4' High and Rising

A quick post about the compitition

Neil — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 01:34:03 +0000

Kate and I are having a blog competition as a way to introducing our friends and family to our website. The stakes are high and currently she is winning. So if there are any of you still reading this blog, be sure to visit http://neil.kateandneil.com as way of voting for me. And as a reward you’ll get to see video of Guatemalan luchadors. Also in the future all my daily living blogs will be posted on that site and I will save this one for articles about politics, the environment, and design.

In other news Mexico is just wonderful.

Shopping for the Big Boy

Neil — Fri, 04 May 2007 17:27:52 +0000

Just a funny little experience I had a few days ago. Being a light packer, I had not brought enough shirts to keep up with my pants and ropa enterior so by Monday I was out of clean tops. Instead of wash one of the sink Kate and I decided to head to the market and look for a shirt. Unfortunately I am just a little bigger than most Guatemalans I ended up trying on about 50 shirts before we found one that fit. When I would ask for a Guatemalan XL or XXL they would pull out a pile of dusty shirts that had obviously been untouched since the last foreigner came looking for shirt in the 70´s and start passing me these shirts that were three times as long as they were wide. If one would fit my girth it would also hang down past my calves. Like the only person a Guatemalan could picture wearing an XL shirt was giant 15 feet tall.

Needless to say I entertained many a Guatemalan and Kate while I tried on tiny shirts and then needed help pulling them off. At least someone was having fun.

p.s. visit www.Kateandneil.com for more articles about our travels.

What becomes of the little Guatemalan Baby?

Neil — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:38:50 +0000

Kate and I arrived in Antigua yesterday and have been working through all the hitches associated with first time travelers and backpackers…except we’re really experienced at it…strange, I know. So far we have made every mistake in the book except for counting our money in public (don’t think I didn’t have to tell Kate to put her money away once or twice). You can read more about it on Kate’s article.

That’s fine and all. We are a little rusty; it’s been a few months. What I really wanted to talk about is how creepy Guatemalan baby adopters are. It must be because Guatemala City is dump, or there’s something in the water, but it seems Antigua attracts white baby adopters by the truck load. Kate and I sat in the park last night watching, not joke, a hundred couples walking around with baby backpack after baby backpack filled with Guatemalan babies. Watching creepy looking white people tote around these little children I was reminded of another international human attraction I would see in Thailand…prostitution. For some reason I just got the hebby-jebbies (if anyone has a spelling for that please let me know) seeing all these white people with foreign babies. It felt the same as seeing those fat ugly white men in Thailand escorting their tiny Thai escort to their hotel room.

I have no proof, except what my friend Tristan told me he found during his research here, that foreign adoption in Guatemala is human trafficking. Women are coursed into giving up their children for adoption, and then the adoption agencies cheat adopters out of money by telling them there is X, Y, and Z fees or bribes needed to get the baby our of the country. Good meaning Americans think they are rescuing a baby from poverty and what not, but really the baby was only born or put up for adoption to make a lot of money. It is a sad situation and what I have seen in Antigua does nothing but support what Tristan has told me.

Please, please be more careful about adopting little babies from Guatemala, they might have been farmed just for that purpose and you might be doing more harm than good.

Viva Guatemala

Neil — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:20:41 +0000

After a few weather related delays we have made it into Guatemala City. We arrived about an hour late and made it to the hostle without an problems. So now it is the morning we had a nice breakfast of cracker hard toast and “orange juice” that barely passed as bad tang but it was good anyway. So we are getting ready to shuttle up to Antigua except…of course…there is a teacher strike and they are blocking all the roads. So we might have to stay another night in Guat City. Anyway all is well, we are happy to be here and excited for the future.

Adios

Updated Website

Neil — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 19:14:31 +0000

Even though the old site was up only up for a few days, I have decided to completely redo it. So if you haven’t seen the new site, or even seen the old, make sure you check it out.

We are trying to figure everything out and get the content manager up and running, so check back often. We are going to add a shop, blog, photo gallery, and other such stuff. It is going to be great.

So check it out: http://www.kateandneil.com

Mr. Nader…An Unreasonable Man

Neil — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 20:04:21 +0000

This afternoon Kate and I went to see An Unreasonable Man, a documentary about the rise, and rise, and fall and rise of Nader. Even though it was a little long and boring, the documentary was great. It did a wonderful portrayal of Nader’s history, advocacy, and the controversies surrounding his presidential runs in 2000 & 2004. leaving the theater I was once again convinced Nader is the answer to America’s political problems. He is honest, unsympathetic to corruption, care little of his personal situation or legacy, and want more than anything to fix the injustices in the US and the world. Some of you might not know, but I campaigned for him with some close friends for the 2004 elections. He was the right person to vote for because, like they mention in the film, wasn’t in the pocket of the mega corporations. He turned down millions of bribe dollars and threats to no run, because he knew our two parties are corrupt and heavily manipulated by large corporations, and he wanted to fight it. Even though he did not get elected, he made a strong stand against government corruption, two party politics, and the failure of the democrats to address social issues because they too have sold out to the corporate world and to conservative rhetoric. Next elections unless the democrats start being more liberal they are going to end up disenchanting their voter base that will, if we are lucky, vote Nader or someone like him into office.

Nader you have my support, even though you come off crazy.

Earth Day approaches…please join me in celebration.

Neil — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 01:56:43 +0000

The 20th of April is Earth Day! Hurray. To celebrate I have decided to make to make a list of earth friendly goals as my way of celebrating. I will follow my do & don’t list for an entire 24 hours starting at 12:01 AM on the 22nd.

I will not burn fossil fuels in a vehicle (i.e. I will ride my bike everywhere I go)
I will not eat any packaged foods; only breads, grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables I can carry home without packaging (of course I will refrain from meat as well).
When I leave my home and office I will turn off/unplug all standby electronics.
I will use as much ambient natural light as I can.
I will take a 1+ hour nature hike up Rock Canyon, and will collect and haul out as much garbage as I can.

I hope everyone will find a way to celebrate our beautiful earth this Earth Day in a productive and eco-friendly way. Let me know what you decided to do.

North American Entomological Food Systems

Neil — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 01:41:05 +0000

Do you ever wounder what effects fast food leftovers have on bugs and small mammals? It probable has been proven, enough McDonald’s, Twinkie, or Cheeto’s will kill a man, so what happens to the little guys who are eating our fast food nation crumbs? Recently there has been buzz (no pun intended) about the missing honey bee. Even though bees don’t eat junk food, maybe there is a correlation. Most likely larger meaner bugs are eating the junk food and are abnormally developing to gargantuan sizes with ravenous A.D.D. behavior and are killing bees as sport. Ether way I think we should keep junk food out of our bodies and off the ground.

Why I’m a vegetarian…need I say more?

Neil — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 03:59:04 +0000

Replacing the Penguin.

Neil — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 23:59:45 +0000

So here is my question. Why is the Penguin global warming’s logo? Aren’t there thousand other animals affected by global warming? Isn’t the Walrus as at risk as the Polar Bear, the Blue Whale, or the Penguin? In fact as far as evolutionary adaptations, Penguins are doing rather well. There are penguins in the Galapagos, aren’t there? Maybe it’s because Penguins are so cute or look as though they are in their formals. Actually the one thing they have going for them is their communal adaptations to deal with the cold. At least among the Imperial Penguins they must work together as a group to keep warm enough to survive the bitter arctic winters, just like humans must work together to save the earth from further warming and environmental degradation. Yet the Blue Whale, the Walrus, and the Polar Bear are much more interesting, at least I think so.

We should replace the Penguin with the Walrus because they are ugly and vulnerable, just as global warming is ugly and ecology vulnerable.