On a different note, five months ago my wife and I bought a restaurant! We (she, really) cook everything from scratch using fresh ingredients which we try to source from local farms, and change our menu daily. It’s been fun and a lot of work.

Is anyone still reading? If so leave a comment and your link!

Sоlіd Wаѕtе

Aссоrdіng tо thе EPA, оnе реrѕоn generates 4.5 pounds оf trash a dау, which rеѕultѕ іn 1.5 tons of yearly solid wаѕtе реr реrѕоn. Of thіѕ solid wаѕtе, 75 percent іѕ recyclable аnd оnlу 30 реrсеnt is асtuаllу rесусlеd.

Food Waste

Evеrу уеаr, 21.5 mіllіоn tons оf fооd wаѕtе іѕ sent to оur lаndfіllѕ іnѕtеаd of composting. Thіѕ fооd waste сrеаtеѕ more grееnhоuѕе gаѕ еmіѕѕіоnѕ than twо mіllіоn саrѕ оn thе road. Fооd mаkеѕ up thе lаrgеѕt роrtіоn of ѕоlіd waste еvеn thоugh іt’ѕ thе еаѕіеѕt wаѕtе tо recycle. Fifty to 100 реrсеnt оf fооd waste is еаѕу tо rесусlе ѕо іt’ѕ fаіrlу simple fоr both buѕіnеѕѕеѕ and іndіvіduаlѕ to rеduсе thе amount of ѕоlіd waste that gоеѕ іntо dumpsters аnd into оur lаndfіllѕ.

Alumіnum Cаnѕ

Frоm 2000 tо 2004, оnlу fоur уеаrѕ, аlumіnum саn wаѕtе increased tо nіnе bіllіоn cans. Fіftу-fіvе billion аlumіnum саnѕ rеасhеd our lаndfіllѕ. This is enough tо fіll the еmріrе building 20 times оvеr.

Plаѕtіс

Evеn thоugh the mоѕt common mеthоd tо rеduсе рlаѕtіс роllutіоn іѕ tо rесусlе іt, lеѕѕ thаn one реrсеnt of plastic products аrе rесусlеd in the US. Wе throw away 25 mіllіоn plastic bоttlеѕ per hоur. The аvеrаgе US trash bіn іѕ fіllеd wіth 12 percent plastic. It tаkеѕ thе average рlаѕtіс bаg 1,000 years to dіѕѕоlvе into thе еnvіrоnmеnt. Wе thrоw away two million plastic bаgѕ a уеаr.

Paper

We thrоw аwау еnоugh wооd аnd рареr еасh уеаr to hеаt 50 mіllіоn homes fоr 20 years. Recycling рареr wоuld ѕаvе so much mоrе than just our trееѕ if we could use the document destruction Melbourne services. Onе tоn of recycled рареr saves 17 30-fооt tall trees, 380 gаllоnѕ оf oil, 4,100 kilowatts оf еnеrgу, 7,000 gаllоnѕ of water, аnd 3.5 cubic уаrdѕ оf landfill ѕрасе.

E-Wаѕtе

More thаn 85 реrсеnt оf e-waste mаkеѕ it tо lаndfіllѕ resulting іn thrее mіllіоn tоnѕ a уеаr.

Glаѕѕ

Mаkіng glass frоm rесусlеd mаtеrіаlѕ rеduсеѕ еnеrgу соnѕumрtіоn bесаuѕе glаѕѕ furnaces are highly energy іntеnѕіvе. Recycling glass rеduсеѕ thе need fоr rаw mаtеrіаlѕ lіkе lіmеѕtоnе, soda аѕh, and sand. Only 22 реrсеnt оf glаѕѕ іѕ rесусlеd іn оnе year.

It’ѕ аѕtоnіѕhіng how recycling thеѕе рrоduсtѕ can hаvе ѕuсh a major impact оn оur environment аnd соnѕеrvіng еnеrgу usage.

I’ve followed The Art of Non Conformity website for years, and anyone who follows the site knows that Chris is a full time travel hacker, earning hundreds of thousands of free miles each year by working credit card travel rewards systems. I’ve never been that ambitious, but last year I decided to upgrade my cards and see what I could do. I didn’t go crazy, but I did decide to finally close the other card I had and open two new cards specifically with the goal of accumulating travel rewards. After reading many articles, including some of the free travel hacker advice on The Art of Non Conformity, it seemed that the Chase Sapphire Preferred card was the one to go for, the holy grail card for getting free travel. At the same time I also applied for a new Citibank card, the Platinum Select AAdvantage Visa Signature card. Only catch? Both carry a $95 annual fee, waived for the first year.

This time around, I told myself that I would try my hardest not to pay the annual fee when it came due. Over the past year, both turned out to good cards to have, I earned close to 100,000 points with the Chase card (with the help of some hefty purchases), and nearly 50,000 miles for my AAdvantage account.

The other day the Chase fee finally hit my statement, so I got my facts straight and developed a plan of attack for trying to sweet talk the phone rep. Before calling, I did a search online, but to my dismay found that virtually no one has been able to get the fee on the Sapphire Preferred card waived. See here, here and here. But I decided to give it a go anyway. When I called the phone didn’t even ring before an agent answered. First thought was, “Crap, this is seriously good customer service.” I was polite, asked how she was doing, some small chit chat, and stated that I was calling to get the fee waived. Right on cue as the other articles mentioned, she plainly said, “Well, there are two things we can do, we can cancel the card or we can downgrade you.” She then went on to kindly ask why I thought I should be able to get the fee reversed, and I tried using the leverage of how much I spent on the card over the year, but she didn’t skip a beat, explaining to me how all the perks of the card clearly are worth more than $95. (I suppose based on the fact that I could redeem my miles for cash at a rate of $1 per 100 points, it’s already paid back the fee almost 10 times over.)

Just for good measure, I tried asking for a credit or pretension bonus, but she just went on to outline more of the benefits of the card and told me that was a pretty nice bonus. So needless to say, my experience equaled what I read online many times prior to calling.

A bit discouraged from that phone call, I figured I may as well give the Citi card a shot too, so I went ahead and called them next. One thing that is important to note here is that the Citi fee had NOT hit my card yet, but I knew it would be coming within a couple weeks, which made this call preemptive.

I am happy to report this call went much differently, I told the phone rep I was consolidating my cards and wanted to see about getting the fee removed. He asked if the fee would make me think about closing the card, I told him it would. He put me on hold to get a different rep, and when the new rep came back he immediately presented me with an offer.

If I would keep the card they would issue me a $95 credit, as well as give me the option of earning 750 bonus points by spending over $750 in the next billing cycle, an offer that would continue each month for the next 16 months. I immediately agreed, since all I was hoping for was the fee waiver. In this case, they actually exceeded my expectations, and without so much as a single negotiation on my part.

So if you have a card that carries an annual fee, it’s definitely worth at least a phone call to try to get the fee waived. You may not get it, but you also may be pleasantly surprised as I was with Citibank. I do want to point out that it’s probably best to call before the fee hits your card, as that shows that you are on the ball and may be looking to cancel without the fee credit. And it should go without saying that if you are carrying a balance, you probably don’t have much negotiating power, as you are stuck with the card until you can pay the balance in full.

Good luck and happy negotiating!

The tuk tuk driver

We had arrived in Bangkok a couple days earlier, but clearly we didn’t do our homework. With our first class sleeper tickets booked and in hand, but only 40 minutes left to get to Hualamphong Station, things weren’t looking good. The original plan was simple, leave the hotel an hour beforehand and walk over to the roadside near Democracy Monument where we were certain we’d be able to find a cab for the five kilometer ride to the station. At the time it had seemed foolproof, and as we now rounded the corner from our hotel and saw some open cabs sitting in the traffic, we thought we were in the clear.

It was our first time in Thailand and we were heading south to Koh Phangan for the New Year’s Eve Full Moon Party. To make the event even more epic, the night of December 31 was actually going to be a full moon, which is not a regular occurrence; it hadn’t happened in over 10 years and would not happen again for at least that many more. But at the moment, our focus was on getting into a cab and heading to the station where we could check into our sleeper and let the adventure really begin. As we lugged our backpacks over to the first cab we saw and were about to hop in, the driver asked where we were going.

“Train, Hualamphong Station,” we replied.

He shook his head no, and nodded forward to indicate the stalled traffic in front of him that we now realized wasn’t moving. We walked further down the street to find another taxi, and were dismayed to again receive the same answer.

Despair began to set in, and we started wondering how we had overlooked such a simple thing. Traffic! A brief glance at a map earlier had shown that the station wasn’t far, and with the arrogance of foreigners on their first visit to Bangkok we figured those few kilometers would only take a few minutes by car, and so we had put it out of our minds and ventured out to enjoy the remainder of the day. But now the reality of the situation was setting in, precious minutes were ticking by and our bags grew heavier by the second. It was becoming painstakingly obvious that no car could get us to our destination in time with traffic as bad as it was, the cabs we had earlier tried to to hail earlier had moved a mere few feet forward.

There was a moment of panic, then we noticed the tuk tuk driver down the closest side street napping in his seat. With what was probably a bit too much urgency, we approached him and were greeted by a second man, this one awake and much younger and wanting to know where we needed to go. He was clearly the negotiator, and the moment I said “train station”, he knew he had us. There was immediately a mutual understanding of our situation, him knowing he’d be able to pull a few extra dollars from the transaction, and us prepared to pay the price to be saved. With a knowing smirk he said “150 baht.” We knew $5 American was higher than the normal rate for a tuk tuk, but with less than 30 minutes until our train left, we said yes without a second thought.

Hualamphong Station, Bangkok

The driver woke up and shook the sleep out of his eyes, we tossed our bags into the back, climbed into the seat and were off. His tuk tuk roared to life in all of its two stroke glory, burping out a cloud of smoke as we quickly accelerated. Down a side street, over the curb and onto a few sidewalks, around a few hair raising turns we went, laughing like maniacs in the back seat with the wind in our hair and the exhaust in our faces. There were a few moments of terror where we wondered about our decision, but as quickly as it started, we rounded a corner and pulled up to the station without a scratch. The driver smiled with a cigarette in his hand, I handed him his 150 baht, and we walked into the terminal to find our train with 15 minutes still to spare.

Well, there are a few things I’ve learned over the past few years (and continually have to remind myself), and these are very important things that have changed me and I believe have enabled me to live my life the way I do and to do all the stuff that I’ve done.

1. It is very rare to get what you don’t ask for. This applies both in business and in real life, and is very straight forward, but very profound.
2. Know your value so you know what you CAN ask for. This works very well with #1.
3. When you do ask for something, tell rather than ask. If you ask affirmatively assuming the answer is yes then it will likely be yes. If someone is put in a situation where they’re not given an option, most people will just go with the option presented to them rather than oppose it.

   Example: If you’ve already exhausted your time off allowance but want an extra week off from work and you ask the boss for it, you will most certainly get a quick “no” answer. However if you simply tell your boss that you’ve planned a week off, they’ll likely just grumble and go with it. They may resist, but in the end, they can either accept or put up a fight. If resistance is likely to be worse for them than just letting you take your trip, they’ll let you take your trip. This obviously works best if you know your value, as explained in #2 above.

   The first important point here is that when you give someone an option to say no, they will often say no. Second, as already noted, even if you cause the askee a reasonable amount of discomfort with your request, if the alternative is worse, they’ll just go with it. Often the outcome of resisting is worse than just giving in. Obviously there is a little bit of psychological manipulation here, but weigh the options, would you rather get what you want or not? Also be aware of this strategy being employed against you!

4. Most people’s limits are self imposed. Think about things you would like to do or wish you could do, and think seriously for a moment about what is preventing you from doing them. Is it your employer, your spouse, your friends or some other imposing force? Or is it you, making assumptions about what is acceptable and what is not, before you even try? Often times all it takes is deciding what you want and taking action, when you do this you will realize that there is no limiting force stopping you, and that most of the rules you think are stopping you really are not.

   I am not immune to this. We all have self imposed rules or limits, but to know that all it takes is some action is very powerful.

I am a very modest person and always try my best not to offend people, rock the boat, or ask for special privileges. But over time I have seen people get benefits that I was not getting, and realized that it was simply because they were asking and I was not. I’ve always been pretty fortunate, but since employing these simple strategies over the past few years I’ve seen my pay increase considerably, have taken more vacations than would typically be allowed, and overall feel that I am more control of my life than I used to be.

None of this comes from a place of arrogance, and I should stress that it is important to note that having a solid grasp on your value and requesting things within reason is very different from making irrational demands and assuming that you are indispensable. But overall, often all it takes to do something is simply taking action.

I’ll end with what I think is a very appropriate Ayn Rand quote:

The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.

Beach in Isla Mujeres, Mexico

It’s been another fun and busy year, so now that we’re full steam ahead into 2013, it’s time to recap and reflect on 2012. A lot has happened over the past year, and I also managed to have quite a bit of fun.

Reflecting
When I stop and reflect, I’m really thankful for how well I live. Every now and then I get down on myself because there is still so much I want to accomplish and because I have personal goals that have remained unmet, but when I put things into perspective I’ve still got it pretty good.

Even though I’d love to work less and travel more, I managed to keep a pretty good balance between my home and personal life and my work life. I managed to tackle a lot of home improvement projects, while also keeping time open for travelling and having fun. And at work I’ve continued to keep everyone happy, while maintaining some of the freedom and flexibility I’ve pushed for over the past few years. And even though it’s come at the cost of some of my free time, I decided to take on side consulting projects, which has definitely helped financially, enabling both me and my fiance to continue to have fun and travel while still saving and planning for our future together.

The Year in Review
Anyway, let’s get to the year in review. We really kicked 2012 off in a pretty epic way, with New Year’s Eve in Costa Rica, where we stayed until the second week of January. Since then, here’s what happened:

• January – Ran my 2nd half marathon
• Feb/Mar – Went to Florida for a wedding, where we stayed for a week exploring Key West, Ft Lauderdale and Miami
• April – GOT ENGAGED!
• June – A long weekend in Connecticut for a wedding and visiting family
• August – Our annual long weekend in Las Vegas
• September – Five awesome days in Maui
• Dec/Jan – A week at the AMAZING Le Blanc Resort in Cancun for New Year’s

And in between all that there were concerts, camping trips, other assorted day trips, and oh yea, work!

Looking Forward
I see 2013 as a transition year. With the wedding approaching, my fiance and I plan to be more modest about our travelling and our spending. The next few months will likely be consumed with wedding conversations and decisions, and staying home more often will certainly help us stash some much needed cash for the big day.

After the wedding, there is of course the honeymoon, and from there I think it’ll be a great point to assess the direction we want our life to go together, and to make some decisions about the best way to do that.

Wrapping up, 2012 was a great year, I think everyone is still happy and I was able to do a lot of awesome stuff. Looking forward to a great 2013!

How was your year?

I made it through the rest of Day 5 on just juice, then Day 6 just juice, and decided that after juice all day on Day 7 I would end my fast, at least for a few days, but will probably keep doing juice for a few meals. It’s not been that difficult to do this, but I’m ready to get back to eating.

Day 5

Morning
Smoothie – 1 grapefruit and 2 oranges juiced, blended with 2 bananas and cherries
Lunch – 2 young coconut water, one which I blended with the meat and 2 bananas
Evening – apple, beet
Night – apple and cinnamon

Day 6

Morning
cucumber, celery, green apple, ginger, spinach

Afternoon
apple, cranberries, grape & beet

Dinner
Tomato, spinach, celery, cucumber, parsley, carrot
Watermelon, mint, lime
Young coconut water and half a pineapple

Day 7

Breakfast
5 oranges 2 grapefruit 1 lemon

Lunch
1 cantaloupe 1 sweet potato

Dinner
Broke fast with fresh salad and some carrots celery and a few crackers

Morning
smoothie – juice of 1 grapefruit and 2 oranges blended with 2 bananas

Afternoon
juice – 5 carrots, 2 apples, 1/2 golden beet
juice – 1 cucumber, 4 stalks celery, 2 apples, 1/2 bell pepper, 1/2 lemon, bunch parsley/spinach/kale

Evening
juice – 2 carrots, 2 stalks celery, 1 cucumber, 1/2 red beet and beet greens, bunch parsley, clove garlic
juice – 1/2 small watermelon, handful mint, 1/2 lemon

On the 2nd night I slept hard, close to nine hours and woke up sore and groggy. I’m hoping tonight is better.

The only other thing that’s hard is that at home, eating is sort of a ritual for me and my fiance, when we are both home we typically make dinner together and spend time talking or enjoying some TV, so it’s not even the eating that’s missing, it’s just the evening ritual we share together.

I noted in the last post that I’m not set on being rigid, so there have been times while I’m prepping the juices that I’ll munch on a piece of apple or cucumber. I see that mostly as a technicality, and not something that will change the outcome of this fast, so I’m not overly concerned. Late evenings on both day 1 & 2 I’ve also snuck a date or fig or two to snack on, again, I don’t see that as sabotaging the overall thing I’m trying to achieve here. I’m a little disappointed that it’s so hard to resist, but a tiny snack like one medjool date isn’t going to mess things up.

That said, here is what I’ve consumed the past two days.

Day 2

Morning
Glass of water w/ Psyllium & Bentonite clay mixture
Smoothie – 4 oranges juiced, then blended with 1 Banana and cherries

Afternoon
Juice – 5 Carrots, 1 apple, ginger, cranberries
Juice – 1 carrot, 1 cucumber, 1 granny smith apple, 3 stalks celery, 1/2 lemon, handful spinach

Evening
Juice – 1/2 small seedless watermelon
Juice – 2 apples, 2 kiwi, bunch grape, cranberries

Day 3

Morning
Glass of water w/ Psyllium & Bentonite clay mixture
Smoothie – 3 Oranges juiced, 1 Banana, cherries

Afternoon
Juice – 3 carrots, 2 apples, 1/2 red beet, handful spinach & kale
Juice – 1 cucumber, 1 granny smith apple, 3 stalks celery, 1 stalk fennel, 1/2 lemon, ginger

Evening
Juice – 1/2 small seedless watermelon juiced with 1 lime and handful mint
Juice – 3 apples, 1 carrot, handful cranberries and topped with cinnamon (for some holiday zest while putting up the christmas tree!)
Juice – 2 tomatoes, 1 cucumber, 1/2 golden beet, small bunch spinach, 2 stalks green onion, 1/2 green pepper, tiny bit turmeric root

I’ve done extended raw food cleanses in the past, and have experimented with months of no dairy and no meat, and even months here and there of mostly vegan eating. But I’ve learned that food plays too critical of a place in my life to be rigid about how I eat. I know about the slippery slope of allowing cheats here and there when you’re trying to stay on a path, but I have found through all of my food experimentation that for me what works best is the middle path.

So yesterday I started with a glass of water, psyllium husk and bentonite clay just to get a good jump start on the detoxing, and followed it with a banana/orange/kale/cherry smoothie an hour later. I know juicing is about getting the fiber out of the juice, but I start every day with a smoothie like this so it’s part of a familiar routine, and I don’t see that having green smoothie and a little fiber as part of my juice fast is a bad thing, in fact I hope that it will expedite the cleansing.

To prep for the day at work I made two large juices; one with 6 carrots, 1 apple, ginger, and a handful of cranberries, and the other cucumber, celery, spinach, granny smith apple and some lemon. When I got home I decided to eat a small salad of just lettuce, tomato and some fresh herbs just to feel like I “ate” and then had an orange juice and banana smoothie before bed.

I guess I’ve been drinking too much coffee lately since at about 3PM I got hit with a terrible headache, so I made a small cup of coffee just to see if it would take the edge off, which it did immediately. If I was home I probably would have just pushed through it, but sitting at the computer at work with a throbbing head wasn’t appealing. I still hope to wean off coffee for the rest of the week, and I suspect today and tomorrow will be easier for me.