January 20th, 2010

So I’ve achieved my goal of not owning a car, but not really by choice.  My car’s engine doesn’t hold oil pressure anymore and it would cost more to fix than to buy a new car.  I didn’t plan on buying a new car so to the Padnos scrap yard it goes.

I am pretty happy about not having a car.  It always felt like more of a chore to drive anywhere than to walk somewhere.  Since I first learned of Psychogeography I have been interested in it.  Walking through a city seems like a much better way to actually exist in a city.  When driving in a vehicle, one is in their own world.  They have to interact very little with the surrounding world.  Cars are designed to isolate people from each other.  Luxury car commercials always proclaim how ‘quiet’ and ‘encapsulated’  their certain car is, keeping the driver isolated from the world is a positive feature.

I woke up this morning an extra hour early for some strange reason.  My alarm clock lost power last night so I had to reset it.  Apparently set my clock an hour ahead.  I thought I was getting up at my normal 10-10:30ish time frame.  Coffee is a good thing.

For breakfast I am eating potatoes, onions, garlic, and turkey sausage.  The onions and garlic I have no idea what farm they come from.  They are still pretty cheap even if they were shipped many miles to arrive at my local grocer.  The potatoes are an Aunt Mid’s product.  It looks like Aunt Mid’s is located in Detroit.  Maybe they use only Michigan grown produce, but probably not.  The sausage is Johnsonville Brats Turkey with imitation Cheddar.  The sausage is probably made up of the turkey neck and other assorted bits that get turned into ground turkey.  It seems like putting cheese into sausage is a bit excessive, but I am eating them.

Two Words:  Meat Factory

January 6th, 2010

Two things that I dislike owning are a cellphone and a car.  Both of which I have to get fixed today.  I would much rather rely on public transportation, or my own two feet, to travel around the city.  It takes me about 45 minutes by foot to get to my job, and groceries can be procured in less than that distance.  There is a convenience factor in cars.  5 minutes is a lot quicker than 45 minutes, but what about the social impact of driving a car: Oil, Industry, Workers, Fumes, Greenhouse Gasses, Accidents, Etc.  It takes so many resources in the world for me to have the luxury of driving a car.  If I was serious about making a difference in this world then getting rid of my car seems like an easy, although life changing, step.

I own a 1993 Dodge Dynasty.  It has roughly 160,000 miles and is pretty beat up.  I’ve had the same car since I was 16 years old.  Over a decade now I have owned the same vehicle.  I don’t want it anymore.  I don’t want a car.  So I did the American thing and bought a motorcycle.  I have a 1982 Honda CB650.  (not my website)  This piece of machinery I like.  I feel that a motorcycle may have less of an environmental impact than a regular car, but still being dependant on petroleum is probably not a good thing.

On to the phone.  I enjoy when my phone breaks, or I lose it for a time being.  Not being available to the world at any given moment is a liberating feeling.  This Motorola Razr of mine has been beat up.  I’ve dropped it countless times, buried it in sand, left it in below freezing temperatures, and other nasty things.  I’ve allowed this phone of mine to be damaged so frequently because I’ve been trained to believe that cellphones (really all electronics) are throw away commodities.  ‘Technology moves so fast that one would be stupid not to upgrade every few months’.  It seems like good business practice to make shitty products that have the façade of quality.  Let the really expensive TV or cellphone or whatever look really nice and have all these crazy gizmos and doodads on the outside, but make sure it stops working just after the warranty expires.  A customer for life is someone who buys the same brand every few months, not someone who buys a product once and doesn’t need the same thing in less than 10 years.  A company would be foolish to design something to last longer than a year or two.

Time to throw away all of my throw-away commodities, and never purchase new ones.

January 4th, 2010

So we are in the future now.  Everyone get ready for jetpacks.  I took a long break from this site for two big reasons.  The first is because I was finishing college.  I graduated on December 12th.  It took me seven and a half years to finally graduate, but I did it.  Not only did I graduate, but I have two degrees:  BS in History and a BFA in Sculpture.  I feel very positive about not having school work to worry about.  I did enjoy the structure and the motivation to get things done, but now I feel that I do not need to make work that pleases the faculty.  I’ve got a few art projects in mind, and a research project.  I have a feeling that from now until June will be very productive.

The second big reason I haven’t been keeping up with my corporate life is that the holiday season came around.  I have a huge love-hate relationship with Christmas.  Spending time with family is great, but turning the holiday into a shopping spree is not great.  I can’t stand going shopping.  Even when I need to buy groceries I’ll shop for a dozen items or so and try to do that when the store is as empty as possible.  I did not go Christmas shopping this year.  I bought one person something and that was from where I work.

Today is going to be arduous.  I have to go shopping, possibly to multiple stores to purchase everything I need.  I am not looking forward to this.  All the basic necessities that are required of us in this world I am out of.  No toothpaste, body wash, toilet paper, light bulbs – things like this.  I think a trip to Meijer would be the easiest.  Its a one stop shopping heaven for all types of suburbanites.  I’m sure they treat there employees much like a Walmart.  Here is a good article describing the shopping experience at a Walmart.  This site is a watchdog trying to fight Walmart.

I’m off to start my day – or something like that.

Tuesday, December 15 5:42am

I’ve been gone working on finishing my college career.  Its been a long road to take me here.  I am finally graduated with two degrees.  Seven and a half years is a long time to spend on anything.

Day?

I haven’t been writing anything lately because I’ve been working on an upcoming art show.  I set up November 29th and I feel like nothing is ready.  I just spent nearly 72 hours in the studio.  I’ll get back to this in a week or so.

Day 11 – 11:58am

Woke up this morning and made a phone call on my Motorola Razr cellphone.  I had to use the Yellow Pages to look up the number for Lentz Automotive on Michigan Street.  My Dodge Dynasty broke down last week and was in the repair shop.  I walked to Martha’s Vineyard to get a pack of Marlboro Ultralights and a Vitamin Water.  Then I headed to the Lake Michigan Credit Union on Michigan Street to pull some money out to pay for my car.  I took the Rapid down to Lentz and got my car.  Drove out to campus to get some work done.  All before noon.

Day 9 – 12:46am

Its been a few days since I wrote on here.  I’ve been busy with school, work, and social life.  Jimmy Johns dinner delivered.  PBR drank over the weekend.  Facebook status updates.  Artbattle on Saturday.  Working at Founders Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Played a show Friday night at Jukes.  I’m in CIRCUS PIG!.  Its pretty fun.  Pandora radio.  Microsoft Word to type a paper.  Western Digital hard-drive.  Using an iMac to access the internets.  Wearing my Budweiser pants I received when I worked for them.  Wearing my Dickies brand steel-toe boots.  Brand, image, lifestyle.

Day 6 – 3:19am

Last night and tonight were very long.  I worked last night and ended up drinking more than I wanted to.  I hung out with Rubblebucket Orchestra and had a fantastic time.  Woke up at 5pm today.  Took some Excedrin and drank a glass of water.  I really love headache medicine.  When my brain is hurting I beg for something to make it stop.  Today, after waking up at 5pm, I ate some Aunt Jemima pancakes, drank some Meijer brand orange juice, and made a pot of Maxwell House coffee.  At midnight the band that I am in played a show at a local bar.  The show went great.  I was drinking PBR most of the night.  PBR is the standard cheap beer in Grand Rapids.  Pints at the bar are only $1.50.  Now I am tired and trying to think of all the impact of these corporations is hurting my head.  It is like a bulldozer that doesn’t stop.

Day 4 – 1:26am

Paper towels.  I use a ton of these things here on campus.  they are brown, does that mean they are from recycled material?  Maybe.  It could just be cheaper to not bleach them.  Can’t find the manufactuer of these things.  Trees are a nice thing to have in the world.  Oxygen and clean air are nice things.

Day 3 – 11:31pm

I’m eating a 1.5oz bag of Ruffles Cheddar and Sour Cream chips and a 1.75oz bag of Doritos Nacho Cheese chips for dinner.  Back to the whole ‘college student with no time’ thing.  Actually those two bags of chips were given to me.  I hadn’t eaten anything but a bagel since breakfast.  These things – potato chips – are not the healthiest food to eat.  I am considering carrying around some kind of food bag thing that always contains fresh fruit, veggies, and bread.  Preferably locally grown goods.  So how much potato actually goes into these potato chips?  Well, Doritos are tortilla chips so no actual potatoes, whole corn is the first ingredient followed by various types of oils and then salt.  Healthy all the way.  Ruffles has potatoes listed first, then corn oil followed by whey protein.  What the fuck is whey protein?  After reading the Wikipedia article about whey protein I learned that whey is a by product of cheese production.  The whey is then processed, either dried out or filtered or both.  All the fat is removed from the whey.  In a powder form whey is used as a weight lifting supplement.  The protein in whey contains leucine, which is a chemical er some type of amino acid.  The leucine allows protein to be absorbed into muscles faster.  It is also a cheap product to add dried cheese flavoring onto tortilla chips.