At night, the whole city turns on its lights. Eyed disapprovingly by passing motorists, and hungrily by circling prowlers, there’s a gazillion fabulous pictures to be had—if you’re brave enough to stand in one place long enough to get your levels right.
Read moreOMSI's Employee of the Year
Today, a lot of people will be shaking her hand and wishing Jaclyn all the best luck on whatever lucky project she’ll work on next. It must be a weird day for her—twelve years—and everything to show for it.
Read moreOMSI's Animation Land
OMSI’s Animation Land. Created in partnership with Jolby and Friends, and largely designed by Jaclyn Barber
Read more"Fromageee!!!"
This is a story about how, in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, in the spring of 1998, I became old friends with 20 or 30 seniors on rumspringa from Green Bay Wisconsin and how they almost destroyed Western Europe with a photograph.
Read moreDancing Lessons
Stone Arch Bridge, Minneapolis
While in Minneapolis for a brief, busy weekend exploring new apartments and job prospects, a mid-April blizzard hits town and I miss my flight home.
Read moreLloyd Center Mall
I have never been very current on fashion, so my trips to the mall usually included eye-opening updates on trends. Apparently, judging by the three Russian figure skaters, there was some huge fad for czaritsa chic going around.
Read moreHow I learned to get over myself and fall in love with malls
I love malls. This is an essay on how I came to fall in love with malls, accompanied by a series of pictures I shot in January, of Portland’s Lloyd Center Mall.
Read morePilot V5 Precise
I love this pen. This is my love letter to the Pilot, V5 Precise.
Read moreThe tantalizingness of mistake art
Whether we like it or not, art is all around us. If we’re paying attention, we might just have the opportunity to be its chaperone.
Read morePillars of Kenton
A creepy encounter with a strange old man and the seedy backstory behind the pillars of Kenton, Oregon.
Read moreNorther Cycles will save america
Stand anywhere in Portland, Oregon, throw a rock in any direction and, with that rock, you could hit two bicycle frame builders. Maybe though, don’t throw rocks. (Just a thought.)
Read moreA note about handmade bike racks.
Rack beautiful via. Norther Cycles
Think you know how bicycle racks are made? Think again. Let us take a moment to raise up the artisans who craft and build beautiful and functional (and often overlooked) bicycle racks.
Read moreIf it weren't for visiting Family, we'd never make it to the Oregon coast
It is odd, how we can live next to something as spectacular as the Oregon Coast, but rarely visit.
Read moreOmens
Witnessing the Winter Solstice, it's not hard to imagine why its first observants wanted commemorate the occasion. It must have been scary as hell, a moon like that, and without the lights of the city to dilute its fullness (as they did here). Will the year's crops fail? Are we all going to die? Or, does this foretell good luck? Is this the year my wife will finally buy me that Ferrari I've always wanted?!
Seattle 2.0
On a recent whim trip to Seattle, an old native is stunned to see the city he once knew, transformed into… something else. Here is a small tour through the place he once knew, accompanied by wildly inaccurate and purposely false claims about their history.
Read moreWorkaday Magic: Excerpts from the LinkedIn endorsement I never wrote for Dan Falck
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” – Arthur C. Clarke
when Dan quit his job, I set out to write him a LinkedIn recommendation. What started as a simple endorsement turned into a longer story about one of the best/worst jobs I’ve ever had, and the lovely, highly capable man I had the opportunity to share it with.
These are excerpts from that story.
Weird about cornbread
Did you know, cornbread is actually the central dish to Thanksgiving? Here’s what happened one year I attended a potluck Thanksgiving and took the my eye off my cornbread for one second.
Read moreMaking the same mistakes, and getting maced – twice: Excerpts from “How to identify a stolen bike”
I got maced, twice, trying to rescue a stolen bike.
Read moreThe White Bicycle
For everyone who’s had a bike stolen: here’s to the one that got away.
Read morePourland
When the earthquake destroys the West Coast, those who’ve thought ahead and built themselves rain barrels to collect and store fresh water will also have to fend off the roaming hordes of looters.
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