Alternative Energy

Having to do a 25 page paper on oil companies going green in my honors microeconomics class, I was surfing the web when I came upon this odd article on the web. Here is the link http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20729466 . For a while now, I thought researchers were beating their brains out trying to find better ways of extracting coal or working with ethanol. But in fact science's best friend, the nappy haired (Bill Nye) researcher in his garage, is thinking outside the box. For example, Louis Michaud, a retired petrochemical engineer, built a high tech swimming pool in his garage. Instead of creating splashes, this swimming pool creates twisters the size of the garage. Michaud's plan is to build one of these pools the size of a sports arena. It will most likely be built around a nuclear plant because the heat emitted from the plant will be used to create tornadoes 9 miles high. How freaky is that? Michaud believes the energy created by the tornadoes should equal the energy output of the nuclear plant. Now that's thinking outside the box.

Companies these days are looking for scientists/researches that are out of norm. Here's another example. Two MIT architecture students have developed a way to harness energy from people stepping on stairs. Or another idea is using kites to sail large 400 feet ships. I'm talking about the huge ocean liners. They are using a kite that is about 13,000 square feet. Now that's harnessing wind power. It's like going back to ancient times and using the nature as our way to harness energy. There infinite ways to harness energy and companies are looking out in the world for garage inventors with big idea. Benjamin Franklin once said that it's not who invented electricity who got rich, the one who invented the meter got rich. It's quite the same for energy. It's out there; we just need to find ways to utilize the nature for benefit. My father said to me and I personally agree," Life is going to get much harder for you. The air is bad. The economy is going to hell, along with the earth’s atmosphere. People are working to death. Watch out because I won’t be here for long.” Its time my generation took the initiative.

Reflection of first semester

Believe it or not, our first semester as college students is almost over. What does that mean? We have to schedule classes for next semester. I roommate wants to be a doctor but he is literally failing out of chemistry. This shows why college students change their majors so many damn times. They pick something that they like and end up failing that class. I already published a list of things about dorm life... here's some stuff about college observations.

1) College food becomes old and disgusting after like the 1st 2 months. yea since we have 7 more semesters to go.

2) The only time the library actually gets busy in when finals roll around which is kinda sad.

3)Intramural games are fun way to get exercise and meet new people.

4)Walking 15 min to class and then walking another 15 back to your car.

5)Probability of never seeing your old professors if you're not that major.

6)Labs are long and tedious work. That's why I don't want to be a doctor. Too many damn labs.

7)Frats and Sororities think they are better than everybody else.

8)The enjoyment of seeing Derrick Rose and other basketball players. Seeing how tall they are is amazing.

Well that's 8 for now. I'll add more later.

Enough with the sanctions

What’s the deal with the U.S. and Iran? For over thirty years, these two countries have been at it. Ever since the Iranian revolution, U.S. and Iran governments have despised each other. In “The Commercial Appeal” today, there was an article about new sanctions imposed economically on Iran. My mother and I had a conversation about the situation in Iran. She walks into my room and I show her the newspaper.

“Not again.” she says,” Haven’t they put sanctions on Iran for the past thirty years. How many more sanctions can they put?”

“I don’t know really but if it hasn’t worked yet shouldn’t they try something else?” I replied.

“I think they just don’t want Iran to have nuclear weapons or any such power. That’s why they brought in Shah Pahlavi and then Ayatollah Khomeini. But in the end it backfired,” my mother said.

So I think now why the U.S. doesn’t try something new, maybe some diplomacy. The reason why Iran is so reluctant to talk to America is because past experiences have proven costly to trust America.

In the 1950s, Iranians kicked out Pahlavi for a reformist. However, America backed Pahlavi and brought him back to power. That pissed off Iran. Next American backed Pahlavi government in the last 1970s started to distance themselves from America. Thus America helps Iranians revolt and bring in Ayatollah Khomeini, they’re worst mistake. Thinking Khomeini will be friends with America; the U.S. government got a rude awakening. If you don’t know Khomeini, he’s the one who coined the phrase “America shataaneh” or in English “America is Satin”. This is my parents’ generation.

My generation is somewhat more liberal. Having the computer, internet, cell phones, etc. has opened our eyes to technology and the west. But I don’t if they will that jump to support the U.S. It all depends the kind of diplomacy the U.S. uses to combat the current regime. Not being able to trade and have relations with Iran could be detrimental to the U.S.’s future.

Why?

Why do humans always want to make other people do things their way? Whether it is what religion to practice or form of government, humans cannot leave each other alone. Societies want other societies to think the same as they do? This question interests me. I really cannot formulate a solution to this problem. Maybe if I studied the human psyche, or even better, the animal psyche, I would be able to comprehend our actions.

The United States wants to spread democracy all over the world and I'm fine with that. But Americans don't understand that races, ethnicity, etc. do not appreciate things forced upon them. Iranians are one of those races. Iranians, hate being told what to do. It just doesn't work like that for them.

I read this all the time in history books. White supremacy started because Darwin made that bullshit about evolution. Whites (Europeans and Americans) thought for reason they were better than the rest of the world. Yet they are too ignorant and hypocritical to know that 3000 years ago civilizations were flourishing in India, Iraq, Persia, China, and Egypt. Where were the Europeans? I think they were still in the caveman mode.

I hope I am not sounding too emotional or showing hatred. I'm just trying to be honest. The reason why Westerners were able to flex their ideas and society to the rest of the world was due to gunpowder. The one thing that caught the imagination of Westerners, blowing things up. I find it ironic that the first cannons were church bells laying on their sides. While the Chinese invented gunpowder for fireworks, the second it reached the west some idiot said "hey, we can kill with this thing."

During all this reasoning in my brain, something odd occurred to me. Children! Why are children overlooked? The one person you have the ability to teach your ways, your beliefs, what you see in life is your child. Think about it. A baby is born, wiped clean nothing in the brain except a couple of natural instincts and father and mother's genes. You have the ability to shape this baby into an angel or demon. The baby can learn to be obedient and thoughtful or irrational and rude. It's all up to the parents. But what are the parents doing? They are too busy thinking how to make the rest of the world think while the younger generations in their own, native, indigenous country rot. Being 18, we might not have children until later on in our lives, but I'd like everyone who reads this blog to remember that the one chance you have for someone to think the way you want them to think is your child. Take advantage of it.

Talking to Professors

I was in my economics class one day with Dr. Okunade and as usual he bragged about his children, which is fine. It motivates me even more to do better in school. He mentioned a story of his younger son who is a pre-med going to a professor at 7:30 in the morning to talk to him. Ten minutes later, fifteen other students showed to talk with the professor. Dr. Okunade was getting the point across that this university (Illinois I assume) is highly competitive and high standard school because students care what they get. Yet at the University of Memphis, almost no one visits him during his office hours. As a result, I don't necessarily go to my microeconomics professor, but I do go to Dr. Camp, my intro-civil prof., daily to ask questions and talk.

While many students are enjoying the fall break away from school, you could find me at 8:oo am on Monday in the engineering building doing research. Yes, I said it. A freshman is doing research. I encourage everyone who reads this blog to get more involved in the area they are getting majored in. Do you know why? It's basically universal that I want to attend the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for graduate school (quick note: Illinois is considered top three civil engineering program in the world.). The importance is that the professor I am doing research for just got his Ph. D from there. Connections! Can't live without them. Plus I'm my name gets put on the paper when published and I enjoy learning about geotechnical engineering.

Also, I talk to Dr. Camp often. He is my civil engineering intro professor. He is kind and very helpful. Today, Tuesday October 16 I was at school again early in the morning. I went to ask Dr. Camp a couple of questions about concrete but ended staying an hour and a half talking about everything including: politics, music, graduate school and jobs, history, and the book he was reading. In the end when I left, I was apologizing for taking up so much of his time. But he immediately replied that he was sorry for wasting my time. I think he speaks for all the professors at this university. Students don't go and meet their professors out of class.

Burke's Book Store

Honestly, I don't travel to Midtown. I see bumper stickers that say Memphis is Midtown but immediately dismiss any notion Midtown is better than East Memphis. I believe the crime rate is lower in East Memphis and the homes are better; though Midtown has much more history than East Memphis, which brings me to Burke's Book Store. Luckily, I remembered Wendy mentioning Burke's was in the Cooper Young area because apparently there is one on Poplar Avenue and I initially got the directions for that book store.

Driving and parking at Burke's Bookstore was an entire adventure for me. Driving through neighborhoods that had homes with the same architecture, I felt a homogeneity in Midtown. Parking my car nearly was a nuisance and actually feeling like nothing was going to happen to it gave me butterflies. Upon arriving at the bookstore, I noticed Jenn and Sarah were already there. I said my hellos and went venturing to find a book. In the end, I did find a book called The Fourth Dimension. I am only past the first chapter but I can tell it is going to be a brain beater.

It wasn't until around 7:00 that the show started. After Wendy's opening speech, three people talked in front of the small crowd. My favorite was the second reader. She read an essay on the relevance of the number nine. Throwing in the Beatles and cool facts how if you listened closely to the Beatles songs, you could hear Paul trying to kill someone. It was very odd, but maybe that's due to the fact I didn't grow up with the Beatles. The third reader was a funny looking black dude who was actually shorter than me. So I instantly like him. Out of all the readers, he seemed the most calm and flowing. He read two poems. The first reader read a part of a fiction essay.

Overall, I appreciated what these people brought to read. I got sidetracked at the end though because the man with the camera kept on taking pictures of Jenn and me; I had to put on my game face. :)

Scenes Related to the Title: Family Joke

As a famiily joke, the parents taunt the children into getting in the car after exiting the restaurant only to be let down. Something of this sort would make me furious and to the point where I would cry. Feeling humilated and manipulated, letting out my sorrow for such a prank is all I can do. When I think about it, I get shivers sent down my spine to think my parents would ever do this to me.

Looking at the essay, it is unbeleivable to find everyone in the family including David amused by this joke. I don not understand this family. I'm sorry but now I am confused. David and his sister are silent when punished entertained when forced to obdiently follow a car. I remember the Tiger Wood' Buick commercial in which a guy gets locked out of the car ends up trying to get in but Tiger and his buddy don't let him. It seems as though, everything in Mamet's life is backwards. Parents are not encouraging; in fact, they are the opposite.

Why is this in the essay, specifically this scene? Maybe David is telling us how his childhood was like a rake. We talked about what a rake symbolizes:gathering, cleansing, dislike, harsh. Mamet disguises the rake gathering the children as a rake does with leaves.

Response 2 Cycle of Violence

I felt a strong realtion to this Swedish movie I once saw called "Evil". It such a beautiful movie. A troubled teenager, Eric Ponti, is constantly tortured and whipped by his stepfather for his bad behavior while his mother watches in silence. Eric is eventually sent to an expensive and high class private school. Immediately after arriving, there are power struggles between the older boys and Eric. We see Eric go through many tests of courage and violence. In the end, Eric Ponti comes back home graduated from school with good grades. And when the stepfather tries to beat Eric, Eric defies all and beats up the stepfather and kicks him out of the house. In the end of this all, the violence of the stepfather got back to him.

In Mamet's essay, we see David and his sister punished continually. Mostly though David's sister is beaten. One day, however, David throws the rake at his sister. What caused this urge, longing, desire to throw the rake? I believe it was the actions of the stepfather that aroused this action by David. The continual loss of the temper and brute actions of the stepfather negatively affect David in the end.

I feel the same remorse for Eric Ponti as I do for David and his sister. Although Eric eventually gets revenge and David does not, the theme that the violence of another person transmits to another person far outweighs everything else. I believe what David did was uncalled for, but he had no control over what was happening.

Concrete Image: Aunt/ Naughty Child

My aunt died of breast cancer earlier this year. I barely even knew her. My mother and father always quarlelled who destroyed her life. My father said my grandparents ruined her life while my mother says it was my father's fault all along. They both have their opinions. Nor did it help when I was eight or nine years old, my mother and my aunt stopped seeing each other. My mother always labeled her sister as the naughty child ofthe family, as if she was the perfect one.

In The Rake, at the mother's funeral the sister learns her mother was the naughty child in the family. Instantly I remebered my own aunt. She was labeled the trouble maker. I know she did not get beat like the mother in the rake though. Still, to label a child naughty and then for the rest of their lives to keep that same persepective of her. It's digustful.

How can a mother or father taint one of their children as naughty and then to beat them for that? It is beyond understanding. By creating that child, God is entrusting you to provide adequately for the child and this is just monetary. If not, punishment in the next life will be for certain. Earlier in the essay, the sister walks in on the grandfather, mother, and stepfather in an emotional state. The grandfather is crying; unable to say three words "I love her". It is almost like a sin; you are saying you do not love your child. Why cannot the grandfather muster enough courage to say he loves his daughter. Is it because he will finally feel the remorse for his actions?

The only explanation for me is guilt. The grandfather is guilty of his past actions. Now my stomach is churning. Why can't people just forgive and let love. Be merciful to each other.

Men's Soccer Got Spanked!

Most people on campus have never seen the University of Memphis men's soccer play. Most students didn't we had a decent team. But then again who cares about soccer in America. Half of those who care really only give a crap because David Beckham is handsome (interpreting what girls think here) and the other half are Mexican. Well that's stretching it. But it is absolutely true.

Anyways the men's soccer team played number 10 ranked Creighton and let's just say Memphis laid an egg the first half. The final score was 3-1 but the score does not reflect the game. The first half was all Creighton while the second half was predominately dominated by Memphis. The importance here is yet again Memphis chokes in front of a decent size crowd and a ranked opponent. Give credit to Richie Grant for scheduling such hard teams but sometime along the line you've got to beat a ranked opponent. I haven't seen it happen for a while. Within the first 20-25 minutes the score was 3-0. It was that lopsided. Though I must say there was this one hilarious scene near the end of the game. A Memphis midfielder had the ball deep in his own half when a Creighton player came and tried to nail him in the balls. Everyone in the crowd screamed what the hell! Keep in mind this was within 10 yards of the Memphis bench. Richie Grant was furious. No one could understand Richie screaming and bitching in his Irish accent except at the end of the whole scenario. The inept referee gave the player a yellow card and was immediately taken out of the game by his coach. And as he walked of the field, Richie Grant in his Irish accent yelled "he's (Creighton coach) duing what you (ref) should ave done, take him oyt of the game!". Oh the whole crowd was laughing. There was another instance when another Creighton player got fouled and got up into the ref's face. Once in the ref's face, the player started to cuss the ref out but in the middle of it all his voice cracked. Oh boy, and he was a senior. Haha!

I mention all this because I tried out for the soccer team and I got some postive results. He told me to come back in the spring to tryout for a week this time. I was one of the only ones to get asked back. As a result, whenver Memphis is in town playing soccer, I try to watch the game to see what college ball really is. I noticed that college soccer is overrated and college soccer players are arrogant and unskillful. It is no wonder why professional soccer never get a firm hold in America.

Honors? A Loaded Word

Today I am going in depth on my opinions on the honors program at the University of Memphis. Dr. Shirley Raines states the honors program is growing, which in fact it is. Yet, what does the term “honors” signify? In reality, it is meaningless. Students are only required to take one honors class per semester in order to qualify for the honors diploma. Sure the honors classes are smaller and more discussion base and I applaud that. But one class does not give the right for a person to brag they are in the honors program. Additionally I want to know how many people are taking all honors courses like me. I have five classes and two labs and they are all to my knowledge honors classes if an honors class is available.

So at the University of Memphis, we have 400 students who technically are honors but most likely not up to par to other honors program. Then there are the required UNHP classes that I don’t know what they accomplish. In fact when I talked to my engineering advisor, she was adamant that I cannot graduate without taking 2 or 4 UNHP courses (I forget how many it is.). When I was in high school, an honors student meant something. Now apparently a student can get away with saying he or she graduated with honors by just taking a measly two hour course. That’s degrading. In order to be part of the honors program, the student must at least have 6 hours preferably all honors classes per semester.

Part of the problem is students not wanting to push themselves. They would rather party it up than hit the books and literally live in the library. Instead of attending a top notch graduate program like Illinois Urbana-Champaign or Berkeley, most just end taking a job for 40,000 after getting a B.S. degree, which really is a bullshit degree. So the question is whether the students at the University of Memphis are here for play or business. From what I see, most (most not all) students are here so they can say they went to school. So that’s the problem. A solution can be for all the students to get off their asses and perform, make the University of Memphis a legit metropolitan university and not known as “Tiger High”. Trust me we are not only helping ourselves get better jobs with higher pay but also we are helping pave the way for future Memphis students to be recognized as the best.

Practical Economics Lesson: Obesity

When I first signed up for honors microeconomics, I was unsure what to expect. Lo and behold Dr. Okunade walks in cracks a couple of jokes ans starts elaborating on the science of economics. Now economics fascinates me to the point I am thinking about a minor in economics or financing. Economics is like science. First economists observe, theorize, and then observe some more. So one day I was observing a fast food restaurant ( I don't eat fast food anymore.). And suddenly the light bulb clicked on. Why were Americans getting so fat. It couldn't be because maybe we all woke up and said we haven't consumed enough food the last 200 years. No, it lies with the efficiency.

Short definition of economics: most efficient way of allocating resources to where they need to be. History lesson: Americans always will by any means try to become more efficient. Now toss in inflation and we have a bad tasting stew starting to brew. After the September 11 attack, the U.S. economy went into a small recession. So what happened? Prices started to climb, but the income of Americans wasn't keeping up. As a result, Americans were losing the power of their hard earned dollar. And we all know that Americans like to get the biggest bang out of their buck. Here's the critical thing, the buyers have a decision to make: eat the crappy food which is cheap and gets more value or buy fruit or something relatively healthy which is more expensive. Let's take an example, a person choosing to buy a meal at Macdonald's. This person has a tight budget; he can only spend five dollars. His choices include a the Big Mac with biggie fries and a drink for $5 or a salad and drink for $5. Obviously this person is going to take the burger: 1) he's getting more food per dollar and 2) when it comes to being healthy or completely full, human instinct takes over. Consequently, we've seen more and more Americans eating less healthy because they can't afford healthy expensive foods. Americans are already workaholics; thus, they can't possibly work any more to earn extra cash. Either the wages increase or inflation decreases. I don't see any of those two possibilities occurring soon.

Being a college student, this relates also to us. Most of us are on a meal plan; so we have either $6 or richardson blue zone to eat at. We either go to richardson and eat the horrible crap or spend $6 on a fries and coke and chick-fil-a sandwich. What could be worse? Please listen to me. Everyone stop trying to be so efficient when choosing lunch or dinner. It's okay to spend less than $6 and it's okay to get something healthy even it takes more time to make.

Disclaimer: This is not the only reason Americans are fat, but it's one variable in a nasty equation.

Please on what you think of this.

Reflection of Taylor Bradford's Death

First of all, I would like to send my sympathies to the family and friends of Taylor Bradford. What happened on Sunday night was awful and hopefully it will never happen.

This Sunday night, Taylor was shot and killed near the Carpenter Complex apartments. It was tragic. It's not the same magnitude of Virginal Tech, but it is something we as a community can learn. I hope people who read this understand that I am just a person who goes to the University of Memphis. In fact, the only reason Taylor and I can be mentioned in the same sentence is because we both attend the same undergraduate school. The problem arises here. Everyone thinks if a person does not show sympathy or compassion, then that person is automatically a freak or lunatic. But in reality, it's not true. For example, let's consider my own case. So I sympathize for the family and especially parents for losing a child. But that's it. I can't say anymore because I don't know anything else. This is the case for the rest of the University of Memphis Campus. We care, just about the wrong things. We care for ourselves, not Taylor. And that's human instinct. We are naturally lazy, evil, and greedy. As a result, the effect of the shooting personally on me is minimal. We hear about five different homicides on the local news.

Another issue is whether there are campus safety problems across the country. After researching the web for crimes in the university campuses, I found that in fact crime has overall decease from 2002 to 2003. Thus can we say there is a problem with campus safety? Nope. So what this boils down to is violence. I'd say the first time someone robbed from another person it was 10,000 years ago when civilization just started. It occurred to a caveman that another caveman possessed something he liked and the rest is history. How do we eradicate violence? We don't! We can't! Not unless the Rockefeller's, Bush's, and Carnegie's live at the same standard of living as middle class Americans.

At this point in the argument, the reader most feels pessimistic over the possibility of accomplishing something towards minimizing violence. My solution, even though there is no problem here, is derived from this article I found searching the web trying to find correlations between the crime in Europe and Asia to the United States. I urge you to read this article. Here is the link http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-gunownership.htm. Dealing with violence is Alost trying to catch Osama bin Laden. I advocate citizens of Memphis and America to live life because danger is omnipresent. Yesterday we lost Taylor; tomorrow I might die. In the end, the world will slowly progress to entropy.

walking in memphis

So first of all I’d like to say that I’m not addicted to any drugs like cocaine or crystal meth. I’m only addicted to soccer and women and of course school work.

As I follow the concrete pavement, I understand my position in the universe. It’s not a x-y-z coordinate. I’m a radiant energy, not enough to disturb the natural equilibrium of this world. The effects I have on my surroundings are minimal, however, the effects of the world are quite large. I’m walking. I pass the chemistry and biology buildings. I put in perspective what I’m made up of. I come to a halt at Campus School. The school in which I went to first grade. I feel as though in space the only thing measured is time. Time, the one dimension relevant in physics, lets me visualize what I am , was, and will be.
First of all, I am just an idea in space floating around constantly bombarded with other ideas. In retrospect, I like a parasite. I take other ideas and use them.
There is nothing in space. How can we be in space? It’s not logical. If I was in space, I would be best described as an ant. An ant is insignificant, useless, and disgraceful. The way humans think is disgraceful because humans are lazy, greedy, and naturally evil. I have no opinions. All trace of thinking is lost to me. I only observe. I just saw a cinnamon red Chrysler 300 with 22 inch rims and bumpin music.
My future is in limbo. I don’t know the right path from wrong. I compare myself to Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. stuck between following the yellow brick road and diverging into the wilderness. As I write this essay, it’s hard for me not to think of my future. I’m sitting on the steps of Life Science. I remember my mom persuading me to be a doctor.
I must say that in space I’m free, however insignificant I am, I am able to do what I want. My destiny is in my own hands. Only time will tell as I travel through the abyss of space if I realize who I am and will be.

self-evaluation

I don't know what to say now about my experience. I definitely changed as a writer from the write the author's meaning to how the author got his meaning out. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I can relate it to my calculus class. Dr. Parrish is my calculus III teacher, and he is an extraordinary the way he teaches. Most math professors teach by showing a formula of a partial derivative and using it in a problem. On the contrary, Dr. Parrish shows his students how the mathematician used simple calculus to prove a formula. The light bulb hit me on Friday when we were discussing proving limits of three dimensions by the epsilon and delta method that everyone overlooks the simple tools that make the complex beings. In the essay Fourth of July, I felt the same way. This whole time I read a work to find its themes only. But now! But now I read an essay like it’s my Bible or Koran or Torah, looking for intricate details that never would have popped when I would read while I am in bed. Please forgive though if the transition of analyzing work takes longer for me. I am a civil engineer major. My parents are both engineers. I have literally been bred to be efficient, accurate, and precise. I am supposed to find the problem and find a solution, if I wanted to use creativity it was either at soccer or chess. And I did use that creativity well at soccer and chess.

Though it’s sad to say the first couple of times I read the essay, I looked for the broad ideas. Okay, what’s this mean and what’s the universal theme. Sweet, I found the theme. I’ll write me essay now and get done and move to something else. That’s why my first rough draft was very depressing and what was more depressing was that my group said I did a good job. When I read over my rough draft, I nearly barfed. As a result, the next few times I read the essay, I looked for details on how Audre Lorde told her story of racism. It was hard at first, but it got easier and easier. My final rough draft was so far in my life my best work. Hopefully Wendy thinks it was worth her time because this will automatically be a confidence booster.

Next time… I think next time I would like to be more critical and analytical. I get caught in the story net as most readers do. Better responses from my peers would be beneficial. Additionally, I feel as if I might have left something in the Fourth of July untouched, something of deeper meaning. I don’t know and probably will never know. But I want to make sure I dig every bone out of the grave next time. I’m going to make Shakespeare tear apart the heavens when he finds out that I’ve dug him out and left nothing for him in this world.