Cold Night

This picture was taken three nights ago when I was helping Julian make his picture movie. (His personal project)




Frost! It's cute and sparkly, though not as much in this photo as it looked to my eyes. That's the joy of photography, isn't it?

First good photo in a while

Took this picture a couple days ago. It was the perfect lighting, right near the end of the sun-day, and by the time we had hiked back down to the bottom of the path it was dark.
Plus, it was the third time I've been there and I'm getting more in shape! ;)

I hope it's satisfyingly descriptive

The weight of some sort of existential-depressive crisis has hit me today like a lead-beaded sledgehammer, soft bong bong bong of heartsrtings that seem stretchy enough to withstand, and not break with, each impact. Or was that someone banging on the fortress walls I've built without noticing? But of course, they've not noticed either....

For Grandpapa:

Fall away from here,
Go and hide your soul
Bury it in the warm sands of His love

Falling up,
The good ones are always falling up
Wrenching out hearts as they fall
We love you so
Ascend

You finished your life's work
And left us to puzzle over it
Unappreciative of your art
Watch us learn, wait patiently
As we, inspired, build up

Did you know where you fit?
A wise too for His work
We may look, but not see

Your eyes are bright
As we rise to the occasion
Hoping to catch your dreams
In the clouds of your love

Falling up
We can't stop you
Only climb higher in our lives
To achieve His ends
In your honour

Where do I belong?

Oh goodness, I am in reformulation at this very moment. I no longer want the same.

My life is much more straightforward, listening to the right music to feed my soul.

This playground I had abandoned, in a fit of grown-up illusions when I thought I no longer fit this. And my need. Though maybe I have... but today I youthen back to that simple need.

I've become much enamored with writing, but not the kind I used to do here. I hope one day to keep this as my notebook. A place of comfort, like one of those leatherbound notebooks with creamy pages inviting you to dive in the ink of your thoughts without reserve, without pretense, without the relative non-comfort of interfacing with the foreign. Of course, dreams live in the clouds, far from my childish reach. Today I feel as though I were floating, so maybe I am closer.

forms of expression

At the open mike night two weeks ago, Caroline sat with her guitar and opened her little mouth to let out some astonishingly amazing tunes. It's so inspirational, and on the other hand, quite intimidating. Who am I to want to sing? How could I dare open my mouth to utter a single syllable when she can, with that same syllable, convey oceans?


But if I sang my soul, even clumsily strumming my troubles.... what can take away the beauty of that? Do I not exist to express myself? Why should I not share some tiny bit of myself with the world who does not know me...

A meditation spot

I long for a perch. Two endless ropes ropes reaching into the heavens, a beam between them. High enough above the sidewalks, the fences, the houses, the high-rise apartments, the skyscrapers, that they form cute colourful carpet, like a child's playmat. Just me and those long, long ropes, so long that I cannot see how they are affixed in the surrounding blue. Perhaps God had had mercy on me, took me in his hand and carefully deposited me on this perch, so as to keep me safe, isolated by a cushion of blue sky. Worries could not reach me here. Not even birds, metal or feathered, came to this place. Nor was this mine; it would be the first and last time I could seek this blue space - peace - as refuge. Time had no meaning; an eternity here would return me still to the moment I had left, and even after having spent unmeasurable amounts of time in this place, it would still feel as though I had only just begun. I must return soon. The pain of my human state was that time was constantly passing, one could only do so much with one's life. It was what gave life meaning, the redeeming quality of humanity.

Swing, I could! Pump my legs to gain height, gravity still weakly in effect. At first my movements feel like vain struggling in an apathetic ocean, but soon the two endless ropes bend. Swing wide, a huge deliberate arc, as though the only purpose was to swing. Swing through the whole sky, stretch to infinity. Swing higher, barefly faster, but there it was! Higher still, achieve more than ever before, faster too, keep going... Close to the tipping point, the swing jumps from the arc for a second, real flight! Then a huge swing back, higher, more. Once more a momentary escape from the arc, once more a giant tug back, the air rushing past my ears, a third swing to freedom, lay back and whistle through the wind, an arrow for its target, freedom, freedom, freedom!

Flying falling freedom

An epiphany?

Thinking back to last Thursday.... we were on Adventure Pursuits, meaning that instead of going to the classroom to discuss our readings on Rousseau or the Biblical creation story, we hiked around a lake and did team activities. At one point, with everyone gathered around one of the 400-year-old trees in the old growth forest, next to a small sheltered bank of the lake, Torren read to us a passage from one of his favourite books. It talked about nature, and man's relation to it. Torren voiced the huge amounts of water used for growing crops and animals worldwide, or per pound of rice, wheat, or meat. The numbers were staggeringly huge, so much so that I would not be able to understand immediately the consequences of such consumption. However, it was clear to me, in that moment, that the course of action for me to take would be to become vegetarian.

Of course, I follow the Epicurius "everything in moderation (including moderation)". Therefore, I will eat meat once a month or something. So far, I have been vegetarian for a week, though it feels like longer ....Though that could be because of the Quest Time Effect - that one day at Quest feels like three normal days

Last night

My eyes could see the dusty light on the otherwise dark forest... discerning between the shadows and light even though I couldn't see my penstrokes on paper. The giant forest. I imagine a person at the mouth of the dark entrance, insignificant enough to be swallowed with ease by the black sea and pine spikes. From somewhere off I could hear giggles, the warm breath of friendship. A solitary train bellowed mournfully in the night. Did anyone hear? Would they listen?

A picture

I'm not sure what to make of this, honestly. Detach. I like the colours

Mothgod

Here's something more from the 'desktop background' style than any sort of gourmet photography. I like it all the same though...

Imagine being a moth, drawn to this light, blind to all else... or an underwater wanderer, whose eyes, labouring so hard in darkness, fill their thirst with this one light.

The chair

Something's going on with computer technology!


On the left is the image I posted to my blog, on the right is the same image as my desktop background.... I am wierded out....

Re: Quest oddities

Actually, right after I put up that picture I started fooling around with it... and I like this version:

Quest oddities

A different feeling in this picture, of inanimate objects and such... that's all I have to say...

The light

A bit of a deviation from the usual style today, this picture. The halo of light surrounding the stump becomes a form, kneeling, receiving from the heavens some instruction or forgiveness.

Technically, I suppose the giant light flare is undesirable but I like it in this picture....

Another series of questions that could be considered a rant

It seems the world does not appreciate a job thoroughly well done, only a job done passably, sometimes even shoddy work. Or perhaps everyone else just knows how to do everything better than I do, such that I spend so much time, excessively, thinking about how best to go about doing something or what is the best thing to do. I was talking with a girl today who got a full scholarship for Quest, and claims that she doesn't really know how she got it, except that she participated in so many things, school clubs and such. But she said sometimes she would overbook herself and stuff like that, which makes me wonder.... she got a full ride giving what I can only logically deduce as being part of her attentions to all her pursuits, whereas if I am not giving something my all I decide to discontinue my contributions to it; it becomes a chore for me, and the value for my time is lesser than the value of my time to something I would more enthusiastically pursue. Is that not a more mature way of thinking than 'taking on too much' (as she put it)?

On one hand I should not be so constantly comparing and seeing what others got in order to point out what I should receive. The world often does not work on the same set of rules, as illustrated so well by that card game barnga, where each table has different rules and players move among tables. It is making me even more disillusioned with the extrovert virtues, that of breadth rather than depth. I suppose that is why I am constantly so torn, because I have so many interests, but it is such my nature to devote myself to one or two things, to do my best and become all I can, rather than do about half (or less) in a number of things. I mean, even if you gave half to three things, you'd have more than devoting yourself to only one thing, at least nominally.

And there is the problem. Nomination. It's so difficult to quantify many such things that it becomes the contest of honking your horn louder than those who surround you. But isn't that life? The world truly is a extroverted one, judging by appearances rather than qualification for the job. I suppose, too, part of the reason I am so modest, seemingly naturally so, is that I would rather be real and authentic than to puff up my claims, would choose to be judged on my merits rather than the voice that says them. Fundamentals. But humans aren't like that. I'm just so annoyed at how human humans are, and my lack of humanness in some areas. Sometimes, it's just so hard to connect, fit in, understand, succeed...

And then I meet those who seem to be so great, and who also, very recently before arriving at Quest, have gone through such turbulence. Why have I been spared of such tragedies? Why have I still not produced anything of value, have little to show for my efforts? What am I doing?? What is my life being spent doing?

Part of it is the curse of who I am. I find I am highly susceptible to 'paralysis by analysis', because I strive to understand something before actually pursuing it. (When I mean understand, I mean all of it, plus some of everything surrounding it). Further, then, once I understand the entire scope of a project I know just how big it is. Other times, once I understand how to make the project a reality, I lose interest. Not very condusive to showing a product of any kind for my time, and that's what kind of person I am, meaning that is my natural inclination. It's not a very consumable, marketable, strength.

...especially having just watched much of the Olympics, I know how little desire I have to compete. Why try your best at something that has been done countless times already? Why try to be faster than the person next you when even that may not be a world record? In the end, everyone has run the marathon, can't we have new ways to prove our superiority?

Grassroots community

I made a goal for myself that I would try to take more pictures in the style of desktop background that I like so much.... so here's this week's!

Maybe it's having a Mac where the window of my operations is such a different one, or maybe since I was looking for backgrounds I found something that stuck an inner cord. Either way, I love it when grass sprouts up between stones!

Art and stickiness

I've always wondered why people bought art. I mean, if they got the tools, materials and other resources, they could do something very similar to what they could buy and it would be their own soul-children adorning their walls. Only in the past month or so, browsing Etsy, has it begun to really, truly dawn on me. There's a story behind it. People like buying art from an artist, a poet, who deals with the daily grind of life and still uplifts yours. I found that the pages of items I visited which had only the product and delivery specs were less appealing, as compared to those in which the story or personality of the artist - or indeed, the art itself.

In the book Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath give great examples every chapter on how to improve your "Stickiness" with simple strategies. The most important being their coined,

"SUCCES" acronym:

S simple - don't lose your core message in a lot of pomp and circumstance

U unexpected - make your idea jump out and grab people's attention

C concrete - keep it easy to grasp vs. mind boggling statistics or huge numbers

C credible - is your idea believable?

E emotional - people react to emotion and it creates an empathetic bond

S stories - story telling is an age old form of communication

These kinds of strategies are useful to retain for anything you want to do, as it mostly consists of the best practices for sticking in the human mind.

Sweetness

This picture was taken about a week ago and it's the first photo in a while that I wanted to be more than a snapshot.

Quest - first view

Just a couple of quick snapshots from my first day or so at Quest - they're keeping me busy right now so I'll keep you posted.

View from my balcony





Living room area


The view this morning on the way to breakfast at the cafeteria


My signature on the wall we all get to sign.

Putting on a new hat

After seeing the beauty of desktop background style of Ether on DeviantART, I've remixed some of my pictures. (Read: edited never-before touched, sometimes cropping to fit my widescreen-flavoured laptop)


There are times I feel guilty for writing less in a post but today I remember that it takes the time to take the picture and edit it, choose the best result and decide what makes the cut. And now I have something of a model to point me in the direction I want. Or really, any direction at all... it's better than nothing.


I like getting in with the nice detail pictures and changing up the colours a bit, so they're realistic, but just slightly fantastic. It's a new style to work on.

Existential Crisis du jour

What is a meaningful life? Who are you??


These questions remain my companions as I pack for the coast, for a new life. What shall I keep? Only that which I need. I am not sentimental about my possessions, rather I try to be pragmatic about what I will keep. Sometimes we have keepsakes whose value we only see once a year. Sometimes I find snippets I've written to myself, parts of me I'd completely forgotten.



On one hand, it's nice to keep those memories. You can see just by looking at a 'relic' of your past how you've changed or improved... On the other hand, you can only hold so much in your mind, in your image of self, at once. We should go forth confidently after shedding our skins, every day even!



Holding on to the past is safe and comfortable, but a safer bet yields smaller winnings.

Some Albertan themes: the fields, not always pancake flat, and a cloud triptych, because I am very enamored with clouds and with the new iPhoto technology!

Reverse blue

Here are pictures of things that are normally orange, but with the use of Paint's inverse color tool, are blue...

This is more a study on the colors than anything else!

Kind of random, I know... this one's an orange bell pepper.

This one is a streetlight on a night when it was raining..

This is a duvet cover from IKEA.

I'm back!

I haven't posted in a while, which both disappoints not only myself, but you. I'm positive of it, and I am sorry.

Here are some pictures of the latest: they've been edited with iPhoto on my new MacBook instead of Microsoft Office Photo Editor. It's like fumbling my way around in the dark, in a room I've never seen.... but I did manage to come up with a couple of different effects:

This one makes me think of a greeting card or some kind of graphic:

And the following: slightly antique, with some real texture. I like how dark it gets in places.

This was my experiment with water drops. I hope there will be more, and of better condition, in the future!

Getting this lightning image below wasn't as daunting as I thought it would be. All I need is a place with a better vantage point, like a lake maybe. Hmmm....

Lines!

Makes me think of those wintery red berries...

Sweet image for backgrounds!!

From:
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/PascalLines.html

TGIF - quick quips

TGIF: Think Green, It's Friday!

Fridays I will post something to do with the green theme, with a special focus on green + art. I also post finds to do with the three Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle), new policies in government or industry, eco-friendly appliances and vehicles... anything green!

This week I have three small things I bet you didn't know. (After the last TGIF, I thought it might be nice to take things in small bites)

Green book alert system

You can subscribe to the e-mail alerting service of newly published journal issues, books, and special issues via Elsevier Environment Science & Ecology program. (check for some links like the carbon calculator evaluator)

Photo contest: Ecotourism in action

Trail Canada is having a photo contest. Send in your picture of ecotourism or sustainable travel and you could win 500$ worth of VIA Rail travel certificates! Contest closes August 22, so there's still lots of time to submit an entry!

Humpback whales help reduce emissions?

Expect the blades of wind turbines to have a different look in the next few years. A biologist (Frank Fish) tested a (thankfully, deceased) beached whale's flipper in a wind tunnel and found it to be extremely aerodynamic. This surprised almost everyone, who thought the ridged flippers were a dragging setback for the humpback whales.

A Whalepower “Tubercle
Technology” turbine blade:

source: http://www.geotimes.org/webcasts/article.html?id=windturbine.html

Wallpaper: Artificial Intelligence

This week's desktop wallpaper focuses on the computer revolution that hasn't yet hit us...


To set this image as your background,

click the image,

then right-click and choose "Set as background"

What's behind door number 3?

I'm seeing more and more lately that life is all about choices.


Choose who to be, decide if your mistakes are worth fixing, whether you want to be good at many things or focus on one or two areas, whether you'll develop your natural talents or spend your time on something else...




How you live your life: quiet, eventful, extravagant, simple, colourful, careful... What do you decide is so important to you that you will not compromise? Live in an apartment, with others, in a house that costs more money, in which neighbourhood and which city, in what country? Is your home a place to relax and unwind or motivate and stimlate?


With whom will you spend your time. Many acquantances, fewer friends, living alone or having a family. Are your friendships mutually beneficial? Will your people be the leeches who demand your time, attention, pity, or money, or will they be uplifting you with their thoughtfulness? Do you have enough time for yourself and for your friends??




.....I think a lot is determined by your willingness to make it work, whatever you choose.....


Man, there are some times that I still feel so much more like a young person, ignorant of the ways of the world

Customize your walls

I have been reading a book I picked up by chance on painting murals (Mural Painting: Secrets for Success by Gary Lord). The author runs his own business painting murals, and decided to pass his knowledge onto whoever buys his book next (Out of the goodness of his heart - God bless him. The money is, of course, the burden he must carry, being successful and all)


The book is filled with examples from various artists with their own unique styles, each of them with something to offer you: from how to achieve a certain look to starting your own mural painting business, and including things like faux-finishing wood! Of course, since I have no walls of my own on which to paint I may have glossed over the actual instructions part, and therefore am unable to tell you how useful the directions actually are....


An alternative to actually painting the walls, I was thinking, would be to paint canvas and mount it - the benefit being that you can transport, remove, and change canvas without the extra work of having to repaint or re-sand walls. I think I would like to take this on as a project in the liminal state between this life and the next (work to school - what a strange transition).


My favourite was Zebo Studios, check it out!


And actually one of my favourite images was of an unfinished mural, with most a sketch in pencil still showing. How I love that look, more so than paint.....

Note: I would have loved to have shared a couple of images with you scanned from the book, but unfortunately image editing software eludes my computer. (I have a new laptop, a MacBook I have named Cupertino Effect - read here for the background scoop)

K-days Circuit

Cheezy writing, gaudy figures



Spinning primary shapes



Fancies of spun light



Temporary kingdom

A creative contest!

West Edmonton Mall is having a DIY t-shirt design contest--anyone can enter. Print out their template (a blank t-shirt with the seams dotted on), and decorate to your heart's content. That means painting, drawing, gluing, whatever floats your boat.


It seems as though this is the first time they have this contest, because they don't seem too specific and they haven't got examples of previous winners.


First place winner gets 1000$ to spend at WEM, plus a couple of extras. Check it out here.


Contest closes August 8th, so be sure to have your entry in by then!

Nitpicking for a laugh

There's a certain type of humour in the circles of those who correct others' grammar. Part of the attitude in these people is a desire to make things right in the world, teach others so that they can improve themselves, as well as the openness to take corrections (if there are any to make) from others. In fact, it's quite enjoyable. I know I would expect others to help me in correcting my mistakes and learning how not to make them in the future.


Crummy Church Signs

English Fail Blog

The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks

Literally, a Web Log

Apostrophe Abuse

This link

How many souls wander without carrying their purpose? For without that vital piece, life can be a grueling trudge throught meaningless time. But finding it, finding one's purpose, can make you lighter than air. One has so much more energy from the start of every morning knowing that each action is one step towards their goal.


"I wish I had a purpose in life", I think to myself.


Immediately, I laugh. It's not something that someone comes to present to you, which you may choose to accept or not. The more deterministic would agree that they must make their place in the world, making the most of their natural abilities, while others argue that one's purpose must be found, discovered, and that it is such a natural fit with their talents that it must have been fated so.


Either way does take an amount of work, with the latter doing the work unconsciously. To improve oneself, push your talents and use discipline.... and just to find the right path to walk... takes so much. I am frustrated because I remain lost, wandering along the side of the path, and I cannot even see said path, much less the direction it takes.


And it takes a great amount of courage to face the whole of the self with the good and the bad, to lose oneself enough that you find your own way.

Puppy carrier?

I haven't been thinking as much as usual lately; I tend to go in cycles of reflection followed by a burst of activity. So my posts have taken on a more brief (and perhaps more humourous and charismatic?) tone.

But...

Guess who won't be going on a trip as a stow-away?

One day you'll have your chance, Mocha...

Volunteer!

I have been so busy packing my stuff for the school move this week that I am taken by suprise that it is now Friday!

LibriVox is the latest project to take my fancy. They 'liberate' books into audio form and make these available as free podcasts. To stay legal, they only use books published before 1923 (U.S. copyright laws make those earlier texts public domain)

This project is entirely run off of volunteer work reading, prooflistening, editing the audio, organizing projects and maintaining the archives. You can also choose to subscribe to the podcasts, search the publications, or volunteer!

Of course when people hear of a project that is similar to one they already know of, they tend to let both parties know. LibriVox has accumulated a list of links to related projects.

A new(?) idea

Does homosexuality have a purpose in nature? Somewhere recently I read that other species of animals (I cannot recall which ones) have evidenced homosexual activities. Apparently some people think that homosexuality may be a natural niche to help support populations.



The biological purpose of any creature in nature is to procreate, and so the vast majority of individual animals do. However, homosexuals don't tend to produce offspring. Instead, they take on the role of 'uncle'. This benefits the population because the organism then becomes an extra provider. Being entirely unencumbered by it's own offspring, it can be more productive and may even serve multiple younglings in the new generation.



I don't know what to think of this. On one hand, I am very captivated by any theory that is sound and fits in with the rest of the picture, but on the other hand, I think I have been taken in by the wrong idea because of facts I did not know. I do not think I am informed enough to know whether or not it is true.

Underwater nightlights!

National Geographic always has a wide variety of really good pictures, and today I just can't help but share with you the translucent creatures of the deep photo collection. Of course, every picture is also in different resolutions to fit your monitor.

Awesome glowy things we don't normally see... floating in the endless black of your desktop. Now that's cool!

This mysterious thing is called a hydromedusa.. if that's not one of the best names for a floaty glowy water thing, I don't know what is

TGIF: books

TGIF: Think Green, It's Friday!

Fridays I will post something to do with the green theme, with a special focus on green + art. I also post finds to do with the three Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle), new policies in government or industry, eco-friendly appliances and vehicles... anything green!


Today's topic is books. Sure, a waste of paper, how is that being environmentally friendly? The books' topics make it material for TGIF. Apparently. Decide for yourself with some observations from Chapters.

Note: I've tried to keep it short, because my first draft of this post was WAY too long. I include prices and special notes about the book, with a short blurb of my opinion in some cases. Please jump around and peruse at your leisure, however you like.


The books in Chapters' green section seemed to fall into three main categories:

• Cleaning green/living green



• Knowledge of the issues



• Completely random

The first category is for the hipsters, I have decided. Green is high fashion and this category is ripe with little "100% recycled paper" or "New York Times Bestseller" labels, or listing how healthy, easy, and fabulous you can be once you've saturated yourself with the information the book holds.

The second category seems quite competent. This is the real meat of environmental issues, and even within this small collection there are divergent opinions and points of interest. You're sure to learn something, though.

Finally, those two miscellaneous books on the far sides of bottom shelf, didn't quite seem to have relevance. Sure, they had to do with the great outdoors, but I think maybe these books need to be read before we see the link.

Cleaning Green and Living Green

Green living choices was almost half of the selection. These usually feature easy things you can do every day to green up your act. The cleaning books, though, when examined more closely, sometimes claim to be using 'healthier' cleaning products and less toxic ways of cleaning. While this is technically green, claims like this bother me because they start to confuse people between healthy and environmentally friendly.


Green Clean, Linda Mason Hunter and Mikki Halpin (book description)

Price: 21.95$ (online - 14.48$)

The authors: Linda Mason Hunter is a respected green living and home ecology writer and advocate. Mikki Halpin seems to have wirtten two other books,
one on geeks and the other on teenage activism. I actually read It's
Your World - If You Don't Like It, Change It: Activism for Teenagers a few
years ago and found it to be a good resource.

The book: water- and stain-resistant plastic pages.



Green up Your Clean Up, Jill Potvin Schoff. The word "healthy" is conveniently located right on the cover, for your viewing pleasure.

Price: 18.95$ (online - 14.40$)

The book: 100% reused or recycled paper



Squeaky Green, Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry. Chemicals (and animal testing) are bad; find out how to keep your cleaning clean.

Price: 18.95$ (online - 14.40$)

The authors: have received accolades for their environmental and humane Method cleaning products. (source)



Easy Green Living, Renee Loux.

Price: 20.00$ (online - 18.48$)

The author: has dabbled in different, but related, interests: organic foods and cooking, natural beauty, advocating sustainable agriculture.



Carbon Buster's Home Energy Handbook, Godo Stoyke. Fight climate change and make money.

Price: 14.95$ (online - 11.36$)

The author: green consultant and President of Carbon Busters, which reduces GHG emissions of buildings in Europe and North America

The book: 100% reused or recycled paper



Living Like Ed, by Ed Begley, Jr. Fllow Ed's example and live a long, green life.

Price: 21.00$ (online - 15.96$)

The author: is an actor who also has his own tv show about his green way of life. The book title, therefore, becomes obvious. I'm not sure how much of his motivation is to put an honest shout out there as he is pretty marketed... And reading the back cover, it is a book that will make you feel great.



Georgeously Green, Sophie Uliano. Making the green lifestyle choice is easy, fun, and fulfilling.

Price: 18.50 (online - 14.06)

The book: a New York Times bestseller



Green Guide: the Complete Reference For Consuming Wisely, by National Geographic? (visit here) Seems like it could be the 21st century's new Bible, or the basis of it.

Price: 25.00$ (online - 16.50$)

The book: by National Geo, cool! 10% reused or recycled paper product



The Green Book, Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen

Price: 16.95$ (online - 12.88)

The book: completely unimpressing. 100% reused or recycled paper is a publicity gimmick, along with all the famous people quoted. Flipping through I found many tips I thought were blindingly obvious, or completely irrelevant (throwing your gum in the garbage instead of on the ground doesn't lessen the number of football fields of gum 5 feet deep consumed each year!) Maybe I have judged too quickly...
New York Times Bestseller


True Green @ Work, Kim McKay and Jenny Bonnin, National Geographic, Clean Up the World. Easy things to reduce your company's carbon footprint

Price: 24.95$ (online - 16.46$)


Green for Life, Gillian Deacon. "200 simple eco-ideas for every day"

Price: 13.50$ (online 12.28$)

Knowledge

This is the good stuff. What is happening, why, who is making stuff happen and how. How climate or environment interacts with the world and what this means for the future. I was pleasantly surprised to find over half of Chapters' green books section were of this type.


An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore

Price: 23.99$ (online 18.23$)

The book: was released in conjuntion with the documentary An Inconvenient Truth, on global climate change.

The author: involved with politics for over 25 years, former vice-president of the United States, who lost the race for presidency against George W. Bush. He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his activism of knowledge with climate change.


Earth In the Balance, Al Gore

Price: Softcover: 17.95$ (online 13.64$)

The book: does it have the questions or the answers?



Ecoholic: Your Guide to the Most Environmentally Friendly Information, Products and Services in Canada, Adria Vasil (web site)

Price: 24.95$ (online 18.96$)

The author: has always been an environmental activist. She's written environmental articles for 5 years and is also one of three the Chapters/Indigo Trusted Advisor Environment.


Heat, George Monbiot. "How to Stop the Planet From Burning"

Price: softcover: 19.95$ (online 15.16$)

I want to buy this book. It reminds me of Collapse and Monbiot is cool.


Bring on the Apocalypse, George Monbiot (blog) "Essays on Self-Destruction"

Price: 22.00$ (online 16.72$)

The author: should have died 6 times over, but still going strong. He's been publicly recognized for his achievements (Nelson Mandela!)


WorldChanging, Alex Steffen

Price: 21.95$ (online 16.68$)

The book: another potential for the next Bible as we descend into the environmental underworld. Looks big and looks to the future.


Dry Spring, Chris Wood. The North American water crisis.

Price: 23.95$ (online 18.20$)

The book: boldly suggests a very touchy solution to the fast-approaching NorAm water crisis for Canada.


Gusher of Lies, Robert Bryce. "The dangerous delusions of 'Energy Independence'"

Price: 20.95$ (online 19.10$)


Dangerous World, Marq de Villiers. "Natural disasters, manmade catastrophes, and the future of human survival"

Price: 35.00$ (online 23.10)

The author: a "veteran Canadian journalist", he has written books on a number on different, yet related, subjects: politics, hostory, travel, and exploration. He doesn't have his own website, or it is not willing to be found.


Stupid to the Last Drop, William Marsden. "How Alberta is bringing environmental amageddon to Canada (and doesn't seem to care)"

Price: 29.95$ (online 19.76$)


Good News for a Change, David Suzuki and Holly Dressel

Price: 24.95$ (online 16.46$)

The book: features the activists, advocates, catalysts, and organizers. What the rock stars on the environment front are doing, some fresh inspiration.

The authors: David Suzuki has been doing environmental, sciency stuff (especially in layman's terms) since way before it was cool. Holly Dressel and Suzuki collaborated on From Naked Apes to Supercecies, which is now also a documentary series.


Fixing Climate, Wallace S. Broecker and Robert Kunzig. "What past climate changes reveal about the current threat - and how to counter it."

Price: 27.50$ (online 18.15$)

The authors: Robert Kunzig is an award-winning science writer specializing in ocean science. Broecker is also into the Earth/environmental sciences


Earth: The Sequel, Fred Krupp. Restart the Earth. Stop global warming and turn to renewable energy.

Price: 24.95$ (online 16.46$)

The author: president of the Environmental Defense Fund


The Weather Makers, Tim Flannery

Price: 15.99$ (online 12.15$)

The author: has written other books about weather and environment, many about Australian animals and ecology.

Seemingly Unrelated

Golden Spruce, John Vaillant


Into the Wild, Jon Krakaver

Wallpaper

You may remember a few weeks ago my cranes, that I took a picture of. Well now, they're back, in your new desktop wallpaper! All they need is to be loved, and they don't mind you admiring them superficially for their beauty. To adopt these cranes, simply click the picture, then right-click and select Set as desktop background.

Watercolour Showcase!

Cool colours--so many subtle differences! From Valerie

A post about art! I needed to stop thinking about the whole Myers thing for a bit, at the risk of sounding like I sound like a broken record. Echoes (found via simply photo) did that for me. It's a collaborative art blog, a project to share part of each day. There is a lot of watercolour art in it, and I am reminded why I love the medium!

From Echoes

Acrylic paint is all good, bright bold colours with strange textures too, ink is always a classic medium, making stuff look cool (or is the cool stuff all in ink?), and pastels make me remember the earth, what's real... but today I see watercolour.

mmmm look at that watercolour fantasy... from Moranga

It's a strange medium, being so luminous, almost translucent at times. It can create a light and whimsy feel. Of course, there is also the highly realistic style of watercolour, which still has a touch of dreaminess to it, maybe because it's so bright, especially compared to oils or acrylics.

Red Flowers by printmakerjenn really makes me think I can look right through the grey to the flowers, and even the sky beyond. Originally I was unimpressed with this, actually, but it grew on me!

For me, though, the real magic in watercolour is expressing so much with minimal fine detail work. Expressing lightness and memory, a playful whimsy.

From LaurenAlexander's Etsy--I just love the style!! Light and bright bold colours. "A quiet eloquence", below, has that dreamy feel to it.