Posted inEntertainment Home life

Pac-12 Networks now on Sling TV. Because of me! (I like to think)

I DID IT! (in my magical thinking brain, at least) Just five days after my annual blog post rant about DirecTV not carrying the Pac-12 Networks -- and the Pac-12 Networks not being offered on any streaming service -- today a deal has been announced between Sling TV and the Pac-12 Networks.  SAN FRANCISCO– Pac-12 Networks announced today a new agreement with Sling TV to make all six Pac-12 Networks regional feeds, which collectively offer live coverage of more than 800 sporting events, available to Sling Orange and Sling Blue customers who subscribe to the “Sports Extra” add-on pack as…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Follow FiveThirtyEight and PredictWise to stay presidential-poll sane

For political junkies like me, it's easy to go a little (or a lot) crazy during the excruciatingly long presidential campaign season -- becoming joyful when a chosen candidate (Clinton, in my case) is ascendent in the polls, and despondent when a downturn happens. Here's my advice about how to handle this: Follow the best poll analyzer around, FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver's operation. After he left the New York Times, Silver and Co. branched out into analyzing sports and other areas. But politics, not surprisingly, is his emphasis at the moment. I follow FiveThirtyEight on Twitter and enjoy his highly competent…
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Posted inEntertainment Television

Will 2016 be the year DirecTV carries Pac-12 Networks?

This is the freaking fifth year I've complained about DirecTV not carrying the Pac-12 Networks. Count 'em: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016.  (See here and here for links to my previous blog post rants.) Today, once again, I had to scramble to watch the Oregon Ducks football opener against UC Davis. Yes, after some Googling I found a free online stream of the Pac-12 Networks broadcast. But I'd much prefer to watch the game on my big screen television than on my 13" MacBook Pro. I hope both DirecTV and the Pac-12 Networks realize they're acting like idiots. Their five…
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Posted inHome life

How to put on a Smith Optics integrated sunglasses leash without going (too) insane

I love my Smith Optics Captain's Choice sunglasses. They're spendy, but I got mine on Amazon for considerably less than list price. Comfortable. Nicely designed. Polarized. Great color quality (blue sky looks way more intense with them on). And they come with an integrated sunglasses leash. "Integrated" means the narrow plastic flexible wire fits into the frame of the sunglasses, so the leash won't come off, and nothing protrudes on the head side of the frame (a drawback of leashes with elastic connections that slip over the end of the frame). That's the good news. The bad news is that…
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Posted inHome life

I file a BBB complaint about the Oregonian’s “premium editions”

Just when I thought the Portland Oregonian couldn't irritate me any further, the newspaper DID! (Since 2013, I only get four print editions a week delivered to my south Salem home, and I don't like the Oregonian's increasingly right-wing editorial positions.) A few days ago a letter arrived from The Oregonian informing me they'd now be charging my EasyPay account $2.99 for each of four "premium editions" -- the first of which would be a 100 page Investment & Retirement Guide that will be delivered with my September 18 Sunday Oregonian. Even more irritating: in addition, I'm slated to be…
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Posted inHome life Salem

Most Oregonians are heat weenies. But not ex-Californian me.

With western Oregon in the midst of a several-day record-breaking heat wave -- temperatures over 100 degrees here in the Willamette Valley -- it's a great time for me to reprise my May 2008 blog post, "'Ooh, it's hot!' Oregonians are heat wussies."  Days like today, I feel so superior to most of my fellow Oregonians. I grew up in central California, where for much of the year a temperature under 100 degrees is considered a cool day. So here I am on May 16 in Salem, Oregon – enjoying a record breaking heat wave for this date. The thermometer in…
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Posted inSalem

My shout-out to local Salem businesses who compete with national firms

Until recently, I thought I had to accept the pain-in-the-butt necessity of having my 2011 Mini Cooper S serviced in Portland at the one and only Mini dealership in Oregon. But now that I've discovered Prestige Auto Repair right here in Salem, specialists in Mini, Mercedes, and BMW cars, I'm overjoyed to know that a drive to Portland isn't necessary to have my Mini serviced or repaired. This is the review I left several places online: Chris and the other Prestige Auto guys were wonderfully competent and pleasant. I've been having my 2011 Mini Cooper S serviced at the Mini dealership…
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Posted inEntertainment Salem

Enlightened Theatrics made “The Wizard of Oz” new for me

Thank you, talented cast members of Enlightened Theatrics' current cultural gift to Salem, a marvelous stage production of "The Wizard of Oz."  You've restored the pleasure I felt as a child when I'd watch, and re-watch, the classic movie version of The Wizard of Oz. It was shown annually on television from 1959 to 1991.  So, since I was born in 1948, I must have seen it close to half a dozen times before I went off to college in 1966. What pushed me over the Oz edge, though, was raising a daughter born in 1972. I remember watching the…
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Posted inHome life Neighborhood

Rural south Salem wildlife caught on our trail camera

OK, let's get this clear right off the bat: these photos from the trail camera my wife, Laurel, tends to -- moving it around our property in rural south Salem in attempts to capture what our non-human neighbors are doing -- aren't exactly National Geographic quality. But, hey, they show wild creatures living their animal lives on what sure seems to be a popular spot. (The dates on the photos appear to be off; so is the time, probably.) Coyote! Wily canines who we occasionally see in the daytime, but not often. We have some irrational coyote-hating neighbors who tried…
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Posted inBicycling Salem

Tell City officials you want a bigger and better Salem Sunday Streets

Bicyclists, walkers, skateboarders, and other fans of non-motorized getting-around here in overly autocentric Salem, I've got some bad news and good news for you. Bad news. There won't be a Salem Sunday Streets event in 2016. One happened in 2013, 2014, and 2015, but it has been cancelled this year.  Salem Sunday Streets is part of the burgeoning "open streets" movement.  Open streets initiatives temporarily close streets to automobile traffic, so that people may use them for walking, bicycling, dancing, playing, and socializing. With more than 100 documented initiatives in North America, open streets are increasingly common in cities seeking innovative…
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Posted inSalem

I’m attached to Salem, Oregon. Check out this “place attachment” scale.

How much are you attached to the place where you live? A book I've just started reading, Melody Warnick's "This is Where You Belong: The Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live," lets you find out by answering 24 simple questions -- which I've shared below. I answered 21 of the 24 questions "true." So I'm attached to Salem, Oregon (my wife and I have a Salem address, though we live in a rural neighborhood about six miles from the city limits). Warnick says: The more times you answer "true," the more likely you are to be attached…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Melania Trump’s plagiarism shows why Donald would be a horrible president

If anyone needed a reason to oppose Donald Trump's presidential ambitions, the debacle of his wife's plagiarized speech at the Republican Convention last night sure offers up a good one. It's obvious to anyone with half a brain -- which apparently doesn't include Donald Trump -- that Melania Trump borrowed from Michele Obama's 2008 speech at the Democratic Convention where her husband won his first presidential nomination.  The New York Times has a clear comparison of the Trump and Obama speeches in "Questions Over Melania Trump's Speech Set Off Finger-Pointing." Here's the more extensive example of plagiarism. (click to enlarge)…
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Posted inEntertainment

Odysseo by Cavalia in Portland is a thrilling horse production

Last night, Laurel and I saw the newest version of Cavalia's marvelous "horse show." (I put that in quotes to indicate that it is like no horse show you've ever seen before.) Which, like the show we saw five years ago, also in Portland, basically is an equine Cirque du Soleil.  In 2011, I blogged, Cavalia is a magical horse show -- Portlanders, go see it!    I don't know why I omitted my fellow residents of Salem in the title, so now I'll add -- Salemians, go see it! As noted in my first post about Cavalia, my wife…
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Posted inWeb/Tech

BrianHines.com gets a much-needed makeover, thanks to Adobe Spark

Being an early Internet adopter, I was fortunate to snap up the domain name www.BrianHines.com way back when. After all, there are a lot of Brian Hines' in the world. (However, I was a bit behind the times with Gmail; some other Brian Hines got his Gmail email address first, so I'm stuck with BrianHines1 -- which is better than BrianHines999, admittedly.) I've ignored my BrianHines.com web site for many years. My blogs, Facebook pages, and such have occupied my cyberspace attention. Plus, even with an easy to use website builder, maintaining a site isn't my idea of a fun…
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Posted inEntertainment

Photos of 2016 Oregon Country Fair (a fair like no other)

Ah, bliss. Today Laurel and I made our annual Oregon Country Fair journey in space (south to Veneta, outside Eugene) and time (back to the spirit of the 60's).  Even though the day was cloudy, cool, and occasionally a bit rainy, the fair was as weirdly enjoyable as it always is. Here's photos of our experience. (click to enlarge) Even before we got to the ticket-taking area, there was a dragonish' indication that this fair is like no other in the country. Indeed, the freaking cosmos.  Arriving at a bit after 1 pm, we got a delicious Indian-food lunch from a…
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Posted inPhilosophy

Fireflies, Mt. Hood, and other strange delights

I love watching fireflies do their bioluminescence thing. I've just spent several days in Indiana and Kentucky. Fireflies are common there. They don't exist in Oregon, so far as I know. At least, I've never seen a firefly in my home state. So when the sun began to set on the day my wife and I arrived at a family get-together in a small town near Bloomington, Indiana, I couldn't take my eyes off of the seemingly randomly blinking yellow flashes of light on a large grassy lawn.  Blink here. Then there. No way to predict where the next flash…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Five reasons to vote “No” on $82 million Salem Police Facility bond

I like the Salem Police Department. I don't like the City of Salem's proposed $82 million "supersized" plan for a new police facility. Likewise, I can support our armed forces and still oppose wasteful military spending.I've made an Adobe Spark web page that lays out five good reasons to vote NO on the $82 million bond measure that will be on the November ballot. Plus, a bonus reason. Scroll down and click to see it. Tonight I'm planning to testify during the public comment period at a City Council meeting where, almost certainly, approval of the bond measure referral will…
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Posted inSalem

2016 Tour of Homes shows different sides of Salem

Yesterday my wife and I saw what sort of new house $1,147,000 will buy in Salem. Also, what $600,000, and $875,000 will buy you.  There were quite a few less expensive houses in the 2016 Salem Tour of Homes, but we zeroed in on several of the spendier ones in the south part of town -- where we live. Our first stop was Torrey Pines Drive S, near Illahee, where we reverentially entered the million dollar home. I'd never been in this particular part of town. It's filled with new'ish nice houses in what the Tour brochure said is "one…
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Posted inFamily Home life

Memories of my dead father fade, while his genetic presence persists

It sounds strange to say this (even to myself), but I've already written about everything I know about my father. Physically, I only spent one hour with him, excluding unremembered baby-time. Telephonically, he started calling me when I was in my early-30's and he was nearing the end of his life. So add on a couple of phone conversation hours I spent with him. This morning, Father's Day 2016, I pulled out my "Father" file folder.  It contains the sum total of what I jotted down at the time about my father after he briefly came into my life back…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Bernie Sanders’ revolution is turning into a whimper

Oh, Bernie. This Hillary supporter wants so much for you to recognize the reality that she will be the Democratic presidential candidate, not you.  And then to work hand-in-hand with Clinton and the Democratic Party to (1) defeat Donald Trump in November, and (2) bring about the progressive policies that you so ably championed during your campaign. But this tweet by Mark Murray, the senior political editor for NBC News, neatly expresses how your revolution is turning out at the moment: Not with a bang, but with a whimper Ouch! Biting, yet true.  A story in today's New York Daily…
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