Category: nature

Huh?!?…Wha?!?…Oh! Hey there!

Don’t sneak up on me like that!

Yeah, so, it’s been a while. I guess my Twitter account is seeing more action than this place. I need to work on that.

Here is something that has been on my mind lately (among lots of other things). They’ve just added a new channel to DirecTV called Planet Green. Which is pretty cool and they have some good shows which appeal to my moderately handy, mostly granola self. But it mostly just pisses me off.

Seeing these architect/developer/real estate agent/independently wealthy couples either building green or fixing up old houses green kinda makes me a little mad. I’ve always felt that being environmental (and I do mean mental) is only possible if you have the money to do it. We do what we can here in east Nashville. We recycle pretty much everything, we compost (even though we don’t have a garden)(this compost heap looks like Marjory, the trash heap from Fraggle Rock but not as matronly), compact fluorescent bulbs throughout the house, buying produce from our friends’ farm in Springfield (if anyone wants info on buying from Natural Fields Farm let me know!), etcetera, etcetera, yadda, yadda, yadda. I agree that every little bit helps but I also believe that it’s the big stuff that will make big differences.

Big differences like solar panels, wind turbines, a brand new house…the list goes on of what we can’t afford as normal human beings. It just seems like these people on Planet Green are doing it because it’s cool and they get to be on TV. I think it’s cool but I also think it’s very important. Why aren’t these planet saving things more affordable? If they were more people would probably be able to obtain them which means more people doing the green thing. Wouldn’t that make the planet green?

Alright, I’ve ranted long enough. At the moment I’m helping do my part by not driving to work…which I have to do…right now…sigh.

Wanna help [the] planet? ‘Let’s all just die!’


Wanna help [the] planet? ‘Let’s all just die!’
Group pushes to improve Earth’s ecosystem by ensuring human species does not survive.

By Chelsea Schilling
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

“May we live long and die out” is the unofficial motto of a movement that seeks to improve the Earth’s ecosystem by ensuring that the human species does not survive.

The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, or VHEMT, consists of volunteers who have made active life decisions to remain childless for the benefit of the Earth, thereby preventing the extinction of millions of species of plants and animals.

Well, that’s one way to solve the problem of global warming, overpopulation, litter and general stupidity. Which after looking at the articles of this particular site might be a good solution for them, too.

If any of my faithful reader(s) click the links to go to this or any other strange, conservative ‘news’ or ‘informational’ sites just know that I do not frequent them. This article was forwarded on to me by a good friend.


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The Reccuring Ghost of Alex Supertramp

Every once in awhile I obsess over things. Sometimes it’s a T.V. show, actor, character or a book but I usually forget about it after a little bit. I probably become preoccupied with something else. The one person that has popped up on my obsessive radar more than once is Chris McCandless. This young “asthetic voyager” left behind his old life of privilege to live on the road and in a Henry David Thoreau-like existence. His goal was to make it in the Alaskan wilderness. Well, he made it to Alaska but he didn’t make it at living there. At the age of 24 he died of starvation in a bus that was converted as a backcountry shelter.

I’ve read the Outside article and the book that spun out of that article both written by Jon Krakauer. I’ve followed off and on the press that this young man received since he died in August of 1992. Recently, I watched the Sean Penn film based on the book and that, of course, got me all engrossed about Chris and his story all over again. In my obsessiveness (thank you internets!) I found the documentary “Call of the Wild” which I ordered because Netflix didn’t carry it (remember I’m haunted by this guy) after watching the film it helped me connect to Chris even more so.

When I heard about Chris I was out of high school in the process of transferring from junior college to a small school in North Carolina. My intended major was outdoor recreation/outdoor education and my initial take on the guy was that he was a little lot delusional and idealized or romanticized the wild and nature too much. Those of us in the O.E. program were focused on safety, preparedness and lessons that could be learned and taken home with us. I believe none of these things were on Chris’ radar at all.

After watching the documentary film I’ve looked at the whole situation a little different. The filmmaker takes a look at Generation X and how growing up(both he and Chris are the same age) as a part of that generation may have played into his actions. I, too, didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I was a little cynical and was disillusioned by school and people. I wanted nothing more than to just go into the woods or be a monk or something. So, in one aspect I respect the guy for actually following his dreams of solitude. But, on the other hand, he’s a schmuck.

But how is it his story keeps on living? What is it about this ill-prepared intellectual that keeps him at the back of my mind?

I’m not sure I have any answers to those questions yet. I do, however, recommend seeing the documentary which I own or you can order a copy here. Where the Sean Penn film romanticizes Chris McCandless the Ron Lamothe documentary tries to get to the heart of why Chris may have headed out to the wilderness and Ron poses some interesting new ideas about Chris’ situation as well.

Super Stormy Tuesday

Crazy bad storms roared through Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky last night. Luckily, those of us in the Nashville area seemed to fare the storm pretty well.  I stayed up late (after an exceptionally long day at work) tracking the storm activity instead of keeping up with the primary results and the Predator/Hurricanes game on Versus.

While I was at work I set up to record the hockey game on my DVR. DirecTV is so cool for adding that feature. I AM UNSTOPPABLE!!! Unless, of course it’s overridden by the ladies at the house.

I was watching the storm coverage on WTVF (don’t meteorologists take some sort of glee in dangerously active weather?) confident that I wouldn’t miss the game of two of my favorites going head-to-head.  All of a sudden right after the first super cell barreled through downtown they take a call from a former employee who is at the Sommet Center. As he is on the phone he describes the actions taken by the staff at the arena and mentions the outcome of the game!?! Hello? Gimme a spoiler alert warning for Pete’s sake! I know you’re stressed out but come on. . .

I suppose I’m the kind of guy that once he hears the outcome of a game that he is taping he no longer has interest in watching that game. Even if it turns out to be good contest. For me, it’s kind of like watching the movie ‘Titanic.’  I know the thing is going to sink so what’s the point?

“Aaaaah, if anything will get you up in the morning it’s chewing on some cold squirrel bones.”

My latest man crush (besides Alton Brown) is Les Stroud of ‘Surivorman’.  The premise of the show basically is that he goes out into the wilderness for 7 days and tries to survive off of the land.  With his history of film-making and survivor-ing his show is a great marriage between them both.  Sometimes he has these scenarios where all he has with him are his multi-tool and whatever else he came with. 

Les Stroud is the man.  He carries all his camera gear himself.  He sets up intricate shots where he’ll walk ahead set the camera and hit record, walk back to pick up the rest of his gear and then walk through the shot and then have to walk back to pick up the camera. Whew, that’s a lot of work considering he hardly eats anything.

I read “Into the Wild” again recently in preparation for seeing Sean Penn‘s film based on the book.  I would love to get in touch with Les to get his thoughts on Chris McCandless and his lack of surviving in the Alaskan wild.  Maybe I would even suggest an episode of ‘Survivorman’ where Les hangs out where McCandless did.  If there was a way to do it respectfully that would be a cool show.  I just think it would end up showing us that McCandless wasn’t too smart in the ways of surviving.  He was more into the romance of it.  You gotta use your brain out there, too.

Strapped into an Office Chair, in an Office with No Windows

Now that we’re back in the world of satellite television and digital video recorders I’m a little behind on the shows that I like to watch. One of the best, IMHO (hee hee, look at me! I’m doing the intertubes lingo thingy. Whatever that means.), is Alton Brown’s Feasting on Asphalt.

It’s got all the things that I’m a sucker for: road trips and food. I’m a huge sucker for beer but it’s not a show on road food and good beer. Beer and driving do not mix.

This show is like Blue Highways with food and a motorcycle.  I just love travel/road trip/hiking books/movies/television shows.  Maybe I enjoy reading/watching it because it’s just something that I can’t do anymore.  Even though I’ve had some great road trips in the past (shout out to Mountain Kilter who, by the way, needs to write more!)  I’ve even spent 21 days backpacking, canoeing, mountain biking on an Outward Bound-type of program called Discovery.  Plus, some smaller, shorter backpacking trips.  This whole road trip/travel thing I’ve done a little bit of but don’t anymore.  And I never wrote about the trips.  I guess I just like to read and watch them.

Among the things that I love about the show is the transition to commercials. The camera pans up a collage of photos of the past events and then ends on a quote. I guess I’m a sucker for a good quote too.  I’ve got collections of quotes stashed in random places that I can’t even remember.

Great.  Now I have wanderlust, I’m hungry and thirsty for a frosty beverage and it’s only 8:40AM.

The Rainbow Connection

Driving along James Roberston Parkway into work this morning I was treated to a lovely rainbow west of town.  It made up for the fact that I had to come into work to babysit this room that only has a projection screen and an a/v cart on which to put their projector. Ugh.

Thanks for the rainbow, God!  As I sit in my stuffy little office squeezed into a closet behind the concierge desk I can picture the lovely half arc of the rainbow above Church Street.  Coincidence? Hmmm . . .