Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Home Eco Party

A few weeks ago I had a home eco party, it's kinda like a Tupperware party, but instead you learn about how to make your home more ecologically friendly. I invited a neighbor, some friends, and my mom and sister came up, there were about 8 people there. A volunteer from the Center For Earth Leadership came over and we had an open discussion of the home survey/questionnaire that I had given everyone I'd invited.

The questionnaire asked people to think about:
*how much meat they eat,
*how often you run your clothes washer (do you use cold water cycles),
*if you are able to dry your clothes outside,
*if you've had a home energy audit and will implement the suggestions,
*do you grow your own food,
*do you compost and use your compost,
*do you limit toxic cleaners and toxic home products (weed killers, etc.),

We went through each section of the questionnaire talking about what other alternatives exist or are out there to use instead of window cleaner (vinegar & water), for instance. We went into my bathroom and measured the water output from my shower head, it's 2.5 gpm.

Some of the specific things I learned about taking care of my home and buying food:

*buy in bulk - save old containers from hand soap, oatmeal, granola, lotion, laundry detergent, honey, tea, peanut butter - these are staples that I need to get pretty often and at stores that sell stuff in bulk they let you tare the container at one of the check stands then refill them;

*put reusable grocery bags in your car and on the door knob to remind yourself to use them;

*disposable materials are never beneficial to the environment - if you can use cloth napkins, real plates/glasses/silverware you will save money and know that you aren't wasting resources on a one time use product;

*reduce the amount of meat you eat - meat is produced with a lot of resources going into it, cows have to have crops grown and irrigated to feed the amount of energy/resources that go into a pound of beef is many times that for a pound of wheat;

*I don't want to use pesticides so I'm using my weed popper to get the dandelions out then pour vinegar into the little hole to kill the roots;

*practice minimal flushing - "If it's brown, flush it down; if it's yellow, keep it mellow."

My minimal flushing sheet for your toilet:


http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddkncvj_12c4jtpvfv


It was also special because the 'volunteer' that came to facilitate the home eco party was Jeanne Roy, one of the founders (along with her husband) of the Center For Earth Leadership and the Northwest Earth Institute. Jeanne and Dick Roy Bio/Article:
http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC43/Roy.htm

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Flying Spaghetti Monster

I don't know if y'all know who the Flying Spaghetti Monster is, but the monster is the deity for a parody religion. One of the things they talk about is how global warming is inversely related to the number of pirates. When the SEALs took out 3 Somali pirates I grew concerned and decided to figure out what this would mean for Somalia. I crunched a bunch of numbers to develop my Global Warming Potential(GWP) of Somalia. GWP is just a number given to different gasses relating to their potential to increase global warming by not allowing infrared radiation to escape Earth's atmosphere, also known at Radiative Forcing.

I found Somalia's CO2 production per year with data up to 1995, then added 100 metric tons per year. Their main economic production is farm animals, I assumed they had goats, who produce about 23 m3/yr of methane. Methane has a GWP of 12, CO2 has a GWP of 1. I found the area of Somalia and the percentage of the area that is wild pasture lands and cut it in half, assumed 5 goats per acre, and assumed a growth of 100 km2 of pasture land used for goat herding. The GWP of the country is contributed to more by their pastured animals than by the CO2 sources.

I don't know how many pirates are in Somalia, but a loss of 3 will probably be made up pretty quick.






This is the supporting chart that was originally sent to the Kansas Board of Education.













Sources:

http://www.inra.fr/productions-animales/spip.php?page=en-article&id_article=332

http://www.studentsoftheworld.info/country_information.php?Pays=SOM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Somalia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia#Economy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia#Economy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_potential
http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/Report/AR4WG1_Print_Ch02.pdf

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Rise Up!

I've got the Blazer bug! They're in the playoffs, they've got 2 home games to start out the series. They've brought it all together for me with a new marketing campaign "Uprise" with the Portland Blazers, see the rap video below:



Don't UPRISE too hard because the Portland PD has some new cars that totally look bad ass!

When this place turns into a barren wasteland they'll come in handy!


Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Outside Looking In


I decided to smoke one of the Cubanos I bought back from Hondo, smoked it out on the back porch, it was hard not to feel a little self-conscious about it because the house next door could see me, but I had a glass (or cup) of Shiraz. I looked up into my kitchen window and thought it was a good picture that showed how I live. My dad hates it that I leave cupboard doors open like that.

I guess I should also say that I lost my job this week, I thought that by smoking this cigar and drinking the wine I'd have better introspection into my life forth coming. I couldn't think of anything other than I smoked this Cuban much better than in SPS (San Pedro Sula, Honduras - at the wine bar where all the hotties were). And, the other thing about my job is that it was at the cost of others that were more valuable for the work, no work was in hand, and apparently I was the low man on the totem. But, I realized that I when you pin your tail on one client, or classification of clients that do work only in the school site work, you're not gonna make it. Far be it for me to say what's gonna make it in this econ, but it's tough.

In a more positive news, I can finally re-do my mortgage (probably) because I'm out of work, thanks 'Bama for the financial something act. More info on my new garden plot manana.

The neighbor has two black cats, I enjoy calling them "gatos negro."