Life Notes: 10/24/2007

October 23, 2024 by

Personal History – 10.24.2007

A bunch of Habo friends did 30-year summaries after not having seen each other in a long time. Here’s mine from that time.

Hi everyone, well, I find myself with a moment to try to summarize the last 30 years. 🙂 I just read Sue’s and Tami’s, and I’m sure I’ll get to the others, too.

let’s see.  Graduated from NYU in 1984 and fled the country with $2,000 and a guitar.  Back to the holy land for 3 months and a neat little gig at a resort for some of it, then a 6 month or so trip through Europe – Greece, Yugoslavia, Austria, Germany, Italy, France, and England.  I busked (played guitar on the streets) to pay my way, made lots of friends, and had one of those time-of-your-life experiences.  Came back to the States and went to work for Peterson’s Guides for a couple of months and then worked as a surveyor for a couple of months before heading back to Europe – this time to the UK, Scotland, Holland, Belgium, and ending in Paris for about 6 months total.

I went back to the States and thought I’d try my luck with DC and using my pol science degree. That didn’t exactly happen, so I ended up being the head waiter at a new restaurant (Owned by a Moshnik), then worked at the Hyatt and then for Wang Laboratories as a Jr. Secretary.  This was before the time of e-mail, or much else in the high-tech world, but they had e-mail.  On secretary’s day, I sent a note to 2,500 other secretaries in the company, and had some fun chats from that one note… that was in 1986.  During this time Tammi and I dated a little bit, too 🙂  Spent a year in DC, then moved in with Adam Laden in Hoboken, NJ.

That started a 3-year stint of temping – mostly in the investment banking and perfume industries.  I worked for a while in Tower 2 of the World Trade Center – amazing views, sunsets… and feeling the building sway.  Actually, during my NYU days (80-84) a friend and I went and wandered around on floors of the WTC that were not finished yet, that was a trip.  anyway, $18/hr. to do word processing was good money in the late 80s and kept me in sushi and my fine place in Hoboken.

in 1989 I realized it was time to go back to Grad school and applied to a bunch of places, but then a friend from NYU was suddenly single and suggested we go to south America for a trip together.  got shots, put off grad school in my mind, anyway, and we headed off to Venezuela.  About 3 weeks into the trip, which was much like a honeymoon, and I figured this was the beginning of a new relationship that could last a lifetime, she decided to head home and heal from the relationship that had just ended for her.  I was heartbroken, traveled for a little while longer, but then ended what was supposed to be a 6-month trip and came back and started grad school at Rutgers in New Brunswick, NJ.

This is where I met Susi.  Weiss.  from Germany.  an exchange student.  A very beautiful and smart exchange student from Munich.  Well, we hit it off and eventually started something that ended up lasting the next 5 years and beyond in some ways, though I’m currently out of touch (back in touch in 2020’s).  grad school was in international relations.  After one year, Susi was heading back to Germany and so I followed.  ended up in a small town called Konstanz, on the Lake Bodensee in the SW of Germany.  I played music to pay to stay, in restaurants and cafes.  stayed for 6 months and then moved back to the States to finish my degree, then back to Germany for another 9 months and back to the US to take an exam and then ended up back in Munich, where we lived together for 2.5 years, almost got married; almost bought an apartment, but in the end, I’m glad it didn’t happen.  Germany is a nice place except for some of the obvious problems.  Dachau being close by… the language…

Anyway, I came back to the States and didn’t know what to do.  this was 1995.  Ended up traveling to Costa Rica with Elisa, she of the previous Venezuela trip.  this time the tables were turned – she was into me, but I was not into her.  great trip, though.  spent 3.5 months there.  amazing place.  played probably the best music of my life, actually.  learned a lot.  got better at Spanish.

I came back and rented a place in SF for a month.  Then, Susi came over and we toured the Northwest.  somewhere in all of this, I learned Re-evaluation Counseling, during grad school.  That has made a big impact on my life.  It’s also called RC or co-counseling.  That’s one of the reasons we toured the Pacific NW, to practice co-counseling in Seattle.  I ended up moving to Seattle after the trip was over and that’s also where I reconnnected with the high-tech world.  I started with a job with Keane doing tech support for Windows 95, then onto a position as a contractor with Microsoft, a great place to work.  since that time my work life for the past 12 years has mostly been as a software tester – I test to make sure software works like it’s supposed to.  It’s often very easy work, often very isolating…

Seattle was also really good for me as an activist.  I learned a lot, fought some amazing fights – against the FAA, closed down a VA medical waste incinerator, led an effort to keep a Latino community center afloat and thriving… and led an outreach effort in a minority neighborhood with my girlfriend of the time, Freddie, who I lived with for 3 years and went out with for 4.  She is an incredible and strong woman.  It was a tough relationship in some ways, but a very committed one.  After Freddie, I went out with a woman named Tracey who I’m still close with.  Tracey is an angel, faerie, or something like that.  A very sweet and gentle person, that lasted about a year and a half, but was precious.

I have lots of pictures of that time up on the web.

Eventually, I grew tired of the intensity of politics in Seattle and the difficulties I was having in my activist life and also felt I wasn’t really finding my partner there, so I decided to move to Portland, Oregon, where I now live.  I’ve been here for 5 or 6 years…  and, I think I’m home.  I love it here.

Right when I moved here, I got together with a woman named Erica.  someone who is chemically-sensitive, so I learned a lot about that world.  and, she lives in a co-housing community, where I eventually moved in.  So, got to re-experience life on Kibbutz US -style.

That ended after about 3 years.  it was probably the toughest relationship I was ever in.  I think there’s part of me that’s just done with really hard relationships.

I’m kind of in one now, but I think it might be salvaged, cause I feel like I’m with a life partner.  her name is Eecole.  she’s really quite incredible.  vibrant, we love to dance and sing together.  musical.  cares about the world.  we share a lot of friends and are part of a very tight dance community.  we dance together at least every Sunday.  that’s another story for another day, but it’s quite incredible – I’ve never really felt so close to a group of people perhaps since habo days…

and now, sitting listening to radioparadise.com and thinking of what I  have left to do today, and also how much I’ve left out.

Burning Man.  I could write about the 8 times I’ve been there and how that’s shaped my life.

Ayahuasca and my recent journies in that arena.

travel that I’ve left out – Thailand, Hong Kong, VietNam, and various road trips around the US.

the fact that I don’t have kids.  Eecole would like to have some.  we’ll see if we get to that stage.  I’m open to that with her.

most recent work was with the Bonneville Power Administration, as a contractor making the most money I’ve ever made.  $46/hr.  So, I was able to save about $30K and now recently laid off from that gig, collecting unemployment and pondering.

also was just in my first major car accident, so am doing chiro, acupuncture, and massage to heal from that.  I’m fine, but a little shaken still and the accident was 3 weeks ago.

Life has been really good for me.  and this has been a great exercise for me, thanks for taking the time to read.

it’s put me into a nice thoughtful place.

Albert

 

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Money

October 13, 2022 by

Money!

Corvallis Oak Prairie, Oregon 10.13.22 

I don’t think I’ve ever written about money, but since I tend to have thoughts about just about everything, I figured I’d give it a try. I think from my earliest times as a child I knew a thing or two about money. Partly, I knew that it was something that could help you get things you wanted to get. My parents gave me an allowance from a young age and eventually, my allowance was tied to things like mowing the lawn. It’s kind of humorous that now I spend hours during my week trying to figure out how to get rid of lawns, but that’s another story that, if you’re a regular reader, you know all about!

Eventually, I started making money of my own. My Dad, Richard Kaufman, 86 now, and living in Jenkintown, PA with my Mom (81), had a small computer business in the 70s. One of the clients he had was a group of doctors (pediatricians that I went to see as a kid, actually) and they needed help with their computer billing. So, every month my Dad would come home with computer-generated bills which we’d have to rip apart (they were on computer-fed paper which was perforated), and then we’d take them and stuff them into envelopes. We’d get $3/box and also free pizza and soda. This effort needed to be done once a month and he brought my brother and sister into the mix, too. This went on for years. It was dull work, but we did it for the money and I’m sure it helped my Dad out, too. Now that I think back on it, I realize at the time I really was only doing it for the money. But I realize that it was a huge help to my Dad who would have had to pay someone real wages to do this work if we hadn’t done it!

This work led to me selling things I would make – candles – door to door. I also tried selling seeds for Burpee door-to-door, but that didn’t last long. Eventually, I had my first job as a newspaper delivery boy in Junior High. I remember my first morning of waking up at 4:30 am to find a stack of papers on our doorstep and then I went around our suburban Lawrence neighborhood by foot to deliver the papers. I remember throwing up that first morning. I’m not sure why. Then, there was going around from door to door to collect payment for the paper. I think I did that weekly – and that led to some fun tips over the years and also a chance to see into the houses that were around me in my neighborhood. I really could have used a better calculator during those times to make sense of what I was taking in, though doing it the way I did probably helped my math skills.

After that job, I went on to work at Arthur Treacher Fish & Chips. That experience could probably be written up in a small book. My main work was to drop frozen triangles of fish and rounder frozen chicken fillets into a large vat of boiling oil – without getting my hands burned. I also lived nearby and somehow ended up being the one to close up at night. That job led to a sweet gig at Sam Goody’s where I was the guitar/amp/instrument/effects pedals salesperson. This was probably one of the best jobs I’ve ever held. I spent my time tuning decent instruments and learning what the different effects pedals did. Had I played my cards right I’ve always thought I could have been a part of a band that went somewhere – or been a musician who would tour, but of course, life had other ideas for me in mind. I watch people like Jackson Brown or Bruce Springsteen play and I am just 10 years younger than them. I know if I’d focused I probably could at least be backing them up if not leading a band of my own 🙂  But instead…

I went on to have jobs like – working on a kibbutz in the Negev Desert in Israel with milking cows (feeding them, milking them, driving a tractor, etc.)

Working in NYC at a place called Lox, Stock, and Bagels during my freshman year at NYU. I’ve actually worked at 3 different bagel places, but this one was for the longest time. Another short book there – this place was across from Madison Square Garden where I ended up seeing many a Grateful Dead show and a few hockey games!

I’ve had a job for 6 months as a rodman in a surveying crew. Another 6 months after that – this was 1986 – as a data miner (a bit before computers came into fashion – so we were on the phones) at Peterson’s Guides for Graduate Schools. Then there have been years of temping in NYC for the investment banking and perfume worlds.  Now that I think of it, I did do a short piece about some of these positions and my thoughts on work. I wonder if other writers have that happen where they find themselves repeating their writing after a while.

Anyway, I love this topic and I’ll probably come back to it again as I’m trying to figure out money now at 61, too. I have enough at the moment, but I also feel limited to moving about the gameboard as I’d like to. I also know that having more money is an attractor to the opposite sex and I am in “wanting to date” mode. So, we’ll see if I take the dive into more money-making efforts. We’ll see!

Squash Blossom

Squash Blossom, Fall in Portland, Oregon 2022

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Some Thoughts on Work

October 5, 2020 by

Sunset 9.2020 by Sharon Flegel8.27.20 – Work: Portland, Oregon, USA

Hello Boundless Thinker! (this was a draft for a friend’s newsletter )…

I’ve been a fan of Paul’s work since I met him at the World Domination Summit in 2018 in a writing workshop. I knew he knew something I did not, so I started to follow him via this newsletter and I’ve been reading his writing closely ever since. I’m also an amateur sociologist and love thinking about work and the world and how we can have things better for everyone. So, when I saw Paul’s offer to have guest writers for his newsletter I wrote him, and here we are. If you’d ever like to read more of my writing, I publish a newsletter also – it’s called The Eleven and comes out every month on the 11th. I also have a newsletter focused on marketing for small businesses and nonprofits (the sign-up link is the same!) There is also an 11 life tips series that is also fun and useful. Onward we go!

I’ve always wondered about the way we work. I grew up in a middle-class household in suburban New Jersey. My father seemed to have a different approach to work than the other fathers in my neighborhood. When I was in my teens he started a series of software companies. The upside that I noticed is that he tended to work when he felt like it. Sometimes he’d be programming at 3 am and then I’d meet him drinking his coffee as I was headed to school. I knew he was sleeping during the day at times. His business never seemed to make a lot of money, but we always had enough to eat and he seemed content with the way it was going. My Mom worked part-time at various jobs but did not seem to enjoy work as much as my Dad did.

I had a number of part-time jobs growing up. Delivering newspapers at 5 am; selling guitars and effects boxes; fast food cook @ Arthur Treacher’s Fish and Chips; and I also had an entrepreneurial streak – stuffing envelopes for my Dad’s business; selling seeds door to door and making candles. I headed to Israel in a group program (go, Habonim-Dror) to live and work on a kibbutz in Israel (large communal farm) for a year between HS and college. While there I learned how to drive a tractor and I probably did the hardest work of my life – picking fruits and vegetables and farming!

After that year I spent 4 years in college at NYU – working all the way through to pay for various things and because it was something I knew how to do. I made bagels near Penn Station at Lox, Stock, and Bagel; monitored squash courts, and drove a van for a high-end florist. Now that I think of it, I’ve made money working in so many different ways over the years – no wonder I enjoy thinking about this topic. I’m going to fast forward closer to the present day now – whoosh!!!!

…past the years of temping in NYC (with a long stint in the investment banking world and in WTC #2)

…past the years of living in Germany and playing music on the streets and cafes of Europe

…past the years of being a software tester in the late 90s and early 2000s in Seattle  

….past 20 years of living in Portland and transitioning from software into marketing

To the current day. Well, not quite. About 10 years ago I ran into Tim Ferris’s 4-Hour Work Week. It came at a time when I had bounced between working on various contracts in the software world and being on unemployment (using the time to do community work; organizing tree plantings; creating community gardens). It also came right after the highest paying work I’d ever done for a long time – being a software tester at BPA (Bonneville Power Administration) for $46/hr. for 1.5 years straight. That was my high point as an earner. But it was a low point in terms of free time. I still found ways to enjoy myself, but working 40-50 hours a week at something you’re not enjoying does not make Albert a happy boy.

In 2008 or so I began teaching people how to use Facebook in classes in my living room. That led to becoming a Constant Contact partner and learning something about passive income. This is the type of work I’ve been doing to this day – teaching small businesses and non-profits how to make the most out of digital marketing tools, mostly email.

So, after all that what do I actually think about work? I tend to agree with what I think Paul’s theme is – that our societies are poorly organized in terms of work. That many people are stuck doing work that is unnecessary – that we consume too much and thus end up doing work to chase the “American Dream” – one more trinket; one more European vacation; one more expensive toy. Since you’re here you’re possibly a fan of someone who has been a guiding light on this topic for me – Mr. Money Mustache. If you’re not familiar with his work, I highly recommend signing up for his newsletter and reading some past blog posts on his thinking. He’s more about living a full life and retiring early vs. what most of our society seems focused on. Also, keep reading Paul’s writing – he’s got an insightful way of seeing things and he may be able to help you find a path you hadn’t thought of before.

I want to switch gears and end on an observation that has been really interesting to me for the past months since we’ve been quarantining. It has to do with our local community and who is walking by our door. I think it relates to so many aspects of our lives that it’s been hard for me to describe, but it’s actually very simple: the people who are walking in front of your door quite possibly are your neighbors right now. Before Covid, the people walking by could just as easily have been tourists renting a nearby Airbnb, but right now and for the past couple of months, they have likely been locals. This may continue for a while and I encourage you to take action. Why is this important to note?

I write a lot on Nextdoor.com about neighborhood resiliency. Partly due to Portland, Oregon expecting a major earthquake at some point (let’s get prepared!), but also just from my own desire to live in a better way with my neighbors. As I’ve been seeing the same people pass by every day (the joys of having a west-facing front porch!) it’s struck me that we have an opportunity right now to strengthen our neighborhoods. By knowing who actually lives near you you can start to create friendships based on nearness vs. interests. I mean, it would be nice to have both, but having someone nearby who you can walk to vs. having friends located all over town is a big plus in my book. I wrote an article about how to use Nextdoor.com to create an instant community a few years back, but now there may be a shortcut to what I had in mind – it just takes introducing yourself. Granted, this is a challenging time to do that, but there are ways to just start to track who lives near you – start the conversation (physically distanced, of course) and exchange names.

Dating is something that could especially be impacted by what I just described. I’m 59, and I’ve been using online dating apps for the past couple of years to very little effect. What I would personally prefer is meeting someone who is walking or biking by me (or me them) – like in the old village days J and funny enough, that exact thing happened about a week ago. A woman walked by and we ended up talking and then talking for hours.

And now back to work. I’ve thought for a long time that people working closer to home would improve everything. This is something that Mr. Money Mustache talks about a lot – reducing or removing your commute. Now with many more of us working from home, the traffic has improved greatly. I thought it would be a good idea to have a database of some similar kinds of work – take 3rd Grade Teachers, for example. Then, these workers could be reassigned to schools by their proximity to home vs. where they originally got the job. This could work for many job types, especially in large organizations. If you need more info on this idea or any of the others I’ve mentioned above, feel free to write me. I love feedback, too. This is also part of my series: My Great Ideas that are Going Nowhere. Feel free to borrow or steal any you find useful!

Thanks to Paul for having me this week as a guest writer. I’d love to hear your feedback on what I wrote – feel free to write me and let me know if any of this resonated with you! I wish you the best.

Sincerely,

 

Albert Kaufman – albert@albertideation.com

Portland, Oregon

Albertideation

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My Nextdoor.com posts about Leaf Blowers – Feel free to borrow and re-post

December 19, 2019 by

Nextdoor.com posts about leaf blowers by Albert Kaufman, Portland, Oregon

Please re-post these as is, credit or not. Thank you – let’s end the noise and air pollution of leaf blowers together.

  1. Pets and Leaf Blowers don’t mix: Note from a veterinarian

    “In support of local efforts to ban gas leaf blowers and improve the quality of life in Sonoma and drastically reduce unnecessary harmful particulate matter in the air we breathe, I wanted to contribute a few statements and my opinion from the vantage point of a working small animal Veterinarian in Sonoma.It is very well known that particulate matter such as dust, dirt, and debris from the environment can pose a tremendous health challenge for dog, cats, and virtually all other mammals. While the normal changes in seasons, weather, rainfall, and pollen counts can all affect animals, extra particulate matter such as the debris aerosolized by leaf blowers pose a sharply increased risk for a variety of health problems for our domestic species. Among those most notably seen by me directly are:

    1. Significant flare up of cough, wheezing, and “respiratory” issues that encompass both infectious and inflammatory types of diseases.

    2. Eye problems of unknown origin–either in one or both eyes: owners report a clear discharge from the eyes or a “pink eye” situation with no previous known injury.

    3. Nasal discomfort: rubbing and snorting, as if to remove a “foreign body” that is not there, but rather a minute irritant that was substantial enough to bother the mucous membranes and irritate the pet’s nasal passages.

    4. Skin issues, including itching and scratching. These clinical signs are usually blamed completely on atopy or “allergy.” There is well documented, long standing scientific evidence that the irritation in the skin is secondary to allergens that the pet has inhaled.

    In addition, because pets are so sound sensitive, the use of leaf blowers can startle animals and cause outdoor pets to dart away from yards and potentially scare them into more dangerous situations such as traffic or other precarious situations.

    The blasting “on and off” sounds made with leaf blowers has a definite impact on small animals “fight or flight” response, causing an immediate release of cortisol into the bloodstream. Especially with cats, this taxes the body and leads to a surge in blood glucose almost instantly. In my opinion, this is a good example of the loud noise made by leaf blowers having a negative impact on animals all around our town—it is not an obvious impact, but once you realize what is going on inside their bodies on a cellular level, you realize that maybe the impact is farther reaching than we previously realized.

    The information and examples I have stated above are only a small sample of the deleterious effects that leaf blowers have on the small animals of Sonoma. I hope that my words will help get some conversations started that emphasize the importance of considering the quality of life for our pets in Sonoma as people make an effort to decide the fate of leaf blowers in our community.

    I would be happy to answer any other questions regarding this topic as my time and schedule permit.

    Sincerely,

    Vallard Forsythe, DVM ~ Broadway Veterinary Hospital

    735 Broadway Sonoma, CA 95476

    (707) 938-4546

  2. More and more brave towns are putting a stop to the tyranny of leaf blowers – Thanks for considering!

    Lately I’ve noticed less and less gas-powered leaf blowers being used in our community. Thank you to anyone who has personally made the change or had their landscaping service adjust either to electric blowers or to rakes and brooms. Thank you thank you thank you – the Earth thanks you – your neighbors thank you – the insects thank you. Thank you! https://qz.com/1729584/more-brave-towns-are-putting-a-stop-to-the-tyranny-of-leaf-blowers/ PS – the quietcleanpdx.org group is working on something with the City. I hope to have news about this very soon.

  3. The Devil’s Workshop by Kim Stafford, Oregon Poet Laureate, 2018-2020

    The Devil’s Workshop by Kim Stafford, Oregon Poet Laureate, 2018-2020 To torture your neighbors, some devil said, I give you my multi-tool that hits so many irritants at once: it deafens workers so their ears ring, it kicks up killing dust to sicken children, it spews more poisons to taint the sky in a mere half hour than a truck driving from the Texas plains to Alaska, and all to hustle leaves from yard to bin. Have you seen one such contraption chase a single leaf to pirouette in the blue plume that’s killing us? Have you gritted your teeth and hated the neighbor you recently enjoyed? Have you missed your meditative hour with rake and rain, as you walked your way from summer into fall? My friend, the bar is low. We can do better. —– Learn more about this issue @ https://quietcleanpdx.org

  4. If you’re still not convinced about the danger of leaf-blowers, please watch this video

    https://youtu.be/sRsYRen6nVE  Join our effort to ban these in Portland @ https://quietcleanpdx.org

  6. The Case Against Leaf Blowers by Singer
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Voting

October 24, 2008 by Leave a Comment

We had a great voting party here last night.Voting Party 2008

About 25 people and a reporter and photographer from the Oregonian showed up for our voting party. Can’t wait to see how the story turns out.  Here’s how to host a similar gathering where you live!

Here’s the full article!

Today had a neat meeting with Marc of Opening to Life Studio to work on his website and make some improvements. And in the afternoon met with Robin Denberg to discuss helping him with his website and marketing his real estate agency. Also on the phone to Tim of the Tummy Temple to discuss next steps as an on-line marketer for his business, so it’s been a busy week.

Regarding my various ideas I’ve been following up with the City on the telephone opt out idea and they provided some information on how I, as an individual, could opt out – great.  Working on it.  The Portland City Council reaffirmed its 4-0 vote against changing the zoning of Colwood Golfcourse, thus making the path to a new urban farming training institute one step closer to reality.

The sun is blazing out right now, so I must go outside and watch squirrels move apples to and fro.  More work tomorrow, I’m sure.  Oh, and recruiters seem to be anxiously and actively finding me via Monster and elsewhere and promoting me to various area companies, so I’m imagining that something good this way comes.  enjoy the sunshine!

albertideation

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