Photos from Brainerd MN 12-31-2017
Stay warm this New years Eve!
A lot of times I talk about the energy savings of what I do but rarely talk about the money I save (at least on this blog). Doing these requires a change in attitude and behavior.
- I save thousands of dollars every year by giving up my car ( I still have my drivers license).
- Saving on repairs, oil changes, car washes, parking, insurance, and gasoline.
- It also improves my health greatly and reduces my impact on the environment.
- I do this through several means including biking more, using web based services, and walking.
- more about this in my ebook Datacommuting available on iBooks, Amazon (Kindle) and Nook
- I save by not having a printer.
- This not only directly saves money on toner or ink, paper and electricity but also saves a lot of space.
- This is both the space the printer itself takes up and the space it takes to retain paper documents.
- Documents are digitally stored.
- When I need something printed I go to library, or print shop, or photo processor.
- I still use scanners to scan in photos and documents that are not already available in digital form.
- I save hundreds of dollars a year by having a prepaid phone instead of a contract phone.
- My smart phone is over 3 years old so I’m saving money by not buying a new phone.
- Unfortunately the plan I have isn’t available any more for new customers but my carrier is allowing me to stay on that plan.
- I avoid using devices with disposable batteries.
- My bike lights use a dynamo in the wheel hub.
- My keyboard is solar powered.
- I use dynamo (crank powered) flashlights and radio
- other devices use rechargeable batteries
- some devices I eliminate altogether (like devices that a smart phone app can replace)
- Using LED lights not only saves electricity, but they rarely need to be replaced.
- There are other simple ways I save by not having bad habits such as drinking pop or coffee or worse.
- I save money by not eating meat sometimes
- I avoid using plastic grocery bags (by using reusable bags and my bike packs) and the bags I do get such as those that have bread or vegetables I reuse as waste basket liner.
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I show cleaning a smart phone and case using electronic cleaning wipes, a pic, microfiber cloth, and a blower tool. The phone used in this video is an Apple iPhone 5c.
An iPhone 5c (the plastic version with different colors) has lasted over 3 and half years. One time recently It was able to keep a charge (without being charged) for 2 weeks. It was shut off for quite a bit of that time.
running short on blog post so I thought I’d share that
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After the Storm in Duluth
more recent videos:
Central Lakes College now offers some classes that do not use textbooks. There are some benefits to this.
- Students spend a lot of money on textbooks
- The paper textbooks can be very heavy causing back problems and even problems with brain and vision when carried in a backpack.
- Ebooks are nice, less to carry, and allow authors (and artist and photographers) to be paid for their work, however some formats do not work with every device.
- CLC leaves it up to the instructor to choose the textbook so different instructors will use different books anyway. Sometimes different books have to be bought for the advanced class after the beginning class.
- Some classes I had to buy textbooks that were never even used as part of the instruction of the class.
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Technology and privacy
Some of my views on technology and privacy.
I’m not saying I’m right but this is the way I see it.
I have a very strict privacy policy. There are good and bad things about that.
The good:
- It safeguards privacy
- It gives a reason to deny request for private information
- It protects against some possible data breaches
The bad:
- When people ask for referrals I can’t always give them a referal
- I don’t contact customers even though they may want to be contacted
- It limits some of the business I’m able to do even though it may be beneficial to the customers
- I don’t always publish photos or videos, even though people want to see them.
- it limits the age to 13 or over for interacting with my web sites through forms.
My view on the new iPhone is it does not necessarily breach privacy any more than previous smart phones and definately not more than services like Facebook . Although there is the possibility it could with 3rd party apps.
My view on St Paul police departments with autism foundation app targeting disabled people and people diagnosed with autism disorders is a privacy breach,
The integration of records at Northern pines from 3rd party providers (Little Falls and Brainerd) may be a confidentiality and privacy breach.
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Some videos from this summer
I have been forgetting to link these videos on my blog. So I will share some with you. More videos at my YouTube Channel
More videos at my YouTube Channel
I set table first. I put broken in thirds thin spaghetti in water with salt put the magnetic induction cooktop at 220 F timed to turn off in 9 minutes. Then put it in Another pan over the stove with the lid on it. I put rolls from a can on a cookie sheet sprayed with canola oil in the gas oven at 400 degrees fareignheight. set my timer on my smart phone for 10 minutes. Then started the sauce with vegetable spaghetti sauce and soy veggie crumbles at 220 F timed to automatically turn off 5 minutes then checked it cooked another 5 minutes. Turned off oven I got a bag salad, but added blue berries and strawberries on top. For my friend, salad I made for her was just berries. She came and left, my parents came, and she came back. I started putting it on the table.