halfway through the vacation….

Halfway through vacation, a weird thing happened.

But first, a digression. Normally, I don’t advertise vacations on-line. I prefer not to put up signs, real or virtual, saying “house empty! nobody will notice!” (even if it’s not true because we have housesitters in, which we do some trips. the housesitters really don’t want surprise visitors, either). Back in the dark ages of the net when I was still active on USENET, there were a couple of incidents (including one where someone did track down the house, although ultimately nothing bad happened…) that make me feel a bit of paranoia is a good thing; it’s one reason why our public address is a rented box and we try to make it difficult to find us without our permission. I’d rather keep the stuff inside the house inside the house, not inside someone else’s house.

but this trip, I wanted to experiment with blogging the trip, and to play with the digital camera, iPhoto and taking stuff online. Had a lot of fun up in Victoria, trying to get back into sync wtih a lens and start trying to put what I see into an image. Lots of work there to do, although I find the digital format really liberating here, since it throws out the film/developing cost out of the equation, so I feel comfortable taking a lot of shots just to evaluate how they come out.

So maybe I’ll become less paranoid… But I think it’s important that everyone who blogs remember some of the implications of it — including things like telling strangers that your house is going to be empty. Not everyone who reads your blog is your friend…

But anyway, end of digression. I stopped blogging midway through the trip for a couple of reasons — we hit Portland, and a bunch of things changed. Victoria was an exploration of the familiar, allowing me to focus on how to frame and display what I was seeing. This was the first time we’d really spent significant time in downtown Portland, so I found myself more interested in exploring. I carried the camera, but used it very little, because it would have slowed me down by about half, and I wanted to see as much as possible to get a feel for the downtown.

There is an amazing amount of really fascinating and kick-butt archictecture in Portland, needless, I’ll be going back and using the camera a lot. But with only one full day in Portland, I wanted to spend it walking and looking.

One thing that hit us walking around Portland is that the Portland downtown is what San Jose has been struggling to build (unsuccesfully) for as long as we’ve lived up here: very active, with lots of shopping, lots of eating, and lots of people. we made it down to the saturday craft fair, all the way down to chinatown (depressing), and a good chunk of the waterfront (enviable). That put me into pondering mode, about what Portland did right that San Jose didn’t; Laurie and I have been talking and doing some research on that topic since, and more on that once it crystalizes.

Unlike some people, when I’m gnawing on a topic or trying to understand something, I tend to get introspective. Some folks can make quick judgements and make immediate comments — I work best taking my time and understanding something before talking about it; I’d be a horrid failure as a sunday morning talking head, but I believe I say fewer things I regret this way, too (the talking heads probably don’t regret what they say much; but they should. Uh, oh, only one digression per post allowed…)

That, the fact that the Westin charges for internet access (not a suprise, FWIW) and I got myself involved with Steve Brust’s Paths of the Dead and then Mike Resnick’s new book return of Santiago (reviews of both coming), I just didn’t go online.

I’m sure you’re all suprised and shocked to find out sometimes I turn off the computer….

I have more photos to upload of the totems at thunderbird park, and more to say about Portland, but when I came back to work, I had a bunch of things needing my attention — no problems, just, well, there’s this shindig coming monday morning, so I had other priorities than blogging, and by evening, I was feeling pretty braindead. It wasn’t until thursday I started feeling like I was back from vacation…

Portland was — wonderful. Being downtown and soaking it in was just great. We both wish we’d had a couple more days there, but we also know we’ll be back…

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