daniel gray's shed of geekbooks

What's Behind the Shed?

Sheds are great places to store stuff. They're also great for concealing things ... even things that are too big to fit inside. The inside of my shed is crammed so full, I've taken to hiding junk behind the shed ...

Everyone has a collection of junk that they just can't bear to part with. That's one of the reasons that sheds are so popular ... when the junk can no longer be contained within the four walls, it can always find a spot out of sight.

The back of the shed can be a halfway point between treasure chest and the curb. It's a great place to take apart things that won't fit in a trashcan. A few weeks back, I used my reciprocating saw to cut up a plastic pond insert. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll get around to finally taking apart the trusty old STX38 lawn tractor.

I've thought about parting the STX out on Craigslist, but it hasn't run in a year or so. There are a few pieces that might fetch a buck or two. In any case, I'll break it down to the individual components and stack the worthwhile bits inside the shed and out of the rain. The rest of the pieces will find their way into the trash or scrapyard.

After that's done, I'll start in on the cold frame project that I've been putting off for a few years. I have some sheets of tempered glass from an old sliding door that might be well suited ... they've been leaning up against the back of the shed for quite a while now.

Needless to say, my goal is to clear out all all the junk from behind the shed ...

How Much Money Do You Waste Printing Stuff?

How much money do you spend on inkjet printer cartridges each year? I know I'm throwing out way too much on the blasted things. While you can try to stick to a reduce/reuse/recycle mindset, there are some things you just can't get around ... or avoid printing.

I never print addresses on envelopes, for example. But when I'm shipping a package out with the US Postal Service's Priority Mail, I almost always use the inkjet printer.

It's impossible to deny that I create way too much paper in the process of research. Although most of it is hand scribbled. Not exactly the most efficient way to store information, but at least it's not bleeding the inkjet printer cartridges dry.

I started thinking about this (again) after compiling a list of companies for a new project this morning. After I loaded all the information into a word processor, I got the formatting straightened out and without thinking about it, started to reach for the print button.

I'm not sure exactly why.

Perhaps the act of committing ink to paper signifies something to the mind ... a permanence of the data, proof of the work, justification of the time spent gathering the information.

Or perhaps it's just a lazy bad habit ...