I was trying to decide what to write for Day 5 of Nablopomo and was surfing around researching topics I have on my list to blog about when I remembered Gazelle.com was on my list. I like the concept of other people being able to use something that is still perfectly good but for which I no longer have a use. I have a couple Blackberry cell phones that are perfectly good. They are not touch screen models but they connect to data services and are reliable, good phones and are just losing value are in a bag in storage in a drawer. I decided to check out what Gazelle would offer for them. After going through the easy to follow directions on the site I found out I could get $5.00 a piece for them as long as the site finds the condition to be the same as my assessment of them. It is not much money, but it is more than zero, and if I find some more tech items they will take, it might be worth my time to sell several items to them. I can also choose to donate any money they offer for my phones to a charity. Gazelle.com also will recycle items that cannot be sold however they do not knowingly accept items that cannot be resold.
I checked out some other ways I might be able to responsibly get rid of some tech junk so as to make an informed decision about how to get rid of stuff I simply cannot store any longer. I searched for options in my community, Tucson, AZ, but there are similar options in almost every community in the country. You might have to expand your geographic definition of community a bit to find these services in some more sparsely populated parts of the country, but the services exist. Sometimes offered by merchants and sometimes offered as a local or government service.
I found two retailers that offer tech recycling for items such as cell phones, batteries, mp3 players, and other small tech junk that has recyclable metals: Office Depot and Batteries Plus. Another search turned up Arizona and private company collaboration for various cities on different dates throughout the state a as well as state-wide drives on single days. These events and drives are supported by Westech Recyclers and other tech and recycling firms for the collection and disposal of computer, medical, manufacturing, and electronic equipment.
Each of these options for recycling and reuse has advantages and downsides. If your motivation is sustainability then opting for reuse followed by environmentally responsible recycling is the ideal tech recycling scenario, but you may not have control over the whole process.
If your motivation takes the impact on your pocketbook into account, then the fees that Office Depot charges you, according to the size of the box into which your recyclables fit, may help you make up your mind about using this option. Batteries Plus does not charge for the collection of the items they take for recycling and states, “Our recycling goal is to produce a positive impact on our environment by recovering and recycling more than we sell.” Not all tech waste is taken by any single recycler so checking for the particular tech waste restrictions of any collection point is worthwhile. States tend to facilitate the broadest collection but may do so through multiple events.
There are also many options beyond internet sales on sites such as Gazelle.com for tech if you have the motivation and means to place classified ads, check out consignment options, and pawn brokers. Selling your items can allow for the greater use of items before recycling and get you a few dollars in your pocket to boot.
The primary reason for recycling your tech trash is that out of date technology tools contain metals and materials that can be recycled and toxins that should not be burned off or buried to contaminate air, land, or ground water in the recycling process. Recycling that takes place inside the United States is closely regulated, though there are efforts to dismantle these safe guards. The steps to lessen the contamination of the environment or damage the health of the people actually processing the recovery of component parts of tech trash are mandated by federal regulation There are companies here that to export tech trash to other countries with few environmental restrictions on the handling of toxic materials or regulations concerning worker health and safety standards. Improper disposal is less expensive. It is always good to ask about the ultimate disposition of an item at a recycling center as the export of tech trash out of the United States is a common, well established process. Often State organized tech recycling programs will try to find a use for items within a state agency or program but if no use can be found, then bulk buyers that fit state criteria will be found and those may or may not be concerned with environmental impact and may not adhere to the standards the state or federal governments require for their materials.
As always nothing is as simple as it seems on the surface, but it is good to know that there are more and more tech trash recycling options for us to choose for the tech trash we create in our daily lives.
I Love My Writing Technology!
Day 4… of Nablopomo, and I’m going to use the prompt for today about writing instruments and what I like to use. This seems to be a personal post so I’m putting it here in my more personal blog. I’m writing every day this month, as per National Blog Posting Month guidelines, in order to increase my output, improve my technique, and just generally become a better blogger. So the prompt is:
When you are writing, do you prefer to use a pen or a computer?
I wrote a tiny bit about this a few days ago on another of my blogs, coincidentally and mentioned that I prefer to use a .07 lead mechanical pencil when using a pencil, and that I prefer an ultra fine point archival ink when I chose to use a pen. When I want to write with a keyboard I also have to choose between my desktop computer, my laptop, my iPad 2, and my smart phone.
So how do I choose between the tools I have available to me when I want to put words to the page? Well, the first consideration I evaluate in my choice of writing utensil is the type of writing I want to do. Am I writing a grocery list, letter, journal entry, blog post, short or long manuscript, or a poem? This will influence the type of tool I choose to use. Intensely personal recollections, musings and such are likely to be written by hand with a pencil or high quality pen.
Lead pencils and a Rapidograph®-like pen were the tools of the trade I was instructed to use when making field notes / behavioral observations as an undergrad and in graduate school. I also always used a high rag or cotton content paper on which to take notes. This practice has stayed with me over the years to a great extent, although I love all sorts of paper, notebooks, notepads, and loose leaf papers so what I write on is not always bond paper. I try to use only ink that will not bleed, is permanent, and pencils as they also have these characteristics.
I usually write on a keyboard of some sort. I purchased my first electric typewriter when I was 16 in 1973. I loved to see my work in typed print – especially my poetry – and the “translation” of thought into words seemed to flow more smoothly and rapidly when I used the direct brain to fingertip neural/physical actions involved in typing. Writing script by hand takes much, much longer for me and seems more likely to capture stream of conscience musings. Using a keyboard seems to create a copy with more precise language usage that is closer to penultimate or final copy.
Another factor is where the writing will be done. At home, sitting, reclining, while watching T.V., in my office, at my desk, on a plane or train, in an automobile, at a coffee shop, at a conference, at a press conference all place different limiting and enabling constraints on which technology I use.
I nearly at all times have a small notebook and my phone with me when I carry a shoulder bag. Theoretically, I could use either one of these for note taking, but I like to write notes by hand. Phone key pads, even on the iPhone, are just too small. I do not like to send text messages for this reason. I guess I have old, fat fingers.
I like to write neatly if I am writing by hand and using a mechanical pencil allows me to write in a fairly uniform manner because the lead is always the same diameter and this size of mechanical pencil creates a thin line that for some reason helps me write in a neat small script. Archival quality ink pens, either felt tip or roller ball, with an ultra fine nib also seem to promote better handwriting for me than a ball point. I seem to produce larger and more sloppy script when I write with a ballpoint pen or wooden pencil.
I do my best blogging on a laptop when sitting in a comfy chair or even in bed with the TV on at night. I tend to use my iPad for social media communication, for texting and posting short social media entries. My desktop computer with the large screen in my office is used for graphics, web design layout, and for some reason which I have not figured out entirely, for manuscript or book length projects.
I love paper, pens, notebooks, and in fact all writing tools and technologies, but more than these things, and far beyond the simple preference expressed in answer to the question, “Pen or computer?” are my love of writing and words, my graphophilia and logophilia. And almost as intense as these loves is my fascination with the different limiting and enabling constraints placed on the creative process by the use of digital and analog tools and methods.
I Love My Writing Technology!
Day 4… of Nablopomo, and I’m going to use the prompt for today about writing instruments and what I like to use. This seems to be a personal post so I’m putting it here in my more personal blog. I’m writing every day this month, as per National Blog Posting Month guidelines, in order to increase my output, improve my technique, and just generally become a better blogger. So the prompt is:
When you are writing, do you prefer to use a pen or a computer?
I wrote a tiny bit about this a few days ago on another of my blogs, coincidentally and mentioned that I prefer to use a .07 lead mechanical pencil when using a pencil, and that I prefer an ultra fine point archival ink when I chose to use a pen. When I want to write with a keyboard I also have to choose between my desktop computer, my laptop, my iPad 2, and my smart phone.
So how do I choose between the tools I have available to me when I want to put words to the page? Well, the first consideration I evaluate in my choice of writing utensil is the type of writing I want to do. Am I writing a grocery list, letter, journal entry, blog post, short or long manuscript, or a poem? This will influence the type of tool I choose to use. Intensely personal recollections, musings and such are likely to be written by hand with a pencil or high quality pen.
Lead pencils and a Rapidograph®-like pen were the tools of the trade I was instructed to use when making field notes / behavioral observations as an undergrad and in graduate school. I also always used a high rag or cotton content paper on which to take notes. This practice has stayed with me over the years to a great extent, although I love all sorts of paper, notebooks, notepads, and loose leaf papers so what I write on is not always bond paper. I try to use only ink that will not bleed, is permanent, and pencils as they also have these characteristics.
I usually write on a keyboard of some sort. I purchased my first electric typewriter when I was 16 in 1973. I loved to see my work in typed print – especially my poetry – and the “translation” of thought into words seemed to flow more smoothly and rapidly when I used the direct brain to fingertip neural/physical actions involved in typing. Writing script by hand takes much, much longer for me and seems more likely to capture stream of conscience musings. Using a keyboard seems to create a copy with more precise language usage that is closer to penultimate or final copy.
Another factor is where the writing will be done. At home, sitting, reclining, while watching T.V., in my office, at my desk, on a plane or train, in an automobile, at a coffee shop, at a conference, at a press conference all place different limiting and enabling constraints on which technology I use.
I nearly at all times have a small notebook and my phone with me when I carry a shoulder bag. Theoretically, I could use either one of these for note taking, but I like to write notes by hand. Phone key pads, even on the iPhone, are just too small. I do not like to send text messages for this reason. I guess I have old, fat fingers.
I like to write neatly if I am writing by hand and using a mechanical pencil allows me to write in a fairly uniform manner because the lead is always the same diameter and this size of mechanical pencil creates a thin line that for some reason helps me write in a neat small script. Archival quality ink pens, either felt tip or roller ball, with an ultra fine nib also seem to promote better handwriting for me than a ball point. I seem to produce larger and more sloppy script when I write with a ballpoint pen or wooden pencil.
I do my best blogging on a laptop when sitting in a comfy chair or even in bed with the TV on at night. I tend to use my iPad for social media communication, for texting and posting short social media entries. My desktop computer with the large screen in my office is used for graphics, web design layout, and for some reason which I have not figured out entirely, for manuscript or book length projects.
I love paper, pens, notebooks, and in fact all writing tools and technologies, but more than these things, and far beyond the simple preference expressed in answer to the question, “Pen or computer?” are my love of writing and words, my graphophilia and logophilia. And almost as intense as these loves is my fascination with the different limiting and enabling constraints placed on the creative process by the use of digital and analog tools and methods.
Re-post (from BlogHer.com) of My Day 3 Nablopomo Post
I’ve been having a Dickens of a time… (I just love that phrase! Pardon me while I digress: The phrase always conjures up an image for me of a little match girl wandering the streets of a cold harsh reality in a Victorian novel by Charles Dickens — in this case imagine a little match girl wearing an insubstancial “BlogHer Blue” cape and a tattered hat of the same color that she has adorned with a Nablopomo imprinted ribbon. She is wandering in and out of tabs and pages posts looking for something she knows it somewhere close by but which she cannot find….)
Any way, I’ve been having a Dickens of a time trying to navigate the new Nablopomo section of BlogHer. I was having difficulty navigating this new feature on BlogHer not because anything is wrong with how the site and section are set up, but rather because I am accustomed to the old Nablopomo site that Melissa ran for a good long while before coming over to BlogHer (which I think is a very good move, by the by and by…) and once I have a tree structure (threw that in for you techy types reading this), a taxonomy, or a procedure created in my central nervous system I have a devil of a time restructuring it.
I started to post this procedure on how to get to the daily posts for Nablopomo as a comment after Victoria’s comment to my comment on Victoria’s post when I realized it was far more than a comment. So if you have come here from the comment on the comment on the post… you can skip down to the procedure. It is clearly listed further down in this post.
But to get to the point beyond my digressions, and I do love a good digression, I figured out how to read non-featured Nablopomo posts by reg. old bloghers who choose to share beyond the point of just listing themselves on a blogroll. Now there isn’t a thing in the world wrong with reading the featured, hot, or syndicated posts that are the easiest posts to find. But BlogHer is huge both in size and importance, and it isn’t easy to find all the best stuff that is available here because we all have different ideas about what makes up the “best” of anything.
And, pardon another digression, but… I talked to a blogher at BlogHer ’11 in San Diego who considers herself to be a blogher and not just a blogger (just like I consider myself) who never posts anything on the actual BlogHer site as a member post! Can you imagine not taking full advantage of this great network of amazing women (and men) writers and everything they all have to offer? She went so far as to say she didn’t even come to the site to read stuff here very often. Can you imagine? Poor thing.
I thought of her when my inner Little Match Girl was wandering around the site trying to figure out how everything worked for Nablopomo this month. I understand that something as big and complex and important as a Women’s Network can be a bit daunnting at first. As an information addict I just dig in and slither around in all the tantalizing bits and bytes of information and experience that are collectively offered to all here for the simple price of reading (taking the time to read is an investment like any other…at thus has a cost, but I digress AGAIN) here.
Anyway, I’ve been on BlogHer since at least 2006 and I still get lost! So I thought I would write this post about how to use some of the features of this National Blog Posting Month celebration that is welcoming the monthly writing challenge, that is Nablopomo, to BlogHer this month. And Melissa m’dear I hope I am not stepping on your toes by writing this as you have done a great job explaining the intricacies of all this on your post that I have bookmarked and still refer to several times a day. It is just that no one person can write all the instructions needed in the world and when I find myself needing to figure out a procedure I like to share it if there is a good chance someone else might find it to be useful.
Last evening I figured out how to get to the section where I can subscribe to various types of Nablopomo feeds. So I decided to whip up this little post that is my Nablopomo post for the day that spells out a step by step procedure on how to get to where I wanted to be on this site in this section, that might also be where others want to be but not know how to get there. So you can click on the above link or follow this procedure:
HOW TO GET TO THE COLLECTIVE DAILY NABLOPOMO POSTS
of people participating in BlogHer’s National Blog Posting Month
- Once you are on the BlogHer site go to the BLOGGING AND SOCIAL MEDIA TAB at the top of the page,
- then to the LEFT SIDEBAR WIDGET BOX that is labeled CATEGORIES
- then click on the NABLOPOMO LINK under the CATEGORIES header,
- then in the center column under the prompt of the day where it says “What’s Hot,” just look to the right on the same line and click the more posts > link.
- at the top of the center column on this page you are offered options for RSS feeds to which you may subscribe, with whatever feedreader you choose to use, by clicking on the icon next to the feed you want, or you may click on the word itself and be taken to the posts on BlogHer rather than through the feedreader. The options are: Editors’ Picks| Member Posts| Network Posts| All Posts and I’m not sure what all the differences are between these options, maybe Melissa has covered this and I missed it, but I don’t get anything under Network Posts, and I’m not immediately clear on what the difference between the “Member Posts” and “All Posts” feeds are, maybe someone can share their knowledge.
But I was pleased as punch to find out that I can shovel all the member posts into my Feedly feed or read them on the BlogHer site.
Maybe this is way too much information, but if you are still reading, then you must have had an experience somewhat related to mine in trying to find something.
I find out more and more things about BlogHer all the time and I’ve been using this site for over 5 years! I figure there are others who might also have missed a nifty feature, so I like to share my discoveries and Nablopomo helped me figure out so much about what it takes to be a regularly schedule blogger that I really wanted to share this in particular.
Thanks to BlogHer and Melissa!
Rum Diary Review
My husband and I saw the Rum Diary this past weekend. The critics do not like it, but I do. The movie is based on the first and only Hunter S. Thompson novel, written in the early 1960s, though not published until 1998.
The movie offers a thinly veiled autobiographical peek into the early Thompson’s psyche. To any person seeking to understand a bit more about the not yet gonzo journalist while he was still finding his footing as a writer the film will be intriguing. Of course we will never know for sure what aspects of the novel and now film were and were not based on actual experiences of Thompson, but the feel is right at many levels. I have not spent tons of time in Puerto Rico but I spent a month there, and scenes were reminiscent of things I experienced there living on a regular old street in a beach town and on a nearby island and bombing range, Culebra, where I vacationed for a few days while in the area. The bombing range features prominently in the plot although it is never specifically named in the film.
For later born Baby Boomers, of whom I am one, Hunter S. Thompson was an iconic figure as we came of age. And even though the timeline in this novel takes place before some of us were even born, the life and work of Thompson such as Fear and Loathing: on the Campaign Trail 1972 and his regular articles in Rolling Stone during the 1970s framed many of our views on political events and on popular culture.
Late Boomer Johnny Depp (b. June 9, 1963) isn’t alone in his belief in the importance of Hunter S. Thompson as a writer and cultural icon to those of us who polishing our world views at the height of Thompson’s influence. The proto-gonzo, parts of the male anatomy to the wall, journalist in this film rails against the same nemesis that was enemy to counter culture when Late Boomer political psyches were forming and enemy to the 99% today: greedy and heartless capitalists (not all capitalists fit this description) and complacent media that care more for advertisers and bottom lines than the need to report the truth.
This is not a feel good movie. There is no happy ending. There are cock fights. The pace of the plot mirrors the stifling heavy tropical atmosphere. The film is sooooo Thompson with its short term belief and passion and its long term pessimism. See it. Not a great film but a necessary reminder about a life that shaped a generation.
Rum Diary Review
My husband and I saw the Rum Diary this past weekend. The critics do not like it, but I do. The movie is based on the first and only Hunter S. Thompson novel, written in the early 1960s, though not published until 1998.
The movie offers a thinly veiled autobiographical peek into the early Thompson’s psyche. To any person seeking to understand a bit more about the not yet gonzo journalist while he was still finding his footing as a writer the film will be intriguing. Of course we will never know for sure what aspects of the novel and now film were and were not based on actual experiences of Thompson, but the feel is right at many levels. I have not spent tons of time in Puerto Rico but I spent a month there, and scenes were reminiscent of things I experienced there living on a regular old street in a beach town and on a nearby island and bombing range, Culebra, where I vacationed for a few days while in the area. The bombing range features prominently in the plot although it is never named in the film.
For later born Baby Boomers, of whom I am one, Hunter S. Thompson was an iconic figure as we came of age. And even though the timeline in this novel takes place before some of us were even born, the life and work of Thompson such as Fear and Loathing: on the Campaign Trail 1972 and his regular articles in Rolling Stone during the 1970s framed many of our views on political events and on popular culture.
Late Boomer Johnny Depp (b. June 9, 1963) isn’t alone in his belief in the importance of Hunter S. Thompson as a writer and cultural icon to those of us who polishing our world views at the height of Thompson’s influence. The proto-gonzo, parts of the male anatomy to the wall, journalist in this film rails against the same nemesis that was enemy to counter culture when Late Boomer political psyches were forming and enemy to the 99% today: greedy and heartless capitalists (not all capitalists fit this description) and complacent media that care more for advertisers and bottom lines than the need to report the truth.
This is not a feel good movie. There is no happy ending. There are cock fights. The pace of the plot mirrors the stifling heavy tropical atmosphere. The film is sooooo Thompson with its short term belief and passion and its long term pessimism. See it. Not a great film but a necessary reminder about a life that shaped a generation.