I've done my work to get a job

This entire past week I've been at the damn computer screen resizing, reformatting, exporting maps, and touching up a bunch of my work from the past year. It's a tedious and tiring process, but as of this minute I am done!

Welcome to portfolio production 101, ladies and gentlemen.



The entire purpose of the portfolio is to impress people you don't know and will likely never even meet. You have to carefully choose your layout and template according to the types of places you are applying to. It's all about selling yourself, and boy, I see myself as just a couple weeks from being moved to the markdown pile. I'm doing this all not for permanent work, but for a mere internship that probably pays piddle-squat. Still, I continue to plod on...

Now I move on to my Computer Applications in Environmental Design midterm, which I was supposed to have started last week. It is due in three days and I have piddle-squat done for it. I put finding summer work before my grade in this class. We will see how that pans out next week.

Movies I watched while performing the portfolio assembly tasks:

The Princess Bride
Match Point
An Inconvenient Truth

I wine, I dine.

This week, despite my aversion to streaks of eating out, I have dined at some rather amazing eating places. Here is the low down. Portland is a gem when it comes to the dining life. There is no restaurant tax, so that saves you about 10% right off the top. The food prices at nice places, however, is about the same you'd pay anywhere in San Francisco.

Genoa, SE Belmont. Legendary establishment in Portland, since probably before I was born.

Andina, Pearl District on Glisan. A new flashy Nuevo-Peruvian Andean cuisine place. It was nice, if a bit too clean and sterile. Good service from a red headed white dude who attempted to use a Latino accent in his menu pronun-cia-ciones.

Alberta Street Oyster Bar & Grill, NE Alberta near Wilshire Park. Haven't eaten here YET, but I will have by 800pm PST.

A Kia will do me in.

While in Portland this week I am driving a Budget rental car, a Kia Spectra. At first, I thought the car was fine (even nice), but after tonight I have decided the car wants to ruin me somehow.

Problem one began on a rainy evening with family members in the car impatient to get to the restaurant we had 7:30 reservations for. I couldn't get the damn car out of park. The button on the shifter would not fricking BUDGE, no matter how I tried. I tried all the things you are thinking - having the e-brake on/off, putting pressure on the foot break while trying to disengage, turning it on and off and trying again, hitting the dash, etc. Nothing worked and we ended up having to leave the car and taking someone else's. Everyone got wet changing cars and were crabby for the whole ride over to Genoa.

Later I discovered that the only way to get it out of park is to have your damn foot FULLY down on the foot break as hard as possible. It's the only way the button will budge out of park. So I felt a little dumb, but I was willing to give the Kia another try. Tonight, however, was the last damn straw. My whole life almost was obliterated into a million pieces on a very busy road.

It began as I was leaving (another) restaurant. I used the key lock button to open the car, put my foot fully on the break, disengaged it out of park, and began rolling toward home. As soon as I get on the freeway, I notice in my rearview that the fucking trunk door is rising. The trunk is now OPEN and I am on the FREEWAY and my LAPTOP is laying on top of the baggage quite UNSECURED!!!!

If it has fallen out of the trunk, what will I do without this laptop? It's like thinking what you might do without basic bodilly functions you take for granted everyday. You really don't ever want to consider that this MIGHT happen. And most likely, you have done zilch to prepare for such a thing to happen (I recently bought an external backup drive, but I haven't yet put ANYTHING on it, so that doesn't really cut the mustard now does it?).

I belted out a couple Kia-themed expletives and looked for a place to pull over on 26. The layout of this freeway, you might want to know, is NOT a place anyone should EVER pull over if they can possibly avoid it. People die all the time doing the exact same thing I was about to do, which was to exit the Kia and inspect the trunk's contents, resecure it, and be on my way.

You may have gathered that the laptop was still in there when I got out of the car. You are correct, but I swear it was only in there by the pittying grace of God.

I will now only put junk and garbage in that jerry rigged trunk. For God sake, the thing opens up without any notice. What kind of trunk is that?

Maple

These were produced for my plants identification class. Today we had our midterm, which involved a long walk and identifying 30 plants by their scientific and common names. Sadly, Acer palmatum was not part of the selected plant palette.

Update on the rodent: He's been quiet as a, well, mouse. No evidence suggests he is either dead or alive, though.

Mouse

There is a tiny mouse living on the other side of the apartment in Garrett's room. Pedro and Garrett almost caught it in a likewise tiny trap the other night, but it managed to escape after both of them surrounded it in Garrett's room.

I hope to God that thing doesn't migrate over on my turf.

Paper topic change

I recently found this note attached to the sheet I have posted outside my desk for office hours. It is hilarious that she acknowledges slackerhood in a note. I feel like that might be something you mention verbally, but should never make a written record of. Kids...

*************************************************

Hi Rachel -

I've only gotten some sources but haven't organized them in a way that I could present them to you for help. Can I email you with questions tomorrow or Wednesday?

Sorry I'm such a slacker. I'll see ya in class.

Thanks a lot,
May*


*named changed to remain anonymous

Plug

Here is a link to my latest assignment for Computer Applications in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning.

Returned to service

Today the evil cast unit was removed. The experience was not something I want to remember. A vibrating saw is used to get it off and they cut right down to your arm. Supposedly, the saw cannot break skin, but all other indicators told me this was the real deal. And I was afraid and would have preferred scissors.



The scratches and red spots are places where the cast was bothering me and where I itched it with the handle of a plastic fork.

Black babies, shoeboxes

This disturbing black baby was encountered at 1820 Harmon Street today. We went there to interview an artist. I sat opposite the little guy and he was creeping me out. This picture doesn't convey his sinister smirk very well.


Malus floribunda, Japanese Flowering Crabapple


Strelitzia reginae, Bird of Paradise


Fun with shoeboxes...

ATV and Sunset Magazine living

Here I am busting around the Sierra Foothills in a sweet all terrain vehicle! Note that I am NOT wearing a safety restraint. Also note that the ATV is actually stationary.




We were on a 47 acre plot of land in the Sierras this Sunday. We took a hike through the manzanita groves.


We ate dinner under this loggia thingy. It was all illuminated by candles in a very Martha Stewart-esque fashion.

Beer and broccoli

I just had an interesting dinner of goji berries, steamed broccoli and carrots, and one Anchor Steam Beer. I feel a little bloated by all these dinner ingredients. Hopefully this will pass soon enough because I have to FTP my GIS (Geographic Information Systems) assigment before the clock strikes 12.

Beer is delicious at school. Second only to bourbon.

My cast is beginning to turn to graveyard dust and is falling apart. I might turn this mother out in a day or two or if I get drunk enough, which ever comes first. My appointment for official removal is Thursday, but that is just hella long off.

Headed to Portland this Friday to surprise my mother at her 60th birthday party. I am supposed to show up at a bowling alley unannounced. I got an Evite from my step dad...apparently the crew is going to Red Robin before bowling to consume vast quantities of calories. At least it won't break the bank. I will hopefully be eating something very delicious and not prepared in a fry daddy.

Another milestone this week: I successfully lectured for 8-10 minutes in front of my LA 130 class. I talked about the landscapes of Mexican Architect Luis Barragan. It went pretty well, partly because I actually prepared and practiced my talk, making sure there was consistency between the verbal presentation and the slides. Today I helped with the midterm exam review session where I spouted off some facts and observations with great ease, surprisingly.

Who have you lectured lately?

Smell

Today I noticed that my cast now officially smells like feet. I thought that since it is a waterproof cast that I would never be bothered with this problem. However, technology is just that, it is not perfect. The cast has been retaining water more and more. It is usually semi-damp in there.

Typing on my computer today, I noticed that it smelled fainly like feet. Immediately, I assumed it was the guy across the studio divider from me. He is Australian and tends to walk around with his feet exposed, so I just blamed the smell on him. I mean, after all, he is Australian. These people come from a lineage of pirates and thieves tossed away by the Crown - it's likely they have poor hygiene, too.

Happy to have found the culprit, I rested my chin on my casted palm and noticed the smell suddenly grew in intensity. I put my nose down in there and really gagged. I can't wait to get this petrie dish off of me. Yuckos.

The Bomb, Survival and YOU.

Today I was in our environmental design library looking for a book with pictures and diagrams on tree houses and yurt-like structures. In the same shelf, an old book caught my eye. Turns out it's a genuine real-deal artifact from the Cold War. I love this stuff! Remember the turtle and "Duck and Cover"?

Published in 1954, the book speaks of quite a different world than we find ourselves in today:

Model student

I am considering copyrighting this...

Limb update

My left wrist is still rightly broken. It's been approximately three weeks since my fall. Cast: adequate condition, takes longer to dry lately than it did last week.

Many x-rays have been taken...two in the last two weeks and another one when I first broke it. Doctor assures me healing process is going fine. When I asked him whether it was ok that the cast is getting loose, he replied something like, "Well, casts don't really secure the limb that well, anyway, so don't worry. They really just are there to remind you to be careful with it." Hmm.

I should be doing push ups in no time, right?

I need to get back to my diagramming...

Yes, that would be mine. Thank you.

I arrived home tonight around 1:42 a.m., arms full of groceries from Safeway, and happened upon a little discovery. Clumsilly ascending the steps to my personal deck entrance, I noticed something very familiar draped over the railing.

Yes, that would be my black bra right there. It's outside. In the parking area. Hung over the stair railing. For me to happen upon it.



Hmm.

Well, I guess I am impressed that someone in this apartment community figured out it was mine. That was nice of them, I think.

This week's plants

This is called Michelia doltsopa - Michelia


Chaenomeles cvs. - Flowering Quince


Phormium tenax - New Zealand Flax


Corylus avellana 'Contorta'- Harry Lauder's Walking Stick

Proper search

You can install greasemonkey to add script that makes your Google search page look a bit different...ala Ray and Roast Beef!

Snap shot

Last night, I managed to get tickets to a sold out Camera Obscura show at Bimbo's in SF. The band performed very well and mentioned they liked the 70 degree temperatures in the city that day.


Tracy Anne Campbell, courtesey of Woody's blackberry-phone-computer-camera-all-in-one-office-apparatus.