Friday, November 4, 2011

Reflection: Weeks 1-7

Part of the jungle environment I experienced - India 2007 
The first seven weeks of class has taken us through a lot of different topics.

First we learned a lot about blogging in general, setting up blogs and their many parts since the class has begun.  I have enjoyed learning the differences between blogger, which we have used in this class, and Word Press, the blog that I've had the most experiences with before this class. It has been great to read about blogging ettiquite and other aspects around the posting piece of blogging.

The various eye opener activities, that you can see the results of on our blogs, have been personalized to us individuality helping us get in touch with the footprint we are leaving on the planet as well as our diet and what we might be putting on our bodies and the effects of those chemicals.  I've enjoyed that process and thinking about what I am doing and what I might be able to do in a better way for our planet or my body. These project have certainly answered some questions, but have also stirred ideas and even more questions.

We also worked on either an Eco Chic lifestyle change or Reed N Seed project where we chose to set a goal in our life that would make us more "eco friendly" or reed a book related to the environment.  Looking back at my blog posts you can see I did an unintentional bate and switch ending on my lifestyle change of eating more local food. You can read that information in multiple previous posts, however the reflection can be found here and here.

Watching the documentaries Future of Food, Fresh, Green and Tapped looked at the concerns around our food and it's production, how we farm, or don't farm for the most part, working with nature, how big industries have the ability to damage the community around them, water; particularly the bottling industry and it's effects, as well as ideas of what we can do to support and not support those things we want to see more of or see changed.  As much as I loved the documentaries, I really enjoyed the discussion we had in class that covered the broad issues, but also brought things home to us individually. That, to me, is where some of the best learning and inspiring happens.

We did some fun activities learning and exploring the concept of junking. This has opened my eyes to this concept in a new, much more broad and functional way. We explored a junking site seeing what other people have done.  I'm not sure my skills are up to making the creations that I saw.  However, I can see that some re purposing and re designing doesn't have to be super complicated either. The brainstorming act we did in class with individual items along with the junk site gave me the broad perspective of the simple and the elaborate allowing my imagination and creativity to be inspired instead of intimidated.

We've even done some activities and discussion getting in touch with ourselves spiritually; working with our internal environment.  That has been a really nice piece to participate during a busy school day when we have done actual practice activities as well as reminders of spiritual concepts that don't get talked about much in academic settings.

I've really enjoyed what we have covered in class.  This is a topic I already have some passion for and experience in. I really appreciate having the discussion and information to fill in some of the information gaps and learning in greater depth.  Both the class content and all the other students have really contributed in creating a great class.
Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels:

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Eco-chic Lifestyle Change reflection continued

There were a couple things I didn't fully address in my previous post regarding looking over the full SMART goal, local eating process.

My SMART goal didn't change very much over time.  I did add another local meal towards the end.  I didn't change it for a few reasons. I didn't come up with any great ideas to add besides frequency. I didn't want to overload myself in adding too may meals that, with my schedule, wasn't going to work well. I knew I had particular times to cook and didn't want to over stress that. I made an effort to make left overs for myself and was enjoying feeling the success of being able to do that and add to my local meal count, or partial count, with the left overs.  I also enjoyed focusing on local eating, being aware of what I purchased every time I purchased food, but not being pressured to force meals in. I think, for me, this created less stress but more enjoyment of the process and allowed me to see what I could do without molding meals to fit criteria, I was able to notice what was or could be possible. Challenging oneself is great sometimes, but there are times when being real, sticking to what is working and adding to that more organically as opposed to structurally, has it's place. That was one thing about behavior change this helped me get in touch with.  Getting to a good place in a goal and not just pushing for pushing sake.  There are times when you can benefit from maintaining and not needing to top myself. I relaxed into new thought processes instead of blowing past them.

I certainly benefited in learning how GOOD some of the root veggies are in soup and in general. It reminded me that I need and really want to incorporate things like turnips and parsnips. I also learned that, if I focus on seeing what is at the farmers market and making a meal out of that, it makes it easier to take advantage of the local foods. That was a great benefit.

Benefits that were gained by my eating locally, as somewhat mentioned above, the food I ate traveled less fossil fuel miles. Did I have a grand effect on the planet?  probably not, the other food that I would have eaten had I not eaten this way still traveled. However, hopefully if I vote with my dollar for local, and other do as well, the scales will tip regarding demand and thus more local will be demanded and available.

(Side note - I was at a conference last night about local food and sustainability and some farmers said that there is a lot of underutilized farm land here that farmers own and if farmers have the demand for local food, they will plant more and make more available to us.  )

I enjoyed this process. It was good for my body, as I probably ingested less pesticides from talking to some of the farmers. I ate some very fresh food which has it's benefits in nutrients. I enjoyed not having my money
funnel through Cub foods, then their supplier and who knows how many others to get to the farmer.  It is really cool,  I get to support this person's livelihood in a real and direct way. And, hopefully making that person feel good as well directly knowing that they and their work are appreciated.













Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels:

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Eye Opener: Junk on the Brain

Exploring the concepts of junk...
Definitions and resources for various junking terms in or near Duluth, MN



  • resale shop
    Definition - "A retail establishment run by a charitable organization to raise money."
    By reselling which is defined as "the act of selling something second hand"
    Savers
    1740 Mall Drive
    Duluth, MN 55811
    218-722-1894
    Web link http://www.savers.com/Default.aspx


    What do the terms above have to do with environmental health? Anytime we can re use something that has been used and is unwanted or unneeded by someone else we are voting with our dollars in a different way than by demanding something new. We save on land fills and the need for the earth to have to attempt to break something down.  We also save on the fuel to bring that thing to the landfill.  We also may inspire others and have them doing the same thing and saving the environment in this way as well.

    Identify whether you do any or use any of these things. Why or why not?
    I haven not used these resources as much as I would like to here in Duluth. Many of them are not all that easy to get to on my bus line. I have gone to Savers a few times but didn't find what I was looking for.  I am reminded that Rag Stock is easy to get to and will make a point to go check them out when I'm down town next time.

    I have shopped at a few used book stores here in Duluth. I love to go browsing and see what I can find.

    Flea markets are always dangerous for me. I can always find cool stuff to buy... usually more superfluous than useful, however, sometimes I'd find very inspiring ideas too. I'm interested to see that there is one here in Duluth. I'll have to keep an eye out next August.

    When I lived in the cities I did utilize Goodwill more; both for buying and donating.

    I should make a list of projects I'd like to do or things I could use, put it in my wallet and then, when I do go shopping in various places, I can remind myself of what I want to do and maybe look with a more creative and broad eye for deals and ideas.

    One thing that does tend to turn me off when I go to some places like Goodwill is that things are really dusty and grimy.  I know that one can just go home and clean stuff up most of the time, but I sometimes I just have a hard time getting past that in the store.

    I love the idea, however, of finding that perfect thing that I can make use of that someone else no longer needs or wants. It feels good... like I'm saving something from a sad fate of possible destruction. 
Cool stuff from Junk Style Market

The first one that I like is called Back Entrance Project




I find it inspiring for a few reasons.
1. It looks really nice. Not only the frame style but I like the pattern on the silk.
2. I sometimes pick up things that are not meant to be pictures or art, but I love them!  I want to make them pictures but don't always know how.  This is a great idea for me to remember.  I like pictures around that have meaning to me. I need to put this idea into practice!
3. She said it sparkles and shimmers.... SOLD!






Table Bench

I like this one because I think it was very clever. It sounds like it was a regular sized table that was cut to make a bench or even more of an end table.  I love making things that are really useful. I like having more places to either sit or set things down when you need it.  I also love that the extra wood became part of the decoration around it.   If it was mine, I might put it in an entry way, put hooks on the wood pieces, hang that above it and use them for coat hooks.




Record players as art.

OK, this is just freaking AWESOME!

My childhood revolved around records and music.

I'm holding on to a few record players... with the hopes of using them to put some of my old records on CD. Once that project is done however! How fun for a rec room or, in my case, my living room!  These would make SWEET Christmas gifts for my family. I may have to get some more!

Side note... I was in Syracuse NY this summer and they had a restaurant called  Funk 'n Waffles.
Here are pictures I took of their logo. that project above made me think of that right away.












Awesome to see so much creativity. I never think of myself having the skills to make the changes to turn some of the things into super cool useful or pretty things. .  I think I need to experiment.







Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)