Fall Break with a Hint of Dave Barry

Well, this past Thursday I had fall break up here at App, so I went back down to Asheville to finalize some Eagle Scout Ceremony plans, and also finish a couple green projects. One of my main accomplishments was the construction of my coin clock. This a clock made from recycled paper, which was put into a waffle iron over Labor Day Weekend; this weekend I was actually able to finsh it. It was a lot of fun to make with the help of my mom, and an enjoyable way to spend a couple of my days down in Asheville.

I also was hoping to find a chest/cabinet for my room to house my arsenal of snacks. We (Me and my Mom) headed out Saturday to go yard sale-ing around Asheville to find one and were not able to find a reasonably priced unit, so we headed over to the great Target--> (Pronounce this the way France would) to see what type of chests they had. As it turned out, they had a nice variety of drawers and cabinets, you just had to make them yourself. So, becoming Trilingual for a couple hours, I read the instructions forwards, backwards, upside down, and sideways, trying to make head or tail of anything they were trying to convey. (My big gratitude to China here for making this easier for me...) But I digress--I eventually put the dang chest together, and I eventually screwed something up with the directions, and inevitably I had to fix the problem later on down the line. However, challenging as this project was, it got me to thinking about the average consumer in America, and whether or not they consider factors that go into making pre-made products, versus the do-it-yourself kits, such as the one I attempted.

How much energy does the manufacturer save by making the consumer put the chest of drawers together, rather than a machine, or underpaid worker? Should all products be this way? Or, if not all products, just a few of them? I can see it now: "General Motors introduces the latest in their line of car products, the: Car in A Box. Buy it now for only ten easy payments of 19.99!! Tools not included. Item subject to frequent technical difficulties such as, but not limited to: broken axles, missing wheels, engine misfires, squeaky fan belts, missing windshields, entire frame of car not in box, and spontaneous combustion." Father: "Gee kids look! Now you can have a car when you turn 16, who wants to help me build it?" The kids, jumping up and down excitedly, wave their arms in the air, ecstatic for their newly acquired possession.

Needless to say, some aspects of the idea would be more ridiculous than others, but I feel that we could minimize the energy output on a majority of our products if we would put together more, do-it-yourself kits.