NY Times Energy and Enviroment

California approved a utility contract with Solaren for the nation’s first space-based solar power plant last Thursday. The project is slated to be turned on in 2016.

“At the conceptual level, the advantages of space-based systems are significant,” said Michael Peevey, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, during a hearing on Thursday. “This technology would offer around-the-clock access to clean renewable energy, and while there’s no doubt this project has many hurdles to overcome, both regulatory and technological, it’s hard to argue with the audacity of the project.”

The plan is to deploy an inflatable Mylar mirror one kilometer in diameter which will collect and concentrate sunlight on a smaller mirror. The mirror will,  in turn will focus the rays on photovoltaic modules.  The modules will convert the collected energy into radio frequency waves, which would be beamed to a station on the ground. Here the process would be reversed, transforming radio waves back into electricity.

The developers acknowledge that putting a solar power plant in space will cost a few billion dollars more than an earth based photovoltaic farm generating the equivalent amount of electricity.

Illustrations detailing the secret weapons of Dr.

Who, an evil scientist bent on capturing King Kong, place a mind-control helmet on his head, and use him to hijack ships and rob banks.The 50-meter tall remote-control robot is powered by a 200,000-kilowatt nuclear reactor and can shoot laser beams from its eyes and poison gas from its nose.

Source:
http://pinktentacle.com/2009/11/mechani-kong-and-dr-whos-secret-pyramid-base/

Illustrations detailing the secret weapons of Dr.

Who, an evil scientist bent on capturing King Kong, place a mind-control helmet on his head, and use him to hijack ships and rob banks.The 50-meter tall remote-control robot is powered by a 200,000-kilowatt nuclear reactor and can shoot laser beams from its eyes and poison gas from its nose.

Source:
http://pinktentacle.com/2009/11/mechani-kong-and-dr-whos-secret-pyramid-base/

Je me lance ici dans un exercice  ambitieux : expliquer aux néophytes la signification de ces deux termes,  car en général les médias les échangent avec la plus grande désinvolture, ce qui provoque une confusion conséquente dans le public.

Je me servirai d’un exemple: tout le monde comprend qu’il y a une différence entre la puissance d’une voiture,  exprimée en KW  ( jadis en CV) et la quantité de carburant  qu’elle consomme : élémentaire direz-vous, impossible de confondre la puissance d’une voiture avec sa consommation! En électricité c’est la même chose : la puissance d’un appareil électrique est invariable, qu’il soit en marche ou à l’arrêt et elle est déclarée sur l’étiquette de l’appareil. Lors qu’on l’utilise,  l’appareil, au fil de temps, consomme de l’énergie qui est enregistrée par le compteur EDF de la maison.

On observe que sur l’étiquette  de l’appareil la puissance est exprimée en KW ( 1 KWatt = 1000 Watt), tandis que le compteur EDF comptabilise l’énergie consommée en KWh ( Kilowattheure), c’est à dire la puissance de l’appareil consommateur multiplié par le temps qu’il demeure en fonction.

Un exemple: un radiateur électrique d’une puissance de 1,5 KW  qui fonctionne à plein régime pendant 2 heures consomme en tout 1,5 KW x 2 heures = 3 KWh.

Le prix de l’énergie électrique étant d’environ 12 centimes par KWh, on peut facilement calculer que 2 heures de fonctionnement du radiateur de l’exemple revient à 0,36 €. Chacun peut faire le calcul des consommations de tous les appareils de sa maison, mais attention: la plupart des appareils fonctionnent par intermittence et il faut tenir compte seulement du temps de leur consommation effective.

Donc KW pour la puissance et KWh pour la consommation d’énergie. Pour la production d’électricité c’est pareil: KW pour la puissance des machines de production et KWh pour la quantité d’énergie produite.

Actuellement on entend beaucoup parler de remplacer certaines utilisations d’énergie fossile par celle électrique : la mauvaise connaissance des deux termes  génère des erreurs macroscopiques. Un exemple, une centrale électrique de 10 MW de puissance ( 1 Mégawatt = 1000 KWatt) qui fonctionne à 75% pendant 250 jours par an, produit dans l’année : 10 x 75/100 x 250 x 24 = 45 000 MWh par an, ce qui ne fait pas d’elle une centrale de 45 000 MW de puissance, comme on entend dire parfois par certain(e)s journalistes !

 

Switch and Save!

As part of the PUC-mandated changes being made to customer enrollment processes and disclosures, ERCOT will now be processing all switches on an expedited basis for all customers switching to a new provider.

Under this new change, switches will take approximately seven business days instead of the usual 30-45 days. What that means to you is that your customers will become active with Stream Energy and your MEI will start accumulating much quicker.

You and your customers should be aware of this shorter switch timeframe so that customers who are under contract with a provider pay particular attention to their current contract expiration date and do not switch too early (and potentially incur an early termination fee).

Also, please note that the TDSPs (i.e. Poles and Wires companies) can estimate a customer’s usage if the customer request is not within four business days of the customer’s normal meter-reading cycle. Unlike other estimates that are subsequently trued-up on a later invoice, these estimates under the new law will not be trued-up, except in very special circumstances. For a copy of the law that applies, please visit www.puc.state.tx.us.

More information regarding the new PUC Customer Disclosure Requirements for Texas can be found on the Power Center.

Derrite calorón subsidio

Se disparan facturas regias. Provocan temperaturas mayor demanda de luz y usuarios rebasan rango que apoya el Gobierno

por Noel García y José Ángel Vela, El Norte

(27 julio 2009).- Además de sofocar a los regiomontanos, el calorón está “achicharrando” los subsidios que el Gobierno federal otorga en las tarifas de luz domésticas.

Esto se debe a que, al usar más los climas y ventiladores para mitigar el calor, los consumos de luz de los hogares regiomontanos están aumentando significativamente y se están saliendo del rango que recibe los apoyos gubernamentales, por lo que el costo del servicio se dispara.

Así, las nuevas facturas de la Comisión Federal de Electricidad que están llegando a los hogares muestran aumentos de hasta más del 300 por ciento en los montos a pagar.

Un ejemplo es el de una familia de cuatro integrantes que vive en la Colonia Vista Hermosa. Su recibo anterior fue por mil 146 pesos, por el consumo de marzo y abril, pero ahora les llegó uno por 5 mil 177 pesos.

Otro caso es el de la familia López Serrano, de sólo dos integrantes, de la Colonia Residencial La Hacienda, al sur de Monterrey. Usualmente pagan unos mil 500 pesos bimestrales en tiempo de calor, pero el recibo que les llegó la semana pasada correspondiente a mayo y junio se les duplicó a 3 mil 200 pesos.

EL NORTE publicó ayer que las temperaturas promedio registradas en la Ciudad durante julio son las más altas en los últimos 27 años.

De acuerdo a la información de la Comisión Nacional del Agua, la temperatura máxima promedia 39.4 grados centígrados en la Ciudad en el actual mes, mientras que la media histórica es de 35.1 grados.

Además, las altas temperaturas se han mantenido constantes durante julio, lo que también ha contribuido a una mayor demanda de luz.

Según cifras de la CFE, el consumo promedio del área metropolitana de Monterrey registró en junio pasado un incremento del 20 por ciento en comparación con el mismo mes del 2007.

Debido a esto, hay consumos que superan los 450 kilowatts/hora mensuales, que es el máximo nivel al que se aplica el subsidio en el verano.

De abril a septiembre, el apoyo gubernamental al consumo doméstico es de 450 kilowatts/hora mensuales, mientras que de octubre a marzo es sólo a los primeros 150 kilowatts/hora.

En el caso de Monterrey, la CFE cobra 59 centavos de peso a los usuarios por cada uno de los primeros 150 kilowatts/hora, y 89 centavos los siguientes 300 kilowatts/hora, cuando aplica la prestación.

Tras los 450 kilowatts/hora referidos, la CFE cobra 2.40 pesos por unidad, es decir, cuestan cuatro veces lo que valen los primeros 150.

De esta forma, la factura se dispara a partir de que la familia excede el consumo de 450 kilowatts/hora o 900 bimestrales, que equivale a unos mil 500 pesos.

Laura Herrera, vocera de la División Golfo Norte de la CFE, señaló que alrededor del 86 por ciento de las familias de Monterrey pagan la totalidad de su consumo a precio subsidiado.

El resto, refirió, son los que están siendo impactados porque pagan los excedentes a costo real.

Además, los clientes Domésticos de Alto Consumo -unas 18 mil familias en Monterrey- carecen de subsidio por completo.

¿Cuándo sube la electricidad?
Después de los 450 kw/hr ya no hay subsidios… y el costo de la luz se dispara.

De 1 a 150 kw/hr.
$0.59

De 151 a 450 kw/hr.
$0.89

A partir de 451 kw/hr.
$2.40

¿Y para cuando todos los techos de NL produciendo energía solar?

Por favor lean el post que escribí en el 2008 al respecto llamado “CA SB-1″ . En el escribo sobre lo que hizo California, sobre la cantidad de kilowatts que podríamos estar produciendo.

What’s a kilowatt?

When you use electricity to cook a pot of rice for 1 hour, you use 1000 watt-hours of electricity! One thousand watt-hours equals 1 kilowatt-hour, or 1 kWh. Your utility bill shows what you are charged for the kilowatt-hours you use.

Saving money, conserving energy, home renovations and preparing homes for sale are all activities on the minds of many homeowners. TV Showz Net will be providing many articles and videos on these subjects.

There is a very interesting show on PBS produced by Kilowatt Ours.
Here are some comments from their website.

“Filmmaker Jeff Barrie offers hope as he turns the camera on himself and asks, “How can I make a difference?” In his journey Barrie explores the source of our electricity and the problems caused by energy production including mountain top removal, childhood asthma and global warming. Along the way he encounters individuals, businesses, organizations, and communities who are leading the way, using energy conservation, efficiency and renewable, green power all while saving money and the environment.”

“Jeff and his wife Heather share a plan to eliminate their use of coal and nuclear power at home by employing energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.”

“Kilowatt Ours invites viewers to help build a net zero nation, by conserving energy to the greatest extent possible at home, then using clean renewable energy to provide the electricity used.”

“Using technologies available in retail stores today, most homeowners can do this affordably. If done right, a Net-Zero home will save you hundreds of dollars annually.”

To watch the Kilowatt Ours show and learn more about saving energy and money, visit the Energy Channel.

Energy Channel

It’s Easter Sunday.  You are in San Francisco, a 15 minute walk from the Castro and the Mission.  Where do you spend this sacred Christian holiday?  Why not head to Dolores Park and join hundreds of other wandering pagan souls in celebrating humankind at its most unique!  Join Sister Barbie Mitzvah, Sister Edith Myflesh, Sister Lilywhite Superior Posterior, Sister Merry Peter and others from orders around the world in the annual Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Easter Celebration!  The Sisters are a rowdy, silly bunch of queens who do a lot of serious activist work promoting equal rights and participating in community outreach and HIV/AIDS education.  But boy do they know how to have a really good time!!

This year was the 30th Anniversary of The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and their Easter Sunday gig was the largest it’s been in years.  They kick off with a blessing, then it’s a day full of music including a Beach Blanket Babylon mini-performance, an appearance by Polkacide (hardcore punk polka band that ROCKS!), the annual Hunky Jesus contest (it’s exactly what it sounds like, only more San Francisco-y) and a parade into the Castro where a street party awaits.  Oh.  Yeah.

The weather was perfect for such debauchery:  a cloudless blue sky, deep sunshine and a light breeze.  The hillside was laden with picnickers on blankets, costumed partygoers, sun worshippers, a few Jesuses (yes, that is the plural of Jesus, I looked it up) wandering around, and some nekky people, too.  One especially lovely tall lady with a pink parasol and pigtails.

After sitting on the hill observing the crowd, I manuevered down to the front of the stage to catch Polkacide’s punk polka music (rockin’ it, seriously) and have a good vantage point for Hunky Jesus.  A well-known neighborhood hot dog vendor stood at the front of the stage, dancing in his apron while fingering his rosary periodically raising his palms to the sky in what is usually known as a gospel-celebration sort of gesture.

In Hunky Jesus, the contestants must not only bear some sort of vague resemblance to their namesake, but they need a theme name as well that encapsulates their Jesus style.  For example, here we have Internet Jesus, who received my vote for most clever:

Other contestants included Versace, Bachelor, Polynesian (aka Polynesius), Victoria’s Secret, Easter Bunny, Rapping (who performed a nice little rap about being the Messiah), and the winner Brokeback Jesus (with cowboy companion).

While the contest was occurring, with audience and a panel of judges selecting their favorites each round of three down to half a dozen finalists, we even had a Streaking Jesus.  Yes, it was exactly that.  Jesus.  Streaking.

The parade was a hoot, being that it was a fairly minor affair, though with the colorful brightness of anything New Orleans can put on. Even the Paris order was there, Les Sœurs de la Perpétuelle Indulgence, with their slender, stylish sisters. My personal favorite is Sister Juicy Fruit Chew (I initally asked her if her name was Sister Rainbow Sherbet).

Eventually I wandered off further into the Mission District to meet up with Brother for some lunch.  We stopped at his friend’s place, Frijtz, which, oddly, was also entirely white with cushy shoe-less lounging areas, this time in a window.  I ordered up some Belgian style frites with tasty dipping sauces and some freshly made lemonade.  I must say, as tasty as the fries were, I think the cones and sauces at my East Side haunt in Milwaukee, Cafe Hollander, are a hundred times tastier.

From there we walked through the streets, stopping in at a few shops, ending up at a bar known for its dog-friendly nature.  Kilowatt is my kind of bar.  A little dark inside, wood floors, pool and pinball, with good beer on tap poured by a rough, inked up bartender with a wide smile and features not only photos all over the walls of canine customer portraits, but also allows well behaved dogs to come inside and chill with their owners.  In fact, a handsome Pit Bull hanging out with his ‘mom’ and her friends became the bridge for Brother and I to make new friends.  We popped into Kilowatt in the late afternoon and didn’t leave until after 9pm, then only because we hopped a few doors down to hit a Chinese food place for a late dinner.  With as much as we were laughing and getting along, you’d think we’d known this group for years.  After a few hours of beer and Chinese food, I was ready for a solid night of sleep.

Happy Easter, indeed!

Greg Harman at the San Antonio Current broke this story a few days back and I just feel like we have to comment:

As Washington strains under the weight of industry and environmental lobbyists seeking to influence the outcome of what would be our first national climate bill, CPS Energy has been quietly working the angles on Capitol Hill to keep the coal power the city has come to rely on cheap for consumers in the short term. So-called “cheap” power is the mandate the utility operates under, after all.

Too bad that mandate is now at odds with the survival of the earth as we know it and, quite possibly, our survival as a city and a nation.

…

Responding to an Open Records request submitted by the Current, a CPS Energy legal staffer wrote that the City-owned utility has spent $91,700 lobbying in the past year “in the attempt to influence U.S. climate policy.”

According to Zandra Pulis, senior legal counsel at CPS, the utility has also spent about $67,657 in membership dues to the Climate Policy Group, an industry group it joined in September of 2006 that lobbies Congress against limiting carbon emissions under cap-and-trade legislation. An effort that, to this point, has been remarkably successful.

…

All told, CPS has spent $2.56 million on lobbyists (since 1999) working the statehouse and the Capitol, according to Pulis.

That’s right — CPS has spent millions of YOUR dollars on lobbying, much of which has gone to try to argue climate change isn’t happening.

Look, I understand that CPS has a mission to produce inexpensive electricity for San Antonio residents and business.  That’s a good thing.  But the facts are these:

1- Climate change is happening.  But even if it wasn’t, everything we need to do to solve it is something that we would want to be to doing anyway.  We need to start living with the fact that political consensus has developed in Washington.  Sooner or later, we’re going to have to  start paying for our greenhouse gas pollution, so we’d better start figuring out how to get our energy from non-polluting sources.

2- If your mission is to deliver cheap electricity, why are you investing the in the boondoggle we call the South Texas Project?  Most recent predictions show construction costs to be over 17 billion dollars– before we even produce one kilowatt!!!  This means more expensive electricity for everyone, including the people who will be shouting from the sidelines: We Told You So.

3- CPS Customers who bought into the green Windtricity program last summer paid LOWER rates than their neighbors with a normal energy portfolio.  Let’s face it, the cost of renewables is going down and the price of fossil fuels keep going up!

The city as a whole seems to be choosing the right course: the Mission Verde initiative will make San Antonio a green capital, and the combined corridor between Austin and San Antonio will make Central Texas one of the best places to live because of its eco-friendliness (it’s already the best place to live on the planet anyway, but that’s besides the point!)

So, CPS, if we have really expensive forms of electricity like nuclear and other forms which are increasing in price, and we have other forms like wind and solar whose price keeps going down, which energy future do we choose?  San Antonio’s democratically elected officials think one thing (climate change real, invest in green jobs, etc) but the utility thinks another (climate change=not real, burn more coal, nuke more uranium).  One of these views accurately reflects the city of San Antonio.  The other doesn’t.

Which is it?

(I kind of feel like David Spade in “Tommy Boy” — “You say it’s 5 miles, but it’s not here on the map, and you’re really smart…. so…..”)

The election next month will be a referendum.  If pro-green growth candidates win across the board (and by my estimation they will), it will be time for CPS to join the 21st century with the rest of us and stop spending our money on whacko climate lobbyists.

Olivier DaySoul

Olivier DaySoul is an artist whose album I have been listening to for a while now … but cannot seem to make a decision about! I saw his name around on a few blogs so decided to dig a little deeper and discovered his full length debut entitled ‘Kilowatt’. His myspace describes his style as live electronics/funk and he cites artists such as Marvin, Al, Maxwell D’Angelo and Bilal as his inspiration.

On first listen the Bilal comparisons are obvious, from the vocal styling, to some aspects of production style it looks as if Olivier was heavily influenced by ‘1st Born Second’ and ‘Love 4 Sale’. He even samples Bilal’s ‘For You’ on one of the stronger tracks ‘Soul4U’. Now, before the Bilal stans banish me to the fires of hell, there is no comparison in terms of quality, but there is no denying that some of the tracks on ‘Kilowatt’ are great good.

The track that first got me interested was ‘Potion No. 9′ which i discovered on the Dirty Soul: Electric compilation. This track has a bit more of a neo-soul vibe than the progressive/electronic edge that the remainder of the tracks posess. I’m also feeling album opener ‘Anytime’ and the funky ‘Spaceship’.

If this had been a 4 track EP rather than a full length LP i would probably be shouting his name from the rooftops, it’s just that i can’t really decide whether i like the rest of the album or not.

Let me know what you think in the comments!

** Just want to say a huge THANK YOU to all who have stopped by and commented or just had a read, I really appreciate it. Keep your eyes/ears peeled because I have SO MUCH new music that i’m sure will make it’s way onto here in one form another **

I just read my dear hubby’s post about our energy bill reduction. He called me at work to tell me the gas and electric bill had went down from $342 to $210 a month on the budget billing. I could hear the excitement in his voice. He is analytic, analyzing the numbers like he did in his post. As a woman, mother, and wife saving on the gas and electric bill means $132 more dollars a month that we can put on other bills, such as the house payment, groceries, or gas for the car.

We bought a fixer upper 4 years ago. We kept taking out the equity on the house and doing the repairs the house needed. As a result, we have a huge house payment. We were paying our bills on time, but lived paycheck to paycheck. My husband is a realtor. I am a nurse. We currently have 1 child in high school. Everything was going good, or so we thought.

The older adult children moved back in with the grandchildren because they couldn’t afford to live on their own. Then the real estate market tanked. The icing on the cake was when the health insurance my employer “gave us” increased to $800 a month for three people! The big question is how did our family get into such a financial crunch?

To answer this I guess I have to look in my own backyard to find some of the cause. I had been wasteful. How could we decrease our bills? We decided we had to be more conscientious of our actions. We started paying attention to ways to conserve on resources and our budget. We decided that it was very wasteful and unnecessary to eat out at restaurants. Every day I would order out at work. Now I take my lunch to work. We save at least $200 a month not dining out. Recently, we have started to clip coupons and compare store prices.

Then we looked at ways to cut energy costs. (This had started when the gas prices were going up to $4.00 a gallon.)We stopped unnecessary trips, and no more leisure drives. If we were going to a different part of town we would do everything we had to do on that side of town on that one trip. We realized some of our bills were not flexible, like our mortgage payment.

We looked at things like the gas and electric bill because that was something that we could change. We started reminding everyone in the family to turn off the lights when they left a room. Then we started doing research and found that the CFL’s(Compact Fluorescent Lighbulb) were a lot cheaper to run than regular light bulbs. We took a couple of months to buy and replace with the new energy conserving light bulbs, so it didn’t cost a lot at once. When it got cold outside we would walk around the house and find the drafts. It was easier to find the leaks on a windy day. We followed the drafts to the source and closed them up.

Our living room has always been very cold in the winter or very warm in the summer. A cold draft came from under the stairway by our front door. We went downstairs and removed a flimsy piece of wood. We found two huge holes where the electrical wiring went outside to the porch. The cold air was just rushing into the house like there was no wall at all. We used insulating foam to fill the holes.

Another thing we did was have a seamstress make us living room shades with insulation in them. They work like putting a quilt over the windows: the shades keep the cold out. The living room is actually warm now. I am hoping that they will also keep the heat out of the living room in the summer. The shades are worth every penny we paid for them. We went through the house with some caulking and foam insulation and filled more cracks.

We actually put plastic on a couple of old windows we hadn’t updated yet. We realize the plastic isn’t eco-friendly but when compared to how much energy we were wasting/using we think it is still eco-friendly. We are going to continue to use the plastic over these windows when it warms up so the summer heat doesn’t warm up the house. Plastic they have for windows now doesn’t look bad, you really can’t tell it is there.

When our grand daughter goes to bed our programmable thermostat turns the heat down to 64 degrees automatically. Pile on the bed covers! We are all in our bedrooms tucked in by that time, and actually we all sleep much better. The thermostat kicks the heat up to 68 degrees at 5:15 am to start to warm the house before we start getting up at 5:30 am. Of course this temperature works for us, but for some people 64 degrees in the house would be too cold for some. During the day, after the grand-daughter goes to school the thermostat turns the heat back down to 64 degrees again, until she comes home from school and it will be go back up to 68 degrees. The programmable thermostat is wonderful and very helpful in conserving energy.

We take a walk through the house at bedtime to make sure everything is turned off. We make sure all the “energy vampires” are turned off, like the microwave and LED lighting, and the TV in the front room. We use the computer Smart Strips so that they turn off all the peripherals on the computer.

The bottom line is that we created our financial situation ourselves. But we know we can work together to correct what we did. We will be more conscientious of our spending and being wasteful. Just making simple changes helped us save money and energy. Yes, we can make the changes to do this and so can you! 

Be sure to check Save Green Going Green for many money saving ideas!

Jenny

Today is a great day for our wallet! We have been tracking our energy consumption since March 2007 to see how much difference our simple changes make in our daily usage.

Well, I just opened our Gas/Electric ebill and lo & behold……..our monthly budget dropped by $132 PER MONTH!!! And they reduced it MID- Cycle (normal adjustment is in Sept) because we were using far less energy than in previous years!

Look at the last 2 1/2 years budget:

Sept 2006      $370 per month
Sept 2007      $349 per month
Sept 2008-    $342  per month
March 2009-$210 per month

The numbers don’t lie-In 2 1/2 years, based on budget billing, we have reduced our energy costs, by $150 per month or 40.5%, while the energy company was increasing rates!!

We were very pleased in the first two years with the small decreases because during that time there was an increase in the cost of gas and electric, so while many others bills will going up, we were actually showing a decrease.

Let me share some of the actual savings broken down by kilowatt (electric). I will do the same for our Natural Gas savings in the next post!

Check month over month usage-say March 07 compared to March 08-

24.9 vs 30.3 PER DAY USE-decrease of 5.4 kw  or 162 kw per month (30 day)

Since there is not a full year in 07 lets compare the last 10 months of 07 & 08

2007    

2008

As you can see significant improvement has been made in our electric bill just by taking the time to be more aware and energy conscious. Did we change our lifestyle significantly- Absolutely Not! We made simple changes to our daily living habits, most were free or nearly free to implement. The largest expense by far was changing our light bulbs to CFL’s, but we did not spend more than 1 months electric bill savings to convert our entire home. (5 bedroom/2 bath, LR, DR, Kitchen, Home Office, Laundry/storage room, and basement built in 1926)

I am actually looking forward to getting March 2009 bill to have a 2 year comparison!  I would have to say I have never been excited about getting a bill before! Be sure to check all the tips we used on our website at:

www.SaveGreenGoingGreen.net

We expand on the things we did to achieve these results. If you have any more suggestions or ideas that you have used, feel free to add them along with a link to your green focused website in the comments!

I will do the next post later breaking down our Gas bill.

Until then, have a great day and join us to “Save Green Going Green”

Jenny & Steve

Aqui toda la linea fmdepot…

www.jumanitransmisores.com.ar

Transmisores de Frecuencia modulada fmdepot…

FM DEPOT empresa que crece en la fabricacion de equipos transmisores de fm, ahora ha incorporado en sus transmisores tecnologia de banda ancha.

todo en www.jumanitansmisores.com.ar

La banda ancha nos permite cambiar de frecuencia nuestro equipo (TX) sin ningun tipo de ajuste, esto es un gran beneficio para el usuario o propietario de emisoras de radios Fm, pues no depende de ningun servicio tecnico especializado en equipos transmisores para ajustar su transmisor o bien le permite a los dueños de varias emisoras poseer un solo equipo Backup o de emergencia para todas sus emisoras.  

Con un diseño compacto e inovador Fmdepot pone a su alcance alta tecnologia a un precio razonable.

FmDepot Transmisores Fm 

todo en www.jumanitansmisores.com.ar

Now that I have two (semi) solid nights of sleep under my belt, and I feel more confident that revisiting my weekend won’t make me barf, I will go ahead and tell you how we do.

Wednesday night: arrival, 11pm. No sleep, jetlag. Thursday night: Rikki reunion after work. Wine, pistachios, oregano potato chips. No sleep, jetlag, hang over.

Friday night: Moot knuckin’ bff Rikster throws “welcome back” pardy of the century in little studio apartment. Little studio apartment doesn’t mean little pardy.

See? Look at all of us! Michael, Courtney, me, Bethy Boos, Haley, Rikki. And more not in photo. Big party.

Rikki made me a sign that said “welcome back” in Greek (Καλώς ήρθες)! We had olives and cheese and pistachio nuts and oregano potato chips and all sorts of Greek fare. Rikki presented me with a postcard that I sent her from vacay. “Uphold our values. Bushmills. Brown bag.” Then she handed me a giant brown bag of Bushmills tied with a pretty red ribbon. Time to reestablish our values. Insanity commenced.

Insanity. New roommate, James. Love him.

Michael kept saying “I think it’s time for a Bushmills shot” every five minutes, but I delayed by saying first weekend back; I must pace myself. And yet still, even with delaying, we partied like mad and took ouzo shots and danced it off until 4:30 in the morning. Dance circle, get in the middle, you, get in the middle, dance, okay switch, you in the middle now. Rikki got in the middle and dropped to the floor and 80’s danced like a mad woman to Madonna’s jam “Burnin’ Up.” Most impressive thing I’ve ever seen.

Saturday: 9 am wake-up and more jetlag. Larbaged for hours. Realized I cannot and shouldn’t try to blog when I’m exhausted and hung over. Makes no sense and takes too long. Began cooking preparations for my incredible cousin’s birthday dinner. Cooked until 5, showered, went to cousin’s, began wine drinking. Cousin’s husband hazed me and Rikki and forced us to take multiple jagger shots before/during/after dinner. Exhausted by 10pm, went home, no going out, no pardy tonight. But, wait. Coworker calls: I’m next door at Delerium, you come out now! Ok, ok, one drink. Coworker gets A+ for generosity with rounds and one drink becomes ten. Fernet, bourbon, bourbon, fernet. Over to Kilowatt. Oh, hi friends at Kilowatt. Let’s close the place down and get reminded to leave. Back to my place for more partying until 4:30 am again.

Sunday: 8am wake-up. Trip to sweaty Alameda flea market in Toyota Yaris zipcar. Sun beating down and hang over and jetlag and no water and used shit and sweating. And then traffic. Back into the city at 2pm. I need a beer immediately or I’m going to die. Hair o’ the dog, or barf, you pick. Coronas in the backyard for hours. Mustaches and mullets and hilarious/disturbing stories about pooping in weird places and holey shirts and boys that could use a shower. And music and new friends and more beer. And 9pm, time for Cut Copy show with Rikki, off to Farmer Brown’s for a gigantic free shot of Maker’s from acquaintance bartender, over to the Mezzanine for concert. Brick wall as you know shortly after, but always there will be dancing. And we danced it off until 1:30 in the morning and then I went home and died a little bit in my bed and a few short hours later back to work.

Monday: sick, sore throat, hang over, still jetlag, 90% dead, 100% back with my homeslices.

And that’s how you get welcomed back into the city by wonderful animal friends. Thank you, I love you, I missed you, I’m back! And I’m really glad I’m neither hung over nor jetlagged anymore.

kilowatt aka micprobes

it’s been quite some time since we’ve done a post about crimewave now, hasn’t it? this morning i woke up to find two remixes sitting in my inbox. to my surprise, these are both fairly decent.

crystal castles – crimewave (kilowatt remix)

stream:

download:
yousendit / zshare

kilowatt is the alias of new york’s dj & promoter microprobes. he has sent in his take of crimewave with melodious synths and a strong distorted analog synth. however, although melodious, it tends to not go anywhere. i wouldn’t say this is the best crimewave remix out there because it definitely lacks variety. kilowatt’s got some production skills that will probably get lots of attention in the near future.

anyway, he will be hitting up genre, dance, avenue, and a few other locations this week. so all you los angeles kids, if you’ve got time, go check his set out. i might be hitting up dance tomorrow to check out his set. 5 splendas.

rating:

more:
http://www.myspace.com/kilowattmusic

cold blank

crystal castles – crimewave (cold blank remix remix)

stream:

download:
yousendit / zshare

this remix alongside the la riots one takes the cake. it’s simply dark, mysterious, melodious, and still maintains a strong club banger. listen for yourself!

rating:

more:
http://myspace.com/coldblank

Alright, sometimes I like to pretend that I engage in activities other than being a drunk piece of shit. That, for the most part, is a big fat lie. Let me just remind you that “I would like to have a real cocktail. Not a bottle of Bushmills in a brown bag.” Yeah, Rikki is a big fat liar too. That comment was made on a Saturday, after Outside Lands. That was almost two weeks ago. Since then, Bushmills in a brown bag has been had at least 4 more times. And when it hasn’t been Bushmills in a brown bag, it’s been the Bushmills and PBR special at Whiskey Thieves. So I’m done being a cheetah that claims to have stripes. I have spots and I’m a cheetah. Or maybe a donkey. But the point is, I’m not striped and I drink Bushmills a lot.

When I entitled the first Yosemite camping story “part II,” it really should’ve been part III because part I was on Friday night. On Friday night, my adventure counterpart refused to put down the wine bottle and get organized for our camping trip. So instead of buying firewood, securing a source of fire, packing warm clothes and bringing not Vans and Chuck Taylors to hike in, we all got stoopid. It began with Rikki coming over to my house and us intending to go to some party in the Haight. We walked around the corner to the shittiest store in history and bought, what else, a mini bottle of Bushmills and some Mexican coke. We then came back to my kitchen, where we joined the mission butterflies (aka gnarly fruit fly infestation) and initiated a balmy whiskey-pounding session.

Kris, Graham, and Patrice showed up to participate in being wasted losers with us and the fruit flies. We were later joined by Courtnut and Bethy Boos and it suddenly became a raging party of Fleet Foxes and Fleetwood Mac and partardation. Being in the heart of the mission, it’s impossible to call it a night anytime before 3am so we went to Kilowatt with my poor dog in tow. After they kicked us out at closing time, Rikki and I thought it necessary and a good idea to go buy more Bushmills. Right after we paid at the same convenience store we had visited only four hours earlier, Rikki asked “can I have this banana?” and the store guy threw it in our brown bag for free. Get your potassium with your whiskey. Thank goodness we had the good judgment to not drink any more when we got back to my house for the after party. Rikki was too busy eating her banana out of a vacuum attachment that she thought was a turkey baster anyway. And that is exactly what it sounds like. She shoved the banana inside a random vacuum tube, passed it around for everyone (except fruit-phobic Graham) to take a bite and insisted the whole time that it was okay to eat fruit out of turkey basters. Don’t ask.

No sleep til Brooklyn, I didn’t even close my eyes before 5.30 in the morning, so there went plans to leave early and fight Labor Day weekend traffic. Fail dogs. I mean it was a successful camping trip despite our poor planning setbacks but still. You would think that maybe I’d learn to be less of a lush and a tomfoolery-practicing dummy. Nah…

Last night, on a Wednesday, because why not on a Wednesday, Rikki and I planned to go costume-shopping for the party we’re having this weekend. Instead we drank the left-over Bushmills from Friday, listened to Ayo Technology and literally laid across my kitchen table. When we got sick of lounging on my dining furniture, we decided to go to a Mexican restaurant and eat tacos. Wow, that’s shocking. Late night taco snack for the drunks? That never happens…

At Puerto Allegre we ordered margaritas and a couple of appetizers. I was voted representative addressing the waitress and at the end I decided yes, we’ll also have two shots of tequila. Rikki’s jaw dropped in shock like she wasn’t expecting it but, without skipping a beat, she reeled that jaw back in and casually added “Cazadores.”

And what does this all lead to? Well, after we kill as many brain cells as possible in single sessions, Rikki and I tend to lose the ability to speak. What you do now? I moot knuck, what you do? Bad gad beet dunk. Yeah, I refure to be appaking thin dickery beet dunk. So that’s all. Animal party on Satuday. I’m sure I’ll get plenty more moron material stat.

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