Here’s some new stuff. Below, a lovely wall adornment that I crafted out of toilet paper rolls. No, seriously.

Pretty rad, huh? I was even a little surprised at how easily and well it turned out, and how many other people liked it. All it takes is some TP or paper towel rolls, some Elmer’s glue, and scissors. Full tutorial here. (it’s super easy!)

Next up: A housemate and I figured that after all the naked lady decor we’ve inflicted on the house, it might do us some good to gender-balance. Hence, a heart-stoppingly gorgeous border made of Heartthrob (girly game from the 80s I got from a thrift store many moons ago) hotties in all their attendant 80s regalia, to brighten up our sad, dark little hallway. Hunks and a little sticky-tacky are all you need for this project.

I once made a wall border out of Chick books..you know, the little hellfire-and-brimstone comics you find in DVD cases and public bathrooms. The one about Halloween that’s like a Jesus-freak version of Pumpkinhead and another about how little girls suffering from cancer can still go to hell when they die if they don’t become “born-again.” That guy is one sick fuck, but the illustrations are admittedly pretty awesome and they ended up making a pretty colorful border. Which do you prefer?

hi folks!

it’s been a bit since i posted anything, i’ve been distracted by cranberries, mashed potato, cashew ‘cheesecake’, and things like that. but now that it’s black friday, and i don’t want to buy anything, i’m getting ready for the next fun things.

o i am so excited about tomorrow!!!!!!!
the event at HELD is  going to rock! please come see my work and if ya want i will even teach you how to make plastic bags into yarn! OMG!

i hope to see you soon, in between 4 and 7 tomorrow evening, saturday november 28th, 2009, at HELD (3033 NE Alberta, in Portland). it’s going to be so much fun!

ok, i am going to eat things now…

yay!!!!!

ps i am going to move my studio over like 3 spaces, within the same studio warehouse of fabulousness, Switchyard, and i will post updates about that as it happens. so far i’ve just been organizing a little, and packing up small things into the only boxes i have. it’s only like a 20 foot move, but i still need some of that packing magic to happen so it’ll go smoothly.

fun times!

Bring used televisions, computers, phones and other electronics to the designated trailer at Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church in Little Rock to make sure your used electronics are disposed of properly.

WHAT: Electronic Recycling Days

WHEN: Sunday-Monday, November 29-30

WHERE: Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church (4823 Woodlawn, Little Rock 72205)

Bring your used electronics recycling to the drive court area and drop them off outside the Great Hall.

If you need help unloading items from your car, bring them Sunday morning. Assistance will not be available any time other than Sunday morning.

Items will go the Pulaski County Regional Recycling and Waste Reduction District’s 10th annual Electronics Waste Roundup at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock next week. Items accepted are computers, monitors, printers, copiers, VCR/DVD players, televisions, microwave ovens, cell phones, radios, fax machines. Other items will not be accepted.

For more information, call (501)664-3600.

I’ve been celebrating Buy Nothing Day for over a decade, and this year is no different. Founded by Canadian artist Ted Dave and subsequently promoted by Adbusters magazine, Buy Nothing Day is an international day of protest against consumerism. North Americans celebrate Buy Nothing Day today. The rest of the world celebrates it tomorrow.

Buy Nothing Day started in Vancouver in 1992. Today, people from over 65 nations participate in the day.

Last year’s Black Friday saw a Wal-Mart worker trampled to death by shoppers eager to shop ’til they drop. This year, why not give Buy Nothing Day a try?

Have you noticed how some application interfaces are consistently named and exhibit consistent behavior across components and services? This can be a critical success factor for systematic reuse. Reusable components are not isolated islands of functionality. Instead, they are meant to be leveraged in a variety of applications and business processes. Consistent interfaces provide several benefits:

• They reduce learning curve when a developer tries to understand and evaluate the asset for his/her need.
• Reduces technical debt – consistent API reduces the need to refactor code and reduces regression testing efforts as well.
• They increase the likelihood of predictable behavior across applications. This is critical for assets that get reused across business processes with an impact ultimately to end user experience (e.g. what if your customer can update address when opening accounts but won’t be able to do that when updating accounts?).
• Eases integration and testing efforts. Consistent behavior can simplify testing reusable assets. If an asset behaves consistently whether it is invoked by a web application or a backend process, knowledge about test data and integration behavior is applicable across multiple projects
• Makes documentation easier to follow: consistent interfaces can facilitate the use of templates for document generation as well where similar files/hyperlinks can be generated.

These aren’t the only benefits – feel free to suggest additional ones.

While it is a noble cause to recycle, the real point is if everyone reduced the amount of consumption and were able to curb their appetite for the latest and greatest.  Want to promote a green place for the future and the misuse of natural resources?

The point is not really to recycle.  The point is to reduce waste.  To reduce waste there must be a reduction in consumption.

Recycle – old and used products are processed for reappropriation of their materials for the use of new products.  While it’s a noble cause, the recycling process still consumes energy to repurpose the material and signals to marketing groups that people still want to consume.

Reuse – reusing old and used items as opposed to buying new items lessens the amount of resources consumed and lengthens then life of the used item – making the natural resources and energy extracted for that item more worth while.

Reduce - reduce waste.  reduce recycled content.  If we buy less of what we want or what our friends have, we will reduce the energy it takes to extract the raw natural resources that are then transported (more energy) to processing plants where additional energy is used to transform the natural resources into identifiable material that is then transported (more energy) to the retailer warehouses and eventually, more energy is consumed to go to the store and pick up the packaged item.

E‐Waste in 2007
Total of Disposed Products***
26.9  million Televisions
205.5 million Computer Products*
140.3 million Cell Phones
*Computer products include CPUs, monitors, notebooks, keyboards, mice, and “hard copy peripherals”, which are printers, copiers, multi’s and faxes.
**These totals don’t include products that are no longer used, but stored.
Source: United States Environmental Protection Agency (aka: EPA) 1

We all know that those plastic bags at the grocery store are bad for the environment. At my house we reuse the bags for trash bags or to carry items to parties etc.. but I know we can do better.

From now on I will promise to only use reusable canvas shopping bags, if I forget to bring my canvas bag I will ask for paper bags. (we use these for crafts and I use them for shipping things that I sell online)

If you are buying something small that will easily fit in your purse or pocket, skip the bag, BUT KEEP YOUR RECEIPT!!!

Tip… Buy multiple canvas bags, keep 2 in the car and 2 in the home. That way you always have access to the bags.

Do you want a Free Canvas bag? Just pay shipping from www.FreeShoppingBags.com

Every month, we feature a video from Film Source, The Henry Ford’s online collection of historic motion picture films shorts.   The films were originally produced by Henry Ford’s motion picture department at Ford Motor Company, which began in 1914.  These clips illustrate the impact of the automobile, industrial manufacturing and design, and many other aspects of American culture and everyday life, as well as glimpses of Henry Ford and his family and activities and scenes from Greenfield Village and The Henry Ford Museum.  Staff at the Benson Ford Research Center continue to digitize, catalog, and upload more of these clips to our online catalog and to YouTube in order to make them accessible to a wider audience.

In honor of Thanksgiving, this month’s video is a portion of “Harvest of the Years,” produced circa 1938.  One of the longer clips in our collection, and one of the few produced with sound, it showcases the spectrum of automobile production, from raw materials to finished product and testing, with a focus on activities of the Rouge River Plant, from the production of raw materials such as steel and glass through to assembly.  Design and testing are also given a look.  Pervading the film is an emphasis on looking ahead to a better future aided by ever-advancing scientific and industrial progress—a dominant attitude of the time, and indeed one which sometimes lends itself to parody today.  On a more serious note, perhaps striking for today’s viewers is the degree of recovery and reuse of waste materials in practice—something not so common in that era, but implemented at Ford primarily due to Henry Ford’s abhorrence of waste (which Ford Bryan discusses at various points in his book Beyond the Model T:  The Other Ventures of Henry Ford).  One famous example of by-product reuse, although not mentioned in the film, is Ford’s charcoal briquettes, originally produced from wood waste generated at its Kingsford plant in Northern Michigan.  Also noteworthy, despite its ad-copy hyperbole, is the mention of the accumulation and sharing of knowledge for the betterment all of humankind–an ideal we see mirrored in the nobler of our online aspirations today.  No matter what their origins,  these ideas and practices of efficiency, quality, waste reduction, and reuse can certainly continue to  inspire.

By Kirsten Bokenkamp

The chance that Congress will pass a US climate change bill before the global summit in Copenhagen is looking increasingly slim, but that does not stop us from individually minimizing our own impact on the earth. Green-up Your Life! is all about reminding us that as individuals, we can, and should, do our part to protect our planet and combat climate change – even when our policy makers are not quite there. Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling are a big part of the things we all can do. Today’s blog is going to focus on the first two (and most important) parts of this well-known mantra: Reduce and Reuse.

In our society, where we covet big houses and new cars, where we are impressed with shiny toys and with the newest fashions, not everybody likes to hear this, but simply reducing what we buy is one of the best things we can do for the planet. In his New York Times blog Dot Earth, Andrew Revkin asks if being a “green consumer” is good enough: after all, even when corporations are selling environmentally sustainable products, they are still selling consumerism, and their primary goal is not to save the planet, but instead to get you to buy more new things.

And, generally, the more we buy – the more we waste. Think about all of the packaging and the transport associated with everything we buy! According to the EPA, between 1960 and 2007 the amount of waste each person creates has almost doubled from 2.7 to 4.6 pounds per day. Reversing this trend is crucial to the future of the earth.

If you have never seen Annie Leonard’s Story of Stuff, I highly recommend that you spend 20 minutes watching it to learn more about the processes of production and consumption within our society. By the end of the short, fun, and interactive film, you most likely will have a different view on buying things. Do you love to give gifts? Rethink how you give, and how it impacts the earth. Good alternative ideas include a gift certificate to a massage or yoga classes; tickets to a concert or football game; a batch of fresh baked cookies; a dinner out at an environmentally sustainable restaurant; renting a kayak for a day out on the water; or simply spending some time together, cooking or playing games. A study about happiness during the Christmas season, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Happiness Studies, has shown that:

Lower well-being occurred when spending money and receiving gifts predominated. Engaging in environmentally conscious consumption practices also predicted a happier holiday, as did being older and male. In sum, the materialistic aspects of modern Christmas celebrations may undermine well-being, while family and spiritual activities may help people to feel more satisfied.

Tommy Sheep

If all this talk about reducing sounds good to you, use the day after Thanksgiving, historically the largest shopping day in the US, to make a point. In 65 countries around the world, millions of people participate in Buy Nothing Day to demonstrate that we don’t have to buy all the newest fashions and the brightest toys just because they are endlessly marketed to us. It is actually pretty empowering to decide to ignore all the marketing schemes. Check out these spoof ads by Adbusters, and imagine how much less we would collectively buy if all ads were as honest as these. (There are more funny ones on their website).

True Colors of Bennetton

Buying less does not mean not buying anything at all. Just try to keep your impact low, and reuse items when you can. Have you checked out your neighborhood thrift store or consignment shop? Most have clothes, toys, household items, shoes, and books. Check it out – you may be surprised. There are about 6,000 reuse centers around the US, ranging from specialty stores to Goodwill. Another alternative is to buy lightly used items on Craiglist or ebay. You can’t really go wrong when you are saving money and helping to preserve the earth’s resources.

Even if we cut down on what we buy, of course we will all still buy many things. Reducing and reusing isn’t just about less consumerism and buying used items. It is also about bringing reusable bags to a store, drinking from a reusable coffee cup or water bottle, not using the mini-bottles of shampoo at hotels; reducing the amount of packaging you use by buying food in bulk, and reducing paper by printing on both sides, paying bills online and getting yourself off of unwanted mailing lists. Do you wonder what kind of impact this could have?

• If every Starbucks customer used a reusable coffee thermos, we could save 1,181,600 tons of wood, 2,040,061,237 pounds of carbon dioxide, and 4,441,093,624 gallons of water every year.
• The production of plastic water bottles in the US generates more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide, and uses 17 million barrels of oil per year! And that is not even taking into account what happens to all those bottles once they reach the landfill. (In the U.S. more than 30 billion plastic water bottles are discarded each year. Only 15% are recycled; the rest end up in landfills, or as litter – 66 million every day.)
• According to the World Watch Institute, each year Americans throw away some 100 billion polyethylene plastic bags. (Only 0.6 percent of plastic bags are recycled.) If every shopper took just one less bag each month, this could eliminate the waste of hundreds of millions of bags each year.
• Producing one ton of paper requires 2-3 times its weight in trees. If the entire U.S. catalog industry switched its publications to just 10-percent recycled content paper, the savings in wood alone would be enough to stretch a 1.8-meter-high fence across the United States seven times.

These facts clearly show that we can all make a difference by changing our habits – even just a bit. It is unrealistic to think that we will all stop buying things, but if we reduce what we do buy, buy used items when we can, and try to reduce the negative side effects of consumerism by choosing products with less packaging and bringing our own shopping bags, it is a step in the right direction. We need to start thinking before we make purchases and stop buying things we don’t need, which is a tough thing to do in a society where people living in cities are exposed up to 5000 advertisements a day. It is time to show those companies that in order to protect our planet, we will not give in so easy!

Did you know cutlery makes for an interesting wind chime? Neither did I, until one of my first visits to the Portland Saturday Market revealed that there is a slew of really neat ideas you can make with items found in your house that may be waiting to get tossed. Most of these projects are easy if you feel inspired to give them a shot. If not, they are here to illustrate some fun reuses of materials.

Check out some of these finds:

Door #1 – Wallets! After searching all over for an artist I once saw selling at a fair who makes super neat projects out of old maps, I got distracted and found a slew of other things you can make wallets out of. Playing cards, subway maps, cassette tapes– heck, you name it.

Door #2 – Pendants! I recently purchased a Scrabble pendant from a local artist. I thought it was the niftiest thing ever. You can also use tiles from other games, such as Dominos, to create pendants.

Door #3 – Record bowls! I guess I could have taken a picture of some of mine because I make these things a lot for people who may read this blog… sorry you thought I put more effort into your homemade Christmas present. Really I’m just lazy. All you do is put your oven around 225° or so, lay a record over a bowl (bowl sort of determines shape/depth of bowl), put the whole thing on a cookie sheet and slide it in the over. It will sort of make your kitchen smell funky for a bit, but after 7 minutes or so you pull the thing out, and with your bare hands you can mold the bowl to your desired shape. If you don’t like how it turns out when it hardens (you have to work sorta fast) you just stick the whole thing into the oven again and re-mold.

Door #4 – Did you know could make (enter random thing here) with spoons? Spoonman is a Portland legend (with a sorta goofy website) who shows regularly at the Saturday Market. His claim to fame is his awesome windchimes (really, you gotta see them in person), but he also does earrings and some other crazy things.

Build near real-time capabilities even if your consumers don’t want them. Your consumer may not want a real-time interface or maybe unable to integrate with one. It is tempting to just go for a batch based solution because, that is what your consumer is asking for. For now at least. However, if you build one off batch file extracts or directly expose your legacy system to make one consumer happy, you will encounter the ill effects of tightly coupled systems.

There are several approaches to achieve long-term reuse goals and address the immediate customer need:

1. Publish a standard message that you will want to treat as a reuse candidate going forward. A subscriber can drain, accumulate messages, transform them to a customer-specific format, and and append it to a file. A scheduled job or process can transfer this file to your customer.
2. Create a reusable service capability that provides the data in the target format that you want to maintain/evolve going forward. You can create a batch process that shares the same interface that the real-time service uses.  Note: volume is a critical factor here though – you don’t want to make several atomic calls when it is more efficient to fetch data in bulk. You could have a configurable parameter for fetching multiple records at a time – the real-time service can use a much smaller number when compared to the batch process.
3. For large data volumes,  consider populating a read-only data store using database replication. File extracts can then be driven off this new database. This has the advantage of reducing load on your operational data stores at the same time facilitating additional consumers who might prefer a SQL interface or a file extract based solution. Downsides: additional moving parts and increased cost for a new data store.

When you build real-time capabilities,  adding consumers doesn’t involve too much effort. Are there additional approaches to pursue?

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Life smashes things to bits and we put it back together to make something beautiful with the pieces.

Peggy, a visitor at 225 Water Street, stopped into the shop with a broken piece of southwestern art that her mother had given her as a gift. A chandelier had fallen on it and broke the cherished work of art into pieces. Peggy salvaged the children and remaining pieces and brought them in to see what she might do. We collaborated…here’s what we came up with.

As a side note…I suggested that she have a piece of concrete backer board cut into a circle to fit the table base she found.

Memories are made of these.

Rock-And-Roll!!

Oh man, this is making me go way back with the corny slang. Does anyone recall, “Tubular?” I think we can thank the Ninja Mutant Ninja Turtles for popularizing that one.

I think it’s obvious that I’m liking this idea, lots. My ribbon and string finally will have a safe place to find rest, until I cut them with my scissors. Hmmm…

Original YouTube vid found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t2QtU8EYz0

Okay, I know this is Martha Stewart-ish. But, I can’t be the only one wondering how to use up those little slivers. Well, there’s a vid about it, so obviously not. Yay, YouTube!

One tip I’ll mention in addition to this vid is something I read online: to grate the soap beforehand. I believe it ensures a smoother end product.

Find the original YouTube vid here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m69EiNy77s

Tip #24 – Identify common behavior and encapsulate it

Looking for common behavior across classes is an effective way to reuse behavior. When you find yourself cutting and pasting code, take a step back and reflect on the common behavior that is being implemented. If the duplication is due to the same behavior realized in different ways, introduce a new interface. If multiple objects have the same functionality and can derive from a parent object, introduce an inheritance hierarchy.

This can be done in an iterative fashion as well – if you failed to recognize an interface initially that is okay. Look for opportunities to refactor existing code to introduce a new interface. For example, you can use the Eclipse IDE’s refactoring feature – extract interface – to create a new interface from an existing class.

Why is this important for systematic reuse? Because, by isolating and realizing common behavior you reduce the need for multiple components and classes to re-implement the same functionality. If two classes need the same piece of data, or if they both connect with the same external system, why would you want to code them separately?

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ne of my favorite blogs had this ingenious idea for old business cards. I had a ton of cards and a ton of scrapbook paper, so I went to work. I used a mouse hole punch and glued the card onto precut pieces of scrapbook paper. All the paper I chose happened to be white on the back, so the cards are uniform with each other – though the relief pattern is different on all the cards. I tried the sticker idea and wasn’t happy with it, so I got out my stamps and stamped “thanks” or “thank-you” on all the cards. A hand written note can then be put on the back and included with the shipment. Classy!

Heads up! I recently bought the mouse hole punch by Martha Stewart on sale at the local Micheals. Well, I figured out why it was on sale when I tried to punch two cards at a time. Um, don’t do that. I broke the piece off that separates his arms, so now his cute little hands look like stubs. Oh, well. I may be the only one who notices. Well, now you will, but I don’t think it’ll be consequential.

See his normal hands in this photo.

See how they look stubby in this one?

Want to make some of your own? Head on over to the tute and see how they’re made. Marnie does a very good job showing how it’s done. I love her art too.

In a first for DOC, we are currently holding an exhibition in the foyer of Conservation House: Surplus & Creativity. This is an exhibition of design/art installation, recycle-wear, different ways of using familiar items, and all including a healthy dose of kiwi ingenuity.

Surplus & Creativity. All photos by Sam O'Leary.

Everything in the exhibition has been re-created by University staff, Masters students from the Institute of Design for Industry and Environment at Massey University’s College of Creative Arts, and Industry associates from AFFECT, the Centre for Affective Design Research at Massey University  The thing that sets this exhibition apart from others, is that everything is made from surplus materials – Everything here has effectively been recycled.

There is a range of works on show, from hot-water-bottle/watering cans to a computer/chicken coop, to a beanbag-bench made from a sack and a saw-horse. The students brief was to: Recontextualise surplus or discarded objects and things to produce a new vision of use, understanding or comment.

The exhibition is a snug fit at Conservation House. The building here has many recycled aspects to it, from the black floor tiles on the staircase (recycled tractor tyres), to the green partitions which separate our level 4 conference room and cafe (recycled milk bottles). As Rodney Adank (one of the organisers) put it, “Conservation House is a great place for this exhibition, this building itself has recently been recontextualised with the new and the old, and this is obviously reflected in the works on show here, it seems like corporate design is all about ‘designing landfill’ these days and we want to show, that it doesn’t need to be like that”

The foyer at Conservation House, viewed from the 4th floor landing.

Staff at National Office have been seeing Surplus & Creativity every day at work, and here’s what they and the organisers have had to say about it:

“It’s a wonderful use of public space, and I hope we follow it up with further exhibitions. It would be a real plus if it inspires us to exercise our own creativity on the first, second and third floors!” Al Morrison – Director General, DOC

“Design and the Readymade is a great strategy for engaging new ideas and concepts, because it forces the viewer to re-think what they had previously understood to be an interruption of an object or product. It makes us reconsider our interruptions.” Rodney Adank, Acting Director at AFFECT

“This is brilliant!. It’s a space that is generally empty-ish, and good for DOC to be attracting visitors and lifting staff  in an innovative way yet linked to conservation/sustainability . I assume it is supporting the art community as well. Make it regular!!” – Allan Ross – Manager, Ecosystem and Species Unit, DOC

“Could we put a sandwich board on the pavement advertising this and other exhibits? It seems to me that it would be a wonderful opportunity to increase walk-ins..” Louise Hoather – Social Science Advisor, DOC

Conservation House is located on Manners Street in Wellington, across the road from Subway and the ASB Bank (map below the gallery). Come on in and take a gander if you’re in the locale, it might spark some ideas!

Map:

View Larger Map

Hey all. I sat down today and was hyped up to write an excellent blog about Harvest Dinner when I suddenly realized I left my camera up at Bates. I had taken great pictures of the ice sculptures, live band, decorations, and of course all the food, but in my haste to get home for Thanksgiving Break I forgot to pack my camera. So……

I will fill you in with all the details so you can form your own mental images of the event, and then when I get back to campus I can post the pictures and provide you with some visual evidence of the awesomeness that is Harvest Dinner.

Many of you may be wondering: what is Harvest Dinner? Good question. In short, the week before Thanksgiving break every year, the all-star Bates dining staff gets together and provides the Bates community with an epically-themed send-off meal. Students, professors, and other Bates employees all pile into a beautifully-decorated Commons to eat a delicious turkey dinner and to enjoy the festivities (raffle with prizes, live band, horse-drawn carriage rides, and much more…).

This year’s theme: ‘Bobcat Jones and the Temple of Food’… like I said, epically-themed. In my mind, the meal marks the unofficial start of the holiday season. It’s great that the whole Bates community can get together in a shared space for some good times and a warm meal.

Check out the menu:

Domestic & Imported Cheeses with Seasonal Fruit
Mixed Greens Salad w/choice of dressing one to be cranberry vinaigrette
Bread & Butter Pickles
Deviled Eggs
Spiced Pumpkin Soup
Native Seafood Chowder
Roast Breast of Turkey (Turkey Gravy)
Slow Roasted Pot Roast w/ Onions, Native Maine Potatoes and Carrots (Pot Roast Gravy)
Lobster Stuffed Haddock
Butternut Squash Casserole
Peas & Onions
Mashed Potatoes (vegan)
Cape Cod Cranberry Sauce
Green Bean and Tofu Stir Fry
Eggplant and Read Bean Stew
Basmati Rice w/Asparagus & Cashews
Sam’s Rolls
Chocolate Cream Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie
Pecan Toffee Pie
Baked Alaska
Cheesecake Bar
Seasonal Cupcakes
Chocolate Fountain

The best part by far is dessert (due to space constraints dessert is served in the Grey Cage gym). Chocolate fountains, pies of all kinds, cookies, hot cider, etc.

While enjoying dessert, the Trashion Fashion Show (fashion show/contest with outfits made entirely out of reusable/recyclable materials) takes place.

Pictures to follow when I get back up to Bates. Enjoy Thanksgiving everyone! Until next time…

so little time!  Yesterday, I scored a 50’s kitchen table in need of some TLC and a nice white wooden chair (in the same condition) from a Craigslist curb-alert.  The chair will be for the boys’ room, with the Ikea sailboat curtains standing in as upholstery fabric for the seat.  Picked up some cherry-red Rust-oleum for my sewing table, and some felt and ribbon to make hairclips for the girlies (in my spare time)…Trying to decide if I really want to try using fondant for Chevi’s birthday cake next month—after watching Cake Boss in the hotel last weekend, I’m feeling inspired!

The thing is, there are all these little people who keep asking to be fed, and bathed, and put to bed.  They want me to play CandyLand, and watch them fight with lightsabers, and bring them to the library.  I like them a lot, but I’m trying to figure out how to get anything done while they’re around.  (Especially the short ones.)  Have you ever tried to sew a log-cabin pillow (from a pair of freecycled jeans!) while you’re nursing an 18-month-old and entertaining her 4 and 7-year old siblings?  It can be done, folks (and I did it last night) but I’m telling you, it ain’t easy.  The good stuff never is.

A question that arose at the Great Allegheny Passage Sustainability Summit last week concerns biodiesel.  Eric Martin (owner, Wilderness Voyageurs and Falls City Pub) and Mike Dreisbach (owner, Savage River Lodge) both refine their used cooking oil into biodiesel for their vehicles.  The questions put forth were:

1. What vehicles can run on biodiesel?

2. Do the vehicles need to be modified for such use?

In order to run a vehicle on biodiesel the vehicle must have a diesel powered engine.  Diesel vehicles get great mileage (a modern VW Golf diesel gets upwards of 50 mpg). Diesels are generally the longest lasting reliable cars on the road with most engines lasting over 400,000 miles. Unfortunately in the US the diesel vehicle selection is limited as compared to the rest of the world.  However, this seems to be changing as the price of gas goes up, and diesel hybrid technology is developed. Volkswagen sells all their models in diesel versions called TDI, which are excellent biodiesel vehicles. Jeep is just now coming out with a diesel version of their Liberty SUV.  Ford, Dodge, Chevy and GMC all currently sell diesel versions of their large pickups and Mercedes is about to come out with a new turbo diesel in the US. There are also a host of older vehicles such as Mercedes, Volvo, etc that can be found on the used market in diesel.  You can find a great list of all US diesel makes and models at:
http://www.grassolean.com/index.html?textFile=dieselcars

Most vehicles do not require any prep to run biodiesel.  However for vehicles manufactured before 1985 the fuel line should be changed to a modern fluorinated plastic such as Viton as the biodiesel could cause swelling in some older plastic lines. If the vehicle has been running petro-diesel for a long time you should be prepared to change the fuel filter in the first few thousand miles of biodiesel use.  Biodiesel will flush all the petro-diesel residue from your system and it will end up in your fuel filter. As this happens you will feel a gradual loss of power over a few days, this is the signal to change the filter.

Both Eric and Mike mentioned future ideas to perhaps begin Biodiesel Co-ops.  So what does a biodiesel co-op entail?  A co-op is a community of people that committ to share ideas, skills, and in most cases goods.  For a membership fee, members of a co-op generally receive discounted products or goods.  A biodiesel co-op would therefore use this principle based around the manufacture and distribution of biodiesel.

To understand how it operates in reality, here are a few examples of successful Biodiesel Co-ops:

www.gobiodiesel.org

www.baltimorebiodiesel.org

www.theenergy.coop/

Designers, here’s a creative and environmentally friendly holiday craft idea especially for you…

Use your old press sheets for gift wrap!

Credit for this novel idea goes to Eric & Jacqueline. They gave me this awesome set of slab alphabet blocks from House Industries as a wedding gift—wrapped in a repurposed Setu brochure press sheet.

Beautiful!

Business applications often utilize log files and databases to capture metrics about usage and error patterns. However, analysis and pattern detecting becomes challenging with additional data and system complexity.  Tree map visualization of application metrics could greatly aid rapid view of system state, error analysis, trends, and remedial actions.  A tree map visualization can be generated using metrics from a database.  It can generate useful views and present information of use to both business stakeholders and the system support team.

Service View – a treemap of metrics organized by service invoked on your SOA platform. The idea is to provide a comprehensive view of the metrics captured and answer questions such as the following: which services are being invoked in the system? Which services receive the highest volume of invocations? How does the volume of service invocations compare with each other? What proportion of invocations in each service was successful and what proportion ended in generating errors?

Transport View – a treemap of metrics organized by kind of transport used to invoke requests in your SOA platform. This is especially useful for systems support staff who need to quickly assess the system-wide impact of messaging providers and their non-availability. The idea is to provide a transport-level view of the metrics captured and answer questions such as the following: what are the transports used by clients when invoking services in your SOA paltform? Which transport mechanism is being used to process the bulk of requests? How does volume of invocations via a transport compare with one another? Which transport is having a higher proportion of errors? Are the failing invocations using reliable transports or are they using unreliable ones?

Status Code View – a treemap of metrics organized by kind of status codes that service requests returned. This is very useful for both development staff and systems support staff. This view displays a bird’s-eye view of the metrics with respect to return codes and answer questions such as the following: what service codes are being returned to clients? What proportion of codes are success codes and erroneous codes? What is the volume of error codes with respect to each other? In summary, this view provides a sense of how the system is performing as a whole – what matters most is whether the platform can provide good response to clients and this is a succinct visualization that answers that.

Are there additional opportunities for visualizing metrics using data in your services layer?

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