I have been reading a lot of articles from various sources such as “The Daily Green“, “Yahoo Green” and “Lime” and have implemented some of their suggestions on how to reduce my consumption of harmful chemicals and output of CO2. The term “Green Thumb” now has two meanings:

1. Having the ability to properly grow and nurture plants
2. Having the knowledge to affectively improve the environment by utilizing any “green” means to reduce the consumption of energy, harmful chemicals and reduce the output of CO2.

Don’t look at me at as a tree-hugging, hemp-wearing hippie, Global Warming is the end of the Earth type of person as that’s not who I am. I humbly believe that the amount of energy, CO2 emissions, etc are not causing the Earth’s warming period; it’s exactly that, a warming period. During the medieval period Europe experienced a rise in temperature that actually allowed England to cultivate certain foods such as Grapes which was then made into wine that they previously were not able to due to the cool weather. Shortly after the warming period the temperatures dropped drastically which is referred to as the “Mini ice age”. When my parents were growing up in Maine they experienced snow storms that I have never seen myself, snow levels that literally would reach the top of a house and telephone poles. I know that from what has been proven by scientists, history and the Bible that what we are experiencing is just that, a heightened warming period. Nowhere in the Bible does it state that the Earth is going to be vanquished of its natural resources expect during the Tribulation where God destroys much of the Earth’s resources by natural and supernatural means.

With all of that said, I still think that it is wise to lessen the consumption of energy, CO2 emissions, use of harmful toxins, to recycle and to preserve as much of God’s Creation as possible. Being a technically minded person I am always trying to improve code and design it to be more efficient. Right now I live in an apartment but I am considering purchasing a house in the near future for multiple reasons which has got me thinking how I can better the environment and save myself money by conserving. Some of the steps I have taken to reduce and conserve are:

• Replaced all incandescent lights with CFL bulbs
  • reduced CO2 emissions
  • conserve energy by using less electricity at the same time outputting the same or more lumes (in my small apartment I save anywhere from $5-$10 a month)
• Use non-toxin cleaners such as baking soda, vinegar, water, tea tree oil
• Recycle
• Unplug un-used appliances such as chargers, blenders, etc
• Replaced my work water bottle with a SIGG aluminum bottle that does not release any toxins into it’s contents (thank you Robin)

Some of the things that I have planned for the house are very simple and are cost effective to implement:

• Replacing and or purchasing green linens and bed sheets
• Purchase GE Energy Star and Energy Efficient appliances that reduce the consumption of power and water
• Replace water facets (sink and shower) with LoFlow heads and motion-sensor detection
• Install bamboo wood flooring instead of wood along with using recycled underlayment
• Time controlled thermostat
• More insulation in the attic (recycled)

My blog entries have been scare lately due to a number of factors, I’ve been working on re-designing my web page, working on clients web sites and studying for my MCDST.

I have recently updated the sites theme and underlying code to improve performance, XHTML validity and most importantly optimizations for search engines.

A few changes I made for SEO are as follows:

• htaccess 301 redirect from old file name structures to new file name structures
• htaccess mod_rewrite php to html
• tweaked meta tags
• tweaked titles
• tweaked H tag hierarchy
• tweaked alt and title tags

Campus Crusade for Christ has been in session for the past two weeks, the format and overall layout is much different than last semester. We have moved from a stadium classroom to an open area cafeteria where students eat and study- this will allow us to expose CCC to people that would normally not visit if walking by a classroom.

While shopping at the local Hannaford grocery store, I was browsing the fruit section in search of ingredients for fruit cocktail when I came across an unusual looking fruit native to Africa named Horned Melon. What caught my eye was the orange skin with large spikes protruding outwards, I proceeded to pick it up and to my surprise the spikes actually punctured my skin. Intrigued by this fruit I decided to purchase it as I enjoy testing new foods-unless it’s uncooked meat or smells bad. The inside of the fruit is bright green, similar to Kiwi and to my conjecture it tasted similar to Kiwi mixed with Cucumber, the texture was much different though- it consisted of smoothly covered bubbles, similar to a late soft-drink by the name Orbitz.

I read an article on Yahoo! that sparked my interest about CFL reveal light bulbs by GE, the article explained on how these bulbs do not emit as much greenhouse gas and cuts more than half the wattage of a normal incandescent light bulb and yet emit more natural light luminous. I replaced every bulb in the apartment and was shocked by how clear these lights are compared to the incandescent yellow lights. I also saw a kitchen light fixture that I thought would be an excellent replacement for the aging fixture currently in place and am now in the processes of wiring it to the junction box.