things and stuffs

08-013

2008-10-30T15:43:00.002-04:00

well wouldn't you know it. i turned 28 this past saturday and come monday morning i'm plucking a silver hair from my beard. the odd thing about the event was that the offending hair was sticking straight out from the middle of a matted down and slept on patch of hairs. straight out. it was like this hair had a mission to get me to notice it. well i did and i'm not happy about it. i don't mind getting older but i'm just not ready for grey hair.

08-012

2008-08-26T08:38:00.003-04:00

i recently took a carbon footprint quiz to see how good [hopefully] or bad i was treating the planet based on my lifestyle. the last time i did one of these it was for a class in sustainable building and i needed 5.3 planets to sustain my way of life. yikes! well after a few changes i decided it was time to retake it. i scored 3.9 planets this time. not great, but a vast improvement over the last time. major changes to reduce my footprint? converted from an omnivore to an almost vegetarian, drastically reduced the number of miles i drive from over two hundred a week to right around 50 [i'll be taking the train to school this semester], and i took the snow tires off my car and am getting close to 40mpg. the quiz is rather general and doesn't account for a lot of things like how much you eat in a weekly basis, just that you eat; natural gas was the only option for home heating [i use oil and pellets] and it's calculated in dollars, not gallons or pounds; power consumption was also in dollars, not kWh; there is no place to input gallons of water, just that you use water; and no credits for using rainwater or for composting [the compost is potentially a big ticket item too considering how many tons of waste a family can stop from being trucked to a landfill]....i'm assuming that all of the answers are based on a national [or global] averge. it would be nice to have a more accurate way of caculating these values but it's still a great indicator and motivator. well, i have my work cut out for me - i'd like to drop my consumption even more and get below two planets by next year this time so wish me luck.

08-011

2008-08-20T10:55:00.005-04:00

OK, time for a rant. I love this planet, I love it so much that I have really made a conscious effort to change my lifestyle to be more environmentally responsible. My diet has changed to be a fishetarian (right; no cows, no pigs, no chickens, just good ol' veggies and some fishies) and I have plans to become a strict vegetarian again, my driving habits have changed drastically (from drive like your rear is on fire to grandma style), I compost, I collect rainwater for our landscaping, I recycle EVERYTHING, I'm trying desperately to find a reel mower on the cheap, and thinking about retiring the snow blower I bought last year, despite a terrible and painful lower back "issue", and wax up my trusty shovel this winter, the wife and I bought a pellet stove to use renewable resources for heating, last year our thermostat didn't go over 64 ALL WINTER, CFL's in every socket, I forgo any type of disposable bag whenever it's practical, and lastly I try to eliminate products with useless packaging. This brings me to my rant. I ran across the street yesterday to grab lunch (I try not to, but the A/C in my office is set to refrigerator temp (yes, another rant, but for another day. Let's just say that I have NO control over it))...anyway: lunch. I needed soup and a jaunt out on a perfect day to defrost myself. As I'm paying the lovely folks I notice that they have added fresh fruit to their menu. Wonderful!! I love apples and oranges. Wow, those apples look REALLY, REALLY shiny. Oh, that's why, they are wrapped in cellophane! WHAT!?!?? As if the wax they dip the things in wasn't good enough? Oh, and that wonderful skin that nature invented? Apparently that is useless too. To add to it all these things were already under glass so it's not like they would collect a ton of dust and that glass would certainly be a deterrent for all those folks that like to pick their noses then touch every piece of fresh fruit in the place. Why-o-why would anyone find the need to wrap a perfectly good piece of fruit in a toxic sheet? [deep breath] OK, I feel better now.

08-010

2008-06-18T10:52:00.004-04:00

ahhhh, sarcasm. image from xkcd

08-009

2008-06-13T10:56:00.002-04:00

after a very successful little experiment i've started driving 55 on the highway. i was commuting to boston twice a week at 72-76mph up to the middle of may and was using just shy of half a tank of fuel round-trip [lets call it 1/3 of a tank, or 23mpg]. i decided to try to cut my speed down to 55mph to see if my fuel economy would actually increase as the rumors suggested. did it ever! i now use essentially a quarter of a tank which translates to roughly 31 mpg [with snow tires on]. i only added about 7 minutes to my commute and for me that's a very tolerable increase. my commute now is only about 10 miles daily so i actually forget when i've filled up last. if i remember correctly it has been 2 weeks today since my last visit to the pump. drive 55 you will see a difference in your fuel consumption!

08-008

2008-06-11T20:24:00.004-04:00

i discovered this image while browsing FFFFOUND! and thought it was compelling enough to share. i'm not even sure what it is that excites me about it; the surreality? the framing of the photo [isn't the perspective great?]? the paradox of a 'green' city? or that this guys loves walking barefoot in the grass enough to build an 8 foot diameter human hamster wheel!?

08-007

2008-06-11T10:35:00.003-04:00

HOPS, HOPS, HOPS!!! i'm growing cascade, fuggle, magnum, nugget sterling , and willamette and they are doing fantastic [except the fuggle....he needs some help]. the photo is of the willamette though it's hard to tell its' just shy of a foot tall and has only been in the ground for 3 weeks or so!! i'm in the process of designing a trellis to support the vines and that will hopefully go in this weekend.

08-006

2008-06-10T10:42:00.002-04:00

WHAT!!?!???! i can post a blog entry via e-mail???? too cool! [OK, i'm a dork.]

08-005

2008-06-10T09:49:00.005-04:00

that moment, when three dimensions turn two and all depth is lost leaving only a silhouette to dance against a dimly lit sky, is...wondrous.

08-004

2008-03-17T19:40:00.009-04:00

holy funbags batman, the whiz kids in marketing are at it again!

08-003

2008-03-12T13:43:00.006-04:00

what if i told you that i would send you 10 trees for 10 dollars, is that something you might be interested in [quote stolen from HBO's entourage]? well, i won't do that but the arbor day foundation will. what a great idea for a new homeowner whose yard is in need of some landscaping (guilty as charged...) and you can give a membership that includes 10 trees as a gift. i can't think of a better way to offset my carbon footprint than to plant some co[2] sucking trees in my yard.

08-002

2008-03-12T12:48:00.003-04:00

sunrise is awesome, yeah? it's been a while since i have gotten into my office early enough to see it so i thought that i should memorialize the occasion. i was able to nab this photo just before sunrise between mouse clicks, scribbles, and BIG GULPS of my venti, triple shot, sugar-free*, non-fat, no-whip, no-foam, cinnamon dolce latte (*they doubled my saccharin intake by upgrading me to a large for free because they didn't have the sugar filled flavor). anyway, it's really a spectacular view from my desk that i should pause and enjoy more often than i do. and the light! the light was awesome, it's looking directly east so you get this really warm orange hued indirect light just before the sun pops over saint vincent hospital and blinds me...

08-001

2008-03-03T20:46:00.007-05:00

three words: caramel-freakin'-french toast! RUN, don't walk to Deb's Diner in Salem, MA and order yourself a plate. you won't regret it. just when you thought that french toast was the stuff all by it's lonesome the genius chef at Debs get the idea to coat it in a heavenly glaze of sweet, sweet caramel only after dredging it in a buttermilk wash. blamo.