Take Action against the Keystone Pipeline

As you may know, the Keystone Pipeline was recently made available for public comment.  I'd like to share a little information and hopefully encourage you to voice your opinion on this matter.

WHAT'S THE DEAL W/ #KXL

The proposed pipeline will carry crude oil and products of tar sands production from Canada through the U.S. for refining.  There's also been talk of shipping these refined products to Europe.

Aside from the mainstream environmental issues - its contribution to climate change and our government's continued resistance to move away from fossil fuels - Native Americans and First Nations of Canada have been extremely active and vocal about stopping Keystone.  All of the land the pipeline will traverse and will draw from were once native lands - and some still belong to native people.  Beyond that, burning these fossil fuels will affect us and generations to come, with unforeseen consequences of climate change.  This is a bleak picture that I'm sure you are familiar with.

However, there is good news!

The construction permit for this project has not issued yet - it's still a proposal.  That means, if we get our act together, we can prevent it.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

There are several things you can do to express your thoughts, feelings, and plans for the project.  Here are a few:

• Submit a comment online - http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=DOS-2014-0003 - before March 7
• Write and send in a letter to (more info http://www.keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov/) - before March 7

U.S. Department of State

Bureau of Energy Resources, Room 4843

Attn: Keystone XL Public Comments

2201 C Street, NW

Washington, DC 20520

• Share this email with your friends and people who care about the health of the planet and its people.
• Attend or organize a protest - join others who feel similarly, feel solidarity in action - they're happening across the country.

The first two actions are often taken in isolation; you can't really *feel* that you're part of something bigger.  However, attending protests is often an inspiring way to show how I feel about something and also be joined by others who agree.  It's motivating and reminds me that tons of other people really care about these things and are willing to go out and do something about it.

CONCLUSION: DON'T SIT THIS ONE OUT

I recently saw Winona LaDuke (an Anishinaabe activist) speak - she made a point about how the extractive industry is becoming more extreme.  The Deepwater Horizon (drilling to depths of more than 30,000 ft) fracking, mountaintop removal, now tar sands extraction - the U.S. is becoming more and more desperate in our addiction to these toxic substances.  But more and more people are also standing up, realizing the truths about climate change, and taking action against the government's mindless trajectory toward climate destabilization.

I urge you to voice your own opinion about the Keystone Pipeline - we have the ability to slow, stop, and prevent it from happening.

I'd love to hear if this email has been motivating to you - and to hear if you decide to email or mail in a letter.

Re: learning Spanish

(Adding to this list that I've previously posted on tips for learning Spanish)

This has also been very useful in writing in Spanish:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/support/enable-keyboard-layouts-for-different-languages-HA010354267.aspx

Using multiple keyboards and quickly being able to switch with Alt+Shift makes putting accents and other characters (á, ñ) in text super easy.

Charity

A couple of points on charity:

"To me, charity is often just about giving because you're supposed to, or because it's what you've always done, or it's about giving until it hurts. I'm about providing the means for providing something that will grow and intensify its original investment, and not just require greater giving next year, not trying to feed the habit." - Majora Carter, from a TED talk

Also, see RSAnimate's version of Zizek's First as Tragedy, Then as Farce

"Change starts with your underwear."

I haven't been posting much lately, but I have been buying underwear. Yep, that's right. I recently found a company that I like (so far). They produce organic cotton underwear AND support non-profits around the world. My first purchase was one that supported Wangari Maathai's Green Belt Movement in Kenya.

Anyway, if you're looking for a new pair of undies (for men and women), check out PACT!

Their ad's not bad either:

"Huge Eco-Possibilities"

I like efficiently using small spaces, but this guy takes it to a whole new level. Check it out:

Google Chrome

I recently sent in my laptop to get fixed (only because HP cut me an awesome deal), so I'm back to using a computer I built almost 10 years ago. Since then, I've upgraded the motherboard and RAM, but it's still slow and running Window XP. Browsing the 'net with Firefox and a zillion tabs like I do has quite an effect on this computer, so I decided to try Chrome to see if performance would improve. I'm happy to say it has. However, Google seems to be taking control over more and more of my digital life...

Knitting Updates: Felting!

Since I had to scrap the awesome booties because of the Mobius strip (read last post), I'm going to go with something similar and more useful in a warmer climate. Here are some links I've used.

• Here you can learn to felt by hand. Many people choose to felt wool in a washing machine, but I think it'd be cool to do the first one by hand to see the process in action, rather than let the machine do the magic. So I'll try that way and see how it goes.
  
• I'm on to making this and this for a laptop and camera with matching yarn.

I'll let you know how they turn out!

Beginner's Knitting Lessons

So it's the middle of winter and I'm bored so I decided to re-learn knitting. The possibilities are really endless and, contrary to cultural belief, knitting is not just for old women. Young women, men, basically anyone can knit if they choose to set their minds and hands to it. So, here are my tips for beginners, problems that I've run into in the past week, problems I write also so I don't run into them again!

• First, here's an awesome, huge database of free knitting patterns (beginner-advanced): http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/directory.php
• Second, when switching from knitting to purling, you must switch the feed yarn from (in this case) back to front. The reverse is true also. If you don't, you'll screw up and have to start over. Or if you're really smart you'll figure out how to fix it...
  
• Third, do not knit Mobius strips. If you knit on a circular needle, apparently this is a threat, and you must watch out for it. I did not know of this, figuring that that was a made up thing, but it happened and now I have to start over, half-way done with a project.

Good luck.

Flash Card Program

I just returned from Mexico and want to work on my Spanish. Mnemosyne, an open source flash card program, has been really helpful.

Creativity+Design

A few things I've recently ran across have really sparked my creative side:

• A movie by Care.org called The Girl Effect. It's one of the better examples of good typography I've seen.
• Twitter's introductory video. A very simple and low-budget video that introduces the concept of Twitter and provides motive to use it. The group (Common Craft) that did it has more similar movies on their website, but I think Twitter was the best.
  
• A list of design RSS feeds. A lot of them are inspirational (in the design sense).
• Plus, a personal favorite, rainbow-based designs.
  

Enjoy!

Web Dev Tips

I'm just figuring out how to become a freelance web designer. If you're in the same boat, I want to share some resources with you:

• Firebug - a Firefox plug in to modify HTML and CSS (plus a few others) live in the browser
• CSSVista / Litmus - CSSVista is the desktop version of Litmus - which both let you view HTML and CSS in multiple browsers. Yes, this really is what you've been longing for.
• http://lynda.com/ - Lynda.com offers tutorials on just about anything you can imagine that's related to web development.
• idealist.org - I'm personally interested in working with non-profits or non-governmentals to develop their websites. Idealist.org can be a good place to find jobs in that arena.
• Web Developer toolbar - this toolbar adds tons of functionality to Firefox related to web development - anything from CSS to forms to resizing the window, etc etc.
• ColorCop - a program with an eyedropper tool to grab colors from anywhere! (RGB and Hex values)
• Inkscape - opensource vector graphics program

That's all off the top of my head right now. (Thanks to Kate for most of them.) Good luck.