After posting a review of New Day Revolution, Sam contacted me and suggested I hold a little contest on the site. Being a fan of Sam, the book, and CoolPeopleCare, I eagerly agreed. Here are the details…

The Prize: An Autographed Copy of New Day Revolution!

The Contest: Leave a comment on this post with your idea for making a difference with small choices. Sam and Stephen (the authors) will choose the best idea and you’ll receive a copy of the book. It’s that easy.

Contest Deadline: Friday (July 25th) around noon

Go ahead and start sharing your brilliance with the world. Go ahead and give as many ideas as you want, but be creative, Sam and Stephen have already come up with a lot.

My Idea for Making a Difference With Small Choices is…

I had the pleasure of getting to know Sam briefly while living in Nashville. He and a friend, Stephen Mosley, co-founded a website/organization called CoolPeopleCare, and together they co-authored this book, New Day Revolution: How to Save the World in 24 Hours. My other good friend in Nashville, Daniel, bought me a copy and I finally sat down and read it.

If you’ve been to the site, CoolPeopleCare then you’ll get a basic idea of what the book is about, tons of simple lifestyle changes you can make to better the world. They include everything from drinking fair-trade coffee to reusing wrapping paper, all organized into nice little categories through out your day (Commute, 9-5, The Weekend).

What I really liked about this book is it was a simple reminder that our lives our made up of a million choices every day. We often go through the motions, not recognizing that each decision, each step, is often a choice, and for the betterment of the world, it’s a good thing to reconsider some of the choices we make. Something as simple as the toothpaste we buy is a choice that we make. Choosing organic toothpaste is a small change that can fall more inline with the convictions and values that we have. Same goes for stopping junk mail, or using your morning commute to learn something new.

New Day Revolution is a quick and easy read, and choosing to put into practice some of the things you learn in those pages is well worth your time.

Update!: Sam contacted me and gave me permission to do a giveaway on the site. I’m going to create a new post about it, but the prize will be an autographed copy of the book. The Contest will being on Monday, so stay tuned.

(p.s. I know I skipped a couple weekly book reviews, but I’ve still been reading. We are at week 28 of the year and I’ve already read 30 books!)

On the Fourth of July we went downtown to enjoy the festivities (yes, we weren’t sitting at home in sack clothe and ashes). There were bands playing and we were wandering around, listening to the music and checking out the different kids activities in the area; I had my daughter in my arms.

About fifty feet in front of me I noticed two men exchanging words. One man, tall, long haired, shirtless and either his personality or a few drinks had caused him to be a little off kilter. He was following another guy, this man trendily dressed with cool shades and a slick messenger bag over his shoulder. Something had obviously been said between them during the music, and they were now confronting each other, the trendy guy slowly walking away, but continuing to turn around and antagonize the other guy. Then I noticed the mace or pepper spray in the trendy guys hand.

The rest of the story is not really that important, pepper spray was used and police showed up shortly after. The point of the story, is that I’m confident I could have done something to de-escalate the situation, but instead I just sat and watched. There were a couple minutes, as the argument progressed that I, or anyone else watching, could have stepped between those two men and told them to calm down and go their separate ways, but I didn’t.

It’s not very often you come across a situation like that were you are at the right place and time to intervene shortly before a situation occurs. More often we are working for change in the aftermath of a tragedy, or we are making efforts in the community long before, and without knowledge of, the violence that could become if we weren’t making those efforts. Available youth programs in an area plagued by gangs are active steps toward non-violence, providing alternatives for youth long before violence and gang involvement ever occur for those youth.

I recently chatted with a pastor at a local church. A recent violent tragedy that had occurred in the neighborhood had involved one of their church members. He was asking the question, and the church was taking proactive steps to build a wider and deeper community. He said we needed to “get nosy” and develop relationships so friends, neighbors or relatives could know about someones struggle long before they resorted to violence.

The efforts I’m making in my community are not all that different then the efforts we all could and should be making where ever we live. From North Minneapolis to Columbine, those who resort to violence see it as a viable option to deal with their situation or problem, often they see it as the only option. Getting to know your neighbors, the nice ones and the cruel ones, and actively providing those around you with opportunities and options (you as a listening ear and active community programs) are all steps we can take to building more peaceful communities.

(this is in response to crossn81’s writing prompt. photo credit)

So, I feel like I haven’t written much of substance on here recently. And because I’ve been posting some old posts I’ve sort of ended up with a month long writer’s block that I haven’t done anything or had any reason to get over.

That said, the best way to get over writer’s block is to write, and one way to do that is through prompts. So, I thought you might be of help. I was thinking maybe you could write me some writing prompts. They can be anything. Here are some examples of prompts (from Writer’s Digest):

• You and a friend have just finished a lovely meal at your favorite restaurant. But things take a turn when you notice that the waiter has scribbled an unexpected—and startling—message on your bill. Write this scene.
• Describe your dream house. Where is it located? How many bedrooms? The more details, the better.
• Write a 16-line poem (rhyming or non-rhyming) about a moment from your childhood that changed your life for the better.

Those are examples, but I’d like one more geared towards me and you and stuff I’ve written about before, faith, money, politics, parenting, etc. They can be “Ask Ariah” type questions or more creative, fiction, descriptive, etc. The more specific the better.

Anyways, thought maybe you could help me out.

p.s. When I get board I also start messing with the blog’s look, so you might see some changes around here, we’ll see. A definite sign of procrastination and sloth.

Okay, nothing really special there except a bio of sorts.
I realized I was sending a lot of emails and newly interacting with people in my new home of Minneapolis, and rather then having my blog in my signature which could cover any number of random topics on a given day, I needed to have more of a ‘resume-portfolio-this is me’ type of site. And of course, no one else in the world has picked up ariahfine.com yet so now it’s all mine.

Thought I’d mention it so you could browse over and give me your thoughts and/or opinions on it. It’s meant to be quite simple, focusing on the areas I’m most interested in: Writing, Community Organizing, and Web Consulting.

I’m also trying to figure out how to, or if I should, link that to this blog, etc. Any professional opinions on that?

Hop over to ariahfine.com and then hop back and give me your thoughts.

Who knows if this will become a regular series, but I’ve definitely ran across enough stories to keep it going if I wanted to. This recent one is about a Casino being fined $800,000 for sending marketing material to recovering gambling addicts who had voluntarily signed-up to be banned from all casinos. In other words, the casino was enticing addicts to gamble even after they asked to be excluded.

From the Chicago Tribune (ht. AAA)

The Illinois Gaming Board on Monday fined Hollywood Casino in Aurora $800,000 and suspended three managers for sending promotional materials to problem gamblers who asked to be banned from casinos in the state.

It’s the largest fine the board has ever levied for such an infraction….

The voluntary program allows problem gamblers to cut off their access to state casinos. The exclusion includes promotional materials intended to entice customers to visit.

Ethical? What do you think?