Some Quick Facts

Here are some quick facts from www.stopglobalwarming.org

• IF ALL AMERICANS VIEWED AND PAID BILLS ONLINE, WE'D SAVE 18.5 MILLION TREES EACH YEAR.
• ONE SOFT DRINK CAN RECYCLED BY EACH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENT IN AMERICA WOULD SAVE 24.8 MILLION CANS. THAT WOULD BE ENOUGH ALUMINUM TO CREATE 21 BOEING 737 PLANES.
• UNPLUG UNUSED ELECTRONICS AND SAVE $256 PER HOUSEHOLD PER YEAR.
• GET IN THE GAME: Be a good sportsman and unplug your game console. Consumer electronics are the biggest user of electricity in your home, and game consoles are often the worst. Left plugged in all day, every day of the year, a game console uses twice as much energy as the TV it is hooked up to. Leaving your game console plugged in all year is equivalent to having over 200 cell phone chargers left in the wall! Get in the game and unplug your game console when you are not in play!

Brought to you by the letters: E,R,I,C and A.

It's Earth Day!

Today is Earth Day! So if you haven't already, it's a good time to start being greener. For some easy tips, refer to my previous green posts. Here's also a link to an article on how to reduce global warming.

Pictures from Amsterdam!

As promised, here's some visual stimulation.

This was the first thing I saw in the Amsterdam train station (it's a sign for a natural herbal store). Or at least the first thing I noticed. I guess this was Amsterdam's way of saying, "Welcome Erica!"

Are these gypsy pants, hammer pants or are they just stretched out capris? I hope this style doesn't make it's way over here.

The Dutch eat the Herring fish raw. Just drop the entire fish into their mouth as demonstrated by the two girls. I'd like to say I tried this while I was there, but my excuse is that it isn't Herring season yet.

Penis Shaped Salt and Pepper shakers. Tasty!

Melts in your mouth, not in your hands?

I read about the Amsterdam Sex Museum in the travel guides and had planned on going for an educational experience but since the entry way looked like the lobby of my local Buca Di Beppo's, I nixed that idea right away.

More pics to come!

Save Grant Park Please!

Mayor Daley is planning on building a 100,000 square feet children's museum in Grant Park. A children's museum in Grant Park is totally unnecessary. There is one already at Navy Pier. Navy Pier officials are even willing to expand their facilities. Also, other places like the museum campus welcomes a children's museum being built there.

A museum in the park would take up much of the green public space we have in the city. Not only that, the museum would violate laws that have protected Grant Park as "Forever open, clear and free" for more than 170 years.

Besides, isn't all the construction happening in Millennium Park enough? Many people really like the gigantic bean and twin towers projecting random head shots, but I don't particularly care for it. I'm sure many of you guys agree with me as well.

To do your part please:

1) Call Mayor Daley at (312) 744-3300 and ask him to "drop his plans to build a 100,000 sq. ft. children's museum in Grant Park because there are better locations."

2) Visit http://www.savegrantpark.org/ and sign their online petition.

3) Ask friends, family and co-workers throughout Chicago to call on their alderman to "oppose the Chicago Children's Museum's proposal to build a 100,000 sq. ft. building on Grant Park" and send them the link to sign the online petition as well.

More info can be found at http://www.savegrantpark.org/

White Washing or Brain Washing?

I went to watch the movie 21 yesterday about a group of MIT students counting cards in Vegas. Despite the fact that Kate Bosworth looked a bit like Skeletor, I enjoyed the movie. I heard that the movie is based on a book which was based on a group of real MIT students. Interesting right?

Interesting enough for me to do a bit more research on the movie's background. In fact, the movie's background was even more interesting to me than the actual movie. I found out the real MIT group was made up of mostly Asian students. In the movie, of course, the group only has two Asian actors with small roles. The main character, although based on Jeff Ma (an Asian), was played by a British actor using a fake American accent.

It is quite upsetting to see that in today's world, when there is a woman and an African American campaigning for the presidency and not to mention a Harold and Kumar SEQUEL (with two Asians cast as leads), that movie execs do not feel it appropriate to cast more Asian actors as movie leads. In addition, the two Asian actors in 21 were, as Nick Rogers of The Enterprise wrote, "[lumped] into one-note designations as the team's kleptomaniac and a slot-playing 'loser'".

It is just sad, sad, sad how the representation of Asians in the media continues to be so insignificant and the little representation we do get comes in the form of stereotypes and racist jokes.

So according to the media, I'd be cheap, submissive and nerdy with a thick accent but my saving grace would be that I can kung-fu somebody's ass.

Sad.