Here are some things that I absolutely loved this week:
1. Nick Miller’s new book Isn’t It Pretty to Think So
Just so happen to be a friend of mine, but that does not alter my opinion that this book will be a classic book of this century. An equal amount of the underbelly of West Hollywood and the beauty of Los Angeles as a whole to make you feel like you’ve lived there your entire life. Additionally, the dialog between characters in this book kept my highlighter running dry. Available in print and kindle. GET IT WHILE IT’S HOT!
2. Jaime Lanister vs. Eddard Stark Lightsaber Battle
Makes me miss Star Wars AND Game of Thrones. ’nuff said.
3. FINALLY somebody made an Obamacare explanation for a 5-year-old. Not that any 5-year-old I know would ever want to know about it. But if they did, here it is!
Ok so my laptop was stolen at a halloween party I had three months ago and SOMEHOW BY THE ACT OF GOD the person who stole it either felt bad or got cold feet and
RETURNED IT!!! So, in those three months, my posts were few and far between because I was dealing with an ipad instead of an actual computer…
But here I am on my computer again!! Reunited and it feels so good!!
AANNNDDD here’s my first post with my newly-not-so-new computer back
I know absolutely nothing about hockey. I’m not super into sports because I feel like it distracts the masses while sh*t gets real around the people too busy watching the game instead of the news. Pretty smart, I think. You give your people their cheap bread and cheap circus and you’ve got yourself a happy, quiet society. Look around you.
1. “CHEAP BREAD” (or food in general):
Real price, fake chicken.
Yea, sure. Feed your family of four for only ten bucks. None of your kids will last past 65-years-of-age BUT that’s later on and this is right now and RIGHT NOW you only have 10 bucks because your husband lost his job and your house was foreclosed. Drastic? Not really. It happens everyday
2. CHEAP ENTERTAINMENT:
Enter Derek Boogaard. AKA The Boogey Man
Standing at 6’8″ and weighing in at 245, when Boogaard gets on the ice, grown men cower.
Now this is not a post bashing on the late Mr. Boogaard in any way. He was an excellent hockey player and dedicated his life to the sport. HOWEVER, back to my point about sports, Boogaard is a perfect example of cheap entertainment. You can buy pretty crappy tickets to a game for cheap if you have to OR watch it from home and spend little money on your entertainment. The entertainment is a mix of actual skill and then watching men beat the crap out of each other purely to gain a rise out of the crowd.
New York Times is doing a series of videos dedicated to Boogaard
This was Boogaard’s most important job out on the ice. He beat people up. THAT’S IT! So much did he fight that he ended up dying in July of this year due to his addiction to pain killers. Why was he addicted to pain killers? After numerous shoulder and nose surgeries and enough punches to the head to rattle a rhino, Boogaard depended on pain killers to keep up his violent performance on the ice… To please the crowd… To make that monayyyy….
First off this tells me that people, no matter how hard they try, are animals. We love violence. We can try to wear clothes and live in houses and stand upright and use utensils, BUT WE ARE STILL ANIMALS AT HEART!! No matter how you look at it. Violence still runs in our veins just as much as any other animal. We just try to suppress it to act as if we are civil.
Anyway, a whole bunch of my own opinion is jam-packed into this post, but watching Boogaard get the attention he received and seeing how much the crowd goes crazy over his fights made me a little sad for the human race. But, at the same time, it really is showing our true colors, isn’t it?
RIP Boogaard. You were a true warrior and a present-day Gladiator (catch my drift?)
Think long and hard (no pun intended) about whether or not you want kids. Think about the pros and cons and the long-term responsibility of it. You go from a created being to a creator of a being. This new little life consumes your every waking moment and strips you of all your money, YET (and I have no idea how this happens and I know it’s because I am not a mother) you love it so much and just want the best for it. Can you handle that?
Well before you answer that question, take a look at this wonderful little archive, compiling pictures of “Shit My Kids Ruined”:
Ok how did a child do that? I feel like keying takes some elbow grease, right?
oh…. my….. NO WAY couldn’t handle it
This looks like feces and I’m grossed out.
What do you think NOW?!? Ok so it happens… And kids will be kids… BUT if these pictures/blog DID change your mind, I came across a rather interesting website called Happily Childfree dedicated to helping people who never want to have kids cope in a society where kids are expected from couples.
Anyone choose to click on the latter link? Happily Childfree for some of you? So what this website tells me is that our society is so certain that everyone needs to have a child that adults who don’t want kids have to seek outside advice on how to live without them? That doesn’t make any sense (both the idea AND that sentence! way too wordy. Good luck with that one)! News flash, people. The mother-father-child structure isn’t and hasn’t always been the only structure of family. Anyone out there who do not want kids, more power to you! Anyone who either wants kids or already has kids, may the force be with you! It’s not a job for everyone (you hear me!?!)
So here are two articles that are completely unrelated besides the fact that they’re both about exterior beauty.
Article #1: Lea T the beautiful Model
Isn’t she gorgeous? Nice, high cheekbones, nice plump, pink lips, beautifully-shaped eyebrows……. and wait…
She’s a man. Did you see that coming? Me neither! Gorgeous, right? Well at least I think so.
Full Article here
Article #2: Cassandra Bankson does Make-Up Magic
The amount of work that goes into this girl’s face every morning is intense. Not sad, because she’s good at it and it does help her out. But I just can’t believe that make-up can do this kind of stuff. I mean i knew it, but WATCHING IT HAPPEN IS CRAZY! (cue for video… scroll to bottom!)
In conclusion, I just wanted to reflect on how much effort some people can go into just to make themselves look like what we perceive to be normal. I don’t wear make-up, and not because i just think i’m naturally beautiful. But because everytime I do put make-up on I feel like some geisha doll that’s trying to be someone i’m not. So what if I have uneven eyebrows or blotches on my face?? this is WHO I AM! Granted, for Cassandra, unfortunately she needs to do some cover-up and she’s only 19 so it will probably, eventually go away. But for those people out there that feel like they can’t leave the house without a full face of make-up, I leave you with this: take it all off once and awhile and be happy with who you are. Honestly, who is going to fall in love with a full face of caked-on make-up? Or maybe that’s just me… I dont know but
Ok so I haven’t been writing for about a good two weeks because I took a trip down under to see my one-and-only and his family. After a grueling 3 months apart (it wasn’t that bad… We’re used to it) he is back in Cali with me!! Anyway… Enough about useless info… Something more important happened to me:
I was looking through magazines to read on the plane ride back and came across the newest Time magazine with this cover:
Even though I wanted to buy it because I knew it looked AMAZING, I also knew that my very own copy would be waiting for me at my parents’ house (because I have them sent there for my brother to read first… I’m a good sister like that) so I could wait til I got home.
Fast foward to a long, 14 hour plane ride home. I went to my parents’ house for a late thanksgiving dinner and immediately went for my pile of Time magazines waiting for me. I disappointedly only found this latest issue sitting on the dining room table:
I interrogated my dad for a little, accusing him of carelessly throwing away my newest copy of my Times and settled with the fact that I’d just have to call and have them send me a new one.
UNTIL!!!!!!!!!!
My boyfriend, we shall call him Booey (his name is Paul but I found out in Australia that all his friends call him Booey… Why……. No idea) looked up the latest edition and found out that Time had published two different covers: one for America and ONE FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD!!!
Why, you ask? No idea. Needless to say, I’m having one sent over to me now because I’m interested to see the difference. But it really makes you think about why Time would intentionally run two different covers. Then I realized (because sometimes I live in a bubble) that time always runs different covers. Some of them are understandable, I guess. But this one just hit me close to home. Why not ME!?! I want that!!
Found this amazing list made by Keri Smith on how to live more ethically sound
1. Use your purchasing power as a political statement. Shop locally, ethically and in moderation. Ask the question “What do I really need?”
While you cannot remove yourself entirely from mass culture, and for those who may not want to make their own clothing, (in some cases I still shop with Amazon when I cannot find it anywhere else), you can research companies and choose one whose ethics and practices are more mindful. Commit the time to seek out alternatives. We used a non-profit cell phone provider called Earth Tones for years, who were committed to political action in various forms and funded a variety of environmental projects. I use Etsy quite a bit for more homemade options and supplies.
2. Turn off the TV. (need I explain this one?) I will say that after I got rid of the television many years ago, my productivity soared and my imagination flourished. I read much more. I believe there is a correlation to my career beginning to do really well and my giving up TV. My brain became rewired and much less passive as a result. I still watch movies and the occasional series, but I get to choose where and how (no ads).
3. Make your own stuff as much as possible. I have begun making my own cleaning products with simple ingredients, and recently I purchased a great resource to help with all kinds of things that you can do yourself. I highly recommend the book Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World by Kelly Coyne & Erik Knutzen (I don’t need to add that I have no connection to the authors). Having looked at many books in this category I can safely say that if you are interested in homesteading or just getting off the consumer treadmill, this book will help you do it. I am soon going to try giving up the bottle (of shampoo that is), and give some of their alternatives a try. I’ll let you know how it goes. I already gave up hair color during my second pregnancy, choosing to let my grey hairs go loose and wild!
4. Use an Ad-Blocker program for the web. While this does little to actively stop the advertising, it does cut down on the visual overload and the adcreep we experience while surfing. I use Adblock Plus, which was created by a friend of mine. It is totally free and works like a charm. I’ve used it for years and love it.
5. Move your money.
6. Support media that is ethical and ad free. I have cut down on what sites I visit regularly, choosing ones that are ad-free over ones with ads. I do value when people write about products they like if they are things that I enjoy using (in my case wool, books, environmentally friendly clothing/toys, recipes), but now they must be ad free for me to trust them. In some cases this has been a really hard choice, as some were sites that I enjoyed (a few written by friends I love). But in almost ALL cases, as the ads increased on a site, so did the feeling that the writing began to serve the advertising.
7. Participate in Collaborative Consumption, interactions and economies that involve swapping, sharing, bartering, trading and renting.
8. Begin to perceive value in different ways, not just in terms of money. In the book The Good Life, authors Helen and Scott Nearing felt that having cut and stacked fire-wood that they acquired themselves, was better than money in the bank. It provided more for them physically and spiritually (in the work) and also in keeping them warm throughout the season. What about looking at your skills as being of incredible value in your life? Your ability to sew, cook, knit, grow, build, etc.?
9. Ride a bike or take public transit. Obvious I know, but I had to add it.
10. Use raw materials more, packaged products less. I suppose this goes under #1 and #3.
11. Buy used.
12. Repair your old things. I recently taught myself how to darn socks and sweaters. It is incredibly satisfying. I also learned to repair wool items using needle felting, it’s like magic.
13. Change your language. Name the object, not the brand (i.e. Kleenex v.s. tissue). Words are powerful. -from Kelsi
14. Choose independent businesses over chains. Use public spaces, museums, galleries, bookshops.
15. Pay with cash. When you use debit the bank gets a fee from the vendor. When you use cash the money goes to the owner of the shop.
16. Don’t buy bottled water (carry reusable bottles).
17. Become a minimalist. Cut down on your worldly possessions.
I would like to elaborate most importantly on the first rule. Assuming that you, as the reader, live in a capitalist society, your choice of purchase is crucial to what survives and what doesn’t in any industry. Use your purchasing power wisely. And boycott anything you don’t agree with. And TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW TO DO THE SAME!!!
Top on my Personal list: mostly anything made in China (unless it’s bought second hand).
It would be nice to have Americans making the products that Americans use and keeping our jobs and money in our own country. This is also true for any other country affected by outsourcing.
Dirty Costumes 