Businesses supplied by green energy

While enjoying an organic mocha over the weekend, the cup told me that Mercury Coffee is a PSE Green Power Partner, receiving 100% of its power from green energy sources.

That's a load of crap - the power grid does not support energy segmentation or dedicated delivery from specific sources to specific customers.  So I looked it up.

When you give PSE money to call yourself a Green Power Partner, PSE uses the money to buy renewable energy certificates (RECs) from green energy providers on your behalf (with some lost to advertising and administerion of the program).  These providers receive the certificates from the state as a proof that they produced energy from green sources.  Certificates are only given to facilities produced after 01/01/1997 so that providers are not rewarded for energy created from processes that existed before the REC system existed.  The energy produced by these facilities is sold separately, just as it is from any power plant.

What does this mean? 

From the provider's point of view, these certificates basically increase the price of electricity produced by green power plants, incentivizing them to create the plants.  The price of these certificates is based on supply and demand - the more people who want to buy them, the more they cost, and the more the providers are rewarded for their energy.  When you buy an REC, you are giving money directly to the green energy providers as a thank you for producing clean energy.

According to Dominion energy, you are "buying the right to claim the environmental benefits that were created by adding that renewable energy to the grid."  So, you're not directly helping the environment, you are purchasing the right to claim you are helping the environment, and participating in a system that gives people the incentive to produce cleaner energy.

What happens to the RECs after you give money to PSE to buy them?  PSE will have a stockpile of RECs that they own.  If they can sell the RECs at a later date, your purchase is useless.  In some states, RECs expire, which alleviates the problems.  Although not explicitly stated, it sounds like if the REC is registered with Green-e (82% of the market), only the first sales is authorized.

I started looking into this assuming that it was a crock.  But it seems legitimate.  I might just have to celebrate with a cup of coffee.

Water and Ice

I took this photo a few months back after an afternoon of wake boarding.

I took it for a few reasons:

• To fill the family foot album
• To remind myself how great water and alcohol mix
• So this post would have a photo

Ontario has very strict boating laws when it comes to alcohol.  You cannot carry alcohol or even have bottle caps in your boat unless the boat has sleeping quarters and a galley, and no alcohol can be consumed unless your boat, which has sleeping quarters and a galley, is anchored or tied to a dock.  You cannot even display alcohol near your boat, such as on the dock, if your boat does not fit this criteria.

So I grew up without even considering the possibility of drinking on the water.  My mind was opened when my American coworkers considered it a necessity.  I gave in.  I brought Smirnoff Ice (from Canada; the malt version here is inferior).  And I relaxed.

Ontarians, you are missing out.  There is something so relaxing about leaving work early, being warmed by the sun, sitting back, riding above the waves, and drinking a Smirnoff Ice.  I can see why people get hooked on boats.  And in that moment of tranquility with the wind blowing past my face, the sun setting, and the music pumping, its easy to realize how great life is.  I took a break from this feeling to take the photo and got straight back to it.

Related to my last post, life is great when you live in the moment.

Also related to my last post, my wife is funny.

I gave her one week to finish what was left of my mom's famous raspberry jam.  Two days pass and the jar remains in the fridge.  Four days pass and it's still there.  Eight days pass and it's still there.  Excited that I had another opportunity to enjoy the jam but still responsible enough to warn my wife, I informed her that I was about to finish the jam if she would not.  She replied that it's already gone.

She continued.  She finished it a week earlier, but didn't want to crush my dreams.  If she put it on the counter or in the sink, I'd see it and be disappointed that it's gone.  But if she left it in the fridge, I'd increasingly get my hopes up all week and then be surprised when I try to eat it.  Then she laughed for a few minutes at her trickery.  Well played, dear.  Well played.

Strawberry on the Shortcake

My wife got a little anxious today when she saw that my mom's raspberry jam was almost gone.  I've been eating it slowly for the past month while she was apparently "saving it."  Now there's about one medium-sized spoonful left, and she wants me to promise that I'll leave it for her.

But I can't do that.  It's the french pastry episode all over again, only this time I'm wiser.  I know that I'll eventually eat the jam; it's just too delicious.  We compromised by giving her a week - if it's not gone in seven days, I will most likely finish it.

The french pastry episode was the first such occasion.  On a trip to Paris, my wife took me to many pastry restaurants, as she's a bit food crazy.  But there was one in particular.  I ordered the best chocolate desert that exists on the planet.  It wasn't just better than the previous best by a little, it was exceptional.  My wife asked for some and I offered her a bite, but she declined; she wanted to wait until she finished her pastry so that her final bite would be perfect.  I replied that this was dangerous, then immediately forgot about the exchange, lost in a haze of chocolaty bliss, and proceeded to eat the entire cake.

And my wife got upset.  After a few years the topic comes up every now and again, though the sting has waned.

So the question is, are you happier when you save the best bite for last and have hope for the future, or are you happier when you enjoy what's in front of you, when you chose to enjoy the present moment?  This is precisely the question posed, quite eloquently and over many episodes, in the Japanese drama Strawberry on the Shortcake, which is, incidentally, my favorite TV drama of all time, though I can't say how well it's aged in 10 years.  The happy characters in the drama eat the strawberry first, and the main character chooses to save it for the end.

My wife saves it for last.  I typically eat half first and the rest at the end, or eat it all at the beginning if that's too much work.  My friends notice that I exhibit the same pattern at buffets - I'll grab desert with my first run of food, then go back for more food and desert, followed by a third round of desert if I can fit it in.

In SOS, the metaphor was clear - people who eat the strawberry first are the extroverts who enjoy life; people who eat it last are the introverts who wish they had more fun.  I guess I'm both.  I don't have to guess - I am both.  A university friend of mine confirmed this.  Liv was a psych major and surreptitiously gave me a psychological test.  The end result showed that I was both introverted and extroverted - not somewhere in between, mind you - I lived at both ends of the spectrum.

While SOS leans one way, the marshmallow study shows that kids who delay gratification go on to have more "successful" lives.  Maybe there is no definite answer to the strawberry question, but I suspect that it's better to be somewhere in between, or live happily at both ends, with some very good raspberry jam.

Tying your shoes

Sound interesting?  Probably not.  But you too may be a victim of incorrect shoe tying.

It started with the shoes I bought for my dad's second wedding.  The thick laces always looked crooked when tied.  One day a few years ago I sat down to solve the problem and discovered another way to tie my shoes - pushing to loop up instead of down made all the difference.  Plus, the knot was tighter.

My wife laughed at me when I told her the story but it turns out that a lot of people get it wrong.  (the last link is from Sesame Street))

And yesterday I saw a TED talk on the same topic.

Two things:
1. Some dumb things really aren't; and
2. I could have given a TED talk.

Before writing this post I tested it out on a friend and it turned out he was doing it wrong his whole life, which required him to double knot.

Who's laughing now?

Probably you.  At me.  I'm okay with that.

Raspberry Jam Smackdown: Resurrection

We have a new contender in The Great Raspberry Jam Eat-Off of 2012.

My mom, after reading the previous post, was both intrigued by the possibility of making jam without pectin and the prospect of winning a cooking challenge.  Greaves Jam, as I'm sure you recall, did not list pectin in the ingredients list but I assumed it was included.  As it turns out, jam can be made pectin-free, which translates to less sugar and much more finickiness in the cooking process.

Mom entered the contest.  And things just got interesting.

So let's have a look at our new contender and Greaves, the undisputed winner of our last round:

Greaves	Sugar Raspberries (I assume it has pectin)
Mommy-san's	Sugar Raspberries (order assumed as there was no label)

From last time, we judged the jams on the following factors:

• Aroma
• Taste
• Consistency
• Sweetness
• Raspberriness
• Existence of little bits

And here's how it turned out.

Greaves	Light aroma A little sweet Good consistency Rich raspberry taste Has bits	Wife: Good Me: Good
Mommy-san's	Almost no aroma Good color A little thick Extra rich raspberry taste Lots of bits Perfect sweetness No label	Wife: Good Me: Great

Mommy-san's is the only jam that wasn't too sweet for me.  The first taste that hits your tongue upon eating Greaves is sweetness, and the raspberries come later.  With Mommy-san, the raspberries come first, and they linger wonderfully.  My wife likes the punchiness of Greaves' taste, though I find it a little fake on account of the sweetness.  My hat tips towards Greaves for aroma, little bits (M-san has a bit too many), and consistency.

Wife's ranking: Greaves, and almost tied, M-san's, with a big gap before the other 5.
My ranking: M-san's, Greaves 'cause it just tasted so much better.

On average, I'd have to give a slight victory to Mommy-san's, or at least that would have been the verdict had my mom not warned me about hers becoming thinker when cold.

So in the fridge they went.

And two days later, a retest.  Same great taste but much thicker - unfortunately unspreadable.

With the unexpected new post-refridgerated spreadiness factor, Greaves wins slightly.  Sorry, mom.  I will accept further entries in the future, if you are so inclined.

The Digital Life, Temporarily Lived

People the world over harp on the greatness of smart phones in their lives - they live a life augmented by the digital and love it.  Those who love it too much claim they are addicted.  These people read more web pages, see more maps, read more reviews, and are more connected to their digital friends.

I'm very much on the other end of the spectrum.  I like my world to be tangible.  I find the real world much more interesting than 140 character brain excretions, and I think subways are far more fun than the facebook updates that seem to engage other riders.  My phone makes phone calls and my present companion typically gets my attention.

I also like my world to be explorable and surprising.  I don't need to find the best restaurant, see the best movie, take the most direct route, or know that it is exactly 23°C somewhere close to where I am right now.

So, in a recent trip to Korea, I tried out how the other half live.  I brought an iPhone on my vacation, loaded with friend restaurant recommendations, friend attraction recommendations, maps, weather, email, facebook, games, and Korean language references.  I did not have 3G coverage so I only had internet connectivity at coffee shops and such, but I was ready to see life augmented by others.

Here was my routine.

1. Each day my wife and I planned on going somewhere from the list of restaurants and attractions.  My friend Ferdinand is quite picky about food so we could trust his recommendations.  Throughout the day I would look at this list to remember where we should go.  At the hotel, I would search for the restaurants (if named) so I could see them on a map.  When walking to the restaurant, I would consult the map to see if we were on track.
2. At restaurants and interesting places I would mark the GPS location in Life Map to create a map of our trip.  I would often also check for free wireless access and try to connect to refresh web pages or check email; this rarely worked.
3. When my wife was doing something that didn't involve me, I would try to check work email.  I didn't trust my personal email account since I don't know if the gmail app uses HTTPS.  I was unable to determine this via search.
4. On the subway I would look at Life Map to see where we've been.  I would also follow cached online lessons to learn to read Korean.
5. Since most of our destinations were marked on tourist maps, I used 3D Compass Max to find out how follow the map upon exiting the subway.  I did notice two subway map installations in downtown Seoul had mislabeled compass directions.
6. I added items to my books-to-read and bring-when-travelling lists whenever I came across something interesting.
7. When taking photos, I used either the phone or my real camera.
8. When time was important, I used the phone as a clock.  In the hotel I used it as an alarm clock, though there was probably one in the room.

I felt compelled to check for wifi signals often, like the phone was beckoning me to try, just one more time, just one more wireless access point.  I didn't feel compelled to read work email, but I did it anyway when I had a few minutes alone.  I did not play any games and did not access Facebook.  I checked the weather a few times, but it was far less accurate than just looking at the sky.

The restaurants from Ferdinand's list were generally good, often very much so.  When walking to the restaurants I was more concerned with following the map than noticing the city.  I was more concerned with finding the right restaurants than finding ones that looked interesting, though they usually were.  At the rice museum I had plum tea, just as Ferdinand did, even though the pumpkin latte sounded more appealing.  As it turns out, my wife ordered the pumping latte, which was not great, while the plum tea was wonderful.

The ultimate question then is whether the phone made my vacation more enjoyable.

Honestly, I didn't particularly like the end result.  I don't enjoy the feeling of an inanimate object controlling my actions - it had too much influence and I can see how people become addicted.  At no point did I have any love for the phone - people who do are crazy.  I, instead, felt a certain slave to my own devices.

I did appreciate having a compass at the ready.  The clock and alarm clock were helpful.  Carrying a small camera was a huge bonus.  Being able to add to my lists was good.  And learning to read Korean was both valuable and rewarding.   It looks like I appreciated many of the things I used the phone for but not the overall experience.  How can this be?

The distinction is dependency.  I prefer to decide when to use my tools rather than them deciding when they need my attention.  Accessing restaurant information required me to check for wifi at coffee shops.  Keeping a Life Map log required me to check-in at interesting places.  Since the phone is made of glass, both front and back(!), I had to give constant care to make sure it didn't get scratched, with no keys or coins in the same pocket and certainly no dropping it.  This also adequately explains my dislike of Twitter, Facebook, politics, and the news, where maintaining relevance requires constant attention - my artificial technological being (geographical log, digital friend connection, knowledge of future weather, current events or "issues") will shrivel if I don't stroke it every once in a while - there is an urgency that the technology tries to impart on my life.

Then the distinction between myself and others is in the belief in the value of these intangible things.  The iPhone is targeted at people who think that visiting the best restaurants, following politics, knowing the most recent opinion of friends, knowing the current temperature, and understanding the current media issues are valuable in and of themselves.  I say the time spent cultivating these things could be better spent daydreaming or calculating pi, perhaps while enjoying a plum tea.

Better Coffee

Adversity certainly breeds creativity.  I may have brewed the best mocha pot mocha in existence.

Coming back form Korea, I came home to a woefully milkless house (or more correctly, a house with some likely spoiled goat's milk).  I didn't remember this in the morning (at 5:00am) as I made a necessary cup of coffee.  We did, however, have evaporated milk.  I can't claim this is better than the best espresso based mocha, but I haven't had better coffee from the mocha pot.

Here's the recipe:
1. Grid some fresh organic chocolate-themed Cafe Vita Theo blend coffee beans using a burr grinder at medium grain.
2. Boil water using an electronic kettle.  This is better than boiling it in the mocha pot, as the extended time on the stove can burn the coffee or leave a slightly metallic taste.
3. Add Ghiradelli semi sweet chocolate chips to a coffee mug. This is a little sweeter than the 60% cocoa chips I usually use.
4. Fill the mocha pot with boiling water.  Cover the chocolate chips with a little boiling water to melt them.
5. Add coffee grounds and place on the stove, medium heat.  Leave the mocha pot lid open so you can observe the coffee progress.
6. As the coffee is brewing - it'll take about a minute - stir melted chocolate and add evaporated milk to the wet chocolate chips.  This is now like smooth milk.  Heat this in a microwave (you should have one!) for 45 seconds.  Stir again.
7. When the coffee is honey colored, it is almost done.  Close the lid and remove from heat.  Let it sit for about 15 more seconds then pour into the chocolate milk.
8. Stir and Enjoy.

Of course, the next day we were out of the semi sweet chocolate chips so I used 60% cocoa.  It wasn't sweet enough so I added marshmallows.  I also let the coffee sit for 45 seconds instead of 15 and it was a little burned.  Don't fall into either of these traps.