Canada's Earth Day logo

Yesterday was Earth Day, a day to stop our busy lives for an instant and reflect upon what it means to take care of this planet. Most of the things that have really fucked this world up are not up to you and me, but we can all contribute no matter how small an effort we make in the end it all adds up. All the recycled plastic bottles, all the light switches that we turned off, all those minutes we manage to shave off while taking a shower. We should really make an effort to change, even if it´s in a small way, the way we use the Earth’s resources…and not just on Earth Day…we should do it everyday.

How did you celebrate Earth day? Me? Well, I changed my 2.7L pickup truck for a 1.5L ULEV Honda. Going green wasn’t the main reason…but it sure played a part in my decision.

Here are a few tips you can do to give our planet a much deserved break:

1. Turn off a light switch.
2. Buy a thermos. Ditch those disposable paper cups at Starbucks and get a thermos. As a bonus your coffee stays hot for longer.
3. Shave 5 minutes off your shower routine. That’s 7-8 gallons you save.
4. Give your car regular tuneups.
5. Fix all your energy leaks, poor insulation, etc.
6. I you can bike instead of driving (I sure don´t do this)
7. unplug stuff you don’t plan on using.
8. TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER MONITORS.
9. Turn off or put your laptops to sleep.
10. Take care of your trash. Separate your trash, recycle it.

Bonus

• Whenever possible buy local.

Tell us what you did for the environment and what you plan to keep on doing.

There are a lot of things that I do when I’m at work, one of them is get all my assignments mixed up, delayed or simply forgotten. Not good cuz too many of those can get you in really big trouble. Most of the times tho,work remains at a manageable level and even when it starts piling up y try to stay ahead of the mess by using the trusty ToDo List.

Most people use fancy smartphones or project planning software or some complex corporate system. I mainly use the ToDo list for more immediate stuff and to keep track of every little detail on a daily basis. Here are a few reasons why I really enjoy using a ToDo list:

1. Easy to add entries.
2. Easy to modify entries.
3. Lets me keep track of the stuff I did during my day.
4. Is not confined to a specific project or even to work. I just cram all the stuff that needs to get done work and not-work related.
5. It really gives me the feeling that I am progressing through my activities.

Bonus

• I LOVE scratching off those activities!

So most people use pen and paper but not me. I’m a bit more of a geek so I use one in my computer. And I only one a ToDo list, not a calendar with tasks and I’m not too fond of online ToDo Lists. I really value my privacy. So I started looking around and found two apps that caught my attention:

1. TaskPaper
2. Things

TaskPaper

Free app (or at least it didn’t demand that I register it) Of the two I like this one best. It’s got the ease of use of a text editor but with a few extras. Adding entries is real easy. Just add a – followed by a space and you got your task. Or with the special shortcut you can add a task to any project no matter where on your computer you are. You can also classify each task or project with tags. You add a tag by inserting the @ symbol before any word within the task. It instantly becomes a tag, now you can search and group tasks or project by tags. How cool is that!

Easy Breezy

The thing that really made me change from Things to Taskpaper is the ease of use and that you can select only one project and print it out so you can take to your meetings and it won’t looks as messy as if you did it by hand. You can also search by tags and print the lists of entries that are grouped by that tag or tags. oh and also it has different themes! ooooh.

Check out their webpage here.

Things

Eye Candy

Things from Cultured Code, real shiny slick interface. Very powerful features like drag and drop emails and turning them to tasks, also uses tags, enables projects and has a more powerful method of prioritizing and grouping tasks like the inbox, scheduled, etc. It is searchable and also has universal shorctus so no matter where you are you can add an entry. Oh and perhaps the best feature of all is that is syncs with the iPhone. Wow! so complete, so refined, so … expensive. Yes it costs 50 bucks. So why did I choose a text editor over this? Well for one the money I’m not too keen on paying $50USD for a ToDo list. Another thing is that I couldn’t fully understand Thing’s way of grouping tasks: next, scheduled, inbox, ugh! too complicated. Next, I don’t use the default mail app nor do I have an iPhone. So I couldn’t care less for those features. So basically this is my list of Things big no no’s:

1. Memory Hog
2. Too complicated system of groping tasks
3. Couldn´t print out a single proyect
4. 50 bucks ugh!
5. Interface is too elaborate.

Now don´t get me wrong i think Things is far more capable than Taskpaper, it´s just that I didn´t really feel comfortable using Things. And in the end, the only thing that matters is that you get your work done.

Check it out here.

What tools do you use to keep your day organized? Tell us in the comments section!

Photo: Graham Hughes / AP

Today March 17th is St. Patrick’s Day, where people all over the world get together and celebrate St. Patrick, recognized as Ireland’s patron saint. This celebration has come to be more and more a celebration of Irish culture more than a religious celebration. St. Patrick’s day is typically celebrated in the US, Ireland (of course!), Argentina, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. Each country has their particular way of celebrating but the most common way is to have a big parade and drink beer or ale.

No matter how you choose to celebrate this holiday the important thing is that you can share this day with friends and family.

Sláinte

I´’ve been hanging around this Earth for a little past 29 years now. While it’s not THAT much i have managed to pick up a few things along along the way. Hope you enjoy.

• Being afraid is a waste of time. It limits your potential and undermines your success, one should never be afraid of doing what needs or wants to be done.
• Most people don´t mind meeting someone new. You would be surprised at how many people I´ve met while waiting in line at the bank/supermarket/etc.
• People DO mind meeting new people at the nightclubs.
• It is possible to piss family off.
• A mother´s love is unconditional and irreplaceable.
• Nobody in this world is going to love you more than your mom.
• A father´s love is conditional. Fathers can give up on you. Do enough stupid shit, fuck enough things up and it can be a helluva bumpy ride.
• Friends are not THAT important, good honest wholehearted friends should be cherished like the grandest of treasures, brothers are to die for.
• Excercise makes all the difference.
• If something needs to be done right, you gotta do it yourself. especially kids
• A drunk 15 year old is cute, a drunk 30 year old is just pathetic.

Well this is it. Share your list with us. Post’em in the comments.

Have a great weekend everybody!!