Monthly Archives: February 2009

Change is coming with a new season…

Change is coming with a new season… Yep.  Change is coming.  One way or another we will be back on the West Coast sometime this summer.  The jury is in, and we’ll be either heading to Berklee, CA for Cherice to study at the Graduate Theological Union, working on her PHD, or we’ll be heading...

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February 22, 2009 - 1:59 pm

sarai - Hoorah! We’re excited to have you closer!

February 22, 2009 - 3:44 am

Leah - Yay, either way we’ll get too see you more often!

February 21, 2009 - 4:25 am

Heidi Pender - This is good news for those of us on the west coast!

Washington Congressman Brian Baird reports on Gaza!

Washington Congressman Brian Baird reports on Gaza! Hey friends, I just received word from my good friend that the Washington congressman and another congressman visited Gaza yesterday, not officially under the Obama administration, but went nevertheless to see the situation for themselves.  Here’s a snipet from the article: “It’s hard for anyone in our country...

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Alex and Beth, revisited…

Alex and Beth, revisited… I just handed an 11×14 print off to my friends, Alex and Beth.  This was the photo they chose to put up on their wall from the engagement session we did back in November.  Every portrait and engagement session comes with a complimentary 11×14, and it’s always fun to see who...

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Adam & Sarai

Adam & Sarai And here they are…Adam and Sarai!  We had a great time in Portland (the city of my birth, woohoo!), beginning with Stumptown on the East Side, the waterfront, some Pearl action, getting lost at Powell’s, and then a final stop at their home for a “family” photo with their cat, Harriet.  A...

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February 19, 2009 - 3:46 pm

Leah - That print is GORGEOUS! It will be a treasure for them to have up in their home. Excellent work as usual Joel!

Who gave the Hummer a tax break???

Who gave the Hummer a tax break??? We just watched the movie “Who Killed the Electric Car” and it raised many questions about how people make choices…in my opinion.  You should definitely watch it if you haven’t seen it, because for being a fairly “Green” person myself, I had NO IDEA that these fully electic...

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February 15, 2009 - 11:24 pm

Joel - Thanks, Aimee! I’ll definitely check out the article.

February 15, 2009 - 9:48 pm

Aimee - Hey Joel! I just did a little bit of research about electric vehicles for an article I wrote for our local paper. The whole electric vehicle thing is very confusing. I just wanted to add two notes to this.

First, an EV dealer I talked to here is a bit skeptical about GM being the one to “kill” the electric car (as apparently the movie implies – I haven’t seen it). This dealer says that what is really killing the electric car is battery technology. The batteries are expensive and they just don’t give quite the same performance as a gas car (I am SO not saying gas cars are better though!). Batteries also perform worse (if they perform at all) in the cold. If battery technology was better, we’d be swimming in electric vehicles. Oh, and another thing that doesn’t help is that apparently car dealerships make most of their money from servicing cars that were sold from their lots. But since you don’t need much servicing of EVs, the bigger auto companies don’t really play up the EVs in their show rooms.

Second, there are a lot of wacky laws (state and federal) around electric vehicles and cars. These laws (surprise) are really written to the advantage of the big-four auto companies. For instance, there are electric vehicles on the road even now (a neighbor of ours has one) made by Zap. They make sedans and pick-ups and vans – all electric. But, they are three-wheel vehicles. A three wheel vehicle is considered a motorcycle by law so these are under motorcycle law. And, they don’t get tax deductions (so I hear) because they aren’t cars – legally.

Here’s the article I wrote which barely scratches the surface!: http://www.southsidepride.com/2009/02/articles/Electric.html