Taking a Vaction

will be back after Labor Day

enjoy the summer

“Walden” is one of the best pieces ever written on an alternative to mainstream existence

A cog in the corporate machine. I work for them. I earn their meaningless currency. I try to support good causes and I try to buy local products. It try to consider how every dollar I spend is going to affect the world around me and every aspect of that impact. I try to buy things that are made in the United States where I know we at least have some regulations on working conditions and pollution and stuff.

But even if I buy lotion that was made in the U.S., where was the bottle made??? I don't know. And so I am still most likely supporting greedy corporations exploiting workers in poor, third-world countries, exposing those workers to despicable, deadly conditions, poisoning the planet. Do you even know how plastic is made?? Do you know the side effects of producing plastic? I will post more about all that another time.

But, there is an alternative to being a cog in the corporate machine. There are alternatives to supporting their fucked up practices. There are more noble ways to live life. You do not need to buy “groceries”

I see all these people walking around like zombies, glued to their computers so they remain distracted and do not even have to think for themselves. People have been raised and programmed, taught to be good little cogs in the machine. They are taught to show up to a place on time and rewarded with gold stars so they can show up to some other place on time and be rewarded with “money” that is not even backed by gold. They are taught to trade in tickets for prizes. You work forty hours a week for the machine and you can trade in your tickets for whatever brain numbing smartphone and stupid plastic case that you want. Fucking stupid meaningless existence. Worthless. Worthless. Completely void and worthless.

Do you ever wonder if there is something more? Something different? Something to this existence that could actually be deemed meaningful??? Something beyond dresses and fake eyelashes? Something more real than plastic nails??? Something more meaningful and precious than shoes and smart phones and overpriced crap that will just eventually end up in a landfill. Worthless. Wasteful. Stupid.

Insipidity, plastic personalities, cookie cutter people who care about what purchase of a material possession they are making next or what car a guy drives are stale to me. People interested in or mesmerized by shopping in chain stores or seeing the next mainstream movie are bland as fuck. People who are unaware of the pointless hamster wheel on which they are reeling remind me of zombies. Really there are so many alternative states of being, way of living, possibilities, priorities, passions and pastimes than those dictated by mainstream culture and mindless, meaning less consumerism.

“Walden” is just one example of infinite alternatives. Here I will link for your convenience the ebook and the audio book, but as always I think it would be far better to pick up a tangible copy, words printed on pages, perhaps at your local library. One of the best gifts I ever bought myself.

“Walden” http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/thoreau/thoreau-walden6x9.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JbOQeve1eU&list=PLEC4C4A0581812C00

To really live. To consider things of actual meaning. To live without needing to be the mindless consumer. Did you know food grows on trees and can be found in places other than farmers markets and grocery stores? Do you know what people believed prior to the concept of owning land as property? Stuff to think about. You do not have to be some brainless puppet. I mean by all means you can choose to be, if you really want. But would not you rather that it would be your own fully conscious decision? Educate yourself. Think new thoughts. Try new things. Take the good that you can find and share it with the world around you. Be brave enough to be yourself.

Life is your garden; dig it.

Wishing you all that is wonderful in this world. Take care.

“College Conspiracy” an alternative view of the American education system

Don't get me wrong. I am very pro-education. I think it invaluable to educate one's self. I love to spend hours pouring of books and I thoroughly enjoy attending classes. I never want to imagine my life without it.

But, it is important to educate one's self about the education system as well if one is planning to attend any sort of educational institution.

I worked at a college for a year, and I learned a bit about how the system works. And there are some things that are great and some things that are flawed.

You could learn quite a bit about some of the flaws from this documentary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EKolPL5Cdc

if for some odd reason this link stops working either google or search for “College Conspiracy” on youtube. It is a video that is put out by the National Inflation Association.

I certainly do not agree with everything in this documentary.

But I do know this...

You can educate yourself without going into debt.

I came across something today that reminded me about all of this, so I want to link it as well. Thanks and wellwishes to my cool college counselor friend who shared this blurb about the current state of American education

http://iwastesomuchtime.com/on/?i=70585

I really think it is important that people think about these things, at least roll them around in their heads, and question if that is what they consider just and desirable. At least consider the information for yourself. And decide for yourself how you feel about the world around you. Consider alternatives. And educate yourself.

Wishing you everything wonderful in the world.

Life is your garden; dig it.

"Avatars and Lattes"

particles. piles upon piles of fragments. disintegrated pieces.

plastic lids. polished nickle plated over copper cast into costumery. Price tags.

packaging made of cardboard and plastic. particles processed by peasants for pennies.

plastic dolls portraying perfection. personal computers ten years passe.

previous possessions presumed to be purposeful.

perceived prosperity.

perceived persona planning purchases.

perceptions imposing on perspective.

pacific swirling plastic vortex

petroleum

puppets pandering politics

programming

presuming these things necessary

well what price would one pay?

Some piece I wrote about an alternative view of the paleolithic diet

And God knows i am still pissed at myself that it turned out to be such an awful paper. I should know better than to procrastinate so much. And I wasn't going to post it, but then i realized that some of the stuff in the paper would really compliment the incomplete information i had previously included in another blog about the ratios of animal protein to vegetation regarding the actual paleolithic diet. Disregard that it is a poorly written paper and you will find info on diet and nutrition plus resources. Someday i may actually get it together. But here we are now.

In this day and age, this time and place, this current cultural climate, food has become a contemplated and complicated subject. Some people have been conditioned to a diet that is most detrimental. And, some have no idea how to properly nourish themselves. People are dying from preventable diseases that are directly related to their less than desirable diets. In some parts of the world people are dying from malnourishment. In other over-privileged societies there are many competing authors touting their newest, latest, trendiest diets and trying to tell others how they should nourish themselves. There is the “low-carb diet”, the “raw-vegan diet”, the “paleolithic diet” and so on and so forth. It all really begs the question what should one eat for optimal functioning, well-being and health? And that naturally leads to the question what did our ancestors eat to have the greatest possible health, well-being and reproductive success (if we would like to consider that an indicator of success) or avoid sickness and disease (as can be evidenced by examining skeletal remains)?

Whenever the diet of early Homo is discussed in introductory level anthropology text books there is always focus and emphasis placed on whether or not early man was a hunter or a scavenger. That is the topic that currently always stands out in the discussion about early diet. This discussion of man scavenging for meat, the theories, the evidence of various cut marks on bones and the like is so thread bare that it is pretty much unnecessary to even bother with a quote. Just imagine that any one of the many passages in text books discussing this topic was quoted, and that will suffice. One can even pretend something was mentioned that insinuates a link between meat consumption to a larger brain size if it is desired.

But, while this discussion of how man got a hold of his meat (and bone marrow) is of much fascination to some scholars, it really places unfounded importance on the question. Early man obviously ate some scavenged meat, sure. And they did also hunt small game, yes. But that was only a fraction of what they ate and really is not all that interesting. We eat an abundance of meat in industrialized modern societies, and this over-consumption of meat is now linked to many avoidable maladies. There is a much more interesting question to ponder. What else was man eating?

For one thing, besides hunted or scavenged game animals, man was often eating fish. This is evidenced by the plethora of archeological evidence. “Archeologists have found fishhooks that date from the Old Stone Age, perhaps as much as fifty thousand years ago. The early specimens were carved from bone or the curved edges of shells into a roughly hook-like form. Perhaps people carved wooden ones even earlier, but these would not have been preserved… The historical details remain obscure, but barbed metal fishhooks were in use about twenty thousand years ago.” (Williams:12) Coupled with the now manifold apparent health benefits linked to the regular consumption fish oil, it would make sense that early man might have flourished on a diet that included fish.

There are other ways to deduce what prehistoric man might have been munching on. Modern paleoanthropologists now have the opportunity of utilizing sophisticated techniques such as “by distinguishing remains of wild plants and animals… in prehistoric garbage dumps.” (Diamond) and other exciting prospects such as “…feces of long-dead Indians who lived in dry caves in Nevada remain sufficiently well preserved to be examined...” (Diamond) Such techniques are constantly adding to our understanding of the diet of early man.

Diamond’s article “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race” discusses the dietary changes and resulting maladies from which man suffered as a result of switching to agriculture 10,000 years ago. The article provides some insight into the diet of early man. Diamond discusses various aspects of culture, health and diet, but one of the most fascinating facts is the variety of fare that was enjoyed by hunter-gatherers of modern day society and the hunter-gathers of prehistoric times. They are not and were not eating the exact same meal day in day out. They forage for a variety of nourishing substances, be they animal or vegetable, encompassing dozens and dozens of different foods. This does prevent the hunter-gather from over-exhausting any one particular resource. But also of much importance is the fact that this provides the hunter-gather with such a rich array of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, tons of fiber and everything they need to live in an optimal state of health.

While farmers concentrate on high-carbohydrate crops like rice and potatoes, the mix of wild plants and animals in the diets of surviving hunter-gatherers provides more protein and a better balance of other nutrients. In one study, the Bushmen's average daily food intake (during a month when food was plentiful) was 2,140 calories and 93 grams of protein, considerably greater than the recommended daily allowance for people of their size. It's almost inconceivable that Bushmen, who eat 75 or so wild plants, could die of starvation the way hundreds of thousands of Irish farmers and their families did during the potato famine of the 1840s. (Diamond)

This fact alone could provide some food for thought to many a person pondering proper nutrition while living in our modern, industrialized habitat. I do not think I know very many people who eat “75 or so” different plants (be they wild, domesticated, frozen, fresh or canned) on any regular basis if even ever in their lifetime. What would be the result if more people took to gardening their own food and foraging for wild food, decommodifying food, and began to eat a greater abundance and variety of fruits and vegetables and wild foods in general?

Another means of ascertaining early man’s diet is by examining the skeleton. “The old adage ‘you are what you eat’ is certainly true for the skeleton.” (Bruwelheide & Owsley) Archeologists can ascertain some much about what a person ate by examining their bones. The article “The Iceman Reconsidered” discusses these processes in a bit of detail explaining that Analyzing archeological remains of bone and hair for their abundances of stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen (carbon 13 and nitrogen 15) can provide information about a person’s diet. Nitrogen 15 can reveal the extent to which the individual relied on animal or plant protein. Carbon 13 can indicate the type of plant food the person ate and whether seafood or terrestrial carbon was an important part of the diet” (Dickson, etc.)

The means of ascertaining the diets of prehistoric people that were described in this article were been used to assess the diet of Otzi, a well preserved Neolithic man from about 5,000 years ago. Through such scientific analysis these anthropologists were able to ascertain that Otzi 's diet consisted of about 30 percent meat and 70 percent vegetation which very much resembles the ratios that are enjoyed by modern day hunter-gathers. This particular individual did not however consume very much seafood which makes sense since this individual was not found near the any body of water that would have been a source of seafood. (Dickson, etc)

And that brings me back to prehistoric garbage dumps and fossilized feces. At this point in time so much of that matter has been analyzed to the point where it has been determined that many different populations of early man have eaten all sorts of different food staples depending on where they were situated and what was readily available. According to the article “What Actually was the Stone Age Diet?” by J. A. J. Gowlett MA, PHD, FSA there is no one set Paleolithic or stone age diet. Of course, it makes perfect sense that diet would vary with region just as plant life and animal populations vary from one region to another. However, there are a few generalizations that can be made as they apply to many of the early populations that have been studied. Most of the populations in tropical climates eat a higher percentage of vegetable matter (including some leafy vegetables, fruits and nuts) than meat. Fruit plays a major role in prehistoric diet. And also quite popular among earlier populations as well as modern day hunter-gathers are roots or tubers. Meat has been more of a staple in some regions such as Europe and the arctic. There is evidence that European Homo ate a meat heavy diet for around the last 40,000 years.

One thing that our ancestors did not consume prior to 10,000 years ago was any of this mass produced, high-carbohydrate, starchy food stuff that is central in the standard American diet. Both Diamond and Gowlett acknowledge this point. Our prehistoric ancestors did not eat bread nor Lucky Charms. Another thing that they were not consuming much, if any, of was dairy products.

What an applied anthropologist would deduce from this material is that they might want to diversify their diet to include a wider variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes than they currently do. They might consider the health and environmental benefits of consuming less meat and limiting their intake of beef and other wasteful and destructive food sources to at least less than 30% of their diet if not eliminating meat entirely. Dairy could be eliminated or at least limited to small amounts of naturally produced dairy devoid of synthetic hormones and antibiotics. Mass produced grains, especially those high on the glycemic index should be avoided entirely.

If the entire population were made aware of this information and encouraged to grow more of their own food to increase the nutritional content of the food they consumed and to reduce the amount of the pollution that is a direct result of the commidification of food, I am sure the over-all results would be delicious.

Works Cited and Drawn From

Bruwelheide, Kari & Owsley, Douglas. Written in Bone: Reading the Remains of the 17^th Century

Diamond, Jared. The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race

http://www.ditext.com/diamond/mistake.html

Dickson, James H., Oeggl, Klaus., Handley, Linda l. The Iceman Reconsidered

Gowlett. J. A. J..What Actually was the Stone Age Diet? http://pcwww.liv.ac.uk/~gowlett/GowlettCJNE_13_03_02.pdf

Williams, George C. The Pony Fish's Glow And Other Clues to Plan and Purpose in Nature

“Many Lives Many Masters” another piece on an alternative view of life after death

Oh, this one is lovely. This is a book I can read again and again.

Psychiatrists have used hypnosis to access memories people have forgotten in order to help them deal with suppressed emotions and stuff. Now, if you read my last piece on alternative views on life after death (or alternative views of the seat of consciousness or reality in general) and you are aware of children who possess memories from previous lives that are later verified as facts, well then the idea of a psychiatrist accidentally stumbling across past life memories during a hypnotherapy session might make perfect sense.

The book is amazing, and if you are at all curious about the true meaning of your existence, I recommend it.

Here is some link to some video that talks about all this (just because I am sure youtube videos are an easy way to introduce a thing)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqPNsj1we50

And here is the book for free in PDF format (although I would recommend a physical book... there is just something about books that is beyond comparison)

http://rhd2006.free.fr/zaz2/Many-Lives-Many-Masters-_-Brian-L.-Weiss-MD.pdf

Life is grand.

Wishing you everything that is wonderful, amazing, mindblowing and fantastic in this beautiful, incredible universe. No really, you deserve it.

Life is your garden; dig it.