Christmas lights and living simply?

I was driving home a couple of hours ago and started thinking about the energy crisis back in the day. You know the one, back in the late 60's early 70's when that wave of people were very considerate of mother nature and the same types of revolutionary things were happening in the church (hey- that might be where I've heard of the conspiracy before..... only now we have this marvelous internet that hurries and magnifies communication and publication.... but I digress....)

Back then, when another group of folks started the environmental revolution/simple living thing, it was very much frowned upon to light up Christmas lights. So why are all these people who want to be considerate of the earth using extra light bulbs this month? Not being true to those posts from the blog day a month or two ago when everybody sat there blogging about how they were going to reduce energy use, hmmm? Just something to think about.
Do folks really want to change the way they live, or do it only when it is convenient? This "going green" thing is oh-so-trendy. But if you need to give up sweet traditions (yes, you are carrying forth non-earthfriendly traditions into another generation) would you be willing to change? Just a little something to think about.

New Conspirators. This would be fascinating to attend

From the site: "We are racing into an increasingly uncertain global future, in which the middle class, our poorest neighbors , and our planet will face daunting new challenges. In this festival of imagination, we will invite you to create innovative ways to engage these challenges that reflect something of God’s new order…with the new conspirators." The blog talks about compassion and creativity. I love it!
Not sure that I understand (or would agree with) the wording "God's new order" terminology, but the rest of this resonates with me. And why does it have to be a conspiracy? (Great gimmick). But the fundamentals (social issues and environmental sensibility) make sense. Conference is the last part of February in Seattle--I love Seattle.

Play a game on your computer, rice is donated to feed the hungry

If you click on the pretty picture on the left,
you'll go to the free Rice site and play a vocabulary game. For every word you get right, 10 grains of rice will be donated to the UN food program.

Who pays for the donated rice?

The rice is paid for by the advertisers whose names you see on the bottom of your vocabulary screen. This is regular advertising for these companies, but it is also something more. Through their advertising at FreeRice, these companies support both learning (free vocabulary for everyone) and reducing hunger (free rice for the hungry).