Such an innocent question. From free-flowing taps to a full-moon movie in the park, plus a you-don't-know-about-it-yet diner, our Saturday-to-Sunday 24... http://winesfamily.blogspot.com/2010/07/duck-stuff-morning-mud_28.html http://winesfamily.blogspot.com/2010/07/duck-stuff-morning-mud_28.html Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:19:00 +0000 • Andy Staples at SI.com calls Larry Scott "savvy" when it comes to re-branding the Pac-10 image and this video suggests, to me anyway, they are on the right track. With a new logo, a re-designed website and a new focus on social media. Now we just need a fat new TV contract. We'll see. And when Utah and Colorado join the conference it will be the Pac-12.• Andy Mac has posted his 2010 season preview and says the Ducks have the potential for a very special year. Now, will they deliver?• Ted Miller looks at the Pac-10 receivers and has Oregon in the good, not great category.The Ducks aren't flashy, but they welcome back their top three receivers from last year. By season's end, Jeff Maehl was one of the best in the conference. Things would have been better if Tyrece Gaines and Diante Jackson weren't ruled academically ineligible.• Rob Moseley lays out the fall camp practice schedule and does a preview of the QB position.During the spring, [Nate] Costa seemed to have the advantage when practice opened, while [Darron] Thomas improved over the course of the month and had a solid spring game.There really isn’t as much separating the two as some believe.Costa and Thomas both have big arms, and both can make yards outside the pocket. This sets up as a very dramatic battle over the course of fall camp, potentially to go unsettled until the week Oregon begins preparations for the season opener.Just a personal opinion but I think (barring injury) Costa will be our guy, I think he is pushing himself to prove he can do it.GO DUCKS! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ToTryANewSwordOnAChanceWayfarer/~3/tGtcW9QdZqY/adventures-of-leonard-mccoy-space_28.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ToTryANewSwordOnAChanceWayfarer/~3/tGtcW9QdZqY/adventures-of-leonard-mccoy-space_28.html Wed, 28 Jul 2010 03:38:00 +0000 "I believe it may have some sort of military purpose, Captain." Follow the adventures of Leonard McCoy, Space Doctor, as he explores the far reaches of space (and my house... and my backyard... and my kids' toy boxes) with his friends Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. Every week at ToTryANewSword.com. Follow me on Twitter http://swamigp.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/strasburg-who-batista-fills-in-helps-nats-shutout-braves/ http://swamigp.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/strasburg-who-batista-fills-in-helps-nats-shutout-braves/ Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:23:00 +0000 Immensely popular and extremely talented Stephen Strasburg 22-year old flame-throwing right-hander for the Washington Nationals was set to face National League East division foe in hopes of collecting his sixth win of his rookie season. He would not get the chance to, as an inflamed shoulder discovered during warm-ups made him a late scratch. Miguel [...] http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ToTryANewSwordOnAChanceWayfarer/~3/DZEfmGeJH_k/musical-interlude-foo-fighters-tired-of.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ToTryANewSwordOnAChanceWayfarer/~3/DZEfmGeJH_k/musical-interlude-foo-fighters-tired-of.html Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:00:00 +0000 http://culinariaeugenius.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/iron-chef-eugene-winner-chef-gabriel-gil/ http://culinariaeugenius.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/iron-chef-eugene-winner-chef-gabriel-gil/ Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:44:00 +0000 I had so much fun last weekend judging the final round of the Iron Chef Eugene competition at the Bite of Eugene festival at Alton Baker park.  Congratulations to the winner, Chef Gabriel Gil of The Rabbit Bistro!  Gabe gets to go on to compete for Eugene at Bite of Oregon in Portland on August [...] http://oregonflyfishingblog.com/2010/07/27/native-fish-restoration-and-the-temperature-tradeoff-on-the-lower-deschutes/ http://oregonflyfishingblog.com/2010/07/27/native-fish-restoration-and-the-temperature-tradeoff-on-the-lower-deschutes/ Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:54:00 +0000 The Pelton Round Butte project on the Upper Deschutes is designed to aid fish passage to historic habitat upriver, but it’s also heating up the lower river — according to fisheries biologists, mimicking the historic temperatures our native anadromous fish evolved to handle. The results, according to the Oregonian, are temperatures 70-72 degrees at the [...] http://winesfamily.blogspot.com/2010/07/duck-stuff-morning-mud_27.html http://winesfamily.blogspot.com/2010/07/duck-stuff-morning-mud_27.html Tue, 27 Jul 2010 07:23:00 +0000 • The Pac-10 media day is on Thursday but there a host of activities leading up to the big day. Things get started today with the Pac-10's official new website that is set to unveil at 2pm local time.Everyone heads for NYC today, a trip to ESPn HQ's in Bristol, CT tomorrow and be back at the Rose Bowl on Thursday where coaches and a select member of each team will represent their respective schools and speak with reporters.Ted Miller has the complete itinerary here.• Cleveland Browns second-round pick, T.J. Ward, has agreed to a four-year deal, according to National Football Post's Aaron Wilson. Ward was selected 38th overall in last April's NFL Draft.• Ted Miller has a preseason look at the offensive line for each Pac-10 team and has Oregon in the top spot.The Ducks not only welcome back all five starters, they welcome back all 10 members of their 2009 two-deep.Miller also looks at the road schedules this season and calls Oregon's October 30th game at USC the conference game of the year. Hopefully, with the same outcome as last year.GO DUCKS! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MyEugene/~3/lPMMXVRkRtQ/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MyEugene/~3/lPMMXVRkRtQ/ Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:07:00 +0000 The 27th Annual National Night Out (NNO) program will be held in Eugene on August 3 in seven Eugene neighborhoods (see list with times below). NNO, a year-long community building campaign, is designed to: (1) Heighten crime prevention awareness; (2) Generate support for, and participation in, local anti-crime programs; (3) Strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships; [...] http://sgttanuki.blogspot.com/2010/07/rush-caress-of-steel-1975.html http://sgttanuki.blogspot.com/2010/07/rush-caress-of-steel-1975.html Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:09:00 +0000 So I was telling you about doors. Mine, my half (if you imagined our door cut in half, mine was the bottom: only the penitent man can enter), was the Yes birdplane. Vito and Art (they were roommates, in a different dorm than mine) kept theirs blank all year long, mostly because they couldn’t agree on what to put on it. And, like I say, the one at the end of my hall had the dreamy screamer from the first King Crimson album on it. It was the work of a guy named Nick but called the Necromancer. That is, he wanted to be called that, and insisted on it so darkly that we humored him to his face. But behind his back we called him Neck for short, because he was so beefy that he had none. Neck was into D&D. Now, so was I, or so I thought: I’d spent nearly every weekend in high school immersed in its arcana, and it was what had gotten me through that three-year purgatory. I felt, and still feel, that I owed my sanity at eighteen to Gary Gygax. I had already learned that Vito and Art concurred, both about me (thanks, dudes) and themselves. They, it turned out, had grown up together in Malvinaton, a town in a neighboring state that had been one of the first planned communities, a full suburb, ready to assemble out of the box, prototype for the one I’d grown up in for sure, and for most others in the country, according to the historians. Vito and Art had felt the same quiet desperation in their subdivision that I had in mine, and D&D (Advanced) was their way out, too. By now it was December of our freshman year. Vito and Art and I had become fast friends, taking most meals together and hanging out at night and on whatever weekends one or the other of us wasn’t back home getting laundry done and lording it over those who hadn’t yet escaped the burbs. I’d been back to my homesubdivision a couple of times already, and each time I’d gotten together with my high school buddies for a night of dungeon-scouring and orc-torturing. Word was Vito and Art had done the same. So it was only natural that eventually we try to do it at school. What was unnatural �" or maybe not �" was that it took four months for us to get around to it. Were we too busy studying? I want to insert a loud scoff here �" but honesty compels me to admit that we were pretty diligent about our studies �" we were nerds: we wanted to learn, and we wanted to get good grades. Were we too busy broadening our horizons? There was some of that going on, too. Were we reluctant to embrace our previous geekiness? There was some of that, too. We never discussed it, but I think there was a tacit agreement that, as much as we’d loved role-playing geekoiserie in high school, maybe it was a childish thing that it was time to leave behind. But at the same time, of course, we were reluctant to do that: reluctant both to deny something that had been a part of ourselves for so long, and reluctant to let go of the chance to recreate those good times. So when Neck announced at dinner one Thursday night in early December that he was a Dungeon Master looking to organize a campaign, and did we know anybody, we jumped. Sure, said we: us. Well, said he: I knew that just by looking at you. But we need more. This adventure calls for at least seven companions. None of us knew anybody else on campus who played. The Necromancer also pleaded innocent of that sort of social tie: he was, he revealed, a fifth-year senior whose entire marauding party had managed to graduate on time, leaving only him behind. Well, everybody but one. He did know one other guy who played: Cutty Sark… That made four. Vito and Art lived out of state, so their friends back home were out of the question. It was up to me: I called around among my old high school friends and managed to find three who were up for the drive (in the green and black Pinto, natch) down from ESU to Li’l Ol’ State College. So it was that at about ten o’clock on Friday night a fellowship of hardy adventurers gathered behind the Sign of the Dreamy Screamer to once again make the world safe for imagination.By ten fifteen, it was clear that things were going to hell. The party ended up consisting of eight. There were me, Vito, and Art; my buddies Ozzy, Tony, and Geezer from home; Cutty Sark; and the Necromancer’s Girlfriend.Neck had decorated his end-of-the-hall room for the occasion: black scarves over the bedside lamps, skull-and-crossbones flag over the doorway, red silk over the overhead light, stubby candles on plastic skulls for ambience, supermarket incense sticks for more palpable ambience, a stack of Led Zeppelin tapes for the most palpable ambience. He had a carved wooden screen, about a foot and a half high, set up on the floor, behind which he’d set up his dice, his notes, his graph-paper maps, and everything else he needed to cast his spell. The rest of us were scattered around the room, on the floor, on chairs, on beds, with our character sheets, our dice, and our cups. Yes, everybody brought something to snack on (there were Doritos, Twinkies, powdered doughnuts, pretzels, and beef jerky), and a plastic cup to drink out of; we’d pooled our cash and let Neck, who was over twenty-one, make a run to the liquor store where’d he’d procured two cases of Milwaukee’s Beast and three two-liters of Coke. Classic.And Cutty Sark had brought a bottle of rum, just to screw with our heads.And he shared it. With a smile on his face.So why did things go to hell?Not for the reasons I’d expected. I had, truth be told, been apprehensive about introducing Ozzy, Tony, and Geezer to Art and Vito; my old friends and my new, would they mix? Would I be crushed in some sort of temporal paradox, ripped apart by the torque of worlds colliding?But they hit it off great. In fact, as the weekend progressed, they ended up spending as much time with each other as with me or anybody else, and ever after Vito and Art kept talking about inviting the Power Trio, as they called them, up for another weekend. It never happened, for various reasons, but it could easily have: that part of the dungeon-spelunking went fine.They got along well, then, but it was immediately apparent that every single person there had a different philosophy of the game, as it were. It went down something a little bit like this:Neck: So you’ve all arrived at the Sanctuary Bar in Venissimo �"Art: Is that like Venice?Neck: It’s not Venice.Tony: But you already said it has, like, canals and a doge and shit.Neck: It’s not Venice.Art: But come on, dude, Venissimo? Score, dude! [Exchanges high five with Tony.]Neck: Your character stumbles over a barstool and loses three hit points.Art: What the �"Ozzy: Come on, guys, let him talk. I want to find out what the quest is.Neck: I never said it was a quest.Ozzy: Whatever, man. So anyway, we’re in this bar in Not-Venice?Vito [thoughtfully]: Why are we all there? What’s our background? What are we looking for?Neck: You’ve all answered a classified ad calling for adventurers without scruples.Neck’s Girl: My character has scruples. She’s lawful neutral.Cutty: Scruples, Sandy? You?NG: Shut up, perv. You don’t even know what scruples are.Tony: A classified ad? Dude, there weren’t any newspapers in medieval Venice.Neck: Your character drops his beer mug and it shatters and cuts his hand and he loses three hit points.Art: Didn’t you hear him, dude? It’s Not-Venice. Hey, pass me another Beast.Cutty: Come on, Sandy? Have you forgotten Ocean City last spring break?NG: Shut up, I said. I’m warning you. I’m lawful, but I’m not good. I can kill you as long as I do it by the rules, you know. I can kill you five different ways before you even notice.Me: What does the bar look like? I mean, paint us the word picture. I want to feel like I’m there, man.Neck: The land the bar is on suddenly settles three feet into the sea, and you’re all so startled that you hit your heads and lose three hit points. Shut the fuck up or you’ll drown. I mean it.This went on all weekend. We finally made it out of Not-Venice sometime around four-thirty in the morning, and while our characters were sailing across the Not-Mediterranean for Not-the-Nile-Delta, we all slept for a few hours, to pick it all up again over breakfast the next morning (mostly doughnuts and Dr. Pepper). Most of Saturday we were still on board ship, fighting krakens and cyclones and sirens and multidimensional portals leading to the Ninth Demon Realm of Karn Evil. A very fun place.Neck had promised that the dungeon proper �" the voyage was just a prologue �" would involve a pyramid with genies and giant snakes and lots of undead. But we never got there. By the time things disintegrated late Saturday afternoon, we’d just made port and were trying to scrounge up some native guides to take us to the pyramid. It was clear this was going to be Neck’s favorite part �" his eyes were glowing as he started introducing the various eccentric ‘n’ ornery non-player characters he was going to voice. That, Cutty moved, meant it was time for a break. We broke, and never managed to put it together again.As I say, as soon as the arguing broke out I had the feeling it was all going to hell, there in the court of the crimson necromancer. Mind you, the arguing was not at all out of the ordinary for a D&D session. Bullshitting and calling bullshit was what occupied seventy-five percent of every game night, in my experience, so I wasn’t at all surprised when this ESU/LOSC AD&D summit started heading in that direction. If anything I was relieved to see that Neck was having the same problem I’d had as DM.But here’s the thing: somehow, suddenly it all seemed to have gone south for me. I wasn’t enjoying the arguing as much as I’d used to. I wasn’t thriving on it. In fact, it was annoying me. I realized that what I wanted out of the game (an immersive experience in a romantic and maybe heroic fantasy world) wasn’t what everybody else wanted out of it. I didn’t know what they wanted out of it; different things for each, probably. Thrills? Puzzles? An excuse to party? Vicarious combat? A power trip? The joy of each other’s company?I dunno.So, when Cutty moved it was time for a break: He and Neck headed back to the liquor store in Cutty’s old Volvo. Vito, Ozzy, and Geezer, before I even realized it, had drifted into the dorm room next door where a couple of lacrosse players were watching a porno video. Art was asleep on the beanbag chair in the corner by a skull candle. Tony was listening to Houses Of The Holy and didn’t want to be bothered. And Sandy was nowhere to be seen; she must be with Cutty and Neck, although I hadn’t seen her leave with them.I decided to go for a walk to sort out my head. LOSC is on the banks of a wide, lazy river, and that’s where I headed. It was a bright sunny day, warm for December, and it seemed like the place to be: alone by the deserted docks where all the locals parked their sailboats.That’s where I found Sandy.I’d never met her before this weekend, I should note. I knew the Necromancer had a girlfriend, because he made sure we knew, but she went to ESU, so none of us had met her; I’d assumed she was a myth, frankly, and so I’d been real surprised to see her in the flesh that Friday night. She was tall and intelligent-looking, but it didn’t hit you at first because she dressed like a burnout. Long unkempt blonde hair, worn-out Aerosmith t-shirt, faded blue jeans. Not quite the body to pull off the rocker-chick look, and her subdued manner showed she knew it. Didn’t care. Drank a little too much, at least it seemed to me, but what did I know? Two Beasts and I was flying.She intimidated me, I’ll admit it. But she intrigued me, too. A girl into D&D?So I asked her how she’d gotten into it.“I do SCA. You know it?”“Yeah. I’ve always been curious about it. It seems like the next logical step after D&D and RenFests.”“Yeah, I’ve done the Renaissance Festival every year since I was eight. I’m a Medieval Studies major. Chaucer and all. I imagine you started with Tolkien, moved into D&D, and then discovered RenFests?”“Pretty much. I went to my first one last year.”“What did you think?”“It was heaven.”“Is that” �" she gestured back toward the dorm �" “heaven, too?”“I don’t know about that,” I allowed. “I don’t know.” I changed the subject. “So you went the other direction �" got into D&D through Creative Anachronism?”“Sort of. I met Nick at SCA, and he’s into RPGs big time. That’s how I started. I’ve only played for about a year. That’s how long Nick and I’ve been going out.”“I see. And before that was Cutty Sark?”She shot me a warning look. I bowed under her gaze, slightly. After a moment, she decided it was safe to answer.“I went to high school with Cutty; he’s a year ahead of me. We were together for four years, plus the first four years of college. Kept it up long distance, you know, with him here and me in Collegeville. I met Nick right after I broke up with Cutty.”“I don’t know Cutty real well, but he doesn’t seem like your type. I don’t know whose type he seems like �" I mean, I never would have pegged him for a gamer in the first place.”“He just does it as an excuse to party. He only took it up this year, too. He’s a sixth-year senior, you know? All his other friends graduated, and Cutty took it up to have something to do with Nick, you know, while they’re drinking. I don’t think he cares about the game much one way or another; I mean, he was never interested in fantasy or the middle ages or anything like that when we were together. I know for a fact he’s never read Tolkien, much less Chaucer.”“Is that why you broke up with him �" Nick was more your type?”“It wasn’t that simple, kid. Not that simple at all. And I’m not sure Nick’s my type, either. I may break up with him."I didn’t know what to say to that. We stared in silence at the late-afternoon sun making diamonds on the ripples in the river.“You know he’s the second Cutty Sark? Like, he didn’t paint that door. Nobody knows who did, but when Cutty first got here as a freshman, there was a guy living in that room named Brian something-or-other. Everyone called him Cutty Sark because he lived there, and because he lived up to it. Always had a bottle of something in his hand.”“Sounds like Cutty.”“It does, too, but Brian was worse. I mean, he was always drinking. He’d walk into a room and you could smell, not the alcohol on his breath, but the alcohol seeping from his pores. It’s a totally different smell, you know. Like pickles. But he was a fun guy �" the life of the party, just like Cutty. That’s why Cutty looked up to him so much, as a freshman. Everybody liked to have Brian at their party, because Brian could outdrink everybody, and would do all kinds of crazy shit when he was drunk.“I’ll tell you about one. This isn’t even one of the wild ones, just a minor incident. He was doing stuff like this all the time. So listen: security at your cafeteria’s pretty lax, right? People sneak stuff out of there all the time? Brian used to keep a salt and pepper shaker from the cafeteria in his dorm room, to use in mixing drinks or on popcorn or whatever. These were the sealed disposable plastic shakers, you know? Like when it’s empty they just throw it away and put out a new one? So one night at a party in Brian’s room somebody sees these shakers and they get them out and start playing with them. And somehow Brian gets the idea of testing how strong the plastic is. So he puts the tip of his index finger on the top of the salt shaker and presses. Well, it turns out it’s not so strong, or maybe he is, but the top breaks, and his finger goes right down through the top of the salt shaker into the salt. But the top doesn’t break off, it kind of shatters in the middle and the plastic shards bend down into the salt with his finger. And they trap his finger in there, like with their pressure. He tries to pull his finger out. The shards cut into his finger, like deep. So he’s sitting there with his finger immersed in salt, trapped in the salt shaker, and the plastic shards cutting into his finger. He’s bleeding all over the salt, and the salt is getting all into his cuts, and he can’t get his finger out. Can you imagine how much that must have hurt?”“Holy shit,” I remarked, laughing.“He didn’t feel a thing.”I kept laughing, but she didn’t crack a smile. “How did he get it out?”“I don’t know. That’s not part of the story.”I thought about that for a while. “So what happened to Brian?”“I don’t know. He didn’t graduate. Academic suspension a couple of years ago. Nobody’s heard from him since. His parents are rich, so no biggie.”“So he passed the torch to Cutty? He’s Keeper of the Flame, and all that?”“Yeah.”“And that’s why you broke up with Cutty?”She fixed me with a forbidding gaze. “Not exactly,” she said. And that was all she’d say.We never went back to the Necromancer’s room that weekend. I took her to my room, and she…well, let’s say she taught me a little about Creative Anachronism. We’ll have to draw a discreet veil over the rest of the evening �" this isn’t that kind of blog �" but I’ll say that we didn’t get into the real Wife of Bath stuff. But I did learn the difference between Venice and Not-Venice that night. And wherever Sandy is, I wish her well: I never heard from her after that weekend.The whole time, in the back of my mind, I was feeling a little guilty over abandoning my friends, but when we all straggled into the cafeteria for breakfast (me and Sandy separately, so as not to give it away), it turned out that nobody else had gone back to Neck’s room either. First of all, Neck and Cutty had never returned from their beer run �" nobody saw them until Sunday evening, after my homesubdivisionies had left. They’d stopped off at an off-campus house party, where they both got laid, which was, there and then, It as far as Nick and Sandy were concerned: she dumped him on the spot. Vito, Ozzy, and Geezer, meanwhile, crawled between different dorm-room parties all night. Tony listened to Led Zeppelin until he fell asleep, and Art woke up at about three in the morning to find the place all but deserted. Puzzled, he went back to his room.Next time I saw the Necromancer, this is what he said: “Awesome way to start the Quest for the Mummy’s Jewels. Can’t wait until the next session.” But there never was another session. In fact, I never played D&D again. http://www.oregoncommentator.com/2010/07/26/housing-and-facebook/ http://www.oregoncommentator.com/2010/07/26/housing-and-facebook/ Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:53:00 +0000 The Ol’ Dirty is reporting today that, similar to 2008-09, the UO has let in more freshmen than they have room for in housing. This time, instead of sending them across the river to live in Stadium Park, the UO admin has another plan: Students are first notified that there isn’t enough room within University Housing. [...] http://oregonflyfishingblog.com/2010/07/26/major-victory-for-chetco-river-salmon-and-steelhead/ http://oregonflyfishingblog.com/2010/07/26/major-victory-for-chetco-river-salmon-and-steelhead/ Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:09:00 +0000 According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Forest Service wants to stop new gold mining claims on the Chetco River in southwestern Oregon while Congress considers legislation that would permanently raise the level of protection for wild salmon and steelhead habitat. Photo by Rob Robinson If the Bureau of Land Management approves a ban, a process [...] http://oregonflyfishingblog.com/2010/07/26/sea-run-cutthroat-fly-series-on-the-way/ http://oregonflyfishingblog.com/2010/07/26/sea-run-cutthroat-fly-series-on-the-way/ Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:02:00 +0000 I asked Jay Nicholas to introduce a series of videos we shot recently about flies for Sea Run Cutthroat here in Oregon. Blueback are in already, and they will keep trickling into our coastal rivers throughout the fall. Enjoy. Remember too, that I will schedule a class for folks who want to [...] http://winesfamily.blogspot.com/2010/07/duck-stuff-morning-mud_26.html http://winesfamily.blogspot.com/2010/07/duck-stuff-morning-mud_26.html Mon, 26 Jul 2010 07:27:00 +0000 • Here is a 2009 highlight video along with an original song posted by MrRustyDuck late last year. Good times.• Senior QB Nate Costa is filling the leadership role this summer and he seems to relish the opportunity as Steve Summers reports. Costa is recognized as an inspiration as he has made comebacks from three knee injuries that might have spelled the end of his career. However through hard work and toughness in attitude, Costa was back. Just to demonstrate the kind of player and leader he is, on Friday, Costa was one of the very first to arrive at the practice field in preparation for the summer workout. In fact he was there almost an hour before the workout was scheduled to begin.The players set up about five-yards from the goal line (on Papè field) and worked against the Duck defensive backs and linebackers on getting the ball into the endzone. Costa was dead-on with the familiar tight-spirals he is known to throw.GO DUCKS! http://sundaymorninghangover.blogspot.com/2010/07/mark-growdenmood-area-52-hangover-72510.html http://sundaymorninghangover.blogspot.com/2010/07/mark-growdenmood-area-52-hangover-72510.html Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:41:00 +0000 10:03AM The Young Rascals “Beautiful Morning” from Groovin' (2005) on Rhino Atlantic (USA)10:06AM Beach Boys “Diamond Head” from Friends/20/2010:09AM Hugo Montenegro “Sweet Caroline” from Neils' Diamonds10:12AM Beatles “Octopus' Garden” from Abbey Road10:15AM Beatles “Yellow Submarine” from Yellow Submarine10:18AM Beatles “Act Naturally” from Rubber Soul10:21AM Ringo Starr “No No Song” from Goodnight Vienna (2007) on Capitol (US)10:24AM Mad Men “Theme” from Mad Men, Season 1 (2007) on American Movie Classics, LLC / AMC10:27AM Hollies “Stop Stop Stop” from 10 Greatest Hits (Remastered)10:30AM John Hartford “Boogie” from Aereo-Plain (Album, 1971) on Rounder (USA)10:33AM Abdel Aziz El Mubarak “Afra El Heluva” from Planet Squeezebox10:36AM Accordions Anonymous “Libertango” from 12 Steps to Accordian Awareness (Rotation, Album, Local, 2010, added 06/20/2010)10:39AM Mood Area 52 “To the Sea” from 1952 Philanski House (CD, Album, 2009) on Rocket Boy10:42AM Mark Growden “Interview Pt 1” from Live on the Sunday Morning Hangover (LiveEventBroadcast, Other, Private) on Marc Time (http://www.sundaymorninghangover.blogspot.com, revmarctime@gmail.com, JC) Local10:48AM Hans Eichinger “If You'll Be My Gal” from Live on the Hangover (CD, Album, Acoustic/Folk) on Marc Time Records10:51AM Cotton Jones “Gone the Bells” from Paranoid Cocoon (CD, Album, 2009) on Suicide Squeeze Records10:54AM David Lynch/Sparklehorse “Dark Night of the Soul” from Dark Night of the Soul (CD, Album)11:00AM Mood Area 52 “Andantino Canzona” from Live on the Sunday Morning Hangover (LiveEventBroadcast, Other, Local, added 07/25/2010) on Marc Time (http://www.sundaymorninghangover.blogspot.com, revmarctime@gmail.com, JC) Local, New11:03AM Mood Area 52 “Before the Bog” from Live on the Hangover (LiveEventBroadcast, Other, Private, 2010, added 07/25/2010) on Marc Time (http://www.sundaymorninghangover.blogspot.com, revmarctime@gmail.com, JC) Local, New11:06AM Mood Area 52 “Mary Jane and Roger” from Live on the Hangover (LiveEventBroadcast, Other, Private, 2010, added 07/25/2010) on Marc Time (http://www.sundaymorninghangover.blogspot.com, revmarctime@gmail.com, JC) Local, New11:09AM Mood Area 52 “1952 Philanski House” from Live on the Hangover (LiveEventBroadcast, Other, Private, 2010, added 07/25/2010) on Marc Time (http://www.sundaymorninghangover.blogspot.com, revmarctime@gmail.com, JC) Local, New11:12AM Gil Goldstein “Detour Ahead” from Planet Squeezebox (CD, Comp, 1995) on Ellipsis Arts11:15AM Mark Growden “Bicycle Handlebars” from Live on the Hangover 7/25/10 (LiveEventBroadcast, Other, Other, added 07/25/2010) Local, New11:18AM Mark Growden “Lovin Emma” from Live on the Sunday Morning Hangover (LiveEventBroadcast, Other, Private) on Marc Time (http://www.sundaymorninghangover.blogspot.com, revmarctime@gmail.com, JC) Local, New11:21AM Mark Growden “St. Judas” from Live on the Sunday Morning Hangover (LiveEventBroadcast, Other, Private) on Marc Time (http://www.sundaymorninghangover.blogspot.com, revmarctime@gmail.com, JC) Local, New11:24AM Mark Growden “Interview Pt 2” from Live on the Sunday Morning Hangover (LiveEventBroadcast, Other, Private) on Marc Time (http://www.sundaymorninghangover.blogspot.com, revmarctime@gmail.com, JC) Local, New11:39AM Mark Growden “The Rake” from Live on the Hangover (LiveEventBroadcast, Other, Private) Local, New �" Townes Van Zandt cover11:42AM Flaming Lips “The Abandoned Hospital Ship” from Clouds Taste Metallic http://risashome.blogspot.com/2010/07/on-sunflower-houses.html http://risashome.blogspot.com/2010/07/on-sunflower-houses.html Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:32:00 +0000 [edited repost from 2002]There is in an obscure Emblem Book by one Henry Hawkins, dated 1633, a tribute to one of the garden's great flowers: The honour of our Gardens, and the miracle of flowers at this day, is the Heliotropion or Flower of the Sun; be it for the height of its stem, approaching to the heavens some cubits high: or beautie of the flower, being as big as a man's head, with a faire ruff on the neck; or, for the number of the leaves, or yellow, vying with the marigold, or, which is more, for al the qualities, nature, and properties of the Flower, which is to wheel about with the Sun; there being no Needle, that more punctually regards the Poles, then doth this Flower the glorious Sun.In the spring, Beloved set aside the packets of sunflower seeds that had accumulated, and announced that she would build Sunflower Houses."What are those?" asked Risa."They are sunflowers planted in a circle, so that children can play in the middle of them in high summer, and make believe that they are houses. It's an old tradition."Risa went to her books to look this up. She didn't find any sunflower houses, but a favorite writer, the gentle Sharon Lovejoy, tells of Hollyhock Houses, which seems to be the same idea. She plants hollyhocks in a circle, and then when they are tall, ties them together to form the rafters of a kind of tipi.Beloved took her packets to the greenhouse, filled three flats of two-inch pots with potting soil, and poked one seed down a bit over a quarter of an inch into each one, humming a song about Mistress Mary.The long rains went on, and Risa's measured circle of elephant garlic came up, like a green and pungent Fairy Ring. She explained how this would work."This is a circular garden; the rainbird in the middle will reach exactly to the garlic, all the way round, and this gap here is the entrance. Plant your tall things near the perimeter, and your short things, like squash vines near the middle, so that nothing is in any thing else's rain shadow.""Okay. And where do the sunflower houses go?""What sunflower houses?"Patiently she explained again.Risa furrowed her brows. "Won't some of them keep the water off the rest? I was kind of envisioning a row, sort of all the way or half way round, then corn further in, then tomatoes, like a sort of staircase.""I want sunflower houses.""Umm, okay, how about evenly spaced, though, around the perimeter?""Sure, I'll put one here, and here, and here, and here..."It was to be the Year of the Sunflower.For in the morning it beholdes his rising; in his journey, attends upon him; and eyeth him stil, wheresoever he goes; nor ever leaves following him, til he sink downe over head and eares in Tethis's bed, when not being able to behold him anie longer she droops and languishes, til he arise: and then followes him againe to his old lodging, as constantly as ever; with him it riseth, with him it falles, and with him riseth againe.The sunflowers did not appear only in the circle garden. Another sunflower house came up in the hilltop garden, menacing the lettuce and onion beds. And there were genetically engineered sunnies in all the beds around the house; tiny ones, and full sized ones that stood on short thick stems, as if someone had beheaded some giant and left the trophy by the city walls.Many of these were along the east side of the house, and followed the sun until midday, then continued staring straight up, as though wondering what had become of their lord and master. Eventually they became too heavy with seed for this myopia, and drooped daylong, no longer befriended of bees but increasingly frequented by birds.At first we admired their sunny looks among the poppies, zinnias, marigolds and such, but, later, in seed time, their ungainliness seemed to us to class with the bachelor buttons, the feathery cosmos, and the larkspurs, and we pretended not to see them.Nature hath done wel in not affording it anie odour at al; for with so much beautie and admirable singularities, had there been odour infused therinto, and the sweetnesse of odoriferous flowers withal, even men, who are now half mad in adoring the same for its excellent guifts, would then have been stark mad indeed, with doting upon it.Sunflowers are difficult to ignore.On a hot day in August, Risa went to the circular garden to look (vain hope) for a reddening blush on the hundreds of green tomatoes, and as she sloped along, parting branches, ran headlong into a massive flower head, dangling on a stem bent double with the weight, and a good eighteen inches across. Such a plant demands attention, and will bludgeon you if it doesn't get it.She growled and pushed it away, and it came swinging insistently back across her path. Involuntarily her eye followed the stem into the thicket from whence it had sprung. Oh, yes! Sunflower houses. Well, there's such a thing here, she supposed, except it's awfully weedy in there; no child has had a go this year. She went looking for Daughter. But Nature, it seems, when first she framed a pattern for the rest, not being throughly resolved, what to make it, tree or flower, having brought her workmanship almost unto the top, after a litle pause perhaps, at al adventure put a flower upon it, and so for haste, forgot to put the Musks into it. Wherupon, to countervaile her neglect heerin, the benigne Sol, of meer regard and true compassion, graced her by his frequent and assiduous lookes with those golden rayes it hath. And as the Sun shewes himself to be enamoured with her, she, as reason would, is no lesse taken with his beautie, and by her wil (if by looks we may guesse of the wil) would faine be with him. But like an Estritch, with its leaves as wings, it makes unprofitable offers, to mount up unto him, and to dwel with him; but being tyed by the root, it doth but offer, and no more. Daughter at first was dubious. She had after all, recently seen Little Shop of Horrors. But mothers are still to be humored, until one reaches a certain age. Risa rummaged about in the garage and came up with a couple of large scraps of carpet. By throwing one onto the grassy floor of the Sunflower House, she was able to make it instantly homey -- and Daughter took over from there."I'll be right back," she said, and before Risa knew it, my weeding was over for the day. Daughter returned with a wagonload of dolls."You move into that one over there...and you'll be new in the neighborhood...and we'll come over and see you -- oops, not enough room -- so you come and see us, and we'll invite you in to tea."In this fashion are afternoons of Important Grownup Work lost forever.It is surprisingly cool in the Sunflower House, while the sun's rays are broiling the homeyard only inches away, and shimmering the landscape near and far. One can play for a long time in such a space, and forget the approach of evening. When they gathered their tea things to retreat to their night home, they found the shadows long and the air golden, and a massive flock of Canada geese skimmed over low, low enough for Daughter to hear the wind their wings made, heading for the river and the gleaning of the wheat fields there.Beloved met them at the door, and she, being the artist that she is, knew not to break the wondering silence. She only smiled to see that the web of Sunflower Houses she had woven months before had made its catch.It's thus an old tradition becomes a new one. It is like the Scepter which the Paynims attribute to their Deitie, that beares an Eye on the top; while this flower is nothing els but an Eye, set on the point of its stem; not to regard the affayres of Mortals so much, as to eye the immortal Sunne with its whole propension; the middle of which flower, where the seed is, as the white of the eye, is like a Turkie-carpet, or some finer cloth wrought with curious needle-work, which is al she hath to entertaine her Paramour.Friends came, from far away, to visit. Adults sat round in the shade of the east front, stirring cups. The screen door banged. Daughter and Daughter's friend and the dolls headed for the garden.We will remember the Meteor Night in winter, when the leaden clouds, heavy with Pacific rain, shut out Orion and his gleaming belt. We will remember the tomatoes, Better Boy, Cherry, Brandywine, and Golden Jubilee, when their poor cousin, the frozen tomato soup, is brought from the freezer to thaw. But most of all, as the huge seed heads are plunked, face up, in the pasture to gladden the hearts of the poultry (and the shivering juncos and chickadees), we will remember the Sunflower Houses. http://beerandcoding.com/obf-2010-report/ http://beerandcoding.com/obf-2010-report/ Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:29:00 +0000 I’d like to open my Oregon Brewers Festival report by saying that I can’t think of a better hobby than writing about craft beer. In the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to travel, try fantastic beers from all over the world, join a community of like-minded individuals and meet, converse and correspond with many [...] http://swamigp.wordpress.com/2010/07/25/cubs-cardinals/ http://swamigp.wordpress.com/2010/07/25/cubs-cardinals/ Sun, 25 Jul 2010 23:31:00 +0000 Cubs haven’t had a losing streak of four games or a winning streak of four games this season. Lee: .233 w/ RISP this year. Flies out weakly in tenth for second out. Colvin tapper back to mound, Franklin throws to Schu, Schu lead reaching off bag heading towards the direction of right-center field, taps bag [...] http://winesfamily.blogspot.com/2010/07/duck-stuff-morning-mud_25.html http://winesfamily.blogspot.com/2010/07/duck-stuff-morning-mud_25.html Sun, 25 Jul 2010 08:03:00 +0000 • As good as the defense was last year I have a feeling the Duck "D" might have to step it up a notch to give an inexperienced QB a little extra breathing room this year.MrRustyDuck has compiled this video to remind of us one very special year, 1994, and our beloved Gang Green. Enjoy.• Twenty nine former Oregon players will put on uniforms in the NFL this year. Aaron Fentress at the Oregonian has the complete list here.GO DUCKS! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ToTryANewSwordOnAChanceWayfarer/~3/TCh8OyU0wpM/musical-interlude-ub40-guilty.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ToTryANewSwordOnAChanceWayfarer/~3/TCh8OyU0wpM/musical-interlude-ub40-guilty.html Sun, 25 Jul 2010 03:01:00 +0000 http://swamigp.wordpress.com/2010/07/24/oswalts-swan-song-cueto-baffles-as-reds-crush-astros-ace/ http://swamigp.wordpress.com/2010/07/24/oswalts-swan-song-cueto-baffles-as-reds-crush-astros-ace/ Sun, 25 Jul 2010 02:59:00 +0000 Rumors have been swirling around the potential availability of Houston Astros 32-year old ace Roy Oswalt. He has been the lone bright spot on a team that entered Saturday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds with a 39-56 record. Since the season is considered lost, it was of little surprise to find that they are indeed [...] http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/tXOU/~3/WRX4DHBR8gI/wanted-committed-christians-to-pray-for.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/tXOU/~3/WRX4DHBR8gI/wanted-committed-christians-to-pray-for.html Sat, 24 Jul 2010 20:55:00 +0000 In summarizing his thoughts about religion at the end of the movie Religulous, Bill Maher said something that is seconded by the so-called New Atheists. Namely, that to support any theistic religion is to support all theistic religions. Well, there’s quite a gulf between pacifistic Quakerism and fundamentalist terrorism, but the point of the New Atheists is that to support theism is to give http://eugeneunderground.blogspot.com/2010/07/more-good-news.html http://eugeneunderground.blogspot.com/2010/07/more-good-news.html Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:27:00 +0000 Turns out those geese that were killed in Bend, were used to feed the hungry!Suck on that, you new-age hippy losers! http://eugeneunderground.blogspot.com/2010/07/well-now-i-have-seen-everything.html http://eugeneunderground.blogspot.com/2010/07/well-now-i-have-seen-everything.html Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:15:00 +0000 Brewdog The world's first "punk" brewry, has just released The End of History, a 110-proof beer which is bottled inside a stuffed, dead, animal. At 500 pounds sterling per third liter, I'll have to give it a pass. Wow. http://culinariaeugenius.wordpress.com/2010/07/24/grassy-food-can-a-rama-and-bite-of-eugene/ http://culinariaeugenius.wordpress.com/2010/07/24/grassy-food-can-a-rama-and-bite-of-eugene/ Sat, 24 Jul 2010 11:53:00 +0000 This weekend is Can-A-Rama, a grass roots educational event to teach canning in kitchens across America created by the collective preservation blog Canning Across America.  Join in!  Those raspberries aren’t going to jam themselves, you know.  And your meatballs are waiting patiently. I did my canning last night at a pressure canning class, one of [...] http://geographyofamigraine.blogspot.com/2010/07/saturdayukelele-melancholia.html http://geographyofamigraine.blogspot.com/2010/07/saturdayukelele-melancholia.html Sat, 24 Jul 2010 10:19:00 +0000 The work week is over! I am watching The Street Fighter with Sonny Chiba, while I prepare for my day. Here are a few things I need to do today:1. Drop of bedding at St Vinny's2. Find more books to sell at Powell's online3. Enjoy shopping around for more books/DVDS, etc (Axis and Allies pleeeeease?) at St Vinny's4. Try and sell or trade clothing to Buffalo Exchange (I absolutely need a pair of shorts)5. Groceries http://winesfamily.blogspot.com/2010/07/duck-stuff-morning-mud_24.html http://winesfamily.blogspot.com/2010/07/duck-stuff-morning-mud_24.html Sat, 24 Jul 2010 09:22:00 +0000 • Chris Coutney at eDuck (pay site) looks at Tra Carson,3 star, 6'0", 215lbs. RB, who hails from Texarkana (TX) Liberty-Eylau, the same high school that LaMichael James attended, stating he and James talk often about life, football, and Oregon. Catch his moves in the highlight video above.• Steve Summers at eDuck, spent a recent sunny afternoon with the Ducks as summer workouts wind down in preparation for fall camp. Nate Costa did most of the passing and the drill lasted about 20 minutes... Costa demonstrated his great spiral pass and was nearly dead-on with each throw. D.J. Davis made catching the ball look easy, but it was easy to see there were plenty of receivers, whether it was running backs, tight ends or wide receivers, to man the Duck roster for the upcoming season.The team will conclude summer workouts next week and will reassemble on Aug. 9th when fall camp begins.GO DUCKS! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ToTryANewSwordOnAChanceWayfarer/~3/ArsoWs8rDGM/covers-that-you-might-not-have-known_24.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ToTryANewSwordOnAChanceWayfarer/~3/ArsoWs8rDGM/covers-that-you-might-not-have-known_24.html Sat, 24 Jul 2010 03:01:00 +0000 Lots of times, the most familiar version of a song isn't the original version. I'll be posting some of these "covers that you might not have known are covers" on Saturdays. Haven't heard the Tommy James version of "Mony Mony" on the radio for a long, long time. Familiar version: Billy Idol (1987) Original version: Tommy James and the Shondells (1968) Billy Idol Tommy James and the http://oregonflyfishingblog.com/2010/07/24/is-there-a-doctor-in-the-house/ http://oregonflyfishingblog.com/2010/07/24/is-there-a-doctor-in-the-house/ Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:58:00 +0000 I was embarrassed to admit it, even to my closest friends. But I went back. Again. Two sunny, warm weeks since I had supposedly called it a season. But all it took was one enticing report from the Tillamook underground to rekindle the fire: “There are still a handful of fish in the bay, mostly [...] http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MyEugene/~3/ujpVpP2NIkQ/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MyEugene/~3/ujpVpP2NIkQ/ Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:15:00 +0000 Eugene Police are seeking a suspect -  Matthew Phillip Williams, age 31, of Lane County – after a 31-year old Eugene woman was sexually assaulted and kidnapped. According to police, Williams was acquainted with his victim and assaulted her in Eugene around 11:30 p.m. last night. She was able to flee around 6:30 a.m. today [...] http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ToTryANewSwordOnAChanceWayfarer/~3/5oIz2fxpHhs/musical-interlude-earth-wind-and-fire.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ToTryANewSwordOnAChanceWayfarer/~3/5oIz2fxpHhs/musical-interlude-earth-wind-and-fire.html Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:00:00 +0000 http://winesfamily.blogspot.com/2010/07/duck-stuff-morning-mud_23.html http://winesfamily.blogspot.com/2010/07/duck-stuff-morning-mud_23.html Fri, 23 Jul 2010 07:19:00 +0000 • Ted Miller continues his preseason position reviews for the Pac-10 and has Oregon on top for the running back category.While the Pac-10 blog rates Oregon State's Jacquizz Rodgers ahead of LaMichael James (I think not Ted, see video) as an individual player, the Ducks have a decided edge in depth, and not only because James' backup, Kenjon Barner, is one of the conference's most explosive players. The incoming recruiting class also features Lache Seastrunk and Dontae Williams, the No. 6 and No. 13 prep running backs in the nation in 2009.• Most of the preseason Bowl predictions that I have seen that involve the Ducks repeating in the Rose Bowl have Oregon going up against Iowa.Andy Gardiner and Sam Aleinikoff, from USA TODAY break that mold by choosing Oregon going up against TCU in the Granddaddy of them all.• Ted Miller features Oregon in his best case-worst case scenarios. An entertaining look at what could happen for the Ducks in the upcoming season. Hilarious closing statement in the worst case scenario. A must read story.GO DUCKS!