Rolling thunder and rain. Clouds make it twilight.

OK, why does my Reed College alumni magazine always smell like rancid nuts? #publishing #printing #magazine #chemical #paper #reed #reedcollege #rancid #nuts #portland #oregon

#Oregon ! #Portland #PDX #Brewport ! #Salem !

#CallYourReps - State Senate vote on high speed rail Tuesday!

https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/03/28/corrosion-problem-knocks-most-amtrak-cascades-trains-out-of-service/

https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/FindYourLegislator/leg-search.html

Here's the paradox or conundrum... How are the rank-and-file employees in America going to get along with progressives to fix our broken economic system? It is a question for the ages. Only progressives turn the page. The rest of all of 'dem just "put up and shut up" with the bad decision-making in business, the lay offs and firings, and the inept business planning.

In the early 2000's the people in power who actually for the most part hated progressives who were trying to change a few fundamentals within business; through manipulating only one system at a time, told all of us to "get a life" or get a job.

I worked with brokers who had worked at Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns. NYC is a hard city in which to make any sort of living. Even if you have a leg up in Manhattan or Brooklyn, it is still always difficult.

We were trying to create an open market platform. We weren't even close to getting where we wanted to be. 09/11/01 ruined everything good about the broker's scene. The next event to unfold several years later -- the 2008-2009 subprime mortgage and housing crisis -- was the actual coup de grace. Nothing's been the same since then for the few progressive Gen X folks and also the moderate people such as myself who haven't had a lot of work experience.

In the early 2000's, the high-powered Wall Street types strongly disliked any type of software progressive (that meant the first question from them for someone who worked with Open Source software was often this: "How does what you're doing make money?" It was a question designed to stoke division among us and among the allies we met while working at our jobs. These bossy people also undermined the tasks that we were doing at work by frequently moving us around, just like pawns on a game board. I felt a lot of trepidation back then.

Their effort worked, since the entire software world, apart from Oracle / Google / Facebook / Broadcom / Microsoft / #ZiffDavis, whenever it came down to creating #OpenSource solutions in the tech hubs of #NYC, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, #Portland, and nearly everywhere else -- gradually morphed into the bad-tempered scene it now is: always near abysmal.

Everyone who is intelligent in the software world hates each other's guts because of all the broken promises by management who always had the upper hand over us. I remember the feeling. It is not unlike slavery, although you cannot use that expression around ethnic minorities or you will be swiftly corrected due to the political correctness of the day.

The real #acrimony between Baby Boomers, some of whom are still in mid-level management positions and the Gen X folks is the stuff of legends. They've been lying to us for years about what's coming ahead. Those Gen X who now have kids who are near grown or all grown up... They are going through the same thing we did. The fear, rejection, and denial by big business. It is in fact a virus. It's an economic virus that won't die! Capitalism trumps everything. Just ask *President* Donald Trump. Less than 50% of us voted for him and he still won. It's why I'll probably never cast a ballot again in my entire life.

I was a minor-level computer science person; a systems and network administrator, and Web designer. I cannot imagine how it now must be for these graphic designers and visual artists who are around my age or a little older:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/28/style/gen-x-creative-work.html?unlocked_article_code=1.704.Qwm9.1lQEgNmG6qlC&smid=url-share

BikeLoud general meeting is Tuesday, April 1, 5:30 at the Holgate Library.

No joke, very serious meeting.

Special guest speaker Steph Routh — former ED Oregon Walks, current Sen. Pham staffer, Portland Planning Commission chair, recent D1 council candidate, and all-around transportation/housing/democracy advocate.
Room open at 5:30, agenda at 6, light refreshments, art supplies for kids. #pdxBikes #Portland #pdx #orPol #ClimateAction

7905 SE Holgate Blvd. room 1A

I cut down and turned over my second cover crop this morning. I ended up covered in mud! Before and after pics - the yard waste bin surrounded by dirt is for the weeds I pulled that were growing along the fence line. I didn’t want to dig those under too. #gardening #portland