Now that's the spirit!

“In this Economy” it’s tempting to feel powerless, feeble and overwhelmed.  People you know and love are either in financial trouble or perhaps disaster.

As much as we want there’s just not much we can do to turn this country is there? Or is there?

Well, you could go to a tea party convention and threaten to tear down the system (to be replaced by what exactly?)

Or….

You can take a few steps that though small, will gradually ensure your and your comunity’s financial health.

Buy Local

In this study of local bookstores vs national bookstores for every $1,000 (the cost of ~1 latte/day at Starbucks for a year) spent locally, $450 remained in the local economy.  The same amount spent on a national chain only keeps about $130 in the local economy.  As you work and live (to some extent) in your local economy this means that the chance for your own dollars to come back to you are about 300% higher simply by buying local.  And on the flip side it makes locally produced goods cheaper while increasing the odds that increased and more diverse services are offered near-by. Over time this amounts to a huge gain for the individual.

Educate yourself and become a mini-entrepreneur

One of the easiest risk-mitigation strategies for investment is simply to diversify your portfolio of stocks and bonds.  Do the same with your job, your skills and your career.  Take on a few more skills and contribute them where you can.  Remember, only jobs which are easy to document and train people to do can be shipped overseas…good, fresh, relevant, creative and insightful ideas are always needed.

Pay off your debts

If you didn’t have to pay interest on your house it would be about 60% cheaper.  The average purchase on a credit card costs 12% more than it’s purchase price.  Seriously… if you pay in cash you don’t have to make nearly as much money for the same lifestyle.

Stay healthy physically and mentally

Happy, strong and resilient people make good productive communities.  Good productive communities do well economically.  And even when they don’t do well economically they remain happy… and that’s what really counts, joy in the face of despair.

Related posts:

1. Local currency as a hedge against tyrrany
2. A modest proposal for fixing the economy
3. Greentheo’s plan for economic recovery

I’m not going to rant, but today I’m adding a few more things  to my boycott list in an attempt to save this country from the perils of the anti-social behavior that are slowly gripping it.  I know. Yes. It will seem ironic that I’m communicating this to you via “Web 2.0″ technology after you read this.  However, I can’t encourage you to boycott my blog… how else would you know what you too should be standing up against?!

Starting immediately I will be boycotting:

1. Communicating anything more than trivialities by SMS txt message.
2. Using Facebook to see what’s happening in a friend’s life if I wonder how they’re doing.
3. If Facebook tells me that it’s someone’s birthday (a genuinely good feature) I’ll send him/her an email with more than 150 characters in it.
4. Twitter altogether.
5. Checking email more than 3 times per day.
6. Replying with less than 1 sentence to any email, letter or phone call.
7. Replying with “pretty good” to anyone’s inquiry about about how it’s going.
8. Saying that I would love to meet up sometime and never following through on it.
9. Answering a phone call/text in the middle of another conversation.
10. Not commenting on a good blog post.

So what are you boycotting this week?

Related posts:

1. The Power of Downgrading
2. The Life of Pi

Don’t believe it?

Recite the letters A to J , then count to 10, then recite A to J while inserting a number between each letter (A 1, B 2, C 3…)  Brains just aren’t meant to multitask …

BTW… Andrew always posts really interesting articles, you should subscribe to his blog

Related posts:

1. Wikipedia vs. TV
2. Greentheo starts a math blog
3. My Friend Patrick’s blog

Whether we believe it or not, cultural norms play a big part in our daily actions. They can determine seemingly inconsequential things like who goes first through a stop signed intersection when two people get there at the same time.  You know the hand wave, the light blink… etc… the polite wave that’s really more like a condescending “See I’m being the bigger person here and letting you go first” wave.)

Sometimes cultural norms have large consequences which seem trivial. Body odor is one of those seemingly inconsequential topics. In America the very idea of your own body producing an odor that can be smelled by anyone at any minute distance is absolutely terrifying and repulsive.

Scientists believe that BO has some very important roles to play including sexual attraction and the health of our future children!

Sweat is also a way for you to eliminate toxins.  Amazingly the under arm is one of the largest concentrations of sweat+lymph glands. It’s a central elmination point.

Perhaps BO then is one of our body’s way of communicating to you about your inner health (bad BO = more toxins, good BO=less toxins).

And yet nillions of dollars, trillions of gallons of clean fresh drinkable water, and countless productive hours have been spent on this one chore.  It’s such a powerful norm that culturally we’d prefer to get Alzaheimer’s disease and brain cancer[1] from the Aluminums in anti-perspirants than to smell like ourselves.

What other cultural norms do we as Americans have?  What do we consider taboo?  What do we consider holy?

How do these choices affect our communal health, our individual health and our environment?

Will anyone else join me in boycotting traditional deodorant and showering techniques? Anyone?  Anyone?

1. Aluminum, a neurotoxin which affects diverse metabolic reactions., Joshi, JG

Related posts:

1. Save water, save your skin

Admittedly I’ve been a “small government conservative” in the past.  But I think I’m over it.

Especially with the craziness coming from such movements as the tea party who shout for an end to taxes without represenation (we already have representation) and the end to socialized medicine and etc.

And yet, my guess would be that not a single “small government conservative” has ever opted out of one single government service… *ahem*… entitlement.

Anyways, it’s not a small government with no taxes that we need.  It’s a functional government, with accountable representatives that we need and want.

It’s high time that reason and grace were reintroduced to America.  Debate and public discourse needs to replace shouting, screaming and bully-pulpitting.  Forgiveness and cooperation should be our economic cornerstones.

And more than anything, we need to get out of our lifeboat-mentality.  There is more than enough room for everyone in the lifeboat of America.  Come one come all!

Related posts:

1. What is wealth?
2. Nobody can defeat the US militarily…
3. A modest proposal for fixing the economy

What does it mean to be green?  How does your worldview fit with that description?

For me the key tenants of greenness that most accurately fits with my worldview are stewardship, efficiency and gratitude.

Stewardship because God has placed man in charge of the earth’s care.

Efficiency because God has given each man a purpose but not quite enough time to accomplish it.

Gratitude because as Jesus gave his life for mine I am compelled do the same for others (and this means a lot more than going to Africa with a Bible in hand)!

With that here are 3 great tips to embracing such a green-biblical lifestyle.

1. Multi-task in ways which actually allow you to produce more with the same amount of time. Multitasking usually doesn’t work.  Writing a blog, writing programming code for work, and answering emails actually slows every task down when the overhead involved for your brain to switch tasks is accounted for.  Finding tasks which can be done at the same time may not only save you time, but effort as well.  And reduced effort/work/energy is a key tenant for greenness.  For example: instead of driving to work, ride to work on the bus.  While riding catch up on reading, email or if you get motion sick try getting to know your fellow passengers (or as a last resort be extremely rude and talk loudly on your cell phone).
2. Plan ahead. Spur of the moment decisions are good when a.) running from bears b.) romancing a (wo)man.  Although intuition sees things that reason often doesn’t, when it comes to making the most of your life on earth forethought is required.  With a little forethought and pre-planning not only will more be achieved through enhanced multitasking and work reduction but the end result will be increased available time and options (freedom!).  Usually forethought produces the most elegant, efficient and useful solution…and that’s really green!
3. Use and ReUse, never waste. It is estimated that if no food were thrown away the reduction in CO2 emissions would be equivalent to taking every 5th car off the road (not to mention the number of hungry people it could feed)!  For every new solar panel that’s installed it takes 15 years to pay back it’s cost.  However for every piece of construction material picked up from the recycled materials yard the payback is nearly instant!  Sadly, we live in a throw-away-culture[1] which thrives on replacing items and not repairing them…and so… nothing gets fully used.  So start a trend, thank God for your blessings, use those things which you have been blessed with, and when you can use them no more pass them on to someone else who can!
4. Compost! Okay I said 3 but seriously…  you cannot be green unless you compost!  Composting is God’s way of helping us differentiate ourselves from pigs… we don’t have to wallow in our own refuse and excrement!
5. Rest! Okay 5 tips… If we take 2 steps forward and 1 step back, we’ll always be moving 1 step forward.  Is it any wonder then that on average we’re awake 16 hours and asleep 8 (A ratio of 2:1 might I point out)? In green-biblical living the motto isn’t “Work hard play hard” it should be “Work/Play hard, rest hard”.  Alright!  Now get out there and take a nap, walk your dogs, read to your kids, drink some wine and cuddle with your spouse!

What do you think, what does it mean to be green?  How does your worldview compel you to act?

1. Does it not seem absurd to anyone else that we spend so much effort to get materials from the ground, shape them into something useful, use them once or twice, and then put them back into the ground?

Related posts:

1. multitasking woes
2. Top 5 extremely cheap steps to living a more sustainable way
3. So you think you’re green? Try 10 ultra-green lifestyle changes

I recently got into brewing at home and have had quite a good time doing it.  Something about millions of yeast cells working away for you to turn those grain derived sugars into beer just makes me feel all in charge of things (or something like that).

And no it doesn’t taste like feet!  Even my good friends with good taste buds agree “it’s pretty good”.

So I had to write a page about it.  If you’re interested in partaking of the process next time just leave me a comment!

Related posts:

1. What is wealth?
2. Fun with Math

or is she?

What is wealth?  Is it the having of goods?  Is it the having of large quantities of money?  Is it the having of unassailable security?

In part yes.

The real measure of wealth is having things which we value (regardless of the measure of value that others place on those same things).

Wealth is the thing that marketers infer that you’ll have when you buy their products.

• Free time
• strong and functional friendships and familial relationships
• well developed intellectual and physical capabilities
• stability
• psychological well being (i.e. freedom from fear, healed wounds, self-confidence, freedom from anxiety, freedom from uncontrollable anger … freedom… Galations 5:1)
• spiritual and philosophical understanding of who we are, what we were made for and where we are going
• the having of adequate shelter
• the having of nutritious food (not just something that fills our stomachs and stimulates our taste buds)
• the having of functional things which help us obtain the above items
• the having of non-functional things which give us pleasure solely in their beauty

Are we as a people wealthy?  Are you wealthy?  Do you even know what it means to be wealthy?  Will your 401k and your salary really give you what you want or will they be just another means to an end?

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2. The miracle of Worgl
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Shower? Not with these bad boys!

One of the cornerstones of green living is saving water.  Recently my own backyard has seen the addition of 600 gallons of rain water storage (for the low price of $20 and some sweat).

However, green as most folks would like to be, usually the limit is drawn at showering.

Showering is an extremely important cultural norm in America.   If one were to admit that she had not showered in 3 days she might also be lowering their head in shame, self-disgust and with the remorse of one who had been branded with a scarlet letter A on her back.

Fortunately us aspiring conservationists have a great tool for cleanliness, health and reducing our water consumption on such activities like showering (which can waste 20-40 gallons per 10 minutes and hundreds of watts of embodied energy in the hotness and cleanness of the water).

The answer is dry skin brushing with a stiff bristle brush.  It requires only about 5 minutes, a stiff bristle brush and a little bit of pain tolerance.

The alleged benefits are:

Benefits of Dry Skin Brushing Explained:

• Removes cellulite
• Cleanses the lymphatic system
• Removes dead skin layers
• Strengthens the immune system
• Stimulates the hormone and oil-producing glands
• Tightens the skin preventing premature aging
• Tones the muscles
• Stimulates circulation
• Improves the function of the nervous system
• Helps digestion
• AND it’s easy, inexpensive and invigorating!

Really? Well…I’m not sure if my cellulite has been removed but all things considered not even my lovely wife (whose nose functions perfectly well) could tell that I hadn’t traditionally showered since the last full moon. And honestly, my skin has never felt better mid dry-as-a-bone-Colorado-winter.

Related posts:

1. Fresh water stats
2. Ever need to store a few Kilowatt-hours? Haul a bunch of water uphill.
3. Mini Backpacking Alcohol Stove

But periodically I’m reminded that I’m blessed beyond belief. Like Jamie says here.  Some call it sacrifice, some call it a blessing.

Or as my French Grandfather always said (in favor of the US government – wierd huh):  I love paying taxes in America.  In no other place could I have made so much money.

Anyhow, I think it’s time we did a little collective repentance for our incredible selfishness and poo pooing of our myriad blessings and Providence.

Related posts:

1. Tea-party bleh!
2. Bonds, CD’s and Money Market Accounts….or How the Man Get’s Free Money.
3. Taxes