Go Green and Get Exercise

Seen Below is a picture of the Exercise equipment at Rachael and I's apartment complex. The two of us made a new years resolution to get more exercise and at least one of us is getting it, but not while using one of these fancy machines.



There's nothing like running as fast as you can to make it to ride the Go Calvin Shuttle. As many of you know me (sean) this is a very perpetual part of my life, running from place to place. Having a tight schedule and wanting to spend every free moment with my wonderful wife, means that I have to run...a lot...to get anywhere.

Take for instance the shuttle service that Calvin College nicely provides for us Calvin students living in the Glen Oaks apartments about a mile from campus. It is a great service and an awesome way to cut down on Rachael and I's carbon emissions and save cash on gas. The only problem is that every morning it is like playing russian roulette to find out whether, I got up early enough and if the Shuttle already left or not.



Well, this isn't such a big deal for most of you, but for me this amounts to a several times a week sprint from our apartment to try and catch the shuttle. If you are looking to lose weight I strongly suggest getting yourself a tight schedule, poor sleeping habits, and a fascination for mass transit. This will enable you to each morning to sprint out of your front door, as a thouroughbred sprints from the gates at the Kentucky Derby.

So far I've lost 5 pounds! And you can too!

Insight and the art of Crappy Blog Updating Maintenance

Did you ever see the show Banzai? Well, if you have seen it you have just likely sat back from your computer and sighed to yourself in positive elation. For those of you who haven't, watch the following video link - Banzai Granny Wheelchair Chicken.

Rachael and I saw that Honda Insight on the road on our way to Chapel Hill, NC on a college visit last weekend. Despite our blog and interested in "Greenify-ing" our lives the first thought that came to my mind was not how many lbs of carbon emissions Mr. Honda Insight driver was saving our planet, but rather it concocted the next great Banzai challenge!


(Pictures to Scale)

In my head I pitted this poor little Honda Insight vs. the Peterbuilt Semi, hauling 40 tons of Chinese made goodies, that was trailing behind the Honda. If you notice the the sign in front of this picture imminently mentions a steep downward grade off a mountain pass in Western Virginia (ain't to be confuse' wit' West Virginy).

Now the Banzai scenario I depicted was not if the Peterbuilt would collide and destroy the Insight, but rather at what point down this steep incline it would happen. At what mile marker will Mr. Green B. Inconcscious's Honda be splattered on the grille of Mrs. Haw L. Nass' Semi. Would it be mile market 1, mile marker 2, or mile marker 3? Place bets NOW!!!!



Ok, so this didn't happen. But I do see a lesson within this train of thought. 1) I was built up as a consumers and haven't thought about it enough or put into practice as a whole, being more conscious of our limited resources. This is evidenced in my initial response to the sight Honda Insight. I find that this is not because my parents didn't raise me right (Rachael seems to think they did a great job) its because our psychy as American consumers is built this way

Going green comes at a cost, whether it be financial, social, or dangerous, like when your car is too small to be noticed by runaway Semi's.

What do you think?

Want to save on energy: host a cocktail party!

Rachael and I just got the opportunity to use our Williams and Sonoma gift card, which was given to us by the Fuller family at Rachael's bridal shower. Originally I wanted to buy a meat grinder to attach to our new KitchenAid "Kick booty" mixer.

Instead the two of us decided it would be more stewardly of our gift to buy 2 cookbooks, one on cooking vegetarian meals and the other on how to host a cocktail party.

The two of us now knowing how to concoct a Mojito, can't wait to make them for company. What we didn't know as we found out from another book The Lazy Environmentalist, that by having one more body in your home puts off the equivalent heat of a 100w space heater for the same amount of time. Meaning heating a home would come much easier the more people who are invited and show up.

Those of you wishing to offset your carbon footprint and lower your heating bills could drop the thermostat from 72 (Rachael and I freeze our butts off at 65 degrees, but for a good cause) to a lower setting, and invite friends over for a cocktail party. If you truly wish to keep your costs low make it BYOB, although this kind of defeats the purpose of the cocktail party.

The Baker's KitchenAid Mixer Stats:
Color: gunmetal gray
Speed: 9000 RPMs
0-60 Chocolate Chunk Cookies from Scratch/ sitting: 3.7 seconds
Note: the only thing to make it look more intimidating would be a racing stripe and tailfins


Picture Left: Artist Rendering

Google Users Switch to Blackle.com

I just found out from a friend that you can now save energy by using blackle.com which is Google's attempt to save the world by reducing the energy output during searching. Seriously, now you can save wattage and surf the net. so far 352,000 watt hours have been saved. Now if only this blog were like blackle....

Going Green at a New Low Monthly Price!

Looking through my college's library magazine section, I was astounded by the number of periodicals touting issues on Green topics this month. Industry week to Instructor Magazine, National Geographic and many others all have issues on Green topics this week.

The one that caught my eye on my monthly walk-through of the magazine section was Kiplinger's. Now generally I regard this magazine as a little pretentious, but this is mainly due to my doting affection toward Money mag, a key rival. This month's issue is chock full of great ideas and I can't wait to go home to put them into action.

First off, I leave my computer on way too much. According to "29 Ways to Conserve and Save" by turning on the sleep function of a pc this can curb the flow of power to use 95% less electricity, without losing work or that last run toward the playoffs on Tecmo Super Bowl (a football game for the old nintendo system)


This may and probably is common sense to most people, but it probably can't hurt to be reminded of this.

My dead car

My fiance Rachael and I just had a downer this week. My car, a 1996 Buick Regal Gran Sport*, died this past Monday. It had been doing so well for the last five months since I returned from my seven month excursion abroad, not a problem at all. Tragically, as I was driving from my home to pick up Rachael and go to visit our good friends, the Wilsterman's, the car's engine exploded. Now it wasn't a big boom, it was more like a crack, pop, and fizzle. This was not the best time for it to explode. And it certainly was not expected.

I had the car towed and walked back to my apartment in the snow. Rachael met me on the walk back and we trudged back to our apartment complex cold and frustrated. What would we do now? We didn't even have a car to take us on our honeymoon to Florida.

Luckily, our families chipped in and they are letting us borrow a car. Also, this spring we are likely to get the help of our family, the money made off my dead car, and our own savings to buy a new vehicle. Awesome, right?

Certainly, now we have some time to ponder what car to buy, but we already have one in mind. A used Hybrid. We have both wanted a hybrid for a while. Both of us wanted one initially because the Regal got only 17MPG in the City, the small-midsize Hybrids get over 30 (some over 40). Now we looked into it and they sound really appealing and a 2003-05 with low miles looks about in our price range.

Its nice to be able to use up less gas and with gas prices likely to rise again in the near future, our bank accounts could definetely benefit from the reduced cost.

Also recently, we found that the car emits less CO2 than other cars. We both have been pondering how we could "Go Green" and this might be our first step, albeit a big first step....

As a Boy Scout, I was trained on how to reduce my impact and Rachael and I are going to try to use this philosophy in our married life. Scouts Honor.


We found Cars.com 's hybrid buying guide to be very useful. Check it out at http://www.cars.com/go/crp/buyingGuides/index.jsp?aff=national

*Gran Sport essentially means a cool two tone and "sport" suspension.