The Sherbert Saga may continue

I’ve been eyeing these articles lately:

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/grow-food-indoors.html

and

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/diy-herb-basket-garden.html

Sherbert is still alive. He’s been looking a little tanner lately, but with the permanent lack of light in my room combined with the little soil and a small pot, that was quite expected. No, don’t worry, his stalk is still firm and most of him is green. I think I may try to worm out some soil from one of my plant genetics friends and perhaps even a pot that was lying about, but we’ll see if that can happen. I’m hoping to keep Sherbert alive as long as possible. While I haven’t befriended him like some others do (a.k.a. I don’t talk to my own plant or pet it), but I am fond of my own plant. I thought of using just a normal 2l water bottle and wrapping the inside with paper towel, but then I realized I didn’t have anything to make holes or even cut the thing… oh well, maybe I’ll figure it out.

Seeing that my living space hasn’t really changed (and the fact that I still can’t afford hydroponics), I don’t plan on keeping herbs or lettuce any time soon. However, seeing that I will have my own apartment starting either May or August (most likely August), I would like to cut down on food costs and a basic way is to have my own. No, I won’t be the next California orange lord, but there are a few things that I could do with: vegetable and fruit.

My loftiest goal is having my own lettuce/sprout and tomatoes. I like salad and tomatoes (both small and large) make great salad additions, snacks and smoothies. If all goes as planned, I will have time from May to start this process and hopefully my garden will mature enough to provide a constant food source. From what I’ve read it seems feasible, so hopefully I can give it a try. Hopefully I won’t need to get a fluorescent light bulb so I can lower the electricity bill as well… ;-)

P.S.  I just thought that idea was pretty neat. Apparently you can use a old bike helmet as well. Tight. Now I just have to find an old one.

Winter Energy Tips: Stay Warm and Keep Winter How It Should Be

I know I haven’t said anything about the environment in a while… no, I haven’t stopped caring, so here I am again! I was reading some Nature Conservancy stuff online, and this article caught my eye. Read it!

I’m one of those people that get really cold easily. Well, let’s just say that I’m the queen of layering: I own many a spandexy top, too many fleece hoddies, fleece pants, long johns. And just to further prove my point, let me describe my oh-so-wondrful bed. Since September, I had a fleece blanket lining my bed with two blankets. One was a thermal and then the one on top was a quilted blanket to trap the heat. In October I added another smaller fleece blanket to wrap myself up in when I curled up in bed. I will soon be adding a comforter. I get cold super duper easily!

Ok, so what do I do as a college student during the winter to save energy and not catch a cold?

1. I layer up (Outdoors). I pretty much live on campus because of my schedule – I have three labs per week and have (too) many classes to go to. It’s a tough life. The thing is, when I go from class to class, building to building, it’s pretty much from below freezing (not now, it’s been an pleasantly odd week) to boiling hot. Want to see my life preservers?
   
   Beautiful, eh? The point of layering is: layering creates space between your layers, which equals trapped air, which equals insulation. I think that’s how dry suits for kayaking, diving, etc. works. Multiple layers mean more comfort when there is a change in temperature, especially when the day goes from super cold to chilly. Try fleece or other synthetic fibers in wet weather – they’re quicker to dry than animal/plant-based fibers and don’t absorb moisture, a. k. a. keeps you warmer.
2. I layer up (Indoors): warm socks, light sweater or fleece jacket (teehee) – but layering does really help. I know that many green people are obsessed with bamboo, hemp and all them naturals, but synthetic fibers are probably the easiest way to control your body temperature, whether indoors or outdoors. Plant-based fibers seem to take away your body heat (at least in my experience) and seem to be not as cozy. So what about animal fibers?, you ask. Well, I personally think they’re a little bit itchy and a little bit heavy. And, yes, I know that there are all those beautiful cashmere sweaters and what not out there, but not all of us can afford those light and cozy sweaters.
3. Get a Travel Mug & Drink Warm Beverages: Instead turning up the heat the whole time, try a warm beverage, it really warms you up. (And in the case of Coffee and Hot chocolate, wakes you up, too!) Especially, if you’re in college, you know how going in and out of classrooms, running from one side of the campus to the other and how irregular the hours can be… it’ll keep you going. I have a super sweet Contigo thermos (just in a plummy-pretty color.) and it keeps my hot chocolate/coffee/tea warm for long hours.
4. The Heat: Turn it off when you’re gone. End of story. Save your bill, too. Besides, keeping the heat on just makes your nose drier during the winter and this dry condition may cause epistaxis (the esoteric word for nosebleeds.) Besides, keeping the heat on incessantly will dry out your skin, hair, etc.
5. Your Bed: Not rich enough to buy a down comforter? Neither am I! On top of my bedding, I keep a fleece blanket as my base layer so that when I jump into bed, it generates and holds on to heat faster than a cotton blanket would.

That’s it for now. Yeah, I’m not feeling too creative right now… So here’s something else. This was another great slide show for home owners – there were things that I had never heard of that could help with a lot of people. I realize that the economy is bad and there are ways that the GOVERNMENT can help (this is for US citizens only, obviously.)

Anyways, got to go finsh some homework and studying. Finals are coming up soon and I am about to… be not so pleasantly grilled. I’m so excited to go home! I can’t wait!

P.S.  I love The Lord of the Rings… that’s all I have to say for now.

Much Ado About Nothing

While this post has nothing to do with Shakespeare’s romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing, I’ve got some complaints about how modern day education sometimes pushes students to be. Everyone values different things about life – I can deal with that. I’m definitely not a flippant youth when it comes to life – I enjoy thinking about my future and to explore different fields from A to Z, and I fail to understand why some of my friends disregard all the opportunities we have in store at this age. This is the biggest shot we can make, the easiest time to become who we want to be. Why waste it (this wasting definitely does  not equate to procrastination… ok, maybe it can.)?  While life isn’t all about commitments and seriousness, (yes, I do understand that), I do believe that each of us have something to accomplish in life. Whether it be in developing a cancer cure or even building a beautiful family, we have something to do. This whole attitude of There’s only today… well, it’s important to take day by day and not overburden yourself (and I’m not going to lie, I fail at this concept miserably), but the lack of a goal, a curiosity, a desire to celebrate life?

So about the education system… well, it’s just that it’s become a huge market. While knowledge is wealth and it’s the best thing that any community can own besides a sense of community (duh), I feel that this corporate business pushes my generation to be the way we are: materialistic, superficial and distant. Not everyone is this way, but it’s a phenomena more accentuated by our media, our goals, but most important, our reasons for how we act. Since so many are pushed to be “successful” in the eyes of our society, I think amidst all the academic struggle, we lose sight of what we wanted to do, who we want to become and sometimes even who we actually are. Many of my friends in my major, when you ask them why they’re in it, can’t give you anything more than a generic answer… My question is, if you can’t discover a personal bond with the major (whether it be nerdiness-deluge with the material or application of the material itself), why struggle to do something that you don’t love? For the money? For the prestige? For your family? I don’t know, don’t ask me why you want to do whatever you want to do! So that’s it, everyone’s doing someone else’s thing, which pretty much won’t amount to anything, whether you get it or not, because you’re not doing your own thing. Now does the title make sense? You’re doing much about nothing… a. k. a. Much Ado About Nothing.

Bah, don’t worry, I haven’t only been busy and slowly torturing myself. I’ve been running 2-3 times a week 40-50 minutes, and this way I preserve a speck of my sanity (that I never had! ;-)) I definitely don’t get to read as much as I would like to (a. k. a., I don’t read anymore.) , but hey, a girl gotta do what she gotta do.

Here’s something I made on and off – it’s a super duper easy one, but I like the change within the bracelet:

I can wrap the beast thrice around my wrist and twice around my ankle! The red rag bracelet is from Brasil and yes, it is a wish bracelet. It’s been there for almost two years now, so let’s hope that wish comes true when it (Yes, and what you spy in that corner, indeed are anatomy and physiology notes… If you care to know, those notes are on the basics of the neural tissue. Well, that was only a month and a half ago, and now we are on the autonomous system AFTER covering the up to vision and all that jazz. Now I know why if you drink coffee you can’t sleep! It’s because the caffeine binds to the A1 receptors that normally bind Adenosine that induces sleep.. and as caffeine inhibits adenosine binding, sleep is inhibited. You know what the sad part of this all is? I was thinking about this on the night AFTER my third midterm in that brain-drilling class when I couldn’t sleep till past 3 AM despite how tired I was.)

Anyways! Here’s a view on my laptop to show how long it is:

I like how I have mixed methods for this bracelet and how the colours are so vibrant! It makes me happy to look at and occassionally play with at the library.

I think I would like to try this method with a bigger mix of colours – some neon, some pastel, some solid, some changing, some metallic if possible. I’d love to see how the colours complement, contrast, clash and melt into each other!

Here’s my anklet baby that I made back in August.

I’m sorry that picture is a little blurry, but it’s hard to take a picture when you’re a little sleepy… I’ve been good with recycling and reusing. Here at Purdue University, when you print out something from your account from a university computer, prints an extra page indicating your balance. Most people recycle them, which is good, but I use the back of them and then I recycle once I’m done. My Organic Chemistry professor found out about me doing this, and since he’s working on another edition of one of his text books, he just gave me a whole stack of scratch paper. So after I use them, I recycle them, separating coloured and white paper (Sometimes the printer gives me yellow or green or blue… I’ve gotten hot pink once). I’m trying to lessen the amount of trash I create per week. I don’t like squashing my trash since I don’t separate things until I get to a recycling place (my room definitely is not the definition of spacious), so sometimes it seems like I have a lot of trash, but let’s try to downsize that…

And now that this blog post is done, Imma going to finish my NMR spectra analysis and finish reading about opiates… YES!

Consumed by College

Wow, so August and September has just flown by. The first month of college is hectic, but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to simmer down any time soon!

Anyways, here’s a few updates on what’s going lately (besides school):

1. Sherbert the Great

I talked about maybe having a plant after settling into my new place, but the opportunity came a lot earlier! The Purdue Panhellenic Association held a plant sale as a fund raiser the second week of school and the green loving person I am, I decided to get an aloe plant.

I know I did say that I specifically wanted an Aloe Vera, but all the ones there were flabby and in a WAY to small planter. Then I saw this little baby. I present you Sherbert!

Hah, I know it’s a ridiculous name. Wait, is it ridiculous to name your plants? If so, all I’ve gotta say is “Oh well!” This guy purifies my air, adds some flair to my room and gives me something to do when I have time. Sherbert is actually four aloe stems, so I guess Sherbert is a collective of four living organisms, but as for now, the name Sherbert shall suffice.

The cheap planter that came with does not make a good home at all, but I did not have money to buy him (or them?), so he’s sitting on my fridge by the window sill. My friend Ben said that he’d help me replant my Sherbert (or Sherberts?) Ben happens to be a Plant Genetics major, so he has unlimited access to soil!

Another exciting thing is that he’s working on germinating an Orange tree for me! I originally wanted a Dwarf Citrus (they smell very nice), but upon discussing, we came to the conclusion that since we don’t get much sunlight here, we could get a dwarf WITHOUT the drwarf genes… yeah. So you’ll have to wait to hear about that!

2. Running

I started running more seriously this semester. I ran last year, but I never developed a good schedule. So far, I’ve been good: I’ve been running 3 – 4 times a week for around thirty minutes. Nothing too amazing, but I’ve been running around 8 to 10 miles. The speed and stamina will come with time, but I’ve already noticed an improvement to my breathing patterns.

I have a weak respiratory tract and currently suffer from pretty bad allergies, but after my body finally adjusted to this exercise, I feel that I am more resilient to all the hacking and coughing I do. I’ve noticed less mucus in general (probably due to the help of a Steroid-based Nasal spray), but breathing, despite all the junk, has improved.

Since I don’t have many early classes, I wake up a little before seven AM and go to the gym on campus. I would run outside, but for two reasons I decided against it.

1. I’ve had so many leg injuries from Tae Kwon Do, soccer, track, my clumsiness and other accidents, running on the road might prove to be detrimental because of road inconsistency. Also, running outside is much more resistent than running on a tredmill (and an elliptical). Since I’m still building up my stamina (or I don’t have much of it yet), I think running outside would prove to be more discouraging. Maybe later, but not yet.
2. When I run, I zone out. I also happen to live on a college campus. And the situation is that there are a lot of careless drivers. My conclusion is that I would like to be not hit by a car. It’s a been there, done that… twice for me. (No! I was not jay-walking.)

Besides, I jog to and from the gym. That is my method of warming up and stretching. I, of course, stretch when I get to the gym, and make sure that my clothing is warm enough to keep my body temperature constant so my muscles don’t freeze up or something.

I want to be able to run a 5 k before I finish this year within thirty minutes. (Maybe a 7 k by the end of my junior year and a 10 k by my senior year. Perhaps I’ll just become a marathon runner! Mmm, not a very feasible plan, ay?)

My friend, Stephanie, who has been a LONG time runner (ran both XC and Track and Field in high school. And yes, she has won many-a-letter. She’s crazy about it!) recommended me that I keep a log to observe my progress (she even keeps a diary about it.), so we’ll see if that works out with my lethargy when it comes to book keeping.

While I don’t think I’ll be running any marathons any time soon (or half-marathons), but my goal is to keep running and improve my time, stamina, metabolism and breathing, lose a few pounds for my health (but slowly and surely. I don’t think 10 pounds over this academic year is a too difficult goal) and to de-stress from everything going on.

So that’s my life when I have one away from school, which techincally isn’t even possible since I live on campus. Oh well! Gotta try my best and keep that smile on the right way! Gotta go finish laundry!

Obama: Inflate Your Tires

While I do praise McCain for being more environmentally aware than his Republican predecessors, he still has a far way to go. It’s at least good that he recognizes that there is something called Global Warming and that at least part of the effect is caused by man. But he still remains true to his ruthless capitalist roots. In three words, the oil business.

McCain suggests to drill more so that supply would increase. While to the short-sighted drilling may temporarily seem to lower oil prices, this idea is far from the truth. Albeit the increased amount of oil supply, the remaining oil lessens. So more drilling equals less oil available, and ultimately, the price of oil will sky rocket in the coming years. Who wants that? The best solution, not only to protect the customers’ pocket, but also to protect the earth, is to develop or make efficient alternative energy.

McCain & Co. had ridiculed Obama throughout the campaign season to serve voters to his favour: nothing new. Mud-slinging has been practiced of old and McCain chose to degenerate to that lowly level. (See this article from The Boston Globe.)

Most recently, he derided Obama for his statement: inflate your tires. This process can save up to 4% of current oil spendings. On top of that, it’s safer for the driver and better for the environment. Obama made this statement to someone who asked “What can I do?” I think it to be an appropriate answer, but the Republican party had to obviously descend to lowly levels. Watch this video for Obama’s response.

I understand that different people have different views, and I respect that. However, why people have to descend to such a level (even the educated), I know not. I neither understand why people blindly refuse to see the effects of such destructive works. To me, this hating almost equates to science-bashing of the past. I’m not an industrialisation-hater, heck, I really like my computer and my refrigerator. But this world of ours isn’t only ours; we co-exist with other organisms of many levels and there still are generations of people to come. Why should we be wreck the world like a fool fumbling in the light?

That said, environmental conservation doesn’t have to be huge projects; it can start from small steps from turning off the lights to, well, inflating your tires.

Today’s punchline: “It’s like these people take pride in being ignorant!”
Need I say more?

Easy Green Household Tips: WATER

Not everyone wants to mix their own cleaning agents or make their own compost. As there are more and more households moving into apartments and to big cities, options such as shopping at the local farmers’ market aren’t always easy. So here are some easy tips. I’ve seen a few sites and often there is too much information on too many categories! So here’s my attempt specifically on water. Having grown up in a frugal family, some of the things I am about to say feel rather redundant. Regardless of my feelings, heed these tips! They require little energy, save you money and help the planet. Give them a try!

1. No leaky facets. Unless it’s an old house, most facets made nowadays aren’t even leaky. Just make sure that you turn it all the way to lock it. It doesn’t even take a millisecond once you get used to checking.
2. Reuse Water. I know there’s a lot of stuff on gray water, black water, refining water, blah blah, but some people can afford all the purifying systems or really want to spend that much money on it. My parents live in an apartment where they can’t fix things up, so some people are just stuck.
   So here’s my idea. Reuse water. The water you use to wash your greens often or boil your eggs is reusable. Perhaps not as drinking water, but you can use it to clean your house or water your plants (after they cool!). You can also get a bucket and store water there until you need it!
3. Cooking Try to do two things at once. For instance, you can boil your eggs and steam your veggies over the pot (I seem to boil a lot of eggs!). Old kitchen rules stand true here. Don’t wander off when you’re boiling. If you’re multi-tasking, keep an eye on it. This way you can a) prevent a fire b) prevent water boiling off and burning your eggs c) save energy d) prevent over cooking, and the list goes on. Oh, also try to boil with the lid on! It’ll save a lot of energy and whatever you’re boiling, it’ll boil quicker since the lid will retain the heat.
4. Laundry Try not to use bleach. Bleach is often very toxic, non-biodegradable and can go a LONG way. Lemon and citric acid products usually can do the job. I hear that eucalyptus oil is a miracle worker.
   Do your laundry only when you have a full load. Saves money, time and the environment! As a college student, when that two weeks wheels around, I know how much I hate it when I have drag down my laundry bag to the basement… I mean, who likes dumping clothes and fishing them out anyways?
   Wash your clothes in cold water. There’s really no need to wash in hot. As technology progresses, washers get better, so our lifestyle should reflect this change. If you have to wash a few clothes, try to hand wash. That way, it’ll be quicker, cheaper and energy efficient.
5. Dishes That sticky stuff on the bottom of your favourite saucer, you swear it won’t come off? Try mixing some liquid soap (how about biodegradable? ;D) and water and letting the saucer, cup or whatever sit a while. This will not only accelerate the process of getting it out, but also save you some furious scrubbing. You can also do this with all your dishes: plug your basin with your rubber stopper, fill it with warm water and add some soap. Do some swishing around, and let it sit for around 5 minutes. Ultimately, it’ll be easier for you to do the rinsing out, and in the meanwhile, you can wipe your table with the water you saved from cooking! ;)
   Use a dish washer? Some say that dish waters can actually save water. Skip the pre-rinsing, it really doesn’t help much. Don’t use the drying function either. After the machines done washing, just open it. The heat itself should help the water evaporate. This way you can save water, your electricity bill and mother Earth!
6. Put a brick in your cistern. While many new apartments offer options of two different flush systems (at least in Korea), this option might not be available for some. However, by putting a brick in your cistern, the toilet will be able to give out less water. Hence, you save money with each flush, and create less black water that goes to sewage!
7. Beauty Requirements?: This is a really easy way to do it and make you water bill less. Take navy showers. Like luxurious showers? If you’re one of those people that hogs up the bathroom for 3 hours, consider taking short showers during the week and a luxurious warm shower/bath for the weekends as a treat. Hot water does more harm to the hair and scalp, so lukewarm water is both better for you and the environment. Need to open up your pores? Take a towel and immerse it in hot water. With the towel you can manage where the heat goes more easily and for a longer duration. Don’t just splash all that water around. Also, don’t let the water run when you’re brushing your teeth.

Methinks these tips are easy, practical, but also can leave a huge impact in the long run if each and every family do them. Remember that there are people not as privileged to have such water readily at disposal; so many people die from thirst itself yearly. And even if not for them, it will give you a smaller bill and a heavier wallet, while making a difference for the world!

Eco-friendly Pledge

So I know a bunch of people that are urbanites, that enjoy the diversity, the awesome food and the culture, but I don’t know anyone who likes the pollution and rubbish that city life brings. I’ve always grown up in the city-suburb setting, meaning that I lived in tree-loving places that were less than 30 minutes away from downtown. I really took recycling, global-warming, anti-pollution policies as granted, well, that was, until I moved to the US. Let me explain before you start huffin’ and puffin’.

I know that people’s stances differ on many environmental politics and occurrences, but it was the first time in my almost 18 years of my life, that I met people who thought that global warming wasn’t happening. I’ve lived in three big cities in South Korea, Vancouver, Canada and lastly in Wassenaar (near Den Haag), the Netherlands, and I come to the US and I hear people say that, global warming isn’t a problem! Regardless of the origin of it, whether man-made or a natural earthly cycle, but it was the first time being in a country that out right denied the occurrence. McCain’s the Republican nominee, and he actually cares for the environment. McCain said that he realizes that global warming is an actual problem and if elected president, he’s going to deal with it. Cool, right?

Not for some people. What caught me by surprise is when I was reading through an online Christian news source that has some good stuff. Some people were hating on Obama, which sadly isn’t too surprising with their racist and uneducated remarks, but they’re even against McCain because he cares about the environment. What I just find so disgustingly ironic is that most of these people enjoy the environment through camping, fishing or hunting. They seem to have failed on the pre-school lesson on clean up after you play game. If you don’t clean your room, it will get dirty. Same logic. If you don’t clean your neighbourhood after camping, the waste will accumulate and you can’t camp there anymore. So if you like it, care for it! Your carp won’t last long, and next year might be the last time you get to stuff some wild baby boar that you caught.

Anyways, that’s my tuppence on these elections. Here’s what this post’s main purpose was before I digressed. I had to make a few important decisions last year upon entering college, and here’s my pledge this year. I care for the environment, hence I will act to prove it. One of my favourite Bible verses:

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
-1 John 3:18

Action Plan:

1. Reduce Waste. Don’t print out or buy useless crap.
2. Recycle like there’s no tomorrow.
3. Reuse. Be creative.
4. Do laundry and dishes with cold water.
5. Turn off my laptop when I go to bed… save energy. And hibernate when not in use. (Better than Sleep)
6. Unplug stuff not in use.
7. Turn off/down AC when not needed.
8. Shorter showers. And don’t let the water run when you’re brushing your teeth.
9. Use both sides of notebook paper. This would help a lot of people on school supplies, too.
10. Eat green! :)

So yeah, that’s it for now. And here’s my pledge bracelet I made.

The colours are obviously earthy ones. White for glaciers, the two greens for plants and organic, tan for arid landscape and brown for soil, orange for other life. I actually also made another anklet, but that’s for another time.

So here it is. I hope this works out for the better.

PS. I got a new fan to combat heat. It’s also an energy saving model. Hah!

PPS. 4 days until rafting!