No Impact Man

He didn't just amp up his recycling and go with reusable grocery bags instead of the plastic ones. No, Colin Beavan went as far as cutting the power in his house in an attempt to be the "no impact man" in the documentary of the same name.

I was a bit surprised at what he found, and I don't just mean what happened when he, his wife, and their two-year-old girl gave up toilet paper.

They learned something about consumerism and the values of a consumer culture. When you cut out TV (and the power) you spend more time outdoors. When you need help, it's nice to have a supportive community of friends. You can even tell when the seasons change by what's growing in the ground (you don't need a calendar to know what time of year it is!)

I've been to New York, but guess I didn't fully understand the self-absorbed culture. Ultimately, I think Beavan learned what he does has an impact on people around him. He learned we're interconnected, and it's not all about me. Shocker!

Take or leave the environmental message (strange thing for me to be saying about an environmental documentary) but I think you'll find the things he learned contain lessons for people of faith.

Here are a couple of the key things I took from the film that don't require you to wash clothes in the bathtub.

Community. Colin's wife worried what would happen when she couldn't watch reality TV. By the end, she said she couldn't believe how long days are when spent with others or spent outside doing things. 


Be more connected to the land. Living in the midwest, this isn't as much of a problem. I know where food comes from, but apparently many people don't. Thank a farmer.

Stop consuming so much. This is something we could all benefit from.

Favorite Movies

Tag, I'm it! Courtesy Ben Reis, it's my turn to play one of these blog games.

The rules of the “game” are simple:
1. list your top ten favorite films (in no particular order).
2. if you’re tagged, you’ve got to post and tag 3-5 other people.
3. give a tag back (some link love) to the one who tagged you in your post
4. give a hat tip (HT) to Dan

So here we go… My Top Ten Favorite Films (in no particular order):

1. Star Wars trilogy

2. Indiana Jones triology

3. Lord of the Rings triology

4. Wallace & Grommit films

5. Spider-Man (I liked #2 best)

6. Chronicles of Narnia (mostly because I like the books)

7. The Final Sacrifice -- Rowsdower! (youtube link) OK, this isn't a *good* movie, but maybe my favorite MST3K movie. I've got to have at least one movie that's so bad it's good on this list, and this is it.

8. The Goonies. I had to pick an '80s movie. Sorry Ferris Bueller and Better Off Dead.

9. Planet of the Apes (the original, you manaics. you blew it up! damn you, damn you to hell!)

10. I'm going to cheat and put everything else I can think of: The Matrix, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Princess Bride, Army of Darkness, Blues Brothers, UHF (Weird Al!), Dances with Wolves, Equilibrium, 2001, Forbidden Planet, Andromeda Strain, Christopher Guest movies (Spinal Tap, A Mighty Wind, Best in Show, etc).

Now I'm tagging: Lisa, Jeff, and Colleen!

First snow

First snow, originally uploaded by echobase_2000.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We got our first snow of the season yesterday. It started mostly as those flurries that don't do anything, but there was some (slight) accumulation on the ground and a couple of accidents.

This week, God saw fit to give us his weather equivalent of stopping on a dime. We dropped from 70 on Monday to snow on Wednesday. That'll bring you screeching to a halt. But I like the snow, so I'm not complaining :)

The 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME

Time Magazine has released The 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME, which includes several of my favorites, past and present.

* ABC's Wide World of Sports
* American Idol
* Arrested Development
* The Daily Show
* King of the Hill
* Lost
* MTV 1981-1992
* My So-Called Life
* Mystery Science Theater 3000
* The Office [American]
* Pee Wee's Playhouse
* The Price Is Right
* Saturday Night Live
* Seinfeld
* Sesame Street
* The Simpsons
* SpongeBob SquarePants
* SportsCenter
* Star Trek
* The Super Bowl (and the Ads)
* Survivor
* What's My Line?
* The X-Files

It makes me smile to see MST3K on the list. We like it very much!

Top 100 Sci-Fi Books

Looks like I've read a tenth of the books on someone's so called "top 100 sci-fi books list"

2 Orson Scott Card Ender's Game [S1]
5 George Orwell 1984
7 Aldous Huxley Brave New World
9 Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451
15 H G Wells The Time Machine
17 H G Wells The War of the Worlds
23 Orson Scott Card Speaker for the Dead [S2]
28 Orson Scott Card Ender's Shadow [S1]
46 Mary Shelley Frankenstein
77 H G Wells The Invisible Man
83 C S Lewis Out of the Silent Planet [S1]


If you add movies to the list, here's what I've seen:
Hitchhiker's Guide
I, Robot (may have read this... can't remember)
Fahrenheit 451
Starship Troopers
2001
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner)
Time Machine
War of the Worlds
Solaris
Jurassic Park
Clockwork Orange
Frankenstein
Contact
Andromeda Strain
Invisible Man
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court