Oliver Moss

So, today was a first. I was doing one of the pre-Pride city clean ups today. Arms are freaking tired from polishing a 'high need area'. Had some people see me working and tried to demand that I go clean up some trash they saw. I just waved at them and kept working in my section, and then they, well, treated me like I had communication difficulties and and needed stronger instruction. The more I ignored them, the more insistent they got, but they did eventually leave me alone.

I could hear them just fine, I was just paying attention to the werewolf porn audiobook I was listening to. If they had approached me differently, like just letting me know about some stuff, I would have bothered to pause, but they were being giant assholes.

When I did go around the corner, the mess was... materials that my type of volunteer does not interact with. There were at least three types of nope in that pile. I did go and report it to the team leaders.

I'm a volunteer who can walk away. The assholes seemed to think I was part of some vocational or rehab program, and imagine if I was that? People experiencing difficulties should be treated well, not like servants. Fuck is wrong with people? Now I wish I had paused so I could have told them to fuck off in no uncertain terms. I just defaulted to my typical east coaster refusal to engage.

There is a observation deck in Forest Park that is rentable, and popular for weddings. However, it's not rentable all day, there is a chunk in the middle when no one gets dibs. I was having trouble writing so I grabbed my stuff and planned out a 3 hour hike, and hit up the viewpoint. Also, my path would take me over a bridge I'd only been under.

I get there after 2 hours of walking, I'd planned a loop with the longer bit first. The wedding party was still there doing pictures. I took out my book to wait. They were well over time, but I didn't care. Myself and other hikers were on the trail, waiting for our turn.

I didn't pay attention to how much time had passed, until I heard someone call out 'Want to do a coordinated hand-off?'

Long story short... shorter... the parties coordinated to block the trail and not allow us in. The morning wedding ran long, the afternoon wedding arrived early, and the decided to coordinate to block it entirely from the dirty hikers, even though neither had it rented for that part of the afternoon because you specifically can't. The second group was super aggro, too, trying to block the nearby trail so like no on could even go past it. Some of the party for the second group really thought at first they could just shut down the whole area and block the fucking Wildwood Trail in Forest Park on a weekend.

I can, and will, push through when people are trying to take over public land, but there were so many, and so aggro and I just wasn't up for trying. So, me and the others just never got access. We were, eventually, let by at least.

What the fuck is wrong with people? We let the first group have it for like an extra 40 minutes, no one bothered them, and it was their idea to do the weird 'coordinated handoff'. Just... why?

No good deed goes unpunished, I guess.

I'd planned to have lunch there on the deck, bit of banana bread and peanut butter. I'll have to try another day. The second group was loud AF so I kept walking until I could at least drown it out with headphones and finally had my lunch. Then, I was off to Barbara Walker Crossing, the bridge on my way out.

I need to pick a 3rd bridge and so if the day goes sideways again.

Anyway, bridge:





On the way to the trail head, I just needed to follow the sidewalk to... well, fuck:


( Some stairs, probably )

Did some photowalking today. I will make a proper photography post later. But, I want to talk about something I deal with on some of those shoots, and wow, today it was intense. Anyway trigger warning - talk of suicide prevention programs and projects - under the cut. ( Read more... )

Portland sidewalks:





And, POV of trying to write in a Portland brewpub on a summer night:


I actually took that last shot because I got bothered by a fucking Elon Musk fanboy in Lucky Lab of all places. Rather than explain Lucky Lab, I figure I'd just take a picture. I took this after he'd gone to be a creep on the patio, he is not in the shot. Anyway, fucking weirdo was trying to get people to make eye contact with him. I am from the suburbs of Connecticut outside New York City. You cannot make me acknowledge your existence unless I choose to. He was just like trying to get people to engage with him and I was not having it.

I don't know what is wrong with some people, and I don't want to know

* Tyria Pride 2026 is over. We raised $33,604.47, over twice last year. Holy shit. A bit more money will be coming in, but that's roughly it for this year. goddamn.

Money goes to Rainbow Railroad, a charity that helps LGBT+ people who live in areas were it's dangerous/illegal, and resettles them in safer areas.

My guild raised the 3rd most money of all the guilds, beating out LALA which is a massive guild. Our tiny guild beat out one of the largest GW2 communities. And people say we're JUNK, call us JUNK all the time.

* I like write-ins for a lot of reasons. But I need people at them to SHUT UP about using AI to make book covers. Fuck, if you're going to pull that shit at least be ashamed of it.

* Marchment to the Sharks? Are they just throwing money at his because of his dad? Wow, that's a weird fit. He likes to start shit and not finish it. A few of the Kraken injuries last year were due to his stint with us. He started shit and hid behind our top scorer, and then our top scorer was out almost half the season.

Sharks fans are like 'oh, he's a vet, he'll protect the kids!' No, I promise you, no. The way he'll help the kids is by giving their PK teams lots of work outs. His stats are good, but like, there is a lot more to a player than stats.

When Mush went to Seattle last year, I don't know if that was a Francis or Botteril deal. If I knew for sure it was Ron Francis, and I think it was based on timing, I'd be even more happy for next season.

* Jaden Schwartz to the Avs. He was an OG Kraken, first to sign with the team in free agency and reportedly wanted to stay. Sad to see and a lot of fans are upset. He just made no sense for the current state of our roster.

No movement on Oleksiak, Tolvanen or Murray yet. Thought Tolvy would go fast. Not sure what is up with Murray.

Update: Oleksiak to Vancouver for two years at 5 mill. That is insane. Good on him. Maybe he'll be great up there. For the previous season on the Kraken he was invisible most of the year and seemed to finally wake up in the last few weeks. Not sure why.

Wow, we didn't pay him that much. I would not have been surprised if he'd slip to AHL after last year. But, I don't know the BTS of the situation, maybe there was a good reason he was a ghost for us most of last year and that's been resolved.

* As a newer fan which players I am attached to is very different from the more established fans. Hard day for people who are long time fans. My faves are all very likely to stay in Seattle.

* Luke Prokop is UFA, so I am keeping an eye on him and hoping. Our AHL team deserves nice things, and we could use defensive defenceman depth.

* Fuck, Blues did it. They signed Dube. Morale with that club is low and they are so desperate they sign him? That sucks. Don't want to deal with VGK 2.0 on top of VGK.

* Sharks throwing money around on 4 and 5 year contracts like they aren't worried about the big re-signings in two years. Darnell Nurse?

* Can someone explain to our fanbase that we have an AHL team and we also need to get them players? We are about to do terrible things to their roster.

* At Kraken development camp we make sure players have essential skills, like making sure our goalie prospects can shoot the puck.

* Torrent Abbey Murphy's been invited to development camp with the Edmonton Oilers. Not the first time women have been invites to dev camps, but it's interesting that they invited 3. I wish the Kraken invited some Torrent in, but we also run a smaller camp. We're building a second iceplex, so maybe next year when we have access to a larger space.

* Looks like the Kraken are letting all UFAs walk, which I expected. This helps our roster a lot. We could still do with removing one or two names, especially if we are in talks with any UFAs from other teams. Even without another move, we've got a better roster than last year. Now if we don't have half of them out for half the season... Next year the squids could surprise some people. Or the universe will get keeping beating us with a stick while the Sharks and Panthers roll over everything, while Bettman keeps feeding us a schedule of roadie back to backs where the second game is an afternoon game.

But McMann re-signed with us because he likes Botts' plans and also our prospect pool, and that's a good feeling. But if we can offload just one contract we can pull up the kids easier and would have a good balance of vets and rookies. Some of the players just starting to pop are from our very first draft.

Vindication! Someone else in my book club had the same experience as me. They read another m/m book with the same premise as Wolf at the Door and they had DNF'd it. A couple of people also though they'd DNF'd it and were like 'this is not the same book'. I need to figure out what that other book is.

I have a strong suspicion that it's an older book than the Charlie Adhara one.

Aw, the new squids say they're excited to go to Seattle for development camp. Yeah, we're sending y'all to the middle of Alaska. Last year some of you got chased by a bear.

Welcome to the franchise.

Pens nabbed one of the Ruck twins! He drafted a bit high, which is interesting. They have a high second. They may be after the matched set