At one point in time, I was a barista for both The Beanery and Coffee People: Aero Moka, and I could sling lattes with the best of them. I attribute my success (I could make foam you could bounce a quarter off of and my shots were NEVER bitter) to the fact that I had to actually take a full-on class on coffee at both locations. When I started at The Beanery they took me to the roaster and showed me this is how coffee beans start and this is what happens to them, etc. After two solid days of this sort of information I had to take a test. When I started at Coffee People it was a similar situation (but without the trip to the roaster). I had to know a lot about coffee and get a fair amount of training in technique and ingredients and all manner of proper beverage assembly before they turned me loose on customers. I won’t say just how long ago this was, but I’ll tell you not one bit of the airport was under construction and I still had to explain differences between cappuccino and latte to a lot of folks.

It makes me wonder just what it takes to be a barista in this day and age. If you know please let me know. And if you need that hit on the way home, you might be out of luck if you usually stop at Starbucks. Try someone local. You might be pleasantly surprised!

Here’s the deal: There was a law passed so that Oregon could begin offering domestic partnerships to same sex couples. At the end of last year an anti-gay group from out of state showed up and filed a petition to halt it because somehow this was going to do irreparable harm to people in another state. Somehow a judge was convinced this was true and put a stop to the whole thing. More from BRO here.

Well Friday there is another hearing on this. From Amy’s post over at the Merc:

The hearing on the case itself is set for February 1, and it seems like it’ll be a showdown on what, exactly (or if any) is the relationship between voting and signing a petition. As Basic Rights Oregon’s attorney explained to reporters after the hearing, people who legitimately sign a petition aren’t ever guaranteed that their signature will count, as is expected with votes. The chief petition doesn’t even always turn in your signature, she pointed out.

On the way home tonight after the rally, DBW and I got to talking and she was telling me how surprised she was that so many people had NO idea this was even going on. So now you know! I’m betting The Merc will be liveblogging (right Amy?) and if not there will be updates as soon as someone can get them posted. Plus you can find more info from Basic Rights Oregon on the whole thing. So get informed and if it is important to you, take some action. It’s easy! If you need some suggestions I’ll be happy to give you some ideas for really quick and effective ways to get involved. In fact, whether you need them or not I’m going to try to compile a list for a future post.

In the meantime I’m going to enjoy the feeling I just got back in my toes. SERIOUSLY it was cold!

Well, you might have a hard time figuring out what you would want to talk about but there are a stack people who had no problem deciding what they would do with such a platform. They submitted ideas to present their talks at Ignite Portland 2, happening a week from Tuesday (Feb 5) at the Bagdad. There were 54 ideas submitted and 14 chosen. Ignite’s grand debut was at Weiden and Kennedy, mostly because the organizers figured they’d totally have no issue with space, they could get 300 people in there. Well, it was packed to fire code limits and it was GREAT! Wanna see? You can watch all 18 talks or just check out the list from the first event. You can catch bits from other Ignite events at the O’Reilly Ignite site.

Specifically in Portland this event has a great story: Some geeks from here were in Seattle for a conference that happened to coincide with the Seattle Ignite event. They went and loved it. When they got home they thought, “Why don’t we do something like that here?” and they went out and did it. And it was good. And it is stuff like this that makes me love living here. “Hey that would be cool, let’s do that!” and then DOING IT. Not sitting around bitching that nobody else is doing it for them.

So if you want to go you REALLY need to get your RSVP in as fast as you can. From what I gather the Bagdad holds almost double the number of people the W+K space held and RSVPs were at about half full before this morning when TheO just happened to put Ignite on the cover of the Living section. And of course my man the Silicon Florist has coverage of the coverage on his blog.

Now that you have the scoop, it’s time for some disclosure: My employer (y’know, the day job) sponsored both Ignite 1 and 2. AND: I am one of the 14 people currently freaking out because I have to finish my slides this weekend to turn them in Monday so I can present to six hundred people. OMG six hundred people!? What have I gotten myself into?

You should have seen Dieselboi’s announcement a couple of weeks ago. If not, here’s the scoop:

Wednesday, January 23 beginning at 5:30pm
The Chesterfield
1101 E. Burnside (across from Hippo Hardware and next to Portland Rock Gym)

We will be there from like 5:30 until we’re done, and you (yes, you!) are welcome to join us. In fact, we’re looking forward to it!

Puh-LEASE!

Don’t get me wrong, I love me a Blazer, and I always have. Eastern Oregon is not immune to either The Mania or The Fever, I assure you. In fact my dad (firmly ensconced in La Grande) is currently going a few rounds with his cable company who keeps saying they’ll show the games but keeps blacking them out. I had the complete set of Blazer glasses, I had a shirt, I knew who started and what position, I assure you it’s not like I’ve NEVER had The Fever.

But I’m supposed to get worked up all of a sudden? Am I the only one who remembers how bad last year was? I looked it up, we were 32-50 last year. Yeah, fifty losses. And this year we were 5-12 at one point. To sum up: Last year sucked and this year sucked until just recently. But I need to be all excited and all Blazer fangirl now?

Sorry, that’s not happening. Don’t think it can’t happen, it’s just that right now I have a “bad boyfriend” relationship with my team. That guy you dated who drank milk from the carton and left the seat up and did stupid things that made you mad. But he was so sorry afterwards. “You know I love you baby, don’t be mad…”

Well I want to love them again, I do. I want them to succeed, and I want to go back to the mindset of “Oh we’re SO in the playoffs, it’s just a question of how far we’ll go”, even when there are a LOT of good teams in the Western Conference. But right now is not the time. If they keep this up, expect a post from me right around St Patrick’s day about how unbelievable they are and what an amazing change I’ve seen between last year and this year, and how awesome it is that it all started with that streak late last year, and how I was SO wrong to have ever doubted them. Until this looks a bit more permanent I’m still calling shenanigans on all this Fever Mania goings-on.

Dearest Readers/Commenters/Bashers/Friends/Foes,

Everyone here at the Metroblog wishes you a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic New Year.

It is my sincere wish that each of you is spending your holiday with family, whether they are blood relations or your chosen people. Go ahead, have that extra piece of pie!

As I write this from Eastern Oregon with the Timberline Yule Log playing on OPB I’m feeling festive, and I hope you are too. Now that it’s a bit too late to shop for Christmas proper, hopefully you can kick back, enjoy some wine (or whatever beverage it is that you prefer) and appreciate this bit of time at the end of the year just before you make and break those resolutions. (:

So here’s a little PSA from the Metblog (just for you!) for your own good (and mine, I’m one of those pedestrians): Get your faithful sidekick/partner in crime/minion/spouse/whoever, and have them make a lap around your car while you tap the brakes and the high beams and the turn signals. Now’s as good a time as any since you can also update your wiper blades on that same auto parts trip and we certainly haven’t made it through the worst of the rainy season yet.

So spend a little time inspecting your lights (and that goes for bikes too!) and not only will pedestrians be happier for it, but the person in the car behind you who can now actually see your signal or more importantly, your brake lights.

Remember, knowing IS half the battle…

In case you aren’t going to any sort of First Thursday stuff this evening, your friendly neighborhood MetBloggers are going to be congregating at the Green Dragon, that odd green building with the garage door front that is just behind the Q-Hut at SE 9th and Belmont. Join us won’t you? We love to meet our readers and our commenters and besides, McAngryPants said he would be there. Last time we actually had an assortment of commenters and readers and we had a blast! We get started about 5:30, and maybe if you’re good we’ll order the mussels. Will we see you tonight?