Jamey Graduates

This is Jamey (center) with his Kindergarten teacher Ms. Zumstein (left) and Ms. Baher.

Arthur with Diploma

Arthur graduated from pre-school and was happy to do it.

Arthur vs. Pseudotsuga

I don't know why the expression is "fell out of a tree", as in "Arthur fell out of a tree", when the sucky part about falling when you are in a tree is that you have to fall through the tree.
This picture documents an event that transpired over a week ago. Arthur is perfrectly fine now and no limbs were broken (ba dum bum).

Biodiesel in Washington State

This is good news for Washingtonians. In the past, all of our biodiesel had to be imported from Iowa, now we'll have a state-of-the-art facility for making it right here.

The nation's largest refinery of biodiesel fuel is rapidly approaching completion at the Port of Grays Harbor in Southwest Washington — and not a moment too soon.

http://www.acppubs.com/article/CA6449212.html

I've begun to hear concern over the inevitable competition between oil crops and food crops, or oil crops and native forests (and all their threatened species), which concerns me. Obviously we'll have some intricate problems in the future. The first maxim of living "green" is to use less and that will undoubtedly apply in a renewable-energy based future.

Before we consider the serious problems that will come about from the emergence of biofuels as a world economic force, let's think of some possible benefits.

• Farmers of the world have a potentially lucrative cash crop, that doesn't have to be food-grade.
• Traditionally poor nations that happen to be located in the tropics may find that wealth is in their future.
• Greasy foods may become scarce; a boon to most Americans (despite their cravings)

The downside is that the price of food will likely rise; twinkies and french fries will become luxury items. Many species may be threatened with extinction due to increased pressure to farm in tropical forestlands.

For the time-being, though it seems well worth encouraging biofuel science and production in order to reduce some of the "Road Warrior"-style showdowns that will inevitably occur in a post-petroleum world.

Slug Bug

The kids have been thrilled about our new car (as have Heidi and I). We have dubbed it SB, which is short for Silver Bullet or Slug Bug. They now play the slug bug game (without the slugging) every time we go for a drive and are tickled pink that they get the first one free.

As for me, I'm happy that it is getting 42.5 mpg. I need to take it in and have the turbo looked at though, because it frequently loses oomph when the RPMs are between 2500 and 2900.

In my prior post, the 35 mpg fleet average remark is to do with an energy bill that Senate is working on currently. The car companies are wailing as usual that is just isn't possible. However, I think there are plenty of decent ideas already in existence that could make that goal achievable. The only thing that would be hard to do is maintain the status quo, which we've already established needs to change.

NOTE: Updated link to wikipedia's Scientific Opinion on Climate Change page. 6/18/2007

In the future...

We will all be driving this....http://www.zapworld.com/ZAPWorld.aspx?id=390 or something like it. Then 35 mpg fleet average wouldn't be so tough.

More Charles Johnson

I just finished Charles Johnson's Soulcatcher, which is, in the words of Amazon.com...12 original short stories based on the PBS series Africans in America: America's Journey through Slavery

The guy is talented. And it makes me want to learn more about some of the back-stories, lesser-known motivations and facts about historical figures of the early 1800's US. Johnson provides perspectives you just don't get often. He points out in his preface that authentic information about the contributions of African Americans thorughout history is exceedingly hard to find in our education system. I'm definitely going to pursue more information about Frederick Douglas and Phillis Wheatley, not to mention some of the other characters and events he uses in his short fiction. He sprinkles just enough factual information to pique the curiousity; make you want to know what really happened.

I also recently finished Sherman Alexie's latest novel, which was good.

If anyone is interested in these books, I'm happy to send them along to someone who would enjoy reading them.

The Farmer Song

Is that the real title of the song? I don't know. It is perhaps an odd turn of events that the song that I know best by heart, I don't even know the title of.

Odder still, the fact that as President of the local Grange chapter I found myself crooning the audience with that song on the occasion of that chapter's 80th Anniversary, and to a surprising level of approval. If only they'd heard it in three parts!

Being solo, I compensated for the lack of texture by miming the story a bit, which I think helped sell it.

Several of the people had heard the song, usually long ago, and were happy to hear it again.

Now I've become much more curious about the origin of the song. So, if any of the readership cares to share the song's history at least within the family, I'd love to hear it.

Hard Drive Failure

Waaaah, whaa haahaaaaa!! My hard drive is ruined. Some recent photos, music, passwords improvements to my BINGO SOFTWARE!!!

Gone.

Like last years corn.

I even took it into a computer shop where they tried three separate methods of recovering the data; unsuccessfully.

What I have learned is that RAID configurations are worth it. Backups are still crucial, and trusting my blog and e-mail to Google has been among my happiest decisions of late.

There now. Lesson learned. Tears drying, life proceeding.