The only personal experience I have ever had with a “matchmaker” was the intake interview I had with a 20-something sales associate at It’s Just Lunch many years ago. I filled out a form, she briefly interviewed me, and then proceeded to set me up with dates over the next 12 months. Although she did set me up with some pretty interesting men, there was no real coaching or follow up after that initial intake interview. The only real advice she gave me was on what not to talk about on the first date: sex, religion, politics. She set me up and I was on my own.

So you’ve decided a subcompact vehicle will no longer fit the bill—you need something bigger. You’d like a wagon, but nothing fits the bill in your price range. Although you don’t want to admit it, a minivan—a dirty seven-letter word to many auto enthusiasts—would be super practical, but most are bigger, thirstier, and more expensive than you want. So what’s a small-car fan concerned with gas mileage, price, and driving enthusiasm to do? I’d say drive a Mazda5.

The Mazda5 has been on the U.S. market since 2006, but the 2012 has been completely redesigned. Like most of Mazda’s lineup, it’s quite sporty and has a distinctive appearance. From the outside, one of the most interesting features is the unique waves in the sheet metal. It’s something Mazda refers to as “Nagare,” or “flow.” You can see them in the various photos here. At the vehicle’s front, there’s the corporate Mazda perma-grin look, with the rest of the car/van/wagon/whatever looking modern and attractive. My test model wore Copper Red Mica, and I got a surprising amount of compliments on the hue.

Like a traditional modern minivan, this vehicle has a rear hatchback and dual sliding doors allowing for super-easy entry and exit for both people and cargo. Although the interior isn’t as large as some minivans (I use the term “mini” lightly these days, since a Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna are far from miniature), it still features a lot of room; certainly more than most sedans and likely many SUVs. There is seating for six: The front two seats are very comfortable, especially on longer trips; the middle two are still pretty comfy. The rears, however, can be very tight—nearly unusable for an adult—especially if the middle two seats are not slid forward.With them slid forward, it’s a bit more manageable.

On a kid-related note, a neighbor of mine, who has two kids of his own, currently has a 2010 Mazda5 (previous bodystyle, still a six-passenger). He pointed out an interesting fact: Mazda5s only have the LATCH system (Lower Anchors and Tethers for CHildren—a way to attach kids’ car seats) in the middle two seats. The far back seats only offer the three-point seatbelts. Just a heads up for those of you with rugrats.

The Mazda5 has cargo and storage aplenty. There are lots of cubbies in the front passenger area, the middle row of seats have bottoms that flip up revealing storage areas, and there’s even a flip-out rear center console. The last row of seats fold down completely flat. The middle row also compacts so the entire area is nearly flat—something those looking to carry maximum cargo will like.

There are all kinds of interior niceties, too: automatic climate control, a more-than-adequate sound system with aux and Sirius capabilities, and cruise and stereo controls on the steering wheel. Plus, all of this is very intuitive and easy to use. The overall interior quality is outstanding, like all of Mazda’s current lineup, and everything is very solidly made using high-grade materials. My test model had the two-tone tan/black interior which also looked very handsome.

The highlight of this compact minivan-wagon-cargo-people mover, however, is the driving experience. (Can you believe you just read that about something with two sliding doors?) Mazda prides itself on its “Zoom Zoom” driving dynamics, and that includes this vehicle. Best of all, for the fringe lunatics such as myself, the Sport model is available with a six-speed manual transmission. This isn’t just a manual transmission, it’s a damn good (or darn good if the kids are around) manual transmission. Very smooth shifting, nice clutch uptake, great action. Heck, I might have kids just so I can buy a shift-it-yourself family hauler.

Whether you decide on the manual or choose the available five-speed automatic, both transmissions are coupled to the new 2.5-liter 157 horsepower VVT engine making a healthy 163 ft./lbs. of torque put to the front wheels. This smooth-revving engine never felt underpowered, and there’s enough torque to really pull at low RPMs. (Can your minivan get rubber in second gear?) Frankly, the Mazda5 is downright fun to drive. And if you’re like me and already geeking out about driving a minivan with a six-speed manual, you’ll likely geek out more when you realize its chassis is equally great. Although my Sport model came with the 16″ wheels (the Touring and Grand Touring models come with 17s), handling was still very good. And since the 16″ tires have more sidewall, the ride is very comfortable and amazingly quiet. However, I get all tingly thinking about slapping a set of 17s on with some sticky rubber, possibly lowering the vehicle a couple of inches, and taking to an autocross just to see the looks on people’s faces. I bet it’d do pretty well, too. What else would you expect from the company that makes the Miata, RX-8, and MAZDASPEED3?

Let’s put it this way: Think of the Mazda5 less as a family-hauling minivan and more like a Mazda3 limousine. It has the moves of a Mazda3 but with the ability to seat more and/or haul more. Plus, it won’t kill you at the gas pump, either. With the six-speed manual, the Mazda5 is rated at 21 city and 28 highway—not bad for a six-passenger vehicle.

The Mazda5 was full of surprises for me. It was surprisingly comfortable, surprisingly fun to drive, and surprisingly inexpensive. This Sport model came in at $20,470 with options. If you don’t get the $50 rear bumper guard and $430 satellite radio, you can whittle the price down to $19,990 including destination.

I can wholeheartedly say that I really dig the 2012 Mazda5’s combination of practicality, fun, and price. It’s a great option for those looking to upsize a bit, not get too big, and still have a vehicle that’s plenty of fun to drive—sliding doors and all.

Andy Lilienthal is an automotive blogger who runs Subcompact Culture. Follow him on Twitter @Subcompct.

Portland Startup Weekend is a 54-hour event that inspires teams to create a minimum viable product – such as a web or mobile app – that can anchor a company. The aim is to create an environment where software developers, graphic designers and business developers can come together and build a product that can launch a startup.

Participants give informal, 60-second pitches on the first night of the event. Together, they choose the most viable ideas and form teams around them. The rest of the weekend is spent developing the concepts into product with the help mentors from Portland’s community. The weekend culminates with demonstrations in front of an panel of judges and potential investors.

“Portland is hotbed of startup activity at the moment, and Startup Weekend is a great opportunity for would-be software entrepreneurs to find a co-founder, build a prototype, and launch a venture,” said Skip Newberry, President of the Software Association of Oregon. “Startup Weekend at OBTC in Beaverton was a great success this past spring, and Startup Weekend Portland promises to bring together an even larger group of entrepreneurs.”

Portland Startup Weekend’s Platinum sponsors are Urban Airship, Intel, and Activetrak. Gold Sponsors include Puppet Labs, OTBC, BrandLive, Launchside, Empirical, KickoffLabs and PUSH Your Business.

Tickets can be purchased online at http://portland.startupweekend.org/tickets. Discount code “INTEL” brings the ticket price to $50.

Founded in 2007 in Boulder, Colorado, Startup Weekend is a nonprofit that has brought together a worldwide community of entrepreneurs that have launched hundreds of startups, including Portland companies Mugasha, Taggr, CPUusage and AudioName. Learn more at http://portland.startupweekend.org.

The first of these crimes happened early Saturday morning, leaving a, unidentified 23-year-old Portland man in critical condition at OHSU after being stabbed multiple times. Just after 2am, Gresham Police officers responded to 17904 E Burnside St in Portland on the report of a male stabbing victim. No suspects were found at the scene and the victim was transported to the hospital with multiple, serious stabs wounds.

Later in the morning, officers were flagged-down on SE Stark St on the report of a domestic disturbance. During this investigation, officers learned that 2 men were most likely involved in the stabbing from earlier in the morning. Javier Santa Cruz-Ramirez and Erick Marciel where taken into custody on charges unrelated to the stabbing. The investigation is on-going and anyone with any information about the incident is encouraged to contact the Gresham Police tipline at 503-618-2719.

The second of these crimes occurred later on Saturday in North Portland when officers were called to the scene where multiple victims were suffering from stab wounds in the area of NE 15th Ave and Mason. Arriving officers located 21-year-old Brian Denault and 22-year-old Steven Parks  and quickly summoned medical crews to treat and transport. Denault was released after a short hospital stay while Parks remained hospitalized on Sunday with serious injuries.

The investigation revealed that 3 individuals approached the victims on Saturday evening when an altercation occurred. The suspects were described as 2 African American and 1 Hispanic males. Officers later located 3 men matching the suspect descriptions and took them into custody. After further investigation, 1 of the 3 detained suspects, a 17-year-old male, was arrested and lodged at a juvenile detention facility.

Finally, on Sunday afternoon just before 1pm, Portland Police officers responded to a call of shots fired in the area of NE 18th Ave and NE Dekum St. Arriving in the area, they located shell casing but no victims. Officers determined through their investigation that an African American man in his 20′s was seen in a black sedan firing several shots at 2 people before fleeing in an unknown direction. As of Sunday evening, Portland Police officers do not yet have a suspect or any additional information on the crime. If you have any information, you are asked to contact Detective Goodwin at 503-823-2079 or Detective Merrill at 503-823-2092.

While all 3 of these crimes may be gang related, they are not believed to be connected to each other in any way.

The officer located 2 cyclist that had both been struck by the SUV. One was severly injured and pronounced dead at the scene by arriving medical personnel. The other injured cyclist is a 17-year-old that was transported to an area hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The names of these victims have not yet been released to the media.

A search for the suspect began right away with a large area being cordoned off and canine teams brought in. Officers soon found the abandoned suspect vehicle. Later in the morning, Portland Police officers arrested 18-year-old Ashawntae Rosemon on charges that include manslaughter and DUI.

This story will be updated with more details will be released as they become available.

PHP Fog also announced that they will be changing the company name to App Fog, with plans to support additional software tools and programming languages. PHP Fog remains the name of their primary product as of today.

From the PHP Fog blog, regarding their latest round of funding:

What does this mean for PHP developers? You will soon have access to more tools and languages than ever before. If you love PHP Fog, but ever wanted to try out Node or Ruby, you will be able to do so in a familiar way and pricing.

What does this mean for non-PHP developers? We will soon be able to provide you a compelling PaaS that fits your needs better than any other PaaS out there. We have spent a lot of time working on aspects of PaaS that other companies left behind. Git deploy, great UX, billing, the ability to have dedicated servers and share many of your own applications on those servers without worrying about sharing resources with strangers.

The entire blog post can be found here. You can also be they’ll be hiring in order to put their new investment to work. Watch their jobs page for more. More info on applying can be found here.

A Statement from Senate Democrats:

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced today that he will appoint Senate Democratic Conference Secretary Patty Murray, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (JSC). Senator Reid has appointed Senator Murray as the co-chair of the JSC. Speaker Boehner will appoint the other co-chair.”

“I have great faith in Senator Murray as the co-chair of the committee. Her years of experience on the Senate Budget and Appropriations committees have given her a depth of knowledge on budget issues, and demonstrated her ability to work across party lines. Senators Baucus and Kerry are two of the Senate’s most respected and experienced legislators. Their legislative accomplishments are matched only by their records of forging strong bonds with their Republican colleagues.”

The full statement is available by clicking here.

Alli Sports and JC Penney have teamed up with ThePortlander to offer 2 free tickets to a lucky reader. The ticket package includes entrance to all 4 days of the event, the Saturday night concert and passes to the JC Penney VIP lounge!

To enter, just comment below and let us know your favorite, or your kid’s favorite, place to skate in the Portland metro area. We’ll pick 1 (one) commenter at random on Tuesday, August 9th at 12pm noon. Make sure to use your REAL email so we can contact you for a mailing address if you win.

OHSU President Joe Robertson: ”Sen. Hatfield was a man of conviction and vision who left his mark on many of us here at Oregon Health & Science University. He led the charge to fund medical research and helped transform OHSU into a leading health and science university. The School of Nursing, the Vollum Institute for Biomedical Research, the Hatfield Research Center and the skybridge that links OHSU with the Veterans Affairs Medical Center are all examples of investments he championed that have brought healing, teaching, discovery and outreach together at OHSU. We will miss his wisdom and courage.”

Republican leader and businessman Allen Alley:  “The entire state is saddened to hear of the passing of Mark O. Hatfield, a quintessential Oregonian and a true national statesman. In his exemplary career as Republican U.S. Senator, Governor, Secretary of State and State Representative, he will be remembered for his courage and conscience in a life of public service for the people of Oregon and the country. In five decades of service, Mark Hatfield rose to be the ‘greatest generation’s’ greatest Oregon leader. He set a high standard for personal conduct, leadership and ability to work across party lines to solve problems and find balanced solutions. The Oregon Republican Party and all Oregonians mourn the loss of this Oregon statesman. We offer our condolences to Antoinette and members of the Hatfield family.”

Senator Jeff Merkley: “I am deeply saddened to hear about Senator Hatfield’s death. Senator Hatfield took courageous positions of conscience — from opposing the Vietnam War to advocating for the abolition of the death penalty – in the face of substantial political opposition. He inspired many to public service, encouraging them to work to do what is right rather than what is convenient or popular. Senator Hatfield played an enormous role in making Oregon what it is today. His hands were at work in the development of so many institutions we treasure as Oregonians, from the Oregon Health and Sciences University, to the Mark Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, to the Opal Creek Wilderness, to name just a few. He should also be remembered, in this age of bitter partisanship, for his bipartisan and gracious diplomacy. I have greatly admired Senator Hatfield since I had the chance to be one of the hundreds of interns he hosted over his decades of public service. Tonight, a great man has passed from among us and we will miss him greatly. Mary and I will be holding his wife and partner Antoinette and his family in our prayers.”

Senator Patty Murray of Washington: “When I was first elected, Senator Hatfield and Senator Byrd invited me to lunch to help me get acclimated to the Senate and the Appropriations Committee. They talked to me about the great traditions of civility, and about the need for members to put politics aside to work together for the good of our country. I vividly remember the bipartisan hearing we held in Portland on the Columbia River Crossing, and I learned first-hand from Senator Hatfield that public servants are most effective when they put their states and their constituents above their party and politics. Senator Hatfield not only talked about serving his country, he lived it. For five decades he dedicated himself to public service, and his state and our region will reap the benefits of his life’s work for generations to come.”

Governor John Kitzhaber: ”No one has had a more profound impact on Oregon in the last half century than Mark Hatfield. We’ve lost a true statesman whose legacy lives on in his countless contributions to Oregon’s quality of life. Senator Hatfield’s moral compass, independence and willingness to reach across the aisle are an inspiration to me and countless Oregonians.”

Former Senator Gordon Smith: ”History should record that Mark O. Hatfield was Oregon’s greatest public servant of the 20th century. If Oregon had a Mt. Rushmore for its public servants, Senator Hatfield would be on it. His uniquely independent voice allowed him to represent the best interests of Oregonians even though, at times, his conscience led him to tack into the political winds as a statesman. The day I was sworn in as a U.S. senator, he said to me ‘If you are faithful to your family and your God, you’ll do right by your country.” Clearly, this is a creed Mark lived by. Senator Hatfield built his legacy by staying true to his beliefs, even if that meant standing alone. While I have lost a friend and a valued mentor, Oregon and our nation have lost a dedicated public servant and a true gentleman.”

Senator Ron Wyden: “Oregon has lost a great son. The United States Senate has lost one of its former giants. The nation has lost a man who represented honesty and decency. And I have lost a very good friend. Senator Hatfield was a colleague and friend to many who still serve in the United States Senate and he was a hero to a generation of Oregonians who came to admire him for his independence and principles. We will remember him as someone who was universally respected and whose word was his bond. Senator Hatfield was never one to be driven by party affiliation or ideological litmus tests. He was religious but not intolerant. Idealistic but not naïve. A politician but not partisan. He was willing to stand alone, but never one to grandstand. I know that all Oregonians join me in offering condolences to his wife, Antoinette, and his four children, Elizabeth, Mark Jr., Theresa and Visko.”

This year’s pre-season poll has Oklahoma #1, with 42 first place votes, and Alabama #2 with 13 first place votes. At #3, Oregon had 2 first place votes. LSU is ranked #4, also with 2 first place votes. Oregon will open their season against LSU at Cowboys Stadium on September 3rd for a national TV audience.

The only other Pac-12 school in the pre-season rankings is Stanford at #6. USC is ineligible for the post season and thus not in the rankings.

Get all your Oregon Duck fan gear from Amazon.com by clicking here.