We’ve all been bombarded with talk of “green” the last couple of weeks (before and after Earth Day). Green. Greenwashing. Green living. The Greening of… Now I’m reading that the term “green” has become oversaturated to the point that it’s lost meaning. I suppose it was bound to happen at some point. Instead of the generic “green” term, we’ll start seeing more specific terms again such as “socially responsible,” environmentally friendly,” etc.

On a related note, a friend sent me this video via facebook (a little oversimplified on the issue of climate change but you get the point).Video: Climate change action vs inaction

Just finished watching King of Kong, the documentary over the “battle” to win the best Donkey Kong score. As documentaries go, it was well done. But, I honestly spent the first minutes in disbelief that these were real people and real stories and the remaining time in disgust about the pettiness. Sadly, though, it’s real, at least as real as a film can be. I hope in actuality none of these people are as pathetic as they appear on screen (especially this guy brian). This quote from a Washington Post review sums it up: “The competition is so vicious because the stakes are so low.”

I’m not exaggerating when I say that I haven’t been on a bike in probably 20 years, and I think since it has been SO long, the experience is transformative. You really do feel like a kid again when you’re on a bike (corny, huh?). Maybe it’s because when you were a kid, you spent so much time outdoors, and now, most of your time is, well, indoors. Even though we bought the bikes for the exercise, I think I’ll enjoy the feeling of the memories it conjures more than the endorphins from the exercise itself.

Well, this is really more of a follow-up to the Blade Runner post. It’s not a secret that we listen to books on tape (or more accurately, books on ipod through audible.com) and have for several years, but we usually got modern books, not the classics. So, we got “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” just for comparison to the movie. Just finished it. Very interesting. Explores much more of the human psyche than the book.

Unexpectedly, though, there is a thread in the book about waste…about entropy. It’s actually, well, profound.

There’s the First Law of Kipple… ‘Kipple drives out nonkipple.’

“…Kipple is useless objects, like junk mail or match folders after you use the last match or gum wrappers or yesterday’s homeopape. When nobody’s around, kipple reproduces itself. For instance, if you to go bed leaving any kipple around your apartment, when you wake up there is twice as much of it. It always gets more and more. No one can win against kipple, except temporarily and maybe in one spot.”
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick, 1968

Lately, I think I’ve been experiencing a form of mental kipple.

Of course, having a blog means that you have to have something to write about. Since Christmas break, its just been so much work, which doesn’t leave much time for other activities. A typical day: wake at 5:30, leave for work at 6:45, start work at 7:30, leave work at 6:30, home at 7:15, eat, watch a show, back working by 9:00, go to bed a 12, lather, rinse, repeat all over again the next day. So, that’s why I’ve been so quiet.

My husband is a huge Blade Runner fan, and the anniversary edition with five different cuts of the movie (yes, five) arrived last week in a fancy case. I hadn’t seen the movie in quite a while, so it was cool to watch it again. The one thing that really struck me was the year. The movie opens with a black title screen letting you know that the year is 2019… oh, how so far away that must have seemed when this was written, but how close that feels now. I doubt in 2019 we’ll have androids and flying cars, but it got me thinking again about progress. What is progress, really? I was reminded of this book “Where’s my Jetpack?”

Now, it was pointed out to me that in the movie, they used keycards to open locked doors, just like you do know in hotel rooms today, so that’s progress, I suppose… considering that probably wasn’t around 20 years ago…

And just to make my husband happy (because he won’t like this post), I also came across this Flying Car short film by Kevin Smith, so please watch it!

I have to thank my brother-in-law for a great Christmas gift… I got a card saying that he had donated money in my name. No one has ever actually done that for me as a gift before, and it actually felt really good. It was a gift of giving, which was the best I could have hoped for.

In light of recent events, you should check out your state. This is just a simple visualization, but worth a look, and it links to the Federal Highway Administration

http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/view/SIk76IsOtha6dCkYUnU8I2-

For those of you who have never seen the local news in Houston, Marvin Zindler was an “over the top” news reporter who focused on consumer fraud. While he was known to like the limelight (and dress for it), I do think that he truly helped thousands of people during his life and left an indelible mark on Houston. Thank you Marvin!

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5009906.html

I was lucky enough to get my hands on an 8GB iPhone today. It’s definitely very cool as it stands now, and from what I’ve been reading, will be even better once additional applications are developed for it. I’ve been a treo user for several years, and while there are some applications on there I already miss, it’s hard not to love the iPhone.

Activation went very smooth. The most difficult part was calling Sprint to get my old phone removed from our family plan. Now, I have to get all of my contacts and calendar setup in iCal and the AddressBook so that I can sync everything properly. Feels a little out of sorts right now, but I know in a week everything will be back to normal.