Hiking Out

Really? You Can Recycle That?

A pizza box with a greasy liner hung out of a blue recycling bin as I walked past. Hmm, I had heard that I wasn’t supposed to recycle paper or cardboard that was contaminated with food. Would it be taken with the recycling? Or was the whole bin doomed to be passed over?

I paused to glance in the next bin—canning lids. Now there was an item that most likely is recyclable but would never go through the blue bin path to recycling in my household. I have the ultimate recycle system for canning lids—I wash them, put them on clean class jars and give them to my mother-in-law. Miraculously the glass jars return full of homemade strawberry jam—now that’s a recycling system that can’t be beat.

As I approached the next driveway, a large, grey plastic object was perched on top of the underlying contents of the bin. I stopped again—this clearly wasn’t one of my speedier walks. What was that? Upon closer inspection, I could tell it was an infant car seat. Really? Recycling an infant car seat? Not that I had any to recycle—my kids grew up in the days when we could hand down car seats and cribs—a seemingly impossibility today with the rapidly changing safety regulations. But in any case, can they really be recycled now?

I think I am a pretty thorough recycler, but clearly I am way behind if all of the items I saw filling the bins actually could be recycled—milk cartons, an easily identifiable Target shopping bag, a large clear bag stuffed with shredded paper—shredded paper yes; plastic bags, no, of that I was certain; intact cardboard boxes, more milk cartons, maybe I should be recycling them, but no juice cartons—hmm, odd distinction, or maybe no one drinks orange juice from cartons any more. A Miracle-Gro bag, Bounty paper towel plastic packaging, a plant. A plant? Oh wait, maybe that’s with the trash. I was starting to doubt that I knew anything about what could and couldn’t be recycled. A dishwasher detergent box with the metal spout intact—yes or no?

I really need to just follow a recycling truck and see what happens with all this stuff. I mean if it does belong, how in the world is it ever sorted and actually recycled? Is it? And if these items don’t belong what happens to them and everything in the bin with them? Are there people pawing through conveyor belts full of recycling stuff? Has this already been on Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe and I missed it? Clearly this would count as a dirty job. And costly too. Is it at all cost effective to put all of this in one recycling stream? I think I’ll sit on the curb and wait for the recycling truck to come by. I have some questions to ask.

Shortly After 10 pm May 1, 2011

Shortly after 10:30 pm EDT, my iPhone buzzed with an AP breaking news tone.
“Okay, this will be another trivial news story,” I sighed as I picked up the phone. Clearly I was wrong—for once, truly breaking news that Osama bin Laden had been killed.

With iPhone in hand I immediately opened up Twitter and watched the feed continually updating. All tweets focused on the surprise forthcoming Presidential announcement and speculation. As the president spoke these were followed by reaction, commentary and yes, humor: @TomBodett “Trump not convinced. Demands Bin Laden long-form death certificate.”

The following graph compares how my tweet feed split between tweets related to bin Laden (red line) and those not (blue line) from 7 pm on May 1 to 4 pm on May 2. I scanned back in my tweet stream. “POTUS jolts us awake with unanticipated newscast announcement” was quickly followed by people commenting on the tap-dancing of the networks as they waited for news. Within an hour, every tweet was related to the announcement. From 11 to midnight EDT my tweets scrolled quickly by, dropping off shortly after the President's TV announcement and picking up in the morning as people got back on-line.

Around 11:20 pm @Pogue apparently disembarked from a plane, and tweeted before scanning his tweet stream on an interview with Marty Cooper. The only other completely ordinary tweet that followed in the middle of the night, I actually considered directly related to the unfolding events as @hodgman retweeted @ParisHilton who was looking forward to getting back to her pets sometime after midnight east coast time.

The twitter-ether created an interactive community buzzing with personal reactions to a highly charged and momentous story as it unfolded. From humor to poignancy to patriotism to reflection, a flood of top of mind thoughts brought me close to strangers, friends I only know through twitter, newscasters whom I know, but who don’t know me—a fascinating, educated, opinionated, thoughtful, humorous, reactive group. Collectively their tweets influenced my reaction. I felt I could talk through what I was thinking and synthesize the tumult of thoughts flinging through my brain. My twitter community was far greater company than the newscasters on air trying to fill air time waiting for the President to speak, or rehashing what the President had said as they scrambled for more information.

I was put off by terms like “victory” and “celebrate”. Surely a time to reflect and be thankful an evil voice had been silenced, but I prefer to celebrate peace and hope not death and destruction. Most online shared similar sentiments even as news of people celebrating in the streets of the physical world was tweeted into our on-line community.

The Twitter-ether was alive and the Twitter community seemed to make the world a bit more interwoven and a lot smaller.

iPhoto versus Picasa 2011 Comparison

Making a comparison between iPhoto and anything non-Mac will sound like heresy to Apple fanatics, yet as a Picasa user of many years I was intrigued by how iPhoto would compare to Picasa as I moved from Windows to Mac.

I tried out both iPhoto and Picasa on my MacBook Pro. As a Picasa user, I was more familiar with the Picasa interface, but found after a week of using iPhoto regularly I found it easy and fun to use.

Some of the features where I noticed a significant difference between the two products were:

Facial recognition
Not only is Picasa’s facial recognition far more accurate than iPhoto facial recognition, it is faster, has a better user interface (which totally surprised me) and has fun extras.

The downside of Picasa’s facial recognition is that there seems to be a bug using both Picasa and contacts—some of my contacts occasionally disappear from my iPhone contacts list. A few postings on-line indicate that’s the problem, but I haven’t found how to remedy.

Face Movie
I love the face movie feature in Picasa. You can make a movie from the face tags of one person and Picasa (most of the time) adjusts the size, position and angle of the photo so the faces melt from one to the next. Yes there are plenty of bugs still in it, but for no work on the user’s part it’s pretty cool.

Organization
This is personal preference, but I like to see the file hierarchy of my photos.

Touchups
iPhoto wins on touchups— it is far easier (requires just one click, not two) and the end product is far more appealing when removing blemishes, stray hairs, wrinkles and such from faces in iPhoto.

Product Creation
iPhoto provides a direct, simple connection to make cards, calendars and other product. Picasa connects with multiple on-line providers where you can make an array of products at many different price points. It’s not as integrated, but it allows more choice.

Speed
Here Picasa wins hand down. Managing over 50,000 photos on my Mac is far faster in Picasa than in iPhoto.

Fit and Finish
iPhoto looks better and integrates gestures and other features well.

In sum, both are excellent and fun to use. If you are already familiar with one of the products it is likely not worth the time to learn a new product. But if you’re considering whether you’ll be able to move to a Mac and still use Picasa, the answer is definitely yes. And if facial recognition is critical to your photo organization then you will likely be happier with Picasa.

College Tours: The Less Serious Side

College tours are a rite of passage for juniors and seniors in high school and their families as post high school plans are contemplated. While some look forward to these visits, others may be a bit more wary, or like me, teary that 17 years could have passed so quickly. If you’re headed to campus visits this spring and summer, here are a few hints to keep in mind.

If it’s a chilly day, follow the Hawaiian tour guide—she is certain to go inside each building on the tour rather than stand outside in the cold.
Visitor parking lots are for those without parking karma and a pocket full of quarters. On street parking near city campuses is often closer, easier to find and less expensive than the so-called visitor lots as long as you feed the meter between the information session and your tour.
Before being impressed that your child sat right up front in the information session, ask if she remembered her glasses.
The school web site, however poorly organized has the college facts—but apparently not all parents are internet savy and will often ask questions like, "how many students go to school here?" Teen eye rolls are appropriate in these situations.
Every tour guide is asked, “Why did you choose this college?”
If the only two colleges your tour guide applied to were the University of Michigan and Wesleyan, you may realize that your child isn’t the only one who isn’t focusing on a college type.
Don’t worry, not everyone steps onto a campus and “just knows” that it is the right or wrong college.
Try not to laugh out loud or nudge your child when the tour guide explains that the circulating library isn’t so named because it revolves.
Violating all of the campus superstitions—stepping on the plaque in the middle of the quad, walking through the wrought iron gates—is unlikely to amuse your child.
As fun as campus tours are, make time for some non-college related fun while traveling with your son or daughter—the days go by too quickly!

Share your college visiting suggestion, faux pas or incident... comment below.

Improv Mailboxes

Now that the snow banks have solidified and entombed countless mailboxes in a frozen mass, it is too late to modify posts to safely see the mail receptacles through until spring. However, it’s not too early to start making the springtime to do list, especially if yours is one of the mailboxes that succumbed to the weight of snow crushing the box.

Those mailbox posts that extend their housing out toward the street while keeping the support safely back from the incessant onslaught of the 10 ton plows, generally fare well:

Metal Extender

Wooden Extender

Hanging Mailbox

While the standard post, especially along a high traffic road, will often fail to provide a protected perch for its mail container:


A Low Reach

Gone

Undaunted, the owners of these mailboxes that have been knocked aside often find duct tape or some other ad hoc means for providing a vessel for their daily mail:

People of the Book Book Discussion Guide

Book Discussion for People of the Book
By Geraldine Brooks

I enjoy leading book groups. When I lead, I write up a discussion guide to use. Feel free to ask your own questions or discuss your own observations or reactions in the comments section.

I have moved this discussion guide to my new blog, Group Reads which is a collection of discussion guides. You can find a guide for this book at Group Reads: People of the Book .

Stop by and see what other guides might interest you!

Two Days in Paris with Teenagers

You need more than two days to enjoy the relaxed pace and beauty of this multi-faceted city, so here are two very full days to incorporate into an otherwise hopefully more relaxed schedule. Day 1 takes you wandering outdoors in Paris while Day 2 is focused on two of the many outstanding museums in the city.

Advance Planning:

Book your segway tour in advance. Depending on the time of year you may need to book days to weeks in advance with Fat Tire Bike Tours.

Day 1: Centre Georges Pompidou, Notre Dame including Towers, Walk along the Seine, Segway Tour, Lights of Paris

Morning: Start at the Centre Georges Pompidou.No need to go inside—outside there are many great opportunities for your teenage photographers, shoppers, art lovers, and people watchers.Small trinket shops line one side of the square; there is an outdoor fountain with fabulous water art that is both fun to look at and fun to photograph; the Centre itself is cool to view for its architecture and during nicer weather there are street performers all around the square

From Georges Pompidou walk to Notre Dame —a 15 minute stroll. The Notre Dame Towers—worth the wait to go up—open at 10 am. There are nearly 400 steps to the top of the south tower though, no elevator. Like most of the main attractions in Paris, the towers are free for those under 18. The views from the top are outstanding and offer a great place to help your family get acquainted with Paris from a bird’s eye view. In addition, coming down the stone spiral staircase is a lot of fun. It is free to go into Notre Dame de Paris—an a good time to remind (or teach) your teens (and yourself) about showing respect inside a religious institution.

Be sure to walk around Notre Dame to view the architecture all the way around. In addition, behind Notre Dame is a small park with wonderful flower gardens in the spring and summer. There is also a tiny play area, with a spinning disk that seems to have conquered perpetual motion. If there aren’t many small children waiting for a try, it’s worth getting everyone in your family on for a spin—adults included. As an added bonus if you need internet access there is a free wifi spot here.

From Notre Dame, walk along the right bank of the Seine where you can browse the green book stalls both for books and for prints. Or some can browse the book stalls while others in your family check out the houseboats and barges along the Seine. Then meander towards the Jardin du Luxembourg while scouting out a boulangerie (easy to find), a fromagerie
(not much harder to find) and an epicerie for bread, cheese and fruit. Then enjoy your picnic in the Jardin du Lxembourg. One warning: pay toilets only here.

Afternoon: If you have ample time you can walk to the Eiffel Tower where the tours start, but you may need to take a metro to arrive in time. Fat Tire Bike Tours have great guides who really make history interesting and memorable for teens and adults alike. Between riding a segway and hearing the history of Paris in teenage vernacular your family will be entertained.

Evening: Enjoy the lights of Paris at night: the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde, the bridges of the Seine, Notre Dame, the Louvre and all of the buildings along the Seine are spectacularly lit up. The Eiffel Tower shimmers for 10 minutes on the hour every night and offers the potential for a family moment sitting quietly near the Seine enjoying the lights of Paris.

I am not recommending a specific location for dinner as there are so many and some of the fun is in finding a place that meets the gastronomic requirements of your family. Of course, some places are better than others to look for dinner. The left bank, especially in the Latin Quarter, has many casual options.

Day 2: Batobus, Musee D’Orsay, Louvre, Latin Quarter

Morning: Start your day with a leisurely ride along the Seine. The Batobus offers a day ticket with stops at all the major sites long the Seine. You can disembark and reboard throughout the day on a single ticket. If the day is sunny, then not surprisingly it is very warm, hot actually, under the glass bubble on the Batobus.

Disembark at the Musee d’Orsay. Depending on the art inclinations of your family you can spend an hour or three in this impressionist museum viewing paintings by Cezanne, Gauguin, Manet, Monet, Renoir and on and on. In addition, there are numerous artists who sit and sketch within the light-filled atrium. We enjoyed watching these current artists as much as viewing paintings and sculpture over 100 years old.

Afternoon: Although the Louvre is a short walk from the Musee d’Orsay, take a break from standing and sit on the Batobus again while cruising along the river. When you’re rested get off at the stop for the Louvre.
Before going in view the Axe Historique which runs from the horse statue right in front of the Louvre, through the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, through the Jardin des Tuileries, directly across the Place de la Concorde, along the Champs-Elysees, through the Arc de Triomphe and on through Paris.

If you were to view every painting in the Louvre for only a minute each, you would need 10 weeks to see all of the paintings. So don’t try to see every painting. Don’t even try to see most of the art here. Pick out 7 or 8 art works to view and then go directly to them. Our children most enjoyed The Coronation of Napoleon. It’s a wonderful painting, but in addition to the quality of the painting there is a bench to sit upon while you look at it and it’s quite large so there is a lot to ponder. The audio guide gives good background on many of the works of art and there are oversized cards available in each room which describe some of the artwork on view. Wandering around the Louvre and possibly getting lost is also a fun pastime in this royal fortress.

If the afternoon is nice, wander through the Jardin des Tuileries where children float toy boats on the pools and many people sit and enjoy the sun. Cap off your afternoon by relaxing in a café—a great place to share stories on what each of you has seen or just sit quietly together and watch the world pass by. The shops in the Latin Quarter stay open into the evening, so you can continue browsing after the café and before dinner.

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