Ten Ways to Add More (and Spend Less) Green this Holiday Season

With all the talk about "being green" and "saving green" during the continuing economic downturn (the recession may be over, but no one's told that to my savings account!), I thought it would be useful to compile and provide the following "Top Ten" list of How to Add More (and Spend Less) Green this Holiday Season.

1) Rethink sending holiday cards. Send an e-card or a poscard. If you insist on sending a traditional holiday card, buy a bulk package of cards made of recycled paper with earth friendly dyes.

2) Green your lights. For those of you who have a Christmas tree in your house, switch from standard tree lights to LED tree lights. Program a light timer to minimize energy usage.

3) Bring nature indoors. Choose and display ornaments and decorations made from natural objects or recycled materials, like reclaimed metal, natural wool, recycled wood, hemp or other materials.

4) Balance your carbon footprint. While I certainly don't suggest these as a stocking stuffer, you can easily buy carbon offsets for your holiday travel. Check out www.carbonfund.org, the largest seller of carbon offsets.

5) Wrap with care and conservation in mind. Buy holiday paper made from recycled paper and earth friendly dyes. Don't overwrap. Here's a suggestion: Use those old newspapers for wrapping and then recycle them.

6) Think "slow food": Eat local!. Find a farmer or local market. Anything produced and bought locally comes to your home with reduced emissions from unnecessary travel time.

7) Recycle your Christmas tree. Have Christmas year-round! As soon as the holidays end, take your tree to a chipper and turn it into pine mulch that you can use in your garden next year.

8) Trade-in your old electronics. Don't buy anything new unless you can recycle the old.

9) Give a gift, get a gift. Very important for the kids: Have your children recycle their gently worn toys. Remember those in need: "With all they getting, get compassion."

10) Carry a holiday shopping bag. Pass on those glossy shopping bags and, in the spirit of the season, use something plain, understated and reusable.

The Hired Pen: Official Blogger of All Hail, Washington Redskins!

If you're among the hundreds (ok, dozens) of people who read my infrequent blog posts, Tweets, or Facebook postings, you'll be pleased to discover that after a rigorous competition, I have been selected as the Official Blogger of All Hail, Washington Redskins!

I encourage you to visit AHWR to read my latest blog entries, as well as other entertaining features of the site. Of course, please continue to check back at The Hired Pen for non-Redskins related blogs.

In the meantime, I wish all my fellow Tribe members a healthy, happy, and spiritually fulfilling New Year.

What Happens When Twitter and Facebook Go Down

As anyone (and that's almost everyone) who uses Facebook or Twitter knows, yesterday both services went temporarily offline due to a hacker attack. Not coincidentally, I was unusually productive during the eclipse of service, causing me to remember those halcyon days in the pre-timesuck era, when Facebook and Twitter were known as "personal business" not to be conducted at work.

Anyway, my non-Facebook (and taciturn Twitterer) friend Steve the New Guy (writer and editor for the award-winning publication Heath Plan Week) responded to my productivity with the following (not so tongue-in-cheek) press release:

* * *
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BOSTON — Aug. 7, 2009: Work productivity spiked dramatically yesterday within the Communications and Outreach division of the Bernard M. Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program office, according to an internal departmental review conducted by the Massachusetts Institute for Technology. Also on August 6, social networking sites Twitter and Facebook were offline most of the day.

Bruce Mendelsohn, Director of the Communications and Outreach office, denied there was a link between the increased output within his department and the downed Internet sites. The productivity increase was not seen in any other MIT departments, according to the study.

* * *

It's true: The most amusing jokes contain a grain of truth.

The Real Reason We Can't Post the Ten Commandments in Court- or State-houses

The real reason we can't post the Ten Commandments in a courthouse or statehouse is because we simply can't regulate 'Thou Shalt Not Steal,' 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery,' and 'Thou Shall Not Lie' in buildings full of lawyers, judges and politicians.

This would, of course, create a hostile work environment.

Incongruous Sight Inspires Worse Doggerel

Last night upon returning home from yet another unpleasant commute (in addition to dampening the spirits of one and all, the rain seems to have slowed down commute times to a snail's pace) I confronted a jarring sight in my front yard.

As most jarring sights do, it inspired me. So I wrote about it.

To imagine, I think, it is hard,
a toilet
In my front yard.

How it got there I know not
This ugly porcelain pot.

It torments me
This toilet
That once was filled with pee.

On a tree stump
It sits
Awaiting another dump.

I pray it soon disappears
This toilet
That once hosted so many rears.

When I get home today
It better be gone
Or sit on it I may.

Thoughts on Father's Day

Seven years ago tomorrow I became a father. My daughter was born on Father's Day in 2002. On that auspicious day I wasn't ready to become a father. At the time, I didn't understand how becoming a father would transform my life. As the years have passed I have grown to understand and appreciate the challenges and rewards of fatherhood.

Being the father of a daughter is particularly challenging: Although divorced from my daughter's mother, I nevertheless treat her respectfully. Now remarried, I treat my current wife with love and respect. In all my relationships with the women in my life and those in my daughter's life, I seek to model behavior which my daughter will learn to recognize as the way she should expect to be treated by the men in her life.

Although my daughter may never realize it, her presence in my life has made me a better man, a better husband, and a better son. That's the best Father's Day gift of all.

A Singapore Street Not Encouraged for Americans