Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Years 2009!

Has it really been this long since I have blogged? WOW! I must be loosing it...

I'm contemplating doing a year in review...however, it might be short and sweet:

Jan. - Visited Key West, FL. with my friend, Sam for a week and lived on a boat. Craziest time of my life. First time I ever slept in an airport overnight and the first (and only time) I went to a strip club (in my defense, I didn't know it was a strip club until we got into the place).

Feb. Went an saw Spring Awakening in NYC with Julie. Met Greg Mortensen who wrote Three Cups of Tea. Which I didn't read until May when I did my road trip with my dad (we actually listened to it on tape).

March - Did a Spring Break cruise with my friend, Julie. First real experience cruise (I'm not counting the ghetto on I did in Greece last year). Went to Miami, Mexico, Grand Cayman. Almost missed our cruise and kissed a sting ray!

April - Was basically spent finishing up college. Finals, papers, projects, wrapping up extra curricular work. Lots of reflection time.

May - Graduated from COLLEGE! Went to the Bahamas with 600 of my fellow graduates. Did a 10 day cross country trip with my dad. First time we had ever hung out in my life.

June - Jade came to visit from Boston. Although a somewhat awkward visit, it was fun to show an East Coast girl and West Coast way to have fun. Really, I'm just glad our friendship survived it.

July - Went to my 9th year of Houseboat, bitter sweet since BK wasn't there with me. Learned what it was like to be a "utility player".

August - Spent two weeks visiting my dad in China and Thailand, actually rode an elephant. Like sat on her head, not in a basket on her back.

September - GOT A REAL JOB! And joined an awesome Bible study with eight wonderful ladies, an awesome leader/mentor, and a phenomenal cook. Also went to Auburn to visit BK and experience my first Div. I college football game.

October - Pretty uneventful. Saw Warren Miller's Children of Winter and adjusted to being a "working gal".

November - Still adjusting to being a working girl. Trying to learn as much as I can about sustainability. Being a Geek. Also saw Call+Response.

December - Got snowed in from the Oregon "Arctic Blast." Celebrated Christmas and had to deal with my family.

WOW! So maybe my life isn't that bad. I guess it could be way worse. Maybe I just need to travel more...

I'm super excited about 2009. I even made a New Year's Resolution. Which I've never really done before. But being a "grown" up and all. I really think I need to start taking my finances seriously. So...

My New Year's Resolution is for every pay check:
Tithe 10% and Save 20%!

What is your New Year's Resolution?

Friday, December 19, 2008

Coolest Tattoo Ever

I was killing time on MySpace today and decided to check out Adorn's newest work. Since my dad has been talking about getting a tattoo while he is visit for the holidays. And I saw this one:


I'm seriously in love with it. As many of you know (and for those of you who don't feel free to ask) I have a huge scar that runs down the side of my left leg from my butt to my knee cap from a ski accident when I was 13. I'm totally happy with my scar, I view my accident as a sort of coming of age event and it was the biggest obstacle I've ever had to overcome. But this is the coolest thing I've ever seen. People have asked me if I wanted to have my scar laser removed or covered up. NEVER! It is an awesome story and a testimony to God on how He protects me. But I might consider doing something like this...

I wonder what my parents would say...

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Cradle to Cradle

I just finished reading Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, which discusses the way we make things. Instead of doing less bad, actually looking back at the re-design of a product. The first interesting thing about this "book" is not really a book, or should I say tree. It is not made of paper, but instead printed on synthetic paper and bound into a book-like format. This makes it durable and even water proof (great for the swimmer!) For someone who loves the way books smell and feel it was a little hard to get used to it, but after a couple of pages I got over it. Other cool highlights I enjoyed about this book:
  • Consider this: all the ants on the planet, taken together, have a biomass greater than humans. Ants have been incredibly industrius for millions of years. Yet their productiveness nourishes plants, animals, and soil. Human industry has been in full swing for a little over a century, yet it has brought about a decline in almost every ecosystem on the planet. Nature doesn't have the a design problem. People do.
  • The average lawn is an interesting beast: people plant it, then douse it with artificial fertilizers and dangerous pesticides to make it grow and to keep it uniform - all so that they can hack and mow what they encourage to grow. And woe to the small yellow flower that rears it head!
The author's also included steps to retool their thinking and their actions in service to an eco-effective vision:
  1. Get "free of" known culprits.
  2. Follow informed personal preferences. Prefer ecological intelligence. Prefer respect. Prefer delight, celebration, and fun.
  3. Creating a "passive positive" list. The X list. The gray list. The P list.
  4. Activate the positive (P) list.
  5. Reinvent! Single your intention. Restore. Be ready to innovate further. Understand and prepare for the learning curve. Exert intergenerational responsibility.
Another highlight (and shameless plug) about this book is that my boss is featured in it with her work with Nike and their steps to becoming more eco-effective.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

MIA

It's been a while since I've blogged. I apologize...but here are my excuses:
  1. My boss is in town this week. For the first time since I started working for her, I've seen her twice in the same week. I started working in September.
  2. I've been writing content for our new website. So I've been kinda blogging, just not publicly all week.
  3. No one gave me suggestions on what non-profits to research and write about. That's right I'm blaming all of you.
  4. I just haven't been in the blogging (or for that matter reading blogs) mood. But I'm getting out of it - can you tell?
  5. I've started going back to the gym.
  6. The holidays are coming. And I'm not celebrating Christmas and instead doing Advent Conspiracy, but I'm still attending holiday events.
That is all I can come up with for now. Maybe I'll do some floating thoughts:
  • I'm checking out a new potential job at Enviromedia, and yes this is a shameless plug. In case they find my blog. I'm in love with their website.
  • I'm a little frustrated at myself for not coming up with a cool business title and thus a new blog title. Suggestions?
  • I'm super frustrated that I can't write eloquently enough about what my business does to actually post it on a website.
  • I love that at my job I can be everything from market researcher, legal, IT, and assistant.
  • I'm super excited that Kirk (my brother) comes home tonight, Beckie (my best friend) comes home on the 17th, and Stu (my dad) comes to visit on the 21st.
  • I'm a little upset that there is not enough snow at Meadows to open. But I'm praying that this weekend will change that.
  • I'm in love with my Bible study.
  • I'm feeling more at home at Wildfire, where as of last night I became an official 6th grade girl's leader. There is something so encouraging about being prayed over which makes it seem more official. And my girls (all three of them) prayed out loud last night. That is huge for an 11 year old.
  • I think I need a new haircut.
  • My dad wants to get a tattoo over Christmas break...I'm thinking about trying to talk him into letting (aka paying for) me to get another one.
  • I was reading Jenni's blog about childhood lovely's. And realized as much as I want to be an "adult" woman, I still am not ready to give some stuff up.
  • While I am in fact an adult woman (I have the driver's license to prove it) I still get mistaken for be 16. Like at Costco, last Thursday...

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

(red)

So my December 3rd, showcase of cool non-profits is project (red). Great shopping ideas in this super cute video. Enjoy. Hopefully I'll have time later tonight to write about all the great things product (red) does.

Traci's Challenege


So my friend Traci, just challenged me to not say the "F-Word" for the entire month of December in honor of Jesus' birthday. Apparently I say it more often than I realize. So if you hear me say it. Please point it out to me. Trying to change for the good. Thanks!

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

December Goal

Our church is doing Advent Conspiracy this year. And for the next 24ish days I would like to show case different non-profits that are making a difference in this world. But I need your help. Know a great organization? Tell me about it! Ideally, I would like to do one per day. To get the ball rolling:

Nike Foundation

Nike believes in the power of human potential. Both on and off the playing field. They are now applying this belief in the game of poverty. Nike tried to find a place where they could make the biggest impact and found it. Teen girls. If you invest in them, it leads to a powerful ripple effect that can not be stopped. This is the Girl Effect, unleash them from, poverty, AIDS, early childbirth and they can do amazing things.

What can you do?
  1. Give. Check out Giving Coupons for more information.
  2. Share the information. Blog about it, tell a friend about it. Join in the conversation.
  3. Volunteer. Check out this cool website, VolunteerMatch to search for your perfect volunteering opportunity.

Monday, December 01, 2008

Today is World AIDS Day

Today is the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day.

I think it's both exciting and disappointing at the same time. Exciting that we have come a long way in 20 years, but disappointing that we still have to "celebrate" World AIDS Day to still get the message out.

I pull some statistics from today's CNN article on World AIDS Day.

  • On the first World AIDS Day, December 1, 1988, there was nearly 80,000 reported AIDS cases in the United States, thousands more were living HIV, and AIDS was reported in more that 135 countries. There was only one anti-HIV medicine in 1988, AZT. The life span of patients was measured in months.
  • In 2008, there are more than 2 dozen anti-HIV drugs, life spans can now be measures by decades. Scientifically proven prevention approaches have been deployed with great success in the US and around the world.
  • Global outreach programs, such as the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria along with nongovernment organizations have reached millions of people in low and mid-income countries.
  • 2.7 million people were infected in 2007 alone.
  • Globally 33 million people are living HIV+.
  • More than 1 million people are living with HIV in the US.
  • 56,000 people in the US are infected each year in the US.
  • In low and middle-income countries, less than 1/3 of people in need of anti-HIV therapy are receiving it.
  • 1 in 5 people at risk for HIV infection have access to prevention services.
  • In the US, more than 1/5 of people living with HIV are UNAWARE
  • One exciting concept is a pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP, giving a preventive doses of anti-HIV drugs to individuals who are at an increases risk of HIV infection (still in experimental strategy).
Seems like there is some hope for the hopeless. As for me, I'm going to be wearing my Bentley goes Red for Africa shirt today and probably head to Starbucks today since 5 cents of every coffee today goes to support (red). What are you doing to celebrate World AIDS Day?