Nothing to say

Update: I did some looking on TLC’s site.  I never realized what we had going on here.  You’ve got Discovery, and they’ve got a ton of networks.  TLC, Discovery Kids, Military Channel, FitTV, and several other derivatives.  So we’ll see what goes on with that.

Wa$ted

TLC (The Learning Channel) has a new agenda called Planet Green. I don’t think they’re actually renaming the station (at this time) or spinning of another channel (yet), but they have been advertising a few new shows that will debut in early June. I am currently watching a sneak-preview of one of those shows, called Wa$ted.

Like with most family-improvement shows, they visit one household per episode, and revamp some aspect of the family’s life. In this case, they are addressing the household consumption of goods, energy, and water, as well as the waste produced.

First, they show up with a big truck and a megaphone, a la Extreme Home Makeover, and shout the family out into the driveway. There, they dump the contents of the truck - 6 months of the family’s trash - on the driveway. This family, for instance, uses a massive amount of polystyrene cups, paper plates, plastic bottles, water, and electricity. What’s worse is that they don’t recycle. The very worst part, though, is that they really don’t care. They repeat the father’s quote of “it is what it is” several times throughout the program. They really are the type of family that I can see throwing their McDonalds trash out 3 miles down the road, and not caring about it unless they’re confronted with an actual fine. That sort of attitude drives me crazy.

The best part of this show is that through financial incentives and shock value, they convince an uncaring family that their ways need to change. The family is given a new washing machine, to replace their pretty new washing machine, and a new solar water heater to replace their already somewhat old machine. They also blew new insulation into the attic, and made a point to mention that it is largely comprised of recycled newspaper. I’m not sure what that says about the fire-resistance of it, but it’s nice that they complemented the existing insulation, instead of throwing it out.

The worst part is removing the perfectly usable washing machine, without any mention of recycling or reusing it. Same with the They pour acid on a stack of styro cups to illustrate what happens when they come in contact with “certain chemicals”. In case you’re curious, the cups turn to goo, and acetone gas (nail polish remover) fumes are emitted. Fun! There just seems to be so much waste involved in reducing waste.

Would that I had the knowledge to explain how this could have been done better. It’s like when biofuels started to gain popularity, and before people realized what an utterly bad idea it was.

At the end of the episode, the family was given a sum of money to match their estimated savings through reduced waste. That amount came to $2,244. The best, though, was seeing that the family was genuine glad to have reduced their carbon footprint. They realized that it matters, and they did something about it.

Greenovate

The second show in the preview is Greenovate. The 2-person family works in some ambiguous green tech (read: I wasn’t paying that much attention), and lives in a 1,400 sqft condo in Santa Monica, CA. They work green and talk green, and are ready to put their money where their mouths are. They set a budget of $10,000 for their renovations, and appear to be paying for it themselves. While the family in Wa$ted got a free washing machine, solar water heater, insulation, and cash, I’m not sure what handouts this couple is receiving. I believe the show provided the services of a designer to help them with the details of their renovation, but that’s it.

I’m already more excited about this program. This time, I’ll break it down by room.

Kitchen

Their designer suggested keeping their existing cabinets, and simply replacing the doors. The couple chose to use reclaimed teak. They replaced the refrigerator and dishwasher, but both were around 10 years old. Even better: they donated their old, perfectly functional appliances to Habitat for Humanity. That is awesome. Finally, they replaced their laminate countertop with some recycled compound that had ice in the name. Ice stone or something. The last and best change in the kitchen was not a replacement, but an addition. They put in a worm bin! It is basically a high-speed compost bin, where the worms produce a fertilizer juice that can be poured from the bin and used in the plants. I want one.

Bedroom

Overall, they were happy with the bedroom, but wanted more light. The designer suggested replacing their recessed canister lights with something more effective and efficient. She also suggested a new bed, made from recycled, reclaimed, and organic bits. The lattice, for instance, was recycled broom sticks, snapped into recycled plastic clips.

Bathroom

This was the budget-breaker. Instead of simply replacing the bath fixtures, it was necessary to remove the tiles, and bust up the walls to get to the plumbing. It doubled their budget, but afforded them the opportunity to tile their shower walls with recycled glass (eco!) and their bathroom floor with beach stones imported from Indonesia (anti-eco!) (but really pretty!) Finally, there were those gorgeous faucets they installed. In the shower, not only did they update the plumbing to conserve water, but they added a thermostatic water thinger that allows them to preset the water temperature without having to waste water while it warms up. Nice.

All-Around

Their biggest change, but certainly not the most expensive, was a high-efficiency HVAC unit installed on the roof. In the process of showing off the old one to the designer, they got her to climb a ladder to the roof in a skirt. Nice choice, but optimal camera placement was not achieved. So it goes.

What? I’m a guy!

Anyway, in summary, it wasn’t a bad hour of television. I’m looking forward to seeing how this develops. And after seeing their promotional spots once the shows were over, I really get the impression that they’re revamping the entire network. They specifically bill it as the first green network, and give the impression that they’re meaning that they will be exclusively green. This could get interesting.

I got sick of all the issues with my existing computers (iBook doesn’t work, Toshiba laptop is getting lines on the screen, and the sound hasn’t worked in nearly a year; and the PC is loud and slow) an got a MacBook Pro.

I’m just barely getting used to the keyboard, but there are unfortunately plenty of things I haven’t yet figured out how to do with the keyboard.  The upside is that I LOVE the trackpad, which is more than twice the size of the one on the Toshiba, and the gestures for it are super efficient.  I’ve very quickly become accustomed to that.  The only downside is that the actual button for the trackpad is tough to hold down while dragging an item from one window to another.

I may do one or more posts on the transition from PC to Mac, too.  There are a lot of resources for finding great software setups, but nobody’s opinion is more important to me than my own.  ;)

Today was just great.  We woke up at 6:30, and got to the Boulder Farmer’s Market around 7:30.  Community Cycle held a bike sale, starting at 8am, and we helped get things setup, and then had an early pick on the bikes they were selling.  Kia got a Specialized Hard Rock mountain bike (because she’s such a fan of Brett Michaels, she said), and we got her dad a REI Novara.  Both are really nice bikes.

At the Farmer’s Market, I got Kia a potted iris and a pack of marshmallows made with agave nectar.  I got myself a strawberry plant.  :D  We picked up a bunch of seeds for the garden, too.  We also had breakfast at the Boulder Dushanbe Tea House.  It is such an amazing place, and their brunches are outstanding!  Not surprisingly, the also have an outrageously extensive tea menu (and three coffees).  I got the Ethiopian coffee and the Farmer’s Eggs.  Both were seriously excellent.  It was a marvelous meal in a setting of surreal beauty.

This afternoon, we were “chillaxin’ in da crib” when I got a notion to go to some chocolate shops.  I want to find a logo to use for the business, and chocolates and sweets seem like a good place to seek inspration.  The first place was impossible to find, so we gave up.  At the second place, I ended up getting an $11 box of chocolates, a wine tasting for Kia and I, 2 bottles of wine, and 2 bottles of port.  Then we got pizza.  Then we checked out another chocolate shop, but it was a big chain, so forget that.

Then we came home.  Today was a really good day.

OK, this is awesome. Today, we:

• Got a PO Box in Boulder, CO (just downtown!)
• Got library cards
• Got CO state drivers licenses (they mail ‘em)
• Changed my address at the bank
• Got Verizon service and an Orange env phone
• Quite possibly got a volunteer gig helping with the web site of a local cycling group
• Got snowed on for the first time in over 4 years, and last but certainly not least,
• I SAVED A BUNCH OF MONEY BY SWITCHING MY INSURANCE ADDRESS WITH GEICO

Seriously, my premium dropped by over 77%.  I am now paying less than a quarter of what I was in Miami.  I Told  you the drivers there are insane!
If you want the PO Box or phone number, check my facebook or drop me a comment and I’ll email you.

I wanted to post photos and a couple of paragraphs about leaving Florida, driving to Colorado, and getting settled here, not to mention all the interesting and funny things I’ve noticed since we’ve gotten here. I wanted to write a bit about our plans, and my plans. I was too busy getting settled to really allow time for it, though.

But then …. THIS HAPPENED

See the rest of the photos in the first-snow album on my zenphoto test site.

I just did the simple hosted zenphoto install through dreamhost to try it out. Gallery is just too slow to really be practical for most people. This is allegedly quicker, and so far that seems to be true.

We have LOTS of errands to run today, so I’m out. The short-list:

• Setup PO Box (I’ll post the address when we have it)
• Get CO driver’s license
• Get Library cards
• Check out Verizon Wireless (I’ll let you know if/when I get a number)
• Call Comcast to get cable internet and maybe VOIP setup
• meet someone to give away our old Palm Zires
• come home and update address info with GEICO, etc

We loaded up the car(s), trailer, and truck over the last couple days, and got on the road yesterday (March 31).  Last night, we drove to Naples, FL, where I sold my Cabrio to a very nice family.  The detour added a little over 150 miles to our trip, but it was worth it to find a good home for the car.  I’m very happy with how that worked out.

After a day of driving up I-75, we stopped at the Motel 6 in Gainesville, FL.  Today we plan to continue up through Atlanta toward Nashville.  Kia’s car does not have heat, and we don’t want to drive ourselves to death, so we will be retiring from the road early each day, and taking our sweet time to make sure this trip goes well.

We were expecting to reach Boulder this Thursday, but with all the storm cells moving across our path, we’re thinking it may be Friday.  That’s fine.  Our thoughts are with the families dealing with all the flooding.

Another update if we get wireless again.  Take care, friends, and we’ll talk to you soon.

God Bless the BBC.  Today, they have an absolutely brilliant news article up in File On 4 called Who pays the price of platinum?  It, like all news articles, offers a simplified glimpse of the whole picture.  They talk about Platinum mining, specifically, when it is actually just one of the three expensive noble metals that do the work in catalytic converters.  Palladium and Rhodium are also at play, and all three are often refined from the same ore.

It is hopefully no longer an argumentative fallacy to say that everyone knows mining is environmentally devastating, but this article speaks more generally of the human cost, with particular emphasis on the social devastation of claiming and destroying the homeland of a person, family, or community.

The unfunny irony pointed out in the story is that increased environmental awareness is partly responsible for the increased cost and mining of these metals.  They do a fantastic job of helping the conversion of bad exhaust fumes to … less bad exhaust fumes.  That’s a good thing.  But the mining process is a bad thing.  And reclaiming the metals from spent catalytic converters is not cost-effective.  It’s much cheaper to just move a bunch of South Africans off this valuable ore, and place them somewhere that they’ll surely prefer, if they know what’s good for them.  Then we can pull all that valuable metal out of the ground where God intended us to find it.  Then Riches!

Hooray!

Fret not, my friends.  Soon, we will be rich enough and life will be easy enough that we can truly be happy.

If you ever meet my friend Nathan in Central Ohio, just call him Car Belly.

It’s his nickname, and like all good nicknames, it doesn’t matter where it came from, so long as it’s not a name that he gave himself.  And he didn’t.  Ol’ Car Belly knows you can’t make up your own nicknames.

If I get a good picture of him, I’ll post it.

This is the best comment I’ve ever read on Ralph Nader*.

*though I haven’t read many…

God Bless the Chicago Tribune.

Highlights:

There are basically only two ways to fail, and both of them are the same.  You have to stop trying.  Alternately, you could die, which makes any further effort rather impossible.  But as long as you’re still live, and you still have the will to fight (the eye of the tiger, if you will), then you are NEVER beaten.

That’s all fine and good, but I give up.  I concede defeat to the mighty furrowed brow of Miami.  The anger, aggression,  traffic, lack of common decency, and often open hostility have won.  These things are served daily in greater measure than I can bear.

It has been some time that my girlfriend, then fiancee, then wife and I have been discussing our next move.  We postponed it in the interest of three things.  First, I would like to have a 2-year job on my resume.  Second, she had school.  Third, we were planning a wedding for a stinking year and a half.  It is now with great pleasure that I announce all of these things are behind us.

We are moving.  We have decided on a city.  We have chosen a CSA.  We have, for the most part, chosen what to take with us, what to sell beforehand, and what to give away.  We even have a good idea of when we’re going.  I’m not at liberty to discuss that right now, but that’s not the point.

Ok, I’ll stop being silly and round-a-bout.  The point is that Miami beat the ever-lovin’ hell out of me.  I’ve been magnificently depressed for a while now, even moreso than I realized.  But now, all of the typically abysmal aspects of life here are, for the most part, like water off a duck’s back.  I just look at it and think “Yeah, but I’m moving soon,” and my sunny disposition returns.

Now that we’re actively planning the move, it seems more real and definite.  Now that it feels real and definite, my spirits have lifted immensely.  And I had no idea that I was so down or so … quiet.  Because now, I just can’t shutup.  I feel so good, I’ve become a bit spastic as a result.  What fun!

Homeland security is a joke.  I got two forms on the plane on the way down: immigration and customs.  I filled them both out, and the immigrations and customs people asked me a couple of simple questions and sent me off.  Ask me why, and I’ll tell you I think it’s because I look like a nice, trustworthy guy.  Well, I am, but I just hope these people are all super-good judges of character.

On the way back to the US, on the other hand, I got two pieces of paper to fill out: Customs and Homeland Security.  The homeland security dude was this big, burly, ex-military-looking white guy.  The line was moving slowly but surely along until he got to the family in front of me, who he asked where they were residents.  The United States.  You’re all together?  Yes.  He glanced at the father’s passport and said “Go on,” then glanced at me and said “Go on.” again, as they were moving slowly.  I held out my passport.  He says “I said go on.”  Whisky Tango Foxtrot?

Customs was different.  They were very strict there.  The guy looks at my passport and my customs sheet.  He draws one great big vertical scribble on the paper.  He hands me the customs sheet and my passport and says “You don’t need that any more.”  I glance at my Homeland Security paper on the counter and say “And this?  Will I need it later?”  “Nope.  You just killed a tree.  Have a good night.”

I laughed and walked off with my gross lack of my explosives and contraband.

Oh, in the airport in San Jose, they did a bag check before we could board our plane.  After changing our flight gate about an hour before boarding, they roped off the seating area and made us all get out.  We stood in line and waited for them to call us one after the other to one of two tables where we opened our bags for them and let them go through everything.  He glanced in the top of my laptop bag and was done with it.  Not even a hand went in.  He looked in my marmot pack, moved one smaller bag (Kia’s jewelry from the trip, which I brought back for her) to the side, ignored everything in the bottom, and said “Ok.”  He never looked in my DSLR camera bag.  He never checked the front pocket on my laptop bag or my Marmot.  The whole security thing is embarrassingly half-assed, and designed to deter only the pettiest of criminals.  I really think anyone seriously practiced and determined to do some damage wouldn’t really have much trouble doing it.

Especially if they were white and had honest enough looking eyes.

It’s done.   It was beautiful.  I am so happy.

Pics and details soon.  Love you all.

One Sofa.

Free.

1995 Cabrio.

$2500

Someone is picking up the sofa tomorrow night.
Someone else is picking up the Cabrio around 2:25 Saturday morning.

Now the thing that has me confused is that the person interested in purchasing the Cabrio is in Savannah, and has no reason to come to Miami, other than to pick up the Cabrio.

Lemme ’splain.
Google Maps says, “489 mi – about 7 hours 29 mins”

She’s coming down on a Greyhound (and leaving the driving to them), buying the car, and driving it home. The bus leaves after her Friday class, and she should get home in time for work on Saturday. So what, she’s sleeping on the bus?

This is just crazy. But that’s how my life works, right? Last minute, crazy, and stupidly lucky. So if this pans out, I’ll have another $2500 for the trip to Costa Rica. That’s going to be handily timed, considering we’re leaving Monday.

Barack won the Iowa caucuses.  How awesome is that?

A 95% white state favors a (mostly) black presidential candidate with some (slight) Muslim background.  He admits to having done marijuana and cocaine.  If you read comments on popular news sites, you’ll see all sorts of things about him being secretly Muslim, and enlightening dialog on his plans to gain leadership of this country for the purpose of handing it over to Al Qaeda or the Taleban, or generally “the terrorists”.  And Iowa loves him.  His message of hope and positive change is inspiring.  His charisma is charging.

I’m delighted.

If you don’t already know about Dokaka, you should. Let him introduce you to himself, through the universal language of Nirvana.

New Years Resolutions are kind of a gimmick.  I realize that.  We, as people, make active choices on what to do and what not to do every moment of our lives.  Why should the first day of the year, determined by the seasonal rotation of our planet around its sun, be especially relevant for these choices?

Well, it’s the same reason that we have spring cleaning, fall festivals, summer picnics, and holidays.  January 1 is a day of new beginnings.  It is fresh, rife with opportunity, and clear of transgression.  Forget the missteps or failures of last year.  This is 2008!  This is the year that I will finally:

1. Catch up (and keep up!) on housework
2. Exercise twice a week, EVERY week
3. Get my portfolio in order, and contribute $10 a day to savings

These are reasonable things, that I already kinda keep up on.  Now I’m resolving to be even more diligent about it.  I have a couple 401(k) accounts that I need to consolidate.  From there, I actually need to keep an eye on them.  There were a couple of times where you can kind of sense a general change coming, and it would’ve been good for me to shift some percentage from the aggressive funds to the conservative ones, or from domestic to international.

Alright, that’s enough.  Time to get to diligence and whatnot.

We saw one and a half movies tonight. This was the first. The other I don’t want to mention in the same post as this.

I would recommend this film to absolutely everyone, with a couple of exceptions. First of all, if you’re too young to discuss sex, don’t see this film. Second of all, if you’re old enough to discuss sex, but don’t have anyone mature to discuss it with, who can answer your questions or help you through what can be quite a difficult and mysterious topic, skip it until you can find someone to talk to. They cover a lot of material, and with the exception of Jennifer Garner (who plays a rather flat character, or plays her character rather flatly), they do an absolutely excellent job.

I don’t really follow Jason Bateman’s career, but I can say that this is, without a doubt, the highlight of his entire body of work. By why I mean to say it’s all I can remember him in, though I did know his name before the film. Really, he got an amazing role, and played it beautifully.

We both thoroughly enjoyed this film. It does cover a very sensitive subject, but it is done with emotion, honesty, and tact.

The soundtrack is also excellent. Bummer they had to include Belle & Sebastian, but that isn’t enough to spoil it. Really stellar.

We saw a movie and a half tonight.  This was the half.  I really enjoyed certain parts of it, but not enough to recommend it to most people.  John C Reilly, the star of the film, can rock out with his Cox out (I haven’t seen that joke yet, but I’m sure it’s everywhere).  The jokes get tired fast, though.  It was fun, if you can dig the mindlessness.