On Biorenewables

Dear humans living on this earth:

I have recently heard many conversations concerning the use of ethanol. The cost that it is having on farmers, the lack of profitability from it, the inefficiencies.
Fair enough - I will acknowledge that.
However, just as we have to crawl before we can walk, just as we fail over and over before succeeding - I would like to give my props to ethanol for being the part of a process, for getting itself out there and making people aware that there ARE biorenewable options.
With this, I would like you to be made aware of what IS being worked on. So many times we say "oh, well this isn't working, we better go right back to petrolium, there is no hope" But as I said, ethanol is merely a step in a journey that will, I believe, prove to make a huge, positive, impact on our environment.



Down the road from many of us
and just across the corn field (yeah, that doesn't help much....hahaha)
is a facility called BECON.
It is Iowa's Biomass Energy CONversion Facility.
within its walls.......


Anaerobic Digestion of Corn Stover and Swine Manure

Researchers on this small-scale project are investigating the use of regional anaerobic digestion units to produce chemicals and methane. The resulting methane can then be combusted into heat or used to fuel engines that generate electricity.

The first stage of anaerobic digestion converts cellulosic biomass to sugars and acids. Valuable chemicals such as glycerol, acetic acid, other organic acids and ethanol are produced in various proportions. After separating out the chemicals produced in the first stage, the remaining material would be used as a feedstock for the second stage of anaerobic digestion to produce methane for electricity generation. Most of the original nutrients are retained in the end product.



Supercritical fluid reactions hold a great deal of promise in the biomass conversion to fuels and chemicals arena. This project uses fluids such as water, carbon dioxide, ethanol or propane at high pressure and temperature to quickly convert biomass into sugars, organic acids, hydrogen, methane, nonracemic chiral compounds and a host of other chemicals. The supercritical process is fast (reducing cellulose feedstocks to a liquid in 15 minutes compared to the anaerobic digestion process which can take days), versatile, and uses relatively compact equipment. Researchers are investigating it as a low cost biomass conversion option.



Biomass Gasification and Reburning

Principal Investigator: Robert C. Brown
Organization: Iowa State University

This project has evolved over the years from an investigation of Iowa’s biomass potential to investigating specific biomass conversion technologies. Currently, this project explores the conversion of biomass into heat and power by the process of gasification. In gasification, a fluidized bed reactor converts solid biomass into a gaseous mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane, carbon dioxide and nitrogen. The resulting gas can be used in a boiler, in an internal combustion engine, in a fuel cell or as the starting point for chemical production.

Because of its flexibility, gasification has been proposed as the basis for biorefineries that would provide a variety of energy and chemical products, including electricity and transportation fuels from biomass.





Biodiesel Pilot Plant and Research Facility

Principal Investigator: Dr. Jon Van Gerpen
Organization: Iowa State University

Biodiesel is a renewable, nontoxic and biodegradable alternative to diesel fuel. It is produced by chemically reacting a vegetable oil or animal fat with alcohol. The biodiesel pilot plant at BECON can produce this alternative fuel using a variety of feedstocks such as yellow grease from restaurant waste, plant oils other than soy, or brown grease from rendering plant waste.

The core research on the project to date has led to a major grant to Van Gerpen from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to develop biodiesel education tools. As commercialization of biodiesel comes closer to fruition, the demand for new fuel suppliers will increase, as will the need for high quality, accessible educational materials to train fuel producers. The biodiesel pilot plant at the BECON facility will be used for the laboratory and hands on training portion of the education project.





So Next time...when you're at some political debate
or you're chatting with your fiends and some enginerd
is trying to tell you that "oil is simply the most efficient fuel
we're silly to use ethanol, its stupid"
I encourage you to acknowledge that no, ethanol isn't the best
but it IS paving a path....
They're using the same processes that were used to create ethanol
to now break down cornstover (the cornstalks and crap that's leftover
after the corn has all been attacked by the combine....)
and different greases (yellow grease is
leftover resaurant grease!!!! Cool!! ...errr gross...) as a form of fuel...
both are items that are otherwise considered waste - which means
that unlike the use of ethanol, we're not impacting the economy
just...recycling and reusing.


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p.s. these are the estimated average September Wind speeds...

but watch out.....by November.....it'll be picking up again. :)


sweet.
Oh and if you're wondering about the size of wind turbines....
just fyi

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i love my job.

On Work

remember when
Amy told me to
take an exacto, instead of my thumbnail
to open up the bean pods

remember how then
i had to add them to the display
but Totally missed:


the big red spot of blood down there at the bottom...?
Now, it may not seem like that big of a deal
but in actual size, that tiny red spot
is about the size of a thumbnail........which is pretty big!

So i fixed it.

can I go home now?

On Beauty

On Graphic Design

Well folks, this is how its done.
Process and all.
The latest digital photography project is to...
choose 3 themes and make something combining at least six different images.....
for each theme....
sooo one theme is bicycles (surprise surprise)
another iis ....night/UFOs...



The bike theme came from...well from accident, really...
I was farting around with the images, wondering what to do what to do...
how can I mesh thesee together...
Soon enough I accidently inversed an image. Then I said...hmmm
I could add a color to that...and i did.
then I didn't like that color...so I tried more....
then I couldn't decide which color I liked....
so I thought...well fine I'll add them all together...
But then I thought...well gee, I need 6 images, so I'll do different versions in the different colors
aaaaand add some typography...




Before that I was at home and....had
some neat pictures that I had taken on a rainy night....
The cool effects that happen when you take pictures at night of lights...
and they make those lines, y'know?
So yeah, I had those pictures and decided that they would all
mix together well to make some...thing.
One picture looked like an alien...

So after stepping back and asking maria what she
thought it might...look like-ish...weee both decided
ALIENS! and and...NIGHT!
so we skimmed iTunes and found the Sufjan Stevens song
"Concerning the UFO sighting near Highland, Illinois"
thus the piece was named aaaand finished off.




Neat.


On the logo front, things aren't as smooth...
it really gives you an appreciation for "good"
logo design...or it makes you super critical of logos in generally.
As I bitterly look around, even at "Blogger"'s logo...
if someone saw that in a store, they'd...not have a clue what it was
an 8? is it an 8? No, actually its a B...so they make...chairs? wtf is that?
its nothing. its a B of some shitty typeface that someone stuck in an orange box
and rounded the corners on.
Or the Verizon logo...I pay enough of a cell phone bill
that you'd think they'd be able to hire smoeone for a decent logo
but that damn check mark/half square thinger....what is that?
If someone were to see it alone....they'd think it was a scratch on a page
it says Nothing about ....a cell phone or even communications company.......

At any rate...


Here is where I am at with the FEMBASH records logo...
y'know....you'd THINK...i was getting cclose
like......even to the ball park parking lot...
but here's what I still have:

these radiating curves probably need to be circle fragments, instead of flattened curves. That would call to mind the album/cd circles better.

the starburst at the bottom is distracting. How can you create the IMPACT of the slammed guitar without using the starburst? The feeling of power and motion is still not clear. Have you tried gradation as a way to communicate downward movement ? I also wonder if the symbol could be slamming into the signature (not literally, they don't want to be touching). But right now we don't get a sense of cause and effect with the guitar:ie. what caused it to smash? maybe instead of showing that it smashed (as with the starburst) you could show that it is in the process of smashing (as in just about to hit the signature). Emphasize the momentum of downward thrust, which is easy to do with direction, gradation, contrast of static/dynamic, etc.

I am losing the guitar a bit; does it need some reference to a center line, to refer to the strings? You didn't show me the sketches that got you to this point, but did you try a series of tests where you try to make it more like a women, then more like a guitar? I think when a guitar gets arms it seems to need more clarity that it is in fact a guitar. Especially since the bottom end has other stuff going on.






back to the drawing board, friends.

On a different Obama

dear obama

thank you for being 15 minutes late so i could take upside down
pictures of my friends

and wander around to see the crowd that you gathered

and of course to get my picture with the global warming frosty dude...



thankyou for coming to my school today.
thank you for your 45 minute lecture (because you were 15 minutes late)
on....i hardly remember what...
a lot a bout how we have to have Hope to accomplish anything
and to think hope is naive, is stupid....or something like that.
but .....really......... you didn't connect with me.
You said a Lot about college students and debt
but frankly, by the time you are president, and i am out of school
it will really be too late...I suppose you leave hope for my kids???
You said a lot about the war...and bringing our troops home...
Great. Thankyou. As one of my friends, Davey just came back
from being a medic in Iraq for 4 months
it truly is an Amazing feeling to have someone you know come back
But what do we do with the mess we've created?
What about that?

You said a lot. And you know what.....
they all say a lot...the republicans, democrats, libertarians, independents...green party people
and I think that's the problem.
I need to know what it is you value, and what your plans are
what your vision is and how you will affect me.....
And I'm sure someone asked "what will you tell the
audience when you go visit this university?"
The problem is that you answered that with your 45 minute schpeel...
when you should have answered
"The problem is that we all feel like we need to tell people something,
maybe I should listen"
Maybe you should start with
"what I'm hearing from you is This"
"what I'm hearing from them is This"
"what do you think?"
"What I'm hearing is that you want this, and you want this,
two different things, but I hear them both, what can we do to compromise?"
Tell me that you're hearing me.
No, not just hearing me, that you're Listening to me.
Don't BORE me
with your speech that you've
probably given at every other campus
with your skillz you learned in communications class
on going steady steady, SAY SOMETHING MOTIVATING!
steady steady, blah blah, SOMETHING THEY'LL CLAP FOR BUT DON'T KNOW WHY!
Good. I'm glad you're charismatic.
I don't want to hear that you're different
that you have a different agenda
I want you to BE different.
You were well spoken today, but not any different than any of the others.

On ArtIS 310

For the past two weeks
we've been playing a "game" in this class of mine
it started with us taking a National Geographic
and putting tracing paper over the images in there...
then we'd trace out the grids, or general shapes we found.

From there, we'd create a picture on a 8"x11" paper, with a 6x6 box or circle in the middle...
We'd hang our drawings on the wall, then.
We are then instructed to take two pictures from the wall,
and try, for 45minutes, to mesh them together somehow to make a new drawing
We'd hang that on the wall ...
Our next instructions are to take an image from the wall and try to take it
further than the person before it got to go....only for an hour though...
We'd hang that on the wall...
On and on this went...
we would have to research an artist, and take a picture from the wall
then apply that artists techniques to the image...
hang it up after 45minutes....
At the end of two weeks, the class room walls are full
full of some potential pieces, some...not so much...but that's Okay
because its about the process...
its about exploring how to come up with new ideas
and to gather creativity.

Today's exercise was to take a picture from the wall
and take a national Geographic
and make them work together some how.



The tree that's in there
was Originally mine, then someone redrew it into
something...somewhat similar........
so i took that, and some eskimo lady who was on the N.G. cover...
she was chopping a regular piece of wood...
but I thought....well, there's a split in the tree...
she could be splitting the tree......
and as I went...
The tree slowly ...slowly became a person...
and there you have it.

The buildings above are...
they're dancing together.
what.ev.

On Today

what's with today, today?


i think about time for fun
i think about time for play
then i think about being done wtih no resume



*sigh*
guys, i'm tired.


***edit***

Some things in life are bad,
They can really make you mad,
Other things just make you swear and curse,
When you're chewing life's gristle,
Don't grumble,
Give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best.
And...

Always look on the bright side of life.
[whistle]
Always look on the light side of life.
[whistle]

If life seems jolly rotten,
There's something you've forgotten,
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps,
Don't be silly chumps.
Just purse your lips and whistle.
That's the thing.
And...

Always look on the bright side of life.
[whistle]
Always look on the right side of life,
[whistle]

For life is quite absurd
And death's the final word.
You must always face the curtain with a bow.
Forget about your sin.
Give the audience a grin.
Enjoy it. It's your last chance, anyhow.
So,...

Always look on the bright side of death,
[whistle]
Just before you draw your terminal breath.
[whistle]

Life's a piece of shit,
When you look at it.
Life's a laugh and death's a joke it's true.
You'll see it's all a show.
Keep 'em laughing as you go.
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.
And...

Always look on the bright side of life.
Always look on the right side of life.
[whistle]

On a homework filled Sunday

up in the mornn
work like a dog
its better than sittin'
like a lump on a log.

The Folds Family was up early
to send Amie off with a delicioius breakfast...
from there homework homework homework
Mick-zula made magical..... food.



some 11 hours later.......
I quit. 6pm and I said "i GOTTA go for a bikeride"
so i did
just a short one
enough to get the heartrate up and to get a little dirty.
Mickey came with, yaaay!
while i was riding, I had her do my homework
that was finding letters in things. :)
she did a great job.
Then she took pictures of me jumping over ...stuff.


Later I went up to that log and said
"mickey lets make it look like i'm about to fall!"
.........*track stand*
*track stand*
*track stand*
*start tipping*
*unclip wrong foot*
*tip other direction*
*CRASH!*

yah.... *siiigh*

Friday afternoon's weather was absolutely wonderful
I prepped up Virginia, my mt. bike and
headed out for Seven Oaks...

Getting to the top of the bluffs and into openings
I literally stopped my bike in the middle of the trail
and had to look at the awesomely blue sky
the puffy white Simpsons clouds
and the green that completely surrounded me...
and i thought "wow, i've seen this in Colorado,
but certainly not in Iowa" ....
that was neat.
...Prior to that, I hit a tree.
Its okay. The Folds Family, as usual,
helped nurse me back to health...

On the way home, I took pictures for class
findin' me some letters...





Saturday my sister came.
I forget sometimes how much alike
and how so very different we can be.
Its okay, it worksout well.
We went over to the Iowa vs Iowa game




aaaand experienced the maddness.

She bought herself a new laptop later.
and all those goodies while she was here
Awesome.
Then really we just hung out.
She took a nap for a bit
I did homework.

We went down to Des Moines later in the day,
with the Folds Family, of course (thanks guys!)

We went to Sefora and I was educated on
makeups by some girl working there....
Yes, Yes, clearly I'm familiar with ....
with this eye.......stuff.
*dazed*

then i sat in this awesome chair that ...
had these things on it:

magic.

On a heavenly day

I woke up this morning
and had my morning cuddles and forehead kisses
from ye 'old Folds Family...
We ate some delicious homemade apple coffee cake/bread of sorts
drank coffee
watched the To-dumb show with the french door swung open
so we could get in that cool, crisp morning breeze
The sun was shining and not a cloud in sight
it was
Exactly how every morning should be.

and when I get in my car.....
on the way to work
patty griffin's "Heavenly Day" is playing...



Exactly how it should be.

love you guys.

On a Weekend Almost Already Forgotten

Last weekend I did that MS ride
Remember?
I do.

On a whim I raised a more than sufficient amount of funds
and on a whim I rode my bike some 100miles
in weather that I couldn't have asked to be more perfect.
What a great weekend.

But what did I get out of it?
While I was there...I saw people who had bikes
that they pedaled using just their arms
I saw spectators line the DMACC parking lots
in their wheel chairs
I met a girl, Kelly, who ran the event
whose dad just passed away in December from MS.

And when I was asked what my connection/purpose
for riding that weekend was...
I said...."no connection really... I just heard about it
and decided it would be neat to do."

I made a handful of great new contacts
learned a Lot about MS, which I had NO idea about before
and got in a great bikeride....
Why wouldn't people do it?

People were amazed
and thrilled to find that I was doing it
simply for...good. Just because someone told me about it
and I said "okay, neat"

Maybe...maybe it means more to them
Possibly its an affirmation that they've risen awareness
outside the circle of survivors and of the lost
beyond the realm of those directly affected
and into the hearts of us who have been more fortunate
[in our own extents]
more aware
more educated

For that...
I say ........
Congrats to you National MS Society
because even if I'm the only person
who gained a touch bit more of awareness....
(and I'm sure I'm not)
then ...kudos to even that.
i believe that you've done what you wanted.

On a good evening

went to cafe diem
and did some quality homeworking
...well quality can be debated...
but i did get a good quanitity done.



my eyeball was itchy all night



and i had boogers.





aaaand some feet.
not mine of course.

On Interior Decorating

What do you do when your roomate has an idea?

well folks.

I'm a do-er.
not a sit-and-wonder-about-it
........in most areas.....

So when my roomate,
precious
precious maria

says "HEY! for the winter time
we should,
we should put up aluminum foil on the outside
walls of our apartment so that it helps insulate it
and then
and then we don't have to live in parkas and wool socks
all winter long!" *insert flailing where necessary"

So I ran into Josh the other day at Design
And ....well and we decided to meet up after our classes
to surprise maria with....aluminum foil walllling....






I'll let you know the impact that it has on our energy bill
in the meantime, it creates a fantastic splash
of...reflected color to the apartment
while....adding a futuristic 60s feel.........i think.


Keep Posted for more apartment surprises.

On Politics

thank you ArtGR 484 class.
aaand YouTube.
gotta love that my classes = watching this stuff in class. woot.

On a good deed and a good ride

Friday night I drugged myself to sleep with
two full doses of NyQuill hoping that
it would knock me out and take care of
this congestion crap that I have.......
it surely knocked me out. (by 10pm, don't even worry!)
And at 5:15 when my alarm went off,
I was feeling better.
So I chowed down some delicious
Kashi Crunch

(the must have cereal pre-ANY quality cycling event)
Got me ma clothes on
and loaded up my stuff...
hitting the road at exactly 6am
just as planned.

....with beautiful beautiful gloria, of course.

and I arrived at ye ol


after checking in and getting the packet
of goodies...pinning my number on
and taking pictures for people.....I was ready.

We took off at 7am sharp

I tagged on to a rider who was quite a ways up front
as...the group behind him was going a nice social pace....
but honestly...when its 50degrees and i'm in
short sleeves/shorts....I need to spin just a BIT faster...
So I did. Eventually the two of us were caught by
another fellow who I can't for the life of me remember the name of
it started with an M
....Montey!??

He was a larger guy, but from all I know about cycling
one of the most important things I've learned over the years
is that its not about your size...
When I first started racing, I'd look for the skinniest,
fittest looking gal and she'd be my target,
I would think to myself "wow, she looks FIT she'll
probably hammer.
Not the case my friends. Those scrawney bastards
might take off up hills but when its time for that sprint
at the end, its the girls with the big builds who will sneak
up from behind and steal away everything you worked for
simply.more.power.
its that weight/strength ratio, and how much you train.
But whatever, Montey and I...We kept great pace with each other.

That first guy I had caught up to ended up stopping
at rest stops longer than montey and I had wanted to
so we kept going on our own.

at 33miles (1/3rd of the way...I noticed me shifting in my saddle a bit...
ooooh hammer crotch....it'll numb soon enough)

at 50 miles I knew that the ride had Actually begun
spin time is over, now even the easiest gears
the smallest hills
the weakest winds....would start to hurt.

after lunch, mile 66, we were headed South with wind
out of the south east...I pulled for quite a while
and held a strong 19mph, it felt good.
But as I waved for him to take a turn he says
"you're going to have to pull me in"
...i looked down and saw that we were at 72 miles
(...and with 28 to go...)
"oh shit" i thought.
I wasn't sure if I should keep that pace and get us out
of the wind faster...or slow it down and try
to save myself, for both our sakes...I slowed down.

at 76 miles, after a good little climb
good 'ole montey
excalimed "I popped, i'm done, you can go ahead"
.....another moment of my wisdom
came to my head...
no matter what......two people working will
ALWAYS, always, always be faster, and easier
than going it alone.
So I slowed down, let him catch my wheel again
and we made it to the next rest stop.
And the next.

mile 89, the last rest stop
Montey needed a water refill and to rest
I said "okay" I'm going to keep going ....
but we need our picture together!
You don't ride 90 miles with a stranger and not
get a picture!!!"



he refueled quickstyle and joined right back up with me
understanding when I explained...
the sooner we're done,
the sooner we're done.
out of the sun, out of the heat
ooooh how I longed again for that brisk morning start.

Mile 101 we roll back into the DMACC campus
where the start had been held. On arrival
they rang bells and cheered
and as we passed threw iced towels at us
"get on my neck, Please" i said to that towel.....




And that was that.
There was beer and hotdogs and ice cream
(i just had ice cream..then later a hot dog)
And said my farewells to the people I had met
Homework doesn't do itself these days...

I'll reflect a bit on it later...but...for now
homework beckons...
so does a need for more kleenex.
ride.happy everyone.