Family Blog
This one is going to hurt a lot. And honestly I am not looking forward to it. Starting Sunday August 1st the lights will go out on my online social presence. It is amazing how quickly something can become so normal and routine. I really only began tweeting, posting and blogging a little over a year ago but already I find that too much of my time is consumed by it. So….sticking with the “Year Without” principles, I have chosen to shutter the following things for a summer hiatus:
Removing these from my life definitely adds an exclamation point to the end of the “Year Without” sentence. These tools are how I have come to stay connected to the people I care about, not just friends and family but industry experts and sources of information. It is also how I communicate information to others about what I am doing as it pertains to my work and my leisure. So it looks like I will go back to traditional technologies, at least for the next 30 days. That includes the telephone and email (yes email can now be considered traditional). For many out there this doesn’t seem like a huge sacrifice but I know just as many who would suffer serious withdrawals if asked to forgo these tools. I’ll let you know which category I fit into.
PS All of my social sites will be displaying a black square as my profile photo until 9/1 when the lights come back up. See you on the other side.
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Here I am on the final day of the “Human-Powered Commute” and I must say it has been awesome. By far this has been my most exciting month in the Year Without, so much so, that I am considering making it semi-permanent. For more details read this post on my other blog, http://bit.ly/h-pcommute. Now on to the month of July. This month I will be going Vegetarian. At first I thought this was pretty straightforward but then I realized that there are many types of vegetarians and that I would have to make a determination of what type I wanted to be. Here’s a run-down, according to Wikipedia:
There are a number of types of vegetarianism, which exclude or include various foods. Ovo-lacto vegetarianism includes animal products such as eggs, milk, and honey. Lacto vegetarianism includes milk but not eggs. Ovo vegetarianism includes eggs but not milk. Veganism excludes all animal flesh and animal products, including milk, honey, eggs.[15] Raw veganism includes only fresh and uncooked fruit, nuts, seeds, and vegetables.[16] Fruitarianism permits only fruit, nuts, seeds, and other plant matter that can be gathered without harming the plant.[17] Su vegetarianism (such as in Buddhism), excludes all animal products as well as vegetables in the allium family (which have the characteristic aroma of onion and garlic): onion, garlic, scallions, leeks, or shallots. Macrobiotic diets consist mostly of whole grains and beans.
There are a number of types of vegetarianism, which exclude or include various foods.
For my family’s sanity I have chosen to go with the ovo-lacto vegetarianism to allow me more options. Who am I kidding, it’s to make sure that I am not eating salad every night. Later on in the year I will be going full vegan. For those that doubt that a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle is healthy for active people here is a great article to read on the subject, http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/2003_ADA_position_paper.pdf. WARNING IT IS LONG. Scott Jurek, the legendary ultrarunner is in fact a vegan athlete.
For me the vegetarian trial is about more than the treatment of animals. I am a big Peak Oil guy and firmly believe that the American diet is extremely meat heavy which in turn is absurdly dependent on vast quantities of petroleum for production. Fruits, grains, and vegetables, produced with petro-chemicals are not without their issues as well but they have a much lighter footprint on a per calorie basis. Ultimately that means feeding people using less oil. Here are some facts:
…an estimated 30 percent of the earth’s ice-free land is directly or indirectly involved in livestock production, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, which also estimates that livestock production generates nearly a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gases — more than transportation. Though some 800 million people on the planet now suffer from hunger or malnutrition, the majority of corn and soy grown in the world feeds cattle, pigs and chickens. This despite the inherent inefficiencies: about two to five times more grain is required to produce the same amount of calories through livestock as through direct grain consumption… The environmental impact of growing so much grain for animal feed is profound. Agriculture in the United States — much of which now serves the demand for meat — contributes to nearly three-quarters of all water-quality problems in the nation’s rivers and streams, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
…an estimated 30 percent of the earth’s ice-free land is directly or indirectly involved in livestock production, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, which also estimates that livestock production generates nearly a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gases — more than transportation.
Though some 800 million people on the planet now suffer from hunger or malnutrition, the majority of corn and soy grown in the world feeds cattle, pigs and chickens. This despite the inherent inefficiencies: about two to five times more grain is required to produce the same amount of calories through livestock as through direct grain consumption…
The environmental impact of growing so much grain for animal feed is profound. Agriculture in the United States — much of which now serves the demand for meat — contributes to nearly three-quarters of all water-quality problems in the nation’s rivers and streams, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Makes you think, eh? Wish me luck and I will let you know how it goes.
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So the Buzz-Kill (Anti-Caffeine) month has ended. Once again, there were mixed results. This was a very tough month for this to come up in. I had a lot of early morning travel to Rochester as well as a 3:30 AM wakeup to volunteer at Mind the Ducks – 12 hour. I was far from perfect on this one but I do think I have learned some valuable things. Now for June’s challenge.
For the entire month of June I will be powering myself back and forth to work either by foot or by bike. The question is why? The answer:
I am serious about this one and would love Mother Nature to cooperate. She rained on me the first time out but maybe she will lighten up on me as the month continues. As always, I encourage anyone who thinks it’s within their capability to join me this month and try to commute to work under their own power. Let me know if you do.
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The fifth installment of “A Year Without” will have me putting the screws to caffeine. In the spirit of openness, I have to confess that I am starting 3 days late on this one. But, it’s caffeine so come on cut me some slack! But first a recap of April:
Last month’s moratorium on non-reusable items was by no means a smashing success. Although I reduced my use of disposable items such as paper plates, plastic cutlery, napkins and shopping bags and replaced them with reusable items, I ended up cheating a lot. I even went as far as packing my own napkin/hankie for work. Not surprisingly the coworkers were a bit amused and not the least bit interested in participating with me in my embargo. The real difficulty was vacation. When travelling it is very challenging to avoid fast food establishments and once there next to impossible to use reusable items. Coupled with poor planning and you have yourself a complete failure of execution. Nonetheless my awareness level of how I consume disposal products has changed substantially. I have reduced dramatically my use of baggies for storage and have opted for reusable plastic containers. I have also been very consistent with using reusable dinnerware at work. All told it was a fruitful experiment.
Now on to “Project Buzz Kill”. The month of May will establish a prohibition on the following caffeinated items:
The objective is to discover how much dependency I have on these items. Will I suffer massive headaches and afternoon comas or will I feel less edgy and more naturally stimulated? Stay tuned to find out.
Well the month of no TV and video is over and I have to say that there were moments of digression. The biggest foul was awarded when my company took us to see Avatar in 3-D. But despite that glaring violation I think I did pretty well. So what’s next, you might ask? My intention for the month of March is to swear off refined sugars. That would include the following items:
Instead, I will be attempting to satisfy the sweet tooth with natural items, such as:
I will let you know how it works out!