Bike Thieves in South Bend

Grr...I'm so annoyed. Some jerk stole my bike helmet tonight, along with my friend's rear light and sack. And they also tried to steal this other guy's wheel from his bike. The nerve! Prior to this discovery, my friend Jackie and I attended a jazz concert near my house. It was a fun, certainly a nice diversion from writing academic papers. But really! Why are there people out there willing to take what clearly does not belong to them?? (This is rhetorical questions, folks!)

It just peeves me. So now, I'm going to have to *drive* to the local bike shop to purchase a new helmet. While I'm there, I'll pick up some other items that I'm sure these thieves would want to add to their collection.

Now when I'm riding my bike, I'll be keeping an eye for someone who's sporting a pink helmet!

The Dark Side of Gardening

Gardening is a popular pastime for many people. For some, gardening is a way to observe beauty and feel relaxation; for others, gardening is a way to showcase their green thumbs. Whatever the reason, gardening is certainly one approach to fostering a direct experience with nature.

But does gardening pose a negative impact on the environment? I read a shocking article in the NY Times a few days ago. Dubbed the "Garden Vigilantes," the reporter interviewed gardeners who kill pests in order to save their vegetables and flowers.




There's Jessica in Connecticut, who shoots garter snakes with a shotgun; Joanna in Brooklyn, who drowns squirrels with her bare hands; Susanne in Alaska who clubs porcupines; and Mr. Anonymous in Pennsylvania who shoots woodchucks. They kill pests because they're annoying. Those animals ruin their gardens or decimate their tranquil experiences with gardening.

Are these people somehow deranged? Probably not, despite their extreme and violent actions toward those animals. (Having said that, I'm appalled and disgusted to know these folks are killing helpless critters.) Although many people garden to appreciate nature, they don't generally think of their yards and gardens as part of the natural environment. This may be why gardeners are likely to plant invasive non-native species, use too much water, and apply pesticides to ward off bugs.

I naively thought gardening was a positive way of feeling connected to nature. But now I'm not so sure. It does make me wonder how people in general view themselves in relation to the natural world. What is valued most when people garden? And how do their values reconcile with preserving (or harming) the environment?

Rallying Behind Crunchy Chicken

I first heard about Crunchy Chicken by reading the comments on No Impact Man's blog. I was pleasantly surprised when I went to her blog - she was hosting a poll (the exact question eludes me now). But instantly, I knew I could relate to this woman - for crying out loud, we both love statistics and asking people questions! It's a pretty dynamic site, in case you haven't visited. Crunchy hosts online book discussions and challenges that really gets people excited to do act in an environmentally responsible manner. For goodness sake, I've frozen my buns over the winter with her Freeze Your Buns Challenge. And I recall having several interesting conversations when I participated in the Diva Cup Challenge.

Crunchy's been going through some tough times, which I won't get into that here. She nearly retired from the blogosphere last week. But lucky for us, she just can't stop blogging! In fact, a group of bloggers created a Tribute to Crunchy blog, which partly honors her for being so darn cool. In addition, this tribute is also raising money for one of her causes called Good4Girls - it's a charity that provides sanitary products to school-age girls in Africa.

I'm no Rockefeller, but I donated $50 to this charity. It's a drop in the bucket, but I hope Crunchy will accept this as a token of my appreciation for what she does best: Finger lickin' good and always crunchy. But, mostly just clucking around!

Toxic: Garbage Island - Part 1

I've read a lot of factual information about the amount of plastic in the Pacific Ocean. But seeing the story unfold on video is quite a different experience.

There's a 12-part series of these videos that you can watch online: http://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1485308505

I plan on watching these videos after I complete my writing tasks for the day.

Tagged by Fake Plastic Fish's Meme!

Well, as Radiohead's Thom Yorke once said, "You did it to yourself and that's why it really hurts." Only this time it doesn't hurt so bad. I'm particularly excited about writing this post because I'm second in line to a new meme started by Fake Plastic Fish. These questions are all about blogging, whether it's writing posts on blogs or reading other people's blogs.

Now usually memes have a bunch of rules you're supposed to follow, but I'm going to keep it simple by just answering FPF's questions. And then whomever I tag will hopefully keep this meme alive in the blogosphere.

1) Do you feel pressured to write a minimum number of posts per week?

Sometimes, although this perceived pressure is self-imposed. I actually feel greater pressure to conduct research and write articles for publication, so blogging is usually a nice diversion from my regular work routine.

I do wish I could write more thoughtful posts, but the fact of the matter is that I've got other duties that demand more of my time and energy. I'm currently writing five research articles for publication. Yikes!

2) If so, where does the pressure come from? If not, why the heck not? What's your secret?

I don't have any hidden insights regarding my self-imposed pressure to blog. I do think the key is balance, and a dash of perspective thrown in for good measure. Fake Plastic Fish knows that I have blog-envy. (If only I could make my blog as cool as hers! If only I could write more thought-provoking articles like she does!) But I think if I spent more time on my blog, it would be at the expense of my research agenda, and I'm not willing to make that sacrifice. I guess that's my perspective on this issue. At any rate, it's how I deal with my blog envy.

3) How do you manage your computer time in general? Is it easy for you to get on, do what you have to do, and get off? Or do you get sucked in for hours and lose track of time?

My computer is constantly on, especially my email. My students have told me that I'm super-quick in replying to their emails. I view it like tennis - you volley to me, and I quickly want to volley back. Anything to get it off my desk, so to speak.

4) Do you have significant others who resent the time you spend online? How do you negotiate computer time vs. personal real-life time?

My partner also blogs, so I don't think he feels any resentment towards me blogging. Actually, if he's going to resent anything, it's the fact that I live in South Bend (he lives in Philadelphia).

5) Do you ever find yourself walking down the street in the real world and realize that your head is still totally stuck in the Blogosphere?

Not usually, although there have been times I've seen or heard something in the real world and said to myself, "Now that's blogworthy!"

6) Has your body suffered in any way from spending too much time sitting and staring at a computer screen rather than exercising? Has your diet suffered?

Not really, although sometimes I need to stretch my legs and buns from sitting at my desk all day. It does help that I regularly bike to work and walk my pups at least twice daily.

7) Have you resorted to alcohol or other chemicals to wind down and take your mind off cyberland? If so, is that a problem for you?

No. I drink alcohol to take my mind off of academia. It's not a problem. All academics do it.*

8) How do you manage your e-mail? Seriously. I need to know. Because remember when I wrote about having over 500 messages in my inbox? I still have over 500 messages in my inbox!

Easy: If there's an especially annoying or frivolous email, I'll delete it. Out of sight out of mind! Ok, so I've only done this twice my whole life (and boy, did it feel good!). My general practice is to keep my email replies short and sweet.

9) Does blogging ever make you feel lonely? It is, after all, a solitary act while you're composing your posts. I suppose it's no different from being any other kind of writer in that regard.

No, on the contrary, I feel more connected. I have a few friends that read my blog regularly. And I've also made some friends, too (like FPF, Merry Meghan). Maybe the underlying question to ask is who's a 'friend' given today's techno-savvy world.

10) What kind of support can we, as bloggers and blog readers, give to each other besides nice comments on the blogs? Is there a way that we can work together and give each other a break? Sure, we could create a Forum to vent our frustrations and give each other feedback. But would that just add another task to our online "to do" lists?

No new ideas here, but perhaps a reflection - I find carnivals (Carnival of the Green) and other blog challenges (Crunchy Chicken's Freeze Your Buns Challenge) to be incredibly supportive and fun. I think this also dovetails with me not feeling lonely while writing my posts - writing keeps me connected with you guys. I love it!

11) Bonus question: How do you read blogs? Do you subscribe in a reader and if so, how many blogs are you subscribed to? How many feeds do you read each day? Do you feel pressured to keep up with your blog reading in addition to your blog writing?

I use Google Reader to keep up with ~25 blogs. Again, there's no pressure on my part. Reading other people's blogs reaffirms my belief that together, we are taking big and small steps to making this world a better place for everyone (ourselves, kids, plants, and animals).

Ok, the questions have been answered, so I'm tagging Merry Meghan and Bring Your Own to help keep FPF's meme going!

Whoa! Thanks for posing these great questions, Fake Plastic Fish!!
_______________
* For those of you really wondering if I was being serious or facetious, I assure you - it's only a joke! ;0)

My Prediction for Tomorrow's Weather

I didn't ride my bike today because the weather forecast predicted an 80% chance of thunderstorms and showers. Ok, I'll admit - I'm a chicken when it comes to biking in stormy weather. I was debating this issue this morning, though. Should I ride or not? I wanted to ride so that I could add more miles to Team IUSB for the Michiana Bike to Work Week challenge. But I didn't want to get stuck in a storm. So I drove to work today.

What a mistake.

It rained for about 10 minutes. And that was it. I looked outside my office window in frustration. I was expecting something way more severe, just like the weatherman promised. But no, that didn't happen. As I drove home from work today, I saw several people biking. I should be on my bike, not in my car, I thought to myself.

So here's my prediction for tomorrow: It will rain like cats and dogs. And I will be in the middle of it, on my bike. Forget the weatherman's report. I'm biking tomorrow. Now watch me get struck by lightning.

Pooch Pick-Ups a Let Down

It's been almost a year since I started composting Jack and Willy's waste. It's really easy - all I did was dig a hole in the backyard and occasionally put dirt to cover it up. I've gone through 5 compost pockets by now, and the good news is that my pets' waste have really composted into the soil.

I'm glad that I've diverted their waste from entering landfills. But there is a glitch in the system and it all has to do with these biodegradable bags. These pooch pick-up bags are made from cornstarch, and according to the label, these bags biodegrade much faster than ordinary poo bags. When I first heard about this product, I was excited because I thought that meant I could also toss these bags into the compost pocket. But 10-months later, those bags have not biodegraded one bit! My first hunch was that I was doing something wrong, but when I checked the packaging for some instructions, I found none.

I guess my compost pocket doesn't get hot enough to biodegrade these doggie bags. Consequently, my compost pocket now looks like this:


Here's a close-up of what I now consider to be a big, bag mess in my backyard:

Because the bags simply aren't biodegrading fast enough, I've been throwing them away in the garbage. I still toss Jack and Willy's waste into the compost pocket, though. But I'm not happy with these bags. What should I do?

I don't compost my pets' waste into my regular composting bin because I don't want bacteria to contaminate that humus. Because pets lack a pathogenic system, bacteria are released in their stool. And because my composting bin doesn't reach 160 degrees Fahrenheit, it's not hot enough to kill those bacteria.

This is the only hang-up I've had since I started composting last year. Otherwise, composting has been a cinch. And these guys don't mind being eco-friendly pups!

Jack & Willy

Green Wikia!

I recently discovered Green Wikia, which is an online resource that covers topics on climate change and environmental sustainability. Just like the original Wikipedia, Green Wikia offers a central repository for anyone who has internet access. Granted, this wikia is fairly new (i.e., there's 182 articles published to date), so that means this is a great opportunity to help make a difference by editing and writing articles. What I'd like to do is edit their recycling page by discussing the need for a sustainable design that increases the recycling rate while decreasing the amount of contaminants that enter the recycling stream. (Yep, you guessed it - I want to share the findings from the recycle-bin project!) I'm struggling with uploading pictures onto their website, though. So hopefully I can figure this out and start working on that article for Green Wikia.

Join Team IUSB for Bike to Work Week!

If you haven't heard the news, next week is Bike to Work Week. This year's organizers are encouraging employee groups to "compete" as part of team. My colleague, Bruce Spitzer, has created an IUSB team, which I joined yesterday. There are other teams, too. The basic idea is to simply log the miles you ride during the week. So if you have a bike, and would like to join a team, go to Michiana Bike to Work to register.

Back from APS!

It's been a whirlwind of activity and fun these last few weeks. Sean and I took our students with us to Chicago last week to present our research at the 20th Annual Convention for the Association of Psychological Science (whew, that's a mouthful! For sake of brevity, I'll refer to this conference as APS). I have to say, we had a great time at APS! We met other researchers who are doing similar research on environmental concerns and attitudes, and we were able to share ideas and make connections with those folks, which is fantastic. There were hundreds of poster presentations and invited addresses, too. I've learned the hard way that you have to be selective in choosing which talk or poster to go to because otherwise, you'll wear yourself out!


Here's a picture of us standing in front of our poster on people's implicit connections with nature. You may notice that my hair is wet in this photograph - that's because our poster presentation was scheduled for 8am on Thursday. Yikes!! :0) Standing next to me is Matt Robinson, an undergraduate at Rutgers University. This summer, I have the pleasure of being his faculty mentor for a grant he received from APS. And standing next to Sean is Becky Lomas, another undergraduate at Rutgers University. Becky and Matt are two incredibly motivated students. It was so awesome sharing this experience with them and seeing them shine as they presented their posters at the conference.

Here's a photo of us after we presented our poster (you'll notice my hair is no longer soggy wet!). Sitting on my right is Nick Vecchione, yet another one of Sean's students. (At the moment, I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture with my student, Nate Ring, who also attended APS. Sorry, Nate!!)


We were able to mix-in some fun with work. Here we are queuing to enter the Green Mill, which is a famous jazz club in Chicago.


I like this picture of Becky. Matt's standing behind her holding two chocolate-covered truffles from the APS banquet.

And here's one last group photo of us. It's hard to believe how fast this year has been. It was at last year's APS conference when I met Sean, and now fast-forward to the present time, here we are with our students presenting our research. It's amazing how much can change within the course of the year. I wonder what we'll be presenting at next year's conference. Hopefully, when we go to APS in San Francisco, Nate and some more of my students will want to present their research, too!