Take me to the grid.

Words cannot express how much I would like to be a stay at home husband or father.

I've been working on this new sleeping experiment for a while.

For the past 6 plus months, I have consciously played several games of solitaire (single draw) every night right as I get into bed. I'll play as many games as needed as long as I win about 2 or 3. The effort is to ultimately self-program myself to sleep using a mild brain stimulation pattern. Solitaire is perfect because it uses the same patterns, strategies, and actions. The opposite would be to kick around on Facebook in bed, as every entry is unique and elicits an emotional response.

So do I have any successes to report? It's hard to tell. Probably about 99% of the time, playing is the last thing I can remember about going to bed, but there are too many variables that prevent me from deriving any conclusive evidence. For example, I think I typically run at an above average tiredness rate compared to others, so the fact that I knock out quickly might just be because I'm exhausted all the time. Other patterns skew the experiment such as me going to bed around the same time every night.

Perhaps in another 6 months I'll have gathered better evidence on whether or not the experiment is working. This may call for a spreadsheet to use as recordkeeping.

i'm so fly i fell asleep on the plane

I love traveling.. even for a short time or a short distance, though the longer and further the better. One day when I have my own private jet, I will fly to a different place every night.

The Problem with Smart Grid:

Today's energy lesson is on the problem with the Smart Grid. First of all, there is no single definition for Smart Grid, so there is enough confusion stemming from that. But really I'd like to discuss Time of Use (TOU) rates and general future the industry is envisioning.

So I've already mentioned the concept of peak shaving, but let's hit it again. Everybody gets home from work, turns out their air conditioning, starts cooking dinner, and flips on the lights and tv all around the same time between 6 pm and 7 pm. If we say that to serve all of this load we need 1000 MWs and our powerplants can produce 10 MWs, we need 100 powerplants just to serve that one hour between 6 pm and 7 pm. The goal behind TOU rates it to encourage consumers to consider doing some things at different times so that maybe that 1000 MWs over one hour might be 500 MWs over two hours or, even better, 333 MWs over three hours. Then you'd only need to have 50 or 34 powerplants. The mechanism to spur this behavior is the cost of electricty from 6-7 pm versus the cost of electricity from 7-8 pm. Also the technological piece that aids in this behavior are smart appliances, which are programmable to the extent that you can at least load your dryer at 6 pm, but tell it to start running at 8 or 9 pm when electricity rates are lower.

So this all sounds fine and dandy, but do you think that your parents or grandparents will really grasp and embrace this concept? Consider how deeply engrained into our patterns and mindset the fact of instant electricity is. Also people in general are stubborn and self-centered, where a small amount of inconvenience to them is not worth the greater benefit for the whole community. Maybe I have little faith in the human ability to adapt.

EV's:

On Friday I had the opportunity to attend a technical conference on electric vehicles hosted by the the Maryland Public Service Commission. There were representatives from Ford, DOE, PJM, Delaware University, and several regional utilities speaking on the future impact of electric vehicles on the grid. Really the presentations were quite layman in my opinion; not nearly as technical as it might sound.

For those of you who don't know, battery electric vehicles are cars that run on a battery that will generally allow you to travel 40 miles per charge. That charge could cost you as little as a dollar on your electric bill versus the 1.5 gallons of gas you'd use which right now would probably cost you $4 or $5. Plus you're not blowing emissions out of your tailpipe. Of course the trade off in emissions is that they are produced at the power plant and losses are afforded through the wires, but energy produced and delivered at a power plant is many, many times more efficient than a combustion generation process in your car. Think of all that excess heat your engine generates.

So electric vehicles are awesome and the way of the future. There are many ancillary applications in the grand scheme of EV's, such as how they support the growth of wind and solar generation or how they will effect the prices in the energy market, but those are more complex concepts and you are welcome to ask me about them in detail if you'd like.

Tea Party: something little girls do these days

I don't usually like watching people get embarassed. I don't typically enjoy getting political, though I do read some of the news. This is just too good to pass up, though.

Sometimes while I'm taking a whiz at work I'll see a fat employee walk into one of the stalls behind me. I immediately think to myself, "I gotta get the hell outta here." Is that wrong?

Work is usually full of nerd stuff which typically bores most people, but there are a few cool programs where if people understood a few of the engineering concepts behind them, they'd be much more interested in participating. For example, take the PeakRewards program. Essentially, the program allows BGE to remotely control your central air conditioning during a few days throughout the summer for a lump sum rebate paid back to you. Now the obvious benefit is that it forces the customer to conserve energy then and there at the cost of potential minor discomfort. The other part is that on the whole, energy is more expensive for BGE to buy during those peak times when your AC would be running, so the energy market will eventually reflect lower prices as per the lower demand. One of the bigger benefits that most people don't realize is that transmission, distribution, and all equipment associated with electricity delivery become less efficient if heavily loaded at those peak times, and typically the design only calls for appropiate peak capability. Significant shaving of peak loading can lead to exponentially fewer losses on the transmission and distribution systems. Lastly, the least addressed benefit is the curtailment of capital expenditures associated with designing for peak loading operations. For example, when everybody turns on their AC from 5-7 pm in the summer, the load on a transformer may reach 35 MW for a 30 minute period. If the transformer is only designed to facilitate 33 MW, we'd have to spend $5 million on upgrading that transformer. Sufficient enrollment in PeakRewards may shave that peak below 33 MW, thus deferring or all together dismissing the need for spending all that money on an upgrade. Eventually, those savings to the company are passed back to the customer through rate casing.

I may be a nerd, but everybody wins.

I have work to do, but it is simply work that I don't want to do right now.



Two weeks ago I put in an order for a pen and today it came into the office supply cabinet.

Uniball's Jetstream RT. It writes pretty smoothly, but the best feature is that the ink is smear resistant. The office already had the cap-style version, but I prefer retractable.

Also, I have been drinking as much water as I can. I then try to pee at the same urinal to see how much progress I can make on melting the urinal cake.

Dear Chinese commenter: I appreciate the attention and your efforts in posting links as comments, but I cannot read Chinese so it is all lost on me.

I can't wait to watch more Veronica Mars. She is perfectly sassy. I wish Kristen Bell really was like Veronica, and not some complete bore on Twitter.

What a hot birthday weekend. Nice and easy.

I think it's pretty hip to treat AC as a true luxury. Consider what people used to do in the old days.

I am very much looking forward to jumping into a pool next weekend.

the Greendale Community College Humans

I was thinking about this for a while last night. Say:

Alex of Filipino ethnic background and Allison of Nordic background have a child, Brandon.

Carl of Ghana and Cathy of Native American decent have a child, Deborah.

What does Brandon and Deborah's child, Edgar, look like?

What does Edgar and Jasmine's child look like, given Jasmine's grandparents are of Asian, Middle Eastern, other European, etc. decent?

My goal for the rest of the year: keep on travelling a ton.

List:

1. Build a dynasty
2. Burn it to the ground
3. Rebuild it better

My friends. You bow to no one.

http://www.stansborough.co.nz/store/new-edition-lotr-cloak/product.aspx

1100 NZD = 778.80 USD

And what good would that be without one of these:

http://www.replicadungeon.com/lotr-elven-brooch.html

I would crush this if it weren't $600. Well, maybe...

I cannot understand people who are my age or are of my generation that support Glenn Beck. I think my expectations of older generations are more lenient in terms of open-mindedness given that they did grow up in a different time and different world.

I was reading through the Wikipedia page on Glenn Beck after seeing a slightly disturbing article addressed to him, and found it to be quite a lengthy page. Instead of trying to get into any analysis of his history or views, I'll provide a few quotes which I found interesting.

"Glenn Lee Beck was born in Everett, Washington, on February 10, 1964, to William and Mary Beck."

"In 1977, William Beck filed for divorce against Mary due to her increasing alcoholism."

"Beck has described his mother's death as a suicide in interviews during television and radio broadcasts."

"In 1999, Beck married his second wife, Tania. They joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in October 1999, partly at the urging of his daughter Mary."

"Radio historian Marc Fisher has posited that Beck is "first and foremost an entertainer, who happens to have stumbled into a position of political prominence.""

"Beck, then 23, was partnered with a 26-year-old Arizona native Tim Hattrick to co-host a local "morning zoo" program. During his time at Y-95, Beck cultivated a rivalry with local pop radio station KZZP and that station's morning host Bruce Kelly. Through practical jokes and publicity stunts, Beck drew criticism from the staff at Y-95 when the rivalry culminated in Beck telephoning Kelly's wife on-the-air, mocking her recent miscarriage"

"After leaving Houston, Beck moved on to Baltimore, Maryland and the city's leading Top-40 station, WBSB, known as B104. There, he partnered with Pat Gray, a 27-year-old morning DJ. During his tenure at B104, Beck was arrested for speeding in his DeLorean with one of the car's gull-wing doors wide open. According to a former colleague, Beck was "completely out of it" when a B104 manager went down to the station to bail him out."

"At WKCI, Beck and Gray co-hosted the local four-hour morning show, billed as the Glenn and Pat Show. On a 1995 broadcast of the show, Alf Papineau pretended to speak Chinese during a taped comedy skit. When an Asian-American listener called to complain, Gray and Beck made fun of the caller and played gongs in the background while Papineau spoke in a mock-Chinese accent."

"Chris Balfe, president of Beck's company, Mercury Radio Arts, said that the reason Beck came to Fox was because of president Roger Ailes, remarking that they "have a fantastic relationship"."

"As of September 2009 Beck's program drew more viewers than all three of the competing time-slot shows on CNN, MSNBC and HLN combined."

"In late August 2009, the mayor of Mount Vernon, Washington, Beck's hometown, announced that he would award Beck the Key to the City, designating September 26, 2009 as "Glenn Beck Day". Due to some local opposition, the city council voted unanimously to disassociate itself from the award. The key presentation ceremony sold-out the 850-seat McIntyre Hall and an estimated 800 people, both supporting and opposing the event, demonstrated outside the building."

"In 2006, Beck remarked to Muslim congressman-elect Keith Ellison, a guest on his show, "I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.' And I know you're not. I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel." Ellison replied that his constituents, "know that I have a deep love and affection for my country. There's no one who's more patriotic than I am, and so you know, I don't need to — need to prove my patriotic stripes." Beck's question, which he himself suggested was "quite possibly the poorest-worded question of all time," resulted in protests from several Arab-American organizations."

Huh?

I'm not particularly informed of the details regarding the new health care bill.

On the internets, I saw many Republicans title their reaction articles with the quote "So this is how liberty dies... to thunderous applause," and I thought to myself- "I know this quote, but it can't be."

Yes indeed, the quote originates from the classic Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith; spoke by none other than Natalie Portman in her riveting performance as Senator Amadala of Naboo. Not Braveheart, but SW Ep3. People must have Barack confused with Pope Benedict XVI?

And if you're going to quote Star Wars, at least use the originals. It's a trap!

It looks as if I'll be missing the delivery today. Just will have to pick it up from the distribution center.

Bright:

Pros:
-Hot
-Australian
-Olympic Gold Medalist

Cons:
-Mormon
-Engaged (minor)
-Horse-gummed (minor)

1260 double mctwist

Over the past few years, I've developed an aversion to people who I would describe as abrasive. Perhaps that is just another way of saying the ambiguous term "people who rub me the wrong way," so I will try to add some definition to the concept:

- Intolerants. There are many different masks worn to create layers over intolerance- overcompensation, humor, self-victimization, etc. It always comes out eventually, though, if it is there.

- Self deceptionists. Being self aware does not exclude being self deceived. I can observe that I continue to make poor decisions and at the same time believe I am always right.

- Bossy people. I don't think there is anything wrong about putting yourself first or getting what you want. I think it becomes problematic when such things come at the expense of others.

- Rude gusses. Those who skipped kindergarten or first grade rules. Don't interrupt people, use "please" and "thank you", take your turn in line, don't be a criminal.

I like most people who are not abrasive.

On that note:

http://autocompleteme.com/