Signifying nothing

At 6:17 it was 54 degrees at Snowbird's tram base. Spring is here, my friends. Slushy snow sports for at least the next two months. I predict Snowbird's final day will be July 4. I love winter, but I think I am having a scandalous affair with summer.

zefrank has the best video ever for the worlds most craptastic song . (Oh and my post is not technically Rickrolling , given that my reference is specifically to said craptastica.)

Earth Day Challenge Day 7: Sweep the Porch Originally uploaded by Theorris I thought about doing something big for the last day of the Challenge, and also because it is Earth Day, but then something that Hightouchmegastore wrote on her blog about the small things that we do are really what is going to make a difference, and I realized that this is what the Challenge is really about: we do make a difference in the small things we choose to do. Yes the big things are important (hell I've already given up driving for all intents and purposes) but the small things that we can continue to do beyond the EDC are what really matters. As a matter of fact all of my things I think I can keep doing. Now as for sweeping, there are a couple of benefits: you don't waste water by hosing down the porch and secondly you cut down on vacuuming because not as much of the outside is tracked inside. Sweeping the porch, in fact, used to be a daily activity for our ancestors. I still recall that ever...

Earth Day Challenge Day 6: Set Energy Savings on my computer Originally uploaded by Theorris Somewhere along the way I set my computer up with very energy conservation unfriendly setting. While the default of 10 minutes for sleep mode is not the greatest, it is better than the 2 hours it was set at before. Yeesh.

Earth Day Challege Day 5: Buy a carbon offset Originally uploaded by Theorris I was traveling quite a lot this spring, therefore I am buying a carbon offset. This one from NativeEnergy funds alternative energy. I was thinking about buying one that plants trees too.

Earth Day Challege Day 4: Wash on Cold Originally uploaded by Theorris Ok this is an easy one, really since I only do laundry once a week as it is. Basically there isn't much reason to wash on anything but cold these days (aside from sheets, I guess). Most of the clothes we buy state that they should be washed on cold as it is, and they last longer when you do. Washing on cold saves energy and therefore money, which means I can buy more of yesterday's challenge item.

Here you go, lisa b and Dr. Write: bag the bag !

Earth Day Challenge Day 3: Buy Local (Beer!) Originally uploaded by Theorris In Utah it can be a bit difficult to buy local given our short growing seasons (because of altitude) and the fact that many Utah farms have been replaced by sprawling suburbs. It is possible, of course, to buy local and there are even a few farms left in the Salt Lake Valley (but not many). One thing that Utah has, however, are some pretty tasty local brews. Although this will be a somewhat pricey commitment, I vow to only drink Utah brewed bear for the next 4 days. And what am I drinking? Uinta Brewing's Blue Sky Ale. Tasty.

If my March/April weren't hell on wheels I would have joined Color Wars 2008 . Oh well. I am particularly looking forward to SmackTalk Haiku, as I look forward to all things Haiku and most smack talk when it has to do with basketball. I shall, therefore, offer you a SmackTalk Haiku in anticipation of of the Jazz trouncing the Rockets tomorrow night: The only red glare Will be from your spanked asses Oh flopping Rockets Woo hoo, a Star-spangled Banner reference!

EDC 2: OFF or Finally doing what my mother told me Originally uploaded by Theorris Years ago my mother used to yell at us kids repeatedly to shut the lights off. Being a kid, of course, I never listened which generally prompted her to yell, yet again, "Do you need every light in the house on!" My zealous desire to light my little part of the world, has lead to the very bad habit of leaving lights on for rooms where no one enters for hours. This has got to stop--even if I have replaced most of the light bulbs with fluorescent bulbs, it is still a waste. I vow, therefore, to turn lights off when not needed. Hopefully this will stick passed the 6 days left in EDC.

DIY low-flow toilet! Originally uploaded by Theorris This is my first Earth Day Challenge activity: a DIY low-flow toilet. In sequence above is how it is done. Fr 1) Get a jar of some sort. Here I have secured a 1 quart Vlassic pickle jar. Open the toilet and get ready to 2) submerge said jar in the tank. It is important that you place the jar in the tank and not the bowl. Placing the jar in the bowl will cause nothing but sorrow. Placing the jar in the tank will save you, your local water constabulary, and the earth the amount of water your jar contains. 3) place the lid on the jar. This is strictly optional, as according to the laws of gravity water is not going to mysteriously fly out of the jar once the tank is empty, no matter if it desires to return to the ocean via the sewer system. 4) Be proud of your earth-friendly efforts.

The Earth Day Challenge has begun! So far (and I'll be updating this post as I see more action), Dr. Write has gone baggy-less for lunch . Arts Enthusiast is looking for a job she can walk to. Hightouchmegastore has put reusable shopping bags in her car ! I'm waiting to return home to post my initial earth-friend maneuver, since I also need to take a picture of it for the Earth Day Challenge flickr group , but I will note that it has something to do with, you guessed it, the toilet! Now I know you are looking forward to what I have to post! In any case, I might note that I did retrieve my lunch bag from its nearly month-long trip to pantry isolation. Being out of town a lot really messes with bringing lunch to work. I suppose that could be my first day's thing, but a toilet is just so much more photogenic!

Oy: April 16 came upon us quickly, eh? I don't have 7 things to do yet, so I'm going to have to think fast and do some research.

Do you know how sulfa drugs (one of the first antibiotics) work? Well apparently certain cavorting wee beasties (also known as bacteria) need a vitamin that is similar in chemical construction to the sulfa drugs in order to survive. When sulfa is applied, the wee beasties think it is Thanksgiving and gorge themselves on the pseudo-food. As it turns out, bad luck for them, the sulfa compounds do not provide anything for the reproductive cycle and the bacteria end up childless and condemned to a lonely life in the bacterial equivalent of the old folks home and the grim reaper (in this case white blood cells), takes care of the rest. Therefore, no offspring: no infection. Fascinating!

I was attending to work, traveling to yet another conference today, so I had the pleasure of listening to Hot Rod call the game for the Jazz against los Nuggets. There is nothing like hearing how the best team in the NBA (Utah) trounced another good NBA team (Denver) while traveling through the marrow of the world. Jazz.

It is good to see that home cooking is still favored in Dallas. Case in point: How many times can the Jazz be fouled and never get the call yet someone even breaths on Terry or Nowitski and it is free trip to the line? How hard a foul does poor Korver have to take in the last minute of the game before they call a foul for him and then don't give the ball back to Dallas? How many times do they have to foul Williams on a three point shot before the officials call it? (Apparently not twice as that is how many times he was fouled at the end of the game.) Did you notice that it was Rat Face who was officiating? Only Dick Bavetta is better at throwing games for whoever the Jazz are playing against. Well there was that ref who was BUSTED for betting against the Jazz (among other teams) but he was just the fall guy for the shenanigans that basically pervade NBA officiating. Think I have an ax to grind?

That's right: Utah Jazz: Utah secures another division title - Salt Lake Tribune . Over the last couple of games the Jazz seem to have discovered that they can indeed play defense and shut high-scoring teams down. The playoffs are going to be great. Even if the Jazz dive out early, I am going to look back on this season with great fondness.

Big River Sunrise Originally uploaded by Theorris The Mississippi at Sunrise. My hotel in New Orleans had a great view of the river churning away below.

I recieved the following email this morning from friend Fallinahole (or J.T. as he sometimes wont to comment here) about the recent Stanley Fish review of the upcoming book French Theory: How Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze, & Co. Transformed the Intellectual Life of the United States: I guess all I can do is sit back and entertain myself with ceaseless mockery of everything, especially myself (whatever that is). JT to which I responded I don't think Fish is saying that is all that Deconstruction does: he is saying that part of the problem is that Deconstructionists ended their analysis and took up positions that could easily be deconstructed themselves. Ultimately I think, as he says, D is a farce in its very approach, or a war-like drama. Now, of course, he doesn't offer anything in its stead in this article, but he has elsewhere. He always has been a firebrand, and that seems to be an end unto itself for him. I think it is more interesting to look at the response that ...

I've been too busy to even think of one prank to play on any one, let alone prank on the blog. I have, however, had the odd good idea that pops into my head about the blog: A "Fascinating Facts" series, since I apparently know a lot about nothing in particular (no doubt this will go the same way as all my other failed attempt at being consistent with any thing on this site). A discourse on places I have wanted to see in the past but no longer wish to see, accompanied by a similar discourse on places I would really like to see but most likely never will. A list of links for the Earth Day Challenge to inspire fellow travelers on conservation methods they can engage in. An inventory of the pens that have made their way into my pen bucket. (This one would be visual and perhaps haiku.) A tribute to odd socks. (Again visual, but not poetic.) A recap of the Jazz season with a clear explanation of their massively good second half of the season. A better review of Scott Kelby...

So for his second ever outing in the NBA, Fesenko was thwacked again. In his previous Jazz experience it was a elbow to the eye, which causes for instant court-side stitches. Last night it was a forearm to the nose (and more blood). Talk about welcome to the NBA. In other Fesenko news, my friend Hopabout saw him at the store buying flowers the Saturday before last. She speculated, of course, that he was going on a date. She found the whole experience of seeing him doing this "cute."