Bright Eyes. The Flow Chart Version.

I freakin love this shizz. There are some creative folks out there and the innerwebs allows us to enjoy the fru-its of their labor.

Also, if you've never seen a literal video, go spend some time on YouTube, or check out this Top 4 list (Take On Me is my fave).

while i'm on this posting roll...

twitter. yes, no?

Could your next flight be a little greener?

Fuck yeah!

Thanks for posting this, Treehugger. Though, I was surprised that the "urban woody green waste, such as yard clippings" are made into "Synthetic Diesel" instead of biodiesel. Wikipedia helps define the two - basically, it's a process difference. Synthetic diesel is made using non-oil, organic mater using a gasification technique and the Fischer-Tropsch process and biodiesel (starts from bio-oil) follows the transesterfication process.

8 US Airlines to Use Synthetic Diesel Made from Plant Waste

by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York on 08.18.09

Photo via CDN

Good news for alternative fuel fans--eight major US airlines have just signed a deal to use 1.5 million gallons of synthetic diesel made from plant waste.

The synthetic diesel will be used for ground-service transportation at LAX, starting in 2012. According to Greenwire, the fuel, made by Rentech Inc, will "be made primarily from urban woody green waste such as yard clippings." Rentech will evidently begin mass producing the fuel at a plant in California to satisfy the demand.

Greenwire continues:

The Air Transport Association of America, the domestic industry trade group that joined Rentech in announcing the deal, called the purchasing agreement the first of its kind and said it could signal an industrywide move toward using lower-carbon fuels.

This could indeed prove to be a good segue to adding synthetic jet fuels to the airlines' fuel diets as well--a product that Rentech also manufactures.

So who's buying the green fuels? Anybody who's anybody in the US airline industry it seems, despite a glaring omission or two (no Jet Blue?). Here's the list:

Using the renewable fuel will be American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, US Airways, Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines and UPS Airlines.

Anyhow, a small step in the right direction here.

Time's article - Exercise & Weight Loss

I've seen a couple of commentary pieces on Time's article,Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin, by John Cloud (9 August 2009). People have been touting their weight loss and increased fitness achieved by incorporating exercise into their diet plans... agreeing that the trip to the gym gives them a free pass to indulge in high calorie foods... and saying that exercise - regardless of the weight loss outcome - should be encouraged for the cardiovascular and mental fitness benefits.

Personally? Uh, yeah. Exercise isn't making me thin. I ride my bike to work every day and I exercise 5-7 days a week. Some of that is pretty long, or intense - track workouts on Tuesdays and long bike rides on the weekend come to mind first. And my weight? It's even climbing a little, now that I'm in my 30s. I do LOOK fit (and am, damnit), but I do not look, or feel, thin.

Now I'm trying to actually look thinner* - and it's challenging! I have a huge appetite. Mostly for healthy foods, but I like my desserts and drinks. As pointed out in the article,

"After we exercise, we often crave sugary calories like those in muffins or in "sports" drinks like Gatorade. A standard 20-oz. bottle of Gatorade contains 130 calories. If you're hot and thirsty after a 20-minute run in summer heat, it's easy to guzzle that bottle in 20 seconds, in which case the caloric expenditure and the caloric intake are probably a wash. From a weight-loss perspective, you would have been better off sitting on the sofa knitting.

Many people assume that weight is mostly a matter of willpower — that we can learn both to exercise and to avoid muffins and Gatorade. A few of us can, but evolution did not build us to do this for very long. In 2000 the journal Psychological Bulletin published a paper by psychologists Mark Muraven and Roy Baumeister in which they observed that self-control is like a muscle: it weakens each day after you use it. If you force yourself to jog for an hour, your self-regulatory capacity is proportionately enfeebled. Rather than lunching on a salad, you'll be more likely to opt for pizza. "

Good think I'm taking up knitting. Now I just need to get a sofa ;)

Seriously. While I'm not opting for pizza again and again, as the author implies, I will eat something that's probably calorically equivalent - though whole grains, veggies, good proteins, etc.
...............
Anyway, this article is well-timed for me, as it is a good reminder that it really is all about calories IN! I've been loosely tracking my eating habits and am moving towards a more calculated approach, using the iPhone app "Lose it!". I'll be essentially counting calories - which means measuring portions (ugh). However, I'm not doing it for non-starchy fruits and veggies. Just because I'm lazy. It'd be nice to have this stuff in there for the nutritional info (vitamins, minerals, etc), but I don't really care about the 10 calories in a cup of lettuce.

Thoughts? Advice? Experiences to share?

*I want to be thinner NOW while I'm in my early 30s because I don't think that it'll get any easier as I get older. And I would like to keep the (genetically hopeless cause) cellulite at bay. And I really want to be a faster triathlete. And I want to wear skinny jeans. And I want to test the "Looking good is the best revenge" theory at an event in October. And I mean thinner like athlete-thin, not model-thin.

do the honeydew

poor honeydew melon. often it's the leftovers of the fruit salad, or the remainder of the melon trio.

i wouldn't have even considered purchasing one on friday, except that i got a delicious honeydew in my veggie box (www.farmfreshtoyou.com/) a few weeks ago and it was lovely. so i bought one because they were on sale at my market and OMG - seriously, ate half of it when i got back from a ride+run. not just because i was hungry, mind you, but because it was sweet, juicy and delicious.

see if you can buy an organic one near you! i didn't refrigerate mine, which may have added to the flavor a little.

Scientific American: Should Thursday be the New Friday?

I worked for a federal agency in the summer, 2007. We had the option to be on a standard 8x5 work week, or the CDO - or Compressed Day Off schedule. CDO meant:
Week 1: 9 hours a day, 4 days a week + 8 hours the 5th day
Week 2: 9 hours x 4 days

= Every other Friday off.

Totally awesome. Meant I could get my stupid errands, shopping, appointments, sleeping, laundry, cleaning, etc done on that Friday and then have a whole weekend to just chillax. OR take a nice three day weekend. OR just sleep in and have a lazy day, go for a bike ride, etc.

I do not have that option in my current, customer-facing role at a big company that's like a public agency, only it's not. Booooo.

But... Thursday as the new Friday?!? Sign me up! I'll do 4x10!!!

Transportation next steps

My car and bike hate each other - a column that resonates with those of us who ride and drive (not that I drive in the city very often - it's stressful, I get lost and I'm bad at it)

My solution?
1. get an eye exam (since good distance vision seems like a nice thing to have when going > 20 miles an hour)
2. sign up for a motorcycle class
3. prepare to sell Fido (clean, get past history together, Kelley Blue Book value, Craigslist it)
4. sell my car
5. get zipcar for times when i need a car
6. buy a motorcycle + associated gear
7. continue to ride my bike for my daily commute, when drinking may be involved, etc, but have the additional freedom of motorcycling

Obviously, 5 could come before 3...and if I find any sort of awesome deals on gear (I've seen quite a few lightly used small helmets on CL), I'll get that too. Ideally, I'd like to use the proceeds from the sale of Fido to fund the motorcycle purchase.

Yay! Customer Service! ... oh, and EWG's safe sunscreen DB

*warning - very girly topic ahead. you've been warned. skip to the bottom if you're looking for something really useful*

Make-up isn't generally a huge deal for me. For work, I'm either bare-faced or I wear Bare Minerals foundation and mascara. Lipgloss, if it's already in my bag. To go out, or for events, I do wear eyeliner, shadow, blush, etc... but I'm generally not too creative about it. Sometimes I'll bust out the liquid liner and do a cat eye, occasionally a bold red lipstick, but really... I'm not great at it. My sister is the make-up and hair stylist extraordinaire in the family.

But, I've been loving Audrey's blog posts about fun new make-up looks and, after seeing some of her pics and kind of risky (?) eyeshadow effects in person, I decided to be a copycat.

I took Audrey's advice and picked up the Urban Decay Deluxe Shadow Box and Crayola-esque eyeliner pencils when they were having a sale and have been enjoying playing with color on my nights out on the town. I've heard so many women rave about MAC eyeshadows - and have wanted some new, tamer colors so I ordered some MAC when they were having a friends & family discount. Just four colors (the ones shown here, minus the black one), an eyeliner pencil and a little holder for the shadows.

Imagine my dismay when, instead of Shroom (Soft beige with shimmer), I received Club (red-brown with green pearl)! Oh noes!!! Well, MAC rocks. They're sending me Shroom... and I don't have to worry about returning Club! It makes sense, since they'd end up losing money in shipping and restocking an $11 refill pan (that I actually got for $8.50 with the F&F sale!), but I was thrilled with the ease of the entire transaction and the pleasantness of the rep. Anyway, we all appreciate good customer service and this one deserved some props.

Thanks MAC!

And, if I ever manage to take a decent picture of my eyeshadow, I'll post it. I've been having a blast with the UD set, but my pics are complete suckage.

Also... I'm sure there are all sorts of nasty ass chemicals in these eyeshadows and liners. And I don't really care. It's just an occasional thing for me and my body is already a vessel of pollution, carcinogens and other garbage. Hey! I'm a suburban product of the 70s/80s.

But - I do care about, especially when parents are slathering their kids up in the stuff and otherwise trying to be very cautious with chemicals, is safe sunscreen (We're supposed to be wearing this shizz all the time, yo! And if I was on top of my game, I probably wouldn't be nursing a nasty, now peeling, sunburn from last Saturday's unexpected full-day in the sun.).

Check out Environmental Working Group's sunscreen database and Top 10 Sunscreens. I was disappointed to find Kiss My Face and Alba's products listed with 3s and 4s. :( I'll continue to use what I've got, but then I'll try to use this database for my next sunscreen purchases.

Hello microclimates!

San Francisco - heck, the Bay Area, is filled with microclimates. Unlike the Midwest, where you can have the same weather for a 200 mile radius - you can go from sunny and 80s to foggy and 50s in about 50 miles (that would be Sunnyvale to San Francisco). Or - like yesterday, 80s and sunny in San Francisco and foggy and cooler in Santa Cruz (75 miles).

We've got effing nanoclimates here in The City. A 7x7 mile area - 49 square miles - complete with sun, fog, wind, cold and hot... simultaneously.

Here's a map that helps to show some of these nanoclimates - the yellow circles are pockets of warmth, the blue arrows are wind and the white line is the "fog line"
I grabbed that image from The Front Steps, a real estate blog. Pretty great site. If I had any money to buy a house (read: condo, shack, cardboard box) in the city, this blog would totally make it to my Google Reader.
Link to the full post.

Solar-Powered Bicycle Parking Pods

Hmmm. What do I want when I park my bike?
For my bike to be there, intact, when I return

What would be really cool?
A place to securely store other stuff, like in a locker

What if I had a really long commute or ride?
A shower

What if I don't want to be on the grid, or don't want to use dirty power?
A solar powered shower

Boo-yah. Check out this link to a bike parking pod concept (Thanks again TH!). It's about the size of one car parking spot. Solar powered showers, bike lockers and racks.

Not totally sure where this would be most useful - most offices around here supply secure parking and some have showers... or there's a gym nearby. Perhaps for office parks that are a little more out there, or for bike-in camping. What do you think?