Missed opportunity

I've started reading a blog called Digital Photography School. The first day that I began reading it, they had a post titled "5 Reasons to Take Your Camera Everywhere in 2008." As I read it, I thought that I really wanted to make sure to take my camera everywhere I went. However, the next morning as I was leaving the house for work, I looked at my camera bag, and decided I didn't want to deal with the hassle of carrying it around and left the house. As I drove down the road, I saw the most amazing sight. On a nearby hill, there are a number of windmills, and some clouds had enveloped the hill. The sun had broken through the clouds, and so the windmills were encompassed by a soft golden mist. I found myself thinking "I wish I had my camera right now!"

So, yesterday morning, I did take my camera with me. And I was glad I did. I'll edit this post later with one of the pictures I took that morning.

Trash Talk

One of the difficult things about being an electronics junkie, is finding ways to dispose of old equipment safely. I currently have a several failed motherboards, video cards, sound cards, etc... just lying around taking up space in our closets. Until recently, I wasn't aware of any place that would take that type of waste, but on the Linux club mailing list, someone pointed out a local business that handles electronic waste, and will do so for free (within reason, they do charge a storage fee for monitors). So, without further ado, here is the contact information for this company:

Bachand Electronics Corp, of Richland, has an unofficial service. The really great thing is that they'll even take monitors (although they are going to charge you $5, which is a bargain). They will take most any electronics, and here's the cool part:

If you give them a computer that still has working components, they'll scavenge, and build working machines out of them, and then donate them to worthy efforts that would otherwise go unfunded. I just spoke with the owner, and am planning on taking my current collection from the garage to them, this Saturday.

Bachand Electronics Corp
1351 Wyman St, Richland, WA
(509) 943-6203

If components are truly dead, they store them on a pallet, which gets picked up by an electronics recycling firm...