7ToF: you were never serious about the craft

1. We had no phone for eight days, and the last three of those, we had no internet service. Major pain. But we seem to be up and running again, even though our DSL still occasionally becomes unbearably slow. I did have a post written for Tuesday, but I decided it needed some more work, and since that was the night our DSL died, it would have required a trip to a coffee shop to write another. So it didn't happen.

2. I would give you the weather update, but you know, it's January. Nothing newsworthy here.

3. I read an article a couple of months ago talking about how stupid recycling is. I was surprised, because to me, recycling just makes sense, like picking up after yourself. But the article made some interesting claims about the relative expense of recycling vs. landfill management, so I've been digging around and doing a little more research. The original article turned out to be a little biased in some of its claims, but still, it's a far more complex topic than I realized. I didn't learn anything that convinced me to stop recycling, but I came away from my research convinced that the best thing is to reduce our consumption of disposable stuff. Which is harder to do than it sounds around here (maybe anywhere), but I'm working on it.

4. One thing everyone agrees on: recycling aluminum is worth it-- it's far cheaper to recycle aluminum than to mine the new stuff. (For the record, paper and cardboard can also be effectively recycled; plastic and glass, not so much.) The main thing we buy in glass containers is beer. I've never been much of a wine drinker-- migraines, you know-- but I do love a good microbrew. Those smart people at our local and regional microbreweries must have been reading the same info about recycling that I did, because suddenly microbrews are available in cans. Until recently, canned beer was the stuff that tasted like piss. But now you can get Fat Tire, Blue Moon, Alaskan Amber and a whole bunch of other good beers in cans. Nice move, microbreweries.

5. I was never a dedicated David Bowie fan, although his music was some of the iconic music of my college years. But I've been listening to his Best of Bowie album some this week, and there are way more songs than I realized that I pretty much know by heart. RIP, Bowie. RIP also to Glenn Frey, although I'm just slightly too young to be as devastated about that as some other people I've heard calling into our local classic rock station. Nice to know I'm too young for something, anyway.

6. But Alan Rickman, *sniff.* I've always had a not-so-secret crush on Alan Rickman. He was just perfect in everything he did, and he was in some of my favorite movies-- Galaxy Quest ("I see you managed to get your shirt off"), Sense and Sensibility (sigh), and who else could have played Snape? ("Unless you wish to poison Potter - and I assure you, I would have the greatest sympathy if you did - I cannot help you." in that snooty, disdainful tone of voice that he had down.) Loved him, and even more after reading these quotations, which I'd never heard before.

7. Weight Watchers update (click away now, all ye who have no interest): The first week I was just floundering around trying to figure out what to eat. The second week I had a terrible time not throwing in the towel--it wasn't all that awful but I hate not being able to eat whatever I want. But I kept reminding myself that a) it's only temporary; b) I'm trying to learn new habits because I failed on my own; and c) I really am eating better food now. There are certain things about the weight watchers system that I'm never going to agree with--maybe I'll write more about that another time--but now that I'm getting used to it, it's doable. This week is going much better. And I am losing weight at the same time that I'm figuring out a plan for maintaining once I'm done, so there you go. Three weeks in, I'm at least willing to say I'll stick with it for another week. ;-)