Pink Pig PGE Park Pandemonium

Tonight was a great night to head to PGE Park for a Portland Timbers soccer game. After rushing to get an assignment done for a writing client, I hit mass transit and made my way over to the park. Turns out there was a little promotion going on by some CPA association related to savings bonds.

This association, in conjunction with the PGE Park folk, gave away lots of little pigs (pictured at right) to fans. The pigs had numbers on the bottom - those with the winning numbers got a savings bond. This was all done by half-time. Things in the second half than turned pig ugly.

A bad reaction by the Puerto Rico Islanders goalie upset the Portland Timbers Army, which is the extremely loyal fan base of our local soccer team. As a result, little pink pigs began flying out of the stands and onto the field, pelting the goal and goalie. He didn't react so well, which only resulted in more flying pigs. Calm was restored and the pigs cleared off, but throughout the remainder of the half a pig or two would come occasionally from somewhere in the stands (not always from the Timbers Army section, mind you) and land on the field.

The end result - don't mix cheap beer night and upset fans with pink, cute, throwable pigs. I'll assume PGE Park won't do that promotion again.

Breaching the National Print Waves...Finally!

One of the fun things about being a full-time freelance journalist is the challenge in moving up the magazine food chain from small, local publications to the national scene. I've done well nationally online, but print is a tougher game. That being said, I'm happy to point out I've been published in the latest issue of Laptop, a top tier technology magazine. I have an offline article in this issue reviewing and cross-comparing security software suites.

Is That a Chicken in the Road?

So before we left Providence, RI earlier this week we stopped at one last Italian restaurant for lunch. This was, of course, after I sampled five cannolis in a 24-hour period (hope my trainer doesn't read this) from local bakeries, etc. in the Italian Federal Hill area. At this last stop we were dining near the open window when we noticed traffic come to a dead stop on the street and people start staring. Taking notice, I saw a chicken dart down the road followed by a man frantically trying to catch it. I wondered - why would there be a chicken in the road here? I understand it being an Italian neighborhood and all, but we are past the days of villages and dirt roads. Then I remembered - there's a poultry shop just around the corner which prides itself on very fresh meat, if you know what I mean. Perhaps the chicken saw the cleaver coming and made a last, desperate dash for freedom.

Karoake Meets Italian Piazza in Providence

So it's Wednesday night and I'm sitting on the top floor, front room balcony of the Hotel Dolce Villa in the Italian part of Providence, Rhode Island. We are here touring colleges with my sister-in-law Andrea. It's about 10:30pm and things are really hopping in the DePasquale Plaza below. The locals turned this square into an Italian-style piazza, complete with cool water fountain and several open air restaurants. The restaurants are pretty well packed with people right now, enjoying the warm summer night and great Italian food. There's a karaoke contest going on below as well. Not the best singing, but entertaining. There's also an extremely vibrant young adult scene in this square, with lots of 20 and 30-somethings hanging out, flirting with others and just enjoying being part of the scene.

BTW, why does everyone like to karaoke Journey?

Where's the advertised AC, dude?

So Patricia and I are currently at a hotel in Orange County while we visit family. It is hot down here, so naturally we want a room which has AC. Turns out the "hip" remodeled hotel we are staying at is actually a bit of a dump. Fresh paint, some mood music and cabanas does not a good place of lodging make when the place actually lacks AC which, not as advertised, is actually a water cooling system coming from vents that look older than me and controlled by a thermostat just as old. We had the "technician" up to check it out - he flipped a few dials and ended up leaving us with a fan on our desk. Nice bonus!

Writing About the iPhone 3G for About

Whenever Apple announces a new portable device, I become very busy for the day or so around that announcement. The company yesterday unveiled its new iPhone 3G, which I did extensive coverage for over at About.com. This nicely enough resulted in placement of my article on the most valuable real estate of About there is - the front page breakout box. That was a happy moment to see that.