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Farewell to a friend

Brian Eckstein

If you’ve had four kidneys – two that were yours and two that were someone else’s — cancer, and are nearly blind, you’re allowed to be pissed off at the world.

If, on the other hand, instead of scowling and complaining – which are well within your rights – you travel, compose music, and make the world around you a bit happier, you are one of a kind.

And that’s exactly what my friend Brian Eckstein who died last week at the age of 40 was.

One. Of. A. Kind.

Brian worked at Indiana Public Radio, the local NPR station, and he loved his job. I first met him when the World Vision Report…

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Patagonia on Cyber Monday: Don't buy it!

Picture 8

Are you up to your web cam in free shipping and buy-one-get-three offers this Cyber Monday?

Patagonia, one of the nation’s largest and most well-respected outdoor retailers, is asking us to pledge to “Think before we buy.” Gasp!

Cyber Monday, and the culture of consumption it reflects, puts the economy of natural systems that support all life firmly in the red. We’re now using the resources of one-and-a-half planets on our one and only planet.
Because Patagonia wants to be in business for a good long time – and leave a world inhabitable for our kids – we want to do the opposite of every other business today. We ask you to buy less and to reflect before you spend…

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2 strangers, 6 years, and 1 moment

T-shirt Factory
Six years ago I met a worker outside of the Delta factory in Villanueva, Honduras, that changed my life. It wasn’t so much what he said or what happened when I met him, but all of the unanswered questions I had about his life and the life of other such workers around the world.

I met him shortly after I posed for the above photo in front of the factory he worked at in 2005.  I’ve been in Honduras now for a week and the questions many of you who’ve read “Where Am I Wearing?” and/or heard me speak about Amilcar and all the other workers I met is, “Have you found Amilcar?”

Sort of.

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Japanese underwear helps you burn calories

Sometimes I wish I lived in Japan. This is one of those times? When Will our underwear technology catch theirs? When will I be able to burn calories simply by wearing underwear that restrict my movement to such an extent that walking to get a Twinkie burns calories?

Behold, CalorieShaper underwear!

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33 things I packed for 1 week in Honduras

packing

What does a vagabonding underwear journalist pack on an 8-day trip to Honduras?

packed1 pair of Khaki pants
1 pair of jeans
1 pair of shorts
1 lucky shorts (they don’t stay up anymore so they serve little other purpose)
2 T-shirts
3 polo shirts
4 pairs of underwear
5 pair of socks
1 belt
3 shoes (flip-flops, running shoes, dress shoes)
iPhone
Passport
Immunization book
Book to give Amilcar when I find him
Netbook
Point & Shoot camera
Eyeglasses
Sunglasses
Toiletries (teeth, shaving, skin)
1 Aerobie super disc to give away
1 Aerobie super disc to play withg
1 hackey sack in case of emergency1 2450 cubic inch backpack
1 Kindle
1 Domke reporter bag

And when I cram all of that in my backpack and bag it weighs about…

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A longer, harder, more spine-tingling….consumer conscience

When Nick Gerlich and Kris Drumheller of West Texas A&M told me they wanted to do a research project on how Where Am I Wearing? influences readers, I must admit that I was a bit nervous. What if reading the book made no impact?

Well, the first round of numbers are in and Nick concludes, “at the end of the day, we are extremely satisfied with our findings, as should Mr. Timmerman. I think he accomplished what he set out to do.”

(Insert sigh of relief here.)

Nick goes in-depth on the details of the study on his blog. Here are the nuts and bolts:

  • 939 people responded to their survey which measured consumer ethnocentrism. The lower the score on the CETSCALE the less ethnocentric the consumer.
  • Their theory was that reading…
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Ashamed…I didn’t vote

I have a confession: I didn’t vote.

I did the research of who I was going to vote for, even scribbled their names on a scrap piece of paper, jammed it in my pocket, and drove to the…

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Big News: The Adventure Continues

IMG_2542 copyI’m on a flight to Dallas and I hope to God know one asks me about the book I’m reading. Why? Because of all the millions of books I could be reading, I’m reading the only one I wrote. Of course, maybe if I cover up the author photo, laugh really loud now and again, and pepper in a few hmmm’s of interest, it would be good marketing.

“You’ve just gotta read this book! This dude named Kelsey goes to all of the places his clothes were made….”

But this isn’t why I’m reading my own book.

My publisher, John Wiley & Sons, has asked me to do an update and revision. When Richard my editor called…

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