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22 December 2010

#356 Arrange the presents yourself

It’s said that Christmas is about giving. We at 365 Things You Can Do feel that Christmas is about doing. Therefore, we are suggesting 10 Christmas gifts you can give away instead of buying new ones.

1. Help out at a homeless shelter - Give someone you love an experience beyond the ordinary. Take them to a shelter on Christmas Eve and help out.

2. Sing-o-gram - Send yourself or someone else to sing and play your friend or loved one’s favorite song.

3. Give away an activity - For Christmas you can invite your friends to go parachute jumping, pet snakes, go horseback riding, box or ice fishing. Try to make it something none of you have done before.

4. Write a poem - if you find it difficult to verbally express what you feel about a person you can always give away a poem. Read some poetry beforehand for inspiration. Or don’t.

5. Buy someone dinner - One Christmas gift could simply be to invite a friend or family member to a fantastic dinner.

6. Give knowledge - Your friend might be the noodle type. Then give them about ten cooking lessons and teach your friend how to cook your specialties.

7. Clean someone's apartment - not everyone likes to clean. Therefore, a day of cleaning can be a perfect gift. Go to a friend’s house with rubber gloves and scrubbing brush and don’t leave until the place is shines. Finish by making a cup of tea as the cherry on top.

8. Organize a surprise party - Gather all the friends of the person in question and arrange a party with snacks, music, dance and drinks. It will be a memory for life.

9. Plant a tree - Nothing says "I love you" like a seed which then becomes a large tree. Therefore, we encourage you to give away a tree for Christmas and after a few years it’ll maybe even start to bear fruit. Then you can give away the fruit.

10. Give away a day with you - Today time is a kind of currency. A lot of people talk about not having time. Give away time for Christmas. A gift card for 8 hours with their son or daughter should be the best present your mom or dad could get.

Text: Navid Modiri

Required time: 
1 day or less
Cost: 
Less than €50
Cons: 
It takes a little longer than buying a Christmas gift.
Pros: 
It’s almost certainly more personal.
Taggar: trees, time, Sweden, shots, plants, flat trail, cooking, cleaning, 365 points
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
13 May 2010

#132 Rename trees

I'm so damn tired of whoever it is that makes those signs that are in front of some trees in some parks in some cities. They are names in Latin, which nobody but the writer understands and that doesn't say anything about the tree in question. And how to the people that put the sign up – the tree doesn't have more functions than it says in their book from nineteen-hundred something. I mean, just because they have studied botany and plant science for a thousand years doesn't mean that they can know everything about every tree in the world and have the right to put up signs on trees when no one else has the right to do so. 

It is time that we rename our trees. Make signs and put them in front of trees that you find fill a specific function. Make up names for them. Here are some examples I have found in Slottsskogen in Gothenburg. 

Wishing Tree: If you write a wish on a piece of paper and put into the tree, the wish comes true. 

Protection Trees: If you go past the tree one dark night and feel a bit scared the tree protects you from rapists, cops and robbers. 

Confession Tree: You can lean up against this tree and whisper your deepest secrets. The tree's function is to never tell. 

Drum Tree: If you play on the tree trunk with two drumsticks or two broken branches there's a quite amazing drum accompaniment. 

I'm going straight out to put up signs for my rebranded trees. 

Required time: 
30 minutes.
Cost: 
Hard paper, wood, a felt-tip pen.
Cons: 
People might mistake you for a pest. Explain calmly that you don't harm trees or nature but instead are doing the park and the people a favor.
Pros: 
The trees feel important because they serve several purposes. You can utilize the newfound capabilities of trees nearby.
Taggar: trees, public areas, rename