Odds & Ends
A few wrap-up items; I am probably not going to be posting for a little while now (heading out on a trip--see below).
- I have been making good progress on the exposure test hut work. All of the walls are instrumented & insulated, and the wires are run back to the data collection location. Although we were supposed to have been giving the client data as of a week ago, the rest of my group doesn't seem to consider this job to be an incredibly high priority, considering I'm the only one working on it most of the time. Personally, I find it offensive when we fail to meet deadlines that we have set ourselves. It means that either (1) we fucked up planning/scheduling/resource allocation, or (2) we failed to execute. Either way, it reflects badly. Nobody seems to share that opinion, though.
- On a more relaxed note, I had a very nice evening having dinner with Dan Brown (fellow survivor of the 'tute, now a prof here) and his sweetie/S.O./whatever, Daniel, over at their house (just a 20 minute walk away). It was very nice to realize that my social circle is not as insanely limited as I have often made it out to be. Pho with duck and spring rolls--yummy! I really need to explore some more of the Asian markets around Kitchener. I also got to hang out and indulge in some building geekery (energy efficiency recommendations, etc).
- If we want to talk about rare events, I took out the trash yesterday. That was 64 days of accumulation (I have a photo of the last time). Let's hear it again for composting and recycling (and throwing out stinky trash as soon as it is generated)!
- This country is wacky. As I was crossing the street, there was a car that was partially in the crosswalk. The driver actually apologized to me. And it wasn't some little old lady--it was some twentysomething guy driving a Mitsubishi sedan. Madness, I tell you, madness!
- I am heading to Boston tomorrow; the ostensible reason is "Summer camp", or the Westford Symposium: it's a conference and party that my former boss/mentor has been putting on every year since 1997. It's 3 days of building geekery conference, followed by evening barbecues at his house and back yard. It's grown to a party of about 200 people nowadays; I can objectively say that it is the social/meeting event in our little industry. The festivities have grown enough that we have a walk-in beer cooler (built out of materials contributed from building material manufacturers), and a barbecue imported from Texas that could sleep 3. So that will take up my time from Saturday (July 30th) through probably Thursday (August 4). However...
- I'm visiting Boston! Woo hoo! I hope I'll catch as many of you as possible on this visit; I'm leaving August 9 (Tuesday). I believe there's a plan for Dim Sum in Chinatown on Sunday (August 7).
posted by Bats @ 7:18 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
I'm totally intrigued with this trash bit. Can you clarify some about how you manage to generate so little? We don't compost, but we do recycle, although mostly that just seems to mean that our weekly curbside contribution is separated by contents...
Was cool to have you...and yes, your social circle can extend more broadly. We look forward to seeing you soon!
We do take out trash weekly, but it's usually around half a can or so; seems it's always icky plastic bags that were used for fruit or the like. [Although last week's was incredibly stinky, due to the shrimp shells that were a week old. Ick!!]
Let us know when you get back, and we'll go for dim sum here (which is surprisingly good...)
Jesse-- Well, there are some good (and bad) reasons why my trash generation was so low. First, I kinda cheated in these stats: I was out for about 25 days of this period (trips to Montreal, Boston, New York, and Alaska). Second, I guess I kinda cheated in that at every meal producing stinky trash (e.g., meat scraps and packaging), it went immediately into the trash (barrel outside), in its own package. Third, I'm only one person--no roommate, and I live relatively frugally. It also means that my motivation to cook elaborate meals is pretty low, so I don't have to often throw out much. E.g., "OK, thaw out another brick of boneless skinless chicken thighs, clean out the tupperware, and figure out what I'm making tonight." But fourth, by eliminating the generation/storage of stinky trash (both meat and vegetable based), garbage can sit in the indoors trash indefinitely (until the bag is actually full). -Bats
BTW Dan--I've been to the Waterloo dim sum place (near King and University), but I've read some good things about a place in Kitchener. Do you have a recommendation?
There's a place in Kitchener, at Cameron and Charles, called Cameron Chinese, which is very good. We'll happily take you there when you get back.
[Their regular, non-dim sum, food is not very good.]
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