Co-Working in Phoenix? Really?

Lately, I've seen some tweets going back and forth about a co-work space possibly coming to downtown Phoenix. Living in Phoenix, and being on twitter, we've all heard of Gangplank Headquarters, Gangplank Studios, or just plain ol' Gangplank. I've talked to some people, and I've also seen some innocuous tweets, where people suggested that they feel Gangplank is being challenged. Little ol' non co-working worker me over here had some opinions. So read on and I'd be happy to share why I'm so excited about a co-working space downtown and why there is quite literally no competition between this place, and Gangplank.

I'm from Austin, TX (duh). I hate driving (seriously). I didn't do much driving during high school, just to school and back really, occasional movie or to a friend's house. When I started attending the Univ. of Texas, I lived either on campus or on one of the shuttle routes that goes directly to campus. I parked my car in one of the student lots the beginning of my freshman year and quite literally didn't drive it again until the end of the semester when they closed the dorms for the holidays (don't ask about the noises my car made when I finally drove it though). It's a great way to live quite honestly, and the UT shuttles were always clean and full of other students. So instead of sitting next to the smelly hobo you might get here in Phoenix, you got the dangerously cute hippie guy whose only flaw was smelling like weed.

A few twists and turns brought me here to Phoenix - where people actually think it's NORMAL to drive an hour or more just to get to WORK! Are you friggin' kidding me? When we started looking for housing here, we decided on downtown. This was before anyone told me that downtown Phoenix is practically a joke. Oh, you want to go to the grocery store? That'll be a 15 min drive (it should be a 15 minute walk). Oh, you mean you actually want to go have a drink on a Friday night after 10p.m.? Well, we're not open that late, this is downtown you know. Oh, you want to take the bus to work? That'll take over an hour (it's 15 miles away!).

Aside from traffic, driving is just a drain. A drain on energy, a drain on our tax dollars (hello new photo radar!), and a drain on the thing a person should cherish most - your own time. What's your hourly rate? Now how many billable hours are you loosing in your roundtrip communte? Now before people start accusing me of something, shall I just state the obvious? Gangplank is in Chandler. I am in downtown Phoenix. I hate driving. Ergo, I do not want to drive to Gangplank. Do I still make the trip down? Never by myself.

We've all heard of the "Apple Fanboys". Well, the community I've decided to put myself in is dominated by "Gangplank Fanboys". So let me just say this, Gangplank is amazing. We all know that they have done a miraculous job of building a community that is very loyal to them, and for that, I tip my hat to them. They've opened themselves up to the community and there are a lot of cool people who work there.

That being said, comparing Gangplank to cowork downtown would be like comparing apples and oranges (I almost said Apple's and PC's...but I didn't want either to have a negotive connotation). Gangplank is meeting and exceeding the needs of it's community, but there are far too many people in Phoenix for it to meet everyones needs.

A cowork downtown would be opening doors for amazing things to happen in downtown Phoenix. Downtown has already started rennovating itself, and is on the verge of being a cool place to live. Different people have different needs, and if you're like me, different needs at different times. Phoenix is the sixth largest city in the U.S.; almost twice the size of San Fransico. There's one coworking space I know of in Phoenix (Gangplank-duh!). Now compare that to this list of coworking spaces in San Fransisco (and I'm sure it's not even a comprehensive list).

In the end, I think even just the talk of opening a cowork downtown shows how much the community has grown. People have gotten a taste of something so good, they want more. They just want it closer to wherever they may live. For some people, Gangplank is close. For others, it may be downtown or even Cave Creek. Heck, I hope the community flourishes so much that a cowork opens within 10 miles of everyone who's willing to show up - that would be a beautiful day.

Time Crash

I can't stand time lately. It's going way too fast, and it forgot to bring life along with for the ride. Ugh. I remember actually enjoying the seasons when I was kid. It was like each month was it's own adventure, had it's own culture, it's own traditions. Everything is the same here and it sucks. It's already December, but I never got to enjoy November. Forget even thinking about October, that's long gone.

I use to actually get things accomplished. I could see progress. I could see my life moving with time. My life must have broken it's leg somewhere, and time forgot to lend it a hand.

Squid's new do and a baby goat

So Squid got a new haircut for the summer today. I don't have a before picture posted here, if you're really that interested in the before you can find like 30 of them here. Here is his after photo though.



I also thought I would put a couple of pictures of from when I went back to Austin over Memorial Day weekend. I find it hard to explain to people why I miss it so much there. I grew up on 20 acres in a small town about 20 minutes outside of Austin. We had horses, goats, dogs, chickens, cats, and even a prairie dog at one point. To me, there's just no comparison between that life and then now living in downtown Phoenix where I can see into my neighbors house just by looking outside my window and my backyard consists of a cat littler like gravel. I miss grass. Anyway, here are the photos to share what home means to me.

My dogs back home:


The baby goat that was born the day I arrived back home:



And this video of a baby goat that was born about 3 days before I arrived:



Anyway, that's all folks. I don't post often, and when I do usually the only person who it interests is me. =) If anyone does make it all the way to the bottom to read my question, I'm curious: What does home mean to you?

Photo Blog...

So I'll be honest, it's not that I "am really busy", although I am pretty busy, I just like to sit at home and surf the web when I get home. I don't want to sit and write a blog mostly because it requires some sort of coherent thought process. So here's what's been going on, picture book style:


Tyson has started a Dog a Day Series, here's the latest photo. Go to his blog for all of them so far. Or just go to his Flickr.

This is of our lovely boy Squid.










My cousin had a baby last week. It makes me really miss my family in Texas, I guess Dorthy was right. There's no place like home.

Here's a picture of Mateo Jude.





Tyson tried to take some photos of me. Apparently I'm not a very good model. I guess I don't put on a show, or as he puts it "I don't show up"...meaning I put on my camera face and don't let my personality come through. As you can tell my hair is starting to grow back.







I have this big urge lately to just be outside more. I love the outdoors honestly. I grew up spending most of my days outside at a horse farm.

I was the kind of kid that would come home and spend all hours of the evening climbing trees, digging holes and making mud, walk around barefoot through the rocks, and I remember climbing up the side of the house and onto the roof a lot in my pre-teen years just to lay up and look at the stars.

We went rock climbing last weekend but it wasn't nearly enough. I wanted to be out there for the whole day. There's something about Phoenix that makes me want to go outside and separate myself from the world and all this consumer lifestyle crap. I wish we all still lived in little huts next to a waterfall with cute little bunnies grazing near by. Where everyone worked to survive together and there was none of this dog-eat-dog money crazy hummer towing a boat to a lake across the country sha-nan-agins.

I've been thinking about writing a book lately. Kind of ambitious for a person who can't even find the words to write a blog, huh?

It makes me feel alright...

Tyson and I went out with a co-worker of mine and her friend (?) to see a home tour today. There are a lot of historic districts here in Phoenix which consist homes/buildings that were built in like 1900-1920 ish. You aren't allowed to tear down the buildings in one of these historic districts so people have mostly renovated them. Some of the homes were REALLY cool. Now let me first say that Tyson and I are renting in a historic district right now, and they are not all created equal. Our house is kind of in the ghetto and we get a lot of bums coming to our door asking for money and there are about 10 feral cats that live in our front yard after dusk. The inside of our house isn't too bad. It needs new floors and new doors on the inside, and a lot of TLC on the outside. Otherwise it's actually really cool looking. They didn't really care about storage though back in the 20's so our closet is about as big as my thumb.

The home tour obviously wasn't in a neighborhood like our own. All the people there had money and went to the max to keep their neighborhood and homes immaculate. Plus, they all had grass. As rare as it sounds, a yard with grass is extremely rare here. Just the cost of watering it has to be insane (hey, we are in the desert). It's definitely the thing I miss the most about Texas. A yard with grass; I never realized before how much cleaner it will keep your house too. Our yard is basically just dirt with some cat litter looking like gravel, anytime you walk outside you get dusty and you can imagine how dirty our dogs get playing outside.

I got soo tired though after the tour. We got up to meet them for breakfast at 9, went to the home tour at 10, walked around too see the houses till about 2:30. Then I was pooped. We came home, ordered a pizza for lunch/dinner, and then I fell asleep on the couch until 6. Am I really getting that old that I can't even go to a home tour without collapsing? Lately I just wish I could sleep all the time. I get off at noon on Fridays and all I do (usually) is come home and nap until the sun goes down; then get up and eat dinner, then back to sleep.

This blog tired me out. I'm going to bed now. =)

Numero Uno

So my posts are few and far between. I try but I'm gone most of the time working and when I do get home the computer is hard at work doing the thing it does best: fulfilling Tyson's obsession with Ron Paul and providing the link so that Tyson can chat with people while I stare and watch. If I do get the computer, it's not like I have any privacy to sit and think about what I want to write; it's our only source of entertainment lately so when it's on all eyes are on it.

Tyson is away and I finally have the computer to myself, but I have so much to say that I'm lost for words. It's like looking a map of the universe and trying to decide the first place I want to visit.

So rather than say something interesting, I thought I would just ramble on about things that matter to me lately or that I've been thinking about a lot.

First, my first official review is coming up on Thursday at work. I don't know what to expect, I love the people I work with but there's something weird about going into the conference and trying to have a serious review when your supervisor just made a joke the day before about how you were going to fill his office with gas from farts. It makes it even more weird because I don't know if they'll bring up compensation and I don't know if it's a topic I can avoid. I tried searching online for the 'proper' way things are suppose to happen, but I had no luck. I don't know if it's standard to get a raise at your first review (of course assuming you do a good job) or if you're suppose to ask for a raise, or if it's too soon to even bring it up.

I was thinking yesterday that if they don't give me a raise, then no matter how much I love my job currently, it won't be worth it to stay any longer. The cost of living is way more expensive here than it was in Texas and at my current rate I'm making less money than I was as a first year teacher in Texas. Now the "perks" are something else and the stress level is like 1/10000th of that of a teacher, but there comes a point when you just have to do what's right for your future. Call me selfish, but I'm my biggest concern. I have to make sure numero uno is taken care of. I thought, if I don't get a raise, then I'll just stay until my lease is up and then move to New Hampshire and try again.

The other thing I've been thinking about lately is religion. I have a lot of strong opinions that I rarely voice about Christianity, and maybe it's just because it's the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, but abortions and politics as well. For a long time now I've had the opinion that Christians' shouldn't be so concerned about abortion. For anyone who believes in God or Heavenly Father, or whatever else you might choose to call him, I ask you what you honestly believes happens to those unborn babies? Do you think they go to Hell? NO! They get to go to the best place of all, Heaven. Isn't that why we were sent here? To be tested, to learn, to fail, to succeed? Instead of focusing so much on saving unborn children who are just going to go to Heaven and get to skip this "so called life" why not focus on saving the souls of their mothers who are already here? Besides that, doesn't it say in the Bible and (for the LDS) the Book of Mormon that agency, or the freedom to choose for yourself, is the greatest gift God could give us? Why are so many people trying to take that gift away from others? God gave them the right to choose, it was his gift, who are you to take away that gift? Also for the LDS, isn't that why we fought the war in Heaven? Because "the star of the morning" (see D&C) wanted to force us down the path of righteousness? We fought a WAR because we wanted to be able to choose the right instead of being forced down that path. We did this with the understanding that a few would be lost, but this was the path that was chosen by us, by Heavenly Father, by Christ. Now I, personally, wouldn't have an abortion but I would at least like to know that it is by choice and not force. Imagine the resent you would feel if you were forced to have a child that you didn't want; that poor child would either grow up being resented, adopted if they were lucky, in foster care, or some other unfortunate circumstance. I just realized how long this post is and I'm done.

If you give me the chance, I will choose the right. If you make me do right, I will covet the wrong.

Darn Good Luck

So it's another weekend almost gone; I had big plans to write a new blog entry about what's been on my mind lately: the presidential election, a potential move to New Hampshire, a story I heard on the radio the other day that really ticked me off, and the role of evangelicals' and Christians in general as they pertain to politics.

I don't really have the energy to write about any of it right now though. I've been struggling lately with my own life and trying to come up with a plan on how to get out of this slump...I have a good job, a degree, and it just isn't enough. We live in the ghetto, drive cheap cars, don't have a T.V., don't have any furniture, and yet every month we get more in debt because we have to use our credit card just to pay for basic food and gas since our expenses add up to more than our income. Tyson hasn't been able to get a job, and sometimes it's hard not to resent him for it. I do love him though, just something we have to get through.

I'm worried about our car registration, Arizona law is that you register your car as soon as you're a resident. Needless to say, we haven't done so with either of our vehicles because we don't have the money. We would need to switch our car insurance to reflect our new residency status, which means higher insurance costs because everyone in Arizona is a retarded driver and there's tons of traffic no matter what time of day, and then register two cars and pay the taxes on them which would cost like $400 if not more on it's own. Our Texas registration expires this month, so pretty soon our cars won't be legal anywhere.

I'm also worried about our two dogs. They need more heartworm/flea preventative but we don't have to money to take them to the vet to get some. If we could just get he medicine that would be one thing, but taking them to the vet here in Arizona would also mean that we would have to get them registered (for a fee) or face a monthly fine.

I try to look at where the money is going, but the thing is I'm not one of those people that lives out side of their income. I have zero credit card debt, no student loans, no mortgage, I wear the same clothes that I've been wearing since I was in high school (with the exception of about 4 outfits that were bought for my job).

Sometimes I get upset because I think to myself, I'm only 22. I'm not suppose to have these worries yet. Most people my age are still in college or living with their parents. They haven't even thought about retirement or savings yet. Maybe it doesn't help that I work for a retirement firm, but all I can think about it that I'm going to be working till I'm 70 and then be too old and still too poor to enjoy life when I can finally retire.

I also get frustrated sometimes because my only goal right now is to improve my life and set myself and my family up for a better future but we can't even save $5; then Tyson gets frustrated because we don't have the social life with friends and parties that he wants.

I've worried about things like this a lot of my life, and somehow it always seems to work out. When I worried about how I was going to pay for college (I didn't want to take out loans), I went on to earn a full scholarship that paid for my living expenses as well as school. Sometimes it seems like I either have darn good luck with really bad timing, or just a way of pulling myself out of holes.

I can't wait for luck anymore, so I guess it's time to figure out to get out of this hole.

Bridging the Gap

Wow, so many of my closest friends and family have no idea what it is I have been up to for the last 6 months, why I moved to Arizona, or what it is I even do here. I'm going to attempt to update you without boring you to death....and if I can figure it out I might even include some pictures. The difficulty is that I now have to figure out where to begin...

So back in about February of 2007, I made a decision that I would not continue teaching after the school year ended. Part of me is very disappointed in myself simply because by making that decision I grouped myself into a statistical category that contains a majority. Though the statistics very depending on who is your source, the consensus seems to be that more than 50% of teachers quit within their first five years of teaching. I've always prided myself in not being grouped into a statistical majority; I even wrote an essay about what the statistics say I should be based off of my background/upbringing and who I really turned out to be. That essay won me a full-ride scholarship to the University of Texas at Austin. Now back to the story...

I decided to quit teaching because I felt like every moment I spent teaching, I was loosing the content knowledge that supposedly qualified me to be a teacher. I earned my B.S. in Mathematics in 3 years with a 3.9 GPA and Highest Honors from the largest university in the country. I could write you a formal proof on the infinitude of primes, encrypt a message for you using RSA and modular arithmetic, and was the only student in the entire class to receive an "A" in two of my upper-division pure math courses. Yet with every lesson I had to teach, a little less I could remember about the subject that I loved so much that I decided to teach it so that a small portion of the kids in our country would for once have a teacher that knew what they were teaching.

I absolutely hated the politics involved that I believe to be the cause of this phenomena. There was a common saying in Texas that their goal as educators was to "bridge the gap" between high and low achieving students. What this meant to the majority of policy makers in the districts was that all funds and focus had to be dedicated to the low end of the group, thus raising their scores and achievements. Now you can read all the research there is online about and look at their statistics, but look at who the source is. Most of the research out there is funded by Department of Education, of course they're going to make their policy sound good. Would you believe a study that said Big Mac's were good for your cholesterol if it was McDonalds' that was funding the study? So this is what they are doing: imagine a scale, one of the old fashioned ones like this:
Now imagine one side is the low achieving and the other is the high achieving; obviously the end holding the higher achieving students would be higher up. Ask yourself what happens when they "raise" the lower achieving students up. Do the higher achieving students stay where they are? No, in order for one side to go up, the other must come down. I know this isn't a perfect analogy, but it makes my point in what I saw first hand happening by "bridging the gap". They didn't really care what happened to their high achieving honors students so long as the low achieving students made progress. This usually resulted in the high achieving students becoming, well, not as high achieving as they were.




I taught a very small class of very high achieving students, they were 8th graders taking Geometry. Now for those of you long past the years of remembrance, you are considered "average" if you take Geometry in 10th grade. These kids were brilliant. I envied the mind that most of these children had. You would think that the school would continue to encourage minds like these to reach their full potential. Before I decided to stop teaching, there were discussions going on in the district as to what would happen to the next group of kids destined to be in this position in the following year. The group was smaller, 3 kids shy of being able to create a class for them. While it was trying to be worked out what to do for these kids, the option of distance learning in a zero hour class came up. Now despite what you might think about the typical "nerd", these kids were different. They were the scholarship bound future Rhodes scholar type. They were in band, cross country, basketball, football, dance, theater, you name it.

A zero hour class would effectively make them choose between their academics and these VERY important electives because they both occurred at the same time, and well, unless you're Hermione Granger you can't be in two places at once. One of the facilitator's for the district that was in charge of the math education for the entire district said to me when I brought this up, "Well, it's there fault for trying to be so advanced". It was about then that I decided if I really wanted to make a difference, I would have to be a politician and rid the country of it's long standing, unconstitutional, Department of Education. I later realized that I didn't need to become a politician, but I could support one that believed like me. Go Ron Paul!

So most of that turned out to be a rant about education, but I have so much to say. I will try to post a few times each week and slowly update everyone. Here's a picture of me and Tyson for those of you that haven't seen us in a while. I'll add more later.