gburnham.blog

One Week Down

Thanks for all the emails,　it is really nice to come to email on Preparation Day and see everything you guys wrote. It has been an interesting week, so emails from the states are really welcome.

So yeah, on with some updates. My first area here is Gifu, which is kind of a mix between country and city. It is one of the bigger areas in the mission, so there is a pretty good amount of bike riding, much to my dismay. I think I am certainly out of shape. I’m here with Elder Greenhalgh from Manti, Utah. He is a piano performance major at BYU, and is right about at the halfway point of his mission. We are very different people, but we get along ok. He can be a little bit quiet and kinda depressing sometimes, but I’ll get used to it.

I actually ran into one of my teachers in the MTC, Petersen Sensei, who is interning with a company here in Gifu, and dating one of the members here. I kinda pinned him as the type who would come back and marry here. He is awesome, and he has taught with us already once, and wants to teach with us more often.

Yesterday I got my first taste of a real rainy day. After church, we took home a ton of food (in Japan, they give the missionaries a ‘fruit basket’ every Sunday, with food in it), probably extra cause it was fast sunday. Afterwards, we ventured out about 45mins or so by bike to visit some members and less actives. About five minutes before we reached our destination, it started raining pretty hard. Pretty interesting experience, I brought my raincoat but not my rainpants, so one pair of suit pants got soaking wet. Luckily, our Ward Mission Leader and his wife own a dry cleaning facility, so I will get it done for free.

We have some good investigators, and a great ward. I’m thinking that I will actually see a baptism or two in this first transfer, if investigators continue to progress at the rate they are now. You can definitely see the Lord’s influence in the work here, as much as we get rejected, there are investigators and members making progress. It is certainly moving forward.

The language is coming along well. I think I am progressing in it even faster than I was the first time. Greenhalgh’s language skills are good, but not as good as President thinks they are. I have actually found myself understanding some things he doesn’t at times, but overall he is obviously far better than me. I have been bringing flashcards with me everywhere and studying even in between each door (I know, unbelievable for someone like me) and it has really payed off. I think I have come to enjoy studying, after working 40 or more hours a week. So yeah, anyway, language is good. I am really excited about it.

Bummer about BYU and Utah State. I understand the need to protect your first string from injury, but you also can’t let them score, and let that hurt your rankings. I’ll be interested to find out next week if they dropped at all. With the nation’s longest winning streak, it would be sad if they did.

Thanks for putting in my voter registration. It is good to hear Obama still has the lead, you will have to keep me updated. Also kinda good to hear that Palin kept up in the debate, because if McCain does win, she will be a heartbeat from the Presidency.

Well, thanks again for the emails and good wishes

is saying goodbye to Apple… Sad. in Sacramento, CA http://tinyurl.com/43shg5

is really happy! Just walked through Nordstrom’s and they were playing Motion City Soundtrack! in Sacramento, CA

is eating lunch, only four hours to the weekend! in Sacramento, CA

got stuck on the side of the road with my engine blowing smoke. Awesome. @ The side of the road.

Moving to Wordpress...

I have made the call to move back to wordpress, but am may keep a whole separate tumblr for my personal/fun side of things. The only thing that I’m going to explore before this happens is the value of Google Analytics.

Sarah Palin and ANWR Drilling

Presumptive Vice President nominee Sarah Palin is already hard at work to keep America independent of foreign oil. After all, that is what Americans are most concerned about, right? Prices at the pump are slowly draining Americans of hard earned cash, and we are importing triple the amount of oil that we were 25 years ago. So what’s the problem?

Well, honesty seems to be an issue here.

Palin’s suggested plan is to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), a region of land in the north specifically set aside for the preservation of nature, and the animals that live in it. It was set aside in the 1960s under Eisenhower, and Congress strengthened the protection of these lands in 1980s. The area is fairly rich in resources, especially petroleum.

To quote Governor Palin,

“Thanks to advances in technology…we can now reach all of ANWR’s oil by drilling on just 2,000 acres,” she said. “Two thousand acres is the size of the Columbus [Ohio] airport. By applying the most innovative environmental practices, we can carry out the project with almost no impact on land or local wildlife.”

Awesome! Only 2000 acres! That surely only puts a small dent in the over 19 million acres set aside in the reserve, and would provide a great source of domestic oil, right?

Wrong. Sarah Palin is misleading you, in true McCain form. Fitting she was chosen as his VP.

Let’s examine her claim. Currently there are no roads, no settlements or towns, and no sign of human existence in the refuge, especially on the coastal range where Palin is planning to drill. In fact, barring an Inupiat settlement in the South, this area is pure and uninhabited. Part of it has even been deemed the location most remote from human trails, roads, or settlements, according to Wikipedia.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_National_Wildlife_Refuge)

But with advancing technology, the proposed oil derricks will only take 2000 acres of space, leaving plenty of room for the refuge. So why is this a problem?

With no existing infrastructure, there is no way to transport the oil. No way to provide clean practices when drilling, and nowhere for employees to live, eat, or sleep. The drill sites, airports, roads, gravel mines, and other infrastructure required to drill an area like the northern coast of ANWR would stretch over a million acres of land, at a conservative estimate. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) did the math, and put the estimate at a less conservative 1,500,000 acres. So much for 2000 acres. The NRDC put together a great visual map of the land and how the infrastructure would look if the drilling was approved by Congress:

(http://www.nrdc.org/land/wilderness/arcticmap_2000acres.pdf)

And that is another good point, let’s talk about Congressional approval. For now, Congress enjoys a Democratic majority, a majority who would (hopefully) never allow destructive legislation like this to pass. This is the equivalent of taking a beautiful painting created by a world renowned artist and destroying the original, reprinting it in black and white to save the cost of color ink. I don’t think any rational human would do a thing like that. This isn’t land we can recover once industrial sprawl has taken over and pushed thousands (if not millions) of inhabitants away.

The answer is not to become independent of foreign oil by drilling in our wildlife preserves, the answer is to be less dependent on oil altogether. It is clear America will be dependent on oil for years to come, but we can reduce the load by turning to alternative fuels, green energy in the form of tidal surges, wind power, and solar energy. Biofuels, hydrogen-powered vehicles, or investing in breakthroughs like BMW’s water-powered vehicles.

But all Sarah Palin wants to is drill drill drill, destroy, invade, and mar natural resources, while lying about the impact to the American people. Don’t fall for it.

And don’t forget, Sarah Palin is literally in bed with the oil companies, as her husband works for BP again, even after resigning to avoid conflict of interest with Palin’s gubernatorial campaign.

You decide.

Will add more opinion coming up after work today.

is pretty sure this is the first time keys have been lost. Awesome. near SAC Airport.

Vegas needs to stop sucking at routing flights. near Vegas airport.