A little cash with little effort

I've been using YouData since January. So far I've earned about $7.00 with very...I mean VERY little effort. For some of you big time Bloggers that is not very exciting but I like it because it does take so little effort. Also they pay weekly to a PayPal account which is very cool.

For more information see my post on my other blog.

Please consider joining through one of my links.

My trade for plumbing

Since I needed the leaky shutoff valve fixed and lack the plumbing skills to solder a new one on I made a deal with my brother-in-law. He has the handy man/Mr. Fix-it abilities that I lack. I, however, am pretty good with computers.

So he came over and fixed my leak. He disconnected and cut off the leaky valve, then sanded down the remaining copper piping before soldering the copper connector to the piping. Then he connected the new shutoff valve to the connector and hooked up the feed to the faucet. It didn't look to hard but I didn't have all of the tools.

In return he needed a song edited for a workout CD he was making. After a quick search on the Internet I found a program called Audacity that allowed me to take his mp3 music file and cut out the unwanted sections. I did have to download an additional file for me to be able to export as an mp3. After exporting we burned it to a CD and was done.

Overall it was pretty easy and didn't cost me more than the parts.

More drips

The day after successfully replacing the faucet I noticed that the shutoff valve under the sink was now leaking. Bad news. Very bad news. The shutoff valve is connected to copper piping. Replacing it is going to require cutting off the valve and then soldering on a new valve. This project is getting a little beyond my plumbing talents. I may have to resort to calling in a professional plumber.

For the time being I've closed the valve for the hot water so it won't drip. The good news is the dish washer feed is just below the shutoff valve so have the valve closed does not affect the washing of dishes.

Of course the bad news is that fixing the problem will probably cost me at least $100.00.

Stop the drip

The kitchen faucet has started dripping. Of course this is a waste of water. But it also makes my well pump run more than necessary. Not good. Especially when I decided to see how much water was being run down the drain.

I placed an empty milk container under the faucet before I left for work yesterday and when I came home it was overflowing. So much more than a gallon of water was going down the drain every day.

We had purchased a new faucet several months ago in plans to upgrade the kitchen hardware at some point in the future. Well given the amount of water being wasted I decided to change the faucet out. Not a bad job to do. It took this non-plumber with a little guidance from my father-in-law about an hour and a half to complete the swap out.

So no more wasted water!!!

Square root day

Today is square root day. Square root day is when the day/month are the same number [3/3] and when multiplied together equal the year in the century [09].

So happy square root day!

The next square root day will be April 4, 2016.

Start planning your next square root day party now! Since I pretty much missed this square root day, for next time I'm thinking of making a bunch of square root symbol banners. Maybe banners with the equation for the day. It could be a huge party!

PW threating to delist

I just received an email from Project Wonderful indicating that they will de-list my ad box on this blog unless my traffic or my average bid on the ad box increase. So I really need to get Entrecard to reinstate this blog so I can increase the traffic to this site.

Only one more post after this and Entrecard should let me back into their program.

Ice sheet facts

Fact 1: The melting of the North Pole ice sheet would not have an significant effect on the sea level. This is due to the ice sheet forming over the arctic sea and displacing the volume of water that has weight equal to the ice sheet.

Fact 2: The melting of the South Pole ice sheet would have a significant effect on the sea level. This is because the ice sheet was formed over land. The melting ice would drain into the ocean and raise the sea level. Some estimates place the increase of the sea level if all the ice were to melt at about 200 feet.

On Hiatus

Yes I've been gone [not writing] for quite a time. And EntreCard has noticed. They have removed this blog from their service. They indicate that if I start writing again they will restore the account related tot his blog. So time to start writing again.

This winter has brought back thought of my youth. Lots of snow and very cold temperatures. Where has global warming gone? Just kidding. Although I have recently read reports of polar ice re-accumulating. Which begs the question...What is up with this little blue planet? I guess time will tell. I do believe that anything we can do to reduce emissions and waste will be good for the planet.

Blowing insulation into the attic

In an effort to save money and reduce carbon emissions I blew an additional six inches of insulation into the attic. It was a rainy day and the vehicle that I was using to transport the insulation and the blower was not quite big enough. So after making two trips to Menards I finally got started. Albeit a very late start.

So after getting the blower all setup and working, which was extremely challenging, I climbed into the attic. I taped the hose and the on/off switch together and stuck a flashlight into my back pocket so I could use one hand to steady myself. So an hour and a half later I was finally able to exit the attic with the knowledge that I was going to start saving money immediately as a cold front had blown through the area. Brrrr.

Does Mother Nature have the capacity to heal herself?

I am attempting to research the possibility that the earth's closed environment can self correct itself through the usage of weather and sea level. If you have seen scientific articles that deal with this subject please let me know.

Thanks!

Whats up with the Entrecard toolbar?

The last couple of days while I have been doing my daily drops I noticed something strange. I usually use the Entrecard toolbar in Firefox and open a bunch of favorites in tabs by clicking the double green arrow button. Yesterday when I did this the blogs that opened up where not my favorites. Very strange.

Today the same thing happened so I selected Inbox from the first drop down and newest from the second drop down box. I checked the blog that loaded to the newest dropper at the Entrecard web site. Guess what. They were NOT the same blog.

So my question to you, loyal reader [or random Entrecard dropper who is just surfing by on your way to 300 drops and taking time to read this post (not that there is anything wrong with making 300 drops or blowing by a blog that you have no interest in reading)], is: are you experiencing the same problem?

Picking out a new tree

With all the carnage [neighbors cutting down trees] in recent weeks, the privacy that I use to enjoy in my back yard has been greatly reduced. Admittedly I have contributed to the destruction to a lessor extent but I plan to redeem myself a little bit by planting at least one tree near the property line in order to get some privacy back.

So I'm trying to decide what type of tree(s) I should purchase for planting. I'm really considering evergreens because of the screening that they would provide. The second type that I'm considering is an ornamental variety so they won't grow to large and overhang the house thus becoming a potential hazard.

I will need to take the cost into consideration as finances this year have been challenging.

The new bike

My son decided that he wanted a new bike. So badly did he want this new bike he was willing to raid his savings account to purchase it. His old bike is [we still have it] a mountain bike. Nothing special. It cost about $125.00 at Meijer about three years ago.

He got the itch for a new bike while riding with some buddies. Of course they had pretty nice road bikes that flew down the street. So off to shop for a road bike we went. We were thinking of spending between $300 and $400 but none of the bike shops had a road bike in that range. After some conversation we were shown a Jamis "street" bike. The handle bars are similar to a mountain bike but the wheels are pretty skinny like a road bike.

We took it for a test ride. First him then me. It rode very nice and the components worked well. But the cost was about $200 more than he had hoped to pay. I agreed to float him a loan for the $200 extra that was needed to make the purchase. The benefit to me is now he will ride the bike to his high school soccer practice with his friends and I won't need to fire up the car's engine and create more CO2.

Yard work guilt

On Saturday I spent several hours mowing, cutting up a fallen tree and pruning several other trees on my property. As I was working in the back of my mind I was feeling guilty. Not for cutting up the fallen tree [it had fallen during a storm last fall but it was out of site out of mind]. Guilty because of the pruning, which would have little impact on the planet's greenhouse gas levels, and because the pruning turned into the act of cutting down a small tree. As you may know when a tree is cut down all the CO2 that it had been storing is returned, over time, to the atmosphere.

The tree was technically on my neighbor's property but 99% of it over hung my property and it was going to overhang my house if I let it continue to grow. In addition to the small tree I trimmed several trees whose branches hung low to the ground. The yard looks better but is that Mother Nature glaring down on me? Am I a hypocrite?

The high cost of gas = physically fit

Two of my childhood friends stopped by my house over the weekend. As we caught up on each others lives Tom said that he was losing quite a bit of weight. He attributed the weight lose to riding his bike more.

I asked him why he was riding more. Thinking that there was an environmental angle to follow. I was right. He said he was trying to save money because of the high cost of gas and the additional benefit was shedding some poundage.

Coincidentally I have working on a thesis that basically amounts to the high gas prices are an opportunity for Americans to not only become better stewards of Mother Earth's assets but for us to become a healthier nation buy doing more walking and bicycle riding.

Entrecard's toolbar for Firefox

I saw the post from Entrecard today regarding their new toolbar for Firefox. So I thought that I would give it a try.

First of all you need Firefox version 3. Luckily I had upgraded last month. The install was quick, as usual for a Firefox plugin, and required a reboot of Firefox. I logged into Entrecard right from the toolbar and started visiting blogs from my Inbox. I think this will speed up my dropping quite a bit.

My current credits and drops are shown next to my blog's name. I can switch between blogs by just picking from a drop down.

My assessment: Wow! Great job guys!

Pickens' Energy Plan - Wonderful or Worrisome

T. Boone Pickens, the wealthy Texas oil man, has a plan to reduce or eliminate America's dependence on foreign oil. Perhaps you have seen the ads that he is running on TV. Pickens is estimated to be worth $3 billion, which according to Forbes makes him the 117th richest person in America.

The plan sounds wonderful. It moves America's oil dependent energy usage to wind power and natural gas. The plan compares United States wind power potential to Saudi Arabia's oil production. "The United States is the Saudi Arabia of wind power." The plan that is touted online is basically an overview and doesn't delve into specifics like how the energy will be transported from the wind farms to the consumer. Or how all of the current gas stations will be converted to natural gas dispensers. Not minor details for sure.

The worrisome parts of Pickens' Plan are the potential destruction of native floral and fauna while constructing the massive wind farms and transmision lines and that Mr. Pickens has a substatial investment in wind power that dates back to at least June 2007 when he announced that intended to build the world's largest wind farm.

In an August 2007 Electric Reliability Council of Texas filing, Pickens indicated that his project would be 200,000 acres and consist of 2,700 turbines.

Opportunity for America due to high gas prices - part 1

I believe that the high price of gas is an opportunity for Americans to become better stewards of the environment. And a wake-up call that we are not the only nation with large energy needs. We can also use the cost of gas as a reason to become a more healthy nation.

Better Stewards

As we drive back and forth to work, school and/or grocery stores in our behemoth vehicles that consume gas like a college student at an all you can eat buffet, we need to realize that we are killing the planet and ultimately ourselves. The green house gases that are created by our beloved vehicles are large contributors to global warming.

It is time to reduce the amount of gas that we use daily.

• Drive less - consolidate trips, walk or ride a bike
  
• Drive more fuel efficiently - Stop driving aggressively
  
• Drive a fuel efficient vehicle - If you are able to, purchase a hybrid vehicle
  

New Design

Ok the new design is up and running. I need to add back on some of the modifications that the old design had. I found this template at EBlog Templates. By tomorrow I should be back on track and posting interesting environmental information and theories.

This is actually the second template that I've installed today. I liked the first one but this one is so much cooler and it presents itself without problems unlike the first one.

Coming soon a new design

I figure that if I'm going to change the direction of this blog I might as well change the design while I'm at it. Unfortunately, that means that I will have to figure out what modifications I have made to the template so I can have the same information displayed and collected.

Some examples are Google Analytics, Feedburner, and SocialSpark. I think I will start a log for each of my blogs that will detail the modifications that I make to the templates. So that way if I need to change templates I will know for sure what changes I will need to add to the new template without looking through the code to find those changes.

Does anyone else keep a log like this? Just curious.