Well, we’ve been so kind to the talented women of sea kayaking recently and sure I know all the guys would be happy to just go right on, but we certainly don’t want to leave out the poster boys of sea kayaking, The beefcake of the bays, the . . . well you get it. So here’s Omer Singer of Terra Santa demonstrating that he not only can handle white water, but can dress like James bond and has a musical side as well. Oh, then there’s that “Romance Novel” perfect hair thing!! Put it all together and there’s no doubt Omer keeps his spot on top of the “Sea Kayaker Hotties – MEN’S DIVISION 2007″ list.

TITS 3 in PAL form is slowly making it’s way round Europe and has had it’s first couple reviews. Of course we never doubted JC now did we? We’ll you can read more about that on her blog. For my part I was just happy to see my cover design actually on the box. You can never be sure of graphic work until it makes it through the printer. So whaddya say!? Looks ok to me. Of course everyone knows my now we’ll get to see these nice TITS covers in Madison, WI in just a couple weeks. . Oh, yes and the video as well.

Oh, and just in case your wondering if the bawdy double entendres are lost to the filmmaker, I’m told you must come to the primere in madison to see if she get’s the joke. . . I heard Freya was somehow involved as well???

*Note the preceding post may be offensive to some readers. If this is the case, please read backwards to erase the offense.

*Photo provided by Justine Curgenven. Thank you!

So here’s my poor, poor Pentax Optio WPi. It’s dead. Gone. Lost to the ages. Now you see, my poor Optio has went the way of so many others. Users often just toss the strap around their wrist as the snorkel or play in the pool or whatever and in time the lock get’s a bit loose. Before you know it, it’s loosened up enough to let some water seep in. Now the first time it happened we were able to resuscitate the poor thing with a blow drier. With some electronics, as soon as you get them wet you can just pull the battery and let them dry. If you wait long enough and be sure they are totally dry, you can slip the battery back in and they work! Well, the second time was it. The blasted thing never came back. Now, the good side is you can have them fixed for about $150 and up. Yet remember we paid about $240 for the thing. Then add to that, we have a big pool session coming up soon so we decided we’d just replace it. Ok fine. Well, we need our new Optio by March 11th. As fate would have it the new Optio WP30 comes out on the 15th. Fate is a harsh mistress. . or something like that. I think I’m mixing metaphors again. So we opted for the Optio WP20 which we can get in time. As for the old WPi? Well we may send it in someday. Maybe I’ll just lay it on some train tracks. Who knows what I might do!?

With only 11 days until the doors open, I’ve been thinking about how all the fine ladies at Canoecopia this year are going to be sooo busy. Made we wonder what we could do to help? So I proposed a Canoecopia Volunteer Cabana Boy list. Everyone who could handle a day of abject servitude, could sign up (yeah, you can include a photo if you must), and the ladies could just draw a name or number and select a “PA for the day”. You could run for coffee, make healthy snacks, give foot rubs and all that other stuff their husbands and boyfriends have grown weary of doing. At the very least I’m sure someone could use some help carrying boxes of DVDs. Or maybe someone would volunteer to carry Freya’s paddles around for her. Hmmmm, Wendy K might just enjoy having a bunch of big muscular guys to carry her around on their shoulders. Less wear on the shoes ya know! Oh, and we mustn’t forget the ‘buga” ladies either. Tell you what, I’ll sign up first. Maybe I could serve tropical cocktails and help find wayward floor plans. (yeah, I’m gonna burn for that one. . .)

Oh and speaking of Canoecopia when not playing personal Cabana Boy myself, I should be hiding out at the Door County Symposium Booth along with other folks you’ve heard mentioned here before. Silbs, JB, & Nydia will all take turns hanging out and making sure that only 200 select souls sign up for this year’s Door County Symposium. Suffice to say if you plan to come to that party you should sign up at the show if possible. Not only will you learn a lot, paddle a lot, and eat a lot, you can help patrol the campfire and make sure Derrick displays his usual good nature and sober character.

- fancy napkins available at DrinkGifts.com

I don’t eat fish. I can’t. Sure it doesn’t help that I have a big 55 gallon aquarium built into the wall of my living room. But that’s not it. No, many years ago, probobly in the early 90s (doesn’t seem like many year’s ago), I saw some program on PBS about the decimation of the worlds oceans. It was full of all sorts of scary predictions about the crash of fish populations in the worlds oceans. Of course sitting here some 10 years later or so most of those predictions have, or are very close to coming to pass. Well, don’t blame me. I don’t eat fish. Haven’t for years. In fact, truth be told every Friday evening in this part of the world I’m constantly reminded of the destruction of the seas as every restaurant and tavern comes up with some new way to sell fish. Fried, deep fried, broiled, steamed, you name it, they cook it. Being the strange person that I am I often have visions of being caught on the set of Soylent Green when driving through town on a Friday night. Meanwhile, thousands upon thousands of people don their Friday best and head out in the 4 door sedan for “Friday Fish”. The destruction of the worlds oceans are the furthest thing from their minds.

I mention this only as an introduction to something I’ve been thinking about. Carbon. Suddenly it’s all the rage to be “carbon neutral”. A good thing. Same as me not eating fish, living a life with a tiny carbon foot print can’t be a bad thing. The downside of course is the spiral of carbon use just to keep us western thinkers living a western lifestyle while espousing carbon neutralness. We must all accept some responsibility to the carbon footprint of the trucks that bring us products, the workers driving to work each day to make them, The teller who has to come in to take our deposit at the bank and all the other secondary carbon burners that supply our way of life beyond how often you mow your lawn. I was musing the other day about what U2′s Bono’s carbon footprint must be?? Validate that Bono!

Then I tried the Google Earth Experiment. . .

Ok, so years ago when I got my house there were no trees in the lawn. Well, a scraggly old pine and a couple sugar maples. But mostly it was an open yard in the middle of open fields. I planted a ton of trees. I was aware way back then that I was trying to offset some of my “carbon” use. I made ecology buttons in first grade remember. Of course my 20 plus trees seems like a joke when I look beyond my yard to the forests in the distance. Yet my trees add up and do a good bit to supply the air I breath and soak up some of the carbon I emit, but as Silbs says, I digress.

So to better understand you’re “carbon neutral” stance and it’s effect on the world open up Google Earth and zoom in on my house. Go ahead. (or pick yours if you can’t find mine). So there we are staring at my house from the sky. See all my tiny trees? Let’s start zooming out shall we? See the 8 to 10 houses near me? Most of these folks aren’t all that “carbon conscious”. One guy has a collection of ATVs, Giant 4x4s and more. In fact lots of the neighbors have big 4x4s, ATVs, Snowmobiles, Wave Runners, lawn tractors, old bass boats with oily 1968 Johnson outboards, and all that other stuff Americans love. Zoom out a bit more. Yeah, my house is surrounded by what could really be called an industrial farm. Look at those grain towers, giant dryers, massive tractors & semis to haul it all. Zoom out. Ah, the city of Baraboo. 10,000 plus people. Homes being heated by fossil fuels, thousands of cars warming in the driveways, thousands of ATVs, snowmobiles, wave runners, lawn tractors, restaurants thawing sea food for omelets. . . . Add factories by the dozen, busy highways, hundreds of stores warming up for the day. Steam, and smoke everywhere rising into the sky. Zoom out. Madison comes into view. Tens of thousands of people. Zoom Out. Chicago. Keep going. Detroit, Cincinnati, New York, LA. London, Beijing. . . on and on. Well you get the point. My efforts have now become a joke. Heck, even if I never existed it wouldn’t even register a blip on the “global carbon meter”.

So, does that mean it’s worthless to care? Well no. We have to live with ourselves don’t we? I don’t eat fish remember. But the thing is, I’ve been seeing a trend of little “Carbon Stalins” out there wanting to jab at others for taking a trip or flying in a plane or whatever. Get real. Certainly each one of us bears responsibility to some extent. But remember everything you or I do as an individual is less than a trillionth of a drop in the preverbal bucket. Real change has to happen on a global scale. Something I fear is so far beyond us as individuals it may never be addressed in any truly useful manner. Yet, certainly keep doing what you’re doing. Help others to understand the problems we face. But when you start feeling a bit superior hop on Google earth and put it all in perspective. Look at your house, zoom out. Stay there a minute. Then. . . for pity’s sake come back down to earth. Be nice to one another.

Learn More
Carbon Offset – Wikipedia
Carbon Offset Harms Environment – BBC
Quick Guide To Carbon Offsetting – BBC
Care Needed With Carbon Offsets – BBC
CarbonFootprint.com
Consumer Guide To Carbon Offset (PDF)
Carbon Offset Just Hot Air? – Gaurdian
National Carbon Offset Coalition
Carbon Postitive

Happy Saturday!