and this goes here and that goes there

Kids brought all the dvd’s and vhs tapes out then arranged them by rating on the living room rug.  Not really sure what got into them.  weird!  When they finished they called me over to see the teatering towers and mused over the fact that their G rated tower is much taller than the little bitty R rated tower.  Oh ho ho…

The Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

I just finished watching “The Hogfather” based on the book by Terry Pratchett.   A friend of mine had lent me the book eons ago but I have yet to make it past page thirty.  I just can’t get into it… the writing style is just not for me.  When I saw the showing on TV, recorded it to my DVR and finally got around to watching it… I thoroughly enjoyed it!   This is my favorite scene.

Death: Humans need fantasy to *be* human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.
Susan: With tooth fairies? Hogfathers?
Death: Yes. As practice, you have to start out learning to believe the little lies.
Susan: So we can believe the big ones?
Death: Yes. Justice, mercy, duty. That sort of thing.
Susan: They’re not the same at all.
Death: You think so? Then take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder, and sieve it through the finest sieve, and then show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. And yet, you try to act as if there is some ideal order in the world. As if there is some, some rightness in the universe, by which it may be judged.
Susan: But people have got to believe that, or what’s the point?
Death: You need to believe in things that aren’t true. How else can they become?

Susan is Death’s Grand Daughter so she is not afraid or intimidated by him.  It’s interesting to watch her attitude toward him change throughout the movie.  In the early scenes she is mistrusting, almost angry with him but by the end she understands more of where he is coming from.  But, as the above dialog suggests, she still has much to learn.

The movie was great in a “Nightmare Before Christmas” meets “Never Ending Story” with a bit of “Harry Potter” thrown in kind of way.  All movies I love!

Summer’s Here!

Keeping cool while using the least amount of energy has become the goal of most in the Northern Hemisphere. The already high and continuously rising carbon fuel prices are making energy conservation a must. Not just oil but natural gas and coal, too. Many individuals, both locally and internationally are devising their own methods of energy conservation and production.

Reducing our energy dependency and finding cleaner and more affordable energy is important to the environment and to each country’s sustainability. The US is far behind the curve in energy conservation. Foreign oil will be more and more expensive as it becomes harder to find, extract and refine. Although Canada is lined with oil rich black sand beaches the cost of refinement is prohibitive. And the oil produced is not the golden honey we, as a nation, are accustomed to. The new found oil deep in the Gulf of Mexico is also hard to reach, expensive to ship, refine and then ship again.

With the rising cost of food and recent food shortage scares it becomes evident that our current modes of operation are unacceptable. We’ve known this for years… decades!

While bureaucracy stomps doggedly toward the same cliff it’s been aimed at since the end of WW2, the individual has started to wake up and smell the rubbish. The time has come to take matters into our own hands.

Anti Consumerism
http://www.storyofstuff.com/
http://www.verdant.net/
http://www.sustainableenterprises.com/Planet/anticonsumer.htm
http://use-less-stuff.com/
http://tipnut.com/category/crafts/repurposing/

DIY Alternate Energy
http://www.freesunpower.com/
http://www.awea.org/faq/rsdntqa.html
http://www.azsolarcenter.com/technology/pas-3.html
http://www.builditsolar.com/
http://www.tlgwindpower.com/customer/custbuilt.htm

Quick tips and tricks
http://greenterrafirma.com/wordpress/how-to-cool-yourself-without-air-conditioning/
http://www.energysavingadvice.co.uk/
http://www.electricitychoices.org/tenways.html
http://www.drivelesssavemore.com/driving/index.php
http://www.reusablebags.com/facts.php?id=7

Groups and Communities
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/noelectricbill/?v=1&t=search&ch=web&pub=groups&sec=group&slk=1
http://www.freecycle.org/
http://permaculturevisions.com/
http://www.sustainer.org/
http://farmersmarket.com/

If we do not find a solution to these problems the nightmares of global famine and Mad Max or Waterworld scenarios could be on their way.

Or perhaps something more realistic. These are just hollywood movies… worst case scenarios. Not realistic at all, really… that couldn’t happen.

A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash is an award winning documentary concerning the end of oil. Link to the Crude Awakening homepage here.