Friday Funday CLXII
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 2155 hrs
Friday Funday brings you some fun and interesting links from my travels around the internet. Funday links will open in a new window.
The Inappropriate Yoga Guy [del.icio.us]
"Ogden creates awkward situations in yoga studios throughout the San Fernando Valley. Dont worry folks he is in the teacher training program."
That Special Monkey [del.icio.us]
This clever little animation won a student academy award. Via Open Mind
Oshiri kajiri mushi [del.icio.us]
Apparantly, the butt biting bug song is huge in Japan. For some reason, I'm not at all surprised.
The 12 Master Formats of TV Advertising [del.icio.us]
Perhaps this is only interesting to people in the industry, but this video explains the twelve formats of advertising, into which all TV ads fit.
Feed the Head [del.icio.us]
I previously featured Feed the Head in Friday Funday CXLIII. I'm featuring it again because it has been updated to be even more surreal.
BlogDay
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 1341 hrs
Thanks to Nicole for pointing this out to me.
So here's the deal: Today is BlogDay. The idea is to link to five interesting blogs so that readers can be exposed to other cool blogs.
- LG reminds me a lot of my friend AJ. If only a lolatini were a real drink. Hey LG, we have some mixology to get to work on.
- The Appreciator is the blog of Jami Dwyer. Her taste in music is bested only by her taste in wine.
- Don't look now, but Meg is Quietly Judging You. She probably drinks too much, but she's unnecessarily descriptive about her personal life, and that always makes for an entertaining blog.
- mcCutcheon has Squishy Thoughts about life, love, and language. Plus, she lives in Vienna. How cool is that?
- Nicole's Blush Response proves she's not a replicant. Although it would be pretty awesome if she were.
Ads on ALLO
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0657 hrs
After six years, it's finally happened. I've added advertising to my website.
For a long time, and for various reasons, I was strongly opposed to having ads on my site. However my hobby has been an expensive one, and I'd like it to start paying me back.
There are many professional bloggers, and the freedom of that lifestyle is quite enticing. Coupled with the fact that writing has always been enjoyable for me, the decision to start trying to earn income through my blog was an easy one. The question then became, how do I add advertising to my site in a tasteful, effective way?
Google Ads were an obvious choice. They've become ubiquitous on the internet and tend to get included in any online advertising campaign. The rules of having them on my site prohibit me from asking you to click on the ads, but if you do, I certainly won't be upset (quite the opposite, actually).
The Amazon PayPage was another easy choice, because it's easy to implement, allows users to donate as much as they want, and ensures the safety of each user's credit information. I also like the idea that, if you pay me, I become your psuedo-employee and will write about (pretty much) anything you want.
After a small redesign to incorporate the ads, I realized that I needed to blog more. Some of you may have noticed an increase in the number &mdash and length &mdash of blog entries. Hopefully, more posts will translate into increased traffic; both in repeat visits and new readers.
In the future, I'll be adding a graphical ad with a special ad management system that will allow you to upload your ad and schedule flights. I just have to figure out how to make the cool, but complicated, idea in my head actually work.
I'm interested in getting feedback about the site, so comment and tell me what you think. Since this site is nothing without the users, I'll take what you say to heart. What do you think about the ads? Have the blog posts been interesting? Would you recommend my site to others?
10 Easy Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 1100 hrs
The idea that everyone everywhere should go carbon neutral is unrealistic, but the idea that everyone everywhere could significantly reduce their carbon footprint is both realistic, and something that can be done immediately. Two of the main arguments against attempting to reduce one's carbon footprint are that the steps to do so will be expensive and will require a large time investment.
With that, I present this list of ten things you can to reduce your carbon footprint, while also saving money, and which don't require more than a few minutes of your time. Let me know if you like this list and I'll post more ideas.
1) Use CFLs and LEDs
I know, I know, everyone says this, but it's true! Compact fluorescent lamps are inexpensive when you consider that they last up to 10 times longer and use about 75% less energy than incandescent light bulbs. Don't like that bright white color? Most CFLs come in a range of color temperatures, so you can get ones that are more like the bulbs you're used to.
In the interest of full-disclosure, I want to point out two drawbacks to CFLs. First of all, some of them do not work on dimmers. Many do, however, and the distinction will be made on the packaging. Second, CFLs contain mercury, which is hazardous to the environment. As such, CFLs must be disposed of properly. Contact your local waste management facility to find out what's available in your area (or find out using this website).
LED lamps are relatively new and still fairly expensive. However, in the long run, they're far less expensive than even CFLs. LED lamps use very little electricity and last 6 times longer than CFLs! LED technology is constantly getting better, and they're being used everywhere these days. Unless something better suddenly appears, you can expect LEDs to become the de facto source of light in most applications. True, they aren't right in every situation, but for most things, they're perfect.
2) Turn off your lights
Now that you have light bulbs that use less electricity, turn them off. People seem to turn on lights completely unconsciously. It amazes me that people have such a hard time turning lights off, or leaving lights off, even when they aren't needed.
For example: The break room where I work has a big window that lets in a lot of light. Despite this, the lights are almost always on, even when no one is in the break room. Why? When I go into the break room and the lights are off, I can see perfectly well. I can understand if someone can't see well enough and actually needs the extra light, but turn it off when you're done! Even in the middle of the night, the lights in the break room stay on. Considering that the break room is empty over 90% of the (24 hour) day, why are they on almost 100% of the time?
A classic argument against turning lights on and off all day is that it wears down the life of the bulb. The MythBusters tested this, and busted it.
The savings of turning off your lights are substantial. If you have a bulb that uses 60 watts per hour, and you turn it off for one extra hour per day, you could conserve nearly 22,000 watts of energy per year!
3) Stop drinking bottled water
Before you roll your eyes and skip this one, read what I have to say.
The production and delivery of a single 1 liter bottle of Fiji Water requires 6.74 times as much water as is in the bottle. Does that make sense? I like to pick on Fiji Water, because it's the most popular, but the fact of the matter is that all bottled water suffers from the same problem. It's unimaginably bad for the environment.
The main argument in favor of bottled water is that it's cleaner than tap water. This isn't necessarily true. Since the FDA doesn't regulate bottled water very heavily, the standards of what's allowed to be in it are very low. In fact, the FDA doesn't even require that bottled water be bottled in sanitary conditions! The municipal water supply, on the other hand, is regulated by the EPA, which has very stringent standards. Moreover, almost 25% of the bottled water that people drink is nothing but tap water that has been bottled! That's not to say that it's unsafe, just that it could be.
A lot of sources say to buy a Nalgene bottle, but I'm not a fan of them (no good reason why, I've just never liked them). I buy a bottle Fiji Water every once in a great while, then re-use the bottle until it's no good anymore. That way, I can look "trendy" without killing the planet (as much).
4) Adjust the thermostat on your water heater
The current advice is to set it to 120 degrees. That's where mine is set, and I'm never disappointed with the temperature of the water. The only drawback is that Morah and I have to plan our showers a little more carefully to ensure that there will be enough hot water for both of us, but Morah usually showers at night, and I usually shower in the morning, so it's working out well for us.
Also, keeping it at 120° is a good idea, because anything hotter could scald you (even 120° is pretty damn hot).
5) Adjust the thermostat on your heating/cooling system
Raise it two degrees in the summer and lower it two degrees in the winter. This has the potential to stop 2,000 pounds of CO2 pollutants from entering the atmosphere each year. That having been said, if you absolutely need the extra two degrees, go for it. Just take a moment to think if there's another, more Earth-friendly option (like putting on or taking off clothes).
Better yet, get a programmable thermostat. When no one is home, or when everyone is asleep, let the house be uncomfortably warm in the summer and cold in the winter. Just don't forget about indoor pets!
6) Conserve water
A faucet that drips at the rate of one drop per second will end up wasting 2,700 gallons of water annually! A leaky toilet could waste 200 gallons every day! Fixing these leaks is often simple and inexpensive; the cost to fix it will be more than made up on your water bill.
Plants and grass also suck up a lot of water. Try to landscape using plants that are native to where you live; these plants will be used to the amount of water found in the area naturally. Over watering is a common and costly problem. Your grass may not even need to be watered! Your grass doesn't need to be watered every day; watering your grass deeply and infrequently is the best plan. When you water your grass, do it in the morning or evening. Direct sunlight will evaporate much of the water.
We've all heard the old adage, "if it's yellow, let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down." But that's pretty gross, so instead, try putting a brick in your toilet tank to use less water (you could buy a low-flow toilet, but this list is supposed to save you money while saving the planet. Plus, have you ever installed a toilet? It's not as easy as it seems).
7) Drive the speed limit
Not only is it much safer, but you'll have lower carbon emissions and you'll save money — both by improving your fuel economy and by not getting a speeding ticket.
8) Bag the bags!
The case against plastic bags is fast becoming a hot issue, and it's no surprise when you consider the facts. Plastic bags have been choking our planet for 30 years, both during the manufacturing process and after they're thrown away.
Here are some easy and inexpensive ideas to help reduce the number of plastic bags you use:
- Reduce whenever possible. I recently bought a jar of mustard from a local farm and the woman said, "Let me put that in a bag for you." I quickly grabbed the jar and said, "That's okay, I don't need one." And it's true, I didn't need one. Next time you're buying something, stop and think whether or not you really need it in a bag.
- Reuse plastic bags whenever you can. Ziploc bags are particularly useful, but also surprisingly durable. I personally reuse Ziploc bags as many times as I can before disposing of them. I bring crackers with me to work almost every day, and I can reuse the same bag for weeks before it needs to be replaced.
- When you buy groceries, bring your own bags to the grocery store. Reusing the plastic bags they give you, while possible, probably isn't a good idea since they're so flimsy. Instead, invest in some cloth bags. Most super markets sell them near the checkout counters. At my grocery store, the bags only cost 99 cents each, and every time I use them, I earn a 5 cent rebate (per bag!).
- You could combine both of the two above ideas into one. A girl I used to work with would bring her snacks to work in a wax paper bag, which she would reuse.
9) Don't eat fast food
I was thinking about this recently and I realized that fast food is absolutely awful for the environment.
Before I explain why, let me just point out that I don't know exactly how the distribution of fast food works, so this is all just conjecture. Also, keep in mind that each chain will have its own methods, which may differ from other restaurants.
Most likely, the food you get at a fast food restaurant came from somewhere many miles from where you live (possibly even another country). It's shipped to a processing center, where it undergoes a factory process. It is then shipped to at least one distribution center, where it gets sent out to your local restaurant. Don't forget that all of the packaging also goes through this process. So before you even order it, your food and its packaging has been shipped at least six times (three times each for the food and packaging) and gone through at least two factory processes (one each for the food and packaging). By the time you order your food, its carbon footprint is huge.
After you order it, the food is cooked (which required energy, thereby expending more carbon) and you throw the packaging away (and we all know what happens to the garbage).
Again, this is all just what I assume happens based on what I've learned over the years about agriculture, processing, and shipping. For some hard numbers, check out Jamais Cascio's great article, the cheeseburger footprint.
The bottom line: Not only does fast food clog your arteries with cholesterol, but it also clogs landfills with garbage and the atmosphere with greenhouse gasses. Plus, it's more expensive to eat at most fast food restaurants than it is to eat something from home.
10) Walk or ride your bike whenever you can
Over half of our CO2 comes from vehicles, and for each mile you eliminate, you save one pound of CO2.
I'll admit that this one might not save you time (unless finding parking takes a long time), but it will save you a lot of money and it's very healthy for you. You want to know the real reason why French people stay thin? It's because they walk everywhere. Where I live, the public transportation isn't the greatest, which makes it kind of hard, but I do walk to and from work when I can.
The Global Warming Debate Cannot be Ignored
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0808 hrs
A small debate as to the validity of the claims that global warming makes has, unsurprisingly, broken out in the comments section of my post, Ignoring the Global Warming Debate. There's some good stuff in there, so instead of letting it stay hidden in the comments, I've decided to post some of the comments here, along with some new comments.
Kris: This is not why I'm posting a comment, but I have never heard a respectable climate scientist disagree with the basic tenets of "Global Warming" - ever. I have heard people debate it, certainly, but they've never had any credentials to back it up.
Thomas: In The Great Global Warming Swindle, the experts are definitely credible scientists (although one of them claims his statements were misconstrued through editing). Yes, expert scientists are telling us that carbon dioxide is a problem and that humans are to blame for the excess. But don't forget that they were paid to reach that conclusion.
Kris: I haven't seen the film, so feel free to correct me, but I think it is far more likely that people were paid to reach the conclusion that global warming is not of human cause, then to say that it is.
Thomas: They could have been, but if you look through the list of experts in TGGWS, many of them are university professors; people whose jobs wouldn't necessarily be dependent on reaching a certain conclusion. If anything, you would expect a university to want their research faculty to reach the right conclusion.
Kris: There is a lot more money to be in oil, fuel, deforestation and pollution (insofar as large corporations can save money by disposing of waste improperly) then there is off of the "green lifestyle."
Thomas: True, there's a lot of money in cutting corners, but the "green lifestyle" industry generates billions in consumer revenue every year. There are climate scientists whose jobs rely on being able to get funding to study climate change, so if there isn't a problem, then they're out of a job. Media outlets know that news about the entire human race being in peril gets higher ratings than unicorns and lollipops, and higher ratings directly translates into more money. More and more businesses (big and small) are learning that simple "green" changes can not only save the companies millions of dollars annually, but endear the companies to a global warming fearing public. So you can't honestly tell me that the "green lifestyle" isn't extremely profitable.
Kris: "Scientific American" put it best when they outlined what the effects of extreme climate change will look like in the next 10, 20, 50 years if the rate of carbon emissions continues unfettered; while there may not be enough physical evidence for some people right now, there most certainly will be within a few decades (but, of course, by that point attempting to undo what has happened will be exponentially more difficult).
Thomas: I'm not saying that carbon dioxide isn't causing the global temperature to rise, or that humans aren't to blame. I'm just saying that listening to what one group of people is saying without listening to what the other group is saying is a bad idea.
From one atheist to another, don't be religious about this. Don't have faith that what some experts tell you is correct, simply because they're experts.
Watch The Great Global Warming Swindle (video link), watch the episode of Penn & Teller's Bullshit that deals with Global Warming Hysteria, read articles that offer counter evidence, then decide for yourself what's true.
Don't forget that back in the 1970s, credible climate scientists ("the experts") were predicting a global cooling trend that would plunge us into another ice age. They got it wrong then and they could be getting it wrong now. There's still a lot we don't know about our environment, and changing even one tiny variable can change the entire outcome of the computer models.
Kris: I got in an argument with my dad once, because he had just read some book that attempted to debunk global warming. I had to end the argument by simply saying, "there is no debate, Dad. You cannot show me an actual scientist who thinks there's nothing wrong with our current level of pollution, climate change or toxic emissions into both the ground and atmosphere, because such a person does not exist."
Thomas: Now you're talking about two different things. Of course there is no scientist in the world who believes that there's nothing wrong with our current level of pollution. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who honestly thinks there's nothing wrong with our current level of pollution. But you're assuming that our carbon output is directly responsible for climate change, even though there are credible climate scientists saying it's not (and they're using the exact same data as the ones who are saying we're to blame). So I disagree, I think there is a debate, and I think it's a good one to have. As scientists, or at least, as people who believe in logic and reason, we should strive toward both the truth and the betterment of mankind. If it turns out that the truth is man isn't to blame for climate change, that doesn't mean that we should continue to pollute.
Kris: Like you alluded to, there's more to this than the warming of our planet. Say what you will about naturally occurring fluctuations in the earth's temperature, or the accuracy of measurement equipment a century ago; but that's hardly the point. We need to correct our behavior. We need to be friendlier to this planet. We need to consume less and produce less pollution of every kind. Not because the poles are going to melt (although I subscribe to the belief that they are/will), but because it is simply not healthy for either the human population or the earth itself.
Everyone agrees that we need less chemical and artificial additives in our food, why not in our air, our water, our parks or our soil? So, long story short: yes! We can (or at least, we should) all agree that pumping toxins into the atmosphere is a bad idea, no matter what lobby group is paying you. :-)
Thomas: I'm not saying we shouldn't live green. You know as well as anyone else that I'm fanatical about taking care of our planet and reducing our consumption and waste (and that I have been for most of my life). I just don't think anyone benefits from wide-spread panic and fear.
At this point, my mind is open to any possibility. If it turns out that carbon dioxide is the problem and humans are to blame, then I'll feel good knowing that I'm already doing what I can to reduce my carbon footprint. If it turns out that carbon dioxide isn't the problems and humans aren't to blame, then I'll still feel good knowing that I'm doing what I can to help protect the planet in other ways.
Most of all, no matter what the outcome of the global warming debate is, I don't intend to stop living green. Like they say, do the right thing because it's the right thing to do.
Secular Sunday IV - The 50 Least Religious Countries
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0800 hrs
Sweden tops the list of the 50 least religious countries with up to 85% of the population identifying themselves as atheist, agnostic, or non-believer in God (Sweden's population is almost 9 million).
The United States is number 44 on the list, with a paltry 3-9% atheist, agnostic, or non-believer (our population is almost 300 million).
It was also interesting to note the conclusions made by this study:
Based on a careful assessment of the most recent survey data available, we find that somewhere between 500,000,000 and 750,000,000 humans currently do not believe in God.
Given the above estimates, we can deduce that there are approximately 58 times as many atheists as there are Mormons, 41 times as many atheists as there are Jews, 35 times as many atheists as there are Sikhs, and twice as many atheists as there are Buddhists. Finally, nonbelievers in God as a group come in fourth place after Christianity (2 billion), Islam (1.2 billion), and Hinduism (900 million) in terms of global ranking of commonly-held belief systems.
Seriously? Fourth most commenly-held belief system? That really changes things! I think we (non-theists) have grown slightly hopeless as of late, especially in this country. All of the reports I've read lately suggest that atheism, although it's gaining traction, doesn't have the numbers to affect much change. But if this study is true, then atheists have an even better chance at affecting change than even the Mormons!
Looks like there's some light at the end of this long, dark tunnel. The two things we need to do now are: Convince all atheists, agnostics, and non-believers to proclaim their non-faith (many are still afraid to do so); and begin converting theists to atheists in the United States.
Door to door seems to work for the Mormons, so grab your best friend and a copy of The Origin of Species
and start knocking on doors.
Antibacterial Soap vs. Regular Soap
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0806 hrs
The first sentence of this article is all you need to know: Antibacterial soaps are no more effective than plain soap and water for killing disease-causing germs.
Morah wanted me point out that the above statement is true as long as you wash your hands properly.
Friday Funday CLXI
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0611 hrs
Friday Funday brings you some fun and interesting links from my travels around the internet. Funday links will open in a new window.
Who Says Hip Hop Is Dead? [del.icio.us]
It's slow to get going, but by the end I was laughing out loud because this video nails exactly how the internet works.
5 Reasons Why a 'Thundercats' Movie is a Must [del.icio.us]
Do I honestly have to write a description for this?
Screwdriver Warning [del.icio.us]
Not to be inserted into... WHERE?!
Pillage the Village [del.icio.us]
This game, which portends to be the prequel to Defend Your Castle, has kept my attention for the past three days.
What Teachers Make [del.icio.us]
Taylor Mali tells it like it is.
Ignoring the Global Warming Debate
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0556 hrs
I'm getting a little sick of hearing all these differing viewpoints on global warming. For as many people as say that it's a real phenomenon that we have to deal with immediately, there are just as many people who claim that there's nothing to worry about.
I recently watched two documentaries about global warming: An Inconvenient Truth and The Great Global Warming Swindle. In case you haven't seen them, let me sum them up for you:
An Inconvenient Truth: Global warming is real and humans are to blame! We're pumping way too much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and it's causing the temperature to rise, which is causing weather abnormalities, and if left unchecked, will eventually kill us all!
The Great Global Warming Swindle: Al Gore is a liar! Global warming has been blown way out of proportion. Yes, carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, but there isn't very much of it in the atmosphere, and the percentage of it caused by humans is very small. The temperature of the planet has always fluctuated. It's been much hotter and much colder than it is now.
AIT: You slanderous liar! Humans are to blame for everything that's wrong with this planet! My really big graph shows that as the level of carbon dioxide rises, the temperature also rises!
TGGWS: You dolt, you're looking at the data the wrong way. Rises in temperature cause the rise in carbon dioxide, not the other way around.
AIT: What about the melting glaciers? Have you seen how much ice is falling off of Greenland?
TGGWS: That much ice always falls off of Greenland. The only difference is that now, we have camera crews there to video tape it. Besides, humans don't affect the climate, magic space rays do!
AIT: What? Magic space rays? What the hell are you talking about?
TGGWS: You know, magic space rays from super novae. They cause clouds, but sometimes the solar winds from the sun push them away from Earth and clouds don't form. That's the real cause of global warming. By the way, that big graph was pretty cool, how did you make it?
AIT: Oh, I did the whole thing in Keynote on my Mac.
TGGWS: Wait, by yourself?
AIT: Yeah, Keynote is really easy to use. You should get a Mac.
TGGWS: Okay, I'll look into it. Thanks!
Anyway, you get the idea.
So here we have two films that present completely opposing viewpoints and support those viewpoints with what appears to be credible evidence. Both films are strongly supported by reliable sources, many of whom are climate scientists. But when the foremost experts on climate change don't agree, what is the public supposed to think?
Both films made one point that was exactly the same: If someone is paid to reach a particular conclusion, he'll reach that conclusion.
Personally, my beliefs about global warming are somewhere in the middle. I believe that our climate is changing, but I'm not convinced that carbon dioxide is responsible, and I'm not convinced that humans are directly responsible. That having been said, I do think that we should attempt to reduce our carbon emissions — because there's an awful lot of carbon dioxide in the air without us adding more — and we should attempt to limit the amount of waste we create.
People will always disagree on pretty much every topic, but here's something we should all be able to agree on: pollution is bad. Period. Even if it isn't affecting the planet in as dramatic a way as global warming proponents claim it is, we can all agree that pumping toxins into the environment is not a good idea, right?
That's really the message that both sides need to send. Life will exist on this planet for a long time to come, and it's our responsibility to ensure that we don't pollute the planet to a point where it negatively impacts future life. Even if we aren't the cause of global warming, we are polluting the planet and (literally) burning through all of our non-renewable resources. Is it a bad idea to research and utilize renewable resources? No, of course not. Doing so ensures that, 100 trillion barrels of oil from now, we'll still be able to drive our cars, fly our airplanes, and power our cities. And the beneficial side-effect is that we pump fewer toxins into the environment in the mean time.
Living green isn't as hard as people think. It also costs a lot less than people think (in most cases, you can actually save money with green alternatives). In an effort to inspire people to pursue green living, I'm going to post some ideas and articles from time to time that deal with environmental issues. As I mentioned before, I'll have an entry outlining ten easy things you can do to save the Earth. And yes, they're all easy and inexpensive. Keep an eye out for it next week!
So what's your stance on global warming?
My Sister on the News
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0527 hrs
My sister was on the news, and there's video of it online:
http://www.krem.com/video/localnews-index.html?nvid=168834&she=1
1,000 Comments!
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0846 hrs
Congratulations to Byrne Reese, product manager for Movable Type, who happened to post my 1,000th comment!
Recycle? What Happened to Reduce and Reuse?
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0710 hrs
I remember a time when I was in school — it must have been around fourth or fifth grade — when "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" was the mantra being drilled into our heads. These days, you rarely hear about reduce and reuse, but recycle is more famous than ever.
Reduce, reuse, recycle are in that order for a particular reason. The first step is to reduce your overall consumption of goods, thereby reducing your overall waste. Once you've reduced, you should attempt to reuse as much as possible. After something can no longer be reused, then it should be recycled, if possible. But somehow, we've skipped past the first two steps and landed squarely on the third. I would argue that reducing and reusing are far more important than recycling. In fact, it's common sense! If you reduce your intake, then you'll automatically reduce your output.
If you can, I strongly suggest you watch the episode of Penn & Teller's Bullshit that deals with recycling. The main takeaway is that, because of a number of factors, recycling isn't doing much good (except in the case of aluminum cans). Also, not only is there plenty of landfill space left in the United States, but landfills aren't leeching poisons into the ground, and they produce methane, which is captured, refined, and used. I don't think we should give up on recycling just because it's inefficient; I think we need to figure out how to make it more efficient and more beneficial for the environment.
People also seem to think that being green will cost more money. I don't know where this idea came from, but the vast majority of carbon-reducing measures I can think of also end up saving money. Pretty soon, I'll have a list of ten easy, inexpensive, and quick things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint.
In the meantime, what are you doing to reduce your carbon footprint?
Movable Type v4
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0834 hrs
I just upgraded to Movable Type 4.0, and after a few snafus (that I admit were entirely my fault), I finally have it up and running.
And holy hell, is it ever beautiful.
Not only does it look completely different (and much better than previous versions), but it seems to have imported all of my settings and templates! That's how software should work. Don't force me to do more work than is absolutely necessary. I always appreciate it when a software upgrade automatically removes/replaces the old version of the software so that I don't have to go uninstall it myself. The same is true here. I was reluctant to upgrade because I expected it to take a long time. The only part that took a long time was uploading all of the files. Once that was done, installation was a breeze.
Now, this post is the first post using v4, so I'm just assuming that everything will work. It was a "clean" install (in a new directory, not overwriting the v3 files), and everything looks like it transferred over, so hopefully it all works as expected. That having been said, if something is wonky, let me know.
Friday Funday CLX
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0939 hrs
Friday Funday brings you some fun and interesting links from my travels around the internet. Funday links will open in a new window.
I didn't even realize it, but Friday Funday CLVI marked three years of Friday Funday!
MS Paint [del.icio.us]
A hilarious video touting MS Paint as the next killer app.
Americans Shouldn't Cosplay [del.icio.us]
Title says it all. This post compares the actual character, a Japanese cosplayer, and an American cosplayer. The Japanese utterly destroy us (although, it's mostly because the Americans are fat).
silver (ladder) [del.icio.us]
This site defies description.
Photos taken at just the right angle [del.icio.us]
A series of cleverly framed and fortunately timed photos.
Katapult [del.icio.us]
It's all in Norwegian or something, but the instructions are fairly clear. It did take me a few goes to get used to it, but in the end, my best distance was 1036.5.
KHQ Cafe: Now Serving Smashed Burgers!
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0822 hrs
Take a look at this pathetic burger! If you think it's funny, I'd appreciate a Digg.
Digital De-Cluttering (Part 3)
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0534 hrs
I started talking about Digital De-Cluttering on Tuesday, and continued yesterday, but today I want to talk about de-cluttering in general.
Why am I suddenly on a huge de-cluttering kick? Well, I wouldn't call it sudden. Remeber, getting caught up and staying caught up is one my new year's resolutions! That includes getting my cluttered life in order.
With Morah and I talking about moving into a house, and even entertaining the idea of moving to a new city (yes, we're having that conversation again), I realized just how much stuff I have. A few weeks ago, I went over to my parents' house on a Saturday and Sunday and worked my butt off cleaning out my old closet. I had over a dozen boxes in there full of all sorts of random stuff, much of which I didn't even remember I had. After going through every single box, I filled up a garbage bag with about a hundred pounds of stuff that I threw away, I created a pile of things to take to Goodwill, and I created a pile of stuff to sell on eBay or at a garage sale.
Part of de-cluttering, both on your computer and in your closet, involves being honest with yourself. Sure, looking through my old Hypercard stacks would probably bring a smile to my face, but as I said yesteday, I haven't looked at them in years. What about things like old magazines that had interesting articles? When I was going through the stuff in my parents' house, I found a big stack of old issues of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics that I had saved (I remember going through an even bigger pile before we moved to Spokane from Hawaii in 1999 and throwing out about two thirds of those). I briefly glanced through them, but couldn't remember why I had wanted to keep them, so out they went!
And that really is the hardest part. When you save something, you usually have a reason for it. So, years later, when you open a box and find that thing you saved, you have to be honest with yourself and say, "Come on, you haven't looked at this in years. In fact, you forgot about it completely! Do you really need something that's just going to sit in a box for the rest of your life?" You'll find that, more often than not, the answer is no, you don't need something that just sits in a box and that you've lived without for years.
There are exceptions, however. As I was going through all of the boxes in my parents' house, I had one sitting off to the side that I would occasionally put things in. I called it my memory box. In it, I put things that I had no reason to save, other than they represented memories that I want to keep. A perfect example of this is a small collection of die-cast cars. They're old, beat up, and most of them don't work properly anymore, but I remember countless hours of playing with them when I was very young. Our old house had a pool, and I would line them all up on the bottom and race them down to the deep end. So despite the fact that these toys will remain boxed up for most of the rest of my life, they're important to me, and I feel that they're something worth keeping.
There's a saying that I've been repeating to myself a lot lately: "you can't take it with you." In the grand scale of things, do you really need to keep all those e-mails? Or those files you can't access anymore? Or that issue of Cat Fancy from 1998? It doesn't matter how much money you save up or how much stuff you accrue, the simple fact of the matter is that you're going to die, and when you do, you can't take any of it with you. Since I don't believe in an after life, having the memories of a happy and fulfilling life are the most important thing I can think of. When it's my time to go, the money I earn, the house I live in, and all the stuff I collect won't stop me from dying. But the memories of a life well lived will help usher me out of this world with a smile on my face.
Digital De-Cluttering (Part 2)
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0801 hrs
Yesterday I talked about deleting old e-mails to help reduce how cluttered my digital life is and increase productivity. Today I'm going to talk about extending that ideology beyond the inbox.
My first computer didn't have a hard drive. I had to save everything on 5 1/4 inch floppy disks (link provided because some people actually don't know what those are). Starting around seventh grade and continuing throughout high school, I was creating files in the computer labs at school that I couldn't just leave on the computers there. I had to save those to 3 1/2 inch floppies (link provided because, believe it or not, some people probably don't know what those are). While I may not have my old Apple IIe files anymore, I do still have disks with projects from seventh grade. Projects I haven't looked at in years, mostly because I can't (hey, you find me an old Mac with Hypercard on it! Actually, Kris, does that Mac Classic you have still work?). Even if I could find a computer to read the disks, I probably wouldn't be able to do anything with the files. I have disk after disk of nothing but icons and crappy animated GIFs saved off of the internet. In other words, even if I could access the files, would I care what's on them?
I got my first hard drive when I was a freshman in high school. I bought a refurbished NEC that had a 3.2GB hard drive, and I still have the drive (it's currently sitting on my desk). In fact, I have every hard drive I've ever owned. Why? For the same reason I still have my old floppy disks: Because I don't want to part with the files stored on them. But just as I don't know what's on the floppy disks, I have no clue what's on the old NEC drive. And when I get around to hooking it up again, will I have software that can open the files?
Two brief notes: I'll be hooking my old NEC drive up soon, so if I find anything interesting, I'll let you know. Also, you may have noticed that I said I used floppy disks throughout high school, but that I got my first hard drive when I was a freshman in high school. The NEC ran Windows, whereas the floppy disks were used with Macs.
The last chunk of the problem is that I like to take my old files with me when I upgrade to a new computer (accomplished by hooking up my previous hard drive to the new computer (or by hooking up the old and new computers to the same network) and copying over everything I want). I'm paranoid that they won't be copied properly, so I save all of the old files on the old hard drive, and keep it around just in case. The result of all this is that now I have several copies of the same thing. To make matters worse, I have tons of versions of the same thing (usually as a result of modifying different copies of the same files at work and at home), some of which are more recent or complete than others, but I can't tell which is which.
So now I have all of these old files, some of which can't be accessed, some of which can't be opened, many of which I don't remember, and many of which I have several copies or versions of. So why do I need a giant stack of floppies and four hard drives? Well, I don't. And I sure as hell don't just need one giant hard drive.
This is where it gets tricky. I could go through all of my old files and attempt to determine what's what, which version is the one I want to keep, so and so forth, until all of the files have been whittled down. Or, I could just suck it up, burn everything to DVD, label the DVDs really well, and hope that I never have to refer back to those files. Although if I'm going to do that, I might as well just delete them all. What's a boy to do?
I'm probably going to have to do things the hard way. Some files will be easy: If I think it will be useful later, I can keep it, otherwise they'll be deleted. Others will be tricky: If they're copies or alternate versions of websites I'm currently working on, which ones should I keep and which should I delete? It's going to take a long time, but in the end, I know it will be worth it.
Tomorrow: Digital De-Cluttering!
Digital De-Cluttering (Part 1)
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 1439 hrs
Some of you have noticed my instant messenger custom message late last week said, "Digital De-clutter Day". A couple of people asked what that was, and I thought other readers of the blog might be interested as well.
You know how you accrue stuff over the years, and it just piles up in closets and boxes? Then every once in a while, your mom or your wife makes you go through it and throw half of it away? Well, that's "analog" de-cluttering; just getting rid of all that stuff that you've saved, but can't remember why you saved it in the first place. You don't have to admit to it, but I know I'm not the only person who does that.
Digital de-cluttering works exactly the same way. I have e-mails from people that are years old and that I'll never need to read again. For example, I had one from my mom asking me if Morah and I would be coming over for dinner some random night two years ago. I'm pretty sure that one's safe to delete!
It isn't just about deleting old e-mails; it's also about being more productive. When I started my digital de-cluttering, my inbox had over 1,200 e-mails in it. I'm not quite finished, but I'm down to just over 500. So far, I've managed to delete over half of the e-mails in my inbox! That's literally hundreds of e-mails that I looked at and realized that I will never need again.
And it doesn't stop at deleting the e-mails. Labeling the e-mails has been very important. While looking through my thousands of years-old e-mails, I've discovered a handful from people I haven't written to in ages, or that have URLs in them I want to bookmark, or that remind me to perform some task, which I never did. I'm labeling all of these, "Action Required", so that I can check up on them later to see if I need to follow up with anyone. I'm also discovering a ton of e-mails relating to planning my wedding. I'm married now, so I don't need any of those e-mails any more. If I think I might, or if I think Morah should take a look at them before I delete them, they get labeled, "Wedding". And so it goes until all of the e-mails are labeled appropriately (which may include having no label at all).
The last step is to archive all of my inactive conversations. All of those e-mail conversations that I still want to keep for whatever reason (some of them have important info that I may want to access at a later date), but which are months or years old, can get archived so that they aren't hanging around in my inbox. For some reason, I haven't archived any of my e-mails before. I think I got lazy, and then as the number of e-mails increased, I got even lazier. This digital de-clutter is taking many hours (which I've spread out over several days), and that stems directly from me being lazy to begin with.
Once everything is labeled and archived, I still have access to the old information, and my inbox can become my "Action Required" list. As soon as a conversation seems to be over, I'll delete it, or move it into the archive. I need to schedule time to go through all of the conversations in my inbox and archive those that are no longer active. Perhaps once my inbox fills more than one page, it will act as a reminder that I need to de-clutter again.
I can still search through old e-mails by label, and searching through e-mails will be much fast, since there will be less through which to search (not that GMail is slow in its searches now).
Hopefully this big push will help me be more productive by allowing me to more quickly see what e-mails need to be address, while still allowing me access to my old messages, all while keeping my GMail account free of unnecessary clutter.
Tomorrow: Moving on from e-mails!
Friday Funday CLIX
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 1253 hrs
Friday Funday brings you some fun and interesting links from my travels around the internet. Funday links will open in a new window.
Famous Women: How They've Aged [del.icio.us]
This is always interesting to see. Don't miss Famous Men: How They've Aged.
What the World Eats [del.icio.us]
I love food ethnic food, but is that really what people from those countries eat? Find out, and don't miss part two of this report.
Man With A Tail??? [del.icio.us]
Gross and weird. The best part is the look on the reporter's face. This is probably ok to watch at work, but just to be on the safe side...
Make A GLOWING TOMATO! [del.icio.us]
This is awesome! And probably pretty dangerous. I want to do it.
Nicole's Surprise [del.icio.us]
Today was our intern's last day, so some of our employees decided to play a little prank on her. This video is where she finds out it was all a joke. Read the description for the setup. I know, I know, this video is a poor excuse for a fifth link. Bite me.
Proof that speeding does not mean you will get there faster
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 2138 hrs
We just got back from Sandopint, and about halfway between Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene, some guy in a Porsche flew past us as soon as there was a passing lane. I didn't think much of it, just that he was a jerk, but since he was driving a Porsche, I really wasn't surprised.
As we pull up at one of the stop lights in Coeur d'Alene about thirty minutes later, who should I see right next to us, but the jerk in the Porsche. For all his speeding and driving like a maniac, he saved absolutely no time at all.
Morbid Spam
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0849 hrs
I was glancing through my spam before I deleted it to make sure no legitimate e-mail got through, when I came across this:
Hello my friend!
I am ready to kill myself and eat my dog, if medicine prices here (http://secondprobable.cn) are bad.
Look, the site and call me 1-800 if its wrong..
My dog and I are still alive :)
Friday Funday CLVIII
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0848 hrs
Friday Funday brings you some fun and interesting links from my travels around the internet. Funday links will open in a new window.
Kaleidoscope Painter [del.icio.us]
The title says it all.
Macs Goes Viral. WTF Indeed [del.icio.us]
Canadian Quick-E-Mart Mac's recently started running these ads for what I can only assume is their new drink called WTF? An odd name, but an appropriate ad campaign.
A Gentlemen's Duel [del.icio.us]
An animated short about two men fighting for the affection of a busty young woman. Funny, if predictable. Via Blush Response.
iClip [del.icio.us]
Another one of those add sounds/take out sounds mixing things. I could play with these things all day.
Dan Dunn's Paintjam performance art [del.icio.us]
I started watching this thinking, "This is really lame. Why would people actually go watch this in person?" Then I hit the two minute mark in the video and my mind was changed. I still would probably never go see this in person, but I definitely wouldn't describe it as lame.
Solicitation Section
Be my boss!
If you visit my Amazon.com PayPage, you can pay me as little as $1. I could be your underpaid employee!
