Monthly Archives: March 2009
Freelance and Salsa
I wish I knew more about the world of freelance writing, especially how to jump into it. I’ve been doing some research, checking out freelance-austin.org and similar sites. There seems to be a lot of other websites dealing with the connection process between job and freelancer, for a fee of course. freelance-austin seems to be the most unique I’ve found, and their “find a freelancer” page is a particularly nice touch, but I wonder how far I’d get with that.
There are a lot of people on that page. Keyword “grant” pulls up six people, some with 10+ years of experience. I have to question exactly what that means in today’s world though. If, with the way technology changes and evolves, an “experienced” worker is really the best bet. It looks like experience strongly correlates to a lack of web design skills. Maybe a fresh, young, technically savvy, and up-to-date perspective is the ticket to eclipsing my lack of experience. I guess we’ll see.
Given the economic slump, the freelance market might be my best bet. Companies and organizations still have projects that need to be done. Instead of paying regular employees, workers who require additional expenses like an office, a dedicated HR department, health insurance, retirement plans and other benefits, they can contract work from an external source. My only requirement for productivity is a cup of coffee.
Enough of those ramblings though. They help me to conceptualize things, but they’re probably not too interesting for you, and they’re definitely not getting me a job. I rode my bicycle yesterday for the first time in 2+ weeks. It was especially windy outside, and I didn’t make it any easier on myself by going to the hills out west. Regardless, it felt great to be back. Physically, the first ride back after a prolonged period of time off always feels oddly good. I always feel strong. The second ride is another story altogether – that’s when the time off hits me. But mentally, the first ride back is what brings me back every time. The freedom, the air, the wind on my face – I can’t get away from it.
I made salsa yesterday. It was an inspired mission. I cruised through the neighborhood to the Fiesta Mart – our large Mexican supermarket in East Austin, because they have the largest selection of peppers. Spending a total of $5.36, I headed home with a messenger bag full of fresh produce – 1.5 pounds of tomatoes, a poblano pepper, jalapeños, onion, dried ancho chiles, fresh cilantro, and such – and some corn chips. I chopped, roasted a few jalapeños on the stove, chopped some more, then hit it all with the stick blender. Now I have enough fresh salsa to last me quite a while.
I go back to work today, which is good, because I probably need some money.
Gatesville
I had a pretty fantastic weekend. My dad drove up from Edinburg, TX (about five hours south of Austin, near Mexico), picked me up on Friday night, before continuing North to Gatesville, TX (about an hour North-west of Austin). He grew up in Gatesville, TX. His father landed there during his long career in the Army, and, similar to my relationship with Wichita Falls, TX, Gatesville is where he spent the formative years of his childhood. His family lives in Gatesville – his parents, and his younger brother Eric, with his young family. Eric has a kid under his wing, Kyle, who just turned six this past weekend.
The plan was to go camping on my grandpa’s land near Gatesville for Kyle’s birthday. Unfortunately, a cold front blew into Central Texas on Friday, sending weekend overnight temperatures to near freezing – just a little too cold for the young one’s to tolerate on a first camping trip. So we stayed at Eric’s place instead, grilling lots of food and catching up with one another. My dad and I don’t make our way to Gatesville as often as we should, so when we do, catching up on things is usually the first objective.
Eric always seems to have a peculiar way of entertaining people. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he’s materialistic, but he does take a lot of pride in what he has. His property. His workshop complete with a man-tastic “apartment”, where the guys meet each week to play poker, and where guests move in when visiting. I don’t think I spent more than 10 minutes in his actual house in my day and a half there. He cooked in the “apartment”, the birthday party was hosted in the workshop, and I slept out there too. It was all quite odd in retrospect. It’s not that we weren’t welcome in the normal house, we definitely were. I just think he wanted to showcase his hand-built and personally designed second space.
I came back to Austin late yesterday morning, after Eric cooked us breakfast in the workshop apartment. I had some coffee with my dad before he left for home, and then hung out at home for a lazy Sunday. On a whim, I completely reworked the software on my laptop, deciding to go back to the KDE world. It’s definitely changed since I last dabbled with the desktop environment, but I like it a lot so far. It’s quite different from the KDE of old, and a significant departure from what I’m used to. My “desktop” is now home to an interactive collection of useful “widgets”, and I can launch, see, or input anything I need to without really opening any other application. I like it.
Speaking of technical things, I also started up Twitter again, and hope to stay consistent with it this time. You can see my feed on the left – let these updates entertain you when I don’t have time to form complete sentences.
I’m off work until tomorrow at 2:00pm, and I want to get some decent progress made on the job search between now and then. Before that though, I want to get back on the bicycle. That’s the next step…
A Nearly Perfect Neighborhood
The past two days I’ve been filling the role of “trainer” at work, passing along enough cycling product knowledge to two of my co-workers for them to be relatively confident if they ever need to sell them. It was a good way to switch up my typical workday a bit, and let me show off a few of my talents as a teacher and my mind muscles a little bit. I love to talk about cycling. Industry innovations. Mechanics. Bio-mechanics. Training. Racing. Riding with cars. Riding to work. All of it. Doing it all day is really a good gig for me.
My bedroom at home looks like a parachute hanger and smells like a campfire. After neglecting the task for a few days, my tent body and fly is now drying, suspended from the ceiling fan and a second hook on my ceiling. Packing a wet tent leads to mildew, which is impossible to remove from the fabric, smells bad, and breaks down the waterproofing. For someone who spends as much money as I do on gear, and expects it to preform in pretty demanding situations, drying a tent is should be a no-brainer task. I can’t believe I waited as long as I did this time around…
The need to leave my block of Austin is continuing to decrease. My local coffeeshop just installed six more beer taps, and with the exception of Lonestar, they’re all connected to some really fantastic beers. My favorite local hefe, and Real Ale’s coffee porter both get me salivating. I can walk to delicious tacos, good coffee, free wifi, one snazzy restaurant, a nice park, and now, the best brews in Austin. If we had a locally sourced organic grocer over here, my neighborhood would be complete.
Speaking of good beer, the Gingerman re-opened in downtown Austin two nights ago, and I was on-site to check things out with a few friends of mine. It’s definitely not the Gingerman of old, but I kind of liked the place. It was quiet enough to have a conversation, but loud enough to be lively. We set up shop on a couch and a few lounge chairs in the corner of the bar. I like couches with my beer.
We seemed to cover the job/life laments that are becoming more and more common amongst my 20-something friends. How the poor “economy” – that none can really relate to their immediate life, touch or see – is suppressing our opportunities as incredibly well-educated college graduates. All of us hold in common this never-ending urge to get away, an urge to change things up. Yet, at the same time, we’re also bound to an imperfect existence, where the woes of society – bills, social standing, expectations from mom and dad, etc – make us apprehensive of fulfilling our desires.
The rain and storms of the morning seem to have burned off now, and I want to go ride my bike in the sunshine. Enjoy your weekends – I’ll be camping again near Gatesville, TX with my extended family. Should be fun.
Vacation Recap
I’ve returned to civilization safely, with my health intact and my mind rejuvenated. The woods treated us quite well for the most part, only deviating just enough to remind us of our place within it all, pushing our comfort zones a little bit. I was able to reflect about my life and the direction I want to take it. The woods were so quiet; and beyond the necessities – food, shelter, warmth – I could finally remove all of my auxiliary concerns and focus my mind on the things I really care about.
The trip started early. Ollie, our man with the transportation, picked me up at 5:00am. After circling around south Austin searching for Rami and Emily, we finally pointed the Toyota Tacoma north just before the clock hit 6:00. Conditions were cramped. The extended cab of the truck didn’t provide much leg room for Emily and I in the backseat. The bed of the truck was completely filled with our packs and Ollie’s world of stuff – he hadn’t “packed” the night before, he just threw everything he might pack into the truck. Thankfully our things were protected from the rain and storms we’d be driving through all day by his camper shell. It was a cold drive up though thanks to a missing rear window…
After a stop at a roadside winery in Oklahoma, we arrived in Fort Smith, Arkansas to pick up Eric. He’d been on a Greyhound for the last day and a half, starting in Rochester, NY. We grabbed some burgers on the town’s unexpectedly pretty main street, then headed out to the Dockerys Gap trail-head, to make camp where we’d start our hike the next morning. Through back roads, dirt roads, and forest service roads – now with five in the tiny truck – we somehow managed to find our destination after another 45 minutes of driving. The first night at camp was an eventful one. I brought a box of wine (4 bottles) to hike with, and Emily bought one in Oklahoma. We decided to not carry the weight in our packs as the campfire was burning, so between three of us we consumed it all. The hike hadn’t even started yet, but with my old friend Eric by my side, and the great company of Emily, Ollie and Rami, I was already having a great time.
It rained that night and hiking day one started wet. My gear preformed remarkably well the entire trip from start to finish, keeping me dry and relatively comfortable. On the other hand, Emily’s tent was unfortunately less than waterproof. We were headed to White Rock mountain, eight miles through the woods. It was cold and rainy all day. The ups and downs of the trail clashed with our heavy packs (packs get lighter over time, as you eat food), making things difficult. We did manage to make it to our destination, just too late and too tired to do anything but set up tents, cook dinner, and fall asleep.
We cut the second day of hiking short by a few miles. My fellow hiker’s bodies were a little sore after the first day, and after another moist night at White Rock, the free afternoon would let us dry out our gear a bit. The day turned out to be beautiful, and the hiking relatively gentle. We went seven miles to Spirits Creek, my personal top choice for scenic spots along the trail. Our campsite was well established, close to the creek, with a nice fire ring. Upstream from our campsite, the creek goes into a small canyon of small waterfalls more beautiful than I can describe. Eric and I walked up there to play around. I stood under a waterfall, arms stretched out, with all my rain gear on. I’m sure that will be my new favorite picture of me when I see it in a few days.
Before we left our work, we outfitted these two really great guys with all their gear, and they were planning on hiking the same trail the same time we were. They intersected us at Spirits Creek that evening, and would hike with us for the next two days. It was great having them around. Day three we hiked to the next big water source, Fane Creek, and made camp with our new friends from Austin. The night was cold and especially moist. I brought an ultra-light 40 degree sleeping bag. While I could wear all my clothes to bed and sleep in relative comfort for most of the trip, that particular night I was really chilly.
The next day all but Rami decided the Fane Creek campsite on the opposite side of the creek was too good to leave, so we decided to stay put and take some time off the trail. Rami hiked ahead, but was turned around by a wildfire and met us back at the Fane Creek camp that evening. That day was beautifully sunny, and our home in the pine trees was a palace of the backcountry. I washed clothes, my gear was clean and completely dry by mid-day, and we spent the afternoon lounging in the shade. We took the next day off as well to do more of the same.
Day five we turned around and headed back to Spirits Creek. It rained again the night before, and the day started wet. I hiked ahead of the group, alone, for most of the day. Besides the birds and a grey fox, the woods were empty and I was able to do some really deep thinking. I was alone in the world, carefree, and the feeling was heavenly. Our camp that evening was nestled in between the waterfalls Eric and I visited a few days before. Waterfront property that could quiet even the most restful of minds.
Day six took us back to White Rock, where we camped on top of the mountain again. Eric’s exceptionally heavy pack and lack of backpacking experience finally caught up with his knees, and the climb up White Rock left him in really bad shape. It was windy and cold on the ridge, and I pitched my tent to accommodate. I could have been safe and secure on Everest that night. We hiked to the very top of White Rock, the highest elevation in the area, at sunset, and caught some spectacular views. We speculated if it would storm as we sat around the campfire that night, me secretly hoping it would, and Emily with her fingers crossed that it wouldn’t. I won.
We had the hardest rain of the trip that night, with lightning off in the distance and some pretty decent winds. Emily was fed up, and packed things up before sunrise. I was up early too, like usual, anxious to get hiking and to get back to the car. Emily and I left before the rest of the group, as the rain came down around us. We hiked fast and consistently, spanning the eight miles and reaching the car after about three hours. It rained the whole way. A few hours later the rest of the group arrived, but without their packs, which they left at a road intersection in order to ease the strain on their legs. We navigated the forest service roads, and found their stuff with relative ease.
It was time to return to Fort Smith. We’d been dreaming about burgers and fries for the past few days on the trail, so we only had one destination in mind. We grabbed some beer and checked into the main street Days Inn for the night. Having hot water to shower in was a glorious thing after bathing in frigid mountain streams for the past week. Eric was glad he wouldn’t have to smell like a Greyhound traveler during his 35 hour bus trip back to NY, starting the next day, and the rest of us were glad we wouldn’t be smelling as bad during our cramped eight hour drive back to Austin.
And that’s where it all ends. Now I’m home, and I finally have a plot in my head for the next chapter of my life. I like to end/start things in big ways, and this trip certainly qualifies. I’ll try to post a few pictures in the next few days – I didn’t use my camera, but my fellow hikers definitely did… I have laundry to do, finances for the next two weeks to map out, and a bike calling my name. I hope you enjoyed reading – expect consistent, and probably shorter posts starting soon.
Gone Tomorrow
Sorry for my lack of recent writing. I was sick for a few days in a row, concentrating intensely on willing myself back to full health. In addition, the past seven days I’ve been putting in some long hours at work, bringing in some extra cash. Both of these efforts are centered around my foray into the Ozark forest, which I leave for in about 17 hours. I certainly won’t have the ability to blog out there, so I hope this post can sustain you until the 23rd.
I’ve been acquiring, packing, and modifying my hiking gear quite a bit in the past couple of days. The food component of it all was probably the most entertaining and time consuming. Repackaging food into little baggies; combining ingredients, like nine days of quick oats, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon; counting calories and caloric densities; and getting it all to fit in a small package. Nine days on the trail without a resupply is right on the brink of the realistic limits of a 50 liter pack, so keeping the form factor small is a very important point. Luckily, food is constantly decreasing with time, so while I may start full and “heavy”, by day four I’ll be light and compact.
The weather forecast has taken a turn for the better, prompting a few deviations from my original packing list. I’m bringing a lighter sleeping bag, and I pulled out an extra sweater. I’ll be hitting the trail with a little over 30 pounds on my back. The thought of it is starting to get me antsy.
I like to think of myself as a particularly philosophical backpacker. For me, going into the woods with all you need on your back is one of the best expressions of simplicity. It shows just how little you really need in this world. In the best book I’ve ever picked up – Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – the author explains the difference between what he calls the ego driven climber and his/her more sensible counterpart. The ego climber ascends laboriously, focusing only on the top while ignoring all details in the present – the feeling in their legs, each unique view between the trees, an interesting leaf, or the feeling of earth under their feet. Hiking for me is a mental exercise to live in the moment – being the anti-ego climber. It’s surprisingly easy to do, and equally cleansing at the same time, when the sensory overload and artificial stress of contemporary life is traded for remote wilderness and complete self reliance.
Nostalgia
I had a Sunday/Monday weekend this time around, and all-in-all, it was quite leisurely. Saturday at work was particularly long – we were incredibly understaffed for a Saturday, and had higher than expected customer demand. After that, I definitely needed a leisurely break.
I didn’t do much of anything on Sunday – I watched a few movies, walked around my neighborhood, thought about riding my bike (but didn’t), took a nap. The day was brilliantly unproductive. I haven’t had a day like that in a really long time. Monday was a little different. I still woke up later than usual, but I was out the door by 10:00am to ride my bicycle around. After dropping by my work to pick up some food – the single best product Clif has ever produced – I headed out west. My motivation lasted for two hours or so, then I turned towards home.
I had some vegetables to use up in my fridge, so I chopped and tossed them into a pot and cooked some soup – potato soup. It was ready by 5:30pm. I made plans for 7:00pm, so my timing was perfect. That evening I dropped by the Texas 4000 meeting; I usually work on Mondays, and haven’t been able to see the new team in this forum yet, so I was excited to be able to go. It was a good one to attend. A large number of riders and alumni all pitched in a few dollars to buy Chris Condit a new bike. Chris is the founder and current executive director for the organization, and, through his efforts, has been the facilitator for almost 300 incredibly talented people (including me) to do something way beyond their potential. We gave him his new bike last night – a pretty sweet gift by any measure. He deserves it.
In addition to being my first Texas 4000 meeting in a pretty long time, it was also my first time being back in a UT classroom since I graduated. It made me a little nostalgic. I was thinking back to when I used to run the Texas 4000 meetings, and then further back to when I used to sit uncomfortably in the plastic lecture hall chairs. I kind of miss UT, and have been thinking a lot about going back for graduate school. I was in school for 16 years straight, and then abruptly stopped, expecting to transition easily into something else. It’s been more difficult than I was expecting, and I’m not sure it’s the right thing for me to do yet.
In any rate, I’m going back to work in two hours, and should probably get moving on that short term objective before moving on my long-term life direction. Ozarks in 10 days!
