Makin' Waves

It rained for most of the day on Sunday and sadly the sand whale got cancelled. I had some friends over to my house to watch the movie "Deep Blue" and we had a party for the whales instead. I managed to get plenty of donations for all kinds of things. I even did tarot readings and charged people $5 a pop.

I made this box for donations and put speakers inside along with a CD player and then I played whale songs inside the box. It was kind of freaky... We put Jack Johnson on after a a while though since listening to whales harping on about god knows what can actually get pretty irritating. Still though - that is no reason to shoot them with exploding harpoons!!

This party made me realise that it's easy to raise money for your favorite charities in this way and I'm considering making a regular thing out it. Now it just seems insane to have any kind of party without it being for a good cause!

The photos from the party are up on my Flickr account and I have also created a Flickr Group for anyone else who held a party for the Save The Whale Week. Unfortunately Flickr tubes are clogged so I can't add those links till later...

L.

Posted by wavemaker at 09:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am going to the beach today to make a whale out of sand. I have no experience making sand sculptures but I will give it my best shot. I am hoping I wont be alone! It's been "SAVE THE WHALE WEEK" this week and I am hoping to raise awareness about whaling in my little corner of the world by doing something a little bit crazy. Maybe it might not be a whole whale cos that might take too long and people will start to pass out on the beach. Maybe we'll make a big tail instead. I have invited people by e.mail but I have no idea who is actually going to show up and help. Eeek!

Yesterday I went with my friend Phillip to get lots of food to take the the beach and the most important thing - WATER! It's been super hot here lately. I borrowed two big coolers from a friend and cleaned them out while Phillip chopped up carrot sticks. All I need to do today is get some ice and then head down to the beach and see who shows up. My goal is to get a picture of the sculpture into the news and collect donations for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

If you can make it to John Smith's Bay today (Sunday July 16th) at 5pm PLEASE COME!

Here's the e.mail I sent out to my my friends:

Hello,

Just to update you all on the plans for Sunday. It's going to be at John Smith's Bay starting at 5pm. I've been told that we will need many hours to make a whale out of sand so we'll see how many people arrive and decide what we can do then. Just making a tail could be a lot easier!

There will be snacks and beverages on the beach but feel free to bring your own.

Most importantly we need all the sand castle making equipment that you have - buckets and spades etc or anything that may resemble them.

Please come! This is a fun event to raise awareness about whaling and all donations will go to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) http://www.wdcs.org/

Everyone is also invited to my house for a free showing of "Deep Blue" at 8pm on a BIG SCREEN ;-)

If you can't come to either event but would like to make a donation please contact me.

Did you know that Japan killed over 800 minke whales in the Southern Ocean (a whale sanctuary!) last winter? There is video evidence proving that these whales can take more than 30 minutes to die after they have been shot with an exploding harpoon. We need to convince politicians all over the world to take action against whaling and WDCS is one of the best organisations to help us do that.

I hope to see you at the beach! Please forward this e.mail around to your friends and families.

Regards
Lisa

Technorati Tags: whaling, [whales], [beach], [awareness], [fundraising], [Kyoto], [dolphin], [Bermuda],

Posted by wavemaker at 08:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

My RSS news feeds today

I've always thought space exploration was the biggest waste of money. I mean sure, it would be *interesting* to find out more about black holes and life elsewhere but give me a break! Think of all the improvements here on Earth we could have achieved with the amount of money we've spent on farting around in space.

I realise that there are some benefits to humanity from the whole space thing like Velcro and dry ice cream that you can buy from the NASA gift shop (my friend brought me back some once but I thought it was pretty grim) but seriously if you lived in the Maldives (or anywhere else at risk of flooding due to rise in sea level) which would you pick when given the choice between Velcro and a dry home above sea level?

Same goes for the amount of money spent on lots of stupid things like military for example but that's a whole different story. Basically - Governments need to start putting their money where their mouths are. Blair loves to shout about global warming but the UK is not on target and wont be until he starts putting his empty words into action. Same goes for most of the developed countries. While some will say that the US is much worse and I would agree... at least they don't make promises that they have no intention of keeping (Kyoto).

So what's the latest action we can take for the planet? While looking at Treehugger.com I noticed that a certain ice cream company is rather devoted to raising awareness about climate change. Some environmentalists (including myself) may argue that any company who makes money from cows releasing methane (a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide) into the atmosphere has got to be having a laugh when they say they are serious about helping to stop climate change but aside from that, what they've been doing is really quite groovy. Check it out.

I really enjoyed reading Haley Potter's blog about her experience in Greenland and I did my bit and joined her campaign which simply involved sending an e.mail to Tony Blair urging him to shape up on renewable fuels.

Lisa.

Technorati Tags: [Climate], [Bush], [Blair], [Discovery], [Shuttle], [Kyoto], [Wind], [Space], [Icecream]

Posted by wavemaker at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ban the Bulb

I am proud to declare that all of the light bulbs in my house are those weird looking halogen things. Governments should act on this opportunity to conserve energy and decrease C02 production because environmentally aware people are not going to be able to do much by themselves. If you aren't already using energy saving bulbs you should be ashamed of yourself and go out NOW and buy some but if you are, then you could help the rest of the planet to make the switch by writing to your local MP, government ministers and leaders urging them to propose a ban or a tax on incandescent light bulbs that are costing the Earth.

I'll write my letters today and will post any responses.

Posted by wavemaker at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)