Clothesline on a sunny day

Hanging out my laundry this today, it suddenly hit me: I may never get around to fixing that clothes dryer.

For me, this is a big deal. I’m totally a guy when it comes to taking care of clothes, and my teenage son is even worse. He thinks nothing of announcing he’s out of clean laundry jut before going to bed on a schoolnight, which used to mean many of my days would end with a frantic laundry run. Finding his clothes still wet in a cold, broken dryer one morning last autumn was an unpleasant surprise.

It’s not as if clothes dryers are complicated machines. I knew the problem was a burned-out thermostat or heating element, both user-replaceable items if you have the right tools. But I’m the guy who writes about reducing your environmental footprint, so I decided to untangle my clothesline and give outdoor drying a shot.

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A bodhi leaf

Despite my sparkling new social media diet — which is off to a shaky start today — I’m still using and enjoying my key networks. Twitter remains my favorite. If you can look past the occasional Fail Whale, it remains the simplest gateway to and active and diverse online community.

One of the things I’ve ignored of late is EcoMonday. Now that we have the ability to make lists on Twitter, it’s easy to display groups of recommended users: just put them on a themed public list. People can browse and follow as they wish, and we avoid cryptic-looking posts with the #ecomonday hashtag and long groups of Twitter screen names (a tactic spammers have learned to slip into your Mentions column).

But I miss the opportunity to highlight Twitter users from whom I draw high value in the areas of environment and sustainability. So I’m going to start recommending them here. It will give me the opportunity to be a bit more specific about why I’m singling out particular users. Let’s give it a try, shall we?

See this week’s list

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Personal scale on a wooden bedroom floor

I consume a large amount of online content. By “consume,” I mean actually reading things. My RSS clients — I use both Google Reader and a nifty, self-hosted program called Fever — are real rivals to the browser as my window on the web. They allow me to search and sort content far more efficiently than clicking from site to site, and fresh information is what powers my writing and thinking.

Naturally, I enjoy sharing what I find. To a fault, in fact, and there are plenty of great venues for this. The latest is Google Buzz, a promising new service which has generated an amazing amount of participation and discussion (some quite heated) since its introduction last week. Buzz can also be a huge time suck, and its convenient presence in Gmail — upon which I depend — hasn’t helped my writing output over the past few days.

It’s kind of like opening a bag of potato chips. Sure, you could eat just one and save the rest for later. But most of us don’t stop until we get to the crunchy bits at the bottom. That’s where I’m at with social media. It’s time to brush away the crumbs and go on a content sharing diet.

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Beyond the Babylonian captivity of social media web services

Thumbnail image for Beyond the Babylonian captivity of social media web services 28 January 2010

Social media: coming soon to a browser near you. Destination web services won’t be able to contain social media’s growth and potential.

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Why I quit FriendFeed

Thumbnail image for Why I quit FriendFeed 27 January 2010

After a couple of years on FriendFeed, I’ve thrown in the towel and deleted my account. Here’s why.

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The Future of Eco Fashion: A Reply from Designer Gretchen Jones

16 July 2009
Gretchen Jones, eco fashion designer

Eco Designer Gretchen Jones responds to my article “20 New Eco Fashion Designers! But Do They Have a Future?” Her take: Yes, and it’s through independence.

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You’ve Got to Love Cargo Bikes

14 July 2009
A heavily loaded cargo bike

July is my car-free month. Last night, I finally faced the bugbear of hauling a jumbo sized bag of dog food home on the bicycle. Yes, it can be done.

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