Disclaimer: This cannot be completed in 4 year, maybe 8 years but unlikely. This is my political stance as if I were running for presidency. Some of my stances are brash and pragmatic. I'm tired of high up officials rolling Benjamins telling me what's what.
11 January 2012
04 October 2011
I am where I might not be soon.
A new year is approaching sooner than you may realize. I may be in a new place. A place that is not near or juxtapose where I am now. Different landscape, different people, different attitudes. I make no promises yet but if the way the trees are bending from the breeze, that's where we may be.
Away from the crowd that doesn't think with their brains but gladly accepts unsound, unreasonable info. Away from the highways of blind, erratic drivers. Away from close minded racism. Away from unbearable hellacious heat.
Near kin of my heart. Near cold unforgiving weather. Near intellect and acceptance. Near rational deductive individuals. Nearer my aspirations.
This is all speculative so far.
14 November 2010
Simple Ones: Healthy Oatmeal Granola Cookies
I like to take recipes and tailor them with healthy things to create tasty treats. Granola bars are way to expensive in the store and are wrapped in more packaging than Christmas. Substituting healthier, better quality ingredients can make a world of difference. It does take a bit of trial and error. I, personally, like to avoid bleached or refined products. If I wanted the rubbish, I'd pour myself a glass of bleach to go with some bleached white bread and white sugar.
These cookies have fiber, ancient grains, and are low glycemic (because of the agave nectar). One or two of these around that 2:30 pm low point really brighten up my day and give my energy. Who needs 5 hour energy anyways. pisshaw. Enjoy!
These cookies have fiber, ancient grains, and are low glycemic (because of the agave nectar). One or two of these around that 2:30 pm low point really brighten up my day and give my energy. Who needs 5 hour energy anyways. pisshaw. Enjoy!
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In large bowl, mix together butter, agave nectar/honey, and brown sugar until uniformly mixed. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until fluffy. Stir together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ground flax seed, spelt, coconut shreds and salt. Stir in oats. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. Place cookies onto sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.
I recommend refrigeration them because the flax seed and they keep longer.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In large bowl, mix together butter, agave nectar/honey, and brown sugar until uniformly mixed. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until fluffy. Stir together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ground flax seed, spelt, coconut shreds and salt. Stir in oats. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. Place cookies onto sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.
I recommend refrigeration them because the flax seed and they keep longer.
30 October 2010
What All Humans Seek
So this summer on my days off I'd drive down to my grandmother's and we chill out. Amidst our conversations, it became quite clear to me what all people seek in this world, really whether they realize it or not.
All people just want to be loved and respected. Love and respect can be interpreted in many ways. We do things that we don't even realize but we want to be treated with respect and cared about by others.
My grandmother brought up the issue: well what about the homeless drunk on the sidewalk? and treating him differently than others. I stressed the point that we are all human and deserve the basic decency of respect. We can't judge people fairly or correctly. Our mind uses stereotypes to quickly categorize people based on primitive characteristics. It would take hours to figure out someone. Despite the fact many people seem to fall directly into stereotypes just means they exhibit more characteristics of group of people.
Think about it, prostitutes don't necessarily whore themselves out because of enjoyment. In a strange convoluted way, by earning the money they can afford the necessities of life to feel respectable. Humans go all their life looking to be loved. Family, friends, lovers, compliments from a passing stranger, teams, there are endless possibilities.
I guess what I'm itching to say is: don't judge, you don't know people's past and what makes them who they are. Respect others and give them the time of day. We all need to be loved. So the next time you walk by someone on the sidewalk give them a smile. Let someone over in front of you, you never know what these small acts might mean to someone's day. They may have been just on their way to end their life.....
All people just want to be loved and respected. Love and respect can be interpreted in many ways. We do things that we don't even realize but we want to be treated with respect and cared about by others.
My grandmother brought up the issue: well what about the homeless drunk on the sidewalk? and treating him differently than others. I stressed the point that we are all human and deserve the basic decency of respect. We can't judge people fairly or correctly. Our mind uses stereotypes to quickly categorize people based on primitive characteristics. It would take hours to figure out someone. Despite the fact many people seem to fall directly into stereotypes just means they exhibit more characteristics of group of people.
Think about it, prostitutes don't necessarily whore themselves out because of enjoyment. In a strange convoluted way, by earning the money they can afford the necessities of life to feel respectable. Humans go all their life looking to be loved. Family, friends, lovers, compliments from a passing stranger, teams, there are endless possibilities.
I guess what I'm itching to say is: don't judge, you don't know people's past and what makes them who they are. Respect others and give them the time of day. We all need to be loved. So the next time you walk by someone on the sidewalk give them a smile. Let someone over in front of you, you never know what these small acts might mean to someone's day. They may have been just on their way to end their life.....
06 June 2010
Simple Ones: Ambrosia & Fruit Popstickles
Homemade Ambrosia
Its not wonder its called Food of the Gods
1 Can of Pineapple chunks
1 Can of Mandarin oranges
1 Large Apple
1 Small bag of Almond Slices
1 Bag of Shredded Coconut
1 Small Bottle of Organic Whole Whipping Cream
Some 10x powdered sugar
1. In a large bowl mix up almond slices, coconut, pineapple chunks, mandarin oranges and apples (washed, cut, dunked in lemon juice).
2. In another bowl pour in whole whipping cream and some powdered sugar. There is no specific amount of sugar because it depends on how sweet you prefer it to taste. Mix with the mixer on high for about 5 minutes. The texture will become stiff and whip creamy looking. Taste to see if it needs more 10x sugar. If so mix in more.
3. Dump fruit and nuts into the whipping cream bowl. Stir around till even coverage on all the food particles.
4. Scoop whip cream covered fruit and nuts back into the original bowl. Cover, refridgerate, chomp, smile!
Fruit PopStickles
Fruity, Sticky and Healthy
2 Cups fruits of your choosing can be fresh or frozen
1 Cup of Organic Yogurt (plain or vanilla) bonus points for homemade yogurt
If you want to: sprinkle in shredded coconut, flaxseed, ground up nuts.
Blender or immersion blender
Popsicle tray or silicon push pop molds
1. Add about 2 cups of the fruit, 1 cup of yogurt less than 1/4 cup of water or fruit juice to the blender.
2. Blend until all food is sufficiently liquefied.
3. Pour into the Popsicle tray and freeze.
25 May 2010
Food is Power (excellent read)
Excerpt from The Vegan Reader
Food Is Power
The great humanitarian and farmer, John Jeavons, once said:
"Food is Power…Are You In Control Of Yours? "
As an American and an inheritor of the legacy of a system that has valued money over brotherly love, I know my people, poor people, innocent people, unthinking people, simple, decent people have been burned one too many times by corporations that have marketed ‘progress’ and ‘convenience’ to them.
In this country, many of us are beginning to realize that when we traded in our own skills for the convenient agreement of others doing our work in exchange for money, we won ourselves a world of pesticides, polluted skies and water, contaminated food and foreign sweatshop labor. We stopped living like the incredibly skilled American Indians, or even the early pioneers, nearly all of whom knew how to grow food, make fire, build shelter, find water, craft clothing and feed people. We have become a nation of unskilled workers who pay others to do everything we need for the very basics of being alive, and those we have given our money to have failed to resist the temptation to increase profit by casting care for human and environmental health aside.
Food is power, and by taking the control of it back into your hands as much as you possibly can, you are strengthening yourself as a human person. I realize, few of us are going to be able to create a rice paddy in our backyard, but we can get as deep down on the chain of events as possible. We can purchase rice that is grown without chemicals and is processed as little as possible. We can cook our own rice, and we can make our own milk from it to feed our dear ones well.
You can retrieve your power, your authority over your own life in the steps and stages that feel comfortable and reasonable to you. Today you have learned how to make rice milk – and if you try it, I think you’ll decide it’s absolutely delicious. More than this, though, I think you may feel that you’ve really accomplished something good. Maybe for you, this is a bold act of defiance against the corruption of the Organics industry with big, moneyed, dirty corporate players. Maybe it’s the thougthful act of the gourmet cook who insists on having fresh foods instead of processed ones that have been sitting on a supermarket shelf for who knows how long. Or, maybe it’s just a new way to take better care of yourself by taking the time you deserve to prepare wholesome foods. All reasons are good reasons if they help you to act with diginity and discernment in your daily life.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this reskilling lesson. Let us know if you give making your own rice milk a try.
Food Is Power
The great humanitarian and farmer, John Jeavons, once said:
"Food is Power…Are You In Control Of Yours? "
As an American and an inheritor of the legacy of a system that has valued money over brotherly love, I know my people, poor people, innocent people, unthinking people, simple, decent people have been burned one too many times by corporations that have marketed ‘progress’ and ‘convenience’ to them.
In this country, many of us are beginning to realize that when we traded in our own skills for the convenient agreement of others doing our work in exchange for money, we won ourselves a world of pesticides, polluted skies and water, contaminated food and foreign sweatshop labor. We stopped living like the incredibly skilled American Indians, or even the early pioneers, nearly all of whom knew how to grow food, make fire, build shelter, find water, craft clothing and feed people. We have become a nation of unskilled workers who pay others to do everything we need for the very basics of being alive, and those we have given our money to have failed to resist the temptation to increase profit by casting care for human and environmental health aside.
Food is power, and by taking the control of it back into your hands as much as you possibly can, you are strengthening yourself as a human person. I realize, few of us are going to be able to create a rice paddy in our backyard, but we can get as deep down on the chain of events as possible. We can purchase rice that is grown without chemicals and is processed as little as possible. We can cook our own rice, and we can make our own milk from it to feed our dear ones well.
You can retrieve your power, your authority over your own life in the steps and stages that feel comfortable and reasonable to you. Today you have learned how to make rice milk – and if you try it, I think you’ll decide it’s absolutely delicious. More than this, though, I think you may feel that you’ve really accomplished something good. Maybe for you, this is a bold act of defiance against the corruption of the Organics industry with big, moneyed, dirty corporate players. Maybe it’s the thougthful act of the gourmet cook who insists on having fresh foods instead of processed ones that have been sitting on a supermarket shelf for who knows how long. Or, maybe it’s just a new way to take better care of yourself by taking the time you deserve to prepare wholesome foods. All reasons are good reasons if they help you to act with diginity and discernment in your daily life.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this reskilling lesson. Let us know if you give making your own rice milk a try.
20 May 2010
03 May 2010
Dreadlock wearers brush off stereotypes
http://www.freep.com/article/20100503/FEATURES01/5030302/Dreadlock-wearers-brush-off-stereotypes
Crystal Bowersox rocks, it's plain to see. The folksy guitar-slinger from rural Ohio has dominated this lackluster season of "American Idol" with her vocal prowess and easygoing stage presence.
So why, then, are so many people hung up on her hair?
Via blogs and message boards, fans have issued proclamations on the long, blonde, ropelike dreadlocks that Bowersox, 24, sports. Some love them, but some deride them with a passion.
Venomous adjectives such as "dirty, filthy and trashy" have been used to describe them.
All this vitriol underscores the many stigmas and stereotypes attached to a hairstyle that dates back to ancient Egypt and, more recently, is often associated with reggae artist Bob Marley.
But even though such mainstream celebrities as Whoopi Goldberg, singers Lenny Kravitz and Adam Duritz, baseball star Manny Ramirez and author Alice Walker, have sprouted dreadlocks through the years, it's a hairstyle that remains highly misunderstood.
Loretta Green-Williams, 56, and Jordan Aiken, 23, have their own tales of dreadlocks woe. Green-Williams, a Pittsburg, Calif., resident, notices how people "talk down" to her and question her intellect -- never mind that she holds a master's degree from University of San Francisco. Aiken, a recent graduate of UC Berkeley, recalls how sororities and certain clubs shunned her.
Like others who favor dreadlocks, Aiken has seen them arouse curiosity in friends and strangers. A lot of people want to touch them. She has also dealt with what might be the biggest misconception about dreadlocks: that they're the unclean, unkempt byproduct of neglect.
"They're not dirty. I wash my hair. I really do," she says, laughing. "No one ever says they smell bad or anything."
Indeed, Michelle Robinson, who specializes in locking (or knitting) hair in her Oakland, Calif., salon, Naturally Yours Hair Care, insists that the hairstyle actually can be very high maintenance, with some dreadheads spending several hours a week on grooming and upkeep.
"There's a lot of ignorance out there. What we're basically talking about is just a larger strand of hair," says Robinson.
One issue concerning the hairstyle is tinged with tension: Who should wear them? For Rastafarians, dreadlocks are a symbol of inner spirituality. For many blacks, dreadlocks represent a vivid rejection of assimilation and an expression of racial pride. That's why some regard Caucasians with locks as "culture vultures."
For the record, Bowersox, who has had her locks for four-plus years, has said in various interviews that she has no intention of snipping them off just to please the "Idol" voters.
That sentiment draws a hearty cheer from Aiken, who has sported her blonde locks for a similar amount of time.
"It's a singing competition. They should probably focus on her voice," she says. "If she loves her locks, I think she should just rock them and ignore what the people are saying.
"They're probably just jealous anyway."
Crystal Bowersox rocks, it's plain to see. The folksy guitar-slinger from rural Ohio has dominated this lackluster season of "American Idol" with her vocal prowess and easygoing stage presence.
So why, then, are so many people hung up on her hair?
Via blogs and message boards, fans have issued proclamations on the long, blonde, ropelike dreadlocks that Bowersox, 24, sports. Some love them, but some deride them with a passion.
Venomous adjectives such as "dirty, filthy and trashy" have been used to describe them.
All this vitriol underscores the many stigmas and stereotypes attached to a hairstyle that dates back to ancient Egypt and, more recently, is often associated with reggae artist Bob Marley.
But even though such mainstream celebrities as Whoopi Goldberg, singers Lenny Kravitz and Adam Duritz, baseball star Manny Ramirez and author Alice Walker, have sprouted dreadlocks through the years, it's a hairstyle that remains highly misunderstood.
Loretta Green-Williams, 56, and Jordan Aiken, 23, have their own tales of dreadlocks woe. Green-Williams, a Pittsburg, Calif., resident, notices how people "talk down" to her and question her intellect -- never mind that she holds a master's degree from University of San Francisco. Aiken, a recent graduate of UC Berkeley, recalls how sororities and certain clubs shunned her.
Like others who favor dreadlocks, Aiken has seen them arouse curiosity in friends and strangers. A lot of people want to touch them. She has also dealt with what might be the biggest misconception about dreadlocks: that they're the unclean, unkempt byproduct of neglect.
"They're not dirty. I wash my hair. I really do," she says, laughing. "No one ever says they smell bad or anything."
Indeed, Michelle Robinson, who specializes in locking (or knitting) hair in her Oakland, Calif., salon, Naturally Yours Hair Care, insists that the hairstyle actually can be very high maintenance, with some dreadheads spending several hours a week on grooming and upkeep.
"There's a lot of ignorance out there. What we're basically talking about is just a larger strand of hair," says Robinson.
One issue concerning the hairstyle is tinged with tension: Who should wear them? For Rastafarians, dreadlocks are a symbol of inner spirituality. For many blacks, dreadlocks represent a vivid rejection of assimilation and an expression of racial pride. That's why some regard Caucasians with locks as "culture vultures."
For the record, Bowersox, who has had her locks for four-plus years, has said in various interviews that she has no intention of snipping them off just to please the "Idol" voters.
That sentiment draws a hearty cheer from Aiken, who has sported her blonde locks for a similar amount of time.
"It's a singing competition. They should probably focus on her voice," she says. "If she loves her locks, I think she should just rock them and ignore what the people are saying.
"They're probably just jealous anyway."
30 April 2010
My Name is Magola, You Killed My Forest-Prepare to Die!
I'm so tired of dinky zip lock bags. Sure they're great. But taking a lunch includes about 5 or so them each day. bleh! When I worked at the tree place, this girl made a "wrap-n-mat-esque" sandwich holder. It was pretty neat. She could throw it in the washer or dishwasher to clean it. Let's think about it though: sandwich needs a bag, pickles need a bag, carrot stick needs a bag, peeled orange needs a bag, crackers come pre-wrapped and so does luna bar. Pretty soon I'll be arriving in bubble wrap to complete the plastic disaster. So today in honor of ARBOR DAY please reconsider your plastic usage!! Those jelly sandles you're wearing- yeah those too are not so hot for the environment. If you've got any knowledge on how to sew a stitch here's how to make a simple sandwich holder.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Reusable-Sandwich-Wrap/
If you don't- you can buy a few and use them instead of plastic bags!
Has them for fairly cheap!
http://www.reusablebags.com/store/wrapnmat-c-82.html
Top that off with a reusable canvas carry-all bag and you're packing
28 April 2010
Bodies are Art
I, personally, feel that the human body is a beautiful art form. It is complete with curves and colors, textures and shadows. I was 16 yrs old when I saw a truly lovely nude painting. I had been to museums and such as a kid but none of those nude sculptures or art seemed to really pique my interest.
The picture was set against a light forest green that complimented the fair alabaster skin-tone of the subject. She wasn't thin or fat- rather plump. Her brownish-red locks were pulled back into a messy bun. I asked my friend about the painting and she carelessly wrote it off as, "oh that's my grandmother". From then on, I've always thought how poignent it would be to have a nice leather bound photo album of classy nudes of myself. I would want the prints to have some black and white ones, sepia ones and color ones. Lighting would be a key element.
Its not because I'm creepy or have a strange nudity fetish but I view the human body as beautiful. Too much taboo has been put on the body. Many people are ashamed of their beauty and are not allowed to expose it. Its not right.
I may pursue this hope of mine someday. I think it would be something nice to look back on when I am older.
The picture was set against a light forest green that complimented the fair alabaster skin-tone of the subject. She wasn't thin or fat- rather plump. Her brownish-red locks were pulled back into a messy bun. I asked my friend about the painting and she carelessly wrote it off as, "oh that's my grandmother". From then on, I've always thought how poignent it would be to have a nice leather bound photo album of classy nudes of myself. I would want the prints to have some black and white ones, sepia ones and color ones. Lighting would be a key element.
Its not because I'm creepy or have a strange nudity fetish but I view the human body as beautiful. Too much taboo has been put on the body. Many people are ashamed of their beauty and are not allowed to expose it. Its not right.
I may pursue this hope of mine someday. I think it would be something nice to look back on when I am older.
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