Well, it's Monday. After a (finally) nice weekend without hail and flood-level rains, its difficult to come back to work and sit in a cubicle, gazing outside to see the nice weather that continues, even though my weekend does not. But I made the most of the few days off that I had. Friday I went up to the harness race track up in Saratoga, lost some money, ate some funnel cakes, but most of all saw some fireworks with a good group of friends. I woke up early Saturday in preparation of the "Firecracker" 4-mile race that brought me right back up to Saratoga. It was a near-perfect day for a run, about 70 degrees and partly cloudy. Ran a good time and beat my goal that I had set for myself, then spent the rest of the morning watching a parade, looking at some classic cars, and just walking around 'Toga (as the locals say). I discovered why they call it Saratoga Springs (no, slinkies were not discovered there...dun dun chhhh), there are actually fresh water springs that are beneath the ground and get pumped up into these drinking water fountains that are in gazebos all around Congress Park. I believe there are a few different ones around the park, each spring named according to who discovered it, but I only came across one in particular. A sign next to this ever-flowing water fountain read "this spring water is known for its high carbonation, and alkaline and saline-flavored taste." And they weren't kidding. It tasted like seltzer saltwater that had a battery sitting in the bottom of it for years (the only description I could think of). I'm still not sure if it was safe to drink, but I made sure to watch someone do it before me and he seemed alright afterwards. This blog serves as documentation if I ever contract some life-threatening disease because of it. Still not sure if I can file suit against a body of water, but I'm looking into it.
In other completely unrelated and altogether random news, I got an e-mail today telling me that Microsoft Hohm is now online! I've been looking forward to this program for a couple weeks after I read about it in an article. Hohm addresses an interesting point. Every month, we search extensively through our cell phone bills that provides line-by-line documentation as to the costs of our plans, allowing us to see if we've gone over our minutes or sent too many text messages and forcing us to curb our usage the next month and save money. Yet looking through an energy bill, there is absolutely NO documentation whatsoever, other than a report of your kwH used. If energy companies, or consumers themselves, could provide that same line-by-line documentation as cell phone bills do, I'm willing to bet consumers would recognize how much energy is wasted each month and how they can curb their activities to reduce their energy bills. "If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it." Hohm is a free application in beta allows you to input different information about your household and it will actually calculate your energy usage and offer you up personalized suggestions based upon the information that you provide about your own home, tailored to you. Even cooler, if your energy provider has signed up to be one of Hohm's partners, you can upload your OWN energy usage data from your house. Check it out here: www.microsoft-hohm.com. Google also has a program in the works that has yet to be released called Google Power Meter which appears to have the same functions as Hohm. Check out Google's program here: http://www.google.org/powermeter/index.html.
Well, I'm off for a lunch-time run. The 15K Boilermaker's on Sunday, no rest for the weary.
Au revoir,
Justin
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