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[nov. 23e, 2009|01:50 pm] |
I want to investigate skullcandy headphones, and the ipod shuffle. I've spent quite a ridiculous amount of money on large-capacity ipods over the years, so it seems strange to change tack now and go for the smallest. but I'm really attracted to the idea. the new stainless steel ones are really nice, although the fact that the controls are on the earbud cord is really annoying because I would prefer to use my own headphones. so I would need an adapter. to me, the whole appeal of the shuffle is that you can spend money on a better pair of headphones. and you can carry around music more easily. it's like you just have to be carrying your headphones, and you always have music. the shuffle fits inside full sized headphones, when you're not wearing them, and clips to things, so it takes no pocket space. full size headphones also serve two other purposes- they can keep ears warm in cold weather, and can protect hearing (too some degree) in loud environments like a fabrication shop.
I'm going to buy a digital camera for my father, and try to convince my sister to buy a matching one for my mother. they live on opposite sides of the country, due to their locations of employment, so they only see each other every month or two. I think being able to share pictures would be a great thing for them.
went to a cyclocross race yesterday. placed dead last. it was the 3/4 race, because couldn't find my wallet at seven in the morning, so I didn't go in time to race with the other category 4 riders. I havent trained at all, and haven't been on a real bike ride more than twice this semester. and I was underfed and underwatered that morning, and there had been much drinking and sex the night before. we didn't even warm up before the race. but perhaps the thing that cost me the most time was my pedals. I really have to replace them. not being able to clip in after remounting is ridiculous. I shouldn't have to struggle with the pedals. the terrain should take all of my attention.
and, I'll be in much better shape after this semester. but the cross season is pretty much over. shrugs. I suppose it will help with frisbee. |
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| some things. |
[nov. 18e, 2009|11:32 pm] |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metatarsalgia
I've had a stone bruise for the past couple weeks. oddly, it gets better when I play ultimate barefoot on a hard indoor floor. I say odd, because it was most likely caused by playing ultimate barefoot on a cold, wet field.
I really like cutting metal.
I'm starting to dislike my architecture class. it's pretentious. perhaps that word lacks specificity, but really it's just the lack of substance that bothers me.
I need to relearn how to breathe. |
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[nov. 14e, 2009|06:38 pm] |
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/14/opinion/l14afghan.html
letters worth reading, I think.
here's a letter I wrote to my mother, who's lonely at home without husband or children nearby. I'll let it serve as an update on my life:
it's raining! a lot!
I wonder how your overgrown lawn is doing. you could always tell the neighbors that you're reducing your carbon footprint by allowing your lawn to revert to its native state. native species are wonderful, but it would actually take some effort to plant them in our lawn, I think. most grasses and weeds that normally grow in lawns are imported or invasive. here at Hampshire, there's a perennial outcry for weedkillers every spring when the dandelions take over. Smith college, for example, has pristine dark green lawns all year round. imagine the food that could be grown with those fertilizers!* the green thumbs always win out over the aesthetics, however. I suppose it helps that hampshire students spend a lot of time actually playing and lounging on our lawns, so the safety card can be played: chemicals are bad for us. Smith can't keep all their students off the grass, but there are a lot of chain fences that discourage the kind of walking and biking we do. I only wish we didn't use so much salt on the paved paths, because that's what kills the grass on the edges of the paths. there are lots of places where grass will never grow because too much salt has been used.
yesterday, the sustainability seminar that amelia and I are participating in went on a field trip to north amherst. we visited swartz farm http://www.swartzfarmamherst.com/ to learn about hydroponic systems. we learned that closed systems (where the water used to feed the plants is recaptured) are much more efficient than traditional soil based agricultural efforts in terms of water usage and even fertilizers. this was surprising to me, because I assumed that in hydroponic systems, the plants would require more fertilizer because they can't get any nutrients from soil. however, the efficiency of nutrient delivery is so low in soil-based agriculture that the average farm may use just as much or more fertilizer per plant. furthermore, the fertilizers that get dumped on the ground end up "running off" into the ecosystem, wreaking havoc, whereas *a closed hydroponic system has no wasted fertilizers; the nutrients that don't get absorbed simply pass back into the tank to be used again.
the hydroponic section of study for our class was sparked by my desire to learn more about the feasibility and overall sustainability of vertical farms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_farming since every source that I encounter on the subject insists that hydroponics are necessary for this kind of operation. the farmer we talked to yesterday pointed out that it's quite difficult to get sufficient light to a plant that's on some random floor in a high rise, unless it happens to be near the south facing side of the building.
I've decided to wash my hair less and brush my teeth more. I understand that pheromones make people happy, and of course, hair exists to trap scent, including pheromones.
in other news, I went to get an x-ray of my foot yesterday after visiting the greenhouse, because I was given a referral by the doctor at health services. I'm sure there's no fracture, but the doctor just wanted to make sure. we suspect it's a bruise that I inflicted on my foot while playing ultimate barefoot on a cold and wet field. not surprisingly, it's located in a place that's very much used when I walk and run. this is why it hasn't healed yet, I think. |
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[nov. 11e, 2009|11:10 am] |
I'm becoming more interested in straw bale houses. the insulation is fantastic. structurally, they're not quite as versatile as concrete, but because they're lighter, straw bales are still super awesome.
I'm also curious about using living trees as building materials. not necessarily in conjunction with straw bales, but in general. is this done? does it work? can I do it? I wish I had a decade or two to waste just fucking around with plants of all kinds, testing them and figuring out how they can be manipulated. weeping beeches are entirely upside down, and they thrive, as long as they aren't crowded for sunlight. in open spaces, they actually do better than beeches that havent been mutilated, because their density of leaves is greater. but what about other trees? can I put car windows in between them and create greenhouses? would I have to treat them like bonsai to prevent the building from being consumed by the thickening tree trunks over time? would the trees grow around the glass indefinitely, or eventually break it?
also, how easy is it to get cheap or free rebar? arent rebar and concrete recycled quite a bit these days? does this mean that used rebar will cost as much as virgin, or more? |
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[nov. 8e, 2009|12:32 pm] |
"motivational" response to a couple of news items
for crying out loud, if somebody can't afford an abortion, how the hell are they going to afford to raise the child? where's the money to make it so that people don't need abortions? in my dream last night, a woman sat in a yellow trash compactor, bawling her eyes out because she had just had an abortion. people don't want to have abortions. they just don't have the resources to go through with pregnancy. and when I say resources, part of what I mean is monetary. but the other part, and arguably the larger part, is social. before you make abortions illegal, you absolutely must do everything you can to reduce the motives that people have for terminating their pregnancies.
the investigation is focused on motive? I could explain the motive. nobody wants to be shipped off to war. certainly not a devout muslim to a war against islam (and if anyone can prove to me that this is not a war against islam, I beg you to try it). certainly not an army psychologist who's job it would be to convince white infidels that they should feel good about what they are doing, and keep doing it.
look, you can read about it here
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/us/08stress.html
but take it with a grain of salt, because the whole media organism has been hiding the obviousness of the motives involved here. in a sense it's good that they didn't just say, "he's a muslim, that's why he did it, he hates america," and so forth. but at the same time, they're covering up the glaring obviousness of why this shit happened, and everything that is implied by it. it's a stupid war. that's it. it hurts a lot of people, and there should be no surprise about that. |
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[nov. 4e, 2009|03:37 pm] |
all distances are in millimeters.
distance between outside bearings, 120.
distance between outside and inside bearings, 20.
distance between inside bearings, 62.
bearing dimensions: inside diameter, 17. outside diameter, 35. width, 9.
flange fillets, 3x3. flange height above fillet, 6. shell thickness on drive side, 6.
shell thickness on non-drive side, 3.
length of threaded section, shoulder to edge, 10.
thickness of threaded section, 4.
threading, 1.37 inches by 24 threads per inch (english freewheel threading)
height of shoulder, 1.85
from there, 45 degrees in and up until the 6 millimeter shell thickness is reached. then over the rest of the way (unknown distance, unnecessary to know) to the fillet, flush with the outside of the inside bearing. flange width is 3. flanges are both centered on bearings.
the 6mm thick section of shell is 21mm long, followed by a taper to the 4.5mm section. ignoring the length of the taper from 6, the 4.5 section is 20mm long, and the taper repeats. again ignoring the 1.5 taper, the 3mm thick section of shell is 21mm long, reaching the base of the fillet of the non drive flange.
total length of hub is 96.
outside diameter of hub at largest point is 65.
the part will be turned from 6065 aluminum.
in an unrelated matter, I have a habit of looking at the sex advice in cosmo whenever I get the chance. I've always been fascinated by what women's and girls' magazines have to say about the male species. like, I always used to steal my sister's seventeen magazine, and read the "boys" advice. most of the time I think it's pretty stupid. this month, however, cosmo got it exactly right. |
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[nov. 2e, 2009|09:34 am] |
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pour quoi esquil me manque completement de lappetit pour la vie? ce nest pas que je suis deprime, juste que je nai pas de faim, de besoin, pour quoi que ce sois. il ny a rien qui me pousse; cest un probleme de motivation. |
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