Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Untitled

So this is a little story I started in a composition notebook, I’ve been working on it off and on for the past week or so. Alas I came to a realization yesterday, though I’m not sure how to express my sudden burst of insight in words its there. I’ve decided to post the ‘story’ here cause it helped me, for whatever reason, and I’m actually curious as to what others think of it. Its not very long at all, in fact its probably not a page long typed up, but it was enjoyable to write and someday I’d like to be able to write well in this super descriptive style. Enjoy…?

~~~~~

A Beam of mid-morning light crept into the room like an unwelcome guest. It hesitated, as if having second thoughts, on the dusty window sill before dancing across the floor. The ray of light illuminated the cluttered room, revealing a minefield of hardware, tools, and various parts that were scattered across the floor before moving on. Next to the crammed desk, the light glittered over a small pool of spilt oil as it made its way to the cot-like bed. The occupant groaned, as the light flashed across his eye lids, before covering his face with a tan arm. Finally, after several more failed attempts to banish the intruder, the young man sat up with a sigh, stretched, and looked at his watch: 9:00 am. Stumbling out of bed, he made his way to the bathroom. He was very careful not to cut himself, after all, it wouldn’t have been the first time he’d sliced open his foot on a stray part. “God, I gotta pick this dump up.” He thought with a backward glance from the door.

In the bathroom he splashed icy water on his face before looking into the mirror. “Markus what the hell are you doing with yourself?” he muttered with a shake of his head. Markus’s normally bright green eyes were bloodshot with deep bags under them, the result of weeks worth of late nights. His face, though a bit pale, was handsome with high cheekbones that slopped down into a sharp, but strong, jaw. His smile was said to take the breath away from any women yet simultaneously give even the biggest man chills. His perpetually messy jet black hair only added to his look. As Markus’s eyes slid downward studying his shirtless torso, he had almost a look of pride. He was well toned, the muscles on his chest, abs, and arms clearly defined but far from bulky unlike the ‘roidheads that seemed to dominate the inner city. His hand absently glided over the ragged scar adorning his chest like a badge of honor. The scar itself started at the top of his left shoulder, angled down his chest, before finally stopping at a nasty looking gash just below his ribcage. Though it certainly wasn’t his only scar, it was easily the one he was most proud of.

Markus remembered the day clearly; it was early autumn and what few trees remained in the city were starting to turn orange and yellow. The air was crisp and clean, the road smooth under his skates. Him and his friends had gotten bored and decided to head down to the Zone, which was the place to go if you were in the mood for some action. The city was laid out in a circle and, consequently, divided up like a pie chart between the various gangs. The Zone was the dead center of the city, a war zone basically—hence the name—where the turf was never actually controlled for longer than a couple hours. When Markus and his crew started tearing up the concrete heaven that was the Zone, they were immediately confronted by the Thrashers. The bitterness between skateboarders and bladers had gone on since the two became legit street ‘sports’, that bitterness wasn’t lost on the Thrashers who were the quintessential ‘old school’ skaters of the area.

~~~~~

Like I said, I kinda lost hope in this. Not so much that I don't like where its going but I'm not sure how to go on. I also realized in writing this that I'm missing something in my technique that I'd like to get down before I try and write something like this. Hell who knows maybe I'll work on it more but I'm gonna set it aside while I compose my thoughts and work on a couple other projects.

Ethonal

The world is dying. There’s no two ways about it. With our fossil fuel consumption exponentially increasing, the earth is slowly paying for it. Even though global warming is now commonly accepted, our politicians still show how little they actually care. Instead of actually doing any research they find the quickest, easiest, and the stupidest solution. What I’m talking about is biofuel, more specifically ethanol. It’s supposed to be our way out of the death hold oil has on the U.S. even though research shows it is far from that. Even yet all the presidential candidates have thrown their support to biofuels only for votes. Ethanol is not the resource our planet needs.

First, a let’s take a look at what biofuel is: biofuel is a form of fuel produced from organic matter such as corn, sugar, switchgrass and other plant life (Grunwald 40-42). One such fuel is E85, which is made from 85 percent of corn-based ethanol and gasoline. Biofuels, such as E85, can be used to fuel cars, thus reducing oil use and lowering carbon emissions, right? Well, not really. Michael Grunwald recently wrote an article in Time called “The Clean Energy Scam” which points out the negative aspects to biofuels: “The basic problem with most biofuels is amazingly simple … using land to grow fuel leads to the destruction of forests, wetlands and grasslands that store enormous amounts of carbon” (42). Not only is this a huge threat to the environment, it’s a huge threat to the thousands of species that live in these various environments, that’s not all either. Using corn for fuel instead of food has bumped the global price into record highs. Grunwald puts it bluntly, “The grain it takes to fill up an SUV tank with ethanol could feed a person

for a year” (42). Those are just some of the problems our “savior” from oil has. There are many others, most of which are just ignored by our politicians.

Politics is quite the interesting subject, indeed quite the popularity contest. It amazes me that, given the research done on ethanol, all three of the major political candidates support biofuels with such vigor. Democrat Barack Obama states in his book The Audacity of Hope, “The bottom line is that fuel-efficient cars and alternative fuels like E85, a fuel formulated with 85 percent ethanol, represent the future of the auto industry” (170). I wonder what Obama would say if he knew that “the future of the auto industry” would leave hundreds of thousands starving. It seems that no one told Mr. Obama about the environmental impacts nor the humanitarian implications of ethanol because he not only supports ethanol, he makes us pay for it; “We provided tax credits to gas stations for installing E85 fuel pumps” (Obama 326). Barack isn’t the only politician to disregard research on biofuels; both Hillary Clinton and John McCain praise the “virtues” of ethanol. Perhaps the biggest supporter of ethanol, though, is Congress. Grunwald states “Members of Congress love biofuels too, not only because so many dream of future Iowa caucuses but also because so few want to offend the farm lobby, the most powerful force behind biofuels on Capitol Hill” (44). Quite frankly, such utter disregard for the planet and humanity by the people that run our country is heinous.

To think I have to point out alternative fuels for the alternative fuel our nation is embracing, is sad. There are many truly renewable resources to consider, indeed many of which are quite obvious. There’s been a lot of talk recently about creating nuclear fusion to fix our energy woes; it’s a great idea and all, but it’s a waste of money at this point. Fusion has already been discovered. What’s 1,000,000 times bigger than earth and creates enough fusion to light the world for, well, forever? The sun! I’m glad I’m not the only one to see this wonderful star as a resource. In Al Gores book, An Inconvenient Truth, he asserts just how powerful the sun is, “On a bright sunny day the sun shines approximately 1,000 watts per square yard” (166). Now think, the sun shines roughly 300 days a year here in New Mexico; New Mexico is also the 5th largest state, that’s a lot of power. Another clear solution to the world energy crisis is wind energy. In The Rough Guide to Climate Change the author, Robert Henson, shows just how powerful wind energy can be, “It’s been estimated that the U.S. could generate up to 11 trillion kilowatt hours of wind power per year, about three times the total from all U.S. power plants” (316). To address Obama’s automotive future I think it would be wiser to invest our tax dollars in hydrogen fuel cells. There are no carbon emissions and the only waste material is vaporized water (Henson 324). Those tax credits being wasted on ethanol pumps could be going to new technologies that make the production and storage of hydrogen cells easier and more productive.

In conclusion, ethanol is far from Earth’s green alternative and it’s, in reality, far from green. In the end, our government only cares about two things: Who has the money, and how to get easy votes. We should not give up hope. There are plenty of truly renewable resources out there that are readily available. Combine solar and wind energy with hydrogen fuel cells and it then becomes possible to overthrow the oil tyrants. Though we may feel powerless, every one of us can make a difference. Invest in some

solar panels, which will increase the overall value of your home, or just give your local energy provider a call about ways to go green.



Works Cited

Gore, Al. An Inconvenient Truth. New York: Viking: 2006.

Grunwald, Michael. “The Clean Energy Sam.” Time Apr. 2008: 40-45.

Henson, Robert. The Rough Guide to Climate Change. New York: Rough Guides: 2008.

Obama, Barack. The Audacity of Hope. New York: Three Rivers Press: 2006.



So I wrote this research paper for my English 101 class. Its not too bad but its certainly not very good either. I did it over like 3 days tops and quite frankly its suppose to be argumentative but.... I don't really care too much about the topic so its kinda half assed. I should get it back on Tuesday so we'll see what I get on it. It is kinda interesting how our politicians jump on the easiest and quickest 'solution' without doing any research. Oh well.. maybe they'll figure it out at some point.


Thoughts on Dune

This was created April of 08 right after I finished the fantastic Dune series.

Well I just finished the final book in the Dune series by Frank Herbert and without a fathom of a doubt its one of the best series of books I have ever read. That's not such a simple statement either. I've read a lot and I'm quite proud to admit that I'm a book worm. I've read many of the classics, from 1984 to Zorro and everything in between, as well as more modern, 'easy' books. By easy I mean books of no true 'literary value', you're not going to be able to open up a Dean Koontz book and extract deep symbolism nor are you going to find much satire hidden in the pages of Dan Brown. Some people scoff at the idea of such books and are rather prejudiced of them, so what if they don't amount up to Steinbecks The Grapes of Wrath? That doesn't make them worthless. I believe a book is written for the entertainment and enjoyment of the reader. Simply put MILLIONS of people enjoy these so called 'worthless' books and indeed The New York Times is rather good at finding these books and getting them out there. If you ask the average person if they enjoyed The Old Man and the Sea they'd look at you and say "didn't we read that in high school? God I hated all the crap they made us read back then." Yet if you asked them if they liked anything by James Patterson, John Grisham, Nora Roberts, or Stephen King the majority of people would probably like if not love a certain title by one of those authors. There's nothing inherently bad about this, in my opinion these authors are doing what they love and sharing that love with everyone in the process. They give their readers a brief escape from the stress of real life and entertain them to no end. Of course there's always a line that can be crossed. When an author signs a book deal,in which they have to get a certain ridiculous number of books out per year, I tend to have a problem with that. All their books become the same, read the first chapter and the last chapter and you won't really miss a thing. I work in a book store and it saddens me to see once great authors, such as Danielle Steele, turn a blind eye on the quality of their work and just pump out release after release. More so what upsets me the most is that there's no repercussion from this, at least not in a quick timely manner. People continue to read books pumped out by these authors and thus continue to make them bestsellers because the reader knows what the author was once capable of. These writers let their readers down. For me reading is like a drug, you have that first high from a particular book by a particular author and you're hooked. It doesn't matter that that high sometimes never comes again you'll keep going and going based on this hope that the author will deliver. The relationship between an author and a reader is a powerful one, not only must the author open up and trust the reader with their innermost thoughts and ideas but in turn the reader must trust the author to fill their writing with passion and love. It's like walking on the edge of a knife and when the reader has finally had enough there's no going back. Its over.

With that being said there have been books written throughout history that have withstood the test of time with not only a story everyone can relate to but a deeper more refined world. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, and more recently Rowling's Harry Potter Series. All three of these sets of books did something that most authors can only dream of doing; create a world they not only love but the masses fall in love with as well. Of course there are critics (there always is) and perhaps the three sets of books I chose will raise some heckles, especially the last, but no one can deny the success it has and continues to have. With that success the absolute joy it wrought: to be able to lose ones self in a thoroughly detailed and magical world. Now Harry Potter is probably the only one I don't feel too strongly about, its a very detailed and all, but I needed an example of a decent series thats got the popularity. She's far from a Tolkien but she serves my point. I do believe that Dune is one of those epic works that will stand the test of time.

I'm not going to summarize any of the events in the six books because, I for one, hate spoilers and even when someone is trying their best not to spoil anything we're all only human. I also don't believe I am capable of giving due justice to these books, I will bring up points and various things I felt while I read the book in later posts but for now this is really a general overview. I'll admit I was rather critical of the boast on the front cover of Dune: "Science Fiction's Supreme Masterpiece". Talk about a bold statement but twenty pages in I was hooked. This wasn't even a normal hooked for me this set of books became almost an addiction! I'd suddenly find myself at 3 in the morning not able to put them down. Frank Herbert has done what I thought was impossible: upped the bar. Before I'd compare books to say Tolkien, Orwell or Steinbeck but now I find myself comparing all three to Herbert! Sure each has its strong points, Tolkien's utter detail in creating his world, Orwells strong analyzation and warning of human nature, and Steinbeck well Steinbeck was a master of symbolism even if his work was a bit dry at times. What I found in Herberts work was all three to such a degree that it boggled my mind. He created a world I could get lost in for hours and hours, he analyzed humans, government, religion and many things in between, and he used symbolism to an extent that Steinbeck would be proud. On top of all those, and many other qualities, he made Dune into a part of my day to day life. I often times think "what would the Bene Gesserit say about that?" or I'll try and mentally look at a problem in the way a mentat might look at it. Probably the biggest day to day thing I've noticed is my use of the Litany against Fear.

The Litany Against Fear
Frank Herbert

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

For an author to so utterly influence me is astounding! I thought before Dune I had read some of the best books that were written. Not even just deep or symbolic ones I had favorite 'easy' books as well. I found that while reading Dune it quickly became one of my favorite books but as I read each sequel they'd take over the previous as my favorite. Many authors botch series endings, Rowling particularly. Some take the story where the readers don't want to go. Others take don't share certain details that the reader needs to know. Because of this, the ending of many stories don't alleviate the reader's craving. Frank Herbert is not one of those authors! Chapterhouse: Dune, which was the last book he wrote, happens to be the best book I have ever read. On the second through the sixth book the covers read"Book *insert number* of the magnificent Dune series." I must say, 'magnificent' is almost an understatement.

One of the things I absolutely love about Frank Herbert is his amazing ability to combine elements from almost everything. As I hinted at earlier, he has a little bit of everything: politics, government, religion, environmental issues, and to top it all off a fantastic philosophy on life. He addresses what it is to be human without being overly critical. He shows both sides of the coin that is humanity. On one side he shows just how evil a human can be but at the same time just how good we can be as well. The interesting thing I found is not that he uses both extremes, but that he shows every degree in between. He has some of the best characters I've ever had the pleasure to read. He coaxes the reader into loving a character to hating to loving again all flawlessly. So far we have thought provoking elements, a fascinating philosophy on life, and deep characters. There are so many aspects to his writing that I could go on and on about but the last I want to address is time. To be able to jump not only years but thousands of years into the future is extraordinary! Time is one of those paradoxical concepts that is really hard to understand much less write about in a coherent way. He addresses time and the changes it brings with it to such a degree I often wondered just how long he spent on his concept. In any case though, he made everything absolutely believable. His characters, his worlds, his governments, and all the scandal that goes with them. Throughout the series I could easily see this being the future of humans. And that is perhaps the greatest thing about Dune.

If all you take away from this is a desire to pick up Dune I'll have succeeded. Even if you're not a strong reader, read Dune for the story. Its fantastic. If you are a strong reader pick up Dune with an open mind and take what you can from it. There are plot lines that everyone will enjoy. A fair warning though, do not skip the book because you've seen either of the movies. They're decent sure but there is no way to fully grasp all the plots within plots of Dune. I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the series:

"Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic."