Walking on Sunshine

With Spring just around the corner, it's time to start looking forward to the warmth and sunshine that comes with it. It's also the perfect time to start thinking about solar energy (assuming you're a big nerd with nothing better to do with the lovely weather). The sun has been producing thousands of bagillavolts of energy for anywhere from a few thousand to a few billion years ago (depending on religious preference), and it is easily the largest source of energy in our solar system. The energy that it produces releases no harmful byproducts into Earth's atmosphere, and according to astrologists, the Sun will expand until it engulfs our planet in a fiery belch long before it will run out of energy, so it's easy to see why harnessing solar energy for our own ends is a good decision.

Solar energy can be used for all sorts of things: heating water and homes, cooking, providing energy for all kinds of electrical devices, powering homes and businesses, and, of course, tanning. In order to heat homes, swimming pools, buildings, water, and other things, a process is used called "Solar Thermal Heating," which can be either passive (in which no mechanical equipment is needed, like a greenhouse) or active (which requires a solar energy collector and some circulatory device). Some power plants even use a form of active solar thermal heating to create steam to run a generator, rather than using coal to run the plant.

Perhaps the simplest use of solar power is found in the solar grill. A solar grill is a simple parabolic reflector that focuses solar energy at a central point, where enough energy comes together to make it possible to cook food like you would on a regular grill. These are quite easy to make and very cool to use.

Solar energy can also be harnessed as electrical energy using photovoltaic cells. Depending on the size and number of cells used, this technology can power anything from a handheld calculator or watch to an entire house, office, or even a power plant.

The great thing about solar power is that it is 100% clean and very abundant. Unfortunately, solar power is not a panacea power source; its main downfalls are clouds and the cost of the equipment necessary to harness it. But all in all, the use of solar energy as a source of green energy is a pretty viable alternative to fossil fuels and traditional power sources.

Grad School

If memory serves correctly, we're all poised to talk about graduate school this morning in seminar. And it's about time, too. I was starting to get a little freaked out not knowing what I'm going to be doing four years from now. I talked my old psychology professor just a few days ago about this very subject (since I'm majoring in psychology)just to see what he had to say. In the field of psychology, like the field of medicine, it is extremely important to go to grad school if you would like to be employed someday. Now, money isn't everything to me, but I would like to be employed somewhere someday. Having a job is good.

Anyway, I'm looking at pursuing a PhD in psychology and eventually going into clinical psychology to treat patients with all types of psychological disorders with therapy. Apparently, if I do that, I won't be able to prescribe medicine, so please nobody ask me to prescribe weed or tabs to you because I won't be able to do it. That's about all I know for now. If you're nice, I might provide an update after class today when we learn some more stuff about big kid school.

Joaquin

For those of you who didn't see Joaquin Phoenix's appearance on the Late Show the other day, I highly recommend that you check it out. No one really seems to be for sure what happened, and although I'm not generally into following the lives of celebrities, I think it was absolutely priceless what he did. It must have been some fantastic acting or some fantastic PR campaign or possibly some fantastic mushrooms. Who knows? I love the way David Letterman handles the situation. He gives him the "I'm sorry you couldn't be here tonight," line that just about made me pee in my pants. Whatever the case, Joaquin, I support you in your rap career and I hope that you don't regret what you did on the Late Show when you come down off of whatever that was in a few days.

Vamlumtime

Oh, the Valentine's season! It's a wonderful time when love is in the air and goodwill is felt by all men... except for those who fail to get their special someones Valentine's gifts.

True life story: after I woke up at 3:30 in the afternoon on Valentine's day, I set out on a quest to find daisies for my special someone. I didn't have a whole lot of places to choose from since I was out of town, but I did the reasonable thing and started my quest by hitting up the local Wal-mart. No dice. They had some daisies there, but they looked pretty shoddy and were all smooshed together like floral sardines. So I went up the street to Aldi, which apparently is a great place to find flowers. There, next to the checkout line, I found dozens of bouquets of assorted flowers; each arrangement was marked down to $1.99. Heck yes. I found myself internally laughing at all of the lame boyfriends who were getting their last-minute, cheap-skate, convenience store flowers for their ladies, but then I realized that I was, in fact, doing exactly that.

I took my prize petals and headed on my merry way, stopping at the Taco Bell with the sign that read, "Fine Dine with your Valentine," because nothing says romance like a burrito supreme. After grabbing a bite to eat and a plastic cup to serve as a vase, I went back to a friend's house to arrange my buds. I grabbed the fake roses that I had bought a few days earlier - the cheesiest I could find - with the words, "I love you," embossed on the petals, and set out to arranging them into a single bouquet: trimming, tying, and loving my little flowers to death, being careful to preserve the $4.99 price tag from my fake roses.

It turned out to be quite a nice little bouquet, with a price tag of under ten dollars. And you know what? She loved it. Because what people care about is not what you have the means or initiative to buy them, but the fact that you know what they like and you take the time to deliver it to them in a personal way. Happy Valentine's day... one day late.

Fire!

So the other day, I was pondering the economic crisis, and I was reminded of an interesting question that has been cooking in the back of my mind since sometime last year. What state would our economy be in right now if a year ago, no one would have come on the television freaking out about an economic downturn like it was the end of the world? Now, I'm not trying to say that there was no economic crisis before this happened; I understand that the threat was very real. There was a very legitimate cause for concern in the mortgage crises all over the country and the questionable lending practices that have been going on for the last ten or twenty years. However, I really think that the worst possible thing that we could have done about it was leak that little tidbit to the press, however dishonest that may have been. Once the first hint that we had a crisis on our hands hit the airwaves, people began to do what people do best: panic and act like dumb animals, on a huge scale.

Now we have sunk into an economic rut that pulls us down farther every time we try to get ourselves. Every time the market begins to rebound, we get some quarterly report from some company that no one buys anything from anyway that might be a little down and everyone screams and howls about how the market is going down the toilet. It's disgusting.

Here's something that my dad told me that I'll never forget: "The only recession that matters is when you lose your job." Until that happens, we need to ignore all of the numbers and figures that come across the newsdesk and keep supporting the economy with the buying power that we still have.

And to the thousands who have recently found themselves unemployed, you have my deepest sympathies. Feel free to scream and howl about the economy all you want, but know that at the end of the day, all the screaming and howling in the world isn't going to get your job back. The way to save this economy lies not in news reports, government bailouts, or tax cuts. We need to change the way that we live our lives at a universally personal level. We need to change our spending habits, learn how to balance our finances, learn to live within our means, and get away from this "Me Generation" attitude.

Advocacy Essay

A Memorandum

Dear Mr. President,

As you already know, the current status of the economy of our beloved motherland is quite desperate. I’m sure that in your short tenure as president and the days leading up to your inauguration, all sorts of ideas for repairing the economy have flown across your desk, and I have faith that you are taking every necessary measure to salvage our scuttled economy, but I ask that you allow me to present one more idea that I believe will be go down as one of the strongest actions taken to revive the economy and keep our country marching into the future: reinstate the Civilian Conservation Corps, and other organizations like it. Before we look at what the CCC could do for our economy today, let’s look at the history of the organization.

In the year 1933, the United States was in the middle of the greatest domestic threat it had ever faced: the Great Depression. Banks were dropping like flies, millions were unemployed, the stock market had crashed and wasn’t recovering, America was desperate, and a new president had just been elected with high hopes that he could rescue the nation. Sound familiar? President Franklin Delano Roosevelt acted swiftly to put a new idea into action: the Civilian Conservation Corps. As Roosevelt looked at the country that he had been handed, he saw the millions of young men who were unemployed and looking for work, and the millions of acres of United States soil that needed conservation or development as two great wasted resources. In the CCC, Roosevelt found a way to put both resources to work for their country. He enlisted thousands of young men to join up, organized them into work camps, and put them to work on projects that our country is still reaping the benefits of over seventy years later. The CCC planted trees, built roads, hung power lines, constructed fire towers, and worked to conserve the environment. Each man was paid good wages, and given money to send home, which helped not only the workers and their families, but also the local economies. The workers were taught marketable skills and work ethic, as well as educated in the camps during non-work hours. America saw an entire generation of people that were pulled up from despair by the programs and work of the CCC.

Now let’s look at today. Just like the thirties, our economy is in a bad way. I think you’re probably pretty familiar with the economic similarities of our two times. Also like the Depression era, we are facing the wasting of two great resources: our young people and our environment. I humbly suggest taking a page out of Roosevelt’s book and starting a program similar to Roosevelt’s CCC. The benefits of such a program could be as good as or better than the results that Roosevelt saw during his presidency. It would give young men and women a solid employment opportunity, teach them valuable life skills, utilize our great resources, and get some work done that will profit our country for years to come.

It’s no secret that our country’s unemployment rate is high and rising. The most immediate effect of reinstating the CCC would be immediate employment of young men and women in our country. Nothing could be better for our economy than employing people, and giving them a living wage to reinvest in the economy. The original CCC workers were paid $30 a month, with $25 going back home to their families, jump-starting the economies at home and in the camps, and giving the workers the means to make a way in the world. Quite obviously, the wages would need to be readjusted in a reinstated CCC, since $30 isn’t exactly a living wage these days. I understand that paying wages would be pretty expensive, but I suggest that direct employment would be a superior alternative to billions of dollars worth of company bailouts. With a direct employment program, we find a synthesis of the “give a man a fish,” and the “teach a man to fish” philosophies. This style of program would not only give the workers involved and their families the immediate means to squeak by for another day, but also give them the life skills and job experience required to prosper for an entire lifetime.

One of the most important qualities of the original CCC was that it took a large brood of city-slickers and taught them the work ethic and labor skills that they needed to continue to be productive members of society long after their tenures with the CCC had expired. This gave our country an entire generation of hardworking laborers to form the working-class, backbone of the American labor system. In addition to vocational training, the CCC also provided after-work education to the laborers. In this day and age, a good education is all but required to get most jobs, and unfortunately, many of our young people don’t have the educational opportunities that they need. A revived CCC would offer them not only the vocational training required to do their immediate jobs, but also the education needed to succeed in life and put the United States back on the production track to keep its seat as the world’s leading industrial nation.

Finally, the work of the CCC could be extremely beneficial to our country. If administrated correctly and creatively, the whole operation could easily pay for itself. It’s not inconceivable that it could even become a source of revenue for the United States (of course, the mission of the CCC would have to be retooled from being conservation-driven to profit-driven). A few possible projects for the New Conservation Corps: build offshore and onshore oil-mining operations, invest man-hours in alternative and green energy, restore our nation’s forests, reclaim lands ravaged by bad mining and farming operations, clear swamp land, irrigate fields, build and fix roadways, run power lines, bring disaster relief, and renovate areas of urban decay. Just as the original CCC had done, the New Conservation Corps, could complete projects that will remain and be remembered for years to come.

Reinstating the Civilian Conservation Corps would be one of the best measures that we could possibly take to revive our struggling economy. History shows that the CCC is a popular and effective program that benefits workers, families, and the economy. It is my less-than-expert recommendation that you make the New Conservation Corps one of your first initiatives as new president.

Works Cited

"Brief History." Civilian Conservation Corps Legacy Home Page. 02 Feb. 2009 .