Back in the Saddle Again

College. I am walking down the hall in a caffeine daze, thanks to the wonderful Starbucks located in the public library, and can't help but think, what the hell our nation is trying to do with the whole college thing. I have spent the last two days straight trying to catch up with the art history courses I am taking and still feel like I am running my heart out to stay up with the class. So, when I am standing up on that podium with my degree in art education, I'll be proof that I spent about five years with my nose in a book, trying to prepare for a test to prove to some other educated people that I spent four years with my nose in a book, to get ready for a 9 to 5 job, where I am teaching kids to prepare for at least four years with their noses in a book. Bad day? Or too much coffee, or...

Maybe it was the third parking ticket plastered to the SUV that my mom is lending me, but its really ironic, that I can hardly afford to pay for the gas to drive the thing to work, let alone the parking ticket to pay to park the thing off campus because I can't afford to pay for a parking permit, or even attempt to because I have outstanding parking tickets because I don't have a parking permit. Uh, yeah. And another catch-22 while we're at it.

Hmmm... possibly pms. And the whole back in the saddle thing, meaning that I am in school, full fledged and all that good stuff. But, its so frustrating. When I am reading about all of the people in this Mexican Art History course who died for the chance to get an education , to be able to communicate and here we are in one of the richest countries in the world, all plugged into Ipods and isolated from everyone who might have something to contribute to the life we lead. And here I am ranting at a computer whose lines keep moving as I fill these virtual pages with rants instead of taking it out on someone real and possibly getting some feed back. Hello.

I talked to the man who sings about Karma. Always sitting in the center of the campus, strumming away at his acoustic guitar while everyone rushes by. WHy are we in such a hurry? Do we really have any where to go? To go stick our noses in a book so we can get the piece of paper to present to our employers when we get out of school so we can earn more paper to buy more things?

And why is it that I have to go into debt to pay for this education? Don't I deserve an education as a human being? The right to knowledge, to curiosity and resources? Why should I really have to pay for this?

Ok, enough ranting for today. Gotta go to class.

Louisian Levee Equation

I have been thinking a lot about the Louisiana Levee, and listening to NPR. I am amazed how the people, especially the musicians, are working completely to rebuild and revive the area. The spirit of New Orleans and Louisiana never died. The determination of the people to get back to life is inspiring, to say the least, and humiliating, that our nation is not offering its funds to help those who are willing.

I talked to a friend over Christmas break and revised the plan for the wall. So if the crushed cars are encased in the recycled cement and then used as basic giant building blocks to (like the cement blocks used to construct a house) and reinforced with I-beams and the like then, it seems that this would cut costs significantly and remove the cars that are poluting the communities as they are trying to rebuild while also ensuring a defense against the elements which would ensure safety to those who are rebuilding. Also, the T-wall design would be able to be used all the way around the cities and throughout the levee as costs of total cement usage would be cut by using the recycled cement (insert link) and also the total volume of cement needed would be cut by replacing a significant volume of the levee with the crushed cars.

Needed:

• Overhead map of levee system of Louisiana, specifically New Orleans to estimate length
• Engineers to work with in proposal
• Contacts to get proposal submitted to: where to start?
• Cost of compacting a car from local dump
• Architectural sketch of wall construction
• Estimates from construction companies on feasability of construction of wall in this manner