Cosmetics Recycling

This is awesome! After March 29, Origins will be accepting empty cosmetics packaging, regardless of the brand! Not only can you help divert waste from the landfill, you may even get a free sample. ps—Mac & Aveda have some of their own packaging recycling programs worth checking out.

Word! Metrics

I've been wanting to start up a habit of Word! postings for a while now, so here's it's inauguration! Every so often, I notice that the same word keeps appearing in popular media and vernacular conversation, as if that word is floating atop everyone's consciousness at the same time. This also happens with trends in art, fashion, architecture and design—I like to call it "riding the wave". Others might say everyone has their "fingers on the same pulse". Either way, they're fun to pay attention to and I'm curious to get your feedback on their meaning to you or a context in which you've recently been exposed to it...

Today's Word!: Metrics
(above source, my mac dictionary)

Shreveport Mardi Gras has begun!

Krewe of Centaur, Shreveport
Originally uploaded by Madeline & Ryosuke

I'll be marching with dad's marching society, Blanc et Noir, next Sunday in the Krewe of Highland parade. Check my flickr for photos.
(Growing up, Boeuf Gras was always my favorite float at NOLA Mardi Gras.)

Kumlari Practice in Nepal

The SF Chronicle featured a heart wrenching story this week about the sale of young girls into slavery in Nepal. Their families, desperately poor, accept the less than $100 offers of Kumlari brokers to place their daughters in the homes of wealthier families as servants. As you can imagine, the young girls are not only subject to exhaustive manual labor and despicable living conditions, but are often abused. Olga Murray from Sausalito has started an organization to help these girls and has made some real progress. She offers the families who are tempted to sell, or whose contracts are up for renewal, a pig or a goat in exchange for not selling their daughters, and she also funds the girls' education for the year. Check out the video and the article. It's hard for me to remember sometimes that conditions for women are still this bad! And Olga's creative work to change it is inspiring.

Hope, Optimism & Soda?

Hmm? How to feel about a company ripping off a successful bottom-up political campaign and exploiting the hearts of the majority of Americans who have put hope into political/social reform in our beloved country—to sell more soda? While graphically sharp and typographically attractive, I can't help but have a visceral (read: negative) reaction to the latest Pepsi ad campaign. I mean, how "joy"ful (joy is one of their words) can we be if our health is being flushed down the toilet everytime we drink their product? Ugly, ugly. How do you feel about it?






Above: From the "Refresh Everything" Pepsi campaign
Below: Shepard Fairey's Obama poster

Happy New Year!

Christmas 2008
Originally uploaded by Madeline & Ryosuke

Love you guys!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

We had our first fire in our new fireplace this week. It has been so cold and our ancient heaters do not work. I've recently learned, however, that wood smoke is a major air polluter, so I'll have to look into some alternative fuels (ha!), like the corrugated cardboard logs I saw at Target last weekend.

Happy Holidays & safe travels!