Father's Day

I'm a bit behind on posts, but it's not my fault for once.  Sort of.  My computer installed a Microsoft update and tanked.  Tanked good.  I had to go back to a restore point.  Twice.  So I didn't upload pictures from The Lindsey Sterling and Karmin concert (I was so happy Karmin was the opening band - it was a great concert), the tour of the Gateway area of Minneapolis with Kyle (which everyone who knows me can attest I won't shut up about), or the 106 mile ride across Wisconsin with Ming (Kyle sagging).  Maybe I'll get to them, maybe I won't.  Maybe I'll just post a lot of pictures with commentary in the world's longest post so I remember what I was up to.

Today we celebrated Father's Day by 1.) having my wife make us (me and my father) eggs, toast, and burnt bacon for breakfast, 2.) Going to the 40th Anniversary showing of Jaws at the local theater (Eryn and I went to Desk Set on Friday which was great - Mean Mr. Mustard told me at breakfast at Colossal on Grand with Greg that he'd seen it), 3.) a little bit of bicycling, 4.) a lot of the second season of Agents of SHIELD, 5.) Catan at the coffee shop in the evening (I won!) with my wife and Eryn, 6.) Boss Monster in the afternoon with my Dad and Eryn, 7.) a bunch of trash picking between all the other things, and 8.) my car washed by my wife and Eryn - for which it was long overdue but had been avoided because it leaks a bit.

Re: #7, Litterati has been having a small contest/proof of concept at my workplace this week and we've had a week to collect/photograph the most trash.  These were the rankings as of yesterday.  That's me on top at 623 pieces.  So today I collected almost another 200 wandering around the neighborhood.  I'm fully expecting someone to beat me today, but they're going to have to get their family involved and really buckle down.  I found $20 (and took a picture for Litterati), so regardless of how it turns out, I'm ahead.  As ahead as you can consider yourself after picking up around 800 pieces of trash including an open plastic container full of urine in the cul-de-sac near the house.  The fastest I was able to collect and photograph trash via Instagram was about 100 pieces/hour, so that represents 8 hours of collection this week  About 1 hour/day on average, slightly more.  That sounds about right because I had a few two hour days and a few days that I couldn't get out, not because of rain, but because of after work commitments like bicycling so I'm prepped to ride longer distances.

I should add that this is sort of par for my personality.  Short term commitments, even if they're recommitments of things I'm already doing/have done, are sort of my thing.  I once told a manager that my ability to re-start something over and over - e.g. intermittent perseverance -- was a strength.  He asked why I didn't just finish it the first time and I pointed out that given the organizational dependencies and apathy you're often faced with, that's not always a possibility, so being able to reboot, and reboot in an aggressive way (I should probably call that with leadership, or urgency, or passion so it sounds more friendly), has advantages.

I'm looking forward to the best picture portion of the contest as well.  I hope someone has better pictures than my urine bucket, $20 bill, and trash in flower fields.

5,000+

Last week I hit piece of trash #5000 on Litterati.org.  I count closer to 5300 (5,405 at the moment if you look at my list as I don't post anything that isn't a picture of trash), but the slightly skewed numbers certainly keep me honest.  I wish this shirt I found in the work parking lot would have been piece 5000, but it was instead a squashed plastic oil container from my neighborhood.

My original goal was 1000.  Then it was 3650 (ten pieces a day).  And then I decided I was close enough to go for 5,000.  Someone on Facebook pointed out I was 6.5% of the total.  Which is cool because before I aimed for 5,000 I was considering aiming for 10%.  But that was a moving target as I'd have to do 10% of my own 10%, and then 10% of that...like cutting a rope, I'd never get there.

And then there was that...

Break is over.  I have fully enjoyed not blogging for a while, although it was primarily because I didn't feel like writing much at all, which is rather disappointing on the surface of it.  I don't feel like I was accomplishing many of my usual habits, but almost 20,000 pages of reading, almost 4,000 photos of trash, and a variety of exercising without much weight gain, and once again switching roles (projects) at work attests that it's not as bad as I suspect.  Then again, all that time I racked up on the Xbox playing first person Batman v. Joker FPS (Gotham City Impostors) makes it obvious I could have been writing on top of everything else without much of an effort.

C'est la vie.

In the normal course of this blog.  A role change took me out of blogging.  A vacation will get me back into it.  So I'm tagging my photos from our trip to Colorado.  In the meantime, here's a picture from my Litterati adventures in Colorado - I tried to geotag trash as we drove across the midwest.  This was at a rest stop and immediately caught my eye.  I'm certain it's random.  But it certainly looks like someone was up to a bit of kokopelli-based art.

Litterati - 2500

I made it to 2500 pieces of trash for Litterati earlier this week.  I was aiming for 2500 by the time they reached 50,000, but I only made 2000 by that mark.  I made 2500 by the time they hit 55,000.  A miss, but still impressive, and it's good to have goals.  Here's some of what I've learned picking up trash.

• The dark corner in the neighborhood near the park that dead ends without much light gets a lot of condoms (and even a special condom collection decorated box), alcohol containers, smoking-related garbage, drug trash, and fast food trash.  These all seem related and are refreshed on a regular basis.

• Near the movie theater is very dirty.  It’s a bad idea to have a park next to a movie theater if you want to keep your park clean.
• There’s always new trash.
• There’s always new trash.
• You can make a difference in your neighborhood even cleaning every few days.
• You don’t have to pick an area to trash-free as you go; you can clean in iterations and get some exercise while an area gradually gets trash free.
• There’s always more trash.
• There’s a lot you can recycle if you really think about it: paper, cans (I separate them so I can sell them and use the proceeds for charity), plastic.  Recycling tech is improving all the time.
• Small booze containers are a big source of trash: Svedka, hotel/airplane size.  You learn things about the drinking habits in your neighborhood you might not rather know.
• There’s a disturbing amount of empty alcohol containers near interstate and state highway on ramps and off ramps.

• Instagram is not always up.  That doesn’t mean you should just pick up trash and not take a picture.
• The park and ride gets strange trash: tires, booze, lots of cigarettes, lost gloves (things that fall out of cars), toilet paper, diapers – it seems to be a place to congregate and lose things.
• Cops will drive by to slowly check you out if you’re picking up trash at the park and ride or simply photographing a cigarette box or plastic cup in an unusual place.  Neighbors will stop to watch and frown at you, wondering what you’re doing with a camera in the street. The world is suspicious of your trash collecting.
• Some people will stop to ask you what you’re doing and get excited about geotagging trash and want to know all the details.  These people are usually a.) walking a dog or b.) holding someone’s hand.  Perhaps happiness offsets suspicion.  Perhaps cops should hold hands more often.
• Straws are everywhere.  They seem almost as common as cigarette stubs.
• Be careful – some trash is medical waste.  I picked up a plastic container in the dark only to discover it was for STD swaps: like HPV and Chlamydia.  It was well baked and rained on, but I made sure to wash up right away anyway.

• If you don’t use gloves to pick trash, make sure you know where your closest hand washing facilities are.
• Bring a few wipes if you don’t have access to a place to wash your hands.
• Dirty hands are hard on your smart phone and can live small scratches and pits in the glass.  Make sure to wash your smart phone as well as your hands after picking up trash.

• For some reason, a lot of people drink half a container of Gatorade/Powerade and then throw it out.  This is a subject of consternation at our house.  If the Gatorade is yellow, it might not be Gatorade.  Biggest lesson here is don’t open bottles.  You don’t know what’s in them.
• There are an inordinate number of gloves that are trash in MN.  We are the land of 10,000 lost gloves.
• Snow removal results in many plastic brush bristles left behind.  A green-minded northerner would do well to invent a better bristle or a more biodegradable bristle.
• People on Instagram will Like anything.
• Companies on Instagram will Like their product before realizing you’re tagging them for being waste producers.
• Taco Bell (in my neighborhood) produces a lot of trash.  Marlboro produces a lot of trash.  Svedka produces a lot of trash.  You start to recognize patterns if you pick enough trash.  You start to develop stories about the folks in your neighborhood and why some trash is so prevalent.
• Did I mention, there’s always new trash?

• Some trash is funny (greeting cards, homework, toy cars, Green Bay Packer helmet magnets).  Some trash is not (dirty diapers, urine bombs, STD swabs, alcohol near the on ramp).
• I like to remove alcohol and smoke containers first so my neighbors/kids don’t have to look at it.  This is a made up rationalization, but it adds purpose to collecting trash.
• Drainage ditches collect a lot of trash.  Sometimes one picture of a lot of trash is ok.
• It’s not that hard to just take a small bag with you if you walk a lot to the grocery store, movies, coffee, and ice cream, and just pick a few things.  Wash your hands at your destination.
• Snow leaves a lot of trash in the spring, but it’s also a good time to pick it up because there are no weeds, no stickers/pricklies, and best of all no ticks or mosquitos.
• I learned what Beezing is because of picking up trash [http://gothamist.com/2014/04/25/beezin_aint_e-zee_a_minty_recovery.php#.].  It could be a fake meme, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a lot of Burt’s Bee’s containers in my neighborhood.
• Small handouts/magnets might seem like a good business idea (in mailboxes/doors), but they’re incredibly bad for the environment (I’ll end up tagging the same advert many times).
• There are a lot of people interested in picking up trash – there’s a good online community.  And if I’m picking up trash along the paths near my house, some people will opine that they’ll bring a bag to collect trash on their next walk.  It has a positive impact.
• There are SO many sources/businesses that produce disposable waste – obvious when you think about it, but it’s surprising when faced with a street corner containing dozens, if not hundreds, of brands.
• You end up looking at trash, your phone, and the ground a lot more than you did before you started Litterati.  This isn’t good if you like to bicycle a lot and it’s a problem when there are trees.  Wear a hat if you’re collecting trash in the trees for some added protection.  Bleeding once because you were tagging trash is more than enough.
• There are obvious places that would benefit from a trash can based on the geotagging of the trash in my neighborhood.
• There are obvious companies that would benefit from greener packaging.The dark corner in the neighborhood near the park that dead ends without much light gets a lot of condoms (and even a special condom collection decorated box), alcohol containers, smoking-related garbage, drug trash, and fast food trash.  These all seem related and are refreshed on a regular basis.
• Near the movie theater is very dirty.  It’s a bad idea to have a park next to a movie theater if you want to keep your park clean.
• There’s always new trash.
• There’s always new trash.
• You can make a difference in your neighborhood even cleaning every few days.
• You don’t have to pick an area to trash-free as you go; you can clean in iterations and get some exercise while an area gradually gets trash free.
• There’s always more trash.
• There’s a lot you can recycle if you really think about it: paper, cans (I separate them so I can sell them and use the proceeds for charity), plastic.  Recycling tech is improving all the time.
• Small booze containers are a big source of trash: Svedka, hotel/airplane size.  You learn things about the drinking habits in your neighborhood you might not rather know.
• There’s a disturbing amount of empty alcohol containers near interstate and state highway on ramps and off ramps.
• Instagram is not always up.  That doesn’t mean you should just pick up trash and not take a picture.
• The park and ride gets strange trash: tires, booze, lots of cigarettes, lost gloves (things that fall out of cars), toilet paper, diapers – it seems to be a place to congregate and lose things.

• Cops will drive by to slowly check you out if you’re picking up trash at the park and ride or simply photographing a cigarette box or plastic cup in an unusual place.  Neighbors will stop to watch and frown at you, wondering what you’re doing with a camera in the street. The world is suspicious of your trash collecting.
• Some people will stop to ask you what you’re doing and get excited about geotagging trash and want to know all the details.  These people are usually a.) walking a dog or b.) holding someone’s hand.  Perhaps happiness offsets suspicion.  Perhaps cops should hold hands more often.
• Straws are everywhere.  They seem almost as common as cigarette stubs.
• Be careful – some trash is medical waste.  I picked up a plastic container in the dark only to discover it was for STD swaps: like HPV and Chlamydia.  It was well baked and rained on, but I made sure to wash up right away anyway.
• If you don’t use gloves to pick trash, make sure you know where your closest hand washing facilities are.
• Bring a few wipes if you don’t have access to a place to wash your hands.
• Dirty hands are hard on your smart phone and can live small scratches and pits in the glass.  Make sure to wash your smart phone as well as your hands after picking up trash.
• For some reason, a lot of people drink half a container of Gatorade/Powerade and then throw it out.  This is a subject of consternation at our house.  If the Gatorade is yellow, it might not be Gatorade.  Biggest lesson here is don’t open bottles.  You don’t know what’s in them.
• There are an inordinate number of gloves that are trash in MN.  We are the land of 10,000 lost gloves.
• Snow removal results in many plastic brush bristles left behind.  A green-minded northerner would do well to invent a better bristle or a more biodegradable bristle.
• People on Instagram will Like anything.
• Companies on Instagram will Like their product before realizing you’re tagging them for being waste producers.
• Taco Bell (in my neighborhood) produces a lot of trash.  Marlboro produces a lot of trash.  Svedka produces a lot of trash.  You start to recognize patterns if you pick enough trash.  You start to develop stories about the folks in your neighborhood and why some trash is so prevalent.
• Did I mention, there’s always new trash?
• Some trash is funny (greeting cards, homework, toy cars, Green Bay Packer helmet magnets).  Some trash is not (dirty diapers, urine bombs, STD swabs, alcohol near the on ramp).
• I like to remove alcohol and smoke containers first so my neighbors/kids don’t have to look at it.  This is a made up rationalization, but it adds purpose to collecting trash.
• Drainage ditches collect a lot of trash.  Sometimes one picture of a lot of trash is ok.
• It’s not that hard to just take a small bag with you if you walk a lot to the grocery store, movies, coffee, and ice cream, and just pick a few things.  Wash your hands at your destination.
• Snow leaves a lot of trash in the spring, but it’s also a good time to pick it up because there are no weeds, no stickers/pricklies, and best of all no ticks or mosquitos.
• I learned what Beezing is because of picking up trash [http://gothamist.com/2014/04/25/beezin_aint_e-zee_a_minty_recovery.php#.].  It could be a fake meme, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a lot of Burt’s Bee’s containers in my neighborhood.
• Small handouts/magnets might seem like a good business idea (in mailboxes/doors), but they’re incredibly bad for the environment (I’ll end up tagging the same advert many times).
• There are a lot of people interested in picking up trash – there’s a good online community.  And if I’m picking up trash along the paths near my house, some people will opine that they’ll bring a bag to collect trash on their next walk.  It has a positive impact.
• There are SO many sources/businesses that produce disposable waste – obvious when you think about it, but it’s surprising when faced with a street corner containing dozens, if not hundreds, of brands.
• You end up looking at trash, your phone, and the ground a lot more than you did before you started Litterati.  This isn’t good if you like to bicycle a lot and it’s a problem when there are trees.  Wear a hat if you’re collecting trash in the trees for some added protection.  Bleeding once because you were tagging trash is more than enough.
• There are obvious places that would benefit from a trash can based on the geotagging of the trash in my neighborhood.
• There are obvious companies that would benefit from greener packaging.

Litterati

I'm chair of the community volunteer committee this year.  One of my favorite things about being on the committee is hearing about all the volunteer projects others know about that I've never heard of before.  For example, the brother of one of the committee members runs a site called Litterati.  The concept is to use Instagram to take and tag photos of trash (that you pick up and throw away - you don't just leave it there) so that it becomes a bit of a game.  Boss asked me if it had any practical application beyond feeling good and potentially adding a badge system to make participants feel any better.

I kicked up a copy of the trash collected around our place of work and showed him the path of trash that followed the sidewalk between the front doors and the far lot.  By looking at the trash pattern we could tell my co-worker was a later to work sort of guy, but also that our workplace could benefit from a few well-placed trash cans at the midpoint.  Or, it could be seen as an experiment and compare trash-over-time.  The same could be done with parks.  Where concentrations of trash were observed might be optimal spots for disposal systems or for focusing cleanup efforts.

Tags can include brands and composition as well so there's an opportunity to determine the origin of common sources of trash.

And if you like trash porn, well, there's lots of that.  I wasn't previously part of Instagram, so I warned folks that I would only be using it for trash (so far they've been treated to trash before the Lego movie outside the theater and trash at Chipotle), but a number of Facebook friends still asked to follow me.  Good luck on that. You might as well follow the Litterati Instagram pull.

Cool site.  Cool idea.  If there was the idea of teams, challenges (find a plastic bottle, a cigarette package, and a gum wrapper), and/or badges (100th cigarette!), it would top notch.  Reminds me very much of the allure of geocaching.