Inside the Mind of this guy

Global Warming

2010-06-20T10:22:00.000-07:00

Cant we all agree to just disagree and then move on?

There is so much talk and disagreement about global warming (better labeled global weirding), which in actuality should be called climate change (because people don't do shades of gray in our progressively stupider society). The thing is that the climate models have so many variables and so many assumptions and so little data to calibrate them that in many cases its no more accurate than a dartboard (the Monte Carlo method of modeling, i believe its called). Of course the people (who like I said are dumb) cant understand the models, much less understand what modeling even really is (it TELLS the future, PREDICTS reality, or verifies FACTS, right?), and even much much less understand that models are based on assumptions, guesses, and simplifications of the much more complicated reality.

For every climate model scientist who thinks we are in great danger there is another climate model scientist (paid or unpaid by corporate devils) who will point out any number of assumptions made and claim this invalidates the model. Let's get past this part of the arguing and focus on something more tangible.

When it was shown that acid rain was devastating our forests and killing mountain ecoysystems, we decided to stop releasing sulphur dioxide. Since 1990, a 40% reduction in acid rain has been achieved thanks to legislation. The goals set for 2010 were achieved in 2007 and the cost ended up being half of what was projected. Why cant we just do more of this?

Thus, the challenge:

1) I challenge you to walk 50 ft in an urban stream and not see a large piece of garbage. Why don't we focus energy on preserving our urban waterways? I can quantifiably prove to you that there is garbage in our streams and i can show you the negative effects it has on us. Think about it this way too: would you let your kids play in the stream? What if the water was clear and there were no car tires in the water? Your answer probably changed to yes, even though the visible pollutants are the least of your concerns. Our urban streams are toxic. Wouldn't it be nice to have streams our kids could play, catch fish in, and generally learn from instead of watching TV shows about streams?

2) I challenge you to look at statistics of asthmas and other respiratory illness occurrence in major cities. Compare those to areas where people drive less and tell me there inst some correlation. Wouldn't it be nice if it literally was easier for us to all breath? Wouldn't it also be nice if our commute could also double as fitness (or even, what if we listened to audio instruction on learning a language, making it a 3-way winning situation)? Our kids would be able to breathe, we would be healthier, and we would all be able to communicate better.

3) I challenge you to visit a landfill, a wastewater treatment plant, or a factory animal farm. Then I challenge you to somehow preserve the shock-and-awe of what we are doing to our natural resources (i feel like senseless rape is a pretty good descriptor, since its not consensual and we don't even appreciate it). Use that energy to waste-less. Consciously think about your power usage (do you sleep with lights on? If so, we cant be friends), water usage (but i NEED to shower in the morning to wake up AND at night to go to bed), and garbage creation (1 bag a day). Then, make some minor adjustments (one light at a time, 1000 gallons a month, 1 bag of garbage a week, 1 bag of recyclables a day).

We may never truly know whether or not we are affecting the climate, but we can damn well be sure we are affecting our waterways, our health, and the local environment around us. The thing is that if we focus on improving areas such as these last 3, then the climate problem, if there is one would go away. And if there is no climate problem, well then, we will have still improved our quality of life...which as it stands now, is not something we want to do. How does that make sense?

Day 1- Ok, the real day 1

2010-06-05T19:57:00.000-07:00

The race car bed, while it looks cool, actually feels kind of like sleeping on a race car (i.e. not comfortable). At 1:30, when the rooster crowed, I definitely heard it. He must have been on eastern…china’s time zone. It wasn’t even close to being light outside.

Anyway, when it became light outside, we got up and rejoined the group back at Julietta’s house (oh, I how I love that home). She had some breakfast breads, refried beans, fresh cheese, Jugo Naranja and Jugo Pina (OJ and pinapple juice). So so good. (I pretty much spent the week eating my food and anyone else’s who didn’t clean there plate and who was in arm’s reach).

It being Sunday, we went to the local church. Everyone in the community was so welcoming. At one point during the service a song was playing and people spilled out of the pews to hug and greet each other. It was like the exchanging of the peace except it was way more friendly and way more chaotic.

Post-church we went to the lot next door for more eating, some soccer, and just generally hanging out. More awesome food! This is where I learned a particular something called Tomatillo sauce. A Tomatillo is a small, green, unripe tomato. When you mix it with equal parts Jalapeno, it makes the most potent of sauces…and I couldn’t get enough of it.

Once the gathering was over, we headed back to the house where we assembled a tent for the kids to have class in. then, we basically just had free time. We walked up a nearby hill and found a huge pink church. Then, we wandered around until close to dark.

Colby has brought a camera with him on the trip to take video. Have of his video appears to be random clips while the rest is part of a promo video he wants to make. He keeps saying inot the camera urging us to say the tag line… “You should be HERE!”

Mexico 2010!

2010-03-24T18:42:00.001-07:00

Day 1- Travel Day

Another trip was about to begin. An early flight of course meant laying in bed not being able to sleep interspersed with nightmares of waking up 5 hours late. Nonethelss, I made it to the UCF house to get a ride to the airport (Hunter rules!). We got to the airport, checked in (they gave me a ticket with Robbie’s name, so that had to get cleared up), and then met with some other group members. Ally, a new friend, wanted us to all check-in together and do everything together, but we had already checked-in, so we went through security and waited at the gate like good little international travelers.

As departure time approached, we were apparently missing one of our group members. There was frantic texting and calling. There was a virtual play-by-play of her location as she got to the airport, waited in line, and then tried to get a ticket. Alas, they had closed the flight though. Stephanie wasn’t getting to Mexico City today. Once we got on the plane, we met Santiago and his mother. They were on standby, and luckily (for them), someone had overslept. Santiago was a surpriseingly calm and quiet baby up to the point that his mother was filling out her customs form. Robbie successfully aquired the proivelidge of holding the baby during this paperwork part of the flight. He was a whole lot less fidgety sitting in Uncle Robbie’s lap.

Once we got to Mexico City, we had to eat. Oh, and also we had to wait 4 hours for everyone to get there too. So, our first meal came from some strange place called McDonalds, where the two quarterpounders seemed expensive. Of course we didn’t quite understand the exchange rate just yet, so had no idea how much money we had spent. There was much eating, some napping, some wandering around the airport. We found a nicer looking resteraunt with nicer looking hosteses. We asked them some importsant questions in our terrible Spanish. “How many pesos for margaritas?” They laughed and finally answered. “How many pesos are beer?” Another answer that meant nothing (exchange rate problem again). “How many pesos for your phone number?” Didn’t ask that, but you can imagine.

Finally, around 5, the entire group was in Mexico (minus Santiago’s original seat owner). We somehow just ran into Alfredo and Daniel. So, we loaded up and off we went. The commute was roughly 2 hours. We arrived in the darkness to see that Alfredo’s green truck (that is older than me) appeared to still be sitting on good tires and operational. That thing is amazing!

We ate a small meal and then pretty much just split up and were assigned to stay with local host families. Me and Robbie were sent to live with Oscar and his dad Oscar, or as they say in Mexico, “Oscar y Oscar.” Robbie got the guest room, which meant that I was to be in Oscar’s room. Upon further inspection, this meant that I was going to be sleeping in a bed shaped like a race car!

First Tourny- Budweiser Jiu-Jitsu World Cup 2010

2010-01-27T08:57:00.000-08:00

So, last saturday I competed in my first Jiu Jitsu tournament. It was called the Bud Cup, and it was hosted at the Cabarrus Arena. Although I really only ended up competing for 25 minutes total, it took all day and was a long time in the making.

I have been doing Jiu Jitsu now for about 7 months. If you dont know what it is...look it up on wikipedia. The important thing to know is that it is similar to wrestling with submission involved. A submission is when you have someone in a position that will result in extensive bodily damage or unconsciousness unless they "tap out," which is the universal sign for "please dont keep doing that...it really hurts and/or its making me sleepy/ my brain needs that blood." tons of fun.

So, last monday, I started the week by weighing myself. I was planning on competing at featherweight (under 145 lbs), so i had to eat less food that week to make weight by Friday. I love to eat, so eating less while still training was a slow, annoying misery. Come friday though, I had lost about 6 lbs and weighed in at 144 (weigh ins were at this hotel, where they had registration in a conference room and the actual weigh-in was in a room, in a bathroom, with this older guy...yeah, insert joke here). After weigh-ins, i ate a turkey melt, french fries, and ice cream. so good.

So, come saturday morning, it was time to compete. I had registered for two divisions at featherweight (gi and no-gi beginner) and one division at lightweight (145-155). At the NAGA tourny I watched, gi was last, so that is what I was hoping for. On this day though, gi was done first. The thing is, I dont even own a Gi! A gi is a jacket and pants used for jiu jitsu...its actually a weapon you wear, since you can choke people with it. Its as if someone said, "hey, jiu jitsu would be more fun if instead of being strenuous it almost killed you! Let do this while wearing a coat and pants, to help us sweat more!" I only train in no-gi, but the tourny was one price for as many divisions as possible. So, i borrowed a gi from a friend and training partner (mma great Kurtis Cloward) and went to ONE CLASS to learn the basics. So, as of saturday, i was putting on my gi for the SECOND time ever. Luckily, my training friends helped me tighten my pants and tie my belt (which I had to find in the lost and found, since Kurtis' belt was blue, the next level up in skill) right before I was to compete. In my first match, I got taken down and pulled guard at the same time (i am going to bold words to google for pictures of). Nonetheless, I lost 2 points. I had a few triangle choke attempts, fended off some collar chokes from my opponent, but then the 5 minutes ran out. I lost 2-0. Lame

Then I proceeded to wait a small eternity for the gi divisions to finish. There are something like 5 skill levels and 6 weight classes in each Men's, Women's, teens, and Master's division. The combinations are extensive....so it took FOREVER.

Finally, it was time to go again. I checked in for no-gi featherweight, and then was called to check in at no-gi lightweight also. They at first balked at this, since both divisions would be going at the same time. Me and the other guy (who actually had beat me in no-gi) suggested they just schedule us for both divisions, and if there was overlap we would forfeit. turns out, we were first in lightweight, so off we went. Now I was going against the same guy I lost to in no-gi. Lame. Guess what happened. I pulled guard, but they called it a take down. I escaped, and got taken down again. Time ran out with him in my guard. I lost 4-0. He never even attempted a guard pass or a submission. as mentioned...lame. (on the sorta bright side, i accidentally elbowed the guy in the mouth. he wasnt wearing a mouthguard so i busted his lip. he then bled on me. the referee reminded me to shower later, since i had blood in my shirt. would i have forgotten to shower if he had not told me? who knows.)

So, at this point i had competed in two levels that werent really mine, and had lost both. i was getting annoyed. finally, it was time to compete in no-gi at my weight class. So, the match started, and I did a better job defending the takedown. I managed to get under the guy's shoulder for a body lock on his side. I was about to dump him hard, when we got close to the crowd, so we had to stop. then we worked in the clinch some more and he was about to get a single-leg when I ended up in the crowd. Another restart. Finally, with about a minute to go, I got a takedown. I held on and stayed in his guard and won 2-0. It was no submission, but it felt good.

Next, I faced the guy who had beaten the guy who had beat me twice. All the guys were super quick, strong wrestlers. So, he got the takedown. Then, he passed to side control. I managed to get back to half-guard. In the process though, he started working on a submission. He had my arm trapped over my head, so it was not good for me. I got a lockdown on one of his legs, but that didnt alleviate as much of the punch-choke that I would have liked. I relaxed, and eventually I surged up and got my arm free, back to regular half-guard, minus the choke attempt. Then, time ran out. Another loss on points...maybe 4-0, but nonetheless I survived a pretty mean choke and submission attempt. I count it as a morale victory.

I thought I was done, but apparently, the winner that match went on to go for 1st and 2nd. This meant that I would get to compete for 3rd. As I sat in the chair exhausted, the ref asked how much time I wanted to recover. I asked for 2 days. He told me I could have 10 minutes. So, I waited. One of the guys I train with came over and asked if I really wanted to go again. I told him "yes and no." I wanted to get third, but I would have preferred not to move from my seat for a long time. He understood.

Last match time. I remembered watching this guy before. He was super fast. I felt like I was in trouble. I wanted to sit down at the start to avoid the takedown. (ala Eddie Bravo) I stood though, and he flew in like M. Bison for the double leg takedown/ slam-my-head-into-the-mat move. The crowd flinched and made noise to reinforce my pain (i did the same actually, in unison). We were near the edge though, so i had to then crawl back to the middle to start again. On the bright side, I had full-guard. So, like other wrestlers, he did nothing from my guard. He put his head low in my chest a couple time, head butting me on the way down. Finally, I sat up, noticed he was sitting up too, and then hip bumped to get the sweep, ending up in mount. He went from strong and flexed to relaxed and weak. Its amazing how much he changed when I was sitting on his chest. It felt real comfortable. I tried some submissions, but nothing really came through. Then, I think he escaped, and in the scramble, we ended up like we started, in my full guard. Then, he sat up too much again, so I did sweep number 2. Man that felt good. Back on top, he decided to roll, so I took the back (back mount). From there, I sunk in a pretty tight body triangle. He didn't like that and I could hear him grunting from the compression of his torso. He tried to roll a couple time, but with a body triangle there is nowhere to go. I proceeded to attempt a rear naked choke a bunch, but he held my hands and tucked his chin, so I wasn't able to get it. I won 12-4. No submissions, but man did it feel good to get third and to win my last match.

This week has been an off week. I am enjoying the down time, working on school, and each day I find a new injury to let heal (the head butts to my face caused bruising under my eyebrows...weird). What an awesome experience. The most fun I have ever had in such a short time (25 minutes of total mat time). BJJ record lifetime: 0-1, 0-1, 2-1

We all should be giving more

2009-12-14T08:11:00.000-08:00

Christmas time is about giving, right? But why? Its as if dying for the sins of man really only entitles you to a month (maybe two tops) of behavior in your honor.

Why dont I give the rest of the year as much as I do at Christmas? Many will point to the economy in answering this question and say something along the lines of not being able to afford it. These are the same people who would point to something else, even if the economy was raging and they had just receieved a Christmas bonus. Maybe for me, its just easier to give at christmas, because well, everyone else is doing it. (Disclaimer: although I often try to convince others to follow me by stating "everyone else is doing it," I dont generlly subscribe to that reasoning myself).

Make no mistake about it. I am rich. If you own a car, or have ever even driven a car, you are rich. I own a BIG car. If you are reading this, most likely on a computer, you are rich (if you are reading this printed in a newspaper, let me know....because that would be really cool). I own a computer, have access to 100s more at school, and am still considering getting a new one. I also own a cell phone, which is basically a computer also, and its a pretty low end phone. Even aside from the car and computer examples, if you have never really struggled for housing or food, you are richer than most of the rest of the world. Every night I sleep in a warm bed and eat until I am full. I am rich.

As a rich person, I think I should be giving more. So, I have decided, that whenever anyone not as rich as me asks me for money (or help), I will give it to them. There are obviously some details that need to be established (how rich am I? how rich are they? Whats the maximum amount I will give?), but for now, I can see where I need to be involved. Whenever Bojangles asks me to give to Toy for Tots, I give. Whenever the Salvation Army rings their bell and I have cash, I give. Whenever one of my friends asks me to volunteer with them, I am there.

It remains to be seen whether or not this will cause me to descend into poverty or rise to greatness.

Part 3

2009-12-06T19:11:00.000-08:00

Part 3

Jerrod told us that we were going to run down Camden until

its dead end brought us to Tryon. It looked like a small street with no traffic on it, so we figured it would be a short sprint. The short sprint turned into about a mile sprint before I called Jerrod back to find out how close we were. Part of me really wanted to know where the end was while the other part of me wanted to talk on the phone and give me an excuse not to be running. Pretty much as he picked up, we arrived. Inside Dharma lounge we found a bar behind which sat a giant gold Buddha with headphones on. As we entered, we saw some people doing Yoga, and we were invited to join. At this point, we had run a significant amount, so as the instructor gave us poses to assume, I realized that sweat was falling off of me. Also, the cooler floor combined with my warmer body made for a nice condensation spot where I had been. After about 5 minutes of Yoga and stretching, he gave us a secret word, and onward we ran.

Our next stop was a set of 18 ft tall statues that depicted the creatures who used to pull Dionysis’ Chariot in Greek Mythology. The only giant statues of creatures I knew of in Charlotte had to be the Panthers outside the stadium (Jerrod confirmed). So, we hopped back on the light rail. Actually, we hopped on an old school trolley that happened to be driving on the light rail’s system. The old timey guy “driving” even asked us for tickets. We showed him our old ones and that seemed to be good enough for him. Once on the trolley

we realized that it was a sort of special tour trolley and the other 4 people aboard were tourists from out of town. They saw our race numbers and our exhaustion and asked what we were doing. They thought we were running some kind of race, but couldn’t figure out why we were on the train. We explained the whole situation, much to their enjoyment. Then we asked to be let off right when we were back in uptown, for another good 1 km sprint to the stadium. Once at the stadium, we had to count the number of named on the pedestals below the panthers. The names represented people who has donated money. X number of columns of names times Y number of names per column times 2 pedestals equaled 2096 names. Two places left to run to!

The clue talked about “canned” beer. So we ran to Cans, a bar in uptown. Once there we learned of our challenge. Lets back up to the day before. AJ and I were trying to figure out what to expect by looking at what we were told to bring to the race. The list of supplies was fairly simple: 1) water 2) a $1 dollar bill 3) snacks. Once we went inside Cans, we found out what it was that this dollar was for. We gave the guy our dollar and he put it in “The Mike Tyson Challenge”…a punching bag attached to some flashing lights and a hydraulic. We had to get a certain score to be able to move on. The bartender assured us the score wasn’t hard to get, but that we just had to hit it solidly. At this point I am laughing internally. It wasn’t coincidence enough that the cross-fit place mimicked mine and AJs training in jiu-jitsu. It wasn’t further coincidence either that I spent a lot of time at school doing Yoga. Now, I was being asked to punch a bag, something I routinely do for 6-7 hours per week, minimum. To make things weirder, I had been thinking about these

games the week before, wondering if they were accurate and if it was worth the money. So, I was excited to do it! Without any real warm up, I stepped back, raised both of my hands in front of my face (in case the bag decided to hit back), and hit the bag with a right cross. It took a little while to count up to my score. I slowly grinned larger and larger as the number climbed past the minimum we had to achieve. I almost set the record for the machine. (I still grin, imagining if I had tried some exotic punch like a spinning backfist or a switch cross, which generate much more power but are harder to land on a moving target).

Adventure Race: Part II

2009-11-20T20:33:00.000-08:00

Urban Adventure Race: Part 2

“Do you know what Finnish company is the leading cell phone manufacturer?” After taking a picture of A.J. (to prove our existence at the checkpoint) and getting samples of licorice (that unfortunately tasted like licorice), we texted “Nokia” to the special number. The answer was correct and we received a follow up clue, directing us to a place that was famous for “canned” beer (there is a bar in Charlotte called Cans). We knew where that was, and we didn’t want to immediately go there, so we headed off to a restaurant who’s name meant “Life” in Greek.

Jerrod was having a hard time with the clue, but we knew the location. A new development just outside the perimeter of uptown was being built and it was called The Metropolitan at Midtown. So, we ran toward it. Then we jogged toward it. Then we walked. It was crazy far away. A.J. was in much better shape so he could have run the whole way, but he couldn’t carry me at the same time. Just before we got to midtown (and after passing other racers coming from that direction), Jerrod figured out that Zoe was one of the words meaning life. Fortunately, there was a Zoe’s kitchen, just another couple miles off in the distance (or so it seemed). Once we got to Zoe’s, our challenge was to pitch a meal item to the server. Being a server, this was pretty easy. Ironically, “being a server with limited menu knowledge where I work” actually became a skill usable in the race.

The follow-up clue to this challenge was to go back to The Crowne Plaza hotel and find a room that corresponded with a long mathematical equation that was given us. The answer: Room 1126. The Challenge: Paper Turkeys to be given to kids at the children’s hospital. I forgot to fold the paper in half when cutting out the hands, so I had to cut a second set of 4 to make the full set. The people next to us were cutting each hand separately. That must have taken forever. See glorious turkey picture.

Upon exiting the Crowne Plaza, we looked across the street to see where we had started the race. It was now evident we had planned poorly, being back so close to the finish line with so many clues and challenges left. We ran towards the center city to find the light rail to take us to Southend. We hoped that on the way Jerrod would solve the text about a gym, a clown, and our southernmost point.

The light rail was something of an enigma for us at first. We walked up onto the platform and stood there to wait. Then it occurred to A.J. that we were probably supposed to pay. I hadn’t seen any method for giving anyone money, and being out of breath and less patient than normal, I was content to ride the train for free unless it was obvious how to pay. A.J. further insisted that we try harder to give the city money, so we rode an elevator down one story. We arrived at the underpass for a road. No office. No kiosk. No “put money here, take ticket there.” I sprinted back up the stairs worried about missing the train (nothing like a race to make me lose common sense). After much searching, we found a ticket dispenser and we paid and got tickets. Jerrod told me they have troubles with people not paying to ride. Seems silly to me to rely on honesty for public transit funding. Are turnstiles really that expensive?

Jerrod eventually came through with the clue. Before we actually got to the gym though, we got off the light rail in a rather “industrial” area. Jerrod told me on Google Maps it looked like not such a good place. Had it been dark, it definitely would have been uncomfortable. Once we got near where we thought this place was, we saw a kid’s gym and at least two other locations that could have been answers to the clue. We couldn’t find the Ultimate Crossfit (the answer). A group of racers began to amass, all of us sort of lost, but sure we were in the right area. One person would run around a corner and we would all run to the corner to find out where they were going (which was wrong). Then someone else would run across the street so we would all sprint to their location to find another closed business. It was quite comedic. Finally, we saw someone leaving a door at the end of the park, and we all ran there, and we were right

“Pukie” the clown is apparently the mascot of this place called Ultimate Cross-fit. Sure enough, when we got there, we did some crazy exercises that would indeed make me vomit had I been out of shape and doing a one hour workout (which may or may not have been harder than running around the city for 3 hours). Interestingly enough though, the exercises were similar to what I have been doing in my Muay Thai/ Jiu-Jitsu training.

Once set free from this gym, we sprinted back towards the light rail in search of a Lounge that had shared the name of the fictional science project from the show Lost (in hindsight…that’s kind of funny…Lost).

Urban Adventure Race- Part 1

2009-11-11T20:44:00.000-08:00

Charlotte Go Urban Adventure Race- The story

Step 1: Recruitment
I got an email from a sort of boss of mine at Venture that there was an upcoming “Urban” Adventure race. The problem was that the email was two weeks before the race, and only a few days before the price increase deadline. So, I quickly called a bunch of people I knew and sent out facebook messages. It seemed like nobody actually answered their phones when I called…as if they knew I was calling with a moderately crazy idea. Finally, a guy named AJ who used to work at Venture sort of acquiesced and agreed to be my partner. Teams had to be two people. Once I got another person to run along side me, I had to find a support crew. The race suggested either carrying a laptop (i.e. an electronic weight), bringing an I-Phone or some other internet accessible phone (umm…sometimes I eat out of the dumpster, so I wouldn’t ever spend that kind of money), or get a friend to look up stuff on the computer for you. Enter Jerrod. He would later become the most important part of the plan. Step 2: The race Race day finally arrived. As I was trying to recruit people and when AJ asked me about what we would be doing, I really had very little idea what was going to happen. Conversations went something like this: “Hey, you want to do an urban adventure race with me?” “Urban? What does that entail?” “Well, I am not totally sure. I have looked at the website. There is text messaging involved. I imagine they will give us points and you gotta run to them. They say there are challenges. Then probably more running. All I really know is it probably takes lots of running.” Well, now that I read it, maybe people were afraid of the amount of running. While I generally don’t advocate for having fear, in hindsight I can recognize that there was an inordinate amount of running.
Anyway, I called Jerrod the morning of the race around 11:30. The race started at noon and I needed Jerrod to use Google to help decipher the clues and help me get from point to point. Jerrod was at Home Depot when I called, taking advantage of appliance tax incentives. He promised he would be in front of his computer though by noon. At 11:50 I called him again, a little worried. He told me he was on his way home, and would get there right after he stopped at Lowes to check some more prices. I pleaded that he hurry because I NEEDED him at the computer at noon. We were going to be helpless, unless we were able to solve clues on our own, which I didn’t see happening. Then Jerrod told me he was just kidding and he was pulling in the driveway. Jenn, his girlfriend, also said hi.
Clue 1:
Once the race started, we knew what we had gotten ourselves into. We were given 4 texted clues. After getting to each of the 4 locations, we would do a task and get 4 new clues for new locations with 4 new tasks. After 8 locations and 8 tasks, we would have to race back to Marshall Park.
Our first clue had something to do with “ScanFest” and a foreign flag with blue and white on it. Jerrod found out that S.C.A.N. (Society for Creative Anachronism) was having a convention at the Wachovia Atrium. So, we sprinted there to get our first challenge….

As I was chopping wood earlier...

2009-10-03T15:48:00.000-07:00

As I was out in the woods chopping wood earlier...

I know what youre thinking. Two questions. 1) dont you live in the city? what wood are you chopping? 2) Why were you chopping wood?

Well, I do live in a "city," but there is some land around her that hasnt been turned into strip malls yet. Admittedly, it is very little, but there is some. There happens to be a strip between where I live and where my friend Chris moved to. So, as I was walking over to his apartment to get my shovel (I had left it there on accident...I need it for my stream research), I was in a wooded area with trees. He has made a trail, but there are many downed or almost downed trees near the trail that would function much better chopped up and used as trail borders. So, I was chopping some of them up.

Why I was wanting to and thus going through with the chopping of the miscelanous trees in the first place is pretty simple. Men's Health said that few activities are more beneficial and demanding than chopping wood. It takes coordination and strength in almost all parts of the body. The arms, shoulders, abs, and back are particularly used alot. So, yes, I am advocating that all of you go out and by axes and chop wood.

So, as I was saying, while I was chopping the wood, I thought to myself that few things in life make me feel more manly than cutting wood with such a low-tech method as an ax. I feel connected with my frontier forefathers. I feel like I could say hello if I ever walked past a real lumberjack. I feel like a small part of me becomes cleansed, as I bleed out of my left hand (puncture wound from moving a tree). I feel confident that should a woman ever decide to date me in the future, I can uphold my gender role in the relationship. Me and my ax.

As I walked back to my apartment carrying my ax (and now shovel), it occurred to me that I was quite the interesitng site. Its not often you see a guy carrying these two items in our limits. It occurred to me that I must look like someone out of a tv crime drama, coming out of the woods with an ax and a shovel.

I wondered if the people I passed on the greenway and in the apartment complex saw me as maybe some serial killer. I doubted that any of them saw me as just a guy, a guy who maybe likes to chop wood and dig holes. I wonder if this is just in my head, or has society really made it so that a simple man doing simple things is too bizarre, and thus must have something wrong with him (in everyone else's eyes).

No matter really. For to me, using a shovel, or an ax, or a hammer, reminds me of my childhood. A strange peace comes over me. I feel at home.

In less abstract/ emotional/ metaphysical news, I also did some orienteering today. Picture a timed event where you are given a map and told to find as many points as you can as quick as you can....in the woods. Its basically treasure hunting for adults...and its awesome. Google a local club and try it out. Tons of fun.

Be Great
DAlen

New Bike, New Life

2009-08-17T18:55:00.001-07:00

So some of you may have heard that a while back, both of my bikes had been stolen. I owned a mountain bike and a road bike, and they both were lifted from my porch on the first floor in what I thought was a zero-crime area. I was wrong. I posted a stolen bike listing on Craigslist, and sure enough my red Trek road bike had been broken and abandoned, between a Jack-and-the-Box and a Tire Kingdom. By the time I went to find it, the lawn service had cut the grass and it was gone. So close, yet so far away. So, I moved on with my life.

Last week, I was running on the greenway, which I have taken to doing much lately. I have a tendency to always look closely at bikes, hoping and thinking that I will see mine. Sure enough, a Red Trek Road Bike passed me slowly while I was jogging. Were those Shimano clipless pedals? Was that a new blue seat? Had the reflectors been removed? HOLY CRAP! it was my bike! I jogged faster, but he still pulled away. He had on headphones and I had on headphones. I couldn't think what to yell. Luckily, he was coming to the end of the greenway, so he had to turn around.

I stopped him on the way past the 2nd time. I looked closer, asked him where he got it, and found out he bought it from a pawn shop. His friend, who worked at Jack-and-the-box, found it behind the dumpster and then fixed it and pawned it. His name was Joe. Joe was a an Iraq veteran, having been sent home after and IED sent shards of metal towards him and almost cut his leg off. He paid way too much for the bike, but had bought it nonetheless. He rides it everyday, and the oversize shoes that go with the pedals fit him. Sort of happy ending at that point. Joe is a good guy...just stuck in an odd situation.

So, later in the week, as I am running the doberman with infinite energy I am thinking about how much I want to do triathlons. I figure I could run to a friends house, borrow her bike, ride, and then run home for practice. Next thing you know, I am walking down a hill behind where we live and I find a Fuji Opus III bike, with a few missing parts and some maintenance required! HOW AWESOME IS THAT!? I definitely feel like I am able to make life change to my benefit if I just think about stuff enough and concentrate on the good. My Karma 401k must be doing pretty dang good.

Day 3- not as much to do

2009-08-01T15:57:00.001-07:00

After a day of non-stop EKGs, blood samples, vital sign taking, and the occasional urin sample, Day 3 was pretty dull. We has one more set of tests, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening.

At some point after lunch but before dinner, I realized that we were really only recieving a single dose of the medication. All of this trouble was being taken over a single, 100 mg dose. So, i wondered how bad could the worse case even have been? There were no side effects that I could see, but the dose was so small. How much arsenic can you eat before its really toxic?

After sleeping most of the day, getting a little bit of school work done, and eating, the night came and I found two movies I wanted to watch. It started with The Transporter 2 and ended with Live Free of Die Hard. It was quite the action packed evening of mind-numbing fake explosions. Then, it was time to go to sleep, only this time it was in a bed and not the examination recliners.

I can remember being so very excited about release day. I can only imagine what prisoners must feel like after spending significant time behind bars.

Day 2- What do you call...

2009-07-29T12:12:00.000-07:00

What do you call a creature with 8 metal nipples and more than holes in its left inner elbow? My friends call me Dalen.

This morning we woke up at the bright hour of 6:30. I am not quite sure why the woke us up so early. We weren't allowed to eat breakfast. We pretty much just relocated to the special room where they take blood and vital signs and EKG data, and then we all went back to sleep. That dang room is crazy cold too. Around 7:30 they started the tests.

At exactly 8:35, Patient # 208 received experimental medication. It may have been placebo or it may have been super memory drug. I probably will never know.

There still seems to be drama over I don't know what. The nurses whisper in hushed tones here and there.

Everyone is still confused when they do my heart rate, although now it seems the machines have begun to register it.

The guy next to me (Patient # 209) ate breakfast before he was dosed. His schedule said to do that and he was supplied food and told to eat it. Then, he found out he wasn't supposed to eat before being dosed (the rest of us had to wait 2 hours after dosing....breakfast at 10 am when you wake up at 6:30 is really not an enjoyable experience). So, they brought in an alternate and sent him home (meaning they put him outside....his ride is part of the trial, and thus has to stay). We then began continuously joking about being kicked out of the trial for making even the slightest mistake (I would compare these people to Nazi's, but that humor is a little too close to home so to speak).

Lurch was good. Baked Ziti and Chicken. Waiting now for dinner and more blood to be drawn.

Likes: access to pool table, ping pong table, flat screen TVs, heat from from the laptop
Dislikes: peeing in a jug for diagnostic purposes, needle sticks every hour, frigid climate control with no sweatshirt

Day 1- ending

2009-07-28T19:32:00.000-07:00

It is definately a mixture of low security prison, mental hospital, and self-admitted rehab (Authors Note: I havent experienced any of these in person, but from what I have seen in the movies, which i believe to be true, it is very similar here). I spent a lare portion of time (i.e. more than 20 minutes) looking out a window today. I spent much of the other time reading, eating, and sleeping. Its life as simple as AmeriCorps, but it pays more, but it is less fulfilling and we arent allowed to exercise.

Apparently, my EKG stickers were not in the correct places, so they had to tear some of them from my chest (they are crazy sticky!) and I believe they took with them some skin, some chest hair, and maybe even a little bit of my soul. It hurt. Then they reapplied them, hopefully correctly now.

I havent taken any medication yet. We get dosed tomorrow apparently. They have been feeding us pretty well, but in single sittings. Tomorrow, our meals will be exactly spaced. We dont get to snack or eat meals between meals, so i take longer and make sure to eat all the food given to me. Without exercise though, it just makes me lethargic. We'll see how much longer I have an appettite without exercise. Maybe I will do some pushups when nobody is looking.

There seems to be quite the social drama group working here. Since I have a tendancy to sit in the corner and read, I am able to be a fly on the wall and listen as the women gossip and talk about who isnt doing what because they have no clue how to do their job, and if they are not carefull the good Dr. will let them go. Apparently, the boss around here is quite the stickler for doiug things by procedure. this makes sense to me though, since we are getting huge checks given to each of us to test a drug with tons of market opportunity. I can imagine that whoever hired this facility out to run this test has quite the bankroll.

Lights out at 11 pm....which means we actually are forced to go to sleep. A guy sitting next to me remarked how camp-like this place is. Dosing for me is at 8:35 am, so off to lay in bed.

Patient WDR #208

CommentResponses

2009-07-28T09:04:00.000-07:00

Response to comments:

Eric:
I agree wholeheartedly with your logic. The environment is always going to be a "rich people's" problem...that is until the poor people realize that they are the ones who will suffer the most from envrionmental degradation.Even then though, the rich are the only ones with the resources to undo the damage. I think its a sort of catch-22problem.

Steve:
GOLF courses Steve, not GOLD courses. You know, that makes me wonder...if the golf balls were made of gold, would peoplestill leave them in the streams?
Also, Rupert Murdock wants to buy my blog and soul...i can only assume its because of the Bartunek Bump.

Molly:
Stream cleanup along the trailer park would be small beans. The water flow is so low there. It would be much better to do it further down, where garbage collects. And the scale of a cleanup would be gargantuan...i am trying to get an NCCC team to work on something like this.

Day 1- Locked up for 3 days

2009-07-28T08:11:00.000-07:00

They made it clear that once we entered the facility, there was no going back. Anything we left in our lockers would be out of our reaches for 3 days. I kind of feel like a scientist going into the biosphere.

In case I haven't told you, I found a medical study to participate in. The money is really good and the study is for an Alzheimer's medication. The ad was on the back of a Creative Loafing, right near the add for "Smoke Pot, Get Paid." I am hoping that since the medicine is for Alzheimer's, and my memory is fine, i will end up with a super-memory.

I came in this morning at 9 am, having fasted since 10 pm (yes, i had to skip what would normally be 2nd dinner). Then, we had to get all our tests done, so it wasn't until 11am that i was able to eat breakfast. Exactly two eggs, two pieces of bacon, strawberries with whip cream, and a glass of OJ later, I felt better. As I write this, I smile at the EKG sticky patches that spot my wrists, ankles, and chest. I feel like I could be hooked to the Matrix. We are supposed to leave them on the entire time we are here. I also have an ID bracelet (in case i escape and get picked up) and a bracelet with a combination on it, to my locker, in case they find my body and want to get into the combination lock that was issued to me.

The EKG thought my heart rate was sub-50 BPM, which is crazy low. The nurse asked me if I was a triathlete, but i heard her ask if I was a superhero. So, I said, "not yet."

Lunch has arrived from the outside world. I sort of feel like I am in prison, but a really nice prison. We all are wearing the same maroon scrubs and we are sleeping in a large room. Its like adult penitentiary camp....but we get paid!

More later. Tell all your friends.

Living Rocks, trailor parks, and damn golf balls

2009-07-05T14:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Eric and Reagan for the comments.
I once knew a guy named Steve Barta..Barte...Bar-tune-ack. He was a heck of a guy that Steve. Top 3 of all the Steve's I know, easy.

So, last week, I was walking in Rocky River. I went to a place where I know there is a dam and proceeded to look at the dirt upstream and downstream of the dam. Eventually, I will compare the streams and locations where dams existed to the streams and locations where dams didn't exist.

One thing I have noticed in both kinds of streams is that wherever there is a large power line crossing the stream, all the trees have been removed. Since much of the streams are under forest canopy, it is like coming out of a shaded tunnel and then going back into one. Often, near power lines, a bunch of rocks have been put on the banks to keep erosion from happening. then, those rocks fall into the creek and then moss and slime grow on them, making it very treacherous to walk under the power lines where the sun reaches the stream.

I was coming up to one of these open expanses a couple week back when I noticed a rock sticking up out of the creek. It wasn't so bizarre (i do see occasional rocks), but it was odd since it was all alone and in the middle. Generally, there will be some geologic formation and a bunch of rocks will be present. This time there was just one. It seemed very smooth also. My vision is getting bad, so I dismissed the fact that it also appears to be suspended just above the water by two sticks. As I got closer I looked harder and still saw a smooth, gray rock, suspended above the water by about 2 inches by two sticks. Finally, I got within 10 yards and realized I was staring at a giant crane, sitting in the middle of the stream, with no head. I could make out the feathers on its back and the two sticks were actually legs. Still, no head though. It was ultra creepy. I gave it plenty of space in case "the crane from sleepy hollow" decided to move towards me. then, its head appeared, unburied from its body, where it had been resting while the crane was sleeping. It looked over at me, with very menacing eyes and a long, spear-like nose. I find it peculiar that many birds (Owls, Hawks, Cranes) look really cool from far off, but then when you get close you realize that they are very efficient killing machines and they no doubt would enjoy eating my eyes. I gave the crane more space and walked past it. It eyes me and then went back to sleep.

So, I assumed it was sick. I walked downstream awhile, came to a bend in the stream that was more than 6' deep, and turned around. As I re-approached the grim reaper-esque bird, it awoke, put its mouth in the water, ate a fish, and then went back to sleep, clearly not afraid of me. It was bizarre and I have no doubt that I will never get this close to a bird of such size again.

I grew up near a trailer park and had many friends that lived there. So, I don't like to think that people in trailers are any more abnormal than the next people. There are lots of stereotypes and general negative feelings about trailer park peoples. Unfortunately, I think I now have a small bit more loathing for them, having walked the section of Toby Creek adjacent to a trailer park. there was much garbage. there were many bicycles. there were many kids toys made of plastic. There were occasional TVs, washer machines, and parts of building...all in the stream. If I could have my way, I would make it law that trailer parks have to be at least a quarter mile away from streams.

....and gold courses too dammit. I have found golf balls the entire length of mallard creek. They come from the golf course i live on and I am wondering if they cant be held liable for the pollution. I hate to see golf balls in the creek. Its just one more blatant sign that we as a large group of people don't care about the natural world around us. We would rather do some hobby that leads to pollution than to find another hobby or even another way to do said hobby without causing pollution.

Our streams will never be clean again until we decide we value them more than the parking lots (and their run-off) that destroy them.

More tales from the streams

2009-07-05T14:19:00.000-07:00

Save the forest?

Last week I was walking in Mallard Creek, which seems to go forever. At one particular place, I came to a part of the creek that has canyon like walls of 30' or more in height. For the most part, the banks of Mallard Creek are usually less than 15', so this was yet another twilight zone like moment (its peculiar how lots of instances become infinitely more creepy when youre alone in a creek bed or walking under a major road or interstate via long dark tunnel...I am very surprised, and happy, to not have found any bodies yet). The waterflow became a trickle as it came down over large rocks (i always walk UPstream), so I began to rock hop up the stream with my shovel and ultra-dexterity-suppressing waders. I saw a couple kids on the bank hanging out, but I didnt stop to talk or really take notice. I figured that I looked quite odd and didnt want to explain what I was doing anyway (although, I have a simplified thesis explanation of "walking in streams and looking at dirt in cutbanks" that only requires me to define one term). Eventually, I noticed, the kids seemed to be following me upstream. I couldnt tell if they were just walking upstream or trying to catch me. Anyway, with waders, I neednt worry about being in the water or out, so I was able to move faster than them. Eventually though, they got within earshot when I was looking at an exposure and they asked me what I was up to. More specifically, they asked me if I was with the forest service and if I was trying to "save the forest." they asked if I had a petition. They then were disappointed to find out I was just a grad student...especially since, as they told me, they would totally sign a petition if I had one. I guess the shovel/waders/clipboard really does give me instant credibility amongst hippie kids playing in streams. Wait a second...that used to be me. Crap. I have grown into a hippie kid, studying to work in streams. I told them to make sure they washed their feet when they got home (they were barefoot) because the water no doubt contained all kinds of bad stuff. They didnt like this last piece of adult-ish advice as they left me and they didnt respond.

Stay tuned for my next story about a rock that comes to life!

DAlen

Day 7

2009-06-21T14:41:00.001-07:00

Picture me walking down a fairly busy, 4 lane boulavard on a sunday afternoon carrying a backpack with a pair of waders (picture a backpack with a pair of rubber legged boots) and holding a shovel in one hand. That is how the story ends.

In case youre wondering why I would walk 2+ miles in a creek, I will fill you in. Its graduate research. I am looking at sediment deposits in floodplains in the banks of the city streams to find clues or remnants of previous dam existance. In other words, I walk in the creeks and look at the dirt.

So, after being told not to come into work, and after bailing on the special father's day church service, I decided to seize the opportunity to finish walking a stretch of creek that actually flows through my school. I was excited to finally see what is looks like for a creek to "begin." Maybe that really does make me an earth sciences weirdo...the excitement of seeing what we in the industry call "headwaters." (In turns out the creek basically starts under some grassy field in a trailer park....very much a let down).

I parked my car at the Target and walked to the tunnel where I knew the creek came from under the large road. The other day, I had stopped walking at this tunnel, on the other side. It has to be 1/5 mile long and ultra-creepy due to the darkness. I was on the other side now though, and walking away.

I walked a little over a mile and thought I was doing well. I had seen some interesting bank exposures. Unfortunately, I also had come to some major log jams. finally, I reached one that I was not willing to try and climb through. All the debris makes for great snake and critter homes, not to mention winged stinging creature habitats. So, I pawed my way up one of the steep banks to see a well manicured, clearing in a wooded area. It was quite peculiar. There were no houses or roads nearby...just this obviously cut grassy clearing. then I saw a ladder up a tree and realized I was in an area meant for shooting deer. I quickly moved back to the creek and down into it on the other side of the log jam.

Walking in a steep banked creek (with banks 10+ ft tall) is like having blinders on. all you can see is where you came from and where you are going. Everything happening above the bank you cant see. Where you are really is all a mystery.

Eventually, i got to a point where there was lots of rust in the water. Then I came to a place where I saw the rust flowing in the water. then I walked further up the creek and found the water was clean appearing. I found places where there were lots of fish and no debris and no garbage. It made me happy. Then I came to a place that bordered a trailor park. Then I found bicycles, baby toys, random large appliances, and pieces of buildings in the creek. It saddened me. Then I found dogs on the not so tall banks anymore and they barked at me. People in trailor homes shouldnt be allowed to live near streams.

then I came to a large split, and the stream banks went from being 6 ft wide to being shoulder width. So, I got out and found a barbed wire fence to go through into the trailor park.

the sign on the fence (as I looked from the woods towards the trailers) said no trespassing. I wondered who it was meant to keep out. Maybe it was meant to keep the literate deer from leaving the nice forest and going into trailer park to cause problems.

Walking out of the trailer park, I found myself lost...a little. Then I found myself, somehow about 5 miles from my car. I walked about 2.5 miles in the stream and ended up 5 miles from my car. That, my friends, is magic.

Its been too long...

2009-06-10T12:40:00.000-07:00

My apologies. It has been a long time since I last wrote. This can be blamed on...

1) the two weeks of non-stop racing action at Lowes Motor Speedway- I got a job at their resteraunt, so I worked really long days for the last weeks of May. On the brightside, I made tons more money than I originally expected (picture me wearing a tie made out of hundred dollar bills)

2) the one week on the AT- well, it was actually more like a few days. I was trying to connect with a friend who is hiking...she has been going since March and plans to hike the whole thing, ending up in Maine in September. We say a giant timber rattlesnake right on the trail. I have never seen one so, I was especially excited (I wanted to catch it, but the logical female in our party kept us safe...BORRRING). The 2nd day, I almost stepped on another rattler while picking "toilet paper." We also survived a huge thunderstorm, which was pretty cool.

3) the interspersed days of doing graduate research- I am walking in streams. Its hot work and gets a little miserable when my waders leak...which is almost always. There are lots of snakes and critters around too. I am also not completely sure that what I am doing is correct, but I am going to keep doing it (as my advisor suggested) until she gets back in July.

4) filling in any remaining time with Muah Thai and Jiu-Jitsu- I might try and compete in the NAGA Charlotte event next month. My class would be beginner and weight class will ideally be 139.9 lbs. We'll see.

Otherwise...nothing new. Living on the trucker friend's living room floor. He has a pseudo-girlfriend now....which is crazy weird. I didnt think he liked girls...not that he is gay, he seems to dislike everyone equally.

Are we a product of our...

2009-05-13T13:14:00.001-07:00

Are we products of our habits?

Do we live our lives habitually? Is there some point- when we get the job that we want, the mate that we want, the house that we want- where we stop thinking about what is going on and we just "do" without having to think? Can we turn into automated humans even before we get to the place that is our goal?

How often do you think about what you're doing and why you're doing it? For example, I go to the bathroom regularly, just as anyone else might. Just like anyone else, once I step through the doorway I turn on the lights. Why? Is it because I need light? No. During the day the window gives more than enough light to read by, or do anything else that i might be doing. Actually, at night I intentionally don't turn on the light because it hurts my eyes, so in actuality I never NEED the light. The amount of extra light I would have in the daytime is negligible. So, why do I turn the light on? Because I have been doing it for over 20 years. So, what if I don't turn the light on? Will that change things? No. Its not about turning the light on or off every time. Its about thinking about what is going on around me, deciding if I need the light, and then making conscious, in the moment decisions about my actions. What would happen if this became the norm instead of habitual action? I would become less of a machine, less of a creature acting on impulses programmed into head by years of repetition.

Are we products of our emotions?

Two days ago I was a victim of theft. My bikes were stolen. Given the option, I would have inflicted bodily harm on the people who did this. I have thought a great deal about this. Something inside me, deep down inside, makes me want to hurt them. I feel anger and revulsion towards these two people I don't even know, and I want to harm them. Some describe this as "seeing red." As I experience this feeling, I wonder to myself what then is the difference between me and a predator given the option to kill prey. They too do not think about peripheral circumstances and have only one purpose, one feeling. They want to hurt something else.

Although I am not terribly upset at the loss of my bikes, the premise still angers me. And yet, as a Christian, I wonder how to conquer or rise above my base feeling. I wonder if I do indeed ever come across my bikes, with someone else on them, what will I do? Will I be overcome by anger and lash out? Or can I not be a product of this dangerous emotion?

I am thinking a lot about the bikes, and since I have the power to think about people in order to come across them, I think i might see my bikes again. So, time will tell the answers to my questions....

Being 28

2009-05-05T11:25:00.001-07:00

My original intention was to write about the day I turned 28. So, here goes....

Woke up at 11:00. Went to church at 11:30
After that, went to Aldi's. Ran into an old friend who is now married and has a 6 month old kid.
Around 2ish, I went to tutor the 6th grader I work with. She is having trouble with fractions, which apparently is the only thing they study in 6th grade math. Fractions come in approximately 327 different forms.
Once I was done tutoring, I came home (i.e. Justin's living room), got my creek stuff, and went out to Harrisburg to look for some mill dams. I trespassed on some property to get to the river, talked to the owner (he was wary of me on his land), and then proceeded to not find a dam(n) thing. From there, I drove to where i thought another dam used to be, and could find nothing there either.
Went home. Played online poker. Went to bed.

Not very interested, if you ask me.

Do y'all remember what your 28th bday was like? do you have big anticipation about what it will be like?

For me, I could never have anticipated I would be here: back in grad school, living in a friend's living room, single, and spending large amounts of my time chasing the dream of someday fighting in a cage at 135 lbs. I really thought that at this point I would at least be married. Thank goodness I am not though. I wouldn't have the time.

I have noticed that this phase of age seems to be "friends getting divorced." I liked much better the "friends getting married" and the "friends having kids" phases.

It seems the rich engineer plan has fallen through also. Now, I am on the plan to finish my graduate degree and get an Earth Sciences job. If only Bridget had never convinced me to study some geology in grad school and Nicole had never convinced me to move to Atlanta.

The sunday church message about re-centering oneself in an effort to become "the one" (i.e. that person that someone else thinks they are meant to be with) made a lot of sense. We, and particularly I, have spent lots of time trying to find "the one," that person that fantasy and romance media tells us we are meant to be with. Doing this means you lose focus on defining yourself...I lost focus on defining myself as a Christian who is called to serve and love not just one woman, but everyone. Thus is my birthday present to myself...and it is hopefully a birthday present I will remember and use for many years to come.

Otherwise, I will be going to the beach to see a friend who is graduating...and giving myself the other birthday presents of margaritas.

Christian?

2009-04-26T20:23:00.000-07:00

I have been doing probably too much reading about Christianity. One of the things I am reading is sort of a response to the Emergent Church movement written by two guys who are more on the Orthodox side of things. I was given the book by two close friends of mine...father figures in my child-to-christian-man journey. They wanted me to read it, because they are on the side of the argument that says the emergent church is missing some key points and their theology is flawed. So, I am reading the book.

Whether or not I agree is going to have to be at least 5 postings, so I may just save it for some other venue. the important thing is though, just by reading the points and counterpoints, I have become more aware of some key things.

Both sides agree that "works," or the "doing" of Christian things (behaving in line with what Christ would have wanted) is important. The orthodox people believe (i think) that it is the manifestation of God's love through us, and is something of a byproduct of being Christian. The emergents, frustrated by so-called "Christian" who lack the outward intentions to help their neighbors, have decided that this behavior is of a higher priority, and should be one of the major foundational points of a growing/ developing relationship with God. These points being said, when I look in the mirror or when I look at my church friends, I wonder what has been done in the name of my faith today that Jesus would have wanted?

Rob Bell says that it is not enough to be a Christian who doesn't step on the toes of those who aren't. Christians throughout time have caused so much suffering we cant resort to pacifism to make up for it (of course really, nothing we do can make up for it). We must be offensive in our plans to make our actions synonymous with Christ, and hence synonymous with Love.

Think this all sounds too hard to do anything with? Its not. Find some small thing you can consciously do everyday that serves your neighbors and shows your love for everything. I have resorted to random acts of helping people with car trouble. Last week I helped push a car out of an intersection. I have also started to be more mindful of the small creatures around me. today I stopped on an off-ramp to make sure a snake got out of the road. I also later saved a spider off of a friend.

These things are small...and may seem insignificant. But they aren't. They are training for bigger things. Each thunderstorm starts with a single drop.

Wanna help? Ask your neighborhood Christian what they have done today that would make Jesus happy?

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

2009-04-24T18:28:00.001-07:00

I have found that I have my own Jekyll and Hyde type issue.

If you were to come across me today, you would see a man with short hair, no facial hair, and mostly normal clothes. When I worked at Carrier, I became a khaki and polo type guy. Now that I am a student, I am slightly more casual, but still your typical t-shirt and short guy. I would introduce myself as Will, we might say a few cordial words, but you'd probably forget me. And yet, this is what society seems to want. I am supposed to just blend in. You might not forget me if I had visible tatoos or facial piercings, but you also would not want me tutoring your kids or serving your food (both things I do).

Unfortunately, there is something in me that lurks just below the surface. He is DAlen. Nobody forgets DAlen. Although he knows lots of people, MORE people know him...more people know OF him. Its probably the mohawk. Plus, of course, once you ask him to repeat his name 5 times and then you understand what he is saying, you just dont forget the name. You especially dont forget him if he is interviewing for a job...even with the mohawk down in "business" mode.

So, who would you hire first? The guy you forget? or the guy who you remember, but only because he doesnt fit?

I have been really wanting to go back to DAlen for awhile. I of course cant re-cut my hair because I am a server, but I can go back to the name. Will has been nice and easy, but maybe DAlen will hold some new interests for me. Maybe i'll get that internship afterall and I can ease into the mohawk. Those people seem passive enough that nobody would say anything. I would have to make my value known first, but then I think it would work. Of course, they would need to return a phone call first.

As for the ending of this random rambling...I got nothing.

Zen and the art of walking in steams

2009-04-03T17:48:00.000-07:00

For the first time today, I went out to walk in a stream. If this sounds like a bizarre intro, then let me fill in some of the blanks. I am doing some graduate work on whether or not 19 century mill dams had an impact on stream formations and possibly if this happened here in charlotte. Most of the work will require me to look at stream cut exposures. The best way to look at stream cuts is from inside the stream bed....and therefore the best way to find exposures and look at them is to walk in the stream.

The first thing I noticed was that walking in moving stream water is a little different from walking on land. If you lean as far forward as you do when you normally walk, you wont be able to move your feet under you and you will end up face planting in the stream. Walking in a stream is a very deliberate task...each step has to be planned and completed before moving to the next one.

The second thing I noticed was that my left wader/boot was leaking.

I came upon a guy taking pictures. I was squeezing around a downed tree, and he wanted to take a picture of the tree, so I think I was in his shot. Eventually, I worked my way up the stream to where he was, and we began to talk. Although he didnt say so, he thought it was peculiar to see a person walking, literally in a stream. I had waders on though, so he could see I wasnt doing it accidently (his facial expressions and eyes gave away his thought processes). Naturally, he asked me what I was doing. "I am just looking at the stream for some graduate work." "Well, how is the stream doing?" At this point, I didnt know how to answer him because I am not answering a "doing good" or "doing bad" type of question. So, I proceeded to try and tell him the premise of my graduate thesis without using too many earth sciences terms ("flood plain," "sediment," and "wetlands" were inescapable). I am not sure how much he understood but he was cordial. Then he told me about a herd of deer he had seen and some beavers he saw on the stream the previous year. Its funny how a man with a camera looking for animals and a guy with waders walking in a stream looking at dirt can talk like they have known each other for a long time. We said goodbyes and gave our parting greetings, and onward I slogged.

Slogged is definately the right term here.

I saw a snake. It was a tiny snake. Tiny is the species.

The world looks different from the deep channel of a shallow stream. All you see is sky and trees. All you here is the water moveing past your each step. Everything is peacefull in shallow appearance. There will be plenty more where this peace comes from.

I was saddened to see how much garbage there was in the stream. I felt like the indian guy from that commercial, with the single tear....except I am more indian than him (he was hispanic) and I didnt actually cry (of course, he probably didnt either).

So...yeah...left sock got very wet.

DAlen/ Will

Soon I will be a Master...

2009-03-22T16:05:00.000-07:00

Finished the rough draft of my thesis proposal today. Its all down hill from here. Soon, I will be a master! All I got to do now is walk in some streams (6-8 weeks), compile everything into a report, and make a conclusion. Then, presto...Masters Degree!

on an unrelated note....

Yesterday I went to work at Habitat for Humanity. Everytime I wake up to go volunteer I regret it. Its so early and usually cold. There is this 15 minutes span of time where I really wonder why I am up so early on a saturday and wonder if anyone would even notice if I went back to sleep. Interestingly enough, I usually spend the next 5.5 hours glad that I made the decision to go. The ideas and methods of Habitat are so good, and you can really see the work youre doing. the homeowners are usually around also, and they are oh so gratefull. At the end of the day, you can look at your hands and see the ware and tear. It makes me feel like a man.

Yesterday, as I sat on top of a wall on the 2nd floor of a home, with a 25 foot fall if I leaned backwards and a 9 foot fall if I leaned forward, I felt at home. Big nails and a big hammer in hand. We started with a floor and ended with walls, rooms, and setup for trusses.

Its times like these when I most feel the tug of God's will on me to serve others.

TO DC... (spring break)

2009-03-09T11:43:00.000-07:00

probably to do a lot of walking around and sleeping...especially if its this nice all week.

I'll write all about it when I get back.

DAlen

If you got rid of one thing everyday...

2009-03-01T20:37:00.000-08:00

If you challenged yourself to get rid of one thing in your life everyday, how long would you be able to keep it up?

And really, it can be anything. Technically, it could even be food. In that respect we could all go forever. What about a possession though? How many possession do we have that we don't need, nor do we ever know that we even have it?

One of the things I enjoy about moving is that it really forces me to take an inventory of everything. Well, maybe it doesn't force me. I do it though because I want to know that everything I physically move with my own two hands is worth it. So, I usually try to get rid of things in the process of packing and inventorying.

Today I finally decided to jettison a bottle of sea shells I had. When I was in college, my Mormon roommate one decided to give me an almost empty bottle of Calvin Klein cologne. I guess it was kind of a weird gift, but the opportunist in me was grateful. I used up all the cologne eventually and then filled the pretty clear bottle with very small seashells. I always though it was so pretty...and thus I held on to it for 6+ years. Today, I tossed it. Well, actually I poured the seashells into my plant (it likes new material) and then I recycled the glass bottle and plastic top. Not before taking 30+ pictures of it though.

I find it makes it easier to let go of stuff if you take tons of pictures of it. Slowly, I am converting all the things I physically own but don't need or use and turning it all into digital pictures...all the while transferring the associated memories, of course.

I cant believe its snowing.

Mail, Secret Millionaire, and Octomoms...better versions

2009-02-26T18:41:00.000-08:00

Twice in the past week now, I have come into possession of mail that is not my own. Its easy enough to put the mail back in the slot (which sends it back to the post office or back to the sender). Its also really easy to just throw it away. But, once you think about it, especially living in an apartment complex, how hard is it to just personally deliver to the correct apartment? Answer: Its not hard at all. This, though is the ultimate microcosm for our society. How hard is it really to recycle? How hard is it to carpool? How hard is it to spend 2 hours a week serving food to the hungry, building homes for the homeless, or just stopping to assist someone with car trouble. Answer: Its not hard at all. So then, why are there so many people not lifting a single finger to help the so many fewer that have so much need?

Sometimes it just takes a little inspiration. Are you lacking? Then, I would suggest watching a little bit of Secret Millionaire. I think it only ran for about 8 episodes on FOX, but I really think they hit the nail on the head. Furthermore, they really show that somehow our country is screwed up in that the only people helping the poor, are the people slightly less poor. The people who basically have nothing are giving more of their time and abilities than the people who have it all.

http://www.hulu.com/videos/search?query=Secret+Millionaire
(Warning: This show could cause crying...a weird sort of happy/sad/ breakthrough in therapy crying)

You should watch these. Don't watch them more than 1 episode a week. If you were ever in Americorps, you can understand a lot of this already (so you gotta get your friends to watch it with you!). I just got finished watching episode number 5. The one lady reminds me a lot of Octomom...well, actually the lady who owns the salon reminds me of her too. The difference is the focus on self. Octomom wanted a big family for her own benefit. She didn't care about the impact it might have on the kids...especially with many of them being handicapped. She WANTED something, so she made it happen despite how much it would hurt others. She was SELFISH. The women in the show on the other hand, acted SELFLESSLY. She even said that if she could she would have 50 kids. But, instead of making more, she took in more of the unwanted and impoverished kids. She is helping to fix problems instead of creating more....because she is doing for the benefit of the kids. Her benefit is second to the greater good.

Let me come down off of my soapbox for a moment...

On a more comedic note, I love the look of terror on the people's faces before they tell them that they are really crazy rich. There is always such calm on the poor people's face though...almost as if they have spent their life hearing bad news, so they know that whatever this stranger is about to tell them wont compare to what they have already heard.

...a few steps to get back up here and...

DAMMIT! These people are MILLIONAIRES!!!! What is a hundred grand to them? The cheerleader in episode 5 gave away the most money out of any so far that I have seen. If I were a millionaire, I think I would give all the people I met a 100 grand! Actually, I think I will never get to be a millionaire because once I reach $999,999 I will likely just start giving away everything above and beyond that! (I bet each of the cars that they people drive are worth over $100,000!) I cant believe FOX had to put the minimum stipulation on the money giving. Some of these people could probably lift an entire community out of poverty, or at least create programs and centers that would!

Lastly, there is this one funny moment right at the end of episode 5....profound words that are completely the opposite of actions.

"if we all just give a little, we could do a lot." [pan to amazingly giant big-ass house]

Please share this food for thought with everyone you know so that they will all quit their real jobs that they dont like and join AmeriCorps/ PeaceCorps.

DAlen

"My little girl is going to..."

2009-02-15T13:54:00.000-08:00

If you read my last post, you should watch this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhF-ZUyLI50

If you didnt read my last post, watch this, and then read it.

The last little line the mother says has me laughing repeatedly.

If youre in a more somber mood...watch this one. I acutally agree with it very much and it goes with my last posting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cb4dMOdI3Y&NR=1

What if we ran foster homes the same as animal shelters?

2009-02-09T11:04:00.000-08:00

One of the big news stories right now is the lady who gave birth to 8 kids. That would be a remarkably more amazing feat had it been natural, but in actuality, she had 6 embryos implanted in her uterus (two if which split to make twins). So, she actually chose to have the 8 kids, had them created in test tubes, and then she just carried them around for 9 months before they had to be surgically removed. Pretty much everything about this was unnatural. She now has a total of 14 kids, without a husband or any other type supporting parents, and she also has no job. Her plans are to go back to school. She better get some crazy high paying degree (can you major in CEO-ness?).

The price tag for the whole thing was quite exorbitant also. Who knows how she is going to pay for that part of it. I am guessing an insurance company will pay for it (so, all our rates will go up because of her) or the hospital will pay for it (so, our insurance will charge more for us to use that hospital) or maybe somehow taxes will go to pay for it (a bailout, to use a popular term). Either way, we, as a society, are paying for this. The biggest victims though are probably foster kids.

As I write this (and as you read this), there are kids who are living essentially in dorms with no parents. What hope do they have of being adopted when it seems that the first solution to infertility and wanting a "family" is for people to pay crazy $$ to get science to make them a kid?

Its the same hope that dogs and cats in shelters have against the desire for dogs that breeders churn out. They have to compete with a more specific example of what people want. When they lose and don't get adopted, we kill them. What if we let them reach a certain age and then released them? Why cant animals "age out" of shelter care?

Or maybe, we should start killing children in foster care. The chances of a kid who "ages out" becoming a burden to society are great, just like a stray dog or cat will no doubt cause trouble. Currently the options are "MY genetic children in a test tube or someone else's genetic kids (not my problem)." What if the options changed to "MY genetic children or save a life?" What if every time you wanted to create a child unnaturally existing kid had to be uncreated, also unnaturally? What if we hold a lottery for people who want to have kids, and if you win, you have to adopt an existing one first before you can make your own?

extended metaphor gone wrong?

2009-02-02T21:19:00.000-08:00

It seemed so good in my head...then it started to flow out of my ears and onto my blog...

Sometimes, in life, your odometer breaks. The odometer of course is that key piece of instrumentation that tells us not where we are going or where we are. Actually, it doesn't even really tell us where we have been. It pretty much just tells us how long we have been going. It doesn't count when we are standing still, but only when we are charging ahead. The unfortunate side effect of charging ahead so much though is that eventually it can not record the charging anymore. It literally breaks. Then what do you do? Well, you can leave it, thus having no evidence of any forward movement. The upside of course is that many people correlate age with forward movement, so therefore you technically don't age either. Many people seem to not want to age. But with age comes wisdom. That's actually the only way you can come of it. It definitely impossible to listen to an old person's wisdom and effectively take it and use it. No matter what, we make our own mistakes. In the process we get older. The odometer ticks on. So, you fix the odometer, and you don't lie about your age. You don't turn the odometer back. You unbolt the vinyl panel below your steering wheel. Then you unbolt the steel panel beneath the vinyl one. Then you unbolt the bevel and pull the entire instrument panel out. At this point, you shouldn't drive through school zones, because it is impossible to tell your speed looking at the wiring for your gas gage and the duct for your AC vent. Then, you go to pull-a-part, pay your one dollar entry fee, and search for a car that was completely destroyed in what may have been a head-on collision with train. Luckily, everything was destroyed except the instrument panel. Then you pay $20 for a $300 set of gages. All going well, you take that panel apart down to the very last plastic gear...they call it a "worm" gear. Its common for plastic gears to fail in 1997 Explorer odometers. Luckily, this was hasn't. Then, you put it in, replace the gage, add a few screws to your panel in your car, and Voila! fixed odometer! Then, you drive around for a few days just to make sure. Life is once again recording your forward movement. After another couple hours of bolting panels back on, your car looks normal...newer even because you wiped all the dust out from behind the clear plastic. So, you pat yourself on the back for being some kind of mechanical genius and for saving yourself 200 dollars. A few days go by...just enough time for you to recount your adventures to roughly 5 people. Approximately 17.3 miles after that, your odometer will stop working. This leaves two choices: go back to living a life of no record that you were ever moving forward or figure out a way to crush and melt your entire car (to assuage your anger) at home using nothing more than a microwave, some jumper cables, and a Total Gym Ultra (minus Chuck Norris).

"I could have stayed home today"

2009-01-23T10:12:00.000-08:00

"I could have stayed home TODAY"

So, I was somewhere, waiting for something...maybe it was an office or something. As I sit there, thinking about all the random stuff that crosses my brain daily (is there a way to harness the power of the criminal mind?), a lady walked past me. She looked over to a co-worker and said the quoted lines. The inflection in her voice was one of dread, as if she was having a not-so-day and she was staying that man, if she had only stayed home none of the issues she was apparently suffering from would have happened.

I thought to myself how easily it is that we can live in our own time and space and be completely oblivious. Now, I dont know what her specific issues were that day, but I am guessing they are not at all comparable to the problems many people are having today...problems that are a result of not going "in." Many people, me included, have lost jobs. We dont have a workplace to dread going to. Instead, we dread the money we have to borrow to eat or we dread the day after today, when we will likely continue to be unemployed. Nothing like being unemployed to really make you appreciate that job that you used to not care too much for.

I am not talking about people that are miserable at work. she clearly was not miserable. If you hate your job and would genuinely be happier without it, feel free to give it up. She was just sort of unappreciative that someone actually wanted her to work there... make not mistake about it. If you have a job, its because someone wanted you to work. I wish someone wanted me to work, then maybe my phone would ring. I mean really, i would even like it if my phone rang so they could tell me in person that they didnt want me, but maybe next time, and then i could get a chance to actually talk to someone. I feel like I am submitting a resume to a brick wall behind a curtain.

Innaugerations and Bowling

2009-01-14T16:48:00.000-08:00

for some reason, the posts are not ordered by their post date, but rather the date you started them. so, make sure to go back and check out the post titled "whats hanging from your rear view mirror?"

So, last night, Nicole called me...at 3 am! We talked for over an hour. It was kind of surreal, but it was a good conversation. She is still sort of spinning her wheels. She cried on the phone. Nothing is worse than having a girl you love cry on the phone, somewhere too far away for you to get to. You cant do anything about it. In my case, even if I was there, I wouldn't be able to do anything about it. My hands are tied...as they were in our relationship. I cant drive her car for her. Wish I could.

Maybe its the jaded intellectual in me, but it is starting to annoy more and more as people keep referring to Obama as "making history." By shear definition, EVERYTHING that happens in the present becomes history immediately after. I understand that it is a big deal to have a non-white president. Yes, civil rights have come so very far. It just seems to me the more people harp on his race, the more important his race becomes. You know damn well that the first time he makes some kind of decision that is potentially harmful to black people, there is going to be some kind of outcry, saying that he is betraying "his people." Everyone in America is "his people" dammit, whether or not we share the same skin color. Voicing any opinion that does anything but group the people in this country as a whole, as Americans, is counter productive for racial equality. For example: listing some kind of foreign continent in front of the word "American" to describe someones race. Nobody calls me European American. They call me white, but in actuality, they shouldn't be calling me anything. Creating the divisions in order to further equality of them prevents it from ever truly happening.

On a less rant-itive note...
I found the perfect partner to bowl with. Those of you who know me, know that I can be at times a little impatient. So, waiting for people to bowl when it is their turn, really just gets under my skin. I found someone who is always ready, bowls quickly, and then waits briefly while I bowl, and then is ready to go again. When I went bowling last week, we bowled 5 games over the course of 45 minutes. Yes, that's right 5 games. turns out this magical partner is none other than myself. I bowled 5 games in 45 minutes. Oh, and another thing....I bowled a 210! I made a strike or spare on every frame except one. I hit 5 or 6 strikes...cant remember. It was simply amazing...and wonderful. I loved it. then, I went and played Rampage World Tour for about 10 minutes also. I love that game.

Man, I have come a long way

2009-01-12T08:42:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Sunday. Many people in this country spend Sunday morning at church. Ask them "why?" more than twice, and they probably wont have an answer. Its just something they have done since they can remember and will continue to do...lemmings. What things are there in your life that you do, without thinking about them? What do you repeat? If you really dug down and asked yourself why you do these things, is there an answer? Will you continue to do these things, now that you have thought about them? Are you wasting time?

On a sort of unrelated notes (except that its talking about church), I went to church yesterday. I went to a new church called Sojourn, here in Charlotte. It is actually being held in the movie theatre where my current church used to meet. So, I went to check it out. It was very similar to the church I go to (Mosaic), just less polished, and newer. their premise was that this was a church for imperfect people. I liked the concept, but I really feel like any genuine church should have this in their core design anyway (and many in the area do). So, then I wonder, why don't they find a church that already does this and use their energy and ability to move further....instead of starting from scratch and competing.

I didn't like it as much as mosaic, so part way through, i left and went to mosaic. So, yes, i went to two churches in one day. I can remember a time when I didn't want to go to one church... ever! And now, I am going to two churches in one day! Next thing you know, i will be selling all i own, giving the money to the poor, and start wandering away asking others how i can help them. That'll be the day...

What is hanging from your rearview?

2009-01-12T07:59:00.000-08:00

Do you have anything hanging from your rear view mirror? It is sort of trendy and kind of neat to decorate your car with something that is personal. As for me, I used to have two things hanging from my rear view. The first was a blue ring. It was given to me by a unit leader of AmeriCorps NCCC. There was a small paper that came with it, that said what it signified. Since I was in the blue unit, the ring was blue. Simple. The ring however, with its continuous shape, represented more. It represented the interconnectedness of us all. It means that no matter how much you think you can focus on yourself and the rest of the world will fall into place, this simply is not true. It further went on to represent my inability to separate myself from a life of service. Partly this is true because as a Christian, Christ has called me to a life of service. Also this is true though, because after spending a year in NCCC and a year as a VISTA, I can no longer claim I do not know about the need. I cannot just lay in my warm bed with a full stomach thinking the rest of the world is doing the same. I cannot day dream about driving a Maserati that I want to own without first thinking about how many hungry kids in Africa that amount of money would feed.

The 2nd thing I used to have on my rear view was a circular, mini-coin type thing with a dove cutout in the middle. It was given to me at Habitat. I don't remember the paper for it either, but it was something to the effect that the dove represented Christ, and I was to always remember the love that Christ showed for me.

I put both of these on a piece of hemp and hung them from my rear view. This was meant to remind me. It sort of did... but it didn't also. It was detached. I looked at it when I got in my car. "Oh yeah, I forgot, I should be living like this." And then I left it there when I got out of my car.

About a month ago (maybe), I started wearing it around my neck. It is no longer detached. It has now become a part of me. I cannot seem to get a nice, cushy engineering job that will let me buy that Maserati. I do see many, many opportunities to live out the principles embodied by these two pieces of insignificant metal. And I think about them, whether or not I am in my car.

What is hanging from your rear view mirror? What is hanging around your neck?

no comments? anyone out there?

2008-12-26T14:46:00.001-08:00

I thought for sure my last post would receive some feedback. I guess nobody out there is actually reading this...yes, some might call it garbage. Either way, it allows me to delete the info from my brain so i can reformat every so often. Probably will be doing that for the new year, what with the crappy ending of '08...

But, seriously speaking my life has been pretty good. I may have mentioned this already, but I really do feel it. Just by being able to sit at this computer I have more wealth than most people will ever get in their lifetime, and by being able to type on a blog, i have more freedom than all of China.

And I really do feel as though my life has some sort of large guidance to it. I think providence is the word for it. As I am sorting things out and trying to figure out where to go post-Nicole, I find that there are a lot of things that are aiding me. Strangely, these are things that were already around as well. Three of the most prevalent (meaning that I have noticed the most) are listed below:

Music
Wow...so all the heavy emo I listen to is about people thinking their lives are over now that their girlfriend has broken up with them. Overactive i think. It definitely keeps me grounded, seeing that they aren't. So, then i put on some hip hop/ R&B. All the girls sing about how they miss their boyfriends and the guys sing about missing their girlfriends too. Leona Lewis (sp?) has a song who's core principle is "it will all get better in time." I had heard this song many times before, but it really seemed to make more sense to me and where I am at now. Then, I turn the station and hear some ridiculous Ludacris song, and my spirit is lifted. Or I hear Lil' Wayne sing about how all his friends are dead, and I remember that I am blessed.

Church
Immediately following Nicole's departure, Mosaic had a series called "Blues." It was about the hardships life throws at us, and it was about finding true joy, not the kind that leaves along with your girlfriend. I couldn't believe how fitting it was. Now, I am throwing myself into small groups as well, and I really feel like maybe this is for the better. Maybe had lost a little bit of touch with God, having relied more on a relationship to provide what it couldn't, fulfillment.

Friends
Posting a relationship change or a status update on facebook really brings 'em out of the woodwork. You find out who is watching you, and who is watching over you, and who will help in whatever way they can, even if they are in Minnesota. I have also reconnected with many of my older friends, just to sort of tap them for knowledge about their experiences. They have lent their many ears to my self-pity, and in so doing allowed me to hear myself. Then, I can, again, put things in real perspective. I have great friends...friends i consider family. Someday when I have found a way to get rich (and found a way to do it biblically), I will buy you all amazing things. I promise.

In the mean time, Happy New Year!

Family

2008-12-26T13:42:00.000-08:00

So, I wrote a post, and then I changed most of it while writing, and now I have gone back and rewritten it. I don't want to come off as unappreciative as family, and I had done exactly that. Maybe I am unappreciative. Dang it, I hope not. Anyway...revision two:

As I drove back to Charlotte yesterday, I had a little bit of time to think about family. When I say I had a little bit of time, I mean I spent over 8 hours, driving, by myself. Despite my efforts to change the radio station every 10 minutes to avoid, I kept getting caught singing along with Beyonce (If I were a boy). I know what you're thinking. Why didn't I just change the station when she came on? Well, something about that damn song grabs me and pulls me in. I can relate to people addicted to nicotine, because I can definitely feel myself beginning to hate men and I can feel my mental health declining the more I sing to it, but I just cant quit. Sure, it may not hurt me in the long run, but statistics show that 2 out of 3 guys who listen to that song, start singing along with it. Also, 2 out of 3 guys who listen to that song will make the mistake of writing about it on their blog, and then get ridiculed and possibly physically assaulted by their guy friends, for reasons that include but are not limited to: being a pansy, listening to crap, singing along to crap, listening and singing along to crap while being a pansy.

So, yeah, i turned the radio off and began to think about family. Family is tricky. You see, the thing is, they cant fit into the normal paradigm of our interaction with people. There is a special set of rules that apply. Being unappreciative of family is asking for trouble. And yet, may people (myself included) have had huge issues with family. It seems we are allowed to be burdened by them, but if we state that we have an issue, we will get maligned...unless you're joking about family difficulties, in which case it is okay. (that is why the situations can be so tense and weird) And of course, as soon as you admit that family can cause as many problems as they help solve, karma will bite you and somehow wipe out all your friends. then you're screwed.

With normal people, we "collect" and congregate with people we share commonality with. Depending on the importance (in our mind) of the commonality, we will become good friends or casual friends. For example: since I value physical exercise, activity, and the outdoors, my two best friends are guys who like to go hiking, play racquetball, and do whatever other random physical adventure we can think of. For many guys, one of the biggest commonalities they will share with another is the combination of sex and children. This leads a man to become friends with his wife...best friends as many will say. I don't intend to insinuate that these men are not in love with their wives. I am not talking about Love here, but rather friendship. This might actually be an explanation for why people stay married after they no longer love each other, but then eventually split once the kids are gone and sex is less importance. If there is no other commonality, then whats the point of staying together? In reference to marriage or friendship, we choose who to be with. So, if the commonality is less strong, we spend less time with the person. When we are with them, we generally exercise the commonality or use that as motivation to do whatever it is that interests all parties involved.

but what about family? We don't choose them (generally speaking). So, what do you do when you are thrust into a situation where you must interact, but there is no common ground? Maybe this is why so many people dread holidays. Socially, we have created these institutions that require us to gather, because we share genes. In some cases we don't even share genes, but share connection of genes by law! So, what do we do. We visit and exercise the commonality that we do have. this usually amounts to a trivial interest in each other (so, whats new since I saw you 4 years ago?) and also...food.

**Disclaimer: I feel like there is some small aspect of this in all families. I don't feel like it is a large part of the family i visit and see, but there are definitely people i see when i go to the west coast that I have this type of relationship with.**

So, now you have to eat and make small talk until you're too tired to care that you're so bored and tired of eating that eventually you fall asleep at 2 in the afternoon. Then you wake up, make another couple hours of small talk about how you just woke from sleeping because you ate some more, and then you get hungry, so you eat some more. And then you watch a movie. On the up side, you do get to eat tons of food.

If for some reason all your friends are wiped out, family is there by natural law. Your family is supposed to be there for you. They are required to listen to your troubles and give ear to ranting and ravings.

there is something intangible as well though. Somehow, just being around family is nice. You could be in a vacuum unable to make noise, but being next to a family member is comforting. Or, maybe its only comforting because deep down we feel really kind of sad if its cold out, and its a holiday, and we are not with family. Or, maybe this is some kind of proximal effect of familiar Love. Who knows. you can still be around someone who comforts you and be bored though (boredom seems to be a common reason for divorce, and comfort seems a reason to delay it)

Of course, if things are optimal, you'll love football, and then you and the cousins can all play tackle in the backyard while the adults do the small talk/ eat/ sleep cycling.

Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year as well.

The big day is near

2008-12-24T14:39:00.000-08:00

Happy Christmas eve to everyone...and by everyone I mean the whole world (whether or not I actually know you and whether or not you are reading this).

If you haven't yet finished your shopping (which i think is impossible, if you are getting everything for tomorrow morning), there is one item that everyone in America should have. Actually, technically, we should have 1.6 of them, for our 1.6 cars. Everyone needs jumper cables. I went ahead and got everyone jumper cables, and I am sticking beside my belief that its the perfect the

Also, people are getting soap this year. Nicole decided to make soap, and I actually came to embrace the idea. I made some grapefruit soap. I am a little worried the grapefruit might go bad inside the stuff. We'll find out. (just for clarification, we really just did melt and pour soap, not the kind where you have to actually render fat and add lye and all that other difficult and dangerous stuff)

So, enjoy the soap and jumper cables. Help out a stranger...by either starting their dead car or by washing their hands.

Merry Christmas.

Saving Lids, Saving Lives

2008-12-21T21:27:00.000-08:00

So, every time I see that yoplait is doing this "fundraising" thing with their lids, I participate. Today, as I was stuffing an envelope with 26 lids, I wondered if it really made any difference. When I was in NCCC, me and my team collected the lids. I dont remember how many we got then, but I remember doing it. For every lid sent back to them, they donate 10 cents to a research organization for cancer. It might just be breast cancer actually. I dont even know anymore. I see pink and all I think about is breast cancer. My mother died of breast cancer, but that doesnt even come to my mind. It goes from yogurt to pink top to breast cancer. Then I think about the fake ribbon magnets I see on cars. Then I wonder how much money that person in front of me gave to research. Then I wonder if they feel like they are doing their part, by buying a magnet and displaying it. They probably think that it is good that they are raising awareness. Maybe I have been reading too much Dennis Miller, but I am wondering if maybe we shouldnt all switch from "raising awareness" to actually "doing something". You should only be allowed to display a magnet if youre doing something. You can only wear a yellow wrist band because you let Lance Armstrong sleep in your bed while you slept on the couch, the night before he spoke in your hometown. You can only be a S.A.D.D. because you have no friends, because youre a crazed vigilante who pulls your peers out of their cars before they turn them on, beat the crap out of them for almost endangering others, and then you drive them home, safely. Your M.A.D.D. because you taught your kid how to do what I just said.

Raising awareness sure as hell isnt going to fix problems. Its going to get me to collect yogurt lids over a long time, eat yogurt i normally wont (so yoplait can make more money), and eventually mail them in, which forces yoplait to cough up a whopping $2.60 for the fight against breast cancer. What someone needs to do is tell me that they are going to whoop my tail unless i give some money to a good cause, or claim they are willing to give more than me so i can prove them wrong, or say that they bet I wont give as much as them...'cause I'll definitely step up to a challenge, and make us both poor in the process!

Give because you can

2008-12-20T19:23:00.000-08:00

As the week wound down, I remembered that I had signed up to work with Habitat for Humanity today. Coincidentally, the moment after I signed up to work (which required showing up at 7:30 to catch a ride with a neighbor to be there at 8) I was invited to a Christmas party for last Friday night. It slowly set in that I would be awake late and up early, which never works out well for me. The more I dreaded it though, the more I tried to really look at my difficulty in the light of what other problems people have. For example, some people will never get to a point where they can afford a home. Worse yet, these people will pay so much money in rent, that they are only breaking even or worse (as long as nothing unexpected happens and they don't plan to EVER retire). These are the people that Habitat FH helps. compared to my problem of not wanting to drink late with friends and then get out of bed early, there was no question that I couldn't back out.

If you have the resources to give, then you need to give. A lot of what we have in the U.S. is not a direct result of our own hard work. It is an extreme rarity for someone to actually be able to legitimately claim they did it on their own, rags to riches, just hard work and perseverance. For the most part, we are all standing on the shoulders of giants.

This entry doesn't have some feel good ending where I realized my true calling was to help build houses or everyone there was excessively grateful for my drywall abilities. No, this entry has a real ending. I worked all day with Habitat. I got Sheetrock dust in my eyes and nose. I got very dirty. I was exhausted when I was done, and nobody personally thanked me.

The reward has been paid to me long ago, and I have already spent it. Now, I am just giving some of it back. You should do the same.

2 Wheels good, 4 Wheels bad

2008-12-19T11:24:00.001-08:00

There is a certain sense of freedom you feel on a motorcycle.

Today, I rode mine for the first time in a long time. I am really really trying to sell it, but after riding it, I feel like I am going to miss it. It makes exploring that much easier. Plus, it gets great fuel mileage and I can pretty much do a u-turn anywhere, anytime. I notice things a lot more on my bike also. I hear my surrounding more. I am more in touch with the road. I definately am paying more attention to what I am doing, for fear that at any moment my motorcycle might decide to do something beyond my control that will result in catastrophic death. But yeah, its pretty much tons of fun.

I dont have a license plate on my bike either, so I kind of am breaking the law when I ride it...then again, I am pretty much a rebel.

The best and worst thing about Friends

2008-12-14T14:32:00.000-08:00

The best thing about friends is that they care about what you care about. So, when I are in love with a woman, they, to some extent, also have feelings for her. This is why they ask about her, and tell you things to tell her, and are happy that you are happy with her.

The worst thing about friends is that when the woman you loved no longer is with you, they dont automatically know. So, they ask about her. Then you tell them that you are no longer together, and since they liked her (because you liked her), its to some extent as though they have also been deprived of her.

And you have to face the fact again and again that you are no longer with the person you loved, 'cause they are all going to ask about her eventually.

The best part about friends is that once they find out you are struggling, they will help you. The girls will be empathetic and they will listen. The guys will tell you that you were too good for her anyway and that is better to be single (unless you get back together. Then the guys go back to saying she is too good for you).

Girl in the NCCC sweatshirt

2008-12-14T14:14:00.000-08:00

Today, I was at the mall and I saw a girl wearing an NCCC sweatshirt. It made me feel kind of warm and fuzzy inside. My first impulse was to walk right up to her and start talking to her. Then I doubted myself, and thought that would be weird. So, then I thought for a long time about what to say to start a conversation. Finally, after walking around the store multiple times watching her from a distance, I realized that I was even creeping myself out and I gave up on the plan, which actually never existed.

Sometimes I really feel like my life is being guided or coerced in a certain direction. When I saw this girl, I was feely a little depressed and lonely, and just seeing her sweatshirt made me happier, and I also realized that things will work out.

As you may or may not know, recently I lost my job (at Carrier) and my girlfriend. I was planning on being with Carrier and Nicole both into the foreseeable future. Coincidently, my church just started a series called Blues. I actually missed the first sermon because I planned to go with Nicole to a different church I thought she was going to feel more at home in. We went, and it didnt work. Of course it didnt matter, because she is gone. So, since I didnt have a reason to not go back to my original church (Mosaic), I attended. Blues is about finding true joy, even in rough times. Basically, they must have hired a private eye to see where I was, and then they created a series to help me, personally. It seems like this coincidently happens a lot to me.

And one final stand alone statement in closeing:
One of the great thing about the Blues series is an intro with a guy and his guitar, where he says that, with a small correction or adjustment of your fingers, the Blues turns into a happy and good song.

Operation Christmas Child

2008-12-13T07:39:00.000-08:00

OCC (not to be confused with Orange County Choppers, not be confused with Orange County California) is a ministry of Samaritan's Purse that seeks to send shoe boxes of toys to kids all over the world, especially kids in third world countries.

I feel very conflicted about this program. On one hand, I am going to be volunteering probably about 20 hours with these people, I am not sure if the best way to spend that effort is to send them toys. Do kids need toys? How many of these kids need medical treatment or food, but instead end up with toys?

Make no mistake though....these people are dedicated and love what they do. The number of volunteers is astronomical, which is good because the number of shoeboxes is equally astronomical. The scale of this project is pretty incredible. Distributing the boxes is a tremendous undertaking. They go to all continents, often ending up in places that have no signs of modern civilization. They do end up brightening otherwise black-hole-dark lives. I do think that kids should be happy, but this just seems to me to be too much "Americana." All kids should have toys. That's a western view to me.

Furthermore, the program seems to be aimed at spreading the gospel, which I agree is a great idea. However, spreading the gospel to kids using toys seems to me to be a little off. Its lobbying. they are supposed to receive this shoebox as a reminder that God loves them. The shoebox doesn't address any of the real problems they have or will have. If I was one of the kids, I would understand God love. He loves me a shoebox worth, and even though I probably wouldn't have shoes, I would have a box from someone else's.

Maybe this is just me being jaded. Maybe this is just me wishing that all this zeal, all this enthusiasm over toys could somehow be changed to a cause that might genuinely improve the plight of these kids. Any ideas?

Regardless, Merry Christmas.

Crying is ok...Jesus did it

2008-12-09T21:44:00.001-08:00

But first a follow up from yesterday...

Somewhere in Luke it says something to the effect of "from those who have been given much, much will be expected." Crap! Thats me. I have been given a lot and now I am called to give back. This is not a calling to a life of ease and pleasure and fun. I'll probably snowboard when I get the chance though.

on to today's topic.

"Jesus wept."

When I was little, I was raised in a single home. My father was not ready to raise me. So, my mother did her best. Largely, this meant days spent in front of the Disney channel. Maybe this was the case of many other people. I thought my upbringing was weird in this sense. Anyway, with my father being substituted for animated ducks and mice, I didnt get much masculine influence. If I were to see myself like then today, I would call myself a pansy. When I went to live with my grandparents, I did a lot of crying. It sort of became this default emotion for me. Right....pansy boy. I was lead to believe (and probably still believe to some extent) that it was weakness, frailty.

As the Mickey Mouse club became a lost memory in my head, I did my best to work on my emotional stability. this meant not crying, even if the situation was indeed sorrowful or sad. I did not want to weep. To me, it was a stupid thing kids did. It was something women did, and it was okay...for them. I probably still cried, but even now thinking about it, I dont remember when, and I especially dont remember doing it around people. I didnt cry in 4 years of college. I had succeeded in becoming what i thought was stronger.

Then I became a Christian and read some books about connecting with pain. the pain of the world is connected to your pain in such a manner that they are one and the same. Christianity is about love, which unfortunately means that pain must be experienced alongside those around us. Now, I feel like I have lost all the ground I have gained. Dammit if I dont cry as soon as anyone within a damn square mile is crying. And yes, it annoys me. But at the same time, I feel stronger and more whole to be able to express sorrow with someone else, even if I dont know them or why they are crying. I feel connected. And I dont feel weak because of it. Its easy to judge when you see someone else crying. People will judge you when you cry. But, when you cry, when that thing happens that brings such raw sorrow to even the most hardened of hearts, know that Jesus cries with you because he loves you. And maybe this is the same strength that makes me cry...cry with and for your sorrow that unfortunately has to exist is this broken, broken world.

Like I said...its not easy.

A lot has changed, but thats not important

2008-12-08T19:27:00.000-08:00

Wow. I just read the last post. So much has changed since then. I was once told I had a blessed life. Lately I have doubted this.

1) About a month ago, I lost my position with Carrier. They laid me off, and since I was a contractor, there was no warning. It was just "you aren't working here anymore."

2) I went to have a dentist look at one of my teeth, because I was worried about it. turns out I had some pending work that needed to be done, but was neglected. As a result, I had to get a root canal and a crown. Painful, financially more than physically.

3) I have been with a woman named Nicole for over a year. I saw my future as being with her. Now, she has moved out, as our lives have diverged to the point that we are no longer growing towards each other, and especially we are not growing towards God together. Now, I live in a large, two bedroom apartment, alone. Most of her furniture and stuff is still here, since her Dad has a small apartment, and she is living with him. Worse than no longer having her here to do the routine things we did, I am reminded of her just by being here. I have no choice.

So, I question the blessed life statement. But I shouldn't. Even in my stress and sadness, I still have more than most people. My life is still amazing. And I feel like maybe this is going to lead me closer to Christ. Maybe this is God telling me that I have become too content. Maybe I am not meant to be a well-off engineer, but instead a servant. This is my Job (like the book, not the place you go for money). This is where my faith grows. This is where God uses me to do something amazing. This is where I show what it is to be loved, and to love as Christ has told me to.

Unfortunately, it appears as though its going to be difficult. Its difficult to believe that maybe things will still work out with me and Nicole. Its difficult to believe that maybe we weren't meant to be, and i will yet find someone as amazing as her. Its difficult to believe that I am going to get a job before the money runs out. Its difficult to believe what Jesus says. No amount of proving and thinking will make it any easier. This is where I either turn away from the truth, or I turn towards it. Luckily, I have tattoos that have me already pointed in the right direction. Jesus did the hardest part for me already, now I just got to put my left foot in front of my right, and open my arms to what lies ahead.

Found some funny stuff

2007-10-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

Found these hilarious videos.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-444363488647893860

from here, you can click on video 2, 3, and 4. The voice of jesus is weird, but the content is nonetheless really funny.

So, whats new?

1) got a girlfriend name Nicole. she promptly moved to Atlanta as she got a job with Habitat for Humanity International and will be required to travel to europe. Sweet gig.

2) I got a job with Carrier. My title is Rust Czar. Looks like I might become a quality engineer soon. (unless i move to Atlanta)

3) I am working 4 days a week, 10 hours a day. wednesday I take off and work with Habitat. Did drywall today. Covered in dust.

4) Hiking the AT next spring. Looking forward to it. its going to be Epic.

5) trying to decide if I want to keep learning Jiu-Jitsu. I want to save money, but it is a lot of fun. I get quite the wrist workout as I am mostly tapping out alot.

6) If I move to Atlanta, I will likely try and get a sweet job at the aquarium...maybe i can help breed whalesharks.

let me know how you are. love you, --DAlen

Twisty Life

2007-09-12T15:28:00.000-07:00

DAMMIT...I just wrote a long post and pressed publish and my internet went down...and now its gone!

i'll rewrite it later. going over to my girlfriends house. she is moving to atlanta. i think i might move to atlanta to. Then i will be closer to the start of the AT.

Anyone want to go for a walk next March? Maybe start in April.

Breakfast thoughts

2007-08-12T07:52:00.000-07:00

So, as I ate some mancakes for breakfast (exceptionally stout pancakes), I watched a Hispanic guy in my neighborhood interact with his son. He was loading the mechanical jeep his 3 year old drives into the bed of his pickup. the son knew what was going on and of course wanted to help. As the father basically lifted the entire jeep, the son "helped" lift the back end up. I can imagine the son felt like he was really helping, when in actuality, he wasn't doing any of the work needed.

Then I thought how at some point in time I got older and realized when it was that I was actually doing work. People around me didn't tell me I was helping when really I wasn't. We come to know the difference.

Then I thought about how I got older still, and went to school for engineering. I learned that indeed, the little kid was helping. Simply by maintaining contact, he was exerting some force. Whether or not it was substantial is null. Its impossible to keep contact without imposing a force. So, he really was helping.

Then I though how full I was because I had eaten too much pancake.

More FLOWERS!

2007-06-11T16:15:00.000-07:00

The magnolia tress that i saved are still alive and one of them is actually blooming! It makes me happy and they smell wonderfull.

So, as I sat in traffic yesterday, i got to thinking. Why does traffic originally going 70 MPH in two lanes slow down to 5 MPH when it gets turned into one lane and goes through construction? Is it the fault of those people who dont merge until the very end? Or is it just that people are trying to look over and see the dang asphalt machine? Maybe they are interested in what it feels like to be only moving at 5 MPH, like that guy on the giant flattener machine. Either way...it makes me angry. Now, I dont really get angry about much, but for some reason this just gets under my skin. I dont know why, but i'll think about it and get back to you.

Less than 9 weeks until I am done with Habitat and I either become an Engineer (i know, it just might be crazy enough to work) or I go somewhere (maybe MO) to burn the forest with TNC. We'll see.

Happy Birthday.

--DAlen

Gone to MS/WI

2007-05-17T19:33:00.001-07:00

Saturday I leave for MS for a week. Its just like going on Spike when I was in NCCC. This Spike will last 1 week and entail us building twenty houses. Its going to be a little bit crazy, but I am really looking forward to it. They are putting me in charge of a crew, so that should be an interesting experience. I enjoy leading people, and I enjoy building houses. There is probably going to be a lot of pressure though, so it should be interesting.

Friday, I will be leaving MS to fly up to Appleton, WI. There I will see my close friend Brianne for the first time since NCCC graduation in Charleston. I am superexcited to see her, especially to see if we pick up right where we left off. We are going to a wedding in SD, then its back to OshKosh for some relaxing and down time. I am really excited about this little bit of vacation.

I come back to catch the last day of May, and then its 3 months to go until my term of service is up. Its crazy how it has flown back. I am ready to move on though to a new venue in life and to start really preparing financially for my AT hike in spring of 2008.

HAPPY SUMMER TO ALL!

My first rose!

2007-04-27T14:35:00.000-07:00

The other day my first rose bloomed. It sort of happened over night to. I have been watching the plant, as it sent out its first stalk, but there were no buds yet. Then, Voila! Not only has it produced a bloom, it has also created 3-5 more buds, so it will be a vibrant bush of red soon enough.

the same day that it bloomed, I got rid of one of my bicycles. I'll consider it a cosmic karma reward. Since I had 3 bicycles (a road bike, a mountain bike, and a bmx bike), I decided to part ways with one of them. I have never really ridden the BMX bike regularly, so it had to go. I donated it to a re-cyclery (yes, what an incredible play with words). The program requires kids to spend a certain number of session learning about bike maintenance, and then upon completion they get a bike of their own. More info here (http://bikecharlotte.com/index.asp?page=12) I also gave them my helmet (I need to get one more geared towards mountain biking), some old pedals off the road bike, and some cables i had for the BMX bike. now, I can fit all my bikes (2) on top of my car when i move in August.

The question is where will I put the rose bush?

Bruises

2007-04-13T18:54:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning and the first thing i noticed was the pain in my left wrist. Maybe I didnt wrap it correctly last night, or maybe I was just hitting to hard, or maybe i got kicked in it. I dont know. All I know is it hurts. then, I noticed the bruise right on my xyphoid. i didnt think you could get bruises where there isnt flesh...new experience to prove my wrong. There was a general aching everywhere to. So, it got me thinking...

Maybe I dont want to be an MMA fighter. I find there is doubt in my head. The aching from the Muay Thai and Jui-Jitsu is just bothersome and uncomfortable. I think the doubt it probably a normal part of it though, just as doubt exists whenever you train hard for anything. But, I dont feel like I am really training hard. Maybe the distance I travel to statesville is just getting to me. Maybe its the feeling that I have so so much further to go if I do really want to compete. Maybe its the doubt that once I get there, I will find it was all an unrealistic dream anyway because of my leg issue.

Maybe I am already too old to start. Who knows.

Maybe I am seeking validation as a man, while wanting so desperately to experince real, intense, character building competition. One on one. The better man right now wins.

--DAlen

Newest Muay Thai inspired thoughts

2007-04-05T17:28:00.000-07:00

(Warning: no apostrophes were seperated from their parents to make this)

Do you ever want life to just be easy? Why cant things just be nice? Why cant there not be injury? Why cant the sun always shine? Would it really be so bad to only have the light without the dark? Wouldnt you rather live in Eden?

Short Answer: No
Long Answer: Read on

It really is the rough times that shape you. So, what shape are you in if there are no rough times? Well, I would believe that you are on the verge of a total collapse, having no shape, no thickened skin or toughened bone, simply a matter of time before the wind blows too hard and you crumble. Nice is dull. Nice is too predictable. There is no excitement on the couch. Excitement comes from knowing that life might try and punch if you continue down the path youre taking. Life might try and kick you in the head. So, what do you do? You persevere. you learn that getting kicked in the head isnt catastrophic. Its unpleasant. You learn that getting punched also creates discomfort. So, what do you do. You keep your chin tucked. You keep your hands up. You counter, you conquer, and then laugh at Life's feeble attempts at derailing your desire. Then when youre there, standing on top, you realize that life wasnt working against you at all, but molding you to something better. so you look over and say, "Thank you life, may I have s'more." Hands up. Chin tucked. Counter.

Question of the Week: Why is it that the philosophy in my brain spills out more so after getting hit in the head. Shouldnt head injuries slow down your thinking? Its like I have a bubble of deep thought that builds and builds until something jars me, its breaks, and then it pours out my nose and ears...kidding...actually it seems to flow from my fingertips.

Happy Easter Bunny Day
and dont forget to thank Jesus for washing your soul clean.

Life needs mouthguards

2007-03-22T18:13:00.000-07:00

I discovered two incredible things tonight at Muay Thai, thanks to my mouthguard.

First, when you wear a mouthguard, you cant talk real well. I actually knew this already, but I had never really thought anything of it. the cool part though, is that when you cant talk, you have a tendancy to listen and think more. you listen more intently because its hard to say "what?" You think more about what is being said, because youre sort of on your own to figure it out. You breathe through your nose, and you just settle and think. Maybe I should wear a mouth piece in my daily life.

The 2nd benefit, is of course that it protects you. But why would you do things that might cause you harm? Because life might cause you harm. Maybe if your not occasionally doing something that could cause you harm, you should rethink your hobbies and add a little more risk in your life. Someday you will get old and regret having never needed to wear a mouthpiece (or you'll be old without the teeth you lost because you werent wearing one and you should have been).

The Genesis Group

2007-03-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

I have come to a new beginning in my life. It seems the ideal epiphany to come to would be to figure out what I want to do in order to make lots of money and grow wealthy in order to buy BMWs while affording luxurious vacation homes for my parents. Would we all like this sort of transformation and guidance. Read no further if you are vigorously agreeing.

I have decided to give away 1,000,000 dollars by the year 2017. The inspiration came from me seeing a lady on TV at the State of the Union who had created a business that made millions off of a few simple ideas. She looked as ordinary as myself, and I have many simple ideas...more everyday. All I really need is 10 ideas, each producing 10k per year. Seems easy when you break it down like that.

So, as often has been the case in my life, I am nothing without the people around me. If you are reading this, I am assuming we know each other and you are one of the aforementioned people around me. Want to get involved in my grand scheme?There are currently two ways. 1) If you have an idea that you think just might be crazy enough to work, I am likely to agree. or 2) you can take part in the first small manifestation which I like to call...

The Genesis Group seeks to pool "tithe" money. I call it tithe, because there is a biblical reason why I give the amount I do. You, of course, don't need to believe in God or tithing to give. You simply have to want to help others by giving your money and you have to have at least one idea for who you want to give it to. You get to choose the organization the first time you take part in the pool. the rest of the time it will be a consensus or democratic vote. the amount to match of mine is $38. I get paid this Thursday (3/22), so I am looking to make a donation by Friday. let me know if you want in.

love y'all, --Will

I'm back?

2007-03-10T15:59:00.000-08:00

I just saw the new movie "300." It was absolutely incredible. Somehow I feel like there really was a larger takeaway message there. Maybe it was that we should fight and be willing to die for where we stand. Leonides stood for the freedom of his people. Maybe the message is that everyday should be treated as training for that moment in your life when you will have the choice to stand for what is right against all odds and despite total costs. In that moment, we might die, or we might buckle and give way to evil, living "a long life." (this was verbalized as the hope from Leonides to the traitor at their last meeting, moments before Leonides died) Maybe the Spartans had it right when they lived life in search of a "good death," not shrinking in fear from the worthy adversary, but hoping and excitedly looking for that moment and enemy that would put them to the test, a test that they prepared their whole life to pass. The test of giving your life for another, standing in unison on the side of good.

Maybe living life in preperation for this is really the only way to LIVE LIFE. Otherwise, arent we all just waiting to die?

read andrew's blog

2006-12-20T06:15:00.000-08:00

Andrew has a bunch of new postings. he has been spending time in Dar Es Saalam. definately should read it.

andrewinafrica.blogspot.com

Merry christmas,

--Will

No comment

2006-12-12T17:16:00.000-08:00

Maybe my posts are getting routine and lame?

I am going on Hiatus.

Merry Christmas.

DAlen Rice
143 Leonard St
Mooresville, NC
28115

Muay thai is heating up

2006-12-07T18:42:00.000-08:00

I have been told that I talk about Muay Thai too much. Thats quite possible. I find myself thinking about Mixed Martial Arts and Muay thai as I fall asleep, and then I realize that indeed I am not even close to sleep, and that I have concentrated so hard on visualizing possibilities that my body has worked itself into a semi-fight stage. My senses are firing more than normal, and I am even more awake than normal. So I cant think about it, or I will never sleep.

Mom, dont read further if youre in a worrying mood.

My ability to spar has been gradually increasing everytime I go. Also, the intensity seems to be ramping up slightly. I am kicking harder when we work with pads and I am getting timing down better to block kicks and counter. Unfortunately, it also seems that the more I learn, the more familiar I become with whats left to learn...i.e. experiential education in the form of getting hit. Tonight I got hit in my right eyebrow a few times and once in the nose. It was the first time I got hit in the nose, and afterwards I didnt allow the mistake to repeat. All the while, I never felt too tired to go on or too scared. Despite getting kicked lightly in the side of my face later, I wanted more. the pain hasnt deterred me, and has made me want to learn all the more.

After class, myself and this other guy usually do some submission wrestling. Somewhere over the course of us rolling around, I busted my lip and bled on myself. I didnt notice. My jui-jitsu is still so basic. I am learning though and getting stronger.

The drawback is tommorrow my eyebrow may be swollen and the girls may not think I look so pretty. for the most part though, I am pretty sure the parts of me that are attractive have nothing to do with my face...so thats a bonus.

Almost the weekend. We are having a big AmeriCorps party Saturday night. I sort of stopped drinking due to my training, but I will probably let me hair down for the special occasion...not that I have any hair because I reshaved the mohawk due to popular demand.

love you. write comments. stay safe. call you loved ones. --Will

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

2006-11-27T15:44:00.000-08:00

HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!!

I ended up going to Thanksgiving with a friend of mine from work. I did nothing but eat, meet people, eat more, and then lay on an uncomfortable bed and think about sleeping. It was really low key (eating doesnt take much energy) but I didnt get much rest. Oh well. I can go to bed early tonight.

Christmas is coming. Write to me to tell me what you like so I can buy something you want that fits that theme. I am not skipping Christmas this year...but I may take another easy way out and buy you all books!

I have a new email will.dalen@gmail.com

Muay thai is coming along well. My neck is usually sore a few days after, but it comes with the territory. I have been picking larger people to spar with, so that makes things pretty interesting. usually I grapple with someone after we are done as well, to truly drain myself of ALL energy.

My friend Kristen comes into town this week! I am pretty excited. She was on my NCCC team last year and I really enjoyed spending time around her. Kristen is thinking of moving to Charlotte to go to school at Presbyterrian Hospital for Radiology. I am super stoked. Hopefully I can take a half day on saturday so we can hang out some. Regardless, its going to be fun to catch up and hang out.

Merry Christmas future greetings!

--Will DAlen Rice

Regret?

2006-11-07T19:46:00.000-08:00

Tonight was the first time I had a seed of a hint of doubt about my tattoo.

Tattoo some of you may be thinking? I am pretty sure most of you know, but in case you dont, I got a tatto 2 years ago, for Christmas. It says, it mirrored text, "be great" across the left side of my chest. Every morning I see it. It reaffirmes and reminds me that the one absolute I have in my life is my desire to die a "great" man.

It has its drawbacks. Greatness is probably most closely linked to struggle. The more struggle involved, often the more reward possible. While it is possible to live a blessed life with everything going your way, dont plan on it happening to you (unless your life is reality TV show produced by Disney).

So, what caused me to have regret? Well, tonight I started my REAL training at a Muay Thai gym in Statesville. This is the kind of place that is going to push me, teach me as much as I want to learn, and develop me into what I want as an MMA competitor. Everyone was training without a shirt on. I knew if I took mine off, I would be forced to make myself continue more when I wanted to stop. Even worse (or better?), somebody else might see it and push me more than I wanted to be pushed. Essentially, I feared that it would hold me more accountable than I thought I could be. Then I sort of realized how this type of thinking on my part was really what I had planned all along. So, I kept running. I kept crunching. I kept doing all the sadistic isometrics our probably-ex-army-ranger-turned-real-thai-fighter/crazy-exercise-instructor told us to do. And then it was over. And tommorrow I may not be able to lift my arms. And I think I want to spar more even though I got matted with a leg sweep that knocked the wind out of me (dont worry mom...i grow back, and the mats are soft, and wind eventually fills my lungs again once i find it, and he bought me a sport drink cause he felt bad).

Tommorrow holds VISTA training in the mountains. Tons of fun.

love y'all...happy voting day.

a few new things

2006-10-30T14:27:00.000-08:00

There are a couple new things going on.

1. I finally finished working on the master bathroom here at the house. Now I have my own shower. I used a whole lot of caulk on it, so its likely to still be standing when the rest of the house falls over. The drywall still needs a little work, but its in a place thats not seen much, and water doesnt touch it.

2. It can now be currently listed that i am a dog-sitter. I am house and dog sitting for a couple that is somehow related to Habitat. I feel like I have talked to this guy before about something else, but I cant remember. I am meeting them tonight after...

3. Muay thai has now become a staple part of my diet. Mondays always happen at the Y, but I am also trying to fit Thursdays in as well, at a place in Statesville. Its a great facility, except its 20 miles away and it costs a lot. I am negotiating, especially since I only will be going once a week.

4. The ballet starts this week, and I dont have a way to get free tickets yet. I told Haley I would take her, so I gotta think real hard and start making phone calls to publications.

5. My new email adress is will.dalen@gmail.com
write a small note, so i can make sure y'all get it into your adress books.

love you,

--Will

More Mold Please

2006-10-20T13:53:00.000-07:00

So, I may have mentioned that I got to go under one of our houses a few weeks back and do some mold treatment. As a follow up to that incident, I placed a call to the people in charge of the crawlspace to find out what else should be done. They suggested that I:

1. buy one of those white painters suits (Tyvek)
2. buy a real GOOD respirator
3. get a wire brush
4. crawl under the house and brush it all down and then remove it from the crawl

Well, I had experience doing this, so it was going to be quite familiar to me, kind of like being back in the good 'ol NCCC again. I didnt want to relive the moment, but it was nice to have previous experience, knowing what it would be like.

Then, he called me back and told me that he would send his guys in to do the job instead. Even better.

Ever noticed how listening to the Counting Crows either validates your sadness and makes you feel better or it makes me feel better because you dont feel the same way they do? Either way, it seems sad music does the trick. Just like the lady I worked with at the speedway last week. She was always seeming so mad, that whenever I saw her I couldnt help but laugh and be glad I wasnt her. I told her this, and of course she smiled and together we laugh at her sullen mood. She gave me the finger to, through the mirror while smiling, as a joke. She wasnt my server though, so I didnt have to worry about her mood effecting my tips.

I drank a bunch of free champagne that night. It mixes quite well with tea, but not so well with carrying large trays of expensive glassware.

--DAlen

My last entry?

2006-10-11T18:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I created this blog to keep my loved ones and friends up to date while I was travelling in NCCC. Now that my life has become somewhat more stabilized, I am thinking of maybe letting it go. Any public opinion? I know my mom and Carla are big fans, but does anyone else read this?

Tommorrow is the first night of race weekend. I managed to swing a gig as a buss-boy at the speedway club. Jerrod says I can make at least 300 dollars for tommorrow, friday, and saturday. After that money and with my next paycheck I am going to be REALLY close to debt-free on credit cards! the end is near. Then it will be time to create savings and maybe pay some of my students loans off.

Rain Storms here tonight. love y'all.

--DAlen

Beach Weekend!

2006-10-09T17:59:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was spent soaking up the sun and sand in lovely Charleston, SC. Well, actually we did go to Charleston, but there wasnt really any sun. Saturday after work, we basically got in our car and drove south. It was lightly raining off and on all day saturday, so we were glad to get out of here. Unfortunately, the rain was off and on all the way down to SC, and all the way to the beach. Night one of swimming and fun at the beach was cancelled due to inclement weather. It wasnt all a bust though, as myself, Steve, and Tak were privelidged enough to spend the evening with the lovely Jenny and even lovelier Bria (two VISTAs from my PSO in the ATL). There was much laughter and mischief once the lights went out and we all reverted back to the 4th grade.

The next day was sure to be full of blue sky and sunshine. Of course, that meant that it wasnt. The 3 of us left Bria to get rest and get better (she was a little sick with the Bubonic Plague) and went to eat breakfast with Blue 6. Uncle Leroi got to meet the entire team, and then they promptly left to do an ISP. So, we stayed and finished off their leftovers and did some dishes. Then it was to Charleston city to wander the market and cobblestone streets. The afternoon brought with it a relaxing Scorcesi Film (The Departed). Not to ruin the movie for you, but everyone dies. Typical for him. Last nights dinner was held at the Cantina under the hotel on Isle of Palms. Post dinner plans were again going to be swimming, but a much worse storm came and showed crazy lightening.

The lightening actually proved to be much better to watch than another movie, so Bria and I sat on her porch and watched 8-10 branch lightening bolts dance across the sky. It was amazing. I have never seen so many branches in my life. Unfortunately the frequency wasnt enough to make picture taking possible.

Today was our last day in Charleston. Bria went into the record books as being officially my third model. I got one good picture with Kat (first model) and maybe 5 good ones with Brianne. Hopefully I got some good ones with Bria, but I dont have my hopes high. The lighting was bad today and my batteries ran out. Oh well. We did find a wonderfully shady glenn on base with super old live oaks.

Back to work tommorrow. I am only working 2 days this week, because I am working the other 5 at the NASCAR race, hopefully making a bunch of money. So, Tuesday and Wednesday are going to be superbusy.

love y'all,
--Leroi

Life is indeed SWEET!!!

2006-10-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

Life is good. the more I experience, the more i realize that its dang cool. The difficulty is realizing that life is good. You see, there is no one thing that makes life good. Investigating it on a level of single aspects leaves it up to some temporal results. Today is a good day. Tommorrow may be bad. You have to look at the overall picture. When you compare and contrast, the good pretty much equal out the bad. But you see, then you go back and you eliminate the bad, forget that life sucks on stormy days. Look forward to when the sun shines.

One of my friends just got engaged. Congrats Jamie. If ever there was a cooler woman, i dont know her. I am pretty sure she is essentially the woman version of me. She once described me as a cross between her really close ex-boy and the guy that is now her fiance. Pretty sure we will always be friends, whether or not we are near...72 hours will do that to people.

My job is great. the work isnt awesome, or challenging, or up to my mental capacity as an engineer. The pay is crap. the people I work with are cool. I push papers around a lot. but, the motive and goal is incredible. Affordable housing. poverty issues. its where i am supposed to be for the next year...and i will do it best i can.

today, for the first time in my life, i worked on MY garden. I transplanted a morning glory from down the street. i hope it doesnt die. the soil here is harsh.

today is the first of october. today marks the beginning of my training. this will be my year of cardio and strength training. 1 month structured serious self abuse in the name of progress, then 1 month of overactive lifestyling. rinse. repeat.

happy autumn! --DAlen
PS seriously, who sent me the text message!?

"What would you say you do here!?"

2006-09-15T13:38:00.000-07:00

So, everyone is asking me what exactly my new job is. To start off, lets explain VISTA.

VISTA is:
-Volunteers in Service to America
-AmeriCorps branch that tries to eliminate poverty (despite knowing thats impossible)
-the only non-direct branch, which means that we dont swing the hammers, but rather create sustinable programs that enable the hammer to get swung
-the branch that seems to create more policy change than physical "i just did that" change

Now, as a VISTA member, I am working with a Habitat for Humanity Chapter, called Out Towns. Our Towns refers to Davidson, Cornelius, Huntersville, and Mooresville, now which are all partly mine, apparenetly (yes its true kids, not spelling well doesnt disqualify you from being able to own a town). I have an office at the Out Town office. Acutally, my office used to be split between Manny and Phil, the two contruction guys. Manny is in MS right now, and I moved all his stuff to Phil's desk, and took over his computer (which I actually relocated from the Volunteer area, where Syd mainly used it). My (our) original computer was blue-screening (aka broken).

So what do I do? So far, my main project has been dealing with homeowner warranty issues. I have sorted the mess all out. Many of the issues were already taken care of, dont apply because its been too long (we only service the homes for a year), or were an exageration (homeowners tell lots of fish stories). My next project looks like it will involve me educating everyone the benefits of Microsoft Project and the wonderfull world of the Gantt Chart. Scoot back in your chair before you fall off the edge.

I think today I am going swimming. tommorrow I get to do some direct service...but dont tell VISTA!

--Will DAlen Rice

MS...beautifull MS

2006-09-11T07:43:00.000-07:00

I went to MS for the week. It was hot as hell. We framed an entire house. I feel at this point that I could oversee the framing process from the cutting of the plates, to the construction of the walls, to the final process of cap plating. Learning alot is an understatement.

There was also a chance meeting with my old roomy, DJ. He is down there, working it up with an NCCC team for another year. I also managed to catch up with one of my potential life mates, Tori. We went to Wal-mart and just basically hung out and reminisced. It was a short time, but very enjoyable and it seemed like it was just yesterday that we were all together.

Now, I am back here in wonderfull NC. Yesterday we went up to Babel Towers in the Linville Gorge. I jumped a couple times from the cliff. It really put the life back into me. Unfortunately the weather didnt cooperate and some very loud lightning forced us to "oh crap, we should leave." Somehow, the 3 girls i was with got lots of cuts, scrapes, and bruises. It seems that always happens when i get girls to go to water holes with me. Dont know why.

Tommorrow will be the re-start of my job. I dont know what I will be getting into tommorrow, but it should be pretty laid back. Thursday I might go to a concert. Life is easing back into normalcy for me, which means lots of fun here in Charlotte. Sometime this week I'll start training again, hopefully keeping it up for more than a month. Now that I have my UFC poster on the wall, I wake up to inspiration.

I may be getting a cell phone tommorrow. I can almost hear the gasps from everyone reading this now.

be great, be the change
--DAlen

New Spike tommorrow!

2006-09-02T11:59:00.000-07:00

Tommorrow morning, I am leaving at 4:30am to drive to MS to help build houses. We will be staying in some type of Red Cross shelter, getting paid very little, but helping to make a difference. Its like an NCCC spike all over again (minus the blue 6 crowd, the longer-than-one-week stay, and everyone wearing the same clothes). I do miss NCCC.

What have I been doing for the past 10 days? Well, I stopped burning the forest, drove to Athens for my annual birthday party at UGA (Alex's b-day, not mine), drove to ATL for 4 days of orientation, met some cool girls, found a cool bar that rotates at the top of a building, came to Mooresville NC, finished a house to live in, moved in, worked 3 days in the office, worked one day framing walls and finishing top plates, and went to a baseball game. Somewhere in there, I also ended up seeing my old roomy eric, started wondering where my old neighbors Robin, Allan, and Chris are, played some Stout Frisbee golf with Cody, and hung out with Jerrod and his girlfriend.

Life is good...as long as you want it to be.

--DAlen

Yay comments!

2006-08-19T21:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I got the comments. Thanks everyone. I'll try and dig up some good naked pics from somewhere. It could take a while though...girls dont really talk to me much.

I just discovered some really good music. Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. Theyre gonna go big when people here them.

Only a few days left until the new job starts up. It looks like I might get a chance to go to MS to do some building right at the beginning of my service year. Maybe I can reunite with Tori.

How is the rest of the team doing? Anyone out there?

Life is good. So was Little Miss Sunshine.

The mohawk is back.

--DAlen

No Comments

2006-08-12T10:11:00.000-07:00

I havent had any comments in quite some time...so I am wondering if anyone still reads this. So, I am resorting to time tested and proven tactics to get people to read my blog...

If there is a comment next time, I will make sure to post pictures of NAKED GIRLS and HOT GUYS...possibly even with FIRE IN THE BACKGROUND. So, tell all your friends.

So, yeah, this week was crazy long and hectic. Allow me to fill y'all/you guys in.

MONDAY
We had recieved word the previous week that we would be assisting with a muck fire, which had been burning for about 3 weeks (see Aerial burn that we helped set). The problem with a muck fire, is that it burns below the ground, and previously burnt material is able to somehow reburn. This fire, had actually burnt itself below the water table as well...some call it magic. In the latter part of the day, we manned hoses and added water to make mud puddles. The morning was a little less productive, as we moved about 2000 ft of hose in order to set up a GIANT sprinkler...a sprinkler running off of 6" diameter hose lay. Thats pretty ridiculous, since most of the time we are working with 1.5" diam hose. It looked to be a long week of muck.
TUESDAY- 14 hour Day!
Since we had burns to do, we didnt have to work the muck! So, we packed up and travelled to Archibold Bio Research Station. We did the first burn, with not too much problem. The 2nd burn, ended up being a nightmare. The fire breaks (lines, sometimes roads, where fire cant travel across the gound) were pretty much non-existant. One line we worked was tall grass. Other lines were palmetto mulch. So, you light the grass on fire, let it burn towards you a little, and then spray it out with water, letting the other side burn on into your bounded space. Then later you worry about whether or not fire started again and is burning somewhere at this very moment...somewhere it shouldnt be. Mulch burns as well as grass, so using it to stop fire is like putting your boat in the ocean to keep the pirates away.
WEDNESDAY
This day was sweet. We got ready for more muck fire, and then found out that forestry didnt need us anymore...so we did prep in the morning, and then burned out a unit here at our preserve. There was no holding...the fire couldnt spread. Take a torch, look for something that will burn, and add lots of fuel to it so it rips!
THURSDAY- my run in with the law
This was another good burn day, working with the game commission. Towards the end of the fire, I was standing out near the main highway, our south line. Suddenly, a Sheriff Deputy pulled up, lights flashing. She started asking me all these questions, which I didnt really know the answer to. Then she proclaimed that there was zero visibility on the road, power poles were about to be burned, and this didnt look like a controlled burn. I start to tell her it was a prescribed fire and everything was fine...but she walked away and started calling everyone to tell them about the chaos. The fire was really tame at that point, and visibility was about 5 miles. I guess maybe she had never seen much fire before. So, the fire department and dept of forestry both came by, and asked why they were called, because indeed nothing was going on. My boss got a kick out of it, and the burn boss couldnt really figure out the drama of it either. She eventually drove away, and everything was fine.
FRIDAY- the biggest 2 acres ever
We did a small sandhill burn of a property inside a gated community. Apparently, it was a very rich golf community, so there was a little added stress. We were burning wiregrass to try and promote some endangered plant to comeback. We could have yelled to each other across the unit it was so small. Unfortunately, again there were no control lines, so it was a balance of lighting/spraying with water. Then, we had to fully mop-up at the end, which means nothing can be left burning, or smoldering, or even steaming really.

All in all, I learned a lot, worked a lot, and made a lot of overtime, so life is good. One week to go, and its back to the big city!

--DAlen

3 easy steps to your very own prescribed FIRE!!!

2006-08-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

Step 1: Light Fire

Step 2 and 3: Burn and Enjoy

is it hot in this fire or is it just me?

2006-08-01T14:22:00.000-07:00

Life is still good down here. Yesterday and today we burned some units right here in our own backyard. It beats the heck out of travelling somewhere else to burn. i had a case of the mondays, which in this line of work and location translates to a little open flame induced semi-heat exhaustion.

I lit an edge of palmetto scrub yesterday...saw some 50 ft flames torching trees (unfortunetly). Then I ran out of fuel, and the only source of more torch mix was across the lake. so, myself and my roomate Parker decided to meet up, and each of us waded into the lake. luckily it was only about 2.5 ft deep. Of course, it was marshy, so we were both waiting for an alligator to come say hi. i actually was excited about getting my feet wet, hoping they would cool off, but it was really more like wading into a bath tub with leather boots on (kids, try this at home).

Anyway, I got pictures, and most of you will probably be forced to look at them next time I have been drinking and we are partying at my place.

Deep thought of the day:
What would your life be like if you decided not to be bothered by things? What if, say every month, you could concentrate and endure a discomfort, so much to the fact that it no longer became bothersome? This would mean that you could overcome 12 new pain-in-the-rear experiences every year! The current one I am working on is gnats. I am on the verge. As long as they dont actually get in my eye or in my lungs, i can take them buzzing around my ears. they start to sound like music after a while.

Next update: are the tractor brakes working yet? who knows? maybe it needs a new master cylinder? or maybe i get frustrated and lite it on fire. Stay tuned!

--LEroi

Ever been "that guy?"

2006-07-25T16:51:00.000-07:00

I got a chance to go surfing last weekend...and it worked out really well. the waves were small, but shapely and wide, so the learning capability was great. I caught a few, fell off the front of a bunch, and even paddled over to where the surfers arent allowed and got airhorned at by the lifeguard. All in all, a great day. I will probably go back this weekend. An interesting thing happened to me while I was there though. I saw a large sea animal of sorts swimming near me. It didnt come to the surface to breath, but I could see some fin stuff breaking the water surface. I kept my eye on it. It eventually swam over near some people, who didnt notice, but then did, and immediately got out of the water and told the people near them to do the same. Shark? quite possibly. a little annoying to because I missed some waves while i was waiting to see where it would go.

Have you ever been driving down the road and you look over and see a guy driving a small tractor? You think to yourself how funny it is that he is driving a tractor on the side of the rd. Its not as though he is using it like a car, he is just moving it. There is always "that guy" with his tractor on the regular rd. Now, have you ever looked over, and up a little, to see a guy driving in his mammoth tractor? I'm talking the big kind with a steal cage you could wrestle another person in. The kind of tractor that almost goes fast enough to get to the speed limit in most school zones. Ever seen "that other guy," driving the giant tractor? That was me today, as I think I spent close to an hour just driving a tractor from point A to point B, alot of which happened to be on a big road. It was funny to me to think about it as I did it. Thats all you really can do on those things is sit there and think. It was a good respite from constantly burning. Plus, it was apparently 105 degrees today!

stay cool in the heat wave.

--DAlen
PS I heart my secret buddy and peanut trail mix...probably send some fresh mangoes your way along with my backstock of buddy gifts.

Dalen's cool weather tip

2006-07-21T16:31:00.000-07:00

Tip of the day:
So, when it is really hot outside in the sun, and there is no shade around, the best thing to do is create your own shade. This can either be done by forcegrowing a tree to make in instant canopy (very difficult to do) or by simply burning 100s of acres at one time so that your smoke column is so great that is literally creates its own clouds that block out the sun. I would suggest this second option

We burned with the Dept of Foresty again last monday, doing another aerial ignition burn and torching some 600 acres of fire-dependant ecosystem in less than 3 hours. Then, it was back to the Gainsville area for burns on tuesday and wednesday. Because of working until saturday last week and because of burning so much in the beginning of the week, we worked only a part day on Thursday and had today off.

I cant decide if its hotter wearing tyvek and gutting houses, or wearing nomex and setting fires. I feel like I sweat more gutting, but its hard to get hotter than fire. I am learning a lot and enjoying it still, although it is quite exhausting. the workouts have been pushed to the wayside in favor of reading and more restfull activities. My term here is about half way through...and then its back to the lovely queen city. I miss everyone there and look forward to seeing all of you soon.

--DAlen

crazy end of week (HAPPY BDAY JILL!)

2006-07-15T15:51:00.000-07:00

Burns to date: 6 (2 at Disney, 1 here, 2 in Gainsville, and 1 near hear with DoF)

Wednesday afternoon:
I got the privelidge of using a brush cutter tractor attachment wednesday to mow fireline here on our preserve. As the day got later, I noticed Matt, my coworker, hadnt come to get me with the ATV yet. I lost my watch burning last week, so i didnt know that it was 6 oclock already. Once i finished mowing, I called Matt on the walkie, and found out he was stuck in a bog with the ATV somewhere in the SE corner of my big map. I drove to find him with the tractor, and sure enough he was deep. We couldnt manually remove the ATV, so we slowly drove the tractor close to the ATV to pull it out, almost getting the tractor stuck for probably eternity. finally got the ATV out, and I raced back to put it on the trailor, tying everything down right before a huge thunderstorm hit. Matt (on the tractor) got soaked. On the ride home, we found out we would be burning the next day.
Upon getting home, we found out we would be driving up to Univ. of Florida, and needed to leave thursday at 4:45...AM!!!!
Thursday:
Met up here at the office at 5 am, way early for any normal job. Then we drove to Gainsville, getting there around 9. Fire was on the ground by 10, and we burned about 150 acres. It was just like GA...wire grass flat wood. It burned very nice and clean. Then we proceeded to spend about an hour or two after everything was done mopping up some. It wasnt so much fun. We finished around 6ish...a long day.
Highlite of the night/trip: our hotel had happy hour, which meant free drinks for an hour. Hello Ms. Margarita.
Friday Morning:
Met up at 9ish for a second day of burning. Another 150 acres went up nicely. I learned a little more about ignition techniques for higher or lower intensities. Mop up took a little longer this time, but we did a lot of it while the burn was going on. All flaming or smoking debris within 30 ft of the fire line had to be drug in or put out.
We went ahead and stayed an extra night, knowing that trying to drive after two really long days probably wouldnt end up well.
Saturday Morning:
Woke up around 9ish again...got some free breakfast and drove back. My weekend didnt start until 1:00 pm on Saturday. But then again, you could argue that everyday is like a weekend when you love the work you do...and whats not to love about burning the forest?

Other highlite: yesterday during mop-up, i got to live the fantasy of every young boy out there. I sat on top of the water pump truck while it was driving and sprayed burning and smoking debris with a waterhose...the big fire hose kind. It was tons of fun and can put out a lot of water that turns to steam when it contacts white hot burnt pine. Pretty cool.

Remember kids...only you can grow up to prevent wildfire by setting Prescribed fire!
--DAlen

yesterday, fire fell from the sky

2006-07-12T05:27:00.000-07:00

We did an aerial ignition burn yesterday. It was pretty dang cool. I think I doubled my acreage also. we burned a little over 1000 acres of property yesterday. Of course, mostly all i did was light some of the borders off, and the rest was lit from above via helicopter and flaming ping-pong balls. It was pretty dang cool. I got some pictures, but I dont know what the best way to get them off my camera is, as my computer is sitting in a closet. might have to wait until august to see the pics on a computer.

we burned for about 2 hours, and guess what happened then...it rained.

hopefully we will burn again today, otherwise i may be spending some time on a tractor.

--DAlen

The land of fire/rain

2006-07-10T13:37:00.000-07:00

Today I worked on my third burn/rain. Everytime we get to a burnin', and afternoon t-storm comes in, brings gusting winds that shift every whichaway causing high anxiety for spotting, and then it drops heavy rain, putting out our oh so lovely and productive fire. Last thursday and friday we travelled up to Orlando to burn at the Disney Wilderness Preserve (no, Mickey Mouse wasnt there, although I do think Disney world would be great to have a themed section involving wildfire/prescribed fire). We set backing fires (see also, slowest fire ever) and burned long days, but ended up not finishing due to rain. Today, we were burning out a small unit (less than 50 acres) and the rain came in (talk about a case of the Mondays). Hopefully tommorrow will be better though, as we are assisting with an aerial burn. this means that a helicopter will be dropping little flammable ping-pong balls to set the fire, and we just sit and watch, making sure the fire doesnt escape. From what i hear though, it can get exciting if the fire is dropped outside the burn unit. This is called a spot fire and requires immediate action to extinguish. It'll be a long day as well since we might be burning acreage up in the high hundreds (maybe even low thousands).

Last weekend I went to visit my cous Carla in Tampa. She cooked for me and it was awesome. Also, much thanks to Bill for the boat ride and the hospitality. It was nice to get out of Frostproof for a little while, but is also nice to return to this small ville. I am kinda getting attached to it...or maybe its just the fresh mangos getting to my head (or maybe its the chemicals from the orange factory across the street).

--Will

Tommorrow is the first day

2006-07-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

"Are we burning today?" Thats likely to be my first question. Apparently the crew here has been really waiting for the right weather and conditions and me to show up so they could get as much burning done as possible. Yeah, my hands may not get clean again until mid-August.

Apparently Frostproof Florida puts on quite the fireworks spectacle. Happy 4th of July everyone!

I've gotten used to the house on paper st., but yet somehow it still feels like I am in an episode of the twilight zone. I usually wait until dark to go for a jog, and I usually run in the middle of the street because its the least worn. There is nobody still awake in this town by the time it gets dark, meaning 9:30 ish. I run down to the lake, then run along it, then back up to the main highway and home. If you go to the center of town, and turn left or right on Wall St. (I find this to one of the funniest things so far, Wall St?), its only about 4 blocks either way to a huge lake. The word lake is used here really to refer to something that seems more like just a giant puddle. I cant imagine it gets more than 5 ft deep anywhere in these lakes, but thats deep enough for gators which means its too deep for me.

Well, time for me to run into the big city (Lake Wales) to hopefully find some cheaper food and a post office box. It might not be until friday that I use a computer again, since hopefully we will be burning as much of the 5000 acre (!) Tiger Creek Preserve as we can.

be great
--DAlen

It has begun

2006-07-01T10:54:00.000-07:00

My leisure time with Ms Victoria finally ended yesterday and I got in my car and drove south. i stopped once I reached Lake Wales, FL...well actually i drove through Lake Wales and stopped in Frostproof, where I will be living.

Enter house on paper st.
Its not actually as bad as the fight club's house on paper st., but its pretty dang close. The building is old...100+ years apparently. The TV gets 5.5 channels. Its pretty dark inside, but lightens up a lot when windows are opened. I had to choose between two rooms: the one closest to the back door, with the slanting floor that prevents you from sleeping in the bed on your side, or the other room, which has a couch next to the bed. I chose the couch. If I could see past the giant bush outside my window (which acutally is good for privacy), I would be able to see the fried chicken place next door. Now thats conveniance. Across the street, the pungent smell of an orange juice refinery fills the air. Its like a paper mill, but they make the paper out of oranges. The house is a perfect place to retreat to after long days of burning, looking for a place to read and sleep and store my stuff.

Tuesday, frostproof apparently has a big fireworks display. Looking forward to that. Sunday, probably going to the beach. Next weekend, probably go visit my cousin in Tampa (Carla? sound good?).

So far so good. --Leroi

New New Job

2006-06-21T12:18:00.000-07:00

Well, as some of you may know, I got the dream job of working with TNC burning the Florida forest. Unfortunately I am only doing it for 6 weeks. But, fear not, as I have gotten a second cool job to keep me busy for at least the next year...

I am working with Our Towns Habitat for Humanity in Huntersville/Davidson. I am supplies and equipment mangament supervisor, which means not only do I get to build and work on houses, I also get to keep track of who has the nails and where the tape measures all went. I am pretty stoked. I am turning into this outdoorsmen, rugged, homebuilding, humanitarian guy. Pretty soon all the women will flock to my steel-like carpenter forearms and smell of smoke as a result of burning the forest. and then I will RULE THE WORLD MUHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

But seriously, I am doing well in the whole not-making-money area, accumulating lots of stories for my first New York Times bestselling autobiography.

peace,
--Steve

yeah, life is sweet

2006-06-12T15:57:00.000-07:00

Newest Job

2006-06-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

Wanted: Person with prescribed fire experience, must enjoy riding on ATVs while laying down fire and/or putting out fire. Ability to use a chainsaw a plus. Must be willing to work in Florida, 1 hour from your cousin in Tampa and 1 hour from an east coast beach. Bring your surfboard. Must also be good with hands, as we build all our own fire engines and pumps. Experience living in 100+ year old houses is good, especially if you dont mind not paying rent. If you are currently living with 10 other people and would enjoy only living with 3 other people, please mention that. Pay is $12/hour, but we will also pay overtime should you get the pleasure of setting fire for more that 40 hours per week. Up to $100 will be reimbursed once you buy your cool new fire boots, the coolest footwear you could wear to any job. There will likely be some wildfire suppression work allowing you to complete your Type 1 Fire Fighter (FFT1) taskbook, allowing you to be a squad boss and work closer to being a burn boss. Blah, blah, blah, this is the coolest job ever, blah blah blah.

FL, here I come.

2 days of work and counting...

2006-06-11T12:12:00.000-07:00

Sunday, wonderfully hot and humid Louisiana Sunday.
Tommorrow I play golf with my mother for the first time in probably 10 years.
Tuesday and Wednesday are my last two real work days in this current AmeriCorps program.
Looking to hire an engineer to fix your problems? Call my email adress.
Josh is getting married in 2 weeks! Holy Cow.
Chris is leaving....tear :(
Partyhouse will soon to be no more.
Man, I need to find a boat and a wakeboard. Dr Maisto?
I miss the beach alot...especially now that the water is the right temp for naked night swimming.
Feelingsolazy.

How is everyone? Does anyone still read this? Andrew? Are you alive?
Why does Gateway keep going down?
Where is tremont music hall when you need it?
Van Warped Tour in August anyone? Jerrod?

Love y'all. --Darth LEroi

Its dang hot!

2006-06-01T14:48:00.000-07:00

Here we are in Louisiana, home sweet Louisiana...and dang its HOT! Actually, its just really humid, but at times is just feels really hot. Maybe I forgot about it, or maybe all my teammates ranting has gotten to me.

We are working on mold remediation and treatment of houses. First, we go in and rip everything out...well, hopefully not everything. Today I broke a pipe and we had ourselves a little indoor thunderstorm. But, almost everything gets taken out. then we started to scrub the walls with wire brushes. Tommorrow, we will spray termite stuff all throughout the house and eventually paint it with some special primer called Kilz.

27 days until AmeriCorps is over! 14 days left until this project is over. 27 days until i become homeless, jobless, and uninsured. To the couch batman! July 4th the part house becomes no more. Anyone want to buy a Kawasaki 550 jetski? Anyone selling a jetski trailer?

I just started reading a book about smokejumping...I could see myself doing that in 5 years. Only gotta work half the year to. I dont know if they provide health insurance though. Definately gotta have health insurance. Apparently, jumping out of a plain into forest fire is a little...whats the word? DANGEROUS!

Times up on the public computer. Gotta run. Love y'all.

--Steve

One more Spike

2006-05-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I am back in SC for transition. Its hard to beleive that on Thursday I will depart from base in a van for the last time. We are going to Lafayette for 2.5 weeks, and then we will return to base. Its our last project and now that I know I am not coming back as a Team Leader, I am looking to the end.

I am looking for a job in forest fire work...or I might end up working for Habitat for Humanity. Nothing is certain right now. All I know for sure is that I can rent a storage unit in Charlotte for 40 bucks a month and sleep at the party house for free until I figure things out. Its great to have friends with couches.

Popso, a good friend of mine here is planning on saving some money and trying to go live in Peru for 2 months to help build an orphange. Man, doesnt that sound great?

Tonight, I am going to a RiverDogs baseball game with my teammate Tori. She got a team leader job so she wont be with us on our last project. I'll miss her greatly (together we form the superhero team of Tornando and Lorenzo, bog duo).

--DAlen

LA, here we come...again

2006-05-11T18:25:00.001-07:00

Sure enough, we are getting sent back to Louisiana. We will be working the United Way of Abbeville, and staying...get this, right next to my old high school in Cade, LA. I am pretty stoked, and once again it seems my life has moved in a complete circle. Gonna hang out at ESA and reminisce.

We helped to do this, here in Slidell. http://www.ob.org/programs/disaster_relief/news/2006/dr_2006_0509_jessicahomemakeover.asp

Somehow, I am 25 now. That seems kind of crazy to me. It seems like yesterday I was a freshmen in college. Of course, if I get a fire job, I might back to school to learn some ecology stuff and get a pay increase. That would be sweet. I am applying for fire jobs left and right.

Thanks for the comment BillR...and of course thanks to all my other faithfull readers as well. My weblog is still advertisement free, although I can apparently make money if I put up ads. Would y'all mind ads? I hate them, but of course I also dont really like being poor and getting money for nothing is what this seems like. Maybe i'll wait a little first. I think I'm gonna start selling plasma as its apparently pretty lucrative.

Off to bed to rest for gutting. love y'all,

--Lorenzo

To the med clinic batman...

2006-05-08T18:05:00.000-07:00

Well, its been almost a week, and not much has changed. Day after day we are still working our butts off, removing debris from houses, and then removing the walls and ceilings. Often we also remove carpet and padding from the floors. Its amazing how different the places are before and after. We also seem to change from clean to dirty, the exact opposite of the houses. today was the hardest day we have done so far. Our house had roughly 6 inches of mud throughout, not to mention all of the "stuff" these people had which was basically just stirred around into a big soup of mud and crud.

Lesson #1: As you get older, you should save more memories but less other stuff.
When you get to the point that you are not capable of moving by yourself or gutting your own home in case of catastrophic activities, maybe you should try and cut back on your general stuffage. I have already made an agreement with my teammate Sarah that if I have as much stuff as we are pulling out of these houses when I am old, she is going to punch me in the stomach and yell at me to "get rid of all your crap!"

Lesson #2: Dont become the contents of your house.
This is a variation on the classic quote by Tyler Durden, my personal hero, "the things you own will end up owning you." Its also a variation on "youre not the contents of your wallet." Obtaining stuff and making that stuff your life is only setting you up to be easily broken through the destruction of your stuff, and thus the vicarious destruction of your self. Become stronger as your progress through life. Dont invest time and money into your stuff, weakening who you are. Become your abilities, thoughts, and emotions. Become your company of friends and family. Dont become a couch owner, and kitchen ware user, or a car driver. Become more. Be Great!

Tommorrow I have volunteered to work at the medical clinic. We get the day off of gutting, and some of the people on my team will be bug-busting (visiting houses with unkept pools to inject fish and larvacide into the cess). I am working at a medical clinic, probably sorting pills all day. I get to wear shorts, which beats the amount of sweating I have been doing in Tyvek suits lately. Its been crazy. Never sweated this much in my life.

Time for a team challenge to hopefully find out our next Spike project. I have a feeling we are getting sent to Lafayette, which of course would be sweet.

love y'all. --Leroi

and then there was a message...

2006-05-01T19:55:00.000-07:00

So, I have been thinking alot lately about wanting to be in NCCC, and not getting my TL spot. I have been trying to figure out where I went wrong. I have been praying alot.

Then, I got up this morning and went to work. Before we began our tasks, our supervisor, a local pastor stopped us to give us a little talk. He thanked us for our efforts and told us that indeed it was the true gospel, the idea of service, that we woere doing and that God was happy and in all of us everyday that we are here. His words were something to the effect of "Sometimes you dont get the job you want, but doing it anyway, working for others, is the way it is meant to be and makes us better." This is God's love for us and for everyone. It was chilling that he used those words, as if he was speaking directly to me. Combining this with the email that I received from Adam telling me that God would put me where I was suppoed to be has really comforted me. NCCC is not my place after I graduate in June. I dont know why, but I do know that it is not my place, and wherever I land, will be where I am supposed to be.

Tommorrow we are bug patrol, preventing the millions of mosquitoes from breeding in the stagnant bodies of water behind destroyed houses all over this area. I might be on TV, but more importantly I will be making a difference.

Love y'all,

--Luke

the only thing worse than a girl not wanting you...

2006-04-25T16:42:00.000-07:00

...is when you really want a job, and the people you want to work for dont want to hire you. I got my denial letter back from AmeriCorps NCCC. They dont want me to be a team leader. They dont even want to keep me as an alternate.

So, it looks like I will apply to work with Habitat for Humanity back in Charlotte. They wanted me as a worker last year. Maybe they will want me again this year...or maybe I will get a real moneymaker job and become rich. Or maybe I will work in fire. I have a lot of options to look in to, but its really hard to think about other things when I wanted to be in NCCC so badly. It sucks.

I was pulled aside from my team today to work on a special project with my team leader and another member of my team. I think I was pulled away because the project we were working needed extra work, extra fast, and some of it required extra ability. I feel like these are the three reasons I was chosen, and yet it seems like NCCC doesnt want these 3 things in the package of me to remain a part of their organization.

Tommorrow is another day, and now I cant wait until I get out.

Gutted our first house today

2006-04-24T17:45:00.000-07:00

Today was our first day of real work. We wore full Tyvek suits, respirators, gloves, hardhats, and safety glasses. Sweating is an understatement. It was like I was a bucket of water with holes in it...but at least I didnt lose my house and everything I own.

This particular lady did. There ended up being about 1.5 ft of water in her house, and the house itself remained dirty and destroyed until today. That over 6 months that this house was unusable. We went in there and in one day removed everything that was of no more use, ripped out all the sheet rock, and took everything out to the street to be hauled away. She was so gratefull as well. I created a quote for one of my press releases, but today, I really did feel that "smiles were my paycheck."

all I could think about while I worked in this mold covered interior was how crappy it would have been to have owned all this stuff and then lose it. It makes me not want to own stuff. It makes me want to convince other people about how temporary "stuff" is. It makes me want to somehow move beyond this desire to buy things, to not become the contents of my wallet, to not become my khakis.

I feel like I might not be able to go back to a life of happy apathy...not caring about the suffering I dont see, but I still no exists. I have experienced it first hand and maybe a part of me envies those out there who choose to not know, and live their lives as though the rest of world is as content as them.

--Leroi
be great

Tommorrow...finally doing DR

2006-04-19T10:11:00.000-07:00

Tommorrow is the big day. Ever since we started training in this program I have wanted to get down to the Gulf Coast to do disaster releif. We will be travelling to Slidell, Louisiana, working with Operation Blessing. http://www.ob.org/ Our tasks will include tarping damaged house roofs and gutting the interiors. It going to be really hard work, but I am glad to be finally going where the need seems to be the largest. Hard work reminds me of my childhood to so...

Also going to finally get to see my parents. Missed them alot and havent seen them since the hurricane hit actually.

Louisiana is kind of my own backyard. I really feel like the southeast is the bigger extension of my yard, by LA is where I grew up. Gonna see some friends and hang out in the humidity, maybe hunt and cook some mosquitoes.

Saturday is National Youth Service Day, where about 600 of us will be in Waveland, MS, working for the morning.

hope all is well with y'all.
be great
--Leroi

Act Fast...CALL NOW!

2006-04-11T15:25:00.000-07:00

Life is good. I got sunburned today. I am hanging out with a beautiful girl later. I am going to get to see Mary-Claire, my mom, and my dad later in the month as I return to the state of Louisana. Soon, I will be on the AT. Tommorrow I am working at the Children's Museum (think touchable exhibits). Life is good.

So, all you people out there with free nights and weekends...no I am not wanting to borrow your phone. I need you to make some phone calls on my behalf actually. Well, really they are phone calls on behalf of NCCC, the program I am in and on behalf of all the people who will lose the benefit of us helping them if the government doesnt appropriate money for our existence. So...

NC Reps
Call Richard Burr @ 202-224-3154
Call Elizabeth Dole @ 202-224-6342
Call Charles H. Taylor @ 202-225-6401

Call at night and leave a message. Sample Script: Hello, my name is (name). I'm a constituent, I live in hometown & North Carolina and I'd like to leave a message for the Senator/Representative. I'd like to ask him/her
to oppose the proposed budget cuts that would eliminate the Americorps NCCC program.
NCCC gives thousands of young people each year the opportunity to serve their country and
develop countless skills to build their futures. It also serves many organizations that wouldn't
be able to meet their goals otherwise, such as American public school systems, Habitat for
Humanity, and even the Red Cross with its disaster relief with Katrina. My address is
(home address, not Charleston); I hope to hear back from the Senator/Congress(wo)man as to how (s)he plans to address this issue. Thank you. Good-bye.

The end is near!

2006-04-04T12:35:00.000-07:00

Only a few more days until the kids go on spring break...then its only a few more days of work for us...then I go on spring break. Pretty stoked. It looks like I am going to get some time on the AT finally and the weather is going to be amazing!

for some reason I have that Gloria song stuck in my head...that one from the '80s.

I feel like working at this school is a cartoon, where the boat is sinking and I am plugging the holes, and then another one appears, and then I plug it, and eventually there are too many holes to plug. Its like putting a band-aid on the left arm when the right arm is the one thats injured, and it has been torn completely from the body. But enough of me being negative...I think someday I am going to teach at a Title I school...as soon as I get rich elsewhere and dont need to worry about money.

I shaved my head last night. It feels really good. I am thinking that it might be time to close the mohawk chapter of DAlen's life. My head feels so much less warm now to. I used the number 1 guard...meaning its super short. Everyone is super shocked. Of course, come winter I might miss it and grow it back out again...especially if I end up working with fire as a means of employment. It looks like I need more environmental background.

My Team Leader Interview was last week. It reminded me a lot of my RA interviews...which statistically speaking is a bad thing. Of course, I felt pretty good about it.

Did I mention I'll be hiking some of the AT soon? yeah....i'm excited.

and then we will be doing DR, although it no longer stands for Disaster Relief. Now its Disaster Recovery...ironic that they change the name, even though the work and the acronym stay the same.

Love y'all...LEAVE COMMENTS!!!! I miss my homes.

--DAlen

another kid standing against the wall...

2006-03-14T15:51:00.000-08:00

Well, progress is being made. My newest and greatest (read also most chaotic) class is the 6th grade remediation math class. Apparently the teacher has a lack-o-spine, and as a result the children refuse to listen to him...and he seems to ignore this and teach anyway...teach to the loud roar of 20 kids doing whatever they please. Mostly the kids walk around and talk, sometimes they draw on the board or do whatever. Occasionally they fight. There wasnt really much I could do yesterday. So, today, I came up with a plan. The first thing all the kids did was stand against the far wall of the class. I have seen this tactic used very effectively with another one of my classes by that teacher, so I tried it. It took them 20 minutes of short outbursts here and there before they, as a group, were quiet for one minute. Then, I allowed them to take desks that I chose for them. Then I handed the class over to the teacher, who then proceeded to lose control over the whole group, but still retained enough of them to help some of them learn. It was a small victory. I think it will take about 5-7 days of class before they are doing what they should, and then they will start learning. Otherwise, many of them will probably repeat the 6th grade.

Another problem that I discovered (hah...I could probably discover a new problem every day for the next year) was that many of the teachers lack faith in the system, and thus they dont try and work with it. The system requires a teacher to fill out these things called "referals." Many of the teachers feel that doing this gets nothing done, and as a result they dont do them. So, incidently, there is no mountain of paper proving that the system is flawed. If they did the referrals, and then it didnt work, at least then they would be able to hold up the copies and ask "what now?" So, I filled out two referrals on behalf of my teacher today...and in the case of the first girl, she changed her behavior. As for the 2nd boy, he got so mad and furious by my glaring and kind requests to do what he was supposed to do that he eventually put his head on his desk and was silent. DAlen:3 Middle School Monsters-o-fun: 0

On a very very happy note, during my initial referral writing of the first girl, one of here classmates, one that did not particuarly like me, requested I not document her misbehavior. He begged that I leave her alone, and promised he would make the class good, because it wasnt fair. If she gets one more referral, she repeates the 6th grade. Much of the reason behind this is not her fault (but small pieces are) and this is why he requested I not turn in the paperwork. He showed compassion, which really surprised me, and made me hopefull.

Tommorrow is another day...

be great

School? more like chaos on a time schedule...

2006-03-02T13:29:00.000-08:00

Well, I started actually doing stuff at work this week. Monday was a wasted day, but tuesday we finally got a schedule and now we are following that schedule and assisting with classes. Some of the classes are fine, but others are pure chaos. I talked to my teachers in the nice class today and told them that I might move to some of the worse classes since they already had things under control. Pretty much, the original description of our project has gone right out the door. There was no obesity problem. There is a discpline problem. In many of the classes, the students do what they want. In one class, the teacher seems to have control, but its only because she spends so much time tongue lashing the kids. I was even confused when she said that she loved kids, stopping several times during that short phrase to reprimand students for not sitting up or not having feet on the ground or breathing too much or no blinking enough. I really do feel she is a product of teaching at a bad school for way too long. Worse yet, it seems like the principle isnt involved at all in the workings of the school, especially since I have yet to talk to him and I am a guest at his school. He was the primary contact to the mayors office who is our sponsor, and yet it seems like he knows the least about whats happening. Luckily, there is a lady who is some sort of admin. person who has her act together and has given us some structure. So, we are tutoring. I'm losing sleep though trying to figure out a way to fix the much larger issue of underfunded school systems and impoverished students who have no future.

On a really bright note, the students in my school are being taught material that seems advanced to what I remember learning in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. In science, they are working with curcuits and electricity, which I dont remember doing much of in the 6th grade. I remember life sciences class being really hard, but I dont remember taking a physics class. Some of my teammates are capable of tutoring some of the subjects because the material is defiantely advanced for kids.

After school today, I went to the high school to pick up my teammate and I played a little soccer with them. It was very enjoyable. I miss soccer. Maybe I'll start going on a regular basis to help coach.

Only one more day until the weekend.

--Will Leroi DAlen

Tommorrow is my big day

2006-02-23T14:22:00.000-08:00

Finally, it looks like I will begin work again. tommorrow is our first day at our local education project here in charleston, SC. It appears as though my task will be to combat an obesity problem by optimizing the PE/PT program for middle school students here in North Charleston. Well, actually, I am going to be creating the curriculum, because they strangely enough, dont have one. I am pretty excited...feeling similar to the way Andrew probably felt when he first started teaching (andrewinafrica.blogspot.com).

A lot of people are super ticked that NCCC might be pushed to the wayside...and they are all voicing their opinions...so maybe there is a future yet. Regardless, I am going to be able to finish my term here in June. then, hopefully I will make the cut to be a Team Leader, which guarantees I can work until December. Then, if the budget stands, thats when Charleston runs out of money...so dont worry, i am good for somewhile still. Then, if all else falls through I can work the January-April burn window here in the southeast as a nomadic fire fighter (even though its really more of fire starter position).

Last night I benched 155, and I did it 3 times! thats a record for me, and I still cant get over how much weight it looked like. Thats even after doing 135 8 times and then 145 6 times. Yes, its true, I am a beast. I think the new strength is a combination of the power i get from my mohawk and the fact that i now own an ax for chopping wood.

I found a bulldozer in the woods today.

It appears as though I will be in Charlotte for the weekend of March 10th...Ben is getting married and there is a party at the house? I'm bringing some teammates with, so it should be a good time.

be great
--WiLL DAlen "Leroi"

no more NCCC?

2006-02-11T08:13:00.000-08:00

Well, we got some bad news monday. Apparently Bush's new budget doesnt allow for funding for NCCC anymore, so all 5 campuses will be closing down in the new fiscal year. A lot of people are ticked about this, so there is still some chance that the uproar will change some people's minds...if you know a senator now is the time to call him/her. This means that I will be able to still finish out my term of service, but then if I become a team leader, I will likely only get to do that a half year before the shutdown. NCCC has been around for 13 years now, so its going to be really hard on all the organization that bank on support from us. Especially hard hit will be all the habitat for humanity chapters, the nature conservancy throughout the country, and all the schools in the carolinas that depend on our work to help their kids. The department of natural resources will lose all the trail work we do thoughout the country, not to mention who is going to provide over 200 volunteers to work 12 hour days for weeks at a time next time a major disaster happens. All around it sucks.

As for how immediate things are going, we are almost done with our project here in GA. Today was supposed to be our last burn, but the rain came...so we arent burning. Tommorrow we go to North Ga to do some planting for a few days before heading back in Charleston, SC. We just got back from AL a few days ago, burning some pitcher plant bogs there. I was able to act as a squad boss for a crew while we there, working on my task book for my fire fighter type 1 (fft1). Once I finish the task book, I will be able to be a squad boss, and my pay would go up should I decide to stay in presacribed fire/wildfire.

Also, I am now officailly famous, as I was on the radio yesterday talking about AmeriCorps. It was pretty neat to here myself.

Soon, it looks like I will get a chance to come back to charlotte for a weekend...and maybe party it up in the party house.

much love to all my friends and family out there. --DAlen (aka WiLL, aka Leeroy)

its been long, and might be longer...

2006-01-24T17:06:00.000-08:00

Here I am in the middle of GA...Vidalia is where I am writing this from and Baxley is where I live. My job is to set fire, and make sure it burns the forest...but nothing else...but its gotta burn the forest, completely, but not kill the trees, but burn the forest. To do this I use a gasoline/ diesel mixture (1:3 ratio) dripped from a flaming torch onto the ground. It glows green at night. Way cool. Also, I use rakes, shovels and other instruments of digging (McLeods, Council Rakes, Chainsaws) to dig what are called fire lines, or handlines when done by hand. These are fire barriers to prevent the fire from moving outside of our fire zones, usually about 100-300 acres at a time. On a good day I wake up mildly clean at 7am, and return home smelling like wonderfull burning foliage with a sooty face sometime around 8pm. On great days we dont burn at all, because at Moody we burn at night. Fire+night=beatifull public service. Its also easier to see at night if the fire spots (i.e. crosses your fire line into areas you dont want burnt...extremely bad when spotting happens, but it rarely happens). Bad days are when the humidity is too high and stuff wont burn, so we wait and do construction or tree planting or trail work or digging hand lines. Tommorrow should be an afternoon/ night burn, and if all goes well we will also burn thursday and friday to. Next week, we might travel to Alabama to burn there (GA and AL are partners). Why you ask? Because long leaf pine forest ecosystems depend on burning. The Nature Conservancy website might have more info on that (www.nature.org). I am a red carded type-2 wildland firefighter and my job is to burn forest. Yesterday and today were non-burn days. Myself and two of my coworkers transformed normal, lame ATVs into super fire machines. We affixed a torch/tank to the front which allows burning fuel to be sprayed into the forest about 20 feet, while driving. Thats dang cool! On back, a slighly larger tank of water is mounted in order to help maintain fire lines (wet lines if you use water) and combat spotting if necessary. Ordinary ATVs mounted with water and drip torch flame thower fun...my life rules. this has actually become my new motto and I seem to say it to myself at least 3 times daily. Since I have been here I have seen one of the rarest snakes in the Southeast, the Indigo Snake, not once by twice! I have helped burn almost 500 acres of old growth Long Leaf Pine Forest. I am reading books to, so I feel like I am even getting smarter, bookwise. I just wish I was a little bit closer to a computer. Oh well...talk to y'all back at base (around 2/16) if not sooner.
be great
--WiLL