Hey guys,
So good news and bad news. The good news is that I picked up a TA position for this quarter. The bad news is that I'm now totally overqualified to pick up cans even as a moonlighter.
I'm happy for the skills that I've learned over the last several months, as well as the issues around bottle bill legislation. For now, however, I'm going on hiatus. Should grad school not work out, I've got a pretty solid fall-back.
I may still occasionally post updates on my whereabouts or anything interesting I come across, and I'll do my best to get back to any emails.
Thanks for reading and take care!
-Charles
Friday, January 8, 2010
Sunday, November 22, 2009
auto-reply: out of office
Hey all,
I went to Santa Ynez for the weekend. The folks over at Island View Catering put on a delicious pre-Thanksgiving party at the owners' ranch house. These guys know their food. If you're in Santa Barbara County, I strongly recommend! (Full disclosure: I received no compensation, monetary or otherwise, for my review and/or endorsement)
While I was at the ranch I collected a bunch of cans, but the goat ate them all:
This week I'm traveling to the proud state of New Jersey, another state sans bottle bill. I suppose that I could save them up and bring them back to California, but that might get me in trouble. I guess I'll just have to wait until I'm in California.
Have a good thanksgiving! Try to recycle what you can, no matter where you're at!
-Charles
P.S.: No, goats don't really eat cans.
I went to Santa Ynez for the weekend. The folks over at Island View Catering put on a delicious pre-Thanksgiving party at the owners' ranch house. These guys know their food. If you're in Santa Barbara County, I strongly recommend! (Full disclosure: I received no compensation, monetary or otherwise, for my review and/or endorsement)
While I was at the ranch I collected a bunch of cans, but the goat ate them all:
This week I'm traveling to the proud state of New Jersey, another state sans bottle bill. I suppose that I could save them up and bring them back to California, but that might get me in trouble. I guess I'll just have to wait until I'm in California.
Have a good thanksgiving! Try to recycle what you can, no matter where you're at!
-Charles
P.S.: No, goats don't really eat cans.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Bunny Boy
Hey all,
So tonight I went out for a bit after finishing some of my Microeconomics problem set [if any of you ever did Bergstrom/Varian workouts as an undergrad, you'll be excited to know that Bergstrom is in fact my professor!].
So I cruised down DP, and actually stumbled across a Keystone Graveyard in between the beginning of DP and the end of Campus. Since cans are so easily collected here, it's a totally accepted behavior to just throw your empties onto your lawn. By the way, tomorrow is Veteran's Day, so there was a fair amount of celebration considering it was a Tuesday night. The cans smelled so grody that I actually left them outside for the night (see photo on the right). Just one of the reasons I try to steer towards plastic when I can.
Although my Alma Mater didn't celebrate Veteran's Day, I guess they take it seriously here. I don't have classes tomorrow, so I'll probably cash them in then.
Further on down on DP, the cans didn't come so easy. However, the night wasn't a total loss: I stumbled upon a film being shot right on the Del Playa shores. I wasn't able to go on set, but special thanks to Morgan for snapping some nice shots for me:
The film, "Bunny Boy", is currently in production and will be showing at the IV Theatre sometime in the Spring of 2010. Keep an eye out for it!
Good night, and thanks for reading!
-Charles
So tonight I went out for a bit after finishing some of my Microeconomics problem set [if any of you ever did Bergstrom/Varian workouts as an undergrad, you'll be excited to know that Bergstrom is in fact my professor!].
So I cruised down DP, and actually stumbled across a Keystone Graveyard in between the beginning of DP and the end of Campus. Since cans are so easily collected here, it's a totally accepted behavior to just throw your empties onto your lawn. By the way, tomorrow is Veteran's Day, so there was a fair amount of celebration considering it was a Tuesday night. The cans smelled so grody that I actually left them outside for the night (see photo on the right). Just one of the reasons I try to steer towards plastic when I can.
Although my Alma Mater didn't celebrate Veteran's Day, I guess they take it seriously here. I don't have classes tomorrow, so I'll probably cash them in then.
Further on down on DP, the cans didn't come so easy. However, the night wasn't a total loss: I stumbled upon a film being shot right on the Del Playa shores. I wasn't able to go on set, but special thanks to Morgan for snapping some nice shots for me:
The film, "Bunny Boy", is currently in production and will be showing at the IV Theatre sometime in the Spring of 2010. Keep an eye out for it!
Good night, and thanks for reading!
-Charles
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Midterms are over!
Hey all,
I just got back from collecting. In two hours I'm guessing I snagged about a buck's worth of aluminum and maybe $3 or $4 in plastic. I finished my last midterm this afternoon, so I figured I could take the night to hang out and get plastic. After an afternoon spent drinking on Goleta Beach, I set out.
While I pretty much stuck to the same spots there were several interesting things worth mentioning about my collecting tonight:
1. As I was biking through campus on my way to IV, I noticed a group of kids with what looked like swords and fencing gear:
Turns out they're a medieval fight re-enactment club, the Shire of the Isles. Unfortunately the show didn't last long, as practice was just ending as I got there :( With they're attention to form and strategy I can at least say that these guys were way more professional than some kids just running around playing make-belief.
2. I saw a raccoon that was the size of a small dog. I snapped pics, and even pursued on foot, but it seems raccoons are extremely un-photogenic. Oh well.
3. It appears that I got a low-level burn from handling bleach. It seems that one of the recycling bins had some discarded bottles of detergent in it. You can see a little white spot on my hand, in between my thumb and first finger. I took this right before I jumped in the shower to clean off:
I suppose it's just another on-the-job hazard and other than a bit of swelling I'm none worse for the wear.
On another note, last weekend was Halloween at UCSB. About 25,000 people ended up coming
from all over Cali to enjoy the Bacchanalia. I think I saw about a dozen Links, the cast of Mario-Kart, and enough sexy co-eds/librarians/schoolgirls to start a new UC campus. There was TV coverage, mounted police, and even these guys:
Although it might appear that this is just a dedicated team costume, they were actually paramedics on patrol in the case that someone fell off the cliffs over the ocean, or passed out in one of the unlit parks on Del Playa. Fortunately there were no deaths this year, and only a few hundred arrests. Can't wait until next year!
Alright that's all for now! Thanks for reading!
-Charles
I just got back from collecting. In two hours I'm guessing I snagged about a buck's worth of aluminum and maybe $3 or $4 in plastic. I finished my last midterm this afternoon, so I figured I could take the night to hang out and get plastic. After an afternoon spent drinking on Goleta Beach, I set out.
While I pretty much stuck to the same spots there were several interesting things worth mentioning about my collecting tonight:
1. As I was biking through campus on my way to IV, I noticed a group of kids with what looked like swords and fencing gear:
Turns out they're a medieval fight re-enactment club, the Shire of the Isles. Unfortunately the show didn't last long, as practice was just ending as I got there :( With they're attention to form and strategy I can at least say that these guys were way more professional than some kids just running around playing make-belief.
2. I saw a raccoon that was the size of a small dog. I snapped pics, and even pursued on foot, but it seems raccoons are extremely un-photogenic. Oh well.
3. It appears that I got a low-level burn from handling bleach. It seems that one of the recycling bins had some discarded bottles of detergent in it. You can see a little white spot on my hand, in between my thumb and first finger. I took this right before I jumped in the shower to clean off:
I suppose it's just another on-the-job hazard and other than a bit of swelling I'm none worse for the wear.
On another note, last weekend was Halloween at UCSB. About 25,000 people ended up coming
from all over Cali to enjoy the Bacchanalia. I think I saw about a dozen Links, the cast of Mario-Kart, and enough sexy co-eds/librarians/schoolgirls to start a new UC campus. There was TV coverage, mounted police, and even these guys:
Although it might appear that this is just a dedicated team costume, they were actually paramedics on patrol in the case that someone fell off the cliffs over the ocean, or passed out in one of the unlit parks on Del Playa. Fortunately there were no deaths this year, and only a few hundred arrests. Can't wait until next year!Alright that's all for now! Thanks for reading!
-Charles
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Judge not lest ye be judged
Hey all,
So I set another personal record today. I recycled my cans and took in just over $13. Even with crushing each can down, my poor bicycle may have reached its saturation point:
I would be worried about wear and tear, but bicycles tend to have a pretty short life at UCSB. Between drunken crashes, salty air, and (most importantly) committed thieves, an average bicycle has a half-life of about 1.3 years. My bike, purchased in good (not new) condition, has already lost the use of the front brakes and most of the rear brakes. If you hear someone dragging his flip-flops around North Hall, there's a good chance you've stumbled upon a vertitable internet non-celebrity.
But back to the bottles!
I tried to snap some photos of the place but I ended up playing kick-the-can with a 5-year old boy who was turning in cans with his dad while I waited for my #1's and #2's (type of plastic) to be weighed.
$13 in a week is a new record for C3. I really had to pull out all the stops to make it work. Among some of the less savory tactics employed this time around were:
So I set another personal record today. I recycled my cans and took in just over $13. Even with crushing each can down, my poor bicycle may have reached its saturation point:
I would be worried about wear and tear, but bicycles tend to have a pretty short life at UCSB. Between drunken crashes, salty air, and (most importantly) committed thieves, an average bicycle has a half-life of about 1.3 years. My bike, purchased in good (not new) condition, has already lost the use of the front brakes and most of the rear brakes. If you hear someone dragging his flip-flops around North Hall, there's a good chance you've stumbled upon a vertitable internet non-celebrity.But back to the bottles!
I tried to snap some photos of the place but I ended up playing kick-the-can with a 5-year old boy who was turning in cans with his dad while I waited for my #1's and #2's (type of plastic) to be weighed.
$13 in a week is a new record for C3. I really had to pull out all the stops to make it work. Among some of the less savory tactics employed this time around were:
and
I understand that the above photos represent what economists refer to as rent-seeking (the practice of earning money by taking it from someone else). I'd like to think that anything thrown away is fair game.
On the bright side, I also got my first ever donation via a random Gatorade bottle left in my basket (Cheers!) and some sympathetic bros on the soccer fields ("saving 'em up for beer, huh bro?"). One thing I've realized is that if you live in a bottle-bill state and you don't want to save a can for yourself, you can literally throw it anywhere you'd like, guilt free: someone will find it, and happily take care of it for you.
Thanks for reading!
Charles
I understand that the above photos represent what economists refer to as rent-seeking (the practice of earning money by taking it from someone else). I'd like to think that anything thrown away is fair game.
On the bright side, I also got my first ever donation via a random Gatorade bottle left in my basket (Cheers!) and some sympathetic bros on the soccer fields ("saving 'em up for beer, huh bro?"). One thing I've realized is that if you live in a bottle-bill state and you don't want to save a can for yourself, you can literally throw it anywhere you'd like, guilt free: someone will find it, and happily take care of it for you.
Thanks for reading!
Charles
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Let's Make A Deal
Hey guys,
So I turned in a haul over the weekend, and I decided to do a closer inspection of my recyclables.
Some of you might be curious how fair the payouts by weight are. If you've been wondering how they convert per-piece prices ($0.05 cents a container, $0.10 if large) to per-pound prices, you're not alone. Let me clarify:
The photo below shows three different container, all of which were taxed at the same (5 cent) CRV rate:
However, it's clear that they are not all the same weight. The bottle on the left is an examples of the new "Eco-Shape". These bottles use less plastic- good for the environment, but bad if you're getting paid by the pound. The bottle in the middle weighed roughly twice as much (by just feeling it unscientifically). The miniature bottle on the right was somewhere in between.
I get paid $0.96 cents per pound, which assumes that there are roughly 19 bottles per pound. I'm guessing that the price is sent down from the State, because they are the "banker" in this scenario. The recycling center is really just a sort of middle-man in moving the recyclables back towards reuse.
So, when I dropped of my bottles this time I decided to do an exhaustive count first to compare with my payout. I counted 116 bottles (counting twice for large bottles), which would come out to $5.80. When weighed, I got $5.28. This means that I got underpaid by 52 cents, or roughly 9%.
I suppose that this is within a reasonable margin of error, and if I worked on getting huge containers, I could easily be overpaid. Either way, it's something to think about.
-Charles
So I turned in a haul over the weekend, and I decided to do a closer inspection of my recyclables.
Some of you might be curious how fair the payouts by weight are. If you've been wondering how they convert per-piece prices ($0.05 cents a container, $0.10 if large) to per-pound prices, you're not alone. Let me clarify:
The photo below shows three different container, all of which were taxed at the same (5 cent) CRV rate:
However, it's clear that they are not all the same weight. The bottle on the left is an examples of the new "Eco-Shape". These bottles use less plastic- good for the environment, but bad if you're getting paid by the pound. The bottle in the middle weighed roughly twice as much (by just feeling it unscientifically). The miniature bottle on the right was somewhere in between.
I get paid $0.96 cents per pound, which assumes that there are roughly 19 bottles per pound. I'm guessing that the price is sent down from the State, because they are the "banker" in this scenario. The recycling center is really just a sort of middle-man in moving the recyclables back towards reuse.
So, when I dropped of my bottles this time I decided to do an exhaustive count first to compare with my payout. I counted 116 bottles (counting twice for large bottles), which would come out to $5.80. When weighed, I got $5.28. This means that I got underpaid by 52 cents, or roughly 9%.
I suppose that this is within a reasonable margin of error, and if I worked on getting huge containers, I could easily be overpaid. Either way, it's something to think about.
-Charles
Friday, September 25, 2009
Jackpot
Hey guys,
In the words of Jim Anchower, I know it's been a long time since I've rapped at ya, but things have been in flux. Two weeks ago I left UCSB to go to Baltimore to visit my girlfriend. I ended up staying longer than expected to give a talk about research and grad school. Then, I somehow ended up flying back to Chicago Sunday to drive out to LA with my friend (who's moving to Hollywood). A couple of highlights:
-On tuesday we went through Colorado, where 26 degrees (Farenhieght), snow and sleet made driving quite hazardous. The very next day is was 108 (midmorning) in Death Valley.
-Vegas is amazing. The mix of money and sadness is like a flurescent Earnest Hemmingway. Somehow, I actually broke even after a night of penny slots and $3 blackjack.
Anyway, I had left some bottles which I wasn't able to cash in, so I went today to a new spot- the recycling center in IV. It was busy but I was able to get in before closing and cash my $5.45 cents at the IV Market. I met a guy named George. He's been living in IV (Anisqovo Park) for 5 months, doing construction and collecting because he's "got habits", as he put it. I didn't get a photo because things were kind of hectic, unfortunately.
On the way back, I decided to cruise by Rob Field (apparently the name of the aforementioned "practice fields". I did my walk around the recyle bins and -BOOM!- I filled both IKEA bags in 20 minutes:
I guess now that kids are here and lots of sports are practicing, it's a good time to be a can collector. Tonight is the first Friday since school's started. I'll try to snap some pix, but I'm not sure I can hold any more bottles right now. In the words of my friend Emil (a UCSB alum), "when it rains, it pours."
Ok guys thanks for reading! Drop a comment if you're curious about anything!
-Charles
In the words of Jim Anchower, I know it's been a long time since I've rapped at ya, but things have been in flux. Two weeks ago I left UCSB to go to Baltimore to visit my girlfriend. I ended up staying longer than expected to give a talk about research and grad school. Then, I somehow ended up flying back to Chicago Sunday to drive out to LA with my friend (who's moving to Hollywood). A couple of highlights:
-On tuesday we went through Colorado, where 26 degrees (Farenhieght), snow and sleet made driving quite hazardous. The very next day is was 108 (midmorning) in Death Valley.
-Vegas is amazing. The mix of money and sadness is like a flurescent Earnest Hemmingway. Somehow, I actually broke even after a night of penny slots and $3 blackjack.
Anyway, I had left some bottles which I wasn't able to cash in, so I went today to a new spot- the recycling center in IV. It was busy but I was able to get in before closing and cash my $5.45 cents at the IV Market. I met a guy named George. He's been living in IV (Anisqovo Park) for 5 months, doing construction and collecting because he's "got habits", as he put it. I didn't get a photo because things were kind of hectic, unfortunately.
On the way back, I decided to cruise by Rob Field (apparently the name of the aforementioned "practice fields". I did my walk around the recyle bins and -BOOM!- I filled both IKEA bags in 20 minutes:
I guess now that kids are here and lots of sports are practicing, it's a good time to be a can collector. Tonight is the first Friday since school's started. I'll try to snap some pix, but I'm not sure I can hold any more bottles right now. In the words of my friend Emil (a UCSB alum), "when it rains, it pours."
Ok guys thanks for reading! Drop a comment if you're curious about anything!
-Charles
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