Quantity Over Quality & Dancing To Keep The Lights On

Twenty one thousand, three hundred and thirty nine words. See how I added more words than necessary? The irony in this writing exercise is to scribe as many words as possible while trying to maintain some semblance of terse writing. Clearly the former has to give to the latter to hit the 50,000 word goal, at least for the first draft.

I read a very interesting story yesterday about a group of people who’ve gotten together to form the Electricfication Coalition. The group recently published a road map to the electrification of the United States, the primary objective of which is to make at least 75% of automobiles run on solely electricity by 2040. Personally, I’d like the target percentage to be higher or the target date to be sooner. Given not everyone will want or be able to convert come the deadline, I would recommend pushing to date up to 2030 or 2035. Let’s do this people.  I’ve downloaded the report and plan to flip through it at least; it’s one hundred and eighty pages (see, I did it again!).

The electricity the automobiles will use to charge batteries will come from somewhere, and part of this task is to make those sources more renewable. No oil, no gas and for mother nature’s sake, no coal. Let’s use the sun and the wind and the waves to power our movement. There’s already technology being tested to make nanotechnology-powered personal battery packs that will recharge just by moving around. Wouldn’t it be great to have our exercise equipment tied to a smart grid such that people could earn money by working out and generating power in surplus of their daily use? There are endless possibilities, the simplest being charging your mobile phone while walking. The mid boggles at the possibilities.

Novel Diet

I crossed 18,300 words on Sunday, and while that’s progress, I’m a good 7,000 words (or 25 pages) off pace. Not good. I made far less progress over the weekend than I had hoped. My plot is developing quite well, which is both good and bad. The first 15,000 or so words was more of a discovery process; the plot was being crafted spontaneously, which was exciting. Now I have an idea as to where it’s going and doubt has set in. I think the story is good, that’s not the problem. The problem is that the story is known, and because of that I feel like I’m writing something everyone else already knows as well. The iterative process of crafting a novel is not the most appealing, but if I can make it through the entire story from start to finish without too much rereading or rewriting, I think the editing process will be much more enjoyable than it seems now.

After eating very poorly this weekend I realized I hadn’t provided an update on The Engine 2 Diet my wife and I committed to a few months ago. The good news is that we’ve incorporated some of the features of the diet into our daily lives. The bad news is that I’ve faltered on the thoroughness of my commitment, and therefor have gained back about half of the weight I lost during the 30-day experiment. We’re going to eat some leftover take out from this past weekend tonight but hop back on the horse starting tomorrow. I need to do this not only to lose weight but also manage my cholesterol. I’ve said this before, and even though it seems inevitable given my genetic disposition to high cholesterol, I really, really, really do not want to take statins. More evidence that some statins don’t work well, and may even cause more harm than good, is being presented today at a medical conference sponsored by the New England Journal of Medicine.

Acres of Garlic

My tummy is full of Thai goodness, though the affiliated garlic hasn’t left my mouth. Oh well, it’s really a problem for other people more than for me. I hit 15,000 words this morning before work. Yeah me, though I’m still behind.  The good folks at NaNoWriMo warned me the second week would be hard and they were not lying.

I received an email today from Acres U.S.A., a magazine dedicated to sustainable agriculture. I’m by no means even conversant in farming but I’m trying to learn more about it, with the intent of growing some of my own food some day and purchasing more sustainable and locally grown food from community support agriculture (CSA) organizations and farmers’ markets. This year’s annual conference is coming up for the group and the focus is “Finding Profit Through Biodiversity”. Suck on that Monsanto! I will not be attending but I’ve perused the conference site and learned a bit about what’s going to be discussed. The conference will be held December 3rd through 5th in St. Paul, MN, so if you’re interested in agriculture and can make it, go already. From the Acres website:

The Acres U.S.A. Conference is the premier event nationwide for commercial-scale sustainable and organic agriculture. Several hundred eco-minded individuals from around the world gather together to tap the knowledge of some of agriculture’s brightest minds.

Also from the site is a list of the main topics that will be discussed:

  • Pastured Pork Production
  • Organic Certification
  • Biodynamic (Demeter) Certification
  • Activism 101
  • Resources for Minnesota Sustainable Farmers
  • Raw Materials Economics
  • Raw Milk Production & Sales
  • Reams-Method Agronomy
  • Understanding Recent Food Safety Legislation

The event sounds like a good time but I have a day job. The irony is that my day job will actually be taking me to the Twin Cities soon after this conference. Oh well. On a side note, Reams-Method Agronomy is almost as innocently dirty as “tea cupping” . . . almost.

Slow Words, Slower Traffic

My writing pace has slowed considerably but I’ve allotted some time this weekend to catch up on my novel. I crossed the 14,000 word mark last night but should really be somewhere north of 20,000. A short work trip earlier this week really skunked it for me. That being said, the novel is progressing better than expected. The plot is coming together and feels neither formulaic nor trite, yet. I need to keep the momentum going though as Thanksgiving and its associated activities will surely lessen my production. 50,000 here I come.

While on my business trip earlier this week to our fair neighbor to the north, Chicago, I made a terrible, terrible mistake. I took a taxi from downtown to Midway airport when trying to get out of town and got every bit of the torture I deserved for not using public transit. To make sure you understand the stupidity of my decision I should also tell you I lived in the Chicago area for five years and know exactly how to use the City’s transit system. The trip took over 45 minutes as well, a good quarter-hour longer than the train would have taken.Traffic was unbelievably bad and I was made car sick by the constant stop and go. If you think I’m exaggerating about getting sick you would be wrong. I posted my mistake on Facebook and within hours was chided by friends and family for the dumbness of my decision but was also provided with stories of people actually having to pull over and vomit during the very same trip.

If anyone in the Chicago area is looking for business ideas I think selling saltine crackers (or something stronger) on the side of the Highway 55 South would net you at least $100,000 a year. If you’d rather not pace up and down a highway, perhaps you’d fancy opening a brake shop. One thing I know is that a tremendous amount of gasoline is burnt unnecessarily when traffic is jammed. This is the brilliance of eletric/gas hybrid technology. While it’s only a bridge to the future of individual transportation, which is pure electric automobiles, it helps reduce the massive waste of fuel and wear and tear on engines caused by idling.

One Hundred One Hundreds and Tea

I busted through the 10,000 mark last night for NaNoWriMo with one arm at my side and the other pointed at the sky in a fist. Superman would have been proud. I made some progress toward 11,000 this morning before work as well. Not sure I’ll hit my 12,000 goal for today with a busy afternoon planned and poker on the agenda to cap the evening.

I also realized I never gave the reader(s?) a summary of the tea cupping I attended. Well, the wait is over. On the 28th of October my brother, his wife, my wife and I attended a “tea cupping” at The London Tea Room, which incidentally is in St. Louis, many many miles from London. The place is great and was opened by English immigrants to the States. Visit it often. The Veggie Sandwich is amazing, but I’d recommend only getting the half-sized portion.

Here’s what I learned about tea that night, in no particular order. Most tea, no matter the type, comes from the same plant. When it’s picked and how long it’s allowed to oxidize gives it different tastes, colors and health benefits. A few less common types of tea do come from a different species of plant. On to the line up – here’s what we sampled:

Black- The London Tea Room blend – black tea is heavily oxidized and this particular tea is a specially created blend for The London Tea Room. The tea was strong and very flavorful.

Green – Jasmine Dragon Tears – this tea is actually used to be made from tears collected from a dragon. Now it’s made from the same plant as black tea but is not oxidized. Instead, it is steamed immediately after picking. This variety had a pleasant aroma. It was much weaker than the black tea but still very good. The jasmine is a bit overwhelming to the palette if you’re not a big fan of floral accents.

Oolong- Iron Goddess of Mercy – this was my favorite tea we tasted. It’s slightly oxidized and had a very clean, pure taste. It tasted very “Asian”, was very smooth and virtually no fruitiness.

White – Plum Berry White – white tea comes from a much less common tea plant. It only grows at a particular elevation and is only picked a few days a year. It used to be reserved for royalty, and given its price, may still be. The tea plant smelled like hookah tobacco . It was aromatic and fruity. My sister-in-law commented on how it tasted like warm juice.

Rooibos- Blueberry Rooibos – rooibos tea comes from a different plant than the four teas discussed above. This variety was very berry-licious. Rooibos contains no caffeine and is apparently good for people with allergies. It’s also from South Africa, which is one of the few regions outside India and China that tea grows well.

Herbal / Tisane- Tangerine Ginger – so I have to admit I’ve felt duped. Apparently herbal “teas” are not teas at all, at least not in the traditional sense. Most herbal teas have no tea leaves in them, but are combinations of plants and herbs and additives that are used to flavor hot water. Since these beverages are made through steeping, they’ve been called teas. This particular “tea” was a little dry and had a strange aftertaste but was good. It probably would have been better iced, which a few people noted.

In addition to tasting the teas, the host gave us more history on the varieties and tea in general. A small plate with the loose tea for each one we tasted was passed around with each pouring so we could see it in its raw form and give it a good whiff. The entire experience only cost us $10, which was well worth it.

I doubt I’ll get a post written this weekend as I’ll be concentrating on NaNoWriMo. Hopefully I’ll come to you next week with news of my progress. Two hundred one hundreds here I come!

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

I crossed 8,000 words last night. Congratulations to me! Just kidding, but having a deadline sure is helpful. I’m restructuring my days to make sure I have time to hit 2,000 words. Plus, I’ve gained a little confidence in the direction of the story itself, which is helping. Whenever I attempted to write anything in the past, as soon as I had decided on the plot, I would immediately feel like the story was old and predictable. I always had difficulty understanding how someone could remain energized about writing a story to which they knew the ending. The reason being that I would constantly imagine the reader having the same knowledge, or that every word they’d read up to that point was obviously pointing to a very predictable conclusion. Does that make sense? I’m slowly coming to terms with this and getting better at separating the writer / reader roles.

There were some surprises in the elections held around the country yesterday. The New York ones were most fascinating to me. Inspite spending almost twenty times the amount of money has his opponent, Michael Bloomberg only received 52% of the vote in NYC. He won another term but the results were a slap in the face to someone who expected to win by 20 points. Further upstate a seat held by Republicans since the Civil War (when Republicans weren’t of the scary variety they are today) was lost to a Democrat due to infighting in the Grand Ol’ Party. Elsewhere, Democrats lost a couple of governorships. The big news locally was that umbrella smoke-free legislation passed for St. Louis County and St. Louis City. These laws have some pretty ridiculous loopholes in them, and this is where the best news comes in. Given the overwhelming support for this health initiative, some of the original opponents of the legislation are now joining forces with unlikely partners like the American Cancer Society to remove the exemptions, which mostly apply to small bars and casinos. Pro-smoking advocates realize their position is weak so they’re now working to make the playing field level, which is commendable and best for everyone.

The weather looks great going into the weekend so I hope to do some of my travel this weekend via scooter. And my wife and I will be planting a tree tomorrow. Her friends got her a tree for her birthday earlier this year and tomorrow’s the day it goes in the ground. We all have enough stuff, so this was a fabulous idea, tear-inducing in fact. For her, not me. Grrrrr, me likey tofu dogs and recycling, me manly, me no cry.

Is it November Already?

I’m approaching 4,000 words after a day and half of writing with “literary abandon”. The development of my plot is taking on a life of its own, which is great since I didn’t think the story through that much prior to beginning. The write-in at the St. Louis Bread Co. in Clayton on Sunday was well-attended. Seemed like a significant number of people were working on science fiction stories. I’m basing this conclusion solely on appearance and the extremely loud tangential conversations I overheard, over the already loud music piping out of my headphones. Anywho, onward and upward. I’m registered as “viharsheth” on NaNoWriMo.org if you want to be writing buddies.

The weak-but-better-than-nothing smoke-free legislation for St. Louis County, and indirectly St. Louis City, will be on the ballot on Tuesday, which is tomorrow people so get your asses to the polls, but only if you’re voting for the ban. If not, stay home and smoke a pack, or two!

I dressed up as a doctor for Halloween, and not any old doctor. I was the one and only Sanjay Gupta, M.D., neurosurgeon and CNN Chief Medical Correspondent. I only realized today I should have gone as something more “green”, like global warming, an oil spill, or a compact fluorescent light bulb. I promise to put more effort into it next year. I could get a lot of bang for my buck if I went as something like this and attending a GOP-sponsored Halloween party. Gotta raise awareness people! If only . . .

Myself, More Sustainable

I’ve made progress on the plot of my soon-to-be-written blitz of a novel. I’m trying not to think of it too much as recommended by previous NaNoWriMo participants and the founder of the whole torturous exercise so as to not become overwhelmed by details. ‘nuf said, else I’ll be overwhelmed by details.

Took a minor road trip from work today to visit the site of a new project I’m working on. The location, while decent in and of itself, is so incredibly far from the center of the city that it blows my mind people live there. We drove by entire other cities to get to this place, and if you asked people there where they were they would have said St. Louis. Bullshit, you are not in St. Louis.

As you can see, I’m trying to be freer in verse.

The best news from a sustainability perspective I’ve heard all week is that Fisker Automotive is going to build an eletric car facility. It will be in Delaware . . . did I mention it will be a facility that builds electric cars?! I suppose the screen door factor was losing its luster. I kid . . .

I’m going with a few people (wife and others) to a tea cupping tonight. Man alive that sounds dirty. Numerous people have commented that it might as well be called a tea bagging. “NO!” I say. One definition of tea bagging is very sexual in connotation and the other has to do with the demonstrations of conservative wing nuts, who for some reason could not think of a better name for their ill-conceived protests. Tea cupping, if you don’t know, and I didn’t until I read about it, is a tea tasting. Hopefully I learn a little somethin’ somethin’.

I’m enjoying the new free form green | rising. The underlying theme of what I post will still be sustainability but with less focus on the science and policy of it. One of the many definitions of sustainability I’ve read reads, “to keep up or keep going, as an action or process”. In the most general interpretation of the word, this applies to everything and everyone, from society to myself. The NaNoWriMo endeavor I’m about to embark counts toward this. Writing a book is something I’ve always wanted to try, and by making an effort (and hopefully succeeding), I will be making my own life more sustainable through risk taking, accomplishment and perhaps even failure.

National Novel Writing Month

It’s been six weeks since my last post. Sorry. I’m trying to get motivated to continue this blog in its current form and I’m not sure that’s possible, at least at this point. More on that in a future post I hope. I’m planning now for a new writing project, albeit a temporary one. I’m going to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) which starts on November 1, 2009 and lasts until you hit 50,000 words or the calendar flips to December 1, 2009, whichever comes first. If you want to learn more, check out this website: http://www.nanowrimo.org.

Why NaNoWriMo? The entire concept of National Novel Writing Month is primarily to be motivated by a deadline, and secondarily to strive for a goal that’s very difficult to attain – writing 50,000 words in a month. Yikes. I’d heard about the endeavor before and had given it passing consideration earlier this year. As with my previous attempts at writing anything creative, it was fleeting. But, a few weeks back on the social cancer known as Facebook a friend asked if anyone was considering trying. I decided to man up and sign up.

Since we had the initial back and forth online, a few other friends have committed. I’ve joined the forums online and scheduled to attend the “write-in” parties that are planned periodically throughout the month.

I’ll be honest. I’m scared. Scared that I won’t succeed and scared that what I write will suck (which I’m learning it is supposed to). I’m not going to publish what I write here but I will publish updates on how it’s going, among other things related to sustainability – the original theme of green | rising. The funny thing is that I see this project as contributing to my own sustainability in a way, making discussion of it quite appropriate for this site. Stay tuned.

Big Food vs. Big Insurance

I know I’ve been quiet lately – duty calls. Regardless, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please read this editorial by Michael Pollan in The New York Times.

Big Food vs. Big Insurance

The piece offers an very easy to understand explanation of the true dilemma we face. Forward it to your friends. Forward it to your friends’ friends . . . and then to their relatives.

Have a good weekend.