Everybody Loves Saturday Night

every day should be earth day

alternate title: there must be 50 ways to save the planet

Scout thanks all of you for the birthday wishes, by the way. He feels very loved. Well, it's probably more accurate to say that he feels very entitled to your love, but I think underneath that he is genuinely moved and happy to have it.

So anyway, yesterday was Earth Day. And while it's a good thing to have a day where everyone's consciousness is theoretically raised and the odds of persuading just one person to do just one thing to help save, preserve, or reverse what we have here are higher on this day, really, it's like Christmas being the one day a year everyone is supposed to be nice. Shouldn't it be that way every day?

So with that, today, the day after Earth Day, the day a lot of people are going to go back to doing whatever it is that they've been doing, I'm going to share with you a site I found via...I think Apartment Therapy.

I scored myself on this list and came out better than I expected. Highlights:

1. Change regular light bulbs to CF bulbs. Already in progress, but I'm with Maryse on this one--I'm also using the "bad" bulbs I already bought. Unless someone can come up with an idea for how to repurpose them? But at any rate, the two rooms in which lights are on the most, the kitchen and the living room, have the CF bulbs, with more on the way. The kitchen light was already CF when I moved in, two years ago. Hasn't needed replacing yet.

2. Turn off computers at night. I admit, I am really bad at remembering to do this. I've gotten better, and gotten to the point where I sometimes remember to unplug the laptop as well. What I also need to remember on a more regular basis is to unplug the TV and DVD player when they're not in use. My new DVD player has a "standby" light...is that really necessary?

 8. Go veggie at least once a week. This fact surprised me: 2500 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef? Yikes! I don't buy a lot of red meat, but in general the chicken/beef/lamb consumption could go down a bit.

10. Use one less paper napkin. You know, I would really like to have this one posted at the take-out places I go to, because those guys always grab like 10 napkins to shove in the bag I've already said I didn't need.

12. Recycle newspaper. Better yet, get yer news online.

14. Rethink bottled water. Yes, I really should. I buy a lot of bottled water--like, 3-4 times a week. It has gotten to the point where I feel a little guilty when I do, because although I recycle the bottles, it's still an unnecessary convenience, when I have a Brita pitcher at home. I don't think it's going to be hard to not buy bottled water on such a regular basis, plus I'll save between $3-8 a week.

 18. Take shorter showers. Done. When I was younger, I could spend 20 minutes in the shower, easy. Now it's zip zip zip and dry off. It helps that my hair is significantly shorter than it used to be and I don't wash it every day. (Saving a bundle on shampoo and conditioner in the process!)

22. Buy local. I've really been on board with this for the last few months. I love that I live so close to a year-round farmer's market.

23. Adjust thermostat. I have little control over this during the winter months, but I am looking forward to having control over the A/C this summer. I pledge to not have it set any lower than 75 degrees F and not have it run 24/7.

 26. Turn off lights. Oh, is this a big one for me. I grew up with grandparents who lived through the Depression, you know, and they'd learned to live this one for saving money purposes more than saving environment purposes. "Turn off the light if you're not using it" was a frequent refrain in my house, and I have lived by that ever since. There are times I will leave one light on if I'm going out and coming back very late at night, but I should really look into getting a light timer. For that and for the bedside lamp that stays on after I've fallen asleep while reading.

29. Recycle old cell phones. I just did that, two weeks ago! After two years I traded in my Samsung blecchy phone for an awesomely cool Blackberry, and it came with a "All Postage Paid" envelope for my old phone. Thanks for making that easy, T-Mobile!

(Also, the Blackberry reduces the amount of time I spend on my computer, since I can access the internet through my phone. Double score!)

31. Recycle unwanted wire hangers. Most dry cleaners will take them back? Really? That's so simple, yet I never would've guessed. It's amazing how much junk we simply accept into our lives, isn't it?

35. Cut down on junk mail. Aha. Yes. Bane of my existence, and yet I haven't done anything about it--until now. Did you know there's a number you can call that's connected to all the credit report agencies, and by calling this number you can--in theory--reduce the amount of mail you get from credit card companies? 1-888-5-OPT-OUT. Also check out Eco-Cycle's list of tips for reducing junk mail.

38. Give it away. Freecycle!

40. Plastic bags suck. Oh boy, do they. Right now I have a sizable collection, which at some point this summer will be converted into a welcome mat, using this tutorial for converting the bags into "plarn." I have my purple crocheted bag and a couple other reusable bags for shopping--I just need to be better at remembering to always have one handy.

50. Share! Go on, help make every day Earth Day! 

ha!

Guess what I'm typing on right now. Go on, guess.

Yesterday Michael and I had a little conversation that went a little something like this:

Michael: What's up with your printer?

Me: You need to hook it up to the laptop, not the Apple--the keyboard doesn't work on the Apple anymore [yeah, yeah--haven't moved my ass to get a new one yet].

Michael: Uh, yeah, it does.

Me: Huh? Are you telling me the Mac keyboard WORKS?

Michael: I didn't have any trouble with it. The "g" was sticky but I worked around that.

And lo, he was right. Not only is the "g" not sticky anymore, but all the keys that didn't work--the Shift, Ctrl, arrow keys, numpad...they all WORK. In fact, the space bar works better than it did pre-coffee.

Remember this. I did this to a coffee-soaked, dust-covered, mangy Apple keyboard:

And 10 days later, the keyboard is fully functional.

I did put duct tape over the USB thingies. I don't know if that was necessary or not, but I figured the precaution wouldn't hurt.

Also, the dishwashing liquid? Possibly not necessary, but for me things don't get clean unless there are suds.

I love it when a plan comes together.

it was worth a shot

The naysayers were right: the keyboard doesn't work. So it's off to the Apple Store I go . . . or would be, if it weren't for this crap weather and threat of illness. Yesterday was gorgeous: hours of snow, full-bodied flakes alighting softly on my red coat as I walked home, accumulating on sidewalks, prompting the sweet sound of someone else shoveling, creating the illusion of absorbing all activity and noise and bringing, at long last, a winter's peace.

This morning it's raining. AGAIN. It'll take away all the loveliness of yesterday. If you saw this outside your window, would you want to go out?

Yuck.

Getting pictures up here is a two-computer process. I want to save the pictures to my Apple, but I can't resize them (need the keyboard to enter numbers) or rename them. So I save them, load them up on a flash drive, and bring them over to the laptop, where I can use Cellsea's rather excellent photo editor to resize and save. From there I can load them into Flickr and Typepad, but this is what I mean by it being a pain in the ass. Still, the blog needs pictures, so until I'm in possession of keyboard #3, this is how it'll have to be done.

By the way, I crocheted a pair of slippers the other day. You cannot deny their cuteness:

Plus, they're made of Jo Sharp's Silkroad Ultra, a wool/silk/cashmere blend, so they're as soft as they are dense and they are doing an absolutely brilliant job of keeping my feet cozy and warm.

Crocheting a sock-like structure had occurred to me before, but it always seemed complicated. Finally I realized that it couldn't be any more complicated than shaping is for a knitted sock; i.e., it wouldn't be complicated at all. I have a fondness for telling tentative knitters fearful that they won't be able to turn a heel or what-have-you, "it's just knitting. You know how to do that, you can do this." Turns out, same thing applies to crochet. I know how to single crochet--I can do this.

Didn't realize I could do it in a single day, so that was a bonus.

I basically followed this pattern for Mary Jane Slippers (Ravelry link), with several modifications so they'd fit my feet (my first attempt at a toe resulted in a tiny cup that only fit one of my toes). Interested parties can look at my Ravelry project page to see my notes (which won't make sense without the pattern). And then, clearly, I opted not to do the straps on these. The way the pattern is written, the straps are done separately and then sewn on. Too much sewing. So I went with a basic contrast single crochet trim. I love them, though I made them just a tad too big. I'm working on a second pair right now, to experiment more with sizing and a different way to do the straps.

polishing the apple

I washed my keyboard yesterday.

After the coffee fiasco of last month, I adopted a wait-and-see attitude. Maybe, as a couple commenters suggested, once dry, the keyboard would function. I had my doubts, because as another frequent keyboard replacer noted yesterday, "once, a single drop of water--a single drop!--landed on my keyboard, and it stopped working." Apple keyboards are known for not being as resilient as PC keyboards. Still, if I could save $30...

And it did start to work again, albeit in a limited capacity. I could only use the left shift key. Some letters wouldn't cap unless Caps Lock was on. I couldn't copy, cut or paste using the keyboard, but had to use the menu. The arrow keys were useless; once pressed, all I would get is repeated periods until I pressed another key to stop it.

I decided to experiment, then. A couple other commenters had suggested that I put the keyboard in the dishwasher, citing this BoingBoing post. Again, most likely this works better for PC keyboards. And I don't own a dishwasher. But a fun email exchange with Chris made me realize two things: 1. the hot water here is certainly scalding enough and 2. how much more damage could I do, really?

I took pictures of the event, but it's a pain in the ass to work with images on the work PC (I have office window pictures stored up as well, plus some knitting and crochet pics). Suffice to say, until I can post them, that the before picture was of a grody keyboard, and once it emerged from the hot tub it was nearly pristine--a little wipe down and it looks good as new. Looks don't make it work, though. I'm going to let it dry for a couple days, rotating it to make sure all the trapped water on the back can escape, and then try it out. Bets, anyone?