Barack Obama Interview

Barack and I posing for a photo.
Today I had the pleasure of sitting in on a small closed door interview with Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama. I was lucky enough to get my name pulled for the drawing at work (the Keene Sentinel newspaper) to attend (quietly and in the back) of the interview with about a dozen people.

The interview lasted for just over an hour and the entire video of it (yes there's video even though it's a newspaper) is online. If you look closely you can see me in the back right, and if you are even more astute, you can notice the lady in front of me nodding off now and again.

I really enjoyed the interview because:
a) It got me out of my menial work tasks for about 2 hours.
b) It was inspiring to see/meet/hear a Presidential candidate.
c) Towards the end he says "crush my opponents"

He included a lot of talk about reform (health insurance, education, FDA, lobbying, etc.) which I liked. In fact, most of what he said I liked which made me start to wonder if it was all too good to be true. I want to watch more of the interviews they've done so far to see if everyone is too good to be true. I'm young, naive, passionate, idealistic, etc. and new to the game of presidential elections (only having impact on 2 so far), but I know that promises are always made and promises are always broken.

There was some talk about the differences of civil unions and marriages which was not discussed completely. The whole "if there is a separation of church and state, why does there need to be a different term for same sex marriages in the eyes of the government when it has nothing to do with the religious community" argument was something that he didn't want to get into. Murky water indeed that would no doubt cause a lot of unrest for him - people find it easier to accept gays in unions than marriages - but are there any candidates that are actually proposing the use of only one of the terms for both same-sex and heterosexual couples? I'm not sure. I think all marriages should be considered as civil unions by the government and marriage should be used as a personal/religious term that people can choose to use or not. Anyway, I'm not going to get into that now.

After the interview I introduced myself saying my grandfather-in-law was a close friend of Charles Ogletree, Obama's former Harvard Professor and mentor at Harvard. He asked me how they were associated and when I said he was the President of the NAACP on Martha's Vineyard it earned me a pat on the back.

For the record - a pat on the back from a Presidential candidate trumps a handshake from a Presidential candidate any day of the week.

Candidates interviewed so far at the paper (since I started in Sept '07):
* John Edwards
* Hillary Clinton
* Barack Obama
* John McCain (next week)

Library Phone Usage!

Who talks on their cell phone in the library?!

This dude does! I dislike him!
Good thing he answered so he could tell his mom that his girlfriend isn't sick yet and chat about some other stuff. It was so obnoxious I could barely even surf the internets.

Mount Monadnock - Dublin Trail

Good ol' me at the summit of Mount Monadnock

Dublin Trail to Mount Monadnock summit 3159'
2.2 miles, 1700' elevation gain
Start 10:00, Summit 12:00, End 13:00

A wonderful day for a hike. There was no snow at the trail head, but once I started going up, there was snow all over the place. It ranged from 1/2 inch to 8 inch drifts at the summit area. It had rained all around Souther New Hampshire yesterday, but the mountain was just high enough to receive snow instead - a fresh healthy smattering that was very picturesque - it made the trees look like trees you'd see illustrated in Christmas stories.

I haven't really ever done snowy mountain hiking, and even though there wasn't much snow, it was a pretty intense hike for a pretty measly hike, if you take my meaning. The thing is, most of this trail is a nice water runoff for the mountain which in turn turns to ice when the temperatures drop - I was not aware of this beforehand. That's not really a problem in itself, but I would have liked to have some sissy-sticks or some ice cleats or something because about half way up the trail consisted only of rocks covered with inches of ice and I had to do a fair amount of scrambling to continue.

It was worth it when I arrived at the top, but I was disappointed to find that the only wind-free nook where I had planned on heating up my tin of baked beans had been urinated in. Great. So, after admiring the view through the biting wind (Boston skyline in the distance - white Mount Washington on the opposite distance), I started the slow slip down the mountain.

I would describe the descent down the trail as perilous. I spent most of the time sliding down large ice covered rocks both intentionally and accidentally. I think I lost count of how many times I flat out fell after 7, but no real injuries, and to my knowledge nobody saw me do any of my cartoon like spills.

On my way down I passed a large youth group on its way up. They had to be the most ill-equipped group of hikers I have ever seen. Sure it's not a huge hike - but it's freezing, windy, icy, etc. and most were wearing sweatpants/shirts, sneakers, no gloves/mittens, no extra clothes, and very few had water. Bad news, I'm sure they turned back before the ice got too crazy.

Anyways, awesome hike, one more of the Mount Monadnock trails completed. I aim to have done the whole lot of them by the time we're finished here in Keene. I will have some photos posted on the site of this soon.

First Snow of the Season Forcasted

This means it is time for me to
acquire some hot chocolate fixins!

Eating Bugs

I’m tired of the whole “don’t worry, it’s a good source of protein” statement that people give if a bug is inadvertently swallowed. It’s one of those automatic responses that many people say, but I think it’s time for it to be retired, so I did a little pseudo-research (Google) to look into the actual value of eating a bug.

100 grams of small grasshoppers yields 14.3 grams of protein
1 small grasshopper is .3 grams
333 small grasshoppers are needed to equal 100 grams
1 small grasshopper yields .04 grams of protein

100 grams of beef yields 22 grams of protein
100 grams is equal to 3.5 ounces
3.5 ounces is less than ¼ pound or ½ cup

Okay, so it’s not really surprising, 1 small grasshopper doesn’t amount to much protein. I don’t think anybody would really be surprised, and these are grasshoppers we’re talking about, whole grasshoppers, not pesky little flies which are eaten by accident. Comparing the size of just a single, tiny fly (2mm) to a small grasshopper (30mm) still reveals a huge difference. I can only imagine the nutritional value is even more negligible. Length-wise, this would mean something like 5000.

Conclusion?
Certainly bugs can be decent sources of protein, but not when eaten as a single accidental incident. Eating 1 of 5000 flies needed to amount to less than the nutritional value of a ¼ pound beef patty hardly warrants the use of the tired statement about bugs containing protein.

How ethanol is ruining my drinking experience.

More and more farmers are turning to corn production to fill the demand for ethanol. The problem (or ONE problem) is that more corn means less barley, and less barley means higher barley prices, and higher barley prices translate into higher beer prices. According to what the homebrew-store-guy told me, and what I’ve read online, this isn’t just a 10 cent or 5% increase here, malted barley prices are expected to rise somewhere between 50-100% for this upcoming year. The increase in barley prices is pretty substantial, but the real kicker that’s going to have a grander effect (not just on prices) is the shortage of hops this year. The homebrew-store-guy also told me to expect an increase of around 150% but one example cited the price of hops going up from around $3 per pound to $11 per pound. That’s an increase of around 400%.

Regular beers are going to have issues with these prices going up, but I think smaller craft/microbreweries are going to really suffer. Megabreweries (Coors, Bud, etc.) use a substantial amount of rice/corn adjuncts instead of mostly barley (with some wheat) that microbreweries tend to use, and microbreweries tend to do a lot more fancy and interesting beers that require infinitely more hops that a Bud Light would call for. Double/Triple IPA's, IPA’s, bitters, pale ales, and any hop-heavy beer will likely be made in reduced quantities or experience drastic price increases. Since the cause of the increase in price is due to a massive shortage, some breweries are not going to even be able to obtain all the hops they would normally have, so it’s not just about affordability and price increases - some places may not be able to produce the same beers due to the lack of availability.

The shortage of hops is an unlucky combination of widespread drought around the world, hailstorms in Europe, and fewer farmers producing hops due to surplus in previous years which caused farmers to reduce their hop production. One figure was something like 50% less hops are being grown in the Pacific Northwest. Homebrew-store-guy suggested that this would probably right itself in 2 years or so, supply and demand, hopefully better weather, etc.

Prognosis?
$10 for a 6 pack, an extra $1 or so for a pint in a bar, pricier kegs, etc.

Who is to blame?
Global warming affecting weather patterns?
Increased demand for ethanol production?
Reduced farmland due to development and reduced demand?

Also, Ethanol: maybe not such a good idea? Read this:
“Ethanol, when used as a fuel, is a net energy waste.”

Halloween Results

Bea found some really awesome costumes for us.
Trick-or-Treaters: 2

The lady I work with suggested that those two people were probably the paper carriers for the neighborhood, which would explain why they actually found our door to knock on (considering it's somewhat hidden), but that wouldn't explain why they don't ever actually deliver my newspaper.