2022 Annual Review

Community, Electricity, Indoor Gardening, Outdoor Gardening, Thoughts, Transportation

Another year has passed, so it’s time for the 2022 annual review. This is an opportunity for me to reflect on successes and learning opportunities over the year. It’s also an excellent opportunity to look forward to 2023 and set new goals. Of course, I...

Smart Home: Why create one?

Smart Home, Thoughts

Smart homes are all the rage right now. From voice assistants to TVs, bulbs to switches, outlets to locks, motion detectors to vacuum cleaners… The list of smart devices on the market seems neverending. While the voice assistants from the big chains often draw...

Downsized: Single-Family Home to Apartment

Thoughts, Utility Tracking

This past May, my family and I downsized from a detached single-family house to an apartment townhouse. We were able to cash in before the housing market began to come back from the stratosphere, clear out all our debts, and move into something that would allow us the...

Victory Through Experimentation

Indoor Gardening, Thoughts

It’s a little over a year since I picked up an Aerogarden and began growing with a simple hydroponics system. Since then, I’ve had some seeds that failed to grow, some that ended up being strangled out, and some that were so incredibly successful that I...

Failed: 2022 Outdoor Gardening Round-up

Outdoor Gardening, Thoughts

To say my outdoor garden failed this past year is a bit of an understatement. Other than a small handful of cherry tomatoes and an equally small handful of super sweet strawberries no larger than my thumbnail, I wasn’t able to get anything edible. I was able to...

Review: Solarise Con 2022

Events, Thoughts

Solarise Con 2022 live-streamed on both PeerTube and Youtube last week, and I was quick to promise a brief review of the panels. As mentioned in my preview, four panels are devoted to different topics: tech, renewable power, aesthetics, and narratives. As previously...

Solarise Con 2022 – Event Preview

Events, Thoughts

This upcoming weekend is Solarise Con 2022 (register here). Described as “A day of global conversation on Solarpunk, a movement and a subgenre of speculative fiction in which humanity has addressed climate change.” There are four panels, complete with...

Give it Away

Indoor Gardening, Outdoor Gardening, Thoughts

Hydroponics My primary Thai Chillies bush is down to less than a dozen chillies, all of them unripened. At one point I had three or four dozen ready to go, so I decided to give them to other people to enjoy. I shared them with a handful of folk, and word spread....

Growing Up and Out

Indoor Gardening, Thoughts

It’s been a little while since I’ve provided an update. I’ve been tied up with school, work, and packing up my house to move. As a result, I’ll be spreading the posts out a little more than I originally hoped. On the bright side, I’ve...

A Sprout Indoors: At 14-Days

Indoor Gardening, Thoughts

It’s been 14-days since I started planting indoors using traditional soil. I put down three hot chillies, three bell peppers, two spinach, three iceberg lettuce, and six white onions. With daily watering and some minor rotation for the lighting, I’m...