Today...is sadly the last day of my job for this season. As kind of a 'thank you' I guess my boss brought in some donuts and sandwich fixin's for breakfast and lunch. He does this every year. He's really a sweet guy. There's also a banquet on May 3 as an end of the year function...something else they have every year. Last year they had some kind of line dance or some country wester thing. I had signed up to go but forgot about it until it was too late. This year, I've signed up and I'm putting a reminder in my cell phone so that I won't forget. I'd like to go and I can bring a guest so...why not?
Earth Day approaches rapidly. This isn't really a celebratory day for alot of people but I incorporate it into my spiritual life. I just use it as a day to honor the Earth and a reminder for myself to keep living a green life and keep doing what I can to help restore balance to the planet. I'll most likely spend Earth Day in a local park meditating and maybe practicing some simple beginner Yoga moves. Perhaps do some reading, writing, and birdwatching as well.
It seems I fixed my cell phone. For the past day or so it had been going extremely slow in the IM service I use. Not wanting to open it, not switching to the input screen (without taking 30 seconds) etc. Then a few moments ago it froze on me...so I just switched it off and then back on. Vuala (sp?) the problem is fixed!!!
My uncle is wanting to stay with us again this weekend. I'm not really that big of a fan of letting him do that. He's homeless and claims he has no place to go. Except...he's been staying somewhere for the past week or so. He says that place is diving him nuts and he needs a break from it. It's a roof over your head and a place to sleep. When you're desperate for a place to go, you don't need a break from a place. Atleast not in my opinion. Knowing Kevin he's just tired of having to work there...it's a requirement. In order to stay there you have to work for your room. Kevin doesn't like work at all. Avoids it at all costs. If it gives him a place to sleep though you'd think he'd be willing to do anything. Some people just want everything handed to them on a silver platter. He seems to be one of them...
I'm off to read an old copy of one of my favorite magazines: Sagewoman. Which reminds me to check out their website to see when the next edition is coming out. It's a quarterly magazine and I just love it. I have all my back copies for about 3 years now and am recently going back through them to reread and reabsorb their information. Some of the stories (especially the ones in the "Warrior" edition) really hit home with me. They mean alot and some are pieces I could've written myself. I hope to one day have a piece published in this magazine. Along of course with National Geographic. hehe.
Showing posts with label magazines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label magazines. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Interesting Articles
I was reading the latest issue of National Geographic (March 2009) the other day and came across an interesting article. Well a couple different interesting articles. The first one is on page 61 and called "It Starts At Home". It's talking about saving energy. One family wanted to see if they could reduce their carbon emitions from their home by 80% for a month. According to the article (written by Peter Miller) the average household produces about 150lbs of carbon dioxide a day (driving a car is included in this). They cut back on everything-driving less, using eco/earth friendly lawn equipment, watching less tv, etc. The outcome of this was that they trimmed their emissions by twice as much as was their goal! Their efforts saved them nearly $200 on their electric bill. Who wouldn't like that? Some of their findings are:
*one gallon of gasoline adds 19.6lbs of CO2 to the atmosphere
*a kilo-watt hour of electricity in the U.S. produces 1.5lbs of CO2
*every 100 cubic feet of natual gas emits 12lbs of CO2
They plugged in their numbers to different charts (one provided by the EPA) and found that their carbon emissions were 30% higher than the average american household. They started off by emitting 54,273lbs/year (4522.75/month) and in the end of a month (this was a month long test) they had reduced their emissions to 70.5lbs a day...that's roughly 2,185.5lbs a month!!! That's a lot!!!
The article also pointed out that it's houses, not cars, that produce the most CO2 because of everything that's plugged in and just stays plugged in (like refrigerators, ovens, etc). Now while I can't unplug all my kitchen appliances, unplugging little things will help too. Things like cell phone chargers or radios and tvs when not in use. "If we turned off home computers when not in use we would cut their CO2 impact by 8.3 million tons a year, or 50%." That's huge!! I myself do not own a home computer (I rely on public computers and the ones at work-where I am now) to do anything online.
Anyone who wants to live a more ecofriendly life should read this article. It's very eye opening and some of the practices should be adopted by everyone. A simple one is just to rely on natural light during the day instead of using a lamp or open up windows and let some fresh air into the house in the spring and summer instead of running the air conditioner nonstop. One summer I had a one bedroom apartment on my own. I didn't use hardly any lamps and almost never ran my air conditioner. My computer was plugged in but not on unless in use and my tv was almost always on as was my video game system. Do you know what my electric bill averaged that summer? $20!! That's for an all electric place. I don't know how I managed to keep it so low but I did. That was much easier on my wallet.
The other two articles have nothing to do with being more ecofriendly but I found them interesting regardless. One is about the blue whale. I just found the sheer size of the creature to be like WOW. Imagine a city bus...now double it's length...that's the length of a blue whale! It's tongue alone weighs as much as an elephant. A newborn blue whale weighs about 3 tons but they gain 9lbs an hour!!! When they are fully grown they'll weigh 200 tons. It's the largest creature on earth and that's just like...WOW.
The other thing that interested me wasn't really an article. It's just like a paragraph in the back of the magazine about rats in India. I have family over there right now and this kind of shocked me. Apparently every 50 years or so there's a major outbreak of the rodent population in places like Mizoram and Bangladesh. There's a specific type of Bamboo that only flowers every 50 years and when it does it draws "tens of millions of hungry rats". Problem is once all the bamboo has been eaten the rats then move on to precious crops like rice which as I understand it is a staple in the Indian diet. In the 1950's the outbreak led to things like faminine and political upheaval. There was also some special on this last night on channel 20 (WFYI I think). The current outbreak (I think) subsided in 2008 and won't be back til around 2057. And we thought rats here in the states were bad...I can't imagine what it's like with all those rats over there!!!
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See this is the kind of stuff I want to write about. When writing articles I mean. My dream is to write fiction novels of course. But I'm interested in animals and our planets wellbeing as well. I'd love to contribute articles like these to publications like National Geographic. These are the kind of articles that get my attention-the ones about different animals, and healthy eating, and ecofriendly things. Perhaps I should start channeling my interest of these things into articles and then pitch those to different magazines.
This is another dream to add to my list of things I want to accomplish before I die: have atleast one article published in National Geographic.
*one gallon of gasoline adds 19.6lbs of CO2 to the atmosphere
*a kilo-watt hour of electricity in the U.S. produces 1.5lbs of CO2
*every 100 cubic feet of natual gas emits 12lbs of CO2
They plugged in their numbers to different charts (one provided by the EPA) and found that their carbon emissions were 30% higher than the average american household. They started off by emitting 54,273lbs/year (4522.75/month) and in the end of a month (this was a month long test) they had reduced their emissions to 70.5lbs a day...that's roughly 2,185.5lbs a month!!! That's a lot!!!
The article also pointed out that it's houses, not cars, that produce the most CO2 because of everything that's plugged in and just stays plugged in (like refrigerators, ovens, etc). Now while I can't unplug all my kitchen appliances, unplugging little things will help too. Things like cell phone chargers or radios and tvs when not in use. "If we turned off home computers when not in use we would cut their CO2 impact by 8.3 million tons a year, or 50%." That's huge!! I myself do not own a home computer (I rely on public computers and the ones at work-where I am now) to do anything online.
Anyone who wants to live a more ecofriendly life should read this article. It's very eye opening and some of the practices should be adopted by everyone. A simple one is just to rely on natural light during the day instead of using a lamp or open up windows and let some fresh air into the house in the spring and summer instead of running the air conditioner nonstop. One summer I had a one bedroom apartment on my own. I didn't use hardly any lamps and almost never ran my air conditioner. My computer was plugged in but not on unless in use and my tv was almost always on as was my video game system. Do you know what my electric bill averaged that summer? $20!! That's for an all electric place. I don't know how I managed to keep it so low but I did. That was much easier on my wallet.
The other two articles have nothing to do with being more ecofriendly but I found them interesting regardless. One is about the blue whale. I just found the sheer size of the creature to be like WOW. Imagine a city bus...now double it's length...that's the length of a blue whale! It's tongue alone weighs as much as an elephant. A newborn blue whale weighs about 3 tons but they gain 9lbs an hour!!! When they are fully grown they'll weigh 200 tons. It's the largest creature on earth and that's just like...WOW.
The other thing that interested me wasn't really an article. It's just like a paragraph in the back of the magazine about rats in India. I have family over there right now and this kind of shocked me. Apparently every 50 years or so there's a major outbreak of the rodent population in places like Mizoram and Bangladesh. There's a specific type of Bamboo that only flowers every 50 years and when it does it draws "tens of millions of hungry rats". Problem is once all the bamboo has been eaten the rats then move on to precious crops like rice which as I understand it is a staple in the Indian diet. In the 1950's the outbreak led to things like faminine and political upheaval. There was also some special on this last night on channel 20 (WFYI I think). The current outbreak (I think) subsided in 2008 and won't be back til around 2057. And we thought rats here in the states were bad...I can't imagine what it's like with all those rats over there!!!
*************************************************************************
See this is the kind of stuff I want to write about. When writing articles I mean. My dream is to write fiction novels of course. But I'm interested in animals and our planets wellbeing as well. I'd love to contribute articles like these to publications like National Geographic. These are the kind of articles that get my attention-the ones about different animals, and healthy eating, and ecofriendly things. Perhaps I should start channeling my interest of these things into articles and then pitch those to different magazines.
This is another dream to add to my list of things I want to accomplish before I die: have atleast one article published in National Geographic.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Writing
I've known for awhile now that what I wanted to do with my life (in terms of careers) is to be a writer. I also know that this market is incredibly hard to break into especially with so many things being done over the internet anymore. Most people just want to read something online, not a bulky book they'd have to carry everywhere with them.
But there's nothing I like more than to go to Barnes'n'Noble on any given afternoon (particularly rainy ones) and sit there and write. Sometimes I'll look through magazines first. Sometimes I'll just browse through a how-to or reference book first. But it always ends with me writing and being incredibly productive while there. If I'm lucky I get out of there without purchasing a writer's magazine. Generally speaking though, I'm unlucky that way.
Writing at Barnes'n'Noble is not the same as writing at home either. At BN you have book shelves FULL of books on all sorts of subjects. Not sure how to spell a word? There's a shelf with dictionaries and thesauri nearby. Need to know how to say something in Spanish or Chinese? There's a section on those languages as well. Most people would say: You can get that experience at a library. Yes, that is true HOWEVER...I've found that most of the local libraries don't always have up to date copies of books. Plus, you can't talk in a library-you're supposed to be quiet. If I can talk to someone, I can bounce ideas off of them, or ask them what they think of using this or that name for a character.
So this year at New Years time I didn't make any resolutions simply because I believe that while providing goals (if they are done correctly), they also set you up for failure. How many people have said "this year I'm going to lose weight". Ok, what they mean there is that they are going to diet, starting Jan 1st, and have lots of weight lost by the end of the year and look fantastic. Realistically, unless you only have about ten pounds to lose anyway, it's not going to happen. And that statement of losing weight is way to general...people could lose one pound and then gain ten. But hey they've still met their goal I guess.
Anyway one goal I'm setting for myself, as of this minute, is to atleast query a few different reputable magazines for assignments. To send in some sample articles to various magazines and begin to get my name out there and let them know that I want to be a writer. I'm not going to get anywhere if I don't, and as my favorite magazine pointed out: I have nothing to lose.
Speaking of that same magazine: This issue of it dealt heavily with personal essays. I had never thought much about writing essays but after reading this article I'm beginning to think it might be a good idea for me to look into them. I was writing basically a journal entry earlier and it could very easily be turned into a personal essay. However I have a question:
Who or what (books, magazines, the web, etc), publishes personal essays? Are there publishing houses like there are for books?
But there's nothing I like more than to go to Barnes'n'Noble on any given afternoon (particularly rainy ones) and sit there and write. Sometimes I'll look through magazines first. Sometimes I'll just browse through a how-to or reference book first. But it always ends with me writing and being incredibly productive while there. If I'm lucky I get out of there without purchasing a writer's magazine. Generally speaking though, I'm unlucky that way.
Writing at Barnes'n'Noble is not the same as writing at home either. At BN you have book shelves FULL of books on all sorts of subjects. Not sure how to spell a word? There's a shelf with dictionaries and thesauri nearby. Need to know how to say something in Spanish or Chinese? There's a section on those languages as well. Most people would say: You can get that experience at a library. Yes, that is true HOWEVER...I've found that most of the local libraries don't always have up to date copies of books. Plus, you can't talk in a library-you're supposed to be quiet. If I can talk to someone, I can bounce ideas off of them, or ask them what they think of using this or that name for a character.
So this year at New Years time I didn't make any resolutions simply because I believe that while providing goals (if they are done correctly), they also set you up for failure. How many people have said "this year I'm going to lose weight". Ok, what they mean there is that they are going to diet, starting Jan 1st, and have lots of weight lost by the end of the year and look fantastic. Realistically, unless you only have about ten pounds to lose anyway, it's not going to happen. And that statement of losing weight is way to general...people could lose one pound and then gain ten. But hey they've still met their goal I guess.
Anyway one goal I'm setting for myself, as of this minute, is to atleast query a few different reputable magazines for assignments. To send in some sample articles to various magazines and begin to get my name out there and let them know that I want to be a writer. I'm not going to get anywhere if I don't, and as my favorite magazine pointed out: I have nothing to lose.
Speaking of that same magazine: This issue of it dealt heavily with personal essays. I had never thought much about writing essays but after reading this article I'm beginning to think it might be a good idea for me to look into them. I was writing basically a journal entry earlier and it could very easily be turned into a personal essay. However I have a question:
Who or what (books, magazines, the web, etc), publishes personal essays? Are there publishing houses like there are for books?
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