Brummet's Conscious Blog

** Don't forget to enter this week's prize draw! ** We are looking for 5 winners: 3 bottles herbal migraine/arthritis pain relief, personalized coaching program & set of inspirational cards ...Email: ldbrummet@yahoo.com with “prize” in the subject line. Deadline: Sunday morning - May 3rd. -- Bragging Rights -- I’d like to brag a little and let you know that a new book is out that includes an interview and information about our 2 radio shows and this is called: Talk Radio Wants You – An Intimate Guide to 700 Shows and How to Get Invited Visit: http://www.talkradioadvocate.com or www.bookpromotions.com -- Important Eco/Conscious Events -- National Victims of Crime Awareness Week (Canada) - April 26 to May 2, 2009 www.victimsweek.gc.ca "An opportunity to raise awareness about victim issues and about the programs, services and laws in place to help victims of crime and their families. Communities across Canada will be hosting activities to raise awareness and to promote s...

-- Quote of the Day -- "For the sake of future generations, we must collect and study the wild and weedy relatives of our cultivated plants as well as domesticated vegetables. These sources are dangerously neglected. The future will not be so tolerant. We cannot afford to ignore any source of the gene pool." ~ Jack R. Harlan, Professor Emeritus -- Up-Dates & Chatter - I have just updated our myspace blog which gives you our schedule one week at a glance, which you can find at: www.myspace.com/canadianauthor My newsletter - Brummet's Monthly - just went out yesterday: check out all the prizes we have in May! I hope that some of you can join me at the interviews throughout May and June :) Brummet's Monthly is an opt-in e-newsletter that goes out during the last week of every month. Simply email me asking to be on the list if you'd like receive the newsletter: ldbrummet@yahoo.com Our 2 radio shows have recently had all of May's episodes available for our lis...

-- Eco-Event ! -- Save The Frogs Day - April 28th, 2009 http://savethefrogs.com/day Frog populations have been declining worldwide at unprecedented rates, and up to 200 species have completely disappeared in recent decades. In an effort to raise awareness of the plight of frogs, the scientific community has declared April 28th, 2009 the 1st Annual ' Save The Frogs Day '. Please get involved and help spread the word! Save The Frogs Day is a perfect time for teachers and students to focus on amphibian conservation, learn about amphibian extinctions, and discuss ways that we can all contribute to amphibian conservation efforts. http://savethefrogs.com/day -- Conscious Discussions -- Today's episode focuses on Eco-Vacations & Clean Green Spaces : Sheryl Kayne – is a syndicated columnist, radio & TV personality, travel workshop facilitator & consultant and the author of 4 books. Today we will be learning about Leave No Trace ethics to employ when enjoying green spac...

-- Quote of the Day -- Re: equality & a healthy society “ …These (Super-Sized Cycles brand) bikes can hold up to 550lbs. …The tricycles are great for older clients (and those with physical limitations) they might have had a stroke or something… so these are very safe, you don’t have to worry about balance. …Electric assist bikes means that there is a motor to carry the rider, but you also peddle. It is more of a regular, consistent workout – and you ride faster. …1/3 of the United State’s population is obese, another 1/3 are overweight – and this is similar to most English speaking countries… even in countries where you wouldn’t necessarily think because they are not necessarily well off. …There is a huge problem with the overweight in this world …I am concerned with assisting these people to live the life that they have got. …I think it is so important for us to be able to do what a non-heavy person can do. …I think people don’t realize the ways in which fat people are discrimin...

I'd like to just let our radio listeners and blog readers know that the Sunday Gardening segment for this morning was canceled - due to my not feeling well. One must look after ones health... For the same reason I am keeping the blog post brief today. Please do feel free to visit my site and find excerpts from our books, information about our radio shows, more than one hundred free resources & articles at www.brummet.ca -- Quote of the Day -- " Our primeval Mother Earth is an organism that no science in the world can rationalize. Everything on her that crawls and flies is dependent upon Her and all must hopelessly perish if that Earth dies that feeds us. " ~ Viktor Schauberger

-- Eco-Events -- This week we have been asked to share a number of Eco-events with our readers: April 26-30: Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Convention and Exhibition Location Mandala Bay Resort & Casino - Las Vegas, NV - www.isriconvention.org April 27-30 - biocycle conference, sandiego at Town & country resort. - www.biocyclet50.com April 28-May 1st: Annual Carpet America Recovery Effort Conference Location National Conference Center; Lansdowne, VA - www.carpetrecovery.org -- Prize Draw Deadline -- This week's prize deadline is tomorrow. See previous posts for more information on how to enter to win nearly $800 in prizes! -- Authors Read Radio -- Today's featured guest on the Authors Read radio show is Sheila Steplar, author of Journey to Joy - which she shares an excerpt from today. The show was originally scheduled to air at 9 a.m. (pacific) this morning but we had some technical issues that delayed the show. It will air live at 11 a.m (pacific) and will ...

** There's still plenty of time to enter this week's draw - scroll through previous posts for more info... -- Quote of the Day -- Mark Tewart joined us in December, 2008 to discuss his views on today's marketing opportunities: “I think it is tremendous, even more so in today’s economy, because people are thinking they don’t have a budget, that there is too much out there and that people are not going to listen right now. …The first thing is to acknowledge that there is a vast market out there for your product. Business people are bombarded by news of the economy and are wanting to cut, cut, cut – but the reality is that if you want to grow you cant cut your way there. Especially now - and you have to think of terms of growth and that involves marketing in a effective, responsible manor. …They are practicing “one stage marketing” – meaning radio commercial, display ad that says: ‘Come buy from me’. What we like to do is to do is 2-5 stage marketing… I might run a much smalle...

-- Quote of the Day -- "See simplicity in the complicated. Achieve greatness in little things." ~ Lao-Tzu ... don't forget... Enter this week's draw for 2 prizes (estimated value totals nearly $800, US funds) by emailing me (ldbrummet@yahoo.com) and tell me any eco-activity you have done during a vacation or day off... cleaned up a trail, helped in a community green space creation project, took reusable containers full of food and refreshments to the beach... chose earth-friendly picnic ware etc. Details about the prizes can be found in yesterday's blog post, or on the Conscious Discussions radio show. -- Positive Eco-News -- Now here is an interesting eco-discovery for you! - Japan's National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences announced on October 22, 2008, that it had discovered a variety of mold that lives gramineous plant that can effectively decompose biodegradable plastics. This mold, isolated from barley leaves, excretes a highly concentrated ...

-- Eco Events this Week -- April 19-26 – 20th annual EarthFair traditionally held in Balboa Park, the largest free environmental fair that attracts 70,000 people or more. April 20-25th - Paris-France Intermat 2009 at the Paris-Nord Exhibition Center: www.intermat.fr April 23rd – between 10 – 2 p.m. (pacific) there will be an Earth Fair held at the Gorton Quad building (center of campus) located at the center of the San Diego City College – this event is sponsored by the City College Environmental Stewardship Committee… & will have lots of activities from art and photography contests, garden demonstrations, tours, yoga and meditation workshops, dancers, live music and more. -- Win a Copy of Trash Talk !! -- Castilla, owner of SMS Book Reviews Blog , will post a review of the Brummet's book Trash Talk on Earth Day, April 22nd. The blog will also host a contest for their readers for Trash Talk as well - Dave & I wish all the contestants luck in the contest & are thrille...

-- Quote of the Day -- “… There are one billion adults in the world who cannot read at all… not even a simple sentence that involves things in their daily life – we want to help those adults learn new ways of farming or to learn how to take care of their children’s health. …The skills that people take away from school (in developed countries) are not matching the demand for the jobs available today. …So our standards have gone up here in Canada and the US, but the education has not. …We have designed the Literacy Bridge device so that it comes in four plastic pieces and a circuit board with 3 screws holding it together – we’ve made it so that someone in a very rural area can …develop a business and service these devices by swapping parts. …The content can come from large organizations far away… but really what is our focus is content that is created locally with local language. …These areas have no electricity, no running water, and very bad roads…That’s were we go, we find out who ar...

-- Quote of the Day -- “… If I don’t write, things just don’t feel right. I love being immersed in words, I’ve always had an overactive imagination and find myself asking “what if…?”. Which can get me in trouble sometimes, I’ll send stuff to my agent and she’ll say ‘No-no, no’. (she giggles). …When I was first starting out as a writer the people around me were not very understanding. …It can be very difficult when you have to explain that you can’t bake 250 cupcakes for the PTA and you are in the middle of a book. …And I still get that after all this time - from family members even: ‘Well Michael’s home all day, sitting around doing nothing’ (she laughs). Re: Finding a balance: It is always a daily struggle for me; the meals suddenly become simple, and my hair is lucky to get combed and I may not shop for groceries as much as I should. ” ~ Michael West – Feb 3, 2009 This quote of the day was taken from an interview with Michael West on the Conscious Discussions talk radio show, Feb 3 ...

-- Quote of the Day -- "Extinction does not only apply to giant pandas or tigers or exotic species that dwell in the Rainforests. Vegetables can go extinct too and when our food goes extinct then we follow." ~ The Henry Double Day Research Association, England Find Dave & Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, information about their radio shows & free resources & articles at www.brummet.ca

-- Quote of the Day -- “…Individual heroes never start out their lives or careers by saying – ‘I want to be a hero’. They saw a problem, or had an experience they wanted to change; an area that they wanted to make a difference. …They just said ‘I want to make a difference – I want to help this group of people’ – and they did it. I think that often we look to people with money or people with ‘power’ - but really the people with the ‘power’ are us. You know, if we all said here’s this problem in my community I’m going to get my neighbors or family together and we are going to do something about it. …If everyone said I’m going to spend an hour a week going to the church or the community center or going to read to a child – having you in their lives can make such a big difference. Anyone can make a difference, it is a matter of deciding what you can do. Can you spare one hour a week or ten hours a week? Do you want to work with children? …You just have to have a belief that you can do som...

-- Quote of the Day -- Re: health of the planet.... " The change of mind I am talking about involves not just a change of knowledge, but also a change of attitude toward our essential ignorance, a change in our bearing in the face of mystery. The principle of ecology, if we will take it to heart, should keep us aware that our lives depend on other lives and upon processes and energies in an interlocking system that, though we can destroy it, we can neither fully understand nor fully control. And our great dangerousness is that, locked in our selfish and myopic economies, we have been willing to change or destroy far beyond our power to understand ." ~ Wendell Berry, A Continuous Harmony -- Prize Winner This Week! -- Congratulations to Kathy H. from Oklahoma who is this week’s prizes: a hardcover children’s illustrated book titled: Sikulu and Harambe by the Zambezi River signed by Kunle Oguneye - & - Lisa Saunders humorous novel – Anything But a Dog . We have prize con...

-- Quote of the Day -- “I think we need to be more family oriented; be a part of our children’s lives. …Find a way to get the kids involved in a recreational center or something positive more than once a week… set a loving environment for the children.” ~ Patricia Yarbrough (Dec. 20, 2007) I chose this quote today from Patricia Yarbrough's interview on Conscious Discussions radio, where we discussed Youth Violence - What Can We Do . Simply click on the show title here or look to the right for the radio show link... This interview aired on Dec 20, 2007. -- Positive Eco-News -- According to the Project Laundry List’s ( www.laundrylist.org ) newsletter Hanging Out there have been recent studies that underline the importance of turning office equipment off when they are not in use. One study revealed that there is an estimated 2.8 billion dollars in wasted energy in the US alone – that equates to 20 million tons of carbon dioxide. So if everyone practiced green office habits just in...

Welcome back everyone :) I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend. Our weekend was crazy busy, but a lot of fun. We had a full mix of bright sun and warm weather moving to wind and even a rain storm - all in one weekend :) Today, we have bright sunshine, crystal blue sky and singing birds :) * Win a prize: this week 2 books available! Listen to the introduction to today's interview (see below for more info) to learn the question you need to answer, and then email me at: ldbrummet @ yahoo . com (*remove the spaces before emailing). Prizes : Young adult book - Anything But a Dog! by Lisa Saunders & Children's Book - Sikulu and Harambe by Kunle Oguneye Something to think about: The average NA car driving 10,000 miles per year releases 5.5 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere! Scientists are now saying that ice in the ocean in the summer will soon be something found in the history books. Fear and feeling overwhelmed are keeping some of us from doing all that we can in our l...

-- Quote of the Day -- “ For more than 30 years I’ve been writing books, and more often than not publishers will approach me to write on a particular subject. …I’ve had as high as what they call ‘four-book deals’ …So I worked by contract for many, many years. …And that can also be frustrating because I have things I would like to also unfold (creatively). …I think the 70th book, Re-think Your Life, is my defining book. …The concept is Mind by Design – the essence is to eliminate mental junk food and move to right-thinking. I feel that all of us are in a state of information overload. …Most of us are in mental fatigue. …“Fix” – challenge your mind, you have to decide that the buzzards are circling but they are not going to get me down. …”Filter” – you have to influence your mind, you have to compartmentalize those things that you can do now and those that are beyond your control that day. “Form” – form positive relationships …I don’t want to be around people who brighten the room as t...

* Today is your last chance to enter the draw for this week's prize. Entry deadline is noon on Saturday, April 11th. This week’s prize: hardcover children’s illustrated book titled: Sikulu and Harambe by the Zambezi River *Signed by the author, Kunle Oguneye. Retail value between $12-15 depending on where you shop! Email me at ldbrummet-at-yahoo-dot-com (* replace the "-at-" with "@", and the "-dot-" with ". ") To enter: tell me the name of the featured guest and the topic for the April 2nd broadcast of Conscious Discussions radio. Draw will be on Saturday Afternoon…April 11th. -- Quote of the Day -- “… If I don’t write, things just don’t feel right. I love being immersed in words, I’ve always had an overactive imagination and find myself asking “what if…?”. Which can get me in trouble sometimes, I’ll send stuff to my agent and she’ll say ‘No-no, no’. (she giggles). …When I was first starting out as a writer the people around me were not ver...

-- Quote of the Day -- "The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command." ~ Sam McGee of 'Lord of the Rings' by J.R. Tolken -- Positive Eco-News -- From Japan for Sustainability Newsletter: www.japansf.org Japan's Toshiba Corporation announced on December 3, 2008, that it will accelerate the development of its carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage (CCS) technology by building a pilot plant at Sigma Power Ariake Co. Ltd.'s Mikawa Power Plant, in Omuta, Fukuoka Prefecture. CCS is a technology that separates and captures CO2 emitted by thermal power plants and many other industrial sites, and then stores it underground. Construction is scheduled to start in the spring of 2009, and a demonstration test using real flue gas is expected to begin in August. -- Conscious Discussions -- Today featured guest: Joan Scott – Topic: " World of Writng with Joa...

-- Quote of the Day -- "In the past 3 years (1991-94) 950 varieties of vegetables have become extinct and of the survivors 74% - or almost 4,000 varieties - are endangered." ~ Ann Rodes article: 'The Seed Savers', Canadian Gardening Magazine -- Gardening for Life -- article © Lillian Brummet Have you ever noticed how happy and centered gardeners tend to be? Could it be from communing with nature, sharing nutrient-rich harvests with others, or knowing that every increased amount of greenery helps battle the environmental problems our world faces? For me, playing in the dirt - as I often refer to gardening - is just that. Play time, time for meditation and to listen to the birds. Yet, gardening can mean so much more. For many years, my family has been dedicated to preserving rare and endangered garden seeds. We tried the hybrids, but after a while we realized they were just not performing like the old varieties. Whether it was small yields or poor tolerance to heat wa...

-- Conscious Discussions -- Today’s guest has a lot of information to share… Brook Kelley has been a professional writer/researcher for 8 years, 4 years as an editor for magazines and books, 15 years of photography work with prestigious magazines as Elle Girl and Glamour. In her 10 years experience as a speaker she focuses on inspiring and motivating others to make a difference in the world. We are going to talk about all of this, and a wonderful organization that fights injustice on human rights across the planet – known as the Unify Organization. Tune in by clicking on the hyper-linked show title here or look to the right for a link to the Conscious Discussions talk radio show. -- Announcement -- Check out the interview with the Brummets via the Author Interviews link at: www.mcolesworks.webs.com/thewritecorner.htm -- Prize Contest!! -- You may recall that we’ve been putting out announcements for prizes every week on Conscious Discussions. Well, as promised we are starting off with...

-- Quote of the Day -- “ Freedom is not doing what you want to do, but in becoming what you want to be ” ~ Ardis Whitman -- Authors Read -- Elizabeth Eagan Cox appears on Authors Read radio this morning to share and excerpt from book two of the Shannon Delaney Cozy Paranormal Mystery series - A Ghost From the Shadows . *The reading for book 1 of this series aired on : Oct 17, 2008 To access the Authors Read radio simply click on one of the hyper-links here or look to the right for a link to the website. --Garbage in its Place -- There is nothing worse than seeing garbage blowing down the street of your neighborhood, or finding broken shards of glass at the local swimming hole where children play. Wildlife is just as vulnerable to garbage and many have lost their lives after becoming tangled in waste or mistaking garbage for food. It is up to each of us to make an effort to minimize this unsightly, and sometimes hazardous, problem. Animals, wind and traffic breezes put legs to loose...

-- Quote of the Day -- “ …Once {a person has} learned that one of their close community of friends or one of their loved ones has been diagnosed with a potential devastating diagnosis such as cancer - there is a real powerful way to be about it. Rather than walking into that space of ‘I don’t know what to do; I don’t know what to say; I am helpless and surrounded by uncertainty’ - there is a real powerful way to be. And those people need to find the power to overcome those normal ways of being, which are helplessness and uncertainty… and to understand that even if they say nothing but just their simply presence alone in the house with the person after they have been diagnosed is a tremendous support. No one should underestimate of the extent that they can positively affect a person’s life simply with their presence… ” ~ Amy Blackburn – Jan 8, 2009 -- Find this interview with Amy by clicking on the link for the Conscious Discussions radio show, look to the archives listed according t...