Just one thing.

When the alarm clock goes off tomorrow morning, just after you've flung it across the room, commit to yourself to do just one thing different.

Turn off a light you'd normally have one. Watch one less "Seinfeld" rerun for the nine hundredth time. Print off one less email from the British Lottery (you didn't really win). Send a dollar to a food pantry. Anything. I doesn't matter what, but it will matter. Big changes start with little things. Things you don't even think about and won't ever miss.

We don't have to change the whole world to change the whole world. We only have to change ourselves.

cnchnz 

Economy. The new status symbol.

There was once a time -- not long ago by the way -- when big cars, big engines and big egos were the collateral of suburban success. People stood in line to be the first to own a production Hummer. A war machine for the everyday battle for supremacy of the grocery store parking lot.

There are no more lines at the Hummer dealerships. 

Today, status comes in packages with names like Prius, and with the hum is coming from little electric motors that take the load off the internal combustion engine that sips $4 gas rather than guzzles it. 

No land yachts. No muscle. Just efficiency. Sure there are still gas burners out there, burning up highways and natural resources with reckless abandon (I love that phrase). But the lines are now forming for cars that get 35, 40, 50 or even 60 miles per gallon. Still consuming resources to be sure, but at a more responsible pace. And no, it's not a solution, but it's a least progress and progress better than excess. 

Look, I realize the everyone can't run right out and buy a new hybrid or high milage car. Cars aren't free and the Bush(league) economy hasn't exactly done us any favors in the lifestyles-that are-the-envy-of-the-world department, but people are changing their attitudes and that's a huge step in the right direction. 

So if you're looking for status in your next ride, start by looking at the EPA sticker. 

cnchnz

Unnatural disaster

It breaks my heart that the military junta that rules Myanmar (the former country of Burma) is so mistrustful of the intentions of the outside world, that even more people will die needlessly from the aftermath of the recent cyclone there.

Sorry I can't add any insight or interesting commentary. I'm not sure what more can really be said. 

cnchnz

What do you think.

By now, the one or two of you that seem to be willingly reading this are likely getting bored hearing me prattle on about things. So from now on, we're going to be conducting polls as part of the fun.

I want to know what you think. People want to know what you think. People who I know want to know what you think. I'll still prattle on, but at least it won't be the only reason to drop by.

We're starting by asking about the candidates. Other than gimmicks like the gas tax holiday (which in fairness Barack is against), no one has really made the environment the center piece or even a nicknack of their campaign. So which one do you think feels like you?

cnchnz

Testing the boundaries of freakingoutedness.

Runaway oil prices, runaway rice inflation and runaway housing deflation. Oh yeah, and isn't there a war going on?

If the new strategy for distracting our attention from Iraq is to focus us on the dismal state of our economy, then my hat's off to the administration. People are so freaked out -- and rightly so -- about the fact that their wallets and their buying power are shrinking like cheap cotton pajamas, you can barely conjure up a healthy debate about what's going on in the least popular war since the bad old days of Vietnam.

I never would have guessed these fellows could drop all the balls at once. I guess it must be something like multi-tasking. Who knew you couldn't spend like drunken advertising executives on a war without breaking something? You honestly don't know what you should be more freaked out about; the economy, the environment, the people who were just getting by as it is, or a war that's not even front page news anymore.

Maybe it'll all be better in November. I'm sure Hillary, Barack or McCain must have some handy-dandy-Swiss-Army-knifelike all-purpose solution up their sleeves. That's if they can find the time to think of one while they're busy pointing out who's chosen to use the occasional ill-conceived phrase, drinking shots and beers, bowling or apologizing for smear campaigns run in their name that they claim to have no control over.

I honestly don't know who has the answers, I'm sure not claiming to, but with all the crap out there let's hope someone does.

Not preaching, just freaking a little.

cnchnz

Water water everywhere and nothing to drink it from. (with apologies to the English majors)

Here's the deal. We can't all keep drinking bottled water because if nothing else we're filling up the landfills with the plastic bottles.

Unfortunately, now we also find out that we can't drink from all of those nifty sports bottles everyone's now sporting. The nice, hard, shiny, colorful, clear, ones are made from a chemical, bisphenol, that leaches into the water you're drinking. Look on the bottom of your sports bottle. You'll see a triangle with a number in it. If that number is a 7 they say you really shouldn't drink from it. The same is true of the hard plastic baby bottles, so you might want to switch to glass.

As a little side bonus, if you're drinking from a glass water glass and getting your water from a cooler at the office or even home, check the big bottle the water comes in. Chances are it's got a little 7 in its little triangle.

I guess it's city water for me.

cnchnz

People, politics and the Olympics game.

I find it difficult to write about human rights.

I think it's because it's so hard for me to believe that anyone doesn't believe in the concept of equal rights for all human life. But, every day I'm slapped in the face with the ugly evidence that an alarming number of people just don't seem to give a crap about their fellow human beings. Particularly if those fellow human beings look different, sound different, have different customs, belong to different parties, belong to the same party, have long legs, short legs, facial hair, no facial hair, blue eyes, brown eyes, believe in different gods, believe in the same God, prefer Coke over Pepsi 0r Pepsi over Coke. 

I am now convinced that even if race, religion and sexual orientation didn't exist, people would still find ways to distance themselves from one another. I don't know if it's because we can't literally feel each other's pain, walk in each others shoes, see through others eyes or any other cliche you'd like to plug in here.  Maybe we all secretly believe in the whole "I'm the center of the universe" junk.

Well, I've got news, I am not the center of the universe and neither are you. Bill Gates may be but that's a possibility I choose not to consider.

Which leads me elsewhere. 

I've been watching the coverage of the Olympic torch relay. Couldn't avoid it.  Violent protests in the streets over China's human rights record, their support for Sudan and their hold on Tibet.

I can certainly understand the protest. It's people's voices that can ultimately change the course of governments, but violence against people in the name of anti-violence against people, is an oxymoron. Violence is violence no matter who's doing it and to whom.

See, that sounds preachy doesn't it. I don't mean it to be. I just wish people would think about this stuff.

cnchnz