Yosemite at Last

In three and a half words I describe the place as Pristine, Majestic and awe-inspiring.

I wanted to visit Yosemite for a long time-- to take a pilgramige to stand in awe of the towering granite walls of Half Dome and El Capitan (the steep rock faces you see in pictures). My friend Michael and I hit the main portions of the park which are home to the picturesque vignettes featured in many photographs. The serenity of the whole area is preserved with conservation efforts including hybrid buses which transport visitors around the park for free and thus decreasing carbon fuel emmissions. The air was fresh and water in the streams and rivers was crystal clear.

People were so nice to us that day:

1) After ripping out the gas pump hose (because the nozzle was still attached) the owner of the Qwiky Mart, said it was ok, and we went on.

2) Another hiker gave us instructions up a trail and advised we take water-- we didn't have any so he just gave us some!

3) AND WE EACH FOUND FIVE DOLLARS!!! just kidding but that would have funny.

My Rating for Yosemite: 10

Benefits of Contrarianism--Reading?

There are major disadvantages of constantly going against the grain. It may just be a reluctance to accept the outcomes of decisions others have made if you don't feel personally involved in the decision or recognized/respected by those who made the decision.
Or maybe you just want to go explore where other have not or will not go. You can miss out on a lot by venturing off, working in the small startup opposed to the fortune 500 company.
But really, I love how when I am around people who don't read, I read more. When I am around other people read, a read a little less, because I just end up talking to the people. Interesting books probably make interesting people-- So if you like being the contrarian and want to read more-- surround yourself with people who hardly read, lonely- but interesting--

Gmail

Gmail increase in value as more of your friends use it. I recieved an invite to join in early 2005. Now a lot of people have it, but some don't, and I don't always understand why-- its so useful.

Time after Time

I have thought a lot about time lately. I listened to a scholar on NPR who was held in Iran for 8 months. She was in her 60's I believe, and said she wasn't mad about the experience, just mad at the lost time, she explained that 8 months is a long time for an a person of her age.

Really, I contend its a long time for any time of life. You only have so many hours and days and weeks to learn the right lessons, read the right books, meet the right people and ultimately make the best choices which will in theory grant to each what they want. And so much of time is travelling to work or school or waiting for our next job or class to start or to move to a new location.

And then there is the constant concern of not having done the right things in the past tense and trying to make up for lost time. Also there is the mental blockage we apply to many experiences in my life. College has to be done by the time I'm 22, my Master 24 full time job at 25. I have to make X amount by the time I'm 30 or live in a house. Own my own company by 40 or run for President before 60, or whatever.

And in the meantime while everything is speeding up; individually and collectively time slips away- too the point which some distract themselves with music, movies or whatever, and a few even console themselves by blogging it out.

Sometimes I think those who deserve more time, seem to be short of it, and those who don't appreciate it have plenty of it.

How much do we really read?

Fascinating short article on a survey of how much we read. One fourth of the people hadn't read a book in the past year, wow. Over the past 12 months I have only read 6-7 books, which puts me in the average of people who had read something (avg. 7). The demographics were interesting as also was placement of fault for people not reading; T.V, internet and movies. Plus last year there were 3.1 Billion books sold, just enough for all of us on the planet to share with a friend, chuckle.

A Biography of Presidential Repore

Interestingly enough none of Thedore Roosevelt's close friends and associates actually called him "T.R" mainly the public and other associations of this nature. And also the toy dolls called "Teddy Bear" grew out of a cartoonists impressions of T.R on a bear hunting trip, with the bear given a smily friendly face, which sooner thereafter inspired a toy maker. Amazing huh?

The author Edmund Morris wrote this book (he also did the authorized biography of Ronald Reagan, "Dutch). He is a gifted scholar born in Nairobi with a precise skill with language and vocabulary (a great book to improve your vocab and thinking skills).


Here are some highlights and lessons I picked up:

Arguably the Best Political Mind to sit in the White House: Whether it was carefully convincing certain cabinet members to stay, avoiding a near war with Germany in absolute secrecy from the public, arbitrating between the mine owners and miners in an economy crippling strike, orchestrating the political and military pieces for Panama to secede from Columbia and in turn purchase the land for the Canal-- T.R consistently astonished even his harshesed critics and kept most of the people quite pleased with the outcomes of major initiatives. He read the public as well as individuals accurately and knew how to influence (& occasionally manipulate) the parties to achieve the desired results.

Renewal through Vacations: It seemed like every few weeks or months Teddy needed to get out of Washington to hunt some bears in Colorado or head to his summer home on Long Island or take a horse ride in the countryside around DC. It appears that while being President he still made ample time to get out of Washington and into the woods for hunting or to visit people small towns on the western frontier where he was hugely popular. He found a gifted and famous scientist to accompany him in Yosemite Valley for four days. His love for the outdoors was fuel to expand much of the then existing national park system closer to what we have today.

Read Read Read: After he had been President for about a year the President of Columbia University asked for a list of some of the books he had read during his presidency. He sent back about a page worth of titles of European and World History, Greek Philosophy, various works of poetry contemporary and old, and many other titles on a variety of subjects with an apparent focus on history, philosphy and literature. How he made time to for all this as President is mystery to myself, maybe the vacationing and time in the rail cars helped.

These are just a few lessons I gleaned. The book never really gets too dry, Teddy is so focused on power and always on the go that his presidency never really gets boring. All the inside information and inner working of the White house with regards to International policy may cause a reader to 're-think' some of our country's involvement with other countries.

YouTube Debate

This is a pretty interesting exchange for the 3 top Democratic Candidates during the YouTube debate. Not talking to countries I guess can be like giving someone the silent treatment or as Dwight from the Office would say: Shunning Someone, and it undoubtedly can affect the neglected party. Obama seems to be very much for talking with leaders while Hillary attempts to build as much distance with the potential implications of such meetings with foreign leaders. This next clip is pretty rich, candidates are asked to say something like and dislike about the candidate to their left...yeh, almost unanimously ignored (or don't answer seriously) second half of the question where the are supposed to list off something they dislike about the candidate to their left and resort to "I love you guys" type generalites. Hillary's laugh in response to Edward's saying "he's not sure" about her coat sounds like true from the gut laugh that I am not sure she lets out in public (or maybe even private) too often.

North to Canada--

Ok this is another slightly repetitive travelogue type entry (I should just be a traveling journalist, haha), so if don't like these just take a glance and move on... Vancouver B.C has a very international feel to it and tons and tons of Sushi places. A lot of cities have concentrated areas within the city such as Chinatown or Korean town, Vancouver has that but also has many stores and restaurants spread across the city. Crossing the bridge into the main downtown area with all the condos and buildings with the mountains to the foreground gave it the look somewhat a kin to Hong Kong I thought (never been there, seen pictures only).

Ate some cheap sushi, which is seriously all over and walked around broadway and passed through downtown and gastown which is the oldest part of the city which grew rapidly around a single pub. The port feel is similar to Seattle with all the huge cranes for loading the ocean liners at the port. It would be good to see more of this place and walk around the streets- it is fairly compact in the downtown area and definitely resonates a feeling of vibrance.

Surprise Opening Act

I went to a show with Jeremy Enigk the former lead singer of Sunny Day Real Estate (very well known in the Seattle music scene). The show was really good. I really like it when artists who have gone solo are still willing to throw in a few songs from their previous projects from which they gained most of their original fans. When my friend Brock and I were entering the club I noticed the opening act listed was fronted by a guy I went to elementary school with, we talked a little after his set. Funny little coincidence, made the whole show a little more interesting, you never know who and when you are going to run in to people.

Bostonia

My friend Dave Gleave and I were in Boston on July 3rd. You can definitely see a lot of stuff in a day in Boston. The liberty trail downtown takes you through many historical and revolutionary war era sites. The weather was a very smooth 71 degrees with some breeze, nice. Bunker Hill had a huge monument, and I was taken back by the pervasivity of churches, Bostons Puritanical roots are abundantly evident today. In Cambridge people were nice and the Harvard campus very well maintained. Boston seemed like a very clean city with very clean public transportation (bus and rail)