list 100 things to improve the world and do them

I know this is controversial… But I have never had a baby fever. I don’t have any reasons to want children of my own except wanting to perhaps raise a child (adoption is an option there) and my curiousity to see who lovely an offspring my husband’s genes would produce.

Most of my life have been solidly in the “don’t know if I’ll have any” camp. The social pressure around me to have a child is growing every year. The population of the planet is also growing every year. Since I was born, it has gone from 4.3 billion to almost 6.8 billion. In 20 years it will, at this rate, be 9 billion. Considering that I’m now much ok with the thought of not having any children of my own.

I’m not saying no-one should have children, just that currently the population is exploding and I don’t really need to add more.

One reason why spam email is so common is that people do not know what steps they can take to keep their computers from taken over by spammers. When possible, I try to inform people of the measures they can easily take to protect their computers, their data and themselves online.

I spend some time almost daily helping Linux (at the moment Ubuntu/Kubuntu) newbies with their computer problems. Given that it’s pro-bono work, I only spend max 30min on a problem and stop if it is too much hassle or if it is a company problem and they should honestly be paying someone to do it. But I think it helps some people be happier about their computer. :)

Apart from buying food when I’m hungry, I rarely buy things the first time I see them. Waiting a bit lets me think about whether the purchase makes sense for me (and for the environment), or whether it is just something I want on a whim.

I have also noticed that when the seller is rushing me into the decision, there is usually something fishy going on. Good things will usually be buyable tomorrow too, and if not, the sales person is not hesitant to give me their contact info so that I can get back to them once I have decided.

Occasionally I manage to take some pretty nice photos. I try to share them with the world in two ways: showing them (on flickr, for example) and putting them under a Creative Commons license, so that if someone thinks e.g. that my waterlily photo would be perfect for their wedding invitation or somesuch, they are free to use it.

Solid form soaps (soap bars, that is) and solid form shampoos (such as those from Lush) require less packaging than their liquid cousins. That means less garbage. Plus I found the Lush shampoos positively yummy!

Seeing garbage left in the environment makes me irritating and dumping junk furniture and such sometimes makes me plain angry. Picking a piece of garbage up makes me feel that I can do something about it.

Don’t throw away or let others throw away batteries with normal garbage if a battery collection point exists in the area. Batteries tend to be full of heavy metals that the environment does not handle so well.

As the result of over 14 years online I have become pretty good with searching. Today, when looking for targets for cheering, I found a goal where I felt I might be able to help, went googling and actually found what the person was looking for!

That was fun!

This entry was triggered by a Frogs and Princesses project of two artists. They were giving out frog badges and princess badges but to get them one needed to sign a paper stating that if a holder of the opposite badge comes to talk with them, they should treat the other person kindly, so that they can have a pleasant chat. And in exchange they themselves can go to talk with anyone holding the opposite badge. Sounds wonderful!

In a way they were formalizing what should be a basic human right: to talk with others kindly, without malice, and to be treated back kindly.

I do pretty well with this with random strangers in the centre of the town or with people in busses and trains.
On the other hand I often fail with this with drunkards. I guess I’m intimitated by them even when they are just being polite and friendly.

I want to be better at this and see the network of kindness amongst strangers grow.