Irrelevant but fun

Today out teacher told us to log in a special site and answer at a Meme blog. The post that im going to answer does not have anything to do with my blog but i just found interesting enough to answer. So here is my answer to The author of Curious as cat blog week number 137:

1)What is the single most important ingredient for a spiritual life?
To have a good relationship with your self. to understand not only your good but also your bad side and try to deal with it. If you are o k with yourself then you can achieve a lot of things.

2) Who is the person you know with the freest spirit?
My mother. She takes actions which are beneficial for the family but always finds a way to make herself happy and do what she wishes to do even now that she is married and has two children!

3) How does it make you feel when you hear people argue?
It makes me sad especially if they are people that I know. And angry too. I wanna go near them yell at them and make them stop because life is not worth wasting in fights with your loved ones.

4) What one thing would you give to each of your ex-lovers?
If I could, an insight of my way of seeing life. optimistically. And make them understand that simple things do not change peoples lives but make them stronger and built healthy relationships.

5) Show and Tell. What comes to mind first when you see this picture? Or, tell a story if it reminds you of one.
Right now, it reminds me of my moms food. I miss her so much and i miss her cooking and especially now that im away from home. You see, as a child I did not like some of the dishes as it was normal but now i miss even the dishes that i did not like. Mom, I love you.

Picture of the week

This is a picture of hurricane Isabel. Its effects on the world were destructive as most of the hurricanes in the world. But with our help hurricanes and in general the environment is turning against us. We harm the environment and so we can see our effects on the world.

Picture belongs to Pozzi

Lets clean the dishes, shall we?

Many families do not have a dish washer either because its expensive, either because they do not have space in the kitchen or just because they don't consider it necessary. Well lately the case is that the best for a household is to have one. I will explain myself.

When cleaning the dishes n the sink we consume a lot of water. Well, water is starts to become kind of a luxury maybe not in America but surely in other places in the world. There is a general shortage. With a dish washer you do not have to worry that you are wasting water for a simple job since the machine uses a certain amount of water for each wash and so makes it a valuable item. Not just because it uses a small amount of water but also because In the long term you will be able to save a lot of money from your bills. Using less water makes your bills shrink. Another reason why a household should have a dish washer is that the family can spend more of their time in other activities since they wont have to clean up the dishes after lunch or dinner.

They might be expensive but think of it not just for its current price but its life time value and its benefits.

Its raining!

The other day when i was looking around on the internet about one of my previous posts based on water, i discovered a nice site talking about how to store water after a rain.

It was really interesting to read since there is a general problem in the world about water. Well now, someone can find it and store it by him/herself. There are big companies creating special containers and barrels out of plastic in order to store water. Well containers for harvesting water also exist. Im not aware of prices of such containers but whatever the price is even if it is expensive think about it before you say no to it.

For someone who has a garden and the monthly bill of water is quite high this could be a solution. In a long term a lot of money can be saved by using this water for your garden. The rain water might not be very suitable although for using in the house. The levels of toxicity for example might be too high in some areas and wont be healthy for the family. But, hey, its water and its not going to be a waste to be able to store it and keep it for an emergency.

Picture taken from the This old house site from the article mentioned above

Whats that smell??

When you are buying an air freshener do you know that might be harming your family? That there are toxins and other chemicals that have proven to be harmful?

My roommate has one and i noticed that there are so many warnings and directions on the bottle. That is never good. The more writing on the back of the product the worse it usually it from what i have noticed. No need to read the big passage.

There have been many researches conducted and have proven that many of the ingredients of such air fresheners are not healthy in a long term basis. An article that I discovered about this subject analyzes what exactly those fresheners include and what are some possible results after use.
Another reason why the use of such products should be reduced is because their packages are extremely dangerous. It is not possible to dispose it in a trash bin because it is concentrated gas and may cause an explosion.
Last but not least, it is harmful for the environment for the above reason.

There are many ways to give a nice scent to your house. The most simple is to open the window. usually most of the odors on the air are gone and are replaced with fresh air. Other ways are candles with special flavors or even fresh flowers ( flowers always work). There are even ways to create your own air freshener with simple ingredients. Plenty of receipts and advices can be found on the web.

It is so easy to get rid of odors with simple ways rather than spending money on a product that is harmful for you and the environment.

Picture taken from the same article mentioned above from the TIME site

Did you know that...?

Its funny how many things you can see in your house and think what could i do to change this towards better? For example are the products that i use good for the environment?

Today it was my turn to do the dishes (we are four people in an apartment) and I remembered that most cleaning products such as soaps in the industry are harmful for the environment and for the human population.
Most of the water that comes from private properties are sent to special facilities. The clean water then ends up either at the sea or at the earth. That is not necessarily good. Chemicals and other products are not possible to be entirely removed from the water. The most disturbing thing in this case is that one of most important resources of water is taken from the ground from underground tunnels the earth has created to store water. And there is where all these harmful products end up. Humans, animals and trees are using this water and of course it is not healthy. Did you know that 75 years ago cancer only appeared to 1 out of 50 Americans and now it has increased to 1 out of 3? That is because of all these chemicals ending up on the environment and later on used by the human population (chemicals are not the only reason though but they do play an important part of it).

I know that there are companies which create environmental friendly products for the housecleaning and in general for in house use. for example cleaning dishes, for the bathroom even shampoos. People who feel like making a difference should look for such products. The only issue is that usually they cost more than regular products. But if you have the choice why not use them? You are the ones who are in need for water.

Prevent future consequences. Water is important.

Photograph belongs to Eman333

Food for the Eyes

So today its picture day.

I decided to post a picture once a week related to our world, its beauty and the consequences of our actions upon it.
I will let you to interpret the concept of the picture yourselves.



Picture belongs to Hempola

Recipe: How to be an Eco-student

I was doing my assignments on math today and i realized something. First i write on a plain piece of paper a simple draft of the assignment and then i copy then on a black page more neatly. Then i throw the useless paper to the garbage bin. And then i wondered why do i do that since i can easily recycle it?

If someone thinks not only about that one piece of paper but all the amount of paper used during a school semester. huge!!!
What i do for the last 4-5 years, after the semester is finished i sum up all the papers that i have collected during the school days and i bring them to a recycling bin. And so i save many trees from being cut down.

Another thing that has to be brought up is the books. Most of the books are useless at the end of each semester. I remember that back in high school some of my fellow students used to burn them after the exams as a sign of their happiness (No it is not a hobby and we are no vandals. Its just hormones at that age). Those books could be use in a better way. Someone could either recycle the book or sell it to a bookstore or even some other student.

So next time think before you act. Even the simplest action can make a change.

Picture taken from MIT Libraries News

Happy, happy, happy!

A couple of days ago I received the news that my cousin is pregnant! That is one of the best news I could ever receive since I love her very much. I m happy that i will become an aunt. And that is Another good reason why someone would want to save the planet!

All the advices given and actions taken to protect our environment are for a specific purpose: So that our children can have a bright future on a beautiful, green planet. That only depends on our current actions because as we can see our world is changing not in a very good way. The weather has changed all around the world, the ice is melting on the poles, and our nature is polluted.

My advice for today is to do whatever you can to be more environmental friendly and help the planet in your own way. So that the future generations can experience the world we live in now and have a happy future.

Lets save the world for my little (yet to come) nephew!

Are you hungry?

Food. Americans are in love with food. They always talk about it. On television they advertise food products and restaurants. With the mail there is always a leaflet for food included. But what happens to all that food when its not eaten or consumed? Is it thrown away mindlessly? Or are there ways to use the leftover food?

Unlike plastic bags or other trash that takes time to decompose, leftover food or organic products are very easy to dispose of and are harmless to the environment, actually, when disposed of properly, they can be good for it.

Households with a garden would be able to use leftover food properly. Choose a spot in your property that is as far away as possible from the house and dispose of your leftovers there. I say as far away as possible because they will probably be smelly and you don't want your house to smell like decomposing food. After a while your pile of organics will start to decompose and become one with the soil. Your organic soil can then be used as a fertilizer for your plants. Chemical fertilizers have been proven harmful to the natural resources and it costs a lot of money too, which can be used for much better purposes.

Your garden will be the most beautiful in the whole neighborhood!! and your amount of garbage will reduce if you use the leftovers for an environmental purpose.

Picture belongs to kerridwyn

On two wheels

I was watching television today and i came across and advertisement in which people with bicycles where all over the city. Don't ask me what the initial purpose of this ad was... Anyway, after that i thought i haven't seen any bikes around here. that is a shame because having a bicycle is fun. I remember when i was little and my brother and I used to go around the area with our bikes and have fun traveling around.

Also, back in Switzerland (my mother is from Switzerland so im gonna have a couple of references to that country) every city, every town has a path for the people who walk and for the people riding bicycles next to the road. They really understand the value of riding a bike!

My point is that having a bicycle equals to: keeping yourself fit, keeping the environment around you cleaner since this method of transportation does not need any fuel just your personal work out, and last it is fun! kids love to ride around with their bikes and they can also transport themselves wherever they want (though in another country with no sidewalks for bikes might not be as safe. depends also on the size of the city and how much traffic there is in the streets).

This will clearly give some freedom to mothers :)

Environmentaly friendly shopping

Today it was shopping day. I went to the grocery shop today to buy some food and other things that I needed. When I finished shopping I arrived at the cashier to pay and go back home and enjoy a lovely meal. I noticed that the lady packing my things used a plastic bag for almost each product. What was that??? Complete wastage of plastic bags!!!

In Switzerland (I’m not aware if this happens in other European countries but I’m pretty sure of it) what people do is to buy linen bags or artificial cloth bags and put their groceries in there. Everyone can have one, they are cheap and light, can be stored in the back of the car and used whenever you go in the shops. In some countries they even charge the plastic bags so as to make the customer have a bag of their own. This way you can spare yourself from having too many plastic bags and not knowing what to do with them and also you help the environment and save some money too.

Think how much space you save in your kitchens drawers from storing the plastic bags when you use linen bags. Unless of course your groceries are that many that cannot fit in your linen bag…. Then you can make an exception.

Recycling; word with unknown meaning

It's not a long time since I got in my new university and something that I noticed is that there are no recycle bins in the near area. I tried to look for places where to put recycling items but the only thing I found is a kind of "bin" in some grocery stores where people can put glass bottles and receive some money back.

I was disappointed.

My mother was always trying one way or the other to reduce our rubbish to minimum amount. She always recycled paper, glass, aluminum even plastic and disposed them to the nearest recycling bin, which was located just outside on the main street. The entire family had to get used to this procedure since you need two bins, one for the things that can be recycled and another for the rest.

That is something that everyone can do. Go out and discover your nearest recycling facility or bin. Separate your trash (would recommend having them in two different places so as not to look in your trash for the recycled ones) and bring them to the recycle bin whenever you have time. A good example is what I mentioned above about the glass bottles. These special "bins"give a very small amount of money back in exchange for glass bottles. Even if the money are not much it might make a difference for some people. this way everyone can help in the recycling process and will earn some money from it.

I Acknowledge that this might not be very time saving or easy to do. It depends on everyone to see that this might not be much but it surely is a move towards helping the environment.

Introduction: Environment

Hello! So this is my first post on my blog and its kind of ironic because its the first day of September.
A little about my self: A few weeks ago i left my country so as to study abroad, more specifically in the USA. This was a total shock for me. Not just because it is a different way of living and a different culture, its also that some small things which i took for granted are not the same here.

One of those things is that people here do not have as many plants as they should in their gardens.There is mostly grass to be seen not just in the private but also in the public places. Trees are few in contrast to the land available for planting. We have been taught in school that trees are the "factories" responsible for creating valuable oxygen and give life to the planet. This should be enough for someone to consider planting a tree to his/her garden.

Since the general subject of my blog is to talk about getting green, this is the advice that i will give today:
Find some spots in your garden and plant some trees. If your garden is not that large, take a pot with a small flower or plant in it and keep it in your house. If you don't feel like planting trees you can even plant some flowers or other small bushes. This will not only make your house look more beautiful but also will give you happiness to raise a plant. Personally, when i water the plants and small trees back in my home, it gives me a time of peace and helps me think about things that bother me more calmly.
I hope this will be helpful to you as much as it is for me. It surely will be helpful to the environment.