1) I’m trying to get a decent amount of furniture into my new place before the housewarming on Saturday evening. Thanks to brown elephant, that may be muuuch easier. A good couch and large dining room table for less than $200? Yes, please. If I ever stay at the same job long enough to climb to a better salary, I can buy nicer. After the credit card debt goes buhbye.
2) I signed up for an environmental action training. Sadly, it has not helped me decide what I want to do. I’m supposed to do some kind of project to “graduate” from the program. They’ll provide up to $400 worth of materials, and a fair amount of staff time to support whatever I want to do. My first idea was a website for chicago environmentally interested folks with a carpool-matching service. It was a little more elaborate than that, but I hate web programming, and besides, I’m not so sure that would even work.
One of their suggested activities was developing a green office team. One of my fellow hired-within-the-past-year folks has already said she’d be right behind me, but given my office culture that does not sound like a career advancing move (and she rather agrees). Furthermore, alot of the ‘greening’ would have to be done by the building management service, which our office has little leverage over. I’m not very tied in to any of the local communities, and these are supposed to be community building projects. Implicit in the homework assignments for Saturday is that I need to have picked a community to work within.
Another suggested activity was becoming a park steward for a local park. Now there is certainly a park in my neighborhood, and I have no idea whether it has a steward or not. Skating through it the other night, I noticed that it had some minor neglect in terms of cleanliness, but I have no idea about invasive species or that sort of thing (invasives were a big topic in our training).
3) Heading to Pittsburgh on Sunday for conference stuff and Carnival. Mad Props to
I imagine building an effective green team at my office would be difficult and frustrating. Mainly for the reason you cite: we attorneys have zero leverage over the facilities staff.
The computer staff forbid us from turning off our computers at the end of the day, because they do their security updates overnight on an unannounced schedule.
Perhaps we could try to get people to print out less paper. But lawyers live to consume paper! And the advent of PowerPoint has made paper consumption far worse than before, because now every meeting requires a 20-page PowerPoint print for each attendee, plus dozens of extra copies, “just in case.”
They gave us all laptops, but we must keep them locked to our desk (if we aren’t in the process of taking them home) so they won’t be stolen or lost, and it has been decided that a wireless network would be a security risk. Therefore, we can’t use the laptops during meetings for taking notes or viewing documents.
And the thermostats in our individual offices don’t actually work, so my office is periodically overheated, which forces me to run an electric fan to avoid sweating into my work clothes.
Our computer staff insist we turn our computers off at the end of the day, so even less for us to reduce there, but otherwise, exactly the same as your situation (minus having an individual office). =)
I’ll call you Sunday night after tekko stuff is done and over to see if you’re still out.
sounds cool.
Aieeep. That’s Sunday, as in, like, 4 days, isn’t it? I guess I better get crackin’ on getting your room in some vague sort of order.
Lots of buses tend to go from the downtownish area to the CMU area, and from CMU it’s a pretty easy walk. You should call to let me know when you’ll be getting there, so I can make sure someone is there to let you in.
You still have the same cell#?
Ayup. =) 4 days, and same cell. Courtesy the swim my cell went for in Hawaii, I no longer have your number, though.
I have been thinking about starting a composting program at work (to go with our green initiatives AND wellness initiatives). I’m not quite sure how to get started but am looking for resources. Sounds like this wouldn’t work in your workplace, but maybe at your apartment building or at a nearby community garden? It would require a minimum of space (I’ve heard of it being done on rooftops) and $400 would buy a quite nice bin setup. Would also be a good way to meet people around your building (and maybe start a green team there?).
That does sound like an interesting idea. Thanks for the suggestion.
Now I just need to figure out how I’m getting from the airport to station square on Sunday,
28X to Downtown (Gateway Center stop), into the T station, get off at Station Square Station. Station Square to Oakland/CMU: T to Steel Plaza, walk to Fifth, take any 61 (or possibly 71).
Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, given my time needs for a conference event I want to get to, I’ll probably either take a cab or the shuttle down.