Resolutions and Evaluation of where this world is going.

1. Join Touchstone Climbing for Bouldering and Weightlifting Regiment
2. Keep my alcohol consumption under control
3. Start the process to go to Grad School which means go to Community College for courses
4. Grow my tree brassicas more
5. Fix the sideyard at my house.
6. Continue with what was good about 2010
7. Give an honest shot at expanding on my relationships with people.

How did I do?

Well number one I accomplished on January 2nd and have gone crazy for. I'd say yup did it. Two, yes. I cut loose a few times sure but I really did a good job not going overboard minus one night where there was tequila and teammates and not a single part of it was peer pressure, I just was dehydrated to start with. So we'll say 90%. Three, I started, then backed out. I got as far as picking classes, but I never got very far in there. Three is a failure. Four is a total success. Five is still a work in progress so I'd say nope. I forget what was good about 2010, but I've had a great year so I'm just going to go ahead and say six was accomplished. Seven, definitely. Between it all, I've really made honest goes at relationships and cultivated great relationships both platonic and intimate. Seven is a success.

So 2011 is wrapping itself up. For me, 2011 has been marked by some truly great ups and some tough downs. My interpersonal life is going well. I still love my home, my job, and my hobbies. I've become addicted to climbing, started playing in a jazz/folk duo, wrote and self-published 3 zines, lived my life with love and patience and found my groove so to speak. I see myself as a tree. A tree is patient and constant. It is consistent in its growth however slow it may be. I'd like to think that a tree is understanding, but that might be a stretch for a metaphor. At any rate, I'm trying to focus on almost always being understanding of people and situations.

I guess it's an appropriate time to bust out new resolutions:
1. Be patient, understanding, and grow consistently
2. Keep climbing with strength and focus
3. Write more zines
4. Remain frugal, dumpstering, and resourceful
5. Captain a frisbee team again this season
6. Have ups and downs
7. Get into stretching and flexibility
8. Work on cultivating strong relationships

I'll briefly change gears. This year the world is finding some fire. The sense of urgency is strong in so many countries. It's not the first time folks have been hungry or brutalized in the history of famine or oppression, but with some defiant acts on behalf of some truly brave human beings we find ourselves in a world atmosphere where there are people putting their life on the line, staring down the barrels of guns or worse, standing up against the cadres of soldiers or policemen that mean to disperse or, even worse, kill them.

There comes a point wherein every person on earth loses fear because they are through being brutalized, watching their families go hungry, watching their friends suffer, and their neighborhoods destroyed. It is at that point where a person looks at the forces causing this destruction and decides that it is time for them to fight those forces and destroy them or die trying so that they might achieve freedom from the oppressive weights on their backs. This is happening in so many places. From Greece, to Egypt, to Libya, to Britain, to the USA. I'll be the first to admit that the USA's actions are not from true urgency but a sense of right, heroism, and rage on behalf of those who truly do suffer. Is it always right? Maybe not. But is it necessary? I believe so. Like I've said before, it takes a variety of tactics to win any battle. If the USA remains 100% non-violent, it will need truly unfathomable (tens of millions) numbers to win whatever it is going to stand for. If not, then non-violence will continue to sit on its privileged laurels and continue to do so until folks in the USA become so brutalized that they are willing to put their lives on the line and get truly disobedient. I don't mean picking up guns and shooting at will. I mean coordinated mixes of violence and none-violence. Occupation and destruction of property and means of production meant for the powers that be.

The way things are going, I think you could see this some day in the near future. Where politicians only answer to money and money only belongs to the truly elite (kind of the way things always have been), but once you stop allowing people easy access to food, water, and shelter for themselves and their families, then you will have serious problems. It will happen some day.

Variety of Tactics

A variety of tactics refers to when one is trying to achieve a goal, it is most intelligent to approach achieving that goal with a variety of strategies and tactics. In the case of the current Occupy Wallstreet, specifically Occupy Oakland, a variety of tactics enters the realm of whether or not to use violent tactics or non-violent tactics or no tactic at all and allow for organic development (which in a way is a tactic).

GOALS: There are some very large and largely broad goals that the occupy movement is trying to achieve right now. Specifics tend to polarize people, so the responsible parties of the movement (however few there may be due to a more adhocratic model) have largely tried to stay away from specific targets. Of course the exceptions are there. Last tuesday during the general strike in Oakland, the Oakland Ports were targeted and occupied by an unknown number of people. Numbers are being thrown around in wild fashion. 3,000...5,000...10,000 and yes even 100,000 has been thrown around. I cannot comment on this matter. What I do know is that for one of two specific, publicized, and large events the Oakland ports were shut down and work was cancelled (the first coming a week earlier during the march on the jail and the reclamation of Oscar Grant Plaza and ending in one of the largest riots in downtown of the last 20 years after police began firing at the crowd unprovoked). Now what? Does this group of people have a developing vision of what to do? And if so, what tactics should be employed?

Before I get into this, I want to say that from what I've seen, Occupy Oakland's public and tactical discussions have seemed largely white and male. Whether or not they are aware of it (almost sure they are), the must remember to stop moving towards hierarchical structures of race, gender, and class, which are clearly at play.

Non-Violence: It's clear, most people who protest or occupy are non-violent. Non-violence has been a successful tactic in a number of different situations. Of course Gandhi's efforts were a part in the process of ending British rule in India, and in the 1960 and onward the non-violent actions of the "Civil Rights Movement" were successful in some arenas certainly, but in reality people of color are still systematically brutalized, despite being able to sit with white folks in restaurants and buses. Non-violence is generally favorable to most because it doesn't put them at risk, and most people don't want to be put at risk. It is inherently from a place of privilege that MOST non-violent practitioners come from. Non-violent practitioners in the US are usually not displaced, landless, starving, brutalized people, they are people who identify with the cause and movement against something, in this case the behemoth of corporate control in capitalism (which has many more cards in its deck). To non-violent practitioners, there isn't a great enough sense of urgency.

Sense of urgency is something I've written about in everything from my senior thesis to articles, etc (a pedestal of privilege I sit upon). Sense of urgency is a great motivator for humans to do otherwise dangerous or uncomfortable things because they sense the urgency of their and those they love's survival at stake. When you are displaced, landless (homeless more so in this country), hungry, brutalized, etc you sense that you could die, those you love could die, and you will do anything to fight back, even give your life to fight the source of what is causing you this pain. Take for example the Black Panthers, The FLN in Algeria, the folks who blow up oil pipelines in Nigeria, Slave revolts, or the folks who resist the Texaco/Chevron destruction of their lands and water supplies. These people were/are in a position of exinction, of death, of losing what they have. Not all of them are/were poor but many did not have much to hold onto. Many of them resisted violently, killing innocent people, soldiers, politicians alike, and were criticized for it. But when you yourself are about to lose everything, even your life, will you not do anything to survive or get revenge? Is it not human? At what point would it take for you to fight with violence? Anyways I'm getting off topic and I'm not in the violent tactics section yet.

So the folks who advocate the use of non-violence in the occupy movement have had the most support it's true. There has even been infighting between non-violent and violent folk in the occupy marches (refer to the second video this article). The non-violent folk are doing a great job occupying in my mind, they are being careful not to bring the ire of a city that is sitting on the edge of forcibly evicting them (no matter how bad it would look) and they are doing a great job showing that their numbers are strong and that with those numbers they can accomplish a lot (non-violence needs strength in numbers). To what point will the non-violent folks go? Will they begin to occupy Sodexo buildings? The Office of Homeland security? Will they shut down banks? with sheer numbers? Will they shut down Walmarts and risk drawing the ire of people who are trying to be sympathetic but just want to buy their goods at an affordable price? When will demands be made with non-violence and will they have any weight? When a crowd of 10,000 demands the end of Chinese imported goods in favor of rebuilding American manufacturing economy will anyone in power listen? When those people march to BART and demand the disarming of the BART police, will BART comply? It will take a lot of work, a lot of disruption, and a lot of time. Something that someone who has a great sense of urgency does not have time for.

Violence: Let me be clear, violence for violence sake is senseless. Violence is one of the most effective areas you can use for tactics, but it must be directed at something and that something has to be specific. Otherwise people will have carte blanche to go nuts. Now one thing that always irked me, is how violent practitioners get attention (as well they should) but that for some reason the non-violent people get roped in and have to answer for their decisions, held responsible, and ultimately suffer the consequences for things they didn't do. When a whole movement is destroyed over the actions of a few (many of whom could be undercover saboteurs and instigators) it's ridiculous! If someone in your neighborhood commits a crime, do you have to get arrested and held responsible for it when a cop breaks down your door and tells you to leave? Hell no. So why a movement? Not everyone is responsible for the action of other people. It's one of the only situations where that flies and it drives me nuts.

I mentioned sense of urgency plenty of times already, but I feel violence is a logical and acceptable tactic for someone who is truly feeling it. A lot of the folks who have employed violent tactics in this current situation are not people feel urgency, but people who want to play "revolutionary." People who act on behalf of the displaced, landless, starving, and brutalized without being it themselves. Now I respect someone who wants to empathize for people being fucked with elsewhere, but does throwing chairs in the street and trying to break a whole foods window accomplish something for those people? It seems like misplaced rage and heroism to me. I believe smashing big banks and financial institutions is great, but there's a direct correlation between their actions and a violent response. Breaking ATMs and the like is good because then you disrupt the flow of economic capital. Another way to stop a bank from doing its business would be to take up the space completely and fill it beyond capacity so that no one could go in. Don't beat up the employees damnit, they are just doing their jobs, they don't make choices. You want to fuck someone up, fuck up the CEOs and shareholders. Gotta find them first of course.

I suppose what it looks like is violence against things and violence against people are serious lines to cross. I'm in favor of violence against objects, violence against people is sticky and I'm fully for it in cases where you are in the situations I mentioned previously, but in the Occupy movement, the goal is too broad and fighting violently against people in specific who are not making decisions is too far for this moment in time. If the situation should change I'd be ready to change my mind. It's like saying a gas station attendant is responsible for the actions the company they works for does globally. We can't hold them accountable like that. We can however hold their gas pumps accountable and I encourage to in fact do so if we can correctly connect our cause to the action.

I guess what I'm saying to wrap all this up is that a variety of tactics is necessary. We are in a sort of war. A war where few people are running the show and innocent people worldwide suffer the brunt of the punishment so stocks go up in value fractions of points.

Here are some tactics I feel would be useful in our current situation:
Non-Violence: Occupation, civil disobedience, and blocking are great tactics. I.E. Whirlmart Occupations
Violence: Destroying property, sabotage, distruption, blockades, barriers are all good tactics for this particular time. Don't go head to head with the police, it's a fight we won't win. Violent self-defense however is not only intelligent but necessary if the folks in blue are trying to fuck you up. Sense of Urgency for example.

Touching on the idea that anarchism is the driving force of this movement. It's out of line to think or say so for now because the general understanding of anarchism as a mechanism for governing people is flawed. It is seen as letting chaos rule, which in effect can be a catalyst for ending a capitalist system of democratic rule, but chaos is not anarchism. I always credit the Black Panthers for doing many great things in the anarcho-localist idea (Like adding stop lights to busy streets so children didn't get killed, organizing their own food system programs to alleviate hunger, medical care, education, stopping drug use, and of course policing themselves). In their situation of systematic brutality, they worked endlessly for creating their own help with their own resources because it was clear that the government wasn't keen on helping them out. If the government ignores you, pool your resources, and ignore it. Get your own rule where you can. That's where I feel Occupy is succeeding in actually being anarchist. Engaging in consensus process for decision making, feeding ourselves, caring for ourselves medically, educating ourselves, policing ourselves (albeit not very well sometimes). Whether or not the people who are engaging in the smashing are anarchists is irrelevant. Anarchism doesn't thrive on violence, it just means that these folks who believe in anarchism are employing violent tactics to ensure the continuation of their existing structure (or lack thereof as some folks would say). Let's keep up the sustaining of our own system.

Frugality Revisited (A Year of Expenses)

I suppose that I should have done this a long time ago, but things can get lost in the mix as we all know quite well.

In 2009 I wrote a post called "Frugality Rationalized" which in turn became the new name for this blog. It was also at this point that the blog itself took a definite turn; largely deviating from Frisbee thoughts and moving much more towards social theory, frugality, and dumpstering. The post itself was based on tips of how to live frugally and more within one's means; the end result being the ability to live on much less than you had previously considered.

Here's a little slice of my life and its exenses:

Background: I live in a co-operative home with 8 other people. We share expenses and responsibilities for maintenance of the house. Although this might not be possible or working for you, if you live in an area with neighbors or an apartment you can still find some of this to be helpful.

Rent: I pay $261 per month on rent currently but with dues ($75) for all my bulk food, utilities, upkeep of the house and garden, and miscellaneous expense for the house. That comes to $336 per month. Which per year comes to $4032. If you can establish a relationship with your landlord you can work out deals or trades to cut your rent down. Say you are good with finances, teach skills, or have access to a desirable commodity you can talk turkey and try to get it cut down so you can save a bit more. Quick utilities tip: If you shower with buckets you can catch the water runoff and use that water to flush your toilet, it's a simple greywater system and lots of fun!

Food: I still dumpster dive, work at the farmers market (although I trade a lot less), know people in the farming sector, foraging, and grow my own food. A small portion of my dues goes into maintaining bulk food stock. Aside from that, I pay nothing for my food. Between 5 pound bags of spinach from farm leftovers, foraging of apples and citrus from local trees, a weekly gift from my friends at the market, Food Not Bombs leftovers, and all that comes out of our garden all 9 people in my home are fed. Trust me, my fridge is exploding with produce. Calculating the amount of money I spend on going out, I spend something around $400 per year.

Travel/Commute: I bike. I use BART on occasion (maybe once a month at most). I take the bus to travel to Santa Cruz or other such places. I pay money for used parts to upkeep my bike. I probably spend 8 dollars per month on BART, 10 dollars per month on the bus, and if I was to add everything up, $200 per year on my bike if I'm really doing a lot of repairs. I'll be generous and say I spend $200 per year on travel locally.

Travelling beyond locally: I certainly fly places a handful of times per year but the totality of that can't be more than $1,000 on a heavy flight year. Due to the fluctuating nature of my flight schedule and the usual use of train or vanpool or craigslist, it usually comes out closer to $100 per voyage once I'm home. I'll venture that I spend $800 on travel per year.

Sports: Strangely enough, one of the larger expenses I have. Usually $150 on climbing shoes and cleats per year. $200 on tournament dues. $80 on uniforms. I have a $69 per month climbing gym membership which comes to $828.

Clothes: No money spent on clothes, free pile clothes only.

That comes out to $6690 per year. Pretty awesome. There might even be some things I'm missing or mis-calculating but to be safe we'll say my expense are plus or minus $350 so I could be anywhere from $6300 to $7000. Even as a substitute teacher working 2-3 days a week if I feel like it I make far more than that and even save a lot of money each month that goes into my bank account. The rest of my time is spent on projects and fun. It's a charmed life. Every day I live I remember to thank my lucky stars for my privileges. The privilege I've enjoyed because of phenotype, funds, and educational opportunity make a large part of who I am today. This wasn't just me, I have a lot of luck and open doors, and I recognize that.

Community Building Tips for Food:

Food: If you don't like cooking for yourself every day, try to start a dinner co-operative. Get a bunch of people (as many as you want but try to keep it to around 15 for the sake of kitchen sizes) and start a dinner co-op. This works great if you have a lot of people in close proximity like a neighborhood or apartment complex. If you get 15 people to sign up then all of you can cook dinner for everyone else 2 times PER MONTH and every night that isn't your night you can show up at the person's house and get a meal and enough for leftovers the next day for lunch. Maybe every night is too much, then perhaps you can make it every week day or maybe 3 days per week. It not only builds community but gives you the benefit of not having to cook every night. A cool thing to do is the 'Judy Barstow' rule where you wash one dish the cook used after getting food thus cutting down on the work the cook must do.

In the dinner co-op you can also try a bulk co-op and order bulk foods like legumes, grains, and even produce. 25 pound bags of grain might be a large order in your mind but buying bulk is way cheaper than buying retail, AND you get to split it with everyone in the co-op or do it by the pound. This way you can get all the things you need cheaper and can have enough for your dinner co-op!

Dumpster For A Cause (Occupy Wall Street)

Whether or not you agree with the folks Occupying the various cities (OAKLAND!) in your country, you can definitely see that what they are doing is brave. They are living outside, occupying a space, standing for what they believe in (very American), and putting themselves at risk of arrest and brutality.

If you don't feel like committing time and energy to occupation remember that one of the best things you can do is feed the fire. By feed the fire I mean feed the folks. Those people need food and what better way to help than to dumpster it for them. These folks need sustenance, help provide it.

Bread, Produce, Pre-Packaged food. Everything. Bring the food to the central or food tent. In Oakland it's located at the corner of 14th and Broadway in Oscar Grant Plaza (aka Frank Ogawa Square).

It was Destiny after April For the Dumpster Run.

It's always tons of fun to take friends on their first dumpster experiences. Destiny and April were passing through on their way to any adventure that should take them to the next place. I met Destiny at the Farmers Market actually. This dumpster run was a long time in the making. She was excited for it but it never really came together until a warm Thursday evening in late summer. As you can tell at the end of the night we came back with tons of bread, fruit, and root veggies. What a pleasure.

Homicide of Troy Davis

And the US "justice" system commits another homicide. This time Troy Davis was put to death after a denial of his appeal for a stay and a new trial. The crime was the 1989 shooting and killing of a police officer working security in Savannah, Georgia. Despite the fact that witnesses recanted parts and in some cases all of their testimony, the murder weapon never being recovered, and support of many international figures (like the pope and Jimmy Carter) to grant Davis clemency, the state of Georgia put him to death this evening. More disgraceful and disgusting is the fact that the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (passed after the Oklahoma City Bombing) barred Davis and all death row inmates from presenting evidence they did not present during their initial trial. The use of this law makes clemency extremely difficult. I suppose I really don't have much to say other than I'm bummed that the US keeps on making blatant attempts to let everyone see how racist and bullshit the Justice system is. I think my point is fully bolstered by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's comment on why he dissented to the Supreme Courts decision to make the Georgia courts review old facts and accept new evidence to make a new trial. He said he didn't want to because it was "a sure loser." Scalia is a dick. Troy Davis is dead.

Setpember 10th Plus 1 Plus 10 Years

The time has come, September 10th Plus 1 Plus 10 Years. It is the coming of age event for my generation. Other generations had Challenger, or JFK, or World War II and many others. However, my generation is marked by the fatalities of almost 3,000 people and the injury of over 6,000 and the subsequent wars that have cause the deaths and injury of many hundreds of thousands of people. Almost as important is the way the narrative of Islam was essentially stolen by who the majority of the Muslim world sees as criminals. It has been irreversibly stolen and will not be possible to mend until the events that occurred on September 10th Plus 1 Plus 10 Years fade into the consciousness of our national psyche and it becomes just another death toll for the history books like the Mongols vs. Everyone or Pearl Harbor. Every next generation feels the sting less and less.

There are two things that mark S10P1P10Y for me: The first is the excuse for bigotry and racism in this country and the second is my own personal narrative.

On Cyberpresse.ca (for all you French Speakers out there) there's an ongoing report going on where a journalist from Quebec is going around the world to important locations and running stories about how these places are affected 10 years later. She has stopped in New York, Murfreesboro, TN, Hamburg, Germany, Baghdad, Iraq, and will go to Kaboul, Afghanistan, Jakarta, Indonesia, and Inuvik, Canada. Trust me the TN story does not make the town 45 minutes from where I grew up look good. Between a woman who openly states that she's the number one opponent of a mosque being erected in the small Tennessee town while saying "We're not bad people" and showing reporters her 5-generation home's former slave quarters, a NY firefighter calling all Muslims evil, and a preacher who starts bashing the Koran and all of Islam for its shortcomings and questionable practices, you get the sense that many American folks are still scared shitless of people of color and especially anyone who could be Muslim.

I wonder why it is that our Norwegian christian homeboy Andres Breivik, who also openly stated his holy war, doesn't catch a shit-ton of flack for christians every where. No no, instead he is seen as a psycho and all christians especially those media people are quick to dismiss him and keep christianity clean. As if the bible doesn't say any whacky shit in it...oh wait. I mean the guy openly encouraged people to "embrace martyrdom" in his online manifesto! In his words, "100% Christian." Why is it that we don't run for the hills every time we see one? Oh right...Brevik was white so he's just a nut job, but those guys who carried out the attacks were totally sane, right?

To change gears from snarky to serious for the end of this one, I'm going to talk about what my personal S10P1P10Y narrative is. The truth is, I missed out on this generational coming of age event. I was in transit to Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina on a bus with a number of my classmates and some teachers. Nobody had cellphones at that time except for one teacher and they only referenced it in passing. People in the bus speculated as to what was going on, but unlike the majority of people in the country we did not sit glued to the TV all day and night for the next few days. Instead we canoed, camped, white water rafter, and learned about wilderness survival. We came back on the 14th of September only to be told about what happened. As we came back, the flags in the area were all at half mast, and we saw our first images of the events that took place. As we went home our parents and friends brought us up to speed, but the images I saw made no sense to me. They seemed like surrealist imagery or individual moments of death. There was no aggregate, I wasn't watching live or saw thousands of replays of the second plane or people jumping or the buildings collapsing. To this day I look at the images and they really don't touch me the way they do others. I recognize the tragedy, but I honestly don't feel pain, sting, or anger. I believe I am fairly level-headed about the experience as a cause of it. My generation gasped in unison but I was under a rock somewhere and no gasp will have ever come. I'm glad I missed out, for me my generational tragedy is Katrina.