Oh Well

Given that it's 5pm, and I have on the order of 15K words to go, I don't think I'm gonna finish Nano. Which annoys me, the first two years I finished it, and I wrote the most completely random things where I had no idea, this time and last year both I had a good idea, but never managed to get it through. I don't know what's up with that. It annoys me, though. Maybe I'll take this and see if I can hack it into something workable, though. There's at least 20K decent words in it, that's a decent start for something.

Hrmf. The thing about it is, if I'd written even half the days I didn't, I probably could have finished it, too. I'm wondering if it's even worth writing more tonight, or just relaxing and not stressing about it for a change.

Holiday Cards

Okay. I'm trying to find some nifty greeting cards for the holidays. And because there's no reason not to, I'd rather they were made from recycled paper, and printed with veggie inks, that kind of thing. This has lead to a couple of findings. One, way too many things try to proudly proclaim "LOOK HOW ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY WE ARE!" on their cards, with like all sorts of new agey things like faeries. Yeah, okay, but that's not really what I want. I want something in the nerd to hipster range, that just happens to be made in sensible ways. I really hope we reach the point soon where making things in environmentally friendly ways isn't something that's needed to be trumpeted, it's to be expected.

And the second is how so many places proudly proclaim their stuff's hand-made. Okay, yes, that's nice. And I can understand the attraction, every one's unique, etc etc. But. Hand-making stuff doesn't mean it's made more environmentally friendly. It depends how you make them. Done right, machine-made stuff is better. that's's why we use machines. They can repeat the same task over and over without getting bored or tired. Once we set things up for them, they can do the same tasks with less waste and in much less time. The only reason most hand-made stuff is "better" for the environment is the scale of it. There's fewer made, if they made the same number hand-made as can be made with a machine, chances are there'd be a lot more waste.

The other thing I want is somewhere nearby. Shipping takes a good bit of energy. For example, buying cards from this neat Australian store wouldn't use less resources, since they'd have to cross a whole ocean to get to me. This place Two Piglets isn't bad, but that's still in California, and none of their designs really appeal that much to me. Maybe I should look at the table full of cards at B&N or something.