Reflection: Weeks 8-14

The second half of this class made me much more likely to make an active effort to change not only my own habits, but to advocate for change in a larger scope as well.
I of course enjoyed the few documentaries we watched this semester, as they are always very informative and eye opening. I would say the most influential one we watched the second half of the semester was the Story of Stuff. Although just a simple narrated animation, it really makes you think about what you are doing to the environment and what is even motivating you to buy new things. Even though you are buying something really cheap, the real cost is hidden out in the rest of the world with things like pollution and harm to other people's lives.
The advocacy project was pretty fun as well, as even though I pay a little bit of attention to politics, I really didn't know who everyone was that was representing me (or is supposed to be anyway!). Finding an issue and contributing to it's cause by educating and informing an elected official is a very empowering thing to do, because a lot of times you just think of yourself as one of many people that person is representing. You can then think about how many of those people even know who is representing them, let alone going through the effort to research an issue and writing in to the official. 
Our junking project was very fun as well, and I know I am supposed to have a picture of it on here, but considering I gifted it away to one of my friends, unfortunately that is not possible! I did have a fun time looking through so many ideas before coming up with mine though. All of the ideas in class that we shared really inspired me to think that really anything can be re-purposed and made into something awesome. Also that hockey sticks can be made into pretty much anything!
Going to Goodwill was a very eye-opening experience as well, as I have shopped there hundreds of times but never really knew what happens behind the scenes, or even that their main purpose was employees disadvantaged individuals. I look at the company and the people that work there in a much different light now knowing what they are doing for our community, our country, and the individuals they are offering employment to to help give purpose to people's lives.
Overall, I really enjoyed this class and have spoken very highly of it to all of my friends. I try to share as much knowledge as I gain with others and hope to continue advocating for change in my own life as well as whatever community I settle down in.

Share & Voice: Reduce Reuse and Upcycle

The blog I found and have decided to highlight is titled Reduce Reuse Upcycle. This blog has a little bit to offer everyone, ranging from abilities such as sewing and knitting to being able to roll up a piece of paper. Current posts even follow a very festive Christmas theme, so you can get lots of responsible ideas for the holidays from the blog! There are a lot of different ideas involving the re-purposing of old clothes (both men and women's) and a large amount of ideas regarding home decor items too. As the blogger says her goal is to bring upcycling ideas to everyone in order to reuse things that don't need to be trashed, save people money from having to buy new stuff when you can make stuff out of trash that is just is nice, and to satisfy everyone's craft habits! I will highly the craft in particular that led me to the website. The idea was to take old beat up bottle caps of your favorite beverages and turn them into magnets, which I thought would be fun to show anyone who looks at your fridge what you like! Rather than tossing away your caps you can turn them into something useful like to hold up all those Christmas cards us college students get right??

Advocacy Project: Letter to Elected Official

December 12, 2011

Senator Herb Kohl

U.S. Senate

330 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

VOTE YES ON S.1285 HYBRID AND ELECTRIC TRUCKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE ACT

The bill you have sponsored will greatly impact not only the economical stimulant into the automotive industry that is needed, but will provide assistance in the fight to reduce air pollution caused by vehicle emissions. As a concerned citizen, I believe that not only my health, but of society as a whole should be concentrating on making healthy choices for future generations and us. This bill will ease the production of emissions caused by vehicles that are not fuel-efficient and promote the use of new hybrid and electric technologies.

In 1990, 54 million metric tons of emissions were emitted from mobile sources. These emissions are full of harmful chemicals that are detrimental to health. Over 74 million people are exposed to high levels of at least one of the pollutants found in emissions, which include carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, oxides of nitrogen, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, and lead. All of these can have adverse health effects, and some other lower level pollutants from vehicles are known carcinogens, such as benzene and formaldehyde.

Opponents of this bill may say that we do not need excessive spending in the automotive market or that this bill has other motives regarding the industry. Even though it may have some benefits for them, the real benefits are felt by all of society by being able to live in a healthier and cleaner environment not having to worry about these dangers posed by air pollution and vehicle emissions.

I appreciate your continued support and sponsorship of this bill protecting us from the harmful effects of emissions.

Caleb Taplin

Muffin Recipe

Glad the feedback on the muffins was positive! Here's the recipe for all those interested. If I do varying amounts in the directions it's because I tweak it here and there. The amounts will be to make a dozen, so if you're making more just use your multiplication! And the tilde sign (~) means about by the way.

1 egg
1 cup mashed up bananas (about 2 decent sized bananas equal a cup, use your old frozen bananas for this!)
~1/3 cups of applesauce (I've used normal applesauce, and then cinnamon applesauce too to compliment the ground cinnamon)
2/3-3/4 cup of packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1-1.5 tsp of salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup of oats
box of raisins (just put as many as you want in)
chop up as many little carrot pieces as you want - i went pretty light on mine
can add nuts if you'd like - I used to use walnuts but they are expensive! 

Get a large bowl and combine egg, banana (stir bananas and egg together now in my opinion, the bananas are really chunky if you try to later with everything else in it), brown sugar, applesauce and vanilla. In a different bowl, throw the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together. Then combine the flour mixture and oatmeal into banana mixture. After that you can stir in the raisins, carrots, nuts, etc. Then throw the batter in the muffin tins or the pan! I fill them just about halfway and that usually gives a good size and thorough baking.

Bake @ 350 F for roughly 16-20 minutes

Then, you know, just let 'em cool so you don't burn yourself! And wear oven mitts cause pans are really hot when they come out of the oven...

Share & Voice: Pinterest

Wine Cork Upcycling

Wine Cork Floormat

Pallet Upcycling

Although I briefly touched on the site last week in my Share & Voice post. I thought I would stress the usefulness and educate all of you a little more on Pinterest. Pinterest is a vision-board styled social website where you share ideas, interests, and your creativity with one another. You are allowed to 'like' pictures, similar to the style of Facebook, where you can then go back and reference the posts you have liked. The thing I am most enjoy is creating 'Boards'. You can 'Pin' pictures to your boards and create themes for yourself to follow. Personally, I have boards for things such as DIY projects, Photography Poses, and Rooms that I want in my future house! By simply searching in the search bar, you can find an incredible amount of ideas for recycling, upcycling, junking, and other DIY projects. You can also view people Boards, so when you are searching and find someone with a board titled 'Awesome Upcycling Ideas', chances are there are going to be lots more pictures within that board that aren't even listed in the search results! Let's say for example you have an excessive amount of wine corks laying around your house that you for some reason decided to keep (don't worry, I'm guilty too..). Simply searching 'Wine Cork Upcycling' will give you more results than you can even handle! If you are really into this, you could just look around at all the random things in you're home and start deciding what you could turn them into and soon you'll have a house full of hybrid products than were formerly useless! And you don't have to worry about forgetting what you saw or saving the link address to go back to later, just re-pin it to your Board that you have created! I hope that a lot of you are as interested in this site as me! It has already been a ton of help for me with my photography, and I have found lots of cool DIY ideas that I am looking forward to trying once I obtain the resources for them! You can also 'Follow' people on Pinterest, so if you find someone who has lots of common interests, follow them and you will see all of the posts they like or re-pin. I look forward to seeing lots of you on Pinterest so we can share ideas with each other!

Advocacy Project : Fact Sheet

Motor Vehicle Pollution: What You Have Already Done, and What You Can Do Now.

Facts on Fuels, Rules, and Automobiles

Presented by Caleb Taplin

How did this all get started?

            - It wasn’t until 1952 that automobiles were first acknowledged to be linked to air pollution. Since then emissions have been increasing every year as more and more people drive cars that lack fuel efficiency. In 1990, 54 million metric tons of emissions were emitted from mobile sources.

What can be the side effects of these levels of emission?

            - Over 74 million people are exposed to high levels of at least one of the pollutants found in emissions, which include carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, oxides of nitrogen, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, and lead. All of these can have adverse health effects, and some other lower level pollutants from vehicles are known carcinogens, such as benzene and formaldehyde.

What can I do to help reduce my impact on these emissions?

-       When shopping for a vehicle, choose the most fuel-efficient vehicle that meets your needs.

-       Look for vehicles that meet EPA low-emission or ultra-low-emission standards.

-       Consider buying a flex-fuel vehicle, which can operate on gasoline or E85 (Ethanol/Gasoline blend) and both combined.

-       Look into buying a hybrid, which offers 20 to 30 percent better mileage.

-       Perform regular maintenance. Failing to do so could increase emissions.

What will the S.1285 Hybrid and Electric Trucks and Infrastructure Act do to lower emissions?

-       Increase and extend through 2015 the tax credit for new qualified hybrids.

-       Allow tax credit for fuel-efficient heavy trucks and heavy electric vehicles.

-       Extend through 2014 the tax credit for alternative fuel vehicle refueling property expenditures.

-       Allow a tax credit through 2014 for installation of electric idling reduction devices.

As you can see, this bill has much to offer for the reduction of emissions, which is a necessity as we cannot continue to support the trend of growing emissions. Email, write, or call your Representatives and let them know how you feel on this issue.

Eye Opener: Photo Essay

For my photo essay I thought it would be fun not only to take pictures of things being repurposed, but specifically things I found at Mom's house while I was back home for the holidays. I found it important to find out how much my Mom cared about converging and repurposing items, because I may not have realized it over the years but these thoughts have been impressed onto me now.


As I began looking around, it was not too hard to find things that had been repurposed. The first thing I found was simply an old crappy piece of wood that had been made into a beautiful mantle above our fireplace. After seeing that, nearby I found a plethora of beautiful quilts, which of course is just repurposing of old material sewn together. Either taking small worthless scraps that would otherwise go into a landfill somewhere or taking old shirts that are no longer wearable you can create masterpieces that also have very common purposes for warmth! 
The third repurposing I found was a gourd that had been turned into a birdhouse. So not only are you not creating waste, but you are creating a home for another living creature on our planet!

The fourth item my mother pointed out to me was a beautiful painted clay piece that she turned over to show that it had been an old tile that had been pulled up from somewhere and rather than breaking or throwing it, someone had decided to turn it into art. The fifth item used to be a Japanese net anchor, which made it over to America and into our hands somehow, so it has since been repurposed into a decoration which when the light hits it just right!
The sixth item I found was this old ice chest, which clearly has some age to it, but has since been touched up and repurposed to be an outside cabinet for general storage. Rather than going out and buying some fancy new cabinet system and throwing such a beautiful item away you can restore an old piece that is even better quality than what you would buy nowadays. The seventh item is now an outdoor lamp that fits the decor of the house very well, however it used to be the chimney cap of some sort on an old house. I thought this was a fascinating use and it looks like some similar items that go for hundreds of dollars at upper end design stores. You can make the same thing by yourself if you know where to look!
The final item may be the simplest, yet one of the smartest repurposing items. The simple swing. As you can see in my picture, an old board was the choice for ours. You may also be familiar with the gold old fashioned tire swing. These ideas not only create fun things for young kids to keep occupied with, but instead of buying new swings that are made of plastic, or boards that have been treated with dangerous products, you can take an old board that serves little purpose or an old tire from the junkyard and create one yourself!

These are just a few of the brilliant things that I found around my home. If you are interested in seeing what you can do with products laying around your house, go check out my post about a site where you can search for lots of exciting repurposing and up-cycling ideas.