Month: March 2014

Categories
Julia Shorts

To Adventure

My cousin and I have crashed a tandem bicycle, fortunately in the grass.

We once built a raft out of an old ladder we found in the woods behind our grandparents’ house, rope from jump ropes, old pieces of wood from a rotting tree house some other kids, long grown-up had abandoned, and materials from our grandparents garage that we got in trouble for later. Huckleberry Finn-style we slaved away in the mud at the bank of the creek, thinking maybe it would lead us somewhere great. When we scooted it into the water holding our breath, we were amazed it floated. The only problem was the creek was a foot and a half deep, maybe two. So when we climbed aboard with our snacks for the journey, it dipped slightly and came to a rest on the creek-bed. We were mad, and then we got found-out and got in trouble for stealing things from the garage we shouldn’t have and for trying to float down a dirty creek to “god-knows where”.

Earlier than that, she had two Pocahontas costumes, double gifted to her on her birthday, and we would wear them – running around her house playing and riding in our “canoe” – her toddler brother’s wooden rocking boat.

Once we were hard core and camped outside in her backyard when it got down to around freezing at night, Minnesota spring isn’t a joke. We made it but not without extra blankets. When we were a little older we camped for real, in tents for a week with her dad and his girlfriend. That’s where we crashed the tandem bike.

I think we scarred a childhood friend of hers for life when we barrel-rolled over one another and skipped like pebbles across the water in our life jackets as he watched in horror from the saftey of the Malibu boat of her neighbor, who was taking us tubing at warp speed.

In a more recent winter we played ice hockey with our younger siblings, the black of the lake in the ice beneath our feet.

Back in the day we skied together in ski school groups for spring breaks in Vail and squealed in delighted horror as we went tubing down the mountainside at night.

Getting out and having an adventure with the nature around you. Somehow I lost some of that as we both grew up and I’d like to get it back. Running is great, and running on the lake is gorgeous. But I want to believe a raft will float us away. I want to marvel at the back-bowls when I make it to the top of the mountain. I didn’t need elaborate trips out of the country then to find adventure, and I shouldn’t need them (and can’t afford them) now.

My cousin has found a way to hang on to that adventure, mixing it in with her daily life and the work she does.

May I let that, and our memories together inspire me to find more of it around me.

J.

 

 

 

 

Categories
Alternative Energy Technology

Palm Springs Wind Mill Farm

view from about 100 feet away

This past weekend I went to the Palm Springs Wind Mill Farm with my Father and older sister….. it was amazing!

In general I love alternative energy more than the average bear. More accurately I’ve been obsessed with learning all that I can about how solar panels and wind mills work since as long as I can remember. At some point in my life I plan on owning large scale wind generators and possibly a large scale solar power plant (provided that I can figure out how to build a more efficient solar panel).

One thing that gets lost on most people (me included) is just how large these wind mills are:

view from about 100 feet away
view from about 100 feet away

As you can see from the image above these turbines are massive. Each blade weighs 8 metric tons (a metric tone is 240 pounds heaver than our version). With such a big blade they are able to turn an astonishingly large gear (average gear box weighs 45,000 pounds). Turning such a large gear allows the turbines to generate impressive amounts of power. The turbines at Palm Springs are some of the largest in the world, and currently the major limiting factor to their size is actually our interstate system. Our turbins have outgrown our interstate system, all of the parts must be small enough to be shipped under an overpass which limits them to under 14 feet 3 inches. There are plans to build even larger turbines at offshoar facilities like the the cap cod wind mill farm

Some Stats about the Palm Springs Farm and wind power in general:

-there are over 2,800 mills in operation at palm springs farm, with an average 98% up time. That stat is a little confusing though, it just means that the turbines are in service 98% of the time, not that they are generating power 98% of the time. In fact the wind is blowing hard enough for the turbines to generate power only 38% of the time.
-the new generation wind turbines can generate enough power to run 900 average house holds
-the obama administration commited the us to a goal of generating 20% of our nations power from wind by 2030 (a great goal that I think should be made even more ambitions)
-1 service technician services on average 10 wind mills per month (think there will be some job grown in this sector?? currently we generate less than 2% of our power from wind, upping this to 20% will create several hundred thousand jobs in this sector)
-1 wind mill can generate more power than 500 typical solar panels
-the largest GE turbines at palm springs cost 6 million dollars to build and assemble

Categories
Inspirational Julia

Good Morning

I woke up today and went to a 6am yoga class, stopped for a coffee on the way home and had time to make my breakfast and lunch. Feeling stretched and energized and ready to take on the day.

Thought I’d also start my day with one of my favorite quotes, that a dear friend wrote in a journal she presented me before I left on my study-abroad adventure back in college.

“Like shrinks or expands, in proportion to one’s courage.”

Too true.

J.

Categories
Inspirational

Its All Your Choice

This is a short article I enjoy reading from time to time to help re-enforce my decision making process. The daily grind of negativity from society can weigh on you and its important to remember simple lessons like this:

Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two

choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or ..

you can choose to be in a bad mood

I choose to be in a good

mood.’

Each time something bad happens,

I can choose to be a victim or…I can choose to learn

from it. I choose to learn from

it.

Every time someone comes to me

complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining

or… I can point out the positive side of life. I

choose the positive side of life.’

‘Yeah, right,

it’s not that easy,’ I protested.

‘Yes, it is,’ he said. ‘Life is

all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every

situation is a choice. You choose how you react to

situations. You choose how people affect your

mood.

You choose to be

in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It’s your

choice how you live your life.

Categories
Inspirational Julia

What Grad School Taught Me

Of all the classes that I took about adolescent social work, community building, social change on a policy level, Board governance and volunteer management, from teachers with insane resumes and books in their name; what grad school taught me most was how to breathe.

I won’t belittle my own intelligence or the amount of money I spent to attend a prestigious university (with such smart people running the place, you would think your graduate experience wouldn’t cost more than your earning potential in said field…but i digress). I did in fact learn a lot more about being an effective therapist and learned how to best meet a client where they stand, not forcing them to conform to your agenda. But the thing that I carry with me and use daily, now that I am not in a direct service role and in my personal life (especially in my personal life), is breathing.

My first semester of grad school, after having taken a year off to decide if I was really going to do it, left me feeling inept and unsure of my ability to do the work. I was so stressed and my body felt stressed, to the point of discomfort while I was sitting in class or working. One evening in a  debriefing class used to augment our field practicums (internships) my instructor passed out an article about self care. Breathing was No.2 on the list of ways to care for yourself and your body.

Even if you aren’t losing it in graduate school (I did settle down eventually, and kick-ass at getting that MSW behind my name, in case your wondering) maybe you are working in your first job post graduation ,or you have been working for years and are facing a job transition, or your kids are driving you nuts, maybe you are having an easy go of things at the moment except this one work project (and boss) that is driving you nuts…try this:

sit still.
zone out.
maybe close your eyes if you feel like it.
breathe in through your nose with your mouth shut.
big, until your lungs hurt and your stomach is sticking out.
then, slowly release your breath through your mouth, until your stomach scrunches up with the effort of pushing out the air.
Repeat, 3-4 times.

All that oxygen makes you realize the speed at which you’ve been hurtling around your world. Makes you realize the stress you have been holding between your shoulders. those seconds, just breathing, lowers your heart rate, stops the thoughts scrolling and slows things down to a manageable level.

How often did I think about my breathing before the self-care article? Little to none.
Now, I try to remember to take at least a set of three deep breaths a day. This helps me realize that I am even feeling tense as my body relaxes. It also gives me perspective and sometimes clarity.

Try it, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

J.

Categories
Inspirational

1 Speech that makes me believe in God (kind of)

Sometimes I really love to start my day listening to an MLK speech.  I am not a particularly religious person.  I do however consider myself very spiritual…… and for those of you out there that say that is a cop out and I need to commit to believing in God or not believing in God please hit ALT F4 now, stop trying to force your religion on me and everyone else you see, besides if you thought that your probably the type of person who trolls people for using condoms or for being gay so I don’t have any interest in talking to you.

Back to one of my favorite videos of all time.  This is MLK’s last speech.  And right around the 1:30  mark it starts to get pretty amazing (and also kind of spooky).   If you look closely at his eyes during this portion of the speech, when he talks about living a long life, and about going up to the mountain top to look over at the promise land…. I swear it looks like he is looking directly at “GOD” or at least at a place that the rest of us can not see…. regardless of your religious affiliation take 3 minutes out of your day and watch this video… its fucking great.