John: Good morning Hank, it's Thursday December 6th, and as you can see, despite all of the vicious teasing in comments, I'm still wearing my nerd glasses.

The top three nerd glasses jokes so far-- Number three: Did you get those from the British National Health Service? Number two: I'm not gonna make a joke, because I assume the glasses themselves are a joke. And number one: You look exactly like Uncle Junior from the Sopranos.

Hank, I think that in a lot of ways, peer pressure is healthy and good. Like for instance Hank, say that I’m five years old and I know a two year old. This two year old could be my brother; he could be a friend.

Whatever, I'm not gonna name any names, but he's probably my brother. Now let's say that this two year old has just learned how to tinkle on his own and he's really excited about it. I don't blame him Hank; being able to tinkle on your own is exciting!

But Hank, maybe this two year old is so excited about being able to tinkle on his own that he sometimes takes out the equipment before going to the bathroom. And then sort of waddles into the bathroom while everyone laughs. And then maybe later, five year old me points out to the two year old nameless person that you can't take the equipment out until you're inside the bathroom with the door closed.

Now in that purely hypothetical example, Hank, the two year old has learned an important lesson. Usually the social order is the way it is for a reason, but then sometimes the social order thinks things that are absolutely freakin’ mad! Like for instance that you should cover your front lawn with plants that don’t produce edible fruit and require a lot of water to maintain.

Or that the kind of glasses you wear are in some way reflective of the kind of person you are. Now Hank, generally my response to the social order not looking like I want it to look like is to just to complain, but the Yeti’s response has always been to try to do stuff. Which brings me to the Green Green Manifesto.

So Hank, about three months ago I was on the road somewhere and I got a call from the Yeti saying that she was writing a manifesto. Well Hank, naturally I got excited because you know I’m a huge fan of manifestos. I think the manifesto is potentially the most underutilized of all literary genres.

It turns out that the Yeti’s manifesto was on the subject of our not living in a way that’s in line with our values here in Indianapolis. And in a series of bullet points, she outlines some ways that we could live better lives. Bullet point number one: Compost. (outside) I’d show you the compost, but it’s frozen shut; anyway, be grateful you don’t have smell-o-vision.

Bullet point number two: Light bulbs. Hank, for the last three months, we have only been buying those crazy whirligig light bulbs because the crazy whirligig light bulbs give off way more efficient light. Plus, they’re turny!

Bullet point number two: Cloth bags. Ever since we put the Green Green Manifesto into use, we’ve just used cloth bags at the grocery store instead of plastic bags. Not only do cloth bags create less waste, they’re also just way better at carrying groceries.

Bullet point number three: No more soda. The thing about soda and bottled water and stuff is that it’s very expensive to ship heavy things, and liquid is always heavy. There was a study recently that showed that one single bottle of Fiji Water requires two pounds of carbon to go from Fiji to the United States.

So instead of drinking soda which is super heavy and requires a lot of packaging and shipping and stuff, we’re drinking Crystal Light. I would just drink the tap water here, but it tastes like poison. Bullet point number four: No more paper in the kitchen.

Hank, we drastically reduced our use of paper towels by always using cloth napkins and dishrags. Bullet point number five: It turns out you can recycle all kinds of stuff you didn’t even know you could recycle. Hank, before the Green Green Manifesto, we produced about four kitchen bags full of garbage each week.

Now we produce less than one. Bullet point I-haven’t-been-keeping-track-of-the-numbers-but-I’m-going-to-guess-that-it’s-number-six: Buying local food. Hank, one of the most unexpected things to come out of the Green Green Manifesto is that I’ve learned I don’t hate tomatoes.

I thought I hated tomatoes ever since I was a baby, but it turns out I just hate crappy tomatoes. I quite like the tomatoes from the local farmers’ market! And finally, Hank, peer pressure be damned, we’re letting large swaths of our property become native Indiana grasses which don’t require watering.

Because sometimes you have to listen to the peer pressure of all of society, and sometimes you just have to listen to the peer pressure coming from your brother. And peer pressure-wise, you’re a great brother. Let me know if you have any other tips and congratulations on Ecogeek’s three millionth visitor.

I’ll see you tomorrow. (end title) Scavenger hunters, today is a discussion day, not a clue day.