Monday, October 20, 2008

Electronic Waste - Where Does Yours Go?

I was visiting my dad a few weeks ago and he had just received in the mail coupons for his television digital converter box. Living outside the reach of the local cable company, he has had a dish satellite for years. He knows he will need the converter boxes in order to get the local station and this means having one more remote to keep up with. Wow, what happen to the days when there were no remotes. It seems like now we have remotes for everything.

My dad does have another choice, buy a new TV which will not require the converter box. If he decides to do this, like many homes will, what will happen to the old set. Anyone getting an additional set for their home will not want one which will require the purchase of a converter. This means that the landfills are going to be filling up with tv cathode-ray tubes containing lead, mercury, and plastics. Sure a few sets may be recycled, but at some point a huge amount of sets will find their way to the community landfills to leach toxins into our earth.

If you find yourself left with an electronic device, consider a recycle drop-ff location in your area. Visit ComputerTakeBack.com to find a convenient location for your electronic drop off.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

8 Week Excerise Class??

This past Sunday, I headed off to the gym for a workout. Sunday is not my normal workout day, but the mood struck so off I went. When I arrived, I remembered that there was a new workout class on Sunday afternoon and thought I would check it out. This particular class was advertised as a combination of yoga, tai chi, pilates workout. Okay I do yoga and pilates regularly. I thought how much different could it be. I found out that each pose was held for 8 counts and then you move to the next. The problem with this is that the teacher gave very little instruction cues on how the pose should be done. I found it difficult to follow the class and also that when looking around that I was not holding arms correctly or having my feet in the proper position. After the class, I mentioned the lack of cues to the teacher. I was informed that with only 8 counts per pose, she did not have time to give very many instructions. I see this being a time problem, but where is the teaching in this type of class. Also, I wondered about how effective or harmful doing poses incorrectly could be. I for one had a very sore knee the next day. I have since find out that this is a class taught using a script and doing the same routine for 8 weeks. At the end of 8 weeks, the instructor learns and then teaches the class a new routine for the next 8 weeks. I have decided that this is not for me and will stick to my regular yoga class where every class is different and continuous cues are given throughout the class.