During my odd and exciting lifetime, I have been paid to put out fires. I have been paid to prevent fires. I have been paid to provide warning and detection against fire. I have been paid to model fires. I have even, as of recently, been paid to talk about fire (in fire dynamics and fire modeling courses).

But today sets an important milestone in my life as a fire science student. Today was the first day in the 22 years of my life, in which I was paid to set something on fire. Not that money is everything, no not at all. My point is that my value is being successfully transferred to others and it is through a medium that I have found works for me - professing.

What am I saying? Excellent question. Earlier this afternoon, I performed two trials for my first fire validation experiment. The experiment involves burning ethanol in a rectangular pan and measuring the mass loss rate as the fuel is consumed and translated into heat energy. Following this burn, I will create a representative fire model, input the appropriate material properties, and compare the mass loss rates and see which parameters worked, what they were doing, and why.

This is validation work at its heart. Verifying and validating if what I see on the computer screen in front of 20,000 lines of code and man-made programming can accurately represent this natural process that sits as a burning pool of ethyl alcohol in front of me, combusting as it did twenty-thousand years ago. And it burns out, my pan is empty.

Sounds exciting, no? It always goes back to fire dynamics and the relationships of nature that we are exploring everyday, and there is never a dull moment for me in that. It gives me a working motivation when staring at lines of code for hours and flipping through five books that are each larger than a casserole pan as I hunt for a single number to describe how much energy will be required to convert a gram of polyurethane into a gram of something that I can burn. So yes, this validation work is sort of like what I did this summer at NIST during my fellowship. Even then, this is very insightful as it provides practice through a fundamental and practical exercise in applying the scientific method, basic fire dynamics, chemistry, and many other subjects and concepts that I am merely a newbie to. These realizations are what make this scientist The Artful (and Applied!) Scientist.

So, do you remember when you translated your beloved subject or area of life into a real value for others to peruse and cultivate from? Then, do you remember when that value finally revealed itself in a monetary shape or form? Finally, like a scorching meteor of thought, something clutched your mind as you realized that you could do what you love all day, have enough money to keep doing what you love all day, and get to experience the ever-so-missed opportunity to live out what you love one-hundred percent - each and every day. You do remember, don’t you?

It’s interesting how your priorities can change if you let them - by withdrawing fear. This is progress chomping away at its practical feast - your everyday life. Three weeks ago, I was concerned with attending meetings, managing paperwork at school, eating anything just to get by, and wanting to find a good fishing rod.

Right now, in this night filled with dark yet refreshingly cool air, I am relishing in the ideas of a diet without animals, wanting to be obsessed with writing a guide or book on fire dynamics simulator, contributing to the FDS project, lessening my negative impact on the world, and planning a way to integrate motorcycling trips into my (shortening) workweek. All of this, of course, along with succeeding in my remaining classes and developing a healthy fire protection society at my university. This concept of freedom develops from a mix of inputs involving running into interesting strangers, writing out your thoughts to develop stronger questions and approaches to your life experience, reading the vast amount of knowledge that surrounds us in the world, and other healthy mental dieting habits.

(Photo from Flickr user nouknouk)

This freedom that I am moving towards is what I want to make up life as I know it. The way I write can sometimes come across as plentifully vague - like deeply staring at a piece of abstract art trying to extract some meaning - yet its implications are endless in my thoughts, and hopefully yours. How long is the journey until your daily life becomes doing what you like to do 97% of the time? To me that is when the journey itself becomes the journey - there is no final stage.

Your priorities define what you “have time for”, which is really a phrase that masks the idea that you simply do what you want to do - constrained only by the time and schedule that you have invented and invested in. Time is flying by anyway, no matter your interests. I have the same time that you have, I have the interests pegged well enough for now - now I just need to turn that into some usable output that can affect the largest amount of people via value and substance - something for anyone to ingest in their mind.

I think the much-needed visit to the woods this past week/weekend was more important to me than I initially thought. Now, have a great day.

On a whimsical decision, I took off into the place I call home: the forest. Nature in its many forms helps me to get back to and understand the deep implications of “time”. It helps me to relate the concepts that I see in books day in and day out into a practical experience, most of the time in a way that is not describable in words or pictures. It speaks a different language. It helps me to see my place in the world and the direct resources and experiences that I am trying to preserve. And that is just on a night’s visit.

“The boy awoke as the sun rose. There, in front of him, where the small stars had been before, was an endless row of date palms, stretching across the entire desert.
‘We’ve done it!’ said the Englishman, who had also awakened early.
But the boy was quiet. He was at home with the silence of the desert, and we was content just to look at the trees.

He still had a long way to go to reach the Pyramids, and someday this morning would just be a memory. But this was the present moment, and he wanted to live it as he did the lessons of his past and this dreams of the future. Although the visions of the date palms would someday be a memory, right now it signified shade, water, and a refuge from war. Yesterday, the camel’s groan signified danger, and now a row of date palms could herald a miracle. The world speaks many languages, the boy thought.

[...] He had only one explanation for this fact; things have to be transmitted this way because they were made up from the pure life, and this kind of life cannot be captured in pictures or words. Because people become fascinated with pictures and words, and wind up forgetting the Language of the World.” - The Alchemist

That being said, here are some pictures from my visit, as it is one way I can try to share the beauty - just don’t forget the Language of the World. To see all of the pictures, click on the photo albums link on the right side of my blog (or click here) and then the Fall 2007 Efficacy Album.

School has been going well in this breezy and atypical semester. I say atypical because I no longer feel like an undergraduate, I’ve happily passed that stage of stressing over courses and trivial, yet developmental things that we all go through during that experience. Which, is surely a good thing in this case.

I feel like I’ve learned many life skills that will help enhance the journey. I’ve also decided on a lot of things that I don’t want - such as an 8-5 job. Sometimes figuring out what you don’t want is far more important than finding your dream or calling at the age of young-twenties. A short-lived era in one’s life where opportunity often supersedes circumstances or fear. What a wonderful thing.

Fire dynamics, lecturing, and computational science are certainly for me. Now I just have to work on imparting that wisdom to others for the rest of my life and gain more insight by way of seeing more nature, living out diverse experiences, learning from and being with friends and strangers, and the other fantastic daily activities that we forget make up “life”.

Today I shall start eating as a vegetarian again. One year ago I did this: for 30 days. For this time, longer. How long? Who knows. Why? A whole slew of reasons: conservation, health, energy, concern, and to exhibit life.

Of course, this will not overshadow my learnings of MATLAB, my yearning to understand fire dynamics, my pursuit of free knowledge, my love for camping and the outdoors, or my thirst for progression. Plenty of room for that as well. In fact, this will only help those areas. I just want to keep challenging my true ideals in life and proceeding without any fear or hesitation.

Join me in something that matters to you - while you still can and still want to.