Nevada Here We Come! (Caffeine Please...)

Hello there, from Joliet, Illinois!

Slightly delusional and sleep deprived, but we wanted to share our journey thus far with everyone. As far as first days go, this was a good one! We traveled through beautiful countryside and enjoyed seeing the states pass us by, while we stopped occasionally at unique and different service centers. We passed the time (through a caffeine/sugar (starbursts and skittles)) induced states) by discussing community, and imagined the art we may see at Burning Man. Tomorrow will be an even bigger driving day with more adventures in our path. Can't wait to see what lies ahead of us on our trip and at Burning Man! Off to catch some Zzzzzzs!

The Big Blue Marble Crew

Atomic Fire Ball

Best part of receiving our Burning Man tickets in the mail?

The surprise "Atomic Fire Ball" candy included inside.


Gotta love a sense of humor. I love these people already.

KICKSTARTER SUCCESS!

With your help in just 90 days we raised over $5,000!!! Our current total is close to $6,000 and with checks still coming in everyday, I’m confident that we’ll exceed this number as well!

Thank you so much, I can’t tell you all how grateful I am. Without your support, generous donations, and faith in this project and what we will achieve, we never would have made it. Your words of encouragement and wishes of good luck helped fuel this fundraising effort, and together we did it!

*Thank you to my awesome “street team” for helping to spread the word and somehow sneak Big Blue Marble into any unsuspecting conversation - it worked!

*Thank you to my re-tweeters, re-posters, and all around awesome social media gurus.

*Thank you to the “tech support team” aka Ken - videos, websites, and all that confuses me, thank you for helping me figure it out!

*Thank you for sending cards of encouragement, notes of good luck and inspiring contacts to contact!

*Thank you to my family and the friends that feel like family for your unwavering support these last five months, encouraging me to build this dream.

To everyone who has somehow had a hand in this organization and it’s development, big or small, I thank you. Community, social change, and improving our environment - together we are making a difference.

love&peace,

Vanessa

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle ... for CASH.

It's pretty hard these days to not have an accumulation of STUFF, especially electronic stuff. I'd be willing to bet that you have an ipod or some kind of mp3 devise. I'd slap money down that you have a cell phone, or maybe even two. If you are like me and are directionally challenged, we'll then you definitely have a GPS. How about a computer, video game system, printer, digital camera, palm pilot (do they still make those?), PSP system, nano robot toy thing (I just saw a freaky robot gerbil in CVS the other day) and come on, who doesn't want to try out the new ipad? (However ridiculous and poorly marketed the name is. Seriously Apple, ipad?!)

Every day American’s throw away more than 350,000 cell phones, over 100 million per year and 130,000 computers daily. Electronic waste is now the fastest growing part of the U.S. garbage system. When electronics are improperly disposed of they can leak lead, cadmium, mercury...affecting the quality of clean water, soil used for food supplies and our natural environment.

We are part of a consumer society ... and we have a lot of stuff. Stuff that you don't need, stuff that a newer more "improved" version comes out a month after you buy it, stuff that hurts the environment and stuff that when it comes down to it, really is not all that important.

We can CHANGE. We can redefine consumption and change the way we think, act, buy and use. Deciding what you buy and where you buy it from matters because when you buy something you are giving value to it. Do The Green Thing is a public service organization that inspires people to lead a more environmentally friendly life. Do The Green Thing produces videos and shares stories from creative people around the world about how they are doing the green thing from walking more, to consuming less or simply unplugging their electronics when not in use.

Where does our stuff come from? What happens to it when we throw it away? What happens to something if we recycle it?

Meet Annie Leonard, an environmental activist who has traveled the world to explore answers to these questions. This short video explains in a simple and sometimes humorous way the real costs of our consumer driven culture. Learn about extraction, production, distribution, consumption, disposal and "another way" in a film style that reminds me and brings me back to the good old days of School House Rock.

Recycle For Cash

Stuff. It's cluttering. You don't use it. That cell phone from five years ago is broken. You want a new way to get rid of your stuff, to clean out your electronic closet without throwing everything in a garbage bag.

Easy.

Recycle it. Gazelle is an organization where you can recycle your old electronics.

Gazelle wants to change the world – one cell phone, one laptop, one iPod at a time.

It is our purpose – and our promise – to provide a practical, rewarding way for people to finally rid themselves of all those old cell phones, digital cameras, and gaming systems that they no longer use, but can't seem to find a way to let go of.

Too often when people think of recycling, they rush straight to smashing things into bits for parts. We believe that reuse should always come first. If your GPS unit still works, why not keep it in circulation AND get paid for it? If reusing isn't in the cards, then let us recycle that vintage camcorder. We think of it as ReCommerce.

Yeah, we're green.

Green for you with dollars in your pocket. Green for the environment with fewer electronics being trashed.

It's good to Gazelle. That's our promise.

How Does It Work?

Join Gazelle and Big Blue Marble and recycle your old electronics. If you recycle through the Big Blue Marble Gazelle page, you will not only be helping our planet but also donating to Big Blue Marble at the same time. And for that we will love you forever.

Take five minutes, pack up those old electronics in a shoe box, stick some newspaper in there for packing material (packing peanuts are a big no-no. They are the equivalent of nature's cockroaches. They never go away) slap on the free shipping sticker and there you have it.

Do the green thing, it's free.

Visit http://bigbluemarlbeinc.gazelle.com/ to recycle your old electronics. :)

Welcome to Maryland.

Dusty.

The first of two storms. We received 3 feet of snow with this one.

Lost in the snow.

We like it best inside.

Kickstarter Rocks.

We Launched Our Kickstarter.com Page!

Never heard of Kickstarter?

Kickstarter.com is an awesome website that helps fund ideas and new projects for artists, film-makers, musicians, writers, inventors ...and organizations like Big Blue Marble.

It is a unique way to fund because it's an all or nothing funding platform. As the project designer you set the amount you want to raise and your own time frame (up to 90 days). Post a video, give a description and if by the end of your time frame you have reached your goal, the money get's directly deposited into a bank account you set up. If you don't reach your goal, backers of the project never get charged and sadness, you don't get the funding. It's a neat way to set things up because it ensures that people won't try and do a project that they are not fully prepared or funded for. Basically no half-assing. I like it.

Oh, and people get rewards (I like to think of them as prizes) for donating! We have some cool ones like getting sent behind the scenes videos from our trip and special interviews, getting a postcard from one of our awesome locations, tote bags (who does not love a tote bag?) getting to be a producer for the documentary with your name in the credits and having us come to where ever you are in the great U. S. of A. so that we can interview you for the film, and a bunch more.

Our goal is $5,000 and we have 89 days to do it. So while your snowed in, drinking hot chocolate, take a minute and check out our page. I'm confident that together we can do it. :)

love&peace,

Vanessa

Storytelling

There's no such thing as an unwritten life...

just a badly written one.

We’re going to live like we’re telling

the best story in the whole world.

Are you ready?

A quote from The Brother's Bloom, written by Rian Johnson.