Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

I just read in the latest Mother Earth News that the 2.3 trillion dollars we've wasted killing people and embarrassing ourselves in Iraq could have solved all our sustainable "green" energy needs FOR GOOD. I don't know what upsets me more, this outrageous misuse of money, or the whiny woulda-coulda-shoulda tone of the statement. I mean, it's not too late! Surely we could cough up another emergency 2.3 trillion dollars to spend on something useful? Makes up for spending so much on a stupid wrong thing? Evens things out, like? What are we, BROKE?

I've been doing a lot of work-related reading about water conservation and electrical circuitry. Wouldn't think those things are related, but it turns out that by saving electricity (by installing those new-fangled fluorescent bulbs, for example), you also help save the planet's finite water supply. That's cuz many processes used to make electricity, like burning coal or gas or oil, create pollutants that affect water quality. So use less of the stuff and you mess up the earth a tiny bit less. Plus one of these bulbs will also save you bucks because it lasts a lot longer besides using less wattage.

Also I learned that reusing and recycling materials can help the environment. Wait, was I supposed to know this already?! I was reading that the ocean is turning to "plankton and plastic soup" because plastic doesn't biodegrade, it just photodegrades into nasty little plastic bits. So what am I doing about it? Well, baby steps man. I've started asking for "for here" dishes at the cafeteria even though I'm really taking the food "to go." Then I take my dishes and cutlery back to the cafeteria for washing instead of trashing them. Also I've become guilty about using plastic bags to buy bulk foods. If I'm such a hippie that I'm buying bulk, why am I using so many baggies and twist ties? So I'm trying to use Mason jars for bulk stuff now. Just get the tare weight first and mark it on the jar, then fill and label.

Also I'm so proud of our low-flow air-assisted toilet. It's a Gerber. Not the baby food company, the toilet company. If you're in the market for a new throne, check one out! (Or similar low-flow thingy.) It works better than our old leaky toilet, and with less water.

Sources: National Geographic depressing issue about how the oceans are messed up. The book "Hold Your Water! 68 Things You Need to Know to Keep Our Planet Blue." ESFi online resources, especially booklet on assessing circuitry in your home. Mother Earth News magazine.

Here's last week's playlist, BTW!

• Fantasy Island theme
  
• Autour du feu: Maritas de Plata
  
• La Iguana (son jarocho): Los Lobos
  
• Una Linea di Dolcezza: Bert Jansch
  
• Banderilla: Calexico
  
• Tientos: Carlos Montoya (guitar)
  
• Piedras Negras: Laika & the Cosmonauts
  
• Veinte Años: Buena Vista Social Club
  
• Memories of Madrid: Herb Alpert
  
• Desaparacido: Manu Chao
  
• Hotel California: Gipsy Kings
  
• Soul Sacrifice: Santana
  
• Malagueña: Mantovani & his orchestra
  
• Chan Chan: The Mammals
  
• Saga gitane: Manitas de Plata
  

G@# d%$# it!

No more poetry-quoting. Begorrah. I have taken to using fake swear words. Or whatever it's called when you say "darn" instead of "damn." I am finding them much more amusing and satisfying than real swears, in most cases. (Though there is still one word that I can't find a substitute for, as it's such a satisfying way to express my ANGER in one little syllable.) Here are some I like: crikey, crumbs, rats, drat, SHOOT!, motherflipper, garrrrrr, goshdarn, and my favorite, "fudge cakes!"

Here's Beef Jerky Time from last week (3/14/07). A little chunk by Japanese artists in there. (From * to **) I feel like this was a better show than the last as I wasn't bloody sick. (Ah yes, "bloody" is another good one!)

• Fall Guy theme
  
• Snow (Hey Oh): Red Hot Chili Peppers
  
• Idlewild Blue: Outkast
  
• Cosmic Rays: Helium
  
• Take Me Out: Franz Ferdinand
  
• Limbo: Throwing Muses
  
• Fluorescent: Gwen Stefani
  
• Back on Me: Urge Overkill
  
• Luck of the Irish: Shonen Knife*
  
• Everybody Knows: 800 Cherries
  
• Kahimi au Telephone: Kahimi Karie
  
• Never/More: Takako Minekawa
  
• New Rock: Buffalo Daughter**
  
• I Can't Sleep: The La's
  
• Curragh of Kildare: Bert Jansch

It's that time again

It's the time of year when I think of this rather long sentence:

Whan that Aprille with his shoures sote
The Droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe course y-ronne,
And smale fowles maken melodye,
That slepen al the night with open ye, -
So priketh hem nature in hir corage:
Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages -
And palmers for to seken straunge stronde -
To ferne halwes, couthe in sondry londes;
And specially, from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The holy blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seke.

I'm sorry if this doesn't match the General Prologue you have at home. I found it at this Long Island University site, which also includes a groovy .jpg of the manuscript page.

Anyway, yes I am ready for spring. Funny, since winter only appeared about a month ago, after a wicked long fall.

Here's the playlist for last week's "Beef Jerky Time":

• What's Happenin' theme
  
• Bayside Drive: Manual with Syntaks
  
• Alone on the Homestead: The Mammals
  
• She's Lost Control: Joy Division
  
• If You Leave: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
  
• Empty Shell: Cat Power
  
• Fiesta: The Pogues
  
• Axcerpt: Mekons
  
• sn: hessen
  
• (Not Just) Knee Deep (Part 1): Funkadelic
  
• I Want to Be A Cowboy: Boys Don't Cry
  
• Trem Two: Mission of Burma
  
• The Preacher: Horace Silver

Dear Scientists

I've noticed that you have been working on some interesting new drugs and procedures, dear scientists. Now I don't have to ovulate more than 4 times a year, and I can control what kind of cholesterol my liver makes, if any. Plus I can have my eyes shaved with a laser! And all of these convenient procedures are so new that nobody knows the long-term effects! But I would like to make one suggestion. I have been bothered a lot by my fingernails. They keep growing and I keep having to cut them. I'm thinking if I could stop their growth voluntarily, it would save me a lot of time in life. Time I could spend doing other, more important things. Please let me know about your plans for making fingernail retardant, dear scientists. Who is working on this? Hurry up, if possible. Thanks. Prof. K.

Last week's radio show was robot and outer space music. Here's the list:

• Knight Rider theme
  
• batteries (can't help me now): Figurine
  
• I've Been Hittin' on a Russian Robot: Boris the Sprinkler
  
• Space Oddity: David Bowie
  
• Intergalactic: Beastie Boys
  
• Evil Robots Underground: Flash-C
  
• Escaping the Game Grid: Technicolor
  
• Mr. Roboto: Styx
  
• Rocket Patrol: Mathlete
  
• Cellphone's Dead: Beck
  
• Mobira: Printed Circuit
  
• Proto Eleven: The Elevator Drops
  
• Aging Astronauts II: Mary Timony
  
• Otra Dimension: La Monja Enana
  
• Space Base: Laika & the Cosmonauts