... Engineered Consent

This video has been sent to us by one of our readers. It deals with the exactly the kind of subjects that made us start this blog. A lot of things that we do in our daily lives, a lot of thoughts and ideas that we might be having we designed and placed upon us by someone else. It is important to recognize that and attempt to live a bit more “examined life”. The title of the video “Century of Self” does not do justice to this four-hour program. One of its subtitle “Engineered Consent” makes much more sense. So, set a side a weekend afternoon and prepare to be shocked.

... (book review) The Dip

Very short and easy to read book.
Lack of any supporting facts or research makes the book come across as a gross simplification, if not preachy.
It is basically, a simple concept explained on less than 80 pages.
Sometimes we do hit the hard times at work and in life. In most cases all you need is persevere and you’ll be back on the right track in no time. This perseverance is what will separate you and the competition.
Knowing that a certain amount of perseverance is necessary to achieve perfection will allow one to evaluate whether the project in which one is about to engage is worth it.
Interesting advice provided on avoiding easy growth – if it is easy for you, it will be easy for others and competition will soon ensue.

... "green" living

How do you live at home and commute to work are the most important factors in the way you impact the environment.

We came across one of those quizzes, that helps you figure out whether or not you are living “green”. You know, Do You Recycle, and such. The shallowness of this type of questions really demonstrates the lack of understanding by the “green” community, what the real ecological problems are all about.

The Existing Alternatives type of quiz would have focused on the two major areas where an average person impacts the Earth: Commute and Dwelling.

How and how far do you commute?
If you ride alone in a car for more than 15 minutes each way – congratulations, you have contributed your fair share to destroying the Earth. And yes, at that point, it really does not matter whether or not you recycle you empties. Luckily, there are plenty of Existing Alternatives to that:

1. The easiest and the most widely accepted is carpooling – burning half as much fossil fuel is a huge improvement for both your consciousness and the air.
2. Another popular Alternative that is often overlooked is telecommuting – stay at home!
3. One of the least considered – public transit. Guess why it is there? For you to get to work!
   If you don’t leave close to transit – move closer, or better yet…
4. …move close enough to work, so you can … walk there. Yes, the easiest Existing Alternative that does not only keep the roads empty, and environment clean, but also you healthy and stress-free.

Your home.

1. Footprint. First, calculate your personal footprint – the actual one, not that “carbon” variety. All you need to do is to take the surface that your dwelling claimed from nature, and yes, count both back and front yard - that Wal-Mart grass does not pass for nature. Now divide that by the number of inhabitants. Easy, right? Congratulations to all the high-rise dwellers, and shame on all those suburbanites – you better start recycle double speed, you are destroying our Mother Nature!
2. Heating and Cooling the Space. Next thing you should do is to calculate how much space do you heat / cool on a regular basis. We hope, by now everyone is educated enough not to let the heat or cold escape through doors and windows. So, we are talking only about internal space. At the same time, your basement still gets a share of heat. So take the total square footage of your house and multiply by the ceiling height. You are not heating just the surface! And now divide it by the number of dwellers.

Of course, on their own these numbers do not mean anything. We are yet to come up with some kind of useful guidelines. But try comparing yourself with a family of three leaving in one-bedroom apartment of a high-rise within a 10 minute walk from their work and school. How much can you improve?

You have probably noticed the absence of questions about recycling and hybrid-driving from this “green living” article – it is for a reason. Recycling actually takes up a lot more energy and resources than producing brand new materials. Same goes for hybrids. And what good hybrids are, if they are causing just as much gridlock for all the semis on the highways?

The only way that we can move the needle on the environment, is by applying common sense not by hiding behind all kind of promotional posters.

... buying new

This is a guest post from The Thrifty Homeowner and first appeared on Get Rich Slowly.

There are a couple of things in life that I think I do well: saving money and decreasing my household’s waste. Obtaining a great value or helping out the environment are both excellent things to do separately, but I often try to combine them for maximum benefit.

Used or new?
Before I make almost any purchase, I first consider options other than just going to a store and buying it new. I begin by asking myself a couple of simple questions:

1. Is it worth my time to search for a not-new item? (For me, the answer is usually “yes” when the item in question costs more than a few dollars and the situation is not an emergency.)
2. Are there compelling reasons that I should purchase the item new? (This one depends on a number of factors, including your preferences, ability to fix things, quality you are looking for, etc.)

If the answers to these questions are “yes” and “no”, respectively, then I begin my search, which basically assumes the following:

• Buying used is almost always cheaper.
• Renting is cheaper in the short-term, and possibly in the long-term.
• Borrowing or accepting for free is certainly cheaper than either of the above.
• Reducing waste by taking something off someone’s hands that might otherwise end up in a landfill is a good thing.

The next question I ask myself is, “Do I need to own this item?” Of course, you’ll want to own your kitchen cabinets, but do you really need to own that table saw that you might use once and then never touch again?

I weigh my options carefully here, because I’ve burned myself in the past by purchasing something that I could have rented or found a workaround for. (Yep, I used that table saw once and never touched it again.)

This process might seem a little time-consuming, but after using it for a while, it becomes second-nature. For instance, if I see a book I’d like to read or a movie I’d like to see, my first instinct isn’t to purchase it, but to see if my local library has it in stock. I’ve trained myself in this manner for a number of products, so I no longer have to think very much about if I should buy something that is new.

Alternatives to buying new
Here are some resources I use for finding alternatives to buying new:

• Local rental centers. Home improvement stores will rent tools, catering places will rent extra chairs for parties, etc.
• Craigslist can be somewhat onerous to navigate, but here you can find people willing to barter, sell, or give you the stuff you want.
• eBay is perhaps the web’s most convenient place to buy used items.
• Go to Freecycle to find your town’s group and see if what you’re looking for is about to become someone else’s trash.
• Libraries and community centers. Of course, you can borrow from a library, but many I’ve seen also have “bookswap” areas.
• Your workplace. Where I work, we have a table where we drop off small items we no longer want, such as books, food, etc. Larger unwanted items are documented on a sheet of paper for people to peruse. (If you’re more high-tech, an intranet would be great for this.)

All of the above, with the exception of rental centers, also work the opposite way: when you no longer need an item that you own, you can sell or offer it free to someone else. I also have used the following to offer up my goods:

• Gazelle, which will purchase nearly all of your electronic items.
• Various charities. Who I give to depends on the item. I give old clothes to the local SPCA’s thrift shop, books to the library, etc.

On a couple of occasions, I’ve used these services to give items to people that are so grateful to have them, it really gave me happiness. That’s just another added bonus of learning to extend the usefulness of an item.

Cemetery Weddings

8-8-8 (August 8, 2008) promises to be the most popular wedding date for those getting ready to tie the knot. As the result, it is almost impossible to find an appropriate venue for the event. The most creative of us are discovering a perfect Existing Alternative… cemetery.
And why not?

• Most cemeteries offer beautiful rolling green background for pictures
• Some of the older graveyards have ancient chapels that are (almost) purpose built for such an occasion
• Some places offer emotional connection for the newlyweds, especially if one of the parents happen to be buried there
• And there is definitely some goth appeal to it.

Using cemeteries as a wedding venue is still a bit odd, but it seems to be picking up steam. Spring Grove cemetery in Cincinnati, OH actually published a wedding policy on their website.
Or how about this fully themed cemetery wedding in Berea, OH as reported on Offbeat Bride… (Really not sure why there are so many Ohioans going for the shadows…)
All in all, everyone has their own reasons, but they are definitely successful in uncovering true Existing Alternatives.