transandnonbinary

* Kraken are going to have the most travel time by a chunk this year. Also, we are heavily front-loaded with divisional games. Hopefully, its manageable and the individual games are well spaced. The amount of roadie back-to-backs last year sucked.

* Still waiting for the contracts to pop for Melanson, Prokop and Tolvanen. Melly is RFA so I am not worried, but it's weird he'd unsigned at this point.

* Since Dunn and Canner are in promo images for the Kraken season opener, I assume that it would be a violation of hockey laws to trade them between them and now, so I can stop worrying.

I went briefly because Lexi Lafleur Brown was having a signing at one of the booths. She makes good online content and is involved with the Kraken org a bit. Her husband is an ex-NHL player who is now the Kraken's color commentator.

Probably not going to read it, but I went to the event, bought a book and got it signed. It was a hockey-related-ish thing, so I went.



I'd have enjoyed being down there more, but I wasn't up for bullshit today and if you are going to go to Portland Pride you need to be able to tank some bullshit. The signing was the same day as the parade so I had to navigate several blocks of crowds. That was fine, and I got to see some of the parade. But, when I finally got there I had to stand in a short line to get in. The guys behind me were leather gays. One thwacked me in the head with his fan. I think he was gesturing to someone inside? Anyway, he was facing me when it happened, and I think he was trying to gesture through me like I didn't exist.

My reaction was pretty much to deflate and think 'yeah, of course this is how things are going to go. Why expect anything else?'

On one hand, I could give a million good reasons why my reaction is very valid considering all my experiences with Portland Pride and the local queer community, but also you can't be like that at Pride. You've got to just let that kinda stuff roll off you, especially since so many people come to Portland Pride to party. They were probably either already fucked up, still fucked up from last night, or a combo of both.

Anyway, I got got inside, found the booth and then got an iced coffee to wait until the signing started.

Anyway the event itself had cleaned up the vendor's list a lot? There was a maker's market alley and only one artist was AI slop? No obvious Amazon resellers? Some of the art was like 'doll from a a thrift shop with spikes stuck in it's head' but like, this was way better than what I've seen in the past. I can criticize, point out that there are so, so many artists so much better suited to the event, that would really showcase our scene and make it look like... not crap. But still, massive leap forward. It's no longer plagiarism-a-palooza.

On the downside, to stabilize the ground, there was a layer of sand. Somehow, like sand dust or something was being constantly kicked up and it was hard to breath. Stuff needed to be wetted down badly. As always, no places to sit and almost no shade unless you had a VIP ticket. Not sure how much of that is on the event and how much is on the city.

Day started out odd. The porters were trying to get a guy in a wheelchair onto the train using a sort-of mobile elevator that was hand-cranked. It was not going well. The guy was being jerked back and forth by how it was rocking as it was cranked, and he was in one of those wheechairs where the back is slanted and there is head-support. So someone who presumably can't even sit up unassisted is just being knocked around. One of the porters got frustrated and walked away loudly saying 'Guess we're not going anywhere today, folks!' He projected his voice like it was an actual announcement.

But, the employee he went and got fixed how something was jammed. We weren't even that delayed. I wondered how that guy felt, and if he was worried that they'd be able to get him back off the train at his destination.

On the train there was an announcement saying that it was Friday, crew was tired... and sarcastic. Don't take anything they say seriously, unless it's an emergency.

Interesting start to a trip.

Soon, using mobility devices on the Cascades line will be easier because of the new cars! Upgrading rail lines is a long process. The cars were ordered years ago. They arrived in America this year. They've been tested on east coast lines and are now in Washington. They are still finishing tests, so we don't know when they'll come online. But, they will have ADA accessible bathrooms! Also, instead of having to climb like 5 feet to get into the car, the new ones will be at almost platform level, so I assume boarding with physical difficulties will be easier.

Also, capacity is going up! they've been unable to meet demand for rail travel between our cities for years. It's about to become cheaper, easier, nicer, etc. Trips wont have to be booked as far in advance.

Ooh, actually, just grabbed a screen cap from a youtube video about the new trains. Boarding will look like this:



I wish I had a comparison pic, because if you've never tried to climb aboard old rolling stock, it's a challenge. I found this on google:



But the stairs for the current Cascades cars are way steeper and the floor of the cars is much higher than the car shown in that pic. The current Cascades cars are older. The wheelchair guy had to be cranked to a height like level with the top of my head to be able to roll in. That janky hand-cranked thing really needed to be seen to be believed, but also taking pics would have been creepy.

Now I wish I'd taken a few pics of the old rolling stock as I'm unlikely to be on it again before the new stuff is in. Before and after pics would go hard.

Anyway, actual Seattle stuff later, I need to head out for the afternoon

* The fact that a new cryptid, Jimothy, dropped while I was in Seattle is a complete co-incidence! I can't even begin to tell you how confused I was that something went so insanely viral while I was in Seattle, and even thought I have Insta set to Do No Track my feed was 100% Seattle, Jimothy, Jimothy in Seattle, pushing out all the content I actually follow on that ap.

The first post I saw about it was actually Portland's Mike Bennett hoping on the trend instantly and making Jimothy art.

* That possibly-collapsing building in NYC is actually in the one specific part of Manhattan that I am very familiar with. I kept looking at pics being all 'does this look familiar, or just very New Yorky?' Turns out, yep, that is the one specific bit of the city I'd have been in growing up and were I was walking last year.

* I was talking with someone last night about some of my recent walks and places I'd gone to, and someone else was all 'oh wow, you must be new to Portland!'

I am so not-new to Portland. There is just a lot of stuff here. She was just being friendly, but I've run into that before, the idea that if you haven't already done All The Things then you Must Be New. Does everyone but me have infinite time, money and energy?

I've actually run into this a few times recently, people acting like I don't know Portland because I haven't done X, Y and Z