Category: Miscellaneous

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

I crossed 8,000 words last night. Congratulations to me! Just kidding, but having a deadline sure is helpful. I’m restructuring my days to make sure I have time to hit 2,000 words. Plus, I’ve gained a little confidence in the direction of the story itself, which is helping. Whenever I attempted to write anything in the past, as soon as I had decided on the plot, I would immediately feel like the story was old and predictable. I always had difficulty understanding how someone could remain energized about writing a story to which they knew the ending. The reason being that I would constantly imagine the reader having the same knowledge, or that every word they’d read up to that point was obviously pointing to a very predictable conclusion. Does that make sense? I’m slowly coming to terms with this and getting better at separating the writer / reader roles.

There were some surprises in the elections held around the country yesterday. The New York ones were most fascinating to me. Inspite spending almost twenty times the amount of money has his opponent, Michael Bloomberg only received 52% of the vote in NYC. He won another term but the results were a slap in the face to someone who expected to win by 20 points. Further upstate a seat held by Republicans since the Civil War (when Republicans weren’t of the scary variety they are today) was lost to a Democrat due to infighting in the Grand Ol’ Party. Elsewhere, Democrats lost a couple of governorships. The big news locally was that umbrella smoke-free legislation passed for St. Louis County and St. Louis City. These laws have some pretty ridiculous loopholes in them, and this is where the best news comes in. Given the overwhelming support for this health initiative, some of the original opponents of the legislation are now joining forces with unlikely partners like the American Cancer Society to remove the exemptions, which mostly apply to small bars and casinos. Pro-smoking advocates realize their position is weak so they’re now working to make the playing field level, which is commendable and best for everyone.

The weather looks great going into the weekend so I hope to do some of my travel this weekend via scooter. And my wife and I will be planting a tree tomorrow. Her friends got her a tree for her birthday earlier this year and tomorrow’s the day it goes in the ground. We all have enough stuff, so this was a fabulous idea, tear-inducing in fact. For her, not me. Grrrrr, me likey tofu dogs and recycling, me manly, me no cry.

Is it November Already?

I’m approaching 4,000 words after a day and half of writing with “literary abandon”. The development of my plot is taking on a life of its own, which is great since I didn’t think the story through that much prior to beginning. The write-in at the St. Louis Bread Co. in Clayton on Sunday was well-attended. Seemed like a significant number of people were working on science fiction stories. I’m basing this conclusion solely on appearance and the extremely loud tangential conversations I overheard, over the already loud music piping out of my headphones. Anywho, onward and upward. I’m registered as “viharsheth” on NaNoWriMo.org if you want to be writing buddies.

The weak-but-better-than-nothing smoke-free legislation for St. Louis County, and indirectly St. Louis City, will be on the ballot on Tuesday, which is tomorrow people so get your asses to the polls, but only if you’re voting for the ban. If not, stay home and smoke a pack, or two!

I dressed up as a doctor for Halloween, and not any old doctor. I was the one and only Sanjay Gupta, M.D., neurosurgeon and CNN Chief Medical Correspondent. I only realized today I should have gone as something more “green”, like global warming, an oil spill, or a compact fluorescent light bulb. I promise to put more effort into it next year. I could get a lot of bang for my buck if I went as something like this and attending a GOP-sponsored Halloween party. Gotta raise awareness people! If only . . .

Myself, More Sustainable

I’ve made progress on the plot of my soon-to-be-written blitz of a novel. I’m trying not to think of it too much as recommended by previous NaNoWriMo participants and the founder of the whole torturous exercise so as to not become overwhelmed by details. ‘nuf said, else I’ll be overwhelmed by details.

Took a minor road trip from work today to visit the site of a new project I’m working on. The location, while decent in and of itself, is so incredibly far from the center of the city that it blows my mind people live there. We drove by entire other cities to get to this place, and if you asked people there where they were they would have said St. Louis. Bullshit, you are not in St. Louis.

As you can see, I’m trying to be freer in verse.

The best news from a sustainability perspective I’ve heard all week is that Fisker Automotive is going to build an eletric car facility. It will be in Delaware . . . did I mention it will be a facility that builds electric cars?! I suppose the screen door factor was losing its luster. I kid . . .

I’m going with a few people (wife and others) to a tea cupping tonight. Man alive that sounds dirty. Numerous people have commented that it might as well be called a tea bagging. “NO!” I say. One definition of tea bagging is very sexual in connotation and the other has to do with the demonstrations of conservative wing nuts, who for some reason could not think of a better name for their ill-conceived protests. Tea cupping, if you don’t know, and I didn’t until I read about it, is a tea tasting. Hopefully I learn a little somethin’ somethin’.

I’m enjoying the new free form green | rising. The underlying theme of what I post will still be sustainability but with less focus on the science and policy of it. One of the many definitions of sustainability I’ve read reads, “to keep up or keep going, as an action or process”. In the most general interpretation of the word, this applies to everything and everyone, from society to myself. The NaNoWriMo endeavor I’m about to embark counts toward this. Writing a book is something I’ve always wanted to try, and by making an effort (and hopefully succeeding), I will be making my own life more sustainable through risk taking, accomplishment and perhaps even failure.

National Novel Writing Month

It’s been six weeks since my last post. Sorry. I’m trying to get motivated to continue this blog in its current form and I’m not sure that’s possible, at least at this point. More on that in a future post I hope. I’m planning now for a new writing project, albeit a temporary one. I’m going to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) which starts on November 1, 2009 and lasts until you hit 50,000 words or the calendar flips to December 1, 2009, whichever comes first. If you want to learn more, check out this website: http://www.nanowrimo.org.

Why NaNoWriMo? The entire concept of National Novel Writing Month is primarily to be motivated by a deadline, and secondarily to strive for a goal that’s very difficult to attain – writing 50,000 words in a month. Yikes. I’d heard about the endeavor before and had given it passing consideration earlier this year. As with my previous attempts at writing anything creative, it was fleeting. But, a few weeks back on the social cancer known as Facebook a friend asked if anyone was considering trying. I decided to man up and sign up.

Since we had the initial back and forth online, a few other friends have committed. I’ve joined the forums online and scheduled to attend the “write-in” parties that are planned periodically throughout the month.

I’ll be honest. I’m scared. Scared that I won’t succeed and scared that what I write will suck (which I’m learning it is supposed to). I’m not going to publish what I write here but I will publish updates on how it’s going, among other things related to sustainability – the original theme of green | rising. The funny thing is that I see this project as contributing to my own sustainability in a way, making discussion of it quite appropriate for this site. Stay tuned.

green | rising v3

So here it is. Version 3. New design, new focus. To look inward. Not necessarily reflection, but more personal association to the issues of the day. Staying motivated has been hard, and the reason is providing value in my posts has been hard. Commentary on worldly events is common in the blogosphere, as is commentary on all things “green”.

The issue that drives me is the sustainability of all things; myself, my city, my society. The new green | rising is about personalizing my writing, hence the new tagline of the site. I hope to be a little more irreverent, a little more insightful, a little more personal. I’m hoping to be more focused but also more diverse in my posts. The goal being to connect the outside to the inside, to humanize my passion and better connect to my audience. If it effects me it can/does/will effect you.

About

green | rising is a site dedicated to increasing the sustainability of my life. On these digital pages I will opine on a broad range of issues related to sustainable living . I’ve created the following categories under which to file my posts:

  • Awareness & Education
  • Climate & Energy
  • Consumption & Corporations
  • Design & Technology
  • Development & Transportation
  • Food & Health
  • Government & Society
  • Miscellaneous

Hopefully you will find the content on this site interesting and visit again. Please do leave a comment if you have any questions, comments or suggestions. Thanks for reading.

- Vihar Sheth

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Recent Readings: Farm Whale Continent Waste Car

How goes your 2008 thus far? Hopefully it’s shaping up as planned. I know it’s only January 14 but I’ve worked out more in 2008 than I did in the last two months of 2007. Where are all the gift baskets when you’ve earned some chocolate and cheese spread?!

Agriculture | Family farming in Ladue | “According to decades of farm lobby propaganda, farm subsidies preserve the struggling family farm. So it’s remarkable to find so many subsidized farmers toiling away in the Central West End, Clayton, Ladue, Frontenac, and other tony urban neighborhoods where the major harvest is lawn grass and the livestock are named Pookie and Rover. It’s even more surprising to find more than 500 supposed farmers on the isle of Manhattan. Roof gardeners, we suppose . . . The biggest checks go not to families about to lose the ol’ homestead, but to wealthy people who know how to work the system. You don’t have to get up at 5 a.m. and milk the cows to get a check. You can hire other people to do the work while you milk the taxpayers.” | St. Louis Post-Dispatch

I really wish you could see the maps associated with this editorial in the print version of the newspaper. But since you can’t, I’ll do you one better and point you here, to the Environmental Working Group’s Farm Bill 2007 website. Search away and see all the people receiving subsidies from the U.S. government for farming. Sadly, some of the people receiving the biggest checks have never worked a day on a farm in their lives. Where do I sign up?

Animal Cruelty | Greenpeace see of Japan whalers | “The environmental group Greenpeace says its activists have chased Japan’s whaling fleet away from hunting grounds near Antarctica. Greenpeace said its ship, the Esperanza, had successfully stopped whaling in the Southern ocean after intercepting the fleet’s main ship, the Nisshin Maru, over the weekend and chasing it away.” | Al Jazeera

While I don’t also agree with Greenpeace’s tactics I usually agree with their position. I’m glad they were able to chase off the whalers here but I’m not sure on the legality of what they’re doing. Japan had banned whaling for some time (yeah!) but then legalized it again (boo!). Of course, if the whales are far enough off the coast, in international waters, do these rules apply? Anywho, keep up the good work.

Government | The Comeback Continent | “Why should Americans care about Europe’s economy? Well, for one thing, it’s big. The G.D.P. of the European Union is roughly comparable to that of the United States; the euro is almost as important a global currency as the dollar; and the governance of the world financial system is, for practical purposes, equally shared by the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve.” | Paul Krugman, The New York Times

Krugman makes some very good points in this piece. He takes the position of a realist and both compliments and criticizes European governments and economy. The takeaway is that American politicians on both sides publicly deride a system that has benefits, and of late, has been performing better than its American counterpart.

Recycling | The afterlife of cell phones | “This so-called e-waste is the fastest-growing part of the municipal waste stream and, depending on your outlook, either an enormous problem or a bonanza. E-waste generally contains substances that, though safely sequestered during each product’s use, can become hazardous if not handled properly when disposed. Those products also hold bits of precious metals like silver, copper, platinum and gold.” | Jon Mooallem, The New York Times

Sorry, two articles from The New York Times. You’ll live. For one of them I provided the link to a different site so as to throw you off the scent. Of course admitting that I did that defeats the purpose.  So . . . the above article is actually very fascinating, and definitely the most comprehensive of all the readings provided today. It’s worth a complete read though. It’s filled with history, science, money, heaven and hell. Seriously.

Transportation | University, Enterprise Rent-A-Car offer car-sharing program | “Washington University Parking & Transportation Services and Enterprise Rent-A-Car have partnered to bring WeCar, a car-sharing program, to the Danforth Campus. The program, the first of its kind in the St. Louis area, allows WUSTL students, faculty, staff and employees of qualified service providers over age 18 to rent vehicles at an hourly rate. The vehicles will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Members can sign up online beginning Monday, Jan. 14. Registration is free.” | Jessica Daues, Washington University in St. Louis Record

This is spectacular news. I don’t know if other universities are doing this but every freakin’ one of them should. Parking is expensive and an utter nightmare on and around most college campuses. Plus, students usually only need their automobiles to run errands and the like. Car sharing is growing in popularity in major urban areas for sure, but the density of college campuses makes them perfect for a similar program.