Lots of Bus

It's been a busy week for Ashley and I. We managed to finish making our wedding registry at Target. That was our last excuse, so now we have to finish the invitations and get them out the door.

Transportation needed a lot of help this week, so I took some time off at Rational Data and grabbed some charter runs. Thursday morning, I took a few people down to a sustainability conference in south Denver. They were very interesting people with some great ideas. One of the most interesting proposals I heard was a system that uses algae to scrub city air. A business would be able to put a shed on a building room, the algae would clean the air, and the business would reap profit from the multiplying algae. Much more complicated, but that's the gist. I think it will be really interesting to see how sustainable energy takes form in the next few decades.

Another charter was picking up high school students from Aurora for the Black Student Alliance. I think it's some sort of diversity recruiting effort. Personally, I think it's a good idea to encourage diversity efforts like this, because sections of CU are really not that diverse. The College of Engineering seems to have quite a few Asian, Indian and Arab students, but very few places on campus have a high number of African American or Latino students. On the flip side, the gender ratios in different programs is all over the place. I think most of the Engineering departments are at least 90% male, and I've heard the Biology departments are much the opposite. It's just an observation, not really a praise or a complaint.

This morning I picked up the Army ROTC group from a paint ball field near the School of Mines. It was awkward trying to interact with them. I haven't had a hair cut in a couple of weeks, and I didn't shave this morning, so I didn't have the military look. I was tempted to ask their major about his deployment since he had a patch on his right sleeve, but it seemed silly to ask him. Socially, it would be addressing him as if he was at my level, but I'm lower enlisted and haven't been deployed, so it would be... out of place. I decided against it. Finally at the end of the trip, I asked if they had a first sergeant. I know the ROTC uses some pseudo-enlisted rank structure to teach the function of the rank system, so there should be a first sergeant in the group to handle simple direction of the group. They looked very confused, so I just sheepishly asked if they could have someone remind the cadets to police up trash. I've considered trying to get involved with the ROTC people before, but it's such a different attitude from what I've experienced. They're students that get high-and-tight hair cuts and wear ACU's (improperly, I might add). They haven't been conditioned, and so trying to interact with them as fellow members of the military is awkward. I don't think I'll try to get involved. I'll just stick with the couple of bus driver friends I have in the ROTC battalion.