Back from my first week at the solar field. It ranks pretty high on my list of the coolest stuff I've ever been a part of. There isn't actually a list, but if there were, then that would be on it. They told me that it was a relatively small solar field, but it was the first one I'd ever been on. From one side of it, you can't see the other side easily.

It gets around 120 F out there, and it's as dry as... a desert... so I drank ~10 water bottles per day while I was working, give or take a few depending on how windy it was. Some days were more windy, so it was easier to stay cool.

It's not good for the type of panel we were using to be exposed to light without the generated power being used by something, so they had several large resistors connected which turned the power directly into heat -- and that made things even hotter out there.

My dad suggested that instead of resistors, they aught to just buy a bunch of air conditioners. I think that typical air conditioners wouldn't use enough power for what they need, but they might be able to get a good deal on some older, very-low-efficiency ACs for a pretty good price... right? Then again, with 100G resistors going for only 35$ each, they're probably getting the best deal doing what they're doing. Anyway it was a fun idea.

It looks like the desert has fewer living things per square meter than most of the other places I've been... but in terms of its usefulness, the desert is a very practical place to live now. There are not very many mosquitos, and things don't rust very fast out here. It's very livable because of the incredible technology we have -- like for drilling wells and running power-lines. This whole area is a triumph of human ingenuity. I can see myself buying land here and staying for a long time.

My partner in the solar field (actually it's more like I'm his partner) is a great guy. He has very interesting ideas about religion and what's best for the world. I like his approach to finding out new things. He says we should question everything as much as we can. He is Mexican and was raised Catholic, and so he has a really funny way of integrating Catholic culture into his regular conversation. For example, when we needed our supervisor's signature on a work permit, he asked the supervisor to 'bestow his blessing' on the permit. And later in the week he "baptized" me under the name "chunk", because he said that anyone who works for Vertech and goes to the field gets to be baptized as "chunk" and is allowed to call the other guys at Vertech "chunk" as he wishes thereafter.

I'm heading out to the field again on Monday for one more week. I'm really looking forward to it. I'll be with the same partner in the same field, but this time we're going to be many times more productive, because I will know what I'm doing from the very beginning.

"'If my body goes, then to hell with my soul.' We don't even know the difference."