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Goodbye, West River Road

Andy | July 28, 2012

Tonight I write this words on my laptop, camping on West River Road, along the West Branch of the Sacanadaga River. This a beautiful site, soon to be gated off miles in the distance, to supposedly improve the “wilderness” character of this area.

Despite the fact that …

The lands of the state, now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the forest preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed.

… the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Adirondack Park Agency feels it neccessary to close off West River Road to “enhance” the wilderness quality of the “Silver Lake Wilderness”. West River Road will never be expanded or extended, and it’s unlikely many campsites will ever be added to it because the lands are forever wild, and no tree over 3″ may ever cut.

I am not advocating for paving over the Adirondack Park for strip malls, or running high-speed expressways through virgin forest. I am advocating for keeping traditional, well maintained, roads open, and protecting our remaining roads and campsites in their traditional uses.

Yet, still the DEC finds it’s hands tied due to Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan that dicates the Adirondack Park’s state land must become increasingly restricted in public use, and that more restrictions must be placed on public use — less camping, less roads open to the public.

It’s sad, because people like myself liked camping on these lands. While in the future, people will be able to walk on this perfectly good road for vehicular traffic, and backpack into the limited number of campsites, roadside camping might forever be gone from this area. More and more Adirondack Park Roads are forever gone, and unless your willing to backpack in often many miles, these lands will forever be closed off for public use.

Why I’m Thinking Of Going Back to College Eventually

Andy | May 2, 2012

For the past couple of months I have been looking at going back to school eventually to some formal training in geographic information systems, or computers more generally. I have a bachelors of arts degree in Political Science, and what I view to be a pretty good liberal arts education. I read a lot, and are always looking for new information and facts.

But what I lack is any kind of technical training or knowledge. I am a generalist at everything I do. I understand big picture things, and have a vast knowledge of how political systems work, but no specific technical knowledge. I would like to be an expert as something fo ronce, have soe real skills, and not just be a generalist at everything I do.

I like my job and it pays really quite well. I like having the money and a very nice truck for getitng out of town on the weekends. I like having the ability to travel and experience things. It sure is nice to able to catch the bus in on snow and icy and days, and keep my truck nice. And hell, I like my run down apartment.W In many ways I sould be happy about things.

But I really aren’t that happy. I don’t really like living that much in the city, not having much place of my own. I may live on te outskirts of urbanized area in Delmar, but it’s nothing like a rural community. Albany is nothing like a small city, it’s problems seem greater and impossibly difficult to address. Politics and policy are so much more complex in the big city…

I really want to escape the city, move out to rural hinderlands, in a state with a lot more freedom then NY State. I don’t want to work my whole life to pay taxes, and have restrictions on everything I do. I want to be able to shoot guns off my porch, burn stuff in my backyard. I want land, I also want to be able to get to similiarly great public lands to hunt, fish, and camp.

Albany is fine for now. I need to save a lot more money up for college. I probably can’t seriously think about going back to school, and moving to a more rural community until I have $20,000 or $30,000 in the bank. But then I want to have the freedom to disassociate myself from the big city, live out in the country, and live only in the sphere of a small city where people are far more connected to the land, and not dominated by clueless urban folks.

License Schoolyard Bullies

Andy | October 8, 2011

Across New York State, bigger and meaner children are stealing the lunch money from smaller and weaker children. It happens every school day, and while it may not be fair or right, it’s likely to continue for the forseeable future. As it would be almost impossible to stop — we should do next best thing — license schoolyard bullies.

Licensing schoolyard bullies could bring in a sizable portion of revenue to the state. Nobody knows how much lunch money is stolen every year, but figuring there are millions of kids in Public Schools, there is the potential for millions of untapped revenue. Licensing schoolyard bullies could be a potential goldmine to tap to reduce the state’s yearly deficit.

Understanding the problem of bulling in schools, the state could dedicate a portion of funds coming from licensing and taxing bullies go to bullying prevention. A 50% tax on profits by school bullies could do a lot for all children. It would make the bullying business theoretically less profitable, and discourage bullying. It also would provide funds to monitor the actions of bullies to ensure that actions are appropiate — extracting funds from weaker children — while making sure their actions aren’t too abusive or harmful.

The fact is we are never going to get away from bigger and mean kids bullying weaker kids, and stealing their lunch money. It’s just part of growing up for the most unlucky of children. Yet, if this insitution is to exist, then at least their should be a kind of public function to schoolyard thief of lunch money, specifically funding of government.

… and remember, school yard bullies are not organized, and are too young to vote.

I’ll Be Age 67 in 2050

Andy | September 19, 2011

Folks in my age group under Social Security can retire at Age 67 if they so please. While I don’t know if I will retire at Age 67, I generally believe that Social Security will be fixed by that point, and that will be an option if I so choose. I hope I have the finanical savings and a pension at that point to supplement social security if that’s what I want, or choose to continue to work if work is my passion and I feel that I am doing good for society by continuing to work.

The year 2050 is an interesting one. It’s a popular round number taken up by political pundits and futurists trying to predict the future.

Bill McKibbean and the 350 people insist that humanity must reduce it’s carbon outputs by 80% of 1990 levels by 2050, also known as the 350 ppm by 2050 goal. Others insist that there will be no Social Security in 2050, or that fossil fuels will run out by 2050, or that the world will be otherwise awful dark and bleak in 2050. Some like James Howard Kunstler think the year 2050 will be one of mass suffering and misery, as humanity fails to move away from it’s excessive use of fossil fuels and international commerence.

More hopeful futurists look at 2050 as era of great progress, an age of great equality, and technocratic success. Transportation will be automated and run on clean electricity generated from renewable sources that won’t harm the planet. Flying cars will wisk you to your destination! People will overcome their evil ways, and war will be obsolete. Humans will be healthier and avoid much of the suffering that is the norm of the day. Poverty will be a thing of the past.

I suspect both predictions will be look increadibly dated by the time I’m ready to enter retirement and my golden years. After all, the year of 2050 is about as far away as the year 1972. Since 1972, the world has not choked and died from smog or excessive development. There are still vast areas of open lands, forests, and farm land. Yet, there are still pollution problems, and we have yet to enter an age of golden prosperty. 39 years later, still a lot of people are still suffering, but things have gotten better for many people.

I truly believe that world is not coming to an end. I also don’t believe the world of 2050 will be vastly different then today, even if fashions change as do technologies. Some things will become easier, and maybe more automated, but the world will look remarkably like today.