Stranger Things

Have you watched Stranger Things on Netflix? If not, go do that. It is excellent and you are missing out by not watching it. Also, spoilers below!

I feel a great kinship with Winona Ryder's character, Joyce Byers. Not that a demon has ever sucked my child into The Upside Down or anything, but as an environmentalist I feel a connection. She spends the first five episodes trying to convince someone, anyone, that her son is still alive and there are monsters that have taken him. Nobody listens. They hold a funeral for a boy who isn't dead and accuse her of being crazy, her ex-husband even pointing out that there is a financial payout for their son's death and that money can be put to good use for their family. Eventually several other people stumble upon this same truth and they all end up having to work together against the massive company that is causing all of this mess to rescue her son.

I feel like I've been through a similar ordeal.

"Hey, this fracking is causing environmental damage! It is destroying people's water supplies and causing earthquakes!" I scream.

"You're nuts, nobody would do that! Besides, if that was true I'd see this stuff on the news."

"What about that earthquake from 3 days ago?"

"Meh, history is full of earthquakes. That doesn't prove anything."

"What about people who can light their tap water on fire because of fracking waste dumping?"

"They're doing it themselves to get on TV.! Besides, the news would tell me if these things were bad for me."

"But all the advertisements on the news are paid for by the fracking companies! These huge companies don't want you to know they are killing you!"

"You don't know what you're talking about!"

Sigh....I just want to hang Christmas lights all over the house and take an ax to my wall, or whatever the environmental equivalent would be, to show people the demigorgon of environmental damage.

But seriously, fight against fracking and watch Stranger Things. You won't regret either decision!

Bariatric Surgery

I have been asked if I have considered weight loss surgery a few times over the last few years and my answer is always the same – after careful thought weight loss surgery is something I am not willing to consider. I know about 15 people who have been very open about their weight loss surgery, everything from the gastric sleeve to roux-en-y, and by and large the people I know who have done it follow the same pattern. 

1.    Go on multiple diets and fail at all of them, become depressed.

2.       Talk to doctors about weight loss surgery, pick which one they think is right for them and go under the knife

3.       Post-surgery recovery goes great, start losing lots of weight and exercising a bunch

4.       Start discovering all of the downsides to ripping out your fully functional internal organs – must now take vitamin injections or double/triple amounts of vitamin supplements because they can’t absorb them the way they used to, shitting themselves without warning if they eat the wrong thing, requiring subsequent surgeries to fix problems that developed because of the weight loss surgery, severe malnutrition, etc.

5.       Power through all the problems to look and feel pretty great for a while. Become a walking advertisement for the surgery, talk about how “it saved my life” online. This is usually the 18 month mark, but it can come a little sooner or a little later.

6.       Yay, an important new thing happens in their life! New job, new baby, etc. They find that the time they used to spend dedicating to shopping for and preparing special foods is gone. They find that the time they used to spend exercising is gone. They find themselves sliding back into old, comfortable habits regarding food and movement.

7.       Start gaining the weight back.

8.       Panic and start trying the same old weight loss gimmicks – slimfast, appetite suppressants, etc.

9.       Lose a little bit of weight.

10.   Discover that their body cannot handle this type of abuse any longer and force themselves to give up the gimmicks because they physically hurt them now.

11.   Regain at least half the weight lost. This is usually between the 5 and 8 year mark.

12.   Quietly stop mentioning that they ever had weight loss surgery. If people ask about it they defensively reference the weight they managed to keep off, as though they would gladly have paid tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket and gone through surgery to lose such a small amount of weight.

13.   Start dealing with the long term side effects of weight loss surgery – gallstones, osteoporosis, 5 times higher suicide rates than the average person, etc.

After seeing this so often I'm not willing to go through with an expensive, invasive surgery that doesn't seem very helpful long-term. I know that there are people out there for whom the surgery was successful, but so far I've not seen that in any of the people I know personally.

My Article

I wrote an article for Cracked and they published it! Check me out!

http://www.cracked.com/blog/fan-theory-wile-e.-coyote-has-inexhaustible-clone-army/

You should read it. I'm hilarious, I promise!

2016 Election Cycle

I am so physically ill at the thought of this election. Both political parties have shifted hard to the right, and if we continue this way 20 years from now the general election will be Martin Shkreli vs. David Duke with both of them pushing us to vote for the “lesser evil” yet again.

Not all, but most of the people insisting that everyone must vote for Hillary Clinton because she is the only way to stop Trump are the same people who are going to pull the lever, sigh loudly in relief that they’ve done all they can, and go back to not participating at all in our nation’s political system.

Participating is difficult, especially for people with a full time job and family commitments, and for most people voting is already a big enough hassle in their lives that they can’t always be bothered to do it. People aren’t avoiding voting for senators, mayors, sheriffs, and other people in power because they don’t care, they are avoiding it because it takes time and effort to research the candidates and schedule time to get to the precinct and all of that jazz. So they’ll throw the switch for Hillary and occasionally yell at the broadcaster on their TV because, true to form, she abandoned her progressive platform and did what the people who pay her want her to do.

They'll natter about how there shouldn’t be money in politics and how we should clear out all of these corrupt politicians. Maybe they’ll even go vote for their local congressional representatives (straight ticket, of course, with blind trust that the blue candidate is obviously the better choice and no consideration paid to whether or not there is a green candidate or a libertarian candidate even running for the position) but that is where their commitment will end. Then they'll be outraged when the next presidential candidate is someone even more corrupt than Hillary, and they’ll wail and gnash their teeth until it comes down to the wire, and they’ll throw the switch for the next candidate that they hate slightly less than the other guy. In 20 years, as Shkreli and Duke (or their equally horrible equivalents) push people to get out and vote, we’ll look back and wistfully talk about what could have been done to change things, but moan about how in that moment we have to vote for the lesser evil. And so it will go all over again.

What a miserable way to run a nation.

March Against Spectra

“People Over Pipelines" March Demands Climate Action from Baker and Legislature

Groups march 43 miles along Spectra Energy’s proposed pipeline projects to MA State House to highlight local opposition.

WHAT: Over 300 Massachusetts residents have pledged to march 43 miles along the route of Spectra’s proposed pipeline projects arriving at the Massachusetts State House to demand that Governor Baker and state lawmakers take a stand against new gas pipelines and the proposed “pipeline tax.”

WHERE: Medfield, MA, to the Massachusetts State House through Walpole, Sharon, Stoughton, Canton, Norwood, Dedham, Weymouth and neighborhoods of Boston.

WHEN: Thursday, July 14, to Monday, July 18

GREAT VISUALS! Scores of marchers including students, families and elders will carry a 10-foot-wide banner reading #PeopleOverPipelines, white sculptures of the iconic number “350” and a giant paper-mache pipeline. Upon arriving at the Massachusetts State House, marchers will gather on the Grand Staircase to demand action from Governor Baker and the state legislature.

BACKGROUND:

The Baker administration is moving forward with a proposal to charge Massachusetts ratepayers for Spectra Energy’s new natural gas pipeline project “Access Northeast.”

The "People Over Pipelines" march will highlight local opposition to Spectra's proposed gas pipelines and Baker's pipeline tax.

For more information about street routes and stop times, please visit www.PeopleOverPipelines.org

The Best Free eBooks on Amazon

Below are, in no particular order, my favorite Kindle books that were downloaded for free. I can't guarantee that they are all still free, but at one time they were available at no cost and they are really good stories. If you find them listed for $5 or less I highly recommend you download them to your Kindle.

1. Southern Spirits (Southern Ghost Hunter Mysteries Book 1) by Angie Fox

Young woman accidentally unearths ghost of old mobster who helps her solve a mystery. Cute story, nice writing, interesting premise.

2. Alan Lennox and the Temp Job of Doom by Brian Olsen

Action/Adventure book about Alan Lennox and his friends trying to find a killer before the killer finds them. Super fun read!

3. Of Windmills and War by Diane Moody

Historical fiction based on Operation Chowhound in WWII. Wonderful story and well worth your time.

4. Face the Winter Naked by Bonnie Turner

Set during the Depression, the story of Daniel and LaDaisy's family is one I've read at least half a dozen times now. Probably the best writing I've seen outside of the bestseller's list. 

5. Cranberry Bluff by Deborah Garner

A whodunit that will have you smiling on every page. You'll never believe how it ends!

6. Trouble in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law series book 1) by Jana DeLeon

The hilarious adventures of a woman and her Mother In Law's ghost. This one will leave you laughing out loud.

7. The Dirty Parts of the Bible - Sam Torode 

This is an adventure novel. The title is a bit misleading, but it is a really good book.

8. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

A classic novel with what is unquestionably the best villain in all of literature. 

9. Hole in the Heart by Craig Allen

Monsters, gods, and the end of the world all converge together in this page-turner.

11. Talk of the Town (Welcome to Daily, Texas book 1) by Lisa Wingate

American Idol meets small town Texas meets a strange disappearance. A very adorable story!

12. In Times Like These: A Time Travel Adventure by Nathan Van Coops

Romance, time travel, and so much more. This is one I've recommended to multiple people and they've all really enjoyed it!

Why my Facebook picture isn't a rainbow today.

I very, very rarely participate in the Updated Profile Photo/Copy-Paste message type of thing on Facebook. Not because I'm not supportive of the community or because I'm not saddened and horrified by their loss. I am. And even though I am religious I also don't pray over these kinds of situations either. I choose not to do these things because they give me a false feeling of "having done something" to help. 

How many people on Facebook will update their photos without writing to their senator or other representatives about the importance of stopping these attacks in the future? How many people will copy/paste a message of support and then not vote in November? How many people will cover their profile in rainbows/French flags/etc. and then see active prejudice in the streets and say or do nothing to stop it? They aren't bad people, they just feel they've done something to help by showing support or offering prayers and condolences. I don't want to give myself that false feeling of having done what I can to stop the problem, so I use that fear and anger and sorrow to push myself to find the ways that I personally can make the situation better.

I encourage you, too, to leave your Facebook page the same as it has ever been. Take the feelings you have about the shooting in Orlando (or Aurora, or Newtown, or San Bernadino, etc.) and put them into action. Write a letter. Join a group that works to end gun violence. Vote this November. When you hear someone saying racist, homophobic things in public let them know you don't agree. Do what you can to change things for the better and don't let yourself believe that your thoughts, prayers, and social media "show of support" is all you have to give. Get out there and change the world for the better.