I swear, eventually I will talk about my job at Salem’s Riverfront Carousel (maybe) but until then I have to tell you about the nifty stuff that happens during my time there that is completely unrelated to my job. The Carousel is comfortably situated at a huge riverfront park which is the main local for huge events that happen downtown. Conveniently enough, most of these events happen during the weekends and I work on Sunday. This means free entry, parking, and the ability to look very official. You see, whenever an event is going on and I’m working, I automatically get staff/volunteer shirts for the event and access to all the different parts. I also wear a radio for the Carousel, so I look REALLY cool with an earpiece on. The Carousel has its perks.
This last weekend (6/30/2007 – 7/1/2007) was the 10th annual World Beat Festival at Riverfront Park.
It’s a huge festival that takes up the entire park with dancing, music, food, venders, Dragon Boat races, weddings, crafts, and all sorts of exciting things. I tend to focus mainly on the food just because there is so much, it all smells so good, and I’ve never tried most of it. I ended up eating something called Lukku Chicken from the Horn of Africa booth. It had lemon chicken, curry, rice, beans, and some kind of cabbage side with yellow sauce stuff on it. I also bought an elephant ear and an African iced tea. To aid you in visualizing all of this, let me show you where a few key things are in this handy-dandy map I found.
As you can see, my place of business was pretty centrally located, providing me a couple of opportunities to flee and check out the sights. As I said earlier, I get to wear official stuff and look really cool at these types of things. I took a couple of pictures of myself with my phone to show you (I know, that’s really something only 8th grade girls should do, but I didn’t have my digital camera!)
Check out the earpiece in the right ear:
And, now for a shot of the cool shirt and microphone
Yep, very official.
Every day at work is different, there’s a lot that goes on in the park. I’ll keep you up to date with whatever goes on down there, especially the types of food I get to eat!
As you may or may not know, The Simpsons movie is working its way to theaters on July 26. It's one of the only animated movies to hit theaters that isn't some new-fangled 3D masterpiece. It's pure 2D and looks awesome! Here's why I need your help:
The promoters for the movie are starting to develop some marketing plans that will boost public support for the movie. They've converted a dozen 7-11's into Kwik-E-Marts where they are selling Squishees, Buzz Cola, and Krusty-O's.
So, why do I need your help? There is a contest underway at USAToday.com to elect the city where the premier of the movie will be held. The powers at be have decided that the movie needs to be premiered in Springfield, but there are 14 Springfields in the United States that all want it.
HEY! There's a Springfield in Oregon! What's that you say? Oregon's Springfield has long been regarded as the actual Springfield from the show? Matt Groening used to live in Oregon?
Springfield Oregon has gotten totally into this Simpsons hype and is dying to host the movie premier. Check out this local news clip covering some of their antics:
Remember how I mentioned that AP tests laugh at me behind my back? Well, it's my turn to laugh at them! Starting July first, Collegeboard gave people the option of calling in and getting their AP Scores. I only took one AP test this year (AP Calc BC) and had a bit of an issue with it. Read the above link to get the full story, but this pic should be a reminder of what went horribly horribly wrong:
Yeah, I drew a comic on the last question. I decided that I should call Collegeboard and see just how much that hurt me. My score?
A 5.
Yes, that's right, after drawing a comic and getting the last short answer question completely wrong, I sitll got a 5. Also, I would like to mention that during every single practice AP test we took in class, I never got more than a 40%, which leads me to believe one of two things happened while my test was being graded:
1) I got almost a perfect score on the multiple choice section and that buffered the disaster that was the short answer. 2) Somebody who was at CPW or goes to MIT/CalTech graded my test, saw the comic, and just gave me a 5.
I'm not sure which happened, but I wouldn't be surprised if it had been either.
So, AP tests, I'd just like to let you know that you can quit your laughing. It's my turn now!
Recently came upon two brand new Rubik’s Cubes to add to my collection. I brought them to work today so I could demonstrate my mad skillz and give the people who walk by my cubicle something to do. Towards the end of the day I decided to take one of the cubes apart and discovered something that practically blew my mind. . .
Every Rubik’s cube I’ve ever owned has had at least one thing in common: The axel on the inside has always been white. Always.
Well, when I took a couple of pieces off of one of my new cubes today, I was greeted by this sight:
PINK?!?!?! HUH?!?!?! What’s going on?! (btw, fyi, a “!?” is known as an interabang) I thought I had life all figured out when Rubik had to just flip everything upside down and give a Rubik’s cube a pink axel! I finished taking it apart and was left with this:
I was completely caught off guard and didn’t know what to do. I figured I’d take my other new cube apart and see if it was pink or if it had maintained the color of its descendants. I took it apart and saw this:
PURPLE?!?!?! OH MY GOD!!! WHAT IS GOING ON!!??!!?? DID RUBIK’S OUTSOURCE TO THE POWERPUFF GIRLS OR SOMETHING?!?!?! Ok, and all of this is while completely ignoring the fact that the Rubik’s logo is on the yellow sticker instead of the white one. I’m pretty much able to cope with that, but pink and purple axes are completely out of line. I see the world spinning before my very eyes, I’m getting dizzy! The colors, the colors. . .
Sorry, not a whole lot of time to chat because my lunch break is almost over. I did, however, find a great video of a Japanese Big Band playing Nintendo music and felt obligated to share.
Well, summer has been going on for about 3 weeks now and I realized that I haven’t really shared what I’ve been doing! That’s just unacceptable for an avid blogger such as myself, so here I am to dish out some info on the FAQs about my summer.
MIT has this cool system that makes it mandatory for me to pay $1,500 dollars at the end of the summer towards my tuition. Me, as in not my parents. This particular transaction has to be under my name. I’m guessing that this is to prevent my parents from paying for all of my college and just coasting through without contributing some moolah. That means that I need to do something that earns some money this summer…like get a job. More specifically, I ended up with two jobs.
I applied for (and received) an internship at ODOT (Oregon Department of Transportation). While it may not be printers, Pixar, or satellites, it’s still a decent time and I’m getting paid pretty well. I work full time (8-5, Monday through Friday) and get paid $1,673 every month. I started out with very little to do. It turns out that the office I was placed in only found out that they were getting me the day before I showed up. They had a cubicle for me, but now work. Luckily I have this fancy laptop and was able to keep myself occupied for about the first week. I had to resort to a puzzle book at one point, those were desperate times. This week, my third week of employment, they finally realized that I was doing nothing and decided to remedy it. Before I knew it I had several huge projects dumped on me (enough to last several weeks). This is when I get to talk about the project from hell.
The project from hell is quite complex and will probably be hard to explain, but here’s the just of it. ODOT’s new way of keeping track of finances divides things up into three categories: Pre-Engineering (PE), Right of Way (RoW) and Construction (Constr). ODOT’s old way of keeping track of finances did some of this separation, but never actually grouped it into these three categories. My job is to go through thousands of project listings (all on paper because they neglected to save the spreadsheets that the original records were kept on) and write down all the numbers from these three categories, which are in turn grouped into 6 more categories. These new 6 categories forced me to get creative about organization. I had been using three colored pens for PE, RoW, and Constr, but now I had to sort those too. I dug around the office and found 6 brand new highlighters! I started writing and highlighting and cross referencing and spreadsheeting and crying and complaining and shuffling papers and sorting and calculating. I’ve been doing this for 4 days now and am almost halfway done.
There’s my cubicle with my laptop and my papers and highlighters. I have to go through these charts
and write down numbers (while color-coding)
and then shove all the numbers into several spreadsheets.
It’s laborious, but it pays.
I’m also working at the Carousel again this summer. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned that I work at a Carousel, even though I’ve been working there for over a year now. Funny how these things don’t make it into blogs. I work there on Sundays from 10-6:30.
That means that I work Sunday through Friday and have Saturdays off. It’s a very busy summer! I’m ending all of my working in preparation for college on August 12th. That will be my last day at the Carousel, and my last day at ODOT will be August 10th. I leave for MIT on August 18th. That’s my summer in a nutshell. Anybody else working a lot this summer? Let me know!
About 3 days before school ended I was introduced to a band I’d never heard of and I found that I absolutely loved them. The cool part is that the band’s sound and lyrics are popular with geeks, skaters, stoners, and any other kind of person (except for perhaps emos). I’ve been thinking about how to describe the sound and the flavor of the music. I’ve created a nice little recipe for you:
Take 1 part “Queen” Mix with 3 parts Transiberian Orchestra Bake for 7 minutes Crumble up some popular RPGs (Role Playing Games (Video Games)) and sprinkle on top Serves everybody!
The name of the band? Dragonforce! One of their songs is all over the internet, so I figure posting it here won’t break all that many copyright laws, seeing as you can go download it somewhere else if you want. Click the pic for the mp3.
In my opinion, the word that best describes this song is “epic.” Honestly, how epic would it be to ride into battle or lead an army with this music blasting in the background? I’m downloading the rest of the album (14 songs) from iTunes this weekend, let me know if you want me to burn you a CD or e-mail you the songs (ssshhhhhhhh, this isn’t illegal!) If I don’t know you, you’ll need to e-mail me your address or leave it in the comments if you want a CD.
This has been your daily bit of culture, courtesy of Michael Snively. Rock on.
I am reminded of a tale from my past. I believe that it was the summer between my 8th grade and freshman year. My aunt had a high school reunion and was taking her son (my cousin) with her. The only problem was that the high school reunion was in a town called Lewiston in Idaho, land of the boring. To prevent my cousin (Devon) from going insane from boredom and talking to himself, I was asked/forced to go along. The 6 hour car drive consisted of A LOT of Harry Potter on tape and some napping.
I’d like to take this brief opportunity to warn anybody planning to drive across Oregon and into Idaho that the roads are long, flat, sunny, and dull. There is very little to look at.
We eventually got to Idaho and got all settled into our hotel. Did I mention that this was the Fourth of July weekend? That meant fireworks!
For all of you individuals that don’t live in Oregon, let me explain a little bit about Oregon Firework laws. It’s relatively simple: if it shoots into the air it’s illegal. The result is a hoard of Oregonians ooh-ing and ahhh-ing over ground-blooms and showers of sparks. Oh, and those little snake things, which are AWESOME! Oregonians don’t get roman candles, bottle rockets, or anything that goes up. It’s sad, I know, but we deal. Idaho is a completely different story; they embrace flying balls of sparkling goodness. If you want the best fireworks, we learned, you had to go to Indian reservations, so that’s what we did. We drove all over looking for Indians and eventually, sure enough, found some. They had fireworks! I’ll never forget the name of the firework stand either, it struck me as creative. Ill-Eagle was its name, and it had a picture of a very scary looking bald eagle with fireworks in its mouth. We went crazy and bought a ton of little bottle rockets and flying bee things (those things are SO dangerous) and shooting things and roman candles and just about everything under the sun.
Now, remember, Devon and I had never used a bottle rocket before, so we didn’t quite know what to do. We assumed that you put the bottle rocket in a, shocker, bottle. That would keep it up right and give it a place to shoot from. I urge you to take a look at the title of this entry really quick. Perhaps, if you’d like, you can modify it to “Bottle Rockets Shot from Bottles are Dangerous.” Here’s what happened:
We took all of our fireworks to a huge gravel pile (we’re talking 50 feet tall, 60 feet long and wide) and got ready to light a bunch off. We started with some fire crackers, which were exciting. We realized that they were great for blowing stuff up with. Then, we moved on to bottle rockets. We decided that if the rocket was in the bottle you’d be able hold the bottle and kind of aim it where you want it to go. We put the rocket in the bottle so it looked like this:
As you can see, there are several things wrong with this. The first is that the only thing keeping the rocket from falling into the bottle is the fuse. Guess what goes away when you light a bottle rocket . . . the fuse! The second thing wrong is the fact that the body of the bottle is much bigger than the neck, so when the rocket falls into the bottle it can fire but won’t necessarily leave the bottle. I think most people know what bottle rockets do eventually after firing (they explode).
Ignoring all of this, I held the bottle and lit the rocket. It took about 3 seconds before all of these rather dangerous realizations made themselves known to me and I entered “Oh My God, this is SO not safe!” mode. Not knowing what to do, I just dropped the bottle and ran.
Bad idea.
The bottle fell, and in a twist of fate comparable to the worst game of spin the bottle known to mind, managed to spin on the gravel until the neck of the bottle was aimed right at me. I had no idea, mind you, because I was running away as fast as I could. Devon was somewhere else just laughing hysterically, stupid Devon. Suddenly the fuse was gone and the bottle rocket fired. Luckily, it didn’t get stuck in the bottle. Unluckily, the bottle was still aimed right at me. The rocket shot from the bottle, skipped along the ground, and slammed right into my leg. Realizing that this was REALLY not a good thing, I started running to my left and the bottle rocket went to the right. When we were about 10 feet away from each other it exploded, graciously avoiding blowing my foot off.
Overall, a very enlightening/terrifying experience. I know now that you just shove the stick from the rocket into the ground and light it off that way. It’s much safer.
I hope you enjoyed laughing at my expense, I know I do.
Kelly James Fredinburg was remembered Thursday as a dedicated husband, father, son, brother, friend and deputy.
More than 1,000 people filled the Salem Armory Auditorium; hundreds more lined a procession route in his honor and scores of officers stood at attention for a final goodbye to the the Marion County sheriff's deputy.
Fredinburg, 33, is the first Marion County deputy to die in the line of duty. He lost his life Saturday night in a head-on crash on Highway 99E near Gervais while responding as backup to a physical dispute. A 19-year-old passenger in the other car also died.
Dozens of law enforcement agencies from around the state and the Northwest sent representatives to salute one of their own.
The service
Inside the Salem Armory Auditorium, during a two-hour, 15-minute memorial service, Fredinburg's family, colleagues and friends described a man who had achieved what he wanted most -- to be a cop.
"He served with pride, dignity and distinction," Marion County Sheriff Raul Ramirez said. "We at the sheriff's office were proud to serve with Kelly.
"The loss impacted all of us who knew him a little or a lot."
Several of Fredinburg's family members, including his wife, sister, brother and father, took turns at the podium and shared funny stories and memories.
His wife, Chris, a former law enforcement officer herself, read from "A Deputy's Prayer," interjecting examples of how her husband lived up to the prayer's requests of courage, strength, dedication and concern.
Several fellow deputies shared professional and personal stories about Fredinburg, who started his law enforcement career with the Polk County Sheriff's Office. He joined the Marion County Sheriff's Office in 2006.
A theme throughout the testimony was that Fredinburg -- the man with the goofy smile and red cheeks -- would have wanted everyone to laugh on this day, not cry.
He would have been pleased, because there were as many chuckles as there were tears.
Several dignitaries attended the service, including Gov. Ted Kulongoski, Marion County Deputy District Attorney Walt Beglau and several Marion County judges.
"He was doing what was in his heart," Chaplain Todd Pynch said. "He was going to back up someone in need."
Many of the officers in attendance wore a shroud -- a black band -- over their badges.
"Kelly has truly touched so many lives," Polk County Sheriff Bob Wolfe said before asking the crowd to stand and give Fredinburg a round of applause "for a job well done and doing it right."
Linda Adams, a teacher at Judson Middle School, attended the service because she wanted to show support to Fredinburg's wife and his daughter, who's a student at the school. Adams said the sheer volume of law enforcement present was overwhelming.
"They do a great service for us and protect us. We need to give them that support," Adams said.
The service wrapped up with a video tribute that included photos of Fredinburg as a baby and of him as a father cuddling his two daughters.
The procession
As early as 2:30 p.m., well wishers were lining streets along a 10.5-mile procession route from the Armory to downtown Salem and then southeast to the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training.
Even with the procession starting nearly an hour late, people of all ages dotted 17th Street NE between Sunnyview Road and State Street.
At 17th and Grant streets NE, scarcely two blocks from the procession's inception, Susan Moss and Audrey Broeke walked their dogs from nearby and awaited the spectacle, which drew hundreds of patrol cars from departments in almost every corner of the state.
"This is something different, a lot like a parade, but with a lot more meaning to it," Moss said.
"I don't normally like going to funerals," Broeke added. "But I'll pay respects and watch as it goes by; that's the least I can do."
Across the street Gail Coulson and her daughter Joy and son Zachary had walked over from 18th Street NE.
"We wanted his wife and children to know that we appreciated the sacrifice," Coulson said, holding back tears. "It just seems so senseless ... and that poor man who was trying to help him -- I can't imagine."
Many along the route shared Coulson's sentiments.
"I felt so sorry from reading that article about that young man who tried to rescue him," said Ellen Holden, holding back tears, from a shady perch on a rock at the 17th and Grant intersection. "Oh, what nightmares he is going to have."
Susan Hegdal of north Salem agreed.
"When I read this morning about how that 22-year-old guy tried to save him, I thought about how he's going to have such a scar with him," said Hegdal, who witnessed the procession from 17th and C streets. "If only he had a fire extinguisher. I would have been thinking the same thing."
Further south at 17th Street and Nebraska Avenue NE in front of Englewood Church, Lynnette Yoder sat on the corner with her three kids Grant, Allie and Elijah and nephew, Zion.
"My husband (Mike Yoder) is at the funeral," Yoder said. "He works in corrections and asked that we come here and show our respect. It is really important to their dad that they see this."
In the span of a few minutes, Yoder had informed several inquiring passerby's of the procession, a few of whom stopped to pay their own respects.
"I heard about it from that lady, and I actually saw people with the flags," said David Moraga, who stopped with his girlfriend to watch. "It's part of the patriotic spirit, you know? With law enforcement, they protect us so we should show our respect."
In front of the Capitol, unaware of the upcoming procession, a woman read the bible in Russian into a microphone. The Bible Reading Marathon of Salem, which began at 6 a.m. Wednesday and will end at 3 p.m. Saturday, is an 8-year-old, non-stop event traditionally held there.
The blaring narrative was clear to pedestrians rounding the block to Court Street NE. Queny Ekpezu, an event coordinator, didn't know about Fredinburg's death or the procession.
Because the marathon is supposed to be continuous, he said, the group would lower the volume but not silence the reading as the procession passed.
When the procession reached the Capitol, workers from inside the building overtook the steps. The crowd on the sidewalks stood up and leaned over the curb with hands clasped behind backs to watch the somber motorcade.
From across the street, the reading became inaudible.
But Ekpezu changed his mind.
"We stopped totally to pay respect to the deputy. I think it was the wise thing to do," Ekpezu said.
"I felt it is a loss. He was serving his community."
At the normally busy intersection of Lancaster Drive and State Street, Deedra Harp couldn't come alone for the procession.
She was on the sidewalk near the Walgreen's parking lot with her three children and her mother.
"My heart hurts," Harp said, fighting tears. "My uncles were police officers. I took everything and put it aside to be here."
Harp had a message for the Fredinburgs.
"God bless his family, from the Harps," she said.
A few blocks away at State Street and 49th Avenue SE, Bend police officer Eric Hagan waited patiently. He'd made the almost three-hour trip on his motorcycle from Bend to Salem Thursday morning.
It was worth it.
"It feels good to see there's a camaraderie and brotherhood," Hagan said. "Although we don't work in the same agency, we understand -- we have the same job."
The final radio call
The procession concluded with a ceremony at the Oregon law enforcement training facility, where bagpipers and drummers from the Portland Highland Guard slowly played and led in the hearse and family vehicles on foot.
A REACH air ambulance hovered above, making several fly-bys while mounted officers from a joint law enforcement posse stood at attention at the top of a hill overlooking the ceremony.
Sheriff Ramirez said a prayer for Fredinburg and asked for a moment of silence.
"Never forget our fallen brother," Ramirez said.
An urn containing Fredinburg's remains was placed before a memorial dedicated to fallen law enforcement members. Officials said Fredinburg's name will be added to the wall.
Bagpipes played "Amazing Grace" and the joint honor guard presented a gun salute. A bugler closed the ceremony with taps.
Over a loudspeaker system, police radio emergency dispatchers relayed a final radio call as a special announcement to Fredinburg's badge number, 185.
MIT has a a series of cool programs proceeding the school year called the "Freshman Pre-Orientation Programs" or FPOP (because everything at MIT is an acronym). There's an application process (which of course involves essays) for each program. Some of the essays are quite entertaining though! I applied for several FPOPS, which included Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Kayaking, and Leadership. I found out today that I was accpeted to one! And it was my first choice! YAY!
