27 November 2008

The MOST humuliating moment of my life ... so far

I saw my psychologist again (visit #2) and we had our chat, I had my cry and she recommended a book. Next day, I called up Chapters Rideau to see if they had it and sing glory they did. Only one copy but the clerk promised to put it aside for me. Great, Lovely, Lets Go.

Glitch came when I went to the counter that afternoon to pick it up. I was beat, beaten down tired that day, still trying to process some of what the doctor told me and plain exhausted. I just wanted to pay and get the hell out of there.

Problem is, she couldn`t find the book. She asks me the title, twice, it's not at the cash. So they go to check the shelf and literally yelled the title over the counter to the girl: It's "The Emotionally Abused Woman"!! OMG @@ I swear and this is not my imagination in overdrive, EVERY SINGLE HEAD in line turned to look at me. I felt about 2 inches tall and just wanted to dissappear into the floor.

Instead, I closed my eyes for a second, took a deep breath, then opened them again. One of the 'helpful' clerks shows up with three other suggested titles and quietly asked if one of those would 'work'. *UGH* I paid for my other books and realized it'll be months before I'll get the guts to go back in there ! I think I'll be able to laugh at this one someday :P

26 November 2008

Needs - Collective Soul

All around me I see what weakness has made
Too much tomorrow I think I'll take all today
Am I a poison, Am I a thorn in the side
Am I a picture, perfect subject tonight

I don't need nobody
I don't need the weight of words to find a way
To crash on through
I don't need nobody
I just need to learn the depth
Or doubt of faith to fall into

Here I slumber to awaken my daze
I find convenience in this savior I save
Am I a prison, Am I a source of dire news
Am I a picture perfect reason for you

I don't need nobody
I don't need the weight of words to find a way
To crash on through
I don't need nobody
I just need to learn the depth or doubt
Of faith to fall into

In this time of substitute
It's my needs I've answered to (All the while)
And the hope that I invest
Still turns to signals of distress (All the while)

I don't need nobody
I don't need the weight of words to find a way
To crash on through
I don't need nobody
I just need to learn the depth or doubt
Of faith to fall into

You're all I need
When the water runs deep
You're all I need
Now I cry my soul to sleep
You're all I need [4x]

25 November 2008

Utopia in the Desert
by Matthew Craft / 11.24.08
Forbes magazine

Abu Dhabi wants to build the world's first car-free, green-powered city by 2016.

Two years ago the investment fund of the oil-soaked city of Abu Dhabi handed Sultan Al Jaber $4 billion and a 2.5-square-mile parcel of desert. It was a starter kit.

Jaber, a petroleum engineer, had proposed that with all of its wealth from selling oil, Abu Dhabi should dive into alternative energy. At first he and his staff figured they'd use the land for solar and wind projects and to accommodate new businesses. Then, as often happens in the United Arab Emirates, they began thinking on a grand scale. Construction equipment and pilings now cover the spot, 11 miles east of downtown Abu Dhabi, that will become Masdar City. Jaber plans it to be the world's first carbon-neutral city, where 50,000 people will live and work without cars or fossil fuels. It will be built by 2016, he says. The first component, a research institute affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is scheduled to open next year.

Jaber, 35, is now the chief executive officer of Abu Dhabi Future Energy, the government enterprise that runs the project. "What better investment can Abu Dhabi have than putting revenues from the oil sector into a future-energy sector?" he asks. The U.A.E., as one of the world's richest countries (per capita), is the land where outlandish dreams test the laws of physics. Developers unveil wonders: man-made islands shaped like palm trees; a ski slope inside Dubai's Mall of the Emirates; a hotel, the Burj Al Arab, that rises from the water like a sail; the Burj Dubai, the world's tallest skyscraper, half a mile high.

Even alongside those feats of engineering, the master plan for Masdar City, created by the London architect Norman Foster, looks audacious. It describes a city on 23-foot-high stilts. Light-rail lines run overhead, and small shuttle cars carry people underneath the platform on which the city sits. Close-packed buildings shade narrow streets in a tight collection of blocks meant to evoke ancient Arab towns like Aleppo, Syria--though in the mock-ups it all looks more like a computer motherboard.

The planners have designed the city's buildings to burn 30 kilowatt-hours of electricity per person a day, compared with an average of 54 across the U.A.E. The streets' shading should cut temperatures by as much as 35 degrees Fahrenheit, and heat pumps will move surface heat underground to trim the demand for air-conditioning by 30%. The city will get fresh water by solar desalination of seawater and by catching dew, and with conservation and recycling it will cut its consumption to 40% of the regional norm. Solar energy, wind turbines and other alternative power sources will provide all the electricity needed to run Masdar's research labs, homes and factories. Those labs and factories will in turn be exporting post-petroleum energy technology decades before Abu Dhabi's wells run dry.

"The scale and speed with which they want to get this done is amazing," says Nicholas Parker, chairman of the Cleantech Group, a green consulting firm. "No jurisdiction in the world has made this kind of commitment with this magnitude and within this kind of time frame."

18 November 2008

"Wintersong" - Sarah McLachlan




The lake is frozen over
The trees are white with snow
And all around
Reminders of you
Are everywhere I go

It's late and morning's in no hurry
But sleep won't set me free
I lie awake and try to recall
How your body felt beside me
When silence gets too hard to handle
And the night too long

And this is how I see you
In the snow on Christmas morning
Love and happiness surround you
As you throw your arms up to the sky
I keep this moment by and by

Oh I miss you now, my love
Merry Christmas, merry Christmas,
Merry Christmas, my love

Sense of joy fills the air
And I daydream and I stare
Up at the tree and I see
Your star up there

And this is how I see you
In the snow on Christmas morning
Love and happiness surround you
As you throw your arms up to the sky
I keep this moment by and by

17 November 2008

Square One - Tom Petty




Had to find some higher ground
Had some fear to get around
You can't say what you don't know
Later on won’t work no more
Last time though I hid my tracks
So well I could not get back
Yeah my way was hard to find
Can't sell your soul for peace of mind

Square one, my slate is clear
Rest your head on me my dear
It took a world of trouble, it took a world of tears
It took a long time to get back here

Try so hard to stand alone
Struggle to see past my nose
Always had more dogs than bones
I could never wear those clothes
It's a dark victory
You won and you are so lost
Told her you were satisfied
But it never came across

Square one, my slate is clear
Rest your head on me my dear
It took a world of trouble, it took a world of tears
It took a long time to get back here x3

14 November 2008

Mushroom Gas ?

Fill her up please, and make it myco-diesel

AFP, 4 November 2008 - Will the Ferrari of tomorrow be fungus-powered? A reddish microbe found on the inside of a tree at a secret location in the rainforests of northern Patagonia could unlock the biofuel of the future, say scientists.

Its potential is so startling that the discoverers have coined the term "myco-diesel" -- a derivation of the word for fungus -- to describe the bouquet of hydrocarbons that it breathes.

"This is the only organism that has ever been shown to produce such an important combination of fuel substances," said Gary Strobel, a professor of biology at Montana State University.

"The fungus can even make these diesel compounds from cellulose, which would make it a better source of biofuel that anything we use at the moment."

The study is published in the peer-reviewed British journal, Microbiology.

Read the whole article

6 November 2008

We hold these truths to be self evident

Georgia Nicols' weekly for Sunday, November 2, 2008

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

Since 2005, you're in a new sandbox creating a new world and a new identity for yourself. Naturally, this involves a lot of trial and error because your life is a work in progress. Lately, you feel stifled by certain partnerships and close friendships. You want to make a break for freedom, or alternatively, your current situation could make your partner want to fly the coop. ("So long! And thanks for all the fish!") Because of this some partnerships will end now. Not all, but some. The rest will definitely have to undergo some changes which necessitates a need for some kind of reevaluation. Which totally makes sense when you think about it since the fact that people change means relationships have to correspondingly change Capice? ("We're fatter now.")

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

You feel increasingly restless. What is quietly building up within you is a kind of rebellion. You might not even be completely aware of this yourself. However, you know you have a growing dissatisfaction with certain things happening around you. There's no point in remaining dissatisfied. Factoid. Therefore, you have to drag these fuzzy feelings out into the bright light of day and clearly define and label them. Once you know exactly what you're dealing with -- you'll know what to do. If you see a change that will benefit yourself and benefit others as well -- no-brainer! Just do it. ("Does this mean we can get the hot tub?")

5 November 2008

Lightbulbs Could Replace Wi-Fi Hotspots

Lightbulbs Could Replace Wi-Fi Hotspots

Boston University’s College of Engineering is launching a program, under a National Science Foundation grant, to develop the next generation of wireless communications technology based on visible light instead of radio waves. Researchers expect to piggyback data communications capabilities on low-power light emitting diodes, or LEDs, to create “Smart Lighting” that would be faster and more secure than current network technology.

This initiative aims to develop an optical communication technology that would make an LED light the equivalent of a Wi-Fi access point.“Imagine if your computer, iPhone, TV, radio and thermostat could all communicate with you when you walked in a room just by flipping the wall light switch and without the usual cluster of wires,” said BU Engineering Professor Thomas Little. “This could be done with an LED-based communications network that also provides light - all over existing power lines with low power consumption, high reliability and no electromagnetic interference. Ultimately, the system is expected to be applicable from existing illumination devices, like swapping light bulbs for LEDs.”

Source: cellular-news