These days for millions of people the internet has become our town square, our quilting bee, and our local watering hole all at once. It’s no wonder that the most visited websites out there are MySpace and Facebook. The idea behind these sites of course, is to allow people to stay connected with their group of friends & family and of course social networking with new folks as well.

As it was with blogging some years back, forward thinking companies are taking steps into the networked world. Trak Kayaks has begun their “Friends of Trak” group on Facebook and already has a nice group of over 100 people. Members can chat about their boats, share pictures, get the latest information from Trak and of course network with other members along the way. Good idea for a company that wants to stay in touch with their customers. Yes, you do have to have a Facebook account to access their group. I have a Facebook profile just so i can check in on the Trak site.

For my part, I’ve played around with social networking as well. I put a site up on Yahoo360 and limited access to only those I wanted in. That gave me a way to write more about the things I wanted to write about that were way off the kayak trail. Then when Y360 announced they were changing their system, I along with thousands of others moved my stuff to Multiply which is a very simple to manage networking site. (My site is here) In fact a couple paddlers have found me over there already! The advantage of a site like this is that i can store everything easily in one spot; video clips, photos, blogs, links, whatever. You don’t need to be web savvy to do it. You also have the advantage of making anything on the site only available to those people in your network that you wish to have access. Then when you add content an announcement is posted to a bulletin board to people on your “network”. They of course can comment on your site in general or about any specific item. Usually these sites have functions to allow you to post from your cellphone as well. It’s a great way to stay connected.

These days when we tend to have lots of material on the web, a network site makes a lot of sense. It’s much better than having videos in one place, photos in another, blogs in another, and on and on. Which site you use certainly depends on what you are looking for. Research has shown that Myspace tends to be a younger crowd whereas Facebook tends to trend toward college students, business, and the more affluent among us. Multiply, even with 6 million users is a bit of a quiet backwater, which suits me just fine. Certainly online networking is not for everyone. Computers are not for everyone either! But for those of us who do spend a lot of time in the online world a social networking website can be an enjoyable place to talk to friends, make new ones and store all your stuff.

Only a professional could come up with a phrase as daft as “Mental Refreshment”.

Happy Monday!

“Truly global citizens, the world’s 15 species of cranes range freely over five continents and migrate across deserts, mountains, frozen tundra, and the borders of hundreds of nations. As such, they are ambassadors for peace among diverse peoples, who unite in efforts to save the elegant birds, and for the preservation of their fragile wetland and grassland homes and migratory staging grounds. Because of development and habitat loss, many species that once thrived in much broader ranges among them, the red-crowned, black-crowned, and white-naped are now restricted to fragments of protected land in parks, sanctuaries, even demilitarized zones between hostile nations.” - ICF

Yeah well, I’ve had so many jobs in my early years, I’ve lost count. Some were pretty interesting though. I spent one season as a guide for the International Crane Foundation here in Baraboo. ICF’s primary goal of course is the protection of Cranes which are like most animals, under threat. Of course in addition to eduction, breeding and such, they also address many environmental issues as well.

Here in the states we have two native cranes. The Sandhill and the Whooping Crane. The Whooping Crane is white with black tipped wings and a red marking on the head. What really makes them amazing as well is that they stand over 5 feet tall. Most of us have seen how ICF has been using ultralight planes to teach captive born cranes their traditional migration routes. Something fantastic and sad at the same time in that it shows how far gone the population was and to what efforts we need to go through to bring them back.

The other (photo above) are Sandhills. Sandhill Cranes were in trouble as well. However, their population came roaring back once the indiscriminate hunting was stopped. These guys live right here, so I get the joy of seeing them regularly these days. In fact their population has so recovered that they guys with guns want a chance to shoot ‘em. You know, I can’t help but express how crazy these loonies are. It’s not so much that I’m against hunting, as it is that I’m really amazed by those guys just waiting for a chance to kill something for the pure joy of taking life. I can’t help but wonder about their psychology. Maybe their mothers should have hugged them more!

To learn more about ICF & Cranes in general go here.

I’ve also added a “Wings & More” gallery here.

Sometimes when the sun is shining and the air is cool and comfortable you think to yourself, “What a perfect day to go paddling”. Then you realize it’s also a perfect day to do yard work.

Autumn has moved past it’s glorious stage. Opulent colors in massive display are giving way to the subtler tones of black, silver and occasional reds. Raindrops cling to a barren dogwood outside my office window. The sun is slipping lower each day. The sky is bluer when it’s blue, and darker when it rains. We’re entering the land of contrast and sticks.

My Rockpool is sitting out among the grass and leaves as the rain washes off the river. Like a magician I will wave my hands over it’s hull and cut it into thirds. I will wipe it down and levitate it into the laundry room for a warm rest. I fear our next outing may be in chlorine.

This article is SKY news a few days back was certainly interesting. It seems a woman was out in a “canoe” in Hawaii and when the wind picked up she got knocked out. Now being the UK canoe of course could mean anything. The article shows a picture of a white water kayak. . I’m pretty sure that was NOT what she was in. (it was captioned: “Canoeists put their lives at risk”). Well, there she was floating in her bathing suit in 80F water holding on to a water bottle for flotation. When night fell, she apparently took off her top and wrapped it around her head to keep warm. After 19 hours at sea she was picked up by a charter boat and the rest as they say is “history”.

When you dig into the details of the article the questions come popping up everywhere. Why did the boat she launched from leave without knowing where she was? Where was her PFD? Apparently she tried to right the “canoe” many times until she got tired. Lack of training? Weather conditions? It’s hard to tell. That’s the problem with these sorts of stories. We just don’t have any details to make good judgments. SKY news certainly did not give a very good account of the situation or do much research to show their WW boat in foam to accent the story.

I have to admit the bit about taking off her top and wrapping it around her head was met with a teenage-like snicker. Yet after I thought about it a bit, that may have been the one wise thing she did.

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