About the Blog

As I’ve mentioned throughout this site, I’m very passionate about what I do. It is a driving force in my life, and is highly fulfilling. As a result, I tend to talk about it. At length. To everyone I know. I suspect that this blog will be no exception.

Hopefully, my quirky interests and odd sense of humor won’t confuse/infuriate you. If they do, well, I won’t be offended if you decide to read the musings of someone more interesting than little ol’ me.

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2.21.11, 10:36am
Freelancing, Web Design, Web Development,

7.23.10, 03:25pm
Technical Lessons, The Internet, Web Design,

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Freelancing, Ikea, Office Issues, West Seattle,

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Freelancing, Web Design,

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1.19.10, 03:53pm
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11.13.09, 04:18pm
Awareness, Environment, Philosophy, The Internet,

11.11.09, 11:54am
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11.8.09, 11:24pm
Blogging/Writing, NaBloPoMo, Philosophy,

A look at the log and it all becomes clear

11.3.09, 01:35pm | Environment, NaBloPoMo, Seattle Weather,

In yesterday’s blog, I wrote about how my brilliant “environmental impact” project was almost stopped in its tracks at the earliest stage: baseline data collection. I had begun feeling overwhelmed and hopeless on the very first day of recording my data. But why? Why was this simple scientific task affecting me on such a personal level?

Looking at my notebook today, the answer is pretty clear. Let’s take a peek at my log from yesterday:

6:42am - 7:07am: Kitchen light turned on.
7:05am - 9:21am: Two hanging lights turned on.
9:31am - 9:51am: Two hanging lights turned on.
10:20am - 1:05pm: Clock radio playing NPR.
10:33am - 10:34am Bathroom overhead light and fan turned on.
10:46am - 10:51am: Electrical kettle boiling water.
10:52am - 2:00pm: Laptop charger plugged in.
12:14pm - 12:16pm: Microwave turned on high.
1:42pm - 4:27pm: One hanging light turned on.

Are you starting to see a pattern? The vast majority of these entries concern using electricity for light, along with a few smatterings of other usages, such as making coffee (electric kettle) or heating my lunch (microwave). And as I was writing each entry, I felt a mounting feeling of dejection as I looked at my list. There wasn’t a single activity that I could conceivably cut out!

Those of you who have spent any time in the Pacific Northwest between October and March will agree with me when I say that it can get very dark here during those months. Some days are reasonably sunny during the daylight hours (between 7:00am and 4:30pm), but others only offer a brief ray of hope (no pun intended) for a few hours before the entire area is once again blanketed in a cover of gray, oppressive clouds. In fact, we may experience days of non-stop rain and looming cloud cover. Seasonal depression is a palpable reality in this region during the wintertime, and few things combat it better than light, music, and other people. I’m two for three: I work at home, which means my human interaction during normal business hours is limited to phone calls and quips with my friends and husband over Twitter. Yesterday was one of those cloudy, dark days, and I’m not about to swap out our low-energy incandescent lights for candlelight. This is the 21st century, after all.

I started reading a book this morning called

by Jonathan Harrington. The premise of the book is that we need to view our carbon usage in terms of consumption, and that humanity (westerners especially) need to go on a “carbon diet.” In the introductory chapter, he states:

“Scientists say that to ensure long-term global temperature stability, we humans collectively need to cut emissions by more than 60% below 1990 levels. For Americans or Canadians, this translates to more than a 75% reduction.”

I can handle 75-80%, certainly, but it’s a climate diet, not a climate fast. I’ll keep searching for other ways to reduce my electrical consumption, but if my day-to-day use consists of one to two lights on at a time along with the occasional kitchen light or two minutes of microwave use, I think I’m doing pretty good. In fact, our energy bills are significantly lower now than they were this time last year, which I’ll write more about tomorrow.

So I decided to turn my focus to two more pressing areas of my consumption. Namely, trash/recycling reduction and food consumption. I’ve been doing pretty well so far today, only a few tea bags and their wrappers. In the back of my mind, however, I know that I’ll be cleaning the kitchen tonight, and man… that data is going to be ugly. And possibly smelly. *shudder*