Defiantone.com

If you’ve been paying attention - we’re paying more for many of the things that we use daily. The rising cost of oil impacts the cost of transportation, consumer goods, and food. Companies are trying to cut costs wherever possible while trying to retain the most talented and hardworking individuals. Some would blame the war for our economy that is in a downturn. Everything is linked - I read a few articles and found myself hitting CTRL-B five times and I thought it was worth sharing. Each is tied to the other; lets hope that I can explain what I mean.

According to recent polls many Americans have stated that they have felt that it has been much harder to “get ahead.” Our standards of “ahead” have changed since the days when my father was growing up in the 60’s. I’m going to guess that getting an education, having shelter, a good family life, and something (anything except mustard greens) to eat. Times were tough but if you were to persevere you could make a better life for the next generation and hopefully yourself in the process. Now we demand consumer goods as a measure of how well we are doing. Measures of American success include an car (or two), a house, high speed internet, and cable TV. Without these things many believe that they are failing in the race to get ahead. We’re demanding more than ever while overlooking the basics. I’m going to go out on a limb but maybe we should be looking for a little less - check out the full text at the Washington Post.

Some who claim they are having trouble would point the finger at the ever rising costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the increasing price of gasoline. While the cost of the war far exceeds most if not all of the original estimates we’ve paid for most of it with credit. Its been added to our national debt and will probably remain for years to come - the price of oil is increasing rapidly due to increased consumption in America and in south east Asia in places like China and India. Companies outside of OPEC control have made few if any significant discoveries in recent years. It takes a considerable amount of time to find a sizable cache of carbon deposits, negotiate drilling rights, and remove them for refining and delivery. Simply put, even if there are reserves available we may not find them before demand outstrips supply. We have plenty of oil to last for the next 20 years but there has been rampant speculation of what will happen if consumption continues to increase at the current rates. If we cannot find additional reserves we might have a problem - we might find ourselves in a global energy crisis. (I hate the word crisis because I feel as if I am on a cable news network where EVERYTHING is a crisis). The futures market has seen this and that is why we are experiencing the recent increase in oil prices - sure - they could have seen this years ago but its happening now. I wonder if they took off their rose colored glasses at some point in the last two years and saw the error of their ways - the end result of their revelation is that we’re paying for it.

We can do our part to consume less but its going to take a concentrated effort. If we were to determine car insurance premiums based upon the number of miles that we drive we could leverage our savings against those who drive everywhere. They would be forced to consume less simply because they would be unable to afford all of the driving. Enacting immediate changes in MPG requirements and subsidizing companies that reduce consumption while taxing those that use heavily could help. The economic impact of such a decision can hardly be measured by me, but, it’s on the table.

Everything is tied together - change is going to impact our ability to “get by” and may impact our quality of life. We cannot continue to increase consumption at current rates or we are going to see a bubble - a big bubble - and only the those with the most resources in the end will be able to survive.

The American dream is to consume and we do it better than almost any other nation. Lately, prices have risen sharply on an item we all use - oil. We are consuming oil at an alarming rate and despite legislation to increase the gas mileage on cars we are pushing record levels of consumption. As a result of the spike and the lack of new refinery construction we have seen prices at the pump rise to record highs. We have sought ways to make ourselves more energy dependent and one of those ways is through biofuels. The most popular biofuel is ethanol - a product that is grown and produced in my alma mater, Iowa.

So - you’re probably wondering - what the heck is my problem with energy independence? Nothing. I believe that if we reduce our dependence on foreign oil our economic and political decisions will be based more on our needs than those of an other nation. Its a good thing for national security and stability to control our energy prices.

So - you’re probably still wondering - whats my problem with biofuels? That answer is slightly more involved. In order to offset the carbon needed to produce ethanol we are actually polluting more than we are saving by growing the fuel and converting it. Growing cellulose based fuel isn’t as efficient as other types of ethanol (ethyl-alcohol). If we had the appropriate climate, we should be growing as much sugar cane as we possibly can - and I say this with a caveat - we don’t want to do this and negatively impact the environment or food prices as we are currently seeing with traditional ethanol production. Why sugar cane? - it provides larger quantities of fuel while using fewer acres of land and resources to grow. I read an interesting piece at Time magazine and found the following excerpt.

Why is so much money still being poured into such a misguided enterprise? Like the scientists and environmentalists, many politicians genuinely believe biofuels can help decrease global warming. It makes intuitive sense: cars emit carbon no matter what fuel they burn, but the process of growing plants for fuel sucks some of that carbon out of the atmosphere. For years, the big question was whether those reductions from carbon sequestration outweighed the “life cycle” of carbon emissions from farming, converting the crops to fuel and transporting the fuel to market. Researchers eventually concluded that yes, biofuels were greener than gasoline. The improvements were only about 20% for corn ethanol because tractors, petroleum-based fertilizers and distilleries emitted lots of carbon. But the gains approached 90% for more efficient fuels, and advocates were confident that technology would progressively increase benefits.

What should we do with ethanol production in the future - spend more money on research. Food prices have risen sharply and we have seen the start of a global food shortage. Many countries, that depend on our surplus food, have seen prices rise sharply as more of our output was diverted to fuel production. Hopefully, these countries will quickly increase their agriculture production and avert a crisis. They might do as some farmers in Brazil have done and grow food for fuel - thus compounding the problem. You can read a further detailed explanation of the issues at Time magazine.

Ok, I haven’t had any great links to share until today and I found a few that somebody might enjoy

Glen Beck doesn’t believe that Florida and Michigan should get a do-over primary because they broke the rules. Instead of giving reasons why the primaries should be held they are only providing excuses - and he believes that the democratic parties in those states are taking that example from the government.

These stories prove how personal responsibility has all but vanished in America, and our government is leading the way.

A 100 year old man celebrates his birthday at a local Hooters. This man knows how to party

The Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL) is tired of seeing typos. To combat the problem they are venturing across the country in a bid to eradicate them. Check out NPR’s story and the website itself. I’m guilty - thank god for spell check.

A British Chap fended off an attack by over 150 Taliban fighters and was later awarded for his gallantry. During the battle he was hit - all he had to say was

It was just a flesh wound really

Do you think that he watches Monty Python? Read the rest at the TimesOnline

National Geographic has some amazing pictures - this gallery has island aerials. I REALLY want to go to Bora Bora - looks amazing.

This building will create an energy surplus when created AND… its not a power plant.

I’ve been crashing the last few days for some unexplained reason. I’m not driving vehicles into solid objects but rather experiencing my body deplete its energy reserves. Last night, about an hour before chow I noticed that I was having an extremely hard time concentrating. Little bits of time were disappearing and I was wearing down quickly. I knew that I needed to eat soon but I don’t have the ability to speed up time.

We got on the bus to the chow hall and I promptly passed out and woke when we reached the parking lot. I entered, ate my food in 5 minutes, and returned to the bus to sleep for the next 40 minutes. When we got back to work I attempted to check my email and I found that I was falling asleep between messages. I knew that we would be returning to work in 40 minutes and that we would take the bus so I went back outside and passed out.

When we arrived I was a little groggy until we started working. At that point, my body found its energy and I was fine for the rest of the night. I fell asleep, at the normal time, with relative ease.

I woke up two hours early today and I haven’t been able to get back to sleep. I decided to eat something - I am never awake for what the day walkers call “lunch”. I’m not sure how this is going to affect me later. Only time will tell.

My only guess to the cause of the crashes is that is related to my diet. I am not eating enough whole grain foods (that break down slower and provide longer lasting energy) so I’m going to tweak things a bit. We’ll see how it goes.

Many years ago I was involved to some extent in a pig roast. I am not sure what parts of the story are lore or fact but here are the details I can recall. Back in the autumn on ‘00 I was a young college student that knew little about the world around me and about life in general. I was still green behind the ears but was full of energy… not a whole lot of ambition but I had alot of energy. Iowa State Delta Chi had a great tradition of pig roasts during homecoming and I happened to be involved in the whole ordeal. We discussed what we were going to do a few weeks before and we decided that we would buy a whole live pig in order to save a few dollars. A few of us grew up on farms and we assumed that someone would know how to properly (and humanely) kill and dress a live pig. Unfortunately, the person that knew how to do that wasn’t around when the pig arrived. We did some extremely inhumane things to that poor animal before we eventually beat it to death. We couldn’t figure out the proper way to kill it so at one point we were beating it to death with a claw hammer. I, unfortunately, wasn’t around when this transpired. Mike’s brother came over and helped one of the guys from the house dress and clean the pig. Not knowing what to do with the unusable bits, they threw them in a 50 gallon trash can. We did have an insatiable hate for the baseball players so we eventually found a use for the really smelly bits. They cut the pig into chunks, threw it inside the rotisserie, wrapped it all in chicken wire so the good bits didn’t fall out and let it go overnight. The next day we all ate pig until we were physically ill. We had a leftover pig head so we threw it on top of the guts and left the whole thing on the pitchers mound to… give the place a nice odor. Sure, we left it in the trash can and didn’t empty it out as some had suggested. It could have been considered a hate crime if we had a Muslim baseball player involved. After a few days of laughing about it, someone had an attack of consciousness and we took the remains to a place far far away… I think it was a ditch in the country.

So, with that memory in the background I’ve been tasked with cooking hog for an upcoming squadron bbq. As you can tell from the story, I don’t remember that much about the whole process. I think I’m going to do much the same thing… aside from killing and dressing a pig to save a few shekels. I’m just going to get a whole bunch of pig… because we’re looking at feeding roughly 400 people…. so I’ve got to figure out exactly how much uncooked pig we’ve got to acquire.

Needless to say, if you have any advice or bbq related anecdotes feel free to leave me a comment.

Yesterday the virus was kicking my ass to a fro and there was naught I could do about it. Today, it appears, the tables have turned and it has found that the foe it is facing is much more formidable than it thought. It now struggles for survival as my body washes it out in wave after wave of mucus. My energy level has shot through the roof and those that know me would find me… well, obnoxious with my current state of energy. You know how I am

-I cant sit still
-I cant shut up
-You can’t get away from me

I wish I was this cranked all of the time as I tend to have good days when I have this much energy.

Wow, I think thats as close as I can get to a 180 degree flip from yesterday.

I have a little too much spare time on my hands and not enough energy to exercise during all of it. I have been getting out and going to the gym and making sure that I don’t turn into a fat-ass while I am over here. In an another week or so I should get internet in my room so I won’t have to go to another room and snag a free wireless signal. Hopefully, I won’t use this as an excuse to leave my room less often and not exercise.

Tonight I ate at the Lucky Fisherman, a seafood buffet. I had to flush twice after I was done but it was well worth it. Alligator gumbo is pretty darn tasty. I’ve been doing my best to avoid the buffets but when I do go out and eat I make sure to stay away from the carbs wherever possible and eat alot of protein.

I called home the other day and had nothing to say. My lack of internet connection has left me without up-to-date news and without some of my normal speech fodder. I can’t stand to sit through TV news as well… lets just say I’m not a fan of the format or the delivery. I’d rather read it and get all of the info within a few minutes than sit through an hour of crap for just a few facts on the case.

Thats about it, the real work for me starts tommorow so hopefully it will all go well.

Yesterday was a surprisingly productive day. I finished most of my major projects at work and passed them off to the people that have to review and approve the corrective actions. Its only taken two weeks to get where I am now; it normally only takes 2-3 days to take care of this kind of work. This month, because someone out there hates me, its taken quite a while. It doesn’t help that others were… forced to help me out with this stuff.

I took care of my yard yesterday; its a chore that I loath. All of my neighbors have electric hedge clippers while I made the decision when I got here that manual was the only way to go. If I bought electrics I would only have to get rid of them when I left this Island… its just not worth it. The whole process does give me a rather decent workout… manual clippers take quite a bit of energy.

Gotta get ready for work… more later

I know how I might feel when I get old, just like I feel when I leave the gym. I probably shouldn’t drive because I can barely focus on anything because I drain myself of energy. I don’t have anything left to give.

Today I probably should have stayed there for a while after I left because I don’t even really remember driving home. I know that I’m eating enough of the right things but maybe I’m pushing too hard. Then again, maybe I should push all of the time so I don’t get so worn out. I’ll just raise the bar.

Its been a while since I’ve had enough material to rant about but seeing that it is the one thing I do best, its time for another edition (this one is going to be profane)

Gasoline:

I remember when I could fill the ‘85 Plymouth Voyager for $16 and put almost 28 gallons of gas in the dang beast. I remember when I could fill my Galant for $20 and put 22 gallons in the dang thing. I remember coming to England and putting $25 in my Passat to fill the gas tank. Today, to put the same amount of gas in my auto I spent $35

Exxon made a record amount of profit last year… Gas prices are as high as I’ve ever seen them and the oil companies are making record profits. Hmm… something seems to be amiss here. You would think that they would be spending more to get crude oil but it appears that we’re just being fucked at the pump. I’m not sure if the additional cost that has been passed on to us has to do with anything other than the fact that they know they can gouge us as much as they want and we can do little or nothing about it. If we stage a one day strike on the pumps all we’ll need to do is to put that much more into our auto’s the next day. If we all decide to ride public transit… when you can get public transit, we’re still giving them money in the long run. I think its high fucking time we came up with an alternative fuel source. We should tax the living fuck out of oil company profits until we can come up with something better. Lets rewrite the tax code so that we can tax end profits and not just revenue… it would make their accountants work like maniacs in a vain attempt to hide all of their earnings. Fuck them and their oil.

Women:

What the FUCK? I think they spend most of their time huffing paint and doing goofballs before they come outside to talk to men. I do my damndest to understand what their deal is but I am often aloof to what is going on. Sure, they’re still worth it but why can’t they be easy to read like guys are. If you satisfy that darwinian nechian need of men to eat, protect, and procreate we’ve got all that we really need in life. The rest of it is just there so that we can kill time when we aren’t doing one of those things. I don’t know what the hell is going on most of the time and it drives me crazy.

I think they are just here in an effort to see how high they can get our blood pressure to go. Maybe that is why men have predominantly more heart attacks than women.

Weather:

Why does it have to be crummy on the weekends but great one the weekdays?
(luckily I was off all week but what the hell is going on around here?)

Ok, here is the deal. Right now I have so much energy that I am forced to type and retype everything that I want to put down because my hands are almost shaking. I really want to go to the gym to burn off some of the excess energy but I can’t because I have a tattoo that got reworked and it needs time to finish healing before I make the skin stretch like crazy. Its only got a few more days before I can return to my normal routine. Speaking of routing, next Monday I head back to work. Its been over a month since I’ve been there and I don’t think that I miss one thing about it. I miss the people that I work with but I can see them outside of work this making work…. worthless.

Dang!