Category: Uncategorized

In this post I am talking about another one of my many passions in life, the game of rugby. The title “15 as 1” started when I was a senior in high school playing for my club team full of individual players. We were a good team but could never break the cusp of great due to selfishness and not being a team. Our coach created this saying and it is something that I started to live my life by. For our team to win, we had to have all 15 players acting as single force, 1 team and play smart. Eventually it stuck and became our motto on the field leading our team to the state championship with an undefeated season with only 16 points scored against us. This motto has helped me move forward in my life by doing things to the best of my ability. Instead of the thought of 15 players for 1 team, I think of it as devoting all my energy to the task at hand. Facing the task at hand or preparing for the day with the thought in my head that I can do anything I put my mind to and I can credit playing to this drive.

After playing rugby since I was 10 years old the sport has become a part of my life, a passion thats helped me become a better person on and off the field. The first thing rugby has taught me is that life can be rough, it can knock you down but you have to keep getting back up. As everyone can understand rugby is a rough sport and teaches players to get back up off the ground and get back in the game. Fighting through the pain and playing till the game is done transpires into modern society on how even if life is hard and not going your way, you don’t give up and keep fighting.

From these examples of how rugby has taught many others and myself how to deal with the rough times in life and how being persistent both on and off the field can make oneself a better individual.

Rugged beauty is how i found myself describing one of my most memorable hunting trips in the high country through national forests in Montana. The three of us(father and brother) arrived on a sunday morning to the ranch we’d be staying in while trying to fulfill our tags and fill our freezers. The first morning came early and started out with a 6 mile hike through a foot of snow giving us all a wake up call. This hunt was not what we had imagined but sure was worth it in the end.

Our trusted guided Caleb and Bill were both native to these mountains and told us they’d eventually find us an elk but we would have to earn it, and they weren’t lying. Hiking all day just to get to a vantage point and glass acres upon acres of timber in hopes of spotting a bull elk. As I was soaking in the scenery I couldn’t help but just feel so relieved and relaxed being in this beautiful country. Hiking through the Ruby valley mountain range was nothing short of running a marathon, day in and day out. The first 3 days came and went unsuccessful with seeing only cows and bulls too small to harvest and draining our morality to an all time low. The 4th day was more of the same but at the last minute of the hunt my dad missed his chances at a bull elk than ran by too quick for a shot.

As the alarm sounded one last time at 5am on a frosty 23 degree morning we got dressed and hit the trail for one attempt to come home successful. We hiked about a mile up an old logging site to the peak overlooking a snow capped mountain range. 10 minutes after we got set up caleb called bill over to get a second opinion on something he saw and he indeed saw something. I picked up my binoculars and began to make out the shape of elk after elk, there had to be at least 300 in this herd. Instead of making a straight forward attempt to try and get in close to the herd we had to devote our entire day to hiking around the mountain range to get close enough to attempt a shot. As we were hiking through the snow covered fir’s and the loose shale of the hillside we eventually came within 500 yards of our target, out of our comfort range.

As most stories from the woods go, the game got away this time but we left with memories that will never fade. Memories of seeing mother natures greatest work of carving rocks into canyons and rivers from snow melt.

For my last civic issues blog I am going to write about solar energy and wrap up my blog series on renewable energy. As we all may know solar energy uses various types of solar panels to absorb energy and then transform it into useable energy. The demand continues to sky rocket for solar panels due to the decrease in price making them much more affordable to the common household.

New advances in solar technology from tesla, a company that is known for electric cars has manufactured solar panels that double as a roof shingles. Imagine if most of our homes in our nation used these solar shingles and they are appealing to the consumers eye. Tesla is pledging that installing this new style of roof shingle can be cheaper than the normal asphalt shingle as well as the 30% tax credit for homeowners from the government to sweeten the deal. I think this new style of shingle is both elegant and sleek as well as something that can make an impact in our world. Tesla has come out with four different prototype styles of the solar shingle in different styles appealing to all types of consumers.

Besides all of the positives that one can think of, there are some chances that this product could be a failure. First thing is that this product does not release until April of the current year, meaning there are no reviews or testimonials to describe homeowners thoughts on this investment. Although tesla is saying that a roof will be cheaper using these shingles rather than asphalt, an average asphalt roof goes for on average $15,000. Say it is cheaper than that, but that is still a decently large investment for something that could not work. Continuing to talk about issues what about inclement weather? dust? leaves? the article has not given consumers information about the effectiveness of the solar shingles when there is inclement weather, which should be a question in my mind.

Tesla has created in partner to the solar shingle a device called a power wall, which is basically a large battery build into the side of your home. The power wall stores energy while the solar panels are obtaining the energy to deviate the dependence of electric companies. Although tesla is a brand name and known for making efficeny look good, this practice of using solar panels has long been in effect.

For the Deliberation I attended the group talked about three different approaches to border security for our nation. I think they got this idea in light of our President Donald Trump’s temporary travel ban. The deliberation started with everyone introducing themselves and talking about what they came to the deliberation for and then the groups began to give their ideas. The first group talked about doing moderate borders, allowing certain people in and keeping out certain individuals that are known to come from terroristic areas. There was a lot of bantering in the audience going back and forth on how this issue isn’t fair to all the citizens since some are good but in the end the crowd seemed to die out.

The second approach that was talked about was for there to be closed borders, meaning no one other than American citizens could be allowed into our nation. I personally agree with this choice since I feel that our nation needs to work on our own issues and help our own citizens before trying to take in others. The consensus from the audience on this issue was that the by closing the borders completely would violate the ideals that America was created on and how it was not humanely correct.

The last approach brought up was to have open borders, which allows everyone with the correct documentation into our nation. The audience was mixed about this topic and on how that letting everyone in was a security risk and how our nation could thrive by allowing more immigrants into our country. I personally don’t agree with this and can summarize why I don’t. For example, every night I lock the doors to my apartment not to keep people out, but to protect the ones I love and care about inside. What I am saying is that although there are good people that want to come into our nation there are also bad people who wish us harm.

 

Continuing my civic issues blog on renewable energy sources I want to talk about the advantages of biofuels and some disadvantages that are commonly brought to the surface. For those that don’t know biofuels are broken into 2 main groups, ethanol and biodiesel. Biodiesel is a fuel generated from recycled fats and oils, such as leftover fry oil. There is a huge abundance of used fry oil in our nation since we love our fried foods and an abundant supply of biofuel base. the recycled oil is gathered then cleaned and then can be run in almost all of the diesel engines on the market today. One downside of running biodiesel is that it can be problematic to engines in the winter. When it reaches a certain temperature the biodiesel tends to gel, almost form into a puddy substance that cannot be changed back until temperatures warm up again.

Contrary to biodiesel using the waste oil and vegetable oils to run, ethanol is an alcohol created from the sugars of plants such as corn, sugar cane, and even lawn clippings. Ethanol can be seen as both something positive and something negative, meaning there are arguments for and against it. Some positives of creating and utilizing ethanol are that it releases less carbon emissions into the atmosphere by an average 25% per mile driven. Another positive is that the ethanol is in fact biodegradable and the infrastructure to sell E85(ethanol gas) is already built and available to consumers. Some negatives of using this mainly corn based product is that it does use a large quantity of our food supply to create. This is a pressing issue in our world where we face the issue of creating more food or creating more fuel. continuing to talk about the downsides of ethanol use, the E85 is not nearly as efficient as regular gasoline; Meaning that there is on average lower MPG produced from ethanol fuel compared to gasoline or diesel fuel. The last downside and the worst in my opinion is that ethanol is very corrosive and cannot be transported via pipeline. The corrosion is also detrimental to engines on cars if not treated properly.

After talking about both ethanol and biodiesel it is easy to see that both have stars as well as scars where improvement is necessary.  If more improvements can be made to both biodiesel and ethanol to make them even more effective in terms of higher mpg and lesser emissions I think that could be a great progressive step.

 

 

http://greenthefuture.com/ETHANOL_PROSCONS.html

http://www.afdc.energy.gov/fuels/ethanol_fuel_basics.html

Continuing my civic issue blog on renewable energy I am going to be writing about the positive and negative effects of wind power. Commonly called “wind farms”, areas usually on ridge tops or on flat open plans where multiple turbines are placed. Some of the many positives of wind power is that the generation of power is very effective and does not leave a cloud of smog in the sky. This green power source has continually been growing in production from 2.5% in 2010 at a rate of 25% per year. These wind turbines are rapidly growing in popularity due to the decrease in price to install as well as the low cost of maintaining them.

Besides the many positives of wind power there are some negatives of the energy source. Wind power can be very unpredictable, meaning that the power source is not constant nor is it a guaranteed return on investment. This can be a substantial issue since the instillation costs can vary but are usually very steep. Residential wind turbines that generate only 10 kW can cost in upwards of $50,000 and commercial wind farms costing in upwards of $2 million.  Many wildlife species are also effected by wind turbines due to the risk of the rotating blades striking birds out of the sky but not nearly as many as birds flying into buildings.

Wind power is a fairly simple system in which power is generated, a large turbine is powered from the wind current and the power is then distributed to local homes. One large commerical turbine can generate enough energy to power up to 600 homes at once. I personally see a huge benefit in this and wish to see more push from our government as well as consumers to have wind power be a staple in the american power grid. I see having a wind farm to be a good investment and it could help our nation relieve our dependence off of fossil fuels. along with relieving some of our dependence off of oil and possibly to wind power the government offers incentives such as tax breaks and reimbursements depending on the state.

In conclusion on this topic of wind energy there are both positives and negatives of this and can be seen from both sides. Yes these turbines can be a large investment but can also save money from not having to rely on fossil fuels. I guess the idea of wind power is more of a personal issue, more along the lines of the paying it forward initiative to pay the cost now to insure our future generations can have the similar lifestyles that we have.

http://energyinformative.org/wind-energy-pros-and-cons/

http://www.awea.org/us-energy-incentives

http://www.windustry.org/how_much_do_wind_turbines_cost

for my this i believe draft i am going to continue to write about work ethic and how i came to find mine.

Growing up I always felt off and different than most teenagers; I envied others who enjoyed their summers relaxing by the pool or playing a pickup game in the park compared to my summer vacations of working from sunrise to sunset. My family members were raised to earn your keep, in essence, we had to work for everything we wanted. My first job consisted of carrying golf bags in the summer sun and weekends till the golf course closed for winter meanwhile learning the value of manners and grit. After 3 seasons of caddying I hung up the golf shoes for work boots and began working for my families construction business. From that point on all summer break and time that I wasn’t in school I was learning the ways of the construction world while building my savings fund. Working with your hands is not always a fun life but can be very rewarding to look at the finished picture and be able to say, “I built that.”

It became apparent that others noticed my work ethic this past winter break when one of my coworkers stopped me and asked me if I could train his son. Baffled by this question I had to ask for his reasoning and he told me that he had noticed how hard I was working the day before and was envious his son didn’t have the same drive. Having a work ethic is something to look for in a person, a person who is motivated and has a fire in their chest with everything they do.

I believe that a person should be judged at the end of the day after the work is done rather than the first impression. I also believe that someone can be read by their body language and how they poise themselves. An individual that shows up to work right at 7am unprepared for the day and shows no drive for their work is not a hardworking individual. On the other hand say a different individual shows up at 6:30am every morning with their head screwed on ready to go is someone that is willing to work sun up to sundown. I know not everyone works long hour shifts in the trade industry but since that is my background and my future, it is something I believe work ethic should entail.

I believe that I can credit this to my parents for disciplining me that hard work should not equate to an incentive and it should be the standard. I also believe that many people today do not have this work ethic and have a good enough attitude. This attitude that has started from participation awards and how children were just given a trophy instead of earning it. This connects to many people today not having a strong work ethic since so many have felt the same satisfaction as those who earned the trophy, but rather were just handed one for a below average effort.

 

bittersweet moments

For my passion blog i am going to write about one of my greatest passions, the great outdoors. This passion of mine started when i was 11 years old and my father took me on my first deer hunt. I had been along before small game hunting but never before after something like the elusive whitetail. Our morning began with a quiet yet brisk walk through the dark to our stand. My 11 year old heart was racing with excitement while trying to remain quiet. This is it i thought, finally after listening to all of the stories from family and friends it was my time to experience it. The day broke with the sun rising through the tree line and began to thaw the frozen ground. Being the 11 year old i was patience was not on my side but my father kept reminding me to be patient and to remain still. Right as we were about to call it for the morning and head in for lunch i spotted a brown body approaching our stand and was taken by the beauty of it. I had always seen deer driving along roadways but never while actually hunting for one.

After alerting my father he knew i was too nervous to take the shot he decided it was time to act. One quick bang and the deer lay there lifeless, pain free from a perfect shot my father was always proud of. It was then that i realized there is much more to hunting than just pulling a trigger. As we approached what would become many meals to our family i could not help but to notice the bittersweet moment we had upon us. Although we were successful on this hunt, I have made numerous walks back to the truck empty handed but still enjoying the whistle of the winds and the autumn foliage falling into beautiful colors on the forest floor. I am a religious man and i feel closest to my lord when i am out in his world, where the oldest and wise are large oak trees and the sunset can paint a thousand words.

 

For my civic issue blog i am going to write about different renewable energy sources.

Hydro Energy

in our modern society the thought is drifting through minds of many of how we are going to generate power in the future without fossil fuels, how to act more sustainable. The thought of hydroelectricity excites me and makes me want to learn more knowing that our planet is covered mainly in water. By using water and the currents from the ocean to generate power in underwater turbines it is very possible to decrease our worlds dependance on natural resources such as coal and oil. Hydroelectricity is being used currently in the forms of dams which allow water to flow from a large source to a smaller body of water.

An article from the USGS water science school talks about this issue and gave me the background information on this and lead me to think about how useful this can be in todays society. Although we already have many damns already built and they have been known to crack from natural disasters, my thoughts are to use natural landscapes such as waterfalls and the natural currents in rivers. If a turbine were to be created and inserted into rivers the generated power can be used to power local towns and homes rather than depending on large energy companies. This method of capturing natural resources and using it to generate energy is already being used in some remote areas of our nation. A dear family of mine works his summers at his uncles remote fishing camp in Alaska where the only source of energy comes from the river. In many remote areas this is the only source of energy and it has proven to be very effective, so why not promote this energy source to the rest of the country?

throughout our planet we have 7 oceans that we are not using to their full ability which can be to generate power. Thermal and mechanical energy have been created from the oceans, thermal by using geothermal to capture the suns energy and mechanical by means of using the waves and tides. with more than 70% of our earths surface covered by oceans we should be using this to generate more energy. Ocean thermal energy can be used to generate electricity from three different types of conversions, closed cycle, open cycle, and a hybrid. One of the more common methods is the closed cycle which uses the warm surface waters to create a vapor which later in turn powers a turbine. similar to this method but also different the closed cycle system boils the seawater then similarly runs a turbine off of the steam.

Throughout my research I’ve found that almost all of the ways to gather hydro energy involve a turbine  being powered by the movement of water or from the heat that can be generated from the water.  i think this style of generating electricity can cut our dependance on oil and reduce our carbon footprint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://water.usgs.gov/edu/hyhowworks.html

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/ocean-energy/tech.html

Callas Hands and a Blue Collar 

Growing up i always felt off and different than most teenagers; I envied others who enjoyed their summers relaxing by the pool or playing a pickup game in the park compared to my summer vacations of working from sunrise to sunset. In my family if i wanted something i had to earn it, and i thank my family for forcing me to work and to understand the value and satisfaction of earning my own keep. My first job consisted of carrying golf bags in the summer sun meanwhile responding to the golfer with yes sir or no ma’am. soon after i turned 14 i started working for A.H. Cornell and Son inc, my families legacy. from that point on summers and after school i was learning the ways of the construction world while building my savings fund.

Nature Heals

One of my many passions in life is hunting and being one with the outdoors. Being outdoors in nature is my favorite escape from reality, allowing for the whistle in the wind and songbirds to sooth my busy mind. Perching myself high in a tree waiting for the chance to harvest a white tailed deer to feed my family and myself i can find myself completely relaxed and comfortable. Seeing rays of sun lighten up the forest floor early in the day and watching the sun set behind a multi-colored forest canopy is something that will make anybody appreciate the beauty of nature.