Wow- ¡Qué día!

Bilinguists, I apologize for the redundancy, but today was very special. The NBB sessions were actually kind of a letdown, so I gave up on them. I spent a lot of the middles of the day at the Exhibition Hall. I found several leads on new equipment, including four different takes on quicker/cheaper/easier lab testing (Aspectrics, Paradigm, QTA and SAFtest), and a CFPP machine to rent.

I had been hearing about a booth where there were apparently some bio-bimbos shilling for some corporation with an ethanol-powered dune buggy. In the middle of the exhibition hall, I saw them, wearing racing outfits, conveniently unzipped down to the lowest possible cleavage point (barbie doll figure). Now at this point in this blog post, I feel compelled to mention that I do have an important point to make- please don't give up on me. But back to the ladies. They were wearing black stiletto heels and lots of makeup. Seeing them at my event was kind of weird. Like exploitation. More on that later.

I bring it up because the antidote existed very close by, in the form of a team of high school students from Merrimack New Hampshire. They brought a TDI beetle with them and their booth stole the show for me. They make biodiesel in a very small Appleseed processor, which is powered by two bicycles on standing generators, hooked into a battery bank. They have a photo of this setup that is utterly beautiful to me. I begged them to somehow get me a copy, for which I will be happy to donate some moola to their program. I will hang the image on the wall in my office at the plant.

I swear that seeing the purity of the kids' program awakened some kind of anti-cynicism streak in me. Recall what I said the other day about Josh Tickell's film, whose trailer I had seen:

The Audience Award: Documentary was presented to Josh Tickell’s Fields of Fuel, a look at America's addiction to oil. Tickell is a man with a plan and a Veggie Van, who is taking on big oil, big government, and big soy to find solutions in places few people have looked.

Few people, eh? Mixed feelings. I guess this is a good thing, but the trailer was sappy and all about Josh, the man, the myth, the legend.

Well, this afternoon at 4:30 came the almost-didn't-happen, much-anticipated super-special-secret screening of Josh's movie, fresh from winning the audience choice documentary award at Sundance. I was actually looking forward to seeing it, despite my thoughts on the preview, because it had garnered some super positive word-of-mouth among people I trust.

Well, let me just start my little mini-review by describing what I did afterward- I waited for a chance to embrace Josh (he was busy talking to the high school kids, who had been invited to the special event), and I told him how much I loved the movie.

The truth is, I had to let go of my judgments during this one. There is simply no reason to criticize such a well-meaning, and often very insightful, work of art. Considering it is a directorial debut, it's really, really good. And it has a number of my friends and inspirations in it, like Dave Williamson, Kent Bullard, and my new compadre in New York, Brent Baker.

While recommending it, I will add that you absolutely have to see "Fat of the Land" if you haven't yet- let's just say their story was a prequel to Josh's.

During the movie, I had a sudden epiphany that I shared with Brent, who was sitting next to me; I was going to make a deal with the Ukiah Unified School District happen, whereby I could get biodiesel into the schoolbusses! In the past, this type of idea has never gone anywhere, because the district can't afford our fuel, and because we run on such a thin line and can't afford much slack.

But over the course of the evening, things evolved, as the anti-cynicism drug kept working on me. I ran into Lindsay, a.k.a. Betty Biodiesel, whose day job is at Blue Sky Bio-fuels. I told her about the bus idea, which had turned into Yokayo raising prices to subsidize the kids' healthy air. She had been waiting for this moment for years. She introduced me to Patrick MacIntyre, brother of Ralph MacIntyre, both of whom are partners at Blue Sky. I told them that I would like help with publicizing my schoolbus maneuver- I would really need the P.R. to be super-effective, in order to keep my customers okay with the new price hike. They have more P.R. experience than me in some ways, and have invested more of their resources into it. They will be happy to exchange that consulting power with some help from my dad in understanding a particular new government biodiesel program. It felt neat, negotiating with the "competition". I felt like I was outside the typical confines of capitalist industry.

I talked some with Rodger, who haunts the Infopop forums with me as "producer". He and his wife are brilliant true conservatives, as in conservation. Perhaps I'll be able to visit them in Illinois someday.

I had been communicating with Jason Hoar of Agrifuels. He wanted to hang out and chat a bit. The time kept getting pushed back, so I sat at a table (having retired from the poolside party with its succulent hors d'euvres), enjoying the warm night air, and began crunching the numbers for the various schoolbus ideas. I finally settled on this one:

• We will institute a delivery charge on our Mendocino County delivery customers, which we have refrained from doing in the past as a sort of community gift.

• We will apply 100% of this money, which should be bring in between $10,000-15,000/yr at our current distribution pace, toward subsidizing the petroleum/biodiesel price differential for the county's schoolbusses. The goal will be to get the busses on B99.9. This will be hyped heavily, with help from Betty Biodiesel and Blue Sky.

• We will ask the County to put up the remainder of the price differential, which should be less than our share, especially so if various school districts decline the offer.

• We will not ask for exclusivity in this deal, other than to define the biodiesel supplier as "locally produced from locally collected/grown feedstock."

• At an early stage, we will go to the PTA, and share our plan with them. They will be an important player in this process.

Jason was going to be down in a moment, and I struck up a conversation with a man that had been reading near me and smoking a very pleasant-smelling cigar. Turns out he vice-presides over Chicago Port Railroad Company and is just getting to know biodiesel. Jason arrived, and we enjoyed extending a more thorough biodiesel introduction to the gentleman.

I had taught Jason how to make biodiesel a number of years ago, and the guy has been bestowing good karma on me ever since. Tonight he walked with me a little ways as I headed back to the Comfort Suites Hotel. Jason told me about how he had discovered that the buggy girls had absolutely no knowledge of biodiesel, and he quickly related to me the simplified lesson that he had given them. They were apparently good students and very appreciative, so I hope you didn't judge them by my earlier description.

We discussed my three ideas for next years's NBB Conference, which will be in... [drumroll] San Francisco (Moscone Center).

1) Because our industry's product is all about preserving the natural environment, I think it's time we get out of the hotel and convention center and have some conference activities outside for once.

2) There should be a voluntary and anonymous, completely flexible information exchange database for all attendees. That way, I could share whatever information about my company, production plant, processes, etc. with the entire group of attendees. Not comfortable sharing something? Don't have to. But this would be a breakthrough in efficient communication without politics, and it could lead to some really great open-source possibilities. Even if only 5 parties participate, it's a start. But in a group of thousands, I imagine it could be a bit bigger than that.

3) The day before the conference is underway, as an alternative to the inevitable NBB Super Bowl Party, we need to offer the following: a day trip with ticketed members to:

• The Biofuel Oasis, for a tour, perhaps even at their new location
• The Solar Living Institute for a tour
• Yorkville Cellars and Navarro Vineyards- examples of local, organic vineyards/wineries
• Yokayo Biofuels' Production Plant for a tour
• The Ukiah Brewing Company for dinner at the country's first organic brewpub.

Honestly, I'm not sure how we can possibly have the plant be ready for such a thing by then, but I also feel like it's just got to happen. I do have some ideas that we might be able to put into play, to open up resources.

Jason kept walking with me. At a certain point, he noticed the crazy rides at the amusement park by my hotel, and he started calling everyone he could think of, inviting them to go on the World's Tallest SkyCoaster with us. Somehow, I ended up on the first "flight", along with John Long and Kifas. I was a bundle of fear and nerves as I was instructed how to put on the flight suit, and as we walked up to the loading stand, got put in the harness, and felt the floor drop out from under us. But then, with the harness and flight suit gripping me pretty tight, and with my arm locked in John's, I felt incredibly relaxed. John, Kifas and I did not talk, but we started chanting "Om". We continued to spontaneously chant "Om" in deep exhales, each time with a different chant leader, all the way to the top. Kifas released the cord and we plummeted 130 feet in head first freefall. It was fast and fluttery, but it was also like floating in space (much moreso than going "down"). Then the swing motion started, and it was the most familiar pull feeling in the world. There was no terror. This was great. I have to give credit to Scott, Ty, and Phil as well, for joining in on the festivities. And later Caleb, who crashed at my hotel room (Frankie and Caleb did last night as well).

The sense of community and purpose has been astounding at this year's event. To say that I am recharged is a severe understatement. I can see the path ahead, and I can taste the rewards that will come from following it. I believe that 2008 will be a good year for Yokayo.