All Politics and no Paddling...

One day while I was paddling on the Rivanna River, I looked between my knees in the kayak at the load of garbage I had collected from the water. After a quick glance at the banks I realized my kayak was not big enough for collecting the amount of trash that had accumulated in my beloved river and have any kind of effect on the situation. At that moment I started brainstorming ways to fix this garbage uprise.

While drifting with the current with a soft breeze on my face and the stench of spent 40s in my boat, an idea slowly formed in the hazy area I call my mind. The words "Public Awareness" popped into my head, unexpectedly. So I continued brainstorming on ways to make the public aware of the rivers plight. The first thing that came to my mind was advertisements in the newspaper. Every time I went kayaking I would take pictures of the garbage I had collected during the day. My idea was to post these images in a newspaper ad with a quirky sentence or two to try to make people take an interest in the river. I researched advertising costs and realized this approach was not in my budget.

Mrs. Yak and I had been watching this video blogger called "Ze Frank." His blog was extremely successful and received loads of attention. I thought I could do the same, but little did I know how hard it is to get on the first page of a Google search with just the words, "Charlottesville," "Rivanna River," and "kayak." Ze Frank also has video, which is pretty cool and cuts out misspelled words and typos by about 100% or so.

I don't have the money to waste on advertisements, nor do I have a voice for radio or a face for television, thereby decreasing the odds of a successful video blog by 80%, if my math is correct. So, here I sit at a keyboard on a free blog service I found by accident. Almost like fate or karma, or like, it was meant to be. It was such a spiritual moment for me when I stumbled across blogger.

Next thing I had to do was create a name for the blog. I wanted something catchy, easy to remember, and pertinent to the material. Believe it or not, I made up the word Riveryak. I don't know why I spelled it River Yak when I set up the blog, but the proper spelling is Riveryak, or RiverYak for added spunk. One word. The word itself is an animal I made up one day while paddling and pretending to be on assignment for "National Geographic." I was on the hunt for the elusive riveryak, a species of Yak that is found near, um...rivers.

So I had my mission-write a blog about the ailing Rivanna River and any other paddling trips I take. I had a fitting title-www.Riveryak.blogspot.com, I even wrote it on the side of my kayak in 2" block letters. The blog would be updated weekly, except when I was excited and updated it two or three times a day, or bored with it and didn't update it for half a year. And sometimes I get off topic, such as the last post that I didn't even title.

I was talking to someone at work the other day about the blog. He said he enjoys reading it, but it's not "a life altering event." (People hate talking to me because they know it might get blogged.) I was shocked for a split second and my feelings were badly scorched until I realized I never meant for this to be "life altering." I am not a political journalist, hell I'm not even a journalist. I'm a paddler that gets off topic every once in a while and needs the threat of losing one of the five readers I have. I love kayaking and I'm passionately patriotic, but oil and water don't mix.

This is a paddling blog, with a lot of conservation being preached. I feel that political blogs are fruitless since nobody is going to get along over current issues anyway. I must never allow myself to be distracted and turn attention away from paddling and towards Washington. Although, it will happen again. As a matter of fact, I have an unpublished post about my thoughts and feelings on exploring new places to drill for oil. Whenever I finish checking the facts it will be posted. You've been warned.

I appreciate my uncle's comments on the previous post. And my sister in laws, too. Uncle Pink told me in an email to publish more comments. I would if I got some! Evidently there are a few people that actually read my blog, but I never know it because nobody ever comments! Or they try to blow my cover with too much information.

As Uncle P said in his comment, he is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. My other uncle was in the Navy (God have mercy on him, he didn't know any better), and I have a brother in law in the Air Force who is deploying soon, again. Uncle Pink was merciful in his comment. I was actually a little nervous to read it. I guess I forgot that we are family and he has tact. By the way, Uncle Pink, I would have published your comment even if you had done as I was expecting and ripped me a new one!



Fair winds and following seas...

A number of things have been going on lately that have had me thinking. The things I think always sound great in my head but sometimes get lost in translation when I speak. I have found that keeping these things inside until I can't take it any longer then blogging it rather than talking to rational, competent and intelligent people about my ideas allows me to keep thinking I am rational, competent and intelligent. It is only after I have spoken the thoughts that I sound like a lunatic. Or get the feeling that I am sounding like a lunatic from the looks on the poor people's faces who are unfortunate enough to be within my comfort zone when I have had enough and need to vent.

Item number one that is bothering me: Have you heard about the cyclone that tore through Myanmar? Surely you have. The last numbers I read were estimating over 20,000 people dead and that number is expected to reach 100,000. 100,000!! I thought 20,000 was bad. I mean, 20,000 people is about the same size as the town I am from. I don't know how many people reside in the county I grew up in, but I bet it is less than 100,000 people.

How bout that government that didn't warn anybody a freakin' killer cyclone was nigh? Now that same government is blocking aid from foreign countries, saying, "Nah, we got this one man. Maybe next time." Think about this...most of the casualties from this cyclone aren't dead yet. The only reason they will die is because their government can't get over their pride and ask for help. That sounds so familiar...

Warning...I'm about to bring up 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina!!...Warning

Do you remember Iraq offering assistance with the recovery efforts of 9/11? Don't feel bad if you don't (actually, yeah, feel bad. You need to pay closer attention), because our own government blew them off like a sparrow in a hurricane then blew them up. I bet you remember "Shock and Awe." Maybe we did have that one covered and rescued as many survivors as possible, but how many of the rescuers were killed when the buildings suddenly collapsed? You know, the collapse nobody saw coming. How many rescuers have died since because of "Ground Zero Syndrome?" It is possible we don't know everything and could have used some intel, at the least, from a country that has experience with suicide bombings.

Hurricane Katrina-the Feds did not arrive for DAYS after the hurricane. The only reason they did come was because the cities that were wiped off the map had no infrastructure left and could not manage the situation. They had to BEG their own government to help. The Coast Guard wasn't even called in until after FEMA evaluated the situation! Isn't this the role of the National Guard and Coast Guard? Did I hear them wrong when they went over this stuff in bootcamp?

In an effort to appear humane, our government is "putting pressure" on Myanmar to allow relief aid to come in and help. This probably shouldn't piss me off. Maybe our gov has learned a lesson from 9/11 and Katrina and has come to the realization that some jobs are too big for one little operation to handle. But then again, I doubt it. How fucking pretentious can a government get? The same government that cried like spoiled brats about helping its own citizens during THE SAME TYPE OF CASUALTY is now trying to stick it to a third world country for acting the same way. Fascist anyone?

I have to stop before I throw a clot and die a terrible death. Keep up with the situation in Myanmar. This should be interesting.




Fair winds and following seas...