Everyone, meet Nate Bedortha! He signed on to our DDC Twit Feed a couple nights back, hitting our milestone number! 1,973rd. We like the sound of that.

Turns out he’s from Portland, so in the spirit of “how we do it” we called him up and invited him over to the shop. And he accepted! Get a good look at that guy. Hell yes. I’m glad guys like Nate Bedortha believe in us. It gives us strength. And man, what a name. Bedortha. Got a good ring to it.

So this is gonna be a little bit of a different thing for this blog. An interview, with another human, face to face. Meet Nate Bedortha, our cherished 1,973rd DDC Twit Feed Follower…

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THE OFFICIAL NATE BEDORTHA INTERVIEW:

Okay, so here we go. Okay, uh, we got Nate here…uh, uh Bedortha, right?
Yep, Bedortha.

What the fuck kind of name is that?
It’s Welsh, descended from the original Welsh “Budweirda.” Which means, “The Man from the bog.”

Sounds like a Star Wars figure.
It does. Mt family was on the boat after the Mayflower. We’ve been here since then!

Seriously?
Yes, yes. My mother’s family was on the boat after the Mayflower and my father’s on the boat after that.

Okay, so, you are officially our 1,973rd DDC Twit Feed Follower, right? What the fuck, why’d it take you so long to get on board? What is going on here?
Ha, oh man, taking this long to follow the DDC was a damn gross oversight on my part, and I sincerely apologize. I’m a serious Twitter guy, you know? I’m pretty hardcore about my Twitter. Don’t post a lot but I read a lot, cuz, the best part about it is it’s a way to stay on top of people in your field that you respect, that you might not know. Again, I’m sorry.

Stop! Shit, whatever it takes! Ha! That’s why we wanted to get you down here! Okay, so what do you do in town here?
I’m a freelance web developer. I do front-end coding and information architecture. Which means, I don’t have the chops to be a designer, or a hardcore back-end programmer, but I know a lot about web browsers and what makes them work, and tick. I know about a lot of the cool, new shit on the internet, and what it takes to make them happen.

I have a little girl, and her name is Fern Margaret. She’s a year-and-a-half. My wife is named Kristen, and she stays at home with the little one for the most part.

I have to ask you this stuff, cuz, like, what if you were some yahoo just off the street. Wait, shit, you are!
Ha!

In my investigating of you, and what you do, I noticed a pretty healthy record collection in the background of one of yer photos.
I have a serious record collection! in fact, before the kid was born, I paired it down to half, so I’m down to just under about a 1,000 pieces.

So what’s yer favorite band?
The number one band for me has to be this band from New Jersey, who are broken up now, but were called The Ergs. They were three of my best friends. I toured with them around the country three of four times, known them for over 10 years, and man, just great dudes. One of those genuine, earnest bands that…you know…you just can’t fuck with them. I spent a lot of time for them. I used to be a roadie.

Who’d you roadie for?
The Ergs, The Modern Machines from Milwaukee, a band from Seattle called The Trashies. You know, small time punk bands, playing lots of garage shows and driving all over the country.

Okay, so yer a record collector, and developer, and roadie…so where are you from?
I’m from Redmond, Oregon. Lived there the vast majority of my life. I’ve been in Portland for about 11 years now.

Okay, so, why Portland?
It’s a small town that a big city. And why not? You can live in any part of town and it feels like a small town, but you can easily get access to big city shit.

Exactly. I always say, move to Portland, and the second day in town, you’ll feel settled in. It’s not like that in a San Fran or Chicago or New York. Those places take months.
My wife and I always talk about whether or not we should live in Portland all our lives. But it’s like, there’s really no reason to leave here. No one’s got bad blood, you know? Everyone feels good. Everyone feels happy.

It’s hard to leave this place.
That’s the thing. Cuz, everyone’s happy to live here!

Tell me three kick-ass things. what are you currently diggin’ on?
The top dog in my book for what I do is Dan Cederholm of Simple Bits. He does his own design, but his big thing is handcrafted code.

So that’s someone you really look up to?
Oh, big time, big time. He’s the first guy to talk about web code as craft. This craft that you hone.

Right, so, you guys all look at eachother’s code, to see who’s got the sauce, right?
Yeah, but mainly just for inspiration. If you are going to be a good front end coder, you have to code to the design.

I like the sound of that! You know, guys like you, are a bit of mystery to me, with all this front end and back end talk. I don’t know shit about that stuff. Okay, what else you got!
Black Wine! It’s one of the cats from the Ergs, the guitar player, after they broke up he started a new band with his wife, They kind of sound like an early Mudhoney, with, uh, a girl singing half the songs? Real top notch. There gonna be in town in a couple of weeks playing at Slabtown.

Okay, you got a third thing?
There’s these books that Fern looooves. Wait, I gotta ask my wife the name of the author. (Calls her…) Just gorgeous. (She rings back.) Alright, yep, got it, thanks. Okay the books are called Wonderbear and Bunny Days. Beautiful illustrations.

There you have it, folks. Good code, good tunes and good books for youngsters from Bedortha himself. Alright, man. Good deal. ‘Friends forever’ is our policy. With that, we’re done. Get yer pile of DDC crap and get the fuck outta here!
Thanks, man! This was fun!

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SOME PROOF OF OUR AFTERNOON INTERACTIONS:

01. Draplin vs. Bedortha!
02. Getting Nate outffited with the necessary threads.

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LEAVING LATE TONIGHT FOR THIS ONE: Brimfield! Absolute last second decision and can’t wait to get there and neck deep in some treasures.

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TONIGHT, RIGHT HERE IN PORTLAND: Designspeaks with Frank Chimero. This one is shaping up to be incredibe. Don’t miss it. Come and learn something, for a change. Take some notes in yer Field Notes, and get a whole bunch of Chimero all over you. Really looking forward to it.

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ON THE PLAYER:

01. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People
02. Drive-BY Truckers - The Big To Do
03. High On Fire - Her Blessed Black Wings