8.27.2008

And the winner is...

Sorry for the delay. Our internet wasn’t working this morning but whenever I called the help number, I got the same recorded greeting telling me they were aware of the problem and that it should be fixed within 2 hours. After five hours, I stopped believing them.


It’s back now so it’s time to announce the winner. We got lots of great entries but the one that really seemed to capture the essence was:

Undercover Hippie Files


Congratulations, Rachel. I will be sending your prize shortly!


I will try, internet willing, to post the first real Undercover Hippie File tomorrow but I wanted to start out today by saying the why behind the posts. It most certainly isn’t to save the planet or ease my guilty conscience by being green. Whether I choose to do “green” things or not, I’m not going to feel guilty about using the resources of the world, as long as I know I am being a good steward. If you want to make these or other changes to feel like you are saving polar bears or prevent little coastal communities from being swallowed by the sea, go for it. I however, have three criteria I like to consider when deciding whether an idea is something I want to try or not. I would prefer to do things that meet all of the following but sometimes I will settle for two out of the three:


  1. Economical – And by that, I really mean cheap, but that doesn’t sound as good. This is where a lot of the green ideas fall flat on their tush. And if I just spent all my grocery money on organic fruit, milk and boxed macaroni and cheese and all my household money on “safe” cleaners, I would miss out on a lot of the fun of natural homemaking. Craig and I have a lot of fun being “economical” in all parts of our life and I don’t think “going natural” has to be any different.

  1. Healthy – This should be the easiest of the three seeing as it is one of the main components of the preaching green movement but there are also a lot of conflicting ideas about what is healthy. You’ll just have to wait to get my opinion.

  1. Effective – This is the dealbreaker. I don’t care how economical and healthy something is, if it doesn’t work – what’s the point? This is another area where a lot of “green” ideas fall short. Yes, I can make my own laundry detergent but if it doesn’t get my clothes clean, did I really “gain” anything? I just crack myself up. Now don’t all y’all email me about the wonderful results you have gotten from homemade laundry detergent, it was just an example, mostly picked so that I could use my awesome joke.

So that is my thought process all laid out for you. Hopefully you aren’t sick of this series already since I’m just getting started! Stay tuned.






4 comments :

  1. And now I'm not sure why the font is so big. Oh, well. At least it got posted.

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  2. First of all, WOOOOOOOOOOO!

    Second of all, I totally agree with you, especially on point #3. I once got these biodegradable dryer sheets (because they were only 2 cents more expensive than the generic brand I was going to buy), and they were A) horrible, cardboardy things and B) entirely ineffective. At one point, I was throwing about 6 into each load and I wasn't sure I could perceive a difference between that and not using any dryer sheets at all.

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  3. Rachel, it's in the (e)mail. I sent it to your ridiculously long gmail account so be sure to check that one.

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  4. Hmm. It isn't there--and I do have a new, shorter gmail address that I should probably start using. My older one is fairly ridiculous (but that how it goes when you have common names).

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