The Best Destinations in Oregon

My family has been fortunate enough to have gone to the snow twice in the past two weekends.  This got me thinking about some of the best places to travel to in Oregon, so here are my thoughts on the subject.  

Favorite Coastal Town:  Cannon Beach

My wife and I discovered Cannon Beach a several years ago and have since wanted to visit anytime we thought of going to the Oregon Coast.  If you have never been to the Oregon Coast you should take time to see it.  It is not your typical beach environment since the weather is never too hot there, so getting in the water is almost never an option.  More often than not it is raining or at least very overcast but on those rare days when the skies are clear and the sun is out, it is one of the greatest places to be.  Cannon Beach is great for these days because it has a long strip of beach with plenty of houses to look at along the coast line as well as a monolith for viewing, which I believe is the same section of rocks from the movie "The Goonies" that leads them on their adventure.  The town of Cannon Beach is one of the smallest that the coast has to offer but it is full of shops and a few great restaurants to experience. The laid back lifestyle of coastal living paired with the great environment of that area makes for a fun weekend getaway.

Favorite Mountain Retreat: Sunriver, Mt. Bachelor

We recently had the opportunity to spend a weekend at Mt. Hood about 20 miles south of Timberline Lodge and then this past weekend spent our time at Sunriver at a house which is about 30 miles from Mt. Bachelor.  Having been to both of them within a weeks time made it easy to compare the two so here is my verdict.  While Timberline Lodge is a historic site among mountain goers and has some amazing scenery, I would have to say that Mt. Bachelor wins this one by a slight margin.  First of all the drive to Sunriver is longer than the drive to Timberline, but you get to go over some amazing mountain ranges with incredible views of snow capped peaks, burnt woods and some stunning lakes.  Once you are there, Sunriver has many things to offer for entertainment if you are not at the slopes.  They have fitness centers, swimming pools, outdoor water slides, golf courses, bike and jogging paths, restaurants and shops.  The feeling of Sunriver is that you are part of a tiny mountain community enjoying life away from the daily grind we are most accustomed to.  I don't have a lot of experience snowboarding or skiing but Mt. Bachelor seems to be a good place to learn and along the way there you will pass Hoodoo which is probably the best beginner slopes in Oregon if you want a slower transition to the bigger mountains.  Bend, Oregon which is the closest town near Sunriver, does not have much to offer in my opinion, but that is generally the least of my concerns since Sunriver has so many things to do and maybe best of all, just relaxing and enjoying the company you are with and the high desert and mountain views.

Favorite Big City Getaway:  Portland

Do I really need to say anymore?  Portland is really the only big city in Oregon and even at that, it doesn't have too much of a "big city" feel.  Maybe that's just because I lived nearby for a couple years and got to know it pretty well.  Portland has great things to offer, particularly some amazing restaurants and galleries.  They have many hotels to stay at that range from being classy to ones that are more quaint.  We have enjoyed staying at the Nines and the Heathman Hotel when we visit.  The Portland Trail Blazers are also a good attraction, even if they are not an elite team in the NBA but they are good enough to make most games great to watch, no matter who they are playing.

Pictures taken from the following sites in respective order: http://www.flickriver.com/places/United+States/Oregon/Cannon+Beach/;http://www.relocatinginformation.com/states/Oregon.html;http://www.budgethotels.com/budget-hotels-in-portland/

Getting Paid To Sit Around

In my job as a crisis counselor I have many tasks, most of which come in a moments notice that I need to manage.  This makes for some very interesting days full of excitement and sometimes tense situations...that is when we are busy.  Because I am a crisis counselor I do not have any clients of my own which means I go into each and every day without a single thing scheduled.  This is one thing I love about my job.  I don't have the opportunity to stress out about a particular appointment or worry how I might handle a specific client.  Instead I just go with the flow of the day and manage crisis situations as they come along.

One of the main tasks of my job requires me to go to local hospital E.R.'s and evaluate people there who have either been brought in, or have brought themselves, for suicidal/homicidal/psychotic symptoms and behaviors and then help the E.R. doctor to determine if the person is safe to go home or if they need to be placed in a psychiatric hospital.  When I recommend that a person goes to an inpatient psychiatric hospital, it is up to me to call the various hospital in Oregon to see if they have any bed space available and then to inform them of the reason the client needs that level of care.

Recently I was at one of our local hospitals and I had made the determination that the person needed to be placed in a psychiatric hospital so I set out on my list of calls to find a bed.  Unfortunately, this process usually entails looking at the closest hospital first and then if that gets denied you move on to the next closest hospital, since we also pay for the person to be transported.  So I called one hospital and waited about and hour and a half for an official response that they had no beds available.  Then I called the next one and waited two hours for them to tell me they had no beds.  Finally, I called another hospital and got the client placed after another two hour wait.  All-in-all I was at the hospital from about 1:30pm to 7:30pm and my evaluation of the client to determine placement took all of about 30 minutes. So most of my time was spent sitting in the E.R. waiting on hospitals to call me back, while I can literally do nothing more than to sit there and get paid.  Despite the beauty of not having to do much of anything and still earning money, it can be terribly boring and frustrating.

I do love working in the hospitals and getting to interact with the patients, nursing staff and physicians but the process can be remarkably slow, particularly in comparison to the day-to-day crisis situations I deal with in the office which my team is very efficient at managing.

I haven't posted in how long?!

I haven't posted on this blog since October of last year.  A lot has happened since then and I don't have a lot of time now to fill you in on the details but here it is in a nutshell.

Biggest News Since Last Post:  My wife and I are going to have another baby!  She is expected to deliver in the middle of July and we are all very excited.  Most of my excitement is of course to have another addition to our family, but I am also eager to see how our almost 2 year old son will respond to being a big brother.  I'm pretty hopeful that he will adapt wonderfully. 

Landon is also sleeping through the night entirely on his own.  For the longest time we had been either rocking him to sleep or laying next to him on his mattress until he fell asleep,  then we would sneak out.  If he woke up in the middle of the night we would bring him to bed with us because it just seemed easier than to put him back to sleep.  We have since adopted the strategy of getting him ready for bed, reading a story, singing some bedtime type of song, saying a prayer and then explaining to him how he is going to fall asleep on his own and that momma and daddy will be checking on him if he needs us.  Then we walk out and close the door.  He has been falling asleep anywhere from 5 minutes to 20 minutes after we leave, on average.  The first couple nights were terrible but it has been worth it.  He sleeps through the night almost every night too which is a huge relief. 

I am in another basketball league at the Timberhill Athletic Club.  I play with my two brother-in-laws and some of their friends.  We are not a very tall team and we often lose as a result of this and not being able to get many second chance opportunities.  Last season I averaged about 12 points per game and after three games in this season I'm averaging about 20.  Our record is 1-3 right now and I think we can win at least one or two more.  We are mostly playing for fun though, or at least my wife reminds me of that when I come home frustrated. 

My job is going very well.  I am a crisis counselor and recently had my evaluation with my supervisor and got very high marks.  Our agency was also audited by the state and the crisis team in particular, which is just myself and another counselor and our supervisor, received outstanding remarks for the service we provide. 

I have continued to work out regularly at the YMCA and have maintained my recent weight loss.  I had lost just over 30 pounds but gained about 8 pounds back between Thanksgiving and New Years.  I'd like to lose about 15 more pounds which would get me to about 175-180 which seems like a healthy weight for me. 

I finished the book "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and I really enjoyed it.  I had seen the american version of the movie and thought it was ok but the book was great.  Now I have started the Lord of the Rings books, starting with the Hobbit.  Not sure I will make it through but I will try.  There is something about the way they are written that makes it a little hard to get into. 

It's Been A While...Here's What I've Been Up To

I have been a bit preoccupied lately and have not posted anything on my blog is a few weeks.  Most of the reason is due to no longer having a television provider anymore.  Most people would think that this should free up time for me to do even more posts, and that would be the case if I would not have started a Netflix subscription.  I have spent the time I usually blog by watching 30 Rock since I am a devoted Office fan and have missed out on this show. 

I started a basketball league at a local fitness center.  My team is consists of three family members and two of their friends.  We are certainly not the most athletic team (I'm the second tallest at 6'1" on a good day) or the most experienced (two of us have organized basketball experience at the high school level) but it is a lot of fun.  Our current record is 1-2 and the two games we lost were very close.  I'm averaging 12 points and probably could be more aggressive on offense...and if you know anything about my history with basketball you'd say "that sounds about right".  For whatever reason I have never had much of a score first mentality but I'm trying to change. 

I am still going to the YMCA every weekday morning before work.  I shoot hoops for about 15 minutes to get limbered up before going to workout on the elliptical for an hour.  I have also changed my diet significantly by simply reducing the amount of food I eat each meal, no longer eating until I feel full, and have incorporated one or more large salads into my daily food consumption.  I have also gotten rid of drinking coffee.  The reason for that was only due to me not being able to drink it black and would instead have to use a large amount of creme brule creamer which was a lot of extra calories I did not need.  For breakfast most mornings I have a medium sized bowl of oatmeal with frozen berries and vanilla Greek yogurt mixed in.  As for the results...I have been doing this since the end of July and have lost 24 pounds.  If I lose another 15 pounds or so I will be back to the weight I was in high school...that would be crazy!  I feel great and seem to have a lot more energy through the day, although I am usually exhausted by about 7pm. 

Lastly, I have been playing "Borderlands 2" as much as I can, which is not as much as I would like.  And if it wasn't bad enough for me to have a sweet first person shooter to occupy my free time with, that I just got a couple weeks ago, now I have "Dishonored" which is a first person supernatural assassin game.  I am struggling to play both at the same time and have found myself caught up with Dishonored mostly because I just started it.  Both games are great and will give me plenty of gaming action to last me through the rest of the year. 

And now for a cute pic of my son Landon trying to feed his cousin. 

Preordergamer.com

One of my close friends recently started up a website, Preorder Gamer, for die hard video gamers that details the preorder bonuses you can get for upcoming games.  The great thing about this site is that there are not many like it out there, if any at all.  There are tons of video game review sites that also speak to some of the preorder bonuses available, but this site really details the variety amongst the bonuses depending on what type of upgrade you get and where you purchase from. 

Since this site is new within the past couple weeks there is some push to get it recognized.  So what better way than to have a giveaway contest of one of the most anticipated games of the year...Borderlands 2.  I admittedly have not played the first Borderlands so am not clear on all the hype but from what my friend tells me, it will be epic.  He described the game as a first person shooter with an incredible variety of enemies to face off against and an even wider variety of guns and other lootable items in the world of Pandora. 

Another great feature of this game is the seamless multiplayer mode in which you can join friends already in game via Xbox Live.  This allows you to pick up the action with your buddies and avoids sitting around in a game lobby where you have to wait for enough players to start a match.  When you want to play you can, and you will. 

Another great thing about this site is that it gets right down to the facts about what you need to know in a brief, couple of paragraphs, article about the upgrades.  The segments do not carry on for pages and pages like some games that devote their time reviewing the game play.  This site will tell you what you want and need to know in a matter of 30 seconds of reading.  It also has some video clips of game play and images of the upgrade bonuses available.  Another great feature of this site is the ease at which you can preorder the games you want.  Each preorder bonus package has a link for where you can purchase the game, whether you have an Xbox or Playstation. 

Finally, my favorite part about this site is that I won the Borderlands 2 contest and will receive my free copy of the game this weekend to start enjoying.  To enter the contest all you had to do was post a comment on the article describing who you were going to play as in Borderlands 2.  As I mentioned above, I know the creator of this site really well and spent some time with him this weekend trying to convince him that I should just be awarded the game, basically for being an awesome friend.  But he decided to be all fair about it and posted a video of him putting the names of those who commented on the article in a bowl and then mixed them up and "making it rain" before pulling out the winning name.  Here is the video of me winning the first giveaway from this great site.  Notice how he comments on me trying to "stack the deck" and then his expression when he reveals that I won fair and square.  Priceless.

 

Make sure you check out this site for great reviews and more giveaways.  Preorder Gamer. 

 

Images and video taken from the following sites respectively: http://gamersxtreme.org/2012/05/17/borderlands-2-collectors-editions-and-pre-order-bonus-announced/, http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2012/09/20/borderlands-2-walkthrough.htm, http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/9/18/3348706/borderlands-2-review, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D8X8o6bnBg

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

Jerry Seinfeld is a master of all things comedy as we all know.  He has not done too many projects since the "Seinfeld" show other than "A Bee Movie", which was mostly geared toward young children.  Now he has a web series titled "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee". 

Ricky Gervais was mostly terrified to ride with Jerry as he put the car to the test.

The premise is that he drives around in a different classic car every episode to pick up other comedian friends, they go get coffee, the whole thing is filmed and that's about it.  What I enjoy about this series is that none of it seems scripted.  Hearing these genius comics ad lib and banter back and forth feels much more personal than to watch them act out a skit on a sitcom or perform stand up routines that can sometimes feel too prepared. 

Jerry and Brian Regan commenting on Brian's siblings professions.

So far there are 7 episodes available to watch that include comedians such as Larry David, Brian Regan, Ricky Gervais and Alec Baldwin to name a few.  As for the cars, there is actually very little added to the show that relates to the specific car in the episode.  In the beginning of each show Jerry Seinfeld narrates some interesting facts about the car he is driving in for the day and he and his guest usually have some comments about it, paired with some video of them parking and checking it out in some random urban area or outside of a diner. 

Jerry and Larry David in a diner having coffee and tea.

Most of the show takes place in a coffee house, diner or restaurant.  Often the comedians speak about random topics and will occasionally comment on the restaurant itself or the customers.  The episodes are usually a brief 12-15 minutes.  For those of you who need a bit more humor from these episodes, there is a "spare parts" link that will provide you with about 10 more minutes of unused footage broken up into 90 second chunks which are amusing too. 

I highly recommend checking out this comedy web series if you are in need of a few good laughs during your day and don't have time to spend watching a full 30 minutes of sitcoms or standups.  Although if you are anything like myself, you'll find yourself glued to the computer watching episode after episode until there is no more to see. 

Pics taken from the following sites respectively: http://www.ridelust.com/comedians-in-cars-getting-coffee-promo/, http://watchingwaytoomuch.blogspot.com/2012/08/this-honey-boo-boo-thing-has-me-all.html, http://splitsider.com/2012/08/this-week-in-web-videos-jerry-seinfelds-comedians-in-cars-getting-coffee/

Dub Step

To quote the great Christopher Walken, "I've got a fever, and the only cure is" more Dub Step!  I first learned of this new dance craze from watching So You Think You Can Dance.  One of the surprising final few male dancers is a guy named Cyrus, aka "Glitch".  Here is a clip of him and two other dancers doing what they do best...Dub Step.  He is the third to go. 

 

 

 

Dub Step is an eclectic mix of some ticking and gliding moves that are choreographically synced to its own genre of music which takes hard hitting base and mixes in different tempos of electronic/robotic sounds.  Essentially it is what you would imagine Transformers listening to back on their home planet Cybertron.  When the moves are seen in combination with the various tempos of music and unique sounds, it is an amazing experience like no other.  Here is one great example.

 

 



 

I have certainly taken a strong interest in this genre of music and dance over the past week or so.  I find myself watching countless videos and listening to the Dub Step station on Pandora at times.  What I find so amazing is the unconventional ways of moving that each dancer demonstrates and their ability to match their movements to the music in such a way that seems as though they are linked together.  Here is one last clip that you must watch.  These are some of the best examples I have found and would love to hear some comments from anyone who is also as captivated as I am.