Twelve Years Staying Put

Environment, Opinion No Responses »
Oct 122009

jay_toups_telecommuter_since_1998In Montana, short visits can turn into long ones.

In 1998 almost everyone worried about the Y2K issue.  It turned out not to be a big deal.  Then came September 11, 2001, which continues to be a big deal (at least for some), and our rosily naive American outlook began to crumble across the board, eroding by the day.  Wars, killer hurricanes, and economic calumny ensued. 8 more years pass and today we’re worried (some terrified) about almost everything: the climate, the economy, and the environment.

It’s all gotten much worse, hasn’t it? Oh, you haven’t noticed? Been living under a rock? How about in front of a television? What mainstream media is serving up might not be the whole truth.

Can you see, learn about and appreciate the world better by staying put and browsing your way around the world? Would the world be a better place if more of us stuck closer to home and practiced what is often our worst skill: Internet computing? The answer from my perspective is a definite yes!

By inclination, and twelve years of work-at-home conditioning, I see our world and interact with other people from a very different angle as a telecommuting techie type.  Face time is a rare luxury to me because we live in the woods, and all my clients live somewhere else. Online is it. So when I do interact with people in the real world, it’s a treat because I’m not living among the teeming hordes. As a result I’ve lost that weary, urbanized social fatigue somewhere along the line…I’m not tired of people. Yay! Life among people is a carnival and I have the energy to enjoy them.

For most people I know, travel is something that happens almost exclusively in the physical world, such as driving to work and back each day. Or going on vacation, or “expeditions” to far flung corners of the world.

Online travel? For most people it’s limited to shopping at Amazon (online mall if there ever was one), and Facebook excursions, where people can hook up and exchange one liners across great distances, mostly. Facebook has become the new email on steroids, easier to use, and with words, pics and videos posted in full view of one’s friends, which makes it even more stimulating. But it’s kind of like cotton candy. Tastes good, but gives you no nourishment, save for the few people who take the time to comment or post their own stuff.

After 12 years of working from home here in outer Montana, I’m sure my perspective isn’t just a paranoid Kaczinsky-esque delusion fueled by too many lattes or too many hours years working alone. (I’m down to 1 cup of java a day, so that’s definitely not it…and I’ve been making sure to get out and interact with real people instead of mailing them bombs.)

In the meantime, our world suffers ever more dearly from the byproducts of our supposed freedoms. Travel (at least in a car or truck) is a big nasty byproduct! Until mankind learns to stay put, we’re screwed. Got it?

Recreation, online or offline, is where you find it. And so is a contrary thought to stir the conscience of anyone who ventures here.



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Think It's Bad Now?

Opinion, People, Unbelievable 2 Responses »
Jun 172009

Enjoy what could well be our last few months of culturally reinforced American insularity and relative plenitude. But at least put this bit of news in your pipe and smoke it in the meantime.  Talk about it with family and friends. Or start digging up your backyard to grow some veggies.

I’m a happy guy despite how it may appear, but I am concerned about our economic situation. And I’m sure you probably are as well. If you aren’t concerned yet, you will be, even if you are a filthy rich redneck living off the grid at the end of your private road.

I think Americans across the board are about to experience a whole new world of hardship and economic pain that is incomprehensible to most of us at this juncture. I really hope not, but I’m not going betting against this out of control economic freight train.

“Barack Obama, and the criminal class on Wall Street, aided by a corporate media that continues to peddle silly video moments, fatuous gossip and trash talk as news while we endure the greatest economic crisis in our history, may have fooled us, but the rest of the world knows we are bankrupt. And these nations are damned if they are going to continue to prop up an inflated dollar and sustain the massive federal budget deficits, swollen to over $2 trillion, which fund America’s imperial expansion in Eurasia and our system of casino capitalism. They have us by the throat. They are about to squeeze.”

Link to Truthdig article.

So what’s the big problem? The rest of the world’s leading nations are actively dumping the dollar as reserve currency. What does this mean? How about the end of the American way of life. The end of American hegemony. The end of rampant militarization.  And possibly much, much worse.

When we elected Barack Obama, I was hopeful until I realized (again) that the problems which ail our country are fatal flaws that no politician can possibly fix. We are beyond broke. But of course, Obama’s good at fixing small problems with a single swat.

We are to put it mildly, screwed. Don’t say you didn’t know or believe the worst was still in front of you, read the article and get ready for the next economic crapstorm.

Hide me as a friend if you don’t like the topic. Or thank me later after you acknowledge that nobody you know is really talking about what’s going to happen next in this country. It’s called denial.

Or don’t thank me at all. But at least try to remove as much of yourself from the tracks as you can or you might get squashed flat like a Lincoln cent or smushed like the fly in the vid.

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I Have Friends

Opinion, People, Tech 3 Responses »
Dec 142008

I have friends. You wouldn’t know it from the few snide comments on the site. But for one or two, my ‘friends’ have nothing whatsoever to do with it. I guess they’re too entrenched in their lives, or bummed out, or tired of me trying to be some sort of oracle about the environment. They might even think I’m flat-out stupid for even trying to make a difference in how people live their lives.

I have relatives. You wouldn’t know it from this site. None of them take the content here seriously because if they did they might feel driven to change how they live. They might feel a need to stop doing resource-intensive activities they really enjoy, like riding motorcycles or auto cross racing. Or leaving all the lights in their house on. Of course, they can’t take me or this site seriously. They would have to change.

I have business and professional associates. You wouldn’t know it from this page because they’re all consumed with running their businesses and paying their employees and bills. There’s no profit—and no time to waste—in exploring what they could do to reduce their carbon footprint. So they too ignore this page, even while hiring me to advance their businesses through web development and marketing communications.

I have unknown visitors from the Internet. You wouldn’t know it from this page. They’re mostly too rushed to linger long enough to savor the acrid sentiments of one writer who knows what the real source of the world’s environment problems is.

The real source? It’s you, unique visitor of the moment. I’m not too broke, rushed, bummed out, arrogant or smart to spend time and energy trying to reach you.

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Climate resets 'Doomsday Clock'

Environment, Tech No Responses »
Jan 172007


The venerable “Doomsday Clock” from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has been expanded to include the ever increasing climate threat.

Add global warming to nuclear threats. Move the minute hand to five minutes before midnight. Set your alarm. Sweet dreams…

Link to article

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Focusing on Environmental Truth

Uncategorized No Responses »
Jan 042007

Another hysterical “the sky is falling” environmental site? Not exactly. The Whirled Home Journal exaggerates or misrepresents nothing with regard to our declining environmental state. The stories you find here are, sad to say, true. Statements written and posted to this journal will always be backed by factual evidence.

Beyond the gloom and doom, this site will focus on the positive things people can do to reduce their environmental footprint. At least people with a heart and a conscience.

If you want to live in the state of denial, fine. Your children will pay the price. Not you.

If you want to improve life on earth, welcome. Your children will thank you for sticking up for what is right and good and sustainable.

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Enviro-Insults

Environment, Opinion 1 Response »
Jun 192003

How much waste, garbage and trash did you generate today? How long, stinky and ugly is your personal slime trail, you petroleum-addicted slob you?

Okay so I’m likely insulting my blog readers, if there are any. I may have broken the first law of successful writing and journalism, but I’m also feeling a bit righteous about minding the store. (The phargin’ planet, you moron.)

Sure your consumptive life is none of my business? Wrong. It’s everybody’s business. And since it isn’t against the law to be a rapacious consumer, other methods of behavior influence must hold sway.

Avoid. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Re-think while you still have the luxury of even lightly considering the havoc you wreak on this planet with all that you consume and throw away each and every day. Repent, sinner, and be saved.

Nobody’s perfect, true. But a better world has its origins in folks like you and me doing an about face on the consumptive lifestyle we live as Americans…if you still drive an SUV, you’re part of the problem and definitely not the solution. Sell that pig!

Americans in particular will define success in the 21st century by finding ways to profitably deconstruct the monster economy we’ve built that espouses progress at all costs and cares not a wit for what our unrelenting lifestyles of conspicuous mass consumption is doing to (y)our planet. Yours. Mine. Dubya’s.

Why am I taking the high ground? Well, it’s not that I’m all that high, but I do live where it’s very hard to make a living as a writer. Consequently, I’m wired. I live and die (work) through an Internet connection. That’s my highway to work and back. It’s always free of traffic. And my commute is 40 feet and dress is informal at best so getting on that highway isn’t a matter of life and death. It’s as simple and as effortless as turning on a light switch. My cars are sitting in the driveway literally rusting away and not getting used.

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