About Oregon Expat
Sometimes the best view is from the outside, and an American expatriate living in Portugal is, in many ways, outside of both nations. The views can be spectacular. I'm also a science nerd, Mac dweeb, and grammar geek, so the posts in this blog tend to be eclectic.
Click the "About" tab if that wasn't quite enough detail.
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Recent Posts
- Gecko tail update
- Nat Geo on the veranda
- Three minutes of art
- Portugal wildfire (we’re okay)
- Alien: Covenant review
- A must read: “My Family’s Slave”
- Curmudgeons
- Dia da Liberdade (Freedom Day)
- Nat Geo moment
- Song of Saturday
- Innovative teachers (subtitle: Ryanair is the Scrooge McDuck of airlines)
- Strange weather
- No good deed goes unpunished
- Raise your hand if you remember the modem dial-up tone
- Rogue One review
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Monthly Archives: October 2014
The sunlit path
Watching my home nation undergo a tidal change in social understanding has been an amazing experience. There are very few times in our lives when we can know, without a doubt, that we are watching history in the making. When … Continue reading
Posted in life, politics, USA, video
11 Comments
Wallpaper Tuesday
A little view of home — Coquille Falls, on the southern Oregon coast. Portugal is such a lovely place, but it really does need more waterfalls and ferns. (Click the image to scenify.)
Posted in wallpaper
4 Comments
Don’t lose that number
Recently I placed an order in a shop, and the owner wanted my mobile number so that she could call me when the order came in. I have had the same mobile number for nearly eight years. It’s burned into … Continue reading
Posted in life, Portugal
6 Comments
Wallpaper Tuesday
Photographer Vytenis Malisauskas labeled this photo “Glenfinnan Viaduct,” but it could also have been called “The Jacobite.” This is the Jacobite train, better known to moviegoers as the Hogwarts Express. The real-life route it travels from Fort William to Maillaig, … Continue reading
The great recycle bin caper
A few weeks ago, I packed up after my Pilates class and exited the studio to find that most of my students still hadn’t left. They were milling around the courtyard, having some sort of strategy session, and several of … Continue reading
Posted in life, Portugal
7 Comments
Wallpaper Monday
Trying to get back on my old schedule here… The photographer doesn’t say exactly where this is, just that it was taken in Iceland in August 2014 to showcase a traditional sod roof. A quick check on Wikipedia reveals that … Continue reading
Posted in wallpaper
8 Comments
Wallpaper Thursday
Castlerigg Stone Circle, near Keswick, Cumbria (England). Though not as large or well-known as Stonehenge, those in the know say it’s among the most beautiful of Britain’s prehistoric monuments. (Click the image to encirclify.)
Posted in wallpaper
2 Comments
Cool sciency stuff
Or in the first instance, hot. The director of aerial imagery for DJI, a company that builds drones, joined up with a photographer who had the right permits and contacts to get extremely close to Holuhraun’s eruption in Iceland. The … Continue reading
Posted in biology, humor, science
4 Comments
Austerity hitting home
The sheer breadth of the devastation caused by the austerity imposed upon Portugal is hard to describe without filling a book, but a quick look at this week’s local headlines gives a good overview. I mentioned the €505-per-month minimum wage … Continue reading
Posted in Portugal
4 Comments
A geek moment
Yesterday I bought the new PCalc for iOS 8, which is a fantastic calculator program that now lets you customize your layout. I’ve been having a fine time tweaking keys and creating new ones that do all of my most-used … Continue reading
Posted in humor
3 Comments
