We’re finishing up our vacation at the Beaton family lake house on Tennessee/Mississippi border. It’s been really relaxing most of the time, especially compared to the all-consuming house renovation.
I’ve still had to keep working on my web work which wouldn’t have been too bad but I have to drive several miles to get Wi-Fi and I can only work sitting in my car for as long as my battery will last. That’s meant a couple trips a day every work day. I turned on the broadband wireless card that’s built into my laptop but the lake house is in a black hole for cell phones…
I haven’t really written much about my new apartment. Essentially I live one block down from I old apartment, except now I live on the 7th floor instead of the 3rd and have an awesome view out of the windows in the living room. I live in a neighborhood called Mt. Vernon which also known as the cultural district. It’s basically in the north east corner of downtown Baltimore.
There are a bunch of cool museums, churches, monuments, statues and generally cool old buildings around the area. The Maryland Institute College of Art(MICA) is right down the road so there’s a bunch of cool wild art sculptures and displays around also, but especially on the boulevard that runs in front of my place
Gore is passionate, convincing and inspiring. Now I understand what he’s going to do with his new ad campaign. I’m going carbon neutral. I want a footprint so light you can’t make it out in the sand. I want to be a part of the hero generation. Let’s save this planet people!
By the way, you should definitely check out more of the TED talks. They have amazing speakers that give really interesting presentations, performances, etc.
I have a new favorite magazine. I’ve heard about Mother Earth News and probably seen copies of it laying around since I was young but never really read it until a couple weeks ago. I got a subscription after reading about the articles coming out in the next issue and after reading it cover to cover I ordered the 40 years of archives on CD. I can already tell it was an excellent investment. That’s a lot of wisdom for $50.
I’ve been reading back through the issues looking for articles and information that might help me on my way to a sustainable existence. I’d say about 75% of the articles are relevant or interesting to me. I’m especially interested in the renewable energy, natural building, gardening and water/rainwater management articles. I came across a really interesting one on solar power and wanted to share a few of the highlights…[continued]
I believe that this guy, Richard Heinberg, is absolutely 100% right on the money. I haven’t seen someone sum up everything I’ve read this well yet and I’m so glad I found it. This is why I’d like to start an organic permaculture farm and live a sustainable lifestyle. After I get myself taken care of I want to start working on a local level around the farm to teach others and help the community work on larger community projects that can’t be done by individuals.
Anyway, watch these videos. They’re important. You may not want to hear it, but it may be the most important thing you’ve ever watched.
Click to continue reading this entry and view the other 5 parts to this talk.
I haven’t written much in the last few weeks. I’ve been waiting to write something worthwhile. There is so much happening in politics, but I’m so tired of the litany of talking heads that I don’t feel the discourse needs any more noise. Dream tickets, hope, change, change, and more change. […]
I was thinking about what I will tell future generations about what life was like during the time of oil. Whenever I think generally of oil my first thought is the opening credits to “The Beverly Hillbillies”. I found myself thinking of those nicknames, “black gold” and “Texas tea”.
While I was living in El Salvador I developed the tendency to think of the Spanish version of words and phrases. It was just mental practice of thinks I might want to say.
So when I translated “black gold” to “oro negro” I started actually thinking about the latin origins of “oro”. I’m sure that it is derived from the same word that we use for “ore”, which immediately brings to mind mining…
I have a morning ritual. I go to three different web sites that simply by clicking on a link and shown a page with advertisers you can get those same advertisers to donate cups of food to the poor, save so many square feet of rain forest, and plant a tree(every 5th click).
The pages only let you do this once every day per internet connection. So every morning I make the rounds to www.TheHungerSite.com, www.EcologyFund.com, and www.LandCareNiagara.com and get my karma points for the day. Every workday I also make the rounds at work and rack up double points…
I found this video clip on Alternet earlier and I was well…shocked. I knew that the republicans were using September 11th to push all kinds of radical and obscene legislation through congress but I hadn’t really thought about it being used as frequently as it has. Apparently, the video is a sort of introduction to a new book called “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism” by Naomi Klein. It looks like she did a lot of really great research and connected a lot of dots. Its on my gotta have book list and I’ll get paid right before the September 18th when it gets released. Well, let me shut up and you watch the video for yourselves, we’ll talk after you’re done.
In a short synopsis she has on her web page about the book, she says that she tracked this trend back
My grandmother created and guards my family tree. It’s not very detailed, mainly names and dates, but it’s still intriguing. I suppose it’s human nature to want know when and where your ancestors lived. It’s integral in fact to answering the ego’s demand to know who it is. All of this in the hope of figuring out why you’re here and what your purpose is. Who, what, where, when and why. Life is really just one big question, but what if we don’t like the answers.
I’m reading a book that I’ll write a review about when I finish. It tracks the evolution of man over the last 5 million years when our ancestors split with the chimpanzees. I began thinking about what those ancestors would have been like, surely very foreign and my instinct would be to disavow them as my ancestors. That’s clearly the instinct that many people give in to when they refuse to believe in evolution…
I recently finished reading a book called “Deep Economy” by Bill McKibben. It discussed how life will inevitably have to change after oil goes away. That’s of course assuming we don’t find any other form of cheap energy, which is unlikely.
The main change is that we’ll all have to start living more locally. Right now it takes 10 times more energy to deliver a pound of peas than the peas actually contain. The main reason for this is processing and especially delivery. Did you know the average piece of food you eat travel 1,500 miles to get to your plate. These are colossal wastes of energy which can be solved simply by growing things locally…
I went with Christine to walk around the Artscape festival here in Baltimore again today. I plan on writing a thorough post about the overall event after it’s all over, but I wanted to talk about one particular thing I saw today.
Christine wanted to go into this trailer that said it was some sort of wildlife refuge. It had the same outward appearance as one of those freak show trailers at the state fair except with a better paint job and it’s sponsor’s name written everywhere. I wasn’t too thrilled but I went ahead.
Instead of having actual animals in the exhibit, they had these freaky animatronic animals…
Tao is Tao Weilundemo, a freelance web developer and populist, a lover of disc golf, sailing, and politics in so far as it can be utilized to make the world a better more egalitarian place.
He's not from any one particular place, but you may know him from Columbia, MO, San Diego, CA, Santa Rosa, CA, Closeburn, Australia, Jackson, MS, Huntsville, AL, Austin, TX, Berlin, El Salvador, or Baltimore, MD. Did I mention he likes to travel?
Want to learn more about this Tao and his 3rd person talking self? Click here and he'll see what he can do.
I haven’t really written much about my new apartment. Essentially I live one block down from I old apartment, except now I live on the 7th floor instead of the 3rd and have an awesome view out of the windows in the living room. I live in a neighborhood called Mt. Vernon which also known as the cultural district. It’s basically in the north east corner of downtown Baltimore.
I have a new favorite magazine. I’ve heard about 
I was thinking about what I will tell future generations about what life was like during the time of oil. Whenever I think generally of oil my first thought is the opening credits to “The Beverly Hillbillies”. I found myself thinking of those nicknames, “black gold” and “Texas tea”.
My grandmother created and guards my family tree. It’s not very detailed, mainly names and dates, but it’s still intriguing. I suppose it’s human nature to want know when and where your ancestors lived. It’s integral in fact to answering the ego’s demand to know who it is. All of this in the hope of figuring out why you’re here and what your purpose is. Who, what, where, when and why. Life is really just one big question, but what if we don’t like the answers.
I recently finished reading a book called “Deep Economy” by Bill McKibben. It discussed how life will inevitably have to change after oil goes away. That’s of course assuming we don’t find any other form of cheap energy, which is unlikely.
I went with Christine to walk around the Artscape festival here in Baltimore again today. I plan on writing a thorough post about the overall event after it’s all over, but I wanted to talk about one particular thing I saw today.