Climate Change… a Blog Action Day post

Climate change. Does it exist? Yes. Can we do something about it? Maybe. What the world needs now (besides love, as they say) is concerted action. We need to educate people on the true consequences of their actions, and what they can do to reduce their impact on the planet. For a few things you can do individually, check these out:

1) Live close to work & play. I know that for many people, they are settled in to where they are living. But the average American only lives in a house for seven years. So you still may be able to do this at some point in the future. Look at where you live now, and how far you commute. Can you live closer to where you work? Can you get a new job closer to where you live? When my wife and I were buying our first home, we took this into consideration. We decreased her commute time from 30 minutes to 20 minutes, and I was close enough to ride my bike to work most days.

2) Ride a bike. If you are physically able to ride a bike to do short errands, do it. Many car trips in the U.S. are for distance of less than a mile. Have to run down to the drugstore for something small? Take a bike. This alone will reduce your carbon footprint a great deal. Plus it may be quicker. What? you ask incredulously. Yes. My commute was 12 minutes by car and 7 minutes by bike…because of all the traffic. I can always go to the front of the line at a ed light, and speed by cars that are bumper to bumper.

3) Get an energy audit for your home. Many companies that deal in windows, insulation, or heating will offer these for free. A technician will come in and go around your house check for leaks. Not leaks from water in pipes, places where heat is leaking out. They seal off your front door with a big plastic gasket with a fan inside. This creates negative pressure in the house, so any place where heat would have been going out is now coming in. They use a thermal imaging camera to spot areas of cold. (white is hot, black is cold. You can see in the picture that the bottom panel of our back door is very cold, and cold air is seeping in underneath the door.) It was very cool to follow him around and see cold seeping in through the baseboards and around the door to the attic. Then I knew exactly where to seal with caulk or expanding foam. We also got our furnace replaced with a 95% efficient model and insulated all the exterior walls with blown-in cellulose insulation. This cut our utility bills in half! I wrote in more detail about that here.

There are so many other things you can do, so I will say that the biggest one is:

4) Read. Educate yourself on how you can live a better life for yourself, and the environment. You’re doing it right now! There are tons of simple things you can do. There are also things that many people believe will affect the climate a great deal, but actually don’t.

I focused on only one small part of the climate change issue, but there are myriad facets to this. I expect to read posts from other people doing Blog Action Day today about how coastal regions may be affected, our food supply, desertification, water shortages, international policy changes, new advancements in science, and much more. So just try and do your part, and we can make some change for the good of us all.

For more info, go here:

http://www.blogactionday.org/

Three kisses.

Being a bit of a hopeless romantic as a teen, I discovered that the Romans had three kinds of kisses.

The first kiss was called osculum. This kiss was used for greeting acquaintances, much like the Bisou that the French use today. A quick peck on the cheek.

The second was the basium kiss. This was a kiss shared between two close (but platonic) friends. Still used in greeting, two lips meeting each other, maybe lingering for a second, maybe not.

The third kiss was suavium. This was the lovers’ kiss. Lips on lips with tongue included. Long, passionate, and repeated.

Why should you know this? No reason at all, I just remembered it and wanted to write about it. For those interesting in delving deeper into this subject, I found a great blog post all about it here.

More Hubble space pictures

Since it’s so popular right now, I give you: More Space Pictures! (as taken by NASA’s Hubble space telescope)

The Horsehead nebula:

M42 (a different view of the Orion Nebula):

The Rosette Nebula:

The Eta Carinae Nebula:

The Veil Nebula, sometimes called witch’s broomstick:

M31 galaxy (messier object 31, better known as the Andromeda Galaxy):

Homeless sex-offender camp is a call to action

Cobb county Georgia just got a wake up call. This prosperous area North West of Atlanta has a problem. Sex-offenders just released from prison are setting up a communal camp in the woods. Nothing new right? Just some homeless guys living under a tarp. This is a feature in any city. Except these unfortunate men were directed there by their probation officers.

How can this be? What rules govern a situation where the government is telling sex-offenders to live in the woods like animals? Georgia’s tough laws regulating where they can live and work require offenders to be 1,000 feet away from schools, churches, parks, or other places that children can gather. This requirement also means that churches cannot house the men, or even offer them religious help in this troubling time in their lives. Many homeless shelters do not meet the distance requirement to house the sex-offenders. Those few that do have a ridiculously small capacity (2) or charge $60 a week for rent.

Even men who have family, a house, a support network waiting for them when they get out; are required to go camp in the woods.  So what can be done?

Obviously the state needs to re-evaluate its release policy first of all. Maybe a distance requirement can be reduced or amended for those offenders just coming out of prison and needing temporary housing. Allowing them access to the services they need, will help them tremendously in becoming productive members of society again. I know this first hand.

In my work at the Syracuse Rescue Mission, a  non-profit shelter that provides help to homeless individuals, ranging  from clothes, job searching, recreation, recovery, and much more; I saw who was able to move on the fastest. The men who were referred to us by probation consistently established the contacts they needed to move on faster than the men who were just on the streets. Think about it. These men who were in prison have had time to think about what they need to do when they get out. Who they need to contact, which programs they need to sign up for. The men on the street are given the same information by their case manager, but they are also dealing with the daily hardships of life on the streets. Guys on probation come to the shelter, work with their case manager, do what they need to do, and are in and out in three weeks.

Georgia needs to work more closely with other private sector non-profits to set up a successful program for newly released sex-offenders. This would also provide the men with counseling, care, and the dignity they need to get back on their feet. Not forcing them to live like animals in the woods. Whatever they do, they need to do something to fix this inhumane treatment of this already mistreated section of society.

Please understand, as a father to a little boy, I do not condone what they have done that sent them to prison. But now that they are out, we need to treat them with basic human dignity, and give them a chance to redeem themselves.

The Media needs to be careful with homemade bomb instructions

For those of you that found this post hoping to get instructions on how to make your very own bomb, you’re out of luck. Even if I knew how to make homemade bombs, which I do not, I would not write out how to do it.

But the mainstream media has no problem giving away details that I rather wish they didn’t. In reporting on Najibullah Zazi, the media gives far too many details in their stories. For example, they mention certain chemicals like hydrogen peroxide, and helpfully tell readers that this can found in quantity at your local beauty salon. They do the same thing with fertilizer bombs, or other things. In a report on lock bumping ( a technique burglars use to unlock deadbolts) they have an expert locksmith explain just how it’s done…so consumers can be aware. Well, great. But now the teenager who always wantd to know how to open locks has the knowledge to easily do just that. Security expert Bruce Schneier has this to say:

Physical locks aren’t very good. They keep the honest out, but any burglar worth his salt can pick the common door lock pretty quickly.

It used to be that most people didn’t know this. Sure, we all watched television criminals and private detectives pick locks with an ease only found on television and thought it realistic, but somehow we still held onto the belief that our own locks kept us safe from intruders.

The Internet changed that.

You can read the rest of his essay here.

Now, giving exact details on how to bake a cake is one thing, but saying you need so many pounds of nitrogen fertilizer in proportion to such and such a chemical is NOT COOL. Stop giving these details away.

I know the counter argument is that if a criminal is sufficiently determined, he will find out the details one way or another. But having the media do it, be it newspapers, magazines, TV, or the internet, is just stupid. We should be making it harder for these people to commit crimes, not easier. So my message to the media is this: Report the news, yes. Report about a deadly new terror plot and homemade bomb maker, but DO NOT tell the general population HOW they did it.

What do you think?

Burger King to nation: “Stay fat, America.”

In a time when most fast food chains are offering healthier options on their menus, Burger King sends a different message. “Stay Fat America.”

I was out doing errands today. My wife has our only car so I was on my bike. It was lunchtime and I was mightily hungry from riding five miles to the bank, post office, etc. So I thought I would grab a quick Whopper Jr. from the drive through. Or as they so charmingly call it, the drive-thru. The car ahead of me pulled ahead so I pulled up and waited. A squawky intercom voice told me to hang on. Then they told me to move to the second window. “But I  haven’t ordered yet.” I replied. “Move up to the second window.” They repeated. Once there, a helpful cashier leaned out and yelled that they can’t serve people on bikes. I would have to come inside to order. “Why?” I asked, my money flapping in the wind, just waiting to be given away. “BK policy” she yelled. At this point, fearing I might do something stupid, I just said “Fine” and rode off in a huff.

When I spoke with the manager of this particular “restaurant” later that day over the phone, he said that the only reason they can’t serve bikes is because of insurance. I asked about serving drivers whose cars aren’t insured. He said that was between them and the state. When I asked him about people who just walk through the drive through, his response was, “coupons.” Clearly the type of manager I would want to have serving me food. I’m glad I ended up not eating there.

Corporate Headquarters assured me that bikes can’t be used in the drive through because of safety concerns but said nothing of insurance. I asked if there had been any previous accidents where a car had hit a cyclist and she denied any such occurrences. If I was on a motorcycle though, it would have been fine. So a machine that goes 200 mph and kills 5,154 people every year is much safer than a bicycle that can get up to 30 mph in the city and kills 698 people a year. Hmm. Especially the high-speed lane of the Burger King Drive-Thru. Gosh, I think I got up to 4 mph going around that corner. I’m such a daredevil.

Apparently Burger King is fine promoting riding bikes in video games though, but not real life. God forbid people should want to get in shape. Stay off that bike America. Stay in your car instead.

So I’m asking you to boycott Burger King and take your money elsewhere. Will you join me? What do you think?

evidence of my wife’s hotness

My wife is hot. I can even prove it. Yesterday was the first day of school for many people. She teaches 7th grade English. At the beginning of one of her classes, two boys walked in and stopped on the threshold.

“Is this English?” they asked.

“Yes.” my wife replied.

“SWEET!” they both exclaimed, grinning at each other.

I asked her more about the type of student that would be so excited that they had found their English class.

“Did they look ‘bookish’, or excited to learn about adverbs?”

“No, they were jocks. This isn’t their first time taking 7th grade English either. They both failed last year.”

There it is! Clear evidence that she is hot! What class could engender such enthusiastic feelings in sports playing repeat 7th graders? One that is taught by my wife…who is hot.

Class dismissed.

DIY chimney repair

So we need to get our roof done soon. The previous owner bought the house in 1983 and never put a roof on it. Rather than wait until our cielings cave in on us, we want to do some preventative maintenance. What does this have to do with chimneys you ask? Well, most of the roofing companies we got quotes from said that we need to have our chimney repaired before they would do the roof. One offered to do it for $600. I said I could probably do it myself for just a bit less than that. How about $30. Yeah, that’s right. $6 for some mortar, $24 for two ceramic flue liners, and a bunch of free, trash-picked bricks.

I borrowed some books on it and got to work. First I had to chip out all the old mortar and clean up/ remove the loose bricks around the top. Then I removed the old broken flue liners. Whoever repaired it the last time put the larger one in crooked so that the small one that serviced the furnace and hot water heater only fit when they broke one of the sides off. Then it was just a simple matter of carrying all my supplies out of our bedroom window and up to the chimney. Being a rock climber, I’m used to heights, so I didn’t tie off or anything. I was comfortable with that but you may not be. It was my first time working with bricks and mortar, so there was a learning curve. It’s not real pretty, but it will do the job. Here are some before and after shots:

Do you believe in coincidences?

Here are a few recent coincidences that have happened recently. They deal with me leaving my job I have been at for nearly ten years. They are both musical.

The day came at work when I decided that I needed to resign. It was time to go. I packed up a few of my personal things that had acreted over the years, and typed up my resignation letter.The next day, I planned on telling my boss, but she was in meetings all morning. She returned after lunch and I waited until she was off the phone to go in and meet with her. Our offices are just down the hall from one another, so I could hear when she was free. As was my habit, I listened to Digitally Imported radio on iTunes. I especially like the female vocal trance channel. Just before I went in, the lyrics of the song playing were “It’s going to be a fine night tonight, it’s going to be a good day tomorrow.” This repeated as few times as techno is wont to do, and then the ad cut in, the first line of which was: “I had a great idea at work yesterday!”  Hmmmm.

Two weeks later, the day I left work for the last time, I got into the car and pulled out of the parking lot. The CD I was listening to had continued from where it left off in the middle of a song from that morning. The lyric was: ” Farewell! Farewell. Parting is such sweet sorrow!” (It was metal-core, hence the exclamation points from him yelling)

So coincidence? No. I don’t believe in coincidences. I think it was God hinting to me that I had made the right move. He does that occationally. Like the time I was flying to Australia, and everyone was asleep on the 16 hour flight there. It was 3:00 in the morning and I woke up very thirsty. I was in the middle of a 5 person row, so I would have to wake up at least two people. Just as I was about to unbuckle my belt, a flight attandent showed with with one glass of water on a tray and handed it to me. She was not handing them out to anyone else, there weren’t empty glasses or other people awake, it was just me.  Amazing.

Baby at the Scottish games

This was Andrew’s first time at the Scottish Games. He had a blast  listening to the bagpipes. We even got to be in the parade of Clans, representing Donald of course. My wife made his kilt out of the material I used for my own homemade kilt for prom 10 years ago. It’s the MacDonald dress tartan.

my life is in large state of flux, and I like it.

My life is going through some rather large changes at the moment. The biggest of these is that I have just given my two weeks notice at my job that I have had for the better part of a decade. Yes, after nearly ten years, it is time for me to go. So…I’m crazy right? I just quit my job in a terrible economy. My wife is also not working. We have a one year old who still needs to eat. What am I doing?

Who knows? I just knew I could not stay at my job any longer. What started as a great career leading groups through a ropes course, being outside and working with my hands, has led to me sitting behind a desk for 8.5 hours a day, filling out government forms and shuffling papers around. Enough was enough.

While I am not naive enough to think that I can make it as a professional writer (seeing as how I’ve not been paid for one single word I’ve written so far) I still hope to get my novel published. I’m sending it out to agents right now. That would be super cool. But it will continue to be a side hobby until it really pays off.

I imagine I will just do odd jobs until I can find one I really like. I always liked working with my hands, but I don’t have a trade, per se. I can do carpentry, but I wouldn’t call myself a carpenter. If you have a specific set of skills, you will almost always have a job available to you. But I don’t like my skills as a Workers Comp and Disability form filler-outer. I want something new. I am blessed with a smart wife with a good job, so I can afford to take a little time to look for just the right fit for me. I will also be finishing my Associates Degree in Business this December from OCC. This will help me if I ever want to get another desk job, which at the moment, I do not.

The other big change, or area of weakness on the fault line of change, is church. Ahh church. The peaceful serene escape from our worldly life and a bright shining respight from our toils on Sunday morning. Yeahhhh, or not. There are several issues that we are dealing with, but the biggest of these is childcare/ nursery. To make a long story short, our congregation was kicked out of the building we had used for over a hundred years by the Episcopal church. We are now in a storefront space. The people who own the space are very gracious and are letting us have church there for free. The space next door is available with the same situation. However, it was never meant to be a baby-safe nursery. There are big metal bookshelves with exposed edges, a carpet that is so dirty it turns Andrew’s knees black when he crawls on it, and a door leading out to a busy street that a baby can push open and crawl out of.

Due to many factors, we don’t see this situation improving much, so we are kind-of looking around at other churches right now. The sad thing is, we like the service and the teaching there. But there are other issues I won’t write about here that contribute to the fact that we are looking elsewhere.

So I will soon be out of a job, and possibly going to a new church. Big changes.

wait a minute. Now there ARE flying cars?

Why did I not hear about this sooner? Some guy went and made a real flying car. And I’m not talking about the Moller car that looks nice and shiny and red but actually doesn’t fly. This is the real thing. Kind-of.  I was a little disappointed by the parasail wing, but it looks awesome.

10,000 views!

Wow, Thanks blogosphere. It is humbling to think that my ramblings have affected 10,000 people in some small way, from being entertained, to doing research for a school essay on Jordan Baker from “The Great Gatsby” (I know who you are…plagerism is wrong) Anyway, thank you to all my readers.

two awesome WRX videos

These are two super slick videos of Ken Block driving a WRX.

You want to live how long?

I want to explore the different methods available for life extension technology. Now, this post could be a pages-long research paper, or I could do what most bloggers do and make up half-remembered facts from Wikipedia. I will strive to strike a balance between these two extremes and present information in short but accurate form.