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New technologies are being created exponentially that are radically and rapidly transforming people’s concepts of what is truly possible. At exactly an hour into the video, Dr. Diamandis begins speaking about the Age of Abundance we are entering. His view of the future, much like my own, is one where we create solutions that give us more than enough sustainable energy, more than enough clean drinking water, more than enough good work, more than enough great education opportunities for all!

I’m sure I’ll be back soon with more for JoyPeeps, too!

One of the easiest ‘green’ activities I’ve adopted is using reusable bags, instead of plastic bags.  A few years ago I bought three reusable bags from my local grocery store and have been using them ever since.  I added a fourth reusable bag last year when I got a promotional bag from a conference I attended.  Over the years I’ve come to appreciate many benefits of using reusable bags.

Benefits of Reusable Bags:

• Longer handles allow the bags to rest on your shoulders, better distributing the weight and freeing your hands.
• Fit more in a single bag and take less trips between the car and the kitchen.
• Keeps plastic bags out of landfills and the rest of our precious environment.
• Show your personality with reusable bags that have designs that reflect you.
• Use the bags for more than just groceries.
• Sturdiness of bags give peace of mind by securely holding even heavy items.
• Safer to have around children and pets.
• Have a spill?  Throw you bag in the wash.
• Some stores give discounts when you use reusable bags (i.e. 5 cents per reusable bag used)

For a long-time I forgot to bring my reusable bags with me when shopping or I might make an unexpected stop at a store while out.  I solved this issue by always keeping my reusable bags in my car.  Once I’ve put up all my groceries, I immediately put the now empty bags on my front door doorknob where I pick them up next time I go out.

No matter how hard I try, I inevitably end up with some plastic bags.  This may be from bagging veggies or shopping when I’ve forgotten my reusable bags.  If you end up with some plastic bags or have a lot stashed away somewhere, not to worry, plastic bags are recyclable.  Most grocery stores in the US now have a plastic bag collection bin in the front of their store.  Don’t throw plastic bags away, take them to your local grocery store and recycle them!  Paper is also recyclable, so if you have extra paper bags lying around, be sure to recycle them as well.

Are you ready to kick the plastic-bag habit?  If so, first check your home for tote bags that will work well for shopping.  Don’t have any or need some more to cover your typical shopping needs?  Get reusable bags from your favorite local store or shop online at places like, ReusableBags.com.

Only get as many reusable bags as you will normally use.  If you get new reusable bags regularly or have too many, then it really isn’t better for the environment than using plastic bags.   It takes quite a bit more energy to produce and deliver reusable bags. So to ensure your reusable bags are actually a plus for the environment, be sure you are reusing them many times.  Also, be mindful of how many of these bags you have. Reusable bags are becoming a popular give-away item and in some cases are being produced on a large-scale with clever t-shirt-like slogans.  So be careful not to collect more reusable bags than you actually need.

According to research at Sightline, what we put in our grocery bags, whether paper, plastic, or reusable, is even more important to consider.  Be mindful of things like how much packaging is used for the products you buy.  For example, is your bread single bagged or double bagged?  Also, how far did that food have to travel to get to your grocery store and what chemicals might have been used to produce or preserve it?  All these things can add up.

Join the conversation about the topics discussed in this article by leaving a comment.

I’m beside myself with excitement!!!  About three hours ago I got an instant message from my brother Hayden that said, “I just got into google wave”.  I’ve just now received my invitation to join Google Wave myself (thanks Hayden for using one of your precious 8 invites for me!).

Check out this video to preview how communication will work in the coming post-email era:

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What is a wave?

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.

A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

-Google

I’ve been following the developments of Google Wave, since it was first made public last summer at Google’s Developer Conference.  My excitement built as I watched the 80-minute introduction video.  I just knew I was watching the future of online communication unfolding before my very eyes.  Did you see in the video above the real-time translation between English and French?  Holy cow!  Our world just got a lot more connected!

I’m off to play with my new toy for now, but I’m sure I’ll be posting more about Google Wave soon.  Until then, join the conversation by leaving a comment.

Nearly everything we buy, touch and use in our daily lives was at one time dreamed up by a designer.

-Independent Lens

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I happened across a very thought-provoking show earlier this evening, Objectified on PBS. I came away from the film wishing that everything in my world was better designed.

78% of the world is completely impractical, 78% of the world is uncomfortable.  You feel it.  You know you feel that hotel rooms are poorly designed, you sit in chairs that are very uncomfortable.  And it is craziness…there’s like no excuse whatsoever.

- Karim Rashid, designer

This documentary shines a light on the important role designers and good design play in our world.  Design impacts everything: our clothes, our cell phones, our cars, our homes, our toothbrushes, our road systems, our entire world.  If we’re going to have stuff in our lives, let’s make the extra effort to intelligently design it.  Take into consideration things like how people will use it and the impact it will have on our planet?  Products should fit naturally into our world and be intuitive to use.

For me this film highlights more reasons for our education systems to have greater emphasis on creativity and thinking outside the box.  As one of the presenters said in the film, design isn’t about where we are now, it is about where we are going.  We can barely predict where our world will be in 5 years, let alone 20 or 30 years from now.  All the more reason to raise up a new generation of designers.

I don’t see that Objectified will be airing anymore on my local PBS station, but check your own local listings to see if it is on.  If not, head over to ObjectifiedFilm.com to learn more and buy the DVD or better yet add it to your Netflix Queue.  If you decide to buy the DVD you can get an even better deal on it at Amazon: Objectified at Amazon.com.

Objectified was aired this evening as a part of the Emmy Award-winning series Independent Lens.  After briefly skimming their website, it looks like a series I will start following.  To see more clips from Objectified and other Independent Lens presentations, head over to the Independent Lens YouTube Channel.

What do you think about Objectified or any of the other topics discussed in this article?  Join the conversation by leaving a comment.

I found out today that one of my articles at Joy Peeps.com was ranked #12 when you searched “fun going green” via Google.  It is just a start, but I’m proud of it!  The article is one of my favorites that I’ve written thus far: Going Green Can Be Fun!  Check out Living With Ed on Planet Green.

Whether you use your Smart Phone or your computer, I hope you find value in the content provided here at JoyPeeps.com.

Devices this works with: iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, Opera Mini mobile, Palm Pre, and BlackBerry Storm.

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Below are my reviews of each of the web services mentioned in the video, along with some fun stories about my use of them.  Use the commenting section below to share your own reviews and stories about these web services.

Hulu

I cancelled my cable TV subscription soon after finding Hulu.  I can only keep up with a few TV shows at a time and I can always find ones I like on Hulu.  I love being able to watch shows on my schedule, not the TV network’s.  I subscribe to shows like the Office and when a new episode is available it is automatically added to my queue.   With Hulu, NetFlix Watch Instantly, and other great web video services on the horizon, I don’t plan on needing a cable/satellite TV subscription ever again.

Pandora

Months ago when I first saw the Web Site Story parody I hadn’t even heard of Pandora.  So I googled it.  Wow!  I love Pandora!  I personally use Pandora on my iPhone, but my fiancé uses it on her computer.  Pandora is a FREE streaming music service.  Here’s how it works: 1) Create a new playlist by entering a song, band, genre, or artist you like, 2) Pandora automatically starts feeding your iPhone or computer with songs you’ll love, 3) Get even better results by giving a thumbs up to songs you like and thumbs down to songs you don’t like.

Facebook

I have a Facebook Profile.  Don’t we all?  I recently told my fiancé that at this point Facebook is my way to keep in touch with people I know, but don’t want to add to my email/iPhone address book.  Right now I’m just building my network of friends (people I’ve actually met in person).  I do occasionally send individual messages to friends and snoop around to see what current and old friends are up to.  With the introduction of Facebook Connect, which enables Facebook to easily be integrated with many of the websites we all already use, I think I’ll be using Facebook more in the coming months and years.  Today Facebook.com is ranked by Alexa.com as the #2 most-used website on the internet (Google.com is #1 of course).

Twitter

I’m just now starting to sparingly use Twitter for quick updates about my blog.  Twitter offers a text-message-like service that limits you to 140 characters.  For example, I could post a message like, “Check out my latest post about living sustainably at http://www.joypeeps.com/run-errands-on-your-bike-and-track-eco-stats-with-your-iphone/”.  Want to know what others are tweeting about?  Sign up to follow them.  You can follow me at twitter.com/markrummel.

Continue to page 2 of this article for my thoughts on eHarmony, Blogs, eVite, Google Earth, and FriendFeed.

I’ve always liked the idea of walking or riding a bike to run quick errands.  Not only is this great for the environment, but it is an excellent way to maintain a healthy lifestyle.  I used to have a grocery store within about a hundred yards of my apartment front door and even more stores just beyond that, so that made it easy to just walk.  However, where I live now is a bit further away from the places I run my typical errands.  I solved the matter earlier today by deciding to use my bike to run an errand.  I made the trip even more fun by using my iPhone to track tons of stats about my bike ride.

My First Bike Errand

So today I had to take a few packages to the post office to mail.  I decided that the 2 miles to the post office was doable and that the roads I needed to go down would have sidewalks or enough curb area for me to travel safely.  Thanks to my Bike Your Drive by REI app on my iPhone I was able to listen to music from my iPod while it tracked my exact location via GPS, distance travelled, current and average miles per hour, estimated calories burned, carbon offset, money I saved by not using my car, and more.  I was even able to take pictures with my iPhone that were automatically geotagged to track the exact location where the picture was taken.  When I completed my trip I uploaded all the data to EveryTrail.com via the app.  When I sat down at my computer I already had an email with a link to Trip 1 – Post Office.  Seriously check out the previous link.  I was totally blow away when I saw my exact trip mapped out (even the 20 foot trip I made down a wrong road before turning around and my extra victory lap around my apartment complex).  The three photos I took  were also already linked to their exact location.  By the way, I’m not trying to look cool in my start and end of ride photos, I was just doing my best to take a picture of myself from arms length away.

I highly recommend the Bike Your Drive by REI app based on this first trip.  All the stats will be specific to you based on your weight, your car’s average gas mileage, and the average gas price in your area.  With the integration with EveryTrail.com track your trips for yourself, share them with others, or read about other’s trips.  If hitting the trails, whether hiking, kayaking, biking, snowboarding, etc., is something you enjoy, then the social networking aspects of EveryTrail.com might be something for you.

Getting my bike out of storage

Why hadn’t I done this earlier?  Well, I actually just got my bike out of storage last week.  Almost two and half years ago I decided to go biking around noon in the middle of summer in Dallas, TX.  That bike trip ended with my barely getting home, getting heat stroke, and having to go to the emergency room.  So I only just decided to give it another go.  I took my first bike ride two days ago and couldn’t believe I’d gone this long without riding; it was so relaxing and a great workout.  We have great riding trails here in Plano, TX and I plan to continue using them for recreational biking and for quick errands.

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Living with Ed truly made learning about going green so much fun for us!  It provided a jumpstart for both of us to what is now a bit more than just baby steps towards living a more sustainable lifestyle.  Planet Green is a great channel with other shows I enjoy, like Renovation Nation, Greenovate, G Word, and World’s Greenest Homes.

Ed Bagley, Jr., is an accomplished TV and Film actor who was living green decades before it was the cool thing to do.  Living with Ed provides fun, going-green lessons through the playful bantering of Ed and his not-so-green wife, Rachelle.  Bill Nye the Science Guy is now a regular on the show too; he and Ed have a friendly competition to see who can live greenest.

Check out the official Living with Ed website for all kinds of fun, going-green resources, like Ed’s Everyday Tips.

Want to catch up? Get Living with Ed on DVD (Season 1 and Season 2) and catch reruns on Planet Green.  The DVDs are also available on NetFlix.