This building is part of VGH, you wouldn't know how pretty it is from the outside. Sitting there, it was hard not to notice I was the youngest person for miles around who didn't actually work there. I was there to get a second opinion on my laryngeal granuloma.

Back in the early spring, I was introduced to the work of Danielle Laporte. If you haven't heard of her or her book, The Firestarter Sessions, it's a bestseller and I would go as far as saying a phenomenon. This book kicked a lot of peoples' butts, shoving them out of complacency, to think about what they really want in their lives.

Years ago when I was doing my undergrad at SFU, one of the doctors at the walk-in clinic there recommended a book to me called When the Body Says No. I went out and bought this book, and after flipping through it felt really offended at the recommendation. The book is about the physiological effects of stress, mainly in relation to how undealt with stress can result in chronic illnesses, auto-immune diseases, cancer, etc. I though the doctor was implying that I wasn't handling stress well, and it was making me sick.

A bunch of things have inspired me and lifted my spirit this past week, so I wanted to share:

An awesome A Softer World ... this one's pretty great too (remember to read the hover text!)

An awesome photo/paste-up by Basco5 (don't look if you're scared of barfing)

An awesome video by Oren Lavie (just watch it, it's amazing)

So...I kind of spaced on my whole Zinester's Guide To Portland book give-away!  Oops.  Better late than never, though.  Got a big 2 entries on that one, and though they were both great answers, the winner is.... Jordan Behan!  Mainly I thought Jordan had a much better chance of actually going to Portland sometime, so that the book would actually be of use, but I do have to give props for his compliments to the urban planning and transit system.

If you like Portland, be sure to read to the end!

I really like zines [Wikipedia].  And more than that, I really like Shawn Granton's zines.  In fact, I'd say he's probably my favorite zine writer/illustrator--sure I might relate more to some of the more personal zines of authors like Taryn Hipp, or Pagan Kennedy, but Shawn is an awesome, AWESOME illustrator/cartoonist, and writes about lots of cool things like biking, Portland, and living on the west coast.  Not just that, but he is one of the few zine writers whose work I never find self indulgent or narcissistic, which is one of the inevitable pitfalls pouring your heart out in written/illustrated form seems often to lead to.

So, I had picked up a bunch of Shawn's zines last year at Spartacus, but since then, hadn't been able to find any more, and resigned myself to just getting treated to the occasional piece in Momentum. But then I was like, fuck this, I wanna read more awesome zines!  So, I sent Shawn an email, and after a few back and forths and missed connections, he offered to send me a bunch of whatever he had around for ten bucks.

This already sounded like a great deal for me, so I sent it along with a card and an extra little surprise of a handmade felt patch for being so generally rad.  About two weeks later, a parcel arrived in the mail:

It felt heavy.  It felt full.  It felt like a lot more zines than I was expecting... and Shawn surely did not disappoint!  Check this out, he wasn't kidding about packing up one of everything he had around--this included some posters, flyers, stickers, many, many zines ranging back about 8 years, and a copy of the Zinesters Guide to Portland.

It was like Christmas, only handmade...and unlike Christmas, with a little rationing, this will likely last me a good chunk of the year.  I plan to start with the oldest stuff and work my way back to present times.  You seriously can't imagine how overjoyed I was when I opened this package up and saw how much stuff was in it! Thanks Shawn!!!

Now here's where your love of Portland comes in.  I had given Shawn a list of zines I already had so I wouldn't end up with any duplicates, but I didn't realize The Zinesters Guide to Portland was going to be considered part of the collection...and I happen to already own it.  It's a great little guide to all the awesome and cheap things that you can check out in Portland, written by Zine writers and other great people in the community there.  It's sure to help you find some gems next time you head down there, and make you fall in love with Portland even more...

So, here's the deal: I'm gonna give away my extra copy.  If you want it, let's help solve Bill's mystery: comment and tell me why Portland is so awesome.  Whoever comes up with the most satisfying answer will be the winner.  If you don't think that's fair, well tough shit.