The Bird:

As a kid, I used to get annoyed when adults would point or push buttons with their middle finger. How are you going to tell me that it's rude to stick up my middle finger and then go around locating words on a page or selecting a floor in an elevator while flicking off the world?

Now I find myself using my middle finger for some utility. Mostly it is the most natural form to hit the button on the filtered water dispenser at work. I must be turning into an adult.

I'm a little bit in love with these.

New chapter, new chapters, new chapters.

Artscape 2011 Hype:

Things that I am excited about with Artscape looming ahead this next weekend-

1. Biking to and around the event. Hipster-like, but more mature and stylish... an opportunity to show off my new bike (not single-speed, though, as pictured).

2. Sondheim Exhibit - definitely some sweet art, more of the refined variety. Air conditioning break.

3. MICA student art - there's something visceral and raw about this production.

4. Hipster print t-shirts - given my success last year, I'm going to try for another and perhaps make it an annual effort.

5. Baltimore Symphony Orchestra free concert - I haven't always been able to catch this show as I don't think it interests most people, but I enjoy it and it also adds a nice air conditioning break to the day.

6. Festival food - apparently there's a new vendor so I'm excited to see if there are going to be any creative morsels to be found. Also I'd guess that the food trucks will be sharking around the edges of the festivities. Funnel cake falls under this category.

7. Free stuff.

8. Club Charles - this is by far the best bar scene of the year. I am debating whether the safety of the reflectors on my bike or the clean, stealth aesthetic takes priority for the night ride in and out here.

Officially hyped.

I think an interesting exercise is to fill in the blanks in the following statement:

I may not be very ______, but I am _______ .

I find that I easily lose my identity when trying to impress someone, and I have to remind myself that the key to success lies in the idea that you have to like yourself before others can like you.

I may not be very adventurous, but I am open minded.

I may not be very radical, but I am progressive in practical ways.

I may not be very athletic, but I am graceful.

I may not be very outgoing, but I am loyal to the last.

I may not be very vocal, but I am thoughtful.

Some things are just bigger than us

What's the point of being negative? First, let's all be thankful for the many good things going on. Second, let's be constructive in what can be improved.

Simplify. This mathematical command can similarly be applied to life. Determine the greatest common factor, or the most dominant stressor and remove it from the equation. It doesn't have to be there- I promise you.

The antithesis of seeking simplicity doesn't come to me as an inherently bad thing. After all, adding complex elements to our lives is what keeps them interesting and entertaining. But I think in today's environment we tend to pick up drama, societal expectations, etc. more easily than shed them. So in order to find one's sanity amidst all the chaos, 8/16 -> 1/2.

I know I may be stating the obvious, but somehow I can't wrap my mind all the way around the concept - it is absolutely paramount that one is happy with who they are. We may be wanting, greedy, or challenge-driven creatures that defy that feeling of being content, which is fine, but I've been thinking that those and other characteristics must prioritize second.

Now, the objective and goal is clear, though I have not the slightest clue on how to get there or if it's even possible.

Bi-losing.

Hmmm... I must be doing something right.

So maybe the cliche "everything happens for a reason" is rather indefensible. Saying "some things happen for a reason" is not particularly telling. Perhaps slightly tangent yet still fitting would be "there is always a lesson to be learned."

Inertia is a property of matter.

Often times I observe how life has it's own momentum. When a few key things start getting good, more good things follow and vice versa. Feast or famine. The tricky part is finding out what those key things are and how to jump start them in the right direction. But once that's done, the rest should follow.

Momentum and inertia are different things, as momentum is not a property of matter.

I've been thinking about what makes up a good person. 'Good' in the more archaic sense might be connotated with being generous, but that is fairly one-dimensional compared to how we throw around the word these days. Also traditionally one might define a good person as of high moral value, though I feel there's been a strong permeation of relative morality in atleast the world I live in so that definition doesn't hold much meaning.

I guess I would say it is someone who is kind-spirited, both well-intentioned and sensible, and has a positive outlook. Maybe that's an odd combination of characteristics, but it sounds right to me. And as broad of a definition as it might seem, I feel like the times have been few and far between that I've met someone of good standards. It's really quite refreshing.

Do you ever think about how ridiculous our petroleum based fuel system is? The crude is pumped from somewhere in the Middle East and then shipped over here in a giant tanker. Then it's refined at some plant in the middle of the country, only to be driven in a gas tanker to be delivered to your local gas station. Then we have to drive to the gas station to fill up. Every single part of the process consumes it's own product along the way.

What if you had a solar panel that fed into a battery during the day, which charged your car overnight at your house? Beast.

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.