Are you in for Earth Hour this year?

This is the third year that T-F has participated and I am happy to do so, as always. This year’s topic is Climate Change and it is something that has been on my mind a good deal in the past few years. I have some close friends who have made very radical changes in their lifestyle over the past two years as they work to become as sustainable as possible in the expectation of the changes they expect in the world after Peak Oil. I admire them, yes. I emulate some of their choices, yes. Can I do everything they are doing like sell their house, farm most of their own food, make their own bath soaps, etc? Well, I probably could given enough time and training but will I? Probably not.

And climate change is a direct result of our lifestyle choices, it does seem so this is something that I do struggle with. Especially given my current employment. It is directly driven by computer technology and directly draws on natural resources for energy and, given my current location and energy source, directly impacting climate change. So, I try to find ways to help reduce my carbon footprint as much as possible in other aspects of my life since my career feeds into it. This is where the carbon calculators like the ones you find at Earth Lab, the Nature Conservancy Carbon Footprint Calculator (see my results below) and the United State Environmental Protection Agency Household Emissions Calculator

I feel like we do a pretty good job as a household of being as low impact as possible while keeping a fairly modern, technologicaly lifestyle. But, I know I could do more, especially with hot water and lighting.

As much as I learn from my more activist friends, I also learn from the social network I have created within Twitter and other sites where I engage. Participating in Earth Hour last March was inspiring as is writing this post today. I really did like watching the earth go dark for an hour in a wave around the globe. It was fascinating to be a part of it as well as just absorb it. If we can pour the energy that folks had just sharing what they were doing during that hour via photos, tweets and video.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by AJ Wms

The increased use of technology to promote action, while also using energy and producing carbon dioxide, does allow us to feel much more aware and connected with others who feel the same way and to empower us to feel that our actions are not being done in a vacuum. I feel like that is very important as the issue of climate change is certainly not going to be solved by one country or one organization but by all of us and one way we can feel involved is to take part in these global actions, which is made so much more easy by today’s technologies. Can anybody say conundrum?

Want more global community actions to connect and be involved? Try these or share something else in the comments:

International Day of Climate Action (October 24)

Join TckTckTck: Global Citizens for Climate Action alliance of faith groups, organizations, trade unions and individuals.

But, today marks the third anniversary of this here website. It has been joined along the way by several others in my account – mostly for friends and family but I also grabbed my own Vanity URL because I truly believe in the not to distant future, it will be crucial to control and own your personal space on the web. Not necessarily for “brand control” – although for folks who live and die by their online rep, that is not a bad idea but just because it can serve as a central point to pull together all of the places where you are on the web into one spot. Makes the whole out of the parts, so to speak. Still working on that project for me as well.

Anyway, enjoy some virtual cake for Techy-Feely today! Between the Project 365, finding tidbits to share with my three readers and just plain thinking “out loud”, it has been fun – even if only for me!

The Inaugural Post from 2006: Techy-Feely » Hello World!

Image: ‘He’s so Pleased!!‘
www.flickr.com/photos/48915783@N00/28051595

Kinda strange cycle but here is the widget, nonetheless….

First, who is Ada Lovelace, you ask? She wrote the world’s first computer programs. How cool is that? If you want to know more, I won’t deny you!

So, we are charged with writing about tech heroines. I have been thinking about that for a while now as I planned this post. Growing up, the technology side of my techy-feely self definitely came from my father. In college, first as an engineering major and later as a science educator, I was most surrounded by men rather than women role models, especially in my preferred sciences of chemistry and physics.

So rather than focus on someone from my past, I decided that I would write about a more current group – who are heroines and sometimes sounding boards, livesavers, humorists, information sources, role models, sources of inspiration and much, much more. I wanted to give a shout out to the women who I follow on Twitter.

I am the first to admit that I was slow on the uptake with Twitter. But, I finally got it and now I have quite a group of my Tweeple – both men and women who I follow there who provide me with a great resource for learning, entertainment, feedback and more.

Today, I celebrate the female tweeps! Among them are:

Women I know and work with across the state like:
@maryn – who walks the walk and talks the walk living her live in the open social web
@andrea_s – who is not afraid to take chances and tread into this techno-world whether it feels comfortable or not
@mjmerrill – who is still getting started with this Twitter thing

@getdawn – who write Twitter haiku on the economy!

and@wrenbird28 – who is always ready to learn new stuff!

Women who I am getting to know through Twitter and with whom I feel connected already – even through one or two short tweetversations:

@soul4real – who I feel like I would really enjoy sitting down and having a beer with and talking about stuff
@allthingsnoisy – who I found through tweets at the Supercomputing 2008 conference
@cljennings – who seems like a fellow wanderer in this web world with an educator’s eye
@andrea_r – who has been SO helpful with some other blogging projects I have going on at my work

and @sherrymn – who I met at another conference. We have stayed in touch via Twitter.

And women I don’t know but admire like:
@ginatrapani - who I loved from Lifehacker and now is off on her own adventures at Smarterware
@intellagirl and @fleep – who promote Second Life in education and does so witih style and flair

There are others and I include theme in my admiration even if my memory cannot quite get them down here in my post’s electrons.

So – Thanks to Ada Lovelace for setting the stage for women in technology and thanks to my current Tweeps who help me continue in my learning about all of this stuff in the world around us!!

Yes, it took me a year to figure out the use of Twitter but I use it almost everyday for work and personal learning, news, entertainment, and more.  Kinda cool to see everybody all together.

Get your twitter mosaic here.

that’s interesting, I remember thinking. Then, I couldn’t think of 12 different things I wanted to try so I let it go.

Then, last night I had two experiments going already, I realized.

Experiment One: Watching TV on the computer. I watched this week’s episode of Desperate Housewives from the website rather than on the DVR, where it sits recorded. Chose the HD version and watched full screen. It looked pretty darn good and only had 4 commercials of 30 seconds each. Since I am poised to change over to Netflix, I am soon going to have many more streaming movie options. So, the experiment is how much do I want to watch TV and movies on thecomputer rather than on my TV.

Experiment Two: I have a cell phone…well, I have a Blackberry now. THis will truly change things. I can call, I can text, I can sent video and picture messages. I don’t know where this will lead but it is certainly an experiment I will report on.

If you want to know more about the 12 monthly experiments.
Experimonth Finalized « The pitch I chew.

Image: ‘UPHS ACE – Storage Tracking‘
www.flickr.com/photos/61202488@N00/2551240388