Key Learnings: Past Three Weeks in Tasmania

Not a whole lot going on here.... this one is a rant, read at your own risk [of boredom].

On Nature
You can't really get angry with nature. I came here anticipating 12 hr shifts every day, but if the grapes aren't ripe (as they aren't) -- then there is no work. There is no one to blame. There is no use re-calculating forecasted net earnings for the harvest. There is just waiting.

I have gotten a few good days work in the vineyard, where I've been meeting the acquaintance of Tasmania's revoltingly large array of spider species. Here are some Google Images of the Huntsman Spider -- my new arachnid friends.





Pretty cute when they're on the back of your neck.

On Boredom
Boredom only becomes intolerable when you have nothing good to look forward to. I've been keeping busy with 1) writing [of postcards, articles, in my journal, anything], 2) fitness [i'm going to train for a marathon again and not do it], 3) crocheting, and 4) cooking up a hurricane. Somehow with all that there seems to be copious amounts of free time. I guess this is the consequence of living in the wop wops with no car. It's an 80 minute run to the nearest store.

Oh, and I forgot 5) Life Planning. I'm at that age where I should probably be getting my first promotion and a raise in the office but by-passing that lifestyle has me sitting here, ranting, and thinking about how long I want to be a gypsy moth for. I reckon we're down to the final months of this lifestyle. I miss using my brain.

On Undergraduate Degrees
Whoever said your selection of an undergraduate major is not that important was full of shit. I was one of the many who believed that an undergrad degree is more or less just a certificate of your intellectual capacity to succeed in any career field. I still believe this is true.

However, if you're one of the silly folks who wants to pursue graduate studies, you -- like me -- will find that the fields you might study are very much limited by what you studied in undergrad. I want to study economics, but a genuine interest is not enough! You need mathematics! You need an undergrad degree in Economics! Not Marketing! Woe is me.

But if you want to study something like Beer-Brewing or Oenology, they'll take anyone.

On Baking
With my copious amounts of free time I've been evolving into a regular little Betty Crocker. Just this week I've pounded out a zucchini loaf, blackberry cobbler (hand-picked, it kills more time), mushroom and leek quiche, and -- my proudest concoction -- BANANA BUTTER. Only in the past few months have I dabbled with preserves (see Chili Jam) -- and I love this side of cooking.

I'm going to go back into bread this week... bread keeps me on my toes. And I have access to a refrigerator full of wine yeast. You think the Pinot Noir or Savvy yeast for the Italian loaf?

On Exercise
Long ago I made the mistake of listening to music during my cardio workouts (fancy words for plodding along the tarmac). Now I can't exercise if I don't have music. But I am adapting myself to listening to audiobooks instead of music. I'm on Disc 4 of The Kite Runner right now. Marley and Me happened last week. I can 'read' and 'run' at the same time; I take a weird kind of glory in multi-tasking.

On Tasmania
It is beautiful here. The landscape is very similar to the Eastern United States. All the snakes are poisonous, all the spiders look menacing (but are benign I'm told), and the roo's make good steaks. This is wild country.

Tasmania's wine climate is slightly different. It reminds me of the movie Bottle Shock: "Not bad for kids from the sticks." They struggle to ripen the fruit, as does any cool climate area. And there isn't any old world feel to the way things are done here. The big wineries are holdings of conglomerate companies, whereas the little guys are simply one-family vineyards outsourcing their wine production. That's a lot of dis-organized ideas at once.

Anyway, here's a look at Cradle Mountain. We hiked this beaut a few days ago on one of the other slews of days off. It was niiiiice!



I promise you a better quality blog post for next time. Cross my heart. Big love from spider world, MG



--- WAIT, just in by text, regarding the jar of banana butter I sent to the Spanish employees: "Hi! Thanks clown for the banana butter. I haven'nt ate it. We hope that it doesn't kill us. See you." ---- those payasos better love it.

not a myth

I made muffins today from scratch (is that a raised eyebrow I see?) and I opted to hand-mix the [microwave melted] butter and sugar and eggs -- and I just want to share with you that the outcome NOT the same as using an electric mixer. The verdict is that you should use an electric mixer whenever you make muffins. Even though it makes more dishes to wash.

Do you know why Wendy's burgers are square? Because Dave Thomas's grandmother told him to never cut the corners in life. True story.

snow-shovelers' best friend

i had a moment of brilliance this morning during my morning of combat with the driveway. spraying the shovel with Pam, makes the snow non-stick and you can get rid of each shovel-load in one go.

same principle as eggs on a skillet or cake in a pan. i can't believe i haven't thought of this sooner.

flashback to Norge - Amnesty International free Hu Jia campaign

I'm putting together a small talk for my office on my recent travels and one video has just re-surfaced that I thought blog-worthy.

Ekstremsport Veko (Extreme Sports Week) in Voss is one of the best multi-sport events in the world. There are paragliders, base jumpers, kayakers (duh), extreme skiiers, climbers, and dozens of other athletes in the melee.

When I first got there we had a chance to be a part of an Amnesty International filming effort to highlight a partnership with Ekstremsportveko for the Free Hu Jia campaign.

Hu Jia is a political prisoner in China for supporting a nascent democratic movement, his environmentalist views, and his work in HIV/AIDS awareness in China. This video pushes an interesting message from one socialist country to another.

Anyway, you can see the video here! I couldn't post it directly, but if you click the picture it should take you there.





I'm pretty sure Hu Jia is still in prison, proving that extreme sports don't offer any jail-breaking attributes; but at least more people are aware.

how many chances to you get to be filmed from a helicopter? haha, not many if you're not of the Young Gun persuasion.

ENJOY!

more reading: one man's crusade to build schools in AfPak

I've started taking the bus [to the metro] -- a change that has afforded me much more time for reading instead of studying GRE vocabulary.

Stones into Schools and its prequel, Three Cups of Tea, are two books that I've very much enjoyed reading in the past few weeks. The former was a Christmas present, and I've already started passing it along to people who'd benefit from its message (namely my few friends in the armed services).







In a nutshell, after a failed ascent of K2 and becoming lost on the descent, author Greg Mortenson pledged to build one school for the village that took him in. The first school took almost three years to build, but after that his project started snowballing into more and more schools, and eventually into Afghanistan.

This effort is so significant because it represents one man's crusade in what many people call 'the most dangerous place on earth'. It also touches the Muslim community, which is typically ignored by a lot of NGO work.

The first book is required reading for all US Special Forces serving in Af-Pak and for officers enrolled in counter-insurgency programs at the Pentagon. Why? Because Mortenson's crusade of offering secular education in these areas is being widely regarded as a better long-run defense strategy than the hunt-and-punish approach. Existing schools for children are sometimes very heavily Islam-oriented (that means no girls); these madrassas are funded by Saudi Arabia. Mortenson emphasizes the importance of educating women as a means of bringing up communities. Women are a better educational investment because they're far more likely to use their education in the village instead of running with it to the nearest city to earn as much as possible.

That's the gist in a nutshell, but the books are definitely worth your time. If you only read one, choose Stones into Schools. It's less novel-like.

Oh my gosh - did I really just type that all in one go? Guys, I might be starting to THINK again!

why waste money on new tires?

observe a lesson from the car people in India. reduce, reuse, recycle.



re-treading told tires... maybe they are on to something.

Nepal Moment #654

[the following is an excerpt from my journal, 11/14/2009. I don't know why this is in the third person... but if i ever go insane let's peg this as the onset.]


Whilst sitting down for a banana lassi and alu parantha, the writer notices a cockroach scuttling up her chair. It evades the first several swats with the menu, but the commotion alerts the waiter to come and assist. The waiter is successful in violently killing the archaic beast with the afore-mentioned menu, and then gently places the menu back on the table adjacent to the no-longer-appetizing parantha before he smiles and leaves. What a guy.


I'm not usually grossed out by bugs (ok, maybe that's a lie), but in my on-and-off residencies in Pokhara this year the cucarachas were unusually prevalent. At one point I recall struggling to kill one monster that I found on my bed, when by accident I stepped on another. You know it's too many when you are inadvertently stepping on them.

funny man from 35 years ago

"I have no doubt that we will be successful in harnessing the sun's energy... If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar energy centuries ago."
Sir George Porter, quoted in The Observer, 1973