Gone

Off to Catalina Island! I'm psyched for a car ride where I get to sleep a ton, so it should be good. Otherwise, I have pretty much nothing to say here, just that I have to go and do final packing things and eat breakfast!
TTFN
Sam

Firefighters!

Since my beloved internet is struggling a bit, I will take a while to add the last few days of my life to the blogosphere.
As mentioned in the previous episode, this week was much-anticipated chainsaw training. A bunch of lumberjacky guys with crazy stories came in and showed how to clean, sharpen, dismantle, assemble, troubleshoot, start, manage, balance, and handle chainsaws.
If you really think about it, chainsaws are a pretty crazy invention. Someone looked at an old circular saw and went “how can I carry that around and make it long and pointy?” and thought of running a chain with teeth around a bar of metal. That, if you ask me, is one of the pinnacles of genius. Not exactly a simple concept.
Digressions aside, we spent two days in a classroom learning about the parts of the saw, maintenance bits, safety, and how to make a tree fall down. Then we got to head up to El Dorado national forest and wave them around. Much to my disappointment, we didn’t go back today, so I didn’t get to actually fell a tree, but I got at least two hours in on the saw hacking through low lying brush and bushes. I’m not even close to a pro, but at least I can wade through brush without my back seizing up. It’s going to be a pretty awesome time if we start using saws on a regular basis.
Another really cool thing about running saw is the specific roles and positions. Usually saw teams work at the front of firefighters who are cutting a fire line, a strip of bare ground designed to deny wildfires more fuel and contain them. The sawyer (guy with saw) is partnered with a swamper, who grabs everything that he cuts and throws it away from the fireline and the fire. The cool part is that the swamper is usually right behind the sawyer (think inside personal bubble). They have to be really attuned to how each other functions to do things as fast as possible without mangling anything important.
When we use the saws, we get protective gear called chaps. Chaps are essentially nylon covers that buckle around each leg. Unbuckled, they are very cowboy-esque. The protective part of the chaps are Kevlar fibers that line the inside of the nylon. If a saw blade cuts into the chaps, the Kevlar tangles the crap out of the chain and the inner parts. Granted, if you’re going full power and cut into some chaps, you will probably lose a leg. But if a saw is idling, it usually prevents major injuries.
A “chap cut” is when someone loses focus for a second and lets the saw blade hit their chaps. Usually they stopped pulling the saw trigger a few seconds ago and consider the saw “safe,” but the inertia on the saw blade keeps the teeth turning. We had a guy get a chap cut, and the blade, without the chaps, would most likely have nicked a piece of his femur off. As it was, he was fine, but a little embarrassed. There are so many elements to firefighting culture that are ridiculously badass. Chap cuts are really really embarrassing (they don’t even like to talk about their own). When they are clearing really heavy brush, they roll up their sleeves and see who can get the most cut-up arms. When working a fire, people have gone for over 35 hours working the line. It’s insane.
One more blog tomorrow, then I’m off to Catalina (one day early). Most likely will not be able to blog until December 17th. But, you never know. I’ll keep some kind of a journal type thing that I can transcribe when I get back.

The Grass Here is Devilish

En route to officialdom service projects. This week is my team's final stretch before we head off on our first SPIKE (we leave on tuesday) on Catalina Island. I'm ready to leave Sacramento, as nice as the city is.
Official induction for all of AmeriCorps was on friday. So, I am now an official corps member, qualified to deal out first aid, CPR, and advice on drug use/community diversity implementation (our training covered all that and more). All of the teams got their team pictures taken wearing our AmeriTuxes (that would be our black battle dress pants with the polo t-shirt), and then we all stood in the old theatre pavillion to take the national service pledge. Really I wish they'd use that pavillion for movies and such because it just sits there. It was probably an entertainment center for the Air Force when they were active here, but now it languishes, unloved. I suppose we can write showing movies up on the "List of Things the US Gov't Doesn't Want to Do for the Humanitarian Branch of the Armed Forces" right under item C) Use the tax-free commisary for grocery shopping and above E) Cook food for them.
But life on the campus is good if slightly slow. Weekends never really exist in Americorps, because Saturday is usually the day everyone goes out to get some ISP (independent service project, e.g. community service) hours done, and Sunday people try to catch up on sleep and go food shopping for the week. Exciting news on the food front: most groups (say 70% of the population here) have left for their respective service projects. That does make it a little empty here, but in many cases they abandoned quite a bit of food that is now free for the plunderin'. Last night alone I got some rainbow sherbert, frech fries, beef brisket, english muffins (to go with the beef), chips, salsa, bran flakes, and some carrots. Total food chaos. I am having a hard time keeping my inner hoarder under control, as he wants to snatch the majority of the foodstuffs not tied down and hide them somewhere. I'm sure I'll survive anyway.
Sunday was great because we played a game of pickup football that lasted about two hours, gaining and losing people over time. It won't happen again for a while (since every team is heading off somewhere to do their SPIKE), but it was awesome to actually run around doing a skill sport for a while, since PT is restricted to and only to "things that are not fun." If you enjoy jumping jacks and running they find an alternative workout for you.
Unfortunately for myself, I tend to play football kind of like ultimate frisbee (limited contact, excessive airtime), and thus I end up executing numerous dive-bomb roll manuevers to stay upright. I say unfortunately because I always end up playing on the "skins" team, so I was just a leeeetle bit itchy post game. But HAH at least my dormitory has hot water, something the other building can't boast of. It's a tradeoff, I have to travel for internet and they freeze to stay clean. The ADMINISTRATION has promised to fix everything eventually. I believe them, ish.
This week shouldn't be so bad because it is chainsaw training for the FRT teams that are still here (just two teams). They told us today the our the motors for the chainsaws we'll be getting could also power a dirtbike. I'm excited.
I need to go write a press release for my teams visit to Catalina Island, since we're so important.
Oh, but I'm serious.

I don’t think I mentioned last time that on Monday when the moving was crazy and all that I cooked with my partner and we completely botched dinner. We tried to make potato gnocchi in our severely understocked kitchen (i.e. without a potato masher) and…yeah well it didn’t turn out so hot, y’know?
We wanted to prep the dumplings ahead of time, so the night before we boiled the potatoes and smooshed them with large metal stirring spoons/drinking cups, depending on personal style, and added the flour, worked it in, nah nah nah. Unfortunately, two baaaaad decisions were made: we decided to freeze the dumplings so we could boil them the next day, and the potatoes were never skinned. Needless to say, the porridge that resulted would have been excellent with a little whole milk, but whole milk is not well loved in these realms.
Meh well I could have internet, but el computadora is currently going crazy, and all things related to the functioning of the internet are flashing etc and refusing to load. Actually, everything is crazy. Enough about the craziness.
So what happened in AmeriCorps today, Sam?
Well, I’m glad you asked that, inexplicably appearing text.
Today was a service day for my team. We headed to a nearby warehouse that collects donated office supplies and assembled, sorted, priced, and bundled some random stuff. Samples? I spent about 30 minutes organizing their stock of rubber fingertips. Also spent most of the day assembling “trash journal” kits with three of my teammates, which consists of hole-punching a bunch of folders and blank sheets of paper and sticking them into a plastic sleeve with some rubber bands. Wasn’t so bad.
My need for wifi is definitely bad for my health. Tuesday night, I was finishing up the team brochure that had to be submitted to out Unit Leader in the morning, and needed to email it. So, laptop tucked comfortably under my arm, I trekked down the stairs in my PJs. Out the door. Across the parking lot. And into the other dormitory lounge, which has wifi oozing out its ears. I emailed the brochure/pamphlet in a few minutes, annnnd then stuck around for about an hour because people were watching The Gladiator. Of course I couldn’t just leave! It was towards the final fight scene with the Emperor!
Unfortunately, this happens to me often when I go to the lounge for a little bit o’ internet late at night, because someone is always watching a movie. Good ones usually, but good movies can’t save me from five hours of sleep.
Something that I recently discovered through much deducing and contemplation is that it’s totally convenient to just drink straight from the milk container. Seeing as it’s my gallon in my fridge, it’s weird that it took about a month for me to have a “eureka!” moment and figure that out. Plus it’s a deterrent to use on anyone else who wants some.
It is getting very hard to leave the window open at night. Not only do some insane teams get up for PT around 5 (usually 5:30 PT, those extra minutes are precious. We are officially doing PT with our teams now, so the schedule is a little more flexible. I think said team was being punished), but there appears to be a very confused bird nesting above our window. Confused because it is early November and there are definitely rather loud chicks making noise up there.
Silly California and your T-shirt weather. It is still, have I mentioned that?
I’m gonna be so damn wimpy when I come home for Christmas.

Trips to Tahoe and Various Movements

Quite a bit has gone on in the last four or so days. This weekend was the first whole weekend Acorps (apparently abbreviating to Acorps is a big media nono, but this is mah blog so pff) that the entire corps has had off. Last Friday was also our first stipend-day (it’s not a payday cause we don’t get paid, *winkwink*), so about 75% of Americorps went off campus to spend some time touristing, partying, and generally spending money. I went to Lake Tahoe with four other friends, and we spent the night in one of the hotels along the lakeside. On top of that, yesterday was moving day, so from about 5pm to 8pm last night the dorms were in chaos. People were carrying stuff into rooms, out of rooms, up the stairs, down the stairs, across the parking lot, and generally creating mayhem as they tried to get settled into a room whose previous residents had not finished moving out of. I’m pretty sure that everything is accounted for in my room.
I also made the mistake of doing laundry on moving day (virtually the only thing between me and nakedness was a pair of windpants and a polo shirt) so that added to my fun. It was a good, crazy, weekend.
Lake Tahoe was pretty amazing. The lake itself is cupped inside a ring of mountains, so on the way there you suddenly gain a couple thousand feet of elevation, come around the side of a peak, and can see the entire Tahoe basin spread out below you. The entire environment has a general aura of crisp coolness and rugged timber. Along the more touristy stretches of the city, even the Taco Bells had a log cabinesque look to them. We spent Saturday afternoon and evening wandering around the city and visiting the more touristy consumer shops, and then packed all of us into a room for the night. Don’t tell the hotel, but there were not actually just two of us in that room.
Sunday we headed up to the mountains to do some light (keyword here) hiking and vista-viewing. Even the road is pretty amazing. There is a point on the way up into the mountains that the road is on the exact top of a ridge, and immediately over each shoulder the slope drops off a good 1000 or more feet. The hike was fun, we had lunch on a gorgeous rock overlooking a stream, and then we headed back to Sacramento.
On a side note, Lake Tahoe is really cold this time of year, especially in the morning, and it takes a very long time to wade out to a depth where you can actually go under.
It’s funny, because currently I’m sitting in my new room (which is almost exactly like my old one on the inside, plus one piece of furniture and rearranging the stains on the mirror), and it is already my room. I have disowned my old room in less than 12 hours. My location is slightly different (less favorable: I’m now on the third floor at the end of the hallway, i.e. as far away as possible from the building exit and laundry, whereas my other room was the closest room to the laundry/exit on the first floor), and the wireless internet must be attracted via the bloody sacrifice of a router, of which I have none to spare.
On a positive if uninteresting note, I figured out that if my computer ever gets pouty and says that it can’t get the wifi network to respond, I just have to reboot. Turns out my Vista OS doesn’t talk well with the slightly older modems here.
So, all is good. Recent additions to my room:
-A potted plant, via the grace of the former residents
-Two giant Tahoe pinecones. I had three, but someone else wanted one very dearly
-A stack of little mini-bios from my teammates, so I can write them into our team pamphlet.
-A bedside lamp (which was lacking in my last room, and in this one I’m leaving it unplugged because outlets are at a premium)

Today was nice and slow. The scheduled stuff for today was specialized training for the individual group roles. The specific roles are jobs that one or two team members within the group take on, like physical training, organizing independent service projects, and maintaining the vehicle and tools. I'm officially the media relations specialist, which means I do all the contacting newspapers, meeting any people who come on site for media stuff, etc. It looks to be pretty cool.
This weekend is the first weekend we've gotten fully off, so a lot of people are going to cities/touristing (I'm going to Tahoe, but that's not the point here). So, there aren't many people cooking dinner in the kitchens, and my group was left to fend for themselves and there isn't much food left. I mean, there is preeeetty much NO food left. We have two potatoes, some canned black beans, tomato paste, pasta, some sandwich meat and odds and ends. However, I just wanted to mention that with those materials (and admittedly a little milk, cheese, and mushrooms pilfered from some other groups. Their contribution to my nutrition is much appreciated) I whipped up a very decent alfredo sauce with ham and mushrooms.
Back last week on monday, when we first got into our official teams, everyone was bemoaning how we would be switching rooms eventually. I still agreee with all the bemoaners, but we had all figured that the admins forgot about the room change since it has been almost two weeks. No such luck, because apparently we have to move on this coming monday, which kind of stinks. This week I perfected my organization routines, with all the jazz about where I put clothes I'll wear again vs dirty clothes etc etc etc. So, general grumble on that front.
And I don't know how many people know about NanoWrimo, but this is National Novel Writing Month. If I were to put in like 1800 words a night (say two pages), I would have something in the range of a wimpy mini-novel. I tried for one night, and I know that I won't be able to do it, primarily because I leave in twenty days for a place with no internet or electricity. So, next year I guess.

Mendocino

Mendocino (turns out I’ve been spelling it wrong this whole time) was a great time. The camp is located about an hour from any kind of civilization in a new-growth redwood forest. I think they said that there was a fire in San Francisco at some point and the entire area around the camp was logged to rebuild it. None of the trees were much bigger than normal New England trees, but there is one huge tree about a mile away from the camp located just off a set of train tracks that run through the camp. I don’t know my history very well for the 4th or 5th century very well, but this tree was probably little when the Visigoths sacked Rome.
Even without the cool trees, Mendocino was awesome. The ROPE course at the camp is 35 feet off the ground, and is a giant playground for adults. The only catch is that you have to wear a harness and clip into guidewires that keep you from dying. Personally, I think I could have been fine without it; the course was only as hard as you made it, but liability is America’s middle name. But I still had fun dangling from the harness, etc.
As to the service work we did at Mendocino: we spent five hours splitting, chopping, and stacking firewood. Since we got to start the splitting from the large segments of whole tree, using sledgehammers to drive in wedges. Lumberjacking extremes. Awesome.
But the special news just arrived tonight: we finally know where we are going on our first project. We are going to be doing trailwork, invasive species management, and general outdoor maintenance on the Island of Catalina. I’ve done a bit of googling and the island is about 27 miles offshore of California right between San Diego and Los Angeles. I’m psyched, because we’ll be luxury camping for three weeks (meaning permanent tents with mattresses, showers, and a kitchen) but no electricity. I am going to be slightly cut off, but in the best possible environment. That, and the fact that I will miss thanksgiving, is the only bad parts about this assignment. We leave on the 23rd of November, and until then I will be doing more training type stuff. Unfortunately.
More tomorrow I’m up far too late for a five ocklock rise.

Wait what?

Tomorrow I’m off to Camp Mendacino, a place with access to ginormous redwood trees and no internet, so I’ll be out till Wednesday. I’m sure I can do a fat blog upon return.
Still el basico stuff going on. We had today off, so we did some ISP hours (that’s Independent Service Project for you heathens, meaning we did community service in our free time. I have to complete 80 hours by the end of the program, 100 for an award). We tidied up a local soup kitchen/shelter and spent a while planting, weeding, and tending a community garden in Sacremento. About eight hours of work in all.
The soup kitchen was interesting. It was a sort of locus for the homeless, as a distributor of food. A couple of blocks out from the kitchen the density of people sleeping under eaves and pushing shopping carts increased dramatically. It’s a social hub for the local homeless population. We spent the day in the school section, which was empty, so I didn’t get a chance to talk to anyone.
If it was an eye opener I would be living a cliché (thank you MSoft word for the glorious accént). I came to Americorps because I know bad things exist. They mellow me. I am happy that I am doing something to alleviate the issues.
So here would be a good place to put my worldplan. I understand the need to change the world: hunger, environmental issues, general human suffering. I understand the fact that change starts with me. But I believe that my potential to change the world far surpasses the effect of my biking to work or living in a self-sustaining yurt.
I want to change the world, and “blah blah blah, change comes from within.”
So, if you want to make the world a greener place, do not withdraw from the system. Do not shun the massive corporations that dump pollutants or the governments that dehumanize millions. Own the corporations. Rule the governments. I do not want fight the system as it is now to try and change it “one person at a time.” I want to be the system.
I will be green personally, I will do good personally. I will not inconvenience myself to an extent that would threaten my ability to access world-shaping resources as quickly as possible.
Viral marketing and subliminal culture control will always trump grassroots movements because the system is the soil.
Whatever. I’m probably too tired to be writing right now. Makes me sound crazy. Till weds.