a robot, i am not » me

back from hiatus

jritch — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 01:53:50 +0000

I’m back from my blogging hiatus and will start updating a few times a week once again. I had a beautiful few weeks back in North Carolina where Jane ( @jmw213 ) and I were married. Once some more photos start rolling in, I’ll blog a few thoughts about what it meant to me to have a wedding ceremony and some of the other adventures of my time back in the US.

Until then, my friend @sbmk made this awesome video of the ceremony, so enjoy!

talking educational philosophy on the Shift podcast

jritch — Sat, 01 May 2010 18:00:32 +0000

The second half of my interview with Rusty McLellan on the Shift podcast is out. Rusty did an amazing job editing because I was about half way through and was starting to think, “Wow, I totally resonant with what that guy is saying” and then I remembered it was me. So yes, I owe that to Rusty’s questioning and editing because I definitely don’t think the things I say are that coherent on a regular basis, especially in my head in least. I also like how he used the theme from my blog as the theme for the episode. So give it a listen and enjoy!

talking energy issues on the Shift podcast

jritch — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:00:45 +0000

This week’s Shift podcast is out and it features my interview with host Rusty McLellan where we talk about energy issues, technology and oil supplies. Rusty did a great job putting it all together and that gets me excited about the next episode which will feature our discussion on education systems.

what I’ve been working on at UBC: electrochromism

jritch — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:00:07 +0000

You might wonder what I’ve been working on at UBC recently. In general I’m working on nanofibrous materials, transparent conductors and photovoltaics with a few other little things interspersed. Yes, I’ve learned a lot over the past few months. I recently put together a presentation and a paper on electrochromic materials and I thought this might be a great place to share it. Enjoy!

some thoughts on being a citizen of a newly fascist/socialist country

jritch — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 12:36:59 +0000

I’ll make an exception to the fact that I try to refrain from political discussions on my blog.

I don’t talk about politics anymore because because I think that politics in the United States, and for the most part globally, has completely lost touch with reality. The Health Care Reform bill that passed the house last evening is case in point. The reforms are important and are a step in the right direction toward decreasing the crushing social inequity in the US that was responsible for the latest economic downturn but it took a year of nail biting, fighting and pain to force the people of the United States to take care of their own.

I’m shocked that a supposedly civilized nation with as much monetary wealth as the United States would allow private companies to bankrupt the downtrodden and disadvantaged when it came to needing an emergency medical procedures. There are two problems with this. The first is that passing a semi-major reform of US industry took well over a year. Yes, that year was an important period for reflection, reform and debate but when most of the debate is comparisons to demagogues of the past by one side and failure to explain details on the other, a year was far too much time. The second problem with US Health Care Reform is that so much of the nation is still absolutely in an uproar about this attempt to ensure a few extra people are provided for in times of need, an indication to me that most of the United States has lost the ability to form compassion for fellow humans or that most people are zombified corporate shills (most likely a combination of both). These are two characteristics which will not serve a society well in the current time of hardship and the future period of growing economic troubles. Even in scenarios that include mainstream economic predictions, a period of heavy inflation and long-term unemployment is virtually unavoidable, and that’s the optimistic view.

In summary, the process for health care reform in the United States has confirmed my suspicisions that the US federal government has lost the ability to provide adequate solutions in times of crisis and that the American people are not the type of folk you want to be around as things go from bad to worse. I don’t mean every person in the US, I mean the 30-40% that are the zombified corporate shills out to get theirs. As the federal deficit situation gets worse, they would be the ones likely to turn towards unsightly actions as an expression of their anger over inflation and taxes.

Ultimately, I’ll turn turn to the words of E.F. Schumacher to provide clarity on this situation,

“Private enterprise claims that its profits are being earned by its own efforts, and that a substantial part of them is then taxed away by public authorities. This is not a correct reflection of the truth-generally speaking. The truth is that a large part of the costs of private enterprise has been borne by the public authorities because they pay for the infrastructure and the education of its workers-and that the profits of private enterprise therefore greatly overstate its achievement.”

p.292 Small is Beautiful

top tracks for early March

jritch — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:00:35 +0000

February didn’t really count. So now I’m back with music recommendations in March, just before SXSW descends upon us. I would add commentary on each song but anything I say would taint your mind before hearing these fantastic tracks.

The Tallest Man on Earth – King of Spain

Yukon Blonde – Wind Blows

MillionYoung – Hammock and Chlorophyll

Broken Social Scene – World Sick

Album of the Moment

Tie between

Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate - Ali & Toumani

and

Joanna Newsom – Have One on Me

my own closing ceremony

jritch — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:00:18 +0000

Downtown Vancouver after Canada beat the US in Men's Hockey

And now that it has been more than a week since the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics closing ceremony, things are returning to normal. Classes have started back at UBC and the grind of assignments, lab expectations, long term projects, and midterm exams has provided a nice break from the breakneck pace of the Olympics. Moving to Vancouver in August of 2009 has yielded an interesting perspective for living in an Olympics host city. I haven’t known a Vancouver without Olympic hype, dread and emotion. I thought Granville Street was always pedestrian only. I thought that Translink was always planning to open new rail lines. I thought Canadians were always patriotic. (Although up here, it isn’t called patriotism, it is called, “Loving Canada”)

After hosting fourteen friends from the United States in our 900 sq. ft apartment over the period of 17 days, I gained a fresh set of eyes on the city I’ve learned to live in. “Transit is so good here” and so I responded, yeah it has been ramped up during the Olympics but it actually is pretty good (especially if you’ve ever been to any other city in North America). “Everyone is so young here”, and so I responded that I didn’t realize this fact until I went back home to Charlotte, NC for the Christmas holidays as was shocked at the demographic contrasts. “People here are in such good shape!”, and I responded that you realize this fact whenever you leave the United States, even if Canada isn’t that much better as a whole on obesity rates. That’s not to say I take Vancouver for granted now, I swear I never will. But all the awesomeness just kind of grows on you until you expect awesomeness. When awesomeness becomes the everyday does it ever reach the status of the mundane?

At first, my daily activities consisted of going downtown and gaping at the large crowds of people doing nothing but walking around. Sure, the street musicians were cool but what was there really to do in downtown Vancouver during the Olympics? Stores were crowded, the cultural houses were crowded and the zip line I wanted to experience so much required a 4+ hour wait. Walking around admiring the insanity of it all got old after a few nights and I decided to check out the O-Zone (lame). Around this time I was already starting to get burned out. I’m afraid Jenn and Jason suffered the most from my exhaustion as I often couldn’t do more than just stare at the constant Twitter deliveries to my phone from VANOC and Translink. I entered Olympic overload. Showing friends around in a city I didn’t really know that well had its additional problems. “Let’s go find a bar” … “everything has a huge wait and is overcrowded” … “let’s walk around” …. …. 20 mins later … “ok here’s something”.

Walker on the drums downtown

Sleeping nine people in the apartment during one night might sound like a feat of gymnastics but was really a joy. My favorite part about the whole experience was hosting friends and showing them around, I bemoan the cost of eating out so much but revel in the fact that I got to try so many amazing places in such a short period of time. I know Vancouver’s East Side better, taking Jane to Commercial Drive for her birthday and later in the week with other friends for bowling. (Not to mention other adventures to Dan’s Homebrewing and a Cheese shop on Hastings). I think Jane was the real gold medal winner, she somehow agreed to let me host five of my old roommates at once (all guys) immediately after all the other guests. When three friends came up from Seattle for a night, she said, “sure, bring ‘em on”. Somehow I got all my assignments for UBC done on time, sneaking away to complete them.

The Olympics brought a lifetime of memories in just a short period of time. I even learned all the lyrics to “O, Canada” by heart. However, If I have one regret from the whole experience though it is this: I didn’t watch the Olympics enough. Sure, I saw all the key moments live, along with all the biggest events. But it is not taking the time to sit down for a full curling match or failing to watch the entire two-man luge that stings now. Going to more of the actual events would have been fun but the cost was prohibitive and so much other cool stuff was going on I don’t regret passing up opportunities to do just that.

So if you ask me to sum all that up, “What was it like to live in the Olympic host city?” It was basically like normal Vancouver but with a big party downtown. Outside of Downtown Van you could barely tell the Olympics were happening.

: at the opening day protest

I’m not sure I’d ever want to travel to an Olympics. Vancouver is a rare bird, equal parts civil and beautiful. If the Olympics were in Chicago I don’t think the 24/7 street party down town would have maintained its rate of zero casualties. People here don’t ride around with machine guns on motorcycles like they will during Rio 2016. Vancouver was one amazing host city that far an exceed my expectations but I could never justify spending thousands of dollars on tickets to uphold nationalistic values. Apparently British Columbia has turned me into such a hippie I think the athletes should have their favorite songs played on the podium instead of national anthems. The Olympics are a great excuse to be a tourist but without all the slow paced things I enjoy about my brand of tourism: relaxing in fun restaurants, exploring cool local shops, relaxing at local music and leisurely conversations with residents. In a city I didn’t already know, all these things would be inaccessible as a one-off tourist in a foreign land. At the end of the day, I’m thinking: wow, that was a lot of fun, hope it didn’t cost too much… oh it was $8 billion?… in the US we just put that on a credit card.

I don’t want to be a cynic who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing. The collective experience shared in Vancouver was immensely valuable. If companies can possibly re-locate here the economy will benefit. Outside of downtown, businesses saw little to no upside and will experience much higher taxes. Many artists and educators will have their funding slashed dramatically hurting the local experience dramatically for decades to come. Local transit is running a huge deficit and faces the reality of significant cutbacks or canceling much needed rail projects. How shallow is modernism that it’s pinnacle is gambling the future by throwing a massive party for a few days? Could it really all be about private profits driven through socialized debt?

Life and society isn’t always about doing the rational thing though. Maybe after watching grown men sweeping on ice for several hours at a time I’ve realized that’s what made the Olympics so much fun.

thanks @mysteriousuniv for playing my voicemail

jritch — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:24:57 +0000

Thanks to the Mysterious Universe podcast for sharing my recent voicemail on some similarities I noticed between @azzwright‘s past-life regression experience and an experience I had using psilocybin tea. This is an area of my spiritual practice that I don’t talk about a lot because its very personal but I thought the @mysteriousuniv podcast gave me a great forum to share a few aspects of one particular excursion into the tryptamine dimensions.

My voicemail starts at the 1:28:30 mark:

MU308.mp3

If the embedded player doesn’t work, you can always use the one on the MU site.

tracking my sleep with YawnLog

jritch — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 19:00:02 +0000

I’m a big fan of personal metrics and tracking tools. Recently I discovered YawnLog and have been using it to mark my bedtime and wake-up every day. My goal is to get 7.5 hours of sleep every night but YawnLog only supports setting goals at full integer hour numbers, so I have to choose 7 or 8. I’m interested to see if there are any patterns which emerge after I do this for a few months. Already, I noticed a huge sleep surplus the days before I started to feel under the weather, perhaps my body adjusting to the oncoming virus I had for two days. If I can get better at noticing patterns in my sleep I’ll learn a lot about myself in combination with my dream journal.

Through Self-Hypnosis techniques I learned from Adam Eason’s book many years ago, I’ve been able to wake up with out alarms for quite some time in most scenarios. I’ll be interested to see if I can meet my target of 7.5 hours in bed or if my body likes to meet a different quota for sleep.

tracking my sleeps with YawnLog

a particularly emotional dream

jritch — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:00:03 +0000

I’ve been using Journler on mac for the last few months to help me index my dreams. Whenever I remember my night-time adventures I type it all out in Journler the next morning. This is very similar to my approach in high school, where I kept a dream journal. Back then, over the course of a year my dreams became much more detailed, much more contextually rich and far deeper than I ever could have imagined. You might even say that the experience inspired me to be who I am today. I drifted away from the practice because the university life was not conducive to inner psychological work. However, the same thing is happening now. After about 3 and a half months of dream journaling, I’m getting back to that state. I don’t like sharing dreams too often, but this one was particularly strange and beautiful, I’m sharing it because it might inspire someone to create fiction or create a dream journal themselves.

As Emily Bronte wrote: “I’ve dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they’ve gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind.”

My job was to deliver pizza to an upstairs apartment. I did so and the lady was so depressed. She told me that my sign promised for an, “interesting” year ahead and that her sign guaranteed her a very bad one, she was headed out so at the least she could deal with it while having fun traveling. I was a little skeptical at first but encouraged her to travel because it was great. Then her mom came out and starting speaking in a strange language pointing at me and smiling. I thought she was hitting on me at first, or found me attractive or something. The whole place smelled like cigarette smoke, it was awful and there were black cats walking around. I realized that they were talking about my aura or something like that. I thanked them for their advice and I started to walk away but the pruney mom followed me. She was talking louder and louder. The lady was old and wrinkly as well and her glasses were round and ill-polished. I felt like the subject in a freak show. She re-iterated her comments about the upcoming year and I got a little freaked out.

I walked downstairs and I was in the sunny green grass around the apartment complex. There was a family, a mom and a dad. The dad had black hair and the mom was really tall and had blonde-red hair. They were playing with their two boys and I decided to sit down and watch them for a while. It was absolutely so beautiful. I had to watch non-chalantly because otherwise it would have been weird. But I sat there watching, looking at the joy in the parents faces and the joy in the childrens faces.

I contemplated what all this meant and I heard the voice of the mushroom in my head, it told me “you have to keep your species alive you idiot” and wondered if that was because of some grand eschantonic plan, a goal for history, some cyclical evolutionary cycle or maybe all of that in between. Whatever it was, it was all so grand. And then the pure beauty smacked me in the face. I broke down crying from the glorious nature of it all. The human experience is truly the most beautiful thing, the fact we can express art and beauty… the tears were partially joy and partially lamentation for the vast reaches of humanity that would never embrace the beauty of their triumphs and their suffering. By cutting ourselves off from the realities of the world, we missed out on the beauty of human existence. [Note: I woke up at this point crying; that’s one helluva dream]