In the Air Over Panama - or - Forks, Knives, and Planes Don’t Mix
Current mood: cultured
Category: Travel and Places

I won't be able to post it until later, but I type this as I am flying over Panama. I just finished my first in flight meal: a tray of eggs, potatoes, sausage, bread and fruit, plus coffee of course. It's pretty surreal, mainly because it's my first time I suppose, everyone sitting elbow to elbow with a tiny little tray of food, all the meanwhile getting slightly jostled around from the movement of the plane. I guess the odd part is doing something totally mundane, something each one of us must do everyday, all while doing something a bit more exceptional, being crammed into this little pod being shot through the sky.
It might also have to do with the traditional nature of the meal, complete with tiny coffee cups with little handles. Maybe I'd be less surprised with something that seemed more specialized for the tight, bumpy quarters. Maybe a breakfast sandwich or burrito, something you could secure more tightly in your hand and didn't require silverware would seem more fitting. An apple or banana instead of a dish of cut melon...

Well, we're now descending into Panama City for my transfer. I'm going to pack up and try to get a couple pics before we land.

12:10 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

International Travel, Harder Than You Think-OR-Travel To South America, Hitchhike, Bus, or Fly?
Current mood: disappointed
Category: Travel and Places

A week from now I will be the furthest I've ever been from home. Santiago, Chile is about 8,800 km from San Diego, nearly a quarter way around the globe!

I initially wanted to hitchhike the whole way to save money and have more of an adventure along the way. I quickly found out that this would be impossible due to the Darién Gap, a 160 km length of swampland and forest separating Central America and South America.

So I decided I'd fly over the Darién Gap and still hitchhike the rest of the way, but then my friend Pedro from Brazil told me that Colombia was probably best avoided. Sure enough, Colombia's been in some sort of "armed conflict" for almost fifty years! Back to the drawing board it was...

The two countries along my route which border Colombia, are Panama, to the North, and Ecuador, to the South. I decided that I'd fly roundtrip from Panama City, Panama to Quito, Ecuador to get past the Gap and Colombia. The cost for this flight would be almost $600. Even though it would be less than 15% of the distance from Los Angeles to Santiago (LA being cheaper to fly out of than SD), it was almost 50% of the cost! This was more than I had hoped to spend on the entire trip and meant I'd have to stay in San Diego longer to make more money, eating into my travel time.

At this point a flight from LAX to Santiago for $1,200 was starting to look like it might be better in the long run. Even though I was planning on hitching and couch surfing which would keep costs low, the length of time it would take to travel combined with postponing my departure to make more money before I left was looking like it might cramp the length of my stay in Santiago.

Still wanting to get some sightseeing in and avoid flying the whole way but not wanting to take the time it would've taken to hitchhike, I resigned to taking buses for part of the land travel. This as well would turn out to be more difficult than I'd hoped.

When looking into taking buses through Mexico and Central America I found more than a few roadblocks. Firstly, there was no bus carrier that went from here to Panama City. Furthermore most carriers had little to no online information. For the sake of finding info online I checked Greyhound Buses and they went as far as Mexico City. I found out that I could catch a bus from San Diego to Mexico City... for $380! This was totally unfeasible so I decided to check how much it would be from Tijuana, Mexico, since it's only fifteen minutes south of here. For some reason that I don't fully understand the schedules for that route aren't able to be posted online (free trade agreement!?).

After a bit more research I found that I would have to take a bus to Mexico City and then catch another to Tapachula, the Southern Mexican Border and then cross into Guatemala and catch a third bus from there to Panama City. Not only did I have no way of knowing how much any of this would cost but I'd have to just show up at the bus stations and buy the tickets on the spot, the language barrier worried me about that. I decided that the unknown financial cost and risk of huge difficulty buying tickets without speaking much Spanish made this quite unappealing.

Next I looked into catching a flight from LAX to Lima, Peru (it was cheaper and closer to Santiago than Quito) and busing from there down to Santiago. Again I couldn't buy the bus tickets online, but I could get prices. At about $900 for the flight and $150 for the bus I was looking to save $150, not too shabby, and get about 2,500 km of travel down the west coast of South America! A forty hour bus ride might seem unappealing to most, but to me it's a nice chance to meet people and see the countryside.

While looking into the details of how to pull off this bus trip from Lima to Santiago I found out that I'd have to catch a bus from Lima to the Peruvian border town Tacna, cross the border to the Chilean border town of Arica, and then catch another bus from there to Santiago.

Though a little worried about the language barrier making it difficult to get the tickets, I was willing to deal with it. The part that really turned me off was the rarely enforced border crossing requirement of proof of return or onward travel. This means that usually they let you through after only checking your passport, but if they want they can demand that you show a "ticket" or "itinerary" that shows you will be out of the country by the date you're due to leave.

Not only does this force people to travel through the country by a means that involves a ticket or itinerary, but it also does so in such an obtuse and poorly defined fashion as to leave you no way to know whether or not your ticket or itinerary will pass muster. With no easy way to know whether or not a plane ticket out of Peru would be officially satisfactory, nor any way to be sure that the border guard I have to pass will have the same requirements, I resigned to simply fly from LAX to SCL, the International Airport in Santiago.

5:39 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Passport Ordered, Now the Rest...
Current mood: accomplished
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

This past Friday I ordered my passport, it was pretty difficult to figure out how to get it done fast. After finding out that most post offices that do it stop at 15:30 in the afternoon and require an appointment a couple weeks in advance, I finally found out that I could just do it at the same place I was going to get my birth certificate, and until 16:30.

I ran, and rolled, up to the County Administration Center at 1600 Pacific Highway a couple minutes past 16:00. After a couple minute delay emptying my pockets for the the metal detector and checking my knife (which I forgot and need to pick up tomorrow) I went to room 260 to get my birth certificate. After waiting about a minute for one person ahead of me, turning in the application, showing my CA ID, and paying $17, I was told that I'd have to wait about ten minutes.

While I was waiting for the Birth Certificate to be made I crossed the hall to Room 273, where you get marriage licenses, and had my photos taken for the passport. I again waited for about a minute. At the counter I signed in, paid $10, and was told to meet the clerk at the other end of the room. Still sweating from the rushing I took my hair down and blindly tried to make it look presentable. The clerk than had me sit in a chair and took a single picture with a double-lensed camera and told me that the photos would be ready in just a couple minutes. I sat down in the waiting area and continued filling out the passport form DS-11, which I'd been adding a line or two every spare moment since I entered the building. In short order I was given a small folder with two photos in it and was told to keep it open until they dried. Though it officially requires two "identical" photos, I could see the parallax from the two lenses taking the pictures simultaneously from about an inch apart.

Then back across the hall to pick up the birth certificate. I still had some time to wait, so I continued working on the passport form and watching the clock. After a couple minutes I was called to the desk and received the official certified copy. With all my papers in hand and less than five minutes to spare, I was ready to turn it all in (actually, I still had a few lines of the application to fill out).

I went up another two floors and across the building to room 402. This was one of the times I especially love having wheels in my shoes (the floors were super smooth). When I walked into the office it was 16:27. I told the clerk I wanted to get a passport and had all but a couple lines of my form done. She said they stop at 16:30 sharp and by that time it was already 16:28. Luckily she sent me over to a booth and told me that she'd send someone over, and to hurry up and finish my form. A minute later someone came over, sat down, and asked me what type of service I wanted; normal, expedited, or expedited with overnight shipping. After confirming I could afford it I chose the expedited with overnight shipping, which would take one to three weeks. They collected my cash (just under $200) and went to the register, which was about to be turned off, to get my money order before doing anything else. We gathered up my required papers and after a signature and oath, hand raised, that I swore it was all true, I was given some paperwork, a receipt, and told to call next Thursday to confirm that everything went through okay.

All told it was pretty painless, hopefully it will all go through without a hitch.

Now I need to figure out how I'm going to get to Chile! I've been looking at all my options. Beside being a bit unreliable and slow, if I hitchhike the whole way there's a chance that some countries won't let me in without travel documents with a departure date (ie plane or bus tickets). I still need to look into taking a flight from San Jose, Costa Rica or Panama City, Panama over to Quito, Ecuador. I'd have to bus or hitchhike the rest of the way but I might be able to get a round trip for $500. Direct flights are all looking at being $1,000 plus!

I'm leaning toward a straight flight to keep things easier, or at least one down to Quito or Lima, Peru and hitch or bus the rest. I have about $500 now and have a little work lined up. I'll probably try to get some donations from myspace, facebook, and my mailing list, and depending on my schedule and how much time I have I might try to get some sponsorships...

8:20 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

What Now, Eric Bidwell? - Union-Tribune
Current mood: adventurous

Eric Bidwell, the "revolutionary mayor" candidate, is moving on to his next big thing.

"I'm thinking about hitchhiking to Chile to visit a girlfriend down there for the summer," he told Union-Tribune reporter Ron Powell. "I'm going to take a little vacation."

Of the campaign, he said, "It was a great learning process. I had no clue where it was going to go or how it was going to turn out. But I was really pleased with the way it turned out. I think I'm more disappointed in our political system and community participation than I was before. It just makes me want to fight to make it better even more."

How about a City Council run?

"(Councilwoman) Toni Atkins asked me tonight if I'd give thought to going for a council seat, but I really feel like the publicity is so much more with the mayoral race. I think that I had enough trouble getting into the media. If I were running for a district I think it would be even harder. I really want to get a message out more than just take a seat. I'm thinking about going for the gubernatorial in two years. It would be a fun excuse to go up and down the coast and travel a bit. Schwarzenegger got in there and I can act as good as him."

Bidwell is a dreadlocked 26-year-old T-shirt designer who sometimes sleeps in his van. His run for mayor made a series of debates more interesting. His biggest campaign moment was exposing from the stage an effort by Mayor Jerry Sanders' campaign manager to script his closing statement at one debate. The campaign manager resigned.

Bidwell got 6,372 votes, placing him fourth out of five candidates.

11:35 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

New stuff on RevolutionaryMayor.Com...
Current mood: accomplished
Category: News and Politics

Over the last couple days I've added quite a bit to the website, from a video interview to posters you can print or add to your blog or myspace profile.

Check it out...

http://www.RevolutionaryMayor.Com

... if you're not registered to vote yet, get your form postmarked by tomorrow, May 19th, or just swing by the registrar of voters by 5pm...

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&client=safari&ie=UTF8&q=registrar+of+voters&near=San+Diego,+CA&fb=1&cid=0,0,5235112266991451839&ll=32.830071,-117.125995&spn=0.012044,0.02341&z=16&iwloc=A

... and don't forget to go vote June 3rd!!!

Please pass this along ;)

- Eric Bidwell

6:26 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Spread the Word...
Current mood: hopeful

Update on my run for mayor...
Current mood: accomplished
Category: News and Politics

Now that I’m on the ballot I could use some help getting the word out, the primary election is June 3rd.

Please put me in your Top Friends and send out bulletins if you can.

The next forum I’ll be participating in will be at noon on Earth Day, Sunday April 20th, at the Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park. If you’re free come and check it out, I promise it won’t be your typical boring politics ;)


I’ve had some good media coverage over the last week, here are a few links to articles online...


CityBeat Bio...
At war with douchebags and turd sandwiches

Rancho Bernardo/Rancho Penasquitos Forum...
Few Fireworks in First Mayoral Debate
Not your average mayoral candidate
The Debates In Focus

There will be an article coming out in the City Lights section of the SD Reader April 17th as well :)

2:58 AM - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Will The Revolution Start In San Diego...
Current mood: catalyzed
Category: News and Politics

If you're in a hurry feel free to just skip to the bottom where I get
to the main point, though the story helps explain a lot of where I'm
coming from...

**********

When I was twenty one years old I had a bit of an existential crisis
and sought an answer to the problem of what to spend my life doing.
Initially this was focused around the most reliable way to invest
money and that eventually turned to thoughts of stockpiling food in
case of societal collapse. After a week or two of questioning all
sorts of people and intense thought on the subject I came to a
conclusion. I decided the best thing to invest my time in would be
educating myself and learning new skills. I figured that no matter
what happened in my future, the one thing I would always have with me
and would be the most flexible asset was my own mind.

I was lucky enough to have a laptop computer at the time and I
decided to live meagerly, work little, and spend most of my time
online at coffee shops learning from the burgeoning collection of
information on the world wide web. Over the years since, I have
learned much about the world around me and my knowledge has grown
exponentially. Though I have much more to learn in life and am very
much still a work in progress, I have realized that there is something
else I want to start investing in, community.

No matter how much I invest in myself, my future will always be
profoundly influenced by other people. As much as investing in my own
mind will help me make better decisions in my own life and help me
secure a better future for myself, investing in other people will help
them make better decisions and help us all secure a better future for
all of us. I would not be who I am now if it were not for the many
influential people throughout history that have invested in the human
community by passing on what they have learned and collaborating with
others to build the world as we know it today.

In light of this realization I have decided to devote a large portion
my life to helping enable us all to make better decisions about how to
manage the world we live in and to actively collaborate in building
our future. I have many ideas of how to do this, some more plausible
and developed than others. I write this letter to address one of these
plans.

Among my main aspirations is the desire to engage the public at large in the
political process. It seems to me that many people have minimal, if
any, involvement in creating the world they live in. From the local to
the global scale, most public policy is developed and applied by a
small fraction of the population. Even in democratic societies,
politics are dominated by relatively few people, with the idea of
representation being largely symbolic. These people are often
isolated from average citizens while quite intimately connected to and
influenced by a small portion of the people they represent. Because of
this, policy often reflects the desires of special interests to the
exclusion and detriment of the public at large. At the same time, a
majority of people are more concerned with distracting themselves from
the reality they live in than with participating in it.

Furthermore, these two phenomenon, the disconnected politicians and
the disinterested public, feed into each other. The politicians
become more disconnected when the average person participates less
and the public participates less when the politicians become more
disconnected. This perpetuates as a vicious cycle, spiraling out of
control until government policy is essentially antithetical to the
best interest of the populace. Both of these tendencies need to change
if we are to move toward a more equitable and sustainable future that
is beneficial to all.

**********

That brings me to my current endeavor, an attempt to move toward
building political representation that is more in touch with the
average citizen and toward a populace that is more active in the
political process. To initiate this I am offering myself as a public
representative and asking the public to join and support me in
building our future together.

***I am attempting to get on the ballot and run for the office of
Mayor of San Diego.***

I have taken out papers and am currently assembling the necessary
signatures and filing fee, both of which are due Thursday March 6th. I
am writing to ask for your help with either of these requirements. I
have already collected a majority of each but still have a way to go.

Signatures must be from registered voters of the City of San Diego
and will most easily be done in person. The ideal way is coming to my
potluck tomorrow, Saturday, March 1st. Details can be found at
RevolutionaryMayor.Com/Potluck I can also make arrangements to meet
somewhere else before next Thursday.

Donations can be sent to my PayPal account via the link on the home
page of RevolutionaryMayor.Com or given to me in person at the
potluck. I can also make arrangements to meet somewhere else before
next Thursday.

I also would like to ask you to forward this to as many people as
possible, as it is only through the help of many people that I will be
able to accomplish even this first step of The Revolution...

Eric Bidwell - RevolutionaryMayor.Com

9:02 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Revolutionary Platform in Progress...
Current mood: anxious
Category: News and Politics

So I have a rough draft of my political platform for my run for San Diego Mayor finished and posted on the front page of RevolutionaryMayor.Com. I'm looking for input so please give me your two cents...

I'm also still trying to raise money for my filing fee and collecting signatures to get on the ballot...

If you like what I'm doing and can afford to donate, please do so through the donation link on RevolutionaryMayor.Com.

My event The Revolutionaries' Potluck, info at RevolutionaryMayor.Com/Potluck, is next Saturday, March 1st, and I'm trying to get registered voters of San Diego to come out and sign my petition to get on the ballot. So if you're free and registered to vote in the city stop by and sign it. If you're not registered to vote yet you can swing by and fill out a voter registration form too.

If you really like what I'm doing you can really help out by putting me in your top 8 on myspace, bookmarking RevolutionaryMayor.Com on StumbleUpon.Com and/or Digg.Com, posting blogs and bulletins, and letting your friends know!

- Eric Bidwell

10:25 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Douche and Turd - or - Why I’m Entering Politics
Current mood: inspired

It is an interesting world we live in.

The greatest exposition ever on the electoral process is the following episode of South Park.

Watch it now.

http://www.southparkzone.com/episodes/808/Douche-and-Turd.html

11:00 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment