The Virgin Homeowner

So much for keeping up with my life on here. If I had been writing even once a month, I might have at least mentioned that Ashley and I put an offer on a house on True Road in Salisbury. I might have also talked about the insanely frustrating process of counteroffers. Then there was the ridiculously expensive and disappointing home inspection. But I haven't written a damn thing for months, so it looks like I've got a lot of catching up to do.

The house we found is a modest 1400 square foot ranch sitting on a not-so-modest 1.37 acre plot which is quite beautifully landscaped with gardens all around and a pond with ducks and frogs in the back. It has a large, sunny living room, a beautiful country kitchen with an island that opens into a dining room with a fireplace, 3 bedrooms and a bathroom. All the appliances in the kitchen are new, as are the washer and dryer in the big basement. To top it all off, a 2 level deck and patio are attached to the back of the house overlooking the amazingly peaceful backyard. We loved the place the first time we saw it, and couldn't help but fantasize about getting married in the back yard.

While the property appeared near-perfect, the location was even better: a 5 minute drive from my parents, and less than 10 minutes to the train station and the beach. So we got a pre-approval letter from the bank and made an offer. They countered, then we countered, and they countered again, and we agreed and rewrote contract... and then they decided they weren't going to sign it and were going to stick with their asking price. Apparently they weren't in a rush to sell and were confident they could get asking price in the fall if need be. Whatever, we caved and said yes.

Frustrated with the first steps of the process, we set out to looking for an inspector. After talking to several different people, we landed on a guy from Gloucester with over 30 years of experience. Not only was he the most experienced inspector I talked to, but also the most available... and unfortunately the most expensive. Nevertheless, we met at the house last Wednesday along with our agent and the sellers agent, and started picking the house apart. We learned everything about every system in the house, from the oil tank, to the boiler, to the electrical service, plumbing, insulation, chimney, roof, siding... everything. We started inside and by the time we got outside, there weren't any major issues to speak of, just an aging oil tank, an outdated electrical service, and a bit of "damp house syndrome" which would mean we'd need to run a dehumidifier in the basement 3 seasons out of the year to help prevent mold and mildew in the basement and attic.

Unfortunately, once outside, our inspector noticed a window with some pretty nasty termite damage. The sellers statement mentioned installing a termite extermination system 6 years ago, but somehow this didn't strike us as a big problem. "So what?" we must have thought, "They're gone now, right?" Well, maybe, but even if they are that doesn't mean that didn't turn the house into swiss-cheese before they were eliminated. This was the worst news ever. It wasn't something that we could even put a price tag to, because the damage can't be assessed without tearing open the walls.

I was home sick the following day, so I made some phone calls to other experts, not the least of which was my uncle. His sister had contracted him to replace some damaged siding on her house some years back. He brought his tools and started tearing off the damaged parts starting at the a small visible spot on the outside, but as he took the siding off, he found the structure behind them was completely destroyed. It wasn't until he removed the entire front of the house that he could comprehend the extent of the damage. "I hate to tell ya this, but it sounds like a 'walk away' deal to me, Adam." It was hard to hear, but it was what I needed to hear for reality to really sink in.

Still, the seller's agent wasn't buying that it was actually termite damage even though the inspector seemed sure of it, and even though it was directly above a termite bait station. We ended up having a pest inspector come in the following day to confirm, yes, it was caused by termites, and state multiple times to us in front of the seller's agent "I would not, NOT buy the house because of termites." Thanks JACKOFF, I'll look forward to doing business with someone else if I do buy the house.

No surprise, in the end things fell through. We weren't willing to risk buying the house as-is, and they weren't willing to meet our requests. It was a learning experience. Next time around, I think we'll be much better prepared to start out asking the hard questions straight off before going through inspection. We've learned who to trust for advice, and what to expect from the different parties involved. I just hope we're able to find something better in the months to come.

Stem Cell Research

Some weeks ago, President Obama reversed the Bush administration order that stopped federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. My friend Jon asked me to make a statement on this landmark for the science since he was writing an article for the examiner.com. Anyway, I thought I'd post my response here...

I believe this will help to accelerate some very specific research that people have been doing. When Bush cut off funding to these projects it put some major obstacles on the path for some kinds of cutting edge biological research. Universities and research institutes working in these fields had to either stop working with these cell lines altogether, or to find private funding to pay for the research as well as new facilities and instruments since nothing purchased with government funds, no matter how big or small, could be used when working with embryonic stem cells.

Still, I think people should understand that these cell lines are only of interest to people doing some very specific research. And while some people's lives are hanging on the products of that research, this change in policy isn't necessarily going to produce the cures that are demanded. Nevertheless, despite former president Bush's tourniquet we have accomplished a lot in the past 8 years, and have nothing but high hopes for the years to come.

In the end the majority of the scientific community sees this as a positive thing. However, there are still some among us who have a moral dilemma with the source of these stem cells, and I think we'd be reckless to keep pushing science without keeping these moral conversations on the table.

Career day

Two or three weeks ago I found a voicemail from someone who worked at my old high school asking me if I would be interested in participating in career day. Evidently alumni were being invited back to participate in small panels of 2-4 people to represent a particular field such as nursing, law enforcement, and the arts. I was invited to join the science and technology panel with two other people. Excited at the chance to give back in this small way to my alma mater, I said yes.

I hadn't really worked out what I'd say until yesterday when the nerves started to kick in. My public speaking experience is limited at best, and as far as audiences go, I figured high school students could be rough. I tried to stay optimistic that I'd be able to present to them as I did to my peers in my oral communications class about 4 years ago.

When I pulled into the parking lot, I found I was about 40 minutes early: Plenty of time to build up my nerves before taking the floor. Still, as people trickled in and conversations sprouted, I started to relax. I caught up with old teachers and classmates, and then went on an expedition to find a video adapter for my laptop. Five minutes before A period, it was evident that I'd be skipping the audio-visual portion of my talk -- fortunately I only had 4 slides, 3 of which were stolen from colleagues.

That nostalgic *bong* sound came over the intercom signalling the sound of A period, and Chris, Steve and I found ourselves standing in front of a class of about 20 kids between the ages of 13 and 18. We had 20 minutes each. Chris, the mechanical engineer would go first; then me; then Steve, a genetic epidemiologist would go last. Chris' talk was short and sweet, but he did manage some interaction with the classroom which was promising. I did my best to stick to the outline I had made, and used the whiteboard when necessary. I taught them the basics of high throughput microscopy screens, and then went on to explain how my group helps scientists analyze the images from these experiments. I told them a bit about the work environment, ups and downs. Lastly I wrapped up with the best advice I could give anyone interested in entering this or any field of study:

1. Do what you feel passionate about. If you can't, find a way.
   
2. When someone asks "what do you do" talk about your interests and goals. The best career opportunities come out of networking. Having good character is just as important as talent.

The talk couldn't have gone smoother! I left Steve exactly 20 minutes without feeling rushed or like I was trying to fill time. I didn't even get snagged in a tangent as I tend to do when I'm excited about something. Best of all, I was getting some good eye contact, even nods, and questions during and after the presentation.

Part of the reason the A period class was so un-intimidating was because the majority of the students were on the younger end of the spectrum; B period, on the other hand, consisted of about 25 students, most of which were juniors and seniors. Nevertheless, the presentations went off without a hitch: More good eye contact, and honest questions. After the bell rang, a couple of the guys sitting towards the front right were still hanging around so I gave them a look and they came over. Both were interested in engineering, but seemed a little apprehensive about the math required. This was a common theme for both periods. I explained to them that when I was a senior, I had only taken elementary functions, an "advanced" class, but still way behind the honors curriculum. When I got into college, it just meant I had to start a semester behind for math and physics. NOT the end of the world. They seemed relieved and thanked me before shaking my hand and heading off to their next class. Those two students made my day.

The Green Post

Over the past few months I've been steadily increasing my weekly intake of sustainable lifestyle and design knowledge. To those who are interested, here are some of the highlights...

Cradle to Cradle [link]
Of all of the books I've read this year, this may be the best. The authors argue that any system that requires regulation to do less harm, is a system in distress and in need of redesign. Simply put, they are pioneering the next industrial revolution, one where the very concept of waste is eliminated. Here's the copy & paste from mcdonough.com:

William McDonough's book, written with his colleague, the German chemist Michael Braungart, is a manifesto calling for the transformation of human industry through ecologically intelligent design. Through historical sketches on the roots of the industrial revolution; commentary on science, nature and society; descriptions of key design principles; and compelling examples of innovative products and business strategies already reshaping the marketplace, McDonough and Braungart make the case that an industrial system that "takes, makes and wastes" can become a creator of goods and services that generate ecological, social and economic value.

The Story of Stuff [www.storyofstuff.com]

When we throw something "away", where exactly is "away"? How is it possible to buy a cute little green radio for $4.99 at Radio Shack, when the materials and labor to create and sell that radio should cost way more than $5? This short video provides some perspective on the lifespan of products. Again, here's the C&P:

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

Time: The Clean Energy Scam [link]
I read this article in Time magazine published a year ago, and hope that views on ethanol and biodeisel as "green" fuels have started to change since then. The big picture is much dirtier than the emissions would indicate.

"People don't want to believe renewable fuels could be bad," says the lead author, Tim Searchinger, a Princeton scholar and former Environmental Defense attorney. "But when you realize we're tearing down rain forests that store loads of carbon to grow crops that store much less carbon, it becomes obvious."

Promising news:
Here are a few links to things that will make you feel better about the future of sustainable industry.

• Car-Free Suburb Planned for Melbourne, Australia
• Greenest Eco Resort in the World Coming to California? ...this looks like it could be incredible! Check out the overview pdf.
• TED Talk: Willie Smits: A 20-year tale of hope: How we re-grew a rainforest

Places to Start
Try this:

1. Create a bookmark folder in your web-browser called "Save the Planet"
2. Check out "21 links to save the planet" on PlanetGreen, and put all those links in your new bookmark folder.
3. Once a day, maybe when you get to work, right-click on the your "Save the Planet" bookmark folder, and select "open all bookmarks in tabs."

Bam! You just planted trees, funded education, protected oceans, saved baby seals, saved several square feet of rainforest, removed some CO2 from the air, gave children free books, gave free food to the hungry, helped to provide free child healthcare, and helped fight breast cancer... all by opening and closing a few tabs in your browser, and maybe clicking a few buttons! And if you're feeling especially kind, you might even take a look at some of the sponsors on those sites. I've been doing this for almost 2 months now, and even added some links of my own. Suppose each each site only planted a single tree for every visit I made, I still would have helped to plant about 1500 trees over the past 2 months!

Of course, clicking links only goes so far, so here are some other resources to broaden your view and give you ideas for how to me more resourceful and less wasteful:

• http://www.treehugger.com/
  
• http://planetgreen.discovery.com/
  
• http://www.ecofabulous.com/
  
• http://www.ecogeek.org/
• http://www.inferknow.com/green (firefox extension that offsets CO2 output)
  

You might try using Google Reader to organize all these for you as well as other blogs that you like reading (like mine!) Check out the quick tour here.

Design is Fun!

So I recently caught wind of a little design fun going around facebook. It goes like this

1. Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random” or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2. Go to "Random quotations" or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3. Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.
5. Post it to FB with this text in the caption and tag the friends you want to join in.

I was tagged in one and it made me think about how long it's been since I've done ANY design for fun. So my clicks resulted in the following:

So today I was rummaging through some old art and found this little logo I designed for a site that has since disappeared. It makes me kind of want to use it for something. *shrug*

Creativity and Results

For the creative people who, like me, are astounded by the work and genius of those successful in our respective fields. Who want to start creating something meaningful, even if they don't know exactly what.

I recently watched Merlin Mann's talk entitled "Towards Patterns in Creativity" [link]. I'm not going to explain who Merlin Mann is, because I don't really know. I found the talk through yet another blogger that goes by Greyscalegorilla who recently got caught up in idea of input and output as actions in our lives. Point being that we, the creative people, are constantly saturated with input. We're all reading, and watching and sometimes even taking notes, hoping to find that something that will inspire us into doing something really amazing. Greyscalegorilla's assignment to we-the-viewers, was to do some creative output today. Just assume that you already have all the tools you need to do what you want to, and go and do it.

In Merlin's talk he showed a slide with the following, "Creative work, summarized: In the time you set aside each day to work your ass off, ignore anything that makes you consider stopping."

Here are some of the things I've been thinking about.

• Creative professionals have no shortage of inspiration, the hard part is turning it into something awesome.
• Those of us stuck in between spend too much time reading books about how to do things. It's not about tips and tricks, it's about focus.
• "Scratching" (per Twyla Tharp). Get a box. Set time aside to go and find stuff to put in it. Have a high tolerance for ambiguity, and trust that you will find a way to interpret what you've collected. The point here is that you have a place to collect your inspiration.
• Be willing to make sacrifices along the way. Again, "...ignore anything that makes you consider stopping."

I'll end this here, knowing that anything else I write will likely be a vacuous effort to end with a profoundly inspiring and witty message. Forget the wit. Forget the how-to books. Make something.

How heavy is this glass of water?

My uncle in Kansas (Hey Uncle Dave! if you're reading this) regularly forwards emails to me and the rest of the family.  Some are funny, some are amazing, some aren't worth the time it takes to delete them, but still others are really inspiring.  I thought I'd share one here, because the wisdom in these words can't be oversold.

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "How heavy is this glass of water? "

Answers called out ranged from 8oz. to 20oz. 

The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it." 

"If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance." 

"In each case it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes." 

He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on." 

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden. " 

"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work/life down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow." 

"Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. Relax; pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short. Enjoy!"