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January 31, 2006
Order me a Platter of Chaos
I have decided that January is a time for electronic housecleaning and renewal. This month I cleaned out and sorted my email inbox, a horrendous task that I had been putting off for too long. I also went through my 50-some gigabyte collection of music and sounds, removed bad files and duplicates, and put the files in a more-or-less logical order. That task was enjoyable, but full of distractions. For example, where would I file this track..?
And finally some fruits of my labors that you can directly enjoy: I have updated my portal page a little bit, and also added some items to my portfolio page.
See you in February.
January 19, 2006
Listen to This
I added a new mix to my soundz page; a 2-hour long ambient/downtempo mix that I recorded live at a lovely housewarming party. Also, I added a few new fractal tunes. Check them out!
January 2, 2006
Sousaphone Obtained
Santa Claus has delivered; I now own a fine used sousaphone! It's a 1950's Martin, made in Elkhart, IN. This horn is all brass, has a silver finish with a gold inner bell, it's built like a tank, and LOUD. This will be perfect for my needs. The only problem is that it's in the key of Eb, and I am used to playing in the key of Bb. This means that I am going to have to learn new fingerings for the notes, basically requiring me to re-learn the songs that I have been playing. But I think this horn is going to be fun to play and I am excited to start using it.
And also, Happy New Year! My new year's partying was fairly minimal this year; instead I stayed at my friend Amie's cabin with the Bremerton Ski Cruisers at Stevens Pass for a weekend of skiing and snowshoeing. This was a great way to start off 2006. The snow is very nice for skiing right now, and pretty decent for snowshoeing. If you love skiing, get out now while it lasts.
December 28, 2005
Burn your Veggies
Speaking of biodiesel, I now use the vegetable-based fuel to heat my basement. I recently bought a 'torpedo' style portable heater
for just under $200 at Lowes, the Reddy Heater 55,000 BTU model. This heater is really designed to run
on Kerosene or #2 heating oil. But after a little research I discovered that basically any heater that is designed to burn kerosene or #2 oil will do fine with biodiesel, as long as the heater doesn't use a wick and uses a glow-plug style igniter. (electric spark igniters don't work so well). The only trouble I have is that sometimes when it is cold, it takes a few tries to get it started.
My basement smells like burnt donuts when this thing starts up, but once it warms up, it operates very cleanly and puts out a lot of heat. I wouldn't recommend using such a contraption for a living space, but it does a nice job of making my basement semi-habitable in the winter, while supplementing the small natural gas heater that is the only other source of heat in my house.
I get my biodiesel at one of these two places that feature 24-hour cardlock pumps serving B99:
December 23, 2005
Farm Subsidies, Global Warming, The Artic, and the WTO
If you have been following the news, you may have read reports about some recent gatherings of global poobahs, including the WTO conference in Hong Kong and the Global Climate Change conference in Montreal, a.k.a. Kyoto II. In Hong Kong, the United States has been lambasted by developing countries for its program of farm subsidies. The subsidies, in effect, pay farmers to not grow crops, in order to stabilize market prices and make sure that farming remains profitable. This upsets the free market and makes farmers in other countries unable to compete. The United States has pledged to start moving away from these subsidies.
In Montreal, the United States' participation has been pathetic. Our delegate basically walked out of the conference after stating that the U.S. supports voluntary measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (i.e. they won't support mandated restrictions, or any other measure that would actually address the problem.) This is a big slap in the face to a world that has to deal with a big problem that we, the U.S. are 24% responsible for.
I think we are overlooking a rather elegant solution to all of these issues. Rather than subsidizing farmers not to grow crops, why not pay them to grow biodiesel crops instead? Burning biodiesel does not contribute to greenhouse gas buildup in our atmosphere, and it can be derived from several different kinds of plants. The biggest barrier to farmers cultivating crop for biodiesel is that they can't fetch a high enough price for it to make it worthwhile; a subsidy for biodiesel could make this crop profitable, and (I think) would alleviate the developing nations' concerns about unfair subsidies for food. I bet we could extract more energy from our idle farms than what oil companies could ever extract from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
December 6, 2005
Sousaphone Needed
For the past few weeks I have been playing with a new band. They have been in need of a tuba player and they asked me to try out. My tuba chops had been going idle for the past few years, and this seemed like a fun and productive way to direct my tuba skillz.
There's only problem: I need a sousaphone. I own a very nice tuba, but in order to be a mobile tuba player, I really need a sousaphone. For the laypeople, a sousaphone is just like a tuba, but it is designed to wrap around the player's body and project the sound forward, rather than upwards, see exhibits 1 and 2 below.
The ideal sousaphone for my purposes would be all brass, well used, but still playable. So, if anyone has a spare sousaphone laying around that they want to sell, or if you spot one at a garage sale or pawn shop, let me know.
With my busy schedule, I may not be able to make it to every practice and performance, but maybe I could get one of these.
December 4, 2005
Speed Upgrade
The kehoe.org server just received an upgraded DSL line! It now connects to the internet via a 1024kbps DSL line, up from the old 256kbps line. The biggest bonus to you is that you can browse my photo archive in a more expedious manner.
November 28, 2005
Oops
November 15, 2005
Happy Birthday
Note that one year has passed since I began the OK Blog. Celebrate accordingly.
November 14, 2005
Death walks on Cherry Street
Last weekend I witnessed something rather disturbing. I was riding my bike down Cherry Street, coming home from the hardware store, and I saw a police cruiser drive past me slowly with its lights blinking. Just after passing me, it stopped in the middle of the street mid-block between 22nd and 21st Streets, which is about two blocks from my house. I dismounted my bike to observe from a distance. There was a person lying face-down on the side of the road, and a couple of people milling about. Within minutes, more police cruisers, a fire truck, and an ambulance descended onto the scene. The firemen began performing CPR while the cops started documenting evidence, such as a pair of shoes on the roadway at 21st street, about 100' from where the body lay. Then they quickly whisked the body away. Later I read in the paper that it was a hit-and-run pedestrian fatality, and the victim was a woman in her 30's.
Watch out on Cherry Street in this area, cars go speeding down it all the time. During the peak hours there are two travel lanes in one direction, and at other times there are parked cars on either side that can make it difficult to see oncoming traffic, or for oncoming traffic to see you.
November 12, 2005
Let It Snow
Yay, it's snowing in the mountains! Time to dust off those skis and snowshoes. Last year I didn't go skiing even once, it was a terrible snow year. This year I'll try to get up at least a few times.
So this officially signals the end of the hiking season. I got a few good hikes in this summer, although I had some bad luck with the weather. After some wet springtime hikes, I got snowed on at Glacier Park in August, and then two days of snow again in the eastern Cascades in early September. Now, snow is in the air with full force, hopefully it will stick around through the rest of winter.
November 2, 2005
Vote No on I-912, for Kittens Sake
As you may or may not be aware, we have an election next Tuesday. I will make but one public election endorsement for this election, and that is to vote NO on Washington State Initiative 912. This initiative aims to repeal the gas tax increase that the state legislature recently passed to fund a variety of transportation improvements. Read my earlier comments about why this particular gas tax package is a good thing. The I-912 supporters say they oppose the gas tax because it does not address congestion relief. But, as the experts show, adding things like additional freeway lanes would be extremely expensive and would require a much larger tax. So if you agree with the I-912 supporters' arguments, then you're actually supporting a larger tax increase.
October 13, 2005
An Evacuation Plan for New Orleans
A couple of days ago, I dug up an article in ITE Journal from 2002*. ITE is the Institute of Transportation Engineers, which I am a member of, and I receive their monthly journal. This article outlined a plan that was developed for the evacuation of New Orleans, in the event of a strong hurricane landing there. Sound like something that might have been had the dust blown off of it recently?
The plan was cutting edge, using electronic variable message signs, reversible lanes, special exit ramps, movable median barriers, and I remember being impressed by the innovative ways they planned to move cars out of the city.
But after hurricane Katrina hit, and we all saw the people trapped in the Superdome and the ensuing chaos afflicting the people who were trapped in the city, I looked back at this evacuation plan, and noticed something was missing: Not a single provision for anyone without access to a private vehicle, not even a mention that such people might exist. The authors of the plan made the assumption that anyone who wanted to leave would just get in their cars and hit the freeways. Not one mention of transit, buses, nor any form of communication to people not behind a steering wheel.
I look at this, and look back at the situation that unfolded in New Orleans, and say "Duh!" Someone told me that there is a scene in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy where an alien lands on our planet and tries to make first contact with a car, thinking they are the dominant life form. I haven't yet seen this film or read the book.
* Source: ITE Journal. Institute of Transportation Engineers.2/2002 vol. 72, no. 2
P.S. I heard something about a party in an old railroad tunnel this weekend, sounds interesting.
P.P.S Also, look what happened in my hometown-suburb recently--it's a mystery on so many different levels.
October 2, 2005
Chaos in Downtown Seattle
So Seattle's downtown Bus Tunnel closed last week. It is planned to be closed for two years while Sound Transit reconstructs it so that it can be used by modern light rail trains. This involves replacing the tracks, lowering the level of the roadway at the stations, replacing the electrical overhead and signal systems, and other related work. This means that the buses that formerly ran in the tunnel are now routed onto the surface streets. In anticipation of the increased bus traffic, some new traffic restrictions and special bus-priority projects have been put into place. Most significantly, private vehicles are prohibited from driving more than one block down Third Avenue during the AM and PM peaks.
These past few weeks, I have been spending a lot of my time at work out on the streets watching traffic downtown, finding problems, and helping transit customers find their new bus stops. When the Third Avenue restrictions first went into place, it was almost comical. Hordes of motorcycle cops were chasing down unwary scofflaws like a frenzied cat and mouse game. I saw one cop standing in the middle of an intersection, simply staring down drivers, while twirling his whistle in one hand. On Prefontaine Place, which is a one way street and also has new restrictions, drivers were attempting to make U-turns mid-block to avoid the wrath; the cops didn't seem to pleased about that either. Also, jaywalking tickets were being issued left and right. However, by the end of last week, things seemed to have settled down and buses have found their rhythm on Third Avenue. It's too bad that the Third Avenue restrictions couldn't have been made full-time rather than peak-only, that would make the signage much more simple, allowed for some "Bus Only" pavement markings, and overall less confusing to drivers. Oh well, we'll see what happens as time goes on.
With the Metro service change comes a fresh blog page. Hey, at least I'm not coordinating my background color with the Metro timetable color, that's what a real transit junkie would do. The recent past blog entries can be found here [2005.2].
© 2005 Owen Kehoe
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Santa Claus has delivered; I now own a fine used sousaphone! It's a 1950's Martin, made in Elkhart, IN. This horn is all brass, has a silver finish with a gold inner bell, it's built like a tank, and LOUD. This will be perfect for my needs. The only problem is that it's in the key of Eb, and I am used to playing in the key of Bb. This means that I am going to have to learn new fingerings for the notes, basically requiring me to re-learn the songs that I have been playing. But I think this horn is going to be fun to play and I am excited to start using it.
