Let it go, let it go

[cjsmith]

MANY things freecycled this weekend, including some stuff I am stunned that anyone took. Rob was gracious enough to list it all and arrange for pickups.

People claimed, get this,
- complete plans, blueprints and instructions for building a Lancair IV! (THREE responses!)
- a big bag of towels dating back to our first apartment together
- 80 empty wine bottles
- a car stereo from approximately 1987
- used pillows
- three years of aviation magazines
- sheets and pillowcases worn to wonderful softness, and frayed a bit
- some really bad books
- a candle/incense holder that's basically a sand-pit on a stand (so top-heavy that if you breathe on it it pours sand all over your floor)
- a light fixture that looks like a War of the Worlds ship landing

Plus some stuff that was probably useful. It's amazing.

(Now if they'd only come and pick it up.)

I've also thrown away a big pile of crap. I finally pitched the model airplane my ex-housemate started building. I had to admit that no, I am never going to finish someone else's model airplane. I can't even get my butt in gear to finish MY model airplane. I also admitted that I am never going to find a lovely dark green laundry bin to replace my broken one, and I pulled the spare one out of the upstairs closet to use. Poof, no more duct-taped broken handles. In retrospect I'm amazed I stuck with that thing for so long. (Hey, Bay Area people, if any of you are still reading: how do you recycle an entire laundry basket?)

That upstairs room is starting to look almost nice. Next weekend we do the OTHER closet.

Comments

[runeshower.livejournal.com]

How does freecycle work?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

There's a mailing list covering a small region, and people say stuff like "Hey, I have a lamp that looks like a space alien landing". If you want it you reply privately, and the owner says "yes" or "sorry someone else got it". Most people go by first-come-first-served but some will say charities have priority or something like that. Then you get the other person's address and you go get the thing -- absolutely free.

The original organization is here. The founders are starting to be a bit autocratic, though, so a lot of communities have left that central organization and just renamed their mailing lists. Either way, it's the same basic concept: your trash is another person's treasure. Keep it out of the landfill and make someone happy!

[dieppe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, what you said too.. ;)

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

The founders are starting to be a bit autocratic, though, so a lot of communities have left that central organization and just renamed their mailing lists. Either way, it's the same basic concept: your trash is another person's treasure. Keep it out of the landfill and make someone happy!

Thank you! When I read runeshower's question, I was dreading the answer, and thought I'd have to post a comment, but you said it perfectly. Things are moving along ... the trademark application has been challenged, and a lawsuit has been filed because of The Freecycle Network's attack on FreecycleSunnyvale for using the word freecycle. It's a long story, but I'm rooting for Sunnyvale. (Hmmm ... come to think of it, CJ, is that your group?)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's my group! I'm not up on what's going on. I get so much mail that I have turned off all freecycle traffic, and I've had it that way for months. But I'm cheering for Sunnyvale also.

I always liked our mods. Good folk, it seemed to me (from my very limited contact with them). I'm not surprised they're not lying down and taking it quietly.

[dieppe.livejournal.com]

FreeCycle works, in short, like this: You sign up to a local FreeCycle YahooGroups (email list), you write a post with the subject line saying something like "OFFER: Crap, and shit. East Bay" or something. When someone searching for "Crap" sees your ad, they send you email. Hopefully they'll show up when they're supposed to. (I've been stood up a few times waiting for someone to come and get something for free...)

Oh yeah, and then they take away "crap" or whatever. And it works in reverse too. Ya see something you want, and etc.

In truth I've had things I had troubles giving away on FreeCycle, so I posted a Craigslist ad for $5 and it sold in an hour.. People are just funny sometimes. But I use FreeCycle personally for crap I don't want to try to sell on eBay, don't want to try and sucker someone out of $5 for it, and just need to get rid of it. :)

Just my 2 cents... although on FreeCycle you can't charge for anything, even 2 cents, them's the rules. You can, however, make people come and pick it up.. I mean, sheesh, it's free---what more do they want?

grrrrr I hate LJ

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

I wrote a long answer to the recycle question, including URLs. It is lost to an error. grrrrrr.

Re: grrrrr I hate LJ

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh, I *hate* that. Mozilla-based browsers (Firefox, Opera, Netscape) tend to save the response so you can "go back" and still have it; Internet Explorer (and probably others) doesn't, and that continually bugs me. Grrrr!

Re: grrrrr I hate LJ

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

thank you. I feel better. It is nice to be able to vent to an empathetic audience.

Re: grrrrr I hate LJ

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It was probably one of those "couldn't generate a talkid" errors, eh? Those are annoying. For some reason I see one and think "someone didn't allocate enough resources when coding this". (Not that I have ANY idea how it's written.)

Re: grrrrr I hate LJ

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

yes, it was. My thoughts (also not necessarily relevant): LJ got confused about who was who, and/or doesn't like too many people doing operations that go to the same page. When I got the comment-form-page, there were no comments on this entry. I took a while writing the (lost) comment. After the error there were several other comments. So, I think LJ couldn't keep track of all of us. Talkid's get squashed. Bad.

I also noticed that the comment I'd posted at night that had definately disappeared reappeared WITH A COMMENT FROM YOU. So, um, I figure that it disappeared WHILE you were writing. Which brings me back to LJ possibly having some issues about what goes on while things are edited....

Re: grrrrr I hate LJ

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

I actually *do* know how the LJ code is written (it's OSS, you know), and it's possibly the worst codebase on the planet. It's pretty common knowledge that the only reason LJ exists is because of the community. If it were to launch today, there is no way it would survive.

Re: grrrrr I hate LJ

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's OSS -- my comment was a nod to the fact that I am griping without taking the tiniest step toward educating myself or toward helping. :-)

how to recycle a laundry basket

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

less cute comments, as this is the 2nd time (still cursing)

1. can we assume the laundry basket has a little recycle number/symbol on the bottom?
2. if you lived at my house (or thereabouts) you could just place the laundry basket in the recycle bin. Yes, the recycle bin is very very large. About like a bathtub? Maybe not QUITE that big. This probably doesn't help you though, unless the situation gets desparate...
3. cut into pieces and place pieces in your (presumably smaller) recycle bin
4. call your trash/recycle company and ask them.
5. take it to a recycle drop off location
http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/public-works/rec-recyclectrmat.html
takes plastic containers #1 thru #7 only.
Note: while *I* think a laundry basket is a "plastic container", well, that doesn't mean *they* do....
This is cute
http://www.recycleworks.org/pdf/res_recycle_guide.pdf but doesn't seem to have any other ideas about plastic drop-offs near Palo Alto. But there is a phone number for more info that you could try.

will copy comment before pressing SUBMIT this time ............

Re: how to recycle a laundry basket

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

*nod* about the number. It's a 2, HDPE.

I like option 3 except not all the pieces will have the number on them. I could indeed phone. I suspect my correct answer is to take it to the SMaRT Station. At least it's not far.

SUBMIT worked, this time! :-) Now I'm copying before pushing the button.

Re: how to recycle a laundry basket

[visgoth.livejournal.com]

Cut it up, bag it all together in a clear bag (maybe a protective bag from the dry cleaners?) with the recycle number showing.

Or cut it up and zip-tie it all together with the recycle number showing.

[lkeele.livejournal.com]

Heh. I was wondering about that model. That's the one that was hanging out in 'my' room, no?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

That's one of the two that was hanging out in your room! The big wing sticking out of the bookcase, plus some pinned stuff in the closet and an airplane body in a box on a shelf, was Rick's old Stearman. The teeny plane on the table is my Citabria.

I haven't -- yet -- had the heart to pitch the little Citabria. (Even though it has yet another break in a wing spar because jackiecat stepped on it. I swear, I've repaired more than I've built.) The main problem is I don't know how to put the covering on.

[gdmusumeci.livejournal.com]

The Lancair IV is a pretty sweet-looking airplane. The performance specifications are insane! I wonder if people really get that?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It is indeed a stunningly sweet plane. I hate the side stick, but it's a very fast plane. They brag that it's the fastest piston single out there, "and if you got an extra engine and put it in the back seat, it'd be the fastest twin". I don't know how homebuilders' actual numbers tend to compare to the specs on the web site. I guess I could ask a coworker of mine who has built the pressurized one.

[gdmusumeci.livejournal.com]

I've never flown a sidestick aircraft so I couldn't possibly have an informed opinion there. It amazes me that the Lancair compares so well to something like a SR22 -- I saw one of those on the ramp at C83 the other day and they really are pretty little planes.

I'd still like a DA42 TDI, though. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I know many people love the side stick, but I hate it. I have shorter arms (per unit body height) than the average pilot, given that the average pilot is male. The side stick just DOES NOT WORK for me.

I suspect the Lancair's faster for two reasons. First, it has retractable gear. (A homebuilt retract! You can see why *I* am not using these plans. I could make a serious mess with this.) Plus the Lancair has a monster engine. They recommend builders install the Continental TSIO-550, at 350hp.

Eyeballing the designs, they both look very sleek sitting there on the ramp. Smooth composite construction, minimized drag. Too bad they both have that awful, awful side stick! :-(

The Twinstar? Nice. I've never sat in one myself. Pricey, of course! But then so is everything else we've mentioned. :-)

[gdmusumeci.livejournal.com]

I'm a little taller than average (although I'm not sure what the average height of a pilot is), but I still haven't flown/sat in a sidestick plane. In fact I think the only plane I've sat in with a stick at all was a T-38 (now, if that isn't a pilot's wet dream, I don't know what is!).

A homebuilt retractable seems pretty terrifying to me. :-) With that being said, I always liked the lines of retractables better. No clue why.

And hey, go NYSE:CRM go! ;-) Of course, I imagine I'd actually need a license first, regardless....

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I love center sticks, just not the side ones. (Hey, no Freudian comments from the peanut gallery out there.) And if NYSE:CRM puts you in a position to buy a Twinstar, the money spent getting a license would be a drop in the bucket! Retire, take up flying -- sounds good to me!

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

Sadly, it appears the wine bottles are staying for now.

And the porch is getting very crowded.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Aw, whoever claimed the wine bottles backed out?

And the porch, yeah, that's a major problem with freecycling. :-(

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

They were going to make some kind of garden display, but it turns out they already had enough wine bottles.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Darn. Well, could relist 'em I suppose, or what the hey, they can be recycled.

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

You're supposed to save all the responses until the stuff is picked up ... saves having to start all over from scratch! Or did you only get one response?! (Actually, I'm surprised anybody wanted 80 wine bottles!)

Just out of curiosity, how many people are in your freecycle group? If it's small, you could always try another one.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I don't know; Rob did the listing.

People who make wine at home would be overjoyed to get 80 bottles for free. (That's why I had them.) But it's luck of the draw whether anyone on our local list is a winemaker!

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

And I expect anyone who is a winemaker also drinks a lot of wine and thus would already have the bottles.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Likely. Unless they hadn't planned ahead and saved 'em for a couple years. :)

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

I save every piece of mail I've ever received. Who needs gmail when you have a hard disk at home? But no, in this case, only one person responded. We had another person just cancel on her pickup, and I went back through the mail and found the next person in line to ask.

But sometimes relisting actually helps. I've listed the same thing twice, a week apart, and gotten no takers the first time and lots the second time.

We have 523 current members.

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

I save every piece of mail I've ever received. Who needs gmail when you have a hard disk at home?

Spoken like a true packrat. =chuckles= Me too.

But sometimes relisting actually helps.

I've had the same experience. I don't mind relisting if I didn't get any takers, but I hate having to it on a popular item and having to sort through the e-mails all over again! So I have a separate folder to put them in. I tell my members they can delete the responses once their item has been picked up, but =blushes= I don't. They're all still there, and the new ones just collect at the bottom.

We have 523 current members.

Oh! I didn't realize Sunnyvale was so small. I guess Tim just casts a big shadow. =smiles= My own suburban group has over 2,000 members, and the city group I help with has over 6,000. (CJ, that's why I sometimes don't get to LJ to read or post! My group is pretty well-behaved on the whole, but the city group is a whole 'nother demographic. =rolls eyes= )

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

I expect some people didn't convert over to the new list when the original freecycle list went away. And Sunnyvale is pretty small - only 131,000 people.