I write. I am looking to do more, I have been procrastinating quite a bit recently. I write a lot when I have time, but the problem is I don't plan time for writing. I pack my days with many things to do and because of that I sometimes lack time to write. Working on the first ten chapters of my Outlaw novel and that is the goal for now. But that is all beside the point. The point that I wanted to make is I am inspired by many things, and I like to try to adopt the ideas and concepts of my favorite writers into my stories. Here is one of the things I have learned from Joss Whedon...
The villains never think they are villains, they usually perceive themselves as being righteous. That the actions they do are for good and not evil.
This is a really important concept, as it makes the protagonists more human, more real. No one wants to be the bad guy. Unless they are psychotic. In the real world everyone wants to do good, the difference is that one persons good is another's evil. Good writing has this. A villain should never be a faceless, generic enemy like the terrorist that plagues most action movies. That is too comic booky. No the best bad guys are the ones you are never entirely sure are bad, and I have made one of my most important characters exactly that.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Ideas to Save the World - Growing food not Fuel
I like math. I use it everyday. I measure and quantify many aspects of my life and apply things called equations to them to evaluate them. Now here is a number for you
425 million
That is the number of arable acres of land that exist on a planet called Earth, that can be used to produce food. Now if every single crop was made into corn and that corn was created into a fuel called ethanol, there still wouldn't be enough land to produce enough corn to produce enough fuel to power the world's automobiles by a number time ten to the 6 or so power. There wouldn't be enough that could be grown to sustain energy demands in the U.S. on an annual basis.
So here is what bugs me, Ethanol or as it is known, bio-diesel is suppose to be more environmentally friendly then regular octane. And I suppose that it is, the carbon dioxides that come out of the tailpipe a car using ethanol is less then one that uses gas. Okay I can accept that. But hers is my fist of many issues with this fuel...
First it comes down to potential energy. The amount of energy that is released from combusting ethanol is less then that of octane, by, if memory serves about 70%. This means to get an equivalent amount of power out of your car you have to consume about 142% more fuel. So it is a worse fuel and you have to use more of it for the same drive.
My next issue is a social one. Without going into detail about issues with food production and distribution it simply doesn't make any sense to me to decrease food production in a world where not everyone can eat to fuel cars with a worse fuel. Why is this happening? Stateside farmers have been committing crops to fuel versus food, and the reason why is they can get paid for it. When selling crops for food they may make less money and are more exposed to dips in the market. When selling for fuel the prices are more stable and are worth more. The worst thing though is this isn't the only way to make ethanol, but the fact that it is being used has limited how much money to research for a better method is being given. That is an issue for my next blog however.
That technology is called cellous ethanol, and what it is is bacteria that basically eat a garbage soup and sweat out ethanol fuel. This idea is truly a stroke of genius. Instead of wasting resources, it uses waste resources and processes them down into something usable. How great is that? And instead of cooking and distilling corn it is way more energy efficient, all the soup needs to do is stay warm and eventually separate the layer of fuel. Way better then having the waste go to landfills
Apart from the waste, the lack of combustible energy, and the lack of responsibility by using food crops, there is another issue. Ethanol is a reactive sort of substance and when it is used in cars it can corrode fuel pumps, injectors, piston rings and more rapidly rust out fuel tanks. It also rusts the equipment at the pumps, storage tanks and transport vehicles.
But don't despair there is a solution. Butanol! Unlike Ethanol where it is an alcohol made from two carbon atoms, Butanol is made from four. It has more then 90% comparable energy to octane, and no it doesn't corrode your engine. And that is the beauty of it you can practically fill up with it and not have to convert any parts from a regular gas. And it can be produced using the cellous method. The only problem is farmers aren't going to like it and in the midwest states, I can assure you that there will be Senators trying to block this tech however they can. In the interest of there constituents and not the greater good.
In the next five years, expect to see butanol to eventually arrive at the pumps and hopefully the phasing out of ethonal based bio-diesels.
425 million
That is the number of arable acres of land that exist on a planet called Earth, that can be used to produce food. Now if every single crop was made into corn and that corn was created into a fuel called ethanol, there still wouldn't be enough land to produce enough corn to produce enough fuel to power the world's automobiles by a number time ten to the 6 or so power. There wouldn't be enough that could be grown to sustain energy demands in the U.S. on an annual basis.
So here is what bugs me, Ethanol or as it is known, bio-diesel is suppose to be more environmentally friendly then regular octane. And I suppose that it is, the carbon dioxides that come out of the tailpipe a car using ethanol is less then one that uses gas. Okay I can accept that. But hers is my fist of many issues with this fuel...
First it comes down to potential energy. The amount of energy that is released from combusting ethanol is less then that of octane, by, if memory serves about 70%. This means to get an equivalent amount of power out of your car you have to consume about 142% more fuel. So it is a worse fuel and you have to use more of it for the same drive.
My next issue is a social one. Without going into detail about issues with food production and distribution it simply doesn't make any sense to me to decrease food production in a world where not everyone can eat to fuel cars with a worse fuel. Why is this happening? Stateside farmers have been committing crops to fuel versus food, and the reason why is they can get paid for it. When selling crops for food they may make less money and are more exposed to dips in the market. When selling for fuel the prices are more stable and are worth more. The worst thing though is this isn't the only way to make ethanol, but the fact that it is being used has limited how much money to research for a better method is being given. That is an issue for my next blog however.
That technology is called cellous ethanol, and what it is is bacteria that basically eat a garbage soup and sweat out ethanol fuel. This idea is truly a stroke of genius. Instead of wasting resources, it uses waste resources and processes them down into something usable. How great is that? And instead of cooking and distilling corn it is way more energy efficient, all the soup needs to do is stay warm and eventually separate the layer of fuel. Way better then having the waste go to landfills
Apart from the waste, the lack of combustible energy, and the lack of responsibility by using food crops, there is another issue. Ethanol is a reactive sort of substance and when it is used in cars it can corrode fuel pumps, injectors, piston rings and more rapidly rust out fuel tanks. It also rusts the equipment at the pumps, storage tanks and transport vehicles.
But don't despair there is a solution. Butanol! Unlike Ethanol where it is an alcohol made from two carbon atoms, Butanol is made from four. It has more then 90% comparable energy to octane, and no it doesn't corrode your engine. And that is the beauty of it you can practically fill up with it and not have to convert any parts from a regular gas. And it can be produced using the cellous method. The only problem is farmers aren't going to like it and in the midwest states, I can assure you that there will be Senators trying to block this tech however they can. In the interest of there constituents and not the greater good.
In the next five years, expect to see butanol to eventually arrive at the pumps and hopefully the phasing out of ethonal based bio-diesels.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Garth Ennis - Favourite Comic Book Author - Reason 36**
Cunt.
Garth Ennis has no problem with explicit content in his comics. In fact that is one of the things I like most about his work is that he is willing to push the boundary and break the norm with his comics. The Boys is set in a world where superheroes are power crazed super dicks. Raping and pillaging norms cause they can. Crossed is a real piece of work that is really screwed up but really hard to look away from at the same time. It is one of the few things that disturbed me enough I had trouble going to sleep. As disturbing as it was it was powerful enough that I can recall most of the book. Punisher Max pushed the idea of how violent and powerful Frank is. And Preacher, an original comic that challenged concepts of religion and tells an engrossing story.
So Cunt. It is a simple thing, but it is symbolic of how Garth Ennis is willing to push the envelope and freely put on display things that can otherwise be taboo. The language he uses is of course not just there for shock value but given the situational context is typically appropriate and adds value to the story.
** Please note that the reasons are random and not in order. I am not that OCD
Garth Ennis has no problem with explicit content in his comics. In fact that is one of the things I like most about his work is that he is willing to push the boundary and break the norm with his comics. The Boys is set in a world where superheroes are power crazed super dicks. Raping and pillaging norms cause they can. Crossed is a real piece of work that is really screwed up but really hard to look away from at the same time. It is one of the few things that disturbed me enough I had trouble going to sleep. As disturbing as it was it was powerful enough that I can recall most of the book. Punisher Max pushed the idea of how violent and powerful Frank is. And Preacher, an original comic that challenged concepts of religion and tells an engrossing story.
So Cunt. It is a simple thing, but it is symbolic of how Garth Ennis is willing to push the envelope and freely put on display things that can otherwise be taboo. The language he uses is of course not just there for shock value but given the situational context is typically appropriate and adds value to the story.
** Please note that the reasons are random and not in order. I am not that OCD
Monday, April 25, 2011
Ideas to save the world - Death to Hybrid Cars
I HATE HYBRIDS!!!!
Hybrids are the worst idea in the world, and here is why. Instead of using a tried and true method of propelling a car and attempting to make that better society has decided to deceive itself into thinking hybrid cars will save the world. But heres the thing...They won't.
They aren't even a good stop gap, because once the world realizes that they are a truly bad idea, a proper solution wouldn't have been developed because society bet on the wrong horse. Heres some points as to why...
-The nickel in toyota batteries, mined in Canada, initially processed in Germany, then frothed in China and Final assembly is in Japan. For North American these are then sent to the plant in California. This journey to make a battery for a Prius causes the same emissions as running a Land Rover for 3 years.
-Lithium batteries require a large quantity of this rare metal, and there isn't enough of this metal to sustain an increasing demand in the coming years. And the lithium material could be mined from South American mines by workers forced to do it by militia groups.
-For plug in hybrids, it seems like people think that the plug in the wall connects to some magical land where electricity is produced from millions of hamsters entertaining themselves on their wheels, and not from coal and gas fired power plants.
-If you were to drive a well refined V-6 or V-8 in a manner where the it keeps the paces. Not agressively but not slow, and had a Prius keep up with it, the Pruis would consume more fuel as it can only drive slow. The when the battery runs out and you have to run the motor, the motor is so small and has to rev high to keep up and the higher it revs, the more fuel it consumes. The trick is to have a high efficiency motor powerful enough in the low end not to have it rev really high and stay low while cruising.
-For all the effort to make a hybrid battery, think about how much effort it would take to recycle a battery.
Now you may be thinking to yourself, why would the government give rebates for purchasing these cars? Is it cause they are good for the environment and the government is all about making the world environmentally better? No. It is in a vain attempt to reduce oil consumption to try to stabilize oil prices on a larger scale? Probably. Will it work? Probably not. The U.S. government is essentially the oil giants and financial institution's bitch. The auto industry by no means has a lobbyist group that even compares. When the market crashed and the U.S. government was handing out money, they gave money to banks in the form of a blank cheque. A whole new department was created in the government to coordinate how GM and Chrysler manage their government money. But this isn't a new concept. The catalytic converter was an invention in the 70s and it was designed with the purpose of removing nitrogen gases from the exhaust gases out of the tailpipe. You know how else this could have been avoided? The government could have told oil companies to instead process the nitrogen out of fuel. However the oil lobbyist groups protested and the government passed the buck, to the auto industry
Now here is something to consider. In the U.K. you can get a V-6 twin turbo diesel Jaguar that will make 65 miles. 65!!!!!!! That is far better then a Prius. But how can this be and why don't we have it on this side of the pond? Here's the thing... if you were to take that same car and fill it up at a local pump with diesel it would run for many miles and then wouldn't anymore. The reason it wouldn't is the fuel injectors would be clogged up with impurities in the fuel. The diesel we have in this market is fucking garbage. And why? The European markets have demanded better fuel, more bang for the buck. The states haven't and the reason they will tell you is that it would destabilize fuel prices and wouldn't be able to achieve demand. Now lets think about this from the auto industry's prespective. The government demands that for the good of the economy, and the environment I suppose, that automakers must develop more efficient engines (CAFE 20), but will we instruct the auto industry to develop better fuel? Not a snowball's chance in hell. The government gives very little support to North American automakers, and then when they ask for help they get huge criticism from the public.
People have said, "look at Toyota, they were forward thinking and made a hybrid all by themselves." Somehow forgetting that Toyota got 300 million from the Japanese government to develop the tech for the Prius. That of course wasn't disclosed for years after the release of the car.
I think that is the thing that bugs me most about people and the auto industry. People are stupid, gobbling up the shit that is marketed to them and they think that they are doing something good. Really if they did their research they would realize they are doing more harm then good. Sure maybe they are reducing their individual fuel consumption but on that large global scale, more harm is being done. But worry not, eventually the prices of nickel, lithium and other battery metals will reach a point where they will cost more and more and more, and then hybrids won't be an economically viable option. It will be a glorious day when the price to own a hybrid is more then over the life of the car then a well equipped midsize.
There are some solutions and in some coming blogs I will talk about them in the future
Ethanol vs. Butanol
Turbine Powered cars
High compression engines
Hybrids are the worst idea in the world, and here is why. Instead of using a tried and true method of propelling a car and attempting to make that better society has decided to deceive itself into thinking hybrid cars will save the world. But heres the thing...They won't.
They aren't even a good stop gap, because once the world realizes that they are a truly bad idea, a proper solution wouldn't have been developed because society bet on the wrong horse. Heres some points as to why...
-The nickel in toyota batteries, mined in Canada, initially processed in Germany, then frothed in China and Final assembly is in Japan. For North American these are then sent to the plant in California. This journey to make a battery for a Prius causes the same emissions as running a Land Rover for 3 years.
-Lithium batteries require a large quantity of this rare metal, and there isn't enough of this metal to sustain an increasing demand in the coming years. And the lithium material could be mined from South American mines by workers forced to do it by militia groups.
-For plug in hybrids, it seems like people think that the plug in the wall connects to some magical land where electricity is produced from millions of hamsters entertaining themselves on their wheels, and not from coal and gas fired power plants.
-If you were to drive a well refined V-6 or V-8 in a manner where the it keeps the paces. Not agressively but not slow, and had a Prius keep up with it, the Pruis would consume more fuel as it can only drive slow. The when the battery runs out and you have to run the motor, the motor is so small and has to rev high to keep up and the higher it revs, the more fuel it consumes. The trick is to have a high efficiency motor powerful enough in the low end not to have it rev really high and stay low while cruising.
-For all the effort to make a hybrid battery, think about how much effort it would take to recycle a battery.
Now you may be thinking to yourself, why would the government give rebates for purchasing these cars? Is it cause they are good for the environment and the government is all about making the world environmentally better? No. It is in a vain attempt to reduce oil consumption to try to stabilize oil prices on a larger scale? Probably. Will it work? Probably not. The U.S. government is essentially the oil giants and financial institution's bitch. The auto industry by no means has a lobbyist group that even compares. When the market crashed and the U.S. government was handing out money, they gave money to banks in the form of a blank cheque. A whole new department was created in the government to coordinate how GM and Chrysler manage their government money. But this isn't a new concept. The catalytic converter was an invention in the 70s and it was designed with the purpose of removing nitrogen gases from the exhaust gases out of the tailpipe. You know how else this could have been avoided? The government could have told oil companies to instead process the nitrogen out of fuel. However the oil lobbyist groups protested and the government passed the buck, to the auto industry
Now here is something to consider. In the U.K. you can get a V-6 twin turbo diesel Jaguar that will make 65 miles. 65!!!!!!! That is far better then a Prius. But how can this be and why don't we have it on this side of the pond? Here's the thing... if you were to take that same car and fill it up at a local pump with diesel it would run for many miles and then wouldn't anymore. The reason it wouldn't is the fuel injectors would be clogged up with impurities in the fuel. The diesel we have in this market is fucking garbage. And why? The European markets have demanded better fuel, more bang for the buck. The states haven't and the reason they will tell you is that it would destabilize fuel prices and wouldn't be able to achieve demand. Now lets think about this from the auto industry's prespective. The government demands that for the good of the economy, and the environment I suppose, that automakers must develop more efficient engines (CAFE 20), but will we instruct the auto industry to develop better fuel? Not a snowball's chance in hell. The government gives very little support to North American automakers, and then when they ask for help they get huge criticism from the public.
People have said, "look at Toyota, they were forward thinking and made a hybrid all by themselves." Somehow forgetting that Toyota got 300 million from the Japanese government to develop the tech for the Prius. That of course wasn't disclosed for years after the release of the car.
I think that is the thing that bugs me most about people and the auto industry. People are stupid, gobbling up the shit that is marketed to them and they think that they are doing something good. Really if they did their research they would realize they are doing more harm then good. Sure maybe they are reducing their individual fuel consumption but on that large global scale, more harm is being done. But worry not, eventually the prices of nickel, lithium and other battery metals will reach a point where they will cost more and more and more, and then hybrids won't be an economically viable option. It will be a glorious day when the price to own a hybrid is more then over the life of the car then a well equipped midsize.
There are some solutions and in some coming blogs I will talk about them in the future
Ethanol vs. Butanol
Turbine Powered cars
High compression engines
Friday's Workout
Hi Internet,
It has been a really busy weekend but I managed to slip a workout in none the less. I worked chest it was moderate to heavy, though I estimate it was only moderate to heavy as I was still sore from the last workout.
Unfortunately left my notepad with the weight distribution at home, so I will be updating in a while with total weight.
Also I had to cut my workout short as I wretched my neck repositioning myself in the inclince press... with the weight up. Feels mostly better now but took the following days off.
Now it is cost report week... YAY!
Update: Weight done was a weak 22,860lbs total. Will shoot for more next time
It has been a really busy weekend but I managed to slip a workout in none the less. I worked chest it was moderate to heavy, though I estimate it was only moderate to heavy as I was still sore from the last workout.
Unfortunately left my notepad with the weight distribution at home, so I will be updating in a while with total weight.
Also I had to cut my workout short as I wretched my neck repositioning myself in the inclince press... with the weight up. Feels mostly better now but took the following days off.
Now it is cost report week... YAY!
Update: Weight done was a weak 22,860lbs total. Will shoot for more next time
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Garth Ennis - Favourite Comic Book Author - Reason 731**
To give a small background on this I was originally going to make this one blog and over a few days I sat and wrote it out and once I hit page three I realized there are far too many reasons I like Garth Ennis to write only a single blog. So instead it will be many small ones.
Reason 731 - Using the monologue to round out scenes
This is an important one and here is why. Comic panels basically only ever capture the highlights of the action, and can't always tell the full story, it is up to the reader to fill the gap between the panels with help from the writing to give a flowing context and story. I feel that Garth Ennis does this in a way that is properly meaningful and for this I will cite Punisher Max and Crossed.
In Crossed the monologue was great to tell the audience the social commentary that Ennis was trying to achieve with such a disturbing comic. More to the point it was able to reveal certain details of what was happening on in the story either between the artwork or just out of site of the artwork. For example, a character monologuing about how an infected is raping a knife wound in a person's back who is still alive, adds to the tone. It tells the audience just how fucked up what they are about to read is, without going too overboard by graphically showing the act.
In the Punisher Max, the character was all in the monologue. That is why the Punisher movies have never really done all that well, is they never captured that same magic that the comics have. If you were to do a Punisher movie properly you would need to have it basically be set up the sane way that the TV show Dexter is. Here is what I am on about. Firstly when Frank gets hit really hard, the monologue saying how his vision is now blurry or taking an inventory of the cracked ribs adds to the overall effect in conjunction with the artwork. Makes the impacts more powerful. It also explains enemy movements and motivations, and reveals when the character is concerned which makes the audience concerned it is a good sort of comic. It is a great way to tell jokes as the audience has the third person omniscient view on the story and little quibs can be made. For the Punisher, it is almost the single thing that makes the character relatable to the audience. It is Frank's voice, sharing his reasoning, his motivations, his emotions. In the Max series it is the thing that makes a four digit mass murder seem sane in a world where so many insane villains are explored and developed.
Reason number 731 of why Garth Ennis is my favourite comic book author is how well he does to give more feeling and emotion to his comics. This is especially true given some of the content that Garth Ennis puts out is pretty intense, and to graphically show everything would be even more extreme.
As an aside think about this. The power of comics is combining images and words. In the artwork is sometimes some really intense and fantastic detail. If you were to try to take certain comic images and translate them into words, or rather novelize them, a single image could take pages to describe. And that is the narrative power of comics. It is also hard to do, as I said you are only ever capturing the highlights of the action. In between it can be easy to miss details. Or sometimes you can go from image to image so fast, constructing the sort of visual subtitled movie in your mind that you can miss small details the artists have included. A good monolgue during the action slows the eye down, making you less likely to miss something and adding more value to the action sequences. The best comics in my mind are the ones where when you combine it all, the script, the art, each panel should actually make emotion jump off of each page. If you ware reading a comic and that isn't happening the comic you are reading is not very good.
**Reasons aren't in any actual order. I am not that OCD.
Reason 731 - Using the monologue to round out scenes
This is an important one and here is why. Comic panels basically only ever capture the highlights of the action, and can't always tell the full story, it is up to the reader to fill the gap between the panels with help from the writing to give a flowing context and story. I feel that Garth Ennis does this in a way that is properly meaningful and for this I will cite Punisher Max and Crossed.
In Crossed the monologue was great to tell the audience the social commentary that Ennis was trying to achieve with such a disturbing comic. More to the point it was able to reveal certain details of what was happening on in the story either between the artwork or just out of site of the artwork. For example, a character monologuing about how an infected is raping a knife wound in a person's back who is still alive, adds to the tone. It tells the audience just how fucked up what they are about to read is, without going too overboard by graphically showing the act.
In the Punisher Max, the character was all in the monologue. That is why the Punisher movies have never really done all that well, is they never captured that same magic that the comics have. If you were to do a Punisher movie properly you would need to have it basically be set up the sane way that the TV show Dexter is. Here is what I am on about. Firstly when Frank gets hit really hard, the monologue saying how his vision is now blurry or taking an inventory of the cracked ribs adds to the overall effect in conjunction with the artwork. Makes the impacts more powerful. It also explains enemy movements and motivations, and reveals when the character is concerned which makes the audience concerned it is a good sort of comic. It is a great way to tell jokes as the audience has the third person omniscient view on the story and little quibs can be made. For the Punisher, it is almost the single thing that makes the character relatable to the audience. It is Frank's voice, sharing his reasoning, his motivations, his emotions. In the Max series it is the thing that makes a four digit mass murder seem sane in a world where so many insane villains are explored and developed.
Reason number 731 of why Garth Ennis is my favourite comic book author is how well he does to give more feeling and emotion to his comics. This is especially true given some of the content that Garth Ennis puts out is pretty intense, and to graphically show everything would be even more extreme.
As an aside think about this. The power of comics is combining images and words. In the artwork is sometimes some really intense and fantastic detail. If you were to try to take certain comic images and translate them into words, or rather novelize them, a single image could take pages to describe. And that is the narrative power of comics. It is also hard to do, as I said you are only ever capturing the highlights of the action. In between it can be easy to miss details. Or sometimes you can go from image to image so fast, constructing the sort of visual subtitled movie in your mind that you can miss small details the artists have included. A good monolgue during the action slows the eye down, making you less likely to miss something and adding more value to the action sequences. The best comics in my mind are the ones where when you combine it all, the script, the art, each panel should actually make emotion jump off of each page. If you ware reading a comic and that isn't happening the comic you are reading is not very good.
**Reasons aren't in any actual order. I am not that OCD.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Wednesday workout
Today's workout was arms, biceps and triceps. The summary total of the weight that was done today is 23,080 total pounds. For this workout I would have to say that it was a moderate to heavy workout. Could barely do any tricep presses by the end. The 21s, which are a bicep curl where you do seven reps from the low to mid position then seven in the mid to high position, then seven more low to high position reps, ie full movement.
Tomorrow will be a day of rest. The way I like to set up my workouts when I am going hard is Day one: Chest and shoulders. Day two: Back. Day three: arms and abs and then day of rest. Rinse and Repeat.
So back to work on Friday.
Tomorrow will be a day of rest. The way I like to set up my workouts when I am going hard is Day one: Chest and shoulders. Day two: Back. Day three: arms and abs and then day of rest. Rinse and Repeat.
So back to work on Friday.
Going to the Gym - New Measuring scale
Going to the gym. I try to frequent it about 3 days out of the week. Sometimes it is more then that, sometimes less. Last night I was at the gym working out for a bit more than solid two hours, and I only meant to go for less then an hour. Heres how it happened.
The clocks in the gym have some set to the correct time and some an hour back. Not paying too close attention I reasoned that the correct time was on the clocks set back an hour. I left home at 7:30. No way could I have been there for an hour and a half, I must have only been here for a half hour.
Also I decided to try my hand at writing down how much weight I did, overall. For each set, how many reps were done and at what weight. I calced out the numbers an I was only 20 pounds short of moving about 30,000 pounds from this one session of exercise. Considering I was working my back I would call that a moderate session. The challenge of posting higher and higher totals drove me to work harder last night which was nice. I got a great workout in. This method of rating based on sum weight is also a good way to measure how much work was done, though to give it context you have to look at how you are working out. Arms at a total of 20,000 pounds could be a heavy exercise session, versus doing a heavy session on the chest going to around 45,000 pounds. So For the next while to measure performance in a simple manner I will be totalling up the weight done with the muscles worked
April 19th - Back - 2980 lbs
Also as a better more active way of taking and regulating my breaks, I am making it a point to walk the length of the gym floor inbetween set
The clocks in the gym have some set to the correct time and some an hour back. Not paying too close attention I reasoned that the correct time was on the clocks set back an hour. I left home at 7:30. No way could I have been there for an hour and a half, I must have only been here for a half hour.
Also I decided to try my hand at writing down how much weight I did, overall. For each set, how many reps were done and at what weight. I calced out the numbers an I was only 20 pounds short of moving about 30,000 pounds from this one session of exercise. Considering I was working my back I would call that a moderate session. The challenge of posting higher and higher totals drove me to work harder last night which was nice. I got a great workout in. This method of rating based on sum weight is also a good way to measure how much work was done, though to give it context you have to look at how you are working out. Arms at a total of 20,000 pounds could be a heavy exercise session, versus doing a heavy session on the chest going to around 45,000 pounds. So For the next while to measure performance in a simple manner I will be totalling up the weight done with the muscles worked
April 19th - Back - 2980 lbs
Also as a better more active way of taking and regulating my breaks, I am making it a point to walk the length of the gym floor inbetween set
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Models - The Challenge
Here is my challenge.
I used to make model cars. Old school hardtops, Chevelles, GTOs, Mustangs and the like. Then I was cruising the internet and I found these...
Serenity : http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=27428
BSG : http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=25801
Viper : http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=26171
And I suddenly became excited. My eyes got huge, my mind started racing about me doing this and so I decided that I am going to build some of my own. The center piece will be the Serenity, fully lit, fantastically detailed. The problem is it is going to take a lot of effort to get there. Think about it, detailed painting and texturing including rust and decal detail, wiring and LED lights, drilling holes. This is a lot of new skills that I will have to develop and knowing this I will be making some mistakes, so I rather do that on the less rare models. Not the garage kit made from a rapid prototype machine. So there will be an order to when I do the models, what skills I am developing and what I am looking to do with each one.
Here is the break down in order...
C3 Corvette - My dream car is a 68-72 C3 Corvette that I will completely strip down and rebuild to my specifications. I have a very keen mind of what I want this Corvette to look like too, and that is why I bought this model 2-3 years ago. I want to dress it up to look like my dream Corvette. The royal purple engine block, distributor, and differential. A dark green paint job and the light cream interior with purple threading. I want to make my dream car but in 1:25 scale. And in terms of detail I you to be able to see the stitching in the seats that are purple, I want it to feel like the car I dream of driving one day. In preperation for the following models I will make it with a simple led that lights up the rear lamps. I would try to do the headlights too if it weren't for the fact the car has flip up lights and on this model they are flipped down. Though maybe I could cut them and rejigger something from another kit. I will look into that.
BattleStar Galactica Viper MK II- This viper and the next model the Galactica I may do in reverse order but here is the plan. I may get a Voodoo FX lighting kit to light up the cockpit, helmet and engines of this ship. If I want to get really technical I may even try to find a lighting circuit that will make the engines flash like they are suppose to. Following some other model I have seen I want to add some piping and some battle details to the paint.
Battlestar Galactica - This is another kit after a show that I love. Heres the plan. From ACreations get the decals that are textured and have the individual plates of the galactica on it so I don't have to paint them, or they may be more detailed. Then I want to install the red running lights under the ship near the hangers, lights for the engine and lights in the hangers. As the series went on the Battlestar known as Galactica got more and more beat up and burned. I haven't decided on the level of damage yet but I do think that some damage will be required.
Firefly Serenity - I don't know what it is exactly but something about that show and movie is very comforting to me. Maybe it is the idea of Big Damn Heroes, or the way they talk, or the music, or how they are all a family, but something about that show makes me think of home. That is why the Serenity will be the centerpiece. I got this amazingly detailed kit that has various levels of customization including landing gear, shuttles docked or deployed, and arms sitting out to grasp them again. Most importantly to me, flaps on the rear engine that can be positioned at various angles. Right now, and this may change in the future but I am thinking having it in full burn position and lighting it accordingly. So the lighting will include all of the running lights and hopefully enough circuit boards to make them blink at regular intervals. A chase chip for the grav ring and lastly, a pulsing light cluster that beams light out the back like the ship would when it's fusion drives would engage. It won't have battle damage, but it will have rust between the plates. Fully piped with copper wire in place of the material in the kit and something that someone else did which is rivets on the body panels. It will be a thing of beauty.
Now I was chatting up some coworkers at the office and one of them offered the idea of making a model to fully capture the rust detail. I quite like this idea. I am imagining an old pick up painted as though it has rusted and seen better days and for practice, have it burned and battle damaged as well. This will likely be a feature after the Corvette.
Topics for next time will include modeling tools. In depth visual analysis of each model. And resources on techniques to make them. There is a plan in everything, and for these projects I will definitely need one going in
Later Days
I used to make model cars. Old school hardtops, Chevelles, GTOs, Mustangs and the like. Then I was cruising the internet and I found these...
Serenity : http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=27428
BSG : http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=25801
Viper : http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=26171
And I suddenly became excited. My eyes got huge, my mind started racing about me doing this and so I decided that I am going to build some of my own. The center piece will be the Serenity, fully lit, fantastically detailed. The problem is it is going to take a lot of effort to get there. Think about it, detailed painting and texturing including rust and decal detail, wiring and LED lights, drilling holes. This is a lot of new skills that I will have to develop and knowing this I will be making some mistakes, so I rather do that on the less rare models. Not the garage kit made from a rapid prototype machine. So there will be an order to when I do the models, what skills I am developing and what I am looking to do with each one.
Here is the break down in order...
C3 Corvette - My dream car is a 68-72 C3 Corvette that I will completely strip down and rebuild to my specifications. I have a very keen mind of what I want this Corvette to look like too, and that is why I bought this model 2-3 years ago. I want to dress it up to look like my dream Corvette. The royal purple engine block, distributor, and differential. A dark green paint job and the light cream interior with purple threading. I want to make my dream car but in 1:25 scale. And in terms of detail I you to be able to see the stitching in the seats that are purple, I want it to feel like the car I dream of driving one day. In preperation for the following models I will make it with a simple led that lights up the rear lamps. I would try to do the headlights too if it weren't for the fact the car has flip up lights and on this model they are flipped down. Though maybe I could cut them and rejigger something from another kit. I will look into that.
BattleStar Galactica Viper MK II- This viper and the next model the Galactica I may do in reverse order but here is the plan. I may get a Voodoo FX lighting kit to light up the cockpit, helmet and engines of this ship. If I want to get really technical I may even try to find a lighting circuit that will make the engines flash like they are suppose to. Following some other model I have seen I want to add some piping and some battle details to the paint.
Battlestar Galactica - This is another kit after a show that I love. Heres the plan. From ACreations get the decals that are textured and have the individual plates of the galactica on it so I don't have to paint them, or they may be more detailed. Then I want to install the red running lights under the ship near the hangers, lights for the engine and lights in the hangers. As the series went on the Battlestar known as Galactica got more and more beat up and burned. I haven't decided on the level of damage yet but I do think that some damage will be required.
Firefly Serenity - I don't know what it is exactly but something about that show and movie is very comforting to me. Maybe it is the idea of Big Damn Heroes, or the way they talk, or the music, or how they are all a family, but something about that show makes me think of home. That is why the Serenity will be the centerpiece. I got this amazingly detailed kit that has various levels of customization including landing gear, shuttles docked or deployed, and arms sitting out to grasp them again. Most importantly to me, flaps on the rear engine that can be positioned at various angles. Right now, and this may change in the future but I am thinking having it in full burn position and lighting it accordingly. So the lighting will include all of the running lights and hopefully enough circuit boards to make them blink at regular intervals. A chase chip for the grav ring and lastly, a pulsing light cluster that beams light out the back like the ship would when it's fusion drives would engage. It won't have battle damage, but it will have rust between the plates. Fully piped with copper wire in place of the material in the kit and something that someone else did which is rivets on the body panels. It will be a thing of beauty.
Now I was chatting up some coworkers at the office and one of them offered the idea of making a model to fully capture the rust detail. I quite like this idea. I am imagining an old pick up painted as though it has rusted and seen better days and for practice, have it burned and battle damaged as well. This will likely be a feature after the Corvette.
Topics for next time will include modeling tools. In depth visual analysis of each model. And resources on techniques to make them. There is a plan in everything, and for these projects I will definitely need one going in
Later Days
Monday, April 11, 2011
Ideas to save the World - Gyms powering the Grid Pt 1
Here is one I have had for a while and quite like. You know those stationary bikes you pedal and they power a light bulb through the resistance or a small generator? What if every machine at the gym generated power based on the work you did. This isn't that radical an idea, after all ellipticals, rowing machines and stationary bikes are self powered, having a small generator that produces power and feeds the screen, with a small rechargeable cell to store excess power and draw power on breaks on the machine. The radical idea is having it on each machine including weight stacks.
Imagine it. You are going to the gym, and each person is expending energy to perform various forms of work. And every ounce of work being done is to tone and strengthen one's body. Health and vanity are prime reasons people go the gym, but what if the work you did generated electricity? Your not just working for you, your work out is indirectly benefiting everyone. I have no illusions that the power generated from one whole gym or a network of gyms would be enough to start shutting down gas power plants, but it could help reduce the amount of power those plants would have to use.
And talk about motivation, I imagine with your gym membership you are given a card that you plug into each machine and for as long as your card is in that machine and you are generating power, the amount you generate is recorded and acts as a credit to your gym membership. Go often enough and you could be going for free. If you are going to do it, the work you put in should be proportional to the amount of power generated. So heavy weights produce more power, but more reps at lighter weight can also equate to the same. Would make it easier for people to track their own individual workouts and energy output.
The machines would cost more, I mean it is going require flywheels, generators, cables, custom made pieces and magnets, to start, but with support from a government lobbyist group, long-term I am thinking tax rebates on the machines.
Now I have some ideas, and my buddy Craig and I have been talking and we think we can do this, so we are going to. Simple as that. I am now in the process of putting a team together to research, design and make a functioning model, so I can't go into any technical detail. But really if you read this blog and have any background in power generation, mechanical systems, electrical and control systems, and any practical machine and electrical design knowledge I bet you could probably come to some of the same design solutions that I have.
So from here, team, research, design, bankroll, working model. Then the business stuff, but being an engineer that is always secondary to a design that speaks for itself.
Making it work is easy enough, making it the new norm is the endgame and that will be hard. But any one that knows me knows I like hard.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Blog Entry 1: Why I am blogging
There are many blogs out there. Some are interesting and fun to read and follow, others are garbage and dribble. They can be a lot of work to maintain, having to remember to make regular posts, and having interesting things to say. However, there is a lot of opportunity to put down some legitimately interesting things and that is something that I am going to be doing, I hope.
Here is why I decided to make a blog. I have gotten back into models after the monotony of making various car models and the all time consuming school which is the reason I stopped building, I not longer had time to. But now I am back and with a powerful vengeance. I was cruising this site http://www.modelermagic.com/ and I found there some amazingly detailed models people custom made of some of my favorite properties that made me insanely jealous. An immaculately detailed Serenity, with full lights, Battlestar Galacticas and Vipers, these are things I decided I want to do. Fully knowing it will take a ton of time, and patience, and learning a lot of new skills on such a small scale to some would be tedious. To me it is tedious work, but for an end product that looks so good, that is what I want. So I will do it. This blog will act as a diary for how I build these models. This is reason one.
Reason two. I like to rant. Sometimes it is about trivial shit, but sometimes it is about things that could literally change the world. I strongly believe that the world needs to changes or it will at some point tear itself apart. I have a list of ideas to change the world that I want to share, I want to talk about, and I want to start discussions on. They are just ideas now but things have a habiting of growing and changing until they become some tangible and real. No goal to do anything radical... yet, maybe one day.
The last reason is for the nerdy fun aspect of it. Even if I post something no one will ever read, developing an idea or opinion, doing some light research to formulate something that has the potential to be an interesting read has value for me. Typing it up and posting it is just the end process of that. Prepare for what is hopefully an interesting read.
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