User:Dieselcruiserhead

dieselcruiserhead is the online "handle" for Andre Shoumatoff, (born Nov 1978) a freelance web site designer in his late 20's, the volunteer director of the Utah Biodiesel Cooperative, and a vintage Toyota Land Cruiser enthusiast who specializes and is interested in diesel conversions and all sort of general fabrication-related and primarily suspension and drive-train modifications. Hence his name choice of "dieselcruiserhead," the name he uses this name almost exclusively in all applications, whether they are related to Land Cruisers or not.

In general he has discovered a knack for doing deep amounts of research and uncovering all sorts of obscure and complex information through primarily the Internet, but through other forms as well including world of mouth. He also believes he has particularly accurate views of humanity and the planet through this research.

Interests

Music. This includes music primarily derived from Jazz, Jazz-Funk, and Jazz-Fusion backgrounds, classic rock, and older hip hop, and is highly interested in "jam" music that features use of the Hammond Organ, Fender Rhodes jazz piano, and other older analog electric pianos (example: Wurlizter Jazz Piano, Clavinet) which Shoumatoff affectionately refers to as "organic" electric jazz pianos and keyboards. He has proven his ability for collecting and assembling large amounts of relatively obscure mostly jazz-funk type music from primarily the 70's. His greatest influences include Herbie Hancock and Frank Zappa, but his influences are highly diverse. His techniques for acquiring music include vintage record collection, using the file music sharing program Soulseek, and discovering new music through the robots at Sirius Satelite Radio and the Pandora web sites. He also does some booking, the marketing and web site for Suede Music venue in Northern Utah, which is the primary venue in the state that brings in the sort of music he enjoys including the "jam band" and smaller hip hop acts.

He is an expert telemark skier and has competed in professional extreme telemark skiing competitions. His telemarking interest started at the University of Vermont, where he attended college, and he has held passes at mountains including Mad River Glen, Jay Peak, Stowe Mountain, Alta, Park City Mountain Resort, and The Canyons. Recently he has gotten into back country powder skiing. He was also a snowboarder for about 8 years starting in about 1990 when snowboarding was first being discovered but switched to telemark skiing in 1998.

He is also highly interested in issues surrounding global warming, and generally believes that the planet looks at humans much like a virus or a cancer and is generally trying to eradicate itself of humans, it's number one disease, as fast as possible. He researched global warming professionally for a non profit and for the University of Vermont while in college. He views humans similar to dinosaurs in that they are a "great experiment" of nature in that, much like dinosaurs were polarized towards great physical strength, humans represent a great polarity towards "intelligence" combined with the limbs to be able to create tools and captivate on their intelligence. However, he consistently draws upon the dichotomy between sharks and humans, in that humans in our current form have existed for less than 100,000 years and sharks for over 3 million and believes if the planet could actively choose which animal would be greater suited to the planet or have a more divine right towards possible existence on the planet, in terms of religion, it would be the shark and therefore it is foolish to think that humans have some sort of divine mission or specialty or that God created them specifically in a greater hierarchy versus animals.

Cars. In the last 90's while in college he began to become interested in vehicles. He says that "he was a tinkerer" when he was kid and took things apart and put them back together again so "it was only natural that I would be interested in cars." He has owned over 25 cars. In college he became interested in Volvos and the Land Cruisers. He found that the Land Cruisers offer a great platform for all sorts of modification and the the Land Cruiser Community as a whole is very supportive, encouraging, and a great resource and research center for Land Cruiser modifications. In about 2005 he began his first major automotive modifications by installing Cummins 4 cyl diesel engines into FJ55 Toyota Land Cruisers, which he has done twice now. In January of 2007, he created the 4BTswaps.com online forums web site to address the growing and overwhelming interest in diesel swaps that has booming on the Internet.

Biography, Background, and Beliefs

He is the oldest son of Alex Shoumatoff, the freelance magazine features-article journalist and author, grandson of Nicholas Shoumatoff, an engineer, famous mountain explorer, and butterfly expert. He is also great grandson of Elizabeth Shoumatoff, a portrait painter who most notably was painting Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he collapsed to his death, resulting in the famous "Unfinished Portrait of FDR." He also the Great-Nephew of Andrei Avinoff, the famous painter and curator of the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburg.

Andre Shoumatoff was born in Mt. Kisco, NY, in the same hospital his father was born in and his grandfather died at. He lived in Katonah, New Rochelle, Carmel, and Bedford NY before going to boarding school for high school at the Northfield Mount Hermon School in western Massachussetts. From there, he attended the University of Vermont where he got his B.A. in Cultural Anthropology with other field expertise in Political Science (3 credits shy of a double major due to a class he failed) and English. After college, he moved to Utah to become a ski bum for a winter before most likely moving to New York to "get a real job." He met Carrie Thompson that spring, however, and found that he didn't understand the "odd" society (of primarily Mormons - where he was living) and also hadd a desire to explore the American Southwest. Six years later he still lives in Utah.

In general he is a big picture thinker and has respect for life in an analogy comparable to "long term investing" in that yields, in all aspects including life" require significant understanding and small, longer term, and staggered investments in fields and approaches for the biggest payoffs, and that in general, sometimes sacrifices have to made early to get the best yields towards the end. His views particularly apply towards approaches towards the economy, dealing with the pitfalls of current energy policies both nationally and internationally, and dealing with the environment.

Politically, he is "left leaning" socially and equates some of the more central core items of the new American politically-conservative movements with fascism. However, on a number of key political items he agrees with conservatives including right to bear arms (for liberty related purposes - see article on Thomas Jefferson) and that "life" begins with conception though he believes Americans should have the right to choose what outcome they want. In general he believes that pretty much anyone who is getting an abortion understands when they get it that "they are killing their baby," which contradicts popular belief by American conservatives about persons who choose to have one. His views of comparisons between American political conservatism and fascism stem from not only opinions but core beliefs by American political conservatives about foreign political systems, energy policy, and the environment that purposely ignore data and the reality of political and socio-economic realities in favor ideology, much like other prominent fascists in human history such as Nazis.

He also believes that humans and governments are inherently tyrannical in nature towards their people and that government, while necessary, much be closely policed of itself.

In general, he also believes that he was born and has taken part, by being born towards the end of, one of the most impressive and "amazing" 50 year periods in history from mostly a cultural stand point. Everything from Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation and Hippie Generation, Jazz Music to Jimi Hendrix to Rock and Roll to the sexual revolution, to civil rights. Most notably, he is proud of the apparent barriers that this period in time was able to break down, socially and politically. Towards his middle to late 20's, as he began to form stronger and more defined opinions about humans and life, he says that he "always thought of himself being born late into the game, being born in 1978" but he realized now that he "was only born 14 years after the 1964 Civil Rights Act." He also believes that their is a strong possibility that the 21st century could fraught with violence and war and major political unrest, and that it is entirely possible that within his life time he could see the demise of the United States if fascism is able to overcome the controls originally designed in the United States constitution through "politicalization of everything." He also believes that in the last approximate 10-15 years he has watched demises of these safe guards including a relatively major "chunk" out of the media and news-media, through the supposed "politicalization of the media" that he believes may have damaged over the overall ability of the media to police its government "upto as much as 50%."

In his research and understanding of biodiesel biofuels, combined with his interest and hands-on understanding of automobiles, Shoumatoff believes he has uncovered a unique and complex understanding of the world of American automobiles, energy, and the big picture as well. He believes that any efforts to change America from a transportation system based on the Internal combustion engine are very far off, simply because the payouts for the automobile industry due to the internal combustion engine system, and the maintenance it requires, as simply too large for the automobile manufacturers to let go of.

Religiously, he has teetered from agnostic (which he was in college), to atheist, to perhaps a distinct possibility of evidence of some sort of "creator" (whether that may be natural or not) through an outlook of deism. Similar towards his explanation of his outlook in towards humans and the planet, he believes that human-focused religious systems are foolish.

Inspirations

In general history, his greatest persons whom he respects, for their beliefs towards the world politically and socially are Thomas Jefferson (not specifically towards slavery but in terms of crafting the ideology of the American constitution and the United States of America), Albert Einstein (for his understanding of the physical surroundings around us and his beliefs toward religion), Ben Franklin (for his complex and accurate understanding of nature, over 100 years ahead of instrumentation that would have validified his beliefs, and for his ingenuity and role in the American constitution), and Leonard De Vinci for his able to craft and his wide range of interests and understanding from the human body to machines.