Kayaking in Spain

A quick update ...

The goal last weekend was to try and go kayaking. I left Madrid with only a little direction from a contact I had made via the Internets. That led me to Murillo de Gallego, where I found a very small town with a couple raft company, and therefore, raft guides, extra gear and of course good people.


My Internet friend and now real friend, Leide and Raul, picked me up the next morning and took me to the Pyrenees to the town of Torlo on the Rio Ara and to the Ordesa National Park.


Ordesa


From there, I was handed off to more kayakers from Madrid who took me to Plan (that is the name of the village pictured) and the Rio Cinqueta - The Classic Section - and ultimately, all the way back to my place in Madrid.


It goes without saying that it was hugely successful weekend that I enjoyed thoroughly, especially because I had low expectations for actually pulling all the logistics together with minimal gear and no transport. The Spainish boaters were overly accommodating and thus, I am joining them again for another weekend of fun in the rivers and mountains. I'll post a big trip report soon at www.theRangeLife.com and more general reports from Spain coming soon here as well.

ciao,
Shane

Images from Spain

I've been trying to motivate and draft a good update, but some photos with brief descriptions will have to suffice for now:

This is the Plaza Mayor in the heart of the city. Madrid is famous for its expansive plazas throughout the city where cafes usually sprawl onto the sidewalk and fill every table during lunch. As you walk through the streets you almost stumble onto this plaza as you enter through arches like this.


A Madrid Garden:
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A day at the bullfights. Stay tuned for a more PG-13 post on the subject if you care to know more at all.


Another shot of the Plaza Mayor; this one from within. Once you have stumbled in, you are surrounded by buildings like this in all directions and must escape through one of the arches ... somewhat disorienting.


Some high-brow site seeing ... The Royal Palace.


The art museum - Renia Sofia, full of modern art including many works of Picasso and Dali


The famous Museo del Prado


And the also famous ... Milou

Finding a groove

Today is the fifth day in Spain, and I feel like I am finding my rhythm here. Not sure if there is any significance to the fifth day of a trip, and I think if there were it would only hold relevance to a fairly sustained trip -- I remember on the Grand Canyon (an 18-day trip) the fifth day felt like I settled in. But after the challenges of travel (restlessness and poor sleep on the plane, jet lag, gaining bearings in a new place); the shock of a new culture (smokers in the booth next to you during lunch, businesses that you need closing at 2pm - siesta, miscommunication results in large bill); and the adjustments to new cuisine (first meal is a leg of pork = skin/fat/muscle/bone/veins/more fat and skin, veggie sandwich = wonder bread, some veggies and lots of mayo) I found my self today feeling the groove of daily life in Espana. Waking at about 8am, simple desayunos (breakfast), off to classes (Euro Human Rights, Civil Law, Urban Planning Law), followed by a stroll down one of the many great boulevards of Mardid until I found a cafeteria for almuerzo (lunch) at 2:30pm, Spanish lessons to follow, skipping the siesta today and studying for three horas until a meeting with some classmates at a tapas bar for pre-dinner snacks and some futbol - the Champions Cup (or something similar), Milan won - back home for dinner at 11pm (Spanish dinner time), and then some studying, emails and blogging before falling asleep to more studying. The highlight of the day was a marked improvement in my Spanish skills and confidence, which I am sure helped the rest of the day along. Ok, time for bed. Pictures hopefully in the next post.

Transitions: School - Kayaking - Madrid

Busy times … the transition from the end of spring semester (exams) to catching up on life and leisure (KAYAYING) to preparations for travel and a study abroad (SPAIN).

I thought about making this post a big catch-up post with everything I have been up to lately, but alas, the to-do list requires a triage sort of approach at this point.

Two links worth noting to those who might be interested are:

THIS ONE, which is an interview of John Stewart by Bill Moyers. I am a fan of both, and this is a great interview. Btw, Moyers is back on PBS with a weekly show … look into the show times in your neck of the woods.

And THIS ONE, which is a pretty good (and uplifting) article by Paul Hawken, who I owe a great deal of my current way of thinking to. His book, The Ecology of Commerce, which I read while traveling through Ecuador, was a transformational book for me and I can definitely say that I would not be in Law school and who know what other ventures had it not been for David Gregory introducing me to that read.

By the way, I’m always curious to know if anyone is clicking on these links and finding this information interesting so feel free to comment as you are so inclined.

Four Years Later - Mission Accomplished?

The Progression of a Take Home Final

Before receiving the exam: Complacency - I don't need to outline and cram as much because I will have soooo much extra time to organize and review the material most pertinent to the issues posed on the exam itself.

Receiving the exam: Skipping a beat - You get that gut reaction of nerves, and the reality sets in that the clock has just begun.

The first read: Holy $@*t! - I don't know any of that material, I better starting learning this subject (of course now that the semester is over).

Several hours later: Realization - oh no, I'm not going to be able to learn all of this, I better start typing some of the stuff I know.

Several more hours go by: Panic - I have used the alloted amount of time suggested for the entire exam on the first half of the first question. The typing quickens

The next day: Comparison - How many hours is everybody else dedicating to this? Maybe I should have woken up earlier?

The final push: I don't care any more. I just want to finish it, because this is not my only exam, in fact its only worth 2 stinking credits!

Don't Drive

$4 Corn

This ARTICLE on the current rise in the price of Corn (to $4/bushel), which I stumbled upon in my local coffee shop, is well worth the read. I found it particularly interesting as it brings together many of my interests - the environment, agriculture, farming, domestic food production, alternative energies, government subsidies, food security/safety, and the corporate intersection of all of this.

For a tease of the article:

Four-dollar corn. The price probably doesn't mean much to many Fortune readers, certainly not the city slickers who wouldn't know a combine from a planter. But in farm country, $4 corn is more than a big deal. It's a phenomenon. "It's the center of conversation in the center of the country," says Elizabeth Hund, head of agricultural lending for U.S. Bancorp.

In the span of just eight months, the price of the U.S.'s most important crop - our biggest agricultural export as well as the staple feed for our livestock - has doubled from $2, about where it had been stuck since the late 1990s, to $4 a bushel. The cause is soaring demand from ethanol plants, which bought 2.2 billion bushels last year, 34% more than in 2005. Previous price spikes were short-lived and usually caused by drought, but the futures market thinks this rally has legs.

May 2008 corn recently traded at $4.20 a bushel, while December 2010 futures were at $3.74. This means farmers can lock in terrific prices not just for the 2007 crop but for the three after that as well.

Problem is, what's good for farmers - and even better for the companies selling them tractors, seeds, and fertilizer - has started to roil other parts of the economy. The feed costs of cattlemen and hog farmers have skyrocketed. Ethanol producers have seen their profits slashed. Food companies are being squeezed and are starting to pass along higher costs to consumers. (This isn't just a U.S. problem: Mexico is in an uproar over soaring tortilla costs.)

I know people have been quick to point out that this is the hidden evil of alternative fuels, but I don't see it quite that way. This goes to the whole Free Market argument ... when the true cost of farming is realized, the cost of subsidized livestock feed and exported crops will be balanced out my local economies demanding the most efficient use for the resource. Read on to realize just how complicated this issue may become.

Take a moment

Take a moment & READ THIS. Then take another moment.

peace

I need to hear some simple

Its been awhile ... and maybe that is why I need to hear some simple so badly. Say what?!

From Patagonia's new in-house blog, THE CLEANEST LINE, I love that name and its underlying meaning by the way ...

Fifteen year-olds scare me to death. I’ve never been cool, and 15 was when my nerdiness fleshed out in all its glorious fullness. And now, the great karmic card dealer has dealt me this hand: I’ll be living with a whole posse of them in the Tetons for the next three weeks.
* * *
This crew—all boys—is LOUD; all loud voices, noisy bodies, clamorous movements. They come from loud places where they have to struggle to hear and to be heard.
* * *

Just trust me on this one, you need to read IT, your gonna love IT, so just click IT.

Eat Food. Not too Much. Mostly Plants

The title of this post is MICHAEL POLLEN'S boiled down and simplified advice to the ever-complex and often confusing answers to the proverbial question: What should I eat. He explains this and elaborates in the excellent article that recently appeared in the NY Times:

CLICK HERE FOR THE STORY.

I strongly recommend reading this article. For a sneak peak:

Of course it’s also a lot easier to slap a health claim on a box of sugary cereal than on a potato or carrot, with the perverse result that the most healthful foods in the supermarket sit there quietly in the produce section, silent as stroke victims, while a few aisles over, the Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms are screaming about their newfound whole-grain goodness.

“The problem with nutrient-by-nutrient nutrition science,” points out Marion Nestle, the New York University nutritionist, “is that it takes the nutrient out of the context of food, the food out of the context of diet and the diet out of the context of lifestyle.”

Not everyone can afford to eat well in America, which is shameful, but most of us can: Americans spend, on average, less than 10 percent of their income on food, down from 24 percent in 1947, and less than the citizens of any other nation. And those of us who can afford to eat well should. Paying more for food well grown in good soils — whether certified organic or not — will contribute not only to your health (by reducing exposure to pesticides) but also to the health of others who might not themselves be able to afford that sort of food: the people who grow it and the people who live downstream, and downwind, of the farms where it is grown.

If this kind of reading is of interest to you, (and I think it should at least concern everybody, if not fascinate) be sure to check out Pollen's book: OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA

cheers ...

Pillow Lines

When you look near the upper, right corner of this blog you get a sense of the contents of this particular blog. PILLOW LINES is not whispering sweet nothings to my girlfriend, but rather jargon from the ski/snowboard culture. I am guessing that many people who have looked at this blog do not understand what that means; however, I have not recieved a question on the matter. Maybe nobody looks up there. Well, "Pillow Lines" was my way of saying that there will be posts relating to my skiing exploits.

Recently, my good friend Jonaven Moore - Pro Snowboarder - sent me these pictures, and I realized it was the perfect opportunity to further explain and illustrate to anyone who may not know what a pillo line truely is. These two pictures show the very essence of a pillow line, albeit, a quite large and bold line that happens to be right off the Trans-Canada Highway, adding a certain frogger element to the mix. To add just one more degree of explanation, the unique feature of a pillow line is that it allows you to descend over a large cliff or boulder field using the pillows to check your speed and directionality. Ok, everyone clear now??? In case you don't know, I have started a new blog dedicated strictly to my "on snow" adventures: www.SurfaceHoar.blogspot.com
CHECK IT OUT!

IP update

This semester I am pusuing a focus in Intelletual Property at full speed. After last semester's IP survery course, I am now taking International IP, Trademark, Trademark Lab, Patent Litigation Lab, IP Audit Lab, and Copyright Law. Professor Townsend-Gard was my IP Survey course instructor and I am excited to be in her course again for Copyright. She is a bundle of energy, talks VERY fast, is never dull. She incorporates several presentations and videos keeping things very current and fun. The latest video is below and is the buzz of copyright law right now illustrating the degree to which we all copy each other's creative works to make more creative works. Enjoy.

I love npr

Click this. Sit back. Relax. Enjoy a great public radio story.

Record Breaking Storm

We just survived one of the strongest storms on record in Seattle. Winds recorded over 100mph and rain falling faster than the systems could keep up with it. So far so good around our house as it looks like we escaped with no damage. Scroll down about 4 photos to see the transition of weather of the past few days.

Then the winds. Trees and power lines are down everywhere. Over 1 million people were left without power in the Puget Sound region. As I write two mornings later, 650,000 people still don't have power, but we got it back last night :)

Then came the rain! More rain I have ever seen fall at once in Seattle. Their was literally a river running down Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. While I didn't see it, the confluence of Rio MLK and Rio Madison (a few blocks from our house) was quite a scene.

After some clear weather, a few clouds pushed in revealing this nice walk on Rado's morning walk.

Some recent high pressure in the NW brought the typical fog that burns off to blue skies. A winter commonality up here.

Law School Final Exams

Finals began the Monday after Thanksgiving for me this year with an Appellate Oral Argument. I am now entering my third week of exams, and the experience of these exams propelled me to look up a couple quotes from a book I read before entering law school:

Final exams play on a law student’s world like some weirdly orbiting moon. They are always in sight; but while they’re at a distance, they serve merely to create the tensions which swell daily like tides – to read, to keep pace, to understand. As exams draw close, however, in December (and May), their gravitational forces starts to shake the whole place to pieces.

FYI, for those who don't know, the typical law school course has one final exam that determines your entire grade.

It is Monday morning, and when I walk into the central building I can feel my stomach clench. For the next five days I will assume that I am somewhat less intelligent than anyone around me. At most moments I’ll suspect that the privilege I enjoy was conferred as some kind of peculiar hoax. I will be certain that no matter what I do, I will not do it well enough; and when I fail, I know that I will burn with shame. By Friday my nerves will be so brittle from sleeplessness and pressure and intellectual fatigue that I will not be certain I can make it through the day. * * * I am distracted at most times and have difficulty keeping up a conversation, even with my wife. At random instants, I am likely to be stricken with acute feelings of panic, depression, indefinite need and the pep talks and irony I practice on myself only seem to make it worse.
I am a law student in my first year at the law, and there are many moments when I am simply a mess.

-- Scott Turow, ONE L

I am now in my second year. Arguably the hardest semester of the program, and while I do my best to maintian a certain amount of integrity grounded in my life outside of the law, the second to last sentence has rung especially true is days of late.