Flower “borrowed” from ANdiF:
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Does it really count, though, with this being a short week and all?
Yes but you can’t call it Hump Day until 3 p.m. 🙂
Need help naming a business
Hi all. In a little over a month I’ll be starting a new business doing home sustainability assessments under a program sponsored by the Australian Government.
I’ll be going into people’s homes and doing a detailed analysis of their energy and water usage, with a strong emphasis on reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.
The gov. will pay me for this, but I’ll be my own business and need a catchy name to market my services.
by keres
Well it seems like it ought to have either “green” or “save” or both in it. But it’s too early for my brain to function. Maybe after I have several cups of coffee something will come to me.
And mazel tov.
by AndiF
A sheynem dank!
I’m not to sure about the “green” bit because Greens are a political party here. And “greenie” gets bandied about as an epitaph by the less educated members of our populace (who want those damn greenies to quit whinging about all the old-growth logging and just leave everyone be to drive their four-wheel-drives and shoot things on the weekends).
“Comfort Zone” was my first thought. Because I really do want to stress that I’m not asking people to give up comfort, but rather to get “more (comfort) with less (energy)”.
“EcoAssess”, was another thought.
But I’m sure their are better ideas to be had.
by keres
Ah. Okay. No green then.
I like Comfort Zone but I think EcoAssess is too easily read as EcoAsses. Maybe EcoSave?
by AndiF
Oh, Yeah. Maybe not assess then. :O
I’m also thinking of starting an EcoMob movement. Mob as in mobilize.
The biggest problem people have with implementing change is a lack of people power and skills to make it happen. I was thinking of building a website that allowed people in a given area to join “mobs”, who would take turns spending a day at each other’s homes actually doing the some of the work someone such as myself might suggest. Like caulking up drafts, putting insulation strips and sweeps on exterior doors, installing pelmets above the drapes, changing to compact florescent bulbs, installing water flow restrictors, etc. The small changes that can make sizable savings. The homeowner would arrange to have all the materials and everyone else would show up with whatever tools they were competent with.
This would be separate from the business. But it could have some overlap. If people showed up to mob a house I’d assessed, maybe they’d sign up for an assessment before their turn rolled around.
by keres
Wow, congratulations and good luck. That sounds like a timely and important new business venture.
Congratulations keres!
Okay I’ve had coffee and been for a walk and here’s my ideas:
EcoZone
EcoCheck
EnviroCheck
EnviroRate
EcoValuate (or maybe just EcoVal)
Wow, Andi, you missed your calling as an ad exec.
Oh noes … you want me to go into the Beige Conference Room of Death and never come out! ;P
Not the BCRoD!
All have some promising aspect, but they’re not quite there yet.
Speaking of BCRoD, that’s where I spent my entire day yesterday getting lessons in business plans, marketing, media, taxes, etc. at a forum aimed at women entrepreneurs.
Well some BCRoDs are better than others. I hope it was worthwhile.
Congratulations & good luck, keres! We’re very pleased for you, obviously.
Interesting — a neighbor of mine here in the Kaats is at precisely the same point, with the same business. He’s fishing for names, too & considering something region-specific. BlueStone Energy & the like. (BlueStone being a famous regional building stone).
Being sleep-deprived, my brain capacity can’t quite handle creative branding at the moment, but I do wonder if the dual syllable ‘eco’ is so overused, at this point, that it’s soon to become revolting. Eco-friendly, eco-tourism, eco-homo ..
How ’bout ..
Wow, you not only come up with the name, you design the sign. 🙂
Our weather today is lousy.
I’m sorry to hear that. Rain?
Oh yes, rain, wind, chill (about 50F) & extra heavy fog. When I woke this morning, the mercury read about 35.
It’s staying the same ’til Saturday, apparently — while I’m trying to build a screenhouse for my friend in time for Solstice.
Ugh. We’ve gone the other way — unseasonably hot (well low 80s) and humid.
We’ve been there, will probably go back very soon.
Frankly, I prefer the cooler side of things — but rain & chilly wind is no fun if you need to work outside.
Anything above 75F gives me a lot of trouble here. We got lotsa humid.
My perfect climate would never get hotter than 75 or colder than 20.
I think humidity is worse in the woods — the trees seems to hold the wet.
They sure do. For the best, I think.
🙂
I developed a comfort level with cold temperatures (meaning 0 to -15) while living in the metal box through 4 winters.
Now that I’m living in an actual house, I’m definitely losing my edge. 32F actually seems like it’s freezing.
It was actually five winters: 9/01 – 6/06.
Time sure flies when you’re havin’ a good time — which I did.
Well I suppose being able to tough it out has its virtues but I’m all for living in places with decent heat and structural integrity. 🙂
They really do go together, too.
The thing about the trailer spot was the 83 acres surrounding, mostly just me& the critters. I really wouldn’t go for it otherwise.
A lovely looking card. But, unfortunately, people would think I’m a utility service.
Also, Australia doen’t use Inc. Here it’s the much more snooty “Propriety Limited” (Pty Ltd.). Which, as a sole operator, I won’t be either.
This is actually just a fancy name suggestion — despite what I said about ‘eco’. It came to me in a dream.
The rest is frills.
‘Cuz I’m so frilly. 😉
I wonder if any of the Cafe Women are frilly. I’m thinking not.
I’ve already made the correlation between frilly & furry, so we may have a disagreement.
Well I know the two of us are anti-dress-up but I’m guess Cabin Girl cleans up nice. 🙂
Oh Andi you’ve always dressed up really nicely. :O)
Hey, that bow is very frilly. 😛
(I’m surprised you’ve saved that picture — though it is my all time favorite portrait.)
Of course I saved that picture. You’ve got a lot more B’days coming up. 🙂
I remember when she posted only that head shot, and it looked like the buckles were teeny little deformed fists catching the drool from her chin. 🙂
Yep I remember the first time she posted it too. Who says Andi isn’t frilly. 🙂
My very first image of Andi.
🙂
Love that photo!
Today I’m wearing a floral skirt, longish, chiffony and kind of swirly. But no frills.
I was looking for my prom picture, 1978, to show everyone the last time I wore a dress.
I wore form-fitting Chinese silk dresses for approximately 3 months in 1980, with the spiked jet-black ‘punk’ hair. I looked like a pineapple in a plastic bag.
and posting pictures of me, I always think my expression in this picture sums up all my feelings about dressing up (and that gawdawful dress as well).
What are you talking about? You look like you should be walking down a runway modeling. Plus that’s kind of frilly. 🙂
Well I had the snotty look down perfectly. Might be lacking a bit on the height and not lacking a lot on the weight. But mostly lacking any desire to get dressed up.
Well I know how you feel. I’m not a big dress up person myself. Plus after being in the military and wearing a uniform everyday, I just never got into buying a whole lot of new clothes.
Oh, yes. I know that expression well. Particularly when dressed-up.
Really the picture of adolescence, methinks.Pretty great!
Actually to me, Andi’s expression is more of a “I’d really like to kick someone’s as* right now.” 🙂
Wow — I think you’ve read her mind in the past!
I’ve been waiting for SN’s dress shot, but I’ve got to run downstairs & rescue the bird-feeders from potential bear-theft.
Wishing you a good evening, FM. See y’all later.
See ya WW. I’ve got to go too. Thunder and lighting here.
Be careful of the bears. =:o
I’m proud to say that snottiness has been an essential part of my character for over 50 years. 🙂
And that’s one of the reasons we love you so much. 😛
At least it’s not continual.
🙂
Off to bang the bear-bell. See you later!
Absolutely. As well as the dogs.
🙂
Plus, I have an aversion lately to empty space.
some combination of “green, ecology, energy, and synergy”?… greconergy…syneco…or my favorite, soylent green, just for the dystopian irony.
l’ll think on it some more and get back to you…………:{)
Soylent Green – it’s people. =:o
As I said above, I really can’t use green. Which is too bad because I can think of lots of fun movie inspired puns, like “Green is Good”.
seriously now, how about EQUINOX plus whatever…
aside from it’s celestial origins, it’s always implied a sense of balance to me…all things being considered and brought into harmony.
perhaps a bit too esoteric, but apropos, imo, since in general the ultimate goal is to help people achieve balance in their relationship with the planet thru a less consumptive lifestyle.
l’ll leave it at that. food for thought.
I think you should pick a name that has nothing with eco or green in it – something counterintuitive but unforgettable.
Like Aardvark.
Like Apple has nothing to do with computers.
Then trademark it. If you make a go of it, most of the value will be in your name and the goodwill that goes with it.
I think that only works if you are going to go for big. It will be years before I even consider adding an employee.
Until then, I want something fairly to-the-point.
Didn’t apple start in a garage?
Pick something that will make them look twice. And have a slogan that’s “to the point”.
How about something like Draft Busters?
Again, catchy but not entirely accurate. Although busting droughts will be part of it, there’s a whole bunch more.
Many compliments on the delicious image up top, Andi. What a lovely light!
‘Course, we know what that green shape is, but it might also be a lightning-bolt of essential growth energy from the Nature Goddess Above, direct to the heart of the waiting flower.Shazzam!
I really wanted to get both the flower and that “lightning bolt” in focus but couldn’t get the shot but now that I’ve read your comment, I’m glad that I didn’t. 🙂
In my very limited experience, that would be a hard shot, because of the tight focus.
(There’s probably a technical way to say that.)
Yeah but given a lens with a large aperture and a tripod, it could be done — however, I had neither.
Yep, that’s my experience right there.
Frankly, I think the shot is lovely just as it is. There’s a lovely, vaporous quality to both the green & the inside of the flower that speaks to my sense of nature’s magic What we witness isn’t always clearly defined.
Which is why I love the fog, too.
I’ll bet you get some really nice fog there — hills and valleys are good for that.
You know we do! Especially up here at the farm, at about 2100′. Head down the mountain for about 10 minutes & the air will be completely clear.
Likewise, we get snow up here when there’s none down below.
It’s an interesting spot, for sure. Where I lived before, we were only at about 1700′. Right across the river, but very different.
Around here, the fog is more likely to be in the valleys than in the hills.
It seems to move up from the valley here pretty quickly, like a cat running on its belly before leaping at prey.
Keres,
My humble suggestion would be “Green Screen”.
It incorporates what you are doing & has the double meaning of superimposing the reality of the situation you are assessing, over the results you could achieve, by implementing your expertise.
So shoot me.
Green Screen is excellent. Except for the whole “green” issue.
Hiya Keres and everyone.
I don’t really have a name, but I think you should have some word pertaining to home in there. I think that would have more people taking a look to see how it pertains to their home.
I went to a web site to look up Australian slang and couldn’t find anything for your company name, but oh boy that is a completely different language. 🙂
Got some new pond pictures for Friday Foto Flogging? 🙂
Hi Andi,
Nope no new pictures. It really hasn’t stopped raining down here for the last week. I’ll try to get some before Friday though.
Got any fried biscuits ya want to send down here. 😉
Hell no, I’m not sending them. It may be the only bribe that’ll get you up here. 🙂
Well I getting closer and closer all the time. In two weeks I’ll have new choppers and new glasses. Of course after all of that, I’ll have to save for a year so I can do my world wide tour and visit everyone. 🙂
You can hit Andi and me in one trip – I’ll come there. It’s not that far away and now I know the way 🙂
Excellent plan!
I agree. 🙂
Well then, all you need to do is to give us a date. 🙂
Let me talk with Publisher’s Clearing House and when I get a date from them, you’ll be the first to know. 😉
Ah, you can sleep on the futon. It’ll be cheap.
Thank you very much. However, once I win it big, I plan on getting one of those super big RVs that has two or three bedrooms in it, and I’ll zip down the interstate pulling my Rolls behind it. Yeah sure. 🙂
Hi Mary,
That sounds good to me. After all these years it would be good to finally get to a meet up.
BTW I was talking about you today. I was at the dentist and doing my usual talk about being in Europe. She said she had always wanted to go to Italy. I told her I had a friend that usually goes there once a year and she loves it. Were your ears burning. 🙂
Is that why my ears were burning? I thought maybe I was coming down with swine flu or something.
but oh boy that is a completely different language.
Too right cobber.
I wrote a bit once about the habit of Australians to shorten every thing to the first bit (or occasionally the second) and replacing the remaining syllables with a ‘y’ or an ‘o’. It went something like this:
We woke up Chrissy (Christmas) morning and ate brekky before opening our prezzies (presents). I got a nice pair of nokies (binoculars) and some sunnies (sunglasses). In the arvo (afternoon) we fired up the barbie (BBQ). Da was a bit agro (aggravated/angry) because he forgot the snags (sausages/hotdogs) so mum made a run to the servo (service station/mini-mart).
I guess I’ll have to do like I did with Olivia. Besides trying to learn Canadian, I’ll have to try and learn Australian. Geeze all these foreign languages. 🙂
Good luck. I’ve been here six years and I still have to ask for translations.
After being away from here for 30 years it took me awhile to get back into the slang used. I’ve got some relatives whose drawl is so thick that I have to have them repeat themselves sometimes.
Here it’s more of mumble than a drawl. I swear there’s a competition amongst a certain class of men to not move their upper lip at all when speaking. Or, if they must move it marginally, to grow a mustache to hide the fact.
I got told at the servo once that the soda I wanted was “uh duluh noiny”. I had to ask three times before I finally gathered that he was saying “a dollar ninety”. But strangely enough, “no” can have three syllables, as in “nah-uh-oh” (said with a falling and then rising inflection. In fact, some Australians end every sentence with a rising inflection. So it sounds like everything is a question.
It used to be funny to me that living in different places that I would pick up the accent. While living in New Hampshire someone once asked me if I were from Boston. I asked them how many Bostonians had they ever heard that used the word ya’ll. 🙂
Check out this YouTube of Adam Hills to hear the “question” bit.
That was pretty good. Of course our Australian population around here isn’t that large so I have no comparison. :O)
Back when we had TV, Taggart was one of our favorite mysterys on BBC. The Glasgow dialect was one of the tougher ones for us to try to follow, but we had fun trying to puzzle out the plots.
The last Aussies we had much conversation with were from Adelaide and seemed quite easy to comprehend in comparison.
Even Imogen, whose father is English had trouble understanding whole swaths of Taggert. I was completely lost.
As in most countries, it’s the bumpkins that present the greatest challenges to the outside ear. I just happen to live in Bumpkinville (or Boganville, as the Australians would put it). I suspect your visitors were a bit more erudite or urban.
One was a teacher, the other a musician, and both quite delightful. We had them for neighbors for six weeks during Dec. and Jan. several years ago. She was here studying with a local pianist and he came along for the travel experience. We had a big snow and they were just ecstatic! He had never seen snow before ever. A lot of photos got taken, you betcha!
Well, семья человек, at least they use the same alphabet;-)
Hiya ID,
Well now if I knew even which language that was I wouldn’t feel so dumb right now. 🙂
I cheated and used a Russian translator;-)
Hey very cool! I just pulled up the translator to see what it said.
Let me know if it worked. Its rather intriguing.
I copied what you wrote and went to Babel Fish and plugged it in. It translated to the family of the men
Yep it worked.
Cool! Pretty close.
Yes that’s true. Although that just seems to be an excuse to put lots of extraneous letters in words like: colour, mould, humour, programme, etc. Or then there’s the inverted “er”, as in: centre, metre, etc.
We aren’t blood French, people. So why do we spell that way? (Actually, I know exactly why we do [damn elitist Normans], but it’s still annoying.)
Gotta go. We’ve got a big thunderstorm with lighting everywhere. Got to close down the computer.
It was good talking to everyone tonight. Have a good night and rest of the week.
Yeah right. Trash the cafe and then run away. ;P
I’m shocked! Get busy in the afternoon, come back to the cafe, and look at the place…we need a new cafe!
Yep we do but here it is, the next day and it’s still same ole dirty one. Tsk, tsk. 😉
Morning Andi,
Now don’t be Tsk, tsking CG.
But you know what they say. If you leave a cafe a mess, then you house must be………..
It’s just too early to put on a helmet, but it’s on. 🙂
Hey, a messy house is a good house. And I oughta know.
Now did I say a messy house?
Of course the ending to that sentence was an immaculate house because she spent all her time cleaning it up instead of putting up a new cafe. Hah!
Aren’t you the sneaky fella and so early in the morning too.
Are the storms gone?
Yep sure am. 🙂
Storms aren’t gone completely, 40% chance today. We didn’t have that much rain yesterday, but a lot of thunder and lighting. We could use a little drying out period because it has rained almost constantly for the last week.
Are ya’ll having you’re usual wonderful weather up there?
I guess I’m here for short period this morning. Been up since midnight and now I’m starting to feel sleepy.
Nap time and I’ll see ya’ll later.
What??? You’re leaving already??? I just got here…
The usual spring weather here is for it to change every 5 minutes before settling into the summer pattern of humidity and thunderstorms. We seem to have gotten past the unsettled weather very quickly and already into the summer pattern. Feh.
Good thinking with the helmet…
Morning Andi.
Good evening, keres.
Did all yesterday’s creative output inspire you to come up with a name?
Morning Keres,
Come up with a name yet?
Hi keres! How’s the naming process coming?