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Palm Springs Wind Mill Farm

Post author By Samuel
Post date March 31, 2014

This past weekend I went to the Palm Springs Wind Mill Farm with my Father and older sister….. it was amazing!

In general I love alternative energy more than the average bear. More accurately I’ve been obsessed with learning all that I can about how solar panels and wind mills work since as long as I can remember. At some point in my life I plan on owning large scale wind generators and possibly a large scale solar power plant (provided that I can figure out how to build a more efficient solar panel).

One thing that gets lost on most people (me included) is just how large these wind mills are:

As you can see from the image above these turbines are massive. Each blade weighs 8 metric tons (a metric tone is 240 pounds heaver than our version). With such a big blade they are able to turn an astonishingly large gear (average gear box weighs 45,000 pounds). Turning such a large gear allows the turbines to generate impressive amounts of power. The turbines at Palm Springs are some of the largest in the world, and currently the major limiting factor to their size is actually our interstate system. Our turbins have outgrown our interstate system, all of the parts must be small enough to be shipped under an overpass which limits them to under 14 feet 3 inches. There are plans to build even larger turbines at offshoar facilities like the the cap cod wind mill farm

Some Stats about the Palm Springs Farm and wind power in general:

-there are over 2,800 mills in operation at palm springs farm, with an average 98% up time. That stat is a little confusing though, it just means that the turbines are in service 98% of the time, not that they are generating power 98% of the time. In fact the wind is blowing hard enough for the turbines to generate power only 38% of the time.
-the new generation wind turbines can generate enough power to run 900 average house holds
-the obama administration commited the us to a goal of generating 20% of our nations power from wind by 2030 (a great goal that I think should be made even more ambitions)
-1 service technician services on average 10 wind mills per month (think there will be some job grown in this sector?? currently we generate less than 2% of our power from wind, upping this to 20% will create several hundred thousand jobs in this sector)
-1 wind mill can generate more power than 500 typical solar panels
-the largest GE turbines at palm springs cost 6 million dollars to build and assemble

Inspirational Julia

Good Morning

Post author By Julia
Post date March 27, 2014

I woke up today and went to a 6am yoga class, stopped for a coffee on the way home and had time to make my breakfast and lunch. Feeling stretched and energized and ready to take on the day.

Thought I’d also start my day with one of my favorite quotes, that a dear friend wrote in a journal she presented me before I left on my study-abroad adventure back in college.

“Like shrinks or expands, in proportion to one’s courage.”

Too true.

Inspirational

Its All Your Choice

Post author By Samuel
Post date March 26, 2014

This is a short article I enjoy reading from time to time to help re-enforce my decision making process. The daily grind of negativity from society can weigh on you and its important to remember simple lessons like this:

Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two

choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or ..

you can choose to be in a bad mood

I choose to be in a good

mood.’

Each time something bad happens,

I can choose to be a victim or…I can choose to learn

from it. I choose to learn from

it.

Every time someone comes to me

complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining

or… I can point out the positive side of life. I

choose the positive side of life.’

‘Yeah, right,

it’s not that easy,’ I protested.

‘Yes, it is,’ he said. ‘Life is

all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every

situation is a choice. You choose how you react to

situations. You choose how people affect your

mood.

You choose to be

in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It’s your

choice how you live your life.

Inspirational Julia

What Grad School Taught Me

Post author By Julia
Post date March 25, 2014

Of all the classes that I took about adolescent social work, community building, social change on a policy level, Board governance and volunteer management, from teachers with insane resumes and books in their name; what grad school taught me most was how to breathe.

I won’t belittle my own intelligence or the amount of money I spent to attend a prestigious university (with such smart people running the place, you would think your graduate experience wouldn’t cost more than your earning potential in said field…but i digress). I did in fact learn a lot more about being an effective therapist and learned how to best meet a client where they stand, not forcing them to conform to your agenda. But the thing that I carry with me and use daily, now that I am not in a direct service role and in my personal life (especially in my personal life), is breathing.

My first semester of grad school, after having taken a year off to decide if I was really going to do it, left me feeling inept and unsure of my ability to do the work. I was so stressed and my body felt stressed, to the point of discomfort while I was sitting in class or working. One evening in a debriefing class used to augment our field practicums (internships) my instructor passed out an article about self care. Breathing was No.2 on the list of ways to care for yourself and your body.

Even if you aren’t losing it in graduate school (I did settle down eventually, and kick-ass at getting that MSW behind my name, in case your wondering) maybe you are working in your first job post graduation ,or you have been working for years and are facing a job transition, or your kids are driving you nuts, maybe you are having an easy go of things at the moment except this one work project (and boss) that is driving you nuts…try this:

sit still.
zone out.
maybe close your eyes if you feel like it.
breathe in through your nose with your mouth shut.
big, until your lungs hurt and your stomach is sticking out.
then, slowly release your breath through your mouth, until your stomach scrunches up with the effort of pushing out the air.
Repeat, 3-4 times.

All that oxygen makes you realize the speed at which you’ve been hurtling around your world. Makes you realize the stress you have been holding between your shoulders. those seconds, just breathing, lowers your heart rate, stops the thoughts scrolling and slows things down to a manageable level.

How often did I think about my breathing before the self-care article? Little to none.
Now, I try to remember to take at least a set of three deep breaths a day. This helps me realize that I am even feeling tense as my body relaxes. It also gives me perspective and sometimes clarity.

Try it, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Inspirational

1 Speech that makes me believe in God (kind of)

Post author By Samuel
Post date March 24, 2014

Sometimes I really love to start my day listening to an MLK speech. I am not a particularly religious person. I do however consider myself very spiritual…… and for those of you out there that say that is a cop out and I need to commit to believing in God or not believing in God please hit ALT F4 now, stop trying to force your religion on me and everyone else you see, besides if you thought that your probably the type of person who trolls people for using condoms or for being gay so I don’t have any interest in talking to you.

Back to one of my favorite videos of all time. This is MLK’s last speech. And right around the 1:30 mark it starts to get pretty amazing (and also kind of spooky). If you look closely at his eyes during this portion of the speech, when he talks about living a long life, and about going up to the mountain top to look over at the promise land…. I swear it looks like he is looking directly at “GOD” or at least at a place that the rest of us can not see…. regardless of your religious affiliation take 3 minutes out of your day and watch this video… its fucking great.

Julia Twenty Somethings

Appropriately Categorized

Post author By Julia
Post date March 22, 2014

I’m pretty sure I have been going through the various stages of the trendily-named “quarter-life crisis” for the past five years. I’m getting to the point where I am pretty sure I should be worried about this, really worried. And I’m trying to bring it to an end…

I have read all of the articles that tell us our huge uncertainty is simply an effect of having so many more viable options in what life can offer. Knowing it’s the endless options causing my heat-thumping, short of breath, dizzy so you have to remember to breathe deeply, panic moments; I find myself wanting someone to choose for me. Which isn’t possible – for someone to tell you how to live your life – unless you’re into indentured servitude,then go for it.

Since I don’t have a thing for indentured servitude, and I know no one else can direct me, I have been slugging it out. I haven’t found much comfort in blaming the innumerable options. I grew up being told I could do whatever I wanted and be accomplished, because I was smart and a hard worker. And now, not knowing what I want to do has led me to feel not so smart and blasé about all the hard work behind and ahead of me. Its not the options fault, or the fault of being privileged enough to be born into a country and society where this and a couple of other things top my “biggest concern” list. Its my fault for not trusting the process.

If there are two options before me, or endless options, I am attempting to pull myself out of this panicky-hole and trust that each little change I make will make a difference. The change from writing on my computer and saving files in Word, to publishing my thoughts on a blog; the change to work out everyday (or lose $50 a week to a friend); the change to take care of potential health concerns before they develop into anything serious; all of those little things are going to get me where I need to go. I’m making a concerted effort to believe this, to uphold my small changes, and to not give up when things aren’t magically perfect two or three weeks from now.

Hopefully one day soon the free-fall feeling that is associated with making big decisions will subside. Or maybe my small intentional changes will help me appreciate the free-fall into whatever is coming next.