Eco Tip #4

Carry a handkerchief to dry your hands after washing them so you don't waste paper towels. It can also double as a napkin or a rag or a tissue as long as you've only used it to dry clean hands earlier in the day.

Pick #239

Heatmiser - "See You Later" from their self-titled release

Another Apathetic Smoker

Today I was riding my bike and saw a woman at a red light throw a burning cigarette out her window. I picked it up and told her that she dropped something. She replied that she didn't drop it. I tried to hand it to her and she took it, but then threw it back on the ground. I said something about how she could at least extinguish it before littering and she dismissed my advice. Then the light turned green and she took off.

I rode away dismayed at my lack of impact in this situation. She didn't even care! What's a guy to do? I think I decided that next time I should throw the still burning cigarette stub into the back seat of their car! Opinions? I know it could be slightly dangerous, and no I wouldn't do it to a truck full of rednecks with a shotgun rack on the rear window.

I just feel like smokers don't take account of all the litter they make so they need to have a reason to think twice about it. You might not see it from where you sit, but take a close look as you walk along the beach or a roadside and you'll see that a large fraction of the litter is comprised of cigarette related objects, mostly butts. Sometimes you'll see a McDonald's bag, but for some reason people know that they shouldn't throw out their grease stained paper bag while they can't realize that throwing a cigarette out the window is bad. Especially one that's still on fire.

Pick #238

The Silver Daggers - "Why Can't I Kiss You" from Love is a Duel

Eco Tip #3

Hang dry your clothes.

I'm fortunate enough to have an outdoor clothesline where my clothes dry pleasantly on nice days. If that's not an option for you, then you can use an indoor drying rack or even just hang shirts from hangers (you can also clothespin socks to the bottom of hangers) and hang the hangers on your fan's light kit. The extra air from the fan will help. Other places you can hang clothes inside include: shower curtain rods, door frames, pull up bars, wire shelving, and any other place where you have a place to put a hanger that will leave decent air flow around the garment.

Not only is it energy efficient to hang dry your clothes, but you also reduce wear and tear on your clothes because they aren't being super heated in the dryer. According to this website, clothes dryers can use between 1,800-5,000 watts. If your load takes one hour to dry, then hanging it gives you an energy savings of 1.8-5 kilowatt hours.

Today is Earth Day, making today a great time to try hanging your clothes if you never have before.

City Name Stealer State

Georgia is a city name stealer state. I'm sure they made up some of their own, but check out these stolen city names:

Albany

Arlington

Athens

Boston

Brunswick

Cairo

Crawfordville

Dakota

Dallas

Dublin

Eldorado

Fargo

Franklin

Gainesville

Geneva

Jackson

Lake City

Lakeland

Lexington

Louisville

Madison

Manchester

Midway

Nashville

Oxford

Rome

Roswell

Sparta

Trenton

Vienna

There may be more, but I say a state with this many stolen city names is a city name stealer state.

p.s. I realize that Georgia was one of the original 13 colonies and as such, may have been the first to name a city such as Springfield

Timing the Palace Saloon 5k

I got an email from Jacob the timer asking me if I wanted to help him time the Palace Saloon 5k this past weekend. It's a point to point race, so there's a little bit more set up and break down involved than starting and finishing in the same area. Of course I was excited to see a part of racing that has eluded me until now. I got to help set up the finish line area and cone things off. I saw him set up the wireless transmission for the chip timing. I used some really expensive equipment at the starting line and I learned a lot about RFID timing. Part of my job involved standing over a camera with an umbrella so it didn't get rained on. I'm fine doing such menial tasks all the way up to my important job of not messing up the starting data when I had to transport the timing mats and the computer thingy.

I liked it a good deal and I must have done an alright job because I got invited to work a marathon with the same people!