A car?

I do not have a car.  Sometimes I miss driving.  Then I saw this design and wonder just how I might drive something that has such elegance.  Such comfort.

http://www.yankodesign.com/2012/07/23/mobile-pavilion-car/

I can only doubt the engineering wonderment that it would take to make this a reality.  Plus the Florida heat might destroy whomever dallies too long.  Unless the seats were cooled. Hmmm.

Human sushi

So I'm recovering from getting chopped up and having bits of me removed.  Lypomas.  No one knows what causes them. No one knows what makes them increase.  I first developed them in my 20's and had the military take a couple large ones out.  Since then they have multiplied until I now have hundreds spread around my body.

Well now I have a few less.

The docs snuck the knockout shot into an IV without telling me and the next thing I know is that I'm waking up in absolute terror and being held together with glue and tape.  Welcome to the world of Tomorrow!

I now have 5 slices and 10 days to do nothing.  No exercise, no sweating, no heavy lifting.  I wonder what exercises I can do that won't allow me to lose what I've gained?  Hopefully I can stay on course to make this Tough Mudder race in December.

Am I out of my league?  Probably.  Is this new for me? Nope.

Worker's Rights

So today I wanted to learn more about my congressman.  I'm in a new district and getting registered to vote, so who do I have?  I can't tell.  Ha!  Gerrymandering is crazy down here!  But we do have crazy, check out Congressman Bill Young, Republican.  

Apparently he did not graduate high school, was an insurance salesman, and wrote an official document on the evils of homosexuality.  Wonderful.  And now today, this little video interaction pops up on google.


http://oldnortheast.patch.com/articles/rep-bill-young-on-minimum-wage-hike-get-a-job-e8c2749e#youtube_video-10585429

The point is not that congressman Young is a bad person, it is that he is a bad politician who ignored his constituent.  Floridians have horrible working environments with lousy wages; and yet the workers are afraid of those jobs being moved offshore.  I'm sorry but that is the key to a service economy- the jobs can't leave because they are local service jobs.

The workers of Florida need to band together and get some control of the marketplace and become better negotiators for wages and benefits.  I have been across this country and here in Florida the dividing line between the workers and management is so severe that it shocks me; and yet no one is willing to stand up for any sort of change.  


Why?  

Somedays

Somedays, I wake up after having a dream of of pathetic I am.  My god, I am a loser.  All night it was just one situation after another of me acting like me, and realizing that people don't really like me and that I am a loser.  Sometimes when the first thought that enters your waking mind is what do i have to kill myself with; is the day going to get much better?

Pathetic

I stayed up late last night watching a tv show.  I prepped my pills but then forgot them before sleeping.  I've on edge for the past few days.  I can tell I'm coming down and I am getting very angry today. Very angry. dammit.  Why can't I take my pills?  So i took one just now.  I woke up too early because my alarm went off and now i can't sleep.  Been too anxious at night for sleeping, mostly just tossing and turning until it gets light and then i start to sleep.  Could be the noise of the A/C.  poorly built room with little ventilation, so window ac keeps kicking on all night.  I like it warm but don't want everything covered in sweat.  I can't handle the constant noise. Always something hissing or cranking. whistle of fans and capacitors.

Retirement Island

Like so many, I have the dream of retiring to a small island and living a simple life away from man.  I would say the things of man, but I like science and technology and those things will allow me my personal self-sufficiency.   I still haven't figured out a good way to get the internet, so I haven't left civilization yet.

Today though, I am experimenting with seeds and sprouting.  Which led to a contemplation of consumption. Which led to wondering about space requirements.  How much do I eat and how much space would it take to grow it?

I eat rice, love it, and probably consume about 40 pounds a year.  How much land would it take to grow enough for me?  According to Mother Earth News it looks like a farmer can get 10 pounds of rice per 100 sq ft of land.  And they can get this every 3-6 months as long as the temperature stays over 70 degrees F for 40 straight days.


So I figure 2 harvests a year if it takes 4 months to grow, and here in Florida it might drop a bit below during the winter so to stay on the safe side I'll not push it.  At 2 harvests I can grow 20 pounds each time, so I need 200 sq ft or if I put them in trays I need (2) 10x10 growing spots.  Maybe get a couple of 8' kiddie pools and use them as a way of flooding and retrieving which a growing technique.  Produce 5 pounds/pool which is easy to scale up or down as necessary. Plus it would be small enough to put the growing area on a pallet that can be raised and lowered to ensure that the rice is properly covered with water.  Easier to harvest if I don't have to bend over all the time!


Then in the off season use the pools as aquaculture, fish ponds. maybe.  I need to research other necessary items that I consume.

New Bed!

So after 8 months of uncertainty and movement.  Of homelessness, hospitals, and couch surfing.  I am now in an apartment without an end date.  It is very exciting. I don't know how else to describe it, and if you've never gone through this complete feeling of doubt about your existence, then I don't know if you can understand.

After spending the first night sleeping on the floor with a thin blanket at a cushion, I headed off to the store for memory foam.  I have an idea that I want a fold a way bed.  There is a 5 inch ledge, oh wait I'm also practicing my use of SI so it is about 12 cm, and I figured that with a thin mem-foam mattress I could mount one side ways with a drop down desk underneath.  Not sure if it will work, but I was lucky enough to find (2) 2.5 inch memory foam mattress toppers so part A is coming together.

After wandering Home Depot there are so many choices that I'm not sure how to build it.  Bracing, framework, materials- so many options!

Like a teenager

Ah how I love my brain.

Today I have had another meltdown.  I sit typing this after laying in bed exhausted from being at the point of tears.  Tears for what?  I have no idea.  I woke up, ate, felt unmotivated and depressed.  Not all that unusual.

But then I decided to force myself to get going.  I have a few days before I am homeless.  I need to find a place or something.  So first things first, I was going to fix my bike (flat tire) which is my main form of transportation.  I start to remove the wheel and the anxiety is huge!

I'm shaking and freaking, but dammit I'm going to work through this.  Uh, no.  I literally dropped everything and ran inside.  I flopped on my bed in a horrible redux from my childhood. Everything squeezed.  I passed out.  I woke up groggy and discovered that there is a huge rain andwind storm outside.  On the brightside I would have been caught in it, downside is that I'm losing another day.

Tomorrow is the last weekday to get stuff done.  I'm screwed.

Air powered world

I've been discovering more and more about different pneumatic systems that are around the world.  Here is a New Yorker article about the trash disposal system on Roosevelt Island, New York City, Ny, USA.  Pretty cool.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/11/17/031117ta_talk_taylor

Here's a wired magazine pic series
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/08/trash-sucking-island/all/

And a video tour
http://vimeo.com/11804927

Here is an annoying pdf link by the US Postal service, but it is full of amazing info about a couple of postal systems that were installed back in the day.  They wanted to be able to ship 50 pound objects throughout the system!

http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/pneumatic-tubes.pdf

Imagine if we could put a system with RFID tags going through these tubes for routing.  Use wind or solar for power boosting and you could get rid of a few trucks  from the road.  Truly an internet of TUBEZ!!1!  sorry, had to do that.

Besides banks and other tellers, I've never seen a pneumatic system move much.  Oh wait, I found an elevator!   Futurama here we come!

http://www.daytonaelevator.com/Pneumatic%20Vacuum%20Elevator%20Main%20Page.htm

I wonder what would happen if you laid people on their backs for that?

Another inconvenient truth

So the first thing I want to post is a Ted Talk.  If you have not heard of them, then you will see me link to a bold new world of ideas.  As with all ideas, use the scientific method and check the results.  Nothing should be mystical since the world is a rational place even if we do not understand it all at the moment.

Jonathan Foley has a great talk over at ted.com that points out how much of the world is being used for agriculture.  This is a great talk for everyone, and even better for those that like to say that you can fit every person on the planet into a major USA city.  The response for that is, Ok but the land needed for the food is the size of South America.

I also recommend additional reading at this wiki article:  Tragedy_of_the_commons

Heya

I didn't know how to start.  I want to have a blog to keep track of my mind.  It...goes places.  Sometimes it is to places on the internet with awesome inventions or gadgets or whatnot and I will post links.  Other times it will be a rambling.  Sometimes it will be an echo of my mental illness.  My wish is that it entertains me, if this entertains you then all the better.