Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Conserve some energy and read a book!!


Two things on my mind today....one I was reminded about in an email from a "family-member-by-choice", that Saturday, March 30th, my husband and I are going to observe Earth Hour, Chicago, from 8-9 pm. To all (yes, I know I have a mass audience out there...hehehe) naysayers who would say that by turning off the lights and using as little electrical power as possible, one can't make a difference, well then they really are missing the point. It's about making those small changes on a daily basis that make a difference and if you don't believe we, as humans are having an impact on our environment, then I just don't know what to say. Impact it possitvely by reducing your energy use. I know I'm far from perfect when it comes to the three R's (and I don't mean, Reading, Ritin', and 'Rithmatic), I'm talking about Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, but I think these kind of observances give us all pause to think about what we are doing....so TURN YOUR LIGHT OFF!

And while you have the light off, you might want to pick up a book. Yes, your eyes can handle reading by candlelight for an hour. Better yet, it would be cool to read by one of those old fashioned hurricane lanterns (hmmmm, not so sure about the kerosene though). But I digress (as ususal)....this is about books and reading. I was made aware of this great book swapping website called Bookins. The idea is that you offer up books for trade that are taking up way too much space on your bookshelves and in return you can replace them with books you want to read, but instead of paying full price, you pay one flat fee for any of the books in the Bookins database...$4.49. When someone wants a book you have, you just have to print off a US postal service label, wrap the package up, slap the label on, and pop it in any mailbox....no auctions, no dealing with the buyers directly, no going to a post office. It's so easy, you just wait for an email telling you that someone wants one of your books and you are off! The best thing is you know the book is going to someone who wants to read it. I joined the site yesterday...for FREE, I might add....put 23 books up on my trade list and by the end of the day THREE of them were requested. That was so cool! I was worried no one would want my books...LOL Anywhoo...if you are a reader, but don't want to keep buying books at full price, or even reduced price, check Bookins out. Another suggestion I'm making to readers out there is to check Amazon Marketplace for books. Yesterday I bought the book for my next book club meeting for 1 cent! Of course there were shipping costs of $3.99, but really can one camplain about spending $4.00 on a book. And then when I'm done with it...on the Bookins list it will go! I know some of you will say....go to the library. The fact of the matter is that some of the books we read for our book club are that readily available and I'm not going to traipse all over the city to find a book. *shrug*

Lastly for today...Dancing with the Stars.... Monica Seles, Penn Jillette, and Adam Carola are in my bottom three. There will be a double elimination...two of them NEED to go. And I just gotta say, I'm impressed with how well Priscilla Presley is doing. Her face has some strangeness of the Botox variety going on, but WOW, she's dancing great....and not "just for her age". Kristi Yamaguchi is my girl though and is at the top of the heap....go Kristi!!

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