pat yourself on the back day

Various bloggers, myself included, have recognized our green "failures" from time to time - we forget to bring our reusable bags into the store, we make an unplanned stop for coffee with friends and don't have our reusable mugs along, or we indulge in a can of soda even though we've sworn it off. Acknowledging these little lapses is an important thing to do so that we can move forward past them. We recognize that overall, our efforts and successes are more important than our slip-ups in the end, and we move on.

Today, though, I'm declaring an official "pat yourself on the back day" - a day to acknowledge one thing that you're proud of yourself for doing this week, or month, and to give yourself credit for it. As important as it is to acknowledge the little mistakes we make, I think it's equally crucial to reflect on the things we're doing right.

My pat on the back is for something pretty simple really. My book club meets at the biggest Whole Foods I've ever been in. They have two cafe / bistro areas in there. The first serves ice cream, pastries, coffee and such, and the second serves sandwiches, fries, wine, and more entree like items. I've figured that if I enter the building at the end near the ice cream, I can enjoy one scoop by the time I get to the bistro at the other end where we meet, just in time to enjoy a glass of wine over our book discussion. Mindful eating? Not really. Discretionary eating? Absolutely. But I really love their cardamom ice cream, and I haven't found anywhere else to get it, so I'm probably going to continue this little habit.

On the other hand, I remembered to bring along the (washed) disposable plastic cup they'd served it in last time, and when I ordered, I handed it back to the girl, who looked shocked for a second, then thanked me for bringing it, and filled it up for me.

It's a little thing, but I was very proud of myself, for some reason, of having remembered to bring that little cup along.

So let's hear from you - what's one thing you'd like to pat yourself on the back for? It can be a little thing or a big thing, but leave a comment and tell us what it is, and give yourself some credit!

today was a good day

Do you ever have one of those days where everything just kind of works out really nicely? I know we've all had the other kind, where nothing works out, but I think it's important to stop and appreciate the days we do have where everything just flows.

I had some errands to run this morning, one of which included mailing a rather bulky, though not heavy box. I had some other errands to run afterwords that made walking out of the question, and I was a little nervous to try to balance this box and ride the bike, but I figured I'd give it a shot. So I did, and was so glad I didn't break down and drive, because it turns out I was able to finish all my errands in the strip mall where the post office is. So I decided to take advantage of the sudden free time and the fact that I was already out with the bike and go exploring.

There's a very cute neighborhood about 3.5 miles away from us with an adorable Main Street feel to it, and I've been meaning to go spend some time down there for about a year now. So I hopped on the bike and started pedaling. I didn't get lost, and I managed to avoid the expressway (a scary mistake I'd made once before!). I arrived at my destination a little sweaty but otherwise doing fine.

I immediately found an adorable little thrift store I'd never seen before. I popped in to see if ther was anything I needed. I found two wonderful books. The first, published in 1974, is titled "English Crewell Designs". I didn't really even know exactly what crewell was (it's a type of embroidery) until I opened the book, but I'd picked it up because the picture on the cover was so cool looking. I'm going to use this book for inspiration and guidance when I start designing my own patterns for hooked rugs. The other book I got is called "Homemade Bread" and is even older than the first, having been published in 1967 - but still in great condition. I was thinking I should buy it when I read on the inside flap "For everyone who is tired of 'instant living'", but I was convinced when I flipped open to a random page and found myself looking at a picture of the same Easter Egg Bread my mom used to make when I was little! There are a ton of other recipes in here, and I'm psyched that the book was written before bread machines were even invented! In total, I spent $1.62 on these two books!

I puttered around a while longer, popping into an independently owned bookstore that I try to support, having a snack at a small, locally owned deli, and finally hopping back on the bike and heading back home. When I was just over a mile from home, I noticed a sign I hadn't seen before, reading "India Mart" and I decided to investigate. Apparently they've just opened within the past month, and the woman working there was super nice! She was obviously very proud of her shop and took me on a tour of the small aisles, explaining all the items they planned on stocking in the future. They had a good assortment of all the basics needed for Indian cooking. She told me she wanted this to be a community shop and to please ask her if there were things we wanted her to stock that we didn't see and she'd order them for us. I bought a few things that I didn't necessarily need but knew we'd use eventually and went on my way, feeling like I'd made a new friend. I'll definitely be shopping there again!

Just when I thought it couldn't get any better today, I arrived home, and in my mailbox was sitting the copy of "New Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant" that I'd been waiting for several months to pop up on paperback swap (if you haven't checked it out yet, I can't recommend it highly enough!).

Now I'm off to make some sorbet and continue enjoying this wonderful day. By the way, don't forget to check out the APLS group on facebook if you haven't yet. There are some really wonderfully interesting discussions happening there, and we'd love to have you chime in!

a blanket, some music, a bottle of wine...

...and you've got yourself a great evening in the park! Where I live, there are TONS of free events in the summer time. Jazz on the Plazz, Concerts in the Park, Music in the Park, it's hard to keep them all straight! If I wanted to, I could attend at least two nights of free music every week (and yes, a lot of the parks around here let you bring wine, as long as you're responsible, whatever that means)!

I've always enjoyed these events, and have been attending them since we moved here over a year ago. It's a great way to spend time with friends without spending money, and also to get outdoors and enjoy the summer. I love sneaking peeks at what's inside other people's picnic baskets, and chatting with friends, running into people we weren't expecting to see, meeting new friends, watching kids running around and playing. Oh yeah, and listening to the music, too. Sure beats sitting home watching TV! (Besides, we have one of those recorder things, so when the concerts happen to fall on the same night as "So You Think You Can Dance" I'm not forced to make those hard choices. Now you know my guilty TV love).

This year, I've noticed a much, much larger crowd at these events each week than ever before. So many people that blankets literally overlap each other, leaving no space for people to pass in between. Is it the economy? Are people trying to find cheap entertainment? Or have the masses started realizing that the best things in life really are free?

What's great is that it's totally not focused on spending money. Sure, people bring food and drinks that they've bought, but we were all going to eat dinner anyway. A lot of people bring food that was obviously cooked at home, and even among those eating take-out, there's not a lot of chain restaurant food to be found in the areas around the parks. Where the jazz concert is, they don't even allow vendors into the park.

And I even get a chance to do my small bit of leading by example too. I make sure to bring my cloth napkins and my sigg, as well as non-disposable cups, silverware, etc. And this is California, after all, so of course they have giant recycling bins to collect the wine bottles and keep them out of the landfill.

Sure, I could meet my friends for a movie, and we could spend $50 in the process, but in the end, we wouldn't have actually spent much time together. And when I look back a year, or two, or ten from now, I know the concerts in the park will be much more memorable.

rock the vote

I've been fairly busy lately, in part because I've been participating in a few events for the Obama campaign (despite the controversy of the recent vote on FISA). I'm not trying to sway anybody to vote one way or the other, but rather to explain how being involved in a campaign has been a very positive experience for me.

Most of what I've been doing thus far has been registering voters. This isn't strictly campaigning, because we register anybody during these events, regardless of what their political leanings are. We usually have a little table of some sort set up, with the voter registration cards, and some buttons and bumper stickers for sale. This is done at places like free outdoor concerts in the park and at the farmers market. People stop by and chat while they browse and fill out voter registration cards. I've spoken to people of all different ages, and races, political afiliations, and nationalities.

Perhaps one of my favorite conversations I've had while registering voters was with a five year old girl. She seemed pretty bright, and asked me about what I was doing. I explained the presidency and elections to her as best I could, and told her the names of the two candidates. I showed her a picture of Obama and had to apologize to her when she asked me to show her a picture of McCain. I could tell she was still confused about something though, and, making a sweeping gesture that encompassed the whole table I was sitting at, she asked, "But why are you doing all of this?"

What a fair question, I thought. I explained that we really liked one person more than the other to be our next president, and that we just wanted to tell other people that and answer any questions they might have. But that's not really a reason, I thought. Why was I doing all of this?

What inspires me to be involved now, at this moment, is that for the first time, I feel like I really care about an election in a positive way. In the past, I've only really wanted certain individuals to not be elected (and yes, I am referring most specifically to Bush here, especially since I'm too young to have done any presidential voting before him), and have never felt passionately that I cared whether any particular person take office. This time, it's different. I really want this man to be my next president.

I'm sick of not caring, and sick of expecting the worst from our "leaders". I'm sick of being cynical and waiting for the other shoe to drop. I'm sick of the apathy, and of expecting to be disappointed. I'm sick of the intolerance, and the institutional condoning of intolerance. This is not what I expect from my political system or from my country. It's not what I was taught to expect growing up. I realize that utopia is not just over the horizon waiting for us to elect the right leader, but I also realize that as a nation, we have a lot more potential than an outsider might think to look at us right now.

All this thinking about why I care now about the presidential elections in a way I never had before reminded me of a post by arduous, in which she stated "We can't resign ourselves to doom AND also believe in a brighter tomorrow" - I guess I'm not ready to resign myself to doom. Sure, this country is a big old mess in a lot of ways. I'm not so naive to believe that it's even just one big old mess. We've got lots of messes (Iraq, social security, health care, and of course, the environment, for starters). I don't feel a sense of doom about any of these things. I realized that what I've always felt in the past was a sense of fatigue with the status quo.

I don't believe in magic "president fairies" that wave a wand and make everything alright. I actually am one of those cynical people who believe that a person's electability as president automatically makes him or her a less than ideal person for the job. I also, however, recognize the reality of the world in which I live, and realize that the system we have in place now is what we have to work with. I do believe also that change is possible. I know it's what I want, and I know it's what a lot of other Americans want too. Whatever candidate you support, and in whatever election, be it local, state, or federal, I believe that we need to start becoming more involved in our political processes. By doing so, we are actively helping to shape our future rather than passively waiting for it to happen to us.

That, my little friend from the park, is why I am doing all of this.

(And no more politics for a while, I promise!)

check it out...

There's a cool site for all of you who enjoy reading the green sites...it's Alltop - it's like one big giant aggregator of a whole bunch of different green sites (and actually, they have lots of other topics too!).

You'll probably see some of your old favorites there, and you may even stumble upon a new gem or two.

Another great website to check out is WalkScore - it'll give you a score on how "walkable" your current or potential neighborhood is - just enter the address and it'll give you a map with results of all the different things that are within walking distance. It's a great tool to scope out a new neighborhood if you're considering a move in the near future, and it's also a neat way to find some hidden gems if, like me, you're still relatively new to the area you live in. One more way to help reduce car use and energy consumption!

gentle reminders

I've seen this idea several times, and have always forgotten to mention it. Most email programs allow you to attach a permanent signature - why not use this for some info that goes beyond your name, job title, and phone number?

After all, a signature, as defined by dictionary.com, is "A distinctive mark, characteristic, or sound indicating identity" - don't you want your signature to say something about who you are, and what is important to you?

My personal email has a link to my blog...hopefully people may see it, click out of idle curiosity, and begin thinking about some things they hadn't before.

I've just added a signature to my work email (where I don't feel a blog link is appropriate) that says "Please consider the environment before printing this email." I totally copied this verbatim from somebody who sent it to me...sorry!

Burbanmom also suggests using your signature to give a "tip of the month" - she even gives step by step instructions for the technologically challenged on how to add a signature in outlook. If you use gmail, click on "settings" in the upper right corner, then the first tab says "general" - there's a box there that says "signature" - type it in, click "save changes" at the bottom, and you're good to go.

It took me about fifteen seconds to add this to my signature, and no ongoing maintenance required. Plus it's free. I like being able to do something good without spending money. So what if only two people ever decide not to print because of it? That's two less sheets of paper that we need to cut down a tree for, spend resources making, transporting, and later recycling.

More importantly, this can serve as one more reminder filtering into the subconsciousness of everyone I email with on a professional basis that we need to be aware of how we use resources. And these days, we can use as many of these reminders as we can get!

Everything in moderation

I really enjoy blogging. It's a great way for me to keep myself accountable, have interesting exchanges of idea, force myself to research things I'm wondering about, "meet" like-minded people, and a chance for me to be a little creative.

I also enjoy reading other people's blogs, and surfing the internet. The problem is that I've turned into a bit of a computer potato lately. I've never been much into watching tv for hours on end, but I've found I've fallen into the habit lately of getting up, turning on the water for coffee or tea, and sitting down to check my email. All three accounts. Then I read comments on my blog. Then I check out facebook for a while, read other blogs, check the news, pay bills, look at links in emails friends and families have sent me, and by that point I usually can start the whole process all over again.

The problem is, I end up spending waaaay too much time online every day, and way too little time actually doing things. It's a lot easier to justify too much time online than it is too much TV - after all, being online allows many benefits TV doesn't - staying in touch with people, educating yourself about new topics, even making some extra cash selling stuff - but it can also become a mindless way to disconnect with the world around us. So, I’ve decided I’ll have scheduled internet time for myself. It won’t be until later in the day, so that I’ll be much more likely to get carried away doing other projects and put off my internet time, rather than the other way around.

While we were away last weekend, we had no internet connection available (no phone either) and I was surprised to find that I didn’t miss it all that much. Somehow, though, when the computer is sitting there looking at me, I just have to crack it open and see what fun I’m missing out on. I think I’ll try something similar to what my parents did a long time ago – when I was really little, they kept the television in a closet, so that when they wanted to watch it, there had to be a conscious effort to pull it out and plug it in. I think that’s what I’ll do – physically put the laptop away until it’s time to pull it out to work on a blog or pay bills.

I’ve read posts from others thinking along similar lines lately – it’s not that I don’t have the time or energy to blog, because I do, and I’ll continue to do so. It just may not be every day, because I’m hoping to be too busy doing other things some days. I have a feeling that won’t be a problem, once I actually get off the couch and turn this machine off.

the following is presented without commercial interruption

I read this post by Theresa at Pondering the Myriad Things yesterday, and I think it’s time I follow suit.

I believe in freedom of speech, so I don't like the idea of deleting comments, and will only do so very selectively, if ever, with the following short and simple caveats:

If you’ve commented here before, and you want to recommend a website or product because it’s relevant to the post and you use it or have tried it yourself and/or feel that other readers could truly potentially benefit from the information, by all means, please share.
If it’s your first time commenting, please don’t post a link to a commercial website. If you feel you have a case that justifies an exception, just email me. The sidebar has a place where you can do that.

I think this is a pretty fair policy. I don’t make any money off the blog, I do it because I enjoy it and it keeps me accountable to myself, and gives me a way to share ideas with others. At the same time, if I’m not making cash from my work, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect that others won’t either. Especially since a big part of what I’m working toward in my life is finding ways to consume less, not more.

That’s all. Happy Friday!

Poolside

Bora Bora Pearl Beach Resort, swimming pool
Originally uploaded by Michelle Middleton Photography

We live in a condo, squished in amongst lots of other condos. One of the features we have is a community pool, open for about six months of the year. Until this weekend, I'd only made it there once. I was away most of last summer, so I never really got around to it. Recently I'd thought about it again, and the new environmentally conscious side of my brain pooh poohed the pool - full of nasty chemicals, wasting water, so on and so forth.

Then I thought about it again. We've lived here for over a year now, and the guy across the street just introduced himself for the seventh time. My husband just met the neighbor next door last week. We don't know anybody who lives around here! If I needed a cup of sugar, I'd get in the car and drive to the store, or do without it, before I'd ask any of my neighbors, for the simple reason that for the large majority, I don't even know their names.

I also thought about the environmental impact of the pool a bit more. It does get really hot around here in the summer, and I suppose it's better that a community of people share a pool rather than each of them having their own or driving somewhere every time they want to swim. Plus, whether I use it or not, it's there. I also have to give our HOA credit for deciding last year to pull out the fountain at the entrance to our community and replace it with some nice, at least semi-native landscaping (it's more native than a fountain, that's for sure).

So I packed my book and my towel and headed up to the pool. Actually, I packed my ipod too, but I didn't end up needing it. Although I wouldn't say I made any lifelong friends by hanging out in the sun and water for an hour and a half, I did get the chance to chat with people who live all around me, and learn a little something about a few of them.

It's weird, because I talk a lot and am very outgoing when I know at least one or two people in a group - but if I don't have that minimum safety blanket, I am pretty shy. I am sure that people will look at me funny and wonder why I am talking to them if I just strike up a conversation. Last weekend at the pool though, as is usually the case once I actually start talking with somebody, I found that they were all pretty nice, and I could find something in common with all of them.

It was nice to see the little kids having so much fun being outside, not watching tv or playing video games. I'll admit I could have done without the pack of scary pre-teenagers - they were making me blush with some of the things coming out of their mouths - but what was even nice about that was that a dad showed up with his daughter and was playing some games with her, and all the other kids flocked to him like rats following the Pied Piper. I guess they just wanted somebody to pay attention to them.

I've been to the park nearby my house a few times, but this was different. I think maybe it's because everybody hanging out at the pool knows for sure that these are their neighbors, so there's almost an implied introduction that's already been made, so it's not as scary to strike up a chat with a stranger.

It would be really easy to continue hiding in my condo - nothing would ever force me to come out and talk to anybody else ever if I didn't want to. That's not the kind of community I want for myself. I'd like to know a neighbor or two well enough to invite them over for a drink or a game night if we're having a lazy weekend, rather than staying home watching tv because my closest friend is a twenty minute drive away. I think I'll opt for knowing something about the people who live around me though - and if I ever need to borrow a cup of sugar, I'll have a door or two to knock on.

Eating local on a global scale

I’ve been thinking and reading a lot lately about buying locally grown food, and making a conscious effort to eat more of it. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how easy it’s been to adapt some of my “tried and true” recipes to the ingredients coming into the house via our CSA box rather than going to the store to purchase the produce Betty Crocker deems necessary.

The quality of the food arriving each week is unparalleled in my culinary experience. The potatoes we ate for dinner yesterday were unbelievable. Picked about twenty-four hours earlier, they were so creamy and delicious that it actually led to a bit of inter-plate thievery when I got up for a glass of water.

This is not to say that I haven’t supplemented our farm share with non-local produce as I get used to this new way of feeding my household, but I’ve noticed how vastly inferior these items are in comparison, and they really are supplemental items more than the staple of my meals these days.

The quality of the food notwithstanding, I originally began making this switch for mainly environmental reasons. I wanted to support local small businesses that operated using sustainable methods. I wanted to decrease my carbon footprint by eating foods that had traveled fewer miles, therefore requiring less fossil fuel to reach my table.

These reasons are why I was totally irritated, but unfortunately not at all surprised, to read this editorial in the Washington Post. What was most upsetting to me were the following facts:

U.S. donations of food must be purchased from U.S. suppliers
U.S. donations of food must be shipped in U.S. ships
The U.S. spends 65% of its food donation budget on transportation & overhead

This is probably old news to everybody else, as the editorial is about two months old, but I’m really irritated. What this means, as far as I can tell, is that our already scant foreign aid is further eroded by these policies designed as much to continue the growth of our own economy as they are to feed the truly hungry around the world.

I visited a Habitat for Humanity project in Zimbabwe about ten years ago. They were building homes that resembled other homes in the area. They weren’t putting up pre-fab homes shipped in from the U.S., because that would make no sense. It would be a waste of valuable limited resources, and the aid would be ill-suited to the target population. In the same way, shipping food halfway across the world is a terribly wasteful way to use the embarrassingly small number of food donation dollars we have allocated.

I believe in the value of a strong domestic economy. I believe just as strongly in the right of every person on this planet to be well nourished – and I believe that we currently have the resources to accomplish this. What we lack is the willingness, as a nation, to “sacrifice” a bit of our current lifestyle or standard of living.

If we claim to give aid, we should give aid. There should be no questions of “what am I going to get out of this?” when we are supposedly being charitable. As an episode of Friends once pointed out, there is perhaps no truly selfless act, but we could aim for a bit of selflessness – even if that means giving our dollars to a farmer a little closer to the destination of the aid. My guess is that it’s not the small family owned farms in this country that benefit from our current protectionist policies anyhow.

It also seems that if we did purchase our food donations abroad, we could be doubling the power of our donating dollars. We’d be providing more much needed nutrition, but we’d also be supporting potentially struggling economies in these regions by supporting their farms.

Maybe I’m missing something…maybe there’s a good reason for doing things this way. The growing cynic in me seriously doubts it though. I think it’s just another way for us to continue doing business as usual, letting the rich get richer, with no substantial effort at changing the status quo, while patting ourselves on the back for a job well done.

Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days

Refreshments
Originally uploaded by jpockele

This is the title of a book by Stephen Manes that I read probably close to twenty years ago at this point. It's a children's book, and the story is about a kid who finds a book claiming it can tell him how to be a perfect person in three days. (SPOILER ALERT!) In the end, the boy discovers that to be a perfect person, he would basically have to do nothing but sit around and sip weak tea - and although it may allow him to be "perfect", it wouldn't make him a very interesting person or allow him to lead a very fulfilling life.

I remember liking this book because it was wonderful to realize that perhaps perfection isn't such a wonderful goal to have. I’ve been thinking about this a lot this week. I was feeling guilty about neglecting my posts, traveling, a few recent purchases, driving too much…the list could go on.

I have also been thinking about perfection in the context of blogging…it’s easy and fun to write about all my experiments that turn out well, and pretend that I’m getting closer to perfection every day. I have a whole list of experiments that haven’t turned out so well though. Like the tortillas I made that were so hard, when I tried to roll them they cracked in half. Or the cream soda that, unlike my ginger ale, was not only not delicious, but looked and tasted like the pond water I used to collect in school to see what organisms we could see under the microscope. Or the loaf of bread that was so dense, I considered using it as a doorstop. The list goes on, but hopefully you get the point and I don’t have to own up to all my flopped projects.

The point of all of this is that, as I’ve reminded myself before, the goal is not perfection. The goal, for me, anyway, is improvement. I want to be living a better life, not a perfect life – which is good, since I don’t ever plan on doing nothing but sitting around sipping weak tea.

Speaking of tea, it’s been really hot here. I wanted some iced tea the other day. I pulled out the container of instant iced tea mix in my cupboard, noticed the plastic lid, foil lining on the inside of the can, thought about how and if this could be recycled, turned to the ingredient label, which listed sugar, citric acid, instant tea, caramel color, natural lemon flavor and red 40, and put it back on the shelf. It didn’t seem so appealing suddenly.

If I was perfect, I probably would have decided to have a glass of water. But I really wanted the iced tea. So I pulled out a couple of mason jars, filled them with water, floated three tea bags in each (one per cup of water) screwed the lids on, and set it on my balcony for a little over an hour. I let it cool down a bit, poured it over a glass full of ice, and added some honey and lemon slices. It was really easy, not to mention cheaper than the lesser quality stuff for sale in the stores.

I may not be perfect, but the tea was.

a little nervous...

I've been gone for a week, and tomorrow I'm heading home. I'm nervous because I hate flying. I'm a control freak. But aside from that, I'm nervous to see whether my worms and plants are still alive, whether the trash and recycling were brought out to the curb, and whether my house is a total mess.

It's been a great week...I've connected and reconnected with a lot of people...high school friends, college friends, all sorts of other friends, some of whom I hadn't seen in years. It's hard living away from everybody I know, so it's been really good to remind myself about what I value at the end of the day.

It's also been really nice in some ways to just be soooo busy catching up with people that I haven't even had time to think about blogging. It's been good to step back and reflect, ruminate, ponder, and just think about the changes I've made, the ones that I should have, but haven't yet made, and the ones I will make. It's also been a good reminder for me about how not really working all that much has actually been pretty valuable for me in a lot of ways. More on all of this in the coming days.

Now I'm heading back home though, so you'll be hearing from me more regularly again. And hopefully I'll figure out the mess with the technical stuff. Ugh.

It's like riding a bike...

I really hate when I find myself having to make decisions and choices based solely on the fact that I'm female. I'd been trying to ride my bike more since I don't live within walking distance of too many places. A couple weeks ago, I was out for a bike ride...I actually wasn't alone, but we'd wound up on separate sides of the streets because I'm kind of pokey.

Anyway, he stopped to mess with his brakes or something, and it was getting dark, so I decided to stop and wait too. While I was waiting, a group of five really big guys came walking down the sidewalk. I didn't think too much of it. Until they stopped. And decided to "chat" - "how you doing?" "where are you going?" "that's a nice bike" "why are you waiting here?" Then I noticed they were all drinking. And blocking the path. One of them decided it was appropriate for him to rub my back.

That was when I got really pissed. And nervous. And pissed because I felt nervous. Then I rode away, figuring my guy on the other side of the street, oblivious to all of this, would catch up. And that's pretty much the end of the story.

I wish I had smacked the guy who touched me. I wish I had said some bad words to them. But I felt too scared.

I actually live in one of the safest big cities in the whole country. That proverbial bad apple though, is the one I was thinking about when I restrained myself.

Because of those jerks I now have avoided riding my bike on several occasions because I wasn't sure I'd make it home before dark.

I did a woman's studies minor in college, and this was one issue that I could never really resolve satisfactorily. There will always be a physical power imbalance between men and women. Getting paid less and tolerating borderline inappropriate comments from co-workers is one thing, but things like being afraid of some idiot morons and making transportation decisions based on these idiots ticks me off because there’s nothing I can do about it.

I guess I could buy mace, but that’s not my style.

I could pretend these issues don’t exist, but I really don’t think that’s a prudent idea.

Anyway, I know this is only vaguely on topic, but it’s been bothering me since it happened. I’d like to say I feel better having written about it, but I don’t.

Would you rather...

Eliminate hunger and disease, or be able to bring lasting world peace? OK, this is just a mental exercise, but it hopefully makes you think (and the rules of the game say you're not allowed to say "both"). I had a page-a-day calendar like this one year, and I find myself going through “would you rather” scenarios almost daily lately.

Would I rather…drive to the store and buy canning supplies to can the three bunches of asparagus about to rot in my fridge, or save the car trip, not spend any money or purchase anything, and toss the veggies?

Would I rather…buy a can of spray paint to re-finish the pink wooden chest I got for free, and use it as a tv stand, or buy environmentally friendly paint, convince myself that I’d do the additional work of sanding before painting, but run the likely risk that I’d never get around to actually doing the project and end up purchasing a new piece of furniture?

Would I rather…buy the organic bananas at Whole Foods that have plastic wrapped around the top, or the conventional bananas with no extra wrapping?

Would I rather…get my milk in a plastic bottle at the store that I can walk to, or drive to the store that is too far away to walk to, but has milk in reusable glass bottles?

The point is that this stuff isn’t always easy, and the right choice isn’t always a no-brainer. Sure, there are some things that are obvious…would I rather get junk mail that I can recycle or get none? Obviously, I’d rather get none. Most choices, however, once we’ve figured out the easy stuff, are not so clear, and require a careful analysis of what we think might be best for the planet, our wallets, and our lifestyles.

I hate throwing away food, so I bought the canning supplies. The packaging was minimal and recyclable, and I’ll be able to get many uses out of each of the jars. I also bought the spray paint. Probably not a great choice, but I hate painting projects and knew I would never actually get around to using the eco-friendly paint, so I made the choice that worked for me. Sometimes we’ll find a third option, like with the bananas…I did without, and bought pears and apples instead. The milk is a draw for me: if it’s the only thing I need, I walk, but if I’m out doing errands anyway, I’ll go to the store with the glass bottles.

I know these aren’t probably all the right choices, from a strict waste or carbon analysis, but just like my decision to go flexitarian, they’re choices that I can work into my lifestyle without making me feel so overwhelmed that I throw up my hands and say “forget all this” – because for me, the wrong choice is the one that I can’t maintain.

India

Charminar Hyderabad
Originally uploaded by JustABoy

Before I say anything, let me forewarn you that this is likely to be my lengthiest post yet…but it’s the weekend so you’ll have lots of time to digest, if you’re not too bored.

The time I spent recently in India delivered all the contradictions and ironies I had been promised. It’s a wonderful place to visit, and I truly enjoyed my stay there. It was the first time in ten years I’d been outside of North America or Europe, and it reminded me of just how different life can be in different corners of the globe. The number of trees I need to plant to offset my travel notwithstanding, I do think it’s important from time to time, if possible, to interact in a deeply meaningful way with another culture.

I was there for the first of my two weddings (we’re doing it again in the US this fall for all our friends and family here), and spent five weeks, mainly in Hyderabad. I don’t mean to claim that I speak about all of India, and want to just put out the disclaimer that this is just my experience and observations that I’m sharing.

I think my relationship with material things is what I’ve reflected upon most since my return. This really surprised me. I thought before I left that the poverty and unequal distribution of wealth would be most difficult for me to stomach. There certainly were days that I had tears in my eyes, when the poverty was just overwhelming. I felt like throwing up more than once (separate from the times I felt like throwing up from the three or four stomach bugs I contracted).

For some reason, however, I was really slapped in the face by how much STUFF we have in North America…and how much of it is absurdly unnecessary. I don’t know why I didn’t notice this on my past travels. I suspect it’s due to my lack of maturity at the time. For whatever reason, it’s been a very heavy weight I’ve been carrying with me ever since my return.

I believe that simple is best, so I’ll try to summarize as briefly as possible, the ironies, from a simplicity/frugality/environmental standpoint, that I witnessed.

Here’s what was not cool:

1. There is trash everywhere. Public trashcans were difficult to find or non-existent. I asked the driver of our car one day what I should do with a gum wrapper and water bottle I had, and he told me he’d take care of them. I found them later on the street in front of the house. Not quite what I meant. So I started saving my trash and throwing it out in the house. Then I realized that the man who took care of the house was burning it all every morning. Not sure that’s super healthy. There was a super smelly impromptu landfill that had sprung up about 2 miles from where we were staying. The trash that was officially collected from that side of town was being dumped here because the official landfill was too far away, and well, nobody had complained.

2. I didn’t see a single way to recycle anything the entire time I was there.

3. Air pollution is a major problem. It was often hard to breath, and I could never get my face to feel clean for more than half an hour at a time.

Here’s what was awesome:

1. Everybody eats local. There’s not really much choice. Most people still buy their produce from vendors on the side of the road, and those guys only sell what they’ve harvested recently. I’m worried that as the middle class grows, this may begin to change. Grocery stores are just starting to spring up everywhere, and the huge conglomerate is not something that only exists in North America (check out Tata or Birla). I was glad to hear my MIL say that she still goes out of her way to buy things from the local shop owner when she can because she knows it’s getting more difficult for them to make it with big corporate competition. I hope more people feel the same way.

2. Everybody eats a lot of vegetarian food. I know we’ve been hearing lots in the media about how the increased demand for meat from India and China are driving up food prices and causing grain shortages. I do not dispute the accuracy of this argument. I would stress, however, that “increased demand” doesn’t mean that Chinese and Indian folks are now eating meat three times a day. I don’t know what the case is in China, but I imagine it’s similar – increased demand means that a lot of people now eat meat once or twice a week rather than once a twice a month. A lot of people are still totally vegetarian for religious reasons. I think that if the US demand per capita for meat was equal to that of an average Indian person, we’d be patting ourselves on the back for a job well done.

3. Lots of people have electricity, but very few of them expect it to function all the time. There are frequent power outages of varying lengths, some announced, and some not. The funniest part to me, is that the conversation never skips a beat, even when the lights go out, it’s totally dark, and everybody is fumbling to find candles and matches.

4. Water is trucked in and stored in tanks. Everybody is cognizant that there is a very finite supply, and uses it much more carefully than we do in the US. Showers, for example, are taken by filling a bucket (maybe four gallons or so) and using a smaller bucket to dump the water on yourself to wash and rinse with.

5. Nobody uses toilet paper. Actually I’m not sure if this is actually awesome or not, because they use water instead, so I guess it’s a matter of “dueling resources” at this point. Either way, I wasn’t brave enough to try this method - although I probably should have, because good luck finding anything other than single ply. What is awesome is that paper towels and facial tissue are also virtually non-existent.

6. Each power outlet has an on/off switch. I’ve heard this is also the case in Australia, and probably other places as well, but it makes it really easy to ensure that appliances are really off and not sucking energy. This is important because electricity is super expensive - so much so that despite the fact that it’s hotter and muggier (at least for parts of the year) than anywhere here in North America, almost nobody has air conditioning. There are fans, and “coolers” that work by somehow circulating water through this big thing that has some hay (I’m not a real technical person, if you can’t tell) but these both use much less energy than an air conditioner. Life without AC is possible!

7. Everybody squeezes in – everywhere. Fuel is expensive, so a van for ten people will somehow manage to accommodate twelve to fifteen people for a six hour trip. There are small little vehicles called autos – sort of like giant motorized tricycles with roofs – that look like they’d comfortably seat three passengers and a driver. I’ve seen them packed with seven and more passengers. Safety concerns, I know…I’m just saying that I’ll think next time before taking a second car somewhere just so somebody doesn’t have to sit in the middle seat. Buses are another story altogether. If you’re claustrophobic, you just wouldn’t make it. People literally ride the bus with one foot on the step, holding on to the door frame, because the buses are so crowded.

8. Along with the squeezing in theme, growing up and getting married is not automatically a reason to get your own house. Again, I’m not sure I’d like to do this, but lots of people live with parents and/or in-laws.

9. Because electricity is so expensive, people make do with smaller refrigerators. Humans originally started using spices for a reason, and lots of spices in the foods help them to stay edible without refrigeration.

10. Clothes are always dried on a line. I don’t think dryers are even readily available for purchase.

11. Packaging is much more minimal. Bulk purchase of many items is the only option – you can’t buy a box of rice; it comes in a large sack or you scoop it from a bin. Leftover food in restaurants is packed in folded newsprint rather than Styrofoam containers. Nearly everything you will find for sale has little to no packaging – and almost always, there is less packaging than you’d find for the same item in North America.

12. Stuff gets reused…even when it’s not in pristine condition. I sent my laundry out one day in a bag whose handle was about to break. I figured I’d get it back in a new bag, but I got it back in that same bag – with the handle taped back on. There’s a value placed on things that seems to be lacking in North American culture.

What worries me is that the reason why we don’t do some of these things here in the US seems to be simply a matter of financially not being forced to. For example, we have clothes dryers because we have inexpensive electricity. When I stopped looking at things in terms of dollars is when I started being able to appreciate the true value of how things are done elsewhere in the world, and when I started wanting to live less like a “typical” consumer.

Lost in a good book

Books of the Past
Originally uploaded by Lin Pernille ♥ Photography

As I was halfway through writing the following post, I took a break to browse a few of my favorite blogs – and discovered that Green Bean is also blogging about books. More specifically, she’s given us a challenge! It’s a pretty accessible challenge, not too scary at all if you like to read: pick an ecologically relevant book, read it during the month of May, then share your thoughts. I’m totally in!

In the February issue of Harper’s, Ursula Le Guin wrote an article on books entitled “Staying Awake: Notes on the alleged decline of reading.” I’m not a fan of Ms. Le Guin’s books, but the article was interesting. In large part it laments big business and the destruction of the publishing industry, but she makes some good points about reading as well. Very relevant to Green Bean’s book challenge, she actually equates the publishing industry to Michael Pollan’s discussion of corn in The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I also like her reminder that “For most of human history…Literacy…was power itself.” I think this is still true, albeit perhaps to a lesser extent. She also discusses the social bond created by those who read the same books. I do have to take exception to Le Guin’s contention that blogs have not yet developed aesthetic form, but that’s beside the point.

The most important point, in my mind, that Le Guin makes about reading is that
…reading is active, an act of attention, of absorbed alertness – not all that different from hunting, in fact, or from gathering. In its silence, a book is a challenge: it can’t lull you with surging music or deafen you with screeching laugh tracks or fire gunshots in your living room; [thank goodness!] you have to listen to it in your head. A book won’t move your eyes for you the way images on a screen do. It won’t move your mind unless you give it your mind, or your heart unless you put your heart in it. It won’t do the work for you.

I like this idea. After all, I’m doing lots of work on myself and my life lately. Books aren’t going to do that work for me, but they provide me with a tool that can help me do the work that I want to do. I also think this can be applied to many of the “green” changes I’m making in my life. Putting things in the recycling bin is good for the planet, but unless I give my heart and mind to what I am doing, this is really just another way of disposing of trash. When I give my trash my heart and mind, however (cheesy, I know, but bear with me, ok?), I find that just throwing it in the recycling bin is no longer good enough. I relate to it in a more active manner. I investigate composting, unsubscribe from catalogs, and think more carefully about packaging. It’s the same as watching a movie versus reading the book. The movie does the work for you; the book forces you to imagine what the characters look like, what their voices sound like, what sort of expressions pass across their faces as the plot unfolds.

But enough theory, back to the books…thank goodness I found paperback swap recently, because I’ve discovered I have a LOT of educating myself to do on all this green / simplicity / frugality business. Yes, there’s lots of info I can find online, but see arguments for books above. I am just about to cross the 200 mark on my wish list…but so far, I’ve restrained the urge to buy.

I recently finished The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. It was an interesting mental exercise to go through, but I can’t say it was life changing. It did highlight a lot of the ways in which we impact our planet, and the speculations were interesting, but I felt at the end like there was something missing. It was basically a long-term look at what would happen to the planet over the next few millenia if we just vanished tomorrow. He writes another shorter piece in last month’s Vanity Fair imagining the world a century from now (with us still here).

Before “Buy Nothing” month began I had ordered a book called Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll. I have to get back to this one. So far I’ve only read the intro, but it seems like it’ll be a fairly accessible book.

Currently, I’m reading The No-Nonsense Guide to Fair-Trade by David Ransom – I’m only a few dozen pages into it, but it’s a pretty accessible book so far. It gives some background about the economic theories behind free trade, and then investigates what fair trade is and why it’s so necessary in today’s world. I think it’s important for me to read books like this because although I have a general idea of what fair trade is and why it’s a good thing, I have big gaps in my knowledge and really need to take the time to make sure I am making well-informed choices.

Somebody recently reminded me of Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn, which is a wonderful work of fiction that forces us to rethink humans and our role in the world. I’m going to revisit it as soon as I work my way through the stack that I’ve yet to read once.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I still haven’t read Fast Food Nation, but luckily mom just finished it and is passing it along, so soon I won’t need to duck my head in embarrassment or change the topic every time somebody mentions it.

This is the part where I was going to ask you for your recommendations about your favorite books that have inspired or educated you; changed the way you look at the world; made you wake up and take notice…but instead, I think I’ll refer you to Green Bean’s Challenge. There’s a little button over on the side bar that you can click that’ll take you to her blog and the instructions on how to sign up. Check it out, choose a book, and share your thoughts with others. Of course if you’re not up for the challenge, I still want to hear what you think I must read next.

My selection for the challenge is Common Wealth (reminder: oldest younger brother, you are passing this on to me, remember?). I’ve heard good things about it, and I’ve been thinking a lot about the connections between individuals, not just in our neighborhoods, but around the globe, so I am really looking forward to this read.

So go join the challenge, my fellow bookworms!

All aboard!

Train entering the new Don Bosco trainstation
Originally uploaded by theowl84

Hey…good news for the stupid drunk chick who hit my house with her gigantic SUV over the weekend (yep, that really happened). Ok, well, actually, the bad news first: hit and run is against the law, and you might have to go to jail.

I try really hard not to judge other people’s choices, but honestly, I have been thinking for four straight days now, and I cannot for the life of me imagine why somebody would need to drive a vehicle that large to go out and get wasted beyond belief. I guess the punishment does fit the crime; she should definitely lose her license. Forever.

As you can tell, I’m a little bitter about this whole thing. I'm too angry to even write very well. I mean, who hits a house hard enough to take a piece out of it, and then drives away?!?!?! She clearly should not have been driving, period...we're actually lucky that it was our house she hit and not another car or pedestrian.

I feel that somebody as blatantly selfish and irresponsible as this person has proven herself to be has lost some of her rights to make choices...maybe we should have a law that if you can't keep your giant SUV under control, you can't have one. If she’d been driving a smaller, more fuel efficient vehicle, it wouldn’t have been able to climb the six inch curb in front of the house, it wouldn’t have been able to run over the three foot hedge between the house and the sidewalk, and it wouldn’t have been tall enough to take out the window sill in my office.

Even if she was running that thing on alternative fuels (somehow I doubt it), one source points out that the corn needed to produce one tank of biofuel is enough to feed a person for an entire year. That makes me feel sick to think about.

Anyway, I digress. The good news for stupid drunk chick who hit my house with her gigantic SUV is that we actually have public transportation in this area…so smile lady, because when you get out of jail, you’ll have a way to get around town.

I decided that to get to the Earth Day event today, I’d finally take the plunge and get on the train instead of driving. It’s only about four or five miles, and according to google maps (which now allows you to plan your trip using public transportation) it was going to take about forty-five minutes.

Well, to make a long story short, I walked for forty minutes, went to the first train station, found it was closed, walked to a second train station, which was also closed, and found out I had to take a bus before I finally was able to board a train. It took just under two hours total - I was exhausted! It was an ordeal, but in the end I was glad I did it. The trains were immaculate, it saves money over driving, and the Earth Day event was full of farmers, vendors, music, snacks, and booths with lots of info about how to help the planet. Getting home was an adventure too…but I made it.

I'd like to end by giving a tip of the hat, as Mr. Colbert would say, to Mom. She heard her local radio host talking about how his wife and kid picked up some trash off the street for Earth Day. The co-host commented something to the effect of "yeah, since it's still too cold to plant anything, I guess that's about all we can do." Instead of just thinking about how totally not true that is, Mom called up the radio station and, using her best teacher voice, I'm sure, educated them on various other things they could do to celebrate Earth Day, cold weather and all, such as bringing reusable bags to the store, and not drinking bottled water. Good job!

Happy Earth Day!

Blue Marble (Planet Earth)
Originally uploaded by woodleywonderworks

I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve never actually participated in any Earth Day events as an adult. I remember when we were in school, we would talk about things like planting trees and recycling…but that was a long time ago.

So later today, I’m going to go downtown (maybe I’ll finally even get around to taking public transportation…) and check out the goings on. It’s sponsored by the Environmental Services Department of San Jose (I didn’t even know we had such a thing, but it’s pretty cool).

The festivities include a bike ride with the mayor(!?), a tour of Adobe’s Green Headquarters, live music, a farmer’s market, and a bunch of other cool stuff. So I’m going to go check it out. I’ll restrain the urge to buy stuff, green or not, unless it’s something that I need – which I doubt. I’ll be sure to report back on what I see and learn.

In early celebration, I planted some seeds today. I should confess here that I often get carried away. Moderation is not a word I seem to be able to understand or embrace. So my idea to grow a tomato plant on my balcony has grown to sprouting sunflowers, garlic, kidney beans, red, green, and chili peppers, pumpkins, flax, mustard, cumin, and potatoes from stuff lying around the house.

I had a Meyer lemon tree from last year that I didn’t kill (also a Confederate Jasmine, but it is not meant for eating). Apparently these are both drought tolerant, since they survived my five week trip to India with no watering.

I planted seeds that I bought from the store for lettuce, radishes, beets, water melon, coriander/cilantro, and dill.

I bought seedlings of eggplant, tomato, oregano, and rhubarb. Also a catnip plant for the cat. I had to put it out of his reach, because he likes it too much.

I haven’t got around yet to the spinach, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, green beans, peas, cantaloupe, asparagus, carrots, strawberries, ivy gourd, corn, bok choy, basil, oh my goodness, can I get mini pear and orange trees? I have decided that it would be unequivocally unfair to try to keep a chicken on the balcony, and unsafe to start a beehive there. I’m not kidding though, when I say that the thoughts crossed my mind.

I’m not sure the “food” seeds will actually produce food. But it’s not really costing me anything to conduct this experiment, and the plants are at least soaking up some CO2, right? I am wishing I had more sunny balcony space…

It’s always fun to watch how super cool plants actually are. Every time I plant a seed and watch it sprout, I briefly entertain the idea of becoming a botanist. I realized that when a kidney bean sprouts, the two halves of the bean actually become the first two leaves of the new plant. IT”S SO COOL!!!!!!

I’ve been resisting the urge to go out and buy all sorts of cool pots and containers, and have pleasantly surprised myself with the solutions I’ve come up with. I had a bunch laying around, which I used, but I quickly ran out of actual planters.

We buy rice in 20 pound sacks. Side note: I’m actually not sure how long we’ll be doing that, since the stores around here have actually started rationing the rice to one bag per customer, per day. We’re stocking up while we can. There’s somebody in this house who would be very cranky if they didn’t have their rice (and it’s not me…).

Anyway, the rice sacks are made of a sort of woven plastic. I’ve been filling them with soil, punching a few holes in the bottom, and planting right in there. They’re lighter to lift than a heavy ceramic pot, and they seem to be working fine so far. And instead of buying new pots, with all the attendant resources that would be devoted to it, I’m keeping something which I don’t even think is recyclable out of the landfill, and using it to produce food, meaning I won’t need to buy my next eggplant from the grocery store, reducing all the resources required to produce and deliver that to me. I'll pause to remember that every time I buy less, I save money too!

Hopefully some of these little darlings will even survive my brown thumb long enough to give us some food!

Happy Earth Day!

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

I'm headed outside to enjoy this beautiful day. If you live somewhere that the sun is not shining, check out this series that NPR did called "Consumed" - it's an attempt to answer the question "is the consumer economy sustainable?" There are thirty-five different segments that look at all different angles of the consumer economy. You can listen to the broadcast or read the transcripts.

There's also a really cool game you can play that tells you how many of our planets it would take to support the earth's population if everybody lived the lifestyle that you do - I know I was surprised at my results. All that flying takes a toll!

Sold...to the highest bidder

Television
Originally uploaded by dailyinvention

I’m so angry right now I can hardly see straight. It’s no wonder I often feel that the urge to BUY STUFF is so overwhelming. I saw this mention of the Mackenzie Blue book series on Fake Plastic Fish and felt like screaming. It’s a series of books, supposedly meant to help tweens “discover more about going "green," [and] learn about the "global" landscape.”

So, what’s wrong with these Mackenzie Blue books? They’re basically selling advertising space to the highest bidder. Yep, the books are accepting corporate sponsorship and will use product placement within their pages to push those brands that have the cash to pony up. That’s it for me. I’m not buying anything else from Harper Collins. I’ve cut back my book purchases lately anyway through paperbackswap, but this is just too disgusting to stomach.

Maybe if a book wants to focus on “going green” they can make their message about buying less stuff. I am just so appalled. I really cannot even believe that a book whose one focus is getting people to buy more is claiming to be having a positive impact on young girls and the planet.

What about the girls who cannot afford to buy the brand name shoes that her favorite character wears? What about her self-esteem? Seems to me that when literature becomes just one more societal reminder about how much you need to have in order to be cool and fit in, it just is one more way to beat down our young girls and give them more reasons to feel poorly about themselves.

What about the girl who never cared what brand of jeans she wore until she read this book? Is she going to be a happier, more well-adjusted individual because she realizes that she can’t realize her full potential without that label on the back of her pants?

Lucky for me, there’s one site that’s already written a letter to Harper Collins editor Susan Katz. You can edit the letter as you see fit and send with your electronic signature. The original press release from the publisher is available there as well.

I’ve been irritated for a while now about how advertising is like an annoying mosquito that no matter how much you swat at it, it just doesn’t go away. I remember a flight I took maybe a year and a half ago. The stupid tray table had been transformed into a mini-billboard that I had to look at it if I wanted a place to set my drink. How irritating. I was paying them to sit there, and they were taking advantage of my captivity to let somebody else try to sell me more crap.

That was irritating, but I almost suffered a serious case of air rage when, just as I was about to drift off to sleep, the flight attendant announced that they would be passing through the cabin to give us all the chance to apply for their credit card, offered jointly by the airline and some huge national bank that has terrible customer service. They’d give us something like a billion bonus miles if we signed up before the plane landed. I’m surprised they didn’t throw in a free gift if we used the card immediately to buy something from the Sky Mall catalog. Something about crossing the line from the more passive ad on my tray table to actually waking me up to force me to listen to this crap made me think homicidal thoughts.

I think my irritation with being forced to watch advertising began in high school. In one of the many poor decisions made by the school district in Manchester, NH (shame on you…and yes, I’m still bitter!), was the inclusion of channel one television in home room every day. For those of you who were lucky enough never to be forced to endure this ridiculous programming, it’s basically a way to force kids to watch advertising for a few minutes every day by hiding it in the middle of “news” programming and providing free televisions to the schools in exchange for them selling their students to the corporate sponsors. I think this is part of the reason I still hate CNN and The View…Anderson Cooper and Lisa Ling were both “reporters” on the moronic news program offered by channel one.

By the way, to any school officials out there, it’s illegal for one individual to make a contract promising that another individual will do something. A school doesn’t have the right to sell their students (this should be a no-brainer, shouldn’t it?). In my school, however, we were told that if we didn’t watch the programming, we would be given detention. We were specifically told that we were not allowed to use the time to study or work on school assignments. The more I reflect back on this, the more I feel angry all over again. Isn’t studying academic subjects the reason we were in school in the first place?!?

I suppose I could have staged a little civil disobedience, and refused to watch, making a big scene and sucking up the detention. I was not exactly outgoing in high school though, and basically spent most of the time there hoping nobody would talk to me or notice me. Plus I was afraid of authority figures and the idea of getting a detention would have made me sick to my stomach.

So I watched every bit of advertising they shoved down our throats – which, by my calculation, amounts to 360 minutes over a school year with 180 days. Over four years of high school, that comes to 1,440 minutes, or 24 HOURS OF COMMERCIALS MY SCHOOL FORCED ME TO WATCH! Of course, my math may be wrong here, but if so, I’ll blame it on the fact that I spent 24 hours watching advertisements when I could have been actually learning something. No wonder our country is behind the rest of the world in nearly every subject.

I apologize if this has been a bit long winded and ranting, but I believe that the barrage of advertisements we all have forced on us on a daily basis in nearly every situation we may find ourselves is one part of the reason we all feel compelled to purchase so much, which is a big part of the reason we waste so much. When our books and schools become just one more opportunity for big companies to push products, it does make me wonder what hope there is for us.