I can’t begin to describe the amount of snow we’ve received in Portland. I flew in in the nick of time on Friday night. Saturday morning, the snow really came and hasn’t much let up since. By Monday morning, we had well over 14″ on the ground, whcih is unprecedented. Since we’re doing Christmas at the beach, and since we were starting to get cabin fever, we decided to try to get out of town. It took us 5 hours to get to the coast (normally a 3 hour drive), but we made it. And reports are saying Portland’s getting even more snow today. So, I think it would be safe to say there’s going to be a white Christmas tomorrow.

Just thought I’d post the superhero I generated from our holiday party invite (which is superhero themed). Dude, this is so cool. I get to be giant wing-ed grocery-bag dude. Woot!

Well, today’s a bit of a sad day. As the recession spreads, the impacts reach further. It’s no mystery that traditional media have all but completely lost their ability to generate revenue and stay afloat in today’s day and age. And NPR is not immune - their funding comes directly from personal contributions, endowments, and corporate underwriting, and there’s just not as much giving going on. So, NPR is having to lay off 64 staff members, half of which are reporters (according to Pam’s House Blend), and shut down News & Notes and Day to Day.

News & Notes, anchored by Farai Chideya, is NPR’s only black issues program and I’ve been quite fond of the show’s innovative approach to every news story. In particular, their weekly Blogger Round-table has always been an exciting and lively opinions section that has been really fun to listen to. I don’t know what’s going to happen in an NPR world with no specific programming block for black issues, and I sincerely hope that the network will find some way to address that.

The other show that will be going off the air is Day to Day. I remember when the program came on. It was fantastic to have a mid-day news program that was lighter and, perhaps, more offbeat than the more traditional Morning Edition and All Things Considered. And, I always got the feeling that it was more west-coast centric (it is produced in California, after all).  

Both shows will continue broadcasting until March, and I’ll keep listening until then. Alas, given my borderline obsessive passion for NPR, you can imagine I’m pretty bummed.

• Photo courtesy of Julie Rodriguez

Everyone must check out the Kaiju exhibit on Lincoln Rd (Merridian is the cross street). Tons of cool Japanese pop art. You have to come see.

Dad just sent this to me earlier today and I thought it was fantastic! Crank up your speakers and have a listen!

It’s here! It’s finally here! If you heart both TiVo and Netflix, then you’re gonna be as happy as I am today, as you can now watch movies and tv shows instantly on your TV. And it’s free (minus the monthly service fee you already pay for TiVo and Netflix). The timing couldn’t be any better, either. I went to go rent a movie at Blockbuster yesterday, and they had locked my account because they’d lost a movie which I had returned. No ammount of convincing could lift the hold, and I was told I would have to call the customer service center to resolve the issue…which happened to be closed at the time. I wasn’t particularly interested in wasting my time fixing their mistake. So, forget Blockbuster. Thank you Netflix for making your service even better!!!

Morning everyone. I’m writing from colder Boulder this morning. It’s 19oF and snowing and rather lovely. Hope you’re having a great day wherever you are.

Julie and I have returned from Japan (it’s been about a week now), and I’ve finally, finally, made it through all of my photos and edited the keepers. So, I encourage you to check them out here.

We had a great time, saw so many cool things and I even managed to hit my head 5 or so times on various low overhangs. But, it’s great to be back. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!