Sidewalk Snow Removal

Snow removal is a fact of life in Syracuse.... for most of us. However, there are a LOT of properties that don't clean their sidewalks. This is dangerous, as people often have to walk in the street. This is ESPECIALLY dangerous when it's around schools / universities and CHILDREN have to walk in the street. However, I just heard about this:

Westcott Area Sidewalk Snow Removal Pilot Project: there are only a few days left for residents of target blocks to send in their registration and payment.

• • The purpose of this project is to guarantee safe routes to schools: Levy, Ed Smith, SU campus, ESF, SUNY Upstate
  • Target blocks include
    • Westcott Street: 500-900 blocks
    • Harvard Place: 100-300 blocks
    • Euclid Avenue: 300-800 blocks
    • Livingston Avenue: 700-800 blocks
    • Ackerman Avenue: 700-900 blocks
    • Lancaster Avenue: 700-100 blocks
    • Sumner Avenue: 700-800 blocks
  • there are approximately 500 properties on these blocks, and we need at least 60%, or 300 properties, in order for the project to happen (135 currently registered)
  • LANDSCAPES ETC, LLC has been selected as the contractor. Contact Jon Perkins at 692-4679(w) or 447-5844(cell) or Jon@landscapesetc.net
    
  • Deadline to register: Monday, Nov. 2

So if you live on one of these target blocks, please please please sign up! Even if you are a student, sign up and do the right thing by your neighborhood and your friends! Unless, you know.... you enjoy walking in the snow or the street.

On Syracuse Grows

Syracuse Grows.

This organization formed in spring of 2008. I wasn't around during the early early inception, but as I understand it, the impetus was to create an organization that could pool together all the resources of individual community gardens around the City of Syracuse, and have them speak with a unified voice to the Powers That Be. It's an awesome idea and the organization has gotten a lot of great things done in the past year and a half. Off the top of my head, we have helped start at least three new community gardens, with one garden donating all of its food to food kitchens and food pantries. Definitely inspiring in this day and age.

Now I am on the steering committee for this organization and I'm not quite sure how that happened. I think it's because I show up to all their meetings?

Joking aside, I am committed to Syracuse Grows because I believe in community gardens and urban agriculture. I am also involved because I want to make sure Syracuse Grows and Slow Food CNY work hand-in-glove. It would be so easy for our organizations to work at cross purposes and I think I would cry if that happened. To that end, we are doing a joint "Fall Harvest" potluck. Both of our organizations will be presenting about our success and accomplishments during this past growing season. October 18th people. Mark your calendars.

In some ways, Syracuse Grows has a foot up on Slow Food CNY. We've hired a strategic planning consultant (funded by a state grant) to help us define who we are and what we want to be. We just started this past week, but it's shaping up to be very, very interesting. And honestly, I may steal some ideas and cross pollinate them with Slow Food CNY. (Get it? Cross-pollinate??)

In all, this is a laid back, knowledgeable and fun organization. Not being the Chair or anything, I'm able to relax a bit more and go with the flow. I step up when there's something I'm interested in, but I don't feel like everything rests on my shoulders like it does for Slow Food CNY.

A Random Reflection

I have played around with haikus, but usually eschew poetry. However, I was looking through my old notes and saw some really poetic stream of consciousness writing. I though I would share:

Let the words express form and the
goals seek
union. Never cherish that which is lost,
And hold dear the beauty of the moment.
For loss lays quet duldrums through the mind.
Better listen to life's soliloquy:
The rapture of love, and the thrum of joy,
Glistening, shining, dancing, sparkling,.
But the heart remembers, yearns for the lost.

Then seek with the mind the balm for the heart.
Listen. Listen, hear and understand loss.
Map out the despair while holding hope's light.
And of life's drudger that chains you down,
while seeking to find the source of despair?
Pause,
reflect,
and focus.

Walk straight, head high.

On Slow Food

A third posting about the my aspects of my life. See the full list here.

This time I am tackling my involvement with Slow Food USA. Last week, I started writing a posting about my role in food activism, but ran away screaming. Without a question, food activism is the most vibrant part of my life right now. It made it impossible to narrow down into one post. So I am just focusing on Slow Food USA right now. I'll post the others soon, and separately.

Slow Food USA is part of Slow Food International, a global movement that encourages and preserves indigenous food systems. Basically, it's about a combination of heritage breeds, supporting local farms, providing everyone with access to good and healthy food, and cooking for yourself. Their motto is that they promote "good, clean and fair" food.

In my opinion, that broader mission statement did not translate well to the USA. Slow Food USA became an organization of high society snobs. It was about expensive food. It was about prestige based on obscure breeds. It was about using words like "erudite" and "bouqet." Not that there is anything intrinsically wrong with that, (I am growing a pawpaw tree, after all)but it was not for me.

Then a little over a year ago, Slow Food USA started changing. They got their first national President who made it very clear that food is not "fair" if not everyone can afford it. Food is for everyone. Now that WAS for me. So, per urging of a few friends, I got a local chapter of Slow Food started: Slow Food CNY. Given that must of the legal framework is handled by Slow Food USA, this wasn't too difficult to do. Slow Food CNY is just a branch of the main organization (yes, I should know the legal term but I don't).

Anyway, somehow, because I organized it, I am now the Chair / President. On a day to day level, this means I have become some food information funnel. I pass and forward emails along like no one's business. I send out announcements. Honest, things are a little rough right now because I'm still trying to figure out who does what, and even figure out what needs to be done. However, I am confident it will all work out because I am not alone in this. I have an awesome and passionate board.

The Slow Food CNY chapter board was elected at the end of spring, just in time for summer vacation wackiness. It's been difficult for us all to sit down together, but now that summer is passed, I foresee awesomeness. Despite this whole "ships crossing thing" we have done awesome work. We just had a very successful eat-in in Elmwood Park, are in the middle of a national "Grow the Movement" drive, and we are planning a joint pot-luck with our sister organization Syracuse Grows.

I know there are still challenges ahead, but man! Who doesn't want to be in charge of an organization where almost every meeting inevitably turns into a potluck of tasty awesome food? That's right. Contain your drool, please. Go into the kitchen and make yourself a meal, or sign up to Slow Food USA and get involved with your local chapter. :-)

(Did I mention you can sign up for Slow Food USA on a purely "sliding scale" level for this month only?)

Finally - Imagine if I wrote about three other organizations in this post. You all would have killed me.

Observations on the New York State Fair

The New York State Fair is a surreal experience that erupts from the industrial waste deposits just west of Syracuse. In many respects it is like a mushroom. It appears only for a few weeks when conditions are just right, only to shrivel up and lay dormant until another year hence.

The Fair is all about spectacle. The rides, the animals, the food and the performances. But the people itself are just as much of a spectacle. While there is a $10 fee, you can find people from all walks of life, and you can come across the most interesting things. That's right, in this post-modern world, you too are part of the show.

I have joked with my friends about creating a bingo card or scavenger hunt list that captures the essence of the event. Some items in this list are core Fair experiences, while some are unsettling, creepy, or just obscure. Read on for my first draft of what I am calling the Underground Scavenger Hunt for the New York State Fair

People

• Meeting someone wearing leather clothing with tassels
  
• Seeing a pregnant woman smoke (half points if it's a mother smoking with children)
• Meeting someone with a mullet
• Meeting someone wearing animal print clothing (extra points if it's a full outfit and extra, extra points if they are mismatched, like a leopard-print top and a tiger-print bottom)
  
• Encountering someone angrily muttering and arguing with him/herself
• Watching State Police officers dance on top of a four story tower
• Finding a squad of people driving around together on scooters
• Cataloging up to 10 people wearing different uniforms (Police, Fire, DEC, etc)
• Having someone try to sell you a spa
• Finding someone wearing clothes that are not appropriate to the season (example: a winter jacket)
• Two people wearing matching outfits
  

Animals

• Finding testicles larger than a softball
• Finding some white-supremacist sheep
• Petting a goat
• Watching an animal defecate
  
• Finding a chicken that looks like a drag queen (you will know it when you see it)
  

Food

• Drinking milk from the Rainbow Bar
• Eating a Gianelli sausage product (this one is kind of a given)
• Eating something fried (also easy)
  
• Eating custard ice cream (a must!)

Miscellaneous

• Starting at the butter sculpture for one full rotation without someone jostling you
• Finding leather clothing with tassels for sale
• Finding animal print clothing for sale
• Watching someone make a product from scratch
• Getting a picture of yourself as the Dairy Princess
  

Phew. That's what I've got for now. This will be a work in progress until next summer, when I intend to unveil the official 2010 New York State Fair Underground Scavenger Hunt.

On Being Family Member and Being a Friend

The second of many posts reviewing different aspects of my life.

I have a big family and I have lots of friends. If facebook is any indication (which it honestly isn't) I have nearly 900 friends. I feel blessed to consider so many people friends. Many of these people are guys I have met through my fraternity. On a completely selfish front, I love know that, through my own networks, I could find a sofa to crash on no matter where I am!

So some might say I have quantity, but not quality. This is not true! On this end, I feel even more blessed. An extreme example, I have friends who I have known since we were all 3 years old. I have no memories that do not include these guys being in my life. They are like family. There are also friends from grade school, high school, college and grad school that I consider true, strong and lifelong friends. They know who they are.

I rarely talk to these friends however. Maybe every couple of months I will talk to most of them, with my closest blood family getting a call every other week or so. I realize that unless people are actually physically close to me, I don't make a big effort to reach out. I don't like talking on the phone, nor sending long emails. (Heck, I barely even write these blogs, which are essentially letters to myself). Does this make me a bad friend? I guess it's a matter of opinion, but I can't get the quote out of my head:

"How we spend our days, is of course, how we spend our lives." - Annie Dillard.

I spend my days with the people who are immediately close to me, not the people who have shaped my life. If anything, this is where I give myself most criticism as a friend and family member. Because, when it all boils down, all of these relationships are built on one thing: communication.

Weekend Travels

As a follow up to the post about multiple hats (or facets if you prefer), I want to share with everyone how this manifests in my life. Below is a list of my weekend events for the next few months. I just wrote this out for a friend who is wondering when to visit.

9/11: Nothing going on this weekend. Phew!
9/18: Park(ing) Day is this Friday.
9/25: Husband has a test this Monday, and I'm hopefully a pannelist with the 40Below summit that Friday afternoon / evening.
10/2: Travel to Jersey to visit my inlaws.
10/9: Plans to go camping this weekend.
10/16: Going to Rochester, and a Slow Food (and hopefully Syracuse Grows) potluck on Sunday, and husband has another test on Monday.
10/23: A weekend off!
10/30: Halloween weekend. Giving out candy to the kids!
11/6: Travel to Boston.

There's also other stuff that hasn't been completely confirmed yet, such as when a certain West Coast friend is coming out to visit. ... and I probably am forgetting other things too.

Anyway, off to the Eat In.

My Working Life

So I'll start with my job. Employment. Work.

First off, I have to say that I am very, very grateful to be working. Even better, I am in a field I feel passionate about and ideally, my job can have a real impact on improving people's lives. However, I frequently find myself frustrated by ... well .... by reality. It's a government job and a tendency towards bureaucracy can slow things down to a crawl. I feel like I have to exert enormous amounts of energy to move my projects even slightly forward. Or, in a similar manner, I will dash ahead make all sorts of progress only to find that the nature of the project has completely shifted beneath me. As you can imagine, I find it hard to be productive. I don't like being less productive than I know I can be. I get frustrated. I get depressed. And I want to do my work even less. I feel like I will be wasting my time, energy and talents. I find it especially sad because the work itself is fascinating.

I realize that in this day and age, more people have access to more jobs than ever before. People do have the ability to choose so many things. So far I have chosen three different jobs and have yet to love any of them. Each one I have been passionate about, from geology, to GIS, to planning. I started off incredibly passionate about each field, but the passion quickly cooled. Don't get me wrong: I have loved and appreciated the things I learned, but ultimately I feel unsatisfied.

Is this a pattern? If I move into a new field, will I love it at first, and then feel unfulfilled? It makes me afraid to seriously consider doing something different. As seen from my last post, I have many different passions. But if I take the leap to a new field, will I just wind up unhappy again?

"Chose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." - Confucius

I don't know Confucius. I hear you, but I just don't know.

Life Review

So it's been a while since I wrote here. I've noticed that there is a definite positive feedback loop regarding blogging. When I blog, I tend to blog more often. When I don't blog, I tend to blog less. Clearly the latter has been the case this summer. To this end, I am going to go through my wardrobe of metaphoric hats and review my life at the moment. Instead of write one super long blog, I aim to post a bunch in the coming week about all of the different hats I wear. Here is a list of all my hats off the top of my head. More will probably appear:

• Employee
  
• Family Member
  
• Local Foods Activist (includes a bunch of hats: Slow Food CNY Chair, Syracuse Grows Steering Committee Member, CSA Planning Group Member, CNY Food Policy Council Organizer)
  
• Neighborhood Resident
• Home Owner
  
• Engaged Citizen
• Beekeeper-In-Training
• Married Man
• Gay / Queer Man
• Physical Human Being
  
• Gardener / Wanna-Be Hobby Farmer
  
• Writer / Artist
• Musician / Singer
  
• Dungeon Master and Gamer
  
• Pagan
• Twenty-Something
• 40Below Member
  
• Delta Lambda Phi Fraternity Brother

Ugh. I could keep going but I'm going to stop. I'm getting disgusted with the number of various hats I wear. Needless to say, this outline should give me plenty of fodder for future postings.

Multiple Magazines

Below is an email I just recently sent out. Life is ridiculous sometimes:

to subscriptions@asla.org date Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 2:49 PM subject Multiple Magazine Copies mailed-by gmail.com

Hello,

I called earlier this year and complained that I am getting sent two copies of Landscape Architecture Magazine every month. While it is nice to have a second copy for scrapbooking purposes, I find it an incredible waste of ink, paper and natural resources in general. The double issues, however, kept coming. And now, the July edition just landed on my desk. All four copies of it. I don't know what is going on with my subscription, but can someone please sort this out for me? I fear for an exponential doubling of issues getting sent to me, and imagine years from now, that my friends will find my body suffocated under a pile of LAMs. Clearly, I am trying to make light of this, but it does bother me regardless. Someone please clear this up for me. My member number is 1084011 (on all four copies, yes).

PSM

June

Poor month of June. We barely knew ye.

... or at least this blog barely knew ye.

Danburite

I love geology. I love rocks. And I definitely love crystals. Something about the purity of the molecular structure is just so beautiful. This is not me-as-a-New-Age-hippy talking.... this is also me-as-a-trained-geologist.

So I want to talk about one type of crystal that has been "speaking" to me recently: Danburite.

Danburite was first found in Danbury, Connecticut not far from where I grew up. While it looks a lot like quartz (in that both are perfectly clear), Danburite has a beautiful shovel / spade shape to the crystal. And the cross section, instead of a quartz's hexagon, a flattened diamond is found.

I just find the clarity of the crystal to be so calming. I like how it's a bit of an underdog compared to the ubiquity of quartz. In all, it is beautiful, soothing, and calming. And heck, those are definitely qualities I want in my life.

Half Bath: Remodeled!

The house is a never ending source of things to do. Right now I've been focusing on a lot on the outside property. Especially weeding. I have realized that by removing the lawn and making every part of my property programmed for something.... I give weeds a much greater opportunity to thrive. But I digress.

To keep sane, I need to take a moment and look at accomplishments. I tend to focus on what needs to be done without allowing myself recognition for the work I have already done. So it is with great pleasure that I share the following photo with everyone:

Behold my half bath. Located under the stairs, about everything you see in that picture is brand new. First let me list off the problem of the old bathroom:

1. The old sink was 17 inches out from the wall and took up nearly half of the width of the space.
2. The shut off valves on the old sink did not work.
3. The water flow in the sink was low.
4. The toilet would take at least 5 minutes to stop refilling.
5. The water flow in the toilet was low (see item 4).
6. The toilet itself was from 1981 and had a huge, water-wasting tank (see item 4).
7. There was no shelf space.
8. The light fixture was too large.
9. The mirror was too small.
10. There was no storage space.

Phew. That old half-bath SUCKED. So we rounded up our friend J_Ro, an expert at these things, and got to work. We ordered a cute 9" deep sink and new toilet. J_Ro helped replace a lot of the old, corroded piping with shiny new copper pipes, and also helped re-set the new toilet. What a guy!

The old lights were removed and a new light fixture was installed (again thanks to J_Ro). The new lights were from Edward Joy Electric, a local lighting store and "a wonderland of lighting."

The mirror was found at ReStore on the Near Westide (or Salt District, if you prefer). It was a salvage mirror and has one tiny nick in it.

I picked up some plywood and cut the shelf. It's only a few inches wide under the mirror wall, but I've found it to be incredibly useful.

(Not shown: above the door, M and I built a new shelf for long term storage for paper towels, TP, and cleaning supplies.)

Finally, the repainting and original artwork courtesy of Hypersteve. That's right. I own the original artwork for the Magic Card "Merrow Commerce." Be jealous.

Housing Trends

Syracuse Real Estate

I think that graph says it all.

Back in 2006, when I bought my house, I knew Syracuse was a good place to buy a house. Why? The simple reason that there never was a housing bubble here to burst. This past year has seen the prediction come true. As housing prices tumble around the country, Syracuse remains.... well... not "strong" per se.... but stable. Syracuse remains stable, and slowly rising. The trend especially becomes visible when you click on the "10yr" button above.

(Thanks goes to Zillow for their handy graph.)

The Late Night Buzz

No, I am not referring to coffee in my title. I am referring to a sound that woke me up a 1:37AM last night. Something.... buzzing. My little feline was pretending to be night hunter and swatting at something near my head. Half-awake, I look over and see a large blackish object flitting about, banging into the nearby window. I watch for a few minutes, unable to make our what kind of insect it is. Resigned and awake, I move to turn on the light.

I see this:A yellowjacket. A large - yellow - buzzing - stinging - yellowjacket. And I am in my skivvies with lots of vulnerable, fleshy, half-awake body to tempt the offending intruder. And I do not like this.

I back away and dress myself. Jeans and long sleeves. Protect the skin! The yellowjacket has taken a fondness for the mattress and the wall next to our bed. I also note with scientific fascination, that the insect is attracted to the light of my reading lamp. I pray the wasp gets burnt by the halogen lamp, but it seems unaffected.

Still, I hesitate. I don't really enjoy killing things. Especially not when I might miss and enrage the stinging beast. So I leave it to our night hunter, our prowling cat Morgan.

Morgan, for her part, is fascinated and bored at the same time. Honestly, I don't know what else I would expect from a cat. She would stare at it... bat at it for a bit... then walk away as if she found something better to do. She once put her paw on it and then jumped back, as if surprised that it was moving. After watching the pathetic dance between cat and yellowjacket for a few minutes, I got impatient. Clearly my cat sucks as a hunter. I grab a notebook and wham it against the wall. The ensuing crunch is both satisfying and horrifying.

Here, for you all to review, is the yellowjacket that disrupted my precious, precious sleep And if you think I've just got some super-zoom thing going on, here is our friend with a quarter. Notice how this thing is ALMOST THE SAME SIZE AS THE QUARTER:
It was 2:13 by the time I had taken pictures, rearranged the furniture, and disposed of the body. Morgan was happily purring as I settled into bed.

Mike, for his part, had fallen asleep in the office and missed the whole thing. Jerk.

Tomato

You call that a tomato?


Now, this.... this is a tomato!


Yes, that is my hand holding up that beast. This puppy was one of the heirloom tomatoes I harvested from my backyard last year. I think the warm weather is making me nostalgic....

Marriage Equality

The following is a letter I wrote to my state senator, David Valesky, upon encouragement of a friend of mine. Senator Valesky supports civil-unions, but not same-sex marriage. If you are in New York State, or know someone in New York, please encourage them to write their state senator. Check out the Empire State Pride Agenda's website for a form letter submission.


Senator Valesky,

Thank you for your response. I've actually been following your campaign for sometime now. I voted for you back in 2004, and I remember it was a close race back then. I was happy to help you unseat the Republican incumbent. So now I guess I am asking a favor back from you. I don't know if its fair for me to ask a favor, but as I've learned, it never hurts to ask.

This "same-sex marriage" issue is about much more than a form letter for me. I am a man married to man. I think people call us one of the "California 18,000" or whatever. I had always planned on marrying my boyfriend and then a convergence of events happened. My boyfriend had gotten into SUNY Update Medical and we planned a vacation to California to celebrate. Then we heard about the CA court decision, and Patterson's decision to recognize out of state gay marriages. It felt like God himself was giving us his blessing. So I called over to Poland to ask my boyfriend's mother for her blessing in our marriage (God's blessing was good, but my future mother-in-law's blessing was important to me too!!). So we turned our vacation into an elopement, with my husband's brother acting as our witness.

During this past year I've been living with the strange double-standard of being in a same-sex marriage. When getting him insurance through my work, I was repeatedly asked to fill out "domestic partnership" forms. One question in particular on these forms asks "Are you married?" I felt it was insulting and refused to sign them. I was legally married and should not have to do anything different than any other legally married couple. Now I am a realist here, so I brought in a copy of our marriage license as additional proof of our marriage, but I refused to call him my "domestic partner" or any such thing. We are married and he is my spouse. Eventually, after calling over some people's heads, I was able to get him on my insurance.

It all sounds so banal now, but every time someone treated my marriage differently, and tried to call it a different name, if felt to me that my love for my husband was being demeaned. I was as if our love was somehow different because our bodies are different. It was stressful and hurtful. This is why I feel so strongly that love is love and marriage is marriage. There is not a difference, and anyone who cites religion is hiding behind their own fears. People have cited the Bible against inter-racial marriage, women's rights, and even against abolition. We, as people, are all somewhat afraid of the unknown. There is nothing inherently wrong with this. But when individuals are demeaned because of others' fears... that is unacceptable.

I also want to give you some background on who I am. I grew up in the Hudson Valley, and lived in Boston and Seattle. I moved to Syracuse in 2003 for graduate school. I met my husband while we were both in school. After graduating, instead of moving away, we chose to stay here in Central New York. We fought the brain-drain and bought a house in Syracuse that we've been fixing it up for almost 3 years. Our property was previously used for student housing, and we have since converted it to our home. I have been involved with the University Neighborhood Preservation Association, 40Below, and the Onondaga Creek Revitalization Plan. I volunteered for the Downtown Living Tours and have started a chapter of Slow Food USA in the CNY region. I am very engaged and care about this community.

Senator Valesky, I am, by almost all standards, the type of young person this region wants to keep. Yes, young: I am only 28 and my husband is 24. However, my husband graduates from SUNY Upstate Medical in a few years. While we love Syracuse, we've been seriously thinking about moving to Massachusetts or some other state that has taken the bold initiative to out-right acknowledge same-sex marriage. I hope you can show me that you want people like me to stay. I hope you can show me that my marriage, and my love, is as equally protected and recognized as any other person's.

PSM

Blog Name

Apparently, *some* find my blog name off putting. Personally, I'm not much attached to it either. I am accepting nominations and love hearing people's ideas. Here are some ideas I like so far:

• "Mercurial Thoughts" (My current favorite, though I worry that might sound just as cold and technical as "System Observations")
• "Connecting Dots"
• "Homegrown and Naturally Sweet"
• "Green and Wild"
• "Confounded by Consciousness"
• "Eschewing Obfuscation"

Again, I'm not really attached to anything here, so keep the ideas coming!

Calvin Coolidge and Chickens

Everyone knows that I'm obsessed with chickens these days. I really want to have some chickens for fresh eggs every day. That being said, I came across this entry in wikipedia about "the Coolidge Effect" when reading up about the President:

The term comes from an old joke, according to which President Calvin Coolidge and his wife allegedly visited a poultry farm. During the tour, Mrs. Coolidge inquired of the farmer how his farm managed to produce so many fertile eggs with such a small number of roosters. The farmer proudly explained that his roosters performed their duty dozens of times each day.

"Perhaps you could point that out to Mr. Coolidge," pointedly replied the First Lady.

The President, overhearing the remark, asked the farmer, "Does each rooster service the same hen each time?"

"No," replied the farmer, "there are many hens for each rooster."

"Perhaps you could point that out to Mrs. Coolidge," replied the President.

Amazing.

Presentation Bingo

I go to a lot of presentations as part of my job. And living in a smaller city, I know a lot of the different presenters. In fact, it has gotten to the point where I can mentally come up with a list of different terms each presenter will use. For example, here is a list of terms I attribute to someone whom I value deeply:

• citizens
• visual quality
• Rome (or Roman)
• signature institutions
• redlining
• Philadelphia
• urban & urbane
• urban forestry

I have this strange fantasy of creating a bingo card with these terms on it. As he speaks each word, I check off that box. Eventually I will stand up in the middle of the presentation and shout out bingo.

Sometimes I wonder if I am really a professional, or just a kid in a tie.

How Path came to be

Path is a world that's been in my head since I was a teenager. Any game that I've run have been set in the world of Path (I didn't always call it that though). Now, I feel I've got some unique skills here when it comes to world building. I have training as a geologist, as a cultural geographer, as a landscape architect, and as a neighorhood / urban planner. So when I put something in Path, a lot of thinking has gone into that decision.

Path used to be a very high fantasy, sword and sorcery world. Dragons, elves, goblins, gnomes.... you name it. Spells were flung left and right. I was typically using D&D as the mechanic set for my games, and that brings with it a certain Tolkien-esque baggage. It made my world act like every other fantasy world out there. I just had different names for my cities, and different maps.

I was fine with this until two things: Brandon Sanderson and D&D 4th Edition. Sanderson's books show me fantasy worlds that weren't D&D and weren't Tolkien. And they were awesome, incredible worlds. Why have dwarves when you can have kandra? Why have arcane magic when you and have symbol-based magic? On the flip side, Wizards/Hasbro recently released an upgrade to the D&D line: 4th Edition. And you know... I didn't like it. Honestly, I gave it a chance. It's not that it's horrible or anything, it's just not what I'm looking for in a fantasy game. It make me question why I had to use D&D as a base at all. Why use a game system that has so much baggage?

Basically, each got me thinking and asking questions about Path. Why are there elves on my world? Why is there magic? What is magic, anyway? Who are the gods and why are they there? I asked "why" about some very big questions. And, not surprisingly, I started finding my own answers. I literally re-created the framework of my world from scratch. I started utilizing GURPS as a playtesting framework, which is by definition setting neutral. And this world, my own unique world, will be the setting for my novel.

A Novel

Well, I am taking the leap: I will write a novel.

I enjoy reading. But I also enjoy writing and story telling. I recently took a stab at a short story and have gotten some positive feedback and constructive criticisms. But really, I want to write a novel. So I am taking on the challenge. I will write a novel. This novel will probably preoccupy my blogging for the upcoming months. I'll be throwing out story idea, maybe comparing scenes. Expect me to talk a lot about my inspirations and my setting. Don't expect much personal reflection or social commentary. (Or maybe I'll be completely wrong and my blog will be my time away from the novel. Who knows?)

So let me start with the genre: fantasy. I love reading fantasy and it seemed the natural fit for my story. I've mentioned before that I have a world in my head: Path. This story will take place on Path. I intend to write about the Sammarian War. This war reshaped the cultures of a continent and I think its fascinating and epic. A lot of interesting figures emerged during this time and I am excited to tell their story.

Maybe I am taking on more than I can chew. I realize that a sweeping war epic can be really difficult to write. ... but I have to be honest with myself: it's where my interest is. If I fail at putting together a cogent novel, well... then I fail. That's not the point really. The point for me is that I write what I am interested to write about. The point is that I follow my passion and create that.

Wish me luck!

Random things about myself

So this fad to list "25 random things" has been going on for a while. The other day, I took the time to actually read some of them and found them really enjoyable. So to reciprocate, below are some very personal statements about myself. Please do take the time to read and enjoy them.

1. I feel blessed that so many friends have tagged me in notes, and blessed in general to have the friends I do. I appreciate you all thinking of me, even if it's just for a brief moment.
2. I am consciously trying to incorporate the words "bless" and "pray" into my life. I always hated these words because of the right-wing, but they are beautiful words and I intend to reclaim them.
3. I am working on being more creative. This is having the amusing side effect of making me more vocal with my opinions.
4. I confess that I am addicted to reading. I stopped for one week and had serious withdraw.
5. I care about, and am good at, too many things. While I am loathe to complain about it (I don't want to appear arrogant or unappreciative), it makes it really difficult for me to figure out what I want to do and where I want to go. For example, right now I'm debating between being a lawyer, a farmer, or an acupuncturist. Sigh.
6. I get really stressed when people try to demean my (gay) marriage. But at the same time, I think about the enormous strides that have been made with regard to gay rights, and realize that my stresses pale in comparison. I will proudly continue to inform and educate people.
7. I have always avoided being trendy at all costs. Ironically, this makes me just as beholden to trends. I realized this as a teen, and have since been trying to shake myself of this.
8. I have met great people in my fraternity and love many of them. At the same time, I find myself questioning the relevancy of such organizations in this day and age.
9. I have always considered myself an introvert and been proud of this fact. However, I have to acknowledge that life has turned me into an extrovert...!
10. The glass is not half empty. It's not even half full. It's completely full. Half with air, half with water.
11. I think that punning shows a love (and mastery) of language. It is a lost and unappreciated art form this day and age.
12. I am very aware of sentences ending in prepositions and misuse of adverbs. However, I also recognize that English is a living language and is allowed to evolve. (BUT NOT WITH THE WORD CHILLAX, WALLESKA!!!)
13. I love to travel, yet I love to be at home. I may never reconcile this.
14. I feel that Seattle is the most amazing place ever. I love it so much. It feels like heaven. But I also know that my life is here (on the east coast), and therefore cannot live in heaven during this life. It feels strangely appropriate.
15. I am deeply spiritual, traditional, and enjoy hierarchy. To this end, I worry that if I wasn't gay, I would have become a right-wing nut in the military.
16. Two driving emotions in my life have been avoiding shame, and avoiding disappointing others. I'm trying to acknowledge this, and let go of it.
17. I never had a father figure growing up. I long for one, but also realize that I am too much my own person at this point to ever allow someone to fill that role for me.
18. I believe that we are in a huge paradigm shift for our species. Peak Oil. Economic contraction (not just a recession or a depression, but contraction). Food insecurity. Community breakdowns. Lack of personal responsibility. I fear and hope for the future.
19. I have never smoked or done drugs, though I do enjoy a drink or two.
20. I am so much in love with my husband. I can see us old, gray and wrinkled together.
21. I am very aware of time. If I ever had a superpower, I would want the ability to manipulate time. Not travel through time, mind you! ... just the ability to create localized distortions in the flow of time. (ie, plant a seed and make it grow into a tree in an instant)
22. I have grown food in my backyard for two years now and love it. I want more land so I can have a mini-cow and chickens.
23. I think in systems. I always look at how connected / interconnected things are. I am hyper aware of how my personal choices can sustain many unsustainable systems and try to make my choices responsibly (buying local food, supporting independent businesses, etc). (See 18)
24. I adopt the persona of a wacky, harmless jokester. I feel this allows me to bring up things in a non-threatening half-joking manner. At the same time, I feel it hinders me from being taken very seriously.
25. There is a world I've been creating in my head since I was in high school. I call it Path. It has cities, cultures, wars, histories, magic and gods. I've used this world as a setting in a few roleplaying games, and am now attempting to do some writing about this world.
26. I can see both sides of every argument and sometimes debunk my own points in an argument. Ironically, instead of making me wishy-washy, I feel it has given me very strong convictions. I make informed choices based on equal examination from both sides. I also believe I am a very good teacher / communicator because of this.

Well, I would up with 26. I hope you learned and / or understand some things about me a little better. Thanks for reading this, and I hope you are all well.

The Faceless Minority

I've been reflecting a lot recently on being gay. Being gay, like the title of this post indicates, is like being a part of a faceless minority. Sure there are always pink triangles, rainbow flags, or I dunno... a love of Madonna. And there are gay actions, like being affectionate with a same-sex partner or spouse. But these are not intrinsic to the physical self. They are cultural symbols, overlain, and personal actions taken.

If you take a gay person and look at him or her in isolation, will you know this person is gay? Without a triangle or someone mentioning a same-sex partner, what is there to indicate homosexuality? Now mentally do the same for someone of Asian descent. Without the actions or the symbols, you can still tell this person is Asian. It's a part of this person's physical being. It is visible to all, regardless of symbols or actions. Gay people, in lieu of these items or actions, have literally no way to identify one another.

So when you're a teen, struggling to understand your own sexuality.... this facelessness can be terrifying. Personally, I grew up feeling I could talk to my family. But then, as a teen, I suddenly feared talking to them. Would they still love me? Would they dismiss my feelings? Would they pretend to accept me, while actually not? I had it lucky. A lot of other youths wonder: Will I get sent away to a conversion camp? Will I get beaten? Will I get kicked out of my house? As a gay teen, the sense of isolation can be overwhelming. You are all alone and faceless. And often, suicide is contemplated or attempted.

Now, to be fair, there are some "benefits" to the facelessness. Not every place is safe right now for gay people. When in those places, you can hide your identity. You don't take a gay action. At the same time, this is dangerous. You are forced to hide a beautiful part of yourself. This action of closing part of you soul induces huge amounts of shame. This is why I put benefit in quotes above: I honestly wonder if there is any real benefit. But this is at least an option other minorities don't have. The key is to balance feelings of safety with feelings of self-worth.

For me personally, my family took the information well on the surface, but I feel emotionally they haven't yet come to grips. Over ten years later, they are uncomfortable when my husband and I hold hands. They notice when I sit close to him, or put an arm around his shoulder. When he and I exchange a quick peck on the lips, they call it an "inappropriate public display of affection." (Yes, public affection they call it, even when it takes place in the privacy of a house) Being gay has no look, only an action, and these actions remind my family of my sexual identity. It makes them uncomfortable, and it makes me feel ashamed for being myself. Now I can get over my feelings of shame, but I cannot change their feelings. I can only pray that someday they will be fully comfortable with all of me.

Fasting

(This is a copy of my post at the Slow Food CNY blog)

Fasting. While this is a blog about food, I want to post about the absence of food. If you think about it, the slowest food possible is the food that never reaches your mouth. ;-) While I am not Catholic, I personally find this time of year a good time to fast. The long of winter is (mostly) behind us, and spring is around the corner. Time to do some internal spring cleaning, I say.

Almost every year, I conduct a carbohydrate fast, or some variety thereof. This year I am trying to fast from wheat, refined sugars, and artificial sugars. The wheat is because I am curious if I have a slight allergy to wheat. The refined sugars are because I want to loose my winter weight. And the artificial sugars are on the list as more of a spiritual objection to the overly sweetened foods we have so readily available to us. I want to cut down on the sweetness. (Sorry, but I am not giving up honey this year.)

Does anyone else around here fast? Do you do it for spiritual reasons or health reasons? (Or both??)

Illegal Immigration

Today I got a forward from a relative of mine. I believe this relative was well meaning, but there was such malice and fear behind the forward, I could not help but to respond. The forward read something like this:

You think the war in Iraq is to blame for our budget problems (and hence our economic problems)? No, it's the fault of illegal immigrants. We're spending billions of tax payer dollars on them. Here's a list of 14 items proving it. Contact your legislators so we can kick them out!

Now, I agree that there are a lot of problems with illegal immigration in this country, but my relative's forward did nothing but vilify the immigrants. So I responded with a list of my own. Here it is:

1. Calling people "illegal immigrants" hides their humanity. You forget they are also human beings, people like you and me. I am going to refer to them as people, not illegal immigrants.
   
2. We did have a push for immigration reform a few years back. Unfortunately many (but not all) Republicans blocked its passing.
3. A lot of people are leaving the horrible economic conditions in their home communities with the hope and promise that there are jobs here in America.
4. Many (not all) of these horrible economic conditions are caused by political instability and policies of globalization. It is now widely understood that much of the political instability in developing nations during the past century came from US government backing dictators and coups. (Read "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" or "Shock Doctrine" if you don't believe me)
   
5. These people would not have jobs here in America in the first place if legal Americans didn't hire them.
6. Legal Americans are hiring them because, as employers, they don't have to pay taxes on them (hence the tax burden gets shifted onto the rest of us - ie, the cause of some of those figures the forward lists).
7. To not vilify only the employers, I'd like to point out that many legal Americans would not WANT these jobs, working incredibly (and possibly illegally) long hours at pesticide laden fields, multinational big box warehouses, or in meat processing facilities.
8. Horrible, unsanitary and dangerous jobs like these would not exist at all if consumers cared about more than buying the cheapest item on the shelf. Think about that next time you bite into a beautiful, store-bought strawberry. Try to imagine who picked it.
   
9. Finally, as much as it sucks that our government spends a lot of money on illegal immigration, I would rather have my government spending money within the country to try and fix our internal problems, than spending it halfway across to world to kill people.

We are all connected in this globalized world. Think about the consequences of your actions and the consequences of your spending choices. And in the worlds on one wise man, "Cast not the first stone."

Richard Einhorn

This is my second post about a man-crush. This time around, I have a man-crush on Richard Einhorn. It all started with a simple invitation. One of my more musically-inclined co-workers invited me to an oratorio about Charles Darwin called "The Origin." He was performing on the clarinet and offered me discount tickets. He also told me that the piece was composed by Richard Einhorn.

"Who?" I wondered. And then I searched YouTube. Here's what came up:



The Passion of Joan of Arc with Einhorn's Voices of Light. Good god. I listened to all eight parts. I was moved by the film. I was moved by the music. I cried. It was wonderful. It inspired me to spend an afternoon reading about Joan of Arc and this film.

The film was thought to be lost for many years, until it was found in an Oslo mental institution. The story goes that when Richard Einhorn saw it, he thought:, "I must compose a piece to this!" And so "Voices of Light" was born with humble origins as a soundtrack, but so so much more.

Oh, and "The Origin?" Completely amazing as well. There were some performance flaws, but it never detracted from the performance. Great, great stuff. I look forward to finding a recording that I can own!

Organic Vodka

I am not a huge fan of most alcohol. I can appreciate beer and wine, but in the end, they make me feel somewhat sick. I used to wonder if I am allergic to alcohol (like, more so than most). But then I realized hard liquor has never bothered me. I never get the spins. I never get a hangover. Just a very nice buzz.

Now with beer and wine, you have micro-brews and locally grown wine. But what's a foodie who likes hard liquor to do? Well, you go to Al's Wine and Whiskey Lounge. This place is awesome. It has plush leather sofas and a nice book-ish ambiance. It has amazingly professional bartenders who can have a long conversation with you about the different whiskeys they carry. It's also in Downtown Syracuse and doesn't have a dedicated parking lot, which I think is great.

Now, as with anything I like, it has a weird history. When I first came to Syracuse it was called Awful Al's. It was a cigar bar. As a non-smoker, I avoided the place like the plague. Then NY became non-smoking. For a while, it held out as a cigar bar and had an ever greater concentration of smokers. Ick. But something changed. I don't know how, why or when. They changed the name. And now, I love them. Here's why:
You got it. That menu says domestic, organic vodka. This is what I have been waiting for. Instead of just being foodie about my beer and wine, I can be a foodie about my hard liquor too! Let me also point out the third item down: Rye. Now that is rye vodka, but they also had rye whiskey (perhaps I was a little too buzzed to notice the difference when this picture was taken). Anyway, ever since I read the Slow Food USA post about rye whiskey, I've had a hankering for an authentic Manhattan. That night I had two. Awful Al's - you rule.

Sorry, I mean.... Al's Wine and Whiskey Lounge. ;-)

Wedding Forager

So, what is a wedding forager? I mentioned this in an earlier blog and some people have been asking me this question. Well, if you do a google search you find... erm... my blog. Well then, that is strange. I don't think I'm making this up. I got the idea from our wedding photographer and friend, C.

M and I were talking with C about our color scheme and general wedding ideas. She's done a lot of weddings in her time and is a great source of ideas. I told her how we don't want the typical florist flowers that have been shipped across continents and covered in pesticides. No! We are committed to having a local, slow food type wedding. Our solution? Instead of having a wedding florist, we would have someone pick local wildflowers and use whatever is in season. C provided us with the term "wedding forager."

So I expect the wedding forager to go out the day before and the morning of the ceremony. She (our forager is a she) would find whatever flowers are in season and pick them. We also gave her creative license to forage for anything else that would look good as a center piece. Basically, we are letting nature (and our friend's instincts) tell us what our center pieces will be. We haven't talked boutonnieres yet, but I figure they would be along similar lines.

We already asked Y/M if she would be our forager, and she agreed. I also want to ask Z to be a co-wedding forager. Z is from this area knows many of the local fields intimately. Y/M is not from here, but she has an incredible design eye. I think these two women will make an awesome team.

And that, my friends, is a wedding forager.

Pizza frite

I wrote in an earlier entry about my love of pizza frite and how important it is to me. Well, I had my husband take some photos of my brother and me making pizza frite this past Christmas and I thought I would share them. Enjoy my photo tour of one of my most personal food experiences.

You start out with some pizza dough. Make it yourself, or buy some from the store. Stretch it out and then cut it up into crazy pieces.

Be sure to make lots of cuts and holes! My brother and I like to find images in the frite (kind of like looking at clouds). Every year we seem to make at least one Christmas tree, one crab and a bunch of fishbones. I wonder what that says about the two of us.

Fry up the dough pieces in a skillet of oil. Flip them over with tongs and brown both sides. When you take them out, we always cool the frite on some paper towels to help absorb the oil.

And voila! Pizza frite! We spread the Christmas brunch table with all sorts of sweet condiments for the pizza frite: jams, maple syrup, honey and powered sugar. But my personal favorite is sugar with some salt mixed in. Or if I'm feeling adventurous, just the salt alone. What can I say? I'm a savory guy.

Let me leave you all with one last picture. In order to pump these guys out you need a conveyor belt of activities, with one person as cutter and one as fryer. Here you can see the teamwork in action!

Feminist

I am a feminist.

It seems somewhat weird to me, being a feminist. I mean, I'm a man, not a woman. Heck, I'm gay man at that, so it's not like I'm really even attracted me to women. But I am a feminist. It took some education on my part to get to this place. Specifically, it took the Boundaries of Syracuse seminar I took in graduate school.

Boundaries of Syracuse was advertised to me as a joint seminar between architecture and geography. However, when I got to the class, I realized that it was also a women's studies course. On the first day of class both teachers said they were feminists and this would be a feminist seminar. I was nervous.

Turns out, the class was incredible. Not only did we look at physical boundaries (like the Interstate running through the center of the city), but we also looked at subtle boundaries. Where were the masculine spaces, where were the feminine spaces? What about the children spaces and the adolescent spaces? The heteronormative spaces and the queer spaces? It was really eye-opening.

Taking this seminar I also learned that feminism is very anti-corporation, and anti-consumerism. It is pro-self-reliance. It is pro-cooperative living and holistic thinking. It is about building bonds of community, and looking at relationships and livelihoods as things that cannot have a price. All awesome stuff, and things I am very much into. And I am still friends with people from that seminar to this day!

I am definitely a feminist.

January Life Updates

So one of my running themes for this blog has been a reflection of what's going on with my life. At the last entry I was working on (1) wedding planning, (2) Slow Food, (3) Fraternity, (4) Housework and (5) Path. I had already dropped the ideas of a starting an independent business and reclaiming my love of music. Let's see where I'm at now:

1. Wedding Planning. This is moving. I am not working on it every day, like I had hoped, but am working on it weekly. I have a space reserved, and have reserved a caterer. We have talked to a photographer (and really want to go with her - we just need to finalize things). I think our next step is to plan out our wedding day. What will happen during what hour, and outline exactly how we want our ceremony to run. I also want to find someone to be our wedding forager.
2. Slow Food. This is off like a rocket. We've been in the local paper, have received a lot of attention and have around 60 people on our announcement list. At the last meeting, we divided up into committees, each with their own agenda. And we're one step away from official, legal affiliation. Tomorrow the advocacy group is meeting (a joint meeting with Syracuse Grows, another awesome local group) and we'll be talking about drafting a sustainable code for Syracuse (included urban livestock).
3. Fraternity. I am burnt out. I did a lot of work with the Colony in December and felt consistently misunderstood and attacked. I have better things to do with my time. I have stated to the fraternal powers that be that I wish to step back from my responsibilities with the Colony. However, I am committed to reaching out to the local chapter here in Syracuse. M and I have invited the guys over to our house on Sunday for a potluck as part of a monthly thing.
4. Housework. Good god, I have a new half-bath under the stairs! It still needs to be painted, but this past week, a lot of work has been done. We replaced the sink, toilet, lights, pipes and installed new shelves.
   
5. Path. I ran a one-shot with the revised Path during my Christmas break. People really liked it. There is still a lot more work to be done, but I am moving forward. I found a reason for dragons in my world. And I've been inspired by a couple of books I've been reading. I recently drew up the continents of Path too.
   

Morning Pages

Dear Systems Observations blog,

We have a great thing going. I love you dearly and feel that we get along really well together. Spending time with you has helped me learn about myself. I feel I've improved at articulating my thoughts. You really have improved my communication skills. But I owe it to you to be honest. I have a new love: morning pages.

Who is this two-bit morning-page hussy, might you ask? My friend M (or should I call her Y?) introduced us. On New Years she told me that morning pages would be perfect for me. M/Y went on to tell me about the book "The Artist Way," which introduces the morning pages technique. Morning pages are three handwritten pages done every morning, the earlier in the day the better. The idea behind them is that they clear the brain of clutter and help one become more creative during the day.

What does this have to do with you, lovely blog? Well, I find that with morning pages I am writing a lot now: 800-1000 words a day. This is much more than I write with you. With you, I feel I must censor myself. I must have a cohesive thought. I can't be sloppy around you. But morning pages? Ahh.... I can be free. I don't need to use full sentences. I even have spell check turned off! Granted, a lot of what I write for morning pages is nonsense but it's streamlined my brain. Since doing morning pages:

• I got a friend to repair the hole in my kitchen ceiling.
• I've re-started going push-ups on a daily basis.
• I've figured out a great way to keep myself from spending too much time on the computer.
• My wedding planning has become more organized.
• I've started renovations on my half bath.
• I've started repainting my full bath.

But Observations.... lovely System Observations... you too hold a special place in my heart. I share you with my friends. You contain links to the world! Morning pages retains her beauty through her mystery. She cannot be shared with anyone. Blog, you are my day, while morning pages is my night. I can not be without either one of you. Please understand that while our relationship has changed, it has not ended. I look forward to a bright new 2009 with you.

Sincerely,
PSM

Why I love Kunstler

I have a man-crush on James Howard Kunstler. There. I said it.

Of all the pundits and analysts I've read (and I read a lot) his comments are the only ones that seem to transcend the current hegemony of thought. To a lot of people he seems like some fringe wacko but to me he seem like a modern day Cassandra. (I told you I have a man-crush on him!) Look at his predictions for 2008 and tell me he was wrong. Here is his 2009 post by the way.

So what prompted this post? His blog posting this week focused on our out-going president. I think his concluding paragraph does an amazing job at summarizing the past 8 years:

To me, GWB will remain the perfect representative of his time, place, and culture. During his years in Washington, America became a nation of clowns posturing in cowboy hats, bethinking ourselves righteous agents of Jesus in a Las Vegas of the spirit, where wishing was enough to get something for nothing, where "mistakes were made," but everybody was excused from the consequences of bad choices. ...

Sheer poetry. This guy does not pull any punches. A lot of his conclusion are unsettling and I do hope they are wrong. But I honestly believe he's got his finger on the pulse.

The Commodities of Relationship

I've noticed that I have this tendency to monitor very closely the give and take in my relationships. Any relationship, romantic or otherwise. If I'm sharing a meal with a friend, I ensure that portions and/or the bill is equally split. When I am doing chores with my husband, I make sure we're both doing equal amounts of work. My motivation behind this is to ensure that my relationships are balanced, no one person doing more than another. No one person lending more money out, or driving the other more, or anything else. I want fair and balanced relationships.

But I've recently begun to realize how childish this is. Not everyone values everything equally. I like to cook and share it with my friends. It is a joy, not a chore. Should I expect someone else to cook for me as much? Or personally, I hate to drive. It stresses me out. Should I ensure that I drive in equal portions with a friend who loves driving? Ridiculous.

On a rational level, it got me thinking about the book "This Organic Life" by Joan Dye Gussow. She does an economic breakdown to determine if it is actually profitable to grow your own food. Her conclusion was that if you love to garden, it's worth it. If you hate to garden, then it's not. Not every person values all activities the same. Not every relationship will have the same balance. It depends on values.

On a more emotional level, I thought back to a book "Smoking Poppy" by Graham Joyce. In this work of fiction the protagonist parses out his love to his family. It reminded me of my balancing act. In the end, he learns that to love someone, you have to open yourself up. Let it in, let it out. I am doing a much better job living this way with my loved ones, but it is difficult to break from the conditioned parsimony. And I also realize that I can't do this with everyone, because there are people out there who will take you for a ride. It's just a matter of figuring it all out and possibly letting yourself be hurt.

And no, you can't have seven dollars... or seven hundred billion for that matter.