Paid focus groups in Portland
Want to make some extra money and see interesting new ideas/products? Focus groups pay anywhere between $50 to $200 per session (usually about 2 hours).
Sign up here, and start getting asked some interesting questions.
Portland Winter Light Festvial 2021
The Portland Winter Light Festival has been growing every year. What started as a very humble collection of eccentric artists has become a ever growing event.
Unfortunately, half of this year’s event occurred during our big snowstorm – the very weekend I was hoping to go out so I missed most of it. Bummer. However a few folks posted some video of this year’s event:
Also, here’s some collected photos from the event over the last few years to enjoy
Links
Oregon 1986
Set in the fictional city of Providence Oaks, Oregon in 1986, Lake is an upcoming, chill-looking game where you deliver mail and get to know the town’s quirky locals.
Mass around Oregon
Here’s an idea during these lockdowns to connect with others across the state.
Attend a different Oregon parish for mass each weekend. Links to all Oregon parish livestreams are here.
Pick one and meet a whole new community this weekend.
Oregon custom plate search
Want to get a custom Oregon license plate? This guy made a twitter feed that checks for common and funny words you might want and when they come available.
You can check the availability of your desired vanity plate online here: https://dmv2u.oregon.gov/eServices/_/#1
- Look at ‘Vehicle Title & Registration’ section and click ‘Order a new plate’
- ‘Custom Plate Search’ section and click ‘Check custom plate availability’
- Enter 1 character at a time into the 7 position slots and click search. It will tell you if that is available or not.
Interestingly, even if the plate is available it doesn’t mean you can always get it. All vanity plates must pass through 3 different reviewers independently to make sure you’re not trying to slip something nefarious by them. Also, there are some other limitations:
- Currently 6 characters is the max and 1 character is the minimum
- Transliteration happens for the letter O => number 0. i.e. LOOPY == L00PY
- Just because a plate is available for reservation, doesn’t mean it will be issued. Requests can be denied for a number of reasons.
- All Oregon Custom Plates go through a panel, of 3 persons (I believe), who review appropriateness of each Custom Plate Request.
- Just because because a plate configuration isn’t currently restricted doesn’t mean it will pass the review panel.
Portland Winter Light Festival
The Portland Winter Light Festival was on Feb 6-8. While not as good as it was in years past (and really, really over-crowded this year), there were some good displays:
Winter shelters and cabins in Oregon
I was aware and visited the warming hut at Teacup near Mt Hood on several occasions, but little did I know that the Willamette National Forest has winter shelters maintained by volunteers for use by winter sports enthusiasts. Some of the shelters even permit overnight stays; some are warming shelters only. There are also three winter cabin rentals available by advance reservation. How cool is that?
Here’s a list of the different cabins/lookouts. I’ve done at least 2 of these and they were fantastic getaways:
- Detroit Ranger District (on US Highway 22)
- McKenzie River Ranger District (Hwy 126)
- Middle Fork Ranger District (Hwy 58)
List of shelters with information, recent condition, and trail links:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detailfull/willamette/recreation/wintersports/?cid=stelprdb5109521
Retro game pricing
I went to the annual Portland Retro Game Swap Meet (sponsored by SideQuest Games – a newer game shop that seems to land shockingly amazing and rare gaming gear on a regular basis – see the link) and picked up a few small things. I’m mostly interested in old PC stuff, so I’m not the direct target audience.
However, I did find folks referring to the following resources when valuing their games.
PriceCharting.com
This site gives current and historical prices for almost every video game on every platform. They track and price loose, complete, new condition games. Fascinating site to see what’s hot, and what’s not.
Watagames
WATA is one of the professional game grading services. You send your game and they pay for them to grade them. Prices range from $35 for a basic grading to well over $200 for rapid grading.
Cyclekarting in Tieton, WA
Small, rural town being revived by a strange new builder community.
Glass bottom night canoeing
It’s no secret that Eastern Oregon is a fantastic, barren landscape full of plains, deserts, mountain ranges – and most of all – solitude. The Wallowas Mountain area is located in the far NE corner of the state and is a wonderful area to get away and enjoy the outdoors far from big city tourist.
JO Paddle (which stands for Joseph, Oregon), a family-run paddling outfitter that launched in fall 2018, offers a guided two-hour Wallowa Lake Monster Expedition that takes visitors out under the cloak of darkness, with just the lights of the glass-bottom kayak to illuminate the way.
