Are you experienced?

It’s old here, or should I say “ole” (perhaps not) either-way, it borders on ancient. And it’s crowded. A city of 1.4 million people, and I can cross the downtown area in ten minutes by bicycle. It has some magic and mystery. It has some personal identity, but it is also so similar to other places that it tries to be different from. It has seen war and peace, good leadership and bad, oppression and freedom. It has been pro-American and anti, and pro again. 

Here they refer to people from the United Kingdom as “islanders”. I have become familiar with languages to the east and west of it with joy and ease, yet when I’m faced with it’s mother tongue I cower. I have been here for the better part of four months and haven’t learned much about it. I owe it more, it deserves more. What a tough little town, to lose a world war twice. To be abandoned by its conquerors, and yet bounce back with so much vitality and youthfulness.  

I went out on my own for dinner tonight. I had Italian -spaghetti bolognese, with a nice red wine. Three glasses actually. The dessert was apple pie, with honey, cinnamon and vanilla ice cream on the side. The wine was named “Montenegro”. There were five young ladies at the next table finishing up dinner and enjoying conversation -trading stories about where they have been. I’ve heard names like Czech, Bulgaria, and Kyrgyzstan. I’ve been to those places too. They spoke English better than I did. I enjoyed my Italian dinner and American dessert with Balkan wine in close proximity to lovely Middle Eastern and African ladies whom were brought together by the pursuit for higher education

I am afraid of the local language for no particular reason, but while being here and learning about languages I learned about Esperanto, created by Dr. Ludwig L. Zamenhof. It was dreamed up by a single man in the late 17th century with the hopes of bringing peace to the world through a common (second) language. He was a Pole and a Jew in a place and time when it was risky to be either. In the end he was murdered for what he was. Do him the honor of looking up his language. You might fall in love with it. 

You should be proud, Doctor Z. The world is coming together under a common language. In a way, you got what you wanted. You constructed a language long before it was trendy to do so for reasons of fantasy. You did it for a better reality. Unfortunately the common language that is gluing the world together is nowhere near as easy and elegant as your creation. 

There are still some people in the world that aren’t happy with the current reality. Some politically, some financially. While I took in all of this culture for my dinner experience,  I was listening to an audio book. One about love. Intimacy and sex specifically, by Esther Perel. She was born in Antwerp (I’ve been there) and went to school in Israel and the U.S. (I’ve been to the later). I want to learn a second language. So far I have nine languages and over eight thousand points on Duolingo. I can’t really say why I want to learn a second language. Being a polyglot is one of the hardest things a person with my brain can do. Fixing things comes naturally, intuitively even. I can teach, and I can tell a good story. I can math in public, but ask me to conjugate a verb and my heart speeds up. I can wonder off in an eastern European country by myself, but tell me to write a fiction story and I break out in a cold sweat. 

Audible has helped me. I love learning, but have trouble with written words. Especially if someone with a very different mind than mine feels his or her words are important. Dyslexia is real son of a bitch. With audiobooks I have learned about religion, language, history, energy, getting other people to pay you to whitewash your fence, the experience of a theoretical eastern European family in the cattle processing history of Chicago, the Ministry of Love, and the real story behind the benevolent character, Uncle Tom. 

Turns out I am a polyglot. Not only can I speak English, but I also know something about love, math and experience. If I wanted so jump into conversation with those women I could have used any of those languages. Instead I decided to focus on the conversation between my plate and my pallet. 

What is experience? Is it an event that leaves an indelible mark on your mind, or is it a way your mind interprets a specific event? Do you have an experience that is unique to you? Which language can you share it in?

Just catching up

Twelve posts in one year, then three whopping posts the next five. All I can think is most of that first year I was working on other people’s projects with a few exceptions, and not my own. So it was easier to think back about what had happened and make these blogs. Most of those projects I was the mentor, guiding someone who had energy and motivation. It’s a different thing when you are working by yourself on your own project!

So what have I been up to? I got that white Mustang named “Judith” back in 2012. I was going to put a turbocharged 2.3 liter engine in it. I stripped out the old broken V6 engine, and started collecting parts to make a strong four cylinder, all because I missed my old 1984 SVO Mustang.

Then some life changing things happened with work. I’m still at Fort Hood, just at a different unit now. Had some big vacations, traveled a whole lot, got Mrs. JimmyJam a new car, read some books, took some college classes, meet new people, and did a lot of soul searching.

2013 - Saw me move to a new unit after a very stressful couple of weeks, where I thought I was going to lose my job. The move was a good thing for me. Back to a side of my career field that I’m a better fit for. Mrs. JimmyJam and I got to spend some real time back home in Oregon, a first for us since the winter of 2006. Then I got to get re-acquainted with my Indiana friends, who are more like family. I spent a month with them, living in their basement, which is not a bad gig. Chris did a really nice job on it. I got my hands on the old Mercury Cougar, and made a quick sale of it. I already had Judith and Ramble at the house. And I needed money more than a third non-driving car. At the end of the year Mrs. JimmyJam and I bought a then new Ford C-Max Energi. It’s name is Staci. By the end of this summer (2017) Staci will have over 70k miles. She’s been to Oregon twice; Colorado; Baltimore; Orlando; St. Louis; Chicago; Forks, Washington; San Francisco; The Bio Sphere 2 (aka the Biodome); Mount St. Helens; Crater Lake; the Red Wood Forest; Death Valley; the Grand Canyon; San Diego; Kansas City; Memphis; Myrtle Beach; a few ferry boats and on and on. She’s only had (needed as per prompts on the instrument cluster) three oil changes. And has the best engine braking of any vehicle I have ever driven. All because Staci is a plug-in hybrid. Yes it raises our electric bill a few dollars each month. But we can sometimes go months without going to the gas station. I won’t talk too much about the “Green Speak”. I will just say that Staci is a flat out pleasure to drive. Over the course of our first serious road trip, I fell in love with being able to drive so much with just one pedal.

2014 - I got started helping out with LEGO Robotics at my kid’s elementary school. Checked off a lot of the road trips I just mentioned, and had a change of heart in the direction I was going with Judith. I now wanted electric torque in my Mustang. I found EV West online, and started looking into their builds. The motors were so cheap and simple, why weren’t more people converting their cars to electrics? Then I found out… The batteries… Batteries were crazy expensive. They are still pretty expensive, but the price is coming down. For one, more people are making big batteries for cars. Second, there are lots of used batteries out there now. People will always crash their cars, electric, diesel, ethonol, hydrogen -doesn’t matter, even the random gas car now and then will find itself in the wrong lane at the wrong time, or on too slippery of a road with too much momentum going the wrong way. Crashes happen, and it works to a hot-rodder’s benefit that the batteries are typically pretty well protected. The body of the car gets trashed, but the people and batteries will usually survive.

2015 - I went to San Diego and met Michael Bream and Matt Hauber at EV West. I even got to help Matt put a new Powerglide transmission into their Pikes Peak racing BMW. I learned about Mitch Medford in the Austin area and his Zombie 222. Mitch has the goal to make Electric Super Muscle Cars. His first generation Mustang does zero-60 in less than 2 seconds. And topped out over 170 mph at the Texas Mile. Beating a record set by Carroll Shelby himself for that generation of Mustang. Impressive is an understatement. I joined the DIY Electric Car forum and met John Metric. This guy knows a thing or two about electric power. He has a door-slammer Miata that makes over 1300 ft/lbs of torque. And now he is making a top fuel-esq rail to break 200 mph in the ¼ mile. Then I deployed.

While deployed I learned about Audible, an audiobook program operated by Amazon. I also started real college classes (finally), and learned just how much dyslexia had played with me all of my life. First I used Audible to get through books from Nick Offerman, and Bill Nye. It is great to have these guys read to you while you follow along in their book. You get every intonation and emphasis they ever intended. Then on one ordinary night during my deployment I met a young Airman at the “Fuel Point” He had an aircraft fueler truck, one of those big ugly green trucks with an uncomfortable looking cab and a few thousand gallon tank on the back. He was putting some diesel in the tank that makes the engine go vroom while I was putting gasoline into our little Chevy truck. I asked him how many gallons that tanker can carry. He said “I normally measure it in pounds, so I’m not exactly sure of the gallons. Maybe around four thousand.” The base we were at had refueling (air to air type) aircraft, so I asked how many truck loads it normally takes for that, and was moderately impressed by the number. Seeing my reaction he swelled with pride a bit and shared that a while back, he “pumped over a million pounds of fuel.” -I was speechless at this. One Airman at one base with one truck pumped over a million pounds of fuel in a four week period. And he is just one cog in the machine. You could call this an awakening for me. I started doing some rough research into the cost per gallon of jet fuel. And soon came to the conclusion of just how much the U.S. was spending in fuel, to protect the oil rich countries. This seemed insestual, a perverted way of subsidising the cost of fuel. In short, I was sold on electric vehicles.

2016 - Home for the summer! And it’s hot as heck. To make matters worse, my garage door faces the south west. I got very little done on Judith. I did buy a motor and controller though. And did get a start on a very modest amount of “low voltage” wiring. That is to say the 12 volt system for the tail lights. The family had a mini vacation to Galveston, TX, then went back to school. Six months went by in no time and I found myself on the hook to deploy again. I will add that I got to help a co-worker get started on his ‘67 F-100 named Trigger. When I get back to Texas he and I will work share a bit. Just to keep each other motivated and hopefully on task… We’ll see.

 2017 - Here we are, I’ve been deployed since October of ‘16. And to break the pattern up I volunteered to extend for a year this time. This means I will be home for a full year. I need this to facilitate future plans for the family. As I write this, I have 775 days left until I’m officially out of the military. That light at the end of the tunnel is coming at me quick, and I still have a lot of learning to do before I have to go get a real job. My family and I got to tour Europe this summer, and if you know Mrs. JimmyJam you’ve already seen (and become jealous of) all of the photos from that adventure on her facebook page.

I’m currently putting myself through a self paced study program just to brush up on my academics. Part of that is spending some time doing writings every Friday. I figured this old blog would be a good way to put some stuff down on digital paper. I may ramble about what I’ve learned in other subjects that week, for example did you know that Vikings made it to Baghdad? Or that walking can produce a larger carbon foot-print than other modes of transportation? I may write a few random essays about other more JimmyJamish subjects. For those of you that just like the way I explain things. I dunno, we’ll just have to see where this takes me. I think I’m going to commit to weekly writings. I just don’t want to jinx myself and wonder-off for another year.

See you later!

Long break, but I haven't been resting.

It has been quite a time since I've blogged. I've learned so many things though. I will try to share them with you soon.