Monday, February 15, 2010

yogurt and metronomes

Hi all. I've been told I need to keep blogging. This despite feeling like I don't have much to say.

To follow up on the last post, yogurt-making attempt #4 was met with success! I haven't tried a fifth time yet, although I will need to do so soon because I am nearly out of yogurt. I think my biggest problem was incubating methods. For the successful attempt I used a cooler and I put a magic bag in the cooler with the yogurt both at the beginning and halfway though, after re-heating. I have also become much more confident in the heating and cooling process of the milk, which is speeding everything up overall. The first few times I did it I was so cautious it was taking me ages to bring the milk up to just below boiling and then to cool it down, and I was spending the entire time staring anxiously at the thermometer, checking if it was ready. But now I've got a much surer sense of when it's ready, so I just blast the heat on it, and then cool it in an ice bath. This makes the process is in general much less involved. Which only means that I am much more likely to actually go through with from time to time. Which means less plastic! Yay!

In other news, I had a terrible lapse of plastic-free consciousness the other day. I bought a metronome at a music store. Now, not only was the metronome made of plastic, but it was also (of course) WRAPPED in plastic. It honestly didn't even occur to me until I was out the store and halfway home, I was just so lost in all the beautiful instruments in the store, and focused on this idea of getting a metronome. Completely did not think it through.

I'm not sure I have the strength of conviction to keep this up. Some things have turned out to be fairly easy, like not buying food in plastic (except for cheese, I'm still buying cheese for now. But I think I may have found a good cheese supply that I will be able to get without plastic! Must go to the next farmer's market in two weeks to find out), but honestly, in order to find a metronome without plastic I'm pretty certain I would have had to really search... and it definitely wouldn't have done all the cool stuff this one did! Of course, I could possibly have found one second hand. But I didn't. Oh well.

I think that's about it for updates. I went to a conference this week and was worried I would have to be careful to avoid plastic there, but everything was already pretty plastic-free. They didn't use any disposable dishes or cutlery, and the only plastic that escaped my notice was the hanging name tag they gave me.

4 comments:

  1. hey! I had a random question. I was watching a pretty depressing documentary "the age of stupid" and I thought randomly about my toothbrush (I have an electric one I got for xmas...) How/Have you gotten around toothbrush and toothpaste? I can look around myself but I was just thinking about how many toothbrushes I throw out etc.

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  2. ah yes, excellent question my friend!

    actually, i haven't gotten around that one yet. it's a transition/process thing, adn i still have a toothbrush (also electric! I LOVE that thing!). Until I need to replace it I think I'll just keep using it. Now, when I need to replace it, I will probably consult with Fake Plastic Fish or Life Less Plastic (see my links) because they have both been doing this much longer than I have and have all manner of things like this figured out. Sorry I couldn't be more help! Maybe I'll go investigate their blogs tomorrow and see if I can find what they do... if I do I'll post a link here!

    I do know that one of them, I think it was Fake Plastic Fish, uses toothpaste that comes in a metal tube. I'll go look and find the link tomorrow.

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  3. No need to look. Fake Plastic Fish stays up all night and sees and hears all. :-) Just kidding. Not trying to freak you out. Saw your comment and my blog and thought I'd come by and say hi.

    I do use a plastic toothbrush, but it's a Preserve toothbrush which is made from recycled plastic and can be sent back to the company for further recycling when it's used up.

    I use Tom's of Maine toothpaste which comes in a metal tube. While the threads and cap are plastic (and therefore end up in my plastic tally) the tube itself can be sent back to Tom's for recycling.

    One way I reduce my plastic consumption is to use way less toothpaste than I used to. I always thought you had to cover all the bristles on the toothbrush. Nope. Now I use less than a pea-sized amount. It's the brushing and flossing more than the toothpaste that do the job.

    Oh, and about floss... my floss is unfortunately nylon. But the container is made from cardboard. It's called Eco Dent.

    So funny about the metronome. Back when I was taking piano lessons (35-40 years ago!) I recall having a wooden metronome with a metal hand that swung back and forth. I don't think there was any plastic on it. I think maybe it was like one of these:

    http://shop.ebay.com/items/antique%20metronome?_dmd=1&_sop=2&rvr_id=&MT_ID=69&crlp=3694276625_9417&tt_encode=raw&geo_id=1&keyword=antique+metronome&adgroup_id=1617437255

    *Sigh* I'm only 45 years old, and it seems like everything I had as a kid is already an antique. When I show younger people my metal safety razor, they look at me like I'm from the stone ages.

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  4. Thanks Beth!

    I'm very curious about this metal safety razor. You've mentioned it before, do you have any pictures on your blog, I wonder? I'm guessing you probably do.

    Thanks for staying up late!

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