Green Beer

Leave it to me to get to the most important stuff first.

How can I be a more eco-friendly beer drinker?

Thank goodness I'm not the first one to wonder. There is lots of interesting information to be found here.

PS - It is very possible that I get no traffic on this site as it is new and unpublicized for the most part. But, if you make your way here and you have found yourself The One Beer that I need to know about, please do tell!

Green on the inside

I'm sickly today, so I've spent a good deal of time browsing some of my favorite go-green-0r-go-home sites, diy sites and other places that have just the faintest hint of patchouli. I've never been a hippie or a hipster...but something more down the middle, with a touch of damn-it-all thrown in there for good measure. I care about people, the environment and my responsibility to the aforementioned. It can be exhausting thinking about all the things I should be doing. I know the appropriate approach is to do a little at a time, and I do. But, I've been slowly making my way down Granola Way and I'm very close to turning in my Ziploc bags and salon died tresses for hemp bags and henna.

In my efforts to be healthy inside and out, as well as be conscious of my footprint it seems like the timing is right. I don't know if I'm going to run out and make myself some shampoo...but maybe I'll start using a shampoo bar.

Low light highlights

I've just ordered the new Nikon 35mm prime lens and I can't wait to get it. I need a lens for low light and portraits and this one will auto-focus with my D40. The lens in back ordered pretty much everywhere, but should be back in stock any day now. The reviews are mixed; some people are trading in their 50mm for good, others are sticking with it. Since the 50mm only works manually on my camera, I will no doubt keep it. I'll be using it at a friend's wedding reception on the 17th. I'm geeking out!

I'll shoot you

I've been interested in photography for a long time. I really enjoy beautiful photographs, and with the advent of digital cameras a whole new world has opened up...for a whole new population of people. I've been playing around with different dSLR cameras lately, and finally purchased the Nikon D40. I loved the more expensive and HD-video making Nikon D90, but it just wasn't in the budget. So the D40 and I are getting to know each other this week.

This is my first official step towards semi-professional photography. I will be second shooting a friend's wedding in five weeks and I'm devouring all the information I can get my hands on regarding technique and tips. I'm enrolled in an introductory class that starts in a few weeks as well.

When I hold that camera in my hand and capture a really great shot, it feels like art...and that has always been addicting to me.

Changeling

I'm making some changes in my life; some big, some small. One in particular feels like I have lifted a weight off my shoulders that I didn't know was heavy as it was. Another feels like it could be a step backwards, or maybe just a decision to take a break and sit down on the bench for a bit. I'm feeling brave, apprehensive, excited, and a little more peaceful. I'm a pretty hopeful person, but I'm no Timex - I'm hoping that these choices I'm making are the right ones and will put me on a path that requires less getting my ass handed to me and more contentment.

I got a root canal today and I'm a little loopy right now.

I hope the majority of the pain subsides quickly.

I hope I do/everything goes well tomorrow.

This is me being lazy honest

I am working towards not making sweeping, grandiose statements such as I will get up and work out every morning at 5am before eating steel cut oatmeal and meditating for 30 minutes. Yeah...that has yet to happen. Ever. Small goal setting is supposedly attainable, but never feels fast enough for my hurry-up and be brilliant idealism. Of course, I end up doing very little of my original ginormous planning, so I'm going nowhere fast.

I always say I dislike the gym very much. But, really, I think I just dislike the habit of getting up in the morning to go work out. No matter how much I romanticize the idea of being a morning person I think I should just face up to the fact that it is not going to happen. Working out needs to be an evening affair for me. It needs to be scheduled, preferably with other people to make me less culpable, and it needs to be full of fist-pumping, OMG-THIS-IS-MY-JAM play lists on the iPod. And, yeah, I'm not going 7 days a week. I'll shoot for going more days than I don't.

Me and Jennifer Aniston

Apart from being sickly the last two weeks, I have been approaching today: my 35th birthday. Birthdays are not usually a big deal for me. I enjoy them, hope there is not a big production made and like to get together with a few people and have a few laughs. However, there is something about this birthday that makes everyone (including myself) instantly reflect on how close I am to being 40. Not only am I 35 years old today, but guess what! I'm 5 years from 40! Whee!

I have been feeling this birthday slinking ominously towards me all year. I am acutely aware of everything I have not accomplished at this point in my life: no children, home ownership, college degree, satisfactory BMI, no world travel, no amazingness to me that I thought I would have accomplished by now.

Of course, I am working towards the things I want, but time is becoming a concern. Maybe it shouldn't be and I'm just overreacting. I've been in psychotherapy for a little over a year to deal with depression and issues stemming from childhood abuse that went on for a very long time. There are many hurdles; there always have been for me...but, I know that it could be harder/worse/more difficult.

All I know is that 40 is sitting up ahead of me with my womb, ambitions, and dreams and I'm wondering if I will have touched any of them by the time I get there.