Pancakes Have Left The Building

Well I promised a few people there would be a new post by the end of Friday... so here it is, although a bit late. Not much, I apologize, but there have been a few large changes in my life and in me personally. Neither of those things I swore would I ever put in this blog. Unfortunately I've already broken that rule, but I'm sure I was vague enough to get away with it. Who the fuck cares? This is my blog, I'll put what I want. If you want to waste your meaningless time reading this, that's your prerogative.

Last Thursday was the premier of French Toast Breakfast. It’s a welcome change to the tradition me a few good friends started sometime last year of Pancake Breakfast. Basically we get together and cook a whole dinner out of pancakes, eggs, bacon, hash browns, and the occasional Irish coffee. We eat until we are stuffed, then eat some more. If you don’t feel like you are going to throw up, you’re not finished.

Generally the night gets capped with a few songs of Rock Band, and we go our separate ways, to puke or sleep, but this night was special. First off, we converted, obviously to french toast. Great idea. Then we expanded our family to include an old friend and a new one. Great idea. Then, after the odd discussions that always ensue during the slow ending to the meal, we headed down to the studio, aka the basement, and played a few songs as the band Maoria. Fucking awesome idea! It’s been some time since I’ve picked up the bass, and let me just say I fucking missed it. Grooving out to “Track Pants Mafia” and “The Figure,” I remembered why I love music so much.

Adding to our set, one of the first official Maoria tracks, “She Gets Me High” and “Where is My Mind” by the Pixies, we basically have a set. See you at the next BugJar open mic night!

Not really. With subpar equipment, no real direction, and a general lack of talent on my part, it might be some time before we play live. But until then we are still writing new songs and bringing out own twists to the music we play. As far as I can tell, our sound is a mix from Explosions in the Sky, The Pixies and Nirvana. But what the fuck do I know?

I just can’t wait until the next practice.

Bad idea: celebrating your friends b-day with copious amounts of alcohol to the point of passoutification.
Worse idea: not celebrating your b-day with copious amounts of alcohol because a 1 day reprieve from previous celebration was not enough.

I Was Up Above It, Now I'm Down In It

Today I'm actually putting some substance into my post. Could this be the beginning of something beautiful? I highly doubt, please bare with me.

I had to read a couple articles for one of my classes that deal with alternative fuels, mostly the ethanol rich E85. For those who have heard of it an unsure of what it means, ethanol is an alcohol that is added to gasoline to add oxygen content, helping the gas burn better and cleaner in engines. The oxygen content is referenced by the number of gasoline you select, for instance, Regular 87 means 13% ethanol. The math isn’t too hard here…

As part of a government mandate some years back, oil companies were required to add more oxygen and they did this initially with a chemical MTBE. Problem is this stuff is a possible carcinogen, and when leaked into the groundwater, can become poisonous.

Enter ethanol. The sugar based alcohol is currently derived from corn kernels, and as oil is become somewhat a pain in America’s ass, specifically the cheek the wallet is kept near, everyone is turning to a higher ethanol content replacement.

But here’s the problem with E85. While it is mostly ethanol, the corn required to make enough for just the Nation doesn’t quite exist. The nation’s supply would currently only turn out 7% of the fuel needed for the next year (insert frowny face). Not to mention, as I read deeper into the articles, that just making the fuel (including everything from fertilizing and harvesting to converting the sugar to alcohol and everything inbetween) almost costs the same amount of fossil fuels, so the payoffs, if any, are marginal at best (double frowny face).

The big savior? Possibly cellulose based fuel. It can be made from the biowaste of corn, the stalk, certain grass that grows quick and with little fertilizer, and other nonessential biomasses. Sounds great, right? Cellulose based fuel requires little crop to be removed from our dinner places, is in total abundance, completely renewable, the energy required to harvest is the same as harvesting our food so there is little addition, it is made cleaner, burns cleaner, and is very very cheap to make! Sounds real great, right?

Well to convert this biomass to fuel, a special enzyme found in places such as the middle of a jungle or the stomach of a termite isn’t quite as adaptable as yeast, and is very hard to synthesize. Bummer.

Millions of dollars worth of research is being poured into alternative fuels, so hopefully someday soon, the answer will come. Let’s just hope we haven’t already destroyed Earth and are newly happy Martians by then.

Strange things are afoot. Could they be the endgame of my enemy? Would I care if they were? We’ll see.

Let's Try Something New

I spent the last 2 weeks on vacation, and spent most of it home in Massachusetts. It was great, I saw the family, all of it... which was fun. I didn't get to see any friends though, oh well.

I learned a few things:

Family is the key. No matter what happens, they are the only ones that will always truly forever be there for you.

Dogs rock, all they want is your heart, and they will give you theirs in return. Cats however are out for themselves...

Drivers in Massachusetts suck, drivers in New York suck more! I cannot be convinced otherwise, I've seen too much to ever think different.

Driving through the Berkshires with a double size boxspring strapped to your roof will kill your gas milage and your tarp.

My fourteen year old sister can kick your ass on the drums. Hands down.

AT&T customer service sucks!

Finally, I may call Rochester my "home" right now, but it's more like just a place between where I was and where I want to go.

Okay... I know that wasn't worth the wait, but whatever. I'm a fucking engineer, what the hell do I know about keeping a biweekly blog? You're lucky you have anything to read here at all. I'm lucky there is a "you" reading this.

Also, for those of you following along, it seems I've lost the battle, but I'm pretty sure I'll win the war. Never know though, I'm really just sick of it all together.

Random update! So after Christmas is over and done with, the fam is out spending some X-mas moneys when my dad decides to buy a flat screen. Cool. But now we have to watch all our big action movies again on this television. Uncool. While I am a movie buff and I like to see good movies several times, I really could have done without seeing The Dark Knight 7 fucking times! I can almost quote it verbatum (and I hate when people throw Latin words into their everyday speech). But I have become more deeply disturbed with the Joker. Maybe I'll be proactive about it and write a song.

If life were like the movies, what would the movies be like?