Five Things: Easy Ways to Help the Planet

Nobody's asking you to turn into a full-on hippie and renounce all your worldly possessions.  But there's usually a better way to do the things you every day so that we can all have a less negative impact on the environment.

1.) Small Changes Add Up.
Making a few changes that you can sustain everyday will have a bigger impact than trying to make HUGE lifestyle changes only to drop them when everyday life steps in a makes things stressful.  Don't think of it as "being green" or "saving the planet" so much as just doing what makes sense. 

2.) It's called "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" for a reason.
If you try to make changes in that order, you'll have a higher impact than just recycling.  Reducing the number of goods you use, or the packaging on those goods, or the distance those goods need to travel to get to you eliminates waste beyond the scope of just that one package.

3.) Plastic Bags never die!
Those little plastic bags we all get at the grocery store, the drug store, the convenience store, the department store... They're fairly ubiquitous with modern life, and millions of years from now when people are studying our society, those bags will still be there.  One easy way to combat this is the take re-usable bags to the store with you, but as a dude-on-the-go, I really never do this unless my GF is with me and has one in her purse.  But what I do always do is make sure I reuse those bags I have to accept.  Stash your used plastic bags and reuse them when you need them.  Even if you only use them one extra time (like for taking out the trash), that's one less other bag you'd need, and in the end, buying less bags leads to producing less bags.

4.) Eat Local
When you buy produce at the grocery store, you're getting food that's come from halfway around the world, and was picked well before it ever ripened. When you eat food that has been produced within 100 miles of your home, you are eating food that is picked at it's peak, and doesn't need paints, dyes or chemicals to keep it fresh-looking.  You also help the planet because that means less trucks on the road having to drive food from Venezuela or Chile or Madagascar to reach your plate.

5.) Support Local Businesses
Shopping local restaurants and businesses keeps your local economy strong, and reduces the number of chain stores & restaurants that open up nearby.  Yes, we all love shopping at Target and eating at Applebee's (well, cheap drinks at Applebee's at least), but putting your dollars towards locally owned business who themselves deal with local suppliers makes sure your money stays in your community.  And in the long run, having vibrant local businesses cuts down on the number of times you have to drive to big-box retailers, eliminating that extra pollution from the air.  Doing that just once a week and remove tons of carbon-dioxide annually.

Ryan usually writes for originalname.wordpress.com, check it out if you're a fan of random chatter wrapped in good intentions.

Blog Swap: If I lived in Colorado

Hey everyone, 
Today I'm swapping posts with the coolest Aussie I know, Kez, from And So I was Thinking... We might be on the opposite ends of the world, but we're both going through the quarter life crisis! Yay! You can check out my entry on her blog. Enjoy!! 

Well, hey there! I am so honoured to be a guest blogger for the 20 Something Bloggers Blog Swap - mouthful, much? My name is Kez and all you need to know about me is that I live in Australia, I'm the biggest dork you'll ever know and my quarter life crisis is rumbling along nicely.

Soooo...Courtney (you know - the awesome chick that owns this blog) has so kindly let me invade her wonderful writings with my crazy ramblings!

As you may know, Courtney is from Colorado. A place I know very little about. The only time I really hear about Colorado is when my parents start sentences with, "When we were in Colorado..." Which of course makes my blood boil, because I am so jealous of their midlife overseas travels and their over the top braggery (don't know if that's a word - too late now). Yes, apparently my mum once caught the eye contact of Carlos Santana while he dined in a cafe in Colorado. She claims she wasn't starstruck, but I know the truth. Her CD and itunes collection tells me so. Random, huh?

I know that there are these things called the Rockies. Are they rocks? Mountains? Rocky mountains? Well, whaddya know! This concerns me because I am clumsy and a bit funny with heights. I might not last longer than a couple of months. You know, because of the whole possibility of me falling off a cliff while hiking or something.

My hubby just reminded me that "South Park is from there". Which brings me to my next point. South Park is awesome. But probably not helpful so much in the way of PR and stuff.
I won't hold that against anyone.

If I went to Colorado (or even lived there), I would make sure to wear Colorado footwear and drive a Holden Colorado (imported from my fine country of Australia). I would also probably attend that university they have that is named after a giant rock. Boulder. Which I find to be a scary metaphor for how I feel about my university at the moment...it's like a boulder chasing me down and threatening to squish me before I make it out the other end...oops, I have a bit of university baggage right now...

So I totally googled celebrities who are from Colorado...quite the list. I would probably hang out with Matt Stone and Trey Parker (yep - back on the whole Southpark thing), but maybe not so much Bill Murray or Roseanne Barr.

I would sit around (probably on a rocky outcrop somewhere) and sing John Denver songs badly, while playing guitar equally as badly. Although I am disappointed that his real name was Henry Deutschendorf Jr (Wikipedia - dashing blogger's dreams for decades). Doesn't have the same ring to it. I only know John Denver songs because my dad used to be a fan. We used to have to endure roadtrips around Australia with everyone in the car singing, "Countrrrryyyy roaaaddds, taaa-aake me hooooome, tooo a place..." at the top of their lungs. I figured, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

So as you can see, my knowledge of Colorado is just really crap. I've probably offended the locals. Perhaps I really do need to get there one day. If only to stop my parents from starting their sentences with, "When we were in Colorado...and you were not..."