It's been raining here for about a week. The sun is out now, but it's chilly and will probably rain again before long. When the clouds have parted, permitting a bit of warmth through to the surface, the respite from precipitation has been fleeting. I'll walk to the post office soon, but whether I'll come back to campus wet is anyone's guess.

Saturday, in Santa Cruz, things started out in a similar fashion: with the sun shining on us during a walk down store-lined Pacific Avenue. We browsed boutiques for shoes and books and shelves full of kitchenware we would never purchase. When the rain finally came--right at sunset--we ducked into a small coffee shop for shelter.

Santa Cruz is a quaint place, and like most of California epitomizes the variety that the state has become known for; in California, to be normal is different, and so everywhere one looks there is a strange, variegated version of humanity staring back. Nothing is ever as it seems, and the biggest surprises always come after making a hasty assumption about someone else out on the street.

At La Vie we ate raw vegan for supper, then skipped through puddles to a movie. For a late night snack we went to Saturn Cafe, an all-night vegan greasepit that is half Highway Diner, half Holiday Skate World. Next door was a hookah bar with live DJs. In Santa Cruz, a mere thirty minutes from Monterey, things are comforting.

The drive home was dark, coastal and rainy. The morning brought sun, but with the afternoon came moisture for the endless fields of artichokes, romaine and spinach that ring our community. Today is sun and slow evaporation; and now I'm out the door.

brett at 12:07 PM on January 28, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've gotten a lot of reading done this week. There's a common theme here, can you identify it?

I highly recommend each book, particularly "The China Study," which opened even my eyes to the health risks embodied in animal flesh.

brett at 10:27 PM on January 27, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

My classes are shuffling around a bit. I've dropped the Global Politics course in favor of something much more essential to my plan of study.

IP542: Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
The purpose of this course is to develop competency in economic theory as it relates to environmental problems. We will highlight public policies that influence (both directly and indirectly) the environment and natural resource use, and analyze their economic implications. The emphasis will be on identifying and assessing the appropriate economic tools for addressing current environmental issues. Students will learn how to “think like an economist,” which is essential for conversing intelligently about the world’s major environmental problems and developing practical, efficient, and just solutions.

So there's that. More to come.

brett at 12:56 PM on January 25, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Monterey Institute is incredibly environmentally conscious: we not only have regular recycling bins on campus, but also more than a dozen battery-recycling boxes as well. There are multiple conservation-related clubs, and a highly progressive plant-based food nitiative at the cafeteria.

There are also timed lights in the library bathrooms. When you enter, you can set them to turn off in ten, twenty or thirty minutes. It's a nice gesture toward saving energy.

Today, however, I walked into the restroom in the William Tell Coleman Library and neglected to push the light-timer button; indeed, they were already on. Moments later, while standing with my fly down at the urinal, I was engulfed in darkness--and I mean total pitch-black nothingness. Have you ever been in a darkened restroom? (There are no windows)

I felt my way along the tiled wall and exited, reminding myself that next time I enter a lit restroom it would be prudent to give the timer an additional click. At least I wasn't on the toilet.

brett at 02:47 PM on January 24, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's time to conquer the mentally dead.

Become awake and chop the heads off these snakes, the snake inside yourself that be the first head you take.

brett at 03:48 PM on January 21, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's pretty much all core courses. But you have to start somewhere, I suppose.

IP503: Policy Analysis and Communication
This course introduces students to the theory and practice of policy analysis and provides initial professional training in communication of policy options to internal and external audiences. Students will be introduced to the stages of the public policy process, including agenda setting, formulation, implementation, and evaluation. Students will also develop basic policy analysis skills, including problem definition, stakeholder identification, summarization of current policy, development of policy options, elaboration of criteria for selection, and recommendation of course of action. These concepts are illustrated by examples of policies on global issues including but not limited to security, trade, human rights, environment, development, migration, and other topics. Students will demonstrate the competencies developed through this course by preparing policy memos for internal policy communication, writing op-eds for external policy communication, and giving a presentation or briefing on a policy issue.

IP505: Global Politics
The course introduces students to key analytical concepts and normative views such as balance of power, unipolarity, multipolarity, unilateralism, multilateralism, etc., and major theoretical perspectives for analysis of international politics, as well as the major international events of the past century that have shaped the international system. Students will learn ways that international actors, including sovereign states and non-state entities such as multinational corporations, international organizations, and nongovernmental organizations, exercise power to pursue goals and influence international outcomes. Students will also learn how international institutions, norms, and structures of governance affect the exercise of power and other forms of influence and shape international outcomes. Students will also be introduced to some contemporary issues of national, international, and human security, including the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and terrorism, as well as issues of globalization, food security, the plight of the LDC’s, and human rights.

IP504: Data Analysis and Research Methods
Quantitative analytical skills used in public policy analysis, program evaluation, public administration and non-profit management. Topics include descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, simple multivariate regression analysis, and graphical presentation techniques. Exercises use SPSS to analyze international and comparative policy relevant data sets.

WKS517: International Opportunities in Sustainable Agribusiness and Agricultural Development
Contrary to the images the word may conjure, *Agriculture* offers vast opportunities for exciting careers in the international arena. Organizations in the public, nonprofit and private sectors aggressively seek highly educated people with strong backgrounds in trade, trade policy, public policy, environmental policy, international business, logistics and commerce, conflict resolution, policy law, third party certifications (social and environmental), EIA, border security, food safety and security, human security, linguistics and much more. Throughout the industry there is serious drive to attract the best and brightest from the higher education system and the demand for talented people in all the above fields is high and the compensation commensurate. This seminar will assume a very open format, tailored to the backgrounds and interests of the students who sign up for the class by first covering the breadth of opportunities in international sustainable agriculture followed by greater focus on areas of interest. The seminar will rely heavily on student involvement and guest appearances by major leaders in the industry who will share their experiences and recommendations while getting to know the students in the class. This will be fun, high energy and a great networking opportunity for students interested in learning more about international opportunities in the industry.

JS341: Aspects of Japanese Society
This is an advanced Japanese language course that is designed to further develop oral and written communication skills through the study of various topics of current Japanese society. The students will read written texts, watch/listen to authentic TV programs/tape conversations, engage in group and class discussions, use the language in the actual research in interview, questionnaire, and email survey, and present the findings of their research formally. Through these activities, the students will enlarge their vocabulary, including the knowledge on the kanji compound words as well while deepening the understanding of current-day Japan. Another focus of this course will be put on developing writing proficiency and grammatical accuracy, which will be accomplished through language exercises in class and as homework assignments, frequent writing excercises, and writing up a research paper with multiple drafts.

So this is it, my spring semester. Nothing too fancy, though I am looking forward to the sustainable agriculture workshop and the Japanese society course.

brett at 06:37 PM on January 20, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

So this is the new spot. It's not actually all that dive-y, but by Monterey standards I've come to understand that it represents the lower class--or at least the 40-year-old locals.

"Wow, you're born the same year as my son," the bartender told me before handing over a Sierra Nevada. I guess this is the place.

brett at 05:36 PM on January 20, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today, Megan and I took the 17 Mile Drive along the Pacific Coast.

It pretty great, but depressing in some ways. It seems as if the most beautiful parts of the California coast are reserved for rich people and their golf courses.

brett at 09:30 PM on January 19, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

I finally live in a place where the guy who doesn't recycle is the object of ridicule and disdain

There are vegan faculty here.

Carpooling is the norm, not the exception.

If you only speak two languages you're considered deficient.

I'm living downtown again (it's just a different town).

Donkey's Tail on my balcony*.

Mostly though, I'm just relishing the intellectual climate here; earlier today, I attended an orientation session on the environment, presented by a bonfaide eco-terrorist.

People want to get shit done, and I'm on board.

brett at 01:06 AM on January 18, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Haters step off. I made the switch from black to tan, or as Megan said, "Sand and surf."

That's right, baby blue and tan. As Kia Shine said, respect my fresh. (And as a short aside, my bike is now within 200 miles of the city that it's named after. San Jose, baby.)

brett at 01:02 AM on January 18, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Look at the Jellyfish in the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Another world, indeed.

What I don't understand is how this aquarium--one of the top in the world--can preach conservation and yet sell dead fish directly across from the live tanks. The aquarium smelled fishy, but mostly due to the salmon that were roasting in the sundry restaurants, not due to the living sea creatures.

You are not a conservationist if you kill animals for food.

brett at 09:54 PM on January 17, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Seen next to the College of Religious Science in Monterey, CA.

And to think how hard I tried to get my jade to flower... this one is just growing next to a building, in full bloom.

brett at 12:39 PM on January 15, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's all of the goodbyes left unsaid that mean so much when you're sitting there alone wondering.

brett at 01:54 AM on January 15, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bakersfield is a cool area of California. It’s farm country, and after we left the city, we spent an hour driving toward a mountain, through a mountain, then out of a mountain fog and down into the valley. There are large wind-power fans everywhere, covering the hills—back and front—practically pulling the clouds out of the sky. We had left the desert and entered California proper. I was tired but operating the car on a raw desire to complete our journey.

When we finally pulled into Monterey, exhaustion had set in. We stayed with a vegan couple and their 14-month-old son. They had agreed to put us up for a few days while we scoured the area for housing. When we turned the car onto a dark Casa Verde Way, I was dismayed and it was Megan who reminded me of my own words: “the people who offer their homes to strangers are good; there’s nothing to worry about. They want to help us. Let’s go.”

So out of the car we went and into their house. They cooked us enchiladas and kale. They made us coffee and Ronen, an Israeli, offered a post-dinner hand-rolled cigarette. They gave us our own room and told us that in the following days their home would be unlocked to us. As Lia, a dreadlocked Iowa City native said, “Consider this your home base.”

In the following days we walked the neighborhoods and drove the city in our car, still carrying the burden of our possessions—bikes, pots, pans and clothing. We wrote down countless phone numbers from apartment windows, local newspapers and university classified ads. It was exhausting. We paid for wireless Internet access at unfamiliar coffee shops and sat in confusion when our calls went unreturned and our prospects came up dry.

But then came Barbara: the landlord who kept a frog noisemaker on her porch and neglected to tell us that she lived in the same complex she would be showing to us. We sat for an hour on the front steps of the unit, thinking we had lost again. The sign in the yard read “For Rent, do not disturb tenants,” and so knock we did not.

Hours later—after a phone call and the revelation that it was indeed alright to knock—we had found an apartment.

She showed us a 460 square foot studio with high ceilings and furnishings to boot. There was a full kitchen, a garden all to ourselves, a private staircase, covered parking and two six-foot mirrored closets. Megan tested the toilet flush-power and I admired the balcony. It wasn’t perfect, but as Megan said, “We’ll make it home.”

And home it has become. I’m sitting at the kitchen table now, stealing wireless Internet from a nearby network—“Thai House”—and smelling food simmer on the stove. Our newly purchased plants sit next two the large, south-facing windows and with nag champa burning in an incense tray, it feels almost like Lincoln; we know, however, that it isn’t. It’s 65 degrees out and the ocean is a 5 minute walk away—but it’s not the Great Midwestern Winter we’re missing, it’s our friends and family.

brett at 09:13 PM on January 14, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dear friends, family and fans: Megan and I have arrived more-or-less safely in Monterey, California, land where jade trees have become an invasive species, the Pacific Coast Highway is main street, and the barks of sea lions—not Nebraska train whistles—carry us softly to sleep.

In Denver we met Sarah K., who gave us tea, two comfortable couches, and a warm room with wireless Internet. We pulled into town just as snow began to fall on the Front Range: a heavy, wet snow that caught not only Megan, me and the Prelude, but thousands of other rush hour commuters as well. Nevertheless, we slipped and slid our way to Watercourse Foods. An order of vegan buffalo wings later, Sarah joined us for a Florentine tofu scramble, Monti Pasta and more. My only regret is that when we ate breakfast there in the morning (yes, we dined at the same restaurant twice in 24 hours) that I didn’t purchase neither a shirt nor a coffee mug. If you make it to Denver anytime soon, I’ll pay you for both.

Due to the storm we went south—a route that added a few hours and a few hundred miles to our journey. Interstate 70 was worse than closed, and though we selected I-25 as our detour, it wasn’t much better.

There was no snow, only melting water and a blazing sun in the southern sky. That, combined with a lack of wiper fluid found Megan and I near blind and splashing bottled water onto the windshield at 75 miles per hour. I’d like to try and describe the tension I felt during the two hours it took us to go sixty miles, but I can summarize by saying that I didn’t have a hard turd for three days. Harrowing, indeed.

I-25 took us south through New Mexico to I-40 and into Arizona. Our destination was Best Western Kings Place in Flagstaff.

Flagstaff is a railroad town. The sign posted in the hotel lobby informed us so, politely mentioning that not only would train horns wake us throughout the evening, but that the speeding engines would rattle our doors and windows. They weren’t lying, and I’m sure that if I lived there the charming history of the trains would fascinate me (the sign also said that railroad aficionados flock to Flagstaff for just that reason), but with 12 hours in the cockpit behind me, and another 12 ahead, I only wanted some shut eye.

That night we ate some vegan Thai food; the waitress informed us that for vegan breakfast we should head to Macy’s Coffee Shop. Sure enough, they were stocked with tofu danishes at sunrise, though they didn’t serve coffee: only Americanos. So with espresso in hand Megan and I descended what is surely one of the most beautiful stretches of interstate highway in the country. Taking I-40 west from Flagstaff leads directly into the Mojave, dropping some 10,000 feet in 40 or 50 miles. Goodbye ski-slopes, hello desert nothingness. We sat in awe through each turn.

Megan tackled the Mojave, and by the time we reached Barstow, California, our destination of Monterey was in sight—how could it be?—the Prelude had made it, we thought while knocking silently on wood. Soon we would meet Ronen, Lia, Jivan and Monterey Bay.

To be continued.

brett at 08:05 PM on January 14, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

I (and a few friends) have started a collaborative hip-hop blog, Whatever's Good. Swing by and check it out. Send it to your friends. Prepare for world domination.

In the meantime, this blog will revert to being more about me and less about music. Holla!

brett at 12:40 PM on January 02, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

For the past few weeks, starting in November (I think), Eric and I have been doing a little bit of a book club. Man, was it ever rewarding. Unfortunately for us, the timing of my Monterey-move as well as the holiday season have brought it grinding to a halt. To be continued...