Well here at Engineering, Film, Music, Books, and Brew it has mostly been engineering and a little film for the past month. I am enjoying my new job and I am thankful to be in an environment that is pushing me to learn new things and practice a little outside of the usual for me. Most of my experience over the past five+ years has been in machine design. Granted, I have ventured into some process design and evaluation, but the majority of my work has been in machine design and automation. For my new position, that is just part of the job. In my first few months I have done heat transfer, building ventilation and temperature control, Air duct sizing for pressure drop at elevated temperatures, thermal expansion analysis, AISC Structural Design, and more. It has been a nerd’s delight. A career in engineering, it would seem, is anything but predictable.
Vancouver/PDX area has been great for Amy and me. We have enjoyed downtown Portland on the weekends, hitting the Pearl for some brew and dining at some killer spots. We went to a great brewpub in East Portland called Hopworks, which has arguably the best black IPA around. For some reason, all I want to drink now is IPA. Maybe it’s just is a phase.
There is a theater in Vancouver, Cinetopia, which has theaters for adults only (wow, that sounds really bad. It is adults only because they serve alcohol there… perverts). This place is awesome! The chairs are comfortable, the screens are the latest and greatest, they have ottomans to put your feet up, and a pretty good beer selection. My favorite feature though, is the theater is 21 and over. I realize and embrace the fact that I am turning into a crotchety elder (I am 25 this coming week after all), but the theater was not filled with people texting and whispering to one another. There was, of course, the staple “Johnny Commentary” as I call people with brilliant in-movie color commentary such as: That was funny, Oh no!, Did you see that?, Oh jeeze!, etc. The length of the cord connecting their brain to the mouth must be short and filterless.
Beer at a theater seems out of place (well it does when it is not snuck in), but it is awesome! Rather spendy though, I didn’t think they could sell something that makes theater popcorn seem like a bargain; they pulled it off.
Movie Reviews:
Amy and I watch a ton of movies, especially lately. The more movies we watch, the crappier most of them seem. It has made it something special when a good one comes along. This last month, we watched two memorable movies: Up in the Air and 500 Days of Summer. When reading below, bear in mind that I am NOT a movie critic; just wanted to mention these.
Up in the Air was a great find. We ended up seeing this in the theater simply because it was playing at the right time and was in a 21+ theater. This is the best acting I have ever seen from George Clooney. I liked him in Burn after Reading, but this performance trumped. Basic story is a middle-aged man, portrayed by George, is a professional hatchet-man flying about the country firing people for companies lacking stomach for the task. This part of the story lands because of the economic sitch, but it is just part of the stories framework. Clooney’s character is a professional business traveler, and is written so perfectly I could not help but think of the three people I know who behave the same way. With these people it’s all about flyer miles, knowing which airline to fly with, which airport to fly into, which rewards program you are on, etc. This is spot on stuff. The story is excellent and I won’t go into detail in case you want to see it. I recommend this movie.
500 Days of Summer: I had no idea what to expect when I got this movie in the mail. Amy had wisely moved it to the top of our queue, and I sat down to watch it with no idea what it was about. This movie is a keeper. It doesn’t ever feel predictable or formulaic. If you feel like watching something entertaining that will draw you in, check this one out. The leading man, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, should be a star. I really liked the writing, sort of bizarre and doesn’t cram romantic garbage down your throat.
We went to Bend last weekend and visited G-man. Good time had by all. What did we do? Not a whole lot; and it ruled. Movies, beer, food, repeat. (Order varies)
New category for EFMBB is titled OOK, short for Oregon Outside of Klamath.
OOK:
The Costco up here had tables full of designer jeans. I found this hilarious.
In downtown Portland, you either need to ride an awesome new bike or the crappiest, most bizarre bike you can find. The middle ground is unacceptable.
If you do not wear a funny hat in downtown Portland, you do yourself, in fact, look funny.
Hope all is well with everyone. We miss you all (well, most of you (you know who you are)).
