Saturday, March 12, 2011

Use Noise Insulating Earbuds to Protect Your Hearing

Do you ever find yourself at a very loud concert or sporting event and wish you had brought your ear plugs to protect your hearing? 


 In a pinch you might be able to use your Ipod's earbuds if you have earbuds that are noise insulating. They can drop ambient noise by about 20db making them a reasonable and less flourescent alternative to the bright orange ear plugs you left at home.  Of course you will want to make sure they aren't attached to an Ipod playing loud music.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Make Short Impulsive Phone Calls to Improve the World

Something neat happened this morning.  I had 2 Walmart products in my hand and as I turned them over I realized the peaches were in a container that is not recyclable in my area (number 7 plastic means "other") but the apple sauce was in a recyclable container. (number 5 is polypropylene).  I also noticed the toll free number for customer service on the package, so I asked the kids to stop making noise and I picked up the phone.  5 minutes later I'd left a message asking them to work with their suppliers to get the product I described into a recyclable container rather than a disposable container that would just end up in a landfill (or worse incineration).  While on the line I remembered their eggs come in styrofoam rather than biodegradable... so I added that to my call.  How easy.. 5 minutes and I've reached out and asked for things to be better, and explained that as a customer I will feel better about buying their products if I can recycle their packaging.

So let me encourage you to be impulsive and call customer service when you notice a small improvement that can be made.  Maybe its a pothole that needs fixing, or a safety concern with traffic.  Just take the few minutes and call so the people who can make a change have the info they need.

Challenge:  Make 1 impulsive "improve the world" call this week.

Tips:

  • Be nice.  The person on the phone is being paid to help you.  The problem wasn't caused by them.
  • Ask for a callback or update so you can be informed of the progress they make.
  • Ask if the company is working on that sort of thing.  If so ask if there is another place you can call to provide this information. (I don't care who you are, transformational change is hard work)
  • Don't attempt to control... Just ask for what you want and explain your motivation.


Cheers,  have fun making the world a better place.
Greg.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Lifehacking - Tips - Use old socks to protect hardwood floors (and toes)

I love our hardwood floors.  We worked really hard as a family to install them, and we do our best to keep them in good shape, including making some of our beds wear socks on their feet.  Originally this started as an attempt to protect our toes from being stubbed in the night on bed legs, but it has proven so effective at protecting the hardwood floors that I had to share this tip with you.

Monday, January 10, 2011

New Online Games Blog Announcement

As you know my blog http://makelifeexcellent.blogspot.com is all about excellence in design, sustainable living and life hacking and how that relates to technology and society.  Sometimes I've written about unrelated topics mostly because I haven't had another place to write those things.  I wanted to mention that I've launched a blog experiment where I'll also be writing on my online video game blog. So if you like Facebook's Cityville, or are looking for fun free online games, head over to the onlinegamesdigest.blogspot.com site to read.

Cheers,
Greg

Monday, January 3, 2011

How to protect yourself on the Internet

If you are Internet savvy this list is nothing new, but if your online security could use an upgrade, check out the following list of Internet security precautions.

You have very real concerns about protecting yourself from identity theft, about getting the junk and viruses off of your computer.  They seem to come climbing back on as soon as you clean them off. Your friends tell you they got a virus in an email from you. It seems that your computer is doing things you didn't tell it to.  Since the Internet is so useful and its benefits are becoming a common  part of our daily lives wouldn't it be great to be better protected?

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Tips and Tricks to succeed at CityVille on Facebook

I have come to enjoy playing Zynga's CityVille on facebook even though I never thought I'd play a "Facebook game".  Here are some tips that I've employed to ensure an enjoyable and effective time playing CityVille.  After looking briefly at privacy, spam, finances and managing in-game resources you will better understand how to have fun while succeeding at CityVille.

3 reasons for and against New Years Resolutions

I don't like New Years resolutions for 3 reasons;

1. They tend to be hard things that I'm not doing now, so that means change and effort.
2. The idea of resolving to be better or do things better shouldn't be reserved for 1 day a year.
3. There are a lot of voices out there "telling people what to resolve".

But I've found 3 reasons to dig in my heels and participate;

1. I rarely take adequate time to reflect on my life and self-assess.
2. I fail to "resolve" because I fear the outcome being beyond my control.  I give in to fear and don't even "choose" to do better.   Better to attempt and fail or only achieve half, than to not live intentionally.
3. We're all in this together.  Those who succeed are inspiration for others. Those who struggle are team-mates with those of us who fix our eyes on "What could be" and try.

Cheers,
Greg.