Piecemeal

The Movie Coke Wars

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 14:51:26 GMT

rycor814 and I go to the movies at least once a week and always share a Coke Zero. I am a sipper, and he is a drinker. In another words, by the middle of the movie there's no more effin' Coke. I pick up the drink find nothing left but ice, shake it, and give him a glare for good measure. So we tried getting the biggest Coke they offer. No dice. Nothing but ice by mid-movie again. I tried getting my own Coke, but they are very expensive at the movies. Last night, we're walking to our theater when this coversation ensues:

Me: I need to teach you the fine art of sipping the Coke. You need to learn to savor the flavor, to enjoy the Coke.

R: [laughs] I don't sip, I drink.

Me: Yes, but if you sip the Coke...

R: I can't sip the Coke! I'm a man, and men DRINK Coke.

Me: [hysterical laughter] This is totally bloggable.

N.B. Ryan managed to restrain himself, and the Coke made it at least three-quarters of the way through The Hurt Locker, which, BTW, I highly recommend.

Housegreening: Update

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:54:54 GMT

It's been a long time coming, but here's an update to this Green Experiments entry.
Having replaced most of the light bulbs in our apartment, during the past year or so I discovered several drawbacks. First, not long after I made the switch, CFLs got widespread media attention for their mercury content and the consequent difficulties this fact poses for their safe disposal. The government has countered with their own data suggesting that CFLs, by reducing the amount of electricity used, already reduce mercury pollution and that the net mercury pollution is lower than that caused by traditional incandescent bulbs. There are also CFL recycling programs that I imagine the average consumer does not know about and is probably too unconcerned to use. In addition, not all the CFLs I installed have lasted even a year and a half. Several of my bulbs (at least five of the 12-15 installed) have already needed to be replaced. These failures have provided ample evidence against CFLs' much touted cost effectiveness. On the other hand, CFL prices have steadily declined since I purchased these bulbs, so perhaps they are now cost effective even if they don't last several years. Another drawback of CFLs is that those of the generation I purchased tend to have a delay when switched on and some even buzz. And, of course, their low light quality is annoying.
Today I ran across this article at NYTimes.com, which suggests that the incandescent bulb industry has responded to the calls to phase out its product by pioneering more efficient bulbs. I think as I begin to replace my CFLs, I will recycle them and try out the new incandescents until LEDs reach a more affordable price.

Crosstraining

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 21:47:24 GMT

Elliptical machine set on gluteal course. About the same workout as the last time I did the elliptical.

Time: 45 minutes

Calories: 345

Distance: ???

Running log

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:04:23 GMT

Day 4

Same as Days 1 and 2

Distance: 1.72

Calories burned: 150

How I feel: good, I s'pose. I don't want to say it's getting easier, but I feel more confident about running. Hmm.

Running log

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:27:58 GMT

Day 3:

Took a break from run/walk for some cross training:

Elliptical machine set on a "Gluteal" program.

4 min warm up @ 70-80 strides per minute.

22 min workout @ 90-100 strides per minute.

4 min cool down @ 70-80 strides per minute.

Distance: ? -- Old machine only gave me total strides.

Calories burned: 212

How I feel: good. It was nice to get a steady burn going.

Running log

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:32:37 GMT

Day 2:

Same workout as Day 1.

Calories burned: 146 (I think this is because I used a newer machine that used my weight)

Distance: 1.65 miles (again, new machine)

Total workout time: 31 minutes

How I feel: A little sore. Today was a little harder. Don't know if it was the newer machine or just fatigue. Last night my hamstrings were kind of sore, so my lower back got stiff as well. Took two ibuprofen and it was all good.

Running journal

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:29:31 GMT

I've decided to try to become a runner. This morning, I started on a run/walk program with the goal of being able to run for 30 minutes at a stretch in eight weeks. Since roxana is embarking on training for a 10K run, I thought I'd post my workouts for her and anyone else on a fitness program. Here goes:

Day 1:

5 minutes warm-up, walking @ 2.5 mph on 0% incline

6 minutes walking @ 3.5 mph on 0% incline

1 minute running @ 5 mph on 0% incline

Repeated walk/run combo 2 more times

Cool down:

2 minutes @ 3.0 mph on 0% incline

3 minutes @ 2.5 mph on 0% incline

Calories burned: 131

Distance: 1.71 miles

Total workout time: 31 minutes

How I feel: good. It was easier than I expected, especially after focusing on using the correct form. I think part of the reason I thought running was so hard is that I haven't been doing it right. Always wondered why my shins hurt.

Cinematastic moment: Repo Man

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 03:48:48 GMT

It really is the small things in life

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:32:59 GMT

Today I became the proud keeper of a portable electric stapler. I say keeper and not owner since it is, after all, property of DCCCD. But happy am I just to be its keeper. Introducing stapler of glory. I imagine myself frolicking through the offices and libraries of the academic world, stapling anything and everything my heart desires (up to 20 pages). Ah, the joys of academe.

Lolcat moment

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:56:44 GMT

Last night as soon as I got home, I filled a crystal goblet with chardonnay, ran a bath, and got in for a relaxing soak. As always, Sullivan needs to monitor me to make sure I don't drown, and Samsa comes in if he hears something that might be an unauthorized activity.

As I reclined in the tub, I wetted a finger and traversed the rim of the wine glass. I love doing that because the sound reminds me of when I used to play violin. The kitties were immediately interested. Sullivan was very pleased by the sound. He jumped up on the edge of the tub, purring and chirping, and demanded to be petted. Samsa, however, eyes as wide as saucers, stalked into the bathroom to try to discover the source of the sound. Samsa has always had a funny habit of sitting in the bathroom and staring at the toilet for no apparent reason. So, of course, he went straight for the toilet and looked around the base for the source of the sound. Then he decided the sound was coming from the bowl, and sat for several minutes with two paws on the seat staring into the water and looking as if he expected an alligator to emerge any moment.

Kittehs iz funniez.

Many green experiments -- one long-ass post

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:17:15 GMT

I realize it's been quite a while since I've posted anything about my green experiments; they've continued, but the blogging, not so much. Some of my recent greening and plans for future projects are also admittedly a result of my slow conversion to voluntary simplicity and frugality. So here's a brief summary of the last several months of greening:

1. I have cut down on my driving. Not only is it better for the environment, it's easier on my wallet (gas for a week of driving to work run me about $20). I found out that the Denton County Transit Authority runs a "Commuter Express" shuttle between Dallas and Denton that is free of charge for UNT students, faculty, and staff. It stops in Lewisville only two blocks away from our apartment. The buses are very cushy travel coaches and almost always run on time. The only downside to this arrangement is that the bus back to Lewisville leaves at 6 p.m. (I get off at 5), so I started using that hour as a winding down period and visit the library or run other on-campus errands while I wait. The benefits are obvious: I reduce my carbon footprint and my sponsorship of corporate highway robbery at the pump.

N.B. The number of people on the bus rises every time I ride. Take that, Exxon!

I've also limited my speed to 55 mph on the freeway, much to the chagrin of everyone on the road except octogenarians and drivers of R.V.s. Doing so has added about 4 mpg to my fuel efficiency. That's like getting 120 miles of gas for free. I always drive in the slow lane. Nevertheless, people honk, shake their fists, swerve around me, and sometimes even flip me off, but I'm laughing all the way to the bank.

The next project in this vein is to sell my car. While reading this book, I discovered that the actual cost to "own" my car is about $10,000 a year. This figure includes car payments, depreciation, insurance, fuel, registration, inspection, and tolls. I was shocked and astonished. My new job and schedule will allow rycor814 and I to carpool to work, so the main reason for having my car will disappear in a few weeks. I did the math and figured out that around the beginning of October, I can sell my car and break even. I hope that the Blue Book value will come in a bit under what I can get considering that the market now demands fuel efficient cars, and my Scion gets 30 mpg (friends, take note -- if you want it, you have first dibs).

2. I started recycling wine bottles in a pragmatic (and decorative!) way. Whenever someone brings over a bottle of wine (Kip was our first donor), if the label is interesting or aesthetically pleasing, I wash it out and put rice, lentils, soybeans, et al inside as a decorative storage solution. The bottle Kip brought over was called "The Barking Sheep," which I thought was funny, so I filled it with soybeans. Why do I need soybeans, you ask? Why, that's a very good segue into the next item on my list!

3. I have making homemade dry groceries at home to save money and to avoid the high prices of organic/non-GMO/etc/etc foods. So far, I have been baking my own bread, crackers, and granola. My next experiment is soymilk. It's surprisingly easy and relatively quick to do these things and saves us about $40 a month on groceries. I have designated Sundays (when rycor814 has his boys over for D&D) as my homemaking days. I stay out of their hair and they get to taste test my goodies for me. It works out pretty well. (Regime, take note!)

4. rycor814 and I have reduced our book collection by about one third by selling or giving away said books. Ah, how lovely it is to have rid myself of the books for Dr. Holdeman's class, gift books that I politely accepted and then shoved in the shelves, and all the books I had left over from grad school that I didn't really need or want any longer. Ryan offloaded a ton of D&D books at Recycled, and we sold the rest at Half Price (don't cringe, ripperbard and redread; I didn't want to have to tote two bookshelves' worth of books up to Denton on the bus!). All told, the sale of the books brought in about $500! Less stuff, more rawk. And to think we did it all by recycling.

Our next project in this vein is to sell the two empty bookcases or give them away (bookish friends, take note -- they are very heavy but are solid oak and some of the shelves have lighting; they do have some scratching from moving, but nothing that couldn't be covered up with a wood crayon).

5. I take shorter showers. My showers used to average about 10 minutes, and I've cut them down to 5 minutes. Since we have a low flow shower head, it's the best I can do on that front.

Another planned project is to save to buy a new computer monitor (an upgrade for rycor814's further gaming pleasure) and to sell or give away our two old monitors (both are flat screens). Anybody want a new monitor? We also have an Aiwa stereo system with a three disc changer. I'd love to see that go as well.

Expect more regular future updates!

Book meme from sauvagerie

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:21:09 GMT

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read (as in the book is bought and sitting on my shelf).
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Strike out the ones you thought SUCKED.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (a few of them, anyway)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. ~~The Bible (most of it, which was suckage)~~
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare (most of the plays and sonnets)
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. ~~Middlemarch - George Eliot (only got about 200 pages in before I was bored to tears)~~
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel (is it possible to double underline?)
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. ~~Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad~~ (is it possible to double strikethrough?? I HATE Conrad)
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Instructables

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:47:19 GMT

Please to check out Instructables.com

My favorite so far is Mooching 101

Homemade lolcats

Mon, 12 May 2008 20:38:08 GMT

Frakkin' Fantastic

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:59:55 GMT

BSG returns tonight!! Get your frak on.

So say we all!

Walmart Cake

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:36:34 GMT

Thinking about moving to another town?

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 02:23:57 GMT

These two sites can answer more questions than you probably even thought of about your prospective new community:

Claritas -- identifies the most common "types" of folks living in the area. Try it out on where you live now for accuracy. Here's what they had to say about my area of Lewisville. The most common type was

Boomtown Singles
Lower-Mid, Younger w/o Kids
Affordable housing, abundant entry-level jobs, and a thriving singles scene--all have given rise to the Boomtown Singles segment in fast-growing satellite cities. Younger, single, and working-class, these residents pursue active lifestyles amid sprawling apartment complexes, bars, convenience stores, and laundromats.

They forgot to mention they're 'tarded drivers, but otherwise, pretty accurate.

ePodunk (esp. throrough) -- tells you all kinds of stats like demographics of residents such as age, median income, etc., but also has links to local history, data about religious affiliation, nearby businesses and entertainment, libraries, cemetaries, you name it. You can even find how many people died in a given year, including how many were traffic accidents and cancer deaths! Crazy.

My mother would KILL me!!

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:47:52 GMT

Kitty silliness

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:18:16 GMT

Kitty story courtesy of rycor814:

Whenever we make turkey sandwiches (a lunch staple in our house), we give our cats a little bit of turkey as a treat. While I was talking on the phone with rycor814 this morning, he gave the cats their turkey and all hell broke loose. Somehow Sullivan ended up with a piece of turkey on his head and ran away whenever rycor814 tried to snatch it away. Samsa gave chase to try to eat the turkey off his brother's head and they chased each other around until the turkey fell off. Gave me a good laugh, anyway.

Free Rice

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:11:17 GMT

As amelicious put it, feed the hungry AND your linguistic ego simultaneously! Watch out, it's addictive.

Green experiment 7: Reusable bags

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:02:47 GMT

Why switch? About ten years ago the conundrum facing consumers was choosing paper or plastic bags to tote their new purchases, the new problem is whether they should use disposable bags at all. While the switch to plastic bags was a step forward (plastic bags require drastically less energy to produce and recycle), the fallout from their widespread use has presented new problems. The world consumes about 500 billion plastic bags per year and recycles an estimated one to three percent of these bags. Many municipal recycling programs in North Texas (such as Denton, Richardson, and Lewisville) will recycle almost anything as long as it's not a plastic bag. The cost of recycling the bags is usually greater than buying new ones, and thus businesses have little incentive to recycle.

The potential impact: A cleaner environment is the most important potential impact of reducing our consumption of plastic bags. It takes up to 1,000 years for a plastic bag to completely degrade, and even then it only photodegrades into smaller toxic pieces that can pollute our land and water supply. Creating the world's plastic bag supply also uses 60 million barrels of oil per year. Lowering this number could help to reduce our dependence on oil.

The products I tested: A large canvas tote provided free from Green Mountain Energy for joining their Big Texas Sun Club. rycor814's mom also got me a Laptop Lunch Kit from Reusablebags.com, which I have been using for a few months now.

The results: On my usual weekly grocery shopping trip (usually at Target or Sprouts), I get about 10-12 plastic bags (depending on the bagger). While the tote did not eliminate my plastic bag use, it did cut it in half. I also incurred a funny look from my cashier who tried to fill the canvas bag only halfway. With some prodding, I got him to fill the whole thing. As for the lunch kit, I use it any time I pack a sandwich plus goodies for lunch. Whenever I take a reusable plastic container filled with leftovers, I reuse a plastic shopping bag to carry it.

Conclusion: With an additional tote, I'd say my next try at shopping with reusable bags will be a complete success.

More information:

In 2002 Ireland introduced a tax on plastic bags called the PlasTax. Consumers had to pay a tax of about 15 cents per bag. Consumption of plastic bags fell about 95 percent, and about $10 million in taxes were collected and placed in a fund designed to help the environment. Brilliant!
Following Ireland's lead, many other cities and countries are considering implementing bans or taxes for plastic bags. Check out Austin's movement at BagtheBags.com
Put a reusable bag on your holiday wish list this year. I'm putting Reusablebags.com's Cotton Mesh Produce Bags and another canvas tote on mine!
Also try using some reusable gift bags this year. Just Google it! Also, it sounds crazy, but I read that you can wash potato chip bags in warm soapy dishwater, dry them, turn them inside out, and use them for shiny gift wrap. It beats the heck out of shelling out 5-10 bucks for a roll of metallic gift wrap.

Steampunk computers

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:10:08 GMT

Kewl!

Halloween fun

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 16:09:32 GMT

Seen on a bumper sticker today:

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:28:13 GMT

Renewable energy is Homeland Security.

:-)

Open letter

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:16:33 GMT

Dear Mr. Delillo,

While I loved Libra very much, Underworld is wearing on my nerves. I'm about 600 pages in and have yet to figure out what the hell this novel is trying to say.

If you're not careful, this novel will be added to my list of books that I will move to have decanonized under the auspices of the Regime. FYI, my list includes:

Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim
The Sound and the Fury (admit it, it's overrated)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
All of Ayn Rand's work (not to ever, EVER be taught in high school or undergraduate study)

As you can see, the list is short, and I'd hate to see you make it.

Ciao,
Liz