Nature

People keep congratulating me when they learn it takes me six months to accumulate a load of landfill garbage. It's still pollution. Just because people produce a lot more garbage doesn't make mine any less so. Congratulating someone for accumulating garbage slowly is like congratulating them for kicking a puppy lightly. Kicking a puppy doesn't deserve congratulations at all. It reminds me of this Chris Rock bit. He curses says a lot of curses and racial epithets, so only watch if you can handle them. It's very funny, and illustrates another situation where congratulations are not in order. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0B_ekSrsEk Raise your expectations, people! Stop polluting.

I've started calling my diet unamerican. What I eat is Delicious Convenient Cheap Nutritious Local Community building (many guests come over instead of meeting at bars and restaurants) Non-polluting Seasonal Home made This seems the opposite of how most Americans eat. They go out, spend a lot on stuff reheated after being manufactured in a factory. This spring, I can't keep up with how much food I'm getting for so little money, especially with free add-ons I can't say no to, like the windowsill garden that is exploding with greens and flavor, more than I expected. My Community Supported Agriculture (aka farm share) weekly pickup After my first farm share pick up, my fridge was full. I mean completely full. I volunteered that evening so…

I met a friend at a café even though I don't drink coffee. He ordered a croissant, which was coated with confectioners sugar. Looking around the café, I noticed nearly everyone had ordered some similar sweet baked products---donuts, cupcakes, and so on. No one was eating anything with nutrition besides calories. The products looked like they gave pleasure---a moment away from the challenges of life. Eating this candy, makes you think about anything else. An escape. Though I normally associate cafés with coffee, this one seemed to supply as much sugar as coffee. Probably most of them do these days. I couldn't help but think of an opium den. Why is refining the powder that makes you feel good and your troubles go away illegal…

I just found a new online periodical I enjoy and find educational: Low Tech magazine. It complements works I've enjoyed like the Do The Math blog, sadly inactive since 2015, but that I reread sometimes, and the book, Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air. I wrote the following about the first article I read there, Can We Run Society on Human Power Alone, which I followed up by reading several other articles there, and starting a backlog I'll return to. I partly address what others wrote in the online community I posted to, but I think what I wrote makes sense on its own. One of the more thought-provoking articles I've read in a long time. If you think they're dreaming, I suggest reading it…