with a fierce disposition like the beat of a drum. you get hurt more than others, but you have more fun.

~stephen kellogg and the sixers

We see them TONIGHT! I am listening to them rightthissecond. :)

so, here's something I learned in class yesterday. DO NOT top off your fuel tank when you gas up. or more specifically, why you shouldn't. I had never really thought about it before...but. here are my notes from class. and yes, I write in multiple colors. and by the way, that is paper made from sugar cane.



basically, the area of space above the liquid gas (the headspace) contains airborne hydrocarbons, i.e., gas fumes. so, when you fill up your tank, those guys get forced out, and that's rather unavoidable. even cali's vapor hood thingies on their nozzles don't capture it all. but see that little part at the top, where you put the nozzle in? well, if you're filling it up all the way to there, there's a problem. the gas can't escape properly, which is never good of course, but also? there's a much higher likelihood that you'll drip when you remove the nozzle, and basically that releases A LOT of the fumes into the air. fumes that cause cancer. and poison things. bad bad bad.

yesterday at rock climbing janice gave me these numbers. I'll be using them for my eco-friendly reviews. I like 'em! by the way, she rates EVERYTHING. I linked to her blog on my sidebar, but you can get to it from here as well.

rock climbing was fun, by the way, but I worked hard. and jorge and this guy richard, who told me his name was puddin' were really REALLY encouraging me to keep going on this one wall, and I wasn't so keen on the idea after my fifth try. when I was done I had to rest! By the way, I called him Sour Puddin' for the rest of the night. :) I was pleased that I tried the one that kidney punched me, and I enjoyed myself quite a bit!

and, I am SO excited about this chocolate. SO. if you don't know, I am not a huge sweets person. oh, I enjoy cookies and pumpkin pie and apple and cinnamon anything, don't get me wrong, but I find it very easy to pass up desserts, and I'd rather have fresh fruit most of the time! matt and I saw this at borders over labor day weekend and I couldn't resist. a chocolate bar AND my carbon emissions negated for a day? SWEET! (pun sooooo intended) We're eating it a couple of pieces at a time. And and and, it has little eco friendly tips all over the wrapper!

also, yesterday I picked out my paper topic for my air pollution class. I'll start by using the GREET model to compare emissions from different alternative vehicle technologies. Then I'll take the most promising ones and determine what would happen if in ___ year's time all of the US vehicle fleet were replaced with x, y or z. What problems would we have? What would we have to change or design or alter? What fuel sources would we need to have (or overcome). e.g., for plug in hybrids with biodiesel from microbes (which is my favorite idea for a car, thank you) we'll need the microbes, we'll need more power plants, and we'll need to evaluate the emissions--will we put too much of this or that in the air with those vehicles and just trade our current problems for new ones?

I think this will be verrrry interestink. I will keep you posted!