Hi, my name is Swedish and I'm an Eco-Sinner!

Another crazy week of classes and sewing, another project completed! Hubby surprised me with flowers from his garden last week. They were so pretty and it was very sweet! On top of classes and sewing, was book club. This month's book was, "Confessions of an Eco-sinner" by Fred Pearce. I still have not finished it (ooops!) but I can already say it is a great read. Fred flies around the world to research where his "stuff" comes from: everything from his wedding ring, to his computer, to the socks on his feet, the coffee he drinks, the fruits and veggies on his plate, etc.

It is by far an eye opening book and as a consumer made me very depressed. Basically I've learned that fair trade anything isn't necessarily fair trade. The farmers growing the crops don't see that additional money we are paying for the end "fair trade" product. The only thing fair trade assures is that the farmers are getting paid slightly higher than the market value which in reality is only a few cents. The only other point I'll bring up for thought, before stepping off the soapbox, is that almost all of our clothes in the US come from sweat shops or are made from materials that are grown by grossly underpaid farmers. Granted this is not my own research, and I'm sure there plenty of online vendors, so don't shoot the messenger! Fred basically tell us that the clothes we buy from Walmart, Old Navy, Gap, etc are all produced in the same factory. They all come off the same assembly line. So why on earth should I pay $58 for a pair of jeans at Gap, when I can buy them for $10 or $15 at Walmart? I would be more than willing to pay $40 for a pair of jeans, if I knew that extra money went to the workers rather than some CEO sitting behind a desk. So needless to say the book was depressing, made me feel helpless in the world I live in, but I need to keep on, keepin' on.

So now that you've digested that (you are still there, aren't you?), here are the chair cushions I made/recovered this weekend. The picture shows the back of the top cushion, because the front was too boring. The strings are to tie it to the chair. I'm pleased with how they turned out, although they don't photograph well and they are super soft!

I am obsessed!!

No, not with True Blood!!! Although, Hubby and I started watching the first season on HBO on Demand this week. We've watched about 4 episodes and are mildly hooked. The show always ends in a crazy way, which drives me crazy but that is not my new obsession.

I'm obsessed with Paperback Swap. I had no idea what I was missing! I read fairly quickly and rarely re-read anything. I had heard of places for swapping paperbacks in my area but had no idea there was an online community. I've listed about 15 books so far that I would have no regrets never seeing again and 2 of them I've just packaged up to ship out. I'm getting rid of the book I "borrowed" from Mexico, The California Club, and Great Expectations. Yeah, it's a classic but once a book is made into a movie it really ruins the book for me.

I don't have anything on my wish list yet, but I do have a book on it's way. I was in Walmart checking out books the other night, figuring Walmart would be cheaper than Amazon (which is where I normally get books) but boy was I wrong!! That's when I decided to check out Paperback Swap (PBS). It's pretty cool! Each book costs a credit. You get 2 credits when you first start and post 10 books, and 1 credit for each book that you mail out. You have to pay shipping when a book is requested from you but it's relatively cheap via Media Mail. So I ordered the book I saw in Walmart from PBS and it's already on it's way.

I still have all these library books I need to read in the meantime!

Why I Don't Read Non-Fiction:

My latest read is called Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. The back story of this slightly odd choice of book:

My pottery teacher did a demonstration of a (HUGE) pickle jar a few Thursdays ago for another student (one of my coworkers). The pickle jar looked more like a very large urn. I'd say it was probably a foot tall by 5 inches wide. Our pottery teacher informed us it was too small to be an urn. Obviously we were curious as to how she knew this as she was very matter of fact about the whole thing. Apparently, she had submitted a piece to show that was for urns/containers for remains/whatever you want to call them. Her piece, although rather large, was too small to fit the remains of an entire body so her piece was entered into the keepsake category. Creepy! This sparked a conversation about Stiff and surprisingly someone else had read the book too!

I rarely read nonfiction...I've actually been trying to read less fiction so I thought this book would be a good start. The only problem is, I can't get through it. It's causing alot of problems which leads to me not being able to sleep at night. I'm an overly morbid person....there, I've said it. I think about death alot. Actually, I always have.

I think my obsession is partly due to the fact that I'm a catholic scientist. Kinda like an oxymoron right? I've been raised to believe the teachings of the bible which unfortunately do not jive well with the theory of evolution. It's hard to ignore scientific fact but that is a whole other topic for some other time.

Either way, I don't believe in life after death, reincarnation, etc. As a scientist I need proof to believe what really happens but for obvious reasons that's not possible. Sure, there have been people who have had near death experiences but how do you really know unless you completely cross over. I know what I'd like to believe happens but what I really think happens is frightening. I'd like to believe in heaven but the thought seems way too fantastical.

The first chapter of the book starts out with the author attending a training seminar for plastic surgeons. In the room there are about a dozen heads in metals trays on the tables. Just heads! Apparently these plastic surgeons paid a pretty penny just to be able to practice new face lift techniques on human cadavers. The book details what you can do with your body once you're done with it and what could happen to your body if you choose to donate it to science. You could end up as a crash test dummy. You could be split up and have your body parts sent to multiple destinations for multiple uses. Your foot/leg could be used to test footware for protection against landmines. You can't specify what you want to happen to your body if you're donating it. You could end up just being left outside fully intact but probably naked to help forensic scientists further study the rate/processes of human decay. How about just becoming an organ donor? The possibilities are endless. You can even be composted into your own little tree! I will say, I would prefer a medical student to practice procedures on a human cadaver rather than on me for the 1st time but I won't be donating my body to science. I'd like my body to stay whole, and in the ground!

Oh and if you donate your body to Body Worlds, you could be displayed indefinitely in museums across the world. Plastination is awesome or in my opinion Creepy!

I've only got a few chapters left, so we'll see!

Can you really get something for nothing?

Here is an offer for a free 20 page photo book ($30 value) from Snapfish which was featured during an Oprah episode (Sorry, it's no longer valid!):

This offer was posted all over the Internet, on blogs and various message boards that I frequent. I decided to take advantage of the offer and signed up for a Snapfish account. I clicked the free offer link, created an account, uploaded a million or so photos, and created my book. I tried placing my order, but like a million other people trying to take advantage of the offer, Snapfish had no record of the free photo book that was previously in my account. Alot of people had placed their orders thinking that they would be credited later. I decided to contact Snapfish before placing my order to see what the heck was going on. I used the online chat approach for the first time ever and only had to wait a 1/2 hour for someone to chat with me. It was resolved and my free photo book credit showed up in my Snapfish account in literally a minute.

To top it off, Snapfish was offering free shipping the day I ordered as well. So yes, you can get something for nothing...if you're in the right place at the right time! (Disclaimer: my book was more than 20 pages so I paid for the additional pages- $4.26 total.) I also ordered 40 4x6 prints of wedding pictures (free, of course!).

Update (12/3/08): I received the book this week. It's ok. The quality is just ok. It's not because of my pictures...it's Snapfish related and if you'd like more info feel free to email me. I'm definitely not complaining because the book was (almost) free, but I would definitely use Blurb if I was going to make another photo book. Blurbs books, from what I've seen, are high quality.

Bitter Twilight

I'm down to the wire on my paper and I made the mistake of starting a new book yesterday during lunch. Silly me!

I just finished reading "Bitter is the new Black" by Jen Lancaster. It was such a hard book to get through but for my sanity I had to see if the damn girl got out of her huge financial hole. And I thought my spending habits were bad! The format of the book was horrible. There were footnotes on every page. Who writes with footnotes? It's not like its a research paper or anything. The plot was horrible and outside of the plot nothing much else happened. Jen lost her job as a vp after 9/11 and it deals with her trying to get a job, keep her apartment, and not go insane. It was rather depressing when I'm sure it was supposed to be funny. Who gets married just to get money to try to get out of debt? You can't tell me she couldn't get a job at a retail store making $7-$8/ an hour. I wish someone would have just told me the ending so I could have done more important things with my time.

Which brings me back to the paper....I finished the book so I'd have no other distractions/reasons to procrastinate. I made my goal of 3 additional pages completed by Monday night:) and I was doing great until someone at work gave me another book to read. I started it yesterday and got completely caught up in the story. It is called Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I couldn't put it down. I brought it home from work (mistake #2) and for a few hours after work. At 7 I yelled at myself and got back to work on the paper. I managed to get 3 pages done last night for a total 9 pages. Only 1 or so pages to go but it could be more if I don't feel like I've fully covered the topic.

So after feeling a sense of accomplishment on my paper I got back to reading and finished the book around midnight! If you like vampire-ish stories Twilight was really good. I found it to be suspenseful and an easy read. It had me hooked from the first couple of pages! There are 2 other books in the series that I can't wait to get my hands on plus one coming out in August. The series is for young adults though, with a little Harry Potter feel to them. Meyer's first adult novel, The Host, was released last month. It sounds a little too science fiction for my liking but I'll probably pick it up. I think I'll wait until this weekend to get them though as the goal for tonight is to finish my paper :)

Check out Meyer's website since I know I didn't do the series justice: http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilightseries.html