wow, it’s been a while… well i guess that means nothing except that any regular attendees might have an excuse to believe that i have somehow been inactive or something like that, however this is not the case. to start i’ve been in chicago, which has to be my absolute favoritist city. as soon as i arrived, i became consumed with pursuing the splendid resources this place has, the very resources that i’ve yearned with every pilgrimage to vermont which (seemingly took me farther from them while at the same time) had the effect of cooling my vision of what exactly it was i yearned for each time i was away. the glory of self expression. music. poetry. art. in fact, this is where the majority of my fiscal resources have been directed in the last three weeks. concerts including john hasbrouck (who i have now scheduled to take some lessons with) at the unity temple, the magnetic fields and andrew bird at the old town school of folk music, ladysmith black mambazo, ben folds and rufus wainwright, the julliard string quartet all at ravinia.
i’ve also been to see the slam that dan is hosting as well as the uptown slam with marc smith (so what).
alas i also recognize that this city has other splendid resources, and i am trying to make the best of them as well. first off, going to the navy pier, which i don’t like to attend because as soon as i do, if i don’t look blue collar enough, i feel as though everyone assumes i don’t live here… but anyhow, i went to garner info from the windy
i & ii tallships. the woman i talked with informed me that although they did not currently need any help, she would take my résumé for future consideration. next i asked her about how and where they get the engines serviced, to which she explained that all uscg certified captains must have a working understanding of the mechanics of their ship. so then i asked about who i might talk to or where i might go to learn more about (learning) diesel engines. she told me to email bob and proceeded to give me the wrong address. upon retuning home i emailed bob
(i already had the right one before going down there).
Hi,
My name is Asa Nathannael Hunt and I live in chicago. I am interested in learning how to work (marine) diesel engines and so i’m wondering if you can recommend a venue for this.
Where did you learn? I get the impression that most mechanical work done on tallships like the Windys is done by employees as opposed to being hired out when in dock, is this correct? If not, is there a mechanic around chicago that might be appropriate to talk to/look into learning from? Thanks in advance for your time.
Regards,
ANH
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Asa,
I would suggest checking with a local technical or vocational college in the area for diesel mechanics courses. As for the specialty of marine diesels, that would involve the "marinization" of regular diesel engines common in trucks. marinization is mostly related to changing the cooling system to a heat exchanger instead of a radiator.
With regard to tall ships, the larger vessels may require and engineer aboard. The USCG has special requirements for licensing engineers and takes at least a year of apprenticing before you qualify for the test. Only large vessels beyond 100 Tons require them.
Even a joy [job?] at a diesel repair facility would be helpful in learning about the mechanics.
I hope this is helpful. We do all of our own work by knowing the basic principles of mechanics and seriously reading the manual for basic maintenance and small repairs. We leave the big internal jobs to the professionals.
Sincerely, Capt. Bob
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Thanks for your help Bob,
One more question I have then, is if I were to look into employment with a professionals in this area, who would you recommend either looking into or talking with?
Asa
bob has not responded yet, however i spent some time looking into classes and found a correspondence course on diesel mechanics through thompson.
for some time now i have also tossed around the idea that i could, if working on a boat, pursue converting it to biodiesel. this in combination with hearing khanti’s stories of biodiesel coops (which collect yellow oil and reprocess it for biodiesel applications) have helped render visions of creating one such coop in chicago. my research to date has revealed no such organization other than one that is located near o’hare, which only sells b20 made from soy. it seems like now is a prime time for exploration of this resource. there is market research i came across, which was done back between 1995-99. it was all marine based because (i think) it’s a relatively small local diesel motoring community. water taxi services and dock side refueling stations started selling a b20 mix and eventually ceasing because the cleaning qualities of biodiesel and the fact that at the time, it was not understood what was going "wrong" (now it is understood that biodiesel’s solvent qualities were removing old buildup, mandating several fuel filter changes). the national biodiesel board (nbb) published —>a report<— on the findings (if the link doesn’t work, search "chicago" on their website)… well i’m getting exhausted of energy to sit here anymore, so adieu for now.
As i sit here in front of the computer, i feel sad, i don’t know why exactly. Here in portland, or living with my girlfriend whom i love very much, doing an internship with a particularly cool organization, but somthing’s missing. We spend so much time together, sleeping, eating, laughing, watching movies, hanging posters, arguing… we both maintain although she is better at it that we must keep our individuality. it is such a simple concept yet it seems so difficult to do. what do i want to do? it seems as though the answer to that question is only decernable with an encrypted glass bottle bottom. how can i spend so much time not doing what i want to do? that seems contradictory right? it’s impossible for one to do what they don’t want to do, or rather, it is impossible for one to do that which they don’t derrive some utiltiy from. yeah i guess so, but if i only do what i want to do, than why do i feel so depressed? don’t get me wrong, i’m not crying in the doldrums, but i don’t feel empowered, unique, an individual. instead i feel like i am the mass, the faceless individual that you walk/bike/drive/train by everyday. one of those countless people you observe milling around like an ant from your airplane window, the worst part is you may not even see me doing it, but you can know that i’m down there.without a doubt. the more and more i think about it, the more it makes sence. you will never see me in my right mind be an advocate of knowing someone one dimensionally, but if i every have a "life’s work" let it be known that as of yet i see mine as trying to step out and be known as "myself" rather than an environmentalist, or musician, or liberal, or blank… i also realize that sometimes i try so hard that it seems as though i’ve come full circle. i try so hard not to judge other people, it’s hard. sometimes i worry it’s more about me than anything else. i derrive so much anxiety from the idea that as if my life were a different chess game played with everyone in my life, that once we got to a certain point they just had me figured out and obviusly that would be bad because then they would know me and be able to expose me and i would be voulnerable? anyway i know not what the hell i’m ranting about, except that somehow i feel like the pressure valve is tipping off. and now i’m voulnerable to you, exposed. i love the idea of being naked, i support it, i feel very strongly that we should not feel like we need to hide anything. maybe i’m just not giving myself that freedom. i want to be confidant in what i do just like anyone else, why can i not afford myself that freedom? I don’t know. Maybe later.
money is such a strange thing. it is at the base of so much stress in the world, while providing at the same time a conduit for enjoyment (at least construed) as unparalleled in today’s balanced chaos. the reason i mention it, is because after thier divorce, my parents fiscal situations have evolved, yielding in turn, a different mentality toward me with regard to money. my mom, with her partner has developed a role in a business that affords her more luxaries than she was previously used to. for me this (being one of many factors) means that she is really eager to endorse me in my various adventures. her partner too, has made it clear that he has an interest in supporting me. my father brings another part of the balance to the picture in his situation. still working hard and with less fiscal comfort, he encourages me to seek out things that will empower me to make it for myself. i’m pretty sure it has as much to do with his own selfless desires for me as it has to do with his own situation and of course, many other factors. in the past my mother seems to have had more experience at ensuring i am supported in the way she sees fit. however, as my father has (it seems at times) scrambled to educated himself on how to fit into our lives in a whole new way, he has become more adament about being able to feed us his vision in equal ammounts. what has brought these thoughts to the page is my latest action. just being out of school (which, i think is the last fiscal decision my parents ever concurred on) has been a tremendous stress on this balancing act between which to feed from. the distincion i think, has never been so distilled. he wishes that i come back to chicago, let him subsidise my living by taking residence with him while working to earn some money toward the end of supporting myself financially on the adventures i would like to take. whether that is kayaking across the country, traveling to foregin places or being gamefully unemployed for a period of time. she has expressed a vision of me staying in vermont and at her fiscal expense usurping all knowledge i can from working on the afore mentioned cerridwen farm.