Thursdays are becoming my favorite work day. Mostly because I subscribe to the Answer Me This! Podcast and it drops every thursday morning. Sometimes I try and wait to listen but I get excited and cant hold out.
I think you should listen also because i care and want good things for you.
Enjoy!
~Tweets
B
31 July 2008
28 July 2008
"Life Would Be Tragic If It Weren't Funny"
Stephen Hawking knew what he was talking about.
I have six or so items I have been saving up since none merit a posting of their own. Enjoy the little buggers
* Curling: Cubie and I went to a Learn to Curl class last thursday. It was super fun and I am investigating leagues and a three week learning "league" in August. It is hard to explain but actually throwing the stones is harder and easier than it looks. I didnt fall, though i did tip over while in the throwing position. I highly recommend trying it out if you live in the Denver/metro area (Ice Ranch). If not, get ye to a near by rink and check it out.
* Congressional Baseball: Did you know that each year the members of congress get together and play a baseball game? Reps versus Dems...each player wearing a uniform inspired by their home state/town/high school. Yeah me neither. Did you know that this year was the 47th annual? Yeah, me neither. I have missed 47 congressional baseball games?! Crazy. This year the democrats lost, again. They are 0-8 and have only won 1 out of the last 11 games. Yikes...how can we rule the country if we keep making costly errors in the final inning like overthrowing first on the final out and allowing two republicans to score?
* Duck Bakon:
Bacon, by it's very definition is, "a side of a pig cured and smoked" So duck cant be bacon. Only delicious bacon can be bacon. Also, where exactly on the duck does this bakon come from I wonder?
* Movies: I dont know if you have heard but the Dark Knight is pretty good. I am going to go out on a limb here and say, Go See It. On the other hand, avoid the X Files movie at all costs. It is horrible and random and stupid and makes no sense at all. Let me share one of the dumb scenes that is typical of the whole movie.
::scene:: West Virginia-dead of winter-freezing and snowing like a bitch
Mulder: Here's a swimming suit, it is frozen solid!
FBI Lady Amanda Peet: *sniffs* Chlorine! She must have been at the pool!
Mulder and FBI Lady: *super excited 'WOW We Are Smart Faces!'*
Really, dead of fucking winter and you think she was swimming in a pool rather than...hmm a totally frozen fucking lake? There was no reason to have this exchange. They could have just picked it up and said, hmm...lets go to the pool. Lame
* Truman Capote: Wow. Have you actually read anything by this cat? I am slightly embarrassed that i havent read it until now. Needless to say, super excellent. I have to agree with Norman Mailer when he said about Capote, "He writes the best sentences word for word, rhythm upon rhythm." For example...
"We eat our supper (cold biscuits, bacon, blackberry jam) and discuss tomorrow. Tomorrow the kind of work I like best begins: buying. Cherries and citron, ginger and vanilla and canned Hawaiian pineapple, rinds and raisins and walnuts and whiskey and oh, so much flour, butter, so many eggs, spices, flavorings: why we'll need a pony to pull the buggy home." - A Christmas Memory
Go pick his stuff up now because you wont be sorry.
* All things Border Related: Seriously, i spent all day trying to get information about ownership in the Marfa Sector. I spoke to...no less than ten folks who transferred me to random switch boards and a Sprint/Nextel salesman. I randomly called a number and ended up talking to an Army Corps person in New Mexico (lucky!). He just got back from Afghanistan where he was randomly called by people hoping to speak to the Social Security folks in Virginia. (Q says, "Hi, this is the Social Security Administration, Afghanistan Office...)
I have spent the better part of a week trying to talk to someone at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality about a dissolved water district only to be passed along over and over again. Finally a nice young man named Justin, who called me ma'am, was able to help (in that he officially confirmed that all my searching has been a waste of time). They do grow them polite in Texas.
All in all, work has been extremely frustrating but i suppose this is the nature of research. Lord knows i have been here before.
Being rejected by all things Texas..."Life would be tragic if it weren't funny."
I have six or so items I have been saving up since none merit a posting of their own. Enjoy the little buggers
* Curling: Cubie and I went to a Learn to Curl class last thursday. It was super fun and I am investigating leagues and a three week learning "league" in August. It is hard to explain but actually throwing the stones is harder and easier than it looks. I didnt fall, though i did tip over while in the throwing position. I highly recommend trying it out if you live in the Denver/metro area (Ice Ranch). If not, get ye to a near by rink and check it out.
* Congressional Baseball: Did you know that each year the members of congress get together and play a baseball game? Reps versus Dems...each player wearing a uniform inspired by their home state/town/high school. Yeah me neither. Did you know that this year was the 47th annual? Yeah, me neither. I have missed 47 congressional baseball games?! Crazy. This year the democrats lost, again. They are 0-8 and have only won 1 out of the last 11 games. Yikes...how can we rule the country if we keep making costly errors in the final inning like overthrowing first on the final out and allowing two republicans to score?
* Duck Bakon:
Bacon, by it's very definition is, "a side of a pig cured and smoked" So duck cant be bacon. Only delicious bacon can be bacon. Also, where exactly on the duck does this bakon come from I wonder?
* Movies: I dont know if you have heard but the Dark Knight is pretty good. I am going to go out on a limb here and say, Go See It. On the other hand, avoid the X Files movie at all costs. It is horrible and random and stupid and makes no sense at all. Let me share one of the dumb scenes that is typical of the whole movie.
::scene:: West Virginia-dead of winter-freezing and snowing like a bitch
Mulder: Here's a swimming suit, it is frozen solid!
FBI Lady Amanda Peet: *sniffs* Chlorine! She must have been at the pool!
Mulder and FBI Lady: *super excited 'WOW We Are Smart Faces!'*
Really, dead of fucking winter and you think she was swimming in a pool rather than...hmm a totally frozen fucking lake? There was no reason to have this exchange. They could have just picked it up and said, hmm...lets go to the pool. Lame
* Truman Capote: Wow. Have you actually read anything by this cat? I am slightly embarrassed that i havent read it until now. Needless to say, super excellent. I have to agree with Norman Mailer when he said about Capote, "He writes the best sentences word for word, rhythm upon rhythm." For example...
"We eat our supper (cold biscuits, bacon, blackberry jam) and discuss tomorrow. Tomorrow the kind of work I like best begins: buying. Cherries and citron, ginger and vanilla and canned Hawaiian pineapple, rinds and raisins and walnuts and whiskey and oh, so much flour, butter, so many eggs, spices, flavorings: why we'll need a pony to pull the buggy home." - A Christmas Memory
Go pick his stuff up now because you wont be sorry.
* All things Border Related: Seriously, i spent all day trying to get information about ownership in the Marfa Sector. I spoke to...no less than ten folks who transferred me to random switch boards and a Sprint/Nextel salesman. I randomly called a number and ended up talking to an Army Corps person in New Mexico (lucky!). He just got back from Afghanistan where he was randomly called by people hoping to speak to the Social Security folks in Virginia. (Q says, "Hi, this is the Social Security Administration, Afghanistan Office...)
I have spent the better part of a week trying to talk to someone at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality about a dissolved water district only to be passed along over and over again. Finally a nice young man named Justin, who called me ma'am, was able to help (in that he officially confirmed that all my searching has been a waste of time). They do grow them polite in Texas.
All in all, work has been extremely frustrating but i suppose this is the nature of research. Lord knows i have been here before.
Being rejected by all things Texas..."Life would be tragic if it weren't funny."
25 July 2008
Stuff and Junk
Hello all my faithful readers (three of you) and everyone else who accidentally finds the webpage in their random searches for puffin images and "ipod" "game".
I have been rather uncommunicative recently. Grouchy and little to share.
I am building up a couple of stories i want to share and today was the day but my head hurts and I am in a sour mood because no one I speak with on the phone is able to help me with anything i need.
I think I am going to skip the post and instead show you a photo. Perhaps the heat this weekend will trap me inside and allow me to chat with all of you.
Happy weekends...
Bird
I have been rather uncommunicative recently. Grouchy and little to share.
I am building up a couple of stories i want to share and today was the day but my head hurts and I am in a sour mood because no one I speak with on the phone is able to help me with anything i need.
I think I am going to skip the post and instead show you a photo. Perhaps the heat this weekend will trap me inside and allow me to chat with all of you.
Happy weekends...
Bird
23 July 2008
Ag Aggravation
I am mad at all things agricultural this morning.
Stupid ranches.
And, as always, I am miffed at irrigation resources as well.
Seriously, how did i get smooshed into this pigeon hole? As you can clearly see I am a puffin, not a pigeon.
Annoyed Bird...
Stupid ranches.
And, as always, I am miffed at irrigation resources as well.
Seriously, how did i get smooshed into this pigeon hole? As you can clearly see I am a puffin, not a pigeon.
Annoyed Bird...
18 July 2008
16 July 2008
If I Could Have Only One Wish...
...I wish for this Mama Mia excitement to die. I am tempted to wish a slow death upon it but that would drag out my exposure to the goddamn plot line and songs that, if i had liked at one point, I now cannot stand.
Part of the problem is that a quick look at the title instantly sticks the ABBA song in your head and nothing short of "I'm Henry The 8th I Am..." or "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime..." will dislodge it.
The other problem is that i hate musicals. hate hate hate them....
Also, Meryl Streep in overalls? How many times do I have to say this people; only children and very pregnant women are allowed to wear overalls (you hear me crazy hippie wearing cutoff overalls at the Brewgrass last weekend?)! AND, if the very presence of the horrid things werent enough, she only has one buckle done. That style is never allowed.
Please god, make it all end!!
Part of the problem is that a quick look at the title instantly sticks the ABBA song in your head and nothing short of "I'm Henry The 8th I Am..." or "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime..." will dislodge it.
The other problem is that i hate musicals. hate hate hate them....
Also, Meryl Streep in overalls? How many times do I have to say this people; only children and very pregnant women are allowed to wear overalls (you hear me crazy hippie wearing cutoff overalls at the Brewgrass last weekend?)! AND, if the very presence of the horrid things werent enough, she only has one buckle done. That style is never allowed.
Please god, make it all end!!
14 July 2008
Offshore Drilling
President Bush is lifting the executive ban on offshore drilling.
It doesnt mean much as Congress needs to lift its ban before drilling could be allowed but I thought it would give me an opportunity to discuss just how much oil is thought to be out there and what that really means to us here in the US.
It can be difficult to understand how much oil is really out there waiting for our rigs to come and pump it out. Numbers between 86 billion barrels (in the OCS) to as few as 3.6 billion barrels have been spewed about. These are pretty disparate numbers so how many barrels are we really talking about and how does that translate into what the US is actually consuming?
As expected, it all depends on whom you are talking to. Engineers tend to give three numbers when talking about how much oil there is in an area. The high, the mean, and the low. Supporters of lifting the ban tend to use the high number while people opposing the lifting of the ban use the low numbers.
In addition, we talk in billions of barrels, which is a pretty abstract concept. How long does a barrel last and how many barrels do we use in the U.S. each day?
Lets look at ANWR, or the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The high, mean and low numbers often used are 16 billion barrels, 10.4 billion barrels, and 5.7 billion barrels respectively. These numbers fluctuate depending on what website you are checking out but not enough to really skew the outcome.
The US uses approximately 20 million barrels of oil a day with 45% of that total going towards gas. Doing some quick math that means that ANWR has enough oil to supply the United States for just over 2 years at the high number, just over 1 year at the mean number, and just over 10 months at the low number.
Doesnt sound so impressive when it is broken down into units that mean something to non-petroleum engineers.
President Bush says there could be as much as 18 billion barrels of oil just sitting off our coast if Congress would just go and drill it. Putting that in perspective, it comes to a supply that will last us 2 years and five months. Others suggest that there is more like 3.6 billion offshore that isnt already being tapped. That would only give us an additional 6 months of oil.
Also, none of this oil would see our gas tanks or plastic factories or chapstick tubes until several years from now.
There has to be a better idea than just drilling for more oil right? I mean, wouldnt it make more sense to take the amount of money we would spend drilling and give it to companies who are developing renewable energy? Give them the ten years we would be waiting for ANWR or Offshore oil to hit the market and see what they come up with?
I should point out that i am writing all this from the local Discount Tires where i sit and wait for the tire monkeys to fit my birdmobile with new Mohave Tires.
Fair disclosure and all...
B
It doesnt mean much as Congress needs to lift its ban before drilling could be allowed but I thought it would give me an opportunity to discuss just how much oil is thought to be out there and what that really means to us here in the US.
It can be difficult to understand how much oil is really out there waiting for our rigs to come and pump it out. Numbers between 86 billion barrels (in the OCS) to as few as 3.6 billion barrels have been spewed about. These are pretty disparate numbers so how many barrels are we really talking about and how does that translate into what the US is actually consuming?
As expected, it all depends on whom you are talking to. Engineers tend to give three numbers when talking about how much oil there is in an area. The high, the mean, and the low. Supporters of lifting the ban tend to use the high number while people opposing the lifting of the ban use the low numbers.
In addition, we talk in billions of barrels, which is a pretty abstract concept. How long does a barrel last and how many barrels do we use in the U.S. each day?
Lets look at ANWR, or the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The high, mean and low numbers often used are 16 billion barrels, 10.4 billion barrels, and 5.7 billion barrels respectively. These numbers fluctuate depending on what website you are checking out but not enough to really skew the outcome.
The US uses approximately 20 million barrels of oil a day with 45% of that total going towards gas. Doing some quick math that means that ANWR has enough oil to supply the United States for just over 2 years at the high number, just over 1 year at the mean number, and just over 10 months at the low number.
Doesnt sound so impressive when it is broken down into units that mean something to non-petroleum engineers.
President Bush says there could be as much as 18 billion barrels of oil just sitting off our coast if Congress would just go and drill it. Putting that in perspective, it comes to a supply that will last us 2 years and five months. Others suggest that there is more like 3.6 billion offshore that isnt already being tapped. That would only give us an additional 6 months of oil.
Also, none of this oil would see our gas tanks or plastic factories or chapstick tubes until several years from now.
There has to be a better idea than just drilling for more oil right? I mean, wouldnt it make more sense to take the amount of money we would spend drilling and give it to companies who are developing renewable energy? Give them the ten years we would be waiting for ANWR or Offshore oil to hit the market and see what they come up with?
I should point out that i am writing all this from the local Discount Tires where i sit and wait for the tire monkeys to fit my birdmobile with new Mohave Tires.
Fair disclosure and all...
B
09 July 2008
Brooms and Stones and Zamboni's...
Oh My!
Cubie and I signed up for a curling class in a couple of weeks.
I am beyond excited and assumed everyone else would be as well. I mean, we are talking about curling here. As it turns out...most people kinda rolled their eyes or openly laughed at me.
Sadness. How can they not appreciate the majesty of the broom?
I am hoping that i turn out to be some kind of curling savant...if not, I hope to have a good time.
The other very exciting news is that I am finally taking a Zamboni class. On August 2nd I am going to plop down my cash, take a quick two hour class, and drive myself some zamboni!
Don't be jealous...i will still talk to you after it is all over.
Peaches and Tweets
~B
Cubie and I signed up for a curling class in a couple of weeks.
I am beyond excited and assumed everyone else would be as well. I mean, we are talking about curling here. As it turns out...most people kinda rolled their eyes or openly laughed at me.
Sadness. How can they not appreciate the majesty of the broom?
I am hoping that i turn out to be some kind of curling savant...if not, I hope to have a good time.
The other very exciting news is that I am finally taking a Zamboni class. On August 2nd I am going to plop down my cash, take a quick two hour class, and drive myself some zamboni!
Don't be jealous...i will still talk to you after it is all over.
Peaches and Tweets
~B
07 July 2008
Music and Fun
After returning from Texas i promptly went and purchased some music. There is only so much old timey country and spanish polka music a bird can take, you see.
One was the self titled Vampire Weekend album. Bueno! As i was telling Palmer, this is the archetype band for my favorite style of music (favorite of the moment, of course). Very indie pop but just different enough to keep me interested.
May i suggest you listen to Campus and relive some wonderful college days...
~Tweets
B
One was the self titled Vampire Weekend album. Bueno! As i was telling Palmer, this is the archetype band for my favorite style of music (favorite of the moment, of course). Very indie pop but just different enough to keep me interested.
May i suggest you listen to Campus and relive some wonderful college days...
~Tweets
B
03 July 2008
Im Leaving On a Jet Plane...
Two sadly ass posts for ten days of work. Sorry folks who tuned in hoping to find some sort of something. The good news is that I will be leaving today and that means...
...well nothing really.
But it means I get to sleep in my own bed with mister q and not shovel and screen for a while, which is nice for me.
Alright folks, i will see you soon...
Bird
...well nothing really.
But it means I get to sleep in my own bed with mister q and not shovel and screen for a while, which is nice for me.
Alright folks, i will see you soon...
Bird
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