Buy Nothing Day

Today is Buy Nothing Day. Sounds odd? Well it's pretty simple really, just try to not buy anything today. According to organisers today is a 'day where you challenge yourself to switch off from shopping and tune into life; the rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from consumerism and live without shopping. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!'

I quite like this concept of getting away from consumerism just for a day. The Celtic Tiger has made us into these possesion hungry spending maniacs. But now with the downturn (I dislike that R word) will we actually spend any less? It sounds easy in theory but can it be done? I suppose with a bit of advance planning it could be done. But I've already failed having purchased two bus trips, a half pint of milk, a newspaper and a bagel today. And it's only 2pm!

The concept of Buy Nothing Day appears to be cemented into the American psyche as the day after Thanksgiving (always a Friday). Presumably we use the nearest Saturday instead to capture it's full effect. Having just caught a snippet of the 2pm news, it would appear that the people sitting on the M1 just outside Newry in two hour tailbacks are not too excited about Buy Nothing Day.

Our economy needs us to spend every day right?!?! Check out the website at http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/

Palin keeps the show going

She just can't help herself can she? It's been 24 days since the US election was won by Barack Obama and yet Ms Sarah Palin keeps her comedy show on the road. Since loosing the election with John McCain nearly a month ago, Palin has managed to stay on our screens to an admirable degree. She's even threatening to run for President next time round. We'll look forward to that Sarah!

But now the Telegraph in the UK reports that she did a TV interview whilst Thanksgiving turkeys were being killed right behind her. This will certainly help to support the mad woman impression she gave off throughout the month of October. She's obviously not going to fade into the snowy background. The video from her local TV station has ended up on YouTube and shows her casually chatting to a reporter about Thanksgiving, whilst turkeys are being slaughtered literally behind her. The man doing the slaughtering appears to be quite delighted at this media attention also. His trousers and the ground beneath him look like they are covered in blood.

Now it's not the slaughtering of the turkeys that I have the problem with, it's more the fact that she didn't seem to even notice this was going on behind her. Either that or she did notice and didn't see the problem. In a typical Palin statement, when asked what she will be doing on Thanksgiving Palin responds 'I'll be in charge of the turkey...I'm where I need to be today to prepare for that'.

You can view the video for yourself at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-kjM1asH-8. You'll need to watch it twice, once to watch the background, and once to figure out what exactly Palin is talking about....