The Crater Lake Adventure

Ever been to a caldera? Well, we have! The closest, and most scenic caldera to us is Crater Lake National Park. As our regular readers know we visited Crater Lake two weekends ago (remember this?). Here are some pictures of the Crater Lake area.

Some background... The caldera formed nearly 8,000 years ago when the volcano, Mount Mazama, erupted. The eruption emptied most of the magma chamber, which caused the great collapse forming the caldera. Centuries of rain and snow helped to fill in the caldera with water - forming Crater lake.
















To the north of Crater Lake is the Pumice Desert. Mount Mazama ejected hot ash over this area, probably killing all the indiganous life. Thousands of years later the area still as yet to fully recover. Most of the areas to the west and south of Crater Lake have fully restored pine forests, but not this area. Few trees and vegetation have returned.

The steep edges of the crater.




























In the background you can see Wizard Island. This cinder cone volcano formed after Mount Mazama blew and collapsed.





















Seven miles from the crater, these interesting formations were created. Volcanic vents formed in the ash deposits. The super-heated gas melted parts of the ash to form pillars. The rest of the ash was eroded away to leave these mostly hollow tubes.
















Native American tales tell of crayfish monsters grabbing gazers of the lake and pulling them in. We can see were the tale may have originated - one could get lost taking in the sites and inadvertently take one too many steps towards the lake. If you ever go, be careful of the edges.

Trek In The Park

Over the weekend we decided to boldly go where no man has gone before. Ok that's not totally accurate several men, women, and even children have been here before but we haven't, so we boldly went where we had never been before. Anyway I digress, we ventured to the east side of Portland to witness a massive gathering of nerds known as "Trek In The Park". "Trek In The Park" was the brainchild of the Atomic Arts group founded by local Portlanders. For 3 weekends they put on a live rendition of a classic Star Trek episode. This year they brought the episode Space Seed to Woodlawn park. If you are unfamiliar with this Star Trek episode or simply need a reminder wikipedia has a great write up of the episode here (gotta love nerds). To put it simply, Space Seed is the episode where Kirk and Khan first meet. Their cast was small but very talented, and you could tell that the actors as well as the audience were having fun. It was super crowded, and kind of hard to see. So if we go back next year we will try to get there earlier to stake out a better viewpoint. "Trek In The Park" is just so Portland (white and nerdy), and we are so lucky we get the opportunity to experience it. Below are a couple of pictures we took (the lighting wasn't great), and then a list of the cast members.

What El Nino can do for you...

Courtesy NOAA

Not to rub it in or anything, but while the eastern two-thirds of the country has been nailed with snow and cold, we have had a relatively mild winter. So what gives? Well, you can blame our friend El Nino. El Nino is climatic event tied to sea-surface warming in the tropical Pacific Ocean. This warming leads to blah, blah, blah... I'll let the experts explain the rest here.

The impacts of El Nino on the U.S. differ from region to region. Out here in Portland, a strong El Nino year can cause above normal temperatures and below normal rainfall. Well, we are slightly above normal for this winter's temperatures (PDX). For example, in January Portland was 5 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. Right now we are below normal for precipitation.

Oklahoma City, on the other hand, has a different response to El Nino. In strong El Nino years, OKC can see below normal temperatures and above normal precipitation. Our friends back in OKC can attest to the cold temperatures and snowfall. In fact, Oklahoma City is half a foot away from an all-time snow record!

So, while you are stuck in your house, suffering from severe cabin fever, start making plans to visit the Pacific Northwest. That is if you can get a flight.

Touring OPB

A few weeks ago, we had the privilege of touring our local PBS/NPR studios. Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) distributes all things PBS to TVs and NPR to radios all over the state of Oregon. For comparison, OETA (Oklahoma Educational Television Authority) provides the PBS while individual partners (e.g. KGOU) provide NPR in Oklahoma. Since OPB covers the entire state, their "station identification" takes a while. For TV we see a screen with:

• Baker City: 13.1
• Bend: 11.1
• Corvallis: 7.1
• Eugene: 29.1
• La Grande: 13.1
• Portland: 10.1

But when listening to the radio we hear: "In Albany - KOAC FM 91.5, in Astoria - KOPB FM 96.3, in Baker City - KOBK FM 88.9, in Bend - KOAB FM 91.3..." Well you get the picture, this goes on for nearly 30 cities.

But back to our tour...

A nice retired couple took us around the radio and tv studios of OPB. They have been volunteers for OPB for a while and know all the ins and outs of the station. We got to see master control, behind the scenes of one of the jazz stations, the volunteer phone banks (a fund drive was on while we visited), and some of the editing rooms. Since there were no video recordings going on that weekend, we were able to walk around in the main tv studio. The room was very quite, despite being right next to a busy road. We learned that the walls are filled with sand... interesting. Local advertising companies and even CNN occasionally use the studio space for commercials or news reports. We even found out the original California Rasins commercial was filmed in this very studio.

The station receives multiple PBS feeds and records many of the shows via satellite for later broadcast. They now have a multi-terabyte supercomputer for storing shows and other videos. I believe they nick-named the computer "Barney"... 'cause it's purple. OPB has more listeners during morning and afternoon rush hour than any commercial station in Portland. Pretty crazy huh?

Our Survey Says...

I like maps and I like standards. Maybe I should have been a land surveyor. Well, it is a little late for a career change, so I will just bask in the glory of other surveyors and imagine what it would be like to be the first surveyors of the Pacific Northwest. In the 19th century a stone marker, the Willamette Stone was placed in the West Hills of Portland. Now it wasn't just placed anywhere (uh this looks like a good spot). No, it was placed at the intersection of a pre-determined meridian (the Willamette Meridian) and a baseline (not to cross the Columbia River).

In 1851 the location was marked with a cedar stake, but now an official metal marker and state park denote the location.

The Willamette Stone is an significant surveying marker for the Pacific Northwest. In fact, all sections and townships in Washington and Oregon are based off of this one point. And since we are a) nerds, b) have a car, c) live in Portland, and d) had time to kill waiting for a restaurant to open, we decided to check out this historic marker.



It may not have as grandiose a monument to its existence as four corners, but at least the Willamette Stone is in the correct location.

Goonies Never Say Die!

One of our favorite movies of all time is "The Goonies". You can't go wrong with friendship, treasure hunting, pirates, and the Fratellis! And who can forget that kick ass Cyndi Lauper song! Even better, the kids are not annoying in this movie.

The movie took place in Astoria, Oregon, which by the way is less than 2 hours away from Portland. We thought, "...wonder where they filmed some of the exterior shots of The Goonies?" So, we started doing some research and found this awesome website dedicated to the movie (link). These guys did a great job finding the locations and organizing the info nicely on their site. Props to them! So we decided to grab a camera, hop in the car, and have a Goonies adventure! Don't worry, we didn't stumble upon any "booty traps".

Remember our friend Haystack Rock, from our coast post? Well, it was an intergral part to the guys' triangulation of the starting point for the adventure.


The jail from which Jake Fratelli escapes:


Astoria football field:


A welcome to fellow goonies at Mikey's house:


Mikey's house (in the "Goondocks"):


And last of all, no trip to Mikey's house would be complete without the truffle shuffle (NSFW):


So the next time you watch The Goonies (we will probably watch it after we publish this post), keep an eye out for these landmarks. You'll see all of them in the first 15 minutes (or so) of the movies. Perhaps you could even enjoy the movie with a nice Baby Ruth or some rocky road.

Mt. Hood, Portland's Mascot

Do you like volcanoes? I do! Believe it or not, Mt. Hood is a dormant volcano east of Portland. Based on the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Mt. Hood last erupted in 1865. Other interesting facts about Mt. Hood can be found here. Mt. Hood is the highest peak in Oregon, reaching an elevation over 11,000 feet. This fine mountain is also home to 12 glaciers.

I'm writing about Mt. Hood today because I had the chance to snap a few photos of it... from the air! We started our decent into PDX, and when we broke through the clouds, there it was. We don't get to see Mt. Hood every day because it can easily get obscured by clouds. But the days we can see it, the view does not disappoint.

internet on your TV

In our last post, we talked about ditching cable. Which is a good way to save money, but how do you watch those few good shows that were on cable? We do not recommend stealing cable, so don't even think about it! You could rent the season when it comes out on DVD... a year later. No, we here at P.S. like to watch the shows shortly after the air date. The almighty internet offers that solution. But how do you get around watching the shows you miss on a tiny screen? Hook your computer to your TV! You can play too, here's how!

Current equipment:

• Old desktop or laptop computer (with internet access)
• TV with a "PC In" port; either a VGA or DVI connection (could get a DVI to HDMI to go into an HDMI port)
• Spare 'Audio In' port on a stereo (if your TV has 'Audio In' under the 'PC In', you can use that)
  
• Monitor cord (VGA or DVI)
  

The rules:

• Total equipment cost should not be more than one month's cable bill. In our case, not more than $92
  
• No additional monthly charges (I'm talking about you Apple TV)
  

What to buy:

• Wireless keyboard and mouse (we found a ?? for $29.44)
• audio out (headphone connection) to left/right RCA cord (25ft of cord cost us $10.19)
• wireless internet connector if a network drop is not near your tv/computer setup (linksys $39.99)
• Monitor cord extension (VGA $11.49)
  

Instructions:

1. Install the wireless keyboard and mouse on your old computer. Follow any instructions they provide
2. Install the wireless internet connector if you computer is not near a network drop. Again, follow the instructions for that device.
3. Plug the RCA cord into your TV or stereo. Find a spare "audio in" section. Remember which section the cord is plugged. You will need to change the stereo to that function/source to hear sound.
4. Plug the 'headphones' end of the audio cord into your computer. Look for an icon that has sound waves coming out both sides (i.e., the stereo out).
5. Plug the video cord into the 'PC In' section of your TV and plug the other end into your video card.
6. Tune the TV to the PC channel and stereo to the external audio option.
7. Start your computer
8. Enjoy
   

The score:

Total cost for a month of cable: $91.42
Total cost for equipment (one time fee): $91.17

SUCCESS! Good luck!

*You could go out and by a new computer, or by expensive video and audio cards that would have better connectors, but that would defeat the purpose of saving money.

Kicking out cable!

Have you ever been flipping through the cable channels, not finding a thing to watch? What is that all about? Since we moved out to Portland, we have been paying over $90 a month for the extended digital cable tier (plus DVR and sports extras). We don't even know how many channels we had, but most of them were garbage. We found ourselves only watching an occasional cable program, but were mostly watching "over the air" shows.

We started to reconsider our subscription to cable. But what would we do about the few shows that we would watch on cable? Well, in comes the good ol' internet. With a little searching, we found that most of our shows are available to watch online. So, through the magic of computers, and our condo's fiber-optic internet access, we decided to drop cable.

Dropping cable is not a new idea. CNN recently did a story about people canceling cable (link). Internet TV is on the rise with sites like hulu - hulu allows people to watch current and even classic television shows (not all mind you, but a good selection). Most of the big TV networks have episodes to watch on the web, many ready to watch shortly after the original air date. The advantages to these websites are the option to watch shows when you want and not need to sit through 4 minute commercial breaks. Most sites will have an ad banner outside the window or a 30 second break every quarter of the show.

Concerns about dropping cable and just watching TV on the web could go like this: 1) The computer screen is too small. 2) I sit in front of a computer screen all day, I need a break from it. Well, why not hook a computer up to a television? In our next post, we will outline how we now watch many shows on the internet, through our TV AND for a one-time cost less than a month's worth of cable.

Nerd Post with GAS!

One of the virtues of Portland, and a major reason for our move to PDX, is a mature mass transit system. This system incorporates buses, light rail, street cars, and commuter trains. Anywhere that is worth getting to in the metropolitan area is accessible via TriMet. In contrast, OKC has a bus system, trolleys in downtown, and a water taxi in Bricktown.

I found an interesting story a few days ago, about "Oklahoma's Painful Car Culture". It basically discusses how spread-out thing are in Oklahoma, and how far a commute it is for many citizens in the Sooner state. The story also listed the top and bottom 10 cities to weather an oil crisis. Portland came in at #6, or the sixth best city to hold up during an oil crisis. Meanwhile, Oklahoma City came in at #50 on the list (worst to weather an oil crisis). Now I know, OKC is closer to oil and refineries, so they should get the gas first. But since Oklahoma is a smaller population state, could they be bypassed for areas willing to pay more for gas? I think the main weighing factors for the list were public transit network, transit use, and other bike and human trails.

Back in Oklahoma, I used to drive 20 miles a day for work. Now that I live in Portland, the drive is 0 miles. In fact, most of the miles I've put on my car have been due to house hunting. For the 35 days prior to our trip to Oregon, I drove 723 miles, using 26 gallons of gas, for a cost of $87. During the 35 days I've lived in Portland I drove 458 miles using 19 gallons of gas, for a cost of $81. So, I have not been in traffic as much and not polluted the air as much. However, due to increases in gas from March to June, the savings has only been $6.00. I have a feeling that the next 35 days will be a one tank range. Worst-comes-to-worst, if gas gets too expensive, I can hop on TriMet.

So one of my goals, drive less, has been accomplished. Way to go!

Walk a mile in those shoes?!

One of the allures of Portland is the ability to detach yourself from your car. This is accomplished by having a more compact metropolitan area (see the first nerd post) and a mature mass transit system. Getting around town seems fairly easy, although I haven't hopped on a bus or a train yet. No, I've spent most of my time walking around.

I was fortunate enough to find an apartment that is only 0.6 miles away from work. Thus, I can walk to work and let my car not burn gas. Another positive side effect of walking is ... you guessed it... exercise! A walking site I found suggests that you should get 10,000 steps a day; 1,000 to 3,000 steps makes you sedentary :(. I wanted to find out if I was getting my recommended daily allowance of walking in Portland, but I also wanted to see how much more walking I was doing in Portland compared to OKC.

So, a week prior to leaving Oklahoma I wore a pedometer to count the number of steps I took each day. I rounded to the nearest 100 steps and took an average for 7 days. In OKC, taking into account walking around the house, to my car, and walking around at work, I averaged 5800 steps per day (hoary! not sedentary). On the other hand, in Portland I averaged 7100 steps per day.

I was kind of surprised that I only walked an additional 1/2 mile (approx.). I was walking to and from work, walking around town at lunch time, walking to stores, etc., but I still couldn't get my 10k steps (the closest I came was 9000 steps walking to and from the river). The other surprise was just how much I walked around at my old job, even though I drove to work. Working in a big building that required interaction with people in other parts of the building kept me out of the sedentary range.

I must say it is nice being able to walk around!

Stay tuned! In 3 weeks I will give an update on the other side of the equation - how much gas have I used since coming to Portland.

...So are the flags of our lives.

Flags are pretty cool, right? Ok so they aren't cool and I know we are probably quickly gaining the reputation of nerdiest blog on the block but we can't help it we nerd out about this stuff. I have lived in 2 states, and no I'm not referring to drunk or drunker, I'm referring to Ohio and Oklahoma. Peter has had the extreme honor of also living in Indiana for 4 years, lucky devil. So here is a little bit about the flags under which we have lived.



Ohio:

Ohio's flag is the only state flag in the pennant shape. All other state flags are rectangular. The seventeen stars represent that Ohio was the 17th state and the flag was adopted in 1902, before Oklahoma was even a state. The red and white circle represents the O is Ohio (pretty inventive, I know) and is also said to signify the buckeye for "The Buckeye State".

Indiana:

According Wikipedia the gold torch represents liberty and enlightenment blah, blah, blah...it's Indiana, honestly who cares (sorry Indiana).

Oklahoma:

Very Native Americany, composed of the Osage Nation buffalo skin shield and seven eagle feathers, which I believe represent the seven tribes that "came" to Oklahoma. It might be of interest to you that the state legislature adopted a salute to the flag in 1982, so next time you run across the Oklahoma flag just say "I salute the flag of the state of Oklahoma: Its symbols of peace unite all people". Short and sweet, what's not to like?

Oregon:

I know what you are thinking, and no Oregon does not have two flags-it has a two sided flag! And yes that is a beaver on the one side. Apparently this is the only two sided state flag in the United States, those crazy liberals are capable of just about anything. The beaver is really a special treat and the little guy/girl represents the Oregon state animal. I hope this means that beavers are to Oregon as armadillos are to Oklahoma because hands down beavers are better. Beavers have the ability to chop down trees with their teeth and then construct their own homes. Armadillos have the ability to dig and walk into to traffic.

Fast Stats!

I wanted to include some statistics about Oklahoma City and Portland. Sara says, "Sounds like some kind of nerd post!" So, let me begin the first "Nerd Post" for okctopdx.

Let's make an OKC to PDX comparison! This in no way is meant to prove one city is better than the other. It is just a chance to compare the two cities, in an objective (Sara says nerdy!) way.

OKC
Lat. 35 deg 28 min 56 sec N
Lon. 97 deg 32 min 6 sec W
Elev. 1,201 ft

PDX
Lat. 45 deg 31 min 12 sec N
Lon. 122 deg 40 min 55 sec W
Elev. 50ft

Based on the U.S. Census estimate (2006):

OKC has a population of 537,734 people
vs.
PDX has a population of 537,081 people

Total area of OKC is 621.15 square miles while the total area of PDX is 145.37 square miles.

Climate for OKC:

Ave. Yearly High/Low/Ave: 71.1/49.2/60.1 deg F
Precip.: 35.85 inches
Snow: 9.2 inches
Heating Degree Days: 3663
Cooling Degree Days: 1907
Ave high in July: 93.1 deg F
Ave high in January: 47.1 deg F
Ave winds: South at 13 mph

Climate for PDX:

Ave. Yearly High/Low/Ave: 62.6/44.5/53.6 deg F
Precip.: 36.3 inches
Snow: 6.6 inches
Heating Degree Days: 4522
Cooling Degree Days: 371
Ave high in July: 79.3 deg F
Ave high in January: 45.6 deg F
Ave winds: East Southeast at 8 mph