The cat's silhouette moves across my bookshelf.
The mission of a shadow.
Stealth betrayed by stiff paper.
Green eyes stare.

Food in Grand Rapids

Culture is such a defining feature in the lives of everyone regardless of whether we know or care.  With shifting cultures of new generations, people seem to be yet again redefining where they stand in relation to their food.  I have taken a strange path over the past few years going from eating triple cheese burgers and large pizzas as my diet to now being vegan and searching out every edible locally sourced food procurable.  

What is our story? How did we get so detached from our food? Why do we need a local food movement? Why are local residents fighting for their rights to own chickens? Most importantly though is what are we eating?

What is our story? A short answer is that most of us are products of our culture and our apathetic nature as animals, only ever wanting to take the easiest path.  A longer answer though is a look into the American spirit.  The saying 'you are what you eat' could not be more fitting.  The local food movements are getting away from the mechanization of our diets and factory system of devalued people and product, and is stretching it self to the other end of the scale to the hard meaningful labor we all know to be who we are and what we stand for.  We are not just a price tag or a source of income for some multinational corporation. We live locally, we eat at local restaurants, we even have the majority of our friends locally. The mass production of food, paid for by subsidies, distributed, devalued and dangerously easy to ignore are the subconscious projections of our own inability to tell people what we really want vs. what we need.  There is a separation of our inherent morals and our manufactured desires created by ad agencies.

How did we get so detached from our food? Realistically, no one wants to be told what to do.  This was set forth by the founding fathers of the United States.  It doesn't matter your political persuasion, everyone likes the option of choice over the lack thereof.  Why is it so often that we let fast-food joints tell us what we want to eat? And why would we not question what it is that we truly need vs want? It was only a generation ago, my fathers generation that had pigs behind their barn and house as well as chickens, rows of fruits and vegetables, and more often than not a plethora of canned foods to last multiple families through the winters.  Today, I often peer into the refrigerators of the world and see only the disposable temporary unrealistic notions of what food is thought to be.  Steak does not look like a cow.  Green peas do not grow in a can.  Corn syrup is man made.  We became detached from our food by just a few lies and it happens to be unrealistic that we subject ourselves to it all.  It is easier to be ignorant than it is to engage ourselves. 

Local food means local, not a factory farm.  We are talking about raising chickens for eggs and ultimately maybe some soup and dinner at the end of a very fruitful life, right? Why is it that city councils can tell you that you have to be unconnected from your food? This is the first time in all history that we are not allowed to know where our food comes from.  So if we are not allowed to know where our food comes from, how can we expect to know what our food truly is? Does anyone truly know what they eat anymore? I am positive that the average consumer could not imagine what is put into their food and by default into their bodies.

topic of life

It was suggested that I write more... I think I write enough, I just don't share or show it to too many people.  I think my thoughts pour out as a matter of importance.  I only want to think about what is important, and therefor I only ever want to write about what I feel is important.  It is not that I feel the need to clarify my intent to write, but to present more of the problem of why I have a problem writing.  For instance, when I was going to college, I feel like I could have written forever about just about anything.  It could have been because I already had to write papers all the time on just about every subject that I could imagine, that it made it easier to draw on subject matter to write about.  Not to say that I don't have any interesting subject matter in my life to draw on.  I have a whole blog about coffee.  But merely that without a subject of interest like a particular book or topic I seem to be like a drone of a human being endlessly wandering in my own mind looking for a new form of entertainment or new person to laugh with.  Again, don't get me wrong.  One of the best things about my life right now is that just about every night I end up spending it with a group of people laughing, telling jokes, looking at life, deconstructing, and amusing ourselves with the small nothings that we are involved in.  I think that maybe it is not my business to mention people by name often, in any form of writing, and that it might lead me to not want to write about the specifics of my interactions with people but only vaguely.  I love my friends, and I love everything they do with a full accepting nature that I have come to embrace.  They are the most fantastic human beings I think I have ever met.

It is weird to think that I spent so much time out of state.  It also seems that being so far away from this place, Michigan, Home, was and is so foreign.  My past three years almost non-existent.  I have grown so much in that time that my head feels like it is going to explode with what I care for so much.  I have coffee labs every Wednesday, and employee labs every Sunday.  I teach people what I have learned.  I get people invested in what I love.  I bring them closer to myself.  It is eerie that I feel closer to so many people here than I have ever felt anywhere else I have ever been.  Ypsilanti has been the best most fulfilling experience to date in my short twenty-five years on this planet.

2010 is almost up, a new year is pounding at our door.  Everyday I read all the science headlines, and they seem to make more sense to me than the regular political news.  People make less and less sense to me culturally where as science and logic only get reinforced in my mind.  The more I learn about the universe and M-theory, the more I feel myself as actually being apart of something greater.  I do not mean like the human race great... but I mean like in a sense that the particles that make up my existence have essentially been recycled from the earliest moments of the universe and their current state is in the construction of thoughts, and the constitution of physical actions that represent my being.

Although not a necessity, I would like to know more about the universe before I die.  The answer to the question that everyone asks but no one knows...

si

I feel like my other blog is falling behind in posts... but maybe coffee has taken a back seat to my life as of late.  Not to say that coffee is not my life, but that I have begun to have other valuable experiences outside of the coffee world.  Things that are worthwhile and things that mean a lot to me in some indescribable way.

haircut and a cat

So, I got a haircut, and a cat.  His name is Chimichanga, the pink nosed cat extraordinaire!

I have had a lot of big thoughts and I have read a lot of big books lately (they were actually relatively normal in dimension for books, but big in ideas) and it has led me back to this state that I feel I have not been in since early high school or even middle school.  I feel like I actually comprehend more than most other human beings about the way the world and universe works, but that I am further and further distanced from humanity and its irrational and illogical mannerisms.  I do not think that it is necessary a bad thing, I am feeling more at peace as a human than I have in the past few years.  I do not have problems sleeping at night anymore.  I wake up happy and am pretty consious of just about all of my actions even though most of them are decided in the moment.  My musical choices have been a mix of nastolgic 'greatest hits' ranging from Bob Segar, to Huey Lewis and the News, to just about all of the new indy and strange music coming out in the world, this is very good as I get to subject everyone that walks into the coffee shop to it.

It is quite possible that having never been quite so geographically restrained as I am right now has been a hindrance to my inner 'soul' searching.  It is not like I am trapped, but that I am not showing any willingness to escape from what I am doing.  Complete dedication, no mile markers on this road.

I am reading all non-fiction, as per usual.  No escapism during the recession for me.  Maybe just my comics.

I do not believe in a god, but if I did, I am sure that we would all burn in hell.

I am an intense person at times, or so I have been told.  Another thing is that I think maybe people confuse my passion and dedication (which to most people are positive things) with negativity in my case.

My father tells me that when he was a kid growing up in West Virginia that his parents and grand parents told him that one day he would grow up one day to be a great preacher.  If it wasn't for an "act of god" then he would for sure have followed that path.  Instead, chance and life intervened and somewhere along the line, he had me, his Atheist son.  I think that maybe what his parents saw in him, I got somehow, but with logic (from my mothers side.)  You could imagine what fear, fury, and hellfire I would bring to this world.  I am thankful however that I am who I am and not "god-fearing."

There is reason that I do not believe in any gods, but rest assured that if I did, I am sure that we would all burn in hell.

Island of important people.

I keep getting reminded of our island.  And I hope dear reader that I will be able to tell you more stories about our island, but for now I will briefly tell you about the island itself and how it came to be.

The island was created long ago, long before you or I were ever even thought of.  It was made so long ago that the whatever that made it left no record of making it.  As you can expect, our dear island has all the natural resources for us to comfortably survive in harmony and peace and love, but we are far more important than all the other islands out there. I would feel disgusted if somebody assumed that the island was just 'discovered.'  Seriously, the idea that the island was not destined for us makes me scared.  I mean what if?  We are not supposed to talk about it though.  It is kinda against the rules to consider against whatever created the island. 

There are other islands.  They are not nearly as cool as our island though. This island, our island, was ment for us right? It is our island to do with what we will.  What I mean is that if it wasnt, wouldnt whatever created it take it away from us.  Plus, everyone on the other islands are not nearly as smart or as pretty as everyone on our island.  Clearly all the other islands were created well after our island.  Of course we take what is rightfully ours from all the other islands.  What I mean is that if the others on the other islands dont know any better than they dont deserve what they have at their disposal. 

There is a book that has been rewritten every generation for the island as to how we will live.  And before you ask, no it hasn't changed, it is the same as it was written at the beginning.  We just need it to address it in our language.  The island has not always spoke the way we do.  We were not the first people on this island.  The people that were here were like all the other people on all the other islands, ignorant.  Its okay though, they are all gone, mostly anyway.

The people of the island got rid of someone the other day who went crazy talking about things against the book.  Seriously though, how could he choose to not be free? People who dont believe usually end up getting recycled to the island.  Grandma got recycled last year, I wish she wouldnt have, but you know how the elderly get.

It is our island. It is ours to do with what we will. We are the island of important people.

Do you spend time on your front porch?

Although I have no proof, I have a feeling that the average westerner suffers from a lack of identity and that it has to do with the lack of front porches on houses (or enclosed porches.)  Furthermore, I think the problem is exacerbated by a lack of people spending time on their front porches if they indeed do have them. It is just a hypothesis, and like I said, I have no proof and therefore no pudding...

Political Atheism vs Political Agnosticism

A new blog, a new place to put my thoughts.

The phrase 'out of the closet' is usually a reference to sexuality, and in my case I am pretty set and sure of my everlasting and undying love of Courtney.  What I strictly mean by 'out of the closet' in this sense is the capital A in Atheism.  If you know me, which I am sure a lot of people do, I am also pretty sure that you know I am an avid and strong atheist and anti-theist.  I do not need anyone or any book to guide my ethical compass through humanity and all its hypocritical humans.  I also try to be as un-cynical as possible and more over the biggest realist any one person could ever meet.  This, as I have found throughout my life, is very hard for people to understand and truth be told it has made even harder for people to read me because of it.

I am not going to attempt to tackle the subject of a 'god' on a blog as I think it would be a waste of time to worry about such trivial things or anything at all like faeries, gnomes, or the loch-ness monster as my college degrees in philosophy, fiction, and  psychopathology have never come to fruition.  I have tried to read about different religions through their religious texts and think the only thing that would make them even less interesting and less logical is if they were all written in haiku.  If a person was to be so interested in logic and reason I would strongly recommend Richard Dawkins or something to that extent for a very scientific take on gods and monsters. 

I am considered by a few of my closest peoples to be a 'news junkie.'  Here is why I am a very open political agnostic:  I have some close friends of whom claim to be anarchists and furthermore they pretentiously say that its the only way things should be.  My take is that anarchy is similar to atheism in that there is a disbelief that such a thing 'really exists.' Meaning that atheists have no reason to bother with ideas of any supernatural omnipotent beings or powers, and anarchists believe that humans are basically just being manipulated by the established theocracy of historical political dogma and economic forces, so in effect, there is not really a government and those people in charge are not really. ie: governments are just a guise to fool the public.  To me, anarchy, which was once a very appealing platform when I was in my pubescent throes of rebellion and angst towards any power figure, is nothing more than misdirected Freudian rage.  Now though, being a few years wiser, I really do see the American government as a force of the people, and that 'we the people' are truly in charge of the beast so to speak.  Although the government may not always work, sometimes acting as nothing more than a farce, I still contribute to it financially(taxes), via voting, and potentially through contact with my elected officials.  I guess that is where my political agnosticism comes in, in that I acknowledge that the government is a real force, but it is my force and that it was established with the idea that its constituents can manipulate it to do its deeds (such as infrastructure, subsidies, public works, and security.) A person would have to be bat-shit crazy or just plain ignorant to deny that the government inherently does not exist and that they do not have a controllable stake in it (again, taxes?).  The inner news junkie in me is all about information and how I can use the information to formulate a better opinion on which direction I would like to manipulate the country to turn.  I do not think there are any political parties that I identify with because of about a million and one different reasons all relating to political persons generally just fucking up and mucking up the process of progress for the country.

I know I said agnostic and to define it in political terms would be like saying, yes there is an undeniable force at work (the government), but its shape is always changing and its views will change with the direction of the wind (elections, events, and people).  Unlike deities and religions though, humans can mold and shape their futures through their governments and policies and actually have its effects instantly recognized.  I am not in favor of those people who unconsciously harm themselves by practicing ignorance, as the anarchists I refer to unknowingly do.  I am more in favor of active involvement, meaning vote with your wallet and your brain, not through another form of dogma and ignorance.

I notice that I always like to end my blogs on a positive upbeat note, and I guess it is my hope that my opinions are respected as just that, my opinions.  I had a college professor who was adamant that a persons freedom only extended to the metaphorical tip of their noses or basically freedom is just an idea in our minds.  We construct our realities through a process of chemical reactions, and my reality is essentially built on a respect for other humans that equally know how to respect.  If you are not logical or are unable to reason, chances are that you will not understand me.  I do really try to be as empathetic as possible towards all people and all forms of life, I would hate to be demonized by the ignorant hypocrisy of others.  One last thing, is that in all aspects of life (keyword ALL,) I am willing to admit that I am wrong if there is given scientific evidence to back up conjecture that might be used as an attempt to debate something I say or believe.  I am wise enough though to know that a person should never debate anyone who thinks that they cannot be wrong.  I have hope for humanity and for positively getting stuff done.  I would love to talk more, but my stomach is sending signals to my brain telling it that I need more bio-fuel to sustain homeostasis.

I do think about other things other than coffee

I suppose that other things happen in life that do not have to do with coffee and I hope that this becomes the right place for it here.