Organic Cucumber, Extra Wrapper

I was at Publix last night and saw an organic cucumber for sale that was individually wrapped. What's going on there? Not that I think that organic is great for the environment (you need way more land to produce the same yield)...but I would think that a company trying to push that image to get consumers to pay more would not want to waste packaging.

Maybe there's a disconnect between "eating healthy" and "helping the environment." I imagine that the two are correlated though.

Fuck FSU Student Financial Services

I just went to the university center to pay my tuition bill in person to avoid a $7.00 online convenience fee. If you click a link for more details about the convenience fee, you get this:

The convenience fee is non-refundable after your transaction is completed. If this fee is not acceptable, click CANCEL and/or use another payment method such as mail, in-person or drop box. (Please do not send cash in the mail.).

I decided to use the "in-person" method. I got to the payment office and while standing in line I see that they have signs up saying that they don't take credit cards there. I didn't have $817 in cash and I don't have that much in my checking account (nor do I carry checks with me). You have to pay online and pay the $7.00 online convenience fee if you want to use a credit card. It should be called a $7.00 credit card convenience fee. I was infuriated. It actually took effort to keep my cool. I had gone all the way over to the corner of campus and stood in line only to come back to my office and pay the bill online with the $7 fee.

I've always paid online before. The fee used to be $5. I heard that the lines aren't bad over at the payment office so I thought I'd give it a shot this time. Fuck them all. Not the employees, but the higher-ups. There's no reason they can't put credit card swipers in their office.

Pick #204

Howie Day - "Collide" from Stop All the World Now

Busy with Triathlon

I've been busy with triathlon stuff. A little of the ole swim, bike, run (but without the swim), but mostly paperwork and BS for the sports clubs office. We've got to get recognized as an organization on campus and there are workshops and whatnot. I've also been the liaison to the Florida Collegiate Triathlon Conference talking about the coming year. We just had an officer meeting to try to plan on things to do for our membership. Races and social events and all kinds of stuff. Not to mention that I just registered for USAT Age Group Nationals today.

Triathlon Club at FSU's first meeting is on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 6:30pm in Union 311C.

I Brought my Bags Before it was Cool.

As I was walking in to Publix a couple weeks ago, I realized that I started bringing my own canvas bags to the store before it became popular. I kind of felt like a trend setter. Maybe so many people saw this cool dude doing a cool thing and it started to catch on. More likely the transition to seeing so many people bringing their own bags is due to marketing efforts on the part of Publix and other stores encouraging their customers to bring bags with them. Also, I don't think that Publix or Wal-Mart used to sell bags at their stores.

I'm glad to see this bag thing turned into a thing that people do. I hope it's not a trend. A change that's here to stay would be preferable. Hopefully the next thing that everyone will copy me on is riding their bikes a lot.

I Saved a Stamp

I dropped my utility bill payment off at the Renaissance Building. There's a sweet box outside that you can put your payment inside. I was riding past there anyway. I think I might start doing that regularly. It also keeps one envelope from circulating around the postal system. I guess I pay most of my other bills online so they don't have that same concern. Your Own Utilities has you pay online through Western Union and there's something like a 5% service charge. I'm not into that.

Dryer Sheets for Doggies

Did you know that you can rub a dryer sheet on a dog to make it less worried about an approaching storm? Abbey doesn't like storms very much and usually hides somewhere when it's thundering (or even when the storm is approaching). My mom heard that you can rub dryer sheets like Bounce on dogs and it does something to take away the static electricity which is what causes the dogs to freak out in the first place.

It worked really well. Abbey still followed me around a little bit, but she was visibly more relaxed than she normally is during a storm.