Que pasa con Felipe?

"Hi! I've been around for twenty weeks and now, so I've been told, they can identify my gender. But heck, I've seen the pics of me, and I can't figure it out. Can you help me?"

(Phil now speaking)

If I get enough samples for guesses of the gender, I'll compile a 2 x 2 contingency table and perhaps run a Chi-Square analysis, though it's probably not even necessary. Assuming one is not an ultrasound technician, radiologist, or doctor I want to test the hypothesis that a guess is influenced by the gender of the guesser. So if you are in any one of these occupations please don't guess either. As a matter of fact, I'm not really expecting any results at all! By the way, everything looks good. Negative results for CF, Down's Syndrome, and a few other diseases of concern. The mom does well. As of yet no name has been selected. To not skew results, if you already know the gender do not enter your results.

A few weeks ago I decided to clean out my worm bin and remove old castings. My other intention was to see how many worms I could afford to give up. I figured about a pint, and placed an ad on Craigslist to sell a pint of my worms for $15.00. In less than a day I got an interested client, and I took the pint to downtown Seattle, found the guy, and sold it to him. Turns out he is starting his own worm bin to compost his food waste. Pretty cool! I'm sloowllly recouping the costs I made for starting the bin. Anyway I'll probably check again in September or October and see if I can sell more worms then.

This morning I got up at 9 a.m. and turned the TV on to one of our local public broadcast television stations. On was Motorweek, a weekly show that talks about trends, tips, reviews, of vehicles. In this episode they discussed a nifty website where one can estimate the fuel economy of their vehicle. The government uses new standards for estimating fuel economy, and can show the results of the new ratings versus old. Here I decided to check on my 1986 Toyota Pickup, 2WD, 2.4L 4-speed manual. Occasionally on the highways, especially on long drives, I check the miles per gallon and I seemed to have consistently received around 28 to 30 miles to the gallon (or 12 to 13 kilometers per liter). As you can see, using its assumptions (15000 miles per year, 55% city, 45% highway) the fuel economy on my vehicle is actually not bad (again, based on the assumptions it produces about 7.1 tons per year of carbon dioxide emissions).

What's even niftier about the website is you can plug in your assumptions. Well, I ended using my present assumptions of 7500 miles (12000 km) driven per year, 65% city, 35% highway, and it calculated my overall average mileage per gallon to be about 25, with 3.4 tons per year of carbon dioxide emissions. Pretty cool, considering where I live is conveniently located by numerous bus stops (which I use as I'm still a student obtaining yet another master degree and my bus pass subsidizes costs) and many shopping opportunities within a one-mile radius (1.6 km). This will all probably change as soon as I actually get back into the real world, but I'll still try to continue using present habits, such as using public transportation, walking, and even biking, where I can. Check the website out! It also discusses alternative fuel vehicles

Well, I've got two. One is to learn to juggle by the end of the year. The second, and I challenge you to at least try to do the same, is to take one-minute showers. Huh? It isn't that hard, really. Just wet yourself down, which ought to take 15 seconds (if that). Then turn off the water. Shampoo and soap your body down, and then turn back on the water and take 45 seconds (if that) to rinse yourself off. Voila! My rationale is that I, as well as many, am pretty spoiled when it comes to water. When I was a kid, I remember receiving a calendar from a local electric utility company with a slogan: A three-minute shower saves more power. Well, not only that, but you also save some water too! Consider at 80 psi (pounds per square inch) of pressure, my shower head emits 2.5 gallons (9.5 liters) of water per minute. Jeesh! So, if you were to take a 10 minute shower that translates to 25 gallons (100 liters)! And if you're the type that showers daily, well do the math to figure how much you use in a year. Do you really need to use that much water? I remember as a Peace Corps Volunteer using a bucket of water for baths, or about 2 gallons (if that). Anyway, if you haven't found a resolution that you think you can stick to, I challenge you to try this one. We don't live in a vacuum, and we should consider methods to conserve our resources such as water. For an average household, about 80 to 100 gallons of water is used, of which most is used by toilets, followed by showers (source: http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/qahome.html#HDR3). You can reduce your water use by flushing less frequently (remember the saying, "If it's yellow, let it mellow"?), and reducing your use in the shower. If a one-minute shower is too extreme, try a 2-minute shower.

Like most of you who own vehicles, I've noticed how quickly vehicle fuel prices have gone down in the past few weeks. Huh? For those interested I have a link for present mean fuel prices in major Washington State cities. I totally remember my friend Stu and I talking back in 2004 how prices would never go down below $2.00 a gallon in our lifetime again. Well, ummm...hmmm. Were we ever wrong. Anyway, this is an opportunity to maintain discipline and not succumb to the oil machine. If you've changed your fuel using habits because of the high prices of previous months, then continue those habits! Whether it be just walking to the grocery store, biking to work, taking the bus and other forms of public transportation, or opting to not purchase gas-guzzling vehicles, be strong!