Well, stuffed ones, that is.

Tomorrow, June 1st, marks another First Fridays event at the Natural History Museum in LA. I went to one of these not too long ago to see Ghostland Observatory play, and it really is quite an experience to watch a band surrounded by large, stuffed buffalo, moose, bears, etc. Tomorrow night, for the price of a museum admission ($6.50 I believe), you can catch Autolux play amongst the wildlife. Dead and stuffed wildlife, but still, it makes for a neat vibe.

Categories: entertainment, music
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I was able to speak with Suzy from Camp Laurel today to discuss the donation. The big question was just HOW I could get the materials to them since they’re only in the offices the same days and times I am. As luck would have it, they’re having some sort of training the weekend after next, so they’ll be around when I drop the stuff off. Since Pasadena isn’t exactly the next town over, I’ll try to use D’s Prius. Then maybe have lunch at this wonderful, little veggie-friendly wrap shop in Old Town. In the meantime, I’ll start sorting and boxing all the materials. YAY!

Categories: charity
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There’s a cam phone photo I often use as my Treo wallpaper: a snapshot of the word SIMPLIFY painted on concrete, taken at the parking lot at The Camp in Costa Mesa. See, I consider myself a marketer’s wet dream. I’m the type of consumer that easily goes, “Oooh, shiny.” Because of this handicap, I’ve amassed A TON of things. The majority of these things are craft related supplies. I like crafts; I like working with my hands to create things. However, I know that I don’t need 50 packs of patterned paper. Or hundreds of stickers, spools of ribbon, buttons, brads, markers, etc. I wanted these things so I bought them, knowing full well that I’d never get through 3 garbage bags full of yarn. That’s me being a wasteful asshole.

SIMPLIFY.

This year I resolve to clean out my “room.” The closet is full of things, there are piles upon piles on my craft table, there are bins and other storage containers filled to the brim with other random supplies. I want 80% of these things out of my room and out of my house. I don’t want to store them in the garage because, let’s be honest here, even the cat knows I’ll never get to using them all. The easiest way to get rid of them is to throw them away. This solution, however, is heartbreaking in two ways. First, all those things cost me money to acquire. Lots of money. Dumping them in the trash would be like literally flushing money down the toilet. Second, all those things are still perfectly usable. As the child of parents who extended the life of just about everything from plastic utensils to clothes, it’s simply against my nature to just throw something away that still has life to it.

Enter my ideal solution: charitable donations. While I’m sure charities would rather get the cash equivalent of the things that are donated, I’d be surprised if the offer would be rejected. So who could use 50 packs of patterned paper? If we had kids I’m sure we would give everything our kid’s school, but since our only “child” is covered in fur and walks on all fours (despite being eight years old), we have no connection with any school in our city.

In my search I came across Camp Laurel, an organization based in Pasadena that supports children living with HIV and AIDS. While looking at their donations page, I saw that on their wishlist they’ve specifically listed “Arts & Crafts supplies.” PERFECT! I sent off a quick email explaining my situation and gave my cell phone number, after which I almost immediately got a call back from Suzy, the Program Director. Unfortunately, as usual, I’m unable to take calls on my cell, so Suzy left a message saying that they would be happy to accept the supplies. This is going to sound cheesy, but I honestly felt elated when I listened to her message. I was relieved and appreciative. Yeah, I had a lot of money tied up with those things, but that all becomes quite inconsequential if they could be put to good use.

Categories: charity
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OK, I won’t see France, but that’s perfectly fine with me. So it’s official. I’m going to Dublin and London in August. Flights and hotels have been secured. Now I’ve just got that pesky little matter of updating my passport …

Categories: travel
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I don’t travel a whole lot. Normally, “travel” to me means a 3,000 mile trip to see my family in New York for a few days once or twice a year. The last time I did this was in November 2006 for my nephew’s first birthday. (D and I didn’t even go to either of our families back east for Thanksgiving or Christmas last year.) We also normally take one to three road trips a year, usually to Vegas.

But now … well, I’m in dire need of a vacation. As I left the office yesterday, even our HR guy mentioned that I needed to take a vacation. (Apparently, I have more vacation days than I realized, which really shouldn’t be surprising since my last official day off was taken on said trip to New York last November.) So my vacation plan currently consists of a trip to Dublin and London in August. I’ve just booked the hotels, and I’ve got the flights saved in my itinerary. And yes, I’m feeling the guilt for all those miles I’ll be flying. That’s approximately 14,652 miles of air travel (or somewhere around 5,882 lbs of CO2 according to TerraPass’ calculators). I’ll most likely purchase a TerraPass for this trip to help ease the guilt, but beyond that, I think I just need to be more diligent about my carbon footprint, and reduce, reuse, and recycle as much as I can starting … uh, today.

Categories: travel, environment
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Well, not quite yet. Though talks about banning the use of Styrofoam in the city’s restaurants will begin next month (via the OC Register).

Laguna Beach is poised to become the first county city to extend such a ban to the private sector. Under a plan to be discussed next month, city restaurants would have to ditch takeout cups and containers made of Styrofoam. While cheap and effective, the plastic can take decades to biodegrade and can harm wildlife that mistake its crumbled pieces for food.

I say GOOD FOR THEM and I hope the plan to ban is successful. Then I hope all other OC cities follow suit.

The article mentions how “restaurant industry officials” aren’t so hot about the idea, namely because alternatives can cost three times as much as Styrofoam, and that the ban won’t solve the “true issue” of littering.

I know littering is a problem. Trust me, I’m very aware of it. I try not to snarl when I’m out and I see little rugrats mindlessly dropping crap on the ground while their parents do absolutely nothing about it. (What happened to the days of old, when parents would teach their kids about manners??) Anywhoo, I quite agree that even if you take away Styrofoam, people would still continue to litter, and in the long run, there’s got to be something done to (re)educate the masses. In the meantime, just because people will continue to litter doesn’t make it OK to keep using something that takes forever to biodegrade, harms wildlife, and is quite possibly very, very nasty for humans. Just this week I witnessed a kid at work throwing food in a Styrofoam container in the microwave. When another employee mentioned “you know that’s toxic,” the kid simply shrugged it off and replied, “it’s OK, my stomach’s made of steel.” (I’d like to know how much of our tax money ends up in health care to take care of people who make moronic decisions such as these.)

Categories: news, environment
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