Somehow we ended up with 2 passed to the Dept. of Skateboarding. If you have never been there you should swing by some night and take a walk around the park. Portland is home to some amazing skaters and the Dept. is one on the best parks around. They even have an Old Man night for those 30 or Better. Man I love this town.

All you have to do to be eligible is comment on this posting with a link to your favorite website. We will randomly selecting the winner on Thursday (10/02/08) at 12:00pm. Post any (appropriate) site you want. Just post before 12:00pm Thursday .

Each ticket is valid for one session. $5 upgrade to all day pass. They expire on 10/30/08. Don’t skate? Can’t help you there man.

I have never been much of a first mover. My car was built in 1972 and my house was built in 1888 but this week was an exception to the rule. The kids at Google introduced the HTC G1 cell phone. Their answer to Apples iPhone. Released by T-mobile this phone has most of the same features that come with an iPhone. The biggest difference is that it uses an open source OS developed by Google called Android.

Why is this cool? Because it’s open source and now anyone can develop applications for their phone. Everyone from Nike to your cousin Mikey can make cell phone applications. The game is changing people and I believe Google is making the rules.

The bad new is that one day we’ll be drinking Google coffee and sending our kids to Google daycare. But for a company who’s believes that you can make money without doing evil (it’s listed as a corporate philosophy) it may not be too bad.

The boys down at Draplin Design Co. just started their “pre-order sale” of their Field Notes 18-Month Work Station Calendar. The calendar boasts “We give you the last three month of 2008 and the first three months of 2010 just in case. For free. That’s how we do it.”

Brady Clark and Mykle Hansen created a vest that lets bicycle riders show off how fast they’re pedaling:

How does the vest work?
In a nutshell, it uses a sensor on your wheel to send a signal to a microcontroller that then turns the numbers on and off on the vest. Take a look.

I don’t know who made www.whatgoogleknows.com or what it is all about. But it made me look and click for a while. Anyone have any insights?

 
About a year ago I bought a foosball table for the office. We used it for a while but like most children, we became bored with it and Jesse was so good no one could EVER beat him! So we posted it on Craigslist and sure enough we got a buyer, Steve, a wind surfer from Hood River with a deep love of the “sport”.

Upon arrival Steve went to work taking apart the table to be moved (it’s very heavy) and while disassembling one of the legs, out fell a large, old, very dry bulb of marijuana. Steve quickly grabbed the illegal substance pinched it between his fingers and said “Aww-it’s too old and dry”. “Too old and dry for what?” I thought.

After disposing of the contraband we went back to disassembling the other legs making jokes about what else we may find. A kilo of coke? Escobar‘s passport perhaps? But the best part for me was when Steve was removing the last leg he asked “So what kind of business is this anyway?” Priceless.

Jerry and Bill make a new MS ad and I don’t know what to think. It’s not good. It’s not bad. It’s Microsoft. Take a look and let me know what you think.

I have been a big fan of Mike Daisey and I try and get out to see his performances when he comes to town. It has been fun to watch him rise from working small venues to where he is today. My friend Travis describes seeing mike like this. “Once you see a Mike Daisey show you leave wishing you could could have paid more- he’s that good.” Mike is an amazing and intelligent story teller with the ability to take you on journeys that you never new existed. “one of the finest solo performers of his generation” by The New York Times. You can read his TBA writeup here. You can see his Blog here and he will be performing though Sunday.

Neon Signs of the past on Flickr. Worth a look.

The Portland Creative Conference, happening on Saturday, Sept. 6th, marks the return of this interdisciplinary exploration of the creative process within various creative industries. The conference—with an introductory registration fee of only 99 dollars—features keynote presentations from leading creatives across a variety of fields (from companies such as LAIKA, Nike, Wieden+Kennedy, Dark Horse Comics, Michael Curry Design, White Horse, CROW Clothing and more) who will reveal their work and talk about their process, influences, inspirations, etc. It is an opportunity for attendees to get inside the head of visionaries who are generating highly original and effective ideas and to be inspired in entirely new ways, viewing their own world with a fresh perspective as a result.

To receive 20% off your tickets enter the code: RBR
Link

Enter the code: 2for1RBR when you register 2 people at once and receive 2 tickets for the price of one!
Link