composting: the do's and don'ts

Thanks for the compost suggestion, but I don’t know how to compost.
Well, I’m not an expert so I’m not going to tell you. However, I did run across some great websites for composting 101:

-Compost Guide, including great tips
-How to compost
-Eartheasy, which also includes some great tips

I’ve also comprised a list of do’s and don’ts of things to compost here:

garbage in your house, yeeesss!

I always thought DIY were stupid. I figured people just did them because they couldn’t afford to buy the real thing in the store. Well, becoming more environmentally conscious, less-consumeristic, and less and less “dumb teenager-istic”, I have realized that DIY are actually kind of cool and fun.

So, while doing some searching on compost boxes for apartments on the Internet, I came across a DIY on the Discovery.com site. Not having a yard to make a compost pile, I wanted to see if other urban dwellers were able to compost despite the handicap of not having a yard. And apparently they are. And all you really need is some plastic or metal box. If, like me, you are interested in making your own compost box, go here. It lists out an easy step-by-step guide for making the box. Hopefully in the next month or so I can make my own. If you don’t have your own box outside or inside, think about making one of these.

at least you don't have to pick fruit

You gotta be flippin kidding me! The WSJ (We don’t know anything about Stinking Jobs or Wall Street Journal) recently came out with an article on best and worst jobs in the United States. The list is “based” on five criteria: environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands and stress. Some of the jobs positions make complete sense – however, much of the list is so distorted it is a joke.

Some of the jobs are based purely on educational background, money, and cultural appearance. Just compare a software engineer (#5) to a taxi driver (#198). It is clear that income and employment outlook are the two driving forces for these two best and worst jobs. I think the WSJ is missing a few things on their list though.

First, auto mechanic (#187), nurse (#184) are at the bottom of the list. I know that my mechanic makes more in a few months than I make the whole year. And from working at a hospital for a summer I know that all the SUV and Audi driving nurses must get paid a decent amount.***

Second, I don’t think the job scale takes into consideration hard to calculate variants such as whether or not the job is rewarding. I think that a even though some jobs are dangerous (and maybe not so well paid) such as EMTs (#196) or firefighters (#181), both are well rewarded by a job well done at the end of the day.

Thirdly, a roofer (#195) and lumberjack (#200) which are dangerous jobs, as well as low paying (~$31-$34K a year), are at the bottom of the list. There are a couple things missing here. First, there are plenty of full time workers, who may not be risking their lives, but are sadly enough being paid in the low to mid $20K range and would die to be paid in the $30K range. Second, others are working two to three jobs just to earn that much money, and working possibly eighty hours or more a week to earn that amount. Thirdly, others in this struggling economy are only able to find a part-time job, while many have lost their jobs or are unable to find one. Many of these people are attempting to support families, who are then left to try to survive on their own and face the reality of becoming homeless.

Finally, there are also two sorely missed things in this article. First, that article has missed the thousands of workers who pick tomatoes, fruit, vegetables, and other crops for mere cents a day in the United States. If we are talking about hard laborious work, low pay, and injustice, here is the first place to look. The second place to look is the illegal slave trade that is not present only in other countries around the world, but also in the United States.

The WSJ’s poor attempt at job calculating clearly misses the point of some of the injustices and wrongs of this world, along with not taking into consideration many other variants and ideas of what makes a job the best or worst.

The joke of a WSJ article

*** Please recognize that I know that not all auto mechanics and nurses are well paid.

be like bill, well we can at least try

Do you remember Bill Nye the Science Guy? He was the quirky science nerd on PBS that somehow peaked the interest in little kids to learn and have fun with science. Well, Bill Nye is still around. Yup, in the Times they did an article on Bill Nye and his green house. Apparently Bill not only talks the talk, but walks the walk with science.

The article is good. It talks about how Bill converted his 1939 home into a new eco-friendly home. Although to me there seems to be two disconnects between him and the reader. The first: Bill’s got a lot of time on his hands. He is filming a new show. And while its true that some stars may work ten or twelve hour days, I don’t get the impression from the interview that Bill is having long work days. In today’s world however people are working sixty to eighty hour weeks, running around their kids to ten different things a week, and hoping they don’t get stuck in rush hour traffic. People are busier than ever. Whether this is good or bad is not the issue (although I would debate bad). The reality is that people are pushing the limits of their time. What does this mean? It means, unlike Bill, there is no time to grind organic coffee beans and sip a cup of coffee at the kitchen table or have fresh squeezed orange juice every morning. There is no time to grow your own lettuce in your yard (if you even have a yard), or ride a bike everywhere.

Second, Bill’s got a little more green to be green than most people. Let’s see: $20,000 for new windows, $32,000 for solar panels, all organic food, rain barrels (Probably $100 each), and a Prius. Don’t get me wrong, these aren’t bad things that Bill Nye is doing. Quite the contrary - they are great things. Besides the raging jealously I am feeling towards those who simply have a house, but then to add solar panels, eat all organically, and have his own garden, its clear that his lifestyle just can’t be obtained by everyone. Once again, this is not a knock at Bill Nye, but merely the ideals and culture that make it difficult to live a life that sees less as more, sees a love for creation, and a sense of protection instead of destruction.

The article teaches us a lot about our culture in regards to time, money, creation, and resources. In a world that is seeking more green, but putting aside actually being green, maybe a more suitable life is closer to Bill Nye’s than the millionaires and billionaires.

Bill Nye article