Terror, The Warriors, and Death Before Dishonor

Last night i went out to do some voter registration at the Terror show. I had very little success because the scene here is so young and there weren't nearly as many people there as i would have expected had the show been in SLC. I ended up wandering the streets registering voters here and there so that i could go and just have fun at the show. It was a lot of fun but quite different than it would have been at home. Death Before Dishonor was super dope. Made me miss shows and home a little bit. Shai Hulud is on Thursday and i'll be there building some more votes.

I finally got my financial aid stuff cleared up for the fall. In case there's any confusion or wonder about my plans, i am going back to Kansas State University to finish my master's degree. That is absolutely not in question no matter how much i love Portland (a lot). I can't remember if i mentioned it previously, but i've been assigned to teach the SOCIO 520 - Research Methods lab. Should be cool because i'll get to cement some of my methods knowledge, but also i'll get to work with Spencer who is pretty bad ass.

Oreback

Midsummer retreat survived! I didn't get eaten by a black bear or a mountain lion, but had i been attacked i would have stayed big and fought back because that's what the informative black bear and mountain lion pamphlets told me to do. Ah, nature.

It was absolutely beautiful up in the mountains. We went up there to complain at one another about inefficiencies in our program (irony?). The rest of the time, which was a good amount of time, we played touch football, ultimate frisbee, swam, watched Predator starring not one, but two future governors, and ate some delicious and free food!

I'm sure some good things came out of our bickering - including a small scuffle - but more importantly is a story from our football playing. I was on a team with some faster guys who didn't realize that the big boy mustard could roll, so for the most part they were busy playing catch with each other while i played D and made big sacks (you know how we do!). There was one play where i was tossed the ball on a dump because whoever was playing quarterback was getting their skinny as run. Needless to say, i start rumbling down field. Hannah - who is a better athlete than most of the guys, and can throw a spiral like nobody's business - squares up with me in a two-hand touch game, and not even thinking i dropped my shoulder and bowled her ass over without being phased. Had it not been a touch game it would have been the most bad ass play because i could have strolled to the endzone, but as it was i felt really bad. She bounced up and we took a slight bit of a penalty for that move even though i'm not sure what the rules are. I thought you weren't supposed to tackle on defense, but this wasn't me on defense and she didn't tackle me. That became the story of the last couple days. 

Yesterday, we had to do a "trust exercise" and we were blind folded and led through the woods. Guess who my leader was. Just guess. Yep, Hannah. I was so convinced she was gonna run my ass off a cliff or face first into a tree, but she did no such thing and was an excellent leader of cult-looking blindfolded people.

We'll Strike Gold at Silver Falls

I leave for our midsummer retreat in about six hours. Rumor has it that we're going to Silver Falls, OR to hang out, tell each other what we think about the program, cuddle gently, and then play a bunch of schoolyard games. I'm most excited about kick ball. Kick ball is a gladiator sport.

Speaking of which, we got our faces stomped in playing kick ball against some hipsters on Saturday. It was supposed to be the death of irony, but instead it was the day that democracy cried. We had fun though. We should have beat them at tug-o-war, but instead we were all getting ready to go back to Bus Central (HQ).

Sunday i didn't register hardly any voters at the 3-on-3 tournament, but i did see a little kid wearing a Stockton jersey. He was a bad ass little kid. I saw another kid wearing Stockton shorts, but they were in no one way branded. That was less bad ass and more unfortunate. The tournament had a slam dunk contest with about half the people not knowing how to dunk. It was shit.

Today is not yesterday, so we fast forward, and i got a new phone today. That should be up and running proper like.

Also, i created a Flickr account for all of us PolitiCorps fellows to upload our pictures. There are quite a few up already, so you guys can take a look: PolitiCorps Flickr.

back to falling asleep... in bed.

p.s. while i'm out finding gold in Silver Falls i probably won't have any way to get a hold of anyone. no interweb. i'm exhausted..

Dark Knight: Good

Trying to wake up in four hours and still have some zeal for democracy: bad.

Despite the movie, i think it's obvious i still have a firm grasp on my moral compass. Good night.

Timbers Army

My phone sucks balls. Tried to call grandma and dad and got hung up on about 5 times. It's not the service itself. The problem is with the phone, and i'm still not sure what the solution is. I'll figure it out.

Last night i went and did voter registration at the Portland Timbers' game (soccer). The Timbers Army is their "supporters club" a.k.a. firm, and they are so fucking awesome! If you did not know, Portland has a huge beer culture - particularly micro brews. Beer culture + non-Mormons + football = a fucking great time! I only got to stay for the first half and then i had to get back to the work of actually registering people to vote, but i am very excited to go see them play Seattle in a big rivalry game on one of our days off. The good news is that they won, and i registered an all-time single day high of six new voters. I do well with the street kids, but not so well with the hippies or the lame ass consumer culture folks at the mall.