Oh So Natural

You can't really dive into the tiny house or massage therapy cultures without running into a few hippie ideas.

Like, making your own deodorant for example.

My classmate explained how she purchases ingredients and then makes her own deodorant from scratch. This blows my mind. I just found out about the whole, "aluminum in deodorant is bad" thing. Because of that, I did try a more "natural" product for my b.o. and I didn't like how I smelled so I'm back to Secret Gels, but my classmate says she can convert me with her recipe.

I feel like I'm falling down a rabbit hole.

First, there was no meat. I can live with that because to me, the meat industry does have its flaws and meat in general has no appeal unless it's been way worked over. Not to mention, food that has a ton of rules attached to it to prevent you from getting poisoned by it just doesn't seem worth messing with.

Then, there was skin products. I stopped wearing makeup to try and help with my blemishes. Currently, all I ever put on my face a philosophy cleanser and a lush toner. Too soon to tell if it will help zits, but my face feels less worked over.

Finally, there's the new obsession I have with going trash free. This is becoming almost as popular as any natural, healthy, clean living campaign I've ever seen. The idea is to promote the elimination of unnecessary waste and reduce the strain in our landfills. I find myself pondering ways to shop whole foods, remember to pack cans and bags, and finding a way to recycle.

I first stumbled on it, here, if you want to check it out.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYDQcBQUDpw

Stepping back, just who am I becoming? How do I know if I've gone too far?

Well, for starters, I'm beginning to question my ideals of going tiny.

I had a camping trip a few weekends back....only I forgot that I donated my sleeping bag because I never go camping. Three fuzzy blankets does not replace that sub-zero material. It may be only for a once a year event, but it's worth having around. Maybe I'm more of an experientialist? True, I could have avoided problems if I had thought to ask to borrow or could find a local rent shop last minute, but I couldn't, and I froze for it.

As for going trashless, I'd have to have a lot more time just to make half of the things I'd want to replace. While there are a few shops around here that could support that lifestyle, the options are fairly limiting. I think I'd rather purchase pre-made items in compost-able or recyclable materials.

Basically, if you want to live as clean, de-cluttered, and natural as possible, you have to be willing to work. You have to be a planner, you have to really enjoy making the things you use. I'm not sure if tiny actually saves time like so many people claim so much as it exchanges that time for a different kind of experience. Don't get me wrong, the idea of making your own deoderant, toothpaste, or laundry detergent sounds like a fun cooking adventure to me, but it wouldn't be for everyone. The thrill of knowing exactly what is in your product and never having to smell another chemical again may be worth it, but for me, it's going to be a slow transition.

As for going too far.

I'm definitely living a different life than my mom lived. I'm even living a different life than my crunchy sister and she's only ten years older. I feel like as technology and research continues to improve, life is going to continue to evolve into something previous generations wouldn't recognize or even understand. It may not be too far, maybe it's just a different way to take on life. I know there are many colors and flavors and styles to choose from in this spectrum of natural.

I'll tell you what I'm not going to do.

I'm not going to stop showering.
I'm not going to stop washing my hair or anything else that's hygienic.
If I stumble on a natural idea that makes me go, "ew," its not happening.

As for what in the air:
Until I find a toothpaste that does it better, I'm using fluoride.
Until I find cleaning supplies, products, or recipes that satisfy me, I'll be using normal.
Make up is make up. I stopped for a couple of weeks and I kind of like it. Maybe only for special occasions.
Trashless may be in my future. It's just a question of how.

The Creative Drive

I touched on this a little bit on my last post and I thought about going over it further there, but then decided that it would be too distracting. So it get's it's own post. Yipee.

What drives artists?

I was at work the other day, making panini and chopping onions. It's a typical day at the Italian restaurant and my coworker who works up front pops back into the kitchen for a bit. We talk and she finds out that I'm a writer and then she asks the dreaded question.

"So what is your book about?"

I don't think I've mentioned the street smarts you learn on the sidelines of the writing circles. Pro-tip, never, ever, EVER, ask a writer to tell you about their book because this is not a simple question. You are getting way too close to the tiger's cage, my friend. You are risking things you didn't even know you were risking by asking an author to share with you what is essentially their unborn child. Therefore, do not ask unless you are prepared for one these three responses.

1.) "Why? Who do you work for? Are you going to steal my ideas, gasp, you are after my ideas aren't you!"

2.) Oh ok first blah blah blah...oh, but before that you need to understand blah blah blah... but you see it's all hidden intricately in the fact that blah blah blah...because you see ten years ago blah blah blah...(3 hours later) but I can't tell you the ending, it'll give too much away.

3.) A very simple bare sketch of the plot. Too little details to steal, just enough to test interest. Five minutes max.

All writers can have elements of these three in their responses, but writer number three is very, very rare.

If you don't want to be staring into the depths that is an authors never ending creative workroom of scattered nuts and bolts, mention that you would just like the dust jacket version. If you value your life, clarify that you are not also a writer or at least, feign disinterest because you write different genres anyway. Bless the third writer because they are socially aware enough to not suspect you or take up your time.

Anyways...

Because I am self aware, I gave her the dust jacket version and she seemed kinda interested then leaves to go back to work. There was no large indication of any real,"oh I will totally read that someday," interest.

About a week later, she asks how the book is going and I realize that I haven't even touched it since I'd first told her about it. I was flattered she asked, because it at least meant the book had some hook. Then she asked again the next week...and the week after that.

Now, I'm starting to get uncomfortable.

My inner writer number one was starting to peek around the corner while sharpening an Alice in Wonderland style clever. I put that idea to sleep quickly because my coworker is not, in fact, a writer.

Or is she?

Hmm...(snick, snick)

This encounter did get me thinking though. I put writing on hold in college because of stress and I was again putting it on hold because of full time work and school.

Was this all that was holding me back though?

As busy as I am, I can still fin the odd two hours or so in my week. Then I realized something.

As a kid, writing was my escape. A lot of creatives probably relate to this, but I was really lonely growing up and writing gave me some release. It was fun. It didn't really have rules. I could do whatever I wanted, be whoever I wanted and I always knew how the story would end.

Fast-forward to now and most of my writing is bogged down in publishing concerns before it even has a chance to grow into anything.

So I ask you, what drives you? What sparks your creative muse? For me, it seems to be a certain something: desire, a type of music, another artist, the desire to tell a good story. How do you spark your muse?

The Creative Itch

Being creative is wonderful...and it can also be completely stressful.

Creative beasts are wonderful and they take you for rides that can last for hours. One nonsense idea bleeding into the next until a story is born. In college, my inner creative beast was systematically starved and then trained into a literary warhorse. It was like a boot camp for the brain as I did push ups with Milton and squats with Hawthorne. So. Many. Squats! No, really, all of my teachers were in love with his short stories and, I won't lie, they are pretty good.

Now that my brain is a sharp tool for genius, I often find myself stuck between one creative storm and the next. There is a giant wall that sits right between the two storms called "the critic" that won't allow me to pass until I've justified my previous storms right to exist. I'm grateful that my teachers opened my eyes to this skill because I know it makes me a better writer, but sometimes, I wish I could go back to my untrained days.


I'm always asking the "right" questions:

Does this make sense?
Would anyone get it if you left things like that?
Too much? Too little?


Really, all of the doubt infused writer's block really boils down to is:

Is it worth spending the time on something that may never pay off?

This, is a common thought for many starving artists. Is my dream worth it? Will it all be for nothing? That fear is completely cripples the creative beast. Hanging your drive on money and success kills the passion you had for your art.

However, doing nothing about your dream pretty much guarantees its failure. I haven't given up per se, I just have let a lot of old excuses creep up like time, school, and other commitments.

Lately, its been the skill excuse because I would love to be able to draw comics for some of my ideas, but my drawing is very, very untrained and unpracticed. I also don't have the patience for it, but I would still like to try it...just a little.

One of my coworkers found out that I am a writer and she gushes about it. Every time I see her she asks how the book is going. The truth is I haven't even touched it since the last time she asked me. Full-time school and work does put pressure on the writer for time. I keep saying that I'll start it up again once school is done and I'm working a job that will give me that kind of time, but will I?

Also, one of my facebook friends has been posting all about his publishing journey and just released his first book. I'm not jealous, I think its incredible and its the closest I've ever been to a published author. (pst: He is a pretty awesome guy to. You can get his book on Amazon, :The Shattering of Chains by Joshua Patrick Smith. https://www.amazon.com/Shattering-Chains-Light-Stars-Fire-ebook/dp/B01GDSIHPC?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc )

I mean if he could do it, I could totally do it, right?

Lately, the itch has been creeping up on me. I have my big massage test coming up and only twelve weeks left of school. My creative beast wants to come and play NOW though. I mean, I spent so much time on just building the world for my Slayers book and it's just sitting there, taunting me with it promise of demons storms and mislaid spells.

So, in other words, this is just a really long way to relieve some of the pressure. After I pass the mBLEX (positive thoughts) there will be more time for blogs and Slayers.

Thanks for the moment.

Protien Fallacy

There are a lot of public fallacies concerning personal health, but today, I am only going to cover the topic of nutritional health because it's the one that is familiar to most people and also the one I even feel the least bit qualified to discuss from my memories of my nutrition class and personal research.

Here's the deal. Your body is amazing. We can last three days without water and three weeks without food. Our bodies heal, we can create other humans, we can literally explore the world with just a thumb! We can even eat a wider variety of foods than most animals on the planet.

Guys, we can eat fake food and survive. Mind blown.

Yet, all we as a nation seem to care about is how fat we are and how to get rid of it.

We're so desperate for answers and scapegoats that we're willing to jump on any wagon that sounds halfway scientific.

I'm looking at you protein.

When I first heard the whole protein thing I instantly went into a rant that involved a lot of dramatic, "No!" and, "Are you kidding me?"

What nobody probably told you amid all the protein hype is that while it is essential to building muscle, too much of it actually does become fat, aka, it does the exact opposite of what people are telling you because you and I both know that the average joe is just going to ingest and continue on with their regular lives hoping for the better without really changing anything.

It works like this. In the broad classification of food science most foods fall into three macronutrients: carbs, fat, and protein. Of these three groups, your body will burn fat first, then carbs, then protein. When effort extends long enough, fat will still outpace the others in terms of ratio. You may be wondering how that makes sense when we are in an obesity epidemic. I thought the same thing when my professor at BYU-I told me this information. He said that the reason is simple, we consume so much more than we need that it almost doesn't matter which element burns first, anything not used will be stored as fat.

Ok, but why hate on protein then? This only seems to strengthen the Atkins argument even more. Answer, your body burns protein last because it has the hardest time burning it at all. People who take protein supplements, but then eat normally or don't work out at a high enough rate will gain fat, not muscle. The protein powder will just replace what the food was doing already and if the intake or energy output doesn't change then where is the excess supposed to go? Straight to your fat zones. However, that being said, protein supplements combined with fitness and a dietary regimen will increase the likelihood that you will lose fat mass because they do help with energy and muscle rebuilding. Which if you did that, you could argue that change would happen anyway without the extra fake protein, if at a slower rate.

Then there's the ketone problem. If you aren't eating carbs and relying on protein for your energy, your body undergoes a change. It will turn from a glucose (carbs) burning machine to a ketone (protein) burning machine. Your body will adapt at the cellular level in order to survive. Science has yet to say if this is a good or a bad thing, but the prospects are not looking good as traditional high protein diets that involve excessive meat have shown negative consequences for your heart. No word yet on whether or not this is also true for whole food, plant based proteins.

You probably never heard anyone put this information out quite like that. You may even argue with me and say if this was true, why has no one told you. If this is old news, then why is the new news touting protein as the next magic bullet for the obesity epidemic?

Answer, did you see how long it took me to explain all of that?

In the effort to make health science digestible to people whose last health class was maybe never, a lot gets lost in translation. Mostly, the context and other very important variables. It's easier for commercials and media to shout a quick, "Eat more protein, lose fat!" in the 30 seconds they have of your attention span. They're not wrong, they are just lacking in a lot of important details. It's like taking a drivers ed course for your body when the only thing you learned is to stop at the stop light. What about turn signals? What about yield signs and crosswalks? You kinda need a little more information than what the big red octagon means.

Additionally, markets who see the increase in demand may not necessarily check all of their science before selling to customers what they demand. After all, the customer is always right, even the ones who don't check their facts.


References

Proteins
https://ast-ss.com/creatine-fat-loss/

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=creatine+no+workout

Because this was interesting

http://thescienceofeating.com/food-combining-how-it-works/calories-fat-carbs-protein-per-day/

Stuffocation and Writing Realizations

Stuffocation: A book about sacrificing buying power for experience power.

If you managed to survive my last few posts, you know I love the idea of less stuff. Getting rid of stuff has been my therapy for decades now and I'm only 26. So what can someone like me learn from a book like this?

More than I thought.

I originally stumbled on this subject while rotating through TED talks on YouTube. I liked what James Wallman had to say enough to reserve his book at my library. I totally skipped the first half of the book because I thought I already knew the "why" well enough and started skimming the heart of his message.

Firstly, I was totally impressed with his writing style. It's completely different from other books of this type. Instead of spending most of the time expostulating his own opinion and suggesting "how to" he takes most of his time relating different peoples experiences in beautiful detail. It reads like a documentary more than a thought book. For example, one part describes a woman as; "LeVally is tiny. She is five feet tall. She has porcelain skin that is flecked with freckles. She looks, from a distance, a little like a pixie doll."

That is beautiful writing. Where others would take maybe 10-20% to describe other people and their experiences and the rest of the time to prove themselves right, Wallman flips that and takes the time to paint a portrait of each of his subjects. It makes the whole thing visual and relatable and teaches his view more effectively than just making the argument. Now that I think of it, he did the same thing in his TED talk by taking most of the time to tell the story of his grandparents, his father, his brother, and himself. It's a wonderful style I wish I could copy.

Now to the message. The title is a little misleading. I came at the original TED talk thinking it was going to be a similar message that the minimalists have about how stuff suffocates society and that we can truly live if we just got rid of our stuff. Wallman's message is more about sacrificing stuff and high work, high pay jobs for experiences and quality time.

Stuffocation is more about rejecting the mainstream system in favor of a more customized life. You're not just rejecting consumerism to go and live in a cave. He is careful to explain that some consumerism is actually a good thing, but the consuming is based more on priority of life than an expression of wealth or "deserving" something. Kind of like how Tiny House dwellers have to really prioritize their possessions because they live in such a small space. Many of the people in his book still have normal jobs, they are just jobs based on their terms that maximize time to live.

As each story gets more fascinating, I regret skimming the book. I'm tempted to go back and read the whole thing a bit more carefully. I'm not done with it yet, but I already believe this is the smartest book I've read this year. It's the perfect middle ground between the outlandish and the accessible. If you are still struggling with the ideas of going with less and rejecting material status symbols in favor of experiences, this is the book for you.

I even learned something new about Henry David Thoreau. No English major can get through college without hearing about Walden Pond and how its every writers dream to live with the simplicity that Thoreau did. Just live simply, listen to the birds, and write all day. It was perfect. What could be more pastoral? Except Wallman just blew that writers dream out of the water by explaining that Thoreau only lived that way for two years, two months, and two days. He offhandedly states that Thoreau got bored and returned to society. That makes sense to me because people are my muse, but this is Thoreau, the god-father of total craft devotion. The gold standard for an ideal writers life style that my teachers always warned we could never live modernly. My mind was blown.

I'm excited to continue studying this book. Maybe I'll do another post on it when I am finished.

Personally I just did a paper cleanse of my tiny 81 square foot apartment bedroom. (I actually thought it was 100 and just had to double check for accuracy. Wow, I had no idea.) This included school papers and files of papers I thought I had to keep. The state of my room tends to be the state of my mind and it's been touch and go lately. The paper cleanse re-established my sanity and made the space feel a lot lighter. Lifting that tiny file box, about ten pounds lighter, felt very good.

Exciting thought: the Minimalists are coming out with a documentary called Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things on May 24th. Will definitely be blogging about that one.

Now it's confession time.

There is a critical error in my last few posts. As a writer, I can humbly admit this. My posts are full of big ideas, but they lack focus.

In short, they are lazy, unstructured, and without transition.

So basically the critique I always got on every paper or short story I wrote with a lazy eye and lack of proofreading. Every writer has their Achilles heel.

Listen, if I'm reading my own posts a month later and get lost, there is a major problem. I am big enough to admit it. The point of this blog is for me to practice and get better, not worse.

Here's to a promise to be a little better, to practice a little more seriously, and to strive for clarity and transitions.

The Economy of Jobs

Yesterday, I was on my Facebook and I saw an article about a law student who is suing her school because she can't find employment.

First Reaction: Honey, it's not the schools job to get you a job.

Second Reaction: I get the disappointment. We are told the expected steps of life which includes the idea that college will feed naturally into employment. Many schools promise employment eligibility as part of their marketing pitch which often gets confused with employment guarantees. It's not the same, but people think it is.

The idea that even law students are struggling intrigued me, so I looked up the current job market for prospective law alumnus. Surprisingly, compared to the 91% rating before 2008, it actually doesn't look that great. A job that has historically signified wealth and stability, now has students pulling in poverty level jobs while carrying massive tuition debts to the tune of 100,000 or 150,000. Some law schools are going so far as to invent programs to incubate their alumnus who are unable to find work by either reimbursing a percentage of their tuition or creating law firms within the school itself and hiring their students.

I can't imagine the interest rate is all that great either. Talk about financial slavery. It's worse than loan sharking.

Is the problem the school, the student, the tuition, or the market?

I started to compare the traditional epitome of a college education to my own education in massage therapy, a skill type education, for clarification.

Skill type educations are traditionally looked down on and viewed as leading to impoverished and limited lives. That is, if you call learning how to live longer with more strength and flexibility, relieving pain and discomfort in others, having a lifetime to continue studying and practicing a passion, and travel the world while doing so limited. Yea, I'm sure that's way more limited than studying in one school for three years and then having an office in one town you don't dare leave while "hopefully" making ridiculous money. Really, it's just different strokes for different folks.

Honestly, the real issue there is budgeting practices vs life goals, but that's a whole other blog.

Anyway, refocus back to this subject. After only 6,000 and one year of my life in massage school, I could find a job and pull in figures anywhere from 10-70,000 depending on where and how much I want work. Did I mention full time for massage therapists is only 17 hours a week? That's a win for the writer in me. Again, a job is not guaranteed, but it's likely, because according to the American Massage Therapy Associations website, the industry is one of the fasted growing in America by whopping 11% a year.

(Pause: 6,000 debt vs 100,000 in debt yet both currently have about same earning power for the first 5 years. Let that sink in. Now, if you really have to, get some paper and a pencil and do the math. Financially, which situation is really the better one here?)

Let's also not forget that degree markets are totally saturated thanks to over emphasis of the importance of a college education over the last few decades. Don't get me wrong, I completely value my college education for the critical thinking it gave me and no small amount of pride. However, it did not guarantee me any well paying jobs which is what this article is about.

Let's put some perspective on this based on numbers I found between 2009-2011 that illustrates supply and demand.
Population                                                  Percentage of United States

United States            ~309,349,689
Massage Therapists  ~ 288,546                  0.00093%
Lawyers                   ~1,225,452                0.004%
Nurses                     ~3,966,939                0.13%
Mechanics               ~763,700                   0.0025%

(Pause: Can we just cry for a second for the poor nurses? My 2008 graduating class was basically shoved towards becoming something in medicine for stability and baby boomer reasons. Once the boomers are gone though, then what? Hopefully those nurses are working towards their plan B.)

Who has the better deal here? Who is more financially better off and more able to function as an adult in society? Who has more spending or buying power the lawyer or the massage therapist? Who is more affordable or in more demand the one with skills or the one with a degree?

Basically, I am living the millennial realization.

My skill job is more immediately going to put me in a better situation financially, emotionally, and physically, than my graduate degree.

Why?

You could argue that in a perfect job market, where everything was working the way it was supposed to, lawyers would quickly pay off their debts and live in incredible situations within ten years that even the massage therapists could never have. The market, however, isn't perfect. It never was and never will be.

Let's also not forget the human factor. Like everything else in life, your career ultimately becomes what you put into it. The title doesn't matter as much as the work and the passion you put in, because that will always have some kind of satisfying pay off down the road. You may have to take a few other jobs so you can, I don't know, actually afford food until you get that pay off, but if that's your dream and you study and apply it, it will happen.

Now I know there are people out there who are smarter than me and can see all the little loopholes in this argument I am making, and probably a few of them are unemployed law students with too much time on their hands. That's o.k. I know that there are instances where I could be wrong.

Here are a few things I think you'd agree with.

• It is cruel to put people into un-affordable situations and essentially make them financial slaves to a dream that may never be. 
• The problem isn't the job market, the problem is partly the tuition cost. Less money going into student debt means more spending power for the economy which, by the way, means more jobs for graduates.
• Saturated markets don't hire. The more college graduates their are, the less meaning that diploma will have.
• The schools business isn't revolved around babysitting, but educating and letting the students take charge of their own lives.
• All these data points I made mean nothing in the face of work ethic, trial and error, and how actively the individual decides to pursue the field of their education. 
• Being a fantastic (insert dream job here) is a choice. It's up to me to put in the work, to continue my education, to continue to be passionate, to put myself into situations where I can succeed. All that is on my shoulders and success in my chosen career is determined by me and not my school.

Next time I really should focus on school tuition or budget finesse because, gosh darn it, we Americans are ridiculous on both fronts.

Each time I post here I am thankful for the opportunity to keep in practice what I know. I know my writing is still imperfect. In fact, I know some grammar police may look at these articles and sniff at some of my choices, but hey, that's what community is for.

Look! I was a responsible post-English grad and actually saved my sources! That, or I just know how to use the history bar.

Sources
http://abovethelaw.com/2015/08/law-school-to-issue-50-tuition-refunds-to-grads-who-cant-find-jobs/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attorneys_in_the_United_States

https://www.amtamassage.org/articles/3/MTJ/detail/1837

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States

http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/total-registered-nurses/

https://www.studentscholarships.org/professions/150/employed/automotive_service_technicians_and_mechanics.php

The Purposes of Sugar

I just watched yet another documentary in a stream of documentaries that seem to say a lot of the same thing.

We are fat.
And it's the organizations fault.

That's just grand isn't it? Now that so many people know that the government and "Big Food" are out to kill their consumer base, everything should be quick and easy to fix right?

Yeah. No.

Here's the thing. I think pointing fingers does absolutely nothing to solve the problem. The science is there. A lot of science actually. More science than a McDonald's filled with big macs. We know that convenient food in all it's form (not just fast food) is slowly killing us. I did enjoy the picturesque comparison that the documentary made of how soda is the new cigarette. That's pretty on the nose when you consider how quickly sugar is absorbed and consumed from a single can; not to mention the dissolving effect carbon has on bones.

This is not new knowledge though.

It hasn't been new for decades, if you're to believe the research of the documentary "Fed Up."

So why has nothing changed?

I have a few theories.

The first being that the arguments used today are exactly the same arguments people with interests made back in the early days of America when we wrote the Constitution. Back then, there were strong arguments for the abolishing of slavery in the new United States of America, but that obviously didn't happen until much later. Why? What people may not remember, is that a big argument used to keep slavery was that it would put too big a strain on the new economy that was still recovering from the Revolutionary War.

Similarly, the food industry is using the economy, freedom of speech, and freedom of choice to keep it's doors open. Put yourself in their shoes. Wouldn't you be terrified if you were told that the cow that has given you milk to sell for decades was giving bad milk? You would do everything you could to argue for your livelihood and to keep the status quo of what you know has been working all along. Even if someone told you to trade for a new, healthier cow to save your consumers, you'd hesitate to do so wouldn't you? Especially if you hadn't tasted any success or seen any evidence of this new cows ability to support you.

Needless to say. I don't like painting businesses as bad guys. It's not the people so much as it is the nature of business itself. They do what they have to do in order to continue existing. That's it.

The government on the other hand has tried several times to fix the issue. The problem is people don't like given the government too many prerequisite laws they can exploit later. Banning stuff never seems to work anyway. Positive propaganda, on the other hand, does wonders for consumer opinion. Remember the meth commercials? I still have nightmares. What needs to change, is the people.

Which brings me to theory two. These businesses wouldn't exist at all in the form that they do if there weren't consumers to buy the products that they sell. You can argue all you like about long work hours and lack of cooking experience and other excuses, but at the end of it all, that's all anyone has, excuses. Long work hours? You have days off to prepare don't you? Why buy into the sedentary cultural norm of sleep, work, tv? Lack of cooking experience? If you're going to watch tv anyway, it wouldn't kill you to spend a few minutes on a show or a "how to" YouTube video, or you could send a teenager to work in a kitchen and bring back the knowledge he/she gains there. You have friends. Doesn't even just one of them know how to BBQ?

It's tough to change and it's tougher to ask these questions, but it is possible. It's all about the priorities.

Now finally, about sugar.

You all probably remember the cute polar bear ad of the family of polar bears drinking soda together, playing together, visiting the doctor together, getting insulin together, and finally together watching papa lose his leg. And I thought the meth commercials were scary. The end message was that sugar is deadly. It's the new tobacco.

So, all this got me thinking. What is the purpose of sugar in the diet anyway? What does it actually do for us? Is it anything positive?

A bit of research shows that other than turning into glucose for cell energy, which every starch and carb does anyway, all sugar uniquely does is provide taste and texture.

That's it.

Now, is it possible to change and combat this addictive substance?

It's probable.

I tried to be a vegan....well...98% vegan for three months. That experiment cleaned my pallet. Sugars while still appealing, weren't quite so demanding anymore. I now love vegetables and still find ways to eat mostly veggie based meals. I learned what it felt like to feel clean on the inside and I try to recapture that feeling with each meal.

So who knows. I think the key to solving our nations health crisis lies in the tiny choices on each plate, and inside each person, one bite at a time.

Now if they would only focus on the "how" of that in the documentaries.

A Whole New Level of WOW

It's no secret I love cool new things. I love technology, exploration, discovery and innovative ideas that make life better. I also love things that make me feel a little less guilty about the planet/healthier/like I can do it myself.

I've already discussed extensively why less stuff is just good overall for your general sense of well being and your wallet. How about we talk about less trash?

What do you think of when you think of the waste we throw out in a day?

This is what I can list without pausing: peels, packages, floss, tissues, nails, hair, damaged goods, food boxes and bags, dvd cases, sanitary stuff, empty lotion, cream, chemical, cleaning bottles, paper towels, fast food waste, messed up tape, Saran wrap....and I stutter to a stop there.

Bascially, I always believed trash was a thing and would always be a thing, like death, or taxes.

Then I found this YouTube video posted by Seeker Stories in April of 2010, which interviews a woman who only has one tiny mason jar of trash to show after two years of life. She doesn't even own a proper trash can.

How does this even happen? Especially in a society that the video claims throws out 4.3 lbs of trash per person per day?

Well, as the title of this video proudly proclaims, "You Can Live Without Producing Trash." The video then demonstrates how by choosing only the biodegradable, or living without, you can extremely reduce your waste (possibly, by increasing your laundry and travel expenses to composting sites, but hey, there are always sacrifices in this war against pollution).

The thing that caught my eye though, was the toothbrush.

It's bamboo. Like legitimate, food for fuzzy black and white cuddly pandas bamboo.

I love this idea and its not just because it has to do with pandas. I just like the idea of using something that won't sit uselessly for the next thousand years but can be broken down and fed back into the environment that supports me. All relationships are give and take after all and to me natural stuff done right is an investment, not a luxury.

A.D.D. Moment: Someday, I hope they can invent a thing that reduces the trash already buried in landfills back to their molecular state. In a sense, reverse the landfill. Wouldn't that be cool?

So, of course I did my research and found a website called Woobamboo, and wouldn't you know their mascot is a panda? They specialize in bamboo toothbrushes for you, your kids, and your pets and also have their own biodegradable floss (which comes naturally waxed). Eventually, they also want to sell their own brand of toothpaste that comes in biodegradable plastic tubes.

Ok, can we just pause for a minute and appreciate the fact the humanity is cool enough to even think of inventing biodegradable plastic? Science is so cool.

While exciting as this is, I still had a few questions about bamboo toothbrushes. What are the bristles made of? Are they dentist approved? Can you recycle ALL of the toothbrush? Is it affordable?

The answers?

The bristles are plastic like the other store toothbrushes, except they are recyclable with your other plastics. It just requires some plier pulling to separate the bristles from the stick and then you can use the wood for something else. If you are sighing about how having to do one more thing is ridiculous, let me remind you that retirement and the usual resulting inactivity will kill you. Having some tiny, regular things to do keeps you active and alive longer. Enough said.

Woobamboo claims they are dentist approved. It's always hard to really know the answer to that. According to the video I previously mentioned, there were no dentist complaints about her use of bamboo toothbrushes and homemade toothpastes, but I doubt she's downing the thousands of pounds of sugar the rest of America is consuming from their trash packages. Considering that, she might not even need a super powered toothbrush and fancy fluoride pumped paste to keep her purely whites buffed and well.

As for affordable, one Woobamboo toothbrush runs at 3.99, a four pack for 15, and a family pack for 17.50. Which is still a lot cheaper than the 6-12 dollar single toothbrushes you could find on Amazon. Now I know you've seen the 1.99 brushes at your grocery store, I have one, and admittedly, they aren't the best out there. You get what you pay for I guess.

I'm excited to see what else people can come up with. I expect to see a lot of cool innovations to wow me for the next fifty years.

The Thing About Creative Muses

This post started out on just some thoughts about finding and using your muse. However, since it seemed pointless to even talk about finding a muse if you don't know how to use it properly, I expanded the topic to include the entire creative process.

And so we have the following.

My Basic Formula

I realize that not everyone is going to, or even needs to, follow my exact formula. However, it is what works for me, so this is the framework for this discussion.

Routinely practice skill - Ask a question - Trigger the muse - Put it down - Question/Critique

Routinely Practice

Duh. Why do you think I have a blog?

Art is work. If anyone tells you otherwise, they don't get what art really is.

Not every post is muse driven. Most of my posts are driven by the simple need to practice and so I ask myself "what sounds interesting today?" and I go from there. This gives me space to be imperfect and to practice the more mundane skills like grammar, transition, and clarity. Besides, when your muse hits, it can only use what you skills you currently have.

Ask A Question

All new things started with the plausible answers to a question. Is there another way to have light besides fire? Lightning is bright. What if there was a way to capture it's energy?

I use questions to trigger thoughts that usually lead to stories that explain my answers. If practice is the laying out a fireplace, the question is the spark that starts it on fire.

All About Respecting Muses 
A muse is a habit, ritual, occurrence, person, pet, place, sound, touch, thing or combination thereof that gives rise to the creative inspirations.

That's great and all, but what if you don't know what your muse is?

All I can say is, trial, error, no small degree of self awareness, and practice at respecting the inspiration when it does come. By respect, I mean taking the time to really think it out, write it down, or do something to acknowledge it. That action creates a habit and a greater awareness for future inspirations.

Eventually, you'll start to get a sense of what circumstances will usually trigger your inspiration. I say usually, because inspiration can be fickle sometimes and requires a little ground work and some patience.

Putting it Down
As I kinda already said in the previous section, you have to respect the muse by acknowledging it. For me, that's writing notes on whatever I can get my hands on. Paper, pen, phone, scraps, whatever. Then as soon as is possible, I revisit those notes and flush out the broader thoughts I was thinking in a word document.

Questions and Critique
This is the part where I may butt heads with a few people. Some people get the impression that creative words, plays, movies, songs, just kind of appear perfectly out of thin air to lucky individuals who then just tell the rest of the world about it. We "ooo" and "ahh" over the genius of it, then move on.

Reality, inspiration is rarely perfect, but it has the potential to be with some work. If practice is laying a fireplace, and questions are the spark, then the muse/inspiration would only be the tinder. Anybody who has laid a fire before knows that tinder will burn and brightly, but only briefly and with very little heat. If you want a fire, you have to build it on the tinder with small sticks, then gradually adding larger lumber till you can sit a log on the coals and then let it burn. You can't even be willy nilly with that part. If the sticks are misplaced, you can smother your fire or fail to catch anything alight. Fires are logical and systematic. They can be individual and creative, but it has to make sense.

It's the annoying part of creativity. The logic. The grammar. The rules. Realizing that what makes perfect sense and seems awesome to you, may not make sense to Joe in Atlanta. After you've got something going, you have to question it's existence a little and notice the mistakes. It's a painful, but necessary part of creativity that only makes the work stronger. And work it is. Refining takes a long time and a lot of patience. This is what separates the hobbyists from the artists. The willingness to be honest with their creations and to put in the time and the work towards making them perfect. Even this practice blog post has gone through several rewrites.

In Case You're Lost: Example


Practice
As some of you might know, I hadn't written much in the two years after receiving a Creative Writing degree. I missed it. So I dusted off this blog and started to regularly write about things that interest me. I also started studying my art by reading again. It's different than audio books because I can see the words and how they are laid out and that reminds me of some of English's more obscure rules.

Question

My current novel was entirely triggered by the questions: "If there were magic in today's world, where would it have come from? How would it have been created?"

Trigger the Muse

I've been working slowly on this novel for over a year now. I know that relaxing to music while traveling by foot, car, or plane triggers my better thinking. It's not a guarantee that those circumstances will result in brilliant creative thoughts, but it helps.

Over the holidays, I spent a good twelve hours traveling longer than I would have normally due to bad weather and airline maintenance. I took the extra time to ask myself some questions about the plot holes in my current book and boy was the creative muse on fire that day. I would have rather been with my family, but since circumstances were against me, I still consider it time well spent. The point is, it probably wouldn't have been as good if I hadn't been reviewing the project as a whole the week before.

Put it Down
I was grateful my memo pad on my phone was operational in flight mode. When I got home, I transcribed the notes into my usual storage area with additional thoughts and questions.

Question and Critique
After I get a chance to write a few mock chapters with my new ideas, I'll go over them again like a critic or a fan and see if I still have glaring questions.

If I feel like the project is almost done, then I would ask my final questions. "I really like this, but how appealing would it be to other people? Has it been done before, and if so, is it cliche or classic? If it's likable that's great, but is it relatable? If I were someone else, would I still like this?" Most importantly! "Is there anything I could change to make it even better?"


Sometimes, I feel like I'm working at Ironman's computer. I have a bunch of elements and scenes scattered in front of me. I switch, modify, rewrite, review logs, add, subtract, and play it again in my head until it feels just right. Always, I am building and cross referencing to make sure everything will fit together into a complete whole when it is done. (Note: It took many beginners novels and mistakes to learn the importance of that particular skill.)

This is the line where we cross from using the muse, to using the inner critic and the mountain of work that happens afterwords. Both are essential. The inner muse creates the heart and framework, while the inner critic notices the inconsistencies, the gaudy use of "be verbs" and saves us from regrettable mistakes reaching the printing presses.

After the muse, it's all hard work. This is what separates the writer from the hobbyist, but that's for another blog post.

My Biggest Struggle with Marie Kondo

Ok, I obviously love getting rid of stuff.

However, there are two deep, deep, subjects that I balk at dealing with...ever.

Most things, with years of practice and continued philosophical testing have started to come easy.

Money management, after years of practice that's easy.

Clothes, love to donate them.

Dust collectors (statues, odd n ends), VERY easy to get rid of (maybe a little too fun to smash or shoot in the desert.)

Cheap things that are easy to repurchase, why do I even own these?


As for my two worst subjects....

Books....I SWEAR, I WILL read them.

Papers....I'm pretty sure they reproduce. They are impossible to truly get rid of. Especially when I have a note of inspiration scribbled on an old receipt for a book idea that I've had.

The thing about books is I come from a book culture. My family is full of writers. My mom is a librarian. I grew up with two very tall book shelves set prominently in our living room. I've been writing since second grade. I'm an avid reader and like to quickly acquaint myself with whatever local library happens to be near by. I've always had a book shelf stuffed with books. I cry whenever I read about how the Nazi's burned books. Barnes and Noble is my happy place for spending money.

Granted, I'm not a stranger to donating books. It's just very, very, very difficult to convince myself that I will never read, re-read, or even reference a particular book. I try to think about it philosophically. Books are the absolute worst to move. They are heavy and awkward and if you're not reading them, they will collect dust. Once the knowledge or joy has been obtained, what use is it? I have a small collection currently with me and whole collection still waiting for me to sift through at my mothers house. Is it really worth it?

Yes.
Because I need them for professional reference both as a writer and as an aspiring body works expert.
What if I need reference materials when I retake certification exams?
What if this is the only reference I have to that particular inspiring myth?
It's a classic. I like to reread it.
Hello, it's The Hobbit.

I like books. I like having them. I like reading them. I like browsing my full shelf on rainy days and revisiting select passages. It makes my world complete. The only reason I'm not up to my eyeballs in books is because libraries exist.

I guess I can take comfort in knowing that I have the ability to donate books. It's just that more books than Marie Kondo would ever approve of still give me all kinds of joy. That's why, even though I love Barnes and Noble, I only visit once or twice a year.

As for papers. I do try, but I really do think they multiply. I try to revisit the subject on a regular basis for maintenance, but I'm pretty sure it's a losing battle.

We all have our struggles.

Living on $35 A Week Pt 2

As expected, the second week was not nearly as easy as the first week.

On top of the second week doubts, I went from a wonderful holiday Thanksgiving where I had my evenings free back to night school where the only easy food is the local over priced gas station.

I try to plan for these moments, but for some reason apples and carrots do not sound that filling at 8 o'clock at night, especially after a full work day.

I spent a total of 14.95 on gas station junk. As for the rest of my money... I actually have no idea. It had to have gone somewhere else because I only had three bills in my wallet by the end of the week.

It's not easy to budget.

If I've learned anything over the years, it's to keep trying anyway. When it comes to recording and planning my budget, I've gone from ledger, to Excell, to cash envelope, and back to ledgers in the last five years. It works for me. Each week I like to re-evaluate and if I need to tweek what I do or how I do it, I do it right then. This makes it easier to keep regular records that fit into my current lifestyle instead of feeling locked into a method that doesn't fit anymore. The point is, it doesn't matter how the information is recorded, so long as it is recorded and you keep your priorities straight.

This week, I also learned that even if you have good intentions to keep all of your receipts, they do have a habit of getting lost, hence the missing twelve dollars.

So, this next week I'm doing a couple of those tweeks. I'm going back to ledger. What I like about ledgers, is that you just take a notebook, make customized columns for your expenses, needs, income, total value, etc, and then update it every week. It keeps me honest and I can see how well I'm doing at a glance.

I'm also going to keep a small notebook in my purse instead of a pile of receipts. Small notebooks are only a little less likely to get lost. Instead of hoping my bag retains all of my receipts, I will write down the purchase before I even leave the store. This will help me to keep better records.

I already feel really good about this project.

Even though my rent situation is less desperate now that I know where I'm going and that I can afford it, I like knowing that I can handle emergencies. You know those rainy days where your car needs a sudden $500 dollar fix, or those moments when you're slapped with the knowledge that you'll be without a roof over your head if you can't come up with at least $1,000 in two months? This is why savings is amazing. When you have an egg that can handle things like that at the drop of a hat, the world feels so much more secure.

Some people might chaff a little at the restraint of only $35 a week as I did this last week. Really, I do like the restriction because it fits my goals. At this time of my life where I'm moving at least three times a year, I want to be able to just throw everything I own into my little Subaru and go. Buying stuff would be counter productive to that goal. I like the feeling of letting go of stuff. I like not having to dig through piles of  "someday" usefuls to find the one thing I really need. I like my shelves, boxes, and drawers to have only what I love and use, not regrets.

When you think of it that way, $35 a week is really just buying me food and the occasional need like toothpaste. That's it. $35 could surely stretch that far and then some.

Then again, I'm not like everyone else. Stuff really is the bottom tier of my five love languages, while for other people, giving and getting gifts is their very top love language.

I guess, it really is just all about what you value the most.

Living on $35 Dollars a Week

Week One Report

This week was really more about testing my self control and seeing if $35 a week was even possible.

Granted, I wouldn't be so motivated if I didn't have a lease ending in January with little to no hope of renewing it and no savings to speak of for another down payment. The living on $35 dollars a week experiment was really born out of desperation. If I can manage it, I should have enough saved up for a new apartment by the time January rolls around. Cross fingers.

$35 a week is impossible for many people. I considered it possible for my individual circumstance for several reasons: where I live, the fact that I am single with no dependents, I hate stuff anyway especially when I'm about to move, I work at a place that often feeds me for free or at least majorly discounted, and I wasn't going to include the obvious gas and rent bills that are set standards for my checking account anyway.

Food for thought; I only try to get gas once a week and only pay $20 for however much I can get. It seems to me that whether full or almost full, my tank will still a refill every Thursday for $20 so does it really matter if I fill it to that last gallon at all?

The $35 experiment will only work in cash. If I try to use card, it's too easy to forget that what savings I do have is not for paying taxes or buying stuff that is "almost in budget." If I'm going to succeed, it has to be cash. There is nothing more strict, or final, than cash.

Week one I did succeed. I only went shopping three times. Once at Smiths ($26.38), twice at Walmart (total $7.30).  Spending a total of $33.68.

In the end, I got a really good sense of determining what I need vs. what I will actually use within a week period. This includes actually eating what I buy vs. buying what I have good intentions to eat. Every item I considered was weighed against what I had left in my wallet because it's embarrassing to realize I don't have enough cash to pay for what's in my cart and it would be too easy to finish a purchase with my card.

I won't say it bought the healthiest food, but it bought what would go the longest. Suddenly, $4 dollars for only six snack times in a week really didn't seem worth it compared to a bag of carrots.

Trying again for $35 next week. This seems to be working.

Black Friday No Way

Happy Thanksgiving!

Despite what you may assume from the title, I'm not bashing the idea of having Christmas sales so early in the year.

I AM going to get serious though. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people gather outside stores in the wee morning hours after Thanksgiving. These tired, turkey drugged shoppers then wait with increasing anxiety as the minutes slowly drag by until the store opens. Finally, one terrified associate is either bullied into or brave enough to turn the key and allow customers to swarm the store for the big sale.

Every year, someone dies.

That initial push always kills someone. A life, something irreplaceable and impossible to discount is lost. It doesn't happen very often, but it happens more often than it should.

Just to illustrate the point, imagine having to have this conversation.

"Oh, I'm sorry, how did your beloved family member die?"

"Sales shopping."

Really? Is it worth it for someone to lose their precious family member and never see them again in future Thanksgivings?

Not to mention the arguing, the bickering, the stealing, the shop lifting, the easy theft, and the total disrepair of morals that would have held true had the shoppers been more awake, alert, and less desperate.

Granted, some families can only afford nice things on this one particular day. Yes, stores are trying to depressurize the day with online shopping and extending the sale around that particular day to the rest of the month.

Still, someone always dies.

For stuff.

For things that will wear out and break down and in the end only bring a few moments of pleasure.

For things that can be bought at the same price with the right discount and coupon combo any other day of the year or afforded with the right savings plan.

Why?

Because we are impatient. Because it's exciting to race. Because stuff is presented as bright and shiny and needed.

Historically, there have been times when a single death was all it took to enact cultural movements. Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination triggered World War I. Emmett Till's brutal murder sparked sympathy for the Civil Rights Movement. Today, people are shot by police and gangsters and plenty are in arms to call for things like gun reform, end of racism and police brutality.

People die on Black Friday and all you hear is, "Too bad. Isn't that so sad?"

There are no loud wars on the stuff culture. There are no cries for dis-banning the practice of Black Friday. Wars on the stuff culture don't turn profits. People don't like hearing the word "no" or the phrase, "you don't need that" or "you can't have it." I guess the major difference between the people who die shopping and the innocent people who die on the streets because of gang violence is that there is no solid bad guy, except for our culture of stuff.

Sorry for the especially dark post. As you read this, this holiday season, remember the people around you, and be aware of them, love them, watch out for them, protect them. Even if they're not your baby. If you are shopping early tomorrow, watch for the people that fall and then fight for their lives.

It's more important than any 75% discount.

My Conversion to Living Tiny

I know. Two tiny living posts in a row, but I felt inspired. One of the keys to being a good writer is to sometimes allow your inspiration to carry you away.

Why do I love tiny living? What is the appeal? I grew up in the largest house on our 70's middle class street and managed to snag the largest kid bedroom. By all predictions, tiny should not have been in my living standards vocabulary.

It all started with a cat.

Yes. A cat. I'm one of those people who enjoy snuggling warm soft fuzzy things that purr at me and cover me with sticky hair. I'm unashamed. When I was eleven I realized I wanted a cat, really, really badly. So badly, that for two months I would only check out books with cats in them especially if they were purely educational to impress my parents. After some bargaining, I convinced my parents that if I managed to keep my room white glove clean for a solid month, then I could be the proud owner of a tiny kitten. I got two kittens and I proudly took care of their every puke and water need.

That exercise taught me that a clean room was a pleasant room especially when compared to the bed of stuffed animals, clothes, and plastic that used to be my floor. I also learned that if you don't want your shirt to be vomited on, it's better to keep it off the floor.

Years later, I realized that my personal stress level would be great reduced after taking time to reorganize my room. As a creative person, I loved to relocate my furniture and this was more easily done when the room was clean. I also got a sense of pride displaying my hard work to my family members.

Hard work, done well, feels good, after all.

This all contributed to my enjoyment of organizing tons of stuff into boxes. However, I didn't really start to see the benefit of living with less until I worked a couple of summers cleaning out homes for some wealthy friends of my mother. They had big houses. Really big. And it was full to the brim with stuff they hadn't touched in years. My job was to help them get rid of it.

I remember one particular room. It was completely stocked with enough ramen noodles to keep a soup kitchen going for a month. It was bought and stored with the good intention of being a food source in case something bad happened. A noble precaution, except the food hadn't been checked on for so long that three mice had chewed, peed and pooped on every single package. The mice themselves were found dead on top of the crispy noodles. Probably from ramen noodle overdose. Incredibly, they were also expired.

Another house was so littered with tiny random things like paper and beads that hours of work felt like doing nothing at all. I remember sitting in a tiny five by eight work studio and just looking at the stacks of paper, crafts, music charts, and other tiny bits of stuff. The piles of things were stacked higher than my shoulder as I sat on the floor and I thought, "If that tipped over, I could be buried alive, and no one would ever know."

During those summers the question kept popping up over and over, "Who needs this much stuff?" The answer, of course, is always, "Well I do. That's why I bought it. Even if I can't remember why."

I learned a lot about the psychology behind keeping stuff that summer. A lot of the stuff they hadn't touched in years was labeled generally as, "just in case," or, "the project I started, but never finished, but I am going to finish it someday." While, "just in case" can be largely justified in terms of emergency or food storage, I feel like the second one is more emotionally based than logical. Honestly, it just seemed sad. It was a stress that wasn't necessary and it effectively cut off entire rooms from access to those who lived there. Those projects hadn't been touched in years. I knew they weren't going to finish it. They knew they weren't going to finish it. Yet they were content to let that project eat at the back of their "to do" list that is never completed. They were content to walk by open doorways or peak in the drawers of their home and feel the tiny pricks of guilt for not doing what they said they were going to do. Every. Single. Time. For. YEARS.

For some people I guess that works. It might even be a comforting thing. For people like me, it would be like continuing to eat sugar with a bad cavity. I can understand being desensitized to the thing, but that tiny prick of guilt does leave a mark somewhere in the esteem area of the subconscious.

Next reason for liking the tiny life style. I moved. A lot.

We all know moving is a pain. We also all know that moving with a lot of stuff is even more of a pain. Between college semesters, I got really good at downsizing to the bare essentials of living, if not to the bare essentials of play things like board games. The goal was to always pack into as few compartments as possible without overloading anything. Especially, if I knew I was going to be living on a top floor. This was also a time of my life when I began to get a real sense of cost vs the earned dollar. Money, particularly quarters, became extremely valuable. Living in an apartment with six girls who cook and only one fridge also taught me the value of space saving. Note: it's rude to take up fridge space with a pizza box, it's much better to store the pizza in a stack container or a ziplock.

After college, that dollar became even more important. I really wanted to live independently, but I really couldn't see a way clear for me to do it. Then, I learned about the tiny house movement. I was so enchanted with the idea that I bought the first two seasons of Tiny House Nation and spent a month researching composting toilets. My boyfriend at the time was more inclined to talk about general financial gains and design technicalities than to consider actually living in one, but I was hooked. Fiscal responsibility is very important to me. I also loved the idea of travel, of uniqueness, and customization for a smaller price a lot better than living in a house I couldn't afford. In that lifestyle there seemed to be a lot more time for living. I also liked the idea of not having a lot of "stuff" to deal with.

I still am.

Currently, I live in a shared apartment, but I really only use the space in my kitchen, my 8x4 bathroom, and my 8x8 bedroom. I don't really buy stuff. Whenever possible, I get rid of stuff. I moved states and packed all I owned into a tiny Subaru. Recently, I managed to fly with just a carry on back pack for the weekend using the Marie Kondo method of folding. I love how people are getting hooked on this idea that less is more.

There are at least ten different blue prints sketched out in my sketch book with ideas and designs for different rooms and living spaces. I plan to someday live in a tiny house all of my own, whether mobile or solid is yet to be determined. In the meantime. I continue to live in a way that tests myself and my ability to go tiny. Hey, 20-50,000 to build a home is still nothing to sneeze at. If you plan to build a tiny home, it's better to do years of testing first.

Journeys into the World of Marie Kondo

By now, I'm sure everyone has heard about the book, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing." by Marie Kondo.

On a whim, I picked it up from Barnes and Noble last week. Glad I waited as long as I did, because it was on a 30% off sale. Can we say easy $10? Like most self-help books, it's not the kind of book that is designed to be read straight through. There is an index, the advice is straight forward, and the writing is clear, but if you're looking for a quick references on how to fold a particular article of clothing, its easier to find examples on YouTube. I'd consider it more of a philosophy book that focuses on "why" than a reference guide that tells you "how."

I began a pattern of cleaning and reading then cleaning again. Each section of the book is short enough that you don't loose motivation between the pages. The philosophy was the most interesting part of the book. Eastern philosophy is full of giving respect to things that most westerners wouldn't even think of. Still, that act of giving respect, creates discipline and an environment where things last longer and relationships are deeper. The closest western equivalent to this philosophy would be living with constant appreciation and gratitude. This book supports that assumption. Marie Kondo teaches that it is better for things to be used, than to go unused. That folding clothes in respectful ways makes them last longer. That getting rid of items that aren't worn out is actually a good thing. And as all tiny livers know, less is so often much more.

So far, I've gotten rid of an astonishing three bags of donated clothing. I swear I didn't think I had many clothes to begin with, much less three bags worth of clothes that didn't inspire happiness. My closet suddenly went from not having enough hangers, to having hangers with nothing to do. I'm a little scared to tackle the bookshelf, but that's what's going to happen next. My room already looks a hundred times better.

This exercise has also got me thinking. I don't own much. I don't need much. However, would what I currently own fit into a tiny house space? If I had to suddenly make the jump into a tiny house even smaller than I dream about, would I even fit? Before Marie Kondo, I'd have to say no. At the very least, If I did suddenly have to change apartments again, I know it will be an easier move.

Food for thought, is there such a condition as chronically buying tiny stuff you think you need and then turning around three months later to donate it all? I kinda feel like that's how I live. My next goal is to live on a budget of just 55 dollars a week. At least twenty of that is going to gas and this will not include rent, so that will leave me about 35 a week for food and needs. Now that I'm posting about it, I will need to be accountable.

Happy Tiny Living Everybody

Junk Literature Addiction

Dime novel quality works have been around since the end of the 19th century. These stories are the loose and fanciful creations from people who don't care what story they put together so long as it is entertaining and profitable. Today, dime novel quality stories permeate our libraries, movies, and television shows.

This is what wikipedia has to say about them.

"In the modern age, "dime novel" has become a term to describe any quickly written, lurid potboiler and as such is generally used as a pejorative to describe a sensationalized yet superficial piece of written work."

Those are fighting words. So why do we ingest such terrible literature?

It would be easier to start with what makes good literature. In my humble opinion, good literature is about potential. Good literature is literature that has a voice to reveal truth. It says something about the condition of humanity and/or its place in the universe. It gives way to deeper thinking and possibly real world application or change. Change isn't a required component, but there definitely has to be some inspired reflection on the truths as they are revealed.

That said, not everyone is going to have brilliant "ah ha's!" when they read something touted as good literature. Still, the potential for depth has to be there to be considered literature.

Compare that to the dime novel.

The dime novel is like my experience with Twilight; it's a short lived enjoyment that inspires no depth or internal awareness. You don't feel compelled to re-read these because you already got all you could get on the first go around. You're welcome to still re-read them, but the second experience could never be as good as the first. It's a book that says absolutely nothing, but gives you a thrill anyway.

Most genres strive to have a mixture of the two and many succeed. Shows like Avatar, the Last Airbender, Doctor Who, and Sherlock give people something to think about while at the same time being highly entertaining. They are often modernly called, "smart shows."

So why are there so many stories in the world, but only a fraction of them are worth the time?

Quantity and Demand
The people demand a thousand channels with a thousand stories to spend all their spare time on at any given moment of the day. The newer, the more exciting, the better. The people also demand new books to be released almost as fast as they can read them. This puts a lot of pressure on the companies that produce the entertainment to churn out products almost as fast as they can come up with them. There is no time for the depth of literature to sink into the creative process before the lights are out and the presses have stopped running. Shows like Sherlock can bypass this problem by taking three years to hammer out fine details, but most stories don't have that luxury.

Addiction to "New"
New stories are exciting. Repeating old experiences in a new format is both comforting and entertaining. When the subject is superficial though, we have no reason to stay and many reasons to feel bored. We ingest dime novel quality novels so often that we've fallen into the habit of excited anticipation, consumption, rejection, and impatience for the next big story. We've followed this pattern as a society so much that we hardly even notice that the "new story" of today is the same crap story of yesterday.

Personal Test: Do you have a new favorite book or story that you experienced last year? What was it? Have you revisited it since you first found it? How do you feel about it today. Now that you're aware of the cycle, would you go back and enjoy what you once had, or is it not worth the time to re-experience?

Anti-Reflection
Our society is currently molded on the belief that if you don't think about it, its not your problem and nothing is wrong. The antithesis is saying if you don't constantly think about something you don't actually care, but that's a different social problem.

Literature has the nasty habit of bringing deep thinking and reflection to the foreground; which provides an environment where you see things that you'd rather not see or deal with. One of the nastiest truths literature likes to bring up is the myth of the happy ending. There's this modern myth that life has to be good. There's a finish line that if you reach it, it will mark the beginning of eternal happiness and contentment. If life isn't good, then something is wrong, you're not on track to the golden finish line. Therefore, if something is wrong, then we have a responsibility to "fix it" or suffer forever. Literature often teaches that life isn't always good and that its normal to experience bad things. Literature also teaches that some things just can't be fixed, life isn't perfect, and that's totally normal. It's very different from the "disney-fied" messages of our youth and very uncomfortable to us because we're not used to acknowledging that side of life.

Kinda sad when you think about it. Life and adulthood does eventually happen. Wouldn't it be better to be prepared for it? I'm not saying, cast out all hope, but at least have more realistic expectations for what life is like. It is better to live with meaning, than to live for the happy ending.

If you've ever read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, then you probably couldn't help but notice how many today are like the character of the wife. The fact that's she's introduced as a suicide risk is telling on how living without meaning takes a tole on the human spirit. She was willing to go into debt to increase her experience in fantasy and perceived happiness. She would rather continue living in her meaningless make believe world with her "family" of entertaining tv personalities than deal with the internal problems of emptiness she knows is there, but doesn't acknowledge. Whenever her husband tried to get her to engage in any kind of conversation that had depth, she avoided and rejected him.

Conclusion
Personally, as a writer, I've always wanted to be someone who said something. I grew up on dime novels and better. I enjoyed the stories about dragons and fairy queens, but the stories I enjoyed the most had dragons and inspired self-reflection. My goal is to be the kind of writer to who can trick dime novel addicts into a state of reflection and reveal truth among the spoils of entertainment. If my name is going to be on the cover, I want it to be a work I can be proud of. Something that will be loved and will last at least a few decades. That's why I refuse to publish until I am absolutely ready. My expectations are high, I'll probably still fail, but at least I tried.

How to Freewrite

Freewriting is a tool used by writers to break up their walls. It is a gam;e with rules that you continue writing no matter the consequences. NOt matter the mistakes you make as you type. This createsand environment of freedom where the editors side of your brian isn't allowed to come out until the writing is done. But how does bbreewriting start? As you can see, I am typing very fast to prove the point that you dcontinue on no matter the mistakes that are matde. That is the firest rule.

The second rule, is that you canno't backspaece, fix or correct any mistakes that you see no matter what. The editor isn't allowed to even breath on a free write. This gives the writer the mental creative freesdom to just be and create without getting bogged down in details.

The third rule is to keep moving forward. Whatever thought that comesinto your head is valid even if it has nothing to do with the work you wish to create. If you have no thoughts, write about how you have not thoughts. Foe example, I only came up with three rules. I'm trying to think of more, but there really isn't any. Free writing isn't complicated and isn't meant to be really structured. You don't even need splits in paragraphs or tabs at the beginning of each thought. This is the mental massage that breaks holding patterns in your writing and allows you space to breath. Now I really want some cheese. Cheese is delicious. It is yellow, sharp is best. I hear that real cheese is white and better for you, it's probably true. Have you ever heard of cows giving orange milk? THat alone sounds gross, yet we like yellow cheese. I wonder if my character likes yellow cheese or white cheese. My back is wondering if this is a good position to type in.

She is a character that likes to breathe and find peace. Where is the excitment in that? If you have a character who likes peace so much, they have to be put into a whole lot of traumatizing experiences just to be interesting. On the otherhand, if you have a handful of a character in a forced peaceful setting, it can feel like a waist, but could it also be the grounds for an actual piece of literature?

Fahrenheit 451 style story that expresses that there is a time to fight and a time to rest and both moments are hard.

At this point I would usually launch into a made up scene that would give me a sense of my story. I'd still be free writing until the scene is done. Then I'd let the editor in just enough to see if the thought has potential. Hope you all enjoyed this example.

Writer's Block

This post is for all of my creative people out there.

Creation is awesome.

We love to dazzle the crowd with every brush stroke, every word, and every note. To the people who don't share our talents we look like wizards pulling genius moments out of star covered caps. To them, it seems as effortless and easy as breathing.

Oh how little they know.

You fellow artisans know about the suffocating pains between each brilliant moment. The times when we aren't wizards and the magic is simply out of reach. It is a terrible time when the world is either too busy, too stressful, or there is simply not enough inspiration there to allow for creation.

It is the pain of these times that makes the healing moments of creation so magical.

Yet, when you are stuck in a creation-less rut, how do we get back to doing what we love?

It's not simple, and every artist is as unique as their chosen medium. Yet here are a few things that might help should you find yourselves stuck.

Take A Risk
Artists are people who are already willing to experiment and take risks so I recommend trying different things to stimulate the creative well. Do something new. Go on a special vacation that allows you time to experience rather than just go through the motions. Or, take a "sick day" that allows you the time to go and find what normally inspires you.

Revisit What Works
This one requires a certain amount of self-awareness. Most artists can tell you about the moment of creation, but some find it hard to recall the moment before. The set of circumstances that sparked the creation in the first place. Go back in time. What inspired you to start last time? Was it observing people in the park? Playing with kids? Trying a new recipe? Something triggered the creativity. Find out what it was and then recreate those circumstances.

Find A Model
There is a saying in the artistic community. If you want to master your craft, you first need to learn about the masters. Read about them. Study them. Try to copy them. Learn how they did it. Even if historic figures didn't do exactly what you want to do; knowing how they did it and knowing what was good about it can give you focus for what it is that you want to do.

Make Time
I know this advice is worn out. It's annoying when people imply that you can pull more time out of hat with enough faith and belief. We all know simply wishing for more time does not put more minutes in a twenty-four hour day. What those people are really saying is that you can sacrifice your least needed things for this important thing. The reason why you don't hear people using those words is because telling people to give up something isn't a good selling pitch.

It is true though, that people don't always spend their time wisely. A little schedule reorganizing and reduction of wasted time, and you may find a spare hour you can dedicate to creation. If your schedule is simply too busy to allow for it, then maybe this is not the time of your life to create. However, I feel like if not creating is making life totally miserable, then it really is ok to change things up. Get a different job. Reduce the demands on your time. Put first in your schedule what matters the most to your over all life goals. Then, when the time is available, be careful to not waste it. You worked hard to get that time. It'd be a shame if it was spent on a temporary show you kinda like but won't remember watching come next year.

That's all I have for you today.
Good luck my fellow creative people!

Refocusing on Tiny Lifestyle and the Dangers of Stuff

Next to dreaming about the children's book I'm illustrating and the YA novel I'm perfecting, I love to dream about someday living in a tiny house.

The thing I love most about the tiny life style is the simple, freeing, economics. I am a single millennial who grew up in a home that promoted thrift. Since entering the adult sphere I've also learned that just because you have full-time work you are not guaranteed to do/buy whatever you want.

And I'd always believed my parents were saying "no" just for my moral character.

This, among other adult lessons I've been learning, is why the cheapness and freeing aspect of tiny house living is just so appealing to me. Anything that increases your capacity to save, while decreasing your financial stress has to be a good thing.

I'm not in a position to build a tiny house yet, but I do try to live the lifestyle in my apartment situations. This does not make me infallible though. If there is a lesson to be learned in my recent life, it's this. If you value security, then avoid environments that promote a "stuff culture."

The seductive allure for stuff came to me because I had moved into a stuff environment. When I first moved, I had a solid growing budget and the few belongings I managed to fit into my ancient Subaru was plenty for me. Then, I moved into the apartment. You'd expect a stuff oriented apartment to look like an episode of hoarders, this was not the case. This is was the other kind of stuff environment where possessions were few, but expectations and tastes were high. It was beautiful with matching furniture and designs that would make a fashionista drool. The smooth, clean appearances and alluring smell of candle wax made it seem like the perfect apartment. What I didn't know, was that beneath the fog of wax, lay a budget devouring serpent that demanded lavish offerings.

The culture of keeping up appearances is a stressful one. I knew I wasn't totally happy and that I couldn't jive with my roommate. In the end it really came down to a difference in values. As each month past, all the comments started to wear on me. Topics about appearances and the need to "look nice." Continual requests to be quiet when closing the toilet seat to avoid advertising the embarrassing fact that even girls use the toilet. How who owned the most stuff or more of the contract was used as a lobbying tool for apartment rules. Demands that all things bought for the apartment must be first approved by my roommate. The constant stress of needing to appear put together and upscale was making the apartment anything but. Underneath it all, was the glaring truth that it was just a facade that none of us could afford.

Not knowing any better, I tried to fit in. I hate black, but the Walmart black furniture was the only affordable kind that was easy to match. Normally, I would have trolled the thrift stores for wooden constructs from the 70's, but I had this indescribable need to "match" with the apartment. Maybe, I thought if I looked like I fit in, then I would feel comfortable there. I even bought candle wax because I was worried my room didn't smell as good as the rest of the house and I didn't want to smell obviously human. The hungry stuff serpent bit me every time I went grocery shopping. I had this unusual desire to buy things I could buy then, but not afford long term like candle holders, fancy mirrors, cardboard quotes, and other useless items that only served as decoration. My roommate once bought a cardboard quote for our bathroom when we had been without a trash can for a month. Why? This didn't make sense to me. I felt like I was in this limbo world where needs and wants were standing on their heads.

It took me four months to realize how much my roommates attitudes and anxieties were affecting my spending habits and personal sense of well-being. I have no other word for the environment, but toxic. It was like a really nice looking hell populated by gremlins who look like Jim Henson's stuff lady puppets from the Labyrinth.

Thankfully, the contract was loose enough that it was more of a month to month agreement. As soon as I heard there was a vacancy elsewhere I jumped for it. My roommate couldn't believe I was willing to risk my deposit and just leave rather than stay and wait until I could find a replacement. She couldn't understand how much my freedom from that place was worth more than the $200. That's how different our values were.

My new apartment is organized chaos. The furniture doesn't match, but we recently got a giant elbow leather couch for just $100. It's a little messy, but comfortable, and it doesn't stink of candle wax. Within one hour of moving in, I felt welcomed and at home.

The sudden move reminded me about how one of my goals this years was to NOT buy stuff. I wanted to always be able to move easily and the current amount of stuff I own just wouldn't allow for it. The two pieces of furniture I justify because I had always planned to discard it once I moved states again and/or built a tiny house. Had I not moved, I probably would now be broke and have three or four pieces of furniture. Since moving into my new apartment, this is the first time I'd even recalled needing bookshelves. Which I don't.

My point. Stuff is attractive and your environment will largely dictate how you react to the "need" for stuff. If you find yourself in an unhealthy environment that compels you to buy stuff you don't need or can't afford, it may be time to re-asses the issue. What needs to change? Is it a manipulative roommate? It is a family member who has an unhealthy attachment to getting things? Is it the people you hang out with, or the neighborhood you live in? I never want to be in a "keeping up with the Jones's" environment ever again. I don't know how people do that for years. Those four months were exhausting enough.

Discussing Living Tiny with the Rest of the World

I think I did know somewhere in my subconscious that not everyone would agree with my idea of tiny living. I just hadn't realized how passionate and opinionated some people could be about it. So far, when I talk about leading a life in a tiny house I get one of four reactions.


First and most rare, the supporter. These ones are as excited and knowledgeable about the subject as I am. They clearly see the benefits, universal applications, and efficiency of the idea even if they don't necessarily want to live that way themselves.

Second, the slightly confused and repulsed. Particularly when I tell them about composting toilets. They just cannot imagine living that way without some revulsion. They also have a hard time understanding why an RV just isn't the same thing as a tiny house trailer.

Third, the brick wall. These ones are stoically against the idea and are willing to assure me with great feeling that I would not actually like living that lifestyle. They are certain that if I were to really try it that I would find out that it was both uncomfortable and unlivable. They also tend to laugh and shake their heads like egotistic college professors do when they hear an opinion from a seemingly naive student.

Fourth, the refuter. This person isn't really interested in hearing about the benefits. They've already decided that their are none and they are going to do their best to scare you out of the idea by listing everything that could possibly go wrong. What about parking laws? Where are you going to put everything? How will you be able to entertain company? What about your poor dog? What if you have kids and they become *gasp* teenagers?


If you find yourself dealing with some of these kinds of people. This is my advice.

To the first group. Welcome them. Embrace them. Make sure you have their numbers or at least Facebook them. They often will come across ideas you haven't heard yet that are perfect for incorporating into your tiny lifestyle. They will also give you inspiration and the peer affirmation to continue believing in the lifestyle you've already decided is pretty good.

To the second group. These are good people, they're just feeling a little out of their depth when you start debating about the pros and cons between composting and incinerating your feces. Instead, bring the discussion into their home court. Talk about organizing. Talk about money saving. Talk about downsizing and all of its benefits. Depending on the person, you'll more than likely find a topic you both agree on and be able to expand from there. Who knows. Maybe you'll convert them to group one. No promises, but support in some aspects is always a good thing.

To the third group. Don't waste energy desperately trying to convince them that you aren't the naive adult they've already decided you are. They've either had too much life experience or too many opinions under their belts to make room for ideas that go against their perspectives. They often don't realize that they are projecting their miseries onto your life and therefore can't see how unfair they are being. Since most of them are well-meaning in their warnings, take what they say with caution and a cup of salt. But don't let their energy sucking go on for too long. You could be convinced that you'll be stuck penniless on a highway and sharing a meal of roasted roadkill with a drifter called Screws.

Finally, to the fourth group. These are possibly the worst energy suckers of them all. Realize that they aren't actually interested in how you're going to solve all their concerns about your life. So instead of scrambling to find ways to make a perfect lifestyle that will simultaneously end world hunger, take a breath. It's not their life, it's yours. No life comes without bumps or some sacrifices. Just remember that you've decided that the benefits outweigh these problems and that hundreds are finding satisfaction around the country. If some of their concerns actually do have you rethinking living tiny, then be sure you make the choice out of love and not fear.

These people never really go away. They are going to be present in every major life decision you make. Enjoy it. Laugh about it. Cry about it. Just always remember, it's your life. It's your decision.