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Everything is Gonna Work Out Fine

Joe emailed me the other day, saying he found the perfect pump for the refinery at NAPA, but it cost nearly $400. After a bit of haggling, he managed to get them down to under $300, but it was still more than we have in the budget. He was back in the shop, telling a friend about the problem, and that friend mentioned that he had a pump very similar to that, which he wasn’t using. So now we have a pump, and we paid him a fraction of what we would have paid otherwise.

Everything always seems to work out. In fact, the very way I met Joe is another example. After I bought the bus, I realized we would need some sponsors to get some extra money to finish the conversion, so I contacted the Hartford Courant to see if they could help me get some exposure. And they did, and an article ran about the bus shortly after. Someone over at FOX 61 noticed the article, and thought it would make a good story, so they contacted me. And soon enough, there was a story about the bus on TV. Shortly after that, I got an email from Joe, offering to help me convert the bus. Serendipity.

Much of my life has been like that. It helps that I’m white, upper middle class and male, but I’m not sure that privilege is always to blame. Much of it seems to be random occurrences, and how we respond to them. I’ve been reading a lot of blogs of people discovering the same thing. Joe introduced me to the packaged and marketed version of this, called The Secret. Apparently Oprah is big on it. Anywise, there seems to be something to the idea, though I’m not sold on the movie/book – that seems stupid.

Bonnaroo 365 Video

I usually try to catch Bonnaroo sets at AT&T’s blueroom, because they’re pretty good. But since it streams live, if you miss it, you miss out. Bonnaroo is starting to stream videos of previous sets from their own website, and I’m pretty happy about it. The Raconteurs set from ’08 is up, and there is supposed to be more on the way.

Little Log Cabin

I really like Tumbleweed Tiny Houses. Apparently a lot of other people do too – since they launched, they’ve added a lot of other designs, and redesigned the website (not to mention an appearance on Oprah). I imagine that someday I’ll probably build a small house, very much like those. In fact, it’s what I think about whenever it’s cold out, or cold in a room. I imagine my small house with a nice wood stove inside, keeping everything very comfortably warm.

I like wood stoves too. I just recently learned how they work, and it’s very clever. There is even recent advances in wood stove technology! Today, you can get a stove with a catalytic converter, and it is supposed to create an incredibly efficient burn. I’ve also seen a few that incorporate little sterling engines in them, to power fans that move more air through a stove so a larger room is heated quicker. That is a little like my campfire powered patio idea.

I imagine a small fire pit built into a outdoor patio, with a little sterling engine to power a pump which would move oil through piping under the patio and seating, heating up the whole area. Concrete is an easy option for all of the ground and seating materials, but I’m sure there is a better option.

Heating, in general, seems like a fairly easy problem to tackle. At the moment, we’re doing it very wrong. A furnace is a terribly inefficient method of heating a house: heat is a byproduct of the process, but also the main purpose of the machine. The energy of a furnace should be put to work. This makes me think of the heating system in the bus. The engine up front serves to move the vehicle, and the coolant from the engine travels back to the veggie tank, which increases the viscosity so it is a viable fuel, which keeps the engine running on a cheaper smarter fuel. And if it is cold, we divert some of that coolant to the heaters. All of it serves a primary purpose other than heating, yet can still be used for heat.

Cheney Checkup


CIMG0220, originally uploaded by NedR.

Ned and I checked in with Joe at Cheney Tech yesterday, and things look good. The heat transfer is built, and the tank is just about done. In the picture above, that large metal box is the tank, and the top is laying on the table. I’ll edit together a video soon.

Resolutions

I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions this year. I’ve got a fair sized list of things I’m trying to improve, but I’ve been working on them for a while now, so it seemed stupid to recast them for the New Year. So I’ve thought about it a little more, and I’ve finally decided on a good resolution.

When I was combing through the archives of this site in the move, I noticed one thing that really bugged me: its. I imagine I use the wrong its/it’s out of laziness, but I’m going to try to train myself to use the right one when I’m online (I have a much better track record when speaking). So that’s something to look forward to.

2009: Now With More Grammar!

bus bus bus bus bus bus bus

The Whistle Blower by the McDades
[audio:http://themcdades.com/en/uploads/audio/01_TheWhistleBlower.mp3]

I’m completely bored by talking about the bus. I would love to listen to what other people have to say, or have been dreaming about, but mostly people just ask me about the progress, and my plans. I’m not thinking about any of those things. Not even a little bit. The trip is still very far off, and while there are still things that need to be done, it’s all fairly simple. When something needs to be done, I’ll do it, and then move on.

I’m a little worried that maybe I’ve pigeonholed the trip into my project, when that is the exact opposite of what I’m working towards. Or maybe I’m just reading into it all too much.

New Blog

Cool. I’ve been playing around with the layout of this site for a while now, and I’m really enjoying it. It is based on the zenburn color scheme, because it is really nice to look at. And I had a lot of fun making the little menu up top, and there will be more like that elsewhere about the site when I get time. I realize that anyone who reads this site reads it through an rss feed, but the site design is still worth noting. On that topic: update your rss feed.

Uh, what else? The main reason I switched domains is so I can make a site that is meant to be outward facing, as opposed to my previous site which was meant to be a bit more private. But I’ve gone back and tagged the archives, and things are a little more discoverable. There were some weird trends that emerged as I went through the posts. I tagged a lot more posts “sleep” than I had figured I would. That is all.

Cellphone Cancer

I was reading a Gizmodo post recently about the a study on correlation between cellphones and cancer. The study isn’t done, but apparently there is considerable evidence pointing to cellphones causing tumors.

This raises a lot of very interesting questions. Cellphones have had such and incredible impact on the way we live our lives – would we give them up? Would it be possible to find a less harmful alternative? Giz thinks it could go the way of tobacco – common knowledge of its dangers that are ignored by many.

In case you’re wondering, this isn’t a real threat – the comments on that article explain. But it is interesting to step back and think of what our world would be like if suddenly cellphones became feared.

Happy Christmas

I think this is my new Christmas tradition, like playing Alice’s Restaurant on Thanksgiving. David Sedaris’s “6 to 8 Black Men” is simply wonderful. If you have not heard it, please listen to it now. If you would rather read it for some reason, you can do that too.

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