Thursday, April 23, 2009

"Green" Confusion

I'm sure you all know by now that it was Earth Day
yest
erday. Fred Dutton is credited with first proposing the concept in a memo to President Kennedy. Let's give Fred his due, this was a great idea and is still going strong. 20 million turned out for that first Earth Day almost 40 years ago, April 22, 1970.

So wh
at are you doing to reduce your carbon footprint?
Cars
are big contributor. Do you drive less or car pool? Use public transportation? How about this? How many people do you see accelerate to a stop light? How much less emissions would there be if all these people just coasted to a stop? Really now, what's the hurry?

Did you know that your electric company may now have a green alternative for you? That means you can elect to have your electicity produced by renewable resources or carbon offset. It usually cost more to use a green alternative and these are difficult financial times so this can create quite the dilemma for many.

How about water bottles? Boy that came up fast! The
plastic from those water bottles apparently last forever in a landfill. I thought we were recyling this stuff? So now I see there is an alternative Clear2Go water bottle with a filter. Even Lance Armstrong is into it. His video states that 65 million of these plastic water bottles go into the landfill EVERY DAY! Check it out at http://drinkcleangogreen.com/. You can see the video directly at http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1142217228370&oid=59192593436. This idea is long overdue, so get one of these Clear2Go bottles.

Finally, this posting would not b
e complete, without mentioning my favorite topic, cell phones. Yes, they, as well, can be "greened". It's simple. You can do it with a new phone or your existing phone. The numbers are astounding. If everyone, who has a cell phone in the US did it, it would be equivalent to taking 2,500,000 cars off the road! There's more so check it out at www.begreenmobile.com.

Alpha Dog. Ruff Ruff.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Cell Phone Confusion


I'm confused by people who buy their cell phones in stores when they can save so much dough by buying online. Oh, I get the ones who gotta have one now. That makes sense. It's convenient. But what about everybody else? Why don't they shop online and save the money? Is 100 bucks that superfluous these days?


Think about it. Each carrier has their own store practically within walking distance of each other. So they each pay rent and electicity; have basically the same cell phones, counters, computers, rugs and more. Does that make sense to you? What else do you buy that has it's own one product, one brand store. I mean do you go to each underwear brand store when you shop for your underwear? BVDs, no. Victoroia's Secret, yes. But let's face it Vicky's secret is special. How inconvenient is it to shop around for a cell phone when you have to go to a different store for each brand? It's crazy.

So, please save your $ for a rainy day or a much deserved vacation or food or a movie or whatever but don't waist it needlessly in a cell
phone store, go online. If you have to see it and touch it, then, by all means, go to the store check it out, then go home, go online and buy it in half the time and at a much lower price.

By the way, if you are a member of a group like an alumni group or an association, check to see if you can
save money by buying through it. You can do it with insurance, credit cards, Dell computers and more. Why not your cell phone?