Last Few Months of Clouds

The best cloud pics I've been getting recently are about an hour before sunset, the day of or the day after a snow or rainstorm while the clouds are clearing. Since Spring is coming I'm starting to get out of work before the sun disappears again.

Perfect Snow

I have several photo obsessions. A big one is footprints. The only time I really get to obsess over them is winter. I get some in sand on vacations, but mostly it's in really light snow. We finally had a true dusting of snow that held good prints. (Last time it was too powdery and just wouldn't hold prints.) I picked Moose Hill, even though I've had better luck in Canton at Audubon for footprints. I didn't find any coyote or fox like my goal normally is. Lots of rabbit, squirrel, mouse, and raccoon prints though. The path through the swamp there. Under the layer of new snow is a thick layer of ice and old snow, and under that is the boardwalk. The edges were a little hard to see, but I managed to stay out of the swamp.

Recycling Obsolete or Broken Electronics

My family has always felt extremely guilty about broken electronics. A DVD player dies and it ends up in our attic, because even though it is broken, it seems too wasteful to toss. So this morning I was quite excited to see Best Buy will now allow anyone to actually recycle some of the myriad disposable electronics everyone owns one or two of. (Or if you're related to me, you've got 5, yes 5, obsolete or broken printers hanging around your house that you eventually got fed up with and paid Staples to recycle.) I spent some of the morning reading their new policy and deciding what could be dropped off there, and what could be dropped off at Staples, who has had a recycling program for a few years now. What made the Best Buy deal seem better was they would charge you $10 for some electronics, (Mind you the ad clearly states MOST ITEMS ARE FREE to recycle) and after you pay your $10 they would give you a $10 gift card to Best Buy. Seems usable. At least that old DVD player would have some new life somewhere. We rolled a trip to Staples and a trip to Best Buy into one trip. Staples got 2 keyboards (which they say they will recycle free) and some cables. Went off without a hitch. They took them, and we turned in the last of our 10 ink cartridges for the month. Best Buy was a nightmare. I expect it was because the new store policy likely wasn't explained to people actually working in Customer Service. First they said we don't take DVD players. It says clearly in the ad "DVD Players to PCs". Then they said they charge $10 dollars per item and nothing is recycled for free. Also a lie. The direct line from the ad was "There is no charge for most products." If there's no charge for most products doesn't that mean something can be recycled for FREE. After a ridiculous wait we finally managed to get rid of one cheap DVD player that had worked for maybe 4 months (bought at Best Buy mind you) and one DVD-Rom. We were hoping to get rid of the PC that's been sitting on our porch for a year, but were informed that to accept a PC we would have to have the hard drive removed for a fee of 30 dollars. I'm impressed removing 4 screws costs $30, and on top of that is the $10 charge. (The hard drives need to be removed due to identity theft concerns. If anyone could get any useful information off a 7 year old corrupted and twice reformatted Windows 98 hard drive, I think the thieves deserve it.) And I'm not trying to knock Best Buy. Finally allowing people to recycle the disposable electronics we've been conditioned to buy every year is a great leap forward. However if you're going to do it please make sure at least your managers know what the heck is going on. We had to point out every word in their own circular repeatedly to get rid of two electronics devices, which were clearly stated as recyclable.

(Early) Spring Cleaning

I've been busy with neatening up my life as a way to not spend money. It has partially worked, but led to lots of stuff floating around my house being thrown out. It's also resulted in a renewed interest in half-finished projects. Last year, I believe around May I started building a fish tank stand. It was to hold up a restarted saltwater tank as my current 30 gallon has one fish and infestations of red-bugs and some kind of zooanthid eating snail. I was unimpressed with store-bought stands (too short.) After laboriously cutting chunks out of 2 x 4s with not quite correct precision I finished the frame and the floor of the cabinet. I even found some doors at ikea (As-is department is the best place to shop there) and bought the thin plywood I was going to enclose it with. Almost a year later it was still sitting in my kitchen as a bare frame with a fish tank sitting on it covered in plywood. A few weeks ago I got tired of looking at it. I discovered that what was keeping me from finishing it was not actually wanting to figure out how to get a sump inside it to not wreck the stand with salt-deposits. I looked around my house and evaluated all my other tanks and decided to rework some other fish into the tank. Two days later I finished the stand. I used the paint that was leftover from my kitchen and three coats late it was complete. Some of the more peaceful fish from the basement are back to being displayed, and the only fish left in the basement are the overwintering pond fish. Next I have a few steps and my huge anole cage can be called complete except for sealing. That one has also been sitting 90% finished for months. I'm not sure exactly why that one isn't done yet though, my subconscious most likely has a silly reason like the fish tank stand.

Lego Video Games

So for Christmas I bought my sister Lego Indiana Jones for Wii. Oh My God are these things addictive. I'd played Lego Star Wars before, but it wasn't as fun. We went through almost all of the three movies, with occasional back play. It is definitely more fun if you play with someone at your skill level. It made me go back and play Lego Star Wars again, then drag out my old Lego collections and think about buying a new set just to put it together. I recently rented Lego Batman as well (8.99 TO RENT!!!!), and that was a little harder, though I did finish as Batman. I got stuck as the villains and returned it before going any farther. I played this one with my younger cousin who loved it as well. Thankfully, my Lego fever waned before I spent more than $5.00. I bought this nifty dragon on eBay. Apparently, I really like the Castle sets of Lego, but the only parts I really want are the dragons.