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.
 

summertime saunter

At last and once again, I return to this online record of my comings and goings. It's been a while, quite a while, and many things have happened since school ended on May 31st that I didn't capture in text as quickly as I would have liked, but maybe the good parts get weeded out of the excess of information when you wait a while to write them down. How about a quick list of highlights to get things started:

1. El Camino de Santiago from Oporto, Portugal to Santiago de Compastela, Spain (250km).
2. A leisurely month at home (A Corunya) with some good visitors.
3. El Festival de Ortigueira.
4. Festival de Percebes.
5. I bought my first roadbike.
6. Awesome dayt rip through Galicia and Asturias.
7. The Trip-- Madrid, Segovia, Barcelona, San Fileu with my main man Mike, his lovely wife, Danaya, and my sidekick, Claire.
8. Gran Canaria.

Looking at it like this makes me very impressed, although while everything happens, well, it just happens, and one doesn't often consider the greatness of  it all in the moment. I suppose that's why the ability to reflect is one of the supreme human characteristics (see earlier post with the poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"). I see clearly now, and I've been told that I would eventually, that the ability to look back on these times in my life will bring me much contentment later in life, and I remind myself of this frequently when I feel that innate guilt emerging from the depths of my mind when I'm overly bored or lazy and begin to question the merit of my current lifestyle. Everything is temporary, though, and this too shall pass, and I will undoubtedly miss it immensely when it does. But I'm in it now! And I'm in it deep! And I've read some good books recently:

1. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
2. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
3. Saltwater Buddha by Jaimal Yogis

All are highly recommended and it's a diverse fiction trilogy if you're in the mood.

Finally, to end this recap, the theme song of the summer...

Two Things I Dislike

O ye acid reflux of the soul! That which makes me spew forth rotten words like foamy ocean spray on a cliff-side. Encumbrances to my well-being and mental fortitude, hindrances to my happiness and rank perpetrators of peace; you have replaced the roaches and mosquitoes of Louisiana! Name yourselves burdensome beasts that wander the sky and pavement, spying, conniving, giving, taking , squawking and hassling. Step forth beady-eyed seagull and quick-handed flyer hander outer!

First the seagull, he that roams the sky as a happy partner of the ocean, disgracefully countering the soothing sound of its waves with a blood curdling eruption of senseless chaos. SQUAWK! I despise your beady eyes and sharp, food stealing beaks! Beach rats with wings, I can think of few more horrible things!

Then there is the flyer-hander-outer person, you that averts your eyes while probing into my personal space with your capitalist waste. I do not want your advertisements, and neither does anyone else that accepts your offerings without a second thought, like the trained robots that we sometimes are. I do not blame you, though, for I realize that it is not your fault, but rather the institution that you and I are both a part of, one that squeals for extra profit by littering the earth with its desperate attempts to attract the extra customer. How many of this papers must be passed from hand to hand to trash can with the rapid efficiency of a well-oiled machine before we do away with that horrid routine! Never! Sadly, it will never happen. If only we could train the seagulls...

Monte O Pindo

Last Sunday 3 friends and I hiked a small mountain on the western coast of Galicia, between the towns of Finisterre and Muros. I first saw what the locals call the "Mount Olympus of Galicia" a few months ago on one of my countryside viewing tours with Irene, and I immediately and inexplicably fell in love with it. The road to get there winds majestically between the mountainside and the expansive Atlantic ocean while giving you views of the many small fishing towns that dot the landscape.

The trip was a grand success, and made possible because my roomie Guille let us borrow his car. Here is my friends Bridget's account of the trip on her light and entertaining blog.

It was the epitome of a spur-of-the-moment trip because we didn't know we would have the car until the night before, in which we also had a big and rowdy majority American party to celebrate a duel birthday. Things ended for me around 5 a.m. and we had agreed to hit the road by 10, meaning I had to get up early to get the car and then pick everyone up. Bridget was laying the orderly law down the night before, and so I assumed that they would be waking me up at 9:30. Low and behold, it was me waking them up at a quarter past 10, after I had reluctantly gotten out of bed, thrown some stuff together and made my way to the car to pick up Dan. We did hit the road by 10:30, though, equipped with my mental image of the map to get there. Needless to say, that map disintegrated about halfway there and we pulled over to ask someone for directions and unknowingly receive one of the best memories of the trip. The guy looked like he belonged in a cheap cologne magazine ad (I mean that respectfully). His hair was almost shoulder-length, jet black and slicked back, coupled with a light brown leather jacket. He was nice as hell, but as soon as he realized we understood him, he let loose with a barrage of hints, tips, and cheat codes on how to go straight all the way to the coast. I contemplated hitting the gas and leaving him behind, but I would have felt petty and ungracious. We listened to his elaborate re-tellings for about 5 minutes before being able to wiggle our way into a U-turn to hit the road again. The car immediately erupted into laughter and it already felt like it was going to be the great day that it was.

We made it to O Pindo without further hazard, although my erratic driving plummeted Dan into a head-in-lap carsickness that paralyzed him for the last 30 minutes of the ride. That was resolved by free tapas in the local cafe that we got, along with directions to the trail head, from the super nice bartender. I still can't believe we got sausage, paella, and a few chicken wings for free. We walked through the town, along this inlet until arriving at the cemetery that marks the beginning of the ascent.




The hike was great, and filled with super cool rock formations like this one...








So many rocks....














So many cool rocks...

I managed to get off some good pictures in the sunlight before the clouds rolled in....

But then it began to look like this...

But even this atmosphere was impressive, and by the time with reached the top we couldn't see anything at all around us. It was quite freaky and otherworldly. We made it down 5 hours later and took a dip in the ocean to shock our sore muscles to life again. Then we headed to a town nearby to have a spectacular dinner of local food and drink. Tack on a ride home with an awesome mix of songs from my roommate and it was one hell of a good Sunday.

Southside Swang

I remember those hot, wide streets near the rumbling train tracks. I remember those corner stores and dark-skinned characters always ready to surprise you with a smile or a sinister stare. Twilight lathered swimming pools and 32 ounces of Miller High Life to end a day of bike riding and couch visits. Porch dwelling and grass watching filled the hours in between class and work. That often ignored, but frequently enjoyed, sound of a jubilant accordion makes me wish now that I was capable of teaching people how to 2-step, but instead I can only stumble my way through it while pretending I know what's going on. Oh roux! you dirty brown concoction that is the beginning and end to so many meals in that humid state. How could I wait 24 years before making you for the first time, thousands of miles from where you inspired me. Louisiana, you're like a friend that I never tried to make, but then one day I find myself telling you all of my secrets, although I'm just beginning to listen to yours.