Just landed on the ground after a trip to Detroit, or the motor city. No, my absence from xanga was not caused by me being some 1000 miles away in the birthplaces of some of the worlds greatest wheeled vehicles (such as the Ford Taurus) but rather by my laziness and also because I couldn't find much to write about. My life has been pretty boring as of late. Just trips back and forth between my parents house, drinking some beer and then staying up way too late for my own good, then getting up around 1 and just sitting on my computer all day. Granted, that's nice every now and then, but after a semester of living vicariously through this machine, you get kindof sick of it all.
Fast forward through a weekend, and part of a week, and you have the start of spring semester.
I cannot wait.
My list of projects is huge, some of them I have started to tackle, others I don't even know about. I guess the first part will be cataloguing all of the pictures of concept cars and pre-production models I took this weekend ( there were alot, more on that later). The centerpiece of it all is going to be the huge machine that exists only in my head right now. It's going to be exciting to get back into the shop and get excited about melding pieces of junk into something tangible. I'll need 6 of you to help me out, if and when I finish building it. I'm excited to design again. I think for so long I have not seen ideas spelled out, nor have I seen good ideas in general. Call it a design void, but having a lack of well-designed things to look at makes me slowly go crazy...
Back to the automobiles. Detroit is such an overwhelming place. The auto show there was overwhelming. Hundreds upon hundreds of gleaming automobiles to look at. Cars from next year, 5 years from now, and even 20 years from now are there, but sadly you are not allowed to drive them. The sheer number of people who came out to see shiny steel and rubber was even more overwhelming. over 90,000 people were there. I don't think I've ever been in the same building with 90,000 humans before, all crowding around the various cars to try and see what we'll all be driving next year. or in 10 years.
I was kindof disappointed, however. I saw all of next years shiny cars, but I feel like automakers are about as lost as everyone else is when it comes to 10 years down the road. What are we going to be driving then? How is it going to be powered? I didn't see much of that. I saw more of more. More power. Bigger seats. More space. More gadgets. I do have to hand it to some of the companies for putting more into an attractive package, and some of the concepts that really attempted to solve the problems we all face when we drive. I was really impressed with Toyota and Honda and how they tried to out-do each other with their concept cars. Nissan also had an exciting display. The big surprise I'd have to say was Ford. I was not expecting as many different cars from their studios. GM was a huge disappointment as usual. Just a bunch of large trucks and SUVs and a half-assed attempt at a hybrid. Same with Dodge, but Chrysler had some interesting things. I was kindof disappointed by BMW, they didn't have a concept car to show. Neither did VW, but you can't really dog on them too much. Their displays were interesting. Audi and Mercedes were right next to each other, and both had equally awesome displays. I still think that with this show being in Detroit, home of all that is automotive and american, I would have expected to see more interesting and innovative products in the GM section. I hate walking in there and seeing next years rental car fleet and next years soccer-mom-mobile, especially from a company that is rich in automotive history and loyal fans. GM is loosing their audience faster than ever before. Buyers are turning to Ford and Chrysler for their fun. They are looking to Japan for the future. To Germany for Design. As gas prices rise, and people begin to realize how unexciting SUVs really are to drive, they are trading in their suburbans and pickups for things which are more efficient and fun to drive. Other car companies seemed to have a strong indication that they are ready for the future, but GM just spent billions on a new truck platform. I don't see them going many great places very fast. They have a heavy load to pull.
Enough about GM. How about Henry Ford? You know the guy who practically built the city of Detroit? If you are in Detroit (it's not as bad as everyone says it is, just remember to rent a car, there's not many other ways to get around) be sure to visit Dearborn and the Henry Ford, also known as the Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Villiage "historical site" and the River Rouge plant tour. My father and I visited the museum, and that in itself was a day. The museum is overwhelming; the fact that Henry Ford himself collected many of the artifacts on display is impressive in itself. Be sure to check out the Dymaxion House and the collection of stationary steam engines. They are massive.
It's christmas eve. I don't want to say "it's finally christmas eve" because it came up pretty quickly. I like to think that we are prepared for it. I don't know. I don't think christmas is here yet. There aren't enough decorations up around town. I guess I'm just used to seeing christmas (decorations) everywhere I go. In my home, in school, in the city, but this year it wasn't any of those places, except for the lights in my room, the Sufjan Stevens album in my computer and the lights on mass street. Oh well. I wish we all would have gotten together as friends with a guitar and whatevery portable instruments everyone plays and some Jagermeister or other fine liquer and then walked around the neighborhoods of Lawrence singing christmas carols. Badly. off key. It doesn't matter. What matters is the season, baby.
But I think why we as (older) people are so disappointed with christmas, is that our demands for the season are much deeper than they were when we were younger. Our wants and needs are no longer material, but human. The excitement as a child was seeing santa, the wonderful presents our parents were able to afford for us, watching rudoph the red nosed raindeer on TV, etc. Now that we are all older, it seems as though we all care less about the material things. The gifts just don't do it for me/us anymore. This year I felt that especially. I just don't care what my parents have bought me and my siblings. I think I care more about going to my grandfathers house. eating lots of food. Talking to my mom as I type this thing out. Making jokes with my uncle and my mom. Having my grandma stay with us and watching bits of A Christmas Story and Christmas Vacations. It's true. I care more about seeing my family and hanging out with them and eating lots and lots of good food with them than the presents I get.
New Years is coming up next weekend. I really hope that all of you are spending it with the awesome people in your life, because that's what new years is about, atleast for me. I have never experienced new years with all of the awesome people in my life, just the ones I call my family. This year I hope I can spend it with more awesome people. Remember to take it easy on the champagne.
Merry Christmas. Happy Hannukah. and Have a wonderful holiday.
Okay, so this is my rant about alternative energy. First off, I want to say that this is something we as a people have to do. Our future depends on it. Global warming is a very real thing. I experienced it first hand this summer. It was literally the hottest summer out of the 3 I've worked outside. I mean, this problem is really friggin scary! Our weather really is changing, whether we like or not. Something tells me this isn't some "natural" climate change going on here. I think we are to blame for this. I mean think about it. There are ~6 billion people on earth. Alot of them burn things. Especially the rainforests around the equator, fossil fuels, trash, grasslands, etc. I think that this probably produces MUCH more carbon dioxide than mother nature ever did by herself. I feel like I'm preaching to the choir, but here goes....
So, we are to blame for this temperature change right? what can I, the average person do about it? I hate being dishonest, so I'll get right to the point: You can't do this alone. No. You can't. You have to involve your friends, your parents, your community, your neighborhood, your city, your state, your country hell even your world to solve this problem. It's so fucking huge that even if we as americans changed our lifestyles to what many suggest doing to circumvent this problem, it still wouldn't do a whole lot. And while we do need to change our lifestyles here, there needs to be more of a push to educate those in developing nations. which leads us into a catch 22 here...these people don't yet have the economic might to research and invest in alternative energy, atleast not on the scale that we do. So, while it would be wise to educate these people how to use their land, convert over to solar energy, yadayadayada, it would severly stunt their national economic growth. Plus we know what happens when we go into some "3rd world" nation and try to "teach them what's better for them". Soooooo.....
We are going to have to shoulder this burden, for the time being, along with every other 1st world industrialized nation on earth. I think you could eventually get the rest of the world to move towards alternative energy, if you could prove it's success. I think the majority of people are just fine with the status quo, which makes sense. Alot of us are afraid of change, especially for reasons that don't make sense to us. So it will take a while to convince people to change their lifestyles worldwide to solve this problem, even if the solutions are not much of a sacrifice in comfort and convenience.
Here's What we need to do. I'm not calling for the immediate implementation of these plans, but rather a gradual implementation over time, to allow these technologies to develop and improve. Good news is alot of these things are already in motion.
First off- The debate of our wonderful means of conveyance: the automobile. I'm going to be honest here: The magical alternative fuel doesn't exist. It simply doesn't I'm sad to say. It's not ethanol. It's not hydrogen. It's not bio-diesel (although they are good ideas). To solve this problem we are going to have to reduce our CONSUMPTION. This news isn't necessarily good for our habits, or our established businesses which make alot of money. The truth is, we are going to have to reduce our consumption of petroleum products. That means less driving. That means smaller cars. But more importantly less driving. Our wonderful system of automobile transportation is going to have to change.
Sad thing is, right now our system is heavily slanted towards auto-based development. Our cities and suburbs do not have the density to support mass transit, and after years without this amenity, people have a negative association with it, particularly busses. there is no alternative to driving. Which is the solution here. Alternative energy should not be where we invest our time and energy. It should be in alternative TRANSPORTATION. After all, the act of getting from point a to point b is where we burn the most of our foreign oil right? So, with our huge car based suburbs, what are we going to do to solve this problem of global warming (and funding violence in the middle east, but that's a whole 'nother rant). I didn't say we'd come up with the solution overnight!
It takes time. Cities have alot of grayfield land, that is, older malls, suburbs, industrial areas, downtown areas, that is little used, under used or abandoned. It is time that we return to the city. Return to neighborhoods where it is not necessary to own a car, but it sure is nice to have it. the key here is alternatives to driving, not eliminating cars. Redevelop the old malls into denser, mixed use neighborhoods, with shopping and housing within walking distance. Shift the many trips and errands we make closer to home, so fewer auto trips are necessary. A good example would be the neighborhood where I live, directly north and east of the campus. The homes are closer together, with mixed densities. Apartments are next door to huge house, which are next door to smaller single family homes. and it's all within a few blocks of campus and downtown lawrence. I rarely drive on a daily basis to get to campus, but it's nice to have a car to make the bi-weekly trip to the grocery store. This lifestyle might not work with everyone, but I think it works well for alot of people here.
Mass transit is a very important part of this solution as well. Creating a mass transit system that is efficient, convenient and easy to use will be VITAL in the next 15-30 years. I don't care who does it, but I believe as oil prices climb and that alternative fuel fails to materialize, people will be demanding more of it. Look at Kansas City, while the light rail measure they passed isn't nearly enough to create a successful service, it shows people want it and are willing to pay for it. Remember, the key here is alternatives to driving. There needs to be many ways of getting from point a to point b, and prefferrably as many as possible which do not use fossil fuels. That means electric trains. and maglevs. Europe has a successful system installed, so does the east coast, and people still drive in those places. The key is a multi-modal transportation system that gives people the most choices without being too overwhelming.
Enough about transport. I realize I could have said ALOT MORE about that. Hell, that's another rant.
Electric energy is very easy to generate by renewable resources. You can use, wind, the sun and moving water to generate elecricity, often times with little or no environmental impact. Wind and solar technologies are particularly appealing as they are available on small enough scales that you the homeowner can purchase and use these technologies! Building a wind turbine might not work for all of us, with our smaller yards, but we could put solar panels on our roofs to capture that energy. I think it is particularly attractive when you hook solar panels up to the grid. The benefits are very numerous. I think many homeowners would love the idea of their electric bill shrinking considerably, disappearing altogether, or better yet...the electric company sending you a check in the mail! Building a wind turbine or a solar panel reduces demand on the grid, even if only by a bit, which means less coal burned for power. There is alot of unused roof space in america. I see no reason why there aren't solar panels up there.
Another "alternative" that many overlook is Nuclear energy. The word nuclear is a pretty touchy subjects, what with Chernobyl and all. Indeed, nuclear power plants aren't exactly clean, but I mean, their polution is much more contained than emitting tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. Perhaps the main reason I say we should re-consider nuclear energy is because of Pebble Bed Reactors. Basically, this reactor places the radioactive materials in carbon balls with special materials inside which prevent the fuel from overheating. In simpler terms, these reactors can't melt down! They have run several tests to prove it. The chinese are building hundreds of these reactors (along with coal plants) while we are building more traditional reactors here. What to do with the waste is still a very complicated and controversial issue. If you want my far-fetched idea of how to get rid of all of that junk, I'd say blast it towards the sun, and pray to god it burns up in the photosphere. If it comes back towards us, then I guess we are kindof fucked. Oh well. It was a good idea right?
Okay, I know this was looong as hell. I hope some of you made it a few paragraphs few.
Macs are god like. I thought mine was dead, but it has resurrected! Rejoice!
Winter is here. Finally. I think we have a few weeks before the winter solstice, but I'm glad it's seasonal again. I will miss the nice warmer temperatures. Think about all of the fun things we can enjoy like sweaters, hot chocolate, fires, ice and warm hearty winter stews. Maybe not so much the ice. I can't ride my bike on that very well.
Finals week is next week. The end of the semester is so close I can taste it. Damnit. This semester went way too fast. I'm going home for most of break more than likely to recuperate from this semester. I have to write 3 papers before it's all said and done and make a website mockup and a photoshop presentation of a toy we designed. The weird part is, that I am not stressed about it. the workload seems to have gone down. Or maybe I'm just not as interested in what I am working on, so I do enough to scrape along. Industrial Design doesn't interest me as much. It seems really kindof competitive, and I'm not much for competition. But it is also a very broad field. So there is alot to do in it. I have 2 senior years to figure out what it is I will be doing with my degree.
