6.2 Miles

First bicycle commute.

From my apartment, to the farmer's market, to a friend's apartment, and then on back up to mine.

My knees are not wrecked, though I did have a bit of wobbly legs when I got off at the farmers market, and my right knee was aching some throughout the ride. And though it was 96 out when I left, no clouds or shades to spare me. My thigh and chest seems a bit darker. Next time, sunglasses a must. Was a great idea to bring a tupperware for the peaches- but no complaints now, except peaches are still a bit bruised and I ran out of crackers for my goat cheese..

Got Me A Bike ... Finally

I don't know why the instant I got my first college refund I didn't go out and buy myself a bike. I really don't.

Because the first year I still had my car and was using that as a supplement to my bus riding, and to help my escapes on the weekends.

The second year I parked my car and went through my metamorphic walking stage, and learned the ways of Amtrak. During that year I did buy a bike, less than the bike lock cost me. And that cost me my knees.  The brakes never worked, but it was a start.

But it was stolen during my third year. More like, I left it unlocked when I went abroad and set it free in the world. If it was stolen - fine, if it was still here - maybe I could learn to love it. At my new place, I was within "walking distance" of everything essential - school, work, groceries, Big Lots, and the ABC store. Even the Amtrak station was walkable if I was feeling spunky. Or for the bigger adventures, I could spend 1.5hrs using the bus system to make it across town.

My fourth year I began feeling stuck and thus brought my childhood bike down here. Still original everything I'm sure. Definitely too small for me. My knees are still recovering, maybe its permanent. I would be out of breath and dogged tired within a minute of leaving home (the steepest hill on my route is the one to leave my neighborhood). But it got me where I needed to go - and nobody got in my because the rusty chain made me sound like a flock of bats shrieking out of hell. Eventually the rust got so bad that people were literally walking to class faster than I was riding - that was when I knew I had to get a new bike.

And so here we are at my fifth year in this town. The journey has been a long, arduous trial. I even still have a car out in the parking lot, broken down since it rolled me into town last year (and the tow truck had to tag-team the last 5 miles..) - unsure what to do with it, just certain that I don't want to drive it. And so I have gotten my replacement vehicle finally. No longer feeling stuck. Quite the opposite - that my possibilities are endless. As long as I can stop and take a breather every now and then.

There Comes A Day in Activism

when you have to get off the sidelines and get onto the field. This means no longer waiting for the wayward petition to come strolling by your way, where all you have to do is sign your name, and maybe pass it on to a few more friends. When you have to start sending it to EVERYBODY on your contacts list, especially the ones you know are proponents of the thing you are petitioning.

Likewise, you have to stop relying on others forwarding you causes. You have to find your own causes. And you have to be the initiator, the one who types up the petition and is the first to sign it, and the one who ensures it gets all the signatures it needs and gets to the person it needs to get to.

Today, I took a step in that direction.

If you see something that is not right, then dissent. In this day and age, most things are not right and that is the norm. As it is, civilization - capitalism - does not encourage environmental stewardship. That is not right, but that is the norm. We have to speak out against it as a whole, but for real change we have to speak out against the small contributions.

Like just now I composed a message to the business Planet Smoothie regarding an email I just received:

Yes, this isn't right and I just had to speak out against it to their faces. Here is my message:

I would like to comment about your "Earth Day Special."

I appreciate the fact that you have reusable MacDaddy Mugs available for your smoothies. This is somewhat in the spirit of Earth Day, but not quite there..

Please answer me: Where do the mugs come from, and what are they made of? How much do you pay per mug? Cheap products are not good for the environment.

If you really care about the environment enough to recognize and celebrate Earth Day, then instead of using it as a marketing ploy to draw in more customers (what American can deny a freebie?), then please consider the impacts of the production (including transportation to your stores) and the materials of your mugs. This concept of a reusable mug is a good start, but maybe by next Earth Day you can offer reusable mugs that involve all aspects of being earth friendly - choosing a country of origin that has strict regulations of manufacturers, and also choosing a material that is sustainable - like from recycled  plastic bottles. If you already do this, then Kudos to you, but typical American business ethics would imply otherwise..

While I enjoy your smoothies greatly, I will not be participating in this special. When I do come in again, I will be bringing my stainless steel insulated Klean Kanteen and asking you to fill that instead.

If you offer a discount on smoothies purchased by people who bring in your "MacDaddy Mug", I hope that you would extend this discount to the other customers bringing in their own containers.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

So here's a task for you:
-next time you see something that you isn't right, speak out against. And let others know about it too. Strength in numbers. Our voice needs to be heard, but first we must speak.

And please, if you see any other marketing ploys violating the spirit of Earth Day, let me know, and like I did here, send them a comment about what you see that is wrong and suggestions on how to fix it. Some businesses do listen to their customers. And they don't know what the customers want, unless you tell them yourself.

Spring time! GARDENING!

Its spring, and you know what that means.. plants!

Now that the sun is shining hot and the nights are staying warm and i'm not shivering in my apartment, i know that  if i bring plants into my life they will survive. and hopefully, thrive.

over spring break i retrieved my beloved jades from asheville, and justin did a wonderful job taking care of them over the past year. in fact, i had given him just a leaf from my original jade, and first plant for that matter, that itself had died, and he has propagated it into a healthy beautiful stalk with many tiers of leaves. very wonderful. he is the jade master. kudos to him. i hope one day my littleuns will grow into beautiful trees like his, we'll see. i did manage to keep the large one that i had bought from the store alive through out the winter, so i think i'm getting better at jade care. they're all looking pretty outside right now, basking in the spring afternoon. oh, i guess i am doing well because i managed to propagate one from a leaf too, had to transplant it last week into a bigger pot, its still looking good.

scorched my aloe, poor thing... didnt transition it slow enough from inside to outside. the leaves were yellow and getting mushy, so i put it back inside yesterday and its greener and harder today, so i think its recovering. will wait a few days before i try again. dont want to lose my large aloe. but my baby aloe is doing fine, didnt get scorched in the transition.

bad news, none of my herbs from the fall seem to be coming back. still waiting to see if the mints will, but i'm not so sure now. i just kind of abandoned them once winter started, so i dont blame them.

We went to the farmers market yesterday and it was popping. all the plant vendors were there which was awesome. my wallet was emptied. i got: 4pk early girl bush tomatoes, 4pk red leaf lettuce, 1 lemon grass, 1 rosemary, and 1 greek oregano. 4pk lavender, and 1 strawberry plant. also a few days before from Ace I had gotten 3 pk hot banana pepper and 3 pk big bertha bell pepper. went to the logan trading co. after that, and im disappointed i just now found that place after living here for 4 years. big well kept garden store in an old train station. huge selection of organic/natural products. so i got some organic potting mix, and some of the black nursery pots because they are the cheapest and i think work the best as pots. planted most of it, but it got dark so i need to finish today. im waiting on the tomatoes because i want to try upside down tomatoes, need to get large 5 gallon paint buckets first though. posted an ad on craigslist, but no response.

i think that is all the gardening news for now. on this side of my building, we definitely have the greenest porch. though i give credit to the other girls, they've got a few pots and plants out, they at least have bird feeders. we have so many robins and cardinals and blue jays around. i like to sit on my porch and watch them play in the big tree in front of me. found 5 blue jay feathers at the garden store, kept them even though greg kept telling me they carry diseases. i know that, but they are SO pretty and i like to decorate with them.

I'm going to try my hardest to have a healthy container garden. Won't be doing as much travelling as I usually do, so i should be easier.I may not get to eat any of the fruits/vegetables of my labor, as they will probably mature while I'm gone to Mexico, but that is okay. I get so much joy and pleasure and calmness from gardening, don't mind someone else eating all my food.

The Logan Trading Co. participates in a program around here called PAR- Plant a Row, in which you plant one row in your garden, or container, and then bring that food back to them and one of the food bank comes and picks it up. I think I'll be doing that. I like that idea, and the idea of community gardens. Really want to get involved with that area.

OH, while I was in New Zealand and we were at the gardens of the castle, i got 2 packets of seeds for 2 different kinds of trees native to there - the Kowhai and the Tree Fuschia. I am germinating those seeds now. The Kowhai were easier to prepare, poured boiling water on them and then when the seeds swelled potted them. They were 5 large seeds. The other seeds are a bit trickier. They are very tiny, and i had to soak them in water over night, then lay them in a moist paper towel put that in a plastic bag and keep it in the fridge for 4 weeks. So, those won't even get planted until May. The Kowhai take about 2 weeks before they sprout, so we'll see then. I'm very eager. Super eager. Super wanting this to work.

Have a wonderful day, I'm going to my porch =]

Still Life Mosaic Dream Land

taken from someones blog who obviously didnt take this photo, and didnt cite their source. their blog had annoying music ruining my pandora experience, so i left it before i could get it, but i think its something like thecrystalkiss

ANYWAYS, I would love to live here. My house might look a bit differently.. perhaps a log cabin or some version of a tree house, but nonetheless this looks like an outstanding forest. I love fall foilage - ther various vivid colours enveloping everything, such natural euphoria engages my mind when my eyes lay upon this image. 

on farther inspection the site crystalkiss is filled with collection of images that could suck me in for mindless twilight internet fail

Air Drying

Doing good, still have yet to use paper towels to dry anything. A few times I have used the bathroom blow dryer, though I try to avoid it as that does consume energy. Wet hands in winter just equal cold hands. And now that I'm consciously avoiding paper towels, I always feel like I am missing something between washing my hands and leaving the bathroom, even though I rarely used paper towels before. Funny how that works.

Still haven't used the dryer either. Courtney is a dear friend and lets me borrow her drying rack when I do my laundry every few weeks, as my one drying rack is not enough to cover a full load.

the right thing

Very stressed point from my exboss friend: there will be things in life that you have to do, but dont want to do. and you will probably hurt from doing it, but it will hurt alot less to do the right thing, than to not. be tough, you will know what is right and what you have to do, and you will just have to do it. you will be better off somewhere down the road.

This is something I am definitely working on to be the me I want to be... identifying and defining what is right and what i need to, and getting the courage to do it.

I wish I had some practice for my current battle, as I feel it is the toughest one I will ever have to face in my life. Unless I have a REALLY tough life ahead of me..

Aloof

–adverb

1.

at a distance, esp. in feeling or interest; apart: They always stood aloof from their classmates.

–adjective

2.

reserved or reticent; indifferent; disinterested: Because of his shyness, he had the reputation of being aloof.

source: dictionary.com

I was told by my exboss friend tonight that one of my endearing qualities is my aloofness and spacecaseness.

and that one aloof moment particularly affected him::

apparently one day (im assuming about this time of year, so probably 2 years ago) he saw me walking on campus, i stop and pick up a flower, put it in my hair, and continue on my way..

hes right, im very aloof, especially when im on campus and have time to spare. not much interests me, especially the people. i all but ignore them (unless a person catches my eye in some entertaining way). i keep to myself and things that interest me, concepts beyond the grasp of most NSCU persons.

i think hes referring to a period in my life (spring sophomore year) when i had not much to do and definitely no one to do what i had to do with.  i spent my spare time walking around and exploring, wherever i happened to be. id spend the hour in between classes every day outside. and from february-april i picked bouquets of daffodils because that is the one thing i actually love about NCSU's campus.. daffodils galore in the springtime.

i was just meandering along, doing my thing, completely oblivious to the world (anthropogenic) and completely intune with my world (ecogenic).

no idea that this trivial moment of mine could propel a 31 year old man talk about what it meant to him and the related and resulting matters for nearly an hour..

i wish that a 2 beer buzz combined with my terrible memory anyways would fuzz even the jyst of the conversation, as i wish so much that i could explain what it meant to him, and what his explanation meant to me. as people don't talk about this stuff enough and i wish to  convey things like this to everyone else.

his side: it inspired him a lot to see me doing my own thing, being my own person, regardless of anything else going on. because you dont see that much nowadays, and especially as you older you lose yourself and the person you want to be..but im one of the good guys and one the few of his highly respected people and that he has hopes for me and that i will come out alright.. and also that that moment was one of those "everything is right" moments in his life in which he knew there is something worth fighting for..

something like that.. i cant really explain it, as he explained it so well (since its his own thoughts) and i was listening so intently and respectively that i wasnt recording any of it into my brain (i remember the back and forth feelings and vibes of the moment way more so than the words.. i definitely cant explain this thing about me..)

but as i said to him, that was my graduation keynote speaker. i dont care what they have to say, nothing will be as meaningful and personal and important as his little soap box schpill.

it felt so good to hear kind words from this man, especially since i wasn't that great of an employee as I was always late ( extremely.. if i even showed up .. ). i dont always care what my bosses think of me as a person, but for him i definitely do. its nice to really know. and its really nice to have a confirmation that youre on the right track (especially since mine is so offbeat from everyone else - who have society to automatically confirm their actions).

in summary, it was a deeply touching conversation.

and so appropriate that it happened on a [2]kris10 day. which brings me to a suggestion for your [2]kris10 day activity.. tell someone about how they have deeply touched you.. in whatever way.. either by being who they are, or by something they did. you don't know how good of a thing you're doing until you do it. these DEEP TRUTHS need to be said.

and to think, before dinner, i started a draft about how downing of a day it was being so far (started my morning by banging my door into my head), but alas, it lifted up. these unexpected moments of deep truth are surprisingly beautiful, enough to lift any down soul..

Food Stamps

 

From Feb07, 2010 PostSecrets 

This person would be happy to know that I get about 200$ in FS every month, and always run out before the next month because I blow it all on healthy food. And I mean healthy for me and the environment, thus you too. Nothing makes me more excited than my card being recharged, allowing me to hit up the nice stores like Harris Teeter, or Whole Foods, preferably Trader Joe's if I can bribe a ride, and buy quality organic food. The food stamps are a great supplement to have a healthy diet free of cheap, processed foods that taste like cardboard. Also, vegetarian alternatives can be quite expensive. But I rather pay the price for the food now, than pay for it in mine and the earth's health later. I don't want foods with modified DNA doused in toxic chemicals and processed to an unrecognizable degree devoid of any real nutritional value. Sure they may fulfill your caloric needs, but nutrient deficiencies cause serious physiological, cognitive, and emotional problems.

Here's what I wrote on the PS forums:

[quote]

I often wonder what the checkers think of me buying organic, fresh and healthy food with my Food Stamps.[/quote]

Everytime I make a big purchase at the grocery store with my food stamps, and its as organic and healthy as possible, I feel guilty. I feel like I should really be buying as cheap as food as possible to maximize my stamps.

But I've come to see it as a supplement to me eating healthy which I think is what the author of the secret was trying to get at. Poor people are very unhealthy. Nutritional deficiencies lead to physical, cognitive, and emotional problems that are detrimental to a person's quality of life. It's not fun being tired and depressed all the time, and then being too poor to splurge on any exciting activity (which is why you do have people using food stamps to buy pounds and pounds of filet mignon, it brings us a very rare pleasure - one that affluent people easily take for granted.. not everyone can go to a restaurant every night and order whatever they want).

Think of the people who spend all day working in a factory, then all night working as a waitress trying to make ends meet to raise their family. That takes a lot of energy and strength. They don't have time to buy the cheap, fresh ingredients and make everything at home. They have to buy convenient, easy-to-make meals.. and these meals are so processed and made with such cheap ingredients that they lack the nutritional value (its not just about caloric intake - you can eat all the calories you want, but if you don't have the nutrients to assist in the uptake and conversion in metabolic processes, then what's the point?) to provide a nourishing meal. Vitamins and other nutrients are essential to all of our body functions, and without them, we are weak and unhealthy.

Ideally, people should use the foods stamps as a supplement to buy healthy foods that provide a completely balanced diet. This avoids having preventable health problems like fatigue, depression, dementia, diarrhea, insomnia...the symptoms are wide and varied due to the variety of roles that each nutrient plays. Appropriate nutrient uptake is also a way to prevent certain cancers and heart problems (the top killers in the US). Can people on food stamps afford to go to the doctor to find out what is wrong with them? No. If people realized how important a balanced diet is, that would not matter as the cure to most problems is not some big pharma pill but just eating the right stuff. Buying healthy food (including organics- free of toxic chemical residues) is the best health insurance you can have.

Unfortunately, we don't live in the ideal world. And for many people, food stamps can be all that they have that month for food and thus they have to maximize their dollars and cheaper, less nutritious food is the way.

Why don't you judge everybody that comes in there and buys junk food the same way. Anyone can be as poor as the next person.

What they need in addition to just handing out the food stamps is education. In my county when you go to apply, you spend hours sitting in a cramped room waiting for bits of the process to get done. There is no educational material in that room about a healthy diet. Not even one single pyramid poster. Everyone is just sitting and staring at each other. Why can't we be staring at posters or movie clips telling us how to eat healthy and cheaply?

Nutrition- Thiamine

So apparently today [feb08] I got 684% of my RDA for Thiamine.

Found that to be very interesting. And curious as to why.

Apparently, sunflower seeds contain a lot of thiamine. And unknowingly, I ate a lot today. Unfortunately, I only really had one meal today, about 8ishpm. Which consisted of Sunshine Burger's Organic Southwest Veggie Burger, on top of Arnold's Double Protein Whole Wheat Bread, with some toppings like pepper jack cheese, lettuce and BBQ sauce mainly. Then I made a side of Pictsweet's Japanese Steakhouse Stir-Fry Veggies and through in a big handful of sunflower seeds b/c they're delicious and good for you. Now what I didn't know at that point was that my burger was actually based on sunflower seeds instead of soy or other grains (good news there because I try to limit my soy intake as much as possible due to GMO and phytoestrogen concerns, as well as the intensive agriculture practices thus environmental degradation..), and the bread apparently features sunflower seeds in it because : "These flavorful seeds contain monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, protein, fiber, iron, zinc, vitamin B6, magnesium, folate, selenium and copper. They are especially rich in vitamin E, an antioxidant that protects against cell damage."

 There are studies out there that show how not only does high doses of thiamine improve symptoms of diseases like alzheimers and congestive heart failure, but also helped with mental acuity.

I really wish I had more time to look into this stuff, as nutritional health is so important in our lives but so overlooked by common people and so buried by big business. Here it is 4 25 am, I have an exam at 11 45 that I'm underprepared for, and instead of studying, have spent the last 3 hours reading up on nutrition. At least I'm learning something. But i'd like to have the time to do the real research, instead of just pulling information from online sources. Overtime, maybe it will all add up.

Maybe all this thiamine today will help me have a clearhead tomorrow despite the lack of sleep. You can win on one thing, but not on everything.

February 20K10 Day is fast approaching, and I haven't any ideas really. Haven't had the time to think about it. I am spending the afternoon at the BEST (Business Environmental and Safety Training) conference across the street. Hmm, can't find the email where I registered, and I dont exactly remember what I registered for. But I think it was for Natural Disasters, Indoor Air Quality Issues, and Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination in Raleigh. The morning sesh had classes I was interested in, but at the time I registered I thought I would have class during that time so only signed up for afternoon classes (turned out my teacher canceled class to make us go to this conference, but I dropped the ball and never signed up for those additional morning classes..). Maybe that's what I should encourage you to do, it won't fall on the 10th, but maybe you can find some conference to attend that will increase your knowledge and participation in your community. I'm real excited about the Illicit Discharge class.. I'm hoping it will meet my expectations and point me in the direction to find polluters around here. Or, as I have spent most of my free time this month focusing on nutrition, you should do the same. Sign up for some site that will help you track your diet and exercise, and I emphasize diet as poor nutrition is very overlooked as poor exercise hogs all the hype.

Nutrition Tracking

So, I decided to stick with the FitDay software. It gives me enough flexibility to loose about this project, or to take it seriously and keep a pretty detailed history of my nutritional intake, and also activity as I have discovered.

I am trying to do this as thoroughly and accurately as possible, so I utilizing the Create Custom Food feature bigtyme. I search for the food under their given options, and then use that as a base template to insert the true nutritional values for the specific item I have eaten since the program only gives an average value, that in most items has been eerily close to my observed values.

Surprisingly, the nutritional values for many of the products I consume is easily identifiable on the web, albeit I may have to do a bit of meticulous work with data gathering and transferring. Although they don't always give you the full-listed nutritional details. FitDay includes % Daily Values for 19 nutrients. Products usually only carry the main ones like Vit A & C, Iron and Calcium. Of course these are really important, but another one people should pay attention to is Niacin (Vit B3). In essential metabolic cell activities, Niacin is  precursor to NADH, NAD+, NADP+, and NADPH (you should recognize these from biology class if you paid any attention..) .. psychiatric symptoms of Niacin deficiency include : irritability, poor concentration, anxiety, fatigue, restlessness, apathy, and depression, and thus holistic healers recommended high dosages of Niacin to cure depression and anxiety. Also, increase HDL-cholesterol (the "good" one). Really, you want to pay attention to all of them because they all work together (BigPharm = one disease, one pill; but naturally vitamins and other nutrients are a cure for a variety of ailments, and thus require a holistic approach). Yes, upon further research it seems that a variety of different vitamin deficiencies can cause similar problems - B vitamin family is particularly important to emotional and mental well-being.

Which is why I use a food already listed on FitDay as a base as it includes 19 nutrients instead of 4, and since this expected value is close enough to my actual values, then I assume that these 15 other values I don't have are close enough to what I might have and thus use them and edit the 4 I do have to their actual values. I think I made that a zillion times more complicated in writing.

So because I am just starting out, it is requiring quite a bit of work, and definitely effort, to keep track of my diet. I want to put in my foods and keep track of what I eat, but I dont want to put in an entry that isn't accurate, but then again I dont always want to sit down and invest 30 minutes into describing the smoothie I made (especially when I make a different one every time). But I figure once I get my basic ingredients, as there definitely is items I eat all the time, then soon I will only have a minimum of effort to put in and it won't be so bad. Not that I'm being lazy, I like doing science-like work, I just have a hard time establishing routines (entering my data everytime I eat) and/or remembering things (like exactly what did I put into that smoothie, and how much? and was there anything else I ate today?..)

Personal Health - Nutrition

Been aware for some time now that I don't have a healthy diet. I am tired all of the time.. no energy to do anything. It's not from being a vegetarian. I am sick of everyone asking where I get certain nutritional needs when I tell them that I am a vegetarian. Everyone is concerned about the nourishment of a vegetarian, but not themselves. Meat-eaters assume that their because their diet is the most common, it is normal and thus the best for humans, but they don't know how nutritionally deprived they are too. (I'm not the one with the major risk of developing some cardiovascular disease- which is the #1 killer in America, followed closely by cancer. Sorry, but where is research indicative of cow, chicken, or pork (the main constituents in your diet) having properties to prevent/cure these diseases?)

I really am too tired to get into all of this tonight, I just wanted to start a post about it.

Go watch some documentaries like Food Matters (I got it & am very open to lending it to ya) or Food, Inc. to get you started and interested in your own wellbeing.

With this huge attempt at reform and creating a better life, I am finally going to get serious about my own health. Physical and emotional go hand in hand, and I am ailing in both. Reflecting on the diet I had as a kid up until now, I have probably been some degree of malnourished for most of my life. I don't eat 3 meals a day with snacks in between and cover all parts of the pyramid, and there seems to be no trend in my eating habits except it is all or nothing it seems. Either I want to eat and crave everything and thus eat as much as I can, or I don't feel like eating and thus just don't eat.

Anyways, to get done with this posting..

I want to keep a record (as accurate as possible) of my diet (optimistically my activity level too), and thus am utilizing online diet journals.

The USDA has one, but the system seems to be very outdated, and is very complicated, slow, and harassing to use. You can enter a meticulously detailed catalog of all your daily activities if you so desire.

My school health service page led me to the FitDay system. An easy interface, and allows you to customize the nutrient labels for foods. But it doesn't seem to account for burning those calories via activity.

This EveryDay Health one seems to be balanced to both diet and exercise, though it may be losing some of the detail because of it.

snow days

mean a lot of cars are kept off the streets. whoohoo. and a lot of businesses dont open. whoohoo. but it also means salt on the roads, which actually has some detrimental environmental side effects. like chloride spikes in groundwater. and increasing salinity in our freshwater supply.. saltwater only works for the marine ecosystems. salt is sodium chloride, and the chloride spikes in freshwater are responsible for wildlife and vegetative killoffs. and roadside vegetation kill offs from the salt stealing the plants' water.


http://www.cee.vt.edu/ewr/environmental/teach/gwprimer/roadsalt/roadsalt.html

http://www.ecostudies.org/images/newsletter/winter_2005.pdf

3am is too late to start researching this, but its another idea for my senior seminar class. nobody will be talking about that for sure. im also considering the great pacific gyre, war pollution, cloud seeding. any other ideas? presentation day=feb 17th. i actually care and want to do a decent job unlike any presentation given thus far in my schooling.

On another note

While taking my usual walk home today from class, I noticed some little pieces of litter in the street thus reminding myself once again to bring one of my bags with me to gather this litter and also to grab a glove for those nastier pieces (too many tobacco-chewing folks around here).. a piece of blue caught my eye. A very familiar piece of blue fabric .. one of my bandannas! Apparently I dropped it there somehow last week and amidst my clutter never noticed it was missing .. until I found it today. Spent about a week there, getting weathered on and ran over looks like multiple times,

whoa. back up. actually, upon further inspection (pulling it out of my bag i tossed it in and actually unfolding it and taking a good look), it is NOT my bandanna, which leaves me wondering exactly where amongst my mess it is. but this is a snazzy bandanna and without the general germ-phobia that plagues us Americans, I have no problem washing it and using it myself..

even the little things

 Take even just one course in environmental science, and you may start thinking twice about some of the things you do.

Now take 4 years of an environmental technology program in which you cover EVERY problem regarding the polluting and destruction of our world, and you will almost cease to enjoy anything... because it is ALL BAD in some way.

Like today in my indoor air quality (IAQ) class. Learned that many of these so-called "air-purifiers" on the market and in YOUR HOMES (which have I already told you that IAQ is 5-10x more polluted than outside air..and the average american spends 95 percent of their time indoors..) are technically air-polluters, specifically OZONE. Ozone is a good and bad chemical, good in the upper atmosphere to keep out harmful UV rays, but terrible down here in our lower, immediate atmosphere. Hence why they give us alerts on certain days and recommend limiting outdoor activities. So what do you do: sit in your home and relax next to your air-purifier knowing thinking that you are breathing clean air. False. You are breathing straight pollution.  Sure your air may SMELL clean, but it is NOT. Can't trust your nose anyways as many contaminants are odorless, and ozone apparently numbs the sense of smell anyways. These machines are ozonaters, misleadingly touted as "activated-oxygen" or "super oxygenated." Well oxygen is straight O2 oxygen. Ozone is a whole nother story - one that can seriously mess up your respiratory system. Short term effects: coughing, chest tightness, shortness of breath, serious damage to cells in lungs and airways. Long term effects: cause and worsen asthma symptoms and worsen lung disease, may also increase risk of premature death. This is particularly a problem to people who already have a respiratory illness, thus the reason they want an air-purifier. So far, California is the only state to pass legislation requiring indoor air cleaners be certified to emit less than 0.050 ppm of ozone. They have a list of 63 potentially hazardous "air-purifiers" that you should avoid. The California Air Resources Board (and so did my prof) recommends using a HEPA filter or electrostatic precipitators.

p.s. - ozone can react with other chemicals like terpenes (fragrance chemicals in your household products that give that pine/citrus smell) to create other toxic chemicals like FORMALDEHYDE.

As you learn though over the duration of the ET course, these things come as no big surprise.

Another interesting article in class was about incense and candles being sources of pollution. Incense release particulate matter (duh) and apparently many candles (especially those cheap ones from the Dollar Trees and whatnot imported from China or Mexico) have a metal core containing LEAD. The kid presenting the article was very surprised that the US hasn't banned it yet. I figured he must just be starting out in this program (or maybe his parents burned too many candles when he was kid, thus resulting in lead poisoning, thus resulting in a little brain retardation. Lead poisoning in children is serious and really causes a lot of problems with brain development.. this article mentioned a family pursuing civil litigation due to lead poisoning from burning candles.), if he doesn't know how many products the US sells every year that has lead in it. All that make-up you smear around your face - heavily laden with lead and other metals.

And for those of you in love with the "new car smell" ... yes, that's right, it is also suspected to be harmful to humans. Its recommended that you air your new car out for months and months to lower the level of VOC's being emitted from your fancy dashboard material and carpet and seat fabric and whatnot. Have fun with your brandnew Hummer, I'm sticking with my bike.

Outdoor air quality (ambient air quality) is much more heavily regulated than indoor air quality, and apparently we only spend about 5% of our times outdoor.. walking that 100ft from your parking space to work or home or a shopping center.. its all the same.. its all dirty and contaminated.

Laundry Update

So, everything was probably dry yesterday (too busy with school to notice exactly when), but definitely dry now. Socks and underwear were dry almost immediately, and then it seemed to vary by type of fabric. Was able to fit a full load on 2 drying racks that cluttered up my room for the last few days (pretty dangerous to navigate my room in the dark). Everything is stiff, even though I did use a liquid fabric softner (because I already have some, once I'm out, I'm not going to buy any more). Nothing is too wrinkly. Stiffness and wrinkles don't bother me though, they leave shortly after putting the clothes on.

So I'm still on track.

Back to putting my clothes away..

Haiti Earthquake

 

Photos courtesy Lisandro Suero / AFP-Getty Images / January 12, 2010

 Poor Haiti (the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, home to 10 million people, most living in abject poverty) is having trouble once again with another earthquake - 7.0 - the largest to hit them in 2 decades.

We're pretty safe here on the east coast from natural disasters (you can only take this for granted if you ignore news about the rest of the world), our biggest problems seem to result from industry disasters like the plant explosion in apex or the coal ash waste holding lagoon breaking in tennessee. We get a little scare every once in a while during hurricane serious, but nothing too bad that we can't deal with because we have money. Its the people without money, people in the poorest nations, that are also in the geographical locations hardest hit by natural disasters. They don't have the money or resources to build earthquake proof buildings, and they definitely don't have the resources to recover from these disasters.

You have a secure roof over your head. You have enough food to get by on or better. They don't. Maybe you're even one of the lucky ones that just got a big drop of refund money. These people are counting on financial aid too.. so fore-go the 6-pack, your morning grande java, and whatever superfluous items you are considering purchasing this week, and instead spend it on something fantastically worthwhile, something that will bring some level of comfort, however small or big, to the suffering. Donate to an organization helping the Haitians through this crisis.

Stop Hunger Now is an international non-profit organization, based in Raleigh, started in 1998, that provides hunger relief and other life-saving aid to the world's most destitute. Your donations pay for the supplies (and they need alot of help now as the price of food is going up and people are donating less because of the economic crisis), and volunteers work in an assembly line fashion to package the food. I have volunteered at their warehouse with the EWB-NSCU chapter and honor their work. They have historically helped Haiti, and are now seeking $50,000 in donations to send aid for this disaster. ($100= 400 lifesaving meals)

Convoy of Hope is another organization providing direct relief. They are already setting up an emergency command center from which they will be providing help. They have a warehouse with food and supplies there that will be distributed for immediate relief, and are collecting donations to help with a shipment of several more containers with relief supply to the area in the next few days.

The Lambi Fund of Haiti  is a grassroots effort aimed at helping to improve all aspects of Haitian life by creating stability (my professor today (Dr. Bruck) called the place lawless, and he is a very educated, up-to-date man) through the involvement and cooperation of peasants and community-based organizations. This is an organization solely for Haiti help, so you can be sure your donation goes to help this ravaged community.


There are other organizations out there. Just be careful of where you choose to donate, as scam charities do pop up. Large charities (OXFAM , Doctors Without Borders , CARE , etc) also have high overhead costs and donations don't always go to specific causes (may go to other programs instead of the one you intend), but nonetheless it is still giving.

Giving money is the easiest way to help people, as it flows so easily in and out of our accounts, but not necessarily the best. In a situation like this, it is probably the best we can do.

But I really wish there was more I can do than just seem money as I really do care about the world's poor. We may feel poor as college students, but we are nothing compared to others around the world.

 

 

Photos from Lambi Fund of Haiti / 01-13-2010

 

Presidential Palace collapsed in on itself.

Groceries

Did my first big shop since back at school from break. I was under the delusion that we were going to a decent grocery store, where i would have access to a variety of healthy foods. To my disheartening surprise.. Food Lion. at least it was the Avent Ferry store which at least as a 6' long, triple shelved, double-sided aisle of healthy food of only a few food items.

So I tried my best under disgruntled, hungry, late-night shopping:

• 1 Carton No Pulp Tropicana 100% Pure and Natural Orange Juice
• 1 Gallon Jar Mt. Olive Kosher Dill Pickles [NC product]
• 16 oz Package Nature's Place Organic Raw hulled sunflower seeds
• 2lb  Bunny-Luv Fresh Organic Carrots
• 1 can thai kitchen all-natural unsweetened first pressing coconut milk
• 12 oz jar mt. olive hot banana pepper rings [NC product (since 1926)]
• 1 can nature's place organic cut green beans
• 15  oz jar bertolli  mushroom alfredo
• 24.5 oz jar (plastic) dole all-natural mandarin oranges in light syrup
• 24.5 oz jar (plastic) dole all-natural yellow cling sliced peaches in light syrup
• 1 can nature's place organic sweet corn
• 1 tall spice jar mccormick organic curry powder
• 1 tall spice jar mccormick organic coarse grind black pepper
• 1 tall spice jar mccormick organic cayenne red pepper
• 8 oz block FL natural pepperjack cheese
• 14 oz package  pictsweet deluxe stir-fry seasoned japanese steakhouse
• 14 oz package  pictsweet deluxe stir-fry seasoned teryaki
• 1 box Triscuit cracked pepper and olive oil baked whole grain wheat crackers
• 24 oz package nature's own 100% natural made with organic flour honey wheat bread
• 2 Del Monte bananas (costa rica)
  

I tried to include about every description on the package, as their wording is important - big difference between claims and actual ingredients. Only the 'organic' labeled items were certified (USDA Organic Standard).I tried my best for being rushed on soneone else's time, and being almost brain dead..

Considering Reforms::

• [D] Minimize unnecessary consumption of resources.
• [E] Eat the best foods possible - raw, organic, local - when possible.

Reforms List

figured with all these changes upon myself, i should keep a running tally (so as not to forget)::

[update going to put them into some reference code, probably by alphabet letters, as numbers implicate rank, and there is no rank to this list as all are equally important reform goals. may later to decide date amended]

• [A] Digital copies of music and movies.
• [B] Air-drying everything.
• [C] Pick up litter and properly dispose.
• [D] Minimize unnecessary consumption of resources.
• [E] Eat the best foods possible - raw, organic, local - when possible.
• [F] Give Carmen the best possible care and love.
• [G] Increase plant biodiversity.

Fran Akers, Kitty Hawk, OBX, NC. June 2005.

Drying Clothes Update 1

Looks like I might have crammed a bit too many items in this load as they are all damper than usual. And that water is very cold.

I'm going to keep track of how long these take to dry (definitely not going to do another load until then so I will have space.. hopefully after these first few loads ill get into a groove and wont have to wait longer between washings than I normally do, we'll see..). It's pretty cold in our apartment (thermostat set about 63F), and I have no heat vent to set these on top of so that when it does kick on I can use that boost. Not around during the day to put them on the porch when it receives sunlight (afraid they will freeze if I leave them out without full sun).

Oh air, what art thou good for?

Oh so many things for starters.

But right now I'm just considering drying - a job air is pretty darn good at.
We have so many modern way of drying things, from paper towels, to hairdryers, to ovens, to those superjet blowers in the bathrooms. All of these ways use natural resources and energy, which for the majority is an inexpensive (and unconsidered) price to pay for the convenience (Remember, americans and the like crave immediate satisfaction).

I've done pretty well over my life cutting back on the resources that go into my drying needs (haven't used a hair dryer since grade school, always air-dryed dishes, full dryer load for pants&jackets (airdryed most shirts), skipped paper towels, etc) so now I'm going all the way when I'm in control and doing only air-drying.

Hasn't been a challenge so far, I don't mind wiping my hands on my pants/jacket, or on my hankerchief if ive got a spare with me.. and airdrying dishes isn't hard at all with that drying rack and perhaps assistance of handtowel that hangs on oven door handle.. but today I've run into my first hurdle. As my recently departed roommate ran off with my second drying rack, and I don't have a clothes hanger rope (yet) since I live in these cramped apartments (no space to put one), I am going to have to get creative. The hard part comes from having a front loading washer and thus having to run a large load everytime you use it, giving me alot more clothes and other items than I have drying space for. But I am tackling this now. Probably will have to get out hangers onto my showercurtainrod...

20K10

As the last decade was so crappy, I'm changing that by getting involved and making things be the way I want them to be. And I challenge you to do the same. This is going to be quite a challenge, but I know I will be a much happier person if I can succeed in ridding my life of all the choices that later tear my heart apart with guilt.

Firstly, I'm retiring from driving. I had to drive my brother's SUV today though, but unfortunately today had to be the exception as my dog needed to be buried and it couldn't be done in my yard. But I'm done now. I hate driving for all reasons - environmental, economic, emotional (it drives me tired and aggravated now). The only thing I like about it is the freedom I feel just taking off and getting on the highway and going somewhere beautiful on such bluesky days. But, I can achieve this same level of freedom when I let my feet carry me large distances of their own. And that actually improves my emotional and physical state, instead of draining me.

No more mindless consuming either. Impulsive shopping gone, unless its somewhere like the local farmer's market.. nothing like impulsively buying jars of pepper jelly and honey, and then the fresh veggies and fruit! even still, I need to get serious about my food and go for organics. I'm tempted about trying some meat from the market that is certified organic and free-range and animal welfare AAA+++, but even if i can accept that as not breaking my vegetarianism, i don't know how to cook meat, and i dont even know if i can manage to chew it anymore!

This means that the monthly Kris10 days are being transformed from days of self-indulgence to days of self-restraint. Days of positive action. Like picking up litter, and properly disposing of it.  I need to think of winter activities though, probably more along the lines of social work, in case it is just too cold to get out there. Any ideas??

Grow and Share

Stumbled across this while browsing craigslist volunteer section for Raleigh. If I wasn't in Hickory right now, I would definitely be interested in helping them erect the greenhouse at the new site. Granted its in Zebulon and as I am trying to go back to my strictness of not driving this year, I would need to find a way out there other than my brother's huge red SUV ughness.

I'm going to check this out to get involved with when I return.

News Flash

Martin Marietta Materials

I have always known that Hickory had a quarry from the explorations of my highschool driving era, but I never had an inkling of what it looked like until MacDonald Parkway was finally opened and you could drive down its entire back side, vision impaired by only that slim green plastic fencing. To have been concealed in Hickory for all my life, it was an awakening to a pretty big hole.

Now it's peaked my curiosity, and I want to do a little investigating into the virtuosity of their practices.

So far from preliminary glances of their website, they at least tout themselves as pretty responsible people with regards to the environment.

Its 2am, and has been a long 2nd day of the year, so I don't feel like doing in depth research. I'm very curious to see if I can find any information regarding the Hickory quarry in particular, as this company has some 285 quarries in 28 states.. so I'm hoping to see what the direct connection it has to my childhood environment. Especially our water quality.