ARGH

WHITE HOUSE REMOVES PROTECTIONS FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES

…and it will come into affect 9 days before Obama takes office. This makes it very, very hard for Obama, who wants to reverse the rule, to do just that.

That’s ok, science doesn’t mean anything anyway. Why should you take into account decades of sound research? Science is just voodoo mumbo jumbo, right Bush? If you don’t understand it, fear it. *sigh*

If you happen to be a United States citizen, please, PLEASE write to your congressman/woman to tell them how you feel about this. They can stop it. The West Virginia representative wants to envoke the Congressional Review Act, which will allow congress 60 days to review this rule and they can over turn it and prevent it from turning our planet into a wasteland. WRITE IN! Do you think if I pretened to be one of their constituents they’d figure out that I’m not…

Couch Surfing

Looking to travel? About to book at hotel room? STOP. Are you aware of couch surfing?

I’ve been a couch surfer since May. My roommate and I hosted people from all over the world! Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, California and Oregon. And they were all lovely.

How it works: You create a profile on couchsurfing.com, giving details about you, your views on life, interests, and much much more. If you’re looking for couch, you just search the area you’re going to and you get a list of surfers. You read the profiles, look at references left by other surfers and email them asking if you can stay there.

It’s a great way to travel on a budget, get great local advise, and meet some really great people. There’s also a lot more you can do with the couch surfing network. There are regular get-togethers of couch surfers in your area, common interest groups, you can search for travel companions and just meet great people.

There’s definitely a degree of trust required. There are processes on the site to verify people are who they say they are and you can see what others have said about them. Give it a try! It’s been very rewarding experience for me as a host and I’m about to get my first experiense as a surfer when I travel to China. I’ll let you know how it goes!

I heart Christmas!

I’m a total sucker for Chritmas! I love all parts of it. Cookies, music, lights, etc.

So, with that in mind I was going to do a post about buying presents that are better for the environment. But then I felt like we’re bombarded with that info all the time. Make presents, get presents that mean something instead of costing a lot, etc. We’ve heard this for a few years now, you’ve either started doing this already or you’re way too much of a hard sell for me to convert in one blog post. Some people just need to give!

So instead this Christmas find another aspect you can change that will make a difference.

– serve fair trade, organic coffee on Christmas morning

– consciously buy food items with less packaging (may not seem realted to Christmas but we sure buy extra food over Christmas in my house)

– don’t buy presents at Wal-Mart (I’m sorry, I just really don’t like Wal-Mart…will be the topic of a future post)

– shop at local shops that you can walk to instead of drive to

– make a list of errends and stores you need to go to so you can make one trip instead of a bunch of little ones

– flying over Christmas? Think about buying carbon offsets, it was cheaper than I thought it would be

So there’s some ideas just to get you thinking about all the parts of Christmas, not just presents. There is so much going on this time of year, those little changes are a big help.

Travel posts are going to start to enter the mix here soon. Now that I’m done my thesis defense I’ll be doing a little bit more research into my upcoming travels. Just over a month left!