Hi Ken + Board,

We also don't need these anymore, so we can donate them somewhere.

The first job is the physical maintenance and upgrading of the SLC SEED Center. This could be a full-time job in the warm months. Included in their duties would be:

- Maintaining the gardens (weeding, watering).

- Mowing and trail maintenance.

- Checking the electrical and water systems.

- Working with contractors and volunteers to build new buildings and upgrade existing ones.

- Teaching workshops.

Somebody's gotta take care of all of this!

The second job is running the Sustainable Living Coalition itself, a non-profit educational entity designed to empower individuals and communities through sustainable practices. Jobs include:

- Updating/running the website, Facebook Fan Page, email, Twitter and the like.

- Accounting

- Contacting potential workshop teachers and organizing teaching events.

- Organizing fundraisers, parties and the like.

- Writing grant proposals and fundraising letters.

- Publishing/advertising in local papers and online.

That’s a general run-down of all the jobs that need to happen out here – someone to take care of the place, someone to take care of the organization. Right now, it’s all me.

I forgot to mention that a few days ago I got a copy of the USB memory stick that the Board members have. There’s a lot of information in it, a lot of regarding the Big Green Summer of 2009. Unfortunately, I can’t find any login information for either the SLC website or the google groups email list. I’ll keep hacking away at that frontier – also, this afternoon, I’m going to be cleaning even more of the SLC and figuring out what’s in this building. For example: What’s with the big plastic barrels?

END OF DAY REPORT:

I’m about to call it a day, just thought I’d give a quick rundown of what I did today -

- I moved all the mattresses and sleeping stuff out. There were several foam mattresses that had rodent damage (chewed holes, poop), which means the rodents can and have gotten upstairs. I moved the now-useless stuff outside to the side of the building – some things are in the gypsy cabin, but due to hanta virus risks and mold, I wouldn’t recommend using anything that was up here for sleeping.

- moved all the folding chairs downstairs, brought in my personal office chair.

- found and put in all the screens, cleaned the windows I could reach.

- In process of cleaning/re-arranging the upstairs. There’s still a lot of things I have to check, and I have a lot of questions regarding the items up here and the building’s electrical systems.

- blogged

- wiped down part of the fridge – the entire kitchen needs cleaning.

- Lonnie sent and email to Brad about getting a bid for paving the floor – I sent Brad an email introducing myself and asking about the moisture meter for the walls.

- I haven’t found any login information from the stick. Looks like the last person to update the website was “krsieck” but I don’t know who that is – the last update was almost a year ago today. If you know who that is, maybe they still have their information to log in, and I can use that to access the website. Otherwise I’ll have to track down Briggs, but I don’t know if she’ll have it anymore.

- I’ve got a lot of questions about the things in this building (sticks, paneling, cork floorboards, barrels, etc), but I’ll wait to do a walk-through with you or someone else.

that’s about it! I’m not sure if we worked out if I’m working weekends, but I’m coming in tomorrow regardless due to all the work that needs to be done.

Ron

Deep Ecology 24: I like the term Ecosophy, even if I can’t figure out how to pronounce it properly, if for the only reason that its explanation is on its own terms. Ecology can remain to be the limited science that fits within the framework of the much larger (and more important, in my view) study of Ecosophy.

The key to understanding ecosophy, I believe, is in its use – the unification of all these disparate disciplines lies not in their study, but in their replacement of current structures and systems. It’s late and I’m tired, so I’ll get into this idea more later.

Deep Ecology 25: “A philosophy, as articulated wisdom, has to be a synthesis of theory and practice.“

Ah jeez. I’ve been studying self-realization since before I could walk – particularly Vedic philosophy regarding the self, Self, Truth, enlightenment as self-realization, oneness with God, and so on. While I hate quoting Maharishi from memory, he once described the process of enlightenment as holding a ball of butter (the ego, small self) and then letting it go – it is entirely gone, but a tiny bit of butter sticks to the fingers. This bit is simply the body, left to live as long as it will and do whatever it will, as the self is now Self and fully absorbed into it. This is why all things are viewed evenly – the experience is simply everlasting bliss-consciousness, without care to what happens to the body (as Natural Law runs everything in the universe, “stepping aside” in enlightenment means the body now runs according to the Laws of Nature, not limited desires of the self).

The problem with identification, as he points out, is that a certain degree of alienation occurs with violence (like hunting), and that an effort must be made to re-establish that identification after the event. This presupposes the idea of violence out of love, which is actually the state Arjuna entered into during the Bagavad Gita - immediately after his talk with Krishna, Arjuna enters the battle and kills thousands of people. However, knowing the truth and seeing all things evenly, he does so out of love and indeed, even compassion. The idea that one can destroy from love seems far-fetched, but in that equal state all things are seen in the light of truth, and thereby, all actions are possible.

In response to Kant:  “…Jesus was all virtue, and acted from impulse, not from rules.” –  The Devil speaking in A Memorable Fancyby William Blake

I’m not sure I’m smart enough to really understand what this guy is talking about. I will say that, perhaps some of our social ills in America stem from an unwillingness to give priority to alien nations over our non-vital interests.

Climbing the Redwoods: Cool story, bro.

Chapter Six – Some Sources: “…The general result, I suspect, is a vast subculture that lives entirely in its head, that sees reality as essentially neutral, value-free, and especially disembodied, a form of pure mental process.” That’s me in a nutshell.

Deep Ecology is not about ecology, nor is it deep. Rather, its stated aim is the holistic replacement of the spirit of man, including his aims, religions, politics, technology, and every aspect that exists in the state of human existence. What we’re looking at, then, is not a new way of looking at the world, but a scaled revolution, a native species of understanding that returns to its natural habitat and is considered invasive.

Ecologue: The story of the saint and the scorpion: A saint walks by a lake and sees a scorpion drowning. He reaches in and pulls it out of the water, saving its life. The scorpion then stings the saint’s hand, and surprised and hurt, the saint drops the scorpion into the water, where it begins to drown again. Again, the saint picks up the scorpion, only to have it sting again. A passer-by asks the saint why he picks up the scorpion, if he knows it’s going to sting him. The saint replies: “As it is the scorpion’s nature to sting, it is my nature to save.”

Integral Ecology: Ahh… this stuff is hurting my brain. Instead of finishing it, I went outside and played with my cats in the lightning storm, where I discovered I had left my car windows rolled down. Good thing I stopped reading! I’ll ask you to explain it further in class.

Rivers’n'Tides: I’ve always enjoyed Andy’s work – it raises a lot of deep questions (what constitutes art, how long should it last, etc) while never actually ending up in the “is it art at all?” category. No one denies that what he produces is art. He is the Banksy of the natural world. And through it all, the sense of aesthetic is intact – these creations are enjoyable to view, harmless and non-violent, designed to bring joy for some time and then nature takes back her toys. As a former art major, I am loathe to speak more on the subject – I hate ruining good art by poking at it too much.

Abram: This article is one of the better things I’ve ever read. Maharishi often spoke of “lively natural law” as a physical thing, a place where nature itself is more lively, active, accessible. The transition to “heaven on earth” was simply that, a re-awakening of natural law, alive and moving. When we see the pictures of the deities floating down from Heaven, then, we can take it in this light: not necessarily that they walk around like people (although they certainly might), but rather this divine presence and interaction is immediate and intimate for those who are awake to it.

The book “The Secret History of the World (According to the Secret Societies)” has a wonderful example/story of how ancient man used to perceive the world as he walked down a path in the woods – in fact, it is almost exactly like the shamanistic state described in the article.

I have often heard from friends returning from India or other, less-developed places, that for all the horrible things that are in the third world, coming back into America was like “walking into a dark room,” or “someone turning off the lights.” Collective consciousness here, it seems, is unable or unwilling to support the light of life that is so readily apparently in the wilder places – going so far as to corrupt even our wilderness areas.

Recently, a friend of mine (who is an excellent blogger) “quit” Facebook. I say “quit” because, as she pointed out, Facebook saves ALL of your information (contact and “about me”, pictures, links, friends, groups, pages, and so on). The difference between an active account and a deactivated account is simply how long it takes to log back in. There really is no quitting Facebook – even if you took the time to manually delete everything, your account would still be available to FB’s database mining, and if you did decide to rejoin you’d just have more work to do.

I know, because I’ve tried it. I’ve done both the “simple deactivation” type of quitting, and the hardcore “delete everything” attack. MySpace had the decency to fully delete your account after a certain amount of time, but Facebook? Despite the two, maybe three times I’ve tried to leave… I’m still on my original account.

The role social networking has taken in our society has been commented upon by many a blogger, and honestly I don’t care that much. I remember the Time Before Cell Phones, when you had to call someone on a land-line and arrange social gatherings before they happen, having to go out of your way to contact people before you left the house. I remember when I found my cellphone had an email address, and I could email other phones right from my computer. And then… texting.

In the same way, I remember getting my first email address, and then my first web-based email address (still have it: rskrules@hotmail.com … back before Hotmail was bought by MSN). Then ICQ was all the rage, because you could type to another person In Real Time! Broadband hit around then, eliminating the ear-splitting scream of a dial-up and offering blistering-fast, always-on Internet. Then MySpace, a website offering the best of having your own website without having to learn HTML and signing up at GeoCities or Angelfire. I remember how Napster introduced me to worlds of music I had never heard before, and directly led me to spending hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on bands I never would have discovered without it.

This is good. I imagine this is what old men feel like, telling the kids what it was like back in my day. You little punks! 16-bit graphics are blasphemy!

What was I saying? Did I have a point? Oh yes…

I got this new smart phone recently – the htc Driod Eris – and it did something shocking. I booted it up for the first time (don’t get me starting on phone that have to “boot up”) and put in my email address to help integrate it into… I don’t know, the web? After setup was over, I went to enter in all the numbers I had written down on a Post-It from my old phone (see what an old man I am?) when I discovered that they were already in there. My brain stopped. How was that possible? Something wasn’t right… it took me a full day to realize that my phone’s “contacts” were actually my Google Mail Contacts. My email contact list. In my cell phone.

This…. thing instantly knew everyone I had ever emailed. But… no, this can’t be… It also recognized my Facebook friends and linked my gmail contacts to them.

My jaw hit the floor. This was no cellular phone, this was a device to divine internet contacts, where ever they be, and bring them to me at post-computer locations.

Before I had this phone, I used to think of three groups of people: people on my phone, my email lists, and social network lists (FB, MySpace, Twitter, etc). I could quit any one of these groups at any time, depending on my mood or situation, and the others would be untouched.

Now I think of all of them as one singular group: My Contacts. It doesn’t matter which contact in on which website or service anymore, just so long as we’re connected.

My personal feelings about Google or Facebook are now irrelevant. I have a Google-based phone, in which it is easier to add a new contact FOR MY PHONE via my COMPUTER’S WEB BROWSER… which happens to be Google Chrome. The people on my Facebook friends list are not just there so I can have friends – their updates and information (email, phone number, pictures, etc) are all vital parts of my contact web. I could no more quit Facebook than I could delete all the numbers off my phone. And I, in no way, actually hold or store my friend’s information – Google does that for me.

I’d be concerned if I wasn’t so apathetic to the whole thing. I know my information is being bought and sold. Soon all my personal information will be available to the highest bidders, and they can find out exactly where I am, who I’m with, what I’m doing and where I’m going. If they wanted, they could delete me outright and I would be powerless to stop them. In an instant my phone could be bricked, my Google account erased and my Facebook account suspended. Then what would I do? Where would I go?

Outside, probably. *shudder*

EDIT: Instantly after posting this, College Humor summed it up better: http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1806517

Part One: The Beginning of Time to the First Settlers

Part Two: The First Settlers to Today

It took me significantly longer than I anticipated to write these things. First, I put considerably more effort into writing them – I don’t think I put that level of research into any academic paper I’ve had. Second, I kept getting sidetracked by interesting stories and information that didn’t make it into (or had almost nothing to do with) the article.

For instance, upon reading how Central Park (the Square) was considered to be the center of the county (although it was off by a mile or so), I stopped reading, found a map, and traced from the original survey to the actual center spot. THEN I read that the county borders expanded at some point, throwing my original spot off… some hours later, by finally going off the current county borders, I found the place. …but so what? I guess I did use it for a picture, but I could have easily used a photo of the Square – learning where the center of the count was for my benefit, because I wanted to know.

It was a good project, on the whole, and I think people have been enjoying the fruits of that effort. I certainly feel enriched, being able to bust out facts and “did-you-knows” about relevant historical events during conversations with friends. Check ‘em out, maybe you’ll enjoy them too!

Before the internet, a single, unremarkable person with something to say would struggle their entire life to find a way to express themselves – to find an outlet for the voice, the ideas and feelings swelling up inside of them.

Now, with the internet, practically anyone can express and communicate to the entire world at whim. Truly a miracle, right?

Except no one is listening.

It’s true, the potential now is that the world, for whatever reason, could turn your obscure and rambling blog into the highlight,  read and considered by hundreds of  millions of people around the globe… but it won’t. What we have given the everyman is a Void into which he can shout to his heart’s content. Is this really an improvement from the silence he had to endure while searching for an outlet?

Right now, if I feel inspired and want to write something, I have the following avenues to publish it: Mass email from two accounts and my newsletter, Facebook, MySpace, Google Buzz, Twitter, this Blog, the other Blog I write for, the website I write/wrote articles for, my hand-written second book, my personal journal, An Idea from the Edge forum, two YouTube Channels, the forums of all the webcomics and manga I follow, and the comment sections for all the blogs I follow.

If I was any good at internet promotion, I’d belong to a dozen or more social media networking sites and forums for authors, writers, etc.

I may like to write, and I may have a lot of good… well, a lot of ideas, but there’s no possible way for me to consistently generate original content for the sheer number of outlets available to me – nor would it matter if I did, given the tiny amount of people potentially exposed to it. It is with a fair amount of shame that I acknowledge a response or new post on a popular webcomic’s forum will see many, many more views and responses than this blog post will – that, by casting my voice in with the crowd I’m actually more likely to be heard  that making my voice stand here by itself.

I’m not complaining – if I desired, I could spend my days promoting my word, getting in with more groups, driving up the number of visitors… I could work hard to make myself heard, to really stand apart and have my personal voice heard… but I do enjoy the irony of it. The work to be noticed now is the same amount of work to get noticed before the internet existed. The actions have changed – I sit here and do webstuff instead of legwork – but the work itself is the same.

The best so far:

Согласен с автором по поводу информации. = I agree with the author about the information.

Может тоже себе сделать, буду думать.  = It can also make yourself, I’ll think about it.

Себе в закладки поставлю и друзьям посоветую! = Himself a bookmark and put friends advise!

Качественно все сделано, молодцы. = Qualitatively, all done, lads.

Добавляй, я уже давно так сделал и не жалею. = Do not add, I have long since made and no regrets.

Добавлю в закладки тогда, тематика то что нужно. = Add to bookmarks then, the subject thing.

Нашёл, то что искал! Отдельное спасибо за сборники! Нет слов! = Found, what I was searching for! Special thanks for the book! No words!

хороший блог, мне нравятся боевые исскуства!!! = Good blog, I like martial arts!!!

Тоже верно, хотя многие бы не согласились. = Also true, though many would not agree.

Лучше бы сделал, как все говорят. Иногда надо прислушиваться к людям. = It would be better done, as everyone says. Sometimes you listen to the people.

Да по чему бы и нет??!! просто стараться надо иногда. = Yes, on what would not??! just try to be sometimes.

That last one is profound…. just try to be sometimes. Just… try.

(most of these are in response to my “Rebellious Thought of the Day” article, but I have no idea why)