onfocus

One of the best things to come out of the Gazette Times interview a couple weeks ago has been the increase in Corvallis weblogs at ORblogs. It's now the 3rd most blog-populated city on ORblogs behind Portland and Eugene. (Take THAT Beaverton!) Hearing more voices from my local community on a daily basis paints a more complex, detailed picture of this place. I hope it continues to grow.

I bet a similar jump in blog-population would happen if traditional media pointed their local audience to the ORblogs page for their town. (I'm looking at you, Bend and Salem.)

Here's the Google Map of wifi near Corvallis, Oregon. Now I know where I can take my laptop to surf. wow!

I haven't seen The Incredibles yet, but writer/director Brad Bird grew up here in Corvallis, and he snuck some references in—

Sharp-eyed moviegoers familiar with Corvallis perhaps noticed the picture's two tributes to Bird's roots. Both Spartan Stadium and the now-defunct Western View Junior High pop up...

via the Gazette Times: 'Incredibles' gives a nod to Corvallis

Hey fellow Oregon geeks, Orkut Buyukkokten from Google (yeah, his namesake Orkut) is going to be speaking at OSU on Monday night. The talk is called: Google: A Computer Scientist's Playground. See ya there!

Note to self: don't broadcast on 121.5 MHz. Area Man's Television Sends National Distress Signal (aka Mystery signal traced to TV). Television malfunctions, hilarity ensues.

Update: This story is now international news. (Corvallis is world-famous for a malfunctioning TV!)

We arrived home safely in Oregon and found a winter wonderland. It snowed most of the day today—giant, sticky flakes—perfect for snowballs. Here are a couple snapshots from a walk near our place:





Happy new year!

Update: Matt wrote the year in my driveway. And I posted a couple more pictures from today here and here.

Downtown Corvallis

It's finally starting to hit me that skp and I are in our last two weeks of living in the Bay Area. We found an apartment, reserved a truck, and we're beginning to fill boxes. This next week we'll be doing serious packing and making trips to our new home. We'll be living in transition. I haven't even had a chance to feel sad about leaving because I've been so busy getting ready to go. I know I'm going to miss it. I fell in love with Sebastopol and the whole Bay Area as soon as I moved here in late 1998—especially the Sonoma County geography, weather, and attitude. We have fantastic friends and family here, know back roads, and have favorite spots for working, eating, relaxing. We love being able to drive an hour to visit San Francisco, and we've walked hundreds of miles of trails from the coast to Yosemite. We love our house on a hill that has great views of Mt. St. Helena and west Santa Rosa. But we feel like it's time to start a new chapter. It's time to discover new favorite places, walk different trails, and explore different cities. Saying goodbye is the hardest part of moving, but we won't be out of touch. We'll just be 600 miles north in Corvallis, Oregon.

Bus sign - Corvallis, OR

Post Office Gargoyle - Corvallis, OR