What are Your New Year’s Resolutions?

Don’t answer too quickly, studies show well-thought-out goals are more likely to be fulfilled than reactive goals (i.e “I look fat - I’m going to lose fifty pounds”). How else can you insure you stick to your resolutions? I’ll talk about that in this post, as well as offer some ideas. On the first I’ll post my resolutions for 2006 (if I can make it to a computer).

The tradition of the New Year's Resolutions goes all the way back to 153 B.C. Janus, a mythical king of early Rome was placed at the head of the calendar. With two faces, Janus could look back on past events and forward to the future. Janus became the ancient symbol for resolutions and many Romans looked for forgiveness from their enemies and also exchanged gifts before the beginning of each year.

The press often gives the impression that people rarely follow through on their resolutions, however, according to a University of Washington survey, 63 percent of the people questioned were still keeping their number one New Year's resolution after two months. "The keys to making a successful resolution are a person's confidence that he or she can make the behavior change and the commitment to making that change," says the survey author. In addition, the study indicates that "resolutions are a process, not a one-time effort that offer people a chance to create new habits.

Recruit support. Talk about your goals with friends, family and coworkers at the water cooler. When you voice your resolutions you are making a verbal commitment of record, more importantly, others may share that they have a similar goal. Offer to team up with them to successfully fullfil your resolution, you will be strengthening a relationship while you pursue your goal.

Utilize "43 Things." 43 Things is all about deciding what you want to do, and helping you do it. What could be more wonderful than that? Start building your list, find out how others have done what you want to do, connect with others that want to do it (and support each other), and more! Link

Some of the more common resolutions are:
• Lose Weight
• Save Money
• Get a Better Job
• Get Fit
• Eat Right
• Get a Better Education
• Drink Less Alcohol
• Quit Smoking Now
• Reduce Stress Overall

Consider picking resolutions that go beyond yourself. It’s great that you are going to get in better shape, or stop smoking, or spend less time on the internet (but don’t stop just yet! ;)) Consider resolutions that go beyond your needs and desires. Resolve to consume less (yes this will help your finances too while you are reducing forest destruction, global warming, etc.), or drive yes (and yes, you will get in better shape, and spend less on gas and maintenance as you ride your bike, walk, and get to know your fellow commuters on the bus or in the carpool). Make a commitment to volunteer for an organization doing good(ACLU, Nature Conservancy, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, etc.) many have local chapters that you can become active in. Join a group protesting the war, fighting child labor, removing land-mines, or protecting local forrest or natural area.

Wombat Says: It's All One

This amusing short flash animation from the Foundation for Global Community has been emailed to me by a couple of friends already, they liked it, maybe you will too.

Name Change! "Out of the Fog" is Now "green a go go"

A new name for the new year. Out of the Fog has been the online journal for the website greenagogo.com. Except for the greenagogo website doesn't exist. If you type greenagogo.com in your address bar, you will be sent to this blog. This is causing confusion for some of you readers, and searchers. So out of a concern for clarity and simplicity, the address greenagogo.com will now take you to the blog green a go go. I am also working on cleaning up the appearance of this site, I have messed with the HTML so much that it has having strange results in some browsers, so things hopefully will be looking better over the next few days (or worse if you hit me during an unsuccessful experiment). I am also working on an article on New Year's resolutions - suggestions and support / research to help you keep 'em.

Need a couple of Last minute gift ideas?

Magazines - pick up the latest copy and call in a subscritption for your recipient, so they'll be reminded of your generosity all year long. A couple of my favorites to give, and receive are Yes!("supporting you in creating a more just, sustainable and compassionate world") and the Sun("Personal. Political. Provocative. Ad-free.").

Books - I mentioned a couple in the Christmas idea list below.

DVDs - Give entertainment, inspiration or enlightenment... Try Baraka, The Corporation, Brazil, 42up etc.

Who censors your news?

For short time I thought I was going to to be a television reporter, I was even offered a job as a reporter after I got my BA. But it soon became clear that little 'news' was involved in television news. Between the need to entertain for ratings, and Corporate control, more fluff and misinformation was (and is) being broadcast than useful information. If you want to get your news independent from the eight corporations that control the media in this country, and with substance, try the Independent Media Center. Independent news that comes with depth, at times lacking in skill or objectivity (just like the news on TV!) but interesting, inpspiring and enraging. Even local sites for many cities, and in several languages.

43 Things and your New Year's resolutions

First of all, Welcome back, sorry I've been gone so long.
What do you want to do? Accomplish? Where do you want to visit? Who do you want to meet. 43 Things is all about deciding what you want to do, and helping you do it. What could be more wonderful than that? Start building your list, find out how others have done what you want to do, connect with others that want to do it (and support each other), and more!
I was just told about this site tonite, and have spent the last hour playing around on it, building my list, setting up my profile (DrWood) etc. Very addictive, and a bit ironic if you check out the first item on my list. What a perfect site to find with New Years (and resolutions!) coming up in 11 days!Link

Green Christmas Gifts - the Top Ten (updated)

Christmas shopping isn’t easy, with all the pressures society, and all the companies that want us to buy their products, try to foist on us. I searched the web for a decent list of ‘sustainable’ gift suggestions, and didn’t find anything impressive, so I thought I would try posting my own, I hope these ideas help!

In no particular order;

Massage Gift Certificate - I love giving (and getting!) these. An opportunity to give someone a healing and caring touch and a mini-vacation (without burning all that fuel!). Massage can help with back pain, headaches, stress, injuries and other issues. Choose the practitioner carefully (i.e. make sure they are licensed, and not located in the ‘Red Light’ district). Try asking at your local health food store or coop if you need suggestions.

Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology - Books make great gifts, right now I am reading Eric Brende’s book on escaping the ‘comforts’ of modern technology, and am finding it very inspiring. It could make a great discussion topic with whomever you give this to. Read my short review in a previous post here. This was recently released in paperback with a short update, however Amazon is selling the hardcover edition (2004) for78% off.

Your Creative Skills (knitting, art, pottery, poems, songs, baked goods) - Some of my favorite gifts from others (and given to others) have been ‘homemade’ gifts - quilts, mugs, bowls, paintings, shirts, coffee liquor. I treasure the gifts made with love and care, they bring a warm feeling every time I use/wear/see them.

Community Supported Agriculture membership (CSA) - A great way to support local community farms, and give your lucky recipient bushels of organic healthy food, delivered to their door every week, at the same time. To find a farm in your state try this LINK (58 farms came up for my area!)

Journey to the Wild Divine - “Disclaimer - marketing pays off here.” This game would have never made my list if I wasn’t familiar with it, but their marketing department sent me a copy to review, and ‘lo and behold’ here it is on my list. This is a game with biofeedback sensors built in that takes you on a healing journey - very expensive. I will be posting a more in depth review here soon, so check back. Journey to Wild Divine

Post Secret - The Book - I love this web site, every week I am awestruck by the art and revlelations sent in. The book just came out, and it collects some of the best (and the site doesn’t save them, so this is the only way to see many of them). PostSecret bookThis site was reviewed in a previous post.

Essential Oils - Your local health store can be an excellent resource for sustainable gifts. I like giving essential oils, they can be used for healing, baths or to smell good. San Francisco Herb Company is an excellent (and reasonable) source for essential oils, herbs and related items.

Salve - Do you have a garden being invaded by comfrey? Add some essential oils, beeswax and turn it into healing salve, find some cute jars, and ‘wallah’! you have Christmas gifts! (I'm not sure about the 'wallah' spelling, if you can help me out , let me know - thanks!)

Creative tools - Support the creative side in your friends and family. Get them quality art supplies, musical instruments, or a journal and a good pen, and watch as the creations to burst forth!

Membership - We all want to feel like we belong. Give them the opportunity to belong to a group that is doing good (ACLU, Nature Conservancy, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, etc.) many have local chapters that they can become active in.

Indigenous Designs - Giving (and receiving) clothes can be tricky, as clothing tastes tend to be very personal. My parents finally got it right when they started giving me organic shirts made by Indigenous Designs.

Indigenous Designs exists to support fair trade, preservation of socio-cultural and planetary environments while providing outstanding quality. By working directly with artisans and their knitting cooperatives, a strong partnership has evolved to support their visions in managing sustainable commerce.

Love - Do you know someone who needs more love and positive strokes in their life? Give love (Hugs, real, concrete support of their dreams and goals, attention, etc.) Try making a recording on CD, tape or DVD going-off about how wonderful they are (with specifics) they can play any time they want.

Do you know someone that needs to get out more? Take them to a weekend at the coast or in the mountains, or hiking, to a play or a museum(or give them a museum membership or tickets to a play).

Treasure - Do they have a favorite book or movie from their childhood? Do they love velvet clothes? Or collect vinyl records? Try digging up these gift ideas and more at your local thrift store (possibly supporting a good cause as you shop) or on ebay (you can get $5 to $15 off your purchase by using these coupons)

This will be updated regurlary with helpful links, and possibly more suggestions over the next week, so stay tuned!
Wishing you and all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Sublime Solstice, and Caring Kwanzaa!

Feeling Knotty?

Peter Hudson has a clean, simple and clear new site (I Will Knot) giving video lessons on how to tie knots. Each step in each knot is an individual clip. A very helpful and clear site. LINK

Wangari Maathai Nobel laureate

I watched Wangari Maathai receive the Nobel Peace Prize last year, and had heard and read bits about her. Tonight I stumbled across an excellent and inspiring article about her.

She’s been called many things. Among the rural poor of Kenya she’s known as the Green Crusader or Green Militant. Former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi called her ‘a mad woman’, and declared her a serious threat to the stability of the country. Her husband said she was ‘too educated, too strong, too successful, too stubborn and too hard to control’. And now professor Wangari Maathai has been named as a Nobel laureate.

LINK

Dogs Can Laugh!

Researchers at the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service in Washington state say sometimes a bark is just a bark — but a long, loud panting sound has real meaning...the pant is the sound of a dog laughing, and it has a direct impact on the behavior of other dogs, causing them to stop barking. LINK

Hubble's Greatest Hits!

Well, this is truly awe-inspiring...This site has an amazing collection of pics from the Hubble telescope, with a description of what each is about. From the description of the pic at right;

Appearing like a winged fairy-tale creature poised on a pedestal, this object is actually a billowing tower of cold gas and dust rising from a stellar nursery called the Eagle Nebula. The soaring tower is 9.5 light-years or about 90 trillion kilometres high, about twice the distance from our Sun to the next nearest star.

Link

Better Off!

I have started reading the first few chapters of Better Off!: Flipping the Switch on Technology. Really interesting and quite inspiring. I think it is going on my Christmas List (coming soon, I recommend and review [and tell you how to make or find] several sustainable and/or interesting gift ideas). Here is an excerpt from chapter One;

Her reservations about clothes-washing notwithstanding, Mary was on the spot. Our relationship had heated up well beyond the level of friendship. Fortunately for me, she had never been emotionally attached to her job, and the potted plant in her office simply did not satisfy her hankering for the country. On the other hand, she had a list of unanswered questions: How heavy was the work? How long were the hours? What about refrigeration? What about food preparation? When I pointed out that people have been living without modern gadgetry for thousands of years, she finally gave in, brimming with curiosity to see how they did it.

We tied the knot at St. Paul's Church ten days before the scheduled arrival at our new home. To live in close quarters with a group like this, you had to be properly married. It would be premature to say, however, whether ours was a marriage of convenience.

We decided to shoot for an expedition of eighteen months—enough time to experience a full change of season. Mary agreed to go along on one condition: that she would get the deciding vote in the decision of where to live after we finished our "fieldwork."

And so, svelte assistant at my side, I set out in the general direction of a still-mysterious clique of manual laborers, imbued with one lone hope: that they might lend me a hand in my experiment. How hard and time-consuming was this life "without laborsaving machines"? And was it one Mary and I would consider leading ourselves? I dearly hoped the exercise would not amount to a sheer test of endurance. What I really wanted to discover was a balance between too much machinery and too little, or better yet, how to arrive at it wherever one found oneself. This knowledge was what modern society lacked and what I hoped my yet-unknown neighbors would provide some clue to.

If you have any ideas of what I should include on my list, leave a comment, or email me at TheWayFilms@yahoo.com. I will be reviewing other books, and The Journey to Wild Divine sent me a copy of their software to check out, so I'll let you know what I (and my family and friends) think, and be reviewing several other items as well.