The light that shines during the darkest of times

In the midst of mass tragedy it feels as though there has been an endless stream of darkness.  The names of events rattle from my memory faster than I can fathom.  During college it felt like there were but a few events that stood out over a number of years: Oklahoma City, Atlanta 1996, and Columbine.  9/11 changed that and the pace seemed to get quicker.  Now there is Aurora, Sandy Hook, San Bernardino, Va Tech, Oakland, Orlando, Las Vegas, Barcelona, Paris, London, and the list grows.  I don't want my boys to live in fear that something terrible is around the corner.  I don't want to live in fear of where we can go and be safe.  I want us to know that in spite of the darkness that seems to envelope us there is a brighter light that shines during those times.  There are those that will run in as others run out.  Afterwards no matter what differences people may have they share the same yearning to help and do whatever needs to be done.  I want to raise boys that will stand up and not stand back.  

The Laws of Physics

A storytelling podcast we like to listen to, The Moth, poses questions to it's audience before their live storytelling events.  One of the recent podcasts had the question, "what would you change if you could suspend the laws of physics for one day?"  

I would allow myself to 'scrub' backward through time as though my life were a movie.  Obviously you can't work forward since it hasn't happened, but I would like to see with an experienced eye the moments of my past.  Most of all though I want to know what my first conscious and unconscious thoughts were.  When did they take place?  If you don't have a language what do you think?  Do our thoughts take place as images?  I wonder what an unborn baby that has no images to references thinks of.  If the memory has not been developed then what does one think about? In order to understand oneself one has to start at the beginning.  

Life experiences

The other day I was thinking about experiences I have had in life that in would want the boys to have. I decided to make a list of these with the full understanding that not completing this list in no way signifies an incomplete life. I may even include items on here that I have yet to experience with the hope that when I do I can share them with the boys.

-Travel by yourself to a destination where you know no one.

-Get lost on your a trip and discover something unexpected.

-Cook something using one or more ingredients that you cultivated and grew.

-Create something with your hands.

-Create something with your mind (poem, song, story, etc.).

-Have your heart broken.

-Get a straight blade shave.

-Go to an enormous arena or stadium rock concert.

-Go to a small intimate concert.

-Go to the symphony.

That is all for now. I may return to add items as they come to me.

Living in a commercial

I had the good fortune of being invited to a 49ers game by a friend who has season tickets for the second regular season game in the new "Levi's Stadium".  There are signs all over touting the stadium as the most technologically advanced stadium in the country (arguably the world).  While the technology aspect was impressive what I found to be more interesting was that the stadium is LEED certified.  The LEED certification is not something that is really a fan experience or high visibility characteristic the way the technology or design aesthetics would be.  So overall the stadium felt somewhat hollow and devoid of character.  It reminded me of the gorgeous renovated homes on Billionaire's Row in San Francisco when compared to some of the older homes nearby.  Character vs modern design.  

All of these complaints aside the biggest problem I had was the overwhelming amount of advertisements.  They have sold off the rights to every nook and cranny of that facility.  There is the 501 Club, the Citrix Owner's Club, the Bud Light Patio, the Pepsi Patio, the Niners Yodel (courtesy of Yahoo), and the list goes on.  I'm surprised that my bathroom experience was not sponsored by Quilted Northern, Jurgens, and Lysol.  In years past stadium fans were not subjected to the advertisements that the tv viewers were from commercials, but that has shifted and now stadium fans experience even more.  There is no sign of this trend reversing and I guess I will just go along for the ride.  

CSI Colusa

My morning was off to a relatively easy start and then I got the phone call.  "Did you see the photo I sent you?"  My construction supervisor called me from the field at 830 to see if I received his text message photo.  I had not.  When I checked it I had no idea what I was looking at.  It looked like a stone cylinder so I asked what it was. When you work in construction there are certain words you never want to get a call about.  The obvious one is accident.  Then there are less obvious ones such as 'artifact'.  A harmless little stone cylinder?  No.  An artifact.  That means that an archaeologist has to be called to the site.  Upon arriving an hour or so later the archaeologist finds the remains of a human skull.  Another word you don't want to hear about, 'remains.'  After further investigation it turns out that abalone shells were discovered and these are common as part of a burial ritual.  It now seems we have unintentionally unearthed at the least a Native American burial site and at the worst a Native American cemetery.  The latter is unlikely as we wouldn't have been allowed to dig there much less would a pipe have been allowed right through a cemetery.  That being said a single grave could be overlooked.  Later I received confirmation that the coroner and three detectives visited the site.  After it is determined that the remains are in fact old and not recent then another organization will try to find the modern descendants.  The modern descendants will likely want formal reburial and then we never revisit that site again.  And that is how my morning was derailed.    

I was that guy

Arriving at the airport with an hour to spare I was informed at the gate that I could take an earlier flight if I wanted.  I took the boarding pass and went to grab some food.  The gate agent told me that flight would leave at 130 and I wasn't too far from the gate.  While waiting on my food they announced final boarding for my flight.  As soon as my food arrived I ran to the gate and boarded.  I figured with open boarding and being so late I would be stuck with a middle seat in the back.  Instead I boarded a flight with no more than 30 people.  Every person had their own row and there were still a dozen or more rows empty.  

I settled into a spot and then looked at my fresh out of the oven steaming hot pizza.  I was starving, but I also didn't want to be 'that guy'.  There are few things worse than being in a non restaurant space (office, bus, airplane, etc.) with someone eating hot aromatic food.  I don't care if I love the food and it smells great or if it is week old fish it sucks.  My coworkers used to regularly cook bacon and it was horrible.  Flashback to the present and I am that guy.  I devoured the pizza as fast as I could with the air vents blasting me in hopes of diffusing the smell.  I don't know if it bothered anyone, but I was quite annoyed with myself.  

Not your ordinary science fair

Growing up my perception of the science fair was homemade volcanoes that would erupt a red mixture of baking soda and vinegar.  I don't remember if I took part in them, but this is what I imagined the projects would be like.  Until last week that was still my perception and then I spent two days at the Intel Science Fair in Los Angeles as a judge.  My perception has officially been shattered.  These high schoolers are the ones that you read about it the news as developing new cures to diseases or working on sequencing the genome.  The projects that I saw were so far beyond me that I had a hard time understanding what they were even doing.  You can read about the winners online and that's as easy as a Google search.  However, there were two things that I really enjoyed the simple elegant projects that were based on a simple concept and the passion of the students about what they were doing.  

One student proposed a design for a turbine to sit in the median of a highway and using the wind generated by passing cars it would power the lights on the highway.  He didn't design the whole thing, but he measured the wind speeds at different heights and proposed his idea for the amount of power such winds would generate.  It was such a simple concept and idea.  

I also met four individuals presenting three separate projects whose collective enthusiasm will stay with me forever.  One boy was from India, another was from Sri Lanka, and the two girls were from Utah.  They didn't all speak English as their first language but they clearly spoke a common language.  When they were all telling me about their projects they were literally dancing with excitement.  They shared the same look, the same tone, and the same passion.  It was beautiful to see and bear witness to.  Three of the four one prizes for their projects and I hope that all four will continue to pursue this passion.