In a flash

I missed my 10 year high school reunion last weekend. My buddies gave me the update and tore through a whole sequence of names that I haven't considered in a decade. He's cool. She's hot. He's a drunk. She's not cool. He wasn't there. He's married. She's engaged. I have to admit, I was pretty bummed I couldn't make it home for this. I guess I experienced the typical pattern of thoughts in the face of a 10 year reunion:

For one, holy sh*t that was fast! I remember the sights and smells of high school so distinctly at times. I envision my locker, and see my parking spot, and smell the nachos, and remember the faces. On the other hand, I've gone a long ways in those 10 years. Geographically, psychologically, intellectually, emotionally. I could carry on a conversation with nearly anybody in my class, no problem, because I was fundamentally the exact same person. But so much of me hadn't come to fruition. Probably the biggest thing that's changed is I've fallen in love with challenging my mind. Laziness covered that spot before. High school was a time of self-discovery, friendships, unrequited loves, music, the thrill of drinking, and amazing Spokane nights. High school was personality coming to the fore and emotional development...but so much has happened since. I can only assume that everyone else in my class has gone through their own evolutions in the past decade and developed into their skins somehow.

In our daily lives we can only accommodate so many friends. Those near take precedence, because as Johnny Cash says, "flesh and blood needs flesh and blood". But for those farther than a stones throw, I want to find a way to reincorporate you. Really, I just want to throw stones at you, but I'll do it lovingly. So, the wrap-up is I'm bummed i couldn't make it to my reunion because those 10 years went pretty quick, and we'll only get a handful or two of ten year windows. I think we need to put something together for Christmastime.

Thoughts from a cubicle

The world teems with diversity, beauty, and adventure. The urban, the isolated. The tropical, the arctic. The mountains, the ocean depths. The desert, the rainforest. Russians, Salvadorians. Silicon Valley Nanotech, Barrow whaling. Bangkok, Rio de Janeiro, Jerusalem, Berlin, Shanghai, Moscow, Addis Ababa, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Tokyo, Paris, Buenos Aires, Kiev, Cairo, Mosul, Los Angeles, Sydney, London, Bombay, and on and on and on! I want to snake through the bazaars of Istanbul, swim through Vanuatu’s tropical waters, ride Japanese bullet trains, gaze upon the crystal reflection of an alpine Patagonian lake, and explore Tehran’s Persian treasures.

The Problem: All this requires money, equipment, savvy friends, visas, the end of wars, and time. Don’t get me wrong, I want all those quixotic schemes to come to fruition within my lifetime, but practicality demands careful planning, patience, and perseverance. Luckily, there’s hope for the meantime…

The truth: adventure is more a state of mind and less a plane ticket. Treasures tuck themselves away in the most unexpected, easily dismissed locales. This lesson drilled itself into my thick skull when my roommate and I drove up to rural Maryland this weekend to visit some friends. The couple who recently built their beautiful, modern retirement home on 8-acres led me out into the musty, insect-symphony night to showcase their hidden gem. Sitting there, not 30 feet from the house itself, was a cabin constructed over 150 years ago that they had used as a bucolic escape for years before building the new house. Those same sturdy planks offered protection from the elements to some family during the American Civil War! This unexpected historical find sits less than 40 miles away from my apartment in DC and I’m sure countless other rickety cottages dot the landscape around here.

Which finally brings me to the point: the stomping ground that I know and love best, the western US, cradles its own panoply of accessible rarities-especially natural rarities-many of which I’ve never thought to explore. Since nature is what the west does best, it came as no surprise when I discovered that six western states house the oldest known tree species in the world: the Bristlecone Pine (Pinus Longaeva).

It seems the Bristlecone Pine has managed to stave off competition hungry to enforce the Darwinian call for newer, stronger species by employing a number of self-protection techniques. Thriving at typical elevations between 10,000 and 11,000 feet, Bristlecones persist in circumstances other types of growth find uninhabitable. They survive on dolomite and alkaline soil layers that offer insufficient nutrients for most types of growth. Furthermore, they know how to protect themselves from each other. Loners for life, these ancient trees leave ample room between themselves, thus ensuring that lightening strikes normally only destroy small clumps of trees, instead of whole forests. Fire cannot jump the distance between trees and no ground cover serves to transfer the flames. Also, if damaged by fire, drought or storms, much of the bark and tissue that conducts water dies back, effectively reducing the nutrient load the tree must supply to tissue and balancing the result of the damage. It seems you learn a lesson or two over the course of millennia.

Mommy and daddy Bristlecone conceived the oldest known individual tree in the world, Methuselah, 4,789 years ago (it celebrated its 100th birthday when the Egyptian Pyramids were being contructed). Methuselah traveled much in its younger years but returned to the White Mountains of California to live its millennia out among relatives. Methuselah descended into a severe depression in 1964 after the US Forest Service allowed a geologist to cut down his older brother Prometheus. The geologist’s coring tool broke after passing 4,000 years and USFS decided finding out that Prometheus was 4,950 years old was more important than letting it live. USFS now strictly protects these venerable soldiers.

Moral of the story: something really interesting is probably really close.

When bad things happen to good people

Today I tell a story of apocalyptical battles, unparalleled heroism, and the fall of mighty empires. Storied figures from ages past mustered up their forgotten glory and rampaged onto the battlefield of fury…drumming throngs amassed in anticipation of the looming clash…hearts pounding, feet stomping, salivating dagger-edged teeth ready to taste the flesh of fallen foes. It was a sight that emblazoned itself into the memory of all who witnessed.

As dictated by the rules of proper warfare, Alexander, Caesar, Genghis Khan and Napolean each stepped away from their fortified positions at the four corners of control and slowly made their way to the legendary Circle of Seclusion…here, in the middle of this barren, windswept plain lay a single tent, its flapping, red silken sheets glowing in the searing midday sun. there was to be no talk of averting the travesty ahead, instead, these four honored figures offered their last respects to the towering personages in their presence. Oh how the pragmatic logistics of organizing warfare can baffle your mind….how could it be that four men sat down at a table and divided up the known expanses of the globe into segments of control, wielding the power to determine the fates of billions with the sweep of a hand, the blink of an eye. Yet so it was. The Rumsfelds and Wolfowitzs of the world would hereafter always hearken back to this convergence of powers when deliberating the precedents established for conquering and pillaging.

There were no wasted words. A nod of graven respect was paid by each to each…then they turned on their heels and swiftly made their way back to their respective bastions in order to make final preparations. At the sixth hour of the sixteenth day of the fourth month, the horns blared their deafening call to arms…and so it began. What followed has been depicted in scores of books, praised by the poets of the world and immortalized in song…surely my meager words wouldn’t be so brazen to rival those accounts, instead, I offer a glimpse from the commonman to the commonman.

The mighty mountain fortresses of the Andes, and the fertile river valleys of the Amazon fell quickly, uncontested really, to Caesar’s swarms. Just as today, many parts of Africa teemed with civil war, while East Timor broke its fragile peace, roiled by carnage. Asia remained eerily calm in these early stages…awaiting it’s mounting pivotal power. While Genghis and Alexander tore away at each other in Africa and the southwest Pacific, Napolean capitalized on their distracted attentions and sallied forth through the expanses of North America. Soon a dynasty was born and North America had fallen. Controlling such vast resources, Napolean churned his war engine at full boar. Seemingly in the blink of an eye, Napolean had fortified the northwestern gateway to N. America (Kamchatcka), effectively sealed the southern entry through Panama and accumulated his menacing divisions in Greenland….poised to sail the silent seas and surge through Ireland and Britain. Those seas were sailed and hidden under a cloak of mist, Napolean unleashed his vicious hounds upon the Icelandic snows and let them devour all in their way. Europe itself now lay helpless to his evil schemes and east to west, north to south soon fell under his sway.

Emotions ran high at this point, and the prostrate southern powers of the world convened a conference in Tunisia and discussed tactics to collectively undermine Napolean’s northern empire. Here the author must disclose his ties to the Alexandrian leadership, because interpretations of this summit grossly diverge. You see, I held an elevated post in Alexander’s exclusive cabinet of war ministers during the early stages of warfare, including the days of the Tunisian talks….anyways, Caesar, Genghis and Alexander’s respective camps all agreed that a unified and imminent counteroffensive against Napolean in Southern Europe was the most logical of approaches. Alexander held two of the three key positions (Northern Africa) which would allow such an attack…the middle east lay in the possession of Genghis. To cut to the chase, the talks were ultimately discarded because Alexander felt he was being asked to sacrifice his very existence in order to weaken Napolean, allowing Caesar and Genghis to reap the harvest they hadn’t sown. Caesar and Genghis called for an immediate offensive, while Alexander demanded a brief respite to muster a critical mass of manpower, in order to ensure landing a mighty blow and living to tell about it. Sadly, Caesar and Genghis’ positions were too staunch to allow for productive three way dialogue and they splintered off into separate two party talks.

Let me bring this tome to a timely close…Alexander, abandoned by the short-sighted, unrealistic demands of those whose names we shall not mention again here, suffered the further devastating blow of a malaria outbreak in his central African power region….inauspicious signs, my dear friends. Meanwhile, blessed by an abundant crop and fortuitous mid-battle breaks (an entire division of Napolean’s troops was wiped out while crossing the Urals when a freak summer blizzard swept in), Genghis strengthened in the east. Caesar, finally ready to capitalize on his protracted isolationist stance, soon rose up to conquer the crippled North American Napoleonic empire.

There was a moment when relative parity returned to the lands of this earth, and a harmonious peace could have been struck….but the wounds of battle had penetrated too deeply, the ire and quest for vengeance too permanently lodged in the psyche of these soldiers…nobody was hanging up their shields and returning to pasture…this was a battle to the end. Plain and simple. Crippled by the nonexistent international aid, Caesar worked tirelessly in his laboratory to develop the serum to cure malaria…but alas, time ran out. Napolean capitalized on this last opportunity to use his fledgling northern might…The figurative gates of Moscow fell this time to Napolean as he stormed into Africa and managed to strike the fatal blow to Alexander’s forces… the story goes that Alexander fended off scores of assailants with his own majestic might, ultimately succumbing only to a slimy bit of subterfuge that involved Caesar and Genghis illegally and immorally abetting Napolean’s ferocious offensive.

The rest is history (and boring history, at that). So suffice it to say, that for all Napolean’s gusto, he overreached himself by conquering Alexander. He soon fell. The world returned to a two superpower state that pitted Genghis against Caesar’s isolationist forces in the west. Armed with the insuperable combination of exquisite horsemanship skills and access to Arabian stallions, Genghis swallowed the might of Rome…ironically in a northern showdown that foretells of the pending rise to power of Greenland and Iceland.

….but little did they know…that high above them, orbiting the blue earth in a rudimentary satellite station, sat Alexander….cackling maniacally, and plotting his imminent, terrorizing return

muddled mess of a manifesto

There are dark forces operating behind the scenes in this seemingly mundane world. How else can it be explained that I get to unload my mental miasma out upon the unsuspecting electronic channels of the world. I wonder how many other bloggers have written similar introductory sentences, probably many. Goes to show you how many totally sweet people there are out there.

So I’ve decided to start a blog. This noble notion was eschewed by yours truly all too often in the past, however, for a number of reasons, I’ve reneged on my sworn oath to never partake. Firstly, my perspective on technology in general has shifted. After years of living in a theoretical, minimalist, perhaps luddite universe, I’m beginning to appreciate the wonders of embracing (in a sober fashion) what could be…I realize that I’m living through one of the most incredible moments in history when technology, and electronic/remote networking in particular, is working to enhance global interconnectedness and bring about parity among nations and people. I fully acknowledge that the realization of such mindblowing notions is far in the future, or perhaps, deeply embedded in my imagination…but accessibility and knowledge of computing systems harbors far ranging promises for anyone that has a teeming curiousity, motivation, and a few lucky breaks. What I’m trying to say is that I think that’s the coolest notion, and I want to partake. Chopping my thoughts up into sizzling electrons and shuttling them to some gynormous server that has the audacity to spit them back out to anyone that gives a flying f**k is the sweetest thing I can think of. I want to take advantage of that…
Other things contributed as well. I’ve come to understand myself a little better in the last couple years and I realize that although my communication with those I’m close to can be so incredible and real at times, I’m also prone to allow gaping time gaps elapse in between. I’m poor at maintaining the day to day….although I often wish I had this with more people. Moving to the east coast, where I literally knew a couple people upon arrival, has underscored for me how much I miss and need my friends/family...and how difficult it can be to forge meaningful bonds with new people. I certainly don’t regret my move, but I’d like to find a way to bridge the gap between this and that.
Furthermore, I know i have the tendency at times to bottle up my thoughts, which leaves many wondering what the hell is going on with me. Although i am becoming increasingly more comfortable with varying mental/mood states- something i think humanity in general is less than accepting of...everybody wants everybody to be perpetually stoked about life-i now understand that it's important to me that those i'm close to have some understanding of what's going on in my mind. Anyways, I think this blog will let people see a chunk of my mind when that chunk seems too anchored in place to fall out otherwise...beware, the whole structure might collapse if enough chunks dislodge…and hear the jargon that I’m spitting like a rusted faucet in El Paso. I want dialogue, and hopefully this blog can facilitate it.

So this blog is for my friends and family (although I have a feeling some members of the family might prefer to not hear my candid speech at times). Living in DC, how can transparency not be my motto….pause to vomit and shake head….

In the spirit of catching some folks up, I will offer a brief synopsis of my life here in this introductory blog. Those that are anywhere near in touch with me can save themselves the agony by not reading on…
So here I am in DC, battling with the fact that I’m living in arguably the hippest spot in the city yet the coffee shops close at 10:00. WTF. Seriously, WTF. This could be a fortuitous turn of events, however, because I’ve discovered that one of my least favorite choch-monkey bars in the neighborhood is actually a supercool place to get a beer and relax with my computer on the off nights. So here I am. Beer eclipses coffee tonight. No worries, coffee will continue to fight the valiant fight.
I have a job. For those who followed my summer/fall saga, this constitutes no small feat. I’m an office boy at the National Academies (of Science). My group studies oceans. They are the big blue puddles you see on globes that are less well understood than most nearby (semantically speaking, the most relative of relative terms used here) objects in space. They are the things that ultimately claimed over 200,000 lives at the end of December, contain 97% of the earth's water, and determine our weather. They’re the place where at the deepest you could submerge Everest and still climb up three Taipei 101 Towers and throw in a Petronas Tower for old time sake (actually the top 28 feet of the Petronas Towers would erupt from the water but that's just superfluous radio poles anyway). The fact that i'm a cubicle rat that spends a fair amount of time shuffling through glorified paperwork renders it unnecessary for me to have a background in this stuff...but i do get to look at creepy pictures of deep sea monsters...
So that's work. Then there's life in general After a not-so-fun but instructive few months, I’ve shed a rather dark period in my life, which I won’t delve into much. Damn those winter months...Suffice it to say that my faith in human resilience has grown.
I’m finally getting back in touch with important people (unfortunately, not the kind of 'important' that will pay me a sizeable salary to sit around and get paid for this).
I’m slowly getting to know some incredible people in DC.
Music and art have regained their prominent position. I’ve run away on a number of occasions, not able to intellectually decipher how the aforementioned could provide any fulfillment, yet always returning….more assured of, and inspired by, their effect each time (can someone who understands how to diffentiate between effect/affect please contact me asap...i think i was busy substituting expletives into Shakespearian sonnets during that english class). it’s still magical to me.
I’m dating a girl that blows me away with her crazy talents, intellect, priorities and beauty. We’re working through those issues of independence, overindulgence, communication, etc. She’s the coolest, most central thing in my life.
I'm feeling warm sunshine for the first time in what seems like ages.
I'm residing with my good friend Evan from Spokane. After an extended period (for me atleast) of discovering that we both evolved (devolved?) in different ways in college, i think we're coming to appreciate each other's respective ambitions/goals. it's starting to feel like not living in the past so much, and instead, embracing what's going on now. it's copasetic and i dig it.
I’m living with the knowledge that this job won’t directly channel into anything I want to do long term…I’m also living with the knowledge that DC is not where I’d like to settle for any extended period of time….at the same time, it’s a very cool city and I have a fairly interesting job that lets me work right downtown, about three blocks off the National Mall. Aside from the financial restrictions that come from working at a non-profit, I can still pay the bills and live a pretty cool life. It’s a good situation for right now...i get to meet some interesting people and do a little traveling...definitely enough to keep me stimulated for the near future.

So what gives me the right to hop on my soap box (still swearing off the contents within) and bark at the world? Well, this free blog service does. Do it yourself if you hate me. Or don’t and don’t ever read anything I have to say. It’s beautiful that way, isn’t it.
I’m going to promise nothing from this blog, so as to not disappoint anyone. There will not be a theme. There will not be a consistent timetable of entries. There will often times be random, less-than-substantive rambling. But i think there's a bunch of interesting stuff out there to shoot the shit about, alot of which does prove important to my happiness and motivation. Perhaps some will agree with me. It’s not my fault if you log on, but i'd love it if you did. By the way, you rule if you’ve read this far.
Cheers.