Last weekend was the first-ever
Sierra Club national summit in San Francisco, held in one of the city's convention centers (the Moscone Center). I guess attendance was fairly good - judging by reports I heard at the conference, and my own impression from attending the conference on Sunday. The only reason I was there was because I volunteered and got in for free. They assigned me a cushy job as a "pass checker" at one of the meeting rooms. You see, the Sierra Club charged something like $160 for people to attend all of the 3 day conference, which gave them access to all the "forums" and speakers in the individual rooms. To be fair to the Club, the conference did cost quite a bit to put together, so I suppose some kind of fee is necessary. Anyways, those who either couldn't afford the $160, or were just too cheap to pay, like me, could either pay just $15, which let them visit the exhibit hall, or volunteer. My job as pass checker was keeping the "cheapskates" apart from the "faithful", who ponied up their money to attend. And I even got free lunch. Not bad! Naturally, I was rather lax on the "cheapskates", for whom I have sympathy.
The highlight of the conference for me was listening to
Marine General Lehnert from Camp Pendelton talk about being an environmenalist and a marine at the same time. He made some great points. People clapped politely when he was done, but I think he deserved a "standing O".
Too bad though I missed
Al Gore's speech on Friday. I guess he really socked it to Bush. Where was that spirit when you ran for president in 2000, Al?
As long as we're talking about (elected and un-elected) presidents, I was emailed this picture by a friend in Milwaukee. If it weren't such a sad situation, I would say it's hilarious.
NEWS: I will be moving this weekend. Knowing my own tendency to procrastinate, I decided the best thing I could do to expedite this process is to take apart and disassemble my computer to limit my tendency to surf endlessly and do all sorts of other useless activities on this infernal machine. So hasta la semana proxima, everybody...
