Decoding Audience Behavior: Why Are Ads So Annoying?| Spider Af Articles
Propane 🏮
Propane is widely sold as a cleaner and cheaper fuel to heating oil, especially in rural Western NY in areas lacking natural gas lines. Oil still remains dominant though in rural parts around the Hudson Valley. I don’t know if electricity is that much of a threat to propane, although it’s obvious that propane dealers see the writing on the wall, or at least are pretty fearful about heat pumps and greater electrification of rural residences. A farm or rual residence might be a good place for solar panels, and if you can make your own energy, why pay a propane dealer?
I have some experience working with propane having used it a fair bit for camping over the past six and half years with a twenty gallon tank and my big buddy heater, propane stove and lantern. Propane has its pros and cons for sure — it’s a relatively clean fuel but it can get very dirty from the oils on connectors taking them in and apart in the woods. But certainly propane is a much cleaner and more reliable fuel then the awful liquid gas stoves I used to use, especially when burning regular gasoline.
When I own my own land and have an off-grid cabin, I will probably use propane but I’m not sure if I would want to use it as a primary heating fuel, as it’s relatively expensive and makes you dependent on propane deliveries, which can be difficult if not impossible in remote country. Plus it sure seems l like some of the propane dealers engage in scammy business models. While bulk propane delivery is much cheaper, getting a 100 lb or even a 30 lb tank might be a better option, as you can take it to any propane filler to get filled and have multiple tanks around.
Most energy consumed by propane is by far for heating. While I might keep a propane wall heater or a big buddy heater for warming things up quickly in the cabin when things are cold, I think the best method of heating remains wood, harvested and processed yourself. Wood is a carbon neutral fuel if harvested from your own acreage, it’s not dependent on market prices. Propane though is good for cooking, although if you have a wood-stove going, you might as well make breakfast and other meals in a cast iron skillet right on the wood-stove, rather then consuming expensive gas.
In the summer, an outdoors cook-stove might be a good option, although in my experience in Boy Scouts, cooking on wood isn’t as easy as you might think to control heat levels, and it’s a lot of waiting for coals to build up. Maybe though in a regular outdoor cook-stove it’s easier to cook then an smokey, open fire. At least with a cook-stove you can ventilate the smoke up and above and not have it in your face, and to boot, papers and wrappers can be disposed of after cooking so you have less kitchen trash around. But I don’t know, there is definitely some advantages to cooking with gas, especially in rural areas without access to high-voltage electricity.
LIDAR Parcel Stats.R
On my Github under the Land Research repository, you can find the code I wrote up last night that grabs a parcel from a tax map, calculates the acreage and percentage of the slope of the land, and the acreage and percentage of the way the slope faces (North, South East, etc.)
I am working on similar code to calculate the same for waterway buffers, mapped wetlands, distance from other buildings.
Getting so sick and tired of people telling me I’m so sorry for your loss. 🙏
Two weeks have come and gone since I retired Big Red. And I still hear form people, but if you don’t own a car, how will you do X, Y, Z? Don’t you know buses are exclusively for the colored and the poor, those old buses – they’re so dirty and so slow. I keep hearing from people that in one point in my their lives back in the day, they did not own a car, and life was so tough and miserable without a car, riding the bus with the colored and poor.
So yeah, maybe I should have kept it more of a secret that I retired Big Red. 🛻 Obviously I would have liked not to have the gap over the winter, but regardless I planned to retire Big Red in April before the Michigan and Wisconsin trip. But honestly I don’t care, the three only real issues in the interim months are trash/recycling – store and use roadside bins, wash – laundromat early in the morning or when my parents take me out there, and visiting the parents for Sunday dinner – they can pick me up for a visit or skip that for now. Honestly, that was the only things that have changed without a truck during these winter months. ☃️ Maybe I would have done a winter camp out at Rensselearville State Forest and had a fire, 🔥 but my feet get cold so easy these days, and especially when it comes to going out to Charles Baker it looks like their would be too much snow to get out there. Plus see I’m more or less following the law, 👮 by not burning shit I’m not supposed to and even washing out and recycling plastic. ♻️ So I’m almost a greeny. 💚
Last night that meeting over yet another development in the Albany Pine Bush 🌲 🦋 just dragged on and on, and by the time I got home it was 10 PM and after eating dinner and settling down to bed, it was almost 11. I was up around 5:45 AM this morning, which I much later then usual as I couldn’t sleep anymore but honestly I’m tired and will probably just sink behind my desk in the office though I already have work piling up my desk 🖥️ based on the emails I’ve gotten over the night. It’s fine it will get done. 🚴 The rain has mostly pulled out, it was warm enough last night that I think at this point the rail trail should be mostly ICE free ❄️ so it should be good for riding in I hope. I’ll grab it off of Elsmere Avenue so less riding if it turns out to still have some ice remaining, but I’m hoping it will be good for the foreseeable future. 🦵 I love riding in, it leaves me feeling so pumped when I get into the office. Same thing too riding back after dark to get the local bus home, it’s much nicer then walking laps in the Plaza. It was crazy 🤪 last night at the Empire Plaza with everything going on when I was getting my steps 👣 before meeting Lynne and heading over Builder land for the meeting.
I realize part of my situation is the virtue signaling I’m doing saying how wonderful it is I don’t have a vehicle 🚙 👉 🚍 🚲, while looking at listings for big-assed Ford SuperDuty pickups. Not that I’ve done that much of the later, though I sure have spent a lot of time studying how to buy a car and get a fair and reasonable price as dealership. Honestly, I just find striking up an auto deal to be so much fun, but that’s because I’m a two-decades plus, hell closer to 25 years at this point, quarter century veteran of Albany Politics when I consider my internship at StateWatch. I just enjoy the personalities and power dynamics, and how people sometimes spin things. There are probably a few crooked dealerships out there, but many of them may mislead or spin things to make the sale. 🤝 People despise such things, but honestly it’s part of the game of getting shit done. 🤡 The stories I can tell and the many books I’ve read about politics and power. I mean, really I’m not so set on Fords or even SuperDuty pickups, and I do see the disadvantages of various models like the Ford 10-speed auto, while also seeing the benefits of simpler XL trim and having a big-burly assed truck, even if it is a gasser both for cost and reliability reasons. 🛻 I was browsing the listing of Ford dealerships on Ford website, and there are 49 within 50 miles of my house, probably if I go out 100 miles and pick up Utica and Syracuse, down to Newburgh, it’s closer to 100+ Ford dealerships. So yeah, if a dealership doesn’t want to work with me, refuses to give me an out-the-door price with all taxes and fees attached, or is otherwise really pushy, I can just hang up on them.
Going to be a little wet riding in but probably not too bad. ☔ I guess I should bring extra socks in case my feet get wet, as old Erie Boulevard reverts back to the canal on rainy days. Bike trail will be wet but hopefully not too icy. 🥞 Onion and cornmeal pancakes this morning with some turmeric, salt, oatmeal and whole-wheat flour for fiber and bite. I need to get carrots 🥕 again, this weekend I’ll do that when I go shopping. With Martin Luther King Day 👑 it’s going to be a three-day weekend, and not terrible weather so I have multiple days I can ride my bike to the store, maybe even go to Walmart but I don’t have any specific needs there, and I’ ve gotten to like Hannaford App where I can make a shopping list, and the app orders everything by aisle and tells me the price and any coupons I’m eligible for before shopping. 🛒 Kind of nice to bike there, even if I don’t like driving on Delaware Avenue with all the cops and red lights 🚨 when I had my truck. Been going through those black beans I cooked up yesterday for lunch and dinner. Used to be black beans were tougher on my stomach 😲 then pinto beans but I’m so used to digesting them at this point, they don’t really give me any gas or bad smells. 🫘 I always get accused of being some kind of a vegetarian when I point out to people that while steak 🥩 and whole milk 🐄 are tasty, and I’m all for supporting dairymen and cattlemen who work the land, 🧑🏻🌾 neither one are exactly health foods. I’ll have to see if Dad will pick me up for a visit this weekend, otherwise on Tuesday morning before work I’ll take bus down to the laundromat 🧺 bright and early. I don’t mind. Other then that, maybe ride out to Voorheeesville or Five Rivers for walk around. Going to be mostly cold enough and snow free for good hiking. 📚 And maybe do a bunch of reading.
What Do I Think About Tiny Homes?
When I own land, I want as simple and small of home possible, as I want to spend my money on the land and not the building. Acreage is more important then square footage, and indeed a small home would be easier to clean and more difficult to accumulate things. If you don’t have room, you can’t buy it. While certainly a hot shower, refrigerator, gas stove and oven, and wood fireplace are essential, I am willing to give up most other things within reason. Obviously I would want room to have a table where I can walk on my laptop, some place to get up and stretch on a rainy or cold snowy day, and a relatively comfortable bed.
A smaller building is easier to heat and maintain order in. Less distance for things to break, and I really don’t want to have utility electric or internet service at my building. I’d rather be a long-ways back from the road, so I have my privacy and not be causing a nuisance with neighbors with my music or fires. I want things as simple as possible, both for low cost and sustainability. I want to make as few trips as possible to the landfill, use as little coal, oil or propane in support of my home. Have some solar power, but not a large set up — just enough to keep a few LED lights on, have fans for cooling or moving heat around, charge my phone, laptop and other USB appliances.
I do think many of the tiny homes you see online are pretty gaudy with stainless steel refrigerators, fancy woodwork and paint jobs. Or they are so tiny, something easily moved on wheels. That’s a bit too small for me, but a nice hunting-cabin style property would be nice, especially way back off a road, only accessible by four wheel drive, quad or snowmobile. I don’t need a lot of space, but I do need something that is decently well insulated and dry to make it through the inevitable rainy and snowy periods. Better insulation is more wood saved, less wood to split and feed into the stove and fewer carbon emissions, after all.
Natural wood is good as is natural materials. I don’t want to pollute my own land and I don’t want to haul much waste to landfill. While natural products can be less efficient and suspect to rot and degradation, they are obviously much preferable to the synthetic plastics that are common on modern houses. I remember years ago when I was a children, when my neighbor got a new double wide delivered — and they burned the scrap vinyl siding. Nasty! There is definitely a balance to be struck, and it all depends on what the property I like ultimately has on it.
But it’s not tomorrow. I have a few years to continue to think about it all. I have time to continue to read and learn, and research into solar and batteries by scientists across the world is only going to produce better, more reliable products that will be cheaper. They’re is a lot of benefit to all this research going on in reducing carbon footprints, as it also means better products will be coming on the market for off-grid homes. Time is on my side.
