Feeling better... I think

I don't know, maybe it's the drugs, but I am feeling so much better tonight than I did last night. *So* much better. Plus, I got to ride around jacket-less on my bike commute today. What a great feeling! Physically, anyway. Mentally it was a reminder that we are doing very strange things to our environment. Now I'm not saying that global warming can be held accountable for all 20 degrees above average that it was today... but it certainly has an effect!
Global Warming is a very big deal, actually, as many of you probably know. It's not a 20 degree thing, though, or we'd all be dead already. The average global increase in temperature is more like one degree Celsius... but as far as global averages go, that's a huge thing. It throws off weather patterns all over the world in very unpredictable ways.
So I guess what I'm saying is that, although we haven't warmed the Earth by 20 degrees, we have warmed it enough that this bizarre weather pattern occurred, and this weather pattern has caused a local increase of 20 degrees. Have I lost everybody yet? I guess if you get it, you probably already knew it, and if you don't, I may not be the one to ask! ;)
Well, it's time to devote a good solid hour to editing my story for NakedMiles. Hopefully I'll have found a way to resolve the pacing issues in the next segment. And y'all can expect that new segment to arrive on your screens sometime next Monday. I say that so I'll feel pressure to actually get the work done by then, and I hope that leverage works better for me than it has for Arin and Susan over at Four Eyed Monsters. Episode 9 of their podcasts is about two months late!

Kids, Noses, and other Things That Run

Today I am sick. Ugh.
It came out of no where yesterday, and today it was worse. Fortunately, I spent the morning with the lovely Serra, whose cat loves me at least as much as she does--the proof is in the picture. Merlin (the cat) is the greatest. I'm not one to post cat pictures all over a website. I've seen my share of those nightmares. Nonetheless, I must post this one with Merlin. He is--as Serra has been known to say--"both puffy and amazing".
      In Blogosphere news: No one has yet left a comment on NakedMiles. :( Comment, people! It doesn't work if you don't work it! Also, I may be starting an environmental issue blog soon, probably something like "NakedPlanet" or "NakedEarth." I just have to find the time and energy to come up with my own ideas, so I won't turn out to be just another re-hash of the same old stories...

NakedMiles

The newest addition to the NakedNotes family has arrived.

Green Corps

I spent the weekend busily making myself look good for a Green Corps Interview weekend. Something like 75 of us were there, competing for four or five spots on next year's team.
It was a blast, and it really made it clear to me how much I really want to get into Environmental Organizing.
Green Corps is a training program for people who want to become organizers for environmental causes and such. And it's a paid program, too. What a dream job! But the competition is fierce... the others who were there were all at least as qualifies as I was.

So now I'm sitting here at home after a day at work, waiting for my phone to ring. They told us that if we're in, we'll get a call today. It's after 7:00pm already, but they did say that there might be some late calls. I'm going crazy. I'm jumping out of my skin every time the phone rings. My heart starts beating like an epileptic squirrel. It's quite the aerobic workout.
I'm not holding my breath, though. I know that my chances of getting a call at this point are close to none. But it sure would be nice!

On the other hand, one of the other candidates pointed me in the direction of nonprofitwatch.org, a website that reports on sketchy behavior from nonprofit organizations. They have a section for Green Corps. It's not a pretty read. I keep wondering how much of it is valid and how much is from jilted workers who are just bitter about not getting what they wanted...

Well, whether I get in or not, I'm moved to start getting active about the environment again. Anyone want to help me start a group?

Rodents and homonids: best laid plans...

So I've been thinking about this blog and its purpose. Why am I writing it? Why should people read it? In an attempt to answer those questions, I started coming up with a plan.
It starts like this. I have a "musician/band" account on myspace.com. I also plan on starting a new blog that will contain a serialized version of a story that I am writing. On top of those, if I find that I am starting to go off on political rants, or environmental rants, then I may decide to create a blog specifically for those purposes. Where does that leave NakedNotes? Simply, NakedNotes will be the nerve center. It's the place where one can com to see the overall view of my contributions to the blogosphere. Here one can keep track of all my other projects, and read the behind the scenes commentary on what is going on with them. It is the center of my own little web. As such, I also don't feel so bad using it as a simple online journal, as well.

This is, after all, the place where I remove the hats and trappings of any specific objective
and roam unclothed and undisguised. It is NakedNotes.

So to get started, I need to begin those other blogs... the myspace one already exists, and needs updating. The others will be on their way shortly...

Net neutrality

What does net neutrality mean to you? The concept is new to me, as I've ony just discovered one view of what it means. It fascinates me. I've never even considered that Big Business could take over this wonderful free-flow between peers that we call the web.

The would-be usurpers of the net are the providers of the hardware network itself. They control who gets access, and how much. Therefore, they can control everything. I wonder if there's a way to bypass this existing hardwired network and the companies that control it.

I'm thinking of all the airport/wi-fi signals I get from the buildings around me. Wouldn't it be amazing if we could create a network that operated on everyone's home wireless router? The individual owners would be responsible for their node, and there would be no corporation to control the whole thing. With the proliferation of wireless connections, there would be areas with massive redundancy. Of course, there would also be HUGE areas with no coverage at all. But it's a start What if we boost the wi-fi range just a little, and create a protocol that allows internet style networking over the overlapping wi-fi nodes...

Just random brainstorming here. Anyone have any ideas?

I've decided that... I haven't decided anything at all

I woke up this morning before the sun and prepared to bring a friend to the airport. A close friend. We went, she got on the plane, and now I'm realizing how much of my life she was filling these last two months. It's not even eight o'clock as I write this, and I feel like I've run out of things to do for the night.
Of course, that's not true. There's a lot of cleaning and organizing to be done. I have DVDs that I've rented that should be watched soon. I have laundry that I washed today that needs to be folded... but I'm missing the random conversations online, the preparation for the 11 mile bike ride out to her place, the long and introspective emails we exchange as we try to figure out
what in the world to do with each other.

It's an ambiguous relationship. She likes me. I like her. And we're not sure where to go from there. Neither one of us has any idea what type or length of future
we have in store. I am cruising without a map, without a compass, without a specific destination.

She's flying right now, halfway around the world. I wonder if in her journey's she will see a destination for our little voyage.

But this blog is not going to turn into an emotional outlet for my relationship issues. The topic may turn up now and then, but I will not harp on it! Not here, at least...

Day Two

Really original titles for these posts, eh? Well, that's what happens when it gets late and I want to make sure to post for the day but nothing creative wants to work its way out of my brain.
Today was a good one, mostly. I'm a bit worried about losing my job, though--or at least a part of it. The building in which I normally work has been shut down due to mold. I've been going to the main building to work, but the kids I work with haven't been coming up to the main building. They see that the Teen Center is closed, and they don't read the note on the door, and I'm left sitting with nothing to do behind the front desk up at the main YMCA building. No teens arrive, and it looks like I'm doing nothing. Which is true.
One of these days, my supervisor is going to tell me that I shouldn't come in for those hours anymore. I can't afford not to. I have to find some way to make myself useful, I guess, so that they feel that it's worth it for me to keep coming in.
And now this post is starting to make it look like I intend to turn this blog into an online journal. That's not the case at all... I don't think. Or maybe it is. I don't know. We'll see how it all evolves. For now, though, I must shower. I still smell a bit like chlorine.

Day One

Welcome to NakedNotes. What is NakedNotes, you ask? I don't know. It's an experiment, in progress, based loosely on the blogging paradigm. What will it become? Again, I don't know. The idea starts like this: Most of the time, I Try Too Hard. This is my attempt to go in the opposite direction. Naked, unadorned words. Minimalist. And we'll see where it goes together.