I am now the proud owner of a large dry-erase board. This is only worth blogging about because a giant blank canvas is a noteworthy thing in our age of little text fields and 140-character microblogging. The best and worst thing a creative person can stare at is a blank page- it represents either total freedom or an intimidating lack of substance.

It’s like looking down from the top of a ski slope. Either you see every twist and turn of the path you might take, or you see a big scary unbroken mountain staring back up at you. The difference, of course, is in the mind of the skier. In either case you’re certainly not going to want to walk down a narrow little path, structured by how someone else might have descended the mountain.

So much of how technology works is centered around the left-brained types. Outlining software, databases, calendars, and to-do lists force us to think in little lines of text. I would lay money down, however, that all of those innovations started life as an idea jotted onto a giant dry-erase board.

This is why we love the iPhone’s big touchscreen but still hate entering data with it. This is why we want Apple to release a tablet MacBook already. This is why, for all we do in front of little LCD monitors, our best steps forward start with a tube-dispensed liquid pigment (or, alternately, a stick of chalk).

If you haven’t invested in a full-size notebook or a dry-erase board large enough to use as a Pilates mat, it’s time for you to head to Staples and pick one up.

Photo by Jeff Kubina

One of the most important things we can do to keep this planet in one piece is simply to stop wasting stuff. Check out this cartoon about printer ink by the talented Jim Borgman. They package these things to make them harder to shoplift (and at $20 for a single black ink cartridge, Epson really ought to worry about shoplifting). Do you really need all that cardboard? The brochures inside trying to sell photo paper (who the heck prints photos anymore anyway)? The plastic bag, the mile-long receipt…

As a consumer, whenever I can find a low-packaging alternative, I jump on it.

• Just say no. If I’m only buying a few things I can carry or fit in my pockets, I say no to a plastic bag (the girl at my local Walgreens honestly tried to put a single tube of Chapstick in a bag for me).
• Shop at home. I buy online, where I can get printer ink with minimal packaging at half the price, an emailed receipt, and even free shipping. Plus I’m not burning gasoline to get to the store.
• Everyone loves refills. I buy my hand soap in a 1 gallon plastic jug, not 8 ounces at a time in 16 plastic pump bottles.

And this Christmas I don’t want become part of the packaging problem. ‘Tis the season to consume, spend, and bolster that good old economy, right? I plan to make the process an efficient one from start to end.

• Buy low-trash gifts. Personally, the only thing I want this year are Lowe’s Gift Cards since I’m moving and building a studio soon. Items like clothing, cars, jewelry, food, concert/movie tickets, and books usually don’t come with much junk to throw out.
• Don’t wrap gifts in even more trash. Wrapping paper, bows, and ribbon are a colossal waste of resources that even a simple gift bag can fix. Gift bags and boxes are common, pretty, and reusable for years. Some gifts, like small jewelry, can be hidden in the mistletoe completely unwrapped (and how romantic is it to reach up in the middle of the kiss and pull out those diamond earrings?).

And one last tip: If you want a real Christmas tree this year, go to a “cut your own tree” farm. The trees that aren’t chosen this season will continue producing oxygen and reducing greenhouse gases until next year, unlike all those that were already cut for the parking lot tree vendor.

Hat tip to Daniel Johnson Jr. for emailing me that Borgman cartoon, excellent find!

[tags]Matthew Ebel, piano rock, environment, Jim Borgman, Epson, inkjet, ink, conservation, packaging, trash, Lowe’s, Walgreens, Christmas[/tags]