Becoming something…

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http://www.storyofstuff.com/
Watch the above video (click the link). Awards won and such, it’s just a god damn good message to hear and internalize.

Another Way : 10 Little and Big Things You Can Do

1. Power down! A great deal of the resources we use and the waste we create is in the energy we consume. Look for opportunities in your life to significantly reduce energy use: drive less, fly less, turn off lights, buy local seasonal food (food takes energy to grow, package, store and transport), wear a sweater instead of turning up the heat, use a clothesline instead of a dryer, vacation closer to home, buy used or borrow things before buying new, recycle. All these things save energy and save you money. And, if you can switch to alternative energy by supporting a company that sells green energy to the grid or by installing solar panels on your home, bravo!
2. Waste less. Per capita waste production in the U.S. just keeps growing. There are hundreds of opportunities each day to nurture a Zero Waste culture in your home, school, workplace, church, community. This takes developing new habits which soon become second nature. Use both sides of the paper, carry your own mugs and shopping bags, get printer cartridges refilled instead of replaced, compost food scraps, avoid bottled water and other over packaged products, upgrade computers rather than buying new ones, repair and mend rather than replace….the list is endless! The more we visibly engage in re-use over wasting, the more we cultivate a new cultural norm, or actually, reclaim an old one!
3. Talk to everyone about these issues. At school, your neighbors, in line at the supermarket, on the bus…A student once asked Cesar Chavez how he organized. He said, “First, I talk to one person. Then I talk to another person.” “No,” said the student, “how do you organize?” Chavez answered, “First I talk to one person. Then I talk to another person.” You get the point. Talking about these issues raises awareness, builds community and can inspire others to action.
4. Make Your Voice Heard. Write letters to the editor and submit articles to local press. In the last two years, and especially with Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the media has been forced to write about Climate Change. As individuals, we can influence the media to better represent other important issues as well. Letters to the editor are a great way to help newspaper readers make connections they might not make without your help. Also local papers are often willing to print book and film reviews, interviews and articles by community members. Let’s get the issues we care about in the news.
5. DeTox your body, DeTox your home, and DeTox the Economy. Many of today’s consumer products – from children’s pajamas to lipstick – contain toxic chemical additives that simply aren’t necessary. Research online (for example, http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/) before you buy to be sure you’re not inadvertently introducing toxics into your home and body. Then tell your friends about toxics in consumer products. Together, ask the businesses why they’re using toxic chemicals without any warning labels. And ask your elected officials why they are permitting this practice. The European Union has adopted strong policies that require toxics to be removed from many products. So, while our electronic gadgets and cosmetics have toxics in them, people in Europe can buy the same things toxics-free. Let’s demand the same thing here. Getting the toxics out of production at the source is the best way to ensure they don’t get into any home and body.
6. Unplug (the TV and internet) and Plug In (the community). The average person in the U.S. watches T.V. over 4 hours a day. Four hours per day filled with messages about stuff we should buy. That is four hours a day that could be spent with family, friends and in our community. On-line activism is a good start, but spending time in face-to-face civic or community activities strengthens the community and many studies show that a stronger community is a source of social and logistical support, greater security and happiness. A strong community is also critical to having a strong, active democracy.
7. Park your car and walk…and when necessary MARCH! Car-centric land use policies and life styles lead to more greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel extraction, conversion of agricultural and wildlands to roads and parking lots. Driving less and walking more is good for the climate, the planet, your health, and your wallet. But sometimes we don’t have an option to leave the car home because of inadequate bike lanes or public transportation options. Then, we may need to march, to join with others to demand sustainable transportation options. Throughout U.S. history, peaceful non-violent marches have played a powerful role in raising awareness about issues, mobilizing people, and sending messages to decision makers.
8. Change your lightbulbs…and then, change your paradigm. Changing lightbulbs is quick and easy. Energy efficient lightbulbs use 75% less energy and last 10 times longer than conventional ones. That’s a no-brainer. But changing lightbulbs is just tinkering at the margins of a fundamentally flawed system unless we also change our paradigm. A paradigm is a collection of assumptions, concepts, beliefs and values that together make up a community’s way of viewing reality. Our current paradigm dictates that more stuff is better, that infinite economic growth is desirable and possible, and that pollution is the price of progress. To really turn things around, we need to nurture a different paradigm based on the values of sustainability, justice, health, and community.
9. Recycle your trash…and, recycle your elected officials. Recycling saves energy and reduces both waste and the pressure to harvest and mine new stuff. Unfortunately, many cities still don’t have adequate recycling systems in place. In that case you can usually find some recycling options in the phone book to start recycling while you’re pressuring your local government to support recycling city-wide. Also, many products – for example, most electronics - are designed not to be recycled or contain toxics so recycling is hazardous. In these cases, we need to lobby government to prohibit toxics in consumer products and to enact Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws, as is happening in Europe. EPR is a policy which holds producers responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products, so that electronics company who use toxics in their products, have to take them back. That is a great incentive for them to get the toxics out!
10. Buy Green, Buy Fair, Buy Local, Buy Used, and most importantly, Buy Less. Shopping is not the solution to the environmental problems we currently face because the real changes we need just aren’t for sale in even the greenest shop. But, when we do shop, we should ensure our dollars support businesses that protect the environment and worker rights. Look beyond vague claims on packages like “all natural” to find hard facts. Is it organic? Is it free of super-toxic PVC plastic? When you can, buy local products from local stores, which keeps more of our hard earned money in the community. Buying used items keeps them out of the trash and avoids the upstream waste created during extraction and production. But, buying less may be the best option of all. Less pollution. Less Waste. Less time working to pay for the stuff. Sometimes, less really is more.

Another Way

I MORE than love it! I love a good hot mess!

A day late, but here is my verdict.
Top 3
1) Doritos

2) FedEx

3) Planter’s Peanuts

E*Trade was a close 4th, you can find it here.

You sit on your couch watching TV. Thoughts start filling your head about what you could be doing instead. You also take a moment not to think about much at all, which would seem to be more of the point of sitting there in the first place. Now, depending on how you look at it, thinking about nothing is a very selfish act. You are putting your non-thought, your personal resources, into doing nothing, except maybe consuming a commercial. This is selfish. Don’t you have the right to experience this? With how busy things can get, doing nothing is many times a recommended vacation.

This doesn’t bother most of us because most people accept this type of behavior. What seems to matter most for voters is the person they will vote for not necessarily the policies they support. How often has a friend said, “I just vote the one that looks good?” If you swear you don’t have friends like that, think again. More than you might like to believe, voting decisions seem like well intentioned educated votes, but we know that many Americans vote on a single issue (See: Single-Issue Voters: Will they make a difference on November 2nd?). We support individuality, personal growth, and independent decisions. If we fantasize about committed relationships then we are ignoring that we are constantly exposed to positive images of the “single life” and mainly negative, although sometimes hilarious, ones about settled committed relationships. All that struggle can’t be fun. Plus, if you want to ignore yourself and others to watch TV or vote for the hot one you are less likely to offend someone if you aren’t connected to or with others.

So why not stay alone? I speak from experience and can say that people don’t always impede on your life and to think like this is just living in the future and ignoring the present. People can enhance and help you grow faster in your experiences. Even if a free-spirited person who “does her own thing” and “goes where the wind takes her,” this experience must include people, even if in their absence. Every individual person is a part of our social web, meaning that we can’t exclude their affect on ourselves.

What am I trying to say? You must put yourself first, alongside others. Put yourself first and get to know yourself, take some time away. Watch some TV and forget but don’t forget that your absence has an impact on your social web too. This is where you need to begin to focus not on how many friends you have or don’t have but on what friends or significant-others you have or don’t have. Meeting someone new is at the cost of getting to know someone you know better. What is more valuable? You have to weigh the two, the value of a particular meeting vs. the value of knowing more about an existing connection. These people are both variables in a decision, to ignore the human side of an equation is to ignore 100% of the value/dis-value that may exist. The impact of everyone around you and in contact with you is unmeasurable. Don’t think too much, focus, and invest wisely. You need to recognize the value in non-value. If I were to lose a friend, I would feel emotion but forget to recognize what changed because of it, which is change, or value, from something of seemingly non-value.

If you have a infinite desire for friends + significant-others then you have no one trained in being close to/with you. Infinity value becomes a total near zero. If you focus your desire (focus is not an exact number in this case but a direction of thought towards the best total value) for friends + significant-others by acknowledging other people and spending time on a previous connection, there will be ups and downs but a significantly larger net value.

The journey toward a core interpersonal discovery:
Putting yourself first, with another.
Putting yourself first, alongside others.
Putting yourself first, alongside everything.
Being first and selfish (in a good way) because of and with everything and recognizing it.

I wish you the best of luck in discovering your social core. Whether it’s significant-others or great friends and five or thirty core individuals, stop thinking big and focus small. Surround yourself with a number of mental live-ins, they may live on the other side of the globe or in your bed, but with everything you know they are there to stay, one way or another.