Betsy Richter

I stumbled into blogging a few years back, now contribute or run more sites than "than the Iranian nuclear program" (according to one commenter) - yet creating this site is a total labor of love for me. I spend my copious spare time (cough, cough) hanging out on Twitter or FriendFeed (just look for 'betsywhim'), or trying to clear out my RSS feed. If that's not enough? I'm a single parent with a more than full time job and two energetic and, um, overly-assertive kids. And yes, I do the volunteer thing, the community involvement thing, and the whole politically active thing - along with seemingly everyone else in Portland, that is. I'd love to hear from you - please feel free to contact me directly at betsy at ourpdx dot net, or comment on any of my posts.

Recent Posts:


Come Join Us on Wednesday!

No Gravatar

Having a hard time re-entering a five-day work-week? Did your Monday start with a bang? (Mine certainly did, ugh*) Then celebrate the middle of the week in style and/or drown your sorrows at the OurPDX meetup on Wednesday, December 2nd at Thatch.

We’ll be there just after 5 pm - which gives you plenty of time to enjoy a drink prior to the Web Innovators meeting at 7 pm at Cubespace, right? Or I’m sure a few of us will be there for a bit longer…

Thatch Tiki Bar
2733 NE Broadway
Portland, Oregon 97253

RSVP on Upcoming so we know to save you a seat, will you?

(* or, more accurately, the sound of what I’m now told must have been a huge rodent thrashing around in a closet in my house, eeeeek! Liberally sprinkled poison down the freshly-gnawed hole he disappeared down; plugged same with steel wool. Will buy drinks in exchange for good exterminator recs…!)

Black Friday — In or Out?

No Gravatar

I should confess right up front that I am definitely, absolutely, positively 100% in the ‘Out’ camp. (Yes, I am a Scrooge.) My kids get plenty during the course of the year. We don’t really celebrate Christmas, and Chanukah is also really de-gift-emphasized. And, finally - I am lazy. After years of scrounging for just the right gift, scrambling to create festive occasions, well — I decided to opt out a few years ago, and haven’t ever regretted the decision.

I’m not totally anti-consumer, though. While I’ve cocked an eye at the Fred Meyer early-morning sock sale (I do love me some bargains) and don’t much mind crazy deals on electronics from the brand name stores, if I’m going to buy something — I’m going to buy local.

Which explains why this avowed “don’t leave the house on Black Friday” will be venturing out at some point to New Seasons to get the turkey she wants to roast (to make up for the carcass she doesn’t get when she’s a guest at someone else’s house.) I’ll be grabbing my coupons for next week’s Choose Local event while I’m at it. (Choose local starts November 29th and runs through December 7th.) And then, I’ll be dropping by MacForce.

See, they’re having a Black Friday Garage Sale. My daughter’s old G3 laptop has been acting up; it’s time to see if it can be fixed, or if I need to consider a replacement. If I have to spring for something else? I’ll check out MacForce. Or FreeGeek. Or Craigslist.

What shopping choices are you making this holiday season? Are they influenced by the sour economic climate? Do you make conscious choices about where you’re buying from? Or is this the kickoff to some well-deserved rewards for having survived the year thus far?

From Our Mailbox: The Turkey Tracker!

No Gravatar

My friend Audrey wrote in and told me about a now-annual activity some friends of hers have put together. They describe it as follows:

Some friends and I are doing a collaborative live Thanksgiving website for the second year in a row, and we’d like our fellow Portlanders to join the fun online! http://TurkeyTracker.com

We use Ustream, Flickr and Twitter to create an interactive webcast of our turkey smoking. We have a camera (probably 2 this year) trained on the smoker, which broadcasts all day. We take pictures throughout the cooking process and post those as we take them, alongside a twitter feed that includes automatic updates from a USB thermometer rig (which got mentioned on MAKE, actually! ).

Because a big part of our goal is to connect with family and friends who are also enjoying the holiday, we have chat (via Ustream) and a Flickr pool that others can post photos to, which are then randomly cycled for display on the site.

Last year, we had 50-60 viewers, based entirely on word of mouth, this year we’re doing some more promotion, and hope to have a virtual Thanksgiving Day with hundreds of celebrants.

Links:
- Main Website: http://turkeytracker.com
- Our behind the scenes blog: http://blog.turkeytracker.com
- Invitation for the world to Join Us (also has FAQ): http://turkeytracker.com/joinus
(As you’ll see, the website is in it’s second year but the celebration has been going on for much longer.)

Anyway, feel free to join us and/or invite others. The more the merrier.

I’m in, I’m in! But I have just one question. What, no live-Twitter stream? Slackers…! I should have known they had it covered: Follow @turkeytracker on Twitter!

OurPDX shared links for November 25th

No Gravatar

Here’s what we’ve found as we’ve traveled the local PDX web (complete with our comments) for November 25th

Note: you can share bookmarks back to our site if you have a Mag.nolia account - just join our group and then send relevant links to that group when you mark a site, article, or post!

OurPDX shared links for November 23rd

No Gravatar

Here’s what we’ve found as we’ve traveled the local PDX web (complete with our comments) for November 23rd — a Thanksgiving cornucopia of links!

Note: you can share bookmarks back to our site if you have a Mag.nolia account - just join our group and then send relevant links to that group when you mark a site, article, or post!

Next Page »
Page 1 of 2412345»...Last »