#11 "Plastic Brick Maker"

#11 "Plastic Brick Maker" using the same tech assumption as in #10, I'd like a device that melts plastic bags down briefly for molding into a plastic brick. This brick would be a simple building tool, perhaps for the developing world. Perhaps it would have to use the loom technique as well, weaving the plastic bag into itself strongly enough to form a tight brick-shaped thing. Honestly, most any idea that re-uses the millions of plastic bags that float around the world right now would be excellent. Until we're smart enough to use and reuse sturdier grocery bags, we have to find a way to pull the plastic ones back out of the waste stream (at least for a bit).

#10 "Plastic Bag Fiber Kit"

#10 "Plastic Bag Fiber Kit" I want to re-use my plastic bags (or gather them up from the ocean...) and I want to do it myself. I am not sure of the off-gassing temperatures of the bags, but I'd guess there's a safer point at which bags will melt a little bit but still not burn. I imagine a loom of sorts, where you have a bunch of plastic bags in a bag and the loom pulls each bag out, welds it to the bag before it, melts it a bit, and turns it into a long thin strand of plastic. This strand would wrap around a spindle for re-use as rope, or plastic yarn-string for weaving. Could be that simply pulling it hard would generate enough friction to make it pliable and then thinned for string-making.

#9 "Compact Fluorescent Painting"

#9 "Compact Fluorescent Painting" I visited the EcoHaus in Seattle (Environmental Home Center) to learn a few things (I didn't learn much, unfortunately) about LED lights. I didn't find any there, but I did learn from a guy at Seattle City Light that different bulbs put out different Kelvin which translated into different coloring/tone to the light given off (as opposed to lumens which is the amount of light). I got to thinking today that I'd rather not replace the "wrong" colored lights, I'd rather just paint them a bit. I know it's not quite ready yet, but I'd like a specific to CFL paint kit. I want bluish, reddish, yellowish lights. I want to accent with my lights as I choose, without buying a particular (non-matching) color. Someone will eventually make a paint that will let the CFL owner paint it without building up too much heat.

#8 "WorldChanging Lamp"

#8 "WorldChanging Lamp" The book "WorldChanging" is excellent and inspiring for me. It was signed for me by its authors and given to me by Lief Utne who's a friend of my friend David Smith. It's got this awesome cover sleeve, but I can't bear to leave the book in the sleeve as I read it too often. The sleeve is sturdy, with a beautiful bird on it, and it's got this cool as hell design with poked holes emanating from the bird graphic. I will simply put a small compact fluorescent lamp inside, leaving a small hole in the corner for the wiring. Metaphorically cool as well, the book does shed much light, methinks.

#7 "I'm from Stupid T-shirt"

#7 "I'm from Stupid T-shirt" It's a white t-shirt with the phrase "I'm from Stupid" with two diagonally upward pointing arrows. Not something I myself would let my daughter wear, but I though it briefly clever. Alternately, could say "Geek Parents" with the same arrows.

#15: "Job Change Flip Book"

#15: "Job Change Flip Book": So, you quit that job at the local Hi-Fi store, but not before getting a hundred new business cards that finally spell your name right. What to do? Bind them together at one end, and make a flip book out of them. YouTube has many flipbook animations you can pattern your book on, here's one that uses both sides of the page:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGggKaR5lRA&feature=related

Using your old cards is a great way to reuse rather than recycle, and it adds a nostalgia note to your animation. Perhaps a series of them could be made to illustrate and memorialize the job you just left. Maybe a short animation of you handing in your resignation would be appropriate...

#16: "Super Slow Day"

#16: "Super Slow Day": It's like real life, only you do everything you normally would at literally 1/2 (or slower) speed. I've done this under different biochemical circumstances but it also works without changing your body chemistry at all. The idea is to plan an entire day (it's good to plan, but you'll see that your plans may turn out strangely) where you can act/be/do at 1/2 speed. You can expand this to Super Slow Week/Month/Year/Life if you like it enough. What essentially starts to happen is that you cease to get use out of multitasking, but you do each task either quicker or better or both. For instance, since you will be walking around your house at 1/2 speed, you have twice the time to think about each next action/activity/lack thereof. That means that you'll usually waste less time on each action. Don't just ponder the idea, try a "1/2 hour at 1/2 speed" for real and see what I mean. It could literally change your life...