What is plastic??!?!

Has anyone stopped to ask themselves this? More importantly has anyone stopped to ask someone else this? From what I gather it is some conglomerate of polymers melted down into a goo-ey substance and then molded into just about everything we use in our lives. It cannot be repaired. There are about a million types of it. It doesn't really ever properly decompose. It apparently has estrogen in it (and probably a million other harmful chemicals). Mr. McGuire calls it "the way of the future" in The Graduate (1967) and to a large part, he has been right. But does anything know anything good about this product?

Top 4 reasons why I like Green Snot

1. Thickening
2. Girls are way more likely to be grossed out by green snot than by not-green-snot
3. Green snot means that you're sinuses are nearing the end of draining, which means you will be able to hear properly again, and talk properly again and more or less not feel like there's a 300 pound gorilla sitting on your head...unless of course there is a 300 pound gorilla sitting on your head.*
4. Green snot means you will soon have boogers, boogers are natural


*If there is a 300 pound gorilla sitting on your head you may want to contact your local authorities for help.

Having a cold sucks. Speaking of things that sucks, racism sucks. Recently Democratic Presidential Hopeful Barack Obama addressed this issue, specifically in regards to some very divisive comments his Pastor made from the pulpit. Here is the most complete version of the video I could find, which I have yet to see, but we should watch it and then talk about it.

You can read the complete text of the speech here.

I love this blog too much to not pimp it on my own blog.

Stuff White People Like

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

Both links are to the same thing, I am just making it more convenient for you. Enjoy. I read this daily, and laugh. And realize how point-less our life is. How much we've made out of so little. Sigh....

Torn like two-ply toilet tissue

So, There seem to be these times in life where an OBVIOUS answer just doesn't seem to exist. Usually this period of confusion follows the question of "What should I do next?"

I feel like I have a solid answer to "What do I want to do with my life?" and that is; To use less and to love more.

Which may sound kinda vague, and that may be the reason I like it so much. Vague leaves alot of room for freedom, and if one is willing to live with accountability and not use their freedom to be lackadaisical then I think alot of good can come from it. I guess, its the difference between the successes (and failures) of democracy and the successes (and failures) of socialism. People are willing to live more of their convictions (and contribute more) to society if they are acting under their own impetus, rather than the forced will of the government (or The Man.)


Why have we turned (all of our) relationships into formulas? You do this and this and this and then you get or give this and this and this, and then this happens and your relationship is better for it. Presto! Why does everyone's Christian walk look the same? Read. Worship. Pray. Presto change-o! Yikes, that scares me.

So I am applying for Teach for America (http://www.teachforamerica.com/). TFA is a corp of people who start as beginning teachers in "under-privileged" areas, trying to share some of the opportunity (and hope) they've been given in building relationships with students in the classroom. TFA is, and can seem like a romantic idea, which I don't believe it will be in all practicality. Over the past few months of the application/interview process I've read many accounts of both the "Happily ever afters...." and the horror stories from teachers who have hated it.

I guess, ultimately the question is where do I think I could do the most good? The options are roughly TFA or Omaha, NE. I would love to start a community house of sorts in Omaha, encourage people to start bike-commuting, using less, re-cycling and generally and living more sustainably. I already know alot of people in Omaha and feel that it would be building this sort of thing with some sort of starting foundation, or going about it from scratch. Thoughts?

My office job is closing at the end of this month, which throws me for yet another decision loop. Yikes. So I find myself in a city where I don't really feel that I should be in half-waiting out a lease that ends in July waiting with my hands-tied to make decisions. So there you go. Are you as confused as I am? =)

Of Puerto Rico and being handed the keys to "Jurassic Park."

So we got back from Puerto Rico Saturday evening. Whiplash. It was 85 and sunny on the beach on the PR, 24 hours before we landed in Chicago. Walking back to my apartment from the EL stop in shorts it was 30 and windy.

Puerto Rico was amazing. Just what the doc. ordered in terms of getting away from the stresses of my hectic working life. It was pretty much 80 the entire time we were there. We spent alot of time on a various number of different beaches, all of them gorgeous. If you've seen a postcard and that postcard has a beach pictured on it, then most likely the beach pictured is in Puerto Rico, regardless of whether or not the name on the postcard says Jacksonville or Venice Beach.

The water in Puerto Rico is blue, which is different than the poop brown color that the ocean is right off our coasts. The sand is most often white, which is probably the reason is so blue.

We spent alot of time snorkling, we saw alot of things Barracudas, Crabs, Sea Slugs (which we tormented until they "inked" their load (which we have video of here). We saw Puffer fish, Sting Rays and Regal Tang fish (which is what Dory was from the movie Finding Nemo - theyre alot less annoying in real life.)

Most nights we camped on beaches, sleeping to the crashing surf.

One day we drove west on the island to see the largest satellite in the world (Aricebo Observatory) which was featured in the movie Goldeneye and also Contact. It was pretty cool. We were planning on camping at a near by national forest, but when we got there found that it was closed (Like many other things on an island that apparently moves more slowly than here.) We found two guys working in the machine shop behind the main office, and asked what the deal was. They re-itterated that it was closed and told us that we were pretty much hosed since it was nearing dark and the next nearest campsite was quite a ways away. The looked us over and handed us the keys.

Yes, the keys to a national park in Puerto Rico. Pretty flippin' awesome. We have pictures. As you can see it pretty much looks like Jurassic Park, and since none of Jurassic Park was actually shot in Puerto Rico (sorry guys) we decided to tell people that we pretty much slept in Jurassic Park. It was a great night out, so we decided to sleep under the stars. Falling asleep to the sound of crickets, and Koki frogs....which we told ourselves were Brontosaurus and Velociraptor (what? I was home-schooled, I have an over-active imagination.)

On Thursday of last week we left the main island of Puerto Rico by ferry for the island of Vieques, where we snorkled some more and paid visit to a Bioluminescent bay. Which can sort of be seen here (but think, this is a small fish, imagine swimming in it!) I could "Hadouken" (for you old school 16-bit gaming geeks out there) my brother from a good four or five feet away and a stream of light would hit him. Pretty cool!

More jokes and relating, than can be related here. More fun than can be related here. I will always argue that its not what you do its who you do it with. And the thing that makes trips like this priceless are the people you go with. We went as a group of six, I didn't know three from the group before we left, but it was fantastic. A friend of mine David Chronic said to me once that "Scarcity creates community." Its always cool to put yourself in a situation with a group of people that you're all unfamiliar with, and with less than you have in the average day (essentially what you have in your hiking pack) and to live and learn from there. Pretty cool. Hmm...no wonder I like the idea of community living so much. Anyone else wanna move somewhere together?

peace,

matt

p.s. - here are the links to the photo albums which we uploaded from the 5 digital cameras that traveled along.

Kristen's Gallery
Nate's Gallery
Seth's Gallery