Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Repair.

I wonder if reduce, reuse, recycle, and repair are lost on us as a society now. I remember growing up that reduce, reuse, and recycle was taught to us in grade school. Now it seems that everything that has been used up or is broken just gets tossed out with the trash and new ones are purchased. This apathetic attitude towards are things is certainly bad for our pocket book and bad for the environment.

Unless you're recycling what can be, those items end up in a landfill, their new forever home.

I started thinking about this when I was getting ready to ship a painting to a friend. I needed a box that was the appropriate size and some bubble wrap to protect it. I knew I had a box at home I could use, but needed to get the bubble wrap from the store. I made several searches of my house and garage for a box. The only one big enough was a little too big, but I decided to use it instead of purchasing a new one. Money saved! As I wrote down UPS on my list of To Do's I remembered that my mom had used plastic grocery bags to stuff a box that had Christmas presents in them. I always use saved grocery bags to clean out the cat's litter box so I pulled them all out from under the kitchen sink and in the process found a small box and a paper bag full of even more plastic bags! I used these to stuff the box and still had some left over. More money saved! The painting should make it safely to it's destination.

This has gotten me thinking about other items I may throw away or choose to recycle. While I can recycle plastic water bottles, I can't recycle the lid. Why is that? The lid is plastic too! Or how about purchasing bottled water in a cardboard box? Boxed Water aims to do it better.

Take a look around your house. What is taking up so much space that you need to pay for a storage unit? Are you endlessly doing laundry? Do you only grocery shop once a month, cramming your fridge with food that eventually goes bad? I recently went through my closet and got rid of at least 80% of my clothes. I only kept what I knew I would wear and some items I now only have one of. Pairing down my items helped me to declutter and will save me time of doing huge loads of laundry. I also grocery shop every week, buying only what I need for that week. It keeps my costs down as I only shop for a week at a time and it avoids foods getting spoiled.

What can you reuse instead of throwing away? I've created shelving out of stacked boxes and draped them with a blanket. I've reused boxes to ship things. I've turned a bench with cubby holes into a desk with spots for books and shoes.

What can be repaired (for a fraction of the cost of purchasing a new one)? I have yet to repair anything that has been broken, but that is my next decision when something is and I'll be sure to write about it when I do!

Peace and Love!

Don't You Know You're A Slave?

I feel trapped by society's creation on how we should live [in society]. This is what creates my anxiety. I shouldn't have to conform to laws or social standards I didn't vote for or agree with. Why can't we all live how we truly want? The seatbelt law was created before I was old enough to vote. I don't agree with the law. It's my choice, everyone's choice, on whether or not they want to wear a seatbelt. The true purpose of the law isn't to help save lives. The true purpose is to make money. If someone exercises their own right to choose to not wear a seatbelt and are caught not wearing it, they are ticketed and forced to pay money. Our right to choose has been taken from us.

I believe that TV, Facebook, constantly checking emails, etc. are just band aids. Things that keep us busy so that we don't reflect on how we really feel, what we really believe in, or who we truly want to be. And we're distracted from what really goes on in the world. Currently, all the news is about the alleged Russian hacking during the 2016 presidential election to help Trump win. What is this story distracting us from?

We don't think for ourselves anymore. We have no original thoughts anymore. Everything is conceived for us, ready to consume, and repost. We weren't created to work, struggle mentally and physically, and then die. We weren't created to serve the oligarchy, making them even richer and more powerful. We are all equal and should be helping each other regardless of circumstance.

I believe in community, in villages raising children, like indigenous tribes. Adapting to our environments instead of destroying them so that they conform to us. I believe in things that make our lives better at the core, not just superficially.

I want to escape this trap. Our money is stolen from us. Our quality of health is dictated by the "choices" we're given and who can afford them. This society is the death of our identities.

Everything Owns Us

We own nothing. Everything owns us. Think about it. What is the real cost of living? Do we ever buy something just once? How much does your car truly cost? We never stop paying for things.We're the only species on Earth that pays to live here. I saw a picture on Facebook with a caption that read "Who did the government buy the Earth from? Then why do we pay the government to live here?" What if we paid for nothing? What if everything we needed was given to us? What if we traded goods and services for other goods and services instead of money for goods and labor for money? The world's economy runs on consuming. What if we all stopped consuming? Would the world collapse? Would we be forced to help each other survive? What if we all just STOPPED? Don't set your alarm. Don't wake up for work. Goods and services don't get delivered. We can't buy or consume what isn't there so we must grow/produce/create what we need. Everyone becomes equal.

What if we taught for free and learned whatever we wanted? Can a society like that be created?

"The only currency is Love."

Back to the true cost of things. Here's the purchase price of your car, plus insurance and registration and DEQ and maintenance and repair and interest.

Purchase Price: $$$$
Insurance: $
Registration: $
DEQ: $
Maintenance: $$
Repair: $$$
Loan Interest: $
Gas: $

True cost: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ (multiplied by ?)

The 20k you financed to buy a car is really costing you exponentially more. In order to pay for this ever growing cost we have to work more. So in reality, you don't own that car. That car owns you.

Remove what we think we own and all of the sudden our financial burden decreases which means we don't need to work as much and those things no longer own us.

November 7, 2016

Every three to six months or so I wake up and want to find something that I can create into a business and work for myself. I get tired if working to make someone else wealthy. So I research ways to make money at home. I've tried two MLM companies - Advocate and World Financial Group. Both great companies. Both have great products and can really help people. But I have a hard time getting out of my comfort zone to proactively talk to people about what I'm doing. I've thought about Uber and Left, but I'm too exhausted at the end of my day to go out and work again. I'm a fairly good writer when it comes to erotic short stories, so that is an option. There are several ways to create and sell t-shirts online. I'm a fairly decent abstract painter. For some reason, I've never stuck to any of these. Why? Lack of motivation? Lack of discipline? Do I need to see immediate results to keep going? Probably all of these. What if I worked on all of these, a little bit each day? Some income from each source collectively could be better than a lot from one stream and could help with keeping me motivated. 

What do you think?

Here are a couple of shirts I'm selling already:
https://www.sunfrog.com/EatSleepCamp.html?82123

https://www.sunfrog.com/diesel-power-trucking-shirt.html?82123

November 6, 2016

I realized last night that I need rest. Good, quality. If you didn't know already Americans are overworked and underpaid. We work too many hours and don't get enough sleep. If you have kids then you're working two jobs. Being a parent is a job all on it's own. We're unhealthy, slaves to debt, and often struggle just to get through the day, only to wake up and do it all over again.

The rest I'm talking about is not what is found on your weekend. I have a three day weekend every week. My body gets to rest a little. I try to keep my mind off of work, but often find myself getting anxious for Tuesday and wondering how big the loads are that I'll be delivering. Will it be a nice 10 hour day or a long 12 hour day? Even though I don't work for three days, my time off is hardly restful.

The rest I'm talking about is a complete reset of life. I want to throw everything out, start over, and build a life I don't need rest from from the ground up. How do I do that with what I've got now? I can't abandon my responsibilities. My family needs health care, I still have debt to pay off, bills to pay, and a job to show up to. The rest I'm talking about is really the purpose of this blog. I'll have to chip away, little by little, at the chains keeping me tied to this type of life.

Imagine waking up naturally, on your own, in the perfect bed in a house on the beach. You can hear the waves crashing on the shore. A light breeze flows through the open windows in your room. You don't need any coffee. You just pour yourself some water or orange juice. There is nowhere you have to be, nothing that you need to do. Your job is to simply enjoy this creation, relax, and be at peace. Your body feels great. You don't suffer from any pain, stiffness, or inflammation. Your mind is at ease. You're not stressed or anxious. Your whole being is smiling.

Is this type of existence possible? If so, how do we get there? What can we do today to get that much closer to this goal?

My two favorite ways to relax are laying on the beach and sitting around a campfire while camping. When I'm there, nothing else matters. Nothing else exists, nothing but that moment.



The things I'm doing today to bring me closer to this life are 1) drink more water and 2) juice at least 2 meals a day.

What are your ideas?

Juicer Arrived!!!

A quick note:

My electric masticating juicer arrived yesterday! Due to some weird issues with my order, I thought it wasn't coming at all, but to my surprise, it's here! I've used it twice now. Setup and clean up was easy. It worked well with harder vegetables like carrots. I couldn't be more pleased. This is definitely way better than hand cranking all those veggies and fruits.

Here's the link to what I purchased.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Big-Boss-Heavy-Duty-Masticating-Slow-Juicer-White/22839661

November 1, 2016

In April of 2016, with the help of a layoff, I successfully changed careers. I'd been in customer service in some form another my entire working life and had wanted something more blue collar for quite sometime. I was not innovative and didn’t care about the next great thing. I certainly didn’t care about my customer’s first world problems. There were bigger, more important things to solve in the world. So I became a truck driver, something I've always wanted to do, but never put together a plan to get there. I drive locally for a beverage distributor. The hours are long and the weather sometimes unforgiving. Mornings come inhumanely early, but the pay is good and I only work four days a week. It is a step in the right direction toward a life I know is way more healthy than the rat race that society is convinced that life should be. No, I caught on to the cycle that keeps Americans suppressed. I'll beat the system by not playing the game. My goal is to live financially free, work part time, create lasting memories with my family, and be healthy. 

Here is where each of those things stand right now.

Debt: $46,000 - Two cars and a credit card

Work Hours: ~45 hrs a week

Family: Currently separated, but working on our marriage

Health: 146 lbs, technically "overweight" for my height. Pre-diabetic. Sugar addiction. Numbness and swelling in hands.

Mental Health: Work is stressful and I get anxiety thinking about having to wake up so early.

I've started working on my health. I started juicing two meals a day three days ago. My gut feels better and my work pants are fitting just a bit more loose. My body feels more clean. I'm sticking with two recipes so far and will expand on them once I get into the habit of juicing.