Thursday, August 16, 2007

I finally decided to take a chance.

At long last I'm going to try to actually write an actual book - you know; one of those things with a front and a back and a lot of pages in between. However, I think its considered a good thing to put smart-sounding words on the pages. For those who have read extensively in this blog, you probably know not to hold your breath for the final result. On the upside, I have a title (sort of): "The Three Seasons". Yes, I know, it looks a teensie bit derivative. But hey, I'm no Vivaldi, so I didn't think I had a shot at more than 3. It's not musical anyway. It's more about the seasons a fisherman tries to get in while keeping his boat from sinking in the meantime. Here's a snippet from the middle of the Second Season (I figure if I start in the middle, then I can write in both directions, and maybe I can finish in half the time).

... "Chazz, lemme tell you, all this uproar about illegal immigrants. Some people say (and way too loud I think) 'What part about illegal don't you get?' And I guess they're right. Although for the most part, if their folks had the same laws when they came here, they'd be illegals too! Anyways, others say something like 'these illegal workers are here because there's jobs for them here.' I kind of go along with that. How much do those chicken farmers think they'd get if Tyson didn't have illegals to work in those chicken flicking plants of theirs
"Closer to home - how much do you think you're gonna get from Newport Shrimp for that boatload of shrimp you just brought in, if they didn't have any of those 'Mexicans' sorting-veining-cooking-packing the little bugs? Or do you figure you'll do it yourself? And please, don't tell me about how 'those Mexicans' are overrunning us 'native white Oregonians'! ... I'm not that smart, but I do believe those 'Mexicans' are gonna have a tougher time overrunning us native white men than us native white men had overrunning the native red men a couple hundred years ago.
"As for us - hey, we got it good. We're just tuna fishermen. The way it works for me now; I sail on out to the Emperor Seamount or someplace like that, put in, troll around, load up, bring 'em into Newport or someplace. The guys at Newport Shrimp offload 'em for me, then onload the tuna to freezer cars 'n send 'em to the railway. They take 'em to LozAngeles and put 'em on a ship. Ship goes to Samoa; leaves 'em off there. The umm... Samoans (Hey, it's Samoa OK? No Mexicans!) cook-clean-can my tuna. Back onto a ship, back to L.A. Back on the train to Oregon, and right onto the shelves at Meier and Frank. ... Man, that's a long round trip!

"I think from now on, I'll just can my own tuna. Cook my own shrimp too. Less trouble."

"Jesus Frankie, what're you talking about? If these guys hear what you're saying, you're outta here! How you gonna do any business with the locals?"

"I know that Chazz - I'm not about to let any of these asshole locals know what I'm thinking. I know I gotta get along on the docks. Can't let anybody think I'm a liberal! I just like to stir up some shit sometimes."

Now, before I break for the time being, and try to add some readable text front-and-back of the above, here's the long-awaited (or not)

2 comments:

Lord of Logic said...

Frank,

Your are spot on with everything you said. The use of these "alliterative fuels" does create byproducts. This is true of energy derived from corn consumed in your engine that drives the powertrain or from the corn on your plate that sits around on your ever-expanding waistline until it is called upon to drive your legs. The beauty of Ethanol is that it’s by by-products are usable. Products such as corn oil which we use to deep fry our Twinkies, carbon dioxide which we pump into our flavored water with the next By-Product, sweeteners which we add to the water, gluten feed to make our dog foods, and distillers dried grains which we eat when we feel guilty about eating the pervious products.


At this point, I believe all things in life come down two skills. One is how to play chess, the other is how to manage your personal finances. Solving the energy dilemma lays mostly on the skills of the later. Knowing the energy conservation law, it is easy to grasp that the Earth has an "energy budget" if you will. Oil, Coal, and other "fossil Fuels" are like "un-circulated money". You know when the economy starts to stall, the government prints more money. It gives you a quick boost, but then you are stuck with the extra currency floating around. In economics, that causes the value of you currency to drop. In thermodynamics, that causes the Earth to heat up.


The answer of what to do is simple. Quit "pumping" energy into our budget. Use self-sustaining energy sources. Use something that takes energy from the system to make it, and then in short order is returned to the system easily. There is always the option of spending like a drunken soldier, bankrupt the whole business of humanity, and mother nature will cut her losses and start anew.

Lord of Logic said...

oops,

Some how this ended up a post too high. I menat to post this under "energy part II"


If you think it maters I could delete and repost in the right place.