clothing

Generation Z & The Fast Fashion Paradox

I'm not gen z, and I don't do fast fashion, but clothing is definitely my biggest consumer weakness. it's worse too because I wear mostly synthetics tho I, obviously, know better. I justify it to myself in saying that I'm upgrading my wardrobe to better brands which use better quality materials so items last longer and shed fewer micro-plastics. and yeah, I actually have cycled out all my columbia fleeces for north face, marmot, and arc'teryx. I also never buy new, because used is cheaper but also more environmentally friendly. I also try to sell all my clothes rather than donating them because there's more control that it doesn't end up in landfill. 

but regardless of those reasons, I still have way too much clothes =\ I literally have like 10 fleeces. different weights, but several at each weight. it's also really ridiculous because I only wear certain colors so it's even more pronounced that I have too much. I sometimes blame my completist inclinations. when I was much younger I would try to finish everything in a series: nancy drew, stephen king, etc. I definitely still have a little of that now, but it's less pronounced. 

I don't even think it's the clothes itself (studies confirm it usually isn't), but the excitement of getting a good deal, of winning an auction, of having something come in the mail, of getting something new. realizing this, I've more recently told myself that a good deal is not good enough. good thing J is much better at that, lol. we were at grocery outlet and they had a $20 bottle of sake that used to be like $80 and I really wanted to get it. not because I like sake, but because it was such a good deal! we ended up not buying it because neither of us really likes sake and my reasoning for wanting it was really stupid. tho had I been shopping by myself, I might have bought it. ugh.

for 2021 I'm going to focus on narrowing down my closest. that doesn't mean I can't buy anything new, but I do think I want to do the one thing in one thing out rule. and, more importantly, really focus more on the purging. I probably have 20 dresses total? for some reason, I love buying them but am always too "embarrassed" to wear them. buy for your actual life, not the life you want, or some saying like that. 

my purchasing guidelines for new things: economics, ethics, and the environment. not necessarily in that order. 

harm vs harm

I've been thinking a lot about harm lately, and unintended consequences. you cannot live life without causing harm. and it's not even as easy as trying to live causing the least amount of harm possible because sometimes it's impossible to weigh.

at our office, sometimes even deciding where to eat brings up a lot of questions. do we get slightly better tasting burritos at whole foods which is owned by amazon which annually produces nearly as much carbon as swizerland or denmark? not to mention all their terrible workers' rights issues, and lack of paying taxes. or do we get not as tasty burritos at chronic taco which probably also does a lot of terrible things that we just don't know about because they're not as closely scrutinized as amazon?

and that's just lunch! where do you stand on bioplastics or the conventional kind?

a lot of people would say, bioplastics, of course, because it doesn't come from petroleum, and it has a smaller carbon footprint because most oil doesn't come from america anyway. but that's just the oil aspect. most bioplastic in the states is made from corn since we have govt subsidies for that. but it's those same subsidies which ultimately led to high fructose corn syrup in everything because we have too much corn and the govt asked scientists to come up with ways to use it up. and, while both oil and corn require water, corn requires more land and possibly causes more water pollutants because of fertilizers and pesticides. oil has led to war, which farming hasn't as much, but our modern conventional farming has led to hella cancers and also involves migrant workers / illegal immigration issues which oil likely has too much definitely on a smaller scale.

end of life is murky too. bioplastics are rarely recycled or composted. in fact, they actually contaminate regular plastic recycling and most waste haulers don't even want it. almost all bioplastics end up in landfill where they don't biodegrade at all, but do release methane, which regular plastic doesn't. methane, of course, contributes to increased greenhouse gases which aggravates climate change.

so, which is better? well, they both suck. just in different ways.

I tell the customers to decide what matters most to them (for me, i sacrifice taste and eat at chronic because i don't like to support amazon), and not worry too much about the rest. i also suggest they do research so they can make informed decisions, but as demonstrated above, sometimes it's the knowing too much that makes it impossible to make decisions!

articles about bioplastic here and here
fact sheet about bioplastic

i also want to emphasize that a lot of the bioplastic on the market isn't even 100% plant based plastic. something is considered bioplastic even if it's a blend of plant based and petroleum based plastics.

best for baby

I was at a baby shower over the weekend and boy did i feel out of place. it's been hitting me more often lately how my consumerist ways and therefore whole mindset has changed, and in the last year especially.

it's not just that I had to take out my reusable spork (to avoid plastic cutlery), use my water bottle (solo cups), not eat candy (plastic wrapping), or take a party favor (the absolute cutest fox cookies, but, alas, in a plastic bag with a metallic plastic twisty tie). one of the games (guessing prices of baby things) was especially hard. not just because i've never really looked at baby stuff before, but because I have, but the stuff I look at is all nearly plastic free and therefore at a different price point. also, these less waste people I now spend the majority of my time with make due with what they have using handmade all purpose salves instead of special nipple cream, wooden clothes pins you also use for chip bags and laundry instead of special plastic clips for binkies.

my major social circle is my work people. therefore, we're all pretty like minded. the people at the party are on a completely separate path. parents and soon-to-be-parents at the party were talking about a $1300 sound activated vibrating crib that is only good for about 6 months since your baby gets too heavy for it. they were talking about breast pumps where you pump into single use plastic bags and about subscribing to meal kits because you're so so so tired the first few months.

besides the financial impediments, i would likely never even consider these things because of the environmental effect. single use plastic bags for breast milk?! meal kits that use a ridiculous amount of packaging!! but everyone kept saying "you don't understand how tired you'll be..." but, I dunno man. i'm not saying it's ever easy, but maybe these people are tired because they think they HAVE to do this and that. so many women around the world give birth and go back to pretty much their regular lives the next day. so many kids live perfectly happy childhoods without millions of toys and clothes and binkies and absolutely adorable but pretty much unnecessary stuff.

when my boss gave birth she said something about how women innately know what's good and bad for babies. we've been having them for thousands of years, after all. and you know what? i pretty much agree. of course times are different now and there is different "bad" stuff that we just don't know about yet. but basically, I think a lot of knowledge is innate.

someone said how we're of the first generations where we have access to so much more info that what just our small community knows. we've got experts and their books and studies, mommy blogs, parenting chat rooms, the internet at large... there's no shortage of people telling you the what's best for baby.

the whole thing just makes me tired. it's like society is constantly telling you that you're just not good enough, that you can't do it right, and that, therefore, you will raise unhealthy, stupid, and unhappy children. ...unless you buy that $1300 vibrating crib thing.

cuprite2

while i think the cuprite system would work, i definitely have reservations about it. i think if i were to address take-away coffee shops, it might work best to open my own damn drink shop and implement the following rules:

- no disposable cups, plates, coffee stirrers, etc. minimal disposable anything else
- we have real cups, plates, silverware, etc. for you to use in store
- want it to go? bring your own cups and containers for food
- want it to go but forgot your containers? pay a $2 "deposit" and take something from the "donation" bin
- you bring back something from the donation bin, or you make a flat out donation of stuff, you get $1 back per item up to $5 or $10
- possibly have a public sink for people to wash out their stuff

why don't they get their full deposit back? this will encourage them to bring their own cup. we don't really care if we get that cup back. we want them to bring their own.

cuprite

doing what we do, we meet a lot of people with a lot of different ideas on how to attack plastic pollution. last week we talked to two recent college grads who have an idea on reusable coffee cups and a community rental program: CupRite.

i don't totally understand how it's supposed to work. but based just the video, i have a few suggestions. (honestly, i'm writing this post because I haven't really stopped thinking about it since saturday when we met the girls)

- each store buys a certain number of cups. a 4-digit (or whatever) code is engraved on the inside bottom of each cup (that way cups only empty cups can be returned). that code corresponds to the store so you can track, per store, number returned, and lost and damaged cups. also behavioral things like what distance do people go, how many days does it take to return. 

- lock the drop off box (people will steal cups out of unlocked boxes; who will pay to get new ones?). the box can be unlocked with the same 4-digit code engraved inside the cup (so the lock will have to have multiple unlock codes [not sure if that's possible]).

- this probably works best in a closed environment (college or larger work campus with drop boxes inside each building), that way you might not even need lock boxes or codes. tho, again, you can track behavioral things with the codes.

- you can also make this into an app where people have to enter the location code where they drop off the cup (which can also give them an unlock code to the box, so the engraved number is just a store ID). eventually you'll know who is fake returning cups and charge those people. (you get cc info when they sign up. if they return all their cups, they never get charged. or you can do a deposit system. you can even allow them on lost cup within a time period or number of uses. you can also incorporate this into loyalty program of certain $% off their 11th cup or whatever)

it ain’t easy being green

I forget what my 2017 new year’s resolution was. I’m pretty sure it was to eat less beef, which I totally have. I did it because our “regular” cows are terrible for the environment. they hella pollute our land, air, and water. damn things taste so good tho!

this year I’m going to focus on lessening my overall negative environmental impact. starting last week, lol. I’ve always donated lightly used items rather than throwing them away, and have always been careful about conserving electricity and water, and, of course, recycling paper, aluminum, and common plastics. since volunteering with SoCal harvest a number of years ago, I’ve also been pretty aware of my food waste and convinced my dad to get a compost bin for our yard. and I think he’s also on the verge of getting a rain barrel, yahoo! of course, since volunteering with algalita I’ve cut more and more plastics out of my life and have mostly stopped frivolous shopping too.

but the other day, ab said something that really got me thinking. she said that ocean institute had asked her to give a 20 minute talk at their facility down in Dana Point, which is a 60-90 minute drive from here. I said that is they were also willing to compensate her driving time... she said that even so, it wouldn’t be worth the greenhouse gases of driving down there. she is so right!

I don’t mind driving, long distances anyway. and I always try to carpool, take efficient driving routes, and don’t idle my car for more than a couple minutes (more than a minute or two, the co2 released is more than how much you would produce turning off the car and restarting it). but I really don’t think anything of driving 40 minutes away for a meal. and while I think about riding my bike to work, if I’m honest, I haven’t really seriously considered it. well, I’m gonna. ...not bike to work. it’s winter and too damn cold. but if I need to go to stater brothers up the street, I’m going to bike. and when it gets warm again I’m really really going to consider biking to work and especially to practice. and maybe get a skateboard so I won’t drive to whole foods for lunch. ...tho first learning to be way better at skateboarding, ha. tell ya what tho, I’m probably going to eat out less too. it’s not that great for the environment either. I’ll be working at the farmers market once a month anyway so can get locally sourced stuff there. ...now to learn to cook...

I’m really really gonna stop buying bottled shampoo and body wash, even the refill stuff. I’m gonna remember to avoid stuff with palm oil and too many chemicals. I’m going to pay more attention to where my food comes from and try harder to eat locally and less processed stuff and less meat in general. I’m going to start asking more often for “no straw please” and bringing my bento box for leftovers when I do eat out. and more! oy, there’s a lot to remember and do but it’ll totally be worth it!!

not holier than thou

Breaking: We’re ignorant and lazy consumers who judge people for doing the right thing

"Researchers have found that a) we’re lazy when it comes to investigating the ethics of our purchases, and b) we resent those who do take the time to research the social and environmental impacts... then opt for a more ethical alternative."

at algalita we try not to guilt people into using less plastic. it makes them resent us, we know. we also don't want to shock anyone into agreeing with us (the way peta does sometimes with their campaigns). but it's hard then, to get your message across. what is the best way to get people to change their habits? we don't know. we use education. we explain the issue, and let the data / images speak for themselves. but we don't don't use clickbait, we don't post super graphic photos, and we don't talk anyone's ear off when they clearly don't care.

we also try to lead by example, of course, but i think that only goes so far.

dgaf

some people naturally put in more effort. i rarely buy gifts, so i generally put a bit more effort into buying them when i actually do. my group of girlfriends does secret santa each year, and we pool our money for each others' bday gifts.

all this gifting has been going on for years and years. and since there are five girlfriends total we do this multiple times a year. so of course trends have emerged. our online wishlists (links usually included) save us a ton of time / effort, tho of course someone needs to actually get it done. that person is usually me, and i generally don't mind. (and to be totally honest, i prefer doing it because i do the most research to find deals. which i think is important cause why wouldn't we want to spend the same amount of money to get you more stuff?) of course we've also noticed that one of us generally doesn't participate in the gift giving preparation process. half the time this person also doesn't pay us back.

i'm closer to this person and she's been very generous to me a few times so i don't mind as much that she doesn't always pay me back. it bothers a couple of the rest of us a lot more tho. in fact, they've considered taking her out of the gifting altogether. i don't have anything really to say about that. i understand their point of view but i just don't feel as strongly about it.

background over. actual story:
last year x was secret santa to y. x forgot to get y a gift. =\ y was already annoyed (see above) at x anyway. so when xmas came around this year i reminded x that she had forgotten the year before. (y had brought up the forgotten gift a few times over the year so i knew it really bothered her) x remedied the situation by getting y a gift this year in addition to getting her person a gift too, which, coincidentally, happened to be me.

that we have wish lists means we nearly always get exactly what we want. some of us keep a long list and will bold a few especially favored items. of course we try to get you those items first. it doesn't always work out because of budget constraints but we do try. i have a long list (a buncha books) and several bolded items, one of which is a book. it was awesome to get two packages this year from barnes and nobles cause i knew it meant books and i was expecting my bold item but it turns out i didn't get that. i got three other books from my list. i didn't get any bold items this year.

i know that it's shitty to complain about getting gifts, especially when you got what asked for. but, well, i'm petty. and i admit, i felt disappointed that i didn't get a bold item. BUT it's not just about being petty. i felt stupid because i had stood up for x over the years. others have complained about her basically being a crappy friend. they said she just didn't give a fuck. i just thought she didn't make it priority. i don't know the exact circumstances (maybe it was sold out), but that she got me only books and not a single bold item, not even a bold book, says to me that she didn't really spend much time / thought on my gift. it was convenient to shop from a single retailer, so that's what she did. basically, she put in a minimum amount of effort.

oh well. honestly, this doesn't change much for me. i still don't prefer to take her off our gifting list and i won't put less effort into her gifts in the future. but it does make me think a little differently of x. as always, my naivete about people disappointed and surprised only me.

put some color on

mom: did you buy anything? [at the carlsbad outlet before coming home]
me: yup. I bought a jacket from Reebok.
mom: another jacket?
me: yeah, but it's in a color I don't wear normally.
mom: what color? [starting to get excited] orange, purple, pink?
me: nope, dark green!
mom: ...

without china

what we'd wear if china didn't exist


went thru my current outfit and very surprisingly, i'd be wearing everything i'm still wearing!! i also included the brands i'm wearing and which country "owns" that brand. my list is surprisingly american. the one thing i'm wearing not from an american company is my watch, tho the only thing i'm wearing i know is made in america, are my bobby pins.

pj bottoms - india (old navy - american)
underwear - doesn't say (gilly hicks - american)
bra - phillipines (calvin klein - american)
tank top - doesn't say (gap - american)
shirt - nicaragua (gap - american)
seatshirt - vietnam (abercrombie & fitch - american)

bobby pins - usa (goody - american)
ring - doesn't say (coach - american)
watch - case, switzerland (swatch - swiss)

btw, it's funny but i thought gilly hicks was from australia, because it actaully says sydney on the tag. turns out they're owned by abercrombie & fitch, which for some reason i thought was a british brand.

how about you? anything surprising results?

over-nutrition

just finished michael pollan's the omnivore's dilemma. and while there were a LOT of interesting things. this one stuck out to me:

"the disease formerly known as adult-onset diabetes has had to be renamed type II diabetes since it now occurs so frequently in children." (102)

also: "...the united nations reported that in 2000 the number of people suffering from overnutrition--a billion-- had officially surpassed the number suffering from malnutrition--800 million." (102)

related video on the pasture-raised chickens.

consumer stats

found this interesting consumer habits statistics thing off an infographic about walmart's green policies.

 some of these stats are really interesting. an average of 59 garments (which doesn't include shoes, i think) purchased a year is 5 items a month; i know i'm a bit under for that. but the one that REALLY got to me is the stat that u.s. citizens throw out an average of 83lbs of clothes a year. what?! i throw away a couple pounds only (mostly socks and underwear) because i donate everything else. so who are the people throwing away over 100lbs of clothes to balance me out?

anyway, how about you? are you pretty average?

book swapping

i love books. i joined librarything a few years ago cause i thought it was a great place to catalogue my books. and if i were ever out and couldn't remember if i had already owned something, i could look it up. (btw, i joined back in feb 2006 and i don't even know if smart phones were around at the time but that was pretty forward thinking!)

unfortunately, the one feature librarything didn't have was a built-in book swapping system. so last year i joined goodreads, which isn't a site dedicated to book swapping, but it did have it and as an added bonus, a number of my friends were already members.

i took advantage of the book swap thing and i really happy with it until they canceled the thing! so annoying because the only reason i signed up for goodreads was for the bookswap. :(

anyway, i still wanted to swap books cause 1. it's a fun idea 2. it's good for the environment 3. it's cheaper than most other ways of getting books 4. it's good for the post office 5. i love getting stuff in the mail. (who am i kidding, it's all about #5!)

so i did some research and it's kind of weird but most of the sites charge the shipper to send books. in other words, it's free to receive them. ... tho most sites have a point system so you can't take advantage and get way more free books without sending any. but anyway, i finally signed up for booksfreeswap which has the receiver pay for shipping in advance. the shipper just has package the books, print out the shipping label, and put the package in their mailbox. so easy!

anyway, the real reason i'm telling you this story is because i'm sending out my first package today. and she only paid $3.42 to receive three books in great condition, which is an amazing deal!

(as i mentioned, booksfreeswap is one of the few sites that makes the receiver pay for the shipping, which i think only makes sense. also, this way there's no confusing point system to keep track of. but the "catch" is that the first time you want to request a book, you have "deposit" $10 into you account. and every month after that 25cents is deducted from your account to help run the site. it's not a lot of $ and i'm totally cool with it, but i didn't read anything about this system until after i signed up for the site. i haven't gone back to find if they do tell you about this stuff upfront, but i did re-read the faqs and it's not in there, which is pretty shady.)

(update: even shadier, i was talking to the person i shipped my books to and mentioned how amazing it was she only paid $3.42 for three books. i got the number from the postage that i printed out. she wrote back: "I paid $5.37. The rest goes to the site. The site charges as low as 50 cents for mass market paperbacks AFTER the first book. Hardbacks can cost over a dollar. Ordering only one book at a time can be expensive, just due to the way media mail works." ...what?! look, $5 something is still great for three books. but it's hella shady the site doesn't tell you about all these extra fees before you sign up!!)

(one more thing!! when i sent my books to someone, i guess i didn't wrap it well enough because the books came loose and were lost in the mail. all the receiver got was the wrapping and note in the mail. :( but she contacted booksfreeswap about it and got her money back from them. no hassle. pretty nice!)

steve jobs and giving

for the last couple months, the occupy movement has been all over the news. and for a few weeks, so was steve jobs' death. what i find interesting about the occupy movement is that no individuals in the 1% have really been called out. and seeing how i just mentioned steve jobs, i think you know where this is going...
jobs had an estimated net worth of over $7billion at the time of this death. but did you know that "there is no public record of Mr. Jobs giving money to charity" (source)?

did you also know that apple has more cash holdings than the u.s. government? and what are they doing with that money? not giving back to investors, that's for sure. nor, under jobs, were they giving to charities. within weeks of jobs returning to the helm at apple, he cut all philanthropic giving. the justification at the time was to save money since apple wasn't terribly profitable. but how come he never reinstated them? they're certainly profitable now. (tho tim cook did reinstate charitable giving at apple just a short time after taking over ::applause::)

i think it's incredibly weird that certain billionaires (gates, buffett, zuckerberg, walton...) get tons of flack for lack of generosity. yet, for whatever reason, society has given jobs a pass.

a lot of people say that jobs has already given a lot back to society in the form of technology and jobs (as in, work, not his name). and that's great, but just because you've done some great stuff for technology and job creation, that doesn't mean you can't go help others. tons of the extremely rich have manged to run their empires and think about others at the same time: rockefeller, gates, carnegie, winfrey, buffett, bloomberg, knight, koch... and these people have also contributed to society in general in no way less than jobs. to say jobs has already given back enough through his work trivializes what others have done.

also, if jobs' big concern was making great tech stuff for the general public, why didn't he price stuff cheaper? istuff aside, most mac stuff is really expensive! more people would then be able to buy his products and apple still would have been able to make a profit.

jacobs brings up a good point in her article for forbes that maybe jobs did donate, just anonymously. people donate anonymously for a ton of reasons, a major one being that they don't want to be badgered for more money later. and as one of the richest people on the planet, i can see why jobs would already be a target! another problem with donating, especially if you're giving away a lot, if that you want to make sure the receivers are actually worthy. otherwise you could be giving it to someone else who can enact more positive change. but how do you even decide who's going to do a better job? (tho lots of people create their own charities to make sure their money gets allocated to their liking) and some people just don't want the recognition. ...but how come jobs didn't reinstate apple's philanthropy?

(btw, i totally get why people don't want the credit. i do my drives and post about the results and my locks of love stuff, but i have declined to be put in the organization newsletters and stuff. i find that stuff embarrassing. [i realize that i more and more dislike being the center of attention. i won't shy away from doing things because of the attention, but i certainly never do anything for the sake of recognition.] but for all the lack of wanting credit, i still do stuff!)

the rich are certainly entitled to do what they want with their own money. but we, as consumers, are also entitled to our decision on where to spend our money. camping out and protesting the 1% is great and all, but maybe we should also look at how they became so rich -- we made them that way.

jobs said in a 1993 interview with the wall street journal that “being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful … that’s what matters to me." well, steve, you definitely did do something wonderful, but you could've been someone really wonderful too.

50 vhs's anyone?

we've been doing some long overdue cleaning lately and found about 50 vhs tapes. that's a lot! i wanted to get rid of them but figured that must be a better way than just throwing them in the trash. i went online and got two suggestions: freecycle and recycling through greendisk.

freecycle is a free online network where you can offer or request stuff in your community. anything. as long there's no money involved. so kind of like craigslist but actually free. greendisk seems like a great service to recycle your "technotrash." you pack it, ship it, pay a small fee, and forget about it.

but since i didn't really want to pay the fee (tho yeah, it would've been only $7 not including shipping) i decided to freecycle it first. if no one wanted it there, i'd send it to greendisk.


anyway, i put my offer of vhs tapes online, and about a month later someone contacted me! he wanted the tapes even tho they're all used and have super random recordings on them. and earlier this week i found our old vcr, which he said he could use too.

i met with him and his wife today at the local mcdonald's (to be safe). turns out they've been freecycling for about a year and they joined because they too were tired of seeing everything go into the trash.

btw, before i left the house to meet him, i called rip and told him where i was going to be, just in case i never came back. he was, unsurprisingly, not too happy. he thought the whole thing sounded unsafe. which i can definitely see. but that's why i wanted to meet somewhere public, and also why i called rip to tell him where i'd be. later on rip said that i should've gone with someone, which i would also have preferred, but everyone's at work and from his emails, the guy sounded really normal. which, i know, sounds stupid. but i just figured that while i'm sure there are crazies on freecycle, most of us aren't nuts. and i was taking basic precautions already. anyway. i was glad to meet then. and i had no expectations of what he would look like, but him and his wife were not hippies. just cool folks who like to be able to record tv shows. and you know what? i don't blame them. i don't have tivo or a dvr either. and i could just figure out how to record onto vhs, they would not have been getting mine! anyway, just wanted to blog about this experience.

i'm happy today!

drop in the bucket

i was thinking of how much i drive around town dropping off recycling, and it's kind of a lot! here is the list of things i collect for donations or recycling:

- plastic bags - grocery store, target
- aluminum cans, plastic / glass drink bottles - recycling center at supermarket (i get $ for this one tho)
- paper (including newspapers and all other kinds) - guy who picks it up once a week
- plastic or glass food containers - buddhist org in norwalk
- random plastic (generally from packaging) - godmother's house (their city has separate trash bins for plastic and other recyclables)
- batteries - la palma city hall
- e-waste - local e-waste recycling site
- packing material (peanuts, air packets) - old work (which does a lot of shipping)
- large cardboard - old work (people drive by and pick up cardboard)
- clothes hangers / large sponges - dragon boat equipment shed
- film canisters - costco
- cosmetics containers - origins counters / store
- toys - chinese school (they give out prizes to kids)
- shoes - souls4soles collection box at vans store
- glasses - lions club (current drive)
- hotel toiletries / other random travel sized toiletries - homeless shelter
- random non-perishable foods, plastic utensils - homeless shelter
- books / magazines / cds - la palma library
- clothes - my best friends and i are around the same size in clothing so we do swaps nearly every time we meet up
- random clothes and things - local drive-by pick-ups
- random beanies and gloves that i pick up on sale - random homeless people
- blankets - neighbor will be starting a drive soon
- prescription bottles - have started collecting, can't find who to donate to...
- my hair! - have donated to locks of love three times. :)

it's pretty crazy all the things you can recycle. but it's pretty damn annoying that not one place takes everything. like the recycling centers don't take paper, newspapers, milk jugs or like... glass soy sauce bottles, so i have to take them to the buddhist collection center (tho thank god i found them!). and i've started collecting my parents' empty prescription bottles but no one will take them! i'm actually pretty upset that kaiser permanente doesn't do anything about this... how many bottles do they fill a day? and how can they not have some sort of recycling / reusing program? a little more about this... so i went online to see where what i could do with the bottles and someone suggested calling local free clinics or veterinarian hospitals. i did that, and nope, none of the ones within a 15 mile radius of my house takes these things. gah!

new years resolution

yeah, it's march already, whatever... for this year, my new years resolution will be to not buy too much of anything that i don't need, unless i really want it. lol. but seriously. having no job means that i need to be more careful with my money. so i'm going to give up shopping (makeup, clothes, books...), unless i really want it. i've never been too frivolous with my money so if i see a really deal on something i've been wanting anyway, i'm going to get it. but no more with buying extra things (books or shoes, for instance), and definitely no more stocking up (on lotion or hand sanitizer)... basically, i'm going to cut down on my consumption.

what're you doing?