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For nerds everywhere: a comic about regular expressions.

I think there needs to be a regular expression ninja. She could do battle with the pirate, Spambeard. They would duel to the death.

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Elusive lighting

You've probably heard that Portland is pretty in the springtime. Most places are pretty in the spring, though, so that's not surprising. But my absolute favorite thing about Portland in the spring is what I've some to think of as the "spring syzygy." In this case, the three elements that line up are: lighting, new spring buds on trees, and some of the moodiest clouds I've ever seen. It's brilliant when the evening sunshine falls on the yellow-green (or would that be green-yellow, Crayola?) leaves of the trees against the moody clouds in the background. The color combination is astonishing and although I've attempted to catch it on film a few times, I've never been able to do it justice. Another nice thing about it is that when the storm has rolled through, there's almost always a rainbow (or two or three) off to the East. Lots of rain = lots of rainbows.

Anyhow, the last time the lighting and the clouding were perfect for such a shot, I got stopped by a train and never did manage to find the shooting angle I was looking for. To the left is one of the photos I took while I waited for the train to go by. The sky's a tad too grey, and the tree's leaves are not quite new enough, but I'll keep trying.

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It really does look like Superman would live there

Did you see the photos of the giant crystal cave? It's pretty amazing.

Also, if you haven't seen this video of Patches the Horse, you have been missing out. (Link via The Hot Librarian)

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D'oh!

Photo by unperfekt
(creative commons license)

There are these signs near the light rail tracks in Portland that warn cyclists not to be dumbasses and get their front tires stuck in the rails. They seem silly. I mean, who's dumb enough to get their tires stuck in train tracks?

Oh, right. That would be me.

I was taking a new route to work today, and this led me over the train tracks. I had seen a path next to the tracks before and was looking for it when, oh shit, I'm falling, this isn't good! These were the regular train tracks, not the light rail tracks, so at least there wasn't one of those signs mocking me as I picked myself up off the ground.

It's amazing how many thoughts you can have mid-fall. The first one I had was, "Damnit, I'm that jackass in those signs!" Then I thought I might be able to save myself, managed to get my shoes unclipped from my pedals, and then my attention was diverted to my elbow, which had hit the ground. The word, "Go!" flashed through my head, which in this context meant, "Don't let all your weight fall on your elbow, flatten out!" So I rolled and landed on my back. I'm not sure whether this was due to karate or volleyball training, but it totally paid off. My pannier had fallen off, my bike was twisted and on top of the train tracks (but fortunately unscathed), and I was flat on my back. Oops.

Luckily, except for a scratched elbow, I didn't get hurt and there were no trains in sight. A man in a white truck pulled up alongside me. I didn't look at him at first, being slightly humiliated and all, but then I realized he was waiting to make sure I was okay; I thought that was awfully nice of him. I looked over to see his dog checking out the situation in what looked to be an empathetic way. He leaned forward to look around his dog and made a concerned face at me. I smiled, gave him the thumbs up and he drove on.

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Birdygirl

Check it out! I'm a cartoon bird.

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Some things

Yesterday, on my way home, I was passed by another cyclist. I wouldn't have taken much notice of him, except that he rang his bike bell as he passed and it sounded like an old fashioned telephone, the kind with an actual bell inside. It sounded aggressive. He was the hippie sort with braids or maybe dreds in his beard and raggedy clothes. I continued on my way, more slowly than him, but not by too terribly much. He cycled out of visual range, and I made my way home through an unfamiliar neighborhood, as I had changed my route to take advantage of the nice weather. Much to my surprise, hippie guy wound up in front of me again, but now he was holding a bunch of leaves of lettuce, possibly Romaine. It was probably the equivalent of a head of lettuce, but none of it was attached. He held the loose leaves of lettuce in his left hand, cradled against his torso, while steering with his right. They were a fresh, green contrast against the backdrop of his faded shirt. At one point, he held his right arm out, which I took to mean that he was turning right. In fact, he was trying to ride with no hands and it didn't work out. He wobbled a bit before his right hand quickly returned to the handlebars, the lettuce still clutched against him.

Today, while picking up lunch, I watched a man paint a fire hydrant orange. It hadn't really occurred to me before that someone's job would entail opening a can of orange paint, stirring it methodically, and then applying it to a fire hydrant. But of course, they don't just get orange on their own. While he worked, his Three Musketeers bar fell to the ground.

If you sneeze and you've just eaten tofu, it can be kind of gross.

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How to categorize?

Dear Internet,

Is this porn? Honestly, I can't tell. The link is probably safe for work, unless it turns out to be porn. There are no naked pictures, just some good material for foot fetishists.

It might be porn because the FAQ says that they send packages in a discreet way. It might not because it doesn't say anything about hot action -- girl on girl or otherwise. There are some chicks mud wrestling, but they have clothes on.

I eagerly await your reply,

Rebecca Campbell (the boring one)

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Time, you elusive bitch

It's an ages old lament that you've heard before. You've heard it from me. You've heard it from others, perhaps even yourself. But, seriously, when did time change? When did I go from being bored and lazy to being surprised every single night that it's already 11:30 or midnight?

I have been trying to get myself into the mindset that everything doesn't have to be done right now. This should not be a difficult task, but I'm not a patient person. I also come up with more ideas for things to do than I can possibly fit into a lifetime. At times, I have so many things I want to do at one particular moment that I'm forced to take a nap before I can actually pick one. It's ridiculous.

Here's a small sample of some things I'd be tempted to do if I wasn't working today:

• Learn about solar power; make a circuit that will store energy from the sun in a super capacitor and light up an LED when the sun goes down
• Read my book
• Tear down my deck and build a new one
• Make a screen for the living room window
• Write a book
• Pick out picture rail and baseboards for the den
• Add new electrical outlets upstairs and down
• Take photographs; learn better techniques

All those things, they can wait. But I don't want them to. I suppose this is why people actually hire other people to do things for them. Unfortunately, my odds of winning the lottery are even more drastically reduced, on account of I never buy tickets.

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Seriously boring

All the other Rebecca Campbells are more interesting than me.

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