Monday, April 23, 2007
Saturday, April 21, 2007
blacksburg
"And that was all the killing there would be at one mountainside college campus on one awful Monday."
is this the end of a 'tonight on fox' grimm fairy tale knockoff? is there some moral to the story implied by this statement? a line from a high school newspaper reporting in VA? or is it just a very poorly-written conclusion for the nytimes aritcle about the chain of events last monday.
yes, the latter is true.
the mancave resident is an alum of virginia tech and these few months i've known him i've gone from never having heard of blacksburg toward associating it immediately with a class of uniqueness that must be particular to those old american landscapes of the colonial states. i don't think anyone i've met is actually from VA originally, but they seem to have adopted, just by living there, this gene from our founding fathers that makes them odd, talented, mischeavous, creative, determined in their visions, and easily compassionate. i know just a handful of fellow alums, but others from blacksburg turn up everywhere- i mean, everywhere- and often times gatherings in denver turn into impromtu blacksburg reunions where, when familiar faces turn up, the question isn't "did i know you in blacksburg?" but rather, "how well did i know you in blacksburg?"
m texted me at work on monday, where i was doing my produce thing with no access to national news events, and all it said was "tragic day in blacksburg". having the peripheral/personal connection to it that i have, i immediately wondered whether one of his friends had met with a terrible accident, or perhaps if a beloved landmark had burned to the ground.
anybody would be shaken at the least to hear that a building where they attended class was scene for a massacre. anyone would be shaken to hear that there was a massacre at all. but it was in this place that i've come to appreciate as a source, and, in my most selfish response to this event, i'm hurt that my association with blacksburg has been changed to include a sick young man brandishing guns.
and i'm mad that a write at the nytimes wrote the above sentence. come on.
is this the end of a 'tonight on fox' grimm fairy tale knockoff? is there some moral to the story implied by this statement? a line from a high school newspaper reporting in VA? or is it just a very poorly-written conclusion for the nytimes aritcle about the chain of events last monday.
yes, the latter is true.
the mancave resident is an alum of virginia tech and these few months i've known him i've gone from never having heard of blacksburg toward associating it immediately with a class of uniqueness that must be particular to those old american landscapes of the colonial states. i don't think anyone i've met is actually from VA originally, but they seem to have adopted, just by living there, this gene from our founding fathers that makes them odd, talented, mischeavous, creative, determined in their visions, and easily compassionate. i know just a handful of fellow alums, but others from blacksburg turn up everywhere- i mean, everywhere- and often times gatherings in denver turn into impromtu blacksburg reunions where, when familiar faces turn up, the question isn't "did i know you in blacksburg?" but rather, "how well did i know you in blacksburg?"
m texted me at work on monday, where i was doing my produce thing with no access to national news events, and all it said was "tragic day in blacksburg". having the peripheral/personal connection to it that i have, i immediately wondered whether one of his friends had met with a terrible accident, or perhaps if a beloved landmark had burned to the ground.
anybody would be shaken at the least to hear that a building where they attended class was scene for a massacre. anyone would be shaken to hear that there was a massacre at all. but it was in this place that i've come to appreciate as a source, and, in my most selfish response to this event, i'm hurt that my association with blacksburg has been changed to include a sick young man brandishing guns.
and i'm mad that a write at the nytimes wrote the above sentence. come on.
Friday, April 20, 2007
the dump
part of becoming a master composter is developing a true appreciation for the tricks us modern beings employ to deal with urban waste. our class went on a field trip yesterday (and i forgot my juice box, damn it) to the aforementioned facilities in denver county, and what did i learn? many things (and please, sister, mind that you use the word 'dump' as a noun refering to garbage, not a verb refering to you know what- this is serious stuff!):
1. plastic is evil
2. nothing 'biodegrades' in a dry dump, it just gets buried. ours is dry mostly because of the fact that we live in a desert, but otehrs are designed to be wet dumps because of higher average rainfalls, so the moisture level of the landfill allows for a bit more decomposition. still, an anthropologist, whose names escapes me right now, found an intact hot dog dating at least 25 years in the fresh kills landfill. that stuff you hear about the twinkie is true- even biodegradable things like, i don't know, jiffy pots, will probably never biodegrade so much as they'll get crushed into oblivion. you can easily find readable newspapers 30 years old in many landfills, though i didn't get a chance to date any material at DADS because we weren't allowed to get near the actual 'dumped' material.
3. one cell at the DADS landfill had to be leveled from its height of 400 feet because it disrupted a flightpath from DIA.
4. an average of 1200 trucks tip at DADS every day. each truck holds a fuck lot of trash- i can't remember the weight. tons.
5. hazardous materials will sometimes be detected, but most of the time paint, solvents, cleaners, etc. are thrown out with the trash in residences or go unseen in commercial/construction debris. that means a lot of toxic nast filters through to the bottom and gets caught by the lining, then turns into 'leachate' with the other run-off. sometimes the leachate gets sprayed on the top of the material to cut down on dust.
6. landfills produce 34% of the methane emissions. .... i think i mentioned that in an earlier posting. 34%!
7. on last year's composting class tour to DADS the guide said there was a good 120 years left at this landfill before it is landfull. this year he said there are 100 years.
8. a bale of aluminum cans is worth about $900.
9. most recyclable paper in the U.S. gets sold to china.
10. recycling facilities are really loud and sort of like a willy wonka factory. here are some oompa-loompas sorting paper:
11. most forms of public transportation put me to sleep. this realization had nothing whatever to do with class- just something i've noticed every time i get on a bus or plane.
12. the dump really doesn't stink that much.
13. the wastewater reclamation district DOES. oh man it was foul. i only took one picture there, and here it is:
14. every day, gallons upon gallons of expired beverages arrive at recycling facilities. this beer is only about a quarter of what we saw:
two guys open up each box, take the canned/bottled drinks out of the their plastic holders or six packs and toss them into a big crushing machine to get the liquid out. while we were there they were working on thousands of cases of mike's hard lemonade, so it smelled sort of sweet and lemony. i'm glad we weren't there on a 100 degree day while they were doing beer.
they're prohibited from taking any home.
it is astonishing how much waste we produce. in the past 150 years or so, our waste has grown exponentially, and continues to do so as more people in the world begin to afford stupid plastic products that they can replace again and again. most of it gets landfilled, but some, thankfully, gets put to good use. recycling is doing pretty well in the states, but could and should do a LOT better. in denver, our biosolids (a nice word for SHIT) is treated naturally- that is, with microbes in aerobic and anaerobic conditions, and sold as a class B fertilizer to farms. no worries, kt's perfectly safe stuff. some of it gets composted, too, and, as guests of the wastewater reclamation district, we were given a goodie bag that included a sample of 'metrogro' compost and a packet of marigolds.
reduce, reuse, recycle. it ain't just a slogan, it's the way you should be.
1. plastic is evil
2. nothing 'biodegrades' in a dry dump, it just gets buried. ours is dry mostly because of the fact that we live in a desert, but otehrs are designed to be wet dumps because of higher average rainfalls, so the moisture level of the landfill allows for a bit more decomposition. still, an anthropologist, whose names escapes me right now, found an intact hot dog dating at least 25 years in the fresh kills landfill. that stuff you hear about the twinkie is true- even biodegradable things like, i don't know, jiffy pots, will probably never biodegrade so much as they'll get crushed into oblivion. you can easily find readable newspapers 30 years old in many landfills, though i didn't get a chance to date any material at DADS because we weren't allowed to get near the actual 'dumped' material.
3. one cell at the DADS landfill had to be leveled from its height of 400 feet because it disrupted a flightpath from DIA.
4. an average of 1200 trucks tip at DADS every day. each truck holds a fuck lot of trash- i can't remember the weight. tons.
5. hazardous materials will sometimes be detected, but most of the time paint, solvents, cleaners, etc. are thrown out with the trash in residences or go unseen in commercial/construction debris. that means a lot of toxic nast filters through to the bottom and gets caught by the lining, then turns into 'leachate' with the other run-off. sometimes the leachate gets sprayed on the top of the material to cut down on dust.
6. landfills produce 34% of the methane emissions. .... i think i mentioned that in an earlier posting. 34%!
7. on last year's composting class tour to DADS the guide said there was a good 120 years left at this landfill before it is landfull. this year he said there are 100 years.
8. a bale of aluminum cans is worth about $900.
9. most recyclable paper in the U.S. gets sold to china.
10. recycling facilities are really loud and sort of like a willy wonka factory. here are some oompa-loompas sorting paper:
11. most forms of public transportation put me to sleep. this realization had nothing whatever to do with class- just something i've noticed every time i get on a bus or plane.
12. the dump really doesn't stink that much.
13. the wastewater reclamation district DOES. oh man it was foul. i only took one picture there, and here it is:
14. every day, gallons upon gallons of expired beverages arrive at recycling facilities. this beer is only about a quarter of what we saw:
two guys open up each box, take the canned/bottled drinks out of the their plastic holders or six packs and toss them into a big crushing machine to get the liquid out. while we were there they were working on thousands of cases of mike's hard lemonade, so it smelled sort of sweet and lemony. i'm glad we weren't there on a 100 degree day while they were doing beer.
they're prohibited from taking any home.
it is astonishing how much waste we produce. in the past 150 years or so, our waste has grown exponentially, and continues to do so as more people in the world begin to afford stupid plastic products that they can replace again and again. most of it gets landfilled, but some, thankfully, gets put to good use. recycling is doing pretty well in the states, but could and should do a LOT better. in denver, our biosolids (a nice word for SHIT) is treated naturally- that is, with microbes in aerobic and anaerobic conditions, and sold as a class B fertilizer to farms. no worries, kt's perfectly safe stuff. some of it gets composted, too, and, as guests of the wastewater reclamation district, we were given a goodie bag that included a sample of 'metrogro' compost and a packet of marigolds.
reduce, reuse, recycle. it ain't just a slogan, it's the way you should be.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
waste
i visited three waste management facilities today- DADS landfill (not my father's), the wastewater reclamation district, and a recyling place.
we produce a LOT of waste.
pictures to follow-
and no, there is no other blog.
we produce a LOT of waste.
pictures to follow-
and no, there is no other blog.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Friday, April 13, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
This blog is bor-ring!
my apologies to the queen.
it appears that i was not the only one paying attention to the fact that i was stealing a wireless conntection from my neighbor. this neighbor, whoever it was, tried to hack my ebay account last week, which resulted in me banning all internet access at my apartment and relying solely on the saftey of mancave internet. i mean, WHO might be posting on my blog? who would have the audacity to pose as the one and only SHLEY?
hence my negligence. i cannot risk certain identity theft to entertain anyone, even my sister.
it appears that i was not the only one paying attention to the fact that i was stealing a wireless conntection from my neighbor. this neighbor, whoever it was, tried to hack my ebay account last week, which resulted in me banning all internet access at my apartment and relying solely on the saftey of mancave internet. i mean, WHO might be posting on my blog? who would have the audacity to pose as the one and only SHLEY?
hence my negligence. i cannot risk certain identity theft to entertain anyone, even my sister.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
suits
why are the british naval personnel wearing suits upon their release? did they have these digs on the dingy with them while they were patrolling, is THAT how the british navy operates? or did the suits get sent to them while they were in custody, along with mcvities and tea? OR did the iranian government have 14 suits taylored for the release spectacle? where did these suits come from?
and how come the chick didn't get a pant suit?
and how come the chick didn't get a pant suit?
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