big blog by john | English, baby! Blogs

It's Olympic Time

john — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:08:03 GMT

It's Olympic Time

After lots of planning, we will soon take Ebaby! to the Olympics. Jason, Captain Jeff, and I will arrive right before the opening ceremonies and spend a week meeting Ebaby! members in Beijing, making videos for Ebaby!, and enjoying the world's greatest sporting event.

We were happy to get our Chinese visas yesterday. We've been reading a lot about the government restricting visas, but I guess they liked us.

We'll have a lot of updates coming soon so stay tuned! Thanks to ETS and TOEFL for making this all happen.

Clinton has only one hope against Obama

john — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:11:38 GMT

Clinton has only one hope against Obama

I'm calling it right now. If Clinton wants to win the Democratic nomination in the Presidential election, her only hope is to tell the world that she will make Obama her Vice-president.

Obama's popularity is so high right now that nothing can get in his way. Clinton keeps throwing jabs about his lack of experience. She recognizes that he's a great speaker, but claims that's where his strengths end.

If she tells everyone now that she has bought into Obama-mania so much that she wants him as her VP, it will be the ultimate show of experience and send the message, "Bring your energy and enthusiasm to my experienced team, Obama, and together we'll do great things." People would like this idea, and when Obama says he won't accept her invitation, it will make him look selfish.

Just to be clear, I'm a big Obama supporter. I believe this is Clinton's only hope to win, but frankly, I hope she doesn't do it and Obama becomes our next President.

What is this?

john — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 23:45:19 GMT

What is this?

Can anyone guess what this is? I'll be really impressed if you can!

my new shoes

john — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 17:04:13 GMT

my new shoes

I really like converse shoes. Recently I found these that are slip-on with no laces. Very nice idea. I'm hooked.

Lawn Ornament Accident

john — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 21:19:20 GMT

Lawn Ornament Accident

You know how people put plastic animals and strange pieces of art in their front yard? Flamingos are a common lawn ornament. So are those weird shiny orbs that sit on a pole and reflect light. Some people like pinwheels...

My Polish neighbors love lawn ornaments. Their house is directly across the street from mine. They not only have flamingos, but they have santa clauses, panda bears, and of course, spider man. Oh, yeah... their panda bear wears a conductor's cap and holds an american flag...

A while ago my dad was visiting my house. His car was in the driveway and he was in the backyard. I saw his car rolling down my driveway, without him in it. The brake must have been off because it traveled all the way across the street, busted through my Polish neighbor's picket fence, and flattened many of their ornaments...

The neighborhood went crazy. Joseph, the man of the house, came running out accusing me of drinking of driving. He doesn't speak English and didn't understand that the car rolled by itself accidentally. People started gathering around to see the commotion. It was a very eventful day on Webster street...

I had someone fix the fence right away. I'm not sure what happened to the ornaments, but I'm guessing they got a proper burial...

So the questions for you are:

1. Is it typical for Polish people to have lawn ornaments?

2. Do you have a favorite lawn ornament?

3. Is there a nice traditional Polish gift I could give to the family to show how sorry I am?

Plate and Pitchfork

john — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:28:35 GMT

Plate and Pitchfork

This weekend I was lucky enough to eat dinner in a greenhouse.

Plate and Pitchfork is a dinner event held at different farms throughout the summer. The food for the meal is from the host farm, the wine is from a local winery, and the cooks are from the most popular restaurants in town.

After drinking wine in a field, we were given a tour of the farm, and then seated in the greenhouse for the meal. The food was great and our table even won a prize in the night's contest.

camp time

john — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 17:37:59 GMT

camp time

I went camping at the coast this weekend. So nice to leave town and get a little dirty...

I finally gave in and bought a big stove and air mattress for the trip. We were car camping so why use the backpacking stove and thermarest? I can tell you the upgrade made life much nicer...

One other thing I learned - check the weather report before you go. At 3am I woke up to rain on my face and had to put the rain fly up in the wet darkness. All part of the adventure, I guess, and a good excuse to stay in the tent all the next day...

wine tasting tips

john — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 23:52:41 GMT

wine tasting tips

Have you ever been wine tasting? Many people go to Napa, California to try wines, but Portland is a great place, too.

This weekend my friend took me on a tour of some of the vineyards around Portland. She knew exactly which ones to visit and taught me about each wine.

It will be a while before I have a good understanding of wine, but after this trip I know this:

- the worse the soil, the harder the plant has to try to produce a grape, and the better the wine tastes

- i like spicy wines

- be ready for some of the wine to taste bad and drink those quickly

- wink at your server and you might get wine for free

- some vineyards are laid-back and fun and others are stuffy and serious

- darker wines can mean they're dirtier, giving them more flavor

- swirl your wine using only your fingers, not your wrist

- don't spill your wine on your shirt

- lots of old people go wine tasting

- if you want to impress someone at dinner, order a 2002 oregon pinot - it's the best year ever

787

john — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 21:01:55 GMT

787

Planes are fascinating to me. Everything about air travel from the engineering of the machines to the business behind them to the purpose of having them is interesting.

Boeing and Airbus have been competing to design the world's most popular plane. In what has become a battle of two geographic regions, the U.S. and Boeing have developed the 787 Dreamliner. The E.U. and Airbus have their double-decker behemoth.

Boeing has gone small, lightweight and fuel-efficient, while Airbus has gone BIG. With Airbus experiencing many delays on their plane and Boeing setting records with the number of pre-orders, it appears Boeing is leading this race.

I can't wait to fly in both of them...

the little house is changing

john — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 19:06:39 GMT

the little house is changing

I've spent the past couple months working on my house. There are lots of projects to do, but I've focused on the kitchen and the new bedroom.

The new bedroom is nice because it used to be two little rooms. I took the wall out between the two and now it's one big space. It has the most windows in the whole house, making it very light. Refinishing the wood floors has really helped brighten it as well.

I'm painting it right now, but it's almost finished. The next step will be to move my furniture in and enjoy the biggest bedroom I've ever had.

my grass has grown

john — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 05:39:38 GMT

my grass has grown

After a month or so, my grass started growing nicely.

It's a slightly different shade of green than the other grass around it, but I'm glad the hole in my lawn is gone.

This is my backyard, where the hole used to be.

Grow Grass Grow!

john — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 05:24:17 GMT

Grow Grass Grow!

Recently I removed some old clothesline poles from my backyard. They were set in the lawn so I was left with big holes.

I filled the holes with dirt, then added fertilizer and grass seed. It's been a week, but the grass hasn't started growing yet!

Can anyone help me? I've been watering the grass seed every day. Should I put some new soil on top of the seeds?

Help!

No More Oil For Me

john — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 18:20:53 GMT

No More Oil For Me

I finally bought a house and I'll be happy to post pictures here to share. It's wonderful to have something to call my own and be able to spend time making improvements.

One of the things I'd like to change about the house is the heating system. I've got a really old oil furnace that is actually in great shape. What isn't great, though, is the fuel.

I've learned that I can easily use B20, a 20% blend of biofuel and oil, now, without any changes. My next step is to convert the furnace to use B99, which is 99% biofuel. The stuff is made right down the road and costs just about the same.

One of the reasons I chose the house was its close location to MAX, Portland's electric commuter train. My car now sits in the garage all week while I ride into work. I'd like to replace my car soon with one having a diesel engine and run biofuel through it as well.

There are so many advantages to biofuel over oil. Most people think of it as the environmently friendly thing to do. My biggest reason is to eliminate support of foriegn oil.

As an American citizen, I see many of our political problems being based on our oil consumption. We're bound to governments on the other side of the world and have been forced to get involved in matters that shouldn't have much to do with us.

I believe the U.S. will eventually follow the lead of countries like Brazil and figure out that being energy independent should be our first priority. But until then, I'm going to do everything I can as an individual to help the change.

Modern Dreams

john — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 07:52:39 GMT

Modern Dreams

I'd like to buy a house. But I'd really like to build a house.

Something modern. Something not traditional. Something energy efficient and close to downtown.

I've never built anything in my life. But I have a feeling that I could pull this off. After looking at a lot of homes, I'm learning what I like and don't like.

I wish my grandfather could have designed me something. He was an architect.