I ended up with an unexpected quite night. Gabe is at a school thingy and Diane is at the laundromat.. We’re still having to was our clothes there until the new septic system goes in .. We have our first meeting with our friend the excavator tomorrow.. so we’re getting closer to being able to do laundry at home again !
   Anyway.. I had the house and time to myself.. My mind is still so empty that nothing jumped in to fill the time. I decided to look at a few of the lectures on TED (http://TED.Com ) Ted stands for technology, entertainment and design. It’s a set of wonderful lectures on any topic imaginable. They’re all about 15 minutes.. and they’re all free. There are some great pieces in there on science, inventions, human behavior, future ideas.. really.. something for everyone. I’ve watched these things on and off over the past year.. but I rarely make the time to go and check out what’s new. Yesterday my buddy Sue turned me on to a talk she’d seen by Seth Godin  on the concept of ‘tribes’   Godin is  a blogger and the founder of yoyodyne.. a marketing firm (named after a fictitious company in two of my favorite books by thomas pynchon) 

Anyway..  Godin explains the evolutions of the leadership model he calls ‘tribes;. His point is that ideas spread very differently now than they did even 5 years ago. The internet has give us such a capacity to share ideas and gather around them.. that anyone can lead.. from any position.. as long as he/she can speak to folks who are already of like mind. It’s a simple idea.. but one that I think about often now..

I was really thinking of this when I did my ISSCC talk in early feb. I realized that despite the work I’d put in.. I wasn’t telling folks much that they already didn’t know.. what appealed to many folks about the talk is that it reinforced to them what they

already knew or at least suspected… and i was on a topic that many of them were already passionate about..   I was starting to build a tribe around the idea of connecting green jobs and engineering careers.  to helping address some of the worlds most pressing problems. . It wasn’t that I was the only one saying that.. it’s just that  got the pulpit form which to speak to a bunch of folks who already knew what I was about to say.. and wanted to hear me (or anyone) say it..

So.. I think now, more than ever, we need to build that tribe.  how do we do that ? Not sure.. but on a related topic.. i just heard that Obama’s green job czar, Van Jones is going to be in Burlington next week to speak.. He’s got a major tribe going on the idea of putting jobless folks to work doing gree energy projects like insulating houses, etc.. I want to talk to him about extending this message to one that encourages inner city kids to consider engineering and technology jobs that can help us address energy and environmental issues.

I know that Jones will be speaking at the VT Expo during lunch.. does anyone know where else he’ll be during his stay in VT ?

OK.. I gotta go do some homework… hope everyone is well.. Note folks.. Love you Sam
-me

THoguhtful day today. I had a bunch of meetings woth folks in burlingotn. I took advantage of the good weather and coaxed all of the folks I had to meet with to take our mmeting outside for a walk. I managed to get 3  in that way. I also had lucnh wiht my friend Kerry. I was tellign him babout some of the fun and soem of the struggles I’ve had in coming back from the TV show experience. He said .. “don’t worry, it’s all good”.. I hear that expression often.. ‘it’s all good”.. but never really though of it. He’s right.. the things I’m struggling with … eg. the need to stay present, the need to stay happy at work.. the need towork more with my hands.. are all good choices I’m gooing to make.. It’s a good thing.. not a challenge.. Kerry’s comment gave me a simple but powerful reframing of my situation.. Thanks for that friend…

The day passed quickly and pretty productivly. after work I met Diane, Gabe, and Kristin in Essex to share a ride up to Gabes Lacrosse game in Westford. It was a beutiful drive on a beutifull day, We sat up on a hill to wathc the game it was so beutifull (even if I was too far away to recognize the players’ numbers)

I ran into my freind Mike out on the fireld.and enjoyed catching up with him.  Mike’s  dog lola (right) and the coaches dog Tiki decided that I was a dog person.

After the game (near 8PM).. I made the 40 mile drive down to Monkton to see Homer. We have tomake progress on the drive motors for the Burnign Man vehicle. I got to Homers about 8:40.. He had ‘H G Wells’… his intials.. in 4 foot letters in his front yard.. that was new..

We spent several hours looking at the 1/4 scale model of the feerris wheel car.. and checking out the motors and speed controlers for the full size device.  
Here’s Homer trying to check the speed on one of the motors He dug the motors out of old forklifts.

Homerhas three of the fdorklift motors and each has an old style switching speed controller. the good news is that I know these exact speed controllers form my time on the colony.. the bad news.is .. I wasn’t able to get them to work there.. I’ve brought one of them home to see if I can trick the controller inot working for us. If I can get it workign, we’ll be all set for our drive components. … the devicce will be able to  go forward. backward and turn on its own radius .. I plan to make it so you drive the thing with a Wiimote.. sound interesting ?

I’mjust gettign home now and it’s about 1:15.. time for me to sleep. I camein to find this cool sign that soemone made for the half pipe. I can’t wait to find out who did this.. It looks awesome !
  Thanks whoevr did that !

OKI’m getting so sleepy.. I’ll say gnite.. Gnite everyone.. Gnite Sam !
-me

Another day back closer to treality.. somehow it didnt’ feel s strange as the last couple. I was telling Diane last night that one of the ways that I knew I was getting back ‘in to the world’ is that I noticed that voice in my head.. You know, that constant dialog in your head that analyzes everything you do in life. Some Zen practioners call it the ‘monkey mind’ .. I hadn’t really noticed it until yesterday, but that coice had completely vvanished while I was working on ‘The Colony’. Normally the only thing that shuts it down is my meditation practice. I now realize that the whole Colony thing was like a moving meditation..Even though it was grueling and crazy,  it brought me to the same peaceful and timeless place that meditation does.. strange…   My hope is to keep the voice in check.. one way or the other.   I’m determined to hang on to the sanity that I picked up at the Colony.

I continue to talk to my frineds from the cColony expereince nearly every day. I miss them all. It seems that many of them had hard things come up with their family and reinds while we were off-line. I can’t really go into details  here becase we’re not allowed to talk about the show.  I do want to say to them that my thoughts and heart are with them all..

Work is starting to settle down a bit. I still feel like an outsider there . I’m trying to reclaim some old habits there, too. I began by taking my ‘path less taken’ through the parking lot. I always like to walk the tunnell in the middle of a line of parked cars. It’s like my secret road…

The day passed smoothly enough. I am spending most of my time trying to get my head around a new set of porblems and find a way to be useful quickly. It’s harder than it should be for me. My skills feel rusty.. my instincts seem a little dulled.  think I’m still floating a little from the Colony expereince. I feel my focus returning.. at leas I hope I do : -) 

After work I went down town to have dinner with a bunch of work friends that are visiting from New York..   I spotted this great bumper sticker  and grafitto on the way

Dinner was great.. there were many freinds there.. two very old freinds were there.. Chandu V. and Peter F. both freinds from Grad school 20 years ago (wow .. is that possible ?).. Diane caem in to meet us after dinner. It was so wonderful catching up !

Hear we are wearing clay goat heads from our bear bottles.. stylish.. no ?

Well that was the day.. Ahh Diane and Gabe managed to get the last coat of urethane on the skate ramp.. I think it will be ready to ride tomorrow. It’s been really fun to build .. Here’s a picture from yesterday after Gabe, Kristin and I finsished moutning the top layer of Masonite.

It’s been great working with Gabe on the rnap project.. I hope he really enjoyss using it.Looks good, doesn’t it  Sam. ? . Gnite !
-me

It’s abotu 10:30 on monday night.. and I’m having trouble staying awake. I have a meeting in downtown burlington at 7 am-ish.. and I made the mistake of lying down in bed to blog.   Big, big mistake.. I keep falling asleep.. I fell asleep 3 times trying to help Gabe with his geometry and french homework. Bad dad !
    Not much to report today anyway. I felt like this was the first ‘normal’ day since I returned form the Colony. I say normal becaue it was a Monday on a full week with no travel or other special stuff happening. It felt a little strange to be so back in the world. I made an effort to not get too swept up in the normal workday.. but by mid afternoon I found myself tangled in the normal days quicksand of meetings and powerpoint. I have to tell you that I was fantasizing about flamethhrowers and drill presses by mid afternoond. Maybe I’m just not cut out for corporate life anymore..
    Man..I’m realllly struggling to stay wake.. I think I’m goign to give up and see hwat I can dream about. Hope that’s OK with all of you.. OK folks… more tomorrow. Gnite all.. Gnite Sam
-me