Last weekend I hiked the Montara Trail - it was lovely going up through a tree lined gorge (well, not by Ithaca standards, but I am in California now) and then the chaparral. The week before we hiked the "steep ravine" of Mount Tam. These hikes are all courtesy of my friend Laura, who is getting ready for a hiking vacation in Scotland.
Work continues to be great. The people are awesome, and it's great to get my hands dirty coding again. For the geeks out there, I'm sorta amazed to be one of the "leaders" in the group practicing test-driven development, but I guess that's one of the reasons they hired me. On Monday there was a "Bastille Day" lunch. The highlight was definitely driving the cupcake. We had a lot of fun chasing after cyclists, but the best reactions were definitely from the troops of kids at Stanford for sports camps or whatever. Now they'll want to go to Stanford so they can drive cupcakes! (Though they have nothing to do with Stanford, of course.)
My cats continue to thrill me, of course, but I won't bore you with it. Well, okay, ONE thing. I finally got a laser pointer. Delilah seems uninterested, but of course Shindy is nuts for it. The only trick is to keep it in her line of sight: furniture (and even her own head) can block the ray, so I have to aim carefully. Well, I recently discovered that she's just as entertained when the laser is pointed at the ceiling! And guess what - there's no furniture up there to block it!
The fires you're hearing about in the news are not near me, though some people are having some issues with allergies/irritation. I can't smell smoke at all, and the skies look clear to me. Not so for folks in Sacramento and many other places.
Let's end on a happier note. How about an E-flat?
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
my political platform
Here are a few ideas to change our society. I doubt any of them are original, but they're ideas I keep coming back to.
1. Goal: reduce water use and pesticide use.
a. use native species plantings for homes, businesses, parks.
b. reduce man-made single species plantings of vast areas (e.g. lawns, golf courses)
c. reduce lawns. How often is a lawn needed as a lawn? What parts of your lawn are there merely because lawns are conventional? How much of your lawn is a high traffic area that has to stand up to people walking on it, etc? Why not grow climate appropriate plants that look great and require less care? Why do developers put lawns around new construction? Lawns don't make sense in deserts or in many other places Lawns require mowing, and most people use fossil fuels AND have noisy lawn mowers (see http://www.nonoise.org/quietlawn.htm). Plants are great, and they can help keep the air clean and cool or warm ... but it doesn't have to be a lawn. See http://www.foodnotlawns.com/.
d. liven up golf by letting native plants grow on the course, instead of species requiring pesticides and watering. Dealing with the native terrain would be part of the challenge of each course. The native plants could be mowed down or chosen carefully to be suitable for golf.
d1. what about other sports? Can we make a more earth friendly soccer, football or baseball field that wouldn't detract from the game?
2. Slow Down the Building on Undeveloped Land.
I've thought for a long time that it should be MORE expensive to develop land that is not currently developed. Renovating existing properties should be more attractive than constructing where no building now stands. I remain baffled as to why building a NEW "green" house is often viewed as more ecologically correct than greening up an existing house. Reduce, RE-USE, recycle, right?
I suspect the true long term costs of new development vs. renovation would actually favor renovation, taking pollution, transportation, utility costs, etc. into account. This would also reduce urban sprawl. I imagine this would need to be addressed with taxes. Taxing developers targeting high end buyers/renters seems especially reasonable to me.
3. Composting
I clearly lived in Ithaca long enough for the granola values to rub off on me. Composting seems like an obvious win-win-win. It reduces waste going to the landfill (reducing landfill space and transportation costs). It is helpful for the soil, whether sandy or clay or most anything else. It's really easy. And it makes growing flowers, plants, and vegetables easier. There should be compost pick up, along with trash and recycling.
1. Goal: reduce water use and pesticide use.
a. use native species plantings for homes, businesses, parks.
b. reduce man-made single species plantings of vast areas (e.g. lawns, golf courses)
c. reduce lawns. How often is a lawn needed as a lawn? What parts of your lawn are there merely because lawns are conventional? How much of your lawn is a high traffic area that has to stand up to people walking on it, etc? Why not grow climate appropriate plants that look great and require less care? Why do developers put lawns around new construction? Lawns don't make sense in deserts or in many other places Lawns require mowing, and most people use fossil fuels AND have noisy lawn mowers (see http://www.nonoise.org/quietlawn.htm). Plants are great, and they can help keep the air clean and cool or warm ... but it doesn't have to be a lawn. See http://www.foodnotlawns.com/.
d. liven up golf by letting native plants grow on the course, instead of species requiring pesticides and watering. Dealing with the native terrain would be part of the challenge of each course. The native plants could be mowed down or chosen carefully to be suitable for golf.
d1. what about other sports? Can we make a more earth friendly soccer, football or baseball field that wouldn't detract from the game?
2. Slow Down the Building on Undeveloped Land.
I've thought for a long time that it should be MORE expensive to develop land that is not currently developed. Renovating existing properties should be more attractive than constructing where no building now stands. I remain baffled as to why building a NEW "green" house is often viewed as more ecologically correct than greening up an existing house. Reduce, RE-USE, recycle, right?
I suspect the true long term costs of new development vs. renovation would actually favor renovation, taking pollution, transportation, utility costs, etc. into account. This would also reduce urban sprawl. I imagine this would need to be addressed with taxes. Taxing developers targeting high end buyers/renters seems especially reasonable to me.
3. Composting
I clearly lived in Ithaca long enough for the granola values to rub off on me. Composting seems like an obvious win-win-win. It reduces waste going to the landfill (reducing landfill space and transportation costs). It is helpful for the soil, whether sandy or clay or most anything else. It's really easy. And it makes growing flowers, plants, and vegetables easier. There should be compost pick up, along with trash and recycling.
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