This Memorial Day weekend I experienced the Sasquatch 2012 music festival at the Gorge Amphitheater near Quincy, Washington. What a stellar event! I had such an amazing weekend with some truly amazing people. I experienced so many new things, lost something that broke my heart, and enjoyed some fantastic music.

I’m so glad I took the opportunity to come to this event. I went up with my girlfriend Cassie and my friend Dan and went back with my friends Dan and Cassie, and spent most of the weekend with them and a number of new and old friends.

This weekend definitely gave me a lot to think about and also gave me a good chance to think about things that were bothering me. Hopefully I can resolve a number of issues i’m dealing with over the next few weeks, especially with Florida coming up on the 17th of June.

Here’s a listing of some of the performers I had the chance to see live:

• Tenacious D
• Beck
• Jack White
• Bon Iver
• Pretty Lights
• The Shins
• Beirut
• Girl Talk
• The Head & The Heart
• Feist
• Silversun Pickups
• Metric
• Nero
• Wolfgang Gartner
• Of Monsters and Men
• Little Dragon
• tUnE-yArDs
• Beats Antique
• fun.
• Little People
• Alabama Shakes
• Gardens & Villa
• Sol
• John C. Reilly
• and many many more…

I had such a great time that i’m definitely planning to go next year if things line up to do so.

Hopefully you can go and enjoy it too!

What about you? – What music festivals are the best that you’ve been to see?

–Jason Read the rest of this entry

I’ve never gone through the loss of a pet as a child. We had pets, but I was never aware of them “passing” and none that were so close to me in the last few years in my life before they passed.  I did have a dog, Malakai, an amazing goofy dog who was hit by a car while being looked after in California, but at the time I was no longer his owner…but still extremely sad.

Remmy passed away this morning after she stopped eating and began to stop moving as much. I had to water her by hand last night as I propped her mouth open and this morning as I was freaking out trying to figure out what to do, she stopped moving completely.

Remmy, originally Remmington, lived a good life with lots of people friends.  She was at first thought to be a boy, but in the last couple months I found out he was actually a she.

She sadly didn’t have any other reptiles to hang out with, but definitely made me and many others happy.  I loved that lizard and was so glad to share the last almost three years with her.  Hopefully those who have been able to meet her will remember her for being a happy and loving (as much as a scaly lizard could be) pet.

Remmy, you’ll truly be missed!

Love you,

Jason

During the month of April, while I was between jobs, I took a trip to Vegas and a trip to Denver/Boulder, Colorado.  Both of these trips were a blast and I’m so glad I was able to take the time to complete them.

Vegas!

My trip to Vegas was just a few days from the 10th-13th as I needed to get back to host a couple parties that weekend. I met up with one of my best friends, Brant and we stayed in a two-bed suite in the Hard Rock Hotel.  Brant, like myself, has been to Vegas a number of times before so we kept this trip pretty low key.  Avoided the clubs, wondering around the strip and expensive shows and instead just played the table games, laid on “the beach” and watched some baseball.

I always enjoy gambling with Brant cause he is great to learn from when it comes to the games. He also usually gambles with more money than I do so his strategy tends to be different and enjoyable to watch too. This trip was relaxing and fun. I did get to enjoy one show while I was there called “X Burlesque.”  The show was a modern day show that has been on the strip since last year.  It was quite a good time.  Full of laughter and lots of girls 🙂

I also Ended up trying a couple good restaurants while I was there. Check them out on the artofforking.com.

The trip was also profitable as I walked away winning a few hundred bucks playing blackjack and betting on some baseball. Always great to leave Vegas a winner.

Denver and Boulder, Colorado

My trip to Colorado has been most excellent. I left on the 24th and am in the Seattle airport writing this entry now heading back to Portland on the morning of the 29th. This trip was just me traveling, but I met up with a number of friends along the way and made new ones while exploring the area. The main reason for going to Colorado in the first place was to see some couch surfers I hosted at the end of the year. A couple Turkish girls who are living in Denver.

The timing of the trip was perfect as Hande was leaving on the 27th back to Turkey.  I was able to hang out with her a few times before her departure. She will truly be missed. The other reason to go was that  I’d never been to Colorado and I like to explore new places. Most of my time was spent in Denver as this was where the Turkish girls lived and where I was being hosted by an awesome couch surfing host, Scott.  Scott is a software developer like myself and works from home or wherever he has his computer on the project Triple Jack Poker.  Being able to work remotely wherever I am is definitely something I want to try doing one of these days with my time.

Scott and the girls gave me a great overview of Denver and Boulder.  We went to a number of restaurants and fantastic locations while I was in the cities. I was able to see and enjoy the following:

• Dinner with a great view of the city skyline
• The Red Rocks Amphitheater
• Biking around Denver on the amazing bike paths they have
• Enjoying a pint in downtown Denver while watching some baseball
• Dinner with a bunch of people including my friend Lenay, creator of Whim And Fancy.
• Coors Brewery Tour in Golden
• Poker, craps, blackjack and roulette winning $150 in a casino in Black Hawk
• Enjoying the awesome atmosphere of a Denver speak easy called Green Russell
• Making use of the Denver/Boulder transit system by taking the buses and light rail from Denver to Boulder
• Meeting up and drinking most of the day with my friend Anthony and his roommate Jerrad
• Hanging out around the Pearl Mall area of Boulder until late in the night
• Hiking up Mt. Sanitas which is part of the Rocky Mountains
• Going to a Rockies baseball game – though they lost 🙁
• Hanging out with some amazing people while I was there adventuring around Colorado

The trip was fantastic and I couldn’t have asked for more amazing people to make my trip awesome.  I didn’t get to see some people while I was there: my friend Cameron, and my cousins Jeremy and Chad, but I’ll see you all again later down the road.

Thanks to Hande, Duysal, Scott, Julia, Anthony, Jerrad, and everyone else I had the pleasure of spending my time with and meeting up with while I was in town.  You guys made my trip soooooooooo amazing.

Until my next adventure – coming up – Sasquatch at the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington coming Memorial Day Weekend.
Keep up the adventures! – Jason

Come this Friday (March 23rd), I’ll be having my last day at Coaxis Inc./Viewpoint Construction Software.  I’ve had a great couple of years at this company and quite sad about leaving.  The people have been the best part and how the company treats the people there is fantastic.

The reason I’m leaving is I’ve been given an opportunity to join another company in the Portland area.  The company is Urban Robotics.  A company that I’ve considered looking into for some time.  My buddy Bobby works there and told me so many good things about the place.  The biggest reason I even considered applying was seeing his positive attitude when it came to the work he has been doing at UR.  I could clearly see that he enjoyed what he is doing and I miss having that joy.

I’m not positive everything I’ll be doing, but I’ll be doing C++ development on 2D/3D image processing software primarily for the department of defense involved around aerial photography.  What all it entails, I’m not totally sure, but I know I’ll be challenged and using some skills I haven’t used in some time, so I’m truly excited and nervous about the change.  I’ll also get to work on new hardware and cool software.  Always good things!

My start date at UR is May 1st, so I’ll be enjoying a nice break between jobs.  During this time I’m focusing really hard on finishing up my pilots license, taking a couple trips, and doing a lot of stuff in the outdoors.  Should be a great break!

Here’s to whatever the future holds!  I’m so excited for my next adventure!

Jason ¬_¬

I love traveling – getting away to far places seeing what the world holds.  This last week I had another chance to get out in the world this year and went down to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  What a trip!  Full of excitement and fun being with some of my favorite people.  There wasn’t a lot I would have changed about this trip, but I did learn a few things.

Lessons Learned From Traveling
 

I’ve got on a few trips this year, and I’ve found that when you travel and you stay at a resort, it is much better to go with someone to be romantic with than with a bud.  Not that I didn’t have a blast with my friend Lewis, it was just that we would have had a much better time staying at a hostle with him than at a resort.  These are meant for couples or families.  Quite easy to tell this by the people we saw.

When I do travel with a group, much easier to have everyone be single or all in relationships than be a single with a couple.  Not that you can’t have fun together, just means that they’re going to want to have their alone time.  Also, when you are together at a beautiful place like Puerto Vallarta, it gets you really thinking about how single you really are.  🙂

Another thing about traveling with one or more friends – be sure you know up front where you stand.  This mainly comes into play when a guy is traveling with a lady.  Without knowing where things stand – easy to assume one way and have it be the other.  This isn’t related to this trip, but good to state.

Puerto Vallarta Adventures
 

I’m not listing everything I did in Mexico and I’m also not going into a ton of detail because there is too much to say.  I will say however that Puerto Vallarta was beautiful and a place I’ll definitely go back to, but not for a while.  I’ve got many more places to go to first.  Here are a number of things that I partook in while traveling around:

• Walked on the beach
• Swam in the ocean
• Swam in the resort pool
• Ate lots of food
• Drank lots of booze
• Haggled with the locals
• Smoked Cuban cigars
• Went to clubs
• Explored the city
• Enjoyed the board walk
• Went boating
• Snorkeling
• Zip lining
• Rappelling
• Rode a mule
• And much more!

I’d be happy to share more of my adventures in more detail if you’d like.  Just message me or meet up with me in person!

Below are pictures from my trip!