Green Gal

Alviso Adobe Community Park "Tools from the Ancient World" Practicing with the atlatl and spear Earth Hour March 27, 2010 8:30pm-9:30pm my cousin Patsy, the newest member of our family --- Miwok Fact of the Day : In traditional Miwok culture, when a village decided to have a dance, the lead elder (white people have named these people "chiefs," though the Native Americans did not refer to them by this name) of the village, would send messengers to surrounding villages to invite them. Each messenger would carry a string with a certain number of knots tied along it. The lead elder of the villages that had been invited would untie one knot each day after receiving the invitation. Once the last knot had been untied, the invited village people--men, women and children--traveled to the host village for the dance. This reminds me of an Advent calendar with the chocolates in the windows, or a modern-day online countdown timer. I'm trying this for my next party! (Powe...

I went out into the backyard this afternoon and was pleasantly surprised to see that a tulip had grown up out of a pot without my knowledge! I had tulips planted in the pot last year and this year have so far only seen green leaves, but no buds. I couldn't believe it! I can't wait until it blooms. Here some pictures from my backyard... Click here for some information about the medicinal properties of dandelions ! Copyright 2010 Green Gal

We're learning about externalities, or costs of production that affect people who have no control over how much of a good is produced. So far this semester, we've watched a lot of environmentally-related 60 Minutes videos, which I find interesting considering it's an economics class. Economy vs. environment, for sure. This is the video we watched in class today: (Click here if you can't see the above video.) Makes me wonder where my e-waste ends up... Green Gal

I love reading the newspaper on Sunday mornings. I almost always find at least one article to cut out and save. This morning I came across a few: "Ore. town is poster child for geothermal energy, toasty sidewalks during winter and all" by Jeff Barnard - I learned what geothermal energy is and how it can be accessed. It looks like an interesting "green" energy source. "With Cheap Food Imports, Haiti Can't Feed Itself" by Jonathan M. Katz - Of the articles I read this morning, this was my favorite because it highlighted the issues involved with less developed countries importing cheaper food, reducing their independence and putting local farmers out of work. We learned about this issue in Human Geography recently. I'm going to send this article along to my teacher. "High tech multitasking slows you down" by Jessica Yadegaran - My English teacher was talking about this recently and it's made me more aware of how easy it can be to get ...

It's National Agriculture Day and the First Day of Spring! All week, I've been posting blog entries to my Environmental Club's blog with agriculture facts. Check it out here . We owe the basis for our society's knowledge about agriculture to the first farmers of ancient civilizations who settled down and began experimenting with plant foods. See the below image of the major agricultural regions of the ancient world. Here is some more information. For more information on the origins of agriculture, watch this video: For every person who has ever lived there has come, at last, a spring he will never see. Glory then in the springs that are yours. -- Pam Brown

I used to watch Rocko's Modern Life on Nickelodeon when I was growing up. Nickelodeon used to have the BEST shows and I've had so many conversations about how the new Nick is lame compared to the Nick of our childhood. KaBlam!, Aaahh! Real Monsters, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, All That, Clarissa Expains It All, Doug, Rug Rats, The Wild Thornberries, The Secret World of Alex Mac... the list goes on. There's even a website dedicated to '90s Nickelodeon . But here's a video with a song from Rocko's Modern Life that was a hit in my household. We used to sing this song all the time. Somehow, we got the tune a little off over the years, so when I found this video and watched it with my family, we tried to sing it the right way. I still like our version because it's easier :) I thought it was interesting that the focus of this song is the ozone layer, which I recall being the big environmental issue growing up. In elementary school science classes, we learned abou...

Coffee and I have a close relationship, I'd say. This morning, I was a little rushed to get out the door because I was riding my bike and thus had to leave a little earlier than usual, and I didn't have time to make coffee. I figured it would be no big deal--I've gone without coffee in the morning before with no issues. But today, my body knew that I hadn't had my normal routine interaction with coffee and it was mad. So, in retaliation, I got a headache. I guess if I want to go without coffee, I'll have to slowly reduce my dependence on my coffee routine and begin trading in some decaf so my brain doesn't freak out when there's no caffeine. I was also really tired today after going to bed at 11 PM, which for me is late but for my fellow classmates is early; many of them go to bed routinely at 12, some 2:00 in the morning... I have no idea how they do it. My dad and I had studied poetry and Hamlet after St. Patrick's Day dinner until 10 PM and then m...

In Human Geography this year, we talked about ethnicity and how ethnicity is something we identify for ourselves. I had never really thought about my ethnicity, other than being white and American, so I started thinking about my heritage and which aspect of it I identify most with. I'm Norweigan, German, French, and, ah yes, Irish. I don't really celebrate anything German, Norweigan or French, but I definitely do celebrate my Irish heritage. So I decided that I consider myself American and Irish, if anyone were to ask me. I love St. Patrick's Day, especially the traditions my family has in celebrating it. Today I decked out in my green shorts, t-shirt and shamrock earrings and told everyone I could that I'm Irish. I wish my last name was Irish, like my friends with last names like O'Leary and McGuinness. I told them that my grandparents are Daleys, which is definitely Irish. Anyway, every St. Patty's Day, my family has dinner at my grandparents house, the side f...

Water conservation was the theme of this week's Change the World Wednesday Challenge . "This week, when using the faucet, turn it on at a trickle instead of full blast. Simple, right?" I generally try to do this anyway, but this week I tried to be extra conscious. Brushing my teeth, washing my hands, washing my face, washing vegetables--for all of these things I tried to turn the sink on to only a trickle. Sure, it takes a few more seconds to get enough water for whatever you're doing, but it's not enough time that it's infeasible. I noticed that the kitchen sink is the faucet that most often gets blasted. Waiting for hot water, washing vegetables and washing plates each end up wasting a lot of water because of the high-blast faucet issue. I noticed the water issue most when I was doing homework and my parents were using the sink. It was almost always at full blast. It's just a matter of reminding people, I think, until it becomes a habit. I instinctiv...

I could try and describe to you what a lovely Saturday morning I had with my mom and sister, but it probably wouldn't do. So instead, I'll post some pictures to give you an idea... Happy Saturday! Green Gal --- Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads. -- Henry David Thoreau

I can't wait to watch Food Revolution once it airs! This is a long video, but definitely worth watching!

Last Friday my school's drama department had its second annual Cabaret Night. It was such a success and there was so much talent! Some of the songs were dedicated to Evelyn, the young girl who committed suicide a few weeks ago. The songs were beautiful and honest and many people in the audience were crying. There was also a hilarious improv competition on the other end of the spectrum, on the comedy mask side of theater. My dad, sister and I performed Hamlet's "To Be or Not To Be" as a dialogue after deciding to only about half an hour before the show! Singing, monologues, Bhangra dancing, a barbershop quartet, guitar, and keyboard were among the various performances that evening. There is so much talent in my community in so many different aspects of life!

For my post about Youth in Government Day 2010 Part I, read here . Following lunch on Tuesday, all students and the adults they were shadowing headed over to the school district offices to break into focus groups. This year's topic for the Youth Commission is "Life Balance," which can be described as how we manage to live with just the right amount of work and play, and the issues we sometimes face in trying to do so. Someone in my focus group mentioned Yin and Yang, which is a perfect way to explain it. The topics of discussion under Life Balance were Friends, Family, School and Extra-Curricular Activities. My focus group talked about School. We started off by writing down on post-it notes our personal concerns about the four topics. Volunteers shared their ideas and then we posted the notes on different butcher paper sheets. Then we focused in on School. My first concern was the issue of teachers assigning homework over the weekend and during breaks. I made the argument...

For the second year in a row, I found myself in my city's council chambers with many peers, government employees, principals, school district employees, teachers, and others, waiting for Youth in Government Day to officially begin. A continental breakfast of bagels, muffins, juice and coffee had welcomed us in the lobby, and the room was packed with people. Julie Duncan, Coordinator of the Career & Technical Education and Apprenticeship Program for our school district, started off the day by talking about Youth in Government Day. For about fifteen years this program has taken place to bring high school students into the everyday work life of government and school district employees. This year there was a record number of student participants and employees to be shadowed. After introductions from the city manager and the school district superintendent, each student stood up and said their name, grade, school and their aspirations in life. There were quite a variety of aspiration...

© Copyright 2010 Green Gal