Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else.

Blog for Tuesday, 11th May, 2010.

My Current Challenges:

1. No fans, heat, a/c. Only use natural cooling and heating.
2. Shorter showers for less water consumption.
3. No paper napkins or paper towels.
4. Hypermiling (slow acceleration, lower cruise speeds, overall trying to get better MPG).
5. Throw away as little as possible, recycle most.

Class Challenge:

• Limited lights. Natural lighting during the day. No unnecessary lights.

Well, the post is a day late. But, better late than never. Well. It's been cold. The recent days have made my room a little too cold for my taste. Tuesday was, well freezing in my room. I did manage, while wearing about 5 layers. In stead of opening my windows at night, I have been opening my windows during the day. As we progress into more of a summer, I expect the need to keep the windows closed during the day will prevail.

Short showers. What is short? I need to start to define this. Need to look into this more.

I have "passed" the no paper napkins and paper towel rule. I have "passed" it because I did not use any, however, I feel like I have been cheating the system. Using toilet paper and paper tissues don't make it feel really like a goal. I am willing to give up paper tissues. I should carry a handkerchief around or something else, preferably an object other than my sleeve. As far as the toilet paper goes, I am not willing to give it up. Why? Because honestly I do not care enough to put myself outside of that level of comfort. Even some of the poorest people in the world still have access to toilet paper, even if they don't have a toilet or plumbing.

Hypermiling....right. Forgot about that one on Tuesday. Well... this is going to be a hard habit to break.

I feel like I should dump the last goal of throwing away less. I mean, I try to do that already, and its a really hard goal to manage. I thought I would put all the trash I throw away into a bag to compare, however, I have run into the issue of not knowing how much trash is thrown away from sources I cant control, for my own activities. Such as preparation of food, and other things people may do for me.

Limited Lights, the class activity is working for the most part. It's a little hard transition, but it seems to be ok. I just feel a little sleepy. The darker setting in the room in the afternoon makes it a little difficult. I had to turn on most of the normal lights by the night time. I hope to have just a light on, and switch between which light depending on where I am in my room. Thats all.