What happens when California’s landmark legislation to address global climate change meets green digital media? Find out at the next BREATHE LA Green Salon panel — titled “AB 32.0 and the Rise of Green Digital Media” — on which I’ll be a panelist!

When: Tues., March 16, 9 am – 10:30 am
Where: California Endowment Center, 1000 N. Alameda St., Los Angeles
Cost: Free with RSVP

The other panelists are Fuel’s Josh Tickell, Jennifer Gooding of EcoTuesday, Nicole Hansen of The Green Blog Network, and CEO of Veggie Van Organization Rebecca Harnell. Ray Gonzales, BREATHE LA Board Member and former Channel 5 KTLA host, will moderate.

I hope to see you there! Coffee and a light breakfast will be served to sweeten and caffeinate the discussion.

BREATHE LA’s a local environmental nonprofit that works to improve air quality and lung health in Los Angeles. This panel will be the first of of five in Breathe LA’s series of panels dubbed “Green Streets of LA,” which explore “how our community is rising up to address sustainable solutions as they relate to California’s landmark legislation, AB 32 Global Warming Act.” Future panels will discuss greening everything from the ports to hospitals.

Image via BREATHE LA

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>> Read an interview with green LA girl on Handmade News! I share my thoughts on upcycling, a challenge for greening your life, and tips on starting an eco-blog.

>> Hear James Cameron talk about Avatar and environmental issues on Bravo’s Inside the Actor’s Studio tonight at 7 pm! In this clip from the show, James Cameron talks about how he wrote a play called “Extinction Syndrome” for his high school’s theater arts program. “It was about our human proclivity to destroy ourselves and the world around us,” James says — and adds that the same concerns were on his mind when he wrote Avatar in 2005.

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My morning post about Pourtal wine tasting bar will be my last wine-related one for a while — excepting this one — because I’m taking an alcohol break again, like I did in January 2009. So far so good!

I still give myself a sticker for every day I limit myself to 2 or fewer drinks, and I’m proud to say that in 2009, I got 228 stickers (my goal was 183), greatly helped by the dry January and another 90-day break during the middle of the year. Compare that to 155 stickers in 2008 and 127 in 2007.

The goal for 2010’s at least 275 stickers — 31 of them in January. So for now, you’ll need to go to Caroline on Crack for your happy hour fix! Right now Caroline has a photo slideshow of her Top 10 Favorite Cocktails of 2009, from the Diva at Copa d’Oro to the Thug at Roger Room.

Have you made a resolution similar to mine? Here’s what to do with the leftover alcohol in the house:

>> Turn eggnog into cheesecake — or rice pudding or pancakes.

>> Make wine syrup to pour over those eggnog pancakes.

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Yes, I blog for a living — though this blog alone doesn’t pay my rent. Curious about how you can stay solvent as an online writer? Then come to the Online Journalism and Blogging as a Profession panel I’ll be speaking on next week:

When: Wed., Nov. 18, 4:30 pm
Where: University Hall 3226, Loyola Marymount University, 1 LMU Dr., Los Angeles
Cost: FREE — and refreshments will be served

The two other panelists are Richard Kearns, a blogger and activist on HIV and AIDS issues at aids-write.org and HAVVACC; and Simon Samano, associate editor of NFL.com.

Yes, this panel’s an LMU event, so most of the audience will be students. However, everyone’s still welcome to hear the panel — and enjoy the refreshments. Hope to see you there –

Image via LMU

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Talk tech and eco-social activism with girls who want to do good at The Impact of Tech on Good and Green, where you’ll hear from me and other do-gooder girls you may follow on Twitter. And no, you do not have to be a girl to attend!

When: Tues., Nov. 17, 7 pm – 10 pm
Where: The Organic Panificio, 4211 Admiralty Way, Marina Del Rey
Cost: $10 in advance via eventbrite, $15 at the door

Organized by Girls in Tech, a networking group for women in technology, this event will discuss the intersection of the tech industry and social good and green movements — as well as how girls in tech can do some good and make some green in the process. I’ll be moderating the panel, featuring:

>> Tracy Helper, co-founder of Your Daily Thread (Earlier: YDT launch party)

>> Sandra Sanchez, creator of orGlamic.com and reality TV host/producer

>> Sarah Townsend, editorial Director of Social Vibe and blogger at The One in Pink

Afterwards, we’ll mingle and chat over cocktails. About 10% of the proceeds from the tickets will go to Free Arts For Abused Children, which provides at-risk kids with counseling and support through art.

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If you haven’t seen Diane Meyer’s photo exhibit Without a Car in the World: 100 Car-less Angelinos Tell Stories of Living in Los Angeles ) yet — or even if you have — go see it (again) this week and hear about car-free living from author D.J. Waldie, other car-free Angelenos, and car-lite people like me!

When: Wed., Nov. 11, 6 pm – 8 pm
Where: 18th Street Arts Center, 1639 18th St., Santa Monica.
Cost: Free.

I’ll be on the 6 pm panel — How to Live Car Free or Car Light — along with Chris Balish, author of How to Live Well Without Owning a Car: Save Money, Breathe Easier and Get More Mileage Out of Life and magazine editor Paula Hess.

Then at 7 will be the Walking in LA featuring D.J. Waldie, author of Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir, UCLA professor of urban planning Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, and 3 professors from Loyola Marymount: Herbert Medina (math), Nigel Raab (history), and Damon Willick (art history).

And if you still can’t get enough of Without a Car in the World: Don’t miss the next two events! Be there on Sat., Nov. 14 at 2 pm for a panel on Tranportation Alternatives and the Future of Los Angeles, then come back on Wed., Dec. 2 at 7 pm to see a Comedy Slideshow by Kristina Wong, whose Car Free Mondays interview you can read here. The exhibit closes on Dec. 11, 2009.

Image via Diane Meyer

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Green bloggers: Block out your Friday morning for the first Green Blogger Convention! This girl-powered event’ll let you rub elbows with fellow green bloggers, get pampered with sustainable beauty treatments, watch a vegan fashion show — and hear from a panel I’ll be on –

When:  Fri, Nov. 6 from 9 am to noon
Where: Environment Furniture, 8126 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles
Cost: RSVP online for $20; $30 cash at the door

The morning will kick off with coffee, churros from Border Grill, and beauty treatments, followed by a green blogging Q&A panel featuring:

>> Siel, green LA girl. That’s me! My bio’s here.

>> Kim Barnouin, co-author of Skinny Bitch and founder of Healthy Bitch Daily.

>> Starre Vartan, founder of Eco-Chick.com and author of The Eco Chick Guide to Life: How to Be Fabulously Green.

>> Jen Boulden, co-founder of Ideal Bite.

>> Jane Buckingham, author and host of The Modern Girl’s Guide to Life books and series on the Style Network.

>> Lauren Selman, associate producer of EcoDivas TV.

>> Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff, founder and editor of EcoStiletto, who put together the event. (Earlier: EcoStiletto’s green party)

We’ll discuss “how to make blogging profitable without selling your soul” — from alternative revenue streams to content syndication to social media to vlogging to joining bigger websites. Then comes the vegan fashion show styled by Monica Schweiger, featuring Deborah Lindquist, ecoSkin, Stewart & Brown, Wasteland, and others.

Hope to see you there!

Photo by Simon Lieschke

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Read two of my poems — “Cleaner” and “Longer,” from the series “By Degrees”– in the latest issue of Painted Bride Quarterly!

This issue just went online at the end of Sept. 2009 — but that doesn’t mean these poems are new. Painted Bride Quarterly accepted the poems back in August 2008; I submitted the poems to PBQ in January 2008. By the time the print version of this PBQ comes off the press in April 2010, my poems will have turned 3.

For a blogger, this kind of turnaround’s extra tortuous.

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I’m a guest blogger at Streetsblog LA today, helping out Streetsblog LA editor Damien Newton while he’s enjoying paternity leave. Head over to read my posts:

>> Good news for L.A.: More Congestion, Higher Parking Fees. Click over to find out why gridlock’s great for the environment — and why we should be happy about pending higher parking fees in Santa Monica.

>> Neighborhood Focused Bicycle Plans. Missed David Byrne’s event in L.A.? Read about David’s thoughts on how to improve bicycle infrastructure in L.A. — and my musings on the role neighborhood councils could play in all of this.

Photo of the traffic at Dodger Stadium by =Manny=/Flickr

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Fellow WordPress bloggers — or really, anyone with an interest in blogging and social media — Come to the very first WordCamp LA and hear me speak!

When: Sat., Sept. 12th, from 9 am to 6 pm. Registration opens at 8, afterparty starts at 7.
Where: Loyola Marymount University, 1 LMU Drive, Los Angeles.
Cost: $25 a ticket

WordCamp LA’s a “a conference created for enthusiasts, users, developers, designers, and fans of WordPress in the greater Los Angeles area.” Don’t know what WordPress is? You’re looking at a WordPress site right now. WordPress is the popular, flexible open source publishing platform used to publish green LA girl and many many other blogs.

Come hang out with fellow local bloggers and hear speakers on everything from practical topics like “Creating a WordPress plugin: It’s easier than you think” by John Hawkins to more vague-sounding ones like “Failure is Job One” by Micah Baldwin. Oh, and there’s an afterparty at the Custom Hotel’s pool bar with Digital LA.

My talk’s titled “Blogging Green.” At the moment I’m rather nervous this talk, partly because I appear to be the only female speaker (!!) and partly because I’m afraid my talk’s going to be the least WordPress-y, focusing somewhat less on WordPress specifically and more about blogging green in general.

Got thoughts about how environmentalism intersects with WordPress? Then please do email and share your ideas! In the meantime, buy your ticket, follow @WordCampLA on Twitter — and tweet your #WordCampLA related thoughts.

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