Hello, World.

Good morning! I'm sitting at my computer with my morning cup of coffee and enjoying the sounds of the birds, air units, and the breeze as I decided to open my windows. Opening my windows is one of those things that I always enjoy but seem to never remember. Back to my morning cup of coffee. It's different today! Instead of Coffeemate French Vanilla liquid creamer, I'm using half-and-half and sugar and here's the kicker: they're both organic (my coffee would be too, but too bad my roommate already filled the bean reservoir with something else).

The point of all of this is to let you know that I've decided to ease into "going green". See, I have a tendency to rush into things, devote all my energy, peak early, and quickly burn-out. I'm trying to avoid that here. My first step was to start buying organic food not only because of the lack of additives, but also because of the lack of damage done to the environment in their production. Here, I must vent for a moment; I'm very frustrated at not being able to find a good, user-friendly website that helps you to live a more environmentally lifestyle! So, if I find a good one, I'll post it here, and if you find a good one, you'd better do the same. ;)

So, I went to that wonderful place we call HEB (where I also happen to work) and made my way through the aisles grabbing some produce here, some cereal there. Now, I had heard how expensive organics were but I was quite happy with my bill as I didn't feel it was ridiculous by any means. Hopefully a less materialistic lifestyle (something I'm continually working on, but inevitably failing at) will help to offset the price of eating/living healthy. Oh, and I also bought reusable grocery bags to bring my groceries home in!

All in all I felt pretty productive as I finished my scheduled day at 1:00 PM and went to Starbucks then because my class was cancelled. It is then that I went on my Organic Extravaganza, but it is what happened afterward that is truly remarkable; I went to my room and worked on my big paper! I've been really bad about this one due to a lack of motivation for a poorly chosen topic (which has thankfully been changed) and general procrastination. Yet, I finished re-watching the movie that I'm writing over (Daughter of Keltoum, which is recommended viewing) and took no less than 12 pages of notes. I then found 22 articles over Algeria, the Berbers, women, water, and mountains that I now need to work through. The point is, I'm now really excited about this paper and am looking forward to working on it later tonight when I get off work.

And now I'm going to finish my morning internet rounds, drinking my coffee, and enjoying my view (which I realized yesterday is quite nice)...