climate change activist and science communicator; photographer; mapmaker
My actual travels, those I aspire to, and those of others
Option A:
Toronto -> Chicago -> Memphis -> New Orleans -> Washington D.C.
Option B:
Montreal -> Boston -> New York -> Birmingham -> New Orleans -> Washington D.C.
Sub-option 1:
New Orleans -> Houston -> Alamogordo -> Tucson -> Washington D.C.
Sub-option 2:
New Orleans -> Houston -> Monterrey -> Mexico City -> Los Angeles -> Washington D.C.
On the morning of September 12th, I need to be in Toronto.
Between now and then, however, I actually don’t have any firm commitments. This raises the question of how to spend the time.
Plan 1: Safe and responsible
Move and apply to doctoral programs
I need to move to Toronto and applications to doctoral programs for the fall of 2012 are due this fall. I could stay in Ottawa and put together a research proposal. I could chase down people to serve as references. I could visit Toronto to look at apartments, choose one, and ship my things over.
I could also work on the great many semi-complete tasks that tend to get buried underneath trivial day-to-day stuff while I am working.
Plan 2: More adventurous
Explore
I could also push the moving stuff into the smallest amount of time possible and get myself a 30-day unlimited Greyhound ticket. I could go to New York City on my way to New Orleans. I could take photos, visit the campuses of schools I might apply to, and take advantage of the longest unstructured span of time I have had since Oxford.
Lately, I have been feeling a bit untethered and uncertain about what I should do with myself. I am dispirited by the way recent efforts to drive action on climate change have failed so completely in North America in recent years. Having some time spent in solitary travel could allow me to think things through, and perhaps reach a sense of clarity about how I should spend the next few years.
This would probably mean pushing back doctoral applications, but it might be unreasonable to aim for this fall anyhow. I need to write the GRE and do a pile of work. I am also not totally sure if a doctorate is really what I want to do.
So, readers, which plan do you endorse? Do you have other ideas?
One element that is common to both plans is my intention to go to Washington D.C. for the Stop the Pipeline Sit-In being organized by Bill McKibben, James Hansen, and others. As well as being a good opportunity to see climate change activism in person, it could provide some contacts and empirical data for subsequent academic work.
My friend Tristan is currently in the Middle East and writing interesting things about it on his blog:
On Flickr, I have uploaded photos from my paternal grandfather’s 90th birthday party.
For the most part, they are lit with two flashes – one in the back corner of the room and one in a window alcove. One flash was fired using a radio trigger, the other using an optical slave sensor. Both had their output set manually.
They can also be viewed as a slideshow.
The weather is starting to get nice, but I am wary of breaking out my bicycle.
9 months and 22 days ago, I hit a pothole on my bicycle, flew forward over the handlebars, crashed into the pavement, and broke my collarbone. If I had landed differently, I might have broken my neck. As it was, the recovery was long and difficult and I am still not quite at 100%. This is my third serious bicycle accident in Ottawa. Back in November 2007, a turning car forced me to brake urgently on Rideau Street and made me fly over my handlebars. Another time, a turning black pickup truck actually hit me, as I was headed up Somerset Street.
Cyclists like to pretend otherwise, but cycling in the city is dangerous. Even without the menace of cars, you can kill yourself by hitting a pothole, going over a railing, or getting your wheel caught and being thrown into traffic.
Friends and family members who cycle, please be careful! Wear lights and reflective clothes at night. Avoid the temptation to talk on the phone or listen to music while cycling. Even with a headset on, holding a conversation is as poor an influence on your reaction time as being drunk.
The longer one stays in a place, the more material goods one tends to acquire: everything from clothing to furniture to photo albums. One problem with this is that it inhibits a person from taking advantage of distant opportunities, particularly those that are temporary and ill-paying.
One may to reduce the extent to which possessions are anchors would be to have a company that specializes in managing the personal possessions of mobile people. Say you were leaving a city where you had worked for a few years, in order to try something new elsewhere. You could box up all the things which you did not expect to need immediately and put them in the keeping of the company. They would keep track of your boxes along with those of thousands of others, and could send you things as requested. Similarly, you could submit additional materials to be added to your archive.
This would save you the bother of setting up storage space in various cities – which can be hard to administer from afar. It also reduces the burden of moving. You may not need your Ottawa winter clothes for a temporary position in San Francisco, but you can pretty easily set them aside somewhere safe for later access if needed. The same goes for books, furniture, art materials, etc. Customers could produce electronic records of what was inside of standard storage containers, then request them when they were needed. Rather than having to travel halfway around the world to pick up some desired books and a photographic enlarger, you could just request that the appropriate boxes be shipped from the storage site where they have been kept.
Another advantage to this system is that it would allow people to invest in higher quality possessions. Rather than buying terrible pots and pans (probably soldered with cadmium) in each new city, people could purchase a decent set and have it shipped whenever they expected to be in one place for a long time. In the event that a person’s possessions became unwanted, the storage company could auction them off and retain a portion of the revenues.
The service would also be useful for people who want to travel. You could spend six months or a year exploring the world, without having to sell off all your possessions beforehand and buy replacements after.
Because the firm would specialize in storing and shipping personal possessions, it could operate at a lower cost than individuals trying to undertake these tasks themselves. There would also be opportunities for diversification – for instance, coordinating the subletting of apartments, or even the exchange of pets between those who are moving into circumstances that are not pet-friendly.
With work resuming tomorrow, my month of wandering is now truly at an end.
Many thanks to all those who hosted me: Meaghan in Hamilton; my aunt, uncle, and cousins in Bennington; and my cousins and Tristan in Toronto. My appreciation also goes out to all the friends and family I was lucky enough to see over that span.
With my life returning to a state of greater regularity, people can expect more regular updates here, with photos from the various journeys forthcoming.
All told, my time away has reinforced my desire to move to Toronto – or at least away from Ottawa.
I have previously mentioned my brother Mica’s blog, being written from Brisbane, Australia.
He has some posts up about the ongoing flooding:
True to past form, he has been posting videos alongside his first person accounts.
My brother Mica has just begun an epic exploration of the antipodes, with 6-7 months planned in Australia, followed by 3-4 around southeast asia, and then a year of teaching in South Korea.
He will be blogging about the whole thing and posting photos: WHY.NOT?BLOG.
Some of my more notable 2010 undertakings and experiences:
The priority for 2011? Find a job in Toronto and move there.