Category: Everything Else

What was the worst toy of the year? It’s so hard to choose just one! I think I would go with the FurReal Friend Biscuit My Lovin’ Pup. Sitting at 21 inches high and requiring 6 D batteries, animatronic Biscuit defies all the gentle simplicity of the inexpensive book series and sells at a suggested retail price of $199. I don’t care how many commands that dog responds to (looks like six), I can adopt a REAL LIFE DOG for two hundred bucks.

Notice I don’t link directly to Amazon here (athough they do get the photo credit).
That’s because I don’t want anybody getting any funny ideas!

Rant aside, Biscuit didn’t make the cut for the worst toy of 2008. Check out which toys did and vote for the very worst of the worst! ( Let me know which one you chose!)

Bring Back Thrift Week!

“In 1916, with the First World War looming imminently on the horizon, the leaders of America’s major civic organizations launched an ambitious education campaign designed to ready the American public for a wartime economy. Dubbed “National Thrift Week” and sponsored primarily by the Young Men’s Christian Association (Y.M.C.A.), the campaign became a recurring celebration, beginning each year on January 17, in honor of the birthday of Benjamin Franklin, the “American apostle of thrift.”

I love this concept of Thrift Week, especially when “thrift” is taken into context as a derivative of “to thrive”. Green living and thriftiness go hand-in-hand; it’s all about not being wasteful, avoiding overconsuming, making mindful decisions, and fully maximizing and appreciating what you have.

If you also support the notion of a campaign for public education of thrift and personal finance, click on over here for some action points.

The most horrifying thing I’ve read in a while: Eight year old kids can identify 25 percent more Pokemon characters than wildlife species. Now, this statistic is dated 2002, which was the absolute height of Pokemania (at least in my house). What do you think the kids would be asked to name today? Harry Potter characters? Spongebob episodes?

Definitely check that article out, it’s chock full of interesting facts about children’s relationships with nature.

Like this one:

Factoring out other variables, studies of students in California and nationwide show that schools that use outdoor classrooms and other forms of nature-based experiential education produce significant student gains in social studies, science, language arts, and math. One recent study found that students in outdoor science programs improved their science testing scores by 27 percent. (American Institutes for Research, 2005)

Not eco-related in any way: How cool is this bedside table lamp?

Only a prototype at present, alas.
I have begun dropping subtle hints; any bets on how long it takes before Jeff gives in and makes me one?

Russ Edelman writes over at the Huffington Post on Change- A Call to Action For All of Us; pointing out that having inspiring, game-changing leadership is only half the story. The other half, the working half, is the execution of the change by the people.

What I love love love about this article is the list of how to start:

1. Speak Up when you can make a difference! (Those who know me know I champion speaking up even when you can’t!)
2. Confront Situations you would otherwise avoid!
3. Expect Results from yourself and others!
4. Now is the time to Be Bold!

Finally, since I’ve decided I like closing with videos: vintage NWF Public Service Announcements featuring the Muppets! (Email subscribers, you know the drill, click through to the site to view video.)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

The least change in our point of view,
gives the world a pictorial air.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am still working hard to find the beauty in our backyard landscape, difficult though it is in this neverending cold. My shoes squelch in the mud formed by the (finally) melting snow. It is a yucky feeling.

The winter light renders everything as illuminated from within, and reminds me of another favorite Emerson passage:

A man should learn to detect and watch
that gleam of light
which flashes across his mind from within,
more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages.

Yet he dismisses without notice his thought,
because it is his.

In every work of genius
we recognize our own rejected thoughts;
they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this.

They teach is to abide by our spontaneous impression
with good humoured inflexibility then most
when the whole cry of voices is on the other side.

Else tomorrow
a stranger will say with masterly good sense
precisely what we have thought and felt the whole time,

and we shall be forced to take with shame
our own opinions from another.

It doesn’t roll trip-trappingly off the tongue, but it stands and roars to me;

it says that I matter as much as anyone else;

it says that I knowingly and willingly belittle myself
when I keep my opinion unspoken because it is mine,
just little old me, no one wants to hear from me;

it says that if I keep retreating, I go nowhere, and it is my own doing.

Undoing.

Teddy Roosevelt said, “All the resources we need are in the mind.”

Eleanor Roosevelt said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your permission.”

It’s difficult.

I grew up in a house that reminded me, god, over and over, “You’re not so special.”

I cringed as I was told to shut up.

I was told “You think you’re so smart. But you’re not. Look, I’ve saved every crossword puzzle you failed to finish.” (I wish that was a joke.)

It’s difficult.

The words are inspiring, they call to me; they can only begin to instill feelings of worthiness in someone who has spent a lifetime feeling worthless.

It’s an uphill battle.

I climb.

A lot of people like snow.

I find it to be
an unnecessary freezing of water.

-Carl Reiner

I guess I missed the memo; went ahead and hung my laundry like always.

Did a bit of busywork, paid the bills.

Some time later, I look outside, and whattayaknow, there’s snow on the pants.

Next day, the snow is all gone.

Everywhere but at our house.

Here’s the view of the neighbor’s yard:

Here’s us.

Two full days later, the kids are seriously still sledding.

We live on some sort of geothermic anomaly, the snow never goes away, the driveway stays icy until June. I am given odd looks because I wear my boots out when the rest of the world has long since thawed and melted, and I am forced to explain, “We still have snow.”

But, I’m happy we got snow; it definitely makes the frigid cold worthwhile.

And the kids do love it so:

(Check out the boys’ Davy Crockett hats from Grandma Helen.)

So, I’ve decided snow is all right for one day, but after that it has overstayed its welcome. Like fish and visitors, it stinks after three days. That’s the official word and I’m sticking to it.

Your take on snow? Love it or leave it?