Timeline of my life

Fushi and Saiba

I first met Fushi and Saiba in January of 2004.

They were only about a month or two old at the time.

I had lived with their mother, Midnight - a tiny all black cat who liked to hide under places so she could attack my ankles when I walked by - throughout the previous summer, at a traveling carnival in the midwest.
She was the only cat in the household, and was indoors only.  She got out just once, for just a few hours, but then, that's all it takes.

My aunt Joy, who was Midnight's human, came to New York (where I worked at the time) to visit, since the carnival is closed during the winter.  When we met, she asked if we might want a kitten.  Since me and Aileen (my wife at the time) both worked full time, I said we should get two, so they would have someone to keep them company during the day.
We got one boy and one girl, both with gray and black tiger stripes, and white "socks" on some feet.

They were so tiny I could literally hold them both in the palm of one hand.  We brought them home (to our RV in NJ) in a backpack.  The boy curled up in a tiny ball at the bottom, while the girl stood on top of him so she could reach her head out the top and look around.
That pretty well summed up their personalities for the rest of their lives.

The first day in their new home they hid in the tiny space between the sofa cushion and the computer desk, a space maybe 4"x4"x12".  They came out for food, and began exploring.  When we showed them the litter box they knew instantly with no coaxing what it was for.  We soon had to build a wall around it though, because in their zeal and impatiences to get back to playing, they would tear out of it at top speed every time, like a redneck in a muscle car on a dirt road, leaving a trail of kitty litter behind them along the floor.

We waited a couple days to get to know them before figuring out their names.  We went through various sound combinations before settling on Saiba and Fushi.  I initially suggested Saiba for the boy and Fushi for the girl, but Aileen pointed out that there personalities warranted the reverse, and she was quite obviously correct, and their names were set.

When they were kittens they were indoor only.  They were curios about the world outside the door, and tried to sneak out.  I decided one day to let them see how unpleasant it was outside so they wouldn't keep trying, so, under close supervision, I let them venture into the snow.  I figured once they realized the outside was wet and very cold, they would run right back in.  Instead they ran under the housecar and hide behind the tire.  Then they both started crying because it was cold and they were unhappy and scared, and they wanted me to rescue them.  Only, they refused to come to me when I called them, so I had to crawl underneath on my belly, through the snow, and retrieve them both manually.

From the start Saiba was adventurous and mischievous.  Fushi watched what she did, and tentatively followed.  She would jump up on the counter to sneak treats, then he would follow, she would hear us coming and jump down and run away, leaving her brother to get in trouble for the crime she had encouraged him to participate in.  She also loved unrolling toilet paper.  When we started keeping it so it couldn't be unrolled, she found fun in simply shredding all the spare rolls.

I tried to build them playgrounds and beds, and bought them stimulating looking toys, but they generally shunned anything intended for them - why sleep on a soft warm cat bed, when there is a  hard lumpy computer keyboard to sleep on?  Why play with a fake mouse filled with catnip, when it is so much more fun to deliberately knock everything on the table onto the floor one item at a time, and watch them fall?  I don't fully understand cat psychology.  All I can say is they were both too cute to possibly be mad at.

Especially since they always meant well.  Unlike a lot of cats I've met, neither of them ever deliberately scratched, and never bit in anger (just the occasional affectionate nip) - not even when we would torture them by doing things like trimming their claws or giving them baths.  They would try to escape, but were never ever aggressive.

...to humans.  They were both remarkably skilled at catching flies.  I never knew a cat could catch a fly, but they did, to every fly that got in the house, and then they would eat it... usually.  Except the one time I followed a trail of ants to the dragon fly one of them had hidden under the floor mat.

They spent plenty of time play fighting with each other.  Wrestling matches frequently ended up with them on the floor, head to toe, each clutching the other's body with their front paws, and kicking each other furiously in the head with their back paws.  Its a sight that has to be seen to be fully appreciated.

They also both loved their humans to play with them, and to sit on our laps.  They liked to sleep on us, but they are semi-nocturnal and would wake up and play the game where you attack anything moving beneath a blanket, and that didn't really work for the humans, so we compromised, and let them sleep at the very foot of the bed as long as they left quietly if they wanted to get up, and didn't walk on us.  Saiba accepted this compromise, but Fushi was inconsistent - to the point where eventually (years later) he was one of the key factors in deciding to upgrade to an RV with a bedroom door, instead of just a curtain.

They also were always very affectionate with each other.  They spent about as much time liking each other's fur as their own.  Sometime, when they were lying together, they would so seamlessly go between cleaning themselves and each other.  It was often time hard to tell where one ended and the other began.  Sometimes I suspected even they weren't sure.  But it didn't matter, because they were brother and sister, and they loved each other.

When they were about 4 or 5 months or so they began to be a bit too affectionate with each other (if you know what I mean) so we had to get them altered ahead of our original schedule.  We were poor back then but we found a program to help with that sort of thing.

It didn't seem to affect Fushi one way or the other.  It could have been a coincidence of timing, but it seemed Saiba was a little less interested in affection from her brother after her operation.  She still played with him, still let him tag along on her adventures, and she still absolutely loved humans (especially her caretaker/roommate humans, but all other humans too), but she increasingly distrusted all other animals, and even Fushi only got a partial pass.

About this time all the snow had melted, and they were getting a bit bigger.  Plus they were now both sterile, and had all their shots and flea protection.  They were getting increasingly restless and crazy in a 150 square foot space, and it was time for them to gain some freedom.  I put a plastic curtain in the gap between the open window and the frame with just enough flap at the bottom for a cat to fit through while keeping bugs and weather out.  They got bells on their collars to protect the birds, and went out to explore.

Saiba got herself stuck in a tree, but then she figured out she could jump on to the roof from there.  Ever after it was common to hear tiny feet scurrying across the roof at any random time.  The only rule was the had to be in before dark, or else the window would be closed and they would have to spend the night outside (just like Peter Pan).  Once she figured out how to get on the roof though, she realized she could come right up to the skylight above the bedroom and cry until we let her in.

Over the winter we had sealed up the space below the house for insulation.  I didn't like the cats getting under there, because all the pipes and random crap was down there, and because we couldn't get them back out.  So I put a brick on the one access opening to beneath the house.

One day Aileen and I were playing badminton outside.  Fushi sat next to the field, perfectly still, just watching the biride fly back and forth, back and forth.  Occasionally someone would miss and it would fall, but he would just sit there, watching.  Biding his time.  Until it fell in exactly the right spot and he sprang into action like a jack-in-the-box, grabbed the birdie in his mouth, pushed open the access door to under the house like the brick wasn't even there, dropped the birdie in the exact center of under the house so it would be as difficult as possible for us to reach it, and came back out the door and returned to his original location, all faster than the time it took you to just read this sentence.  He ended our game, but it was one of the most random and funny things I have ever seen him do.

In late summer of 2004 we moved back to CA.  Fushi absolutely freaked out.  He had no idea that his house was also a motor vehicle.  He hid inside the furnace, and cried constantly.  Saiba sat on the table and watched the world go by in the window. We stopped at burning man on the way home.  They say no dogs, but they never technically said no cats.  

Then they lived at my mother's house for a few months.  They would sometimes go out on adventures for 24 hours or more, but once Saiba didn't come back for several days and we started to worry.  I combed the neighborhood until, a block away, I heard what sounded like her voice.  I asked the neighbor if he had a cat, and he didn't, so we realized it was my cat trapped in his garage.  Apparently she snuck in just as he parked his car, on his last day of work for the week. 

A little after that their nighttime mischief helped us decide to get a bigger better place to live.  They made the transition quickly and easily.  I had a window replaced with plexiglass and installed a cat door in it.  We moved to Oakland, and they got along reasonably well with the many strays that our new neighbors fed, though Saiba was growing increasingly intolerant, and occasionally getting into fights.

At one point she got some sort of UTI.  Before antibiotics and a change in diet fixed her up, she was peeing much more often, so she decided to find extra places to do it.  For some reason she thought the space between the couch cushions was a drain.  But it wasn't.  Once we got her to change her mind about the suitability of that spot, she then started using the bathroom sink.

Of course that was an absolutely fine alternative - better, in fact, than the litter box.
Until, that is, one time when she was on the roof, and realized that the roof vent was directly above the sink, and figured that she could just pee through the roof vent instead.  Well, pee doesn't just go straight down when you pee in a roof vent.  It splashes all over everything - and everyone* - in the bathroom.  Clever theory, my kitty friend, but unsuccessful in practice.  That was even worse than the sofa cushions.

*Everyone, at that moment, happened to consist of me.

Unfortunately Saiba's hatred of all other cats started getting worse.  When her brother tried to clean her or play with her, inevitably she would interpret something he did as aggressive, and it would frequently escalate to a fight.  Meanwhile she was starting fights almost daily with the strays in "her" territory (everywhere she went, even into other cats' homes, quickly became her territory.  When we were traveling and a friend would cat sit them, they would take over the house, while the resident cat stayed out of their way!)  At any hour of day or night us and the neighbors could here them yelling at each other.  Even in her quiet moments she started to seem stressed out, so we found a place that wanted a cat, where there were no other cats around to compete with.  We brought her to a restaurant and bar in the city that had a mouse problem.  She lived in the kitchen, where the mice were, but she would sometimes visit the top floor, where some staff lived, or the middle floor with the diners.  We came to visit a few weeks later, and she they had given her a sequined collar, and had gourmet wet food out to eat.  She came up to us and seemed to remember us, but its hard to tell because she always loved all humans.

We tried to visit again a month later, but we were informed she had disappeared.  They said she had never tried to get out the entire time she was with them, so they suspected one of the customers might have catnapped her.
I'll never know, but I prefer to believe that she was adopted by someone, and still lives somewhere in the city.

Meanwhile Fushi adapted to life without his sister.  He began interacting more with other cats and people.  Everyone loved him, especially the children.  Once a neighbor asked me if I needed money for cat food, because apparently he had been eating the food they left for the strays.  No, he is just a sneaky little guy who really likes food.  Ever since he gained 4 lbs (50%!) over his sister we started rationing his food.  Now he had finally found a way around that.

I settled into a pattern of feeding him at exactly 7am and 7pm.  Starting at about 6 we would start whining, reminding me it was almost food time.  He had always been very communicative, with very distinct meows for "hungry" and "let me in", "scared" and "unhappy" and "content".  My favorite to hear was his short chirp that just meant "hello" that he would make the first time he saw you when he came home from outside.  But his "almost food time" meows were persistent and downright annoying, and they earned him the nickname Chairman Meow, pronounced like the Chinese word for cat, which sounds quite a bit like the sound he would make.

I always used to say Fushi was not a particularly bright cat - until one day, in a particularly heavy rainstorm, he decided he didn't want to have to go outside and get all wet, and, having given up his litterbox years before, he peed in the toilet instead.  I never taught him to do it, never encouraged it in anyway.  I had considered it, because I had heard cats could be trained to, but considering how long it took him to learn to use the new cat door, I figured it would be futile.  And then he just figured it out on his own instead.  What a fantastic kitty.

Fushi lived with me longer than my (now ex) wife did.  He lived with me more years than my ex and my current partner Jessica combined.  Besides my immediate family, I spent more time with him than any other living thing, human or otherwise.  When he got old, and gave up playing as too immature, his favorite activity was to sit on Jessica or my lap, and just be there with us.  He still went on nightly adventures, but he would wait until we went to bed.  As soon as we closed the door at night, he would head out.  I have no idea where he would go or what he would do, but I had reports from the neighbors that he traveled a lot further than I ever knew about.

When he was about 10 he got sick one day.  He stopped eating, and his abdomen started to swell.  The vet drained the fluid, gave him a prescription, but the blood test and x-rays were inconclusive.  He started eating after his treatment, and was briefly normal, but over the next week he gradually gave up food and water until I started feeding him manually.  Cats have this stupid thing were going a few days without food damages their liver, which makes them not want to eat, which makes the damage worse, and its a viscous downward spiral.  He would fight with me over whether he should eat or not, but I generally, with much persistence, and much mess, would win.  He kept up his strength and went outside sometimes.  He wouldn't cry and didn't try to hide, but he lost a lot of weight and he no longer wanted to sit on laps.  There are about a dozen different possible causes of abdominal fluid build up in cats, many of which either: can self-correct with time, or, are fatal regardless of treatment.  So, rather than subject him to endless tests and treatments in scary machines in scary unfamiliar places, which required long car rides (he hated car rides more than anything else in the world - more than trips to the vet, more than dogs, even more than baths), I just focused on keeping him hydrated and treating his hepatic lipidosis.  That meant 5-10cc of meat baby food or watered down canned cat food at a time, for at least a full jar or can's worth a day.  Over the second week from his visit I got better at getting him to eat, until he would swallow most of what I gave him with minimal resistance.  When he started throwing up I gave him 1/2 a pepsid ac, which helped keep his food down.  

But then all of a sudden the abdominal swelling came back. With a vengeance, all within one day.
I had to go to work in the afternoon, and when I returned he had thrown up again in the bathroom where I had left him, went out to the living room, and had collapsed on the floor.  He was still breathing and alert.  I gave him his dose of diuretic, which was supposed to help keep his fluids where they belonged (in his blood, not his abdomen).  He tried to walk but he really couldn't.  He wanted to go outside, so I carried him to his favorite spot* and let him lie there a few minutes before we went inside because it was cold.  

*(His whole life he has picked a new favorite spot every month or two)

I read more about his symptoms - I had been reading all week - and determined that, since it has come back again, it was more likely not to be one of the conditions that resolves itself with rest and a gentle diet and time.
It was more likely cancer or heart disease or organ failure.  

To find out which would likely require multiple biopsies and a CAT scan.  Despite the name, I knew he would hate being CAT scanned, along with all the rest.  And that would just be for a diagnosis.  Of all the things it was likely to be, the two categories would be: no treatment exists, or, with intensive and regular treatment, lifespan could be increased, on average, 6-12 months.

The quality of life of those 6-12 months would not be as they were before he got sick.
If he was still alive in the morning, I had to think about putting him down.  I put him in a corner, like he would always do when he didn't feel safe, and gave him something soft to lay on.  I pet him and talked to him and then I went to sleep.
Next morning he had managed to get out of the corner and move several feet, but he clearly could not get up.  For the first time since he had first gotten sick, he started crying.  The moment I came in the room, he lifted his head and looked right at me and told me he was feeling terrible and he wanted me to help him, so I told him we would go to the vet and get him drained and hydrated again. 

Even though I knew he wasn't likely to survive whatever he had, at the very least I wanted him to feel better before he left the world. I don't know why.  It just seemed better.  When I put him in his carrier he stopped crying.  I suspect he understood that a trip to the vet was to help him.  We went first thing in the morning.  I got the call about 2pm.  He had clung to life longer than a lot of other cats with his symptoms, but they caught up to him.  He may have had pancreatitis or intestinal lymphoma.  In either case, it affects cats worse than humans, and there are limited to no treatment options.  There is some solace in that he was only in real pain the very last day.

He was a very good little cat.  Hopefully there is a kitty heaven, because he would definitely get in.  He was my best non-human friend, and one of my best friends of any specie.
Its only been a couple hours, but I miss him already.

My Green Living Projects

Remember the scene in The Jerk where Navin (Steve Martin) gets really excited because the new phonebooks has arrived?
Well, the new phonebooks are here.

The mini-documentary on my life that was filmed by Faircompanies.com several years ago now has a sequel.
In this one I talk about my truck mods and driving style that lets me get almost double the mileage my truck initially got, saving me a couple grand in fuel charges each year.

My last video with them is up to almost a quarter million views, but the company has gotten a lot more subscribers since then, so there is potential for this one to be even more popular.

If you have already seen it, this post answers the most common questions, comments, and criticisms I have gotten so far:
http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2012/03/mad-max-hypermiler-questions-and.html

 

, I next went to the computer and electronics recycling center, then the Berkley Recycling Center, and finally the Berkeley Transfer Station which recycles refrigerators. 
I try to avoid making a trip just for one stop.

Kirsten, who shot and edited the video, said she may end up making another one with some of the rest of the footage.  I talked a lot about saving money and the freedom and time it buys you, how not buying into consumerism is good for both the environment and your own finances, and other random things on various topics.  Like last time, I didn't prepare a script, I just sort of free-styled messages I'd like to share with the world.

So, anyway, this is just the latest in a series of eco themed internet media I have been a part of.
It is all spread out in various random places, and in many of them I used different pseudonyms. 
Here are some others:

Global Warming vs. Fascism; or, why NASA wouldn’t have stopped Apophis
This was the blog post that originally caught the attention of Kirsten of Faircompanies, which led to her asking me to blog for their site, and eventually to the video interviews.  Out of 6 years of blogging, its one of my favorites still.  I will eventually get around to moving it to this blogger server, and updating it (I have had the opportunity to have an in person discussion with several actual climate scientists since then!)

My green/environmental blog, on Faircompanies.com:
http://faircompanies.com/blogs/BioDieselHauling/

The original 3-part interviews with faircompanies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkFXgg2XnI8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJc8973GURk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF8msBy6bMM

Step-by-step instructions on how I did the truck mods:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Vehicle-efficiency-upgrades/
(this one won runner-up in the website's energy efficiency contest)

DIY small-scale independent (non-grid-istertie) solar system:
http://www.instructables.com/id/NON-grid-intertie-independant-solar-photovoltic-/

Saving energy without spending money upfront:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Not-your-average-save-energy-advice-use-less-en/

Rain-water fed self-watering garden box:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Large-Self-Watering-Planter-made-from-recycled-mat/

A bicycle is the most energy efficient mode of transport ever invented.  But producing one takes resources.  Buying one used is both cheaper and more eco-friendly.  But if you aren't already knowledgeable about bikes, how do you pick the right one?  Read my guide, thats how!
http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2012/01/buying-bikes-from-craigslist.html

This is where the ideas for all of my truck mods came from:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/
It isn't my project, but I am a member.  I haven't been active for about a year, but I do have a lot of old posts there.  I highly recommend it for anyone who owns a car.
This site hosts my fuel mileage log from when I first began trying to optimize efficiency:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/em-fuel-log.php?vehicleid=2486

This isn't my project either, its another forum I am a (currently active) member of, and I highly recommend it to anyone who ever earns or spends money on anything, ever:
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/forum/index.php
It is basically about how any middle class American can become financially independent simply by opting out of the consumer culture and making some small lifestyle changes - and investing all the leftover cash that results.  A significant side-effect is having a much smaller negative impact on the world.

I realized my various internet persona were diluting my potential to be a simple/green living spokesman when a couple people on the MMM (Mr Money Mustache) forums mentioned they had read my 12v solar project on Instructables, but hadn't realized it was the same person. 
I am Jacob Aziza on Instructables, David Craig Hiser in the comments of YouTube, Bakari on MMM (and ERE) - as well as in real life.  Occasionally stuff I've written online is credited to Lenard Simp or Robert Paulson as well.  All me
Maybe its getting time to start branding myself with my real name consistently :P
Because, its only with an audience that my message can have any impact...

Welcome

Blog.
What a funny word.


Hi, I'm Bakari Kafele.

You may remember me from such blogs as:
http://apps.biodieselhauling.org/blog/
http://neapolitanblog.blogspot.com/
and
http://www.myspace.com/pyrococcus_furiosus/blog

If so, you may have noticed that I have content scattered all over the place, none of which is well organized or easy to find or read.
Well that is all about to change.

For anyone who doesn't know who I am:
I'm Bakari Kafele.  I already said that.
I often use the name Jacob Aziza when I am writing on the internet.  I also sometimes use the name David Craig Hiser.  And Lenard E. Simpleton (or sometimes just Lenard Simp)
We are all the same person, (like Tyler and his best friend, except that I have always been aware of it.)

I'm just a random ordinary guy.
I live in an RV which is partially solar powered, both for the environmental benefit and the major cost savings.
Living with me are girlfriend Jessica and non-human roommate Fushi, who also goes by the name Chairman Meow.

I run a small independantly-certified-green moving, hauling and handyman business BioDiesel Hauling, using my biodiesel powered truck.  I've been doing this for over 5 years, beginning immediately  after I finished 4 (simultaneous) associate degrees.
Before that I held over 30 jobs in my lifetime, including biology lab tech, bicycle messenger, private security officer, armored truck driver, carnie, factory worker, fundraiser, liquor store cashier, bicycle mechanic and gigs as a TV commercial actor, ditch digger, medical test subject, "adult" actor, and election polling place supervisor.

Currently, in addition to BioDiesel Hauling, I am in the Coast Guard Reserve, and I still take occasional shifts with the BikeStation where I used to work.

I am vegetarian, I drive a motorcycle with a very small engine, and I am very opinionated on just about everything.  I also go through phases where I really enjoy writing, although I have been out of that phase for over a year now.

My old blogs have several years of content, some of which (at least in my own narcissistic opinion) is pretty good, so to begin with, I will be reposting old content which most likely no one has ever read (MySpace anyone?) to here where it will be more accessible.

I realize I will probably never get a huge following, since I have no real theme and no motivation to seek publicity, but if you happen to want to subscribe, I've made it easy with the top boxes in the right side bar.

Enjoy.

Minor celebrity

Minor celebrity

I guess I'm not all that surprised.

A video I did for an environmental blog (faircompanies.com) was posted on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJc8973GURk

It is almost up to a quarter million views!

I have been getting people all over the country tracking me down on Facebook and asking to be friends and asking questions after the see it.

Since there are probably plenty of people with the same questions who don't go to the trouble to track me down, I'm reposting my answers to some of those questions here:

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I can't believe how popular that video has become.  It was done with no preparation, no script, no practice, really not even a clear focus (they split the interview into 3 parts, but the other two never gained any viewers)

Its funny, I don't really even think of it as a "lifestyle".
I guess maybe because I've been doing it so long.
I bought a camper van right out of high school, which I slept in during the week to avoid having to commute to work. My girlfriend of the time went on a 2000 mile bike ride, and when she came back she suggested we get a full size RV and move in together. Eventually an opportunity arose to join a traveling carnival in the mid-west, so we set out across the country. We ended up spending a year on the east coast before moving back to the SF bay area. We upgraded to the trailer in the youtube video not long before we ended up getting divorced. For the past 4 years I've been in one place, and don't really consider the trailer to be a vehicle.

So I have been in 3 sizes and types of RV, full timed on the road and in trailer parks, and lived in different climates, different size cities, etc.

For the most part, living in an RV is a lot like living in a house. Driving an RV is like driving a car.

You know, I never thought of what I did as "scavenging" until that video was taken. I didn't come up with a script in advance, and was just making stuff up as I went along. I didn't know it was a movement either.

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In answer to specific questions:

This is my 3rd RV.

-Length: 35ft
-Width: 8ft (slide out covers living room and kitchen, bedroom is smaller)
(total of about 250 sq ft)
-Weight: 8500lbs
-Towing: My 1983 biodiesel powered F-250 can tow it.  However, I've only moved it twice.  It lives in the trailer park permanently.
-Purchased: Used in 2005 (it was made in 1995)
-Cost: $7,500
-Manufacturer: Jayco
-Model: Designer Series 3120 FK SS Travel Trailer

Prior to this one, I had a 1973 27' "Robinhood" Class C motorhome (purchased for $2500) which I shared with my (now ex) wife and two cats.
Before that I had a 1969 converted Dodge B100 utility van Class B motorhome, which I never officially lived in full time, but stayed in during the week to avoid a long commute.

My camper van was small and nondescript enough to get away with sleeping in parking lots or on the side of the road. Then I moved in with my fiancee, and we upgraded to the Class C motorhome, which was big and old and in moderate condition. We spent much more on repairs than it cost us to buy it, but we drove it across the country and back, and lived in it for about 5 years, including an east coast winter. I currently live in the 1995 35' travel trailer which you see in the video, which cost me $7500 and has had almost no problems since I bought it. It is very spacious, comfortable, and efficient, and I have done very little to it. I live in a trailer park, which means I have to pay rent, but also that I have a permanent (legal) place to stay, access to water, sewer, electricity, phone, internet, and mail.

I lived for about a year in Northern NJ (just east of the Lincoln Tunnel) in the 27ft Class C.
Our sewer pipes froze, the cat's water dish froze, the solar panel on the roof got snowed over and the batteries died.  The temperature was regularly below 0 all through the winter.  I haven't lived anywhere where it gets above 100 regularly, but I stayed in a spot in CA that hit high 90s in the summer.
The RV was insulated, double walls with fiberglass in between, just like a house.  I'm fairly certain all modern RVs are.  They are also easier to heat and cool just because they are small, so there is much less air space.  In addition I tinted the windows to retard radiant heat loss.  When we were parked in NJ, I added rigid foam insulation all around the bottom outside of the RV, covering the wheel wells and trapping an air space under the RV.  I routed the furnace exhaust into this space so it would heat the floor and not just be wasted.  It was our first time living in snow, so we had no idea what we were doing (they make heaters specifically for pipes!) but once we got all the details worked out, we were able to live very comfortably.

My current rig is in a park in the San Francisco Bay Area in CA, and the weather stays nice here.  I very rarely turn on the central furnace, opting to use a cheaper and more efficient electric space heater (to heat only the room I'm in).  Now that I upgraded to a instant (tankless) waterheater, I am only refilling my propane about once or twice a year ($40).  I do still use the air conditioning when its hot.  Sometimes I end up paying $10 a month for electricity instead of $5.

I never expected so much feedback from that video!  I am happy to know it is inspiring people.  Feel free to ask anymore questions you may have if you go forward with it!

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So, you are inspired to look into living small (and mobile)...

Where to start:
Decide the basic type you want. There are 6:

Class A - great big motor RV based on a bus body
Class C - slightly smaller motor RV, with an overhang above the driver compartment
Class B - much smaller motor RV, basically a large van
Travel Trailer - gets towed with a standard hitch
5th Wheel - has a hitch similar to a semi truck - need a special mount installed in the pickup that tows it - usually larger than travel trailers
Pop-up trailer (or tent trailer)- a travel trailer, but one that folds down for easy transport, walls are made of fabric
Camper Shell - entire RV installs on the back of a pick up truck.

They all have to be registered, whether or not they are driven (although on parked on private property, that is rarely - if ever - going to be enforced). If it was parked you could register it as not being driven for a discount (this is all in CA, I don't know about other states.) If you are just traveling through, its fine to just be registered in your home state (even if "traveling through" means staying for several months, or even years in most cases).
Motorhomes have to be insured if they are driven. Trailers don't (the tow vehicle needs to be insured). But its a good idea. I don't have full coverage on my truck, but my RV is my home, and cost me a lot of money, so I pay for the full coverage insurance. Plus, it also doubles as home owners insurance. Its less expensive than full coverage for a car or homeowners insurance.

Every style has its advantages and disadvantages. The main considerations are how much space do you want, and do you want it to be self-propelled or towed. If you plan to actually travel, a built-in engine (Class A B or C) is incomparably more convenient. If you plan to stay in one place, the engine in a motorhome just takes up space and makes it more expensive. The advantage of more size is, obviously, its more comfortable to live in and you can fit more stuff in it, but it becomes increasingly harder to drive, find a place to park, stay inconspicuous when parking on public streets, and is less efficient.

When I wanted to travel and stay low profile, I looked at motorhomes. When I wanted to stay in one place, I looked into trailers. With a motorhome driving is a lot easier. With a trailer you can separate the two and make use of the truck for errands or commuting.
Aside from that, the main considerations are size, age, and price. Size is a compromise between fuel efficiency (and easy of finding parking) and comfort.

Another huge consideration is your budget. The newer you can buy, the less maintenance and repair headaches you will have. Newer will be more expensive up front, but it can be worth it. A motorhome is always more expensive than a trailer. The bigger the RV, the more it will cost. A higher quality RV will have more insulation, and more features (some of which are more useful than others).

All RVs are energy efficient, by their very nature. They are designed so that you can go out to the woods and live off of battery power and stored water for a week or two, so they have to be. There are ways to increase its efficiency even more (tinted film on the windows, LED lighting, instant water heater, solar panel), but it makes a lot less difference than it would in a house.

Its less expensive to heat and cool a small space, due to the fact that its a small space. Insulation still makes a big difference, and newer trailers do much better in that area than older ones. It also helps to put plastic sheeting over the windows (I use saran wrap) to make a cheap double pane, and to use spot heaters instead of the central furnace.

There are 2 types of trailer park. Mobile home parks are usually long term, and charge by the month, like an apartment. RV parks are short term, and charge by the day, like a hotel. They are geared toward vacationers, and are much more expensive.
On the road you will more likely come across RV parks.

You can also always park at Walmart. Their policy is that RVs can stay in their lots (as long as there is space) even if they aren't customers. That saves a lot of money on RV park fees. We would usually go to an RV park one or two days of the week in order to empty the waste tanks, fill the clean water, wash clothes...

Things that might not be obvious to someone just starting out:
Use RV specific toilet paper. Regular stuff will clog. You can get it at RV parks, RV supply stores, or walmart.
Drive slow. In a big square vehicle mileage and safety are both going to drop really fast with even small increases in speed. No more than 55mph, or 5mph under the speed limit, whichever is lower.
Try to drive with water tanks as low (or empty) as possible. The weight will affect mileage, handling, and braking distance. Keep tires fully inflated for the same reason.

I always use city water. Water in the US is safe to drink even in the worst cities. Bottled water has lower standards imposed on it, and is often tap water in a bottle. It is crazy inefficient. In a park you get pressure by hooking a garden hose up to the RV, the rest of the time you fill the water tank and use the onboard pump.

I am not familiar with purpose built "green" RVs, but I am familar with those systems. They would be fairly easy to retrofit (for much less money!!) if one wanted to. I have a instant water heater and am only spending about $40 a year on gas, so, although it would be cool to have a solar pre-heater, its really not worth it. Same with electricity - on my old RV I did install a solar panel, but in the new one I am only using around 50kWh a month, at $5 a month in electricity, I don't have much incentive to buy a $500+ solar system.

For the most part though, living in an RV is a lot like living in a house. Driving an RV is like driving a car.

RVs are terribly inefficient at driving. Here are some ideas of ways you could improve it:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/..showthread.php/okay-heres-..challenge-mod-my-winnebago-..1051.html

http://ecomodder.com/forum/..showthread.php/getting-..mileage-motorhome-9123.html

And, of course, my own page:
http://www.instructables.com/..id/Vehicle-efficiency-..upgrades/

I have been appointed polling place inspector

• Apr 23, 2010

I have been appointed polling place inspector

OMG
I am going to be the person in charge of my local polling place.
Democracy will literally be in my hands.

It will be my responsibility to ensure every vote in my neighborhood gets counted.

I am proud, and slightly terrified.

How it is I skipped over getting experience as a clerk first, I am not entirely sure, but I just got a very official looking notice in the mail, informing me that I'm gonna be the guy in charge this primary election, June 8th.

I start at 6am, work until 9pm, and I will have a crew of 5 people.

My designated polling place happens to be the same as where I normally go to vote, and its easy walking distance from my house.

A couple more Last Day of Youth Party videos

• Jan 24, 2010

A couple more Last Day of Youth Party videos

Now people who couldn't make it can vicariously experience 4 separate components of the party.

Full Contact Spoons - the only existing recording of the greatest full contact sport in the world.  There is only 1 min and 17 sec worth because we are all old and fat and lazy.






Super Smash Bros - I am playing 3 on one (everyone against me) on one TV while simultaneously coaching the people playing Mario Kart on a different TV.
There is also a handicap against me.
And I won.
Repeatedly.
:)



Dancing - 4 hours worth.  I only wore the shoes for a couple songs



Cake at midnight - my comment at the end refers to the fact that 3 different people made/brought cakes, and they all independently put my signature smiley face on them

Micheal Scott has it right

• Jan 24, 2010

Micheal Scott has it right

On the popular TV show "The Office", the branch manager is a bit of a doofus.  He's not all that bright, he is totally obsessed with having his employees like him on a personal level, and he has very little knowledge of actual business or management theory.
He makes his superiors wring their hands and shake their heads - but the thing is, his office's sales record is the best in the company, so despite his many, many faux pax, he always keeps his job.

Nobody can quite figure out how he manages to do such a good job in spite of himself.

Even though he tells them quite clearly, time and again.

He considers his employees family.
He wants his customers to feel cared for.
He is more interested in making people happy than in making money.

You can't learn to be community based and to value clients as actual people in business school.  You can't use the idea of caring about people and being friendly to increase the bottom line, because if your interest is in the bottom line, you aren't genuinely interested in people.  You can't fake authenticity. 



Its either about the love, or its about money. Once you start thinking about rate of return ratios, receivables balance fractions, risk-adjusted profitability, or marginal value-added pricing structures, and all the other things one learns in business school, you are far beyond the point of seeing every person you work for and every person you work with as numbers.

From there it is a very slippery slope to the scenario described by "Jack" in Fight Club: If the cost of the average rate of settlement times the expected rate of failure is less than the cost of a recall for a known deadly manufacturing error, we don't do the recall.
In the end it comes down to morality.  Its either being moral, or maximizing profit.  They are mutually exclusive.

No business is going to have as their slogan "All we care about is your money", and a lot of them try in ads to sound like it isn't true; for any public corporation it is actually illegal for them to consider anything else above the bottom line - if they tried the shareholders could sue. 
For the vast majority of companies jumping on the band wagon, being environmentally responsible is a marketing gimmick as much as a catchy jingle.

Thinking in terms of doing productive work for society while earning fair compensation, as opposed to thinking of how to maximize revenue while minimizing costs will not (always) lead to the highest possible profits.

It will, I think, mean that business actually increases while the rest of the country is in an economic downturn.  It means getting so many referrals its necessary to turn jobs down after going a year and a half without any form of advertising.  It means when, inevitably, mistakes are made, no customer ever makes a claim, because they realize they are not just numbers, that every attempt to be careful was made, all actions in good faith. 
It means that quite a few of my customers make me meals while I'm working.

If a job is a paycheck, it will show through to the customer, no matter how you try to hide it.
If I am ever in a position to hire anyone, my first question will not be about education or experience or abilities or references.  My first and most important question is just this: Why do you want the job?  If its about pay and benefits, no matter how qualified, its "next please".

It has to be about the love.

Best. Party. Ever.

Jan 12, 2010


Best. Party. Ever.



One of the things that happens when you get too old, you spend more time re-telling old stories than generating new ones.

I have a couple new ones now.



Everything went exactly as I had envisioned it, which I find remarkable considering how little planning and prep went into it. Every portion was filled with participants, and all of you get the credit for that. All in all, not counting guests of guests, and the people who had to attend because it was in their house, about 35 people showed up, which is more people than I would have guessed I even know.

I want to extend a most enthusiastic thanks to everyone who came - however briefly - to my party, helping to make it an unmitigated success.

Most especially I wish to thank Greg for offering his house for the party, and Andy, Peter, Robin, Bret, Vern, and Vern's wife (who's name I don't remember since I met her then for the first time) for tolerating it.

Extra thanks to Peter and Jesse who helped me set up at the mansion and clean up again after, and Laura who helped me clear the field of poop, and to whoever found the 2nd N64.

Much thanks to Beth and Jessica who made 2 desserts each and my mom and Lois who brought one with candles - and all of them with my signature smiley face, "Banana Nose", my trademark since Jr. High.

A special thanks too, to Larry who came early and stayed 'till the end, and Sasha and Irina and Lois and Dajenya and Jesse who participated in each separate stage.

Thanks to Larry for the extensive documentation:

(I broke out the stilettos for the first time since prom for a few songs)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmbhs76CnAo

(The very end)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kW34_om36g




I try not to be too narcissistic, but honestly, I'd have to say last Saturday was the most fun party I've ever been to. Maybe I shouldn't wait 30 years to have the next one afterall...

(In the meantime, I will have other amtgard/spoons games. Let me know if you'd like to be on the notification list for future games.)

And now on to other things, being mature and responsible and productive and all that sort of thing.

Last Day of Youth

• Dec 11, 2009

Last Day of Youth

In less than a month, I will no longer be one of those people who are "in their 20s".
I'm driving slower, I own my home, I'm self-employed, and I have a credit rating above 800.
Defying all that makes sense in the world, I've been gradually becoming a responsible adult.
As of midnight Jan 9th of next year, it will become official.

Living to 90 is a fair goal.
If you chop life into 3 big blocks, 90 / 3, then 0-30 would be youth.  60-90 would be old age.  Which leaves 30-60 to be middle aged.
Wow.
Man.
Crazy.
I am a month away from middle aged.
I'm a divorcee who lives with 2 cats and is currently researching the tax affects of different types of individual retirement accounts.
I don't entirely understand how this happened.




I'm not one to throw parties.
In fact, the last time I hosted a party entirely on my own was - never.

On Saturday, January 9th, 2009, I will have my "Last Day of Youth" party.

Full Contact Spoons and Amtgard in the park (probably Ohlone in Berkeley)

Video games: Perfect Dark and Super Smash Brothers and Mario Kart.
Like we used to play in high-school.  I've been playing against my 8 year old neighbor, so I don't suck as much as I did back then.

Hours of non-stop dancing starting at sun down (probably at my house - unless someone with more space than me and a kick-ass sound system wants to volunteer to host)
I went through thousands of tracks, one by one, and selected across multiple genres for maximum danceability, ordered them by beats per minutes, and have them beat-matched and cross faded by robot DJ (aka my laptop - nothing like the real thing, but about $600 cheaper). 7 hours worth of rock-a-billy followed by funk followed by hip-hop followed by "gypsy punk" followed by pop.

There are to be no presents or gifts of any kind.  Seriously.  I have enough stuff and enough money.  And not enough space.  This includes home-made stuff and things that would actually be useful to me.  Nothing.
(Edibles and sorbiles -cake, alcohol, whatever- would be appreciated, but that would be to share with everyone.)
Your presence is my present.
Playing spoons and dancing non-stop until my neighbors complain or we pass out from exhaustion is my present.  Might be a good idea to start an exercise program now to prepare...

Because I would like even my feeble friends to attend, I am suspending my usual rule that anyone who shows up to spoons has to play.

I can not think of a good way to end this

The Wine Barrel (population and parenthood)

• Dec 4, 2009

The Wine Barrel (population and parenthood)

The Earth has been around about 5 billion years, life about 4 billion.
Half a billion years for animals, 200 billion for mammals.
200,000 years of humans.
For the first 192,000 years or so, the human population was under 10 million people world wide.
Increasing 10 fold took 6000 more years.
We rocketed from 100 million to a billion in just over 2000 years.
The next billion only took 120 years.
And then 30.
And since the 1950s, we have added a billion people every 13 years or so.

We are at around 6.75 billion people now.

Its estimated that it will hit 9 billion in about another 30 years.
That new 2 and a quarter billion people will be our children.



We like to point to the 3rd world, to Asia and Africa, but in the measure that matters, the US is by far the most overpopulated country in the world, as well as one of the fastest growing.



Population is only an issue because of the finite resources the Earth can provide.  If we had unlimited resources there wouldn't be any reason not to keep increasing indefinitely.

If everyone used the same amount of water, land, and energy, and caused the same amount of pollution as the average person in the third world, we would all be ok for a long time to come.  Due to lack of ability, what we call poverty, people in the third world tend to use less than their share of world resources.
The average person in the first world uses 5 times more than the overall world average.
The average American uses 20 times more.  Each of us uses about 20 times more water, 20 times more fuel and electricity, 20 times as much land to produce our food, produces 20 times more waste and pollution. 
Which means that in the big picture, each of us counts for 20 people.

So our 305 million population may as well be 6.1 billion, far more than China's 1.3 billion.  They would have to increase some combination of actual population and consumption per person by far before we could legitimately point the finger at them.

It also means that each child we have counts as 20 people, turning our fertility rate of 2.1 (already above the replacement rate of 2) into the equivalent of 42 per woman, 6 times higher than the highest rate of any third world country - and almost 17 times higher than the world average.



In the US alone there are 200,000 children waiting to be adopted.



It is one of the most basic and universal desires is to reproduce.  How could it be any other way? Because if that drive weren't passed along genetic lines, our ancestors wouldn't have bothered, and we wouldn't be here to think about it.

There has been a widespread assumption that because it is natural and universal that therefore it should be considered a "human right".

Our modern world does not resemble the savanna we evolved on.  We also have biological instincts to eat whenever food is available just in case there is no food tomorrow - and the result is rampant obesity.  Violence is natural and universal, but we agree as a society that the costs are not acceptable and make the conscious decision to repress it, both as individuals and as communities.
A good number of us making the conscious choice to go against instinct and manipulate ourselves in ways that take into consideration the reality of our world.  We don't eat everything in front of us, we repress violent impulses - and we make a conscious choice not to breed.
Because, we can do that, we can think, and make choices.


To make wine or beer, you start with grape juice or grains and add microorganisms.
For them it is an incredible feast!  Sugar and carbs as far as the eye can see, no predators, no competition, perfect weather.  So of course they have a really good time, girl fungus meets boy fungus, there's plenty to feed the babies and things just couldn't be better.  And then after a while they literally die from drowning in their own waste products as the population gets completely out of control.
(And then we drink that waste product, but that's another topic entirely)

Human beings, in theory, are a lot more intelligent than yeast.  They don't even have brains.  As individuals we can choose not to have children.  But as a whole, an outside observer would not see much difference between the species.  As a whole, we continue to breed at a rate related only to the resources available today, with little or no regard to how sustainable those resources are.

A great many people - including liberals and environmentalists and those who are childless by choice - become indignant when this topic is brought up.  Reproduction is considered by many to be a fundamental (God-given?) right, and suggesting otherwise brings to mind eugenics programs, or the murder of female infants when China first instituted its one-family/one-child program when sons were the only form of social security the society had.  Those are not inevitable outcomes. 

As a specie all societies choose to discourage some of our natural instincts in such a way that slight personal restrictions result in a far happier society over all.  It may be perfectly natural for me to want to punch some annoying person right in the face, but the government isn't going to give me a tax break for doing it.
Just the same, it is only natural that I want to have my own kids, related to me by DNA, but if it is going to end up making life that much more difficult for all of the people who are already here, perhaps a tax penalty is more appropriate than a credit.

Average cost for fertility treatment is $12,000, and 12% of US couples seek it.  In about 1/2 the states this is covered by insurance.
Given the 200,000 existing children who need homes, I find this immoral.  Think what medical services could be provided to people who are already here with that $4 billion.


Governments could, at the very least, encourage people to have less children simply by removing tax breaks for kids. 
I don't actually think that is going to happen.

But you and I can still choose on our own to act, even if everyone else isn't likely to fall in line.  Its been calculated time and again that simply having a baby has greater impact than all the imported GMO processed food and single-person commutes in SUVs could ever hope to have.  From an ecological standpoint, it would be better to drive a hummer and eat at Mickey Ds but adopt your child then to live the hippy lifestyle in a solar powered yurt with a grey-water garden and create 3 brand new babies of your own.

And now we get to the real crux of the matter.
Being aware of this, just how much personal sacrifice are we willing to make?  I want the experience of creating a child.  I also to avoid being an amoral moral and not a hypocrite.  (A moral hypercrite? Yes.  I aspire to be a hypercrite someday.) 
Like most people, I have developed a defensive rationalization to allow me to not feel guilty about doing what I wanted to all along, even though I really know better.

The way I see it, I personally can't be expected to be held responsible for or make up for the excessive consumption of everyone else around me.  I couldn't if I wanted to.  I personally have a sustainable ecological footprint (i.e. if everyone on the planet used the same level of resources as me, we'd all be set indefinitely).  If me and my hypothetical future partner have 2 kids, once we die, overall, the population hasn't gone up.  If we have just one, its gone down by one.  That seems like a decent compromise to me.  I'd like to have one, and adopt one.  (As a bonus, I can choose to have one of each gender, and more precisely choose the age spread).

Many people object to ideas around population control as an emotional response to implied guilt about already having children, and feeling defensive about kids that are already here.  A potential person has nothing in common with a real human being who is actually here.  Acknowledging that resources have a finite rate of renewal is not a personal attack on you. No one is saying your child isn't wonderful or that you made any "wrong" choices. All I am saying is, however many blessings you have, stop now.

Similarly some people in these discussions suggest that any one who advocates population control should kill themselves if they really mean it.  This equates the mere idea of a person, a hypothetical, potential person, with an actual specific person who is here right now, thinking and breathing and feeling.  We aren't talking about abortion here.  Not having a kid is not killing by any definition.  Any discussion about who a person who does not exist but might possibly is equally ridiculous.  That kid who could someday be is no more likely to become the next president than it is to be a serial killer who enjoys torturing victims. 

Bottom line is, having less children today will be much less painful than wars of dwindling resources some number of decades in the future.

THERE IS SO MUCH TO LEARN

• Nov 22, 2009

THERE IS SO MUCH TO LEARN

I have not been writing much lately.

Spending my time with work, and new friends, and classes.

Work remains fun, after 3 years of doing the same things (compare to a record of 10 months max at any one job for the rest of my life prior), easy enough to be good at it, challenging enough to stay interesting. 

Just the past few days involved somehow fitting about 10cubic yards of random stuff into the truck for the largest hauling run I've had so far, installing drywall in an attic furnace room so the building could pass fire inspection, and careful deconstuction of the walls holding in the old biodiesel tanks at the old biodiesel fuel station so the lumber could be reused.

But far more important and interesting is the classes.

Little by little I add to my stable of random skills.

Expert in nothing, but my goal is for everyone there is, I can do at least one thing moderately well that they don't do at all. 

Maybe there is someone who does a little carpentry and electronics soldering and computer software troubleshooting and lockpicking and sailing and shooting guns and bow and arrows and swordplay and bicycle repair and auto mechanics and unicycling and gardening.

Just in case, I'm taking muy thai and jui jitsu and I just took a seminar on making fire with natural materials, another on edible wild foods of the East Bay, and today one on tracking animals, and also took my first parkour class.  Judging by the skill level of my classmates, watching YouTube videos and practicing on my own at the playground and on random obstacles I find walking around the city has been more beneficial than I realized.

I feel more and more like a character from an action/adventure movie, where the hero somehow knows how to do everything. 

And yet what strikes me continually is how much I still don't know.  Not even counting all the stuff I am not interested in learning, but the skills I still want, if money was no object, would take a lifetime to learn.

And money is an object.

So one lifetime isn't enough.

I have had debt for a few years, collected over a cross country trip/move and major vehicle failure, months of unemployment,  going back to college, buying a newer larger trailer, and having to buy my ex out of said trailer when she moved out.

I am getting tantalizingly close to paying off the last of it.

I decided once I do, classes take priority one.  Jobs will be fit around them, not the other way around.  I'm looking to work about 20hrs per week.

I am saying this publicly so as to have some accountability.  If you hear me say I am working too much come next summer, remind me I said this.

Thanks

Raise

• Sep 12, 2009

Raise

I am considering asking for a raise.
A 33% one at that.
I am fairly confident I will get it, seeing that I am the CEO and majority shareholder as well as the sole employee.

It is not because I need the money.
Just the opposite.

I have too much money, not enough free time (well, maybe not "too much", but more than I need)

I am hoping that a moderate price increase will discourage people from calling me.
The decrease in work would be made up for by making slightly more when I do.

I justify raising my prices to myself in two ways:



1) I now have 3 years of experience.  I have all sort of fancy equipment.  I have moved hide-a-bed sofas, large potted trees, and several 600lb safes.  My repair skills are getting increasingly refined (as I get to practice on my clients houses).  I am gradually moving along the skill level scale from day laborer toward contractor.  That experience makes me more useful.

2) I am still well below the standard moving company rate.  Not long ago I got a call from someone who wanted to hire me to unload a U-Haul from a local move.  I pointed out that the cost of the U-Haul rental alone would be as much as my charge, and wouldn't include a laborer (me).  I priced the job at about $130.  She was immensely relived, and told me she had gotten several quotes, all above $500!
At the new rate, it would have been $160; still far below what she was told elsewhere, and in fact still competitive with renting a truck and trying to do it all alone, (including a dolly, blankets, and insurance makes a one way U-haul rental $155)

Wow.  I was on the fence when I started writing this, but after doing the math just now, and looking up U-haul's rates, now I am quite sure!

So, anyway... I'll leave my minimum where it is, at $50.  Going up to a more divisible number means I will be able to charge to the nearest 15 minutes instead of the nearest half hour.  And I'll be able to afford to make my no car discount $10 off per hour instead of just $5.
Also, I am instituting a sliding scale.  If someone genuinely can't afford even the discounted rate, I will add in an additional $5 per hour poverty discount.
I'll count that at $10,000 (approximately the federal poverty line for an individual) even though things are expensive in the Bay Area, because I don't really buy that things Americans have gotten used to calling "necessities" really are.  Granted, I don't have kids, but I did live nearly half my adult life on less than $10,000 a year - and pretty comfortably at that.  Of course, I will trust my clients on their word regarding income.
I'll also add something explicit on my pricing page about tipping for people above the median income for our area (about $50,000 for a family, $35,000 individual).
I had been excited for a while about having a sliding scale, but couldn't figure any reasonably simple way to institute it.  I think having a base rate, but with exceptions, will be the best way to accomplish it.

I'm thinking beginning of next month.
So if you need something moved, recycled, or repaired, you may want to schedule it quick.

Status Messages

• Aug 28, 2009

Status Messages

My Gmail-integrated-chat status message is sort of my version of twitter.  Character limited blurbs of what’s going on, interesting facts and quotes, links to various stuff.
For some reason there are still some people who don't use gmail as their primary personal email client.  So they don't get to see any of my status messages.
Not to worry!  I have been collecting them for about the past 10 months:


http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2008/11/green-dime

To pull a man out of the mud, a friend must set foot in that mud - Rabbi Nachman

"In my day, television was called 'books' "

Eat Drink and Be Merry, for tomorrow we die

if you can read this, thank a teacher


poor and happy

do you deserve to be a citizen? http://www.nbcnews.com/id/13442226/  or   http://usgovinfo.about.com/blinstst.htm

I want to cuddle her fucking brains out

I consider cuteness an unnecessary bonus.  Fucking jackpot, man.

Set Status Here

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=51170

http://www.balkanbeatbox.com/

http://toomuchonline.org/

You feel the way you do right now because of the thoughts you are thinking at this moment

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/15/world/fg-shoe15

No one can cut you off if you choose to slow down and let them in

http://www.jonentine.com/reviews/sf_examiner.htm

Dinosaur Rap

"I think presumptuousness and judgementalness are major traits of your personality"

Governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deducted from it. - Georg Hegel

Spare The Air Day, Tomorrow September 5

I can not think of any clever or informative status messages

1/3 of Americans did not vote.

"The impact to the environment, human health, and animal welfare would be enormous if everyone would just cut back on the amount of meat they eat. If 5 people are each vegetarian 20% of the time the impact is the same as 1 person 100% of the time." (stolen from a customer's status message)

Buy Nothing Day, this Friday.  X-mas is about compassion and humanity (and Jesus), not buying lots of crap

Geekfest - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A man is as young as (the woman) he feels

An enemy of socialism cannot write in our newspapers - but we don't deny it, and we don't go around proclaiming hypothetical freedom of the press where it doesn't exist, the way you people do - Fidel Castro (Playboy, 1967)

Lets allow love to kindle even when its a bad idea.  Maybe we end up burning the whole fucking house down and losing everything we own and having to sleep in the street.  Maybe.  I prefer the risk to curling up in the cold on the floor indoors because I'm too afraid to light the fireplace.

Bicycle!

Terror Experts Warn, Next 9/11 Could Fall on Different Date

One year left http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2013/01/one-more-year.html

http://www.utne.com/mind-body/Get-Radical-Get-Some-Rest-Vacation-Time-Off.aspx

They are starting to get desperate http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/01/14/us-usa-pilot-idUSTRE50D12320090114

The next President of the United Stateshttps://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1suPd6eaJCvynGxFbbBnMVjwTs-GLsCdA5dyrdh9BMyQ7aTMVV6tDjl3kbqrHxdKH-UQCSpEAiH9hndMHh7hdJyjRziyL-lhUjFWUWaD5yFr_esXOZTT1iFZu6YSx5OLVHxzp01QenVk/s1600/barack-obama-beach-450x688.jpg

How much you can do depends on where you believe your limits are. You can do a lot more when you don't know that you can't

I work hard, and I play hard.  Wait, no... I don't work hard at all

if jerks like us would start driving cars like normal people, maybe we could have 70 degree winters every year

"It's good to be open minded, but not so much that your brains fall out"

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

Militant Agnostic - I don't know, *and you don't know either!*

I wonder if penguins feel inadequate for not being ok without a partner in life?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/ethics/

solution to credit crunch: don't live beyond your means

Goodnight

I never give compliments. I merely make statements and observations of truth

I'm _far_ more humble than you motherfucker

http://www.utne.com/Politics/Is-Poverty-the-Problem-Or-Is-Wealth.aspx

In order to make a solar panel or wind turbine, you have to mine for the iron ore to make the steel, and drill for oil to make the plastic parts

But I was young and foolish then...                ...          I feel old and foolish now

I had to work 5 whole hours today!
No one should ever work 5 hours in one day

Good morning

The island of Guernsey is less than 10 miles across, and nearly every adult owns a car.  http://gubbinsexperiment.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-to-do-about-parked-cars.html

Your lifestyle is excessive and unsustainable

A life not enjoyed is a life wasted

Work all day, party tonight, date tomorrow ;)

In a pure free market, if a comet is coming, everybody dies http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2012/03/global-warming-vs-fascism-or-why-nasa.html

$1/2 million cap on tax payer money to CEOs. Pobrecitos http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/fashion/08halfmill.html?_r=3&

"so... due to your heroic deeds fixing our wiring, my roommate has insisted that i go on another date with you"

Large truck + sharp turn off of freeway + gobs of rain + people braking suddenly up ahead for no apparent reason = hydroplaning + fishtailing + adrenaline + a nice little test of my reflexes

Everyone is pro-democracy until the people vote for a law they don't like.  Overturning prop 8 in court = fascism.

11:34.  Guess I'll get dressed.  Good lord I love being self-employed.

http://inequality.org/inequality-data-statistics/

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/everyday_economics/2006/10/how_the_web_prevents_rape.html

I don't play devil's advocate.  I mean, I'm not playing.  I really _am_ the devil's advocate.  Seriously.  The devil is totally awesome.  You should check him out sometime.

I discovered the jelly bean machine accepts pennies.  Uh oh.  So much for rationing...

In Texas, owning 6 or more dildos is a felony.  If you own 5 or fewer, you are merely a hobbyist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaUl6x1YXpg

The net worth of America’s wealthiest 1 percent now exceeds the net worth of the entire bottom 90 percent. http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/fy2010_new_era/Inheriting_a_Legacy1.pdf

I was doored on my skates today for the first time ever.

"There are worse things in life than getting your heart broken. It sucks but it's a good honest kind of hurt. Makes you more human"

Censorship at its best:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyJR7QlRhM4

I just got pulled over and given the breathalyzer for driving too slow!

Former BikeStation employee shot by Israeli military  http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_11907109

$450million from tax payers directly to the personal accounts of those most directly responsible for the credit crises - including $6.5million to a single AIG executive: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/business/16aig.html?_r=1

I do enjoy my job, but I don't like having to do anything for hours every week.  I'd rather do other things with that time, like, you know, talking to my friends.  I guess I could charge them... but then I'd probably have fewer friends.

4.5 Million Americans are on unemployment (the most in 26 years); only 1/3 of the unemployed receive benefits

21.75 MPG in the 5500lb truck!!!!

The comments after the article are from the generally progressive readers of Mother Jones; we really are going to go the way of the yeast in a beer barrel - drowning in our own waste because we are incapable of not breeding: http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2009/03/tiniest-baby-booms-monster

"Because the typical farmers market is supplied by dozens of different farms, each transporting its crops in a separate van or truck ... locally grown produce might actually represent a larger carbon footprint than the same volume of produce purchased at a chain retailer, which gets its produce en masse, via large trucks." - http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2009/02/spoiled-organic-and-local-so-2008

"People are people, and I still love them (especially the women)"

"Big Brother is not only watching, he is recording it all for later.  And thanks to Congress, there’s not a damn thing we can do about it."

"Human kindness can be a renewable resource"
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1407952648?bctid=1657909722

"Prior to the 1980s, conservatives were fiscally conservative-  they were unwilling to spend more than they took in in taxes. But Reaganomics introduced the idea that virtually any tax cut would so stimulate growth that the government would end up taking in more revenue in the end. In fact, the traditional view was correct: if you cut taxes without cutting spending, you end up with a damaging deficit. Thus the Reagan tax cuts produced a big deficit; the Clinton tax increases produced a surplus; and the Bush tax cuts produced an even larger deficit. The fact that the American economy grew just as fast in the Clinton years as in the Reagan ones somehow didn't shake the conservative faith in tax cuts as the surefire key to growth." - Francis Fukuyama

screw mutant fruit

"With just 5% of the world's population, America holds nearly 25% of the world's reported prison population. Our prison population has quadrupled since 1984, and most of the increase comes from people being imprisoned for drug offenses--mostly minor and nonviolent."

Only 5 billion years until the sun expands and engulfs the Earth.
Make the most of them.

Gay animals even more common than we thought: http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/the_gay_animal_kingdom/

Infant male prairie voles (a normally monogamous specie) which are injected with a single dose of chemical which disrupts oxytocin fail to ever bond with a mate as adults.

29 to 68% of the offspring of monogamous bird species are the results of feathered infidelities.

She's like the character in a movie who comes into the lonely/forlorn/nerdy/hopeless protagonist's life all of a sudden, and complete turns his outlook around, changes his life permanently.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/how-are-corporations-going-green,7598/
Happy 4500millionth birthday, Earth

"In any case, I need another installment of the soap opera  that is Bakari's all natural biodiesel dating frenzy. The Bold and the Biodiesel? General Handyman?"

24mpg http://www.instructables.com/id/Vehicle-efficiency-upgrades/

1100sq ft RV for multimillionaire trailer trash
http://www.andersonmobileestates.com/

Ty, your comment provided me the motivation to actually write this: http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2013/03/gay-animals-social-sex-and.html

Total # of deaths from "swine" flu: 8                   
Total annual deaths from regular old human flu: 500,000               

"I have no idea why anyone went to the movie in the first place, let alone rent it." - Paul Haggis, writer/director of Crash, on its being Netflix's most rented video for the past 4 years

Average US passenger vehicle fuel economy peaked in 1987
http://uspolitics.about.com/od/energy/i/cafe_standards.htm

Yesterday I did some thing most unusual... Cleaned :)

War predates vertebrae http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY9LNEJNrZs&feature=related

Females in more than 80 species eat their mates http://www.youtube.com/watch?..v=ELahVSsrmA8

Slavery predates vertebrae http://www.youtube.com/watch?..v=7jsX0_mwTX8&feature=related

% of Americans who believe in:                           ..   
Astrology - 40%
Creationism - 50%             
ESP - 60%                  
Magnetic Therapy - 70%

Bike-ari

lots of stuff to get rid of http://www.biodieselhauling.org/Salvage.html

me = tired


May is bike month.  Its not too late to sign up: http://www.youcanbikethere.com/user/register

Didn't meet my goal, but did better than last year 1:11:31 and am in MUCH less pain than last year! :)

"I saw your truck on 580 this morning as I was heading in to Instructables, and I thought, "I should check out that website."  Now, I'm reviewing entries in the efficiency contest, and here's your truck again!" - CEO of instructables.com

Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits reunion show!!! 

I think I have swine flu.  It is getting back at me for making fun of it on my blog.

Counter-protest http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2013/04/counter-protest-not-that-theres.html

"It would be zero emissions if it weren't for the tire smoke" http://www.commutercars.com/videos.html

*26.8 mpg* in a commercial truck!!!

"This is the reason your headaches didn't go away:  that's pronounced _analgesic_ not 'anal'gesic.  The pills go in your mouth."

Winner! http://www.instructables.com/contest/earthjustice/?show=WINNERS

The Obama Reality Show: http://www.hulu.com/the-obama-administration

conservative morality http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.html

Walmart forces major manufactures to provide earth friendlier products, brings green to the lower classes http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/business/25walmart.html

In a nationwide survey of Americans, atheists were ranked lowest of all groups in terms of trustworthiness, sharing America's vision of society, and approval of who their children marry - lower than Muslims, recent immigrants, and homosexuals.

http://journey.totheendofthenight.com/oakland

The human side of evil http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343

"sometimes there's a third, even deeper level, and that one is the same as the top surface one.  Like with pie." http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/101-5-mpg-my-2003-ninja-250-a-8686.html

goodnight everybody.  I'll put that link back up tomorrow in case you missed it

I just ate food which I GREW MYSELF!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etzs3Cc8pxI&feature=related

we parked 160 bikes at the first annual Uptown Unveiled festival

Haircut ordered by President of the United States http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-collections/229295/colbert-report-adventure-quest?current_video=230466

The richest dozen Americans hold roughly as much wealth as the entire lower 50% of the population

http://blog.okcupid.com/

http://www.cafepress.com/BioDH

Downieville!!!!!!!

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17372-gallery-domestic-robots-with-a-taste-for-flesh.html

Oakland has the nation's cleanest tap water.  Why are you still buying it in bottles?

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

A 7 year old told her mother that a boy in her class asked her to play doctor.  "Oh dear, what happened honey?" asked her nervous mother.
"Not much," said the little girl, "He made me wait 45 minutes, then double billed the insurance company."
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/07/cheese-eating-healthcare

She's so hot she's making me sexist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT5AQIlmM0I

I was probably the best dressed guy there.        
Imagine that!!!
ME!?!?!?!?!

I have $5 left in the bank.

"What happened?"             
"we grew up"                       
"but you're still playing it" 
"hmm... well... I guess _they_ grew up."

another instructables contest: http://www.instructables.com/id/Large-Self-Watering-Planter-made-from-recycled-mat/

Even I think other entries are better than mine... but vote for me anyway:

A "hands-free" cell phone contributes about as much to safer driving as a dashboard beverage holder contributes to safer drinking and driving.

NASCAR saving gas http://ecomodder.com/blog/dale-earnhardt-jr-hypermiles-to-victory-in-nascar-racing/

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-07/computerized-rat-brain-spontaneously-develops-complex-patterns

Notice any similarities? http://tiny.cc/hp2009  and  http://tiny.cc/hp1955         Where does it stop?

Old-school Bakari-style rant-essay: http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2013/04/race-whites-still-winning.html

The number one killer of Americans under 40?  Car accidents.  Every time you get in a car, you may die.

people who should be natural allies against the elite, instead focusing on fighting each other: http://www.anarchistnews.org/?..q=node/8794

http://www.utne.com/Media/Tao-of-War-Photography.aspx

I do measure up to the myth though ;-)
http://www.salon.com/comics/..knig/2007/06/20/knig/index...html

Using a cellphone (even w/ handsfree) produces accident rate equal to DUI
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/technology/19distracted.html?_r=1

My ex says I like to talk, and don't spend enough time asking questions. I think that's probably a valid criticism.

The average new car has around 250 horsepower.  For comparison, my 2.5 ton truck which is capable of hauling another 3 tons at freeway speeds and up San Francisco hills has under 170 horsepower.

I just got home from singing Bohemian Rhapsody while wearing a bright blue sparkle shirt in Oakland's most famous gay bar and I wonder why people mistake me for gay

today marks 3 years of biodiesel powered hauling and delivery

Slow down http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2012/03/slow-down-my-philosophy-for-life-also.html
3 jobs, 4 truck problems repaired; long day - all finished now! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs3n5LMNplE

BART strike Monday!! Which means no BikeStation either :( On the other hand, since traffic will be terrible, this is the perfect time to start riding your bike to work :)

Whole Foods CEO is campaigning against national healthcare http://www.alternet.org/story/141961/why_you_should_boycott_whole_foods        http://www.careerjournal.com/article/SB10001424052970204251404574342170072865070.html

Safeway, Lucky's, and Albertson's are unionized. Trader Joe's and Whole Foods aren't.

http://blog.thesilentnumber.me/2009/07/i-am-capitalized-and-you-are-not.html

Why does everyone think necrophilia is sick?  They didn't think it was sick beforehand.  When she was "alive"

Tap water standards are higher than bottle water standards, yet bottled water costs approx. 2000 times more. http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2009/07/bottled-waters-can-you-taste-difference San Fransisco and the East Bay have some of the nations cleanest tap water. 

"Of course, everyone - regardless of race and sex - will hit occasional bumps on the road. And everyone, white men included, has put out some sort of effort to get where they got. But when the folks on the smoother road go faster and further, let’s not pretend it’s because they’re better drivers."

http://blog.thesilentnumber.me/2008/02/top-7-reasons-to-learn-lojban.html

"Middle class people put a tremendous amount of focus on addressing issues of language and protocol, but addressing one’s racist conditioning is more about communication than language, more about self-awareness than protocol, more about humility than expertise." http://www.anarchistnews.org/?..q=node/9455

The future of transportation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?..v=hdJrUuoU53s

If you are going to be stopped more than 1 second, it takes more fuel to idle than to start http://www.iwilltry.org/b/projects/how-many-seconds-of-idling-is-equivalent-to-starting-your-engine/
Shut your engine at every red light.

People are like elephants.  Some of them are just jerks.

http://laughingsquid.com/never-go-to-work-by-they-might-be-giants/