My Favorite Freedom, post two

I came across this quote by United States Senator James Webb on the back of his book "A Time to Fight." I follow his career because I think he represents well Americans who were drafted to fight in Vietnam and who feel the nobility in that gift was not appreciated properly and utilized intelligently. I loved this thought about freedom of speech and the pursuit of the new:

"The one connecting dot in all my experiences has been a passion for history and a desire to learn from it. Not the enumeration of monarchs and treaties that so often pass for academic knowledge, but the surging vitality from below that so often impels change and truly defines cultures. The novelist Leo Tolstoy wrote vividly about war and peace, showing us the drawing rooms and idiosyncrasies of Russia's elite. But in reality, he was telling us that great societal changes are most often pushed along by tsunami-deep impulses that cause the elites to react, far more than inspire them to lead. And this, in my view, is the greatest lesson of political history. Entrenched aristocracies, however we want to define them, do not want change; their desire instead is to manage dissent in a way that does not disrupt their control. But over time, under the right system of government, a free thinking people have the energy and ultimately the power to effect change."

Czechs Snatch Games First Gold

Congratulations Czechs on the first gold medal of the games. Link to the New York Times article via the title.

Wow, was that Olympic Opening Ceremonies ever a party. I totally agree with my President (which I note cause it so rarely happens) that when someone has spent billions on throwing a party that you're invited to, it's not the time to talk about your biggest areas of disagreement. It wouldn't be effective. But your friends might listen to you, when they know you're their friends because you were there to share their greatest achievement.

It was so refreshing to see those Presidents sitting in the stands like they're taking in a game at Wrigley Field. Five hours in stadium seats in 90 degree heat in a suit. Wow. So what's the etiquette for a President who has to go the bathroom during the Parade of Nations? Do you slip out during Andorra? Vanuatu?

Including little Lin Hao, the nine-year-old boy who had saved two of his classmates during the earthquake, in the opening ceremonies was absolutely brilliant. Yao Ming, the Chinese basketball player who shepherded him in, explained it so eloquently when he said this little boy's leadership spoke to the future of China if he knew how to behave heroically at age nine.

I guess we can't think of Communists as the world's largest creators of bad architecture anymore. It's exciting to see the role fantastic architecture and great engineering are playing in these games. The bird's nest and the water cube are sooooooo exciting and innovative. When you're achieving 11% GDP growth are you still Communists though? You've passed over to the other side. Last night was a presentation of excellence. I felt proud as a fellow human being!

Blogher Blog Directory

More than a week ago, I submitted my blog to the Blogher Blog Directory. It is a women's blog directory based in America. With other blog directories, it takes about 24 hours to be listed. I submitted mine ten days ago for moderation - still no listing. Is this normal? And is it just me, or is the Blogher Blog Directory using an amazingly-bad classification scheme? Let's see...should a Czech expat blog go under "travel" or "world?"

The Legend of Starved Rock

The Illinois River is still too full for barge traffic

This week daughter #1 and I had the pleasure of exploring Starved Rock State Park, voted by the citizens of this state as one of the seven wonders of Illinois. Entrance to the park is free.

Daughter #2 would have come with us, however she is, as Woody Allen so famously described himself, "two with nature."

1200 war ships went through these locks during WWII,
including 28 submarines

We went for a day of hiking along the Illinois River and to see the park's sandstone canyons that make it such a fun and pretty place to hike. The hiking patch for the state park describes the park as the place "where Illinois began."

Starved Rock, Plum Island and Aldo Island

Here is the late 1700's legend that gave Starved Rock State Park it's name:

Pontiac, a great Ottawa chieftain, had gone down to the southern part of Illinois to negotiate trade agreements with the French. During his stay he was murdered by an Illinois of the area. Word got back to his tribe and they wanted to avenge Pontiacs' death. So the Potawatomi and Fox, sub-tribes of the Ottawa people, paddled down river and attacked the Illinois village by Starved Rock.

For several days the attack raged on. By the end of the attack the Illinois people were reduced by half and the Potawatomi and Fox returned to regroup. The Illinois knew that in order to survive they had to leave the area. They decided to seek refuge on top of the rock. They climbed up to the summit of the rock hoping that the Potawatomi and Fox would by-pass them on their way southward. Unfortunately, the plan backfired and the Potawatomi and Fox surrounded the base. As the Illinois tried to get water by lowering buckets with rope the Potawatomi and Fox would cut the ropes or shatter the buckets with their arrows. They also climbed up on top of Devil's Nose and showered them with arrows. As the Illinois grew more desperate, some tried sneaking down, but they were murdered. The rest that were left on top starved. Since then, the rock has been known as "Starved Rock."

There are 13 miles of trails exploring
18 different sandstone canyons

This sort of burl growing on a tree is beautiful
when "carved" on a lathe

We chose to hike to St. Louis Canyon and back;
it's about four miles

The park and it's environs are home to a fledgling colony of bald eagles that are attracted by the easy pickings of 2' long catfish which are visible everywhere surrounding the dam and in the creeks coming from Starved Rock's sandstone canyons. Each bald eagle comes back to the same nest every year.

St. Louis canyon

In the spring, the waterfall can quadruple in size

I like how this sandstone just sheered off this wall

After cooling off under the falls

Motivation when you need it - somebody wrote on the post:
"155 steps, Just do it!"

Wildcat Canyon

The Starved Rock Lodge was built by local men
in the Civilian Conservation Corps in the
National Park Rustic Style

All the furniture is handmade
and original to the lodge

The CCC was a program started by
U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
during the Depression to give
jobs and hope to millions of unemployed

Each man earned $30 a month:
$25 was sent home to his family,
and he kept $5.

People come from as far as Chicago
for Sunday Brunch on the veranda each week

We Can Solve It, post two

This week I devoted an hour to help solve global warming:

1. Watched Al Gore's speech about America moving to all clean power within ten years. Time invested was about five minutes.

2. Emailed my friends to ask them to join the wecansolveit.org campaign. This move to clean energy is equivalent to Americans setting a goal to have humans on the moon within ten years. Two of my most politically active friends joined. I hope more will as we get closer to election day. Time invested was about five minutes. I think this was my most important action because it's leveraged with millions of others behind a leader, Al Gore, with a detailed vision and the credibility to make it happen. Actually, what's really exciting, is that I just noticed how new it all is and I'm in the first 1.5 million Americans to join. Nothing like being on the cutting edge of a political movement - want to join us?

3. I ran into my congressman, Congressman Don Manzullo, this week and lobbied him to move America toward clean power technology and away from dirty coal technologies. At his request, I also went to his website to see his 12-point plan for lowering gas prices. I am not as interested in lowering gas prices as I am in developing alternatives to fossil fuels, but it's only fair that if you ask to be listened to that you listen back. Time invested about thirty minutes.

4. I went to my utility's website to get the phone numbers of the executive office so I could call and advocate for clean power. While at the site, I noticed the CEO was recently president of the nuclear power trade association and gave a speech about the future of the industry. I read the speech. I will change my phone call from asking them to switch to clean technologies to asking the execs how I can help them make it happen. They seem to be all over this. Time invested was about twenty minutes.

It was interesting and fun. Click on the title to see the wecansolveit.org website.

If you need a case of the giggles

As someone in the midst of selling my house right now, I'm cheered by this website chosen by Blogger as today's "blog of note."

It's Lovely! I'll Take It!

features a collection of poorly chosen photos from real estate listings. With love.

I'm still giggling. Click on the title to see it.

My first Czech word

Over the last couple days, I've been perusing The Essentials of Czech Grammer by James Naughton. I went straight to Chapter 3 on Nouns because everyone expresses intimidation for the various cases, genders, and pluralities of Czech nouns.

To be intimidated, I have to know what a case is. And what declension is. I know neither! But as I started to read, I did see one Czech word I knew: hrad.

In English, I probably have occasion to utter the word castle once every five years. It just doesn't come up in daily life. I find it fascinating that of all the words that could be my first word in Czech - 'castle' is it. In this instance, C.R. lives up to it's highbrow image, no?

Non-native English speakers, what was your first English word you recognized? I'm curious to see what my culture is projecting. Or what other cultures are projecting since the same question can be as interesting no matter what second or third language it is that you learned.