What am I talking about?
A lot of things in this long awaited post.
A short update on the music school:
Things are going really well. The Christmas rush paid off and I have a few more students enrolled in courses learning how to play the guitar. Since Christmas, more students have enrolled. A couple of kids who are absolutely brilliant on guitar. If they keep up the same pace of learning, they will have completed the entire course in about 18 months.
I now have a front desk at the entry of the school, which makes things look professional. As a bonus all the materials used were recycled. The bench top was my old desk from the IT business. The structure's support is from offcuts of various pieces of wood. I may have to purchase a large sheet of ply or masonite, or something thin and flexible to put on the front (facade) of the front desk to make it appear like a solid bench and I can paint it and put my logo on there.
I really love that I was able to get 90% of the bits and pieces using materials I already had. Photos will be posted once I complete the desk with the sheet as a facade.
Still on music, I have been gigging around with various bands and acts. However, I am dropping two of them as they appear to be heading nowhere. One act I have been performing in has been great. We made it to some of the nicest venues in Sydney. However, to continue the trend, and keep getting paid gigs, I suggested we record some of the songs. This needs to be done so we have something to put on MySpace, and all those other music websites. We haven't been getting much paid stuff because there's nothing to show the venues as a suggestion of what style of music we play.
The other thing was that we don't have merchandise such as CD's and stuff. Which I was hoping to have at this stage. At our last gig, at the high class venue I mentioned above, we were asked if we had our CD's and merchandise, we could get it displayed over there... at the merch table. When my partner in crime said "We don't have anything" The look on the organisers and other performers faces basically confirmed what I was thinking.... amateurs.
Not that I care what others think about me, but it's music, in a big town. We don't get many chances to make an impression. And that impression we left was pretty ordinary.
The main thing is that I have organised for us to record many times, and each time my partner in crime has always been keen. Then finally, when we were ready to go he cancelled, or he organised a friend to record us, which turned out to be pretty average. To say the sound was horrible is an understatement.
So I'm just fed up with the farting around and know what I want. So I'll be dropping that act because I like a good plan, and we don't have one. When I make one, they change for the worse. I feel as though I am wasting my time.
Another act I've only been performing with for a short time is much the same. However, they invited me to perform with them, invited me to a number of gigs to perform along side them but despite the fact that they said they had an agent, and were signed, the gigs I have performed at have been without pay.
Now, I don't mind doing a free gig. I've done hundreds of them, and I still do. I use them as a "LIVE" rehearsal. In fact one of the bands I'm in do exactly this. Mostly because it's cooler and playing a gig for free costs less than rehearsing at a studio and having to pay for the studio time.
But doing free gigs when you've been promised payment isn't really nice. So, I'm ditching that too.
This will free up a little bit of time for me. The wife will be happy. However, after I made the decision I received a phone call asking for me to fill in to play bass in a band. It's a one off gig in June. The money is excellent, as it is typically for a covers band in Sydney. Then after I agreed and got off the phone, another person called me asking if I would like to join another band to play bass. I had a listen to their music and agreed. Then another band called me within the hour asking if I could fill in for their bassist who had to go away right when they were about to head into the studio to record their new album.
Yay! Paid gigs!
Now, the big news. The biggest news for the year.....
My wife and I were planning on an overseas trip to China. Her brother had plans to go to Hong Kong and then to China. We were going to tag along. I had no real keen interest in China, but I thought it'll be a good experience.
Then, a few weeks ago, my brother-in-law cancelled. He can't make it due to unforeseen circumstances. Since we were going because he was, we had our holidays in our personal calendars. I said "Screw it". We're still going on holidays. However, and this is the big news.... I'm heading to the United State.
Friends who read this blog will say "WTF?".
And I know that most of my subscribed readers are from the US. So when I say this, it is of no offense or discrimination. But the reason why my friends will say "WTF?" is because they know of my opinion of the 5 years I spent in the US.
Sadly, as a child and a teen growing up in the US gave me an unsavoury impression. Having been shot at on multiple occasions. Having been stabbed in the arm and threatened of my life on many occasions, I had quite a happy exit from the US. Heading back to Australia was an escape. Sadly, where I went to school, I was a minority. And during the L.A Riots, I was considered racist for being the wrong colour in the wrong neighbourhood. This gave me a terrible opinion of the states. However, as all stories, there is hypocrisy. For every person that tried to bully me, kill me, steal my money, bash the shit out of me. threaten me with a knife, a gun, a weapon of any tiny. I met at least 10 good people.
However, because of the amount of trauma I experienced as a fairly young kid, I only ever remembered the bad stuff and I grew up hating the US in total. I ignored all the good people I had met. And I only ever dwelled on the bad. And perhaps it was rightful. But at the end of the day, speaking poorly of anyone only makes you look bad, and the truth is, the US wasn't all that bad.
So, when I head back to the United States, 20 years after fleeing, I am expecting to see a different country. A country that's changed, and through different eyes. I am hoping to see nothing of what I grew up with.
I do have genuine reasons for heading back. To see how much has changed. To see if my feelings were deluded due to some unfortunate experiences, to see my cousins whom I recently reunited with over Facebook.
I am really looking forward to seeing my cousins. I haven't seen them in over 22 years. Our trip will start from Sydney, and we'll be flying into LAX. However, we will be jumping straight back on a domestic flight and heading to New York. There we will be tourists. I don't know anyone there.
After a few days of NYC, we will catch a flight to Texas where one of my cousins lives. He's right up on the Northern tip.
From there we are thinking of hiring a car and driving it to LA where we will see my other cousin. She has a camping trip organised for the time we will be there. They do this trip every year, and this year we're tagging along. Camping in the US. The last time I did that was when I went to Bakersfield, CA. It was the first time I ever went camping. It was the first time I went fishing. It was the first time I slipped on the muddy banks of the river and slid into the water, yelling at the top of my lungs "Faaaaark" with my friends and his dad all letting out a laugh.
I'm much better at camping these days. Usually the one who chops the wood, starts the fire, keeps it going, makes sure everyone is fed, making sure the tent is up and secure. Anyway, you get the idea.
After a long weekend of camping in the Mojave desert, we'll be heading back to LA and catching a flight the next day, back home to Australia.
Seeing as I'll be in Texas, and probably hiring a car or something. I'm wondering if I should drop in on The Field Lab. And while I'm in the neighbourhood, drop in on anyone else that is happy to say hello, have a drink and move on our way.
I can't wait.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Funny people
I get a lot of ridicule for my opinions. Often times it is only because I go against the grain. I tend to dislike something that isn't status quo, even before I realise it is the status quo.
Comedians are one example. There are many out there. Some who think they're funny because everyone they know thinks they are funny. Then there are the few genuinely funny ones that can make you laugh.
The news and Internet is full of Ricky Gervais' recent exploits at the Grammys or something. This is where he gets up and says things that are bold, taboo, and crass. Yet everyone seems to think it's funny.
He isn't. His humour seems to relentlessly pry on other peoples misfortunes, mistakes and general mishaps. He takes a persons character and bastardises it to the point where everyone is shocked he said something like that, but laugh anyway. A bit like an accident where the victims head has been taken off. You know it's bad but you look anyway.
Since I'm a man of extremes, I'm going to compare Mr. Gervais to the Marx Brothers. A group of louts where humour is actually funny. It's harmless. It's laughable and no one gets hurt in the end. While there's a level of intelligence involved with constructing a joke, it's obvious one doesn't need much thought to come up with something crass. This is the opposite of the Marx Brothers. Where jokes are well constructed, thought out and delivered in such a witty manner, you don't know what hit you or how it hit you, because you're laughing so hard that you're about to bust a gut.
Gervais' jokes seem to hint of sarcasm. And sarcasm is the worst form of putting down known.
And while this is all in good humour. I would imagine the people Gervais has offended may take it in their stride, laugh about it. Deep down, I would imagine a tiny inkling of contempt and hatred for the man. Which I imagine is also part of his entire guise.
If so, job well done on being an in-humorous dick. You should get an award for that, and stand in line next to Kyle Sandilands and Russell Brand. You can take the Three Stooges to a whole new level, down.
Comedians are one example. There are many out there. Some who think they're funny because everyone they know thinks they are funny. Then there are the few genuinely funny ones that can make you laugh.
The news and Internet is full of Ricky Gervais' recent exploits at the Grammys or something. This is where he gets up and says things that are bold, taboo, and crass. Yet everyone seems to think it's funny.
He isn't. His humour seems to relentlessly pry on other peoples misfortunes, mistakes and general mishaps. He takes a persons character and bastardises it to the point where everyone is shocked he said something like that, but laugh anyway. A bit like an accident where the victims head has been taken off. You know it's bad but you look anyway.
Since I'm a man of extremes, I'm going to compare Mr. Gervais to the Marx Brothers. A group of louts where humour is actually funny. It's harmless. It's laughable and no one gets hurt in the end. While there's a level of intelligence involved with constructing a joke, it's obvious one doesn't need much thought to come up with something crass. This is the opposite of the Marx Brothers. Where jokes are well constructed, thought out and delivered in such a witty manner, you don't know what hit you or how it hit you, because you're laughing so hard that you're about to bust a gut.
Gervais' jokes seem to hint of sarcasm. And sarcasm is the worst form of putting down known.
And while this is all in good humour. I would imagine the people Gervais has offended may take it in their stride, laugh about it. Deep down, I would imagine a tiny inkling of contempt and hatred for the man. Which I imagine is also part of his entire guise.
If so, job well done on being an in-humorous dick. You should get an award for that, and stand in line next to Kyle Sandilands and Russell Brand. You can take the Three Stooges to a whole new level, down.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Out of reach
For a lot of people, the idea of being green, environmentally friendly and energy conscious is a good thing. We all want to be this. We all want to do our best.
As a general rule going green costs money. However it is usually just the initial outlay to fund the infrastructure of things like solar panels, inverters, wiring, labour unless you're doing it yourself.
However, sometimes things don't add up.
For example, I've started to shop around for solar panels for my house. I was holding out until we built a new home, however, I don't know when that's going to happen, so I want to start being a bit greener now.
My reasons aren't just about the environment. I also want to have less reliance on the mains electricity, and less dependence on their supply. At the same time I also want to save money. Who doesn't. However, as the cost of installing a solar array can get pricey, I started to look at cheaper alternatives.
Here's where my brain started to hurt.
A 1.5kW system that comes with 8x190W panels, an inverter, fully installed and ready to go, also allowing the option to feed excessive power back into the grid and get some money back for it, or a credit on your on-grid account.
All that for a measly (From) $1050.00
Sounds affordable. A 1.5kW system will pump about 3-4kW of energy back into the grid based on an average household usage of 15-18kW per day. Thus reducing your energy bill, decreasing your reliance on dirty power supplied from Australia's favourite power station, coal powered.
Don't check my maths, it was my worst subject at school.
Where's the bit where my brain starts to hurt?
Here:
The next system is a 2kW system. A few thousand more. But where it really aches is the 3kW system. $7080.00
It comes with twice as many solar panels, 18x190W panels. And obviously a bigger inverter.
Lets assume it takes twice as long to install, since there are twice as many panels, otherwise, the additional wiring is hardly worth the $7000 price tag. The inverter? This is the only item I can think of that will increase the price from $1050 to $7080. But even then, I can't seem to wrap my head around it.
I'd be more inclined to buy and install two 1.5kW systems and split the circuits in the house. Half the house on one circuit and the other half using the other 1.5kW system.
If both units are connected to the grid, then technically I'd still be pumping twice as many kW's back into the grid. Not to mention the fact that I've spent a little over $2,000 rather than $14,000.
Heck, I'd even go with another installation and bump things up to 4.5kW and this amount of solar power would actually provide me with enough power to go off the grid in suburbia.
Only issue with that last bit is that I don't plan on using batteries for storage of that power. I'm happy with having power fed into my house from the grid when the sun isn't out. However, I'm happy to also light a candle since I don't watch TV. Email and using the laptop may pose a problem. I'd have to charge my mobile phone during the day or at my music school. Though charging it off the solar power makes more sense.
I got my first power bill for the music school. $45 per quarter. All because I open windows instead of turning on the air con, though sometimes I do blast the air con just to clear out the heat in the room that's been shut all day. Then when that initial bite has gone, I'll open everything up. And since its summer, we have plenty of natural sunlight still coming into the school thanks to all the windows in the place I found.
I was asked about a water cooler. And I've decided that I'll be getting a hand made clay cooler I found that is pricey, but no more expensive than a refrigerated water cooler, and it will use no power what so ever, it'll keep water at a nice, cool and comfortable temperature and also looks a hell of a lot nicer than a plastic water cooler waiting for the water to heat up so it can waste more power cooling it down.
I still can't get my head around the cost difference from the 1.5kW system to the 3kW system. Surely, it's the inverter causing the major price difference.
Cheerio
As a general rule going green costs money. However it is usually just the initial outlay to fund the infrastructure of things like solar panels, inverters, wiring, labour unless you're doing it yourself.
However, sometimes things don't add up.
For example, I've started to shop around for solar panels for my house. I was holding out until we built a new home, however, I don't know when that's going to happen, so I want to start being a bit greener now.
My reasons aren't just about the environment. I also want to have less reliance on the mains electricity, and less dependence on their supply. At the same time I also want to save money. Who doesn't. However, as the cost of installing a solar array can get pricey, I started to look at cheaper alternatives.
Here's where my brain started to hurt.
A 1.5kW system that comes with 8x190W panels, an inverter, fully installed and ready to go, also allowing the option to feed excessive power back into the grid and get some money back for it, or a credit on your on-grid account.
All that for a measly (From) $1050.00
Sounds affordable. A 1.5kW system will pump about 3-4kW of energy back into the grid based on an average household usage of 15-18kW per day. Thus reducing your energy bill, decreasing your reliance on dirty power supplied from Australia's favourite power station, coal powered.
Don't check my maths, it was my worst subject at school.
Where's the bit where my brain starts to hurt?
Here:
The next system is a 2kW system. A few thousand more. But where it really aches is the 3kW system. $7080.00
It comes with twice as many solar panels, 18x190W panels. And obviously a bigger inverter.
Lets assume it takes twice as long to install, since there are twice as many panels, otherwise, the additional wiring is hardly worth the $7000 price tag. The inverter? This is the only item I can think of that will increase the price from $1050 to $7080. But even then, I can't seem to wrap my head around it.
I'd be more inclined to buy and install two 1.5kW systems and split the circuits in the house. Half the house on one circuit and the other half using the other 1.5kW system.
If both units are connected to the grid, then technically I'd still be pumping twice as many kW's back into the grid. Not to mention the fact that I've spent a little over $2,000 rather than $14,000.
Heck, I'd even go with another installation and bump things up to 4.5kW and this amount of solar power would actually provide me with enough power to go off the grid in suburbia.
Only issue with that last bit is that I don't plan on using batteries for storage of that power. I'm happy with having power fed into my house from the grid when the sun isn't out. However, I'm happy to also light a candle since I don't watch TV. Email and using the laptop may pose a problem. I'd have to charge my mobile phone during the day or at my music school. Though charging it off the solar power makes more sense.
I got my first power bill for the music school. $45 per quarter. All because I open windows instead of turning on the air con, though sometimes I do blast the air con just to clear out the heat in the room that's been shut all day. Then when that initial bite has gone, I'll open everything up. And since its summer, we have plenty of natural sunlight still coming into the school thanks to all the windows in the place I found.
I was asked about a water cooler. And I've decided that I'll be getting a hand made clay cooler I found that is pricey, but no more expensive than a refrigerated water cooler, and it will use no power what so ever, it'll keep water at a nice, cool and comfortable temperature and also looks a hell of a lot nicer than a plastic water cooler waiting for the water to heat up so it can waste more power cooling it down.
I still can't get my head around the cost difference from the 1.5kW system to the 3kW system. Surely, it's the inverter causing the major price difference.
Cheerio
Thursday, December 30, 2010
12 Days of my Christmas
Last week I was invited to play percussion music for my friend Craig. It was the fbi-Radio Christmas party. One of the many I've attended this year.
Normally my Christmas time is quiet time and I seldom do anything other than get together with the wife's family and celebrate by having a few drinks, sharing presents and enjoying the evening.
This year has been different. I got to do the family thing, but every day before hand was party time with others.
Between gigging, and attending Christmas parties of every nature. I have been busy ramping up business. My wife and I did a small letterbox drop for my guitar school and I have to say that it has been a small success. With only 500 flyers distributed around my neighbourhood, I have had almost 20 email and phone enquiries. Out of them, almost all of them are sales. That doesn't sound like a lot, but the hit rate is impressive for my first attempt.
I'm planning on attending the local Fete soon with a stall. It's $40 for the day and I imagine it will bring in a great deal more business. So, that stuff is going well.
On another note, Christmas last year made me change a little and Christmas this year made me change a little more again. Last year both my wife and myself were completely shocked at the display we witnessed at a Christmas gathering we use to attend every Christmas Eve. It was at my sister-in-laws family (My brother's wife). Last Christmas was pathetically unreal. Why?
Because the tree had that many presents around it, that it circled the tree with a radius of about 3 metres. Traditionally someone dresses as Santa and hands out the presents. The family hasn't grown much since we started going there. Maybe an additional baby or two, with another on the way, but back over ten years ago when we started going there handing out presents took about 10 minutes. Last time took 3 hours.
When people received their gifts, the didn't actually know who it was from. In other words, they didn't read the cards attached to the box, or stuck to the wrapping.
When I was shown some presents people got, ones which I had bought for them, I said "That's a great gift, who got that for you?" They had no idea.
This disgusted both my wife and myself. And the fact that presents took 3 hours to hand out wasn't adding to the special day. In fact, we both felt sick of the gluttony we witnessed. We went home after midnight and both commented on what we saw. We vowed to never go there again because it just got ridiculous. At one stage we recalled seeing one person get multiple presents from one other person. And it wasn't something like socks, or a nice picture frame at best. It was iPod, PSP, Digital Camera, and so on.
It was disgusting.
This year was much more pleasant. Gifts meant giving, not competing over who could buy the most expensive present, and then double it by adding more expensive presents to the list. It was about giving. It was about family. It was about being together and enjoying the day.
It was also nice to see my rather stern brother-in-law (Wife's brother), loosen up and have a few drinks. However, he turned it into a crazy drinking game, and really REALLY loosened up, drank his heart out, competing with us youngins and saying "Old school will win".
30 minutes later, he was asleep in his chair. Us "new schoolers" kept drinking. We dragged him to the couch and placed a bucket near him just in case. It was great to see him relaxing. Last time we saw him like this was for my wedding.
Continuing with Christmas news, I have been very well behaved this year. I haven't over eaten once. Besides Christmas drinking and the prompting from the bro-in-law, I haven't been drunk. I've been careful and enjoyed the food at Christmas instead of the usual over eating and regret afterwards when I can't move.
My 12 days of Christmas consisted of Christmas parties every day. Business associates, friends, family, and all up, a well behaved silly season.
I hope your Christmas has been just as pleasant and here's looking forward to a great New Years Eve. And a brilliant 2011.
Normally my Christmas time is quiet time and I seldom do anything other than get together with the wife's family and celebrate by having a few drinks, sharing presents and enjoying the evening.
This year has been different. I got to do the family thing, but every day before hand was party time with others.
Between gigging, and attending Christmas parties of every nature. I have been busy ramping up business. My wife and I did a small letterbox drop for my guitar school and I have to say that it has been a small success. With only 500 flyers distributed around my neighbourhood, I have had almost 20 email and phone enquiries. Out of them, almost all of them are sales. That doesn't sound like a lot, but the hit rate is impressive for my first attempt.
I'm planning on attending the local Fete soon with a stall. It's $40 for the day and I imagine it will bring in a great deal more business. So, that stuff is going well.
On another note, Christmas last year made me change a little and Christmas this year made me change a little more again. Last year both my wife and myself were completely shocked at the display we witnessed at a Christmas gathering we use to attend every Christmas Eve. It was at my sister-in-laws family (My brother's wife). Last Christmas was pathetically unreal. Why?
Because the tree had that many presents around it, that it circled the tree with a radius of about 3 metres. Traditionally someone dresses as Santa and hands out the presents. The family hasn't grown much since we started going there. Maybe an additional baby or two, with another on the way, but back over ten years ago when we started going there handing out presents took about 10 minutes. Last time took 3 hours.
When people received their gifts, the didn't actually know who it was from. In other words, they didn't read the cards attached to the box, or stuck to the wrapping.
When I was shown some presents people got, ones which I had bought for them, I said "That's a great gift, who got that for you?" They had no idea.
This disgusted both my wife and myself. And the fact that presents took 3 hours to hand out wasn't adding to the special day. In fact, we both felt sick of the gluttony we witnessed. We went home after midnight and both commented on what we saw. We vowed to never go there again because it just got ridiculous. At one stage we recalled seeing one person get multiple presents from one other person. And it wasn't something like socks, or a nice picture frame at best. It was iPod, PSP, Digital Camera, and so on.
It was disgusting.
This year was much more pleasant. Gifts meant giving, not competing over who could buy the most expensive present, and then double it by adding more expensive presents to the list. It was about giving. It was about family. It was about being together and enjoying the day.
It was also nice to see my rather stern brother-in-law (Wife's brother), loosen up and have a few drinks. However, he turned it into a crazy drinking game, and really REALLY loosened up, drank his heart out, competing with us youngins and saying "Old school will win".
30 minutes later, he was asleep in his chair. Us "new schoolers" kept drinking. We dragged him to the couch and placed a bucket near him just in case. It was great to see him relaxing. Last time we saw him like this was for my wedding.
Continuing with Christmas news, I have been very well behaved this year. I haven't over eaten once. Besides Christmas drinking and the prompting from the bro-in-law, I haven't been drunk. I've been careful and enjoyed the food at Christmas instead of the usual over eating and regret afterwards when I can't move.
My 12 days of Christmas consisted of Christmas parties every day. Business associates, friends, family, and all up, a well behaved silly season.
I hope your Christmas has been just as pleasant and here's looking forward to a great New Years Eve. And a brilliant 2011.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Electric cars
I was recently reading an article on the Nissan Leaf. Being an electric only car, it needs to be plugged in unlike a hybrid, where if the batter power does deplete, the petrol engine kicks in and away you go.
The article I was reading was concentrating around the fact that you only have 100 miles, or 160 kilometres in my language, range from full charge. I would imagine this doesn't take into account aircon, playing music on the stereo, using lights. sitting in traffic, large hills and so on. Much like how fuel economy is derived with a car sitting in a giant conveyor belt and put through various "real" driving experiences. It'll be a stale test of how long the battery will last. And to be honest, I can drive 160 kms in a day quite easily. Sometimes 200 kms, which would require me to a recharging station.
And that's the crux of my post today. Recharging your electric car. The biggest issue is the infrastructure. Manufacturers are investing millions into electric cars, battery performance and life. However, when you mention charging stations, all of a sudden it sounds like a brick wall has been hit. An invisible barrier.
You mean we will have to install these charging stations everywhere? That sounds like too much effort. Yet when you think about it.... and you will once I tell you, it's not really that bad. Well, it kinda still is.... perhaps not as bad as you thought at first.
In Australia, we currently have a big debate over the roll out of a new Internet infrastructure. It's called the NBN, National Broadband Network. What it actually is, is fibre optic cables from the telephone exchange straight to your home. Bumping our currently theoretical maximum speed of 24Mbit (that's Mega bits) per second to a Japan and Korea equalling 100Mbit connection.
Meanwhile Japan is upgrading their infrastructure to go to 1Gbps (that's 1 Giga bit per second). If that means nothing to you, picture yourself doing 100 miles and hour (160 km/h). Now imagine yourself doing 1000 miles and hour (1600 km/h). It's a significant increase. And will aid our country in keeping up with the rest of the planet who are already on this technology because in a sad but honest way, the Internet and connectivity as a whole is where our future is. The world will continue to get smaller.
Now, the debate with the NBN is if our country really needs it. Or do we keep using the old infrastructure, which consists of copper telephone lines which have corroded since their installation back in 1948?
Much in the same way, we keep saying that charging stations are going to cost an arm and a leg to set up in every country, every state of that country, every city of that state, every suburb of that city and every home in that suburb. But it's imperative. It must be done in order to support our future mode of personal transport, the electric car, which sadly still has a dismal range before it needs charging, which means it won't be popular in Australia, because your next door neighbour can be 50 km in that direction, and your battery isn't going to last the drive home unless your neighbour gives you a couple of hours charging time as well as that sugar you drove all the way there for.
And do you seriously see a charging station in the middle of the Stuart Hwy? There are parts of that road that roadkill avoids.
But I'm here to shed a positive light on the charging station.
When countries started to develop, and I'm thinking Industrial Revolution here. They created infrastructure because it was needed. The cost was important, but it took a back seat because it was needed. Rail systems. They were needed. Yet when our government speaks of additional tracks on our current rail system. It costs us as tax payers billions of dollars. Yet, back then, it cost us, the general public nothing, because people found investors. And investors knew, it had to be done.
Power lines are just as new, if not newer than the rail system. Think of how much power lines cover the country. That's a lot of work. A lot of money. But guess what? It had to be done in order for everyone to have affordable power to their homes.
Infrastructure shouldn't have a cost associated with it. It shouldn't have a price tage to help determine if it's worth it or not. It should just be done because it will benefit. Charging stations will benefit electric car owners because they'll have convenient locations to top up their charge. As convenient as a petrol station is now.
If however, you find one every 10 kilometres in built up suburban areas, then there will be issues. Sure you can charge at home, but that's not really convenient when you're already out and about. You want to return home, and not have to head out again.
What happens when there's a black out? Brown out? Electrical storm? Surges?
Sorry, I just thought of that while I was thinking of all the positive aspects.
I really want to see a good electric car. One that will get me from Sydney to Melbourne on one charge just like my diesel car can now, on $45 dollars worth of fuel. That's 1100 kms and 13 hours of driving.
When will this likely happen? Maybe by 2040. The way manufacturers are currently claiming battery life, they're saying that 160 km is normal now. By 2015 they are expecting maybe 190 km per charge.
Maybe I'm asking for too much, I'm being too harsh on the chemists who are playing with the chemicals used to make battery technology improve. Maybe too many people have been nice to them for too long and they're too comfortable in their cushy labs. Maybe someone needs to light a fire under their arses and get things cooking.
I'll let the early adopters buy the first, second and maybe third generation electric cars. I'll wait until I can genuinely replace my diesel with electric power that can last 13 hours of driving. Not one hour.
The article I was reading was concentrating around the fact that you only have 100 miles, or 160 kilometres in my language, range from full charge. I would imagine this doesn't take into account aircon, playing music on the stereo, using lights. sitting in traffic, large hills and so on. Much like how fuel economy is derived with a car sitting in a giant conveyor belt and put through various "real" driving experiences. It'll be a stale test of how long the battery will last. And to be honest, I can drive 160 kms in a day quite easily. Sometimes 200 kms, which would require me to a recharging station.
And that's the crux of my post today. Recharging your electric car. The biggest issue is the infrastructure. Manufacturers are investing millions into electric cars, battery performance and life. However, when you mention charging stations, all of a sudden it sounds like a brick wall has been hit. An invisible barrier.
You mean we will have to install these charging stations everywhere? That sounds like too much effort. Yet when you think about it.... and you will once I tell you, it's not really that bad. Well, it kinda still is.... perhaps not as bad as you thought at first.
In Australia, we currently have a big debate over the roll out of a new Internet infrastructure. It's called the NBN, National Broadband Network. What it actually is, is fibre optic cables from the telephone exchange straight to your home. Bumping our currently theoretical maximum speed of 24Mbit (that's Mega bits) per second to a Japan and Korea equalling 100Mbit connection.
Meanwhile Japan is upgrading their infrastructure to go to 1Gbps (that's 1 Giga bit per second). If that means nothing to you, picture yourself doing 100 miles and hour (160 km/h). Now imagine yourself doing 1000 miles and hour (1600 km/h). It's a significant increase. And will aid our country in keeping up with the rest of the planet who are already on this technology because in a sad but honest way, the Internet and connectivity as a whole is where our future is. The world will continue to get smaller.
Now, the debate with the NBN is if our country really needs it. Or do we keep using the old infrastructure, which consists of copper telephone lines which have corroded since their installation back in 1948?
Much in the same way, we keep saying that charging stations are going to cost an arm and a leg to set up in every country, every state of that country, every city of that state, every suburb of that city and every home in that suburb. But it's imperative. It must be done in order to support our future mode of personal transport, the electric car, which sadly still has a dismal range before it needs charging, which means it won't be popular in Australia, because your next door neighbour can be 50 km in that direction, and your battery isn't going to last the drive home unless your neighbour gives you a couple of hours charging time as well as that sugar you drove all the way there for.
And do you seriously see a charging station in the middle of the Stuart Hwy? There are parts of that road that roadkill avoids.
But I'm here to shed a positive light on the charging station.
When countries started to develop, and I'm thinking Industrial Revolution here. They created infrastructure because it was needed. The cost was important, but it took a back seat because it was needed. Rail systems. They were needed. Yet when our government speaks of additional tracks on our current rail system. It costs us as tax payers billions of dollars. Yet, back then, it cost us, the general public nothing, because people found investors. And investors knew, it had to be done.
Power lines are just as new, if not newer than the rail system. Think of how much power lines cover the country. That's a lot of work. A lot of money. But guess what? It had to be done in order for everyone to have affordable power to their homes.
Infrastructure shouldn't have a cost associated with it. It shouldn't have a price tage to help determine if it's worth it or not. It should just be done because it will benefit. Charging stations will benefit electric car owners because they'll have convenient locations to top up their charge. As convenient as a petrol station is now.
If however, you find one every 10 kilometres in built up suburban areas, then there will be issues. Sure you can charge at home, but that's not really convenient when you're already out and about. You want to return home, and not have to head out again.
What happens when there's a black out? Brown out? Electrical storm? Surges?
Sorry, I just thought of that while I was thinking of all the positive aspects.
I really want to see a good electric car. One that will get me from Sydney to Melbourne on one charge just like my diesel car can now, on $45 dollars worth of fuel. That's 1100 kms and 13 hours of driving.
When will this likely happen? Maybe by 2040. The way manufacturers are currently claiming battery life, they're saying that 160 km is normal now. By 2015 they are expecting maybe 190 km per charge.
Maybe I'm asking for too much, I'm being too harsh on the chemists who are playing with the chemicals used to make battery technology improve. Maybe too many people have been nice to them for too long and they're too comfortable in their cushy labs. Maybe someone needs to light a fire under their arses and get things cooking.
I'll let the early adopters buy the first, second and maybe third generation electric cars. I'll wait until I can genuinely replace my diesel with electric power that can last 13 hours of driving. Not one hour.
Friday, November 26, 2010
My theory
Yes, another one.
If you look back, you'll see that I have some good theories and other not so good ones, but I like them anyway because they're mine. :)
Today I'm going to theorise the way we came to living on planet Earth.
We, not as humans, but living creatures have evolved enough to already transport ourselves from one planet to the next. How so? We started out on Mercury but as the sun grew, Mercury got too hot. So we moved to Venus. It was a larger planet that allowed our population to grow. However, it could not sustain us due to the ever increasing size of the sun, getting closer and closer.
Next was Earth. Which is where we are now. However, at the present we are unable to travel to other parts of the solar system due to an accident that shut down the space travel program a long time ago. The entire idea was erased from all history books, and memories of people. Though some people have had relapse and have created space travel ideas from scratch. Maybe their brains weren't wiped entirely.
If you look back, you'll see that I have some good theories and other not so good ones, but I like them anyway because they're mine. :)
Today I'm going to theorise the way we came to living on planet Earth.
We, not as humans, but living creatures have evolved enough to already transport ourselves from one planet to the next. How so? We started out on Mercury but as the sun grew, Mercury got too hot. So we moved to Venus. It was a larger planet that allowed our population to grow. However, it could not sustain us due to the ever increasing size of the sun, getting closer and closer.
Next was Earth. Which is where we are now. However, at the present we are unable to travel to other parts of the solar system due to an accident that shut down the space travel program a long time ago. The entire idea was erased from all history books, and memories of people. Though some people have had relapse and have created space travel ideas from scratch. Maybe their brains weren't wiped entirely.
The space race wasn't about who gets to the moon first, but who could travel in space first. Now Richard Branson is working on the space travel thing for everyday people like you and me. Soon we will be able to travel to other parts of the galaxy, and maybe the solar system.
In the meantime the sun is growing bigger. It is getting hotter on Earth, not only because of global harming. Once the sun is close enough to start kill us, we will have to resurrect the galaxy quest and move on to the next planet. Which planet will it be? Mars of course. The idea that it has polar caps, and signs of water illustrate to me two things. One is that it could harbour life, and two.... it will. You see, once the sun gets close enough to Earth to heat it up enough for life to become unbearable and make us move to the next planet in line, by that stage Mars will have transformed itself due to the ideal proximity of the sun into a planet that miraculously become habitable.
What of the other planets?
Jupiter is a giant. And there's a reason why.
Overpopulation. Currently we are at that turning point on Earth where life is becoming unsustainable. Food is now mass produced, and we will eventually run out of land, and water. If it were not for the sun's appetite to grow and devour planets, we'd stay here, die, but those self sustaining would remain, unless their crops got stolen, which is highly likely, given the fickle nature of humans.
Jupiter is large because it is preparing itself for the advent of us coming over there to live. Once we arrive, the mass of the plant will allow humans to multiply and take over the planet. Keep in mind that at this point in time the planet is inhabitable but what's to say that it too cannot transform like Mars did once the sun reached the appropriate distance to provide a catalystic change in Jupiter that made it ideal for us. And what's to say that at this stage we still resemble our human form as we know it. After all, history shows us to be more ape-like when Earth was still new.
Jupiter allows us to grow as one living race. However, with all that population, something happens. It causes a big riot and at this stage we must move on to the next planet. Saturn, it's slightly smaller. But that's because the events that happened to Jupiter caused a severe decrease in population and we now no longer require a planet the size of Jupiter to support ourselves.
From then on, the planets decrease in size significantly, and that's because our form dies off, we start to mutate into another being. We can survive on smaller planets that have less to offer. Pluto gets put back on the list of planets in our solar system and we end up searching for other planets ofter Pluto because at this stage the sun is still drawing near.
The cycle never ends, until the sun turns to solid rock. Where we might decide that this is the end or at that stage we have discovered a comparable solar system which allows us to habit that environment, and off we go again doing what humans do best, taking over what isn't ours, calling it ours and eradicating the existing life wherever we please.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
What if? What if my brain exploded? Read below to see the aftermath
People procrastinate. We all do in one way, shape or form.
There's always "what if's?" Usually it's because of fear.
The "What if's" are usually bad. It's never "What if I enjoy this?" Oh my!
It's usually "What if I die"", "What if I lose?" and so on.
I'm guilty of it. But at this moment in my life, I am least affected by it. The "What if's" have gotten a bit more serious, but I have become more laid back.
Now I have thrown caution to the wind, while still keeping an eye on things so they don't orbit into chaos. But I'm letting whatever happens, happen.
You can only stop the water flow as high as the damn wall. Right now the water is starting to overflow the wall, and I'm enjoying the trickle, and can't wait for the torrent to break through.
I'm going to be busy. But I know it's going to be worth it.
Failure is an option. But success is where I'm heading. I know what I want, and what I don't. My what if's are more like "I can't wait". I have almost no fear, just a few nerves, which are okay. We're allowed to have butterflies in our stomach. We're only human.
There's always "what if's?" Usually it's because of fear.
The "What if's" are usually bad. It's never "What if I enjoy this?" Oh my!
It's usually "What if I die"", "What if I lose?" and so on.
I'm guilty of it. But at this moment in my life, I am least affected by it. The "What if's" have gotten a bit more serious, but I have become more laid back.
Now I have thrown caution to the wind, while still keeping an eye on things so they don't orbit into chaos. But I'm letting whatever happens, happen.
You can only stop the water flow as high as the damn wall. Right now the water is starting to overflow the wall, and I'm enjoying the trickle, and can't wait for the torrent to break through.
I'm going to be busy. But I know it's going to be worth it.
Failure is an option. But success is where I'm heading. I know what I want, and what I don't. My what if's are more like "I can't wait". I have almost no fear, just a few nerves, which are okay. We're allowed to have butterflies in our stomach. We're only human.
