Freelance Wizardry

Chemical Things

2005-08-20T16:28:00.000-07:00

So I've found a new way to combat boredom during class!

*Dramatic Tension*

Crappy poetry!

Today's comes from A5/6 Chemistry

Chemical Things
Bottles and beakers
of chemical things,
Ethanol on my sneakers
and potassium slings,
long IUPAC names
for organic carbon strings,
1,3-dimethylheptane
making large carbon rings.

That's all for today!
Jay

PTIBS

2005-08-14T11:12:00.000-07:00

Commonly referred as Post-Traumatic IB Syndrome, it is the sister disease of senioritus but only infects IB Seniors. Oddly enough, the symptoms actually occur while the patient is still in the IB program.

I hate IB, and school is totally not fun.

I wish we were on some sort of quest for knowledge. Like school is supposed to be. Obviously, we arn't. We're in a grind to see who can sustain the most mental and spiritual punishment and still stand afterwards. After the drinking that is.

Which is not many.

Good Things
But things don't all totally suck. This weekend has been pretty good so far, mostly because I haven't been doing school work; because school work sucks. A lot.

Friday I went to my friend Maddie's Going Away party, thing-a-ma-bobber. It was cool, I got to see my college friends, which was a nice break from hanging out with whiney and/or stupid highschools.

Not that I hate my friends or anything. But there's only so much I can take of annoying 15-17 year old girls bitching/whining/whatever and only so many hours I can spend playing mindless videogames and still call it hanging out.

Back to the original point, the party was fun. I got to see Jerry, whom I haven't seen in ages, which was cool, Zach was cool, obviously it was great to see Maddie before she left, and Amberly totally kicked my ass at Karaoke. Actually, everyone did, cuz I suck, but dammit I can moonwalk to Smooth Criminal!

Getting to see Erica was really cool too, and not just cuz she's hawt :P Really tho, it's not all that often I get to talk to someone who's that happy, that in control of her life, and that interesting. And the whole business owner at 19 thing is cool too.

I hope she does well, the plan certainly seems solid to me.

The rest of the weekend was mostly spent at work, in my small dark hol....office, or at Steve's House and the Beach. Which was marginally entertaining, and, if nothing else, cheap.

Tomorrow is school though, that sucks.

Till later,
Jay

Got Envy?

2005-07-24T19:42:00.000-07:00

So I was reading the Boston Globe while I'm up visiting New England and I came across the coolest article I've seen in awhile, about a new motorbike that runs on Fuel Cells and is, just, well, here's a copy of the article!

A motorbike 167 years in the making

By Bill Griffith | July 24, 2005

Consider the fuel cell.

Its properties were demonstrated in 1839 by William Grove, a Welsh judge, inventor, and physicist. He mixed hydrogen and oxygen in the presence of an electrolyte and produced electricity and water.

No noise, no pollution, no unwanted byproducts. But not enough electricity to be a useful device then.

Ever since, the possibilities have been tantalizing.

After all, fuel cells have been proven to work. And not only in the laboratory but in the most demanding of applications: They provide both electricity and drinking water (at the same time) on the space shuttle. That was one case of science fiction becoming fact.

All manner of fuel cell-powered vehicle prototypes have been developed in an attempt to harness this Holy Grail of energy.

The potential remains incredibly inviting -- in business, political and environmental circles -- especially when we can foresee the production of virtually unlimited power from renewable agricultural resources (sugar cane, sugar beets, corn), along with weaning ourselves from fossil fuels, resources that remain politically charged.

But problems such as obtaining hydrogen, producing enough power from the cells, and making the technology affordable have always kept that Grail tantalizingly out of reach.

It could be that's about to change. Or has changed.

To those of us who said, ''Show us the vehicles already," a British company, Intelligent Energy, last month replied, ''Here it is."

The company introduced the ENV (pronounced ''Envy," an acronym for energy neutral vehicle). No, it's not a bus, nor an SUV, not even a family sedan. It's a motorbike designed for the urban commuter. A fuel cell-powered motorbike.

Huh? A motorbike is going to save us from relying on imported oil?

Maybe, just maybe.

''The first objective is to show what the fuel cell is capable of," said Andy Eggleston, vice president and ENV project director for Intelligent Energy, after the company unveiled the vehicle in Los Angeles on June 14.

The photos tell much of the story: The vehicle has contemporary styling. It looks like a motorbike and, more important, performs like one.

What differentiates it from a traditional motorcycle or one of Europe's ubiquitous swarms of scooters are several characteristics:

It's silent. Imagine visiting Rome without its ''background music," the buzz of a million Vespas. ''We're talking silent not quiet," said Eggleston. ''It makes about as much noise as the fans in your desktop computer's CPU tower."

There are no exhaust fumes, just water vapor. ''Put your hand over the exhaust vent and all you'll feel is a humid vapor," said Eggleston.

It costs about $3 to $4 per fill-up (5 ounces of hydrogen), which is enough to transport it 100 miles. ''Once a network of fueling stations is in place, that cost should drop to something more like 25 cents," said Eggleston.

There's no transmission, just a big belt or chain driving a big sprocket on the rear wheel. ''It'll do 0-to-30 in five seconds, 0-to-50 in 12," Eggleston said. Cut the rear sprocket to half its size and acceleration would suffer but top speed would theoretically double. ''There's no need for a transmission," he said. ''With an electric motor peak torque is at start-up. It's not a slingshot, but you'd be amazed at the acceleration."

Sounds good. So what's the downside?

For now, refueling and price.

''Hydrogen is readily available. One phone call in any major city and a truck can drop off a canister," said Eggleston. ''It's just not readily available along the highway."

A subsidiary of Intelligent Energy is working on several sizes of ''reformers" -- devices that would produce hydrogen from natural gas, such as ethanol or bio-mass. ''We're projecting a home-sized unit might retail for $1,500," Eggleston said. ''You'd pour ethanol or a bio-mass (sugar cane, corn, sugar beets) in one end and hydrogen gas comes out the other end for the bike."

Convenient, yes. But you'd have to convert a lot of hydrogen to make it cost-effective.

But the company isn't stopping with motorbikes. It envisions portable fuel cells such as its ''CORE" -- the seven-pound fuel cell stack used in the ENV -- being able to power anything from an ATV to a personal watercraft to a small home.

The company pitched its system to manufacturers for several years, finding a combination of interest and foot-dragging. ''Finally we took the wool into our own hands," said Eggleston.

Since the introduction of the prototypes, ''We've been deluged by responses from all over the world," Eggleston said. ''It's proven what we suspected all along and what independent surveys have shown: that the public is more ready for this technology than tradition manufacturers would have you believe."

The company's target price for the bike is $6,000, which may be overly optimistic.

Eggleston, once in charge of developing the website for ''a major automotive manufacturer," points out reasons he believes this initiative will work:

The life of the fuel cell. ''Figure a motorbike is ridden two hours a day, five days a week. That's about 500 hours a year, 5,000 hours in 10 years. We've had a fuel cell of the type in the bike in continuous use for more than 16,000 hours."

The market. The kids with the baggy shorts. The ones with skateboards and BMX bikes are saying, ''Fantastic. Thank God someone built a machine like this," he said. ''These kids know what's happening. They're aware of global warming and terrorists and oil cartels."

''The message we've delivered with the prototype is that the fuel cell-powered vehicle is here," said Eggleston.

Well, almost. The production launch is late next year, and a variety of distribution systems are under consideration.

From Grove's discovery in 1839 until 2006. A motorbike that was 167 years in the making should be pretty good.

''You can see the day when man will be free to travel at will without cost to the earth," Eggleston said.

The world awaits, though the cost won't be cheap for the ''early adopters."

© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.

Pretty sweet, eh?

Jay

Bang Head Here >O<

2005-04-12T16:37:00.000-07:00

Music : Ice Ice Baby Remix by dj mystik
Reading: Pedro Paramo - Bah English HW
A Writer's Guide to Fiction - Essential for every fiction writer
The Highwayman - Because I need to escape IB

Prom was last friday, still recovering. Lots of fun, got no sleep, weeeee!

Writing is going alright, although I've got a bit of writer's block about the next scene in The Hall of the Clockwork King. To alleviate this problem, I've got two other stories I'm writing as well, since I like to have stuff to do.

Because obviously my schoolwork isn't enough.

I was going to try and enter the Ayn Rand essay contest for the Fountainhead, but I've got 3 days left to write an essay and still 400 pages to read. Not gonna happen. Maybe next year, since like, $10 000 is well... $10 000.

Suck it.

So, I hear they're going to introduce new dress code restrictions at my school next year, and the year after that it'll be uniforms.

Good thing I'll be outta there before that. But my brother will have to go through that...

Sucker.

Anyway, stuff to do, more ranting when I can concentrate.

Jay

Post-Modern Letters (Letter) to God

2005-03-25T09:17:00.000-08:00

Dear God,
Please deliever me from hell (IB/High School) and let me get into a better place, preferably Heaven (Stanford University) but even Purgatory (University of Florida) would be better than this.

I realize I'm not a very good christian (deist, looking into Buddhism, actually) and I'm really not very sorry for that. 'Cuz Christianity blows. But you're a nice guy and have a lot of non-Christian people worshipping you to, so I figure you could do me this little favor.

Thanks a ton,
Jay

P.S. I know you like smiting people, could you plz smite my Physics teacher? That'd be great too. Have a nice day!

Spring Break is almost over, I managed to get work done, stories (story, actually) sent off to (hopefully) be published, another story is in writing (about 2500 words so far, not bad for one night) and generally not have fun. I went to a LAN party on Monday/Tuesday. My computer broke when I got there, and I spent 3 hours trying to fix it. Then I gave up and played my laptop, of the remaining 9 hours of gaming, I must have spent at least 4 or 5 getting the laptop to work. In short, LAN sucked for me.

I also got a whole hour and a half at Innisbrook's pool. That was nice. So, Spring Break has included at least an hour and a half of good time.

In other news, I'm now trying to write quality and quantitiy at the same time in hopes I can get 2-3 fiction publications (and dreaming that I could get SFWA membership) in time for Stanford admissions (and those other schools that arn't Stanford and therefore don't matter.)

This means I have zero life at the moment. I'm going to a party tonight. It's very nice, formal and stuff. Kinda like prom (which I'm missing b/c my date's parents decided I couldn't take her for absolutely no reason) 'cept not. And I don't have to bring a date.

Freelance Wizardry, my first decent story, is currently under inspection for publication at Strange Horizons, hope I make it in. They are considered a professional market, so if I were to get published, I can get associate membership with SFWA, which would totally kick-ass for a college resume. My current story, In the Hall of the Clockwork King is a longer tale of the same two adventures on a quest, albeit unwillingly at first, to save the Winged Isle (yay! Jethro Tull referances!) In the Hall of the Clockwork King is probably the most obvious piece of *ahem* externally inspired work I've done. Any good anime fan should recognize the take offs of Last Exile, while older music fans will get the Jethro Tull referances, and someone, somewhere, ought to see my Arcanum magic system (Technology vs. Magic). In the end though, it's all mine.

Keep your eyes on this space for recommendations on when to sign up for F&SF magazine or check out Strange Horizons for my stories!

Another Journal/Excuse to not do Homework

2005-02-20T11:51:00.000-08:00

I finished my recent short story, Freelance Wizardry, the first in a series of short stories (and maybe novellas/novels? Who knows?) about Vaughn, the freelance wizard. Set in an as of yet unnamed world where steam work technology and arcane magic do battle for dominance, Vaughn is the opportunistic traveling mage in search of fortune, ale and women. But not fame, fame tends to get you killed.

The story is a parody without being a parody, generally upbeat with plenty of subtle and not so subtle jokes. It's also rather short, at little over 3200 words.

This is what happens when I read too much Terry Pratchett, I drink tea AND start writing humorous fantasy. That's scary.

More stories are brewing in my head, once I get my work finished (I wish I was in easy classes so I could write and draw more, and not have so much work to do).

"Come with me to the Winged Isle,
Northern father's Western child,
Where the dance of ages is playing still,
Through far marches of Acres Wild."
~Acres Wild, Jethro Tull

I'm going to turn that into a story too, somewhere.

~Jay