Are you blue? Here’s some green
Lagging economy got you down? Certain impending doom and the world ending changing your outlook on life? Well, here is a pair of green tidbits that will fill you with a certain amount of... energy.
- Hulking rust-bucket off-shore oil drilling rigs sure are a nice way to deface our oceans but maybe one day we can make the experience much greener with an army of floating pumps. The units are currently in the planning stages.
- We've already got alternative energy solutions that takes open area and fills it with legions of power pumps. On land we call them wind turbines. Wind turbine energy, like many of these natural earth powered ideas, can be fickle, or merely trickle. (Does that leave us in a pickle?) A green energy startup has developed turbines that boosts efficiency to 30%. No big deal? Well it wasn't that long ago that the solar energy community was jumping up and down with a 0.1% jolt that brought their resource to 40.8% efficiency.
Read: Searaser device in uphill battle for clean energy
Read: New Wind Turbine Generator Ditches Mechanical Transmission, Ups Efficiency 50 Percent
Ponder This – Issue 2.0
November Birthdays: How many people can be born in one month in one family for goodness sake? So far in my family, on my Dad's side, there are 5 November birthdays. This includes Grandpa Ernie, born on the 23rd, my uncle Dan, also born on the 23rd, my brother, born on the 24th, and my dad, born on the 26th.
Relax, I know that's only four birthdays. I'm not great at it, but I do know some arithmetic (once it gets over six though, I'm up the creek). The fifth and final member of this illustrious group is my new second cousin Keira Adelle Riley, who was born this morning (the 19th) at 5:35 a.m.
She is a healthy 7 pound 8 ounce Wisconsin baby. I hope she's not lactose intolerant. But seriously, she makes five November birthdays, and this doesn't include my cousin Evan (Keira's father,) who just missed out on the November party by being born on December 4th. These are just the birthdays I know about. There could be wedlock babies out there with November birthdays, or twins separated at birth, who knows? It is beginning to appear February is a busy and important month in our family. (Heath: By saying "busy and important" I'm sure Jason is merely talking about his own birthday, which is celebrated around the world on February 2nd.)
The first four November babies are delightful people, and I'm sure Keira will be no different, and will be a pleasure to get to know, but this is just starting to become creepy!
What’s in a tagline?
20oz to geekdom has been The Heathernet's tagline since its inception. Now that the original design has disappeared from the face of the internet I thought the tagline was owed a post honoring its allegiance to sugary excess.
Celebrating the soda
Now we'll never forget how stupid I was when the day finally comes that the doctor tells me to stop with the soda pop.
Ponder This – Issue 1.0
Donovan McNabb: How can a Pro Bowl quarterback, who has played in 8 overtime games in his career, not know that if the game is still tied at the end of the first overtime, the game is over? On Sunday his Philadelphia Eagles tied the Cincinnati Bengals 13-13. After the game, McNabb was surprised that after the first overtime period, he was not allowed back onto the field to try and secure the win. This is ridiculous to me, and makes me wonder what is really in McNabb's Campbell's Chunky Soup. He also added that he wasn't sure what the league would do if a tie occurred in the playoffs, I guess he just wanted to confirm his idiocy.
Not only was McNabb in the league when the last tie occurred (Atlanta v. Pittsburgh in 2002, tied 34-34,) but he also was in the playoffs with two teams that went into double overtime to decide a game (Panthers beat the Rams 29-23 in two overtimes in 2003). The Eagles would go on to lose to the Panthers in the NFC championship game that year.
Hey Donovan, ties are all around you man, sometimes you even wear one, but these are around your neck, not after an overtime period, and I wouldn't want you to be confused. What the hell are you doing to yourself? This was a bad thing to be honest about, if you're not sure about the rules, just keep it to yourself, and nobody would ever know. Instead you look like the biggest fool in the NFL, and you're not even on the Lions! Even though this whole thing is very entertaining, it is also very depressing that an all-star quarterback has no idea about a simple rule.
Something worth missing House for
The new kid
Mom Ahnert just got a new iMac. Interesting sensation while helping set up the shiny sheen machine: The thing has a new Mac smell. I've always felt like tinkering with computers for me was what fiddling under the hood of a car was for others. But now I catch myself enjoying the new Mac smell? Do they make air fresheners for that?
And later tonight? I'll probably be really sad I don't have DVR.
New era, new voices
When I started The Heathernet it was a blog that was iconically personal. I mean, I've got the gall to throw my damn name into the title. As I've continued to study how to develop shareable content The Heathernet has become less of the title of my blog and more the parent production company of all my enterprises. As what The Heathernet title represents has changed, so has the blogging world to which it returns. I have been blown away by the power of the WordPress platform and the great lengths to which one can go to modify their personal empire.
The idea to me was simple. One of the greatest things I've created in my life are not my things but rather my close friendships. If The Heathernet wants to be a blog that covers everything then I'm going to have to reach out for some help. I'm really excited about this win-win.
Meet Jason: Bond is back, but in a different light
My name in the title still means something. I retain editorial control of The Heathernet and still believe this blog will have a defined voice and a cohesive world vision that represents me. Now it's just better.
Bond is back, but in a different light
On Saturday I went to see the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. Even if this movie starred Donnie Osmond as James Bond I still would have gone to see it, merely because how can you not see a movie entitled "Quantum of Solace"? Thankfully for all of us (except for the small minority of Donnie lovers,) Daniel Craig starred as James Bond. The guy is always bleeding and crashing into things, it's quite refreshing. The new Bond bares resemblance to the Jason Bourne character, a no-nonsense kick-ass spy. Am I allowed to say ass? (Heath: Yes.) But Craig's Bond is new, exciting, bold, and the man has got some gorgeous eyes.... uhhh... what? Bond is back with a new personality, and frankly, I'm all for it. The Bond empire needed a fresh start, Quantum of Solace is a first class ticket to awesome for Bond, and his fans.
J.J. Abrams proves you can teach an old franchise new tricks… we hope
I'm going to get in trouble for letting this post show the hour at which I remain awake, but I had to share this.
Today's PVP comic reveals the characters enjoying the new and incredibly awesome Star Trek trailer and getting in a fairly accurate shot at both Rick Berman and George Lucas in the process. We at The Heathernet, however, continue to have a no-wishing-of-death-upon-others policy.
Unless you are an evil space alien. Then we want the new James T. Kirk to punch you in the face. To death.
Carl Edwards races his car to its limits, fans forced to celebrate fifteenth place instead
There is no sport that drains the fun out of a championship like NASCAR. There still remains truth in the statement that it isn't over until the checkered flag waves, but entering this weekend Jimmie Johnson needed to finish merely 36th place or better to secure his third title in as many years. When the last race of the 2008 NASCAR season finished the car in 36th place was the Chevrolet of Joe Nemechek... three laps down. While Carl Edwards drove his 99 Ford on fuel vapors to a well-earned victory, Johnson was walking his car to a 15th place finish. Apparently that's how exciting NASCAR immortality is.
Now the cloud of ho-hum that has been hanging over America's motorsport grows even thicker as 2008's last hurrah can no longer hide the real news from the weekend. Read: Economic woes lurk as Johnson celebrates, weekend wrapup.
Maybe it's all Barack Obama's fault, but amongst the NASCAR gloom I feel hopeful about the hammer coming down on the asphalt ovals. Could the shake up make the 2009 NASCAR season, dare I say it, interesting?
Welcome back to The Heathernet
Hopefully, this will be the hardest post to make. I've taken a long break from blogging and it would be a major understatement to say that I miss it. I've spent a lot of time wondering how I would get back into the hobby and how I would make it an even better craft. I desired to go beyond the scope of a personal blog and pick a topic to really generate some readership.
Why would it be so important to generate a readership? Do I really have that much of an ego? Yeah. I guess I do. My personal experience means much more to me if I have you, amigos, to share in it. I've discovered that I enjoy entertaining myself so much that its my life's goal to make a living creating ways in which others can see the world I'm imagining.
But..
Am I library of baseball statistics from which one can predict hot stove trades? No. Do I have a level of prowess with video games that I can be turned to for answers when stuck deep in space fortress number five? Hardly. Do I have a new and novel approach to prime time television that warrants my opinion a closer look than any other? I dunno, you tell me.
To pick just one interest of mine to sharpen my focus and cleanly capture one particular slice of the internet pie would be to lie about who I am.
This is The Heathernet, we do everything here.
Heath’s Twitter
- Sports are stupid. They make me mad. And that's stupid. 4 hours ago
- Aaaaah, who am I? This is not what I do!! http://t.co/1G1wt9Rp 2 days ago
- Watching NOVA always reminds me of my dad. Half of what I know in this world was learned Tuesday nights at 9. 4 days ago
