Time

What an odd thing this is.  So constant, so silent, so driving.  I'm becoming fascinated with this thing I've always taken for granted.

On one hand it's ruthless, allowing none to escape its eventual fatal grasp.  On the other it provides perspective, healing, peace.  It provides the reference for rhythms that become music, and it's a canvas on which seasons are splashed.  Try as we might, we cannot slow it nor hurry it.

It provides the logic by which one event is able to happen after another.  This never changes or reverses.  And once those two events are related this way, they are always and forever set in stone.  She's an endless zipper, consistently bringing events together never to be separated.  We can only hope peer back at them through the blurry lenses of memory.

However, there are problems with the way we understand entropy, such as whether our universe is closed or open, and it freaks me out a bit to be honest.  We can't fully or physically explain why time has an unchanging direction, highlighting the "now" that defines all of our collective consciousness' at once. 

Isn't weird that when we try to grasp even the most basic of principles, such as time, we open our hands and find that they have escaped our understanding, albeit more narrowly each time?  This is a pillar for me in my faith: that God is and has created things that are out of our grasp.

Blogging

I thought that Blogger would have just given up on me by now. I missed writing my thoughts, and I've wanted to get back into it. This semester, particularly Business Law, has proven to be a little taxing on the spare time. I miss it because I've wanted to help my own brain organize it's thoughts. It's very unwieldy. I hope blogging can be a way to journal and then be able to look back and find 'where I was' on particular issues.

Here are some of the things that have been rattling around as of late:

**I've been reading Fabric of the Cosmos, by Brian Greene. This is blowing my mind, and I'm still in the first third or so. I've always been deeply interested in physics, and I think a cool subject to explore would be how it relates to theology, cosmology, etc. So far I've been amazed that how we perceive things and how they *actually are can be so radically different. Teaser: light does not experience time, because it is going too fast (or exactly as fast as necessary not to be "influenced" by time). I've always wondered how God could possibly be separated from time. Could this be how/why? Or at least as close to understanding this as we can hope to get?

**I want to understand the effects that the American dream has on us sociologically, emotionally, and spiritually. Then I'd like to undream the American dream. Possibly even awake from it entirely.

**I think a further expansion of the previous topic would be how it relates to the church, understood as a collective community. What the church was first intended to be, what it has become, and what it can become with a dash of creativity and some open mindedness. Paradigm shifts are difficult for most people when it comes to religion or religious experiences. However, noting the amount of change the church (and actually, any and all religions) have gone through to date, why would we be so self involved as to think it has stopped once we arrive on scene? Change is good, it proves there's life.

Anyway, that's what been on the brain. I'm sure my future self will get a kick out of it.

A cool pic of Hong Kong

Almost Creepy...

A very cool gadget here - of course it would be in Germany.

Wii Golf with a 3 year old

(me - a practice swing)
"You have to push A daddy."
(another practice)

"Daddy you have to push A."

"Yes, I know honey, thank you."

"Well, you're not going up to the ball, you have to push A."

(sigh) "Do you remember who taught you how to play this?"

"Yeah."

"Who?"

"Me."

"You taught yourself to play?"

"Yeah, I did it over and over and I figured it out."

(At this point I become deeply concerned that my daughter is just like me.  Ugh...)

Or wait, is it Heather that's stubborn?  Yeah, stubborn genes are maternal.  Sorry ladies, it's science.

Life is a highway

Yeah, thanks Mr. Cochrane. I drive so much my life is a highway. Specifically it's the 101, or as I like to call it, THE PUNISHER.

So, I've been going easy on the gas for a while (easy on the acceleration, to be more exact). I was averaging 29-30 mpg's before I started and now .... wait for it.... I'm up to 35 mpg's!

Hardly the 45 mpg's I was hoping for. But here are some stats, based just on deciding to drive easier:

Length since last post...45 days (boo!)
~ 50 miles/day = 2990 miles (did I mention I have a hefty commute....also boo)
Based on my average price of $3.30/gallon

Gas saved/45 days = 14.2 gallons
$ saved/45 days= $46.99

Gas saved/year = 115.5 gallons
$ saved/year = $381.11

I guess driving like a grandma pays off. Next steps:

1) Uber-inflate tires








2) Remove the front license plate cover (it's like an inverse parachute)












3) Remove the roof rack bars (weight*aerodynamics + don't use it anyway = why not?)

I'm sure those 3 combined will only save 6.113 drops of fuel over the course of the glaciers melting; but hey, it'll only take me a minute!

I drive like a grandma...

Yeah, it's true. And as of late, I've been blogging like a grandma. Sorry for generalizing if you happen to have a blog saavy grandma.

Back to the subject at hand - my driving.

I've been much more aware of my driving habits ever since I've purchased my little hybrid horsey. Not so much because I'm trying to save on fuel, although that is a goal, but because I'm very interested in energy conservation in general, on many different levels. Further increasing my desire to follow my energy usage, the vehicle comes with a built in mpg meter, that can be set to begin averaging at any time, whether in motion or not. It's actually quite accurate over the span of a tank: +/- about 4%. I think I stare at that thing more than the road, which I'm sure is safe.

Here comes the shocker: a ridiculous amount of fuel is spent during acceleration. I know, a revolutionary rediscovery of newton's second law. Seriously though, at a steady 45 mph, I get about 50 mpg!

I've been averaging 29-30 mpg's over the past few months during summer, and during rush hour(s), which is pretty decent. My low was when we went to California, and my little fuel saver did horribly - somewhere in the 23-25 mpg's (@70-75 mph). Yeah I know, don't drive so fast (this is what I'm learning).

I've noticed that peeps with my previous driving habits (who I've now dubbed 'suicidal', hardly fair) are very annoyed by my slow acceleration. They careene by only to slam on the brakes because they couldn't see the red light 200 ft. ahead of them. Best feeling in the world? Having an arrogant look on my face as I pass them, because we both know they've been idling at a light for two minutes.

Yes, kind of smug. I apologize. But here's the rub: we bitch and moan about our dependence on foreign oil, gas prices, and critique each and every member of the white house about what they're doing about it. And yet here are some immediate changes we can make to our driving habits that would both reduce demand for petrol and increase safety (another side affect of simply slowing down), and yet most people demand that driving like a nutcase is a right given to them by God. Well I asked him, and he had little to do with the invention of the automobile.

Suffice it to say, I'm going to try some hypermiling, without any of the extreme measures (see 'advanced techniques' towards the bottom). My goal is to get around 45 mpg. I'll keep you posted...