Saturday, February 21, 2009

MY WORK LATELY



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Monday, February 16, 2009

SUSTAIN-ABILITY

I think my efforts to be a more responsible user of the earth's resources and making our family's carbon footprint smaller has rubbed off onto my children. Yesterday as I turned on the ever-so-stylish eyeball lights in our living room Logue (age 13) told me "Mom, you should turn on the light in the middle of the room it uses less energy." Right, I knew that. Bean (age 8) decided her next project at school would be to go through all their recycling, make "stuff" out of her findings, sell the "stuff" and donate the money to our local children's hospital. Sigh.

I've been kind of slacking with no particular good excuse except that the economy is threatening to take my current humble, living situation away and that makes me a little depressed. But, I believe things always happen for a reason. Yesterday I received an email from Social Media Today. Of course I always skim carefully read their emails word for word because it's only one the 512 emails I get per day, like the one from Logue's PE teacher saying he wasn't bringing his PE clothes to school to which I wanted to say Dude, you're lucky he's not hiding in the locker room, the kid likes PE about as much as showering which we have to pay him $100 to do each time and I'm looking forward to your efforts to get him in shorts 'cause it ain't gonna happen. But seriously, this email was different. It made me pause and think more about my part in sustainability. How do I fit into this enormous picture? How can I even make a dent? Or NOT make a dent as it should be. Social Media Today has created The Energy Collective, an electronic conversation about energy, policy and climate who in turn created the Sustainable Cities Collective where urban policy makers, entrepreneurs and technologists could build solutions and share ideas. The video is not an award winning, jaw dropping piece. But it does make the responsibility to take part in sustainability efforts personal.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

BITTERSWEET






















Photo courtesy of Gear Live

I seriously want this Vivienne Tam Mini HP Laptop in all its glorious,-Asian-inspired-floral-luscious-red splendor! But, I'm not willing to give up my MAC. There have been too many PC deaths in this family for me to recover emotionally and stop wanting to write YOU WILL DIE SOON on every PC screen I see. So, I'll just drool.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

GREENER PASTIMES

Ever since I saw the image of a Polar Bear sitting on a melting piece of ice, I vowed through the tears in my eyes to do my part to reduce my carbon footprint.

First, we adopted Lucy, June, Ruby and Honcho two years ago and in return for all our food scraps and a little TLC they give us...EGGS! We live in a neighborhood where mini mansions are sprouting every 2 hours (except now they're not selling - and these ginormous, energy sapping homes with their flamboyant 5000 sq ft are now taxing the wallets of their builders. I am not gloating, that would be unkind). So, not all of our neighbors understand when our chickens make that noise that sounds like a child being murdered, it's all for the greater good of the ozone layer.

Second, we have changed all the light bulbs in the house to energy efficient ones. So, basically when we turn on our lights, we can't see for about an hour - a sacrifice we're willing to make even though I keep thinking I need to get glasses.

Third, we bought a Prius which I love. The glory of filling up the tank for under $20 and being able to drive on that tank for 370 miles makes me want to stop every HumVee I see and ask "Really, WHY?"

In my quest for finding greener pastures (ha, that just came to me) I found this RITI Printer courtesy of Gear Live.



Now in addition to throwing our coffee grounds out into the yard, I can get my coffee aroma just by printing my daily celebrity gossip affirmations. I wonder if you can get the caffeine high via osmosis?

Oh, and my new pet project (another donation of my so-called free time) is an organization that will bring communities together to help create conversations about sustainability in schools, corporations, homes and jobs. Much like Green Worker Cooperatives as shown in this enlightening video: