It's Time for a Revolution

Tell me, do you ever contemplate what you're putting on your face? What exactly is in that salad? Just what kind of container are you drinking your water out of? The cynic in both Vin and I laugh in the face of naive greenies because, quite simply, the air we breathe can kill you. It's true you can not control what happens around you, but you can definately control what you put in and on your body. I'd say you can control your environment, but see aforementioned air we breathe...

I want to introduce you to a term called "greenwashing". You see it everywhere - and we're all gullible sheep eating it up and following around the mass-market puking out "organic" this and "eco-friendly" that, trusting that what they are putting on the shelves for us to consume is truly that. However, if the product you're purchasing is from a large name brand or subsidiary of such, chances are what you've just bought is anything but.  It's a chase-phrase, a marketing buzz word big companies use to prey upon our green conscience. If that company still produces or operates in a manner that is anything but environmentally friendly, you've just been greenwashed, friends.

You've seen on our site the anti-mass production website Etsy that I featured (hopefully).  In an effort to support the small business economy and those that do operate in an eco-friendly way I've been purchasing and browsing the website.  In an economy as soft as the one we're currently struggling with, and with as much as a strained relationship we have with our Earth, isn't it time for a revolution? We are a blight of consumers. I am not saying stop consuming to live our comfortable lifestyles - just be smarter about it.

When's the last time you looked at your makeup ingredients? From shampoos, lotions, deoderants, cosmetics - have you really looked at the ingredients? What they are made of? Sometimes, when we purchase something that says minerals and natural we think - it can't harm us, right? It's from the earth? Well, anyone knows you shouldn't just pick any ol' mushroom and eat it - just because it was growing from the earth. It's natural right? But, if you pick the wrong one, it can cause permenant liver failure and death in 24 hours. The same goes for things like your makeup. Especially mineral makeup like a large commercial brand I won't name here but rhymes with Fair Bess Ench You Walls.

Small particulate mineral powder is so small it can easily absorb into the skin.  In fact, makeup that had trace amounts of aluminum in it showed an immediate reading in lymph nodes in tested rats.  Did you know the FDA doesn't require companies to test their own products for safety? Ingredients such as Bismuth which is used as a filler meant to keep makeup from creasing can cause breakouts and allergic reactions. All found in the aforemention non-mentioned commercial brand above. So, perhaps you wouldn't want to sleep in it as their famous tag line says... Other ingredients found in makeup have been linked to cancer such as petroleum based mineral oils that also disallow the skin to breathe.  Also, Sodium Laurel Sulfates have been found in engine degreasers and other harsh detergents and are mostly found in toothpastes, shampoos and some big name cosmetic companies as well. As we progress with technology and time we discover that what we've putting in and on our bodies is so harmful it's a wonder that we're not a) dead already, or b) perfectly perserved.

I have found a few innovative cosmetics industry propietors who are dedicated to producing only the most healthy, eco-friendly products out there for us to put on our skin. And, as a cosmetics and skin-care junkie, I can give a testimonial to the difference in their products.

First, Mario Badescu for all your skin-care needs.  Not only do they focus on every-day, old-world, tried and true healthy remedies for anything from dry skin, acne to rosacia, but they do not test on animals and have a simple care line with minimal impact on the environment.

Second, Pure Mineral Source for your cosmetic needs.  Using an ingredient philosophy that makes a product free of chemicals, perservatives and controversial minerals (and obviously doesn't test on animals). Pure Mineral Source offers a product rich in color, lush in texture and beautiful results with easy application at a price anyone can afford. 

With both of these companies you can find excellent customer service, a mission behind the passion and a product with a quality that speaks for itself.  If you can't find what you're looking for there, but want to be sure you're re-investing in the environment with a sound, safe purchase you can check out Aveda who usings high post consumer product recycled packaging and all ingredients are derived from plant material.

While we will never be safe from toxins in our environment, at least we have the options to make healthier choices.

The End of an Era

A few years ago, I ambitiously enrolled myself in something called Nano-wrimo. No, it's not some weird Mork language - it stand for something: National Novemeber Writing Month. Did you know such a thing even existed? I found it through yet another writing website whose talented fellow authors turned me onto it.  It's a bit of a challenge. Can you shuck all your wordly and adult responsibilities for an entire month and write a novel that is greater than 80,000 words? You think you can do it, sucker? Go ahead and try! Write an ENTIRE NOVEL from brainstorm to thought process to rough draft in 4 weeks.

Sounds easy right? Lemme tell you, the first one was.  There were support groups! And weekly meetings for local authors, and mini-workshops and an online system that let you calculate average words per week. And you could update it to see how you were fairing, and how much better you were than all the others! Or, how much you sucked, the physical evidence of your writer's block and the cold shoulder of a blank page (this occured for me the following couple of years). For the most part I was met with some elitist writing snobs, but the few that I ended up befriending helped me tremendously get over my fear, grow a thicker skin and actually taught me some cool writing tricks.

Through this friendship I also discovered the art that I accost you with called blogging. They all had blogs. What was this blogging thing? Well, my friends, you are reading living proof you can teach an old dog new tricks - and get hooked by it. Through a friend's blog roll I discovered one narcisistic, ego-maniacal, passive-agressive, know-it-all jackass who is so funny I've actually had coffee come out of my nose while reading his posts. I've also earned some weird looks by coworkers who would stare at me quizzically as to why I would suddenly burst into uproarious laughter.

This fellow is Anonymous Coworker.  He is your everyman with a Dilbert meets Seinfeld character of a persona dealing out his outrage ever-so discretely ala blog and no one is free from his wrath. No subject was untouched, including necrophylia, bondage with parents, zombies - and we even shared the day he proposed to Mrs. Anonymous Coworker. We learned the beauty of made-up nonsensical words that were too funny and too appropriate, launching an entire lexicon all his own. We also witnessed all things a cat can excrete in his household, and just how much beer it takes to make him completely an ass - but a funny ass, nonetheless.

As any blogger knows, as one who has started many and moved on to others for a change of scenery, after a while blogs can become work.  You try to figure out clever ways of saying the same old crap while being humorous enough about a bland topic to keep interest, and of course - you'd like for it not to look too much like a 14 year-old's text message and actually go for such antiquated prose as the type you're reading. And after a while - haven't you ranted and raved and belched out enough exhibitionist crap that you've tired out all your staple topics? Yes, it happens - bloggers burn out. Such is the case with ACW.

Having retired his egg-nog fetish for all the blogosphere to read, and watch a perfectly wholesome gingerbread house turn into a UFO house of horrors, we sadly say goodbye to ACW, retiring the blog and leaving us to figure out new words to make up for ourselves. Crotchwaffle. We fondly bid you adieu as you burn in hell, your heart was as big as a dried raisin and we raise our microbrew in honor of you and all your roadrage.

You'll be back. You wish you could quit us.

Say Goodbye

Say Goodbye, by Lisa Gardner left me somewhat disappointed.  Bringing back Special Agent Kimberly Quincy McCormack, now an established agent, married and pregnant who is sucked into a case that was never hers to begin with, several things bothered me - but we'll get into that in a minute.

Lisa Gardner is very good when it comes to factual information and not flinching when it comes to the reality of true-crime.  Her story Say Goodbye is based on several different murder cases, some obscure, some that have been sensationalized and a few headline crime stories, wrapped it into the novel and brought back all of our Lisa Gardner Favorites, the Quincys and the McCormacks.

What I didn't like about the story was, at times, it was a little too real, in others (like in the husband and wife interactions) not real enough. I felt like some very important characters became dress settings to the story and too two dimensional with not enough thought or emotion coming from Kimberly and Mac especially given their current sitatuion becoming a family with a very high-risk job.  Also, the realism of an FBI agent being allowed to spend time on a GBI case against her supervisor's concern. And of course, the usual oversight when it comes to any case where the reader can figure out the criminal.

Lisa Gardner introduced characters who played major roles, but when everything was said and done, very little went into their motivations or reasons for behaving the way they did - and, if one were to look back, the Ginny Jones character was entirely unnecessary. I mean, just about any aspect of her character could have been done only with the two kid captives, not a pregnant hooker. Too much was left unsaid after basing the entire beginning chapters on the murder of her mother and too many loose ends were left regarding her.  Now, as far as some of the victims in the case, I especially loved the ending.

Maybe it was me, but it also felt like the action portions weren't described in a manner that was easy to follow and left me confused on the logistics. I was also disappointed in the predictibility of the story line and participating characters. Lisa violated many of the cardinal rules of Readers Biggest Pet Peeves such as:

Plot in a box - reusing an old plot from their previous best seller with different characters. In the case of Say Goodbye, it's too much like the Killing Hour with it being familial offenders of those on the case. And, in Say Goodbye this Plot-In-A-Box is without new characters.

Head Jumping. In limited third person, jumping around from point of view to point of view is annoying because the reader already can see the outcome wtihout the characters involved know about it and you're frustratingly trying to scream at them through the book to pay attention to certain blatant (BUH-LAY-TENT!) clues.

Writing About Sick Sadistic Things for Sick Sadistic Characters todog Sick Sadistic Things to other characters.  Too much detail went into the crimes, the acts and the pscyhology by first person of those committing the Sick Sadist Things.  The things brought too much thought to Shawn Hornsby  and the kidnapped and recovered kids from Missouri as well as some things that have happened in true life on Blood Mountain in Georgia.  I felt like more could have gone into the thoughts and feelings of the characters involved instead of wrapping it up in a nice neat uncharactersitic juvenile rant from a thirty-something FBI agent who is all about composure.

Info Dumps Disguised as Dialogue.  In conversations between Kimberly and her father to conversations amongst Those In the Know about past cases and logistics in how it regards to THIS story. It's like watching an episode of CSI and their discussing why they are applying luminol to their partner LIKE THEY DIDN'T PAY THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TO GO TO SCHOOL TO KNOW WHY. It's simply for the sake of the audience and boring.  Show don't tell.

All-in-all I'm disappointed in this, I don't see how the characters involved had opportunity for growth (other than Kimberly learned compromise and Mac learned what a selfish bitch his wife can be) and the book renewed my faith that one cannot have faith in humanity.

1 out of 5 stars.

Hancock

Will Smith always brings in big crowds, and Hancock shows just how versatile this actor can be.  Playing a resentful super-hero he portrays a man very well who is unhappy and uncomfortable with who he is, displacing his internal demons by acting in a manner that is anhialistic with a "fuck ya'll" attitude. There is some great humor and one liners sure to carry on long past DVD sales.

The story line is unique. I liken it to "Unbreakable" where there is a great comic-book feel to the plot and character develoment without copying an actual comic book or graphic novel. The story has definate potential for a future franchise series - though, without these big name stars, I don't believe it would survive.

With any story there is conflict.  I think Hancock failed to come to this, but merely substituted it with superficial attempt with an ancillary character and mainly focused too much on a plot twist that, in reality, should have been revealed in a better manner. 

There were many holes in the story that irked us, but if you're looking for entertainment and amazing graphics and great supporting cast - this is a great movie! There was so much more they could do with the movie, but if it's an introductory flick to a future series, it'll be awesome.

3 out of 5 stars!

Okay, SPOILER ALERT!

Honestly, to the folks who have seen this: if she REALLY wanted to keep her identity secret, did she HAVE to display it so readily? Weren't there a million other ways to push Hancock away? And why wouldn't she want to be mortal? If she was truly happy, wouldn't she want to grow old with the man she loves (the father of the child she's adopted, Jason Bateman's character)?  Or, was she so distracted by her former husband she couldn't?

And, if she knew Hancock's real name - why wouldn't he want to know it, and why wouldn't she call him by it? Secondly, i didn't understand the ending at all. Did one have to die for the other to live? Or simply be far enough away from each other so that they could come back to life to be immortal? And what was with the eagle stuff?  It's never explained!

Gilroy Garlic Festival

The Gilroy Garlic Festival is a part of a world-wide sisterhood of cities who particpate in honoring the tasty bulb.  We'd heard so much about it and LOVE garlic so we thought we'd plan a trip for it. I researched the festivities to see what attractions, entertainment, and - most importantly - what food vendors would be there.

According to the website they boasted there would be over 100 vendors with wares for sampling.  But, after fighting an hour just to get into the festival there were obviously far fewer. Like dozens fewer. Going back to their webiste, I see they've pulled their vendor list down.  There were tens of thousands of people all crammed into the park and everyone was standing in long lines that didn't move very fast, and the heat contributed to making the lines seem all the longer. 

The misleading thing about the festival was the vendor list. While the vendor list was only dozens long, they were in multiple categories giving the appearance of more to accomodate so many people.  The free shuttles weren't very people-friendly as those long lines had you waiting in the heat. It was quicker to walk. And the walk path was mostly shaded by the trees. They had four shade tents that were probably about 8x8, but with so many people trying to cram into them for relief from the heat it made it impossible to get cool.  I think more eople were taking refuge in the arts and craft merchant tents just for refuge with no intention of buying anything. People were equally inconsiderate by bringing their strollers into the tents that disallowed for others to use it.

It was difficult to take advantage of what vendors were offering garlic food due to the lines, the split up layout of the food vendors - especially with the popular garlic ice cream. One vendor was offering free samples but the line was so incredibly long for a tablespoon as was the booth where you could actually pay. There was more space and shade available in the beer tent, but because the officials didn't want to encourage loitering due to issues in the past - it was wasted space.  The designated areas assigned for food were crammed with so many people it made for a somewhat hastneed experience where the food couldn't be enjoyed as much.

Now, when you were actually able to get your hands ON food, that was delicious. We were only able to find a short line in a very efficent sandwich booth who had the yummiest garlic sausage link with garlic and bell pepper garnish.  After that we ate ice cream - not garlic, because as I said the line was entirely too long.

Overall, Gilroy should work on the logistics more in accomodating so many people in such a small space with so few vendors.  The split up layout bottle-necked in the pathway joining the two sections that pretty much mirrored each other, but it didn't aleviate traffic or provide any additional attraction. Because of the heat there were only 2 water booths and the food vendors appeared to not sell water.

We're glad we got to experience it,and scratch it off our  list of things to do.

Overall, 2 1/2 out of 5 stars.