Thoughts & Deeds

We had an interesting experience in Portland this past weekend when our typically pristine water supply was tainted by e. coli, affecting west-side residents and businesses. That meant that anyone served by the tainted reservoir had to boil their water before using it — which is no big deal for people who are used to camping — and the city government had to get the word out about the contamination. Now that is a pretty big deal. … more

It’s become a dirty world in the creative community. “Crowdsourcing” often means a business has chosen to ask all-comers to submit responses to the businesses request – be it a logo, web site design, or engineering design for NASA’s next space shuttle – with no guarantee of pay or selection of their submitted work. On one hand, it’s a great way to get the community involved in solving a problem rapidly. … more

September means Bike Commute Challenge month in Portland – a month in which the Bicycle Transportation Alliance and the city promote bike commuting by encouraging friendly competition between individuals at local businesses to see who can bike the most in the month. It’s a great idea, especially for larger companies that draw a lot of employees who drive into town from suburbs (or even near-town neighborhoods). … more

What started as a group conversation over coffee about the relevance of awards shows, professional organizations, and the establishment turned into a keen interest in organizing a multi-day convergence of events that would help Portland’s many voices to rise above the fray and be heard. These voices are those of the New Communicators, and they’re already evolving the way conversations happen. Isn’t it time we all listened and joined in? … more

Today’s Portland design community buzz on Twitter is the City of Portland’s decision to make a design contest out of the Portland Online website. Many of us reviewed the RFP released for project last month and found the budget lacking ($10-20k for a 140,000 page site? Right.), which may explain why they’re moving forward with a design contest. No agency worth its salt wanted to reply to such a poorly proposed project with so little funding.* I know we looked at it and decided to pass. … more

Portland is a funny city of transplants from around the United States, natives, and transplants who have gone native. While we’ve all come here for different reasons — the rain isn’t one of them — I think we’ve stayed for the same reason: Portland is awesome. … more

Last night we received some tough news. A friend had been killed in a cycling accident in Virginia, having been hit by a dirt hauling truck while it was making a right turn. To say that I was close to Bonnie Tinker would be a stretch, but I knew her as part of the Quaker community in Portland. She was at my wedding, signed the marriage certificate, had known my wife for nearly two decades. I had given her advice about how to change and improve the Love Makes a Family website. … more

I’ve never been a fan of parades. For one, I’m only 5′2″ and can never see the floats and marching groups from behind that Really Tall Guy Who Always Stands In Front Of Me. Plus I don’t care for large crowds. But every year I make an exception for the gay pride parade, because it’s different. We’re not celebrating civic pride, we’re celebrating being ok with ourselves in spite of everything we may experience. … more

Last Friday I had the excellent opportunity to talk to interactive industry colleagues about something near and dear to my liver heart – homebrewing. I served five kinds of homebrew to warm up the crowd, then dropped an amazing 17 minutes of blabbing about beer on their unwitting ears. People were kind enough to laugh at my dorky jokes, too! What nice folks we have in Portland. … more

I grew up on the Puget Sound, with sea water in view and the sound of gulls in my ears each day. Mine is a coastal folk, whether from Scotland or Ireland or Sweden, always near the water if not on it. The ocean delineates the boundaries of all I know, a comforting velvet rope marking the edges of my life and the adventures that will take place once I get from here to there.

I’ve never lived more than two hours from the Pacific Ocean. Not being near a body of water that large is like sleeping alone in a king size bed – when you’re in the middle of it you can’t stick your foot or arm out and know “ah yes, there’s the edge.” Out here in the Pacific Northwest, the ocean is my main geographical reference point. I know its shape as British Columbia becomes Washington becomes Oregon and moves on through California to become Mexico and South America. It tells me that our borders don’t matter, that the sea endures when these borders change and are washed away by the next tide.

Whether it’s on a sandy beach in Oceanside or the black pahoehoe of Hawai’i, facing the enormity of the ocean is sublime. No matter who or what we are in life, we all came from those briny depths. Oceans contain us and give us form, challenge us to cross them, soothe us to sleep, threaten to unmake us.

Without them, we are nothing.