Random/Focused

It is a brief time between getting things done today that I can come on here and blog again. Last night I meant to, but my thoughts were a little out of focus. It would have been late, about 2 in the morn, so maybe those random thoughts were better left till today.

As I was eating lunch yesterday a thought came upon me. What exactly happens to the food we eat, as we digest it? I mean I know that the process starts as soon as we bite into our food. Our saliva in our mouths start the break down process being slightly acidic. Then as the food gets to our stomach the acids there start to break the food down into its base elements. I forget some things here but I am sure a really important part of this is amino acids, the building blocks of us right? The conversation did not go on too long, as it was lunch. I was hungry and the roomie did not feel like having this conversation.

We hung out with a friend and played disc golf for a few hours. Afterward we just went to our friends house, fixed some good food and watched a few movies. All during this a few random thoughts kept popping up in my head. How are we like the food that we eat, in relation to everything that is bigger than us? I mean there are forces around us that eat away at us, shaping us into something we are not currently. In the end we are broken down into something that is usable to the world around us.

That being said, another thought popped up that I had argued with friends and coworkers on numerous occasions. The argument was based on energy. We can harvest it in numerous ways, but do we know how each affects the world around us? I do not mean to argue about fossil fuels and their baggage, but more to the point the things we take for granted or do not care to think about. As an engineer, and just as a person, I learned long ago that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. I learned that energy cannot be gained or lost. We despise burning fossil fuels for the damage they do to the environment, yet we do not fully understand the smaller energy harvesting programs.

Traveling across west Texas months ago we ran across hundreds if not thousands of tall wind turbines. You might think that getting power from the wind is no big deal, but you have to remove yourself from your world to see a bigger picture. Imagine being on the space shuttle orbiting the Earth. You can look down and see the Earth with all it's land and water, and even the clouds. If you watch it for awhile you can even see a pattern in how the clouds move across the land. All that movement is powered by the energy of the wind. I know it is a small factor as of this moment in time, but we are taking some of that power away from the winds with every windmill that gets erected. You may say that it s not affecting anything putting up one windmill, and you would probably be right. But stop and think about it. That argument is what they said initially about the gases released in the air from burning coal to fuel our need for energy. What will they say in years to come when the jet stream shifts out of its normal path? You might not think about it, but that path of warm air matters.

In a side note, if you can avoid it do not go see Watchmen. It is a passable movie, but in the three hours I was watching it, I could come up with a better storyline. It is good to see DC come up with a superhero movie, but they could have done better. Maybe they can get the Smallville cast to make a movie. It would do better.

My toenail is about to fall off and it worries me. I think maybe it came about from playing soccer, but who knows. It doesn't hurt, just looks weird.

Regards,

Nate