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April 17, 2008

Energy

Comfortonomy

Domestic fuel cells on sale now make off-grid comfort a genuinely plausible option. Hybrid systems incorporate solar, wind and fuel cell — all grouped around 12 volt batteries.

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Garbage Warrior A Must See

Before seeing the movie of Michael Reynolds’ fight to be able to build his Earthships in New Mexico I wasn’t to sure what to think of his ideas. “Garbage Warrior” wasn’t to high on my must see list either. So I figured I would wait for it to hit TV before watching it.  It is on the Sundance Channel this month and I caught it during their THE GREEN programming on Tuesday nights. 

Earthships have been written about before in our “Earthships -Another Recycling Frontier” post back in February. It was an interesting concept but it didn’t make me wish for one. I was actually put off by the idea, but I wasn’t going to write it off until I gave it some more research.  So when I saw the movie was coming on I decided now was the time to finish up that research I had promised to do.  I have to say that watching this documentary was definitely worth it. 

It not only made me wonder should I think about one for myself and family but think about what it would actually mean if we constructed like Mr. Reynolds wants too.  Use what you find around you not being used, namely trash.  Then make it into something not only functional but beautiful too.  No need for gas, electric or water to be hooked up to your home. Design, build and live in communities together.  Living in a home that is not only designed to be in harmony with it’s environment but to provide for you anything you need to survive.  He fought for his ideas and even lost his architect license over it.  Because of him the people of New Mexico have the chance to build new concepts in home design, instead of hoping it will work on paper.  They can put their ideas of how to make their “Earthships” more efficient, comfortable and use different materials to see what works and what doesn’t.

The journey he took to make that happen is a great inspration to those of us who have run up against that wall that doesn’t see that change is good, and neccessary.  I still think the “Earthship” just wouldn’t work for me and my family but I can’t help but envy those whom it does work for.  So take the time to watch his documentary or even pick up a book of his and see if his unique way of looking at things can’t inspire you too!

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Community

Paying For My Internet Habits

Blatantly asking for your help, if you want to… :)

Before I moved out here, I checked on ways to make money on line, all I wanted to do was make enough to pay for my internet habits (ISP, domains, hosting…). A few months before we moved, I found a way to earn money from clicking ads on websites. Not just any websites though, these sites are called “PTC” or “Pay To Click” sites, these sites basically pay you to click on ads, the ads usually open up in a new tab or window and you have to keep that tab or window open for 30 seconds (some less, some more), many of them then ask you to type in a randomly created code, or ask you to click on a link to close the window, this proves you kept the ad page opened for the requested length of time. Generally you get paid a penny (1 cent) per ad, some pay even better than that, 1.5 to 2 cents per ad, some do email ads (they send the ad to your email address) and those usually pay more, up to 5 cents per ad.

I have all the PTC sites I belong to bookmarked, I open each on in a new tab (I use Firefox, you can do the same thing with Explorer), I sign in to each one, them I click on an ad for the first one, it opens in a new tab, then I go to the second PTC site, I click on an ad, it opens up in a new tab, I continue doing this until I have cycled through all the PTC sites I belong to, then I go to the first ad tab that opened up, by then, usually the timer has counted down, I do actually look at the page, the advertiser did just pay you to actually look at their site so it’s only fair to them to look at the page. Then I do whatever is required to prove I looked at the page, some ask you to click on something to close the page, some ask you to type in a randomly generated code, some just say the time is up, you can close the window/tab. I do that for each ad that is opened, then I repeat the whole thing until no more ads are available to be clicked on. Some of the PTC sites have lots of ads to click on each day, some not as much, I check these sites each time I get on the internet, once the ads are exhausted, I refresh the page from time to time to check and see if there are any new ads to click on. Some of these sites also have other ways to make money, many of them have paid surveys, some have paid offers (some free, …

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