This spring I'm interning for Steve Ward, welding teacher at Watauga High School in Boone, NC.
Besides high school classes, Steve also teaches a nighttime adult welding class through Caldwell Community College. The shop has been Steve's baby for 15 years. There's 35 welding machines ranging from shop-made engine-driven portables to state-of-the art Miller Dynasty TIG machines. Also a dozen machine tools and plenty of support tooling. Steve likes to buy American and loves high-end tools. He's got a great collection.
This summer WHS will be transitioning to a new facility, and that means moving the welding shop across town. Part of my internship is to begin laying out the shop and planning the move.
North Carolina has 20 high schools with welding programs. WHS is likely the only one that incorporates machining into the welding curriculum. Steve is one of only two NC high school welding teachers with an advanced degree.
Photos from the first of our several visits to local high school and college shops are here
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In other news, I'll be flying out to San Francisco in late February to volunteer at Cleantech Forum. I'm excited to see Elon Musk of Tesla Motors give the keynote. Steward Brand (creator of The Whole Earth Catalog and overall badass) will also speak.
Recently read, currently reading, soon to read
The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, by Daniel Pink, in which a career advice book a la "What Color is Your Parachute" is interpreted via manga as a 20-minute read. How long until every other genre is converted into Japanese comics? Seriously, let me know--this is awesome.
Eco Barons, which is at its best when it's about people who made it big, cashed out, and bought up land for conservation, almost obsessively. The guy who helped start the super-80s clothing brand Esprit now owns a good chunk of Patagonia and plans to turn it into a Chilean national park. A good read, if occasionally preachy or wordy. I probably won't finish it for a while. Seems like only half of the people profiled are/were businesspeople, the most interesting group.
Green to Gold, which is inspiring in showing how large corporations are seeing conservation, efficiency, and renewable energy as competitive benefits rather than liabilities. I just hope the remainder focuses on smaller businesses than BP, Sony, Dupont, and Dow.
Fun fact from the book: The proportion of venture funding invested in cleantech (US and Canada) went from <1% in 1999 to 9% in 2005.
Twenty-five cents of every VC dollar invested in 2009 went to cleantech (though this includes other regions, notably Europe and Israel, where cleantech is an even bigger deal).
2009 cleantech venture funding increased $1.5 billion over 2007. You remember '07. It was that year before the financial collapse.
Free Agent Nation, by Daniel Pink (again) which will hopefully be as good as this. This guy was Al Gore's speechwriter? Only Al Gore could make this guy's writing sound dull. Zing?
Getting Green Done is a 2009 book by a ski resort sustainability director who used to install home insulation for a living.
Hmm...American dream...hard work...saving the Earth. It's kinda like Captain Planet wrote a book. Plus there's skiing.
Just a little green hair dye and a bath in blueberry juice and we've got ourselves a live-action remake.
Plus there's blueberries.
Eco Barons, which is at its best when it's about people who made it big, cashed out, and bought up land for conservation, almost obsessively. The guy who helped start the super-80s clothing brand Esprit now owns a good chunk of Patagonia and plans to turn it into a Chilean national park. A good read, if occasionally preachy or wordy. I probably won't finish it for a while. Seems like only half of the people profiled are/were businesspeople, the most interesting group.
Green to Gold, which is inspiring in showing how large corporations are seeing conservation, efficiency, and renewable energy as competitive benefits rather than liabilities. I just hope the remainder focuses on smaller businesses than BP, Sony, Dupont, and Dow.
Fun fact from the book: The proportion of venture funding invested in cleantech (US and Canada) went from <1% in 1999 to 9% in 2005.
Twenty-five cents of every VC dollar invested in 2009 went to cleantech (though this includes other regions, notably Europe and Israel, where cleantech is an even bigger deal).
2009 cleantech venture funding increased $1.5 billion over 2007. You remember '07. It was that year before the financial collapse.
Free Agent Nation, by Daniel Pink (again) which will hopefully be as good as this. This guy was Al Gore's speechwriter? Only Al Gore could make this guy's writing sound dull. Zing?
Getting Green Done is a 2009 book by a ski resort sustainability director who used to install home insulation for a living.
Hmm...American dream...hard work...saving the Earth. It's kinda like Captain Planet wrote a book. Plus there's skiing.
Just a little green hair dye and a bath in blueberry juice and we've got ourselves a live-action remake.
Plus there's blueberries.
The Jimmy Chou Recipe
Jimmy Chou is a Chinese chef who worked for my grandparents on and off starting in the seventies. He threatened to quit periodically, and then finally retired for good (probably) last year.
One day while he was cooking I asked Jimmy to teach me to cook. He gave me this recipe, which I've since done my best to get tired of, with no success.
Buy 1 pound chicken, pork, or beef. Chicken breasts are easier than thighs. Pork chops are great. Throw the meat in the freezer for 10-20 minutes to make it easier to slice.
Meanwhile, thinly slice the holy trinity of Jimmy Choo cooking: garlic, ginger, and green onion (spring onion). Per pound of meat, I use 2-4 cloves garlic, a good cubic inch of ginger, and a bunch of spring onion. Use just the white parts of the spring onions, saving the green tops for garnish. For the garlic and ginger, a fine matchstick julienne is ideal.
Slice the meat as thinly as possible with a sharp knife. This takes some practice. One sixteenth to one eighth inch is good. This helps the meat cook properly in the wok. Consistency is more important than thinness. Slice against the grain of the meat.
Marinade the meat in 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1-2 T sugar, plenty of black pepper, and 1 T peanut oil. I substitute maple syrup for sugar sometimes, especially with pork; brown sugar works too. The sugar isn't entirely essential but it adds a glaze. You can use any old soy sauce, but Jimmy insists upon the Wan Ja Sha brand, which is available in most Asian supermarkets. Marinade at least 20 minutes, preferably a couple hours minimum, longer for beef.
Prepare your wok for frying by heating it on medium-high with a few T of peanut oil and a little garlic, ginger, and spring onion. Cook a minute or so--"just until they start to smell", as Jimmy says. Fry the meat in batches: Pick up a quarter or a fifth of a pound of meat, allow some marinade to drip off, and drop into the wok. Let brown a minute or two before stir-frying each batch. If you sliced thinly, a batch should take no more than a couple minutes to cook. Add more oil between batches if needed. Don't cook with very much marinate or the meat won't brown properly. Don't over-cook--remember that meat continues to cook slightly while sitting.
Stir-fried, steamed, or par-boiled vegetables are often served with this. Bok choi works well. Immediately before serving, the meat and the vegetable are combined in the wok to re-heat. The meat-veggie mixture is often served over rice.
This recipe is a religion and a way of life. One week, I made variations of this for dinner every night by varying the protein and the vegetable. Scale up to feed an army. Go gourmet or go freegan. Make it vegetarian by substituting tempeh. Either way, slice thinly and use good soy sauce.
One day while he was cooking I asked Jimmy to teach me to cook. He gave me this recipe, which I've since done my best to get tired of, with no success.
Buy 1 pound chicken, pork, or beef. Chicken breasts are easier than thighs. Pork chops are great. Throw the meat in the freezer for 10-20 minutes to make it easier to slice.
Meanwhile, thinly slice the holy trinity of Jimmy Choo cooking: garlic, ginger, and green onion (spring onion). Per pound of meat, I use 2-4 cloves garlic, a good cubic inch of ginger, and a bunch of spring onion. Use just the white parts of the spring onions, saving the green tops for garnish. For the garlic and ginger, a fine matchstick julienne is ideal.
Slice the meat as thinly as possible with a sharp knife. This takes some practice. One sixteenth to one eighth inch is good. This helps the meat cook properly in the wok. Consistency is more important than thinness. Slice against the grain of the meat.
Marinade the meat in 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1-2 T sugar, plenty of black pepper, and 1 T peanut oil. I substitute maple syrup for sugar sometimes, especially with pork; brown sugar works too. The sugar isn't entirely essential but it adds a glaze. You can use any old soy sauce, but Jimmy insists upon the Wan Ja Sha brand, which is available in most Asian supermarkets. Marinade at least 20 minutes, preferably a couple hours minimum, longer for beef.
Prepare your wok for frying by heating it on medium-high with a few T of peanut oil and a little garlic, ginger, and spring onion. Cook a minute or so--"just until they start to smell", as Jimmy says. Fry the meat in batches: Pick up a quarter or a fifth of a pound of meat, allow some marinade to drip off, and drop into the wok. Let brown a minute or two before stir-frying each batch. If you sliced thinly, a batch should take no more than a couple minutes to cook. Add more oil between batches if needed. Don't cook with very much marinate or the meat won't brown properly. Don't over-cook--remember that meat continues to cook slightly while sitting.
Stir-fried, steamed, or par-boiled vegetables are often served with this. Bok choi works well. Immediately before serving, the meat and the vegetable are combined in the wok to re-heat. The meat-veggie mixture is often served over rice.
This recipe is a religion and a way of life. One week, I made variations of this for dinner every night by varying the protein and the vegetable. Scale up to feed an army. Go gourmet or go freegan. Make it vegetarian by substituting tempeh. Either way, slice thinly and use good soy sauce.
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