the greening

my friend recently shared some techniques she's using to reduce the amount of money she spends each month like drying clothes on a line during summer, which also happen to inclusively reduce carbon emmisions. a win-win, right? i get excited about money saving ideas, that involve recycling and reducing, especially when those ideas also involve me receiving/maintaining additional revenues. so, in an effort to share some great sites i've come upon that save money, reduce waste, and are easy to do, i've created this short list of websites. feel free to share ones that are not on this list.

•paperback swap: lets you sign up, list ten books you’re willing to trade by mail, and the site gives you two credits. a book costs one credit--you “spend” one of those credits on the site to get any book they have listed sent to you. every time you send a book to someone else, you get a credit. other media sites like this: swapadvd and swaptree. i'm also a huge fan of selling all and occasionally buying my books on half.com.

•local harvest: finds all sorts of retail sources for locally grown foods all around you, including door-to-door grocery delivery co-ops. these services are popular in the larger cities like LA and SF. see magda's entry for a review of spud.com, which exclusively delivers to the larger west coastal cities. for a long time, i assumed farmer's markets were my only option. thanks to local harvest, i found a great spud.com-like program in my area, old soul organics.

•bringsome: is a new web site that connects folks who can't shake their cravings for foreign treats with travelers whose itineraries include the countries in which said treats can be found. although it’s still in pre-beta, the site has already logged over 100 requests for goods, which include ads offering to bring something back—-it's like a great big international potluck. and while the savings and the eco-friendliness of it isn't explicit, there's something about connecting yourself to fellow travelers and global strangers that makes me think it helps people be more aware of your larger community. plus, you're likely to save some money.

•walkscore: walkscore allows you to put in your home address, then lists the services near your location in a bunch of different categories (grocery stores, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, movie theaters, schools, parks, libraries, bookstores, gyms, drug stores, hardware stores, and clothing stores). it also assigns a "score" which provides a rough numerical estimate of how good your house location is in terms of the resources available within reasonable walking distance. my score is 35/100, which is about what i’d expect given that i live in a relatively small town. people in larger, more urban areas have much better scores. the score itself isn’t all that useful other than as a thumbnail comparison, instead it serves best as an identification of nearby services for any address. plus, i think it humbles your need to drive. when something is only three miles away, it makes you wonder why you always jump in your car to get there.

•manybooks: has tons of classics that are in the public domain and available for free. all you have to do is download the ones you want. those with kindles (not only do i want to theive your little digital book reader), you have the luxury of pointing their kindle’s web browser at manybooks.net and downloading away. the best part of the kindle coupled with this site is that the web browser on the kindle works anywhere that cell service works. i so want a kindle. i'm already the type of bibliophile that doesn't need to own the books i read, so i love the idea of keeping my life lighter and cheaper. plus, my local library also carries some newly published ebooks, as well, and yours might too. this bookless advantage is catching on with college campuses as well.

•gazelle: is a simple-to-use website that allows you to search for the gadget you wish to get rid of. after you find your item you can input the condition it is in. for example, i typed in "blackjack ii" and i was asked if the item powers on and what condition it is in. after that, gazelle spits out an appraisal and allows me to add the item for checkout. it also has an estimate of how much the item may be worth in the future. for electronics the price trend tends to go down because people always want to buy the newest gadget. after i checked out, it prompted me to print out a prepaid shipping label and ship the item with a box. for some qualifying items gazelle will even send you a box to ship the item. after the item is received gazelle will inspect the item and confirm that it is in the condition you described, then you will be paid the quoted price. this process takes about a week according to the website. the company also guarantees that if you ship in an electronic with data on it they would wipe it clean so you do not have to worry about your privacy. they will also take items with no value for the purpose of recycling. currently the company buys mostly electronics such as cell phones or gaming consoles, but they may expand the types of items they are willing to purchase in the future.

•greenyour: ever since greenyour.com launched on earth day (in beta), it seems to pop up on eco-blogs every other day or so in some form or another. if you ever sit and wonder how to green particular items and/or parts of your life, this is an exceedingly useful resource. everything is arranged in easy to find categories and subcategories, making this one of the most comprehensive, navigable go-to go-green sites. start out with the facts, move through to the tips and then end with products.

a little help from my friends

i'm asking that you take a moment of your time and check out charity: water, an organization that magda, a blogger pal of mine, has chosen to fundraise for.

because i'm also convinced that this is an exceptionally good cause and an exceptionally awesome organization, i'm also asking another favor from you as well: please donate! magda is asking for as little as $1, but i know you're good for more. and i'll let her explain why you should donate:

Help me raise money for charity: water as I train for and run the America's Finest City Half Marathon in San Diego, CA on August 17, 2008.

charity: water is a non-profit initiative bringing clean water and basic sanitation into impoverished communities. Since charity: was founded and began activity in August 2006, they have funded the construction of more than 250 wells that, when completed, will provide clean drinking water to 150,000 people.

Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation causes 80% of all sickness and disease, and kills more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Many people in the developing world, usually women and children, walk more than three hours every day to fetch water that is likely to make them sick. Those hours are crucial, preventing many from working or attending school. Additionally, collecting water puts them at greater risk of sexual harassment and assault. Children are especially vulnerable to the consequences of unsafe water. Of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and a lack of basic sanitation, 90% are children under 5 years old.

“But Magda,” you may ask, “what’s in it for me?” In addition to helping me build wells in Africa, India and Bangladesh, you too can experience the joy of running a half marathon without any of the discomfort, sweat, or risk of heat stroke. Why choke down those disgusting packets of energy gel when I’ll do it for you? Take it easy, stay in bed. No, I insist. Let me get up at 6 a.m. for training races. Let me dump little paper cups of water over my head. Let me wear the unflattering shorts. Really. It’s my pleasure. Read my training blog and pat yourself on the back every time I add a workout. Or comment on photos or videos. It's just as important as putting in road time.

Donate per mile, per minute of race time, per blister. Give $1, $10 or $100. 100% of your donation goes to water and sanitation projects on the ground.

To donate, visit: http://www.charityis.org/promos/magda/

To read my training blog, visit: http://evilqueenmagda.sweat365.com/

For more information visit charity: water at
http://www.charitywater.org

i've also put a helpful link to her donation page on the right-hand navigation of this blog. and note that the featured picture on this post is miss magda, herself, shown far right. yes, those are the legs of one hot, ex-model. so, if the philanthropic spirit does not quite take hold of you after reading about her fundraiser, i hope that the desire to impress a hot babe does.

with all of that, is there really any reason why you wouldn't donate?

green karl

dear web journal,

karl landed an entry-level position with the city doing exactly what he’s long wanted to do (and long gone to school for).

and because city policy can often be political, it is a fitting job with this city. fayetteville and karl are a match made in small, college town heaven. our mayor is green with a huge focus on sustainable planning. in fact, the city (under this mayor) has won awards for its progressive policies, recognized as an example to other communities.

it’s a great starting place for him. and he’ll keep working on writing his thesis on his off time too. i’m proud of him. <3

**"farmer's market 2006" fayetteville, arkansas, photo courtesy of steve moore

steel creek camp-out 2007

dear web journal,

along with this great weather comes a good camping trip. karl and i picked up a trail/camping map of the buffalo river national park west-end (steel creek site), loaded up our camping gear, and stayed two days and a night. i am more and more impressed with how beautiful and clean arkansas is. i won’t bore anyone who reads this with too many details, because there wasn’t anything too significant with our weekend adventure. but it involved a lot of hiking (so much so, i was somewhat incapacitated the next day with sore muscles), reading, and swearing we’d bring more games next time.

i noticed the next day when i returned that target carries a travel-friendly version of monopoly, scrabble, and three-in-one (chess, checkers, and backgammon), which are all classics and favorites of mine. they’re all re-designed by michael graves. i think we’ll be picking up one of these for the next trip.

the shriners loaned us cars

dear web journal,

we bought the honda fit because we wanted a new and reliable car, but we also wanted something that would get us better gas mileage. everything i’ve read says most of the hybrid models still have kinks to work out (like very expensive, not-so-eco-friendly, and sometimes dangerous batteries that die and have to be disposed of). and because even the super-fuel-efficient, less expensive models are still out of our range, we decided to look at the non-hybrids. the only other non-hybrids within our $$$ range on the “top ten most fuel efficient cars of 2007” were the toyota yaris (only two door) and the scion xa (which also looked great). the consumer rating for the honda fit was still better than both of those. so, we decided to test drive a fit and we fell instantly in love.

even after buying my cute eco-friendly car, i can’t help but continue my research on the subject. while some dudes get excited about the detriot car show (ew, dirty american car companies), i’m finding myself drooling over the japanese cars of the future. they sometimes border on the ridiculously space-agey-side, but they also boast 150+/mpg. even the modest mpg of honda fit, while a new model to the american market, is old news to most of europe and asia. here are a few of the concept cars that i am excited about:


honda wow concept, a car designed specifically for dog lovers (notice the dog cubby compartment)


suzuki lc concept, a model designed for fans of euro classics like the austin mini


daihastu ufe-iii concept, boasts a 170/mpg and the 1+2 seating is kind of a neat idea


honda fcx, a second-generation, fuel cell hydrogen-powered zero-emission vehicle, already used in big cities like LA as employee cars (i want one!)