Getting My Green On

I watched An Inconvenient Truth over the weekend, and it points people to http://www.climatecrisis.net/, which has a page about what you can do at home to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I went through the list and identified some of their suggestions that were applicable to me. I decided to look into / think about:

1. Using cold water to wash my clothes. Started doing this.
2. Switching 100% of my home electricity over to clean, renewable energy. Done.
3. Installing an insulation blanket around my water heater. It turns out this isn't necessary because I purchased a water heater in the last 5 years, and it's cold to the touch, which is apparently a sign that I wouldn't benefit much from an insulation blanket.
4. Installing a low-flow shower head in my shower.
5. Replacing all my regular light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). I already use some CFLs, but I could do better.
6. Using a clothes line instead of a dryer. This is how my clothes were dried while I was in China, but I don't think I'm ready to make that a regular habit here.

So, a new shower head and new light bulbs are what I have left to do from my list, and I'm committed to getting those done this month. Doing #2 felt good, and having the option to do that is something I love about Seattle. I'd urge everyone to watch the movie and decide for yourself if you think there's a problem, and if so, whether you are comfortable with your contribution to the solution/problem.

Books, Geography, Basketball, Movies, Todo

We won our last basketball game and lost the one before that, bringing us to 4-4. Both were good games for me. Last game, I jumped out of bounds to save the ball, throwing it backwards in the hope that the ball would end up the hands of my team, only to hit one of my teammates in the face and give her a bloody nose. I felt terrible =( It wasn't broken, though, so that's good.

I had to return a book to the library last week before I finished it, making it the second of its kind in as many months. I put another hold on it, but it could be months before it gets back to me. I might have to go finish it at Barnes and Noble or something. In a way, maybe it was a good thing because I won't write about it until I finish it, and I want to start linking my book posts to J's new book site that isn't quite ready for release yet. Hurry, J!

I've been slowly learning more geography. After learning all the countries on all the continents, I've moved on to European capitals and mostly have them down. I used to run through a study list a few times a week when I was learning countries, but I haven't been doing that recently. I need to get into that habit again. As with countries, I'll do African capitals last; maybe I'll learn Asian capitals next. I need to remember to continue reviewing everything I've learned so far, too.

Over the last week or so, I watched The Illusionist and Pan's Labyrinth. Both were good, though the latter was less about the labyrinth than I originally thought it would be and wasn't about Pan at all.

I have a growing list of things that need to be done. The fairly recent wind storm damaged various sections of the fence around my yard, so I need to deal with that. The fence was poorly made to begin with, so some of the options are: build a new fence all together (expensive), fix the sections that were damaged (less expensive but then I've still got a crappy fence), or get rid of the fence and use some sort of greenery to act as a barrier. Some time this year, I also want to look into replacing at least some of my carpet and re-painting my house. J mentioned pergo as an alternative to carpet, so I'll look into that, too. I need to figure out where to volunteer next, as well. Well? Get to it!