More Hip than Hippie - Feng Shui
Dori's finally moved back into her house. We take a look at Feng Shui, taste some beer, eat some chocolate, and check out some listener emails.

 

Martha's New Magazine
Blueprint - Design Your Life - Expected to come out May and August 2006.

The Beer: The Chocolate: Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Truffle. (Sorry no direct link to the chocolate).

The Beer: Eel River's Organic Porter from the Eel River Brewing Company.

In the News:

• Seventh Grade Science Project - Student finds toilet water cleaner than ice at fast food restaurants.
• From Rob: The Flying Luxury Hotel - Tomorrow's cruise ship will sail through the air, not the water - From Popular Science
• Smart Homeowner Magazine - Val's really enjoying this one.
• Val tells a joke!

Feng Shui - location, location, location
Feng Shue has been used by Donald Trump, Virgin Airlines, the Bank of Englad and the United Nations. It's even been used on TV sets such as Big Brother.

 

Feng Shui teaches us how to create harmony and balance around us by considering the effect of our environment on individual health and well being. It's the integration of the outside world and our internal environment and this philosophy is being employed by a growing number of architects and decorators that are integrating 3000 year old ideas into their contemporary building designs.

Nutshell - concept is to attract positive energy. What you put out, you get back. Nothing granola about it. Feng Shui is a philosophy - a way of seeing the world.

There are 8 key factors in Feng Shui Analysis.

• Ch'I of the land
• Shape of the lot
• Shape of the house
• Traffic and Road Influences
• Entrances
• Room arrangement
• Stairways
• General condition and level of upkeep

There are a variety of tools used in Feng Shui - Here are a few examples

• Paint Color
• The Bagua (map of general area/building)
• Crystals
• Wind Chimes
• Flutes
• Mirrors

Here are some links for more information on Feng Shui:
http://chineseculture.about.com/library/picks/aatp_fengshui_bk.htm
http://www.fastfengshui.com/fast_fengshui_book.htm

 

Listener Emails

• Nancy - Full Plate Nutrition - What's up Girls! I finally listened to all the shows, so I've allowed myself to write. I have a few questions for you: What should I be telling people to freeze food in? Glass Storage has an advantage - doesn't need replacing. Stainless steel is good (Jill couldn't find a link - if you know where to get some- let her know). Non-PVC plastic. Aluminum foil. What can we use for garbage bags? I tried the Seven Generations bags but they tear and leak and they're too big to fit down the chute. Val recommended reexamining purchases to see if any alternatives exist to reduce packaging that is ultimately thrown away. There's Bio Bags from Greenfeet.com that come in trash and food waste size bags. They're made from corn so they won't be quite as sturdy as thick plastic, but they do the job.
• Lindsey from Athens, GA (one fo the 10 greenest cities in the U.S.) mentioned how San Francisco is looking into ways of turning their dog doo into methane fuel. Oh, poo! http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060222/ap_on_sc/dog_waste_power
• Jennifer found us via Red Jellyfish (who we love) and suggested that we check out Yesterday's News - an environmentall friendly cat litter. Jennifer says that its less tracking than Feline Pine. So there you go.
• Scott in Connecticut wanted to give us a heads up on a couple of good sites for green products: www.unpluggedliving.com and www.treehugger.com Of course, because we enjoy shameless self promotion, check out www.greenfeet.com because it rocks.
• Michael from Huntersville, North Carolina send us a very informative link to EFF - The Electronic Frontier Foundation regarding a code of conduct for Internet companies in authoritarian regimes. Good and interesting reading.
• Andrea - joined a CSA!

Email us at hip@greenfeet.com and don't forget to vote for us at podcastalley, review us on itunes, and podcastpickle.com