New YouTube Video: Burpees for Bucks at CrossFit SW Beaverton

Posted on December 22, 2012 | Leave a comment

via YouTube Capture

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New YouTube Video: Sisters playing

Posted on November 22, 2012 | Leave a comment

Grace and Clare playing nice Thanksgiving evening after pie.

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Israel, Gaza, and America’s Jacksonians

Posted on November 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

I subscribe to a lot of blogs, but rarely have time to read most of the posts that come across my reader. Walter Russell Mead’s stuff, however, usually make the cut if I have any time at all to spare. A couple days ago, he posted this piece about the current war between Israel and Hamas and the stark differences between America’s reaction and, well, the rest of the world’s reaction. He nails it. Anyone that looks at America’s response and is just flabbergasted that we’re not up in arms about the invasion needs to read this. You may disagree with the result of these attitudes, but this describes a large swath of Americans attitude on the subject. (Full disclosure: I’m one of the people whose reaction is “What took Israel so long?)

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The End of the Upper Middle Class?

The End of the Upper Middle Class? is a fantastic article on the Fiscal Times that I stumbled across. The funny thing is that I just happened to stumble across the original article about “making it” on $250K a year over a year ago, and that struck me too. Danica points out to me that some of the budget isn’t fair, with a lot of — strictly speaking — unnecessary line items, but I think the reality of the message holds: if taxes go up much more upon this sector of the country, you’ll just have one of the breadwinners “go John Galt” and opt out of the work force. That will result in LESS tax revenue, not more.

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Posted on November 21, 2012 in Uncategorized

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On Wired’s Geekdad, this nails my reaction to the Lucasfilm purchase by Disney. Perfectly: To be perfectly…

Posted on November 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

Originally posted on Google+

On Wired's Geekdad, this nails my reaction to the Lucasfilm purchase by Disney. Perfectly:To be perfectly honest, I don’t have much of a reaction, beyond my initial surprise. I know a lot of people are really excited and others are near-boiling angry, but I’m indifferent. For me, the mere mention of “Star Wars” immediately transports me back to when I was nine, when the original first came out; it’s an undeviating reaction.My brother and I obsessed over that movie (and then Empire and RotJ), finding any excuse we could to go to the theater again and again and again. We scoured department store shelves and grocery aisles for any tie-in, so hungry were we for anything Star Wars related. Every birthday, every Christmas, and every quarter we could keep away from the arcade slots was dedicated to expanding our own miniature Star Wars universe of figures, toys, and books.The new trilogy wasn’t that. Even though I enjoyed the fantasy of it all, it wasn’t really Star Wars to me. I’m not sure it ever could have been, viewing it through the filter of adulthood, rather than the wonder of a child. Like Thomas Wolfe said, “you can’t go home again.”If we are lucky enough to get a great writer and director to make the next trilogy something really special and wonderful, I’m sure I will enjoy them. But I’m not going to worry about it, because whatever magic Disney manages to weave, it’ll never top my nonstop obsession I lived through with the first trilogy. And I’m OK with that.— David Banks

The GeekDads Respond: Disney Buys Lucasfilm | GeekDad | Wired.com

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Around the Cart World: Week Two — Emame’s

Posted on September 26, 2012 | Leave a comment

Right next to 808 Grinds is a little card that serves up lunch with big, spicy Ethiopian flavor: Emame’s. For $7.00, I got the Siga Watt (slow cooked beef with lots of spices), collard greens, and bread made of teff, a gluten free grain, which is traditionally fermented when it’s used to make bread, which this was. And that was the stand out: it was tangy from the fermentation — I wasn’t expecting that. Even if you’re not gluten free, if you go there, spend the extra buck and get it — the experience is worth it. The meat and veggies were great — I mean, it’s slow cooked beef.This lunch ended up being pretty paleo, but not entirely. While teff is a grain, it is gluten free, and the phylates are pretty much negated during the fermentation process. It’s a bit carborific, but that’s OK. I give it an 8 out of 10, and I shall return, someday.

The menu:

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Around the Cart World: Week One — 808 Grinds

Posted on September 17, 2012 | Leave a comment

I don’t believe that this is an original idea, but it’s sure to be fun and interesting. Once a week, for likely about a year, I’m going to be going to each cart in the city a block away from Jive, clockwise and in order. I’ll post up here what I had, how much it cost, and a quick review of it. The wrinkle here is that I eat fairly strict paleo, which means, among other things, no grains whatsoever. For many carts, that won’t be an issue, but for others, it may be nearly impossible (that grilled cheese cart’s looking at me probably next spring — will I be able to figure that one out?).

Today’s cart was 808 Grinds, on the southeast corner of the cart city. For $7.00, I received a very generous helping of both Kalua Pork and Shoyu Chicken, served on a bed of shredded cabbage. For grain eaters, there’s usually rice and/or mac salad for the taking. For some sauces, I did a chile sauce and a wasabi mayonnaise. They were both fantastic. The meats were flavorful, juicy, and a little smoky. The sauces were good too, but most of it was consumed without their assistance. Other than a little soy sauce used on the chicken (and probably a little sugar), it was about as paleo as you’re going to get. They’ve definitely made my shortlist for go-to lunches when I’m in the mood for a repeat.

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