2009 Green Resolutions

The world is deteriorating at a faster rate in this new Century than ever before. Here are some simple, effective and cheap resolutions to adopt to do your part to slow the effects of climate change and planet degeneration!

Be Greener in 2009!! SAVE THE PLANET!

1. Switch to Reusable Towels

Cost: $6-10

No matter how you look at it, paper towels create waste. During your next trip to the grocery store, buy some reusable microfiber towels, which grip dirt and dust like a magnet, even when they get wet. When you are finished with them, toss the towels in the wash and reuse them again and again. They are even great for countertops and mirrors. When you absolutely have to use disposable towels, look for recycled products. If every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber paper towels (70 sheets) with 100 percent recycled ones, we could save 544,000 trees.

2. Run a Full Dishwasher Load
Cost: $0

If you have dishwasher, use it. Running a fully loaded dishwasher — without prerinsing the dishes — can use a third less water than washing the dishes by hand, saving up to 10 to 20 gallons of water a day. Simply scrape large pieces of food off your dishes and let the dishwasher handle the rest. And by using the air-dry setting (instead of heat-dry), you will consume half the amount of electricity without spending a dime.
*if you are in the market for a new dishwasher, make sure you look for the Energy Star logo and check the labels for the energy efficiency statistics of the model.

3. Turn the temperature down in your fridge

Cost: $0

As one of the biggest appliances in your kitchen, the refrigerator is also one of the most power hungry, accounting for 10 to 15 percent of the average home energy bill each month. Get your fridge running in tip-top shape. First, set the refrigerator thermostat to maintain a temperature between 38 and 42 degrees (F). This temperature will protect your food from spoiling while saving electricity. Twice a year, clean the condenser coil at the back of your fridge. Condenser coils tend to get dusty, making them less efficient.

4. Stop buying bottled water

Cost: $14.98 for aluminum water bottle

Did you know that it takes 26 bottles of water to produce the plastic container for ONE one-liter bottle of water, and that doing so pollutes 25 liters of groundwater? Don’t leave a trail of plastic water bottles in your wake! Stop buying bottled water. Use reusable water bottles instead made from materials like stainless steel or aluminum that are not likely to degrade over time. If you choose a plastic water bottle, check the number on the bottom first: Plastics numbered 3, 6 and 7 could pose a health threat to you, so look for plastics numbered 1, 2, 4 or 5.

5. Turn down your thermostat–put on a sweater, throw on a blanket, or snuggle with a roomie or lover, to stay warm!
Cost: $0

Electric power plants are the country’s largest industrial source of the pollutants that cause global warming. By snuggling under a blanket on the couch on a snowy winter night instead of turning up the heat, or enjoying the breeze from a fan in the height of summer instead of turning up the air conditioning, you can save pounds of pollution, as well as some money off your utility bills. Set your thermostat in winter to 68 degrees F (20° C) or less during the daytime and 55 degrees F (13° C) before going to sleep or when you are away for the day. And during the summer, set thermostats to 78 degrees F (26° C) or more.

More tips below.
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Winter Holidays and Small Notes on Chilled Days

While in Vegas for a friend’s wedding, 11-19-08
Drape Sweater, VS; Shirt 1 (grey), AA; Shirt 2, Vintage; leather belt, H & M; Boots, Naturalizer; Hat, Journeys; purse, Guess?; Camera, HOLGA.

Earlier this month when I wasn’t happy with lounging around in sweats… I felt very Camille-ish when I took the photos…
Leggings, tank, H&M; shoes, Jeffrey Campbell; Drape Sweater, VS; T-neck, Target.

From X-Mas Eve party at in-laws.
Dress, H & M; T-neck, socks, belt, Cardigan (Mossimo) Target; Oxfords, Payless (surprise!).

I’ve found myself stressed more than usual after the Christmas Holi-daze, being that we are broke from career circumstances, the financial crisis, school debts, and planning our wedding. After putting down the deposit for our photographer, I promptly forgot that we’d done it, and found myself hurtling into a stress vortex when I at my credit card online statements yesterday. Following another vet visit for our Bear, Max, who’d been pooping out projectile super-soaker style liquid from his posterier, my finances are pretty much blitzed. A Christmas-Eve present spree from Nate, who suddenly felt the Christmas Spirit, was another hit to our household pockets.

Exactly how much Christmas Cheer can one feel under this abysmal oppression?

–EDIT: I did have LOTS of Fun on Christmas Eve at the In-Laws annual Eve Extravaganza (as evidenced by my extraordinarily drunk post earlier), but that is a story for a later time!–

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+-Mas!

DRUNKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKkkkkkkkkkk!!!

Merry effing Christmas!!!!;askdjf;alskdjf;lsakjdfl;sakdfjl;skdjf;laskdj;oawieyut;wauhgvbz;oaidflng

Merry, merry. Happy Happy! oh my god, I’m soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo tipsy!!!!!

WOOO HOO! Happy Holidaze to you and yours!!!!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas GREEN!

How to be green this Holiday!

I haven’t given anyone a big green tip in awhile, so let’s take this beaut of a tip from Earth911.com.

—

Deck the Halls

If you were out shopping this weekend, we don’t need to tell you that there were a lot of people out purchasing not only gifts, but Christmas trees too (30 million evergreens to be exact). In fact, these millions of trees help to offset enough carbon to make a big impact - the equivalent of taking 4,960 SUVs off the road for one year. So before you let holiday stress get the best of you, take a deep breath.

With Boughs of Holly

Gathering round ye olde Noble Fir for some good ol’ caroling and merryment? Ok, so you might not be having an old-fashioned Christmas, but you can make your own ornaments and decorations that are recyclable or compostable. That way when you take them down, you wont have as much to throw away.

Fa-La-La-La-La

It may be hard to think of now, but soon it will be time to take your tree down. After you’ve used Earth911’s search to find a treecycling event near you, you’ll have joined the 93 percent of consumers who recycle their Christmas trees each year. Your tree can be used for a number of projects like ground cover for playgrounds, rebuilding wetlands and restoring coastlines. And to think you were just going to toss it in the trash…

More ways to be green this Holiday Season:
20 Tips for having a Sustainable Holiday
5 Tips to Green your Tree!

The Coat

Fuck, I love this thing.

Worn closed with a Forever21 oversized belt.

Worn with practical shoes, for walking the dog.

The coat is quite warm, actually, apart from the neck opening. As you can see, the funnel neck was made for someone a bit larger than I, so wearing the collar closed doesn’t work. I have to improvise with wrapping long scarves about my skinny neck to stay warm about the head, but other than that, the poodle-like or Wookie-like consistency of the material keeps me rather cosy.

I love the avant-garde construction of the coat, the fact that it can be worn several ways, casual and dressy–and it is still completely and utterly unique from any other cold weather coat any other woman will be wearing on the streets these days. I’m so glad Nate and I bought this for my Xmas present. No one else will 1. have the balls to wear this, 2. have the knowledge of where to get it and therefore it is, 3. Completely outlandish, stylish and eye-catching all at once. I LOVE IT.

I went out last night for a 30th birthday party and I got at least six comments on it by random strangers, one asking me where I got it. I had to reply in the most smug motherfucker tone, “Well, I found this Austrian designer, and she just whipped it up.” To which she responded, “Damn! So I can’t get one!” And I said, “Sorry, ‘fraid not.”

Yeah, like I said. Smug motherfucker. I can’t help it. This coat is just so damn fab.

Bears are quite fast runners.

So Cold in the D!

Well, it’s happened. Blizzard storms finally pounded the D, dropping about 6+ inches of snow since dawn this morning, and heavy, heavy snow showers continuing throughout the day.

News casts forecast 8-10 inches of snowfall for the Detroit Metro Area today, with another 5 or so tomorrow. Which is fun.

The snow came right up to our doorway, and was so deep, I couldn’t even see the steps. When I took Max out, he immediately bounded down and he was chest deep in the stuff. Of course, being a Wheaten Terrier, he found this incredible and practically skipped about, pulling me in his wake, after he took a long ass piss. Crazy.

**Photo © Andre J. Jackson, Detroit Free Press

Detroit News: Detoit Metro Buried in Snow
NYTimes - Plenty of Snow in Detroit

—

I am so happy I got Deep In Vogue’s mohair coat (my +-mas present) in time for this mess. I will have to post photos of me modeling it later. I did make sure that as soon as I got it, to throw on my shoes and take vain, fashion flix of myself. Camera whore. I was so excited, I squealed and ooh’d and ah’d when I took it out of the box.

Nate is not used to it. He said it was “more glam” than he is used to seeing on me, and it would take time for him to get accustomed. Whatever.

This shit is bananas, son!

So in honour of Cold in the D, I bring you a Friday Meme. And a link to a great video to a song from which I pilfered the title for this post. It’s the best video ever.

7 Things I Did Before (Before what?)

1. Sang in elite choral groups in high school and early college
2. Spoke with a heavy, heavy Southern California Valley-ish accent.
3. Scorer for women’s and men’s varsity volleyball in highschool (was too uncoordinated to play any sports)
4. Worked for literally 1 day at the “ghetto” Target in San Diego–I walked off the job after 2 hours.
5. Owned a 1982 Mercedes 300D Turbo Diesel “Tank” named Helga
6. Worked 5 jobs my freshman year in highschool
7. Stole a bunch of shit from Claire’s

7 Things I Do Now

1. write/blog
2. Car Karaoke (don’t sing seriously anymore)
3. Work for the Man
4. Own a dog
5. Play Wii, Playstation 2 and Game Cube, but not obsessively.
6. Plan a wedding
7. Never, ever check my voicemail messages.

7 Things I Want To Do

1. Travel the world–Iceland, more of the UK, the Mediterranean, Tibet and Butan, Singapore, Japan
2. Have a career related to my English BA
3. Write a book
4. Create a REAL website
5. Buy lots and lots of shoes
6. Join a green activist group
7. Stop being so selfish

7 Things That Attract Me in Others
1. Intellect
2. Wit
3. Humour
4. Family-Oriented
5. Dog Lover
6. Principled (I.e., Kind, respectful, honourable, giving, passionate, charitable, friendly, forgiving)
7. Care about appearance (clean, fashionable, kempt)

7 Favorite Foods
1. Cheeeeeeeeeese
2. Bread (namely, cheese bread, or croissants)
3. Pizza (Buddy’s Pizza, Detroit!)
4. Cake
5. Mashed Potatoes
6. Mushrooms, surprisingly
7. Mangoes

7 Things I Say Most Often
1. So cute, makes me wanna puke! (Max)
2. Ffin (my fiancée)
3. What up
4. So
5. Like (So Cal lexicographical staple–I can’t rid it no matter how I try)
6. I feel sick (I often do)
7. Yeah… no. (Nate hates this.)

And what you’ve been waiting for!
It’s So Cold in the D…

The Big Marriage: MKLu + N.Lu

This is me, Mae.

I’m your run of the mill Asian geek. I like video games, computers, karaoke, peace signs, art, music, comic books, National Public Radio and Haruki Murakami. I write, but I wouldn’t really call myself a writer. I like cooking, and I think I’m rather better at it than writing. I like fashion, but not enough to dedicate my life to it. I’m an eco-nazi. I’m that person at the office you make fun of for carting away cardboard home, because it’s being thrown out, rather than re-used or recycled…

I’m twenty six. Still in Uni (not for much longer). I work my ass off during the day at a job I don’t so much like, while I go to school at night.

I’ve been dating my gentleman for close to four years.

And now we’re getting married.

This is my fiancée, Nate.

I think he’s the effing cutest. I didn’t always think so (when we met). But that’s another story for another time.

He’s an Art Director of an Automotive Digital magazine. He’s also a web-designer and coder. He recently just started a design firm.

He broadens my horizons. He was my Reverse Manifest Destiny, bringing me from my myopic, limited existence on the West Coast

to the East Coast, where I touched the Atlantic for the first time,

and Northernmost coast of the country (Michigan).

He also took this sheltered suburban girl

Across the Atlantic

And across the Pacific, to Paradise,

Where he asked me to be his wife, after three and a half years of dating.

He introduced me to running,

And taught me that I am only as limited as I think myself to be, and that I am more capable than I could ever believe… that I am not barred from achievement due to my health, my ailing body or my immune system. Accomplishment is simply a state of mind–you are already capable of doing everything, the only limitation is your imagination.

I am more beautiful to him than any other woman, which is something I am beginning to understand. He is prouder than anyone of me when I attain a goal; he picks me up and pushes me to strive for the best when I short-change myself.

He brought home a surprise as an engagement present, and now we have a little family.

As the days go by, despite the regular ins and outs and stresses and bores and ups and downs of daily life, our Life is getting better and better.

Damn, I can’t wait for this wedding!

Red and Green

Sometimes, the best complement to an outfit isn’t a great accessory.

Or

Sometimes the best complement to an outfit is an accessory that isn’t one.

I.E., today, my outfit is boring. The key that makes me feel great, pretty and happy: My red lips.

Sometimes, one simple thing is all you need!

**These photos were taken back when I had longer hair (2007) and I felt exponentially prettier in them than I currently feel.

—
I inadvertantly put on that same beautiful sage green sweater and then smoothed on some dark crimson on my lips. It didn’t occur to me until much, much later in this morning, that somehow I am celebrating the Christmas/Holiday season with my face and sweater. And when I realised that, I suddenly felt like I could look forward to this Holiday, get into the spirit, or something.

As of recent years, Christmas just seemed to be another excuse to get the disjointed families of my fiancée’s together and eat indulgent, delicious things without abandon. Though there was singing, and hot cocoa, and apple cider, and goodies and tarts, and mashed potatoes, and twinkling lights, something in my heart failed to skip and dance along with all the festivity going on about me. I don’t know if that’s a product of being midtwenties and thirties. We’re just not at the magical time in our lives anymore. We work, and we sit at desks, and we fall into a routine of work, eat, sleep, with the occasional sex and drinking. But the dance of our early twenties has faded into the daily stressors and stresses of regular, adult, working life.

It’s bittersweet to me that something as simple and material as an outfit and the colour of my lipstick could flutter that gut-reaction for a Holiday/Christmas spirit, really. But, if it never awakened at all would be the saddest thing.

Fashion: My Own Owen-ish-ish D.I.V. Label Coat!

Deep In Vogue created a one of a kind angora coat after seeing something lovely and beautiful on Garance Doré.

The girl in the photo was wearing a Rick Owens jacket at Paris Fashion Week…
**

After spying it, DIV decided to create one for herself, since she obviously couldn’t afford her own RO jacket, which demands like thousands on the price tags. (For example, a recent NYT article had the reporter co-shop with a consumer, who bought a Rick Owens leather coat priced at $65,000, roughly about the price of rent in my apartment for close to 60 years.) Not one to withhold style, DIV created 10 more coats and posted them in her Etsy shop for her beloved readers and friends to purchase.

**

The pricetag was nano percentage of the Rick Owens coat that inspired it.

I OWN ONE! My own lovely, lovely husband-to-be sort of gifted it to me for Christmas. I purchased it during my lunch break today. Lunch break has never been this fruitful nor satisfying ever. I was bubbling with giddiness for all of the afternoon. Afternoon delight never had a better example than today.

—
Here is the link to Deep in Vogue’s blog, from there you can find links to her Etsy store. It fits a small/medium, and is made out of angora. She ships from within the US to all International locations. The piece is well-priced for the quality and it won’t set you back a ton: deepinvogue.blogspot.com.

**Photo credits: Garance Doré, Deep In Vogue

M.K.Flo Universe Loves My Dog

The Universe to lookatmae

4:25 AM (4 hours ago)

While I would actually LOVE to help every living soul on the planet remember who they were in the 4th century, why the pyramids were really built, and how their past beliefs shaped their present manifestations, I’d infinitely prefer to help them bust a move here and now, learn some new tricks, get a Wheaten Terrier, and live their dreams. Which, incidentally, is the only reason anyone ever chooses to come back.

Let’s do this,
The Universe

Hmmm. Let’s think about this, shall we?
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