10 Places Every Portlander Should Go

Portland, Oregon is in a way unknown territory to most people in the US.  Unless the person has actually come to visit the city, they have no idea what this city has to offer.  The east coast thinks that Portland is made up of a bunch of lumberjacks, hence the nickname “Stump Town”.  The new TV show Portlandia displays the Portland residents as a bunch of hippies.  Yes Portland is different, but that’s what makes the city unique and different from every other city.  What are the “hot spots” of Portland?  Even people in Portland don’t know them all.

• Voodoo Donuts- Founded by Kenneth “Cat Daddy” Pogson and Tres Shannon, Voodoo set up shop in the heart of Portland.  There is another located right across the field from Benson High School that attracts many students and teachers. From crazy looking donuts to weddings taking place, Voodoo is the place to be if you’re looking for an unusual way to get the doughnut you’ve been craving.
• Blazer Game at the Rose Garden- Experiencing a Blazer game first hand is like no other NBA game.  The crowd is considered to be one of the best in the league.  The Blazers are an up and coming team with a lot of talent.  With an all-time leading 814 consecutive sellout record, when the opportunity to go is there, take advantage of it.  Tickets range from $9-$150.
• Shanghai Tunnels- Made to move goods and to kidnap people and sell them as slaves, the tunnels run under Old Town/Chinatown.  In the tunnels you will see cool architecture, artifacts from this wrongdoing, and much more. The tour takes around an hour and thirty minutes to finish and you will be transitioning at all times. The basements of many bars and hotels in Downtown Portland connect them. Travel your way through miles of tunnels to reach the ending point, which is the waterfront of the Willamette River.  Admission is $13 for adults and $8 for children.
• Waterfront/Fountains- When the weather is nice, the Waterfront is one of the best places to be in Portland. There are many people and families there having fun. The waterfront is lined with parks that are very popular. The fountain is fun to look at, but way more fun to cool off in it. There are many paths for walking, jogging, or cycling that are sure to give you a fun time.
• Saturday Market- Held on Saturdays, and even Sundays too, the Saturday Market is filled with colorful people that spread their joy throughout the crowd.  Attracting artists and craftspeople, nearly 300 of them come to sell their unusual creations.  Aside from that there are unusual foods being sold for the trying.  A lot of free entertainment can be heard and while you roam the streets.  Saturday Market is a must-experience attraction that is popularly known as Portland’s most-loved event.
• Chinese Garden- The Chinese Garden is a place to go and enjoy the soothing effect of nature.  Five elements are the main focuses of the gardens: rocks, water, plants, architecture, and Literary Inscriptions.  It’s a place to enjoy the scenery and the quiet surrounding due to the thick walls blocking the city sounds.  The Garden is a non-profit organization that keeps the garden healthy and growing on the funds of the members, donors, and visitors.  Admission is $8.50 for adults and $6.50 for students.
• Powell’s Books- Every book lover needs to visit this bookstore.  There are over one million new and used books that include out-of-print and hard-to-find books.  It is located in Downtown Portland taking up a whole block.  It is the biggest new and used bookstore in the world.  If you have any books you want to get rid of, Powell’s even buys books from the public.
• Northwest 23rd Street- A little neighborhood in Northwest Portland which is known as Nob Hill, the Alphabet District, or just Northwest.  It’s a perfect place to go for shopping, dining, and seeing some of Portland’s attractions.  Powell’s (mentioned above), the Oregon Zoo, the Japanese Gardens, and the International Rose Test Garden are minutes away by public transportation or by foot.
• Pioneer Courthouse Square- Considered as Portland’s Living Room, the Pioneer Court Square is the most visited place in Portland.  With more than 26,000 people passing it each day, the square hosts over 300 events each year that range from festivals to concerts.  Approximately nine and a half million people visit the square each year.  According to Project for Public Spaces, the square is “the 4th Best Public Place in the World”.
• Oregon Zoo- The Oregon Zoo is not only a fun place to go, but is also a place to learn. The zoo's goal is to educate the public on how their actions now can save the wildlife in the future. They offer jobs and volunteering to get you up and close with the animals. There is a stage that is for shows, a restaurant, and a train that tours the facility. Go there to look at the animals, or go there around the holidays for the zoo lights.  Adults cost $10.50 and children cost $7.50.

     “Keep Portland Weird” is our city’s slogan.  Maybe when people recognize that, they’ll know why Portland is the way it is.  Portland is an unique city that is getting known more around the country.  There are many things to do in Portland, people just need to experience them on their own to get the full Portland adventure.

 

-Connor Buckley

Don't Wait, the Future is Now

    Have you ever thought what life would be like without technology?  Having to actually pick up the phone and talk to the person instead of just texting them.  Life would be tough, huh?  Well life is going to get that much easier.  Companies are developing new technology to make phones have the ability to be your whole life in the palm of your hand.
    Until future technology comes out, phones obviously aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.  With 4g networking coming soon, phones are going to keep getting better and better.  There are ideas of taking the power of an Atom Processor and putting it into a phone.  Can you imagine how much faster that would be than any regular phone?  If you don’t have any idea that’s a ton more power, making the phone faster than any phone you’ve ever seen.  That idea is in the works so it probably will be a while for that idea to be put into effect.  There are many anticipated phones that buyers should be looking forward to.
    LG GWW90:  With a reputation before its even been released, the LG GWW90 is the phone to watch for.  With LG and Intel teaming up, this is probably the most anticipated phone of the year.  The new technology that this phone will display is the first of it’s kind.  This is a mobile phone that works with the aid of Atoms, much like what Intel uses in their computers.  The LG GWW90 is considered as a smart phone which consists of a 5.0 Megapixel camera with 16 GB of memory, Wi-Fi connectivity, a GPS system, and a USB charger which gives you 4 hours of usage time and 300 hours of stand by mode.
    Many new phones are going with bigger screens.  This phone has a screen that is 4.8” wide with a resolution of 1024 x 280 pixels.  It has a slim and seductive style to it much like the iPhone.  The battery will be power-efficient, and it should have a long life; meaning you won’t have to replace it as quickly as other phone batteries.  The phone is to be released later this year and is going to change the phone market drastically.
    iPhone 5G (Rumored Features):  With many speculation on Apple’s new iPhone, this too could be the most anticipated phone of 2011.  It is said that it will be released during July of 2011 and will come with many new features.  There are going to be big upgrades on the shell of the body including, a sleeker body design making it thinner, and an OLED screen that is scratch and shatter proof.

The body isn’t the only thing being upgraded.  It’ll keep the video chat but will now be available on 4G instead of only 3G.  4G stands for 4th Generation which increases security and speed of data transfers, making things such as the Internet noticeably faster.  A new upgrade which may seem out there, is face recognition security.  This will take a pre-arranged picture and use it to locate eyes, eyebrows, and mouth to allow the user to use the phone.  The screen will be locked until the phone is able to recognize you.  There may be times when the room is too dark and the camera can’t see your face.  That’s where the secret question and answer comes in.  If the phone doesn’t recognize you, then you can use a secret question that you can answer to unlock it also.

People always hate those annoying text tone defaults phones come with.  Now you can customize your SMS tone for all the texts you recieve.  That is also true with e-mails.  You can assign custom tones to different senders so you’ll know who is e-mailing you everytime.  There is one final upgrade that is probably the biggest of them all; wireless sync.  If you are able to connect to a Wi-Fi network,  you can say goodbye to the sync cord.  The cords always get tangled up and in the way so this is just another way to make things that much easier.  Hopefully these features will be added to the new iPhone because as I said before, these features are only rumored.

Credit Card Phones:  When people are leaving their house to go, most just grab their phone and wallet on the run out the door.  There are trials going on with the United States, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands and a few other countries, where your cell phone acts as a debit or credit card.  Unless you carry around cash and membership cards at all times, then this could eliminate the wallet as a whole.  The chip in your phone is connected to a bank much like your phone is connected to a carrier.  Security is a worry for this type of payment because if you are a person who loses their phone a lot, then this could cause many problems.

Applications:  New apps coming out for smart phones every day.  Right now there are around 100,000 apps for the Apple iPhone.  By 2011 there is to be a predicted 150,000 apps out there for people to use.  What makes an app good or useful?  After a recent survey, here are some favorites:

FREE	PAID
Amazon Mobile-Shop from Amazon or over 9000 different merchants for the lowest prices.  Find almost anything out there all at the palm of your hand.	SkyFire-For all iPhone/iTouch users who hate that there is no Flash video, SkyFire has arrived.  For $2.99, download this browser that converts Flash videos so they are viewable.  This unfortunately doesn’t work with Flash games.
Nike +-If your iPod is 3rd Generation or higher you can buy a sensor, around $19 from Amazon, and connect it to your iPod so it can record your workout habits for you.  There are different settings for every type of custom workout.	Angry Birds-Every time I look at the top paid apps this game seems to always be number one on the list.  With fun and challenging levels, this is a top game for everyone.  A $.99 game that is cheap and fun.
Facebook Mobile-Tired of logging on to your computer every time you want to see what people are up to?  This app is your answer.  It is simpler than using the computer and can do the same functions.	Bar Code Scanner-Tired of having to go to every store’s website to find the lowest prices?  Now just take a picture of the bar code on the item and it’ll do all the work for you.  Thousands of retailer’s prices will show up to pick from.
Netflix-Now there is Netflix on the go!  With a paid subscription you watch on-demand movies anywhere you can connect to the internet.  Create a list of movies you want to watch and they are at your fingertips.	Nike + GPS-A step up from the free Nike + app.  If you have an iPhone with the GPS, there is no need for a sensor.  It will track you, motivate you to go further and work harder.  For only $1.99 this is a good workout app.

Accessories:  People can spend tons of money on accessories for their phones and MP3 players, but which ones are really worth buying?  Since laws are being passed on driving hands free, bluetooth headsets are becoming mandatory for those who drive.  Since high school kids don’t usually go on long trips, bluetooth aren’t usually necessary when they hit the road.  For a low price and good quality, the Plantronics Voyager 510 is a good choice.  It is light weight with noise cancelling technology that is comfortable to wear.  The price starts at around $35.

While talking about wireless phone accessories, there is more ways than headsets if you want to go wireless.  Cords always create clutter and there are ways to make charging your phones and MP3 players at the same time easier.  The Duracell myGrid is the answer to making charging simple.  It is a power pad that can charge up to four different devices at once.  You find a charging sleeve or charging clip that fits your phone and lay it on the pad to charge.  The starter kit price is a little high starting at around $68, but in the end will save a lot of hassle.

New technology comes out every year and is hard to keep up with.  There are many ways to make life simpler as listed above.  Whether you are the person who barely uses their phone or the person who’s whole life depends on the phone in their hand, these suggestions will help.  For the people who can’t wait for new technology to come out, don’t worry, the wait is finally over.

-Connor Buckley

Video Games Can Save the World

Some people believe that video games are destructive, that they eat up a person’s time, and that violence in video games make children become violent adults. This is about as far from the truth as possible. Yes, there are video games that have mindless violence where the players slaughters helpless innocents, but it’s just a video game. It isn’t real. What is real, is that gamers develop an ability to make decisions. Gamers, at least gamers who play action-packed games, can make decisions substantially faster than non-gamers. This includes both visual and auditory sections in the decision making portion of the study.  
(http://news.discovery.com/tech/video-games-decision-making.html)

Not only can video games speed up decision making, but they can also bring out the best in people. In MTV’s online game Darfur is Dying, players play as refugees risking their lives to fetch water. This media led players to bond together. When a group of racists attacked a virtual refugee camp, one player organized a group of online heroes to secure the camp, making it safe for the rest of the players. But that isn’t the best part. That same player then flew to Africa the next year to help unload aid for the poor. He also helped raise $7,500 for a Ghanaian orphanage. Games show that people don't need to save the whole world, just a small part of it.

-Steven Philips