Take only what you need

Food consumption is another thing that is way overboard in our culture. Obesity is becoming the number one killer. Growing up you saw one out of ten overly overweight person. Now days you see two out of ten that are thin. When we consume all that food, we are taking more than what we need. Someone has to pay another person to plant the food. Many resources are waisted from fuel costs to environment. The lands are strained, because of industrial farms. Processed foods have been the trend for some time now. Growing up we had a very large garden and grew our foods organically. Today most food that you get at the grocery stores have been sprayed with some type of pesticides or chemicals. I wonder when we will start seeing illness that is linked to the so called "tobacco pesticide" it is used on food crops. It has been suggested as one of the causes of colony collapse among bee hives. Next year since I live in an apartment, I am going to try and grow my own crops in garbage cans for urban jungle relief. It is getting to be to expensive to purchase food because of fuel costs alone!

In October of 2007, I  made further cuts in my life. I learned that Rupert Murdoch owned MySpace.com. I deleted my profile on that particular site. In addition to this I no longer will read publications owned by him. I have also deleted fox air channel from my television set. This hurt a lot because I enjoy the Simpsons much. A friend of mine told me that Simpsons had a contract with fox that they can't be censored. I'm not so sure about that. In any case the station is still owned by this man. I cannot sit idle and watch this man gobble up freedom of speech.

Environmentally I don't need the latest fashion trend. nor do I own a big screen t.v., I find it a lot easier when the world is simple. Right now my Television is a "curb score." Someone threw it out as trash. Yeah it has some lines going across the picture. But it is functional. Currently I am able to keep my bills manageable. I have a lot of debt from things over the last decade. I am working on getting rid of my immediate debt. Then I can pay off the larger debt and live without worry. I can't spend more than my resources allow. My greatest debt is a car accident I was in, prior to that, I didn't understand the importance of it. Now that I have a 22k debt from an accident I didn't cause. I know better, and until I start making payments on it. My driving privileges have been revoked. Then on top of that I have another 10k debt that was the result of an overpriced college that I attended. Sometimes the most expensive is not the best. Herzing definitely fits that bill. You would do a lot better at M.A.T.C. or University. I do owe on some smaller debt that I am trying to get rid of, it totals around 2k. When that smaller amount is gone, I can move onto the bigger debts.

When I am doing my music. I do my best to keep things minimal. I find that if you try to hard at it. It won't fit the groove you are trying to create. So I've done my best to keep things simple and free flowing. This has worked a lot for me. I've done the front man in a big band thing before. It can be a cacophony of noise rather than a melding of souls.

I hear a lot of folk complaining about everyone else. Saying things like "were doomed," because of Global Warming. Yes I think it is a very real problem. But the answer lies within. Not what everyone else is doing. But what are we doing to stop environmental disaster? As a Gay Man I never understood why Marlboro Lights, were the favored cigarette. Money from every pack goes into anti gay agendas. Boycotting a product sometimes is the only answer to the problems. If everyone stopped shopping at wal-mart or toysrus, then toxic toys in the states would fade away. recently I went through my home and removed every item that had "made in china" stamped on it. We have got to stop supporting the major contributers of bad environmental standards. I do my shopping exclusively from "mom and pop" shops. I avoid the big box stores, they rarely are the great deal, they pretend to be.

I am looking at buying a sewing machine soon too. I wish to make my own clothes, rather than purchase something that was made in another country. A friend of mine once said that when I don't have something that I tend to build it. He was fairly accurate there, I don't like spending all that money on things I don't need. If I can make something myself, then that is what I plan on doing. Generally when I build for myself. It is cheaper and stronger than something store purchased.

If we all did our part, only taking what we need....