Grades

When I attended Malone College, I had the priviledge of playing baseball. Since I sat the bench so well, I had to make up for my defeat, so you could say I also had quite a dynamic social life. These Folks were really important to me and became more important than an education. I am pretty sure that the spring semester of my sophomore year, I did not go to bed earlier than 3am. This happened because my friends and I tried to keep Perkins or Country Kitchen in business. I say tried because generally we would only order coffee or hot chocolate and on the rare occasion we had money, we would get a bread bowl. I think Perkins has since done away with those...too bad. I left Malone with a less than desirable GPA. I will not mention it here because in the off chance a future employer looks at this, I don't want to have to explain myself. Let's just say I got by. I did what I had to do.

This brings me to now. I am back in school getting an engineering degree. We just wrapped up this past semester and my grades have been published. In doing this, I kinda feel like Perry from scrubs. The character is this cocky doctor who believes he needs to be cocky and arrogant to be a good doctor. I hope I don't come across this way, but I got a 4.0. This is 4 A's for the four classes I took. I really don't know what I was doing at Malone, but getting A's feels awesome. There is this feeling of accomplishment that I really never felt when I was getting C's and D's. So you could say that the quote "hard work pays off" is true.

Being A Man: A Basic Understanding of Respect

Aside from not posting in a while....
I pulled into the Marathon to get gas today. It was a gorgeous morning. It snowed two days ago and the sun was just beaming off of the bright white goodness. These mornings are an immediate cause for joy.

As a child growing up I was always told that as a man you should eat your green beans to put hair on your chest and always respect women. As I pulled in to get gas, I noticed this lady walking to her Ford Expedition after paying inside. I pulled around her to get to the pump in front of her. As I got out of my car I saw her pulling the nozzle out of the holster and placing it into the tank. The I ventured over to her passenger seat. There he was. He looked squirelly, young, and had braces in his mouth. I would guess he was a freshman or sophomore in high school. He would in my mind be more than able. He took up most of the seat and I would guess he was 6 foot or taller. This is the point where I chuckled and then felt dissappointment.
Was he not told about manhood? "eat your green beans and respect women." When Carrie and I started dating, I want to say that there has been one time when we have been together that she has pumped gas. This would have been the instance when I went in to pay and she hopped out and started pumping without realizing what it would do to my self-esteem. My manhood had come into question. Was I not capable? I immediately told her that she could go sit in the car and I could handle the rest of the pumping.
Now I understand that this braces-faced kid will probably turn out just fine. However, I do think that this could raise a greater issue. I recently watched a 60 minutes report on how Gen X and Y are going out into the workforce. This is the first generation where parents told their kids "they were special." One comment that really got me was how these parents are actually talking to their kid's employers wanting to know want kind of "grade" they are getting. So braces-faced kid, is your mom teaching you self-respect by telling you that you are special? Or would she be better off telling you to get your ass out of the truck and pump the gas?

Barry Freakin Bonds

Though there have been no convictions, I dislike Barry Bonds.
If you had a career like his pre-steroid issue, why even consider putting yourself in hot water? Based upon his physical change, one can only imagine what he was on. Look at Mark McGuire. When he started in the majors, he was more lengthy than stout. Ask any weight lifter and they will tell you it is not easy to obtain 26inch forearms without something helping them out. Same with Barry. He physically showed change. Look at Curt Schilling, for example. A strong proponent against substance abuse. Here's a guy that you can tell he is getting older and less defined, but still performs. Why is it that Barry couldn't have followed suit. Not to say that Aaron or Ruth didn't take anything, but the scandal surrounding the situation and the fact that he is an ass to fans and media, makes me dislike the fact that a guy like this broke these records.
But this begs the question about Big Mac. Why was it that there was no scandal around his physical change? Simply put, he and Sammy were good for baseball. Big Mac actually cared about St. Louis and the game. This isn't to say that Barry doesn't care for Baseball and San Fran, but Mcguire was actually pleasant to the fans.

However, how do we deal with the fact that these players were on some sort of substance? It is just dissappointing. Play as you were made and if that's not possible, go into a different profession.

I don't cheat on tests. Don't cheat baseball.

Jovial

So the majority of my day, currently, is spent in a typical cubical style office. I enjoy the random conversations people have that I get to overhear. More exciting, however, is the quiet conversation that you can't hear. It's the one all the way across the office where it's the low muffel barely audible over the air conditioner fan.

Then, from no where, it happens. The random, yet pronounced, deep, gutteral eruption of laughter. The kind of laughter that disrupts the office rythem. The kind, in my case, that I start laughing at. I'm not sure why. Maybe it is the total disregard for any one else with the desire to just let it out.

It's the guy at the movie theater that laughs at a kind-of funny part in a movie where no one else laughs. It's the guy in isle 3 when you're in isle 25. It's the guy half way across the food court laughing over top the busyiness.

Ideal Energy Conservation

If money was not an issue, there is a good chance I could run my home on little or no fossil fuels. The technology is out there.
Here is what I would do...

First I would install two windmills. From the minimal research I have done, one windmill would give me a little less than half of the energy my home consumes.
Second, solar panels would be installed. I would install both photovoltaic and hot water panals.

Third, geothermal would be installed. This would help with the solar hot water panels. Then, this geothermal would help in cooling and heating the home. This combined with the hot water solar panels would greatly reduce the need of electricity to run a hot water heater. For that matter I would work it out to install an on-demand hot water heater. Not sure how that would work, but I'd figure it out

When the system is running at full power with excess, I would take the electricty and electrolyse water to make hydrogen. This hydrogen would be stored for future fuel cell usage. Potentially to power my automobile or any other mechanical device for that matter.

Lastly, with advances in batteries and fuel cells my automobile could certainly run on the excess electricity provided by the other means on the property.

Yeah, so money aside, I am going to make this happen. I just decided.

There will be a continuation of this post with the hope to elaborate on these technologies

...and they thought Einstein was crazy.

Knight in Shining Armor

This past week I had the privledge of seeing both Transformers and Live Free or Die Hard. Both will go down as summer blockbusters. They were both great action movies with plenty of over-the-top stunts, but they were fun none the less.

Out for a walk with my wife, I asked her, "Why is it, in these fun-loving, action movies, that the male lead is always disfunctional?" For example: John McClain is divorced, his kids hate him, and he has no friends. Sam, in Transformers, is your weird, computer geek, single child, who's dad yell's at him for walking on the lawn. This character didn't necessarily bother me, except for one shot. This shot ruined his character for the rest of the movie. The Transfomers came to earth as asteroid form. When they are coming, mikela, the girl lead, hold's Sam's hand and then steps in front to protect him. For as macho as Micheal Bay seems by his explosions, I was disappointed. Sam continues to be indecisive and squirlly. Mikela drives the tow truck and knows cars. Not necessarily a bad thing, but seriously when will the man come back to the movies?
My wife did make a good point in that today it is difficult to relate the strong, confident male, who is the Knight in Shining Armor. My response to that was, it makes sense and it sells movies, but shame on the man for not at least protecting the girl.