Reflection

I don't usually comment directly on the news, but something came to my attention today that I want to comment on. It is about the shooting in the Amish school house. I cannot imagine what something like that can do to such a closely knit community. It must hurt so much. My mom mentioned to me today that apparently the families of the girls even on the night of the disaster were concerned for the family of the shooter. They were making plans to bring food to his family. I think I can certainly learn something about forgiveness from this. I think we all can. Our country could learn from this.

The mention of concern for the family is at the end of the audio clip.

School "Cube House" Project

This was the only house I designed in school. The assignment was to use the 20' x 20' x 20' cube. . . assumed to be rigid. I like the feel of it. We also tried to encorporate passive heating and cooling. The water side of the building is North, which made things more difficult.

Note to self. . .

I need to remember now much of an impact experience can have. I need to remember how good it feels to really connect with people. I need to remember how important it is to use my hands to do things, and where my food comes from and who my neighbors are, and what beautiful fall day is like and how good it feels to swim, and what it feels like to share a moment with someone, and what it feels like to sing even if its just noises, and how good a hug can be and that people have incredible ability. This weekend just had a lot of very raw experiences. And I am grateful for that.
This evening I just hosted a vocal improv group at my house, and as a fellow signer there said. . . "Thank you source!"

All in good fun

OK! If you're serious about having fun with this entry. . . then you'll have to follow my intructions exactly. Otherwise, you will have fun, but only in a limited way. Here goes:

1. Get Edy's vanilla ice cream
2. Get Gritty McDuffs Best Brown Ale
3. Eat and drink. It's just a great flavor combo! No, I have not actually made a beer float yet. That's why you should!
4. Watch this great dance while you enjoy the food. It was sent to me by Toph Cyll.
Tread Mill Dance

5. Read the following email that was forwarded to me:
(This is adult humor, no laughing allowed!)

The Washington Post runs a weekly contest in its Style section called
the "Style Invitational". The requirements this week were to use the
two words Lewinsky (The Intern) and Kaczynski (the Unabomber) in the
same limerick. The following winning entries, remember, were printed
in the newspaper.
---

Third place:
There once was a gal named Lewinsky
Who played on a flute like Stravinsky
'Twas "Hail to the Chief"
On this flute made of beef
That stole the front page from Kaczynski.

Second place:
Said Clinton to young Ms. Lewinsky,
We don't want to leave clues like Kaczynski,
Since you made such a mess,
Use the hem of your dress
And please wipe that stuff off of your chinsky."

And the winning entry:
Lewinsky and Clinton have shown
What Kaczynski must surely have known
That an intern is better
Than a bomb in a letter
When deciding how best to be blown


6. Now, if that wasn't too much for you I tried writing my own:

I just need to ask you one question.
Is Kaczynski a man of affection?
If Lewinsky were there?
And He in Bill's chair?
No silly, that's just an erection.

I hope you had fun. Have a great day!

Greater Portland Photography

Sappi Mill in Westbrook. . . I took the picture from the bus. It was around zero degrees, and I think that's what makes the smoke/steam so sharply defined.
Sometime this past Summer (2006) I took this pic in monument square. I am not the first to get something that looks like this, but at least I've done it now!


One afternoon this Fall I stopped by the front of the Portland Museum of Art for a bit. . .



Yesterday Sasha and I went out with her new camera! It was very cool! She was a good coach. These are pictures that I took while we were in the Old Port.




This is leaving westbrook towards Gorham on Rt. 25.
This is a night picture of the back door to Saccarappa Elementary School in Westbrook.
This one was taken looking over a building between Congress and Cumberland in Portland.
This is a Parking Garage in Auburn.
This is the side gate to the McKlellan House behing the Portland Museum of Art.

Wind Energy Survey

I have been meaning to post this for awhile!
Wind Energy Project

Wind Energy Survey

Last spring I was lucky enough to be able to help my professor with a survey on wind energy. The goal was to get a set of statistics about what factors are important to people when considering wind energy. With this knowledge supporters of wind farms would have a better idea of how to educate communities. I work on this project a bit a year ago, on specific slides, and again this spring. This spring I did the recording of the audio tracks for the automated survey. I then edited down the audio and added it to the powerpoint presentation. This presentation was later converted to the PDF that you can download here:

Survey with audio (large file, but worth it)
(I would recommend right clicking and doing "save link as."_

Thesis Document

My Thesis Document is Done!!!!

Here are the first five pages of my document, including the contents page so you know what you're missing. I you would like the whole document feel free to email me for the full size PDF. I would love to have people read it if they are interested.

Click the pages to be able to read them.

PS The full PDF is now available for download here.

Many, Many Things

I have many things to note and talk about, and even though this is always true, what is different about today is that I am doing it. Yes, there is a reason:
During my lunch break today I went to One City Center in Portland and joined a crowd of people who supported Net Neutrality. We listened to three speakers and then delivered a petition of over 4000 signatures to Olympia Snowe's office. The whole this was quite interesting to me despite the fact that I don't really know how to "keep the network neutral." I certainly fear an internet where some people get more exposure to their sites by paying a price, while others get very little. I don't like the idea of that at all. That said I have no idea what the solution would be and how it would be legislated etc. If you have any doubts on the complexity of the issue there is tons of stuff on wikipedia.
Like I said though, the event was very interesting. I met a number of very active and motivated people, including Eli Pariser, the head person for moveon.org. Eli has recently moved to Portland! (of all places) and is 25 years old. Needless to say, I am at least a little inspired by him and what he has done.

In other news, I have in general been trying to switch gears this week. For the last 18 years of my life I would see this as a time to return to self-enriching endeavors, and I figure I can still try to use that model. Specifically this means that I am now reading the Land Use Ordinances of the City of Westbrook and I will be at my first Westbrook Planning Board meeting next Tuesday the 5th. I discovered in downloading documents from Westbrook that Michael Foley is a Councilor at Large! He is the little brother of a friend of mine! At least I will have one person to talk to if I start going to council meetings too.
Here is the link to the zoning map. . . why? Because for some reason I could look at that thing for hours. . . you might not get that pleasure though if you don't live in Westbrook.

I am adding a bunch of links to the MISC par of my site, so I'll just cue people into them now:
Another friend with a site: myninjaplease
More funny stuff!
Another good site: Portland Buy Local

I think that is it for this entry. . . good!

Grade A Day!

An exclamation. . . today was really nice! (Really nice is just a silly phrase to me. . . so I'm laughing at myself.) Seriously, fall has arrived. Hot, not too hot, clear, high clouds, windy. . . awesome! Made better by the fact that I got two Erin Mckeown CDs last night and Winterpills CD today. (updates on the music part of my blog to come) These CDs were happily purchased with a gift certificate I earned for house hitting last week with 3 cats. (never mind the beer that was stashed in the fridge for my leisure) There, good things recorded.
In other news:
I complete my thesis this weekend back at RDub. That's keeping me a little busy this week.