On the Horizon: Going Green

I’ve always wanted to build my own home…it’s just never been a possibility but if I did, I think I would build it using as much green technology as I could and here’s why:

When I did a shoot in Alva, OK, a while back, I was doing a story about a house that was being built using several green technologies and when the builder started talking about the cost savings, it just made sense. Not only is building green good for the environment, it’s great for the pocketbook. I currently live in a house where the normal electric bill is around $250 a month during the summer and not much cheaper during the winter. I wonder what it would be if I had insulated windows, solar panels, geothermal heat/air, and was built using Styrofoam? According to the builder, it would be a whole lot cheaper to live in it even with this excessive heat wave.

In this week’s video blog, see how one home owner in Northwest Oklahoma is going to save big even when the earth is at baking temperature.
~Alisa Hines

On the Horizon: Going Green from Alisa Hines on Vimeo.

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To Fix, or Not to Fix: That is the Question

In the spirit of full disclosure, you should know this post isn’t a philosophical look at change theories. I do not ponder whether humans can correct the character flaws of other humans.

Nope, this post is about my hair. Specifically, this post is about my ongoing negotiations about whether or not to actually fix my troublesome hair in the morning or to embrace my go-to ponytail persona. Ahhhh, finally a topic into which I can sink my journalistic teeth!

I do not consider myself a shallow person, but this post serves as a confession that my hair has guided a good portion of my decisions since about the fifth grade when I started caring about how I look. Since that time, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with my dark locks. On the love side, I was blessed with a thick head of hair that is conducive to many different styles. On the hate side, I have a thick head of hair that is neither straight nor curly and any bit of humidity leaves me looking like a Chia pet who stuck her hand (paw?) in a light socket.

I remember accompanying my mother to her hair appointment and the stylist commenting with pity about the fact that I have enough hair for 2 people. She followed her comment with, “But at least you don’t have enough hair for 3 people like your mom does!” From that point on, I started to compare my poufy hair to the unfair prevalence of sleek and straight hair that existed all around me. While mine wasn’t made for the long, stick-straight style I desperately wanted, I occasionally fooled my hair into thinking this was possible (through a good hour of blow-drying and the application of dozens of products). The result was me spending the evening walking with a stiff neck so as not to mess up a single strand. Regardless of the fact I probably looked like a whiplash victim in need of a neck brace, I was pretty proud of my system. However, I’d inevitably come home to find that, even though I left the house looking like this… Continue reading To Fix, or Not to Fix: That is the Question

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The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 31

#31 of 52 : BERNICE
The Imaginary Family Project - Week 31

External Photo Clues:
None

Imagine:
“I wasn’t saluting. I was pushing the hat out of my eyes.”

We aren’t surprised to hear this from our mother. Whenever we find old pictures she has to correct the ideas she imagines developing in our heads.

In the wedding album: “I wasn’t smiling about getting married. I was laughing at your father for spilling wine on his shoes.”

With infant versions of us: “I wasn’t posing for a picture. I was asleep on my feet, thanks to you, and the flash startled me awake.”

In any photo in which she is touching us: “Somebody had to wipe the crud off of you.”

We are sixteen and fourteen when we find it, and mom claims to be fifteen in this picture. It seems impossible that she’s not just playing dress-up. But she lied about her age to follow her husband who’d shipped out a week after they’d eloped. We feel as if we want to protect this girl, sandwiched between our ages. Continue reading The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 31

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How Five Simple Rules Morphed Into a New Blog

FULL DISCLOSURE: What follows is, in many ways, a bit of shameless self-promotion for a new project I’m working on. You’ve been warned.

A few weeks ago, I posted a list of five rules for dads raising daughters. When I wrote that post, I was simply trying to clarify some of my own thoughts on parenting, fatherhood, and raising little girls – thoughts that had been largely influenced by a number of books (Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters by Meg Meeker, Bringing Up Girls by James Dobson, The Heart of a Father: How You Can Become a Dad of Destiny by Ken Canfield, and many others) I’d read in the months leading up to and following the birth of my daughter last September.

I had a lot of fun coming up with those five rules (I guess they were more like suggestions than hard fast rules) and when I eventually hit the post button on the blog, I felt like I had a pretty good foundation for my own philosophy of fatherhood.

As someone who uses the written word to cull out meaning from his experiences, seeing my ideas finally crystallized in written form felt really good.

At least at first, I felt what I think was a sense of closure. “Okay,” I thought, “I’ve finally got all of this stuff out of my head and now I can get back to putting my creative energy into blogging about the masculine experience.”  That was all good and well, except for one thing… that’s not really how my mind works.

No sooner had the post been published than I started thinking of other ideas I should have included in my original list of suggestions. In an effort to simply try to clear my mind, the next morning I opened a blank text file on my laptop and started to type. That’s when the ideas started flowing. My fingers couldn’t move fast enough to keep up. Continue reading How Five Simple Rules Morphed Into a New Blog

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On the Horizon: Wheat Guy

U.S. Wheat Associates is the marketing arm of wheat growers around the nation. They help wheat producers understand the quality, value and reliability of U.S. wheat. The groups chairman this past year, was Don Schieber from Kay County, Oklahoma. In this week’s video blog, we spent some time with him over the last twelve months to get some insight into a local farmer’s life whose passion is international in scope.

~ Rob McClendon

 

On the Horizon: Wheat Guy from Alisa Hines on Vimeo.

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Showcasing Red Dirt culture ~ authored and managed by contributors with connections to the great state of Oklahoma.