Solstice Recap

Looking back and seeing if I accomplished anything within my goals over the three hundred-sixty odd days just passed.  Looks like I've done a lot.

• I'm a bit more than a year into the 52 month debt management program, which means roughly a quarter of the debt I had when the rug was yanked out from under me is paid down.
• I am still not missing a desktop PC, nor am I missing a hard wired internet connection, I've had a 3g wireless modem for two years now.
• I have a solid extended camping/disaster preparedness kit assembled which contains one temporary and one sustainable method to recharge a smartphone.
• I have unloaded about two thirds of my total possessions through yard sales, gifting and freecycling.  Of what is left I plan to unload two thirds over the next year: books, gaming materials, tools, my Harley and most likely the Suburban.  The volume depends heavily on the living situation  which depends on whether work recognizes my value.
• I have attempted to get back into the dating scene.   One meetup through mutual friends which exploded spectacularly three hundred-fifty-seven days ago, one meetup from an internet matching site which never progressed beyond "coffee dates", one hookup from getting pounced at an SCA event which became a massive letdown after a few months of exclusive dating.  I have profiles on Geek2Geek, Fitness Singles, Plenty of Fish, and HerWay.  None of which have gotten so much as a nibble.  I will be revamping all of them and reevaluating around Memorial Day.
• I have finally dug out all my archive CDRs, parsed them all together on the hard drive, and gotten all the MP3s plugged into iTunes.  Some of these files were originally on 5.25" floppies, backed up from my original IBM clone (Tandy) 486DX2/50.  Nothing from my Apple programming days nor Linux nor C++ have made it to today.
• I don't buy paper books when they are available from Google Books
• I don't buy batteries anymore, I use NiMH cells almost exclusively.  I have a scale which uses a 9V which will be replaced by one that uses AAA's when the battery and the spare I have expire.
• All of my plastic water bottles have been replaced with stainless bottles (discontinued items from Gander Mountain), my heavy ceramic mugs have been replaced with type 5 polypro insulated tumblers (GSI Outdoors).
• I have two recycled PET plastic grocery bags (ThinkGeek) and they see regular use.
• I have started using Open Office and migrating documents created in proprietary formats.
• Starting yesterday I am donating CPU time to BOINC projects, currently I am processing data for SETI, MilkyWay, and Einstein.  I also signed up for the Large Hadron Collider and uFluids but there are no data packets currently available.  I last ran data for SETI when I had the Linux platform, the data being processed today is the data that got first pass analysis back then.
• I use paperless grocery lists (android widget), workout logs (smartphone app and Blog), to-do lists (TaskSmash.com) and internet banking with e-statements.
• To prevent paper clutter I immediately shred receipts, bills, statements, mail and anything else the shredder will safely handle as soon as they are identified and recorded as appropriate. 

Short test of self sufficiency: Power Outage

Yesterday the electric went out.  It was cool out, enough that heat is nice to have, but no real danger of pipes freezing.  No wind, storm or anything I was aware of that it could be blamed on.  The laptop never even twitched, though I was bummed to be without my constant companion music.  Easily I made an assessment of what supplies I had, how long before I would have to move my refrigerated and frozen goods to other storage, water saving measures I would apply and how I would get my music back on.


First, I put a fresh cylinder of propane on the camp heater and got it going to maintain the warmth in my area.  Next I opened the closet where my encampment was stored.  The miscellaneous locker was the top of the stack, and I took out the camp battery and the 100W inverter.    That got the music going and kept up the charge in the laptop.  A quick search told me the power outage was not on any maps, so it had not been called in yet.  This informed me that the outage must be extremely local, and town should have power, and thus any store I would go to for water or ice.  I had a sink of dishes that needed to be washed, and my reserve of drinking water was insufficient.  My reserve of propane was enough for cooking and heating water, but the camp heater is a fiend when it comes to fuel consumption.  A check of the weather revealed that it was supposed to stay around 40F all day and drop to the mid-20's during the night so ice would not be needed.


Shutting down the laptop to conserve power, and unhooking the camp battery, I took the battery, a multimeter and the charge cable for the powerstation up to Blur and hooked up the battery to charge during the town run.  Voltage checks confirmed it was charging from Blur.  Quick run up to Maul Mart where I grabbed eight gallons of water (enough to fill one empty storage shelf), and two tanks of propane (filled out the row on the shelf where I kept my reserve propane).


Getting home, as I was beginning to set up camp protocol for dish washing, the power came back on.  I was disappointed.  However I still discovered you can get two flushes with one five gallon bucket of used wash water.

Repurposeable: McCormick small spice bottle

With my new smaller lunch bag, I do not have the room for the 4oz Glad reusable/disposable containers I used to pack mixed nuts in.  I pack one ounce of mixed raw almonds and raw pumpkin seeds every workday.  It was such a waste to use a ziplock bag even if I was reusing them.  Then while measuring out ground cloves for an oat spice cake it hit me that the small spice container might be just the right size.  So the next time I had an empty one I put it on the scale, and sure enough there is just a little room left over.  The only thing that would make it better is if they switched to a type 1 or 2 plastic so I could recycle them.

Review: Thermos Thermax Sportsman Series 16oz Food Jar

After seeing the unpack video by Tynan and his mention of the Klean Kanteen and making the Pack Lite Foods in it, I remembered winter was coming up and a hot lunch at work would be nice.  As well as being something to help hold busy season burnout at bay, a hot home cooked meal when I'm used to packing only cold and ready to go food.  So perusing the local Wally World my eye caught this amongst the camping section.  A simple vacuum food jar, not a tall and skinny one whose inner surface area would contribute to heat loss/gain, and small enough to be just one healthy person's serving.  Additionally it had a self contained folding spoon and a cover for the plug which has a silicone lip seal.  It claimed up to 7 hours hot and 9 cold.  The picture is after filling the jar with 208F water from my dispenser, letting it sit for ten minutes to temper, then dumping that water and refilling with more 208F water and letting it sit on the counter for nine hours.  Yes, not seven, but nine.  The thermometer reads just under 140F.  Then I used it for packing chili into work, which I first tempered the jar as before and filled with reheated to a simmer chili at 5am.  At noon when I opened it faint whispers of steam came out and it was still quite warm.  The next day I added a little water to my chili (I make it pretty thick anyway) so it would be a little more full, and following the same process it was even hotter.  So thermal mass is key.  Today I tempered and refilled the jar with 208F water, sealed it up and put it in the freezer.  It is now seven hours later and despite being in the freezer the water is still 125F.  I think that's doing pretty good considering such a drastic differential.


A note about the included spoon:  First it unfolds like an old carpenters rule.  I am right handed and it worked fine, but a left handed person will find it near impossible to use.  The hinges are one way and while used right handed they will stay open, but used left handed the spoon will fold back up.  When I bought the food jar the spoon's rivets were pretty tight, but I can see them loosening up over time.  The rivets are a hollow style and should be tightenable with a ballpein hammer and maybe a large blunt center punch if care is used.


I have not tried to use the jar yet to store cold food in hot weather, but given the freezer performance I would feel certain it should perform adequately.  The jar is simple, clean and fairly light considering it's all stainless except for the plug and cap liner.  I have given thought to going backpacking and the insulated jar should work for "cooking" dehydrated meals.  My thought being to heat water in a kettle at breakfast, put the dry food in the jar, add the appropriate amount of water, stir briefly and cap.  Walk a couple hours and have a hot lunch without needing to break out the stove.  I also suppose if it was sufficiently cold, the jar's dimensions are small enough to be tucked into a large wool sock which I am sure would decrease thermal exchange.


So for my part I give this product a thumbs up.  The silicone seal looks replaceable, the price point isn't bad, and with the exception of a non-ambidextrous spoon, which a serious hiker is going to be carrying a lighter titanium or anodized aluminum utensil set anyway, looks like it will out last a lot of other gear.  

Review: General Electric centrifugal juicer model 169201

Any websearch on this machine will turn up results and reviews.  So, skipping what is otherwise easily googled, here's the skinny.

It is inexpensive so far as juicers go, so take that into consideration.  It is noisy, almost as bad as a blender.  It vibrates, but doesn't walk across the counter.  It can be mitigated by checking the extractor basket runout.  It's only held in place with ball detents and can be removed and replaced without tools.  See which of the three directions it mounts and mark the bottom with paint once you find the least wobble.  Next the spout is too stubby and splashes your juice all over the place.  As seen in the pic, I have a one quart Gladlock jar under the spout, with a towel quarterfolded under it.  Lastly it ejects some pulp in the juice.  The fresher your vegetables the more juice and the less pulp you get.  In addition, if you load the chute up and push the plunger down, you'll bog the motor down and get less juice and more pulp.  Chop things up and run handfuls at a time, just lifting the plunger up and letting it fall.

My review?  Good availabilty and price for almost acceptable quality.  Very good starter machine for someone wanting to give juicing a try.  It's smaller than a lot of premium machines so there's less wasted counter and/or cabinet space.  RTFM for best results, and keep an old toothbrush handy.

Review: Plantronics M100

This is a Plantronics M100. I bought it to replace my old Discovery 640. The reviews I read about it are true, it does in fact perform up to expectations. Additionally, it charges from a standard micro-usb so any adapter cord can charge it. In fact the wall charger I received with it is still in the package. Noise canceling is superb for a device at this price point. Listeners can tell you are in a noisy environment, but your understandability is uneffected. As can be seen the unit is small, and it is as light as it appears. I can say no more other than this device gets my recommendation.

Back from unscheduled Hiatus

Well then, it has been almost a year and many things have changed, yet it is still more of the same. What to report that Facebook followers won't already have known? Besides, I wanted to keep this blog page less about *me* and more about what it takes to move towards a simpler, greener, and most importantly *freer* lifestyle especially when some technological marvel comes to my attention that furthers this goal.

So a few high points:

• Still living in a friend's basement, excellent opportunity to *not* continue in the rampant consumerism society seems to endorse
• I have put back together my camp gear, and made improvements there; it is also my permanent "Bug Out" kit as well as what I pack when I hit a SCA event, it has been field tested, everything can be transported in Blur, and when in camp I miss little of "civilization"
• I have acquired cheaper daily transportation, Blur gets almost 32mpg, a vast improvement over ZAST's 13.5mpg
• Two shelving units of stuff that is no longer needed in my leaner lifestyle have been liquidated, 21 cubic feet there alone, plus both my my largest storage totes (122qt), two 40qt, and two 36qt totes and two 2.1cf fliptop storage boxes for a total of about 38.5 cubic feet or enough stuff to fill to the brim a regular pickup truck bed. Note, that this was all fairly worthwhile stuff I actually wanted to keep and didn't yardsale
• Cell phone upgrade to a smartphone which almost completely replaces the laptop, replaces the digital camera and can replace the aircard
• After a year with the mini-fridge I am not missing the "normal" full size refrigerators
• After a year with the little convection oven I am not missing having a toaster nor do I desire a full size oven, though being wheat free helps in the not baking anymore department, I can still do full size meatloaves and why does one person need to bake a 20# turkey for Thanksgiving?
• A $20 Altec system with subwoofer has replaced my massive Aiwa boombox, the entire system packs down into the space of one speaker of the old Aiwa and runs off a 9v wall wart which can be replaced by a 12v converter

So I hope that provides some clues as to what I have been up to, and a glimmer of some reviews coming up. Further, I will be starting another blog where I will allow my thoughts free reign, again less of the personal fluff which will stay on Facebook, but expect long ramblings about my thoughts on society's ills, the occasional epiphany and my attempts to crack the codes locking away future technological marvels.