Just finished my Nanowrimo novel!

To actually call it a novel is a bit of a stretch — It’s more a loose combo of 50,000 words that I happened to type this month. An excerpt:

… he hunts down a PR lackey to get a narrated tour of the house; she and I stride over to the bar, demand more white wine. We talk novels.

“Basically I’m writing about what happens this month,” I say.
She wags a finger. “Yeah – So, that’s not a novel. That’s a journal.”

The bartender swears his name’s Happy. “Ask my parents,” he says, hands raised in surrender pose….

Thanks to Jen for all the encouragement –

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>> Why Regina would consider a robo-marriage. Among her 10 reasons is this one: “Robots are sensitive and responsive.” Also, it’s “The safest sex on the planet.”

>> What happens to a planet dwarfed?. “Anton had a vested interest in Pluto’s planetary nature. He had just completed a report in his science class…. Did the revision of its status mean he could not keep his B+ for a job well done? Perhaps his grade would be demoted to a dwarf grade. He was suddenly feeling like a man without a country, or, in this case, a planet.” (via Utne)

>> Why do we put many Americans in jail?. “Our incarceration rate (714 per 100,000 residents) is almost 40 percent greater than those of our nearest competitors (the Bahamas, Belarus, and Russia),” notes Glenn C. Loury. Some key quotes:

Never before has a supposedly free country denied basic liberty to so many of its citizens…. Despite a sharp national decline in crime, American criminal justice has become crueler and less caring than it has been at any other time in our modern history….

Our society—the society we have made—creates criminogenic conditions in our sprawling urban ghettos, and then acts out rituals of punishment against them as some awful form of human sacrifice.

>> What I think about money. I answer Ten Money Questions on Blogher.

Photo by genewolf

My eco-blogging now happens at Emerald City. Visit, read, comment, and subscribe.

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Latest from Emerald City, my enviro-blog at LAtimes.com

>> Why CFL bulbs aren’t on my holiday gift list. I sometimes struggle against the feeling that environmentalists can seem Grinch-like: Dirt cheap, with a predilection for the grungy or dowdy. Prone to impromptu doom-and-gloom lecture-giving at parties. Against holiday fun.

>> The farmers’ market comes to your cubicle. The new Santa Monica Market Basket Program assembles a wide variety of fruits and veggies into a basket and delivers it to your workplace for you to pick up during a break or at the end of the day

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Latest from Emerald City, my enviro-blog at LAtimes.com

>> Green holiday wreaths at farmers’ markets. I found Santa Monica-based company Designing Endeavors’ colorful wreaths at the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market on Arizona yesterday.

And a couple linky posts:

>> Green Weekend: First ever Venice critical mass, etc.

>> Daily Downers: Toxic disclosures. The EPA wants to relax rules requiring companies to disclose use and emissions of toxic chemicals. 12 states and many individuals feel otherwise.

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Latest from Emerald City, my enviro-blog at LAtimes.com

>> How to pick an enviro-friendly holiday tree. Got your holiday tree yet? I hope not, because then this post’s coming too late for you. Real vs. fake, local vs. organic, traditional vs. nontraditional, etc.

>> Q&A: Holiday lights — Landfill vs. LEDs. Is it “a greener decision to keep the old Christmas lights that I already have until they die, or dispose of them (or donate them) and purchase new LED lights”?

>> Green gift guide: Babies and kids. Some baby stuff’s so cute it makes me wish I had — a baby-sized doll to dress up and stuff. Here’s how to find the cutest green giftables for the little people in your life — from shopping local to going handmade and recycled to trying to DIY –

And a couple linky posts:
>> Daily Downers: Many fishies dying. New threats to marine life: Jellyfish and levee repairs.
>> Greenlist: New de-car-ing ideas. Ban cars from the DWP Holiday Light Festival, create a downtown fare zone, etc.

Photo by Brady via Flickr

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A twice-weekly sharing of eco-shwag.

Today’s freebie’s a DVD copy of Everything’s Cool, a new docu from the producers of “Blue Vinyl” (which I reviewed here).

“Everything’s Cool” features Gore, enviro-activist Bill McKibben, and many scientists who started talking ’bout global warming in the ’80s — and were ignored or censored — to illustrate the “most dangerous chasm ever to emerge between scientific understanding and political action.”

I reviewed the film here. Comment or email by Friday to get into the drawing, which happens Saturday. US addresses only.

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Latest from Emerald City, my enviro-blog at LAtimes.com

>> Presidential climate forum now online. Hear — or read — what Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich have to say about energy and global warming.

>> ‘Everything’s Cool’: The global warming coverup exposed. “Everything’s Cool,” a new doc from the producers of “Blue Vinyl,” features Gore, enviro-activist Bill McKibben, and many scientists who started talking ’bout global warming in the ’80s — and were ignored or censored — to illustrate the “most dangerous chasm ever to emerge between scientific understanding and political action.”

And a linky post:
>> Greenlist: Extreme lifestyles. Former ACLU media director becomes Silverlake’s bag lady, etc.

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Latest from Emerald City, my enviro-blog at LAtimes.com

>> Green holiday shopping fairs in LA. If you like to touch, feel, see and maybe even try on your holiday purchases before forking over your hard-earned money, check out these fair trade and eco-conscious shopping events happening in and around LA.

>> Get your local food recipe published. A local group in Westchester called Environmental Change-Makers is putting together a local foods cookbook, and you’re invited to contribute!

>> Q&A: Recycling the right stuff. “May wood scraps be placed in the blue bin? And while most people intuitively know that white letter paper may be placed in the blue bin, what about colored paper?”

And a linky post:
>> Greenlist: Solutions in waiting. How to battle childhood obesity, drought, dirty windows.

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A twice-weekly sharing of eco-shwag.

A day late — again!

Today’s freebie’s a hardcover copy of Nuclear Nebraska: The Remarkable Story of the Little County That Couldn’t Be Bought, a book by Susan Cragin that documents the fight the people of Boyd County, Nebraska put up to successfully prevent a nuclear waste dump from being built in their ‘hood.

Whatever your opinion on nuclear energy — and btw, some prominent environmentalists have jumped on the pro-nuclear bandwagon (I’m still not convinced) — Nuclear Nebraska’s a pretty intriguing read. Despite the promise of a large sum of money in exchange, the rather impoverished residents of Boyd County fight tooth and nail for two decades against this waste dump, which was to be built in a dangerously marshy area unsuitable for nuclear waste storage, according to the book.

Nuclear Nebraska provides a fascinating look at the extremely-local politics in a very small town — and its effects on and relationships to national politics. Some of what ensues is assuring; after all, the will of the local people wins out over large corporations, big money, and political bureaucracy. Other events are both strange and scary: Lots of vandalism, a number of drive-by shootings, and even a noose hung on a speaker’s podium when a black man, rare in the area, comes into town. Despite the writer Susan’s assurances that “the noose stood for vigilante justice, rule by the local mob” and “wasn’t directed at Crump, a light-skinned black man,” I found the incident more than disturbing, and have to say I’m glad to live in a place that’s not so — homogeneous, even if LA can seem apathetic and apolitical at times –

Comment or email by Monday to get into the drawing, which happens Tuesday. US addresses only.

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Latest from Emerald City, my enviro-blog at LAtimes.com

Weekly green topic: Energy — as in reducing your reliance on the grid:

>> Energy week: A green website. Some internet-specific ways for reducing your footprint –

In other news:
>> Green Weekend: Buy Nothing Day, then a Holiday Fair. Buy nothing today, then maybe buy some handmade indie fashions and crafts tomorrow.

Image courtesy of designboom

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