DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

In an article titled Marketing Comes Out Of The Closet, Carolyn Said of the SF Chronicle writes:

It seems breathtakingly obvious that companies wooing gay and lesbian customers should use gay-themed imagery and content.

Which I guess explains the enormous happy phallus with airplane windows and a Delta logo painted on the side pictured on the front of the Chronicle’s business section a couple months ago. (another view, from Flickr)

Are those white things around the base are supposed to be clouds? Or teeth?

Like drunks can’t think of an easier way to get another drink than ordering wine from UPS?

The funny thing is, despite the label’s admonition to the contrary, the UPS driver set this on the porch and called out cheerfully, “I’ve signed it for you already!”

And then, I swear to God, he hiccuped.

I think photovoltaic array owners have a love/hate relationship with trees. On the one hand, trees are a solid part of any program to reduce carbon in the atmosphere — in other words, planting trees is something you have to do more of if you want to reduce global warming.

On the other hand, shade is the enemy of solar electricity generation. I quoted a surprising statistic when I wrote about PV shading in 2004: One completely shaded cell can reduce a solar panel’s output by as much as 75%. So, sure, I want to plant trees… just Not In My Back Yard.

Our PV generation is off by about 12% this year, as compared to 2005. I’m working with the vendor to identify possible explanations. So far, the most likely explanation is shade cover: it turns out trees get taller every year. Bastards.

4:10 PM … no shade

5:10 PM … no sun!

So, by 5pm (in late summer, anyway), 2/3 of my PV array is fully covered by the shadow of a huge Eucalyptus tree on the edge of our property. The problem with this is that the PV array’s output drops to nothing (literally, about 75 watts at the time of this photo) during 1/6 the peak-generation period, which is the time that PG&E pays us ~3x what they charge to sell us power during off-peak hours. Not only are we not earning the necessary big credits from 5pm-6pm to offset heavier winter usage, we’re also paying nearly 3x market rate for electricity during this time.

It could be worse. The tree could be in the neighbor’s yard.

Our acrobatic arborist is coming by next Tuesday to discuss the feasibility of beheading the Eucalyptus. We won’t chop it down, but we’ll take a dozen feet off the top.

I want to plant some more trees around the property, too (short ones, of course, below the roofline). Carbon offsets begin at home.

Update: the great big hole in the treeline

Borrowed Time Studios, v. 3.0, just went back into its box. I’ll post a list of the v3 upgrades in a day or 27; for now I just wanted to capture the before and after pictures to commemorate a summer of drumming.

Monday afternoon

Wednesday evening

Last year I lamented that I’d spent the summer tracking just six songs. This summer, I only tracked two. But I wrote them both, and I over-composed some of the drum parts, so the tracking expanded to fill the time allowed. Had I written threee more tunes, I would have recorded them too — Parkinson’s Law was in full effect. But it was fun, and I got some good tracks (and many many discards, natch).

Bim forwarded a link to this great Wikihow article about greenhouse gas emissions and global warming:
Reduce Your Greenhouse Gas Emissions

It’s a great complement to my earlier (but much smaller) list of ideas for slowing global warming.

The Wikihow has so many ideas, it’s easy to pick one or two per week to get started. I think all conservation initiatives have been stifled by the perception that the problem is too big for any one individual to solve. It’s true, of course, but ironically if millions of individuals do take action, then we make significant progress. So, start small: change a light bulb. See a movie. Read the Wikihow article and forward it to friends.

We’re already following, or have followed 17 of the 44 tips listed on the page. It’s good to know there’s more we could do.

I especially like the idea of getting an “energy audit” from the local utility. PG&E used to offer such a program, I think; I remember ads offering a free CF light bulb to entice ratepayers to sign up. That program seems to have gone the way of the electric car, just in time for, erm, an unprecedented ecological disaster.

The PG&E site does offer a checklist of ideas for reducing energy usage around the home, with estimated savings rates, e.g. save 2% off your monthly bill by turning off lights when they’re not in use.