How to make your own Humidifyer

Soooo, this is a short little post about my new humidifyer!

Since you guys, here in the USA always crank up your heating on max as soon as its getting white out there, my room got this little Sahara-breeze to it. Burning hot, fucking dry air coming out of my vents 24/7... crazy...

And since waking up in the morning with a dry throat, my tongue sticking to my teeth, and my nose feeling like a dried out piece of desert is not what i consider a wishful state of being, i wanted to change something...

So, after this initial thought, i went off to Walmart to get one of those things...
Totally happy with my new "rainforrest"-machine i came back home plugged it in, put water in, and started it...
and i was totally happy... for about 5 hours... cause then i wanted to go to bed, and figured out that this machine is wayyyy to loud.
OK, going back to Walmart the next week, bringing it back, getting another one that actually says "extra quiet" on it...
huuiiiii, sooo exiting...
but.... it was exacty the same again... machine way to loud. So annoying that i had to turn it off again, at night... which kind of defeats the purpose, since when i wake up, i again, have my dry throat and the taste of desert in my mouth....

after these disappointing events, i went into deep contemplation. i rethought my living situation and how i could get some humidity into my room. and i had it. SALVATION.

I am just going to make my own humidifier.
well, i guess its hard, cause otherwise everybody would do it... or?!?

NO, its sooooo easy :)
i googled a little and found 2 or 3 ways to make your own "humidifyer"...
like this funky sponge-thing here:

from: http://www.bryankimsey.com/humdifier/index.htm

i went a little further, since i got the vent of my heating in my room, i thought i could just put something wet in front of it, to moisturize the air.
and thats what i did.
what i needed:
a bowl
a towel
two pins.
i put the bowl right in front of my vent, pinned the towel to the wall, so that the end of it is still in the bowl, filled the bowl with water.
The towel soaks up the water, and puts it out in the air.
now i got my FREE RAIN FORREST MACHINE!!

thank you Walmart.

How to wash your clothes

Ok, for many of you this may seem to be a joke, and i admit...it kinda started out as one. I am almost 28 now and have been living on my own for almost 10 years now, and have been washing clothes for a long time...

BUT, everything I learned, i got from my Mum, my ex-girlfriends, my step-mum... And its all biased... they all just do, it cause "thats the way how it is done"... and I never took the time to look into that...


And seriously... DO you know all these signs?!?!

I DO NOT!!!
And there is a lot of other questions... Which colors go well with each other, which do not, why is my mum telling me to wash everything inside out, how do i avoid lint, avoid ironing my shirts and how do i prevent my socks from getting lost...?!?!

So, it is time to learn...
Typing "how to wash clothes" gives the first, almost satisfying answers, with some funny sidenotes like:

 Collect all your soiled clothes from the rooms, or wherever you keep them. Keep in mind to look under your bed.

more about that at:

 http://www.wikihow.com/Wash-Your-Clothes


this very  wise article furthermore says:

"Understand all the knobs on the machines to make sure you are washing the clothes the way you are planning to." 

Hahahahahaahaaaaaa - this one is definitely written for women :D



So, my mum told me to always "wash my clothes inside out"
Mr google brought me to this:
Top 8 Tips to Prevent Colors from Fadingwhich i personally find very entertaining!
Insider tip number one, that astonished me with its simplicity and deep thinking:
"1. Read the Care Label" - reallly!?!?!? guys... you are CRAZY!!!

unbelievably it gets even better because:

Sorting clothes is a great opportunity to check the care label, and place your clothing in the correct pile

I love this article :)

But, finally i get to the answer to my question:

3. Turn Clothes Inside Out

Some of the wear and tear that happens on your clothing can be prevented by turning your clothing inside out before washing and drying. Washing and drying clothing is rough on the outside of your clothing. Turning garments inside out will reduce pilling which dulls the look of the fabric. Don't forget to turn clothing inside out when you hang clothes outside to dry. While the sun is an excellent and efficient drying tool, it will zap the color right out of your clothing.

ok... no real news, but supports my mum :D

and FINALLY:
How do I prevent always having 1 single sock?!?!?!?
The eye-opening surpires???
Safety Pins!!!!!!!!!!
really?

I have no idea if it works, but it sounds like a good idea :)
i got it from 5 Ways to Keep Socks Together Through Washing and Drying

and i like it :)


Enough for today!


Happy wahsing and may your socks never get lost again!!! :)

P.s.: a special tip for very desperate ones: http://www.laundrygoddess.com

The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life

This is from the book: "The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life" by Leo Babauta.

You can find it here.



What is a minimalist life?


It's one that is stripped of the unnecessary, to 
make room for that which gives you joy. 


It's a removal of clutter in all its forms,
leaving you with peace and freedom and
lightness.


A minimalist eschews the mindset of more, of
acquiring and consuming and shopping, of
bigger is better, of the burden of stuff.


A minimalist instead embraces the beauty of
less, the aesthetic of spareness, a life of
contentedness in what we need and what
makes us truly happy.


A minimalist realizes that acquiring stuff
doesn't make us happy. That earning more
and having more are meaningless. That
filling your life with busy-ness and
freneticism isn't desirable, but something to
be avoided.


A minimalist values quality, not quantity, in 
all forms.

The Lucid Lynx experience

So, i just stumbled over "Lucid Lynx" a few days ago. Sounds like a drug! - something new from the eastern European drug laboratories!

But NO - its a operating system. Based on Linux. Open Sources. Managed by a company who's only income comes through Customer Services. With a huge community in the background.

How awesome is that?!?!

I have been thinking about changing my Software usage in a direction that reflects my values for a long time.
Something that's based on a service oriented, sustainable, opened values.
Something not like Microsoft. And not like Apple (honestly, anybody still believes that Apple is "different")

But i did not know where to go.
In my darkest hours (my laptop needed about 10 minutes to boot) i started googleing, and i stumbled over "ubuntu".
ubuntu?!?!
what's that... sounds african...
"humanity towards others"
interesting.





Ubuntu:

Ubuntu (pronounced /uːˈbuːntuː/ or /uːˈbʌnˌtuː/) is a computer operating system based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution and is distributed as free and open source software with additional proprietary software available.

Ubuntu provides an up-to-date, stable operating system for the average user, with a strong focus on usability and ease of installation. 

Ubuntu is sponsored by the UK-based company Canonical Ltd., owned by South Africanentrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth. By keeping Ubuntu free and open source, Canonical is able to utilize the talents of community developers in Ubuntu's constituent components. Instead of selling Ubuntu for profit, Canonical creates revenue by selling technical support and from creating several services tied to Ubuntu.

source: wikipedia 



how awesome is that!?!
a software company that is in line with my values of how to run a business. It's open source, free, easy to use and service oriented!!

Soo, i installed it.
took 5 minutes! (maybe 10... but short)
and it runs PERFECTLY FINE!

Their newest version is called "Lucid Lynx". What a name!!!
It comes with Firefox, OpenOffice, a Social Media interface, an Email interface and a shit load of plug ins and ad ons you can install (Gimp, vlc player, skype, and and and)
Also, you can install it parallel to your actual operating system (what i did).
At the beginning of each boot you just select which ever you want (in my chase windows xp vs. ubuntu) and then it starts.

I'll gonna test it for about a month before I will finally erase my Windows XP and just run Ubuntu Lucid Lynx)

I am soooo exited!


you can find more info here:
http://www.ubuntu.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(operating_system)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_Lynx

Blood, Sex and Sand

I admit: I have been watching Spartacus - Blood and Sand
the most bloody - violent - sexual - TV series I have ever seen...

Even watching the trailer gives you an idea of what to come:


i was quite surprised when i saw the first episode.
How can so much violence and sexuality be on mainstream TV?
But: I could not look away. Something took me in its ban. Something made me keep on watching.

Summarizing some of the reviews I have read:

"Spartacus: Blood and Sand" hopes to appeal to your bloodlust and the other, more common lust. Anyone who has a problem with violence, nudity, sex, profanity or anything else Rated R-worthy should tune into USA instead

The characters make proclamations such as that the sacred ground they stand upon is watered with the tears of blood. Seriously, the “tears of blood?” Or you get to watch a woman wander throughout the gladiators with unrestrained lust. After watching one of the gladiators be made to have sex with a slave girl, doggy style and as explicitly as possible without hitting hard core porn, the woman salivates as she asks, “Can you make him do it again?” 

The first episode alone keeps up a brisk pace: Open with a gladiator fight, move to a sex scene six minutes in, follow that with a bigger battle, a fist fight, two more sex scenes and ... well, you get the idea. If bodies are a-grappling, "Spartacus" is where it's happening.

"Spartacus" is a rousing, addictive show that doesn't tax with too much moral complexity. It doesn't just try to reel us in with insane amounts of violence and sex, but also to appeal to our most basic, idealized views of how the world should work. True love, justice and freedom will win out, dammit, and Spartacus is our boy to make them happen.

Lucy Lawless 00 Spartacus Blood and Sand - These bloopers are hilarious

I guess you get the picture.
But seriously, I am normally not one of these guys who like stuff like that. I am not driving a big car, I am not going to the gym every other day, I am not even getting in fights with other people.
But something in this cocktail of sex, brutality and stupidity is attracting me.

Is it the simpleness? Is it the plainness of "just killing" , black and white, doing - not asking?
For sure, it has something liberating. Not having to think.
Could it be that this portraits a dumb, attracting form of "being in the moment".
Being present every moment, or dying?

Or am I just making all of this up to justify my own lust for blood and sex?

Oh, if you got interested, i watched it online. The quality is poor, but its for free, and you can watch it whenever and wherever you want:
Watch Spartacus: Blood And Sand Online Season 1

My new Minimalism

My new Minimalism


I just stumbled over this guy: Leo Babauta
and he is a really interesting guy.
Not only has he written a bock which's title definitely interests me: "The Fine Art of Less -the fine art of limiting yourself to the essential". I think, I'll gonna need this.


Do Less. Get More Done.


also he has two blogs that attracted my attention:

http://zenhabits.net/  and http://mnmlist.com/ 

with interesting posts like 

rethinking necessities

The elements of change or

50 Amazing and Essential Novels to Enrich Your Library

This guy totally got me. The people he quotes in his blogs, the topics he writes about - everything sounds pretty cool! I think i'll spend some time in the near future reading what he has to say.

Here are some of the quotes that I really liked:

‘Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.’ ~Shunryu Suzuki

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”Aristotle

"With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson 

mnmlist : less

• Stop buying unnecessary things.
• Toss half your stuff, learn contentedness.
• Reduce half again.
• List 4 essential things in your life,
• stop doing non-essential things.
• Do these essentials first each day, clear distractions
• focus on each moment.
• Let go of attachment to doing, having more.
• Fall in love with less.

also, he made me think about my own lifestyle right now.
One thing i did almost a year ago, when i left Austria to come to the USA, was to give away as much of my stuff as i could. Simply because of the fact that I moved out of my apartment and i could not bring anything with me anyways. Therefore i gave away most of my furniture and stored the rest of the stuff in my parents house. Rethinking now, i should have given away more, but that's ok, i can still do when i come back.


Thinking back, it was liberating for me to give away all these things. Less to carry with me, less to be worried about. Having no car and no cell phone for a year was the best that could have happened to me, and i think i want to continue on this path. Keep less and have more space to be. Just be.


We will see how it works :)

Coalition of the willing

Ok, so first of all: thanks to ashley for sharing this video with us. For those of you who have not seen it jet: WATCH IT! It is an amazing video about climate change and ideas how to work against it.

http://coalitionofthewilling.org.uk/



Coalition Of The Willing from coalitionfilm on Vimeo.

We need the infrastructure to get this started. We need a network of high-profile online destinations that people from all over the world can use to share their knowledge and generate the tools, innovations and social networks that we need to combat climate change.

I was deeply inspired by that little video and want to integrate it a little bit with other stuff i have seen lately.
First of all, i saw this little TED talk, where  Seth Godin states that " tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change."  Through the internet we have the capability to share our ideas and "infect" other people with what we think is right! This gives us the chance to articipate in and lead groups in every area we are interested in. If its sustainability or nuclear power does not really matter.
But, it gives small people the chance to change something, to have an impact on the world we live in. It gives you and me the opportunity to share our opinion!

Diaspora Team

Since the film also talks about the idea of a "network comprised of three sites working as a linked system", where one should be a new social network platform, i thought i'll introduce diaspora at this point. diaspora is a web project founded by 4 students with the goal of having a social network platform where everybody can decide which information to share. Its genius, simple and magic. Obviously a view other people thought so too, cause on kickstarter they raised over 200.000 dollars, 2000% of what they were asking for!

And there are many other projects out there, that are working toward a more positive world. Peter Joseph and his Zeitgeist Movement together with The Venus Project have been working on similar ideas over the las years, and there is thousands doing the same!

So lets step up!

The revolution has already begun! Coalition of the willing!

Fight Club and my daily poison

Tyler is my new friend. Tyler works in the same company i do my internship right now.
He kind of reminds me of Tyler Durden, the guy from Fight Club, played by Brad Pitt. I always liked this film and Brads role in it, cause he helps the main character to awaken, to become conscious and to get out of the mainstream.
Sooo, Tyler...
My Tyler is similar... He is not pissing in peoples soups (as far as I know) but, he is kind of a simmilar vision of what the world should become. He starts his own garden, learns how to use a bow and arrow to be able to hunt his own food, aaanddd...

Tyler keeps waking around with a big glass-jar of water. He comes with it in the morning and drinking out of it all day. That´s how it all started. Just a jar of water that made me curious. Why is he doing that?

Tyler gets his own water supply from a spring close by, where i drives every week to fill up his water bottles. He does not drink any tab-water at all. Because the government is poisoning it. with Fluoride, Chloride and other drugs. Why? to keep us dumb, dull, stupid, lazy, easy to control...
You might think: "AAhhh... he is one of *those guys*". That´s what I thought too at first. But something stuck with me. I have heard these stories about Fluoride somewhere before. So i did some "research". Meaning: I simply googled it.
And? What did I find?

Very controversing.
First of all, a US governmental ad:
http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/teeth/fluoride.html
which scared me offf!!!
saying stuff like:

"It is well known that fluoride helps prevent and even reverse the early stages of tooth decay."

- when the government says its "well known" than it is NOT PROVEN!!

and most scary:

"For over 60 years, water fluoridation has proved to be a safe and cost-effective way to reduce dental caries. Today, water fluoridation is estimated to reduce tooth decay by 20-40%. As of 2002, the CDC statistics show that almost 60% of the U.S. population receives fluoridated water through the taps in their homes."

furthermore it says:

"Opponents of water fluoridation have questioned its safety and effectiveness; however, there has been little evidence to support these claims."

- which to me says that THERE IS EVIDENCE...

ok, so much about the governmental side. What else did i find?!
The Douglass Report
http://douglassreport.com/reports-2010/x600h6ab-fluoride/x600h6ab-home/?gclid=CMqo86f8_aICFRwhnAod3jnGfA

With the exception of fluoride, every other chemical added to tap water is for the purpose of improving the water's safety. Fluoride is the only chemical added for the purpose of medication. And just like all drugs doled out by Big Pharma, this one comes with a litany of potential side effects. The difference? There's no black box warning on your faucet like there is on a bottle of pills.

In one of the biggest studies ever undertaken on the subject (using data from 39,000 school
children in 84 metropolitan areas around the U.S.), there was no statistically significant difference
in rates of tooth decay between fluoridated and non-fluoridated water supplies.

then, from:
http://www.wholywater.com/fluoride.html

In a number of small villages in Sicily, Turkey and India there is naturally occurring fluoride in the water ranging from 0.7 to 5.4 ppm. Here the villagers and their livestock are chronically ill, while neighboring villages with no fluoride have no such illnesses. Premature aging is the overall effect. Children have brown decaying teeth; young adults often have none. Young men are bent over and crippled with pain in their joints and hips. Their skin is wrinkled and they look 60 at age 30 to 40. There is premature hardening of the arteries, loss of appetite & sex drive by age 30. The rate of stillborn miscarriages by 4 months is extremely high.

and many other reseources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fluoridation_controversy
http://www.holisticmed.com/fluoride/

Dr. Phyllis Mullenix published research showing that fluoride built up in the brains of animals when exposed to moderate levels. Damage to the brain occured and the behavior patterns of the animals was adversely effected. Offspring of pregnant animals receiving relatively low doses of fluoride showed permanent effects to the brain which were seen as hyperactivity (ADD-like symptoms). Young animals and adult animals given fluoride experienced the opposite effect -- hypoactivity or sluggishness. The toxic effects of fluoride on the central nervous system was subsequently confirmed by previously-classified government research. Two new epidemiological studies which tend to confirm fluoride's neurotoxic effects on the brain have shown that children exposed to higher levels of fluoride had lower IQs.

So Tyler.. thx a lot for reminding me of that... we´ll see how i get around fluoride...

here are some tips for that:
http://www.fluoridealert.org/faqs.htm#B1

• reverse-osmosis filters and activated alumina filters
• spring water
• water distillation

keep it cool :)

AWAKENING

found this short video about spiritual awakening.
its kind of interesting, summarizing a lot i have been thinking about.

But what is this shift that is occuring? What is happening there? Is something happening?
Are we awakening? or is it just hip to be awakened?
eckhart tolle with oprah?!?! a live streamed awakening online class?!?!

i like Tolle, but some of his stuff is too mainstream for me...

what is it? a pseudo-trend?
a hype?
am i talking about awakening because Jim Carrey does?
and if so, is it wrong?

but also, if we are this awakening and this is a new world, why is it so dark?
why is war dominating, why are we killing each other? destroying the earth, spreading hatred and grief...

what´s going wrong?!

Watch Star Wars: Clone Wars Online | Watch Star Wars Clone Wars Online Season 1 Episode 15 Trespass for FREE

as a kid i loved the old star wars movies, later i really enjoyed the new ones and now i stumbled over the clone wars episodes.
I guess i watched about 10 of them in 2 days or so...
They are really awesome.

this one i specially like, but all of them are great.
Watch Star Wars: Clone Wars Online | Watch Star Wars Clone Wars Online Season 1 Episode 15 Trespass for FREE:

if you have time, give them i shot :-)