Thursday, October 15, 2009

You know I'm bad,

I'm bad, you know it.



So what do Michael Jackson lyrics have to do with Blog Action Day? Eh, I can't say there is any connection, but today is Blog Action Day, and the first time I saw anything about it was a tweet from Shelly with the BAD acronym used and it stuck.

What the hell is this post all about, you ask? Well, BAD is basically just a day of bloggers starting a discussion. This year, it's all about climate change. And the main reason I chose to participate when I heard about this is, well, today! I woke up to a rainy, 40 day in the middle of October. In addition, this summer gave New York a new nickname - NYCeattle. June 2009 had maybe four rainless days. The summer of 2009 in New York was pretty much nonexistant, and this stark entrance to winter is not pleasant to my mild weather loving self.



Here's the thing about a mildly intelligent person blogging about a serious and growing problem - I'm only mildly intelligent. Articulating more serious topic regarding the change in climate and in the world is not my strong point. I do think that what we're doing right now is leading the planet away from a healthy place. I personally think the massive amount of chemicals and petrochemicals we produce and use in everything from the food we eat to the packaging of everything sold, etc, is hurting the planet and changing natural, healthy climate patterns.

Well, then what is a strength of mine? Ogling over pretty things! And if those pretty things just happen to be made of glass and metal instead of plastic? Even better.

I have always had a strong affection towards glass bottles. If they're colored, it's even better. I've been helping out a woman with some menial tasks in relation to her web shop (a really cool organic cosmetics website) and she has these bottles that I just adore. The stopper, the glass, and, surprise surprise, they're from Ikea.




I use a Brita pitcher at home, but here's the thing... Maybe I'm weird, but I don't mind the tap water here in Brooklyn. My biggest issue is that with water, especially, it HAS to be icy cold for me. So, the idea of buying a few of these bottles and keeping them filled in the fridge seems very appealing. They're also just simply pretty and a very clean, old school feeling.

Another thing that I'm sort of in love with are bento lunches. While I really don't have the patience to do all the awesome, adorable things a lot of mothers do for their kids or people do for themselves, fun, reusable lunch containers are always something I look for. This newest discovery, the Planetbox, has a quirky, 1950s lunchroom vibe that is sort of awesome.



They're metal instead of plastic and even better, they seem to be designed to reduce the chance of compartments intermingling. For someone who doesn't have the patience to keep a Laptop Lunchbox (also a cute lunch option) horizontal at all times, this seems really awesome. Plus, I personally find metal much easier to clean; plastic never quite seems clean enough, especially if you put anything oily in it.



And I don't think I even need to explain why lunch boxes like this are so awesome and so much better for reducing waste and all that jazz. Not only do you reduce the chances of eating out when you bring your lunch, but with single compartment items like this, you're reducing your use of plastic bags along with the purchase of single serve snacks. Hey, I think these are awesome for portion control, but SUCH a waste of packaging and more often outrageously expensive.

So take your lunch to work if you're lucky enough to be working, unlike some of us (le sigh). Brew tea at home using the bottles. Reduce your plastic consumption and hopefully help the planet clean up it's act. Reversing the damage we've done and the changes we've started may not be possible (who knows) but we can at least stop these changes from occuring even more rapidly.

And hey, join the conversation with Blog Action Day. I don't think they would mind the talk continue past October 15th.

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