Protension: the online journal of Tom Elgin

If this works then expect more posts from the road. Below is hopefully a picture of a straight highway in the middle of nowhere (western Wyoming). My car misses Wyoming but we’re working through it.

Yesterday was my first day of unemployment, and to celebrate I decided to drive to Colorado to visit some friends in Boulder and my cousin in Montrose. So far my vacation’s been going great. I’m still alive and it’s been an adventure.

I can totally understand falling in love with wide open spaces, so I don’t feel I can be too upset about my car falling in love with Wyoming. Unfortunately I wanted to get to Boulder, so we had to part ways yesterday. My buddy Jordan Kunz was kind enough to pick me up the middle-of-nowhere town of Laramie where my car decided it wanted to hang out. A very friendly mechanice happened to come into work on Saturday after the also very friendly I-80 Towing tow-man called by the friendly AAA operator brought me and the Cabrio over to visit.

So the mechanic has my name and key and promised to have a chat with my car on Monday. I had to leave the car before Jordan came so I’m currently living off my “just enough to survive overnight” bag and the charity of others (e.g. for fresh socks and most other amenities of civilization like toothpaste and a razor). Here’s to hoping that the Cab’s fling with Wyoming is just a 3- or 4- night stand and not true love.

Two experiences from the past year really struck me, and I’m grateful to have this transition to give me time to think about them. One was playing with my 5-year-old cousin in her parents’ backyard. She had a T-ball stand (just a hollow plastic tube) in her kiddie pool and was submerging it and then pulling it out. She was amazed that every time she lifted it out, all the water in it drained through one end! Then she could put it up to her eye and see through it!

I was stunned. I’ve always thought I’m good at appreciating little things, but this kid kicked my butt. It’s been a long time since observing gravity has filled me with a sense of wonder.

Room for improvement…

The second thing was discussing arguments for vegetarianism with two friends from college during a roadtrip (courtesy The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which I’m seriously considering reading now). This was the first time I’ve thought critically about a moral issue since I started my job (other than very specific health benefits questions). That also stunned me.

Now that I have a transition and a pause, I think I need to plan a way to continue some reflection and self-critique during my next period of career-submersion — the next one may be a lot longer than 18 months.

I haven’t posted about long-term plans in about 6 months because I had to get things in order with my current employer before going public. Now I finally have.

On June 21 I start a 1-year Masters of Science degree at Stanford University in Management Science & Engineering. My job here is great and I love Park City, but for the next year there’s no place I’d rather be.

Before that, from May 15 – June 18, I will participate in an Mountain Instructor Course with the National Outdoor Leadership School. This will cause me to miss two of my friends’ weddings but, again, there’s no place I’d rather be.

I’m totally psyched about this next chapter…

I moved to Park City, UT almost exactly 18 months ago. I’d been here for three weeks before — enough to know that it’s the ideal combination of small mountain town and cosmopolitan interest. We beat the socks off of Aspen or Jackson for limiting our yuppieness (thank you Church of Latter-Day Saints for scaring off many of the wealthy would-be suburbanites) and we have much better bars, concert halls, and access to civilization (40min to CostCo) than Mammoth Lakes. So yeah, Park City rocks.

The part that Park City didn’t cover at all when I moved here was friends. Every time I’d log in to Facebook to keep track of people who didn’t live near me, isolation confronted me on every friend’s profile that showed “Salt Lake City (1)”, usually preceded by “Claremont (349)” or “New York (112)” or similar. “Yes, Tom,” said Facebook, “you’re the only fool known to you or any of your friends to be living in Utah. That (1) is You.”

When I moved here my plan was basically “Apply to grad school, work butt off for 9 months, snowboard, and leave for graduate school when the startup fails.” I reasoned that the unlimited outdoor and exercise stimulants available and the exciting and all-consuming work, combined with some trips to the West Coast would keep me pretty happy for 9 months. It really did, but my startup didn’t fail on schedule and now I’ve been here 18 months. The startup still hasn’t failed (quite the contrary) but I’m running out of time for grad school so I am leaving in one more month. The weird thing is, I have friends here. I’m not really sure when that happened or what I did to deserve it.

It’s pretty cool though.

I was talking to a friend in college who will likely go straight to a PhD after he graduates the other night about life outside of academia, given my 1 year of experience.

It made me realize how great business is. For a liberal arts grad it can be scary that there are no guarantees that we get to keep our lifestyle. The U.S. does provide Welfare, but most of us would consider anything that doesn’t pay at least $25,000 and also make a noticeably positive impact on the world as failure. But it’s liberating to know that in the world, there is a higher grade than an “A.” You can do absolutely as well as you can do, and you can apply any skills you can muster. On a philosophical level, I’ve always loved the quote (from a song)

I don’t need to hear your answer.
I just need to you feel like there are no boundaries at all.

What you or I do or say or decide today or tomorrow is pretty much OK with me. What matters is that we have faith that anything is possible.

In college when I felt stressed I used to drive up to the mountains overlooking Los Angeles and just stare at the city. I could draw a line in the cityscape between Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County. The line makes tremendous difference to anyone who lives there and wants buy a house, send their kids to school, talk to their neighbors, or find a job.

But the line is not real. It’s a man-made fiction that has a profound immediate impact on many but, at the same time, is trampled every day by the bustling activity of the life around it. Government has some influence based on how the highways are routed and lines on maps, but the fact that houses extend for 100 miles in nearly every direction from LA is due not to the WPA but to 20 million individual people building their lives. I love LA despite despite how disgusting it can be because it creates dreams and gives rise to so much that would seem impossible.

It is easy to see from the perspective of the mountains, above the smog, far from classes, and amid the scent of desert sage which I will always love.

My web host* just started plugging third-party tools and products to their customers. So is this more spam to sort through or helpful advice about cool new things that I might not have known about? As always, a question of opinion.

Here’s the so-simple-it’s-revolutionary kicker — they completely disclose their agreements with the third-party providers. “If you sign up for this thing, they pay us the first month’s revenue.” I can judge for myself whether I’m being spammed by unscrupulous profit-hungry jerks or whether I think the offer is “fair.” In many cases, I could even circumvent the referral and get the exact same service/product without giving my hosting company the kickback.

This is the information age, right? How come when I place a Google ad I’m not told what the clickthrough will cost? How come when I go to the doctor I can’t see a list of prices? Or when I get my car serviced?

It should only be a matter of time before everything is price-transparent. That will be good for everyone except scammers.

*If you sign up for a DreamHost account from that link, I get a $97 credit. If you type promo code “THANKSTOM” you get $50 off your purchase and I get $47.

Today I went to see Live Free or Die Hard. It was everything I hoped for (explosions).

On the drive to the theater, Ben asked if I had seen the trailer for it. I hadn’t. I handed him my iPhone and he downloaded the trailer through iPhone’s YouTube support as we were driving. I watched if after I stopped driving as we walked to the theater. When I got there I texted the friends we were meeting to tell them where we were sitting.

After the movie we looked for a place to eat. I didn’t realize Google Maps for iPhone would search for local businesses just by typing in a keyword when the map is viewing the area you want to search (duh). No matter, iPhone has a real web browser, so I pulled up CitySearch. I found a Pizza Hut and clicked the phone number on the web page to dial and order our pizza. The pizza was ready when we arrived.

I could get used to this. I hope Thomas Gabriel doesn’t mess it up.