As I have mentioned in past blog posts, I have recently become obsessed with knitting. I am currently working on no less than 6 projects simultaneously and have a growing stash of knitting needles and yarn. I knit while watching tv, in church, at meetings, hanging out with friends, in the car, and on planes. I knit gifts, household items, clothing, etc.
Matt and I attend a 100 Mile Radius Potluck last night. The premise is that everyone at the potluck brings a dish that is made from ingredients produced, grown, etc. within a 100 mile radius of the selected location. It is quite a challenge and a lot of fun. The potluck was sponsored by Progressive Wayne County.org, and the idea behind it was to get people thinking about where their food comes from and how Richmond can be more self sufficient.
In honor of Earth Day, I want to share practical tips for living a more “green” life that will not only benefit the environment, but can also have a positive affect on your checkbook. I don’t consider myself to be an environmental activist, and honestly am not sure if I believe in global warming. But even I can see the need to take care of the planet we live on to ensure its longevity. Last I checked we weren’t ready to colonize the moon.
I hear lots of stories about ways people have made big changes in their lives in order to be more environmentally friendly, but for those of us not quite ready to give up our cars or eat only food grown/processed within 100 miles of our home, here are some practical and easy to implement tips for living a greener life:
Matt and I had a great trip back to Virginia for my mom’s and sister’s birthdays. We had a wonderful time, including some hilarious Wii antics with my mom and sister. (Check out the pictures) Neither of them had ever played before, and it turned into a full contact video game pretty quickly.
We were quite glad to miss out on all the snow here in Richmond and enjoy the 50 degree weather in Virginia. I have to say though, as we were driving home I realized this was one of the first times in my life that I did not dread leaving the comfort of my parents’ house.
As promised in an earlier blog post, I have created a photo album of some of my favorite Wii playing photos. I will add more photos over time, so don’t be surprised if you see yourself or one of your friends. There are some quite entertaining photos, so check them out!
A Connecticut federal judge has ruled that the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) “making available” theory, in which they claim than individuals are breaking copyright law simply by making files available to download on file sharing websites, is insufficient because
““without actual distribution of copies…. there is no violation [of] the distribution right.” 4 William F. Patry, Patry on Copyright § 13:9 (2007); see also id. N. 10 (collecting cases); Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc., 508 F.3d 1146, 1162 (9th Cir. 2007).”
Now the RIAA must prove that “actual dissemination” of a copy took place in order to accuse someone of distributing copyrighted music; a much more difficult task. This is a small but important victory for all the people the RIAA has been suing without cause and with reckless abandon. And after the RIAA’s recent attempts to force colleges to provide deterrents and “alternatives” to peer-to-peer piracy or run the risk of losing all federal financial aid for their students, it is nice to see someone reining them in.
I am feeling very inspired by the presentation that Elizabeth Keller and Turner Ritchie gave this morning about their recent trip to Nepal and the time they spent with a grassroots organization called Women Empowerment. The group is working to help women overcome poverty and oppression in a society where they are considered less than second class citizens.
And while it would have been easy to become overwhelmed and saddened by the stories of oppressed impoverished women in a far off country so different from my own, I felt inspired. Not only by the stories of women who have learned to provide for themselves and their families and to speak out for the basic rights of all women in their countries, but also by the amazing women in my life.
Women like Elizabeth who are unabashedly strong and forthright. Women who reach out to others with compassion and an honest desire to help support and lift one another up. These women go far beyond simply being opinionated and stubborn and are truly empowered and a force to be reckoned with.
Along with Elizabeth Keller, I think of:
Anna Lisa Gross
Emily Mingle-Hershberger
Amy Gall Ritchie
Dawn Ottoni Wilhelm
Tracy Stoddart
Karen Poling
Ashely Saylor
Katie O’Donnell
These women are an inspiration and example for men and women alike!
This weekend Matt and I participated in Iron Chef Bethany. For those of you who don’t know a lot about Iron Chef, it is a Food Network TV show where two chefs (an Iron Chef and a competitor) compete to cook six dishes in an hour using a secret ingredient. Each dish is judged on plating, taste, and originality and an overall winner is determined by three celebrity judges.
Obviously, Iron Chef Bethany had to be slightly different, but we had a blast anyway. There were three teams, four judges, and one very orange secret ingredient — CARROTS. Matt, Karen and Travis Poling, Chris Hardie, and myself formed the Fairview Five and made 6 carroty dishes:
All the dishes turned out great, and I even helped cook. I didn’t burn anything, break any dishes, set anything on fire, leave out any ingredients, or cause anything to fall on my head. All in all it was a very successful day in the kitchen.
Unfortunately our team only received the “most creative use of the secret ingredient” award, but there were lots of great carrot dishes, and everyone had a wonderful time.
If you want to see some more photos, checkout my Facebook photo album or, if you don’t use Facebook, my Picasa Web Album.
This has been quite a fun filled and varied weekend…
Friday night we had a group of people over to have dinner and play with our new wii. It was quite a spectacle! Seeing 7 grown adults shaking the wiimote like sugar crazed children was very entertaining. We took plenty of photos, and after looking at them, I think I will definitely have to create a wii photo gallery in my Picasa web album.
Here a few samples of what is yet to come:
Saturday Matt and I joined a large group from the church and went to the ice skating rink at Miami University of Ohio in Oxford. We only skated for 2 hours, but it was quite a workout. Unfortunately, at the end of our time I took a catastrophic fall and landed hard on my knee. I have a nice black and blue goose egg but fortunately no real damage.
I also spent some time indulging my geekie tendencies. I built the newest version of banshee (an open source Itunes equivalent) from the source. It was a quite a different experience than installing a program that comes prepackaged. After installing things from the command line, I felt a much greater since of accomplishment than just clicking install in Windows and letting the computer do it itself. I also spent time playing tech support for my grandparents.
All in all it was a great weekend!
If you are looking for something fun to do on Saturday or an alternative to Christmas shopping at the mall, head over to the Clear Creek Co-Op for their Annual Alternative Holiday Bazaar.
The festivities start at 9am and last until 5pm. There will be lots of local artisans, hot tea, and live music. I will be there selling the fabulous jewelry that Emily and I made.
Stop by, check things out, and buy some jewelry!
