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I'm watching "who killed the electric car?"

ON THE EVE OF A STIMULUS PACKAGE FOR THE AMERICAN AUTO INDUSTRY...

TOO LITTLE TOO LATE...CRACKHEADS.  

THEIR CRACK IS OIL, THEY DON'T DESERVE TO BE BAILED OUT BY THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AGAIN.

they have had their chances to change with the future.  from illegally pulling electric street cars off the road across the country in cities like san francisco and minneapolis 60 or so years ago to build their industrial powerhouse in Detroit, they've been scammed by the oil industry over the years all the way to flirting with their own funeral today.

believable. who would've thought that oil, internal combustion, and the u.s. auto makers would be intertwined with ulterior motive to keep each other in business?  gee! apparently the u.s. consumer is only beginning to figure this one out.  

just a couple random thoughts during the film:

just as the EV, the electric car, was literally pulled off the road by GM they bought Hummer.

fuel cell is the mechanical rabbit.

if you haven't seen this film, you need to. we all need to.

fuel cell uses three to four times more energy than electric.

hydrogen is a much tougher alternative fuel than any other fuel used...it will be 15 years before hydrogen cells will be used...

I'm probably the only one who hadn't yet seen this film.

I'll stop now...otherwise I'd be spending all afternoon explaining what you already know.

Who killed the EV

just a great song.

03 Fearless

Pink Floyd

You say the hill's too steep to climb 
chiding
You say you'd like to see me try 
Climbing 
You pick the place and I'll choose the time 
And I'll climb 
The hill in my own way 
Just wait a while for the right day 
And as I rise above the tree lines and the clouds 
I look down 
Hear the sound of the things you said today 

Fearlessly, the idiot faced the crowd 
Smiling 
Merciless, the magistrate turns 'round 
Frowning 
And who's the fool who wears the crown? 
And go down in your own way 
And every day is the right day 
And as you rise above the fear-lines in his brow 
You look down 
Hear the sound of the faces in the crowd 

Close Encounters of the Third Rock Kind...

puns are usually so awful.  THAT title on the other hand...awful!  he he!

drove out to the black hills on oct 31st. headed up to Devil's Tower late on the 1st. back to the Black Hills on the 3rd.  headed home on the 4th...caught the Badlands on the way home.  Super Tuesday=Super driving for a f'n long time for me and Gale.  A friend of mine put her phone up to the speaker while listening to Barack's acceptance speech so I could hear it first hand while we were driving home!  Very cool.  but, I really wanted to hear and see it for my self.  who woulda thought that this election would've been decided by 9pm central on the very day of the election?

back to the trip report.

jumped into the civic and enjoyed 35mpg split between two people over the course of the about 1800 miles for the trip.  and, with gas prices at $2.20, not a bad deal for the budget for a six day vacation!  so 1800/35= just over 50 gallons x 2.20 = about $110/2 = about $55/person!!  nice.  that's about one dinner out for two (without vino!).  Needless to say, we didn't drink any wine over the weekend, either.  AND, this time, we stayed away from drinkin' a bunch of beers every night.  learned the hard way during climbing trips with that one.  sucks to ruin a climbing day due to too much drinking the night before! right, matt...jon...?

All the campgrounds in the Black Hills were...CLOSED!...ridiculous luck with closed campgrounds at the end of the campground season this year.  same thing happened in Yosemite.  but, with some creative thinking, good things reared their head during those dark and trying times...I still can't believe Palin said, "When Putin rears his head..."  That's some pretty funny stuff.  Thank God or whoever that she's not our f'n V.P.!  The first campground we ended up staying at was Sylvan Lake, same one we stayed at, Matt.  The gate was closed, but not locked! so we opened it, drove through, and closed it behind us! perfect! camped for free there.  did some climbing around Lake Sylvan in the Hills the next day.  drove out to Devil's Tower that night.  had a contact of a place to stay but found out late that, again, since it was so late in the season, the folks who ran the place were on vacation.  they offered up the land to camp on which was very cool.  But, Gale and I got creative, found a closed KOA cabin with an open door!  stayed there for two nights...for free! sweet! 

climbing Devil's Tower.  get the new guidebook.  the one we had is not a good reference...

great ledges and solid new bolts at each station...very nice. 

pitch 1: either a class III/IV approach on the ramp or a 5.6 pitch. we opted for the ramp approach.  should've woke up sooner and done the first pitch.  ended up wasting 45 minutes trying to sort through the ramp approach.

pitch 2: 5.6, 60'. I led this one.  some fixed pitons, some chimney stuff.  fun climb as long as you're not wearing the backpack.  will haul it next time with the rope trailing.

pitch 3: 5.7? no...5.8.  wullfie led this one, thank god.  I would've been able to do it, but it would've been a solid lead for me.  following, carrying that f'n backpack, was awful.  shoulder width crack to the right with gear placements in a crack to the left.  gotta throw your entire right side into the crack.  I couldn't get my shoulder in the crack due to the f'n backpack which made my ass hang out pulling me off the entire pitch. lot of smearing and stemming.  final move on the pitch is a doozy.

pitch 4: 5.5 wulffie led this one.  pretty straightforward. touch placements during the first 20' or so. but, that's the hard part of the pitch. lost a cam in this one.  overcammed and locked for good.  oh well, part of the deal! nice to have a solid piece of pro fixed in the rock!  hopefully folks will just use it for a while and not pull it.  good luck trying to get that piece out, though. finishes nice.

pitch 5: 5.6 I led this one.  creepy chimney deal with a huge overhang at the end.  bomber blind holds to finish. 

the jump traverse.  interesting move.  some do really jump it! no need. angled slab to jump off of is not ideal.  creepy crawly little step down, super exposed breath taker. :o

that's where out climb ended! from this point there's a 30min hike up to the summit.  we ran straight into darkness! shitty! we had to rappel from there rather than get to the top.  we'll have to summit another day.  so, you'd think that the hard part was over. but, of course, not the case...

rappel 1:  drop down to the next ledge...rope would not pull! SHIT! wulffie took the lead in climbing the rope using a reverso backed up with a prussik while I waited for the problem to just be fixed.  head lamps on, aliens watching and laughing...the wind started to blow HARD.  Wulffie gets back to the ledge (about a 120' rappel) thinking since he dislodged the damn knot from a crack that the rope would pull.  NOT THE CASE! ROPE WAS STILL STUCK! had to return to the top of the rap again.  he flipped the rope from off to the right of the nose to the front of the nose.  rapped down again!  rope pulled. bravo.

no problems on the 2nd and 3rd raps. semi-flat ground felt good and not as f'n windy! the winds were 40-50 mph up there actually blowing us over!  made for a tough rope toss...but that worked out just fine.

started the approach at about 11am. back to the car at about 9pm.  ridiculous...as usual doing a climb for the first time.  all in all, a great experience and great climb. after all, it's fricken Devil's Tower, man!

finished with beers, a bacon cheeseburger, some pool and a nap in the bar chair.  mmmm. perfect. and back to the free cabin we went! woohooo!

headin' back to the hills the next morning after a hearty breakfast in good ole Hulett, Wyoming!  had some car trouble that was easily remedied with new spark plugs and wires, one plug of which had been seized in the cylinder ever since I owned the vehicle! came out just fine! that was such a relief. the ole civic is running better than ever now!

returned to the hills, driving through Spearfish and Deadwood.  awesome towns! they feel more old west than the old west!  hiked up to the top of Harney's Peak, the highest point east of the Rockies all the way to the Pyrenees!  camped at Sylvan lake again, FREE, of course.  headed back to MPLS including the Badlands loop, a great little scenic off-shoot worth the while, about 2 total hours.  got back into Minneapolis by 11:30pm, in time for 2 shots and two beers to celebrate the end of the current administration and the beginning of the audacity of hope.

here's some photos!

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the media's ulterior motive.

how often do you think about what the media would do without a close race?  ever ask anyone how often they think about it?  I, for one, would definitely not watch cnn as much as i have for the last month or so...maybe even 6 months?...if the race wasn't  portrayed as close. or is it really close? don't they have to give each candidate the same amount of coverage?  it's interesting to me that they have the market that they have.  where would capitalism be if a runoff voting system in a multi-party system was the system we were using?  there would definitely be some HUGE HUGE money lost on the major media network, which is also a HUGE HUGE industry in the u.s.

so, do you think a multi-party system with a run-off voting system would be more resilient?

I do.

but, gosh, somehow, someway, the media would make sure that we would believe that the country would be losing money, right?

just another snippit of what goes on in my brain.  round and round I go.

one more thing.

dear vox,

My plan has been to move to Canada if Obama is not victorious over McCain for quite a while now...maybe about a year.  now, i feel more strongly about palin becoming vice president and moving to canada as a result.

I just saw Palin during an interview after someone mentioned on CNN that he'd like to see Palin run for president in 4 years. made me feel nauseated.

sincerely yours,

patrick

Mr. Powell says it well.

Colin Powell endorses Obama @ Meet the Press, he makes very convincing case for Obama, must watch!!

eastern sierras for a spell

headed out from home on a wednesday morning and returned late sunday evening...and all this while using absolutely no vacation time and since I worked a double just prior to the trip, my check for the pay period was even a little more than usual.  how 'bout that? I'll take it.  As you can see, I'm still pretty excited about this whole nursing gig.

The area that Matt and I explored was near Mammoth Lakes and Bishop California.  An amazing area that remains wild for the most part for a very interesting reason.  Much of it is managed by the National Forest Service and The Bureau of Land Management since much of it is not easily developable as you will see in the photos.  But, much of the developable area is also managed by The Los Angeles Sewer and Water Department which may sound a bit weird.  Back in the 50's or so, Los Angeles really needed water.  The Eastern Sierras have a lot of water.  In order to control the water resources they had to claim management of the area which at the time was incredibly intrusive and really pissed off the locals, damaging the local economy and it's future quite a bit.  NOW!!! the land is still undeveloped, water is scarce for development due to the water pipeline shooting water to Los Angeles and out of the area, and there is no Target.  But, this is good!  The wilderness is, for the most part, still very wild! camping is allowed pretty much everywhere!  it may be discouraged where it is legal to do so, but still legal none-the-less!  there are also many places to camp that are managed and they charge as little as $10/night per vehicle with no vehicle permit necessary.  amazing in this country, as in the U.S., to have such a beautiful area still be so wild and relatively free.  imagine the hidden secrets of free camping in national forest lands near alpine country, near the desert, near rock, rivers, and waterfalls, etc that this place holds.  well, I can't.  maybe I'm just a nut who gets really excited about all this stuff and it's not quite what you sit around and daydream about...correction...most likely I'm just a nut.  Anyway...here are some pretty cool photos of our excursion...

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nyt op ed why mccain, well, sucks.

too late to represent the majority of the country...

the balance between being a leader or a sheep...or a puppet...not an easy position to be in.

mccain knows that he can fool the country on so many levels...he has, he is, and he will

this article is great.

a couple thoughts on Palin:

they both involve her God.

Is the war in Iraq part of God's plan?  Are we fighting a "Holy War" in the Middle East?

Sarah Palin: War in Iraq is "God's Plan"

o.k., that's f'n really scary.

and here she is defending this speech...click on the photo of her on the lower left.

and, is it her God's plan to create the natural gas pipeline in Alaska?

Sarah Palin: Alaskan Pipeline is "God's Will"

well, presumably, her audience is quite specific to the God they know and love being at the church where she was raised and saved.  I've heard God used as a generic term to represent a blanket for safekeeping as she hopefully means for it to be used in these two videos...of course, I've heard some very remarkable leaders refer to God for these very things, as we all have heard.  

This radical right wing Christian view does not represent the populous of the United States.  Separation of church and state is very important and is becoming more and more vital to a healthy United States considering we, the U.S. citizens as a collective, envelope just about every religion or non-religion the world over.  I "pray" she continues to include God's will in the new maverick Republican platform that she has become such a huge part of over the last two weeks because it exposes what we should really fear which is what has imploded all other empire's since the beginning of time: a self-righteous world view.  If the u.s. votes for that idea, well, then it's time to move on just like our ancestors did.  there's no winner of holy war.

The Republicans should be furious with McCain's choice of Palin for Vice President.  Again, the Republican party is making it so difficult to simply be Republican.

UPDATE/ADDENDUM...

Matt Damon really kicks ass...check this out.

Damon Condemns Palin

on a lighter note and for a little balance...here's more on the Superior Hiking Trail

The superior hiking trail is the best trail I've ever hiked hands down.  The views are gorgeous...not as amazing as on many other trails out there which is the biggest downfall of the trail.  But, if you've seen some of my photos, you know that the views can be absolutely amazing even when lacking an ocean or mountains.  Witnessing firsthand the highest reserve of fresh water in the world emptying into the largest freshwater lake in the world is an amazing sight.  the trail itself is very tough, much of it leading straight up or down steep inclines resembling The Appalachian Trail and unlike the classic switchback trails of the west.  The water is plentiful, of course, each campsite being in close proximity to a water source.  The water sources are usually rivers or streams.  Each river or stream creates a valley.  Each valley sets the stage for The trail is clearly marked with little to no chance of taking a wrong turn.  There are even signs along the way highlighting specific environmental hazards or things unique to the area, i.e. poison ivy patches or bog life.  The entire trail is sustained by a volunteer force local to the area of each leg of the journey.  The wildlife has its certain sense of the wilderness, but the risk of running into any unfriendly creatures is low.  There are little to no poisonous creatures with the exception of the honey bee and mosquitos, depending on your sensitivity to them.  There is a small contingent of large animals that remain fearful of the human presence including moose, black bear, deer, fox, wolves, and apparently mountain lions (it's true! mountain lions in northern Minnesota) but they have plenty of deer to eat and sightings have been limited to motion triggered hunting cameras.  This wildlife does absolutely keep you on your toes in the back of your mind as you're hiking along the trail, but with the exception of the mountain lion (for me, anyway) consider yourself lucky if you see any of these creatures along the way!  This time around, I saw a Piliated Woodpecker and a few grouse.  Throughout my 140 miles so far, I haven't been lucky enough to see any of the large animals with the exception of a couple deer and a couple beavers.  But, I need to be careful about what I wish for, that's for sure!  I really don't want to run into an f'n mountain lion...ever.

So, this time I hiked about 20 miles in a bit over 24 hours.  I worked 17 hours the day before I left, got off work and drank pretty much an entire bottle of red wine playing some survivor board game that i couldn't resist playing with my neighbors, went to bed at 230 am, woke up at 830 with a headache, drove 3 hours, hiked 12 miles, got stung by fricken bees multiple times, set up my tent in the rain, slipped on a wet clay/mud incline to get to the river for some water, ate dinner and went to bed.  that was quite a day.  The next day I woke up at about 9am, took it easy hiking out for a few hours, caught my shuttle, and headed back to my car with my buddy Malto Meal.

here are some photos of the trip.

self timer...just before getting stung by bees.

scenic overlook of Lake Superior

uh, a pretty plant.

I did the last time I was here! :)

above gooseberry falls

upper gooseberry falls