I’m ‘out to lunch’.
I’ll be traveling for the holidays - from the frigid and snowy Chicago, to the frigid and snowy East Coast, and onward to the even more frigid and snowy land of the trolls. Merry Christmas!
upcoming... Bill Nye the Science Guy goes green, DIY, and more thoughts on Chicago.
(If you get bored, the picture is actually a maze.)
Apparently, where I live it is a very walkable place. I came across the site http://www.walkscore.com/ on the New York Times website. Walkscore.com’s motto is for you to find “a walkable place to live,” or at least see how walkable where you live is. The website is interesting and draws awareness to car-dependency, but the website may not be as good as it seems at first glance.The niche group for this site has to be people on the move (who like to walk or want to use their car less) looking for a great place to live. Because really, I’m not going to look at this site, find a great place to move, and move there. And the site really isn’t for showing people how walkable the area around their home is. Really?! For example: my parents. They live in the middle of nowhere. They aren’t going to go to this site, put in their address, and then say, “Oh, we never knew our house was so car dependent.” And they also aren’t thinking, “Hey, I saw that home for sale downtown (you know, the house that is closer to all the shops) let’s go to walkscore.com and see if it is more walkable than our house.” Of course they are not going to do that – it just is. So, it is clearly for people trying to move to a new place.
One slight, huge, problem with the website; the information it gives – sucks. For example: me. Where does it tell me to do my grocery shopping? Well of course the local 7-Eleven. Where else do you go, right? Eventually it does list an actual grocery store. Too bad as a local resident I know not to shop at that particular grocery store. It doesn’t list or have an option to list the grocery store I would shop at or prefer to shop at. This is key for someone that doesn’t know the area. My place may seem walkable with all the local 7-elevens around, but in reality is not. So, if someone does spot this mistake they still can’t fix it, because they can’t search where they would shop or prefer to shop.
Let’s keeping going with this example: movie theatres. For this, the closest listing is actually not a movie theatre, but a modeling agency and probably not one that the kids should be going to. This also goes with clothing and music – well unless I want to shop at the local Italian of Fashion for all my clothing needs.
So, what does the website do well? So, the website didn’t find me any good grocery stores or restaurants. It does show where the local schools, parks, libraries, and coffee shops are. In reality I am not in a walkable distance to a good grocery store, but I should have the option to find one and then have the ability to recalculate my walkability.
In all, the website is fun to look at although it does need some improvements in terms of the listings, and the ability to change the walkability factor. The website also can be good to find local places that you may have not known existed that might be right next door, literally.
It’s almost that time of year again – college football bowl season. This year Florida will play Oklahoma for the national championship. The game has caused some controversy. The controversy is because during the regular season Texas beat Oklahoma, Texas Tech then beat Texas, and Oklahoma beat Texas Tech. Oklahoma finished number two in the polls while Texas who beat Oklahoma finished number three. We can thank the BCS standings for this. Texas will never know if they are good enough to be the national champion.
Do you have any love/hate relationships? One of those truly mind-blowing “I hate you, but I also love you” type things. Until recently I didn’t. I always thought I knew what people were talking about. In the end after reflection though I could always say, “Oh, I don’t really hate that” or “You know what? I just don’t like them.” Well, I can finally say I have found a relationship with so much push and tug, love and hate that I can call it an official one of love/hate. 
Snow. Skiing. Being air born. Tree farms. The perfect tree. Christmas carols. Surprises. Sledding. Receiving a package in the mail. Parades. Christmas in the city. Christmas lights. Things that can really be done with snow and a giant stadium. Consumerism. Christmas movies. Snowball fights. Laughing at the misfortunate. Going AWOL when it is you. Second best sled to the… Toboggan. What is the Christmas season. Sleigh rides. Defying gravity. Gravity defying you. The way things look in the snow. Snowshoeing. Snowy peaks. Sweet ice carvings. Santa Claus and crying kids. Ice skating. Being the sheep in the churches Christmas play. Gold stars and little angles. Family. Advent. Christmas decorations. Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve service. Christmas day. The reason for the season.
There’s Thanksgiving and then there’s Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving seems to be one of those holidays were we and by we I mean everyone just don’t know where it comes from. Traditionally of course the first Thanksgiving was in 1621 in Plymouth, MA, with a few pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe (who in years to come would not be so thankful for the pilgrims). This seems to be the most celebrated version today. We can see it in arts and crafts in elementary schools, in parades, and television.
No, I’m not going to review The Shack by William Young. I will let you read it for yourself with unblemished eyes if you haven’t already read it. I think the book is worth reading whether you have heard positive or negative feelings about it. I’ve recently read the book. I thought Young did a great job. I have a lot of praises for the book and also a few criticisms. I went through a few reviews on Amazon to get a general consensus and I thought one reader put it quite well: “A parable, not a text on systematic theology.” The Shack is fiction – a story. I think it draws out a lot of ideas, thoughts, and feelings on how many Christians and non-Christians alike see God. Like a story it is not a theological guide to God. I would leave something like that to the Bible or books written by theologians. But, with that said - the book is out-of-the-box.
My brother and I cooking marshmallows 
So, I’ve been a little busy lately. That, and not knowing how to go about writing this next piece has kept me from writing for the past week or so. 
However, I want to address why these two issues are so important, in the context of Native American tribes. The first part relating to PC language is simple: why we should continue to be PC. Simply put, we don’t call Germans French or visa versa and we wouldn’t call an Australian a Russian. So, why should we call a Navajo an Indian? They’re not from India. Why do we do this? There are a couple reasons I can think of. The first is we just might not know. The easy thing to do is to clump different ethnicities together like Asians or Latinos or to just name someone by the wrong ethnicity. The second reason and more at the heart of the issue is the historical context of the language and what it means.
This history has continued on. And its memorial developed onto Universities, high schools, pro sports teams, and so on. Continued use is to keep the original intent alive. Being politically correct was an intentional effort to change and redress the injustices of this. We cannot stop being PC, but must continue to fight the injustices that still prevail today. 
I tried finding a good list of reasons to vote. I couldn’t find a good complete list without coming across at least lame stereotypical reasons like “It’s your right to vote” or “Let your voice be heard.” Frankly, if you want your voice heard there are much better ways of going about that. So, I’ve tried to make up my own list. And no promises that I don’t have my own lame stereotypical reasons to vote. Here’s a few reasons to go vote:
Let’s take a look at the Midwest. There have been eleven presidents that were either born or have had a political career in the Midwest. And it wasn’t until Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President, that there was a Midwest presence.
Redistributive change. It’s the latest charge from McCain against Barack Obama. It’s a claim that in this capitalist country when Obama referred to such ‘redistribution’ about the civil rights era that it was therefore taken out of context and he is called a socialist, Marxist, and a communist. It’s not a new tactic for the McCain campaign, since they have done their best to slander Obama since he became the presidential candidate for the Democrats, but it does bring an interesting subject to hand - redistribution.
The economy has seemed to hit the bottom around the world and seemingly keeps plummeting. It seems to be the biggest issue on everyone’s mind and that is clear as the election is right around the corner. The economy is always the biggest determiner in electing a president though. So, what about the rest of it? Specifically, I am thinking about alternative energies. About a year to six months ago when gas prices were much higher than they are today people all of a sudden wanted to find an alternative or better ways to use energy; whether that was in cars, businesses, or even towns. With that came the awareness of eating organic, not using plastic bags, etcetera. Once again though, these ideas have been thrown to the wayside as a mere fad. The greater good has been taken over once again by the greater me. I’m not saying do not look out for yourself. But on the other hand we are really talking about serious issues of sustainability.
I read an interesting article today in the NY Times. The article talked about the real Joe Plumber that was brought up by John McCain in the third presidential debate. McCain voiced that Joe, the unlicensed, back-taxing, plumber would be hurt by Obama’s tax plan because his business would make over $250,000 a year. When I first heard McCain say this, my first thoughts, jokingly, were “I’m in the wrong business.” Jokingly, because although I am sure there may be a few plumbers that manage to make that amount of money in a year, the average in Ohio, like Joe, is much lower, $47,930. Joe is going to have to triple his business that he can’t have legally because he doesn’t have a plumber’s license to do that.
The last debate for the presidential election is on tonight. It’s been a long road for both candidates. At one point McCain’s campaign was broke, only to sore through the Republican primaries and win. Obama, he’s been fighting stereotypes and tough competition. McCain seems to be fighting to win the election now, after what seemed to be a 50-50 battle for a while with Obama. If McCain wants to win the election he is going to have to come out fighting tonight. His supporters have been calling on him to be tougher with Obama. Other critics suggest quite the opposite, that McCain’s attacks have actually been hurting him in the polls. Obama has been fighting critics on his own.
Curran's Orchard, Rockford, IL
Michigan has one National Park. I have not been to it – yet. Who’s to blame me? I basically grew up on the other side of Michigan, basically the farthest point away from the park. Plus, my parents never took me to those type of things. In addition, the Midwest just does not have a lot of National Parks. It’s probably because of the stereotype that the Midwest is boring and flat. However, that is just a stereotype.
The study works because the wolves and moose are so closely linked on the island. The moose have no other predator, and the wolves have an endless supply of great food sources such as elk, deer, bear, or mountain lion. The study seems to have produced a lot of data about the two animals and how they interact on the island.
The Great Lakes basin made the New York Times today. The House is in the process of looking over a bill that would ban diverting water from the great lakes basin to outside regions. The bill which has already been passed by the senate and Bush administration looks good with its candy shell. On the inside though, as the NY Times article points out, there are a few loop holes. The biggest one being that bottled water can be pumped out of the basin and shipped outside of the region. 
Obviously the bill is not foolproof, as shown with the bottled water. I think at least it is a good sign of defining the basin in political circumstances that could be beneficial to future bills for the Great Lakes and the basin. Hopefully it will create awareness of our environment as they come to understand what the bill is about and who it affects. Although not perfect, the idea of the bill, I feel, is a step forward to the sustainability of the basin and the lakes. 
