My moral dilemma

I have been planning what I will do when I finally finish my master's degree. Some of these things involve celebrating extensively, getting a job, buying a house, getting a dog, being a bum, and buying a car. I think I pretty much know what I'm looking for in each of these things. For example:

House: small, cheap, large trees, fenced yard. Preferably over 50 years old.

Dog: large, low shedding, easy to train, some protective tendencies.

Job: pays money. Is in Utah (preferably Utah Valley).

The exception is "car." I will most likely need a car, and I firmly believe that cars should be fuel efficient. I drive a Geo Metro right now, but that will be staying in Texas. The problem is that my dream car is an older model Jeep Wrangler, one of the most fuel-inefficient cars on the market. I have been rationalizing the desire by thinking about my future job. I am a soil scientist (saying that sounds pretentious, but I think it might be an accurate statement), and my ideal job involves visiting rural areas with questionable roads. So a Jeep would be a good choice, right? My sister has abetted the justification process by pointing out that a Jeep would be extremely useful when visiting places like Spiral Jetty, and my imagination immediately took me to the San Rafael Swell. It would be so useful! I think the justifications fit. Maybe I can have two cars....

Why I wear a jacket every day

Every day when I walk into my office, I put on my jacket. It is the middle of summer and to stay warm as I sit at my desk I need a jacket. I spend most of my time in a government building, and share an office with a person who has much different indoor climate views than I do.

Here is what I believe: In the summer a person should be able to comfortably go from a building to outdoors wearing the same clothes. In the winter a person should be able to comfortably wear winter clothes inside. Not a parka, but certainly a sweater.

I also believe that the US government spends too much money keeping its buildings warm in the winter and cool in the summer. If we raised thermostats a few degrees in the summer, how much would we save on cooling costs? If we lowered our thermostats in the winter, would the costs be worth it? I think they would. I have a dream that one summer day I will walk into my building and feel a slight change in temperature, instead of a blast of arctic air.

iPod Shuffle

So...I've been thinking maybe I should design for Apple. I think that they do well with the minimalist shuffle, but I think there's room for improvement.

Right now the shuffle is a very small box with very simplistic controls. What if it was just an earbud? This is a serious question. Wouldn't it be nice not to have the wires connecting the earbuds to the little box getting in the way of things? There could even be two earbuds, and a controller that stays in a pocket or as a ring on your finger or something, all connected by bluetooth. The thing is, the flash memory for the music doesn't actually take up that much space. Look at the old shuffle, it's basically a box barely big enough to have a familiar user interface. I think this idea could turn into something awesome.

Questions

Every once in a while, but especially lately, I have questions that I would ask my dad, were he here. They are questions that I generally won't ask anyone else because they won't know. Here are some recent questions:

Where should I look for lizards in Lubbock? The road runner in the parking lot seems to know, but I don't.

Who is the Angel Raphael?

You once told me your views on evolution. Were they influenced by Henry Eyring's book, The Faith of a Scientist? If so, do you own it?

What kind of tarantulas live in this area and are they dangerous?

Lessons learned

I have learned that when living with roommates, I don't think about the bath tub. I shower without contacts in, and I clean up after myself (I lose a considerable amount of hair in the shower. It's a wonder I'm not bald.). Other than that, I try not to look around or touch anything. I think it has to do with the Tragedy of the Commons, which is an idea I try to work into as many conversations as possible. Since I don't know what my roommates were washing off of themselves, I don't know when the tub was last cleaned, and I don't like to perpetuate the idea that nobody needs to clean because I will always do it, I never bathe in a tub shared with roommates. No matter what. Often, in the last year, when I have been sick (and that is very often), my mom has suggested that I take a nice hot bath. Sounds nice, yes, but I cannot bring myself to do it.

This is all leading up to something: now, living with Rob and Cynth, they have kindly allotted me my own bathroom. The tub is so clean! Even if it's not, I know what is in there. The long and the short of it is, I've bathed 2 times in the last 4 days (slightly higher than my average shower frequency) and am planning on another one when I go home today (significantly higher than my average shower frequency).