So I have been reading up on the power loss (bad planning) that California has been a victim of for the past week. I was concerned when I found that it affected people that I knew on the net (Pluvious from Peepingmoe and IzziCam) and I wanted to know exactly how this happened and what was being done for it to stop.

Whenever I am uninformed of something I wish to be knowledgeable on(and as long as it has nothing to do with shows like temptation island or fashion)- all I do is ask my Dad. He is the type of person that gives you more info than you really want or can accept into your head in one serving (i.e. ask him what time it is and he will tell you how to build a watch). I also know that with every portion of information comes with a bit of a cynical opinion - one I usually share with my dad (now you know where it comes from).

He explained that California used to be able to build power plants when they needed one. However, the tree huggers that made up 2 percent of the population decided to assert themselves and demanded that no more power plants be built. Cali caved in since apparently none of the rest of the population wanted to take a day off work to break up their protests and let them rule back in the 90's on making sure that everyone would revert back to cave man status and let the trees live.

Fast forward to a week ago. Public utilities can only spend so much money on electric power from other states and they can't jack up the prices to the consumer to get the power because it's a public utility and it has a monopoly. The amount of power being used was more than the state could put out. So now they are having planned power outages all across the state to make up for the fact they can't power everyone.

Couldn't they see this coming? I mean, if your population increases at so much a year, and the electricity used is increased as well - wouldn't you put two and two together and realize that you needed to figure something out and quickly? They even call this a federal emergency and that they are asking the government for help for this disaster. Um. When a hurricane hits a city - this is something you didn't plan on - it was an act of God, or El Nino or whatever force you want to believe in that a person, or group of people can't control, thus a need for federal help arises. If a city just decides that trees are more important than it's people - than that's it's own damn fault and it needs to live with it's decision. People in that state can then decide to move out of there if they get cold enough or if need be - burn a few trees for warmth and ask the nature nazis if this was their goal.

If I go out partying and spend my money on alcohol and don't pay my phone bill - the phone gets cut off. Yes, it's an extreme emergency on my part to have the phone- but if I ask my pals for money to pay this bill and they knew that I blew it on shoes or something, they are gonna tell me "tough luck, go string two cans together and see if it works till you get enough money again."

So I asked my Dad:
ME: "if they decided to build a power plant to fix this problem - would it be fixed in the next couple of months?"
Dad (laughing): "it would take a few years to build a plant."
ME: "what would you do?"
Dad: "I would move."
ME: "that's not what I meant." 
Dad: "I know, I just hate playing this 'what if' game with you. I will say that it's going to be highly amusing to see this circus play out."
(Dad is always one to be sympathetic to the needs of others.. heh)

Anyway, I am sorry that this is happening to California, but it's extremely stupid on their part to let this happen - they had ten years to figure a plan out - and instead they acted like a fifteen year old given the responsibility to pay the bills - it's not getting done and California is dumbfounded as to how this all happened. I just found out about this problem last week (hey, I don't have to be aware - I don't LIVE there), and I have several solutions to it. You wanna know them? (great, thanx for asking)

Build more power plants - if a tree has to die, so be it - I would choose myself over a tree - I would hope that most of the public would be smart enough to do the same (though I am becoming increasingly bewildered at the fact that they aren't). When protesters show up just mow right over them. Those that don't want to literally be a part of the power plant - let them be with the trees - they are the ones that are the cause of the outages anyway - let them be without power.

For right now until those plants are built (the next three years or so - ugh for Californians) - charge more for electricity - you can bet that the guy on the dialysis machine is gonna pour whatever money the government asks to keep that machine going - at least until he becomes smart enough to move. Everyone else will probably shell out the money for their computer screen not to go blank and/or the privilege to drive on the road knowing that the traffic lights work.

Wow.. I feel tons better getting that off my chest, but I always do when I get to belt out my very one-sided opinion. I know I probably pissed some people off - but those people need to learn to come in from the rain (or rather in to a well heated home with a working television).