...and he ran...

Crazy, humbling times, to be sure. But the thing I can do - have always been able to do - is run. Run and run and run. And I love to run.


As I finish up a humbling few hours on any given day groveling at the feet of individuals (gracious as they may be) in my ever-increasing network, I need an escape. And I have been finding it, in the form of running - short & fast, long & steady, over hills or down by rivers, in the Urban Core or through vast expases of woods & prairies, my time of unemployment has seen me lace up the old sneakers and simply just go.

I've sort of finally figured it out - that, similar to many other cowboys, I simply have a worried mind. Or an active mind. And it doesn't want to settle down. But running is, and always has been, my meditation. Within the past week, I have run a nine mile route, pushing Rose in the stroller; and an 11 mile route, the day after running a race (see below). I've actually lost about 10 pounds, and I'm getting to be in some of the best running shape in which I've ever been (though I may never again quite hold a candle to '96).

On a side note: I did run a race over the weekend, utilizing official warm-up techniques for the first time in my life. Boy, what a difference it made. The race was finally painful at the end, but only at the end. This may just be a new lease on my 5k life. Hey, and I came in 28th out of 369 total runners - not bad! (admittedly, this was an all-comers race, and there were a lot of youth in it. But still...)

Post Star Trek Reflections (SPOILER ALERT)

First off - I will simply say, I was pleased; at least as much as I'd hoped I would be, and maybe more. As the resident "purist," and one who's felt the franchise has totally lost its way in the years following the death of Gene Roddenberry. there was certainly the possibility that the producers would allow the least common denominator trash everything about the original series which I held dear. And I have to say - there was very little about it that entered that territory; and nothing that really sticks in my mind. So kudos, overall, to the filmmakers for successfully balancing that tightwire of making a product that sells and throwing out numerous, obligatory bones to the likes of me.

Other ruminations

• The casting of everyone but Sulu and Uhura seemed superb. As Mixdorf said, Karl Urban did an uncanny McCoy; and I thought the two principals were just what they needed to be. Chekov, suprisingly good - not just in the accent, but in the actual timbre and inflection of the voice. Wow. But I gotta say, Uhura and Sulu both appeared to be cast by someone who thinks that all black people and Japanese look alike. Uhura was a little more "supermodel-ey" than seemed appropriate for the character.
• Sulu: a lot more badass than in the TV series, and Chekov, waaaaay more competent.
• This is geeking out a bit, but....in no reference from the original series do I recall any mention of the fact that the Planet Vulcan was destroyed, and that only 10,000 or so Vulcans survived. Was that merely invented for this movie and - if so - wow, what liberty taken! Not that it seems totally wrong or anything - just, wow.
• Geeking out a bit more: Knowing simply of the appearance of the line, "I have been, and always shall be, your friend," in the film, I decided it might not be a bad idea to acquaint Sharon with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, wherein lies the origin of that line. And of course, if you're going to watch STII, you'd better precede it with Space Seed, from the original series, which introduces the character of Khan (played by Ricardo Montalbon, of course). I could not believe the number of references lifted directly from that episode and that movie. Even for the non-freaks, I would highly recommend watching the episode, Wrath of Khan, new Star Trek movie sequence; in order to add a little context, almost in "special features" style. An awful lot of Star Trek history and characterization is laid out in those two works.
• A lot of those "bones" tossed out; references from the original series. From the more obvious "I'm a doctor, not a..." line for the almost casual fan, to the acknowledgement that Kirk grew up in Iowa, for those of us a little more versed in episodic lore.
• So what - in addition to the planet Vulcan; we are to assume that Romulus (on the edge of The Neutral Zone, not on the edge of Detroit; though that one may be seeing its last days as well) will be destroyed just a couple of generations into the Star Trek future?
• Save the Federation or not; that was a mighty quick ascendancy to the command of the flagship of Starfleet.
• On the overall plot: I don't see a lot of action flicks these days. Truly, the crux of the plot (alien from future, wreaking vengeance; "red matter" creating black hole; good guys having to land at high velocity and kick a lot of ass on the edge of high-up mechanical precipeces; etc. etc. could really be swapped out with dozens...(hundreds?) of other plots of sci-fi/action films. And that's cool, I suppose. All I ask is that the dialogue and personal interactions between characters not make me roll my eyes. Anything better than that is generally cake & ice cream for me. And I did think there was some really nice, solid dialogue tying together the somewhat par-for-the-course plot, which was really just background noise for how these characters came together.
• Speaking of which - what is it about battling on high, mechanical bridges? And why does every action movie nowadays require a scene (this one has two!) in which the protagonist is hanging by his fingertips at a high altitude with a bad guy trying to step on his fingers? Folks, we're entering hottie-falling-in-the-woods-while-chased-by-axe-murderer territory here. Surely, there's another way or two bring an action sequence to its climax. Let's get creative and work on it.
• Really geeking out, here; but a nitpicker one right here: There is an old Star Trek episode that introduces Romulans; who make a reappearance about 50 years following their first contact with humans, which was an armed conflict. In that episode, it is said that the original conflict predated ship-to-ship visuals; and so no human or Romulan had ever seen the other. Main purpose with that was one of Gene Roddenberry's lessons on race & tolerance, as the ship of the Enterprise discovers that Romulans- surprise! - look just like Vulcans and share common anscestry. Anyway - that's a little inconsistant with this episode, which Kirk battling Romulans in hand-to-hand combat.
• Spock and Uhura romance - wow, wonder what that came from, and if they plan to explain how it ends, sometime in the future.
• No Nurse Chapel (though you hear her being called for in the background). No Yeoman Rand. No Transporter Chief Kyle, but (ok, starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel here, but get THIS); Transporter Chief Kyle was on the bridge of the Reliant in Wrath of Khan. Never noticed that before.
• Too much Leonard Nimoy!!! Appearing at first, wonderful (but yet another nod to Star Wars, as the Obi Wan parallel is uncanny). As the movie goes on, though, it becomes increasingly apparent, that Future Spock, like a creepy old grandfather, just refuses to go away. People not familiar with the series might expect all the episodes to include this ancient Spock double to be there, continually offering up mystical Dungeon Master-styled advice and quips. Anyway - a brief cameo would have been fine.
• Brilliant, almost perfect (and, as Mixx suggested, emotional) birth story for Kirk, at the beginning.
• Also like Mixx, I look forward to future installments.

Check-In #9

Long overdue, this one.

So, "Any luck on the job front?" has become the new "So, what sort of music does your band play?" question. The one I hate to answer, because I feel like a simple sentence, or two, doesn't dive into the complexity of the issue and the (at the risk of getting floofy) "personal journey" I've been on over the past two and a half months.

Short answer: "no." In that, I'm not employed.

Longer answer: I'm currently going through a process where I'm letting go of some assumptions and cynicism to which I've held fast over the 16 years of my post-college adulthood. Assumptions and cynicism which, I now realize, have really gotten me nowhere. In and around the expected ups and downs of day in-day out living without employment, I've have been a networking fool. On a path of self discovery and career exploration, I have been talking to people I know associated with organizations (mostly local government and nonprofit) in which I am interested. I am starting to get this weird sort of focus on non-profits and agencies involved with revitalization/planning/housing issues.

On the surface, "planning" is kind of a sister field to GIS. But in the real nitty gritty, there is an entire other discipline of study required (usually, an advanced degree) in order to become a"planner," proper (as in, "City Planner"). But, I've found that there's all sorts of individuals, community organizers to policy wonk researchers and everything in between, that make the guts of this public sector world go. And I've found three other things:

1. In the public sector, everybody knows everybody. Unlike in the Fortune 500 world I was in previously, the folks in this new arena I am exploring partner with each other, share data, and do collaborative research and projects.

2. The nonprofit world totally energizes me! Something I might have suspected; but without a social work (or related) degree, I always figured employment in that sort of field was beyond my wildest dreams, so I didn't entertain the thought all that much. But damn, if my networking isn't leading me in that direction and confirming for me -yes - this is where my future lies, by whatever path.

3. I'm more "connected" than I initially realized. Serving on my neighborhood board for a few years? Being a current board member of a 501c3 neighborhood theatre company? Being a regular at the coffeeshop, doing the annual Earth Day cleanup at the creek? I had a "network" and I didn't even know it. A lot of these folks have connections with community development corporations, The City, etc., etc., and I am meeting people and having discussions, and just generally getting out there.

So where are things at? Realizing there's still a need to simply put food on the table, I've got a handful of resumes out there for jobs at private firms doing general data jockey sort of things. But whether or not I end up having to take that less desirable option in the short term, this "network" is continuing, and - and I truly believe this (and both of my career counselors have me totally believing this) - it is truly just a matter of time before something comes through in this realm. I've actually got a couple of things in the works where I'll be doing some pro-bono research/GIS work for a couple of local nonprofits; with the idea that I'll get to know the people there better, and their connections, etc. etc. - plus be building up a portfolio and base of experience working in an industry that excites me.

There's also a couple of more strictly GIS/mapping things that are out there - not sure if anything will come of either. The first is another GIS specialist job with a metro county, but this one I appear to be much more qualified for than that one where my hopes were dashed. The pay would totally be on the low side of what it would take for us to make ends meet; but taking the job would be a no brainer for many reasons. And I've long since resigned myself to the notion that I'm not in this (and by "this," I mean "life") for the money. The other thing - and this one is kind of crazy - is a job in a St. Paul suburb working for the US Forest Service. Without a natural resources degree, I'd have never thought it possible; but for whatever reason, that didn't come up (in so many words) in the extensive application process. And lo! and behold, I just got an email from the government essentially telling me that I've made it past the first round of the selection process: they've deemed me qualified. What is really unknown, however; is whether one other person or 150 other people have been deemed similarly qualified. Time will tell. Anyway - that job is a mere 13-month assignment, but the local office reserves the right to extend it to four years; and by that time, I'm assuming new doors would have/will have opened. And in the meantime, I would have worked for Barack Obama!

Not sure what else I need to say at the moment - I'm probably missing a lot but it seems a good time to stop.

To All Mothers, Everywhere

from Dan, Lucy, and Rose

Happy May!

Did I mention I love my city?

This past weekend, our family headed out to Powderhorn Park in south Minneapoils to attend what one of Lucy's teachers calls, "The Best Thing About Living in the Cities." (high praise, indeed!) For the first time ever, we went to the annual May Day celebration; site of a huge festival, parade, vendor-filled gathering of tens of thousands of peace-loving-types in an enormous urban greenspace for general frivolity and a Tree of Life pageant/spectacle that, we'd heard, must be seen to be believed.

Now, from the comforts of your respective corners of the globe, YOU TOO can see it. And believe it, or not.

May Day 2009