Diagraming of a Ceiling

Yep. After we dismantle the drying tents in the Oolam this morning, we'll be diagraming the ceiling. Adam needs to send detailed specifications of the upward uneven surface of beams and lights to an Israeli later today, who will be creating a wavy fabric surface to beautify and acoustify the room.

A Long Week Ends

OK. So, one week is really no longer than the next, but this one was hectic and busy. Most work was done in good spirits, though. However, I was so happy when the kids were gone at 2 and I had just five minutes to drown in one of the couches of the mo’adon (lounge), time when I was neither working nor sleeping. Yeah, that felt good.

Shortly, my note taking skills will be put to good use during the Achdoot conclusive staff meeting. Then, dinner at 5, after which I help clean up the kitchen. Afterward, it’s party time! Nili’s birthday is today and we’ll be saying goodbye to several folks who were only here for the first month; Ilan, Yoni, and Mel on headed off. On the plus side of that, Yoni will be representing Teva as he assists with cleanup work in New Orleans. Our blessings to him and the rest. Nili’s blessings to us, since that’s the tradition around here for birthdays. Yakir is leaving for two weeks for the holidays, but will be back to assist with random Freedman tasks and surely will find his place with Teva along the way, too. Naturally.

Glad to have this opportunity to write to you this afternoon, before all the action of the rest of the day. Adamah will be joining us for the celebrations, too. Meanwhile, folks are getting ready to leave for the holiday week. I’m hanging around here, though currently planning to join Noam, Eli, and a few others on an Appalachian Trail backpacking journey that departs Sunday. That should be a perfect way to celebrate the new year. I’m excited about it, anyway.

Network continues to be funky around here. I’ve spent various hours troubleshooting and found two problems. For one of them, I think I understand the root cause but I haven’t a clue how Windows wants me to fix it. Not enough choices, as far as I can tell. Funny thing.

The Bring It Back to Our School administration is getting easier for me. I’m happy about that, as I imagine Nili is, too. Less stress for her during the week.

OK. Off to my meeting. Talk to you soon. Or, perhaps, let me know whether you want to hear from me.

A Little More Background on this Season

I realized I haven’t spent much time telling you how Ben at Teva originally came to be. In mid June, I contacted Nili Simhai (director of Teva), Noam Dolgin (associate director), and Adam Berman (director of Freedman). First I offered some background about my current environmental activities at the time. For example, I commented about my participation in a workshop hosted by the U.S. Partnership on the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and the United Nations Environment Program. At the time, I was also unsure about the length of my future at the DC Energy Office, where for two years I’ve been working on faith- and non-faith-based environmental programs. That feeling changed once new staff came on board and I felt I had work to look forward to every day and exciting people to share it with.

Then, I offered a handful of skills and possible responsibilities, given up front that I was not interested in being a Teva Educator. I followed up with phone calls to both Nili and Adam within a couple weeks and started a correspondence with them to develop a position for me. Long story short, Nili was reluctant to hire me into an undefined space for which she could not pay me, but I persisted, practically insisting that I would be spending the fall here regardless. So, with basic expenses of room and board covered, a small stipend, and the beauty of this awesome community, she and Adam have accepted me and, so far it seems, found me hard to be without.

I have called my position “Staff Support,” however informally, I think “Ben” covers it. I’m here to keep people productive, happy, and having fun, in pretty much any manner that works for them. In exchange, I get to eat and sleep and socialize with a most amazing and special team of Teva educators and Adamah farming fellows. I think this life is hard to beat and I’m willing to consider how Teva might fit into my life in the future.

In Nili’s words, said with a smile, of course: “Are you good at grantwriting?, because if you can find the money to pay yourself, you can come back and work for me again.” Sounds good to me!

Metric System to Be Customized for U.S. Market

See what you make of this article. Let me know if and when sense approaches.


Metric System to Be Customized for U.S. Market
Conceptual Artist Offers Consumers Personalized Kilogram, Watt, Calorie... First Revolutionary Change to Weights and Measures Since 1793... Major Victory for Democracy in the 21st Century...

SAN FRANCISCO—Following several years of highly-secretive privately-funded research, conceptual artist Jonathon Keats announces comprehensive improvements to the metric system, anticipated finally to make the meter a viable unit of measure in the United States. The system will be introduced to the public at Modernism Gallery, in San Francisco, on October 27, 2005. Mr. Keats will be available to provide expert calibration.

"The metric system was developed in the 18th Century as an alternative to measurements based on the dimensions of kings' fingers and feet," explains Mr. Keats. "It was a decisive break from monarchy, but it wasn't decisive enough." The trouble is that one totalitarian system was replaced with another. "We did away with Louis XVI and Henry VIII, only to chain all measures, of everything in the universe, to the circumference of the Earth."

More specifically, the standard meter is 1/10,000,000 of the quarter-meridian, redefined by the Conference Generale des Poids et Mesures (CGPM) in 1983 as the distance traveled by light in 1/299,792,458 of a second. What Mr. Keats has proposed is an approach as rigorously mathematical as the metric system, that will prioritize the individual rather than the planet. His modification is simple, yet the consequences are profound: Instead of using the earth's spin as the basis of time, he's elected to use people's heartbeat. "Galileo timed his experiments with his pulse," Keats notes. "If it was good enough for him, surely it's good enough for us."

Mr. Keats's system makes everyone's clock personal. Because his own heart beats 1.1 times faster than the terrestrial second, for example, his day is a mere 21.816 terrestrial hours long, and his year is nearly 33 days shorter than you'd see on a calendar (except in leap year). From that, it's a straightforward calculation to derive the length of a personal meter, the distance traveled by light in 1/299,792,458 of a heartbeat. Mr. Keats's meter, for instance, is 0.909 meters international, or approximately 2.982 feet. The length of others' meters may differ. (For example, Mr. Keats recently determined that Craigslist founder Craig Newmark's meter is a more compact 0.833 meters international.)

A liter is the volume equivalent to a cubic meter, a kilogram is the mass equivalent to a liter of water, and units including the watt and calorie can likewise be mathematically derived (as can conversions to imperial system units such as horsepower). In consultation with mathematics professor David Steinsaltz of Queen's University, Ontario, Mr. Keats has developed algorithms to facilitate the calculation of personal standards such as these. At Modernism Gallery, individuals will be invited to commission customized conversion tables, as well as engraved brass meter rods and clocks that beat at their heart rate. A member of the National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM), Mr. Keats will be on hand with stethoscope and adding machine to ensure that all measuring instruments and charts are accurate.

"In this day and age, everyone has an iPod, and most people have TiVo," Mr. Keats argues. "Mass-customization is the cutting edge of democracy. By taking this personal approach to measurements—to standards of time and space and energy and power—we can each become completely autonomous."

Mr. Keats is widely known for his rigorous approach to art. Most recently, he attempted to genetically engineer God in a petri dish, in collaboration with researchers at UC Berkeley and the University of San Francisco. He has also previously copyrighted his mind in the interest of attaining immortality (offering futures contracts on his brain to fund the operation), and petitioned Berkeley to pass a basic law of logic—A=A—a work commissioned by the city's annual Arts Festival.

For more info, contact Jonathan at jonathon_keats@yahoo.com.

Has this been one or two days today?

Today has been quite long feeling, at times as if it should have been Wednesday already. Six kids went home today, homesick and otherwise disinterested in being here, despite the beauty of the place and the awesome educational opportunity. Further, we’ve observed some extreme differences in mind maturity between this week’s fifth graders and the sixth graders we see every other week.

Food waste is one example: the past groups have enjoyed developing a consciousness for the amount of food they can eat during a meal and decreasing the amount of leftovers. This week, waste has increased at least once already from one meal to the next and some kids have expressed specific interest in opposition to the concepts discussed.

Meanwhile, Noam and I this afternoon met with the Heschel staff to talk about their first ever Bring it Back to Our School program. They are very enthusiastic about their students starting an energy conservation program at school and, as a future initiative, are driven to work out the kinks preventing a school-wide recycling program, especially for paper. In the morning, I need to work up their summary sheet to get ready for the student BBTOS session before lunch.

Finally, I have further proved my worth and usefulness by spending almost two hours tonight helping Noam reconstruct his résumé, which has gone untouched for about six years. We made tremendous progress, activating verbiage, fixing grammar and style, and improving layout. Noam is now very happy that this major part of his application to the Environmental Leadership Program is complete.

Time to go to bed, now. Got to be up in six hours to hear from Nili, who needs to rent a car in the morning due to a second emergency of the week. The first was the laundromat I found for the Achdoot group after they got swamped by the thunderstorm that hit yesterday afternoon. Then, a vehicle broke down and couldn’t get fixed in time for their departure tomorrow.

Talkin' Bout a Tevalution

Saturday night, a bunch of us sitting around jamming in Brown House kitchen happened upon Tracy Chapman’s “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution” and JR decided to write lyrics to a Tevalution take on the song. Pretty soon, we had people offering lines of song left and write and Jonathan wrote them on a piece of reused paperboard. Later, I ran to get my computer and typed and edited the lyrics. Also got my headphones so I could listen to Tracy’s version and fit our version better to the rhythm and order.

Here’s what we created, to eventually perform during a WTVA skit. (WTVA is Teva’s live-action TV program, put on for the kids twice a week.)

Talkin' Bout a Tevalution
(to the tune of "Talkin' Bout a Revolution" by Tracy Chapman)

Don't you know, talking about a Tevalution sounds like a mitzvah
Don't you know, talking about a Tevalution sounds like a simcha

While they're driving on the highway lanes
Waiting in traffic in their autos of consumption
Wasting life with factories and planes
Sittin' around creating air pollution

Don't you know, talking about a Tevalution sounds like a mitzvah

The trees are gonna rise up and get their air
(and sun and soil and water . . .)
The Earth is gonna rise up and give some care

Don't you know you better run run run run run run run run run run run and scream
Talkin' bout a Tevalution
Oh I said you better love love love love love love love love love love love and sing
Talkin' bout a Tevalution

Yes finally the compost is starting to turn, talkin' bout a Tevalution
Yes finally the biodiesel's startin' to burn, talkin' bout a Tevalution
Talkin' bout a Tevalution

While they're driving on the highway lanes
Waiting in traffic in their autos of consumption
Wasting life with our factories and planes
Sittin' around creating air pollution

Don't you know, talking bout a Tevalution sounds like a mitzvah

Yes finally the compost is starting to turn, talkin' bout a Tevalution
Yes finally the biodiesel's startin' to burn, talkin' bout a Tevalution
Talkin' bout a Tevalution
Talkin' bout a Tevalution

Network Works Again

After an hour spent last night and a bit more time with Martin a short while ago, the Freedman network connections are back up, hopefully for good. We’ll see how long it lasts, but it’s been quite a frustration this past weekend.

Now, on to more exciting events . . . like lunch!

Yay for Short Updates!

Yeah, so I’ve set aside the .Mac blogging idea for now and turned to Blogger for ease and convenience. Another week has passed in a flash. Feels like just two days ago that we had the last Monday night campfire with the kids, and as much Sunday night in the hot tub felt so soon after last weekend’s time there. Yep, not only am I whelmed (not overly so) with fun stuff to do, I’m also having a blast with everything else, too.

Last night, I went to the Adamah house to hang out and we watched Space Balls full of laughter and fun times. Every day I witness how perfect this community is for me. On Saturday, Adam Berman (Freedman director) and I enjoyed a 90-minute bike ride over the local mountains including down and exciting dirt road. On the way down, we saw two enormous houses that look like hippopotamus heads. At the bottom, Adam asked that I remind him never to ride his road bike down that road again. “It wouldn’t have survived had we not pumped the tires before we left,” he said.

Stepping back another day . . . we had 34 people in Brown House kitchen Friday night. Finally we had an opportunity to do Shabbat together with Adamah. (Last week they were occupied with a specially scheduled shabbaton for themselves alone.) Guests included, getting food was a challenge alone, but still so much fun.

As for work during the week, much of my time has me working on Teva’s Bring it Back to Our School (BBTOS) program. Teachers and Teva educators discuss possibilities based on what students have done or attempted in the past, what they’re studying this year, and what might interest them. Then, with clever guidance from the collective staff, students select a project and produce a basic plan for carrying it out. So, I’ve been participating in Nili’s meetings with teachers and serving as a resource to them and to students, too, during their planning sessions.

Other excitement: on Saturday, I was named Superman after I performed some feat of constant goodness to our community. I don’t remember what it was, but every day I’m getting recognition for my positive participation in people’s lives. This place will be hard to leave at the end of the year.

So, with my continued feeling that I’m not journaling enough about my experiences, I’m going to fit in one or two short posts each day about my activities. See you in the morning!

Hot tub & jammin'

Two highlights of this phenomenal week just past. Last Sunday was our first opportunity to enjoy the hot tub, one of the newest additions to Isabella Freedman. It’s not open to us when guests are on site, and we’re working on getting tub time on Thursday nights, too, but in the meantime, Sunday nights have become a treat.

Two and a half weeks ago, so I forgot to mention, we went bowling on our Thursday night off. Among about 10 players on two lanes, I impressively scored far highest; strangely even higher than Jonathan D., who until this past spring worked in an alley and played in leagues. Guess it just wasn’t his night. 172 may even have been my all time high score; I guess I found my groove, hitting several strikes and spares during just one first and only game of the night.

This past Thursday, we had a jam session on the porch of the main building. I brought my drum, which I haven’t played in many moons, and had a blast playing it and some others while about a dozen of us from Teva and Adamah (the Jewish sustainable farming fellowship program at Freedman) jammed together for three hours. Though exhausting, it was so much fun! Drums, dance, tap dance, guitar, mandolin, and more all came together.

More to say about the past week, the first with kids, and my new responsibilities. I’ll continue writing later today.

First two weeks passed

In reflection on my first two weeks here, I’ve realized how busy I can be that I hardly feel able to make time to journal about my experiences. I plan to set aside this time from now on, hopefully more than just once a week, at least to get some thoughts down about each day or two.

Last weekend was incredible! People started showing up for the Hazon Shabbaton weekend festivities by noon on Friday and we had a relaxing weekend with phenomenal food. Havdalah probably had more energy in the room Saturday night than any previous Ride and I was thrilled to be part of the Teva community that held the core of this spirit. Then, we promptly moved into the busy logistics of getting ready for the Ride: safety meetings; crew, marshal, and medic meetings; etc. Nigel had invited me to be a marshal this year, meaning I would be a step up in responsibility for offering riders assistance and keeping them happy. That was an easy task as I again rode with my Bicycle Stereo hooked up to my iPod and music streaming from my handlebars throughout the pedaling. Fellow riders enjoyed their normally brief occasions to ride near me and enjoy the tunes.

Highlights of the Ride included a 6.5 miles segment of the Harlem Valley Rail Trail, which was part my second completed century on Sunday. I also enjoyed sticking to high gears during a 12 mile piece of Route 22. My Teva friends, who saw me at rest stops along the way, were impressed that I seemed to hardly break a sweat and kept my cool as if there was no effort in the extent of my riding. I rode 104 miles on Sunday and another 60 on Monday, finishing as usual at the Boat Basin in Manhattan. A later arrival there due to the longer second-day trip left us with lemonade and Ben & Jerry’s. (I finally got to have my first B&J’s ‘wich.)

We got Ride t-shirts, too, and then formed our critical mass four block ride to the JCC. And in pure excitement, Nili (our Teva director) rode this last piece on the back of my Xtracycle.

These last few days since the ride have found me getting busier with office tasks and also helping prepare for this weekend’s wedding. Bigger highlight though: we moved out of the Kfar (our campy village in the woods) and into Brown House, where we’ll reside in comfort for the rest of the season. I had an opportunity to select Casey as my roommate and he was mutually a great choice. Midweek, we spent many hours kashering the kitchen, after Freedman staff left in covered with the remnants of many pig feasts among more unclean grossness. I’ve gotten mostly settled, though I’m still working on finding places to store a few remaining pieces of my life.

So, tomorrow, while the rest of Teva gets ready for the first round of student arrivals Monday, I’m on duty all day long helping the wedding flow smoothly. We’ll see how that goes. In the meantime, we’re going out now for a hike out through a gorge to a waterfall that used to be on the Appalachian Trail.