Love Your Mountain Dew! Love Your Planet! Save the Snails!

Scholarship Blog for www.CastleInk.com on the topic of recycling #CastleInk

I like to believe that the little things that we do can make a big difference towards conservation efforts.  For the longest time, I've brushed my teeth the same way.  I wet the toothbrush, turn the water off, brush my teeth, turn the water back on, rinse off the toothbrush, rinse out my mouth, and turn the water back off again.  

There are 365 days in a year and people ideally brush their teeth twice a day.  According to the Daily Green website (http://www.thedailygreen.com/going-green/tips/tap-water-conservation-tip), turning off the faucet while brushing our teeth twice a day could save as much as 8 gallons of water per day.  This approximation (assuming 365 days/year) means that we have the potential to save 2,920 gallons of water per year.  If I believe I have been brushing my teeth this way for at least 10 years, I could have already saved 29,200 gallons of water from being sent down the sink.  If I continue to brush my teeth the same way (which I will) and live to be over 90 years old (that is 63 years from now), I will conserve up to 183,960 more gallons of water.  That means that I could likely conserve over 200,000 gallons of water in my lifetime just by turning off the faucet when I brush my teeth.

There's another little thing I do that I believe makes a difference.  If I'm at school, drink a can of Mountain Dew, and cannot put it in a recycle area (for whatever reason), I will carry it home in my purse so it gets recycled.  I strongly believe that we should all recycle when we can.  According to the Earth911 website (http://earth911.com/recycling/facts-about-aluminum-recycling/), people usually drink more than 2 beverages at work and only 50.7 % of the aluminum cans used in year 2009 were recycled.  It seems like a simple task to recycle aluminum cans, so I am shocked that everyone is not recycling their aluminum cans.  

Maybe people do not know how much energy they are saving by recycling aluminum cans.   Earth911 states that recycling one aluminum can saves the amount of energy that could run a television for 3 hours by not having to manufacture a new aluminum can instead.  That means that if people drink 2.5 cans of soda at work/day, then each person saves enough energy to run a television for 7.5 hours a day.  This means that a single person recycling 2.5 cans of soda at work/day for 5 weekdays can power a television for 37.5 hours. Assuming 50 weeks/year (alloting a 2 week loss for vacation), an average person choosing to recycle their aluminum cans stands to conserve 1,875 hours of television-running energy per year of employment.  That means that if a 25-year old recycles their cans (just at work) until they are 65 years old (standard age of retirement), a single person saves the amount of energy necessary to run a television for 75,000 hours.

Love Your Mountain Dew and Love Your Planet! 

Now, I have attended multiple colleges over the years.  My first college had this printing system where before anyone's print jobs, a cover page with our name would print first followed by what we needed printed.  I collected the cover pages, flipped them over, and used them for my homework assignments.  I started doing this primarily for my math classes.  I had been having trouble at the beginning of my college career with Calculus 2.  My professor offered me the suggestion to use white printer paper to perform math problems because a white piece of paper often can open our minds psychologically better than lined paper.  Once I knew about this study strategy, I applied it whenever possible. 

I have followed this paper-recycling suit at my current institution as well.  My current institution does not have named cover pages that I recycle, so it's a little different.  Whenever I print out research articles for assignments that I do not need to keep for anything, I save that paper and I have used the blank side for my homework whenever I can.  It's actually quite challenging trying to conserve paper when taking engineering classes because many classes require students to do their work on one-sided engineering paper.  However, whenever an engineering class did not have that paper requirement, I tried my best to conserve paper and recycle it.  I was able to do this for my water resources engineering class, which might be part of the reason why it was my favorite class I have ever taken.  I feel that engineering students should be learning how to be environmentally-friendly throughout their education so as to produce conservation-minded engineers geared towards sustainable practices.

Water Resources Homework: Blank Sides of Previous Research Article

Do Your Homework and Save the Trees!

What does a piece of paper cost in energy? According to the PaperCut website (http://www.papercut.com/products/ng/manual/ch-sys-mgmt-environmental-impact.html), the manufacture of one piece of new paper takes 17 Watt hours and a piece of recycled paper takes 12 Watt hours.  If we assume that the student uses 500 pieces of new paper per year, that person's paper required 8,500 Watt hours or 8.5 kilowatt hours.  If they bought recycled paper, that paper saves 5 Watt hours of power per sheet. the student saves 2500 Watt hours or 2.5 kilowatt hours.  If they use 250 pieces of new paper on both sides for the 500 pieces of paper instead, they use 4.25 kilowatt hours in manufacturing.  If they use 250 pieces of recycled paper on both sides for the 500 pages, they use 3 kilowatt hours in manufacturing.  Hence, a student stands to save 5.5 kilowatt hours of energy by using both sides of recycled paper.  According to Concordia Electric, this amount of energy could run an air conditioner for over 4 hours (Source: http://www.concordiaelectric.com/forms/kWh_Usage.pdf).

There are so many superhero movies that have been released in theaters over the last 5 years.  These superheroes perform many death-defying feats in order to save a handful of people.  Yet, being a hero for all of our posterity could be as simple as doing little things consistently for a long length of time. Turn off the faucet, recycle those cans, and reuse your paper to become a hero for the future's children who will still have playrounds and parks to play in instead of landfills.  The little things can make a difference.  Save the snails!

By the way, The Lorax is an awesome environmentally-friendly movie.  I highly recommend watching it if you want to see a mainstream environmentally-heroic movie.  I hope that environmental mindfulness will prompt the moviemakers to make a Captain Planet movie. "Go Planet!"

Summer, Thoughts on Scholarships, Future Work, and Being Irish

This summer might end up being called the Summer of Scholarship Applications and of the Quest to Clean My Room.  I keep filling out scholarship application after scholarship application.  I've reached the point where there are only about 3 potential scholarships left for me to work on.  I left the ones that required research-esque essays until later, so I could optimize the number of scholarships I could apply for in the given deadlines.

So far, my efforts have been fruitful.  I have acquired $4,500 in potential financial aid.  I have to earn at least $1,500 more in order to cover tuition for this schoolyear.  In addition to this, I will need to make enough to cover textbooks and any other school-related expenses I will need.  I will keep applying to the scholarships and to summer internships.  Hopefully, the financial aid gods will smile upon me and I will be able to afford next year.

On the upside, I like to write, so I might have a shot at the essay contests.  I find myself writing many essays for the scholarships.  Most of the essays, so far, have been about myself.  Thus, I am very familiar with the subject matter.  I keep hoping that the judges will want to invest in me, since I work hard and I am a good person.  (Shh....don't tell anyone.)

I also have a line on a part-time job in mid-July, if I do not have an internship by then.  I like to hope for the best, but I also know it's always good to have a trump card.

Murphys and McGraths are used to working and I like to work.  The Irish came to America to work and help build the railroad.  Apparently, the desire to work lives on through the generations and I have Irish ancestors on both sides of the family.  We Irish are a tough sort and working is breathing to us.  We Irish are also passionate people by nature, so we drive ourselves.  Being Irish definitely makes for a hard-working honest person.  I'm proud to be Irish.

Tattoos: Far More Complex Subject Than I Thought

I was really amazed when I read through the New Look Laser Tattoo Removal Guide (http://www.newlookhouston.com/TattooRemoval.html) and found out that some of the common components in tattoo dyes were the same components I learned were in Portland Cement Concrete.  Specifically, black and red inks can be made of iron oxide, a common component in the concrete manufacturing process.  It is amazing to think that by getting tattoos, people are becoming even a little like Portland Cement Concrete.  Although considering that people are adding art to their bodies, it makes sense that they are literally becoming more like materials used in concrete or metal statues.

There were all these metallic compounds listed as potential components to ink, which astounded me.  I had never given a thought to what tattoo ink was made of.  I thought it was the same all-around, like food dyes.  Finding out that vegetable dyes can also be a part of ink worries me for my relatives who have expressed interest in getting tattoos who are allergic to everything.  The idea that people could have allergic reactions to ink components, when these components are often kept secret for competitive purposes, brings more controversy to the topic of tattoos in my mind.

When I was reading through the New Look Laser Tattoo Removal Guide, I thought it was really cool that lasers break up the ink into smaller pigments so the body’s own macrophages can flush the tattoo ink out of the system.  Given that logic, it seems like laser removal is a more natural removal tool as opposed to other methods.

I believe that laser tattoo removal sounds like the best option for tattoo removal, given that it allows the human body to take care of the unwanted ink itself.  I also like the basic idea behind promoting the integrity of the surrounding tissue and preserving the natural pigments maintaining skin tone. 

Laser Tattoo Removal allows people to remove tattoos that did not resonate with the person when they became older.  It gives people more control over their bodies and professional appearance, so people have more opportunities to make the best possible choices for their lives.

Tattoos are a beautiful means of individual expression, but the availability of freedom of choice to change our appearances is beneficial to society.  Hence, laser tattoo removal is a very interesting topic and it is a more complicated subject than I thought.

Uncertainty, Storm Chasers, and Energy Theory Applied to Death

I thought at the end of the semester that I had it all figured out.  I had my academic plan for next year.  I had a clear goal: finish my civil engineering degree and take two extra classes to earn a technological commercialization minor.  But last week, I went into the financial aid office and found out the aid I thought I had for next year was no longer being given to me.

So now, I have an academic plan, but it might be too expensive to finish it.  I now have to base what I do next year on what I can earn over this summer.  I don't have a job yet.  I don't know if the last possible university loan I applied for will be given to me.  I don't know whether I am going to be able to stick to my plan or if I'm going to have to find a career earlier than I anticipated with my first bachelor's degree.

It is all based on what happens in the future, which is uncertain and uncertainty sucks.  Think about it.  When is uncertainty ever a good feeling? Somebody's in surgery and their family members are sitting out in the waiting area chewing on their fingernails until they don't have them anymore.  The studious college student sends out graduate school applications to try to get into graduate school and they worry about what they are going to do if they don't get into their dream school.  Gradually, time passes and a new letter comes every few weeks telling you whether you got in or not.  Months of uncertainty while also working on senior-level work starts to get to the student and they are sporting the Einstein hairstyle because of the stress of the uncertainty.  Uncertainty is scary, causes anxiety, and drives me insane.

However, there are instances where ignorance-based uncertainty can be beneficial.  My brother and I watched that storm chasers tribute on the Discovery Channel and then we went to Best Buy.  As we were walking towards the Best Buy entrance, the back reverse lights lit up on a van next to us.  Then, he asked me the question, "Would you rather die by getting hit by a van or getting swept up by a tornado?"  My response was, "It depends on whether they are ignorant sudden deaths or I see eminent death coming.  If I'm ignorant and I suddenly die, I think that the cause of death would not matter because I was ignorant.  However, if I see it coming, I imagine both scenarios would be quite terrifying."

Yes, I'm morbid sometimes, but intellectual morbidity is in line with Daria's personality and my love for forensic- and crime-based tv, so I enjoy it.  Thus, I suppose uncertainty in small doses is good for people, but I don't like the long drawn-out kind.  I'd rather know I can afford my plans ahead of time than anguish over the uncertainty of achieving my goals the way in which I had intended.

That being said, I thoroughly appreciated the Storm Chasers Tribute on the Discovery Channel.  I kept wondering if they had salvaged the actual storm chasers footage when they died.  I totally understand that the family might not want that released, but the tribute episode kept building up and I was hoping to see that they had achieved some last bit of groundbreaking data in the erratic F-3 tornadoes that happened the day they died.  I was hoping there was a last bit of data that they had captured to show that their sacrifice wasn't just an unforeseen accident.

It is always sad when pioneers in science die, like they were.  I hope their last few moments were not spent being aware of their impending death.  I hope it was ignorant and sudden, so they went through minimal or hopefully no suffering at all.  I like to believe that specific scientific laws apply upon the death of humans.  I believe that when humans die, our energies are not destroyed and merely become a different type of energy that emanates into the environment.  I hope the storm chasers who died had their energies sent to the heavens to become future natural phenomena.

Thoughts on Professional Aspirations

Sometimes people around us ask us questions that we do not know how to answer exactly.  It seems like a simple question, "What kind of job do you want?" But really, I find that question quite difficult to answer.

I have been a scholar for a long time and my interests are not really confined to one particular field.  I have a B.S. in Mathematics and a Chemistry minor that I earned years ago.  Hence, I have a higher comfort level with respect to mathematics.  The chemistry minor was probably a direct result of my love for laboratory experiments.  Specifically, I really enjoy writing lab reports and analyzing data.  

My original intention was to earn a B.A. in Mathematics and earn a Master's in Civil Engineering in a 3-2 program (3 years for the B.A. and 2 years for the Master's degree, so 5 years).  However, life does not always happen the way we planned it to go.  

So I was pondering many different options for educational advancement.  I considered earning a Master's in Mathematics and becoming a government mathematician or teaching at the community college level.  I considered earning a degree in Construction Management because it was and still is of interest to me.  I considered pursuing Computer Science, since there was a news story about how computer science majors would not have a hard time finding employment after finishing their degrees.  

But after all of those considerations, I found myself back in square one: Civil Engineering.  I've been working on this degree since Spring 2005.  I have struggled so much with it.  Statics made me wonder whether I should continue pursuing civil engineering at all.  It took me two times to get through that course.  I had to bail out of a third additional attempt that I do not particularly count.

I KNOW THE FOLLOWING:

1. I am going to finish this civil engineering degree in May 2014.

2. I would like to work as either a planner or estimator in the beginning of my engineering career and work my way up to project management.

3. I do not have to be an engineer to be happy, but I DO need to finish this degree to be happy.  I do not like quitting anything.

4. I will have multiple avenues to pursue professionally (math, statistics, forensics, chemistry, programming, teaching, et cetera), so this variable economic market will not thwart me from working.

5. As long as the job I choose is respectable, is something that I enjoy doing, is something I can excel at, provides a sense of productivity, makes a difference, and has allowances for advancement, I'm open to all sorts of opportunities.

So to answer the question: What kind of job do I want?

I want a job that I can be good at, will compliment my past education, will allow me to finish my civil engineering degree next year, and will make a difference.  That probably means a summer job.

I plan on specializing in water/environmental disciplines, so conservation is an area of interest for me.  Hence, if I could work to assist conservation efforts, that would be awesome.  However, I am also aware that I could tutor mathematics to receive another means of that sort of fulfillment.  Therefore, I am sure  there are means to fulfill our lives to achieve happiness in multiple ways.