As some of you might know, I won the New Century Scholar award for Wyoming several weeks ago. With that comes a free trip to Long Beach, where I’m staying in the Westin Hotel…a very nice, 4 star, and extremely expensive place to spend a couple of nights.

I’m here for the awards ceremony, as well as the opening night of the American Associaton of Community Colleges, being held at the Long Beach Convention Center. Tomorrow night I get to pick up my scholarship winnings at the official New Century Scholar reception. Hint…look at the very BOTTOM of this page for my picture.

From http://www.ptk.org/knb/apr06/h0421064.html

“Fifty outstanding community college students will be honored as 2006 New Century Scholars during this week’s American Association of Community Colleges Annual Convention in Long Beach, California. New Century Scholars are the highest-scoring nominees for the All-USA Academic Team in each state. They each receive $2,000 scholarships from the Coca-Cola Foundation and the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation. Learn more about the 2006 New Century Scholars online.”

Just finished the rehearsal phase of the presentation for tonight. Very interesting. The Grand Ballroom here in the convention center is HUGE. Two giant screens on either side of the stage. Looks like a couple thousands chairs as well.

The New Century Scholar part is the middle part of the presentation, after the opening remarks by the PTK CEO and so forth. We march on (of course I’m the very last one on stage), and then they present us, and then people cheer (think Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the minstrels rejoice)…and then Coke is given the Truman award (they’re the money for the New Century Scholar), and then Coke goes away, the lights go down, and we all march off stage back to our front row seats.

Sometime after this event, PTK will be shipping all participants a DVD of the event, so all will be able to see the whole thing.

Fun.

After the presentation tonight, the ballroom at the Westin has live video feeds, where us PTKers, er, um…Scholars…will get to watch the Hallmark awards, which I think is the international convention for PTK…going on this very same weekend in Seattle (you’d think they plan better!).

That’s the place for free pizza and soda…yum.

Around lunchtime, I did walk uptown on Long Beach Blvd. to “Acres of Books“, and found three VERY good used books for $20.03…all pertain to production stuff for our business, and future plans…film making, screenwriting, and online community planning.

You would love AOB. Think Half Price Books, when they were in that old store off Northwest Highway in Dallas…the one that had the Ship looking thing in the middle of the ground floor…but with stacks stacked HIGHER, and rows much narrower. I could stand in the aisle and both shoulders touched bookshelves across from each other. There must have been MILLIONS of books!

Weather is still cool here…and very breezy. Got some video last night before sunset of the bay, the Queen Mary, and ALMOST got video of a seal swimming around the giant boats…kept going underwater before I could grab him on video.

I can’t believe the prices here….haven’t found a 7/11…or even seen a gas station in this neck of the woods. Spent $14 at Borders…got the one PODCASTING book , and 4 alkaline batteries for the digital camera. Breakfast via room service was over $30. 2 eggs, sausage, coffee, OJ, a small basket with 3 danishes, and hash browns….jiminy christmas!

My lunch here at the events center, a piece of roasted chicken, mashed taters, brocolli, bottle of coke, and bottle of water, and a tiny bowl of salad … $17! On Jo Anne’s (the college president, who is also here for this convention) credit card of course…

Tomorrow evening is the “official reception” for the NCSers…I think that’s when I get the check (which I hope isn’t a gift certificate for $2,000 worth of Coke products!

Anyway…that’s about it for now. Gonna go snoop around this floor and find any freebie stuff that have…and fill my pockets!!!!

More later…!

Rich

Yesterday was my birthday…number 46.

Busy day…to the bank, the grocery store, the college bookstore..

Got to work a bit after noon, and got the news and weather done..

Basic stuff…normal day.

Then, starting at 4pm, the excitement built a bit.

Had a special visitor coming to town…not for me, mind you.

Wyoming first lady Nancy Freudenthal was coming to town for her state wide teen anti-drinking initiative….

Just so happens we’ve been doing some video work in this area for the last YEAR. www.yaaaonline.com

Doors opened at 6. We got there at 5. I was part of committee that put together this visit for the Fremont County Coalition of WFLI.

I was in charge of the video presentation hardware, and audio system.

Did I mention that the best steak restaurant in town was catering?

Took just a little time to get the laptop setup with a borrowed computer projector, and ran thru the video’s making sure everything would work as we wanted, when we wanted.

About 5:45, everything was done…so we (me, daughter Laurie, friend Charlie [backup geek], and Bart [Riverton cop and fellow YAAA sponsor] relaxed, and had a seat at our reserved table waiting for our YAAA teens to finish showing up.

Blessings were said at 6, and dinner serving started. REALLY good food..and free for anyone who showed up (about 300 or so folks from around the county).

Then, Wyoming Family Services Coordinator Roger xxxx got up and gave a short introduction speech talking about how prevention was the key to helping teens avoid becoming teen drinking statistics, and later adult drinking statistics.

When he was done, it was our turn…Young Adults Against Addiction. 6 teens, I cop, and one non-traditional college student (me). We were officially announced, and headed up to the stage/podium to do our little presentation.

Bart started first, and gave a very short history of how YAAA came about. (Read the website above). Then tow of the teens, Megan (star of THINK ABOUT IT) and Austin (star of PARTY BOY and TWILIGHT ZONE) each said a few SHORT words…less then 1 minute each. Then it was my turn…

I have spoken in front of a few groups the past couple of years here at college…at most a few dozen folks at a time…and almost always fellow students.

This time it was HUNDREDS.

I spent over an hour today writing several versions a speech, including trimming it and timing it to as close to two minutes as possible. See it below. However, I didn’t even pull the speech out of my pocket…I winged the whole thing..and left out a lot of details.

I think I did OK. Finished my little verbiage, then introduced the videos, and scooted over to start the show. We showed the last five of our 8 finished projects. The audiences laughter at the right places, silence at the right places and applause at the end let us know we did good.

Besides the first lady, attending were the sheriff, chief of police, mayor, most of the city councilman and county commissioners, the native American liaisons to the Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone Nations, the states chief prosecutor, and lots more important folks and regular people just like myself.

The great turnout for something like this means that we ARE making a difference. Locals and state wonks are paying attention. Kids are joining our group more and more, and more people are asking about our projects.

Daughter Laurie shot video of our presentation this evening, and I’ll try to get it digitized and online this weekend for you all to see what we do.

It may not be much…we’re just a little town WAY off the beaten path, a few hours from the nearest interstate. We don’t have any money to put into this project, so the kids, Bart, and I..we do it for free.

But, when someone at the highest office in the state (yes, Governor Dave DOES listen to his wife) takes the time to come to town, and makes a special point to see our work, and then asks to share it with the rest of the state….and THANKS us for doing it…well, I think we’re doing just fine.

If you haven’t yet, take the time to visit the YAAA site above, and watch each of the videos. Share them with YOUR local school district, police department, and any youth groups in your area.

If you have any questions about the videos, future work, or learning how to do this yourself, just ask.

Have a great weekend…(I’m going to enjoy my last full weekend before school OFFICIALLY starts next Tuesday)

Take care,
Rich

ps… here’s that speech I worked so hard on, and didn’t completely cover while winging it. It should make it a little bit more clear about why I spend so much of my time on THIS very unique project.

Look no further than the events of Hurricane Katrina, to know that in all-out catastrophe, the need, and want, for food will be the all-consuming thought for every survivor in the midst of the destruction. The story below tells it like it is, like it was, and most likely what it will be…the NEXT time…and maybe sooner than we want.

Rich

Source

The Coming Starvation In America
By James P. Wickstrom
Antechamber.net
10-3-5

The government of the United States, by Law was to always maintain a three year mixed- grain survival storage for every man, woman, and child in the United States.

Like most Laws of the land, the politicians never took heed as to why our wise ancestors had this reserve requirement established. It was to make sure, that, in the time of a National Emergency, the people had the most important mainstay needed for survival individually and as a Nation.

Remember, the people make the Nation, the Nation does not make the people.

In the 1960’s and 1970’s the different political administrations of Washington, D.C. walked away from sanity and started to give the surplus grains which where in elevator storage all over the country, to other nations, such as the Soviet Union, India, etc.. This continued over two decades, until the elevators were empty and the reserve of grains that were in reserve as per a national crisis….were gone. Of course this was done as to inhance international “friendship” with other nations, even if those other nations were self-admitted enemies of the United States.

Remember, there was enough grain in storage, paid for by the American tax-payer, to last the masses inside the United States for three full years, if need be. But now it all is but gone!

By 1996, the United States Department of Agriculture (U.S.D.A.) claimed that there was enough food in ware-house storage to last every man, woman and child in the cities a 3 day supply and a 5 day supply for every man, woman, and child in the countryside, should a great national emergency occur. In other words, if food trucks stopped running, the food supplies for the masses would be 3 days in the cities and 5 days in the countryside.

In 2003, the U.S.D.A. stopped measuring for “days in reserve” of food for every man, woman, and child in the United States because the amount of food in storage in the United States dropped under a 1 day food supply for every man, woman, and child in the United States. Thus, the U.S.D.A. started to measure in individual pounds as to how much food was in the food-chain per person in the United States as per 300 million people.

In 2003, there was 77 pounds of food per person in the warehouse food-chain in the United States. What this means, is that during a national emergency, only 77 pounds of food per person is available before all food is TOTALLY GONE in the United States.

By September of 2005, there is now only 15.7 pounds of reserved foodstuffs in the food-chain for every man, woman, and child in the United States. This means that there has been an 80% decrease in the past two years. That decrease is becoming greater with every passing day in the United States. Of the 15.7 pounds of warehoused reserved food-stuffs, 11.0 pounds of the 15.7 pounds consists of unprocessed wheat. The rest of the 15.7 pounds of survival foods in storage for every man, woman, and child, totaling 4.7 pounds, consists of the following foods:

1. Non-fat dry milk 2. Cheese 3. Corn by the bushel 4. Peanuts by the pound 5. Lentils by the pound

That’s it folks ! . . . This is what the District of Columbia has set aside representing the 15.7 pounds in the survival food-chain for every man, woman, and child to stay alive on. This is not a daily supply, this amount represents the total food everyone will get for ….how long, who knows!

The U.S.D.A. Crop Production Report per September 12, 2005, contained said information, and this information was brought forth by Alan Guebert of the Farm & Food Report.

Collective communist farming failed in the Soviet Union and communist China, and the present form of Collective Farming (paying the farmers not to grow food) has totally failed in the United States.

Mr. Guebert also stated, that one more disaster as the likes of the hurricanes Katrina or Rita against the United States, or anything to compare to such in whatever way, would create such a food panic, it would make the New Orleans rioting look like the Mardi Gras.

The United States Government for the past 75 years has been driving the United States deeper and deeper into the realm of communism. The United States is financially broke, the farms are broken down, the Nation has been de-industrialized, and the outsourcing of jobs continues to this day. Both corrupt federal administrations, the Democrat and Republican eat off the same plate. They have labeled that plate; “Screw the taxpayer, each and every one of them.”

Our European ancestors were very wise, honest and full of common sense. They had food cellars where they had food canned, that could last themwell over a year, insuring them that they would be able to plant a crop the following summer, and still be able to survive waiting for crops to mature and harvest. They did not rely on the corrupt politicans who are liars and thieves.

But as I said, time passed by and the people put a false trust in their elected and appointed public servants thinking that these same people were looking out for their personal interests. How sadly wrong the people were then, and still are.

In conclusion, I highly suggest that you pull your head out of the sand, check your food supplies, and if you do not have 6 months to a years food in reserve, then you had best sell something or do whatever you have to do, to immediately prepare yourself and your loved ones for safety. If you can store two years at this time: DO IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

Remember, the 15.7 pounds of food in reserve is becoming less by the day, and at the present rate of speed, the United States is heading to what is called…. meal to meal. One more major disaster will drive the United States to its knees.

The federal government, for itself, has millions of tons of preserved foods stashed away in underground storages, but this food is not for the masses, unless they surrender their firearms, and then they will get a food coupon from the *feds* to buy out of the federal government food warehouse wherever it is set up in your area.

…………. has always subjected and controlled the masses using FOOD. Remember, FOOD CONTROL IS PEOPLE CONTROL, and this same plan is being laid out laid out against the masses in the United States by COMMUNISTS in both the Republican and Democratic parties of the United States. New Orleans was your cue: Now prepare! You have been warned.

Your blood is off my hands!

James P. Wickstrom
http://www.theantechamber.net