Monday, November 29, 2004
Back in the swing of things
What a long weekend! It was chock full of twists and turns, and endergonic activities. The holidays are finally officially here! The semester is super-close to being complete, and I have so much I need to do yet! There are so many activities vying for my time. And, needless to say, the old checkbook is about tapped out (can’t wait to start working more hours soon… did I say that?). Here are some random thoughts to catch back up…
1. It is officially the Christmas season when you see something like this; walking out of Target through the automatic “In” doors side by side, two morbidly obese women talk about so-and-so’s man being a cheat. The door starts to close (because the sensor is on the other side… it is an “In” door), and one of the “lady’s” was struck in one of her love-handles. “Ow, fu**in’door! Can you believe that. Stupid fu**in’ door. I should sue their asses.” Classy.
2. Yet another giant oil spill. 30,000 gallons off the coast of Philly. How many more of these spills will have to occur before something better is done to ensure the environment’s safety during shipping? The use of fossil fuels, mainly oil, is the 900 pound gorilla of our age; we hate it, we fear it, but it does what it wants. We can’t really stop it. However, there should be better care taken in how the fuel is shipped, packaged, and so on. It isn’t like the possibility of a spill is so outlandish; we’ve had many in the last 20 years. Too many. I can’t help but think that if the oil was flown by plane, and subsequently dumped over suburbs, all over some rich white guy’s Lexus and house, there would be some positive progress towards safe cartage. Instead, too few volunteers will spend countless hours cleaning rocks and gulls with toothbrushes, trying to repair the earth.
3. In Western Iowa, there is a phenomena that is part urban legend, part folk-story, and part conspiracy theory. It all revolves around mountain lions. A few years ago, mountain lions started showing up around cities, towns, and upscale planned communities. Immediately the news picked up on what every coffee shop was talking about; where did the lions come from? The prevailing (and I think ignorant) theory is that the Iowa DNR released them into the wild to cull deer populations, which are allegedly too high. There are problems with this theory; deer populations aren’t that high, we have just built further into their territory (so we encounter them with out cars more often). Mountain lions aren’t all that unusual here. Animals have a way of wandering where they please. My friend Becky even has seen a red wolf at her house, which is allegedly restricted to the deep south. One would think that the Iowa DNR would know better that to introduce a foreign species to control population of an indigenous species. They had horrible luck doing this on two occasions with fish. Lastly, in the past when deer populations were high, the DNR has answered by issuing bonus deer “tags” (each hunter usually can kill only one deer a season, so they are given a tag to place on the deer they killed). This not only got rid of more deer, it raised interest in hunting, and made money (deer licenses are not cheap, especially for out-of-state hunters). But try telling any of that to local yokels.
4. Another lion story. In Sioux City, a mountain lion was spotted by a mother taking her child to school. It was in a tree, soaking up the sun, not bothering anyone. As most Iowan mothers would do, she freaked and called the police. The DNR soon showed up. Their answer… shoot first, ask questions later. They killed the lion, who all the while was napping in the tree. Why not use tranquilizers? They say that it could have taken up to 10 minutes for the drugs to take effect, and in that much time the lion could have hurt some one. COULD have. Why not try that first, then shoot it if it looks like it is going to turn on them? My bet is that it would have treed itself even further up, or ran like hell, only to succumb to the drug. Instead, our brave public servants have a little murder on their hands.
5. There is nothing like staying up late to watch your favorite football team play an exciting game, only to lose by one point in the last seconds. The Devner Broncos played a fantastic game, but it just wasn't enough to beat the LAST PLACE team, the hated Oakland Raiders (our sworn enemies). By the 4th quarter, I had thrown my studies to the side and was yelling at the TV, cheering out loud (sorry neighbors), and then silent as we lost, at home, in snow, against our arch-rivals. Good game though!
Well, I’m good for now. I hope that I have some good stuff on the way this week. As finals near, things could either taper off, or my sleep-depraved mind may generate some truly entertaining (if not unihibited) posts. Until then…
See ya!
1. It is officially the Christmas season when you see something like this; walking out of Target through the automatic “In” doors side by side, two morbidly obese women talk about so-and-so’s man being a cheat. The door starts to close (because the sensor is on the other side… it is an “In” door), and one of the “lady’s” was struck in one of her love-handles. “Ow, fu**in’door! Can you believe that. Stupid fu**in’ door. I should sue their asses.” Classy.
2. Yet another giant oil spill. 30,000 gallons off the coast of Philly. How many more of these spills will have to occur before something better is done to ensure the environment’s safety during shipping? The use of fossil fuels, mainly oil, is the 900 pound gorilla of our age; we hate it, we fear it, but it does what it wants. We can’t really stop it. However, there should be better care taken in how the fuel is shipped, packaged, and so on. It isn’t like the possibility of a spill is so outlandish; we’ve had many in the last 20 years. Too many. I can’t help but think that if the oil was flown by plane, and subsequently dumped over suburbs, all over some rich white guy’s Lexus and house, there would be some positive progress towards safe cartage. Instead, too few volunteers will spend countless hours cleaning rocks and gulls with toothbrushes, trying to repair the earth.
3. In Western Iowa, there is a phenomena that is part urban legend, part folk-story, and part conspiracy theory. It all revolves around mountain lions. A few years ago, mountain lions started showing up around cities, towns, and upscale planned communities. Immediately the news picked up on what every coffee shop was talking about; where did the lions come from? The prevailing (and I think ignorant) theory is that the Iowa DNR released them into the wild to cull deer populations, which are allegedly too high. There are problems with this theory; deer populations aren’t that high, we have just built further into their territory (so we encounter them with out cars more often). Mountain lions aren’t all that unusual here. Animals have a way of wandering where they please. My friend Becky even has seen a red wolf at her house, which is allegedly restricted to the deep south. One would think that the Iowa DNR would know better that to introduce a foreign species to control population of an indigenous species. They had horrible luck doing this on two occasions with fish. Lastly, in the past when deer populations were high, the DNR has answered by issuing bonus deer “tags” (each hunter usually can kill only one deer a season, so they are given a tag to place on the deer they killed). This not only got rid of more deer, it raised interest in hunting, and made money (deer licenses are not cheap, especially for out-of-state hunters). But try telling any of that to local yokels.
4. Another lion story. In Sioux City, a mountain lion was spotted by a mother taking her child to school. It was in a tree, soaking up the sun, not bothering anyone. As most Iowan mothers would do, she freaked and called the police. The DNR soon showed up. Their answer… shoot first, ask questions later. They killed the lion, who all the while was napping in the tree. Why not use tranquilizers? They say that it could have taken up to 10 minutes for the drugs to take effect, and in that much time the lion could have hurt some one. COULD have. Why not try that first, then shoot it if it looks like it is going to turn on them? My bet is that it would have treed itself even further up, or ran like hell, only to succumb to the drug. Instead, our brave public servants have a little murder on their hands.
5. There is nothing like staying up late to watch your favorite football team play an exciting game, only to lose by one point in the last seconds. The Devner Broncos played a fantastic game, but it just wasn't enough to beat the LAST PLACE team, the hated Oakland Raiders (our sworn enemies). By the 4th quarter, I had thrown my studies to the side and was yelling at the TV, cheering out loud (sorry neighbors), and then silent as we lost, at home, in snow, against our arch-rivals. Good game though!
Well, I’m good for now. I hope that I have some good stuff on the way this week. As finals near, things could either taper off, or my sleep-depraved mind may generate some truly entertaining (if not unihibited) posts. Until then…
See ya!
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