Bye Bye Boo Berry

This was a lonnnnngggg time coming. Kellogg's announced today (or at least I heard about it today) that it would stop marketing cereal to children under the age of 12 unless the product serving size contains: no more than 200 calories, no trans fat and no more than 2 grams of saturated fat, no more than 230 milligrams of sodium and no more than 12 grams of sugar.

This is double good news.

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Microsoft: Gaming for Global Warming?

I was kind of shocked when I read the headline "Microsoft seeks answer to question 'Would global warming make for a good game?'", but I'm not sure why. On the one hand, although I have a PC, I don't enjoy using Microsoft Windows at all. In fact, I often use Ubuntu Linux in order to avoid using Windows. As far as I'm concerned, those Mac vs. PC commercials are completely true.

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Free Cassettes and CD's

One of the best things about recycling stuff in our store is that I get to look through piles of cassettes and CD's that people no longer want. I'll admit it, I'm a music fanatic and my collection doesn't stop at my beloved iPod. I have a "thing" for cassette tapes, records and 8-track tapes and this addiction is far too easily fed by our eager recycling neighbors. Sure, I like compact disks

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Riding a Bike to Work

I took the photo on the right while riding my bike to Manhattan this morning, over the Brooklyn Bridge. I have a couple of meetings in Manhattan today, as I often do at least twice every week, so I've started to ride my bike as a way to get more exercise.

 

The thing is, riding a bike in New York City is more contact sport/life-and-death video game than exercise. I spend most of the ride dodging potholes, cars, buses, trucks, tourists and dead rats. Still, I have to say, it's a great way to begin the day. What a view from the bridge!

Here in New York City, the best friend to bicycle commuters is the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives . Anyone out there bike to work? What city? Overall, is it a good experience or bad?

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New Video Source

I learned about thenewsroom.com a few weeks ago at the Personal Democracy Forum. It's basically a video news feed site that you can join (for free), allowing you to pick up mainstream media news video and embed it in your blog. Yes, there are ads in the preroll but hey, how else would a service like this make money?

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Still Digging Out

Samantha and I spent quite a few hours packing up rugs for shipment yesterday. Yes, we are still digging out from the Rachel Ray Show. We're getting close, though, so I'm going to cut this short and use the time to get those rugs out!

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Citysol 2007

Citysol 2007 is fast approaching! Haven't heard of it? Basically, Citysol is a New York City-based "clean energy, interactive art & music festival", hosted by the amazing gang at Solar One. There's music, sustainable food and beer, shopping, art and education, all outdoors on the East River, in Manhattan.

Solar One, a solar-powered classroom located in Manhattan at 23rd Street and the East River, has hosted the festival for several years and this year promises to be really cool. The music will be co-presented by Brooklyn Vegan , one of the best music blogs around and the marketplace on July 14th will be co-presented by some store called 3r Living (who are those guys?)

Speaking of the marketplace, if you own a sustainable company and are interested in having a table at this year's festival, let me know. We are still looking for vendors and the price is right ($150 for the day). Contact me at mark@3rliving.com, or try Skype (threer3r) or AIM (threerliving).

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A Bit of an Expansion

For the past three years, we have been running our website out of our Brooklyn Storefront . This meant that Samantha and I, and our part-time employees, have been splitting time between serving local customers, receiving deliveries and sending out Internet orders.

It was a tough balance, but it made sense to do this while our website was just starting out. This year, though, the website seemed to have grown enough to move it out of our storefront and into its own space. So, this week, orders will be fulfilled from a "new 3r Living location". Exciting, huh? Okay, it isn't as exciting as opening a second store, but it will make our operation a lot smoother.

Speaking of which, I'm cutting this blog post off right here. I need to get over to the new space and ship some more rug orders. We're still digging out from the Rachel Ray Show.

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Knowing What's Important

Sure, the big story today is that President Bush made an announcement on Climate Change yesterday. However, if you came to 3r Blogging looking for my take on it, you came to the wrong place. Go to MSNBC.Com , read about it yourself and give me your thoughts via email, Skype or AIM. I'm interested in what you have to say.

So, instead of substance, I'm reserving today's blog for a little self-promotion. Dutch Kills, the band I have been playing in for about 7 years, is playing tonight at midnight at Trash Bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (256 Grand St. between Driggs and Roebling ). It has been a while, since it was hard to schedule practice over the past year while I tried to figure out how to raise a newborn baby and run a store .

Anyway, If you are in town and you are a bit of a night owl, stop by and rock with us! Also, check out some of the songs that will be released on our new album ("Blissville") on our MySpace page, www.myspace.com/dutchkills.

Photo Right: Dutch Kills...when we were younger.

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