Home Improvements
So...the work inside our house (repairing the ceiling in my room and the ceiling/wall in the bathroom) was finished on Tuesday. And I got a real bed on Sunday! So I was able to move into my room and off the couch (much to Sarah's delight).
In the process of cleaning the house (for the upcoming attempt to sell it), Katie our landlord removed the carpets that had been covering the hard wood floor in our living room and discovered...a rather large supply of sand. Here's her vacuuming it up.
Sarah's vote is that there was a beach party here and someone didn't vacuum very well...
This week has actually been pretty busy and thus I ended up slacking on entries - thus proving that people only write when they have nothing to write about.
On Tuesday, I went to about 3 hours of the "Eighth Annual Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Expo, Forum and Ice Cream Social". The ice cream was Hagen Daz ice cream bars and it was served by a bunch of grade school-age kids dressed in military fatigues - very cute. ERT and Solar Light for Africa (which two ERTers are involved in) had a combined table at the expo. Lots of interesting stuff. There were two panel discussions in the morning:
“What is the Role of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in National Security?”
and
“Is the Energy Bill Fair to Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy?”
The panel for the Energy Bill discussion was generally pretty lenant until the last panelist...he was...disappointed to say the least.
The National Security discussion was interesting and made more so by a discussion that I had afterwards with the President of the National Defense Council Foundation. He really really really doesn't like environmentalists, in fact at one point during our conversation he asked "have I insulted you enough?" So yah, not particularly tactful, but did present an interesting perspective on his version of environmentalism. His gripe with leftist environmentalists promoting renewable energy is that they're opposed to things like drilling in ANWR and thus are only willing to explore some of the options for making the US energy independent - instead of his view which is more that everything from renewables to drilling should be done. Anyhow, an interesting perspective.
I cut out of the Expo early and went to a presentation on "Energy 2050: The Future of Renewable Energy" given by Dr. Dan Arvizu, the Director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Dr. Arvizu's presentation was pretty interesting and the Q&A session was also pretty good. However, it was made a little odd by the unexpected appearance of Representative Roscoe G. Bartlett (R-MD), a member of the House Science Committee, who is generally obsessed with "peak oil". "unexpected" because he wasn't on the docket of speakers; he just sort of called ahead and came by...and then interjected comments about peak oil as a response to every question the audience directed towards Dr. Arvizu...the moderator looked like he wanted to kill the fellow...I think the audience was just entertained. He did say some interesting things, but most of it tended to cycle around peak oil even when the questions didn't...
As a random aside, roughly 3/4 of the congressmen that've heard speak on renewable energy/climate issues were Republican...very surprising...and it makes me wonder what the heck is up with the rest of their colleagues...
Yesterday, Sarah, Deanna from ERT, and I went to a briefing by Representative Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-New York), the chairman of the House Science Committee, at Resources for the Future. I'd definitely rank him in the upper eschelons of congressmen that I've heard since getting into DC. Though a loyal Republican, he's a staunch environmental advocate and it was interesting to here him talk about the Political State of the Environment. He opened his talk, to which he was 40 minutes late, by explaining that he had just cast a vote on a motion to cut a large chunk of money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (needless to say this went over with the crowd). So yah, high marks for a good ol' centrist Republican from the Northeast.
Oh and if anyone wants to read McCain's speech on climate issues that I heard during my first week...I stumbled upon it today.
Barak Obama's well on his way (speech-making-wise) if he has grand aspirations, this Commencement Address at Knox College is pure gold.
I spent a bunch of the last several evenings reading backlogged New Republic issues. I heard about this International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (aka democracy creation without the bloodshed) - it sounds really cool.
Also finished Bobos in Paradise by David Brooks, so now it's on to Red Mars.
ERT work is going pretty good. I ended up pulling a 9 hour day (yes Kim, I know that's nothing) b/c I was too busy working to notice what time it was...I've noticed that happens a lot near the end of the day...
Anyhow, Mike Foss and I are doing some World of Warcrafting this evening, so I'll call it a night.
In the process of cleaning the house (for the upcoming attempt to sell it), Katie our landlord removed the carpets that had been covering the hard wood floor in our living room and discovered...a rather large supply of sand. Here's her vacuuming it up.
Sarah's vote is that there was a beach party here and someone didn't vacuum very well...
This week has actually been pretty busy and thus I ended up slacking on entries - thus proving that people only write when they have nothing to write about.
On Tuesday, I went to about 3 hours of the "Eighth Annual Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Expo, Forum and Ice Cream Social". The ice cream was Hagen Daz ice cream bars and it was served by a bunch of grade school-age kids dressed in military fatigues - very cute. ERT and Solar Light for Africa (which two ERTers are involved in) had a combined table at the expo. Lots of interesting stuff. There were two panel discussions in the morning:
“What is the Role of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in National Security?”
and
“Is the Energy Bill Fair to Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy?”
The panel for the Energy Bill discussion was generally pretty lenant until the last panelist...he was...disappointed to say the least.
The National Security discussion was interesting and made more so by a discussion that I had afterwards with the President of the National Defense Council Foundation. He really really really doesn't like environmentalists, in fact at one point during our conversation he asked "have I insulted you enough?" So yah, not particularly tactful, but did present an interesting perspective on his version of environmentalism. His gripe with leftist environmentalists promoting renewable energy is that they're opposed to things like drilling in ANWR and thus are only willing to explore some of the options for making the US energy independent - instead of his view which is more that everything from renewables to drilling should be done. Anyhow, an interesting perspective.
I cut out of the Expo early and went to a presentation on "Energy 2050: The Future of Renewable Energy" given by Dr. Dan Arvizu, the Director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Dr. Arvizu's presentation was pretty interesting and the Q&A session was also pretty good. However, it was made a little odd by the unexpected appearance of Representative Roscoe G. Bartlett (R-MD), a member of the House Science Committee, who is generally obsessed with "peak oil". "unexpected" because he wasn't on the docket of speakers; he just sort of called ahead and came by...and then interjected comments about peak oil as a response to every question the audience directed towards Dr. Arvizu...the moderator looked like he wanted to kill the fellow...I think the audience was just entertained. He did say some interesting things, but most of it tended to cycle around peak oil even when the questions didn't...
As a random aside, roughly 3/4 of the congressmen that've heard speak on renewable energy/climate issues were Republican...very surprising...and it makes me wonder what the heck is up with the rest of their colleagues...
Yesterday, Sarah, Deanna from ERT, and I went to a briefing by Representative Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-New York), the chairman of the House Science Committee, at Resources for the Future. I'd definitely rank him in the upper eschelons of congressmen that I've heard since getting into DC. Though a loyal Republican, he's a staunch environmental advocate and it was interesting to here him talk about the Political State of the Environment. He opened his talk, to which he was 40 minutes late, by explaining that he had just cast a vote on a motion to cut a large chunk of money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (needless to say this went over with the crowd). So yah, high marks for a good ol' centrist Republican from the Northeast.
Oh and if anyone wants to read McCain's speech on climate issues that I heard during my first week...I stumbled upon it today.
Barak Obama's well on his way (speech-making-wise) if he has grand aspirations, this Commencement Address at Knox College is pure gold.
I spent a bunch of the last several evenings reading backlogged New Republic issues. I heard about this International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (aka democracy creation without the bloodshed) - it sounds really cool.
Also finished Bobos in Paradise by David Brooks, so now it's on to Red Mars.
ERT work is going pretty good. I ended up pulling a 9 hour day (yes Kim, I know that's nothing) b/c I was too busy working to notice what time it was...I've noticed that happens a lot near the end of the day...
Anyhow, Mike Foss and I are doing some World of Warcrafting this evening, so I'll call it a night.
posted by Will at 7:43 AM
1 Comments:
Thanks from Mom for bringing the blog up to date.
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