[Posting still thin while computer still broken.]
This began as a comment at Kate's place, about her abandonment of shampoo, paper towels and toilet paper, and got obnoxiously long. Its existence there was snipped and is reformatted below in its entirety.
One of the best things - some might argue the only useful thing - about this here interblog is the ability to share the little things in life with others of like mind. I need to take a moment to thank and salute katecontinued for sharing her sustainability journey - it's been so helpful and instructive at the beginning of my own. A few weeks ago when she linked this Life Less Plastic article (and a few others), I replaced my deodorant with baking soda and stopped using shampoo, and am very pleased with the results! I no longer have to use products to give my hair body and my showers are much faster now. My body does produce a lot of oil, so my hair's a little bit greasy, but my friends assure me not gross or stanky. And they're very amused at my experiments in being a Dirty Hippie™.
The baking soda bit has been a bit more up-and-down. I find I'm generally wetter (since I'm not wearing antiperspirant), but actually less smelly. When wearing deodorant at the end of the day I smell like a mixture of deodorant and sweat. When wearing baking soda at the end of the day I smell like nothing. There are a couple downsides, though: for one, on the rare occasions I sweat enough in a day to overcome my bicarbonate shield (such as the last few days that have been fairly hot and oppressively humid) there's no whiff of perfume to sweeten the rebellious odor. Also, when I was wearing deodorant it would rub off onto the underarms of my t-shirts, giving them their own little freshening perfumewhiff, without which I find I have to wash them slightly more often. Also helpful in this adventure is the fact that I've been shaving under me arms for several years now - sweat itself, you see, doesn't smell. It's the bacteria that live on the surface of your body and eat the nutrients in your sweat that produce stinky waste products. Removing the hair gives them significantly less surface area to live on, resulting in less B.O.
I'm not quite ready for the toilet paper adventure yet, though I salute those who've undertaken it, and paper towel is my single biggest struggle. I was raised using handkerchiefs but have been brainwashed through the years into always blowing my nose in something disposable. Add in how many I use for general household cleaning and you've got one guilty hippie. I want to try and cut down but my life's kind of on hold right now - I'm moving across the country in three weeks and trying to lighten my load rather than take on new projects. Though now that I think about it maybe some of my scrap fabrics from abandoned sewing projects can be used to make reusable washcloths/towels. Hmm...
But I digress. Continue to rock, Kate. And thank you.
6.28.2008
6.17.2008
Quasi-review: "Teeth"
I wasn't sure how excited to be about the movie “Teeth”; from the trailer it looked like it could very feasibly be terrible. I love me a good vagina dentata reference, so it was the movie's game to lose. And it won! Okay, so it wasn't a cinematic masterpiece, but it was a pretty darn good movie with a better gore budget than I expected (some graphic bleeding stumps [shockingly rated R and not NC-17!], so don't bring the kids), some great tongue-in-cheek humor and the occasional laugh-out-loud vaginal chompy sound.
>>>---ZOMG spoilers follow---<<<
“Teeth” is a – horror? comedy? superhero? - movie following the horny teen life of Dawn O'Keefe (darling choice of last name, though the flower imagery from the movie's advertising was conspicuously absent from the movie as a whole, probably for the best) as she discovers her anatomical uniqueness and transforms from Christian Chastity Princess to rapist-castrating superheroine. Dawn's vagina dentata is framed in the movie as an adaptive mutation, possibly having something to do with the nuclear power plant in the shadow of which Dawn's house lies. There was some kind of symbolism going on with that plant – throughout most of the movie the stacks are chugging out blatantly inaccurate black smoke; the only time we see the pure white steam that's supposed to be coming out of those things is when Dawn first uses her, um, powers(?) on purpose, to avenge her mother's death. It switches back to black smoke the next time we see it, and I'm sure there's a layer of symbolism going on there that I'm not quite catching.
The movie was, of course, not perfect. For a movie with a female main character and at least a shadow of feminist underpinnings I was a bit surprised that it only barely passed the Bechdel Test, on virtue of an early scene, a scant few lines, where Dawn talks to her mother about how school went - though I suppose it's better to have a nicely feminist movie that fails Bechdel than a misogynist piece of crap where, as an aside, two women hang out in the kitchen and talk about cooking or somesuch. I would have liked for the movie to have more than just one male character (her stepfather) who wasn't either a rapist or just a general skeezeball – but as I write this I realize that having a stepparent character who's not EVIL is pretty much a Great Leap Forward for the art of film. I would also have liked her mother to have more of a role in the movie than the early “Hey that lady's sick!” and late “Hey that lady's dead!” scenes. I guess I just can't have it all, and some characters are going to be disposable. Despite all this, I loved “Teeth.”
But the best part of the movie wasn't the movie itself. It was the audience reactions. When you see this film, I strongly recommend seeing it with a large and diverse group; in particular, if you can get a frat boy who doesn't know going in what the movie's about, it's WAY worth the effort, and fairly edutaining from a feminist perspective. Highlights are that this movie is like so totally anti-guy – actually it's anti-rape and anti-skeeze and could only be rightly interpreted as anti-guy if you think nonconsensual pussy is an intrinsic part of the “guy” experience, which seems to be an unfortunately common perception in the culture at large, which is why for a period during high school I took pains to use words other than 'guy' to describe myself or any decent human being (see also ”Man-haters” at Pandagon) – and that this is SO not a mutation that's good for the continuation of the human species – to the contrary, she uses her weapon (hey look I used the word 'weapon' to refer to the FEMALE anatomy!) to unman rapists and sleazemucks, which I think would do just peachy things for the future of the gene pool: I'm about quality, not quantity, when it comes to humans, and it's worth noting that children are conceived in consensual sex as well (WARNING: The widespread rumor that female orgasm increases the chance of fertilization is not actually true; current science indicates that the female orgasm is fun but unnecessary – sort of like most parts of sex), and at least one species has evolved mechanisms to prevent rape fertilization without going extinct. And, naturally, the cry of “I understand this movie now oh my god!” right before the first chomp brought out the most laughter and applause I've ever heard from seven people sitting around in someone's house.
In conclusion: “Teeth” good. See with people make better. Abuse frat boy = fun and profit.
>>>---ZOMG spoilers follow---<<<
“Teeth” is a – horror? comedy? superhero? - movie following the horny teen life of Dawn O'Keefe (darling choice of last name, though the flower imagery from the movie's advertising was conspicuously absent from the movie as a whole, probably for the best) as she discovers her anatomical uniqueness and transforms from Christian Chastity Princess to rapist-castrating superheroine. Dawn's vagina dentata is framed in the movie as an adaptive mutation, possibly having something to do with the nuclear power plant in the shadow of which Dawn's house lies. There was some kind of symbolism going on with that plant – throughout most of the movie the stacks are chugging out blatantly inaccurate black smoke; the only time we see the pure white steam that's supposed to be coming out of those things is when Dawn first uses her, um, powers(?) on purpose, to avenge her mother's death. It switches back to black smoke the next time we see it, and I'm sure there's a layer of symbolism going on there that I'm not quite catching.
The movie was, of course, not perfect. For a movie with a female main character and at least a shadow of feminist underpinnings I was a bit surprised that it only barely passed the Bechdel Test, on virtue of an early scene, a scant few lines, where Dawn talks to her mother about how school went - though I suppose it's better to have a nicely feminist movie that fails Bechdel than a misogynist piece of crap where, as an aside, two women hang out in the kitchen and talk about cooking or somesuch. I would have liked for the movie to have more than just one male character (her stepfather) who wasn't either a rapist or just a general skeezeball – but as I write this I realize that having a stepparent character who's not EVIL is pretty much a Great Leap Forward for the art of film. I would also have liked her mother to have more of a role in the movie than the early “Hey that lady's sick!” and late “Hey that lady's dead!” scenes. I guess I just can't have it all, and some characters are going to be disposable. Despite all this, I loved “Teeth.”
But the best part of the movie wasn't the movie itself. It was the audience reactions. When you see this film, I strongly recommend seeing it with a large and diverse group; in particular, if you can get a frat boy who doesn't know going in what the movie's about, it's WAY worth the effort, and fairly edutaining from a feminist perspective. Highlights are that this movie is like so totally anti-guy – actually it's anti-rape and anti-skeeze and could only be rightly interpreted as anti-guy if you think nonconsensual pussy is an intrinsic part of the “guy” experience, which seems to be an unfortunately common perception in the culture at large, which is why for a period during high school I took pains to use words other than 'guy' to describe myself or any decent human being (see also ”Man-haters” at Pandagon) – and that this is SO not a mutation that's good for the continuation of the human species – to the contrary, she uses her weapon (hey look I used the word 'weapon' to refer to the FEMALE anatomy!) to unman rapists and sleazemucks, which I think would do just peachy things for the future of the gene pool: I'm about quality, not quantity, when it comes to humans, and it's worth noting that children are conceived in consensual sex as well (WARNING: The widespread rumor that female orgasm increases the chance of fertilization is not actually true; current science indicates that the female orgasm is fun but unnecessary – sort of like most parts of sex), and at least one species has evolved mechanisms to prevent rape fertilization without going extinct. And, naturally, the cry of “I understand this movie now oh my god!” right before the first chomp brought out the most laughter and applause I've ever heard from seven people sitting around in someone's house.
In conclusion: “Teeth” good. See with people make better. Abuse frat boy = fun and profit.
6.03.2008
Titrated Awesome
I keep hearing, "You can make your own biodiesel at home for $1 a gallon!" and finally decided to get off my arse and look into it (metaphorically; reading about it on the interwub I was actually still on my arse). I knew the basic gist of the esterification reaction: TRIGLYCERIDE (a.k.a. lipid, a.k.a. fat or oil) + 3ALCOHOL ----> 3ESTERS (biodiesel) + GLYCERINE. But reading this how-to got me all excited. The basic reaction is an esterification, but it also uses a strong base (NaOH, found in lye) to catalyze the lipid breakdown. And how do you figure out how much NaOH to use? You do a titration! If I end up teaching chemistry I can SO use this as a lab. A lab that teaches a practical skill! How awesome is that? As an added bonus, the recipe linked above calls for solid NaOH, which gives me the opportunity to teach students that some salts, such as NaOH, are deliquescent, meaning it has such a high affinity for water that it will suck the moisture out of the air to dissolve itself, and as a result you never know the exact concentration of your NaOH solution until you've done--guess what?--ANOTHER titration! [The recipe leaves that step out, but in a lab setting will I? NO!] Two titrations and an esterification in ONE lab!! Wooooo!
So the recipe basically goes:
1. Dissolve & titrate sodium hydroxide to create known NaOH solution
2. Titrate NaOH with lipid/isopropanol mixture to determine reactant ratios
3. CH3OH (methanol) + NaOH ---> Na+CH3O- (sodium methoxide) + H2O
4. LIPID + 3Na+CH3O- ---> 3METHYL ESTERS (biodiesel) + GLYCERINE
5. Let sit to separate
6. Profit. (If I can figure out how to purify the waste glycerine I can use it in the lab as a glassware/rubber tubing lube, saving the school money. If the district can be convinced to run buses on biodiesel the reaction can be run on a large scale using donated restaurant grease--everybody loves donating shit to schools, and currently most restaurants pay to have their grease hauled away.)
I am SO. GEEKED. right now.
So the recipe basically goes:
1. Dissolve & titrate sodium hydroxide to create known NaOH solution
2. Titrate NaOH with lipid/isopropanol mixture to determine reactant ratios
3. CH3OH (methanol) + NaOH ---> Na+CH3O- (sodium methoxide) + H2O
4. LIPID + 3Na+CH3O- ---> 3METHYL ESTERS (biodiesel) + GLYCERINE
5. Let sit to separate
6. Profit. (If I can figure out how to purify the waste glycerine I can use it in the lab as a glassware/rubber tubing lube, saving the school money. If the district can be convinced to run buses on biodiesel the reaction can be run on a large scale using donated restaurant grease--everybody loves donating shit to schools, and currently most restaurants pay to have their grease hauled away.)
I am SO. GEEKED. right now.
5.31.2008
Babies, Bathwater, and Family Forests
[Imported from somewhere less pseudonymous]
Anyone remember the estate tax hullabaloo a while back? Were they trying to reduce it or eliminate it? What ever happened with that? I recall my position being a unilateral, "Fuck you, give the government money." I stand by that position in the case of people who are money-rich; I maintain that the people who benefit the most from our economic and societal systems should pay the most to maintain them. However it's recently come to my attention that the tax is in need of a bit of reform.
The existing combination of estate and property tax systems disincentivizes ecological conservation. The estate tax hits people who inherit chunks of wilderness disproportionately hard and a lot of the time they end up having to sell the land to pay the tax on it. When you need to sell a big chunk of the middle of nowhere in a hurry (estate taxes come due 9 months after the owner's death), timber companies and "developers" are the ones most likely to buy. These people think the estate tax should be immediately and permanently repealed for this reason. Their site says that the estate tax generates about 1.5% of annual federal revenues; that's an awful big baby to throw out with the bathwater. It seems to me entirely feasible to alter the estate tax code to provide exemptions or breaks for people inheriting wilderness. Several states, for example, have tax breaks for people who own undeveloped land and file a conservation plan, or assess the value of undeveloped land by its current use instead of its "best potential use" (best potential use, it is implied, is the standard M.O. I really don't know.) Does this create the possibility for abuse? Sure! But what tax law doesn't? I just want more forests to stay standing and less wetlands drained to make room for malls.
Anyone remember the estate tax hullabaloo a while back? Were they trying to reduce it or eliminate it? What ever happened with that? I recall my position being a unilateral, "Fuck you, give the government money." I stand by that position in the case of people who are money-rich; I maintain that the people who benefit the most from our economic and societal systems should pay the most to maintain them. However it's recently come to my attention that the tax is in need of a bit of reform.
The existing combination of estate and property tax systems disincentivizes ecological conservation. The estate tax hits people who inherit chunks of wilderness disproportionately hard and a lot of the time they end up having to sell the land to pay the tax on it. When you need to sell a big chunk of the middle of nowhere in a hurry (estate taxes come due 9 months after the owner's death), timber companies and "developers" are the ones most likely to buy. These people think the estate tax should be immediately and permanently repealed for this reason. Their site says that the estate tax generates about 1.5% of annual federal revenues; that's an awful big baby to throw out with the bathwater. It seems to me entirely feasible to alter the estate tax code to provide exemptions or breaks for people inheriting wilderness. Several states, for example, have tax breaks for people who own undeveloped land and file a conservation plan, or assess the value of undeveloped land by its current use instead of its "best potential use" (best potential use, it is implied, is the standard M.O. I really don't know.) Does this create the possibility for abuse? Sure! But what tax law doesn't? I just want more forests to stay standing and less wetlands drained to make room for malls.
Success! ... and then maybe more succes! Or alternately, theft.
[Imported from somewhere less pseudonymous]
Three facts about me:
1. I grocery shop by bus as infrequently as possible and have a great deal of trouble getting two massive handfuls of plastic bags full of food home.
2. I feel bad using massive handfuls of plastic bags, even though I reuse them as garbage bags.
3. I like camping.
Considering these three facts together, this weekend I invested in a hiking backpack. Expensive? Yes. BUT! Going camping no longer includes the bother of finding a backpack to borrow. Plus, I thought, I can take it with me grocery shopping and load all my foods and stuff in there, resulting in fewer plastic bags and sore hands. Today was the first test run. I purchased $100 of groceries, including 2.25 gallons (18 pounds) of liquid, which would've torn my fingers off if carried as typical. I jammed the liquids and most of the other stuff in my shiny new backpack, with only one plastic bag's worth left over (I was on the verge of missing the bus; might've managed to fit it all in the backpack if I'd had time to engage better packing strategery). Getting it home on the bus? Effortless. Except the part where the driver missed my stop and I had to be all "'Scuse me!" That added a dozen or so yards to my walk (there's a bus stop right afront my building), which would've been torture with bags. Again, effortless with the backpack. I win! And my stuff, despite spending a bus ride all banging around in a backpack, is not ruined. The gallon jug of orange juice is a little misshapen, but that's all.
In other news, I decided my lettuce is a lost cause. Have I mentioned my lettuce? I decided to start up a window box, which I planted with basil and salad mix, having been told that leafy things like lettuces do well in low light. Had some trouble finding a long narrow planter that would work for the window situation, then found my mom had one, so she just gave it to me when I was helping her move. Win. So I threw some dirt in it, threw some seeds in the dirt, threw some water on the seeds in the dirt, got sprouts and... that's about it. No sign of secondary leaves anywhere. I guess lettuces don't do quite so well in light this low. Today I figured, there's sun outside. Why don't I just stick it out there? My erstwhile window box now resides in a sunny spot on the south side of my building, with my apartment number carved into it. Best case: it grows into food. Worst case: it gets stolen. In which case, the planter was free, the dirt and seeds were cheap, it's one less thing I have to move in August, and it wasn't doing anything in my apartment anyway; best of luck to whomever ends up with it.
Speaking of when I move in August, I'm starting to get into "I don't want to have all this shit to move" mode and am becoming motivated to divest myself of much of my shit. Problem is, most of my shit is books. And whereas I've read most of them once and then never touched them again, I like having them. It makes me feel wealthy. In, you know, knowledge and culture and stuff. On the other hand, they represent Stuff that I have and don't use, that will increase the amount of work it takes to move, and that could be exchanged for money. ANGST AND CONFLICT!
UPDATE: Window box stolen.
Three facts about me:
1. I grocery shop by bus as infrequently as possible and have a great deal of trouble getting two massive handfuls of plastic bags full of food home.
2. I feel bad using massive handfuls of plastic bags, even though I reuse them as garbage bags.
3. I like camping.
Considering these three facts together, this weekend I invested in a hiking backpack. Expensive? Yes. BUT! Going camping no longer includes the bother of finding a backpack to borrow. Plus, I thought, I can take it with me grocery shopping and load all my foods and stuff in there, resulting in fewer plastic bags and sore hands. Today was the first test run. I purchased $100 of groceries, including 2.25 gallons (18 pounds) of liquid, which would've torn my fingers off if carried as typical. I jammed the liquids and most of the other stuff in my shiny new backpack, with only one plastic bag's worth left over (I was on the verge of missing the bus; might've managed to fit it all in the backpack if I'd had time to engage better packing strategery). Getting it home on the bus? Effortless. Except the part where the driver missed my stop and I had to be all "'Scuse me!" That added a dozen or so yards to my walk (there's a bus stop right afront my building), which would've been torture with bags. Again, effortless with the backpack. I win! And my stuff, despite spending a bus ride all banging around in a backpack, is not ruined. The gallon jug of orange juice is a little misshapen, but that's all.
In other news, I decided my lettuce is a lost cause. Have I mentioned my lettuce? I decided to start up a window box, which I planted with basil and salad mix, having been told that leafy things like lettuces do well in low light. Had some trouble finding a long narrow planter that would work for the window situation, then found my mom had one, so she just gave it to me when I was helping her move. Win. So I threw some dirt in it, threw some seeds in the dirt, threw some water on the seeds in the dirt, got sprouts and... that's about it. No sign of secondary leaves anywhere. I guess lettuces don't do quite so well in light this low. Today I figured, there's sun outside. Why don't I just stick it out there? My erstwhile window box now resides in a sunny spot on the south side of my building, with my apartment number carved into it. Best case: it grows into food. Worst case: it gets stolen. In which case, the planter was free, the dirt and seeds were cheap, it's one less thing I have to move in August, and it wasn't doing anything in my apartment anyway; best of luck to whomever ends up with it.
Speaking of when I move in August, I'm starting to get into "I don't want to have all this shit to move" mode and am becoming motivated to divest myself of much of my shit. Problem is, most of my shit is books. And whereas I've read most of them once and then never touched them again, I like having them. It makes me feel wealthy. In, you know, knowledge and culture and stuff. On the other hand, they represent Stuff that I have and don't use, that will increase the amount of work it takes to move, and that could be exchanged for money. ANGST AND CONFLICT!
UPDATE: Window box stolen.
A moment of selfishness
[Imported from somewhere less pseudonymous]
Yes, with the end of the Oil Age I'm desperately concerned about rising gas prices and the attendant rising food prices and rising everything else prices and especially about the fact that no oil means no plastic and fucking everything is made of plastic now (I have major mixed feelings about corn plastic. Yes, it's driving up the cost of food by using corn for non-nutritive purposes, but at least it's a renewable and biodegradable plastic-like thing). These problems are hitting some other countries worse than us, but it's a definite belt-tightener even here, and my heart weeps Virgin Mary tears for everyone affected by these problems.
But I need to have a moment of unalloyed selfish concern here, for which I hope you'll forgive me. During high school and in the couple summers thereafter, the International Travel Bug jabbed me with its spirochete-laden sting. I loved seeing other countries and desperately long for a time when I have the financial means to travel abroad again. Meanwhile, I've recently been thinking the airline industry isn't long for this world; airlines have been going bankrupt and merging for quite some time now, fuel prices are getting ready to go crazy, and I've heard ugly things about the aluminum industry. I saw a story on MSNBC or CNN or something about how buses and trains are doing record business and starting to see a need to scale up their services; I've even been dicking around on Amtrak.com and finding a few trips cheaper by train than plane. I'm starting to worry about whether airlines will continue to exist, at least for intercontinental travel. Or will we have to get used to a month-long boat ride across the Atlantic to see Europe? Maybe we can use zeppelins.
Yes, with the end of the Oil Age I'm desperately concerned about rising gas prices and the attendant rising food prices and rising everything else prices and especially about the fact that no oil means no plastic and fucking everything is made of plastic now (I have major mixed feelings about corn plastic. Yes, it's driving up the cost of food by using corn for non-nutritive purposes, but at least it's a renewable and biodegradable plastic-like thing). These problems are hitting some other countries worse than us, but it's a definite belt-tightener even here, and my heart weeps Virgin Mary tears for everyone affected by these problems.
But I need to have a moment of unalloyed selfish concern here, for which I hope you'll forgive me. During high school and in the couple summers thereafter, the International Travel Bug jabbed me with its spirochete-laden sting. I loved seeing other countries and desperately long for a time when I have the financial means to travel abroad again. Meanwhile, I've recently been thinking the airline industry isn't long for this world; airlines have been going bankrupt and merging for quite some time now, fuel prices are getting ready to go crazy, and I've heard ugly things about the aluminum industry. I saw a story on MSNBC or CNN or something about how buses and trains are doing record business and starting to see a need to scale up their services; I've even been dicking around on Amtrak.com and finding a few trips cheaper by train than plane. I'm starting to worry about whether airlines will continue to exist, at least for intercontinental travel. Or will we have to get used to a month-long boat ride across the Atlantic to see Europe? Maybe we can use zeppelins.
About a Blog, or Portrait of the Artist, Who Is a Young Man
Look, another blog! Surely critical mass has now been reached and the world will become a carbon-neutral progressive wonderland any day.
Who I Am: Male. Twentysomething. Recent college graduate. Gay. Atheist most of the time, a little bit Pagan others. Moving across the country to Pacific Northwest Suburb soon. At that time, I will be a teacher. I try to be as eco-friendly as an American can. I try to be as much an ally to feminists and people of color as a white dude can. My greatest aspiration is to have a modest home in the city where I can live compactly and efficiently, walk or bike everywhere, and grow as much of my own food as possible; and also own a large chunk of forested Middle of Nowhere where I can build a cabin and be your kooky survivalist uncle. A partner to share that with is also high on the list. I swear kind of a lot.
Who This Blog Is: My interests center on issues related to education, feminism, LGBTQ rights, social justice, environmentalism, and kooky survivalism. Everyone has numerous issues, and most people pick one windmill to spend most of their time tilting at. I haven't picked one yet, so my focus tends to wander amongst all the above. Maybe in the near future my focus will improve. Maybe blogging will help with that. Or maybe I'll just bea terribly unfocused mess of contradictions a renaissance man all my days.
Who I Am: Male. Twentysomething. Recent college graduate. Gay. Atheist most of the time, a little bit Pagan others. Moving across the country to Pacific Northwest Suburb soon. At that time, I will be a teacher. I try to be as eco-friendly as an American can. I try to be as much an ally to feminists and people of color as a white dude can. My greatest aspiration is to have a modest home in the city where I can live compactly and efficiently, walk or bike everywhere, and grow as much of my own food as possible; and also own a large chunk of forested Middle of Nowhere where I can build a cabin and be your kooky survivalist uncle. A partner to share that with is also high on the list. I swear kind of a lot.
Who This Blog Is: My interests center on issues related to education, feminism, LGBTQ rights, social justice, environmentalism, and kooky survivalism. Everyone has numerous issues, and most people pick one windmill to spend most of their time tilting at. I haven't picked one yet, so my focus tends to wander amongst all the above. Maybe in the near future my focus will improve. Maybe blogging will help with that. Or maybe I'll just be
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