Daniel Herr

New Blog @ DanHerr.com

2012-02-14T13:50:00.000-08:00

I have launched my new blog at DanHerr.com. Please feel free to browse this or my new blog as I transition to WordPress.com's format.

AMS Presentation

2012-01-24T13:26:00.000-08:00

I have a presentation about Meteorology Jobs in Clean Energy to 150 students in New Orleans on the 21st of January. If you're interested, you can check it out here: http://dananimal.blogspot.com/p/ams-presentation.html

Hawaiian Sunset Wallpaper

2012-01-24T13:13:00.000-08:00

Sweet picture that my buddy Owen took on the Big Island of Hawaii when he came to visit from Honolulu and the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Check out his blog at untamedskies.wordpress.com/

2012: The End?!...

2011-12-31T18:12:00.000-08:00

I have written a good many times about how we constantly have some endpoint in our heads as a culture. We have believed that the turn of the century might be the end of life as we know it, that God is going to rein down judgement and save us from this wretched place, or possibly that the Mayans knew some ancient astrological truth about the end of this world in a fiery death. Even if you haven't believed or don't believe any of these fatalistic theories, most people think there is a chance; you might not believe it, but in the back of your mind you think, "hunh, I don't know. Could be." For years upon years our movies, thoughts, and stories have fantasized about the end of the world by nuclear destruction, Godly force, epidemic, natural disasters, global warming, runaway-technological, and super villains. Even Mission Impossible 4 this year (2011) was still based upon saving the world from
nuclear self-destruction. In our culture we still bend our minds with the possibilities surrounding the end.Most everyone I have spoken with over the past few years is well aware that the Mayan Calendar hits the end of the long-count next year (2012). While I do not believe that the 21st of December of 2012 will have anything to do with apocalypse, the end of the world, or massive extraterrestrial events; I do believe it may still be a significant event; an inflection point if you will.One point often theorized about the end of the long-count Mayan Calendar is that it may represent a change in thought; and while I don't know that this was their intention, it could possibly benefit our world more than we can possible imagine. What better way to force a rethinking of your whole life than to force you to stare down the barrel of a gun. If only everyone could believe that is really was the end of the world, think of the possibilities for reawakening. Consider your life flashing before your eyes only to wake up with life renewed. All of a sudden the things that should be important to you are just that. While there will be much sentiment of immediate pleasure beforehand, the aftermath will push a view of the possibilities of the future and the desire to live that groundhog day and every subsequent one for all that it is worth.Only time will tell what 2012 brings and over the course of the next year there is much that can change. I can not know all that 2012 will bring, but here is to hoping that it is the inflection point in the curve where we realize as a whole that the future of everything depends upon our actions now and we need to stop wasting away the prosperity of the future for our immediate gratification today.

My New TV Show

2011-11-24T07:30:00.000-08:00

Title: My Not So Carbony Life (Ok, the name might need some work)

...But, I've had this idea for quite some time to create a documentary / TV series following and proving or showing the ability to live a sustainable, carbon neutral life and still be a normal, functioning, and involved member of society (ok, this is dry for a sec, hang with me).

The idea would be to build a house entirely with renewable energy and local materials or materials delivered without the use of fossil fuels.

The focus would be the demonstration of whether it is possible to
function with a similar lifestyle as what I (we) now have and to document the transition and thoughts in the process of changing (and the drama of course):

What is difficult about the transition and why?
How can people in general easily live more sustainable?
Is it possible to live carbon neutral?
Can you maintain the same lifestyle as before?
What are the lifestyle choices if any?

The key would be to find a sustainable number for carbon (and other gas) emissions of the planet based upon the future population (say 2050); or caveman-era standards (based upon hunting, gathering and having a fire). How much pollution / emission is sustainable for our future population requirements? What is the carbon elasticity of the planet? <- This answer is probably already out there somewhere (feel free to chime in here).

The show would start by showing me (or whomever) here, today with my lifestyle:

Flights on the holidays (I'm on a plane travelling from Reno to Orange County as I write this)
Meat involved in meals every day
Car used daily to get around
Shopping and eating out on occasion

Show the transition stages as piece by piece every little bit of life is transitioned toward a more sustainable way while attempting to live a normal life:

Get to work using sustainable means (EV, walk? bike? Bus?)
Eat more sustainable foods (hint: just because you walked to your local Whole Foods and purchased "Organic" produce doesn't make your food sustainable)
Not eat as much meat, but still cook great meals (or have my amazing girlfriend cook them :)
Build a new house? / Find living arrangements that were build sustainably or could be.
Evaluate decisions for the year based upon your carbon quota (to be determined above)

This meal cost me X carbon credits, and if I do that every day for the year, I will be over my budget...
Can I afford the carbon cost of this new Electric Bike? How much does that leave me for the year?

In the end I would want this live experiment to show how easy or tough it will be to get us to a lifestyle that our grandchildren's children will be able to live on and on in their own right, because right now we may be sacrificing them at the alter for our luxury. Maybe we don't see it as luxury, because we are used to it, but the last thing I would want if for my great grandchildren to look back with disgust at how much we were wasting resources away that they would kill to have in their day. If we are over-indulging then the answer will either be crash and burn or find a balance first (or the more likely, crash and burn then try to find a balance). I'd rather try to find it first so we can land on our feet for once.

What do you say? This reality TV show sounds like something that needs to happen to me...

Fire Surrounding My Apartment

2011-11-18T14:28:00.001-08:00

To be honest, while there has been a "State of Emergency" claimed here, and a raging inferno that has destroyed more than 20 structures, we haven't been bad off at all; in fact mostly lucky. But, in case you're curious why Mer and I left our house early this morning, check out this picture:

Fire "Boundaries" as of 1:00pm, Fri 18-Nov-2011
Details at Reno.gov
View in Google Maps

If you're not up to speed on this whole thing: Woke up to a call from

my buddy Leland at 2:40am this morning (18-Nov-2011) saying, "Yo man, look out your window. There is a wildfire out of control less than a mile away from us and its getting pretty bad out here. I just drove up to check it out. You might think about packing some stuff to prepare to evacuate." Yeah, so there's that. Once we got out to the cars at about 3:00am it was like Dante's Peak: Orange glow over the trees to the East, ash flying everywhere, thick smoke, and extremely strong winds. We grabbed a few important items and headed out to our friends Matt and Chelsea's house (Thanks guys!).

Some houses haven't been so lucky (fortunately this isn't our place, I've been there once already)...

From the RGJ

Anyway, winds aren't supposed to die down until after 4pm this evening, so I hope everything is still intact when we get back (We were in the Evac Zone). There have been quite a few limbs flying and bushes rolling through the streets not to mention the dust storms. They'd been saying all day that it wasn't contained at all, now with more than 400 firefighters on it the claim is that they have "halted forward progress" of the fire.

NVZ450-191330- WESTERN NEVADA SIERRA FRONT- INCLUDING A PORTION OF THE HUMBOLDT TOIYABE NF 527 AM PST FRI NOV 18 2011

...HIGH WIND WARNING THROUGH 4 PM THIS AFTERNOON...

...

20-FOOT WINDS....

... VALLEYS/SLOPE....VERY WINDY. SOUTHWEST WINDS 20 TO 40 MPH. GUSTS UP TO 65 MPH. RIDGE TOP....
....SOUTHWEST WINDS 30 TO 50 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 90 MPH.

Custom Magazine Covers

2011-11-15T20:47:00.001-08:00

A few magazines covers that I created for my Dad's Birthday, Christmas, and Father's Day.

Selflessness - Playing for the Team

2011-11-09T19:57:00.000-08:00

[Originally written on 09-Feb-2009]

Coach Dan Herr and '08 Truckee JV Boys Basketball

Don’t think about winning, don’t think about the score…playfor the moment…play in the now…the rest will follow

Every member of a team has a job, a role…you may not alwayslike your role, but you have to play it. If you are in the game, you have arole, if you are the 6^th man, you have a role, if you are riding thebench you have a role (cheer the team on…help the coaches out). If you playyour role, giving up the selfish ego, we will win as a team…and everyone likeswinning

Its not about winning…its about being
in the moment..notbeing obsessed with the scoreboard…not concentrating on being a few pointsahead of the other team…it playing your game, regardless of the performance ofthe other team. Its playing your game every time you step on the floor, andevery time you walk off of it. It being a part of the moment, part of theexperience…doing the best you physically and mentally can in the moment you arein.

We have developed and must maintain a trust with each other.When we turn the ball over on a possession down the floor…when one playerbobbles the ball and loses it out of bounds, we must remember that we have theconfidence in each and every member of this team…we will get right back outthere and pass them the ball again.

Do the best job that you possibly can with task that you aregiven…if you are running a lane, make it the best darn filled lane around, runit as wide as possible. If a shot is taken, make the best box-out youphysically can in the moment…don’t think about the end of the game…don’t thinkabout the beginning of the game…don’t think about half…and don’t complain withthe refs for calls that are made…live in the moment, work as hard as you can,put you best effort forward…and enjoy every second of it…before you know it, itwill be now and no longer then. Then will always happen…live in the now beforeits gone.

``Now is the Law ofthe Jungle---as old and true as the sky;

And the wolf thatshall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.

As the creeper thatgirdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back---

For the strength ofthe pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.''

Downside Up - Flip the Script

2011-11-01T19:48:00.000-07:00

Smarter Life Future: Complex Everything or One Thing Full of Complex

2011-10-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

Does it really make sense to make each and every one of our devices smarter? Will that really work? Or is the real idea to model every possession as it is; lifeless and simple then track, store and analyze everything about it.

I’m imagining a world with plural realities. Not in thetypical/cliché dreamers sense of alternative universes, secondary planets withother life, or alternate realities; but a plural reality in digital form: aphotocopy of everything that does exist in a modeled reality with the abilityto be computed, analyzed, measure, calculated, sampled, and backed up.

We mayor may not have the ability to do something like this now; but the options wehave going forward are twofold.

In my opinion we will continue as a race and species to wantmore information about everything in our surroundings at a moment’s notice; notthat the information will be shoved in our face, over populated, and in frontof us when we don’t want it; but when we do, to be able to recall, find out, ordisseminate (with electronics’ assistance of course) any tid-bit of informationabout something we have come in contact with instantaneously.

While we may or may-not recognize the information we mightwant available (or individually not actually be curious), it would be usefulfor a number of reasons to be able to obtain, for instance, what did that noteat home on the wall say? How much life do I have left in that light bulb? Did Iturn the oven off? Will this box fit in that space way up there? What is thetemperature outside? How long has that food been in the fridge/freezer? Whenwas the last time I used that book? Where is that old yearbook? How much waterhave I been using when I brush my teeth? What do I spend on electricity for myTV?

There are millions upon millions of little bits ofinformation that it could be very useful to know if we needed / wanted /thought about it. In fact there are many life-saving and/or safely features andalarms that we could develop and have in place if all of this information waslogged, statistically analyzed, and fed back at a moment’s notice to allow formanagement decisions (I should throw that old food away, turn off the waterwhile I brush my teeth, and get a replacement light bulb). While down the lineit might be a little more automated with a Fridge letting you know, “I wentahead and purged that milk that had gone sour and ordered a new gallon for you,it will be here tomorrow.” Or even the simple, “It’s pretty cold out so Idusted off your old jacket and started your car for you with the heat on thismorning.”

We can move toward these ends by either developing smarterfurniture, cars, appliances, and every little do-dad around us, or we can finda way to model and analyze all that exists to get the information from objectsthat will remain simple and dumb.

Personal Reflections when Steve Jobs Passed

2011-10-10T18:22:00.000-07:00

We are all going to be dead a really long time and we only have this short while to be so free and interact with the world so willingly.

Why, if this is the case, would we do anything other than make the most of every moment, pursue our dreams and visions that are our own to the fullest, and listen, love and live with intensity, integrity, and ingenuity; experiencing what is, dreaming of what can be; and making what will be with the now.

Fundamental Change

2011-09-12T17:44:00.000-07:00

Change... How hackneyed, overdone, overused, rhetoricized, Obama-ized, falsely sold, over-promised and under-delivered.

I won't get into politics as the leaders of our government are in offices with responsibilities far beyond conception of most of us, with unreasonable expectations set by us, and millions if moat billions of voices to answer to. And for full disclosure I believe that the Obama administration is doing the best job that they know how to given the situation and set of circumstances that all by the eldest and wisest of us have not seen. But I digress to the point...

We all signed on for "change" because we believe
as a people of this time that we do not like the way that things are going any more, i.e. Change... But we never really defined what it is or was that we wanted as our goal... Unfortunately in our typical mindset as wealthy American (whether we do or do not realize or accept that individually; just as a spoiled kid will not admit af first that he is well off because of lack of frame of reference) we just pointed out the problem like an infant without the ability to speak... Whaaaah! = I'm unhappy. And just like that SNL skit, "Fix It!" We said, "Fix It, Fiiixxx It!" without fully understanding the root of the problem ourselves... We're beating our head against the wall and complaining that our head hurts. "Fix It", and right back to banging our head we go.

Anyway, we all know this, more or less by now, but what we

... Lifestyle design

I fundamentally believe in supporting, promoting, and working in the culmination of art and engineering, functionality and beauty, creativity and purposeful design. Art as more than sensually stimulating and engineering as elegance... I believe in architecture of life, not just buildings, but land and city-scapes. Not simply non living structures, but making useful templates for the activities we do, the clothes we wear, the shoes we run in, and the cars we drive in. Functional design from life's beginning for the manner in whIch we conduct ourselves... Not to live in a utopian controlled dreamworld society, but to be educated and informed about how the things we do, buy, and way that we interact effect our long-term quality of life, life expectancy, and health. We have the ability to track these things, to begin making more informed decisions, but we need instant feedback without the hasstle of the dialup connection and the clunky personal computer

Planning lifestyle architecture.

The Law of Reversed Effort

2011-08-09T09:52:00.000-07:00

There is a Law of Reversed Effort. The harder we try with the conscious will to do something, the less we shall succeed.

Proficiency and the results of proficiency come only to those who have learned the paradoxical art of doing and not doing, or combining relaxation with activity, of letting go as a person in order that the immanent and transcendent Unknown Quantity may take hold.

We cannot make ourselves understand; the most we can do is to foster a state of mind, in which understanding may come to us.

--Aldous Huxley (posted to iJourney.org on Nov 22nd 1999)

You go... go now...

2011-08-08T12:29:00.000-07:00

I believe in inspiration through action, creativity and analysis in design, and experience by jumping into the fire. What about you?

Life as a science experiment

2011-07-12T23:42:00.000-07:00

One vivid point came to me while meditating this evening on boiling humans and life actions down to their most basic elements; and no I don't mean that table of symbols you were forcing into your head in high school chemistry class. I mean the fundamental basis of actions, motives, colors, directions, plants, animals, worlds, and black wholes, yeses and no, light as well as dark. What is the binary bit that grows into the complexity of the human brain start as? As a yes or no? As a black of white?
We are an experience based decision engine...
Even the things we are forced to memorize and learn are an experience; an experience repeated over and over until it has been deemed a significant, unique pattern by our brain. You cant just break us down to chemistry; carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen and say that these elements are the basis of decision making... T is far more basic than that. Those elements are only a finite differentiation in an infinite realm of possible atoms where new ones exist and will continue to be invented by time because they must. Are we a study of everything is either one or it is many? That is putting it Much in terms defined by is, still we must boil it down...Because the fundamental defining science of his experiment we call life is the balancing of the equation of inequality. Fundamentally we live in a world where everything from time to space to color, to darkness and light is all part of defining if differentiation exists in and from nothingness. We have all heard that there is a yin for every yan, but this is even more fundamental.
There is an infinite array of colors just as there is an infinite frame of time, it all just depends on how you divide it, what you determine as the frame in which to make reality different.
We could not exist without plants, nor could plants exist without the animal kingdom to re-fertilize, transport, and on every scale imaginable act with some relationship of co-dependence. A balancing act and a definition of differentiation: the ability to grow and move or not move; the ability to process air from one side of the equation or the other; the ability to create or destroy; to eat or be eaten.
It may seem silly and simple at first but to fundamentally consider all of existence to be part of differentiating what is different and how many different ways can some thing or non thing be different opens up a world of possibilities.
As a claim to disarm my view, you might say, these two thing you claim to have as opposites are not opposite in all of their feature. This black is not opposite and 100% different from red; surely everyone knows that white is opposite black. Well yes, maybe from black's point of view. But I say to you that that entirely depends on your perspective. I you are blue, black may be just as far from you as red, whereas white may be entirely too far away from you to balance black.
I believe differentiation is the basis of our thoughts and even existence from to formation of the youngest life-form, brain, mountain, or cosmos to the eldest and wisest with all those recorded differentiating experiences; each more complex than the last. That baby in his cradle is enthralled by the bright colors hanging above him as he first differentiates this color from that, this shape from that, and the changes in their appearance as his changes in time come in contact with their physically different location.

A Blast from my own Past

2011-06-12T15:11:00.000-07:00

I recently found a couple letters that I wrote to myself in 5th, 8th, and 11th grades...Girls I had a crush on, life goals: All-in-all I'm surprisingly on track with my goals at the age of 11...

Letter to myself from 5th-grade (Mrs. Rumball):
"Dear Daniel,
I am you 7 years ago in the 5th Grade. Are you looking forward to Collage. ~~How~~ Who are your friends, Whats you're favorite food? My friends are Erin, Trever, Daniel, Andy, Kyle. My favorite food is Pizza. I am looking forward to 6th Grade. I want to be
a constructor, Arcatect, or a Enginear. Don't be a Skator or a Gangster."

Letter to myself from 8th-grade:
"REMEMBER THIS: JUMBO!!
When I read this I probobly won't remember it. I want to find a new seorce of energy. I want to be an Engeneere. I can't spell well. I am in HONers Science, Algebra 1,2 (I 97.2% passed the CBE), Spanish 2, (I passed the CBE 92%), I got the highest score in my class on CBE in Algebra 1,2 and second highest in Spanish. I'm also in honers English.
Top 5 -
K.R.
M.T.
R.C.
M.F.

go to a god collage. You can Do IT!!!

Daniel Herr
(I hope I write better by now)"

Letter to myself from the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards 2002 in Grandlibachen:
"6-21-02
Daniel-
These are the goals you set for yourself your summer at RYLA. Have you completed them by now. Hope senior year was great. Where you gonna go to school? What are you going to do? Anyway here are the goals you set:

Complete Eagle Scout (If you havent by now, too late!)
Become more social + express things openly. Remember, Vulnerability -> Love + Trust
Live + Be happy doing it. Hope is necessary. People really do care about you. Remember RYLA "Fo Sure"
Stay in contact with people, be open
Be selected into the college of my choice
Earn Gold Star in JROTC again!!!
Conduct all JROTC staff orderly, timely, and with good, no great, communication.
Go to Hawaii for band. Did you go? Was it fun?
Graduate, definitly a goal that will be met. The year is almost over. GOOD LUCK
Goof off once in a while. Its fun.

How were the rest of your camps last summer? Where they Valuable? How did "We The People" go? Did you make nationals or anything? How was basketball? What about soccer, did you play? How'd you do? What's your final GPA? What're you highest ACT + SAT scores? Are you, Andy, and David going to Disneyland? Did you Try out for Honor Band? Have you Stayed in contact with Vanessa? EM? Cabin 3 boyz? Spice Boyz? O you remember. Dustin? Sary? Jay? Mario? Larson? Jake (Truckee)? Casey? Brett? Yo-Han? Harp? Toya (Hug High)? Becky (Yeah!)? Gittin Sick of Rope Courses?

Hope all is well, stay chill
Live a little!
Hope your vocab + spelling have gotten better
Do some speech contests
Don't be afraid to be adventurous
Start Playing some Guitar

Best of Luck,

Danny Boy

P.S. Hope nothing bad happened at school this year. Or even in the nation. Don't rush into infatuation."

Some Thoughts @ age 26 (12-June-2011)

Obviously spelling and grammar have been huge issues for me growing up :). And what 5th-grader wouldn't say, "My favorite food is Pizza." It was the top of my priority list as a Junior in High School, and the only regret that I have to-date, I did not finish my Eagle Scout. All-in-all it's super encouraging that I said that I wanted to find a new source of energy and that I wanted to be an Engineer. I currently have a degree in Civil Engineering, from the college of my choice (after re-applying a time or two and transferring) and am running a business focusing on the construction of renewable energy systems.

What now future me? MBA? Masters of Science? New business ventures? All I know right now is I have a wonderful girlfriend that I have been trying to date since my sophomore year of high school, I feel like I am making serious headway in the business development world, I've been accepted to start my MBA this fall, and I'm most of the way toward completing my 30-by-30 list... here's what's left (I've added some):

BASE Jump
Whitewater Kayak a Class 5 (I have the kayak now, just need to practice)
Study with Monks and/or Buddhists in Japan or the like
Shoot a sniper rifle and hit a long-range target
Own a hand gun and a rifle
Live without a telephone, computer, or television for at least a month - I've done the Television deal only...
Compete in a dirt bike race
Get my motorcycle license
Fly an airplane
Live by/on a tropical beach
Longboard to work
Learn a martial art
Patent something
Complete a masters in field of interest (MBA, MS, ...)
Wingsuits
Climbing in Utah
Visit Alaska
Backpack Europe
Kite Boarding
Extended backpacking trips - Week+
Start a company and grow to Fortune 500 level - might take a little longer...
Enlightenment - probably more of a lifelong goal than a by 30 thing.

Completed to date from list:

Skydiving
Live in another country
Ski New Zealand
Learn to Surf
Coach High School Basketball
Become a Free Mason
Scooba / Snorkle a major Reef
Heli-Ski / Board
Go somewhere not knowing when you'll be back
Date a model
Date a girl worth taking home
Live off the land - no stores
Go somewhere you wish you could forget

Graphic Design & Artwork

2011-03-01T17:32:00.000-08:00

Here is some of my fun work from the last 5 years

Click on the Image above to see my

flash physics Snowflake Animation over Lake Tahoe

Also, if you haven't yet, check out my PicasaWeb Photobooks.

In the News with CEC

2011-02-01T13:46:00.001-08:00

I made it in the news last week :)

Sunset drawing I painted with sketchbook

2010-12-26T19:38:00.001-08:00

Life in real life the world around

2010-12-07T20:41:00.000-08:00

Many people will say this country has issues and most I'll treat it as some unquantifiable, incomprehensible force that controls other people, but somehow does not affect them. The fact that this country has issues deep rooted is termed a problem for the scholars of yesteryears and something our forefathers would be ashamed of.

But what really is this problem? It's definitely not something beyond our capabilities if we just care to take a few moments to give them notice. It's one of those tasks like listening to the stories of our grandparents... It's something you've always said you should do, but you keep pushing it off year after year assuming the time will come at some point. Or even that vacation, or even more that epic adventure you always said you'd have... That time to get away from everything and buy a one-way ticket to the other side of the world. Or even just that sports event of your kids'... It's just one game, he'll live. I'll. Make it next time.
Next thing you know those aspirations of your youth are not but dreams suppressed and hidden away as we call them former immature and childish ambitions.
But deep down we are all rooted as children, with the same raw desires we had at 8 years old

[add proof that we are eight years old at heart... Mer's campaign]

If we only took the time to feed our ambitions with the understanding that we are happy where we are with what we have, we would feel peaceful, no longer restless... Contented, but accomplished

...

But instead of content we feel frustrated and unhappy with allthatwe have. Pointing fingers at the ones in charge claiming they sold us down this awful river of consumerism and worldly destruction. Saying damn you politicians. Damn you government

But the root of the problem is, we have no frame of reference. The majority of the population has no idea what is really beyond these borders. Sure we see movies, films, and tv specials detailing what many have seen, but as with all our passive entertainment we absorb through the boob-tube, it fail to elevate in the mind above the level of emotional entertainment, after which we resume our regularly scheduled programming.

We think today that see, watching, and viewing is experiencing... But no it very well is not! What you experience in life is not "just like I saw in that movie"... Movies are no more Sierra nevadas than is the reflection off of lake Tahoe. Sure with the proper setup it may appear with our most prominent sense ever so impossible to distinguish the two... But there is no replacing the physical presence of the mountains, the textures they encompass, the cool breeze sweeping across the lake, the refreshing smells of the healthy high altitude, pine and fir fresh air hinted with mountain mint. There is no replacing experiencing snow for the first time. There is no image that truly gives the feeling of surmounting an alpine peak. There is no substitute for True and real experience.

It is high time our county, our people got out and experienced the reality of life in this country and the next. It is high time we see what there is to see, learn what we have and don't have, and know truly what a blessing and honor it is to be a part of this wonderful world and a citizen of the most amazing country in the world.

This, I believe, my generation is out to demonstrate...

Blue Blaze

2010-11-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

My family has a term we referring to as "Blue Blazing" when we take a random scenic tour away from the direct route of A to B. Blue Blazing is a commitment to live life in the slow lane from time to time. To focus on quality instead of quantity in life.

The "Blue Blaze" term originates from backpacking and is the name of the scenic way around or bypass on the Appellation Trail from Maine to Georgia on the East Coast. Growing up it was taking the long way around just because, seeing what's out there and around the corner. Being impulsive and experiencing the beauty and wonder that we waltz right by without the slightest acknowledgment our entire lives. Blue Blazing is the reason I exist, the reason my parents met, the reason they chose quality over quantity in life.

They Lied to You: Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too...

2010-10-26T23:19:00.000-07:00

Why my generation will succeed. My generation are the first ones to actually care about what our grandparents have to say. My generation is full of doers... We are sick of what has always been talked about and ready for it to happen. Our parents looked to freedom, to break free from the machine, to be individuals and to tell the world "screw you I don't have to listen to you, I can do what i want." we grew up in a world where we were constantly told by our parents and society that we were special. In our own way and at our own unique time we all found out that we weren't. Whether it was failing at school or sports or simply realizing that every movie and tv show we grew up with tried to feed us the same message... That we were different, special, and joe schmo would rise above the pack, be the next hero, live above the matrix... We stepped outside our bubble and realized we had been lied to. Our reaction wasn't one of hatred, but rather of disappointment we were familiar with and should have expected. We came out feeling like a kid who just learned about Santa's relationship with his parents; we didn't want to believe it, and we kept trying not to, but there was no escaping the truth. We could no longer accept the rainbows and butterflies world we were told to believe in. One by one we realized we couldn't escape the reality our parents tried to get away from their entire lives.
We as a generation found ourselves in a place that was, and is, very real; a place there was no escaping, and a place we were not too fond of. My generation is composed of realists, the first ones to understand that the great depression was not necessarily a once in a millennia hap and circumstance; we understand instead that we need to listen and learn from our elders... That instead of the generations before us that feel like they have already made their choices in life and the future is not their responsibility, we believe, nay we know it is ours. It is my generations responsibility to take back the world we believed in as a kid, throw away the veil we have been fed, and make this place, our only place, a home worth living in.
We are not content sitting around and watching much longer. Bit by bit we are taking this world by the horns and often forcing the reins to skip a whole generation. We are powerful and smart workers, but we understand what we don't know and are willing to admit it. There are many many skills that we don't know yet, but we are becoming ever more conscious that we do not want to be a skills-devoid community, generation, or country. We take control not for the sake of having command, but for the sake of re-bridging the old time realists and the new age that technology is capable of. Using the wealth of experience our grandparents have the keys to, a retooling with technology, analyzing and reiterating until we get it right.
Don't feel threatened by my generation, we have no contention with you. We will not always be right, but what allows us to succeed is something with had to grow up with... The ability to adapt to our surroundings, learn from the resources we have available, and make decisive moves with what information is available. We grew up with technology, with it constantly changing, with new software requirements every year, new computers twice as powerful every eighteen months of our life. We were born with the first computers. We are the wave of transformation, the bridge between the old and the new, the technology savvy for our elders and the historical link to our posterity.
When mom and dad need to know how to use the stereo system to watch Legends of the Fall late on Friday night, who do they call? Us. When kids are looking up to the LeBron's and Duane's of the world, what generation is that? Ours. When you look at the most recent additions to the Fortune lists of richest and most powerful people, who is it? Us. When you look at who is driving the movement for re-skilling, urban gardening, and sustainable futures; again my generation is driving the bus, running the companies, creating the jobs that did not exist when we were in the career center in High School.
There is a market change happening right now, right under your nose, and it will not stop at any individual's will. We are not a collective that needs centralized leadership, but rather with real-time communication feedback and a willingness to work toward each others goals, making them our own, there is no telling the tally we will amount, the real change we will envelop, and new face we will give this world when it is our time to return to dust.

The building of a my Modus Operandi

2010-09-08T11:13:00.000-07:00

In an effort to explain what I know and believe in business, to put forward what is at heart the fore of what I want my company to do, I define the following in speaking for we the people of of the company:
"We are not hired sales men; we are Engineers. We are not here to sell the latest fad; we believe in designed solutions. We will not sell you what is not right for you; we hold ourselves to a higher standard, a strict code of ethics, and a belief in a brighter and better land. We believe in providing solutions to our community of friends, not sales to unfamiliar constituents. We believe our customers should become our friends, not pathways to dollar bills. We believe a company’s method of operating, their Modus Operandi, should not simply be the way business has always been done, but the way it should be done. Not a status quo, but a constant aspiration for improvement and betterment of our business, our community, and our environment. We believe in the “Why” behind what we do, the future of generations untold, the prosperity of the planet as a whole, and ultimately, we believe in helping you."

Offgrid Artisan

2010-08-27T11:15:00.000-07:00

Why Energy? Why now?

2010-07-26T21:01:00.000-07:00

Why do I work in the renewable energy industry? Because I believe in a brighter and better land than the one I was born into. I believe it is the right of the people to have energy that does not harm and hinder re-growth in our natural environment. I believe in the right of future generation to enjoy the environment as much as, if not more so than, I do every day, every weekend, every year. I believe we are wasting away our most precious resources and too worried with the day-to-day to plan for the future. I believe our binging habits, our greed and ignorance, our lazy richness, our lack of care leaves us on the cusp of disaster and diminished quality of life for our grandchildren. I believe we eat more than we should, consume more than we must, and feast on the bosom of life not noticing how we drain her energy. I believe it is my civic duty to provide clean energy to the world. I believe it is my God-given charge to fight for the people from the bottom up. I believe it is my job to make Renewable Energy happen as the first major step toward a sustainable existence. It starts here. For me it starts with Clean Energy Center.

How Green?

2010-07-15T21:12:00.000-07:00

The fact of the matter is that “Green-Washing” is prevalent the world around. Green Building here, Green Energy There, Go Green, we say, as if it is a switching of a light from evil to sublime environmental utopia; but the truth is that there are shades of Green. Yes we all want to “Go Green”, we all want to make a difference and be eco-conscious in our ways. If we are given the choice for free, or course we will “Go Green.” The real question is how green? Does replacing one light-bulb with Compact-Fluorescents have the same impact as riding your bike to work every day? Sure, we would say these are both “Green”, but how green? Is reducing the nation’s waste by 10% more “Green” than cleaning up the Plastic Flotilla in the Pacific Ocean? Is using Photovoltaics, Solar-heating, and recycled water irrigation systems more “Green” than building a Cob or Rammed-Earth House? Is LEED Certification more “Green” than an Earthship? Is “Green” an on-or-off claim? Are you saving the earth or killing it? Are you good or bad? Are you a shade of green?

A solid rating system needs to be developed to give a quantitative value for the relative sustainability of products, services, businesses and styles of living. The idea is to say, if everyone in the world were living as you are living, using the given product as you are using it, performing business day in and day out as you are, what is the potential lifespan of your actions and effects upon the world around you. Businesses and People alike should have Sustainability Audits.

My initial impression of the rating system would be the inverse of a logarithmic function where the high end sustainability numbers (say 100%) are extremely hard to achieve. Ultimately if you wish to achieve the 100% Sustainable Mark, you must be able to perform your actions as you do now into infinity without any substantial change. In between we should be considering:

Alternative two seems most appropriate for getting individuals and businesses to buy into the idea of being “Green” as it is easy to take the initial steps with minimal effort; whereas, Alternative one would likely create a better bell-shaped distribution of lifetimes with a median just up-hill of the inflection point allowing you to effectively establish a standard by precedent.

All facets of the rating system are relative, interrelated, and dynamic, though based upon present values. For example, if we were to calculate the Percentage of Sustainability of a Bottle of Water, we would consider the consumption of Petroleum Products at Current Levels and solely change the Bottled Water Market’s contribution to new petroleum and recycled bottle consumption.

Requirements:

Product, service, or practice audit of resources required for finished product.

Share of global market of each individual resource required

Estimated amount of resource potentially available for each required resource

Current Average Consumption of product, service, or practice

Global Population

Some Limitations:

Based upon the concept of rating for this system (based upon timeline of depletion of resources), levels of sustainability are subject to change due to other industries. For example, petroleum was no longer the preferred fuel for transportation, water bottle consumption would suddenly become more sustainable.

hot~POW* - The new Ski Brand?

2010-06-29T23:06:00.000-07:00

New Greno Ad for Clean Energy Center

2010-06-29T22:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a new advertisement I just put together for Clean Energy Center

in Reno's local "Green" Publication

http://mygreno.com/wp/

[click on it to see it full size]

What do you think?

Volcom Wallpaper

2010-06-23T22:30:00.000-07:00

Pretty sweet wallpaper I made from a picture I took in Maui
[ 2,380 downloads as of Jan-2012 ]

Image A Nation

2010-06-23T22:01:00.000-07:00

simply put...have some creativity

What I would give....

2010-06-16T22:55:00.000-07:00

If I could give one thing to the world... one thing that would change it and sustain it... it would be the oxymoron of a non-profit organization that's goal and purpose in life is to create, invest in, support, and build sustainable businesses... an organization that reinvests what is earned into the community and the world around it... building businesses not merely with the intention to get rich and the desire become the largest of the Fortune 500's, but the goal of becoming the best business they can possibly be... choosing instead of big, instead of gargantuan, to be great.

10 Barrel Brewing Company

2010-06-13T21:27:00.000-07:00

Yep thats me in the middle...

You know just enjoying my Stout...

Making my mark in the news once again. :)

http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100611/AE02/6110318

Two Hats B*!@#&s!!

2010-06-11T23:00:00.000-07:00

Stupid obsession of the week:

"Two Hats" - Curtis Plum:
http://vimeo.com/9537384

"I've got two hats, two hats bitches! Two hats is better than one ya'll..."

Colors of the Cross

2010-06-06T22:10:00.000-07:00

"No man should ever enter upon

any great or important undertaking

without first invoking the blessing of God."

2010-05-31T11:58:00.001-07:00

Every day you live you die a little more. Only so many days left on the clock.
If every day you're dying tomorrow why not live in the fullest today?
- Daniel Herr 31-May-2010

[Updated 16-Nov-2011]
I just read Steve Jobs' quote a few weeks ago... Kinda neat to compare his to mine:

"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap
of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked.
There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Keep on Coachin...

2010-05-29T17:34:00.000-07:00

You may or may not have heard that I did not get the Varsity Coaching Position for Truckee High School, nor have I been contacted about being the JV coach again... but on the otherhand I am still coaching a few of the kids from Truckee that I have been coaching in the past few years through a program called Jam On It and am coaching them for the Holiday Tournament this weekend (http://www.jamonit.org/Tournaments2009/memorialday2009reno.htm) Game Record to far:
Game 1 JV Jam On It White vs. Redding: Won by 3
Game 2 JV Jam On It White vs. Nor Cal Stars: Lost by 40 :(
Game 1 Varsity Jam On It White 1: 6:00 pm Tonight at the Reno Convention Center... Will keep you tuned...

Dollars = Devil?

2010-05-27T23:27:00.000-07:00

Open Your Eyes (poem?)

2010-05-27T22:45:00.000-07:00

Open your eyes

See what you have been given this day

a new start, a new beginning, a correction of the errs

the rain washes away the buildup of filth and untruth

arise renewed in faith, in goals, in the life you are called to live

free your mind from distractions

secondary desires, whoas and confusion aside

listen, seek and inquire

dig to find what is only a scratch below the surface

inevitability will find you

and understanding will be your net when you fail

believe not only in your creator

but in yourself

you are but one, separated and visible as two

as a mirror and smoky veil

be you

because in all that is truth

you are

-Daniel Herr

13-Oct-2009

Dreams: Doorways to Revelation

2010-05-27T21:30:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a talk at Living Stones about senses as answers from the big man upstairs when we give our undivided attention and allow ourselves to be led by God.

Riddle Me That!

2010-05-23T15:31:00.000-07:00

Each question suggests a vulgar, lewd, or salacious answer, but the actual correct answer is rather innocuous:

1. I am a protrusion that comes in many sizes. When I'm not well, I drip. When you blow me, you feel good. What am I?

2. I'm spread before I'm eaten. Your tongue gets me off. People sometimes lick my nuts. What am I?

3. I assist an erection. Sometimes big balls hang from me. I'm called a big swinger. What am I?

4. Over 1,000 people went down on me. I wasn't a maiden for long. A big hard thing ripped me open. What am I?

5. You stick your poles inside me. You tie me down to get me up. I get wet before you do. What am I?

6. When I go in I cause pain. I cause you to spit and ask you not to swallow. I can fill your hole. What am I?

7. A finger goes in me. You fiddle with me when you're bored. The best man always has me first. What am I?

8. All day long, it's in and out. I discharge loads from my shaft. Both men and women go down on me. What am I?

9. I go in hard. I come out soft. You blow me hard. What am I?

10. If I miss, I hit your bush. It's my job to stuff your box. When I come, it's news. What am I?

11. I offer Protection. I get the finger ten times. You use your fingers to get me off. What am I?

12. I have a stiff shaft. My tip penetrates. I come with a quiver. What am I?

13. My business is briefs. I am a cunning linguist. I plead and plead for it. What am I?

14. What does a woman do sitting down, that a dog does on three legs, and a man does standing up?

15. What is a four letter word, ending with "k," that means intercourse?

16. What is so long, and so hard, and sticks so far out of a man's pajamas in the morning, that he could hang a hat upon it??

17. What does a cow have four of, that a woman only has two of?

18. What is long, hard, and tubular and filled with "sea-men?"

19. What is heard almost every day that rhymes with "duck" and begins with "F?"

20. What does a dog do that a man steps into?

21. What goes in hard and dry and comes out flaccid and moist?

22. What is six inches long, has a head on it and is the object of many women's fantasies?

Every member of the Ancient and Honorable Order of Turtles has successfully answered four of the above questions. Are you turtly-enough for the Turtle Club?

Answers: (1) A Nose (2) Peanut Butter (3) A Crane (4) The Titanic (5) A Tent (6) A Dentist (7) A Wedding Ring(8) An Elevator (9) Chewing Gum (10) A Newspaper Boy (11) A Glove (12) An Arrow (13) An Attorney (14) Shake Hands (15) Talk (16) His Head (17) Legs (18) A Submarine (19) Firetruck (20) Pants (21) Bubblegum (22) Money – a dollar bill

Good People

2010-05-23T14:23:00.002-07:00

Good people like to be associated with good people…but not boring good people…not good people just filled with rhetoric…good people filled with action.

Hope

2010-05-23T14:23:00.000-07:00

People need to know that they can always be deeper, that life can always get worse…people need to live the stories firsthand…know, see, hear people that have been there and are back… people long for hope… to see that they can make it where they want to go and show them a baby step that you help them achieve… make that difference a reality in their life… make it happen and show them that change is real…change can and does happen… people are capable of doing more than they would admit, accept, or realize

Praise-free action

2010-05-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

Something I have firmly learned in my travels is that you feel so much better about life when you do something for someone else expecting nothing in return. Helping someone beyond what they expected and receiving praise for simple actions above and beyond. By taking initiative and doing what is needed and never asked; what is appreciated more than you know but hidden with all but the slightest hints.

Free and Accepted

2010-05-22T14:26:00.000-07:00

I have lived for me, I have done things that I have dreamed about for me. I have been to the top of the mountains…I have climbed peak after peak and come back down again more knowledgeable…I have seen the most beautiful sights, tasted the most brisk of winds, smelled the most beautiful of life’s gifts, lived for those who “can’t” “wouldn’t”, “will not” and “have not” experienced. Life has taken care of me… now I ask…how do I in turn give back to life…breath life back into all of those who have not the courage, the drive, the passion that I have… how do I lead the life of inspiration? How to I lead a nation, generation, a world? How do I show them what can be? How do I lead lives turned upside down? By doing it, by starting, by changing lives every day… by being that change… by inspiring people to inspire… by teaching to fish… not just feeding the mind, the intellect… by constantly improving my technique, my own understanding and teaching those I care for to free themselves…

But am I free? Is my mind free? Will I get dragged back in…will I be any different? How will I be different…show that I am better and different…not for me, but for inspiration to others.

Have I made if far enough to be an inspiration…I must keep pushing…

What is inspiring? What is improvement? What makes people better versus worse? Intellect? Standard of living? Enjoyment of life?...perhaps enjoyment in life through making the same difference in the lives of others…. As we say, people love to be part of a “miracle” people want to be the hero? How do you inspire people to do good deeds by doing good deeds for them?

Couch surfing for good deeds… providing good deed in exchange for good deeds

People prequalified…tested, tried…but then who is eliminated? Who is left out

People don’t like to ask for help…but they often need it so much more than they would ever admit…

Provide an organization that is autonomous but helps others in exchange for help…no central leadership, but governing rules… rules made by the whole… a wiki of rules.

Deed for deed

People rate how much their deed is worth in terms of demand so there is some determination of what they owe. Maybe say how much effort the person put in, how much it helped, and how grateful they are. Can it be done anonymously?

Background checks? Over the top? How to do ensure people that they are in good hands? How come members of certain organizations are automatically trusted by others? Because of an oath? Because of a commitment? How do you prove to people that it is the most urgent of commitments? How to you make the induction so memorable that they are sure to remember, to think about it constantly? How do you ensure that people will follow through?

Make it youthful… make it young people helping young people…it can expand, but the movement comes from the youth

How do you deal with crime? With the ill-happening? The bad apples in the bunch? How do you minimize the bad instances and ensure they don’t happen again? Make sure that the good done is ever so much better than the bad?

How do you make sure to show that this is not a religion? That this is people from all religions? To show that this is not centered around any belief system….this is people of all walks of life brought together by one golden rule…

How do you show that it is not the traditions that matter so much as the growth. There has to be more than just random helping…there has to be something more…much more to it…growth within, or the goals fade away… it must always change, become larger, change objectives, be dynamic. How do you ensure change and growth? Ensure there is enough information constantly adding to help people grow. Everyone contributes…but do they always contribute? Do they come to monotonous monthly meetings or come just when they need help…that is what is attractive about church…its always there when you need it, when you fall on hard times… there are sayings, words of advice, remembrance of things you have heard before, concept you believe in…

Open to religious discussions or no? take the best from all worlds or none from any one? Learn from all the nations or start anew?

It must have a mission that is believed in more firmly than any other belief. People through involvement must be show that that commitment is paramount. Must be shown through action that what they do makes a difference…that they difference they make in turn stimulates them. People must feel good about the change they make, must be willing to step outside their comfort, experience something, be enlightened, and experience the sliver of nirvana.

There must be something that identifies them…something that shows, sounds, smells as they would recognize… members are members the world around…things they say are recognized by those who know…

This is in most every sense why...I am a Mason

Clean Energy Center up and kickin!

2010-05-21T14:26:00.000-07:00

My co-workers and I have put together a sweet sweet website for our renewable energy consultation and installation company. Check out our new website: www.cleanenergycenter.com.

Dan'l

Comic Stips - The Chronicles of Banana and Gorilla

2010-05-03T21:37:00.000-07:00

Check out "The Chronicles of Banana Man and The Gorilla"

@ http://bananamanandthegorilla.blogspot.com/

Banana Food

2010-05-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

*** Please have patience this is a 4MB flash file that takes some time to load ***

The Elements Survival Training Logo

2010-03-03T15:40:00.000-08:00

"The Elements" Concept Design

"The Elements" Final Logo Design - ©Daniel Herr 2010

Truckee Red vs. White Poster

2009-12-05T15:52:00.000-08:00

Smart "Green" Grocery Store (Short Business Plan)

2009-11-20T21:26:00.000-08:00

Idea:

Smart Grocery Store with goal of zero waste, organic food stuffs, and ultimately sustainability

Store Concept:

Food products available in wholesale bins not prepackaged with wasteful plastics, cardboard, and papers. Individuals will purchase a membership to the store/club and be given containers and bags to be reused with every store/use purchase?

Food Quality:

Where available and as often as cost-sensitively possible, food products will be locally-sourced, organic, in-season,

Issues:

People have become accustomed to having all types of foods available regardless of the season. The lack of availability of all foods in all seasons will be a draw-back for customers.

Containers:

Assumedly very few different types of containers would accomplish the feat of amply storage area for the different food products available. The containers should be stackable, non-petroleum-based, bio-degradable at the end or their life, convenient to carry, reusable for many many years, easy to clean, toxin-free, crush-resistant, and individually identified (with RFID?). The containers need to be as convenient for fluids as well as solids with the ability to pour easily as well as scoop from. These containers will need to have a standard weight, fluid measurement designation, and ability to be simply weighed.

Pre-filled Containers:

As is common-place in humanity, simplicity and ease often take precedent over cost savings. In order to aid individuals seeking non-time-intensive shopping, pre-filled store containers of the most popular sizes, amounts, and weights will be made available adjacent to bulk bins.

Use of Containers

Unless an effective method/incentive is developed for individuals to return the containers, containers will disappear left and right. Immediately the ideas are either a store credit for the return of each container (incentive may not be effective enough), or a limited number of containers for each person such that the return of each container affords you another, more can be purchased, and there is the possibility to be eligible for more containers after so many returns (shopping trips).

Store membership packages:

Individual

Six Containers

Couple

Ten Containers

Family of 5

Twenty Containers

Superstar

50+

Ability to add on at any level?

Receipts:

Upon signing up store members will be enrolled in the store’s online receipt database with the ability to check receipts and sign up for email or SMS notifications about purchases at time of purchase.

***Note: Please feel free to use, build upon, and take from these thoughts***

The Cow's Utter

2009-11-02T21:38:00.000-08:00

Hot new frozen yogurt business name?

"Man thats not just the cat's meow... thats the cows utter!"

Go

2009-10-13T23:31:00.000-07:00

To lack opinion is to lack thought

to not have direction, is to sit still

to be devoid of achievements is to try nothing

confused, lost, direction-less

start walking... soon you will know if the direction feels right

even if you walk in circles you are warming your muscles for the road ahead

still and contemplating... why not walking and contemplating?

sit when you must rest

do not sit debating about how to walk

Cougardom - for the young :)

2009-10-13T21:25:00.000-07:00

Possible Tee-Shirt Design?

Maybe I should make one for the Saber-Tooths too...

One-Way Life

2009-08-27T14:07:00.000-07:00

Cheers all!

I have recently returned to the states, am in Reno for the next two days, and am heading up to hang with my family for a while at the beginning of the week. I have been continuously writing, updating and revising my stories and at this point the new stories that you haven't heard (including that which follows) totals 14 pages in word documents, and they are not yet half complete. Man writing is time consuming!

Again I have broken up the stories into short and long form...I warn you to choose wisely...haha...my stories are growing. And again, if you haven't had a chance yet, check out some of my pictures at picasaweb.google.com/Daniel.Herr. If you have missed any of the earlier stories, see below this email. I wish all the very best and I hope this email finds you well...

[SHORT VERSION]

Ran into this girl Helena from England again (I’d met her when I was chillin with Flavia in Dunedin)
Arranged to meet Helena on the Train from Palmerston North to Hamilton on Saturday
Started Hitchhiking North
Caught a Ride with the former Chief Technology Officer of the New Zealand Navy
Started chatting with this 80-year-old guy in a mall named Stan
Went back to Stan’s house for a beer
Had a few beers with Stan, went bowling, had some more beers, ordered pizza, had a few more beers, passed out in Stan’s spare bedroom
Went to the largest classic car museum in New Zealand with Stan
Caught a ride to Palmerston North
Got in touch with Jenny Biss McMillan (was a foreign exchange student with my mom’s parents in California many years ago)
Caught the train with Helena
Met Jenny and the fam
Stuck around “Hamiltron” for a week for Megan’s and Kurt’s 21^st Birthday Parties

....There is quite a bit more to come...

[LONG VERSION] ...WARNING! these stories are not perfectly edited...they are RAW! :)

Oh Welly

From where I left off last time:

I wrote my last email in a smoke filled apartment room of Brandon (see last email for a bit about him). I’m not sure if I mentioned this last time, but being in that apartment was something like an episode of Friends; such an interesting mix of characters piled into studio-esk apartment setting with no real definition between rooms, rooms filled with unused and casually used furnature piled to the roof; room enough to move things aside for a band gig/practice; enough rooms for 10-15 people (I’m really not sure how many people there were there in actuality as I seemed to always be meeting a new roommate in the morning when I woke up on one of those random mattresses in the middle of the room [you know the one just below that 1970’s orange, brown, and off-white couch and behind the swing hanging from the 15-foot high concrete roof on your way to the multi-(all-be-it-bright)-colored bathroom (if you can call it a room – only walls) in the corner behind the washer, but not the dryer, if there was even a dryer].

[Okay, after an hour I think I’m just getting to where I left off writing – and just about to run out of battery power on my laptop]

So I was getting quite sick of morning after morning waking up in the smoky air of this apartment feeling like I had asthma… I couldn’t take it any more…good people, but I can’t do smoke. Earlier that week I had been sitting outside what looked like a church congregation just across the street from the apartment inside of a Café waiting for Gene to show up back at the apartment when I met this guys Matt. Matt came outside the church and asked if I would like to come in. In my fashion (as Megan has so defined) “I was like, Yeah, Okay.” I honestly don’t remember too much of the sermon, but I do know there was a youthful video about promoting a good culture of the kids in the city to hang out with fellow Christians away from drugs and inter-city trouble. But regardless Matt and I had been chatting it up in the back and I was invited to dinner afterward, where of course I played sous-chef and dishwasher. Conversations after the feast turned, as they tend to do in this environment, to beliefs, discussions of god, references to the bible, to my understanding of God as a Collective Conscious, and finally to my involvement as a Free Mason. I must have made an impression as I was invited to dinner a second night, movies a third night, and man’s bible study the fourth night (where I learned about stag day – I need to bring this back to the states). By the fifth night I had another place to stay with another Matt away from the smoke-filled apartment. I said my farewells to Gene, Brendon and the rest of the Flatmates…as has been my habit, it was time for change again.

We had had a party earlier in the week at Helena’s cousin’s flat after some drinks and food at Curly-Haired Jake’s place (one of Gene and Brendon’s good friends). We brought along bottles of nameless wine produced by the father of Jake’s flatemate (Interesting character…I don’t think gay, but definitely on the metro-sexual side – scarf wearing, mustache, tall and skinny, dark hair, furry hat, almost French accent, but deeper with a mild lisp, tight jeans and dark felt jacket – does that give you the picture?). Anyway, the point here is Helena did not expect to see me here, better yet ever again after Dunedin a few days earlier when we’d had salsa lessons together. Gene had decided that he wasn’t as interested in her as he thought he had been and decided that since he knew Helena was interested in me that he would pass the buck on (or in otherwords he decided to give Helena my number – I hadn’t given it to her). Well after a day or two I heard from Helena asking what Gene and I were up to… anyway, I ended up catching up with Helena again and after chillin at her Uncle’s place one night decided that I’d meet her in Palmerston North to catch a train up to Hamilton (again, I was like, Yeah, Okay, why not…right? – funny enough later on I found out that Hamilton is where Jenny Biss lives). From the morning when Helena’s cousin (guy) and I dropped her off at the bus station I had two nights to make it to Palmerston North and I wasn’t too particular about which way I ended up getting there. I walked to the end of town on the north end and after a text from Helena saying that she’d seen me along the side of the road, I caught a right with the former Chief Technology officer of the New Zealand Navy and his daughter.

[Okay 9 minutes battery power left if that…and I’m just getting to the stories]

Stan the Man

[Alright, well days and days later I am now living in a Flat with the most epic view of the Southern Alps, been hanging out with Olympic Gold Medalist Kelly Clark this week, went Heli-skiing yesterday, and have been sitting in the sun in the Jacuzzi here this morning, with again the most epic views…but nonetheless, back to the stories…]

There isn’t too much to tell of the ride with the CTO of the Navy other than some real interesting projects that he shared with me that I can’t really pass along…but needless to say an interesting ride. As I disremember their names at this point (I want to say Craig) I will say “they” so; they dropped me off right in the middle of town by the local food store (Countdown I believe it was there) with the subsequently attached mall (good idea having everything in one place I think; grocery store attached to the mall…bring home to the US?...maybe). So there I was alongside the road in Paraparumu (say Para-par-umu) next to this mall and after a dozen or so cars passed me by with thumb raised high, I decided I would go in for a little something to snack on. One of the rules of hitchhiking to know is there will always be someone else passing by and eventually, if you give it enough time (and you’re not in a sketchy place, wearing sketchy clothes with a gun slung over your shoulder), you’ll catch a ride in the direction you’re looking to go. If you’re looking for a few more of these rules I’ll just throw a shameless plug in here for “A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”

So I went into the market looking for snack foods. One thing that Gene and I had given a go on our night cruising the streets of Christchurch was sun-dried tomatoes, cheese, and ham sandwiches…in much the same fashion I was looking to emulate the same tastes, though this time I believe I went for the ritz-like crackers, cheese, and sundried tomatoes variation. I was feeling quite snack-happy so beer nuts, carrots, celery, and a white powerade accompanied the feast. Just as I walked out of the store with my 27kg + slung over my back into the mall I had most recently noticed to be directly attached to the store, an older man was wondering in much the same fashion to the same 3-way intersection in the tall-halled mall that I was. Here was Stan, a seventy-some (if not eighty) year old man, wearing a dull colored sweater, collared shirt, and sneakers. Imagine Mr. Rogers…with a little bit of a hunch, comforting and mellow in looks, very alert, but with what I would call a basset-hound droopy face. Stan was curious and with my backpack of knick-knacks, skateboard, hammock, and rope attached to the outside, I was an obvious topic for conversation in a small town mall. The most obvious question being obviously a traveler, “So where are you from?” he asked with a smile and direct engagement. The answer had become fairly routine, “California,” being a better answer than Truckee, Reno, or Tahoe at first because they require local knowledge, more suitable than Nevada because the assumption is then Vegas (“Oh, so not Vegas? How close do you live to Vegas?” “Oh just about nine hours drive away”), and of course there is the natural stigma about California being as cool as the other side of the pillow (which of course it is, but you have to answer to the fact that no you are not from the OC or Hollywood or LA, or anywhere near LA…so maybe Nevada would be just as good?).

After addressing the most usual of questions that a traveler encounters, Stan determined I was of some interest and being alone in the course of his daily life offered if I would like to hang-out and chat over a cup of coffee or tea. Not being one to turn down an interesting opportunity to meet an intriguing “local” I accepted (it being early in the day and assuming that I would still be able to catch a ride further north if I so wished.

Stan lives in a quaint and simple brick house just up across the railroad track and back two blocks on the left. The layout is simple as well…Garage on the right side (North), Living and Dining room on the far left (South) with a hallway down the middle in between (North to South) and rooms on either side. At the small circular table adjacent to the kitchen, Stan asked if I would like “Coffee, tea, or…I have some beer if you’re keen.” Having left my bag in the “Boot” (Kiwi/British name for a cars trunk) and brought my snacks along (including the beer nuts) I took the obvious choice for a weekday afternoon, “How about a beer.” “Sure, why not,” says Stan.

Stan and I spent the next couple of hours speaking about everything from family, to politics, relationships, traveling, his trips to the United States and Europe, growing up, and experiences with Lady Folk to include questions like, “Come on Dan, tell me something you would only tell a total stranger” to which answers I will not repeat. Suffice to say Stan is a most interesting character with some unique (to say the least) life experiences, stories I will never forget, and private suggestions I am not sure if I will try. Maybe the most interesting of comments on the night (aside from discussions mentioned above of course) was Stan’s insistence on the fact that the “Outlawing of drunk driving has ruined it for everyone.” “I am a better driver when I’ve had a few drinks, and I’ve never had an accident”… whatever you say Stan. All together Stan, having lost his wife two years prior, was most appreciative of the company and all in all Stan and I had 13 beers, 200-odd peanuts, four games of bowling, and an extra-large BBQ pizza on the evening between us. Stan naturally offered the spare bedroom in his house as a place to crash for the night and a proper bed was graciously accepted. Early in the morning, after a spot of breakfast, Stan insisted on taking me on a tour through town and a walk through the largest antique and classic car museum in the southern Hemisphere (even with the number of years I have been to Hot August Nights, this is quite a display, I must say). Stan was happy to drop me at the north end of town so that I could continue in my journeys and left me with a number to get in touch with him should I pass back through. Thanks Stan! I have never had such interesting discussions, left field suggestions, and jaw-dropping narrations as with 80-year old Stan the Man.

[Well, with that said, I’m off to church…Lighthouse Church here in Wanaka, we hold it in Ardmore Café below Speight’s Ale House (Pride of the South!) on Sunday Nights…man, not complaining, but this is taking a while to write…I’m sorry for those who take the time to read it whenever I end up finishing writing about this chapter of my life… Cheers.]

All Aboard

[Just got back from a sustainable building workshop at the Library in Wanaka…listening to some Kora (Reggae/DUB/Drum n’ Bass/Hip Hop/Blues….Good stuff!!) in the dusk of the evening (6.46pm)…its now Tuesday the 11^th…I’ve been dealing with roommate lease, bond, and transition issues most of the day following a very well received interview with McDougal & Co? Civil and Structural Engineers this morning…we’ll see if anything comes of it…but for now back to Paraparumu…right…]

I caught a ride out of town after all but a few minutes (okay actually about 20…the North Island is a little slower to catch rides on) with a couple of young men going back to Massey University for a rugby tournament in following day. There isn’t too much to discuss about this ride other than the textbooks I literally had to sit on top of in the back seat and floor. We stopped off at the Pak-n’-Save where they were getting some snacks for before their practice and preparing to load up on carbs the night before their games. I ended up walking into town, banging around on some Djembe’s (which I have been stoked on ever since the jam session in Dunedin) in Rock Shop and after being kicked out for having too much fun with the “expensive DJ equipment,” I got a pizza bagel, watched ducks procreate in the park, got kicked out of a parking garage for skateboarding far away from cars on the top level, cut the hair SS (short and sexy as Musick-man would say) again, took pictures with some numerical artwork, and skated over the catch the new Transformers 2 movie (Okay, Megan Foxx did nothing but run around and look provocative all movie, but she did it damn well…jus sayin’) and waste some time until the guys finished up with practice. Good guys all together, they offered me a place to stay later that night if I needed and gave me a number to text them at…I believe I still have Chris’ or Calum’s number somewhere… regardless they never got back to me.

At some point during the evening, somewhere between duck fornication and Megan Foxx’s airbrushing scene, I received a text from Jenny McMillan (formerly Biss). Jenny said that she had heard/seen (via one of my previous email story sessions on which my mother had copied her) that I was on the North Island and offered a place to stay if I was ever in Auckland, Hamilton, or Hawks Bay… funny enough I was about to catch a train with Helena in the morning from Palmerston North (where I was) to Hamilton (where Helena was getting off). A few texts later and I had it arranged for Jenny to pick me up at the Train Station in the morning! This plan-free life seems to be working out alright hunh? I guess the big guy upstairs (or maybe Grandma Foster – love and miss you Gummy-Bear Gran’ma) is looking after me.

Only problem is now, aside from the fact that I don’t know where the train station is, its quarter-til midnight, I don’t have a place to spend the night, its been raining on and off, and my 27kg pack is getting heavier by the minute; is that having not but popcorn since breakfast with Stan the Man, I am FRICKING HUNGRY! Skip the food…straight to unsettling a disgruntled troll they call the Backpacker Manager…she was not happy to be disturbed, rightfully so (and I am sorry for that to this day), but I don’t believe her beauty-sleep was doing her any good anyhow (Wow, I am going to hell for that one…Lord I apologize…that’s just not right). She didn’t take kindly to my comment that cops would not be happy with my sleeping in the gutters of the street, but after answering “Yes-ma’am” to every question and request (as is my habit) she found me a bed for the night. I was quick to bed, tough I may have slept better in the street with booming traffic being not compared to the guilt screaming through my head all night. I was sure to be up, Adam, and out in short order the following morning… though the morning troll did seem to be far kinder than that which lurks in the evening, I must admit.

Right…Time to catch a train to Hamilton (wherever that is). All I know is that I have never ridden a train more than a quarter-mile (honestly think about it…other than grandparents, who really rides trains in the US?) and I was stoked! After skate-wonder (with a massive pack on of course) through the streets and kickin’ it with some Maori Construction Workers managed to find the train station and even give a anxiously hasty, though friendly, guy directions to VTNZ in the process (what what!...yeah, nah…I had passed it earlier).

[Okay, this stupid fire detector is going off, let me see what it’s up to…. I’ll be right back]

[…No fire…just girls and long showers]

Helena showed up just a few minutes before we were to load up, slightly aloof, with consistently more luggage than the previous times I’d seen her. She of course forgot to get luggage tags (man, even I knew that I needed luggage tags, jeez…okay, okay, you’re right, I just heard it over the PA system… see guys are good at multi-tasking…hold that thought, just grabbing a drink…[gulp]…alright where was I?...oh right… Fine you win!) so I grabbed the tags for her being the single-tasking chivalrous gentleman I am. After chucking my bag which they classified as “CAUTION! HEAVY! – USE LEGS TO LIFT!” I was more amped than a Catholic kid on an Easter Sunday Egg Hunt to get this show on the road.

[Okay, got caught up with Roommates moving out, a couple Australian guys that Jodi brought back from the bar who have been there all day, and Hannah watching HouseBunny…Strike that…Once again, picking back up the pieces after a hiatus… Let’s just put it this way, we had an epic party for my flat-mate Kate, just answered the door to receive pieces back from the party (the usual blue iPod, red high-heels, and white 34C bra that were left lying around), I helped out with the Volkl FreeSki Open for the past few days, my basketball team is in the playoffs, it has been gorgeously sunny all week, and I, well I am catching a plane (or three) back to Reno/Tahoe…Whooop whoooooooooooop…gutted, but still…]

Helena and I quickly found our seats (and I say our because Helena had made sure the attendant knew we were to sit together) and headed immediately through the rest of the train to the viewing room in back. Bored and finding the conversation pieces with the recently-retied surrounding us all but lackluster within an hour, we returned to our seats and ensued …

…I am going to skips elements of the train ride for now…it was a train ride…you ride a train, you see sites, you have conversations…

We stopped in Okahuuna (spell check) and had some bombin pancakes and carotcake

Family Matters

…Jenny McMillan picked me up from the train station. I had no idea who to look for other than a woman around my mother’s age; but Jenny sure knew who I was. She welcomed me with a motherly familiarity to a complete stranger dressed in tattered clothes and mounted with a massive burden. After quick introductions and placing my bag in the usual boot (since it all but says “I am ominous and will scratch up the insides of your vehicle,”) we slid into the dark blue sedan that definitely said, “I mean business,” and were on our way to a whole week of family matters.

Meet the Brady Bunch:

Jenny – Well Grounded single mother of three who is cautiously analytical and well determined to more than just make it work.

Oliver – Quietly Astute 16-year-old school boy who is not afraid of work when it must be done, but rather enjoys his free time.

Ed – Peaceful Achiever who in his first year of University speaks more with action than words.

Kate – Innately Curious Sponge who cares earnestly for that which is close to her.

Meghan – Boisterously Determined and though discouraged at times keeps on pushing through being what I would call, “Uniquely You.”

Kurt – Compassionate Strength who is not afraid to put it all out there when it counts.

Alice – Gentle Polar Bear who enjoys the big laughs, big hugs, and true friends, but won’t be easily pushed around out of her will

Kiwi Dan – Casual Rip-Tide who appreciates the curveballs and loves to feel the flow as long as it’s in his direction.

American Dan – Loud and Outgoing in that all-so-American way, Bold (or borderline naive), Multi-Dimensional (maybe just two sided – Chillax-edly Introspective and Aggressively Determined)

The topics of the week (aside from planning for two unprecedented birthday parties) became, “How can we be as interesting to Dan as some of his stories so that when he writes about us it will be interesting?” The question lead to:

Aiding a bike rider hit by a car (no not Ben and Brenden – this was actually another one)
Kiwi-style 21^st Birthday Parties – Genuine attempts to embarrass the celebrate in every possible way
Maori Families, Traditions, and Customs
Mince and Cheese Pie
Finding a Spaceship in a Redwood Forest
Above-ground graves
Mussel Pie
Cultural Gardens
Maori museum exhibits
Had the cheapest possible, but most bad-ass day in “Rotovegas”
Had Hokie-Poke Ice Cream and New Zealand Baked Goodies

The attempts (all of which I very much appreciated and rightfully were successes) to show me something that I had not seen or experienced were spectacular, but the most entertaining of all was not anything outside for the showing or pointing out. After a week with the Brady Bunch I have to say that the dynamics of the group made for constant 8+ way conversation. We ended the week with two epic birthday parties in “Hamiltron” for Megan’s and Kurt’s 21^st's.

As I mentioned I am still in the progress of finishing up my stories and for the time being will be stopping them short here. If you haven't had a chance yet check out some of my pictures at picasaweb.google.com/Daniel.Herr. I hope all is well wherever this email finds you. We will be in touch again real soon.

Daniel S. Herr

Daniel.Herr@gmail.com

530.414.3485

Authorship

2009-08-24T22:30:00.000-07:00

Thoughts…too distracted to write too much coherent as there are loads of distractions, noises, musics, voices filling my ears not to mention the constant movements, smells, temperature fluxes and judging eyes over the shoulder. One cannot help but constantly revise their thoughts as they transition from conception to material word with the constant reaction judging resulting in not but the most re-formulated, unoriginal, emulation of others’ perceptions. Is it from lack of confidence? Not necessarily. Being an orator and socially active creature you are prone to constantly reading the reaction of you “audience” and tweaking what you say in response to the reaction. But when you are not looking for a crowd directive, but rather a directly subjective story without outside bias to recall the events as they were experienced by the author, one must eliminate outside stimuli that are foreign to comfort and monotony so that the blank canvas can be painted with the recollection and vivid imagination of the author.

Morphing Structures

2009-08-22T22:27:00.000-07:00

How can building become morphying structures – prepared for demolition or expansion. Ready to easily become the shell for something new or the parts for another building… How do we make buildings as Lego’s with standard components where there is plenty of room for creativity, reorganization, change, improvement, disassembly, recreation, and removal…

American Cultural Idiocy and Our Future

2009-08-22T21:50:00.000-07:00

Our reactions as an American people is like coming home to spend time with the family; not your wife and kids, your folks, your parents, brothers and sisters. It’s like being thrown back into the fire, into a different mix that you remember with some distaste, but you go along with it just the same. In this mix you do your best to step up, take care to the dishes, do the chores, only to find that in the end your parents enjoy taking care of you once again. You end up in the situation where things are provided for you, meals are cooked, beds are prepped, days are planned. You find yourself in a routine being cared for… a life filled with thoughtless actions, lazy habits, and dreamless nights. Though you may be irritated, you are surrounded by comfort and ease of life, neglecting dramatic spousal tensions of course.

Eating to eat, not necessarily because you are hungry, sleeping to sleep, though you are restless and full of energy, suppressing the jitters to do something else for the sake of the family, surrounded by the wings of the family, knowing that we don’t have to worry about much… food will be on the table tonight

This is how we are as a people. We are Americans and each and every one of us wants to be a Hero and believes in the Hero mentality. We are instilled from youth with the idea that you can be saved when all has gone wrong, that you can repent and seek forgiveness, that when you are in your deepest darkest moment, there can still be a happy ending. We believe as the little rat drowning in the UC Berkley lab, that we will be saved by the ever glorious outstretched hand. The hand of God, the hand of a parent, the hand of a Super Hero, the hand of a passing stranger who wants to be that Hero. We believe as part of our culture that a Savior will come in our daily lives, in our worst moments, to solve our problems as a species, to correct our errors in this world. Even if we are not glowing outward with this revelation, this belief, we at least consider the possibility that we could be saved, that there might be a God, that even if we completely screw everything up, Big Daddy will come save us. Even if we turn this world to shit, a day may come when we are taken away from “God-awful world” into one of peace and harmony. That a hero will save us, don us in white robes, and welcome us to some glorious land where all our conflicts, disagreements, and discourse in this life will cease to exist. We will undergo transformation through death, and find life anew… maybe we will… maybe we will find ourselves right back in this world with a chance to do it over again… with the opportunity to try one more time from the beginning.

It is in this belief that we dismiss all responsibility. Sure, I am concerned about the environment, I want a good future for my family, I don’t want to just throw life away; but I have more important things to worry about. And besides, aren’t we supposed to have a savior coming one of these days? Aren’t others always calling for the end of time? What about Y2K version 2.0 (December 21^st 2012)? Or is there an ice age coming again? One of those things should fix all the problems right? And even if not, there are tons of people smarter than me that should worry about that sort of thing. I mean Big Brother is scary at times, but doesn’t it also give you the confidence that Uncle Sam is looking out for our best interest. I mean Big Brother is smart right? He’ll take care of us. It’s the USA man; we always save the day…

Or so we would believe. Hollywood movies read like a US Military advertisement campaign. I don’t know if directors get free access to Military Stock footage, equipment, personnel, tactics, and consultation, but it sure has been a good move on their part if they have. Movies like the recently released Transformers 2 shine an amazingly bright light for the United States and make claims that would have you believe that the President of the United States is the Supreme Ruler of the Earth; thought I know other countries would have their two bits to say about this. I saw this movie in New Zealand with a Frenchman and a New Zealander after which both proclaimed that they wished they were United States Citizens so that they could join the US military. Now I know this is just a movie, and I know this is just ONE movie, but it is the epitome of what we portray and believe as a populace.

We believe without question what we see in movies and TV without even realizing it; we believe in being saved, in always having a hero, in always having a savior. Now I will not shed this all in a negative light, because through our beliefs we have pushed harder in the past than many would have ever thought possible. Like the rat in the experiment swimming for 20 hours instead of the median 7 simply because of hope, belief; not something that we simply tell ourselves, but a deep down knowledge that even if we fail we will be caught. Even if we slip on the ice, fall off the rock, collapse from the heat; we will be taken care of, saved, comforted, and nourished back to health. We have the wings of a family, the arms of an angel, and the grace of a father high in the sky that will take us to his kingdom everlasting.

With Television in our lives as a constant background noise, Movies as the stories we hear and know, and music filling any void left, our world is shaped. We define our realm by what we see. Life is no longer shaped by life, but by our perception of life. People no longer recognize the world for what it is, but instead for what they compare it to on television. Wow, these loggers are just like I saw in Axe Men. This ship is just like on Titanic. This beach is just like in the OC. I feel like Ewoks should be popping out of this forest. Hollywood’s “reality” is so entrenched in us that even our movies refer to movies; Martin Laurence in Bad Boys 2, “Mike, I seen this in a movie once. They didn't make it!” We quote movies every day and in part define our culture by them. I mean, who hasn’t said, “I’ll be back!” imitating the Governator’s thick accent?

Consider this; I’m pretty sure that it is a general consensus that we enjoy living and/or that it is better than the alternative. We find ourselves on this earth for one reason or another (I’ll leave that for another discussion) with a whole gamut of future possibilities in front of us. Each of us has a feeling that we are going in a certain direction, we are driving in our car at 100 miles per hour (160 kph), moving along on some course. It is obvious the direction we are going, for the immediate future, because we can see the road straight ahead and just in front of us. We know we’re running out of fuel, and we are idiotically keeping the pedal to the medal in our jilapi hoping we can make it to another gas station. We know that we don’t want to take any immediate abrupt turns onto side roads because that would cause us to slow down and loose the thrill of breaking the speed limit. But heck, if we saw a sign that for sure told us there was a truck-stop to the right at a y in the road, we might be willing to take a last minute veer off-course.

Now if we were all to stop, pull each of our cars off the road for a few minutes and line each and every one of us up along a great race line extended through the salt-flats without any speed rolling under our wheels, we would realize that we can go in any one of millions more than 360 degrees of direction. But what happens? It’s a prisoners dilemma isn’t it. One jackass with a nitros tank and racing fuel decides he wants to spin some broadies and jet off into the distance seeing how fast he can go, and we say, “ I bet I can beat him” and off we go. Off without purpose of direction, or course; just a straight line with the idea that we want to go faster than joe-blow ahead of us. If we beat him, go faster than him, and leave him in our dust, we’ll slow down, spin a couple more doughnuts and jet off in the next straight line for the immediate thrill and maybe hours later when we’re all out of fuel we’ll return to our original line to fuel back up and ask where we really want to go.

The point is, if we don’t get off our high horses and realize that we have to take responsibility for our actions; not just throw away those 1000 year plastic bottles; not just say that it is a concern but it’s not that bad yet; not just write it off for the future generation and assume that our problems will be solved by someone. If we all drive by the accident on the freeway and assume that there are so many other people passing by that “I’m sure someone else will call.” What happens when we all say that? What if there is no savior? What if alien life forms do not come from another planet with all their life-saving/changing technologies? What if we realize for once as a species that we are responsible for our own demise?

Step back, take a look, the future is upon us every waking second and to assume we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it without considering the ensuing monsoon is arrogant, irresponsible, and flat-out idiotic. Living for today’s satisfaction will not work any longer. We have become fat and lazy driven by immediate desires and lacking long-term goals. We have become a consumer (and I hate to use the cliché statement but) fast food economy, driven by immediate results even if it means sacrificing long-term goals instead of the opposite.

Where is our discipline and determination? Our ability to sacrifice today for tomorrow? It is so easy today to be wasteful because wasteful is cheaper than thrifty. Costco and Walmart make more sense than the corner store and buying what you really need. What happened to building something that lasts, buying something that has been prolonged, planning for more than now? We all know what happened; in a Capitalist economy it didn’t make sense any more. When we are all driven by value, by money; when it is the foundation of our culture and defines class; why would you but an $90 part for your broken outdated printer when you can get a brand new one for $100? Why would you drive miles to recycle your used batteries, glass bottles, and old clothes when the trash man come to take away anything you don’t want every week? Why would you buy organic eggs, bio diesel, or recycled paper when it costs four times more for the same amount? You wouldn’t, you won’t and you don’t unless your perceived value of the more thrifty, more eco-friendly, more intelligent choice is greater than the cost difference over time. And we can see that it is only when the cost of the usual, more economical option is comparable to that of the smarter option as is seen in tough economic times (such as gasoline in 2008) that we will choose the smarter option. We act on money first, then intellect.

Of course we can see the other side of this money issue as well. If money is taken out of the equation because it is of no consequence (i.e. we are not sacrificing mortgage payments to buy different groceries), then we once again act on intelligence and choose the free-range, organic, brown eggs because all choices are on the same playing field.

So how do we put the smarter options on a level playing field? Who determines what the smarter option is? Do we go for the Best Available Technology or the Best Practical Means? We use these terms when referring to pollution control of the environment and they might rightly be applied to the intake and experiences of the human body with the environment.

The time has come for practical consideration and effective action toward designing our world as a whole. No longer can we sit back, act as individuals, the keep our heads down to the grind without constantly analyzing the consequences of our actions. As my welding teacher Tommy the Torch once said, “If you don’t Stop Think Act and Review it will turn in to the other acronym; Shit That Ain’t Right!” The plants and animal life that surround us, the earth as a whole, the planets, stars and galaxies that surround us have not continued to exist through chance, regardless of how they were initiated; each and every one has evolved. Life has changed, organisms have died and been reborn, plants have found the environs in which they belong, fish the water to swim in, being the planet to be on, stars a fuel to burn, and planets a star to surround. The answers for survival exists around us though the natural process of selection, survival of the fittest, existence of the most suitable. We’ve had the stigma for the longest that environmentalism is the hippie-ism, earth-child, granola crunchy, weed-smoking, dread-lock totting antithesis of Capitalism. What we fail to realize is that being eco-friendly is not underserved, counter-productive, or about being “green.” It’s not about donning earth-tones. It’s not about giving up everything and attempting to live in the woods. What we must realize is that we need to be intelligent about the mutually symbiotic relationship that we need to share with all the surrounds us and part of that is our environment, the earth we live on, the only place in the universe that we know for sure hosts life.

For as long as we can remember as a “civilized” people with written history we have not had to take responsibility for our actions with respect to the environment. The assumption has always been that this world is so large and has so much to offer that our small little actions will be corrected by the natural processes of the world that we don’t fully understand. If I pour out the oil from my truck today, it will just filter back into the earth where it came from. If burn a wood fire, the trees will sort out the CO₂, the rain the ash in the sky, and so and so. If I kill a wild animal to eat, there will be more later on next time I am hungry. If I don’t want something anymore I throw it away, the garbage man takes it, and I don’t care about it anymore. If I sell something, it is bought, I get the money, and I move on to the next sale. What about the lifecycle of what we create? The plastic water bottle is the epitome of this. Because we feel that our time is more valuable than the time it would take to plan, refill, and place a bottle in the refrigerator we continue to go with the easier cheaper option. I don’t blame you. It makes sense. It’s cheaper in all of our minds to continue purchasing the 24-packs of bottled water for five dollars because they are so convenient.

But think about the life of these bottles. These bottles consume ungodly amounts (17 Million Gallons per year) of petroleum and natural gasses, sure and use about seven times more water to produce than they hold… okay, that’s great. We know all these facts, blah, blah you’re boring me with statistics... The real issue here is our stupidity.

Imagine you try a new candy. Now this is no normal candy, this is the Wanka of all Wanka bars and puts those little green-haired, orange skinned Umpa-Lumpa’s life work to shame. This candy is so delectable, it’s like nothing you’ve ever tasted before, and what’s more is the sensory you feel while trying it is truly better than the hottest sex you could ever imagine. It’s not a drug, there is nothing immoral about it, and even the church is a fan of this stuff for abstinence. The only downside is that every bit you ingest will be weight added to you for the rest of your life. If you eat an ounce of it, you will be an ounce heavier for the rest of your life no matter what you do. Now one try sure as heck won’t kill you, nor will consuming it for months straight, as long as you are okay with putting on pound after pound.

As a kid it is candy, you love it, you love the sweets, you don’t know enough to care about sweets. As an adolescent you become a little self conscious and aren’t sure you should consume as much, but you love the feeling. As an adult, you realize how much weight you have gained and know that you shouldn’t have a dip anymore, though you sneak a taste every now and again. But then you reach true maturity when are retired with your kids well out of the house and financial freedom in front of you. Now you have time to look at past present and future with analytical eyes and realize, before you hit an age where you feel too old to accomplish much in a given day other than the necessities, that you wish you hadn’t gained so much weight living for fast cars and freedom. You now understand that you need to live today not just for today, but to live today as the first day of the rest of your life with all those handfuls of experiences in your bag as tools of knowledge to use all along the way.

Now sitting pretty at 62 and a half years old you consider that each M&M sized candy you consumed only weighted ½ oz, or 1/32^nd of a pound. If you consumed those little babies at the same rate we consume water bottles in the US, those little guys add up to 420 lbs! [1]Even if you only horded those little delicious bites as a teen, you easily double your fat; and that is rock-hard weight that you will never, ever loose. You are an oversized mammoth who even overbears the weights of his quarter-ton truck all because of instant satisfaction.

The point is to illustrate the stupidity with which we consume because we do not have to see the background action. All we care about is the fifteen minutes to four weeks that a water bottle, for example, plays in our life; or rather we play in it. It will well outlast us, our grandchildren, for that matter 40 generations down the line that water bottle will still be staring someone down in an over-stuffed landfill. “We recycle!” you say. The sad part of the story is that by saying that you are in the minority. Even by the most liberal estimates, only 30% of plastic drink bottles are recycled today (2009). So let’s put these forty generations in perspective. Two generations ago my grandparents were living through the Great Depression being as thrifty as possible, Four generations ago my family was making carriages in Pennsylvania, Twelve generations ago my family came across the Atlantic Ocean with William Penn to start a new life in a new world, Seventeen generations ago my family were Schwabish Knights who had just received a Coat of Arms from the Emperor Ferdinand, 40 generations ago Leif Ericson was just discovering what would become New England. All 15,622 could have consumed[2] in his 73 years would still be around not just today, but for another 709 years! Is that how we want to be remembered? Remembered for filling the earth with our garbage. Producing a world just to dispose of it? Enough about water bottles, but we are consuming 8 light minutes worth of plastic water bottles every year in the United States. 8 light minutes! That’s the same as a tower of water bottles stacked from here to the sun! And the largest shame of all is that we find a use them for one twelve-thousandth of their life at best. In comparison that would be two days of your life. You are only useful for two days of your life out of 365 days a year for seventy-five years. Can you imagine being kept in jail, being told you are useless, and sitting in the dark for 27,391 days out of 75 years? What sense does that make? Can you imagine having a 13-year old Labrador that you have only ever given 4-minutes to play in its entire life? Can you imagine owning a house your entire life, making mortgage payments on it month after month and only ever using it for one weekend and then setting it on fire? How about purchasing a $200,000 Ferrari just so you can drive it seven and a half miles and crash it off a cliff? (whew!…Sorry about that rant)

With this said, don’t be mad at the bottle producer. Don’t be angered with all the friends you know, your family, and even yourself for purchasing the cheap option. You have been logical, they have been logical when it comes to the short-run, and the immediate satisfaction. You can’t say bottled water producers are evil; oil companies are bad; fossil fuels are the devil. The response to problems cannot be pointing of fingers, “You are on the evil team, and this is good versus evil.” Finding problems is great because that creates opportunity. To react with stubborn hatred is punish a baby for crying as a natural reaction to plugged ears on an airplane yelling “Shut Up! Please Shut Up!” We cannot simply treat the symptoms and assume all is good. If you have a headache, chances are it’s for a good reason. Instead of treating the root the problem and looking for the understanding that we need to eat better and get glasses because we spend too much time staring at a computer screen, we down the Advil every day and keep on chugging. If you have back problems it’s probably because you didn’t take good care of your feet. If you’re fat, it’s probably not because you have a disease and don’t drive to the gym and look for the closest parking spot every week, try living a more active lifestyle. What do all of these things teach us? That before “civilization” we may have had all the tools to live a healthy life; that we need to seek understanding; that we cannot discredit the decisions we make every day and how they butterfly affect the world. So don’t point that finger, don’t call companies evil, instead ask if we’re on the wrong path, how do we correct ourselves? How do we have an understanding with all that we do? How do we consciously evolve and ensure that our posterity may live as fruitful a life as we can ourselves?

[1] Based upon 2008 bottled water market of 8.6 billion gallons with average bottle size of 0.5L and US populations of 304 Million. Gives 214 bottles per year average.214

[2] Based upon 2008 bottled water market of 8.6 billion gallons with average bottle size of 0.5L and US populations of 304 Million. Gives 214 bottles per year average.214

Existence Beyond Us

2009-08-22T21:45:00.000-07:00

What is the existence beyond us? Why are we convinced that there is more than just the physical? What is the world beyond the rational, the logical, the predictable rule-filled world we live in? What else are we a part of? How do I explain the happening that I have seen before, the occurrences that I knew would come? How do I explain vivid dreams that come to life before my very eyes? How do I explain the connection with more than just myself, occurrences that must be more than just coincidence… coincidences that are so predictably expected, though illogical and devoid of mere hap-and-circumstance? How do you explain being guided at exactly the moment you need it? How do you explain finding the answers before you have the questions? Why do we have the propensity for looking for spiritual company, divine explanation, and deeper-rooted connection regardless of background, culture, or location? Does that mean there must be something else? Does that mean we are part of something greater? Is it just our escape and explanation for that which we do not understand?

Where does life take you without reason? Where do you take yourself? Who else and what else plays a factor? What makes the golden rule/ karma/reaction so very real and true? How much does our own state of mind affect our entire being?

Cradle to Grave Design and Sustainability

2009-08-14T22:04:00.000-07:00

As with television where the argument has become that children need better programs to aid in their development and ensure their head are not filled with violence…The issue is they are watching too much TV…Don’t address the symptoms…oh, you’re sick, whats wrong?...ok here are some drugs to make you not feel bad and fool your body into thinking you are okay…what about addressing the underlying issue…for example, your back hurts because you have a leg shorter than the other; you are sick all the time because you are mal-nutritional and stressed; you aren’t sleeping at night because you don’t feel fulfilled and you don’t get any exercise during the day…instead we say, ok here are some pain killers for the back, some flu vaccinations and anxiety med to keep you from getting sick and stressed, and take these sleeping pills before you go to bed at night…Oh yeah, and here are some more pills to treat the side effects from what we have you before…Really? REALLY?! WAKE UP!...Oh that’s right, you don’t care to look at the problem or the root of the problem…work consistently as hard as you can…buy lots of crap…that’s how you get through life…isn’t it?...

Architects, Designers, Land Planners, and Governments need to perform the same self evaluations and rethinking as Modern Medicine Doctor. No more can we go, okay lets build a box that is completely impractical and simple and throw some other boxes on the side. We’ll keep out all the evil sunshine, air, heat, weather out then add lots of lights and heat in it..Oh, but wait we don’t want to have a huge power bill, so how do me make it more energy efficient?...That’s working backwards! How about designing buildings intelligently, practically, useful, naturally integrated, spiritually significant, unique (but not at the loss of practicality), from what is locally available, and that uses what is naturally given in the surrounding environment….and how about this, no turf farms in the desert where they won’t grow, no palm trees in alpine ranges, no swimming pools right next to a lake, natural light, collection of rain water… I mean, come on people…seriously.

But we in and of ourselves cannot sit and say, you are wrong…what the hell. We need to go back and look at why nations and populous simply look at the overlying issues, the symptoms. Somewhere in our lives there has been something that stimulated us to ensure that we took action. People that come together to stimulate change in policy, in environment, in living conditions, in design, in our future; we have all had some calling card; some series of events that has led us here, some certain experiences that have proved in our own minds that:

· This world is worth saving/preserving/conserving for the benefits of ourselves and others

· The changes in effect now present a viable threat to the non-existence of what we cherish in the foreseeable future

· We have the ability to influence and the control the way in which we change our environment

· For one reason or another most people (or a sufficient amount) are not aware of their impacts and how they are making or can make a difference

Sustainability?

What is the root of sustainability? Why do we look to be sustainable? Why has this become a keyword?

I took a course in college called Engineers for a Sustainable world in which I was highly disappointed. The topics of the course included:

More concentrated on the effects of engineering and technological development on society. Having sustainable practices in engineering and development procedures in the stead of

Not so much concentrated on sustainability as much as something simple that will keep working for you for a fair amount of time…?

My question that was never answered: can sustainability be sustainable without consideration for environmental impacts? Is simply saying that something is more sustainable or better than what we currently have worth raving about? Can you say you are a sustainable builder because you produce something that is relatively more sustainable? Can you claim that you are all-knowing simply because you know more than everyone else? To do so is conniving, false, illusionary, deceptive, and fundamentally flawed.

Start from the beginning, go back and design/build from the ground up with purpose, consideration, and multiple revisions…develop a revolutionarily original design, not a most improvement upon the design…innovation is not enough!

The lists of projects for the semester included Cayuga Lake Watershed, Aqua para el Pueblo, and Solar Cooking

Design

Even more important in design is undersign…. We need to understand that in creation of something we are also responsible for the “uncreation”, for the degradation, and non-existence of our creation…understanding that our creation will cease to exist at some point and we must understand (with a frame of mind that it is already dead) what will be the aftermath of what we have created? How are we designing in the end of the lifecycle of our creation? What will be done with the various components when they are to be removed from the house? Will they be destroyed? Will they be reusable? Will they be recyclable? What components of the creation will have to be disposed of? How does their decomposition/reuse time compare to their useful time? Are we throwing that 1000-year plastic bottle in the landfill when it only has a useful life of a month in the average use? Are we creating something toxic to be disposed of only in a landfill? Consider the fact that 43% (from Sustainable Wanaka figure) of landfill waste comes from construction and demolition combined.

Consideration for construction practices, materials and implementation is crucial! We cannot design a building, structure, etc and simply say here is what you are to make, now order the materials and make it happen; I don’t care how you do it just get it done. The fact of the matter is you must include in the design the planning for construction, how pieces are assembled, what materials are readily available and best suited for the project, what sizes we can use to reduce waste (and decrease construction costs).

Enzo Logo

2009-08-11T23:39:00.000-07:00

Peeps

2009-08-11T23:37:00.000-07:00

Koru

2009-08-11T22:10:00.000-07:00

This is my radial interpretation of what I would call a Digital Fibonacci Koru. "The koru (Māori for "bight" or "loop") is a spiral shape based on the shape of a new unfurling silver fern frond and symbolizing new life, growth, strength and peace. It is an integral symbol in Māori art, carving and tattoos. The circular shape of the koru helps to convey the idea of perpetual movement while the inner coil suggests a return to the point of origin." [Source: Wikipedia].

Change...

2009-08-08T21:48:00.000-07:00

CHANGE!

What is change?

What needs change?

What change can I bring?

Why hasn’t it already been changed? Or has it?

How will the change last?

Who or what is the change being brought to?

Can you bring about change just to bring about change?

What is the reason for change?

Can you say I want to change something, then find the something?

Should change be driven by the need for change?

Can you improve upon the design? Make something new?

Maybe there is a need for change…

Would I look to change something if there was no need?

What change is needed?

Change in us…change in me

Be that change…be as Ghandi said

We cannot live the lifestyles of consumption we live indefinitely

We cannot keep growing endlessly without planning for the future

No more can we just live the day by day

No more can we wander aimlessly in the path of existence

No more can we be footloose and fancy-free…

The time of party-on, binge drinking, munchy eating must end as a world

Parties are great in moderation…good times, prosperity, and growth can be had, in moderation

We cannot develop a beerbelly as a world, as a nation, consuming without self control

We must live responsibly

We cannot be merely a consumer economy

We cannot just make money on the assumption that we will keep growing

Growth is not just adding more people to the pyramid; more people to control people, to control people

We have become a pyramid scheme economy…growth and development based upon more growth and development

We have neglected and forgotten the underlying principles, the crap we are actually producing

We have become mob driven, WalMart fed and skill free…

“It doesn’t matter what crap we are selling as long as we sell more of it next year than we did this year”

What do we end up with in the end?... a bunch of crap we don’t need or want…

Well that is where we are… we have a bunch of lives stuffed with crap produced by Asia, paid for by the future

We are fighting wars so we can continue our imaginative growth with money we borrow and soldiers that aren’t ours… people with no loyalty to anything buy money

The United States has become the gold rush story of finance… “strike it rich in the U.S.!”… when the loggers are the ones really making the money

A new power has risen with the human, financial and soon to be political capital to take on the world…

[Enter China]

Fear and Life

2009-08-08T21:40:00.000-07:00

Walking in Life. You can walk in life in many different and distinct ways…stading without direction or motivation, walking without direction (walking to walk), walking without purpose or goals (following a path not knowing where it goes), walking with purpose and direction (you’ve got somewhere to be) , running with purpose (to train), running with direction (running to get somewhere more quickly)… so you can live your life…living to live, living as it comes, living dedicated to some cause, living hard core, living for the next life…

But don’t miss out on the walking because you can discover things you would not have otherwise come across or realized.

What is the scariest thing about walking through the forest in the dark? You are vulnerable…if you were still, you would see, feel and hear all around you…if you were running you would feel as though you can escape the fear… but to revel in it, just walk…feel the hairs stand up on the back of your neck… feel scared and understand it.

But is there something more important to see here? Am I Fearing of fear… do you always have to overcome fear? Or can you accept that you will always have fear? New fear, undiscovered, unknown, and untested fears? Does that mean you slide the slippery slope of no longer pushing the envelope, or do you understand that you don’t simply face fear blindly, unintelligently, and just to rid yourself of all fear? You don’t face fear because you want no fear…you face fear to grow…to take that step and find the new ones…you work through these problems, these issues, these obstacle in the road not so there will be no more obstacles (because they will always be present) but because you cannot face a wall of mountains all at once… you cannot sip every drop of that wine of refreshment all at once as the poison will kill you, but taking it drop for drop throughout time it is as the oil of joy and the corn of nourishment… it is the wine of refreshment… a pivotal part of your life. Build your pyramids one block at a time… they are not created by aliens with space ships and time travel all in one fell swoop… but through relentless dedication, hard work, constant re-evaluation, and time. Life is not magic, but persistence. Life is not something that just happens; it is what you make of it. Life will not give you every answer, but is that reason to quit? It’s a start…its growth, development, rebirth, and a new attempt to start something new…to take what you are given and even what you aren’t and make the best of it.

The Personification of Drew

2009-08-05T21:33:00.000-07:00

If you know Drew... you know who...Uniquely You...

Raglan Beach Collage

2009-07-14T14:39:00.000-07:00

more @ http://picasaweb.google.com/daniel.herr

Livestrong

2009-07-13T22:25:00.000-07:00

My Yellow Rubbery LiveStrong Bracelet broke this evening after wearing it since Grandma Foster passed. I did a cancer walk in New York in remembrance of my grandmother and subsequently decided to support LiveSTRONG by purchasing 20 bracelets and wearing one in remembrance of my Grandmother and the ideal of living every day to the best of my ability: Live healthy, live life to the fullest, do not live for regrets, LiveSTRONG!

As it tears from playing with it as has become my nervous habit in the past five years, I hold it seeing “Live ON” in the bunched up mess with a few letters hidden, hewn, or torn. A message to move on? Miss me, but not too long, miss me, but let me go…

Or is it as it truly says…after further inspection “RONG LIVES”. Wrong lives? Are we living the wrong lives? Taking the wrong lives? Living inappropriately? Not living to the best of our ability? Living the wrong lives day in and day out? Is it criticism from ancestors of the my current style of living? Disapproval of my travels, sojourns with lack of direction, aimless wandering? Is it? Have I been aimless?... Clearly I could be doing something deemed more productive… Clearly I can do more…Clearly I will do more

As with the funeral poem…Travel on, but not too long, travel on, but then work hard (on)… with aim, direction, poise, dedication, and determination to succeed, make a difference, achieve worthwhile milestones.

Internet, Life and the Information Age

2009-07-12T22:10:00.000-07:00

Many companies have made millions on the internet and communication throughout the world and the masses have responded. We are well beyond the early adopter phase in 2009 where we waste hours upon hours of time jumping on the internet, as is so easy today, and saying, “Sweet, I’m connected! Now what?” Indeed

We are connected to the internet… but what is this…what are we actually connecting to? Who? And why? We are connected with our computer to other computer’s…our laptop with the Black Labrador desktop background is connected to some laptop with a Transformer’s background…one personality to another. Through websites, emails, blogs, and online social networks we have found that we can easily connect to those who are physically far away…or can we? Are we just connecting ourselves to a published picture of them? An ideal we are meant to believe? How often are we actually speaking, having conversations, interacting? Is it just a bunch of shows to see who is watching? Who can build the biggest tower of Babel? Who can claim to have the most friends and say, “Look I’m the most bad-ass of all the people that think they are bad-ass”

It had been a novelty to find out information. You were somebody when you knew everybody (or more importantly everybody knew you) or everything about some subject. But the mindset has changed in what we are calling the Information Age. We say “Look…I don’t need to know all the answers, all I need is to know how to find the answers.” I can Google anything in the world and get an answer. But is it the right answer? Who is behind the answer? Could you prove it yourself? No one cares to ask. With this mindset the populous looses focus on gaining any particular skills, in developing knowledge, in thinking originally without being spoon-fed Wikipedia answers, Google excerpts, and YouTube clips.

A day will come when information will not govern life, but just be a part of it again; a day when we won’t sit aimlessly in front of a blinking cursor in the blindingly white Google search box. What do I want to search for? What am I looking for? What one bit of infinite knowledge do I want spoon-fed to me today? Stop Blinking at me! Just tell me something! Not just anything…something interesting!

So we turn to news media, friend updates, sports, and movies

KIA ORA from Windy Welly!

2009-06-30T14:04:00.000-07:00

KIA ORA! from the Capital of New Zealand (Wellington in case you were wondering)...

It appears that it has been quite some time since I've written anything about my New Zealand sojourns (Since the 7th of Jun!) so here's what I've been up to...

[SHORT VERSION]

hitchhiked

met some people

worked on a farm near Monica Lewinsky scenic byway (between Clinton and Gore)

went to Bluff (had fish and chips..but missed out on their famous oysters)

caught a ferry to Stewart Island

hung out with all the locals at the only pub for a couple nights

watched my first rugby game

did some cool hikes and bike rides

had a personally chartered plane ride back to Invercargill (just the pilot and me)

got snowed/iced in to Invercargill

caught a bus (for the first time this trip) to Dunedin

ran up the steepest street in the world (or so Guinness and NZ claim) with my pack on

met this dude Gene on a city bus

passed out on the couch of a friend of Gene (Flavia) for a couple days

rode about 80 km out and back the Otago Peninsula on a cruiser bike

experienced NZ's only castle

surfed when it was so cold it made my nose bleed

went blue penguin hunting (just to see...)

took salsa lessons

jammed on Djembe's for about four hours

Dunedin Lantern Festival on the winter solstice...followed by all-night parties

partied at a Drum and Base club with a group of German girls

celebrated mid-Christmas

experienced my first Netball and Cricket matches

helped Gene screen-print T-shirts

hitchhiked with Gene from Dunedin to Christchurch

saw lots of sweet-as graffiti

got questioned by three male police officers after climbing a tree and the balcony to get into a friend of gene's flat

rocked to a ghetto blaster and danced through the streets of Christchurch

hitchhiked with Gene from Christchurch to Picton (spent some time in a very remote place...that's being generous).

caught a ferry to Wellington

played around in the most interactive museum I've ever seen (and New Zealand's Largest) Te Papa (means "Our Place")

met some great people at a local youth church...went to a Fondue Party, 80's movie night, and discussed theology

spoke with a girl who was giving out Krishna books

saw Parliament in session and took a tour (including their earth-quake dampening base isolation system - I studied these)

see pictures on picasaweb.google.com/Daniel.Herr

and now I go...

[LONG VERSION... seriously...this will take a while]

After leaving Manapouri (South Western part of South Island) where I stayed with the Cave Family I started hitchhiking toward the east coast. I ended up catching a ride with a head-banging Austrian taking a day drive through the countryside on his day off. After cruising through the lush green farm lands (reminds me of parts of Northern California) for a few hours we arrived in the town of Gore which was to be my stop-off and I invited Walter (the 30-year old long-haired rock music playin Austrian) to have a beer with me before he headed off. After chilling for a few at a local pub the sun was getting as low as a sub-belt blow and Walter offered a couch to crash on back at the Farm (Marama Organics). What else was I to say, a couch is a couch...sweet!

Meanwhile back at the farm...I met the owner (Graham) and his WOOF'er (Workers of Organic Farms) and after much of the usual discussions (something along the lines of who are you? where are you from? oh! where is that? oh cool...I don't know where that is, but what are you doing here? for how long? so you don't know when you're leaving our country...good 'on ya!) Graham said I was welcome to stay, be fed and showered for a couple days if I was willing to help out around the farm...good times. I helped a contractor with wall-board, cabinetry, electrical, and trim work for the WOOF'er cabins on the Farm and some high-tensile fence building out in the back of the 3000 acres (yes 3000) filled with 7000 sheep. After a few days of the best produce, sausages, and soups I was ready to get a move on again...

When I headed out to the road, I had intended on hitching toward Dunedin, but when a local dairy farm mom offered a ride to Invercargill, I took her up on it. She has been by far one of the most fascinating women I have ever met. Mother of seven children, has moved with them through Idaho, Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, one of her sons and her husband were shot in the streets of South Africa (both are still alive and well), and she lives and works a Dairy Farm. Quite and interesting story-filled ride.

After walking the streets of Invercargill and being offered weed within ten minutes (needless to say I have never smoked a day in my life and never intend to) I stoled through an Art Gallery on the corner of town, met the owner who has a friend with an Engineering Firm in Queenstown, next thing I know the Bruce (the owner) is calling up his buddy saying that me should get together with me...man the NewZealand way is friendly...

I then headed to the south of town on my way out to Bluff (the location of the Aluminium Smelter that uses all the energy from the dam up at Manapouri to process the raw materials sent from OZ -Australia). I caught a ride with a kid that works on a crawfish boat who within ten minutes was calling his boss to see if I could come out and help out on the boat as the Dingy Boy (I'd get 50 kg of free seafood and pay for three days!) Unfortunately they had already promised the spot to an 80-year old mate. No worries. I had some time to roam around before my ferry to Stewart Island.

Much of this has pictures that some-what follow along and tell the story here: picasaweb.google.com/Daniel.Herr

I walked down to sterling point where there is a large chain symbolic of a Maori Legend...Rakiura (or Stewart Island) is the Anchor Stone of Maui’s Canoe in the legend where Maui and his crew caught and raised the great fish (the North Island) from their canoe (the South Island). The chain represented on the Stewart Island side as a continuation (see my pictures).

While taking the ferry over I was told by a local girl that I should stay with Liz and Heath at their Bunker's Backpacker...good decision. This has been by far the best backpacker I have stayed in and it included free internet and washers...the only bummer is the no dryer part with the temperatures as cold as they have been....I ended up burning my pants while trying to more-rapidly dry them on the wood stove. I believe the couple's last name that ran the backpacker was Cave as well, tough I forgot to ask if there was some relation.

Stewart Island afforded me some epic hikes, bike rides and view throughout. Oban, the town in Halfmoon Bay and only town on the island has only 20 km of roads. most of the island is only accessible by foot, boat, or is considered inaccessible all together. The beaches on the island are massive to say the least and apparently it is a very popular summer destination/get-away. I could definitely see that...as there seemed to be 30 people on the island at best (though they say 300). I found some amazingly perfect shells in a cave along one of the beaches (I gave them to a german girl however since I'm trying not to collect weight in my pack...I do have pictures though...picasaweb.google.com/Daniel.Herr ...there are a lot of german girls touring down here...anyway). The coolest little bit on this island tough, was the working old-fashion telephone posted on a tree in the middle of nowhere...I didn't make it over to Mason Bay on the other side of the Island as I would have liked because the weather turned into Gale Force Warnings, downpours of rain and genuinely nasty conditions after two beautiful days with epic sunsets. Its not called the "Glowing Skies" for no reason...though some say that is because of the Aurora Australis...

I found out that I could catch a plane back to the main land on standby for cheaper than the ferry ride back, so I figured why not. I ended up being the only one on the flight back and I got to sit right up front with the 20-something pilot in the 10-person puddle-hopper. It is crazy how much those little guys get tossed around by the wind...I think I felt more motion sick on this trip then on the stunt-plane ride :(

Back in Invercargill (said like IN-VA-CARGO - where I flew into) I figured I'd spend a day or two to see what this city had to offer, not to mention I was going to take the chance to meet Mr. McMillan (Bruce's Engineer Friend... I rarely turn down the chance to meet someone), and avoid he ice storm North, East, and West of us. After two days, a haircut, and chillin with a French Trombone Player, I was ready to get out of town. I decided for once I was going to take a bus and see what that was all about down here (you can take buses most anywhere in the country at many times of the day...it is super easy to get around down here).

I arrived in Dunedin (said DUN-EE-DIN) mid-afternoon and decided to check out New Zealand's Number 1 Research Institution and highest-ranked school, Otago University. I checked out the campus, the facilities, and graduate programs...all in all a very top-notch operation so it seems and it keeps growing...there are lots of exchanges from other Universities, lots of international students, and lots of government funded projects...I liked it. I decided after a quick bite and a taste of a local brewery's Porter that I would head out to the Steepest Street in the World (or so Guinness and New Zealand Claim...though I think San Francisco could definitely challenge it...its only 1 in 2.86 or 19 degrees at its steepest...heck I can think of some streets in Ithaca that were pretty damn steep too). There is a guys who has become a local legend down here for running up and skipping down the street 30-time per day at 10:00am. In my mind I figured I was up for the challenge and decided that I would run up it with my 75kg backpack on my back. I started out with some steam as a group of Korean tourists looked on in horror with cameras ready. 1/4 of the way there...still going good...1/3 there...alright keep pushing...just about half way...wow its getting steep...my legs are pushing but i don't seem to be going anywhere...i might be going faster if I just walked...I'm practically speed walking, without the speed...keep pushing...3/4's there and all I can do is walk...thank god there is a water fountain at the top...not to mention a bench...good times...breathe...

That plastic bottle of Locally Brewed Porter also tasted quite amazing on the way down until it slipped out of my bag and decided to go rocketing down the steepest street in the world...no use try to stop it...

I decided to catch a bus back in toward town...

On the ride, about mid-town a guy with a curly mop of hair, tight white pants, a brief-case sized olive green suitcase straight out of the 20's or so, and a shiny blue Chicago Cubs jacket boards the bus and looks at me with one of those smirks if only to say...listen up buddy, make some room so I can sit in one of those four seats your taking up with that size-huge backpack you're wearing...naturally with a smile and not a word between the two of us I made room with my feet out in the isle so he and his mini-suitcase could take a seat...this is Gene

Gene is a constantly analyzing fifth-year zoology-psychology major at the University of Otago fresh off hiatus from a life-threatening skate-board head-injury. Gene offered me a place to crash for the night at his flat right on the beach...needless to say a risk...but friendship is quick in this part of the world. Gene is mellow and does not like his mellow harshed, does not respond well to being told what to do, and tries to be as genuinely rebellious as possible within semi-social-norms. Gene's roommates (or flatmates so they say down here) or at least one of them in particular buts heads with Gene as he tries to be papa-bear of the flat, and my presence seemed to be the icing on the cake for the ice-berg that had been building in the chill waters....all said, it was in the best interest of all that I, how do you say, peaced-out. I was figuring I'd head to a backpacker; no big deal. Without skipping a beat, nor a word from me, Gene called around some friends and asked if I could chill on their couch...

Enter Flavia...Flavia is a short black girl from German...a ball of energy and as German as they come, though she speaks Spanish, English, and French quite well. Flavia is doing bio-mass energy research for a few months on internship at Otago. Flavia had decided that she was going to fast for a week to allow food to regain its meaning in her life...Flavia is driven. Flavia came around a met Gene and me at a bar along the beach in Saint Clair where after brief introductions and conversations she said she would be more than happy to give me a place to crash. Gene and I exchanged numbers and Flavia and I walked the 40-minute walk through the sand-dunes back to her flat...that is the most comfortable couch I have ever slept on.

Flavia's flatemate Brian is a guitar jammin, outgoing, property manager who introduced me to Cricket and Netball in his recreational leagues. After a couple days Brian and I were good buds.

Dunedin is a city full of life...intellectual life, party life, youth, and yet experience, age, and history (once the capital of New Zealand). It is big enough to have everything you could need in a city, every industrial need, every financial need, ever car dealership...but still small enough that you get away from it in just a few short blocks and your are in small down...and even further your are back to nature...to me Dunedin would be imagined as San Francisco 100 to 150 years ago.

The next day I got up early as Flavia was heading off to work...she let me borrow her bike and leave my pack at her house for the day. I started riding and figured I'd see where I ended up. I biked all morning as the sun rose to shine light on the most beautiful golden sun-rise of an amazing bay surrounded my lush green hills and broken with islands and peninsulas...simply beautiful was all I could think as I stood alongside a grassy field still layered with morning dew and frost and two quarter-horses moved slowly under their blankets to sip a refreshing bit of ice-laden farm-fresh water. I ended up making my way up to New Zealand's only Castle and out to the end of the peninsula...all of 80km of riding this day...

I ended up chilling the week in Dunedin for about a week hanging out with a group of German Girls (Flavia, Rina, Nicki, and Angela) while Gene ran over to OZ (Australia) to pick up some things from his ex-girlfriend. On the evening of the 21st of June (winter solstice) we started out at a BBQ with a group of South Americans (Angela flats with them) in what turned out to be a 4-hour jam fest on Djembe's, Bongo's, Piano's, Chimes, maracas, shakers, wine glasses, mixing bowls, and anything else we could find to jam on...a jamin start to a good night with good 'ol South American Flavor and of course Spanish dialogues. We went from there straight to the Lantern Festival. The parade in the town-center Octagon was filled with color, crafty-hand-made lanterns, music, dancing, and or course delicious tent-side treats (mainly crepes). Following the display of fireworks (the major is Chinese) and more crepes, we headed to a Capoeira Party (Brazilian dance-fighting) because a few of the girls are taking a class. I have a video that I will try to post online at some point here. The dance instructor from Africa is amazingly good at it...maybe youtube capoeria when you get a chance. Later on we hit some of the clubs, saw some Maori Boys and some White Boys get into it with each other (any by into it i mean kicking the crap out of each other) in the streets only to be stopped by their quite large islander girlfriends...what experiences.

After a few days of exploring the Dunedin culture, surfing when it was so cold my nose started bleeding, and hangin with the German Girls, Gene and I decided we would hitchhike up to Wellington together. Gene has family and friends up here (he grew up in Wellington through high school) and offered a place to stay. After saying some goodbyes for the winter holiday break, we were off...

Two rides and thirty Michael Jackson songs later we were in Christchurch (our first stop on the journey and the first place I came to know in New Zealand). Gene's friend with whom we had planned to stay was flying back in from Hamilton on a visit to his sister. His flight on the newly formed JetStar Airlines encountered delay after delay. Gene and I had hours to kill so we danced through the streets of Christchurch, walked town the most random of stretches of train tracks, checked out street art, rolled a tire down the street, and walked all the way to the other end of town to find a certain restaurant, found it, and just turned around. We got back to his buddy's place about eleven, and received a text saying he would still be a while, but that if we climbed the balcony, we could get in and chill till he got there (about 1 am). Well we got in no problem, but in the process of awkwardly hoisting my massive backpack up the railing, a guy from one of the other apartments walked by and decided he had an issue with us (understandably so). Gene did his best to explain the situation, and thought everything sorted. Not more than five minutes later as Gene was making a pot of tea (they all have to have their tea down here) he kept noticing a flashing out of the corner of his eye. He turned to see what was the source only to find three male police officers flashing their lights on and off repeatedly at him through the kitchen window. Gene walked out to the patio and engaged in what must have been the most awkward of conversations which resulted in him climbing back down the house and tree to speak with the tree male police officers (I was oblivious and occupied in the little boy's room). After rapidly explaining the situation, his relation to the house, and showing the officers the text messages back and forth, Gene was able to appease the officers, much to his relief. Gene's friend made it in later that night and we had a relatively peaceful, though freezing cold, night (apparently kiwi's don't believe in insulation or heating - walls, roofs, and floors and uninsulated, windows are single-pane, and central heating does not exist except for in maternity wards).

The next day got a bit of a lazy start with our hitchhiking devoid of a thumb road-side until well after noon. Our first ride with a lovely farm girl left us an hours walk from anything, but an hour down the road none-the-less. This has been my longest wait roadside by far...but two PB&J's, a box of crackers, two water bottles, kiwi fruit, and an hour later and we were back on the road. This time picked up by no less than two Otago University students on their way to meet the parents for the mid-winter break back home in Nelson. The roads were as crooked as 431 Mount Rose along the ocean for hours...and the driving is what Gene would call "loose". Having safely arrived in Blenheim we were overjoyed to get a ride with an elder lady in a nice new Mitsubishi within three minutes of having been dropped off, on our way to Picton.

Upon picking up out tickets for the inter-islander we caught up with a guy we had seen just two days earlier back in Dunedin. He two had been hitchhiking for the whole day from Christchurch and had taken three hours longer to get here...

The ferry over carries quite an eclectic mix in its load, trucks, cars, trains, and of course people. This is the main connection between the north and south islands. It was quite a trip to see how much the eight-story ship moved in the waves with the 1-2 meter swells with the brilliantly bright stars moving from the front of the ship to straight overhead. I thought it was quite a ride, only to hear that the ships won't sail with people if the well is 7 meters or greater!

We wandered our way to Brenden's flat (Gene's movie making, producer-esque, film student...you know sloppy hair, tight gene, dark jacket and scarf wearing mid-height guys who smokes like a chimney). The flat here is like something out of Friends. There are about ten guys and girls between 23 an 30 living here, the main common area is littered with random furniture, a swing hanging from the concrete roof, bright colors, the largest selection of dish ware outside the thrift store, and paint splashes and posters for style...as unique in its own right as the people who live in each the rooms of this third floor montage just off the main shopping district of Cuba Street.

Exploring the capital city (Wellington that is) has been interesting to say the least. I spent some time in New Zealand's largest museum and cultural center Te Papa (means "Our Place"). This was by far the most advanced spectacle I have been to; interactive maps, touch-screen picture and video galleries, multi-user control display screens filled with editable digital imagery, and motion tracking picture piles. I presume my expectation had been derived from multiple visits to D.C. in that there would be security cameras on every corner near the legislature, that you wouldn't be allowed within 100 yard of many buildings, that you would be frisked at every chance possible and sirens would be polluting the air...quite to the contrary. Wellington is small city status, and keep in mind that NewZealand as a whole, the entire country, has a population of 4 Million...DC itself has 5.3 Million! Its a little more small town. Walking into the capital building, I wasn't divested of my wine opener, nor my nail clippers; heck with my 3.5" pocket knife, they just wanted me to check it with them until I left....not to mention the fact that all of the security guards are the equivalent of 65+ year-old library workers...very pleasant men tough i might ad (I've had a few conversations with them in the past few days). Somewhat needless to say at this point, but I visited the capital building; he center of power in New Zealand (the executive and legislative basically reside in one house and share some duties and people). The debates I was a party to last night (I was the only spectator in the house aside from the security guard) was with regard to global warming and green-house gas credits. The comments were with regard to holding up the promise locally to perform what they have promised internationally...being the global leader in climate change policy and implementation. I had planned on returning for the continuation of debates today (their are only debates on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) but this email has taken quite some time, so I feel that will be left for another time.

In the meantime I am about to head over to my buddy Matt's house to chill (I've met a good group from a local church here - we've chilled for fondue night, 80's movie night, and tonight is a men's small group). The sun is coming out for once (they don't call it windy-welly for nothing - it has been raining the whole time I've been here) so I think I'm going to get walking...

Its 3:10 PM in Wellington New Zealand on the 1st of July 2009...I hope this message finds you well wherever and whenever it is that you are. Sweet-As!!

Cheers,

Daniel S. Herr

Daniel.Herr@gmail.com

picasaweb.google.com/Daniel.Herr

+64 21372133 (NZ)

Se-chell

2009-06-11T23:44:00.000-07:00

Found it in a cave :)

New Zealand Packs a Punch

2009-06-06T13:59:00.000-07:00

Hey all! So I figured I'd put together a little update for you on the

New Zealandness...Oh and if you haven't done so already, check my

pictures that I have been updating at picasaweb.google.com/Daniel.Herr

So my flight to Christchurch turned out to be a long day. We flew down

(about 45 minutes), circled around Christchurch for an hour and a

half, were unable to land after three attempts, and forced to return

to Christchurch because of Fog. After clearing customs and having

hiking boots thoroughly cleaned before I could enter the country, I

visited Auckland for a few hours amongst the hustle and bustle of New

Zealand’s Largest City. I finally caught a domestic flight down to

Christchurch and arrived just after dark in New Zealand's Second

Largest City, on the South Island.

After spending the night in a renovated prison (converted into a

backpacker hostel) in Christchurch (a very English/British little

city) I was ready to head toward somewhere scenic. After a stroll

through Canterbury University I headed to the Southwest of town and

began my hitchhiking adventure.

I had barely turned around to face traffic (and didn't even have my

hand out) when a French girl by the name of Carine pulled along

offering a ride toward Queenstown. We spent some time stopping along

the way at Lake Tekapu (where there were some killer hotsprings), the

Clay Cliffs, and Wanaka (my favorite town thus far) before making it

down to the winter party-central of Queenstown. The drive in parts

down to Central Otago reminded my very much of the drive from Lake

Tahoe to my parent's place in Sisters Oregon. Semi-arid plains full of

agriculture, lakes and rivers all along, large snow-capped mountains

surrounding at all times...what a trip.

I spent the next four days hitting the town in Queenstown (to include

my birthday). I spent the time in Bungi Backpacker meeting plenty of

other travelers (mainly European) and found a great group to tackle

the bars for my birthday. I splurged a little bit on the 2nd and did

and aerobatic stunt-plane ride and fast-paced rally on a jet-boat

through a magnificently tight river canyon. It seems that most

travelers in New Zealand have found this to be their final destination

for the winter season and there are hundreds of 20-somethings about

looking for seasonal work...the word from the locals is that jobs will

pick up there in about two weeks with the ski season (the slopes just

opened yesterday).

I was ready to move on and see some more of the beautiful country so I

decided to head south and see what the good word is. I've had

incredible success hitchhiking thus far and as before, along came

Polly (that really is her name). After spending some time chatting

with Polly she told me that she worked on a cruise ship that goes out

on the Milford Sound and that they were doing an overnight trip that

night. Polly offered to hook me up with a room on the ship for the

night (an not to mention the beautiful view, wonderful dinner and

breakfast, and kayaking adventure in the morning - see the pictures on

picasaweb.google.com/Daniel.Herr).

On the ship I met an Australian Girl, an Englishman, and an Irish Girl

who offered me a ride back over the hill as they were on their way to

Queenstown. They dropped me off in Te Anu and I spent the afternoon in

the sun of a beautiful park and made some calls back home (I have a

cell phone down here now +64 21372133).

The next day (being yesterday) I caught a ride down toward Manapouri

with a lovely older lady named Tricia Cave (a former school teacher)

and after a chat with her, was offered to come by for lunch (and of

course a spot of tea). After helping her husband Mervyn out with a bit

of concrete work in the yard they offered for me to spend the night.

The have a wonderful house that they relocated from the farm that they

sold (sheep farm) and are both retired working on their bit of land

closer to town. We had great conversations all evening about politics,

New Zealand antics, American qwerks, and their three kids.

I'm just writing this short note on their computer with dial-up and am

about to head out on my journeys once more...

Again make sure you get a chance to see the pictures

(picasaweb.google.com/Daniel.Herr), they do a far better job of

describing what I’ve seen...

Daniel

Brohammersmart

2009-05-19T00:02:00.000-07:00

Its a beautiful thing...

Le Diving a Maui

2009-05-09T23:49:00.000-07:00

We Are Locals

2009-04-08T22:32:00.000-07:00

Growing up Tahoe Style…My first thoughts at a title make me gag. “Tahoe Style”: how trendy; how bay area; how sickening. I react with no less than mal-content as only a true local would.

But what truly makes us a local? Simply claiming to live in the presence of our high sierra villages? Owning a house in “Tahoe”? Claiming stake to what has been heralded as the Jewel of the Sierras, The World of Blue, what is becoming the Aspen of the Sierras? No and hell no! It is so much more…

I find myself home once more, or dare I say for the first time in a long time, literally overlooking the condominium I lived in until I was seven years old on the shores of Brockway Springs Resort. The epic sunsets, the views I remember so fondly of Scott, Twin and Ward Peaks; the top of Alpine’s Bowl; Dollard Point reaching out just far enough to hide Tahoe City. Why would I ever leave? Why do all of us wish to get away in height of summer, in the insanity of Christmas and mid-winter? We point the finger and say, “Them, those damn tourists! They walk in here, acting like they own the place, demanding everything in the world, and showing no respect! Who do they think they are?!” We’ve all said it; we’ve all experienced it; we all know the bitter feelings all too well.

We live the life of a mixed blessing. Each of us found ourselves here at one point or another for the same reasons: The beauty; the adventure; the excitement; the chance to get away from it all, and yet be close enough for comfort. We once found or re-found ourselves here to downhill mountain bike the gnarlies of dirty hairy and then some, drop bowls and chutes off Disney, KT-22, and Rose, flip and dive into crystal clear waters off lake-side boulder, wheel our not-so-properly-equipped beater-mobile to the top of anywhere and nowhere, live care-free and borderline irresponsibly; enjoy Lake Tahoe, Prosser, Stampede, Boca, the Truckee River, the Sierra Nevadas, the small-town life in all its glory for all that its worth. Once upon a time it was ours for the taking, we owned it and we let everybody know it…

Where are we today? We soon find ourselves in routine ignoring the urge to get out, try something new, and go somewhere different. We soon find ourselves saying, “No, let’s not go on the flume (or Rim) trail, there’s always too many yahoos up there.” “No, I’m not feeling Hidden Beach, it’s going to be packed with all those Carson City Folk.” “The Truckee River will be a madhouse this weekend.” “Northstar is nothing but a fashion show these days.” “Downtown [Truckee] is a s#!*-show these days.” “It took me an hour to get through Martis Valley (or the Y in TC)!” “Let’s just stay in tonight…” “We have stuff to take care of around the house anyway…” And so we begin to fold: to the bay-area packed house next-door lining the whole street with Prii (the plural of Prius?); to the 4^th (or 3^rd) of July Parties; to the Millionaires and Billionaires.; to the half-chained minivan driving 5 miles an hour over Brockway Summit with three feet of snow on the roof; to forty-minute lift-lines standing next to gossip-filled Sacramento teens; to crowds, lines, traffic, tourists, posers, imitators, and those that try to be local. Keep Tahoe Local we say.

We begin to sit at home and pray for mixed blessings to fix the mixed blessing. We hope and wish for what some would call ungodly winters where every road in and out is closed for weeks. We long for the economy to be in the dumps so they won’t come this year. We plot our next move to be the ass-hole local, elated at the thought of keeping one citified-family from returning next year. We are not “Tahoe Style” and trendy. We are not Bay Area, Suburbanites, City Folk, part-time residents, weekenders, or work-visa foreigners. Today we turn bitter and cold, no better than the disrespectful tourist abusing our home, to the detriment of all our fellow locals. Day-in and day-out we become one of them, and so hide ourselves among and as far away from the crowd, the frustration, the bitterness, the mad-rush, and the ever growing line as possible. But there is hope.

It’s the “off-season” as we call it that we are more “on”, more honest, more our local selves than any other time. The time when you can say hello to your neighbor Jennifer walking down the street and know she and her dog truly belong; know you will not be burdened with the, “So where are you from?” “Oh, you mean you actually live up here? Wow. Cool!” More than you know buddy. The time when gas-station-Miguel has the time of day for you, genuinely cares, “What’s up? How are things?” Life is good my friend. The morning when Natalie has a moment for more than just serving your breakfast. The day when auto-parts-store-Jim cares to introduce himself and make sure you get the ether you need to start your old 1990 Diesel F-350. The nights when 267, 28 and 89 are not California Highways but Brockway Road, North Lake Tahoe Boulevard, and River Road. The life where you can cruise road-side with your not-so-freshly-tuned bike without the fear of being pancaked by that fresh new Pearly-White Escalade on 22’s. A serene calm, a peaceful and relieving pause between the exhale and the inhale, a much welcomed and uplifting inner and outer tranquility finds us once more.

Right when we need it, and often least expect it, life slows down in that eye-opening, fulfilling way we have known before. We find ourselves alive and full of passion in a new way. Finally it is April; finally it is September. This is the life we signed up for. This is how small-town mountain life is supposed to be. Kings Beach, Truckee, Tahoe City and Incline: we can breathe once more, know our neighbors as friends and brothers, we can be ourselves. We our free, we are alive, we are locals.

Daniel Herr (530.414.3485 or Daniel.Herr@gmail.com) is an alumnus of Kings Beach Elementary, Incline High School, and Cornell University, Free Mason, Entrepreneur, Coach of Truckee High School Basketball, Freelance Writer and Photographer, Leave-No-Trace Trainer, Avid Outdoorsman, Thrill-seeker, Gemini, and until late, Project Engineer for a Local Developer.

What Defines Us

2009-04-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

When we are surrounded by that with which we are comfortable with well defined, yet unrecognized limits, it is near impossible for us to define who we truly are, or rather identify what defines us. It is amazing how quickly we know who we are, or what we are not, when we are where we don’t belong.

My American Dream

2009-03-05T13:13:00.000-08:00

You don’t “let opportunities happen”. The “let so and so have the same opportunities you had” mentality is the same lazy selfishness that leads to socialism and inevitable societal failure. Opportunities are not just something you hopefully sit and wish for; opportunities are created by the tireless search, the undying will, the desire to overcome and succeed. As any immigrant to the United States will tell you, the American dream is not given to you on a silver platter; it is not handed to you when you walk through the door; it is not handed to you by your parents or anyone else. The American Dream is what you make of it. The American Dream is standing up against all opposition and doing what you want to do, pursue what you wish to pursue, and regardless of what holds you back, you keep going where you want to because that is your freedom, your decision, your goal, your dream. That is the American Dream

Explore

2009-03-05T13:08:00.000-08:00

Now is a good time to explore…explore what?

…exactly the point…explore because you do not know what you will find…explore to see…explore to know the what.

Drewtastic

2008-09-25T23:42:00.000-07:00

Unwhole

2008-05-14T22:37:00.000-07:00

Stop passing time just getting by, eating to eat, living to die. Make a difference today, you’re stuck in your ways; living to work; working to play. I can’t live another day in this miserable way, seeking the truth is forgotten; its traded away: another day living life; or so its been called; another day living dead, soulless; unwhole.

30 by 30

2008-03-05T22:16:00.000-08:00

Coach High School Basketball
Date a model
Skydive
BASE Jump
Scooba / Snorkle a Reef
Visit New Zealand
Live in another country
Whitewater Kayak a class 5
Heli-Ski / Board
Study with Monks
Go somewhere not knowing when you’ll be back
Shoot a sniper rifle and hit a target
Own a hand gun and a rifle
Live without a telephone, computer, or television
Compete in a dirt bike race
Get my motorcycle license
Fly an airplane
Go somewhere you wish you could forget
Live by/on a tropical beach
Learn to surf
Longboard to work
Live off the land – no stores
Learn a martial art
Patent something
Complete a masters in field of interest
Wingsuits
Date a girl worth taking home
...
...
...

Type Daniel Herr Personality

2007-03-08T05:52:00.000-08:00

I am the mostwell balanced person around:

I am motivatedand focused, most of the time, and good at getting what I want

I rule atsuccess, but success doesn’t rule me. I hate to loose, but there’s always nexttime. I win some I loose some. My perfection is in acknowledging myimperfections. I don’t like to be wrong, but I love to learn from being wrong.

When it'splaytime, I really know how to kick back

Whether it’shanging out with my friends or doing something I love, I do it hard core!

I like to livemy life to the fullest – incorporating the best of all worlds:

Intellectual –Ironically I misspelled it the first time

Physical –Outdoors, enjoyment, active-life

Social – I loveto chill with friends and family that I like being around

Melodic – Mylife is driven by an ever-changing beat. The beat I walk, dance and move.

Elemental –These elements are subject to change and add to my life every day.

I am aperfectionist when it comes to things that I am interested in.

What you do inlife should not be governed by the time you have, but rather time should be a scaleof what you have done. Live for the now, there’s no promise of tomorrow.

Life should notbe controlled by time, and with that time will show your accomplishments. Thetime you say you have or do not have, the amount you regiment what you can orcannot do in any amount of time, you waste unintentionally. In the time yousay, “I can’t do that, I don’t have time,” you may have had it done.

We do notunderstand investment as a race. How can we know that spending now will savelater? Spend two seconds to hang your coat now, and you will not have to devotea day to cleaning house. How can I know what I will need this money fortomorrow? Cause and Effect? We do not understand causality, as the factors arenear infinite. Near infinite I say, for infinite is a mere impossibility.Infinity is merely beyond comprehension or ability. Infinity is merely a numberso large that that it eludes our imagination.

My Young Life: Explained

2006-03-27T14:46:00.000-08:00

Summertime. Such a wonderful time for a pleasant walk; meandering through the blossoming flowers. The warm radiant rays in the Sierra Nevadas make one feel as though they breathe the air of angels. Such a task would have been adequate for me at the age of five; however, I remained at home to watch my two-year-old brother as my mother took the dogs for a “W-A-L-K.” I smell a recipe for disaster.

Ah, the troublesome twos; that mysterious age when one begins to notice their own existence in this God-forsaken world. When the youth realize that they can actually have an impact upon what happens in a given day. To be two is to be invincible; to be whom or whatever you want in a given day all based merely upon the slightest change in imagination or train of thought. At the same time, at two your whole world can come tumbling down with one word. The one word we have learned so well, repeated over and over such that we know, yet hate to its dire ends, that one word, “No.”

No? How could anyone tell us “No” at the age of two? To tell a two-year-old “No” is as to give a dire chunk of kryptonite to our beloved hero, Superman. “No,” will stun a mighty two year old from his self-assured invincibility for the next twenty minutes and not a second longer. Next thing you know, that two-year-old is right back up trying to fly faster than a speeding bullet once again.

Well, to tell the god-honest-truth, my two-year-old brother was not the troublemaker in this scenario, I was. At five? How can this be? It is around this age of five that one enters the likes of Kindergarten. “Keednergirdin?” Sounded like trouble to me. I knew from the moment I stepped in this dreaded place that big change was coming. I cried the whole way to school that first day. I do not know that I truly understood what this endeavor was, but nonetheless, I was completely afraid. Afraid to color in the lines. Afraid that I would have to learn to “Loop, schwoop, and pull” my shoelaces. Afraid that I would have to count magical beans all day.

Being afraid, herein, I had to find some escape of misery. The magical and uplifting escape that only a child’s imagination can supply. I had to think back all those five years and find something that interested me. Now on this wonderful summer day, that cricket chirping in and behind my ear told me I was a hair stylist.

My living room instantly transformed before my eyes and I saw my first customer just back from his most recent adventure: my dear brother. I ushered him through the many giant doorways as he told me of monstrous deviant creatures he, being Batman, had just conquered. I sat him on the lid of the giant white bowl where the grownups always grunt, and began my work in my field of mastery. A little snip here and a chop there made my brother’s hair o-so perfect. I had made, this day, a prince of my brother because I knew it was a faultless triumph in the everyday workings of this hair stylist.

All too soon did my mother return to the “Disaster.” Triumph you say? My mother saw it as the crumbling of her world. “Why would this be such a disaster,” I asked myself. Well, this stylist had taken a step outside his limit into the unknown and had crossed a line, a line a five-year-old should never cross. I see now that it was a big deal, in and of itself, but nary was I aware, at the time, that my grandparents were on their way to our house at that very instant and they were due to arrive that very morning. All too soon did mother return from her own venture.

With a sense of curious propriety did she enter the bathroom in search of her two little darlings. To say she was surprised is an understatement. I was supposed to be watching the terrible two-year-old, but who would have thought I needed the watching. My brother and I simply looked up with a gleam of pride in our eyes. Andrew and I were so proud of the work I had done, “Look mommy, look! I cut Andew’s hair!” It was as if some Godly-force has suddenly stricken the floodgates that had, for so many years, held back the stream of emotions. The stream was no longer any minute entity; the trickling of this morning’s episodes had tipped the scales, the mighty force that was my mother fell to pieces that moment: fell as rapidly as had the chunks of hair from my brother’s head.

If a mother’s screams are piercing then she was a deadly great white shark. I know this day she would have all but had our heads had we been but a little older. She knew not what to do with her emotions. By impulse, she called our father in tears; “Steve you have to come home right now!” my mother bawls with urgency. “What’s wrong?” my father replies with great concern. “Just come home right now!” I can only imagine the thoughts that must have run through him mind at this time. One would most verily assume from the tone of her voice that my mother was facing death. In my mother’s eyes, the reality was that it was much worse.

I don’t understand, “Why won’t grama like my master piece.” My mother had only a shrilling scream in reply. Not only were my grandparents on their way, but we were to have a family portrait taken that very night. The every deliberation running through my mother’s mind must have spelled “D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R.” The arrival of my grandparents this morning meant that Judgment Day had arrived for this hard-working mother; Grandmum was coming.

One must understand that my grandmother is a very proper woman, one that all mothers look up to for advice and inspiration in the everyday life. A woman who can cook up a storm in a moment’s notice. A mother that can’t stand to see the smallest particle of dust enter her home. A loving and kind grandmother.

Grandma always comments, “I was born during the Great Depression, deary, and we had to save everything. There was no more of anything.” She has been through and experienced living without, and being without as a child. She has understood the delight in being able to make something of nothing. When you can make something of nothing then you will undoubtedly make the world of everything. It’s the small things that matter; neatness, pride and purity. My grandmother wants her family to be as perfect as perfect can be. This perfection translates down through the generations to her children and grandchildren.

Having this said, my mother was, and always has been looking to fulfill her mother-in-law’s expectations. My mother must ensure that every little nook and cranny of the house be spotless; she was soon to be tested by the master. Why is it, however, that everything goes wrong when it is most necessary that everything fall into place? Why is it at crunch-time that all the pieces fall? Well I don’t know that we will ever know, but it is the inevitable truth. This was not the only time this happened. It seems to be that whenever we are to be visited by my grandparents “Disaster” strikes us and all goes awry. This was not the first, nor would be the last, occasion.

My brother and I had not much lost touch with our imaginations nor our affinity for disaster many years later. This day in the life of Daniel and Andrew had become a BMX stunt rally. We were fearless daredevils comparable only to the likes of Evil Knievel himself. We built monstrous wooden jumps half our size so that we could experience that thrill of weightlessness for milliseconds at a time. For those split seconds, I was Matt Hoffman; I would have believed I could do a back flip on my bike in a moment’s notice. We were the “Bash Brothers” of this newfound daredevil world.

Being there, and in this mode of thought, one would not know the extent of the dangers they face, but I now know how ludicrous we must have been at the time. We took flighting jumps off self-constructed ramps with no bodily protection in the least minus our fragile skin. Jump after jump my six-year-old brother and I would rate each other on the quality of the last jump. As our ratings increased, so did the height of our jumps in huge millimeter increments. Our imaginations this day had driven us to senselessness; we had no regard for safety.

If you have ever watched a geared-up BMX rider, they have a complete set of padding including kneepads, elbow pads, sometimes gloves, and always their most important piece of gear, the helmet. Well, needless-to-say, my brother and I were too good for protection this day. Too perfect for safety. Too harmless until the inevitable. My brother, our family has proclaimed, is a magnet for pain, for harm, for taking a hit. This day was no different.

My brother and I were not using true BMX bikes, but rather our cheap imitation. Our bikes were the type with the pushback coaster pedal-brakes, the kind without hand-squeeze disk brakes. As my brother landed his final jump, his most spectacular feat; his feet flew from the pedals.

Andrew and I had built these jumps on the uphill side of our driveway. On the downhill side was a steep drop to large granite boulders securing the embankment below. This downhill edge of our driveway was under construction. This is where my father had recently removed a wooden barrier in order to rebuild its crumbling façade. He had inadvertently added length to our ramp. Andrew had instantaneously become a runaway train that could not be stopped. He launched; his feet scrambled to find their place, to find the pedals; his bike catapulted; his body went limp, he trembled like a lame duck. My brother plummeted and crashed down upon the rocks over fifteen below. My mother ran with such fervor that her shoes stereotypically flew off her feet amidst the tumultuous sprint to the shrilling screams of my brother. My dear brother lay hewn upon the rocks, gravel embedded in his head; his head deeply gouged, distinctly scathed.

Fall as we have during these times of trial and tribulation, the strength of the love of our family prevails without fault. If there were a cookbook full of recipes for disaster, my brother and I would take the cake, but these calamities are what make the family truly unbreakable. These were “Disasters” in and of their times, but their conclusions bring that family unit together. A stylist’s botched hair cut, the daredevil’s noxious BMX stunt, however detrimental to the contingent time period, don’t really matter in the end. The fact that everyone is still alive and healthy, that is what truly matters. The greatest triumph is that my family is still, and forever more, a whole, indissoluble unit. The important aspect of this picture is that we are unbreakable; through the good and the bad, love is the most essential ingredient. Family is forever.

Lessons from Failure

2006-02-05T20:20:00.000-08:00

Lessons from my failures:

Finish Strong Every Time, It may be your last time.

Opportunity is not an annual thing
Later doesn’t always come
Tomorrow will always be Tomorrow! Do It Today!

Only tell people what they need to know

Don’t waste words
Say what you’re gonna say

Never Lie

Lies will get caught, now or later
A lie is a lie

You are dumber than you can imagine
To be idle is to die

In mind and in body, be always dynamic

Lessons from observed failures of others:

Lumber companies were the profitable ones during the Gold and Silver Rushes

Luck

2006-02-05T19:44:00.000-08:00

I heard this recently, and it stuck:

"Luck happens when preparation meets opportunity."

Change the World

2004-12-19T11:14:00.000-08:00

Possible Problems:

Cell phone use on airplanes. Disturbance to others. Manner in which to make calls private.
Music Look up system similar to Google in which people can attempt to locate a song based on tune, notes, pitch, and rhythm

General World issues:

Overpopulation

Limited resources

i. Recycling

1. Needsto be:

a. Easier

b. Cheaper

c. Moreconvenient

Malnutrition
Moral values

No common sense
No personal responsibility

i. Too much suing

Too much value placed in monetary needs

Purpose

2004-10-14T11:11:00.000-07:00

I’m am fu**ing blowing it here. What the hell is going on. Ifeel lost. I feel confused. And for the first time in my life I feel stupid. Ifeel like I am incapable of keeping up. I’m stuck in a rut and I can’t get outof it. I’ve had a chance, that door has been opened, and I keep walking by it.This must change and it must change now for the last thing I want to do is failmy family. ASNF (A Son Never Forgets) “Finish strong Son!”

Its go hard or go home. This going is getting tough for oncein my life and I’ve been giving in. I need to nip it in the bud.

How did I get in this rut?

Not being prepared. I was raised to always be prepared, butI though I could just take it all by storm. I wasn’t organized in my approach.I wasn’t ready when I thought I was. I fell behind and thought I could catch upeasily and slack off like I did last year. There are a few things I need to realize. This is anivy league school. Some of the most brilliant people in the world are righthere along-side me. There is no reason, however, that I should say that I can’tbe the best here. I’ve always been one of the best, and now I’m feeling like Isuck. I know what its like to be told I can’t do something, and I’ve neversubmitted before, but I feel like I have a voice inside saying I should give upand that this is not what I am meant for. I have to agree that I feel like thisis not what I was meant to do but at the same time I have never been a quitter.

I forfeited one homework for math already because I feltthat it would give me time to get caught up. I have not gotten caught up andwhen I was at the point where I could have, where I was ready to go to officehours and have everything completed ahead of time I fucked up again.

I am caught in-between mixed messages, I feel likepeople and friends are the things I careabout the most, but our world does not emphasize such things. Our world placesits faith in money, in celebrity, in the success that someone has defined asmaking lots of money. That is not my success, my success is in people. Inhaving a loving family. My success is in being who I want to be.

Here inlays my quandary. I want to be also seen assuccessful because I am conscious of what others think of me. This is where andwhy I push myself as I have. Nothing is ever good enough because I want to bethe best. Right now and always, I am not good enough for myself. I have alwayshad a first place complex, I have always strived for perfection, but for somereason that is not of as much consequence now as I wish it to be.

Maybe this is due to the fact that I am not enjoying what Iam doing, or rather what I am studying.

I used to enjoy math. It was a unique challenge that proveduseful to the world around us. I could see using it in various applications,using it for every-day stuff.

I now feel lost in its theory for I always saw math as aconcrete study in which we were given the fact. When we were given some formulait had a very real purpose, a very concrete reason for its application inevery-day life. I no longer see that connection in everyday life. As I get intothe higher levels of my study I find that every class relies on this backgroundin calculus, this integration and derivations. I don’t know that I learnedeverything in Calculus 2 and 3 that I needed to. I merely got the grade I wanted andgot out. That is not the way I want my learning to be. I want to learn becauseof a desire to learn, because of a thirst for knowledge that I used to have.

Maybe I need to spend some time away from the scholarlyrealm. This, however, would only waste time I feel in the end. I would fallbehind all those in my age group. They would be off in the real world with realjobs while I am still waiting for my calling. I don’t, and have never wantedto, be at the rear of the pack, but I feel like I am the caboose on thisCornell Freight Train and am about to be bumped off.

I really what to get back on track, I really do, but Ialmost feel like I need a break. I keep telling myself breaks are for p***ies,just make it through. And that seems to be what I need to do. Life seemsshorter and shorter by the day and I have so much that I want to do.

There again is a problem. I have never wanted to concentratemyself. I have never wanted to be labeled. I have wanted to be like the alphaand the omega. I have always wanted to be nothing and be everything. I want tobe the best. I want to be good at everything. I want to experience it all. Iwant to experience the extremes, starvation and luxury, brilliance andstupidity, poverty, military, everything. I always want to be able to say I’vebeen there, that I’ve done that. I want to be rich in the eyes and in thehands. I want to do manual labor, it brings a certain inner piece. I want tolive in nature, with nature, live within a hairline of death, just to have thatexperience, just to know others' pain.

Maybe that is what It all comes down to. I want to know whatothers feel so I can relate. I want to know the emotions of the world so I cansolve the worlds problems. Like the Giver, have the experience and memories oreverything and everyone.

And maybe it just boils down to insecurity. Maybe it meansthat I am just looking to be loved. I am looking to be loved while I am blind,while I show no love toward those who love me the most.

I shadow them from my affection for fear of hurting them.For fear of rejection, for fear of failing them and thereby hurting them. Ifthey don’t know me, I can’t hurt them. But at the same time it may hurt as muchto not know and have your love reciprocated.

God loves me but to I love back? My family loves me, but doI love them back? Yes I do. Do I openly show that love? Never.

Now I ask myself, was it worth forfeiting another mathassignment for this? Is there any self realization that comes from this? Isthis math assignment going to affect my future? Everything effects our future,everything happens for a reason. God truth and reason will shine through. Ihave written this for a reason. Just as this paper has a purpose, I too have apurpose, a self realization to come upon. I am God’s child.

Analytical Meditation

2004-04-29T14:29:00.000-07:00

The gift of the power of invention. What gift that God gave us has proven to be more fruitful than the power of innovation and invention. Through this tool granted only us, the human race has taken over, and even overpopulated the world at large. Without this ability the human race would inevitably still wander in the woods; would still starve and face malnutrition; would still be afraid of that inevitable setting of the sun. Without the power of invention, the human race would not be here today.

Through our great abilities in this venue of gadgetry and discovery, we have created a new world for ourselves in this present day. In our world today, our nature is no longer the nature God made, but rather the nature we have invented for Him. Our modes of transportation are rarely those of the bipedal movement, but rather of hand cranking and pedal pushing. Our obsession with perfection in this innovation has lead us to be fake; has allowed for the common person to be ignorant; has made the average Joe lose touch with reality.

What is real these days? What the eyes see and the ears hear, the mind believes. We see, through our multimedia experiences these days, the extents to which the rich, in their ignorance, can recreate themselves into a perfection, or into their perfection. If anyone can be whoever they want, by the power or creation, they are truly no one; they are truly fake.

Our perception of fallacy hit rock bottom not too long ago, during the Gulf War. We have all of our thrilling TV shows, our epic movies, and of course our timeless trilogies that we watch day in and day out in our modern world; where does real life fit in? During this time the Gulf War became merely another drama on television. We are so enticed into our fake nature that it just seemed like another story, another telenovel, like the daily sequences of a crime thriller.

Our world today, through our technology, fallacy and counterfeit govern our lives. People have fake personalities. People make false promises and people are fake in and of themselves. If our Commander in Chief of the United States of America, the most powerful nation in the world, can stand in front of the people to whom he owes his allegiance, and flat out lie, what incentive is there for anyone else to be truthful? If the average person never spends any time with nature, what desire is there to keep it? If life is fake anymore, what reason is there to live it?

The human race through technology an innovation has lost touch not only with the world around, but also with himself. The people of the United States in particular have lost that touch with self for they have become the most obese in all the world. They have become depressed, for their life feels pointless, so the fall to a favorite pastime, one which gives them pleasure: eating.

Before what we consider technology today came along, we lived a simple life and all of that life was consumed in living. As we accepted the way of new tools it came to pass that we no longer controlled most of our lives. As we started to use the plow in agriculture to rip apart those fields, we came to know that we would take upon ourselves certain parts of the working of everyone’s life, not our own. This is when the evolution started, we were conforming, in our economic processes, to a higher life form.

“[W]ithin a few years we will be confronted with an overwhelming choice: submission of mankind under an artificial higher intelligence, or the destruction of mankind” (Kanitscheider). Sounds like some sci-fi movie thriller like Terminator 3, but its truth may be much closer than we think. How could we humans ever conform to, and fall under the reign of computers? After all the science fiction thriller stories we have created about the rise of the machines, how could we let this come to pass? Will our creations be our own demise? The thoughts of current technology philosophers, namely John Leslie (1996), indicate that we ought to be reluctant to believe that we are exceptionally early among all the humans who will ever have lived.

Are we nearing that end of the road? Are we humans some of the most evolved and knowledgeable there might ever be? That crossroad approaches, submission under the AI, or destruction of the species. How could our race ever be destroyed? Every other species has its natural predator; we will create our own.

What form will our predator take? God created us in His likeness so it would be only naturally for us to form automatons in our own image. Our humanity, in its infinite knowledge, has decided that it is the best contrived being in the universe and undoubtedly the most intelligent. The trend for the near future will be to create everything we use in our own likeness. As I was quoted on April 10th 2003, “In the end, the sum of all sciences will be the recreation of humanity.” Our cars, our houses, our computers will become more like us, in order to fulfill our ever-growing needs. We will find that we are what God meant for us to be. We are his perfection.

It is in our obsession with perfection once again that we look for what the future holds: we are most always temped to ask, “What better stuff will the future bring me?” The 2004 “What’s Next” issue of Popular Science Magazine, looks deep into what the potential of technology and design will most likely hold for humanity. One of the particularly eye-catching articles is on “The Car That Repairs Itself.” Professor Scott White of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign reminds us that,

“Your Body heals itself continuously over your lifetime.”…If a person gets a cut or a bruise, the repair process begins automatically. The local effects of the cut itself send a signal to a nearby platelet cells and white blood cells to get to work. “We liked that idea – healing cracks as they form,” White says. (Fraunfelder, 74)

Can’t you see it? Our trend is to make things of our own likeness. Our trend is to make everything more human.

This trend will, however, only last until those technologies which we have contrived, have passed beyond the capabilities of humans themselves, though I believe this time to be afar in the future. It is impossible to forecast the future as Karl Popper proves to us in The Poverty of Historicism (1957), but there are reasonable assumptions that we can make. I agree invariably with Bernulf Kanitscheider from University of Giessen when he states:

I do not like to propagate the feeling of doom that is nowadays the order of the day. But some global problems are real. Artificially intelligent entities evolve by learned instruction—in a Lamarckian way, so to speak—instead of as natural biological entities which vary only by very slow Darwinian evolution, in a time scale measured by millions of years. A Darwinian increase in the capabilities of the primate brain will always be too late to solve the pending world-wide problems. (Kanitscheider)
This is where the belief of necessary conformity comes to life. This is the birth of artificial intelligence. This is the creation of a neuronetwork in which all humans will be in touch with ever one else. Where everyone is plugged in and feels at a loss if they leave. A place where our thoughts are not our own, but are shared throughout the network of wetware, as one might call our brain.

In the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, humans are referred to as the third most intelligent creatures on the planet. The first is mice, and I find this hard to believe for his idea is hat the mice are actually people from another dimension. The second, however, is dolphins. This seems a feasible ideology. “C.S. Lewis, in Perelandra (book two of his space trilogy), wrote about a planet where God had created two intelligent species....one that walked on the ground and one that swam in the oceans” (Blackstock). As we become more evolved in our thinking, we humans would come to be just as dolphins are.

[D]olphins…use the power of Pod Mind to communicate. This is a method of communication in which the information is shared openly with everyone in the group or pod, simultaneously. There are no secrets, no hidden agendas, no opposing opinions in these transmissions. What is known by one, is known by all. Everyone in the community has the good of the entire group in mind. In transmissions from them they refer to themselves as "We." However, they also maintain their Individuality. They can merge with group mind without "losing themselves in another person." or they can be separate entities. They are autonomous. (Ocean)

A single dolphin’s thoughts are the thoughts of the community at large. The dolphins are already networked, soon we may be as well.

It is becoming commonplace today to compare the human brain to a computer, to see how much capacity a we might have. In being a network, we our selves would be the individual computer, how fast are we? Several approximations have already appeared in literature based on hardware consideration. Von Neumann sites that the brain is capable of housing 1020 bits or 12.5 Million Terabytes. That is well beyond the current abilities of computers, for I myself only have a computer hard drive capable of storing 120 Gigabytes, or about one-tenth that amount, and that is way above average. Based on Thomas K. Landauer entirely avoided the hardware guessing game, however, and has measured the actual functional capacity of the human memory directly (“See How Mush Do People Remember? Some Estimates of the Quality of Learned Information in Long-term Memory”, in Cognitive Science 10, 477-493, 1986).

Landauer is closely affiliated with Ball Labs, of the Bell Communication Resarch, where he was studying the information theory brought about by C.E. Shannon in order to measure the carrying capacity of telephone lines. Anyway, Landauer decided to take upon himself the task of finding the working capacity of the human mind through the modern information theory with which he was familiar. After weeks of testing he came to the conclusion, through various types of memorization tests accounting for the guesses of the average intelligent human, that human beings remember nearly two bits per second under the experimental conditions. This means for verbal, visual, musical or whatever type of memory; two bits per second. Over the lifetime of a human that accounts for somewhat over 109 bits, or a couple hundred megabytes. That would mean that the average human is only using about One One-Hundred-Billionth of our brain’s capacity. Obviously our brain has enough capacity for the working of a century-long life. Our brain is just that good. The trend in our technologies is, at present, to become more human-like.

That point will come, in our future, when our creations surpass ourselves in abilities, in capacities, and quite possibly in personalities, but for now we are the future. There are some creations of ours that already cling to breaching and surpassing our competence. The most outstanding difference between a computer and human, of present, is the laying down and retrieving of information. A computer can retrieve any information stored within it, provided that the key to unlock the appropriate memory is available. In this sense it has perfect recall. Human are more fallible. Details of events easily recalled soon after their occurrence are no longer retrievable weeks later, even though the general features of the event are remembered. On the other hand humans can provide their own retrieval “keys” and are not bound by the present stimulus. Humans also have astonishing capabilities to extract information, digest information and determine that he lacks information. In terms of liveliness, what other technology can produce energy the way we do. We run off most anything that nature creates. The things we eat, vegetables, meat and fruit, the things we drink, namely water, are those things most abundant on earth. What technology can run off such abundant resources? We are the best use and creation of energy. We are still that perfection, we are not yet surpassed.

Our technology has certainly led us on extraordinary adventures. The gift of invention has proved most fruitful for mankind, and will hopefully not become too much so. Our future is unpredictable, but we may very well come to realize that Artificial Intelligence in inevitable; how will we deal with it? How will humans deal with at predator more agile and hostile that they create?

H. G. Wells, the famous futurologist, had a foreboding of the new situation when he expressed the remarkable sentence: “The most exciting fact which derives from future science is that man is not the ultimate; as I see it the most fascinating question is what comes after men.”(Kanitscheider)

This vision perhaps sounds frightening; within our human-filled worldview, there is hardly room for any successor to humanity, be it natural or artificial. In any case, we need not understand Wells in the sense that computers will supersede humankind at one stroke, but in the sense that we cannot evade serious cooperation with AI devices. There will surely be a long period of transition, as our fear of this is a prevalent thought. What will happen very far in the future, on a cosmological time scale per se, is beyond even theoretical speculation. Hopefully, with a change in heart, we can live with technology and nature all at once. Hopefully, with some thoughtful thinking, we can live not in the future, but in the present.

Works Cited and Consulted
Blackstock, Regina. Dolphins and Man.....Equals? May 1970. 30-Apr-2004.

Fisher, Robert; Coone, Laurence; Fsheyiku, Balidele; Williams, Nathan; Stanley, Carmen; Tobun, Abi; Randley, Darren; Allnutt, David. How does human memory compare with computer memory?. South Bank University. 25-April-2004.

Fraunfelder, Mark. “The Car That Repairs Itself.” Popular Science, May 2004: 74-75

Kanitscheider, Bernulf. HUMANS AND FUTURE COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, Spring 1999, University of Giessen. 25-April-2004.

Merkle, Ralph C. “How Many Bytes in Human Memory?” Foresight Update No. 4, October 1988.

Ocean, Joan. ETs and Dolphins. 11/20/2003. 30-April-2004.

Remember the Mayonnaise Jar & the Beer

2003-11-04T14:32:00.000-08:00

** While I'm not sure where I got this, it is a good one, though I did not create it ***

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar...and the beer.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.

When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things--your family, your children, your health, your friends, your favorite passions--things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else--the small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.

The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play more. There will always be time to clean the house, and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers."

Computer Science: Fibonacci numbers

2003-10-06T15:00:00.000-07:00

Here is what I started out doing my first year of College:

* This program computes and displays the firsteight Fibonacci numbers

#include

void main ()

{

int a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h;

a=1;

b=1;

c=a+b;

d=b+c;

e=c+d;

f=d+e;

g=e+f;

h=f+g;

printf("The first eight Fibonacci numbers are: %d %d %d %d%d %d %d %d\n", a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h);

}

* This program finds the first eight Fibonaccinumbers

#include

main (void)

{

int Fib0, Fib1, Fib2, Fib3,Fib4, Fib5, Fib6, Fib7, Fibn, n;

fibonacci(int n);

printf("Please input the value 'n' for the FibanocciSequence ->");

scanf("%d", &n);

Fibn = fibonacci(n-1) + fibonacci(n-2);

printf("The first (%d) values in the Fibanocci sequenceare,\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d",n,Fib0,Fib1,Fib2,Fib3,Fib4,Fib5,Fib6,Fib7);

}

* This program finds the first eight Fibonaccinumbers

*Pre: n > 0

#include

main (void)

int Fib0, Fib1, Fib2, Fib3,Fib4, Fib5, Fib6, Fib7, n;

Fib0 = n+1;

Fib1 = n+1;

Fib2 = n+2;

Fib3 = n+3;

Fib4 = n+5;

Fib5 = n+8;

Fib6 = n+13;

Fib7 = n+21;

printf("The first eight values in the Fibonacci sequenceare,\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d",Fib0,Fib1,Fib2,Fib3,Fib4,Fib5,Fib6,Fib7);

}

* This program finds the first eight Fibonaccinumbers

#include

main (void)

{

int a, b, c, d, e, f, g, za,zb, zc, zd, ze, zf, zg, zh, n;

printf("Please input the value 'n' for the FibanocciSequence ->");

scanf("%d", &n);

a=1;

b=2;

c=3;

d=4;

e=5;

f=6;

g=7;

za=(a)+(0);

zb=(0)+(a);

zc=(b)+(0);

zd=(c)+(a);

ze=(d)+(b);

zf=(e)+(c);

zg=(f)+(d);

zh=(g)+(e);

printf("The first eight values in the Fibanocci sequenceare,\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d",za,zb,zc,zd,ze,zf,zg,zh);

}

* This program finds the first eight Fibonaccinumbers

#include

main (void)

{

int a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, za,zb, zc, zd, ze, zf, zg, zh, n;

printf("Please input the value 'n' for the FibanocciSequence ->");

scanf("%d", &n);

a=n-8;

b=n-7;

c=n-6;

d=n-5;

e=n-4;

f=n-3;

g=n-2;

h=n-1;

za=a+1;

zb=a+b;

zc=c+a;

zd=(d-2)+(d-1);

ze=(e-2)+(e-1);

zf=(f-2)+(f-1);

zg=(g-2)+(g-1);

zh=(h-2)+(h-1);

printf("The first eight values in the Fibanocci sequenceare,\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d\n%d",za,zb,zc,zd,ze,zf,zg,zh);

}

Power of the Mind

2003-10-05T14:34:00.000-07:00

The paomnnehil pweor of the hmuan mnid aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy. It deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

Objective of Life

2003-05-03T14:08:00.000-07:00

Objectiveof Life:

To conquerall realms.

Alternative:

To reachthat pedestal of the highest mark and grade in a single arena.

Towardthis end you must always seek. Here inlay all that comprises life. Striving forthese goals makes life a worthy one. For this you must always strive.

DanielStephen Herr

Saturday,May 03, 2003

Military-Ball King Photo

2002-12-04T14:52:00.000-08:00

Here I am as a candidate for Military Ball King:

Rockrose Court - Army Recon (Kids Forts)

2000-08-17T14:44:00.000-07:00

This was pretty sophisticated stuff for the time (Microsoft Paint on Windows 95). I believe I created this when I was 13 or so for by brother, neighborhood friends and me: