visual impact

here's an intersting exhibit called "running the numbers":http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=7

the artist, chris jordan, takes photographs and puts them together torepresent things like "1.14 million brown paper supermarket bags, thenumber used in the US every hour" . so it's little factoids but in a visual form...which from the pictures on his site...definitely has abigger impact than the fact alone.

Von Lintel (www.vonlintel.com), in NYC, will exhibit the "Running theNumbers" series this year from June 14 through the end of July

shown here:

"Paper Bags", 2007Digital C print, 72x96"Depicts 1.14 million brown paper supermarket bags, the number used in the US every hour. (actual top, zoomed-in bottom)

Think Small...building-wise

here's an intersting article from the ny times on building small. and why not? really, the more room it seems people have, the more people fill that space and then feel burdened by the stuff they have. and the more space there is, the more expensive to heat and cool and clean it. the bigger the home, the more materials go into it and the bigger footprint it has on the ground. i definitely think that there is a limit to how small a home can get. during high school my family lived in a two bedroom-1 bath house. it was a little cramped. my two sisters and i were in one room and my parents, and baby brother, when he came along my junior year, were in the other room. needless to say, we felt the smallness. but it doesn't mean we weren't happy. we lived on 500 acres, and some of my best memories from that time are cross-country skiing in the moonlight with my sisters, having bonfires with my friends, walking over the adobe hills with my boyfriend, swimming in the canals, and watching the lambs (not ours) run around the property in the spring. there is something about living in a small space that really forces you to interact with the outdoors and life around you. which is a good thing. this article makes that clear, but unfortunatley it speaks mainly of super-small houses which people are actually using as second homes...not a permanent residences. i look forward to hearing more about this movement and people who are making the move to live in small homes..full-time. (houses pictured: top left: a 750 squarefoot, 2 bed, full bath, nice kitchen, and bottom right: very small, 1, not quite seperate bedroom, exterior bath..both from wee houses)

Think Small - New York Times

Cancer: How Dangerous Are Our Cosmetics?

ok, so i know i've written about this before. bad things in our body products. but to me it is such a simple thing to fix in our daily lives, that why shouldn't we make a change. read this article from newsweek. about carcinogenic ingredients in BABY shampoos and bubble bath...and how common the ingredients are in lots of other products.
Cancer: How Dangerous Are Our Cosmetics? - Newsweek: Tip Sheet Environment - MSNBC.com
and, of course, for more information on your specific products, use the environmental working group's site: www.ewg.org . it is chock full of info and explains the problems with certain bad ingredients, and you can even create a shopping list by using the search engine. it's such a simple change in daily lives that can effect the REST of our lives.

NEW:7 wonders of the world!

hmmm... i had, for some reason, alwsy thought there were 7 world wonders that were the "new" ones...but apparently these had never been decided upon. and now, we, the people on this planet, have a chance to vote for the new 7 wonders of the world. that's a cun concept. i'm not sure how the whole process worked, but the site currently has 21 amazing sites to choose from. so, log on and cast your vote!

n7w: Vote

a week away

mmm, i'm just returning from a wonderful week away, in belize, with my boyfriend. the ocean was crystal clear, the forest lush, the rivers wide, the caves deep, the mayan ruins amazing, the fan corals colorful, the nurse sharks adorable, the sun warm, the rain loud, the sand white, the people friendly, the orange groves extensive, the buses cheap, the love warm. no decisions were made regarding the future, in fact we didn't speak of it..we lived in every moment. and that was wonderful. every moment. and then we said goodbye in the bustling and shiny dallas airport. and now i am back, to offer you an orange starfish. here's to love and travels and starfish.

Animalia

i know, i've been gone for a while. but now i am back with a suggestion. Animalia, by barbara helen berger, is a beautiful book about kindness to animlas. my mom read it to me as a child and i have read and re-read it growing up. i recently bought my own copy and was taken back to those early memories. the illustrations are beautiful and the stories are simple and yet meaningful at the same time.


Barbara Helen Berger, Children's Books Section

places i love..or would love given the chance

thrown for a loop

when i am talking with freinds, or people at work, or my family i feel generally encouraged by the state of things in the world. it's by no means becoming utopic: people are starving, hiv/aids is becoming a pandemic, global warming is off and running, houses are being built left & right, species are dying. but overall, i often feel that there is a general swelling of conciousness. people on a large scale seem to becoming more and more aware of the issues and are becoming more willing to help create change. and i like to think people are becoming more informed. but then, things come out of nowhere and hit me upside the head, and make me pause for a moment (or make me think about it for over a week) ...and make me think "now, what really, is the world comming to. did i just hear right?"

here is an example from my personal life. the setting: me, talking with a good friend, who considers herself informed and works in the media, and her friend from europe.

me: or we could walk there, though it's a bit long.
her: let's just drive, it's so cold out.
me (sarcastically): yeah, so much for global warming.
her: that's just a theory.
me, european: *silence.*
european: yeah, the americans won't even join kyoto.
me: please don't hold that agaisnt us personally. it's the govt and who they are representing...like energy companies.
her: what's kyoto?
me, european: *second silence.*
european: an international agreement to lower emissions.
her: hmm, nope, never heard of it.
me: *more embarassed/livid silence.*

ok, so we did go ahead and explain it a little further to her. but, it just through me for a loop. how can i expect a huge sell of change for the better when even my own freinds, who consider themselves informed haven't heard and are skeptical of issues that are very well covered and documented. how can i bring more knowledge to the table. here's a great site on grist that provides all kinds of information reagarding climate change. and how to discuss the issues: http://gristmill.grist.org/skeptics

a little greenwashing never hurt anyone...even EXXON

so, finally, exxon has cut ties with the competitive enetrprise institute. they were previously funding campaigns to to make people questions global warming and making claims that global warming and carbon dioxide were not an issue. now it seems, since the dems have control of the house and senate, Big Oil has decided to start changing itself a little. we all prefer to do our own greenwashing as opposed to being forced to scrub up in a major way by congress. i don't have full faith that exxon is actually going to make a huge change, hey there's still a little oil left. why should they actually encourage people to keep them from using up every last drop. however, maybe they hvae seen the glaringly bright light at the end of the short tunnel, or have counted the last few drops of liquid gold that are in their pipes, and realize that there has got to be more money to be made elsewhere. why not fund research in to alternative fuel, which will eventually become the fuel of the present? and make a few bucks....

Exxon cuts ties to warming skeptics - Environment - MSNBC.com

i'm thankful!

Wow, can you believe it’s thanksgiving tomorrow? Thanksgiving is late in the year, it’s when the holiday season kicks into high gear, when plants finally decide to put all growth on hold until next spring, when the weather becomes seriously colder, when animals start hibernating and we start cross country skiing….but it seems way to early for all of that. Where did the fall go?

Regardless, of where time went, or whether I am actually ready for winter to start descending, it is Thanks-giving, and so we should do just that. I’m thankful for so many things, it would be almost ridiculous to try and think of them all…. my family, my friends, the beauty of nature around me, the endless opportunities I’ve had in life and those that are on the horizon, the inner beauty of people I’ve come to know, my health and the health of my family and friends, the small joys in life, the big joys in life, the traveling I get to do, the love I am able to give and receive, the sacrifices people have made for me and my lifestyle, the satisfaction in the work I do and the landowners who make it possible, the hope that our generation has for the future, the earth and everything it makes possible…I could go on and on. Wow, you know, we really are very lucky people in this world. Not only in the physical needs sense, but the sense that we can so readily appreciate the small yet wonderful moments in life. Can you imagine life without being able to appreciate a little envelope of sea stones and shells? Or the words of a friend? Or sunsets over a desert/ocean? Or the plain old fact that HERE WE ARE!! That in and of itself is amazing!

cayons at their best

We left Friday morning and drove to just west of middle-of-nowhere-Utah. The drive was absolutely beautiful through canyons and red cliffs and over washes and, with the help of satellite radio, we had great bluegrass with us the whole way. We were on the trail by 1pm and hiked out over a flat, gently rolling red-sand area for a few miles and then dropped the 200 feet or so into The Canyon from the southern rim. The sandstone canyon twisted and turned and had all kinds of cool rock formations from lots of little holes, like swiss cheese, to big alcoves where we could climb up and sit, to super narrow slots, to wide open areas with different colors of sandstone marbled together. It’s simply amazing what wind and water can do to stone. I was in awe at every turn of the canyon floor. On our hike up the canyon we saw a beautiful panel of petroglyphs carved into a dark varnished area. After a few hours of hiking in the canyon we looked for a route up and out and found one out to the northern rim and by sunset we had found a perfect camping spot, on flat sandstone, facing south over a small tributary canyon and toward Jacob’s Chair (a tall red butte formation sticking up prominently up out of the desert.) After we found a water pocket and made dinner, we sat on the sandstone watching as the last light disappeared. Since it was nearly a new moon and there wasn’t an ounce of light pollution, the stars were absolutely gorgeous. I must have seen 7 shooting stars the hour we sat there.

After not a quite complete night’s sleep (I woke up at 2am and had to force myself out of my sleeping bag and all it’s warmness to go pee…not fun when it’s 20 degrees!) we were up with the sun and on to a whole day of exploring the canyon and it’s tributaries. We found some amazing slots which we had to wedge our way through, some lush seeps with fresh pools of water and fresh green plants, some more beautiful pictographs, and all kinds of rock formations. It was a perfect day, sunny and warm and still and we were wearing t-shirts. Mid afternoon we had to find a way out of the canyon toward camp….if we couldn’t find a way out it would have been a long 5 hours of backtracking to where we entered it. Luckily, with some scrambling, we made it out. Just then a little breeze picked up and one guy broke out his kite and we flew the kite and went looking for water pockets and arrowheads. A friend found ½ and arrowhead and another almost complete one. And it was another gorgeous night of shooting stars and coyotes howling and an owl hooting. It was surreal.

Sunday morning I woke up with ice on the end of my sleeping bag but as soon as the sun popped over the hill, it was gorgeous and warm. During breakfast a raven flew slowly overhead and we could hear every flap of its wings in the perfect stillness of the morning. Morning and late afternoon-evening are my favorite times of the day. That moment right before and right after the sun sets, that time between a warm glow and a dew setting. The colors can be so intense, the sounds sweet.

After some yoga on the edge of the canyon, I packed up and the three of us hiked in, down and then back out of the canyon …by then my feet had had it. So the last couple miles across the flatter stuff was a little more tedious but we made it to the car by 4 and decided to do the quick tour of Natural Bridges while we were driving by. The drive back toward Moab was gorgeous with the sun setting on Comb Ridge (a big sandstone ridge that runs north-south and so was brightly lit in reds and pinks during sunset), various mountain ranges, and all the buttes. I can’t even begin to describe how pretty it was. Wide open space, red buttes, snow capped mountains, sandstone formations, dark canyons cutting out from the road, all of these bathed in golden light changing to orangey then blushing rose then moving toward a deep red and eventually fading to lavender and blue-grey as the sun set. Sigh.

I still can’t believe how much beauty can be packed into such a few short days. Trips like that can sustain a person for a long time. I feel all rosy and happy and liberated inside. Mm.

somethings in life can make a big impression on a person. my heart goes out to all those whose family, and friends are on this site.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/fallen/

ooh, vegan icecream for everyone!

so, i found a new site... and it's so delicious. recipes for vegan icecream. who doesn't love icecream (even in this very cold weather that seems to have decended on us...at least i've been scraping ice off my windows in the morning...i won't go on), and who doesn't love saving animals from some cruel fate, or saving resources and helping limit pollution and environmental destruction? well, now you can do all of that in one move... make VEGAN ICECREAM, it's fun, easy, simple, delicious and will make you feel good about it too!

thanks agnes!

http://veganicecream.blogspot.com/

plastic is everywhere (no #3 for me)

some of my pillows have plastic (poly-fil). my toothbrush is plastic. the liner of my soymilk container and the bag for my cereal is plastic. my fridge handle is plastic as are the tubes that deliver water to my sink. my shampoo bottles, my sneakers, my fleece coat, my hair band, my lunch container, my toilet, my earing backs, the coating in the inside of canned peaches, the handle on my teapot, my cell phone, my savings cards on my key chain...ok, and i still haven't even made it to work...nor left the house. that's a lot of plastic. and then you hear all this stuff about plastics off-gassing or breaking down and causing health problems. and stuff about recycling plastics. so here are the main kinds of plastics (taken from wikipedia.com):

1. PETE (PET): Polyethylene Terephthalate - Commonly found on: 2-liter soft drink bottles, cooking oil bottles, peanut butter jars.
2. HDPE: High Density Polyethylene - Commonly found on: detergent bottles, milk jugs.
3. PVC: Polyvinyl Chloride - Commonly found on: plastic pipes, outdoor furniture, shrink-wrap, water bottles, salad dressing and liquid detergent containers. (**AVOID # 3**)
4. LDPE: Low Density Polyethylene - Commonly found on: dry-cleaning bags, produce bags, trash can liners, food storage containers.
5. PP: Polypropylene - Commonly found on: bottle caps, drinking straws
6. PS: Polystyrene - Commonly found on: packaging pellets or "Styrofoam peanuts," cups, plastic tableware, meat trays, take-away food clamshell containers
7. OTHER: Other - This plastic category, as its name of "other" implies, is any plastic other than the named #1–#6, Commonly found on: certain kinds of food containers and Tupperware.

And here's a bit from Grist.org about which plastics to avoid. Most important thing: remember "no 3 for me."

Ask Umbra On which plastics to avoid

a hopeful american

well, i think the elections show that americans were/are ready for a change. hopefully (and i am a person eternally full of hope) it will be a swift change for the better. and hopefully the middleclass will be heard and minorities will be heard and women will be heard and the environment will be heard and scientists will be heard and people's hopes will be heard...though for any real change to occur it will require a lot of listening, not just hearing.

this is a great first step... here's to the red, white and blue and hope for something new! (and something green too!)

100 mile thanksgiving

i've been reading about the 100-mile diet. essentially the premise there is that there is a ton of energy used to transport mangoes to Colorado from Mexico, and bananas to california from Brazil and soy beans from Peru and rice from china and apples form New Zealand…When the average North American sits down to eat, each ingredient has typically travelled at least 1,500 miles....so the idea is, the more local food I eat the less of a negative impact I’ll have on the environment. Makes sense. And, the idea was implemented by a couple in BC who went on a 100mile diet for a year…(read their story here: http://100milediet.org/) So, that’s what Greg and I are going to try and do for Thanksgiving when i visit him. A 100 mile meal, meaning we’re going to try and use only foods that come from a 100 mile radius around Charlottesville. i'll report back on what we actually eat!

New Book: WorldChanging

oooh, cool. there's a new book comming out (or rather just out) called Worldchanging: A Users Guide for the 21st Century. The summary of the book states "From consumer consciousness to a new vision for industry; non-toxic homes to refugee shelters; microfinance to effective philanthropy; socially responsible investing to starting a green business; citizen media to human rights; ecological economics to climate change, this is the most comprehensive, cutting-edge overview to date of what's possible in the near future -- if we decide to make it so."

I think a lot of the information is taken from (and it is layed out based on) the WorldChaning website. it has 7 sections: stuff, shelter, cities, community, business, politics, and planet. i think i'll get it. adn hopefully i get a chance to read it relatively soon. after i finish Michael Polland's excellent, fact-packed, intersting, terrifying: Omnivores Dilema and a book called Becoming Vegan and the list of fun novels i want to read. Here's a link to the new book: WorldChanging

god will be mad at you if you mock the mormons

So, Tuesday was Halloween and my last ceramics class. Which was great adn we did a Raku firing. I was out of there around 9:30 and on my way home when Bryan called. He was out and he told me to come out to the bar when I got home. So at 10pm I was on my bike headed all 3 blocks to the bar. Everyone was already standing outside (the bar had closed) in their Halloween costumes, quite raucous and crazy. Then we all rode our bikes to another bar and danced and sang to the juke box. Finally a Mullet-man (I have no idea who he was) announced that Brad and Joey’s (whoever they are) bonfire was ready.

So everyone was back on their bikes, cruising the 1 mile to their house. It must have been quite the scene, 20 semi-drunk people, on bikes, in costume, at 10:30pm cruising down Main St of a very small town. On our way one girl had a very slow-motion fall onto the curb, but she got right up and said she was fine. When we got to the bonfire we all stood around chatting. It was fun to meet a whole bunch of new people, though I don’t know how many I’ll recognize in the daylight, with no costumes.

About ½ hour after being there, right as I was thinking of riding home, the Mullet-man was talking madly into his cell then he turned to me and asked “are you sober?” I was. “Can you drive?” Yes. So I was led upstairs to the bathroom where the girl who had fallen was sitting, having had the cut in her knee cleaned out, with 10 drunk people looking on. It was a huge 2 inch gash, that definitely needed stitches. A guy gave me the keys to his truck and me and this girl, whom I’d never met, and her friend all got in the truck and I drove them to the Fruita emergency room…all 6 blocks away. (By the way, the ironic thing: the girls were dressed as Mormons on their mission who had gotten into a biking accident…with the black pants, white shirts, ties, backpacks, helmets and bikes plus the fake blood and fake scars.)

So we get there and the nurses had kind of a hard time figuring out what had happened, but they actually thought it was funny. And they called the doctor, who had to come in from another town. In the mean time, the Guy-who’s-truck-we’d-borrowed shows up, having removed his fake boobs, eyelashes, and most of his girly makeup and he’s just standing there cracking jokes. And finally the doctor arrives….he had long red hair in a ponytail, a mustache, old jeans, cowboy-boots, and a flannel shirt (but, no, he was not in costume). What a hoot. After looking at the girl’s knee he said “ooh, I can see your patella.” Lovely.

Meanwhile Guy-who’s-car-we-borrowed is taking pictures of this whole thing. Then, as the stitches commenced (7 internal, 8 external), in walked my friend Bryan and our friend Milan…they’d ridden their bikes over and somehow managed to bring my bike too. So there we are, 6 folks in the emergency room (all but two in costume), with three nurses who are laughing and a cowboy doctor. They guys were blowing up gloves on their heads and playing eye test games, and just thinking everything was so funny. At that point, 1am, I decided I was pretty much done with all that. And I rode my bike the less than one block home and had a great night’s sleep. Just way too short.

And that story is why:
1. you shouldn’t go out when you have no plans to stay out late
2. you shouldn’t dress as a Mormon on a mission in a bike wreck, god will be mad at you…especially this close to Utah (if you are Mormon, don’t be insulted, it’s totally meant in jest.)
3. you shouldn’t drink and ride

back to the southeast: Part I, going to Atlanta

so i flew in to nashville on saturday and rented a car to drive down and visit some of my bestest friends in atlanta. if you've read this blog you know that i have some wonderful, wonderful friends and that some of them have had babies. and one couple lives in atlanta. and wehn i arrived (after a beautiful sunny drive) i hugged everybody and was immediately sat down to hold teh 3 month old penny rose on the back porch. she's absoluteley perfect and sweet and adorable. and the fact that her parents are so in love with her just makes me so happy...not that one would ever expect otherwise. i guess it is just such a very happy thing to see a family together like that.

and i was so lucky to have friends that all enjoy eachother enough to congregate in atlanta for a few days. 2 friends from durham drove down, afriend from dc came down, i have a few friends in atlanta and greg flew down as well. and it was so nice of my friends in atlanta to host us all, especially with the new baby and all. We just hung out and went out to eat and played with the baby and hiked a bit and had a generally lovely time enjoying each other’s company. It’s so wonderful to have friends like that! we didn't do anything crazy and yet i enjoyed every last second of it and was very sad to leave everyone.

back to the southeast: Part II, going to RALLY

Then Wednesday night Aileen and I went back to Nashville (a beautiful drive) for RALLY. That a great event!!!!!! I feel so rejuvenated (well not physically) and like I’ve made some great connections and expansions and learned a ton and had fun and all….the event had 2,000 land conservation people from through out the us…and a few from Canada.

When we got in Aileen and I went out to eat with my co-worker and Michelle and this guy Wes, from Seattle, who works for Jones & Jones ....they did the American Indian museum in dc.

Then Thursday it was an all day seminar on tax issues. And we went out again, this time with more young folks and we stayed out listening to music until 1:30 am.

Then it was up Friday morning to do field trip (biking, boating and hiking) from 8-5. It was beautiful though cold, and I met a lot of really cool people on the trip. (And the director of the land trust I worked for in NC was on it so that was fun.) Then it was off to the welcoming dinner. Lovely and all organic (impressive for a crowd of 2,000 attendees.) And the governor of TN, and Bill Mckibben spoke. Great talks. Though it lasted until 10 and which made us go out kind of late. I went out with a bunch of folks I knew from NC and a fellow-fellow and we went dancing at a great bar until 3:30. I had my "git r done" tank under my sweater, and since we were dancing the sweater came off and I met almost everyone in the bar because they loved my shirt....including the bass (the big one) player in the band who came up to me and talked to me later and asked if I’d stay later...but it was already 3:30...so, like no, though he was cute! Hah!

(A note on Nashville: not the best of cities but not the worst. Sections are rundown and sections are hopping. We mostly went out in the latter and there was live music in every single bar and no covers and bands played until 2:30 or 3! Awesome! Even though most of it is bluegrass or country. This in turn makes the town very country. Everyone wears wranglers and cowboy hats and boots and big blonde hair. A totally other world but a fun place for a few nights...not more!)

So then Saturday was 4 workshops (12 to choose from per session) and most of them were just great. And I met so many, many new people it was crazy. And it was good because I felt totally on this weekend, so I had no trouble about saying hi to people. Note here: on Saturday morning, from across the hall of this huge center I noticed this freaking adorable guy…I couldn’t help but look. But then he caught my eye and I kind of smiled and looked away. Too adorable for me. Though late in the afternoon we happened to be in the same workshop and I looked back at one point (not knowing he was there) and he looked directly at me. hm!

Then after a great day of meeting and greeting and learning and being exhausted, I went to the Duke reception for alumni that were attending the conference. Amazing how many of us there were! And it was fun to see everyone. So much so that we went out all together with a bunch of other NC folks. More live music…but I couldn’t stay out past 12 I was so tired.

Sunday it was up early again and workshops all day. And I saw cute guy briefly, once again from across the room. And I met a ton more people and ran into people from past lives (like my summer roommate from smith one year!! And a woman I had interviewed with for a job a few years back crazy what a small world it was. And a guy i had met on a raft trip back in grad school) The workshops were again very interesting. Though right before the last workshop of the day I got very tired. And I was walking up the spiral type stairs to my workshop and cute guy was walking down and we literally almost ran into each other and we just shook hands and introduced ourselves (he’s Dan) and chatted really briefly about what we do for work and ran off to our respective workshops. He had such a nice little twinkle about him I was kind of disappointed we’d only gotten to talk once and very briefly. (Though it was great that we did get to chat at all seeing as there were that many people at the conference.) Anyway.

After the last workshop it was out to dinner with some tax credit people in Denver (very fun loving) and then on to the closing reception which ran from 7:30-midnight at the Country Music Hall of Fame. It was fun with live music and we got to have the whole things to ourselves. (Though the country exhibits didn’t mean much to me) and more meet and greet and lots of desserts. And then I was just sitting there talking to some folks from Ontario and this older man comes up and asks which one of us two-steps. Of course none of us do …but he picks me out of the bunch and I had to have the first dance, on an empty dance floor, two-stepping with a guy I don’t know in front of hundreds of people. Possibly my worst nightmare! But it was actually fun and he was a good leader and everyone clapped when we were done. But my armpits were sweating. Anyway. So then more mingling.

Then around midnight the western slope Colorado folks were all leaving to go to another bar and Dan appears and says hi and we start talking and we ended up walking down to the river park just chatting and chatting and then went back to the bar and met up with my favorite Colorado folks and some fellow-fellows and other people out here. And we all were dancing like crazy until 2:30! Ahhh! Then we got kicked out of the bar and we al went next door to a bar that was open all night but Dan and I decided it was too loud and from 3-3:30am we just walked around Nashville and looked at the Capital and in old churches and just had a great time. He was such a very, very nice guy. Don’t worry, he knows about Greg and he has a relationship too, we were just having a wonderful time. And at 3:45 i got back to the hotel and I ran upstairs, finished packing, made sure Margie had all her stuff (she was a little tipsy still) and we checked out and were on our shuttle to the airport at 4. Then my plane was at 6. And i was back in Grand Junction by 10am and off to work.

Now that i have been rejuvenated with a couple good nights of rest, i can tackle the world of land conservation with great energy and enthusiasm for what i do. it was so wonderful to meet so many people whom are doing similar things across the nation, whom all have a love for their work and are so happy to talk about it. Rally!!