Brody Goes Shopping

Beware.

Grabbed this quick post from the SF Zoo's Animail email digest. Definitely some good reminders on the dangers and, frankly, environmental disaster bottled water is.

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Beware of Bottled Water

It's Expensive
It's thousands of times more costly than tap water.

It’s Falsely Advertised
Don't be misled by the snowy mountain on the label – the water comes from a public water system 40% of the time.

There's No Proof it is Safer
Paying for it doesn't make it better. Tap water is monitored much more frequently and strictly than bottled. In fact, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission's Water Quality Division recently found San Francisco's tap water to be among the cleanest in world – so clean it doesn't even need to be filtered! Also, the fluoride in some tap water helps kids grow strong, healthy teeth.

It’s Bad for the Environment
Millions of plastic bottles don't get recycled and end up in landfills and even oceans forever. Check out the island of trash twice the size of the state of Texas swirling far out in the pacific ocean between California and Hawaii. Many animals die from eating the caps from plastic bottles and other bits of plastic that look like food to them.

Demise of Drinking Fountains
We used to be able to hydrate for free almost anywhere – now these watering holes are harder to find.

Read more in Peter Gleick's book Bottled and Sold – The Story Behind our Obsession with Bottled Water.

New Pictures Up.

Finally starting to work through our numerous pictures from the past year or so.

Take a looksee when you have a moment.

Backyard Dreams

Like a California King

Costa Rica 2009

Costa Rica - Videos

Go Pacific Northwest My Son

The Biological Conveyor Belt.

Remember this 1 Thing:

One day, if you're so lucky, you will be old.

You will die.

Joints will hurt.

Bones will ache.

Movement will slow.

Eventually leading to a cellular breakdown event.

A system wide failure.

A shutdown with no reboot.

Your analogy here.

Etc.

Without ringing the Negative Nelly alarm bell to stridently, this thought is purely something for you to dwell on.

Truly one of the inevitable facts of life.

Death becomes us.

We rot, decay, move on, leave a shell, cease to exist and so on.

Whether you believe in an afterlife or not, this will happen.

This is the process.

This is the way.

This is the conveyor belt of biology.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, you can do will stop this process.

...and there is nothing wrong with it.

Scary to be certain.

But isn't the unknown always a scary experience?

All of this begs the question: What do we during the ride?

Do we live a good moral life?

Do we build a legacy to be remembered by? Even though we ourselves will have no knowledge of said legacy?

Do we worry about karma or the concept of the Universe rebounding on us according to our actions?

Are we simply evolved primates who are only rewarded for however "fit" we are?

Despite claims to the contrary, no one really has the answer to this question only opinions.

How you choose to spend your time, for better or worse, is up to you.

Good Times in Palo Alto.

'Nuff said.

Motivation.

As people we long for the satisfaction of accomplishment.

We long for reassuring feeling we are here for a reason.

That all of this isn't for naught.

Whether job promotion, house purchase, home improvement, child-bearing, recognition by our peers, all of it serves to fill the hole our desire for achievement leaves.

Gaping hole in our soft squishy middle.

We spend years and years raising children.

We spend thousands of dollars improving our caves and sleepholes.

We pour out the only real valuable thing, our time in this life, into something as worthless as work.

In an empty effort to make our mark.

Legacy.

To be remembered for something we've done during our tenure on this planet.

Something ultimately forgotten by the generations following.

This above all things is the ultimate motivator.

Above sex, money, and power.

Or rather, intertwined and illustrated by sex, money, and power.

Why else do we struggle and strive for something so meaningless?

Even those of us dedicated to helping the poor and downtrodden.

What reason or end result does it gain?

A warm meal, some shelter, a helping hand.

All good things.

But what motivates one to give these things?

Gratitude surely. Thanksgiving.

The desire to be remembered.

The desire to see and feel your impact.

The desire to know you didn't just check in and check out of this life without making a difference.

So many of us, nay, all of us, are driven by such desire.

It seeps up from the wellspring telling you you're here for a reason.

Nothing is meaningless.

Everything is important.

YOU are important.

In some unseen cosmic way, you matter.

You matter.

And how do you know you matter?

Because you can look around you and see your impact.

Because you can look around you and talk to the people whose lives you've changed for the better.

And that is why we are driven to help.

Driven to change.

Driven to make a damned difference.

Because there is no answer to the question "why?"

There is no real reason you or I are here.

There is only this moment and what it means to you.

Whether terrorist, politician, father, mother, worker, whore, alcoholic, or undefined.

You only have this moment in time and how you perceive it.

Everything else is meaningless.

Enjoy The Ride.

Costa Rica.

Yes, it's been more than a year since visiting Costa Rica.

Yes, the pictures have been sitting neglected on my camera.

No, I don't really care you've been waiting all this time to see them.

Costa Rica 2009

Change.

Is a good thing.

Writing more frequently would be a better thing.

At the very least I updated my blog template to something more recent and threw an off the cuff post I had written a few weeks back in there as a bonus.

Feels a little too emo, but it's not like I'm "sh*tting bats" or something.

Personal Revelation and Insight.

My insecurity can be seen in my desire to be the center of attention, typically the center of "mocking".

Ever since high school I've had the need to ensure I'm "leading the discussion" about me.

I'm struck by this insecure feeling people are talking about me, talking behind my back.

I'm afraid of what they might be saying about me; about my dress, my walk, my way of talking, my haircut, etc.

Knowing this is a natural occurance, people talking about other people behind their back, I want to give them a chance to vent it in the open.

To talk about me, to make fun of me, to laugh at me, in the open where I can defend against it. Defuse it.

I'm often the lightening rod for rodicule in a public setting. More often than not I'm bringing this down upon myself. Welcoming it.

I'd rather KNOW what you're saying about me behind me back, than deepen my insecurity by thinking/worrying about it.

Leading the discussion, guiding your comments, driving your comments, even creating something for you to mock about me, is preferable to letting you find the real chinks in my armor, the things I'm most insecure about, and pounce on those.

Smoke and mirrors?

Yes.

Diversionary tactics?

Most definitely.

Why Chickens.

In case you were considering starting your own backyard flock, here's some good reasons to get rolling. Taken from UrbanChickens.com:

Some of the key benefits to our community:

• Chickens can provide healthy, pesticide free eggs
• Reduction of weekly food bills
• Reduction of green house gases through reduction in food transport costs
• Chickens consume kitchen waste, reducing municipal waste problems
• Chickens produce great compost for the garden
• Chickens are a great way to teach kids about food sources, hands-on
• Chickens make great pets, for big kids and little kids alike
• The path to global environmental sustainability begins with local initiatives and urban chickens are one of those initiatives
• Chickens kept in back yards are generally living in much more humane conditions than their battery cage industrial chicken counterparts

Between our worm composting bin, our regular composting bin, and the chickens, we NEVER send any food waste to the garbage collection. I also can't emphasize how damned GOOD the fresh eggs are.

So what are you waiting for?