PETA.

You make me laugh.

Oh right, the biggest problem with that neighborhood is easily its name. Tempeh District? I'm moving there right away. PETA's EVP... maybe next time write a letter to, oh, I don't know, the actual cattle industry? I know you're into shock and all that, but this well, I'd say it was a waste of your time, but here I am, blogging about it.

Hipster traps!

http://www.bikerumor.com/2011/03/15/hipster-traps-being-set-around-new-york-city/

bike + dog + hot brit

swoon.
(ok, would have been even better with a helmet)

L O V E

I love TurboTax. Seriously, if I were to work for a finance type company, I'd choose Intuit, the makers of TurboTax.

Three links

So... I saved these three links to share here. Not really new news - I've been slow on the blog posts lately.

http://greensource.construction.com/news/2011/02/110208Desalinization-Plants.asp

(usual green stuff)

http://www.coxtarget.com/mailsuppression/s/DisplayMailSuppressionForm

(how to stop getting those blue coupon envelopes - seriously, have you ever used a coupon from those before?)

And. this is the kind of headline that makes me click:

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/02/14/robotic_eye_gives_blind_sight/index.html

Robotic eye gives blind people sight

Fido, I rarely miss you...

I had a lot of reasons for getting rid of my car a few years ago. Environmental, health, financial... but I'd be lying if I didn't say that #1 was the inconvenience of having a car. Yes, that's right. Inconvenient to own a car. 

Here's why, from 7x7, an online/in print mag about our seven mile by seven mile city by the bay, San Francisco.

379,898 cars registered in San Francisco
and…
320,000 street parking spaces (including meters) in SF

But wait…there’s more.  That number is just cars.  There are also 61,755 trucks, 20,144 motorcycles, and 8,536 trailers registered in San Francisco, bringing the total number of registered vehicles in SF to 470,333.

And that’s not all.
Each day there is an increase of approximately +35,400 vehicles in San Francisco during the daytime hours monday through Friday, bringing the grand total to:

505,733 vehicles
and
320,000 street parking spaces

Frozen.

I'd like to start a Twitter account, if for nothing more than to follow people and news sites.
One of my goals is to get my pics up on Flickr.
And I want to start a new blog to track my Ironman training. I'm thinking that this one would be more public - I'd probably post it to Facebook and let my family know so they could follow me if interested.

And... I am currently frozen because I can't pick out an effing user name or new blog host or site name.

Damn, I'm mature.

Um. Yeah, it's almost February.

Which puts us at 1/12 of the way through the year already. Thank goodness I've got some easy goals.


2011 Easy to Measure, Task will be Complete Sometime Before the End of the Year Goals 

• Hang up the tapestry that I bought in Peru
• Hire a bi-weekly cleaning service 
• Get a physical
• Get some sort of external storage and do regular laptop back-ups

2011 Requires Ongoing Effort, Kind of Fuzzy Goals

• Post my pictures to Flickr on the regular (uh, get a Flickr account, first) and share with my friends
• Find an everyday sunscreen that works with my adult acne prone - thanks mom - skin and wear it. I already went to the dermatologist and got a few samples!
• Spend less time online. Yes, this is a funny thing to type into a blog post, but I'm referring to the rabbit holes of Facebook, YouTube, Google, online forums and those sorts of sites.
• Stretch for a minimum of five minutes every day - super important as I start running longer distances
• Keep a list of restaurants I need to try on my phone

So far I've gotten sunscreen and have worn it daily. I've been trying to stretch more regularly and I do have a list of restaurants on my phone.

So yeah, work in progress.

Olympic lifting humor

Olympic lifts. They have funny names. There's the clean, the jerk... the clean AND jerk. And the snatch.

We do all of these at Crossfit. And while I can generally get through a clean & jerk workout without snickering like a 12 year old boy, it's a different story when it comes to snatches.

So when my coach told me today that, "You have to be patient with the snatch," you can really imagine my reaction. Luckily, my coach has a wonderful sense of humor, heard my laughter and added, "All kinds of snatches."

Eleven months later...

I finally donated blood. New Year's Resolution complete. (For what it's worth, I've used my crockpot a bunch over the past month as well.)

Also almost donated some blood on my bike ride in to work today. Damn rain. Stayed rubber-side down, but ended up nailing my paw on a MUNI (bus) stop.

Carbon footprint of booze

Awesome. Thanks, Mother Jones. Now we can feel eco-guilt for drinking, too. I didn't know that vodka is the most energy-intensive booze to manufacture, or that tons of pesticides are used on agave plants.

Some tips:

• For beer...Kegs > cans > bottles
• Organic when possible
• Reduce shipping distance
• See the line on the map shown at the bottom of the article for when to buy CA wine, when to buy Euro-wine (Notably, Chile and Australia aren't even mentioned)

VV

Velo Vogue is a bike-centric, picture-heavy, San Francisco-loving blog that I enjoy having in my Google Reader.

That said, this post has no pictures. But does a good job of summing up the fun and feelings of biking in The City (And I think it holds true for men too - don't know why the author chose to call out just her gender in the title.)

How a Woman Feels on a Bike

An apple a day...

Long article from the NYT linked below, but interesting - use of a ketogenic diet (high-fat, some protein, v low carbohydrate) to treat childhood epilepsy.
Epilipsy's Big, Fat Miracle

Definitely continues my interest in food as medicine... post to come on my month on the Paleo Diet.

To Facebook friend or to not Facebook friend

Wise words from a friend who has been married for over (right?) 10 years, well before Facebook - and still gives rockstar advice (S)

K: So, I'm debating sending the new guy a FB friend request. I want to... but then there's that one that I dated earlier this year - kind of wish I hadn't friended him. I can't unfriend him, because we said we'd "be friends," and really, it's not a big deal. 

S: Wait until it's serious enough that you would be comfortable changing your status to "In a Relationship" (I don't actually even have that line listed on my profile anymore, so this is theoretical, in my mind.). Also, once it's a big enough relationship such that it would be silly to not be friends.... if it ends, it would be silly to remain FB friends, because you'll need time apart. 

S: Or, if he sends you a request, just accept it.

K: And not review all of this with him, because then he'll definitely know I'm crazy.

S: Well, you don't need to lift the veil quite so high.

So, there you have it. When to FB friend a guy you're dating.

Solar Roadways

Solar Roadways: A Shining Vision Posted: 18 Nov 2010 01:28 PM PST By: Jonathan Marshall So far this week we’ve seen how America’s crumbling roads, and its environmental needs, might be fixed by replacing asphalt with cleaner, renewable bioasphalt or bioengineered sandstone. But Idaho-based inventors Scott and Julie Brusaw believe we need to think much bigger. They propose nothing less than paving roads with solar panels. The idea may sound fanciful, but their unique Solar Roadways concept won the first GE Ecoimagination Challenge award last month, with its $50,000 prize. Last year they received a contract from the Federal Highway Administration to build their first prototype. Their idea is to combine embedded solar cells, which (hopefully) pay for themselves over time by generating power, with heating elements to de-ice the surface in northern climates and LEDs to mark road lines for safer night-time driving. The surface would be made of tough, weatherproof, textured, non-slick glass to let sunlight into the solar cells and make the LEDs visible at night. Microprocessors installed every 12 feet would control lighting, communications and monitoring. Another layer would carry electric power and data signals for high-speed Internet, video and other communications. When installed everywhere, they envision, “The Solar Roadway becomes an intelligent, self-healing, decentralized (secure) power grid.” Based on reasonable estimates of efficiency, and four hours of sunlight a day, they figure that their solar roads would produce about 3.3 megawatt-hours of energy per lane mile each day, about as much energy as 107 average American homes used in 2007. Besides selling electricity (and charging electric vehicles), the roads could make money by selling high-speed data and video services and advertising (through lit LEDs on the road). (Not that the world needs any more advertising, but it might be a worthwhile tradeoff if we could get rid of billboards.) Their bottom line may be a tad optimistic, but it’s worth shooting for: Unlike current road systems, it will pay for itself over time. No more Global Warming. No more power outages (roaming or otherwise). Safer driving conditions. Far less pollution. A new secure highway infrastructure that pays for itself. A decentralized, self-healing, secure power grid. No more dependency on foreign oil. Who would have thought that reinventing roads could be so much fun?

Run Carrot, run!

Helmet hair

Is a bike helmet really that bad? Or do I just really not care about my hair enough?

Photo 1: Helmet is "on," but inactive

Photo 2: Helmet is active

That said, I'm sure that this sort of technology might be really useful for other body parts or sports.

Airbag Helmet from Treehugger

you're going to want to click on that picture to embiggen it.

Stolen from SFist.com/

who stole it from

sfcurbed.com/

who stole it from 

generic1.tumblr.com/

And for something a little lighter to follow that up, things are still really awesome with the guy I told you about last week. :)

PANCAN.org

Pancreatic cancer remains the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. The five-year survival rate stands at a miniscule 6%. Even more distressing is that this survival rate has not changed significantly in nearly 40 years. 


I know there are a million causes that need money. Heck, I'm sure we all know at least five friends or family members who are unemployed or underemployed. But, I do try to donate to charities anyway. Pancreatic cancer is an issue that is close to my heart. This year will mark 20 years after my dad died from pancreatic cancer. 


For more information, check out this link on the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network's site.