Search Results for: label/book%20reviews/2010/06/the-urban-homestead

807 results

My Facebook Problem

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Thoughtstylings
55 Comments
...re at Root Simple, I’ve been pondering several strategies for managing Facebook. I went through Facebook’s settings and disabled everything that Facebook lets you disable. I stopped posting links to Root Simple in Facebook in the hopes of training people who want to keep up with me to go to this blog rather than look at my Facebook posts. If and when I post in Facebook I use Federico Tobon’s rule, “Post positive things. Mostly yours. Not too much....

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I’ll Need This Someday: Clutter Control for Artists and Creatives

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Domesticus, Tidying up
13 Comments
...applies to new technology. I just heard Kevin Kelly discussing his latest book and I really like his advice to only buy technology five minutes before you need it. That way you don’t end up with things you don’t need and you also have the benefit of having the latest version. I’d be remiss if I didn’t address the aesthetic triumphs of those who are expert scavengers, such as our neighbor Doug Harvey who turned the ever present street headboard in...

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116 Being the Change with Peter Kalmus

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Podcasts, Thoughtstylings
2 Comments
...boratory, with a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University. He lives in suburban Altadena, California with his wife and two children on 1/10th the fossil fuels of the average American. Peter wanted me to remind listeners that the ideas and opinions he expresses in this interview are his. Peter is not speaking on behalf of NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or the California Institute of Technology. During the podcast we discuss: Climate change g...

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Stickley’s #603 Taboret

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Design
17 Comments
...g my own copy of Gustav Stickley’s #603 Tabouret. I could be writing a new book or magazine article, replying to emails, paying bills, lining up contractors for overdue home repair projects or filing the stack of papers growing around my computer. Tabouret in progress awaiting sanding, glue-up and finish. Instead, I’m taking a tip I learned from some of the creative people I’ve worked for and known in the past. Their work habits, if you call them...

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SolSource Review Part I: Assembly

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Appropriate Technology, Solar, Solar Oven Summer, Water and Power
4 Comments
When we wrote our second book, Making It, I wanted to include a parabolic solar cooker project. I found a castoff satellite TV dish and covered it with aluminum foil. The problem was how to position a cooking surface in front of it while simultaneously tracking the sun. If you knew how to weld this might be possible– if still a challenging project. I just couldn’t figure out a way to do it without custom welding and gave up on my dream of solar g...

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