World Water Day 2011

If you watch an old movie and take notice of the little things that happen in each scene... you will notice one huge difference between pre-1980 movies and movies of today. Water bottles + plastic bottles of other drinks "on the go." It seems that people can't go too long without taking a drink of something, so they carry plastic bottles around everywhere they go.

Since today is World Water Day i am focusing on water.

How often do you grab a bottle of water? How often do you see people walking around with a bottle of water {park, gym, mall, sporting events, etc.}? If you answer never, you are either blind to the world around you, or you live in a place that doesn't have bottled water available {an Earth friendly utopia of sorts}. Everywhere i look, someone has a bottle of water in hand. It seems that the human body has "evolved" into something that can't go even an hour without hydration. We cling to our bottles of water like a baby to their favorite blanket. We rarely use a re-usable bottle or glass/plastic cup when we are on the go {how many starbucks cups do you use and toss each week?}. Most people that i know drink bottled water even in their own home, instead of using a cup. This baffles me a lot about the human psyche. What is it about a bottle? Why can't people grab a cup/glass and sit down at their desk?

I do not remember having a drink on the go when i was a really little kid. Our soda came in glass bottles, so we didn't take them out of the kitchen. Instead, we poured ourself a cup. If we wanted water, we turned on the sink, filled up our cup, and got our drink on. If we were out and about and thirsty, we drank out of a water fountain, or on rare occasion we would buy a drink that came in a paper cup {still not the best option}. There were many times when we would just wait until we got home or wherever we were going to grab a drink. We might be really thirsty by the time we got somewhere, but we learned to deal with it. When playing sports we had a plastic cup with our name written on it and the coaches brought giant water containers and we would get a drink in our cup when needed. If you look around at a sporting event today, every kid on the field has their own bottle of water to drink. I can't remember the last time i saw the giant water container in youth sports. Instead you see the individual bottles; even the parents in the stands have their own bottle of water.

I admit that the ease of water bottles keeps people more hydrated. There are probably less incidents of heat stroke and dehydration due to sports or over heating while being outside. But for the most part, the bottles of water aren't truly needed. Just as they were not needed back when we were kids. If you are not being over-worked, grab a drink before you go to keep you pre-hydrated and then refuel your hydration once you get back home. If you MUST take water on the go with you, invest in a reusable bottle {they come in BPA Free plastic, metal, and/or a mixture of the two}. They aren't that expensive. If you do the math... they are actually cheaper than the continued buying of bottled water.

If you are at home... use a cup! Drink from the sink or a filtration system if you aren't comfortable drinking unfiltered water. Nothing has changed since you were a kid. The use of a cup has not changed at all. They still hold liquids. It isn't as if cups have changed to no longer have bottoms or sides; trust me, they work the same as they have for thousands of years. You can still walk around the house with them and not spill it everywhere. If you are worried about spilling, invest in a "coffee" mug with a lid to take from room to room in your house. Clean water is available in all of our homes in America. We are blessed, super lucky, amazingly well off, and we should be humbled by the thought that we are lucky enough to have CLEAN drinking water at our fingertips.

* Fact: 8.8 BILLION gallons of bottled water were consumed in the USA in 2007.

* Fact only 12% of the plastic bottles from that water used were recycled.

* 63.4 BILLION plastic bottles are dumped into landfills and oceans each year, and growing to more and more being dumped each year.

Two quick things i want to add:

1. Charity: Water Water Day 2011. I've talked about this amazing charity before. They bring CLEAN water and education to other countries around the world. If you are able to donate to a charity, i urge you to check out Chairty: Water's website and give what you can, when you can.

2. The trash in our world due to water bottle use.

          a. MSNBC Article on Plastic Trash in America.

          b. Mother Nature Network: 5 Reason not to drink bottled water.

          c. Youtube Video about plastic in our Oceans.

          d. Youtube Video {commercial} for water filtration {brita}

          e. Youtube Video {commercial} "if you could see the real impact" of bottles {brita}

          f. Youtube Video {ethical Water} "Confessions of a plastic water bottle"

Now, go and get yourself a BIG cup/glass of water from your sink. Go on. You'll feel much better about yourself and the way you are treating the planet.

December 21, 2012.

As a major history lover... one story (or truth) that has always haunted me since i was a little kid was that of the Mayan civilization and their prophecies. We recently finished up the chapter of World History in our homeschooling, Incas and Mayans. And now they have a movie coming out soon staring the actor John Cusack (Claire is quite the fan of his work!) if you have not seen the clips from this movie, please check it out by visiting the website here: 2012

here is a website that talks in detail about the theory around the belief in this date being so important. If you are not a scholar and a history lover, it might be hard to get through! fair warning ;-)

To sum up that website:
1. the Earth has several phases, or cycles. 5 cycles to be exact.
2. we are at the end of the last phase that has been written down in the past by the Mayans.
3. there is no set answer as to what will come on December 21, 2012, but the speculation is two things:
a. the Earth as we know it ends or has major issues (as shown in the movie link above)
b. the Earth enters a great time of peace and harmony

The major theory is that we came into this phase long ago and it brought about a great change in who we are as humans. The introduction of time being thought of and broken down into 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 hours a day. Then the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582. The introduction of the clock with moving parts in 1600. And that advancement growing on up to every gadget that we now use having a clock and/or a calendar in it (computers, cars, phones, cameras, etc). We stopped relying on the human body as our clock and calendar and took the "power" of this knowledge away from nature.

We have been long since growing away from nature and moving into an age of technology. We do not sit down to paint or draw or read and explore that which is inside of us as much as we use to. We read books on kindles, we paint/draw on computers using photoshop and drawing programs, we create works of art on machines more than we do by hand. We can even get our church through the computer. We communicate more with a machine (be it a phone or a computer) than we do as just humans connecting with each other by being there for one another. This has become even more real to me recently than ever before in my life. I thought moving would connect me more with who i wanted to be, more laid back and out there in nature... what i didn't realize that human connections is a large part of HUMAN NATURE.... nature.

We have also lost connecting with the Earth, the place that was given to us to enjoy and live in peace with. We do not sit in awe of it's power like we use to. We have an overgrown plant, we cut it down. We tend to see nature as being in our way and not our friend. Let's tear down that mountain and build a road of convenience so people can get to the beach quicker (yes, this is being done here where we live, it is sad!)

I am not suggesting we all become hippies and live in a Tepee in the jungles of Africa... but the wonders of the world use to be just that, something to sit in awe and wonder about. Now people go, take their families to say they've seen it and move on. And i admit to being guilty of not being in the moment as much as i should. I live through my camera and then i live again on my computer when i get home to go through and edit my photos... but i tend to take myself OUT of the moments because i am behind the buffer of my camera lens. I have been trying to put the camera down more and just be in the moment... i admit it is a work in progress!

i think we all are a work in progress. i do not know many people that aren't tied to their phone, their computer, their ipod, their car, their self. I have no idea if the story (or truth) of the Mayans will prove as fact in the year 2012, on December 21, but there is something to be said for the way that people live their lives today... we all should be more aware and more in the moments of our own lives. It is in fact the moments of OUR life, one day we might just give anything to get these moments back to relive, so LIVE them while you are in them and not be unfocused.

a true classic, IMHO.

Hands Across the Table, 1935

i love this movie. somewhere in a box, waiting to be unpacked, i own this movie on VHS. (if you ever find a copy on DVD, snag it for me will ya?)

Classic girl meats boy, falls in love with boy... but boy is poor and jobless. i kind of feel like i should unpack this movie and watch it. i recall many late night study sessions in college watching AMC (back when they actually use to play classic's - you know, really great OLD black and white movies!) this movie came on AMC about once a month and i found an old copy on VHS one year... it was a present to myself for all of my hard work. Although i can not recall what the hard work was that deserved a movie, but it must have been something special because i truly love this movie.

a couple of quotes from the movie that i love;

Regi: You must have a lot of friends that could give you a job.
Ted Drew: That'd be a fine friend who'd give you a job. No friend of mine had better try anything like that on me.
---
Regi: Do you dream?
Ted Drew: No.
Regi: You should - you'd meet a better class of people
---
Laura: Yeah, and maybe here's that ten million dollars you've been dreaming about.
Regi: The way I feel today, I'd settle for a million.

Carole Lombard had this way about presenting herself on screen. i wish i had half of that talent to present myself really well.

they do not make movies like this anymore. i love old classic movies. life seemed so much more simple back then. sure it was hard. but life is hard no matter what time zone or time period you are living in. a time when a person could get a job at the newspaper without having 10 degrees to back up their working knowledge of how the paper worked. a time when you could let your kid play in the street without fear of being snatched by someone. a time when you knew your neighbors and they knew you and you could depend on them for even something as small as a cup of sugar. times aren't how they use to be in the movies that i love watching. life flies by at a million 140 character twitter updates per second. if you blink you just missed a million people updating their status online and a world of knowledge that you probably didn't even need to know about complete strangers.

speaking of, i'm giving up my twitter for 1 week (or longer if i can stand it). its going to be a rough week. i lived for years without twitter and needing to know that someone that is a complete stranger to me is brushing their teeth while they pee. yeah, twitter has some odd updates. i'll miss @badbanana and @sween and the comical side of twitter that sometimes made me laugh just when i needed it. but right now i have some hard choices to make in my life and i need less distractions keeping me from staying focused. you will be missed my good friend twitter.

ok, i'm off to be the choice maker of the family!

watcha needing?

In a magical place, in a far off land...

there is a place that has toys that are grand.

They fly on their own and speak just to you,

Won't you come along with me too?

"I don't care how....

i WANT it NOOOOOOOOW!" 

- Veruca Salt

Yep, that's more like it!  Kids want their toys and they want them now!  They do not care about the imagination of playing.  They play for a moment, and then they move on to the next new toy.  And i'm sorry, but it is the parents fault, and the parents fault alone.

We go to the store about twice a week.  Claire on a rare occasion will want to go to the video game isle to see what is new out there.  But the toy isle? nope.  When she was a baby we purchased all of her favorite toys.  If she like Toy Story, she owned every toy story character we could find.  If she liked my little ponies, our floors were covered in MLP.  You get the idea.  About 2 years ago it hit me... just like adults, if a child likes something it doesn't mean they have to own it all.  I like Converse shoes, but i only own 1 pair.  I have obsessions just like anyone and when i like something i want to buy it. That doesn't mean that i do buy it.

Me, i need a good night sleep.

i need an answer.

i need a vacation.

i need clothes for working for only 1 month.