Charlie's Soap Update: adding scent

I miss that sharp, flowery smell from detergents. There I said it. Charlie's soap has no fragrance, and I want my clothes to smell something other than merely "fresh." It's like when I was weaning from deodorants, I would sometimes take the top off the Old Spice we use (now the Old Man uses it exclusively) and would just take a quick sniff, just to remember. I can't imagine how people use scent-free detergents, because I need that smell, man!

So, I gave in and have started putting a 1/2 teaspoon of fragrance oil in with the Charlie's Soap. I was worried it would leave oil stains on the clothes, but we put the detergent in through the center well of our washer, so it's easy enough to add the fragrance so that it is dispersed more evenly in the wash water. And the clothes have an ever-so-slight smell of cucumber and melon (the Bath and Body Works "dupe" I have a lot of and need to get rid of). When they come out of the dryer they have a slight trace of scent, just enough to feed the olfactory nerves, so I've been happy.

Earth Hour Once Again! Today! 8:30 p.m. EST

I had some vague notion that Earth Hour was on my heels once again. I posted last year about Earth Hour (here, and here) but chickened out. I'm going to do it this year, though! I'll post photos (or does that go against the theme?).

Also posted in 2007 about the more general idea of prescribed or voluntary blackouts and what shape and forms that would take. In the post I link to a couple of places in the U.S. where they have already tried this on a large scale.

Small gestures like Earth Hour build into consciousness-raising for the society that consumes the most while being miniscule compared to the rest of the world; I hope this continues to gain momentum in the coming years as we become more aware of our environmental fragility in the face of global warming and its impact. I haven't taken it very seriously until now because I believe that we need to do more than the symbolic, and Earth Hour should be every day. I'll participate this year, though, and look forward to seeing the results.

Open For Questions: White House Online Town Hall

So, while I've been bed-ridden for the past week with a bad back, I had the golden opportunity to watch the new administration experiment with some never-tried ideas, like doing a virtual town hall meeting from the White House. It was pretty awesome.

For about two days before the town hall, the administration was soliciting online patriots to submit questions on the economy to the president, and the most popular ones would be chosen by the president to be answered during the town hall meeting. I decided I wanted to get on the bandwagon, and submitted this question:

Okay, the screenshot's kind of fuzzy, so here's the text: "Has there been any consideration [given] to forming a training center like Bunker Roy's Barefoot College in India? It is community organizing at its most basic and has been very successful." I did a post last week about the Barefoot College and thought it was an excellent idea that would be easily portable anywhere in the world, right? Seems my fellow digi-patriots were not behind me on this one: while 5 users voted that they liked the idea, 8 voted not so much on this one. Oh well, I tried.

Need-a-Bag? Project Update 03.28.09

Note: The Need-a-Bag? project was created to promote sustainable bagging at the Hwy 441 Alachua County Farmer's Market each Saturday morning. We supply reusable tote bags reclaimed from thrift stores and garage sales. The Need-a-Bag? project also utilizes old tank tops as tote bags by sewing up the bottoms (these are called t-totes). We invite you to read the other posts on the project by clicking the "Need-a-Bag? Project" label at the bottom of this post.

Once again, I have shirked my duties as Need-a-Bag? Project associate and left DG with the burden of hanging up a ton of bags. My back has started acting up for the first time in a long time, and I've been bed-bound and just getting to the point where I can start doing physical therapy-type exercises. But enough about me.

DG came up with a new plan for labeling the bags. She decided to print the labels on paper and safety pin them to the bags. I think, for all intents and purposes, that this is the best plan, yet. It saves money because those iron on fabric sheets (even just the printer fabric without the iron-on stuff) are really expensive, and it was too labor intensive.

Our unstated elegance ideal in this project has been that it should take the least amount of time to do and make the most impact. This has always been a balancing act, and I think the idea of safety pinning the labels on the bags is golden. The only other idea which matches it is just printing up slips with project information and placing them in each bag--another idea from DG.

I'm hoping to be back in the game next weekend, and will take some long over-due photos of newness at the farmer's market. DG said it was packed this week!

Need-a-Bag? Project Update 03.21.09

Note: The Need-a-Bag? project was created to promote sustainable bagging at the Hwy 441 Alachua County Farmer's Market each Saturday morning. We supply reusable tote bags reclaimed from thrift stores and garage sales. The Need-a-Bag? project also utilizes old tank tops as tote bags by sewing up the bottoms (these are called t-totes). We invite you to read the other posts on the project by clicking the "Need-a-Bag? Project" label at the bottom of this post.

A big "thank you" to Jean for her diligence in finding us tote bags -- she gave us a bunch (I'll have to check and see how many, but there were quite a few), and I believe we got some new ones in the drop box but we can't be sure. We went for a couple of weeks without labeling the bags, so now it's kind of hard to tell which ones are new; also, I was absent during a couple of weeks, so I haven't exactly been keeping on top of the tote bag collection, either.

Swiped the photo of the azalea w/bumble bee from Dan R.'s facebook album -- thanks, Dan!

NPR: When It Comes To Shampoo, Less Is More

I swear, listening to NPR via the WJCT web stream while puttering around at work has been illuminating. NPR is definitely jumping on the green-living/lifestyle stories, and so will try to highlight them here as they pertain to my own projects. Usually, regular media reporting on green living ends up like the vapid NY Times story on "Eco-Moms" that I ranted about a year ago.

Case in point: I've railed for a long time against the notion that people who work in offices and other white-collar positions do not need to bathe everyday. Here's a post I did almost three years ago where I make the point (albeit rather shrilly) that, unless you work in a coal mine, bathing everyday should be the least of your worries.

The same goes with hair washing (and, I often think the two go hand in hand); it seems NPR agrees. In "When it Comes to Shampoo, Less is More" (March 19, 2009), author Allison Aubrey gives a fascinating look at the history of the American obsession with hair-washing. Apparently, over one hundred years ago, washing one's hair once a month was the norm.

Once a month! I'm feeling a little skeevy if I wash my hair once a week (which seems the norm for me these days). Then why don't I wash my hair more often, you ask? Because, laziness is the greatest tool of the accidental environmentalist.

Got the pic from Imp Awards