Safeway and Wind Energy

As I was getting gas last night at the new Safeway Fuel gas station in Bristow, VA, I noticed a sign posted saying that Safeway Fuel stations run on 100% Wind-generated electricity. How odd, I thought, for a petroleum dispenser to run off natural energy sources. Sounds good in theory, though. Seems like it's a good idea to use renewable, natural energy sources whenever possible, so I went ahead and checked out the website that was posted on the sign.

I wondered how they could get electricity from a different place than every other home, business, etc. around. It's not like there are any huge windmills in the vicinity, and it wouldn't be feasible to run a direct electric line from wherever they DO have huge windmills to this little gas station. According to the Safeway Green Power FAQ, they pay for the wind energy facilities to deliver an amount of electricity to the electricity grid (the power delivery grid that everyone is connected to), equal to the amount of electricity used by all of the Safeway Fuel stations, corporate offices, and San Francisco Stores.

I hope others will follow their lead, unless there's some negative aspect of this that their information website is neglecting to mention. I didn't find anything negative with a quick google search, though. For now, I'm just happy that they built a gas station closer to my house, which often has the cheapest gas around (especially with a 3 cents/gallon discount with your Safeway card, or a 6 cents/gallon discount with a prior grocery purchase of $50 or more). Not bad.

Republican National Committee census

My wife just got a "Republican Party Census Document" in the mail last week, and I thought something in it was kind of funny. It's a survey, supposedly getting opinions from registered Republicans on all sorts of issues. At the end, though, it says:

Will you join the RNC by making a contribution today?
( ) Yes, I support the RNC and am elcosing my most generous contribution of:
[ ( ) $500 ( ) $250 ( ) $100** ( ) $50 ( ) $25 ( ) Other $____ ]

** A gift in this amount pays to mail 250 more CENSUS DOCUMENTS to registered Republicans.
[...]
( ) Yes, I support the RNC, but am unable to participate at this time. However, I have enclosed $11 to cover the cost of tabulating my survey.

If they're spending $11 to process ~18 simple multiple choice questions (fill in bubbles.. Yes, No, or Undecided), they've got a lot more problems than I can help them with even with a $500 donation. They need to learn to spend their money more wisely, and if I sent them any money, it would only be encouraging them to continue their current unwise spending. No thanks, I think I'll help them out by doing my part to teach them to be more thrifty.

Of course, this may have just been a thinly veiled attempt to solicit contributions, with the survey not really gathering anything particularly enlightening. I did a quick google search to see if I could avoid typing that excerpt from the survey form above, but instead I found some other people's rants about these "census" forms from previous years. It was entertaining to read these:

The T. Rex Essay - The Official GOP CENSUS DOCUMENT

Entia Multiplicanda

Apparently they used to include a 3rd option in the section about making contributions:

( ) No, I favor electing liberal Democrats over the next ten years.

Can you imagine how many of those responses they must have gotten? Multiply that by their $11 processing costs, and it's easy to see why they no longer include that option.

Oh, and this last one is my favorite:

My Nefarious Strategy Keeps Sucking The Republicans Dry! Dry, I Tell Ya! OK, Thirsty, Maybe.

This last one actually went on to describe how sending a small donation to the RNC would actually cause them to LOSE much more than you sent them, because of the additional costs they'd incur by bombarding you with lots of additional Republican propaganda. I love the sheer spitefulness of it!

dumb verizon

Trying to do some long-overdue housecleaning on my hard drives, and keep running across little tidbits that I've saved for one reason or another. From a file I called "dumbverizon.txt", comes a quote from some piece of Verizon DSL literature from a few years ago that I thought was funny:

Due to the sophistication of DSL service Verizon Online does not guarantee that your service will b uninterrupted or error free.

I think it speaks for itself. :)

Tupperware kicks ass!

I think about this every day at work, and keep telling myself I should blog about it. We have some excellent plates and bowls from Tupperware, which we've had for about a year now, I think. These dishes, part of their Open House collection, are made of the same material as some of the Rock ’N Serve storage containers we've been using for several years.

I've heated butter, foods loaded with tomato sauce, cheesy hot dogs (the grease from which has caused permanent damage to some other plates in the past), soups, foods with lots of melted cheese (which has caused permanent damage to other plates as well), etc. No matter what I've heated up in these plates and bowls, they've survived with no signs of damage or wear. They also have no problem with going from one extreme temperature to the other (microwave to freezer, vice versa, etc.) and the outer rims never get too hot to handle. The Tupperware consultants that we've bought from have expressed their durability with various claims, including the ultimate "You can run it over with your car, and it won't break," which supposedly they've sometimes demonstrated. I haven't cared to find out, but it still sounds kinda cool.

Plus, they are extremely easy to clean -- often just requiring a gentle wipe or two with a sponge (or wet paper towel) to clean off anything. With kids around, they're also safer because they're virtually unbreakable. Even without kids, I would want to have these, because I hate it when dishes inevitably get broken eventually. I'd rather not have to worry about it.

I know I must sound like I'm trying to sell these things, but I really have no affiliation with them other than being a very satisfied customer. The only things that suck about them are the price, and the way they retire their product lines... I can't find anywhere to buy more of these "Open House" bowls and plates, which sucks because I'd like to have more. That's why I had to link to the product info page in the Internet Archive (WayBack Machine) for the plates and bowls. The Rock 'N Serve containers are still for sale, though. If you can find these things second-hand somehow, I'd imagine they'd be just as good, based on the durability I've witnessed. I won't vouch for the durability of any of their other products, although we have had some others that held up pretty well. None of them can compare to the type of plastic they use in these 2 lines of bowls, plates, and containers.

I've put these plates and bowls through the harshest conditions that my dishes ever encounter, and every time, I think to myself "Wow, Tupperware kicks ass!"

Kindergarteners can flush and wash their hands, why can't executives?

This has been boggling my mind for years, now. It's interesting and rather disgusting to see the bathroom behavior of many adults in the workplace. Is flushing the toilet really going to make you late for an important meeting? If the client you're meeting with had a choice, do you think they would rather shake your unwashed hand, or have you arrive in the conference room 30 seconds later? I just don't understand.

Yesterday, as I was leaving the bathroom, I saw 2 unflushed urinals. It took me less than 2 seconds to flush them both, on my way out the door. I suppose that someone else's 1 second must be much more valuable than mine, though. Why should they have to do it? Someone else will definitely do it eventually, right?

Sometimes, even if I'm standing there washing my hands, I still see people not flush and/or not wash their hands. If I was going to be lazy and follow the above-mentioned motto: "Someone else will definitely do it eventually," I would at least make sure nobody was looking!

The reason the title of this post mentions executives is because all kinds of people exhibit this behavior. From maintenance guys, to interns, to all levels of management... My 6-year-old has flushed and washed his hands for years, now. Why can't they?! I've witnessed two different CEO's over the past 7 years (at different companies, not my current employer!) blatantly skip the handwashing, despite the presence of myself and sometimes other people as well. Have they no shame? Are they intentionally trying to show us lowly workers that they are much too important/busy to deal with such petty tasks?

These people are the reason I feel compelled to flush with my foot, and open doors with a paper towel. But mysophobia is a whole can of worms in and of itself, so I'll save that for another day.