Clemson football has moved into the #10 spot in the AP Rankings and #11 in the USAToday Poll. After the Georgia Tech stomping, I’m glad to see them team continue to move up.
I’ve been to three of the four home games this year and they have all been great. The fan support has been wonderful and the team has been amazing this year.
I’m looking forward to the next three home games this season (and hopefully an ACC Championship and good bowl game).
My wife and I made a pledge earlier this year to only buy EnergyStar rated items. Our pledge mostly came from the realization that paying attention to how you spend your money can have a tremendous impact. There are a variety of companies and business practices that I don’t want to support. I usually don’t try and persuade others or play an activist role, I simply pay attention to where my dollars go.
As I watch companies continue to turn their heads and continuously purue cost savings, I’m hoping that the Longtail of consumerism can help save our planet and make it a world that future generations can enjoy. I’m not going complain about all of the bad things that are happening to the environment, but I am going to ask that you stop and think about putting your disposable income behind your beliefs. You don’t have to donate thousands of dollars every year to make a difference, you just neeed to look at where your money goes.
One simple example is the recent hype about using EnergyStar lightbulbs. It’s easy to justify the cost if you look at it from an economic-sense, but the value of reducing pollution (and helping everyone breathe better, and saving the beauty of West Virginia from mountain-top removal, and reducing carbon emissions, and so on) has a lasting impact. When a collective of individuals does this, the impact can be incredible.
So what can the impact of the lifetime of one light bulb be?
If you asked me, that’s worth well over the $6 or $7 for a good lightbulb (not to mention they look a hell of a lot cooler).
If you’re interested in learning more, check out the campaign material for the Change a Light, Change the World Campaign.
Since I haven’t posted much in a while, I thought I would throw up a couple of TIBs. I do have way more to say than usual and I’ll get around to posting again after I’m settled in to my new home and into my new job. In the meantime…
TIB #4: Passion matters (way more than anything else)
I’m not sure what more to say about this one. Regardless of experience, passion is the most important asset that you can have as an individual. Take your pick on where you can apply this one, it’s universal. There have been times that I have not been passionate about what I was doing and even though I may have been experienced and well-seasoned in the area, I was not as effective as the people who were truly passionate about what we were doing.
TIB #5: If you’re not passionate about something, don’t do it.
See above. It doesn’t work out well for anyone. Life is too short to spend your time doing shit that you don’t believe in. If your employer has a different view, find a different employer.
Well, it’s been a year and a half since I’ve been on my extended vacation in Colorado and it’s been amazing. I’ve had a wonderful time and seen some beautiful things here. I was able to snowboard almost every weekend for what seemed like an eternity and I was able to do some great hiking. I’ve been taking pictures along the way (over 1,000 photos since I’ve been here), and I thought that I’d post some links to some of the things I’ve seen and places that I’ve been over the past 18 months:
Snowboarding…
I had a pass to Breckenridge, Keystone, ABasin, Beaver Creek, and Vail. All of these mountains are great and they all have their own personalities. I spent most of time at Breck, but most of the locals seem to migrate more towards ABasin. My favorite scene would have to be Beaver Creek because the village is incredibly nice. Keystone is similar to a big version of Snowshoe Mtn. in West Virginia (where I’m from) with some great tree-skiing. ABasin is a great locals mountain with some historic parties in the parking lots (especially at the beginning and end of the season). Vail is exactly what you’d picture. I didn’t really like Vail unless there was powder in the back bowls (Feb/March).
Hiking…
I lived extremely close to hundreds of miles of hiking trails and a short drive from some incredible summits. Some of the local hiking included Three Sisters Park, Chicago Lakes (in the Mt. Evans Wilderness Area), Elk Meadow (across the street from my place), Matthews Winters Park, Maxwell Falls, Mt. Falcon, Rocky Mountain National Park, Lair O’ the Bear, and Chautauqua Park.
The summits that I enjoyed included Square Top, South Boulder Peak, Mount Sniktau, Mount Sanitas, Mount Evans (we only drove to the top), Mount Democrat, Mount Bierstadt, Green Mountain (the one in Boulder), Chief Mountain, Bergen Peak, and Bear Peak. The 14ers (Evans, Bierstadt, and Democrat) are always busy because they are all close to Denver, but the experience of hiking to the summit is still exciting with all of the people around. The 13ers (Square Top and Sniktau) are always less crowded and tend to have views that are just as beautiful. The summits in Boulder are at much lower elevations but the vibe on the Boulder hikes is always good and I love being able to let Kaya (my dog) off the leash in Boulder county.
Locations…
Evergreen (where I lived) was a great town during the day, but there’s not much going on after the sun goes down. We’d have to drive at least 15 minutes to get a coffee after 8:00pm. There is great hiking and mountain biking in Evergreen. To be fair, there are some good saloons, but the saloon-scene really isn’t my thing.
Denver is a pretty nice city. Good nightlife, decent food (it’s either hit or miss), and tons of various activities throughout the week and weekends. The airport is nice, but the flights are expensive and it takes a lot of time to get to your gate from the parking areas. If you’re in town, try and catch a show at Red Rocks, it’s the best venue I’ve ever seen.
Boulder is incredible. I can’t say enought about the area and the people. Location-wise, I will miss Boulder the most. The outdoor activities in Boulder are the best I’ve ever seen and the people are very friendly. The cost-of-living in Boulder is high, but that is about the only downside.
As far as the mountain towns go, most are exactly what you’d expect. My favorite town is Aspen (by a long-shot). As far as the other towns go, Idaho Springs (be sure to visit Tommy Knockers for the best beer on the planet) and Georgetown are both pretty cool towns to kick back after a long day of playing in the mountains.
Well, today started out really well until I walked up to the America West ticket counter. I can’t even begin to tell you the things I’ve seen, the lack of quality service, the lack of organization, and the mis-communication that has occurred between the staff, operations, and information systems of America West / US Airways. Overall, I’ve handled it pretty well (considering I’ve been standing in lines since 9:30pm, it’s now 5:19am, and I’m on the west coast instead of the east coast).
Rather than rant about all of the things that I’ve seen over the past day (which ultimately led me to wrong side of the country and has me blogging from a terminal full of angry and tired ex-customers ), I just want to warn everyone about flying America West / US Airways unless it is a last resort. I’ve spent a lot of time traveling and I am a very patient individual, but I have never seen an airline like this before.
On the upside, I’ve heard some interesting stories in the late hours here in the terminal. I’ve talked to multiple individuals that are coming home or on their way to Iraq. I listened to an older gentleman from Turkey tell me about his alcoholic father and how he has been stuck in the terminal for two days after losing his papers. I’ve talked to a few roadies that missed their connection to meet the band for the beginning of their tour. And I talked to an individual that told me about his religious evolution since being shot twice.
It may have not been a comfortable trip, but it sure was interesting.
A while ago, Tom Peters wrote the This I Belive! manifesto when he turned 60. Tom’s TIBs include 60 thoughts that combine to capture his professional / personal journey. This was one of my favorite ChangeThis manifestos and when I turned 30 a couple of weeks ago, I decided that I would compile a list of 30 TIBs in the spirit of Tom’s manifesto.
Going through this exercise (I’m not done yet) has been one of the coolest things that I’ve done in a long time. I would encourage everyone out there to go through this at sometime and compile a list of the things that they fully believe. My TIBs include both personal and professional insights and it’s been an extremely fun process so far.
Hi. I'm Ben Carey and this is my blog. I write about a wide variety of things that I'm interested in.
