Monthly Archives: August 2008

Last night and today, Clinton and I opted to play nerdy board games (Xeko – an eco adventure about Lemurs! – and Duel of Ages) instead of watching Netflix episodes of The Wire or Monk the way we usually do. It was so much better. When we have kids, I’d really like to have family board game nights (heck – why not every night?!) instead of vegging out in front of the tube.

My good friend Laura sent me a link to this site called the Pickens Plan, founded by a guy named T. Boone Pickens*. He has a seemingly very practical plan to reduce the US’s dependence on foreign oil.

The very short (5 minute) film on this site is very interesting and explains how the plan would work. I listened to it twice.

Basically, Mr. Pickens points out that 22% of the US’s power generation is from natural gas. His plan is for the US to replace the 22% natural gas power generated in this country with wind power. Then, we would move that available natural gas power over to transportation fuel, which would offset the same amount (22%) of our current foreign oil consumption. He says that this scenario would take fewer than 10 years to set up and would save us $300 billion every year.

The plan seems very well thought-out. Personally, I think we should seriously consider this idea.

I’m curious what other people think about the plan. If you visit the site and have any thoughts, please let me know.

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* Editor’s note: Clinton recently informed me that T. Boone Pickens has participated (and potentially still does participate) in some sketchy, immoral things. I can see now that Mr. Pickens is hoping to reap some wind power money profits if his plan works. I’m considering now whether or not it is okay for people to profit from doing things that are ultimately good for the environment – and I’m leaning toward yes. What do you think?

“Running is a big question mark that’s there each and every day. It asks you, ‘Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?” — Peter Maher

I have another three hours in the Zurich airport, and then I’m on my way back home to Clinton, the dogs, and my Mac computer (hooray!). It’s always sad for me to leave Africa, but I am also ready to be back in my own comfy bed and see my Sweetie again.

I wrote a lot of humorous travel log entries during my safari adventures and plan to post them here in the next couple of days, along with some great pictures of animals!

Hope you are all well.