Archive for September, 2008

Book Review – Eat, Pray, Love

Saturday, September 27th, 2008
Eat, Pray, Love

Eat, Pray, Love
Elizabeth Gilbert

I just finished reading the book Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert, and I must say, it was a very good book. I was a tad embarrassed to be seen carrying this book around because it is a bit of a “chick book”, however it was a great book.

Funny, witty, serious, inspiring, it really kept me interested. In brief, it is a biographical book about the author documenting her travels over the course of a year. This year is following several difficult years prior, in which she went through a difficul divorce, another failed relationship, and the hardships faced in coming to terms with being a newly single 30-something woman in New York. As the title indicates, the book describes her four months in Italy eating, four months in India praying, and four months in Indonesia loving.

A very good read, especially for anyone looking for direction or support in their own life.

Easy Organic Garden

Friday, September 26th, 2008
See my recommended gardening guides!“No Dig Garden”Raised Bed Gardening!~~Bootstrap Market Gardening

I had been inspired to initially write the post by a trip back to Connecticut to visit my mother last year. She has a nice size yard, just a little over 3 acres, and over the years has had some very nice gardens. Even back before it was popular, she was growing organic gardens, without the use of any fertilizers, pesticides, or chemicals, if anything at all she just amended the soil using compost. Oh and not to mention the chickens that would peck through the dirt all day, fertilizing as they went along. While she does still grow some vegetables each year, many of the areas of garden have just sort of taken on a life of their own.

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Planning a trip to Spain

Thursday, September 25th, 2008
Spain Map

I have been planning to write an article regarding travel and sustainable living, however I haven’t gotten around to it yet. I wanted to explore the pros and cons of travel when it comes to trying to live a green and sustainable life. Obviously the two don’t quite go hand in hand, however I think there are definitely positive aspects to traveling that can outweigh the negative environmental impact that travel causes. Anyway, that’s a subject for a future post.

The topic for this post is, well, you probably can guess … it’s travel. I have a trip coming up in less than two weeks, and I have been driving myself crazy trying to make preparations. I am going to Spain, and hopefully also Morocco, and it will be my first trip abroad by myself, and my first solid […]

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Apartment Composting – How to Compost when you live in an apartment

Thursday, September 18th, 2008

There are many sites out there that explain composting in detail, how to do it properly, how it actually works, all that good stuff. There are also plenty that talk about apartment composting, all the equipment you need, and I’m sure that is all well and good. I’ve even listed a few below in the related links. But I decided to write this article to explain how I do it, what I have learned, and the equipment that I use. I am by no means a pro at this, and I’m not even claiming that I know what I’m doing, however I feel like I have been mostly successful with my apartment style composting, and want to share. However if you are reading this article it is likely that you don’t.

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Meat – to eat or not?

Sunday, September 14th, 2008

I follow Tina over at Think Simple Now, and the other day she posted a rather interesting (and detailed) article about meat eating and vegetarianism, titled eating our way to death literally. It even evoked enough passion for me to comment! In short, my belief is that as a whole we all eat too much meat, and being vegan or vegetarian is noble and something I’ve always been interested in. However I believe we have evolved as meat eaters, but the true problem is modern society and commercial agriculture. I think eating free range artificial growth hormone free meat in moderation is a good thing, and also I believe that we all need to eat more vegetables — organic veggies. We don’t need artificial hormones in our meat, nor do be we need synthetic chemicals on our vegetables.

This?
or
This?

organic vegetablesPhoto by thebittenword.com

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Day Hike of Mt Whitney – Highest Mountain in United States

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Interested in my How to Hike Mt Whitney in One Day eBook?

Well, at around 14,500 feet, Mt Whitney is not technically the highest mountain in the United States, however it is the highest in the lower 48 states. If you have browsed this site at all, you will have seen on my inspiration page I say that “nothing helps your inspiration more than getting outside, breathing some fresh air, planting your feet firmly on the ground, and being amazed by nature.” As an avid hiker who has now climbed Mt Whitney, I can certainly attest to that.

I want to share with you my experience of successfully day hiking Mount Whitney about a month ago. It was an amazing and exhausting experience, and the scenery was breathtaking and certainly inspiring. The entire hike was around 22 miles with an overall elevation gain of over 6000 feet, and […]

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Simplify and De-clutter

Monday, September 8th, 2008

The one thing I want have always wanted in my life is simplicity. I have learned over the years that clutter only confuses things, not to mention keeps my mind spinning about all the things I want or have to do. I know that when I sit at my desk, if I have junk all over it, my mind somehow picks up that clutter. I don’t seem to have the skill that some people have that allows them to relax their mind when they have a to-do list a mile long. So I have learned that a simple and uncluttered life leads to a simple and uncluttered mind. As much as I try to keep this under control, somehow things seem to “re-clutter”. Perhaps it is because I don’t have the discipline to filter the incoming items that work their way into my apartment. […]

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A Four Day Workweek

Sunday, September 7th, 2008

I had seen this article about a 4 day workweek a while back and had intended to post about it then. I never got to it, so anyway here are my thoughts on it.

Personally I love the idea. From the point of view of someone who has worked in the tech corporate world for years, I think there is so much wasted time that could be avoided and minimized by a more flexible working schedule. The nature of tech jobs is such that sometimes you are on a roll and will work a longer day, sometimes not. Years ago at my old job there were days that I would literally go ask for work and was told to just “relax” for a bit, that nothing was coming up at the moment. To me this is absurd. In this situation why do I need to […]

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