I confess: I suck at recycling

That's a pretty big confession for a superhero who wants to save the world, but I do suck at recycling. It's true. I'm a part of the problem, even if I am a part of the solution too.

It isn't that I don't care. It isn't that I don't make an effort. It's that I don't go far enough out of my way. My town doesn't pick up recycling so I have to separate and haul it. I do some, but not all. I'm no better than anyone else in this lazy society.

For example, I have lots of cloth bags for shopping. I carry them around in my car everywhere I go. I park my car, go into the grocery store, load up on groceries that are come in excessive packaging and wheel up to the checkout. "Paper or plastic?" Dammit! I realize that I forgot the bags in the car. Again. Head bowed in shame, I mutter a quiet "Plastic" as I picture the mountain of plastic grocery bags shoved to the side of my refrigerator at home. I do bring them in for recycling eventually, but still, they shouldn't even be there!

The truth is, recycling isn't enough. Something else needs to happen, too. Abstinence. If we abstain from using the plastic bag, we don't have to take it to be recycled. If we buy digital movies, we won't have any packaging. I still buy dvd's so I would like a redesign on dvd and game packaging. I really enjoy the covers, being a movie buff and a graphic designer. Can't the dvd's come in a sleeve, which can be put into a binder?

I just went through and pulled out the cover and dvd from about 60 or 70% of my movies, so I can put them into one binder. That mountain of plastic cases all fits into one shoebox, packed loosely even. I had to spend some time searching online, but I finally found a company who makes holders with tall pages {see sleeves here} so I can see the covers {see case here}. Now that I saved myself all that space, I'm left with the waste to figure out where to take for recycling.

It doesn't quite seem like enough, does it?

The World Flag – from ten years ago

Without question, 911 is among the most dramatic days in our history. On this ten year anniversary, most people's reactions are similarly that of pensive, respectful remembrance. Ten years ago, however, people's reactions were not all so similar. There was anger. There was fear. There was sorrow. Support. Solidarity. Patriotism. Racism. Conflict. Bravery. Sacrifice. Unity. There were cries of nonviolence met with anger and violence. Money and blood poured into the Red Cross faster than I've seen in my life. Candles were lit. Flags were displayed. Oh, the flags!

It must have been a great time to be in the U.S. flag-making business. I wondered if they were all made in the U.S.  They were for sale on the side of roads and in gas station shops. They were hung outside of houses and stuck to sides of cars. They were everywhere. I had a few. I found comfort in our "united we stand" philosophy just like the rest of America. It wasn't enough for me though. I tend not to think as a citizen of the United States, as much as a citizen of the Earth (or even farther, the Universe, and so on). To me, the world had taken a hit, not just the United States. It was a dark day and the world would move forward together. We are interdependent. 

Since I am an artist and graphic designer, my reaction was to design a "world flag." At that point in time, just about everyone had an email address and there were chat groups and websites a-plenty, but there was no MySpace or Facebook ... in fact Google was a fledgling still in Yahoo's shadow. I designed the flag and began emailing and posting it around the internet, encouraging people to display it along with their country's flag (not instead of). It promoted true unity, recognizing that we are all citizens of this world who celebrate our differences while we stand together. 

The flag circulated and amplified in number a bit, and had some good reactions, then eventually fizzled out. Every once in a while I find my files and look at the flag that never made it to the level I envisioned. I didn't try very hard to get it to the world, after all. Maybe it was just my own personal processing of the most dramatic day in my life. I am dusting it off now, on the ten year anniversary of that day.

The World Flag – for all citizens of Earth

Meaning:

    • The circle represents Earth, Unity
    • The stem and leaf represent Life
    • Together, they form a face representing Humankind
    • The green represents land
    • The blue represents water and sky
    • The white represents Peace
    • The placement of the circle to the right represents growth and progress

I confess: I do not know the 5 secrets to instant entrepreneurial profit and eternal success…

… and neither do they. 

There aren't 7 SEO techniques you can implement in your website to ensure you 10 new customers every 30 days. There are not 3 lessons you can learn from General Patton that will guarantee you will exude leadership skills that inspire your employees to sell for you in their sleep. Google+ will not make your business the next Google, and neither will Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. There is not one white paper you can download that will change your life as soon as you read it.

I have a very short romance cycle with buzzwords. About the same amount of time a pear is good. The first time I hear one, I don't know it's a buzzword yet. It's still a word that sounds really smart because a small group of people use it in a specific way. For a little while, I feel cool if I know one before everyone else does. I seem really smart and on-trend if I use it while describing something to a client. But that's it. That is the peak after which the buzzword gets more popular and starts being compulsively spewed out of the mouths of the masses. At that point, it's lost its value to me and becomes merely another common word. It's over.

For some reason the rest of the world doesn't realize this.. Instead, for years, if anyone just says one of these buzzwords, they are looked upon as an expert. It doesn't even have to be used in a sentence! They don't even have to know what it means or where it came from! It just has to be uttered. While the majority of the population is being wowed by these experts, I'm itching all over from the merciless assault of buzzword overuse out there. Make it stop!

In the past 24 hours these headlines came straight to my inbox/feed/stream:

•  5 ways to succeed as a startup in an industry awash with competitors
• The 1 Question That Inspires Innovation
• 4 ways to harness the power of co-creativity
• 5 Ways The Kardashian Family Built A $65 Million Brand
• How to manage a team of robot workers
• PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, on the 5 C's of leadership
• 3 ways for CEOs to avoid overconfidence
• The best apps for building a business
• 6 Google+ Myths Debunked
• 25 Questions To Ask Before You Outsource HR
• Five Things Hollywood Teaches us About Product Design
• 4 social media case studies from the tourism industry
• 5 key questions to ask about your social campaigns
• 6 Creative iPad Uses For Small Retailers
• Top 5 Legal Issues Of A New Company
• 100 Websites You Should Know and Use

I know, I know, you're wanting the link to a couple of these because they just might contain THE answer. Well I'm not providing them. These headlines are just to illustrate the weight of the world that is on my shoulders. Realize that the reason all of these came to me is because I actually subscribe to the sources. They really do have something smart to say, even if it isn't going to change my life. I have to keep up with trends and technology because it's what I do for a living. Besides, some of these articles might have the next buzzword in them, before it becomes an overused and sales-pitch-ish.