Bristol Bay Alaska Tending 2012
So, I landed a job in Alaska for the summer. Hoping to beat the Texas summer heat for the month of July filming (I’ll be making videos like this) and doing odd tasks aboard salmon boats out in Bristol Bay. The van will be too hot for comfort. Should be shipping out of Naknek at the end of June.
I am a firm believer in alternate job opportunities. Jobs can teach you a lot, and they can also be fun. This is not helping my increasingly dismal view on my formal college education. Anyway. I suggest you at least once in your life try a job, even if it’s just a quick odd job, that’s outside of your comfort zone or will be really interesting. It’s good for ya.
I.
The first time your heart was torn from your chest,
You thought you were dying.
You knew you could not live with the empty space.
So you replaced your heart with metaphors
And set out to create a world where the metaphor was unbreakable.
Now look what you’ve done—
You can’t breathe so you write.
You can’t hurt so you drink rum and pour our pirate chanties.
You can’t want revenge so you leave.
II.
When I see you I have two thoughts:
You are the reason The Smith’s wrote songs,
And my god, you are beautiful.
You are so beautiful
Blinking stars go blind.
But I can see this is going to get ugly.
The metaphors don’t make you feel whole anymore.
You sell out your deepest insecurities for a handful of laughs.
This life has you wound so tight you make grandfather clocks look relaxed.
You hold your body like banks hold money—all locked up.
Your shoulders are glass rocks waiting for the next attack.
But you’ve got it all wrong.
You don’t survive history.
History survives you.
There is no breakthrough without breakdown.
III.
If you’re going to break, shatter.
No explanations.
No limp-legged dog excuses.
No messing with this bullet proof vest fury
So popular with the cops and the presidents.
You’ve got to break like Texas.
You’ve got to take the pain from the safety valve of your heart
And return it to your fists.
Fight your better judgment ‘till you’re sinister again,
‘till your body remembers what it already knows how to do—
bend back
and manifest grief.
Scream torches ‘till you embarrass the enlightened.
Please. No more polite conversations with your death wish.
Give it something useful to do.
Change your life.
Cause I can’t stand to see you like this.
So blue, my eyes turn green in your presence.
Listen—you are so beautiful,
Grass pushes through sidewalk cracks just to kiss your feet.
IV.
Maybe no one ever told you,
But the heart IS a metaphor.
Yours is growing so strong
You’ll have your rhythm back any day now—
Loving like rumours spread.
Dreaming like lunatic spacemen jump from their suits.
Living like you never forgot how.
— Mindy Nettifee, “The First Time” (via larmoyante)
India, other developing nations drive global economic growth: UN
Yay India! I’ll be spending about two weeks there this summer. The irony of the combined passport, visa, and shot fees almost equalling my food and entertainment budget is not lost on me. Gotta love developing nations with picky visa applications.
What happens when your house breaks down?
Today, my car broke down. Its had trouble starting a few days now, but I had the battery checked and everything seemed to be fine. I checked my fluid levels and nothing seemed amiss. Then today, right before work, it died. It took an hour for the towing company to get to me, and then half an hour to get it to a shop. I -might- be able to get it in the morning, after a doctors appointment.
It’s making me think about how horrible a car failure would be when I move into my van. I am not sure how I feel about this. I suppose a tent would work, but college would make this difficult. I still need electricity to study. There are always friends, but that is inconvenient. Plus, the physics involved in tilting the van to drag it up onto the platform of a tow truck would disrupt my living-stuffs. Gravity is such a drag….
I once had a garden filled with flowers that grew only on dark thoughts but they need constant attention and one day I decided I had better things to do.
— Brian Andreas (via human-voices)
(Source: middlenameconfused, via human-voices)
INSULATION:
Insulating as much of the inside of my van was one of the first steps after ripping down walls and tearing out headliner. After you get your van stripped down to the bare minimum is when you can start putting up insulation.
I recommend…
-Reflectix reflective insulation
-3M 80 Industrial Spray Adhesive
Reflectix insulation is basically a silver foil bubble wrap. It is great to work with because it comes in a roll, you can cut it with scissors, and you can put it up with spray adhesive. It’s very easy to cut a section, push it into place, and use a sharpie to mark pieces that need to be cut. When it comes to the spray adhesive I wouldn’t use anything but 3M 80. I used other brands like Loctite when I was feeling cheap, and it didn’t work even half as well… I had pieces of insulation just peeling and falling off the walls.
Spray your adhesive on the wall, ceiling, or floor panel you are working on as well as the back of the insulation, wait a minute or two, and put your piece of insulation up, pressing on all corners to make sure it is sticking. This just turns into a spray adhesive and insulation puzzle, cutting small pieces to fill corners and gaps. Take your time doing this, open all windows and doors, and take breaks. Spray adhesive is pretty toxic and the fumes will really do a number on you.
Insulating as much of your van as you can will really help to keep your van warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. I definitely noticed a really big difference after insulating my van! Good luck!
I have a feeling this will be more difficult on a VW, but I won’t know until I get in there. Thanks for another awesome how-to!
A VW van would be hard to cover up, But any of their smaller models would be easier.
What smaller models are you thinking of?
I actually haven’t decided if I’m willing to rip out my walls, because I don’t know how long I’m going to have the van, so I’d love to keep the resale value. I have planned to spend every winter for the next two years abroad to escape the cold though, so I’ll probably be fine.
(via lordchuckle)
The world is not a solid continent of facts sprinkled by a few lakes of uncertainties, but a vast ocean of uncertainties speckled by a few islands of calibrated and stabilized forms.
— Bruno Latour (via larmoyante)
(Source: larmoyante)
