Archive for February, 2008

Algae biodiesel

Published
by
Chalupa
on February 7, 2008
in Cool and News
. 2 Comments

Never heard of it?  I hadn’t either until Kat started telling me about it the other day.  In the past decade I’ve been becoming more increasingly aware of social issues and the environment.  Both are things that are important to me.

I would hope that most of you know our source of oil isn’t unending.  I would hope most of you also know that a lot of emissions we put into the air are bad for a lot of things.  Just look at the rate of lung disease and asthma in large cities like LA.

Some people have been converting their vehicles to run on biodiesel.  This is diesel fuel created from plants.  Brazil kicked OPEC out a while back and is running everything on ethanol made from soybeans.  This sounds good, but to really work in the long run, biodiesel needs to be made from a crop that’s not already a viable source of food or being used for some other purpose.  In the US corn and soybeans have been used for this, but we already need corn and soybeans for so many other things.  Where else would high fructose corn syrup come from?

This is where Kat comes in.  She went to a seminar where a guy was talking about growing algae in abandoned mines to use for biodiesel.  One acre of corn or soybeans produces 100 gallons of biodiesel.  One acre of this algae can produce 3,500 gallons of biodiesel.  It’s not like we’re needing algae for to feed our livestock or anything.  Growing it underground also helps utilize abandoned spaces that aren’t being used for anything, probably already have power running to them, and can be regulated for light, water and temperature quite easily.  I hope this kind of technology takes off.  If you’re interested in reading some about it, here’s an article.  You can also just google ‘algae biodiesel’ and see what you find.

Lent Day 2

Published
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Chalupa
on February 7, 2008
in Faith, Lent 2008 and Lifting
. 0 Comments

So the Lent thing is going pretty well.  I already have 2 days of lifting and cardio under my belt.  I used to be a pretty hard-core lifting kind of person.  For a long time people would always start to work out with me and then quit saying I was pushing them too hard.  Honestly, I didn’t really push them to do anything, except for Crickit, they were just trying to do what I was doing.  I also used to be kinda strong and at times took pride in it.  Pride comes before the fall, right?  I’m not going to say bad things happened to me or anything.  I will say I’ve had a lot of asthma problems in the past two years though.  Problems that resulted from multiple factors.  Because of this I’ve gained some weight, can’t bench over 300 anymore and my arms aren’t so big that my hand can’t even begin to stretch across my biceps .  That’s ok though.

When I was in high school we were trying to really beef up all the time for football.  There really was a reason to try and get big as fast as possible.  We were getting pummeled by people.  In college I realized I needed to work more on stamina and toning because even though I could build up a lot of mass in 3 weeks, I lost it all if I took a 1 week break.  Eventually I had a routine where I would do 9 exercises + abs and cardio three days a week.  My sets ranged from 3×15 to 4×5.  This was also really helpful to my knees and shoulders with their chronic tendinitis due to football stuff.  There is no way I could even begin to do that kind of stuff anymore.  In fact, last night my calves started cramping up on me big time because my body’s not used to being pushed like in the past.

Now in my “old age” I’m just trying to be healthy.  I know my lungs aren’t invincible.  I know my cardiovascular health is more important.  I’m also focusing on some different things.  Right now I’m working less on big weights and more on lifting, pushing and pulling my own weight.  I’m focusing more on things like dips, situps, pushups, and chin-ups.  My main goal is to finally start doing pull-ups - those things Arnold Schwarzenegger declared I should be able to do in the 80s to achieve the Presidential Fitness Award.  I was never able to really do one on my own.  So starting this week I’ve been doing sets of five pathetic chin-ups in my quest for the ever elusive pull-up.  Hopefully it’ll be easier to attain then the elusive North American Yeti.

The Bible reading has been good too.  I’ve just been checking out and pondering the daily passages listed on my church’s Lent Blog.  Gives me something to think and ponder about.

The Lenten Season

Published
by
Chalupa
on February 5, 2008
in Faith and Lent 2008
. 0 Comments

Lent. It’s one of those things I never really paid attention to as a child. I remember Catholic friends not being able to eat meat and there would be copious amounts of fish integrated into the school lunches. There was also something about Ash Wednesday and people would show up with black stuff on their faces. This all had to do with the upcoming Easter holiday.

In the past couple years I’ve thought more about Lent and what it means. It’s something I’ve also tried to participate in to one degree or another. Usually people give things up like smoking, eating certain foods, swearing, watching TV, eating out, etc, etc. Many times I’ve perceived people giving up things that don’t mean that much to them. Is that really the purpose of Lent? As I understand it, Lent is a time to sorta get your priorities back in line; depriving yourself of something distracting in order to focus more on what you should be focusing. Maybe Reese’s cups and ice cream are a big distraction for some people…not so much for me.

Last year I decided I needed to give up anger. I wouldn’t say I’m constantly angry, it’s just easy for me to flare up some times about things that don’t really matter. People taking 5 min to decide what they want on their sandwich at Subway or drivers not performing to my standards don’t necessarily warrant an increase in blood pressure and certain words to leaving my mouth. That was something I could easily do without.

That worked out pretty well, but then afterwards I kinda forgot all about it. This year I though it might be a better use of my time to focus on something positive. I’m a bit of a programmer and think about most things logically. Often I come up with worst-case scenarios for just about everything in life when making decisions. I don’t need to always be focusing on the negative in everything. This year I’ve decided I need to do something positive during the season instead of finding something to stop.

My two ideas right now are reading my Bible everyday and trying to get some exercise five days/week. They are both things I used to be pretty good about, and need to get back into the habit. Luckily, my church has setup a Lent Blog with daily passages so I’m covered for idea #1. As far as the exercising goes, I’ve put on about 20 pounds in the past two years of intermittent asthma problems. Yeah, I have an excuse for not exercising throughout a lot of that, but there’s no reason I can’t get out and take a walk, ride the bike at the gym or hit the weights almost every day. Besides getting back into shape, being healthy is just good in general. It also puts me in a better mood and some of my clothes fit better. Bonuses all around.

The plan is to try and document the process this year. Lent is 40 days, but instead of being 1 1/3 months, it’s actually 2 months. Think of it more like 40 business days. It’s like when you order something online thinking it’ll be here on Monday and then realize that’s shipping in “2 business days,” not two actual days.

Pizza Hut’s new crust…

Published
by
Chalupa
on February 4, 2008
in Advice, Cheese and Liz
. 1 Comment

isn’t worth being called one. It’s being labeled as CRUNCHY! and CHEESY!, but it only really falls under the first category if you ask me.

Last week Liz and I ordered one. I always eat faster than her so I had 3 breadsticks and two slices down before she had gotten to the crust on her first piece. I asked her what she thought about it and her response was something like, “Parmesan? I think they accidentally use crap-esan.” That’s right folks it’s TERRIBLE. I love cheese. I eat it all the time. I’ve had several varieties of parmesan both grated and sliced. Pizza Hut’s new creation doesn’t taste like anything I’ve ever tasted. It even smells bad. If you’re into cheesy crust, please, for your own sake, stick with the stuffed crust.

Ambercrombie takes a hit

Published
by
Chalupa
on February 4, 2008
in Cool, Funny and News
. 0 Comments

I’ve always thought their ad campaigns were ridiculous and apparently some people that really care thought so too.  I find it hilarious and am also impressed that some people still care about decency.