Kevin Bacon gets it . . .

I have always been a fan of Kevin Bacon, not a huge fan but really can you have a top ten movie list and not have Kevin Bacon in at least one or two of them? The whole Six Degrees thing is a fun game that I'm sure every movie buff has played drunk at parties. But did you know he was a big environmentalist? I know how cool!

In a recent article in the Denver post he discusses some issues about his hometown Philly. “I walk at least 40 blocks every day and use public transportation,” says Bacon. “When I go to Philly, I don’t drive. Why would I want to get into a car and sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic when I can take the train to downtown Philly? There’s a fantastic book called “You Are Here,” by Thomas Kostigen, that I wrote the foreword for, and he walks you through some of the consequences of our daily actions. I tread lightly talking about this because sometimes it can backfire. On the other hand, I feel that maybe I can do my part in some small way to show by example that it’s not that hard to lead an eco-friendly lifestyle. One of the things we do with the Bacon Brothers is encourage people to fill their water bottles up with tap water or from the fountain. Tap water is not bad for you. The Bacon Brothers even sell aluminum water bottles, not that you have to use ours. I’m horrified at the amount of plastic bottles that get thrown away every day.”

I am dying to read this book but it's currently 4th on my "Read Next List", if you've read it let me know what you thought.

So Kevin Bacon gets it . . . what about you?

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

The Year of the Earth Ox brings a feeling of stability, but it also brings progress -- even if it does seem slow and steady! Learn how the element Earth and the Chinese sign of the Ox combine to bring you growth and focus through the year ahead!

7 green things about me

I was reading another blog about being green and the writer was asked to list seven green things about themselves and to ask 7 others to do the same. I thought it was a great idea so here is my seven.

1. I started to become more "green" a couple of years back after hanging out one day with my niece and nephew in Las Vegas. I was just thinking about what kind of world they will be living in when they were older and it got me thinking about the big picture.

2. I have over 11 reusable bags. I always forgot to bring my bags with me so I just kept buying another instead of getting a plastic bag from the store. I even have two that I made myself which you can learn to do too right here!

3. I have a "bag of bags" and a "bag of paper scraps". My "bag of bags" is exactly what it sounds like. A lot of things that we buy comes in a plastic bag. So I wash them out and put them in a recycle bag to recycle. And my "bag of paper scraps" is a collection of things that most people would normally throw out such as store receipts, labels and such.

4. I have a part-time job in which I sort recycle items from garbage for a couple of apartment buildings near my house. It's not as bad as it sounds and it cuts down on trash and recycles for the environment.

5. My friends try and catch me not being "green". This annoys the hell out of me because they give me the "holier than thou" crap as they are doing nothing for the world. My plan is to be "greener", I know I'm not the greenest person in the world and I don't pretend to be.

6. I have very little luck with plants. I don't know why but I do know if you want to get rid of a plant, give it to me and it will die a slow horrible death.

7. My bestfriends in the whole world do not read my blog. They looked at it once or twice but not since. I know this because I will bring up a topic that I wrote about and will have to say, ". . . well if you read my blog you would know!"

Bonus: It took my 3 sittings to watch the entire movie "An Inconvenient Truth", I kept falling asleep. Al Gore just does that to me.

So what about you? What are your "green" secrets? And now that I've shared mine, what are you gonna do?

TerraCycle.Net

This is a great site and an interesting way to start a modest fundraiser. Terracycle is a company that creates products such as tote bags, book bags, pencil cases, environmental products, school binders, recycle cans, pens, pencils, and other assorted office supplies all using things that people will normally throw away. And they will PAY YOU to send these items to them. I know! I said PAY YOU! Okay the catch is they ask that you send it in bulk which is understandable. But they PAY YOU 2cents for each of the following items, juice pouches, energy bar wrappers, yogurt cups, cookie wrappers, and wine bottle corks.





They PAY YOU 6 cents for the soda bottles, yes I said PAY YOU 6 cents, that is one more penny than what you would get back in the store. But they only take the 20 oz. bottles and put in their environmental products in them. Here are some of the products that they make that have been sold in WalMart, Target and other fine stores.



You know what I'm gonna ask next, "So what are you gonna do?"

Recycling Gift cards

Now that the holiday season is over it's time to remind yourself of your New Years Resolutions. You remember the one about being "Greener". If you're like me your friends and family thinks that you are hard to shop for and they got you an easy no brainer gift, A Gift Card. So what to do with them after they are used? Usually people do one of two things, they give it to the cashier to dispose of and they throw it in the garbage or you yourself throws it in the garbage. Please don't do that, they are recyclable but it takes a little work. A company called Earthworks collects the cards and recycles them. Earthworks recycles PVC plastic cards (hotel keys, gift cards, etc.) and turns them into sheets that new cards can be made of. Drop cards in the mail if your retailer doesn't already take them back. Address is: Earthworks, c/o Halprin Industries, 25840 Miles Road, Bedford, OH 44146. Magnetic strips are okay. Don't send credit cards or those that contain paper backing. Visit the site for more information. Collect them and send a bulk amount. The recycled material is used to make new cards, rulers, playing cards, tags, and many other things. It's better than going into a landfill.

Now you have one more way to being greener, so what are you gonna do?

The Blue Man Group and the 2010 Toyota Prius

This video combines a few of my favorite things, the Blue Man Group and the Toyota Prius all to the song "Something's Coming" from the movie "West Side Story", composed by Leonard Bernstein. Love the Blue Man Group, I saw them in New York a couple of times and in Vegas, front row seats. A real must see! The Prius I have been looking at for awhile but have heard rumblings that they are still working out some kinks and the first models have been very expensive to fix. However the problems are suppose to be fixed now, longer battery life, more durable frame, and sleeker design. Take a look at the video and let me know what you think.