Dream house construction, continued. sticking it to the man.

Feeling better, but still sick and really bored. So here's some more random chatter about my house project.

I like the idea of clean energy, but since Mister Fusion isn't availeble yet (Back to the future reference) we'll have to settle for something a little more earthbound.
First off, what consumes energy in a house. Heating, both of the house itself and water, running of the house. such as light and ventilation (I want a house with ventilation) and your basic utilities.
All of this consumes power, on average. a family of four in a house use 5000 kwh a year on light, computers, the stove and so forth. add to that heat, depending on the house ranging from 100-200 kwh a year depending on the house insulation and finally roughly 750 kwh worth of hot water per person.
put that together and you get around 8000 kwh a year in energy consumption by four people. That's a pretty stiff energy bill ^^;
And if you calculate with there being about 10kwh in a liter of oil, that's a shitload of empty oil barrels in a year ^^;
SO. how do I intend to not destroy the enviorment with my fantasy house?


First off, limit the loss of energy.
In your typical house, that is the loss of heat due to bad insulation. and Danish houses, especially older ones, you barely have to bother closing the windows in the winter, doesn't make much difference. Take a thermal picture of a house from the eighties or older and it will glow red.
So first off, proper insulation. I've been reading up on some new insulation that I like the sound of. Paperwool, I know, sounds like I should invite the mice in and set my house on fire after the dinner. But supposedly, via impregnating the paper material with minerals, chiefly salt. insects and vermin can't eat, let alone live in it. futhermore, the stuff doesn't catch fire, at worst it smolders under flame. last but not least, it's made from old paper trash. so, recycled materials right here =3 And it being "organic" the wool absorbes and expels moisture, helping the house breath.
Last detail that really took me in, but doesn't really have any practical applications. the stuff doesn't itch and harrass your throat and eyes like most other isulations like glass and rockwool.
Secondly, proper triple glass, termo windows. These bad boys due to a special surface treatment and the gas Argon being sandwitched between the panes of glass, have a high insulation faktor. infact, the main temparture bridge is the frame. The window is constructed in such a way it lets heat in, but keeps it in. so during the winter, the sun will help heat up the house. nifty, right =3

So, there. That's the first round. limiting the loss of energy, but that still means we consuming it. heating the house and powering it.
There I turn to a combination of solutions, that individually arn't that much of a deal. but combined and under optimal conditions could make you energy independant.
First of, floorheat. mentioned it in an earlier post. I love a nice toasty floor =) but a warm floor automatically makes the room feel warmer and since you're not relying on a radiator in one side of the room, to warm up the whole room. You don't have to turn the heat up quite as much. which means you average have the heat setting 5 degrees lower with floor heat, than common radiators. 
There you already have cut back on your energy bill =)

Next, Earthheat.
The system is based on termo dynamics. using the ground as a large energy storage device. during the summer, large amounts of heat is stored in the ground, putting a network of pipes in the ground lets you draw on that energy, using it to heat your house and bathing water.
problem is it's a rather large procedure to install, you gotta plow a meter deep furrow network on an area roughly the size a tenniscoart. But the possibilities for self renewable energy is interesting.
Especially combined with an energy trap. An energy trap, is basicly a solar panal that works after the same principles as the earthheat. absorbing energy from the sunlight and air temperature. This in turn means that during winter, while you are drawing on the heat reserves in the ground, the energy trap will absorbe warmth from the sunlight, even during winter time and store it in the ground. effectively turning the ground heat system into a battery, that stores the heat of the day and lets you use it during the night.

Finally, wind power. A windtrap (loved the idea ever since I build my first in Dune II. nerd alert) anyways, found this one.

Helix wind corp. not only does their wind turbines look awesome, but as fare as I can gather, are very effective and quite useful for urban and sub-urban projects, as they arn't quite as space consuming, need to be as high as your regular windmills and don't make near the noise and more importantly, don't care from where the wind comes.
The one on the picture is their newest and biggest model. almost 5 meters tall. and has an estimated 3.3 kwh a year output.
That's more than half of the above mentioned 4 person family electricity use.
Now the real beauty of this baby (aside from the obvious, I think it's awesomely designed) it produce electricity as long as the wind blows, which certain places is pretty much constantly. 24/7, meaning that it produce electricity, when you're at work/school or sleeping. and the only energy consumers are the fridge, standby electronics and heat pumps. This thing comes with an inverter, so when it produce more than your home consumes, your electrical gauge starts running backwards. optimal conditions, your electrical company starts sending you checks instead of bills =3
Alternatly, you could just store the energy, if you had a heater element connected to the earth heat system, you could store the electrical energy as heat in the ground and use it later to heat your house or water.

Ofcause, most of this is new technology and rather considerat investments of time and materials, not to mention money. The helix turbine alone, would set you back 16.000 US dollars. All the solutions I've stated above, would take half a life time or more of saved electricity and heat bills, to pay for themselves. most are very maintanence light how ever, but possibly you'd go to your grave just breaking even.
But still it's an intesting thought, having a house nearly energy dependant.
Just sitting a lazy summer afternoon, listening to the birds and your wind turbines soft "chop chop chop" ticking the electrical gauge backwards in the hallway =3

I'd like that ^^

Games and more games =)

Finished Assasins creed: brotherhood last night.

Quite good game, picks up right after previous. litteraly right after =3

They made the combat more dynamic this time around, I rather liked that, if you timed your excutions right. you could finish of groups of enemies in no time. Even if I only did get the slay five men in 10 seconds guildchallenge one time ^^;

But the problem the game has had and still has, is the stealth element.

the whole detail with you being able to hide in plain sight, even though you got the most colourful and unique outfit the whole of rome I'll just skip. or you can crawl on a chalk white wall, while wearing a red cape and the guards acroos the forth won't notice you anyway ^^;

No, what bugs me is this, several missions needs you to be covert and sneak about. But unlike, say, Arkham asylum. you don't really have any tools for sneaking around. no wall hugging or quiet moves.

It could give the game a new dimention, ala the old thief game. particularly on the levels where to get the 100% completion you can't be detected, it's really fustrating.

not to mention, they've made the guards AI a little too stupid. In the beginning of the game it's okay that they stand around asking questions when they find the corpses you leave behind. But into the game, when they gotta be painfully aware you're loose in Rome, they should start seaching for you, when they find the corpses you leave behind. instead of just standing around, ready to be picked off.

But all in all, great game =) little tedious at times and some of the story missions were teeth gnashingly difficult. But I completed it ^^

Next on the menu is Dead space 2. plan to play that through with my buddy Kenneth. We squeeled our way through the first game and the second is rumored to be better =3

Even if EA went utterly 8 year old douchbag with the commercials *facepalm*

Seriously guys. not impressed =(

if we're gonna get people to take gaming seriously as a medium and an art form. Immature shit like this gotta stop.

oh and I came across an old classic by accident, I never got to play it through back in the day. so I'm thinking about getting ahold if it, just for the nostalgic trip =3

incidently, I really liked the mechas in this game, moved and acted like actual machines ^_^

Ring of Red

by todays standards the grafics suck ass. But the whole mecha in ww2 always appealed to me ^_^

Fighting the touch of the plague father.

And that little headline will separate all the Normal people from all the Warhmmer 40.000 fanboys (as in me)

Just got back from the doctor and turns out I feel like a drowned kitten cause, not as I initially thought, have the flu. But I got a throat infection, inflamation... something. feels like I'm chugging down ground glass as I swallow -_-
And to this a nice fever and I'll leave the estimat of just how many hours of sleep I got last night up to you.

Anyways, this leaves me feeling somewhat groogy and not just from sleep deprevation. But atleast I got a chance to catch up on my movies.
Gonna watch the Watchmen DVD Dorthea got me =3

You have to be this tall to try the ride.

Bloody hell what a week, what a rollercoaster ride.

First of we've been shorthanded at work this week. With two collegues on vacation. and one of the remaining collegues have just been GETTING on my nerves >_<
He is well meaning, but a freaking busy body that sticks his nose into anything and everything that pass him by, throwing his lot in no matter if he knows what the hell is going or he can actually help. Sigh, I found myself stopping short of snarling at him to go and mind his own damn buisness more than a few times.
Trouble is, he means well and he just wanna help. Even if he doesn't ^^;
On top of this, me and the apprentice was commandered to help pull mains for the new boards around the hospital, by friday my hands were utterly smashed T_T
and to just top it off. They're rearrenging management (again) which has everyone up in arms, guessing on what changes will follow and how the will affect us.
*sigh* I just wanna do my damn job, okay??

But. come friday. It was time for RPG with Frost and Cado, we had a blast, even if I was bone tired -_- had to do overtime at work.
But Frost had hammered together a rather interesting campaign and a system that relied heavily on actual roleplaying and less on a mechanics system. challenging, but fun ^_^

Saturday, I was throwing a party. took most of the day to get things squared away. But I had a massive blast, tons of fun and got utterly shitfaced.
For some reasons I've begun being able to drink a whole lot more than I use to, without becoming nauseas. rather odd really ^^;
Ofcause I paid the price today. rather crass hangover and my throat feels like I tried to swallow a hedgehog and changed my mind halfway an pulled it out of my gullet again DX
hopefully I'll be back in action tomorrow, because boy am I feeling those 3½ and a half hours of sleep I got tonight.
But still, had so much fun I'd do it again and most likely will too =3 even if I think I'll hold back a bit on the hootch.

Sadly I managed to finish the week on a sour note =/
Mostly I blame myself. To clarify; My and Dorthea's friendship more or less went up in smoke today.
The short version is a clusterfuck of confused messages and hurt feelings that ended with a phonecall where I said some things in anger that wern't true. But now that they are said, I can't make them go away. =(
I highly doubt we will patch things up, but who knows...

Hopefully. next week will be less eventful. here's to hoping. I really tired.

The DO-WANT list.

It occured to me, as I perused the various blogs I keep tabs on, that quiet a few sport. cloths and assesories in less or greater amounts.
So, felt like I'd do the same. Though unlike the aforementioned people, I don't have much of a fashion sense ^^; Tenna semi seriously being my personal stylist XD
But all the same. I have a Do Want list, where I write down stuff I wanna get/buy when I get the fund or oppotunity or find the right, as some of the things are a little vague ^^
But here's few things from the clothing and assesories section.

I have shit load of coats ^^; it's a semi fetish. Anyways, really like this jacket ^^ 

hmmm. black trenchcoat with high neck. do want 8D~~

 My trusty old skin jacket is starting to come appart at the seams, and the stuffing is rather worn. So I'm giving thoughts to a replacement, this one is my current. "hmmm maybe"

 Shoulder bags. my current shoulder bag is rather rather bulky, consittering I usually don't carry more than a book and bottle of water. So I'm on the look out for a messenger back. this one also works as a backpack, very utilitarian =D

 I rather like this one.

 I really like this one too, already well used, rugged and rumpled when you buy it. but it costs the ass end of a rocket >_<

hmmm Always wanted one of them long blazer jackets ^_^

 I havn't worn a wrist watch since I started carrying around a cell phone. But since I've picked up wearing leather armbands occationally. I've given some thought to invest in one with a watch. don't like the watch here, but the band is nice ^^d

 Steam punk cuff links, most def =p cost a pretty penny though ^^;

and while we're steampunky. came across this ring here. Don't wear finger jewlery, but I could give it a try with something original like this one ^^

Ignoring the chores and daydreaming

So, I have this reaccuring idea about building my own house some day. finacial means premitting.
mainly cause then everything will be new and exsactly the way I want it (or we want it, in case I'm building it around a family)
My old master.... sounds like I studied martial arts, was a jedi padawan once. The man I was apprenticed to, when I studied to be an electrician, had built his own house, and while it was an awesome house. It was the thing that he'd made it exsactly like he wanted it, everything was new, there were no patch work solutions and being a craftman himself, he'd made it with possible expansions in the future in mind.
The whole idea just blew me away and it's stuck with me ever since =)

So, something along the lines of this.

well... maybe not. just building the mountain would cost a fortune ^^; but then again. with my home perched on a hill/mountaintop I could install a bat cave =3
And european castles are awesome ^^

Anyways. Back to the house, there's no set of blue prints, just a general idea of what I want as it seems to morph every few years.
But rooms are secondary to the kitchen and bathroom. (you can tell I really hate the claustophobic versions I'm stuck with in my current appartment =P )

The kitchen need to be roomy, bright and warm. preferably an eating kitch. you know with a cooking area and an area with a dinner table. The kitchen at my grandparents farm is like that. and while there's two hole living rooms, one with a dinner area. most of the time when in the house, everyone was in the kitchen ^^
It was just nice to hang around out there ^^

 Not entirely there with the decor of this kitchen. But the tree is a brilliant touch ^_^

Really like the light fixtures hanging from the branches.

Now we're getting somewhere. large work area, gas stove. and a bar front, for guest to lounge around on while the cook makes the kitchen area hazardous =P

As for the bathroom. I'm a bit dubious as to the exact nature of the room. I'll most likely have bathtub, not much a tubber myself. But I've yet to meet a woman whom didn't like idea of soaking for half an hour or so.
personally find the water usage criminal. But hey, I want heated floors in the whole house, so I guess I've cross the eco criminal line already ^^;
Did I mention I'd want geo heat sinks, sun cells and windtraps? but more on that another time ^^
But while my idea a bathroom is a tad vague, I know I want something large than the bloody cupboard with a toilet and a sink, I'm making due with now ^^;

Not really any point, other than thinking aloud and sharing neat pictures I found online.
As I said it, it's an ongoing project, so I might bring it up again some other time.

Emperor Protects

challenge met and overcome.

As mentioned in earlier posts, I've gotten ahead in my running schedual. But today I were debating my progress with some collegues that, where one is a seasoned runner and marathon man.
And he thought I could progress a whole lot faster than I am right now and he suggested that I might be holding back by aherding to my schedual to closely.
Intrigued by this another collegue suggested I tried to run the 6 kilomters that are my goal, just to see how far I could take it. and so I did.
I had a date with Eri afterwork, going shopping and having a hotdog, cozy seeing her.
But it'd started snowing and gotten dark when I was finally home, so some prep work was in order =3

ready to go running in windy, snow freezing dark weather ^_^ three layers of pants, three layers of tshirts and sweat shirt, + safty vest. scarf, cap, socks, ankel warmers and fingerless gloves.
Ready to run.
So I ventured into the snow and had a brilliant run =) I took a new route, just to make the experience completly original and went through the local bog, where I even managed to scale the hill at the local architect school for a private rocky moment.
ofcause the route through the bog presented a few challenges of it's own, for one thing it was gloomy twillight, which made the muddy slicks hard to see and the pools of water even harder and those I did see presented a challenge in and of the selves as I had to leap across them.
But got through the bog okay. other traps I encountered; boobytrap streetwalks. turns out the frost had eroded the gravel underneith the sidewalk stones, so they'd tip when you stepped on them a couple of place salong my route. suprised the hell out of me the first time, but luckily I didn't slip or twist anything =)
In the end I clocked a nice 6½ kilometers, where I only had a break of 100m walk up a particular nasty hill.
Real proud of myself ^^

other than that I've been postponing writting again by surfing on 4chan XD

how to find time and kill it.

Havn't written in a while, been meaning to, but just havn't gotten around to it. So since I have declared that tonight should be writting night and I'm a lazy bugger putting it off, I've decided writting on my blog instead XD
So, not much going on lately. Car still broke, most likely gonna get it fixed next month.
Spare time these days are divided between friends, training and hobbies.

Training is progressing nicely, I'm running a measly 3½ kilometers right now, but that leaves me over three months to reach the 6, that's my benchmark in June.
Getting a decent diet going too, dinners light and I've recently figured out the reason I've been so tired lately is cause, running seriously busts the muscles in your legs (well duh) and since I don't eat too much meat in the evening, my body drains everything else to try and fix up the damage I've done to it.
so hence forth, more lean meat on the dinner menu and thus, a side of Salmon is roasting in barbeque in the kitchen ^_^
NOMMAGE!

As for the spare time and I how I get rid of it. Written should check a large sum, sadly still not quite as much as I'd like. Inspiration is getting better, with the super cozy storytellers gettogethers I've hosted a few times. But I should write more, got ideas comming out the ears and nose, but it's just hard to get focused enough to sit down and write'em. something to work on I think.
maybe I should set a bench mark to myself, like with training. By June I must have finished atleast ONE story. That gives me a nice leeway.... why do I see myself luck up a week from June, typing like a madman XD
Other than that, I've picked up watching Anime again ^^ which has widdled away a whole lot time.

First and formost: Zero no Tsukaima AKA Familiar of Zero.
It's rather lighthearted romantic comedy. sorta like Ranma ½ meeting harry potter. The magic school not talent witch summons a boy from our world as her familar and the story writes itself from there.
First there's fustration, demeaning punishments and fights. then there's friendship, demeaning punishments and fights and finally love blooms... and demeaning punishments and fights.
Louise's (the witch) tendcy to find Saito at fault, whether it actually is his fault or not, gets a little stale at times. But generally the series is rather sweet and the various characters grown on you and develope nicely over the three seasons (some 36 episodes)
and I must admit, there's been few series that actually had been shouting loudly at the screen, fistpumping in glee at cool stuff or hiding my head when it gets to embarresing.
So light, romantic comedy your thing? then give this a try.
.... and there's a shitload of fanservice as well ^^;

Also been taking swings at Elfen Lied. which is just as gory as rumoured. But the blatant fanservice and slapstick humor clashes with the otherwise grim and serious mood of the series.
But only a few episodes in, so not entire put off yet.

Recently started on Sacred Blacksmith. only four episodes into it, so I'm still maybe/maybe not. But the focus on sword craft and smithing of weapons is interesting.

On the gaming front. while eagerly awaiting Dragon Age 2. I'm piling in the hours in Assasins creed: Brotherhood.
It's gotten som improvements from AC2, but the learning curve on the main missions is balisitic ^^; One mission, I had to do over 14 times before I got it right. killing three guys on alert in 30 seconds, within 10 meters of each other. tricky buisness >_<
But the addition of assasin henchmen is a nice touch, though I'd have liked to be able to give them gear, difference appearences and join them on their missions around europe. But hey, there's a detail for the next one =3

Ton of games I look forward to playing this year, but that'll have to wait for another blog post.

Emperor Protects

achs and pains

Been a while since I last updated. mainly because I've been busy and not terribly much has happened really.
However, damn near had a heart attack today, slipped on the iced sidewalk and my right knee made a really nasty cracking sound and hurt like hell. made me go icecold inside, cause sounded very like what Marie described to me when she snapped a ligament in her knee a few years back.
As luck would have it, my leg would carry me and a few minuts later, the pain subsided and disappeared, and now can just feel that some of the tendons are a tad sore. But damn, that almost scared the damn pants of me ^^;

The other aspect of pain I'm dealing with is not quite as physical, but no then less stressful. My private economy last month and this month is utterly shot to hell. (complicated story about vacation I had to take, but could get covered finacially. damn annoying)
I havn't had a budget this tight while actually having a job since I was a bloody apprentice >_< and that's 10 years back.
Just more wood on the "get rid of the car" fire =/

so I dull my finacial angst with chocolate, but as I'm trying tog in shape I just make due with one piece per day.

well not really, it's a bit of kid brothers christmas present. a giant chocolate bar. thought the oversize hilarious =3 (yep, my hand. no, not shopped)

But I still managed to get hold of Assasins creed Brotherhood this weekend though =3 damn entertaining game and very addicting XD