You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June, 2008.
This is a site to list “43 Things” you want to do. I created an account tonight and so far have one thing to do, “Live in a houseboat in Amsterdam“.
I love this list already.
-Cara
Crate Cross - A humanitarian crisis has erupted and people urgently need supplies. As an aid worker, it is your job to deliver the food and other material to the people as fast as possible. Good Luck!
This game is addictive.
-Cara
This is an easy, but always good to have recipe.
What You Need
1 cup organic sweet brown rice
2 cups water
1 tablespoon organic unsalted butter
sea salt to taste
What You Do
Put all the ingredients into a pot with a tight fitting lid. Bring ingredients to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 50 minutes. Do not remove lid while cooking. Remove from heat and allow to stay covered for 10 minutes. Fluff with fork.
And it’s good for you!
-Cara
This is a great idea. I think I first saw stapleless staplers at the Whitney Museum. It’s fun and important to not waste staples and who doesn’t love to staple things?
Good times.
-Cara
What a really great concept of something large we do on a small scale while thinking, siting in a dirty diner, shower, or car…or is that just me again?
:)
-Cara
The Bipartisan Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act gets first Congressional hearing in 12 years on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee held, for the first time ever, a hearing on the bipartisan Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act. Championed by Representative DeLauro (D-CT) and Senator Snowe (R-ME) and Senator Landrieu (D-LA), this bill would eliminate the practice of “drive-through” mastectomies, when women are forced to leave the hospital following their physically and emotionally difficult breast cancer surgeries before they and their doctors may feel they are ready to go home. For the nearly 200,000 women who will face breast cancer this year, they feel it is way past due.
Sign the petition today and urge Congress to continue to take steps to pass this bill.
Here is a video by hersfund.org about breast cancer that’s inspiring.
Be heard.
-Cara
I often wondered who inspired the Mia Farrows, Angelina Jolies, Madonnas and middle-class, white Americans to adopt internationally. After cruising the National Women’s Hall of Fame website, I found her. Bertha Holt was her name.
Bertha Holt and her husband Harry, already the parents of six children, adopted eight Korean children in 1955, after seeing a documentary film about the deplorable conditions of orphaned Amerasian children in Korea. This was a time when adoption in the United States was often a secretive process, and children were matched to parents by their physical appearance to conceal the fact of their adoption. The Holts openly adopting children from another country and race, lifted the shameful stigma of adoption and made it about the love and desire to help those too small to help themselves.
Here is a video of how Holt International was started.
People are interesting.
-Cara
Here is something simple and fun to do. It is an action list that gives you ideas of good, eco, green, funny, energy conservation, recycling, and just being nice ideas. I like it because it tracks the ideas the give you as actions and you can invite Friends. I love stats.
I think I am going to put their tracker on this blog just to see how it looks. [Update - It doesn't work with WordPress...but I still like it!]
Enjoy.
-Cara
Today’s game is World Without Oil. I am beyond excited to come up with a plan of what to do in the first 32 weeks of a global oil crisis. I don’t know what medium I will use yet, but I love to think and come up with solutions, especially in a virtual world, so bring it.
According to the WWO site, “World Without Oil concluded on June 1, 2007. [They are] no longer publishing links to in-game stories on the WWO site (unless they’re really good). But everyone is welcome to sign up as a Netizen Hero and to participate in “WWO Lives,” [their] ongoing blog about all matters WWO.”
The cool thing is they say they will link to good in-game stories from the WWO Lives blog. That means only the superstar stories will make it on the site, which is a still a competition, and who doesn’t like a little healthy competition.
I’m in.
-Cara
Organic pain perdu is a simple to make, tasty Saturday morning treat. It is great for our household as we always seem to have stale baguettes laying around waiting to be turned into a fantastical brunch. :)
What You Need
2 organic eggs, well beaten
1 cup organic milk
1 tablespoon organic sugar
pinch of sea salt
1/4 teaspoon organic vanilla
1/2 teaspoon organic cinnamon with 2 teaspoons organic sugar
2 tablespoons organic butter
2 tablespoons organic olive oil
a stale organic baguette or 6 slices organic white bread (toasted)
What To Do
In a bowl, combine milk, beaten eggs, sugar and vanilla. Mix well. For the stale baguette soak for a few minutes. For the toasted white bread, soak for a second just before frying. Melt butter in a heavy skillet, add oil, and fry bread, as many slices fits at one time, on each side till brown. Mix the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and sprinkle over toast while cooking. I do both sides of the bread, but you can do one side, or even wait till they are done cooking and sprinkle the bread on the plate to be served.
Soooo good.
-Cara
According to the company, Intelligent Forms Design, Inc. (I.F.), who manufactures three laptop pillow designs, “Each laptop pillow is constructed using sustainable materials and methods.“, which is why it made it into Friday’s shopping entry.
My favorite visually is the Terrapin Pillow. The Terrapin Pillow’s stats, according to I.F. are as follows,” [The pillow is] supported by the recyclable polyethylene panel - a felt and foam sandwich - the Terrapin Pillow provides comfort while maintaining a flat and firm work surface for stable computing while reclining. Aluminized felt deflects heat while the quilted work surface offers improved cooling and air ventilation for the computer.“
This is an entry that will be helpful to Marine, who owns a laptop that within 5 minutes is hot enough to cook an egg on. She has tried many things, and nothing has worked. This laptop pillow could be the answer to all her problems.
As far as I can see, the pillow is not for sale yet, but you can give your name and email to be contacted when available for purchase in Canada! :| I don’t know if I can wait that long. I might make one for Marine.
I will keep you updated.
-Cara
OK, so you know I could not resist writing about an organization with such a fantastical name as, The Cara Program. Not only is their name awesome, but so is their mission, “to assist the homeless and at-risk populations in their efforts to achieve real and lasting success by providing comprehensive training, permanent job placement and critical support services.”
The Cara Program was founded in Chicago, by Tom Owens in 1991. They provide services and tools to motivated people committed to getting out of a rut and achieving success. The program and runs for twelve weeks and includes life skills classes, job training and specialized skills training. They focus on topics such as self-esteem building, ethics, conflict management, diversity training and daily motivations.
For at least one year, client support staff works closely with participants on issues such as job retention, career advancement and goal setting. Additionally, they provide financial literacy training, a matched savings program, housing referrals and rental assistance, homeowner education and support and dental assistance to its employed participants.
All in all, they teach people how to grow and attain the necessary skills to go out there and kick some ass. Just like another Cara I know! That’s right, I said it!!!
:)
-Cara
I’m in the worst mood right now. I am feeling backed against a wall, trapped in a situation I don’t want to be in…hopeless… I really need things to change for the better in my life, and they don’t seem to be doing much but getting worse. I am losing faith, which is rare for me. I mean when I get to this point it pushes me to be better and I always evolve because I hate this feeling, but I feel like being a baby right now. I want what I want, and what I want is things to get better already.
So today’s cause is me and anyone else out there feeling this way. If you have any positive things to say, cool stories about strong people, inspiring people, quotes, whatever. Send a comment, that way if anyone else feels down or hopeless, maybe they might stumble upon this blog….you never know. :)
I’m out.
-Cara
I don’t know. I have no one in mind to write about today. I have done some research, but am still drained from writing and learning so much about Anne Sullivan last week that I think I am scared to start another heroine entry. lol.
OK, I could not find one woman that motivated me to write, but I did find a group of awesome women to talk about, SWOOP (Strong Women Organizing Outrageous Projects).
SWOOP, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which began in September 1996 in the aftermath of Hurricane Fran in Raleigh, North Carolina.
According to their web site,
“Several friends emerged from their debris-strewn houses and yards and banded together to help each other clean up the mess. This group of women quickly discovered that, though the work was tough, they were totally invigorated by the power that they all felt from totally cleaning up a place that, when they arrived, had looked devastated.
After a couple of very full weekends of hurricane work, they decided that they enjoyed working together so much that they started “swooping in” to do outrageous one-day clean-up projects about once a month, and formally named themselves “SWOOP.” Quickly becoming specialists in awesome hurricane clean-ups, their numbers grew as friends told friends, who told friends. From the original 16 women, SWOOP membership has grown to over 500 women from the Greater Triangle area (Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill) and beyond. Since 1996, SWOOPers have branched out from hurricane clean-ups to major yard clean-ups, fence-building, painting, refurbishing, construction, deconstruction, and renovation for those individuals or agencies that SWOOP serves. “
These ladies are super fresh. They have done great things.
Here are two projects they have worked on,
“The Heads Up! Therapeutic Riding Program in Pittsboro, North Carolina, provides therapy to children and adults with special needs, using horses as dynamic interactive tools, to address impairments, functional limitations, and disabilities in people with neuromusculoskeletal dysfunction. The program had been given permission to ride on two adjoining tracts of land, but had no way to clear the trails that would make this possible. In February 2005, over 90 SWOOPers arrived at Heads Up! to clear the trails, and while there, also built a fence, made a playground, and refurbished the barn. This one-day project now allows Heads Up! riders and horses to get out of the riding ring and into terrain that provides greater stimulation, an important goal of the Heads Up! program.
Facing bankruptcy, Mary (not her real name) lacked the resources for necessary upkeep and repairs on her home. In April 2005, despite cold and rainy weather, nearly 70 SWOOPers descended on Mary’s home to make extensive carpentry repairs, completely repaint the interior of her six-room home, clean up the yard, haul off junk, and remove yard waste. Mary was not in a position to accomplish any of these tasks, and no other organization would or could devote the sheer numbers of workers and time necessary to do the job. SWOOP paid over $600 for all of the necessary construction materials.”
My mom and dad just moved to North Carolina. When I go see her next week I am going to tell her about it. She is about an hour from Raleigh I think…you never know!
Strong women rock!
-Cara
Michel de Broin is the artist who came up with this idea. They went to court to protest the ticket and it was thrown out in the end.
Here is what he says about the project on his site.
“In this project, all superfluous devices were removed from an 86’ Buick Regal – the engine, suspension, transmission and electrical system – thereby reducing the weight of the vehicle whilst preserving its appearance. It was then equipped with 4 independent pedal and gear mechanisms that make it possible for passengers to form the self-propulsion group. A cutting edge transmission technology was developed to transmit the power supplied by the passengers to the drive wheels and to vary the reduction ratios between cyclists and wheels, so as to ensure their progressive coupling for start-ups. With a top speed of around 15 km/h, the vehicle’s resistance to the culture of performance is raised to an unprecedented level.“
I don’t know….I say buy a bike!
-Cara
I love game day!
It goes like this, in Climate Challenge you are the president of the European Nations. You handle the issue of global warming from 2000 to 2100. It is like the Sims game but for the good of the world.
I like it so far, but will like it more when I win!
-Cara
It’s summer, which means it’s Mojitos on the beach time. This recipe is the bomb!
What You Need
2 teaspoons of organic powdered sugar
2 ounces of organic lime juice
4 organic mint leaves
1 sprig of organic mint
2 onces of organic white Rum
2 ounces of club soda [This is why the recipe is almost organic. I found that there is no such thing as organic club soda. If you can prove me wrong, do it!]
What You Need To Do
Place the mint leaves into a long “collins” glass, if you have one, if not a tumbler works just as well.
Next pour the the juice from the limes over it, add the powdered sugar, then gently smash the mint into the lime juice and sugar with a muddler (you can also use the back of a spoon if one isn’t available). Add ice (preferably crushed), then add the rum and stir. Top it off with the club soda and garnish with a mint sprig.
Live it.
-Cara
In previous Friday shopping entries I would list three items you could buy, but I have decided I would rather focus on just one product per shopping entry. The reason is it’s easier to focus and provide more information one one product, in comparison to three. OK, now that we have discussed the changes, lets move on.
Here is a really cool idea from Desert Sweet Organic.
In a pristine high desert farm in Arizona, 141,000 certified organic apple trees (Choose from Gala, Red, Golden, Granny Smith, or Fuji apple tree) are up for sale.
You can send 10-lb gifts boxes that contain certified organic apples from your very own apple tree to whoever, for $11.50 plus shipping, plus the one time cost of the tree and yearly horticulture. Prices of the trees range between $200-$250 depending on the tree and yearly horticulture is $45 a year.
Simply send them your gift list and they’ll do all the work for you. They take care of your tree and send the apples to your gift recipients every year it produces fruit, for as long as it lives. These trees have approximately 20 more years of fruit producing life.
If anyone cares I love Gala apples. ;)
-Cara
I noticed a new referrer link on my blog tonight (scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi) and I thought, why does that sound so familiar, so I hit up scroogle.org. And who did I discover, but my old friends from Google Watch (I have written about these guys in other blogs and have been a supporter for a long time.)
Google is creepy and possibly evil; might I recommend you to stay off their chat and search engine?
Scroogle.org states and I agree, “Not only does Google scrape much of the web, but they keep records of who searches for what. If information about your searching is accessible by cookie ID or by your IP address, it is subject to subpoena. This is a violation of your privacy. Someday Google’s data retention practices will be regulated, because Google is too arrogant to do the right thing voluntarily. In the meantime, you should not be leaving your fingerprints in Google’s databases.”
Here is a link to how Scroogle’s SSL option protects your privacy.
So you can use Scroogle.org to search the internet and here is a cool option for a chat service that will not keep your chats indefinitely, that I use. They are Zoho Chat. They have a bunch of other features you can check out at their site. I use their Chat and their Project’s application, which is also cool and can be found at Zoho.com. Marine found the site after I refused to get on Google to chat, so thanks to Marine and Zoho, everyone can chat Google free!
Google is not cool.
-Cara
Many of you have already joined in Rainforest Action Network’s new effort to target companies that use palm oil which destroys rainforest destruction in food, cosmetics and detergents.
Now we’re kicking this into high gear and I need you join in.
http://www.theproblemwithpalmoil.org/
On July 1, Brihannala Morgan, a Rainforest Agribusiness Campaigner, will start sending letters warning companies that using palm oil in their products just will not be tolerated.
Get your friends to join your “Palm Oil Inspection Team” and visit your supermarket. Check the candy, snack food and soap/detergents aisles and mark down the 12 or 13-digit UPC number of products that contain any of the following:
* palm oil
* palm kernel oil
* palm fruit oil
* palmitate
Download the form outlining what information you need to collect
Enter your UPC codes and score points for every palm oil product or alternative that you’re the first to register.
Fill out the online sleuthing form!
Keep adding more products as you find them. Those who collect the most products will be listed on the site.
The Rainforest Action Network’s next step will be to send letters to all the companies, both those that use palm oil and those that don’t, asking them to join them in putting pressure on ADM, Bunge, and Cargill to
supply a truly sustainable source of the oil.
July 1 is their deadline to identify companies that use palm oil and start the next phase of the campaign. Go to http://www.theproblemwithpalmoil.org/ and enter your products now.
Once RAN put these companies on notice, they’ll be following up with a targeted, hard-hitting campaign in the fall. Your help is the first step in making sure that they warn as many companies as possible that they are not going to stand for the destruction of rainforests and communities in our food and cosmetics, and to put pressure on ADM, Bunge, and Cargill to make real changes and create real, sustainable alternatives.
Visit http://www.theproblemwithpalmoil.org/ by July 1!
Get everyone into the act. The more sleuths they have, the sooner they’ll find all the palm oil products hiding in our supermarkets.
Tell your friends about the problem with palm oil
Or you could film your sleuthing like RAN did and upload your video to YouTube as a video response to their channel.
Keep it real!
-Cara
[Helen and Anne]
When I was younger I found the story of Helen Keller interesting, but she never really grab my attention. Anne Sullivan, on the other hand, did. There has always been something about her I was drawn too. Maybe the hardships she suffered and the fact that she didn’t give into it. She pushed and achieved more than those who suffered little and those who suffered greatly.
Anne’s personal story remains relatively unknown. Although some of her letters still exist, it is primarily through the the words of others, that we know of her life.
Anne grew up poorer than poor in Massachusetts. She was the eldest of five children, and one of the only two of whom reached adulthood. When Anne was 7 years old she developed trachoma, a bacterial infection in her eyes. This infection went untreated. She had almost no usable sight and after numerous operations on her eyes, at the age of 15, success, her vision was restored.
Her father, Thomas Sullivan, was an alcoholic and her mother, Alice Chloesy Sullivan, died from tuberculosis when Anne was 9 years old. At first, Anne’s siblings, Mary and Jimmie, were sent to live with their uncle, and Anne remained with her father. A few months later, Jimmie and Anne were sent to the Tewksbury Almshouse (February 22, 1876), an institution that housed the poor and needy. Anne was 10 years old at the time and any semblance of a childhood she might have had ended upon entering Tewsbury. Mary (whom she never saw again after being sent to Tewksbury), on the other hand, was sent to live with an aunt. Supposedly, she didn’t end up in the institution because she was easier to handle than Anne and Jimmie. Anne had strong opinions, and expressed them passionately and poor Jimmie suffered from a tubercular hip, both were too high maintenance for the aunt I suppose.
When Anne and Jimmie arrived at Tewksbury, Anne wanted them to remain together and made it known. As a result, both siblings were sent to the women’s ward, where inmates were physically and/or mentally ill. Jimmie’s condition resulting from a tubercular hip weakened him and he died a few months later. Anne was all alone in this horrible place and in life. Imprisoned in an institution where complaints were made to the state in regards to cruelty, sexually perverted practices, and even cannibalism.
Anne, during an investigation of Tewksbury by the head of the Perkins School for the Blind, pleaded with him to allow her to go to Perkins. He agreed, and Anne excelled in this new environment. It was because she did so well that a teacher at Perkins recommended she become a governess to the unruly deaf and blind six year old Helen Keller. Helen’s parents, Kate and Arthur Keller, had contacted the famous inventor and educator of the deaf, Alexander Graham Bell in Washington, D.C. for help. He, in turn, had put them in touch with the Perkins School for the Blind, and so began the relationship between Anne and Helen, that lasted throughout Anne’s life.
Alexander Graham Bell once said about Anne’s teaching skills, “You were at least not hampered by preconceived notions of how to proceed with your little pupil and I think that an advantage. You did not take to your task standardized ideas, and your own individuality was so ingrained that you did not try to repress Helen’s. Being a minority of one is hard but stimulating. You must not lay so much stress on what you were not taught by others. What we learn from others is of less value than what we teach ourselves.”
In 1904, Anne and Helen bought a farm and seven acres of land in Wrentham, Massachusetts. In Helen’s 1955 biography, “Teacher: Anne Sullivan Macy“, she wrote that these were probably some of the happiest days of their lives.
In 1905, she married John Albert Macy, a young Harvard teacher (11 years her junior) and literary critic at the magazine “A Youth’s Companion”. Not long after they married, she burned her private journals for fear of what her husband might think of her. I am curious what such a strong woman would have to hide for her husband… Their marriage lasted only a few years and seemed to be more of a business arrangement (he was Helen’s manager and editor) to aide in getting Helen published, than a marriage. In the end, it is thought that jealously of Anne and Helen’s relationship was the reason Macy eventually left. For years after they separated (they never officially divorced) Macy would contact Anne for money, until eventually he faded out of the picture.
[Helen, Anne, and Polly]
In the fall of 1916, Anne stopped working for a period of time as a result of pleurisy and incorrectly diagnosed tuberculosis. On November 20, she and Polly Thomson (Polly started working for Anne in 1914 as her secretary) traveled to Lake Placid, New York without Helen in order for Anne to recover. While they were there Anne spotted an advertisement about traveling to Puerto Rico and immediately bought two boat tickets for her and Polly. Anne’s five months in the islands was one of the happiest times of her life.
Here is a letter from Puerto Rico she wrote to Helen in 1917,
Dear Helen:
I’m glad I didn’t inherit the New England conscience. If I did, I should be worrying about the state of sin I am now enjoying in Porto Rico. One can’t help being happy here, Helen—happy and idle and aimless and pagan—all the sins we are warned against. I go to bed every night soaked with sunshine and orange blossoms, and fall asleep to the soporific sound of oxen munching banana leaves.
We sit on the porch every evening and watch the sunset melt from one vivid color to another—rose asphodel (Do you know what color that is? I thought it was blue, but I have learned that it is golden yellow, the color of Scotch broom) to violet, then deep purple. Polly and I hold our breath as the stars come out in the sky—they hang low in the heavens like lamps of many colors—and myriads of fire-flies come out on the grass and twinkle in the dark trees! Harry Lake says that a beautiful Porto Rican girl went to a dance in a gown ablaze with fire-flies which she had imprisoned in black net.
Did you know that in tropical skies the stars appear much larger and nearer to the earth than farther north? I didn’t know it myself. Neither Polly nor I have ever seen such stars! It is no exaggeration to say they are lamps—ruby, emerald, amethyst, sapphire! It seems to Polly and me, if we could climb to the bamboo roof of our new garage, we could touch them. We lie on our cots and gaze up at them—the shack has no windows, only shutters and our view is unobstructed—we say over and over the names of stars we know, but that doesn’t help us to identify these. Is that long, swinging curve the Pleiades? We are ashamed to be so ignorant. If we could get hold of a book on astronomy, how we should study it here!
Do you remember the big globe in the rotunda at “Perkins?” Well, the moon looks as large as that sometimes, and often it is girdled with pearls as large as oranges, like the metal circle the globe hangs in. And several times we have seen it lighted as by lightning.
The place has cast a spell over me. Something that has slept in me is awake and watchful. Disembarking at San Juan was like stepping upon my native heath after a long, distressful absence. I will tell you more of these strange experiences anon.
Love to all,
Affectionately,
Teacher.
I really like that letter.
Anne, Polly, and Helen remained together, working and living until Anne’s death on October 20, 1936. Polly remained taking care of Helen after Anne’s death.
Anne some time before her death dictated the following excerpted message to Polly,
“I wanted to be loved, I was lonesome. Then Helen came into my life, I wanted her to love me and I loved her. Then later Polly came and I loved Polly and we were always so happy together, my Polly, my Helen. Dear children may we all meet to-gether [sic] in harmony.”
In Nella Braddy Henney’s book, “Anne Sullivan Macy“, Anne is quoted as saying, “How often I have been asked: “If you had your life to live over, would you follow the same path?” Would I be a teacher? If I had my life to live over I probably should have as little choice of a career as I had this time. We do not, I think, choose our destiny. It chooses us.”
Anne used her amazing abilities to bring the world to Helen and to bring Helen back into the world. In doing so it also opened up a world for Anne far from the place she began this life. It is true, we do not choose our destiny it chooses us, but I also think it is a person of strength who chooses to follow their destiny, instead of taking the simpler route.
That ended up being a few days of research and writing in between life, but more than worth it.
-Cara
I discovered Greenwashingindex.com in an email I received today. What people seem to do is upload “green” ads, rate them, and then others comment. It is not too hostile an environment so far, and a cool concept, if done right. The rating system is from 1 to 6, 1 being a “Good Ad”, 3 being “Pushing It” and 6 being “Total Greenwashing”.
They say they are promoted by EnviroMedia Social Marketing, who say they are, ““…not tree huggers, but we can put you in touch with some.” Here is a link to learn more about them. Not too sure what to say after watching a painful MSNBC segment with EnviroMedia’s Valerie Davis, Ann Curry, Janice Liberman and some angry, anti-everything woman. You can find said video on their homepage if you so choose to watch the Honda Accord or Cascade ad (you must watch the advertisement before this segment begins), or whoever the non-green NBC advertiser of the day is.
Have fun.
-Cara
Today’s eco game is, The Adventures of KabMan. This game is an easy, but fun one. You need to get 40 recyclable items while avoiding the trash using your arrow keys. There’s even a prize at the end if you are successful!
This game was created by Keep America Beautiful. Keep America Beautiful, Inc. is the nation’s largest volunteer-based community action and education organization. With a network of nearly 1,000 affiliate and participating organizations, KAB forms public-private partnerships and programs that engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community’s environment.
Good times.
-Cara