Well the first annual UNCW Environmental Film Festival is shoring up pretty nicely. The date is now official, the weekend of April 18,19th. It’ll be a Friday night, and all day Saturday event. We’re going to have sponors from local places like Tidal Creek Co-op and the local biodiesel guys. All that’s really left to do is get the films lined up and figure out how we are going to do everything…so basically there’s a ton left to do. But I can officially say that I am the director of the first annual UNCW Environmental Film Festival…and that’s not too shabby for a dishwasher.

Well it’s about that time, time for a new tattoo. I’m going to get a spiral design on my left inside forearm that matches the placement and basic design of the sun cross I have on my right forearm. You can research the meaning behind the spiral for yourself, it’s old and it’s meaning varies, I’ve got my reasons and meanings. The picture isn’t of the new tattoo, but just what it will most likely look like.

It has been a strange last week or so. It started last week with my car and computer both shitting the bed on nearly the same day. I was so mad, frustrated and exasperated. I became pretty bummed out because I have a lot of money invested in those and I use them both a lot. I went home after nearly fixing my car and turned on the news and saw some young Iraqi boy who had only one leg and part of an arm from a bomb. For some reason or another that hit me square in the face. It led me to thinking about the Mexicans I work with who left everything they ever knew to come to America to make a better life. Most of them are my age and I tried to imagine myself being them. The closest thing I can even relate to was switching schools which at that age would have scared me immensely. I realized I was being a spoiled little brat about the whole situation. I was lucky enough to have a car and a $2500 laptop and I was being pissy because some things went wrong. Since then I’ve made it a point of trying to make the best of each day no matter how bad I perceive it to have gone. I was sitting in my room wondering that if I didn’t wake up in the morning, would I be happy with the last day I spent on Earth? It’s really cliche, but so true. The only moment we have is now, and we should be thankful for every breath we are given. I don’t know why it took a car and computer to make me realize that…but I guess the vehicle through which the message was delivered is really unimportant in the scheme of things. I went for a run tonight and went into my daily meditation mode like I usually do when I run. I was really happy, and there are plenty of things to be unhappy about right now. The way I see it though, is if the good outweighs the bad, you can’t really complain, because someone somewhere has it worse than you. So I’ll leave you with this: Let us all rise up and be thankful, For if we didn’t learn a lot at least we learned a little. And If we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick. And if we got sick at least we didn’t die.

I know it’s hard to take yourself out of the moment, but if people could do that and step back and look at the larger picture, life would seem much more a gift than a day in and day out grind.

Well last night I posted some videos from youtube, but apparently they don’t work this morning so I’m going to just leave the links instead….Ryan Adams…one great fucking musician.

video 1
video 2
video 3
video 4
video 5

Apparently the Daily Show did an episdoe awhile back in 2000 when they covered my hometown region. I don’t remember it, but apparently as you will see they did. The video loads awfully slow, or at least did for me and I almost didn’t post it because it’s practically not worth the time or trouble if you aren’t from where I’m from…anyway there it is.

Well, I’ve been considering this for awhile, but I think now is a good a time as ever. My eating habits are pretty poor considering I eat only about once a day and usually it’s not very healthy. So I’ve decided to eat locally…sort of. Being inspired by a local blog I’m going to try to eat as much local food as possible. Living at the ocean it should be pretty easy. I’ve got an abundant food source full of fish to the east of me, and to the west and north I’ve got plenty of farms(south is Myrtle Beach). Of course it might be impossible to only eat local food because it’s the end of the growing season and I haven’t canned any food for the winter months around here. Trace from the blog mentioned that he goes “dumpster diving” and finds some really good stuff. So I think between eating fish, dumpster diving for discarded but still good food and buying meat out of the expiring bin at the store I should be able to make a good little change. This is much better than eating beef and chicken slaughtered hundreds or thousands of miles away and shipped to Wilmington to fatten the fat. I’d rather eat things that will be thrown out and wasted or eat something I either kill or grow myself. My pumpkins this year were and utter failure. It seemed every time a little pumpkin would start to grow on the vine something would eat it. I never did catch the culprit but I think it was the birds I attract with the bird feeder. I doubt the cockroaches have enough ambition to take on a fresh pumpkin. So it begins, my quest for independence and the salvation of unwanted food.

9-5 day in and day out. Washing dishes, making food, all for the fattened customers strolling in from their gated communities. They are “well off,” according to their own versions of terrestrial wealth. I watch them scamper in and out all day like a party of ants scouring the sand for their next meal. This is no way to spend your days. If I was to die tomorrow would I want to know that my last day on earth, our home, was spent making food and washing the dishes of this arrogant, ignorant colony of people that moved here for “the good life.” I needed to get out. Away from the constant buzz of the highway and beeping horns of angry commuters trying to get to their destination faster than the next driver. It’s a race down the highways and roads. Who’s got the faster car, the bigger car, the more expensive car. I’d had it with the city. I threw my camera in my backpack and drove off. Not to some distant wilderness location, teeming with the sounds and silence of birds, crickets and water - no, rather to the quiet back roads. A place where the wind can blow without trying to overpower the constant hum of civilization and there is a stillness in the air contrary to the breeze. Out here on this backcountry road, I quiet my mind. I notice the egrets standing in the shallow brackish water, lilies floating on the wind blown surface, which ripples and bobs like a sheet hanging to dry in the summer breeze. Six feet away from me in the shallow, murky water is a large 8 foot alligator. I’m not afraid, but curious, of this beast which I’ve never been so close to. It has no fear of me, although it keeps a very watchful eye. The alligator must think I’m strange to sit there and stare at him trying to warm his body in the sun. And I think of how easily this animal, millions of years old, perfected by time, could take me to my grave in the time it would take my heart to jump in fear of it’s closing jaws. But no, this is not that scene. Instead, it’s just me and the alligator - staring, listening, learning. I’m no farther than a 20 minute drive from the place I see destroyed everyday. Plastic houses, stamped out in the most economical fashion. Nails pounded, rivets punched, screw drivers working as fast as the hands of the illegal immigrant can make it go. This, all in the name of progress. As I sit there I think that “progress” should mean the moving forward of something, the gradual improvement. Though, everyday I see the opposite, I see the plundering of resources for material wealth, with no thought put towards future generations, or the trees and animals displaced to provide a “home” for someone looking to retire or start a new life in the coast. This alligator, as simple as it may be, reminds me of our own imperfections and frailty. If it wanted it could make me its delicious dinner. I am no challenge to this animal, and maybe he senses that. There is something to be said for simplicity. This animal doesn’t want excess or to destroy the environment it lives in. As simple as it is, driven by million year old instincts, it understands that it’s home, it’s life is dependant on a healthy ecosystem. No clean water = no fish. No fish = no food. No food = death. As humans I wonder why we can’t understand that philosophy better. Because something is expensive or large does not make it better, especially if it comes at the cost of the ecosystem. Driving back “home” I am passed by at least 7 drivers. Apparently, 55mph just isn’t fast enough on a two lane road. No matter though, my mind was as still as the alligator, saving his energy to catch his next meal.

A great article from Orion Magazine about being accountable for your own actions when it comes to the environment, and not just talking about them. Shows that we all have a long way to go and can only get there by raising the bar for ourselves and hoping others follow the lead. Click for LINK

Here are some more INCREDIBLE Orion articles…
The Universe
Fundamentalism and The Ecosystem…Please read this one, I beg you.
Global Dumbing
Oren Lyons Interview

Just in case you don’t read the interview I’d like to post an excerpt from it which I find to be the most important message he gives.

“And so it goes on, this idea of private property, this idea of accruement of wealth. And now we have corporate states, corporations that have the status of states—independent and sovereign, and fealty to no one, no moral law at all. President Bush has said, “Let the market dictate our direction.” Now if that isn’t about as stupid as you can get. What he said was, let the greed of the people dictate the direction of the Earth. If that’s the basis of a country, then it’s really lost what you would call a primary direction for survival.

This is really the danger today—this empty, senseless lack of leadership. But it doesn’t mean that responsibility isn’t in the hands of the people. To come down to the nut of the whole thing, it’s the people’s responsibility to do something about it. Leadership was never meant to take care of anybody. Leadership was meant to guide people; they take care of themselves. People should be storming the offices of all these pharmaceutical companies that are stealing money from them. They should be dragging these leaders, these CEOs, out into the streets and they should be challenging them. They’re not doing that. They’re just worried about how they’re going to pay more.

It’s the abdication of responsibility by the people. What was it that they said? By the people and for the people? That was the Peace Maker’s instruction: Of, by, and for the people. You choose your own leaders. You put ‘em up, and you take ‘em down. But you, the people, are responsible. You’re responsible for your life; you’re responsible for everything.

People haven’t been here all that long as a species on the Earth. We haven’t been here all that long and our tenure is in question right now. The question arises, Do we have the wisdom, do we have the discipline, do we have the moral rule, the moral law, are we mature enough to care for what is our responsibility? That question can only be answered by the people.”

This is off topic but just as important as all the environmental and political stuff. The Buffalo Sabres and the Pittsburg Penguins will play an outside game in the Ralph. In other words we’re having a hockey game in the snow, in the stadium where the bills play on January 1st. Every game should be played this way. GO SABRES.