Green gone wild!

There have been a number of new green media announcements and launches this week. Discovery's new TV channel Planet Green launched yesterday and the Huffington Post announced that it will be working in concert with Treehugger and Planet Green on HuffPost Green.

The article in the New York Times earlier this week announcing Planet Green's channel launch gave me a hearty chuckle. No, actually, it pissed me off a bit. I even ground some crackers.

I appreciate that there is a channel completely dedicated to green issues and I have up until now been a reader of the Planet Green website, but I'm afeared that the content will be pandering to advertisers and to consumers who still want to buy, buy, buy! But, now they have a reason to - it's for the environment.

Some shows sound moderately promising. According to the article, Planet Green's new programs will show every shade of green, from "G Word", a daily series hosted by two news correspondents, to "Wrecklamation", billed as "recycling on steroids". But the rest of it sounds somewhat disturbing.

Featuring such greeny celebrities as Tommy Lee (huh?) and environmental advertisers like GM (what?), Planet Green is really stepping it up.

Another case in point: Planet Green was at the Indy 500 last month handing out T-shirts and beach balls to consumers who exemplified green living. Were those t-shirts organic or hemp? How 'bout those cheapo promotional beach balls? Hecho en China?

What? You didn't know that the Indy 500 was going green this year? I'm sorry, but there is absolutely nothing green about burning gallons of petroleum racing around in a circle. I'll even go so far as to throw in the fact that those who support these races aren't exactly "exemplifying green living".

Oh, by the way, GM (maker of the environmentally-friendly Hummer) is the "exclusive automobile sponsor" of the channel. As part of the deal, GM vehicles will be integrated into some programs, and Discovery will produce short-form videos about the company.

Now, I hope I am wrong. Really, selling green to the masses takes a certain touch. But, at the very least, I'll have something new to make fun of. After all, anything that's a "lifestyle and entertainment channel that's designed to activate people in the green space" has got to be great.

What's next? A green porn channel? The Ploughboy Channel, "designed to lubricate penises in the urban homesteading space" could be a real winner. I bet that their new show, the "G Spot" will be my favorite. Just, please, no Tommy Lee.

Lights out!

I've been debating writing this post for a while now as I think it can be misconstrued as being too negative and that is not the effect I'm trying to achieve here. I just want people to think about the actions they take when doing something that seems environmentally sound.

It all started when the National Lights Out day (aka Earth Hour) came about and I saw that many were participating in it as well as promoting it. I think it's a great event to get people together and make them feel like they are participating in something large that makes a statement. It can be argued that the event was more symbolic than anything, but there was one thing that was grinding my crackers.

The problem I had with it was how people were making up for the lack of lights/electricity/etc. Instead of going to bed early, many chose to light candles as an alternative. And, while I certainly get besotted by the mood of candlelight and the warm, cozy feeling it invokes, it doesn't come without environmental consequence.

Here's the trade-off: if you get your electricity from green sources* (wind, hydro, solar, etc.), switching over to a seemingly innocuous candle is a bit of mental legerdemain. Were the candles 100% beeswax or soy with a 100% cotton wick? Or were they the cheaper paraffin (fossil fuel) kind? Did they burn cleanly or did they actually contribute to increased carbon dioxide emissions?

For those of you not intimately knowledgeable about standard paraffin candles, paraffin** is essentially hydrocarbon, or a heavy alkane fraction distilled straight from crude oil. Even if 80% of your electricity comes from coal and fossil fuel fired power stations, burning candles is very polluting and certainly very greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide emissions intensive, even more so than electric lighting. In other words, for every paraffin candle that is burned to replace electric lighting during Earth Hour, greenhouse gas emissions over the course of the one hour are increased by 9.8 g of carbon dioxide.

And, for the record, beeswax candles can be considered "carbon neutral" in the sense that, even though it produces carbon dioxide when burned, it’s carbon that is naturally cycled through the ecospheric carbon cycle - not from fossil fuel. But throw in transportation and production energy costs and it gets a bit murky.

So, what was more of an impact? Clearly the total impact is dependent on what the originating source of electricity was as well as the candle choice, but why wasn't this addressed by any of the organizers? At the very least, I didn't see anything about it nor did I notice it mentioned on the blogs of those who participated. If you really want to make a statement about electricity usage, then it should have been all lights out!

Poll time!



Finally, did you put much thought into the alternative you were choosing? If you didn't, would you do things differently after reading this? If you didn't participate, would you consider this in the future when making a candle choice?

*Yes, I realize that there are some environmental consequences to the wind and hydro, but they are considerably smaller than that from nuclear, coal or other fossil fuel driven lighting.

**For all the nitty gritty explanations, science and physics that I've included here, please refer to the originating sources.

Eco Throwdown post mortem

Now that the Extreme Eco Throwdown is over, I thought I'd check in with you all and find out how you fared.

I certainly hope you did better than I. At the very least, I hope you fared well enough to make up for the enormous transgressions that occurred around the Crunchy household during the month of May.

I knew that I wouldn't be able to achieve much of anything with this challenge so I don't really consider myself as participating (which is why I wasn't posting about it much).

Here are the gory details:

1. No plastic: Let's just say that rubber gloves, Tegaderm, saline and Heparin filled syringes and Parafilm were making a strong presence around here.

2. No paper products: Does a four-fold increase in paper towels for sterilizing countertops count? On the other hand, we are strictly using cloth wipes for Number 1 (adults only - I have enough plumbing challenges with the kids).

3. No driving: Ha ha ha. We drove probably two to three times more than we normally do with all the trips down to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, work, etc. I'm really enjoying the increased gas prices.

4. Local food only: Can you say asparagus? How about asparagus? Oh yeah, what about asparagus? Add to that the kale, broccoli leaves, onions (from last year), locally sourced pasta, meat and eggs and we ate more locally than the last several months. This will only get better.

5. No garbage output: About the same as normal, which is to say that our output is small. My brother came to visit recently and he was astounded at how small our garbage can is. Since we can pretty much recycle or compost everything (food waste and yard waste), there isn't much that goes out.

6. No excessive water use: We were about the same on our water usage, maybe down a little bit.

7. No electricity: Well, we certainly used less electricity and oil heat because of warmer temperatures as well as the fact that it's light out from 5:00am to about 9:00pm. I'll be posting a diatribe about alternative lighing this week. Look out!

So, how did you do? Were you able to throw it down?

Network for Donations update

For those of you who donated to my Shave To Save! campaign via the Network for Donations site...

Congratulations! You've just been fucked up the ass. Oh, I'm sorry, did I just say that out loud? I apologize in advance to those out there who are sensitive to such profanities, but I have to say that, in this case (and there are few out there that garner this reaction), it is entirely warranted.

For those of you who don't know, I was trying to raise money for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. I was hoping to raise $10,000 in one month. If I achieved that number, then I was going to shave my head. I set up an account through Network for Donations to handle the monetary collections and forward the funds to MMRF. After about one week of the site being up and down (and after collecting about $1120 from donors), it went completely down.

The owners of the site were not in any way accessible either via email or phone. After attempting to resolve the problem through PayPal, I was informed that the resolution of funds was in my favor, yet they could not collect seeing as though there was no money in their account.

So, the shitheads at Network for Donations made off with approximately $1120 worth of donations that were collected to fight Multiple Myeloma, and not line their pockets.

Since I knew fairly early on something was amiss, I started collecting donations on my blog as an alternative and collected another $1930 or so. I stopped promoting the fundraiser as I was so defeated by being fleeced out of so much money and, ultimately, feeling responsible that you guys were fleeced out of so much money. Not to mention the added stress at a time when I really didn't need it.

And, there you have it. If you are an enterprising individual and would like to follow up on this yourself and/or you donated and want to see if you can get your money back here is the information that I do know about the organization:

Network for Donations Inc., Deer Park, NY. They are listed as a GuideStar non-profit organization and have 501c3 status with the IRS. The contact person's name is Tanya. I am not a very vindictive person, but I do hope she fries in hell for this.

Critters in the garden

My good friend Rachel (aka "The Canning Ho") finally got her raised beds put together a few weeks ago. It seems kind of late, but around these here parts she's just in time. Plus, she's had all sorts of cranky things happening in her life so I'm hoping that the vegetable gardening will prove to be as therapeutic for her as it is for me.

Anyhoo, last Friday morning she woke up to her dogs barking at something in the backyard. They live on the edge of the 'burbs so deer, coyotes and other critters aren't too unusual in the greenbelt behind her house. She looked out into the garden and thought "why is there a black garbage bag in my vegetable garden?"

After putting on her glasses, she realized that was no garbage bag, but a baby bear. It was munching away on a few broccoli plants and wreaking havoc on her newly planted seeds. Not having much animal life around my backyard except evil cats, I didn't have many suggestions for her on how to remedy this situation.


Do any of you fine readers have suggestions for how to keep critters, particularly bears, from snacking on her plants?

And, all due respect to Rachel, I would find the following scary critter far more frightening to wake up to in my bed:


I don't suppose you have any suggestions for that one either?

Might as well face it...

I'm addicted to blogging.

Well, not addicted, but since I announced that I wasn't going to post for a while (which I had written a few days before I actually posted it), I really started missing it.

I've been saying for the last 9 months that blogging is my therapy and I guess it really is because I started feeling depressed not being incommunicado with you all. Since my husband's treatment was cancelled, I actually have way more time than I have had in the last two months. It just took me a week off to realize it.

I think having the "burden" of posting lifted re-inspired me a bit. The problem is I like to post consistently Monday through Friday and oftentimes on the weekend. I just need to give myself a day off now and then and not worry about you guys not coming back.

Plus, I just like to yammer into space and see what response I get. And I have a few new ideas to torture you guys with. Anyway, I guess I'm back after a week and a half break.

Expect my posts to be more cavalier, fun and/or trashy depending on my mood. So, if you have problems with the content or word choice, feel free to complain in the comments, but just know that no one is forcing you to read my rants.

So, let's start back up with a poll!



And, finally, do you feel pressure to post even when you don't want to?

Natural rust cleaner

Okay, I give you free reign to call me a total freaking nut ball, but I just had to share this with you all. And, I too, am going through blogging withdrawals.

But WTF does this have to do with rust? As you may remember, I'm turning into a total Craigslist whore. I can't stop myself - the excitement is beyond palpable. In an effort to prepare my daughter's old trike for sale, I wanted to spruce up the rusty chrome on the wheels to ensure that I can fleece the buyers out of as much money as possible. Well, not really, I just wanted to make sure it looked perty.

So, I went online to find out how to clean rust off bikes. Of course, there is a litany of toxic rust cleaners one can purchase that will do the job. As well as remove enough of your fingertips to render you untraceable by the authorities. Hmmm...

Anyway, I stumbled across a recipe using salt and lemon juice. I fingered I'd give it a try. At first it didn't look like it was doing anything until I scared my 90-year-old neighbor who was out in his yard spraying pesticides for the 18th time this week with my exclamation of "Holy Shit!".

At that moment, I knew I could not keep this little secret to myself and had to spread the Good News. Behold... the before and after pictures.


Recipe

3 Tablespoons salt
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Mix into a paste and go to town on those rusty thangs of yours.

Am I the only retarded person out there who hasn't heard of this? Oh yeah, you didn't see this post. Shhhh.....

Backyard Booty: Vegetables

This is the second installment of the Backyard Booty series. Today I want to talk about all the super exciting vegetables I'm growing this year.

Okay, most of these I grew last year, so there aren't too many surprises, but since I know better what grows successfully in our maritime location as well as what vegetables we'll actually eat, I know things will be more productive this year.

Anyway, here's the list so far (number of plants in parenthesis).

Tomato (3: Black Krim, San Marzano, Sweet Million Cherry)

Kale (2)

Lettuce (4)

Broccoli Raab (4)

Broccoli (3)

Red onions (12)

Carrots (16)

French radishes (16)

White Lisbon bunching onions (16)

Garlic (6)

Spinach, Viroflay (2)

Zucchini (3)

Sugar snap peas (2)

Sugar pie pumpkins (3)

Potatoes (French fingerling; Yukon gold)

This weekend I'll be planting some beets. We used the tops and the bottoms last year quite regularly, but I won't be growing as many of them. My broccoli plants are looking fantastic and I can't wait to try homegrown, fresh picked broccoli to see how it compares to store bought.

Did you know that broccoli leaves are edible? That's right, just prepare them as you would any other green, like beet, collard or turnip tops. Harvest and prepare only young, tender leaves as older, tougher leaves often develop a somewhat bitter taste.

I'll be keeping the spinach going since we ended up eating a lot more spinach last year than the lettuce, mostly since it's a hardier plant and can withstand aphid invasions better.

Last year my zucchini was a total bust (I know, WTF?) so I'm expecting this year to be inundated by acres of zukes. I'll be freezing them in batches for making tons of bread next fall and winter. I also will be planting more pumpkins since making my own pumpkin puree was incredibly satisfying and it gets used for so many things.

I'm not bothering with peppers, watermelon or any other heat-seeking plants. This summer is supposed to be hotter than normal, but last year was such a disappointment I don't want to relive it again. I still have a few other things to plant and a lot more of the things already in the ground to keep enough going to last through the summer.

What about you? What are you growing veggie-wise this year?

(By the way, I'll have an ant update soon.)

Project Covered Wagon

Arduous had this fun post yesterday about picking who you would like to ride your wagon. No, that's not what I mean. The question is:

Who would you pick (from the blogging world) to be your four wagon-mates on the Oregon Trail?

Here's my answer (in no particular order):

1. Sharon - Since we are both six feet tall, our Oregon bound wagon would have some sort of Amazonian woman theme. Except we'd keep our breasts. Kind of like something you'd see at Burning Man, but a covered wagon. Maybe we could trick it out with flames on the side shooting out of an airbrushed quiver. Anyway, Sharon can pretty much grow and raise anything, so she'd be a valuable asset to have around. And, she's damn funny.

2. Greenpa - If he survives the wagon ride (meaning that no one has voted him off of Project Covered Wagon), he'll know how to set up shop once we get there. He's a freakin' complete walking edition of the Firefox books. Plus, he can provide hours of entertainment and I will have someone to make fun of.

3. Chile - Quite simply because she knows how to turn shit into gold. Plus, if Greenpa crumps on us with a bad case of consumption, Chile can take over as backup MacGyver and rig us up whatever we need.

4. April - I'm sorry to say that I don't think April will actually provide much in the way of utilizable skills (unless we need a little Clay work done), but she's such a goofball and does possess one valuable attribute to the wagon ride: she's six feet tall. Oh right, I guess she does have some farm skills.

UPDATE: Make sure you check out DC's rendition of our wagon. F'ng hilarious!

So, who gets to ride your wagon?

Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa

Along the lines of my earlier post, I thought I'd let you know about a couple of TV shows that are relevant. If you get the Sundance Channel, you might want to check out this show that is airing tonight at 9:35 pm E/P:

Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa
Some 400 people make their home on a rugged 15-square mile stretch of New Mexico desert known as the Mesa. Devoid of basic amenities like running water, paved roads and power lines, the Mesa isn’t an easy place to live, but it does offer solitude and autonomy to those who need it, as well as an alternative to contemporary consumer society. This candid documentary captures the tenor of a proudly self-contained and democratic society while profiling several residents, including Maine, a magnetic Gulf War veteran; Mama Phyllis, an even-tempered former psychiatric nurse; and Stan, a kindly pig farmer and father figure to the teenage runaways that have come and gone for years.

If that doesn't float your boat, there is another show on at 9:00 pm that you might like (also on the Sundance Channel):

Big Ideas for a Small Planet: Grow
Green spaces are essential to the health and welfare of cities and suburbs alike. As urban populations swell, creative environmentalists are scouting surprising spots for vegetation amidst the cement and concrete. Suburbanites lucky enough to have green space are introducing a new level of environmental consciousness to their lawns and gardens.

I haven't watched them yet (I have Sundance's The Green series on DVD, but have been too busy to watch and review), but hope to do so one of these days.

Voluntary simplicity

On Saturday, the New York Times ran an article, Chasing Utopia, Family Imagines No Possessions, that warmed the cockles of my heart.

It covered several families who are downshifting to a life less harried and one focusing more on self-sufficiency rather than consumerism. In essence, the families, whether they intentionally are or not, are following the basic tenets of the Voluntary Simplicity movement.

One family you may already know about. It is Matt and Sara Janssen - she writes the eco blog, Walk Slowly, Live Wildly, which I read from time to time. They have completely sold most of their worldly possessions and are travelling the country in a used veggie oil fueled motor home, teaching others how to convert their diesel vehicles into a spent fast-food grease machine. The Live Lightly Tour is quite an exciting adventure and one which I've been following closely.

Another family has sold all their possessions as well and is planning on moving from Austin, Texas to a rural area of Vermont. They are currently looking into purchasing a log cabin and hope to set up a homestead, grow their own food and homeschool their kids. In other words, the classic "back to the land" scenario.

Finally, an Annapolis, MD family moved out of their apartment with an "everything must go" party and, along with their 3-year-old son, set sail on a 44-by-24-foot catamaran. Are you listening Burbanmom? (And in case you argue that you have more than one child, I know a family who lives on a sailboat that has one kindergartner and twin 4-year-olds.)

For those of you who participated in my post last week about living out your wildest dream, you may be interested in reading this article.

Of course, this is just begging for a poll. I'm throwing in one other example, the Dervaes family in Pasadena who practice the ultimate in urban homesteading, making phenomenal use of their suburban lot to grow a tremendous amount of fruits and vegetables (6,000 pounds annually), raise bees, goats, chickens and whatnot. If you've been living under a rock and haven't heard of them yet, I urge you to check out their website.



Photo courtesy of the New York Times

Ants in my plants

Last year I reported that I had bumbles in my hole, but this year's infestation seems to be along the lines of smaller, less cutesy critters.

Yesterday I planted a bunch of herbs (more on that in a later post) and was about to plant some vegetable seedlings into one of my raised beds, the one that hosts all those strawberries except for the back row, when low and behold as I was amending the soil I noticed an enormous ant infestation. Greenpa, do you know something I don't?

I do have a bit of an aphid infestation on my oregano, which I'm working on, à la a mixture of soap, water and oil. Hopefully, clearing up the aphid population will help get rid of the ants and, thus, no more ant on aphid anal action. I'm not that desperate for entertainment. Anyway, I sprayed some "natural" mint oil stuff on the little buggers today in hopes that it will make them go away.

Does anyone have any other recommendation for getting rid of ants in vegetable gardens that is safe for growing food crops? The ants are those little tiny brownish ones. I don't mind a few ants here and there, but these suckers are swarming.

Endangered Species Day

Today, May 16, is Endangered Species Day, a resolution introduced by Maine Senator Susan Collins and California Senator Dianne Feinstein to help increase awareness about threats to endangered wildlife, fish and plants, and actions we can all take to help them.

In honor of this special day, I would like to point your attention to the plight of the endangered sea turtles, ancient air-breathing reptiles that date back more than 100 million years to the time of the Dinosaurs.

Throughout the world, and in particular, the Gulf of Mexico region, sea turtle populations have been severely destroyed by years of careless fishing and hunting practices, exploitation of eggs, rapid land development, pollution, and destruction of sea turtle nesting habitats.

This post's content was provided by the Association for the Protection of the Environment and the Marine Turtle in Southern Baja (ASUPMATOMA), a non-profit organization based in Cabo San Lucas dedicated to the protection of endangered sea turtles and environment of Baja California Sur, Mexico.

The first person to guess where the tattoo of this sea turtle is on my body gets a big Friday Prize (consisting of nothing but a pat on the back). And, no, this isn't the tattoo I got during last year's Low Impact Week.

Backyard Booty: Fruits

This new series, Backyard Booty, will not be a montage of pictures of my ass. Sorry. Instead, it will be a description of what fabulous edibles I am growing on my urban homestead.

This edition is all about the fruits. I, of course, will be updating this as I add new fruits to the mix. I have grandiose plans, but not a whole lot of time lately. Couple that with some severely wacky weather. For instance, we've had winter temperatures up through May and this weekend it's supposed to be 90. WTF?

Anyway, I haven't really added anything yet this year to the fruits but I do hope to eventually dig out some more rose bushes to add in dwarf apple trees. What I really want to plant are grapes, both table and wine, I just need to scrape up some space for it.

Here's what's growing this year so far:

4 x 1 Cherry Tree. What this means is that 4 types of cherries have been grafted onto one tree. This is great for urban yards where you don't have a whole lot of space to make sure you have enough cherry trees for cross-pollination at the correct time o' year. I bought this last year at Rain Tree Nursery.

Dwarf Negronne Fig. I also bought this one last year. It's minuscule, but it is supposed to get about six feet tall if I let it. It's currently less than 2 feet, but it's trying real hard to produce fruit. These trees are great - they produce fruit twice a year. I just need to be patient or buy a more mature one to supplement my figgy needs.

Blueberries. I have Bluecrop and Olympia varieties. I have space for more, but I just haven't had a chance to go out an get some more. But I'd like to add two more bushes for maximum blueberry action.

Tristar strawberries. Oh, how I've been patiently waiting for you strawbs. I planted these last year and this year am suppose to get some sort of strawberry bounty. I have about 16 plants, which sounds like a lot but it isn't. The Tristar grow well for this region, and produce all summer long. So far, we have flowers going to town, so I'm hoping it has survived all the late snow. Go, strawberries, go!

Neighborhood booty. Not that these are growing in my yard, but I have some neighborhood bounty that I'm hoping to take advantage of this year. One neighbor at the end of the block has a plum tree that hangs quite a bit onto the public sidewalk. Last year I availed the tree of all the fruit that was created a public nuisance/hazard by dropping fruit onto the sidewalk and attracting bees and yellow jackets. Not sure if this is legal, but no one said anything! My next door neighbor has an apple tree. I'm fairly sure they aren't eating any of the fruit off of it because, well, I'm watching them. Mwwoohahaha!

Down the road there is a ginormous fig tree that is on the public parking strip. I daydream about camouflaging myself and making a midnight foray to steal fruit from this very mature fig tree. Maybe this year I'll have the huevos to collect some.

Farther afield. A friend from work has an orchard in Central WA. I'm hoping to save him again this year from an overwhelming amount of organic peaches, apples and whatever else I can get my hands on.

What kind of fruit do you have growing this year?

Is McCain green or brown?

I really don't like to bring up politics and I generally don't. But, I keep seeing news headlines about John McCain's stance on the environment and global warming and how he's trying to reach out to the green crowd.

Yesterday, McCain was in the Seattle area and even went on a little promo hike. Ehrr.. I mean a "short nature walk". This brings a whole new meaning to the term campaign stumping. Anyway, I guess I really can't criticize since I don't see Hillary out there wobbling around on her cankles.

McCain's talk, to a group of about 100 green businesses, centered around the idea that promoting "green" business practices would be good for the economy because it will encourage ingenuity and new products.

McCain stated, "I just firmly and steadfastly reject the notion that this is going to be something that's harmful to our economy." He also stated that the wind-turbine company in Portland, OR that he visited is employing thousands of people and is "contributing to probably as clean a technology as you'll ever find."

He, apparently, spent some time haranguing the CEO of REI regarding what ideas she had towards greening up businesses, even going so far as to asking her, "What do you want me to do?" Maybe she should have suggested some more suitable hiking boots? Might I suggest some McKeen's?

So, has John McCain suddenly gone green or is he just full of shit?

Y tu madre tambien

Although no one has accused me today of having balls, like Sharon, it could certainly be applicable.

My Mother's Day was quite uneventful. Since I have given my husband strict instructions not to get me anything, there wasn't a whole lot of wiggle room there.

I made dinner for everyone. Well, it was more breakfast than anything - corn waffles with lavender whipped cream. My husband spent most of the day at the clinic going back and forth for labs, a clinic and a platelet transfusion. His second this weekend. At least it wasn't the marathon blood transfusion like on Friday (10:00 am to 8:00 pm). He is in an incredible amount of pain which doesn't exactly make it much better.

So, I can't say this has been the best Mother's Day, but at least I have my kids around me. My Mom, on the other hand, is being entertained by my brother, knowing that this weekend was going to be crazy for us.

Anyway, while all of you readers may not exactly be mothers (especially you guys out there), we all have mothers. Or, at least someone gave birth to you.

So, what's your favorite memory of your Mom?

Lightening the load

I'm finally getting around to selling a bunch of items we no longer use or need. They are mostly kid related. I managed to sell two Britax car seats in the last 24 hours and I've listed a Medela pump as well as a crib to sell.

I'll also be giving away a booster chair and will probably list some Cooshie boosters soon. I have a list of other things I'll try to sell soon when I get a chance.

In the meantime, it's been fun "earning" money for things that have just been sitting in storage in the basement.

A flotilla of foam

A while back I reported about the whole idea of Moonvertising, where advertisers project corporate logos onto the moon. Fortunately, it was just an advertising joke - a scheme to get people interested in a third-rate, tasteless beer.

Well, lo and behold, someone else has stepped up to the plate to ensure corporate advertising infiltrates our airspace. Now, I realize that we already get slightly bombarded by blimps and plane contrails exposing the virtues of such fine products as Goodyear and its ilk, but this just grinds my crackers.

Picture the Manhattan skyline filled with Nike swooshes. Or the golden arches of McDonald's gently drifting over Los Angeles.

A special-effects entrepreneur from Alabama has come up with a way to fill the sky with foamy clouds as big as 4 feet across and shaped like corporate logos - Flogos, as he calls them.

Picture me writing my Congressperson complaining about the intrusiveness of Flogos in my appreciation of the heavens. Now, while they are touted as "green and 100% environmentally safe" it doesn't diminish the environmentally unfriendly aspect of "clouding" (ha!) the sky with stupid logos and other dumb crap I'd rather not see.

It's bad enough that we have to bear witness to the myriad of billboards out there, but now when I'm lying in the grass with my kids enjoying the sky, there will be no creative "what do you see in the clouds". Instead, we'll be bombarded by visions of Mickey Mouse, Apple, Nike, McDonald's and other corporate schtick.

Am I the only one annoyed at this? What's next? I giant set of floaty tits to scare the kids?

Movie Night: Surfwise

Surfwise follows the odyssey of legendary surfer Dr. Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz.

Doc, a Stanford trained successful doctor, turned his back on his profession to follow his dreams, taking his wife Juliette and their nine children - all of whom were "homeschooled" on the beaches of Southern California, Hawaii and Mexico - along for the ride. They surfed every day of their lives and adhered to a strict diet of only organic and/or raw foods with no sugar or fat.

This documentary, which opens in select theaters on May 9th, is reminiscent of the Christopher Mcandless story of Into the Wild - a man staying true to his dreams in spite of the pressure of society to conform.

Doc Paskowitz certainly paints a very intriguing picture of the alternative life he chose for himself and his family. By turns he seems both Messianic and maniacal. He ruled his roost with an iron hand and set the tone for what was and wasn't acceptable. Doc is quite a character: extremely engaging, smart and funny to watch. The film is peppered with a spirit of "I can't believe he just said that" voyeurism. Watching the octogenarian exercise naked gives you the solid sense that his lifelong exercise regimen has really paid off.

The interviews with the children (all now quite grown) are also contradictory in their ruminations of the glory days of living free while at the same time somewhat bitter for it. All of them seem to appreciate their unorthodox upbringing but are also resentful for having not been given the tools to operate in modern society. I would argue that the children were not exactly homeschooled, but rather no schooled. As they try to make their way in the world, they find that a lack of education (even informal) is to their detriment.

More troubling is that each of them has found a moderate amount of success either in the music or surfing world, but were ill-equipped to handle the impending fame and dubious about the monetary rewards that came with it. Having learned all their lives that money doesn't matter makes it difficult to accept it later.

Their story is extremely inspiring, but cautionary at the same time (do you sense a pattern here?). Watching this movie will make you want to sell all your worldly possessions and buy an RV, convert it to run on waste vegetable oil and travel the country, living from whim to whim. Just make sure you actually educate your kids in the process.

If you get the opportunity to watch this well-made documentary, I urge you to do so. It is time well spent. I can honestly say this is one of those movies that moved me in many different ways and has truly influenced the way I view my future and the lifestyle choices we will be making.

Religious asceticism and consumerism

I don't discuss religion very much on this blog, mostly because I don't prescribe to any particular one, but I am always curious about other's belief systems regardless of what they are. Having ruminated on the most varied of religions while studying Anthropology, I have a tremendous amount of respect for the people that practice pretty much any ideology and am open minded to most.

In many of the world's religions there is a strong vein of anti-materialism. Jesus counseled his followers that did have money to give it to the poor and hungry: Jesus said, "If you will be perfect, go and sell that you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me."

Buddha tried to find enlightenment through near total deprivation of worldly goods, the Prophet Muhammad lived an austere life, and more recently, individuals such as Gandhi have advised that people "live simply so that others may simply live."

Of course, everyone's idea of wealth and excess are different and one man's Hummer can be contrived as another's Geo Metro. How do we determine what is sufficient and what is excess?

Not unlike the message we read in Affluenza, Father Timothy V. Vaverek has written the following:

The consumerist lust for a better life is inherently destabilizing of our personal and economic lives. Since we are not satisfied with the good we possess and since our self-worth is connected to never settling for less, we must always be earning and acquiring more. Hence we work longer hours, fill our days with more self-actualizing activities, and increase spending so that we can have the better life now. In this way we become slaves to dissatisfaction, time, and money--harsh task masters who allow no rest.

So, how can someone who follows a belief system that promotes some level of asceticism also accept materialism? Is this contradiction justifiable? For example, is it possible to follow the teachings of Jesus and accept personal, monetary wealth at the same time?

I'm interested to get your input on how your religious beliefs affect your opinions on consumerism. Do your religious views (or lack of them) directly drive your desire to limit consumeristic desires in your life?