Think Nose Picking is a Problem? July 25, 2006
Posted by David in Environment, Nature.add a comment
How about nose licking? Yes, Hunter being a dog and having no fingers opts for licking his nose. I don’t think I’ll be able to get him to stop. So, I’ll just keep him away from my face after that type of display.
Well, it’s still very hot here today, but it looks like it’s about 5 degrees cooler than yesterday. The house is about 8-10 degrees cooler than the other day as well. That I can attribute to the slight cooling off we had last night. By 2:00 am, it was already down to 70 degrees outside. That allowed us to start the day off on a cooler note.
Today Talli and I hit the gym. We decided to do it during the hottest part of the day. At least then we were getting some exercise while we were sweating. We’ll probably be at my parents’ gym tomorrow, since Club Sport is having a 15th anniversary celebration and guests are free. At least, we’ll be going if their A/C is working. It was broken yesterday according to my dad.
Well, I’d better get back to work. It’s a good thing I work from home or I wouldn’t be able to take breaks like this. Of course, I would also have A/C. Those are the tradeoffs.
Crazy Heat – Global Warming? July 24, 2006
Posted by David in Environment, Nature.add a comment
The last few days the weather around here has been insane. It’s been in the upper 90s or even just over 100 for almost a week now. I can hardly stand it. I couldn’t even motivate myself to blog.
The high temperatures weren’t the biggest problem though. The big problem is that the nightly cool down that we’re used to here by the San Francisco Bay, just never came. So, late at night, the house would still be in the high eighties or nineties. I’m not talking about at 10:00 either. I’m talking about at 3 or 4 in the morning.
So, yesterday I motivated myself to get up on the roof in the early morning and cover the skylights in the kitchen as you can see in the picture. This made the kitchen slightly more bearable for most of the day and the house maybe a degree or two cooler overall. I have to say it was well worth it. Tonight seems to be the coolest night yet, so I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that we start to get a drop in temperatures. The weather report keeps promising one, but they are continuosly wrong…
My First & Second Life June 11, 2006
Posted by David in Business, Environment, Family/Friends, Food/Wine, Technology.add a comment
Today was dedicated to fun. Talli and I woke up early to go to the farmers market in Irvington, as we always do. We got some great organic strawberries and mushrooms along with our usual vegetables. We also got some anchovies that were caught in the Monterey Bay four hours before. We got 2.5 lbs for $2. Not too shabby.
The rest of the day, I relaxed. I spent some time reading and drinking tea after breakfast, which we had after we went shopping. Then I decided that I was going to find out about the online game that I’ve heard so much about, Second Life. Let me start off by saying that the game reminds me of a SciFi series by Tad Williams called Otherland. It’s about a virtual reality world that people create that becomes alive in the sense that people can live exclusively in it and what happens to them there affects them in real life.
I think this game is interesting because people are spending real money to buy and sell things in the game. There is actually an exchange for their online currency. The rate is currently pegged at $5 US to I believe it is $288 Linden (Company’s name).[DvS - 6/13/06 the actual exchange is L$331 to US$1.]
The game is interesting because I think you could use it to model houses or other products that you were selling to show to prospective buyers. That would be a great tool for new companies or ones with too little capital for showrooms around the country. They could have a virtual showroom there and, since it is free, any of their customers could go online and check out their products.
Granted, any of these possibilities are too far off to be viable for most businesses or customers at this point. I believe in being ahead of the curve and seeing where we’re going. It’s more interesting to predict or, maybe I should say, anticipate the future. At least for me it is. So, off to the future I head. I’ll see you when you all get there…
Being Healthy with Talli May 23, 2006
Posted by David in Environment, Family/Friends, Nature, Technology.add a comment
My wife Talli made the leap to blogging this morning. You can find her blog, Being Healthy with Talli hosted by WordPress. Her blog will be primarily focused on health and the environment. Of course, Talli associates good food and gardening with health, so she’ll be covering those areas along with a a lot of other interesting subjects.
While the new blog was being born, our new oven was delivered today. It’s a new coilless flattop range. It’s nice to have it delivered because we have guests (Sue & Geno) tomorrow and I need it to prepare the dinner. So, I no longer have to worry about how I’m going to prepare the meal. Maybe I’ll get a picture of the new oven up on the site sometime in the near future. Then again, maybe not if there are more interesting things going on.
Terrapass May 21, 2006
Posted by David in Environment, Nature.add a comment
Talli and I are trying to do all that we can to improve the environment around us and minimize any negative impacts that we might have on it. One of our largest negative impacts comes from driving. To minimize that impact, we try to practice trip chaining. That means doing multiple things on any one trip to reduce the miles driven by doing errands separately. To minimize our impact further we walk or ride our bike to stores within a few miles of our house. We also try to drive smoothly and not accelerate or decellerate to rapidly.
Those measures have had a large impact on our gas usage and as a result, our carbon dioxide emissions. Since reducing our net creation of greenhouse gas emissions to zero is our ultimate goal, that wasn’t nearly enough. In my striving to that goal, I discovered a company called Terrapass. It allows you to calculate your CO2 emissions based on your miles driven and your car model. Then, you can sign up for a Terrapass. That Terrapass sponsors clean energy initiatives and purchases carbon credits that reduce global CO2 emissions by the amount that your car emits, resulting in zero net emissions. Terrapass is third party audited to prove that they actually do what they say, so you can have the piece of mind that you are actually helping the environment.
Now you’re asking yourself, “How much does this cost?” Well, that varies depending on how much you drive. I drive very little, so I am at their “Hybrid” level, which costs $29.95/yr. If you drive a Hummer it will run you $79.95/yr. If you use this Terrapass link you’ll get a 10% discount. I encourage anyone who wants to make this world a healthier place for yourself or your current or future children and grandchildren, to make this small investment. It is less than the cost of a tank of gas. Think about it. If anyone makes the investment, drop me a comment on the blog. I think it is important and so should you…
