5/24/11

Unplugged

A thought hit me the other day: what if I completely unplugged myself from society and lived on 100 wooded acres in Alaska, and just lived off the land and the work of my own two hands?  And I mean truly disconnect from the world, to the point of recycling all the water on the property (I have a plan drawn up for a toilet-to-tap water distillation system) and plating the house with solar cells - nothing would connect me to society and I could live free from the weight of corrupt governments and extractive, exploitative economies. Oh, the dream... the Mrs isn't too fond of the toilet-to-tap idea, though.

In fact, the whole thing is a ludicrous idea. Not because it's impossible or the costs outweigh the benefits, but because when the end of the world actually DOES come, me and a handful of other weirdos would be left drinking our own water and fueling our own stoves. The rest of the world would be clamoring for help because the infrastructure on which they have come to rely would be demolished and they would be left to feed themselves, not knowing that wheat comes from seeds and beef comes from cows.  It would be so sad, but I wouldn't be in a position to help because I would be hundreds of miles away and wouldn't have a car. I probably wouldn't even know the end of the world came because I wouldn't have Facebook.

We all have our callings, and mine is to serve. I can't move away from that, though when times get rough I sometimes want to. As joyful as it would be for me to uninstall myself from the machine, God wants me to be on the ground serving his children and he will cleanse me from this generation if I am faithful. He's not calling Noahs right now (Jonahs still beware), but he is calling Almas to stay where they are and lift where they stand. So that's that. No unplugging for me. Though I do think I'm going to install toilet-to-tap when my wife's not looking.

ps, I unplugged my blog from Facebook today. Let's see if I blog more regularly now.

travel log
  • 02.13.08 - to the temple with Luan and his mom, good to be back
  • 02.14.08 - Mẫu's alive! and staying for the weekend
  • 02.15.08 - floor hockey and Thái food makes for some strange dreams
  • 02.17.08 - frisbee and swamp monster at the park: fun but I'm pooped!
  • 02.19.08 - just read Triết's response to my last post - game on!
  • 02.20.08 - raining and expected to continue through Sunday - thank goodness!
  • 02.21.08 - 3-hour nap is a bad idea right before bed
  • 02.23.08 - to the beach to watch kites, a baptism @ 5pm, and homemade bulgogi - what a day!
  • 02.25.08 - just gave myself a haircut - woo, cold head!
  • 02.26.08 - 75° and spring cleaning - couldn't feel better
  • 02.27.08 - fed the elders bún đậu tonight - think it's their first time
  • 03.01.08 - working on new background...
  • 03.02.08 - finalized javascript to change background without muffing up my other scripts
  • 03.03.08 - fhe: "In his strength I can do all things" (Alma 26:12)
  • 03.07.08 - some decisions are harder than others, but some are downright excruciating
  • 03.08.08 - there is life after work... i almost forgot
  • 03.11.08 - the distance between good and bad is much shorter than between better and best
  • 03.12.08 - conversion is sometimes a gradual process, so much so that we don't even notice
  • 03.14.08 - for some reason everything was a little harder today, looking forward for bed!
  • 03.15.08 - last night after blog reading, I missed OnlyBlue, today I find she's back
  • 03.16.08 - best day of my life!
  • 03.19.08 - "Pray for the answer that they've been looking for"
release notes v1.0 - FINALLY DONE!
  • 12.07 - first thought of starting a new blog
  • 01.08 - busy with election stuff but blog design still on back burner
  • 01.13.08 - first idea to imitate jk rowling with the "desk" theme
  • 01.28.08 - start sketching current design, breaking down development into phases
  • 02.02.08 - election only days away but still drafting final plans
  • 02.04.08 - v0.6 LAUNCH
    • main components (blog body, sidebar, header, etc) designed and implemented
    • styling for font, links, drop caps, etc. finished
  • 02.07.08 - v0.8 LAUNCH
    • image style to imitate polariod
    • moveability - post-it notes and static clings can be repositioned by drag and drop
    • release notes styled and written
  • 02.16.08 - travel log (beta) added in hopes of catching the mundane
  • 02.22.08 - lightbox 2.03 reinstalled and working fine (hopefully - let me know otherwise)
  • 02.26.08 - v0.9 LAUNCH
    • travel log seems to be working, so I'll keep it
    • lightbox also seems to have passed the test, so it's a keeper
    • some credits/info added to bottom (will expand)
    • keeping old Viet terms in archive for future viewing
  • 03.18.08 - v1.0 LAUNCH
    • installation and testing of time-sensitive background completed (for now)