Day 12 & 13

Weekend recap, because I was having so much fun eating bacon and other meats I didn't have time to write about it. Actually, I only had meat a few times, but it was glorious.

• Drove a few hours in the car to visit nature, drove a few more to do some volunteer work at a school. (Lots of drive, -15 points)
• The meat eating took place, of course. (-10 points) but it was part of the plan (+7 points)
• Leftover boxes from said food. (-5 points)

So I made it through a week of vegetarian eating and now all I need is to do it 5 more times... well it could be worse, could be raining.

Day 11

It's like I can smell the bacon it's so close.

• Shower and wearing clothes I didn't make myself
• Drive to school
• Use of paper coffee cup
• Snacks tat came in plastic packaging
• Drive back home
• Drive to Thai place
• Eat Thai food
• Drive home
• Sleep

Day 10

Well it's Thursday, which means it's almost Friday, which means it's almost time for me to get some bacon. As expected, I'm very excited and can't wait to hit up somewhere with awesome bacon, like Alexa's Cafe, or maybe make my own... or both. Despite the challenge of avoiding meat I feel like I've been eating healthier because of it, even though that probably isn't exactly true. Alright, carbon time.

• The usual shower and car rides, but no extras. (-3 points)
• Food was all meat-free (+4 points)
• No plane rides (+7 points)
• The usual power usage (-6 points)

I think this is where some renewable energy might come in handy since I don't see myself reducing my computer usage any time soon. However, then I'd have to do more carbon footprint analysis on the PV panels, wind turbine, damn, geothermal power plant, or hamster-in-a-wheel device that I picked to help supplement my power intake.

Day 9

Victory. Another day without meat, including fish.

• No more driving than normal (+3x^[4+y]/9x)
• No meat or things waste of plastics (+Q=325*0.89*ΔT)
• Took a long shower (-3.14)
• Used plenty of power :(

The food was good, I think avoiding meat is actually more difficult than I thought it was going to be, in part because I'm at school most of the day. To avoid buying a ton a little snacks I have to bring a lot of my own food, or I really should be bringing a lot of my own food. I have been, but it seems like I'm always hungry now even though I can't eat that much at one sitting. That's not a bad thing though, I know it's healthier to eat a bunch of little meals than a few big ones.

Day 8

Bad news everyone...
Today I ate more salmon. I know, right after I said it was like cheating and I wouldn't be doing it anymore. How could I help it though? I was hungry and it was a free meal. I can't even afford free meals because I have -$3 in my bank account, which means I can't even take free things unless people give me $3 with it. Admittedly, I live with my parents so it's not like I can't just bum some money from them, which I already have.

So what was on my menu Tuesday?

• Protein bar and almonds for breakfast
• Teriyaki salmon for lunch
• Trail mix and more protein bars for snacks
• Tomatoes and cream cheese for more snacks (weird, I know)
• Finally, white bean and orzo soup for dinner

Other carbon items include the usual drive to and from school, I bought a water bottle but I refilled it a few times, maybe I should remember to bring my own from now on, and unfortunately the teriyaki salmon can in a styrofoam box which probably kill 30 baby seals and put 1337 pounds of carbon into the sky... and made the O-Zone hole over the arctic a little bit bigger.

Day7

Monday, official start of the week for not eating meat. I made a mistake in eating plain old eggs for breakfast... won't be doing that again.

• No meat for day 1! (+9 veggie points)
• Drove to meet mom for lunch  (-3 Earth points)
• "Dinner" at school with a bunch of snacks with plastic wrappers (-10 points)
• Salmon patties for dinner, they smelt so good I couldn't help myself. I've hear fish doesn't count, I suppose it does so I'll try and avoid it. (+/- 5 points)

I have a feeling this would be much easier if I had remembered to save some money because I wasn't getting paid for a while.

Day 6

Shockingly, I didn't have any meat on Sunday, which is probably a good start because the weekdays are certainly going to be hard enough to avoid being carnivorous... or omnivorous, or both. I also managed not to leave my house.

• Some biscuits for breakfast and broccoli for dinner, recycled packaging (aww yeah)
• Didn't use any gas (awwwww yeah)
• Used electricity being Batman on my computer (I am Batman...)
• Used a reusable cup to drink tea, then composted tea bags. (Winning)
• Took a really long shower (Losing)

Day 5

Oh, it's the weekend and a nice one too. Just look at that awesome view? I was actually supposed to make a non-routine trip to school to work on some Trace700 stuff and pulling down some sensors, but I completely forgot about it in wake of the sunshine and spent all day hanging out with Julian, my friend and former roommate. I helped him change the oil in a couple of cars, played some Might and Magic turn based game for as long as we could (approximately half an hour) and made some cheese and rice stuffed bell peppers for lunch. Believe it or not, I actually went all of Saturday without any bacon, though there was some meat in there on the pizza I had for lunch. My plan was to stock up on veggies this weekend to spend the weak not eating meat, unfortunately I forgot about a couple more expenses and only have a few bucks this weekend, so it looks like I'll be winging it next week. But here's the recap for Saturday.

• Didn't drive more than a mile (but road with someone for a few) [positive]
• Changed the oil in 2 cars, which is bound to be bad, but we replaced it recycles oil and brought the used oil in for recycling. [neutral]
• Ate healthy-ish (go me) and use fresh produce to cook (less packaging). [positive]
• I still used the computer and plenty of power. [negative]
• Recycled packaging from lunch and dinner. [positive]

Day 4

Friday! Friday! Gadda get down on Fri- NO

• 1 bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich and 1 cup of coffee in a paper cup. +5 awesome points, -10 environmental points
• Drove to school yet again. -more points
• Drove to DQ and ate horrible fast food with Jon, went back to school, then went home. +20 you suck points.
• Have some chicken taquitos that came in a plastic package.
• Sat at home and did nothing the rest of the day.

My parents left today. This means I'll be home alone for the weekend, which means I won't really be eating much of anything so I'm sure those watching my giant carbon footprint will be pleased to see it not-grow much this weekend. In fact, I don't even have plans so I'll probably just be sitting at home at my computer using that 33% hydro power from PSE for 18 hours a day while bitching about the stupid people writing reports on the Anders Breivek case.

Day 3 (follow up)

I think I'm going to put a lag on these entries so that I write about the day before each time. This is because of my extreme lack of motivation to do anything in the evening except play video games and watch Futurama. So let me finish up this recap of Day 3.

• Drove home from school instead of biking in the rain at about 5:30. -3 goal units
• Ate soem chicken that was raised who-knows-where and used a bunch of power sitting at the computer. -8
• Turned the water off while brushing my teeth. +1.08

I think I'm currently sitting at 40 - Love with the environment right now. I know the drive to and from school really isn't something that I can change since bus stops are so far and I can't live on my own or else... well or else I would be already. I could stop using these stupid paper cups for coffee (-19 mili-points) and bring my own mug or something, that's a decent idea, being that it's pretty easy and I'm lazy as hell. I could cut out coffee all together, but I'm already giving up weekday bacon (and all meat for that matter) so I think I'll keep coffee for now.

Day 3 - Early

I know it's not the end of the day yet but I have to make note of the awesome news that this project is going to be a lot more fun than I originally anticipated. We got this example carbon diary and it turns out I get to be super sarcastic and use my own personal, made-up points system that I never have to explain! Ok, sure, I was already being super sarcastic about it all, but that's just how I am anyway, the point system is going to be amazing and will likely change units without notice. So don't worry, there will be no "ten points from Gryffindor!" quotes because even that would be far too logical.

I also won't be breaking my day down in to 15 minute increments, or even by the hour, because that's just a bunch of time that I'd rather spend being green somewhere else (+7 goal units). I think I'll just list the bigger things, so you can count on showers, driving, things I use through the day, and of course food since that's going to be my big change. For starters, here is my day so far.

• 15 minute shower. -3 awesome points
• Forgot to eat breakfast. +2 awesome points
• Had subway for lunch (with meat). -10 awesome points
• Used laptop to write carbon journal. -5 awesome points
• Realized that using the computer saves paper, ink/pencils, and means the writing will actually be legible. +π awesome points

I won't argue that this seems stupid as hell; it'll get better, I promise. It's a good, at least I hope it is, that will get me on the path write down more things.

Day 2

Day two of the footprint, but not of abandoning sweet, sweet bacon. I heard this was supposed to be every day, so let's see how horribly I butcher that part. Every day I drive my 30-miles-per gallon car to school and back home, Monday through Friday, and I go into the downtown area of Seattle every other week or so, but that's about all the driving I do. Besides the driving I used lights and computers at school and home, as per usual. I didn't fly in a jet, which is nice since I'm poor and coach seats are very similar to sardine cans. Since everything I do in life generates 9,000,000,000,000 tons of carbon I think I'll just focus on what I'm going to be changing, the food.

I had a bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich on an English muffin from Whole Foods for breakfast. Then A ham, bacon, and turkey club panini for lunch and I'm currently enjoying some left over meatball and pepperoni pizza for dinner. See all that bacon in there? I need to get it in while I can. I've been thinking about different things I could eat that don't have meat in them to still get plenty of protein and so far I've come up with the obvious eggs, beans, and eating enough carbs I get so full that I forget all about protein. Thank god I have the internet to give me ease of access to "how to not starve to death while not eating meat" diets, because let's be honest, without bacon you're only surviving, not thriving.

The Unthinkable

So I'm taking a "Carbon footprint and Sustainability Analysis" class this quarter, I suppose that means it isn't surprising that I'm being asked to keep a daily journal or "budget" of my carbon emissions. Carbon emissions and the blog is called Carbonated. I wasn't kidding when I said I loved puns and word play. Just be happy, group, that I didn't steal our name from that (CabroNation) for this, and it's because I care about you so much.


Ok, back on topic. I need to make a poster at the end of all this that "highlights a change that you made and your rational for making that change" .... a change, eh? Well, I could move out of this giant house and live with 5 roommates in a studio apartment downtown, unfortunately I can't afford that or find roommates for 3 months nor have a won the lotto, so I need to find another option. Being that I'm a nerd I don't go out all that much, so my driving is pretty much limited as it is and to take the bus I'd have to drive a third of the way to school to catch a bus that leaves one major player left... meat.


If you know me at all, just hinting at not eating meat is rather blasphemous. However I'm not actually that big of a meat eater, and by that I mean I don't really consider it a necessity (bacon excluded) I just don't make any conscious effort to avoid eating it. That being said, I'm willing to bet I eat a lot more of it than I think (and I suspect I eat plenty) not to mention all the other terrible, Earth-destroying things I do in my day.


I'll be real with you and admit there's no way I'm giving up bacon totally, I mean I just bought a shirt last weekend that has the words "bacon powered" printed across the back in all caps. It's just not going to happen. I saw on a TED Talk once this guy pitching his idea for "weekday vege" which is just a few syllables short of what its full name, weekday vegetarian. This, as you might have guessed, means you can eat meat on the weekends so long as you went 5 days without it. Five days without bacon? The hell are you trying to do to me Gail? I know, I know, giving up meat was my idea and I can't blame anyone else for that.


The point of the blog (aka the journal) is to log my carbon emissions but in truth I'll probably use it for bitching about eating fruits and salads and healthy things while trying to fend of the onset of depression caused by an acute lack of bacon... or something like that. In short (is this post short? I hope not) I'm going to be putting a bunch of crap here I don't expect people to read.

Some technicals:

• I'm starting the blog right now, but I'll officially start logging and avoiding bacon on Monday 4/23
• I won't be pigging out on every scrap of meat I can get my hands on during the weekends (this is for you, future self. I'm watching you.)