Yesterday, for the 4th time this year, we went to the Natural History Museum. This means walking through the rose garden as Exposition Park. As usual, I fully charged my camera’s battery the night before. I can usually get about 300 photos on one charge. Inside the museum, I took about 12 photos and the battery indicator read ‘full’. Step out to the rose garden and it’s red.
This has happened to me all 4 times this year and 3 times last year. I even take an extra camera that takes AA batteries, making sure the batteries are new. When I whip out that camera, the batteries are dead. My phone, which is fully charged also reads low battery.
It’s the strangest thing. I’ll try to shoot a photo and the camera will just shut down. Once we leave the rose garden, everything is back to reading full. It matters not, where in the rose garden I am. And to make it worse, it only seems to happen to me.
That’s right, I won the Easy Green Living book by Renée Loux that was being given away on Seesmic. Want to watch the whole thing? Below is the video of the when Ms. Loux took our questions on what we viewed as important in living “green”:
Yes, that’s not Renée, but if you click on it, you’ll see here (yes, I’m laughing at a pretty frantic email I received).
About a week and some days later, the winner was announced:
I laughed. I cried. I want to thank the Academy…
Then today…the book arrived:
I’m kinda busy with work, but I’ve had a chance to flip through the book and it’s pretty interesting. There are a lot of items in the book that I already own/buy not because of any greenness on my part, but because of price, locality and prettiness/smells. The book is more a shopping guide than a lifestyle guide, IMO, but even flipping through it, it was struck by how many items in the book are things you don’t really need in life. Or the lack of actual greenness of them, i.e. paper towels/napkins. It’s much more green to use cloth towels, and thankfully, the author does point that out. Which brings me to the second cool thing about the book.
Everything is pretty accessible to anyone who can read and shows that you don’t have to drop big $$$ to be green which is stunning to me considering Loux hosts a show on Fine Living. The best part is that Loux does explain why certain things are better than others. Unlike other “green” books, there doesn’t seem to be those not-so-unsubtle judgment calls on your purchases. Take the section on cookware. It’s extremely detailed explaining why Teflon or non-stick cookware isn’t in your best interest vs. stainless steel or cast iron cookware.
Check out the book at your local library or you can find at Powell’s.
*Disclaimer*: I’m one of many people who never thought George Carlin was funny and who believed that he ruined Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
Now, honestly people…why is it that just about every political blog has been spammed with the 30 year old “comedy” bits that weren’t funny 30 years ago? I don’t get it. Carlin didn’t contribute anything to society, at least to the world I lived in, beyond obnoxious holier-than-thou types quoting him like he was a genius or something. And don’t act shocked he died. He was 71 years old. That’s a long time to annoy the hell out of me. Is Carlin another sad icon of “speaking truth to power” by desperate, sheltered and too-afraid-to-defend-themselves liberals who are going to put him on a pedestal like Hunter S. Thompson?
Please tell me because I’m ’bout ready to go upside some heads. What kills me the most are the atheists/anti-religionists are talking about how Carlin is part of some “comedy trinity” (among these types that includes Lenny Bruce and Andy Kaufmann (Y-A-W-N).
The reason I’ve been quiet lately is that I didn’t want to post complaint blogs. As you may remember, I’m allergic to my sweat and to latex. It’s been really, really, really hot lately and I developed a full body rash. Today is a little cooler and I’m not Ms. Crankypants anymore. It still itches, but not as bad as the past week. I may even be able to leave the house once it clears from my face, neck and arms.
My new seesmic friend Brad, recorded my top favorite fountain in all of Los Angeles for me. This is at UCLA. I don’t know if the fountain has a name, but it’s a pretty cool fountain.
Over at Seesmic, Craig Manganello is offering guitar lessons. This project arose from a conversation where people expressed interest in learning their guitars. So Craig, a singer and songwriter from Long Island, has offered to tutor. There are 5 lessons all together, culminating in the guitarist playing Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.
Though I’m posting the lessons here, you can also follow Craig’s lessons at seesmic under the user name ‘guitarlessons’:
Lesson 1: Tuning Your Guitar
Lesson 2: The G Chord
Lesson 3: The D Chord
Lesson 4: The C Chord
Lesson 5: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
Yay! Thank you Craig. Everybody give Craig a big round of applause.
faboo mama in
Los Angeles, photos
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Today is a little cooler and I’m not Ms. Crankypants anymore. It still itches, but not as bad as the past week. I may even be able to leave the house once it clears from my face, neck and arms.
