Warm and Fuzzy

During college one of my favourite assignments was one where I was assigned to think of a project that could positively impact society through design. I spent a great deal of time thinking about different things that I could design that would accomplish this and ended up going with a website. In general I've found that people who focus more on the positive things and less on the negative are much happier regardless of their situation. The idea of my website was to say thank you and think about the good things that happen on an average day. When we are given a gift it seems obvious to say thank you, but being thankful for smaller things such as having a door held for you or when your roommate does your dishes, can have just as positive of an impact. On the website visitors could write quick thank you notes in an online feed or print cards to give out in person. The project was well received, and I still think that should I come upon a vast amount of free time I could really make it work.

I was reminded of this because of a feel good article I saw on the Daily Heller. Students from Stefan Sagmeister's "Touch Someone's Heart" class completed their project by bringing their final product to New York City bus drivers. Check out the story here or here.

Oh and as a side note, one of my classmates made a fictional company like Bixi, looks like they had the right idea!

Holiday Hopes

With the holidays come stress, tension and sometimes a lack of sleep, but all of that is greatly overshadowed by the fun times I have. My hope for the holidays is that everyone has a fantastic and safe break. To my friends, family, and especially everyone hosting the parties a big thank you for helping me enjoy a great holiday season!

Talking to Ted

Today, like every day, I told myself I would get a ton done and got distracted by other things. I often go to bed regretting wasting my time on Facebook and email, but I need to stop doing that. There is no use regretting things, all of this was summed up nicely in the Ted Talk I watched tonight while I meant to do other things. I find that even if other people may think I am wasting my time, I enjoyed doing whatever it was. I had a nice time knitting, watching a Christmas special, preparing for the holidays and especially watching some new Ted Talks tonight.

For your viewing pleasure, here are a few of my favourite talks from the night

Don't regret regret

(Fun fact, I have a tattoo that I don't regret. Likely because it loosely translates to remember to live, a great reminder that regrets are frivolous.)

Aimee Mullins and her 12 pairs of legs

Eve Ensler: Suddenly my body

Round and Round We Go

I'll admit I'm the first to complain about our dependancy on technology. Of course I love the advances, my job is so much easier with a computer, but sometimes it is too much for me. My friends used to complain all the time about how they couldn't rely on messaging or calling me because I may take hours to get back to them, I've gotten better but not much. I think longingly of the days when people would just called someone at home, or plan to meet with them in person.

All of this brings us neatly around to the newest item on my Christmas wish list, a phone for my phone. I saw this gadget months ago and loved it. Isn't it funny when older technology comes back around.

Birthday Bonanza

This year I decided to make my birthday extra special; five celebrations and a ton of free goodies. I had so much fun getting things for free that I thought I would share, a little early birthday present to all my friends! Generally you just sign up and they email you a coupon, but if you have issues check out where I got all my ideas from here or here (there are a ton of dinner options on the aforementioned sites so check that out also!)

Enjoy!

Booster Juice - free regular sized smoothie!

Sephora - free body wash/shampoo

La Senza - free undies with membership

Quiznos - free combo and cookie

Starbucks - free drink after 1 year membership

Boston Pizza - free starter and pasta or dessert

Williams Fresh Cafe - BOGO value meal

Orange Julius - BOGO 20 oz. Julius or Fruit Smoothie

East Side Marios - free appetizer with entree purchase

Warning!

I love and I hate walking to work in the morning. It feels great to be outside and breath in the fresh air, except that after making the move to Toronto the air isn't fresh anymore.

I was excited to move to Toronto, but what I was most thrilled about was that I could finally walk everywhere I wanted to go. Only when I actually started walking everywhere did I realize that there were so many people who smoked. It feels like each day at least one person blows a puff of smoke directly in my face or flicks a butt in my general direction. I am very happy that Ontario has banned smoking indoors, but we need more. Things are starting to improve; buildings now have designated smoking areas away from doorways, many outdoor public spaces have done the same and on top of that packaging updates may help to further deter smoking.

For 8 years Canada had been working on new warning labels for cigarettes. It was argued that the current labels were stale and had become less shocking to smokers and that a toll-free quit line should be included to help promote change. Since, new labels were unveiled and strict laws about the way cigarettes are displayed have been put in place.

This year the United States will be working to get their new labels ready for Fall of 2012. Progression was stalled by a federal judge earlier this month who argued that the new labels were not factual. Whether or not this is true, smoking is an annoyance and health risk for everyone and it is not fair to compromise the well being of others.

I am hopeful that my generation will help to decrease smoking and that I will have to deal with the invasion on my personal space less and less the longer I live in the city.

Not Cutting It!

The International Energy Agency released its annual World Energy Output this past Wednesday and it doesn't sound good. After reading a couple articles I decided to take a look at the presentation, I was disappointed to see that despite the attention the environment is gaining, it is still not enough.

• Economic concerns have diverted the attention from the energy policy

• CO2 emissions rebounded to a record high

• Energy efficiency for the global economy has worsened for a second straight year

• Spending on oil imports is near record highs

• Rising incomes and population will increase energy needs

• Heavily polluting coal could increase 65% by 2035

I try to do my part, but at times it feels like it makes little difference. While Canada kept it's promises to reduce energy consumption, the savings were over shone by the excessive usage in less developed countries. It is disappointing to see reports like theses, but hopefully the International Energy Agency will be successful in promoting positive change for our global energy consumption.