Something I hadn't considered before

I just read an NYtimes article about the consumption and waste of energy by data centers around in the U.S. that illuminated something for me that I had not stopped to consider before: that every e-mail., blog, video or song that we store online in "the cloud" is kept on a disk drive in a factory building somewhere in West Virginia. These data centers, or factories, are what were inspected by the newspaper, to determine how much energy they use and waste. Unsurprisingly, it's a lot. Our constant need for instant access to anything and everything online has created an industry-wide paranoia of system failures, which would delay us from watching the next YouTube video for example, and create an uproar of complaints and criticism which would then put some data storage company out of business. Therefore, these warehouses stocked with serves are run at full power 24/7 and furthermore connected to diesel burning generators to back them up in case of emergencies. Damn that's a lot of energy. The journalist found that quite often the servers are not running efficiently at all, often using energy to power operations that are no longer needed, or that are running at 12% utilization, a measure of the percentage of the entire system needed to operate, while 100% is being fueled. These energy-sapping safeguards are to satiate our need to access info, however useful or mundane it may be, at anytime. Also, though, it's caused by us growing into a system that most don't fully understand. I for one didn't think twice about the space and energy my 500 stored emails were wasting, or even the space that this maltreated blog is occupying on a disk drive somewhere. For me, this was another lesson of how important it is to be a little more conscious of the things happening around us because, however seemingly impossible they are to change, a bit of awareness always helps. Maybe in the future people will be forced to store the majority of what they want on their own external hard drives that can be powered on and off instead of kept on eternally running servers somewhere. The more time passes the more I'm convinced that things would be better with a small reset to a past state of things. A hybrid of sorts that mixes the new and old. The problem is that the mass perception of how the world, similar to how religion works, will not change anytime soon.  

Summer's Over

Black sand, warm sun, cool waves, crowded hostel, dry canyon air, hard brittle volcanic rock, shimmering sea grass and cheap food are some of the sensations that I'll carry away from my time in Gran Canaria. It's flown by as expected, but it's been magical. There were times when it was a little demanding to live in a hostel with limited privacy and constant interaction or responsibility (since i was staff), but overall it was a great experience and I think that I've come away more open and with better social skills. The constant presence of the guests and perpetual social atmosphere almost completely removed that feeling of reluctance, nervousness, or fear that I once had to start a conversation or keep one going. I find it easier now to prod a person into speaking, to keep nudging them along so as not to have to speak so much myself. I find it's easier that way, when before I used to think too much about what I was going to say. Better just to keep bouncing the ball against the wall and letting it come back to you. Also, I learned from a TED talk that the number one reported fear is public speaking, while number 1.1 is merely saying hello to the person next to you. I fit into that category I realized and made a decision then to try to change that. Granted, you can't go around expecting everyone to want to talk to you and you can't awkwardly say hey and smile to everyone (that's a cultural perspective I think), but I am finding that quite often just throwing the ball once or making the initial crack in the ice is all that it takes. I'm also finding it slightly easier after the hostel experience to not worry so much about what the person I'm talking to thinks of me. After meaning so many people one begins to feel weathered, more comfortable with oneself. Connections are made faster, masks are taken off, you dig deeper quicker because you repeat it so often. Granted, these approaches aren't for everyone, for they hinge so much on uncontrollable factors like the culture you were raised in and what categories of the 5 main human traits that we possess.

 In retrospect, i wish that i had kept a guest picture journal, but i think that i'll remember the most important ones.

It was great to live so leisurely on the beach, and while doing so i learned that it's possible to live on 5 dollars a day and  be perfectly happy. a typical day consisted of doing my morning cleaning and having breakfast, playing on the internet, reading something informative, then taking a walk down the beach and stretching, maybe having a snorkel and another read, cooking lunch, laying about aristocratically, then going out in the early evening to surf or just sit on the beach and watch the sun go down and bathe everything in soft, golden light, cook dinner, socialize and finally watch a movie or read some more before bed. Glorious i tell you, but it will be nice to return to the working world and to have a schedule. I don't think the shift will be difficult. Big plans to finally travel a bit outside of Spain this year! woo hoo! I miss home and my peeps and fam, but i'm excited to get the second leg of this adventure underway. who knows what the future holds. in the meantime...

Check out this video of Gran Canaria.