Kevin Fair
People I Admire (Part 1)
Alex Chapman and His Family for going to Mexico to help build houses for people in need.
See http://lavasurfer.spaces.live.com/ for blog postings direct from Mexico.
Thanks guys, for making the world a better place!
Comments We Cut The Cheese! Seriously?
Classic Poetry of Old-Skool Rap – My Hoopty by Sir Mix-a-Lot
My hooptie rollin’, tailpipe draggin’
Heat don’t work an’ my girl keeps naggin’
Six-nine Buick, deuce keeps rollin’
One hubcap ’cause three got stolen
Bumper shook loose, chrome keeps scrapin’
Mis-matched tires, and my white walls flakin’
Hit mickey-d’s, Maharaji starts to bug
He ate a quarter-pounder, threw the pickles on my rug
Runnin’, movin’ tabs expired
Girlies tryin’ to dis ‘n say my car looks tired
Hit my brakes, out slid skittles
Tinted back window with a bubble in the middle
Who’s car is it? Posse won’t say
We all play it off when you look our way
Rollin’ four deep, tires smoke up the block
Gotta roll this bucket, ’cause my Benz is in the shop
My hooptie – my hooptie
Four door nightmare, trunk locks’ stuck
Big dice on the mirror, grill like a truck
Lifters tickin’, accelerator’s stickin’
Somethin’ on my left front wheel keeps clickin’
Picked up the girlies, now we’re eight deep
Cars barely movin’, but now we got heat
Made a left turn as I watched in fright
My ex-girlfriend shot out my headlight
She was standin’, in the road, so I smashed her toes
Mashed my pedal, boom, down she goes
Law ain’t lyin’, long hairs flyin’
We flipped the skeez off, dumb girl starts cryin’
Baby called the cops, now I’m gettin’ nervous
The cops see a beeper and the suckers might serve us
Hit a side street and what did we find?
Some young punk, droppin’ me a flip off sign
Put the deuce in reverse, and started to curse
Another sucker on the south side about to get hurt
Homey got scared, so I got on
Yeah my group got paid, but my groups still strong
Posse moved north, headin for the CD
Ridin’ real fast so the cops don’t see me
Mis-matched tires got my boys uptight
Two Vogues on the left, Uniroyal on the right
Hooptie bouncin’, runnin’ on leaded
This is what I sport when you call me big-headed
I pot-hole crusher, red light rusher
Musher of a brother ’cause I’m plowin’ over suckers
In a hooptie
It’s a three-ton monster, econo-box stomper
Snatch your girly, if you don’t I’ll romp ‘er
Dinosaur rush, lookin’ like Shaft
Some get bold, but some get smashed
Cops say the car smokes, but I won’t listen
It’s a six-nine deuce, so the hell with emissions
Rollin’ in Tacoma, I could get burned
(Sound of automatic gunfire) Betta make a u-turn
Spotted this freak with immense posterior
Tryin’ to roll smooth through the Hilltop area
Brother start lettin’ off, kickin’ that racket
Thinkin’ I’m a rock star, slingin’ them packets
I ain’t wit’ dat, so I smooth eject
Hit I-5 with the dope cassette
Playin’ that tough crew hardcore dope
The tape deck broke
Damn what’s next, brothers in Goretex
Tryin’ to find a spot where we could hunt for sex
Found a little club called the N-C-O
Military, competition. You know.
I ain’t really fazed, ’cause I pop much game
Rolled up tough, ’cause I got much fame
“How ya doin’ baby, my name is Mixalot”
“Mixalot got a Benz boy, quit smokin’ that rock”
Ooooh, I got dissed. But it ain’t no thing
Runnin’ that game with the home made slang
Baby got ished, Bremelo gip.
Keep laughin’ at the car and you might get clipped
By a hooptie
Runnin’ outta gas, stuck in traffic
Far left lane, throwin’ up much static
Input, output, carbeurator fulla soot
“Whatcha want me to do Mix?”
Push freak, push
Sputter, sputter rollin’ over gutters
Cars dip low with hard core brothers
Tank on E, pulled into Arco
Cops on tip for Columbian cargo
We fit a stereotype, that’s what he said
Big long car, four big black heads
Cops keep jockin’, grabbin’ like ‘gators
‘Bout stereotypes, I’m lookin’ nuthin’ like Noriega
Cop took my wallet, looked at my license
His partner said “Damn, they all look like Tyson”
Yes, I’m legit, so they gotta let me go
This bucket ain’t rollin’ in snow
It’s my hooptie
Comparing Apples and Oranges
<rant>
It bugs me when people say that comparing two dissimilar things is like comparing apples and oranges. They are not very dissimilar at all. Let me count the ways.
- both are fruits
- both are basically round
- both grow on trees
- orange and red are actually pretty close on the visual spectrum
- both have seeds
- both grow in orchards
- juice from both is commonly available, and usually in the same places
- they weigh about the same
- … need I go on?
Me? I prefer comparing apples and dumptrucks, or parking meters and black holes.
</rant>
Ethanol the Answer – Really?
You hear alot of talk about ethanol as one of, if not THE main answer to the world’s problem of dependence on oil and fossil fuels for energy. I recently read a report in the news about an organization that has been formed to protest against ethanol. Their concern is that it’s irresponsible for arable land to be used to feed cars and SUVs instead of people. I have to admit that it seems like they have a point. Ethanol can’t be the answer.
That made me think about other energy alternatives…
Wind – Great idea where it is practical. What I don’t understand is the protests against wind power based on windmills messing up rich people’s views. The most telling example of this is in Martha’s Vineyard. A wind farm is proposed for about 12 miles out to sea. Those who own the expensive houses on the shore think that it spoils the vista. Sorry, can’t generate much sympathy.
Check out http://tinyurl.com/27gn7z for for an article about a car that runs entirely on solar and wind power. Speaking of solar…
Solar – Also a great idea where practical. I love the idea of these desert solar plants which utilize a huge array of mirrors to focus the energy for the highest efficiency. See http://tinyurl.com/3yk5m9 for an example. There saw one featured also in the movie “Sahara” (which got terrible reviews even though it was pretty good – the movie not the power plant). Household solar could be useful, but could never replace current electrical supply in most places because of that annoying thing called cloud.
Hydro – I’m sensing a theme here. Great where practical. Great in places like Niagara Falls. Terrible in places like the Three Gorges Dam in China where they destroy ‘huge tracts of land’.
Waste – Helps to solve two problems, waste disposal and energy generation. As long as they can keep the emissions clean, they should be doing this everywhere. (in my humble opinion)
Now for my two favourites – tidal and geothermal.
Tidal & Wave – I know the technology is not quite there yet, but to me this seems like the perfect clean and renewable energy source (provided that the US and China don’t get into a space war and destroy the moon). The principle here is that objects are placed in the waves/surf to translate the force of the waves and tides (which is huge) into energy. There are no emissions, it doesn’t destroy the environment and some technologies can even be underwater, saving the fragile sensibilities of those in the Hamptons or Martha’s Vineyard.
(Note: I have treated two energy sources as if they are one and as if they would use the same technology which is a vast oversimplification, but the conclusions are the same.)
GeoThermal – Here is another perfectly clean power source, and 100% renewable. The heat within the earth is not going anyway (then again we may need to check with Al Gore in case he knows something we don’t). Unfortunately, not every area has access to easily accessible geo-thermal energy. Seems to me though that technology someday may allow drilling in some areas to access deeper heat sources. Iceland has led the way in this field, and every other area with proximity to the earth’s heat should follow their lead.
If the developing world were to embrace more of these technologies (and perhaps pay less attention to Ethanol) then perhaps the developing world would not continue to develop the same old dirty power sources.
I admin that these favoured sources of power don’t directly constitute an apples-to-apples comparison with Ethanol since that is more of a gasoline alternative rather than a power generation alternative – or is it. If it were cheaper and cleaner to generate electricity then the practicality of electric cars goes way up.