It is not only the weather that is changing around here at Eco Child's Play: change is in the air. All I can say is we have big plans, all of which should be ready in time for San Francisco Green Fest. At this point, I will give you one clue: Green Options. Stay tuned...

I stumbled upon this image on the web, and I thought it was very thought-provoking. It amazes me how young children begin to recognize labels and logos (called "environmental print" by educators) and use them to make choices. What would our lives be like without such brand knowledge?

Holiday season fanfare has already begun, and I am reminded of my holiday motto: No more junk toys! Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and/or the Winter Solstice, if you have children, you know what junk toys are. Junk toys are toys that will have little educational value, are usually made of plastic, are overly commercial, and end up in our landfills. Green parents often try to make these toys disappear, but it is better to prevent their buying and giving in the first place.

There are so many beneficial reasons to buy in bulk, so this simple green practice is easy and rewarding to implement. Living an hour away from the nearest grocery store, buying our food and personal products in bulk is a necessity of mountain life. The survivalist in me does not feel comfortable unless my pantry is stocked with staple goods bought in bulk. Not only does buying in bulk make life more convenient by saving trips to the grocery store, it saves money and environmental resources as well. Bulk good prices are cheaper than individually packaged goods, and fewer trips to the store means less fossil fuel burned and more leisure time for you! The following five ideas will help you make the most of buying in bulk.

Don’t limit bulk purchases to food items only!

Buying shampoo, laundry soap, dish soap, toilet paper, etc. is also beneficial to the environment and your wallet. Even if an item is not available in bulk at your local co-op or health food store, buying the largest size possible will give you similar savings financially and environmentally.

Caught a post over on adverblog about the launch of a new social networking site for your virtual self, Koinup. The site allows you to connect all of your virtual world experiences in one network- your activities from Second Life, World of Warcraft, The Sims all in one location, where you can post content of your adventures (video of a recent SL trip for example) and browse through the virtual lives of the sites other members.

I'm always looking for new ways to procrastinate. First, there was Solitaire for Windows, then my kid's Webkinz account (addictive). Now my fellow bloggers have lead me into temptation again.

If like me, you're fanatical about a) access to relevant (dare I say actionable) data and b) new ways of communicating or presenting this data, then you will love this site.

I was trying to explain to a few colleagues the other day that I needs tools to visualize data and business processes in 3D. I'll bet that if I dig deep enough, this site will have what I am looking for. (Please please please?)

After a trip to a local toy store to buy a birthday present for a friend, my daughter was frustrated with the fact that I would not buy plastic toys, yet those are the ones she is most drawn too. On the drive home, she composed a letter to Disney, asking them to become more eco-friendly. The letter was entirely her inspiration, and I was quite proud. Here is the letter she wrote when we got home:

Dear Disney,

Tom Green has been getting all web 2.0 social media on us with a decent enough show that he broadcasts live nightly from his house. The Tom Green channel on the web displays his real home phone number for any and all to call and ask questions on air. Celeb guests like Perez Hilton, Tony Hawk, Dr Drew and Kenny+Speny come on over to Tom's house and bring items for later resale on eBay to raise funds to keep the show on the air. Viewers get to vote on what the funds are actually spent on (necessary vid equipment or a useless stuffed bear, for instance). Podcasts on iTunes, yep. Blog, yep. Mass calls to submit user-gen YouTube vids of you watching him.

All he needs now is a groundswell of viewers and paying advertisers and he has a disruptive model for the giants to be concerned about (or mimic).

So John's new book has launched, and to help promote it a little, being the clever devil that he is, he's engaged his fellow bloggers to help the push with the tried-and-tested freebie approach.

Hello Book Lovers! We have a winner for 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover by Linda Wisdom:

Christina from Ardently Book Reviews

I didn't pick her because she has a great name. My girl drew her name out of the basket. All was fair! So I hope to get that out to her soon. I hope you'll all stop in next Friday when Linda Wisdom visits.

More buzz:

-This is the neatest thing: A personal library kit.

Darling Stephanie at Confessions of a Bookaholic bestowed this award to me. I think she's the bees knees too. Thanks, Steph! Here's the explanation:

There just doesn’t seem to be ANY limit to the depths to which the truly underhanded National Association of Realtors (NAR) will reach in attempting to protect their own self interest.

Given I'm just a couple years out and, as many who know me would agree, still as prone to immature humor as ever, one of my favorite sites continues to be College Humor. While running through the RSS feeds today, caught this article on what a keyboard redesigned for the texters and IM junkies among us may look like. Silly as it might be, makes me wonder if this would actually be met with success...

The weather has been quite summer-like! After a fun day at Marin French Cheese Company and browsing antique stores in Petaluma with Yukako and Mao on Saturday, Dad and I meandered over to Fairfax and drove by a most happening place. So we turned around, drove back and parked to try it out. Besides having great food and drink, Iron Springs Pub & Brewery is a green certified business, and has an interesting webpage of all the green efforts they've been making.

This week’s theme: Choose a political or social issue that matters to you. Find several books addressing that issue; they don’t have to books you’ve read, just books you might like to read. Using images (of the book covers or whatever you feel illustrates your topic) present these books in your blog.

Green conscious baby:(Kristin, they fit perfectly!)