This is part of my "homework". 15 or more miles in one week. The route I took is here: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2566183 roughly 8.5 miles. Hopefully I can do the same route again to make it 17 for the week. However, since this was supposed to be my homework for last week, I might have to make the second one longer. I might keep it short regardless, because there's a meet up this Saturday for 35 miles. 35! That's a lot for me, but I'd really like to do it. I'm shooting for a Century (100 mile ride). That'll be cool. Then I can incorporate my swimming and running training so I can get closer to doing that Triathlon.

Today was a great day. We did a lot of stuff and hung out with our cool friends. First we got up and read after breakfast and then headed out to take the puppy for a walk. We went out a whole hour, which is the longest Widget has ever gone. She was very well behaved and hardly whined at all. She met a really big lady who said she was the "cutest thing in the world." Widget loves people, even when they are tough high school kids who are too cool for puppies. We went to the rad park by our house and saw this awesome bridge that I found one day. Well, I didn't really find it per se, but I did NOTICE it while I was driving one day.

Well, after that we came home and I made lunch. It was an awesome green smoothie and a ton of raw vegan sushi with my special ginger-miso dipping sauce. We hung out at the house for a while and then headed over to Deaf night at Hotlips Pizza in downtown. When we got there we found out it was in this rad building called the EcoTrust building. It is designed to utilize storm run off for all it's landscaping, use a roof top garden to regulated building temp, use minimize electric lights by having skylights, having tons of vertical bike parking, and lots of other stuff, including using the excess heat from the Hotlips pizza ovens to run the water heater. Anyway, we hung out at the place for a while and no Deaf people really showed up. We did notice some people talking about taking ASL 1 though. Shauna thought that the event might not be big in Winter, that's how it is in California.

From there we headed to Aaron's house on the east side. We got there right as Ben and Benji showed up on there bikes (who we had met at Broadway Calls) and then we went inside and hung out with them and Aaron and his girlfriend Audry. Then the VeganThis guy named Jeff, who looks exactly like Jim Hesketh from Champion, came and also Jesse from SweatPea and Steph (I think, I really hope that's right). Then there was one other girl who I think Audry goes to school with. It was good hanging out. I learned about fixed gear bikes from Aaron and found out that at least a couple of the guys have vasectomies. Very interesting, but not for me, at all. Ben was talking about how Portland is a small town and there's a lot of gossip. Sounds kinda funny to me. It really does have a small town in a big city feel to it. Shauna played Uno Attack with Benji and Jesse and Steph and it was pretty cool looking. We eventually watched Quicksilver. Starring Kevin Bacon, the movie was about a washed up stock broker who decides to become a bike messenger. Some notable scenes were: the homo-erotic (Ben's word choice, not mine) taxi cab/bike race, Kevin Bacon dancing while on a bike, Kevin Bacon killing a guy by getting him to drive off an unfinished freeway, and Louie Anderson attacking someone with a bicycle fork.

It was a fun night. Aaron and I are going to try to meet up sometime and jam. We'll probably start a Fvgazi-type band. I might play guitar or drums, depending on the final line up. We'd both like to do something 100% Vegan Straight-edge. We might also just meet up to play Wii. Tomorrow we're going to bike to the gym for our first Portland ride.

Oh yeah, and that Broadway Calls show was rad too. It was on Sunday the 18th. We met up with Aaron and then met Ben and Benji for the first time. They are all super legit dudes. It is also of interest that Ben looks exactly like Cilian Murphy. I'm sure he's sick of hearing it, so I won't ever say anything to him. We drove up to Longview, Washington in Audry's car (though she couldn't come) and it took about 40 minutes. We got there and we were in no way prepared for it. It was like a junior high pep rally. Aside from the parents who eventually showed up, we were by far the oldest people there. Most of the kids were only up to my chest, it was soooo strange. It reminded me of being at the Teen Center in Thousand Oaks where they didn't allow anyone over 18 inside. The first bands we saw were no good. Sorry guys. It was still cool though, gave me a taste of something I never would have experienced otherwise. Something that was really cool was the mother and daughter team in matching red Broadway Calls hoodies. The mom was freaking out to the house music in between bands and the daughter was pretty embarassed. It was priceless. Ant I should also mention that the show was entirely DIY, courtesy of BC. They just rented a huge hall, stage, and PA. They played a great set. I was up at the front but eventually went to the side of the stage to video tape a bit. I called it quits up front after a 250 pound girl tried stage diving, but kept forgetting that when you jump you need to lift your feet off the ground. And she didn't give up after the first failed attempt. She just kept barreling into the front row of people and falling down, getting more and more frustrated each time. She eventually just ran off the stage when everyone was tired of being in her way. I put up some videos of the show of youtube: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E932FA97861A3808

More updates later.

Yesterday was the day of the animal rights activist roundup. We went to the vegan mini-mall for it. At first there weren't a lot of people there. There were booths in both Food Fight and SweatPea Bakery. They were more tables than booths, but they had VeganThis, TryVeganPDX, and the Portland ADL. There were others, but I'm not sure who they were since we spent most of our time with Dave from TryVeganPDX. We met Dave's wife who was really cool and also re-met this lady named Viola who we had met at the Thanksgiving Raw Potluck in November when we were visiting here. Every year, TryVegan plans an entire week of classes and events so we talked a lot about that. Dave said he wanted Shauna and I to come over in the next couple weeks for a raw dinner. Haha. He also said we could bring the puppy AND watch Endpoint videos.

Aside from the vegan round up, we checked out the Beaverton Mall and saw ferrets in a pet store. We went to REI and got balaclavas and bike lights. We also played with the puppy a lot. Today we are going to see Broadway Calls with Aaron and Jesse in Longview, Washington. We also have a book club meeting to go to at three. No gym yesterday, maybe gym today.

Yes. Portland IS the promised land. Aside from being featured in the book "Stuff White People Like", Portland, Oregon is the greenest, cleanest, and most vegan friendly city I've ever visited, or imagined. Shauna and I have a rad apartment that we love. It's a really nice two bedroom place that's in a suburb of Portland called Beaverton. It's kinda like Thousand Oaks back in So Cal. We can't wait to have people come up and visit us. We have a guest room AND a sweet fold out couch. Our place also has a fireplace, which is something I dreamed about for a long time. We also have a big LCD TV and a Blueray player (from awesome Christmas/holiday money).

We also just got our first puppy a week ago! We've wanted one for so long and now it's finally happened. Her name is Widget and she is insane. She alternates between being uncontrollably hyper and ridiculously cute and cuddly. When she's crazy she runs around and does flips. And she doesn't really run, so much as bounce. So, she probably spends more time airborne than not. Then after she's tired herself out she'll just fall asleep on us. She's pretty well potty trained and is learning to sit and come. We've read a million dog training books, so we have big plans for her after she gets the basics.

We've actually met some cool people up here too. The vast majority of people we've meet have been vegan straight-edge, which is astounding to me because in LA, I met all of 2 in 25 years. On January 3rd, we went to a random show at a place called Chaos Cafe in East Portland. Turned out not to be so random when I realized Future Primitive had played with Time For Change (the headlining band) back in Cali. Opening the show was Death A.D. from Vancouver, WA and Abandon from So Cal. There was a near fight after some bro-core dude hit a girl in the face while dancing. I don't know if you can blame either person. The guy should have been more aware and respectful and the girl should have been ready for that if she was going to be in the first line of people near the pit. Whatever, I can't pass judgment, but I prefer to blame the dude. I hate hardcore dancing. Out of all the bands I think I liked Abandon the best. They had a really cool burgundy vegan straight-edge hoody. Overall, it was a pretty cool show, though a little to heavy/thrashy for my taste.

I did witness a cool speech from a guy named Dave about his organization called TryVeganPDX. They were having an event the next day. I went and talked to him afterwards and his org was really cool. They basically try to facilitate people's transitions into veganism. The next day, Shauna and I went to the vegan mini-mall to meet up with Dave and take a tour of the local vegan establishments. And yeah, there actually is a vegan mini-mall. There's is Food Fight (groceries), Sweetpea (bakery), Herbivore (clothing), Scapegoat (tattoos), and red and black (cafe). It was a cool event, we both signed up to be vegan mentors to anyone who needs help in the future. We took the tour and added our two cents to Dave's spiel when we could. While there we met a nice guy name Ron who live in Beaverton, and two vegan straight-edge dudes named Ed and Randal. Those guys have a vegan bodybuilding crew too. Pretty awesome. We also met a photographer whose name, I believe, is Chris.

Since then we ran into Dave again and talked some more. We'll probably try to hang out soon and watch Endpoint videos. We'll be seeing him today at the Vegan Activist Roundup at the Mini-Mall. Another person we met at the mini-mall is this kid named Aaron, who I called Adam by mistake. :/ He works at sweetpea and he commented on my Broadway calls shirt (I knew it would come in handy!). We got to talking and turns out he's vegan straight-edge too (of course) and is looking to start a dischord style band. I may end up playing drums for the project which is both awesome and hilarious. I hope it works out. We met up with Aaron and his friends yesterday before a show with Death A.D., Cower, and Comadre. We met at this awesome place called Hungry Tiger and met Aaron's girlfriend Audrey and Jesse (who also works at sweetpea and Matt Hazard told me to hunt down). We talked about bikes, which got us pumped. We went to the show and hung around while people set up everything. I wish I had pictures of the place, because it's not really that big and by the time the show was going on there were at least 90 people if not more in there. It was insane and there was a glass pastry case right behind the bands and I think Aaron almost had a heart attach when some kid flew into the guitarist from Comadre, who then flew into his amp, which launched the amp's head onto the pastry case. SOMEHOW, it didn't break. Show was very good. Everyone was very peaceful and well behaved, but insane at the same time. As for the bands, I still don't like Death AD, but Shauna likes them a lot. I thought Cower has awesome because they were just so thrashy and frantic and kids flipped out for them. They were a three piece band and the drummer sang mostly. Everyone was pressed right up against the instruments the whole time. For Cower and Comadre, there was a lot of crowd surfing despite the lack of a stage. Comadre was the best in my opinion, they had a lot of what Cower had but it was more punkrock and melodic. I remember driving with Matt Hazard down from Ukiah like three years ago and he was telling me how awesome they were. He was right. It was a grrrrrrrreat show and Shauna and I are going with Aaron and Jesse to see Broadway calls in Longview tomorrow.

We're also going to a bookclub meetup tomorrow. That should be cool. I think that's all I have in me for now. Peace.

Mitch Bartram brings you some valuable fashion tips and advice on picking up the ladies. Check out this clever satire of modern fashion and see if you can keep yourself from laughing!

read more | digg story

One of these days, I'll update my journal so that I get everything down that's happened in the months since I updated. Not happening today though. Today I worked and Shauna went to school and her work. Pretty normal so far, but we're going to make Onion bread tonight (raw, of course) but since that takes about 2 days, we're going to also make bruschetta mushrooms. Should be good! We went to this new Raw Vegan place that we found on Saturday and had their bruschetta and it was about the most amazing thing we had ever had in our lives. It had so many flavors and the texture was perfect. No health food skeptic would ever guess that it was raw. Before that (on Sat) kidlet volunteered at magic mountain and after she was done got me a free ticket, so I came and met her there and we spent the rest of the day at Magic Mountain. I was totally scared at first because I am terrified of falling and therefore DO NOT like rollercoasters. Well, she totally got me to go on two (Batman and Collosus) and they were not nearly as horrifying as I thought. Now as I think back on it, it may have been kind of fun. haha. We're going to try to go back soon and experience the fright fest thing. That'll be cool too and maybe I'll face more rides. :-/
Well, that was Saturday. Today is Monday. I took a break from work today and worked out for about 40 minutes. I did biceps, shoulders, and abs. I'm getting too strong for my 10 pound dumbbells, so I took Kidlet's two pound (which has a little "hand-strap" thing) and hooked it on to one of them so I could do concentration curls at a higher weight. It was pretty good as far as home workouts go. I'll probably have to pick up some heavier weights once we move to Portland. A move which I can't freaking wait for! We can't wait to have our own place. It's going to be so amazing, espescially if we have a fireplace and lots of space and privacy. And guess what! We're going to have all of it!!! I could write for pages about it, but I'll save if for later.
I've been reading the "Hunter's Blades Trilogy" by RA Salvatore and it makes me very happy. My favorite books are the three that make up the "Dark Elf Trilogy". What I'm reading now is a latter installment in the same storyline. The main character Drizzt is cool and has been one of my idols since I started reading the series back in high school. Don't laugh! But yes, I am a giant nerd.
There's a fire today, not far from here. Actually two. Smoke is all in the air and not kidlet and I can't go out and have fun. Maybe we can make a journey to the puppy store though. Hahha. We like puppies a lot, well, just animals in general. But puppies specifically because of how long we've been denied one, by assholes.
Anyway, work's been good. This one project that I'm working on, PSR, has been an annoyance since day one. Moreso as of late. We hired this independent contractor to do the theming on the site and he totally dropped the ball and is (continually) making our company look bad. The client hasn't complained yet, but if there we're really anal about it (maybe they are, but just aren't talking) they're know that we've missed like 3 milestones we've given them, all cause of this one dude. Should only be two more weeks of work, then it'll be over with. Other than that, I'm a little overwhelmed but am confident that I can handle it. Just got a lot of stuff to do tomorrow. :p
Halloween is coming. I'm not sure what we are going to be, but it would be sweet to do something where we were related somehow. You know? Like Sally and Jack, or (kidlet's good idea) a wolf and little red ridding hood. One day I want to be Drizzt for Halloween, but I think Kid would be laughing at me the whole time. Maybe not. haha. Regardless, our last californian halloween will be really really cool. We've already started filming for out Halloween documentary. Still many more pumpkin patches to hit up.
Well, that's it for now. Mo more.

I will definitely keep updating this with commentary on my adventure, but I may start using this new site to document my food intake. It measures your carb/fat/protein ration and is pretty fun. My profile is here. http://www.thedailyplate.com/users/profile/mikkei/

Weight: TBD 

Excercize: 
25 pushups x 2
60 calf lifts
stair running with 15 pound watermelon - 3 flights
curls and shoulder press with 15 pound watermelon - ten minutes while walking
chest press with 15 pound watermelon - 100 reps

Food:
1 Liter Orange/Apple/Kiwi juice
half nut loaf
small salad
1 cup pineapple
1 cup strawberries
Juvo with Raw Agave 
4 dates
6 figs 
3  handfuls of spanish peanuts 
1 kiwi
 

Weight: not today

Excerize:
Leg lifts at work - 20 per side
Calf lifts - 60

Food:
12 oz Carrot/Orange/Ginger juice
Half nut loaf
small salad
1 avocado
half tomato
tbsp almond butter


Felt pretty sick today so I fasted until about 5pm. 

It's been a couple weeks since I've been on the raw thing and I think I've detoxing pretty hard as of late. Last night was pretty terrible. :p

Weight: 122

Excercize: none

Food:
sandwich (lettuce, cashew hummus, tomato, sprouts, bell pepper, pickle, nutritional yeast, sunflower seeds)
4 handfuls of cashews
2 handfuls of Trial Power (goji, mulberry, and golden berries)
Pineapple
1 Orange
1 cup Sprouted Cereal
Raw Almond Milk
Watermelon
1 liter of water
1 handful dried pineapple
1 banana
Smoothie/juice (strawberries, mango, fresh oj) 

Weight: Not today

Exercise: Football at the beach - 20min


Food:
1/2 pickle
2 handfuls cashews
sandwich (lettuce, 1/2 avocado, sprouts, pickle, nutritional yeast, olive oil)
grapefruit
1/2 nutloaf
1/2 cup salad
watermelon
sandwich, same but add tomato, tomato hummus, bell pepper, and sesame seeds
sandwich, same but no hummus
some pineapple
spoonful of honey
handful rosemary garlic pistachios
orange

Ojective: trying to gain weight on a healty diet. I've already been raw since 4/13 and I lost about six pounds.

Weight: 122 

Workout: Gym for an hour and a half 

Food: 1 avocado
1 large fruit cup (strawberries, honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon, apple, orange)
2 bananas
Kale salad (kale, garlic, red onion, agave, vinegar, salt)
12oz of Orange, apple, pineapple juice
7 Dates
1 Handful of trail power (goji, mulberry, golden)
2 handfuls of cashews
2 liters of water 3

Hey!!!! I made a website!!! I think it's pretty awesome. It's www.mikkei.com
It's kinda like a blog. I just post shit that I think is cool. hahaha. I spent a lot of time working on it. Hopefully people like it and go to it.