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The Portland Trail Blazers’ 2025-2026 campaign begins tomorrow, which means there’s no better time for me to talk about what I think is going to play out for the year.

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The Emergency Naked Bike Ride on Sunday was probably the most fun I have had at a protest. This is my experience about it.

This poem is dedicated to a friend who agreed to accompany me on a journey to Crater Lake at the last minute. It would not have been the same without them.

Tom Dundon is slated to be the next owner of the Portland Trail Blazers. That was fast. But not fast enough to escape questions, some serious, some not, about the future of Portland's favorite basketball team.

China. We know it. We comprehend it. But we probably don’t quite get it. And we probably won't get a complete picture of Yang Hansen until he sees an NBA floor. But what we saw at Summer League? Read on and find out.

I have an honest question for those in the back wringing their hands about the salaries on the Portland roster. When was the last time the Trail Blazers ever managed to maximize cap space and lure a top free agent to the Pacific Northwest?

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It’s been a nice run, enjoying the Timbers scrap their way to a playoff berth, and I’m keen to watch some more Arsenal in the English Premier League through the cooler months, but there’s only one …

It’s been a nice run, enjoying the Timbers scrap their way to a playoff berth, and I’m keen to watch some more Arsenal in the English Premier League through the cooler months, but there’s only one team that I can profess to write about with any sense: the Portland Trail Blazers.

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So last weekend I went camping with friends. We settled in a little campground near Mount Adams. We were without cell service and without agenda, relaxing under the regard of the peak, known to the native Yakama as Pahto. This is the poem I wrote about it all.

As I was scrolling through all my photos I took this summer, I rediscovered the type of messaging I needed. Even though I have plans for the Casual Camera, enjoy what might be the last gallery for a while. A collection of fresh moments, every moment, if you will.

I wrote the original version of this poem pretty quickly after Oregon Country Fair, inspired by showering after the festival. There are showers offered on the Fairgrounds, but those always ultimately have the impact of the rock of Sisyphus falling back down to the base of the mountain. What I'm saying is that they feel good, but by next morning I am as dirtclad as ever.

The fugue state continues, but a recent encounter with Lil Nas X on the "Old Town Road" has led to the only thing I can do: keep moving.

I finally feel like a functional human being again. It took about a week, but I am finally recovered from Oregon Country Fair and, in some ways, SOAK. While I’ve always needed some time to recover from Oregon Country Fair, this year in particular was an emotional, empowering yet ever challenging event. I helped run a theme camp and a fire circle, constructed a whole prop——a veritable Pasta Stand——and act for said fire circle, and also stayed inside the fairgrounds well past sweeps each day.

Well I had something to be said about recovering from Oregon Country Fair and feeling like a normal human being again. And then Ozzy Osbourne passed. I’m not sure if I can call myself an emotional wreck; I’ve always preferred Led Zeppelin to Black Sabbath and I was not the most religious Ozzy post-Sabbath listener. And yet, if there were ever a band and a performer to turn me on to metal, it had to be Ozzy Osbourne-era Sabbath.

There’s so much to be said about SOAK, but I think the first thing to say about the event is thank you.

A little playlist I cooked up after reflecting on the words in this blog post. The music journalist in me just refuses to die. I cut my hair yesterday. Shaved my face clean, too. I’m of two minds about it. First things first: it goes against every instinct I’ve learned grace à la musique that has affected me most in this life.

It started out as sketch in my journal. A lark based on the first stanza. The format is… weird, based on nothing but how the words look and sounded when spoken aloud. But I think that it work…

It’s happening. I’m going to SOAK. The last preparations are being made. Last deliveries are arriving at my door as I type, and I am raring to perform a trial run on how I am going to fit all the camping supplies into my car.

Before we get started on this monthly Casual Short Story, I wanted thank all of my Patreon subscribers: Jen, Julie, Michael, Davos, Roshi, Doji, and our newest subscriber, Phil! You guys are phenom…

Life has been busy with a new job and a whole bunch of worldbuilding on a sci-fi story. In the meantime, however, I did go on a hike through Miller Woods for Mother’s Day!