This was such a kickin’ good time in so many ways.
An entire green village was available pre-show for us to explore. We got a nice little booklet explaining all the green steps taken by Jack on the tour. He donates 100% of profits to charities – YES 100%!! and he did the same on the last tour!! Think about that for a minute. Beautiful.
The booklet had a section of stamps to collect for doing green things:
visiting a non-profit booth in the village, groups included:
reduce plastic usage
beaver preserve – Found out about an excellent beaver preserve right in downtown Durham. Chatted with the people running the four related preserves. Turns out Jack had found and contacted them personally and asked them to set up an exhibit. They are working on an interconnected set of preserves to make an entire greenway belt, awesome. Got two stamps from them, for visiting and donating, and they gave me a nice refillable water bottle which i used to earn another stamp! wahoo! I wore my “Bummer” shirt (w pic of Hummer), the lady at the booth got mad cause she thought it said Hummer, and we had a good laugh.
CO2 offset purchasing
donating
buying a CO2 offset right at the concert
getting a picture in the picture booth signifying “i commit to reduce plastic usage”
refillable water stations – They proactively encouraged water refill usage, you got a stamp for filling up! Sponsored by brita filters, this was unbelievable that they got permission for this, as the pavillion charges $4.50 for disposable bottles.
During the pre-show, they played back time-lapse photos of the stage as it filled up. They also showed all the pictures from the photo booth, awesome, the girls right in front of us popped up on the big screen and laughed at themselves.
The show itself was a total pearl jam. They got the party started on a high with “you and your heart” – the BEST. Jack is truly a great guy, and he brought out LOTS of friends he’s made along the way:
Paula Fuga, a Hawaiian woman playing ukelele to a couple of her excellent songs (country road,…)
G Love jamming on harmonica (I heard he helped Jack get started by playing some of Jack’s songs)
the band’s keyboard player (Zack Gill, also from ALO) jammed on an ACCORDIAN for a while oh yeah – this guy was just so much fun, riffed on the piano like it was part of his body.
the bassist kicked out a wicked rap
LOTS of jammmmmming ensued! Jack also worked in some cars lyrics into “sitting waiting wishing”, perfect mashup… once he remembered the lyrics, haha, he made fun of himself… “i dont mind you comin here, and wasting all my time…” They also played a full version of steve miller’s the joker, perfect. And just about every great song he’s written… which is to say, A LOT OF UNBELIEVABLY GOOD MUSIC!!
FIFA refuses to come out of the stone age, instead preferring futbol to be refereed by one human being guaranteed to make mistakes – mistakes that the world can watch in gorgeous hi-def slow motion, over and over, seconds after they occur. Players perpetually dive and shove and take cheap shots behind the ref’s back, unashamed of the camera catching their every move, simply because it pays off – the fans may boo, but the play goes on in their favor, and the only one clueless to the truth is the poor overworked referee.
Poorly distributed cards aside, the number of bad calls at this year’s World Cup has been staggering, with the most well-known errors leading to an incorrect score. Even before the World Cup began, complaints regarding the famous French handball that knocked Ireland out of qualifying were at a din. During, the US were mysteriously stripped of a winning goal against Slovania without explanation, England was denied a critical goal that was a yard inside the net, and Argentina was given a goal against Mexico when it was clear to everyone that their man was offside. These kind of errors not only change the actual score, but provide a mental blow that certainly further affects the outcome. And don’t even get me started on the red cards, apparently distributed randomly as the lone referee grapples with maintaining control.
The most shameful thing that FIFA has done is scapegoat the referees. All three refs that made the goal errors have been sent home, as well as another that sent off Kaka after some ridiculous Ivory Coast acting. Talk about not fixing the problem. Until FIFA adds more referees, implements goal-line technology, and generally decides that truth is better than drama, they will be ON MY LIST.
My bro is constantly trying to fight the right-wing hate machine that lives and breathes through all the bitter old people that use the internet (read: forward junk mail). He does a beautiful job of debunking the bs, but it always falls on deaf ears (and minds).
So… I am reposting his inspired responses so they aren’t lost in the bottom of an overstuffed inbox. All in good fun. Continue reading »
I’m super-busy trying to land a job in this impossible economy, but I had to take time out for my wolf friends today. They have unfortunately been on the receiving end of a backlash at their very moderate recovery. It’s not easy co-existing with predators, and currently, things are in real flux.
Reiley’s middle school youth group is on a mission trip to Chattanooga and I’m along as an adult chaperone. It may be the best thing I’ve done in my life. We’ve spent hours pulling an invasive exotic (privett) from a beautiful Cherokee historical site run by a wise strong woman named Ms. Cleta, we’ve set up assembly lines to organize food at the massive Chattanooga food bank, and the kids are throwing themselves into it and working really hard. And having lots of crazy fun too, inevitable when you put 60 kids into one big church for a week of sleepovers. I should be unplugged so I’ll stop there for now – I just had to share a little bit.
Back now. Wow, what a great week of high-energy service from some wonderful kids. We finished up by working on the Girls, Inc. property and visiting the Life Center rehabilitation facility. Girls, Inc. is a home for young girls that gives them the skills and confidence they need to dream big and plan for college. We attacked the weeds that were choking out the back yard – more privett! – and helped them move supplies from one location to another. At the Life Center, we mingled with the folks, most of whom were older and severely challenged in one way or another. On the second day, we loaded a few folks on their bus and took a trip to a senior center to play ping-pong. The kids rose to every occasion and really shared God’s love with the whole of Chattanooga. Well done kids!
Eight animals runnning around on your carpet for about a decade takes its toll. Andrea’s allergies have been acting up for years, likely synchronized with the buildup of dirt and dust deep within the carpet. So this week we are getting hardwoods installed in the entire house.
I have resisted for a while. It’s very costly (hello debt). And my inner environmentalist has been saying “can’t we just make do” (for far longer than reasonable, all things considered). The fact that the hardwood boxes are marked “Made in USA” doesn’t cover my guilt. Such conflict! So… here I am. I carted three vanfuls of carpet, padding, nails and carpet tack to the dump this week. *sigh*
In other vaguely related news, I discovered a beautiful bunch of bunnies – by running over them with my electric mower – none were harmed! – but they scattered like the wind. I pulled them out from the A/C ductwork and pushed them back into their burrow. I was determined to protect them, but… I had called our lawn guy to come mow, and he said to call him back when he was back in town. I feel like I spend half my life following up on things like that, but irony would have it that he was proactive, and came to cut the lawn on his own without a followup… mowing over the bunnies – again none were hurt! But when I heard the news, I was crestfallen and depressed. When I got home from work, I searched the yard and everything seemed okay. By now, the bunnies have grown too big for the burrow, but I’ve spotted them, and mom, around the yard, and hopefully the little guys will lead long happy lives. :>
So, to sum up, I’m not completely satisfied with my environmental efforts lately. Life can be full of hard choices and challenges! But there may be an unbelievably strong light at the end of the tunnel – EGS! I’ve recently become fascinated with the potential of this alternative energy source to solve all. our. problems. Seriously! We’ll see how it plays out, stay tuned!
Even if had money, I would rather burn everything I owned,
and not even give them, you know, the final dust from the burning, so…
(Anna: the ashes) Yeah, the ashes.
(Anna: not even the ashes) No, not even the ashes.
They could pick them up, and then give them to someone else.
They could have the job of picking it up.
That’s what I think about that media industry.
U.S. Women’s soccer was my choice Olympic event. I watched every moment as the team went for the gold, it was fantastic all the way there. Solid teamwork, with some great individual performances too – and it was hard work the whole way! The final game was full of incredible saves from US goalkeeper Hope Solo, as Brazil’s star striker Marta came on strong with beautiful jaw-dropping footwork. The US team seemed to have possession for most of the game, and never once slowed down, even though they fell back fast enough to triple-team Marta on most plays. Whoop!
CLICK ON THE TEAM NAME TO WATCH THE FINISHED GAMES! I don’t know how long these will be around, catch them soon! :>
I can’t seem to find much Olympics coverage on TV. NBC apparently has the exclusive broadcast rights in the US. They’re showing a few hours a night, mostly previously recorded. 1000 cable channels, loaded with junk, and they can’t take over 3 or 4 to give at least some tiny modicum of coverage?
UPDATE: I’ve found lots of information at http://www.nbcolympics.com. You just have to dig in a little bit. I have just shed a tear watching the U.S. women’s soccer team score against New Zealand in the FIRST MINUTE. A long shot from Heather O’Reilly while the keeper was snoozing. Absolutely beautiful.
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Reiley’s middle school youth group is on a mission trip to Chattanooga and I’m along as an adult chaperone. It may be the best thing I’ve done in my life. We’ve spent hours pulling an invasive exotic (privett) from a beautiful Cherokee historical site run by a wise strong woman named Ms. Cleta, we’ve set up assembly lines to organize food at the massive Chattanooga food bank, and the kids are throwing themselves into it and working really hard. And having lots of crazy fun too, inevitable when you put 60 kids into one big church for a week of sleepovers. I should be unplugged so I’ll stop there for now – I just had to share a little bit.