The Metric System

One of my new year resolutions was the complete adoption of the metric system. In a global economy, there is absolutely no good reason to keep using the outmoded, and frankly very confusing, imperial system. Inches, pounds and gallons, what the hell kind of units are these? And how many combine to make a mile or a ton? The math involved in maintaining this inelegant system is overly complex, particularly when a better system is available in every country except for three. You want to know why no other country is interested in buying products from the United States? Because you have to buy a whole new set of tools to go along with it! I find it personally amusing to hear motorheads chatting up their engines using units of elizabethan measurement, but as a practical matter, its long past time to give it up and join the rest of the world.

Moral: Get with the fucking program America.

Soap

I am not even going to pretend like I even care what it says on the side of this bottle. Something about we are all one and all is love, but what is really important is what is inside. Dr. Bronner's magic 18 in 1 minty fresh soap is the choice for minimalists everywhere. There is nothing more refreshing after a funky August day than a shower with Dr Bronner's all love soap.
Apparently you can use it for 18 different kinds of cleaning, from dishes to floors to brushing your teeth, but I recommend external use only. I have used it to clean the floor (that one time I cleaned the floor) and it worked pretty well for the laundry when I was out of laundry soap, so I can vouch for 3 of the 18 alternate uses.
The irony that one of the greatest soaps ever made was invented by - and for - Hippies, is not lost on me. I honor that history and buy mine at the nearby food co-op. Pick up a bottle, if for no other reason than you need something to read while your low flow toilet is clogged.

Disorder

So you throw shit at it? Oh I am totally getting this thing.

Thanks Yanko

Republicans

I have never had much affection for republicans, so I don't bother watching their coverage. I catch snippets of it here and there and the content is lacking, Mostly focus grouped platitudes and staged cleverness that are so embarrassingly asinine that they may as well have been rapped.

The last few years have not been kind to the republican party. Despite having control of our entire government and free reign on the budget process they have made it clear that they plain, old fashion suck. Everything that makes a republican a republican has been proven wrong. Gun control is hard to argue against in the wake of school shootings, Free trade took a beating after NAFTA was roundly proven to do more harm then good and then propose CAFTA which is the same greasy stuff. Don't get me started on "family values" and "fiscal responsibility".

The only trick they have left is immigration, but this was always a minor issue to them. They don't even have a consensus that I can tell, except that its bad. Some want high fences. Others say that, yeah fences are OK, but leave a hole for workers to get through because Americans won't clean a grease trap (for the record, I have cleaned a grease trap). This argument over immigration has something civil-war-y about it, should we oppress people to get low cost labor? I have an inkling that the argument for slavery was something like "There are some jobs that confederates just won't do."

I really thought they were washed up. H.W. was no reagan and Dole was no H.W. and Bush Jr. is no Dole and this crop of hopefuls leaves a lot to be desired. Yet they endure. Someone somewhere is watching this stuff and saying "That's my guy." The only reason I can think that people vote for them? I think they feel sorry for them. Like when a kid shows you a magic trick and you pretend you don't know how it works and act all surprised when they show you your card - even though it isn't really your card - you just want them to feel good. They spend all this money and make the effort to be your friend - what are you going to do? Tell them there's no Santa?

Moral: Barack Hussein Obama

Boxes

This is a Snap-N-Store box. I got some from Staple's when I was trying to get organized last year. I never really got organized, but my mess is confined to the cool little cubes instead of running the rest of the house. The only appeal that they have over similar boxes or even plain old cardboard boxes is the snaps. They look Ramones-y and kind of tough, you know, tough for a box. Like the actual Ramones, they aren't really tough at all but they are adequate for my needs and the punk appeal will keep me from putting them in the basement.

Bleach

This year for New Year's I am giving up bleach. Don't get me wrong, bleach is a powerful cleaning agent that has removed many an embarrassing personal stain and I love it, but I can no longer justify using it. I looked it up on the household database (because reading the label was too hard) and found that it was only 5% sodium hypochlorite (active ingredient) and 95% water. I have seen what that 5% has done to my foulest of foul clothes, even further diluted within the full load of a washing machine and decided that it is too powerful a chemical to pour nonchalantly into the drain, even only a capful at a time. It'd be better to dress in dark clothing.

As for the household cleaning function, I have heard of alternatives like baking soda, lemon, vinegar, and elbow grease, but I have personally never had much success with any of these - particularly not with the elbow grease. I'll do some experiments and see what actually works.

Moral: Wear dark colors

Jenny Holzer

I must beg for an indulgence. This link will take you to the Mass Moca live webstream of Jenny Holzer's exhibit. During my formative years I took a bold solo bus trip to New York City. Unsure of what I would encounter there I was eyes wide and alert to every detail. If I was unprepared for anything it was the sheer size of that sprawling city, I could almost hear the bedrock groaning underneath the weight of so many buildings. As the bus made its final go round and was easing through traffic towards the Port Authority bus depot, I noticed that intermittent marquees had these cryptic statements on them. I had accidentally stumbled upon Jenny Holzer's truism exhibit. The experience was as intended, to catch unwitting travelers off guard and make them say "What the fuck?" and I was hooked. Contemporary art is not an easy thing to appreciate and if there was a first for me it was Jenny Holzer. It was the first time I saw it and said "I don't care what anyone says, this is art."