Help Free Tony The Tiger

Tony the tiger is a Siberian/Bengal tiger held in captivity, for ten years, by a cruel owner and showed on display at Louisiana truck stop. This is such a sad story. People have been fighting for years to have this tiger moved to the Big Cat Rescue, a big cat sanctuary, in Tampa, Florida. The owner has also fought hard, to keep his tiger living in horrible conditions and to keep making money off of him. The tiger's main living area is an outdoor concrete cage, visible to the public and people driving by on the freeway, where he is breathing in toxic car fumes and surrounded by loud traffic noise. He has no room to run or swim and leads a stressful, unhappy life. The poor creature is being exploited by it's owner, Michael Sandlin, as a roadside attraction for people to come and shop at his truck stop. It's sickening the way this beautiful animal is being treated, like as if he is a commodity to be capitalized on and not a living creature that needs to be protected and cared for properly. Tigers need space and freedom to roam. It is cruel and abusive to keep this magnificent animal locked up in a small cage. Watch this video by Big Cat Rescue. For more information visit Free Tony the Tiger.

On Dec. 14, 2010 Michael Sandlin's yearly permit to keep Tony was yet again approved by the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. But the fight is not over. To find ways to help, click here.

To do my part I am going to send a letter to Avaaz to ask for their help in petitioning the American government to free Tony. They are an organization that gets millions of people all over the world, to sign petitions for important causes. Let's hope we can get their help on this one too.

*Correction I have just sent this letter to Avaaz:

"To whom it may concern,

I am writing on behalf of Tony, a Siberian/Bengal tiger, held in captivity at a truck stop in Louisiana for the past 10 years. His living conditions are deplorable and he is inhumanely being exploited by his owner as an exhibit to make money. He is on public display, in a small concrete cage, beside a freeway where he breathes in toxic truck exhaust and hears loud traffic noise 24/7. He needs your help to raise awareness and have a petition made to fight for him. The Big Cat Rescue in Tampa Florida has offered to take him and provide him with a good home where he can run and live in proper living conditions and be treated with the respect he deserves. But his owner refuses to do the right thing. For more information about his plight visit http://freetonythetiger.wordpress.com/tonys-story/ . Also I have just posted on my blog about this and have said that I am going to ask for your help in this matter http://enviromommy.blogspot.com/ . I have signed many of your petitions and I believe that you are the one organization that can really help Tony, because thus far nothing anyone else has done has worked. This needs a global campaign. Please help."

Let's hope it works!

10 Songs I Am Loving Right Now

Here is another fun favorites list. It's not my all time favorites, because that would be too hard, but it's the 10 songs that I am really loving right now and can't stop listening to. Feel free to leave me a comment of your faves, I love hearing about new music or thinking about songs I haven't thought of in awhile. Here it goes, in no particular order.

Esthero - Black Mermaid

Adele - Someone Like You

Lightning Dust - Highway

Emiliana Torrini - Sunny Road

Spree Wilson - Don't Pass Me By, Featuring Esthero

Lightning Dust - Never Seen

Florence + The Machine - Dog Days Are Over

Adele - Rolling In The Deep

Kate Earl - Nobody

Adele - Tired

PS - Earth Hour was great last night, we turned off all of the lights and lit candles and made up ghost stories. It was my hubby, my kids, my niece and nephew, my mom in law and myself and it was a blast. It was so cute 'cause each kid took turns making up their own ghost stories and all the stories were great. We also played games and just hung out as a family, with no TV or computer or video game distractions, and they loved it. It made me think that we should do this kind of thing more often. Maybe we should do our own family Earth Hour once a month, just for the fun of it.

My All Time Favorite Movie Scenes

Okay, I've been reading a lot of enviro and political stuff lately and sometimes it really gets me down (on a side note - I was told when I took Enviromental Studies in college that sometimes you can start to feel depressed when faced with all of the horrible stuff happening to the planet, and it's true. I think that's why many people choose to ignore the issues and stay ignorant, so that they don't have to know and feel bad about what is going on around them). So I've decided to write about something fun. I have a friend who does a lot of movie reviews and she has inspired me to write a little movie review of my own. Or, not really a review, more like a favorite scene list. So here it goes, in no particular order:

Tank Girl - Sand Shower Scene

Watch it here

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Dirty Dancing - Learning To Dance (on the log, in the field and in the water) Scene

 Watch it here

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Bourne Identity - First Kiss Scene

Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - Escape From Cannibal Island Scene

Romeo & Juliet - First Meet Scene

Ever After - Just Breath Scene

(This was the only good quality clip with the scene in it, it goes from 1:31-1:37)

Hackers - Under Water Ending Scene

Moulin Rouge - Roxanne Tango Scene

I am sure I could go on but I won't, for now...

Vancouver Named Top Climate Change Fighter In Canada

Vancouver was named the top climate change fighter in Canada by the World Wildlife Fund. Check out the info in this article.

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Will You Participate In Earth Hour?

Join the cause to fight climate change. Last year over a billion people, in 128 countries, around the world took part and it was the largest voluntary action ever witnessed. This year lets make it even bigger. On Saturday March 26 at 8:30pm (your local time) turn off your lights for one hour. Have a nice candle lit dinner or play board games or tell stories or play hide and go seek with your kids. There are lots of fun things to do in the dark. Participate in Earth Hour and show your support for our planet. Let your voice be heard, stand up and take action on climate change.

For more information visit the WWF Earth Hour website.

Going West - Cool Animation

This is so creative, check it out.

Living The Zero Waste Life

Here is a family in California who are living a zero waste lifestyle, the Johnsons. They buy everything in bulk and bring all of their own bags and containers when shopping, so as to have no packaging to throw away. They compost and make their own cleaning products and they follow the 4Rs, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and "Recycle only as a last resort." I commend them for their hard work and will be trying to incorporate some of their tips to reduce my waste output. Check out this video about their zero waste home. And also check out their blog, The Zero Waste Home, that has tips and details of how they do it. 

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Do You Get PVCs?

I bet many of you don't know what that means. Some of you may be saying isn't that a type of plastic? The kind of PVCs I mean are Premature Ventricular Complexes, which are a type of heart palpitation that many people get once in awhile and most people don't feel. It's basically when your heart has an extra beat. For those that don't feel them it isn't too much of a bother (unless they are caused by some "underlying heart condition"). For those that do feel them it can feel awful, like as if you are having a heart attack. I started getting them about 10 years ago and they were very few and far between. When I first felt one I was very confused because I didn't know what was happening. I was just sitting on the couch watching TV and then boom out of nowhere my heart had a big thump/gush kind of feeling. It was so weird. It was almost like my heart was going to fall out of my chest. I had a few more of those in the following days and decided to see my doctor. She had me do a holter test, where they hook you up to a little portable machine, with electrodes attached to various places all over your chest, and you wear it for 24 hours. During that time you write a little diary of everything you did and at precisely what time, so that they can look at your heart activity. Anyways nothing showed up and my doctor said that it was probably nothing, and that women can have heart palpitations from time to time, and not to worry. So I didn't worry, because really I had so few that it wasn't too bothersome. 

Fast forward to last year and they started coming more often. I was having 10 or more of these episodes a day. So again I went to a doctor and had another holter monitor test done. At every time that I charted one of these episodes (those ones that feel like my heart isn't working properly and that something is wrong with it, like my heart is dropping out of my chest or I am having a heart attack) they noted a PVC. I had probably 8 that day. The doctor said it was fine and that they were just PVCs and not to worry. She was nice enough to explain them to me and how they worked and that some people feel them and others don't, but really not to worry. 

So now I know what they are, these strange things that happen to me, that make me feel dizzy, and lightheaded, and really out of sorts, and are actually kind of scary. I certainly don't like them, but if I only have them once in a while they are manageable. And really they come and go. I go whole weeks without them sometimes, and sometimes I have a bunch one day, and none the next. 

Fast forward again to three days ago. I started getting a lot of them, like 5-10 a minute for many hours, I had been told by my doctor that if you suddenly get lots of them that you should go to the hospital. So I did. While at the hospital my left arm started to go all numb and tingly too, which was also scary because isn't that another sign of a heart attack? They hooked me up to some machines and did a few tests, took some blood and sent me home soon after. Said it was those PVCs again. 

Fine, but how can I feel like this? If my heart feels like it's not working right and it feels like there is a problem, why is it lying to me? And why is it progressively getting worse? I've read on some threads, out there on the internet, of many others feeling this way and considering this to be a major nuisance (it's even hard to drive when it happens), but everyone says the same thing, unless there is an "underlying heart condition" they are not a cause for concern. So how do you know if there is any "underlying heart condition"? No one seems to want to check into it further. Not my family doctor, and not the people at the hospital. Do I demand to see a cardiologist? How can they tell by a few small tests, for such a short period of time, that it is nothing? 

Has this ever happened to you? 


For more information about PVCs, check this link.


PS I really don't want to sound like a complainer. I know there are more horrible things going on in the world right now. My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan.

The Bachelor - The Final Rose - Review

I have to say congratulations to Brad and Emily, I hope they have a wonderful life together. I hope they make it through the rough patch and come out of the process a stronger couple. Their engagement was really touching and emotional and I hope they can hang on to that love. It's been really funny reviewing this show (my guilty pleasure), because I've never done this kind of thing before, but I enjoyed it.

It's always a bittersweet ending when the show is over. I am so happy for Emily, but soooo sad for Chantal. I really liked her, I liked her spunk and zest for life. She has great energy and she carried herself through this difficult process with integrity. I knew Brad was going to pick Emily, but I kept rooting for Chantal in my mind because I liked her so much. Not that I didn't like Emily, because Emily is so sweet, and adorable and kindhearted. But I just felt something more for Chantal, it was an understanding. It's like I knew what she was feeling, falling for someone so hard, and the spark seemed so real, and then not having that love returned. As women I think most of us have been there, I know I have (along time ago, in my early 20s when I was searching for that someone special, and it seemed to take forever to find him). Chantal was so relate-able that I had to root for her, she reminded me of myself. I was surprised to hear, during the After The Final Rose show, that she is already seeing someone new. Good for her, but hopefully she is really over Brad enough to be in a new relationship, because she didn't quite look that way. I'm sure it was all very fresh seeing him again and now that she has closure, hopefully she can move on and really be happy. Good luck to her.

One thing I especially liked about the After The Final Rose show was seeing the couples that stayed together. I think my favorite couple is Ali and Roberto. I loved their season, it was so romantic, and Roberto is such an amazing guy. Ali is very lucky to have found him! All of the couples' advice to Brad and Emily was great and as a fan it's always nice to get an update. So I am glad that this season is over and I can have my Monday nights back. Until May anyways, when Ashley will be the new Bachelorette.

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Polar Bear: Spy On The Ice - Amazing Video Footage

 Wow this is so fascinating and beautiful! Polar Bears filmed by super high tech spy cameras. Check out these videos from the BBC movie, Polar Bear: Spy On The Ice, by filmmaker John Downer. 

For more info about the movie and how it was filmed check out John Downer's website.

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