King Fun's Kingdom

So Long e_Cubed...

2008-09-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

Man,
It took me long enough to get around to it, but here is the next installment of my blog.
My band e_Cubed played at the "Battle of the Bands" at OSU. We played around 6:00 in the evening in front of about 300 people. It was an awesome experience. Egos were so high afterwards about our performance that we all got in a clash over who had done the best and the band had split up by the following morning. Well, not exactly. We didn't have ego problems, or clash. Really, Ben (our saxophone guy) moved away and we all agreed it wouldn't be the same without him, so we did split up.

So, here are some pictures of the show.

Ben is on Saxophone,
Aaron is on Bass,
Lee is on Drums,
and I of coarse am on Guitar and Vocals.

Cruise 7 Miami Florida

2008-06-05T15:15:00.000-07:00

Well, All things must come to an end, and so did our cruise. But it was AWESOME!
We descided to check out some stuff in Miami while we were there. Here is an alligator checking us out while we check him out.

We went to the only "official" air boat ride place called Coopertown Air Boat Rides. It was definatly a cool experiance, we pulled up to this gross looking resturant/general store and bought our tickets, then while we waited for our air boat guide to come back from a current tour we got to look at the reptile exibit of five huge alligators. Pretty much they were just sleeping in the sun, but they were pretty cool to look at.
After waiting around for like fifteen minutes we hopped on board the air boat and were off. We followed one open canal until it dead ended and occasionally stopped to see a floating gator.

After the ride we got to hold a baby alligator, they are surprisingly soft.

After that we just hung around in Miami until our flight home the next day. What a SWEET trip.
That is all, no more cruise info from me, I suppose it is about time that I finally finished blogging it (I have finals next week).

Cruise 6 Cozumel Mexico

2008-05-31T12:00:00.000-07:00

Cozumel was cool (in a hot sort of way).
We docked and got off the boat and got directly on our smaller ship to go snorkeling.
It took about an hours boat ride to get were we were going. Along the way we saw some flying fish, they were freakin' awesome.
When we got to the reef, we all hopped off the boat and drifted in a large group along the current over the reef. The water here was much deeper than at Grand Cayman (and my ear really hurt if I tried to dive down), so it was not quite as cool of an experience. We did get to see a sea turtle which was neat.

Once we got back to shore, we took a taxi into town and shopped around for several hours and then headed back to the ship. We were feeling pretty tired after all the days in port. The next day was the last day of the cruise and we spent most of it relaxing and soaking up the sun before the inevitable journey back to P-Town.

Cruise 5 Grand Cayman

2008-05-13T21:32:00.001-07:00

Next Stop George Town Grand Cayman!

Here instead of coming to port, we had to tender (which here means we had to wait in line to get onto a small boat that takes about forty-five minutes to get you ashore.).

Here is a picture of some Turtles that awaited us upon arriving on the pier (most people had to pay for pictures, not us.). Once ashore we hopped two piers down and got on a party/pontoon boat to go snorkeling. One of our guides had a british accent and he was pretty funny.

Here is a Pirate Ship that we passed on our way to snorkeling. Snorkeling was pretty fun but not quite what I expected. We got to go for half an hour at a reef which was pretty cool and we saw a whole bunch of colorful fish and some rather large scary looking ones. Then we piled on to the ship and we were supposed to go to a wreck, but because of choppy conditions we had to go to another reef somewhere else close by. The first reef was more interesting. Jessica got stung by some small jelly fish(ouch!), and I swam too far under water without equalizing my ears properly (it was plugged and hurt for a full week, I will elaborate further in another blog).
Oh Yeah, also, if you are going to go snorkeling, make sure that you shave your face (guys) the morning of, otherwise your goggles leak like crazy and you spend most of your time emptying the salt water out of them. Turns out if you don't empty them out every other second salt water goes in your eyes and you can't see anything for a couple of minutes.

After snorkeling we got to hang out in downtown George Town and shop around. We saw some neat fiber glass lizards just hanging around. Here is Jess with the first one we saw.

Shopping was ok, but it was the same old touristy stuff, and you couldn't really barter. I tried to lower the price of a couple things, but the workers just laughed at me. Oh well, it doesn't hurt to try. If we go there again, I think we would try to rent a car or scooters to check out some surrounding areas. HEY LOOK! A scooter just like ours! What are the Odds of that???

The crappiest thing about tendering is trying to get back on board the cruise at the end of the day. We showed up Two Hours early to try and beat the rush back to the ship, only to see that the line for our ship literally went ten blocks down the street and out of sight. So we got an iced coffee, shopped around some more and then chilled by this fountain while we let the suckers wait in line.

SO LONG GRAND CAYMAN!!!

Cruise 4 Jamaica Continued... The Chucka Adventures!!!

2008-05-02T21:54:00.000-07:00

... So after our episode of being frightened in down town Montego Bay, we hopped in a taxi (which was ironically driven by a man that had worked in Portland OR for a nine month stint. he said it rained every day and he would never go back, sounds like he came during the wrong nine months...) and were whisked away to the pier to await our excursion.

OK, this was our most expensive excursion, but it was by far the coolest!
It was called "Chucka Ocean Safari" and it sure was!

We took a 45 minute taxi ride through the country side (which I really enjoyed, though I didn't think that I would) and arrived at a beach and small dock. We hopped on a party/pontoon boat and headed out to sea. Our Jamaican guides were really friendly and welcoming. They were in their twenties, and really easy going. They made a game out of asking us questions in "Jamaican Patois" or "Jamaican Creole" or better known as just "Slang". They would ramble out this gibberish type sentence with the accents of a question and just look at you anticipating an answer. Then after whatever lame response we would give back they would laugh and then tell us what they had said. We really enjoyed it and it never seemed to get old no matter how many times they did it.

So, anyway, once we made it out a while we anchored and eventually climbed onto our individual "chucka" boats. They look kindof dorky, but they were actually really fun to drive. I got to drive for half an hour one way and Jessica got to drive it back. The water was really choppy which made it fun, especially if you throttled up right at the crest of the wave.

The best part was when Jessica got to drive back. She was not quite strong enough to operate the throttle, which means that I got to reach around her and manage it while she steered . This entailed anticipating where we were on a wave and how she was going to steer while heaving to and fro. We were dying of laughter the whole way back, especially when we would go full throttle, it was great.

To top it all off, on the last corner (I had throttled up during the middle of the sharpest part of the turn), the seat gave way! This is us checking out the seat right before we got off. We heard this loud crash as the seat shifted, Jessica had to do the equivalent of a wall squat for the minute back to the party boat, I just sat uncomfortably on the shifted plastic. It was fine, the worker just shifted the seat back in place, I guess it had come free of its housing, thats all (I guess it happens often???).

So next, we got to go snorkeling off the party boat. The Jamaican tour guide lead us around a coral and would show us various sea creatures. First he found a sea cucumber (man that thing looked hilarious!), then a sea urchin and so forth. I saw a huge stingray just chillin' at the bottom. That was quite fun as well.

After snorkeling, we went back to land and to the ship and we were on our merry way!
Ahhh, Cruisin' is Great! I wish I were there now.

Cruise 3 Jamaica

2008-04-26T22:01:00.000-07:00

Jamaica was our next stop, and was the most interesting stop on our cruise.
I really wanted to go to a downtown location and check out what Jamaica was all about.
The ship told us that the best place in Montego Bay was a five minute taxi drive away (to be fair they also said that Jamaica was probably not the best place to shop). So we piled into a taxi for $5 a head and were promptly dropped off at the "city center shopping" location.

Here is a picture of the center. Up close it looks more like a two story pawn shop, there are bars on almost all the windows, and every other shop was closed (as in non-existent). So once we looked at all ten shops that were there (and they had all the same type of tourist stuff), we decided to walk a little ways down one street to see some more shops. We were the only white people around (which just means that we really stood out), the streets and alleys were very dirty and scary, and the people were quite pushy in trying to sell things to you or trying to get "tips". There was one guy that decided he was our "guide" and was leading us to some better "shopping" place. I am sure he just wanted a tip, but there is always the distinct possibility that he wanted to lead us somewhere and then take our money once where he wanted us. So after being there for about ten minutes total, we had had our fill and were ready to get going. We announced to our "guide" that we were heading back, and on our way we were stopped by an old man with no teeth who recited us some poem about a king and a queen in love (oh don't forget he really just wanted a tip). Luckily a taxi driver saw us and rescued us by coming to get us.

Here are some more pictures of the scary area.
Ok, it may not look to scary here, but I assure you that when you are there, you feel quite exposed, and everyone knows that you are a little lost tourist out of your element. And it seems that everyone looks at you like you have a ton of money that you are just dying to hand over for no reason.

So we went back to the ship and awaited our excursion...
I will post on that a little later.

Cruise 2 Haiti

2008-04-11T14:18:00.000-07:00

Royal Caribbean has purchase a private beach on Haiti, so basically this was a resort like beach area with lunch provided.

This is our monstrous ship and one of the many swimming areas.

And though we enjoyed our stay on this small peninsula, Haiti was probably our least favorite of the stops along the way.

It was however EXTREMELY relaxing (and hot).

We went on a walking tour to learn a little about Haiti... turns out we saw an old buccaneer trading posts and a wild dog.
We spent the rest of our time relaxing and a little swimming.

Behind us here is were I tried to snorkel, but it was way too shallow and corral-ie so I promptly got out and swam in a better spot.

More to come latter.

We Went On A Cruise!!!

2008-04-04T21:02:00.000-07:00

For our fifth/sixth year anniversary, we decided to go on a cruise. We went over spring break for a seven-night stay on the Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas. Oh man, it was AWESOME!

We went to Haiti, Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico.

Looking forward to the trip was probably the only thing that got me through last term (I call it the term of death). I will tell more about each place we went when I find time, but for now here are some pictures of just the ship and us having a blast!

This is us all dressed up for one of the formal nights. It is actually fun to get all fancied up when you have a reason to.

This is ME shreddin' it. When I'm not tearin' up the Flow Rider, I'm kicken' in with my chick in the Wind Jammer...

Rock Climbing Rocks!!!

Awe, snack time/sleepy time.

Seriously how cool it that!

The Other Day…

2008-02-26T18:33:00.000-08:00

I was looking at a music catalog, perusing various guitars, amps, microphones and effects pedals, when I happened upon a picture of Eric Clapton advertising his new effects pedal. This image in an instant roused a memory with a flash and suddenly I was laughing out loud. I had suddenly remembered the heated arguments that my brother and I would have about Eric Clapton and Randy Rhoads (the lead guitarist for Ozzy Osborn) and which one was better. Actually we didn’t specifically argue which one was better, rather which one was the greatest guitarist that had ever lived. In retrospect this is a ridiculous thing to argue about, especially if you are rooting for Eric Clapton (that was me). So Andy, I salute you in that yours was probably better, but there couldn’t be any way to decipher if he was the best ever.

If only these were the sorts of problems I had to deal with presently, life would be so much easer.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah…

2008-01-27T21:18:00.000-08:00

Yep, I just turned 27.
When I was in grade school I remember thinking that if you were 25 years old, YOU WERE an adult. Now at the age of 27 I am reconsidering; but I do feel older. I require coffee in the morning, I can hardly tolerate some of my classmates that are in their teens or early tweens, and I rarely go to bed later than10 PM.

My birthday this year was pretty much the same as any day, I went to school and then straight to work, then picked up Jess, went to her bass lesson, and then we splurged and went to a mid-scale restaurant at 8:30 for dinner, then home to bed.

Tomorrow I have a midterm, and then one on Thursday, oh yeah, lets throw in about eight hours of more homework (and reading that I will not get to), a project, a report, band practice and a five hour work shift… the list goes on. That is why I haven’t written in a while, I know, LAME EXCUSE!

I will try harder.
I have got some blog ideas started, but I need to polish them before I post them (us engineering types tend to be perfectionists).

Ramping Up...

2008-01-03T18:45:00.000-08:00

I am ready to head back to school, this working two jobs thing is tough.
Although, I think the road ahead is going to be rocky.
Until summer I am going to have both jobs. The GP job I will only have to work five hours a week (plus an hour+ total commute), and it is going to be Tuesdays so I think I will be able to manage that. The IAC on the other hand could prove to be a monkey wrench, they love to call mandatory meetings and pop up deadlines, you never know when it can jump up and steal ten hours in a week. AND... to make everything more interesting, this next term is supposed to be the most challenging for Chemical Engineering Students (thats me). My friend that took these classes last year said he averaged four hours of sleep a night to get everything done, luckily I already gotten one of the classes out of the way, so I think I will do fine.
Yep, I've got a healthy dose of CRAZY goin' on.

God…in Guitar

2007-12-29T08:48:00.002-08:00

Last spring I took a world religions class to fill a back-core requirement. I enjoyed the class to an extent, but it always seems like the teachers of those classes have such a bias. I did enjoy learning about other beliefs and cultures, but I must say that I was disappointed with the particular agenda of the teacher. Pretty much all the eastern religions were presented I feel fairly, he always told how they view god/or gods, how they get to heaven, what heaven is like and just a basic outline of their beliefs. When we made it to western religions, he left out all that happy jazz and merely pointed out any faults in logic or controversial events such as insinuating that the Cannon process was where Christians voted that Jesus was God. He did not bother to really talk about what we believe or our view of God as a wonderful omnipresent force or how we try to get to heaven. It was frustrating.

Anyway, the real reason I am writing this blogg is to tell about what else happened in that class. I would sit in the same seat pretty much each class, and another guy in my class would sit one chair removed. I did not know this guy, but we got to talking one day and turns out he goes to my church and he plays the guitar. So we were talking about music and guitars and I told him “I really wanted an electric guitar… someday” the conversation went on until class started. The next class he shows up with an electric guitar case, he opens it and shows it to me, and then says, “I want you to have this. I feel like the Lord is telling me I should give this to you.” I did not know what to say, at first I said I could not accept it, but he persisted. I have somewhere learned that accepting a gift from someone gracefully is important so I verbally accepted the gift but my head was almost spinning and I had not yet mentally realized what had really happened. I had a heck of a time paying attention that day in class, at the end of class… you know what, I can’t even really remember what happened then, but I just remember feeling confused, really excited, a little embarrassed for accepting something so personal from a stranger, and stumbling over my words and feelings as I thanked him again and was on my way to riding my scooter home with a guitar.
I made it home fine, and opened up the case… this was really the first time I could look at it. I saw it in class but it was really just a flash, and it was before I knew he was giving it to me.

It is beautiful. It is the Radiator by Godin (pronounced Go – din, I originally thought it was God – in). The week prior to this, I had been at a couple music stores actually looking at electric guitars, I was researching what type of guitar I would want when I could afford one. This guitar was pretty much everything that I had wanted in a guitar, right down to the extra wide single coil pickups. I have affectionately named it “The Lord Provides” since he did.
I have really enjoyed playing it, and will continue to do so.
Thanks God.

Dumb and Dumber? … No, Just Silliness.

2007-12-21T08:05:00.000-08:00

I ride our scooters year round. There are several reasons why and are:
We only have one car,
I am only a couple of blocks from campus,
Motorcycle parking is closer to all of the buildings I go to on campus,
Campus motorcycle parking is $40 / yr while care parking is $250/yr,
While it gets cold, it only snows once a year and only stays for a day,
And most importantly, I really don’t mind… unless it is raining.

So should it come as a surprise that I have ridden the scooter (2 out of 6 times) to my new job in Halsey? It is a total of 18 miles one way. The scooter can only go 40 MPH and can not keep up with traffic, I mapped out and take all back roads the whole way and it takes me about 50 minutes to make the journey. I have to admit, in the summer time I will have a blast, when the weather is warm and sunny, but right now it pretty much rains every day or is pretty darn cold. The two days that I rode it was not raining but stinkin’ cold, the first day I really froze, and the second day I bundled up like crazy. The other four days it was raining so I elected to drive Jessica to and from work first so I could have the car.

For your viewing pleasure here is my joyous route:

My NEW Job…

2007-12-15T07:51:00.000-08:00

I just got an AWESOME new job at the Georgia Pacific paper mill in Halsey, OR. It is an internship that will last at least through the summer. I am still working at my other job now and during the school year, but I started work there this last week and put in three full days. I will only be working at GP for about five hours a week during the school year, and I will probably have to work about five hours for my other job too. I have committed to work at my current job until the summer when I will end my time there. At my new job, I am working closely with some process engineers and we perform tests called “trials” to try to improve the process. So far it is really cool. My greatest challenges right now is simply to learn the people, the machines, the buildings, the paper industry lingo and the proper procedures for writing my reports… there is so much it is almost a blur.

I will post more when I have a chance. I have been so busy lately… I got the call for the job offer during my first final, and was working the following week. My intention was not to start until the summer, but they talked me into it (I think it had to do with the SWEET raise!)

Thanks To The Thankless...

2007-12-03T08:30:00.000-08:00

Many of you know that I am in a band, we have only had a grand total of six performances, but have practice together for about a year and a half. Of those six performances (and numerous practices), there has been an unnoticed Force present, a subtle but powerful existence diligently perusing a greater good for the band. That Force has provided physical, physiological and technical support for the band as well as compiling tangible memorabilia such as photographs and videos for posterity. That Force is my Wife! And I want to Thank Her for all her help and support!
Thanks for taking pictures and making the videos, they are awesome! Thanks for helping out and “putting up” with the band and all of our shenanigans! I love you and Thanks!

Here is a great example of what I am talking about…

Scooter Resolutions

2007-11-19T08:36:00.000-08:00

It is Finally Fixed! It is such a relief to not have to worry about fixing it anymore.
My friend Aaron (the motorcycle king) came down to Corvallis for the weekend to see my band perform, and while he was here I got him to take a look at the scooter.

Oh, before he had gotten here, I had received and installed the official Yamaha ($50) v-belt and the same symptoms as before were present. The official belt was slightly smaller in diameter which is what I thought the problem was, but it made no difference, except it made it harder for the stinkin’ thing to get on.

Anyway, Aaron looked at it for three minutes, pulled the other rotor off (the one I had not touched) and Voo-wall-ah there is the problem, some of the “rollers” were out of place (kind of like ball bearings). Five minutes latter, I was zipping around on the thing like nothing had ever happened.

If Aaron had not come along, I know I would have ended up taking it to a place and paying some guy a hundred bucks for him to say “yea-up its just dem dere roller deals”. I am so glad that we fixed it.

On another note, I am so glad that last week is over (the reason I have not written a blog in a while). I had three crazy exams, one on Thursday and two on Friday. The worst thing about the two on Friday is that the instructor for one of the exams split it into two parts, half in the morning and half in the evening. So I had half a crazy exam for the first class, then an hour to study for the second class, then I took the second exam, then I had two hours to study for the other half of the first exam, then then I took the second half of the first exam. And to top it all off, I had to come home and clean the entire house before people showed up to stay for the weekend.
Ahhh, so glad that week is done.

Questions From A Name

2007-11-08T13:15:00.000-08:00

I just finished writing lyrics to a melody I have had for quite a while.
It will probably be some time before I get it recorded in a presentable way. However, I thought that I would share the lyrics and a little on my take of what I mean.

The name Micah means “Who is like God?/!” one half question, one half statement of joy. And I was thinking about how some parts of God are just so inconceivable; and I wonder about why he allows things to occur and take their course. So I guess this is my reminder that we can not pigeon hole God into his box in our brains like we would really prefer to do. One more thing, I think the strongest undertone is about faith, and how difficult it can be sometimes to have to rely wholly on something so intangible.

I hope you like it, and I hope that it challenges you to look for God more today.

Questions from a name

Chorus:
In the heavens and the seas
Can anyone see who is like my God?

Verse 1:
These questions from a name I bare,
Of mysteries my form declare,
Not just from scientific means,
But ends for some which seems unfair.

Much bigger than my mind can fare,
This omnipresent unceasing stare,
With silent speak and translucent shroud,
Reveal a chance that no proud would dare.

Verse 2:
No answers here resolve this song,
Like name of which has posed so long,
But question raised and name be praised,
The stumbling block that fazed a throng.

No contempt, nor downward gaze,
But fear, respect and altered ways,
A life succumbed to understand,
The order called from random haze.

Verse 3:
Faith is a word but symbol too,
What it means to me, may not be for you,
My hope in him is the same for you,
A love, a longing and dream come true.

Micah Brosius

Scooter Madness Continued…

2007-11-04T07:40:00.001-08:00

I bet some of you are wondering about the end result of the scooter, well here is the next installment.
I finally found time to take the crankshaft housing apart, which is a pain because I didn’t want to strip out five Philips head screws (which I pretty much ended up doing), to discover that only the drive V-belt needed replacing.

Generally these (the V-belts) seem like an easy fix, but I have discovered through the few belts that I have changed out in my day that getting the correct pressure on the belt is the most difficult aspect of the change out (too much pressure can result in a break, too little pressure wears them quicker). However, the Yamaha Zuma claims to be a different breed when it comes to the V-belt because, it has a momentum driven transmission, which suggests that you don’t have to fiddle about with getting the proper tension, but simply get the thing on there.

I somewhat enjoy working on mechanical things, I think that I would enjoy it even more if I had all the proper tools for the job. Since one of the nuts that I needed removed was on the central axis of a rotating disc, it was difficult getting that baby off. Most people with air tools would just crank on the thing until it came off, I had to devise a way to keep the part still without damaging it. I first tired to use vice grips and a socket wrench to torque both ways, but the vice grips were starting to damage the disc, so I needed a new tactic. I improvised, I jammed a small role of electrical tape between the disc and the housing, this stopped the motion of the disc, and most certainly did not harm anything.

So, a few small cuts on my hands and a mangled role of electrical tape latter, I had changed out he belt, reassembled the housing, and was ready to call it a day… just after a quick test drive to ensure everything was good again.
Start it up…
Sounds typical for not running for three weeks…
Hop on and go…
Waiting…
Waiting…
Ok, up to speed…

The thing sluggishly moves from 0-15 mph then bursts forward and maxes out at 35 mph (before the max speed was 40-45 mph).

I took it apart a couple more times, trying to get it to work properly, but it turns out that the belt is more particular than earlier thought. You see I got an after market belt (here meaning it is not a Yamaha certified part but allegedly the same size shape and performance) the Yamaha V-belt was $40, the after market V-belt that I got was $12 but highly recommended as equivalent. It’s a no brainier right? Well I thought so, but now I am rethinking it. I think that the problem here is the current belt is too big or too small and creating momentum issues with the magical transmission. So I think I am back to square one of ordering a new part, disassemble, tape mangle, etc… before this story continues.

On another note, here are some pictures of our pumpkins,
Mine is the spider one, it was my first try at the Bizarre-O-Carve.
The others are in order from left to right... Aaron's, Mine, Catherine's and Jessica's.

Micah Brosius

Up-Coming-Event

2007-11-02T07:24:00.000-07:00

Coffee Confessions

2007-11-01T08:07:00.000-07:00

I used to despise everything about coffee!
I hated the smell in coffee cups that I would occasionally drink milk out of when I was younger.
I hated the taste of the candies and the Ice creams, and would not eat them which was a big deal for this candy and ice cream addict (I do remember that Jeremy Loved Jamocha Ice cream and milkshakes, and would often rant about how good they were if he was in a position to possibly attain some).
I remember the first time I got to have a cup of coffee while camping in Bar Harbor, I thought it was such a big kid thing to do, but man was it horrible, even with the loads of sugar and cream that I piled on.
When I went to college in South Portland and worked security, I occasionally had a cup of coffee out of pure necessity of staying alert and awake (still loaded with sugar and cream) and I would take chugs to reduce the amount of time I had to drink it.

Sometimes I think the oddest things in life are the ways that we change over time, especially in ways we never would have expected.

About two years ago, I decided that I wanted to drink coffee. I think part of the decision was because I was in class with a bunch of rowdy 19 year old kids (and me being 25 needed more energy), partly because I had heard that it could actually help in the learning process, and partly because I didn’t mind the taste as much anymore (the weirdest one of all).
Then about a month into brewing my own coffee, I decided that I should drink it black. My logic behind this self-inflicted torture was that I MIGHT be SOMEWHERE SOMETIME and want to have some coffee, but might not have the proper (here meaning vast) amounts of cream and sugar that I required.
Now, I love black coffee. I love the way it smells when I open the can in the morning, and after it is brewed. I like the candies and the ice creams (Finally!). I learned about a year ago that I can make it “stronger”, which rocks! I make “strong” coffee (here meaning that when I go to a restaurant that offers three brews of coffee: light, medium and strong, I order the strong and am disappointed at the weak sorry excuse of a beverage.).

Alas, I must leave you now, for all of this banter was before my daily brew and I hear it beckoning.

Good Day to you!

Micah Brosius

Thrifty Theft...

2007-10-28T14:16:00.000-07:00

We went to Portland this weekend, which is usually quite pleasant, however, this morning (Sunday) we went out to the car to discover that it had been “Broken” into.
“Broken” here meaning no broken or having any detectable points of entry. Meaning that they (creep face / lone jerk / meth addict / uncompassionate juvenile) were very good at picking locks (scary thought) or the ever so slight possibility that I left a door unlocked.

It is always such a violating experience, the break in, one feels so exposed and helpless.
Our car was broken into one time before, and that time, they (same as above) not only smashed a window that I would later replace myself, they also made out with a sweet Kenwood cd player, at least 75 cd’s, and an ugly blanket which Jessica happened to be sentimentally attached.

This time they (same) were not so fortunate, but rather we were.
The car contained the night before this incident the following:
cd player minus the detachable face,
three burned cd’s of which I have electronic back up of,
my glasses that I only use for driving at night and watching TV,
two wetsuits that we purchased for about $100 total,
a nice tan blanket,
and a trickle charger for recharging a car battery.

The only thing missing:
My Freakin’ Glasses.

I remember on Friday as I tucked the glasses in the glove box, “oh, no one would possibly want my glasses even if the car was broken into…” I guess I was wrong.

Could somebody please tell me what the heck they could possibly want with my weak prescription glasses? Do they really have a resale value? Is there a large demand for hot glasses? I don’t know, but I do know that Jessica’s mom’s car was perused one time and all they took then was her glasses. I just don’t get it.

Any way, at least I don’t have to spend a day replacing a window and a cd player.

On a lighter note, here is a video of our band playing at the Fox & Firkin last month.

Micah Brosius

Dreaming Equations

2007-10-22T15:19:00.000-07:00

Many people have that dream where its finals week and you suddenly realize that you forgot to go to one class all term! Although I have recently had that particular dream, I find that it is nothing compared to this gem…

First some of the scenario,
It is getting to be about the middle of the term, and I literally spend several hours each day on ONE homework problem. The answer to the problem is usually a number, but the tricky part is getting that number, which is really finding the proper equation.
And this is where the dream lives… FINDING THE EQUATION.

Usually in chemistry there are maybe five equations that we use, you just have to know which ones to use. So the letters are the same but principles vary. Probably the most famous chemistry equation is the one that I have dreamed about several times and it goes like this:

P V = n R T

Looks easy enough right?
Than could somebody tell me why the heck I find myself rolling around in a half asleep state for hours trying to manipulate this equation in my sub consciousness.

I can remember one time, I was sick, and I was convinced that if I could only find the appropriate value for the P (pressure) then my sore throat would go away and I could sleep soundly.

Other times I would wake up thinking I had firmly solved all of my homework, only to realize, once awake, that my solution was pure gibberish.

Now when I realize that I am dreaming about equations (which does happen quite a bit) I force myself to get up, get a drink of water, sit on the couch, and then go back to bed while trying to think of anything, ANYTHING, other than equations.

Here are a couple recent equations I have been dreaming about…

Improved Efficiency

2007-10-17T08:21:00.001-07:00

It is funny how things start to infiltrate your mind and than your very existence…
For me, first there were numbers and equations that always seemed to be popping out. Sometimes on a molecular scale, thinking about the leaves outside my window teaming with cells and proteins and chemical changes or sometimes on larger things like squirrel populations and randomness of discovering one actually in the same tree. Since I have worked as an energy analyst for the past year and a half, I now find myself plagued with efficiency notions (and questions).

I think engineering is kind of about efficiency, so as my mind has been turned onto things it is not easily turned off. Examples of efficiency changes in my life include:

I find myself walking deliberately off sidewalks (which most other students don’t do) so I can travel the shortest distance
(a^2 + b^2 = c^2).

When I go to a restaurant (lets say Burger King), I know all the types of questions I will be asked once I get to place my order, so I take the initiative so that when they are ready I say “meal #3, no pickles, medium, Dr. Pepper, for here.” And then I hand them my payment as I finish speaking. I find this is much better than waiting for them to ask, reply, ask, reply and so forth.

When I eat my sausage, I like a healthy (here meaning unhealthy) amount of syrup on them. I know that the amount of syrup that can actually stay on the sausage is relative to the surface area of the sausage and the depth of syrup that is pooled together. So what do I do? I cut my sausage at an obtuse angle to increase surface area (I could cut them lengthwise, but that is just too far!) and I ensure that there is an abundant depth of syrup. Next with a continuous motion, I role 75-80% of the sausage in the syrup and lift it while twirling, so no dripping occurs.

Anyway, those are the kind of things that I think about now while seemingly doing slightly odd (or perhaps un noticeable?) things.

This is an image of lights on in an industrial cooled area.

So here is the thing that got me thinking about all that this morning.
I was thinking about energy efficient appliances, and lighting and what not…
And was thinking that technically, if one is heating their home with electrical heat, the appliances in the wintertime are 100% efficient. Because any inefficiency in mechanical energy, be it sound or light or friction, will inevitably turn into heat, thereby making wintertime inefficiencies reduce the amount of work that the actual heaters have to do.
So really the inefficient appliances are most inefficient in the warmer months when one is not heating ones home. Furthermore, if one is cooling ones home with an AC, then the inefficient appliances are dumping heat in an area that one is paying to remove heat…
So, more efficient fixtures and appliances are going to pay for themselves faster in warmer climates… had you ever thought about it like that before???

Scooter Madness!!!

2007-10-13T11:31:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went for a scooter ride with our friends Aaron and Catherine. It started out as a fun means to make it to a local park… but then somebody said something about trying to make it to Jefferson to Christopher and Blanca’s … The gauntlet had been thrown down, and we accepted.

To most of you who don’t know, the scooters can only go 45 mph max. that means no main highways. So we mapped out the only possible route to Albany from Corvallis and then to Jefferson. This trip usually takes half an hour on highways going 65 mph, but we were off, two people to each 49cc scooter.

We made it to Albany great, no traffic lined up behind us, just smooth (chilly) driving. When we headed out of Albany and we were probably five miles away from our destination, the scooter Jessica and I were driving freaked out… we were cruising along fine, then I felt a little bit of loss in power, but I wasn’t sure if it was just because we were going up a hill. And then… all power was gone, the engine would rev but we were not going anywhere. I am suspect that a belt came loose, but I will find out today once I purchase the proper tool to open up that area.

So there we were, five miles from our destination, and probably 25ish miles from our apartment. Our friends usually have a truck that could have hauled the scooter home in, but they had taken their car this weekend to visit with. Christopher also usually has his dad’s trailer which could have been used too, but that was in Portland as well. About 100 yards from where we had broken down there happened to be a motorcycle/scooter shop that could probably fix our scooter. So Aaron “towed” my scooter down the road, which consisted of me hanging onto his scooter with one hand and steering with the other. I went inside and asked the guys in the shop if they could help me have a look at it, but it seems “the guys” had gotten together to watch the game (OSU football) and were NOT going to work on any scooter… Luckily our friends happened to have AAA for motorcycles. AAA can only bring two passengers and one of them needs to be a card holder, and since Aaron and Catherine didn’t quite know how to get back, Aaron and I waited for the tow truck while Jessica and Catherine drove back on the working scooter.

Since we didn’t want to wait in the driveway of the scooter shop, we went to the next driveway over to the “Spray Foam inc” place. While waiting for the tow truck we perused the sights. The tow truck driver was interesting in that he was incredibly un-chatty, and would not laugh at anything that Aaron and I thought was hilarious. However, I am sure we were interesting too, two guys, one scooter, 25 miles from our apartment, and I told him we were going to see my brother in-law. One can imagine what he might have thought. So about halfway through the drive Aaron dropped a reference to the girls, putting to bed any questions the driver may have had about some situations.

Well, I wonder if we will ever try that again. I bet we will, but we will see.

Click Here to see the Scooter Madness Route

My Once and Future Job

2007-10-10T08:15:00.000-07:00

I am going to talk about my job now.

I really like my job! I know not many people get to say that and mean it, but I get to! I work for "THE INDUSTRIAL ASSESSMENT CENTER” (echoes around the room…), which is an extension of the department of energy. Basically, a team of students (that’s me) go to factories for one day, poke around some big machinery, and then tell the big wigs how they could do it better and save money.
I think my favorite part about it is that we get these private specialized tours of really neat places. I get to see places that most of the workers on sight don’t usually get to see. I go on the roofs, down in the basements, climb around on the boiler (these are my specialty and THE COOLEST by the way), and the clients usually pay for lunch… Life is Good.
After the audit, we go back to the office and scheme on how they would save money and calculate the number and then write a report. All of this is pretty fun to me since I now appreciate modeling energy uses. Also, I am what they call a “Lead Energy Analyst” so I get to tell other people what to do, and read their papers and tell them what is what… the down side is that I am responsible to turn in the final paper to the customer which is usually about a hundred page document with excruciating details.
I am going to a window factory tomorrow.
Right now I am buried at work and school, and am feeling a little stressed.
Oh well, things will get done.

Here is a picture of a hot-dog/sausage plant. This place was very low tech.

Chemistry Why???

2007-10-09T21:52:00.000-07:00

I like Chemistry,
Why you might ask?
Well in a lot of ways it appeals to my know it all nature...
I remember lying in bed at the age of five rattling off fact after fact to my little brother. Actually, they were mostly things that I thought were fact, in reality I was just making things up.
Years have gone by, and now instead of "making things up" I use what is called "Engineering Estimating" where I get to estimate by deduction (make things up) to model or solve a problem.
It is funny though, I really enjoy working on my homework now. I find it peaceful and it gives me an excuse to view the world through a new perspective of equations and mathematics... weird.

Right now I am taking Fluid Mechanics, Thermodynamics I and Biochemistry. So my brain is buzzing with new ideas and principles. I think in a way, learning is an addictive drug. I think the reason that I enjoy it so much is the fact that I try to relate every principle and every part of science to God and his creation. I think it is funny that scientists have a reputation of not believing in God, since it seems to me that is were he is most evident.

Adventures with e_Cubed

2007-10-09T08:23:00.000-07:00

This is Micah Brosius, I am King Fun, Welcome to my Domane...
Well I have been a blogg reader for a long time, and I think I am ready to start my own.

As some of you know, I am in a band. We have been practicing together for about a year and a half now, and we just had our first show in our home town of Corvallis. I think it went really well, the bartenders told us that we were the best band that has played there for about two years, and it was a "Packed House!", personally I think alot more people could have come...

If anyone is interested in hearing the music or seeing pictures and a video of the event, check out our myspace page or my college website to download our music, they are:

www.oregonstate.edu/~brosiusm
and
www.myspace.com/ecubedtheband

More Later...