I’ll be making some long overdue changes to this site soon.  Gotta keep up with the times, right?

Unfortunately I had this idea late on Friday and proceeded to be rather busy on Saturday, so this first Friday Flickr is happening on a Sunday (I know, right? I guess I should probably get that New Year’s Eve recap post up soon too).

To start with, this photo that I took in the command center of my newly constructed secret underground headquarters.

Kidding!  Saturday was a free day at OMSI, and we went so that we could bathe ourselves in SCIENCE! for an afternoon.  They had this nifty “Science on a Sphere” display, which cycled through a number of cool presentations about the planets.  I also took this very cool one of Mars:

….and that’s what I got for today.  Please be sure to join me next week when I will probably miss my self-imposed Friday deadline again.

I took a (very brief) road trip to Montana the other day, and discovered that just like in the Pacific Northwest they are still getting rain as late as July.  I spent about twelve hours total there, which is a whole different story, but for now really I just wanted to show you a few pictures I took while driving home during the day.

And also to tell you this: Montana rest stops have some of the friendliest rodents around.  We pulled over just prior to crossing back through Idaho to stretch our legs, and I noted what looked like thirty or more chipmunks or squirrels running riot all over the lawn near the restrooms.  I wondered aloud whether it was mating season, but soon realized that these rodents had just keyed into a crucial secret of survival: if you hang out near where humans are passing by and are cute and fuzzy, humans will go crazy over you and shower you with food for your time.

I got a little closer to try and get a picture of one, and as I bent down with my phone to get a closer shot, the little bugger turned and ran right at me.  I backed up a step or too, trying to keep my feet away from him while trying to keep my phone close enough for a decent shot.  Thinking that surely I must be holding out some form of foodstuff for him, the little guy sat straight up and looked at me to let me know he was ready to receive his due.

Almost made me wish I had a cracker for him.

A few weekends back we got up extra early on Saturday and went down to the waterfront to check out the Portland Doggie Dash, an organized run for dogs and their owners.

A few of my photos turned out to be worth sharing.  Suspiciously they all seem to be of corgis.  Hmmm…

As you were.

I took this one at a tourist shop on Government Avenue in Victoria, BC.  I believe the name of the store was literally “I Love Canada, Eh?”.  No, I’m serious.  Anyway, I liked the way this photo turned out.

I realize some designer was trying to get a little cute with some of the ideograms on the sign and make them look like a man and a woman, but don’t you think the end result is more than a little…well…suggestive?

Anyone else ready for it to go ahead and be spring already?

I liked the comment that Kerri Anne left for this photo on the Flickr that I had to post it here with that title.  I suppose there is something sort of bleak and zombie-like about it.  Of course, now I’m thinking about a zombie outbreak in Portland and wondering — would a vegan who became a zombie stay a vegan?  I can’t help but picture a freshly undead local stumbling down the street, arms outstretched, moaning, “BRRRRROCOLLIIIII!”

(The above joke may be funnier if you live here.)

If you like the effect in this photo I got it with the Spica app; there’s an associated group on Flickr.

Nothing ends, Adrian.  Nothing ever ends.

This made me think back a bit to a link that Neil Gaiman posted on the Twitter, to this story about a man who has a quote from Death: The High Cost of Living tattooed on his arm.  The slant on this quote is a bit different:

It always ends.  That’s what gives it value.

I don’t know why I drew the mental connection between these quotes, other than the arbitrary end of this year by those of us using the Gregorian calendar was rapidly approaching.  Also, I probably spend entirely too much time living in imaginary places.

It’s easy enough in the the hectic holiday season and the ridiculous pressure at work to GET EVERYTHING DONE to turn around and write off the entire year as a complete wash, but honestly I had a good year, and I think I’ve laid the foundations for some better times ahead.  Anyway, I did this silly thing with pictures last year because I was lazy, but I think I liked it enough afterward that I’ll do it again.  Here’s my 2009, in photos:

It’s been an awesome year, and here’s to the next one, and they’re boarding my flight so I guess I better wrap this up omg see you all next year!

I swear this view will never, ever get old for me.

After uploading this photo, I went back through my Flickr stream and found a few more taken from almost this exact spot.  Here’s one taken last year in September, before the green had begun to give way to the colors of fall.

And another one, taken the previous year to that in late October.

With a view like that, can you blame me for going back and taking these shots again and again?  I can’t wait to take some serious hikes up along this part of state next spring.