Imagine this design problem

"Imagine this design assingment: Design something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distills water, acrues solar energy as fuel, makes complex sugars and food, creates a micro-climate, changes colors with the season, and self replicates. Why don't we knock that down and write on it."

~William McDonough

This was taken by the embedded talk by William McDonough about cradle to cradle design. I'm not going to use this space to tell you what cradle to cradle design is I would much rather you watch this talk. TED is an amazing site that takes talks from some of the most brilliant minds around the world and posts them for everyone to view.

This particular talk has a lot to do with creating a sustainable, living design that will benefit both humans and the earth. In my favorite part he begins to talk about how China is building six new cities over open, green fields. Apparently they go to William with their plan and ask his opinion. Essentially their plan was a rubber stamped city street grid on top of the plains. A gray cityscape with gray streets, gray buildings, and a gray sky due to the pollution that 6 more cities would bring.

Williams idea was to take that open field and...well...leave it a field. Raise up a city from the ground with roofs made of grass that can be used for agriculture. This is a very simplified view of what he said yet it conveys the proper idea.

After watching the video, what other ideas do you have for cradle to cradle design?

Blazer

Dear Blazer,

We have had some good times haven't we?

I remember when we first met. It was a beautiful summer afternoon and your cousin: Black Blazer, had just kicked the bucket. To be honest, Black Blazer was a bit unfaithful. He was unreliable, unloyal, and had trouble with his gas addiction. I told everyone that you were different though and you promised me that you were. We drove together to get food at night and carried some colorful passengers huh? You remember that Blazer?

Those were the puppy love days huh blazer? Something about your height was empowering, the roar your engine was a welcome change from the purr of my previous lover: Sunfire. Yes Blazer we had it made....then you had to go and fuck things up didn't you?

Your addiction to gasoline hurts Blazer. Sometimes I feel like you would much rather be stoned at the pump than crusing through the wind with me in your lap. Sometimes I feel like you don't even realize that your expenses go almost completely to gasoline. Its a dark path you are heading down Blazer, one that you will need my help to get out of.

Look Blazer, you are getting old yes but it is no excuse to let yourself go like you have. Overheated brake pads locking up, air conditioner busted, radiator leaking, engine coolant slowly draining, fuel injectors shot...this is what happens when you let your addiction carry you down the wrong path Blazer.

Look I care about you but I can only be so strong for you. Pick your act up or you will be packing up your stuff and heading down that long and dusty path by yourself instead of with me.

love,

Ryan

Relationships: Turning the Ball and Chain to Beer and Chips

This part is for the boys in the room. So ladies please step out as we have our little talk together, its guy time you will have your time later. Yes yes yes you are very pretty and stuff now shoo.

Ok....is she gone? Check again. Now check the door to see if she has her ear against it, chances are she thinks your looking at porn. Shes really gone? Ok good.

Well congratulations you have found a amazing girl ( i do not take credit if you have not and shes a psycho bitch) and you have been together for months now. You are out of the "this girl is the hottest shit on the block...word" phase and into the "I'm comfortable ripping ass around her" phase. This is the part where you both, and I emphasize both, are happy with eachother and used to being with eachother. This an awesome point of course because you no longer have to run water while you take a dump to cover up the sound of projectile shit hitting the inside of the toilet...but this can also be a troubling time.

Troubling because it is right around the year mark, in my experience, that couples first experience that tinge of doubt. That doubt manifests itself as a question of "Am I in love, or am i just comfortable". Do I really want to be with this person for the long term. I say long term becuase anything past 1 year to me means that you are getting a bit more serious than the average couple.

The trick to figuring this out? There is none.

None. No trick, no catch, no question and answer form, and no, going to the bar with your brosefs and pounding down a few beers is not going to help you solve this riddle.

See...there is no way to solve this problem becuase the solution is a feeling and you cannot test feelings. You need to look inside yourself and ask if you are truly happy with this person. If the answer is no then talk to your partner about your feelings, bottling things up will only hurt both of you. But if you are indeed just happier around this person, if you feel sad when they are away and count the hours until you can see them again then you have lucked out. Stick with this person. Learn from this person and do not be afraid of commitment.

And thats it. Thats the key. This is the core. Are you happy.

Ok ladies you can come back in now and preferrably with a beer and some chips....

Fable 2

When Fable came out for the original xbox Peter Molynuex had a great big stiffy for all of the craziness that he preached you could do.

Watch trees grow, step on a flower and see it die, chop down a forest and watch as the world changes. Every choice you make has a consequence. ...bullshit. The game boiled down to a bunch of black and white choices that were on the scale of teaching the concept of good and evil to a 1st grader.

Fable 2 is not much different in this respect. Whereas the choices at times seem much more difficult it is still obvious which is good and which is bad. The one thing I have noticed so far however is that you are not immediately aware of whether or not you are on a quest that is good or bad.

For example. I took a quest with a jilted lover ghost who was so pissed at his run away bride that he killed himself. After listening to him whine for 5 minutes about his loss and how much of a bitch she is he wanted me to get her to fall in love with me and then break her heart by rejecting her. Immediately I figured that the classic choice would be to tell her about her lover and let her know what he said and what happened to him. Perhaps I could have the two reconcile. Not so fast.

Long story short, I seduce her at a bar in the city whilst dancing like a ninny and am presented with two choices and two choices only:

1. Break her heart with the hateful note I had been given by the jilted lover
2. Marry her dumb ass and show her that love is still out there.

I couldn't pull the dick move after she confessed how sorry she was for her previous fiances death and how I helped her find what she never thought she would find ever again so I married her and moved into a cheap house on the east side of town. Now I have an all the time dirty wife that I cannot convince to take a bath since my house has no bathroom who enjoys being seduced in bars by dancing men....great.

Needless to say I immediately looked into my options for divorce, hoping to rid myself of her constant moaning about how awesome I am. Seems the typical route for people to take is a rifle to the wifes face.....come on now people im not that cruel. Can't I give her some cash and send her on her way?

HELP- Final Exams

Ya know when your taking a multiple choice type exam and you get a bunch of one answer in a row and get really scared that your making a mistake? Or how about if you actual started to spell something with your answers? This may be cause for even more concern especially as we head into finals week where crazy thoughts begin to make sense as students loose a grip on reality.

This happened to me today during my Materials Science examination. First off, there was a gigantic picture of a devil on the first page....my professors favorite saying is "the devil is in the details" so it makes sense but it doesn't mean that it doesn't scare me.

Secondly, page twos answers spelled the word "HELP". .... dear god help me through this week.

Last Day!

Just finished up my last day of classes here at Penn State. Pretty crazy huh?

I thought that I would have a feeling similar to high school where you are nostalgic over your past 4 years and excited for the future but alas this feeling has failed to come to me. I'm pretty sure its because I didn't do anything the last month of high school, and theres that whole "going away to college to find yourself and get out on your own" idea that everyone has in their heads. So did I find myself here at Penn State?

Why thats a good question. Whereas "college" certainly has shaped where I am going in the future, it is the people who are really the ones who shaped who I am. My friends, my family, my professors, the Moroccans, Lion Ambassadors, Engineering Club, all the way back to Orientation Leaders.

It's been one hell of a trip thats for sure. Now a bunch of my friends are moving on to new jobs. Some are stuck looking for these jobs, and I will be back in the fall to start graduate school. In the past 4 years I have learned a metric ton of information about myself, civil engineering, friendship, and the world. But I have a feeling that this is only the tip of an iceberg of knowledge I have yet to touch.

Oblivion, I love college, hot dogs

Rule 1:
Never eat 4 hotdogs and only 4 hotdogs in 2 days. Just dont

Rule 2:
if you haven't yet played Oblivion for Xbox 360 go forth and purchase it now. The game of the year edition is availble for around 30 dollars I believe and this game is the shit. Sure it came out when the Xbox 360 launched and sure I alreday logged at least 70 hours in at that time and sure I am playing it again just because im a freaken nerd....but you should go buy it now.

For those that don't know of it its essentially a roleplaying game set in a fantasy world where dragons, demons, wizards, knights, and talking lizards exist. You play the role of an escaped prisoner who happens to meet up with the emperor of the land of oblivion in a wonderful twist of fate. After your destiny is set forth you are free to go about it as you want....or completely ignore it.


You see, the world of morrowind/oblivion is freaken huge. With hundreds of people to encounter and thousands of square feet of land to traverse it can be a huge time sink. It would probably take at least 30-45 minutes to walk from one end of the map to the other in the game...and thats barring no encounters.

Its an awesome game that lets you play exactly how you want to play and rewards you for everything you do including exploring the expansive world. do it, buy it, play it.

I love college

That asher roth dude is coming to penn state tonight among others to play his famous song about how college really is. News flash: if you experience half of what this guy claims in his video during your 4 years of college you will not only be "lucky" but also mentally fucked. I hope he enjoys his stay at penn state though.

Seriously dude. If you think that the valuable and "cool" stuff at college consists of ragers with jack daniels and beer then your a freaken moron. Then again I dont suppose this guy would be anywhere if he actually "rapped" about the cool stuff at college like studying abroad, making crazy awesome friends, learning sweet material, or even just learning about yourself. No he needs to sing about getting girls nake (doesnt happen that easy sir), drinking shit tons of beer (ill give it to you, that happens), and not remembering the night before.

Im done, out, ghost.

Thats it folks.