Weirdbook.org

I've got a spreadsheet where I've been tracking our household energy usage and cost since 1995. There are a few time periods missing, but it's still a good "long view" of how much electricity we've used over the last decade plus. I know, I know... this falls deeply in the realm of OCD and geekiness. Hi, I'm Brad — have we met?

A few years ago, the Kyoto Protocol was making news. In a nutshell, the Kyoto Protocol is a treaty, and the nations which signed the treaty agreed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions until they were 5.2% below 1990 levels. The United States, (in)famously, did not sign the agreement. Dubya felt it would damage the country economically, and since he was already working hard on that with the war in Iraq and ignoring the shifting of wealth to the banking cartel, why fuck it up by trying to be a true leader in this bold new twenty-first century?

So since the Bush Administration wanted no part of this, I sort of tried it myself. Just a theoretical thing, from which — in Bradworld — it could be scaled up to the national level. At some point the Kyoto Protocol changed so that some nations were allowed to increase their emissions (basically those nations which didn't have many, or any, emissions to begin with), while others (those which essentially stood outside and sprayed Krylon directly into the air without abandon) had to reduce theirs by a larger amount. The United States would have ended up with a magic number of seven percent. When they started talking about buying and selling carbon offsets and trading them on the open market, my eyes glazed over. So after fiddling with the math for a bit and deciding there was no way in hell we could measure the true emissions of our household, I declared we should just aim to reduce our energy usage by seven percent each year.

It started in 2006 (we started recycling the same year for good measure). And as of the end of 2011, our electricity usage was down 44% versus 2006. At first, as the usage dropped, so did the price. But then despite usage continuing to drop, the price started rising. At the end of the five-year period in 2011, I paid slightly more for nearly half the electricity I used in 2006.

Here's a chart I made with the Google Chart API. If you look at the the blue line you can see where the amount of electricity I used dropped from 14000 kWh down to a little over 7000 kWh. The red line follows it down until 2009, and then, as Robert Frost might say, the two paths diverged. Going back to the OCD spreadsheet thing — not only is our household energy usage down 44% over a five-year period, it's at its lowest level ever (back to 1995 at least, before which there wasn't really a household to speak of). The most notable change has been in the last five years, though... not only in usage, but in price.

If you take the annual cost and divide by the annual usage, you'll see that AEP's rates for electricity have — in that same five-year period — gone up 77%. And hey, I was curious, so I did that... and here's another chart showing it:

I know times are tough and everything, and I know companies are still struggling and the economy is just barely limping along. But 77% is a pretty hefty increase. To put things in perspective, imagine gas at $6.19 per gallon, or ground beef at $3.89 a pound, or a gallon of milk costing $5.82. I'm not sure what AEP is doing to justify an increase that big — it's not like I'm now getting name-brand electricity instead of the generic stuff. It's a fundamental force of the universe... about which Michael Faraday once reportedly quipped, "One day, sir, you may tax it."

Yes indeed.

My morning started with a Forbes article about how Best Buy has likely entered the early stages of its death. If true, the biggest electronics retailer in Charleston will become... probably Wal-Mart. Ugh.

I have nothing against Best Buy (Wal-Mart is another story). I've been in the Charleston store exactly once — last February. It was a nonevent, to say the least, and I've not really had a good reason to return. Most of the aisles were devoid of personnel and there weren't many customers. I was kind of sniffing around for a new laptop at the time, and even though I knew I'd probably end up buying from Amazon or TigerDirect, I felt obligated to kick some tires.

According to the Forbes article, that's part of the problem. Best Buy is turning into a showroom for Amazon. If I were to guess at it, I'd say lots of the so-called "bricks and mortar" stores are in that same boat... hence the demise of Circuit City, Borders, and numerous others. Even the strange Sears / KMart amalgamation is on life support (as if the merger itself weren't enough of a clue).

I'm tempted to say Wal-Mart is untouchable, but I once would have said the same about GM, which needed a healthy shot in the arm from Uncle Sam to stay afloat. And Sears, which has been around for well over a hundred years and was once the biggest retailer in America, now having to team up with KMart, is a pretty good sign that retail fundamentals are changing on a fairly large scale. The Sears Roebuck catalog can once again be used as toilet paper, it seems.

Another part of the problem in Best Buy's case? My experience again matched what was highlighted in the article; specifically, despite me being a customer with cash to spend and who could have been persuaded to do so, no one even gave it a shot. The laptop section had one other customer besides myself, while the desktop section had tumbleweeds blowing down the aisle. In the center of the store, people circled around the tablets and poked at them curiously, while the sales staff popped through every once in awhile to see if anyone had any questions. No one did — in fact, everyone seemed annoyed at the entire process (sales staff included). I've got to assume no one was interested in selling laptops at all, because nobody even ventured in my direction. Low commissions, perhaps, or maybe a push from above to move tablets and don't worry about anything else.

I could get better service without leaving my own house, I can research specs and reviews for hours without them being tainted by someone earning a commission, I can dig around and find the absolute lowest possible price, and I can ring up my own order — and, I can have it delivered directly to my front door.

This trend is accelerating, so Wal-Mart may indeed be the biggest electronics retailer with a physical location before long. If things continue like this, they may be the last physical retailer left.

I've been trying to remember what the younger version of myself thought adult life would be like. I think what prompted this was a certain person in this house informing me she would be out on her own in three years, living in her own place, and fairly independent. And I do know for a fact that I had those same thoughts, if not at that age, then slightly younger.

Ha. It took a bit longer than that, and a certain bit of "glamor" I thought might be present typically isn't, but yeah, I got there.

Here's an example of that complete lack of glamor. Right now, I'm sitting in the laundry room monitoring the washing machine, watching for a reported "it's not spinning" problem. I'm doing this because a) we need clean clothes, b) the washer is the best means we have to make that happen, c) the machine is at least ten years old and thus could theoretically go at any time, and d) if there's a problem, it needs to be addressed pretty quickly given a) and b). These are facts, nothing glamorous about them; and no romanticizing about it "being my own place" will change them one iota.

A lot of the time, life is largely logistics and problem management.

I worked half the day today, the latter half, because Charleston's first decent snowstorm of the season blasted through yesterday. It left the hill at the top of the neighborhood impassable in the morning. I ended up working while at home too, SpongeBob blaring away and the kids going wild while I wrote a new module of code and uploaded it. Yes, I enjoyed doing it, but that's beside the point. Ultimately, it just needed to be done and I was the guy to do it.

This evening, after staying late to make sure I did indeed get in that half day (to conserve vacation days for when they're actually going to be used for their namesake), I came home to a round of evening chores — guide the kids in the direction they needed to go (a bit easier than usual with it being a snow day), get some bread started, chase the cat out of the kitchen garbage a few times (which went on most of yesterday evening too), give up and take said garbage to the can outside because the cat is damned persistent, and fiddle with the aforementioned washer.

And tomorrow, unless the snow flares up again, it's back to school for everyone, back to a full day of work, the usual rhythm and grind.

I don't think the younger version of myself saw any of this. I suspect the vision was a little more fantastic. While fantastic this is not, it could be a hell of a lot worse. I've lived that life too, had four dollars to my name and an empty cupboard and rent to pay. Even with that, compared with much of the world, better to be a poor man in America, right? Maybe being a working class hero isn't too bad.

The washer, by the way, appears to be fine.

A few days ago, slowmoto bestowed upon me the Kreativ Blogger award. Cool — I've got it displayed prominently over in the recent comments sidebar. According to her post about the award, the criteria for winning involve passing it on to at least six others and revealing ten (possibly unknown) things about yourself. Sounds suspiciously like a chain letter, he harrumphed.

Anyway.

The scientist in me just had to know the real deal. A quick trip to Google indeed reveals that the rules for this award vary quite a bit depending on who is awarding it — and, perhaps, on who is receiving it. And, it looks like it's been circulating around the Intertubes since at least 2008, having started in Norway with Hulda Husfrue who does crafty stuff and likes pink, delicate, flowery things.

I am not, for the record, a pink, delicate, flowery kind of guy, he harrumphed. But like I said, anyway.

In the English translation, Hulda says:

I share this award with 4 creative bloggers who I often visit. You 4 have again split it out to the 4 new, etc, so there are many get this to decorate his blog with, if they want. :-) It is nice if you justify why you think this person is a creative blogger, when you disclose it. :)

Special thanks to slowmoto for reading, sharing, and caring. And thanks by proxy to everyone who's altered this award over the years. With utmost respect, I'm resetting this thing and restoring Hulda's intent. Here are four creative blogs worth a look (and in case you feel neglected, keep in mind this isn't a contest, and there are lots of honorable mentions):

• Daisybones. Words, art across multiple media, and lifestyle — this girl has got it going on in areas I can only dream about.
• s.m.ART. Art and words and occasional music. Sharon Lyn's style is a cool breeze on a hot day.
• Don't Print This. If I had an attention span which could maintain a continuous narrative over a period of weeks, my only hope would be that it reads this well.
• Panic Blog. Sure, it's corporate, and it's Apple stuff. But dammit, it's pretty.

While I'm at it — it seems like more and more people with blogs are dropping them, or posting furtive farewells, coming back for a few quick updates, then leaving without further comment for months or years at a time. It seems like there's a lot of noise out there in general, absolute media saturation, amidst shorter and shorter attention spans. So for everyone who has stayed tuned in to the ramblings I post here, I just wanted to say thanks — I really appreciate the continued support.

Happy new year, everyone. Here's to an awesome 2012.

I got a shiny new tablet computer with a real keyboard, a Mazda RX-7, and a book on how to travel through time. As much as this sounds like Brad's fantasy Christmas, every word of it is true. Ok, the Mazda is a scale model, but hey. All things considered this was one of the best Christmases in recent memory.

Today is cleanup day. Tomorrow starts "Lull Week" and then 2012 is upon us, along with its big end of the world prediction. The disaster to befall us this time varies, but ranges from the end of the Mayan calendar (thus, by extension, the literal end of time) to a worldwide zombie apocalypse. I suspect we'll all wake up on December 22, 2012 and continue life as usual, but given the media hype this particular doomsday date has gotten over the years, it's going to be fun watching the inevitable circus which will develop.

The kids racked up this year, Andrew perhaps more than anyone. He expressed genuine shock — and relief — that he'd made it onto Santa's good list. I was certain this would be the last year the jolly old elf paid our house a visit, because Andrew just kept staying awake and hanging on. He finally gave in, though, and I quickly took care of business and then fell straight to sleep myself. It won't be much longer, maybe another year, two at the most. I'm not sure what I'll do with myself after that... it's been a pretty steady gig since 1996.

Funny story about how my brother made the discovery. I, of course, cut straight to the chase when I was in second grade — and got a very direct answer. I've sometimes theorized my fall from grace was a direct consequence of this event but that's a topic for another day. Anyway, I was in fifth grade, my brother was in first. Shortly after Thanksgiving that year, he came to me with a suspicious look in his eye. "Come out to the garage with me," he said. Whatever it was, his serious expression let me know it was something pretty damned important. So off we went. We stopped in front of Dad's workbench, and in front of it was an object about waist-high to my brother. It was covered up with an old bed sheet and blanket.

He stood there for a second and looked at me, waiting for a reaction. Then he lifted the bed sheet with a flourish. Underneath was a bicycle. "Is this your bike?" he asked. It wasn't, and I told him as much. "Well, it's not mine either. So whose is it?" I had no idea. We examined the bike for a little bit, finally deciding it was best to cover it back up and leave it alone for now. After a few days I forgot about it.

My brother did not, however, On Christmas morning, that same bike magically appeared under the tree. My brother said, "I found that bike in the garage! That means you guys are Santa Claus!" And with that, the jig was up. Dad's response was a classic Dad quote: "Well that's it, Christmas is over!" I didn't get that comment at the time, but I definitely do now.

Our efforts to stash gifts away aren't much better, and he's a pretty bright kid. It won't be long.

You may notice things look a little different around here. There are two reasons for this. First, since xhtml is pretty much a dead technology (and bless its distraught soul), I've decided to abandon it and fully switch over to html5. That's been a work in progress over the last few weeks and I officially made the change last night. Nothing fancy, at least not yet. But the framework for it is now in place.

Since I am a kind-hearted individual, I'm using some trickery so even older browsers can recognize this new-fangled stuff. Basically if you're on a computer ten years old or newer, you should be fine here. But if you're using Internet Explorer 6, I'm afraid I must kick you to the curb. You'll still be able to read everything, but it's going to look horrid — and I'm ok with that. Sorry. IE6 is also a dead technology. Even Microsoft thinks you should upgrade your browser to something more recent, and I agree. It's free and easy! There's no reason not to.

Second, since I needed to tidy a few things up as part of the migration process anyway, I thought I'd go ahead and slightly tweak the overall look. Again, nothing fancy. Back when I had — well, the "paper blog" — it was in a series of notebooks. Decorating them was fun and as much a part of the process as recording the days. Moving from one notebook to the next was an Event™, and I miss that whole process out here on the Internet. Hence, tweaks.

The most important change for me is the sidebars now look reasonable regardless of how wide your screen is. So even if you're running some crazy resolution like 3200x1200, they won't get stretched out into oblivion. There are numerous small changes too. If you never really notice them, that's fine; and I'm not going to sit and point every little thing out because that would be boring.

To celebrate, I hereby present a short YouTube clip done via an iframe (both easy and standards-compliant). Merry Christmas to me!