The Sethmosphere

[Seth’s personal musing from the front lines of The Third Annual Conference for the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO), Houston, TX, October 17-20, 2007.]

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October 20, 2007

I’m sitting in the middle of the Onicon Anime convention. Waves of teenagers in full video game character regalia have converted the third floor of the Houston Convention Center into a flesh and blood version of virtual reality - life imitating fantasy.

Ninjas, Sward Masters, Commandos, Dark Lords, Centurions, Robocons, and of course, Emos, swarm through the cafeteria brandishing their magical scimitars as the courteous and bewildered employees try desperately to keep up with the unquenchable demand for nacho cheese and chili dogs.

Oh, did I say I was at a conference on Peak Oil?
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Seth’s personal musing from the front lines of The Third Annual Conference for the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO), Houston, TX, October 17-20, 2007.

There’s something surreal about the pavement desert with the constant hum of trucks and sweet petrochemical aromas mixing with the humid Gulf air.

[image source www.cleanhouston.org/images/refinery.jpg]

What does the future look like?

Is it endless highways? Strip malls on each corner? Mothers with children filing across Whattaburber parking lots to get to the Mobil Marts?

Houston. Oh, I’m back home again.

Can you believe I called this place home for three and half years? And you know what’s sick? I missed it. There’s something surreal about the pavement desert with the constant hum of trucks and sweet petrochemical aromas mixing with the humid Gulf air. I miss the Dr. Seuss desert plants, probably palms of some sort, ornamentally arranged with scrub oaks and cut grass along 10-lane cross streets. I miss the ocean of Motel 8s, and La Quintas, and Shawnees. And most of all, I miss my wife. I mean, my ex-wife. Because staying at this inn throws me right back to that time in my life. Right back to the joy and the pain. Because, believe it or not, we had fun. A real authentic fun it’s hard to have in the Northeast, actually. Texas is an adventure. It doesn’t end. No wonder it was a country. Indeed it probably should be a country again. That way we could bomb it and get it’s oil. Oh, but it doesn’t have any more oil. Never mind. But that does bring me to the subject of this post, supposedly - Peak Oil.
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