Labels: blog, health care, work

Labels: poetry, work

Labels: economics, environment, global, government, peace, people, politics, war, work

Labels: basketball, design, exercise, slacking, webcomics, work

• iPods did not exist.
• The World Trade Center still existed.
  
• The Segway was just a rumor.
• USB 2.0 was brand new.
• Cell phones didn't have color screens.
• Google had a few dozen employees.
• The newest version of Windows was ME.

Labels: design, idiots, rant, work

Labels: Bookman's, climbing, friends, ITP, Nyssa, Sami, work, yoga

• A good island. At least of the ones I've seen, most of the affordable ones are in the Philippines. A good island will be well above the sea (typhoons aren't fun to watch from underwater), ideally with some cliffs for climbing, diving, and windmills. It should have a decently protected moor for a boat, a place for a small ambphibious plane to be stored in case of a storm. A beach would be nice. Vegetation is also a must. Must also be at least 20 acres.
  
• Transportation. Gotta have at a good-sized boat, probably one capable of Atlantic travel. Also, a small amphibious plane. It wouldn't be hard to make the boat self-sufficient with today's power generation (solar, wind generators), and desalinization processes. A 60' ketch should be capable of sailing most anywhere, including crossing the Pacific, but I am waiting on an expert to be sure of that. Making a 'green' aircraft presents a more formidable challenge: you can mix the fuel (20 bio/80 regular), and lower emissions by 50%, in order to use a typical amphibious like a Cessna 208, or hope that the DA42 Twin Star gets a water-landing version with more cargo room. You'd have to get the plane from Japan or the Philippines if you wanted to have an island in the Pacific, though. It's a ridiculous notion, but I'd also want to turn my Baja bug into a biodiesel schwimwagen for diving trips and cruising around the island.
  
• Food. If you've got a couple of garden-loving hippies on your crew who want nothing to do with a 'real' job and want to grow stuff for the rest of their lives (and we do), this is mostly taken care of, and they don't mind farming a little extra in exchange for living in paradise. Apparently, most of the vegans we know would be fine owning (and eating) various animals if they did the job themselves. Currently it looks like we'll have a cats (as pets) and chickens and a few cows (as food).
  
• Water. Desalinization has come a long, long way. For about $10-20k you can get a salt-water purifier that's about the size of a dorm refrigerator, and it will give you 1,000 gallons of potable water per day. All you'd need is a clean reservoir, a means of getting the ocean to the filter, and a pump. Rainwater collecting has also worked well for humanity for... ever.
  
• Fellow colonists. While you don't want to pigeonhole people into jobs that can't be replaced (in case they want to leave), you'd want to be sure to bring people you want to live with. Of course, people will have their own homes and all, but community meals are going to be a big thing here (since it's shared food), so picking your friends will be important. Also, divvying up expenses will be a good thing since maintaining the boat and plane won't be free.
• Utilities. Power's the easiest thing on the list: solar and wind power is quite effective nowdays, and you'll have lots of both on an island. Use LED lighting, and highly efficient insulation (etc.), and you've got low-enough power usage (even with computers), for solar and wind. You can compost most any waste, and we'd avoid plastics like they were diseased. The only thing that won't be obviously not biodegradable is most of our...
  
• Other niceties, like Internet access (now available via satellite), plumbing, stereo systems, computers, swings, scuba gear, a library, a medical room, a distillery (booze!),
  

Labels: ambition, life, pipe dreams, Rachel, To-Do, travel, vacation, work

Labels: blood, frightening thought, stories, work

Labels: house, photography, work

Labels: work

Labels: cars, computers, kids, obsession, photography, work

1. Re-wire the truck's entire electrical system with my awesome in-laws up in Prescott. Escape the heat, work online there, help them build their house, and get the truck to never-imagined levels of awesome.
   
2. Look up a new house to live in that has a yard, laundry machine, a place to work on the fiberglass dash I need to put into Rachel's truck, isn' insanely expensive, and is close enough to Bookman's that Rachel can walk. The discount we get for not driving to work (either of us) is nice.
3. Rent the place two weeks into August, and take those two weeks to move. Catalogue every last item. We'll be listing every item we own, and decide if we need it. If not, it's donated or sold. Keep the list for our house insurance, and update it as life goes on.
4. Rachel takes her last class for her Bachelor's Degrees in Creative Writing and English Literature (fall semester). She drives her amazingly well-running truck.
5. In January, I either get promoted to full-time at ITP, or keep working part time and begin finishing my teaching certificate. Either way, Rachel starts her graduate program classes in Library Science.
6. After that, things get a bit fuzzy, but for now:
   If we can afford it, sometime in Fall '08 or Spring '09, buy an RV, give the truck back to the in-laws for a while, tow the Bug and live on the road for about 3 months. Make a time-lapse video of the entire thing. Explore the entire United States, and decide on a place to settle down for the next few years. In all likelihood it will be in Arizona, but why not find out for sure? Living without regrets is a part of freedom.
   
7. Reproduce on the road! Our kids will not know exactly where they were conceived, and I think that's vaguely awesome.
8. Have kids. Name the girls Méria Jael and Artemis Ella; name the boys Aaron Isaac and Michael David.
   
9. Buy a house.
10. Live well.

Labels: ambition, college, gas, house, kids, money, Rachel, rant, RV, To-Do, work

Labels: 301, Eastpointe, impulse designs, photography, Ricoh GX100, school, taxes, work

I've been a bit stressed about something lately, and I brought it up: what's the other Art teacher position that they've been thinking about (i.e., who's that skank who said, "oh, I might be working as the Art teacher next year" - no, that's not what I said but what I thought)? And this person said that with myself and another teacher in the lunch room and the other teacher said that I looked like someone just walked over my grave.

You can't blame me for gettin' my hair up about it: this is my first stable job with any benefits, I like my job, and I make three times my previous high rate of income.

Turns out that they'll just have two teachers - and since she has 17 years' experience in this field and at this grade level, she'll be top of the program, which is fine with me as long as I'm employed full-time doing what I like to do: teach.

Also seems that there may be a Digital Art class next year that I would be teaching, if they can get the hardware (read: computers) for it.

Finally, I'm designing a house - actually it's not that simple, let me back up.

I assigned every one of my students (~200) the same thing: construct a cool house on an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper, so that it will hang sideways along with everyone elses' houses, and the more creative the better. I've had a pretty dizzying variety - shacks, caves, UFO's, mushrooms, etc., etc..

But my 8th graders have been so wonderful lately that they need little to no instruction - leaving me a bit bored, or cleaning, or grading. So I'm using that time to make a house of my own, in my own assignment. Of course, I built a sort of 'dream home' for Rachel and myself (we have conversations about this kinda thing from time to time).

Of course there's a risk in this: I need to prove to my kids that I'm really good - that I'm worth listening to as a teacher. So hopefully this doesn't blow up in my face. I doubt it, though. I'm enjoying myself genuinely and my artwork has universally been great when I do and put time into it.

EDIT: It's kinda sad looking back on this.

Currently reading : The Sandman Vol. 7: Brief Lives By Neil Gaiman

Labels: apartments, BASIS, house, school, teaching, work

Currently reading : Silverlock By John Myers Myers

Labels: Rachel, work

While I do need another job -- still looking -- I'm going to take this opportunity to jump into doing what I lurrrve doing best: making music, showing said music to people, listening to music, talking about music. Doing graphic design, making websites, and being social and a part of the Tucson scene that is quite cool that I've longed for. Until now.

So yesh, here I am - coming down your street. Get the strangest looks from the people I meet ...

Currently listening : White Blood Cells By The White Stripes

Labels: ambition, jobs, Maloney's, work

On the other hand, I' would probably end up burning everything unfortunate enough to be flat and roughly the size of a letter - including a marriage certificate, our vehicles' titles, etc.

*FWOOM!* YES!

Currently listening : Hello By Poe

Labels: fire, random, work

Let me tell you a few things that, in retrospect, are clear to me from my experiences with this situation.

First, you're right you will very rarely use algebra in real, adult life if you are pursuing a career in writing, graphic design, photography, philosophy, and so on. You will need arithmetic to balance your checkbook, figure out how much to tip a nice server (when youre in college, this can be interpreted how much to tip in order to ask for a date), and how much your student loans will cost you and for how long. You will need it from time to time if youre running a small business, or are figuring other things out that need the simple algebra like solving (7-1)² = 36. But thats the easy stuff, really, compared to matrices and calculus.

So now that you can feel good in that trademark cynical teenage way about being right about never using it, let me tell you why you still need to pass the class.

Situation #1: I have lately taken up the idea of owning and running my own business. Or at least, I'm moonlighting legally so that the IRS doesnt bang down my door and shoot me. To do so, I have to read many pages of very confusing documents.

Situation #2: I have also recently gotten my first car, a 62 Volkswagen Beetle (baja style). While these cars are simple to fix as cars go, I still have had to learn a lot about my car in order to properly diagnose and fix problems with the fuel tank, fuel line, fuel pump, fuel filter, carburetor, air filter, distributor, spark plugs, coil, speedometer, and so on and so forth.

Situation #3: And of course, theres my endless work on websites that force me to learn java, CSS, HTML, XML, server-side includes and so forth.

Why am I telling you about all these things Ive learned over the last year or so? Because just like your math class, they were hard to learn. They were a bone fide pain in the ass. That is to say, they took some serious consideration and thought and mulling over before I understood them.

This is why your math class is important for later. Yes, it teaches you how long it will take for Joe to meet Fred at point X when they take off at different times at different speeds. But much more importantly, it teaches you to sit down and comprehend something that is difficult to comprehend. I get the vast majority of my information quickly and easily on the Net via Google or by asking friends. However there are many situations youll face where there is either no-one to tell you and answer, or that the simple way of explaining something is still very complicated.

Math, then, for people who hate math, isnt about your ability to do math nearly as much as its about your ability to sit and comprehend things that are difficult for you. If you master this ability to be unafraid of complicated concepts, consider your math class to have taught you something more valuable than anything else youve ever learned the ability to learn.

Currently listening : Hôtel Costes: Quatre By Stéphane Pompougnac Release date: 12:00 AM

Labels: advice, high, random, rant, school, stories, work

First, I've been spending a lot of time at work. 10 hours today, for example. This has been for a variety of reasons. First, I've been doing graphic designs for Maloney's. They are very difficult to work with, because of short notices, long feedback lead time, and other demands. Second, I've been transferring music archives and making new daytime music lists. I'm also training new DJs because I'm hoping to become a barback, because I desperately need the money.

Second, money as mentioned - my current budget has me making $10 less than I need per day, every day.

Third, I've spent a lot of time up in Phoenix with my grandparent-in-law trying to get Rachel's truck working. This is so that I don't have to come home at 3am, only to take her to work 4 hours later, and then our friend AZ a few hours after that, and then take Rachel home again. It's between 1 and 3 hours of driving every day, and that is insane. Especially the amount of gas we use doing it. Despite her having a vehicle with much worse gas mileage (17 compared to 25 mpg), it's only one trip. Not to mention the gratification of independence. Even with the extra insurance every month we'll still save money on gas.

Also a few random life events; Our friend Jessy had her second baby. I've been trying to get serious about my 4th album. I've been updating my resume and sending out for a 'real' full time graphic design job.

In so many words: I've been fucking busy.

Labels: cars, gas, money, work

I decided pretty early on not to let the staff have some because there was a lot more staff than giveaways - and to do trivia questions.

Now, that's all well and good but not interesting enough to justify a blog post. The funny part is how people act. I don't generally like doing giveaways because I inevitably end up acting as a referee.

It's not all bad - one guy who answered first and correctly thought I had the new 'Stewie' movie (which hasn't come out yet). He already had the set he had won and so gave it to someone else. That was really cool of him.

On the other hand, one girl literally tackled a guy to prevent him from answering a question (I didn't accept her answer - I don't care if you're right, you have to pay consequences for being a greedy bitch). Another guy actually won one - he got the 5-episode DVD - but kept bugging me to 'trade' for the box set. I told him to answer a question correctly like anyone else. And honestly - you got a free DVD, man, what are you complaining for? Doesn't help that he was attempting to crawl into my ear the whole night.

I feel very uncomfortable even when a good looking girl gets into my little personal space, nevermind a greasy lookin' dude who wants favors. I'm still a little suprised every time a girl thinks that grabbing my crotch or showing more cleavage will get a song (etc.).

Currently listening : Timeless: The Singles Collection By De La Soul

Labels: DJ, idiots, Maloney's, music, rant, rules, stories, true, TV, work

At this time, a girl I liked at the time came in towards the end of my shift. She was at the stage where she thought I liked her, but was still doing that whole "I might be interested but I'm not letting on" thing.

Since the schedule was always changing, she asked, "when do you get off?"

"All the time, baby. All the time."

She looked like a deer in headlights, but my co-workers were laughing hysterically. Er, I did not date said girl... But it was totally worth it.

Currently listening : Elevator By Hot Hot Heat

Labels: joke, memory, random, sex, stories, true, work

I was once upbraided by a (female) vegan while working at a smoothie/sandwich shop:
"I don't see how it's anything but fucking disgusting to get your milk from another species!"

"Have you ever tried to get milk from our species? [pause] Are you volunteering?"

I may or may not have been slapped for that. I don't really remember.

Currently listening : City of Blinding Lights By U2

Labels: idiots, sex, stories, true, vegans, work

The one troublesome thing about having a job that involves creativity - being a DJ or a musician, for example - is that if you aren't excited about it at least on some level, it's almost impossible to do a good job. Most jobs, you can go in one day feeling fairly unenthusiastic about being there but the job can be done.

I, obviously, was not feeling particularly keen on working tonight and so I used one of my old sets (thank God we use MixMeister and I save my sets).

So there's a conundrum: would I want a relatively menial job that I can consistently do well in, or a creative job that I can usually excel in? Well ... I'm not quitting either DJ or design so ..

Currently reading : Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief By Bill Mason

Labels: DJ, Maloney's, mixing, music, work