The Archives: Life and Culture
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October 31st, 2012
The Art of Cornering
I’ve been racing cyclocross in the Masters category for the past four seasons. I’ve spent a lot of time on the road, but wanted to get back in to racing and felt ‘cross would be a good place to start. Cyclocross requires a mix of fitness, bike handling, and technique. Just as Stephen pointed out before, being strong across all…
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October 26th, 2012
Job Openings: Front-End and Back-End Web Developers
Have you been looking for a chance to join the Substance team? Well, your chance has come! That is, if you’re a Front-End Web Developer or Back-End Web Developer…
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October 26th, 2012
Bike Commute Challenge 2012 Results
We are self-admitted fans of bicycles. Through our work on sites like Ride Oregon, racing cyclocross on the weekends, or just using bikes as a great source of transportation, we really like getting around on two wheels. The city of Portland is also a big fan of getting around on two wheels… so much so that every September The Bike Transportation…
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August 11th, 2011
Winning on the uphills, downhills and flats
Winning doesn’t just happen on the uphills. Winning happens on the entire ride.
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August 9th, 2011
Doing Well by Doing Good – in memory of Ray Anderson
I didn’t know who Ray Anderson was until I saw him speak at the Forward07 conference here in Portland. Ray captivated the audience with his story, and responded to every question with a thoughtful, insightful answer. I was awed by his ability to draw us in with only his words and his personality (no PowerPoint, no slides, only the man…
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June 20th, 2011
Painting the undersides of stairs
There’s this scene toward the end of some after-school special I saw sometime in the 80′s where the main dude is painting some steps in front of a house and a father-figure person tells the main dude that he’s really going to make a name for himself and be successful because he’s painting the underside of the steps. Something about…
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May 24th, 2011
Reach the Beach 2011
It’s amazing what a little peer pressure can get you to do (or What I Learned from Riding Reach the Beach).
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March 24th, 2011
Nine Burgers In…
Back in January we decided to sacrifice ourselves for the betterment of the Portland burger community. What started innocently enough with one (mediocre) burger, now we’re nine burgers in and we’ve had the opportunity to experience the good, the bad, and the bacon.
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January 6th, 2011
Substance Burger Challenge
It started innocently enough. We decided to have our annual “Lunch Out Before the Holidays” Lunch at Foster Burger. From there, things have quickly escalated to become the Substance Burger Challenge.
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October 11th, 2010
2010 Substance Bike Commute Challenge Results
Here in Portland, the month of September is beautiful. This could be why the Bike Commute Challenge takes place then… what better way to encourage commuting by bicycle than some beautiful weather to enjoy the experience. We had six of our eight employees participating in the category of Business and Non-Profit (5 – 24 employees). Many of us bike to work…
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October 6th, 2010
Installing Windows: Be Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
Lessons you can apply to home improvement, to work, and to life.
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September 28th, 2010
Some Business Advice for _______
Customer retention can cost companies less than customer acquisition. But how many reward long-term customers instead of offering promotional fees to new customers?
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April 6th, 2010
5,225 pounds of Beans and Potatoes
This past Friday the Substance crew teamed up with some friends and colleagues to volunteer at the Oregon Food Bank. We had a fun (and rewarding) time helping bag potatoes and beans – 5,225 pounds of them! We helped pack enough food to provide 4,019 meals for people in need and each volunteer was responsible for producing 167 meals in…
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January 5th, 2010
The Great 2009 Substance Recap
Can you believe it? Another year in the record books, and what do we have to show for it? Well, plenty. — February 2009 — Recognizing the changing weather trends for Portland as just one effect of global climate change, we had the opportunity to help do something about it. Working with the visionaries at ClimatePath, we helped rebrand and…
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October 1st, 2009
Bike Commute Challenge Podium Results and Jersey Winners
From September 1st to September 30th, the cyclists of Substance participated in the 2009 Bike Commute Challenge, a “friendly competition to see who can get more people biking to work in September” organized by the Bicycle Transportation Alliance. And while the BTA stresses the “friendly competition” aspect, let’s face it: there are still winners and losers, the thrill of victory…
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April 1st, 2009
DO betterFUNNER!!!!!Editor’s Note: We had changed the site theme for April 1st. So if this post doesn’t make sense on April 2nd or beyond, it’s because the normal theme has been reinstated. We’ve been starting to feel like with the whole Econopocalypse (or Econogeddon, if you prefer), GMtastrophe, and general un-funness going on in the world that maybe, just maybe, we’re…
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February 10th, 2009
I wanna rock all night, and party every Monday
Introducing a new feature in the Substance digital conversation… music. mixtape.findsubstance.com This week marks the first Substance Monday Mixtape. Yes, it was two days ago… where were you? If you weren’t at mixtape.findsubstance.com, you missed out. But don’t worry, you’ve got five more days before we update it again. Plus, we’ll be archiving them each week, so you’ll always be able to…
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November 25th, 2008
Thanksgiving 2008
We have a lot to be thankful for. Our health and our families, of course. We’re thankful for the people we get to share the long table with. We’re thankful for the lessons we’ve learned this year; there’s always an opportunity to do better. And we’re thankful for all the interesting people we’ve had the pleasure and honor to meet.…
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October 22nd, 2008
The life and times of Substance
A few months ago we got a Flip camera for the office in order to show what goes on at SWHQ in moving pictures. Well, here’s your chance to get a view into our world, starring the cast and crew of Substance. Substance Moving Day Erin handled the Flip during moving day, showing our exit strategy from SWHQ 2.0 and invasion of…
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September 18th, 2008
Progress on SWHQ 3.0
Above: The second Substance Long Table under construction Things have been a bit quiet here on the site, but not because we haven’t had stuff going on. We’ve just been spending our free time (as well as much of our non-free time) getting Substance World Headquarters 3.0 (SWHQ 3.0) ready for business. As you can see above, Todd is in…
This was going around the office yesterday... KPCB Internet Trends 2013 - http://t.co/Y1LsvDzwuk
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