Gifting Ideas

Again with the hippie crap...

In addition to the Preserve Toothbrush Subscription, here's two gift ideas I use and plan to adhere to more strictly in the coming years.

Gifting Idea No. 1: Antique stores. Especially the ones with multiple booths run by different owners. Flea Markets work too, but I usually have better luck in the stores. These places are a wealth of neat gifts. They feel as if they're bulging with secrets. The only danger - coming out with more for you than the person for whom you were shopping. The idea here is that there is so much "stuff" just sitting around. Why buy something new, putting a strain on our already strained resources, when there's a really neat Jack Daniels whiskey cabinet for 40 bucks at the local shop? Take a Sunday and just wander through the isles, something is bound to jump at you!

Gifting Idea No. 2: Local Gift Certificates. Is there a local haunt you really enjoy and hope it can survive? Give them some new customers with gift certificates! This works great for the less personal gifts, Secret Santa's, White Elephants, co-workers birthday. And there's nothing wrong with giving them to your friends too! Especially if they come with some small item you picked up at the Antique Store!

It's easy to run to Wal-mart and buy some crap they may or may not need. But where's the fun in that?

In your future gift giving pursuits, have some fun!

Hippie Garbage

A lot of "hippie" things have been weighing on my mind lately.

A big one has been a lesson we all learned in middle school science class:

"Matter can be neither created, nor destroyed."

If this is true, then we have all the resources we will ever have, right now. And I'm not talking about oil, water, etc. This is not an energy discussion. I'm talking about, well, everything.

Every time we throw something away, and it goes to a landfill, that bit of matter has been taken away from our total resources, most likely not to return, until we are so destitute that we actually go looking for things we need in the landfills. Oh, but it's biodegradable! So what? Those landfills are not being turned over. If the piles of garbage are not being turned over, there is no air getting to these potentially biodegradable items, and what you have is no better than the plastic garbage bag, but you did pay more for it!

Even those orange peels may not degrade for a long time, once stuffed under a pile of plastic.

So, compost! But you know what, even if you don't compost, throw your leftover food into your yard. And while you're at it, throw that biodegradable stuff out there too. Eventually, you'll get a pile big enough to warrant some fencing, and voila!, compost! Ok, it's not that easy, but it's certainly a start.

I stumbled across a website today offering recycled items. But actual useful stuff! Stuff we use and chuck in the garbage without thinking twice! Things like razors! The very words, Disposable Razors, should make you cringe a little. These guys even have a toothbrush subscription plan! No need to worry about when to replace your toothbrush, they'll mail you one when it's time!

But let's take this one step further. You buy it recycled, that's cool. But when you're done, you probably still throw it in the trash right? These guys give you free mailing labels to mail your stuff back! They even have information on recycling your brita filters!

These products will be expensive, right? NO! They aren't even trying to rip you off! It's amazing! Now we still gotta figure out what to do with the actual blades, but it's a start for sure.

Take a minute to check these guys out. It could mean the world, to everyone.

Seriously, think about what you're putting in the garbage, and where it's going.

http://www.preserveproducts.com/

Mostly Movies

First: How does that worm get in that apple? Do worms have teeth? Gross.

Second: something funny that i've already forgotten

And third: Avatar at the Oscars. Note how, outside "Best Picture" and maybe you could count "Directing", it only got nominations for things related to it's technological advances. "Best Actor"? no nominations. Actress? No. Supporting roles? No. How about Writing? Of course not. Not even in the "Adapted" category...

What does this say? Avatar was a "pretty" movie. And when Kathy Bates mentioned the good "messages" it portrayed, the rednecks of America...who were watching the Oscars? not likely i guess...turned to their wife and said, "There was a message in that thang?!"

This all leaves me to wonder how Avatar could even be nominated for "Best Picture". I almost cried when it didn't take that award. Cried with Joy! And I can't help but think that Cameron had to cringe a little losing both that title and "Directing" to his ex-wife.

In other news: Alice was sufficient. I need a second viewing to set a real opinion. The 3d was used properly in my book. Alice's dresses were fantastic. I thought Depp's character was a little off-putting at times. Matt Lucas as the Tweedles did not disappoint. And Crispin Glover was able to use his inherent creepiness in a proper way. Helena, well she rarely disappoints. The White Queen was a bit too flitty for me. I understand wanting to be dramatic, but she failed at portraying it well. Overall, I'd say 4 out of 5.

How about The Fall? If you haven't seen this, watch it. It's fantastic. The little Romanian girl will steal your heart.

And I recently watched House of Wax (2005), House of Wax (1953), and Mystery at the Wax Museum (1933). Mystery at the Wax Museum was fantastic. I was not aware certain topics were even discussed in the 30's. Women's lib I suppose, but I wonder if this was a theatre release, or art-house. Either way, fantastic film. House of Wax (1953) was a bore. Sorry Vincent. House of Wax (2005), while hokey at times, as teen horror movies are, was a decent flick of the genre. The final scene was visually well pulled off. And Paris Hilton's dying scene was great, actually great.

Well, there you have it.