Surfing The Web So You Don't Have To
Stolen from one of my favorite local blogs:
The Mountain Gate developers are telling us that, unless we approve what they want, they just might build what we don’t want. Which is a bit like saying, if you don’t let us fart all we want, we’ll poop on your floor. Charmed, I’m sure.
As I’ve mentioned many, many, many, many times before, I pretty much hate the 4th of July. I’m all for celebrating our independence, but since I live where I can see the annual Burning Of The Butte (aka our local fireworks show) from my living room, our neighborhood becomes a war zone for the week before, the day of, and the week after the Fourth. Since fireworks went on sale last week, it’s been non-stop booming and banging with flaming projectiles flying through the sky (most of which are illegal in Oregon). I even saw one guy down the street who had set fire to a stump in his front yard and was lighting fireworks with it.
As I type this (and it’s 11:40 right now), I can still hear bottle rockets flying over my house. And today’s only the third of the month — it’s only going to get worse tomorrow.
Now just so folks who don’t live here understand, I live in a desert. A dry, hot, mostly moisture-free, high altitude, mountainous desert. We get snow in the winter, but our actual annual precipitation is very low. Which means we have a lot of dry wood and trees that will cause fires to burn of control quite rapidly. We’ve already had one fire destroyed this week because of illegal fireworks, and I worry that mine might be next because of some drunken moron down the street who decided it’d be a great idea to shoot projectiles out of their mouth, right at my house (yes, that has happened, and no, unfortunately Darwin didn’t win that battle). I’m thinking I might just keep my sprinklers on all night.
So enjoy the Fourth safely, everybody (I’ll be at work, so you’ll undoubtedly hear from me on the holiday). And if anybody has to deal with me on Thursday, I apologize in advance as I’ll be tired as hell.
I’ve about had it with my Dodge Grand Caravan. It was a good deal at the time, but it’s just been one thing after another that needs to be fixed, and it’s time to trade it in. I want to get a different minivan, preferably a foreign one (Toyota or Honda), as Consumer Reports just rates them so much better. I certainly can’t afford a new car so I’m going to be shopping the used market, but would prefer to buy from a dealer so I could possibly get a warranty of some sort and flexible financing.
Obviously the RNR people all seem to hate Auto Warehouse, but has anybody had anything good or bad to say about any local dealers?
It wasn’t human, however.
Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Koda has died in an unfortunate sequence of events, the agency reported Wednesday.
The 2-year-old dog, a Belgian Malinois, died earlier this week while Koda and his handler were off-duty, visiting out of the area, said sheriff’s Capt. Tim Edwards, who announced the news “with great sadness” in a press release.
[…]
While his handler was away, Koda forced his way out of the kennel and consumed a large amount of dog food being stored in the car, Edwards said.
Koda then proceeded to eat the seats of the car, ingesting foam from the car seats, Edwards said.
Congrats to the Bulletin for getting all excited and embracing a common Web technology that’s been around for over a decade. Here’s an e-mail they sent around this evening to their E-edition subscribers. (The E-Edition subscribers are the folks who pay for their online content and no, I’m not one of them — I received this from a few different people).
—–Original Message—–
From: Webmaster [mailto:[email protected]]
To: XXXX
Subject: Try our new sign-in system
Dear XXXX,
You asked for it, and we listened.
Many of you have requested an easier way to sign in to the E-Edition, so our site would “remember” you.
Beginning Wednesday, we’ll have a new, simpler sign in. Just enter your e-mail address and password — one time — and you’ll never have to sign in again unless you delete your computer’s “cookies,” or you sign in from a different computer. Our new system uses a cookie, a harmless marker transmitted to your computer, to recognize you as a member automatically every time you return to the site. To take advantage of this new feature, be sure you have enabled cookies in your web browser.
Please let us know what other improvements you’d like to see. Just reply to this e-mail with your ideas.
Thanks for being an E-Edition member,
Jan Even, New Media Director
In other local media news, KFXO is now officially owned by KTVZ’s parent company, and you can read some more discussion at the always fun Oregon Media Insiders.
Still waiting for my laptop to get repaired, which explains my slow blogging. I’ve been stupidly busy at work, going a bit crazy and getting really frustrated with my workload and my slow laptop. So what did we decide to do on top of all this? We’re having a garage sale.
It’s a multi-family garage sale. My bro/sis-in-law have a ton of stuff to get rid of, as do we, so it’s all getting sold. Toys, computer desk, changing table, book shelf, clothes, large fish tank setup, stereo, jungle gym, hunting bow, sandbox, jungle gym, and much more! It’ll be going on tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday, 9AM to whenever we feel like it (earlybirds have to not only help setup but have to pay triple).
Where do I live? Using the contact form to the right or comment below and I’ll reply with my address (don’t really want it posted here, though I’m pretty easy to find). Or just look in the paper for the Watson Dr. garage sale.
While the nasty hit and run (and follow-up) was probably the weirdest (and most grusome) crime this area’s seen in a while, I have to think this is right up there.
A Portland woman who shot her ex-boyfriend and fled to Central Oregon, where she shot herself in the head died early Thursday at a Bend hospital, as police uncovered a bizarre twist to the tragedy: She had faked her own death earlier this month, convincing everyone – including the victim – she had died.
Oh, and it gets better…
An autopsy has concluded Michael Kellerman (Editor Note: The person this woman allegedly killed), 36, died of multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, Portland police spokesman Sgt. Brian Schmautz said Thursday […].
This lady sounded really, really, messed up.
Full release that was sent today from the Portland Police is after the jump (thanks Barn for sending it my way).
And a fan of good symphonic band music? Then read on and hopefully will see you this weekend!
KTVZ has gotten themselves a new contenet management system and video serving system powered by the WorldNow folks, and has gotten themselves a new design.
It’s obviously got some kinks to work out, as it just went public this weekend, but feel free to share positive and negative comments here (as I do know that the folks there are going to be reading comments — or at least Barney will).
I’ve been offline for a couple days, so I didn’t post this on Friday when it was announced: Les Schwab, who built a small tire business into one of the biggest in the nation, died Friday in Prineville. He was 89. Full story.