roughin it like a boss

Day 6 AND 7 Log (because I forgot to do it yesterday)

CONSUMPTION
• Water: I brushed my teeth and washed my face in the morning and at night. I flushed the toilet and washed my hands (45 secs each time, on average). I washed the dishes twice in the past two days (ran the faucet for about 5 minutes each time). I showered for 20 minutes on Day 6 (every other day is the typical routine).
• Food: Day 6’s gorging experience includes half of a foot-long home-made chicken caesar pita wrap, a banana, one of Vanessa Caban’s divine beef pastelitos, two small canolis, a slice of crumb cake, peanut butter M&Ms, roasted nuts, and half a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. Day 7’s intake is comprised of lots of chocolate bars, lots of hazelnuts, Greek feta cheese pie, milfe (Greek pastry), and Greek cherry juice (best drink in the world, Amita brand, BUY IT).
• Gasoline: Commuted by bus all Day 6 excepting a ride from BLS to my house (Roslindale) after the Hypnotist show. Drove, like, 0.5 miles round trip to buy my yummy Greek cuisine on Day 7.
• Electricity: On Day 6, I used the computer for about 30 minutes in AP Stats class, and passed time on my iPod. I charged my iPod twice today (I’ve been using it for about 97% of the day), watched TV with the famfam, and watched The Simple Life on the computer.
• Money: I spent about $10 yesterday on junk food. I’m ashamed of myself.

REDUCTION:
I didn’t follow the suggested themes of either of these days, I’m afraid. Living humbly has become more of a routine so I’m now more conscious of the wastefulness of generally everything I do. I’m very good about conserving water, electricity, and gasoline. My food intake is rather despicable, however, and I can’t seem to get past that. I’m also disappointed about the amount of money I spent on everything. I nearly cried when I saw the balance on my bank account this morning.

SUSTAINABILITY:
I have happily noticed that this household is remarkably energy efficient. We just bought it two years ago and are still remodeling it to this day so much of the stuff we have is new and environmentally friendly-ish. The water boiler and the fridge, for example, are supposed to save a lot of electricity (not sure how), and the toilet has two different flush buttons: one for bodily secretion #1, and another for bodily secretion #2. They differ in terms of water amount and water pressure. In addition, the walls are newly insulated so the rooms retain heat for a long time even after the heat is off. Lastly, the entire family congregates into the dining room and huddles in front of the fireplace, which allows us to turn off the heat in the house and bond. Personally, I’m trying to limit my water use as much as possible, by jumping right into the shower instead of waiting for it warm up first, and brushing my teeth outside the shower, not in it while the water is running, and generally shampooing/conditioning more swiftly. I’ll never be able to stop using my iPod. That is, unless I get a laptop, which is assume uses more electricity. I just fail at my food consumption but I think that creating a list of things to eat would be helpful because much of the time, when I’m hungry, the deciding process and preparation time alone are enough to dissuade me from outing effort into eating well. It’s a problem.

FOLLOWING:
Here is the big question: how on earth does one manage to take a shower which is shorter than 10 minutes in length? I see so many people patting themselves on the back for it and I wonder if the shower is long enough to thoroughly clean. Just kidding, I don’t doubt the cleanliness of my classmates but I seriously wanna know what process people go through to shower, which takes them such a brief amount of time. Lastly, I’m inspired by everyone’s resistance to Facebook. I’m in need of some tips, so let me know, as you strong-willed winners!

PS: I watched a documentary today on National Geographic called “The Real Slumdogs” about the impoverished residents of India and their lifestyles. It was eye-opening, to say the least. And I swear I’m not trying to be racist when I say this, but you know that they say that Asians and Indians dominate the field of medicine in America? The documentary kind of justifies the fact. I think we should watch a part of this film, at the very least, it is truly worthwhile.

Technology Thursday! (Day Five)

Consumption:

-Water: I drank between one and two glasses of water today. I washed my face and hands, brushed my teeth, and flushed the toilet. I also ran the faucet in the kitchen for about 5 minutes while I washed a small load of dishes.
-Food: I had no breakfast this morning and was starving by the time lunch came around. I was so hungry that I devoured a very large, very full bowl of egg fried rice and chicken in 15 minutes time. I had a granola bar following that. My next meal was just 2 hours ago when I had a home-made chicken caesar wrap, a slice of banana nut bread, and a small bowl of grapes.
-Gasoline: I took the bus and train to and from school today. (45-60 minute trip, about 10-12 miles total.) Public transportation utilizes gas doesn’t it? But apparently it’s still better than driving? I wonder what the comparative statistic is for driving versus public transportation. I wonder if it’s worth all the time spent sitting on the bus and counting minutes.
-Electricity: Today I did not watch TV, and I did not use the computer. Okay, my iPod is basically my portable computer but it doesn’t use as much energy as does a laptop! I used the microwave for a quick 40 seconds.
-Money: Thank god I was running late this morning and didn’t have time to make or buy breakfast, because if I did, I would’ve eaten all of Dunkin Donuts.That means so money spent today!

Reduction:
I’d say I’m naturally pretty good about my use of electricity so nothing seems to have changed in terms of that. My iPod is definitely my primary technological tool and the only time it uses up electricity is when it’s plugged in to charge so it’s pretty safe. The lack of TV and computer is a bit painful but I guess it was for the better; I probably spared myself a few brain cells.

Sustainability:
I realized yesterday just how environmentally friendly this house is and I was delighted about it! My toilet, for example, has two buttons that are designed to affect the pressure and amount of water flushing depending on your load. That saves water. Since I’m so busy being a miserable BLS student, I can’t even imagine having the free time to spend on other electronics. That certainly helps my sustainability goal! I’d better receive my TV time, though!

Following:
I love many of the things that show up on my dashboard thanks to all the enviro students. The pictures are actually very very stimulating and intriguing, the videos are hilarious, and the posts are just posts. People are doing so much better than I am. It’s just hard to remind myself to downgrade and live on a developing nation’s standard but these posts are keeping me motivated.

Try Harder Tuesday! (Day Three)

1.) Consumption
-Water: I drank about 3 glasses of water today, which is amazing because many days I live on 3 sips of water. 15 minute shower, washed my hands about 6 times, and hand-washed some dishes, which took about 8 minutes of running water from the faucet.
-Food: Bacon egg and cheese on a multigrain bagel for breakfast, 3 fries for lunch, 4 packs of Nerds, home-made mac & cheese for dinner, 2 butterfingers (and some other candy), and 2 slices of pizza for later dinner.
-Gasoline: Took the bus/train to and from school!
-Electricity: 5 hours of computer-usage, 30 minutes of TV. Lots of iPod usage…
-Money: $4.00 total for breakfast and lunch.

2.) Reduction:
Today I was supposed to try harder to be healthier in terms of my eating and eat lower on the food chain but, BOY DID THAT FAIL. There’s just no time to plan this kind of stuff and manage it. What with all the homework and whatnot, I just have to grab whatever’s edible and eat it while I multitask. So sad. I was also supposed to cut down on social networking…woooops.

3.) Sustainability:
I typically take a 20 minute shower every day so the fact that I was able to cut that down by 5 minutes was an accomplishment all by itself! I’d love to see myself eating more fruits and veggies and multigrain breads, but that’s more of a long-term goal. I can’t transition from Nerds to trail mix in a day. Although I love trail mix. But water conservation seems very doable, as does cutting down on the social networking. Perhaps I ought to deactivate my Facebook account…just kidding.

4.) Following:
Of course everyone is talking about their water conservation because it’s relevant to what we’ve been discussing amongst each other in class. Well according to the activity we did in class today, I only spend 245 gallons of water per week, which is about 1/5 of the average American teenager, so I’d say I’m doing pretty well. I wish I had the resolve to stay off Facebook like many others but it’s an addition which will not easily yield.

Social Networking Sunday! (Day 1)

1.) Consumption
-Water: I’m sad to say that today I drank almost a full bottle of Poland Spring water. Why? Because I was too lazy to go to the sink to fill up a cup so I reached for the closest source of thirst-quenching. That’s all the water I drank. Otherwise, my water use was comprised of toilet-flushing, hand-washing (I let the water run for a while until it turns warm because my hands are naturally freezing cold and I need WARMTH), and face-washing/teeth-brushing in the morning.
-Food: I must’ve eaten a bite of everything in the world today. Let’s see, in the morning, I had a Luna bar, Goldfish crackers, Nerds candy, and Sour Patch Kids candy. By 4 o’clock, I went to Old Country Buffet and ate like a southern fatty: carbonara pasta, mashed potatoes, pot roast, fried fish, corn chowder, corn, salad, a taco, banana pudding, coconut cream pie, and tiramisu, and a raspberry-lemonade ICEE! It was a good day. I kinda hate myself.
-Electricity: The lights in my room and the charger of my iPod are the only two sources of electricity usage I relied on today, HOORAY!
-Gasoline: I used enough gas to get me from Roslindale to Walpole and back.
-Money: I spent 5 cents when I gave my sisters five pennies to throw into a fountain at the mall. I wonder if those pennies would have been worth something substantial to a family in a developing country…

2.) Reduction
Aside from my food consumption, I did pretty darn well today! Then again, that’s because I was at home for most of the day and occupied my time by texting and cleaning my room. I actually didn’t consciously cut back on anything for the sake of this project; I simply didn’t need much electricity or heat or whatever other resource. I normally shower every other day so that wasn’t a problem. The food I ate at the buffet, however, probably took crazy amounts of energy to cook. Sadly enough, I didn’t finish any of the dishes I filled up, and we know where the remnants go, so I am pretty disgusted with myself for wasting so much food. One of the posts on my dashboard has been resonating in my head this whole day: if you can eat 3 meals a day for 3 straight weeks, you’re among the top 15% wealthiest people in the world. WHAT!?!?!?!?!? I sincerely hope I misread that, because it’s eating away at my conscience. Also today has made me realize how ridiculously unhealthy I am. One thing that is of note is that I did not have that junkfood lying around in my cabinet. It came from my Show Choir spirit bag from Baystate this weekend. How am I not obese and/or suffering from clogged arteries at this point? I did try to cut back on my social networking, but I kinda sorta failed. I use my iPod as a computer on a regular basis so I’m ALWAYS using it. My friend, knowing how ADD-prone I am, convinced me to delete my Facebook app so that I wouldn’t be as tempted to go on as often, and therefore focus on my homework. She forgot that I have a web browser which fosters a tab permanently logged on to Facebook. Woops! I was on Facebook quite a few times today, for about a minute each time, because there were pictures of an event that I had attended. Also, when I get bored or restless I look through my newsfeed and read status updates. Getting unhooked from Facebook is a long and difficult process. Thank god I’m not into Twitter or any other social networking site. I’d never get anything done! The only other website I frequent religiously is Pandora Radio. I’ll never let go of Pandora.

3.) Sustainability
I’m definitely going to have to start practicing better eating habits and not just for the sake of the environment. Processed food, I’d assume, is just as bad environmentally as it is in terms of health because of the energy that goes into preparing it in some dingy factory. Perhaps eating lower in the food chain would be wiser, but what with all the time constraints of being a BLS student, I highly doubt I have the time or energy to plan a significant shift in my eating habits. I’ll try, though, to have my mom buy more fruits than packaged snacks. Starting small is better than not starting at all. Speaking of which, I’d like to say that I’m gonna start cutting down on my Facebook accessibility but it’s a consistently tried and failed and futile action. Besides, in my defense, my cousins in Albania (a DEVELOPING country) get more than their fill of Facebook-stalking on a daily basis. As far as electricity goes, I’ve always been pretty good with conserving it. I’m very conscious of the lights throughout the house and turn them off every time I leave the room. I unplug everything I’m not using. And I hate the microwave. The one thing I’d like to be more aware of is the TV usage. I noticed that my sisters leave it on for hours at a time even when they’re not watching it and it aggravates me to no end. The thing is, the TV is new and high-tech so it has a motion-sensor which turns off the television after a prolonged period of no movement in the room. I just have to figure out how to work it. Thats all for today!