Ah, resolutions for the coming year, how contrite. We set them only to forget them by March. Unless, that is, they're our travel resolutions. It's a fair statement to say we all want to go somewhere, but, let's face it: Unless your travel resolution is to get to Yosemite National Park this year, your resolution is probably lame. Yosemite is by far one of the most - if not the most - breathtaking swaths of land our country has to offer.
I mean, seriously. It's the dead of winter and look at the colors in these pictures I not only have put no filters on, but snapped on my phone:
I first visited Yosemite with my grandfather when he took my cousin and me as kids. It wasn't until recently, though, that I was able to make it back as an adult. On my trip home from Tahoe, I was greeted with such pristine and untouched, glorious beauty that on a handful of occasions I had to stop driving and get out of the car to cry because the views were truly the definition of awesome. Clean, fresh cool air in my lungs, millions of years of Earth's evolution before me ... I have seen a lot of things in the U.S., but none like this. I just came back from there and I'm dying to go again (and see more of the American West) in 2013.
Forget whatever your other plans were - you want to go here.
Local startup company Rawporter announced in a press release that they are partnering with GRNlive, a news, video and live reporting assignment company catering to news outlets and journalists. This partnership will give Rawporter the opportunity to send GRNlive on-air talent; in turn, GRNlive will put its media partners in touch with Rawporter for video and photo content.
Huffington Post blogger (and guy with some really cool Rawporter videos posted from Libya where all proceeds are donated) Matthew VanDyke calls Rawporter an "important tool for the Arab Spring." Things will only get bigger and better in terms of access citizens can get to their news networks.
For those not in the immediate know but who do identify as members of the citizen media, this is a big deal. Rawporter has long been an advocate and functions as a catalyst for people with phones and cameras who are in the right place at the right time to get hooked up with major news outlets looking for a firsthand view to put into their broadcasts. The network GRNlive brings to the table, which include the likes of BBC, CBS News, CTV and ABC, paired with Rawporter's network of what they aptly describe on their website as "...like having an army of cameras on-location and on-demand," means everyday people have a chance to shape their news. There's no way this can be bad.
Well played, Rawporter.
Ah, snowboarding, the coolest sport of them all. It gets even cooler when you strap a Contour GPS camera to your head like my friend Jon Brown of Burton Snowboards in the Village at Northstar, Tahoe, did. The camera is small, but you can make it out on the side of his space helmet. In his video above, you'll find some sick jumps and a nice cruise on a snowboard that will make you eternally jealous.
Snowboarding is a lot harder than it looks, though. I found out the hard way.
I'm in the middle of the desert on my way to Tahoe to snowboard, and I've stumbled upon something intense.
Ivanpah Solar Power Facility is freakin' huge. It'll be the second largest solar power facility in the world when it opens. More importantly, the facility serves as a model for what we could have in Charlotte. Sure, we're not in the desert, but we're certainly not without land and sunshine all the same.