Tuesdays With Mindy: When Your Smart Phone Is Stolen
Well, almost stolen. Last Thursday evening around Midnight, I went to root around in my purse, dig my phone out and plug it into the charger for bed time. But it was nowhere to be found. After several attempts to call and locate it, I slugged into bed thinking the worst possible scenario. I’d left it at the gym and someone had stolen it.
Mindy and Her Smart Phone
That was further confirmed early Friday morning when we called around to 24 Hour Fitness AND Fred Meyer with no luck. I even desperately searched the area around the machine where I remember leaving it.
Back at home, crying sad crocodile tears of technology loss amidst a flurry of changing passwords – Dan messaged me on Google Talk to let me know I don’t need to change the password on our credit union account after all. Google Latitude (the creepy stalker App) was showing my G2 resting snuggly within a mile radius of our gym. Lo and behold, it was napping in the vault behind the front desk. I stopped by the desk, filled out some paperwork and my sweet little cell baby was back in my hands within 10 hours of realizing it had gone missing.
It was a happy ending to a crappy morning.
There was a brief two-hour period where I was pretty sure my phone was in the hands of a “bad guy.” And the tragic consequences that could have befallen me? Very tragic. All because I hadn’t the forethought to put any security measures on my device.
Before this experience, and before I had a chance to change my passwords, someone could have had complete access to my Google (Gmail, Calendar, Google Docs), Facebook, WordPress, Netflix, Credit Union and Kindle/Amazon accounts.
How do you make your phone more secure in case you leave it somewhere stupid like an elliptical machine at your local gym?
Tuesdays with Mindy: Bank Transfer Day
As far as I’m concerned – the only thing positive to come out of the Occupy Wall Street Movement has been the reversal of a $5 Bank Fee by some of the major corporate banks across the country. If it takes all this movement and energy to reverse one $5 fee, our country is in worse shape than I thought.
It did motivate me to switch banks. Yep – we participated in Bank Transfer Day and moved our money along with 650,000 other people across the country. Here’s an article to prove it! We got quoted in an article that made it into the Credit Union times. We’re all fancy and shit! It pays to know journalists. 😉
Moving our money was one of the few requests I noticed on signs and over the interwaves that actually made sense to me. Seemed doable. Was something that I actually had some time and energy for.
Our process started over two weeks ago. On our anniversary. We are working to get our car refinanced through On Point and had been in communication with them anyway, so it didn’t seem like too crazy an impulse to sit down with a banker on a warmish, sunny Sunday (our 6th wedding anniversary) and open up three accounts.
Then we spent the next week cancelling and re-routing our direct deposits and autopays. Made that much simpler by splitting the tasks down the middle. Dan took half and I took half.
Then, one day – we scooped all of our money out of one account and dumped it in another. Just like that. Closed down at least three accounts, still have one open with a few hundred in it until all those debits clear.
Moving your Money in Four Relatively Easy Steps:
1. Open up a credit union account (CUs ARE open on Saturday)
2. Reroute direct deposits and auto bill pays
3. Withdraw funds, close account
4. Deposit money in credit union
Sure – it took almost three weeks to accomplish the goal, but with the steps spread out over time, it wasn’t anymore difficult than tackling any other project.
The rewards are less tangible than the immediate impact I think many people were expecting to feel. Some of it was symbolic. Some of it was an honest interest in boosting the local economy.
For me – moving banks was a difficult and emotional decision. I’ve been with Washington Mutual since I was 16 years old and had my first job at McDonalds. My sister has worked there longer than she’s been married and manages a local branch. My brother and I both held decent, stable jobs there at one point in our lives. I remember rocking a Rodeo Grandma T-Shirt to school back when they were the voice of WaMu.
Tuesdays with Mindy: Yelp’s Pley On @ OMSI
This past Saturday boasted my second ever Yelp event at OMSI. Their Game On 2.0 exhibit just ended on Sunday – the 18th of September and we got free passes from Yelp to enjoy free food, drinks and video games the night before. You can check all the details here at the Yelp website.
Well, we ended up stalling out on the first two and never did get to play Frogger or Pitfall. Major bummer. But they wouldn’t allow alcohol in the exhibit and no pictures either, so you wouldn’t have been able to visually enjoy that part of the evening. If it had occurred.
Instead we gorged ourselves on food and alcohol to the point of an extreme hang-over the next day. But the event itself was well put-together. Everyone there was having a blast and tons of people were sporting costumes. We should have dressed up – I know. But I didn’t wanna.
Here are the pics from the event:
Hoping this exhibit comes around again in the future. Would love another opportunity to play some old school games!
Wednesdays with Mindy: Oregon Brewer’s Festival
Blogging is going to be sporadic for the next few weeks until all the big work events are over and life returns to somewhat normal. Therefore, Tuesdays with Mindy is now Wednesdays. It’s like Bizarro World!
The Oregon Brewers Festival for the last five years or so has been the mark of turning another year older. Sometimes there is a collectors cup as a souvenir of the occassion and other times there is nothing (cause we’re out-of-town).
2011 Oregon Brewers Festival Mug filled with Imperial Pumpkin Porter
We decided to brave the crowds again this year and sample some of the best local and national beers such an event can offer.
My concern started growing as soon as we hit the Lloyd Center parking lot and had trouble locating a spot. This probably had something to do with both the Brew Fest AND the Timbers game, so I tried in vain to convince myself that was the case. The MAX was also kinda packed, but I spotted the Green and White scarves and shirts, so again, I placated myself with those.
Unfortunately, a couple of dudes dispelled us of our hopeful wishes that this wasn’t going to be a beer fueled mosh-pit of human flesh when he indicated that obtaining a pint was averaging about a 30 minute wait time. Boo.
It was pretty intensely packed inside. There were a few places you could step off to the side and avoid the crush of humanity, but it reminded me quite heavily of the San Diego Comic Con show room floor in all the bad ways.
And the lines inside the beer tent? Chaos.
And the Festival goers themselves? Drunken frat boys.
Granted – this was Saturday night after 5pm on a hot day…but I witnessed at least two physical altercations between dudes in close proximity to a swarm of people. I get that personal bubbles were being threatened on both occasions, but for reals? Not really my scene.
Insanity inside the tents. You like beer THIS much?
As much as I was hating on the atmosphere at the Fruit Beer Festival…it was a tolerable crowd crush. I don’t recall feeling so violated since the failed True Blood panel. Yikes.
Did I mention the line management was poor as well? I mean, get some damn ropes people! Have some security staff ushering people into orderly rows. I’m all for a free and easy atmosphere, but when you are talking about THAT many people jammed into such a small space vying for alcoholic beverages…I want a friendly, ordered affair.
Speaking of San Diego Comic Con – I’ve had two conversations with interested but tentative potential attendees in the last few days, both somewhat randomly. Pretty excited about the prospect of attending next year. 🙂
Back to the Beer – there were 6 brews we waited in line for (30 minutes each, mind you). I would like to note that I didn’t get to sample all the beers I wanted to AND that many of them were already sold out.
Tuesdays with Mindy: Portland Pork Sandwiches
A weekend of drinks and eats
Me and the DH (Dan Robertson) had the extreme pleasure of hosting family last weekend, Dan’s cousin and his girlfriend. They were in town from California following a drunken conversation a year ago about how P-Town is the microbrew capital of the world and overall pretty cool.
We invited Cousin Eric to spend a weekend with us and we’d show him around town. He took us up on the offer and brought his lovely girlfriend Carly along. We secured a bed in the Man Cave and I crafted an agenda full of drinking and eating.
Along with introducing Eric and Carly to new beers and new sites, I made up a rule to eat Pulled Pork Sandwiches at every place we were dining in order to scout out the best. A weekend of Portland Pork Sandwiches, if you will. ********************************************************************************************
FRIDAY
– McMenamin’s Edgefield: We sat out on the Powerstation Pub patio and the weather/locale was gorgeous. Probably the most scenic spot we ate and drank the entire weekend. Carly bypassed the Ruby for a delicious cider brewed on site and the boys drank plenty of dark, hopsy beer.
The food was actually quite good, which is shocking for a McMenamins. I’ve never had anything but nasty tasting bar food, so finding a location that boasts delicious Ruby AND scrumptious vittles is probably gonna make me a return customer. Not to mention you could hear snippets of the gorgeous Neko Case concert as background.
We also sampled some of their Monkey Puzzle distilled whiskey and everyone was such a fan, we’re bringing a bottle down in early September (when we attend the Scottish Games!).
Pulled Pork Review: At first the waitress brought ours out with no BBQ sauce (Carly had ordered hers on the side) and so we were like “man, this shit is dry and not very tasty.” Then we realized our mistake, so quickly were able to drowned our sorrows in tasty sauce that had a nice sweet start with a tangy bite at the end. I was pleasantly surprised. There was also lots of heat which I was expecting…but could have done without. Rank 2 out of 4. ************************************************************************************************ SATURDAY
– Widmer Brewery Tour: We met up with our buddy Umphress here (he’s a fantastic beer SNOB) and sampled the brews while learning about the Widmer origins and what ingredients went into the construction of the individual beers. We each got a keychain bottle opener and a pint glass at the end. The tour was quick because the upper part of the brewery was actually in use, so we couldn’t see the kegs or bottling. Boo hoo. Ah well.
Back at the Gasthaus Pub everyone seemed to find something to enjoy (beer or food). Carly and I opted for Root Beer – I got a float will Tillamook Ice Cream (oh yeah). The only crowd displeaser was our surly waitress and the lack of fries with our burgers and sandwiches. Wha?
Pulled Pork Sandwich: OMG – so yum! It had a rich flavor and was actually created with one of the Widmer Bocks. Wow. I passed around the dish the sauce came in and made everyone try it. I can’t even describe the awesome. So far it had emerged as the clear winner. Very little heat. Delectable. Rank 1 out of 4.
Tuesdays with Mindy: Portland Fruit Beer Festival
As a fan of fruity beers, I’ve been excited for months about the first annual Portland Fruit Beer Festival hosted by Burnside Brewing Company. The event featured over 15 breweries from the Northwest and 
beyond with over 20 different beers, the majority of them brewed up special for the festival.
PFBF was sponsored by Yelp, KBOO and Brewvana. It featured wood fired pizzas and bagel sandwiches with vegetarian and vegan options from Tastebud. To counteract all those veggies – Fifty Licks was offering up Maple and Bacon ice cream from one of their mobile trucks.
But who cares about all that food when there was a crap ton of beer to be had? We arrived to a line already wrapped around the fenced off Burnside Brewing parking lot. After picking up a pint glass and 10 tickets we almost immediately ran into one Mr. MMCoolJam for whom we had a delivery of borrowed Star Trek items. He pointed us in the direction of our first tasting.
***********************************************************************************
1. Fort George Brewing: Badda BOOM! Cherry Stout
Their Description: Coming in at 6.9% ABV, rich and dark as a moonless night in the orchard, Badda BOOM! has 40 pounds of raspberries and cherries mingling famously with the Belgian yeast esters and black barley bitters.
Ours: Dan approved. A little hopsy. Nice dark color with a chocolate aftertaste. ********************************************************************************************
We then attempted to try all the beers from left to right of the entire row. Our second choice: ********************************************************************************************
2. Alameda Brewing: Huckleberry Hound
Their Description: Yellow Wolf Imperial IPA aged and “dry-hopped” with huckleberries. ABV: 8.2% IBU’s: 103
Ours: Neither liked it. Super hopsy. The fruit hides behind the bad. It leaves a nasty aftertaste that seems to linger. *************************************************************************************************
After such a bad sophomore sampling, we decided to forgo the left to right option and find something I would enjoy before I deeply regretted blowing $15 and all those weeks of excitement.
We skipped over the Beetje Brewing: Zure Krenten (Pinot Noir Barrel-aged farmhouse ale with champagne currants), Block 15 Brewing: Psidium (Rustic farmhouse ale matured with Guava fruit and blended with a sour golden ale) and Breakside Brewing: Mango IPA (A tweaked version of Breakside’s flagship beer changed to suit the flavor of fresh Mango).
View from inside the fence
The last was universally panned by everyone we chatted with. Since one of my favorite fruity beers has long been the defunct Sour Cherry from 4th Street Brewing, we progressed to a tart wheat beer (two of my favorite things!). **************************************************************************************************
3. Burnside Brewing: Gooseberry Berliner-Weisse
Their Description: A slightly tart wheat beer with a mild fruitiness. This brew is lowly hopped (2ibu’s) and fermented with a lactic bacteria in addition to the German ale yeast resulting in slightly sour finish. A percentage of this beer was put into french oak barrels and aged with 50 pounds of Washington grown Gooseberries. ABV: 3.35% IBU’s: 2.1
Ours: Mindy was like “meh.” Tart without a nasty bite. Light flavor – almost lacking in flavor. Strong wheaty taste – just tart and wheat really. *********************************************************************************************
Tuesdays with Mindy: Let the Sunshine In
More lazy blogging. I have a conference thing! And I’ve started my first baby steps into couponing (not extreme or anything). Just getting discounts on crap we already buy. This is especially handy as I will be gainfully unemployed in the next few months. Gotta cut spending somewhere. Lord knows it can’t be on nerdy things!
Anywho – had a great weekend of sunshine and warm weather, so my AmeriCorps team took a hike around Salmon River and on Sunday Dan and I biked the Waterfront Promenade loop from Sellwood Park. I took pictures of all the really aesthetically pleasing elements of these trips, and thought I would post them here.
Apologies for the crappy Android cam on a few of these. iPhones do have that single advantage. Ah well.
Briefly toyed with the idea of creating another weekly series – Filmed By Bike – where I post all the pictures from our rides of the week every Sunday. So maybe that happens here. We shall see!
Here are the pics – Happy Tuesday! X-Men: First Class Review Tomorrow.
X-Men Nonsense: No Patch For You
So I woke up last week with this brilliant idea to make an X-Men: First Class track jacket by obtaining an Iron-On Patch and augmenting an article of clothing. And then in the shuffle of the weekend and getting ready for the weekend, it was lost. Only to be resurrected yesterday with the idea that I could easily locate an “Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters” patch in Portland, Oregon.
Like THIS
Because it is, after all, Portland Oregon. The home of Dark Horse Comics and Oni Press. Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Greg Rucka, Scott Allie. You know – it’s kind of like comic book heaven. And at all the conventions, there were patches galore. So OF COURSE one of our 10 or so comic book stores in the Portland Metro area would carry them.
Right? Right?
Dead fucking wrong. After spending an hour yesterday calling around to all of our local comic book stores, toy and hobby shops – I came up with nothing. The only place remotely close to PDX is in Everett, Washington. That’s about an hour North of Seattle. So my only alternative was to drive four hours away or try and convince someone to air-mail it to me. Neither option was feasible. For an Iron-On Patch.
Guess that means I’m not especially nerdy?
So then it occurred to my feeble, yet sometimes winning brain that I should make one of my own. I mean, I can knit. I can sew. How hard could it be to create a patch?
Turns out – not that difficult. The hardest part so far has been in obtaining a usable image of the symbol I want. Tonight I will procure the right kind of iron-on transfer paper for our Photosmart printer and test-run an old shirt. Then I will apply it to an item I intend to wear. Target has shirts for $8, so in the very least I’ll be able to sport an X-Shirt.
To avoid further embarrassments such as this in the future – Dan and I purchased THREE X-Patches from some shop in the UK. They are flying across the Atlantic Ocean and across the country as we speak. There is something exceptionally nerdy about getting packages from foreign countries. I kinda love it.
Wonder Northwest 2011: Recap
Sad to say – even with no expectations, Wonder Northwest did not live up to them. The DH and I each bought a weekend pass but only ended up attending Day One. It was advertised as a Comics and Pop Culture expo, but was severely lacking in the comics department.
Zombie fun at Wonder Northwest
The show floor was anemic compared to either Stumptown or the Portland Comic Book Show. The only publisher there was Dark Horse Comics. TFAW and Cosmic Monkey were representing with some books and a few artists/creators were sprinkled about…but mostly it was Toys and Collectibles. Those are the elements I usually steer clear of at cons. Did pick up two hardcover collections of The Stand and The Dark Tower series however. Digging on the Stephen King adaptations.
I did appreciate the live DJ (lots of great soul songs) but the volume made it difficult to chat so I’m kinda glad there weren’t artists or writers I wanted to see. We wouldn’t have been able to talk anyway. The booths in the registration area were cool – lots of great Portland organizations like PDXYar, The Alter Egos Society and PDX Browncoats representing.
All of the panel offerings were enticing, if not heavily attended. We were bummed to miss the Boilerplate, Zombie Epidemiology and Geeking Back to the Community panels due a series of unfortunate events (late arrival, leaving to put on zombie makeup, forgetting ID and having to drive home and back). I’m sure the costume contest on Sunday was awesome too, but we opted for dinner with my fam instead.
I guess what really threw me was the average age of the attendee. At least 50% of those in attendance were teens or early 20s. Loads of anime kids in costumes. It just made me feel so incredibly old! Didn’t really start enjoying myself until we hit up the hotel bar for a Zombie (the alcoholic beverage) and watched some nerdy Rock Band. Sadly cut short for zombie evening exploits.
The Zombie Walk itself was lackluster compared to previous outings and getting all dressed up didn’t seem worth it by the time we got to the Bossanova Ballroom for the Zombie Prom. We arrived 30 minutes early to stand outside in the evening drizzle. Eventually many of the other folks split off and filtered on over to the Lovecraft for the official after party.
Wonder Northwest 2011: Preview
Did you know that there’s an organization here in Portland that plans all the nerdy events you all love to attend so much? Well, there is, and here they are! Think of them as the Justice League, but without awesome super powers! The geek Mafia without all that messy mafia stuff! A real life organization that represents you! Come find out what they are doing and what you can do to help.
Boilerplate: Behind the Scenes — 12noon – 12:45
Meet the real Boilerplate! Creator Paul Guinan and his co-author/wife, Anina Bennett, will reveal the origin of everyone’s favorite steampunk robot, discuss plans for a Boilerplate movie produced by J.J. Abrams, perform excerpts from Boilerplate: History’s Mechanical Marvel, and give you a sneak peek at their next book. Featuring an extremely rare appearance by Paul’s handmade Boilerplate model.
Gays In Comics: Portland Edition! –1pm – 1:45
Industry insider Andy Mangels will host a panel of comics professionals and their experiences in the industry.
Star Wars Filming Locations — 2pm – 2:45
Gus Lopez will present an overview of the Star Wars filming locations used for both Original and Prequel Trilogies. From the deserts of Tunisia to the glaciers of Norway, from the redwoods of California to palaces in Italy, Gus has been hunting Star Wars locations for 15 years. In this panel, he will show photos of the actual locations used to shoot these films, how the sites have changed over time, and some of the cool “souvenirs” he found on location. Learn about traveling on your own to a galaxy far, far away…
Dan
tinyheroes
Tiny Heroes 