This came today:

Deschutes Brewery’s newest Reserve Series beer, Jubel 2010 (“Once a Decade Ale”) and a goblet—which is identical to the goblets they were handing out during their Release Party Friday night (I picked up one of those as well, so now I have two).

Incidentally, I can say that Jubel is big and plummy and sweet and sticky, hiding its 10% alcohol really well. But I’ll do a more detailed review soon, from this bottle.

I'm totally stealing this from Bend Oregon Restaurants:

This week Baldy's BBQ is celebrating their 5th Anniversary with $5 specials all week long. From what I've heard, they're doing $5 full racks, smothered fries, dozen wings, 2 pulled pork or chicken sandwiches, and more + drink specials.

**Update**
After lunch at Baldy's today (Monday) I have the $5 specials:
- Full Rack of ribs (these are the Danish ribs, little smaller than their normal but well worth $5)
- 2 pulled pork sandwiches
- 2 pulled chicken sandwiches
- Dozen smoked wings (had them for Super Bowl and they are gooood)
- Smothered fries
$5 drink specials as well
**/Update**

Then Saturday they have a FREE pig roast in the parking lot, with live music (the boxcar string band), raffle prizes, Ski/snowboard equipment, Sunriver weekend for two, and Baldy's gift cards.

• Proof the yeast in 1 c. of the water and a pinch of sugar.  Let sit 15 minutes.
• Pour the additional 1 c. water into a mixer or bowl depending if you use a mixer or are doing this by hand.
• Add the sugar, salt, oil, olive oil to the water.  Mix a little until the sugar and salt are dissolved.
• When the yeast is proofed, add it to the water.
• To the wet ingredients, add three cups of water, stir and let sit for 15-20 minutes.
• Add two cups of flour, one cup at time.  Use the extra 1/2 c. if necessary.  Keeping the dough supple and a little tacky makes for a tender result. 
• Put into a oiled (olive oil) bowl and let rise until double. 
• Divide dough and place into two oiled 10" cake pans, spreading out to the edges or close.  Half sheet pans lined with parchment if you don't have large cake pans.  
• After 15 minutes, dimple the dough all over, continue to let rise until double.
• Douse with olive oil, sprinkle on kosher salt or herbs of choice. 
• Bake at 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes, depending on how brown you want your bread.

Attention NAVIS vacation rental management and resort hotel clients…

Numerous new features and enhancements have been added to our flagship product NAVIS Narrowcast, effective at 8:30AM Pacific time today. From a totally redesigned and more intuitive navigation menu, to automatic template-based emails, this newest release brings online more new features than we have released for quite some time.

You can now assign specific agents to follow up on leads – directly within the ELM lead screen. You can even select the time and date to remind the assigned agent.

Several new reports have also been added including the Scoreboard Report, which provides conversion metrics, lead revenue, and compliance information about your reservation agents. Posting this information on a daily basis will help to drive new revenue.

An email was sent to all NAVIS clients detailing the many new features. If you didn’t receive it, you can find the document HERE. Of course, your NAVIS Client Advocate is always available for questions.

Happy Bookings!

I've been enthralled with these little heart shaped treats since I saw them on the Farm Chicks blog a couple days ago. I decided to make a batch for Dustin yesterday and I wasn't disappointed!

They were really easy and turned out wonderfully! And cute to boot, which is always important. Mine had yummy marionberry jam in the middle.

Just showing them off...

• Setup a whole-house speaker system using existing phone lines.
• Cheap but powerful video card for HTPC use.
• The thickness of napkins in the programming world.
• SimpleFolio, a nice wordpress theme.
• If you missed the Super Bowl commercials last night, they've all been posted here (and the story behind the Leno, Oprah, Letterman ad is over here). Vote for your favorite here.
• According to teenagers, sites like mine aren't cool anymore. Not that I'm losing sleep over losing the under-18 demo.
• Another high school, another overzelous administration conficating newspapers that do some real reporting.
• Always wear your seat belt.
• The anti-vaccine autism paper had catastrophic effects.
• Symbian Operating System is Now Open Source and Free -- but will it matter?
• Relatively Portal.
• Netflix 28-Day Window Would Decimate Their Top Rental List.
• Kwedit, a new completely unreliable payment network.
• Calagator, open-source project for calendar aggregation (like Portland's tech events).
• Run your own URL Shortener, and hopefully have better luck with spammers than my failed attempt (Ken is using it here).
• If you run a MovableType blog, this site might interest you.
• Licensing Delay Complicates Decision Between Open Source and Proprietary Video Players.

carrrrrlos posted a photo:

What you don't see is the tasty chipotle chicken panini right next to
it.

Check out the latest Snowboard Magazine post on Mt Bachelor from our friend Aaron Hanlon. He's been enjoying the snowfall and the blue skies that follow. Sweet pics too.

Alright. Moving on.

You'll enjoy this guest post from my old friend Clif from The Boston Globe (he's not old; the friendship is. Very.) It's editorial-length, so I apologize to any blog-length-attention-span readers.

And by the way, "suffering succotash" was by far the best response.

By Clif Garboden  |  February 7, 2010

Editor's note: *SWTHDTM = So What The Heck Does This Mean?

“Roasted rutabagas.’’

The two-word message showed up as a post in my Facebook “news feed’’ one morning. What was I to make of this? Did my friend Melissa, way out in Bend, Oregon, want a recipe? Was she typing in her sleep? Trying her hand at avant garde poetry? Had she awoken before dawn, sleepily popped a few swedes in the oven, then impulsively decided to confess the deed to everyone she knows?

So often these days, my immediate reaction to the cryptic snippets of thought that people share online, is equally brief, namely, “What?!!!’’ Sometimes, I answer posts with a simple question, such as, “Sorry, what are you talking about?’’ but I seem to be the only one who’s curious or uncool enough to admit that I just don’t get it.

What’s remarkable is that Mel got any responses at all. Consider receiving her communiqué via any other conversational medium. If you answered the phone and the caller said, “Roasted rutabagas’’ and hung up, you’d dismiss it as some pranking kid who didn’t know the joke about Prince Albert. If you opened a letter that read, “Dear sir, Roasted rutabagas,’’ you’d probably contact homeland security.

Yet within the paradigm of digital discourse, nobody blinked. One Friend of Melissa interpreted “roasted rutabagas’’ as the opening gambit of a silly word game requiring an equally alliterative retort, and a parade of FOMs took the field. The ensuing thread included “toasted toast’’ (lame), “pecan pie’’ (close), and (really stretching it) “likable leftovers.’’ I chimed in with a quote from Sylvester J. Pussycat: “sufferin’ succotash.’’

It’s common for people to post pithy one-line online updates such as “Off and running’’ or “Sam the Sham,’’ or “Fish for lunch?’’ all declarations that, it would seem, no response could dignify. Yet people uninhibitedly write back. “Me too.’’ “Fetch my turban?’’ “Capers.’’ Inspired by Twitter’s 140-character-per-missive limit, conversationalists are trying to say ever more with even less and creating model discussions for people with short attention spans, nothing useful to say, and an exaggerated interest in whether their friends are eating well.

In the daily expanding world of emailing, texting, Tweeting, and posting, shortcuts make sense. After all, people are often typing with their thumbs on a keyboard the size of a playing card. But I worry about the unintended consequences of minimalizing the art of conversation just to suit a new technology.

For most online users, it started with that cute email shorthand “LOL’’ for “laugh out loud,’’ “IMHO,’’ for “in my humble opinion,’’ etc. Before long, the email abbreviation gimmick spun out of control. Netlingo.com lists hundreds of examples, ranging from the ubiquitous “BFF’’ (best friends forever) to the preposterous “SODDI’’ (some other dude did it). Millions of students, many of whom should instead be sorting out the binomial theorem or analyzing “Macbeth,’’ rely on such terms to “discuss’’ things.

It sure does save time. Presumably, the American colonies would have cut ties with Britain in late June of ’76 if the Second Continental Congress had employed the economies of net lingo: “WITCOHEIBNFOPTDTPB . . .’’. Then again, there would have been inevitable delays because George III would have had no idea what they were getting at.

Which goes to show that you shouldn’t take these fads too far. Like every other technology-driven cultural adaptation, the construct of saying things in as few words as possible has already acquired a dangerous momentum. Judging from Facebook and Twitter exchanges, it has invaded our very way of understanding our own lives. A new language of brevity has emerged that’s proving to be the soul more of confusion than wit. Apparently that’s good enough for people already preoccupied doing three other things.

Last week WGBH aired a “Frontline’’ report on digital media, a good portion of which was devoted to the vogue for obsessive multitasking. Bottom line: multitaskers, generational affiliation notwithstanding, feel as if they’re doing everything but, research shows, are doing everything less well. Worse, their overall quality of thought has been degraded by distraction. One of the simultaneous things they’re attempting to do is maintain friendships through dribbles of terse out-of-context free association. Muddled minds. Truncated diction. Unelaborated thoughts. Synaptic snapshots. Message unclear. Future uncertain. Pie for breakfast. Help?

Clif Garboden is a Boston-area freelance writer.  

And just because this post needs a visual, here's a shot of him looking like the guru at the top of the mountain.

You can listen to the interview here.

Posted via email from jessefelder's posterous

Now join us as we celebrate the 7th anniversary of Taj Palace, Friday, February 12th. There will be a special dinner buffet for only $10.95 along with belly dancing and fun all evening!!!

The digital ink is drying on the latest issue of "The Felder Report" and I thought I'd let you know what we covered in February. 

Here are a few highlights:

      -"We believe that at least 90% of the investment industry should be taken out and shot."
      -"Nowhere is 'caveat emptor' more important than with variable annuities" and "ETFs might be the second most important vehicle for investors to practice 'buyer beware.'"
      -"The investment industry is one example where 'you get what you pay for' is a lie... the industry has merely learned to expertly play upon the fears of investors to sell them a false sense of security."

We have also updated some of the trading recommendations that worked so well last month. SUBSCRIBE HERE if you would like to read the report in its entirety.

I would personally love to welcome you as a subscriber to the report - hell, you're the reason I created it!

Posted via email from jessefelder's posterous

Focal point
For high-flying Hawk Kassi Conditt, a new season means a new challenge at La Pine – By Beau Eastes/The Bulletin

Posted via web from jessefelder's posterous

With the fate of 2nd Street Theater still up in the air (although there's rumors of a potential buyer for the location) there's some good news to be had in the local theater world today with the announcement just minutes ago that Innovation Theatre Works will be opening a theater facility.

Most know Innovation for their productions of Driving Miss Daisy and the Frank Sinatra tribute My Way, both of which were performed at the Tower Theatre.

Located on the south end of town near Read More...

The entire article, brought to us by Inside the School Update, can be read by clicking here. In brief, the six causes are:

• Poor self image as a learner.
• Fear of the unknown.
• Disjunction between learning and teaching styles.
• Apparent irrelevance of the learning activity.
• Inappropriate level of required learning.
• Students' dislike of the instructor.

James Cameron's Avatar creation

Much has been said about James Cameron’s Avatar – it’s the highest grossing movie ever made, raking in $1.859 billion worldwide in just 41 days and has already been showered with awards including two Golden Globes and nine Oscar nominations.

Importantly though, Avatar has a message for audiences to take away which is absent from rival big-budget Blockbusters. Notably, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was enjoyable but soulless. In amongst the stunning visuals of Cameron’s space epic is a core environmental message that is impossible to ignore.

Avatar’s race of blue aliens, the Na’vi, manage to live in harmony with nature on their moon Pandora, a harmony which is obliterated when humans descend on the mineral-rich planet to exploit significant deposits of “Unobtainium”. The lines are drawn pretty damn clear as Avatar’s human hero decides to reject humanity by choosing a life of simplicity among the nature-loving Na’vi.

The question is whether Avatar will make its audiences, especially younger viewers, sit up and take notice of the green message it takes such great pains to spell out?

There is no subtlety to Cameron’s story. Na’vi = good, Humans = bad. Being in touch with nature = Utopian, exhaustive extraction of mineral reserves = catastrophic. Avatar is blunt, so blunt that at times it borders on the patronising, and risks being ignored for lecturing rather than trying to educate.

Captain Planet - Not taken very seriously by kids

Kids who grew up in the late 80s and early 90s may remember Ted Turner’s environmental cartoon Captain Planet, a ridiculous enterprise which failed because of its insistence of smashing the green message over the heads of kids with such force that in the end it simply became boring.

Fox’s animated feature FernGully: The Last Rainforest similarly painted an overly simplistic picture of environmental problems which failed to capture the imaginations of kids.

The difference with Avatar is that despite its faults, it comes through the clunky script and jarring plot devices and still manages to emerge as rousing entertainment. When the gung-ho humans start their ethnic cleansing of the Na’vi, it is a genuinely moving and awe inspiring moment, which goes beyond the dripping visuals and uplifting score, it’s the morals behind the dazzling effects.

I am indebted to Alice Thompson who succinctly captured my feelings on Avatar better than I ever could as she wrote for The Times:

Avatar isn’t Star Wars, Apocalypse Now or even The Lord of the Rings: it’s not a classic. But few films manage to change perceptions. The Sound of Music rehabilitated the Austrians, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner ridiculed racism, Philadelphia maybe changed our views about Aids, Kramer vs Kramer tackled divorce. Avatar… could do the same for global warming.

Real estate mogul billionaire Sam Zell looked past 2010 and made predictions for 2011 and — in the case of new development — laid out a forecast all the way to 2015.

The outlook?

Well, it wasn’t necessarily good. Some would only go so far as to say it was “positive,” or “cautiously optimistic.”

With exception for development — in which case, Zell zinged, developers may as well use the next five years to study in medical school.

During his hour-long keynote, Zell chided the federal government for “changing the rules,” took a swipe at President Barack Obama’s 2,200-page health care overhaul, and, no stranger to colorful language, said, “To say we’ve come through a decade of spending too much fucking money would be an understatement.”

Oh, and, he delivered a thorough, some say spot-on look at what’s ahead in commercial estate, noting, “Reports of the demise of real estate have been greatly exaggerated.”

In his forecast, Zell predicted:

– Investors will make deals with commercial real estate owners, using investment capital to pay down an underwater mortgage in return for a favorable equity position in the project. “If there are opportunities in distressed real estate, it’s in buying the debt in return for equity,” he said.

– Occupancy rates will continue to improve, albeit slowly, and at 20-30 percent lower rental rates;

– Multi-family markets will continue to grow and improve through 2011. Zell said on some apartment complexes late last year Equity Residential had more than 40 bidders . “There’s a food fight today to buy assets,” he said;

– The retail and industrial markets will continue to be “survival of the fittest,” and “lifestyle center” - mixed use commercial developments - might as well be “converted into churches, on the theory there’s a lot of space, and based on (Zell’s) assessment, they’re very cheap”;

– New development is a very long way off. “Construction loans are not available today, and they’re very unlikely to be available tomorrow,” he said; and

[ Best time in 20 years NOT to be in Building racket. ]

– A single family market at equilibrium. “The number we see now are much greater impacted by very serious pockets of excess (overdevelopment), as opposed to the broad malaise that occurred a year ago,” he said. Also, he noted, regions including South Florida and cities like Davis, Stockton and San Diego, Bend, Oregon may see slower recovery, based on excessive inventory. “I don’t think the U.S. housing dream is over,” Zell said, “but if you look back over the last 40 years, every single time the percent of single-family home owners exceeded 62 percent, we got ourselves in trouble. This time, courtesy of subprime loans, we were up to 69 percent. Now we’re at 66 and we need to get to 63, 64 percent before we have a sustainable, affordable single-family market.”

Zell kicked off the event with harsh words for the Obama administration and the Federal Reserve, saying there is a tremendous amount of uncertainty in large part because they are “changing the rules.” And, in order for full recovery, Zell said, “You need a clear concise understanding of what the rules are.”

“Today we find ourselves in the position where the definition of economic policy is designing new forms of bailouts, rather than focusing in on, and in effect, helping the economy grow,” Zell said. “This administration is picking winners and losers.”

Dr. Mark J. Riedy, executive director of the Burnham Moores Center for Real Estate, said he thought Zell’s forecast was “spot-on” and that “uncertainty is clouding things and inhibiting decision making.”

Riedy said he wasn’t the only one who agreed with Zell’s take.

“Generally, the people who approached me afterward said, ‘You know, Sam Zell hit it right on the nail,’” Riedy said. “Not that it was good news, but I like to say he was being realistic.”

Dr. John C. Ferber, director of commercial real estate at the center, said Zell has an “uncanny” knack for forecasting.

“I couldn’t find anything where I disagreed with him,” Ferber said.

Ferber called the prognosis “cautiously optimistic.”

“I thought there was some hope there,” he said.