It’s only been a few days and after getting only 5 hours of sleep the first few nights, I hit the hay at 8:30 pm last night. Some friends asked me to meet them at Turtle Bay (hookah lounge in Sunland), but I felt that I had the responsibility to not go. I’d rather not work on a huge headache, which is what I usually get after hitting up some hookah the night before.

I think I’m becoming a lot more responsible. Hopefully it sticks.

PS: I know this blog is ugly. I don’t give a shit.

I think the message was clear.

“Don’t fuck with god’s creations.”

For the record, I’m not religious.

The movie was damn good. I definitely had a lot to think about afterwards. I love movies that make me think.

A few complaints, as usual. Ford product placement was too obvious. And, the movie relied on sound to be scary. There were so many scenes where it’d be dead silent and then BAM, something loud to scare the audience. That got old, fast.

Although I may be better with money than some of my careless friends, I still believe that I am terrible at saving, holding back on impulse purchases, and just taking care of my money in general.

It’s mainly my hobby of cars that drains everything.

I plan on selling my honda DC2 for $9500 in about a month. I will spend about $2500 and take over payments on an AP2. This leaves me with about $7k. I will put aside $5k for taxes and spend the rest on starting to mod my S2000 (coilovers and exhaust first). Somewhere in there, I’d like to buy some new vans kicks from Red Zone in the Burbank mall. They have an awesome selection of my type of clothing. I might pick up a few t’s, jeans, and beanies as well. Have to look good to roll top down. Am I right or am I right?

Today is day 1. I like this job so far.

Here is my English 1A final essay. I didn’t quite make the six pages, but here is the bullshit I whipped out in a few hours.

Alex Zhao

English 1A

Don’t blame the car! (How the automobile relates to global warming and climate change.)

In 1997, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) produced a treaty called the Kyoto Protocol. Sixty percent of countries globally have signed this act, which aims to reduce carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases. This treaty runs through 2012, with talks already in progress to extend, or significantly revise it with stricter standards. (”Projections of Future Climate Change, The Scientific Basis”) In 2006, the United Nations sponsored a report on the culprits of global warming. It outlines cows farting and burping, as well as cars being gross polluters. (”Global Warming Culprits: Cars and … Cows”) In the United States, we have a gas guzzler tax affixed to the price of new automobiles. A car that averages less than twenty-two miles per gallon is charged a $1000 fee, which increases dramatically for each mile per gallon less than that (up to $7700). (”Legislation Affecting the Renewable Energy Marketplace”) Governments all around the world are imposing new regulations, laws, and taxes, greatly exaggerating the impact that automobiles place on the environment. The car should not be held to blame, as global warming theorists have been doing.

Sure, automobiles do produce carbon emissions, but the many plans that the government has been implementing are significantly flawed. As the U.N. report stressed, cows were a huge contributing factor to harmful greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide. Who would have guessed that in one flatulent, a cow would produce more “emissions” than a Range Rover will in one year! The new Porsche 911 Turbo only produces 300 carbon dioxides. Driven around a really polluted city, such as Los Angeles or New York; the gas coming out of the exhaust pipes is less toxic than the air going into the engine. (Top Gear S09E04, BBC) What this shows us is that the car now acts like a huge vacuum cleaner.

Pollution is related to global warming through what’s known as the greenhouse effect. In basics, the greenhouse effect is what keeps the Earth inhabitable. Without the greenhouse effect, the average surface temperature of the Earth would be well below freezing. But how did the air become so polluted? Well, The third assessment report of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) stated that when averaged over 100 years each kg of CH4 warms the Earth 25 times as much as the same mass of CO2. (IPCC third assessment report) Clearly then, it is methane levels that we need to address, not CO2. Cattle and sheep are some of the biggest methane producers. Australian scientists are trying to give kangaroo-style stomachs to them, in an attempt to aid the emission of greenhouse gases. “Thanks to special bacteria in their stomachs, kangaroo flatulence contains no methane and scientists want to transfer that bacteria to cattle and sheep who emit large quantities of the harmful gas.” (Eco-friendly kangaroo farts could help global warming, Yahoo! News) Australia, the only country not to have ratified the Kyoto treaty, attributes fourteen percent of emissions to enteric methane from cattle and sheep. New Zealand, which has a much higher agricultural base, is up around fifty percent. If a simple modification to a cow’s genetics can accomplish so much, then why expend so much effort on everything else? How moral such a practice is, can be left up for debate with the PETA group.

According to PERI’s (Political Economy Research Institute) Toxic 100 report, the top two toxic companies in the United States are DuPont, a chemical company and U.S. Steel, a steel producer. Only two automobile companies; Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. were ranked in the top 100. Plainly then, air pollution is dominated by large factories and resource corporations, not cars. Furthermore, the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) reports that the number one cause of global warming are coal-burning power plants; producing 2.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year.

How do we even know that the warming is a result of the buildup of Greenhouse Gases in the atmosphere from human activity, and not the result of natural causes? Well, the Coalition for Clean Air, a group that focuses on cleaning up the air in California, admits that the search for the “Greenhouse Fingerprint,” is still going on. What this means is that the issue is still uncertain and up for debate. “In its first assessment, in 1990, the IPCC concluded that we could not yet tell with any certainty that humans were responsible for the observed warming.” In late 2004, the Daily Telegraph, the most popular British newspaper, published a column titled, “The truth about global warming – it’s the Sun that’s to blame.” The article states, “A study by Swiss and German scientists suggests that increasing radiation from the sun is responsible for recent global climate changes.” “The Sun is in a changed state. It is brighter than it was a few hundred years ago and this brightening started relatively recently - in the last 100 to 150 years.” As I explained earlier, the Greenhouse Effect is where heat is trapped under the Earth’s atmosphere. It is very possible that the Sun’s increased heat output has simply caused the Earth to have more trapped heat. One way for cars to take advantage of excess sun is to use solar power as an alternative energy.

Many environmentalists look at the car as Satan’s own creation. They look at SUV’s, sports cars, and get sick to their stomachs with jealousy. There have been numerous incidents of eco-terrorism, - countless numbers of Hummers and Chevrolet Suburbans getting vandalized at dealership lots and people’s driveways. The Washington Post reports a Hummer owner in Washington D.C. has his vehicle being damaged on tape. Two masked men took bats to the body and knives to the tires, scrawling an angry message. These types of hate crimes are actually counter-productive to the goal of environmentalists. The owner now must have countless repairs done to the body and must purchase a new set of tires.
The Coalition for Clean Air states, “three-quarters of the human-caused emission of C02 is due to the combustion (or burning) of fossil fuels.” This is not true, as proved wrong by common sense, and even if it were true, it is so insignificant that we should not even worry about it.

So what are the effects of global warming? Well, the Coalition for Clean Air claims that the Earth’s average temperature has risen one degree Fahrenheit over the course of the 20th century. Again, the claimed rise is so trivial that one can just cite faulty measurements. And besides, it is normal for the temperature to vary globally. The Earth has seen hotter days even in pre-human time. Even if we examine pre-car periods from documented temperatures in the 19th century, it is clear that the industrial age has done nothing more than improve and extend people’s lives.

Why must we place all fault on automobiles and speak of them as the devil? The car has done so much for mankind. For example, the ambulance has saved many lives, transporting someone’s injured mother to the hospital on time and saving her life. Without it, she would have died. The fire truck; putting out building fires and saving human lives and putting out natural fires, saving trees, wildlife, and preserving the environment. The automobile has allowed us to visit otherwise impossible places and do research on the Arctic and Antarctic areas. Come to think of it, without automobiles, we probably would not know so much about climate change. There has never been so much progress made by mankind as in the 20th and 21st centuries. And much of this advancement would not be possible without the car. Obviously technology will never decline. As time goes on, we will have reasonable alternative energy sources such as solar power, electricity, and hydrogen that will reduce or even eliminate C02 production from our exhausts.

Massachusetts’s senator and former presidential hopeful John Kerry once suggested that we should implement a huge tax increase on gasoline “so people drive less.” This was his idea of reducing energy use, as if we all go out to drive for no reason. In Great Britain, “congestion … has become so bad that government official are proposing a dramatic measure.” “Busy roads at busy times of day could cost as much as $2 per mile, according to preliminary proposals. Small rural routes would cost just a few cents a mile. The idea, set to be formally unveiled Thursday in a speech by Transport Minister Alastair Darling, would be unprecedented. Several countries have talked about road pricing, or variable pricing, for decades, but nothing on this scale has ever been considered before.” (Christian Science Monitor) What governments around the world are trying to do is price us off the road. This is all in an effort to produce more money for the government. It is ridiculous for others to tell us that we are driving too much. We drive because we have somewhere that we need to be. We have congestion in the morning and evening because people need to get to and from work. In a way, blaming global warming on the car is no different than blaming global warming on the cow. Why aren’t we doing anything urgent to reduce emission from livestock anuses? The benefits of a car far outweigh the negatives in the same manner that the benefits of a cow (dairy, meat) far outweigh the negatives.

In conclusion, cars contribute such a petty amount to global warming, that we should be refocusing efforts on other significant sources of pollution. Progress is being made daily to advance basic transportation with alternative energy sources being the leading force. Countless abbreviated environmental groups are wasting time and effort targeting cars, as if awareness wasn’t high enough already. The effects of climate change are greatly exaggerated by politicians, tree-huggers, and are destroying the freedoms of others.

Alex Zhao

Works Cited

1. Executive Summary. Chapter 9: Projections of Future Climate Change. Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. 15 November, 2005.

2. ABC News. “Global Warming Culprits.” 13 December 2006.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GlobalWarming/story?id=2723201

3. Energy Information Administration. “Legislation Affecting the Renewable Energy Marketplace.”
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/solar.renewables/page/legislation/impact.html

4. “Top Gear.” S09E04. Prod. Andy Wilman. BBC. 18 February 2007.

5. CNN. “Pollution adding to severe global warming.” 26 October 2000.
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/10/25/global.warming.ap/index.html

6. United Nations Environment Programme. “Climate Change 2001.”
http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/248.htm

7. Yahoo! News. “Eco-friendly kangaroo farts could help global warming: scientists.” 5 December 2007.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/australiaclimatewarmingkangaroooffbeat

8. Political Economy Research Institute. “The Toxic 100.” 2002.
http://www.peri.umass.edu/Toxic-100-Table.265.0.html

9. Natural Resources Defense Council. “Global Warming Basics.” 9 February 2007.
http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/f101.asp

10. Outside the Beltway. “Eco-Terrorists Vandalize Hummer.” 19 July 2007.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2007/07/eco-terrorists_vandalize_hummer/

11. Washington Post. “Hummer Owner Gets Angry Message.” 18 July 2007.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/17/AR2007071701808.html

12. Coalition For Clean Air. “Global Warming FAQ’s.”
http://www.coalitionforcleanair.org/air-pollution-global-warming-faqs.html

13. The Daily Telegraph. “The truth about global warming – it’s the sun that’s to blame.”
17 July 2004.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/18/wsun18.xml

14. Resources For The Future. “Look beyond fuel taxes.” 11 April 2004.
http://www.rff.org/rff/News/Features/Can-We-Curtail-Driving.cfm

15. The Christian Science Monitor. “Every British Road May Soon Have Its Price Per Mile.” 9 June 2005.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0609/p01s04-woeu.html

Last night I read a guide on how to actually get out of bed when the alarm clock goes off. The guide points out that when you set the alarm clock the night before, that is your brain’s actual intention. But the next morning when the alarm clock goes off, you say to yourself, “what was I thinking, waking up this early,” and subsequently fall back asleep. There is no actual tactic. I try to force myself out of bed in the morning, but this is impossible. Your body freezes you in bed and forces your eyes closed. This is nature’s way of saying, “you haven’t gotten enough rest, get the fuck back asleep!” Trying to struggle against this, is not normal. It is like running. You get sore and tired, because your body is telling you that something is wrong, and you need to do something about it, fast. In the end, waking up in the morning differs for each person. Not everyone is a morning person. I believe that each person needs and ideal condition to get out of bed. For me, the room has to be at the same temperature as under my covers. If it’s cold, then I simply have no reason to get out of bed. I cannot convince myself to get up, because then I’d be uncomfortable and cold. If someone asked you, “would you like to be uncomfortable and cold,” you would obviously say no.

And then just now, I actually google’d, “how to be responsible.” It’s sad that I have to resort to asking google and then some article telling me how. The reason I even wondered about responsibility is because I’ve been feeling uneasy about my life these past few days. I also, just watched the movie “Knocked Up” again which is an inspirational comedy of sorts. I believe that the only way to be responsible is when everything in my life is under my control. Not sure where I’m going with this topic.

My first semester in college can be considered a failure. I again, did not live up to my full potential. This has been the story of my life since as long as I can remember. I keep hoping that things will change. I always start up each semester thinking I’m getting a fresh start, and that I’m going to be successful for once. But after three weeks of working my ass off, I completely lose the will to even attend class anymore. If the same thing happens to me on the job, then I’m fucked for life.

One thing that I have learned about myself is that I am extremely motivated by money and material items. I’m thinking that this will be the difference between school and work. The reason why I fail so deeply at school, is that I just cannot see the point or any sort of personal gain from the time I spend. When I make money though, my life improves in all aspects. I’ll mention again, that it’s a sorry world we live in where quality of life is directly related to how much money one has. When I am broke, I am depressed.

One release/getaway for me has been my car. My parents and some other cannot view a car as anything more than transportation; but it is so much more than that to me. A car can be a fashion statement, a status symbol, or simply a form of entertainment. My car to me is kind of like a pet to someone else. Even though a dog has little more to offer than companionship, one can bring huge joy to the family. It’s my money pit, my project, my love. It isn’t even working right now, but the car always gets expensive, useless parts, before I get a new pair of shoes.

The purpose of that last paragraph was to stick an image in. Just a little something to spice up this vanilla looking blog. Anyways, I shall try and be more mature/responsible from today on. We’ll see how it pans out.

I’m not sure why I also delete my posts. I often regret this action immediately after I press the “delete” button in the wordpress control panel.

Regardless, I’m starting over again.

I just got a job at Central Desktop, Inc. It should keep me occupied for awhile. My goal was to just get a basic unpaid internship as just something to do this winter, while gaining valuable experience and contacts. My parents had been asking me to get a job so I’d have something productive to do, instead of wasting my life away on internet discussion forums and my car. I began searching for jobs on craigslist. One of the very first ads that I ran across was Central Desktop’s. The description was perfect. A paid internship. I immediately drafted up a cover letter and resume and sent it in as quickly as I could, hoping that nobody else had beaten me to it.

Luckily, they were impressed (or seemed so) and expressed interest in me. I was offered a decent hourly wage, and I accepted. I will be starting work on Monday, this being the last week of classes.

I’ve decided to pick up blogging again (for the 10th time or so). It seems so petty, and unimportant, but I’ve been mired in a cloud of procrastination and laziness. I feel that blogging helps get things off of my mind. Speaking of which, there have been a lot of things on my mind lately, and they eat away at the quality of my life until I resolve them. For example, Cal Poly Pomona seems to have misplaced my check for the orientation that I attended. Even though I am not a student there now, they have threatened to cancel my classes and prevented me from receiving university services as well as give out my information to commercial collection agencies and ruin my credit. Yes, all of this from a mistake on their end. I have been calling them everyday for the past two weeks, left messages to several departments, and wasted away my life while on hold. Not a single call has been returned. The original fee was $65 which was jacked up to $95 since they fucked up. I just paid it now and it’s been such a huge relief. If any Cal Poly Pomona official sees this, or I get a call returned during my holiday, I wish the plague on the entire university.

My car has also been a huge headache for myself, and my parents. It has just been sitting, covered, and dying for the past few weeks. I bought a replacement shortblock due to the spun bearing and it still isn’t in yet. I also bought a 2.5″ ES Tuning oval muffler and test pipe that are just waiting for the motor to be fixed before I can have them put on.

One thing that is sad is that my level of happiness currently relates to the level of my bank account. I’m also searching for credit cards. (That’s a hint out to credit card companies out there).