Sack Your Bags
Whole Foods to stop giving out plastic grocery bags by Earth Day

Whole Foods will stop handing out plastic grocery bags by Earth Day, April 22, this year. The mega-retailer of natural foods announced yesterday that it will instead encourage customers to bring their own reusable bags; the lazy and forgetful will have their goodies bundled into 100 percent recycled paper bags. "More and more cities and countries are beginning to place serious restrictions on single-use plastic shopping bags since they don't break down in our landfills, can harm nature by clogging waterways and endangering wildlife, and litter our roadsides," said Whole Foods' A.C. Gallo. "Together with our shoppers, our gift to the planet this Earth Day will be reducing our environmental impact." The grocer estimates that the plastic-bag ban at all its 270 stores in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. will eliminate the use of about 100 million plastic sacks between Earth Day and the end of 2008. All together, Americans throw away about 100 billion plastic bags each year (yes, that's billion with a B).

Hot Rod is a cheap thrill of a comedy.  It's basically recycles a large load of humor and jokes from other movies, and mixes them together with no correlation or relevance.  Now, it was funny, but it wasn't anything I hadn't seen before.  The move felt as if the producer had a big meeting with all the writers where they sat down and said, "Okay, everybody throw out a funny idea, and we will compile them all together in no specific order, and call it a movie."

Have you ever noticed that via a not-so-slow process, women's clothing has taken over 90% of the real estate in clothing stores?  I have.  It seems as if there once existed a clothing store that was a co-op in that perhaps a couple could be out shopping together, and stop in at a popular clothing store and each shop for their respective gender's clothing.  Well, not anymore...

As it turns out, women account for some 75% of clothing purchases.  In other words, women buy more clothing than men.  So to respond to this demand, clothing stores have started purchasing less men's clothing, and more women's clothing.  And thus, they start filling the mens section with women's clothing in a hostile take over.  To the point that it's not worth shopping as a man anymore unless you are going to a men's only store such as the Men's Wearhouse.  It's ridiculous!  How the hell am I supposed to find clothing?

I generally don't shop for clothing, ever, so it's a rare occurence that I will visit a brand name clothing store.  But when I do, I expect to find at least one item that I like, and leave happy.  I recently stopped by Urban Outfitter in Irvine, CA because I was in the area consulting for a client.  I walked in, looked around, and gradually noticed that there wer NO MEN'S CLOTHING.  I walked out of the store, looked at the sign again to make sure I was in the currect store, walked back in and ask one of the people who work there, "do you sell any clothing for guys?"  The lady responded, "Yes, over there in the corner."  She pointed to some distant far away location.  I trekked through the jungle of women and their clothing - I almost didn't make it!  Until at last I discovered the sacred land of men's clothing... a mere 10' x 10' corner of disappointing selection.

It was a sad day.  I left, and vowed never to return. 

Now I shop online.

Today is my birthday, and what a great day it is!  I have never had so many people call, email or facebook me ever!  It's so amazing to realize that you have so many loving friends and family.

I am 26.  I own a small website development company.  I live in Agoura Hills California.  I am currently training to run a marathon.  I own two houses in Colorado and a condo in Malibu.  I like to ride horses, climb walls, and play guitar... and this is what I look like.

I LOVE lentils, especially green De Puy Lentils.  I eat them at least 2-3 times per week.  I've put together a pretty simple yet tasty recipe for cooking them...

In my opinion, lentils are best when eaten with rice.  My recipe calls for the following:

• 1/4 cup of organic green de puy lentils
• 1/4 cup of organic mixed wild rice
• 1/8 tablespoon of ground cayene pepper
• 1/8 tablespoon of salt
• 1/4 tablespoon of garlic salt
• 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil

Basically, boil some water, throw in all of the ingredients above, and keep it at a steady boil until all the water has boiled away.  If the lentils and rice are too hard for your taste, then simply add more water and boil for longer.  This dish is great by itself, in a burrito, or in a bowl with some chicken... love it.

My brother LOVES "Copperhead Road" by Steve Earle, and it shows in the video. Check out what a hard core country rocker my lil' bro is!

I actually ran 20.5 miles because we got lost and ended up taking a 0.5 mile detour :)

Yet another milestone in my life and in my marathon training.  Coming back from a 6 week break from a tendon related foot injury.  The longest I have ever ran was 14 miles, and that was before my injury.  The longest I have ran since my injury was only 12.25 miles.  I made over an 8 mile jump!  It's truly an amazing feeling to be able to accomplish this!  It's so wonderful to have so much support from my team and especially my coach.  After the run he gave me a big hug and said, "Great job, it's really amazing that you able to do that after being injured and out of training for so long..."  I got all emotional, seriously, and I am not a crier... at all... ever... in fact never.  Anyways, you get the point.  What a great feeling!  The 26.2 mile marathon is gonna be a peice of cake.

Now I get to go to a business meeting.  Oh damn.  This should be interesting.

In case you were wondering, here is what I look like after 20.5 miles of running.  Yes, that is all salt from sweat on my shirt.  I had to shoot packets of salt like tequila shots in order to avoid hyponatremia, and I must have drank an entire gallon of water all by myself to avoid dehydration.  Hyponatremia is when the sodium level in the plasma/blood of your body runs too low.  Beginning symptoms such as nausea and headache can occur.  As it worsens, confusion and "diminished relexes" will be the symptoms.  Ultimately it can lead to death.  So as marathon runners, we have to be careful by including lots of salt in our diet.  

This girl clearly has been dancing for a long time in order to be able to pull something lie this off without getting kicked off state.
http://www.impulstanz.com/gallery/videos/qtf138/

Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) only use 25 percent of the electricity a wasteful standard incandescent light bulb uses. Some even last a minimum of 7 years. Using less wattage they produce the same glow and amount of light normal bulbs do, but will save you tons of money.

According to the American Lighting Association, lights account for 25 percent of a homeowner's electric bill. "There are a lot of other energy guzzlers in the house besides lighting," says Monty Gilbertson, CLC, manager and buyer for Lighting Design by Wettsteins in Lacrosse, Wis. "But everyone thinks of lighting first because that is what you see."

Here are some other useful energy saving tips.  When combined, you could see a serious decrease in your energy bill:

1. Computers- Turn off at night
2. Dishwasher - Stop Using
3. Unplug and unused electronics or power adapters such as your cell phone.

So... I am still uncertain as to what exactly happened with my Biodiesel Website and why it got blacklisted by Google.  All I know is that it was on the first page of the search results when you searched for "biodiesel stations" for a long time, then BAM, it just disappeared.  A month later, it's back!  This is great news, looks like I've got to get to work writing some content for the site.

www.biodieselstations.org