Writer, educator, mother, wife, WordPress blogger, Girl Scout

Kathleen leads a full life, working as a computer lab/technology support specialist in an elementary school, writing for various online and print publications, blogging at TechnoEarthMama, coordinating the Portland WordPress User Group, and leading a Girl Scout troop. She is also a member of the Girl Scouts’ Camp Arrowhead Resident Camp Committee, and was a member of the Camp Arrowhead Task Force, which prevented the sale of the camp in 2007-2008.

Kathleen previously worked for the Girl Scouts Columbia River Council (now part of Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington) as a camp counselor and resident camp director, and for Girl Scouts Tierra del Oro Council (now Girl Scouts Heart of Central California) as an assistant camp director and community organizer.

Kathleen grew up in Portland from age 8 to 18, but has lived in both Oregon and California. She attended Mills College in Oakland, California, graduating with a degree in Anthropology. While in California, she was a member of Indecent Exposure, the performing cast for the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the U.C. Theater in Berkeley. Later, she was also a member of the Clinton Street Cabaret in Portland.

Kathleen currently lives with her three daughters, husband and cat in the Parkrose Heights neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. She owns and edits ParkroseGateway.com, a hyperlocal blog/news site for this neighborhood.

What are you up to?

As you might expect after reading my bio, I’m always searching for balance in my life! Mainly, I’m trying to balance my full-time paycheck job and family time with writing. I enjoyed spending more time this past summer working on my hyperlocal blog, ParkroseGateway.com. Since I wasn’t working my regular job, I had time to go to meetings, make phone calls, and even cover a little breaking news. I definitely plan to continue working on this, but need to find a good workflow for it.

I’m also looking for more freelance writing opportunities with magazines, although traditional magazines are having a difficult time right now! I’ve worked with Portland Family, Calgary’s Child and the Upper Room in the past year.

What are you into?

Bicycling, but not in a spandex kind of way. I bike to work every day on an Xtracycle, and use it for many errands too, including taking kids to day care and grocery shopping. I’m passionate about sharing my cycling experience with others, because I think it’s important environmentally that we move from a car-centered society to a more human-powered society. I’m also interested in other pieces of sustainable living, like food (growing, cooking, preserving), non-consumer economies, affordable health care for all, and walkable/livable communities. I write about these things mainly on my personal blog, TechnoEarthMama.

I’m also a passionate follower of Christ, who doesn’t attend a traditional church any more, and who’s working out what it means to be the church in the world instead. I blog about this at What’s the Mission.

Oh, and I love to READ! I read a wide variety of books, as well as magazines and blogs. I especially enjoy young adult novels and science fiction. I occasionally contribute to my sister’s book blog, Six Boxes of Books.

What do you like most about Portland?

I don’t feel like a weirdo here! Most of the time, anyway. I can actually find people who are like me, and not just on the internet. I love that people will facilitate gatherings around almost anything. People aren’t content to just communicate on the internet; they also want to form in-person communities.

I’ve also always loved the proximity to nature here. We’ve got Mt. Hood, the Gorge, and the coast nearby, but even within the city, it’s easy to find a quiet place with evergreen trees and walking trails.

Finally, I really appreciate the bike infrastructure, and I appreciate city leaders for being ahead of the game in developing more bicycle infrastructure.

So why aren’t you selling more of your writing?

I need to query more (write letters to editors proposing articles I want to write). Selling myself as a writer is the hardest part, and the easiest to put off.

What’s your favorite kind of Whiffies pie?

Chicken pot pie!

Connect

TechnoEarthMama
ParkroseGateway.com
Twitter
LinkedIn

Pioneer of Business Anthropology, Veteran consultant, teacher, facilitator & coach.

Marsha Shenk is a pioneer in Business Anthropology. Three decades ago, reflecting on commerce as an inescapable dimension of human life, she also began to view it as an unnecessary source of suffering. People are made to exchange, society is built on that. But the timeless patterns of those exchanges are invisible to most people – including veteran business leaders. Armed with that insight, she began her consulting practice.

Working with professionals and service providers as well as Fortune 10 executives, she forged a unique and far-reaching approach to the questions that every enterprise faces. Her Master Moves™ reveal how to structure valuable trading relationships, no matter what may be happening in the marketplace. Her models have powered profitable strategies, boosting productivity and loyalty and creating new markets, products and services. She’s known for using Game Theory to enable enterprises to win a game that only they can see, in which others must compete.

Marsha founded The BestWork® People in 1980, introducing a new way of catalyzing peoples’ best work. Over three decades, her work has guided leaders from many industries to deepen competitive gaps and sustain market leadership.

Sustaining inquiry into biology, anthropology, business, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, the martial arts, and somatics, she partners with colleagues from multiple disciplines. Her work has included 15 years of teaching leadership through courses, and 29 of consulting, coaching, and facilitating.

Marsha’s education began at Reed College, and includes doctoral study at UCLA and UC Berkeley.

What are you up to?

I’m committed to revealing how individuals and enterprises can be Fit to Thrive in Any Economy. Have recently forged a new synthesis of Neuroscience, Business Anthropology and the Martial Arts; I’m offering short courses on the key moves. Have also recently launched a website, Good Little Biz, providing 7 free worksheets as well as guidelines for avoiding costly mistakes common among solopreneurs and micro businesses.

What are you into?

The adventure of life appears in many ways for me. Welcoming a constantly arising world is always an interesting challenge. Finding ways to be fit emotionally, physically, intellectually and spiritually is a fascinating inquiry, not to mention how to be a loving friend, mother, wife, sister…I love good literature, and it’s great to find playmates who can sustain curiosity and learning.

What do you like most about Portland?

The mood. People are friendly, polite, and unpretentious. It’s a pleasure to live that way. And I very much enjoy the physical beauty: lush vegetation and good architecture. Portland is a fun food town, too.

How do you bring out the best in people: their best thinking, their best work, their passions and generosity, their desire to learn and step up to new challenges – even in a recession?

Fully invite them to participate in addressing the most important questions and challenges we can think of at Best Work People.

Keep them focused on the people they care most about, and what they want for them at Good Little Biz.

How can I sustain curiosity and keep learning, being the best I can be, while being gentle, generous, and patient with others?

I began this journey in an iron lung at age 10, during a polio epidemic, surrounded by ‘caregivers’ who I believed were incompetent. I was one of two children to walk out of that hospital that year; others died or remained in iron lungs, wheelchairs, or braces and crutches.

I continue to be humbled by the privileges of my life, and continue to look for how I can contribute to others what I have been fortunate to learn.

Connect

Best Work People
Good Little Biz
Twitter

Creative Strategist, Commenting Ninja, Blogger, Youth Pastor

Jim Gray was inspired in Jr. High when he was given an award for creative writing. He was a multi-sport athlete in high school and also was active in the drama dept. He received a drama scholarship to a Junior college where he learned to manage the stage. He decided that wasn’t for him and ran Cross-Country his 2nd yr.

It was during this time that he became interested in youth ministry work. He served as an intern at a church before moving to Los Angeles to study at a liberal arts college. After college he worked for Enterprise Rent-A-Car for a decade. He then went into Outside Sales and Marketing for several firms before moving to the northwest in 2006. During this time he worked a 2nd career in marketing/PR/Online Strategy for a non-profit. Last year he was part of a large lay-off due to the economy.

In January, he formed Beaconhill NW Consulting offer creative strategies, viral marketing, online community management/PR for a wide range of clients. Jim hopes to never go back to the cubicle farm.

What are you up to?

I’m working for several companies and non-profits in Marketing/PR/Strategy Development/Social Media Management. I’ve been shooting videos, building blogs, writing, recruiting, managing social media profiles, viral marketing campaigns, fund-raising. Event/Conference Development/Coordination.

What are you into?

I recently became Online Community Manager for Young Life of Lower Columbia. It’s a great non-profit that works with jr.high-college students. They had huge impact on me as a kid and it’s great to give back.

Another project that I’m excited about is Deadly Viper where I function as the Online Community Manager as well as overseeing viral campaigns, social media strategy and integration advocate.

I’m also the tech-lead/community manager for The Idea Camp which will be in Portland November 20,21 …The Idea Camp is a collaborative movement of idea-makers who facilitate free hybrid conferences and develop resources for people who desire to move ideas toward implementation. Facilitated by a growing collective of innovative thinkers and practitioners from numerous disciplines, participants gather around topics of interest to encourage and inspire one another, share practical wisdom from the field, and develop intentional networks for idea-making.

What do you like most about Portland?

I really love the natural development of community in Portland. People are serious about networking and building relationships. I’ve had more collaboration here than anywhere else. I’ve love the opportunity to meet people through Wordpress Group, WebVisions and Beer and Blogs.

How do you explain to a layperson what you do?

I am the person who connects your content with your community. I put it this way ” I find fuel for digital fires” To illustrate this I developed a brand called “Commenting Ninja” The idea is that I go to your blog and observe, speak, and share. I look to find ways to nurture and develop community strategies that help you reach your users.

Tell us about yourself?

I am happily married to my wife of 16 years. We have 3 kids who are are homeschoolers, soccer players, musicians and comedians. I also serve as Youth Pastor at our church in Kelso, WA.

Connect

Jim Gray online
Beaconhill NW
Commenting Ninja
Twitter

Where art and science meet in one person

Martin Vavra, owner of Galaxy Sailor Productions, has been working in the film business since 2004 with the realization for his love of making film.

Ever since he was a small boy, Martin has loved movies and films but never took it to be something that would be a passion to pursue as a career. After fourteen years of fighting fires and three years in science education, Galaxy Sailor Productions was born from a love of film making. Ever since, Martin has driven to make Galaxy Sailor Productions a premiere company whose focus is to make entertaining, enriching, and fulfilling filmo projects.

Since GSP was started, Martin has worked on numerous weddings as well as edited for The Sportsman Channel and WildTV, self produced a full length DVD performance of the Vagina Monologues, and create online video content for Lithia Motors, The Special Olympics, Milepost 5, Showcase PDX, and is currently finishing work on a documentary short for Basic Rights Oregon.

Martin’s first self produced, directed, and written narrative is currently filming and can be see online as zombie web series, The Last Stand.

What are you up to?

Frantically filming The Last Stand, making zombies, getting permits to have fake weapons in Portland, and working in some of the most awesome places with the best folks. I am very fortunate.

What are you into?

I am into film making, making things green and sustainable, and keeping on my vegetarian lifestyle. I am a recent convert and couldn’t be happier.

What do you like most about Portland?

I moved here to take the next step in my film career. I have been coming to Portland for a long time, and loved the people, the food, the culture, and the fact that I can do all the “city” and “nature” things I could want to do in one place.

Why Portland and not Hollywood?

Portland is a place of evolution right now. It’s not Hollywood, and won’t be, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t part of an art culture when it comes to film. Portland has more “real” to it, as far as heart goes. I think if someone remembers the roots of being here and goes on, they could bring something to Hollywood that it truly needs: originality.

You said you were recently a vegetarian convert, so how is that going?

It is going really great. It is something that I had to do from the heart and not the stomach. I was raised in Eastern Oregon, where we hunted and had cattle, so meat is just part of the culture. It is amazing how many things have either meat or corn in them today, and both are almost totally non-nutritious due to our standards in the world. Eat a vegetable just makes the soul feel better. The stomach follows much easier.

Connect

Martin Vavra
Twitter
Facebook
Vimeo
The Last Stand

Imagination is the Tool

Cory Huff has been acting since he was a little kid. That experience informs everything he does. When he approaches new projects he has the attitude that any problem can be solved with a little bit of hard work, solid technique, and a whole lot of imagination.

Cory is first, a good husband. Just check out AgoodHusband.net, the blog he started to explore what marriage means to men. Growing up as the child of a single mother, Cory decided that it was important to learn from the wisdom of other men and he maintains the site as a way to contribute to the general marriage discussion.

Cory started TheAbundantArtist.com as a place for artists to come to learn about Internet marketing. He firmly believes that the starving artist is a myth that must be dispelled. Cory hopes to break down the silos of creativity that people erect within their own lives that force them to compartmentalize their skills and interests. In other words, Cory believes that following your passion will lead you to a fulfilled life, no matter what it is. Cory moved to Portland from Utah in 2007.

Cory also works as a social media consultant for a local search engine marketing firm. He enjoys the social media world immensely and is constantly amazed at the level of talent, creativity, and skill that people bring to the social media realm.

Cory loves his wife, acting, dancing, his XBOX 360, PDX, Order of the Stick comics, and is a die hard University of Utah alumnus. Currently he’s most interested in working on projects that bring artists, technology, and business together in new and creative ways.

What are you up to?

I am working on bringing artists together with technology. There’s never been a bigger opportunity for us to leave the starving artist mentality behind.

What are you into?

I am into theater, dance, singing, being ridiculous, Twitter, and the Internet.

What do you like most about Portland?

The creative industries in Portland thrive without being cutthroat. There is a collaborative atmosphere here that is unmatched in other places I’ve lived.

How can an artist use the Internet to further their career?

By using it to make connections. Be engaged on a one-to-one level with your fans and they will love you for it.

Who’s the most important person in your life?

My beautiful wife, Lissie.

Connect

Cory Huff
TheAbundantArtist.com
AgoodHusband.net
Twitter

Artist, Explorer, Photographer, Raw Vegan, Multidimensional Nondenominational Hedonist

Mark Colman is an artist who works photographically. A professional photographer for over twenty years, Colman has worked in Milan, Italy, Madrid, Spain, San Francisco and spent sixteen years in Los Angeles doing fine art, fashion and advertising work.

In the early 1990’s, feeling creatively limited after ten years in fashion photography, Colman began developing a unique style of image manipulation. Combining lush images from nature with the female nude, his work was often thought of as digitally manipulated but was created using solely film based techniques.

Zoom magazines’ Franz Bee writes; “His style hearkens back to the highly original approach of the ‘Four Seasons’ by Archimboldo, the 16th century painter who created anthropomorphic compositions by magically assembling the produce typical of each season to create facial profiles.”

Works: http://markcolman.com

Not content to limit himself creatively, Colman works in many different genres of photography, including non-manipulated, intensely colored abstract work inspired by music.

Colman has spent over three years on a book project exploring cemeteries via classic, straight black and white photography, shot with vintage medium format film cameras.

Today, Colman continues to explore new visual worlds often combining his original film based techniques with digital manipulation.

He has worked with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Adrian Belew, EMI, Warner Bros. His art work has been exhibited internationally. Colman has been profiled in ZOOM Magazine, Eyemazing Magazine and others. Resume with selected exhibition history.

Colman is available for fashion, advertising, editorial and portrait work: http://markcolemanphoto.com

What are you up to?

I am preparing for my first one man art exhibit in Portland. It will be at Wieden Kennedy’s PIE (Portland Incubator Experiment) space on October 1st, First Thursday: http://markcolman.tv

I will be showing several large cibachrome color prints as well as a selection of work dating from 1991 until now. The opening will be from 6-9 PM. See link above for details.

What are you into?

I am into exploring, visually and in all ways. I like to go to new places.

I’m into raw vegan food and have been 100% raw for nine months and a vegetarian/vegan for twenty years.

I love to bike. Have been bike only for a year.

Into all sorts of music, mainly progressive (new King Crimson, Adrian Belew, Trey Gunn, Porcupine Tree), contemporary (Philip Glass, Steve Reich and others).

What do you like most about Portland?

It’s the people. They are so real and nice. They care about the environment (mostly!). I’ve made more friends in my first two years in Portland than I made in sixteen years in Los Angeles. I also love the weather! Let’s just not tell people that it ever stops raining!

After living in so many big cities, I see Portland as my true home. It’s the best. I feel like I belong here.

Do you photograph regular people or just models?

I do photograph real people. I actually specialize in making people look good. The skills I honed in Italy, making models look great, work for “real” people too. I am also available to do fine art portraits. I can make you into a unique work of art by combining the things you are all about and love with your image.

Why would you do such an extreme thing as to eat only a raw food diet?

I do it because it makes me feel great physically, it’s great for the environment and it pisses people off! Just kidding about the last part.

Connect

Mark Colman
Mark Colman TV
Mark Coleman Photo
Black-and-White
Twitter

Positive, Motivated, Grateful, Inquisitive, Speaker

Danea was born into an incredible healing journey. Her life started with a diagnosis of VATER Association, a complex of birth disorders affecting 6 vital systems in the body. Over the first two years of her life, she endured 10 operations to put things back in working order. Since then, she has been in and out of the medical system to monitor and correct the lasting affects of VATER. Danea knows how to overcome challenge and for that she is grateful.

Her parents blessed her with a positive outlook that gave her experiences purpose. She chose to embrace her health and out of that she has opened herself up to her true passion: inspiring others to see their life experiences as conscious choices.

In 2008, she started www.creativeaffirmations.com, a resource for making positive change through affirmations. Danea knows how vitally important self talk is. She sees life form around the stories people tell themselves all day long. By shifting the tone and message to a more optimistic, conscious viewpoint, life becomes miraculous.

Danea has a degree in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Redlands. She is blissfully married, affirmation manifested, and lives in the forest of SW Portland with her two terrier mutts: Abbey and Emma.

What are you up to?

I am taking my website, www.creativeaffimations.com, out into the community through personal presentations. I think that it is our experiences that connect us and lend insight into how to live a more fulfilled life. I am also making a valiant effort to learn how to meditate, a desire that I have has for quite a while now.

What are you into?

I am into personal development. The human mind is fascinating. I have just finished reading the The Intention Experiment by Lynne McTaggart and was enthralled by all of the scientific experiments that have been performed around the world to discover the ability of conscious thought to impact reality.

I also love to cook. I have been vegetarian for 2 years and have had a great time recreating my favorite meat based dishes. My latest was an imitation tuna sandwich using tofu, celery, onion and kelp powder, delicious, craving satisfied.

What do you like most about Portland?

I am grateful all of the time. I love driving around and soaking in all of the gorgeousness that is Portland. It is thrilling that nature is such a big aspect of every day life. You don’t have to drive far, or drive at all, to be surrounded by beauty. I also cherish the change of the seasons. As I write this, it is mid-September, just on the edge of fall. The morning has a crispness to it and the day finishes with a warm glow. We went berry picking a few times this summer and played in the snow last winter, awesome, just awesome.

What is the focus of your motivational presentations?

Choice. Each moment we have a choice. We can choose how we see life. We can choose the stories we tell ourselves. We can choose the reality we find ourselves in. We are not at the mercy of life. Through becoming conscious and decisive about the choices we make, we shape our future. This does not mean that the choice is always easy. When I found out that I would not be able to carry a pregnancy as a result of VATER, it was a difficult choice to embrace that as my reality. However, by doing so, I opened up a passion within my marriage for adoption. A passion we did not even know was there and probably would have not discovered on our own. Through my passion for adoption, I began serving on the Board of the Kinship House, www.kinshiphouse.org, a local non-profit organization committed to the mental health of children in all stages of foster care and adoption. The key was consciously choosing the reality I found myself in. I think that is a message worth sharing.

What do you do when no one is watching?

Dance. I love my current home because it has three mirrored closets forming a quasi dance studio in my bathroom. I like to put on revival performances there from my days as dancer in high school. I also put on a mini production of the Nutcracker each December for my own personal enjoyment and the laughter of my husband, when he catches me.

Connect

Creative Affirmations
danea at creativeaffirmations dot com

Software entrepreneur & executive

Mark Lawler is the VP of Engineering of Sabrix where he oversees product engineering, including software development, quality assurance, and technical communication. Mark joined Sabrix in 2007, and has over 20 years of experience delivering enterprise software and SaaS solutions for companies ranging from start-ups to large international corporations.

Prior to Sabrix, Mark served as Chief Technical Officer and Senior Vice President of Engineering at Compli, a provider of a SaaS compliance solution for mitigating regulatory, legal, and operational risk through managing employee policy, procedures, and regulatory compliance.

Mark was also one of the U.S. founders of ProSight and served as the Chief Technical Officer and Vice President of Product Management. While at ProSight, he helped grow the company to over $25M in revenue and to profitability before its acquisition by Primavera Systems in 2006, where he became a VP of Product Strategy.

Prior to ProSight, Mark was a Director of Research and Development, managing a globally distributed development team for the PVCS business unit of Intersolv. He re-built the R&D organization and recast the entire product line to leverage a Java technology stack and the Internet, growing revenue from $60M to over $120M.

In addition, Mark held several management and technical positions at Symantec Corporation. He was one of the lead developers on Norton Desktop for Windows (winner of PC Computing Most Valuable Product of the Year in 1991) and was one of the early development managers for Norton AntiVirus. He went on to become the Director of Development and Architect for Symantec’s Security Business Unit.

He relocated to Oregon when Symantec acquired Central Point Software more than a decade ago with his first wife Susan, who passed away after an eight year battle with breast cancer. Remarried now, Mark enjoys the Pacific Northwest with his wife Kim and her children Ahnjene, Annelise, Angelina, and Anton. His hobbies include photography and N-Scale model trains, including the layout he is building in his basement.

Mark is either on the board, an advisor, or a volunteer for several local companies and non-profits including the Software Association of Oregon, TechStart Education Foundation, Business Education Compact, Fedarra, and EthicsPoint.

Mark holds a B.S. in computer science from the University of California, Riverside and is a named inventor on seven U.S. and international software patents.

What are you up to?

I am working hard and enjoying life. I reached a point in my life a while back where I realized that “not caring” about the little things is quite liberating and like a new lease on life.

What are you into?

Today’s music, N-Scale Model Trains, woodworking, and home repairs. In the area of being helpful around the house and do it yourself projects I guess I learned a couple of things from the ol’ man as I was growing up. I also enjoy first person shooters (i.e. Left 4 Dead, Ghost Recon, etc.) and movies where things blow up.

What do you like most about Portland?

Portland has everything I like and nothing that I hate. As an “Air Force Brat” and through work I have traveled to just about every locale and major city in the US. One day I was here on a business trip and said “Wow! Somebody bottled up the best of everything.” I do find it funny though how weather obsessed Portlanders are though; trust me when I say that the drizzle, rain, wind, snow, and heat extremes we have here are nothing when compared to other places–we have it very lucky.

What are you doing professionally?

I am trying to live up to my motto of “Ship high quality products on time that delight customers, win reviews, and bankrupt competitors while having fun, being ethical, and making money.” A little driven? Perhaps. I like to play to win while enjoying the journey and the rewards at the end of the day.

Who are you?

I don’t know, but I’m happy so that’s all that matters I suppose.

Connect

LinkedIn
Twitter
Mark Lawler
Google profile
SAO

Accomplished writer, artist, and Web developer

For eight years, he was an editor at the Hearst Corporation’s 1.6 million-circulation Country Living Magazine, where he wrote about topics ranging from home-building, architecture, and historic preservation to food, travel, and current events. His freelance work has included a great deal of science writing, making the research of Ph.D.’s accessible to a lay audience.

Matt is also a professional children’s book illustrator, and is active in the children’s literature and reading education communities. He and his sister, Jennifer, are the co-creators of the award-winning, critically acclaimed Babymouse graphic novels (published by Random House), of which there are more than a million copies currently in print. The latest volume in the series (the eleventh) is Babymouse: Dragonslayer. Matt and Jenni are also hard at work on a second graphic novel series for the elementary-age set, called Squish (due out in Spring 2011).

Matt also spends time working in the online world, as the Consulting Creative Director for Hot Knife Design, Inc., of Boston, Mass. At Hot Knife, Matt works as a business consultant and helps develop user interfaces. He also builds Web sites with CMS software such as ExpressionEngine. Matt acts as a copy writer and an information architect as needed, using his writing and editing skills to organize the structure and content of clients\’ Web sites in the most clear, logical, and approachable manner possible, and employing his considerable talents as an illustrator to craft wireframes and paper prototypes to aid in the design, testing, and building of Web sites.

For the past two years, Matt has been the Vice Chair of the Computer-Human Interaction Forum of Oregon (CHIFOO, the Oregon chapter of the Association of Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction), and a participant in and volunteer for both the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) and the User Experience Network (UXnet).

Matt moved to Portland from New York’s Hudson Valley in early 2007. He currently lives in Northeast Portland, with his wife and dog.

What are you up to?

I am currently working on three graphic novels simultaneously: Books 13 and 14 of the BABYMOUSE series, and Book 1 of the SQUISH series. BABYMOUSE has been an interesting challenge lately, because we are trying to redesign our work flow to eliminate redundancy and integrate new talent into some of the production steps. With SQUISH, we’re starting the series from ground zero, so there are an enormous amount of design details (character design, color, illustration style, page elements) that have to be worked out and spelled out. We’re also creating final art in Adobe Illustrator for the first time (versus Photoshop, which we use for Babymouse), so I’m contending with that application’s idiosyncrasies, too.

I also continue to expand the CHIFOO.org Web site, which has been my main initiative since joining CHIFOO’s Executive Council two years ago. We plan to include more guest contributors and hope to open up the site to comments and perhaps enable more social networking among our members in the near future.

What are you into?

When I’m not drawing mice or talking to educators or schoolchildren, I’m usually thinking about food. My wife (she runs the lab at Rex Hill Vineyards / A to Z Wineworks) and I are big foodies. A good Saturday would include a morning bike ride down to the Portland Farmers Market at PSU to get ingredients, followed by an afternoon of cooking. We also like the local restaurant scene. Current hit list: Belly, Biwa, Sel Gris, and Culinary Artistry’s “Commercial” dinners.

What do you like most about Portland?

I like that I can bike and walk anywhere, without getting hit by a truck. (Having lived in farm country, this advantage cannot be overrated.) I like the wide variety of good, affordable restaurants. And I like having vital, engaged local communities of colleagues in both the UX and Children’s Lit worlds.

Shouldn’t kids spend time reading “real books” instead of comic books and graphic novels?

No. The idea that some book formats and genres are “real literature” and some books are “junk” is and always has been nonsense. Graphic novels actually provide a great stepping-stone between picture books and chapter books, and can be incredibly complex works of art and literature.

Next time you hear someone tell a kids that they Must Read an Important Novel, remember what Thomas Jefferson said:

“A great obstacle to good education is the inordinate passion prevalent for NOVELS, and the time lost in that reading which should be instructively employed. When this poison infects the mind, it destroys its tone and revolts it against wholesome reading.”

It was not long ago that novels, which are now held up as the pinnacle of Good Literature, were considered trash. This past century, it’s been comics and graphic novels. Next, maybe it will be Twitter novels or something.

What do you dislike about the Portland food scene?

The farmers bring fantastic produce to market, but they need to work on getting more (and better) grass-fed beef. I still haven’t had anything to rival the grass-fed beef we used to get from our local farmers in the Hudson Valley.

Second, why are there no McIntosh apples in Oregon? It’s one of the most popular varieties in the country.

Finally, Portland baristas need to learn that it should take 30 seconds to serve a cup of coffee (or a latte, or whatever), not 12 minutes. Trust me. Spend a week working in New York City. There is no better teaching tool than a line of more than fifty angry, undercaffeinated Manhattanites.

Connect

Matthew Holm
Twitter
LinkedIn
Hot Knife Design
Babymouse

A Technical Outlier, just trying to fit in.

Bruce Christensen spends his days managing equipment manufacturing in McMinnville and his nights dreaming up internet parties for Facebook.

Bruce is an ordinary guy, with an extraordinary family who use parties to stay connected and support each other with gifts. This passion for parties lead the Christensen family to develop, test and launch the online white elephant gift exchange, called AlbinoPhant.

Bruce and his wife Sarah, a professional recreationalist, lead a team of developers from Portland to Silicon Valley to Pakistan who are building a network of online party activities that support life-events, like birthdays, weddings, births and holidays.

Bruce is a bit old-school when it comes to social media and feels that any application should find something of value to sell and then provide an entertaining way to share what is purchased. Bruce’s PartyWeDo network monetizes each party activity through gift sales and fun.

Bruce’s family includes five grown children and their spouses, who are scattered all across the US; along with 7 grand children.

What are you up to?

Besides the AlbinoPhant launch and developing the other PartyWeDo applications, I spend my time doing home improvements with Sarah, working on my custom cars and finding excuses to travel to see our grandchildren.

I spend most of the weekdays at the plant, encouraging our manufacturing employees to stay motivated even though construction equipment is not selling much in this economy.

I am active in our church, directing our young men programs, including the Scouting, Varsity and Venturing groups.

What are you into?

I love to think creatively and solve problems, so I have always leaned entrepreneurial. In addition to the launch of the party network, I am also assisting my oldest daughter to build her photography business. My youngest son is starting a heating and air conditioning business with my support. My youngest daughter has a fashion accessory business in New Hampshire, which she is doing all on her own (she was always independent!)

What do you like most about Portland?

The business pace is perfect; fast but not light-speed. The living is family-friendly for when the grand kids come to visit. There is plenty of helpful business support for the entrepreneurs in the crowd, and the weather is cooperative; most of the time.

How would you monetize a social network so that it can be sustainable?

We rely too much on advertisers to pay our way in this space. Instead, we should find items that people are willing to purchase, and then make a sale for a profit or a commission. There are so many great tools on the web that are valuable, and yet we are afraid to ask for a payment for many of them. The systems that will sustain must find things to sell, and then use the great tools of the net to enhance the buying experience. With sustainable revenues from selling something in hand, then the advertising revenues become the icing on the cake.

You are 55, why start now in the internet industry?

Last year I took a cement mixing trailer to BlogWorld in Vegas as a publicity stunt. It got some great exposure, so the promotion worked. However, I came away from the experience with such a respect and interest in social media and its people that I became hooked.

We had played our family gift exchange on the internet for the past 3-years, so I decided that I would join the social networking scene, and develop this product for others to enjoy on Facebook. There have been so many helpful people along the way that I can’t help but stay involved and give back, as I can. I am really a technical Outlier. But I am learning and I am getting up to speed in this space. I feel younger when my mind is wrapped around a good challenge.

Connect

My AlbinoPhant introductory blog
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Thought Follower, Sit-Down Comic, Mathematician and Linux Geek

M. Edward (Ed) Borasky is, in order of appearance, a boy genius, computer programmer, applied mathematician, folk singer, actor, professional graduate student, armchair astronaut, algorithmic composer, supercomputer programmer, performance engineer, Linux geek, solution in search of a problem and Social Media Analytics Researcher. His hobby is collecting hobbies.

Ed is a Thought Follower, Social Media Analytics Researcher, Sit-Down Comic, Former Boy Genius, Linux Capacity Planner, R Hacker, openSUSE Ambassador and Mathematician.

The origins of his handle, “znmeb”, are lost in the mists of time. Legend has it that the “meb” part is his initials, and the “z” and “n” are the initials of his two boyhood heroes, Zorro and Captain Nemo. However, this seems unlikely, since Captain Nemo was in fact the villain.

What are you up to?

I am up to no good in general. More specifically, though, I am working on two main projects. The first is research into performance metrics on open source operating systems, especially Linux, Xen, VirtualBox and KVM. The second is a social media analytics research toolkit called “SMART@znmeb”. SMART@znmeb is an appliance that features a complete Linux desktop, a database and a statistical and data visualization framework.

What are you into?

I’m into music of all kinds, especially classical, jazz and folk. I’m not exactly the rugged outdoors type, but I do enjoy hiking in Tryon Creek State Park. And of course I’m into applied mathematics, computers and open source software.

What do you like most about Portland?

Portland is my adopted home. What I like most about Portland is the confluence of reasonable weather, outstanding cultural activities and an open source software development environment. The people here are friendlier than anywhere else I’ve ever lived. And the food’s pretty good too, especially seafood, cheese, beer and wine.

What do you want to do next?

In addition to my current research in operating system performance metrics and social media analytics, I’m planning to get back into algorithmic composition. I’ve experimented with it on and off over the years, but never really sat down and created some of the music that I’ve wanted to create. A word of warning, though — the kind of music I create is unusual in many ways.

First of all, it’s entirely composed and performed by computers. There’s a certain amount of human guidance that goes into the algorithms, but most of the “creativity” comes from algorithms. There are no “conventional” musical instruments involved.

Second, the tonal systems used in my music are unconventional. They are microtonal — more than twelve tones in an octave — and xentonal — musical timbres that don’t exist in physical instruments. My main musical inspirations are Iannis Xenakis, David Cope, Harry Partch and William Sethares.

What’s your spiritual center?

A long time ago, someone asked me, “What do you stand in awe of?” My answer is, “The great works of Man, and the men and women who created them and continue to create them.” Beethoven, Rubens, Shostakovich, John Huston, Hildegarde von Bingen, Ella Fitzgerald, Emily Dickinson … the list is probably infinite, because I’m discovering new ones every day.

Connect

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Web site
SMART@znmeb
Linux Capacity Planning
Algocompsynth
Ruby perspectives
Borasky Research

Nerd. Mother. Wife. Bibliophile.

Caitlin is first and foremost a mother. For that reason, she is always trying to improve herself and be the best for her daughter. Due to making her college cluster Family studies, Caitlin is interested in how society constructs gender and is trying to find ways to teach her daughter to not let society define how she should act by her sex.

Caitlin loves personality tests, she is an ISFJ according to Myers-Briggs, Type 2: The Giver on the enneagram, and fully lives up to be a Cancer.

She finds it impossible to not be constantly reading something and loves to research the most random things. Her bedroom is filled with books and she has been banned several times from buying anymore, but the existence of Powell’s has made that impossible.

What are you up to?

I am currently working on finding a career and settling into my mid-20’s lifestyle of being a mom and wife.

What are you into?

As already stated, I love to read anything I can get my hands on (you can always find at least one book in my purse). I am addicted to watching TV series on DVD marathon style, especially if the show is made by Joss Whedon. Also I am into my family. I can’t get enough of my daughter and my husband is the best friend I could ask for. Plus we make regular visits to the grandparents.

What do you like most about Portland?

I love how it smells after the rain and how many places you can curl up with a good book. Powell’s makes me incredibly happy. But mostly, I find the city itself comforting because it has been my home my whole life.

Will you ever find a job field that you will actually stick with?

That is what I am trying to do right now!

What is your stance on religion?

I describe myself as an apatheist because I really don’t care how we came to be, where I go when I die, or if there is a higher power out there. I wasn’t raised in a religious/anti-religious household so when bad things happened I turned to my family and friends.

I believe (and this isn’t a one size fits all belief) that religion is there to help people deal with their fears, whether it be of death, the unknown, or whatever. I don’t fear death, and the unknown doesn’t bother me. All I need to get through the day knowing I would do anything for my friends and family and that would do the same for me. I have no control of what happens when I die and what does it matter to me how we came to be since we are here now, but I can make sure I live my life to the fullest.

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Wrestler of ideas

Dave Kresta loves to grab ideas, wrestle them to the ground, mix them with other ideas, and command them to submit, be fruitful, and multiply.

He has been doing this in the Portland software scene for over 20 years now.

Way back in 1988, Dave packed up the wagon at his parent’s mid-West home and moved to Or-e-gone. With a fresh B.S in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan he started writing code for Logic Automation. The primary language was C, and some new fangled language called C++ , along with object oriented programming. Dave remarks: “When I talk to tech guys today, I was using stone and chisel compared to software development today. Anyways, it was fun. I got to buy a new stereo and eat out lots.”

Dave decided to attend PSU in 1990 in the evenings and 4 years later got an MBA. (In the meantime, he got married to his lovely wife, Elaine, and had two kids). Why the insanity of an MBA? Says Dave: “I figured I didn’t want to stare at a computer screen all day for 30 years and write code, so I decided to learn something about business. So now I can stare at a computer screen all day and NOT write code.”

Since 1994 Dave has been involved in product management, product marketing, business planning, strategy development and just about everything required to make a software company successful (except write code). He has been fortunate to work for a number of great Portland companies including Synopsys (acquired Logic Automation), RadiSys, Mentor Graphics, BetterManagement.com (internet group within ABC Technologies, later acquired by SAS Institute), Clinicient, and Ontier. He dabbles in consulting with an entity called CollaborativEye.

What are you up to?

As of 9/1/2009, I am considering new opportunities. I’ve just come off a great stint at a very early stage local startup. But as we all know, funding in this economy is a real bear. I am doing some pro-bono work for The Natural Step, a great Portland-based non-profit active in the sustainability area. I am helping them establish and leverage Twitter and other Social Media avenues. The first step was a social media survey to identify objectives and tie social media to real business needs. I think there are a lot of small companies that need similar help. There are just too many “10 Ten Best ways to use Twitter for your business” articles out there – somebody starting or running a small or medium sized business or non-profit just doesn’t have time to separate fact from fiction. I think I can help.

What are you into?

1. Develop/clarify vision and strategy.
2. Create strategic alliances.
3. Develop and manage product roadmaps.
4. Develop clear, concise positioning documents.
5. Customer/market research and analysis (focus groups, interviews, persona development).
6. Define market requirements.
7. Bring focus and clarity to complex situations (e.g, complex market landscapes, product strategies, customer situations, etc).
8. Define and implement new processes.
9. Facilitate and focus virtual teams (draw out good ideas, guide teams, etc).
10. Provide guidance, mentoring to team members.
11. Identify strengths in others and help them figure out how to best use those strengths.
12. Write.
13. Develop clear, engaging presentations (with as few PowerPoint slides as possible!)

What do you like most about Portland?

Portland is the perfect sized city – not too big (like Seattle), and not too small (like Antelope). So you can get great food like Jake’s and pig out at VooDoo, and go to Powell’s, all without spending hours getting around. I also love the fact that I can get to the mountains and total isolation on a wilderness trail within 1 to 3 hours.

What have you learned after 20 years in the Portland software scene?

Good ideas are a dime a dozen. I’ve come up with lots, and so have people I’ve worked with. The key to success is to generate the ideas at the appropriate time, churn them, improve them, and then make something happen. Deliver something real. Your great idea probably won’t survive the grind of reality anyways. Some people are afraid to deliver a product to customers because it isn’t quite yet ready. This can paralyze a company and cause it to miss out on some very valuable real world feedback, or worse, totally miss out on a market window. Some people call this “Agile”, I just call it “Smart.”

But this isn’t an excuse for sloppy requirements. You still need to spend time understanding what your customers pains are and what they need to accomplish with your product. Most people don’t spend enough time on this – they go right to the solution, confusing specifications for requirements (BIG difference!) Also, this process should never end – your customers’ needs are always changing, and so should your offerings.

What do you like to do when you are not starting at a computer not writing code?

One of my passions is backpacking. We have a lot of great wilderness areas within several hours of Portland. One of my favorites is the Goat Rocks Wilderness in Washington. If you’ve never heard of it, that’s why I like it. Another of my favorites is Mt. Adams. Of course Mt. Hood is beautiful, but it can be a bit more crowded (definition: if you see somebody else on your hike, it is crowded.)

Connect

My Neglected Blog
Twitter: @davekresta
My profile
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Facebook

Hacker of random things

Steven Osborn is a seasoned engineer with a passion for software development. He tends to program at work, in his spare time and sometimes in his sleep. Steven has a number of years of experience developing web and mobile applications.

What are you up to?

I just recently joined Sourceforge after my three years at Vidoop. I also hack on various open source projects and attend random user’s group meetings.

What are you into?

Programming languages, gadgets, technology. Most recently I’m especially passionate about Python, Django and iPhone development.

What do you like most about Portland?

I love the strong technical community and Open Source roots in Portland. Being from the mid-west also I appreciate the mild weather.

What do you regret most?

Not taking enough chances earlier in life. Failure is part of life and a necessary growing process. In fact you tend to learn more from your failures than your successes. So the only true failure is not chasing opportunities.

Who is your hero?

My wife. She makes everything happen and she always knows where everything is. She is very patient and very understanding.

Some people say that having a family can be a big hindrance on your professional career, but I really feel my wife’s encouragement and unwavering support has been an amazing catalyst in my life.

Connect

Twitter: @steve918
Steven Osborn on LinkedIn

Actress

Audrey Walker was born on June 23rd 1975 in Forest Grove, Oregon. She grew up in the neighborhood of Aloha, Oregon with one younger brother. She attended St. Cecilia Elementary School where she developed her love of acting through her 8th grade teacher. She later went on to graduate from Central Catholic High School in Portland,Oregon.

It wasn’t until the year 2004 that she took her first acting class. She went on her first audition a month into class and landed the role. Since then she has been steadily working as an actress in numerous films as well as television commercials.

She has trained with casting director turned acting coach Laurel Smith, a former student of Sanford Meisner. This is where Audrey developed her Meisner training.

She has also trained with Seth Yanklewitz of Juel Bestrop Casting.

What are you up to?

I just completed shooting a commercial spot for Nintendo.

Currently I am in preproduction on a film titled “Crackin’ the Code” written by local filmmaker Steve Coker.  You check out the website.

What are you into?

In general I’m into being the best person I can to the world. I’m also into sunshine.  Something we don’t see enough of here. I’m into quality time with the family and working on film sets.  I’m into smiling and helping people enjoy life and realize they really can do anything if they want it bad enough.  

I’m also into VooDoo doughnuts.  Mmmm.

What do you like most about Portland?

I really love how green it is.  I love how Portland is about an hour from the beach, about an hour from the mountains, and about an hour…okay maybe a bit more from the dessert.  Incredible.  

There is just so much to see and do here from Pittock Mansion, the OHSU Tram, Trolleys, the Gardens, the Zoo, MAX….

I also love the architecture downtown.  Especially by Skidmore Fountain.  I really think that is a highly underrated area.  The architectural detail is amazing in that area.

Oh…and I love how the majority of the people are nice and down to earth.

I do believe we have the BEST film crew around.

Wow an actress?  That must be really glamorous.

Actually it’s not.  It’s really hard work.  It’s hard to put yourself out there and let people see the many sides to you and not feel embarrassed by it.  It’s pulling out part of your private world and making it public.  Not a lot of people are comfortable with that.  Especially when you have 20-30 people standing around staring at you.  Bright lights shining on you and a camera stuck in front of your face.  It’s quite intimidating.  Yet for me, it’s perfect, I never feel more at home than I do on set.  I love helping bring a story to life and giving people a character they can connect to.  I love taking the audience on a journey.

Is it true that you’re clumsy?

It took me a while but I embrace my clumsiness.  Not a lot of people are brave enough to just embrace it, but there comes a time when you just have to let go and realize it is what it is.  If you know me….you know my intentions are always good and you can enjoy a good laugh with me.

If something is in front of me I will inevitably knock it over.  Doesn’t matter if it’s a person or an object.  If I’m carrying something I will inevitably drop it at one point or another.  If it is a person I will bump you or elbow you…just ask Diane Lane, I bumped her in the eye.  Yup.  That couldn’t have been more “me”.  We did enjoy a good hearted laugh over it though.

What can I say…I dare you to find someone who is clumsier.

Connect

MySpace

Marketer, tech teacher, suit-wearing treehugger

Nick Bostic is the Director of Marketing and Technology for Chicago Title Insurance Company of Oregon. During the day, he helps area REALTORS® and mortgage professionals to expand their knowledge of computer usage, blogging, social networking and other online marketing techniques. Nick is also known to help troubleshoot a technical problem on a moment’s notice for an extensive list of software applications. He has recently begun to tap into the local tech industry in an effort to bring local software solutions to real estate professionals. Between teaching frequent classes, one-on-one coaching sessions and helping with real estate technology problems, Nick is constantly researching new products and services to help REALTORS® market themselves and their listings while emphasizing “green” options.

Outside of his day job, Nick plays the tenor saxophone, keeps in contact with his national real estate colleagues via Twitter (@nbostic), is learning to stilt walk and is nothing like the suit and tie he wears all day. He went to college at the University of Oregon and studied finance, marketing, management and computer information technology. He was a very active SCUBA instructor, but is now a less than active diver. Much of his free time is spent in Eugene where most of his friends still currently reside.

Nick lives in Beaverton, very close to where he has lived his entire life. After reading countless books on the topic, Nick has realized his is the stereotype of Generation Y despite fighting stereotypes all his life.

Nick is always on the lookout for new ideas and ways to use them. He is always looking to make difficult technology concepts easy for the general public.

What are you up to?

I’m just trying to cram my brain with as much information as possible on a daily basis so I can figure out what it is I’m supposed to be doing. I’m really focusing on achieving a work/life balance lately. It’s been difficult, but I’m realizing early on that it’s important to my sanity.

What are you into?

I’m really diving head first into all of the social networking and blogging that is slowly creeping into the real estate industry. I’m spending way too much time on my computer, but have set reasonably strict rules about when it gets turned off so I can focus on the fun things like home improvement projects, watching movies and getting started on my new stiltwalking hobby.

What do you like most about Portland?

The biggest thing about Portland for me is my familiarity with it. I grew up here, I’ve spent almost all of my life here. Even growing up in the suburbs, my parents took me into downtown all the time so I’m familiar with most of the neighborhoods, restaurants and shops. Something new is always sprouting up though, so it’s fun to see what’s new. My favorite part though is Forest Park. It’s the largest natural urban forest in the US and I love driving through it on my way back from downtown. Being able to drive through a beautiful forest after a stressful day keeps me here.

Where do you see your career in 10 years?

I would like to see my career take more of an educational role. I would like to help people across a wide variety of industries, including real estate, to take advantage of the growing online social tools available to them. I enjoy public speaking and the questions that come out of my classes. I try to focus on making topics understandable to everyone and make myself available to those who need more help afterwards.

I would also like to help older HR and marketing professionals to better understand how to acquire and retain Generation Y employees. I am amazed at the adversarial mentality of many people I come in contact on both sides of the generation gap. I think people should try to learn as much as possible from one another and I hope to facilitate that learning process.

Something of a Social Networking Consultant/Generation Y translator/Corporate Technology Trainer.

You said you are working on adjusting your work/life balance. How do you see
that balance changing?

I see my focus being on a way to make my work part of my life. Due to a recent family illness I am having one of those re-evaluate my life periods and I’m realizing that the time spent with friends and family is what truly defines us as people, not the careers we hold.  I hope to someday figure out a way to do something I enjoy that helps other peoples and still allows me to live the lifestyle I want – being able to pay bills, travel to do some SCUBA diving, go camping with friends and spend lots of time with close friends and family.  A great friend of mine has it right when he says on his voicemail “Have a grateful day”.

Connect

Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook

Photographer, programmer, reluctant extrovert and messer-up of things

Inger Klekacz was raised by two race car drivers who are also a poet (in the case of her mother) and a restaurateur/snow plow driver/logger (in the case of her father).

That statement, while it initially reads like the treatment for a Wes Anderson movie, is absolutely the truth. And it speaks volumes about the philosophy by which she lives – whatever it is, if it interests you, try it. Said philosophy has resulted in an accidental career in web programming, a vocation in photography, and a long list of hobbies and passions – chiefly: music, massage therapy, chicken husbandry, stained glass work, emergency response, and, yeah, sometimes even racing.

Inger has lived most of her life in Portland.  After taking an 8-year hiatus from photography in her early 20s, she became one of the founding volunteers at Portland’s Newspace Center for Photography, and later joined the team at Blue Moon Camera & Machine to bring photography back to the Everyman. She currently writes web applications for a market research company in southwest Portland by day; at night, you can usually find her out photographing live acts at various bars.

Inger is 32 and three quarters years old. She owns a 1914 money pit in North Portland – the money pit in which she, in fact, grew up.

What are you up to?

By day, I’m a mild-mannered web programmer. I write web applications with ColdFusion, PHP, various SQL flavors and some CSS/Javascript/AJAX stuff. That was a complete accident. I was a photography/film major with a minor in journalism before I dropped out. I randomly took a tech support job at Teleport, where I taught myself HTML to keep myself awake on the graveyard shift. Somehow I ended up learning Perl and PHP, then database stuff. It’s all a blur. I’m an English nerd. I don’t know what I’m doing in programming. But it’s a good job with a lot of creative potential, and I love the people I work with. That goes a long way.

By night, I’m a rock photographer. That was kind of an accident, too. I’m a portraitist by nature, because while I am essentially shy, I just love people so much, and I love celebrating the good that I see in them. And then I saw this band play a few months ago, and they put on a helluva show, and I was like, “I have GOT to shoot these guys doing their thing!” I had a good time shooting them, kept doing it, started shooting other bands that I like to listen to…yadda yadda yadda, before you know it, I’m shooting four nights a week and spending the rest of my nights processing images and catching up on my quite unglamorous home repair.

What are you into?

Just about everything I can get my hands on. My life in general is the result of me saying, “I wonder if I could do that…” where “that” is, you know, something random and different from the stuff I’m already doing. Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time planning some events for the Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET) in close-in North Portland. NET is a group of roughly 2000 volunteers across Portland who are trained in search and rescue, first aid, triage, and fire suppression, in addition to other emergency response stuff. The idea is that when a catastrophe (e.g., an earthquake) hits Portland and overwhelms our paid responders, citizens will naturally want to help each other. The training, and the team coordination, helps ensure that we don’t injure ourselves in the process of being good people.

I’ve also taken music up again. I played a lot of instruments as a youngster, and quit when I went to a high school that had a really crappy band program. I just recently have started to learn bass guitar – my first stringed instrument – and my friend has insisted that I bombard his band with my bad bass sound. Yes, that’s “bad bass,” not “bad ass.” Again, this is a result of “I wonder if I could do that….” As it turns out, I can. Despite my tiny hobbit hands. I don’t know where it’s going, and I’m really not any good yet, but it gives me joy, and that’s enough for me.

What do you like most about Portland?

That’s like asking me what my favorite ice cream flavor is. I don’t even know where to start on this. Okay, here: I love our civic pride. A friend of a friend, who lives in Seattle, remarked recently that he always marveled at how many of us down here are flag-waving Portlanders – you know, people who get all teary-eyed and gushy about how pretty our city is, how nice people are, etc.

I think that when you are grateful to live in a place, you take care of it, and this place becomes more than a geographical location where we eat, sleep, work, and merely exist – it becomes a nurtured, sacred spot, and a community blossoms out of our shared grace and love for a space. That’s not common, and it is something that we should hold up high to the world and say, “look at us, we actively love our town, and here is the result, and here is how you can love your town.”

Portlander is an incubator for a lot of talent. I love its receptivity. You’re like, “Hey, I want to do this thing,” and all of a sudden, there are 20 people who say, “wow, that’s cool, let’s do it Thursday nights, I know a guy who’ll host it for us.” That’s not to say that every fledgling project always works out – but I’ve found that there’s a feeling of exploration here, a willingness to Give It A Shot that you wouldn’t get in a city like San Francisco or Chicago. People here are still soft. In general, they choose not to pull that “Um, that’s not cool enough for me” crap that you find in harder places.

Your MySpace profile lists your occupation as “seer.” What’s that about?

I make portraits. The art of a good portrait is that you have to see something in a person that they thought nobody else could see in them. I love distilling the essence of a person via a photograph. So I guess that’s why I chose “seer” as an occupation. I can hold a camera up and shoot a thousand frames on the street randomly, and that makes me a photographer. But to make a portrait of another living being, you have to really be able to look into them and acknowledge and celebrate what it is that distinguishes them from the dude next to them. You see the person for who they are, and you don’t look away, for better or for worse. It can be very intimate. I am at my most vulnerable when I make a portrait, and often, so is my subject.

That freaks out some of my subjects. Sometimes they’re not ready to be looked at that intently. Maybe because they think I’m not going to find something good. Or they’re afraid of what I’m going to show them. But I photograph with loving intent, and it shows.

“Messer-up of things?”

Yes. Unabashedly. I was out shooting a show the other night and a friend asked me a question that I get asked a lot – “How do you…do…so much?” And I gave the answer I always give – I give myself permission to mess up. I know a lot of folks who are tethered to this idea of perfection out of the gate, this myopic fantasy of savant talent. For example, how many people say they love photography but hardly ever make photographs? At least 80% of those folks are suffering from Final Cut-itis – they are inundated with these images of perfection, with the perfect lighting and the ring-light reflection in a model’s eyes and the Fisheye Lens Puppy Nose Shot (TM), and they think to themselves, “I could never do that.” But if you’re ever going to do anything with your life, you have to remember that we’re only seeing people’s final cuts. I’ve seen some of Robert Frank’s contact sheets, and he shot some clunkers in addition to the works of genius.  They’re not all “The Americans.” And I bet the Beatles wrote some really terrible, unpublished songs when they weren’t writing “Blackbird.”

You have to be gentle enough with yourself to acknowledge that nobody  bats a thousand, and that you won’t either. But you gotta at least swing. Stop taking yourself so seriously. Life is messy, and so are you. And so am I. Get out there. Make some Crap. And then get better and make some Not Crap.

Connect

Website, Flickr, MySpace

Flute/Whistle/Shakuhachi player/singer of Celtic and Japanese music

Irish flute player Hanz Araki is the quintessential world music musician. He has performed around the world with the Juno Award-winning Paperboys, The Bridies, Casey Neill and an all-star tribute to The Pogues called “K.M.R.I.A.” He has played with the Seattle Symphony, the University of Washington Wind Ensemble and is featured on more than a dozen recordings and soundtracks, from feature films and documentaries to popular video games.

While his love is Irish music, his deep roots are in the shakuhachi, the traditional bamboo “Zen flute” of Japan. Hanz (short for Hanzaburo) is the world’s only sixth generation shakuhachi player, following in the footsteps of his father, Kinko Ryu Grand Master Kodo Araki V. With no prior musical training, Hanz took up the shakuhachi at age 17. Under his father’s tutelage, four months later he made his concert debut in Shimoneski, Japan.He went on to teach shakuhachi at Keio University for two years before moving back to his hometown of Seattle in 1991.

There, his American mother’s Gaelic roots came into play, and he began teaching himself Irish and Scottish tunes on the flute and whistle, inspired by the many excellent pipers and fiddlers in Seattle. His ability on the flute and his uncanny command of traditional songs with his voice quickly made him a fixture of the Irish music scene in America.

In 2004, Hanz released a solo album of traditional Scottish and Irish music with a fresh new slant, “Six of One, Five of the Other.” It has been favorably received by fans and Irish music aficionados and earned him liveireland.com’s Best Newcomer of the Year and KLCC’s “Best Music of 2004″ list. His newest release, “Little Fires” is a bold mix of traditional Celtic and modern music.

Hanz now lives in SW Portland.

What are you up to?

Playing and recording music, traveling and doing all the miserable, horrid, soul-destroying grunt-work that goes along with making those things happen.

What are you into?

Music (mostly playing/learning — I tend to like quiet in my home life), movies (watching — although lately I’ve been scoring for documentary films and really enjoying it), and eating delicious sandwiches.

What do you like most about Portland?

The music scene here is incredible. But what do I like most? People actually do things here (like you say, “Let’s go grab lunch sometime,” and they say, “Sure!” And then it actually happens). Also, the aforementioned delicious sandwiches. Well, the food in general. And the slightly more progressive politics.

Six generations of classical Japanese shakuhachi music lead to…traditional Irish music?

It’s not as far a leap as you might think. Traditional songs and tunes all share some commonality which is what I love about them. It just so happened I was wired to those two regions. It may just as easily been India and Peru, as Ireland and Japan.

You mention sandwiches prominently. What are your top-5 Portland sandwiches?

1) Side Door — The Stark Dip
2) Russell St. Barbecue — Pulled Pork Sandwich
3) Bar Carlo — The Fried Egg Sandwich
4) The Original Hotcake and Steakhouse — BLT (with a fried egg)
5) Hoda’s — Beef Shawarma

Connect

Website, MySpace, Facebook

Writer, founder of parenthacks.com, well-intentioned but ill-equipped homemaker

Asha Dornfest is the mother of two remarkable kids, the wife of an extremely smart man, the founder of what has become an amazing online parenting community, the author of several books about various tech topics, and a woman who’s always asking questions.

Professionally, the main event is Parent Hacks, a web site that started as a curious musing (”Wouldn’t it be cool to collect parents’ best bits of hard-earned wisdom and clever tricks and put them all together for everyone to share?”) and has turned into a business. Sort of MacGyver-meets-childrearing. Asha has always loved the role of community guide, and Parent Hacks lets her participate in an ongoing conversation about parenting with thousands of smart, imaginative people around the world.

But family life is the actual main event — the ongoing adventure of raising kids is continually throwing surprise twists in the road. It’s an amazing journey.

What are you up to?

Right now I’m trying to get a handle on the juggle. Work-family balance may be a cliche, but it’s a real trick to pull off with grace, especially because it’s REALLY work-family-home-friends-spouse-community-self balance. I find myself reading a lot of “life hacks,” personal organization stuff looking for the secret of simplifying my life. Time to stop reading and start doing.

What are you into?

I’m into being outside. The emergence of Spring in Portland never fails to thrill me. I was up on Mt. Hood skiing not long ago and was literally breathless from the beauty. I’m into reconnecting with the things I’ve let fall by the wayside while I’ve been too busy with busy-ness: the outdoors, time with friends and extended family, time having fun with my husband and my kids, time alone.

What do you like most about Portland?

The friendliness, the accessibility, the green.

Are you ever going to have a real job?

I left the traditional workplace in 1995 when I wrote my first book, and I’ve never been back. In large part that has to do with having children, but it also has to do with the Internet, and how one can now make a living from writing that’s independent of the publishing industry.

I miss the camaraderie of the workplace (have for years) but as my kids get older I am hoping to build more “face time” into my online life. That generally involves travel (I think? Maybe not if Raven’s work in the Portland community is any indication!)…which is tricky right now while my kids are young.

Work-family balance, huh? So have you learned ANYTHING?

Um. Perhaps you can ask me again in a few months.

I’m approaching 40, so maybe my life is coming into greater focus now, who knows. But I am beginning to see that frittering one’s days away with busywork is a huge waste of one’s essence. I think it’s reasonable (and not too new-age-y) to say that we all need to take some time to figure out what gives our life meaning and to DO those things…not just PLAN to do those things.

So first, identify the shiny, lovely goal — what you want to do/accomplish/be in all the free space you’re about to create.

Next, get rid of the clutter in one’s life (mental clutter especially). The trick is to not get mired in the backlog — spend a limited amount of time there per week.

Automate the stuff that shouldn’t require much brainwork (bills, laundry, housekeeping, etc.).

Finally, live your life (the one you imagined in Step 1). Reality will be a lot messier than your shiny fantasy, but that’s what it’s all about. There’s no way to find those hidden paths unless you stumble upon them by accident (or get pushed there).

Connect

Parent Hacks

Code smashing, retro-gaming, Internet loving dude

Matt was born and raised here in Portland. His geeky side came out in early childhood, being hooked on not only the NES, but also his TI 99/4A computer and eventually getting addicted to local BBS’s. After graduating high school in 1996, he started in the tech industry building computers for small businesses. He taught himself just about everything, starting at computer hardware, then to networking, then finally to Internet technologies. Matt has had stints starting an ISP, working as a developer at Darkhorse Comics, and even running his own Web Development shop with Justin Kistner for a few years. He currently works for Instrument Marketing as lead Interactive Developer for projects with clients like W+K, Burton, Nike and Starbucks.

What are you up to?

My latest obsession has been building web sites that are location-centric. I’ve built both Unthirsty.com and Knitmap.com, which allow you to search for Happy Hours and Yarn Shops using Google Maps, and also have a couple more similar sites in the works. I’ve also created TwitterWhere, a Twitter aggregator that allows users to generate feeds based on location, and the iPhone Trimet Tracker, which allows you to check when your bus is going to arrive at your stop. I’m also working on a non-location-centric project with Instrument that I’m very excited about, but can’t talk about quite yet. All I can say is I think a lot of other people will be excited as well.

What are you into?

Of course the Internet comes first. I love creating web sites and web-based tools. I like figuring out how to stretch the limits of what we can do with the technology we have available. I’m also a big Retro-gaming fan. I love the NES, and even have a site dedicated to it. Retro arcade games are awesome too.

What do you like most about Portland?

It’s a fairly big city but still feels small. The craft and art scene. Cheap movie theatres that serve beer and pizza. Last Thursday. Coffee shops. Tons of happy hours. Almost anywhere has wifi. The fact that our mass-transit system has an API. Portland is a geek’s paradise.

What motivates you to keep working in this industry?

We are living during the most amazing time in human history. The technology we are using and creating is nothing short of a miracle, and I feel privileged to be a part of it. While I do like working on fun projects, I do have aspirations to use technology to help make life better for everyone, not just the people who can afford to buy a computer.

What’s with this bacon thing?

Somewhere along the way I picked up an obsession with bacon. You may hear me mention bacon several times just in one conversation. Just nod and smile.

Connect

Website, Unthirsty, Knitmap, TwitterWhere, iPhone Trimet Tracker

Undecided speed-reader who loves basalmic vinegar hummus

April is approaching 30 and realizing that she will never be a card-carrying Adult, although sporadically she tries on that costume for laughs. The oldest of two girls raised in a perfectly normal rural family, after high school she escaped the banality of Idaho and traded it in for the banality of the Midwest.

Luckily, she found her future husband (Keith) there so it wasn’t a wash. A few months after meeting they were living together, getting tattoos together, and sneaking around behind their co-workers’ backs. Realizing they  were really more suited for the western US, they drove a little pickup half-cross-country to Missoula, MT which was a fine-sized town with very likable people and quick access to the wilderness.

Five years and Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Studies later, she and Keith decided to downsize and head for Mexico with their pit bull Lazlo. Within the first week they abandoned their heavily-prepared plan to make it to Chichen Itza for the vernal equinox and ended up blindly traveling down the western coast for 7 weeks, camping and staying in small villages along the way. They met amazing people and had several truly amazing experiences.

They made it back to Idaho without divorcing each other or getting shot by roadside MPs, so they declared their trip a success. She doesn’t like to think too hard on the period that followed their return. Let’s just say it was dark and gloomy and a little rancid, but again–she survived, perhaps a little smarter on the other side.  Deciding a change of pace would do them some good, April convinced Keith and Lazlo to move to Portland for undetermined “city opportunities.”

That’s working out fine and although it’s really only a stop-over in her life, that doesn’t mean it’s not time well-spent—especially since she found a great psychiatrist. In the fall of 2006, April saw a photo on BlogtownPDX of a little black and white pit bull mix, a Hurricane Katrina survivor, up for adoption. She dreamed of that dog and tricked her husband into going to the shelter “just to look.”  And that’s how Mrs. Mia Wallace, a pit-dalmatian mix as far as they can tell, joined the family.  They live in a small apartment on W. Burnside, which they equally love and hate at times.

What are you up to?

I am researching (and dreaming about) what it will take to start a commune. And I mean “commune” in the loosest sense of the word. Basically, what will it take to live in the most sustainable way possible in a place where we can spend the most time together, our dogs can be outside all day, and we have to sweat to make food and art?  If the best way is by joining like-minded people on a discrete piece of land, well, that will technically be a commune. Plans for an A-frame cabin made from reclaimed materials, outside bathtubs, and a pit bull obstacle course will be incorporated. Also, I’m searching for a Theory of Everything. Without a background in physics and with only rudimentary math skills, I honestly don’t expect to be the next Stephen Hawking, but some of my ideas have been confirmed by the books on the subject so that gives me hope. I am learning more about subjective reality and trying to live in the moment as much as possible.

What are you into?

I’m into taking photos of classic cars, especially ones with rust or other character flaws. I also like shiny chrome, though. Actually, I take photos of all kinds of things.

I’m into being a pit bull advocate. I knew nothing about pit bulls before we got Lazlo, but we were won over immediately. There was a learning curve, but he and Mia have made us better people.

I’m into watching other people and imagining that I live their life. It’s amazing that we all have a different reality yet we all have to interact on this shared illusion.

I’m into psychedelics. Seriously. There’s a lot of new research being done on the effects and possible therapeutic uses of psychedelics, especially for people facing death. Our brains, just being advanced processors, have learned to disassociate so much of what is really available to us. Psychedelics have been and are currently used around the globe to help people have intense spiritual experiences. Not in the religion, me vs.you, way but in a cosmic, universal way. Tell me the planet doesn’t need more of that right now.

I’m into trying to be an authentic person. It’s hard.

What do you like most about Portland?

Portland is a great place to blend in. I’m reminded of that every time I’m back in my hometown and people are staring at me and/or my tattoos. I like that you can choose the level of interaction here, there’s not someone up in your business all of the time. Also, I like that I don’t have to drive. Bank, groceries, concerts, restaurants, shopping—all within walking distance. I do wish there were more places to ride my bike without having to deal with traffic.

What are you going to do with your life?

Do I really have to answer that?  I’m working on it. I thought I was going to go back to school and get a Master’s in Psychiatric Nursing, but OHSU thought otherwise. I took the rejection as a sign that I’m just not a hard sciences kind of girl. So my options are open. What I want: fresh air, hikes, silence, hard physical work, time to make art, the love of my family and friends. What I don’t want: to sit in a cubicle, to struggle against hordes of traffic/people, to be part of Consuming America. See: commune. Honestly, I’d also like to get into research. I’m addicted to information, so if I can incorporate the internet into a real job  I would be happy as a clam.

Are you sure you don’t want children?

Well, it’s no fun to second-guess yourself all your life, so I have to say: Yes, pretty sure. I’ve heard all the arguments for it and have yet to hear one that tips the scales in favor of reproducing. I don’t mind being perceived as selfish or uncaring—I am selfish but my husband and dogs can vouch for the caring part. Basically, I only have so much time and energy and I prefer to spend it how I want to. Also, I like to sleep in.

Connect

LinkedIn, Portfolio, Flickr, Blog

Search Engine Marketing Now, Sports Marketing Past

Mike Rosenberg currently holds the executive position of Vice President of Client Acquisition at EngineWorks, Inc., Mike is responsible for overseeing all revenue initiatives from new and existing clients. Mike brings the extensive selling skills and media agency experience necessary to continue adding new online companies to our current list of valued clients.

Prior to joining EngineWorks, Mike was in the wonderful world of Sports Marketing. Most recently as Vice President of Sales and Client Services for Global Events Group, an events marketing company located in Portland that produces several of the Northwest’s largest events, including the Mazda Champ Car Grand Prix.

Before joining Global Events Group, Mike founded and managed Rosenberg Marketing, LLC, a sales and marketing agency servicing regional clients such as the Portland Marathon, FIRST Robotics Competition, and American Le Mans. In addition, Mike was also the Managing Director of the immensely successful 2005 U.S. Figure Skating Championships and Marketing Director at the Oregon Sports Authority.

Mike is an active Board Member of the Police Activities League of Greater Portland (PAL) and servers as President of the PAL Development Board. He was honored in 2005 as a recipient of the Portland Business Journal’s prestigious Forty Under 40.

A Portland, Oregon native, Mike graduated from the University of Oregon, earning a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration through the Lundquist College of Business. He currently resides in the Eastmoreland neighborhood of SE Portland with his wife Amy, young son Benjamin and Lola the family dog.

What are you up to?

I am really enjoying learning everything I can about an ever-evolving Search Engine Marketing industry and sharing that knowledge and EngineWorks’ know-how with clients and other partners.

Most importantly I’m being a father, my son just turned one-year-old in March (our first). He does something new and amazing every day. Also TRYING to find time to catch a few March Madness games with an eye on my bracket!

What are you into?

Besides trying to be the best father I can and helping my company grow…

I’m a life-long huge sports fan so I try and catch as many games as I can (no more Ducks basketball for a while). I also love good food, whether that means preparing it myself for family and friends or finding a new great restaurants (preferably in new cities we travel to).

What do you like most about Portland?

Portland has all the natural resources I love…an hour to the beach, an hour to the mountain. I also have great friends and family here. Our restaurants (and beer of course) are top-notch and lots of parks for kids and dogs! It is big enough that we have most of everything, but small enough that I run into people I know all the time.

Why should I consider EngineWorks for Search Engine Marketing?

We immerse ourselves in your business and become a part of your marketing team. Proven. Personal. Professional. You will always know what we are doing, why we are doing it and what the next step is.

What do you always look for in a new city you visit?

The best falafel. Started during a trip to Europe when I found the ultimate falafel…out of the way Jewish neighborhood in Paris (Lenny Kravitz fav too), found it during stop two in Paris, had to make a special trip back before I flew home. Now when I go to new cities I try and find the best in town…none have really ever come close.

Connect

Website, Blog, LinkedIn

Painter, installationist, sculptor, gallery owner/curator, writer, project organizer, consultant

Jeremy Tucker was born in Southern California, and as a small child he lived in Germany for four years. After traveling the U.S. his family settled in North Texas where he went to school to study fine arts and psychology. Jeremy’s main focus was painting and sculpture, after four years he switched to animation for two years, then back to painting. He had attained several awards for painting, drawing, and animation while attending college which fueled his ambition as an artists to look at art as a depth of the conscious construct, and to approach not only his own art this way, but also to search out other artists within this doctrine.

During the last year of college in 1997 Jeremy began having shows outside of the college exhibitions in Dallas. The gallery shows had not only inspired the exhibitionist in him, but also ideas of curating as an art form. When he moved to Portland Oregon in 2001 Jeremy settled in and set up his studio, and started scouting the art scene. Jeremy had found found a great gallerist, for whom he had acquired a deep respect for both process and presentation. In 2004 he began working for his gallery, the Mark Woolley Gallery. Jeremy had asked Mark to take him on as a student, and he began to instruct Jeremy in the ways of gallery operations. By mid-2005 Jeremy began his own gallery, the Rake Art Gallery, and now along with producing his own art, and work for the Mark Woolley gallery he also run the Rake Art Gallery.

One important aspect of being an artist in Portland is to remember the community to which one belongs. Rake as well as Mark Woolley strive to involve our selves and our artists in giving back to the community through art donations for health and service based organizations such as Cascade Aids Project, project Quest, Brain surgery of Oregon and others.

What are you up to?

I am constantly constructing shows, placing artists in restaurants around town, and evolving the ideas of how a gallery participates in its community. Currently one of the projects we have is the Academy project, where we have three to four students from and arts academy come to the gallery every Saturday for the winter spring semester, and we take them to meet professional artists that they then interview on concept, process, and materials. We help them develop a conceptual body of work, to construct an artist statement based on this work and then run them through the process of having a show for two weeks at the end of their semester with us.

We are also currently setting up both adult and student art classes at our facility.

What are you into?

I am into the development of the consciousness for higher possibilities to social change. Im into sight, sound, smell, taste as the conduits to unlocking the doors of the deeper self. I’m into the emotions of existence, to the experience of life, and the documentation of this transitory state.

What do you like most about Portland?

What I like most about Portland is that if you are not afraid to work hard for your dream, opportunities to for those dreams realization make themselves apparent. This city offers something unique in its energy, its people and its desire not to be rushed. What do I like about Portland, I would have to say it is that I have fallen in love with life,  the pace is fast but it also gives you time to slow down with out losing touch.

What does the future hold?

I am not sure what the future holds, but I know that with every change there is but another opportunity to grow. It is with great optimism that these experience have guided my life and its direction is that of never failing. How does one maintain this ideology, well through strength of being. Maybe its the Apache blood, or the Polish that courses through my veins.

What is art?

I am sure that art is the language we use when words are not enough, they are signs, symbols, and markers that tell of experience, ponder, question, and express the mind, heart and soul. Art can help us transcend, or rebel, understand, or stand in absolute confusion. Art can touch a soul or repulse every fiber of your being. Art can put you in touch with Angels or awaken demons. It can be profound or simply mundane. Art is..what it is… a recording and a transmission of a perception.

Connect

Website, MySpace

Humble superhero, deep lover, shallow puddle stomper and hopeless romantic

Billie was an odd child. Always got good grades, but was observed in a semi- state of daydreams and fantasies most of the time. She grew up in a wild place, nestled in a wooded valley in the rocky mountains of Montana.

She was raised without running water or electricity and spent more time on horseback than in a car (or anywhere else). Long days of Huckelberry Fin inspired adventures, camping trips to waterfalls with her dog and tree climbing were among her favorite things to do. She aspired to one day become a cowboy/carpenter, so she spent many hours honing her shooting skills and building tree forts. She was an exceptional hunter and could shoot and skin a deer by the age of 9. She developed very keen tracking skills and spent many days in the forest, watching and observing its inhabitants. She felt most at home in the silent forest.

Then, one day she moved to Alaska with her mom and brother and became a commercial fisherman. She threw nets, learned how to tie knots and arm wrestled her way around the docks. She got her first pair of sealegs and aspired to become a “salty dawg”. She loved the sea, but yearned for a tropical climate and a life on the beach.

She moved to Kauai and lived on the beaches and in the jungles for 5 years. She learned how to surf, farm, survive in the remote jungle, make a living by creating art and jewelry and most importantly…she learned how to live freely. This was the beginning of her spiritual awakening, and she found herself in perpetual awe and respect for the beauty of the ina (land). She fell deeper in love with Kauai, year after year.

She eventually became a house-dwelling mammal and transitioned from her gypsy state into a more “on-the-grid” existence. She started several businesses and worked interesting, and odd jobs. She had a good life. But, one day she awoke with an intense thirst for the big city.

So, she packed up and moved to New York City. She did rooftop gardens for the year she was there. In New York she discovered that adventure and freedom can exist, even within an urban construct. She befrended many interesting people and held conversation with the homeless as well as the professional. She will always practice true compassion and have an unwavering curiosity about the human drama.

She waved goodbye to New York and moved to Oregon, where she lived in a beautifull palace at the base of Mt. Hood. she sat in meditation for 100 hours, in order to find the true meaning of suffering and discovered an equinimity to living life. She became a certified wildland firefighter, but met a boy and decided she was more interested in living than burning alive.

Then, she moved into Portland and has been living there since. She thinks it’s a great little town, and raves about its inhabitants. She feels at home there, and appreciates its strong sence of community and its permaculture values.

What are you up to?

About 5 foot 3…. (haha).

I manage a spa, it’s called Common Ground. Most people have heard of it, because it is well-known for its outside hot tubs. It is an interesting little place, because it’s clothing optional and focuses on community and alternative healing. The center offers use of sensory deprivation tanks, massage, network spinal analysis, audio visual stimulation and steam room and sauna. I am pretty passionate about sensory deprivation and have spent lots of time researching Dr. John Lilly (the inventor of the tanks). I like the tanks because it facilitates my meditation practice and allows me to “tap in” to the source frequently. I am also an artist, musician and poet…so I am constantly cultivating those passions.

What are you into?

I get into a lot of things. I like to try new things that push me to become a better, more interesting person. I recently finished a pottery class and am looking to get back into Capoerela (Brazilian martial arts). I just got an offer to joing the Portland roller derby team and am considering. Miss Lucy Furr… wadda ya think? I do a lot of writing and playing my guitar. I love all kinds of instruments,  and can pretty much play anything in my hands. I just purchased my first turntables and a mixer and am aspiring to become a rockin’ DJ. I am still learning how to scratch and mix, though… still a novice. One of my favorite things to do is dance! I feel an sense of undescribable freedom when I’m dancing… I am interested in learning new ways to move, like breakdancing and pole dancing (!). I am a crafstman and a pretty good carpenter as well. I know more about cars than most of my guy friends and I can kick your ass in thumbwrestling (ok, thats probibly a lie).  I hang out with my friends a lot and have a deep appreciation for fine wine and food. I love to cook, and am pretty good at it. Other than that, mostly into something debocherous and hopefully exciting….

What do you like most about Portland?

Definitley the people. I’ve been very fortunate to have lived in gorgeous, untouched wilderness most of my life so I tend to take that part for granted. It’s really the people that excite me here. I love the strong appreciation for community, and the ecologically concious lifestyles that people lead here. I feel like rather than just talking about it, people here actually do it. They make a difference. they trade in their cars for a bike (yes!!), they compost and make worm bins, they volunteer, they become vegetarians or vegans, they make art and music, they play in the rain, they try hard to leave a lighter footprint on the earth, they pay attention to where the products that they buy actually come from, they read the listed ingredients, they support local ORGANIC farmers, they learn how to grow a garden, they make kombucha tea, they like to play with records, they appreciate good coffee and food, they love to drink good beer and they love to dance! Yes, people of Portland, it’s because of you that I love this quirky little town. You rock (wink, wink)!

If you could have one super power, what would it be?

You know, that’s been an on-going debate since grade school. It’s a tough call, really. I think that being invisible could be useful, but so would time travel. I really just wanna dress like a super hero and somehow save people.

Do you eat toast?

Funny that you ask, I was just thinking about how much I love it! There’s something special about toast, and I find that typically the people that are really into it, you know… that REALLY get it, well they are quite possibly some of the most interesting people I have met. It’s a pre-requisite for dating, actually. “Must love toast” . Call me crazy, but without toast jam wouldn’t taste half as good.

Connect

Email, MySpace, Telepathic Transfer

Author of “Radical Accounting”

Madeline Bailey’s family was brillant intellectually but had a negative emotional IQ. She is totally grateful for the world class education she received, and grateful to get out of there and use that education to bring peace to the world.

She got into technology at the beginning of PC’s. Madeline coded an accounting software program, similar to Peachtree. Peachtree won out due to management, which was a lesson to her in business success.

Her biggest software project was developing what has turned out to be the world’s leading cancer research software. She hit the glass ceiling in the corporate world. It was bloody.

Madeline’s husband started a software publishing company. She became the managing partner. Peachtree was overkill so she was doing the accounting manually. It was a nightmare. Eventually Madeline discovered QuickBooks, which was light years better. During that time she wrote and published a local best-seller on how to find a job. She was getting a lot of phone calls for advice on being a successful woman entrepreneur, media interviews, etc. Meanwhile, her software became obsolete, her husband took a job, and she had to figure out her next career move.

Madeline prayed for guidance. Her guidance was to become a consultant and help small business become more profitable. Money is important. Small businesses create the most jobs in this country…even if you’re a “business of one” and the job you’re creating is your own.

What are you up to?

I’m a private accountant for successful small business owners.

Most of us don’t know the power of accounting. Accounting makes you more money than it costs you.  It’s one thing that makes the rich richer.

To level the playing field, I wrote a book that walks someone through the process I’ve used to teach hundreds of successful clients accounting. It’s not how accounting is taught in school or any other book. I’m pioneering a new way to learn accounting that totally works!  

I totally believe this is how entrepreneurial accounting will be taught in the future, although at the rate I’m going now, I’ll be like the guy who created Lotus 123. Even though he changed the face of technology, no one knows who he is, and he was just paid a salary. Note to aspiring authors: I have yet to break even.

What are you into?

Marketing the book. So far it’s sold online and locally at New Renaissance Bookstore and some public libraries. It’s a grassroots thing. People can ask their local library and bookstores to carry it. So far every library has said yes, and bookstores will soon follow.

What do you like most about Portland?

Plants. My boyfriend became my boyfriend because I helped him with a charity garden and then he helped me with a landscaping project at Merlo High School in Beaverton.  

He lives on an acre. Last year i grew lavender, rosemary, mint, and onions. We had blackberries so I made freezer blackberry jam. The year before we had cherries and I made this awesome cherry tart with almond marzipan. When the lilac tree bloomed, my place smelled and looked fabulous for a week.

My favorite tourist attraction is the Japanese garden.

What is your professional dream?

To educate, empower and enlighten people financially. I’ve been into money my whole life, and nothing has changed people’s lives financially the way accounting does. It’s crazy!

I dream that people will use their money to bring peace to the world. I like peace in relationships. When we laugh, it helps. I’m can’t tell a joke, but I can do funny by making humor of the situation.

I still laugh at a joke Kenneth Rougeau made. The Muslim neighbors were talking loud…obnoxiously loud. I told him they always talk loud. He said, “that’s because they learned to talk over gunfire.”

Sometimes I make clients laugh when I tell them, “Now comes the fun part of accounting.”

If you’re so smart with money, why aren’t you rich?

None of your business.  I respect that your money is your private business too.

Connect

Website

Filmmaker, illustrator, Guinness drinker, the devil

Matt Haley is well known in the world of comic books for his years of creating comic book art for both Marvel and DC, but he has recently attracted a whole new audience, thanks to the comic-style art panels he created for both seasons of the Sci-Fi Channel’s tv series, “Stan Lee’s Who Wants to be a Superhero?” and for his work on the Superman Returns movie adaptation and the accompanying promotional poster that appeared in USA Today.  He contributed art and designs to LucasArts’ Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith XBOX game, designed the title sequence for DIC’s new animated series Sushi Pack, and created the characters for the new XBOX 360 game “Liberty Rocket”. Die-hard comic fans will also recognize Haley’s design in the Elseworld’s Batgirl and Supergirl action figures from DC Direct available in specialty stores nationwide.

What are you up to?

Right now, directing my first film project. It’s a blast to finally get to create images on film, and it gets me out of the studio so I can work with creative people again!

What are you into?

I am absolutely crazed for Japanese kid’s shows, you know, the old Power Rangers garbage, but untranslated, and from the ’70s and ’80s. I have no idea what’s going on in them, but they’re kinetic energy is hard to stop watching. I’m also really into film, hence my current endeavour, I could talk film for days, and usually do. I still love comics, but it’s hard to find the time to create them these days, there’s so much other stuff I feel like doing.

What do you like most about Portland?

I used to want to leave Portland when I first moved here 15 years ago, but the longer I live here, the more I grow to love it, Portland gives me the things I like about cities like San Francisco without a lot of the attendant problems. I still say this town could use more Irish pubs and retro arcades, but at least we have one of each.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

Honestly, the freedom, I’ll freely admit I am very spoiled by my profession, not having to punch a clock makes up for a lot of the headaches of being an independent contractor. Plus, I wouldn’t last five minutes in a real job, I swear I’d say something icky and get fired within the first two days.

What is your single most favorite place to sneak away and spend an hour in?

GROUND KONTROL, no question, the ’80s retro arcade downtown. Yes, I’m a child of the ’80s, yes I love arcade games, yes, I suck at most of them, but I’ll never grow up enough to abandon playing TEMPEST or ROBOTRON 2084. Fortunately, now I can do it and drink beer at the same time.

Connect

Website, Blog, MySpace, LinkedIn

Partnership builder, problem solver, people-person, specialist in reality checks

Irene comes from a long line of geeks. Both grandmothers were schoolteachers, her father is an electrical engineering professor, both brothers have degrees in chemical engineering, and her mother edits a robotics magazine. She claims to have spent her life translating between engineers and normal people, which she feels led logically to a degree in psychology and thence to a career in software development.  

She grew up in the jungles of North Carolina, where tobacco fields and technology research are intermingled in ways that make perfect sense to the natives and no sense at all to anyone else. She spent several years working in technical theater and stage managing rock concerts in Chapel Hill, somehow managing to acquire a degree from the university along the way, and then decided the skiing was better in Utah. So, she moved to Salt Lake City.

There she conducted graduate research on visual attention, trying to understand what it means to ‘pay attention’ or to ‘ignore’ something, and applying this understanding to the design of displays and user interfaces so that the observer is presented with the information that is most relevant to his/her goals. Somehow this research led to a job at a national laboratory and from there into conducting and managing information security analysis for a large federal agency. The events of 9/11/2001 brought a great deal of attention onto what had been an insignificant analysis project and she spent the next several years working in a building without windows, and flying to Washington DC every month or so.

Regarding her work at that time, she says the catch phrase was, “In our line of work, when business is good, things are bad. And business is very good.”

She worked as a contractor to the federal government long enough to acquire a number of very depressing stories about the state of our national security. In 2006 she started missing the greenery, so moved with her family to Portland to begin working with high-tech startups. She applies an in-depth understanding of human behavior and human interactions with technology to developing technologies that do useful things and address real needs. Irene\’s core interest is in understanding how people need to use technology to enhance their lives, and how to develop technology that facilitates, rather than inhibits, people accomplishing their goals.

What are you up to?

Right now I’m working with a startup company that’s finding ways to help businesses and users connect, integrating your mobile device into your lifestyle. There are so many possible ways that mobile technologies can be useful, do things that interact with the real world, and yet all we’ve done with them so far really is communications and data transfer – voice, text, music. We’ve barely scratched the surface, and there are huge possibilities. I’m really excited about this company’s ideas and capabilities.

What are you into?

My husband and son, are the focus of my life. My seven-year-old is starting public school this year and I could not be more impressed with his school and his teachers. It’s fascinating to watch his brain unfold, absorbing knowledge like a sponge.

When I’m not working or spending time with the family, I spend my time with gaming, science fiction, and martial arts. I have a black belt in tae kwon do, and since I moved to Portland I have been studying an Indonesian style of martial art called silat. Gaming-wise, I love role-playing, cards, and board games. Anything that’s social, that involves creative and collaborative problem-solving. I love working with people to  solve puzzles, whether it’s at work or at play.

What do you like most about Portland?

I moved here specifically because I love Portland. I love the walk-ability of the city, how no matter where you go there’s something… or someone… interesting to walk to and see. The variety of architectures and business styles, and the feeling of creativity, that everyone is willing to try something new. Or at least to tolerate it, even if it’s not their thing. I live in North Portland, which has a particularly grounded sense of reality that I think is missing in many other places I’ve lived.

What excites you about working in Portland?

I love working with companies and organizations that are going through transitions, defining or redefining themselves. Transitions are a particular problem for startups, small- and mid-sized companies, because it requires changing the way you think about yourself and your business, and when businesses are small is when they are most passionate about being who they are, and are most reluctant to change. Change is hard. All companies struggle through periods of change, most of them fail. And for many that do survive, it’s due to luck or happenstance. So with a couple of friends I formed a consulting company that aims to help companies to plan for growth and change, and accomplish their goals by design.

Why did you climb Mt. Kilimanjaro?

Really, because it was there. Many many years ago, my parents were in Africa and saw Kili from a distance. My father said, “Someday, I’m going to climb that.” So, it was  more than thirty years later, but he did, along with his three grown kids. It was a phenomenal experience: going from the tropical jungles up to the almost lunar landscape in the crater and then to the glaciers. Kili is 19,500 feet high, so the air pressure is about half of what we’re used to, and it was really cold in the crater at night, and scalding hot during the day. It was strenuous, but worth every step of the way.

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Jack of all trades, master of none

Joshua Seaman was born in the Irvington neighborhood in NE Portland, and currently lives 3 blocks away from the house he was born in (and where his parents still live).  Yes, he has gone far  But despite this relatively minute journey in dwelling, he has in fact taken the long detour to get those 3 blocks.  In the last decade, Joshua has lived in Cuernavaca – Mexico, Vancouver – Canada, Florence – Italy, and Aurillac aka. “le trou de cul du monde” – Central France where he taught English, but he always seems to return to Portland.  Consequently he is now fluent in Spanish and French, and much to the offense of people in the boot, claims that Spanish and Italian are just different dialects of the same language.  After finishing a degree in Linguistics (and no, it has nothing to do with how many languages you speak) Joshua now works in the completely unrelated field of freelance photography / web design.  Voilà, his portfolio: www.relicpro.com.

What are you up to?

I’m currently trying to focus on actually recording and producing the oh so many songs that I’ve started but haven’t finished.  Oh, and I’m also trying to learn to throat sing, and can be found regularly practicing overtone singing in the sauna at my yoga studio.

What are you into?

-FLOWER PORN!
-Talking to cats, plants, and instruments in French
-Composing and writing songs
-Screaming at NBA refs through the TV set about their ocular deficiencies
-Writing ecstatic poetry, or odes to the spider above my bed
-Collecting interesting instruments from different countries, and jamming with them
-Finding bingos in Scrabulous / Scrabble
-Moving plants
-Travel writing
-Reading way too much about politics
-The Daily Show
-Neuroscience
-Sociolinguistics
-Ma p’tite niece, Bijou (elle est trop mignone

What do you like most about Portland?

I love Portland because of it’s energy.  It’s a city right in the middle of a rain forrest, and I love the liquid sunshine.  It’s big enough to have things to do, but small enough that there is a strong sense of community.  And I’m deeply rooted in the community around me, and it supports me and sustains me.

How can I do light painting photography?

You need three things:

1) Darkness
2) Slow shutter speed
3) Lights to paint with

Light Painting – The Real Deal

You seem to be good at many things, but why are you not great at any of them?

Good question, and I’m glad you asked it.  I guess it comes down to self-discipline and not being committed enough to go truly deep into any one discipline.  That, and I get easily spread out by my interest in other areas, especially ones that I discover I have a knack for.  

Right now, I have projects in photography, web design, music production / composing / engineering / writing, painting, singing, poetry, etc., and because I’m doing all of these, my focus is spread thin.  So instead of being great at doing one thing, I’m settling for being okay at many things.  I wonder if I can’t change that…

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Musician, Actor, Linguist, Linux User, Insomniac

Lisa Brandt Heckman was born Rosalie Scroggin in Chicago, Illinois. She grew up with her adoptive family in the small town of Morris, Illinois (population 8,900). She fled to the suburbs of Chicago at 18, and to the city proper at 21.

At 3-1/2 years old, Lisa saw Liberace performing on TV. She knew instantly that A) she had to play the piano, and B) she had to be on TV. Her indulgent parents bought her the piano, but were unable to find a teacher who would accept her until she was five years old. During those difficult early teenage years, she quit lessons (and just about everything else), but at 17 she secretly started taking lessons again, paying for them with her own pocket money.

When she lost her first tooth, Lisa was informed that the Tooth Fairy would pay a visit to purchase the lost tooth, which she found to be a bizarre scheme. She wrote a questionnaire for this strange creature and left it under her pillow to get to the bottom of it all. She discovered that the Tooth Fairy was male, and had handwriting exactly like Grandpa Kenny’s.

At 16, Lisa began playing keyboards and singing backup in various bands, starting with bar/wedding band Apyron in Streator, Illinois. She later focused on lead vocals, and is ashamed of how much her keyboard-playing skills have deteriorated. She currently sings and composes with electronic band The Unlikely Event and noise band Schizoprestige (with whom she is also filming a mockumentary as her alter-ego, the delightfully uncouth Lisa Dresden).

In 2001, Lisa and her boyfriend (now husband) Andrew Heckman moved to the promised land of Portland, lured by bike culture, public transportation, and mild winters. Lisa was charmed in particular by the MAX, though she can most often be found on the 14 Hawthorne bus.

Lisa studied (and performed Monty Python skits in German) in Heidelberg, Germany in the summer of 2005, and received B.A.s in Linguistics and German from Portland State University in June 2007. She has also dabbled in Russian, Mandarin Chinese, Scots Gaelic, Esperanto, and other languages to varying degrees, but does not wish to perpetuate the myth that linguists are people who are adept at learning a bunch of languages, like Hoshi on Star Trek. She does, however, wish to perpetuate Hoshi’s stereotype of the sexy linguist.

What are you up to?

Well, the plan had been to take a year or two to relax a bit, do some fun projects, study for the GRE, and apply to graduate programs in linguistics and/or cognitive science. I thought that I would go stark raving mad without a structured daily schedule, and I did a little bit at first. But I’ve adjusted somewhat, and I’m _really_ having a lot of fun with both music and acting. I’m having crazy thoughts about going back to being a full-time creative instead of voluntarily jumping into the meat grinder that is grad school.

I like to make myself useful in addition to having self-indulgent fun, so I’m volunteering for the Center For Inquiry (CFI) http://www.centerforinquiry.com. They are an international secular humanist organization promoting science, reason, and secular ethics, and I’m very excited to say that they are bringing a center to Portland within the next year. I’m serving on a couple of committees concerning websites, social networking, and digital video.

I am also really pleased with myself for managing to go to the gym regularly for three months now, which is something that’s much more difficult when you have a real job or spend the whole day on campus.

I’m not too worried about making a big decision right now, because Andrew is starting the M.A. TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) program at PSU this month, which means that I have two years for sure to screw around while he finishes that up. I think it’s very likely that I will in fact get to grad school sooner or later, but who knows what will happen between now and then?

What are you into?

- Artificial Intelligence
- Cognitive Science
- Constant physical contact with other humans (I get complaints)
- Gadgets, tinkering, configuring
- Gender Identity
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Humanoid Robots (the first time I saw footage of the Honda robot http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/ walking, it kept me awake all night, in a good way)
- Music Cognition
- Philosophy of Science
- Science Fiction
- Vegan Eating (note that I do not say “cooking,” which I cannot do)
- Vulgar and/or stupid humor (I really love bad puns)

Questions on my mind:
What kinds of judgments do people make about others’ sexual orientation and masculinity/femininity based on how they speak, and why?
How does music provoke an emotional response from us? What is happening in the brain?
Can we find phonetic/phonological correlates (e.g., pitch, speed, vowel quality) in voices considered pleasant/attractive?
How do those ideals vary cross-culturally/by gender/by sexual orientation/by social group?
Do those ideals change when the voice belongs to a computer/robot (e.g., something pleasant in human speech is creepy/disturbing in computer speech)?

What do you like most about Portland?

I’m not weird in Portland! I am so ridiculously average in Portland. I never have to explain to someone why I don’t eat meat or don’t have a car or don’t go to church or don’t work a 9-to-5 clerical job. Of course, this doesn’t apply on those rare and unhappy occasions when I’m forced to go to the suburbs, where I get the glassy-eyed goldfish stare that indicates an utter lack of comprehension.

Sometimes after a margarita or two, I will pull a carefully guarded secret part of my identity from the depths of my being and expose it to the scrutiny of my comrades. And the response is invariably, “Oh, yeah, my grandma did that last week, and my little brother is the chairman of the committee.” I’m going to have to try much harder if I want to be a freak here.

I’ve eaten in countless Ethiopian restaurants around the country (not to mention Canada and Germany) but the best I’ve found is right here in Portland, at Queen of Sheba. Dalo’s Kitchen and Blue Nile are also great.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I tend to identify very strongly with whatever thing I’m into at a given moment. “Musician” was so central to my sense of self from such a young age; I felt bitter and heartbroken when it seemed my window of opportunity was closing. Before I moved to Portland, I cried almost on a daily basis because I thought my singing days were over. Now I can hardly keep up with all of the projects that come my way, and I am overjoyed to have that part of myself back. (This is not to say that I don’t want more projects. Bring ‘em on!)

The Schizoprestige mockumentary is the first chance I’ve had to act in a couple of years. My character is a foul-mouthed, ill-mannered, lascivious pig, and I just love to play her. I hope to do as many no-budget films and/or theater pieces as I can get my hands on in the next couple of years.

Oh, and that making a living thing. I’ve strongly considered going into computer science or software engineering, but I think it would be healthy to get away from the computer more often. So I’ll probably wind up doing linguistics research and teaching. Or video editing. Or…

What do you want?

I want to extract all of the juicy bits, even though many of them will be quite bitter.
I want a gender-neutral third-person pronoun to be accepted as standard English.
I want to all of my data to be consolidated, organized, and synced.
I want to live in the moment and soak up all possible sensory information, but I have a hard time not ruminating about the future while doing so.
I want to build a robot.
I want to confuse and frighten people on occasion.
I want to learn ALL of the languages, and then sing in them.
I want people to talk freely and openly about those things that everyone knows, but they’re not allowed to talk about.
I want a manned mission to Mars.
I want to break free of the labels applied to me by myself and others.
I want to play the accordion.
I want people to pay attention to the $%#!@! road when driving.
I want to live in Germany again! Or maybe the Netherlands.
I want American Apparel to size their clothing for actual human beings, dammit.
I want to have a house where everything folds up into the walls.
I want people to NOT add “for your age” when they tell someone “you look good.”
I want to be bathed in sound that tickles my solar plexus.

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Writer, Journalist, News Junkie, Scrabble Addict

Kennedy Smith was born in a small, two-story house on 42nd and Yamhill 30 years ago, sealing her fate as a Portlander. There was a blip in the system somewhere along the way, and she (with her father, mother and two brothers) ended up living in Redding, California, where she was raised from the age of six.

She got her first taste of journalism at the age of 17, when she became an intern at the Record-Searchlight, Redding’s daily paper. She was soon writing obits, news briefs and wedding announcements that so impressed her superiors, she was once selected as “Employee of the Month.”

She continued writing for the paper until moving slightly south to attend Chico State, where she eventually got her degree in English Literature, with a minor in Linguistics. During this time, she worked as an editorial assistant for Chico’s news daily. She also freelanced for an alternative weekly, where she was paid in beer. Living in Chico gave Kennedy an appreciation for warm summer nights, vast open spaces, swimming holes and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

After graduation, she stuck around to work as the assistant editor for a national trade magazine. However, by 2004, she felt it was time to come home again. By this time, the glitch in the system had readjusted itself, and her entire immediate family was back in the Pacific Northwest.

That summer, she found a nice little spot on East Burnside Street, where she worked as a freelancer, newspaper reporter and PR maven. She now lives in Northeast Portland and works as the manager of publicity for a local nonprofit organization. In her free time, she writes poetry and short fiction.

Kennedy is the sister of two brothers, aunt of two nephews and a niece, and roommate of a PSU student whom she met in London, drank with in Chico and eventually dragged to Portland. She has countless uncles, aunts and cousins, almost all of whom live in Portland. It has ceased to surprise her friends when she points to somebody on the street and says, “I’m related to him.”

What are you up to?

I’d say just short of five feet, six inches, but who’s counting?

Right now I’m focusing my attention on gaining some traction with creative fiction, which I’d eventually like to turn into a full-time gig. I haven’t quite figured out how to do that yet, so in the meantime I write fiction on the side and make a living as the publicity manager for a nonprofit organization for Portland-area lawyers. When I find time, I freelance for various magazines. In the last few weeks, I’ve enjoyed taking a class at The Attic writers’ workshop, which I highly recommend to anyone interested in tapping into their creative side.

I usually come up with great story ideas in the middle of the night, which I tend to forget by morning. But, when they stick, I write them down and see where they go.

What are you into?

Like the bio says, I’m a Scrabble fanatic. I own two Scrabble boards and one Travel Scrabble, which I keep scattered throughout the city. I have made special note of bars and coffee shops that house their own boards, and I feel a special kinship with strangers who play in public places. My latest triumph was a 72-point word: “talkers,” with the K on a triple-letter score, using two blanks and all seven letters.  

I’m also into true crime stories. I’m often found reading tales of murder, deception, greed and gore. A Forensic Files marathon will render me out of commission for entire weekends at a time. I’m addicted to the macabre. This freaks some people out, but like my mom says, as long as I’m not taking notes during the show, she’s not too worried.

My other likes include mint chocolate chip ice cream, putting my hand in my dog’s mouth when she yawns, Pinot Noir, “Likes” lists, and bad teenage dance-off movies (e.g., Save the Last Dance, How She Move and Bring it On), which I find to be the most terrifying subgenre of modern film.

What do you like most about Portland?

The question itself is difficult, as I find so many things to like about Portland that I cannot narrow it down to one.

I like the fact that I’m about 30 percent likely to run into somebody I’m related to at any given moment. I like watching the clouds dissipate after a too-long winter. I like that people smile and say hello when you’re walking down the street. I like that so many Portland bars have gone non-smoking even though it’s not (yet) required by law. I like that I always knew I’d live here again, and now I do.

So, writing is where the big money is, right?

Oh lord no. I am a writer because I cannot not be a writer, even when double-negatives are involved. It’s in my blood. Although making a living as a writer is tough, not being a writer would be no way to live.

So, to those curious about how to make money as a writer, I suggest diving in head first. Take a job as an editorial assistant at a newspaper. Submit articles to dailies, weeklies and monthlies. Pick a word and write a story around it, then send it to publishers and see what they think.

The most difficult part of being a writer is taking your own advice.

Why did it take you till last year to finally get a cell phone, and can I have your number?

Sometimes resistance is futile to the outside world but means everything to you. Perhaps not getting a cell phone was my way of rebelling against The Man, or some form of him. I saw people running around on their cell phones completely unaware of their surroundings and I thought it was sad. Maybe I was holding out in hopes that phone booths wouldn’t go completely the way of audio cassettes or light brown M&Ms. But I finally relented, and all my friends heartily welcomed me to the magical new world of mobile conversation. As for the latter question, I am really flattered, really. But no, you can’t have my number.

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Optimistic, entrepreneurial geek, with a penchant for cameras and rockets

Peat Bakke was born in a small town in Maine, and at the tender age of two convinced his parents that Portland was definitely *the* place to be.  After another twenty five years and tumultuous live-in relationships with Canada, New Zealand, and Germany, he married a native Portlander, and decided that Portland would be a great place to stay and raise a family.

Peat is the byproduct of a doctor and an artist, and has always been attracted to creative careers with a technical bent — animation, photography, web development, and entrepreneurial business development.  He currently works with several high tech startups in Portland and the Silicon Valley.

Peat lives in north Portland (Arbor Lodge neighborhood) with his wife, Nova Newcomer, their soon-to-be born son, and a couple of well travelled cats.

[Editor's note: Peat and Nova's baby boy, Elliott, was born on March 11th.]

What are you up to?

I’m a little distracted right now — our first baby has decided to be (fashionably) late to the big party, so The Wife and I are trying to find ways to wile away the hours while he makes up his mind about being born.

In the broader scheme of things, the name of the game is “transition.”  My work life is swinging towards independent consulting and contracting, and my home life is oriented around becoming a dad.

What are you into?

Almost everything?  My office, garage, and hard drives are full of odd projects, collections, and books.  A dozen cameras, a box of foreign  currency, rocket paraphernalia, travel memorabilia, music, wooden toys,  miscellaneous science experiments, mostly finished bicycles, boxes of odd parts, modeling clay, a soldering iron, and so forth.

Generally speaking, my springs are wound by entrepreneurial people with interesting ideas, and my professional life has found an orbit around high tech startups.  Most of the work I do is in the initial planning and construction of web applications that bring people together, and connect them with expertise or “real world” resources.

Because so much of my work is digital, my other interests are much more analog.  I enjoy cooking.  I have a deep appreciation for rockets. I’m enamored with my wind up clock — it’s not particularly accurate, but it ticks and tocks and chimes without the aid of electricity, and I can look into it’s guts and watch it work.  You can hear it clicking away from almost anywhere in the house, which drives some people crazy, but I think it’s nice.

What do you like most about Portland?

The culture of Portland is both fiercely independent and openly friendly, and it’s attracting like minded people.  I think the influx of young, energetic individuals is a wonderful thing.  There has been a rise in great food, great music, and a growing sense of entrepreneurism.

It’s exciting to be living and working in the middle of all that.  I’ve traveled and lived in different countries around the world, and the thing that keeps pulling me back to Portland is a sense of purpose — that Portlanders seem to have an ingrained desire for working together to make things better, and that we can be competitive and ambitious without being ruthless or cruel.  It fits well with my optimistic philosophy of life.

Portland also has great tech.  We’re a hub of the Open Source movement, and an increasing number of high tech startups are moving here.   The Portland metro area has well funded angel networks, a strong high tech history, a relatively inexpensive work force, and a very creative culture.

I’m excited to see Portland grow and evolve, and I hope that I can contribute to that process.

How does all this translate into making a living?

Generally speaking, I work with startups to plan, build, and scale web applications.  I also work with venture capital and angel investors to assess the technical capabilities of companies seeking investment.

It’s a great niche to be in.  I love working with small teams of people who are motivated to improve the world in their own ways.  It also gives me exposure to a lot of new ideas and ways of solving problems.

I’ve been fortunate enough to work with several of the rising tech companies in Portland.  I guess that’s why I’m such an optimist about the future of high tech in Portland — I’ve seen proof that there’s great things brewing here, aside from the beer.

What’s your favorite holiday?

St. Patrick’s Day is the anniversary of my wife and I meeting at a party, our trip to Ireland, proposing in Germany, and our wedding in Portland —
exactly five years (to the hour) of meeting at that first party.  

We’ll always have reason to hoist a Guinness or two!

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