Reid Beels

It’s not as if this Serenity needs any more people blogging about it, but let’s pretend for a moment that it does. However, for the sake of the world at large, I’ll try to keep this fairly short. If you haven’t seen the movie, however, you should stop reading now because I’ll probably talk about things that happen in it.

Having watched all of Firefly recently and having high expectations for the film, I will say that it did not disappoint. Fans of the series looking for a continuation and/or semi-conclusion will definitely find what they’re looking for. The concern that I had when I first heard about the project was whether it could manage to stand apart from the series and appeal to the general moviegoing public. In this regard, I have mixed feelings. The movie does a good job of quickly reviewing necessary backstory and introducing the core characters, but it fails in creating the amount of emotional attachment that fans of the series will bring with them. There’s a big difference between a character dying when we’ve seen them for maybe ten minutes of the film and that same character dying with an entire series of character depth behind them. I fear that those unfamiliar with the universe will not understand the power and sadness of parts of the film, as they don’t know the characters well enough to emphasize with them.

While working on this redesign here, I’m finding myself reading a bunch of articles and reference sites that I hadn’t paid attention to for years. One thing that I’ve just rediscovered is the joy of the ABBR tag. It lets you markup abbreviations so that they can be styled if you’re so inclined but the thing that is cool about it in my mind is that browsers display the title attribute of it as a tooltip. I kind of went crazy marking up the post that I just made and I’m determined to keep doing it so that those who don’t know what KOL, ZP, or PNCA are can be easily enlightened with a simple mouseover.

After writing this post, I realized that for most of my examples I should have been using the ACRONYM tag instead. Oops, silly me.

In developing my new site layout I’ve been sticking strictly with clean XHTML and using CSS for 100% of my formatting. I just made the final little updates that make all of my templates validate as XHTML 1.1! It feels really good to be writing standards-compliant code and having it create an appealing user experience.

Now, I had kind of expected that IE users would get a somewhat less-pretty experience but had assumed at they would at least get a usable one. I’ve since discovered that I was wrong. My current main problem, which I may have solved somewhat, is that IE doesn’t support position:fixed (used to keep portions of the sidebar from scrolling). Since position: fixed is a version of position: absolute that doesn’t scroll with the viewport, I’d be happy to have the elements default back to position:absolute in IE, but even that seems to cause problems as the top bar doesn’t seem to properly inherit things from the side bar. Phooey.

As an expression of my frustration, I’ve used the Brilliant Button Maker to create the following little 80×15 button:

In other web-related news, I’ve discovered that every browser except Safari seems to hate garamond. Even if I have it installed on the computer i’m working on, Firefox and Opera (now freeee) both render my type in Times. This is confusing.

Disclaimer: Since I wrote this, I’ve heard all sorts of nasty rumors flying about this place. If they’re true, that’s unfortuneate. Ken’s definately has St. Honré beat on the bread front, sandwiches too. The jury’s still out on pastries.

While wandering about Northwest Portland this afternoon I made a most spectacular find. Situated on the corner of Thurman and 23rd Place (not to be confused with 23rd Street) is Saint Honoré, a boulangerie and patisserie that looked quite tasty.

Golden loaves ranging from massive baguettes to miniscule dinner rolls cover the rear wall, perched on shelves surrounding a framed diploma from L’Acadmeie Culinarie de France. Mozart’s Night Music floats across the room as I peer into first display case in a long line. I’m kind of surprised by the clicheish musical choice, but the rest of the music that is played while I’m there isn’t nearly as recognizable. Inside the case I see large Chocolate Gateaus, Delicate Mille Feuilles (avec ou sans fraise), smooth Tarts Citron and many other chilled delights. Next in line is an open air display area, piled high with croissants, choquettes, brioche, and all the other bready staples of french baking.

As I reach the register and wait to place my order, I hear hear the girl behind the counter patiently tutoring an inquisitive patron at the proper pronunciation of Mille Feuilles. I order a croissant with turkey and gruyere and a pain au raisin and find a seat at the large communal table that takes up one end of the restaurant. The table is filled with several groups of people, chatting and sipping café au lait from simple white bowls, and I’m impressed by it. It’s rare that I’ve seen communal seating executed successfully in the states. That being said, the rest of the seating looked rather chaotic. The small round tables, all with at least three chairs, scattered throughout the remaining floor space are packed so close together that walking from one end of the room to another is a challenge.

My name is called from the counter and I eagerly retrieve my lunch. I’m pleasantly surprised to see that my croissant is served with a small salad of fresh baby greens topped with a balsamic vinaigrette. I notice that I can see the butter peeking out between the thin layers of the pain au raisin and cannot resist tasting it first. The pastry was tasty, certainly sitting above most I’ve had recently, but fell short of the perfection I had been hoping for. I am surprised by a heavier-than-normal overtone of vanilla in the dough (the jury is still out about this) and I find the center to be chewier than it should be. Setting aside the sweet delight for later, I move on the the main course. My first bite reveals that the turkey and cheese are high quality and surprises me with an unexpected blend of spices that complement them wonderfully.

As I finish the meal, quite satisfied, I am glad that I’ve found another place close to my apartment to get tasty food.

I’ve discovered the wonders of the Multnomah County Library’s DVD collection. It’s a fairly eclectic mix, and much larger than I had expected. Anyway, the first of my many reserves have come in and I’m enjoying them greatly.

I just talked to the guys who are doing the wireless install for my building and they’ve just finished working the bugs out and making the system production-ready. I’d talked to them earlier in the install and gotten the WEP key, but the network stopped giving out DHCP leases about halfway through the week. Here’s hoping that the network really is without problems because as proud as I am of my little bridging setup here, I’ll be glad to be able to get a connection with all of my windows closed.

Another thing that i’ve noticed about this connection is that it’s noticeably faster than I expected. As near as I can tell from the little bit of research that I’ve done, it’s a comcast small business connection with 5 mbit downstream / 512kbit up. Now, the upstream isn’t great, but it’s a lot better than the 128 kbit cap that afn and comcast residential put on things. Of course, this is likely to seem slightly less-speedy once other people in the building get ahold of the WEP key, but there are only 14 units so I think it should work out fine as long as people don’t run too many uncapped bittorrent sessions.

I’ll be switching my little network-within-a-network here over to using the new system for connectivity in the next day or so and then I’ll be able to start figuring out a way to tunnel a ssh connection into my G4 tower for cool remote-access projects. I’ve been considering wiring it to the door buzzer in case I ever get locked out of the building and need a nerdy way to get back in. Of course, i’d still probably be locked out of my apartment since electronic locks seem like a bit of overkill, but whatever.

Update: It seems that many things that require a persistant connection such as AIM and some forms of streaming audio/video don’t work with this connection. From what I’ve found online it might be a problem with the ARP tables but I don’t have any way to contact the guys who installed the network right now so I haven’t been able to get it fixed.

Soon after discovering that Le Happy (the créperie that I discussed here) was a mere four blocks east of my apartment, I was somewhat amazed to run across another two crêpe joints just four blocks in the opposite direction. One is a small street stand that bathes in the steady flow of shoppers along the main section of NW 23rd. The second lies the other direction on 23rd, in an area that many first-timers to the area don’t think to discover (or, at least, I didn’t discover it until I was moved here and out exploring). It is at this, much larger and less street-standy location that I had dinner this evening.

Visage is, like so many other things in the area, located in a converted old victorian house and comes across more as a coffee shop than anything else. Despite this appearance, I was not disappointed. I sampled a simple savory breakfast crêpe filled with egg, ham, and mozzarella which was well-prepared and quite tasty. When it arrived, I was surprised to find it criss-crossed with a drizzling of plain yogurt. This raised flags of suspicion, as it was unexpected, but had won me over completely within the first two bites. The contrast of the chilled yogurt against the warm fillings leant an air of freshness to the crêpe that was quite enjoyable.

• April 1, 1848 •
You started down the trail with 20 oxen, 40 sets of clothing, 600 bullets, 3 wagon wheels, 3 wagon axles, 3 wagon tongues, 1,000 pounds of food, and $50.00.
You decided to continue.
You decided to change the pace to strenuous.
• April 5, 1848 •
You have reached the Kansas River Crossing.
You decided to continue.
You chose to caulk your wagon and float it across the river.
• April 7, 1848 •
You had a wagon axle break but were able to fix it.
• April 8, 1848 •
You have reached the Big Blue River Crossing.
You decided to continue.
You chose to caulk your wagon and float it across the river.
• April 12, 1848 •
You have reached Fort Kearney.
You decided to continue.
You decided to hunt.
You brought back 200 pounds of food from hunting.
• April 13, 1848 •
You decided to continue.
• April 18, 1848 •
Severe storm.
• April 23, 1848 •
You have reached Chimney Rock.
You decided to continue.
• April 26, 1848 •
You have reached Fort Laramie.
You decided to continue.
You decided to hunt.
You brought back 200 pounds of food from hunting.
• April 27, 1848 •
You decided to continue.
• May 8, 1848 •
You have reached Independence Rock.
You decided to continue.
• May 9, 1848 •
You decided to change the pace to steady.
• May 10, 1848 •
You decided to change the pace to strenuous.
• May 11, 1848 •
You decided to hunt.
You brought back 200 pounds of food from hunting.
• May 12, 1848 •
You decided to continue.
• May 14, 1848 •
Sara got lost.
• May 19, 1848 •
You have reached South Pass.
You decided to continue.
You decided to take the trail to the Green River Crossing.
• May 20, 1848 •
You found some wild fruit.
You decided to hunt.
You brought back 200 pounds of food from hunting.
• May 21, 1848 •
You decided to continue.
• May 24, 1848 •
You had a wagon axle break but were able to fix it.
• May 27, 1848 •
You have reached the Green River Crossing.
You decided to continue.
You decided to continue.
You chose to take a ferry across the river.
• June 1, 1848 •
You decided to hunt.
You brought back 200 pounds of food from hunting.
• June 2, 1848 •
You decided to continue.
• June 5, 1848 •
You have reached Soda Springs.
You decided to continue.
• June 6, 1848 •
You decided to hunt.
You brought back 200 pounds of food from hunting.
• June 7, 1848 •
You decided to continue.
• June 10, 1848 •
You found 22 bullets, and 1 wagon wheel in an abandoned wagon.
You have reached Fort Hall.
You decided to continue.
• June 12, 1848 •
Hailstorm.
You decided to change the pace to steady.
• June 14, 1848 •
Emily was bitten by a snake.
Emily has a broken leg.
You decided to hunt.
You brought back 200 pounds of food from hunting.
• June 15, 1848 •
You decided to rest for 4 days.
• June 19, 1848 •
You decided to continue.
• June 20, 1848 •
You decided to change the pace to strenuous.
• June 24, 1848 •
Sara was bitten by a snake.
You decided to change the pace to steady.
• June 25, 1848 •
You decided to rest for 3 days.
• July 2, 1848 •
Zeke was bitten by a snake.
• July 3, 1848 •
Emily was bitten by a snake.
Sara is well again.
You have reached the Snake River Crossing.
You decided to rest for 7 days.
• July 8, 1848 •
You decided to continue.
You chose to have an Indian guide help you cross the river.
• July 11, 1848 •
Zeke is well again.
• July 12, 1848 •
Emily is well again.
• July 17, 1848 •
You decided to change the pace to strenuous.
• July 18, 1848 •
You decided to hunt.
You brought back 200 pounds of food from hunting.
• July 19, 1848 •
You decided to continue.
• July 20, 1848 •
You decided to continue.
• July 21, 1848 •
Rough trail.
• July 23, 1848 •
An ox wandered off.
• July 26, 1848 •
You decided to change the pace to steady.
• July 27, 1848 •
An ox is sick.
• July 28, 1848 •
Heavy fog.
No water.
• August 1, 1848 •
The trail is impassable.
• August 7, 1848 •
You decided to hunt.
You brought back 0 pounds of food from hunting.
• August 8, 1848 •
You decided to continue.
• August 10, 1848 •
No water.
• August 11, 1848 •
You have reached Grande Ronde in the Blue Mountains.
You decided to rest for 5 days.
• August 15, 1848 •
You decided to continue.
• August 16, 1848 •
You decided to take the trail to The Dalles.
• August 18, 1848 •
Bad water.
You decided to hunt.
You brought back 200 pounds of food from hunting.
• August 20, 1848 •
You decided to continue.
• August 21, 1848 •
No water.
• August 22, 1848 •
No grass for the oxen.
• August 25, 1848 •
You had a wagon tongue break but were able to replace it from supplies.
The trail is impassable.
• August 28, 1848 •
The trail is impassable.
• September 5, 1848 •
You found some wild fruit.
A thief stole 7 oxen from your wagon.
• September 7, 1848 •
Emily was bitten by a snake.
You have reached The Dalles.
You decided to continue.
You decided to raft down the Columbia River.
You made it to the Willamette Valley.
5 people arrived in good health.
Your Score = 2,730

After serving up the first dinner cooked in my new apartment, a tasty little pasta affair, Diana, Tim, and I set out into the Portland night air to check out Le Happy. Situated on NW 16th, just across the street from the Portland Streetcar maintenance yard, Le Happy is a hip, noisy little crêperie and bar with a yellow facade and a stunningly red interior. Of the three Portland crêperies that I have tried, Le Happy definitely serves up the edgiest menu. Novelty crépes such as “Faux Vegan” (spinach, mushroom sauce, creme fraiche, and goat cheese) and “Le Trash Blanc” (more on this later) nestle in comfortably alongside the staples that all respectable crêpe joints are required to serve.

I ordered a simple strawberry and sugar crêpe. It was overall quite enjoyable, though the strawberries were not as fresh as they could have been. When I ordered it I had been picturing my mother’s excellent strawberry crêpes and I must say that it fell short. I think this was mainly due to a difference of opinion between myself and Le Happy about what “and sugar” entails. You see, my minds eye say strawberries covered with granulated sugar and left to stew in their own juices for a while. Le Happy interpreted it as a generous sprinkling of powdered sugar. Despite this difference of opinion, I feel that Le Happy’s true strength lies in its savory crêpes and I hope to return at some point soon to see how the handle their curry crêpe.

Diana ordered the “Strawberry Chocolat,” which is just what it sounds like (with whipped cream, or course). She said that it was good, but that the place on Hawthorne [Chez Machin] was better.

Tim showed the most daring on this outing, ordering “Le Trash Blanc” itself. I’ll admit that I too was guiltily tempted by its greasy simplicity: bacon and cheddar. As an added bonus, on this crêpe and only this crêpe, Le Happy offers the addition of a Pabst Blue Ribbon beer for a dollar. Tim added the beer. It was the third time since he turned 21 that he had purchased alcohol (a word which, despite (or maybe because of) my years taking chemistry classes, I can never spell right on the first try). I think Diana might have been mildly swooning. “It’s a French quesadilla!” Tim exclaimed after taking a few bites.