Plastic Water Bottle Deposits?

I don't remember what it was that got me thinking about it, but I started thinking yesterday or the day before that we really need to implement a deposit on plastic water bottles to increase the amount of recycling of these. People are buying these in such great numbers, especially considering that in Washington, we have some of the purest cleanest water around. Actually, most places in the US have water that is just great for drinking! People are willing to pay 10x and more for bottled water, which is often actually not as clean and sometimes it's actually tap water that's just been bottled to make it more "convenient"!!

I understand that the problem is that recycling is less available outside of the home and office, where it really seems useful to carry bottled water. That's a whole separate issue, but perhaps by having a $.05 deposit on these bottles, something I believe has already been implemented in California and has been implemented with aluminum cans in a number of states, the rate of recycling of these would greatly increase. In Michigan, where there is a $0.10/bottle deposit, 95% of deposit containers are recycled! 95%!! That's pretty big time, I'd say. Adding initiative to the whole thing is one way that's almost a surefire way to get these items recycled, whether it's by the consumers who are using the bottles or people turning trash into cash. Regardless of who recycled them, they'd be getting recycled and decreasing our consumption of petroleum, which is already known to not be a limitless resource for us on this planet. They'd also be decreasing our output of garbage, which is seemingly becoming something we have an endless supply of, especially in the US where consumption of everything is just ridiculously high.

Perhaps we can move towards a statewide bottle deposit for Washington or even further, a national program that could help on an even greater scale, but something needs to be done to increase the sad rate of recyling of these items that have become a staple in so many people's purses, backpacks, cars, briefcases, hands, and everywhere else people can fit them. I'd still rather promote using reusable bottles and refilling them, which saves everybody from the waste and the added expense, but I'm not so disillusioned that I believe people are going to stop using bottled water, especially here in the US, where everything has to be about convenience and the slightest hassle is a big deal.

Ride Your Bike To Work Day/Week/Month!!!

Well, I haven't had as much time as I was hoping for and didn't get a chance to mention it here, but today is Ride Your Bike To Work Day! They are expecting about 20,000 people will commute to work via bike today, higher than last year's approximately 19,000. It is also Ride Your Bike To Work Week! This month, haha, is also Ride Your Bike To Work Month, to top it all off! While I meant to write more about this sooner, at the very least, sooner than the actual day of, I have been trying to increase my own riding and have been riding daily to get back into more frequent riding. I made my usual commute from Edmonds to Redmond for work today and it was great to be out as the weather was already beautiful at 5:30am and there were more people out than the typical 5-6 people I will usually see at this early hour. Also, there were booths set up along the trail "celebrating" today and offering free foods, lights, water bottles, and such! It's great to see people out biking, even if some people will indeed only do it for just today! If it is just for today, still 20,000 people are not in their cars, not clogging up traffic, and not kicking in a little more to the pollution out there! I tried to get some more people biking this week by giving one friend of mine one of my old bikes and going to another friend's house and actually fixing his bike and then riding into work with him the next day to get him on the bike to start. It's a great time to start getting into shape for the summer, saving up some money on the increasing gas costs, especially with Memorial Day and the typical rising Summer gasoline prices on the way, and just strengthening that "bike engine" a little bit to prime it and get it running a little smoother!

Simple Savings for a Budget-Minded Time

Right now, times are really at the point where people are watching their pennies in their pocketbooks. People are also thinking an awful lot more about living a little "greener". I've got to say, one of the simplest things that I did to save a little money and cut down a little bit of the landfill growth was to switch to cloth napkins. I can't lie, though... I've been guilty on more than one occasion of grabbing enough napkins from a napkin dispenser while eating to wipe up the whole restaurant. Sometimes, I feel like I'm grabbing napkins for everybody I know. It became ingrained in me for so long. I even used to grab a handful to load up my (already stuffed full) glovebox in my car. I've tried to reduce that nowadays and not use a napkin once and then go back to the large stack next to my plate.

I think I made the switch a little over two years ago. I hadn't even really thought about the usage until one day, I was talking to my sister (criticizing is probably more accurate) about the amount of paper towels that she was pulling off the roll to clean up a spill of water or something along those lines. She remarked about it being the same as using napkins after I'd scolded her and talked about the waste of paper and that's when it hit me. I wasted so many napkins all the time without even batting an eye. That night, I went to Target and looked for cloth napkins. I found a cool color that would go with my place and grabbed a couple of packs and left, very content with myself.

I guess it's also just an easy project if you're handy with a sewing machine to make up a few, as all you need is some scrap material of your choice to stitch the ends up on. That way, you could make some that you wouldn't feel hesitant about using on a mess because you can choose the material. Heck, you can make some just for the messy meals, make or buy some nice ones for guests, etc.

Since I began using cloth napkins, I feel like it's the only way to go. I used to love cloth napkins when you'd go to a nice restaurant and it just felt classy. Now, I could enjoy that feeling all the time! I even keep a couple at work for my lunches there. It feels good and it's just an even better feeling knowing that I'm saving all the wasted paper of paper napkins. It's cheaper as well even considering you have to wash them, as you can just throw them into an already full laundry and it doesn't really even make any difference to the load!

Another unfortunate thing about paper napkins is that they're almost always not recyclable. On one part, usually recyclables with food/food particles aren't considered recyclable by a lot of recycling programs and I also read that paper napkins contain something in them that can clog recycling machinery (I don't have a source handy). This means that they're pretty much going straight into the landfills that we've already got pretty well loaded and expanding.

For me, this change was just one more thing that made me feel like I was doing my part and walking the walk of all the talk I do about environmental issues and reducing waste. This isn't to say that I don't ever use paper napkins when I'm out and about or when washing my hands at a public restroom, but I'm just more conscious of my usage these days.

DJ WARS

The West Central Florida DJ Scene: Corruption (or Disruption) on the Dance Floor?

When you first think of the DJ scene in West Central Florida, you think of the weddings, the parties, the fun. You don’t think of the beefs between DJ’s, the constant fighting over who rules the turf, who DJ’s best, who runs the West.

Unfortunately, that seedier underbelly of the DJ scene unveiled itself to me, an unwitting pawn in "the game", earlier this week. Needless to say, I was pretty shocked to find infighting where I thought I’d find solidarity, bickering rather than brotherhood…

It all began when I received an email from one DJ Marty the One Man Party, AKA Martin Sullivan, West Central Florida’s answer to the call for NY’s finest (DJ’s). DJ Marty has been DJ’ing in Florida since 1994, running the gamut from weddings to Bat Mitzvahs to emceeing parties. His letter read as follows (my personal data has been deleted, but the rest remains the same, any spelling and grammatical errors and all):

"What do you charge Yo & how much you willing to pay Yo! This is a buisness Yo & not MySpace.
DJ Marty The One Man Partywww.djpartymarty.com
Name :* Sione
Address :* ----
Email Address :* ----
Phone : ----
Date of Event : 4/30/2008
Type of Event : Party
Approximate Number of People : 190
Comments :*
Yo Marty the one MAN party! How much does your partay cost yo?!
___________________________________________________________

I was a little bit surprised by the tone of his email and his dismissal of what could potentially be a future customer. I let him know that by sending him the following email response:

Hello DJ Marty,

I’m not sure who filled out this form in my name, but I can assure you that it was not me. Still, this seems like an inappropriate way to respond to customers. Also, if you are into a more formal addressing, wouldn’t your response tend to be a little less childish and not include misspelled words? If you are intending to attract customers, which I assume you are, I’ve looked at your website and it looks like you might be relying on a bit more than just that to do the job. Word-of-mouth advertising is one of the most valuable assets a good business can have on its side and to throw this to the wind is foolish for a business to do. You’ve brought your own actions to my attention, as a potential customer, and attached your website there in your signature. If you are doing this, I’d recommend that you try to be a little bit more polite in the future. I’ve been handed a bad impression of you and your services right from the initial meeting, now. You know the expression about how one happy customer tells one of their friends, but one unhappy customer tells 10 of their friends? It is very often true…

Thank you,

Sione

DJ Marty didn’t hesitate for a second before quickly naming names and pointing fingers. All fingers pointed directly at another local DJ, DJ Junior Rockstar, and all the names were just that one name. DJ Marty sent me DJ Junior Rockstar’s MySpace information as well as all of his business information (address, phone number, real name, etc.). This seemed a bit odd to me, as the easiest thing seems to me to be to just write a quick "Sorry note" and move on from there. This was when I knew that something must be amiss with the West Central Florida DJ scene. I was so intrigued that the whole controversy basically dominated all of my waking hours from that point on until this point right now (the point where I’m writing this, not necessarily when you’re reading this). What was going on? What happened to the DJ Code of Ethics? If things could fall apart and turn ugly between DJ’s in West Central Florida, what was stopping all DJ’s from just rioting and starting a mass revolution?

I decided that I should try to get into contact with DJ Junior Rockstar, AKA Gregory Sanchez, to get his reaction and see if he had any idea about what was going on here or any opinions about DJ Marty…

Hello Greg,

I'm not sure what sort of conflict that you have with DJ Marty (the one man party), but I received some email from him kind of being rude about some contact that he claimed to have gotten from me. When I responded to him, instead of apologizing for the mistake (I didn't contact him originally), he stated that he believed you sent him my contact information. He then emailed me your MySpace information, business information, name and such. Whatever sort of problems you have with one another as DJ's, I just don't want to have my contact information sent around as "pranks" or "tools" for your getting on each other's case.

Sorry, don't mean to be presumptuous in assuming that you did do this, but just that I was frustrated in that this was happening at all and was then sent your information as "who to blame", basically. If you have any insight into what's going on with this situation, I would love to find out! I also think it's pretty inappropriate of that DJ Marty to have sent out your contact information amidst all of this as well.

Thank you,
Sione

I did not get too much of a response back from Mr. Sanchez, though he did seem to insinuate that it really was all Sullivan’s doing. He wrote back saying simply, "I never sent anything about you to marty i never even heard of you. he has the problem with me i did nothing to him he a immature bully and needs to get a life[sic]". Wow. What can I say? There really was something going on between these two and there was clearly no love lost between them! It was at this point that I began to wonder just how deep it went. I began to get a little bit nervous, unsure as to just what I’d uncovered and how serious this was. My mind raced, thinking back to the beef between Tupac and Biggie. This was serious business!

I contacted a few of other DJ’s who work in the same area(s) in Florida as both DJ Marty the One Man Party and DJ Junior Rockstar to try to find out if I could get any more information about what was going on or if it was just a problem that was permeating the whole West Central Florida DJ scene. Unfortunately, it seems that everybody I attempted to contact was very "tight-lipped" about the whole situation, which left me with nothing but more questions. I don’t know whether other DJ’s were just a little more into looking out for each other than Sullivan and Sanchez were, or they just had no idea who either DJ Marty the One Man Party and DJ Junior Rockstar were. Either way, I think that their silence speaks volumes…

The Dream Team

This is just my team. We are the Corporate Marketing Guest Incentives Team of Wyndham Vacation Ownership. I'm posting this for no other reason, but that I said I would post this everywhere. We were really making the dream work here. From left to right, there is Salue, Kimberly B., Ilana, Kim P., Me in the back, and Jacqueline.

Seattle Says Goodbye to Shaun

Well, although it isn't really a surprise to see the news today, it is a sad thing to see that former MVP Shaun Alexander has been released by the Seattle Seahawks.

Alexander was drafted in 2000 and became Seattle's lead back in 2001 and has performed well over the years and been to the Pro Bowl three times. His performance started falling after his MVP performance in 2005, mainly because he has been plagued with injuries since then.

News of his release isn't much of a surprise because there has been plenty of talk of it since Seattle signed two other running backs, TJ Duckett and Julius Jones, a couple months ago. With them recently signed and also Maurice Morris on the roster, who had been splitting time pretty equally with Alexander by the end of last season, the position was looking pretty deep and talk had really increased of the possibility of Alexander getting released. While the news wasn't much of a surprise, it is def sad to see him go as he has really helped the Seahawks throughout the years and was def a large factor in our getting to the Superbowl a few years ago. He'll be missed here in Seattle, but he still plans to play, so hopefully his career continues successfully!

Pennsylvania: The Democratic Last Stand?

Pennsylvania held their Democratic Primary today. It is the first Primary to be held in 6 weeks and has really been long awaited. Well, the polls are closed and the Primary is over now. While results are not in yet, will the results make a difference? At this point, the results are too close to tell. If Barack Obama manages to pull of a win, it will be a surprise, though he's risen in the polls from having Hillary Clinton 20 points above him, but would it be the end? Surely if Clinton has not pulled off a win today, there will be many more Democrats calling for her to step down. But will she? Will it even make a difference, the results? If she does win, will it be enough for her to continue? I don't think it matters, as she will still be in it. The Clintons don't step down...

At this point, Hillary Clinton isn't really looking to pull ahead in the delegate count. She's going to basically ignore that, as it is practically unimaginable that she can overcome that deficit, even if she wins big today and wins all of the remaining primaries and the last caucus. What she will look for and hope for is to at the least pull ahead in the popular vote. If she has this, she will surely use it as an argument to Superdelegates to consider voting in her favor. Is this really enough to get favor towards her?

Hillary Clinton has grasped to everything and anything to use to bolster herself up. When she was losing primary after primary to Obama, she discounted these losses by saying that they were "red states", they would never vote for Obama in the Fall, they had caucuses and these weren't "fair", and basically in essence, that these states that Obama won did not matter. She basically cut up the map into states that she won, which would matter in November, and the states that Obama won that were basically unimportant. As he won more primaries and caucuses than Clinton, her camp continued to discount the wins and put her up as still the one to choose. When it became seemingly impossible for her to overtake Obama in the delegate count, she basically quit looking at that as an indicator. She won't take that into consideration now, while trying to persuade the Superdelegates to back her, despite the fact that this is a race to get the most delegates. That's what it is and it's no surprise, yet she'll avoid that fact and take another angle.

Now, as I've started writing this, I saw that Clinton is claimed to have won Pennsylvania and, "The former first lady was winning 53 percent of the vote to 47 percent for her rival with 14 percent of the vote counted, and she hoped for significant inroads into Obama's overall lead in the competition for delegates to the Democratic National Convention", according to the Associated Press. Well, this will surely mean that Clinton is not going to step down, though I didn't have any illusions that she would, either way. With this win in her pocket, she'll still be in a very very tough position. She'll need to win Indiana and she really can't afford to lose any of the races, though North Carolina is already looking strongly favorable for Obama. It's tough to say how this race will play out from here, but it still looks like, at this point, it's Barack Obama's race to lose and Hillary basically has to just wait and hope that he makes a big blunder or that something comes to light that really hurts his image...