Livin' Small

One nice thing about the lifestyle that I have right now in Waterloo is that my daily entropy output is pretty low--in fact, lower than when I was living in Boston. I have crap electric baseboard heat, but it means I can turn it on just in the room I'm in currently (so I typically have the bedroom radiator on, and rely on heat from downstairs to keep the rest of my place at a toasty 55 F).

I only took out the garbage after three weeks of accumulation, and the bag was only partially full--this was the combined effect of the recycling bin (paper, plastic, metal, etc), and the compost bin (vegetable peels, coffee grounds, anything that stinks). Sometimes, I wonder whether the landfills will be mined in the future for their mineral or plastic/hydrocarbon content--I can easily imagine that there is a higher density of, say, iron in landfills than some iron ores... need to compute that out.

I'm also very happy that I'm minimizing my car use. I have it pretty much reduced to maybe one trip a week; maybe less (and most of those trips are to the Home Depot). As a result, I fill up my gas tank once a month, instead of once a week. This is what happens when you have a well-laid out walkable environment: I can stop by the supermarket (or a variety of other stores) on the walk home from the University. I have replaced my daily 45-minute drive with a 20 minute walk (each way). Happy.

One of the apparent side effects is I think I've lost a little weight. Nothing too drastic--I'm still generally round ("Hey man, I'm in shape! Round is a shape, right? Therefore, I'm in shape!"). But I did have to install a new hole in my belt (see shot of wardrobe modification below):

For some reason, doing this reminded me way too much of that warning on steam irons: 'Never iron clothes while they are being worn'. It seemed like Bad Things could happen, as I was drilling.

Anyway, I'm on the last push to the end of the term. I get on a plane for Florida in 11 days. Woo! (Okay, admittedly, plane trips totally blow the entropy budget. Oh well.).