Checksum Arcanius

…in two days. I think that officially qualifies me as a driving stud. I used about $250 of gas on Saturday alone.

Tomorrow, I help the Ben and Kaylee move in, and then I’ll be at loose ends for a while. I’m thinking of visiting Detroit and Toronto. Yeah, I haven’t been to Canada for a while…

Sunday Evening, Jeana got married. The ceremony took place at the Eastridge Christian Assembly in Issaquah, and it was a very traditional, convervative, religious Christian ceremony. Unlike the Greek Orthodox ceremony that I attended in Baltimore, I got the distinct feeling that this one was much less about tradition and much more about faith and what the bride and groom wanted.

After the ceremony, whose only fault I felt was the pastor refering to plastic cups (and not the wine therein) as representitive of the blood of Christ, we headed out for Renton, where the reception was held. A couple hundred people all enjoyed some of the best catered food available. The salads were fresh; the main dish was very good, and presentation was a worthy performance as well.

After dinner, dessert, and some toasts, the music came up, and the festivities really began. There was dancing, which normally I don’t enjoy all that much, but among friends (and hot girls you knew in high school), its hard to not enjoy yourself.

Throughout the night Jeana was beautiful and beaming, and Seth was (understandably) no less happy. They seem to be a great couple, and I wish them all the best.

After taking the CSE 326 final, which I finished up by 10:50, I headed back to my place to pack for the trip and to consolidate the rest of my stuff into my room. I finished that up around noon, and then headed to Bellevue to meet up with the parents before heading out to Utah. One truth about my family is that no matter how much time you take, someone in my family will always take longer. So, my mom didn’t show up until well after 3:00 (the Highlander needed to be washed, of course), and yet my Dad (who had all morning) didn’t finish packing until after my Mom was done. Then, of course, my mom needed to make herself some food. I managed to get us out the door (after watching most of Minority Report) before 5:00, I think.

At any rate, we stopped in Baker City the first night, then made it to Salt Lake yesterday. I stayed with Ben and Kaylee last night, and then attended the graduation this morning. After touring the BYU campus (so much the same, but also some very new buildings as well), we headed back to my Brother’s place, got the U-Haul, and started loading it up. And up, and up. Now almost everything is in the Truck. Tomorrow morning sometime, I’ll be on my way to East Lansing, Michigan!

Is the world running out of oil? The prospect seems unthinkable — mostly because the consequences, if true, would be unimaginable.

Permanent fuel shortages would tip the world into a generations-long economic depression. Millions would lose jobs. Farm tractors would be idled, triggering massive famines. Energy wars would flare. And carless suburbanites would trudge to their nearest big-box stores — not to buy Chinese-made clothing, but to scavenge glass and copper wire from abandoned buildings.

— Paul Salopek, Chicago Tribune

I’m no pollyanna, but I say that this sort of thinking in a load of bollocks. Will the looming (although not imminent, I believe) end of cheap fossil fuels lead to worldwide economic depression? I say no way, because we already have the technology to live without teh petroleum. Certainly, life after oil will be more expensive, but Americans, as well as those in much of the rest of the world, have proven that they are perfectly capable of seeing prices double or triple with minimal impact on ever-increasing demand. Certainly, I spend a good amount of money on gas, but it is nowhere near my largest expense.

Take this a step further, and it seems perfectly reasonable to me that, when oil runs out (which will be a relatively slow process, considering the scale of the industry), we (the world) will be perfectly capable of absorbing another doubling in price, at which point ethanols, biodiesels, and perhaps other technologies will become extremely profitable, and will fill the energy demand. Will things become more expensive? Certainly! But most of us are so far above sustinence (as I sit here not needing to work typing on my computer thinking about a gift I am going to buy for a friend’s wedding…) that thinking things getting more expensive will somehow destory our lives is ludicrous.

For how progressive so many claim to be, why are so many so afraid of change?

I’ll be the first to admit that reading about the plots to blow up planes over the Atlantic made me both sick and a bit angry. On the other hand, the vast overreaction is also hugely disappointing. To prove my point, I am considering attempting to get onto the plane, with the materials neccesary to make myself a bottle of water.

Now I must wonder if the government reads my blog. In case they do, I’ll give them a head start. I’ll be flying from Cleveland to Seattle on Sunday, August 27, 2006. My current plan is to wear some sort of non-obvious belt or pack full of water. The hard part, I susepct, willbe to get the empty water-bottle-like recepticle onto the plane. I’m thinking some sort of collapsable cup, or perhaps a cup-like thing filled with something common and non-obvious. A jar of paperclips, perhaps? I’ll probably refine this idea as I get closer.

So just imaging the look of horror on some passenger’s face as I pour water from a belt pack into a cup that I magically produce, and then pull out some jumble of wires and resistors…

Today (well, yesterday) I donated a pint of blood in a blazing 4:32. This blows away my previous record of 5:01.

Question: Are my veins getting more willing to give?

Two-week group project

8/11/2206 12:20am e-submit deadline

Document submitted on: 8/11/2006 12:19:58 AM

W00t