A couple of months ago me and my friend Ellen joined forces with the rest of the MRDC volunteer crew to clean up Gateway Park in brooklyn. It's been used as an illegal dumpsite for contractors and mechanics. hundreds of pounds of old tires, mattresses, ceiling tiles and other construction materials were removed as a result of our cleaning efforts!
The video below is a short ditty about the garbage and the landscape.
Youtube Video
It felt great to be socially responsible. I encourage all of you to get out there and volunteer. It's great for your soul!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Some Names you just don't put on a sign...
This image was taken in Hollywood, Florida. I don't care how many years and generations that your family's store has been open, at some point the ridicule of answering the phone using "Hello, Badcock" should get to you, no?
Lols @ Floridians.
Monday, May 31, 2010
My beautiful baby boy is back
...Say that 5 times fast!! What an unexpected and amazingly awesome way to end my beautiful trip to Miami. Adam flew home with me, and while i wasn't expecting this I am so glad to be primary for now. His dad and I have come to the conclusion that he needs me now for when he's little and growing up.
More updates soon.
More updates soon.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Off to Miami
Having looked forward to this day for four weeks, I must say, 'night before' came really quick. I now have a good perspective to say that the journey of waiting of a good thing may be just as good as doing the good thing. Anticipation raises seratonin levels and boy, since thursday morning, my seratonin levels have been off the charts!
Adams dad has been amenable to this trip, which I imagine could come as a relief for him since he's pretty much alone down there. I guess I could concede that he deserves time alone...oh I just threw up a little in my mouth...
Ok. Will post pictures!!
Adams dad has been amenable to this trip, which I imagine could come as a relief for him since he's pretty much alone down there. I guess I could concede that he deserves time alone...oh I just threw up a little in my mouth...
Ok. Will post pictures!!
-- Sent from my Palm Pre
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Skype - A week later, and Miami Trip!
I've used Skype in the past week over 10 times. I sit in front of the camera on my Mac and just stare at Adam's face. I am astounded that I haven't discovered this little itty bitty camera in my computer until now.
Love you, Skype!
Onto other news, I will be jetting to Miami to see Adam in 3 days! Superb!
I purposely have not made any concrete plans so I can let the time speak for itself as it always does when I'm with him. Some of the best times I've spent with Adam, and the most memorable, are the times when we are on an unscripted day, where we just let the wind take us where it may.
Love you, Adam!
Love you, Skype!
Onto other news, I will be jetting to Miami to see Adam in 3 days! Superb!
I purposely have not made any concrete plans so I can let the time speak for itself as it always does when I'm with him. Some of the best times I've spent with Adam, and the most memorable, are the times when we are on an unscripted day, where we just let the wind take us where it may.
Love you, Adam!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
My first experience with Skype
I was recently separated from Adam now that he is living with his dad down in Florida. For two whole months I struggled with not seeing his cute little face in the morning, his ways and means to get something he wants, and the daily talks we used to have about how his day was and the cute ways he would portray the stories that happened to him that day.
For two months I heard more goodbyes than any other word in the English dictionary from Adam on the phone, when there was always something more interesting to do than hold an electronic device to his ear. For kids it's all about "out of sight, out of mind" as far as I can tell, and to me this conversation medium always teetered on the edge of "this can't be enough".
A couple of days ago I was talking to a friend Mr. Dickens who also has a young son with a separation situation similar to my own. When I asked how he sees his son one word came out of his mouth, "Skype!" Every two weeks there's a scheduled "visit" where my friend reads a book that his child's momma holds up to the camera. For an hour every 2 weeks his son gets to interact on a more intimate level than a phone call.
I began to think this was a great idea, and I was right. Downloading skype to my Mac was superbly easy, the built in camera in my Powerbook hooked up right away, and after a brief technology-not-working-when-you-most-anticipate-it-to-work interlude, my son was on my screen waving and screaming "MOMMY ARE YOU ON INERNEDDD??"
Mine eyes did not deceive me. There he was. In his alligator pajamas, hair all a mess from sleeping, bright little eyes staring into the camera. The first words out of his mouth were "Mommyyy I MISS youuu!" For a blissful half hour past his bedtime, Adam went through show and tell about his toes, his mohawk, his new computer game, a picture he drew with glitter glue. He also left the camera twice, once when he announced "Mommy I need peepee" and the second when he whispered "uh oh Mommy I need go numa two." My eyes were hungry for his sweet cheeks after 2 months. My own cheeks were aching from smiling into the camera for half an hour.
So to end this monologue, I must thank Skype for offering this service, and a grateful single parent has been able to bridge the distance gap between her and her beautiful child.
For two months I heard more goodbyes than any other word in the English dictionary from Adam on the phone, when there was always something more interesting to do than hold an electronic device to his ear. For kids it's all about "out of sight, out of mind" as far as I can tell, and to me this conversation medium always teetered on the edge of "this can't be enough".
A couple of days ago I was talking to a friend Mr. Dickens who also has a young son with a separation situation similar to my own. When I asked how he sees his son one word came out of his mouth, "Skype!" Every two weeks there's a scheduled "visit" where my friend reads a book that his child's momma holds up to the camera. For an hour every 2 weeks his son gets to interact on a more intimate level than a phone call.
I began to think this was a great idea, and I was right. Downloading skype to my Mac was superbly easy, the built in camera in my Powerbook hooked up right away, and after a brief technology-not-working-when-you-most-anticipate-it-to-work interlude, my son was on my screen waving and screaming "MOMMY ARE YOU ON INERNEDDD??"
Mine eyes did not deceive me. There he was. In his alligator pajamas, hair all a mess from sleeping, bright little eyes staring into the camera. The first words out of his mouth were "Mommyyy I MISS youuu!" For a blissful half hour past his bedtime, Adam went through show and tell about his toes, his mohawk, his new computer game, a picture he drew with glitter glue. He also left the camera twice, once when he announced "Mommy I need peepee" and the second when he whispered "uh oh Mommy I need go numa two." My eyes were hungry for his sweet cheeks after 2 months. My own cheeks were aching from smiling into the camera for half an hour.
So to end this monologue, I must thank Skype for offering this service, and a grateful single parent has been able to bridge the distance gap between her and her beautiful child.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
An Omnivore's Personal Dilemma
I pose a question to you: Did you know that 99.99% of the beef sold in supermarkets is from cows that are fed its own FAT?
A couple of weeks ago I picked up a book called "Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan. I have a personal goal of broadening my knowledge through reading, and I heard that this book was highly recommended. I"m about a quarter of the way through the book, and the author has shed light on the cattle and corn industry and how they are infinitely intertwined. (hint: most cows are NOT as happy as the cow in the picture below *sad face*)
Here’s a nice little summary of what I’ve read so far:
Prior to world war 2, corn was a rotation crop on farmlands. Farmers would rotate corn, which takes nitrogen from the soil, with soy, which would return nitrogen to the soil. Eating habits across America were more vegetable heavy, and meat was a meal that people had once in a while, but not every day. The manure from cows and other farm animals was used as fertilizer and there was a closed loop of ecology in the farm.
After world war 2, there was an abundance of ammonium nitrate, which was used to make artillery for the war. When the war ended the secretary of state at the time came across a novel idea – use the ammonium nitrate to repopulate the soil with nitrogen. Farmers were subsidized for using this commercial fertilizer in place of rotating in soy or using manure. IN case there was an over harvest one year of corn, the secretary of state established a program to loan farmers money for their extra corn crop, so farmers would always have income, and the department of agriculture could sell the corn on the market when the supply became lower, in subsequent years.
However, because of the superbly effective commercial fertilizer, corn became produced at massive amounts, too great for people to consume at a normal rate (people don’t consume more because there is more available, we can only eat so much). Now the government became burdened with all this corn on their hands that the farmers were offloading to them, and they concocted another scheme – change farm animal’s diets to eat corn instead of grass. They incentivized farmers to breed cows that had higher corn-tolerance. But cows’ stomachs are not evolved for starch heavy diets and become highly acidic (normally their stomachs are pH neutral), so the government subsidized research to find antibiotics and diet supplements that lowered the acidity. Other things they found through research was that feeding a cow its own fat culled from boiling non-edible cow parts further hastened the fattening process.
The high fat, sugar and starch diet made cows grow faster than their natural rate, where farmers back before corn would slaughter a cow 4-5 years old, now these corn-fed cows are ready for slaughter at 14 months old. Slaughterhouses kill cows at a rate of 400 to 500 an hour, which if you imagine how big a cow is, is immensely fast. This process inevitably allows some non-edible material (poo, eyeballs, gut) to enter the edible material stream, and that is how diseases such as the mad cow disease and acid-resistant strains of e.coli have entered our human bodies as well.
A couple of weeks ago I picked up a book called "Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan. I have a personal goal of broadening my knowledge through reading, and I heard that this book was highly recommended. I"m about a quarter of the way through the book, and the author has shed light on the cattle and corn industry and how they are infinitely intertwined. (hint: most cows are NOT as happy as the cow in the picture below *sad face*)
Here’s a nice little summary of what I’ve read so far:
Prior to world war 2, corn was a rotation crop on farmlands. Farmers would rotate corn, which takes nitrogen from the soil, with soy, which would return nitrogen to the soil. Eating habits across America were more vegetable heavy, and meat was a meal that people had once in a while, but not every day. The manure from cows and other farm animals was used as fertilizer and there was a closed loop of ecology in the farm.
After world war 2, there was an abundance of ammonium nitrate, which was used to make artillery for the war. When the war ended the secretary of state at the time came across a novel idea – use the ammonium nitrate to repopulate the soil with nitrogen. Farmers were subsidized for using this commercial fertilizer in place of rotating in soy or using manure. IN case there was an over harvest one year of corn, the secretary of state established a program to loan farmers money for their extra corn crop, so farmers would always have income, and the department of agriculture could sell the corn on the market when the supply became lower, in subsequent years.
However, because of the superbly effective commercial fertilizer, corn became produced at massive amounts, too great for people to consume at a normal rate (people don’t consume more because there is more available, we can only eat so much). Now the government became burdened with all this corn on their hands that the farmers were offloading to them, and they concocted another scheme – change farm animal’s diets to eat corn instead of grass. They incentivized farmers to breed cows that had higher corn-tolerance. But cows’ stomachs are not evolved for starch heavy diets and become highly acidic (normally their stomachs are pH neutral), so the government subsidized research to find antibiotics and diet supplements that lowered the acidity. Other things they found through research was that feeding a cow its own fat culled from boiling non-edible cow parts further hastened the fattening process.
The high fat, sugar and starch diet made cows grow faster than their natural rate, where farmers back before corn would slaughter a cow 4-5 years old, now these corn-fed cows are ready for slaughter at 14 months old. Slaughterhouses kill cows at a rate of 400 to 500 an hour, which if you imagine how big a cow is, is immensely fast. This process inevitably allows some non-edible material (poo, eyeballs, gut) to enter the edible material stream, and that is how diseases such as the mad cow disease and acid-resistant strains of e.coli have entered our human bodies as well.
___________________________________
Having read up until this point, last night I still managed to forget my troubles and down a burger at a bar while hanging out with a good friend of mine (who was an omnivore as well). On the train ride home, I took out the book and began reading the next chapter on the actual slaughterhouse practices. I must have read about 5 pages before I began feeling a bit queasy. By the time I got home this queasiness had turned into a full blown nausea, leading me straight to the bathroom where I proceeded to (TMI ALERT!) vomit my dinner.
I slept soundly last night, and I think I heard mooing in my sleep. I'm seriously contemplating switching to eating veggies. Can this make me a happier person? As I begin to observe my body slowly rejecting meat, I wonder, can I consciously make the jump? What kind of difference can I, one person on this earth, make for those poor cows living in the feedlots eating corn flakes?
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