Alas...
Well here I am. For the weekend I'm in Blacksburg. I love this place so much. It is so peaceful and the community is so close. I'm at a friend's house further down the road from what will be my apartment next year. Just around the corner is the smoke stack for the power plant for Virginia Tech and the rest of its campus.
I'm taking probably two days off from work despite money being extremely tight. We're having a statewide retreat here to figure out the main goals for the Virginia Power Shift 2008 conference that will be at VT. I'm a central planner and the recruitment coordinator for the conference.... and I thought I might have had a bit of a break this summer. Though I am happy to be active in everything as I am, it would be nice to have a good week or two when I don't have to think about anything with planning and the like. Of course vacations are out of the question when I barely have enough money to get down here from Northern Virginia and back ($100 round-trip for a 2000 VW Bug).
My job has been well. Removing invasive plant species in Fairfax County parks can definitely suck on some days, just see Multi-flora Rose and then the sore red dots on my limps where their thorns sliced into me. I think I have my first paycheck waiting at home; that should be some relief.
It is kind of funny that sometimes during school weeks and even during the summer I spend up to 40-hours a week working on planning for environmental things, whether it is a statewide conference or the organization at school and its related communication. Not a dime in my pocket for it (and actually usually owe money for planning lunches and gas) and there are many people out there that do much less and make so much more. I haven't really minded up until this point, but as with the rest of America gas prices are hurting.
It is funny the things we know. People knew gas prices were going to shoot up soon, whether by peak oil (which is still coming like an out of control freight train) or the simple rules of supply and demand. They knew this 10 years ago-- they knew it 50 years ago. Yet we never fully prepared. The crazys that prepared for a world without oil in their environmental homes are suddenly on the news for being smart and prepared.
Here I am wishing I could get an electric car, but it is too expensive. Honda's hydrogen vehicles just hit the road now for a $600 a month lease in Southern California (only because they actually have the hydrogen highway). I'm glad that they are also making a hydrogen fueling station to have in your garage that can power not only your car but also your house by running on natural gas. If I had money, I would be the first person to install it.
So as this post kind of aimlessly wanders, I guess I'll lead up to something and make it worthwhile. This conference that is coming up will have youth from all across the state converge in one location to learn from one another, attend workshops and lectures, and hear guest speakers (we're looking at Al Gore and Barrack Obama). We want people to be empowered and bring the environmental movement back to their campuses, communities, and homes. We want to bring sustainability to Virginia everywhere we can. From the mountains that are being blown up and their related communities to suburbs that continue to grow endlessly and their roads that are parking lots for countless miles to the farmers that grow their crops the best they can. The world--- no... The United States is finally beginning to wake up and see its potential, but we've gone so far in another direction we are going to suffer great consquences. It won't be an easy path to achieve even a relatively sustainable nation, but I believe it can and will happen. I believe that our generation will be the generation that will prevail. This is why I work so hard and so passionately. None of what I do is about me, it is about this movement that is getting stronger and stronger every day. It is about the people I meet; those that are well off and those that are suffering horribly. I believe in my heart that bringing about a sustainable world will unite humanity indefinitely. It won't be an "ecotopia"-- that can never be accomplished-- but we can get pretty damn close.
I do what I can.
I'm taking probably two days off from work despite money being extremely tight. We're having a statewide retreat here to figure out the main goals for the Virginia Power Shift 2008 conference that will be at VT. I'm a central planner and the recruitment coordinator for the conference.... and I thought I might have had a bit of a break this summer. Though I am happy to be active in everything as I am, it would be nice to have a good week or two when I don't have to think about anything with planning and the like. Of course vacations are out of the question when I barely have enough money to get down here from Northern Virginia and back ($100 round-trip for a 2000 VW Bug).
My job has been well. Removing invasive plant species in Fairfax County parks can definitely suck on some days, just see Multi-flora Rose and then the sore red dots on my limps where their thorns sliced into me. I think I have my first paycheck waiting at home; that should be some relief.
It is kind of funny that sometimes during school weeks and even during the summer I spend up to 40-hours a week working on planning for environmental things, whether it is a statewide conference or the organization at school and its related communication. Not a dime in my pocket for it (and actually usually owe money for planning lunches and gas) and there are many people out there that do much less and make so much more. I haven't really minded up until this point, but as with the rest of America gas prices are hurting.
It is funny the things we know. People knew gas prices were going to shoot up soon, whether by peak oil (which is still coming like an out of control freight train) or the simple rules of supply and demand. They knew this 10 years ago-- they knew it 50 years ago. Yet we never fully prepared. The crazys that prepared for a world without oil in their environmental homes are suddenly on the news for being smart and prepared.
Here I am wishing I could get an electric car, but it is too expensive. Honda's hydrogen vehicles just hit the road now for a $600 a month lease in Southern California (only because they actually have the hydrogen highway). I'm glad that they are also making a hydrogen fueling station to have in your garage that can power not only your car but also your house by running on natural gas. If I had money, I would be the first person to install it.
So as this post kind of aimlessly wanders, I guess I'll lead up to something and make it worthwhile. This conference that is coming up will have youth from all across the state converge in one location to learn from one another, attend workshops and lectures, and hear guest speakers (we're looking at Al Gore and Barrack Obama). We want people to be empowered and bring the environmental movement back to their campuses, communities, and homes. We want to bring sustainability to Virginia everywhere we can. From the mountains that are being blown up and their related communities to suburbs that continue to grow endlessly and their roads that are parking lots for countless miles to the farmers that grow their crops the best they can. The world--- no... The United States is finally beginning to wake up and see its potential, but we've gone so far in another direction we are going to suffer great consquences. It won't be an easy path to achieve even a relatively sustainable nation, but I believe it can and will happen. I believe that our generation will be the generation that will prevail. This is why I work so hard and so passionately. None of what I do is about me, it is about this movement that is getting stronger and stronger every day. It is about the people I meet; those that are well off and those that are suffering horribly. I believe in my heart that bringing about a sustainable world will unite humanity indefinitely. It won't be an "ecotopia"-- that can never be accomplished-- but we can get pretty damn close.
I do what I can.