A quarter of a year since I last came to this blog. Since then a lot of things have happened:
I did a LOT of traveling around Europe...
And then left Europe...
Now I'm home in California...
In a month and a half I'll be back in New York...
Hmm. It really doesn't seem like much when you look at it on paper. I suppose the last three weeks have been spent doing very little. Just doing what I like to do: Learning, Biking, Gymming, Changing.
Anyways I've opened my mind ( I hope ) through viewing countless documentaries. It turns out that there are a LOT of things I not only care about but I'm really interested in as well. In high school my least favorite subjects were English, Lit, Language and History. Now I think those are my favorite. Naturally (I've heard its natural) I'm about to start a third year in college and I don't know what I want to do. I do, however know of many things I DON'T want to do (which is good I guess?).
Anyways, I think I'm going to become a volunteer firefighter and see if I can help at all with all of these fires in California.
Also on my plate at the moment are:
Energy (as always)
Anti-Consumerism
Food (Growth/Production/Packaging/Distribution/Sale/Consumption)
Sustainability
Politics (History and current)
Philosophy
Music
Anyways, more updates soon
Friday, 11 July 2008
Saturday, 12 April 2008
Projects
Okay
This post is designed for me to get all my projects planned out and done so that I don't wind up with a bunch of half finished piles of crap when I leave Denmark. So here's the plan:
Complete Foosball Table within one week.
Fix all (5) bikes and get rid of 'em.
Bar atop container P (Within the next two weeks - I'm really stoked about this one)
Welding project (Top secret - more info later)
Pangea Day (If you don't know what this is, check it out for sure)
Hydroponics? (Probably not, just because I don't want to buy anything else in Denmark
Anyways, I'll fill you in on the haps in the coming days because the projects should be a whole lot of fun.... although I don't think I have any readers yet. O well for future people's enjoyment.
ENJOY!
This post is designed for me to get all my projects planned out and done so that I don't wind up with a bunch of half finished piles of crap when I leave Denmark. So here's the plan:
Complete Foosball Table within one week.
Fix all (5) bikes and get rid of 'em.
Bar atop container P (Within the next two weeks - I'm really stoked about this one)
Welding project (Top secret - more info later)
Pangea Day (If you don't know what this is, check it out for sure)
Hydroponics? (Probably not, just because I don't want to buy anything else in Denmark
Anyways, I'll fill you in on the haps in the coming days because the projects should be a whole lot of fun.... although I don't think I have any readers yet. O well for future people's enjoyment.
ENJOY!
Monday, 7 April 2008
Energy... as usual
So as you can probably can see from my blog, I care a lot about energy and (more importantly) the planet. How cliche that's becoming, sadly, but happily (because it means it's finally being said). Or maybe it's just because I hear/talk about energy so much, I think it's cliche. Annnnnd then again maybe I'm just off topic.
The point of this post is to talk about the sun. The grand-daddy of all life as we know it.
More specifically, the energy from the sun. Plants do amazing things with this energy. (I'm totally envious but thats a side note.... I don't think I'll ever photosynthesize...). BUT (back to topic again), there are ways we can use some of the energy the sun is throwing at us.
SOLAR THERMAL.... IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL....
And better yet, it doesn't involve making a whole bunch of silicon wafers, it doesn't involve doping, and (thank goodness) it doesn't cost 6.7 dollars a watt (like PVs).
It's super cheap....
We have everything we need to make them....
It's CLEAN....
So whats all this talk about (we'll be using FFs for at least another 50 years?!)
Heck, with a few adjustments to the grid we could have this baby up and running all across the sunbelt in no time.
Even better, this grad from MIT has started building these solar thermal generators out of old car parts and plumbing supplies. Now imagine: using things that are waste (parts) and using them to make energy....
What doesn't make sense?
Who gives a shit if PVs become super efficient in the future? What about the here and now??? Let PVs continue to grow and expand, but until then how about we make things a little better?
The longer we don't, the longer renewables stay expensive and the longer politicians shy away from them (cycle repeats, add nausea).
About every week, China produces a coal fired power plant producing about 500 megawatts and *you wouldn't believe me if I told you* tons of CO2. Each of these power plants will be in operation for 50 years. That's a fact. As long as the plants are functioning, they will run. Every week China makes a 50 year resolution to keep using coal. Now I'm not saying that China should try to make a 500 megawatt solar farm.... but you have to crawl before you can walk...
The point of this post is to talk about the sun. The grand-daddy of all life as we know it.
More specifically, the energy from the sun. Plants do amazing things with this energy. (I'm totally envious but thats a side note.... I don't think I'll ever photosynthesize...). BUT (back to topic again), there are ways we can use some of the energy the sun is throwing at us.
SOLAR THERMAL.... IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL....
And better yet, it doesn't involve making a whole bunch of silicon wafers, it doesn't involve doping, and (thank goodness) it doesn't cost 6.7 dollars a watt (like PVs).
It's super cheap....
We have everything we need to make them....
It's CLEAN....
So whats all this talk about (we'll be using FFs for at least another 50 years?!)
Heck, with a few adjustments to the grid we could have this baby up and running all across the sunbelt in no time.
Even better, this grad from MIT has started building these solar thermal generators out of old car parts and plumbing supplies. Now imagine: using things that are waste (parts) and using them to make energy....
What doesn't make sense?
Who gives a shit if PVs become super efficient in the future? What about the here and now??? Let PVs continue to grow and expand, but until then how about we make things a little better?
The longer we don't, the longer renewables stay expensive and the longer politicians shy away from them (cycle repeats, add nausea).
About every week, China produces a coal fired power plant producing about 500 megawatts and *you wouldn't believe me if I told you* tons of CO2. Each of these power plants will be in operation for 50 years. That's a fact. As long as the plants are functioning, they will run. Every week China makes a 50 year resolution to keep using coal. Now I'm not saying that China should try to make a 500 megawatt solar farm.... but you have to crawl before you can walk...
Wednesday, 2 April 2008
Success
I remember when, up until only a few months ago, success seemed to the only thing I was aiming for in this life. Right now it feels like it would be such a sell out. With all I learned in the past few months about other cultures (from all the people I've met) and from all the reading I've been doing about the people who live in poverty-stricken, disease-infested, corrupted government-ruling, war-torn places. Not all the bullshit we see every day. Not the oh-so-high-prices at the gas pump. Not the guy who just spilled his Starbucks coffee on your Mac. No, none of the shit. How can we run around "filling" the meaningless voids in our lives with so much shit that we don't remember those people who could actually benefit from the help we have all the power to give. It seems like in today's age, it is almost impossible to be it all. How can you be a successful (savage) capitalist and still do anything for anyone else?
I just want to say fuck it. Fuck this higher education that I've been throwing my money at for the last two years. Fuck the bullshit, dead-end job that's at the end of these "best years of our lives". The only things I care about I haven't heard a whisper about in any of my classes. What I want (and hope) to do with my life is sure as hell not something that can be learned in a classroom. I want dirty hands. I want a sweaty shirt. I want to help the people who need help.
Getting up and going to my Computer Aided Design class in 6 hours is going to be harder then I can say with words. But I'm still going to go. And I'm going to hate myself for it. I guess I just don't have the balls to get up and walk out. Yet.
I just want to say fuck it. Fuck this higher education that I've been throwing my money at for the last two years. Fuck the bullshit, dead-end job that's at the end of these "best years of our lives". The only things I care about I haven't heard a whisper about in any of my classes. What I want (and hope) to do with my life is sure as hell not something that can be learned in a classroom. I want dirty hands. I want a sweaty shirt. I want to help the people who need help.
Getting up and going to my Computer Aided Design class in 6 hours is going to be harder then I can say with words. But I'm still going to go. And I'm going to hate myself for it. I guess I just don't have the balls to get up and walk out. Yet.
Saturday, 29 March 2008
Everyday Tragedies
All the people who never achieve their life dreams. The single mothers working double time to give their kids shit they never had. The children of Iraq lost in the sand. Palestinian kids stuck in the ghetto. The people on their deathbeds who regret their lives. All the soldiers that never got to go back home. The Bangladeshi children who choose between food (a job) and education. The surviving half of a loving, happy old couple. Patients that received HIV from a blood transfusion. Victims of the Darfur Genocide. All the Africans chained to a sunken slave ship in the bottom of the Atlantic. Everyone killed by drunk drivers. Everyone stuck in the cycle of poverty. All the oppressed victims of the Imperialism that exists all over the world. All the people who didn't get up after falling down. The innocent who are struck down. Every refugee ever who had to leave everything behind. School children who are gunned down. People who work hard their whole life and are still poor. The babies born addicted to heroine. Women trapped in an abusive relationship. People who lose everything in "natural" disasters. The oppressed. The rich folks who realize how little all their money matters. American Indians walking on the Trail of Tears. The starving in Cambodia. The people who spend their lives in darkness. Parents who have to bury a child.
The Uncultured Project
Along the same lines of my "Africa" post, yesterday I stumbled across "The Uncultured Project". Shawn Ahmed is a Notre Dame grad who was influenced by Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, an author and speaker, who spoke at Notre Dame on September 14, 2006. One of Sach's books is titled The End of Poverty.
The speech along with the book inspired Shawn Ahmed to make a difference. He went to Bangladesh and worked and spoke with many of the poorest villagers. He brought with him many water purification tools and mosquito nets, in order to help flood victims. The people he interviews are quite remarkable, to say the least. But I don't need to tell you, check it out for yourself.
YouTube http://youtube.com/user/UnculturedProject
Blog http://uncultured.com/
(I don't know if there's some protocol for linking on blogs, but it's just me giving props to Shawn for his work)
I find Shawn inspiring and hope to do some similar work in the near future.
Before I saw "The Uncultured Project", I had began making plans to go to South America. Perhaps it's a sign?
The speech along with the book inspired Shawn Ahmed to make a difference. He went to Bangladesh and worked and spoke with many of the poorest villagers. He brought with him many water purification tools and mosquito nets, in order to help flood victims. The people he interviews are quite remarkable, to say the least. But I don't need to tell you, check it out for yourself.
YouTube http://youtube.com/user/UnculturedProject
Blog http://uncultured.com/
(I don't know if there's some protocol for linking on blogs, but it's just me giving props to Shawn for his work)
I find Shawn inspiring and hope to do some similar work in the near future.
Before I saw "The Uncultured Project", I had began making plans to go to South America. Perhaps it's a sign?
Monday, 10 March 2008
The Prophecy - Immortal Technique
I calculate planet alignment like Mayan astronomy
Discovering atrocities worst than Aristotle
Subjecting children to sodomy
Your theory of the galaxy is primitive like Ptolemy
The truth about the universe stuck up like Aztec pottery
Unpredictable results like experimental psychology
I stomp the streets with emcee's beneath my feet in colonies
But presentation and spirit revolve around autonomy
Searching for monogamy
And cutting fake bitches out of my mind like a lobotomy
So obviously I'm not gonna be here to play games
Walked the top of the world and leave the arctic circle in flames
Battle the beast and false prophet predicted in the King James
I give a fuck about your emcee name I don't admire you
Only by dental records will you be identifiable
Cause the future is not reliable
Remember when rap was not economically viable
Comparable to what motherfuckers think of me
I might be nobody but wait till I'm together like a symphony
Resounding sound that will continue infinitely
Angel of death punishing all those who live in infamy
And shine so far away from you
You'll never get a glimpse of me
Attempts to extinguish me don't even bother me none
Like retarded kids throwing ice cubes at the sun
A victory against Immortal Technique will never be done
Just degrees of losing it every second your adding one
Some niggas dream of pushing kilos but I drop tons
With more facts and formulas and philosophical logic
Then a basement full of scientists puffing on chronic
Dip the mic in potassium cyanide and liquid bubonic
And use it as a sonic one to find the spawn of the demonic
Screaming like onyx is of absolutely no consequence
The poison is dense enough to clog up your arteries
Mercy is not a part of me
I cause you bodily injury permanently be simply verbally murdering me
Is inconceivable cause of the unbelievable evil injected inside
The blood stream of my people
And redemption is not located under a church steeple
The feeble and the meek in soul just like the technique
Will inherit the earth, But the earth will be weak
Mother earth in her decrepit terminal illness physique
The year three thousand is bleak no happily ever after
Just death following the Forth Reich disaster, a legacy of bastards
With plastic explosives your futures been eroded
Cause you forgot that when your free it's multiplied indefinitely
By the struggle that be the struggle I see
To socialistically united the third world countries
Expose hypocrisy in Americas democracy
Sloppily obsessed with stopping me cause I speak prophecy
Trample and dismantle your capitalist philosophy
The same way I stomp the conquering rap monopoly
And I'm not a fucking prophet
But that's the fucking prophecy
Discovering atrocities worst than Aristotle
Subjecting children to sodomy
Your theory of the galaxy is primitive like Ptolemy
The truth about the universe stuck up like Aztec pottery
Unpredictable results like experimental psychology
I stomp the streets with emcee's beneath my feet in colonies
But presentation and spirit revolve around autonomy
Searching for monogamy
And cutting fake bitches out of my mind like a lobotomy
So obviously I'm not gonna be here to play games
Walked the top of the world and leave the arctic circle in flames
Battle the beast and false prophet predicted in the King James
I give a fuck about your emcee name I don't admire you
Only by dental records will you be identifiable
Cause the future is not reliable
Remember when rap was not economically viable
Comparable to what motherfuckers think of me
I might be nobody but wait till I'm together like a symphony
Resounding sound that will continue infinitely
Angel of death punishing all those who live in infamy
And shine so far away from you
You'll never get a glimpse of me
Attempts to extinguish me don't even bother me none
Like retarded kids throwing ice cubes at the sun
A victory against Immortal Technique will never be done
Just degrees of losing it every second your adding one
Some niggas dream of pushing kilos but I drop tons
With more facts and formulas and philosophical logic
Then a basement full of scientists puffing on chronic
Dip the mic in potassium cyanide and liquid bubonic
And use it as a sonic one to find the spawn of the demonic
Screaming like onyx is of absolutely no consequence
The poison is dense enough to clog up your arteries
Mercy is not a part of me
I cause you bodily injury permanently be simply verbally murdering me
Is inconceivable cause of the unbelievable evil injected inside
The blood stream of my people
And redemption is not located under a church steeple
The feeble and the meek in soul just like the technique
Will inherit the earth, But the earth will be weak
Mother earth in her decrepit terminal illness physique
The year three thousand is bleak no happily ever after
Just death following the Forth Reich disaster, a legacy of bastards
With plastic explosives your futures been eroded
Cause you forgot that when your free it's multiplied indefinitely
By the struggle that be the struggle I see
To socialistically united the third world countries
Expose hypocrisy in Americas democracy
Sloppily obsessed with stopping me cause I speak prophecy
Trample and dismantle your capitalist philosophy
The same way I stomp the conquering rap monopoly
And I'm not a fucking prophet
But that's the fucking prophecy
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