WED, commemorated each year on 5 June, is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action.

The Mission of the United Nations Environment Programme is to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.

I’ve been reading blogs centered around news from the West Coast for far too long now - let’s see about putting the Upstate on the East Coast’s IT map along with RTP & Atlanta!

While I envision the group being mostly about web technologies, I look forward to whatever others want to bring to the table - as long as it is IT related.

Hopefully it won’t center around job searching like 1000 other groups out there do already - I’m thinking just plain ol’ IT talk, whether it be web design, web technologies, SEO/SEM, webmaster, standards, OSS, security, programming, etc.

Too bad I don’t actually work for Google - but if they won’t let me have my own name, maybe I don’t want to anyway!

We just moved into our current house last year, and with tomorrow being National Arbor Day, it is a perfect opportunity for us to plant a tree - something we’ve been lamenting over for several months now.

The 2009 theme, “Trees are Terrific…in Cities and Towns!” was designed to increase student’s understanding of the importance of trees in a community. Here is the official Arbor Day poster for this year:

I’ve also added the “don’t blow it” app to my Facebook page - why?

For every new player, a low-allergenic tree will be planted with American Forests, up to our goal of 20,000 trees. Why? Because studies suggest that higher levels of carbon dioxide and a warmer atmosphere may increase pollen production, which in turn triggers nasal allergy symptoms. And tree planting is one of the best ways to reduce the amount of CO2 in the air.

To help protect the environment, I pledge to:

1. Use less water! Take showers instead of baths, fix leaks, and turn off the tap when brushing your teeth. And buy efficient fixtures by looking for the WaterSense label.
2. Save electricity! Do a home energy audit, get programmable thermostats, buy Energy Star products, turn stuff off when you’re done, and change your bulbs to compact fluorescents.
3. Reduce, reuse, recycle! Try to find products with less packaging, take reusable bags on shopping trips, creatively reuse other products, and recycle what’s left.
4. Test your home for radon! Radon is a naturally occurring, odorless gas that can seep into your home and cause lung cancer.
5. Use chemicals safely! Read pesticide labels carefully. Lock up pesticides, paints, and cleaners where kids can’t reach them.

I went to a business social yesterday - my 1st one - usually I’m more than happy to just code at home with my PC and Pandora, but they did mention hors dourves and a bar, so I figured I’d give it a shot (although I had to pay to drink ARGH!).

Anyway, I struck up a conversation with some dude that turned out to be in sales - I still don’t know what he was doing there besides handing out his card to everybody, but at least he knew all the catch phrases I find oh so dear… He kept my attention for a solid 30 seconds until he started talking about Flash this, and Flash that - at which point I knew it was time for a refill or I was just gonna have to get out of this waste of time get-together.

It took a month, but I finally realized that FB wasn’t giving anything back - sure, I hooked up with a few ol’ Navy buddies, and a few that turned out not being friends after all - but in the end, all I see FB good for is people that need somebody to talk to, and want a site to go to for a bad UX.

Good-bye Facebook. Now I can spend more time improving my web design skills…

* UPDATE: Yea, that didn’t happen - guess I needed more coffee or something…