Individual No. 62

It's Monday.

The cold shower really woke me up—I have no idear but I didn't get any warm water out of the shower when I used it for the first time this morning in my new apartment. Maybe it's because I am leaving the heat at 50 °F.

I am really disappointed that we didn't get any snow at least down here in the city. Looking at over the Hudson River to Rensselear and beyond, it looks like they got a dusting of icy mix. It was a bit slippery out at least for walking on the sidewalks, but nice that I didn't have to drive.

We need snow. When will it come?

Enjoy today's article on Sue Haynes and the Democrats failed attempt to win a seat or two in Joe Bruno's backyard. Fun.

Good Morning!

I was pleasantly surprised to find out this morning that I can get an open WiFi connection from my apartment, so I can surf the web from my desk. I have to move my laptop to my bed to initially pick up the week signal, but once I'm connected I can get on the web at about 50 KB/s from my desk with it's nice view out.

I also figured out how to get hot water in my apartment by turning on the circuit breaker to the hotwater heater. It was nice to take a warm shower today, rather then the very frigid cold water I had on Monday. You just don't get very clean in cold water to say the least.

Another rather cold day out there, but it's December. So go figure.

The Most Awesome Mushrooms Ever.

Oh my gosh. I got some small Mushrooms and Apples from the Empire State Plaza Farmers Market, thats in the Empire State Plaza. I got back to my apartment, and put one in my mouth, and it was so delicious. I mean, out of the world delicious.

I haven't had any Apples yet. At any rate, I was out late last night a conference, and are still quite tired, and will be spending the night in tonight, trying to get some sleep. I might run to the laundry mat, we will see.

Tonight I'm going to make up some Mac and Cheese for dinner. Nothing too fancy—just half a package of the 33¢ of Mac and Cheese, and maybe a nice glass of milk. And probably popping more of those mushrooms. Maybe an apple too.

Those mushrooms where a great price, at $1.50 for the pint. You can't get many candies for that price anymore, and certainly not a pint of candy. And these are a heck of a lot healthier for you.

I'm trying to make better choices for myself now that I live in my own apartment, including eating healthier and doing more to support local agriculture. I also view buying sweets to be a complete waste of money, better spent on doing things I enjoy like exploring, driving the countryside, hiking, and camping.

100% Fluorescent in Apartment.

I have now switched out all of the light bulbs in my apartment, including the one over the stove, the one formally on a dimmer that I gave up and replaced with a switched florescent (60 watt), and the candler bulb (40 watt to 3 watt) in the hallway.

Total cost: $25. Energy savings over the next year: still calculating—probably about break even. I can however, take out the bulbs/switch and replace the old equipment before I leave.

More important though is I'm doing my little part to reduce my carbon output. I can light up my dinning room downstairs, my bedroom, plus the light on the hallway for 42 watts of power. That's a 1/3 less power then just one standard 60-watt bulb.

Not that this will save as much as keeping the heat down to 50 °F. Now I know none of these things will make electric free, and I'm sure to pay $50-$150 a month in electricity (heat and hotwater eats up a lot), I want to know I'm using resources as efficiently as I can in my present circumstances.

I'm now off to Young Dems after first stopping at the store to pickup a few things.

What Do I Do With Those Pizza Boxes?

As usual, after the Albany County Young Democrats meeting, I took home the pizza, soda. This time I also ended up with the other pizza boxes somehow.

So what do I do with them? What is the environmentally friendly solution to dispose of them? As I previously stated, I don't have trash pickup here, so I have to haul to the transfer station for which I do not have a permit for or take them to my parents house and burn them or something.

Pizza boxes are one of those materials that aren't all that recyclable. They are one of the many things that can be frustrating, like toxic PVC that wraps everything, or the less toxic compressed and clear polystyrene that the new speakers I got for listening to internet radio in my apartment came in. A few small things like that I toss in my backpack and toss in a discrete wastebasket on the way.

Which means I picked up these great little speakers at Walmart this evening. They are nice for listening to Internet radio, at the low levels that are appropriate for my apartment. They don't have great quality, but if I was listening for quality, I'd get my headphones as I'd probably want to have the radio on much louder.

Tough Weekend Choices.

This weekend I promised the Boy Scouts that I would help them out with their cooking and hiking day over at the Scoutmaster's farm in Onesquethaw. Then this week I got an invitation to an interesting summit this weekend on race relations, and this night I got an invitation to help out on the John Edwards campaign in New Hampshire.

I promised the Boy Scouts first. I also said I would help my parents out this weekend, and come by for dinner. So that's my plan. I wish I could help out Edwards in particular, but maybe next weekend. It's too bad that I can't make it to the racial equity action seminar, because I would really like to learn more about how to be an active advocate to those who live in different cultures and with different prejudices then myself.

Happy Friday Night.

It is a nice little quiet evening in my apartment listening to the radio on my laptop. I went to the library for a while to download a little bit of music, then to the gasoline station to fill up for $47.33.

Some people in Wisconsin tonight got gas for only 32¢ a gallon. Not I though.

I only used less then a 1/8th of tank of gas or maybe about 2 gallons of fuel in the past week. So the pain won't be so bad for quite a while now, at least hopefully not for two weeks unless I decide to go to New Hampshire next weekend. I might burn up a 1/4 to 1/2 this weekend, but I certainly won't be using much during the week.

I know it's such a stingy thing to be thinking about the cost of gas on such a nice Friday night. Oh well, sue me.