As I said right at the start, there are places where it is infeasible to get by without air conditioning. But, unless the place where you live was pretty much continuously uninhabited until AC came along, it's not one of them. I offer the previous inhabitants as an existence proof of feasibility.
I like window boxes too. But, you know, the ones with plants in them.
Not to be inappropriate, but strip down? I tend to wear long pants & long sleeved shirts year round due to office policies ( 70 is too cool for me). The second I get home, I pretend I'm at the beach. I guess it works for me, since I live alone.
I do the opposite in the winter.. have a lot of my brother's old sweatshirts and layer them on. Haven't figured out how to keep my feet & hands quite warm enough, though ;)
I agree with Guest #17 - let's consider the point of the "greatest weakness" question:
Is it a sincere question? Would you expect an otherwise strong candidate to admit that she/he is habitually late because they party until 2am 5 nights a week? If they did, would you appreciate the honesty, or would you think "this person is NUTS! Why would they volunteer that?"
Or is it a question designed to make the candidate think of a "weakness" that they can then spin into a positive? As in, "In my early career, I had a tendency to be late as I worked in an office where punctuality was not critical and developed bad habits. Now I make it a point to get up 2 hours early and be the first one in the office." If so, that's the same as "admitting" to perfectionism, stopping the buck, etc. It's not really a confession.
Option 3 is that favored by Guest - it's a weak, poorly thought-out question that is often asked just because it's asked often. Don't be surprised when you get a well-rehearsed answer that gives you no satisfaction.
yeah, this isn't feasible for me and many, MANY other people. moving would be the best option, but it's not available to me. i'll keep my window boxes, thanks.
I am in a real pickle. I cannot work outside of the house because I cannot afford daycare for my children. I make very little money at home, and I am on the verge of being eligible for Medicaid... just awaiting the final say on it. I have had 7 pregnancies in 7 years and I am expecting baby #4. I cannot make any payments right now. I had a USDA backed loan that was foreclosed on as I was advised I could declare bankruptcy on it and it would get us out from underneath of a house that we purchased under false information regarding the condition of the home. Now, I have been informed that the home cannot have bankruptcy declared on it as it is government backed and the debt will be sent to the Department of Treasury.
My husband has a 401K that may be able to cover that debt, and we are trying to figure out how to handle that... if anyone knows please advise...
Furthermore, I have high-risk pregnancies and have to see the doctor regularly. The doctor's office said I was "in-network" because the card had 2 carriers on it. Now, they have been informed that I am not in network which makes my deductible for 2009 and 2010 each $3000 for just me and then only coverage of 60%. This is going to kill us as we were expecting much more affordable increments. They are now hounding me even though they know I have been trying to figure out finances with Medicaid. They offered a 30% discount if the insurance ended up considering it a pre-existing condition like they had been calling it (if I could pay in full and of course I can't), but now they have taken that statement away... altogether.
Do I have any options at all? Do they have any responsibility to me for not having given correct information about the network status? Am I just going to have to look more seriously at bankruptcy? My husband's job took a pay cut of about 70% in the past 2 years and I have lost a large portion of my income as well.
You have to look at the avoided cost. If by "stop cooking your food" you mean "eat salads when it's hot, so you don't heat up your kitchen," then that's a great idea. If you mean "eat at restaurants more," then it's an expensive idea. If you mean "eat raw meat," then it's a dangerous idea.
Unplugging your refrigerator would save you some on your electric bill, but would probably cost you more due to food spoilage, the inability to save leftovers or stock up on fresh food, eating out more, etc.
As I've said before, arranging your life so that you can get by with one fewer car is one of the most frugal things you can do.
(In the interests of full disclosure, I should mention that Steven is my brother, and that he sometimes teases me.)
I have to say my only gripe with working retail is customers who will treat you like you aren't a human being. I work in a bookstore and we close late and I can't stand it when people insist on staying until we close with a huge stack of books that we will have to put away once they leave. Taking two or three books off the shelves and not returning them is one thing, but we are not robots, many of us have other committments, family, second jobs or classes in the morning, and when the store closes we want to get out of there. Leaving a mess at closing time is the rudest thing you can do in my opinion and it shows an utter lack of respect for those who have to clean up after you.
Um, yeah, you can pry the AC away from my hot, dead body, but until then, if it's over 85 with 99% and above humidity, like it is here from mid-June-Sept, then my AC is on. It doesn't cost that much money to cool my 600sqft house to 76 or so and it's well worth it. Otherwise I would be laying around complaining all summer and NOTHING would get done.
I do subscribe to less drastic measures, like turning off the AC whenever it cools down, keeping it at 76+ and using ceiling fans, but it's not worth it to me to be totally miserable.
I'd never ask someone else to turn on their air conditioning for me. But, if there's a building that's already being air conditioned, the extra load caused by me sitting in it is insignificant.
Anyhow, I much prefer to the "go to the forest or the ocean" option. The ocean is a bit far, from here, but there's a nice shady courtyard just outside my apartment, which is very pleasant on a hot day.
I follow a lot of these practicies, but, living in Texas, air conditioning in the summer time is pretty much a necessity, at least for sleeping at night. I do try to hold out as long as possible before turning it on...my goal is always at least Memorial Day. This year, I may see how far into June I can go.
The main problem is that in the heat of the summer it doesn't really cool down at night. We can easily go a few weeks without the temperature getting below 80, months without seeing below 75.
I also get annoyed that so many commercial buildings crank the air conditioning up so high. The big box retailers can be especially bad. Cubeville where I work is right about 71-72 degrees year round. And, due to poor air circulation (but great acoustics) my church has many, many cold spots in the sanctuary. It's gotten so that I take a long sleeve shirt or light jacket with me when I'm going out in the summer so that I can toss that on when I'm INSIDE during the summer.
older people with breathing problems need AC of course.
I often see people leave pets in cars... BAD idea.... even if it does not seem hot out to you, your pet may be hot and uncomfortable so dont do it. Even if you park in the shade, your pet may still be at risk so don't do it.
You should also write these posts: "don't drive your car", "stop cooking your food", "uplug your refrigerator", "quit washing your clothes", and "disconnect your water heater". :-)
I applaud those in warmer climates that support this! Living in Maine it's a no-brainer. Even when living in cities in poorly ventilated apartments, I only thought it was necessary on really hot nights for sleeping. Up here we have so few of those "too hot to sleep" nights that it's almost a special thing when it happens.
When I lived in LA I was very impressed that so many apartments were designed to keep cool - low buildings with windows on shady sides only. Design is key, as is allowing yourself to acclimate to the temperature instead of fighting it.
This is a neat companion piece to a post earlier this year about keeping the heat low! I'm always amused by folks who heat to 75 in the winter, but cool to 65 in the summer!
I'm not sure how you'd like this list to be reorganized, exactly. I was trying to make it user-friendly. I like nice round numbers, instead of dealing with decimals. (However my next caffeine article will be entirely decimals.)
A simple calculator with a division function should help you figure out what the mg are per ounce. The main purpose of the article isn't to measure out the exact amount of caffeine millia per item, it's really more of an awareness issue, so people can monitor their (or their children's) intake.
When I hear that ques. in an interview, it makes me think that I'm clearly dealing with someone who hasn't prepared for the interview. It's such a "lazy" question. Why don't you ask the person about the job and how they plan to perform it?
As soon as I hear the greatest strength/greatest weakness question,I want to scream, " My greatest weakness is tolerating idiots who ask inane questions like that and have power over my life and my greatest strength is not jumping across this table and tearing your head off."
The reason the coffee has twice the amount of caffeine, is because they use two pots worth of coffee grounds and brew only one pot worth of water. So the caffeine is more potent. They do this to keep the taste of the coffee the same according to their measurements...which would be a full cup of ice, followed by the iced brew. So, if you ask them to hold the ice you get twice the caffeine.
I actually lerned about the tea having more caffeine when I was in the U.K. I researched about the tannins and caffeine breakdown but couldn't find anything. It's something worth looking into, as I know a lot of people are trying to avoid or cut down caffeine. I do know that if you dump out the tea from the first steeping, and add more water to the tea bag, the tea leftover is almost entirely decaffeinated. I learned that from the delightful vegan, Moby who opened a tea bar in New York. No, I don't personally know him. But, hey, throw a doctor's coat on him and he becomes believable, right?
I haven't turned my a/c on for years and I live in Sacramento where the summers get up to 105 degrees. There are only a handful of days where it's uncomfortable to sleep upstairs - on those nights I blow up the air mattress and sleep downstairs in the living room.
This is a GREAT post. Air conditioning is a total joke and money-suck. I grew up in Southern California AND Arizona AND spent time working on Ghana (where summer days can get to 105!) without air conditioning. I'm in Connecticut now and for all the talk about the East Coast having "seasons" I'm amazed at how the minute it hits 57-degrees in Fall/Winter, people are turning their heat on and when it hits 68-degrees in Spring/Summer, your eyeballs feel like they have sand in them because everyone's got their air conditioning cranked up. Nevermind the fact that the heat of the summer gives your body cues to shed its "winter padding" and to drink more water & eat more "water-based" foods (i.e. fruits and veggies).
I think #2 is a good idea and a bad idea. It's important to show that you can use the appropriate buzzwords and lingo for your position and field, but I agree that dressing up the language too much is off-putting. "BS" should never even enter your mind.
Sometimes it's obvious that people are trying to sound much more important than they really are. I've thrown out a few resumes (and had a few good laughs) because of it.
Aluminum will be very thick. not quite 1/4 inch, but close enough to know it's thick. Stainless will be closer the the thickness of a heavy stainless cooking spoon. If you take a green scrubby to the aluminum and swirl it around wet, you will get a gray slurry. Stainless will not do this.
For pitting, try the magnet, if it does not stick, it is pitted, then it is aluminum. She has cooked something acidic at some time. Salty would cause it too. If the magnet does stick, it is pitted, then it is low quality stainless and should work ok.
Stainless is not a coated steel core, but a mix of metals. Chromium is the non rusting part, as far as I know. This makes it rust, stain, heat and chemical resistant. Alcohol is corrosive, just ask your liver;) Heat speeds up chemical reaction most of the time. These are what you are fighting on the still. You can use pure steel, but it will start to rust almost instantly. There was a still on the internet made from a 55 gallon steel barrel the molasses came in. That will work, but will also rust quickly.
The cloudiness of water when boiled in a pitted pan will have extra O2. The extra captured air will go into the water and make it cloudy. Turn off the heat and wait, does it go away? Then the tinny bubbles have floated to the top and disappeared, I still think its aluminum though.
@ falnfenix:
As I said right at the start, there are places where it is infeasible to get by without air conditioning. But, unless the place where you live was pretty much continuously uninhabited until AC came along, it's not one of them. I offer the previous inhabitants as an existence proof of feasibility.
I like window boxes too. But, you know, the ones with plants in them.
Not to be inappropriate, but strip down? I tend to wear long pants & long sleeved shirts year round due to office policies ( 70 is too cool for me). The second I get home, I pretend I'm at the beach. I guess it works for me, since I live alone.
I do the opposite in the winter.. have a lot of my brother's old sweatshirts and layer them on. Haven't figured out how to keep my feet & hands quite warm enough, though ;)
I agree with Guest #17 - let's consider the point of the "greatest weakness" question:
Is it a sincere question? Would you expect an otherwise strong candidate to admit that she/he is habitually late because they party until 2am 5 nights a week? If they did, would you appreciate the honesty, or would you think "this person is NUTS! Why would they volunteer that?"
Or is it a question designed to make the candidate think of a "weakness" that they can then spin into a positive? As in, "In my early career, I had a tendency to be late as I worked in an office where punctuality was not critical and developed bad habits. Now I make it a point to get up 2 hours early and be the first one in the office." If so, that's the same as "admitting" to perfectionism, stopping the buck, etc. It's not really a confession.
Option 3 is that favored by Guest - it's a weak, poorly thought-out question that is often asked just because it's asked often. Don't be surprised when you get a well-rehearsed answer that gives you no satisfaction.
yeah, this isn't feasible for me and many, MANY other people. moving would be the best option, but it's not available to me. i'll keep my window boxes, thanks.
I am in a real pickle. I cannot work outside of the house because I cannot afford daycare for my children. I make very little money at home, and I am on the verge of being eligible for Medicaid... just awaiting the final say on it. I have had 7 pregnancies in 7 years and I am expecting baby #4. I cannot make any payments right now. I had a USDA backed loan that was foreclosed on as I was advised I could declare bankruptcy on it and it would get us out from underneath of a house that we purchased under false information regarding the condition of the home. Now, I have been informed that the home cannot have bankruptcy declared on it as it is government backed and the debt will be sent to the Department of Treasury.
My husband has a 401K that may be able to cover that debt, and we are trying to figure out how to handle that... if anyone knows please advise...
Furthermore, I have high-risk pregnancies and have to see the doctor regularly. The doctor's office said I was "in-network" because the card had 2 carriers on it. Now, they have been informed that I am not in network which makes my deductible for 2009 and 2010 each $3000 for just me and then only coverage of 60%. This is going to kill us as we were expecting much more affordable increments. They are now hounding me even though they know I have been trying to figure out finances with Medicaid. They offered a 30% discount if the insurance ended up considering it a pre-existing condition like they had been calling it (if I could pay in full and of course I can't), but now they have taken that statement away... altogether.
Do I have any options at all? Do they have any responsibility to me for not having given correct information about the network status? Am I just going to have to look more seriously at bankruptcy? My husband's job took a pay cut of about 70% in the past 2 years and I have lost a large portion of my income as well.
@Steven BREWER:
You have to look at the avoided cost. If by "stop cooking your food" you mean "eat salads when it's hot, so you don't heat up your kitchen," then that's a great idea. If you mean "eat at restaurants more," then it's an expensive idea. If you mean "eat raw meat," then it's a dangerous idea.
Unplugging your refrigerator would save you some on your electric bill, but would probably cost you more due to food spoilage, the inability to save leftovers or stock up on fresh food, eating out more, etc.
As I've said before, arranging your life so that you can get by with one fewer car is one of the most frugal things you can do.
(In the interests of full disclosure, I should mention that Steven is my brother, and that he sometimes teases me.)
I have to say my only gripe with working retail is customers who will treat you like you aren't a human being. I work in a bookstore and we close late and I can't stand it when people insist on staying until we close with a huge stack of books that we will have to put away once they leave. Taking two or three books off the shelves and not returning them is one thing, but we are not robots, many of us have other committments, family, second jobs or classes in the morning, and when the store closes we want to get out of there. Leaving a mess at closing time is the rudest thing you can do in my opinion and it shows an utter lack of respect for those who have to clean up after you.
Um, yeah, you can pry the AC away from my hot, dead body, but until then, if it's over 85 with 99% and above humidity, like it is here from mid-June-Sept, then my AC is on. It doesn't cost that much money to cool my 600sqft house to 76 or so and it's well worth it. Otherwise I would be laying around complaining all summer and NOTHING would get done.
I do subscribe to less drastic measures, like turning off the AC whenever it cools down, keeping it at 76+ and using ceiling fans, but it's not worth it to me to be totally miserable.
@Khurt:
I'd never ask someone else to turn on their air conditioning for me. But, if there's a building that's already being air conditioned, the extra load caused by me sitting in it is insignificant.
Anyhow, I much prefer to the "go to the forest or the ocean" option. The ocean is a bit far, from here, but there's a nice shady courtyard just outside my apartment, which is very pleasant on a hot day.
I follow a lot of these practicies, but, living in Texas, air conditioning in the summer time is pretty much a necessity, at least for sleeping at night. I do try to hold out as long as possible before turning it on...my goal is always at least Memorial Day. This year, I may see how far into June I can go.
The main problem is that in the heat of the summer it doesn't really cool down at night. We can easily go a few weeks without the temperature getting below 80, months without seeing below 75.
I also get annoyed that so many commercial buildings crank the air conditioning up so high. The big box retailers can be especially bad. Cubeville where I work is right about 71-72 degrees year round. And, due to poor air circulation (but great acoustics) my church has many, many cold spots in the sanctuary. It's gotten so that I take a long sleeve shirt or light jacket with me when I'm going out in the summer so that I can toss that on when I'm INSIDE during the summer.
I used to feel the same way until I went into perimenopause. Now just looking at a match triggers hot flashes.
older people with breathing problems need AC of course.
I often see people leave pets in cars... BAD idea.... even if it does not seem hot out to you, your pet may be hot and uncomfortable so dont do it. Even if you park in the shade, your pet may still be at risk so don't do it.
You should also write these posts: "don't drive your car", "stop cooking your food", "uplug your refrigerator", "quit washing your clothes", and "disconnect your water heater". :-)
Your number one tip is to move the cooling expense to someone else bill?
I applaud those in warmer climates that support this! Living in Maine it's a no-brainer. Even when living in cities in poorly ventilated apartments, I only thought it was necessary on really hot nights for sleeping. Up here we have so few of those "too hot to sleep" nights that it's almost a special thing when it happens.
When I lived in LA I was very impressed that so many apartments were designed to keep cool - low buildings with windows on shady sides only. Design is key, as is allowing yourself to acclimate to the temperature instead of fighting it.
This is a neat companion piece to a post earlier this year about keeping the heat low! I'm always amused by folks who heat to 75 in the winter, but cool to 65 in the summer!
I'm not sure how you'd like this list to be reorganized, exactly. I was trying to make it user-friendly. I like nice round numbers, instead of dealing with decimals. (However my next caffeine article will be entirely decimals.)
A simple calculator with a division function should help you figure out what the mg are per ounce. The main purpose of the article isn't to measure out the exact amount of caffeine millia per item, it's really more of an awareness issue, so people can monitor their (or their children's) intake.
Sonja Stewart
When I hear that ques. in an interview, it makes me think that I'm clearly dealing with someone who hasn't prepared for the interview. It's such a "lazy" question. Why don't you ask the person about the job and how they plan to perform it?
As soon as I hear the greatest strength/greatest weakness question,I want to scream, " My greatest weakness is tolerating idiots who ask inane questions like that and have power over my life and my greatest strength is not jumping across this table and tearing your head off."
The reason the coffee has twice the amount of caffeine, is because they use two pots worth of coffee grounds and brew only one pot worth of water. So the caffeine is more potent. They do this to keep the taste of the coffee the same according to their measurements...which would be a full cup of ice, followed by the iced brew. So, if you ask them to hold the ice you get twice the caffeine.
Sonja Stewart
I had no idea about the caffeine. Thanks for the information.
Sonja Stewart
I actually lerned about the tea having more caffeine when I was in the U.K. I researched about the tannins and caffeine breakdown but couldn't find anything. It's something worth looking into, as I know a lot of people are trying to avoid or cut down caffeine. I do know that if you dump out the tea from the first steeping, and add more water to the tea bag, the tea leftover is almost entirely decaffeinated. I learned that from the delightful vegan, Moby who opened a tea bar in New York. No, I don't personally know him. But, hey, throw a doctor's coat on him and he becomes believable, right?
Sonja Stewart
I haven't turned my a/c on for years and I live in Sacramento where the summers get up to 105 degrees. There are only a handful of days where it's uncomfortable to sleep upstairs - on those nights I blow up the air mattress and sleep downstairs in the living room.
This is a GREAT post. Air conditioning is a total joke and money-suck. I grew up in Southern California AND Arizona AND spent time working on Ghana (where summer days can get to 105!) without air conditioning. I'm in Connecticut now and for all the talk about the East Coast having "seasons" I'm amazed at how the minute it hits 57-degrees in Fall/Winter, people are turning their heat on and when it hits 68-degrees in Spring/Summer, your eyeballs feel like they have sand in them because everyone's got their air conditioning cranked up. Nevermind the fact that the heat of the summer gives your body cues to shed its "winter padding" and to drink more water & eat more "water-based" foods (i.e. fruits and veggies).
I think #2 is a good idea and a bad idea. It's important to show that you can use the appropriate buzzwords and lingo for your position and field, but I agree that dressing up the language too much is off-putting. "BS" should never even enter your mind.
Sometimes it's obvious that people are trying to sound much more important than they really are. I've thrown out a few resumes (and had a few good laughs) because of it.
Aluminum will be very thick. not quite 1/4 inch, but close enough to know it's thick. Stainless will be closer the the thickness of a heavy stainless cooking spoon. If you take a green scrubby to the aluminum and swirl it around wet, you will get a gray slurry. Stainless will not do this.
For pitting, try the magnet, if it does not stick, it is pitted, then it is aluminum. She has cooked something acidic at some time. Salty would cause it too. If the magnet does stick, it is pitted, then it is low quality stainless and should work ok.
Stainless is not a coated steel core, but a mix of metals. Chromium is the non rusting part, as far as I know. This makes it rust, stain, heat and chemical resistant. Alcohol is corrosive, just ask your liver;) Heat speeds up chemical reaction most of the time. These are what you are fighting on the still. You can use pure steel, but it will start to rust almost instantly. There was a still on the internet made from a 55 gallon steel barrel the molasses came in. That will work, but will also rust quickly.
The cloudiness of water when boiled in a pitted pan will have extra O2. The extra captured air will go into the water and make it cloudy. Turn off the heat and wait, does it go away? Then the tinny bubbles have floated to the top and disappeared, I still think its aluminum though.
very good decision...God give u all luck..i m also a freelancer..hope to work togther someday..take care