TODAY'S TURN: Mount a recycled trophy head

No finished basement is complete without some sort of dead animal parts, right? A skin, a head, a fish, a tooth, a paw, a tusk, or even your beloved Bowser stuffed on the hearth.

If you're looking for that finishing piece for the wood panel - but aren't too keen on hunting - might try a 3D rhino head puzzle from Cardboard Safari. Or deer. Or bison. Or moose.

Every puzzle is made from 100% recycled, locally-produced cardboard - plus the company supports the International Rhino Foundation. So the rest of the animals might thank you too.

CLICK HERE TO DO THIS GOOD TURN
See more animal trophies at Cardboard Safari.

TODAY'S TURN: Add broken glass to tonight's menu

Broken glass can do more than help celebrate Jewish weddings or bloody up Bruce Willis' bare feet while he strafes bad guys in an LA highrise. Broken glass can help you eat. And it can do it beautifully.

It's been said that a glass bottle takes about 1 million years to decompose. May or may not be true, but the point is that glass would be much more useful on your kitchen table than on the side of the highway. Found a surprising number of companies who specialize in dinnerware made with recycled glass - 100% recycled in some cases.

Mazel Tov, Bruce!

CLICK HERE TO DO THIS GOOD TURN
Fire and Light's dinnerware collection

Viva Terra (do a search for "recycled" on the home page)

Vidreco brand glassware from La Mediterraanea

The Green Glass Company

Recycled Glassworks (glassware art by Lauren Becker)

TODAY'S TURN: Give like an investor

When we give to a non-profit or charitable program, we like to know that it's on the up and up. People don't want to feel used or perpetuate the problem - is the money really going to buy rice for those barefoot kids or am I just funding a new Bentley for their "leader"? Personally, I also like to know whether the program works or not.

Here's the problem: cynicism in many cases can cost lives. Fraud and ineffective programs keep piles of much-needed checks from ever being written.

Geneva Global is part of a "performance philantropy" approach that researches programs and charities as if they were investing in a company. That means looking for potential, researching claims and expecting results. It's where the world of mutual funds meets the world of philanthropy. You choose a fund just as you would a mutual fund, you get reports on how well they're performing, and you get assurances that your money is having the impact you want it to have.

CLICK HERE TO DO THIS GOOD TURN
Here is a full list of the funds in play right now.
Here is their Gift Giving Catalog from December 2008.

TODAY'S TURN: Help a homeless elephant artist

If you want something that an elephant produces to hang on your wall, it'd normally involve ivory or something a little smellier. Maybe a lot smellier.

But at a special camp in Thailand, rescued elephants learn to paint, and you can pick up a print of your own. At the very least, you have to watch the video of one elephant in action. Amazing.

Proceeds are used to keep their native habitats as well as caretaker education, veterinarian care, and food for domesticated elephants.

CLICK HERE TO DO THIS GOOD TURN
Visit Exotic World Gifts for more about these talented trunk toters.

THE SABBATICAL IS OVER

Six months of procrastination - check. Glad I got that over with.

Calling it a sabbatical is so much more impressive than calling it laziness. Fact is, I haven't posted in six months. It wasn't a case of burnout as much as it was simply not having two-hour windows to devote to each post. Yes I know I write slow, but I am what I am. It just got too easy to put off posting until tomorrow or next week. (I did the same thing with my Masters thesis - which I never did finish.) It was like a blackout of sloth and languor. I have no idea what happened to autumn. I could blame it on the NFL...so I will.

So we're back, but with a new approach. Shorter, more direct posts that happen more often. A wider collection of ways to make responsible purchasing decisions. I'll still be wordy sometimes. You may find yourself wishing I would shut up and get to the point. But for the most part, this'll simply be a menu of socially and envrionmentally responisible ideas. No muss. No fuss. No Charlotte Russe.

Good to be back. Now let's see what we can find...

Kiva Loan Update: more businesses on board!!!

We're almost halfway there! Another payment of $113 was posted on our microloan to Zaituni Mudoobi and her catering group in Kireka, Uganda this week. The loan is now 42% paid off and every payment has been on time.

Even better, with some smart shopping and a few gift certificates, I've been able to help spread the genius of Kiva. Now I feel responsible for not just one business, but three.

• My brother Mark, who is interested in raising chickens, loaned some cash to a Poultry business in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
• My mom, the queen of crafts and stitching, loaned some cash to a clothing store owner in Lagos State, Nigeria.

For background, here's my original post about the Kiva microloan service.

TODAY'S TURN: Go away!!!

THE ISSUE:
Don't hate me because I'm tan. Don't resent me because I'm relaxed. Don't mock my souvenir T's or wish hot death to rain down upon my sea-sponged shoulders because I seem to have forgotten what a hectic, horrible, dangerous, filth-ridden, mean, harsh, unhappy, back-breaking toilet the world really is - not to mention the rancid meatheads who occupy it. I'm simply too at peace to argue with you anyway.

You may have noticed I haven't posted in a while. For two weeks...for two blessed, hug-my-mom-for-giving-birth-and-making-this-possible weeks, I was able to shut the world off and shut myself down.

And I was reminded of two simple truths:

1. The more you close yourself away - in a cubicle, in a neighborhood, even in a hometown - the harder it is to feel connected to national and world events.
2. Blood pressure can make you blind. The more stressed out you are, the less you really SEE others.

Even as I was "getting away from it all" I felt drawn to people. I was curious about their lives. I conversed. I felt a kinship that's tough to feel while swallowing a dose of road rage back home.

I'll call it the Pilgrim's Paradox: Ignoring the world for a couple of weeks is the best way to connect to it.

THE GOOD TURN:
Shut down the computer, unchain yourself from e-mail, take the kids out of school and put your dog in a kennel (or if you prefer, the other way around), hug your lawn mower goodbye and take a vacation already!

Meet the world. Learn something about someone, somewhere, somehow. Taste. Smell. Listen. Bring home some smiles with that snow globe of Santa Claus on the beach. Bring some understanding of the people and places that normally just flash by on the CNN ticker.

And if you can also have a Bloody Mary while watching a sunset, so much the better.