Reading back over my entries
Realized I forgot to explain why I am crazy eddie.
If you’ll remember, crazy eddie was the charicter in The Mote In God’s Eye, by Pournelle and Niven [labelled by heinlien ‘possibly the best science fiction I have ever read’], who personified {and I’m not quoting, this is from memory)
‘When a city has gotten as full as it can get, when there is barely enough power and food to feed and shelter those in it, it is then that this person moves those removing garbage from it to strike for better wages’.
He’s also described as the engineer using tomorrow’s profits to build today’s devices, etc.
And he’s also the one who sent a probe to the human race, resulting in the humans discovering the moties, a race locked in a endless cycle of wars because they reproduce too quickly. A motie has two choices.. have sex or die.
And, he is also me.
The trained worker, working on a invention that has already been tried, and failed commercially, many times. Aware that he will fail, doing the best he can to share as much of his progress as publicly as possible, so that others can follow in his footsteps. Tilting against a windmill.
This is why I play april fools jokes on the EV list. This is why I laugh so much, both at myself and at the situation. Because I have to – because if I ever forget, even for a second, that I’m not doing something completely insane by the majority definition of sane, I’ll let go.
I’m sure each person can only keep it up so long. You either actually do go crazy, or you back off and return to more useful and profitible work. And, if someone waves a job in front of me, I might take it. I won’t give up on my EV hobby, but it will be condensed to evenings and weekends.
It seems someone like me can’t get a government grant – you have to jump through a lot of hoops that I’m not really set up to jump through. P. is trying, though, and for this I really respect her. She’s just as aware as I am of the crazy-eddieness of it all.
Actually, I’ve found a little ‘enclave’ of crazy eddies in seattle. SEVA has 40 or 50 members who regularly attend, and at least five are ‘pros’ – they make their living on electric vehicles.