I wanted to retract my earlier complaint about the construction on Interstate 490.

They are now putting the top coat on westbound 490.  Eastbound has been opened for traffic and I believe they are just finishing up the other parts of the road for the completion of the construction season this year, and completion of the project.

I knew it!!  and I’m excited and they’re doing the “smooth” layer now.

Seriously, I have nothing against the south.  My grandparents live there, my aunts and uncles live there, my cousins are there (some of each).  And I have good memories of visiting there.  As a yank with a simpathetic accent, I enjoy when i adapt the southern drawl to my speech, I feel more relaxed. 

That being said, I can’t believe that there are places in this country that still do not offer any sort of recycling program.  Now, forgive me, I am picking on the south.  I don’t know what our dear western or middle states do.  But I do know that a medium sized town doesn’t recycle in South carolina, and that parts of Alabama don’t recycle either.  I feel like some of my Michigan college housemates didn’t know how to recycle either. 

Really???  There are people growing up that don’t know how to be economical, discretionary, and concious about their trash?  And if they don’t know how to take care of their trash, they’re not going to think twice about buying the number 5 plastic container when a  perfectly comparable item is presented in a glass container.  (I’m not saying that by growing up learning how to recycle you’re able to make that choice either… but to not even give someone a chance.)  That also means that there’s crap in our landfills that could have  been downcycled (the true process).  I’m not going to go down that path – just read Cradle to Cradle and think about the biological products vs. the technical products he talks about.

That’s all I wanted to point out.  I realize that most likely/ most of the time the enegry used to gather, sort, and reuse materials probably leaves a worse footprint on the environment than just throwing the crap out, But in an age where global warming is mostly unarguable that it’s happening (not the cause), I’m shocked that there are still places that don’t recycle.

Side note:  using my brain in a cradle to cradle way – instead of trying to modify the trash system to fit a recycling program that really only downcycles the items, why not create a new system, one that might use less energy, sort out the stuff differently than our industrial factory model from the industrial revolution?

It’s something to think about.

Hi,

I’m a young person.  I’m buying a house with some land.  I care about the environment and the world.  When I was in college, (not that many years back)  my professor recommended a book called Cradle to Cradle.  It’s a plastic book.  In the introduction when Bill the architect is talking about the issues and how he met Michael the chemist, he mentions when he was learning about the now termed “green technology” that it was a side thing that wasn’t very green.  The focus was on being less bad.  Bill wanted to be able to make architecture that was good. 

I was forwarded this article http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2009-07-13-young-farmers_N.htm  It’s about young farmers breaking into the community and doing small organic farms which can be successful because of the amount of farm markets out there and the demand for local, organic grown food (GOOD THING!!!!)  A 28 year old in Washington, Jacob Wilson, is quoted saying “‘When I was younger, the best you could expect was nothing — you could make something not happen,’ he says. But protesting was all about stopping things. He wanted to start something.” 

And that was common ground in both things for me.  To cease the mindset of trying to be less bad, trying to stop things and to be able to fill the space where the ceasing was, with the power to change things so much that all you have to do is Do the good thing, create the good, start the good.  We need people to stop the bad – look at police officers.  But we can’t rely on stopping the bad.  It gets dark and dismal in that hole.  You loose hope easily and you loose sight on what you’re doing.  You get distracted because stopping the bad is hard work.  But we need to set aside stopping the bad to create the good, spread the good, immerse ourselves in the good, live the good and do the good.  The good will be hard as well, farming is hard work – I’m going to be honest, I’m sorta not excited to start my garden by preparing this fall and getting it going in the spring.  It’s going to be hard work.  But it can be rewarding.  It’s taking a balance of the two.  You need some of both.

So I’ll reiterate.  Lets cease our dependence on stopping the bad – and start just being the good.  I think 80% will spread because it’s good and healthy and life giving in many ways.

My last post was ranting about a meandering range of topics.  But I just hailed a part of it (not the part where I say I have other thoughts to convey – that always gets lost)  where I talk about quality of service.  So here’s my rant quality products. 

I live in Rochester NY.  We have an expressway here called 490.  But 490 is really two expressways.  There’s the Eastside which delivers you to the wealthy area, population growth (and sprawl – Penfield and Webster are growing (growth is good, don’t get me wrong)), and posh shopping districts (Pittsford, Eastview Mall).  And then there’s the Westside that delivers you to the west side.  Greece is huge, Chili is growing (mcMansion sprawl too), Churchville and LeRoy.  A jaded east-sider I work with says there’s nothing good in the west side.  I, a born west sider, don’t really like  going to the east side.  So there’s a visible split and I think it’s even felt in the people that don’t get defensive or care much about east or west. 

The NYSDOT splits it up even more though.  I don’t know what they call all the parts but there’s the part from I90 (LeRoy) all the way to the 390 Interchange.  Then there’s the Western Gateway from the canal to the river, then there’s the Freddy-Sue Bridge, and then there’s the Eastern side as I’ve mentioned before.  Wikipeida says that the eastern part is known as the Eastern Expressway or the Erie Canal Expressway because it runs where the canal and subway used to go through to 590.  And then there’s the eastern ‘burbs part from 590 all the way to I90.  So 5 sections. 

A little more broken history will be this.  In the 1988-1991 they redid the “Can of Worms”  This is where 490 and 590 come together, rt 96 passes by and University Ave on the East Side of the city.  I was a little one at that time, but it’s a lot better now.  They redid the 590 – I90 Eastern part back in the mid 90s(?)  I’d go so far as to say they did that in the late 90’s.  And in ‘06 they redid from rt 531 to the 390 interchange on  the West side.  This leaves from 531 to I90 and from 390 to the bridge (aka the Western Gateway) <- my focus
So there’s a brief history for ya.  I might have missed some stuff, and screwed up on the accuracy of some of the dates, but that’s not the point.  It’s the over all picture.

And that picture is this.  The Western Gateway.  This is the section of the expressway they haven’t touched since 1974 besides doing basic maintenance.  This speaks to the solid construction job of the concrete expressway, but also says something else.  What though, I unfortunately can’t put my finger on it.  For at least 10 years, they’ve had blocks supporting the crumbling concrete structures holding up the 490 bridge over Mt. Read Blvd. 

I want it to be clear, I’m happy they’re doing this construction, I don’t really care the time between the construction.  Bless whatever politician and DOT employee that put this in motion.  Bless those people!!

My thing that I have a problem with, is the quality of the road.  They’re not done yet, they’re working on the eastbound lanes as we speak, but westbound is done (from my understanding)  One would think, that when driving on the westbound lanes things would be smooth and even, they just finished doing the lanes for goodness sake.  But that’s not the case.  The transitions are pretty noticeable when driving onto and off of a bridge.  And the transition onto 390!  They had to do one of those small ramp patches because the canal bridge is higher than the pavement they poured last summer!  I even asked a civil engineer I know if they’d top coat it once all the construction was completely done (3 years) and he said no, they’ve completed the westbound lanes.  MAYBE I’m wrong!  I sure would like to be.

But if we’ve just spent 3 years (plus the years of planning before hand) and Lord knows how much money on this, you’d think the quality of the road would be at least high if not superior.  If you have bumpy transitions between the road and the bridges, that just means in our ever chilly winters that the plows are going to destroy that in a  year or two!  It would seem that it just welcomes road construction to become a consistent thing on the western gateway.  Where is our standard of quality??  I could understand that if you’re paving that large of an area that there will be some gradual dips and high points in the road, they took it all the way down and relayed the gravel base.  But even if you’re paving such a large area, you still will realize the small details of a bridge seam and  the pavement level not matching!  I’m just shocked.  It’s a no brainer!  And the bridge/drainage/road transitions right after the inner loop off ramp (by frontier field on the west bound lanes) is all bumpy too.  Now, I’m not being a princess and a pea here and I’m not trying to exaggerate that it’s like driving through potholes either.  I also want to say that I do know we’re driving on the area that is made to be a shoulder because of the lane shifts.  But when the lanes were all worked out and we drove it in the winter, it was still bumpy! 

I just want to ask if anyone’s checking the quality of work.  It’s a product we, the taxpayers, are paying for so there needs to be a level of quality for the job being done. 

If I had to grade the Western Gateway, the idea would get a 100%.   The work, that would get about 75%.  I can say they’re doing a good job.  But that means a good job next to mediocre not a good job hedging on great.  The eastern thorough fair – that was a great job when they completed that.  The western gateway is decent. 

I feel bad being a 20-something and sounding so negative.  But I think America is lacking a standard of quality and unfortunately it’s not going to improve with the next generation.  We’re by no means doomed though.  They are some fantastic kids, but they’re growing up in a throw-away society that focuses on instantaneous-ness.  I’ve said my piece.

Hey all,
I haven’t written recently and I’m generally in and out.  But you probably would agree with me that you don’t weekly come up with new things that you’re passionate about, or are important to you.  Well this is one (And i just thought of another that has been on my mind lately, slowly and longer)  We’ll start here. 

I’m a girl… and I’m not a big fan of lots of medicine anyway, but I do believe in taking care of our bodies and doing what’s necessary to keep us healthy.  That being said, America has become a very symptom soothing oriented society.  “You’re depressed?  Here’s some medicine.”  “You’re having issues with your kid?  Let’s throw drugs at her and see how that affects her.  She’s only 10 years old?  No problem!”  and then there’s birth control and menopause and how that is being taken care of.  Let me state for the record that I am pro-birth control.  I think it’s a helpful thing.  I think there are medical side-effects to synthetic estrogen that these women taking it have already experienced.  Don’t quote me on this, but cancers and other issues I think have been linked (not directly connected) to the synthetic hormones. 

But then there’s the indirect consequences of how our bodies don’t fully process some of these drugs and they pass through and get into the water.  We do enough chemical stuff to our water to clean out the bacteria and other gross stuff , but the drugs aren’t fully erradicated.  And they get back into nature, your ponds, your crops, forests, and meat.

Life is sustained by water – everything (besides rocks) needs it to survive.  And yet we’re not doing anything about it.  We’re not trying to figure out why you’re depressed (some people are genetically predisposed, I understand simple therapy isn’t affective all the time)  We don’t try to cure why our kids are ADD, depressed, apathetic, angry, destructive, etc.  We just put them on drugs!  If the parents got therapy, and then had kids maybe the kids would turn out a little better.  And they could get therapy before they raise children to clean out the “system” of their parents crap before perpetuating the cycle.  Everyone has issues, I know that.  Not everyone can be saved, I’ll accept that.  But that doesn’t mean we should numb the entire nation.  Each generation is going to get more angry.

I know I’m covering a lot of things.  And I don’t have the scientific stats or the correct solutions, but something has to change.  We’re raising disgusting meat filled with synthetic hormones, raised on an unnatural diet that we’re feeding to our children, plus the vegetables that are covered in pesticides, fertilizers and are genetically modified so they have less nutrients at the expense that they’ll survive a trip across the world to where they’ll be eaten and not rot in 2 days.  If our children are eating all of this, and then drinking the water that also has anti-depressants and estrogen in it… what is that doing to our children’s bodies?  What about their fertility and development.  Not to mention the societal pressure for the girls to be skinny and sexy – but I won’t get into that now. 

I just think we need to figure out a different way to do birth control and psychological medication.  We need to re-think how we’re raising our foods, and what we’re willing to accept as okay.  If you sent in your tax return with coffee stains on them and are all wrinkled, that’s not a good quality of service.  If we bought clothes that were actually dirty (not just looking way too worn as is the style), prom dresses and wedding dresses that were all wrinkled and sitting in a ball, that wouldn’t be acceptable.  Our level of quality is decreasing significantly (another point I’m not going to get into right now)  but what I’m trying to say, is if we’re not going to accept these products that are partially trashed, if we won’t accpet that level of service and quality, why then should we close our eyes and say, “the water’s clear, it’s gotta be clean”,  “the foods in abundance at the supermarket, I don’t care how it’s been grown”.  Why are we trusting these big huge companies that are making money by cutting corners, making things cheap and mass produced/diagnosised?  Do you think they have your best intrest in mind?  They don’t know about you.  They only care about your money!  And that goes for pharmacutical companies too.   They just want to give you their pills.  They don’t want you to get better, they don’t want you to be cured. 

Watch your water and your vegetables.  natural life around us is dying because of the water.  Frogs and fish are all be coming female, or both sexed.  Which means species and life systems are in danger of mutations.  We’re not on this earth to be douted on.  We’re on this earth to live within the Huge, vastly complexe natural ecosystem around us.  We need to wake up and realize that “oh, the earth wasn’t made correctly, let’s move vast amounts of water to a desert and ruin rivers and ecosystems that depend on them”  That’s not the truth!  deserts are supposed to be deserts.  If you want your green lawn and your picket fence, move.  (again, another topic I’ll stop right now)

Be careful of your drinking water, take care with your body and your children and your children’s bodies.  Mutations are bound to show up in humans too.

So it’s true.  We’re the quiticential “throw away society”.  Let me complain first, and then I’ll say some good things.  I got a pair of man’s boots as hand-me-downs.  They’re in immaculate shape, no wear on the tread, the seams are all in tact andeverything, and they even have thinsulate liners.  So maybe a lower end brand but still a quality boot. 

The ONE issue is that one of the thinsulate liners are missing.  I’ve been looking for a while now, and I can’t find anywhere to purchase replacement liners.  I’ve searched and searched the internet and I can’t find squat.  So I take it that they expect me to throw away these perfectly great boots, because I don’t have a damn liner??  I mean, the liners are seperate from the boot anyway, sell them individually – have the wholesale company that manufacutures them keep a replacement website so they can make a few extra every once in a while.  I think this is absolutly crap!! 

So the small weak joyful silver lining?  I’ll tell you what it is.  Christmas lights!!  Talk about the epitome of something that defines throwaway.  On the christmas strands, it’s really hard to figure out which bulb died etc.  and replace it.  So we throw them away.  In some cases new light strings themselves are only like 3 bucks.  If you go to www.holidayleds.com you can send in your old christmas lights and they will be recycled.  But that’s not it.  They’ll send you a 15% coupon off of LED christmas lights.  It could look like a ploy to get you to buy their product, and it is.  But it’s also a way to get people to switch over to lights that take up way way less electricity.  Seriously!!  So much better!! I like it.  I can only take their word, and they give a nice write up on how they recycle the strings – so I think it’s legit.  But pretty cool eh?

Do you know of where one can buy boot liners?  Have you found other cool recycling stories or sources?  Let me know!

Good lord,

My dad forwarded me this article.  NEver NEVER NEVER believe what you see on the cover of magazines.  It’s sick and incredible what they pass under our eyes that we believe is pretty real with a small amount of photoshopping.  We don’t even know all the editing they do to the photos.  Except on Faith Hill.

http://jezebel.com/gossip/photoshop-of-horrors/heres-our-winner-redbook-shatters-our-faith-in-well-not-publishing-but-maybe-god-278919.php

check out this article.  It shows what they did to Faith Hill, a fit, attractive, mom who looks great!!  There’s an animated photo and then a link to a still enumerating the changes. 

 

FREAKIN’ CRAZY

Hi,
So my car gave me a wake up call.  Had issues with the front wheel.  This is actually nice though because I’m able to look to the future and forsee the $1800 that I could put into the car in the next year… So I’m going to sell it.  *tear* 

That’s not the point.

The point is, I have  been more active, joggin around with the soccer ball, biking to and from close places.  And I endevored to bike again to work today!  It took me only 30 minutes this time to bike over.  I have more of a handle on down shifting etc. and my legs are more in shape.  It was pretty neat!   Being the summer and all though, it’ll be interesting to see what it’s like biking home at say… 2pm.  Not looking forward to it. 

So, because my car has issues and has the doughnut on the road, I’m hesitant to drive a lot on it.  Thursday and Friday… it’s supposed to be say, 90 degrees.  And like around 2pm is the hottest part of the day.  Yipee??   So that will be interesting.  But I’m armed with sunscreen and I probably will Not be wearing my sunshall.  Domas. 

So.  That is it.  I’ve noticed this summer that my apartment is way far away from my parents (who I do spend and would like to spend time with) and other things on the west side are not near me.  Like 12 miles expressway driving not near me.  So in an endevor to leave less of a carbon footprint, I’m looking for a place that will bring me closer to the little trips (the stores, the friends, the parents, etc) and sadly it’s at the expense of being close to work.  1.2 mile difference up to 7.9 miles total to work.  But it makes sense.

seriously it does.  I have makes and radial circles from the spheres that I enjoy being in in this city and greater metropolitan area and where all my circles meet is in this place that puts me a little further from work and closer to people.  I did my internal homework of why I would be moving, what’s wrong with this apartment (it’s a great 1 bedroom seriously, month to month, I like it a lot – space, storage and distance are the issues) and did my external homework of what I want to move to, where would be ideal and I scored the area looking for possible apartment complexes.  My sister has chuckled at my geekyness because of this.  It’s great.  So there.

I will write again about a really amazing building.  I like the concept and the execution of it.   but I’m out.

I have a bunch of other stuff I want to write about but i’m here and now and have this little poem next to me.  I’m working on a photo book for a friend and when I was taking apart a picture frame thing my mom has for each of my sisters and I for all our school pictures, I found that there were poems or quotes behind each spot.

I believe the true purpose of these quotes was to fill the holes with something remotely interesting until the school picture from that year took place.

But All to say, I find the one behind the senior picture interesting if only for my life and curiousity.  So here we go.

Children Learn What They Live

If a child lives with criticism,
He learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility,
He learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule,
He learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame,
He learns to be guilty.

If a child lives with tolerance,
He learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement,
He learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise,
He learns to appreciate.
If a child lives wtih fairness,
He learns justice.
If a child lives with security,
He learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval,
He learns to like himself.

If a child lives with acceptance and
friendship, he learns to find love in the world.

Author Unknown.

While typing that onto here… It came to me that you sorta have to be given something before you can know how to do it and to give it back.  Sounds like a duh statement, but you have to be truly loved and appreciated in order to truly love.  There’s a Dar Williams song called What do you hear in these sounds (but she sings about therapy)  And there’s a line in it that says

” And when I talk about therapy, I know what people think
That it only makes you selfish and in love with your shrink
But Oh how I loved everybody else
When I finally got to talk so much about myself”

And it’s that give and take sort of thing (although that cliche doesn’t sound appropriate)  You need to be held accountable in order to learn responsibility… and I think this is lost in some high schools and in our society today.  It’s all about mutual love and acceptance that it isn’t mutual at all and all it is is acceptance and not many people are teaching or creating an environment with fairness (and structure) in order to teach justice.  And by fairness it’s not the societal accepting fairness, it’s the “here are the rules, you’re accountable” fairness.

I guess the poem really does speak it best.  if a child lives with encouragement he’ll learn confidence.  you have to give to the child in order to foster this sense of worth, confidence, and value.

Just like I said it would be.  Life goes easy on me, most of the time.

 

Ooooo, if you can get that quote, you’ll be in great standing.  But!  What is happening like I said it would is this!!  I just biked 6.7 miles (yes, I google mapped it) to work this morning.  I left super early to make sure I had enough time to cool down and prep and be all set up for work etc.  But I did it!!  I got on my bike at 5:38am this morning and got off it and locked it up and took the front wheel off by 6:14am.  Wow!!  

Its surprising the hills you Don’t notice when driving.  And I definitely felt the weight of my backpack about halfway through.  The real kicker is going to be biking home today when everyone is awake and out of school.  yippee?  Hopefully my legs won’t die and fall off of me.  We’ll also see how I do on wednesday biking to work.  Tomorrow i’ll have a much needed break and have appointments to go to so I’ll need to drive.  But!  my quest has begun.  I didn’t die.

Also, because it has been almost a year’s hiatus from this blog thingy…
read :Animal Vegetable Miracle by Kingsolver and In Defense of Food by Michael Pollen.  Two really well done books.  Makes you think twice on what you’re eating, where it’s coming from and what changes you can make.

My CSA share that I’m splitting should be starting soon.  With the increase in gas prices, I think this will help me out a bunch. 

I’m exhausted, must go on working.  Enjoy!