| Current location: | Van |
| Current mood: |  hopeful |
| Current music: | The Nucks Game!! |
Much thanks.
Thank you to everyone who posted birthday greetings. I had a funtabulous birthday. Shrouded in panda mystery. I'm 22 now and I do have to admit I feel a little dissociated, slightly disillusioned (you called it Dev). I find myself thinking a lot about the environment, politics money and time. Yup. I'm definitely an adult now.. sux. Nobody wants to have to think of these things half so often as I'm sure we all inevitably do but thar be the curse of having developed a curiosity which stretched far beyond our place in the evolutionary chain (if you believe in such a thing) and has now grown (while I partially blame our careless rates of reproduction) to stretch beyond the limits of that which the sun (or any deity you like - no matter a persons religious or theological views, no one can doubt that as a species, we have taken what was here long before any of us arrived for granted-) has thus far provided us.
This year the seasons held no deliberations. There was no display of twitterpation, to abuse a disneyism. No springtime peacepipe passed. In fact, I'm quite certain, there really was no spring this year. Winter came back to slam us for a solid week of real Vancouver winter....rain, rain, rain, rain and then some snow which melted in the puddles of rain just before getting rained away. Then today, at absolutely no provocation by Spring, Summer barreled forth, wielding hay-fever, the gentle tinkle of ice cream trucks on the breeze, promises of long days, warm nights, sticky popsicle puddles, bees and camping on the beach. Summer has taken the 5th of April by storm (or rather lack there of) and the battle ground is Vancouver. Today was beautiful, sweaty and sparkly. The kind of day you don't really mind being in traffic even. Just cause it means you're outside a little longer (sort of). Oh to be a free range people and just stake my claim in the woods somewhere. Dig out a burrow and live off the land. There's probably some sort of berry tax I haven't read about yet. Oh well. I wouldn't survive more than a week without internet and libraries typically require an address. Like a real one, not just 'burrow in the woods just North Northeast of town about 2 hours by foot'.
Libraries frown on those kinds of Shenanigans.
Before I forget I want to thank you, liquid toast, for bringing dotherightthing.com to my attention. What an excellent idea turned excellent concept turned excellent contribution to entrepreneurship and public awareness in equal proportion. The whole story is really something worth reading, not a long story, but inspiring.
http://innovatebig.com
Highly recommended reading all through.
The basic gist of dotherightthing.com is to allow individuals to post stories, experiences and other information about what companies, big or small, are doing to help create less waste, use less energy, provide more jobs and better working conditions, Support their communities or just plain provide better or exceptional service. One of the sites main foci is environmental issues, but it is certainly not limited to that. It's everyday people who care about the environment and who care about peoples rights and peoples right to knowledge. People write in about companies that effect us all on a day to day basis. They write in about small businesses in specific areas which deserve a little publicity, good or bad. On top of individual entries and stories, there is also a rating system for some of the larger and more monopolizing entities in this consumer-driven world of ours. And I have no disillusions nor confusions about my own consumering, waste-producing ways. I in no way except myself from the mass in any way on this issue. But this site is a great step for any beginner environmentalist. The three R's, after all, start with Reduce.
I have a personal plan though.
My 5 year plan (I feel it absolutely necessary to point out that I've never once managed to fulfill a 5 year plan for one year, let alone the entire 5 which would be required to really even use the word fulfill at all - but I have a good feeling about his one):
Years 1 - 4: Make an insane amount of money
year 5: Pay someone handsomely to turn my car into a hybrid, build a house which is completely self-sufficient and powered by the sun (also discover a way to generate the sun in Vancouver for the 300 days a year that it's raining too hard to remember how far away the sky really is). Plant tomatoes.
Piece o cake.
Too bad being environmentally friendly is hardly economically friendly to the average anybody. One day. I have great hopes for the future. Time will tell and sites like dotherightthing.com can buy us some of that time back.
Remember not to forget - even little things like buying second hand or locally made anythings not only supports economic growth in your own neighbourhood but cuts down on packing materials and emissions created by transporting things back and forth.
Peace n' Love ya jive cats.
KT
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
katiestuart) wrote,
