Sunil's Blog

Cars of the Future

2008-12-01T19:39:00.001-08:00

Today the phrase “Going Green” is tossed around a lot and is forcing several companies and businesses to find new ways of producing energy, by reducing their carbon footprint. The first industry that was hit hard by the environmental crisis was the automobile industry. Emissions from automobiles are one of the biggest factors that are harming the environment and are responsible for about 33% of the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions (Going Green with Hydrogen). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set regulations that would require all automobiles to have a minimum fuel economy as well as limit the amount of CO2 that was emitted from a vehicle. In 1999, Honda released the world’s first hybrid electric car, the Honda Insight. In 2008, Honda came up with another way to help reduce the carbon footprint of a vehicle and released the Honda FCX Clarity, a hydrogen fuel cell car (About Fuel Cells). Even though hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell cars both reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, hydrogen fuel cell cars seem to be a more logical choice for the future. Hybrids and hydrogen fuel cells bring something new to the automobile market, their impact on the environment, refueling and dependence on foreign oil. Today, the most important thing to look at would be the car’s impact on the environment.
In the hydrogen fuel cell cars, the fuel cells take the hydrogen fuel and convert it into energy. As a by-product of this process, only water and heat are emitted from the car causing no harm to the environment (About Fuel Cells). Like hydrogen fuel cell cars, hybrids help to reduce the amount of CO2 emitted into the air, it reduces emissions by 25% to 35% (Dunn). In hybrid cars, a gasoline engine much like the one of a normal car can be found. Both types of cars have increased fuel economy, this does not only mean a decrease in the times you will need to visit the pump but it also decreases the amount of gas that is burned into the air. For hybrid vehicles, the estimated average fuel economy is 35 mpg, while the hydrogen fuel cars get an estimated average of 70 miles per kilogram (About Fuel Cells). While looking at these types of cars, the fuel economy and impact on the environment may look great, but when it comes to refueling, there is something a little different.
Though both the hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell cars lower the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the air, they both differ when it comes to refueling. Currently there are only 36 hydrogen fueling stations in the United States alone and a majority of them are located in the state of California. While normal gasoline is dispensed by the gallon, hydrogen fuel is dispensed by kilogram and takes only minutes to refuel. There is also talk about creating a “Home Energy Station” in which you can refuel your hydrogen fuel cell car right at home. The Home Energy Station converts natural gases into hydrogen that can be used for refueling a car as well as providing heat and electricity throughout the home (About Fuel Cells). Hybrid cars use a combination of gasoline and batteries to power the car. The batteries in a hybrid can be recharged either while using the brake pedal while driving, at an at-home recharging station, or now several parking garages in large cities have designated parking for hybrid vehicles so that they can recharge their battery. These two types of automobiles also impact our dependence on foreign oil.
The reason the United States imports so much oil is because most of the cars and trucks in the country use gasoline in order to run the vehicle. Currently, the U.S. imports 55% of the oil it uses by consumers and that number is expected to rise by 10% by the year 2025. By utilizing hydrogen fuel cell automobiles, the United States will eliminate its dependence on foreign oil. Hydrogen fuel can be created from natural gases, coal, liquefied petroleum gas, and even water by using the process of electrolysis. Hydrogen fuel also has the highest energy content per unit of weight compared to gasoline (U.S. Department of Energy). With hybrid vehicles, even though we are decreasing our CO2 emissions and increasing our fuel economy, we still need gasoline to power hybrids and therefore we are still dependent on foreign oil.
Automobiles are one of the top sources of CO2 pollution into the air. Hydrogen fuel cell cars will help reduce the carbon footprint greatly, though changes will not be noticed now, they will be surely noticed in the long run. Hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell cars are two types of automobiles that will help eliminate the amount of CO2 in the air, however, hydrogen powered cars are the best choice for the future. With the Home Energy Station currently in the works, consumers will be able to refuel their vehicle without ever leaving their garage and at the same supplying heat and electricity to the home. It will not be long before automobile manufacturers start to mass produce hydrogen powered cars and helping to reduce their carbon footprint worldwide. Hydrogen fuel cells cars are clean, fuel efficient cars of the future.

A Night in Ocean City

2008-12-01T18:51:00.000-08:00

The time was 7:00 a.m. on a hot and humid June day in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, and my oversized alarm clock had just gone off. Today was the day I had been looking forward to since January, I would drive three hours down to Ocean City, Maryland to take part in Senior Week 2008. Senior Week is an annual tradition that is taken up by members of the high school graduating class. Apart from the excessive amount of graduation parties back home, Senior Week is meant as one last hurrah before everyone heads off to college in the fall. At Senior Week college-bound kids head to the hot and sandy beaches of Ocean City and stay there until they decide they have tanned enough for the day or burned a majority of their body. In the evening several apartments and houses throw parties exclusively for the Class of 2008. The only downside for me was that I was only able to stay for two days rather than the entire week. Senior Week marked the first time I had ever experienced the beach without a member of my family and I was certain I was going to have a good time.
After I woke up, I got dressed and packed some last minute things in my duffel bag before I headed outside to my friend, Alyssa’s car. As we pulled out of the driveway, I had this enormous sense of excitement that made me feel as if I was going to pee my pants at any given point and time. As we made our way towards I-95, we put in some CD’s and started to pump ourselves up for the amazing time we were about to have. After sitting in the car for three long hours, we finally arrived in Ocean City, Maryland. We drove from 90th Street all the way down to 13th Street, where we found the house where we would be living in for the next two days. The house was pitiful with white rectangular maroon shutters and a forbidding front door. Though the front door was mostly maroon, it had white paint chip marks that made it look like it had its own version of the chicken pox. I called my friend to open the door for us because he and a few other people had been there several days prior. As we stepped inside the house, I was overcome with disgust. The house was hideous. There were food crumbs, big and small, all over the dingy maroon carpeted floor, the battered sofa cushions were overturned, and food of all types was left uncovered on the small round dining table. Worst of all, the house wreaked of a mixture of sand, ocean water, vomit and alcohol. After talking with a few people in the house, they all said the revolting smell was a pre-existing one and no one had anything to do with it.
After getting settled in, around 12 p.m., we all headed to the beach which was only two blocks away from the house. We laid out our beach towels on the scorching hot sand and lathered ourselves with a high SPF sunscreen. Some of us laid out on our towels hoping to get a reasonable tan while others went wave surfing, played paddle ball or engaged in some other form of beach activity. After several hours of lying out in front of the sun, we all decided to head back home to shower and get ready to go out and party.
Earlier in the day, Sam had received a call from a mutual friend that he was having a rave at his apartment that night. Once Sam had told us of the party, we all agreed to go check it out. On our way out, Sam remembered that she had a three to four foot black light that could be useful at the rave. However, she did not want to carry it so I volunteered to carry it for her. As we were walking down the street towards the crowded bus stop, my friends and I realized that it looked as if I was carrying a large black shotgun, so we all felt the need to tell everyone that entered the bus and on the street that it was just a black light and nothing else. We pushed our way onto the bus and made our way from 13th Street all the way down to 136th Street. We eagerly ran off of the bus and headed toward the apartment where the rave was taking place. We knocked on the door and walked right on in. As soon as you walked in you were in the kitchen and to the right was a large living room and through the living room was a reasonably sized wooden patio. We were told that we should probably start drinking something so someone directed us to his washing machine; at first I was a little confused as to why he was showing us their washing machine. However, after he opened the lid to the washing machine, everything made sense. The washing machine was overflowing with ice and cold beer, the reason they kept their beer in the washing machine was so that they did not fill up their fridge because that was already filled with food and other beverages. About an hour passed and the size of the crowd grew tremendously, people who did not even go to our high school came to the rave, it was huge! The music was ear piercing, and all the lights were off, Sam had turned on her black light and we all were given green, yellow, pink and blue glow sticks, it was really a sight to see. It was dark enough that you could not see more than four feet in front of you, all you could see clearly were all of the glow sticks moving up, down and side to side in the air. People were bumping into each other, the countertops slowly became “Coyote Ugly” for the girls and dancing that looked like a version of sex known as grinding were all taking place simultaneously. I was having an extremely good time. I was sweating profusely, my heart was racing from the amount of dancing I was doing and I managed to meet some new people. We were all either dancing, talking or playing beer pong when all of a sudden we heard a loud pounding on the door. Everyone stopped frozen in their tracks, the talking stopped and the music was immediately turned off, it was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Someone calmly went up to the door and asked who was there and a stern sounding voice from the outside said they were from the Ocean City Police Department. Panic quickly spread throughout the entire apartment like a crowd of die hard shoppers running through Best Buy on Black Friday to get the best deals. My friend Dan and I were ready to jump off the third story patio, but just as we were about to jump, we heard everyone laughing and cursing inside so we went back in and it turns out it was another senior from our high school. While some people were laughing and acknowledging what a good joke it was, others were very angry and saying they were not happy and were scared out of their minds. The group of friends that I came with all decided to leave because the party was getting out of control and we did not want to have a “real” run in with the cops. By the time we left, we all felt as if the room was spinning, but we were coherent enough to know where we were going and what we were doing.
After we left the rave, we decided to go to another party on 27th Street. While waiting at the bus stop for the bus to arrive, I ran into one of my friends from work, Chelsea. Chelsea ended up coming with me and my friends to the party on 27th Street. Shortly after Chelsea and I met, the bus arrived and it appeared to be extremely crowded. The bus had hardly any room to sit or stand, not even an ant would have been able to fit. There was no place to sit, so we all grabbed onto the handrail and held on for dear life. On our long journey to 27th Street, we met and encountered some very loud and drunk high school graduates. There were points I would be laughing and joining in with the singing at the same time, I later came to know that during Senior Week, the public buses are known as the “drunk bus,” for its loud, obnoxious and drunk passengers. We arrived at 27th Street and little did I know the walk from the bus stop to the next party was a hike. It felt as if we had been walking for miles along an endless road in the middle of nowhere in the darkness of the night. We eventually got to the party and we all started to play our millionth game of beer pong. After having a few beers, I did not feel like having another one so I asked if they had anything else and some guy offered to make me a drink. The drink was fruit punch and vodka, it was really good, I could not even taste the alcohol. I ended up having at least two fruit punch and vodka drinks and from that point on, it was a disaster.
The lights went out and Sam’s black light was turned on once again. Some of us were still wearing our glow sticks from the rave and then someone pulled out neon glow paint. We started to dance around to hip-hop and techno music and paint our bodies, faces and hair with the neon paint. You could not really see very much because the only source of light was the black light, therefore people kept running into tables, chairs and each other. That is all I or anybody else can remember from my first night at Senior Week.
I woke up the next morning in the house on 27th Street; I never made it back home. As I slowly opened my eyes, I cautiously scanned the room to figure out where I was. As a looked around the living room, I saw a girl and a guy on the floor under a faded white blanket, and my friend Sam was sleeping on my butt while another guy was sleeping near Sam’s feet on an “L” shaped sofa. I pulled out my cell phone and looked at the time, it was 11:00 a.m., I decided to leave and go back to the house I was supposed to be at and go to the beach one last time before I left to go back home the next morning. I slowly got up, left the house and walked fourteen blocks without knowing that my t-shirt was somehow on backwards and I still had yellow and orange neon paint all over my face and hair. By the time I got to 13th Street, I did not even care about the paint on my face; I left it on and joined my friends at the beach.
About an hour after I had joined my friends at the beach, Sam and a few other people arrived after walking home from the house on 27th Street. Today was my final day in Ocean City before I had to drive back home the next morning. We did some of the same activities as the day before. I realized that I was having a lot more fun at the beach with my friends than I would have with my family. I think the reason I was having a lot more fun was because if I was with my family, we did everything together and we never really got to do anything that was “fun” for me, it was always what my parents wanted to do.

How Drumline Took Over My Life

2008-12-01T18:45:00.000-08:00

It was the summer leading up to my freshman year of high school and I decided to join the drumline. I was weary at first about joining the drumline because previously I watched the movie Drumline and thought my rehearsals would be similar to that of the movie. During high school I struggled to manage my time efficiently with schoolwork, family, friends and drumline. I realized managing my time efficiently would help me in high school and in the future. I accepted an offer to join the drumline, without knowing what I was in store for.
One evening in June of 2004, I received a phone call from a man named Matt Lusky. He introduced himself and asked me if I was interested in joining the Downingtown East High School drumline. I was not planning on playing the drums in high school but unenthusiastically I replied, “Yes.” Matt, excited to know I accepted his offer to join the drumline, went on to tell me that their first rehearsal was in two weeks in the school auditorium and I assured him I would be there. I walked in and headed straight for the auditorium where I saw a few students bringing in a variety of drums. Bass drums on the left in an ascending order by size, snare drums in the center, and tenors, a series of five drums of all different sizes attached together to create one hell of a backache, on the right. As I walked towards the auditorium stage a man, not much taller than I, looked up and greeted me. I introduced myself and he said his name was Matt Lusky, the man I previously talked to on the phone two weeks prior. Matt stated, “So what we are going to do today is try you out on all three drums and see which you like best.” I agreed with him and said, “Sounds good,” and asked if I could start out on the bass drum. He said that would be fine, I walked towards the bass drums and picked up the smallest one. One of the upperclassmen, Ben, handed me a piece of music that happened to be one of the exercises we would be playing. We played several warm-up exercises and before we knew it, practice was over. Matt told all of us to go practice the warm-ups and to begin memorizing them. I never had to memorize any type of music before, so this was a new challenge for me. Once school let out, practices began every Thursday night from 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. This weekly rehearsal schedule continued throughout summer until the start of band camp.
Band camp is ten days of rehearsals, from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., with the entire marching band and drumline. At these intense and long rehearsals, we practiced and marched or walked around on a fake football field to prepare ourselves for the upcoming football season. These practices consisted of sectionals, or practicing music with people that play the same instrument, marching on the field, learning your specific spots on the field, and a one hour lunch break. Band camp was the longest and hottest days imaginable, sunburns and suntans can be seen just after the first day. It was at band camp where the freshman received notice of the drum – bass, snare or tenors – we would be playing for the rest of the year. I received a spot on the bass line; I would be playing the smallest drum. Band camp was very fast paced; you had to be able to memorize the show music and your specific spots and movements on the field. I was not having any trouble at this point and time but I had a feeling that once school started, this would not be as easy. My first day of school began after the ten-day band camp and the band director announced the rehearsal schedule that would be in effect until mid-October. Practices would be Tuesday and Thursdays for two hours, Wednesdays for an hour and fifteen minutes and Friday nights two hours before kick-off. Tuesdays through Wednesdays were my least favorite days because I would not get home until just after 5:00 p.m. and on top of that I had a lot of homework to do. When I came home after practice I was always exhausted and just wanted to lie down. School was the farthest thing from my mind after coming home from practice. This continued all the way through mid-October and at this time, practices were cut down to two days a week with rehearsal still an hour or two before kick-off on Friday nights. Eventually practices were cut down to just the practices before kick-off on Friday nights. As football season was coming to an end, indoor drumline was beginning.
In November, Matt Lusky as well as the other upperclassmen in the drumline, started to talk about indoor drumline. Indoor drumline was a mini version of what we did as a marching band at the Friday night football games, however, it only consisted of percussion instruments and we performed in school gymnasiums. I heard from my friends in band and drumline that indoor drumline was like hell, if not worse. Practices were Mondays and Wednesdays 6:00 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. and on Saturdays 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. When I heard that for the first time I was turned away instantly because I could not imagine giving up my weekends. My dad and I went to the indoor drumline informational meeting one night and he said to give it a try and I agreed with him. Unlike football season, which lasted from September to November, indoor drumline lasted from November to April. After the first couple weeks of indoor drumline practice, I realized that it was a lot harder to keep up with schoolwork and family.
Indoor drumline was slowly taking over my life; I would come home from school around 3:00 p.m. and have to leave for rehearsal around 5:30 p.m. I was at drumline rehearsal for a longer period of time than I was at my own home. Hardly ever being at home, I did not have enough time to do homework on Mondays and Wednesdays. In order to avoid doing any kind of homework after drumline practice, I would rush through all of my homework to get it all done and over within the two and half hours I had at home. At least once a week, I would be doing schoolwork until midnight and by that time I realized I should probably go to bed because I had to wake up in about six hours for school. There were clearly not enough hours in the day, especially for me. The homework I completed and handed in was not my best work but rather my worst. I started to get more answers wrong and was beginning not to understand much of the information that was being taught in classes. To make it all worse, I was not nearly getting enough sleep as usual. My tests grades slowly began to slip from A’s and B’s to C’s and D’s and sometimes F’s. I could not tell my parents that my grades were slipping because they would make me quit indoor drumline and I did not want that to happen. I did not want to quit indoor drumline because if I left I would be screwing everyone over because everyone would have to learn new drill spots in the gym. Not only were my grades slipping, but indoor drumline was cutting into my social life. I hardly ever saw my family because I was either up in my room doing homework or at drumline rehearsals. The only time they saw me was when we dinner together. I also did not have time to hang out with my friends because I was so caught up in drumline and school that I did not want or have the time to go watch a movie or go out to eat with my friends. Even though I was not getting enough sleep and the rehearsals were long, hot, and with not enough water breaks, I enjoyed the indoor drumline.
A few months went by and it was nearly the end of February. The end of February meant that the indoor drumline competitions were to start. Starting from the last weekend in February to the first weekend in April, competitions took place at various high schools within the Greater Philadelphia area. At these competitions, indoor drumlines from other high schools competed against each other for first, second, and third place trophies. Indoor drumline competitions usually lasted most of the day and people were able to see what other school’s drumlines were playing. Rehearsing for an average of thirteen hours a week plus at home practicing really paid off for us because we were winning the second and third place trophies. The drumline season was becoming even more fun and exciting, but my grades were not improving. I was doing a little better in school but not as well as I had hoped. I had not shown my report card to my parents since the beginning of the year, and I was beginning to feel guilty, but I could not let them see it otherwise I would not be able to live to see another day.
Eventually indoor drumline season ended in April and that meant no more late nights and rehearsals. I was happy to have my life back, more time to do my homework and understand it at the same time and most of course, I got my weekends back! I was able to hang out with my friends and family without having to worry if I had drumline practice or homework to do. In high school, I had trouble being time efficient and in doing so I had no social life, hardly ever saw my family and my grades slipped. All in all, I enjoyed the year and I decided that if I wanted to continue to be in the drumline, I was going to manage my time more efficiently in the future so that I did not sacrifice my grades, family and friends for drumline or any other activity I become involved in.

Hey

2008-10-14T14:39:00.000-07:00

This is my blog that I had to create for ENGL 015.
WE ARE PENN STATE!