#i took these pictures in portland and beaverton | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

baconandawesome · 6 years ago

Text

So, I did a Binding that acts as a Blessing and a Curse

So, last weekend some nosey parkers decided to leave a note on my parked car:

And I’ll admit, it got me a little hot blooded. how dare someone come into my domain and spout this anti-choice--

Homophobic--

anti-freedom of religion foolishness? So once I had had my chance to get mad, I decided it was time to get even.

VERY EVEN.

Here are the components of my Binding of Sterility:

-The Taglock (in this case, the “Mommy I LOVE you!” paper)

-One (1) Cauldron of Iron -One (1) white candle

-One or more (1+) red tea candle (not pictured)

-Red Chordage that easily cuts and burns (I used hemp)

-A chunk of galena (remember to use gloves when handling lead-based gemstones!)

-Eggshells, thoroughly washed of any life-nourishing yolk or egg whites

-Some Salt

-1/3rd of a cup of pomegranate or cranberry juice (I used a mix of both)

-1/3rd a cup of moon water (not pictured)

-1/3rd of a cup of pond or puddle water (not pictured-- the additional liquids and boiler elements were very last minute ideas)

-Cursing Sand (a mixture of colored sands, hot spices and other fun pungent powders)

-One ore More (1+) pens

-A Pair of Scissors or a knife (optional)

-A Lighter or matches

Now you may be thinking “Gosh, isn’t infertility kind of a heavy punishment for leaving a piss-ant piece of paper in your door handle?” I don’t think so: they were trying to force their lame hetero-normative pro-Jesus life-script down my throat, so why don’t I force my child-free life choice onto them using some of that demon-magic they were condemning, eh?

A little taste of their own medicine.

Here’s how I did it:

1. I wrote my intent all over the paper: “All who have ever touched this piece of paper shall find their bloodlines end with them. they shall become infertile and any children they have already had shall also end their lives without bearing children.” If you’re really not down to a life without babies, you can reword this as “all who created this piece of paper” but I feel the binding is less likely to backfire on me if I include myself as an intended target. I’m not sad about it, really!

If you want, you can use a variety of pens and fonts to evoke various deities that may be willing to lend their power to the binding. I advise caution with petitioning the help of fertility gods and goddesses specifically, but

2. I then wound the red cordage around the letter, just tight enough to hold it shut in a folded form but not so tight that I couldn’t open it a little bit. Tie it off, and verbally bind the fates of all who have touched the paper to the symbolic rites the paper will shortly undergo. Save a scrap of the red cordage to sever later.

3. Add your liquids to the cauldron and get the tea candle cooking underneath. This will represent our womb: overcooked, destined to bleed every month, devoid of life and utterly stagnant. If the liquids aren’t heating fast enough for your tastes, put a second or even third tea candle under. I was ready to go when the contents of the cauldron were to blood temperature, but you can wait until it reaches a simmer or slow boil if you wish.

4. Start saying your rites around sunset, so the sun can set on the families of the affected parties. Make them similar to the intents you wrote in Step 1, but be sure to mold them to fit the following steps:

5. Dust the eggshells in the cursing sand and smash them with the chunk of galena, until a chunky powder forms. Pour this mixture into and over the tag-lock and set the note over the still-heating cauldron.

6. Sever the extra red cordage over the cauldron into two distinct pieces. This can be done with a bladed implement or with whatever you used to light the candles. When the string snaps, tuck one end into the note and drop the other end right into the bubbling brew before.

7. Light the edges of the taglock on fire using the white candle. Don’t worry about burning it all the way away, just getting the edges holding up lit and the cordage to burn apart like the spare string representing the bloodline.

8. Close out the ritual sometime before or as the paper burns enough to fall into the hot stew of fluids. You’ll want to thanks all Gods and spirits you have evoked for this ritual.

9. Seal the remains of everything in the cauldron inn a clean container once it has cooled off enough to transfer it. Place the jar somewhere where it will not be disturbed for a long time.

So yeah, as a tldr: if you’re some kind of Tumblr-using baptist fundie passing out flyers in the Beaverton-Vose neighborhood of the greater Portland metro zone about how abortion must be banned, queer people need to be put to death, and how even Catholics and Mormons are an anti-jesus cultists then guess what?

This witch just took your breeding privileges away

#witchery #witchcraft #witch community #witchythings #witchyvibes #paganmetal #pagans of tumblr #bindings #blessings #curses #childfree #infertility #sterilization #karma #dont mess with wiccans #wicca spells #wiccan

55 notes · View notes

since--1999 · 6 years ago

Text

Oregon + Las Vegas 2019

A year ago, my friend and I went to Colorado for spring break. We both wanted to go back, but we decided to do something new and head to Oregon this year. We planned everything within just a few months, and were soon at Dallas Love-Field Airport, waiting in line at security.

After a 5 hour flight, we walked off the plane and were greeted by Oregon’s cool and windy weather. The sun was out, despite weather predictions of rain. We ordered a Lyft and were dropped off in downtown Portland by Powell’s Books. We walked in to get a quick look since we were already there, but soon left to walk around the streets of Portland.

We walked around the Pioneer Square area and soon became hungry when we smelled the food coming from the food trucks. We somehow ended up going to a Chinese place inside a plaza. We sat on high chairs where we could watch the chefs cook, and ate chicken, pork bbq, and dumplings. When lunch was over, we walked out and it was just beginning to sprinkle. Luckily, I came prepared, so we had an umbrella to squeeze under.

On our way to the Tom McCall Waterfront Park, we crossed the street where the smallest park in the world was at- Mill Ends Park.

At the Waterfront Park, we looked out at a darker sky. We could see the Hawthorne Bridge from there and made our way to walk across it. It started to rain more and feel the bridge move as the cars drove past quickly. Then we walked down to a small pier where we could see the Tilikum Crossing Bridge, similar to a bridge in Dallas.

The rain had stopped by now, and we were pretty wet, so we took a break to dry off at Starbucks. Afterwards, we walked to Old Chinatown and saw part of the Lan Su Chinese Garden before it closed. We made our way back to the iconic Powell’s Books and spent our time walking the whole store. At first, I didn’t understand the big deal everyone talked about how it was a must to go to, but after walking through all the color-parts of the bookstore, I understand. It was huge. I lost count how many floors there were and the different branches of each category a floor was divided into. My favorite section was the architecture books. Afterwards, we walked past the “Keep Portland Weird” mural and Voodoo Doughnuts. Before we left downtown, we made our way to another iconic sign of Portland with the jumping deer by the Co-op.

It was the golden hour at that time, which meant it was time to walk to the Greyhound Station to catch our bus to Cannon Beach. After 9.5 miles of walking, we were exhausted and rested on the way to the coast. We watched the sun set as we drove away from Portland and the silhouette trees. After an hour and a half or two, the bus stopped and the bus driver said our destination- Cannon Beach. We were the only ones who got off, so the rest were probably headed to Beaverton. It was almost fully dark when we got off at the bus stop. It was quiet like a small town would be. We crossed the street and saw a small convenience store, and then, for our convenience, our hotel! Luckily, it was just steps away from where we were dropped off. We were welcomed by the staff and checked in. We walked to our hotel room nearby and were surprised by how beautiful it was. We quickly settled in and then walked back out to a nearby restaurant for dinner. We made the mistake of ordering some fancy fish tacos, which were too rich for us. That night, we slept in the most comfy, and spacious bed to prepare for the next day.

When I was finally able to get my friend up, I opened the curtains and was fascinated by the gigantic view of Haystack Rock just from our room.

It was a dark blue outside before the sun was going to rise. Our room was just minutes away from the beach. We were soon walking on sand, and getting closer to Haystack Rock. We sat on the beach waiting to see the sun rise. Unfortunately, all the clouds were blocking it! However, it was amazing being right next to the rock and seeing the birds fly across it. The sky became a bit brighter, and we saw the beautiful beachfront houses and mountains in the distance.

We went to the cute small town of Cannon Beach and had some breakfast at a wonderful cafe. After a generous amount of bacon, poached eggs, and fried potatoes, we went back to our hotel and rested before we had to check out and start the day’s adventures.

We walked a little more through the town’s shops when it started hailing out of nowhere. Fortunately, we were right by a covered area when it happened, so we sat and waited for it to stop. After a while, we walked down to the snow-covered beach. Our view looked out to the light waves and white beach. We wanted to get across to the other side of the beach, but a deep amount of water was blocking our way. So, we ended up hiking through a bit of a muddy and complicated trail.

On the other side of the beach, we walked and walked until we reached a huge rock formation on the shore. The sun was out and the weather felt much warmer. We saw some cute dogs, a ton of birds walking on the beach, and some seashells. After a long afternoon walking the beach, we decided to go back to town and get some lunch. We realized there was an easier way to get back to the other side of the beach connecting to the town through a neighborhood street.

Shortly, we went to the closest food place and got pizza. We warmed up again by having some hot chocolate. Before our beach day came to an end, we shopped for some souvenirs before catching the bus back to Portland. As we walked to our bus stop, we watched the sun set until our bus arrived at dark. When we got off in Portland, it was dark and felt pretty sketchy. We made our way to a nearby bar to wait for our Lyft. As we waited, I heard what made me confirm Portland was weird. A car had ran over a glass bottle, making a cracking noise, and everyone there was pretty entertained by it. Most of them were probably drunk, but what was weird was what this woman said about it: “It’s not the car’s fault.., it’s the bottle’s fault!” The way she said it was pretty weird too. By then, my friend and I were tired and wanted to get the hay out of there. The hotel we stayed in that night was a decent, old-fashion place by the University.

The next day, we were picked up to go on a tour. Our first stop was the tallest waterfall in the country- Multnomah Falls. It was mesmerizing seeing how tall this was. Just from afar, you could smell the coffee from the stand before hiking up to the bridge. It was very slick and crowded with visitors on the way up. Many times, I almost fell, but I had the rail to keep me up. From the bridge, you could see the water falling below and the people at the bottom.

Then we headed to a fish hatchery and some some cool fish and the huge Herman the Sturgeon measuring almost 11 feet long.

The next destination was Starvation Creek. As we walked through, there were tall green and snowy trees. It was beautiful. It felt very different than the parts of Oregon we had been in. It was quiet and calming to be away from all the visitors.

For lunch we drove to the town of Hood River. It was another cute town with houses and shops on hills. My friend and I had some Mexican food, but they didn’t have chicken, nor beef! Our pork tamales weren’t impressive, but dessert made up for it when we had our bunuelos with a generous amount of whipped cream. We walked around the town a bit before our drive to Rowena Crest.

On our way up, the scenery became a vastness of snow. Everywhere was just snow. It looked pretty amazing. When we got out of our van, we were at the top of one of the most beautiful viewpoints I’ve seen. On one side, it overlooked the whole snowy town, and on the other side, a cool picture-worthy loop road.

Our last destination was the Mt Hood National Forest. Unfortunately the visitor center was closed due to an excessive amount of snow, but we finished it off by playing in the thick and flaky snow on a hill. Just getting up the hill required climbing up 4 feet high snow. The view of the snow blowing off the trees and a glimpse of Mt Hood was perfect to end the tour. We ended up falling in a deep chunk of snow and feeling like it was impossible to get up. Walking down the hill, I completed my annual streak of falling down. Last year’s fall was in Colorado.

Back in Portland, we rested before getting some dinner nearby. We went to a sushi place which we didn’t know was a sushi train style. We were completely confused about how to order/if we were supposed to order. At that point, we really thought Portland was weird. It ended up being an interesting and pleasant meal to end our last night in Portland.

The next morning, we had some breakfast at our hotel before walking across the Tilikum Crossing Bridge. It was bright and sunny out. We went down to a pier where the USS Blueback Submarine from the US Navy was at.

We headed to Mt. Tabor next to get some hiking in. There were views of Portland and the reservoirs around it. There were tons of trails to go walking on a nice and sunny day.

Lastly, we went to Rocky Butte, which overlooked the town and a nice view of Mt. Hood. When it was time, we said goodbye as we headed to the airport.

After a short flight, we landed in Las Vegas for a layover. Walking outside, we were already excited after seeing the pink sky, palm trees, and part of the High Roller. We were dropped off by the Flamingo Hotel and cut through an alley leading right to The Strip. Immediately we were high fived by 2 dudes and our eyes were looking at all the sights Vegas had to offer. We saw it all (almost). We probably walked 8 miles of it. It was very cool seeing all the lights and famous hotels and restaurants. We were able to see the end of a fascinating fire show and I ended up ziplining for the first time through the Linq Promenade.

Before it was time to leave, we watched a quick show of a spray-painting artist and bought some souvenirs. At the airport, we were surprised to see gambling machines inside. Our flight was a half hour delayed, so by the time we got on the plane, we fell straight to sleep after all that walking. Arriving early in Dallas, we were still exhausted and I slept the whole 30 minute drive back home and jumped into bed once I got home.

When I woke up, I was for once in a while, done with the excess traveling. With a few days off work, I spent the rest of my spring break resting. This trip I kept in mind the Costa Rican phrase and philosophy of Pura Vida- enjoying the simplest pleasures of life and living life to the fullest. I am so very grateful to be able to really live, discover other parts of the US, and meet new people.

#oregon #cannon beach #portland #mt hood #las vegas #the strip #pura vida

31 notes · View notes

usfwspacific · 6 years ago

Text

National Volunteer Week: Berk Moss’ Legacy Lives on at Tualatin NWR

Our 9,382 dedicated U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service volunteers in the Pacific Region gave an incredible 198,914 hours of their time to conservation in 2018. That is the equivalent of 24,864 eight-hour work days and 95 full-time staff members! These incredible folks deserve a huge thank you and during National Volunteer Week (April 7-13) we are aiming to do just that. This is the first in a series of blogs about U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service volunteers and projects. Share your story of service or honor an outstanding volunteer by telling us about it with #iServeBecause, #volunteer and #NationalVolunteerWeek on Facebook or Twitter.

By Kim Strassburg, Urban Refuge Coordinator for Portland-Vancouver National Wildlife Refuges

Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge is a special place that has attracted, welcomed and included special people. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff, the Friends of Tualatin River NWR, volunteers, advocates, and the community at-large have made significant contributions to what this place has been, is, and will always be.

It’s a place that represents visions and dedication to create and sustain a place for people and wildlife, learning for children and adults alike, but especially a place to foster sustainability of our collective future. Perhaps nobody understood this better that Berk Moss. He often quoted Thoreau: “In wildness is the preservation of life.”

It started back in 2003 when Berk was driving past the old refuge headquarters and noticed the new Tualatin River NWR sign. Always looking for opportunities for students and youth, Berk wondered if somehow the refuge could be a resource for science and nature education. So, he popped in and sought out Ralph Webber, Tualatin’s first refuge manager.

“Berk was a very passionate, caring man who I admired and respected for his ethic and caring for the natural world, one who wanted to share these qualities with our youth. A story that still resonates in my mind is my first acquaintance with Berk before any facilities had been built on the refuge for the public. He was chomping at the bit to bring classes out onto the refuge with few staff, no facilities and/or refuge materials, or any plans for how to manage logistics for such a task. After a long discussion, Berk took a deep breath and said, ‘Well, I guess we have a monumental job ahead of us.’”

That day, Berk left his business card and eagerly awaited the refuge’s first Outdoor Recreation Planner. It only took a couple of meetings with Berk to get the ball rolling. As a Science Director for Beaverton School District, Berk understood the needs of schools, teachers and the nuances that made them tick. He knew we needed more educators to make a team that would be the vital link with the community that would lead to success. So Berk helped plan and host a free pizza night for teachers, which, in turn, attracted the inaugural education committee. Led by Berk, the teacher team created the refuge’s environmental education program. June Poling, who was one of those educators, recalled:

“Berk was a man of many talents. At one moment he could be discussing the inner workings of epigenetics, and at the next moment writing a song about the beaver in his back yard. Berk’s we-can-do-anything attitude influenced everyone around him. He had a gentle way of encouraging me and others to think outside the box to find solutions to what seemed like insurmountable problems. I remember how palpable his excitement was about new discoveries.”

Berk certainly was not afraid to get dirty. One rainy, mucky winter he helped plant trees at the site that became the wetland observation deck. He could only laugh at himself for getting stuck up the knees in mud and having to be pulled out by fellow volunteers. Then there was the day I was figuring out the path the new trail would take. I was so excited to show him where the education study sites were going to be located, so I called him. He was on his way to a business meeting in Portland, but stopped by anyhow, dressed in business attire. He was a good sport as I drug him through the poison oak and the blackberries in his dress shoes and slacks to the spot that became the Rock Creek study site. He was dirty and wrinkled after that, but I am pretty sure he forgave me.

Berk gave so much of himself. Early on, we did not have a consistent and suitable place for working together. So in true Berk fashion, he opened his home and that is where most of the real work took place. So much was created in the hundreds of hours together at his kitchen table. As we were planning the Wildlife Center, I recall showing up at his house in Newberg at 5:30 a.m. to pick him up on the way to all day architectural design meetings up in Tacoma. He was always cheerful, even on those 16 hour days, providing the insight that guided what the classroom looks like today.

But it was more than planning; we knew we had to implement. Berk worked side-by-side with the refuge to write grants, plan budgets and evaluation plans and, ultimately through a Friends group and refuge partnership, help bring in several hundred thousand dollars to deliver the program. It was never easy. We always stuck together with a shared vision in mind, and Berk always brought wisdom and kindness.

Berk played a significant role in so much, including the first teacher workshop, the education curriculum, naturalist training, summer camp, Puddle Stompers, Friends group board member, advocacy when the refuge needed it, being a resource for other refuges and much more.

But it only takes a trip to the Discovery Classroom to see and feel Berk’s presence and impact. Take a look at the pictures on the wall and you can sense his joy of helping thousands of youth connect with nature in very real and meaningful ways.

That classroom may be Berk’s lasting gift to conservation. He passed away June 1, 2018.

I visited with Berk several times in his final weeks. The last time he reached out to hold my hand and said: “We did it.” It wasn’t just the two of us that Berk was talking about. It was the staff, friends, teachers, students, and volunteers. All of us together.

Perhaps most telling is that Berk was cremated in his refuge volunteer vest. He also took with him his field notebook, a pencil, and the wooden coffee stir sticks he always carried to poke around in and explore nature.

I am honored to have worked with Berk Moss and know that we stand on strong shoulders as we continue his legacy into the future. He is missed.

#Volunteer #NationalVolunteerWeek #iServeBecause

5 notes · View notes

365footballorg-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Giovanni Savarese keeps meeting his moment, can he do it again in Portland?

USA Today Sports

August 24, 20182:33PM EDT

Merritt Paulson knew something was up when he saw a new face manning the grill.

Earlier this year, the Portland Timbers were hosting a cookout for players and their families at their training facility when the club’s owner/CEO – puzzled that someone other than team chef Richard Meyer was at the barbeque – asked why outside help had been hired for the event.

Turns out it was a cook from a well-regarded local Italian eatery who’d recently crossed paths with the Timbers’ new head coach, Giovanni Savarese. They’d hit it off so well, and so quickly, that the chef traveled out to Beaverton to put in a pro bono shift on the grill on his day off.

Paulson and Savarese at the coach’s introductory press conference| USA Today Sports Images

Paulson recalls: “[They told me] ‘Oh no, we’re not paying for him! Gio just met him and he wants to come out here because he’s become buddies with Gio.’

“He meets people and he’s got an infectious personality,” Paulson added. “There’s a sense of genuineness there that’s highly unique.”

Striking his path … as a coach

Your mental picture of Savarese probably says a lot about your age, or at least the length of your relationship with Major League Soccer.

To younger fans, he’s the passionate, animated figure stalking the technical area during Timbers matches, urging on the likes of Diego Valeri and Sebastian Blanco, much as he will during Sunday’s Heineken Rivalry Week clash with the Seattle Sounders at Providence Park (9:30 pm ET | FS1 – Full TV & streaming info).

But to viewers of an older vintage, Savarese is perhaps the first cult hero in the league’s history, one of the New York/New Jersey MetroStars’ first players and the all-time goalscoring leader of that club (now the New York Red Bulls) – for years, until the likes of Thierry Henry, Juan Pablo Angel and Bradley Wright-Phillips came along.

“It’s a different league,” says Savarese when asked to compare the MLS he played in to the entity of today. “We hoped – we didn’t know, we hoped – back then that this was going to be the direction. And seeing now the way it has grown, it’s incredible, and feeling a part of building up that foundation makes me personally be proud. To see now that we have a league that is so competitive it’s amazing, it’s stable, it’s going to continue to grow and it’s been beautiful to see it evolve the way it has. I’m glad to be back where I started.”

Between his “Metro legend” and “Timbers boss” phases, Gio did some wandering, to put it mildly.

Leaving the MetroStars via a controversial trade to New England in 1999, Savarese earned a stint in Italy with Perugia and third-tier side Viterbese, returned to MLS to join the San Jose Earthquakes, spent time back to his native Venezuela, took a spin through England’s lower divisions with Swansea City and Millwall, gave it another try in Italy and wrote a final chapter with the Long Island Rough Riders, the club where he’d first made his name as a championship winner and league MVP in the old USISL, a forerunner to today’s USL, in 1995.

When he became a coach, his journey took him not across continents but up and down the American soccer pyramid. He worked in the youth game, where he helped lay the foundation for the MetroStars’ developmental system that grew into the RBNY academy powerhouse of today and started the New York Cosmos’ academy from scratch. He experienced NCAA ball as an assistant at St. John’s University. And he cut his teeth in the pros as the successful and well-respected coach of the contemporary version of the Cosmos, leading that club to three NASL championships in five seasons (2013-17).

Savarese’s body of work earned him no shortage of attention from MLS front offices. He came very close to taking over the Houston Dynamo after Dominic Kinnear’s departure in 2014 – “I’m forever going to remember that they believed in me at that time, that they gave me the opportunity. Unfortunately things were not in place at that moment,” he said – yet a return to MLS wasn’t in the cards at the time.

Savarese in charge of the Cosmos | Action Images

Having led the Cosmos from the launch of their 2013 return to league competition, Savarese told MLSsoccer.com that he couldn’t quite bring himself to consider the project complete.

“It took time to be able to build that,” Savarese said in a wide-ranging conversation during the Timbers’ recent road trip to Washington, D.C. “[I waited until] I felt that it was the right moment to make that transition. As a player – even though sometimes I bounced different places – I was a firm believer to stay in one club, play as much as I can for one club, because I believe that loyalty is a quality that hopefully we never lose.”

He speaks of “culture,” “beliefs” and “shared values,” and was quick to publicly shoulder blame when Portland slumped to a three-game losing streak last week.

“Soccer, if you treat it like it’s life and you have the same values as life, I think you build something strong,” he says. “You bring a good foundation and a good base, and I think at the end when you go back and you see these people again, you want them to remember you, not only for being a coach but to be a person that, at least you left them something. And they know that you also grew, because they were able to give you something.”

Rose City, Rosy Outlook

Savarese has high hopes of conjuring up some golden moments in the near future in the Rose City. Inheriting a Timbers team carrying both championship pedigree and the outsized expectations of “Soccer City USA,” Savarese weathered a winless five-game season-opening road stretch before leading PTFC on a record-breaking 15-game unbeaten run.

Crafting a squad recognized mainly for its elite attacking talent into a ruggedly resilient defensive unit, the 47-year-old Venezuelan has utilized – among other tactical wrinkles – the rarely-seen 4-3-2-1 “Christmas tree” formation to get the most out of his group and steer them into the heart of the Western Conference playoff race.

And he’s just getting started.

“I have an ideal way of looking at soccer, but also I have to adapt to the players that I have,” Savarese says. “I cannot be stubborn and say ‘I like to play this way and that’s it.’ No. We have to build always and learn what we have, and what are the best qualities of what we have built.

“There’s been a transition and there’s been a change of the way we used to play there to the way we play now, me adapting to the players that we have here. And I grow more also in this new adventure, in creating something new while we’re moving along to what I think we can be.”

Along the way, he’s quickly earned the buy-in of those both above and below him on the totem pole.

Timbers striker Samuel Armenteros called Savarese a caring and understanding coach, one he feels comfortable speaking to on and off the field, whether the topic sticks to soccer or wanders outside the lines.

Savarese with his charges | USA Today Sports Images

“He’s very direct,” Armenteros says. “He lets us know what he expects from us in each position; obviously that’s something we as players need.”

Says Savarese: “They’re going to hear the truth from me, but I want to hear the truth from them as well. And I think when it’s a transparent environment, things are always better.”

Timbers GM/president of soccer Gavin Wilkinson believes Savarese has managed to finesse the incoming coach’s difficult task of garnering respect up and down the org chart. He cites work ethic and humility as the key elements.

“Being able to get that respect that quickly shows a lot about his personality, shows a lot about his level of intelligence,” Wilkinson says. “I think they share an understanding of his passion of the game. What he’s given the club, what he does on the field has been very impressive.”

Meeting this moment, and the ones to come

Yet even after the extended unbeaten run, a sudden three-game losing skid has clouded the picture a bit, and with surging Seattle riding a six-game winning streak into Portland, the Timbers could well be leapfrogged in the standings by their bitter rivals with a weekend loss.

Savarese tweaked his team’s formation and tried some new tactical and personnel combinations – which blew up in lopsided road losses at D.C. United and Sporting Kansas City. But he believes there’s a longer-term payoff, as he aims to grow PTFC into a more versatile group capable of handling the different scenarios that a playoff run can present.

“We’re taking maybe a little longer to get somewhere, but we’re still building on a foundation that’s going to be strong for the future,” he explains. “We’ve been this difficult team to break down, difficult to go through, because the mentality’s good, we understand tactically how to do it. [But] the qualities that we have allow us to be this very dangerous attacking team that has a Valeri, Blanco, Armenteros and others.

Savarese fieldside at Providence Park | USA Today Sports Images

“So for me it’s great because this is what we needed. It’s not as much what you want, it’s what you need, and how we can evolve and grow game by game. And we have tested. Every game we put something different in the game to see, can we evolve? Can we grow? And if it’s good, then wow, we can make another step forward.”

The PTFC faithful are famously devoted in Portland, but they’re also quick to express their displeasure when things go wrong – and the faint rumblings of discontent are likely to get much louder if the Sounders are not dispatched on Sunday. It’s a pressurized environment that Savarese experienced overseas as a player, and now he’s happy to ride that tiger as a coach.

“For me, I see it as the biggest job in the league, and that’s why I’m content to be there,” he says. “We have a fanbase that is passionate, that is knowledgeable, that is truthful. I think when you are there, you feel that you are in a true football/soccer environment.

“When we’re home, we know that we have that support of the 12th man that is going to push us to be better, to be sharper, to be good. And when things go well, it’s great, but also you need to be prepared that when things don’t go well, that’s the environment. What I can say is that I’m going to give my best every single day. I go to work every day to give my best and hope that we can represent the club in a good way. And then hopefully things take the right path to be successful.”

Series:

<!–

Stay connected: Get access to breaking news, videos, and analysis from North America’s best soccer reporters via “This Week in MLS” newsletter or using our FREE mobile app.

–>

Stay connected: The all-new, completely redesigned, FREE official MLS app is your best mobile source for scores, news, analysis and highlights. Download: App Store | Google Play

#block-block-188 {padding:0;} #stay-connected {border-top:1px solid #ebebeb;margin:20px 0;} #stay-connected p {margin:0;color:#4d4d4d;line-height:1.5em;} @media screen and (max-width: 730px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:100%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 731px) and (max-width: 1120px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:100%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 1121px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:708px;} }

MLSsoccer.com News

Giovanni Savarese keeps meeting his moment, can he do it again in Portland? was originally published on 365 Football

#again #Giovanni #keeps #meeting #moment #Portland #Savarese

0 notes

abdulramay-blog · 7 years ago

Text

Marvin Bagley, No. 1 Duke rally late to shock No. 7 Florida

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Marvin Bagley III had a simple explanation for No. 1 Duke's incredible late rally against No. 7 Florida.

"We just have heart," the 6-foot-11 freshman sensation said. "That's pretty much all it is."

Bagley had 30 points and 15 rebounds, and the Blue Devils came back from a 17-point deficit with 10 minutes left to beat the Gators 87-84 on Sunday night for the Motion Bracket championship at the Phil Knight Invitational tournament.

Fellow freshman Gary Trent Jr., who had a pair of free throws that pulled the Blue Devils (8-0) in front and a key steal in the final moments, finished with 15 points.

Bagley has six double-doubles in eight games this season. He was named the bracket's Most Valuable Player.

Jalen Hudson had 24 points and 10 rebounds for Florida (5-1), while KeVaughn Allen added 17 points.

Duke closed within 78-70 on consecutive jumpers from Wendell Carter Jr. and a pair of free throws from Bagley. Grayson Allen's 3-pointer got Duke to 82-79 with 3:07 left, putting the Blue Devils fans on their feet.

Bagley's layup closed the gap to 84-83 and Trent made free throws to put Duke in front 85-84 with 1:12 left.

Hudson missed a free throw to tie it before Trent's steal with 12 seconds left. Trent made another pair from the line for the final margin.

"We started playing hard," Bagley said about the turnaround. "Now the next step is trying to figure out we can do that in the beginning instead of having to fight back the whole time. That can get stressful sometimes. We just got keep continuing to learn and get better. I think we'll figure it out."

The teams were among the 16 Nike teams that took part in the three-day tournament, dubbed the PK80, that started on Thanksgiving and took a hiatus Saturday for college football. Fourth-ranked Michigan State beat defending NCAA champion North Carolina 63-45 earlier in the evening in the Victory Bracket.

The event honored Nike co-founder Phil Knight's 80th birthday.

Both Florida and Duke were coming off hard-fought overtime victories.

The Gators defeated No. 7 Gonzaga 111-105 in double overtime on Friday night to advance. Hudson had a career-high 35 points, 31 of them coming in the second half.

Florida opened the tournament with a 108-87 victory over Stanford.

The five-time NCAA champion Blue Devils defeated Texas 85-78 in overtime on Friday, led by Bagley with 34 points and 15 rebounds. Duke opened the tournament with a 99-81 victory over Portland State on Thanksgiving.

"I think fatigue played a factor for both teams," Florida coach Mike White said. "They're tired too and they're young. We're not having any excuses. I thought Duke defended at a high level, I'm guessing, the last six, eight minutes of the game. I thought they tightened up and forced some contested ones late."

Egor Koulechov, a graduate transfer from Rice, hit a 3-pointer that put the Gators up 16-4 early. KeVaughn Allen added a layup to extend it.

Grayson Allen made consecutive 3-pointers to give the Blue Devils a 42-37 lead with 4:20 left in the half, capping a 22-5 run. The Gators went back ahead 49-48 on Chris Chiozza's layup, and ended the half on a 14-2 run to lead 53-49 at the break.

Florida's momentum continued in the second half, opening with an 8-2 run to go up 61-51. Hudson's layup capped an 11-0 burst that extended the Gators' lead to 72-57.

"Your blood pressure is a lot higher when you don't have good players than it is when you have good players. We have very talented players," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "I believe in my guys."

The teams last played on Dec. 6, 2016, in the Jimmy V Classic in Madison Square Garden, with Duke coming out on top 84-74. Duke leads the all-time series 13-4.

The Gators have defeated a top-ranked team twice in the team history. Florida beat then-No. 1 Duke in the 2000 Sweet 16, and then No. 1 Ohio State for the 2007 NCAA Tournament championship.

BIG PICTURE

Duke: Wendell Carter had four double-doubles through the first eight games, but he picked up three fouled early against Florida.

Florida: Hudson is a transfer from Virginia Tech. With his 13th point of the night, KeVaughn Allen reached 1,000 for his career.

UNCLE PHIL: Knight was presented with a special commemorative PK80 trophy during a break in the first half, earning a standing ovation from the crowd at the Moda Center. Nike's corporate headquarters are in Beaverton, just west of Portland.

COACH K ON BAGLEY: "Because he's 6-11 and he can guard five positions and he put up two 30 and 15 games in a row as a freshman. Other than that he's similar to many players that I've had," Krzyzewski said, drawing laughter from reporters.

Ref - www.usatoday.com

from Blogger http://ift.tt/2zHuIJ4

#Blogger #News #latest news #news today #news headlines #breaking news #current news #world news #top

0 notes

ictreeb · 8 years ago

Text

Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard on his youth camp: It’s ‘more than just basketball’

BEAVERTON — Before Wednesday’s surprise declaration that he had been recruiting Carmelo Anthony to Portland, Trail Blazers’ All-Star point guard Damian Lillard answered a host of questions about his popular youth basketball camp.

The camp, which features two sessions, hosts more than 300 kids and Lillard is in the middle of it all, offering life wisdom, jumping into drills and scrimmages and interacting with campers.

I wrote about the camp and Lillard’s goals with it two years ago. Rather than do so again, I thought I’d post a transcript of the Q&A session Lillard held today with local reporters. Here it is:

How’s the camp going?

"It’s going great. This is our second week. The first week we had a lot of kids. We got through it pretty smooth. This is the second day this week and it’s going pretty smooth. The kids, they’re working hard and they’re listening. I think that’s the hardest part about running camps is getting kids to stay in line. We’ve been able to do that."

What do you get out of the camp?

"I feel like the position I’m in, it’s easy for people to look at me as bigger than them or far out of their reach. So this is my opportunity to have a relationship with these kids and when the parents come — just the interaction. It does something for me. A lot of these kids, they come year after year, so now, when they see me at a game, they’re not like, ‘Dame let’s take a picture. Can you sign this?’ They’re just like, ‘What’s up, Dame?’ It’s a handshake. I’d rather it be that way because I like to do normal things. I like to go skating, go to the mall, go to the movies. So I think this stuff allows me to do that because they see that we connected in some kind of way. Also, just to be hands-on with the kids that do love to play basketball. I enjoy teaching the stuff that I’ve been taught."

Is there a message beyond basketball you try to relay to the kids?

"As soon as the kids come in, the very first day of the camp, we address what we want to get out of the camp. And that’s when I take the mic and I let them know that when I was coming up, a lot of the teachers and the people that influenced me, it wasn’t all about basketball. I tell them, ‘Be on time. When the coaches say something, listen. Be coachable. Be able to hear instructions (without having) them repeated to you. When your parents tell you to get up in the morning, get up, brush your teeth, make up your bed.’ We kind of put those same things out on all these kids and a lot of the coaches are either people that I grew up with, played against in college, or people that have that experience, where they had to be disciplined as well to get to some kind of level. So they can teach those same things and it’s coming from them and not something that they heard me say. Just that part. We tell them how important education is, how important it is to be coachable. Those same things. And then we start the basketball."

What’s it like for this to become so popular, to see your vision come alive?

"I don’t even think it’s about how popular it is. I think it’s about that parents see the value in it. Because it’s more than just basketball. Simple stuff. Last week, we offered two kids, we said, ‘All right, if any two kids can get up here and say one verse from one of my songs, they’ll win $100.’ Fifteen kids tried to do it and three kids ended up doing it. We had one that did it better than the other two. And the other two, I made them battle against each other in front of the camp. And they had to talk about how one outplayed the other one in basketball and it’s stuff like that. It’s not about them rapping or remembering the song, it’s about them getting up in front of a crowd of people that might laugh at them … and be comfortable doing it and have enough confidence. Those are the kinds of things that I had to do growing up. My AAU coaches would make me get up there. None of my teammates might be able to rap, but they would make us rap in front of each other. And if we (traveled), they would make us do the laundry for the team. And it’s those values that make you a better person. We try to incorporate those same things."

Does all this bring you back to when you were a kid?

"It does. It’s fun because now I can do the stuff to the kids that used to get done to me. Like, we do a Soul Train line. We play music, all the kids get into two lines and you’ve got to make it through that Soul Train line. It’s stuff like that that I just think it prepares them for tougher situations. When they go to high school or college and they’ve got to get up there and talk in front of the class. Or they go to their first school dance and they’re uncomfortable. They’re going to think about these times and say, ‘Well I was in front of 250 other kids.’ I enjoy kind of putting them in those positions I was in, because I remember how fun it was an also how uncomfortable it was. Now I’ve become an adult and it’s very rare I get uncomfortable in certain situations."

Why is it important for you to be hands-on?

Because they need to see and hear from me. We’re in there working out, they need to see me working out so … when I’m telling them, ‘You need to go hard,’ they’ve seen me go hard. When I’m sharing the message with them, it’s not coming from my camp coaches all the time. Because they’re coming to Damian Lillard’s Camp. So it’s no reason why they shouldn’t be getting the message and shouldn’t be seeing activity from Damian Lillard. I’m sure their parents appreciate it as well."

Growing up, was there ever a professional athlete who came back and did something for your neighborhood?

"We had the Warriors less than 5-10 minutes away and I remember I went to one camp and Erick Dampier came. I remember it was the end of the week, last day of camp, he came in there, he sat in a chair by the door, we sat next to him, took a picture, next person, we moved along and that was it."

This is a two-week camp. Some guys might come and go.

"Not me. I take pride in anything that my name is attached to. This is something that my name is attached to and something I run. So I’m not doing it to make camp money or anything like that. I’m doing it because I want to have a relationship with the kids and influence them and have an impact on them. And I want to teach them the game. It’s that simple. I understand it wouldn’t make sense to y’all, but it makes perfect sense to me."

How would you describe your relationship with the Portland community?

"I think I’ve got a great relationship with them. Part of it is because it’s not just the basketball player. I give them my time. I think you have a lot of professional athletes where they try to, I guess, finance everything. They want to (say), ‘Well, I’ll pay for a suite. And I’ll build a basketball court at the park. And I’ll do this. I’ll buy back backs and school supplies.’ But it’s different when you’re present. When you’re present, it means more to them. Because they need to see it. Even when I was growing up, I didn’t care about Joe Smith and all those dudes. When they played for the Warriors, I would hear their names and all that stuff. And they would say, ‘Go read’ and all the little stuff that they do. And I didn’t pay attention to it. I didn’t care. Because they didn’t come to me themselves and say, ‘You guys need to do this and you guys need to do that.’ I rather be here and do it for myself."

What’s the one question you hear from kids most when you’re working with them?

"They just ask me how I do things. It’s stuff that seems simple to me. I’ll just do a move and then I’ll step back and I’ll head fake and they’ll say, ‘How did you do that?’ Every small thing they think is just so cool. For me, it’s become just repetition, it’s like what I do. I always tell them, ‘If you want to be a good shooter, you’ve got to shoot a lot. If you want to handle the ball well, you’ve got to handle the ball a lot. If you want to be in good shape, you’ve got to run and jump rope and swim and all those things.’ I’m not the most talented person, but I get the most out of what I was given because I just work hard at it. If I want to shoot the ball well, if I want to make step backs, if I want to make deep threes, if I want to have a higher percentage finishing in the paint, you just do it over and over. You do it over and over, it’s like second nature. And I tell them the same thing. What I’m doing, y’all can do it, too. It’s not impossible. You’ve just got to be willing to put the time into it."

Source Article

The post Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard on his youth camp: It’s ‘more than just basketball’ appeared first on ICT-REEB.

Read full post at: http://www.ict-reeb.eu/portland-trail-blazers-damian-lillard-on-his-youth-camp-its-more-than-just-basketball/

0 notes

newstfionline · 8 years ago

Text

License to Speak

By Garrett Epps, The Atlantic, May 5, 2017

Nearly 20 years ago, a man in Oregon found himself threatened with 98 years in prison for testifying against a proposed gravel mine.

It took a team of pro bono lawyers--including me--to convince a state board that this frontal attack on free speech violated the U.S. and Oregon constitutions.

Bureaucracies are slow to internalize bad news, however. Today, an Oregon man named Mats Jarlstrom is fighting the same free speech battle in the same state--represented by lawyers and the libertarian Institute for Justice. His fight implicates free speech in all 50 states--wherever state and local governments regulate and license professional services. In both cases, state bodies attempted to use their licensing authority to silence critics with the professional backgrounds to substantiate their objections.

Jarlstrom is in trouble with a state board called the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying. His “offense” was to use mathematical calculations to suggest to his local government that there might be a better way to time yellow lights at intersections. He was fined for “the unlicensed practice of engineering.”

It’s eerily familiar. In 2000, our client, Mark Reed, was a professor of geology at the University of Oregon. A local sand and gravel company asked county authorities for permission to excavate for a mine on a site within a mile of his home.

Reed examined public documents and testified at a public hearing of the County Commission. He stated, and wrote, that in his opinion there were errors in the engineering studies accompanying the application, and asked that the commission turn down the company’s application.

The company complained to the Oregon Board of Geologist Examiners, which dutifully wrote to Reed that it had received an allegation of 49 counts of “the unlicensed public practice of geology”; each count carried a maximum sentence of two years in prison and a $1,000 fine. The Board generously agreed to waive the fines if Reed would sign an agreement to keep his mouth shut from now on.

Let’s count the number of reasons this was a world-class government overreach. Reed’s “unlicensed practice” consisted of (1) reading documents available to the public and (2) giving his negative opinion of the project to his local government while (3) noting truthfully that he was using his highly relevant geology training to understand them.

There was no allegation that he was not a geologist by training, that he had charged anyone a dollar for his services, or that he had said anything false. His “offense” was talking about geology without getting a license from the board.

No one disputes that a state can guard against fraud and professional malpractice by requiring education and training, licensing exams, and registration from those who wish to practice specialized professions for pay. But truthful, non-misleading speech on a matter of public interest by a citizen to his or her elected representatives is at the absolute core of what is called “core political speech.” Government “licensing” of speakers in these circumstances is a grotesque violation of the First Amendment.

The Supreme Court addressed this very question in a 1945 case called Thomas v. Collins. A Texas statute requiring “labor union organizers” to register with the state before “soliciting members.” A local sheriff jailed the International President of the United Automobile Workers Union for speaking to a union rally in Houston. His conviction violated both the Speech and Assembly Clauses, the Court said:

As a matter of principle a requirement of registration in order to make a public speech would seem generally incompatible with an exercise of the rights of free speech and free assembly. Lawful public assemblies, involving no element of grave and immediate danger to an interest the state is entitled to protect, are not instruments of harm which require previous identification of the speakers.

We went to court, and the board agreed to drop the complaint against Reed, change the regulations under which it had proceeded against him, and ask the legislature to change the geology licensing statute.

Flash forward to 2013, when a woman named Laurie Jarlstrom got a ticket for allegedly running a red light in Beaverton, Oregon. The ticket was issued after an automatic camera captured a picture of her car in the intersection after the yellow light had turned red. Her husband, Mats Jarlstrom, began to wonder whether the traffic lights in his home town were allowing motorists enough time to clear the intersection before yellow turned red.

Piqued by the ticket, he worked out the physics of cars passing through an intersection and concluded that the current system for timing stoplights--devised more than 50 years ago--was in error; combined with traffic cameras, the result was tickets to drivers who hadn’t really committed an offense.

Math and physics are familiar to Jarlstrom. A native of Sweden, completed a four-year engineering course at a technical secondary school and one year of advanced training there. Since coming to the US, he has worked as a technical consultant who helps design audio systems. As a matter of free speech, it really doesn’t matter whether these calculations are the best thing since Einstein’s theory of general relativity or a bald-faced claim that pi equals 3.

As it happens, Jarlstrom’s calculations seem to have been pretty good. Alexei A. Maradudin, research professor of physics at the University of California at Irvine, was one of the original authors of the intersection-crossing paradigm. In a phone interview he said, “I’m pretty well convinced he’s right.”

Jarlstrom shared his engineering background, and his calculations, with a less sympathetic audience, however--his local city government. “They were laughing at me at city council meetings,” he recalled. He also submitted his calculations to the engineering board. The board instructed him to stop performing engineering work.

The Oregon state statute forbids anyone not registered with the Board from either “impl[ying] that the person is an engineer or a registered professional”; or “[a]ppl[ying] special knowledge of the mathematical, physical and engineering sciences to such professional services or creative work [or] testimony.” Because Jarlstrom was not licensed under Oregon law, he could apparently not 1) mention his own engineering training in public; 2) perform--perhaps even in his head--mathematical work like the traffic-stop calculations or 3) discuss his results with his local government--or anyone else.

Jarlstrom had written about his work to his local sheriff, to Dr. Maradudin, and to 60 Minutes about his calculations. The board considered each of these a violation. It assessed a $500 fine.

In the words of President Trump, WRONG! Any citizen has a right to describe his or her own educational background, as long as he or she doesn’t perform or offer professional services without a license. (I’m a lawyer by training and I have the right to say so; I can’t claim bar membership if I don’t have it.) The First Amendment doesn’t have a Calculate Clause, but Jarlstrom’s math was fully protected as well. Finally, any citizen also has a right to criticize government operations, either to government itself or to the public and news media.

In fact, the Supreme Court recently held that even false public speech about a person’s background or experience can’t be punished unless it’s actually fraudulent. In 2012, the court voided the conviction of a blowhard who falsely told a public meeting that he was a veteran and a Medal of Honor winner. “Where false claims are made to effect a fraud or secure moneys or other valuable considerations,” the court said, “it is well established that the Government may restrict speech without affronting the First Amendment.” But falsity by itself cannot be punished “absent any evidence that the speech was used to gain a material advantage.” For good measure, Kennedy added, “Our constitutional tradition stands against the idea that we need Oceania’s Ministry of Truth.”

The action against Jarlstrom was not a fluke. As detailed on the Institute for Justice website, the engineering board has fined a local activist who objected at a meeting to the noise level of a proposed power plant; fined a retired licensed engineer because in public testimony he failed to say he was retired; threatened a Portland woman because a local magazine called her an engineer, though she was not quoted as making that claim; and even formally investigated two political candidates for truthfully listing their educational qualifications in election materials. (False claims by political candidates are doubly protected.)

I predict not only that Jarlstrom will win his lawsuit, but that the state’s position will be laughed out of court. I hope the court will take notice that Oregon has been on notice of the free-speech problem with its regulatory boards for more than a decade.

The Institute, a Koch-funded libertarian advocacy group, wants a First Amendment precedent it can use in other states. Institute lawyer Sam Gedge said in an email that:

Oregon’s engineering board is an extreme example of a state agency targeting speech. But it’s hardly unique. Kentucky’s psychology-licensing board took aim at a nationally syndicated advice columnist for writing about behavioral issues without a Kentucky license. North Carolina’s dietetics board took a red pen to a citizen’s diet blog. And Texas’s psychologist-licensing board threatened to punish a political candidate who referred to herself--truthfully--as a “psychologist” in her campaign materials.

I am sympathetic with states that want to regulate their professions; often they must rely on volunteers from the regulated specialties, who have little understanding of law. But Oregon state agencies have been crossing the free-speech line for more 15 years. Looking at the pattern, I have to conclude that this is not a mistake or a miscalculation; it is calculated lawlessness.

#Oregon #free speech #state boards #Oregon state agencies #Laurie Jarlstrom

0 notes