Things that matter

When I started working on this blog in June 2007, I was excited and motivated. Used to spend a lot of time working on it – content, marketing, networking, the usual stuff. That drive lasted for approximately seven months (until the end of December 2007), because seven months after starting it, I was tempted to try a MMORPG – you know, like some people are tempted to try coke, out of curiosity. I couldn’t believe people would get hooked on a game and actually play it for years, so I went on and tried one for myself to see what the deal was, ignoring all the warnings signs about addiction.

Soon after doing that, I was hooked too (maybe I thought I was special and would not / by the way, don’t try drugs). Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a lot of buzz around the word “green” these days. Green collar jobs, green cars, green industries, green buildings, green people from Mars, and so on. Obama has been talking a lot about green, and is investing a lot of money into it. But there are some ignored things about this green. Ignored at least in some public circles.

From an article published in Yale Environment 360:

For the new urbanists, building an eco-town is not a matter of building “green” buildings. For some, in fact, green buildings are non-starters, taking 25 to 65 years to recoup the energy used to build them; and once built, they can become quickly obsolete, saddled with already out-of-date technology.

“Everyone gets seduced by the ‘green bling,’” Stephen Platt of Cambridge Architectural Research told me. “Making the houses energy-efficient is the easy bit. The key problem is making this a long-term socially acceptable place where people will want to live and prosper.” More important is creating places that, like Vauban, encourage people to change their unsustainable behaviors and then enable them to do it.

Do you think we’re ready for green living? Do you think the green technologies are ready for us?

photo by: Claire7373

While we are scared that the global financial crisis is stealing our comfortable lifestyles, people in Zimbabwe have to pan for gold powder from the rivers to exchange for food at an exorbitant rate. So perhaps it isn’t that bad for us. : ) Maybe slightly less comfortable, but not nearly as dramatic. Read the rest of this entry »

When young, you can abuse two things:

1. Your body;
2. Your mind.

Abusing your body usually results in pretty nasty health problems when its youth starts wearing off.

Abusing your mind on the other hand, through constant thinking and study, has very pleasant results in time. You won’t be one of those using the “I’m old, my memory isn’t as good” excuse at 65. You won’t forget why you’re holding a toothbrush in your hand, or that your birthday is five months from today. No memory loss at old age sounds too good to be true? Read on. Read the rest of this entry »