1. New Place – We moved from Clermont to Breckenridge, which is a lot closer to the Sunset Transit Center and Forest Park.  The walking score is not as good, but the public transit access and bikability is much better and I would like to start biking.  We found a 2 bed, 1 bath for just slightly more than we were paying before.  It is a major trade up.  There’s even a community garden!
2. Engagement – We had been discussing it for a while, but Athena was the one that actually, technically proposed.  She put it to question, “Do you want to marry me?” And I said yes, of course.  Then, one weekend recently, we were out shopping and stopped by a Ben Bridge and happened to find the perfect ring.  She was prepared to be too specific and not able to find it, but we did and now we are officially engaged!
3. New Job – My contract ended this week and my going away party was brief and bittersweet.  The only thing that sweetened it was that the week before, I had been given two offers to choose from.  I am completely unfamiliar with this position of choice and it was uncomfortable.  After much soul searching, I chose the job with less pay and benefits under a contract rather than direct, full employment because I felt like I would enjoy it more and may indeed open more doors than it would close.  My start date is August 8^th and I will be making almost double, hourly—to be an Engineer I!
4. New Puppy – Her name is Sweet Pea!  She’s a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel mix (probably Papillion or Chihuahua), which we were not expecting to find at an adoption event.  Pure bred, they can cost upwards of $2,000.  We didn’t name her and aren’t planning to because she already responds to her name and she did seem like quite the Sweet Pea.  However, she is aggressive to other dogs, which will take quite some time socializing because she is already 5 years old.  If we do end up renaming her, we are considering Guinevere.

Really exciting changes.  We even made the move just the two of us.  We rented a U-Haul and hauled all of our big furniture in one day.  I had to take a day off during my last week of work to do it and I was exhausted and drained the next day back at work.  I did my best to take care of all of my responsibilities and finish up all of my projects at work before I left, but I didn’t exactly have enough time.  If I had been in the position to put in my two weeks’ notice, as I thought I was going to have to do with the two jobs that I had been interviewing with for months/weeks, I would have been able to prioritize things to get done and do them.  But, getting down to the last week, I was still receiving new assignments and daily tasks and I was not able to just focus on tying loose ends.

There were a lot of interesting aspects of my job at Nike, but I was never able to operate as an engineer to my full capacity in my role in the lab or as an assistant.  Daimler will, in stages, give me more and more responsibilities and opportunities to operate on my own, nearly free reigns.  The other job offered the same, but on a much more focused task.  My role at Daimler is to basically implement custom engineered solutions (which sounds perfect to me) in a multifaceted environment of CAD software use, desk work, hands-on work in the shop, and ad hoc troubleshooting/problem solving.  I can’t wait to get started.

Operating under the assumption that we do not actually own the earth, wouldn’t it be a good idea to further or fully embrace the concept of borrowing?  Part of my idea would probably ruin capitalism, so it probably would never work, but I have found it interesting to think about.

There are some versions of my idea already in place like Netflix and Preserve, which allow you to mail back products when you are done with them.  The Mesh is similar, but involves leveraging peer-to-peer services like zipcar and social networking in combination to buy less and use more.  In a sense, it is also a way to share capital in addition to information.

There is a an organization for the taking back electronics to fight what’s becoming known as “Designed for the Dump.”  The idea is that, if consumer electronics companies opted to or were required to take back products after they were used, broken, or obsolete, then the company becomes responsible for reusing, recycling, or disposing of their products.  This may encourage companies to design reusable, recyclable, or otherwise better designed products that won’t have so many toxic materials and parts that go to waste.  With computers, especially, the entire computer can become obsolete because of one component that is not replaceable or interchangeable, because computers are not build to be modular.  They’re designed to make you buy a new one, frequently.  Check out the Story of Electronics for more on this.

Another aspect I’d like to incorporate is Design for Disassembly (DfD).  There is a pretty good explanation of DfD on this site.  When things are made of many different materials it’s already tough to separate and sort them, but sometimes things are bonded together or blended and cannot be separated.  Products made this way cannot be recycled.  So, why do we do it?  It seems to me like using just a few materials–or even just one–would make things easier to design, manufacture, and recycle and would probably be cheaper.

Basically, my idea is to combine these concepts in a way that minimizes use and waste of materials, encourages sustainable innovation, and makes everyone accountable for responsible consumption.

Imagine a system in which no one really owns anything.  Everything is on either temporary or semi permanent loan.  Is there anything that you have really had and used your entire life?  I can think of, perhaps a wedding ring and some jewelry, but most things at least need some sort of maintenance in order to last that long.

Most things these days are not designed to last very long at all.  ”New Every Two” is a great, bad example.  It’s probably familiar to most people, but it’s Verizon Wireless’s contract incentive in which you get a new phone every two years when you renew your contract.  Turns out, these phones usually break around either one or two years anyway as a part of the bastardization of planned obsolescence.  More Law instead of Moore’s Law.

I can imagine a system that tracks all items you have on loan and perhaps a maintenance schedule and handles the prepaid returns.  What I envisioned when I first heard about Preserve was a possible closed loop cycle. I need a toothbrush, so I rent one from them.  I use it until it wears out and send it back.  They send me a new one in return and my old one gets recycled into a new toothbrush.  Sadly, I realized even their system ends in downcycling.

If that is not as clear as it could be, I blame the time.  If anyone wants further explanation, suggest a revision and I will be glad to revisit the topic.

Design something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distills water, accrues solar energy as fuel, makes complex sugars and food, creates microclimates, changes colors with the seasons, and self replicates.

Now think about knocking that down to write on it–or better yet, use it to wipe your ass.

http://www.ted.com/talks/william_mcdonough_on_cradle_to_cradle_design.html

I’ve been listening to TED talks while doing work at my desk.  I have been enjoying discussions of biomimicry and sustainability.  I’m now thinking about the virtues of restorative design–a step further than sustainable design.  If we’re currently using, a proposed, 5 planets worth of materials, then becoming sustainable now would not be enough to stave off ecological collapse.

TED: ideas worth spreading.  I can agree with that.

We worked together to distribute out the clay along the shore of the earthen dam.  The clay expands in the water and is likely to plug the holes, but it is also very sticky and caked on our tools and shoes.  So, after lunch, we spent quite a bit of time cleaning up.

We also worked to clean up the footbridge we were working on and gathered additional leaves and twigs to cover up our work.  The clay was a bright yellow/white next to all the brown dirt and mud.  Once it was covered, it didn’t look bad at all.

We got a bit of food for breakfast including fruit, banana bread, and cereal bars.  For lunch, they ordered pizza—lots of vegetarian styles and everything pizzas.  The spinach artichoke was pretty good.  But, there were a lot of people and a lot of high school boys, so it became slim pickings pretty quickly.

Completely out of order, because it happened at the beginning, but still worthwhile to note, our group leader gave an introduction to the sanctuary’s mission.  He talked about invasive plant populations and the benefit of maintaining primarily indigenous plants for habitat preservation.  Later on, when he was discussing his cannonball dam-plugging idea, he has some pretty clever remarks and ideas.  He also mentioned that he consulted some engineers on the problem and they claimed it was a hopeless cause—bollocks to them.

I’m glad I have Monday off for MLK Jr.

I invited a guy I met at work that is socially active and has some interesting things in common with me.  We have been able to carry on some conversations at work and lunch and we get along.  He still considers himself new in town and we’re getting to the point where we really aren’t that new in town anymore.  We should have hang-outs and a gang.

We made arrangements and met up.  We had a great time playing cards and having a bite to eat.  Squarrels is a great game and really makes me feel right at home in Portland with the mindset of a squirrel.  It was fun with just the two of us, but having that added reward for paying attention and slapping the hoard pile first turns the tides from shear luck-of-the-draw.

We talked a lot about books and wound up inevitably going to Powell’s Books after we parted ways. Without any specific items in mind, we picked up The Beauty Myth, a book we have considered the last three or so visits, then a Card Captor manga, a Tanya Huff novel, and a book for me!  I’ve been intending to get this book on biomimicry that Tom Foxen recommended at work, but instead, we stumbled upon a section on sustainable housing.  We both agreed that The Northwest Green Home Primer was right up my alley–it even includes some technical drawings!

My book begins by saying Earth Day was founded in 1970 to point out some environmental trends.  By 2000, some of the progress made had been reversed.  In Athena’s book, feminism made some good changes but the movement has slowed significantly with the attribution of idea that feminists are mean, hairy, and mannish directly contrasting the beauty queen.  These two ideas are in direct competition and divides women, while the intent of feminism is to firmly set the availability of the choice not to subscribe to one ideal or another but to be oneself and not inferior to men.

I would feel very intellectual and good about our purchases and in reading books, but her book also highlights chores.  Household chores are endless, thankless, and unpaid work that is completely undesirable.  And that reminds me that I still have to make dinner, bento’s for lunch, and smoothies for breakfast tonight.

Everyone knows about MPG and most people know how many miles per gallon their car gets.  Gas prices are a common point of contention and topic of discussion.  People are aware that fossil fuels are non-renewable and will run out.  So, why do we still have 14MPG vehicles and why are they still popular?

Every once in a while, there is buzz about super fuel efficient cars that get over 100MPG—usually framed as government conspiracy or pipe dream—and there are significant resources that prove their existence.  This page in particular is a wealth of information and I highly recommend having a look. http://fuel-efficient-vehicles.org/energy-news/?page_id=785

This is beyond an engineering problem; it’s solved.  This issue is with the structure of society and government—politics.  It’s set up so that if we rabble loud enough, we can make change.  That means we are not rabbling loud enough yet.  RABBLE!!

A couple White Men decided that having money now—for themselves—was more important than humanity’s continued existence.  They’re probably all dead now, but other Men have followed in their profit mongering footsteps and have sealed our fate.  The aforementioned website describes the role of these men and PAC’s in completely undermining the engineered solutions offered by hundreds of logical, right-minded people.

The concept revolves on one simple principle.  Liquid gasoline does not burn or explode; gasoline vapor, however, does.  Most of the ideas that tout 100 to over 400MPG simply offer a better way to generate gasoline vapor before combustion.  WOW.  Novel.  14 seems low now, doesn’t it.

I can understand how a massive change, like getting 10 times more use out of gas could cause a problem for our system.  Imagine, if you were used to filling up on gas every weekend and suddenly you only had to go once every Two And A Half Months.  That would certainly kill the steady stream of people filling up at gas stations.  Poor Oregon pump attendants.  Though, I certainly wouldn’t mind paying $3-$5 for the single gallon of gas it would take to go to Seattle (roughly 100 miles away).

Hmm.  It might make people relax on the whole non-renewable bit, though.  It would give us more time to transition and sort out the next big idea, but apparently we need to run out before we decide to fix it.  What a nightmare that would be?  If every car ran out of gas and became an immobile hunk of metal, streets and freeways would be littered with them, wherever they ran out.  We don’t have a very alternative-friendly system for getting between cities.  Most are connected by streets or freeways without sidewalks or amenities for pedestrians or bicyclists.  Is that what we’re waiting for?

Even small changes have been pummeled.  It was the first I’d heard of it, reading from this site, but apparently Fish Carburetor Company had a production line of carburetors that would give 20% increased mileage.  20% would not put any attendants out of work and would not ruin an Oil Tycoon’s Christmas.  In my old car, that would have bumped me from 20 to 24MPG saving me maybe 60 cents per trip to or from school.  But even that wouldn’t fly in 1950.

So, what will it take?  And how can I justify working toward any sustainable goal when good ideas are crushed because of money, politics, and stubborn people.  We’re all going to die!  Fact of life, not a revelation.  But who are you to decide that no one else deserves a chance to live and that the world should end so much sooner than it might have on its own?

Last night, we finally made another effort toward proactive friend-getting.   Instead of always asking for suggestions on where we could go or having to ask where a potential friend invitee where we should hang out, we decided to discover a place in the city and invite someone next weekend.  And what better place than a coffee shop in a city known for its coffee?

Our original heading was Anna Banana’s, picked from a list of options based on things like how late they were open on a Friday night after work and proximity to things we are at least somewhat familiar and would like to get more familiar.

We should have taken public transportation, and I am hoping that next time, we will prepare and plan to because parking in the city is a nightmare mixed with chaos and disorder.    A lot of places close at 7, 8, or 9, even on Friday, so we didn’t want to let any extra time go by waiting for a bus or train.

Even driving, we couldn’t find Anna Banana’s and so we plugged in the next best into our GPS.  Our second choice was Stumptown, a coffee chain that was decidedly not Starbucks.  We detoured and turned about a couple times before getting to where it should be, and didn’t see it either.  But, we passed by some neat looking coffee shops, cafés and some streetcart vendors that we have never come across while they were still open and we have heard are worth a try. So, we found a parking garage that would let us stay for $5 total, instead of some amount hourly.  Turned out they would let us stay until 6am if we wanted to, so we considered the opportunity of staying out late for once.

The interesting coffee shops and cafés were closed and only the Vietnamese and Thai food carts were still open.  We continued on to find Stumptown but they didn’t offer any food—and for Athena, coffee without food is badness.  Right nearby was Voodoo Doughnuts!  So, we bought a voodoo doll donut and devoured it, giving us a pleasant experience and more time on the clock to find a suitable place to eat before settling for junk.

There were a surprising number of people in the city, but they were either shopping, bar-ing, hanging out, or gathering for fancy hotel-related events.  There were a few restaurants dotted around, but they were all expensive.  $17 chicken plate or average $22 entrées?  No way; not for our desired date night activity.  We brought cards to play while or after eating or drinking coffee/tea in a hangout place.

We continued walking and seeing some sights.  We gave our change to a guy playing plastic drums on plastic buckets and a street light.  He was pretty good, and much more deserving than any of the other maybe 6 people that were simply asking.  I think one guy was selling incense to stop gang violence.

We ended up in the same area we always go to near Powell’s.  We came across Henry’s 12^th St. Tavern, which we didn’t mind leaving for plan B, but we still had hope of finding what we came for.

And we did!  Just off our usual walk was Sweet Masterpieces Chocolate and Coffee.  They were open until midnight and offered food.  I ordered a panini and Athena had an eggplant sandwich with a Mayan hot chocolate with espresso, orange, and chili.  I also had a little peanut butter and chocolate meringue.

We brought Squarrels to play, but we ended up just talking until midnight, walked back to our car through the weird streets of Portland at night, and going home.  We had a very nice time and a good conversation.  Sweet Masterpieces is definitely a good choice for a group hangout, but we will never be as rude as the group that came in while we were there that was really loud and may have left without paying.

And now for our next adventure!—our lazy Saturday.

The environment plays a large role in what I have come to think of as being a new age hippie.  It involves aspects of sustainability and the concept of zero waste.  It may involve eating local produce and products and ties into composting and recycling or reuse of waste.

Incorporating  any of these, on their own, to any extent, can make one feel closer to nature and that is important to the mentality of being a new age hippie.

Removing oneself from the mollifying glow of the television makes it easier to renounce consumer culture and the so-called throwaway society.  Once in the mindset, it becomes easier to identify flaws in the system and adopt better practices.

I never made a conscious decision or actively subscribed to a lifestyle, but since living on my own and moving to Oregon, I transitioned.  A lot of these concepts appeal to my sensibilities and I wanted to incorporate them into my life anyway—plus, Oregon culture fosters a lot of the lifestyle with things like public transportation, farmers markets, and sustainable alternatives for things.

Purchasing local produce generally means eating more vegetables.  Instead of just having more salads and steamed or stir fried vegetables, it makes sense to try some new and interesting ideas and incorporating concepts like raw food or “living cuisine.”  Raw doesn’t have to mean uncooked and whole; uncooked, yes, but prepared in interesting ways.  Many things, like cheese and bread, can be replaced with vegetable and seed combinations.  Any time you cook food above 115F, you lose nutrition and increase levels of free radicals that can cause cancer.

I haven’t fully subscribed to any one lifestyle, though.  Take the raw food for instance, I still eat meat, bread, and cheese, but less than I used to.  For breakfast, I have a fruit and vegetable smoothie, blended and combined in a way to taste just like a simple fruit smoothie, not V8.  It is high nutrition, quick, and easy—though, it doesn’t keep me full until lunch at work.  It’s just better than oatmeal or cereal.  Then, with lunch or dinner, I might have a dressing or dip made from vegetables and seeds that Athena prepares.  We’ve had ranch and cheese dips.  They taste best with tortilla chips, but celery and carrots work too.  Then, for dinner, we usually have Japanese influenced meals with rice or noodles, seasonal or mixed vegetables, and sometimes chicken.

I don’t feel remarkably different because of eating healthier.  My allergies have cleared up for the most part—there was a month there where I was miserable and could have been either the kittens or construction at work, or both.  But I cannot give all the credit to any one thing because of factors like the fresh Oregon air and more time spent outdoors and things like that.

The main thing is the long-term impact of the small changes I’m making, not just the short-term health benefits.  It is definitely not a money saving choice all around because, while some things cost less or nothing, others cost more, like getting a blender that can handle frozen fruit and whole nuts.

This concept came to a sort of cohesive whole after talking with Athena about raising children—what we do and do not want them exposed to.  It started as an oh-no-our-children-are-going-to-think-we’re-weird, but changed into a no-they’re-not, they’re-going-to-think-disposable-products-are-weird!

I encourage everyone to look into some sustainable aspects to incorporate into their lives.  It may lead to more and could develop into many good practices.

“Keep your coins, I want change.”

 The donotreply are back in season. Their re-emergence coincides with the onset of Job Hunting. The donotreply is not the object of hunting jobs, of course, because it simply is not useful. Donotreplies can seem thoughtful and give hope to amateur Job Hunters, but they are full of false promises and can be downright arrogant. They can, however, be useful in keeping track of recent hunting grounds. A professional Job Hunter knows not to hunt in the same area for too long but to return every once in a while—an efficient and sustainable approach to hunting.

The donotreply@columbia variety, for instance, can tell me that I recently hunted for jobs at Columbia, a place very near to my home. I will keep it for a while to let me know when I last hunted, but it may be better to note in a blog or email to myself that it was that I applied for; donotreplies are not always that intelligent.

I am halfway through my year-long contract and I am actively putting forward an effort to find my next job. I am looking high and low, but mostly at eye-level and above. I know that I need to make at least what I am making now, and benefits would be great. Even one offered benefit would be one more than I have now.

From an outside perspective, I hope it doesn’t look like I have one foot out the door already, but as I’ve said before, I know not to hold out for this job to continue or improve. I heard from one other contractor that they are at the end of their year-long contract and are getting a 6-month extension, despite what I heard about Oregon State Law. Apparently, it’s a loophole, but further extensions would necessitate the 90-day unemployment vacation.

I would accept a position at Nike, but it does constitute a slow path to my career goals. I’m not worried about a pigeon hole with the footwear industry or as a materials scientist anymore, but this work experience does not qualify me as a mechanical design engineer or any engineer for that matter. A job even remotely related to my education is better than not at all, and infinitely better than no job at all.

I thought the job market was looking up. An initial search last week gave me pages—rather than one single—of engineering related jobs. However, a closer look showed that, while senior was no longer the bulk of everything, most of the new ones were mid-level. I brought the list down to less than a single page and only maybe 3 were related to my experience/something I would want to do. But, those 3 were significantly closer to what I expected to see and weren’t there before.

It seems like it would be a sure thing to be found, sought, or what have you.  Using hunting or fishing metaphors makes employers sound dangerous and cruel, but they work to accurately convey that jobs are elusive and employers have the upper hand in all of this.  If employers took to actively searching, it’s possible they might have a better chance of filling jobs with appropriate candidates.

Whether it’s the job pool or a labor pool, it seems obvious where the fishing metaphor comes in.  With record high unemployment rates and conservative company practices of downsizing and cutting jobs, the labor pool is the one with all the fish in it.  But, instead of just going fishing in the pool, a company fisherman might put some bait in a small pond and wait for it to fill up before fishing.  The bait may come in the form of job boards, classified ads, or help wanted signs.  The problem with these baits is that the scope and audience are limited.  A help wanted sign might reach customers and passersby and they may tell a potential candidate but is likely to remain local.  There are so many job boards to register that not every one can be utilized to reach every available opportunity. If every employer followed the same procedure and used a single service or forum, it would be crowded, but perhaps that could be managed.

By the same token, if everyone in need of employment represented themselves in a similar, unified forum or service with a method of connecting compatible employers, then everyone might have a better chance of finding appropriate employment.

So many people that are employed are still considered “underemployed.”  I think this applies to number of hours or amount of pay, but I think it should extend to those that are overqualified for their role.  I may have touched on it before, but because of the current supply and demand dynamic of labor, employers can afford to pick up highly qualified people for what could and should be an entry level position with entry level pay.  This is the source of the Catch 22 of experience and employment.  Can’t get a job without experience but can’t gain experience without a job.  It just makes talent worthless and go to waste.  Just another way the current regime is taking advantage of a short-term get-rich-quick scheme that will further fuck up the future that they won’t be a part of.

Aren’t there enough problems to make it obvious that things need to change and that the long-term cannot be ignored, gambled, or mortgaged?