Tomorrow (which is Monday, September 12th) you’re invited to Bailey’s Taproom in downtown Portland for FREE draft beers from 8-9pm, thanks to the peeps behind the new check-in iPhone and Android app Bizzy. What the heck is Bizzy? I’ll let Lea, Bizzy’s community manager, explain: Bizzy is an iPhone and Android app that lets you “Check Out” from the places you go. When you check out, you share your experiences and photos with a community of people that are interested in discussing and discovering local places. Follow your friends and other super cool folks to see their check outs. When you see something awesome, one tap adds it to your “Try List” for easy recall. We’re coming to Portland to celebrate our new app features and chat with locals in the food, tech, social media, startup and blogging scenes…our aim is to get as many awesome locals in the room as possible. Our founder and VP of Marketing will be in town for the event and we’ll be having a draft beer open bar from 8-9PMish for downloading the app (www.bizzy.com/getapps). Oh, and here’s a cute cartoon that explains Bizzy as well:

You’re not too Bizzy for FREE beer, are you? I think not…so get thee to Bailey’s Taproom from 8-9pm tomorrow, download the app, and get yourself a cold, refreshing beer. See you there!

Say whaaa??? To celebrate the launch of Hotpot – Google’s new way for you and your friends to share recommendations on bars, restaurants, hotels and other hot spots in order to get personalized Google search results – Google is sponsoring the Portland Beer and Blog on Friday, February 18! You do realize what this means, right (other than that Google’s buying you beer)? It means that thanks to Hotpot, you’ll never again find yourself all dressed up with nowhere to go. Or at the very least, you’ll know where you could go. And you don’t even have to dress up. But I digress. In return for buying you beer, Google has just one oh-so-small request. If you haven’t already, please sign up for Hotpot, give it a try, come to Beer and Blog and deliver your feedback to Google in person. That’s right. In person. How often do you get to shake hands with a Google employee, much less give them direct feedback about a product? It’s kinda like this one time when I ran into Isla Fisher in a hostel in Athens before she was semi-famous, and her step brother (brother-in-law? I forget) totally hit on me. Maybe slightly cooler than that. Again, I digress. In a nutshell, Hotpot works like this: You rate local places – bars, restaurants, cafes, night clubs, museums, whatever. Write a quick review if you’re feeling extra generous. Then invite your friends to join. Repeat. And the next time you do a search on Google.com, Maps, your phone – wherever you do Google searches! – you’ll get recommendations on places to check out based on your tastes and recommendations from friends. Just like so:

As if that’s not enough, the super nerdy among you may have the chance to participate in some more focused, nitty-gritty chit-chats about the product, where you can really give Google a piece of your mind. And just slightly off-topic, if you stop by Deschutes Brew Pub up in NW Portland, Google wants to buy you even more free beer. Just show your bartender the Android rating widget or iPhone Places app on your phone and get a free pint of the yummy Red Chair NWPA plus a commemorative pint glass — on Google. The deal lasts as long as supplies last. Sooooo… we’ll see you next Friday at the Green Dragon, right? 4pm sharp. Drink tickets will be plentiful, but not unlimited, and they’re first come, first serve. Please RSVP below so we know how many people to expect: Loading…

Join us on Friday June 25th from 4-6pm-ish to soak up sun and suds at the Green Dragon in their cool beer garden.  Like any good Luau we will have a roasted pig courtesy of the Green Dragon (sorry vegans).  Don’t forget to wear your Hawaiian shirt to be entered into a raffle to win a free Whiffies gift certificate courtesy of Taplister. See you there Kerry

Well friends, I had the good fortune of running into Richard MacManus, who is the founder of ReadWriteWeb, at Lunch 2.0. He mentioned that he would be attending this Friday, which I asked if I could share on Twitter. To which he said yes. But! Then I got an email from the famed Co-Editor of RWW Marshall Kirkpatrick that ReadWriteWeb wanted to also sponsor drinks this Friday! How cool is that?!! So, come on down and schmooze with the RWW staff and enjoy some cold ones on them. Richard is in town from New Zealand, so it’s a rare treat to have some face time with him. You can RSVP on Upcoming or Calagator!

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a special treat for everyone this week. Involver is coming to town! If you don’t know them, Involver is the leading creator of custom tabs and apps on Facebook. No, they don’t make Farmville type stuff. Other people use their services to make their own tabs and apps. And, business is booming for them. So much so, that they are expanding their offices and are scouting out Portland as a potential location! I told them we had a seriously under utilized pool of developer talent here and they want to see for themselves. Help us roll out the red carpet for these out of town potential employers so they have no choice but to open up shop somewhere in PDX. What we need The first thing we need is for people who would like to work locally for the hottest Facebook app development company to show up in droves. What kind of positions would be available, you ask? Involver is currently hiring Ruby on Rails developers, IT specialists, interface engineers, lead visual designer, MySQL DBA, technical writers, account managers, etc. As you can see, they have cool work available for developers, creatives, and more. Background I was on a business trip with Webtrends when I met up with the Involver team. They mentioned their interest in Portland, and I suggested a scouting trip by way of Beer and Blog. I’d like us to make this a successful event so that we not only attract a hot emerging company like Involver, but also that we can use this example to attract more companies that want to reach beyond the Valley. So, bring it!! RSVP on Upcoming or Calagator

Whoo-hoo! Our month-long 2nd Anniversary celebration continues! This Friday at Beer and Blog, Alaska Airlines will provide free snackage for everyone and two drink tickets to the first 40 people who arrive. As usual, our event begins at 4pm at the Green Dragon, so if you have a hankering for freebie booze you should show up close to start time. Special message, just for Brian M. Westbrook: A sincere bottom-of-our-hearts thanks for making this happen! You rock! But the Alaska Airlines-sponsored fete isn’t all that’s going on this Friday night. Almost as if it was fate (and who am I to say it’s not?) the Laughing Squid crew is in Portland this week, and they plan to join us at Beer and Blog for a spell. What is Laughing Squid? It’s an online resource for art, culture & technology that also provides web hosting services. The Squiddies are having their own party — a PDX Drinkup — this Friday at 7pm at the Lucky Labrador Brew Pub, just down the street from the Green Dragon. Coincidence? Or FATE?
So, after we’ve exhausted our wonderful Beer and Blog server Lexie, we’ll trek a couple of blocks down to the Lucky Labrador Brew Pub to meet the the Laughing Squid team at their PDX Drinkup. I hope to see you at Beer and Blog and later on at the PDX Drinkup. Come and say hello! RSVP on Upcoming or get your deets on Calagator.

The month of January makes everyone retrospective. We look back and take note of events and accomplishments and the look to the future to imagine what may be. For Beer and Blog, this January is especially affecting…it’s also our 2nd Anniversary! So, what did we do last year? Here’s a little run down of blog post titles we published last year: End Bloglessness – A half day workshop to get your blog up and running We had 3 End bloglessness events last year! Down with bloglessness! FREE Redux: Win hosting for life at Beer and Blog Several beer and bloggers are hooked up sweet now! Heard AboutUs? They’re 3 (and They’re Buying Us Beer!) We helped AboutUs celebrate three years of stellar web indexing by helping them drink the beer they bought. Awesome! Off-site topic: Intellectual Property I attended this event and walked away with a copy of Facebook’s patent application. Purr! What the Shit? Twitter. Dramatic. Reading. We had two What the Shit?s last year, Melissa Lion’s very popular dramatic Twitter oration. Frakking hilarious! We hope to do more this year! Free Beer for Twitalyzer’s Top 100 Influencers There was a huge, jovial turnout (and a teensy bit of controversy) for this summer patio party. Awesome! Enter to Win a Beery Big Prize this Friday (This is my favorite headline.) Cyan PDX is hosting this Friday’s meet upThis one was super fun for me…it’s where I met my lit agent. Drupal Magic Animal Farm I enjoyed writing this post about my friend Nate “Dante” Angell. <3 The Women of Beer and Blog This one got 10 comments! Wow! End Joblessness – A mini job fair About 70 people showed up for the mini job fair and several people made contacts that led to employment. Wah-hoo! It’s a very impressive list for a two year old community based on the premise of bloggers helping bloggers over beer, don’t you agree? To celebrate our accomplishments we’ve secured the best in entertainment for our beer and bloggers: SexyNurd! Join us, won't you? This Friday, January 8, Comedian SexyNurd is performing at 5pm at the Green Dragon. For US! Not only that, he’s giving away tickets to his “RockStar Trapped in a Nurd’s Body” show that starts January 22 at Curious Comedy Theater. SexyNerd is such a rock star that the paparazzi will be there, of course, to capture him mingling with us beer and bloggers. Pose with SexyNurd in your best Sexy or Nurd and you’ll end up in the tabloids and on the SexyNurd blog. You’ve been warned! That’ not all we have lined up in January to celebrate our 2nd Anniversary. For your beer and blog entertainment:

1/15 – Alaska Airlines is sponsoring food and drinks 1/22 – GoTime is sponsoring 1/29 – Mayor Sam Adams appearance

Yes, you read that right. Your eyes aren’t deceiving you! Mr. Adams will be in Beer and Blog attendance on January 29. Stay tuned for details on this historic event.
On the cusp of a new year, and on behalf of Justin and Christine (Mr. and Mrs. Beer and Blog) and the rest of the Beer and Blog crew, I wish you prosperous experiences in 2010! See you Friday at the Green Dragon after 4pm!

Unless you’ve been living in a Christmas tree these past few weeks, you’ve heard of that totally ambitious charity fundraiser called 30 Hour Day. It’s been featured on The Square and in the Huffington Post. It has attracted a legion of die-hard elves who toil away into the wee hours of the night to get things ready. And, according to the paparazzi, it features a really, really big tree. It’s that “cockamamie scheme concocted by Cami Kaos of Strange Love Live and Rick Turoczy of Silicon Florist” in which they vow 30 consecutive livestreamed hours of online auctions and entertainment to raise money for charities like Free Geek, Oregon Food Bank, and Toys for Tots. I don’t know about you, but I’m a sucker for cockamamie schemes. All of us at Beer and Blog are! We want to help make 30 Hour Day a landslide success. That’s why I’m very happy to report that after much begging and pleading, Rick and Cami have agreed to let us help! This Friday, when you come to Beer and Blog at the Green Dragon with an unwrapped toy or non-perishable food donation, you’re in for a 30 Hour Day treat: a live video feed, anchored by Mr. Brian M. Westbrook, that connects us to those cockamamie schemers Cami and Rick! Now…here’s the part that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside: the first item on the block is the apron I handmade and wore for the 2010 Get Naked for a Cause calendar. (I’m July, of course!) With the apron comes a mediaChick-autographed copy of the calendar. (That’s me!) Many of the models in the calendar will be there to scribble in Sharpie, including our Ms. Cami Kaos and her man Doc Normal. (They’re October, of course!) Mr. Westbrook and I will be on-air together at the Green Dragon for the apron/calendar auction at 5:30pm. Bid high, folks. It’s for charity! Cami and Rick ring the opening bell for their live online charity auction this Friday December 18th at 4pm on 30hourday.org, and they’ll be accepting bids even before livestreaming begins. You can find more info on the online auction via 30hourday.org. BONUS FUN! After Beer and Blog there will be a 30 Hour Day karaoke party with @MizD and @ChefChopper. We’re still encouraging people to bring down toys and food. And PLEASE don’t forget to bring a new, unwrapped toy and/or non perishable food to Beer and Blog. It’s important! I’ll see you on Friday! P.S. You know you want that apron…

Well folks, it’s been BnB as usual for the past month or so. But, the usual gives way to awesome in the month of December! In celebration of the most wonderful time of the year we’ve giving away gifts for 2 weeks in a row, then we’re helping Cami and Rick kick off 30 Hour Day. What’s in store for the month of December 12/4 – Gift Giveaway The perennially awesome Verso has acquired several Pokens to giveaway this Friday. What’s a Poken, you say? Only the coolest contact gadget on the planet! People use them at conferences and meet ups to trade contact information by giving each other a high-four with their Pokens. Once you get home, you pull the cute lil hand off and reveal the USB port that you can now use to download the contacts you met. Really cool. I have one and Verso has one, so now we need y’all to have em so we have other people to high-four. The Tokyo Chapter is really into them, naturally. We’re working on a couple of other gifts to give away, but you’ll just have to wait to hear details about them. RSVP on Upcoming or Calagator » 12/11 – Festive Drink Bar We’ll share more details about this one when we get final confirmation, but the idea is that we’re going to have a drink sponsor that will not only provide drinks, but also fun mixers and treats to make our own festive drinks. Each free drink is like a little present for your mouth. Ok, that sounded kinda dirty, but you get the idea
12/18 – 30 Hour Day As they put it on their site:

“30 hour day is a cockamamie scheme concocted by Cami Kaos of Strange Love Live and Rick Turoczy of Silicon Florist. The concept? Livestream for 30 hours straight in an effort to raise money for charities like Free Geek, Oregon Food Bank, and Toys for Tots. Join us December 18 and 19 for 30 hours of entertainment, interviews, and interesting goings on—while helping some very worthwhile causes. All from the cozy warmth of your own Web browser.”

We’re helping them kick off the event by holding Beer and Blog on location for 30 Hour Day at PIE. Probably will get a beer sponsor for that one. Hell yeah! 12/25 – Christmas There will be no official BnB this day, and I suspect not even a Blog and Beer. So we’ll just have to make the jokes about seeing each other next year at the 30 Hour Day event.

Taptu One Friday last April, Jason Harris came to Beer and Blog to demo Taptu’s “super-fast entertainment search engine for your mobile” to a nice crowd of app geeks wanting to see it in action. This Friday Jason is back to conduct a focus group at the Green Dragon (check to see if you qualify to participate) and to buy us beer. Yes! FREE BEER! This time around Jason is also bringing some stickers, a few little cuddly teddy bears, and a Taptu cohort Chris Moisan, VP pf Market and Product Development, who is visiting from London. Jason wrote a nice post about Taptu sponsoring Beer and Blog Portland on the corporate blog. If you come and partake in the complimentary beer, be sure to thank Jason and Chris for their generosity! I hope to see you from 4-6pm this Friday at the Green Dragon, and remember to come closer to 4pm to take advantage of the free beer.

Photo of @donpdonp (kicking it, hammock-style) Ah, summertime, that season where folks forget about eying the sky for signs of snowflakes and move on to lamenting the hellish heat waves wafting through town. Never mind that here, in the Pacific Northwest, our winter months are mild compared to most of the states East of the Rockies. And let’s also forget that our summers, while hot, rarely include the sweltering humidity slamming the South. Complaining about extreme temperatures is what we do here in the Willamette Valley, spoiled as we are to escape the highest and lowest of Mother Nature’s folly. Another thing we like to do, especially around this time of the year, is take the time to enjoy our good fortune in mild weather and our gorgeously green scenery and go camping. If you haven’t gotten the chance to pitch a tent yet this season, here’s the perfection chance: August 8-9 is the Bear and Blog at Bagby Hotsprings! The plan is to leave Saturday, August 8 at noon and return after lunch the next day. Here’s a bit more information from @donpdonp, the foilage lovin’ host of the Bear and Blog venture into the wild: It’s a 1.4 mile walk from the parking area to the hotsprings, and there are numerous overnight campsites along the trail at 2 miles and further. We’ll take the closest available camping area to the hotsprings. The site was discovered in 1880 by Bob Bagby, with a bathhouse built in 1920 and rebuilt in 1981 after burning down in 1979. The Bull of the Woods Wilderness is part of the Old Cascades, a 30-million-year-old range that predates the High Cascades. What to bring: a tent and sleeping bag or hammock and enough food and water for dinner on Saturday and breakfast and lunch on Sunday. Official tag: #bearandblog Join us this Friday on the patio of the Green Dragon to arrange for group carpooling, get more camping details, and double-dog dare fellow campers to go nekkid in the bath decks.

Go RSVP for Bear and Blog on Upcoming so @donpdonp can get some idea of a head count.  And remember to pack your bathing suit. Or not.

Yep we’re meeting at the Green Dragon. No real plans for this one, so it will be networking and socializing as usual. See you there!

The wait is over…it’s FINALLY time to celebrate a 3rd year of the wiki-awesomeness called AboutUs.org!

Portland-based burgeoning Web site indexing service AboutUs.org turned another year older last month (June 20, to be exact), and in appreciation to the community for helping their database grow to more than 14 million pages they’re buying the Beer and Blog community a beer. Happy birthday to US and AboutUs! This Friday’s free birthday beer comes right on time, too. The night before, on Thursday, is the eagerly anticipated Ignite Portland 6 (brought to us by Legion of Tech and many, many hardworking volunteers). How very poetic (and convenient) to have a nice little decomp the day after in the form of a birthday toast celebrating a successful local business. This will surely help us ease back into the progressive craziness ahead, because just you wait: demands to submit your IP7 proposals will soon be streaking your twitterstream.

Join us on the patio at the Green Dragon this Friday from 4-6. Oh! One more thing: show up sooner than later, because free beer goes fast. That’s just common Law of Free Beer sense.
RSVP on Upcoming or get your deets at Calagator

It’s that time again! Time to End Bloglessness!! Yay!!!!!! If you or someone you know has been looking to start a blog, now is the time to get your hand held as we walk through the process. We’re going to try it a little differently this time. Last time it was a 4 hour workshop helping people install a blog. This time we’re going to help people start a hosted blog and use the time to train them on how to use it.

Saturday, July 18th from 12:00-5:00pm Format Each session will be 1 hour: 15 minute presentation and 45 minutes of assisted help. During assisted help, attendees can raise their hands to get help from one of our assistants. Assistants are folks from the Portland tech scene that have done this process before who can help you with your questions. Agenda

Session 1 - Sign up for your blog 12:00-1:00pm; Session 2 - Dial in the settings for your blog 1:00-2:00pm; Session 3 - Intro to posting on your blog 2:00-3:00pm; Session 4 - How to promote your blog 3:00-4:00pm; 4:00-5:00pm will be an open help time to ask help with anything you’d like.

What to expect We are focusing on WordPress blogs for this workshop. We chose WordPress so that if your blog is going well enough and you need to graduate to a hosted blog, you’re data and experience will be compatible. By the time you leave the workshop, you’ll have a blog that is ready to go and some direction on how to connect with other local bloggers. We are expecting people from all skill levels, including the technically challenged. Everyone will be treated with respect and will be encouraged. We’ll be hosting the event at Webtrends. There are some computers available to use, but we highly recommend bringing your laptop if you have one as there likely won’t be enough computers for everyone. Help us get the word out! Most of the people we’re hoping to reach are either to far outside of our social circles or are offline completely. We could use your help in letting people know about this free workshop to get a blog up and running. We don’t care if your motivation to blog is personal, professional, or political; we’ll help you get one up and running.

Tweet the link to this page http://bit.ly/14OwQU Email this page to a friend RSVP on Upcoming and Calagator Tell someone in real life using your voice. Crazy, huh?

Why is this free? We’re hoping to make new friends and be good citizens. We don’t want to be an insular group, so we want to enable others to join. And, because we’re Portlanders inspired by other Portlanders to DIY and that Yes We Can.
Help out If you have experience with installing WordPress, we’d love to have you help answer people’s questions. Please leave us a comment below if you’re interested in helping!

Intellectual property rights is a hot topic in Portland, Oregon. Within the Beer and Blog community in particular I’ve had several conversations about steps to take in securing exclusive rights to our idea inventions, that intangible creativity from the mind. And what the heck is the process for getting something trademarked? Or patented? What qualifies as a trade secret? Wonder no longer. On July 14 from 6-8 pm Mike Cohen, an intellectual property-focused attorney at Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, will be answering these questions in a FREE off-site topic discussion. Mike will also cover general IP issues relevant to bloggers, such as copyright and trademark infringement, as well as defamation. A reception from 6-6:30 with beer, wine, non-alcoholic beverages and appetizers will be served.  Then, from 6:30-7:15 Mike will talk. After that, we have time for questions.  We’ll have the room until 8 pm. The law offices of Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt is located in the building where Oracle lives, so remember there are two entrances: 5th and 6th Ave.  If you enter from 5th Ave. you must go up the escalator and use an elevator in the bank of elevators located on the right to get to the 19th floor.  If you enter from 6th Ave. just walk to the last bank of elevators. Don’t miss this free, informative evening of expert advice and learn how to protect your work and your right to montetize your work. Rearrange your schedule if you have to and attend this Beer and Blog off-site topic event. The free drink and food that goes along with the free IP counseling? BONUS! When: Tuesday, July 14th 6-8 pm Schedule: 6-6:30 pm beverages and appetizers, 6:30-7:15 pm Intellectual Property presentation, 7:15-8 pm Q & A Location: Law offices of Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, 1211 SW 5th Ave. Ste. 1900, Portland, OR 97204 (19th floor) Speaker: Mike Cohen, Shareholder Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt Questions: Contact Nichole Enriquez: nenriquez[at]schwabe.com RSVP at Upcoming or get your deets at Calagator.

I’m TOTALLY excited about the fun in store for the Beer and Blog community this Friday, July 10. Back by popular demand is What the Shit, that Twitter dramatic reading event we all enjoyed back in May. Far too long ago, and now the wait is over. What the Shit, the dramatic over-acting of Twitter tweets, was invented by @melissalion during a moment of undoubtedly utmost genius. The reading encourages you to invite your inner cheese ball out to play and read any tweet in your very best over-the-top oratory form. Also, emoticons are spelled out and there are RULES to follow. Helpful rules such as this: If one of your tweets is read, this is a compliment. Remember, there’s no crying in Twitter dramatic readings. Chest beating and keening are okay. Yeah, I’ve got me a nice little collection of tweets in consideration for my reading. Done in my best poetry voice, I hope to make my high school theatre teacher Mr. McDonald proud this Friday. The bummer is, the limit is 6 tweets. Who am I going to cut? Soooo difficult. What the Shit starts at 5:45pm, and sign-ups start at 5:30. Go see @melissalion’s Upcoming.org event page for more information and the rules of the game. Oh, and YES! AboutUs is having it’s anniversary party at Beer and Blog this Friday, too. To celebrate, they’re sharing the love in the way of beer. What a wonderful compliment to the silliness in store for us. I hope to see you there for great fun!

One more thing: Don’t forget to spread the word on End Bloglessness, scheduled for July 18th. We all know someone who’s been talking about starting a blog, but might not be Internet savvy or involved in social networking and wouldn’t ordinarily hear about End Bloglessness. Tell them about it. We’ll set them up with a platform in one afternoon. By that way, July 18th is also @MizD’s birthday. I will be making something chocolate-y to celebrate for all to share. You don’t mind, do you? =) RSVP on Upcoming or get your deets on Calagator

Image by Slacker Mark My goodness. Summer is here already! How is it I’ve just today noticed my first fireworks stand of the holiday season? Time to slow down and smell the sulfur, I say. This Friday’s Beer and Blog is casual. As in: we have nothing planned and yet we’d like to hang out anyway. Unwind from the work week and kick of the 4th of July weekend with the usual suspects on the patio of the Green Dragon. Casual Friday style from 4-6pm, yo. Next week, however, it’s time for some fun. July 10th we’ve brought back by popular demand What the Shit, novelist @melissalion’s heelarious Dramatic Twitter Reading Series. I lamed out last time, but this time I’ve already got a couple of good tweets to orate. Time to put those high school theatre skills to use. BONUS: AboutUs is having it’s anniversary party at Beer and Blog and wants to share the love in the way of beer. For the Beer and Bloggers. Yay! Stay tuned for more info. And finally, while I’ve got your attention, I’d like to announce a date change for the hugely successful End Bloglessness. Again. (Long story.) BUT THIS TIME WE MEAN IT. On July 18th, Beer and Blog proudly continue its collective efforts to put an End to Bloglessness. We feel everyone should be polluting the Internet with our hopes, opinions, rants, and obsessions, not to mention hocking the Next Big Thing. Held at Webtrends, more details to come. Now, if you care to RSVP on Upcoming or get informed at Calagator about Casual Beer and Blog Friday, please go right ahead. Have a safe and explosive holiday weekend!

For a year now the OurPDX blog has pointed readers to the best and worst Portland has to offer online and off, engaged in transparent discussions about culture and post content, and sought to inform and entertain the fine citizens of Portland, Oregon. You might know the names of some of the authors of OurPDX from the Beer and Blog community: @morganPDX, @ahockley, @CamiKaos, @Dieselboi, @abrahamhyatt, @betsywhim. Any of those ring a bell? How about @mediaChick? Yep, I write there too. But not as often as I should, I’m afraid, but I do proudly call myself an OurPDX author. Or…maybe you don’t know them. Or me. If that’s the case then here’s your chance, because this Friday Beer and Blog is thrilled to host the 1st birthday party of OurPDX, Portland’s awesome group blog authored by 23 writers who pour their honest insights about our fair city onto the Web. Come celebrate OurPDX’s first year with cake on the patio of the Green Dragon (hopefully…rain, rain, will stay away) starting at 4pm. In fact, if the weather does cooperate, Beer and Blog will bust out the summer gear for playful fun. That means we might get to frolic in the kiddie pool, my beer and bloggie pals. Awww-yeah. Here’s hoping @portlandsun hangs around because, personally, I want my cake (on the patio) and to eat it (water pistols) too! Also, later that night, tune into a special Strange Love Live broadcast, hosted @CamiKaos and @docnormal, with as many OurPDX authors who can stay up that late. Signature SLL tiki rum drinks will be served to the writers to get them sufficiently liquored up in the hopes they’ll say embarrassing things for everyone’s amusement. I’ll be there, trying to remember that the show is, indeed, broadcasting accross the Interverse, and is, indeed, being taped for prosperity and posting later. As in inrefrutable evidence of one’s drunken, public confessions. On behalf of Beer and Blog and OurPDX, we hope you’ll join us this Friday. Won’t be the same without you! RSVP on Upcoming or get your deets at Calagator …and on a completely different but totally related note: Save the date! Saturday, July 11 is Beer and Blog’s next installment of End Bloglessness. We’ll be posting more information soon, but in the meantime please get the word out to your non-bloggie friends. You know, the ones who keep talking about wanting to blog, but never seem to get around to it, or who suffer from I-don’t-know-where-to-start-itis. In one afternoon, with much hand-holding and soothing instruction, we can help them correct the blog deficiency in their lives painlessly. And remember: only YOU can prevent bloglessness! (That just will never get old to me. EVAR.)

Big thanks to Widmer for sponsoring our After Party by donating two delicious kegs of beer!! They hooked us up with Difter Pale Ale and Widmer Hefeweizen. Give them a big thank you on Twitter @Widmer_Brothers. Also thank you to Betsy Whim for making the connection for the sponsor, Jake for driving to get them, Rick for helping, and Michele for buying lunch.

In addition to this week’s Beer and Doggies with Career Transition, we’re hosting an After Party with Open Source Bridge at the Webtrends office. OSB attendees can head over to Webtrends at 4pm, then the rest of the Beer and Bloggers will head over at 6pm. The After Party will go until 10pm and will have beer, which we’re working on a sponsor. Strange Love Live is also planning to stream a live show from the After Party. Merriment and good times will be had by all
RSVP on Upcoming or Calagator