Bloom Box Already In Place at Major Corporations

Google, eBay, Staples, Walmart. These are just a few of the companies who are taking advantage of the latest in fuel cell technology as provided by Bloom Energy.

The Bloom Box is a tightly packaged box that can draw energy from just about any source to provide electricity at about half the usage need as other types and will utilize solar, wind, methane, hydro, natural gas or fossil fuels to draw its power. Not only does it save the source but it will save the client boat loads of money.

I only had a chance to catch this last night on 60 Minutes so I haven’t done a bunch of research into its history, viability or future plans but I encourage everyone to check out the clip from last night’s show and see for yourself how this latest inexpensive, zero emission, fuel cell innovation could potentially revolutionize energy technologies for the Greener. If K.R. Sridhar has his way there will even be one gracing the organic vegetable garden at the White House.

Go directly to the Bloom Energy video where they encourage us to be responsible, part of the overall solution.

Or check out the full 60 Minutes segment from last night’s show (also below).

What do you think? Can this type of technology change our way of thinking about how and where our energy comes from?


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Success and Determination Go Hand in Hand

While ramping up a new crop of tasty reviews for everyone, I am taking a step back for a bit to talk about some of my own home projects or other things I think might be of interest. It has been a while since a good motivational video has moved me here at GLR but this one shared by a friend in Facebook really made me sit up and take notice.

As we all persevere through our lives it is important to remember that there is no such thing as failure, only experiences toward new opportunities. The people featured in this video were and are amazing individuals, but just like they rest of us they had their share of life’s ups and downs along their way to glory.

Enjoy life knowing that every day is an adventure and never give up on living out what you dream!

Smiling Faces

This is really cool to watch the face come to life in front of our eyes. Hope it makes you smile as big as the face on the page.

Fun to End the Weekend

When we have a healthy attitude towards life, we uncover the beauty, wonder and inspiration within us that enables us to really appreciate those same qualities outside in the world.
-Craig Nicholson

President Elect Obama Shares Hope for 2009 if We Make Changes Now

This morning President Elect Barack Obama made an unprecedented speech with regard to the current economy and all he fully intends to do to immediately upon being sworn into the office of President of the United States to turn this country around. He places the responsibility on the Government to lead the charge and is brilliant to indicate that since we got ourselves into the mess we can also get ourselves out and become stronger on the other side. President Elect Obama fully believes in the abilities of the people of this country. All of them.



I am counting down the days to January 20, 2009 and look forward to all people investing what they can to repair and rebuild our great country be it monetarily, through labor or intellect. Yes we will.

Here Comes the Sun

Part of the environment is how we feel. When hope is prevalent and feelings of happiness abound we all tend to sigh in a collective smile. One of the simplest ways we can feel happiness is through color. I have discussed color before as it relates to Green and our associations to it from a psychological stand point but when I use words like sunshine, cheerfulness or joy what is the first color to come to mind? If you answered yellow you are not alone.

I need to get a little personal for a second to explain something a little bit odd but something that happens to me a lot. Frequently I have very vivid dreams, in my own estimation I dream in color and most mornings I wake to remember something, if not everything, about my dream the night before. It can be a song, person, feeling, location or a myriad of other things. I truly believe these things are meant to guide me in some way, just like when I am driving down the street and see a sign. I consider the dream symbols I remember to be telepathic "signs" if you will. Yesterday morning I awoke remembering buttery yellow. Nothing more; I do not remember why or in what realm the color was used, it was just the thing I remembered from my night in cozy dream land.

Tonight we watched our first episode of Forecast Earth on The Weather Channel and upon coming home I decided to check out their website to see if there might be something cool to post about. On the front page, I came across an article about yellow being considered as one of the hottest colors for 2009 as reported by Pantone it made me shake my head and chuckle.

Clearly even I was in touch with getting a little hope and cheer in the new year!

Based on Sensational Color:

Yellow shines with optimism, enlightenment and happiness. Shades of golden yellow carry the promise of a positive future. Yellow will advance from surrounding colors and instill optimism and energy, as well as spark creative thoughts.

Well that sounds pretty great to me so how about -- paint a room in sunny yellow, wear a pair of yellow pants or just draw a big smiley face on a yellow post it note for our monitors in order to remind ourselves that positivity and exuberance are not outdated concepts!

“The Present…

…is the ever moving shadow that divides yesterday from tomorrow. In that lies hope.”
~ Frank Lloyd Wright

There is no moment like the one we are living right now and we choose to live it in the best way we know how -- as the grateful and generous people we have become! This video is just under nine minutes but it includes such soothing music and wonderfully inspiring quotes from so many interesting people it flew by faster than I would have expected. The quote I liked best came in at about 7:30, so true! I hope everyone takes a few minutes to relax and enjoy this calming but uplifting video during such a go-go-go weekend of shopping, and please feel free to come back to it anytime the time is right to be quiet and reflect. Have a wonderful weekend full of smiles everyone!

Slowing Down To Appreciate It All

This will be one of those times that people who know me might be tempted to leave comments like “Is this a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ type of situation?” and I can understand why they would feel that way because I am typically a person who never stops and it may seem that I fly through life not noticing the little things but truthfully I do allow my overworked mind to absorb these moments and it makes every day that much sweeter.

For the past few months (especially during the last few weeks of mass production for yesterday’s craft fair) there have been times when I purposefully stopped my work-centric brain from spinning to take notice of some of these joys.


Saturday night dinner with our closest friends has become a regular occurrence and it is fantastic. We generally just hang out and chat over food and drink, relishing in the small time we get to enjoy each other’s company. There is something amazing about knowing there are people in this world who are always there for each other no matter what.

Recognizing how the seasons operate here in the northeast has been fun -- fall rain and wind is essential to bring all of those flaming colored leaves down, blanketing the land to prepare for the winter layer of snow and ice that will help to compost those leaves into the soil of spring so we can have even healthier, sturdy green trees in the summer. Winter is not my season of choice but it will be nice to watch snow collect on these trees from my “heat rises” third floor apartment window this winter.

Attempting to get back in touch with some of this stuff has brought the connection back to my relationship with Matt. If nothing else just having fun with each other again, embracing romance, laughing a lot, creating our own inside jokes, being supportive of each others achievements and remembering why we got together in the first place -- because no one else out there could really understand the dorks that we are besides each other of course! Well that and we both understand the importance of how rare it is to witness clowns not fitting into clown cars.

Yesterday in my email I got an update to one of my YouTube subscriptions, the official channel for Jason Mraz. I did not watch it until this morning and I have to say at first I though wtf? Five and a half minutes of a camera zoomed in or out on his face, sometimes breaking into a smirk, sometimes very serious looking, and at the end he simply says “You did it”. It seemed a little strange at first (watching a five minute crash zoom to the face of one of my favorite musicians was somewhat odd) but in the end this video is what inspired me to write today’s post.



In a busy world it is important to remember to take the time to slow down, even if just for five minutes, to recognize and truly appreciate all the things in life that bring us joy!

And Now Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Reviews…

WHEW! What a whirlwind of amazing energy that has been swirling about the past couple days! To instantly feel a shift in the attitude and mood of the entire planet to one of optimism still has me on a high I have never felt before. Due to that fact I am giving the entire country a Five Green Leaf Rating today. You deserve it United States for standing up and fighting for hope, for change.


Yes We Can.
Yes We Did.
YES WE WILL!!!