Ruminations, Musings and Other Stuff…

So I was sitting at work with my good friend Peter (check out his paintings, he’s amazing!) and we were talking about the election and what not when I suddenly remembered back in 2000, another election year, I had been working at a wonderful “mom and pop” ISP (Internet Service Provider) who’s employees were a key demographic of interest for the election (20 somethings in the tech sector).  That attracted NPR’s “All Things Considered…”  a show that I listen to pretty much every day now on my way to and from work.  The primary at the time was just about to occur in NH so the show came to our offices and asked us a bunch of questions about the candidates and the primary in general.

What got recorded was not only during an interesting time in my life (I did a lot of “growing” during those years), but it also captured a pretty interesting ideal amongst my generation.

Well, Pete became obsessed with the fact that I was on the radio back then and instantly dove into NPR’s archives and actually came up with original recording from eight years ago!  It was wonderful to hear some old friends voices again and though you can find the same audio from their site, I actually captured the audio via some black magic programs I’ve collected in my travels.

You’ll hear me at the beginning of the interview and a bit near the end.   I think I sound like a lunatic, certifiable, but it’s always fun to see (or in this case hear) a version of yourself from a time long gone.  It makes me cringe and smile all that same time.

Here it is below.  Have a listen!

 

 January 31 2000 All things Considered Election Coverage... [8:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I was talking to a few folks recently that are incredibly important in my life and I suddenly realized that no one knows what I actually do for a living. Mel does of course, but that’s it apparently. Well that’s not entirely true, everyone knows I work in IT, but “Information Technology” is literally a gigantic field nowadays.

Many facets, many flavors.

Well I’m here to set the record straight. I’m lifting the veil. I’m letting everyone in. I’m tired of the guessing, and I’m tired of the re-explaining when I enter social situations.

So, without further ado I’ll try to explain what I do with at least 9 hours of my day, 5 days a week, without your eyes glazing over.

Ok… So I’m a hired killer. I’m no Leon (ala’ “The Professional”), I mostly take care of small fish. You know, that old high school nemesis or that jerk that stole your cab while on vacation… nobodies basically. They’re folks that no one will miss really. They’re those people that have transcended society and view themselves as better than everyone else, but are still nameless and for the most part invisible. The IT part is just a cover, well, it does help when looking at weapon blueprints, but I digress.

Did I mention I also tend to kid…. I kid a lot in fact (just ask Mel).

Truth is, I build web pages. No, really, I do.

I work for a pretty big “nonprofit” that handles pretty massive clinical trials. Aside from trying to save the world, these trials have tried real hard to reach everyone on the planet and as the years have gone by, a web presence has helped a good deal in they’re cause. I delve mostly in CMS-based sites (Content Management Systems) and my main function has been to help our designer’s ideas come to life in your browser. The sites that I change and manipulate have helped folks in South Africa, collaborate and share ideas with folks in my backyard here in NC (not to mention everywhere else the internet can reach)! It’s a bit of a trip really! To bridge that gap between folks and make the ability to share files, content and ideas that much easier.

It’s kind of what we all should be about I think. And by “we”, I mean the human race.

Over the years I’ve learned that I all at once hate what web-based technologies have become. I despise how computers have at once torn us apart sociologically, but on the complete flipside have also brought us together better than we have ever been in our long history. I’ve seen the depravity we’ve reached through our digital lives, but have also realized, in the right capacity, the profound good we’ve also achieved.

That latter part I love.

So, in my small way, I make the world a better place I guess.

But remember, I also tend to kid… 

As stated in a post before, I had my second Biodiesel class out at the Piedmont Biofuels Coop this last weekend.  Well, at least for one day I did anyways.  The first part of the class was on Saturday and it was just awesome!  We were being guided through make three different iterations of GirlMark’s Appleseed Processor and the class was thoroughly hands on!  Where the last class had us head down, furiously writing notes and a little lab work to make mini batches of biodiesel, this weekend had us knee deep in plumbing, water heaters, plumbers tape and some truly righteous pipe wrenches!  It was much cooler with a mister fan rigged up, and an even greater, if more eclectic, group of students who all just seemed to want to do the same thing; find an easy way to make our own sustainable and clean fuel!  So there was a great vibe shared amongst us all, we got a lot done that day and  I definitely left class smiling, thoroughly looking forward to Sunday morning!

Well, I got home and from the start of that day I wasn’t exactly feeling great (stomach issues), but by the evening I really wasn’t feeling hot.  But I still had a small “to do” list, so first I grabbed Cadence to give her the quick walk around the block that I had promised her that morning.  I’d just zoom her around quickly and then get back home and just relax for the rest of the evening.  Pretty simple.

Everything was going well until we came up upon a house that has an invisible fence that holds two dogs who run up to the sidewalk every time I walk by stopping short to bark, growl, and generally huff and puff at anyone who has a dog.

Pretty standard, non-aggressive, doggy behavior really.

I expected the same this time as well, only out of no where one of the dogs plowed through the hedges and started attacking Cadence.  It was evident right away that this wasn’t “easy” play either, but was pretty much a full on assault, so I yelled loud and put myself in between the two thinking:

god I hope I don’t get bit… god I hope I don’t get bit… god I hope I don’t get bit… (I’ve been bit by dogs before and it always sucks. The bites take forever to heal.)

…and then I got bit….

This of course enraged me.  I yelled (maybe roared?) again and this time apparently the dog heard me as it stood down and backed off.  I scooted Cadence away and checked her for wounds. She was fine and I thought I was too, but then, as I walked away, I started bleeding through my pant leg.  I checked the wound (which was on the center of my calve) and found my leg was already inflating and seeping a decent amount of “yuck”.   I got home as fast as I could, Mel of course was intensely concerned, we cleaned myself up and made an attempt to get in touch with the owners who ended up not being home.

I’m gonna be honest, I think I’ve told this entire story at least 40 times this week to 40 different people.  So without further ado, I’m going to lapse into hyper abbreviation mode and finish this with bullet points

• 1. The first night was scary, I was bleeding through bandages like no one business and my lower leg was swollen pretty badly.  Obviously I got no sleep.

• 2. The neighbor/owner of the dog got in touch with us first thing the following morning.  I can definitely say this: what an awesome/wonderful man and his family seems great to boot!  They produced vaccination records swiftly, offered to pay any medical expenses we might’ve incurred, and were very upset that the entire episode even occurred.  Very accommodating and terribly kind.  It was a bummer we met them under these conditions.

• 3. By Sunday morning, much of the swelling died down (isn’t the human body grand?) so I hunkered down and iced my leg all day taking the occasional anti-inflammatory.  This of course meant no Biodiesel class “day 2” which severely brought me down.  It also meant that I couldn’t spend Father’s day with my Pops which only compounded the feeling.  But, after the last evening, it was plainly obvious that I needed to tend to my wound and make sure I didn’t get an infection.

• 4. I took Monday off from work to nurse it some more and by the end of the day I was feeling much better and the wound was actually scabbing over.  Gross, but good news!

• 5. I got back to work on Tuesday and felt great for most of the day.  Then mid afternoon brought on something I’d never really been through before:  a panic attack, Tony Soprano style.  I thought I was going to pass out right there in my cubicle, thank god I didn’t!  Mel took me right to urgent care, as I thought it all had something to do with the bite. The Doc was kind and incredibly candid.  He informed me that it was all “upstairs” and that I was just really REALLY stressed out.

• 6. And I was, I just didn’t realize how much so.  So the good news is that he gave me and my wound a great bill of health but the bad news is that the hospital, because of policy, made us call animal control.  This is an obvious move that needed to happen, but I kind of wanted that to be put into action by the owners of the dog and I told them so.  So that was a little bit of a bummer that that bit occurred because of me.  Not much I could do about it though.

So that’s about it!  Super stressful, but I’m glad it was me and not some little kid, or a family with a stroller.  I’m so grateful that Cadence is fine, and I’m healing really well.  I had some deep abrasions and one puncture wound, but the effected area was small all told and I shouldn’t have too much scarring.  I can walk fine and aside from Sunday, my life hasn’t been interrupted all that terribly as far the physical parts of my life are concerned.   But, like the good Doc said, I have been really stressed and now with Friday here, I finally feel like I’m winding down.

Which is good, ‘cause I gotta be honest, I could REALLY use the down time…

If you wanted to see the wound, click here to view the grossness… (c’mon, you know you wanna do it!)

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First some history:

At some point, Melinda and I came up with a bit of a manifesto, or… maybe a code.

Hell if I know what it is exactly, but somewhere along the way we came up with a purpose to live by.

It all started with TV.

We don’t have cable. In fact we haven’t had cable television since college, which marks a bit over a decade now, and no, we never used rabbit ears.  We found the content to be lacking (to say the least) and everything had some covert or overt agenda.  We certainly gave it a shot, but it didn’t take long before we realized we weren’t watching it at all.  Add to the fact that we were paying for something we weren’t using and the decision was easy.  We just pulled the plug.  It was surprisingly easy and we found we had more time for ourselves and each other.  Sounds nice doesn’t it?

But what did it all mean?  It meant that we lived with a bit of a filter in our lives.  We didn’t get our news from the then conventional means; we didn’t get the paper and though we had dial up, the internet was, comparatively anyways, still in it’s infancy.  About the only way we did get news of our surroundings was through the radio (NPR, it calms me as well as informs…).

Man was it liberating.

What made it so was that it was self monitored. We were not force fed by the mass media and it changed us in a lot of ways that we never could’ve foreseen.  By these means, we’ve been able feed our brains selectively, through choice, taking in the bits that seem to make sense, and ignoring the ones that don’t.

In other words, we’re in control.

That’s the way it’s been for a long time now and, for the most part, it’s worked.  Sure we still get the odd bit of propaganda and once and a while we are amazing oblivious to some major happening.  But over time and through various aggregators, we’ve been able to customize the flow everything around us. And over the last few years, I think we’ve finally been able to filter out the bullshit from what actually matters.  It’s not some army of well pressed suits telling us how to live our lives.  We’re choosing what we want to know, (notice I didn’t say “hear”) and we actually read the news that interests us and decide for ourselves.  It’s a bit unorthodox and it certainly isn’t what a lot of folks would call “easy”, but it works for us, and it works well. Incredibly well in fact.

It’s been in small steps for sure; ditching said cable, trying to grow our own food, becoming more self-sufficient….  But it’s all starting to slowly simmer down to a life that is truly ours.   One where we can depend mostly on ourselves, asking for help from family or dear friends whenever necessary.

A basic, fulfilling and simple life that is ours and doesn’t infringe on other’s.

Now, that said, fast forward to present day…

One of the main things that tethers us all to something much larger than ourselves, is the fuel we run in our vehicles.  It’s gotten to the point that it would seem that we have no choice in the matter.

Or do we?

We do!  Well, some of us do anyways, specifically diesel auto owner/enthusiasts.  That choice is biodiesel.

Biodiesel has become quite the dinner table buzz word over the last year or two, and there is something to it.  We desperately, as individuals and as a country, need to cut our ties to oil, both foreign and domestic.  It’s running out folks.  It’s not renewable, once it’s burned up it’s gone baby gone (an excellent move by the way)!  So it should make sense to anyone to find a good alternative before we use it all up completely.

Many certainly are trying to find a fuel we can use tomorrow.  But diesel owners actually have a choice and can actually make difference right now!  Not only can they choose biodiesel, a fuel made from any kind fat, but they can also make it themselves, on that little chunk of land they call “home”.  The home brewing biodiesel has been around for decades but it is only now starting to form a sort of grassroots movement and with the ingenuity of a few very resourceful folks, there have been a bunch of open source community efforts that have been aimed at creating affordable biodiesel reactors.  Reactors are the vessels that help spawn the chemical reaction the create biodiesel.

One of which is called the “Appleseed Processor”.

Created by Maria “Mark” Alovert, it uses a sealed water heater to help create a closed, safe environment that produces a clean, very local and sustainable fuel source for your diesel engine!  Through her efforts, Maria (or “girlMark” as she’s referred to out in the online/offline biodiesel community) has single handedly spearheaded a movement aimed at informing and empowering anyone to take their fuel needs into their own hands.  Until then she’s kinda been a myth out in the ethos of the interwebs for me, quite present, but unapproachable all the same.

So when I saw that she was actually teaching a series of weekend classes at the biofuels coop I’m a member of (Piedmont Biofuels) I jumped at the chance.  It was the perfect opportunity to learn the process of making fuel for the Golf and to find out if I’d have the resources and time to make fuel at home afterwards.  So I signed up immediately and attended the first round of classes this last Saturday and Sunday!

It was extraordinarily hot that weekend, and by hot, I mean in the 100’s.  I had fleeting hopes that class would somehow be inside with the AC blaring, but I had also been to coop several times in the last year and kinda knew that there wouldn’t be any.  So when I showed up a the coop Saturday morning, with a gallon of water in one hand and my notebook and pen in the other, I wasn’t surprised to learn that the class was being taught outside in a three sided barn.

It was almost the worst case scenario that I had been conjuring up in my head on the way there, only at least we were in the shade.

Mark, showed up a little late, but got the class going immediately, setting an almost militant pace, steam rolling through the history of biodiesel, it uses and how it’s been made through the years.  It was a little intimidating meeting someone so ensconced in one topic but also incredibly enlightening too.  Such passion for such a good cause!  She was all business to start, demanding that everyone stay on topic, but by the end of the day on Sunday she loosened up a bit and was smiling and cutting jokes with the rest of us.  Everyone who attended had a good time and it was awesome being around some many people that were gung-ho about diesels. It was great to swap stories, advice and knowledge!  We all smiled through it all. I guess you really had to in that kind of heat.

But when all was said and done, I actually created my own fuel!  I finally experienced and contributed to something I often talk about and promote on a sometimes weekly basis!

It felt good. 

And while the process needs to be precise (it’s going in your car engine after all), and can be incredibly unforgiving if you mess up (extremely dangerous chemicals involved here folks),  I was so glad I did it.  I’m still out on whether I can bring the whole process into my life and I still have one more class to take (this weekend we’re building an appleseed reactor!! WOOT!!).  But, at the very least, I know if given the time and the patience, I could make (and already have made) my own fuel to put in the Golf.

Aside from that fact being incredibly bad ass, it’s also liberating, bringing Mel and I one step closer to that life we seem to be hurtling towards; one of simplicity and independence.

I honestly can’t wait to get there and with experiences like these under my belt, we’ll be armed with some incredible knowledge.

I’ll write more on how this next weekend goes once I complete the class!