tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78335793006490699612024-02-08T04:59:36.350-08:00Never an OutsiderThis blog is intended to be a forum for sharing my interests. If it’s on my mind, you can read about it here. Not the extremely personal stuff, but rather the “things I encounter in the world at large” stuff, social commentary, the everyday things that we all have to deal with, and possible solutions to problems and challenges. Fun, friendly, and practical, may you find something useful or enlightening here!India Rivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16538128493493070775noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833579300649069961.post-80507691941315452732012-02-22T16:15:00.000-08:002012-02-22T16:16:47.438-08:00On Seedlings, and The Sea<br />
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I’ve been away from the blogosphere these past several weeks. My apologies, but there have been many fires to put out and nothing good to share with you that could fill a blog post. From now on, I’ll post here once a week, and the posts will be shorter, but at least they will be more consistent in their timing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">One of the only bright spots in these last weeks has been that the seeds I started a few weeks ago actually sprouted. Until that first tiny shoot of green showed itself above the soil, I didn’t realize how much I doubted my ability to grow anything. Just when I desperately needed something to go right and to receive some semblance of hope for the future (it really has been that bad, but I will spare you the details), the first eggplant seedling showed itself. Now there are Italian heirloom (sweet yellow) peppers, Bull Nose peppers (bell, sweet) like the ones grown by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, French eggplant (they will bear pretty white fruits with purple stripes, hardly bitter at all), and traditional eggplant for my dad because he wants to make eggplant parmigiana. Since I eat what he makes, I am happy to grow the main ingredient. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">It was the first sign that things were going to turn around. The rhythms of nature also help slow me down. People who know me comment on my “clock speed”. One person said that I was like a dog in that one year seems like seven to me. My sense of time is accelerated, and everything seems to take <i>forever and a day</i>. It can drive those around me crazy, but it’s worse inside me. It’s almost painful to wait for everyone and everything to catch up. Still, this garden thing has helped with my little peculiarity. I look every day, usually more than once a day, to see what progress the little starts have made. It seems a reflection of what I've known for a while, that we are too far removed from nature and its rhythms anymore, and technology has gone beyond serving us and has become our master.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Taking a break from social media was necessary for me. It is becoming such a trend to do so lately I wonder if Facebook's board of directors didn't choose an astoundingly bad time in their brief history to go public. That remains to be seen, but that is where my suspicions lie. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">A couple of weeks ago I ran across this lovely quote from Isak Dinesen, the author of “Out of Africa” among many other literary wonders, on Pinterest, and I wanted to share it with you:</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"The cure for anything is saltwater--sweat, tears, or the sea."</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> It reminded me how much I miss San Diego, specifically how much I miss the ocean. Falling asleep to the sound of the waves coming and going is one of the most curative experiences I have ever known. I miss the salt air, the sunshine, and the easy-going culture. Who wouldn't prefer the sea over the other two forms of saltwater?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Lately lots of sweat and tears, two out of Dinesen’s three, but the payoff is on its way. By the end of February, I hope to have e-published my first non-fiction project and a short story, unrelated to each other. It's just the way the timing worked out. And then there are the seedlings that hopefully will continue to thrive followed by the five kinds of tomato seeds I look forward to starting in March. And then the next writing project after the current two have been birthed. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Thanks to all whom have stopped by and commented and sent new friends my way. Best regards to all of you. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">See you next week! </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Cheers, </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">India</span></span></div>India Rivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16538128493493070775noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833579300649069961.post-19393398590595649022012-01-13T23:19:00.000-08:002012-01-13T23:29:37.779-08:00Social Media Highlights Our Relationship With Books<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Recently this photograph has made the rounds on Facebook:</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">“A book commits suicide every time you watch <i>Jersey</i> <i>Shore</i>.” </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I found it hilarious, and metaphorically accurate! I commented on Facebook that it was representative of all reality t.v. shows. So many of my friends “liked” and commented on the photo, even friends that don’t read compulsively and aren’t bookworms. They shared this sentiment at least in part. To be fair, it may just be <i>Jersey</i> <i>Shore</i> backlash, but I don’t think so.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This question arose from observing the reactions to the photo, “Is reality t.v. actually helping increase book sales?” I took stock of how often I’d turned the t.v. on in the past month looking for something informative or entertaining, only to turn it off in disgust less than 5 minutes later. Several hundred channels and there’s nothing on! Not even on my DVR! What the bleep, people? Again, I asked myself if this might not be a contributing factor to the increase in e-book sales. While my trend-spotting radar says “Yes”, I have no definitive proof, only anecdotal evidence. As in, my own observations.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In addition to the above photograph, a link to a website called “Book Porn” was Tweeted this past week by Susan Haws, a member of my writers’ group. The name sounded just awful, but Susan is so conservative, it had to be a play on words. So I bit and clicked out to <a href="http://www.bookporn.com/"><span style="color: #001ba6; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">www.bookshelfporn.com</span></a>. It was not, as I feared, so many books on pornography being sold off a virtual shelf. Instead, it is photograph after mind-numbing, drool-worthy photograph, of places with bookshelves. These can be home libraries or public ones, bookstores or works of art made from books. It is incredible and astounding, and I’m so mad that I didn’t think of it first. All I’d have needed to do is scan and upload to the internet all of the pictures I have saved over the years of different places and ways people store and display books. There are some on their site that I have in my scrapbook, and there are some I have that they do not. Drool worthy ones that I might share some day. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This site points toward another trend: The Comeback of the Hardcover Book. We who love books will always love the sensory experience that comes with holding a book. Not just the heft of a hardcover in hand, but the smell, the weight of the paper it is printed on, the design and color of the cover and the end papers, the subtle nuances upon which a true bibliophile can base a relationship with a book. There was even this quote among the photographs on Bookshelf Porn:</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"Lignin, the stuff that prevents all trees from adopting the weeping habit, is a polymer made up of units that are closely related to vanillin. When made into paper and stored for years, it breaks down and smells good. Which is how divine providence has arranged for secondhand bookstores to smell like good quality vanilla absolute, subliminally stoking a hunger for knowledge in all of us."</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Why second hand bookstores smell so good, from “Perfumes: The Guide” by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Another quote on this site is something that I’ve done in my own life, long before ever hearing this advice: </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">“We need to make books cool again. If you go home with somebody and they don’t have books, don’t fuck them.” John Waters</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">More than once, I’ve had a date pick me up at home and upon entering, the comment was made, “You have too many books!” It’s not like my home is a fire hazard. They just don’t all have a home.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">“There is no such thing as too many books. There are just too few bookshelves,” I’d reply. They might as well have insulted my friends to their faces. I was deeply offended, and more than a little hurt. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">There was never a second date. I knew there would not be before I picked up my purse to leave with the guy for the first date. Once those words left their lips, there was not a chance in hell he was going to get lucky, that night, or ever. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">My mother read to me whilst she was pregnant with me. She took me to the St. Louis Public Library when I was two weeks old, that is not a typo, and got me my first library card. The librarian tried to dissuade her at first, but didn’t have an argument for the fact that there was no age requirement for someone to acquire one, only a parent’s or guardian’s signature. By the time I was two years old, I was reading on my own. Not Chaucer or Shakespeare, but first readers. By the time I reached school, I was impatient with those just learning and read ahead because I wanted to know what happened next. When it was my time to read the next sentence aloud, I had no idea where we were. I’d been too absorbed in the story, and I was passed over. The nuns were scary, and I didn’t want to admit I’d broken the rules. The day the school called my mother and said they would have to hold me back because I could not read, she almost fell off her chair. They sorted it out pretty quickly, and I was left alone to read ahead after that. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">My point here is, books have been an integral part of my life, and I could never form an intimate relationship with someone who does not himself have at least an understanding of my love of books. It was at one time my goal to read every book in the library, and I developed a system to get through them all before I realized that not all books are created equal, therefore not all books are worth reading. Today it is my goal to own a house with enough room to create a library. Anyone I am with will have to know going in that this is a non-negotiable item. Indoor plumbing, a library, and a garden. Electricity is optional, but not the library or running water. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">One of the loveliest blog posts I have seen to date is “A Girl You Should Date” by Nona Merah at <a href="http://nonamerah.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/869/?refid=12"><span style="color: #001ba6; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">http://nonamerah.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/869/?refid=12</span>.</a> In it she describes why a boy should love a girl who reads, and how to approach her once he finds one such female. A quote from her post:</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve." --Nona Mereh </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">And finally, I leave you with this link to “</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">20 of the World’s Most Beautiful Libraries”: <a href="http://www.oddee.com/item_96527.aspx"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">http://www.oddee.com/item_96527.aspx</span></a>, yet another reason to thank <a href="http://www.bookshelfporn.com/"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">www.bookshelfporn.com.</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">All this social media chatter around books is good news for writers and the publishing industry. The last few days I have been held hostage by a manuscript that I hope to get out in e-book form this fall, and another one I’d love to see in hardcover next year. We’ll see if I break free in time. Meanwhile, it is nice to know that market demand for reading material is, for whatever reason, on the rise.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Until next time, fellow travelers on the road paved with words, go do your share to increase our collective IQ's and GDP's: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Turn off the bad television shows, and read a book instead!</span></div>India Rivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16538128493493070775noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833579300649069961.post-58074763865119773692012-01-09T21:26:00.000-08:002012-01-10T16:03:14.516-08:00The Upside of Quiet Winter Days<div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This is my second winter back in Missouri after eleven years in Southern CA, where winter isn’t as wintery as it is here in the Midwest. Last year was brutal here, with ice and snow, a couple of snowstorms that bordered on blizzards, power outages and subzero temperatures. Parents who would be stuck inside for days at a time with rambunctious kids and marathon video game sessions flooded the grocery store before each of those storms, filling their grocery carts with several bottles of wine and a few of the harder stuff and cases of beer (which one was the chaser?), leaving the shelves in the alcohol aisle near empty. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This year, though, winter has been pretty mild. The sun is shining, but it is getting pretty cold again after a few days of near 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures dip below freezing at night, which is a good thing if you know anything about bugs. If we don’t have a “good freeze” or two over winter, the mosquito, tic, chigger, and flea populations rejoice. Those critters go forth and multiply as they would do normally, but the existing populations from the previous year are not killed off when there’s no freeze, effectively doubling the population of all those blood suckers. It makes for an awful summer. Have you ever had 60 mosquito bites and a sunburn at the same time? It makes scratching an exercise in masochism. You have to make some Faustian deal over which is worse: The itching or the pain from the burn.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Even in a mild winter such as this one, there is a sense of dormancy, of things lying in wait, resting, reserving, and refueling. This dormant energy lends itself to quiet activities, such as reading, writing a novel (or three, if your like me and can’t focus on one at a time), planning a garden, planning your spring break or your summer vacation, getting in touch with old friends and family members you’ve not seen in too long. While this is a good time to do these things, we don’t always get them accomplished. To think of a thing is not the same as doing that thing. To that end, I have made lists of things I want to accomplish, and each day as I write my daily to-do list I check to see if I am doing at least one of those things from my bigger lists. Sounds like too many lists, doesn’t it? Not really. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This is how I broke it down, a method I learned from reading Alan Lakein’s book “How To Get Control of Your Time and Your Life”:</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Lifetime Goals List</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Yearly Goals List (2012, for example)</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Monthly Special Emphasis List</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Weekly Goals List</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Lifetime Goals List is the inspiration for the other lists. My big goals are to make a living writing, to produce certain works I have in mind, to get my boys through college, and to travel the world. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">My monthly Special Emphasis List actually has less to do with my Lifetime Goals and more to do with seasonal activities or short term goals. For instance, every month I like to decorate for that month’s holidays or the season, but I don’t always do it because it’s not written down somewhere and it gets away from me. However, when I do it, it keeps my house and yard tidy because I get into the nooks and crannies every month and move things around, take things down, etc., for a fun reason rather than for drudgery. It keeps me cheerful because the decor is never dull. Floral arrangements change with holidays and seasons, the wreath on the door can be swapped out, from winter to summer the curtains may even change to let in more light. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Always for the Month’s Special Emphasis List I add at least two family members that I wish to visit because too much time has passed. This has become important to me since I went to my mother’s funeral in April and realized how many people were there that I hadn’t seen in years, some in decades. I didn’t want the next time we saw each other to be at one of our own funerals. I resolved then and there to make the effort. There are also special, one-off projects; books I want to read (a combination of genre and classic novels); books I ought to read; special occasions and events; deadlines; things like that. This year my goal was to read a classic novel each month, so each month I write down which title I want to read so I won’t let that goal fall by the wayside. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">My Weekly Goals List is taken from the other Lists, chipping away at the big stuff a little at a time, hoping to move the ball forward on my long-term goals. In this way, I can see which things I can realistically fit into one week. I still overdo it and end up carrying some things over, or just crossing some things off because they weren’t as important as I’d initially thought, but since using this method I have become far more effective and get much more accomplished.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Daily List keeps me honest. It includes all the little nitty gritty things I am required to do in Life, but also time for writing, and I hold it religiously, even turning off the WiFi and the phone to avoid interruptions. There is time for reading each day (it’s still not enough!), and finally, some of those things from the Weekly List make it onto this Daily List. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I like the feeling of accomplishment that comes when I cross off an item from my to-do lists, especially from the larger, more long-term lists! </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This week I will finish up the Alan Lakein book, “How to Control Your Time...” and hopefully I will be able to read Juliet Blackwell’s “Hexes and Hemlines”, my brain candy book for this week. I need to begin this month’s classic novel, “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin. The books I ought to read are writing related, about story structure, and writing mystery novels and romances. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">It’s a lot to juggle, but I find it much easier to track with a binder to hold all my lists written on looseleaf paper and a desk calendar which I use to track my writing projects and deadlines, also known as an “editorial calendar”.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">My favorite thing to do when it’s cold outside and all the plants look like they’ve died? Bake something. It’s so life-affirming, and cozy. Here’s the link to my new favorite banana bread recipe, complete with cinnamon crunch topping, from <a href="http://www.allrecipes.com/"><span style="color: #001ba6; letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">www.allrecipes.com</span></a>: <a href="http://allrecipes.com/recipe/bates-banana-bread/detail.aspx"><span style="color: #001ba6; letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">http://allrecipes.com/recipe/bates-banana-bread/detail.aspx</span></a>. It’s called “Bates Banana Bread”, and it is awesome. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Enjoy :-)</span></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br />
</span></div>India Rivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16538128493493070775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833579300649069961.post-14489717099331171202012-01-08T20:15:00.000-08:002012-01-10T16:03:41.709-08:00Staying Healthy Without Health Insurance<div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I haven’t had health insurance for most of my adult life. My approach is generally to do what I can to prevent illness or accident from landing me in the hospital. I also have to stay on my feet to keep working because I am self-employed. There are no sick days or vacation days in self-employment land. If I don’t work, I don’t eat or pay the rent or the other bills. Over the years I have gathered information and a small number of things that I have found keep me well so far (knock on wood). I hope you’ll find something useful here for you, as well.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Oregano Oil has been my saving grace. It is an oil pressed from the leaves of the fresh oregano plant, so it’s not cheap. It takes a lot of oregano to fill one gel capsule with oil. The amber colored capsules are not too large. I take two at a time when I’m sick or feel like I am coming down with something. I take 2 capsules 3 times a day, or 3 capsules morning and night. I do this until a day or so after I feel better, just to make sure whatever made me sick is all the way gone. The beauty of oregano oil is that it’s a naturally occurring anti-biotic, anti-viral, and anti-fungal, so it pretty much covers everything that ails you and you don’t need a prescription, which I could not afford. It helps me get over colds and flu and a friend who was plagued by near constant yeast infections found it finally broke the cycle for her. I first heard about it when someone told me that it was being used to treat staph infections in hospitals. I am religious about keeping some in the house at all times. Don’t take it if you are allergic to it, and if you already take medicines make sure you ask your doctor or pharmacist if oregano oil is okay to mix with whatever else you take already.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">If I do come down with the flu, I take a homeopathic flu remedy made by the French company Boiron. They have an excellent reputation in Europe, and my friends and family and I have found this to be very effective in alleviating symptoms and cutting down our recovery time. Less miserable and back to work faster, can’t beat that! It’s called “Oscillococcinum”. No one I know can pronounce it, including me. I put the oregano oil and the flu remedy in my Amazon store so that people could see what they look like. If you can’t find them in your local drug store or health food store, you can always order them from here, but mostly it’s to familiarize you with the labels and what to look for. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">My main anti-cancer supplements are Vitamin C (the chewable “Oranges and C” from Trader Joe’s, 1000mg tablets) and my favorite: Pu-ehr tea. The tea (pronounced like the English word “poor” but stretched into two syllables) has 70 times the anti-oxidants as green tea. It comes from 700 year old trees in southern China near Vietnam. These trees are a prolific and an easily renewable resource, but the quality of the tea can vary greatly. I find it at World Market for $9.99 per foil pouch. Each pouch lasts me about 10-12 days, but for keeping me healthy, and considering I brew each batch at least twice, I find the cost reasonable. Be wary of anything really cheap. The quality goes down with the price, and so does the flavor. It is important to note that this tea is from China and must be rinsed. By that I mean you pour boiling water over the leaves as though to steep it, but after 8-10 seconds you pour the water out. This is rinsing your tea. I use a strainer that fits in my cup. If you don’t do this step with Pu-erh tea, it will be bitter and have an unpleasant aftertaste that no amount of sweetener can mask. Speaking of sweetener, I use honey with this tea. I have two cups every morning, and it leaves me too full to eat afterwards. I have to remember to eat before. It has that effect, the feeling of fullness, and Asian women call it “a diet tea”. I am not fat by most people’s accountings, but I noticed my belly was more flat after a week or so of regularly drinking this tea in the morning, and so did one of my friends who tried it. For some, that is a side benefit. For others, it could be dangerous. If you need to eat in the morning, do so before you drink Pu-erh tea.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Co-enzyme Q-10 is good for several things: It rebuilds gum tissue if you’ve have receding gums and it promotes heart health by reducing the plaque build-up in your arteries. I take it to keep my heart healthy. It comes in different sized doses. I like to take the 100mg dosage twice a day, one in the morning and one at night. Ask your doctor (if you have one) if it’s okay for you to take, especially if you already take other medicines.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Flaxseed oil is an Omega-3 fatty acid. I prefer it over fish oil because it doesn’t stink. Nothing worse than burping up fish oil all day after taking the pills in the morning. Omega-3 fatty acids are known to help with heart and brain function, soften the skin by moisturizing with “good” oils from the inside, improve eye health, and probably a number of other things that I don’t even know about yet. My main reason for taking flaxseed oil every day is because it helps with ADD/ADHD, and it is natural. More on the ADD/ADHD topic another day, but for now, know this: Omega-3 fatty acids are known to help the synaptic gaps close, so that when your brain’s neurons fire, the signal gets all the way to the other side. What this does, then, is help you complete thoughts, which helps with focus. It takes 3000mg of flaxseed oil per day to make a difference in ADD/ADHD symptoms according to medical literature, but I notice improvement when I take 2000mg per day. That is not to say there is not room for even better results with another 1000mg, but I find that my skin and hair get too oily if I take the full 3000mg per day. I prefer the Barleans brand of flaxseed oil sold at health food stores. It comes in a black bottle, and I get the version with the blue label since it has the highest lignins, which I find to be the most effective. I take the 1000mg soft gels, one in the morning, and one at night, but I used to use the liquid version and add 1 Tablespoon to my oatmeal in the morning. I quickly found I had to cut my usual amount of oatmeal in half as the added oil filled me up so much faster. Add the oil to the already cooked oatmeal, and keep the liquid version in the fridge.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Ayurvedic medicine (traditional medicine of India) prescribes that we drink a glass or two of water each morning before eating in the morning, usually soon after waking. The idea is that this water flushes out the kidneys and the intestines, which in turn make your body work far less hard throughout the day. Most styles of medicine (Western, Chinese, and Ayurvedic, for example) will tell you that if the kidneys are not functioning well, every other organ is adversely affected. It’s simple and inexpensive, effective and you’ll love how much better you feel during the day. The amount of water is based on your body size. The bigger you are, the closer you want to get to two glasses of water each morning. Smaller persons should stick closer to one glass. I drink one and a half glasses most mornings, and use this water to wash down my supplements.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The rest is just staying out of trouble. I used to be a much bigger risk taker, but now I don’t go out on New Year’s Eve or climb high ladders, am careful on the stairs, and so on, because I have two kids who need me and no medical coverage should something bad happen. If I get medical coverage again I may take up skydiving, etc., but for now I am happy to be careful.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Here’s to your health! May you live a long and healthy life :-)</span></span></div>India Rivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16538128493493070775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833579300649069961.post-80029678644336549272012-01-07T19:32:00.001-08:002012-01-10T16:04:04.802-08:00Unemployment and Monkeys on Capitol Hill<div style="font: 14.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px;"><script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">After recovering from the shock of the news of the NDAA amendment, I have found the silver lining: We The People can look at this as 93 future job openings, with decent pay and excellent benefits. If you have and can use common sense (to hell with your morals, it’s clear those are not a requirement for the job), I will vote for you, so long as you are against making it legal for our military to arrest, indefinitely detain without trial, or assassinate our citizens. Congress’s approval ratings are at an all-time low, so why not go for their jobs? I don’t care if you want the office of the Crack Monkey General or the Madam of the House of Political Whores, or just to be a junior Senator from Wherever, just go take the seat from its current occupant. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I just want real people, real Americans to run our government again. Those occupying Capitol Hill right now give no evidence of being in touch with reality. It’s as though all that “getting into bed” with special interests has exposed the majority of them to something akin to political syphilis, which has subsequently affected their brains. They’ve forgotten for whom they work, whom they represent, and why their offices exist in the first place. They seem only interested in their own needs, wants and benefits. This vast bubble Congress exists in does not translate into the real world anymore. They need a reality check, one in which they can lose their jobs and their benefits like the rest of us. I’d like it if all of those who voted for this Act’s amendment were voted out of office and replaced by people who have lost their jobs, or who can let their existing jobs be filled by someone else who needs one while they go on to Capitol Hill. We’d solve two problems at once: Unemployment and a Congress no one can stand, or understand. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">There are even more jobs if we recall and replace everyone in the House of Representatives that votes for SOPA, to be voted on this Monday. The ancient denizens of Capitol Hill are not familiar enough with how the internet works to be in charge of making sweeping changes or decisions regarding its operation, but that is what SOPA will do. The Stop Online Piracy Act sounds good in theory, but in practice it gives the power to a corporation to shut down any website it views as infringing on its copyrights without proper compensation or explicit permission. Think about a world in which a record company can shut down Facebook at will, or a movie studio can shut down Twitter because someone shares a link to a boot leg copy of one of their blockbuster movies. That’s it, that is all it would take. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">When internet experts went to Capitol Hill to try to explain how it all works and what the effect would be if they passed this asinine Act and what the COST would be (internet commerce is responsible for 2 trillion dollars per year of our national economy...think we can afford to lose that right now, along with all the jobs that go with those dollars? I don’t!), should these social media websites begin to be arbitrarily shut down, but those politicians that were raised “in the days of dinosaurs and black and white t.v.” as my son would say, they didn’t want to hear it. They tuned out, said it was boring, asked, “Can’t we skip this part?” Yeah, of course, why would we want you overpaid village idiots to understand what it is you are voting on? What difference does it make if you cast a well-informed vote for what best serves America, as long as you get to lunch on time, and no one messes with your benefits package? </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Maybe that’s why they keep trying to cut unemployment benefits: They don’t want the funds to run out for their own health insurance and their retirement packages, let alone their salaries. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">With all the cuts in funding to academic research, I bet we could get really good deals on lab monkeys or chimps. We could save ourselves millions each year by having the majority of seats in both Houses filled with research animals once we’ve trained them in both sign language and Robert’s Rules of Order. All it would take is a banana and an inner tube and probably a week’s worth of training per chimp. We could fix the deficit problem in a short amount of time and at a very reasonable cost while also solving a practical problem that presents a great threat to our country: Congress. Plus, chimps are much smarter than your average politician and a lot harder to buy, once you have their loyalty. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I’m game. Bring on the monkeys, or let’s all run for office. Either way, we’d come out ahead. Statistically speaking, we just can’t do worse than we have now. The average chimp has to be smarter than the average Senator of late. Satan would be more morally consistent than what we’re currently dealing with, and we wouldn’t feel disappointed and betrayed every time he did something self-serving because at least we would have expected it from him when he took office. Unfortunately, he’s too busy (and getting too rich) running all of the lobbyists and taking his cut.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Seriously, update your voter registration card, and call your Senator and your Congressman or woman. Let them know you are going to vote for someone else if t</span> hey vote “Yes” on this SOPA act. The NDAA which allows our government to send American citizens to Gitmo without trial or due process is bad enough. We don’t need our ability to perform commercial transactions over the internet compromised because some weenie at a recording studio got his panties in a wad over $300 in royalties he thinks he should have collected from Facebook. Give it a rest already.</span></div>India Rivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16538128493493070775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833579300649069961.post-68196747441456578582012-01-05T21:36:00.000-08:002012-01-10T16:04:36.233-08:00Surviving This Modern Greek Tragedy And Grandma's Advice<div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Today’s socio-economic situation and political climate is the modern equivalent of a Greek tragedy where a mischievous god that doesn’t like humans has taken hold of our world and is shaking it to see who falls out and who hangs on. The longer this drags on the more people I fear will fall out. The suicide rate is already higher than normal, but there is room for it to get worse. If we don’t reach out to each other, if we don’t care about and for each other, than I am afraid that the suicide rate will go up even further and we will lose even more to this Greek tragedy before our Hero, in whatever form it comes, arises. Maybe We The People, the 99%, are the Heroes, and simply by being our brother's keepers, perhaps enough of us will hang on until this shake-down is over.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">My grandmother’s advice is what I hang onto today, and pass onto my friends and others who seem like they are hanging on by their fingernails. She was widowed suddenly with nine children under the age of 18, back in the day when assistance was limited if it existed at all. When asked how she came through it with her sanity intact, with nine children who became upstanding citizens all clearly bright and hard-working, she used to say, “I took one day at a time. If I thought any farther down the road than that, I’d have sat down and given up. It was too much to think about the whole thing all at once.” </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">During a really tough time in my own life, she told me, “Sometimes, when it was really bad, I would tell myself to just get through the next 5 minutes. If that’s all I thought about, the next 5 minutes and what needed doing during that time, and not the whole day or the rest of my life, I could manage that. I could get through.” For an Irish Catholic, my grandmother was very Zen in her thinking. And she was right. That process is how winners and warriors all over the world and throughout history have done it. No matter how big their vision or plan to take over the world, they had to do whatever was right in front of them in order to get it done. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">What I see when I look at the landscape of our society today is that we who were once “One Nation, Under God”, albeit with a few people who were further removed from our daily lives than others, we have now become Two, distinctly separate entities. It’s as though the organism that was American society has now split into two separate living things, living completely apart from each other, with a wide divide between them so that they do not even come close to touching each other. When we still had a middle class, that was the bridging piece, the class of society where money, goods, education, services and ideas flowed through from the top and became disseminated throughout the rest of our microcosm. It is now however gone, that middle class buffer, and so is that bridge that connected us and kept us from drifting apart. I don't know about you, but I don't miss them.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The 1% circulate money but it is traded solely with each other in those higher echelon circles. The trickle down theory has never worked, not once since its inception. For instance, the Russian billionaire heiress who bought a NYC condo or penthouse for $88 million last month. That is money that will not trickle down to the rest of the economy, I’m sorry. It’s staying up there with the other super wealthy. It’s the same with luxury cars, other real estate investments (which are setting records, by the way, especially in NYC), yachts, etc. All of these assets are traded within their very insular world. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The 99%, the obvious majority of us, are starting to mirror the behavior and spending patterns of the 1%. I don’t know how many of us realize that yet, but I see it unfolding and I believe it’s impact will be felt this year. Look for news reports to start commenting on it in a few months. The story will be some version of what I described above, except with Everyman’s level of spending rather than King Midas’s. At this level, the money that we used to spend on products and services provided to us by corporations will start to be directed to a more home grown source, someone small, someone local. In other words, we will stop buying from the 1% and start buying from each other. The longer this economic madness goes on, the more insular I predict we will become as a group, just as the 1% have. The 1% can’t actually continue to thrive without our economic participation, and by cutting us out of the loop (outsourcing jobs, layoffs in the thousands that leave more money for the handful of corporate executives who run the company into the ground and then leave with huge bonuses and payouts), they leave themselves with fewer and fewer people who are both willing AND able to participate in their gluttony.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">And isn’t that how we see it? Corporate greed, gluttony, the raping and pillaging of our middle class economy? Even if we hold a milder view of what is going on, the flavor of the month is going to be “local” and “small business” or “personal” for more of this coming year than I think they oblivious 1% can anticipate. I am more than happy to start buying the majority of whatever I need to live as close to home as possible. Maybe you can try it, too? </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I don’t know how to fix the economy. I suspect that no one person does. However, I do know that those in charge love their money so much that if they start getting less of it, they may be more motivated to equalize things again, to stimulate the economy and to create jobs somehow. I don’t need an $88 million apartment. I just need to get through the next 5 minutes. </span></span></div>India Rivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16538128493493070775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833579300649069961.post-50299645757645404042012-01-03T21:42:00.000-08:002012-01-10T16:11:14.038-08:00The Golden Parachute Vs. The 72 Hour Emergency Kit<div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The very rich in our society have gone and shot themselves in the foot, but do they know it yet? Have we, the 99%, realized it yet? By keeping all of the money circulating only at the very top, they have eliminated the very reason their assets hold any value. As We The People, or the 99%, continue to be shut out of economic circulation due to outsourcing of jobs, downsizing, layoffs and pay cuts so that the one guy in charge can have an obscenely large bonus or golden parachute even after he runs the company into the ground, our ability to participate in the economy is further narrowed. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This economic stranglehold is the very reason the 1% will lose their shirts. The 1% as we know them have eliminated too much of the market share in too many sectors by causing money to no longer flow throughout the lower strata of society. With no middle class, there is no buyer. No buyer, no value. Things (assets, products, etc.) are only worth what someone is willing to pay, and money itself will lose value if we all start looking to other means of exchange outside of the dollars that are being controlled by, well, not us. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">By holding onto the majority of the money in our economy, those with the most are going to make assets and currency worth less and less as We The People look within ourselves and to each other to ask the relevant questions of our time:</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">“How much do I really need to live?” The answer is, “A lot less than the market is trying to sell me.”</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">“How can I get what I need without having to deal with people whom I have never met and who don’t give a damn about my quality of life, about whether I live or die?” That answer could be, “I can make, grow and re-use what I can, and buy the rest from someone I can meet in person, exchange names and shake hands with, someone I can trust and with whom I can build a personal relationship.” </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">We buy less and less as the Great Recession wears on. Maybe there are spikes in spending here and there, but the long-term picture looks like frugality is here to stay. We trust less often anyone we don’t know personally with our money, or whatever else it is that we need to keep us alive. The fact that I am not the only person I know looking to grow more of their own food is telling. Food is so basic, if we are concerned about that, then we are not likely to go stimulate the economy with our old spending habits. That behavioral change is the lever that will stop the economic wheel from turning as it once did, hence the devaluing of assets.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">My main concern in this is that we are one disaster away from civil unrest, be it another economic downturn or a natural disaster, a terrorist attack, or a combination of two or more of these events occurring closely together. If you look around you now, there is no supporting evidence that you should leave the assurance of your survival or that of your loved ones in the hands of someone else. It just takes too long for rescuers to respond, and depending on the magnitude of the event, resources could take even longer than the usual 72 hours to get to you and bring you relief. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I implore you to take responsibility for yourselves and start to stock at least 72-hours worth of food, water, medicine, fuel and batteries, flashlights, and the like. The more of us that do this, the less likely there will be violence or civil unrest in the even of a disaster. People will take to the streets if they think their survival is at stake. The lower the number of the affected is, the better off we will all be. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">No, I do not believe the world is going to end sometime this year. I do believe that the likelihood of a natural disaster happening wherever you may reside is high enough to warrant a 72-hour emergency supply since that is about how long it usually takes for help to arrive. Remember how many died <i>after</i> Hurricane Katrina because they had inadequate food, water, or medicine? It’s not hard, it isn’t expensive, and it doesn’t take long to put the supplies in a backpack, a duffel bag or small suitcase with wheels. Pack 3 days worth of clothes, non-perishable food, water, a flashlight with fresh batteries, and a first aid kit. A sleeping bag and a tent are smart things to add in case you have to evacuate and there is not adequate shelter available. You would not be dependent on anyone else for shelter from the elements if your home is uninhabitable. Make up a bag for each person in your household, and then keep the packed bags by the door you most likely would escape through in an emergency. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This is not a hysterical move. This is what you do in order to prevent hysteria in the event of a disaster. Help will likely not come in time to make you dinner the first day, or even breakfast the next, or to bring you pain relievers and flashlights, etc. What medicines do you take regularly? See if you can keep 3 days worth in your boogie bag by the door, in its original container. You are more likely to make a mistake under duress and take the wrong kind or amount of medicine than under normal circumstances. I pack ibuprofen for pain relief, for example. The more people are prepared to take care of themselves during a disaster, the less stress and strain we put on available resources when help does come, and the more we in turn can help others in need.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">2-liter bottles are an inexpensive way to store water for the house. Once they are emptied of soda, I wash them out with soap and water, rinse them well, fill them with tap water and keep them in the basement. In my area disaster would most likely be a tornado, though a major earthquake on the New Madrid Fault is possible, and the water and power will likely be disrupted. We won’t last long without water. Staying hydrated and staying clean are even more important to prevent illness and the spread of disease following a disaster than under normal circumstances.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I follow Peggy Layton’s advice in her book “Emergency Food Storage and Survival Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Family Safe in a Crisis” and put one 2-liter bottle of water in each bathroom and by the kitchen sink for brushing teeth and washing hands if disaster cuts off the water supply. It is smart to start with a 72-hour supply and then work your way up to a one-month’s supply, then three-months worth, and so on. This is the method described in Layton’s book, start small and work your way up to a year’s worth. Her approach is very sensible. She’s not a fringe-type who suggests you fill your garage with ammo or anything crazy. She is level-headed and realistic and tells you why she recommends what she does. The idea behind her philosophy is to be prepared for the unexpected, to be able to help yourself as well as others during hard times. We’ve become so accustomed to everything being instant and automatic that we’ve forgotten how to fend for ourselves.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">A Perfect Storm would be the near-simultaneous occurrence of an economic collapse or at least another downturn from where we already are, a natural disaster or a terrorist attack, both of which would have devastating consequences on our economy. It’s foolishness to rely on anyone else for something that is so necessary to life. What if they screw up the emergency response the way the Bush administration did after Katrina? If everyone has enough to get them through a month or even six months, then the likelihood of civil unrest following a disaster goes way down. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The 1% have traded in the opportunity for the majority to live decent quality lives for multi-million dollar golden parachutes, vacation homes and condos, yachts, etc., and left the majority of the rest of us scrambling for survival. This leaves our country in a precarious position. The lesson King Midas has already taught us is that you can’t eat your gold and it doesn’t love you back. We can illustrate this lesson to the 1% by opting out when and where we can, buy local, shop small businesses, buy Made In The USA, or don’t buy at all. Vote with your dollars, folks.</span></span></div>India Rivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16538128493493070775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833579300649069961.post-19543658130136609942012-01-02T10:26:00.000-08:002012-01-10T16:11:36.168-08:00Opting Out of the Corporate Food System With My Own Garden<div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">2011 wasn’t as bad as it was because PC’s everywhere, especially mine, were crashing. It was bad because of the way people came to disregard others, evidenced most obviously by the growing rift between the rich and the poor, by outsourcing and the record number of foreclosures. Fifty percent of American households live in poverty now. I find that statistic alarming, to say the least. In addition, food prices are going up across the board, though retailers are passing along those increases very slowly so as not to shock consumers. In response to those factors, as well as the general distrust of the “Have’s” that has arisen on the part of the “Have Not’s”, people like me are looking for alternatives to buying their food from big corporations.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">The last few weeks of 2011 found me pouring over garden books and seed catalogs. I am determined to become more self-sufficient rather than continue to rely on those who have proven themselves only reliable in serving their own self-interests (corporations). On the first day of 2012 I took the plunge and ordered my first round of seeds from Seed Savers Exchange, the largest non-government seed preservation organization in the United States (<a href="http://www.seedsavers.org/"><span style="color: #001ba6; letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">http://www.seedsavers.org</span></a>). In all things I do, I use a strategic approach, even in what appear to be my more impulsive moves. The strategy behind my garden choices is multi-faceted: </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><ol style="list-style-type: decimal;"><li style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">I chose foods that I love to eat but are heavily sprayed with pesticides when commercially grown, so that I can have the organic version at home without paying exorbitant prices at Whole Foods (it’s like food extortion, that place, I refuse to pay $4 for a pear, unless I am directly related to it and it's being held hostage).</span></li>
<li style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">I ordered the bulk of my seeds from The Seed Savers Exchange, which offers only seeds that are heirloom or open-pollinated. This means that the plants grown from these seeds will have the same characteristics as the parent plants. I only have to buy these seeds once. After my first growing season I can save the seeds from the fruits and vegetables I’ve grown, and use them to grow the following year’s crops, as well as share with others who wish to grow their own, so that after my initial investment, I will save money on my grocery bills every year for as long as I continue to garden.</span></li>
<li style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">This year’s seed choices are also based on foods that I like to eat fresh in abundant quantities or that I can preserve for use throughout the winter: beans that are dried on the vine; tomatoes and other fruits for canning; root vegetables that will keep well for a long while; melons that my kids love but I can’t afford to buy in the store anymore, and other produce that freezes well.</span></li>
<li style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Several of the crops I chose can be grown in containers, some can be grown vertically (climbing vines and the like), and others in raised beds, preventing me from having to double dig the hard, heavy, clay soil in my backyard. Last year, we broke the shaft of a spade because the soil was harder than the wood. Call me lazy, but I’m not crazy. I still need time to write every day! And I don’t want to buy new tools every week.</span></li>
<li style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Planting by the moon. It sounds like woo-woo to some, but it’s an ancient practice used by native cultures the world over. I’ve heard from many different people that their grandmothers swore by it and that their crops always did well while others’ failed. I’m using a calendar and information I found at Gardening By The Moon (<a href="http://www.gardeningbythemoon.com/index.html"><span style="color: #001ba6; letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">http://www.gardeningbythemoon.com/index.html</span></a>) to learn the system. The idea behind it is that the moon’s gravitational pull affects not only the oceans’ tides but more subtle bodies of water as well, including the water in the soil, and that this dictates the optimal time to put a seed in the ground or when to harvest crops or cut plants back. As a newbie to gardening, I'll take every advantage I can get.</span></li>
</ol><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Here is a rundown of what I am growing this year, including seeds that have made their way to this country from other parts of the world, maybe even from your country, dear Reader:</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Beans</b>:</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Black Valentine--an excellent source of Vitamin B12, which prevents the graying of hair, something we all need in this wildly changing world! This is why Latin Americans keep their dark hair color so much longer than the rest of us, black beans are a dietary staple in that part of the world. (fresh or dry; bush habit) </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Bumble Bee--high in vitamin and mineral content (dry; bush habit)</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Calypso--originally from the Caribbean; great for baking and soups (dry; bush habit) </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Ireland Creek Annie--an English heirloom, named after Ireland Creek Farm in British Colombia where it was grown before it was brought to the U.S. (bush habit; dry)</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Kentucky Wonder Pole--American heirloom originally from Texas; prolific; wonderful fresh eating. (fresh, vine habit)</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Carrots</b>:</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Paris Market (you guessed it, originally from France) they are small and round, about one to two inches in diameter, and can be grown in containers rather than in a garden bed. Handy in case I decide to move before the season is over!</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Ground Cherries:</b></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Before I saw these in the Seed Savers catalog, I never knew such a thing existed! Supposedly they are very sweet and make wonderful preserves as well as fresh eating. They do in fact grow on the ground, which will be interesting. I may not get any if the local wildlife has anything to say about it. The fruits are yellow, the plant is sprawling. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Corn</b>:</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Blue Jade--kind of a dwarf corn that can be grown in containers, it’s sweet and has steel blue kernels until boiled and then the color turns to a “blue jade”. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Cucumbers</b>:</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Early Fortune--a slicing cucumber to be eaten fresh</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Russian Pickling--Originally from Perm, Russia, they are sweet and have good crunch, meant to be pickled.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Eggplant</b>:</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Listada de Gandia--From Southern France (1850), lovely white oval fruits with purple stripes, they are heat tolerant, an important quality here for Missouri summers.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Lettuce</b>:</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Forellenschluss--Austrian heirloom Romaine, great flavor, heat tolerant</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Winter Density--Bred in England, both cold-tolerant and slow to bolt in hot weather. A sweet, crisp Bibb-Romaine.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Melon</b>:</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Charentais--French, from the Poitou-Charentes region, renowned as the most flavorful melon in the world. I hope that is still true when they are grown outside of France.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Petit Gris de Rennes--Another French heirloom, this one documented almost 400 years ago in the garden of the Bishop of Rennes, probably lasted this long because it’s orange flesh is rumored to taste much like brown sugar. I can’t wait to find out if that’s true!</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Pepper</b>:</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Bull-Nose Bell--Grown by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. If it was good enough for Jefferson at Monticello, it’s good enough for my Dad’s garden, too! Goes from green to red, can be eaten at either stage.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Golden Treasure--Italian heirloom variety (finally! I’m representing) Sweet, can be fried, roasted, or eaten fresh. I bet I try all three.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Tomatoes</b>:</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">I am American of Irish and Sicilian Italian descent, so my tomato list may look overwhelming to a non-Italian. It’s a genetic as well as a social/cultural need, tomatoes. I will grow two kinds for my father, and three more for myself. It’s a bit much, but I’ll list them here in case you’re interested. Feel free to skip to the end if you get bored.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Italian Heirloom--the fruits weigh over a pound and are great for slicing or canning, excellent flavor.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Large Red Cherry--fruits are almost two inches in diameter. I chose these for myself, but how much do you want to bet my father will stand there and eat them off the vine when he visits? </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Martino’s Roma--Italian heirloom for Dad to make his slow-cook sauce. For that, I will grow tomatoes all summer!</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Riesentraube--from Germany, the name translates into English as “little bunches of grapes” which is what they look like, except tomato red. A yummy snack, I hope they grow well in hanging baskets.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Rosso Sicilian--A Sicilian brought these seeds to the U.S. in the late 80’s, according to the story, and I can’t resist the name or the fact that they are Italian heirlooms. They have an unusual shape, more wide and flat with multiple lobes. Another tomato for making sauce.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">The End</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">I’ll keep you posted on how my personal version of the “opting out revolution” goes. Meanwhile, I’d like to hear from you if you are doing anything to opt out yourself. There are readers of this blog from all over the world, some of whom are curious about what day to day life looks like from inside the United States. We are equally curious about what goes on in your neck of the woods! Does anyone else feel like it’s in their best interest to grow some of your own food or take up hunting and fishing as as supplement like my friends and family? </span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br />
</span></div>India Rivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16538128493493070775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833579300649069961.post-85745600902083504602012-01-01T19:25:00.000-08:002012-01-10T16:12:00.174-08:00Yearly Goals for 2012<div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">2011 is over, and I for one, am relieved. 2012 may be the end of the world according to the Mayan Calendar, or it may not, but if it is, it will still be an improvement over 2011. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Normally I would post a new blog entry every day, but in the last few months of 2011, my PC had increasing numbers of fits and viruses, crashing, running slow, even with 3 separate anti-virus, anti-malware programs on my machine. In one of the most generous gestures I have ever seen, a friend of mine surprised me, and I mean really surprised me, with a brand new MacBookPro. In all honesty, it doesn’t feel yet like it is truly mine, as though he will either change his mind (he won’t) or I will wake up and find I dreamt it all, or something to that effect. It’s just surreal. The best thing about Mac is that they are far less prone to viruses. The other best thing (I can’t bring myself to say “the second best” thing because I love everything about this computer equally) is that the keyboard is so easy to type with. No more missed keys, I backspace almost never. It’s lightning fast on the internet, and has tons of storage left over even after transferring my massive iTunes library. I’m glad to be back, having been without either notebook computer for a few days while date was being transferred and then needing a few more days to get used to the new Mac. I am at least confident enough now that I can get back into the business of writing, just in time to kick off the New Year. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">For 2012, I made a list of general goals, professional, personal, spiritual, mental, and physical. If you care to share yours here as well, please feel free to post them in the comments space after this posting. I’m curious to know what my readers feel inspired to do this year. Mine are as follows:</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Professional goals:</span></b></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Write 6000 words per day Monday through Friday</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Write 3000 words per day Saturday and Sunday</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Finish WIP’s: </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">A guide for loved ones of Rape Trauma Syndrome sufferers, publish as an e-book and make available as a downloadable PDF. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">A series of short guides dealing with persons with certain psychological disorders, non-pharmaceutical coping strategies proven to improve quality of life, and coping strategies that might make life better for the caregiver or person living with the afflicted. Publish as e-books and as downloadable PDF’s. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">A locked room mystery; then publish as an e-book.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Write the thriller based on two ideas that collided with a third while I was driving the other day. Publish as an e-book. (This one may take longer than a year. It is the largest undertaking, with the most characters, plot twists and subplots, but it is also the one I may enjoy most!)</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Write the humorous romance novel that’s been in my head and in my notes for the last 3 months. Publish as an e-book.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">10,000 followers on Twitter</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Build and launch my author website</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Mental Goals:</span></b></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Increase my Spanish vocabulary</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Read one classic book each month. My list includes:</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>Persuasion</i> by Jane Austen</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>Lady Chatterly’s Lover</i> by D.H. Lawrence</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde</i> by Robert Louis Stevenson</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>Paradise Lost</i> by Milton</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>Wuthering Heights</i> by Emily Bronte</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>The Sound and The Fury</i> by William Faulkner</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>The French Revolution</i> by Alexis De Tocqueville</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>Sense and Sensibility</i> by Jane Austen</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>Pride and Prejudice</i> by Jane Austen</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>The Awakening</i> by Kate Chopin</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>The Importance of Being Earnest</i> by Oscar Wilde</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>The Prophet</i> by Khalil Gibran</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I also have a Chaucer book that tempts me, but I would like to get some of the above titles off of my “to read” shelf. I have an actual bookshelf, four shelves high and five feet wide, filled mostly with books I have not yet read, though some favorites I can’t bear to part with, and some reference books. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The rest of my reading in 2012 will consist of works by my friends as well as my favorite authors, including what I call “brain candy books”. You can only be serious so much of the time before your head threatens to explode. Sometimes a good cozy mystery or paperback romance, anything that doesn’t require me to have a dictionary at hand (that rules out P.D. James) and can be read in an afternoon qualifies. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">To not lose my mind while writing this year. Or if I do, to at least lose it in some way that makes me sound like a genius on paper.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Be more Zen, and just focus on the task in front of me, to do the thing that most needs doing in this moment, and not let my ADD mind bounce around like a kernel of corn in an air popper; to be less of a butterfly chaser and further develop my ability to focus and finish what I start.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Personal goals:</span></b></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Prepare my household for a natural disaster, starting with a 72-hour emergency supply of food, water and fuel (I live in tornado country and live near the New Madrid fault line, where an earthquake would be devastating, though rare).</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Plant a vegetable and flower garden.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Share the extra vegetables with my elderly family members on a fixed income, as well as with my relatives with small children. Anything leftover beyond that I will share with my local food bank.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Cooking: I want to try a new recipe every week, and cook more from scratch in general.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">De-clutter my house.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Organize the garage and basement.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Botanical Illustration classes at the local community college </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Visit a family member each week that I haven’t seen in a while</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">A road trip to visit my cousins whom are scattered across the U.S.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Take up nature and travel photography as a hobby</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Travel as often as possible, and make it possible more often.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Spiritual Goals:</span></b></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Meditate a little every day</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Spend time with the teachers I find soothing, like Thich Naht Hanh, via books and podcasts</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">To live heartfully and practice awareness in every moment of each day</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">To let go of the past, those that hurt me and forgive those upon whom I would visit vengeance upon. Except on the page. It’s all fair game in my writing.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Physical goals:</span></b></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Get outside more. It’s a hazard of my profession, but I sit too much these days. </span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Walk to the store when I only need a few things.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Ride my bike.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Hike a few miles of the Pacific Coast Trail (in San Diego)</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Kayak or canoe during the summer</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Be strong enough to garden (that will be my biggest physical challenge of 2012, to consistently garden).</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">That’s it for now. I have other small things here and there but you have the gist of it here, and it’s got to be boring to read someone else’s goals for the year, so I’ll stop now.</span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This week I’ll share with you the method behind my madness. </span></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br />
</span></div>India Rivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16538128493493070775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833579300649069961.post-52312436904596011772011-12-22T20:06:00.000-08:002012-01-10T16:12:31.549-08:00Holiday Generosity: A Beautiful Story At Christmas Time<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Yesterday I wrote about the domino effect of thoughts that led me to wonder what I might do if I won the MO lottery jackpot, which was over $100 million. What I left out was the fact that I saw this jackpot on a billboard as I drove to a discount grocery store, where I witnessed a situation that has sadly become commonplace.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I went mainly for oranges, but the way the store is designed, you have to go through each aisle in order to get to anything. As I passed the non-food section, I saw two men quietly but intensely discussing a possible purchase, and from their tone as well as their faded, dirty clothes and their worn out boots and jackets, I could tell that if the money was available, the purchase would simply be a done deal. It wasn't. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Not five feet from them stood a boy of around 8 years old. While they discussed, the boy stared at a boxed toy set that couldn’t have been more than $6. I knew he wouldn’t go home with it. I felt so bad for him. He wasn’t throwing a tantrum, or whining for it, he was just fixated on it, his body rigid with the tension of wanting it yet keeping himself from reaching for it. A two year old blond boy less than two years old kept reaching from his seat in the cart, saying the boy's name and reaching for him, but not fussing or crying. That told me the older boy was kind to the little one, not mean or the little one wouldn't reach for him without fear. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">If I could have, I would have bought the toy for him and left it at the cashier’s register with a description of the boy, they were the only kids in the store. As it is, my ex-husband lost his job and then I lost mine. I can’t even get my own kids anything this year. They’ll get plenty from my family, so it’s not like they will go without, but this little guy, I wasn’t so sure. He was clean and looked healthy, well-fed, neither fat nor too lean. It was obvious that his father took the best care of him he could. It just killed me to look around at situations like this and know that half of American households are currently living in poverty, for no reason anyone can think of. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The antidote to this toxic topic for me has been the wonderful stories like the Kmart layaway payoffs, where generous but anonymous persons went into Kmart stores around the country and asked the layaway clerks if there were any accounts that were about to be lost due to late payments, especially those with toys or clothing for little kids. People in line to pay were surprised by a total stranger behind them in line who said, “I’ve got this.” Out of nowhere, this lovely and generous gesture has been extended to families in need. I find this such a beautiful thing, it gives me hope about our future as a country.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">One such story did not make the news, but since he is a friend of mine, I got to hear it. I asked if I could tell this story here, and was given permission to repeat it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">My friend Alan Shelton lives in Oceanside, CA, just a few blocks from the beach. Oceanside is becoming “gentrified”, but it still has its share of people living on the streets and others who work hard but who have no extras.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Every day Alan walks his two dogs through the transit station in Oceanside where a hot dog stand owned by Mike, The Hot Dog Guy (sorry, I don’t know Mike’s last name, just his occupation) is located. They always exchange “hello’s” as Alan and the dogs pass by. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">A couple of days ago, this exchange took place:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">“How much is it for a hot dog?” asked Alan.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Mike answered, “You can get a hot dog, a drink, and chips for four bucks.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Alan pulled a one-hundred dollar bill out of his pocket and handed it to Mike, saying, “Well here’s enough for 25 hot dog combos. Hand ‘em out to whoever you think needs them.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Mike went home that night and sat in his chair, the hundred dollar bill in his pocket, and waited for his girlfriend to finish telling him the highlights of her day.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">When she stopped, she asked him, “What about your day? Anything good or special happen?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">He pulled out the hundred dollar bill and said, “Wait until you hear this.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">He told her of Alan’s gift, and then of the first two receivers. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The first, he said, was a young man who comes up from Mexico every year around this time to visit his family. Mike said he always wonders how this guy manages since he lost both arms to a farm machinery accident when he was a child. When he arrives, he likes to get a hot dog and then spends two dollars on the train ride to his family’s house. This year, however, he couldn’t afford either the hot dog or the train ride. The young man was overjoyed when Mike said something to the effect of “Have I got a deal for you.” Mike was able not only to give the young man the hot dog combo, but also the two dollars for the train ride to get the rest of the way to see his family. The young armless man from Mexico expressed his gratitude with a big smile, and caught the next train to his reunion. I did not ask how he managed a hot dog combo with no arms, but I imagine he’s had a lifetime to figure these things out. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The second recipient that first day was a man who lived in a nearby group home. This guy loves Mike’s hot dogs, but it takes him an average of three weeks of scrimping and saving nickels, pennies, and dimes in order to come up with enough cheese to buy one of Mike’s dogs. On this day when the now sober man walked past Mike’s stand to say “Hi”, Mike stopped him.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">“Santa has a surprise for you.” And he gave him one of the 25 hot dog combos. The man was moved to tears when Mike told him that a beneficiary had provided funds enough for a few people in the neighborhood to get a hot dog, chips, and a drink. It may seem like a very small or silly thing to you and me, but when you think about it, it is exactly as Alan said to me the week before when a similar situation arose for someone else. Frugality fatigue is what we call it now, but this is how he explained it:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">“It’s those little indulgences that we buy for ourselves that that make a desperate life more palatable.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">What was nice about it was he got right to the heart of the psychology of the person without judging them to be irresponsible or bad. That is something I can understand and relate to, small comforts in the face of big difficulties.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">These hot dogs were a small gift in the grand scheme of things. Alan points out that he by himself cannot eliminate poverty. What his gesture did do, however, was very impactful in his immediate sphere of influence. He made 25 people's day.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Most people, like Alan, are overwhelmed in the face of the staggering statistic of 50% of American households living in poverty. We don’t know where to begin. How do we fix what’s broken? I don’t think we can right away, it’s too deep and too wide, this gap between rich and poor. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> In the short term, all we can do is look around at what we have that we don’t need, whether that is money, household goods, extra food, blankets, clothing, toys, winter coats, whatever, and then look around to see who would most benefit from the receipt of these items. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Those people that I know who can help someone else this Christmas are looking for a family to adopt in order to help one entire household thoroughly, rather than diffusely helping many by donating to an organization. They scale the problem and the solution down to a manageable size. So many people need help these days just to keep the lights and heat on and food on the table. A little truly does go a long way right now. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I hope you get what you need and give what you can.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Best wishes,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">India Rivers</span></div>India Rivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16538128493493070775noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833579300649069961.post-91988771401478899232011-12-21T17:25:00.000-08:002012-01-10T16:15:57.446-08:00How Can The Very Rich Best Help Their Communities As Well As Themselves?<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><script type="text/javascript">
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</script><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The 1% as we’ve come to call those that hold the majority of our country’s wealth, are largely oblivious to the plight of the average American, but what if they weren’t? What if they recognized that with 50% of American households living in poverty, they are at risk of losing half their wealth due to their assets becoming devalued? Are the very rich aware that most Americans want a job, not a handout? And that these same people, once gainfully employed, are the very reason the 1% ARE the 1% in the first place? Really, the Average Jane and Joe want jobs, and safe and decent housing. But who is interested in making that happen?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Today I passed a Missouri Lottery billboard, and both forms of the lottery, Powerball and whatever else we have here, had jackpots of over $100 million. Of course, I see those numbers and start to wonder, “What would I do if I had that much money?” I start listing all of the people in my family and in my community that would welcome a payout. Then I imagine all the trouble money like that supposedly brings. Most lottery winners file bankruptcy within 5 years of winning, if I remember correctly. Why is that? Just yesterday I was speaking with my friend Alan Shelton about that very thing. I’d mentioned my disgust with the Kardashians and their vast money-making machines for doing absolutely nothing of value in our society, while everywhere I turn there are stories of real people with heart and abilities and good manners to boot, who are homeless and hungry or very nearly so. The injustice of it all makes me ill. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Alan’s response was thoughtful and measured as always, something to the effect of, “When you get to the level of money that the Kardashians are throwing around, Hollywood money, that money is just exchanged between people at that level. It’s expected, it’s part of the dance.” I hate that dance, then, but I get it. If that’s the case, then this is why lottery winners often go broke: There is a whole world of very wealthy people who know how very large sums of money are exchanged and moved around amongst themselves. If you have the money but not the know-how, you’re going to spend and not invest, or give it to the people who will take it but not include you in the next round of exchange. When you spend, that which goes out does not come back. When you invest, you’re money not only comes back to you, it brings friends.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">If this were true, then if I won the lottery and I wanted to make a difference with my winnings, I should invest in something that would create jobs and opportunities for people in my community, as well as brings me a return on my investment. If my money keeps going out but coming back multiplied, even by a small margin, then I can continue to create opportunities for people, right? This then begs a new set of questions: What kind of company would I create? I still don’t know the answer to that one. Where would I create this company? I don’t know that one, either, but it would probably be dependent on the answer to my first question. My thoughts on this are to sit down with people who are smarter than I am in these areas, let them talk, ask tons of questions, listen to their answers, and then ask some more and so on until I feel I have an idea and a grasp of how to make it work. Does anyone think Warren Buffett would throw in his two cents? He would be the perfect go-to guy for this sort of brainstorming session.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Here are solutions I DID think of in the course of my musings: I would build a community that lives and works in the same area. The company must be ecologically responsible because it will be situated near the residential community where the employees will have the option of buying into at really low prices. To accomplish the goal of a concentrated area of affordable housing near the company, I would sit down with developers and look for an area with a high number of foreclosures so that we can get a deal on enough homes at low enough prices, say an entire neighborhood in a bank’s foreclosure inventory. Banks want to get these properties off their books which might make them more willing to deal, especially for a large cash offer. This would make it possible to turn around and sell them to employees for a reasonable price. A division of the company could hold the loan so that employees wouldn’t have to go through the hoops of being approved by a bank after they’ve been underemployed or unemployed for a time, etc. The loans would be very low interest, taking the stress of paying the mortgage off of their shoulders, making it reasonable and manageable, and in theory it might make employees happier and more loyal to the company.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">To increase the sense of community, part of the company’s mission statement would be “to give back or to take care of” in some way, each person at every level of the company. Donations, volunteering, or just helping each other out as needed would be encouraged. Ten percent of the company’s profits will be donated to causes deemed worthy, whether they are college scholarships for the employees’ kids, help in paying off catastrophic medical bills, or donating food to the local food bank, the money will be used in the most impactful and meaningful ways we can find at the time. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Community gardens, backyard gardens, local grocery store and gas station, coffee shop and bakery, movie theater, bookstore, walking paths and bike paths, efficient public transit, a library, everything a community needs in order to survive and thrive would be part of the development plan. Once that smaller area is being developed and revitalized, and people flock there for jobs and housing, the shops will follow and the surrounding areas will also naturally transform, though perhaps more slowly, unless of course, the idea catches on. It would need to remain open to the flow from outside of the community in order to remain relevant and healthy, and not become too insular. Self-sufficiency is to be lauded and encouraged, but not to the exclusion of others. Instead, the company and the community would more likely thrive if the idea of interdependency were illuminated alongside self-sufficiency. To not be a burden is a wonderful thing, but to give and accept help as needed is to bring balance and fullness to one’s life.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Doesn’t it seem that if I can think of how I would use my imaginary lottery winnings to both benefit my community and profit personally, that those who already have that kind of money and know how to use it should be able to think of something similar? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I can’t be alone in this line of thinking, but perhaps those of us who think this way are only be found in the 99% majority. I hope not. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I’m off to buy a lottery ticket.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">How can the very rich help their communities as well as themselves?</span></div>India Rivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16538128493493070775noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833579300649069961.post-8774355236892117982011-12-18T15:54:00.000-08:002012-01-10T16:16:18.335-08:00Chickens in the City (and Willie Nelson writes an article titled "Occupy the Food Sector!")<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Chickens in the City</span><script type="text/javascript">
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">No, I’m not talking about yellow-bellied cowards that run from a fight. I mean the small clucking creatures covered in feathers that lay those ellipsoids we like to cook up and eat. They are currently finding housing in cities and suburbs! My city’s clerk was about as floored as I was to hear about it. I called to ask about local ordinances regarding keeping chickens in my backyard, and she stammered through her answer after asking me to repeat my question. She heard me the first time. She just didn’t believe she’d heard me right.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">*Note* This morning I took a break from creating my Seed Savers Exchange Catalog wish list to peruse the Huffington Post. It was my turn to be floored. Willie Nelson wrote the most intelligent article on the dangers of the corporate monopoly in the United States’ food sector and on behalf of the family farmer that I have seen to date. His title is “Occupy the Food System”. He makes the point that the food sector is bigger than the financial sector. They told us the financial sector was too big to fail, and we all know how that turned out. You can read his article here: <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/willie-nelson/occupy-food-system_b_1154212.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/willie-nelson/occupy-food-system_b_1154212.html</span></a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Willie Nelson! Seriously, I’m impressed. See? Everybody IS talking about this food supply issue. Order your seed catalogs today! Or buy from a local farmer if you can. A monopoly can only exist when enough people support it through their participation, also known as “voting with their dollars”. Once buyers (and by that I mean us) decide they want something better, or once they decide that they don’t trust that the biggest food processing corporations have our best interests at heart, then buyers go somewhere else, and the monopoly is left holding the bag and too small a market share to sell their goods to. They’ll have to lower prices to move what they have left and move into buying something more in line with what consumers want.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">And now, back to chickens.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">B</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">ackyard chickens have been in vogue for years now. Elaborate, designer chicken coops called “Chicken Chateaus” are sometimes prettier than the owner’s house, and are designed and built for the backyard brood. Heirloom chicken breeds are thriving again, bred for their beautiful coloring and plumage as well as their egg-laying proclivities (how many, what size, are they brown, white, or speckled, that sort of thing). These heirloom breeds sometimes represent a sort of fashion statement as they can be very ornamental. For a while they were a hobby, mostly kept as pets, and for bragging rights. Fresh eggs were more of a bonus than a necessity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Attitudes towards backyard chickens are changing. More people look at at backyard chickens as a viable food source for a small initial investment, so now we see more “city chickens”. My brother still lives in the neighborhood we grew up in. His apartment building is a brick multi-unit in the City of St. Louis. He has no backyard, just a concrete patio, yet down the alley from him, and I never imagined a day when I would say this about anyone in my old neighborhood, his neighbor has a chicken coop and three chickens. Now my brother is thinking of doing this, as am I, but I live in an older suburb of St. Louis on a half acre lot. I have the room for chickens, and a garden. I rent this little bungalow on this large plot of land, though, so I’m looking at container gardening and a chicken coop on wheels (they call them “tractors” when they are on wheels) in case I decide to move to a slightly larger house next summer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">When you keep small numbers of chickens, you have what is known as a “micro flock”. The advantages to keeping a micro-flock of chickens are many. The chicken breeds available today are beautiful and ornamental. When raised from chicks they are very personable and friendly, each one expressing a distinct personality and preferences. Chickens are known to eat insects, a huge plus in my book, which in turn makes for great eggs (it’s a protein thing, try not to think about it too much or you will stop eating eggs altogether). They also eat many kitchen scraps and weeds. There is a book that describes how to organically care for your micro-flock, including making your own feed, called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1603582908/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=nevanout-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1603582908">The Small Scale Poultry Flock: An All Natural Approach by Harvey Ussery </a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=nevanout-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1603582908" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, which includes advice on how to keep your flock healthy, and other practical advice you'll need should you embark on this aspect of the self-sufficient journey. Another</span><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> book specifically on city chickens is called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0962464856/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=nevanout-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0962464856">City Chicks by Patricia Foreman</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=nevanout-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0962464856" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. I'll be getting these two this winter so that I can plan ahead for spring, the best time of year to buy chicks. I so look forward to fresh eggs and fresh produce next year! </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">For those who wish to learn more about keeping a micro-flock from those who already do so, there are online forums like <a href="http://www.citychickens.com/"><span style="color: blue;">www.citychickens.com</span></a>, a site which lets readers contribute to a Google.doc listing chicken laws and ordinances in their own cities and municipalities, organized in alphabetical order by state. Another popular website for micro-flock owners is <a href="http://www.backyardchickens.com/"><span style="color: blue;">www.backyardchickens.com</span></a>. There you can find a free forum for owners where they can share, compare, and brag about their chicken raising experiences. The site covers the different breeds, includes photographs, plus support and advice if and when you need it. There are chicken coop plans for sale on the Backyard Chickens website, as well. <o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Urban Agriculture is a growing movement. People don’t trust where their food is coming from when they buy it from large corporations and it’s wrapped in plastic. They don’t know what hormones and chemicals have been added to their food anymore, and no longer do they trust that the food processor is telling them the whole truth about it in order to make a profit or to maintain their margins. Consumers often don’t trust where their next paycheck is coming from anymore, either. This lack of trust in these two most basic areas has motivated city dwellers and suburbanites alike to become less dependent on any system outside of their immediate sphere of influence. Most people are just beginning, and far from completely self-reliant. Most will never be totally off the grid. More and more people are taking steps, however, to ensure their own short and long-term survival, whether through Urban Agriculture, or simply saving for their own retirement in lieu of counting on Social Security still being there when they need it. The nicest outcome of all, so far, is the way people are sharing what they do have. Already I know that I will plant more than my family can eat alone, and that my chickens will lay more eggs than I can eat or use in baking by myself. I have a short list of relatives and friends hit hard by this recession with whom I plan to share my extras. Anything left over after my family and theirs is taken care of will go to my local food bank, since they are always looking for fresh produce to give to families fallen on hard times. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">It's something to think about for next spring!</span>India Rivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16538128493493070775noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833579300649069961.post-45363284902461664642011-12-17T14:50:00.000-08:002012-01-10T16:16:43.083-08:00Fear of Economic Collapse Prompts More Americans Toward Home Grown Food Sources<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Dear Readers,</span><script type="text/javascript">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I’m back after a frustrating week as malware, trojans, and viruses rendered my laptop into a very expensive nightlight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t good for much else these past several days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a Windows 7 anti-virus product that bypassed my firewall (of course that’s an easy feat when the virus maker is also the firewall designer) and prevented me from getting on the internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only cure for it was to pay them $59.95 for their anti-virus product, which was the very thing that seemed to cause the problem in the first place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I flat refuse to participate in extortion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the end, I was so frustrated with Microsoft that I was on the verge of spray painting my next blog post on the side of their corporate building.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luckily, the trip to Seattle would have provided a cooling off period.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Virus eliminated without purchase of software.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Time to move on.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Back to the subject of America’s trend toward opting out:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my conversations with folks of all ages and income brackets, I see a definite break down into two broad groups:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those making more than $100,000 per year, and those earning less than that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those that are making less are the focus of these recent posts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every last person I speak with mentions some cost-cutting or money-saving endeavor they’ve employed in the last year, from coupon clipping to driving less, even supplementing their family’s food supply by one or more of the following methods:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>hunting for deer or fowl or small game; starting a garden at home; or raising chickens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spending less, recycling and reusing things, has become a new way of life out of necessity, even for those who are not “green at heart”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, it is the food supply issue that I find most interesting.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">What makes this startling is that the people who tell me they hunt game, grow food, and raise chickens are city dwellers, most of whom have small yards and close neighbors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they hunt they have to drive at least two hours to an area where they can hunt whatever game is in season.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are proud and pleased to fill the freezer with several months’ worth of meat when they are successful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s wonderful to hear the pride they feel toward their own self-sufficiency, especially when they save even more by butchering their own game, rather than paying a butcher to do it for them. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Those with no green space in which to grow vegetables will at least grow herbs in containers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One innovative Brooklyn woman has created what she calls “Window Farms”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a brilliant solution for apartment dwellers who wish to have fresh, organic produce year round.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She made the first ones from recycled plastic bottles, plastic tubing, and a small pump.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her website, </span><a href="http://www.windowfarms.org/"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.windowfarms.org</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">, provides photographs, descriptions, downloadable instructions and materials lists, as well as the opportunity to buy the first manufactured versions of these hydroponic growing systems when they come off the line in March.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This idea is perfect for people with no ground of their own to garden.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Another grass roots organization that started in the 70’s is the largest non-profit, non-government seed saving and sharing organization in the U.S.:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seed Savers Exchange.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their focus is on food-producing plants that are heirloom or open-pollinated, as opposed to hybrid plants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heirloom and open-pollinated plants can be reproduced if you save their seeds properly and plant them the following year, or in some cases, if you let the seeds fall to the ground and grow where they may.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hybrids, however, do not reproduce the same plants from which their seeds come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some are bred not to produce seeds at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyone looking toward a more self-sufficient life would be wise to invest in a garden that does not require one to buy new seeds every year, but rather one that can reproduce itself year after year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can read more about Heritage Farm by visiting:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.seedsavers.org/"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.seedsavers.org</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And here is the best book I’ve found thus far on seed saving, which is also recommended by the Seed Savers organization: </span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1882424581/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=nevanout-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1882424581">Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=nevanout-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1882424581" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. Vegetable gardeners are the intended market for this book, as opposed to say flower gardeners.<br />
On Facebook as well around town, I see more home-owners have taken old windows and leftover wood from home renovations and re-used them to fashion cold frames where they grow lettuce and other things they’d like to eat fresh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cold-frames extend the growing season by a few months in some areas, allowing the gardener to begin earlier and end later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This trend is not limited to those making less, by the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve seen cold frames in the yards of some very expensive homes in my area. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Edible Landscaping is another trend in the U.S. in which city dwellers and suburbanites alike turn their yards into esthetically pleasing produce gardens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The yard can be filled with gorgeous, flourishing vegetable plants like kale and lettuces and tomatoes and peppers and herbs, instead of blue fescue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are a few good books on the topic, such as <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578051541/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=nevanout-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1578051541">Edible Landscaping by Rosalind Creasy</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=nevanout-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1578051541" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1604691999/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=nevanout-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1604691999">The Edible Front Yard by Ivette Soler</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=nevanout-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1604691999" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. Something I hope to do someday is covered in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1603420916/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=nevanout-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1603420916">Landscaping With Fruit by Lee Reich</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=nevanout-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1603420916" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. Blueberry hedges and strawberry ground covers...yum! Another garden style I want to try is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1603580298/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=nevanout-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1603580298">Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=nevanout-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1603580298" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> because it employs the permaculture approach and the result is a "forest garden", a natural habitat that is populated by birds and animals that balance it out and help it function. This approach takes time but not more space than the average yard, and results in a mostly self-maintaining garden. </span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Any of these books will get you started, and there are myriad others to get lost in over the winter. Let the garden planning begin! It's so much more optimistic than paying attention to the things that we cannot control.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Organic, fresh produce (from backyard to kitchen, it’s hard to get fresher than that) is now grown by more non-rural dwellers because they have decided that they don’t want to buy from the grocery store anymore, or wait for the weekly farmer’s market.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They want the satisfaction of knowing they are saving money and eating healthy, and that the quality meets their standards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> When we grow our own produce, we </span>get our produce when we want it, in season, without having to rely on anyone else for the funds or the food, once the seeds are purchased. There are plenty of local seed exchanges across the country, so once you start you will have something to trade and money will be even less of an obstacle. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Those of us who enjoy digging in the dirt as well as the satisfaction of our own harvests would do this anyway, but the growth in this trend seems motivated by an underlying “What if…?” sentiment that pervades the majority of American minds now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if I lose my job?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if the stock market crashes?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if my assets lose their value?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And The Big Question:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if the economy crashes?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The answer these hunters and gardeners give us is this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I can still eat. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No matter how silly the government gets, no matter how lame Congress becomes, even if I lose my job, I will be able to feed myself and my family.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Thanks for checking in!<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Tomorrow’s topic:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Micro Flocks, better known as Backyard Chickens.</span></div>India Rivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16538128493493070775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833579300649069961.post-44964091266775971932011-12-09T08:55:00.000-08:002012-01-10T16:16:59.626-08:00Opting Out, Part 2<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">We have become so accustomed to living life as we have been, whatever that may look like for each of us, that we have to varying degrees suffered a sense of shock since our economies have become depressed. It is a built-in part of our economic cycle that there are periods of contraction followed by shorter periods of expansion. Lately we have seen more expansion, and most of us grew up with easy credit, borrowing and spending were part of our economic system as we knew it. We thought nothing of borrowing heavily, buying our way to happiness and a sense of “the good life”. Lately though, our thinking has changed. We now talk of saving, spending less on things we use every day, trying to need less in the first place, and some of us, whether we realize it or not, are really looking for ways to live off the grid.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">As I started to say yesterday, the “opting out” revolution seems to come from the sense that in order to survive, we will have to find different people with whom we can play this game of life if we are to have a fair shot at it, a game in which dollars are not used as a means of exchange, or in which whatever means of exchange we use is not controlled by people whom we don’t even know. Everyone I know and meet or read about who makes less than $100,000 USD per year is feeling the pain of America’s economic contraction. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Today everyone not in the upper tax brackets is in freak out over their economic security. Going cold-turkey from spending has been hard on those who used to be middle class or upper middle class, the strata of our society that really drove our economic expansion with their consumer spending, which has led to common use of new terms such as “frugality fatigue”. Even that phenomenon is wearing off, though. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The behavioral shift that has taken place in the aftermath of this consumer spending binge, our economic hangover if you will, is similar to the behavioral changes that followed the spike in gas prices. Permanent changes in behavior and consumer spending took place because of the prolonged and unexpected period of high gas prices. We are now entering a phase of acceptance that we can never trust again that if we work hard we will be rewarded with a good paying job that provides a nice home in a good neighborhood where our kids can go to good schools and we can drive decent cars that are well-maintained, and still have money for vacations and Christmas presents and college funds. In place of that trust in the system we took for an impermeable reality, we now look more and more to self-reliance and to our local community for economic exchange. Overwhelmed by the staggering and incomprehensible workings of our complex economy, the only thing about which we understand is that it is on the verge of collapse, we seek instead to make our immediate surroundings, our neighborhoods, our homes, safe and viable.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">In this blog over the next week or two I will share with you, the reader, the steps people are taking to feel safe once again, to assure them that they can survive an economic collapse or a power outage due to a natural disaster, or the loss of income for an extended period of time. These responses include but are not limited to: Thrift store shopping; growing food at home; earning extra income; stocking up a supply of food and water; ways to stay healthy for those with no health insurance; and buying local and handmade items from people they can shake hands and talk with, local people, rather than from a nameless, faceless corporation, just as Faith Popcorn predicted we would after the banks were bailed out and people felt burned by Wall Street. The undercurrent of this thread of topics will be the low-tech revolution, growing out of the grass roots response into what I believe will become varying degrees of practice and acceptance nationwide. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">*Note: Sadly, one of the very things Americans are doing nowadays to protect themselves from economic collapse or to remain self-sufficient in the face of a Katrina-level natural disaster has potentially become illegal. The Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act last week, making America a battleground upon which our military can act as if in a war zone, detaining without due process or habeas corpus or even assassinate any citizen suspected of being a terrorist. Unfortunately, part of their definition of a terrorist was a person who has more than 7 days worth of food stored. Doesn’t that mean pretty much everyone who shops at Costco?</span></div>India Rivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16538128493493070775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833579300649069961.post-49529883615436906892011-12-08T00:36:00.000-08:002012-01-10T16:17:18.579-08:00America's Growing Trend: Opting Out and Becoming More Self-Sufficient<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Currently, my interest revolves around the developing trend of “opting out”, the phrase I use to describe Americans growing distrust of those in charge of our economy, both macro and micro, to the point where they are looking for ways to not engage with them anymore. When you were a kid, did you ever find yourself sitting opposite a friend, playing a game, when suddenly you realized they were cheating, or otherwise bending the rules to insure their victory? How did you respond? Some of us called the other kid on it, and we gave them a chance to come clean and compete in a fair manner. Others got mad and punched him in the nose. Some of us got up in disgust and walked away, whether we gave them a chance to make it right and they refused, or we just left right away. The latter is what I see and hear now in terms of the average citizen’s response to our country’s financial system. Those at the top have gamed the system to their own advantage, regardless of the cost to the rest of us. Only a very small percentage of our population is winning at this game. It is only a matter of time before they start to lose, though. For the last several years I have asked out loud this question: “Who do these people think is going to buy their products and services if they keep all this money to themselves?” Only recently have I received an answer, from my friend Alan Shelton*, one of the most intelligent persons I have ever met. His answer was essentially this: “Eventually, the wealthiest Americans will realize that their assets are devalued by the inability of people to buy things. Most of their net worth is not in cash but in their assets, so this will ultimately eliminate up to about half of their wealth. Homes, yachts, bonds, all these things that they possess will have less value because the market will no longer bear the prices they had when money flowed. When money stops flowing, it becomes stagnant. They will eventually realize that they will have to pay taxes and in other ways put money back into the system if they want their assets to retain or regain their value.” By the time the folks that occupy that strata of our economy realizes this, it will likely be too late to make amends with their customers and consumers. The former middle class members will have already moved on to a more self-sufficient lifestyle, playing the economic game with those who know how and are willing to play fair. There will be fewer people in the market place for what it is the very wealthy want to sell us. Trust will be the new currency, I hear from time to time. Bartering will be the way we get what we need, rather than an exchange of cash. We are a resourceful people, and we will find ways to get around whatever barriers are erected before us. I don’t foresee us going completely without cash anytime soon, but I do believe more people will opt out more often as fears of a deep recession languish. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">No one fully understands how our economy works, no one. It is too large a machine with too many moving parts. There are those who can guess at how A affects B better than others, but it’s still a crap shoot in terms of exactly what the outcome will be if say, Greece’s economy collapses, or Italy’s, or if any of the EU countries stop participating in the use of the Euro. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">However, I can tell you this: Every day I hear from people all over who share their concerns about America’s economy and what they perceive as their tenuous foothold in it. These people, everyday average working Americans, are looking at a future of not using money to get what they need, because they sense that in the not too distant future, they may not be able to win this game against those that designed it. </span></div><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Check in tomorrow to read the rest of my overview of the “opting out revolution”. </span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">*Special thanks to my friend Alan E. Shelton, a philosopher and the West Coast's best financial guy turned corporate thought leader, for all the many and varied conversations over the course of our friendship. It is due to his level of analysis and his ability to get to the heart of complex issues such as government, economies, and when to worry (almost never, he says, at least not about those two areas of life) as well as his crystal clear explanations of these complex issues that have led to the level of clarity on my part in understanding what's going on in the worlds of finance and government. Any inaccuracies are my fault, not his. Alan's first book, "Awakened Leadership: Beyond Self-Mastery" is due to be released in May of 2012. For more on Alan, check out his website: <a href="http://www.alanshelton.com/">www.alanshelton.com</a> </span></div>India Rivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16538128493493070775noreply@blogger.com7