Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Weekend Link Lovin'

I thought I'd start doing a weekend post with a wrap-up of useful things that sprung up during the week. Enjoy!

1. Just because you haven't heard enough yammering about the Diva Cup, here's a review from Surviving and Thriving on Pennies. Anything that involves vaginas and contains the phrase "squat and go treasure hunting for it" deserves a read.

2. Still trying to figure out how to sow seeds indoors? Here's a quick tutorial. Plus, who can resist a blog with a banner consisting of people with overly large and out-of-proportion heads for no reason?

3. Forgot to participate in Screen Free Week (or didn't know about it)? Here are some alternatives to fill your time instead of rotting in front of the TV/computer screen.

4. If you didn't get caught up in the brouhaha about the plastic beach product, Turtlebacks, on Facebook earlier this week, now's your chance to get a primer recap from My Less Plasticky Life. I prefer to use the product as beach boobs (BB) instead. They get a lot less sandy that way. And, my enhanced bosoms won't kill real turtles because my BB, hopefully, won't get swept away in the waves. How embarrassing.

5. Feeling skunky? Getting rid of the stench of being sprayed by a skunk is a stinkin' pain. Here's a  solution that doesn't involve wasting your precious tomato juice.

That's it for now. Have a great weekend!

Friday, May 4, 2012

How connected are you?

I've been reading a few books on cyber security lately (don't ask), specifically Cyber War by Richard Clark, and it has really got me thinking about how vulnerable the peoples of the United States are against a major network failure or attack. What I'm talking about is of the information kind - meaning the Internet and everything connected to it. And I'm not just talking about web content and whether or not you can satisfy your Pinterest jonesin'.

The impact to daily 21st Century living would be intense. All our banking, payments, gas pumps, food distribution and much of our information and jobs depend on the Internet and its various parts. The Department of Defense, the NSA and other government agencies are working to protect government information and networks (and, for that matter, exploit other nation's vulnerabilities), but aren't doing much by way of protecting commerce and citizens.

Does your job rely on connectivity? How do you buy food, pay your bills, etc? Just protecting your immediate network won't matter much if the whole shebang is attacked. Even if you use cash or checks, the underlying bank systems are impacted.

Anyway, I'm just curious as to how much, if any, thought you've put into these vulnerabilities. I know we discuss a lot about getting off the grid, but unless you own your own home outright and grow your own food/stockpile it, you are impacted whether you like it or not.

For us, we use the web for online banking, we use credit cards for every purchase, we get all our entertainment from the web (Netflix, etc.), we get all our information from online (all newspapers, magazines, etc.) and our jobs are 100% dependent on it. How about you?

Finally, how vulnerable do you think we are? And how crippled would we be if attacked (say, by North Korea)?

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

2012 Independent Publisher Book Award winner

I'm so excited! I got news today that I've won a book award.

I won a Silver in the Health/Medicine/Nutrition Category of the 2012 Independent Publishers Book Awards for my book, The Non-Toxic Avenger, What You Don't Know Can Hurt You, by New Society Publisher!

Not only do I get a medal and certificate and medal stickers for putting on my book, but there's also an awards ceremony on June 4th, during BookExpo America, in New York City.

Can I get a Woohoo?

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Top 5 benefits of climate change

Diane, of the blog, Big Green Purse, is hosting this month's Green Mom's Carnival on the impacts of climate change. I know all the other participants in the carnival are going to be covering the negative impacts of climate change so I thought, what the hell! Let's cover the positive points and how it benefits me, personally. Which is really what it's all about, no?

1. Carnival Cruises from Seattle to Paris going over the arctic. No pesky arctic sea summer ice to impede the non-stop fun of cruise ship style rock climbing, cabaret and the 24/7 buffet gorge. Plus, no Titanic-like surprises! I can just roll out of bed onto a ship and be in Paris tout suite! Bonjour Cap'n Stubing!

2. Beach front property. Right now our house is situated close to Puget Sound with no view. With a few meters rise in ocean levels, we're going to be sitting on a gold mine of beach front property. That, coupled with housing pressure from immigrants from the more dessicated areas of the country (I'm talking about you southwest. And southeast. And midwest.), can only mean an amazing increase in property value. Win-win!

3. Tropical weather without the vacation prices. No change of latitude will be needed for this change in attitude. Forget the crappy 10 months of dreary, wet, cold, depressing Seattle weather. All we need is a little climate change to shoot sunny skies our way. Better weather + beach front property = margarita time! Now. Who wants to party? Since all the other tropical areas will be underwater, Seattle will become the next beach vacation spot.

4. Less animals, more people. Animals suck. They use all our resources and don't contribute to the economy. They poop on our cars, wake us up with their confounded singing and other noises and make doing fun things dangerous. Like hiking and swimming. The worst thing is these dirty creatures carry diseases that make humans sick. And that's just wrong. So, less animals + more humans = better planet!

5. More zombies. Who doesn't love zombies? Zombies are loads of fun, easy to outrun and mercifully stupid. If lying out in the sun, hiking in the animal-free forest-deserts and hanging out on my beachfront property gets boring, shooting zombies will provide hours of free entertainment. Let the games begin!

Anyone want to rent a room?