24 Hours

Considering that my entire life revolves around my computer, cell phone and television - an entire day without any of these destroyed me! After posting my initial comment which would commence the twenty-four hours, I found myself dumbfounded as to what i should do next. My computer had just finished shutting down when I realized that I had a few books laying around. So I grabbed my book/encyclopedia entitled "On Food and Cooking" (Cooking is one of my hobbies). Soon I had read approximately 30 pages of information about sauces and their construction and decided that was enough. Since the rest of my family had gone to see a movie, I was home alone and concluded that I should go jogging. This of course did not last very long and I was yet again without ideas for an activity. So, I played with my dogs until my family returned, ate dinner, and called it a night.
This was when the real horror started. I've had trouble falling asleep all my life so my solution to this issue is to watch television until I get tired enough and doze off with the t.v still on. As I lay there for hours, restless, I finally lost enough energy and passed out. The following morning also proved quite the challenge. Normally I would attend class at 11:50, but my professor was attending a conference on juvenile homicide so class was congregating that morning. Unfortunately, my next class was not until 2 p.m. I decided that my hours were best spent sleeping, especially since I had bought two new pillows from the Linens and Things going out of business sale. Sleeping-in had never felt better. But as time progressed, I became more and more awake and decided that it was time to get up. It was a good thing too - I had an exam to study for. So I spent the majority of my morning studying until noon struck and I went for a bike ride. After I had finished, I showered off, studied some more, and went to class early. Class was more boring than usual since I was without my phone. Luckily, however, we spent most of the class watching a video on post-traumatic stress disorder. After class completed, I hung out at Starbucks to finish studying until my twenty-four hours were up.
Looking back, the majority of my time spent without technology was not so bad, though I think the reason this was due to my unnaturally spent schedule. If I had to do this again however, I would pretend as if I never read the assignment.

One Challenge

I believe that one of the most important issues that goes undetected is the research of Ethanol as a fuel. Ethanol is a type of alcohol found in many everyday items such as drinking alcohol and thermometers. It is also found in our gasoline - most gasoline in the United States is approximately 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline. The problem with this is that the majority of ethanol in the United States comes from corn. Corn is the basic feed for livestock of many sorts. Now there is more and more corn is being used to produce ethanol, which means there is less for livestock to feed upon. Considering there is less corn to feed the livestock, the farmers must increase the prices of their products so that they may meet the supply they need to maintain normal crop. This process continues and the outcome yields higher prices for chicken, beef, milk, etc. For the most part, ethanol is not worth researching. In fact, the only reason that the U.S. has started to include ethanol in gasoline is due to its more efficient burning - it reduces more ground level ozone than pure gasoline. Given that we are spending money to research further into uses for ethanol, and that it is not going far, what is the point in continuing such wasteful acts? The entire process only hurts consumers. The sad part is that these consumers include every family in America. Decreasing supplies in corn lead to higher food prices, and higher food prices reduce spending which in turn slows down the economy. Sure, this isn't the hottest issue at hand, but when the economy is suffering so much that people are losing their jobs left and right, every little bit helps.