It is easy being green

I have to disagree with Kermit the Frog on this one.

In about 45 seconds I was able to remove my name from the credit reporting indutry lists (Equifaz, Experian, Innovis and Transunion). These are the people who are ultimately responsible for you getting credit card offers in the mail every other day. Whenever I get them I just rip them in half without opening them and toss them in the trash and I always think to myself "What a waste of paper." Well I finally figured out that if you go to optoutprescreen.com you can fill in your name and address (they ask you for your ssn and birthday too but I didn't give it to them) and click a button and you are removed from the list for 5 years! If you take the little bit of extra time to mail in a signed confirmation you can be removed for life. I opted to go for the 5 year plan becuase I am too lazy and cheap to mail in something, and it is no burden for me to take 45 seconds every 5 years to remove my name from the list. Also if you prefer you can call 1888 567 8688 and accomplish the same thing.

Next step...remove my name from the marketing lists that send the other junk mail (Penny Saver, random coupons etc.). This one requires a signed request to be removed along with your name and address sent to,

Mail Preference Service
c/o Direct Marketing Association
P.O. Box 643
Carmel NY 10512

It takes a little bit of extra effort to mail it off and shell out the dough for the stamp (aren't they like a buck and a quarter each now?) but I will do it if you will do it. Together we can rid this world of junk mail and maybe even save a few trees along the way.

We have a Wii

My bride got me a Wii for our 2 year anniversary, which was at the beginning of this month, but thanks to the incompetency of Game Stop and UPS it just arrived on Friday. It was worth the wait (and the incessant checking of the tracking process that I had been doing every 30 minutes or so for the last few weeks). The Wii has been out for awhile now but they are still very hard to get a hold of. Mariah looked for months and at every store she checked in they were sold out. Then she finally found a package deal online that came with some extra controllers and games and we ended up buying it.

We absolutely love it. It is so different than any other video game system because of it's unique motion-sensitive wireless controllers. Most of the games you have to play while standing up and moving around. With Xbox (the other video game system I own) I could just sit and waste away a few hours while unwinding after coming home from work but with the Wii it is really tiring to play. I am sore after playing it all weekend.

It comes with a disc called Wii Sports which has Golf, Baseball, Boxing, Tennis, and Bowling on it and I could play the Golf and Bowling games forever. They are both fairly realistic. My bowling score on the game matches my average in real life.

If you can find it I definitely recommend getting a Wii. We have already had a few people over this weekend to play including people that don't normally like video games, but it is a system designed to involve everyone. It's great for parties or when you have a few people over and it's relatively inexpensive when you compare it to the Xbox 360 ($400) and the Playstation 3 ($500+).

One word of caution...be careful once you get it. It can be dangerous.

Hip-Hop is...

I have been so stinkin' busy with school and with trying to find a new job that I have not posted on here in quite some time. Well since I have a post that is school related I thought I could make the time.

I started a project for a class I am in at Fuller called Theology and Hip-Hop Culture and I want to ask you to participate. The project is called "Hip-Hop is..." and I am inviting people to finish the sentence.

How would you finish that sentence? What does hip-hop mean to you? What do you see as both the positive and negative of hip-hop culture?

You can put your answer here as a reply but really what I would like you to do for the project is to make a video of your answer and post it to YouTube. I made a little video explaining the project and then finishing the sentence myself. You can watch it here or below. Also be sure to check out intheremix.com which is a group blog designed to engage hip-hop culture that Jason created (same classmate that made Letters From Leavers).

Thanks for your help.

The video