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28 November 2010

#332 InterRail

You also have better legroom Interrailing than on a flight.

You also have better legroom Interrailing than on a flight.

The concept of 365 things you can do emerged in Navid Modiri’s head as he sat in an airport hyper-ventilating over how he’d become a miserable human being. But as he looked up between his not-breathing he saw John Tells book "100 ways to save the world". That’s how 365 things started. This is a way to praise Johan Tell, and the planet. Here are: Seven things you can do to save the world.

There is something surreal about flying. It’s not about the strange sounds in the fuselage when you take off or the landing that always feels improvised. It’s not the miniature bags of peanuts or the flight attendants that remind you of Korean robotic assistants. It's about the simple fact that you walk into a large machine and watch romantic comedies for four hours and suddenly you are in another country. Without actually seeing what you took you there.

Despite thousands of delays, screaming children and nasty aunts, I love trains. I always take an hour at the beginning of the train ride to look out the window. No music, no books or notebooks. No laptop. Nothing. Just me and the whooshing. It's as if my brain recognizes the scene. It will immediately begin to unwind. It is cognitive somehow.

I would like to be able to tell my children that I was conceived on a train. Make up a story that my parents met in a compartment between Isfahan and Arak. I would make up that they began to joke about the conductors mustache. There is something genuine and romantic about trains that remains despite the decline of steam trains and the fact that conductors today rarely have pocket watches or big mustaches.

Interrailing is something that people did in ancient times. It is not just about the journey but about how you travel. Travelling slowly. Staying in multiple cities. Seeing the countryside and small towns. The distance between A and Z.

Required time: 
1 week or less
Cost: 
More than €50
Cons: 
Sore butt, pain in the body from uncomfortable seats and sweating if you go into a crowded car on a hot summer day.
Pros: 
It is better for the environment for people to travel more by train. Holidaying with your family, partners, friends or yourself. Furthermore, it’s often cheaper to go by train than flying.
Taggar: tickets, summer, save the world, Johan Tell, INTERRAIL, Inter Rail, flights, conductor, 365 things you can do
26 November 2010

#330 Use Facebook for something useful

Even the gang behind Facebook organizes events. Here is their summer event 2008.

Even the gang behind Facebook organizes events. Here is their summer event 2008.

The concept of 365 things you can do emerged in Navid Modiri’s head as he sat in an airport hyper-ventilating over how he’d become a miserable human being. But as he looked up between his not-breathing he saw John Tells book "100 ways to save the world". That’s how 365 things started. This is a way to praise Johan Tell, and the planet. Here are: Seven things you can do to save the world.

Suddenly all of my friends stopped calling. Nobody got in touch. At first, I thought everyone was dead but then I realized that they had gotten on Facebook.

At first I refused to sign up. If a phenomenon occurs, and thousands, nay, millions of people immediately love it, then I hate it. Then I must be against it. It has something to do with my stubborn nature. It is terribly corny but that’s the way I am.

I wrote a long blog post about how Facebook was bad for your skin, I called it Face-fuck. I tried to get people to quit Facebook. I made noise and campaigned that people should realize how horrible and addictive the new forum was. It took a few weeks. Then the storm calmed down. And I got an account. All my friends laughed at me.

Before the 2009 Nobel Prize, there were many who believed that the micro-blog Twitter would win. People thought that the site had made several important guest appearances in the name of democracy and that the micro-blog was to thank for many important outputs for the current conflicts in Iran for example.

Even Facebook does important things for democracy. Not Facebook itself, but people through Facebook, with the help of Facebook. Just like a blog isn’t automatically a fourteen-year-old blonde who is sponsored by a cosmetics company to push up her breasts in their camera phone every morning. Facebook isn’t just a way for timid monkeys pick up other timid monkeys. It is an opportunity to gather force, people and courage to do things that otherwise would have been difficult to acheieve.

Dare to use Facebook to do important things.

1. Think of an event. Formulate yourself.

2. Create it on Facebook.

3. Spread it to as many people as possible. Ask them to spread it further.
(Remind everyone who signs up to the event one day before so they won’t forget.)

Required time: 
1 day or less
Cost: 
Free.
Cons: 
It can easily drown in the amount of events that are created and spread on Facebook every day. Try to get yours to stand out from the crowd. Send the event to the press so that it gets its proper attention.
Pros: 
There is a chance that you will reach millions of people and manage to get their attention focused on an important topic.
Taggar: twitter, save the world, Peace, Johan Tell, flash mob, facebook, face-fuck, events, 365 things you can do
25 November 2010

#329 Unsubscribe to unnecessary paper

The concept of 365 things you can do emerged in Navid Modiri’s head as he sat in an airport hyper-ventilating over how he’d become a miserable human being. But as he looked up between his not-breathing he saw John Tells book "100 ways to save the world". That’s how 365 things started. This is a way to praise Johan Tell, and the planet. Here are: Seven things you can do to save the world.

I have one word that I hate: Because. There is no word I’d rather delete from the dictionary than that word: Because. It is a non-word. It is a word that irritated parents use to avoid talking to their children. It is a word that teachers use when they don’t have an answer to a student’s question. It’s the word politicians think of when they start long monologues instead of answering the question asked by the journalist. It is a word for lazy, cowardly and despicable people.

It’s also the response you get from many companies that still send paper versions of things. When you ask them why they can’t send invoices, information and important material through e-mail instead of posting it, they have no real answer. We hear them scratching their head on the other end. Then they say: Eliminating hard copies is a process and not something you do in a snap. What they’re really saying is: Because. And then they make silent fart sounds with their mouths like grumpy children that don’t get what they want do.

Bonus 1 - Put up a sign on your door that says "Advertising is for dorks" so you don’t get a bunch of paper in your home that way.

Bonus 2 – In your Internet bank, there is certainly an easy way to cancel paper bills and receive e-bills instead. So you don’t have to contact the companies yourself.

Bonus 3 - Cancel your newspaper and buy a cool mobile instead. With it you can stay in bed and get your news as soon as you wake up. Then you can go back to sleep.

Required time: 
1 hour or less
Cost: 
Free.
Cons: 
You can’t put your papers and bills in plastic pockets and folders. Your lovely folder binder system is shot to hell.
Pros: 
Good for the planet means good for you. You’ve probably already understood that part. It also saves you a bunch of trips to the landfill because you get less paper-based litter at home.
Taggar: trees, save the world, paper trash, online banking, e-billing, Cancel, business, binder system, 365 things