A REALLY random assortment of updates

BURBANK, CA -- Where do we even begin? Full disclosure, this is going to be a really long blog post. I'll get to the Penn State saga at the end.

I suppose this week I'll start with personal updates. All is well. I leave to go home for the week of Thanksgiving in nine days, and I am looking forward to that. It snowed yesterday in Madison for the first time, and while I'd rather be soaking in more of this Southern California sunshine, the first snow of the year is always special, and I was feeling a little nostalgic at hearing the news. The Antarctica countdown is now under 1 month, which is incredibly exciting. For reference, I booked this trip in February. It has been a long journey and wait just to get to this point!

Work-wise, I was up late last night compiling some incredibly impressive statistics on the growth of one of the websites I do work for, We Heart It. Since January, suffice it to say that everything is up by a huge margin, no doubt a huge credit to the various product improvements that have been made over the course of 2011. Comparing the website now to when I started in February, while the layout and the "feel" is the same, the features are far more powerful, which is resulting in continued user growth worldwide. For me, I love the new "sets" feature, which is organizing things in a far better way than what was available in the past. Facebook and twitter integration are vastly improved, as is searching, tagging, "friending," and the core user experience as a whole. Happy to answer any questions you may have about the details - just let me know, and enjoy the website!

On the future travel radar, it is looking like I may be able to get to Vegas in early-January for CES, which would be AWESOME! The idea is quite exciting. Then, the first weekend in March is a really good friend/former roommate's wedding from UW-Madison days. Congratulations in advance Mike and Beth Ann! I am very much looking forward to seeing everyone, and I am thinking I will try to attach a week or two of work from Chicago to the trip and just drive up from there. We shall see what transpires. :)

One thing that I don't think I have mentioned since the revamping of this blog a few weeks ago is that part of the inspiration to do so is to ultimately turn this title and spirit into a book. How the hell is it possible to travel to all seven continents AND all 50 states before turning 25? Well, one way is to play the lottery every day, and when you inevitably win, pay your way across the country and across the world. However, back in the real world...

How do you do it? You have to work hard! Set goals! Start early! For the record, while I have taken a number of trips with my family over the years, mainly to Arizona, Wisconsin, Mexico, and Canada, as well as the occasional one-off trip to California, Florida, and Israel, for the purposes of this book, I am thinking I will mention but not formally "count" any of that. Why? Well, most people aren't lucky enough to have had even those experiences. So how do you do it?

I have to confess that I am not entirely sure when it became even a theoretical goal of mine to do this. It probably ran across my mind the first true independent road trips I took: to Bemidji, Minnesota in 2004, and a substantially longer trip to Toronto and Niagara Falls by way of Indiana, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. All of a sudden, I had knocked off a decent block of states - in a week. I can't say for sure, but with all probability, the idea of going to all 50 states probably crept up around that time.

When did it become a mission? That's much easier to figure out. February 2009. I had graduated early from UW-Madison in December 2008, knew I had gotten into LSE for my Master's to start in September 2009, and basically spent that gap working part time and traveling as much as I possibly could. A really good friend from High School days was in school at Tulane, in New Orleans, at the time (and he still lives there today). So I drove out to Iowa City, picked up one of my best HS buddies, and we road tripped it down to New Orleans for some February sunshine and warmth. Throughout the trip we created and used a series of rules for formally "counting" states, which had been modified based on experience in getting to that point. However, since then, the rules have essentially stuck, and in creating the set of rules, the theoretical goal became a real one.

What are the rules?

First - if you drive through or fly through, it does not count. Sure, you can flag a country or state that way, but you can't truly say you have been. For flying, this is easy to quantify. If you don't leave the airport, you can't count it. For driving, it's not quite as simple for most states. In the northeast, it's quite easy to drive through numerous states without stopping, so the same rules apply. But when you get down south or out west to the bigger, more numerous states, you HAVE to stop for gas, food, restroom breaks, etc. So what is it that counts? Again, it is easier to eliminate things that do not count. Gas does not count. Restroom breaks do not count. Eating breaks do not count IF you 1) do not get out of the car, and 2) you eat at a restaurant you could find elsewhere. Going into a subway in Laredo, Texas does not count. BUT, here is where it gets interesting. If you stop at a culturally significant restaurant, that absolutely counts! What does "culturally significant" mean, you ask? Diners in New Jersey are a good example. Microbreweries in Anchorage. The Chow House in Samoa, California. Heck, Umami in California. Lou Malnatis in Chicago, or, as listed in the "1000 Places to See Before You Die" book, Superdawg in Chicago. Anything that is either one-of-a-kind, or has a grassroots tie to the place you are visiting.

Other places that count, as are applicable for road trips? Museums, memorials, road-side art projects, self-guided tours, guided tours, historic sites, government institutions, and national, state, and local parks are all just a few generic examples. So... back to February 2009. On our way down via Missouri, we knew we would return the same way, and all in all didn't count it for that portion of the trip. Next up: Arkansas. We decided to stop at a 1912 neoclassical-style courthouse in Osceola. THAT is the kind of randomness but significance I am talking about! Tennessee: Graceland. Much more obvious, but absolutely a historic site and museum that people the world over flock to, as the home of Elvis. Mississippi: The state capitol building and complex in Jackson - stopping at state capitol buildings has since become a semi-regular theme on road trips, and while I certainly spent a lot of time at them (heck, I lived within a mile of the WI capitol complex in Madison for 3+ years) before, they have more or less become an institution on road trips since stopping in Jackson. In Louisiana, suffice it to say we covered a TON of New Orleans. On the return, in addition to spending more time in Memphis, we also did the St. Louis Arch as well as the Budweiser brewery to count Missouri. All told? Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Five of those seven states were new for me, and much like the 2005 road trip, taking a chunk of these out for cheap in quick time was really appealing to me.

Okay, so at this point I had taken a couple of big road trips, and a number of smaller ones, but still had some gaping holes in the map. When did reaching all 50 states before turning 25 become practical? While tough to pinpoint exactly, I would say that upon returning from Europe in July 2010, I realized I wanted to take a truly massive road trip, broken up by writing my dissertation for my MSc. Within a week of arriving home, and knowing that I could never truly write my dissertation with the focus it needed by staying at home, I decided to write it from Arizona. I drove there - and back, the long way. While the details can find themselves in another post, from a state standpoint, it went: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois. Of those, seven states were new, and in total upon completing the trip in August 2010, I had been to 42 states. That is the point where I consciously decided that not only could I reach all 50 before turning 25, but that I was going to.

Since then, I did Alaska (43) in October 2010, Montana (44) in December 2010, Oregon (45) in July 2011, and North Dakota (46) in September 2011. Currently, I have four remaining: Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, and West Virginia. They are all doable in a single trip, and I plan to knock them out by April at the latest.

For the continents, it is much simpler. I was born in and have spent the vast majority of my life in North America (for the book - Chapter 1), first visited and then ultimately spent over a year living in Europe (Chapter 2), next ventured off to the Middle East, geographically Asia and then later returned a few more times (Chapter 3), did a two week alternate break trip in South America (Chapter 4), a week sightseeing trip via London to Africa (Chapter 5), and a week trip via LAX to Australia (Chapter 6). Antarctica, as has been mentioned already in this post and quite a lot recently, is in a month (Chapter 7).

For the book idea, I have been thinking of it for awhile now, and as a concept, it served as a large bit of the inspiration for getting this blog going again. Moving forward, there should be a healthy amount of book-related thoughts spewing out. Special credit for encouragement, however, goes to Matthew Kalkman, a good friend of mine from LSE days. Randomly, we literally lived next door to each other in our Bankside flats, and while not in the same academic program, we were in an Environmental class together. With that as inspiration, we traveled to Copenhagen for the COP 15 together, which was an awesome experience across the board. The fact that the Blackhawks beat his Canucks (he's from British Columbia) in May was just that much better. In any case, since he graduated from LSE last December, he has been writing a book on New Liberalism, which has been published! I eagerly anticipate reading his book and encourage all of you to buy a copy!!!

In other "my friends are doing awesome things" news, a good friend from wayyyyyyyyy back in 3BC/Beber overnight camp days (1999-2000ish), who has always been an excellent singer, has tried out for Glee and is getting a great online response. I highly encourage you to check out her audition video and "like" it!

Also this week - a few awesome updates on the home front!

1) I am running again! Did 3 miles on Friday, 4.5 on Sunday, 3 on Tuesday, and going to do 2 this afternoon. My feet feel great, even with the work done a couple weeks back (they actually feel better than ever, which was the entire point of course). It feels phenomenal to be back out there running and working out, and my sleep and mental health are better (as well as physically, obviously) within just a week. Short-term goal is the 10K Turkey Trot at home, 2 weeks from today! Medium-term goal is the 13.1 Surf City Half Marathon in Huntington Beach, one of the best races (ranked) in the world. It's also the last race I need to run to get the special tri-cities medal, for completing Orange County, Long Beach, and Surf City consecutively. I'm 2/3 of the way there! Long-term, I think running the Chicago Marathon would be just awesome next year - we'll see how the healing progresses and make a decision in the next few months. :)

2) Solar panels arrived!!!

Here they are, sitting on my ledge outside in the sun in the late-afternoon. There are two, 2-watt solar panels with a battery and circuit breaker. All told, the package ran $100. Expensive, for sure, but a ton of fun as well!

Even in indirect sunlight, the two solar panels were able to draw enough sunlight to power my phone directly for a bit.

Yesterday they ran at almost perfect efficiency in direct sunlight throughout the day. This morning they powered my phone from 5% to 55% for about an hour, but then some clouds rolled in and they tapered off. Still, the fact that I haven't plugged in my phone since Sunday is quite awesome, and the juice I do have should last me at least throughout today. I'll probably have to plug it in tonight for the first time. If they keep working well, I'm considering buying a much larger, but still portable 15-watt solar panel from these guys. That's enough to power a cell phone fully in 1-2 hours in direct sunlight, the same speed as when you plug into the wall, and it's enough to fully power a laptop in 3-4 hours. Even in ambient light, the panel is far more powerful than 2-4 of these 2-watt panels, and seeing as I alternate laptops throughout the day, it would be cool to power them via solar as well. Interestingly, apparently it costs around 2 cents to fully charge your cell phone out of the wall. Doing the math, that means you need to charge your phone 50 times to make $1 back. Off the $100, that means 5,000 phone charges. Economically, the break-even point is about 13 years. While this is only pennies, if you start doing the math for laptops, larger panels, and larger appliances, the same is roughly true. Currently, the break-even point for solar power runs in the 10-15 year range, which, given solar panels are certified for 25-30 years, means there is a substantial amount of money to be made if done correctly. Not only is it the morally right thing to do, but there are some serious economic incentives too.

...and now for non-personal updates:

1) By far the less significant of the two, Rick Perry is a complete moron. So is Herman Cain. The GOP race is down to Romney and Paul, and if Huntsman ever gets his act together, I cede him the intelligence to stand a chance. Watching the GOP debates has been brutally painful. While I don't hide the fact that I want Obama to win, I would rather he face a serious challenger, which would elevate President Obama to act. Instead, everyone gets bogged down in a never-ending monotony of political BS.

2) By far the more significant of the two, what the hell is wrong with everyone in "Happy Valley?" In case anybody has been living under a rock since Saturday, the short story, as I see it, is as follows. [Warning: I'm not going to refrain from telling this story like it is, and it is both graphic and sickening. If you don't want to know, don't read further.]

Jerry Sandusky, the former longtime men's football assistant coach at Penn State University, under Joe Paterno, has spent the better part of the past 20 years raping at least 19 10-to-13 year old boys. He founded a non-profit dedicated to enriching the lives of young boys in need. He used his status within the organization and within Penn State to hand-pick his victims, and coerced them into all manners of rape. According to the Grand Jury Report (if you want to read all 23 pages, click here, BUT, it is extremely graphic - you have been warned), which details the rape and molestation of eight young boys, in 2002, after Sandusky had been forced to resign for "unknown" reasons, a then-28 year old graduate student assistant coach walked into the Penn State locker room to drop off a new pair of shoes. To his surprise, the shower was running and the lights were on. As he walked closer, he saw Sandusky raping the then-10 year old "victim 2." The graduate student, instead of grabbing a bat, a gun, recording any of this, or calling police, immediately took off, went to his father, who suggested he go to his boss, head coach Joe Paterno. The grad student told Coach Paterno what he saw, and never followed up by calling police or anybody else, thinking that Paterno would report as appropriate. Paterno, the following day, reported the incident to his boss, Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley, again, without reporting anything to the police or other proper authorities. A week and a half later, Curley met directly with the grad student as well as Penn State Senior Vice President for Finance and Business, Gary Schultz, and the student reported exactly what he saw. Curley and Schultz promised to take care of it. Two weeks later, Curley and Schultz told the grad student they had taken Sandusky's locker room keys away and reported him to his own charity non-profit. Curley also reported the testimony to his boss, Penn State University President Graham Spanier. In essence, nothing further happened. Nobody reported this 2002 incident to police or child protective services, despite Curley and Schultz having a legal obligation to do so. As such, they have both been arrested and released on bail.

In addition, however, last night the Penn State University board of trustees fired Spanier and Paterno. While Spanier was never fully informed of the conduct that occurred in 2002, as President of the university embroiled in such an enormous disgrace, he is responsible for the actions of everyone. Two Penn State employees and two Penn State senior staff never reported the incident to police. Individually, that falls on the responsibility of the individuals. In sum, that falls on Spanier, and as such, despite not facing any criminal charges, he is gone. Likewise, Joe Paterno, football legend status aside, fulfilled his legal obligation to report the incident to senior staff at the institution. As such, he has not been charged with any crimes and it appears unlikely that he will be. That said, he failed the biggest moral test of his career. Joe Paterno has more authority than all of the other people in this story combined. He could have gone to police and in an instant busted this case open to serve justice. Instead, he did the absolute bare minimum, and as a result, for the past nine years, Sandusky has been raping and molesting an untold number of victims.

The fact that in 1998 Sandusky was investigated for a similar incident makes this all the more shocking and disgusting. At the time, Paterno essentially forced Sandusky to resign, which he did in 1999, without saying much as to why. In 2002, after this incident, he was forbidden from bringing children to Penn State - again, the absolute bare minimum, except in this case, because there was an eye-witness report, Curley and Schultz are unexcused, thus their arrests.

Why didn't Joe Paterno go to authorities with what he seemingly knew in 1998? Why didn't he walk the graduate student with him straight to the police the day the student told him what he saw, to file out a police report? Why didn't he follow up with Curley, Schultz, or Spanier to ensure the incident was properly followed-up on? Perhaps most shockingly - why didn't he ever address Sandusky, his longtime friend and assistant coach for decades, about the allegations? Just LAST WEEK Sandusky was reportedly working out in the Penn State locker rooms. The Grand Jury Report, which was made public on Saturday, was written from testimony in December 2010 and January 2011, almost a year ago! Surely everybody knew this was all about to be made public, and yet even so, nobody resigned, nobody acted, nobody did a damn thing to stand up for what is right. Instead, Paterno and everyone else thought they could brush it aside and it would go away. Joe could keep coaching games, the school would keep getting praise, and everyone would keep making a lot of money, selling out games and setting records. Even after all of this broke on Saturday, Paterno could have resigned, in disgrace, but at least on his own terms. Instead, he tried to one-up the board of trustees by resigning, effective at the end of the season. At least the board of trustees had the courage to stop him - better late than never.

From a social psychology standpoint, the more I've read about this case and seen it in the news, the more I think of the bystander effect. At first glance, it should have forced the graduate student to act the moment he saw something in order to intervene and assist the victim against Sandusky. That said, in wondering why the grad student and Paterno didn't act, perhaps, morally they thought they did by informing their superiors. That said, the grad student still should have gone and informed police. The fact that today he is still employed, now as a wide receivers football coach for Penn State, is surprising given the punishment dolled out to Paterno and Spanier last night. However, just today there were reports that Penn State is paying the legal team for Curley and Schultz's defense. Are you kidding me?

Lastly, a couple of points. First, to the Penn State students who rioted in State College last night, you are an absolute disgrace. While you no-doubt thought you were professing your love for former-Coach Paterno, in the end, what the world saw was a bunch of thugs defending the non-reporting of child rape by vandalizing property and inciting violence. While I have always thought, as a UW-Madison alum, that it might be fun to attend a road game in "Happy Valley," I can say with confidence that I have no desire to waste my time or money for your benefit. I have a feeling as a school, you are going to be losing a substantial number of applicants and athletes partially because of all of the allegations noted above, but more significantly, because of your pathetic tastelessness that you displayed last night. While I am aware that it was not the entire student body partaking, enough damage was done by enough people to be perceived as representing the school, and that is all it takes.

Finally, in this case, the cover-up, bad as it was, is not worse than the crime itself. There are at LEAST 19 victims. There were eight cited in the grand jury report, but since this was all made public on Saturday, police set up telephone hotlines for people to call in with tips, leads, or other reports. As of yesterday, 11 more victims came forward. These people are mentally scarred for life. They were already "at-risk" youth, felt blessed enough to find a charity to help them, and then were abused by the founder of that charity in despicable, unimaginable ways. If there is anything positive that can come from this enormous mess, perhaps it is that more victims will be able to speak out against their attackers, and the public can come to assist those in need. The next time someone witnesses something so horrific happening, after all of this, maybe they will go straight to the police. The next time someone in a leadership position hears a report of something similar, instead of doing the legal minimum, they will do everything they possibly can to help.

For some more reading on this case that I have found interesting, The Daily Beast had an interesting blog. Adam Hoge, writing for CBS Chicago but also former-UW writer at The Daily Cardinal, wrote a scathing and good summary. ESPN, who really fumbled this story out of the gate, has a great piece criticizing their sports-centric initial covering of the story, as opposed to establishing facts and reporting on the real victims. There was, however, a historical piece that really sets the facts straight while simultaneously discussing the impact on the victims.