Radical Change calls for Radical Ideas

So, of all the places I'd expect to hear about new green initiatives, this one actually comes from my boss. He forwarded me an e-mail yesterday that said:

As an outgrowth of my decades of focus on state capitals and Governors around the country, I have been working with a coalition of environmental groups, trade associations, and businesses to organize and promote what will be the nation’s biggest virtual march to support the passage of a new energy bill through Congress that will take the next critical steps in finally declaring America’s independence from foreign oil. This is now not just an energy issue, but an environmental issue and a national security issue. The Stimulus bill put the necessary incentives in place for renewable energy investments, but now we need the next piece: green transmission, a national renewable portfolio standard and incentives to get our nations heavy trucks off diesel and onto natural gas.

The March is being led by Robert Kennedy Jr. and T. Boone Pickens – a pairing that surely makes the point that this is an issue that transcends politics and party and is the patriotic cause of our lifetime.

Over 1.9 million people have agreed so far to participate. It is our goal to stimulate over 1 million contacts to the Congress over that three-day period.

So, at first I was naturally skeptical, but then I started reading about T. Boone Pickens' investements and recent green-business developments. The gist of the "Pickens Plan", as it's called, is to shift existing technologies in a way that will enable/cause us to use more American energy sources and become more self-sufficient. Right now, 22% of our electricity is generated from Natural Gas. The Pickens Plan calls for tax dollars/incentives to utilyze Wind Power to generate that 22% of electricity production, and shift the Natural Gas volume over for use in transportation. Figures supplied by the Pickens Plan indicate that doing so could replace 36% of the current gasoline/diesel usage with Natural Gas harvested in America.

In the interest of full disclosure, Pickens and the group he chairs, own the largest wind farm and the largest chain of Natural Gas fueling stations in the U.S., so enacting these measures would cause a large financial reward to Pickens. That said, last year Pickens made $2.7 billion as the manager of BP Capital hedge fund, mostly on profits from Suncorp & Exxonmobile, the largest oil companies in North Amercia; so whichever way you go on this proposal, he's still making money. This makes me clearly side with the route that helps the environment.

For more info on the Plan, and how you can help, visit:
http://www.pickensplan.com/virtualmarch/

How have I never found this before

Just got done watching Dr Horrible's Sing-along Blog, and this is awesome

1.) NPH
2.) the uber-cute Felicia Day (in a nerdy way, like Zooey Deschanel)
3.) Freeze Rays
4.) made by Joss Whedon (of Buffy/Angel/Firefly/X-Men/Dollhouse fame)

I recommend checking it out right away. A solid 43 minutes of sweet!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog

I didn't think it was possible, either...

...but Scarlett Johanssen just got even hotter now that I know she'll be playing Black Widow in Iron Man 2.

Damn you Cobra Starship

Just like everything else Pete Wentz touches, you started out cool & rocking, and now you're just trendy fodder.

"You Can't be missed if you never go away" was such a great song, made me look up the rest of your first album... .then you follow it up with what? 83,000 MTV-commercial mini-appearances and 1 dud of a sophmore album.

Then again, I guess you were just preparing me for the lump of coal that would be GCH's recent album.

I should have seen the warning signs, but I just couldn't quit you...

Now I'm back to brit-rock!!

Twitter-pated?

Learned about Twitter on Thursday and it's been off-to-the-races since then. Now to just avoid this:
http://tinyurl.com/cx723z

Absense

Notice how I didn't post anything in February?
Yeah, that was supposed to be Sweeps Month, in which I would provide a life-changing series titled "Random & Awesome Solves the Problems".
As such, the problem I could not solve was procrastination.


Five Things I did in February Instead of Blogging
1.) Ignored the Cardinals and told people "real sports start in March" (Baseball & UEFA Champions' League Playoffs, if you weren't clear)
2.) Drank less beer. Yeah, not sure how/why that happened
3.) Continued not saving money. Don't worry, I'm like a one-man stimulus package
4.) Somehow missed out on all the great "stimulus package = frat-humor wang jokes" opportunities
5.) Kept being tricked into eating potatoes. See what happens when you're a regular among the breakfast burrito community?

Btw, I learned via twitter today that London does not have burritos. Someone ship a mexican over there, stat!

Super Secret Message enclosed

(tricked ya, just made an empty post on accident and thought it looked cool...)

Echoes of Doom??

From TIME's SciTechBlog: (scroll down for commentary...)

Creating artificial muscles

Posted: 03:01 PM ET

What can operate in temperatures above the melting point of iron (1,538 degrees Celsius) and below the temperature of liquid nitrogen (-196 degrees Celsius)?

A sheet strip of carbon nanotube aerogel: The muscles of the future? Courtesy University of Texas

Answer: Artificial muscles made up of carbon nanotubes.

I’m sure that was the first thing that came to mind, right?

This is the latest innovation coming out of the field of carbon nanotechnology.

The application of these microscopic carbon tube structures has peaked the interest of many engineers and scientists in recent years. Individual carbon nanotubes can measure in at roughly 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, don’t let their size fool you.

They can be as stiff as steel and can have very high thermal and electrical conductivities. But getting them to work in tandem with each other has been a challenge for scientists.

Using a material called aerogel (a type of gel in which the liquid portion has been replaced with gas to create a low-density solid), researchers at the University of Texas in Dallas’ Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute have found a way to make carbon nanotubes work together in extreme temperatures — such as those found in space. Their findings will be published in this week’s Science journal.

These carbon nanotube sheets or aerogels have properties unlike any other raw material. Individual carbon nanotubes have been woven together to make interconnected bundles that collectively give the sheet its unique properties. By injecting charges into the carbon nanotube sheet, scientists create repulsion between the individual nanotubes, causing the material to contract.

Artificial muscles have similarities to human muscles but are usually electroactive polymers whose shape can be modified when voltage is applied. These artificial muscles are capable of providing 30 times the force and contracting 1,000 times faster than human skeletal muscles.

“My guess is that this story will have a happy ending in terms of new products that benefit humankind,” said Dr. Ray Baughman, director of the NanoTech Institute.

The applications of these artificial muscles stretches far beyond the walls of the lab. You can expect to see them at work someday in medical devices, fuel cells, aerospace and even robots.

Here's what immediately scares me

1. can operate in temperatures above the melting point of iron (1,538 degrees Celsius) and below the temperature of liquid nitrogen (-196 degrees Celsius)
2. These artificial muscles are capable of providing 30 times the force and contracting 1,000 times faster than human skeletal muscles.
3. Individual carbon nanotubes can measure in at roughly 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair

Whoever that fool was that said “My guess is that this story will have a happy ending in terms of new products that benefit humankind,” has clearly never seen The Matrix. Yeah, let's help make robots that we can't freeze or melt and can crush our skeletons! Great, where do I sign up?! Seriously, wtf folks! Really, the only good thing I can see here is a possibility for a real-life Wolverine, and even that has it's up's and down's.

And they can git 10,000 of them in the width of a human hair. Those shits can get anywhere. Great, now on top of Bacon Scrotum we all have to fear the probability of 10,000 nano-Wolverines invading our bodies.

You're Welcome for the heads-up.

it's a nice day for a manifesto

I saw this on twitter from Felicia Day (of hilarious gaming satire fame), and I think this has some points I've been following for years and some others that I should prolly intergrate.

The Cult of Done Manifesto

1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you're done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.

Of topic, but also hilarious to me are random tweets from Jeff Sutterman, Art Director of Marvel Comics that go something like:
"OK, now it's time to ruin someone's day. Clear."
or
"Learn how to take direction. Knucklehead."

Maybe this is a new habit I could adapt. random threats and tell-offs posted on my twitter page instead of directly at the person, eh?

I'm so glad this hasn't happened to me

I unscrupulously stole this from www.worstcartoonsever.com. Enjoy

“Bacon Lodged in Scrotum.”

Posted by: Chris_Ward on 03-19-2009 @ 5:22 am | Filed under: Uncategorized —

So I get a text message from my friend today that is both the most horrible and wonderful text message I’ve ever received. Names will be withheld due to the sensitive nature of the subject:

“Dude…My brother got a piece of undigested bacon lodged in his scrotum!”

Immediately, all the blood in my brain rushed to my Anterior Laugh Muscle, the strongest and most deadly muscle in my body, sending me into a berserker coma. When I awoke, I had to get details. Here’s all I know.

It was from a Subway sandwich…it somehow didn’t digest properly and worked it’s way down there. The doctor had to cut it out! he’s fine now. I’ll call to get details.

First things first: He’ll never be “fine” again. Never again will he eat smoked meats without imagining them traveling down his throat, defiantly taking the off-ramp by his stomach that says “BRIDGE OUT,” crashing through that wall Smokey and the Bandit style, and leading all major blood cells on a Thelma and Louise chase that ends with a painful dive into Scrotum Gulch.

I’m a worrier. I come from a family of worriers. Not once have I worried that bacon that goes down my throat may end up in my balls. Now it’s all I can think about. I don’t know whether to give up bacon, or Subway, or just solid foods in general.

“What’s all this have to do with cartoons,” you ask? Here’s a Porky Pig short to keep us on topic. It’s got bacon and cursing rolled into one…just like my friend’s brother experienced first hand.

I wish these were my career options

Perspective

So I hear the economy sucks. At least, no matter what you've lost, you're not this bad off:

http://www.mccainblogette.com/archive/june_22_25.shtml

I am so damn tired

of every picture I post in my blog being taken down.

I think I might go buy a scanner today and start making crayola-drawings to illustrate all of my topics from now on.

For example, if I wanted to say something about planting trees, or saving the forest, or the creepy scene in MacBeth where the trees walk up to the castle, I might use this:

Lighten up your morning & nourish yourself

I know you prolly came here today looking for a meaty posting with some comedy or politics or ranty-witty-awesomeness, but somehow this three-day work week seems way to fucking long already. Might be because I'm broke and haven't gotten out of the house in a few days. Either way, I think this afternoon I might try to invent one of these..

Favorite Lines from Movies I saw this year....

Admission: I'm a cinephile. Or more likely, a Movie-aholic. And I'm unrepentant. It's so bad that I don't really care that I just wrote 2 half-sentences back there.

Anyways, here's a list of my favorite lines from movies I saw that came out in 2008

- "What's the boy word for 'slut'?"// Definitely Maybe

- "Oh trust me doc, bringing psychiatric drugs and teenagers together is like opening a lemonade stand in the desert." // Charlie Bartlett

- Guy 1: "In the Army, soldiers would pull on their puds to keep the blood flowing."
Guy 2: "What regiment were you in? The Royal Corps of Wankers?" // The Bank Job

- "Say yes to whim! Say yes to chance! Say yes to chaos!"// Chaos Theory

- "How do you say goodbye to someone you can't imagine living without? I didn't say goodbye.
I didn't say anything. I just walked away." // My Blueberry Nights

- "You have Christ between your thighs... only with a shorter beard." // Forgetting Sarah Marshall

- "Give me a scotch. I'm starving." // Iron Man

- "Lavender, you get on my head" // What Happens in Vegas...

- "Oh, you. You just couldn't let me go, could you? This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You are truly incorruptible, aren't you? Huh? You won't kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness. And I won't kill you because you're just too much fun. I think you and I are destined to do this forever." // The Dark Knight

- "Suppose Nancy sees me coming out of the shower and decides to come on to me. I'm looking good, got a luscious v of hair going through my chest pubes down to my ball fro. She takes one look at me and goes " Oh my god, I've had the old bull now I want the young calf" and grabs me by the weiner." // Step Brothers

- "Maria Elena used to say that only unfulfilled love can be romantic." // Vicky Christina Barcelona

- "One of my teaching assistants and a very, very hard working woman. [teaching assistant exits [ Last night I fucked her to within an inch of her life. True story. I'm champin' her, head through the headboard, and I flip her over and she screams give me a choker. I play the choir boy and say what's that? Starwiped her five minutes later and she's bugging like an epileptic at a strobe light convention. Now I'm getting scared and as I'm working out the 911 phone call in my head she goes" // My Best Friend's Girl

- "If anyone is getting raped in that van, it'll be a guy. " // Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

- "When someone says that they have people everywhere, you expect it to be hyperbole. Lots of people say that. Florists use that expression. It doesn't mean that they have people in the bloody room." // Quantum of Solace

- "Google me bitch! I might be famous one day. " // Four Christmases

- "Your life is defined by its opportunities... even the ones you miss. " // The Curious Case of Benjamin Button



Films I saw for which no favorite lines exist:
- 27 Dresses
- Cloverfield (but only because this movie was NOT about dialogue)
- Strange Wilderness <-- all around lame
- Jumper
- Penelope
- Semi-Pro
- The Other Boelyn Girl
- 10,000 BC
- Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
- Doomsday
- Drillbit Taylor
- Harold & Kumar 2
- Run, Fat Boy, Run
- Smart People
- Deception
- Indiana Jones IV
- You Don't Mess with the Zohan
- The Happening
- The Incredible Hulk
- Get Smart
- Wanted
- Hancock
- Hellboy II
- Pineapple Express
- The House Bunny
- Max Payne
- Nothing Like the Holidays
- 7 Pounds

It Pays to Increase your Vocab!

If you've ever had brunch with me (and only a certain lucky few of you have), you'd know that I like to start the day with coffee, some breakfast and a crossword. It all started when I rented Wordplay a few years ago.



Look at my boy Will Shortz and tell me he is not exactly what sets your motors running, ladies. Seriously, tell me, because if not, I've been modeling myself after the wrong guy.

(Side Note: If you search "Will Shortz" on photobucket.com, you get a whole bunch of pictures of young chicks posing for the camera, which leads me only to believe that girls ARE indeed nuts about this guy)

I also like to think that my boss at work, Jim (as opposed to my boss not-at-work... you know who) would look like Will if he had hair. Here's another shot of Will executing what one might call "The Hooter Honker"


Ok, I feel my point has been suitably made. Moving on.

Here is where I admit I have a personal fault. I tend to hear something funny or witty and want to integrate it into my life. This fault, sadly, has occassionally left me unconsciously using words that other people have trademarked. This then feeds into another fault I have where I know my vocabulary is much larger than the number of words I actively use, yet seldom do I find ways to incorporate all the words I'd like to use. I particularly despise it when I use a word or saying that I tend to hear a lot at TMH (Anie's place... yes, she bribed me to refer to it as this), because;

1.) I'm just globbing on to the words of Anie & Co.,
2.) these are chick-words in my mind and I should clearly be able to think up my own unique witticisms without ever having to gender-blur,
3.) I cherrish the concept of personal identites as "Ryan" and "Anie" who happen to be a couple, as opposed to "Ryan & Anie" who would be a tragic siamese hybrid-thing of awefulness (we all know a couple like this in our lives, if you're not doing something to avoid being them, it may already be too late!).

Yes, I know these are nerdy, complicated issues. This is the minutae of my life. Now we're ready to move on.

Last week, Anie & I were crusing along on our way to New Year's Eve her cousins and we were talking about Resolutions for the New Year. One Resolution I had on my mind was to never use a word or saying that I have heard her use. Then, I decided to take it one-step further. For this year, I'm going to try to use a new, interesting word that i've either under-used or never used before every other week. This week, the word I chose is:

Aleatory -- accidental, chance, occurring randomly

As in, this blog is totally aleatory, because I came home to play video games and the servers were down, so I needed something else to fill in my time.

I think we're off to a good start.

so...

Looks like I've been having some issues with getting images to want to appear in my blogs lately. That sucks. It also sucks that Blogger makes me use images that are only so wide, especially since I have a wide-screen monitor; no way to avoid uber-large margins = lose. On a positive note, I'm off today and bored, so here goes some sweet sweet bloggery.

Yes, that's a word. Move it or lose it.

New Year.... rah rah

So, welcome back.

Today I intended to start by posting some pictures that I took over the last week. Anie is trying this project of taking a picture everyday (though I have no idea where she plans to put these pictures), so I thought I'd use that as an impetus to re-up my own photography skills. To that end, I took my new camera with us on Friday when we decided to have fun on the Light Rail. Turns out, however, that I cannot find the cord I need to use to upload these pictures to my computer. So, please enjoy some random images that I found on flickr this morning, and rest assured that there is some genuine grade-a artwork locked into my damn camera, never seeing the light of day (until I find the damn cord...)

Onwards and upwards, though, right? So, being as it is the new year, here are a few "resolutions" I made.

- Be Healthier: Work out 3x a week, stop eating potatoes of all types, cook at home more
- Be More Green
- Be More Creative: Complete some project every month, blog 3-4 times a week

I know, some of these seem way easier to say than to actually do, and from experience I do better with "until New Year's resolutions" made in the fall, instead of the traditional type made in the Winter, but let's give it a whirl.

LOL

Happy Hi-Five Day, Anie.

My apologies... Hope this makes up for it.

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. Let myself get a bit sidetracked with random hour at work and a minor holiday known as "eat all the stuff you can".

As my "please forgive me" gift to you, may I present THE QUEEN OF ALL TRAMP-STAMPS