Wednesday, August 31, 2005
$2.84/gallon
I've seen 2 new Harley V-rods recently. Very nice motorcycles and not a bad way to drop 25 grand. Definitely gets you noticed. And I would like to predict an increase in motorcycles sales in the next few years. Nothing big but when you can get 30-60 mpg, sometimes more, and still be faster than everything on the road, that's hard to argue with. If I was in the market for a vehicle, I would definitely take that 18 grand, buy a used Echo and a new bike, or a new Scion and a used bike. Hybrids are too expensive to realistically purchase for actually poor college students and the majority of lower to middle class people. Although I'm sure the middle classers could afford one if they saved their pennies.
And I'm sure some of you saw where some people in Cali were adding extra batteries to their Priuses? Prii? Prios? and were getting 250 miles to the gallon. Damn. And I'm sure biodiesel will get pumping pretty soon also. Biodiesel is basically refined vegetable oil and can burn in any diesel engine without modification. So if you're continually paying $80 to fill up your dually, consider investing in biodiesel. You have to spend some time and money, but once you're playing fuel chemist at home, your fuel cost drops to around an estimated $0.70/gallon. And you're reusing something that would just be thrown away.
I say we just stop mucking around and go ahead and make gas $4/gallon. It would suck for a year or two, but then car companies would finally start making smaller cars and more fuel efficient cars. And manual transmissions would come back because they get better gas mileage. So basically, our cars would turn into European cars which is quite alright with me. But what would really happen is fuel suppliers would get rich, the government would get rich and everyone else would be hosed and stuck paying craploads of money for gas. So I'm vetoing my gas bill.
Oh yeah, I'm teaching labs again. Just one section though. We were one TA short, or we needed someone to teach 3 labs. So bossman sent an email saying that I should think about teaching to save us some money, around 6 grand or 1/3 what I make, yay. So I went down to see what labs she needed taught. One is 105. That's the non-major chemistry class. Most everyone takes the real chemistry class, too many actually, and for everyone else there is 105. They learn about what the numbers mean on plastic containers, fat content in food, how batteries work, just a general broad overview of chemistry with some "real life" chemistry thrown in. But the reason I like it are NO LAB REPORTS! Generally if you're teaching 3 labs of 101 or 102, then you have at least 60 students, all of which turn in a lab report, from 3-8 pages long, at the exact same time. And you're expected to read each one, write comments, and grade them. And they turn in 3 lab reports during the semester. And we only meet around 12 times, maybe less. But in 105, we have "portfolios" which I still don't really know what they are. They're supposed to have a list of 10 questions and show how they answered the question through one of their labs. Very basic stuff. And it's a chance to get to meet some people from different departments. Some I remember from 2 years ago, the last time I taught a lab, were graphics communications, agricultural education, and a few others, so basically anything not engineering or science related. And they're usually pretty cool, which helps.
The title is what gas was at the BP this morning. The Kangaroo, down the street, (or The Roo as the cool kids say) had it for $2.70. But that's still just a hop, skip or a jump away from $3/gallon.
I'm assuming that this spike is because of ol' Katrina, but I'm not bitching because
a)I rode public transportation into school this morning.
b)My house is not underwater.
c)I'm not dead.
So to everyone in the danger zone, be safe, don't loot and help each other out.
Yeesh, it's hard to follow up that with something that doesn't sound completely meaningless.
I probably should've put that at the bottom. In fact, I will *POOF*
And I'm sure some of you saw where some people in Cali were adding extra batteries to their Priuses? Prii? Prios? and were getting 250 miles to the gallon. Damn. And I'm sure biodiesel will get pumping pretty soon also. Biodiesel is basically refined vegetable oil and can burn in any diesel engine without modification. So if you're continually paying $80 to fill up your dually, consider investing in biodiesel. You have to spend some time and money, but once you're playing fuel chemist at home, your fuel cost drops to around an estimated $0.70/gallon. And you're reusing something that would just be thrown away.
I say we just stop mucking around and go ahead and make gas $4/gallon. It would suck for a year or two, but then car companies would finally start making smaller cars and more fuel efficient cars. And manual transmissions would come back because they get better gas mileage. So basically, our cars would turn into European cars which is quite alright with me. But what would really happen is fuel suppliers would get rich, the government would get rich and everyone else would be hosed and stuck paying craploads of money for gas. So I'm vetoing my gas bill.
Oh yeah, I'm teaching labs again. Just one section though. We were one TA short, or we needed someone to teach 3 labs. So bossman sent an email saying that I should think about teaching to save us some money, around 6 grand or 1/3 what I make, yay. So I went down to see what labs she needed taught. One is 105. That's the non-major chemistry class. Most everyone takes the real chemistry class, too many actually, and for everyone else there is 105. They learn about what the numbers mean on plastic containers, fat content in food, how batteries work, just a general broad overview of chemistry with some "real life" chemistry thrown in. But the reason I like it are NO LAB REPORTS! Generally if you're teaching 3 labs of 101 or 102, then you have at least 60 students, all of which turn in a lab report, from 3-8 pages long, at the exact same time. And you're expected to read each one, write comments, and grade them. And they turn in 3 lab reports during the semester. And we only meet around 12 times, maybe less. But in 105, we have "portfolios" which I still don't really know what they are. They're supposed to have a list of 10 questions and show how they answered the question through one of their labs. Very basic stuff. And it's a chance to get to meet some people from different departments. Some I remember from 2 years ago, the last time I taught a lab, were graphics communications, agricultural education, and a few others, so basically anything not engineering or science related. And they're usually pretty cool, which helps.
The title is what gas was at the BP this morning. The Kangaroo, down the street, (or The Roo as the cool kids say) had it for $2.70. But that's still just a hop, skip or a jump away from $3/gallon.
I'm assuming that this spike is because of ol' Katrina, but I'm not bitching because
a)I rode public transportation into school this morning.
b)My house is not underwater.
c)I'm not dead.
So to everyone in the danger zone, be safe, don't loot and help each other out.
Yeesh, it's hard to follow up that with something that doesn't sound completely meaningless.
I probably should've put that at the bottom. In fact, I will *POOF*
# posted by Seth @ 7:03 AM 
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