This segment was shown last week on NBC Nightly News, but it’s worth a watch for those that haven’t seen it.  It’s about Portland, Oregon, which is widely regarded as the most bike friendly city in America.  6% of workers commute by bike, on over 170 miles of bike lanes.

Actually, Ras’ cousin Jake is in the bike business himself.  He and his partner own Daedalus Custom Bamboo Bikes.  There is an article about them HERE.

Building a bicycle infrastructure

I’ve uploaded my 4th of July firework pictures to Flickr. The firework show downtown was ok - good but not fantastic. Still, it was nice to get out and be festive with everyone.

The pictures turned out ok for my first attempt at firework pictures. This was despite the fact that I didn’t even have a tripod - couldn’t be bothered to buy one and then bring it back to Korea with me.

Not having a tripod (and a long exposure) has its advantages. I got this cool shot:

It’s titled: “Why the heck is my camera taking so long to snap the picture? Let me take a look at it. …Oh wait, there it goes.”

The Columbia Willamette River runs through Portland.

…will be the 4th of July, America’s Independence Day.  Independence from the imperialist oppressor nation of England, who tried to make us spell color with a “u”.  Alas, Ben Franklin, historically known for championing spelling reform, helped Americans to be the slackers they are today.  Oh yeah, he also flew a kite, or something like that.  Back to what I was saying…  It’s too bad that this year, the holiday falls right in the middle of the week.  Still, you’ve got to make the most of a day off.  This year, the Waterfront Blues Festival kicks off on the 4th in downtown Portland, with fireworks at 10:05 pm.  I’m not a big fan of the blues, but I’m a big fan of festivals, so I’m hoping to drop by and check it out.  It’ll also be interesting to see what kind of nighttime firework shots I can get.  I’m not good at nighttime photography - too shaky.  Those years of combat in ‘Nam really did a number on me.  Plus, I don’t have a tripod, so we’ll see what happens.

For those that are curious, here are some of the headliners.  The only name I recognize is the first one.

The Neville Brothers * Koko Taylor * Joan Armatrading * The Blind Boys of Alabama * Pinetop Perkins * Marcia Ball* James Cotton Band with special guest Hubert Sumlin * Mavis Staples * The Dirty Dozen Brass Band * Voice of the Wetlands Allstars (Tab Benoit, Cyril Neville, Anders Osborne, Johnny Sansone) * Eric Burdon and the Animals * Savoy Brown * Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums * JJ Grey and Mofro * Watermelon Slim … Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks … and much more!

Since its modest beginnings in 1988, the award-winning festival has grown to be the largest blues festival west of the Mississippi, annually attracting more than 120,000 blues fans from throughout the world.

Click here to open up a player and listen to some of the artists that will be performing.

Remember last week, when I took a picture of the downtown Christmas tree? Well, it was lit last night, with a turnout of 18,000. I didn’t make it, but enjoyed this posting from a local Portlander.

Here’s the big tree, ready to be lit. And here’s the Easter Bunny. Of course. I think it’s things like this that inspire the popular phrase “Keep Portland Weird.” This guy would not get out of my picture. He had a sign around his neck that said “FREE HUGS.”

I would have given him a hug, but of course, there’d be a picture of it too.

After my first class today, Ras met me near campus for lunch. I wanted to try out a nearby “pho” place on Broadway and College Street - Pho Thanh-Long. I wondered how it would compare to Pho Van, which is a favorite for my family. We used to drive all the way out to 82nd in Portland, but we’re now lucky enough to have one close by. Upon opening the menu at Phot T-L, my response was a disappointed “oh” when I saw that they served chicken, as well as shrimp pho. I’ve never had chicken in my pho before. It’s called “beef noodle soup” for a reason, isn’t it? Plus, there wasn’t any option for tripe or tendon! Come one, if you can’t have the option of having thinly sliced pieces of cow stomach in your soup, can you really call it “pho”? I actually don’t order pho with tripe because it has no taste, but I do like me some tendon, and fatty beef brisket on top of that. After the dissapointment, I didn’t even look to see if they had my obligatory avocado shake that I usually order with my #1 large pho.

We then took a nice stroll towards the heart of downtown. Passing a travel agency, I suggested checking on prices to Korea because we’ll both be doing a winter camp. A one-way ticket to Korea in the first week of December was only $400! That’s a steal. I remember buying a round-trip ticket last year for $1100.

Passing Pioneer Courthouse Square, the “Holiday” tree was in the process of being erected.

We then went to Pioneer Square (a shopping mall) to get Ras’ new iPod shuffle.

Thanksgiving isn’t even here yet, but Christmas decorations are up all over town. The retailers are trying to milk the holidays for all it’s worth.

I hadn’t seen the iPod shuffle before, and was amazed at how small the thing was. Seriously, the thing is tiny! Ras thought about getting the iPod Nano because he’s got the Nike shoes where you can put a microchip in the sole and it will send information to the Nano about how far you’ve walked, calories burned, etc. He’ll only be using it while commuting on the MAX and working out with it, so I voted for the shuffle.