New Year's Eve Flood

This has been a memorable Saturday in Northern Nevada, to say the least. We're hoping that the worst is over. The River seems to have crested at 14 feet but never rose much past First Street. I moved a lot of sandbags this morning but at a certain point there wasn't much more that anyone could do, so I took the opportunity to take a few pictures. These are all taken within a block of where I live.

The above picture was taken just outside my front door on Arlington Avenue looking at the intersection of Arlington and First at about 11 a.m., just as we'd finished sandbagging the building.

This is Roff Avenue just behind the building. On the left you can see the lamppost I wrote about a couple of posts back, the desk chair still sitting vigil about two-thirds of the way up.

I went up to the large patio on the fourth floor of my building this morning and got the above picture of sandbags being delivered to Java Jungle and my favorite wine bar, Jungle Vino. As I look out the observation deck of the Fortress of Solitude right now, the water has receded quite a bit since the time this picture was taken.

This is another view of the intersection outside my building with the swollen Truckee River in the background.

This picture was taken just a few minutes ago on First Street just outside Java Jungle. You can see how much the water has receded already.

Despite the fact that some damage was probably done, it was really great to see the neighborhood pull together this morning. The bright side of situations like this is that complete strangers will reach out to help people they might otherwise never even talk to. It's a cliche, I know, but now I've seen it firsthand. In the end the river gave us a scare and some good photos, but didn't come near as high as the big floods in 1997. It isn't really time to breathe a sigh of relief yet because more rain is forecast for tomorrow night, but the water is going down and at this point there's a cautious optimism out on the street.

Word has come down from high command that the New Year's Eve fireworks display is being postponed until tomorrow, but all other New Year's Eve festivities are apparently still on for tonight. I'm not a bit surprised. This ain't Vegas; we're a hardy mountain people up here in Northern Nevada, and a little Wrath of God isn't going to slow us down that much. Anyway, just this minute I can see the sun breaking through the clouds from the window of the Fortress. The temperature is also dropping, so perhaps any further precipitation will fall as snow and won't contribute to the flooding. Actually, in the afternoon light, the Virginia Range to the east looks quite pretty. Weird as it sounds for me to say this, it might actually end up being a pleasant evening.

All Hell Breaking Loose

It's been quite a morning here in Reno. The Truckee River is now several feet above flood stage. I've spent the morning sandbagging doors and windows around my building and buildings in my neighborhood. First Street, which is immediately south of my home, is covered in about two or three feet of water and Wingfield park is completely flooded. The water is still rising and might reach Second Street, which would completely swamp my building (again, I'll be fine since I'm on the eighth floor). Things may be even worse in Carson City, where burned areas from the Waterfall Fire two years ago are sliding into town. Interstate 80 is closed at the California border by mudslides and will probably stay that way for a few days.

I have a lot to do today and so I can't write a full update right now, but I will have all kinds of info and good pictures soon. Oh, and Happy New Year.

Wrath of the Truckee

One of the problems with living in a desert is that on the rare occasion that you do get a lot of rain, it's not easy to handle. The Truckee River, which runs through Reno (right by my home in fact, but don't worry, I'm on the 8th floor), is already running high from a very wet December, and this weekend two more storms are going to slam into the Sierra. In the nearby city of Sparks they're talking about filling sandbags, and it's just been announced that the flood stage alert level on the Truckee has been bumped up to Level Orange. Whatever that means.

Of course, we don't have it as bad as the folks on the other side of the hill. The city of Sacramento has already set up a couple of sand bag distribution points in anticipation of the coming storms. The one saving grace in all of this is that so far is the fact that because the storms we had in December and those scheduled for the weekend are each a textbook example of a "Pinapple Express" (warm, wet systems that move up out of the tropical Pacific), the temperature has not been cold enough to give us snow in the valleys. I'm grateful for this not so much for myself--personally I like a good snowfall--but for this city, which was brought to a grinding halt by last year's already legendary January snowstorm. Right now all we have to worry about is liquid water, at least for the time being.

This Means Something...

For some reason I have become completely fascinated by a desk chair that someone has affixed about two-thirds of the way up a lampost directly behind my building. How the chair got there in the first place is something of a mystery. WHY someone would stick a chair sideways onto a lampost is even more of a mystery, but the chair has now been there for several weeks and does not appear to be coming down soon, either by force of gravity or the efforts of the city fathers, who's duty it is (I assume) to remove chairs from lamposts and other city property.

I pass this sight every morning on the way to work and can't help but wonder what it's supposed to mean. Is it some form of performance art? Social satire? Coded message? Or did one of the idiots who hang out at the West Street Plaza all day just get a hankerin' to put a chair up a lampost? It's just one of life's unanswerable questions.

Back in Reno

I'm back from my too-brief trip home for Christmas. To really do the trip justice I will need to sit down and write a lengthy posting, which unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I don't have time for right now. Let me just say that a good time was had by all, and more details will be coming in the near future. Or not. You never really know, do you?

Let me at least post a couple of my favorite pictures from the trip. This one of me nieces is too cute; Kira is on the left and Avery, my newly-christened Goddaughter, is on the right:

And because I haven't been posting enough pictures of her lately (and because she got me the digital camera with which these pictures were taken), here's a nice one of Melissa:

Sweet Home Alabama

I'm heading home to Alabama for Christmas today. Many updates are sure to follow. If I don't get to post much over the next few days, have a happy year-end holiday of your choice.

I Guess Outrage Takes Too Much Effort

I'm amazed at how quickly the latest Bush Administration scandal is falling off the radar screen. Searching for a summary of the domestic spying controversy, I was saddened but I guess not all that surprised to find that it was much, much easier to find stories on the baby penguin stolen from a zoo in London or the annulment in the Zellweger-Chesney marriage. The Bush Administration may not be able to do much right, but they sure know how to spin scandals.

It's frightening that the Administration feels that it can circumvent the law and the Constitution to achieve their ends. It's even more frightening how many people obediently accept the Administration and their surrogate's defenses of "trust us, this is for your own good" and "anyone who questions this is a traitor", and if that doesn't quite do it, the old faithful "Terrorists and Bill Clinton's penis will kill you unless you stop asking questions." This is unacceptable. The Executive branch of the federal government is spying on Americans in America with absolutely no judicial oversight. Is no one bothered that this sounds a lot like the actions of a police state? Heck, they've even admitted that they're doing it and that they plan to continue doing it!

It would seem self-explanatory to me that neither George Bush nor anyone else gets to pick and chose which laws he obeys. And yet, so far out here in Northern Nevada the response to this latest revelation of wrongdoing is essentially nil. I never cease to be amazed at how good the people that run this country, people incapable of accomplishing almost anything else that they set out to do (besides, I guess, continuing to convice the public to act against their own interests and re-elect them), are so damn good at managing to keep public outrage at practically non-existent levels. How they do it is something of a mystery to me, but Peter Daou makes a pretty good attempt at explaining the process here.

Happy Solstice

Winter Solstice may be the shortest day of the year in terms of hours of daylight, but it's also the day that the sun starts making it's comeback, and I find that to be a very encouraging thought.

It's no accident that pretty much every major culture the world over celebrates a major holiday within a few days of this date. Examples include the Germanic festival of Yule, the ancient Persian holiday of Yalda, the Chinese festival of Dōng Zhì, and the ancient Roman holiday of Saturnalia, which happened to fall on December 25 in the Julian Calendar and was later supplanted by the celebration of Christmas. And perhaps most important of all is Life Day, celebrated by Wookies on the planet Kashyyyk. Who will ever forget Chewbacca's bravery in fighting the Imperial "War on Life Day" in the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special? I know I won't.

Perhaps because I'm half Irish, I've always looked forward to this day. Hundreds of years before Stonehenge was completed, a thousand years before the Egyptians built the pyramids, the ancient people of Ireland build Brú na Bóinne at Newgrange. That's in on the left. This megalithic passage tomb contains a central chamber that is lit by the sun only one time a year. For a few days surrounding the Winter Solstice, for barely fifteen minutes a day, the light of the sun shines through a roof box into the chamber, marking the point in the year when the days will stop getting shorter and the sun will start to return. Good stuff, huh? Or am I just a hopeless dweeb?

Anyway, enough lecturing. I hope everyone has a good day today, and if the darkness and gloom of the shortest day of the year start to get to you, just remember that from today until the Summer Solstice the minutes and hours of daylight are becoming imperceptibly but inexorably longer. Cheer up; Spring is closer than you think.

A Snow Bomb, A Dot-Com, and King Kong

Reno woke up to a surprise 6-8 inches of snow today. The mountains got pounded even harder; Sierra summits may get up to three feet. Up at Mt. Rose today the snow was somewhat heavy but still powdery. It would have been a perfect day if my equipment had cooperated (which it didn't, but I don't want to go into that now).

Not to change the subject, but I wanted to issue a pre-emptive apology to about forty-five people across America who will be receiving very poorly wrapped Christmas presents from Amazon.com this year. Saturday I went with a few members of the Reno chapter of the 20-30 Club out to Fernley, Nevada where Amazon has a huge shipping facility. Amazon lets charitable groups come in and raise funds by wraping presents during the Christmas rush, paying these charities 60 cents a package. I was glad to be able to help, but I have to admit that I cannot wrap presents to save my life, and the few minutes of training Amazon gives you did not do much good. If there's a "present wrapping" gene, I don't have it. So if you ordered a present from Amazon this year and it arrives very poorly wrapped, blame me.

And while we're at it, how about a third radical subject shift in one posting:

I went to see King Kong last night. Someone I know has been clamoring for me to talk about that movie, but rather than do a full-on review I'm just going to list what I liked and didn't like and see which list is longer.

What I Liked About King Kong:

1. Kong himself is an amazing creation. Because he's a computer generated beast based on the movements of actor Andy Serkis (who also helped create Gollum from the Lord of the Rings movies), he's completely without that "guy in a monkey-suit" hokeyness that has plagued previous Kong incarnations. He looks and moves like an animal--rushing around at lightning speed on all fours rather than trudging on two legs, something else that has always bothered me about previous Kongs--and even his facial expressions are extremely convincing. Plus, although he's certainly giant-sized, director Peter Jackson made the smart decision to make him 'big but not ridiculously big'. He's about 25 or 30 feet tall, and keeping his size within reasonable limits sort of adds to his believability. Plus it's nice that his size remains consistent throughout the movie, again unlike previous Kongs.
2. Laughable as this may sound, the connection in the film between Kong and Naomi Watts is almost believable. Gone is the strange sexual tension and subtle racial undertones from the relationship between the hot blonde and giant ape that we've seen in previous outings. In this version, Kong and Watts just sort of seem like kindred spirits, and that makes a lot more sense.
3. The scene where Kong fights not one, not two, but THREE T-Rexes absolutely has to be seen to be believed. Jackson is the undisputed king of big-time CGI (just don't fall too much in love with the stuff, Pete; look what it did to George Lucas).
4. The dinosaur stampede scene was also pretty neat. If I really sit and think about it, I have a hard time buying anyone punching and kicking velociraptors at a full sprint as they dodge stamping sauropod limbs, but that's why it's best not to think too much about things like that.
5. I liked that the movie gives an indication that Kong is actually the last of a breed of giant gorilla. Past movies always left me wondering where exactly he came from.
6. The scenery is astounding, and Naomi Watts is not hard to look at either.

So that's about it for the positives. Now it's on to What I Didn't Like about King Kong:

1. Jack Black. I know daniel doesn't want to hear this, but he's completely wrong for the part of the renegade filmmaker. What is his character supposed to be, exactly? A Machiavellian schemer? An Orson Wells-style misunderstood genius? A monomaniacle eccentric? A buffoon? After watching the film I have no idea, and apparently Jack Black didn't have any idea either. Stick to School of Rock-style comedies, Jack.
2. Pretty much the whole first hour of the movie was useless.
3. Am I the only one who looks at a movie like this and thinks, "Hey, a giant ape is pretty neat, but there are dinosaurs on this island!" Isn't that really the more amazing fact? I mean, we still have apes, albeit very few 25-foot tall apes. How come no one seems terribly impressed by the dinos?
4. That scene with the giant bugs was waaaaaaay too creepy for my taste.
5. I don't care what anyone says, that Adrien Brody is one weird looking dude. Plus, Jackson gives him very little to do besides run around and look concerned.
6. You just knew the black guy was going to die. I guess we should be glad that at least he didn't die first.
7. The guy who plays the lead actor in the film that Jack Black's character is trying to make (I don't know his name, but he sort of makes me think of a more effeminate Russell Crowe) starts out as a preening, self-possessed jerk, then at a key point in the movie he inexplicably reverses a decision he has made and acts in a way that is extremely selfless and heroic. Then he apparently goes back to being a jerk again. None of this is explained.
8. Just how the hell did they get Kong back to New York? Certainly not on the rinky-dink tugboat that got them out to Skull Island in the first place.
9. Peter Jackson is way too fond of cheesy slow motion shots.
10. The bug scene was so over-the-top grotesque that it needs to be mentioned twice.

So there you go--six good things, about 9 and a half bad. Do with that what you will.

Here Comes Santa Clauses

Just a friendly reminder that tomorrow night is the 5th Annual Santa Crawl in downtown Reno. If you've never seen hundreds of drunken Santas illegally bringing traffic to a dead standstill right under the Reno Arch so that they can pose for pictures and sing "We Wish You A Merry Christmas", you should check it out.

Thinking of El Sur

The inversion lingered for a sixth day today. The sun actually managed to burn through the fog for most of the day but the temperatures are still very cold, hovering around the freezing point even in mid-afternoon. Despite that fact the well-meaning city employees who maintain the open-air ice rink that sits right across the street from my office still couldn't manage to keep one troublesome corner of rink from melting. Go figure.

As long as we have sunshine I don't mind the cold, but I know I'm unusual in that respect. Melissa, my girlfriend, is particularly cold sensitive (odd, since she grew up in St. Louis which is just as cold if not colder than Reno) and has been having a tough time lately. I think it helps that she can now fixate on the fact that we've decided to take a vacation in early March; by that point even I will probably be sick of winter.

I know she's really excited about this. For the last few weeks, every time I walk in on her using the computer I can't help but notice that she's somewhat obsessively looking for vacation deals online. To tell the truth, I'm pretty excited too. The best choice to me at this point seems to be Los Cabos at the far end of the Baja Peninsula.

Baja is one of those places who's very name can get my blood pumping. To me, the name itself is evocative in a wild and trascendent way--just saying the word makes me think "untouched, foreboding, unspeakably beautiful." It's one of those place names, like "Sahara" or "Amazon" that just makes you want to grab a good pair of shoes, an old backpack and lots and lots of Imodium AD and head out.

I'm going to have to compromise, of course. Melissa, God bless her, isn't really the Adventure Travel sort. I'm sure we'll end up in one of those resort cities full of gringos like ourselves. And don't get me wrong, we'll have a great time. But what I really want to see is the country, even for just a day or two. Although the resort cities get all the attention, most of Baja is completely empty and Baja Highway 1 travels the entire length of the peninsula. To me, driving the length of the Baja would be one of those trips of a lifetime, like climbing Kilimanjaro or rafting the Colorado through Grand Canyon. It's one of those things that if someone has to ask why you want to do it then they aren't going to understand (somehow this guy got a web magazine to PAY him to do it; I hate that guy). I suppose it's the romantic in me. I so want to believe that there are still unblemished corners of the world waiting to be discovered, unplanned adventures waiting to happen, wild places where you can remind yourself that the world is actually a pretty big place, and your petty problems are really insignificant.

That's going to have to wait, though. For now, it's probably best just to get down to Cabo for a few days before it's overrun with Home Depots.

Season's Greetings From Inversion Hell

It's day four of Reno's first big winter Inversion of the year, and my nerves are starting to fray just a bit.

Inversions are the only climatological bugaboo about this part of the world that really gets to me. I don't mind the cold temperatures that bother some people, and I don't really even mind the Washoe Zephyr, the fierce winds that blow in off the mountains in the summertime. But inversions just plain depress me. For those of you who don't know, Inversions take place in wintertime in mountain valley regions, like the Truckee Meadows where Reno is located. Warmer air layers high in the atmosphere trap cold air in the valleys like water in a bathtub, and because the cold air just sits there in a pool it fills up with moisture and pollutants, leading to dense fog. These miserable weather patters can last for days or in some cases even weeks until a strong weather front comes along to plow them out.

The one refuge from the pea-soup fog and cold temperatures is, ironically, going up to higher elevations. The town of Truckee is only about two thousand feet up from us in the Sierra, but that elevations change is usually enough. Sometimes as you drive up I-80 the fog lets up gradually, but it isn't at all uncommon to burst out of the soup all at once like a dolphin breaching the water. The sudden blast of unblemished sunshine can come as something of a shock when you've spent the last few days swimming in a dingy gray mess. It's not uncommon for Reno residents to drive to Truckee just for lunch on days like today, just to get out of the fog.

The National Weather Service says this inversion may be here through the week. I'll have to find some excuse to make my way up into the mountains soon. Luckily, for me finding such an excuse is never difficult.

Thanks For Noticing

I read on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle that there's a massive migration from the Bay Area to Reno. Well thanks for noticing, guys. It's actually been going on for years now. I guess you all were bound to catch on eventually.

Look, I love San Francisco and Northern California, and I'm glad that one of my favorite downtown hangouts, EJ's Jazz Cafe, gets a lot of good publicity in the article, but after reading it I just can't seem to wash the stench of bloated arrogance out of my clothes and hair. Although they throw a few bones our way, the condescention is obvious. Reno is described as an area well known for "gambling, divorce and women with big hair", and sure, they then go on to say that this is an image Reno is starting to overcome, but the strong implication is that our rise out of White Trash Hell is pretty much thanks to those self-same Bay Area refugees:

"While people in Nevada have always looked to San Francisco, people from San Francisco are looking east, and they're bringing their wealth, their ideas and their energy," said Mike Reed, dean of the business school at the University of Nevada at Reno. "They're changing northern Nevada."

I usually try to avoid jumping on the anti-California Refugee bandwagon--I myself moved to Reno as an adult in 2001 (from Washington state, if it matters), and I love it for the same reasons the new arrivals do: The mountains, the unspoiled lakes and rivers, the four-season climate and the small-town (or relatively small-town) pace of life. I know nothing is worse than a guy who runs up into the treehouse and then tries to pull the ladder up after him, so let me be clear that I am NOT anti-growth.

However, the Chronicle article is written from the smug point of view of someone who's just "discovered" a wonderful place to live and comes rushing in without a seconds thought as to what his actions and the actions of those like him are doing to those who already live, work and have a life in his "new" paradise. Wouldn't it be better, even in a paper that serves San Francisco readers, to make a serious attempt at understanding what affects this massive migration is having on the affected region? I mean besides a throwaway paragraph at the end of the article that sort of laughs off local concerns over "Californication" as "predictable as July heat"? Cities all over the West, from Portland to Denver to Albuquerque, have been dealing with this issue for years. It's time for all those fleeing the Golden State to start taking seriously the aggrivation that they can cause when they explode into yet another "Hot Town."

I'll be the first to say that there are a lot of pluses to an influx of humanity from the Bay Area. Most notably, this city is finally starting to get over the notion that the universe begins and ends with casino gambling and realizing that we actually are a real community with a lot to offer besides sad topless shows and cheap buffets. The area is becoming more culturally diverse, more enlightened philosophically and, much to my pleasure, more of a politically "blue-friendly" island in a red state--I'm happy that I still see a lot of John Kerry bumper stickers around town these days, and that you can chose to listen to Al Franken on the radio instead of having a "choice" between Rush Limbaugh or one of his dozens of clones.

But the mass-migration isn't without it's downside. Local salaries are not rising to keep up with the skyrocketing cost of living, and an entire generation of Nevadans, hardworking tax-paying citizens, may be permanently shut out of the housing market because real estate developers can make too much money selling McMansions like these to San Jose retirees:

These ostentatious homes on the south end of town, selling for well over half a million dollars in a lot of cases, could never be bought by your average Reno household with it's 47,000 a year income, and they have driven property values into the stratosphere in the last few years. But the problems don't end with inflated housing costs. Driving to from one end of town to the other now takes about three times longer than it used to because of traffic snares and bottlenecks. Local resources suffer a much greater strain than is commonly realized, particularly law enforcement. And yes, the once-pristene environment that we all treasure is constantly underthreat by developers looking for a quick buck. It would be nice if our new neighbors would consider these things; instead, the San Francisco Chronicle says that our new residents seem to have a different set of priorities.

"Some complain that there are few good wine stores, places to buy organic meats and vegetables, and even fewer dining choices. Shopping is hardly a strong suit, either: Earlier this year, Bay Area transplants were abuzz about the mere possibility that Nordstroms would open its first store in the area.

Natalie Sellers and Carol Wilson have been trying to update the cuisine scene since 2000, when they opened 4th Street Bistro, a California-Mediterranean restaurant in an old house, complete with a wood-burning fireplace.

"She's made the farmers' market better," Wilson, the bistro's manager, said of Sellers, the chef. "They didn't know how to pronounce 'arugula' before. Now they know.""

I guess we should be grateful, huh?

Growth in Reno is both inevitable and positive. We welcome recent arrivals, but I think it's fair that they remember two things. One, their good fortune may make life more difficult in very real ways for those who already live in and contribute to this community and can't pay cash for oversized homes. Ostentatious displays of wealth or arrogance will inevitably lead to resentment from locals. Two, it isn't very healthy to think of the people who's neighborhood YOU JUST CHOSE TO MOVE TO as backwards hicks. The fact that someone doesn't know how to pronounce "arugula" doesn't make them ignorant, it just means they have a different set of priorities than you do. Anyway, you knew this wasn't Walnut Creek (Thank God!) when you moved here, so quit complaining. Keep those two things in mind, and I think we'll all be a lot happier.

My Latest Obsession

This is going to be the post where, if it weren't already obvious, I'm going to be revealed as the total geek that I truly am. I have become an aficionado of the TV show Lost.

I still haven't quite gotten over the hole in my life left by this week's lack of a new episode, but I'll have to find a way since we'll all have to go without any new episodes of this obsession-inducing series until January. I'm already something of an obsessive person by nature, and when a show like Lost comes along, a show that manages to create a world full of depth and secrets within secrets, a show that isn't afraid of complexity and that rewards careful viewing with just enough clues as what lies at the root of it's mysteries to keep the viewer salivating for more, I can't help but be interested.

If you haven't been watching Lost up to now, I wouldn't recommend just diving in when the show returns in January. The numerous plotlines are so complicated that a first-time viewer would be completely and hopelessly..., well, you know. In the simplest possible terms, the show is about a group of people who are stranded on a mysterious tropical island after their flight from Sydney to L.A. strays off course and crashes in the Pacific. Life on the island that our diverse group of castaways finds themselves on is difficult because it contains--among other things--invisible pilot-eating monsters, polar bears, tantalizing evidence of a massive research project that occupied the island in the past (and perhaps still does; we're still trying to figure that out) and a mysterious, mostly unseen group of "others" who inhabited the island prior to the survivor's arrival and who seem to be pursuing an as-yet undetermined agenda. The show's main characters include a Korean who speaks almost no English, a former member of Iraq's Republican Guard, a lottery-winning multi-millionaire, a washed out heroin addicted bass player/former hobbit and a Kurtz-like hunter with messianic tendencies who miraculously regained the use of his legs after the crash.

If you think that sounds complicated, believe me, you have no idea. The show combines surreal events on the island with flashbacks into the lives of it's one or two dozen major characters. If you want to catch up, you're just going to have to do what I did; rent the whole first season on DVD, then find somewhere to see the episodes from season two that you have already missed (they are available on iTunes). I know, it sounds crazy, but I think you'll know after just a couple of episodes whether you are hooked. If you are, you won't be able to stop.

Although I am obsessed with this show, there are those who are a LOT further gone than I am. Through brief internet searches, I've learned several things that I completely missed in watching the show, like the fact that Sayid was visible very briefly on a TV screen during Kate's flashback to the army recruiting office, or the fact that there was a Dharma Initiative logo visible on the fin of the shark that harassed Mike and Sawyer on the raft:

If you haven't been watching the show then this all sounds like gibberish to you, but this is exactly the kind of show Lost is. It stacks layer upon layer of intrigue, obfuscation and even meaningless distraction, mocking those who strive to solve it's mysteries. Nerds like me find this sort of thing irresistible.

Theories abound on the internet as to what exactly is going on out there on the island, everything from the usual alien/government conspiracies to twisted behavioral experimentation by utopian scientists to "they all died in the crash and are in Purgatory." I think that in the end the answer a.) can only disappoint, and b.) isn't really the point anyway. Lets face it, the fun in books, movies and TV shows like this is the mystery, not the resolution. As long as they can keep you guessing and grasping as you try to fit together scraps of information, they have you in their clutches. Once all is revealed the wonder is usually gone from this sort of medium since nothing can really match our imaginations and expectations. In the meantime, though, it's bound to be a great ride.

Gone With The Wind

I find this story fascinating. It seems that there are probably quite a few people who found Hurricane Katrina to be a considerable blessing; it allowed them the chance to disappear and change their identities permanently, escaping whatever burdens made their life troublesome.

First of all, I had no idea that there were still 6,600 people still officially classified as "missing" as a result of hurricane Katrina. Has no one thought to alert Greata Van Susteren? I'm sure that out of over 6,000 people there's at least one or two pretty blond girls. Second, the article I linked to almost exclusively plays up the idea that criminal types (every kind from sex offenders to garden-variety problem drunks) will use the disaster as an opportunity to restart their lives free from their criminal pasts. I'm sure a lot of that is going on, but I'd be willing to bet that a lot of these people are just living out a fantasy that a lot of people indulge in from time to time: Escape. Escape your creditors, escape a bad relationship, escape from anyone who holds a grudge against you or knows a secret from your past, escape obligations that, justifiably or not, you find overly burdensome. Start over again with a completely clean slate. I'll bet there are a lot of normal people out there who simply saw an opportunity to disappear and took it.

Something tells me that in the end it isn't going to be that easy. In this modern age of satellite imagery, DNA testing and every bit of information about every person on earth being stored in a computer, the idea of being able to disappear permanently is at best a lot more work than one might expect, and at worst is completely impossible if someone out there is determined enough to find you. Still, I'd suggest that a person doesn't need to be a criminal to find it an appealing concept to just fade into the background and start over somewhere a little warmer and sunnier, where you can create the identity for yourself that you always wished you'd had.

The "Other" Football

Forever pushing the boundaries, tonight we're going to try something that hasn't been done before here at The Adventures of Yukon Sully: We're going to employ a guest writer.

Ever since this blog hit the 'osphere about nine months ago, every single word has been the labor of love from the feverish mind of one individual voice in the wilderness, namely mine. Oh, except for the comment sections of course. And the block quotes that I occasionally employ, but that goes without saying. And the use of photographs in flagrant violation of international copywrite law, but the less said about that the better. And of course my extensive use of hyperlinks. But everything else is a 100% Sully production. Amazing you say? Well you don't have to tell me.

But as astounding as my work up to this point has been, believe it or not there are certain successes that have eluded me. For instance, if you take a look at my Clustrmap on the left, you will see that I have had very little impact in Central or South America. A few hits from Mexico, a lonely visitor from Costa Rica, a couple netizens from Brazil, and that's about it for this site's Latin Flair.

Well tonight that changes. My brother Tundra Sully, known to some by his Nomme de Guerre "Daniel", is a huge soccer fan. While I can't be bothered to look it up myself, I am told that "soccer" is a game of some sort that is generally played by American grade-school children, and that in some parts of the world it even has a large following among adults. These parts of the world include, apparently, Latin America. So in an effort to broaden the appeal of this blog (and to relieve me from having to think of something to write about tonight) I'm allowing my brother to contribute a short piece about his favorite topic. And for my fellow Americans, don't worry; the next post we'll be back to talking about things that matter.

In World Cup soccer news, the U.S. just missed being one of the top 8 seeds in Germany '06. All top 8 seeds are guaranteed to avoid facing each other in the first stage of the tournament: the group stage. Italy and Argentina both received 44 points in FIFA's seeding process which gave them a 1 point advantage over 9th place United States. If the U.S. were among the top 8 seeds they would have had a much easier road out of the group stage of the tournament and into the knock out rounds. As it is, they will be assigned to the same group as one of the top seeds which means their first round opponents will include one of the following 7 teams: Brazil, Argentina, England, Italy, Germany, France or Spain. The other seeded team is Mexico whom the U.S. will not face in the group stage because they are fellow members of the CONCACAF region. Any of the other top 8 seeded teams will present an extremely difficult challenge for the U.S. especially on European soil where 5 of the top 8 teams will have the equivalent of a home-field advantage. Germany has not had a strong qualifying campaign. However, the host team always makes it out of the group stage so the U.S. wants to avoid them. France is no longer a favorite to win the cup, but any team that can boast the likes of world class striker Thierry Henry is dangerous. Plus, France will no longer have the pressure and expectations that Zinadine Zidan and "Le Bleu" have had in the past two World Cups. Brazil will almost surely samba through their group stage opponents with ease, so the U.S. would love to avoid their group. Brazil's Roberto Carlos, veteran of 2 world cups, is already talking trash saying he doesn't even care who they play in the first round, which comes as no surprise. Since England and Spain are famous for choking in major tournaments the U.S. would have to be pleased to be assigned to either of their groups. Regardless of the top 7 teams the Americans must face in the group stage, they would have to be extremely pleased to finish in 1st or 2nd place in their 4 team group. Since the top 2 teams in each group advance to the next round, the U.S. need not beat any of these opponents in the first stage to advance. Given the rest of the field, the Americans must like their chances to at least place 2nd in their group and move on. Let's hope they can make it happen.

There now, doesn't that make you feel cosmopolitan? Thanks for the contribution Daniel. We'll have more soccer updates whenever the hell I feel like it.

I Thought So

Something sounded eerily familiar about the news that Al Queda's "number 3" man had been killed in Pakistan last week. Then it hit me: this is actually the fourth time we've managed to kill or capture Al Queda's number 3 guy since March 0f 2002. Either this is a position that Al Queda just can't seem to find the right person for, or else that organization has an awful lot of "number 3" guys. Killing or capturing Al Queda's number 3 man is becoming a lot like declaring victory in the Iraq War--apparently it can be done over and over every time we need a pick-me-up.

We haven't managed to capture the mastermind of the murder of almost 3,000 Americans, but we sure are getting good at nailing his number 3 guy. Lets hear it for the triumph of lowered expectations!

Sunday In The Sierra

Today was one of those perfect early-winter days up at Mount Rose. Good snow, sunshine, relatively warm temperatures, you really couldn't have asked for anything better.

I suppose I should qualify that. As you probably could have expected, I tried to take some pretty steep runs despite this being only my second day on the slopes this season and I proceeded to get my first big end-over-end crash of the year out of the way. I also managed to twist my right ankle pretty good. It's not in pain or anything, but I really can't put any weight on it. So I was forced to come down the hill after only five runs. Still, it was good to get the rhythm back. I'm gonna like having a season pass.

The only truly awkward moment came when I was taking the long ride up the main lift on the west side of the mountain. The guy sitting immediatly on my right seemed to be having a heated discussion with someone, and I assumed at first it was someone else on the lift. After a moment it became obvious he was passionately debating someone at the other end of a hands-free cellphone. The rest of us on the lift tried gamely to make idle conversation for a minute, but in the end all we could do was look away and listen to this guy engage in half of a lovers' spat twenty feet above the ground as we zipped up the mountain.

The argument seemed to be about the fact that his girlfriend wanted to move back to Vegas, but my lift-mate clearly wanted no part of it. I don't know why they chose to have this argument by phone while he was snowboarding, but I have to admit I was inclined to side with him simply because of his spirited defense of Northern Nevada against that sprawling L.A. wanna-be down south. I particularly liked his line of argument that Reno is one of the world's greatest locations for outdoor recreation while the biggest things to do down there are spend money and hope to see some celebrity having a more interesting life than you are. A bit insensitive, but there's some truth there. Don't give in, nameless ski-lift dude--all they've got down there is 30 or 40 different variations on the same crappy casino. I'd take Lake Tahoe over 10 Las Vegases.

At Last

Two to three feet of snow have fallen in the Sierra in the last 24 hours, meaning that Tahoe area ski resorts can open up. Mount Rose, where I have a season pass, will be opening today. As luck would have it, I need only work a half day today because I had to come in the Friday after Thanksgiving. So don't bother trying to find me after noon today, because I have business of my own to attend to:

In other news, I went to see Ozomatli last Wednesday at the Reno Hilton. It's too bad that Reno is still the sort of town where a show like this happens on a Wednesday night (and then people wonder why Reno doesn't seem to support live music), but the show itself was great. If you haven't heard of Ozomatli don't worry, I hadn't either until a couple of friends put me onto them. They're a really funky L.A. fusion of Latin, Hip-Hop and a hodge-podge of World Music. See their show if you get a chance (they seem to stick pretty close the West Coast, unfortunately), because they really put a lot into a live performance. When the stage went dark and the spotlight hit the DJ wearing an old Public Enemy hoodie, and he began to spin something that included the intro from the 70's cartoon Challenge of the Super Friends, I knew I would like this band.