Garbage

My cousin's riding camels in Egypt once upon a time.
Perhaps the heaps of garbage, fast food chains,
and traffic jams are on the photographer's side? 

I haven't been to Egypt yet, but two of my cousins have. It's one of those places to see before you die. I've always wanted to go there. Well, I guess I'm not too interested in modern Egypt, but it is the Great Pyramids and Hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt which I find most fascinating. Someday I will see them for myself and maybe ride on a camel too. I have some better close-up pictures of the pyramids from my cousin's trip, which I know she wouldn't mind me sharing, but I'll save that for another time.

Looking at this picture, I'm reminded of an old friend of mine, who has also been there (but had more of an immersive experience than my cousin's who were only their briefly and stayed at a posh resort) and actually lived for more than a month with a family in the city, relatives of her Egyptian-American boyfriend at the time, away from touristy type stuff, and one of the negative things she said about it is that they, as a people, as a culture, throw garbage everywhere. I don't recall which city she was in, but it was a large city. And in her experience people there generally don't use garbage bins, they just throw their garbage on the streets. It was very common place, everyone does it, she said; that was her primary complaint, that it was a very dirty country, with garbage everywhere, and worst of all, nobody seemed to mind it.

I hate the sight of garbage. When I see garbage on the ground, my natural instinct is to pick it up, to relocate it to a garbage bin. I do this sometimes, I go around and pick up all the garbage, and I'm thinking to myself, "What the hell is wrong with these people? Do they live this way? Do they throw garbage on the floor of their own home? Maybe they do. And if they don't why the hell do they think they have the right to do it everywhere else?" Of course, if there were no dumpster, no trash collection service, no landfills to put it in, what would we do than? I guess we'd be living in a pile of shit, surrounded by massive continuously growing mounds of stinky rotten garbage that smells like shit. Still, even if that were the case, you'd want to clean it up as much as you can, to organize it and keep the garbage concentrated together, at least I know I would, instead of just throwing it all over the place. I do not litter, and have very little patience for those who do.

I particularly hate the sight of cigarette butts. People seem to think it's okay to use the whole earth as their ashtray. Well, actually the ashes aren't the problem, it's those damn filters that I can't stand to see. Everywhere you look, outside of shopping centers and business's of all kinds, you see cigarette butts everywhere, at least that is the case here where I live.

I went to the library last week, thought I'd sit outside and read for awhile on a bench, and I look down and see hundreds of cigarette butts on the ground, and an ashtray beside the bench with nothing in it. I'm like, what the hell is wrong with these people? And then I look more carefully and see garbage all over the place, not big piles of it, but little pieces of garbage, plastic bags, food packaging, cans, bottles, the more I looked, the more I saw. I'm like, this is not a good place to sit; it's like sitting in a fucking ashtray.

So I walk around the whole outside perimeter of the library, trying to find a cleaner place to sit, and find that every place is the same: cigarette butts and garbage. I did not clean it up; didn't want to remove the evidence. I wanted to do an experiment to see how long it takes before it get's cleaned up: it's going on the second week now, and I'm still waiting. Hmm, I wonder how many more months it will be? I'll keep you posted. And promise to write something more inspirational about Egypt another time.

Bug Spray Schmuck

I hate bug spray, mouse traps, poisons designed to kill. The sight of seeing a pest exterminator in action, and even their company logo on their truck fills me with repulsion. I'm one of those people who would never use insecticides in my home. You will NEVER find me using roach spray or ant killer or any other toxic chemical designed to kill animals or bugs.

I'm opposed to it, partially for ethical reasons (don't like to kill anything unnecessarily, prefer to relocate a pest than to kill it if other options are available), but mostly for health reasons, I like to minimize my exposure to toxic chemicals. Though I have no control what happens outside my home, I would never live anywhere that required regular indoor pest control, i.e. some guy coming in to "spray" the apartment once or twice a year; it would actually be grounds to move.

And yet some people wouldn't dream of moving anywhere that didn't provide such a service. They actually consider the regular spraying of insecticide in their home a good thing, a reason to move there, a perk even.

The reason why I mention this is that I recently came across a blog written by some clueless schmuck, who wrote about an experience he had of having his apartment sprayed, something he considers an essential service, but was completely dumbstruck when he witnessed one of his neighbor's down the hall refusing the service. He imagined that the only kind of person who would refuse pest control, must be some kind of dirty unhygienic slob or a total whack job who doesn't mind living in a bug infested apartment.

That was the only reason he could think of for a person declining bug spray. There was no mention of the possibility of bug spray being harmful to human health, especially when used in a poorly ventilated indoor environment. Of course if you were to ask the pest control person if it's safe, they'll invariably tell you it is; but just keep in mind that 50 years ago if you asked the guy spraying DDT the same question, he'd give you the same answer. In other words, they don't want to tell you it's not safe, because if they do they'll put themselves out of business.

And of course there was also no mention of the fact that using toxic pesticides are often completely unnecessary if a person would take some preventative measures. Like keeping a clean house, not leaving any crumbs or food residues laying around, storing food in airtight containers, sealing up bags of breakfast cereal or chips; basically not leaving out any food sources that would be an invitation for bugs. Also besides keeping a clean house, a good way to eliminate bugs is to prevent them from getting in in the first place. Sealing holes in screens, gaps in windows, doors, cabinets, and other cracks and crevices they may be entering from. It's also a good idea to cover all your drains with a drain stopper when not in use.

If you do all that and still have a problem, there are safer non-toxic alternatives to try before calling a pest control company, which should only be the absolute last resort. For instance, peppermint oil is a good ant repellent and also doubles as a natural room freshener. Cayenne pepper repels both ants and roaches and other bugs. Ceder repels moths. Eucalyptus oil repels flies. If you do an internet search under the terms "non-toxic pest control" you'll find an even longer list of suggestions. You could also search under the terms "non-toxic cleaning" for ideas for making your own homemade non-toxic natural cleaners.

The point is there is nothing weird or crazy or unhealthy about someone not having their apartment sprayed for bugs, because it may not only be completely unnecessary, there are many safer but equally effective options you can do yourself, and sometimes all you need to do is some preventative maintenance to stop the pests from getting in in the first place.

Four Mile Hike

I took advantage of the cool but pleasantly sunny weather, and walked four miles today. It took me about an hour and twenty minutes, but I did stop a lot to take pictures, and so I think that if I walked straight through without stopping, I could probably do it in about an hour.

So that's about 15 minutes a mile; not too bad. Eventually I'll graduate to jogging, and do it in half the time. I also was carrying a light day pack, with canteen, and other gear, weighing between five and ten pounds. It was a really good hike, very quiet and scenic, with lots of wild undeveloped desert vegetation, along a new route I never hiked before, but will definitely be hiking it again.

Here are a few pictures from today's hike:

Next time I'll get a close up of the statue. 

Very cool. This was on somebody's front gate. 

Yes that is an observatory in the background. 

I wish I could tell you exactly where this is and give you names of streets and landmarks and parks I visit on my walks, but I can no longer do that because I've realized that it would compromise my privacy too much. Even though I'd like to think that my readers are good people who do not mean me any harm, the fact is it's impossible to know that for sure. And while it's not impossible to find me based on the information I've already provided, I really don't want to advertise my location, or make it any easier to be found than it already is. So unless I'm traveling far away from home through country I don't plan to ever return to again, something I plan on doing eventually, for the time being I will have to be somewhat vague in the descriptions of the places I visit.

Lately I've been really taking advantage of Google maps, using it to survey the land and calculate the distances of different routes to hike and bike. I've only been in my present location for less than a year now, and although I've lived in this city for a few years, I rarely ever came over to this side of town until I moved out here a few months ago. So like every hike I go on around here still feels like I'm going on this great adventure, with most of it being new and stimulating, with plenty of roads and trails to explore that I've never been down before.

I mentioned three posts down that I had been hiking at least a mile a day, and wanted to increase that to walking 3 to 5 miles a day. I just want to say that, I don't mean to suggest that this is all I've ever done. I have walked many more miles than that, have done a few 15 to 20 mile hikes in my life, but just not consistently. I know that I am capable of hiking twenty miles in a day, but just have never done so for multiple days in a row. What I'm trying to do is to gradually build up my mileage, to CONSISTENTLY hike or run five or more miles a day EVERYDAY, or at least five days a week, for as long as possible.

The reason for doing so, is not only to build up my general fitness, and to increase my mobility and lack of dependence on motor vehicles, but also because I would like to eventually do a long distance bicycle tour, and walk across the country, and maybe someday walk some of the famous pilgrimage trails around the world. I figure if I can't even walk five miles a day, five days a week, how in the world do I ever expect to walk or ride a bike thousands of miles?

I also have for a long time now wanted to be able to run at least five miles, and have not made much progress yet in that endeavor, but I figure if I am able to walk five or more miles consistently everyday for months, it shouldn't be too difficult to make the transition into running the same distance. So it's basically all preparation for all that.

What I'm Reading: March 2012

Here's a picture of what I have currently checked out from the library, followed by a list:

1. Seven Pillars of Wisdom, by T. E Lawrence.

2. The Valleys of Assassins, by Treya Stark.

3. Notes from Underground, by F. Dostoyevsky.

4. The History of White People, by Nell Irvin Painter.

5. Life Inc. How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it Back, by Douglas Rushkoff.

Only once before did I post a photograph here of the books I have checked out from the library and am in the middle of reading or plan to be reading soon. It was actually a pretty cool post that I stumbled upon recently while exploring the archives from two years ago, and coincidentally it was in March, and was the inspiration for this post.

If you haven't read it, or don't recall it, I suggest you take a look: What I'm Reading: March/April 2010. The picture was taken on the same desk, both by a window, but in different buildings; in the old one I was still living in a house, in a room with southern exposure; now I'm in an apartment where the window faces the west, with a big building blocking the view, restricting the natural air flow and light, creating much stagnate energy.

If you check out that post, you'll see ten books that I was reading at the time, and while I did read at least a couple of chapters of each book, I actually only completed two of them. You see I've had this long-term habit of checking out several books every time I go to the library, but only seem to read about two books for every ten I check out. I'm actually glad I took a picture of this, because I can vividly recall the moment I took this picture, and the time I spent with each book. Also for sure there are at least two books on that list (can you guess which ones?) that I will be returning to and reading in their entirety, but the rest were not read because I discovered that they did not offer the things I was looking for and would not be worth the time spent reading them.

Sometimes you check out a book having high expectations, but once you get it in your hands and start reading it, it just falls flat, doesn't interest you at all, or the authors presentation of it does not at all do the subject justice. Other times you persevere and find out that while the beginning wasn't so good, it got much better a hundred pages into it, and you are happy you stuck with it. But most of the time, if it doesn't interest you after a hundred pages, it probably isn't going to get much better, and would be better to just skim over it and move on to something else. Maybe it's just the wrong time to read it, and in a few years you'll come back to it with a renewed appreciation for it, but there is no point wasting your precious hours reading something that you are just not at all into.

Okay, so that's an explanation of my scattered reading habits. If I lose interest, I see no point in continuing. Lately I've been trying to force myself to, by being more selective of what I check out, only checking out a couple books at a time, instead of a dozen, and reading them cover to cover. The idea being to have more focused reading habits, setting goals and sticking to them. Well, I've done that with "The Idiot" by Dostoyesky. And the book I just finished reading "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco. I also mentioned in a previous post that I wanted to focus on reading classic Russian literature, everything by Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, and yeah I'll do it, but those are some pretty huge books, not just long, but difficult, very dense, something that requires giving it a lot of time and deep thought, that it probably would take me all year to read them.

The thought of it makes me feel like a prisoner who's lost their freedom, like being shackled to books, with all the joy taken out of it. I hate that feeling. I will be reading them for sure, eventually, but in my own time. I have to skip around, expose myself to different books, different ideas, different authors, often obtained while randomly perusing the bookshelves with no clear objective in mind.

I've previously called this an undisciplined method of reading, but I realize now that doing so, checking out a lot of diverse material without feeling obligated to finish everything, and being more flexible in my reading, actually feeds my creativity, whereas being bound to a predetermined rigidly defined reading list, without room for variation or change, stifles my creativity. I cannot do that. So, I'm temporarily breaking my self-imposed pact of what I will read, and am changing course.

Butterfly

This butterfly was born in a glass jar and released outside on February 22, 2012. I've been collecting caterpillar cocoons for a few years now, storing them in a jar for observation and releasing them after their born.

The butterflies lay their eggs on the citrus trees outside, where they become caterpillars, and those that survive (many don't, many are eaten, stepped on, or freeze to death) after a couple of months of living life as a caterpillar, go into a sort of hibernation, their body forms into a hardened shell, its protective cocoon, where over the period of a couple of months, the caterpillar transforms into a butterfly.

Not all butterflies make it though. They actually have to break through the shell themselves. Kind of like being buried alive in a wooden casket after being in a coma for a couple of months, and having to break your way through in complete darkness, with no food or water, or nobody around to help you out or tell you what to do.

The object above the butterfly to its right is the cocoon chrysalis it came out of.
So as you can probably imagine, in order to fit into that thing
it must have had its wings folded up pretty tight.

Sometimes the butterfly lacks the strength to do this, it may have poorly developed wings, the result of stunted development or mutation, and it's unable to find its way out. But it absolutely must do it itself. You could say that the process of breaking through the cocoon is all part of the necessary growth and maturation of becoming a fully formed butterfly. Its wings, and perhaps its intelligence and other senses, are strengthened by the process. It's a sort of butterfly vision quest, that nobody else can do for it. In other words if you break open the cocoon for it, even just a little bit, thinking you're helping it along, you're actually stunting its development, and the effect will often be that the butterfly, if it survives, will be unable to fly. 

I'm sure there's a lesson in this that we can apply to people as well. That sometimes when you help a person too much, it actually weakens them, making them overly dependent on your help, and robbing them of the necessary skills and strength they need to help themselves. Which is not to say that you shouldn't help anyone, but just that there are certain things that a person MUST learn to do themselves, and if anyone else does it for them, even if their intentions are good, it could really set them back. 

Outer wings. 

The more colorful patterns
 are on the inner side of the wings. 

It sat here on this branch
for a couple of hours
before it finally left.