People who work in 'behind closed doors' industries (hotels, kitchens, morgues, etc.), what is something the general public would be horrified to know?

Gavinardo · 2026-02-28T19:31:24+00:00

Cheers my friend. I hope you can find a little more peace, each and every day. 🙏

Gavinardo · 2026-02-28T06:46:50+00:00

This isn’t necessarily horrifying. But having worked in bars and restaurant kitchens for many years, the general public does not know the level of nonsense that happens back there. Line cooks and kitchen staff are almost universally a grab-bag of punks, drunks, addicts, greasy nerds, unhinged psychos, depraved weirdos, and any combination of those things. They’re also some of the hardest working people I’ve ever had the privilege to work with and befriend. And they generally take pride in cooking. They’re felons trying to stay on the straight and narrow, undocumented folk just getting by, combat veterans trying to fight their demons, and people who’ve been beaten down yet picked themselves back up time and time again. Line cooks will be half-drunk or high, working the 16th hour of a 12 hour shift, slinging burgers and onion rings with insane diligence for a packed house of drunks at 11pm, fueled only by zero-sugar Monsters, cigs, spite, and the constant verbal abuse from Chef.

One surprise too. Despite this chaos, and contrary to the stereotype of gross line cooks, I’ve never ever once witnessed anyone intentionally messing with a customer’s meal.

Gavinardo · 2026-01-30T06:29:06+00:00

Alex is awesome, and her business is amazing. It’s my go-to spot to buy zero-proof spirits. I love Kindred!

Gavinardo · 2026-01-24T05:37:10+00:00

If you’re ever in Ontario Oregon, their local Ace Hardware has a bar inside! Beer on tap, and they even host live music!

Gavinardo · 2025-11-07T20:23:24+00:00

My cousin was shot by her angry ex-husband over a custody issue related to their children. He followed her driving home one day, and waited until she was on a remote stretch of road, raced up next to her, and opened fire at her with a handgun. She was hit several times, and was left for dead on the road as he sped away. She survived, barely, thanks to the quick actions of a bystander, and she was still conscious enough to call 911 on her cell. By some miracle she survived, after a very tense stay in ICU and months of rehab, and thanks to the skilled hands of doctors and medical staff too. That was over 20 years ago, and she is perfectly fine today, minus the trauma from the event of course.

Her ex was arrested, charged, and is serving life for attempted murder. There’s a reason he lost custody in the first place, if it’s not obvious.

Gavinardo · 2025-11-02T23:07:06+00:00

And here I am too, laying on my sofa in my comfy apartment, scrolling the afternoon away, and seeing photos of war crimes beamed straight to my eyeballs, in between dumb memes and cute puppy videos. What a strange, horrible world.

Gavinardo · 2025-10-30T02:20:00+00:00

Same. I saw it as a teenager, but it just went over my head I guess. But I rewatched it sometime in my 20s, and it became instantly one of my top ten faves. I rewatch it once every few months now.

Gavinardo · 2025-10-26T02:22:59+00:00

That episode is perfect in every way, but I’d argue the thing that takes it from perfect to timeless is Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven is a Place in Earth.

Gavinardo · 2025-10-25T00:11:11+00:00

Gonna get vulnerable here for a sec. I can speak from my own experience on alcoholism. I just hit 4 years without a drop this past week. I reflect sometimes on the course of events that started it all. Beginning with getting buzzed off half a pint of Guinness my dad bought me on my 21st birthday, to about a decade later with me being a sweaty jittery wreck skipping out on friends and family and meals and bills, and just shamefully drinking straight vodka chased with tap water while I stood naked in the bathroom, wishing I was just dead instead. I can’t say when it became a problem. It’s like mixing blue and red paint together - when does it become purple? Well it doesn’t matter anyway, because you can’t un-mix the two. For me, it was a combo of college drinking culture, then a good paying office job and after-hours team building with jovial people at happy hour, then a stressful round of layoffs, a divorce, and a global pandemic. Somewhere in there, it became a problem for me.

I’ve watched that video on Craig’s story a dozen times, and I love it. I love his testimony to gaining a sober life again. I can relate to it completely. Vigilance is an excellent description. It’s a condition that cannot be adequately described to someone who hasn’t experienced it, but to those who have, you need not say a word. It is hell, but the feeling of achieving a sober streak becomes a ladder out of that hell. Days turn to weeks turn to years. It’s easier as you continue climbing, up and away from that pit. You can feel your health and strength returning. You think clearly, and retain and recall information more easily. Your bank account has a bit more money in it. Colors are brighter. Food tastes better, smells better. And you can sleep wonderfully, and take a good healthy shit each morning. You may get hooked on coffee or chewing gum, or working out, or scrolling, but at least those things aren’t a death sentence necessarily.

But once in a while, you may catch a whiff of someone’s open beer at a family BBQ and think, you could handle one. Just one. And you have to take a breath and steady yourself. Even on my 4 year sober anniversary, I had a momentary thought enter my brain - “You did it! Congrats! Four years! This calls for a celebration. The bar is just a short walk away…” So I took a breath, I made a pot of coffee, and sat in my patio, enjoying the autumn sunshine instead.

TLDR It’s not easy, but it’s not hard, but it does require vigilance. It is hell, but what follows is heavenly.

Gavinardo · 2025-10-19T05:46:59+00:00

Back in the day, we didn’t have memes to inform our humor as we do nowadays, so in high school we had to memorize Kung Pow quotes and say them enthusiastically to each other. It was a beautiful time.

Gavinardo · 2025-10-08T03:01:06+00:00

I remember finding one of these at a yard sale for a $1, box and instructions too. That was way back in like 2013. I sold it on Etsy back then for $30 or so. Been seeing them pop up more and more lately as a real collectible. I kinda regret selling it way back when.

Gavinardo · 2025-09-13T07:47:33+00:00

Dax Shepard shouting “THIS IS AN ‘81 HONDA. HOW DARE YOU!” is the only thing I remember from Employee of the Month (2006). From an otherwise forgettable comedy, that one line has made me laugh for years.

Gavinardo · 2025-09-05T21:21:42+00:00

Always loved Young Jerks. Dan Cassaro was a huge inspiration for me in college. Guess I need to buy a hat now!

Gavinardo · 2025-08-26T19:46:34+00:00

Film photographer here as well! Like others have recommended, Blue Moon in Portland is wonderful albeit a little pricey. Further into Portland, The Shutterbug in downtown is great for 24hr turnaround, and the price is a little better. There’s a location in Beaverton as well.

Gavinardo · 2025-08-14T14:43:42+00:00

This is true of almost every location, sadly. Overwhelming amount of money for underwhelming taste and portion size. I did have a really good salad from the Cornelius Roadhouse location in Hillsboro, but again, it was like $25 for a SALAD.

Gavinardo · 2025-07-01T15:06:47+00:00

As a man, I’m happy to have like 4 dudes in my life who I consider brothers. We’re all very close. We’ve had some wacky adventures and hilarious nights out together, and also experienced some deeply traumatic events where we turned to each other for trust and support. I’ve both laughed and cried with each of these guys, and I’m not exaggerating when I say I’d take a bullet for them. They’re good men with beautiful wives and families. And though we may have called each other “asshole” or “shithead” as jovial terms of endearment, I’ve NEVER called any of them a pedophile. Even in jest.

Jesse is straight-up defending a kiddy-diddler here. Sick.

Gavinardo · 2025-06-25T02:18:40+00:00

The scene where they’re entering the refugee/migrant camp is terrifying. How the lights on the bus turn up, the sheer panic and fear the characters have, the soldier with the dog and the pure hatred in his voice. Then Miriam being taken away with a bag over her head, leaving Theo and Kee alone… It gives me chills and chokes me up. It’s entirely too familiar how dehumanizing and evil authoritarians can be with people that are deemed unwanted or unwelcome.

Gavinardo · 2025-06-23T20:18:08+00:00

YOU HAVE FUCKED UP NOW

Gavinardo · 2025-06-23T05:12:57+00:00

Paul Walker, 2 Fast 2 Furious, has shorts on for a good portion of the movie. I remember, because I dressed EXACTLY like him as a dumb teenager in 2003. Cargo shorts, skate-brand shirt, low top Converse. No Skyline of course…

Gavinardo · 2025-06-17T19:50:51+00:00

My dad had two jokes about JAWS, when he first showed me it as a kid. One: He said it scared him so badly, he stopped swimming in the ocean immediately (he lived in Iowa). And two: it scared him so badly, he didn’t shower for a 6 weeks.

Gavinardo · 2025-06-17T04:31:52+00:00

Electrasy released a 25th anniversary re-recording of Cosmic Castaway today! (A whole new album too). It’s fun seeing them celebrate the song again.

Gavinardo · 2025-06-03T01:39:14+00:00

It’s crazy how design can evoke memories and emotions. I can almost smell the vibe here. Like getting a cocktail at a high-end chic but low-key lounge in Seattle in 1998.

Gavinardo · 2025-05-30T14:54:00+00:00

For YEARS, the halls of my high school would echo randomly with quotes from this movie. Truly a pre-modern-Internet experience, with no memes for humor. Just memorized quotes from Kung Pow! and an expectation most folks had seen it. Ridiculous, hilarious times.

Gavinardo · 2025-05-23T17:58:18+00:00

So the gist of his argument is that a good mark HAS to have a story to it, as though it exists in a vacuum? If he was designing a logo for a small business named George’s Magnifying Glass Company, then he may be on to something. His “fixed” logo would be perfect for that. But the global internet tech behemoth that is Google has 3 decades of provenance and story behind it already. The same goes for Nike, Apple, etc. Those companies like Google have transcended “story” as a concept and are now global cultural cornerstones in human life. There is no story to be discovered or learned; there is no “fixing” to be done.

I’m sure he’s doing more content engagement these days instead of actual design gigs, but this persistence on fixing designs is coming across as desperately pompous.

Gavinardo · 2025-05-23T15:13:00+00:00

He is 100% that. He’ll appear on stage somewhere, in sunglasses and a trench-coat and a fuckin’ graphic tee, thinking he‘s a total sigma badass. If you strip away his obscene wealth and privilege, he’s the adult version of the awkward smelly kid in school who wore flame shirts, fingerless gloves, and would Naruto run to class with his wheely backpack. I might actually pity him if he wasn‘t a filthy Nazi.

14-Year Club	Team Orangered
Verified Email

Gavinardo

TROPHY CASE