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It's been awhile since I posted, but work has had me very busy. I just wanted to post something and get back in the game here! Some pretty amazing, beautiful birds, enjoy!

This is so sad and insane at the same time! I really would like to see this one day, but now...

Holy Shit Batman!  This is crazy to the extreme. At least 115 people were killed this weekend when tropical storm Agatha traveled through Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Heavy rains and extreme winds caused massive mudslides that caused extreme devastation to all three of the Central American countries.

Guatemala was hit hardest, with at least 92 deaths, 54 people missing and 59 injured. In the northern part of Guatemala City, the extreme downpour of rain created a giant sinkhole that swallowed up a three-story building and a house, which you can see above.

Pronounced [Ah-La-Fyah-Lah-Yer-Kuhl], the volcano eruption caused major world-wide disruption.

This devastating change in weather and air travel ALMOST had my brother-in-law miss his daughter's wedding... but he made it back from London after taking the chunnel over to Paris, renting a car and driving to Madrid, flying out to Mexico City, then up to San Francisco and driving down to Rancho San Lucas in the middle of California. Crazy, huh?

Click the image to follow a link to some amazing images caught courtesy of Boston.com!

"Glenn Beck is a fucking asshole. I've met him. He called me the anti-Christ and not about Avatar. He hadn't even seen Avatar yet. I don't know if he has http://witola.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=1957&message=6seen it. I think, you know what, he may or may not be an asshole, but he certainly is dangerous, and I'd love to have a dialogue with him. He's dangerous because his ideas are poisonous. I couldn't believe when he was on CNN. I thought, what happened to CNN? Who is this guy? Who is this madman? And then of course he wound up on Fox News, which is where he belongs, I guess.

They're not attacks. They're just people ranting away, lost in their little bubbles of reality, steeped in their own hatred, their own fear and hatred. That's where it all comes from. Let's just call it out. Let's have a public discussion. That's what movies are supposed to do, you know, you can have a mindless entertainment film that doesn't affect anybody. I wasn't interested in that. That's right, I want to call those deniers out into the street at high noon and shoot it out with those boneheads. Anybody that is a global-warming denier at this point in time has got their head so deeply up their ass I'm not sure they could hear me.

Look, at this point I'm less interested in making money for the movie and more interested in saving the world that my children are going to inhabit. How about that? I mean look, I didn't make this movie with these strong environmental anti-war themes in it to make friends on the right, you know. They're not on my Christmas card list. It's not going to change my lifestyle at all if they don't talk to me. But you know they've got to live in this world too. And their children do as well, so they're going to have to be answerable to this at some point."

A friend of mine wrote this article and I thought I would pass this on with his permission. Feel free to follow him as well on Twitter: @HDSolarguy.

Depending on state laws where you live, you may even be able to get extra money back at the end of the year if you produce more power than you use. Imagine that... a power check instead of a power bill. California just passed such a law but is still deciding how to calculate the rates on this extra power; we may not get paid the full rate for it, time will tell.

And this, dear friends, is why solar is still not more widely deployed in these United States. Not because it is too expensive (you can currently produce solar power for about one-third to one-half of what your power company charges).

The problem is that the net metering laws are different in all 50 states and in many of them, you do not get paid full price for your "extra" electricity, even though the power company re-sells it to the business community, usually at a higher price than you would pay as a homeowner.

In fact, there are still five states in which net metering is actually illegal! Missouri recently passed a net metering law in which the utility must pay you no more than $.03 per kWh even though they sell it for over twice that much.

This creates a number of problems for the future of solar energy but there is a simple solution and you may hear more about it this Spring. It's called "National Net Metering" legislation and it would set a common standard for buying and selling solar power -- for everyone, no matter where you live.

The bad news is that it will probably not be discussed alone but in concert with many other even more "controversial" bills dealing with climate change, carbon reduction and cap-and-trade.

But to really understand how important net metering is, just imagine what our economy would be like if the internet were still a one-way pipe into your home... with only a handful of service-providers and the rest of us forced to play the role of consumers (only).

Net metering (and solar power) transform the power line to your house into a two-way pipe and change you from an energy consumer into a part-time energy producer.

As such, net metering is more than just a way to own your own power source (with about a 5-year payback). It also provides a gateway for anyone to participate in the global economy, buying and selling power (which has actual cash value as measured by your electric meter), but produced cleanly and profitably: it is as revolutionary as Napster -- but not for music, for electricity!

P.S. - You can check on the status of Net Metering in any state at http://www.dsireusa.org/

P.P.S - Google just created a subsidiary called "Google Energy" and has applied to FERC for permission to buy and sell power. See http://bit.ly/8qIK5a

So we're feeling good and it's beautiful outside. Time for either a bike ride or a long walk in the park. So off we go to Balboa Park here in our incredible San Diego. Amazing day and sites.

The Da Vinci exhibit is happening at the Air and Space Museum and don't forget this Tuesday is FREE museum day in the Park.

Dave was approached by an "artist" sitting near the rose garden, I continued off looking at the amazing colored roses. When I came back he was getting his portrait done. Well, we have it on the refrigerator and laugh our asses off at the flat and distorted portrait that it is. I think the "artist" needed more classes and his sense of perception and depth, let alone scale and shading are very First Grader. Dave said he could have done better and I agree. It cost him, but the laughs and memory is well worth it.

Here are a few images I took, for a more extensive look, see my photo gallery page. I've noticed I've uploaded plenty on posts before and decided to look into a plugin that allows image galleries.

So it is all set up now and ready whenever you would like to see. I will update there periodically. Hope you enjoy!

Just got back from a little trip with a friend to Mount Laguna.

A friend of mine, Chris, said he wanted to show me these trails he had been to and thought it would be a great place for Dave and I to take our bikes and ride sometime. What an amazing setting and just a hour north east of San Diego.

We followed highway 8 East to the Sunrise Highway, which I had never been on before. It hugged the mountain and winded along for miles, with some major, sweeping views. I loved the mountains, trees and big blue skies; it really reminded me of being up in Montana where one vacation as a kid we hit every Native American reservation we could collecting artifacts, a hobby of mine at the time, but that is for another post.

We stopped at the ranger station where I was able to purchase a 12 month pass to come back and park anywhere in the state park and off we went for our hike. Here are some pictures I took while we hiked in, breathtaking, scenic and so clear and beautiful.

I will have to take Dave sometime soon and bring the Rockhopper mountain bikes and hit the trails. Later we will drive a little further north and have lunch in Julian.