Soap really pisses me off

So, more and more as I do my American consumer duty and buy things I may or may not need-- and might I say, these days, it is mostly need due to budgetary constraints-- combined with my increasing desire to not only waste less, but also consume less from the start (shopping cart to trash can), the one object that has become the object of my ire is soap.

Yes, soap. I mean the hard bricks of various cleaning product conglomerates that get sudsy when wet and supposedly clean germs off your body when scrubbed away.

When I look at soap at my local big box shopping center or grocery store, (which is- of course- where most of us Americans get our soap these days, whether brick-like or liquid), all I can do is curse the insanity of what sits neatly on the metal shelving before me. These bricks of cleaning products used everyday by us consumers, and in great quantities, annoy me for this reason:

***bars of soap are most often packaged in individual paper boxes, compiled into larger bricks of various quantities, and then shrink-wrapped with plastic product to hold the masses together!***

Seriously, what an utter waste of packaging! What is the matter with us?! Do soap manufacturers think that they will contaminate soap if they rub up against another bar?? Really? It's soap, not ground beef!

I understand the need to be able to conglomerate a desired number of pre-boxed bars and also that putting multiple bars against one another might make them flake and lose some of the 'product', but seriously-- I'd rather lose a few flakes of soap than consume so many trees and create so much plastic waste (and ALL the energy used to create that plastic).

Honestly!

How did this happen? When did American society, and consumer society in general, come to think that packaging such a simple bathing essential such as soap in this excessive way was a good idea? Did we transfer this mentality from other consumer goods such as contaminate-able food products? When did presentation of this particular consumer good to the buying public become so hell bent on being 'pretty,' as opposed to practical and based on common sense?

Of course, this is only one example from the great macrocosm of consumer goods available ubiquitiously across the country, and indeed across the industrialized world. Stop for just a freakin' moment while you are grocery shopping or picking up your toiletry supplies, and contemplate how much energy-- both in packaging and fossil fuels used to create and transfer that packaging to market-- was expended in order to create your 12-pack soap, or butter in perfect 4 stick boxes, or cereal inside a bag inside a box, or 12oz shampoo bottles with un-recyclable tops, or 6oz liquid hand soap dispensers with un-recyclable pumpers, and on and on....

So, you think, what's the answer to this?

I've thought about joining a Sam's Club or Costco, my 2 local bulk supply stores, both requiring due-paying membership. This would cut down on the packaging due to products sold in bulk, right? Well, not always. Often, products are packaged exactly the same way as in your normal stores, but simply in greater quantities, e.g. 12-packs become 50-packs, meaning-- individual packaging does not disappear, but you get a discount anyway for buying more units in a single purchase. Why not decrease the packaging as well, and provide the customer even more savings by passing along those saved costs to package a product? I would also like to point out here, as I failed to incorporate this above, that less packaging = less product weight & size, thereby costing the suppliers/distributors less to transport AND more product could be shipped per truck/train/plane. Duh!

AND- with all that money saved by everyone, we can spend our savings elsewhere. To the product supplier, that means more free consumer money to spend on other products (perhaps the same company???......) and we are not killing ourselves and our only Earth to consume those things.

But back to Sam's Club and Costco.

I don't believe in Sam Walton or either of his two creations: Walmart and Sam's Club. That is an entirely different blog entry, and I won't go into that here. Suffice it to say that there is plenty of data out there showing the negative affects that this consumer goods conglomerate has on the environment, the economy, and human rights. Do your own research.

Nevertheless, both consumer bulk goods suppliers aren't the ideal candidate for solving this problem. Nor do I have the answer. Feel free to send suggestions on this one, because this problem is WAY bigger than my pithy complaints about soap.

I'd like to think that local co-op groceries are part of the answer, though. I've never set foot in one (that I can remember), as they are often more expensive to shop and sometimes require either a due-paying membership or a committment of a few hours per month working there. Also, they are often inconveniently located, and sparse in number-- being that they are often in city centers or neighborhoods I haven't lived in. And, driving further than normal (to my local grocery store, for example, which is less than 5 miles), such as 10-15 miles every time I want to shop for food or household basics seems counter-productive in reducing my environmental impact. Not to mention the smaller quantities of goods transported in & smaller, less fuel-efficient vehicles used to transport those goods to market. I get it. But co-ops (such as the newly refurbished one in the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis) provide a place for the likes of me to cut my own soap off a giant block and bring it home in a reusable sack. I plan to start checking out these meccas of environmentally-conscience (or perhaps just the local wealthy) consumers more often.

Is this good enough? Can this co-op model replace, or at least grow better at supplementing the late 20th-21st century American model of driving to big-box stores containing just about everything? It is like an addiction we just can't get away from. Furthermore, our transportation and residential infrastructure is built around the big-box model, or at least is accommodated greatly by it. How, then, do we break free?

I guess that's my lingering question. Having come to appreciate the fact that I can drive 5-10 minutes and find products manufactured all over the world, in great variety, quantity, and even choice-- how do we amend and evolve the situation into the next era? Clearly, what we're doing is not sustainable. But I like it, in its own way. In another, I completely loathe it and its basic market and consumption principles.

In the end, we have to eat, we need to clothe ourselves, and -- we need to bathe (or at least I hope you do). We just need to do it in a way that is less short-sighted and wasteful.

Do I really need all these choices? Do I really need two or three layers of cardboard separating my bars of soap??......

And, what can I do about it?

"Just Say No to Socialism"

For those of you who are having trouble coping with the recently passed health care legislation and don't think it is a waste of taxpayer money for 14+ states to file suit against it over sovereignty issues (totally bullshit by the way), here is a recent find of mine:

This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the United States Department of Energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the Federal Communications Commission regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of United States Department of Agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the Food and Drug Administration.

At the appropriate time as regulated by the United States congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the United States Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads built by the local, state, and federal Departments of Transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank. On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the United States Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After work, I drive my NHTSA car back home on DOT roads, to my house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the local police department.

I then log onto the internet which was developed by the defense advanced research projects administration and post on freerepublic.com and fox news forums about how socialsism in medicine is bad because the government can't do anything right.

**Found via Facebook, from: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3154974&userid=71425#post363694598

Happy Saint Patty's Day

McCANN families are descendants of the Mac Anna (Mac Annadh) sept which anciently held sway on the southern shore of Lough Neagh, over a territory in the north of the present county Armagh. The McCanns are fairly numerous today in that region and have been dispersed to other parts of Ulster, into Connacht, and southwards into Leinster. The name meant 'the son of the wolf-cub' and they were Lords of Clanbrassel, County Armagh. Ireland was one of the earliest countries to evolve a system of hereditary surnames. They came into being as early as 1000.

http://www.4crests.com/mccann-coat-of-arms.html

Also:

This notable Irish surname is an Anglicized form of the Old Gaelic "MacCana", a patronymic of the personal byname "Cana", from "cano", wolf cub. Traditionally, Irish family names are taken from the heads of tribes, revered elders, or some illustrious warrior, and are usually prefixed by "Mac", son of, or "O", denoting "grandson, male descendant of. The territory of this great sept lay on the southern shores of Lough Neagh, and the MacCanas were lords of Clanbrassil, a district in County Armagh originally occupied by the O'Garveys. Several members of the sept are described in the "Annals of the Four Masters"; the last to be mentioned in the Annals was killed in 1260. Donnell MacCanna, Chief of Clanbrassil, was recorded in 1598, and the surname is still widespread in the vicinity of Lough Neagh, though uncommon elsewhere. On October 11th 1687, Patrick McCann and Ann McBride were married at Clones, County Monaghan. The famous poem "O'Donnell Abu" was written by Michael Joseph MacCann (1824 - 1883), and seventy-eight persons bearing the name McCann appear on a "List of Irish Famine Immigrants Arriving at the Port of New York", between the years 1846 to 1851. A Coat of Arms granted to the M(a)cCann family is an azure shield with gold fretty, on a silver fess a red boar passant, the Crest being a salmon naiant proper. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Amhlaibh Mac Canna, "a pillar of chivalry and vigor in Cinel Eoghain", which was dated 1155, in the "Annals of the Four Masters", during the reign of Turlough Mor O'Conor, High King of Ireland, 1119 - 1156. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

http://www.surnamedb.com/surname.aspx?name=McCann

May y'r troubles be less

and y'r blessings be more

and nothing but happiness

come t'rough your door.

And,

May Saint Patrick drive away the snakes wherever you are!

Progress & Pittsburgh

A 5' + icicle hanging off our roof over the deck-- sheesh

Not a whole lot of new adventures these days, just muscling along. I am STILL getting used to the "normalsy" of my new surroundings and activities- is that crazy?

In thesis news, I have completely re-written the introduction I had over a year ago, re-organized my outline and chapter ordering (and focus), and started my first chapter (again). I feel like it has been a few giant steps backwards and eeking forwards-- but, at least the movement is again forward, and with momentum no less.

Speaking of thesis progress, I hope to have the time and motivation next week while on a trip to Pittsburgh. No, it is most definitely not a leisure trip. My mom is having neurosurgery-- on Friday. Of course I'm worried (I was worried when Nate had a benign cyst removed from his hand a few years back), but it isn't as scary as it sounds (or so I keep telling myself). Her brain is fine, although she could do with some memory and hearing gains.... (ha...). It is a nerve problem that has ailed her for years on one side of her face. It has caused her alot of grief through many endured treatments of shots, therapies, and tests. For her, it has become dehabilitating on a daily basis. It has been a problem for so long and worsened that doing research on possible surgical fixes was the logical next step, and a long time coming. According to her, they make a small incision behind her ear, do some twisting around and wrapping of various nerve strands and try to unblock and un-irritate whatever-it-is, and get out. No head-shaving, no "fuss". Apparently this hospital that she will be treated at both pioneered and perfected this procedure, hence the sojourn to Pittsburgh.

My mom flew out there yesterday, a family friend is meeting her there today after a slew of prep-tests appointments, and my dad and I are flying out on Thursday. He'll stay through the surgery on Friday and the weekend, then come home. I will stay out there all next week while she recovers and awaits the removal of stitches the following Friday. Assuming we get the OK from the docs, we fly home a week and a day after the surgery once the observation week is over. I think we'll mostly be lying around, shopping, and for my part- hopefully doing some reading and writing.

My family has always been weird when it comes to "serious" events and it has always bothered me. Like, when my little brother got run over by a car and (luckily, only) had his collar-bone broken (nevermind his bicycle...), I was in Greece for the summer (this was 2004). I came home several weeks later, only to find out then after being shocked by the sight of him in a lovely sling. It is like they try to keep things quiet to "protect" us, but to me, that leaves little option for social support. I'd rather have things out in the open and have the support networks ready. I know my mom's surgery is "routine," but every surgery comes with risk. So anyway, I am worried, but I am also glad that if it is successful then she has a 90+% rate of having a better quality of life. I am also glad that I am able to go with her and support her. A year or more ago that may not have been possible due to other work/school committments. So, it is good timing in a way because she has someone to keep her company nearly the whole time.

Anyway, if I'm on edge this week, that is probably why. Until Friday is over, my stress level will probably not abate, despite all of the continuous reassurances.

Well, keep us in your thoughts this week and next and I'll try to post sometime while I'm out in Pittsburgh. Will have a laptop available, so email if you feel like it :)

Varietal blend, please

Tilly, the unlikely cat

Happy belated holiday scramble, everyone.

Above is a picture from Nate's annual company holiday party, 2009 (which is held conveniently the first weekend in December, providing plenty of time to make holiday pictures to give out). We didn't actually have a tree of our own, so we borrowed theirs.... So Merry Christmas, Happy Human Light, Happy Verdukian-mas, or whatever else you celebrate-- hope it was grand.

In December, Nate and I adopted Tilly the cat - a kindly 14 year old I never thought I'd have trapsing around anywhere near my dwelling. I've always been mildly-moderately allergic to cats, so I was hesitant at first-- not to mention totally biased against hissing, self-centered felines. I grew up with dogs, and friends with cats which I avoided as much as possible. I've always regarded cats with a certain disdain, probably stemming from their general attitude towards their owners (spiteful and territorial) as well as owners who wantonly or seldomly vacuumed their seemingly endless amount of fur (gross and bad for us allergic folks). I just assumed that sweet and gentle cats didn't exist, nor did I care, thinking all that hair was not manageable. Well folks- I was wrong on both accounts.

Tilly was formerly my mother-in-law's cat, but due to certain circumstances Nate and I decided to take her in. Ever since I met Tilly (more than 8 years ago now....whew!), I have always been fond of her, a feeling which always provided me with a certain amount of internal conflict. We decided to take her in on a trial-basis, to start. It has been nearly 2 months now and I actually feel as though I've adjusted, provided regular vacuumings, dustings, and brushings occur. She has really been nice to have around and has given a little lift or energy to my spirit, which I haven't felt since my last pet dog, Sam, passed away in 2000. It is truly lovely to have that extra loving presence around again! Even... if it is 8am Saturday morning and she is "moo-ing" or "quacking" outside our bedroom door to be fed! (She does indeed make the weirdest noises!!)

Over the holiday months, I was able to get a bit more organized with not only "things" (e.g. finding & setting up furniture, opening & emptying moving boxes), but also with Nate's and my routines. Nate has gotten settled into going into an office in khakis and sweaters again, as opposed to sweatpants and sweatshirts in a home office. It has been kind of a switch for us because I have been home alot doing other things. I used to commute away from home daily and he stayed in, or telecommuted. Try that one out sometime. Ugh.

I have taken up 2 major activities in the last month: 1) a part-time internship at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA), and 2) a resumption of my master's thesis project, which has been on hiatus for about a year and a half. #2 is all I have left of my degree program, so it is about time I made it official. This is what will be occupying most of my time through this year. I want to finally finish and in the meantime, hopefully, get my feet wet again in the Twin Cities museum/arts/culture job scene. Hopefully by December, something will look promising and the economy will have picked up enough to offer me something here, and not force me to look elsewhere. Never say never, but Nate and I currently are not keen on moving again anytime soon...

It really has been nice to be back to Minnesota-- in numerous ways. We had a series of in-law family issues right away in November/December that we got thrown into the moment we got to town, it seems; the holidays, of course, which was a social marathon; familiarity of place and people which I haven't had in 3+ years; and ability to have casual encounters and gatherings with family and friends, which I've missed. It is cliche, but until you've lived far away, it is hard to explain how much it means to just "be around" again for important events; I feel that I savour those moments just a lil bit more.

Of course, I won't deny that reuniting with the various MN clans hasn't been entirely pleasant and easy. I think since I've been gone for several years, I started to idealize in some small way what it would be like to "come home" again. I have tried to remain vigilant to this tendency, but I have felt a bit of this welling up within me. I believe I am comfortably past the young adult stage of "coming home to mom and dad;" I think that fantasy has faded in the last few years. I think everyone must go through this in some way (mostly in your 20's I suppose), and I've accepted it as a good change with room for more.

I think the changes that have actually been hardest have been with my peers, not my family. My peers are at the age where major life changes are happening-- marriages, children, jobs/careers, education (and disparity therein), establishing geographical roots (or not), and establishment of our adult selves. I really think the last change is the most significant because not only are we establishing who we are, who we want to be, and how we want to be seen, but we are also establishing how we react to the choices and changes of others. I feel as though I've learned quite a bit in these fields over the last couple years, both stumbling and maturing along the way. This subject has been pervasive in my thoughts lately and the only blanket statement or mantra I seem to be able to convince myself of is that acceptance and understanding are really the key ingredients. We are all individuals with our own paths, expectations may or may not be met (often because they're wrong or misguided), and regardless of what anyone says, you have to do what makes YOU happy. We all make our own happiness, so we should be willing to accept the choices of others seeking their own happiness. Apologies and forgiveness will always be necessary components; we're all human and self-centered and stupid sometimes. It takes two to disagree and two to forgive.

If that seems a bit contemplative, it is. It's good to get it out there and see how it sounds. I don't want to make light of it because I have put quite a bit of thought into it and feel minutely more at peace with those thoughts now.

Time will tell what adventures I'll have next.

Winter = blank

So, I have pretty much abandoned my writing since October due to moving cross-country, (yet again), getting settled, the holiday marathon, and getting organized generally.
I think maybe I will get back to writing; I miss it, although I wasn't sure if I would or not, honestly. I think I've been craving it-- like a good, long run or cold beer in July. I think there is still a space for this blog in my routine, regardless of whether or not and how often anyone actually visits this virtual space in the web land to read my thoughts. I think it has become less about the digital-neo-narcissism that is attached to the blogger age, and has now more become about some sort of existential release of information, whether i am aware of its purpose at the moment of composition or not. Plain terms: helps me sort things out when other sounding boards are absent or less attractive at the moment.

So yeah, next time I can do the blah-bitty-blah update, but for now just wanted to get that out there. :)

Happy New Year, this LAST year of the decade. Get it right, people.

Happy 28th to Nate and off to Shenandoah, then "home"

A lil update:

Nate's birthday was yesterday and he turned a whopping 28... so Happy Birthday! <3

Nate and I are going on a nice, long weekend to Virginia to do some site-seeing and camping. We're headed to Charlottesville first, to see Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and then to the University of Virginia, where the school's mall was modeled after Monticello and designed by Jefferson. These beautiful landscapes (so i hear and look forward to seeing!) were used as models for the design of the University of Minnesota's Northrup Mall, of which I am very familiar...! :)
Then, we're headed into the woods for a few days in Shenandoah National Park, which boasts the nation's first official "park-way"... and the densest population of black bears in the US. ha!
Then, we're going to stop by Gettysburg (in PA) on the way home.

This is one trip we couldn't miss before moving back to MN.
Speaking of that, we will be back in the Cities by the week of October 19th, so we will see you all then!!

Not sure how much time I will have to post between now and then, so you'll be hearing from me again probably at the end of October once Nate and I are all set up in Edina.

Looking forward to Virginia and then to Minnesota...Goodbye soon to Philadelphia!