A Bright Future of Hope and Opportunity!

Okay, I don’t know about all y’all, but I’m kind of weary, worn out and tired! Not so much physically, but mentally, and emotionally. Here’s the deal.

First, it’s this presidential campaign. Will it ever end? I mean, really, the stumping, rhetoric, accusations, and discussion feel perpetual. And for now, they are short on substance, and long on emotional manipulation. I’ve always prided myself on being relatively immune to the manipulation aspect, but, for some reason, this time around it is really abrasive. I’m not even talking about the actual issues of either campaign, it’s mood and methods. We can devote another post to the candidates’ issues, but not today.

The next thing I can consciously put my finger on is the frenzy about world energy and pending global environmental collapse due to carbon levels. Yes, oil prices are high; yes, we need to conserve resources; yes, we are experiencing dramatic increases in food prices! All these are happening, but I don’t get the panic and despair mentality. It doesn’t resolve anything to wander around the world bemoaning our circumstances, and complaining when others don’t bemoan with us. It only adds to fear, despair, and eventually apathy. When people feel helpless often the only way to deal with it is to ignore it. It also makes us more willing to accept just about anything that looks like an attempt at a solution; this can lead to poor and ill-advised actions in the long-term view!

What is the solution? Perhaps, I’m not qualified to say with certainty, yet I have a few thoughts about it. When people are presented with a tough problem to solve, they are inclined to attack it with energy, if they believe there is some type of reward upon defeating the obstacle. Hope! We need to recognize our situation, but also look back and see that we have solved many tough, challenging problems already, and are just as smart and capable (perhaps more so) to do it now. The world and people are resilient! Look at the monumental achievements throughout history. I’m not talking Pollyanna, here, but a realistic, eyes open optimistic enthusiasm to tackle challenges with energy, drive, and balance--avoiding, panic, despair, and desperation. This will require cooperation, moderation, and even some realistic compromise from the extreme views on all sides.

Our nation was founded on the concept that given an opportunity to control their destiny, people will most often achieve greatness. Many times they will surpass expectations. We need to regain that optimism for opportunity, and responsibility for our actions—good or bad! Blaming our neighbor, the church, or the government, shifts our energy away from the individual, and drives away creativity and determination. Allowing ourselves to be told we are not responsible for our actions, because somewhere in our past—near or very distant—some injustice was inflicted on us or our family, makes us exempt from tapping into the personal hope and energy that can take us away from the negative situation.

Of course, I believe at some point along this path, we cannot have a complete hope, until we acknowledge God in our sojourn here on earth. All things are His, and he can help us solve problems we create for ourselves, but He generally won’t act unless we request it!

The Dark Knight Smashes the Box Office!

I admit, I saw it! Everything I heard about the great acting and special effects, did not disappoint me. As a matter of fact, I think that Heath Ledger will receive an Academy Award nomination, and likely the Award. He was a very convincing mad-man. And Michael Caine, well, he’s Michael Caine.

So by now, you’ve determined that I loved the movie; wrong. Believe it or not, despite the superb acting, the excellent special effects, the cool bat-toys, I came out of the movie a bit frustrated! Why? I’m not entirely sure, but I think it has to do with my own personal vision of who Batman is; what he represents. I admit, I never read the original Batman comics, so I don’t know where they took him. I did grow up with the Batman from TV, so perhaps that is where my basis of comparison originates.

Just like everyone said, it is very dark—the lighting, the setting, the mood. Another objective masterfully achieved by the director. I guess, this is where my frustration lies. The film was done so well, that Batman is going to be defined by a new persona, going down a new path, a path I don’t want to see him travel!

The characters infer he's a ‘necessary evil.’ I’ve always, and continue to wish for Batman to be bigger than life; in the ‘toys’ he own, in the bad-guys he catches, in the girls that like him, and in the moral character he displays. With him now being allowed to let the ends justify the means, I get lost in the moral dilemma created. Okay, so I’m an idealist!

But, don’t you think we have enough real-life examples of bigger-than-life ‘heros’, that turn out to have significant vices, personality defects, or character flaws? We don’t have to look far to find examples in sports, business, politics, and even some religious figures. By making Batman more like these, we take away some of the hope that there is reward in being moral, good, and virtuous. Perhaps the message of the film is that we live in a dark world, and the only way to combat darkness, is to use the same tools, but for the right reason, of course. That concept is disturbing and discouraging to me.

In the end, we are talking about a mythical figure from a comic book, made into a feature movie by some extremely talented people. But, IT'S ONLY A MOVIE! I don’t see the social fabric of society being torn away by such a production. However, it does make me wonder if this movie’s success in someway indicates our perceptions about society and morality, or just plain optimism and hope. Something to think about.

Help! We Need a New Name.

Well, all good things must come to and end. We have to close down The Front Porch! What? you say. Yes, it's true, we were so proud of our Blog that we failed to notice that the idea and name of Front Porch, and variations abound out there--in the blogosphere, the internet etc. So for the sake of our pride, and to avoid offending some already-using-the-name-front-porch webmaster, we are looking for a new name. One that continues to capture the spirit of the front porch, but lets us have our own name. It's time to move out of grandma's basement, and get a house with a porch of its own.

That's where you come in. Please help us by submitting suggestions for our new name. We're small, so the only prize we can offer is to feature you, or a topic you suggest, in our first post under the new name! Wow! Can't beat that!

A Second Podcast!

NEWSFLASH!!! The highly anticipated, wildly acclaimed, second podcast for the Front Porch is now "in the can" as 'they' say.

We didn't say it would be quick, or pretty, but just that we'd get it done. Please take a listen, by clicking the link on the Battle of Sullivan's Island under the "In the Neighborhood" sidebar. It's about 48 minutes long. Though most of it is about John's topic, Carl and I add a little 'color' to keep it interesting. I have to admit, before I met John, I was not really very interested in the details of the American Revolutionary War. But his enthusiasm, energy, and genuine fascination with it has made a fan of me!

So you want to dip your toe in the wide podcasting ocean? I'd like to tell the story of our journey in to the podcasting seas. The concept of podcasting is pretty simple, as things go. However, concepts and details often are not the same. The devil, as they say, is in the details!

'What is a podcast', you ask?. Let me tell you. A podcast is basically a recording of a person or people talking about something important to them. This recording is saved in a specific format that can be put on an internet site. Once it is 'published' on an internet site, anyone who knows the address, or has a link to the webpage where it is published, can go there and listen. For example, our second podcast is hosted on a site called archive.org. See I told you it was easy!

OK, not so easy, those pesky details. Unlike the first podcast, where I sat up all night (literally) with a headset plugged into my computer, and talked. We wanted to have three microphones attached, so we could all be in the same room and talk, you know, have a conversation...on The Front Porch. This is where the world started spinning on a different axis. Plugging three mics into one computer, is not a simple chore. What kind of sound card do you have? Is it high quality to handle all that input? Poor quality card? You can bypass your sound card with a USB mic, but USB can only handle one mic at a time! There are separate boxes (mixers) that you can use to plug multiple mics into, then combine or 'mix' them with music, drums, airplane sounds, etc then feed it all into your computer. But, oh wait, most of these are designed to go into the computer through the sound card!

Yes, they do make mixers that plug into the USB ports of the computer, bypassing the sound card. However, these are out of our budget, for now. Somewhere in this fog of confusion, we decided to purchase a higher quality USB mic, and take our chances sitting around and all talking into it. I hope you'll agree, it turned out pretty well.

By the way, recording was the easy part, and that took about 3 hours. After recording, someone (me this time) goes through the entire recording editing out the long pauses, dropped stuff, loud laughter, snorts, chortles, flushing toilets in the attached bath, and each of our favorite pauses such as 'and um', 'and', 'uhhh', etc. Oh, you want to spice it up with some background music? Editing. The software we use to do this is very easy to use, it's just a tedious task. I am pleased with the finished product. It is not perfect, but we had fun, learned something about a great battle, and learned to put together and record a podcast.

I don't want to forget. After the edits and being saved, it has to get onto the internet--somehow. Easy! Just upload it to our blog webpage, right? Uh, not so much. For many reasons, most blogging websites, don't allow podcast files on their site. The files are big and take up storage space. These large files can also slow down access to the website, especially if thousands of people want to listen to the podcast. (hint, hint). We finally found an inexpensive (read: free) site, that allows us to upload our podcast file and "host" our file. The only thing left, is linking to that site, and presto change-o, podcasting to the masses!

If you are interested in doing your own podcast; DON'T DO IT! Actually, it is quite fun, and we would be glad to help you if you want to try. We're just rank amateurs, but would love to help. Just like that friendly neighbor who always loans you the weed eater!

Action Speaks Louder Than Words

As the diddy goes, uncle Jed was simply hunting for food, when he discovered something much more interesting, "Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea." Ever since that fateful day, we have become increasingly more dependent on the stuff, so much so, that we need to import about 70% of what we consume. T. Boone Pickins has nothing in common with uncle Jed, except his wealth and connections to the oil industry, and energy trading.

Mr. Pickins is in his 80's and doesn't appear to be slowing down. His current company is purchasing land and building a wind farm that will be the largest in the world when completed: generating over 4 Gigawatts of electricity; enough for 1.3 million homes! Why is he doing this? Money, you say? Perhaps, but he has about $4 Billion already, so he's not exactly, strapped for cash. Believe it or not, Mr. Pickins appears to be genuinely concerned about the future of this country. While he could just sit back and count his money, in his (truly) golden years, he's chosen to rally a grass roots "army," as he calls it, to create a national wave of concerned citizens. The purpose: get the next President, and Congress to do something, really do something. He even makes it easy for them, he has a rational, realistic plan.

This isn't one of those crush-every-car-and-ride-a-bicycle plans. Simply put, he proposes that we shift the fuels we use for electricity generation and transportation. This involves natural gas and wind-generated electricity. In the US today, we create electricity from several kinds of fuel. Of that, 22% of electricity is made by burning natural gas. Picken's plan would have us replace that 22% with electricity created by wind generators. It happens, that the center section of the USA is one of the top places in the world for wind conditions conducive for steady, consistent wind power. It's even been called "The Saudi Arabia of Wind Energy."

As the natural gas is freed from generating electricity, it can be used to power vehicles. This is not a new technology, but there are few cars that run on, an places that sell natural gas in the USA. There would have to be some effort and money spent to get the infrastructure built up, and the vehicles manufactured. But the effort would be worth it; in places where it is available today, natural gas for vehicles is priced at about $1/gallon. The Pickens Plan requries the "army" of grass roots folks from across the country, to band together, and insist that the next President, and Congress get off their cushioned chairs, stop talking, and DO! Implemet this plan or a variation, before any other law is passed. It could mean a 30% reduction of oil imports, $300 billion that stays in the US, and create thousands of real, meaningful jobs. Oh, did I mention tax revenues ?

The plan is not perfect, but it is much more viable and immediate than any other proposal out there, from anywhere! It makes sense. It is not partisan, political, or damaging to the environment. There isn't any conflict with religion, class, race, or education. I encourage you to take a look at the sidebar link "An Interesting Idea" and see for yourself.

I applaud Mr Pickins for not retiring from society, but instead becoming a general, and commanding an energy army of concerned, tired, frustrated, cynical, slightly frightened, and hard-working citizens. This could be the answer. It won't solve our long-term energy needs, but it can bridge the gap, giving time for other forms of energy to mature. Who knows, perhaps we won't even use oil for fuel in 50 years!

The Battle of Sullivan's Island, South Carolina

Did anyone go to the beach over the Fourth of July? Maybe still there? Maybe want to still be there, but staring at the four walls in the old cubicle again? We have a lot of nice beaches here in the U.S. My wife and I went to Seaside, FL, last year, and that was fantastic. I highly recommend it, with its emerald waters and beautiful cottages. I grew up visiting the beaches of South Carolina, primarily. From Myrtle Beach down to Hilton Head, South Carolina has some beautiful stretches of sand, and they know how to meet the customer's needs. There are boardwalks, large fishing/walking piers, wide beaches, waves good enough for surfing, loads and loads of shopping venues (even one completely on the water called Barefoot Landing), great golf, universities, and of course, amazing history.

Some of the history of the South Carolina Lowcountry is very overt, and some of it is hidden beneath it all. For instance, Blackbeard the pirate blockaded the Port of Charleston in the 1700's, and the U.S. Civil War had its first major engagement here between two organizations that still exist today: The U.S. Army and the South Carolina Corps of Cadets. That was the bombardment of Fort Sumter, and it was one of several battles over the forts that helped to secure Charleston Harbor. It was not the first battle that those forts were used in, and many were used up through World War II.

In June of 1776, the Revolutionary War was in full swing in the northern colonies. The British knew that there was a lot of sympathy for the Crown in the southern colonies, and prepared to move in that direction to gather support and set up strongholds to keep the flames of revolution from raging out of control as they had in the north. Charleston was a key city to take if the British were to have control in the south. By early June, they had moved just outside of the harbor with 2,200 troops and 9 warships. To land on the peninsula that Charleston sits on, the warships had to navigate the sandbar-laden harbor. Look it up on Google Earth and follow along. There are several islands that line the entrance, and on Sullivan's Island, on the north side of the harbor, the Continental Army decided to build a fort to protect the city. COL William Moultrie commanded the 2nd South Carolina Regiment of the Continental Army, and he assembled a host of interesting personalities to help build the fort and defend against imminent attack. He had been building the post since March, but had not completed it by the beginning of June.

Some of the officers that joined COL Moultrie at Fort Sullivan were Major Francis Marion, the future legendary figure known as "The Swamp Fox," and Thomas Sumter "The Gamecock." Others were famous in their day for leading troops against the Cherokee in an earlier conflict, and General Washington even sent General Charles Lee to oversee the preparations, as this was an extremely important post for the colonies to hold (I'm referring to it as "the colonies" because the Continental Congress would not declare independence for another week or so after the battle ended.).

The British strategy was a two-pronged attack on the fort: heavy bombardment from the sea to knock down batteries from the main walls in the front, circle around to the north of the island and fire into the fort over the lower walls in its rear, fire large mortars from the ship Thunder into the fort itself, and to attack by land from Long Island (now the Isle of Palms) to the north. The U.S. Army consisted of about 480 in the fort, and just under 800 to prevent a land attack outside of it. There was no U.S. Navy to protect the fort, only a few support boats to move personnel and supplies. Fort Sullivan, as it was named, had 31 guns to the superior firepower of 300 guns on the man-of-war vessels bearing down on them.

The forces are ready, the match is set, and the battle is ready to begin on a hot summer day in the calm Charleston Harbor.

If you wargame this one, even in your head, you will almost always come up with the same result.

You're going to be amazed at the reality. Listen in to the American Front Porch podcast this weekend for a full account of a battle that we cannot afford to forget.

Ratatouille

Several blogs ago, I introduced our attempts to grow a vegetable garden. In spite of ineptitude, and inexperience, (in the words of Herr Frankenstein) IT LIVES! This little botanical experiment has already surpassed our expectations. It is astounding what nature can do with just a modicum of assistance from mere mortals, like us.

Today, we became the beneficiaries of this miracle. We harvested three zucchini and 5 yellow squash. Though this is a very modest harvest, we danced with excitement as our treasures were whisked into the house. These were quickly dispatched into a most delightful dish, made famous by a recent Pixar movie, Ratatouille! Yes, we actually attempted, successfully, to create this delicious dish. Perhaps the best way to eat squash!

The wonders of a growing garden, the majesty of the open ocean, or the expanse of the cosmos, always overwhelms me with incredible awe, curiosity, and gratitude. In this season of remembering--the seeds of freedom sown into the rugged soil of a few determined visionaries--it is intensely appropriate to be thankful. Thankful for the order of the universe, from subatomic to galactic. We are the recipients of gifts, blessings, and wonders so magnificent, so precise, that nearly all of them remain unknown and undiscovered by human hands and minds!

This Nation and the principles that guide it, are as amazing and miraculous as the complexity of a nebula. Let’s remember to be grateful. When we eat from an elaborate buffet or a simple dish of Ratatouille, let’s take some time for amazement and gratitude. Gratitude for daily miracles like a perfect atmosphere on the third planet from the sun, a sun of just the right size, and rain, and seasons, that allow us the opportunity to pick squash from a small, insignificant vegetable garden.