Catalog Choice

I started this trying out this new website online called Catalog Choice. You can go there to opt out of catalogs that are being sent to your house or workplace. Since I just started, I have no idea how well it works but it's certainly worth trying.

I'm trying it because I'm appalled at how many catalogs come into my work. Yes, one of my extremely important job duties is to pick up and sort the mail. Watch out! Anyway, there are tons of people who no longer work here who receive magazines and catalogs. So I started looking online to see if there was a way to get rid of them.

It's free to join Catalog Choice and once you're set up you just log on, type in the catalog and opt out. You can give the customer number on catalog to help the company find you for sure. And if they don't have the catalog registered, you can suggest the one you're getting and they'll work on getting it squared away in the future.

As I said, it's only been a few weeks so it will take awhile before I see a difference but it is nice to try out this easy technique to cut down on wasted trees and postage.

Now, the magazines that come into my work are an entirely different story. Many of them are marketing magazines and sometimes I wonder if I missed my calling. I find them fascinating. Especially with the internet changing the entire industry at such an alarming rate! I just read today about this guy, Jake Nickell who started a company called Treadless. It's so interesting.

But I realize that this is getting really long so I'll save Jake and Threadless for next week I guess. Have a great weekend!

The Ringer

This weekend we watched the movie 'The Ringer.' Yes it does seem that the movie is in pretty poor taste. In fact, we watched it along with a string of other senseless, silly comedies to get a dose of stupid humor. But, I need to say, it was better than I expected.

The premise is, this really nice guy ends up needing a lot of money and his slimy uncle convinces him to enter the Special Olympics as a ringer for them to bet on. Right there you're thinking, that's the most horrible thing I've ever heard of. The movie apparently got a lot of help from the Special Olympics, though. They participated along the way and gave their support. The story ended up giving me a small glimpse of the training that these athletes go through and it made me appreciate their efforts all the more.

I think what was the coolest part was tucked away in a special feature. The a man from the Special Olympics said he was talking it over with some of the athletes, what they thought about this movie being made and Johnny Knocksville being cast as the lead. They thought that was fantastic. They said that the kinds of kids that go to see his movies are the kinds of kids that pick on them the most. If they see him treating them with respect, then maybe he'll change those bully's minds too.

I live a very fortunate life. I haven't seen much of the worst of people. I don't experience racism or sexism first hand. I wasn't around a lot of bullies either growing up. I haven't seen how mean kids or just people in general could be. So I didn't realize how helpful this movie really could be. And it certainly inspired me to want to participate as a mentor in the Special Olympics program. A friend of mind does and she loves it! It was certainly an inspiring movie after all!

Odds & Ends

I am so out of practice. I don't even know what to write. So I'll babble for a minute and hopefully I'll get back into it.

I failed to mention one of the weirdest things my dog does. Watson that is. Sometimes he'll save some of his food to eat later. That's not that strange. If he's not hungry he shouldn't eat. But what's funny is that he leaves half of his food for later. Exactly half in the bowl. Like a half moon amount, with a straight line in the middle with food on one side and no food on the other. That is weird.

Someone asked me how the song went this week that I wrote about the other day. I didn't end up singing it this week. Ha! I ended up singing another song in a different section of the service instead. (Our choir director mixes it up all the time with us.) So, hubris fall averted for one more week.

My friend at www.HomelessInAmerica.BlogSpot.com posted an interesting article called God Revealed in 500 Strangers by Sara Miles. I liked it a lot. She talks about how she's been feeding everyone, including people she might not rather associate with, through her food pantry at church. She says that it's how she emulates Jesus' life by inviting everyone to his table. It's a really cool story. I would have a really hard time doing that. Yes, yes, I know. If it were easy, then everyone would do it. He asks you to do hard things, right, right. I'm just saying. She said she served thieves, child abusers & gangsters, among others. I'm so judgmental. It would run through my head that maybe those people don't deserve it. Which, I understand, is the point. God doesn't believe anyone is undeserving. And he forgives me with all of my faults so I should forgive them. But it would be really, really hard. Which makes her all the more awesome.

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day! Did you do your Earth Day duty and save a whale today? Or at least recycle a can? This seems to be a good day to make some enemies.

I'm into environmentalism and conservation and organic living, etc. When I started this post I had paragraphs of things I do to save the earth in my little way but I've realized that no matter what I write, it's not enough anyway. And, I shouldn't have to PROVE that this is important to me. I know it is and that's that. So there. If you think I'm a fraud, cool. Then you do.

So here's the point of this blog. After being aware and motivated to help our earth for years, I still can't swallow global warming. Strike that. I believe in global warming. I don't believe humans are doing it. The climate fluctuates. Don't believe it? Ask a mastodon. Oh yeah, you can't because he drove his SUV too much and started an ice age! There's really no consensus amongst scientists that humans are really having an impact on the climate change. The media just makes it seem like there is.

I'm not saying we shouldn't find alternative energies like solar, wind and biofuels. We absolutely should. And we should conserve our resources, reuse our resources as much as possible. We should work to preserve our earth, definitely.

But, when did Al Gore become a scientist? He makes one movie and somehow unites the world? I'm sure you've heard about how, until very recently, he used enough electricity in his home to light up a small state. And how he's heavily invested in the renewable energy companies he encourages other people to invest in. Do you think it's completely altruistic? He made money on 'An Inconvenient Truth', lots of money. And an award. Suddenly he's worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize? You get a peace prize for bringing about peace in the world, not for making a box office smash. I don't understand that.

And now there's knee jerk legislation everywhere to save the world, instead of educated discussion and evaluation. Suddenly there are no more light bulbs. (Do you know you know that it takes Mercury vapors to make CFLs and now what are we going to do with the more Mercury tossed into our landfills. Is that really a better, safer alternative? http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2007/03/light-bulbs-and-eco-fascism.html)

Anyway. If you really care about the environment, make the changes that you can, then push a little more. If you want to support the claim that man is responsible for climate change; fine. Show me the money, don't just believe the hype.