And speaking of rest, yep, the dreams continue. My brain weirdness, let me show you it.
I do have a new suggestion for the teething part: frozen waffles. The cold numbs the pain, the texture helps stimulate the gums, and by the time he's worried off a chunk, it's small enough for him to eat. Genius. Thanks, Cheryl!
Want voice search on Google Mobile for BlackBerry? Sure, we all do. And now we (at least, I) have it. Has it. Whatever, I installed the update to Google Mobile and there it was. Started the app, spoke "pizza" into it, and the cute leetle feller just served up a bunch of pizza places near me. I loves me some technology, I tell you what.
In other dental news, the accident on the Salivary Gland Freeway is almost cleared, and the slobber is expected to be flowing freely again very soon. I administered a miracle drug in the form of some Sour Patch Kids last night, and I swear I could tell a difference in no time. If the doctor prescribed lemonade because it's tart, then wouldn't concentrated tartness be even better, he reasoned, correctly, as it turned out. Of course, the fact that I've always been a sucker for tart candy had nothing to do with my reasoning. Whatever the rationale, the result was good. I can still feel a little bump, but not much. If only I'd have had some sea otter booger candy, I'd have been cured even quicker.
It's Earth Day, of course. Isn't it? I'll admit that I haven't had the date circled in any time-measuring device. It's not that I'm anti-earth (I do live here, after all). I am, however, anti-agenda in 99% of the cases, and it's hard to get all het up over the environment when the people getting all het up over the environment don't live like they're really all that het up over the environment. Here's how the late Richard Jeni put it.
Also, I was raised in a green household, although we never knew it was such. I knew my mother didn't want to put money in the coffers of the electric cooperative, so we were--loudly, and often--to shut the door, put on a sweater, etc. And rightly so, I see now that I'm paying my own bills. Plus, long before living green was called living green, it was called being responsible. You don't throw stuff on the side of the road because it's just wrong, not because Earth (or a fake Indian) will cry over it. Do unto others, I seem to remember some book saying.
"Dirty Jobs" host Mike Rowe appears to agree with me, and to have been raised in a like manner.
It's my contention that it's impossible to dislike Rowe. You might not like him as much as I do, which is "a ridiculous amount," but it's impossible to dislike him. Same goes for Michael J. Nelson, of MST3K and Rifftrax fame. Maybe it's something about the name "Mike" that does it. And, when it comes to having a view of Earth Day, I think Mr. Rowe is pretty doggone on-target.However, as a "movement," there is much that gives me pause about being green. As a rule, I am suspicious of any campaign that uses guilt and fear as primary motivators. I don't like the political overtones, the righteous indignation (on both sides,) and the vast sums of money that seem to be flying around the issue. I don't like the "fashionable" elements of going green. And while I am a big fan of our planet, and enjoy its many splendors thoroughly, I don't believe it's wise to anthropomorphize Mother Earth. The green movement relies to much on the "pain" we might cause the planet. There's something arrogant about that, in my opinion - about the notion that we might somehow do more harm to Earth than it has done to itself. (Or that "she" has done to us.) I do not fear for the planet, but do worry about the people on it, and wonder sometimes if those most vocally concerned with global warming for instance, feel the same way. In the end, no matter how prudent we become, the planet will almost certainly outlast us.
Growing up, if I walked out the door without closing it behind me, a swift violence would surely follow. Usually it was a smack on the butt, followed by a "What's wrong with you, do you live in a barn!" Likewise, leaving a room without turning out the light was unpardonable. Whatever I elected to put on my plate, I had to eat. No debate, no exceptions. "Take all you want, eat all you take." Wastefulness was simply not tolerated. My father used to wring out the paper towels, and use them again, and sometimes again. I'm not even kidding. I could go on.
My Dad wasn't green. He just enjoyed getting by with less. And that attitude mentality translated into an overall sensibility of conservation. Today, I am conservative in most things. I believe it's better to make more than you spend, and save more than you think you'll need. I don't care for conspicuous consumption, and believe the biggest problem facing this country is our endless sense of expectation and entitlement and personal debt. [Ed. Note: This was written on June 17, 2008, shortly before those financial chickens came home to roost.]
Most of my friends are over extended, and most always have been. The average household has more debt than they can service. As a country, we are trillions of dollars in debt. We do not have a conservative outlook. In my opinion, our pollution problems are just another symptom of that behavior.
There are lots of things we can do together that might make a difference. But untimately, a change in behavior without fundamental change in attitude, will not fix the problem. Frankly, I don't even know if global warming can be fixed. Seems like we should give it a try, but regardless, how can we expect a country that can't pay its bills, to have the discipline to shut the door and turn off the lights?
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I'm with you, Jim, I grew up in a household where we didn't waste things. "Eat it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without," is the saying I remember hearing. My mother made her own cloth shopping bags way before it became fashionable to be "green." I don't think we ever had one piece of new furniture the whole time I was a child.
ReplyDeleteI cringe at the stuff people toss into dumpsters, stuff they could just as easily take to the local thrift store for someone else to use. I have two bookcases, a desk, a bedside stand, and a dresser that I yoinked from various dumpsters and junk piles to furnish my apartment when I first moved here and didn't have any furniture. I rarely buy new clothes, and then only when they're on sale; except for underclothes, almost all my clothes are used. I love shopping in second-hand stores and antique shops, looking for bargains and feeling the thrill of nabbing some way-cool item for a pittance. I think if ever won the lottery, I'd still buy second-hand, just because it's so much fun. (I have dreams of building a house almost entirely from salvaged and recycled parts.)
I read somewhere that second-hand stores are becoming more popular now, what with the recession and all. Maybe people are finally learning to make do with less, and to enjoy it.