Jason Colby’s Blog

On Friday I received my new hard drive for my Macbook.  Within minutes of walking in the door I was pulling the dead drive out and installing the new one.  After that came the long process of installing the Mac OS X though I have to say that it installs faster than Windows.  It’s great having my Macbook back, Three days seemed an eternity (I may be a little too dependent).  Everyday I add another application that I realize was previously installed and lost when the drive crashed.

The other drive will be sent to a data recovery service to retrieve whatever data possible.  Having learned a painful lesson (that I was all to aware of before this) and will be setting up time machine this week.  In addition to time machine I will backup photos and important documents on DVD’s at regular intervals…I will not go through this again.

This weekend I went to Sorticulture which is a local garden arts event here in Everett.  This is something I have not previously attended and had thought that it would be small with relatively little to see.  After arriving I was surprised to see a large variety of booths with mostly hand crafted garden art and rare plants.  If I had a yard, blasted apartments, I would have purchased numerous items.  Going to events like these inspire the creative side of me which has largely been suppressed for years.  Now I just need to figure out what to make…this is the hard part.

I enjoy and respect the people at these type of events as they tend to be very creative and concerned about the environment.  Most of the items are made in environmentally friendly ways and reflect nature in their form and function.  As we approach the summer solstice I am looking forward to finding similar events and hope that they will help spur some ideas for my own creative outlet.

On June 1st I read and article on ubergizmo titled “big bellies love the sun”.  The article discusses a solar powered compacting trash can capable of alerting personnel when it is full.  As it turns out I saw one of these units in a local park the day before reading the article.

The trash compacting bins can hold 8 times the waste of an average waste can and are powered entirely by solar energy.  An article in philly.com mentions another pretty cool feature of the bins:

As the bins fill, a sensor will shift from green to yellow to red, and the BigBelly’s wireless device will phone Streets Department headquarters with the news.

I pictured ET phoning home as I read that part.  This is a great feature given the personnel responsible act when the alert is received.

Prior to posting this I read a total of four articles on the BigBelly’s and at least two had several comments challenging the projected savings and the city’s choice in purchasing such devices.  Having seen more than my share of parks with over flowing trash cans I personally welcome such purchases.  While the short term investment is more than the typical trash can the savings in bettering our parks would seem ample ROI in and of itself.  Beyond the aesthetics of a clean park the staff time previously used to empty the bins more frequently can be allocated to other neglected tasks.

As I visit more local parks in the coming months for geocaching I hope to see more and more of these BigBelly’s making an appearance.

The changes I intended on making to my blog this weekend were postponed in the interest of other activities.  The only changes I actually had planned this weekend were to improve the social media link on the right and add a list of links.  I will get those both done this week.

I read an interesting article today discussing a new vehicle in development that runs on compressed air which is generated using a small conventional engine. The vehicle is said to get an estimated 100mpg.  I would love to have a vehicle that gets 100mpg for both environmental and monetary reasons.  There are numerous critics of the new vehicle. One critic says “Air compressors are one of the least efficient machines to convert electricity to work”.  The car also must be plugged in at night so that the compressor can charge the air tank.  Living in an apartment with no external plug-in for residents this feature would eliminate it as a possibility for me.

The Smart car has always been appealing to me though it is not a hybrid and the gas mileage is not as impressive as I would have thought (33mpg city/41mpg highway).  None the less I would be more than happy to drive one should the Smart car manufacturer desire to donate one to me.  As that is unlikely to occur I will continue watching for advancements in fuel efficient vehicles.

On the social media front I missed the Seattle social media club event that occurred earlier this month and was disappointed by that.  Now I am looking forward to the tweetup scheduled for June 14^th in Seattle and I am hopeful that nothing will prevent me from attending.

As today is Earth day I have been reflecting on what I can do to further lessen my impact on Mother Nature or what is commonly referred to as my carbon footprint. While I hear similar intent from many others I also hear those saying that the Earth is not going anywhere and that it is humans which will parish (this is said while declaring Earth day a waste of time).

I actually agree with the fact that Earth will continue to exist in some form while human, and most animal life as we know it, will become extinct by the environmental travesties that persist. As for Earth day or environmental efforts in general being a waste of time I disagree. It would seem to make sense that we would do our best to delay such extinction as long as possible for the sakes of future generations. While our efforts at this point may well be that of delay tactics there could be a scientific discovery during this period in which the delay is made permanent by a “cure”.

Continuing at our current rate of environmental decline with the attitude of “nothing can stop the destruction” is really no different than suicide on a global level. You could say that the Earth has a terminal disease (environmental degradation) and yet there are new cures found for what was previously called terminal so why not work to slow the spread while a cure is sought?

I care deeply for the environment and all that it entails. There is of course much more that I could do to lessen my impact and each opportunity I have to do so will be met with open arms. Switching from CFL to LED lighting, using environmentally friendly cleaners (such as vinegar), limiting my driving (especially alone), and the list goes on and on. The point here is that each small step taken by an individual makes a difference especially when you multiply this by all the other individuals taking similar action.

Many will take this as the rambling of another “do gooder” and that is fine with me…as one in a hundred taking action is better than none.

Happy Earth Day!