drill, baby, drill

September 3rd, 2008 | news, not impressed | chris | 6 comments


to be honest, i’ve never felt as frustrated and upset at americans as i have tonight. watching the republican national convention i saw a group of arrogant white americans getting their thrill by sarcastic jabs and unrealistic comparisons between barack obama and john mccain. the republican party is not what it used to be.

i had a hard time stomaching it when i heard the crowd chanting, “drill, baby, drill!” i couldn’t believe that these were my fellow americans, holding up signs that said, “drill alaska now!” drilling doesn’t solve our energy crisis and i honestly don’t believe them when they say they’ll pursue new energy options.

governor palin was stern and to the point, defending the recent swings taken at her and her family by the news press. she stood her ground well. however, i wonder, do these republican leaders expect to win my vote by degrading, laughing at, and putting their nose up to their democratic counterparts? i don’t believe that we should award senator mccain with the presidency because we was a prisoner of war. i’m grateful for all who fight for my freedoms, however awarding someone the presidency for it is not how i believe our election process works.

in the end, i didn’t hear anything different than what has happened the last eight years of u.s. government. that alone is enough to steer me away.

a bit concerned

August 31st, 2008Tags:
| news, not impressed | chris | 1 comment


not that this is putting me over the edge, i’m far from it, but i’ve been trying to read and learn more about john mccain’s v.p. pick, sarah palin. i’m a bit concerned, these being just a few examples.

from an article from treehugger.com:

she(palin) believes that climate change is not man-made and her opposition to the polar bear’s listing as a threatened species.

this, among many other things worry me. much of what i’ve read doesn’t quite sound revelutionary or different than what we’ve experienced in the past 8 years.

i have hope.
(full article from treehugger.com)

green construction

August 28th, 2007 | crazy, green, impressed, misunderstanding, not impressed | chris | 0 comments

image from treehugger.com

i thought i’d bring some attention to this post i found this afternoon on treehugger.com. interesting facts and it’s even more interesting that we’ve got it so wrong (however, not surprising).

check it out.

alaska v1.1 – anchorage and the trip north

August 3rd, 2007 | alaska, not impressed, road trip, vacation | chris | 0 comments

after two short days in anchorage just hanging out and waiting for time to pass, we met up with ren at our hostel and packed up for our trip.  once he was there we had all of our gear, clothes, and food for the trip, so now it was time to pack.  we did our fair share of packing and repacking back home just to be sure it would work out when we were ready to go, so this went fairly smoothly.  when that was ready we packed all the things that were staying in a suitcase and got a few hours of sleep before we had to get up and to the bus stop in morning.

joe, our host at the hostel, said he would drive us to the bus stop in the morning which was very nice of him.  we packed all our stuff in his truck and just as our luck would have it, his truck wouldn’t start.  so we quickly call a cab, which got us there in no time.  it dropped us off at a bus stop where shuttles of all sorts line-up to bring people to and from denali.  our shuttle company was alaska yukon trails.  this portion of our trip could very well have been the most frightening time during our stay in alaska.  we through our gear in their trailer and hop in the 15-passenger van.  knowing that the trip to denali was around 4-5 hour drive, we hunker down for the long-haul.  our driver jumps in and tells us that he is a fill-in for the normal guy and that we should bear with him.  ok, how bad could it be.  we proceed to drive through the streets of anchorage for the next hour-and-a-half looking for certain people at certain hostels and hotels.  now the 4-5 hour trip is looking more like a 5-6 hour trip.  ok, fine.  just get us there.  well, about two hours into our trip it starts raining and the conditions driving on a mountain highway get kind of tense.  to add to the tension in the vehicle, deeann, ren and i watch in the rear-view mirror as our driver doses in and out of sleep.  clutching our seats and hoping for the best we almost make it to denali.  we reach the park entrance at the same time as the driver receives a phone call.  he argues for a short minute and proceeds to turn the van around and starts heading in the direction we came from.  he says we have to pick up one more person!  we were 5 minutes from finally being there and the man turns the van around.  thankfully he only drives about 15-20 minutes back on the road and picks someone up.

as soon as we can get out of this van, the three of us jump out, grab our gear and get as far away from this loony as possible.

more stories to come. check out pictures here.

alaska v1.0 – anchorage

August 3rd, 2007 | alaska, good food, not impressed, things that make me say "yum", vacation | chris | 0 comments

the first part of our trip to alaska was our short stay at the arctic adventure hostel in anchorage. we met some amazing people from around the world that i hope we run into again sometime down the road. the stay at the hostel was great. joe was a very helpful host and the rooms were clean and welcoming. anchorage itself was a serious let down. i’m not sure what i was expected exactly, but overall that experience fell flat on its face. first of all, the parts of town we visited, which included the downtown area, were actually really dirty. there was trash all over the place. in addition, not only were there cars everywhere but the planning of the city and it’s traffic was horrible.

Hog Brother's Cafe.....yumwe walked 90% of the time up there only taking a cab when we really needed to. downtown was 2 miles from our hostel and after going a few times we finally found a route that went through a nice little residential part of town that made the walk much easier. when we first got there we knew that we wanted to visit REI which was just about 1 mile from the hostel. on our way there our noses were caught by a restaurant across the street called Hog Brother’s Cafe. Just a complete dive. Exactly what we were looking for. We went on a Sunday at around lunch time and the place was completely packed, wall to wall. People standing in the doorway waiting for seats to open and staff running every which way. Even though the staff was completely swamped, every single one of the was smiling and laughing the entire time. not a single person didn’t want to be there. in addition to the staff was the crazy, hot-off-the-greasy-griddle food. it hit the spot.

more stories to come. check out pictures here.