Updates on Several Pending Items

We've had a lot of loose ends sort of hanging out there that we have managed to clean up in the last week. The biggest one was the house. Monday, June 25, we signed the final papers and got our check. No more $2,000/month payments on a house we don't live in. No more worrying about snow on the roof, frozen pipes, dead batteries, cranky generators, or if the angle on the solar panels was supposed to be changed this week or next week. We are done with the whole mess.

Life lesson: if you would like to lose seven years of your life and convert $100,000 in savings into $200,000 in debt, build a house.

But it's over now. We did hang onto the cabin and 17 acres so we still have some real estate in case we make any long-term visits to the area, but we are completely and totally out of debt at this point and even have a little cash left over to re-fund our sad little savings account.

While we were in Traverse City, we (very quickly) cashed the check from the house before anyone could change their mind. We also hit the office for the people that handle the gas royalty checks and got everything straight with them for the change in ownership. We needed to contact the township people about a couple miscellaneous items, but those loose ends are still dangling. And while we were in the same state as all our financial records, I got the last of the numbers I needed to be able to do the form for the sale of a residence on our 2007 taxes.

While we were in Michigan, we hit Tristan's open house. I have a bunch of photos, but I don't have them on Flickr yet. Mostly due to sloth; I find I'm pretty lazy when it comes to my time in the evenings. Probably because I was outside working all day today and it was around 100 degrees for most of the day. But it's a dry heat.

We also spent some time with Deb's mom. She is way ahead of the game recovering from her knee replacement surgery, so we didn't have much to do other than some shopping and being taxi drivers Friday and Saturday, which really wasn't much of a chore. We drove her to a restaurant on Friday where she bought both of us dinner, then drove her to Tristan's open house on Saturday, which we were going to anyway. We got off pretty easy all around. They really do things different these days. I remember people getting knee replacements back in the 1990's that were helpless for weeks, even months. Now they have you walking on the thing the day of the surgery. I'm not sure what they do different, but it certainly is different.

Another loose end was what department I was going to be working in. I started the process of moving to the foundry, but then a position opened up in ceramics. I had never really considered ceramic until the manager came to me and asked if I was interested. I put the foundry manager on hold and threw my name into the hat. I found out today that the position went to someone else, so I'm back on for moving to the foundry. I'll probably move on July 16 or July 23, depending on when I hear that I'm officially moving. There is a manager meeting tomorrow where is will be made official.

Well, that's enough for one post.

More Photos

More photos on our Flickr account. They are mostly documentation of all the digging I've been doing over the last couple months down in camp. It was a simple leach bed repair, but some rocket scientist put the bed over five feet in the ground.

As a matter of fact, I am paid by the hour.

I didn't do all the digging; A backhoe did about half the trench about three feet down. I also had some assistance from others in the maintenance department and some of the June workshop participants. But all the stuff you see in the photos, laying and leveling the perf pipe, dumping in the stone, laying down the filter fabric, setting the inspection and clean-out pipes, and starting to back-fill the trench was done by yours truly in two days. I had to constantly do finger-stretching exercises over the entire weekend before my hands stopped looking like I was still holding a shovel. The good news is that next week, we will be renting a frontloader for another project, and I will get to use it for an hour or so to finish up the project.

Unsettlingly Settled?

Or unsettled settlingly? (Not sure that is an English word; Blogger doesn't think so.) Our "leaders" keep harping on how every "credible" (meaning "agrees with my preconceived and baseless notions") climatologist agrees that driving SUV's will enable us to grow date palms in Siberia.

And yet....

I recently heard a quote from one of the dissenting ICCP climatologists that all human activity amounts to "a fart in a hurricane."

Another Mom update

I finally got to talk to my Mom this morning. She seems to be doing good. Yesterday the "pain management" problem was because the nurse and the aide both dropped her leg -- twice in one day! No wonder she had to have morphine shots before her therapy. She has been up walking with some help -- she was able to wash her hair yesterday (or this morning) herself. Her sugar is still too high, but the Dr isn't too worried about it. It isn't being caused by what she eats -- it is the stress from the surgery to her body. The Dr did not release her home today -- he would have if Mom would have insisted, but they both agreed to another night in the hospital. Mom knows the pain meds are much better while in the hospital and after the set back of having her leg dropped twice, she wasn't up to going home on regular pain meds. She should be released tomorrow sometime. The therapy will be set up to come directly to her home, so she won't have to deal with trying to get in/out of the car right away.

One Busy week

Well, we have finally moved! AAA office (not us again!) We had to have everything packed up and off the phones/computer last Friday at 4p. Of course, at 4p, I was still working on some tickets for a client. Oh well....we got finished up with what us employees were responsible for and got out of our old office around 6p or so. Had the weekend to rest, then hit the new office raring to go at 8am Monday.

First problem, the manager's key did not work in the back door locks. Luckily the facility guys from headquarters were already there and she got in the front door. Next thing noticed .... I did not have a desk where we thought it was suppose to be. Connie (my boss) got on the phone and found out from the higher ups that they decided not to authorize the extra desk --- WITHOUT notifying her. Great! I still got my own desk, just not near the back by myself. I share a cubicle area with the NATS (North American Travel Specialist) That did not go as planned either -- we decided the new full time girl (Alexa) would be next to me so I could help her out when needed with cars/hotels/Apollo system. Next thing I know, when Bill (a part time person) comes in around 11am, he decides he wants that desk (set up is good for him?!) He is a bit bothersome, but I hope to be able to tune him out when needed.

We spent Monday and Tuesday trying to unpack and arrange things. Who would have thought so many people would have so many ideas about where to put the envelopes?! Monday we called it quits at 5p, but Tuesday some of us worked until 7p. We had to have the complete inventory done and in the system before we could open to the public on Wed. Each and every map, tour book, camp book and retail item that was there had to be counted and entered into the system. We found old things that weren't even listed on the inventory sheets. (Mostly old stuff from 03-05) And like most companies, AAA can't be consistent with what number they have entered in their inventory system. The 6 digit number at the top, the upc on the front or the upc on the back ---- oh no, the two upc did NOT match.

Since I spent most of Tues helping with inventory, I didn't get a chance to get my desk in order. And as of tonite, it still is not done. We have hit with clients as soon as we opened on Wed. We had 127 people in on Wed, 116 on Thurs and only 97 today. One of the other travel agents was off sick Mon/Tues and came in late on Wed. She was still pretty week and coughed alot -- she ended up leaving early each day (she is the other full time agent) and I got to close each night this week. Lots of overtime for my official first week of full time!

Since we are so busy, I told my boss, I may have my desk organized by the "grand opening" (which will be Friday, July 6th) Even though we officially close at 5p, I still had two phone calls to return. One I reached and ticketed two tickets and a car (flying to Michigan for a wedding) and the other had to wait. One thing I may not like here is AAA's policy about always two people in the office at a time. I can not stay past 530p unless the cashier will stay (and apparently it better be an emergency!) I hate to go home and not have stuff done, or organized for the next morning. Tonite I had to gather up all my quotes and notepad and basically throw them in a cabinet and lock it all up for the weekend.

I haven't been able to connect with my Mom yet in the hospital. When I try calling she is out of her room -- usually for therapy or joint class. I have talked to a couple of the nurses so far. It sounds like the surgery went well, but she is having problems with pain management. (Whatever the nurse meant by that!) Mom can tolerate alot of pain, so to have problems with pain makes me wonder what is happening. I hope to catch her in her room tomorrow morning. The nurse said she wasn't sure if she would be released Sat or not. If she is having "pain management" problems, I think they may be keeping her longer. We fly back to Michigan Thursday night. We will be with her most of the weekend....she is hoping to be well enough to go to Tristan's (grandson) open house on Sat. We then have the BIG CLOSING scheduled for Monday at noon. It sounds like the lawyer does not have any more surprises for us. That will be one big burden off us.

It was over 100 again today (104.4) and no relief in sight. We have three fans going in our room. One in the kitchen window blowing in, one upstairs in the loft blowing out and a big industrial one near the door pulling from the kitchen towards the loft area. We tried to keep the door closed the past couple nights, but it got so stifling in here, I had to open it last night to cool it down some. The bugs have been getting in -- our screen we bought does not fit the door good. The small things don't bother us, it is the large "cone bugs" that are apparently not too nice and bite you. I might have to google the cone bug and see what it has to say about it. I don't think they are poisonous, but bothersome and the bite hurts since they are so big.

Well it is after 11pm here and I am tired. Ric spent the whole day down at camp working one the septic project there. I picked him up around 7p when I got home and we ate the pizza I picked up after he showered. He laid down to take a nap when he was done eating and hasn't budged since. All the hard/heavy physical work in the direct sun and over 100 degree heat is taking its toll. The camp thermometer registered 110 down in camp today. He misplaced his water bottle (or somebody took it) so he has been using his camelback. Having that strapped on your body probably isn't helping too much. He probably doesn't keep it on all the time, but still.... We may have to buy another big water bottle for him if his one from Brick Wheels doesn't show up this weekend. (at least it will be easy to spot if somebody has it in their hands!)

Mom Update

Debbie's mom had her knee replacement surgery today. Her therapy has already started, and she is doing well and not in too much pain. The only real problem so far is that she is in a shared room, and the AC doesn't really work in the room. The fact that she is worrying about those sorts of things is probably a good sign.

More when we know more.

Smokin'!!

Today it was 105 and 6% humidity. I feel an inexplicable urge to dump barbecue sauce on myself.

And Yet Another Blog

This one is by Russell Steitz. Good stuff.

One of his latest columns talks about the unintended consequences of turning food into fuel. This is one of the beefs I have with the bio-diesel industry. Instead of using vegetable oil from soybeans, they should be using vegetable oil from non-edible sources like switch grass or algae. It would be cheaper, and it could be grown on land unsuitable for farming. But that's too logical; lets cut down the Brazilian rain forest to grow soybeans and starve the poor people of the world by using up all the corn to make ethanol to burn in our cars and save the planet!

Never forget that the true agenda of the eco-tards is to reduce the world population. Whether by malaria or starvation really doesn't matter. What matters is getting the numbers down by any means. Everything else is theater.

Before You Plan Your Retirement....

... take a good hard look at this page.

Bottom line: The US dollar is being inflated at 11-12% per year. What that means for your retirement planning is that something that costs $100 today will cost $310 in ten years, $965 in twenty years, and $28,900 in fifty. Is it any wonder the US savings rate is negative? Why save when the absolute best return you can reasonably expect is just keeping even with inflation? May as well have fun with your money while you still can!

If you are a twenty-something, don't bother to save or invest. You're just making other people rich with your money while depriving yourself of its short-term pleasure for no reason.

(And yes, I realize that 12% inflation is unsustainable for fifty years. But the economic tsunami that will hit the US when the current 30-year party ends will wipe out all those mythical savings just as effectively as 12% inflation. Damned it you do, damned if you don't.)

But We Mean Well!

From The Belmont Club:

Kenyan economist James Shikwati is interviewed in Der Spiegel. And he says what many people think about the development assistance and international NGO racket but are quite afraid to say.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Shikwati, the G8 summit at Gleneagles is about to beef up the development aid for Africa...

Shikwati: ... for God's sake, please just stop.

SPIEGEL: Stop? The industrialized nations of the West want to eliminate hunger and poverty.

Shikwati: Such intentions have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If the industrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate this awful aid. The countries that have collected the most development aid are also the ones that are in the worst shape. Despite the billions that have poured in to Africa, the continent remains poor.

Great. My tax dollars are being used to spread Half-Assedness all over the African continent like butter on toast. Ye flippin' gods.

Camille is Back!

Actually, she never left. But about five or six years ago, Salon decided to charge for reading her essays, so I stopped reading them. Today, I was browsing around elsewhere and followed a link to her latest piece. It seems Salon has moved to the PBS model (asking for money, but not hampering access to popular content if you don't cough it up). So for now, I have added her column page on Salon to the blog list (Yea, yea, yea; it ain't a blog. But neither is about half the stuff already there. Don't like it, get your own blog.)

Does It Make Me a Liberal....

...if I agree with Camille Paglia?

As I have argued for years, we desperately need a return to vocational training. The virtually universal conversion of American high schools to a pre-college track over the past half-century has watered down the curriculum to its present deadening uselessness. Lower-middle-class and working-class families who pay taxes have a right to expect that primary schools will prepare their children for a productive life.

My platform calls for a revalorization of the trades (which are related by craftsmanship to the art schools where I have taught for most of my career). Upper-middle-class families should be ready to support their children's unorthodox choice for a career in carpentry, masonry or landscaping. We need to strip the elite aura from the claustrophobic "prestige" jobs in sterile corporate offices, where high salaries drug the worker clones from recognition of their own imprisonment and castration.

(You will find this on page two of the linked article.)

Froo Froo Menu Generator

This is a hoot. And dishes with names like these are why I only eat at chain restaurants that serve steaks and burgers, or foreign restaurants where I won't know that I'm eating Fried Rhinoceros with a Vodka Pasta because I can't read Mandarin.

[Ric's Friendly Tip for eating in foreign restaurants: buy a lot of a la cart items, and don't look at them too closely or try to figure out what the strange little lumps are; just shovel it in with your eyes mostly closed. If it tastes good, just keep shoveling until it's gone. If it tastes nasty, spit it back into the bowl/plate, take a couple healthy gulps of water or soda, then move on to the next thing quickly before your mind has time to register that you just tried to ingest ostrich anuses.]

Arcosanti and Half-Assedness

Fred has a few good points on what makes a rich vs. poor country. One of his key indicators of poverty is the prevalence of Half-Assedness. Fred defines Half-Assedness as "... a curious mixture of just not giving a damn, lack of ambition, little interest in academics, and sometimes something that looks like lethargy." I'd say the same thing is true of organizations. Actual quotes heard here on property:

Guest-with-baby-in-tow: Excuse me; there is bat shit on your high chair.
Arco Cafe Employee: Yea. It happens.

"Would you just stop working so we can talk?" (Said repeatedly to me by various managers; also heard said by same various managers to a couple other people who still have a work ethic.)

"Would you stop getting projects done so fast? This is Arcosanti!" (Said to me this morning in jest, but telling none the less.)

"So, I guess you're just his/her boy." (Said to me by my manager whenever I do a quick repair for someone without giving them a 45-minute lecture about how they should do it themselves or making them wait six months to do a five-minute job.)

"You'll stop that nonsense after you've been here a while." (Said to me by a manager when I starting picking up trash blowing around the site. Oddly, he was right. I have stopped.)

Yep. Half-Assedness. Goes a long way towards explaining why it has taken 36 years to build 5% of the place.

(shrug)

In a couple weeks, I'll be making bells. Once I learn how to do that, I won't care if the place falls off the mesa. I'll have learned how to do something that I would be very unlikely to learn anyplace else. Not that skill in Bronze-Age metalworking methods is likely to be a marketable skill, but it will look a lot cooler than "toilet snake technician" and "pool boy" on a resume.

Wil Wheaton Has a Blog

Remember the geeky kid on Star Trek: The Next Generation that everyone wanted to slap? Well, he has a blog. And two kids. And he is (by his own admission) still a geek.

(sigh)

Another blog to add to the list. I may have to thin the ranks if I plan to ever do anything other than read blogs.

Another Smart Guy on Global Warming

Freeman Dyson gives his views on global warming.

It's nice to see that he agrees with me on the whole "too much CO2" thing. If CO2 is such a problem, then instead of bankrupting Western Civilization (while simultaneously exempting China with 1/4 of the world's population) with Kyoto, just remove the CO2 with vegetation. In other words, plant a tree. Then if it turns out that the extra CO2 was holding off the next ice age (which is over-due), burn the wood to put the CO2 back in the atmosphere. But if there is one thing that Uncle Al and his global warming hysterics like better than cherry-picking the data to fit their hypothesis, it's making a lot of noise about the problem without offering any solutions.

Just Some Random Blah, Blah, Blah.

Last weekend, we saw the third of The Three's of the Summer '07. Mostly they reinforce the old adage to quit while you're ahead. Shrek III was the most disappointing of the lot. Definitely wait for the DVD. Pirates III didn't seem to make a lot of sense, but we wrote it off to being the late show (10pm - nearly 1am) and the second movie we had watched that night. However since we saw it, I've heard a lot of similar complaints from others. We'll try it again when the DVD comes out. Spiderman III was the best of the three even if it did rely on alien black goo from a meteorite as the primary plot device. I realize that Marvel comics probably created that particular cliche, but I'm sure five minutes of thought would have resulted in a more satisfying replacement in the 21st century.

It's still hot in Arizona, in case anyone is wondering (90's for the last week).

It's still dry in Arizona, in case anyone is wondering (less than 10% humidity).

I will be leaving the maintenance department sometime in the next month or so. I'm not entirely sure where I will end up. I had originally talked to the manager in the foundry last Thursday and he was going to start things from his end. Then over the weekend, the manager of the ceramics department mentioned that he may be getting a new position the first part of July and would I be interested in making ceramic bells. Perfect timing, as usual. In any case, I will be leaving maintenance to make bells around the first part of July. I just don't know if I will be making bronze or ceramic bells.

I've spent the last several days digging a really big hole. The leach field for the showers and wash machine down in camp plugged up over two years ago. My crack boss has ignored the problem while sewage has been backing up into the showers, so I forced the issue by starting a bunch of digging to find the problem. Over a month later, I'm still digging.

Did I mention that it is hot and dry in Arizona? I'm blogging wearing nothing...

...but a pair of shorts. (Ha! Had you going there for a second!!)

I downloaded some software for ripping DVD's. My problem is storage space. A clean rip (no compression, full screen, surround sound intact, etc.) takes somewhere around 6.5 gigs. The only way to store a decent number is to get one of the new terabyte external hard drives. The problem is that they run over $350. And yes I realize that is less than .40/gig, but it is still $350 for something to store movies on. It's hard to think of anything more frivolous than that. The other option is to store them is some sort of compressed format, but, unlike MP3's, I can definitely see the degradation in both the video and sound, which will drive me nuts.

My fancy straw hat died a while back. The wind blew the top out of it while I was doing a tour, so I walked around the site leading a group of giggling tourists with a hat that looked like an opened tin can. Now I'm looking for a replacement, but I can buy a decent used car for what a hat costs. In the meantime, I'm wearing a black baseball cap.

Did I mention I've been spending all day in the sun digging holes? And that it is hot and dry here?

Not much else.

New Blog

I realize that the last thing I need is yet-another blog to read every day, but this guy is really good. Check out his thoughts on creationism and the flood for two examples.

Quote of the Day (and Week, Month, Year, and Maybe Century)

He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice.

Albert Einstein

Wow. Someone Needs a Hobby

This is incredible. The commentary asks, "Does anyone know at what point does passion and patience becomes Asperger's?" I'd say this definitely falls over the line into at least mild Asperger's.

Let me guess; these guys are single.

Cindy Sheehan Figures it Out

I don't agree with her politics or her methods. But more importantly, I didn't like the Democratic Party using her as a tool to beat Republicans over the head. It seems she finally figured out the truth of the American political system: there isn't two cent's difference between a Democrat and a Republican. Both are nothing more than loose aggregations of moral defectives.

Key quote:

The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing... Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives.

I know how I felt when it became public knowledge that the political party I supported (Libertarian) was riddled top-to-bottom with the same sort of cronyism and under-the-table deals that define the other two political parties. I understand that power corrupts, but you have to be completely devoid of moral character to be corrupted by the insignificant power held by a third party that struggles to capture 2% of the vote. But in the end, all I lost was maybe a couple acquaintances, about a year's-worth of time and a few thousands of dollars. Ms. Sheehan lost her son to the moral bankruptcy of the Republicans, then lost her marriage and health to the moral bankruptcy of the Democrats. I can't even imagine what that feels like.

Homework assignment: read the Declaration of Independence. Make a list of the reasons given in that document for our separation from The Crown that mirror current headlines. Write a 500-word essay justifying your continued support for our current political system. (Hint: if your justification can be summarized as "it's the only system we have," please write "I will read with comprehension." 100 times on the board, then go back and re-read the Declaration.)

The storm clouds continue to gather. Get small. Get fast. "When people are saying, 'Everything is peaceful and secure,' then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman’s labor pains begin. And there will be no escape." (1 Thessalonians 5:3, NLT)

Politics or Orphans?

Ken Ham just opened The Creationist Museum. This is not science. This is not even theology. (OK, maybe it's poor theology....) This is politics to the tune of $27 million. Now imagine a $27 million donation to these guys.

I don't see any verses in the Bible instructing believers to build faux natural history museums. I have read a great deal about believers' responsibility to widows, orphans, etc. I must have one of those ultra-liberal translations.

I hope for the sake of Ken Ham and his supporters that there isn't a god after all, because if there is, I'm betting he's pissed.

Arcosanti...

...and pretty much every other job I've worked:

Angst at Arco

This weekend, we hosted the annual Spoken Word Festival here on the site. Some of it was pretty good. We listened to a couple spoken word acts that were impressive, although one was so depressing everyone wanted to throw themselves off the mesa. There was also a bluegrass band called The Family, and a pyrotechnic performance group called Flam Chen. But the rest of the weekend was a poetry slam (team poetry competition with audience judging). We can hear every word that is said in the amphitheater from our room, so even though we weren't really interested, we got to listen to it anyway. Maybe we missed the more intelligent parts, but it seemed to consist mostly of edgy, hip post-adolescents (and you just knew they were edgy and hip because they dressed in weird and, in the case of the female participants, barely legal clothing and screamed "fuck" into the microphone every three seconds or so) venting spleen and boo-ing any judge that dared to score them based on their actual ability. (As Kip notes, "The reason there are so many starving artists is because most artists suck.")

Anyway, it is mostly over at this point and we seem to have survived. The rest of the holiday weekend will be tours and, most likely, site cleanup.

Hogzilla II

An eleven-year-old kid recently shot a world-record hog. With a .50 caliber revolver, no less. The hog weighs 1,051 (or maybe 1060; the owner of the scale used wasn't present at the weigh-in) and is 9' 4" from the tip of the snout to the base of the tail.

Only in Alabama.

The Official Language at the First Lunar Base will be...

probably not English.

But don't worry! The GAO is all over it....

Do I need to say it again?

Stickin' It to the Man

Want to buy music, but not support the RIAA? Here is a list of the 100 top-selling albums on Amazon that are not controlled by The Man.

And Another Concert

Friday late in the work day, one of my coworkers asked if I wanted to not go home right after work. Hmmm...with a lead in like that, how could I refuse to find out what was up?! Her daughter decided she had too much to do and backed out of going to a concert with her. It wasn't a "real concert" -- it was a special event -- a mother/daughter "women" event -- (I believe it was called a SHE event) The special guest was Rebecca St James. I called to make sure Ric didn't mind me going out with Bunni at the last minute. I had to get some directions from another coworker since this was someplace else I hadn't been to before. I wanted to make sure I wouldn't get lost trying to find my way home by myself. It looked pretty harmless after Alexa (another coworker) gave me better directions than the AAA TripTik did! I gave Bunni the thumbs up -- she had to leave early since we was volunteering at the event.

It was a good concert and night with alot of women. Rebecca St James's mentor Evie was also there, along with a couple other singers. Evie was the oldest (51yrs) and her best comment about getting older was about your eyebrows thinning/falling out and THEN appearing on your CHIN! She had a few other good zingers -- especially embarrasing to the guys in the band. It was a good message about friends and forgiveness. It made me miss my friends from Michigan. I didn't want to call and wake anyone up at 1am, so I left a message for one at the church. (I hope she got it) The message on forgiveness hung on my heart also. I wanted to talk about it when I got home, but nobody was there was I got in. The opportunity was lost -- maybe I wasn't really ready to "put it to bed yet."

Other news: I finally finished up my training and other requirements for my ACC. (Acredited Cruise Counselor) I mailed in my logbook and other paperwork on Friday. I should get things back in 3-4 weeks and be able to add ACC after my name now in the travel business. Our AAA office move is pushed back again -- now they are telling us June 13th is the big move date. Again -- I won't be holding my breath. I hope we are in by the end of summer!

Still working on closing of the house auction. It is turning out to be a big pain that the lawyer won the bid. We may have to push back the closing date of June 15th if we don't have all the new reports and things in yet. That might work well for us, if we tell them we want to close the Friday or Monday around Tristan's open house. We will have to see. We had to ask favors again of Ric's parents and nephew to take care of some things in Michigan for us. Hopefully this next step is simple and cheap.

Ric finished up the round window --- painted circles on most of it. Looks cool....pics later. Next, maybe squares on the small squae kitchen window that gets sun in the late afternoon? He is working on sanding and painting a bookshelf. We will have someplace to store the DVDs we brought home from MIchigan last trip and the three knick knacks we brought out with us.

"Higher" Education

Another data point in favor of my thesis that sending your child to a university is worse than a waste of time and money.

Once again: Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western Civilization as it commits suicide.

Another Concert Night

Debbie and I went to a concert at a local church last night to listen to this guy. It was fun, although I must be getting too old because the music was too loud.

The interesting part is that he is currently biking across the United States from Los Angeles to Boston to raise money for The James Fund. So you have someone who, I think it is safe to say, isn't exactly a household name on the Contemporary Christian Music scene, yet is donating 100% of tickets sales from his concerts, merchandise sales, and web site sales to The James Fund, plus takes up a free-will offering at every event that also 100% goes to The James Fund. This all started on May 7th and not counting whatever came in last night, he has already raised over $39,000. One week. One guy. He plans to do this for approximately three months.

Thought experiment: what if every person in the United States that claims to be a follower of Jesus devoted 1/4 of their income for one year to helping widows and orphans? Not just sending few bucks for new shoes or some old clothes from the back of your closet, but sending serious cash that can change a life.

Homework for our Christian readers:

1. List all the excuses why doing this is impossible for you, even as someone who most likely lives on even less than you do is doing it.

2. Reconcile the above list with the teachings of Jesus in the gospels.

More Inconvenient Truths for Al Gore

This site is written by another dissenter in the IPCC ranks. Another ignored dissenter, of course. "All credible scientists agree" is only true if you define "credible" as "agrees with me."

It's very simple: we don't need more global bureaucratic shin-digs. We need data. We need models that can "predict" today's climate based on the climate 100 years ago. We can have that for less money than we pour into the sands of Iraq in a month.

Of course, even if Uncle Al is right, what then? And don't tell me to go buy a Prius, which has lower fuel economy combined with less passenger and cargo space than a 1970 VW diesel Rabbit. Not to mention a much larger total ecological footprint from manufacture through disposal (engine and motor, not just an engine; giant NiMH battery, etc.). And don't talk to me about Kyoto, which is nothing but a prescription for the destruction of every Western economy, while exempting places like China, with one-quarter of the world's population. If sacrifice is necessary, I'm not against doing my part, but don't ask me to destroy the economy of the US while giving a pass to a country with an order of magnitude greater population. That is ten kinds of stupid.

Dry, Dry, and DRY!

Well, they were right about one thing: it's a dry heat. It beats Michigan's humidity, but I still wouldn't call it pleasant. Today, the humidity in the ceramics area (they have to track the humidity because it affects the manufacturing process) was 7%. You don't sweat; instead, you can actually feel the moisture being sucked out of your skin. I'm putting down nearly 2 gallons of water a day and still couldn't spit, even if someone offered me $100.

Hot, Hot, and HOT!

This week has been unusually hot for this time of year in this area. When we came back from Michigan it got up to 85 that Tuesday and then it steadily got hotter. So far the high for the week here was 94.5. We hear from the locals that it doesn't usually get this hot until June.

Happy Mothers Day to all the Moms out there. (Especially to my Mom!)

Brains? What Brains?

Fred is once again making waves by stating the painfully obvious.

Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western Civilization as it commits suicide.

Going, Going, GONE!!!

We have officially survived our first (and hopefully last) real estate auction. We were hoping for 300K, but we didn't quite make it. But we got enough to pay off everyone (including ourselves) and still have a nice little cushion sitting nice and safe in a money market account somewhere.

Three months of preparation, and it was all over in 15 minutes. Well, actually, the first ten minutes was the auctioneer going over how the auction was going to work, what was being auctioned, etc. The actual auction took five minutes.

I just wish we had thought of this before we bothered with a conventional real estate broker. We could have had this all taken care of before we left Michigan.

But better late than never.

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

We have some moron lawyer from downstate trying to screw up our auction which hasn't even happened yet. He has been harassing us, and is now harassing our auctioneer. I almost hope he shows up to the auction. I would love to show him what a swamp is good for. I have a feeling that if he were to mysteriously disappear, there would be precious few who would care enough to even bother looking for him. My only regret is that I sold all my guns before we left Michigan; knives are so messy and greatly increase the likelihood that I'll get icky lawyer blood on me.

[Aside: Most people know that this line came from Shakespeare's Henry VI spoken by a charming fellow named Dick The Butcher. According to this article, several law firms are now claiming that this is somehow a complement to lawyers. Only an over-educated retard could come up with something so stupid.]

Update: Then we have this: a $65 million lawsuit against a family-owned dry cleaners for a lost pair of pants. Is there anyone surprised that the plaintiff is a lawyer? Is it mandatory to get a frontal lobotomy to get into law school? Just how stupid can a human being be and still remember to breathe?

Ending School Violence

How? By reinstating corporal punishment? Permanent expulsions? Arming teachers? Start actually teaching something? Good heavens, no!

Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western Civilization as it commits suicide.

(And just who is this dork? Oh yea. Filmmaker. Just who we need to tell us all how to raise our kids.)

Weather, Work and Whatever

The weather is warming up again -- Monday's high was 69.8 here and Saturday's was 90.5. Thursday I was down in Phoenix for my last CLIA training class for my ACC (Accredited Cruise Counselor) and it was 94 that day down there. It is still cooling off at night -- great for us -- we open up the windows and door and get our room cooled back down.

Work is going well. The move to the new office got put off once again -- now they are predicting the first week of June. At least this time, the contractors have actually started doing some work in the new building. Still not really busy -- have those sporadic days, but nothing like "busy season" back in Michigan yet.

Saturday, May 5th is the BIG DAY! Our house/land auction in Michigan. Our auctioneer called last week to ask for some copies of something and mentioned one or two serious contenders have already talked to their banks about financing. Woo Hoo! One of the people wants to sweeten his offer to have us give up what mineral rights we do own on the property. Once we sat down and figured what we get per year -- that is a lot to lose over our lifetime. I don't think this guy can sweeten the pot that much! We are just going to be happy to get the mortgage paid off, the money paid and due to the auctioneer, and all the other things involved in selling land. If we make some money after that ... great, but if not, still ... great. That is the biggest cloud still hanging over us.

We will be flying in late Thursday night and spend most (if not all) of Friday cleaning up the house and surrounding area. When we peeked in last time we were in town, the dead ladybugs were outnumbering the dust bunnies! We have to run the generator and get a good charge on that and then start with the vacuuming and other cleaning touch ups. Hopefully we have some time to work outside and kinda spruce up the areas around the garage, the house and the power shed. (All are welcome to come help!)

Supidity on Stilts

As a nation, we have gone mad. We deserve the coming collapse.

(sigh)

EEEEEEEEK!!

I can now add "rattlesnake" to the growing list of dangerous critters I've encountered here in Arizona. I passed it on my bike riding up the mesa from camp yesterday. I was looking down just trying to keep moving up a steep section of road, and there he was. I didn't have a lot of choice where to go with a cliff on one side and a sheer rock wall on the other, so I just edged over as far as I could and kept going. He seemed more interested in soaking up some rays than a large, hairy, sweaty, blob on a bike; he didn't even rattle as I went by.

The tally so far: one brown recluse spider, four black widow spiders, three scorpions, one tarantula, and now a rattlesnake. Ain't Arizona wonderful?!?!?!?

Domination and Submission

I remember years ago having a conversation on the web about the then-new phenomenon of white males being constantly bashed by blacks and women for stating what is obvious to everyone (e.g. women are physically weaker than men; blacks, as a group, score lower on all standardized tests), or, more commonly, for no reason other than that we are white and male. Blacks could scream nastiness at whites and not only not suffer any sanction, but actually be rewarded for it. Women could be depicted in movies kicking every man in sight square in the balls for any reason or no reason whatsoever, again without consequence, but a man raising his voice at a female coworker was grounds for immediate termination. We agreed then that this would be allowed to continue as long as it was viewed as largely harmless. When it progressed to the point that that was no longer so, women would be shown the truth of the "weaker sex" label, and blacks would be taught what "minority" really implies (namely, that you are vastly out-numbered). I guess we didn't count on the truth of the first-seven-years doctrine.

(shrug)

It seems pretty clear that western civilization is played out. I intend to emulate Jonah: find a nice shady spot and watch the fireworks.

(And yes, I realize Jonah is largely seen as a villain by church folk.)

Thoughts on Serial Killers...

...from a retired cop.

Don't have much to add other than a reminder to the earth-is-going-to-hell-which-proves-the-Second-Coming-is-just-around-the-corner crowd that the earth has been going to hell for a long, long time. Like since there has been Homo wandering around on it.

That said, I still think we are replaying the history of every previous civilization.

Old vs. Young

I had two large tour groups yesterday and today. Yesterday's group was 40+ seniors that were split between myself and another tour guide; today's group was 20+ high school students. Now we all "know" what high school kids are like: rude, noisy, insolent, disrespectful, inconsiderate, blah, blah, blah. Anyone care to take a wild guess at which group caused the most problems? I'll give you a hint: it wasn't the rude, noisy, insolent, disrespectful, inconsiderate high school students who in the 3+ hours I was with them managed to be none of those things. When it was time for them to pile back onto their buses, every last one thanked me for the tour.

Now the old people on the other hand were, with rare exceptions, a total pain in the butt. I don't think I ever finished a sentence in the entire hour-and-a-half without being interrupted by someone else asking their question, which in most cases was the exact same question I was already trying to answer. Whining, griping, complaining about everything from the wind to the fact that they actually had to walk the tour, was the order of the day. At the end, I had exactly six people that thanked me for the tour. The only consolation was that those half-dozen seemed genuinely embarrassed by the behavior of the rest of the group.

The next time I hear some old fart complaining about "kids these days" it will be hard to not shoot back a "back at ya, gramps." Of course we all know that would just make me another one of those rude, disrespectful, inconsiderate kids.

Don't put things off

My Mom called my late last night after she got a call from a high school acquaintance of mine. A close high school friend (Irene) was taken home from the hospital with hospice. I had gotten an email from Irene's husband earlier in the week that she took a turn for the worse and was in the hospital. Cindy told my Mom that Irene (or the family) wanted to make sure I knew what was happening. I got Irene's home phone number. I knew she probably wouldn't be in any condition to talk to me, but I wanted to call so her husband or Mom could tell her (when she was coherent) that I called and was thinking of her. I didn't call that night since it was after 9pm (or so) Michigan time. I figured I would have time today to do it. Irene died this morning. I know she is now in heaven and isn't feeling bad at all. Her husband, kids and the rest of her family are in my thoughts and prayers. I wish I could be there to give some hugs (especially to Mom Vitany and Mary), but unfortunately that isn't possible.

Virginia Tech

I haven't said anything about the VT shootings mainly because of the traveling last weekend, catching up here after being away, and the fact that I just don't follow the news much. But mostly, I haven't bothered to say anything because this sort of thing is beginning to follow a predictable and rather disturbing formula:

1. Someone, somewhere commits some horrifying crime against a group of people.
2. Everyone starts a witch-hunt for someone to blame. The perp is invariably dead, and it isn't nearly as much fun to blame dead people as it is to publicly beat up on people that are most likely doing an excellent job of it themselves. Is there a sentient being with an IQ over 50 that doesn't understand that every survivor, every family member, every faculty member at VT hasn't already asked themselves a million times what they could have done differently? Is it really necessary for some hack politician, who has never had to negotiate any situation more dangerous than a big-city crosswalk, to start pontificating about what ought to have been done?
3. Congress gets involved, meaning we all suffer more erosion of our constitutional rights while simultaneously doing nothing to prevent the same horrifying incident from happening again (and in most cases, making it more likely by pissing off hundreds, or even thousands, of borderline psychotics by pushing them into a corner).

I was talking to a gentleman on one of my tours earlier this week about how we seem to be accelerating towards some sort of breaking point as a society. Expect to see more of this.

Par-Tay!!

DSC03426
Originally uploaded by rdfrost.

I must have been at a wedding, 'cause I be doin' the Alligator!

The rest of the pictures are here.

Congratulations Michael and Melissa!!

3 and 1/2 weeks to go

Our auctioneer is still getting calls from the ads on his website and now the ad in the April issue of Woods-n-Water (pg 124). We were able to get out this weekend to check out our property and take care of a couple things. The snow was melting fast on Sunday with the sun out. We wondered about the tire tracks and footprints and found out from Todd last night that somebody was out and wandered around looking at things. Another interested party! The other ads will be in major newspapers on Sunday, April 29th -- the last Sunday before the auction.

We've been telling people we will be having a party that night (auction day 5/5) --- we will either be crying or smiling -- but we will have a party either way. Keep us in your prayers -- that the auction turns out well. I'm not nervous (yet!) -- I know we have somebody "up there" looking after things for us and an awesome auctioneer.

Busy, Busy, Busy...

I haven't posted in a while, but I have a reason. Or at least an excuse. A long time ago, I mentioned that our current room has a funky, triangular window that is essentially impossible to cover with any conventional window covering. Well, we tried something artsy.



I've also been working on another small project that I just finished up today. It may not look like much, but it took me almost as much time to get it done as building the desk.



I've also been doing some volunteer work down in agriculture after my regular shift digging around rediscovering where all the utilities are buried. That's actually a secondary task; I'm trying to fix the septic system so sewage doesn't back up out a clean-out right next to the door into the shower room (this was considered a vast improvement to the sewage backing up into the showers...). But I decided there needed to be some documentation of the other utilities after I smacked the propane line good and hard with a shovel. Of course, according to what "everyone knows," that line isn't there. Yet there it was, right under my shovel. At that point, I switched to a hand trowel and proceeded to find two water lines and two electrical lines, none of which is supposed to be there, either. I also picked up a new nick-name in all this: The Archaeologist.

And of course, there have been other diversions that could only happen at Arcosanti, like the Second Annual Peep Eating Contest. This is the winner after eating nearly 70 peeps in a half hour, and about 10 seconds before he hurled:



There is some very disgusting stuff hanging off the front of the mesa; when visitors ask, we tell them it's from migrating birds....

Not topless yet!

I know I wasn't the only one to laugh about Ric's post "Wavin' in the Wind", though I got a bigger laugh from the comment left from Tom. I haven't seen any lady going topless here, but I have seen the armpit hair on some of the foreign visitors. I have to admit, it can be a long time between shaves for me, but I would never go out in a tank top while in that state.

Work is going well still. The move to the new office is still going slow -- now they are saying Mayish! I really am looking forward to the new office -- MY OWN DESK -- and full time.

Ric and I are trying to lose weight and get into better shape. We had a goal to be down to for the wedding, but I don't think we will both make it. This week I decided to get off my butt and start biking. I've been good -- only took one day off so far this week. The shortest ride is 2 miles. The longest I did so far is 3 miles. Right now I am using the main road in/out of Arcosanti. I've clocked the mileage at different points so I know how far I have to ride to get in my miles. It is pretty flat, so it makes it easy for me to get used to riding alot and building up my endurance. I figure once I can make it all the way to the Junction (about 2.5 miles one way), I will celebrate by going into McDonalds for a parfait!

Next weekend we are flying back to Michigan for a nephew's wedding. Yesterday I talked to Courtney and found out they were getting snow and had a "winter storm advisory" out! Of course, they know the snow birds are heading back. Don and Shirley are heading home from Florida and Teri and Gary are heading to Michigan from Alabama. They should all be in Michigan by this weekend. We have to get out to our place and mark off around the cabin where we want to keep part of our property. Hopefully it isn't too snowy or we will have to borrow somebody's four wheel drive to get back there!

Auction is coming up on Saturday, May 5th! We are selling the house/garage/ and 100 acres. If anyone is interested -- check out our auctioneer's website: http://www.respeckiauctions.com/ and come out to bid on the place. If you don't want the whole 100 acres, I"m sure something could be arranged for less land.

Too True to Be Funny

The biggest reason I was more than happy to lower my income by around 80% just to get out of that stupid gray box and away from Pointy-Haired Boss.

If At First You Don't Succeed...

...keep guessing. It's not like US news media will hold you accountable when you predict certain disaster and nothing happens. As usual, the last two paragraphs contain the key data:

Last year saw nine storms form five of them hurricanes which did relatively litle damage after a disastrous 2005 season.

It was a record-breaking season with 28 storms forming, 15 of them hurricanes, including Stan which killed some 2,000 people in Guatemala and Katrina which hit the US Gulf coast flooding most of New Orleans and killing about 1,500 people.

You remember last hurricane season, right? The one that was supposed to destroy civilization? Relatively "litle" damage indeed; most didn't even make landfall (And for the sake of the English language, learn how to spell check and punctuate a sentence!). But never let facts stand in the way of making splashy headlines.

In related news, global warming hits Mars. Hey Al! Tell us how it's all because the evil corporations keep building "monster" SUV's (snicker, giggle). While you're at it, can you explain how this albedo thing works? Specifically why none of your precious climate models (which given conditions from 100 years ago cannot "predict", within an order of magnitude, current climate conditions) take water vapor into account? It seems kind of important. And complicated. Warmer weather would seem to create more water vapor. Water vapor is a greenhouse gas (which, according to our Supreme Court can be regulated; expect the EPA to enact regulations any day now telling the oceans to stop all that evaporating) that also, in the form of clouds, increases earth's albedo. Little ol' stoopid me would think that all this actin' and interactin' stuff might be what is throwing one or two monkey wrenches into your models. Maybe you and your Really Smart Friends need to think a bit more about what you include and exclude from your models before you start using their predictions as an excuse to destroy Western Civilization.

Remember folks; send your kids to college so they can grow up big and strong and smart like Uncle Al and his Really Smart Friends. Pffft.

Wavin' in the Wind

It tends to get breezy here in the afternoon (in the same way that the ocean tends to be slightly moist). It had finally warmed up enough today that I could take my shirt off for my thirty minutes of sun this afternoon. While I was working, I happened to look down and notice that my armpit hair is now long enough to blow in the wind.

Huh.

Just thought I would share.

Pimpin' Paolo

I do tours here at Arcosanti in addition to working in the maintenance department (and volunteering in agriculture, and the occasional shift in the cafe helping to make dinner for 50 people, and, and, and...). Normally, I do a couple during the week, then two on Saturday and Sunday. I just added up my tours for the last pay period ending on Sunday: I did 17 tours in two weeks. That's a lot of directions to the public restrooms....

On a Lighter Note

Hillbilly Overalls:



I'm speechless.

Charge Them With What?

Acting out what they have been taught in "health" class? If you want to watch a liberal twist themselves into a logical pretzel, ask them why students are being expelled, sent to alternative schools and being given detention for exercising their right to self-expression via consensual sexual acts.

Liberalism is a consolation prize for the West as it slowly commits suicide.

More Photos Again

I just tossed up another 60 or so photos onto our Flickr account. We seem to take a lot of sunset and sunrise pictures. It's probably due to the current timing of those events; I walk to my job around sunrise and we watch the sunset during dinner. For the last 20 years, I've always been either in a vehicle driving to or from work, or at work buried in a cube farm and unaware of the existence of the sun.

In any case, enjoy!!

Blogging

I didn't even realize than the anniversary date for this blog came and went. I started using Blogger on March 3, 2004; over three years ago. The only reason I noticed my "blog-versary" was because I was cleaning out some stuff and found all the posts from my old daynotes page I had for many years before giving in to the ease of using Blogger rather than hand-coding HTML in Notepad. Now those were the days.... uphill... both ways... barefoot... in the snow... with barb wire wrapped around our feet for traction...

Sorry. For a second there, I believe I was channeling my grandfather.

Cheap, Clean Electricity

“The money we’re talking about is spent in an hour or two in Iraq.”

Electric generators that do not produce CO2 or radiation. All for some fraction of one percent of what we are pouring into the sands of Iraq every year. Will we do it? I think anyone that has been reading this blog knows my answer. Will the Japanese and/or the Chinese jump all over this? I don't know for sure, but I'd be willing to bet a couple paychecks the Japanese already are and the Chinese aren't too far behind. Meanwhile, Europe voluntarily Islamifies itself (and we all know what technological marvals pour forth from Islamic countries), while we impose ruinous taxes our most productive citizens to send our young men and women to their deaths.

We hear that there are tumults and riots in Rome, and that voices are raised concerning the army and the quality of our soldiers. Make haste to reassure us that you love and support us as we love and support you, for if we find that we have left our bones to bleach in these sands in vain, then beware the fury of the legions.

Two thousand years and the politicians haven't learned a damn thing.

Proof of Global Warming

Hmmm. I guess global warming is real....

Satellite View of Arcosanti

Matt sent this to us yesterday. Pretty good picture of the place. Recent as well. We live in the back part of the crescent-shaped structure on the right (east) side of the site, just to the right of the gap.

Here is an inaccurate as well as crappy photo of our house that will be auctioned off on May 5th. I guess there really isn't a demand for high-resolution photos of Custer Township. Of course, I wouldn't have believed that anyone would want hi-res photos of Arcosanti either, but what do I know?

Heh.

No comment.

World War One Passes from Living Memory

The last WWI combat veteran is laid to rest.

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work -

I am the grass; I cover all.

And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:

What place is this?
Where are we now?

I am the grass.
Let me work.

--Carl Sandburg

The Great Global Warming Swindle

The BBC gives a few facts that Al Gore seems to have missed.

Sorry, Al. It looks like the truth is more inconvenient for you than for me.

[Update: It was British Channel 4, not the BBC.]

Great Weather

These past couple weeks have been great for us Michiganders here in Arizona. Highs in the 70's and tomorrow and this weekend in the 80's. Ric already has a good start on his "farmer's tan" -- he is slowly working on the rest of his body. (No -- not ALL of it!) I've been working full time hours for the past four days and haven't had the chance to really be outside. Hopefully this weekend! Now that the nicer weather is here, we may plan on taking in some siteseeing on the weekends. Right now, since Ric is scheduled to do tours til 2p (or so), it will be ones that are close. Then he can start requesting either Sat or Sun off and we can take the day and go do the tourist thing further away.

My work is going good. We are still not in our new office location -- it has been put on until May. I won't be able to move up to full time until we get into the new office. Right now I share a desk with somebody that nevers seems to be able to leave/clock out on time. It gets kinda frustrating. (Plus she is a pack rat and messy -- I don't have much room to work) I will LOVE it when we get into the new office and I can finally get organized the way I WANT! Clients here are different than in Kalkaska -- biggest difference is the money being spent. I've never done soo many "big ticket vacations" before. It is awesome -- I get so excited to do a Tahiti land only honeymoon package for $6300+ -- but it is everyday stuff to my manager. I may get used to it, but right now I still call Ric and say WOO HOO! when I close a big sale.

For those of you that are still interested -- we are planning on doing a family/friends cruise again. Our destination this time is Alaska -- most likely July of 2008 -- doing a northbound cruise -- so everybody can chose to add pre nites in Vancouver and post nights in Anchorage or do a land tour and go see Denali National Park. If you are slightly interested, let me know, so I can get your name on my contact list.

Yep

"Let's face it. We're not changing the world. We're building a product that helps people buy more crap - and watch porn."

Seagate CEO Bill Watkins

[If you are not in the IT industry, Seagate makes computer hard drives and other hardware.]

Fred. Again.

Thoughts on a couple articles from Fred Reed's site:

I used to care about stock markets. Then I noticed something about the nightly "analysis" from places like NPR: the exact same event could move the stock market up, down, or sideways. For example, rumors of war would "scare" the stock market one day and cause it to drop, cause "uncertainty" the next moving the market sideways, then "strengthen" it the following day when the bombs start dropping due to the end of uncertainty and the prospect of increased government orders for military hardware. In other words, stock markets are random with only slightly better odds than a government-run lottery and about the same odds as blackjack. In fact, I've made a better return on my "investments" at the Vegas MGM blackjack tables than I ever have in the stock market.

Then I started looking carefully at other "indicators" such as GDP and economic growth. I realized that the tsunami in Indonesia was good, hurricanes wiping out entire sections of the US coastline and leaving a major population center under water was fantastic. My parents being satisfied with living in the same house for forty years was bad, treasonous even. How dare they not "trade up" every three-to-five years as they should. Every day it makes less and less sense to me, so I decided that I'm not going to play anymore. When I was growing up, all the cool people walked around spouting variations of "What if they gave a war and nobody came?" My 21st century version is "What if they handed me and economic treadmill and I refused to get on?"

Anyway, enough of my rambling. Go read Fred.

Fred also reflects on our national myth vs. our national reality: the rugged, individualistic, risk-taking lovers of freedom we think we are vs. the sissyfied, herd-following, seatbelted/airbaged/crash-helmeted lovers of safety-above-all-else we have become.

Fanatics "R" Us

Tom runs into a typical fanatic simply by mentioning that he didn't think much of the movie Ishtar. From it's entry in IMDb, it doesn't look like he was alone. In fact, I think it's safe to say that people stayed away in droves given a $55 million-dollar film that only pulled $12.7 million at the box office. Before this, I had never heard of it (we went to see Beverly Hills Cop II). You can thank Google Alerts for this sort of thing. Now anyone in the world can log onto Google, enter any words or phrases (like Ishtar, Ishtar, Ishtar Ishtar...) that they want Google to watch for, and be instantly alerted via e-mail that someone, somewhere has mentioned a topic near and dear to their heart so they can swoop in and deface some poor soul's family blog.

Don't get me wrong; Google Alerts is a great thing, and if I were head of the PR division of an organization, I would have alerts on any and every word that was even tangently related to my business as well as the names of the company, its products, the CEO, CFO, CIO, trustees, directors, president, etc. Here at Arcosanti, our PR guy has alerts for "Arcosanti", "Paolo", "Soleri", "arcology", and numerous others (hey Stefan!). But setting an alert for a twenty-year-old box office turkey so you can run all over the internet hammering on anyone that isn't as much in love with it as you are? Get a life.

This is a Test

Watch how this story unfolds over the next six months or so. The outcome will determine whether we stay at least a nominal republic, or we continue to follow the example set by every republic in history.

"A republic, Ma'am, if you can keep it."

I'm not optimistic we can.

Surprise Visitor

[Update: please see comments for a response from Mr. Roth and a bit of an apology from me.]

I received a note in our mailbox from the lady that runs Arcosanti's guest services (in English, she's my boss when I give tours). Seems a "journalist" (to be fair, this was her term; the writer as far as can tell makes no such claim) came visiting last week and got a few wrong impressions of us. As you might expect, I have a few thoughts on the matter:

First of all, Mr. Roth was given some bad, or at least misleading information on his tour. There have been several new tour guides (including yours truly) and the training is somewhat lacking. Mostly you follow around a few tours and read some printed material, then someone is supposed to follow you around to make sure you don't give out bad or misleading information. In my case, I was doing tours before I followed any because the person I was going to follow couldn't do the tour at the last minute, and I have yet to have anyone follow me. What can I say other than "We're working on it."

Mr. Roth's first two sentences about Arcosanti are: "For Arcosantians, Paolo Soleri is the sun. As if to prove it, our guide pronounced his Christian name much like Apollo." Uh, that might be because that's how his name is pronounced. Talk about reading way too much into nothing.

Anyone who calls Paolo's home luxurious has obviously never been to Cosanti. Paolo lives in a small ranch house that was on the property when it was purchased in the 1950's. Emphasis on the "small".

Most residents don't even bother to attend School of Thought, not alone "flock to hear him [Paolo]." And the ones that do attend are far from slack-jawed worshippers at the feet of the Master. Paolo is frequently challenged, argued with, shouted down, and even booed on occasion. There may be uncritical worshippers of Paolo somewhere, but you won't find them here.

Mr. Roth says, "The name [Arcosanti] is said to mean 'against material things' -anti-cosi - thought quite obviously it was meant to suggest a sacred ark as well." It was meant to suggest no such thing. First, Cosanti is a word Paolo made up by combining anti (Latin for "against") and cosa (Italian for "things") and is meant to convey the idea of 'against material things'. Arcology is a work Paolo made up by combining "architecture" and "ecology" and is stands for a style of architecture that is designed to fit into the local ecology instead of in opposition to it. Arcosanti is the combination of "arcology" and "cosanti". Mr. Roth links to the Wikipedia entry on Consanti which clearly explains all this. No suggestion of a "sacred ark" other than in the author's own imagination.

No one pays Paolo to have him sketch them in the nude. If Mrs. Roth could have checked her "horror" long enough to read the leaflets that were sitting directly in front of her while she was leafing through the portfolio, she would have known that.

I could go on and on (no, we don't all huddle around a ringing phone breathlessly hoping it's Paolo; no, our TV wasn't stolen; yes, the five school-age kids here ride a bus seven whole miles to school just like millions of other kids) but that probably amounts to beating a dead horse.

The Decline of Western Civilization

From Rome to Pennsylvania to South Carolina.

Liberals say the problem with our public schools is that we don't spend enough money on them.

I say liberals suffer from blunt force trauma to the head.

Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western Civilization as it commits suicide.

Bob Seger II

Well, Debbie beat me to the punch on the Seger thing, but I would just like to second her opinion of the show. It was fantastic!! It's obvious when someone is doing what they love to do. Just a few random thoughts about the night:

Listen, honey; the halter top may have made you look hot the last time Seger was in town twelve years ago, but I suggest that you buy a concert t-shirt and change into it. Quick. Please. For the sake of all humanity.

Who let in all the old people? Most of the people there looked like they were at least forty. Oh, wait.....

Thanks, Bob, for lowering all your songs about six half-steps. I'm sure it makes things easier on you, and those of us singing along in the audience really appreciate it as well. Er, I mean all those old people really appreciate it.

Whoever designed the US Airways Center should get some sort of medal. I have never seen a performance space empty so quickly and smoothly in twenty-plus years of attending concerts. The people literally drained out of the building and into the parking areas in a matter of minutes.

Whoever designed the traffic patterns in Phoenix should be violated then shot.

Whoever designed the stupid traffic circles on the Happy Valley Road exit should be forced to drive back and forth through them for all eternity. The seventh circle of Dante's Hell has nothing on them. (Note for our northern Michigan readers: the powers-that-be in Traverse City want to inflict these stupid and completely unnecessary hazards to life and limb on you. Whatever it takes, do not let them get away with it.)

Anyway, my lunch hour is almost over, so I'll just wrap this up by saying that we had a great time and it was worth every penny and every hassle (even Madam Sags-A-Lot and her infinitely stretchy halter top).

Keep rockin', Bob!!

Time off

Tuesday, Ric and I both worked just the morning shift and took the rest of the day off. We headed down to Phoenix for the rest of the day. First we stopped at TGI Fridays to finally use my gift certificate from about 1999. I"m glad Ric drove here -- it had TWO ROUNDABOUTS! I probably would have never figured out how to get to where I wanted to go. Leaving Fridays we had to go out of our way to finally get going in the correct direction, but finally made it to the roundabouts and made it back to the expressway again.

Then south on I-17 towards the US Airways Center to see BOB SEGER! We got there early, so we got into a decent parking ramp right across from the center (only cost $8). We had to wander around for awhile since they weren't letting people in yet (and of course, the bathrooms were on the inside and not accessible).

Finally got in and went to find our seats. Section 104, row 24, seats 8 and 9 -- off center of the stage. Not too bad. We found out there was an opening act --- Steve Azar. He was on for about 40 minutes. Then after the stage rearrange -- the main course was ready to come out. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band came on stage to a screaming crowd. It was great. He sang old songs mixed in with stuff from his new CD. The majority of the crowd sang right along with him (on the old songs, of course!) Bob was wearing a black t shirt and black jeans. He is still looking good (for his age) , hair is graying and his beard has gray in it -- but he can still belt out the songs! They played for about 1hr, then took about a 10 min intermission and came back out to play again. It was one of the longest concerts I've seen of his. He still has three members of the Silver Bullet Band with him ... the keyboard player, one guitar player and Alto Reed the sax player. Alto still has the moves and can make the sax just sing out! It was awesome to watch him.

Bob finished the regular sets with Katmandu. They came back for two encores. The first one he came out with Night Moves and Hollywood Nights. The second one was Against the Wind and Rock and Roll Never Forgets. I'm glad we splurged and bought the tickets.
We will NEVER forget BOB SEGER!!!!!

Universal Truth

I've learned since being here that this sort of thing doesn't just happen in a cubicle farm:

New Photos on Flickr

We have photos up of our new room, and a recent sunset picture as well.

Enjoy!

Cough, Cough, Hack (snert)

I ran out of one of my asthma meds a couple weeks ago. I've been doing ok without it until Monday. It rained all day, and it has been cold and damp ever since. That triggered something that keeps me coughing continuously and sucking on Albuterol like it was water. I called my old doctor in Michigan to see if I could beg a phone-in here in Arizona. They never called back, so I'm not sure if that is good news or bad. I guess I'll find out later this morning when the pharmacy opens.

In any case, a little light reading from Fred Reed I stumbled across at 1am between coughing fits. We recently flew back to Michigan to take care of some paperwork. I can tell you first hand that the constant nattering not to leave your luggage unattended, not to leave your car unattended, to be on the lookout for suspicious behavior, that the president has elevated the threat level to mauve, is enough to make me want to blow up every airport in the country just to shut up the stupid announcer guy. And, as Fred and Jerry Pournelle both point out, none of it does anything to make air transport safer.

But it does make a lot of low IQ people feel powerful and important. I guess there is always that.

Ordnung!

Cameron Curtis Hurd

Some brighter news from Michigan. I received the following e-mail and pictures from my nephew yesterday:

I'm sure you've already heard, but Cameron Curtis Hurd was born on Sunday Feb 11 at 11:09AM (9 minutes after I pulled up to the door at the hospital) He weighed 8 lbs and was 21 inches long. I've attached a few pictures. Enjoy!

Bad Day

Right this minute, I could easily pack our crap into the Durango, drive off, and die happy having never seen Arcosanti again. The fun started last night when Debbie checked the schedule for working the cafe register and found her name crossed off the shifts she signed up for. Today I was stopped by the manager in charge and told that Debbie was basically fired from working the register. Debbie can only work Saturday lunch or dinner, or Sunday lunch. (We reserve Sunday afternoon for us; I figure working six and a half days a week for Arcosanti is more than adequate.) Someone else that has been here longer wants those same shifts. So far, no big deal. But here is the twist: Debbie is trying to get in her required volunteer time, and the other person is paid. There are other shifts during the week that the other person could easily work. So basically, a volunteer was fired to make room for someone getting paid. This from an organization that complains about how much it costs the foundation for the residents keeping their rooms above 50 degrees.

The next surprise was when I went down to check on the pool and found the bottom covered with rocks. This is the third time someone has thrown rocks into the pool. The other two times, it wasn't a big deal; just a couple rocks that I was able to dig out with the skimmer. This time, it was dozens of rocks along with handfuls of gravel. The only way to clean it out is to actually get into the pool, which I have no intention of doing (the water was 45 degrees this morning). I'm assuming it was one or more of the minor residents who had the day off school yesterday and spent the day running around unsupervised. In the real world, when kids have a day off school, the parents have to either stay home themselves, or arrange for someone else to care for them. At Arcosanti, they just run loose interfering with people trying to work and being destructive.

My third happy event was an almost-shocking experience. I had been doing some electrical work in the bakery, then was dragged off on other projects for the last three or four weeks. Today, I was finally able to get back to it. Luckily for me, I'm paranoid and never touch anything until I've confirmed the lines are dead. Some Arco retard had turned the breaker back on. There is absolutely no reason for it to be on. Anything running off that circuit has been plugged into other places because we knew from the beginning that the renovation was going to take some time. So either someone knows that I'm working on that line and turned the breaker on anyway, or someone that doesn't know a damn thing is messing around in random breaker boxes.

What a great place.

Backups

Now I'm going to bore everyone to death by talking about backing up your data on your PC's hard drive. Almost no one does it for the simple reason that the amount of information you can store on a typical hard drive is many times the capacity of any standard media installed on a typical PC. For example, I have about 30 GB of data between photos, MP3's, and other random data files. That translates to a half dozen DVD's. Worse, without spending significant cash, the process of splitting up the files and tracking what is on what DVD and when it was last backed up is a manual process. I use the internet for some backup by, for example, storing a copy of all my digital photos on Flickr, but there really isn't a way to have a consistent, up-to-date backup in one place.

I've heard rumors of companies that sold space on their servers for you to back up local files to over the internet. But it wasn't cheap or easy. This appears to be both. The cost is less that what you would pay for media to back up to DVD's once a week (bare minimum), and the software is fully automated. I'll be digging into this a little more over the next few weeks.

But right now, I have to get to bed.

Learning from Founders

Arcosanti management needs to read this. Maybe I'll get a dozen copies of Founders at Work and leave them at strategic locations around the site. I've spent the last two days on a job I could have done by myself, even taking my time, on a Saturday afternoon. And it still isn't done.

At least I'm paid by the hour.

Well, It Finally Happened

Blogger has been nagging me for months to upgrade to the new version. Today, they made it mandatory. If you want to post or leave comments under your blogger ID, you must update your Blogger ID to a Google ID (this does not have anything to do with reading the blog). I expected this would happen sooner or later, but I figured I would have some warning. Sorry if this causes anyone a bunch of hassle.

Brrrrrrrrr!

We made a fast dash back to Michigan to rid ourselves of the last of our assets that we left there. We couldn't have picked a better week, at least if the goal was to remind ourselves, in as forceful a way as possible, why we left. The high temperatures were in the single digits with blizzard conditions the entire time we were there. It was -7 when we flew out of Saginaw on Sunday morning, and -13 in Minneapolis when we arrived for our connecting flight. We are now back in Arizona, loving our sun, the 60-degree temperatures, and having feeling in our feet.

Debbie is in Phoenix this week, so we won't be doing much in the way of decorating our new space. We do have a window that is a bit of a problem. It gives people out on the deck an unobstructed view of my white, hairy butt every morning when I get dressed. A typical curtain isn't an option as the window is triangular (yes, as I've mentioned before, living in a building designed by a bunch of artsy types is a real hoot...). I'm seriously considering getting some small jars of paint in the same colors as the silt-casting on our ceiling and giving it a faux stain glass treatment. Cheap, easy, and if anyone doesn't like it, five minutes with a razor blade makes it go away. We also have a round window that is about twelve feet off the floor that may get a similar treatment. Not that anyone can really see into it, but if the other window works out, I may just do it for effect. I think the artsy thing may be rubbing off on me.

Well, I have to check e-mail, then get my sorry (white, hairy) butt into bed.

Watch and Weep

Hundreds of billions for "education," and all we get is this.

(sigh)

I just finished reading John Brunner's The Sheep Look Up, so my faith in Western Civilization has been dealt a pretty serious blow. This ain't helping.

Mammals survived the calamity that wiped out the dinosaurs by being fast, small, and adaptable. You may want to think about which of those you should be emulating.

Who's got snow?

Not us! But parts of Michigan look like it is getting snow each day for the 10day forecast. I guess you can blame Ric and I. Because, of course, we are flying home for a real quick weekend to take care of a few things. I'm thinking our snow boots are packed up at Mom's house.

Things are going well with the new job. I'm still in training -- one more week (next week) and a day and I'm done with their official new agent training. I have a client coming in tomorrow afternoon to book a Mexican Riviera cruise. Yeah! I did an air/car/hotel reservation on Monday and some car reservations in Hawaii for somebody today. Other than that, I haven't been able to take any calls or walk ins before this. It is nice to finally start working again. The training is nice. I'm picking up a lot of new things that I never learned while at North Village Travel. AAA really knows how to train. I give them an A in the travel agent training department.

Remember I can book your trip -- even with me here in Arizona -- and you there in Michigan or Massachusetts or where ever you are! AAA does charge a service fee for airline tickets -- non members $50!, but members only pay $20. They do NOT charge a service fee for tours/cruises unless extensive research is needed. That is nice.

We are slowly getting things ready to move to our new housing before we fly to Michigan this weekend. Ric is working on painting a bedbox/shelving unit he made from scratch. (Great idea and design .. I"m sure we will have pictures of it next month) Most of the things are packed and moved over or waiting til the last minute to go over. Next month we plan on hitting a big thrift store in Prescott Valley and a few other places looking for some decent (and cheap) furniture. We really need a new mattress. The air mattress we are using gets too many holes in it. This last one I can't find yet. It is really frustrating to wake up after a couple hours and be on an almost flat air mattress!

When Sharing Isn't Nice

We share a lot of things here at Arcosanti: books, videos, a pool table, and so on. We also seem to enjoy sharing our diseases. Some form of flu has been circulating around for the last week or so. Today was my turn. Last night, after (a shared) dinner in the cafe, I started feeling light-headed. Within a couple of hours, I was in full-blown flu mode with fever, chills, nausea, muscle aches, headache, the whole enchilada. I haven't left my room all day, and tomorrow isn't looking too good at this point. We'll see how it goes in the morning.

Otherwise, not much going on. We are in a holding pattern of sorts until our new place is available Friday morning.

Still Cold

We are still living with below-average temperatures, and woke up to snow this morning. It melted by lunch, but it is still a long way from warm. All or part of the day has been cloudy most of the week, which really sucks when the only heat you have is the sun. I've spent the last week fixing leaky pipes, leaky toilets, and leaky sewer lines. Some of the problems are in areas still under construction. Some problems are with "temporary" lines (like most non-profits, "temporary" at Arcosanti can cover decades) that will be improved during future construction. Some were just poorly thought out right from the start. But it's job security. At the current rate that we are crossing things off vs. the rate things are being added on, we will have to expand the Lab Building just to have a place to store the maintenance department's to-do list.

Well, we have to run down to camp and get our stuff out of the cube we were going to be moving into before we got our cool new super-scoop apartment. We can't really take any pictures until the current resident leaves for Brazil on January 26th, so be sure to check back next weekend.