stephennielson.com

Thats right! A typewriter! Amazing, huh? So here’s the story. As many of you know I do a lot of 4-wheeling. One of the trips that I take is called the Relic Run. This is a multi-day expedition done only with vehicles aged 1979 or older and camping gear that is in the spirit of the 1970′s or older. Last year, 2009, was the inaugural run of this event. We circumnavigated the Great Salt Lake and had a blast. This year we are heading to the High Unita’s.

So what does the typewriter have to do with this? We’ll I’ve been tasked with trying to stir up some media interest. One of the ideas that I had was to contact these various outlets with an authentic, type written letter in conjunction with our more modern techniques. Strange, perhaps, but also make us seem like a fun group.

So I asked my mom if I could borrow her old electric typewriter. What we have here is a Smith-Corona Coronet Automatic 12.

This is original ’70′s. My mom got it for her high school graduation in 1971 and took it with her to college and business school. It is mint, not a scratch or dent on it. Perfect working order. The only thing I had to replace is the ribbon. Even the carrying case is perfect. And it needs a carrying case, because it weighs a solid ton!

I haven’t typed too much on it yet, but all I can say is that it is satisfying. The weight that you have to use to push down the keys. The reverberation you feel as the arm strikes the paper. And of course, that sound. The wonderful typewriter sound. It makes typing on my Apple Slim Keyboard just feel, well, fake.

Part of me wishes that I could use a typewriter all the time to write. But it’s just not practical in todays world. It will be fun to use for this project, and probably future Relic Run‘s. As with so many things, I just have a problem with nostalgia. A typewriter is just so simple and reflects a simpler time.

I was tooling around the internet today, no big surprise there. Nothing really caught my eye in my normal news feeds, just that the FT-86 will be coming stateside, until I got to an article titled, “Exile in Greenville – What happens when a NASCAR race and an environmental conference converge“.

The article is by Liz Phair, yes that Liz Phair. I liked her early stuff when she was singing about watching TV while… well, you know, doing “boring” things. Once she went all poppy and mainstream I lost track of her. Well apparently she has become a writer for the Atlantic magazine and she took a trip to the Greenbuild Conference in Phoenix last year. Oh, and she also went to a NASCAR race, but she only talks about that for about two paragraphs. Usually I wouldn’t take the time to analyze an article like this, but neo-hippie-eco-nazi’s annoy me. Particular preachy celebrity ones who probably can’t read above a fifth grade level. Lets begin, shall we?

Phair leads off by talking about her drive from the Soviet Socialist Republic of California to Arizona through the Mojave desert. She mentions that she is so glad to be driving a Pious, err, Prius because the desert is an unforgiving place if she were to run out of gas. Maybe she should be glad that she filled up her tank before she left. Or perhaps that her vehicle is in proper repair since she is heading into an unforgiving landscape. No, she is just thankful for her Prius because they don’t run out of gas. I hate to break it to her, but the little ecobox isn’t any gas sipper when you’re wrapping it up to its top speed of 80MPH on the highway. The most respected automotive journalist in the world found that it only got 17.2MPG when doing that.

Next up we get the liberal, equality minded Phair spreading nasty stereotypes about NASCAR and how it’s fans are just a bunch of rednecks. In fact her whole report on what she did and saw at the Phoenix 500 is pretty pathetic. She is surprised when she’s asked to dress more respectfully while in the pits, rather than the slutty short-shorts she was wearing. When she is confronted by the fact that there are NASCAR drivers who are also environmentally conscience and that the sport recycles most of the fluids used she acts dumb and then claims to be “…sick of the brainiacs at NASCAR haranguing me about responsible waste management and alternative-energy sources”. What the fuck is that all about?

In her intro she claimed that she was going to ask NASCAR about recycling. Did she expect them to say, “Hell no missy! We just dump that sludge right into the stream over there and light dem tires on fire at the end of the race! Why don’t you just go ahead and bend over so I can get a look at that behind… Ye Haw!”

NASCAR is a multi-billion dollar industry that has been doing this for over 60 years. They know that their public image is environmentally unfriendly and if some little eco-bitch is coming along with a microphone they are going to show her all the positives they have going on. In addition, racing has been about recycling for decades. Long before Liz Phair figured out how to braid her hair, racing teams were figuring out how to keep parts running longer and harder, how to get the most efficiency out of engines and how to reuse everything in the pits to save money. I find it amazing that someone setting out to write an article dealing with NASCAR and environmentalism didn’t know that going in.

The majority of the article is her at the Greenbuild Conference, which is all about sustainable building products. You know, the companies who are exploiting all these dim-witted people who think that they have to go out and buy things to save the planet. Yeah, the conference is for them to show off their wares. And really, she doesn’t even talk that much about it either. She kind of glosses over the whole thing and talks about feeling “Eco-inadequate”.

She does record a conversation that she has with her jackbooted, goose stepping eco-nazi friend Kim. Kim gets mad at Liz because Liz wants to use the recycled plastic utensils and paper napkins telling her that they need to use less. This coming from a moron who drove from LA to Phoenix to attend a conference all about new eco friendly products for her to consume. Yeah…

The article ends with a quote from some guy saying, “…ultimately the society we need to create to sustain the planet depends on our ability to speak emotionally with some sort of comfort or fluency.” And Phair making a lame quip about how we all need to do our part and become more resourceful as a nation and use less stuff. And then she drives her little Pious back across the Mojave, which Kim has now convinced her is beautiful. Blegh.

The whole article makes me want to cut myself, but the last bit is the worst. First of all, speaking emotionally has nothing to do with building a sustainable planet. If anything its about being able to speak bluntly and often rudely. Talking about peace and love and happy birdies isn’t going to convince some logging company in Brazil to stop clear cutting the Amazon. Rather, explaining to them in cold hard emotionless facts that their business would be more profitable in the long run if they used more sustainable practices is going to convince them. Maybe. But this whole neo-hippie, Haight- Ashbury mentality of speaking about how we feel and that if we convince them that our feelings are more important then they will do what we want is total bullshit.

Then we have Liz Phair’s deal with how we need to be more resourceful. Which is honestly the only smart thing she says in the whole article. The problem is that she, and her ilk, are going about it in the wrong way. Rather than attending a Greenbuild conference, build something (or better yet refurbish something) with your own two hands! Rather than buy a brand new Prius, buy an old, reliable used car and keep it running for another twenty years.

You see this whole new sustainability movement is all about selling people stuff. Those of us who have been living this way our whole lives can’t help but be dumbfounded by people like Phair. I grew up with the mentality of if its broken, fix it. If you can do it yourself, then do. Don’t buy crap you don’t need and if you do need it, make sure it’s something that is going to last. Now we have people saying that your 10 year old perfect running car is a clunker and you need a hybrid. Your coffee grinder pulls too much energy, so you need a new low voltage one. All in the name of sustainability. It’s just another sales tactic for gullible people to buy into.

Phair should have been blown away by NASCAR. She should have gone in with an open mind and then seen how the whole event is organized, how they recycle, how the teams are so efficient, ect. Then she should have gone back to the Greenbuild conference and looked a little harder. Thought, “We already have most of this stuff, why can’t we just reuse what we have. Why am I being told that the only way to save the planet is to get rid of a bunch of old stuff that works fine and replace it with new stuff?”

But no, that would be too hard and wouldn’t conform to the ‘eco’ mindset.

Watch the video and read my response below.

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Oh My God! The climate is changing!!!! The climate is changing!!! The Climate is… wait a minute? Hasn’t the climate always been changing? I mean, what about back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, things were different then, right? Or hey, lets get even more recent, say 1944? Yeah, one of the coldest winters on record in Europe. Or even this year where Britain is experience a severe cold shock. THE CLIMATE IS ALWAYS CHANGING!!!! I mean hell, Many scientist who were part of the IPCC recently came out saying that they made a mistake. Oh, and lets not forget about ClimateGate… yeah…

We don’t even fully understand how the climate works and we are trying to change it? Isn’t that bad? Shouldn’t we invest a little more time in trying to figure out how the system works before we spend untold trillions of dollars to change it to our liking?

And what are they talking about that these jobs that would be created “can’t” be outsourced’? WTF? Most of the manufacturing would be done in China, so there goes most of those jobs. And construction of the massive wind or solar farms (which would take up huge tracts of land) would probably go to the lowest bidder, like all government contracts. So how are those good paying jobs?

Also, how is this not going to increase the deficit? I mean really, lets think about this. The bill calls for government money to be poured into the economy to stimulate growth in this sector. At a minimum these projects would take 5-10 years to come online in strength all the while requiring subsidies, and probably for a long time after. Best bet, you would probably see a return on investment somewhere around the 30 year mark. So yeah, in 30 years time you will see it not effect the deficit. But today where we are sitting at the highest deficit EVER we will continue to load up on that, making our economy weaker and our ability to compete globally worse. And if we tax the hell out of “the polluters” guess what, they will stop creating jobs in the US and move them overseas. Don’t believe me, look at California. Industries have found it cheaper to do their manufacturing in Nevada and ship products into California rather than keep their main operations there rather than pay the exorbitant taxes. Put that on a national scale. Tweak that gap toothed fro boy!

Next, end our dependance on foreign oil because we get it from countries that don’t share our views and want to kill us. Who, Canada?!?! Whoever wrote this piece of garbage needs to do a little research: DOE Oil Imports. The only country on there that I can see who really hates us is Venezuela. But they would never do anything but spout off rhetoric because exporting oil to the US supports their ENTIRE ECONOMY! And what about the whole Hollywood message of tolerance of others. Basically this message tells me that others (Arabs) are all bad and want to kill us. What about that anti-war, love Iraq BS you were spouting a couple years ago Leo?

To conclude I’m all about sustainability. People should do more to use what they have, keep what they have usable for longer periods of time, support local businesses, increase efficiency, ect. ect. But people should also look at the big picture. We can’t change the climate in any definitive terms. And why should we try? I mean people are talking about .01 degree changes in a century if we did everything that groups like Greenpeace want. Has anyone thought that if we try fucking with something that we don’t fully comprehend there might be some negative consequences?

I think that Bjorn Lomborg’s book Cool It is one of the best arguments about the whole climate change deal. If you are truly worried about this whole thing, then rather than pour money into something that may not do anything, help the world adapt. For pennies on the dollar we could teach people how to better cope with the new realities of a changed climate.

People make the whole climate change thing sound apocalyptic. It’s not. As I mentioned earlier, the climate has been changing forever and will continue to change. Trying to keep it stagnate, which is what these Hollywood bobble heads want us to do, is selfish. Oddly enough humanity has the ability to adapt to vastly different climates. If the climate were to change by a global average (how do you get a global average? We have such varying climates that that would prove hard) of 1 degree by 2100, mankind isn’t going to shrivel and die.

If people want to e-mail their Senators in support of it, cool. They have staffers who will read it and trash it because it’s a form letter. I for one don’t support the Senate energy bill and am pretty confidante that it will not pass (Scott Brown FTW!).

I had a job interview yesterday, the first in several weeks. I was super excited as well because it was with CarMax, the used car super store. I thought, “Awesome, a chance to use my vast automotive knowledge!” It didn’t work out so well.

To begin with, to apply for a job with CarMax you have to go through this arduous online application that as far as I could tell had absolutely nothing to do with the job itself, but more with trying to make sure that the person applying was both computer literate and smart enough not to click ‘Yes’ on multiple questions about how frequently you shoot up heroine and rob your employer. I suppose that this must have been the first warning sign.

Apparently I hadn’t done enough lines of cocaine because this Tuesday I get a phone call from a sales manager at the CarMax location here in Salt Lake. He was polite but you could tell that he had very little experience with actually conducting a phone interview. The conversations was punctuated by long pauses at awkward moments in the conversation. Often I would have to break it with a laugh and an attempt to get the interview going again. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the pauses had come at logical points that could lead me to take over the interview, but they didn’t. I think that he was busy taking notes and couldn’t keep up with the conversation.

I got through the phone interview and was asked to come in for an in person interview yesterday. I arrived a few minutes early for my interview at 12:30pm. The perky front desk girl said that I had caught her off guard by showing up early. I understood and she asked me to have a seat whole she got stuff together. So I had a seat for about 10 minutes while she got some paper work. When she came back we went to an empty cubical and I got to fill out about five release forms saying such things as agreeing to an independent arbitrator if I had a dispute with the company. That should have fired off a warning sign as well.

I got done with those papers and then was told that I had to complete another computer based application. Ok, I get that big companies want to have as much data as possible, but come on if I come in for an interview, I expect to speak with people, not fill out tons of questionnaires. But I need a job, so I diligently completed the application which was, guess what? Mostly asking about how often I do illegal drugs, steal from employers, shop lift and aid others in doing these things. What the fuck?!? First of all, who in their right mind would answer these questions truthfully if they actually had these problems? Second, if CarMax is just trying to see if you can navigate some potential traps, come up with some better question than, “How much money have you stolen from an employer in the past five years.”

Once I was done with the computer questionnaire I was directed to have a seat and wait again. This time I sat for about 15 minutes. I observed that the employees clumped like at most big box stores. None seemed to be doing much. Perhaps its just because it wasn’t very busy, but I would have been getting caught up with what the stores inventory was. But apparent that isn’t the case, as will be shown later.

After waiting I finally got to talk to a human. Guess what the interview was? Thats right, this guy asked me form questions that were generated from my recent computer application. Literally, “Stephen, when was the last time that you shoplifted?” I should have walked out. I really really should have. Any company that is going to base so much of the interview process on this kind stuff obviously has a history of hiring absolute morons. Both because they are having these problems and their hiring managers can’t figure this stuff out by actually gauging someone in person.

Once the retarded form interview was done (seriously, he read every question verbatim off his paper. “Stephen, when was…”!) I got to sit and wait for another 10 minutes until the sales manager I had spoken to on the phone showed up with two female managers-in-training. We went back to another empty cubical and they preceded to ask me generic interview questions. I hate these questions because they tell you nothing about the candidate, “Give me an example of how you handled X situation.”, “What strengths do you possess?”. Blegh. This is why you read the resume (which they never took from me) or the MASSIVE application that I had to fill out. In an interview you are supposed to get to know the candidate, allow them to ask questions and find out if you think they are a match. When you just get these dry questions there is no room for creative discussion or for the candidate to really show who they are. Regardless I trudged through.

Finally the bland interview questions ended and we got to what I was looking forward to, role playing. In the phone interview I had been told to go on carmax.com and find “any car on there that I liked”, print it out and bring it in. I selected a 2001 Honda S2000. I wanted to showcase my knowledge and passion about a very unique vehicle. When I handed them my spec sheet, the sales manager said, “Oh, this is in Omaha, not here.” Sigh… It had never been specified that it had to be on the SLC lot. I did have a back up if that did prove to be a problem, a 2007 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. They said that they would find that and use it. Great.

When they came back, they said the Rubicon was too far away (Oh dear, we would have to walk in the cold!) would I be OK doing to roll play with the Toyota Highlander in the showroom. Instead I said, “How about the Volvo C30 right there.” And pointed out the window.
“The C230?” The sales manager asked, referring to the W203 Mercedes a few spots down from the Volvo.
“No, the C30.”
“Oh, OK.”

I felt good about that. I like the C30, so I thought that I could really show some enthusiasm. The sales manager and one of the women walked away and the other woman stayed with me to take notes. The two that walked away came back and I greeted them as if they were customers.
“Hi, welcome to CarMax. What can I help you find today?”
“Well, we were looking at a Mercedes C300 online and we wanted to see it.”
I was floored. First, I thought that we had cleared that little misunderstanding up, but apparently not. Second, I hate Mercedes lacross-mom cars, of which the the C-Class belongs. Third, there was no C300 on the lot, only the afore mentioned W203 C230. Grrr…

Being that I didn’t want to come off rude, I just rolled with it. I tried to act enthusiastic about the POS Merc, but I know it didn’t come through. When we walked back into the store and the role play ended I laughingly commented that it was the Volvo C30 that I had been interested in presenting. The sales manager just looked awkward and the woman said, “Oh, I just heard the white one!” What the fuck?

And that was the note that the interview ended on. I was told that they would let me know in 7-10 business days. Walking back to my car I knew that it didn’t go well, and aside from knowing that I didn’t get a job, I was OK with that. Today I got a form letter in the mail addressed to, “NIELSON” stating that CarMax had decided to go with another candidate. I Left the interview yesterday at about 2:00pm, my mailman arrived this morning just before 10:00am. Absolutely retarded. Rather than say, “Hey kid, 7-10 business days!” they should have manned up and said, “Thanks but no thanks.” I can take it, really, I can.

So to sum it up, I think that businesses like CarMax are missing out. Not on me specifically, but on many quality employees. The reason is that they are relying way, way too much on form interviewing and too little on actually getting to know the candidate. The best jobs I’ve ever had have always stemmed from interviews where the interviewer got to know me. Talked with me about more than just, “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” They got to know me and I got to know them and the company. That is way more important that whether I shoplifted something at the age of 13!

CarMax and their big box ilk tend to be staffed by pretty plain vanilla folks because they don’t take the time to interact with candidates. Sure, they spend big bucks on background checks, but nothing on the personal touch. This is why the manager who interviewed me was so awkward, he had no idea how to talk with someone outside of his pre-formed structure. That is not the culture that these businesses want. They want people who will follow every guideline and never think outside of them. WalMart, CarMax, Best Buy. At the end of the day you can just shift employees from one to the other and it wouldn’t make any difference, their all the same.

One of my best friends was in London for the fall semester doing a law study abroad program. While he was there, he picked me up some tea from Fortnum & Mason.

DOCIS 3.0 is here. No really, it’s here in my home slowly devouring time and space! It has created a rip in the space time continuum that is allowing for blazing fast internet speeds! 22MB/s minimum! Death to lag!
But oh how part of me longs for playing Quake 2 on a 56.6K modem and having to anticipate a players move by firing far ahead of them. Setting super high network latency in StarCraft to deal with slower players. The frequent drops in SC that caused everyone to sit around for a minute and hope beyond all hope that the player would return.
Sigh… The good old days. Not that I play games online anymore anyway, but I miss them.
Now I can stream videos with little to no lag. Websites are just popping up with no load times. It’s like getting high speed cable all over again! Awesomeness is all I can say.

I’m sure that I’m not the first, nor will I be the last to say this, but Battlestar: Galactica’s design staff is AWESOME! From the sets and costumes, to the DVD packages. Just so cool!

There has been some discussion amongst the circles that I run about the perfect “Post-Apocalyptic Vehicle”. Many people examine this question from the perspective that they have plenty of time to plan for said apocalypse and that they have ample funding to prep such a vehicle. While this is all fine and dandy, I tend to think that this is a bit optimistic. Most catastrophic events that happen are quick and unforeseen. Additionally, unless you are totally paranoid, most of us do little more that basic preparation for ‘the worst’.
So here I submit my list of vehicles for various post-apocalyptic scenarios. This is not a comprehensive list, by any stretch, but just some that I thought of. Each one is selected based on the type of event that may transpire, which I will also explain. The list goes from most likely to least likely.

1. Localized Natural Disaster – Large Earthquake, Tornado, Hurricane, Blizzard, ect.

In a situation such as this the challenges that you will be presented are things such as damaged road networks, debris from fallen trees, light poles and building. Abandoned/damaged vehicles in the roadways, collapsed highway bridges, flooding, lack of electricity and the possibility of chemical spills or failed sewage systems.
Survivors of such as disaster will likely be disoriented and preoccupied with trying to cope with the events that have transpired. There is a small probability of looters and opportunists criminals, depending on your locality the likelihood of this will vary. You probably don’t need to worry about roving bandits as most looters will be concentrating on robbing homes and stores, not moving vehicles.
If you do need to travel, you will likely be heading to an unaffected area, FEMA camp or some other aid station. In all likely hood, your current vehicle, if left unharmed, will do just fine. If not, and you feel the need to go GTA, you would probably like to find something with reasonable ground clearance, 4WD and decent cargo space. Seeing as I am in the American west, I would venture to say that the best vehicle to get would be a body on frame SUV. 1990′s Ford Explorer, Dodge Durango or Toyota 4-Runner would probably do just fine. They all get decent fuel milage, enough to get you to an unaffected area at least. They offer off-highway capability to get you around and over the aforementioned obstacles and have plenty of space to haul you and whatever else you feel the need to take.

Verdict: 90′s Vintage Body on Frame SUV with 4WD.

2. Epidemic – Regional outbreak of a disease

Lets say that my home town of Salt Lake City suffers some sort of epidemic disease. This would rapidly spread up and down the Wasatch Front and the I-15 Corridor. The challenge then is getting yourself out of the affected area quickly. You will likely be confronted with panicked pedestrians, erratic drivers, vehicles stopped on the roadways due to abandonment or the operator falling ill. Additionally, you will have other people thinking the same as you. Finally, the government will undoubtably begin to establish a quarantine area, so you will want to try and get out before that can be established.
Ok, so unless you are already in possession of a high performance vehicle, it’s time to go GTA and get one. Depending on the number of people you are transporting comes into play here as well. If its just you and one other person, it’s time to jack a 911, Lotus Elise/Exige, Miata, M3 or something else small, quick and deadly responsive. If it’s four people, start looking for any BMW sedan, WRX, Evo or G8. More than four? Start looking for multiple vehicles or kill the outstanding number.
What you want is something with speed and maneuverability. You’ll be required to drive like hell towards the ‘Safe Zone’, avoid abandoned vehicles and outpace the other drivers on the road. The roads will be fine, your biggest worry is getting out before you get locked into the quarantine zone.

Verdict: Lotus Exige or some other high performance/maneuverable vehicle.

3. Pandemic – 21st Century Plague

Take the pervious situation and make it global. So now everyone is dying from some horrible disease and you’re one of the few standing. You know that there are safe zones, but you’ve got to get there. The previous vehicle choice is probably the best bet, yet again. In America, with our vast network of roads, you should be able to get anywhere you need to using them. Since most people are dead and dying, you just need to get from point A to B as fast as you can. Roving bandits are probably of little concern, so a small, fast car will do just fine.

Verdict: Lotus Exige or some other high performance/maneuverable vehicle.

4. Failure of the Government

There are MANY different ways that a government could fail, but lets take the most drastic. Federal, State and Local governments cease to function. This means no law enforcement. Here we begin to get into the question of dealing with roving bandits and other potentially intelligent dangers. The scenario that I would perceive is that the city has fallen into chaos and its time to get out. Where will you head? Well ideally to a stable area such as another town, but you don’t know where. All you know is that its time to get out and go somewhere.
To me, this denotes the need for a high clearance, very capable 4WD vehicle with ample storage. You will likely need to get into the backcountry far away from main roads in order to avoid bad guys. As always, if you aren’t already set up with a vehicle that can accomplish this, there are some options. Any Jeep Cherokee, Grand Cherokee, 4-Door Wrangler JK, older Toyota 4-Runner, 4-door Suzuki Sidekick/Vitara or similar vehicle. Any of these provide you with capability and reasonable storage space for a week plus in the boonies.

Verdict: Jeep Cherokee, Toyota 4-Runner or the like.

5. Large Scale Nuclear Assault

Ok, Jericho style here. All major cities are nuked, the Federal government is gone and likely so are state governments. Local governments of surviving cities/towns are probably still intact. Here we run into the situation that the surviving towns will likely be relatively stable (depending on who’s in charge) but there are likely roving bandits and other opportunists in the voids between. Additionally, it’s a wasteland out there! Fallout, destruction, the works.
If I where in this situation, I’d try to make it to the closest stable town, and stay there. Again, we have this fantastic road network but who knows how much is intact or accessible? For this reason, I would venture that a Subaru WRX is the best bet. Why? Fast enough to outrun most of the baddies out there, ability to handle modest off-road conditions, good MPG and plenty of storage room.

Verdict: Subaru WRX

6. Zombie Apocalypse

So lets say that the vast majority of the planet goes all crazed and brain eaty. Your goal will be to stay out of harms way, get fuel and supplies where available and then move on. Likely you will have little opportunity to stay in one place for long and will have to be constantly on the move. This will require a vehicle with stellar reliability and good fuel milage. My recommendation would be anything Japanese and older than 2000. Toyota, Honda, Nissan or Subaru being the best bets. All get good milage, all are highly reliable and there are lots of them! This means parts or the ability to switch to a new vehicle as needed.

Verdict: Any pre-2000 Toyota, Honda, Nissan or Subaru

One of the most annoying things about being unemployed, or perhaps nicest depending on who you ask, is not having a schedule. I don’t have to be at work at a certain time, I can sleep in, I can do whatever I want with my day. To me this kind of sucks.
I’m not a workaholic by any stretch, but this is the first time I’ve been unemployed for longer than a week in seven years. I worked full time and went to school full time for six years, so you can imagine that I’m pretty used to having my schedule packed. Now that I’m doing neither, well it gets a little boring.
I think this also ties in with the thought that “You are your job.” For years I laughed at that, but the reality is that you are. We spend most of our waking hours at our jobs. When people ask, “What do you do?” You don’t answer, “Well I ski in the winter and 4-Wheel the rest of the time.” No, you answer, “I’m sales manager/software engineer/ect for X company.” Not having that identity is actually frightening.
In todays society you are stigmatized if you are unemployed. I know that has changed somewhat recently, what with more than 10 percent of us being out of work, but it is still there. When people meet me now and ask, I have to answer, “Well I used to work for X company, but things didn’t work out. So now I sit around in my underwear and drink beer.” Usually they ask what kind of beer. PBR of course.
I thought that once I got out of college, I wouldn’t have a problem getting a job. That degree being the Golden Ticket and all. I never had dreams of making it big, I’ve always wanted job security more than anything. I look at my father, 30 years with one company. Thats what I want. Is it there anymore? I hear more and more that the future is contract work, picking up odd jobs, anything to pay the bills. But is that secure? Perhaps more importantly, how does that define you?

Well it’s been a little over a month since I left/lost my job. Am I bitter? Yeah. But I know that I left a better person, even if I’m unemployed right now.

So what have I been doing in the past month aside from the omni present job search? Not a whole lot really, which is sad. I went on an awesome trip down south with some folks from ExpeditionUtah. We hit up Beef Basin just south of Canyonlands. Feel free to read the trip report here. It was a blast, my only regret is that I didn’t get to take my Samurai on the trip. In a bid to save a few bucks, I just rode with my buddy Kurt from Cruiser Outfitters instead.

Speaking of the Samurai, it’s pretty well done. I’ll post the details on sn.c soon, but for now you can hit up what is probably my favorite online haunt Rocky Mountain Extreme and read my post about it. There are a few things left, but all the mechanicals are done!

In other automotive related news, Tomi and I bought a 1970 Datsun 510 4-door a couple months ago.

Awesomeness, I know. I picked it up for next to nothing from a super cool guy at Dixieland Tire in St. George. I wasn’t even looking for it, it just was there and the next thing I knew Spencer and I were loading it up into his box trailer! Plans are a full restoration of the body and interior, dropping a KA24DE from a Silvia in mated to a five speed, hopefully a Subaru LSD rear diff (if I can find one) a subtly sport tuned suspension and old school Maglite 14″ wheels. Color is up in the air at the moment, either British Racing Green or Gunmetal Grey. This is a long term project, probably looking at five plus years to get it all done. But when it’s done, it will be a bitching unique ride!

Two of my best friends recently swapped places in the world. Eric came home from London and Jeff jetted off for Krakow. It’s nice to have Eric home for a month or so before he heads back to TU for another semester. It’s awfully nice to have someone who shares my passion of vehicles to talk to. Most ‘car guys’ that I know, aside from my Dad, are only interested in passing, or just one make/model, or only like domestics. Eric and I share our broad view of the automotive industry, enjoy any and all cars, the more bizarre a foreign the better. Hell, we even like talking about pending company mergers (Oh PSA and Mitsubishi, make it happen! I want an RCZ stateside!)

I’m sad that Jeff is gone. He was a great friend to chat about creative ideas. From photography to story ideas. Plus he was always down for whatever, which was nice. Since he left my days have definitely gotten more boring. I’ve still got his periodic updates on his website.

So to fill all my spare time with something that will hopefully be perceived as constructive and get this website going! Hopefully within the next week or so I’ll get everything the way that I want it. Additionally, I have a project that I’m working on that I hope to reveal in the next month or so. Exciting, I know!

So until then!