Knoxville Zoo, Smart fixed

For those who may or may not know by now, Knoxville is under going road construction cleverly called Smart Fix 40. By giving it a name, they hope to encourage us to think it is going good and all is well. To be honest, its just plain stupid. They shut down I-40 through downtown Knoxville. Yes, that’s right, shut down, a major interstate.

For those who are not familiar with the area, I-640 or I-275 are the detours to avoid this atrocity. Unfortunately for the Knoxville Zoo, neither of these help it out. Conveniently located off I-40 the Zoo has a prime location for catching tourist, and being easy to access from most of Knoxville. With the major pathway through Knoxville shut down, the zoo will be experiencing a downturn in attendance.

I personally can’t say enough about the Knoxville zoo. It is one of the better ones I have been too, and is always adding something new. The animals are all relatively easy to see, more so then most zoos.

If you can get time, go visit and keep them going, it would be a shame to see something happen to our Zoo.

Obama has ticked me off

Yeah, thats right, Barack Obama has ticked me and other Americans off. Some people may or may not have heard about the wiretapping bill that was being pushed through the house and senate. Well, after all his high and mighty words about keeping our freedoms intact, he goes and votes for it. Browse his website to see his stances.

Way to stand up to the peer pressure buddy. You failed your followers, fellow Americans, district, and everything you stood for.

Some may be wondering, whats the big deal? FISA Amendment makes it legal for telcom and the government to tap or get personal records of whomever they wish without a warrant. It also, disgustingly, makes it retro-active so the ones who did it before are free from the lawsuits they were facing.

To view this atrocity in person go to The Thomas online Library. To also see a list of who voted which way, you can go to the senate homepage.

A key couple of notes. McCain did not vote either way, he abstained. Hilary however voted nay. Some rumors are that she may still get the nod come convention time. Stuff like this is able to drive some super delegates from one camp to the other. Obama didn't win enough to outright win the nomination, he still needs the super delegates to vote for him as they pledged.

I don't like either candidate too terribly well, and this is just another example, no matter how they both preach change, nothing will. One voted along party lines against his personal stance, one didn't even have the gall to vote.

Locally local

I always try to stay updated on the local Knoxville scene. To do so I have to try and find new ways and bookmark new sites that help me do so. I also like to see customer reviews and comments anytime I try a new restaurant's, being super picky and all.

Because of my job, I also travel a lot, and being out of town alone makes decision making for dinner difficult. Sure I ask the locals, but it usually ends up being a bad experience because either I can't find it, or I get lost or something. I stumbled across a website the other day called local.com. It is a nice little repository, that is growing rather nicely of local information in areas around the country.

There is two ways to search, either by location or by business, or a combination of the two. Say I want to look for a certain restaurant's in Knoxville, I enter it in and find a listing of the restaurants in the Knoxville area, along with a nice little rating system, and some comments. Also has options to poke around and view a map, gives phone numbers, etc etc.