here’s life

I’ve been running for the last couple days–spent Thanksgiving in Hutchinson at Fjord and Grey’s parent’s place. Along with about 20 LeTourneau people. It was a great time. We sat around and talked, we ate good food, we stood around a bonfire while the first snow fell. We wired and sheetrocked a basement room. We played Polish Pingpong. We tried to put together a 2128 piece jigsaw puzzle. We played Settlers (I like Seafarers better than Cities and Knights). We played Munchkin (including a 3-hour game where everyone made it one point away from winning). We played a quick game of Axis & Allies—the dice bombed Germany pretty bad. Over and over. We went to church, and they sang “Dem Bones”. Then, as I was getting my car to start after everyone else had left, (sitting for days in the cold without running made it difficult) someone called, saying they were playing frisbee in Wichita, in half an hour. I got there after everyone had warmed up. Then I went to the Sunday evening service (instead of singing and praying together and reading from God’s Word, we hung Christmas ornamentation), and then I went to “a restaurant” with some friends. And it took forever, and the burgers were burned on the outside, and either raw or overcooked on the inside. I ordered a Philly Cheesesteak, which was quite delicious. So I was almost the only one to pay for my meal.

Getting home late (for the first time since Wednesday afternoon), and to bed even later, I was loath to get up in the morning, and as I was about to leave, I realized I had class—in 5 minutes. After class (which was hard to stay awake in) I worked a bit, and went home…only to soon leave for play practice and set setup. I got home, got to bed late, and got up, went to class. At lunch time, I was relaxing at my desk, chewing on a peanut butter sandwich, and someone asked me to come to a meeting. They were rehashing some plan on how they were going to set some system up. So, I ate while I listened to people make suggestions, some useful, some well meaning. Before grabbing some coffee and rushing back to class, I helped make some mark-ups to a document I’d made last week to capture the new decision. These markups made it similar to our original plan that had been modified by an email after I’d sent in an email asking for what seemed best at the time. By the time I got back from class, they had done some experimentation, to see if it was possible (brilliant!) and found that, no, they’d better stick with a variation of last week’s plan. I’ve had my fingers in all the plans, so it doesn’t matter which one wins out–I’ll still be the one who thought of it, or drew it up, or worked it out, or something. Oh, and it doesn’t matter who thought of it, as long as it works. Yeah, getting this planned right is important, but something, anything, is important too. Now. Last week. I don’t really care how it is, my requirements are simple and well known, just make it work.

With coffee, I could sit in class without my consciousness flickering in and out. I was doing stuff, and doing it fast! Almost as fast as the guy next to me who spent half the time reading webcomics! When I got home it was about time to go help build set for the play, which we did, quite successfully, and now I am home…with nothing to do for the rest of the week but dishes to wash…and clothes to sort out, and a bathtub with potting soil on the sides because the drain doesn’t hardly drain (it was like that before the potting soil!) and I don’t want to bring the plumbers in because they might get caught in the drifts of stuff in my apartment, oh, and my rent is going up, so I need to go buy a house but maybe I shouldn’t maybe I should just go rent a house, and get a roomate but no, there isn’t hardly anyone in Wichita that I would want to room with. So, instead, I made an egg quesadilla, and drank some milk, and now I need to go to bed. So I can get up and go to class, so I learn how to do some pretty cool things at work that may save our department from the approaching trainwreck. It’s pretty much like we bought some baby chickens, and the pens for them are on backorder. And we are sure that the heat lamps will get here any minute…

That’s how big the Black Locust thorn was, that was buried in my index finger, at about a 45 degree angle. I got it Saturday. I was playing disk golf, and I threw a bad shot teeing off for hole 4. It landed in the edge of the woods. I’m usually a stickler for throwing it where it lies, and it was behind some thorn-covered saplings. So, I tried to do a short swing, but didn’t, and a thorn met my finger. I pulled out the little pieces that I could reach. After hole 5, we pulled out the first aid kits, and I tried with a tweezers but couldn’t get it out. So I dressed it, and went back to playing. I made some pretty lucky shots with my off-hand.
I tried repeatedly to dig it out, bought some tweezers—for ultra-fine work, tiny eyebrow hairs, ingrown hairs and huge, sharp, broken-off tree thorns. They weren’t fine enough, so after digging and poking, and cutting and snipping, I got out a stone from a bore-sizing hone, and sharpened the tweezers to a nice point. Finally, Monday evening, I got a good grip on it, and pulled…out. Ouch! But is was relieving to finally be free. It didn’t really bleed. I poured some more alcohol over it, and bandaged it up with triple antibiotic. Now, it hurts slightly if I poke it right. Based on how much room I guess is in my finger, I wonder if it didn’t hit the bone. Whatever, I’m glad it’s out. It has sealed over pretty good, and doesn’t seem to be infected. I guess keeping it alcohol’ed and antibiotic’ed was good. Also, the thorn made a nice tight plug.

A few professionals were talking about success: the first guy said “I think my highest success would be if I were invited to a private conference with the president in the Oval Office.” The second guy said, “No, I’d feel I’d really arrived, if I were in a conference with the president, and the phone rings, and he doesn’t answer it.” The third guy says, “No, you’ve got it wrong, success would be if the phone rings, the president answers it, and says, ‘It’s for you’”
“That’s still pretty short sighted,” says the fourth guy. “I’d be successful if I type a letter into the search bar, and Google Suggest finishes my name for me.”

This was lifted from a book on success by John C. Maxwell. Well, the first three guys were. And John’s point was that success was a journey, not some destination.

Yup, it’s been just under a month, and water came out of my bathroom ceiling again. The good news is the plumbing upstairs is 97% effective. And this has only been going on since April. Actually, there were a couple months there that I didn’t see much sewer water at all. But, alas, they haven’t fixed it, and they don’t know what to do. Last month, they asked that I call the emergency pager number next time, while it is still wet and dripping, so they can trace it. Yeah, like I spend the day sitting in my bathroom waiting for the soggy ceiling to collapse! I suggested they drill a hole in the ceiling so it would drain into my toilet instead of the floor, but they must not have noticed such a brilliant idea. Instead of helping them out with it, I taped up a plastic bag, and it did its job quite well. I came home today, and the bag was on the floor, but the pint of water in it didn’t appear to have spilled. I poured it into a jar, and took it to the office with a note of explanation. Assured them that I was disappointed, and found it unacceptable. I sort of feel bad leaving a jar of urine on the desk in the office, but it was sealed inside—instead of all over my floor. I really need to get rough with them, but I don’t have the emotional stamina for it. “Enclosed is a sample of the sewer water that fell from my ceiling. This is a typical volume and color.” Maybe thinly veiled condescension will be effective. Or maybe I should call the Health Department.

So, I opened a can of Salmon this evening, and was going to eat it with a fork, but Bolt suggested that I check the internet for recipes. I chose this one because I had avocados in the fridge.

Here’s the recipe:
Grilled Salmon with Mango-Avocado Relish
For the mango-avocado relish:
*1 1/2 avocados
*1/3 cup fresh lime juice
*1 1/2 cups diced mango
*1/3 cup diced red pepper
*1/3 cup chopped scallions

For the salmon:
*1 Tbsp canola oil
*6 salmon fillets,4 to 5 ounces each
*salt to taste
* freshly ground black pepper

You chop up the stuff in the relish and grill the salmon.

Well, I didn’t have any mangos, but I did have an apple, so I chopped that. No lime juice, or even lemon juice, so I put lemon pepper on the salmon. I’m not sure if it is supposed to be chopped red pepper or peppers, but since I had neither, paprika seemed close enough. I had to look up “scallions” —turns out they are green onions. I’ve got onions I could chop…wait, freeze-dried chives are green and onion-like!
I figured frying the salmon in butter would be better than oil, and I sprinkled on some salt and pepper and lemon pepper. Maybe too much pepper, now that I’m eating it.

It turned out pretty good, but I think I would order a different interesting menu item next time. It’s way better than if I’d just eaten it as it comes out of the can.

I doubt that this is going to become a cooking blog.

The question:

On 11/1/07, K—— D——– <----------@yahoo.com> wrote:

Tobias,

I just ran across this clip about a company called Steorn. They claim to have developed a form of free energy (greater output than input) which flies in the face of accepted laws of thermodynamics. Who knows? Just wanted to get your perspective.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=346997458258985632

There are some other video clips related to it that are interesting too.

K——-

My response:

“They would just swallow the skepticism because it was skepticism. Modern
intelligence won’t accept anything on authority. But it will accept
anything without authority. That’s exactly what has happened here.” –
G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Knew Too Much

I’m not sure what their particular technology involves, but there were some things with weights and magnets that seemed related to the name. Maybe they have found some combination of things that works in a way that commonly held physics does not account for. But I doubt it. I do think they have found a way to make something from nothing: venture capital. Hopefully not yours.

The problem with these claims is that it just doesn’t work. They have prototypes, they have research. But rarely do they have anything that works. It always is one of two things: it almost works, and if they could just fix this little problem, it would work…or it’s a scam. This is because heat flows from your hot coffee to the cold room. Just something about the world makes everything that happens, happen in a direction that makes the available, usable, power dissipate. Every little thing. A ball bounces slower and slower. A wheel slows down. You never coast as far up the next hill as you started. The coffee in your cup doesn’t get hotter and hotter and cool the room. No, everything goes toward a lukewarm existence. Every mountain tends to fall down, and every valley gets filled in. Even if you don’t trust the Establishment. Sure, they are pretty adamant that anyone who claims they have perpetual motion is lying or mislead. But, they have tested a huge number of systems, and combinations of systems, and it always comes back that everything goes downhill. So, they can say pretty strongly that your overbalanced wheel won’t keep spinning forever—-even if you use Magnets (which—I speak as if insane—contain a mystical force which makes things act in ways that science doesn’t understand).

So, if everything is falling, and not bouncing back as high, or spinning to a stop like a wobbling top, how do we survive? How can life go on, with so much working against it? The answer is, the sun.
That ball of fire is pouring so much energy into the world, that we (and plants, and animals and coal plants) are able to stave off the still, lukewarm night by channeling its power into our leaking buckets and letting the fringe of the sun’s rays keep us from starvation and asphyxiation.

It turns out, the sun makes a lot of energy. As our planet orbits this glowing orb, we sweep up a tiny bit of this light and heat. Some of that reflects back out into the darkness of space. Some helps keep the earth from freezing over. And some powers political debates about the risks of current and future trends. Because a little of it we catch, and turn into power. But so much of it slips through our fingers, but we catch enough of it to keep the sails full, and the wheels grinding in the mill.

There is another explanation as to why you see people claiming to make free energy, and nobody actually doing it: it could be because it works.
There is a way to show that you aren’t just miscalculating something, or that your multimeter isn’t inaccurate, and that is to actually have the input to your machine be fed from the output. Often people skip this, and just “demonstrate” that the output is more than the input. But if it really is “over-unity” why not loop the power cord instead of having it plugged into the wall? There is a danger with this: if it actually works, you could get a runaway process going, and it could spin faster, and glow brighter, magnet stronger until POOF! it explodes in a frenzy of energy, and the machine and the inventor who is manning the dials would be lost forever to history.

This is a dramatic, but unworkable theory. Perpetual motion machines end in not a flash, but a whimper.

—-Tobias