So, where is this place?

The Ehan homeland is an island of approximately 50K square miles centered at latitude 33 N. (What’s the longitude of nowhere? I’ll leave that you.) Perhaps due to their isolationism, it never occured to the Ehan to name their island. When pressed to write something on a map they’ve settled on Taiyana, literally “our land.” Got that? Not that you could invade if you wanted to. The western coast is made up of rather impressive mountains, the natural harbors are expertly fortified, the southern coast is almost all cliffs.

Which brings me to the surprising climate variations in this little land. The south is semiarid steppe. The Pea River valley receives an average of 17 inches of rainfall per year.  The northern part of the island is substantially more temperate, with an annual rainfall of 34 inches.  How did this come to be? Lots of butterflies, clearly.

The difference in climate long ago created a differing economic development.  Regions grouped together for economic cooperation by their very different growing seasons, leading eventually to the two competing states on the island today - the confederation of counties in the south and the more feudal, imperial government in the north.

In fact the north-south divide has become a major feature of Ehan culture, or rather, cultures.  The line between average rainfalls not only defines and divides major dialect groups, but differing cultural attitudes and practices as well. 

The capital of the southern state is Halme (lit. “the sound of wind in a narrow space,” “howling,” “mourning”).  Situated on the only harbor on the southern coast, it is the trading port for the islands to the south and west.  Halme is the gateway to the island for luxury goods like spices, exotic foods, and cotton.  The capital of the northern, Imperial state is Tamoiyu (lit. “at of-the-sea,” a truncation of the full name of the city, Ta Ehalre Imoiyu, “at the Gates of the Sea”.)  Tamoiyu is located on the northern coast of the island, slightly east of Halme.  Of course we will be exploring these two major cities in more detail as time goes on.

New Zealand - West Coast South Island - Part One

How to take care of your hot tub, spa & swim-spa filters.

Nothing is as important for hot tub water quality as your filtering system. A soiled and clogged or simply worn-out filter will fail in its task of trapping contaminants. This results in cloudy water, higher chemical usage and can even put a strain on your spa’s pump/s. You should clean your filters every couple of weeks and soak clean them in Filter Cartridge Cleaner every 8 weeks. DON’T assume that your filters will last 12 months - read our article ‘The truth about spa filters’ and try our Estimated filter life test.

Rotate Your Spa Filters.

Use this filter rotation method: while cleaning your dirty filter, swap it with a previously cleaned and dried spare. This system will ensure that you will never have to wait to use your spa, and if your spa turns cloudy you can rectify the problem straightaway. Allowing filters to dry completely after soak-cleaning will increase filter effectiveness and extend the life of the filter.

Pleated filter cartridges should be thoroughly rinsed every two weeks (sooner when the spa use is heavy). Use a garden hose (not a pressure washer), and apply the water stream at an angle of about 45-degree, making sure to dislodge all foreign matter by spraying between each pleat. Or try our new Filter Cleaning Wand.

At least every 8 weeks, and ALWAYS with a water change, your cartridge should first be pre-rinsed, then soaked overnight (or in accordance with package directions) in Filter Cartridge Cleaner. Rinse again and allow to air-dry.

Hot Tips and Advice

1) Never assume that your filters will last 12 months (they may do, but only under perfect circumstances). Be sure, take our Estimated filter life test so you can be accurate.

2) If you are in a hard water area it is essential to use NO SCALE solution in your tub.

3) Invest in a Pre Filter for your hose pipe. This removes many harmful elements before they ever get in to your tub.

4) Only use a product like our Filter Cartridge Cleaner which is designed for cleaning pleated filter cartridges.

5) When cleaning, always rotate out your filters with a clean, dry spare.

6) Never use a pressure-washer or put filters through the dishwasher to clean them. The high water pressure will damage the REEMAY filter media.

Bicycle Powered Water Pump and Sand Filter

Communist Ateneo

The past few weeks have been crazy. There’s so much to do for my organizations and subjects that sometimes, it’s hard to even breath. 

As part of what I had to do for The GUIDON, I ran around campus interviewing candidates who were running in the Sanggunian general elections. It was kind of weird though since most of the candidates were running unoppossed.

It’s weird to witness a democratic election where candidates are essentially running againts abstain. The weirdest part of the elections was that you didn’t feel the “election vibe”. In fact, most of the students I talked to didn’t even know that it was election season.

The importance of the Sanggunian is a hot topic in the Ateneo. According to many people, the Sanggunian is obsolete. This term was used last year when a secret society set up a blog about the Sanngunian and it woes.

For this year’s election, the student activities office removed the two party system, which would probably explain the lack of an electoral feel to the elections. 

For an aspiring journalist, it’s weird to cover an election nobody cares about.

During a lesson on Chinese history, we came across the concept of Communism, a community in which the ultimate goal is the dissolvement of the government. 

I was thinking about this one time and imagined that maybe, just maybe, Ateneo has something of a communist idealogy going on. As per my personal experience, the Sanggunian finds it difficult to make thier presence truly felt among the student body.

When you think about it, the Ateneo setting is something of a utopist community. There’s nothing really serious to complain about in terms of internal issues. Sure, we have issues like CARPER and the like, but they have nothing to do with the situation inside Ateneo.

Tuition fees? I don’t think students really would care about that. It might be a hasty generalization but owing that the majority of the student population come from the middle class and higher, an increase in the tuition doesn’t realy ruin thier lives.

Teacher oppression? I think that sometimes it’s the other way around. When it comes to students who are particularly influential, I’m pretty sure some teachers are afraid to ruffle the wrong feathers. 

What is the government supposed to do? Protect it’s people’s intentions? What if students don’t need the protection? What happens to the student government then?

China was under chaos because two parties with opposing idealogies, (CCP and KMT) were battling it out. In the Ateneo meanwhile, chaos comes because the apparent deletion of the parties and the lack of difference in ideaologies. 

Sometimes I wonder why we even bother to have a student government when people don’t even seem to care.

Does the Dog Die? A Brief Review of People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks

I was so happy and excited when this book came out in paperback! I couldn’t wait to get to the bookstore and buy it. Brooks’ Year of Wonders, which I reviewed a few months ago, is one of the best books I’ve ever read, and People of the Book had received great reviews.

You know where this is going, don’t you? Disappointed reviewer finds herself skimming sections, keeps waiting for the magic to appear, ends up deciding to give book a mediocre review? Yeah, that’s what happened.

Somewhere along the line, said reviewer has to tell what the book is actually about before trashing it. Okay, then: Hanna, a book conservationist from Australia, gets called in to work with a rare Jewish text called a “haggadah” that’s been found in Bosnia after surviving hundreds of years in the hands of different people. Hanna’s mother is surrealistically awful, but Hanna herself is a nice, normal person. As Hanna researches the debris and stains she finds in the book, we are given the stories of the people responsible for all this detritus. And there’s a plot twist involving Hanna, and another involving Momzilla, and then it ends.

As you might have gathered, I don’t like one-dimensional villains. (The attempt at giving the momster a second dimension didn’t work.) I also thought the short stories of the people who’d had the book previously didn’t always work. Sometimes I wanted more and was left hanging, sometimes I was appalled at the violence and had to skim. Yes, if you’re going to write accurately about the Spanish Inquisition, you need some ugliness, but I don’t want to read about it in gory detail. And it wasn’t just that section. Furthermore, Brooks’ research was showing a lot when she wrote about the book conservation; it just didn’t blend in well. Then there’s Hanna herself, who seems both too normal for having had the terrible mother, and too flat to be the protagonist. Bottom line: this book just didn’t work for me, and I’m not recommending it.

As for animals, there were Persian cats that came to no harm, a dutiful donkey that served some rebels in WWII, and a few odds and ends. So the book is SAFE from an animal lover’s perspective, although the violence will likely be off-putting to those for whom that matters. Read Year of Wonders instead.

GM and Chrysler - another loan?

So it appears Saturday Night Live had it right a few months ago when they sarcastically joked that the Big 3 car companies’ plan to stay afloat was to come back asking for more money just a few months later. Apparently $17 billion wasn’t enough. They need another $21.6 billion.

Obama may be at check mate on this one. Option #1 Give them the money - if they come back asking for more he will be accused of throwing tax payer money down the drain. Option #2 Don’t give them the money - if they do go bankrupt the legal process may cost the government even more than the loan. Not to mention the many jobs that will be lost making the economy worse which will make his stimulus bill look like a disastrous failure (which may or may not be inevitable…). It will be interesting to see how he plays this one.

But the real question becomes, where does bailout stop and responsibility and consequences for our choices begin? We all know that “someone” who got into problems with debt and was helped out by another “someone” who paid off those debts or helped them financially when life followed through with its natural consequences for bad financial decisions. What happens to that someone? They find more debt and more problems and the helper has just waisted all their time an energy.

If the money is approved the bail out to the auto industry will out to about $158.81 per person of working age (15 and over) - that would be $317.62 for a married couple and if they have two kids over the age of 15 their family portion to save the car industry would be $635.24! My family can’t pay that, we are to busy making cuts and wise decisions with our budget so we can pay the bills like responsible citizens do.

My advise to Obama - fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. We gave the car industries a chance to prove they were serious and not just going for free money to continue irresponsibility, now its time to show them the true meaning a free market economy.

By the way… Ford, after its worst fourth quarter ever, is not asking for more money. They think they can make sacrifices and survive without government help - imagine that, making sacrifices during hard times. I think may just buy a Ford.

Credit for sources:

http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2009/02/18/more-money-for-gm-and-chrysler/

http://www.mikepaulblog.com/blog/media/big3automakers.jpg

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html