Silence (sort of)

Last night the power went out at our house, and our block and all the houses behind us for about two miles, but not our neighbors across the street. At first it was an exciting atmosphere, we lit candles, the reverse osmosis was running in the kitchen giving a nice trickle of water. And it felt like we were getting back to nature. Stripped of modern day electricity there wasn't anything running in the house, the way it was back in the old days.... But the reality was it was still 100 outside (even though it was 9 at night) and you could feel the heat pressing on building trying to enter in and destroy our solitude. While power going out maybe a peaceful, here you feel like you are on a spaceship that has lost power and it is just a matter of time before you run out of oxygen and die. Which is actually true here, for some people no electricity would be an actual matter of life and death. WE LIVE ON THE MOON. or might as well be.

But when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. I decided to go swimming in our backyard. It was so peaceful, no pool pump, none of my neighbors air conditioners, the water had an intensity that normally isn't there. You could hear the traffic from McClintock though and the high school too. It was further away, but a game and people cheering and pep bands playing doesn't count anyways. Those sounds are all powered by humans alone and have a different energy to them, since they can't just run in perpetuity forever, and since they are telling a story rather than a hum, it is beautiful. It's interesting to think how much noise and light pollution comes from electricity and fossil fuels. A lot.

Then I began to think more about my time here in Arizona and how we are already here past halfway! Really past halfway if I go to Buenos Aires next fall. How it's been such an interesting different experience it has made life glow in so many ways and brought new understandings. And that it is actually all been completely worth it. Many of my perceptions, understandings , and ideas about life have grown in leaps and bounds. School has sucked me in and spit me back out so many times I have a world of material to think about and a world of material to go explore. And all under the context of this place. It's so fascinating but sometimes you only really begin to understand it's complexity when you begin to view it with other outsiders that already retain the same impression as you...Adventures with people in our house. I'd say we could arguably have had people here living with us over a third of the time that we are here. All these experiences because our house is a pilgrimage out to the desert for all of us. A certain isolation and mystery, even if this city is large, if you can tune it out (which sometimes is very hard) and tap into the desert, or better yet tap into this question mark of a city, it really is an enigma to be explored. And with the constant tumbling of grad school this city is an enigma that I felt I have barely explored. I'm hoping in the future this will be much easier to accomplish with Ryan on his own adventures.

Then a truck starts creeping down the alley slowly and finally comes to stop right behind our house. I get out and run inside and peak out from the door. Some sort of truck to deal with the power outage. Two square miles of no power, and somehow the solution is right behind our backyard. Of course. This place. A little later the entire sky lights up green and then the power really goes out including my neighbors across the street and the high school. But only for a moment for them and it pops back on. Then a few minutes later our power goes on, and every single air conditioner, our pool pump, and of course our neighbors air compressor comes on. The magic is gone.

Silence (sort of)

Last night the power went out at our house, and our block and all the houses behind us for about two miles, but not our neighbors across the street. At first it was an exciting atmosphere we lit candles, the reverse osmosis was running in the kitchen giving a nice trickle. And it felt like we were getting back to nature. Stripped of modern day electricity there wasn't any thing running in the house, the way it was back in the old days.... But the reality was it was still 100 outside (even though it was 9 at night) and you could feel the heat pressing on building trying to enter in and destroy our solitude. While power going out maybe a peaceful here you feel like you are on a spaceship that has lost power and it is just a matter of time before you run out of oxygen and die. Which is actually true here, for some people no electricity would be an actual matter of life and death. WE LIVE ON THE MOON. or might as well be.

But when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. I decided to go swimming in our backyard. It was so peaceful, no pool pump, none of my neighbors air conditioners the water had an intensity that normally isn't there. You could hear the traffic from McClintock though and the high school too. It was further away, but a game and people cheering and pep bands playing doesn't count anyways. Those sounds are all powered by humans alone and have a different energy to them, since they can't just run in perpetuity forever. It's interesting to think how much noise and light pollution comes from electricity and fossil fuels. A lot.

Then I began to think more about my time here in Arizona and how we are already here past halfway! Really past halfway if I go to Buenos Aires next fall. How it's been such an interesting different experience it has made life a glow in so many ways and brought new understandings. Adventures with people in our house. I'd say we could arguably have had people here living with us over a third of the time that we are here. All these experiences because our house is a pilgrimage out to the desert for all of us. A certain isolation and mystery, even if this city is large, if you can tune it out (which sometimes is very hard) and tap into the desert, or better yet tap into this question mark of a city, it really is an enigma to be explored. And with the constant tumbling of grad school this city is an enigma that I felt I have barely explored. I'm hoping in the future this will be much easier to accomplish with Ryan on his own adventures.

Then a truck starts creeping down the alley slowly, and finally comes to stop right behind our house. I get out and run inside and peak out from the door. Some sort of truck to deal with the power outage. Two square miles of no power, and somehow the solution is right behind our backyard. Of course. This place. A little later the entire sky lights up green and then the power really goes out including my neighbors across the street and the high school. But only for a moment for them they pop back on. Then a few minutes later our power goes on, and every single air conditioner, our pool pump, and of course our neighbors air compressor comes on. The magic is gone.

adventure: risky or unexpected undertaking

When you're seeking adventure it doesn't help that the last 500 miles of the West has become a routine. Of course interstates don't really count as adventures. Completely predictable people along with the Gas, Food, Lodging and Rest Areas that are beside them. The scenery that you zip by you can't really touch, because it's behind a fence and endangered is only a hint of what you're missing out on. But when you begin to remember particular rock formations and saguaros it takes on the sensation of driving to work.

But I was thinking about it, where is this adventure? I'm beginning to feel that not very much of it is left in the great wide open, guessing how many miles until the next Wal-mart is not a risky or unexpected undertaking. And with everyone having the same things, the same music, and the same Internet, what is going to be unique and unanticipated beyond the curve in the road? Which leads me to believe that the only real adventures left in the US are in the top major cities like LA and NY. Where all the people that are still seeking adventure flock to.

Scavenger Hunt went amazing

Need I say more? Thanks to the people of Goleta the Goodland, another amazing Saturday afternoon was successfully enjoyed. Can't wait for next year. Will I play? Who knows? I hope that Dan and Ryan will follow through with the expert level, because that's what I want to do!

Facebook photo album of Scavenger hunt

The way sound echoes through Goleta

Tonight for the second time in the row I just heard the sound of a bus, as in an old school MTD bus out there somewhere in the mist. Bill's bus? Not sure. I love this town

End of semester...almost...hah!

I was just about to write on here how great things are going but then realized after making a to do list, that I still have so much to do before the end of this semester. That I really need to get off the high I am on right now and go to sleep!

Review went great today, and I'm glad to have so many friends here and everywhere and feel everything in my career path growing with so much excitement. The growth and the connections.

And I feel asleep writing this or something.

Art?

It's so funny I come from a non-art background. The question is, is my mind artistic or not? I might be only artistic because of the all oddities of the way my mind works. But maybe that is what constitutes art. I feel very narcissist sitting here and trying to dissect my brain.

But one thing is for sure my life has been so a typical, especially in my exposure to art and I love it. Because that isn't that in itself an expression of art, a different approach to experiencing something even if you didn't choose that approach?

Growing up in Southern California under loving nerds. Being tossed into the music world and just considering it another part of my back yard. Now here, being dragged through the mud and my eyes being open to the full glory of life.

I just remembered I use to hate art in elementary school. So much I use to stay out loud and often. It was such a chore, those left handed scissors were the worst. But now that I think about it, it wasn't art. Cutting out patterns of leprechauns and gluing them together is not an expression of one's self and thought. But how do you get an elementary school kid to express themselves without them filling overwhelmed to do something right? How do you communicate the process whatever it may be, is just as important at the end, and taking time to just think about the process and what it means is the whole point.

Regardless, I was and still am a structured person most of the time. Even though my process through life is so chaotic. It' s because I like a reason, and I'm a hoarder of life. I might not be artistic at all really and it is only because my thought process is so different than everyone else's that it comes off as art. Art is anything that some finds awesome and cares about.