Garbage

What’s your personal stake in garbage collection? How has it changed since you’ve left home? Do you recycle? Why or why not? Have your feelings about garbage collection changed as a result of the piece?

What’s your personal stake in garbage collection? How has it changed since you’ve left home? Do you recycle? Why or why not? Have your feelings about garbage collection changed as a result of the piece?
　I think garbage collection is very necessary, yet I don’t do much to make it easier. I don’t know if it is because my family isn’t big on recycling or because of where I live, but it has never been a big deal in my life.

 I don’t make a lot of garbage, or at least more than I need to, but I don’t make an effort to create less.
I live in Alaska where things are generally clean. Because it hasn’t reached the point where it looks like we need to make a difference, there isn’t much movement to recycle. I actually like making trash.

My mom tends to buy things in bulk. So, we save money, but also end up having a lot of food in our refrigerator and pantry. I like finishing things like cereal, milk, eggs, chips, or anything to throw away the package and make more room. Not much has changed since I left home. I still love finishing things, but I also don’t buy and eat as much. I imagine if I were to live alone I wouldn’t create very much trash. If it were convenient, I would also be up for recycling.  After reading someone's rough draft for this assignment, I was actually really inspired to keep a compost pile.  I think it would make sense with the kind of diet I keep.

http://believermag.com/issues/201009/?read=interview_nagle


Green Building and Living with Less

Lately I've been thinking about where I'd like to live and how I'd like to live in the future.  Every summer, for my entire life, I've commercial fished on a beach in Clam Gulch, Alaska.  It sounds ugly, but it is very beautiful.  (Maybe its an acquired taste)  I live in an thing I like to call a "shabinailer."  I meshed the words shed, cabin, and trailer together to best describe it.  My shabinailer is basically a little plywood box on wheels with two beds (for my sister and me) and a little counter for our toothbrushes and such.  During the winter I live in a normal house.  It is small compared to the rest of America, but its not a shed-trailer-house or anything.  I've realized that during the summer while I am most content and I attribute that to a lot of things: one being my bare minimum living situation.

Even though being "green" and saving on things like heating and plumbing have never been my focus while I'm fishing, I realized that I have been doing that.  I think I'd like to write about the costs and benefits to "Green Building" as they call it, and some of the downfalls to building extravagantly.  I think I have personal experience with this subject, and I am very interested to learn more about it because it is a lifestyle I think I may like to embrace more. 

Graham Crackers and Milk...Ignorance was Bliss

Mondays were Graham Crackers and Milk day. When I got old enough to decide on my own what to have for breakfast, everyday was Graham Crackers and Milk day. It wasn't just a matter of carelessly throwing the two ingredients together (like an ordinary bowl of cereal) it was-and still is- an art.
I tend to choose skim milk (because it is my favorite and the only kind I have to choose from in our refrigerator) and fill my bowl about a third of the way full. I place the bowl in the microwave and press the "Quick 30" only to follow it up by adding 15 more seconds. Initially setting the microwave for 45 seconds would be breaking a long practiced habit. When I take the milk out of the microwave I test it with my pinkie finger- even though it is the exact same temperature every time. While my milk is heating up in the microwave I open the package of graham crackers so they are ready to be immediately put in the heated milk. I typically take two at a time and break them in half one way, then in half the other way, and finally giving them one last break dropping them in my milk. I continue until I feel like I have enough to soak up all the milk. Then, I take a dry Graham or two along with my bowl and sit down at the table. When I reach the point in eating where all the crackers in my bowl are soggy with milk, I add a dry cracker so the texture has a little variety.  Not too soggy, not too crunchy.  Perfection. 
I read about Graham Crackers and found that they were invented, or at least the idea was inspired, by a man named Reverend Sylvester Graham.  He encouraged many of the "healthy lifestyle" things we hear today like getting exercise, a solid seven hours of sleep, and a healthy diet, but this was in the early 1800's so it wasn't as commonly known.  His "Graham Cracker" was made of a special graham flour.  I learned that his cracker was more than just a healthy snack, it was actually intended to curb one's sexual urges and lusts.  Graham thought that easily accessible, bland food would help people stay away from those sins.  I unfortunately will never be able to forget this information, but nothing can ever stop me from eating my Graham Crackers and Milk.  You know what I'll be eating when I go home for Christmas Break.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blgraham.htm
http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2%5F053.html
http://www.snopes.com/food/origins/grahamcrackers.asp

Who I am and Where the Red Fern Grows

I was born and raised in Palmer, AK.  Last Thursday was my first day ever in Montana.  Every summer I commercial fish with my family on the Kenai Peninsula of AK.  I love the hard work, being on the boat, and being away from the rest of the world.  This spring I went to Greece for a sailing Bible school.  For three months twelve of us learned to sail around the Agean Sea as we had lecturers teach about the Bible.  It was one of the best adventures.  I love being outside, on top of mountains, on boats, or on a run.  I've played piano my whole life and last year I learned how to play the guitar.  One of my favorite things to do is sing while I play piano or guitar. 

The last book I remember thoroughly enjoying is "Where the Red Fern Grows."  It may have been 5th grade when I read it, but I've never been so into a story.  I like reading but I don't do it too often mainly because I find it overwhelming to pick a book.  I like books that are assigned in classes because then the decision is made for me.  A library is an inspiring, yet exhausting place for me to go.  I've never had a favorite author or genre which probably adds to my "lostness" when I step into a library or try to pick a book to read.  If there's a rainy day when I can sit inside and drink tea, reading sounds fun.  Or, if its a sunny day and there is a lawn for me to sit and get tan on, reading sounds nice too, but reading by itself rarely sounds attractive.  I'd like to enjoy it and do it more, but I never have.