Back when I first started putting together my voting guides, I prefaced every item with a description. For ex, my 2006 post on who to vote in as the new Member of State Board of Equalization, 4th District, began with this:

What does the State Board of Equalization do?: According to its website, “The mission of the State Board of Equalization is to serve the public through fair, effective, and efficient tax administration.” The Board has 5 members, 4 of whom are elected by district. The 5th member’s the State Controller.

I’ve since stopped intro’ing the post with these descriptions, instead diving straight into my opinions. But I’m wondering if that wasn’t the best decision. Would you find a description of the position / item on the ballot helpful, or would you find the description to be an unnecessary preamble?

Your vote’ll decide how I put together future voters’ guides. Poll closes at the end of the Monday.

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Can eco-goodies be so crunchy they become chic? Or are these eco-goodies really just eco-fugly?

The item in question: WeBeBags. I got the one pictured in a shwag bag at Eco-ganik’s runway show.

And while I heart coffee and am happy to see those coffee burlap sacks put to good use — AND while I can attest to the fact that these bags are well handcrafted, complete with a zippered top and lined interior with an inside pocket to boot — I am not sure these WeBeBags are actually cute.

Still, I do have a rather specific aesthetic — and maybe I need to branch out a little more. So you tell me: Is this bag crunchy-chic or eco-fugly?

Poll closes at the end of the Monday.

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In case you’re not familiar with bonded leather — cuz I wasn’t — the stuff is basically to leather what particleboard is to wood. Saith Wikipedia:

Bonded leather, or reconstituted leather, is an artificial material composed of 80% to 100% leather fibers (often waste scraps from leather tanneries or leather workshops).

If you’ve ever held a bible with a grainy-feeling cover in your hand, you likely know what bonded leather is. The stuff’s used for the “good” book, hymnals, sofa covers, and the like.

The thing is, bonded leather’s been used for these items for a long long time — long before green came into vogue. But now, companies using bonded leather are claiming eco-creds for doing so.

Still, bonded leather uses scraps that’d otherwise have been thrown away. Make the same item in real leather, and the carbon footprint, as well as the price, would be considerably higher.

So what do you think about bonded-leather-as-eco-material claims? Are such claims really green, or just greenwashing?

Militant vegans — Try not to skew the results too much by claiming everything that contains animal products is eco-evil. We all know vegan vinyl’s worse. Poll closes at the end of the day on Monday, Oct. 13, 2008.

Photo by timsamoff

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My survey question this week’s simple: Should I switch to Google Reader? I use Bloglines right now, but I’m wondering if it’s time for change….

If you pick “Other,” let me know what other you recommend in the comments. Poll closes at the end of Monday, Oct. 6.

Update, 10/21/08: I’ve switched to Google Reader — but I’m having some issues. Help me!

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While most commenters on green LA girl bring interesting perspectives to the blog, once in a while I get really dumb comments. Spammish, self-promotional comments top my pet peeve list, but anonymous derogatory comments take a close second.

The latest: A commenter so oversensitive about living in the valley he called me an ass for not knowing one of its areas. Note that many valley-dwellers seem hypersensitive about their unpopular ‘hood — I tweeted about that a while back and got some funny responses — but that these other commenters weren’t anonymous and so didn’t bug me.

Anyway — A topic as silly as whether the valley’s worth knowing well isn’t much of a concern, but when the discussion’s about more serious stuff, derogatory comments that shield themselves under the cloak of anonymity become a bit of a problem. For example, I have a certain repeat anonymous commenter at an unnamed nonprofit that’ll take pithy jabs at fair trade advocates he/she disagrees with, without ever revealing his/her name or affiliation with said nonprofit.

What do you think — Should I delete those along with the spam, or leave them be?

Poll closes midnight on Monday

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So I got a Eton FR 150 Microlink in my shwag bag from the launch party for the Blade.

Afterwards, I found out this Microlink’s the shit! It’s an AM / FM radio plus LED flashlight plus cell phone charger in one — that can be powered three ways: Solar power, easy-to-spin hand crank, or USB port.

I thought it was too good to be true until I spun the crank for half a minute then listened to the radio for a couple hours while reading an illustrated review on Digital Reviews Network.

Amazingly, the whole thing weighs only 7.5 oz. Dimensions: 5 x 2.4 x 1.75 inches. The thing’s so useful there’s a Red Cross version — though from what I can tell, the only diff for the RC version is that the outside’s colored red.

More upsides: The Microlink’s available at Amazon (where it has rave reviews) and a whole buncha other stores.

The one downside: You likely already have a USB cord, cell phone charger cord, and headphones on hand — but if not, you’ll have to buy ‘em separately.

Now for the survey: Should I put the Microlink in my earthquake emergency bag, or should I give it to a friend who camps and stuff? The thing seems perfect for emergencies — but it’s also so useful that it seems a waste to keep in a bag I hope never to have to use. On the other hand, I could give it to a camper friend — but what if the next big one hits?

What would you do?

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Last Thursday, I went to a launch party at The Stronghold in Venice for the Blade, a $199 tailpipe attachment that’s said to cut down on emissions and fuel consumption.

There were organic wines and beer. There were sushi rolls and asparagus wrapped in smoked salmon. There was The Crystal Method, spinning; apparently they are early adopters of the blade.

And there were these foam can cozies in the shwag bags.

Enviro issues raised by these foamy, non-recyclable things aside, my question is this: Do people actually use these things?

If you do use ‘em, do you want the one I got? Poll closes Monday at midnight.

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Yesterday, I got this v. unexpected request:

Is there any way you can program links so that a new window opens? It’s so frustrating to click on a link and then have to back page to your site again, once I finish at the link site. It would be very helpful! Thanks, Anne

I say unexpected, because I’ve seriously cursed out websites for doing the exact thing Anne is asking me to make green LA girl do.

I hate hate HATE it when a website force-opens another window when I click on a link. To me, that’s akin to pop-up ads.

But clearly, others don’t feel the same way. How do you feel ’bout the new-window / same-window option? Lemme know in the survey –

Poll closes at the end of the day Monday, Aug. 11, 2008.

In the meantime, I suggest that you download Firefox (if you haven’t already), then right click and select “Open Link in New Tab” for any other page you want to open while staying on green LA girl. Prob solved.

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Way back when, I wrote ’bout the fugly “gifts” my mother gives me at birthdays and holidays. The worst offense were these socks:

which I decided to take apart and make something useful out of. Today, while procrastinating, I started doing just that.

Below: Frightened detached doll faces.

So I got knitting and now I have a crucial question: Which flower works best?

Vote on the fate of the blue booties! Poll closes at midnight on Monday, July 28, 2008.

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After the Green Apartment Living workshop on Wednesday, Mia — the Co-opportunity person who organized the event — said she was psyched a good number of guys attended. Apparently, only women attended the previous workshop!

Traci says one dude gasped after Summer said she gardens in bikini so she can get a tan.

I’ve always thought that green LA girl had a pretty even number of male and female readers — but now I’m curious to find out how girl-centric the readership is:

Poll will close midnight on Monday, July 21.

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