One Size Fits All

Because my last post on here was so long winded, you may haven’t noticed that I have moved:

The Middle Way - Still crazy, but in measured doses. 

We quit. In case you didn’t already know. I’m still too exhausted to write about it much, but it stopped being fun after a while and I just was not mentally prepared to ride and deal with not having any services for 50-100 miles at a stretch. This began to become a reality once we started heading south in Texas.There were other reasons as well such as the constant aggravation of dealing with dogs that kept chasing us, cars that kept buzzing us, and unpaved/unlabeled roads. Not to mention the constant pain which made squatting down to do my business in the bushes a very painful ordeal.

So we decided to burn some dinosaurs and drive to California. I managed to get it all together to meet Chile and her sweetie, not to mention that angel of a dog, Angel. If only all dogs were as angelic.

Here is what Chile looks like in person: 

Its a bit off since Chile is much greener in real life.

It was somewhat of a shock to be in Chile’s house. It felt like home. Every piece of furniture had a story, every book on the bookshelf was either a favorite (like the Tightwad Gazette), or on my to-read list. The fresh ground flour reminded me of my childhood (Chile’s pancakes ought to be in a contest with Melinda’s). Her bathroom even looked like ours. And of course, Chile’s liquors are to die for.

It was so comforting to talk to someone and be on the same page on so many concerns. There just wasn’t enough time to chat about all the things we wanted to chat about. If community building involves meeting kindred spirits such as Chile, I’m signing up!

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My brain is still too fried for me to pontificate about what I’ve learned and where I’m going to go with my life from this point onward. But I think its a new chapter. And thus a new blog, The Middle Way.  I won’t be blogging here anymore so all your blogger people can rejoice that my blog can now be wigitified on blogger. The blog’s title will serve as a constant reminder to me that I ought to quit swinging from one extreme to another and instead choose the middle way.

And obviously, I’ve gained enlightenment.

My first award! I’d like to thank the Chile Chews committee for giving me this award which did make me blush ("brilliant? me?awww"). Not sure why its Brilliante though. I’m a language dud…hence the confusion.

Per the rules:

1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you’ve nominated

And now the awards….

First is Ms. Arduous who is moving to London,

Then its classic cookery who’s got a bun in the oven.

I have to nominate orgie who has the cutest little sons,

And Working for Rachel who got back from her blog va-cay-shun.

Heather just quit working for the man,

but who can forget Rob who is the King of making jam.

And last but not least we come to number seven,

Melinda of course! Her pancakes were a slice of heaven.

—

And bonus, 7 random things about me

1.  I’m not very tall, but I wish I were shorter

2.  I stopped biting my nails when I began wearing braces on my teeth.

3. My shoe size is 8

4. I love the smell of lemon in pretty much anything

5. I hate having my picture taken

6. I wear grey alot

7. I’m a big fan of recursion

The husband and I have been thinking about moving from Philly to Los Angeles for a few years. My husband has always wanted to live there, and since I promised to move to the West Coast once I was done with my degree…now I have to fulfill the promise.

We’ll be moving toward the end of the year as soon as one of us gets a job.  Which will be at around October or November. Which means when we move in May/June this year we will be signing on a temporary lease or taking over someone else’s.

I think it will be interesting to live in L.A., mainly because I think it will be very entertaining (when you don’t have a TV, you look for alternatives). Also there is the beach which I don’t care too much about, but my husband does. However, the interesting part will be whether we can live there car free and rely on bicycling and public transit as we do here in Philly. There are a handful of individuals who do live car free in L.A. and have written about their experiences…that is, it can be done. Then there is the weather. Its apparently nice for most of the year. So I could possibly have locally grown, organic oranges.  Which will be nice.

But reading message boards about L.A. is not very informative. Most posters own cars…which skews one’s perspective on everything. Most of the posters who complain about how dangerous L.A. is lived in small towns and white-only areas prior to moving to L.A. How is the city dangerous? Are there shootings on the bus? Are there hoodlums hanging around the corner of certain neighborhoods harassing people? Are there rapes? I am more interested in the likelihood of getting hit by a car when crossing the street (like I could if I cross Roosevelt Blvd. at night here) than this vague dangerous descriptor used for everything. How wide are the shoulders and bike lanes? Since the city streets are so wide, will I get room to bike? Will I have to deal with an attitude problem if I lock my bike up to a pole? Will I be fined if I ride on the side walk because I am scared of riding on the street with cars driving over 40 miles per hour?

I’ve ridden through North Philly ghettos by myself, and while its spooky, its fine during the day. How does North Philly ghettos compare to L.A’s?

L.A. has everything the both of us need. So I am not worried about being bored. But its hard to narrow down potential neighborhoods we could live in when the noise about how horrible L.A. is, is really loud.

We have both opened up to the idea that if it is really impossible to be car free, we will get a car. We will probably sign up for a car sharing service rightaway to make the transition smooth, but I am hoping we won’t need a car. 

Anyway…I am researching the city. I am really ready for a change and I think L.A. will be as much of a change as I can imagine.

Here are my favorite posts from the Urban Vegan:

* summer express :: 101 simple vegan meals ready in 10 minutes or less
* Recipe: sun-dried tomato pesto
* vegans gone wild! contest :: and the winner is….
* vegans gone wild runners up :: part 1 of 3
* vegans gone wild runners up : : part 2 of 3
* vegans gone wild runners up : : part 3 of 3

I read “Alternatives to Plastic” sometime in 2006 and immediately set about eliminating plastic from my life. It has been, by far, one of the most challenging goals I’ve ever set for myself. While I am a lot better now about avoiding plastic in my life than I was before, it still has a way of creeping into my life. This goal has also made me feel…isolated. None of my friends are interesting in avoiding plastic. The local grocery store clerks look at me like I’m nuts when I tell them I’d like to bag my own grocery in my own bag. So when I found Enviro-Woman’s blog, I was thrilled. While her goal seems to be directed toward removing plastic from her life in 2007, I hope she will continue the project and her blog when 2008 comes around. Below are the posts I’ve bookmarked from her blog:

* Plastics 101: Part 1, Bad Witch, Good Witch
* Plastic free: Trash Bags
* Brain Food: Plastic Ocean
* Plastic free: Pens
* Plastic free: Toothpaste
* Plastic free: MASCARA

These are some of my favorite posts on The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, who says:

I’m working on a book, THE HAPPINESS PROJECT–a memoir about the year I spent test-driving every principle, tip, theory, and scientific study I could find, whether from Aristotle or St. Therese or Martin Seligman or Oprah. THE HAPPINESS PROJECT will gather these rules for living and report on what works and what doesn’t. On this daily blog, I recount some of my adventures and insights as I grapple with the challenge of being happier.

* Seven tips for making someone like you
* Blocked? Frustrated? Procrastinating? Put yourself in Creativity Boot Camp - “You tackle your project in an intense, concentrated way, and push yourself far harder than usual.”
* One big tip for changing the way you think
* Seven tips for making yourself happier IN THE NEXT HOUR
* As promised from last week, I tackle the question: “what is happiness?”

The Worsted Witch is one of my favorite blogs. The author, Jasmine, combines more interests of mine together on one blog than any other blog I know of such: knitting, the environment, eating locally and voluntary simplicity along with many other topics. Here are some of my favorite posts that I’ve saved:

* Zhena’s Gypsy Tea - “Not only is Zhena’s a woman-owned business—she started out pedaling from a cart—but its teas are also organic- and fair-trade certified. The Ojai, Calif.-based company buys wind power through the purchase of green tags to offset its carbon footprint. And the reusable, refillable, and recyclable tins, which are made in a fair-trade facility in China, are absolutely luscious to behold.”

* Yahoo’s Green House - “Yahoo, which recently went carbon neutral, has a pretty nifty interactive walkthrough of an eco-friendly abode on its Earth Day mini-site. The tips are concise, as well as instructive without being too technical—nothing that will have you screaming for the hills, raging about those damn dirty hippies, anyway.”

* The Deadly Chemicals in Cotton

* Hub’s Guest Review: Larry’s Beans - “All of Larry’s Beans coffee is shade-grown and certified organic (or transitional organic); 97 percent is fair trade, while the remaining 3 percent is the company’s Kauai Blend from Hawaii, where it says there is no need for fair trade.” ” We also dug the fact that the bags (with designs that rocked my illustration-loving socks off) were resealable—a minor, oft-overlooked detail, but one that enables the packaging to be reused, even long after the last cup of coffee has been drained.”

* A Greener Delivery - “Sometimes we can’t help but order something online, especially when we can’t get something we need in a nearby bricks-and-mortar store. But rather than encourage excessive waste and nonbiodegradable, polluting packing materials such as styrofoam peanuts—plus your inclusion on catalog and junk-mail lists—you can make yourself heard by including a note with your online order”

* Fight Grime, Twist and Shout - “Twist, a new eco-friendly household products company, might be onto something, although it’s not without its shortfalls. The Boulder, Colo.-based outfit has sent out into the marketplace a 100 percent all-natural and biodegradable Loofah Sponge ($4.99 for a pack of two) that is part cellulose-cotton sponge and part Loofah plant fiber. (The cellulose comprises tree fibers from renewable-tree farms.)”

* New at Tenth and Grant - “six new notebooks […] printed with soy inks on recycled paper and chipboard.”

* Tips for the Frugal, Luxurious Life - “Someone asked me if Frugal Luxuries, which I quoted from earlier, trod the same ground as Your Money or Your Life—it almost seemed that way in the beginning, but as Tracey McBride began to neatly (and maternally) check off the different aspects of frugal living—from finances to food to your wardrobe—while drawing from her family’s experiences, it became clear that hers was more reminiscent of the housekeeping manuals of the past, updated for our post-Susan B. Anthony era, of course. “

Here are my favorite posts from No Impact Man.

* Making bread (includes his recipe for making bread which I haven’t had a chance to try yet)
* Stopping the junk mail tree killers (I’ve tried many of the suggestions and they’ve worked. I have not tried subscribing to Green Dimes. I do compost some of Wall Street Journals. My worms appear to like them.)
* How we avoid making trash
* Slimy pets to eat your garbage and entertain your kids
* On not letting eco-dogma start the next war

I save many posts from the many blogs I read because I think they are worth re-reading.

Here are some of my favorites from zen habits:
* Refresh Your Focus Every Week to Achieve More
* A Guide to Cultivating Compassion in Your Life, With 7 Practices
* 8 Practical Tips to Cure Your Internet ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder)
* Optimize Your Productivity with Daily, Weekly Routines
* 73 Great Debt Elimination Tips
* A Simple Guide to Setting and Achieving Your Life Goals
* The 12-Step Get-Out-of-Debt Program
* 80 Awesome Weight Loss Tips
* How to Actually Execute Your To-Do List: or, Why Writing It Down Doesn’t Actually Get It Done
* 18 Practical Tips for Living the Golden Rule
* Zen To Slim: A Simple, 5-Step Weight Loss Plan
* A 3-Step Cure for Digital Packrats, and How to Know If You’re One of Them

I feel like I am being tugged by two seemingly conflicted view points.

First let me talk about the more fun view.

The first view point is me being a “bum”. No permanent job, but working just to get by with a moderate amount of savings. I spend the majority of my time working on my hobbies which is essentially unpaid labor but very satisfying. Ideally, I’d like to work 6 months of the year and not work the remaining 6 months of the year. My residence would be semi permanent and in poor/dodgy neighborhoods. Which would not be a big leap because I’ve been living in dodgy neighborhoods for most of my adult life.

The second view point is the more responsible/practical view point. In this one I work a proper job and make good money and actively plan to retire early so I can live my bum lifestyle described as my first view point. I may purchase a permanent residence or I may not.

This may be all due to me really hating school right now, and I am so tempted to quit. But I will plod along.

But I really, really, really am sick of school. I would like to not work or study or do anything but lounge around for an entire year

Summer school has started again and I am taking two hard classes. So I will be spending the next 5 weeks moping around, cursing my classes and studying. If I do procrastinate, I plan on blogging. But I really need to get my act together and study diligently if I need a nice starting salary.

Toodles for now.

Flakey sounding post follows…

I spent this past weekend in Manhattan. It was nice. I visited the Financial District for the very first time. And I love it! I thought it would be crappy, but because the area is so old, its almost cute.

Now that I can tell the difference between a bull market and a bear market, I took a picture of the bull. I wonder why there is no bear statue….superstition?

I am also easily amused:

Finally I saw this:

The website is feedthepig.org

I was pleased to note that Accountants were behind this. From the website:

Money shouldn’t drive your future. But neither should debt. It’s time for you to take control. Get what you deserve. Not just today. Your whole life. Just remember: small changes add up. Take steps to start saving today and you’ll build a solid financial future tomorrow.