Loyal readers will be used to the endless references to my essay - still in the writing, still loads to do to get a first draft and already w-a-y too long.  I keep typing away, cutting out the adjectives, rephrasing the sentences to get less words in them and think, well, hey, I might get it down to 12k if it says not a lot at all about anything. 

Then I check the university requirements: 2 copies, single sided, double spaced, wide margins.  I do understand the logic: two markers, space to write comments (if they're allowed to now, for a while they weren't) big enough writing for them to read without their microscopes etc, etc.  It just isn't very green.  My 1.5 line spacing draft is over 60 pages already (OK so it includes some diagrams and it'll come down a bit after editting) - that's a lot of paper one way and another.  If the final version is a mere 50 sides, that's still one heck of a lot of paper and just not very, well, green.