I could become successful if I set my mind to this in the next few months. But my spirit is broken. I’m more depressed than I’ve ever been. But I always say that. This time is weird though. I physically feel weaker than ever. I feel sick. My body tingles. I’ve been wanting to just smoke weed or drink. Want cigarettes. For the first time I thought about trying mushrooms for the experience. Last night at 3am I drank Nyquil so I would sleep good. But I feel so weak and unmotivated. I’m in my childhood room and I’m grown up now. Its awkward. Haven’t seen friends in days and I’m kind of ok with that. I feel so awful. Yesterday I was excited for 2012 and now the appeal’s worn off. Something’s wrong with my body, I can hardly feel it.

I should start working out. Endorphins are powerful I’ve heard.

-Nick

Keith is simply a messenger using his news program to share Occupy Wall Street’s message across the United States and around the world.  Occupy’s message simply explains how the people and the Earth are being exploited by the richest 1% of Americans.  There are corrupt processes going on across business and government that are unfair and destructive to the American people.  I’m glad this was said on national TV.  Keith Olbermann has always been my guy; he says what is right and he has no financial stake in what he reports.  He seeks truth, justice and equal opportunity and I appreciate that he reports on Occupy so diligently.

Earlier today I also heard this song on Radio Milwaukee 88Nine.  It seemed to represent a personal American perspective that many of us can relate to.

It’s upsetting that so many of us “barely get by”.  People are unemployed and on food stamps, just trying to survive in America but the stress constantly builds.  We work more than ever and are forced to be consumers to support an unrealistic standard of living and our leisure time is spent watching TV or drinking to forget about our shitty jobs.  In my last post there’s a picture of a baby with a sign that says “Slavery?” and sometimes it makes me wonder if today’s capitalist/consumer society has become a form of slavery.  We have to work to buy and we have to buy to live.  And I guess it just upsets me that some people don’t notice these things.  Many Americans don’t think anything is wrong.

Here in America, people value opinions.  Each of us thinks we deserve one, and we often disagree with each others.  I’m not sure why it’s a political issue whether to take care of each other or not.  An advanced society would systematically and scientifically support all the worlds’ people.  But humans are greedy.  I heard the philosophical question recently: Is the human race is able to be humane?  I think that addressing the power-hungry American capitalist-consumer society is a start but we really have to make some intellectual and humanistic advances as a people if we want to continue to exist peacefully and prosperously on this planet.  We will certainly deplete our planet’s natural resources or divide into class warfare if American greed does not slow.  It starts on Wall Street.  It starts by occupying public space to get attention.  The coverage starts to pose the important questions and the 1% will have to acknowledge a financially suffering American people.  This message on Keith Olbermann’s show is an important clip and a hopefully Americans will try this perspective.

There’s a lot going on out there,

-Nicky D

Occupy Milwaukee protest on the North Ave bridge

I have been enthusiastically following the Occupy movement since they started about 2 months ago.  It is written in our constitution that we not only have the right to assemble and protest, but we MUST whenever we feel our government doesn’t represent the people.  I think that’s why Occupy Wall Street has taken off like it did.  Many of us don’t like government anymore, Democrats, Republicans and the majority of Americans who don’t chose either side.  I have friends who don’t vote simply because they don’t like the game of politics even though they might have interests that align with a certain candidate.  I also think people’s dissatisfaction with government has come from the recent housing bubble, financial crisis and following recession, congress’s lack of action to do ANYTHING helpful to society.  It’s simply ineffective.

We Occupiers are particularly upset that capitalism has corrupted our government and affected our lives because corporations have been influencing political policy.  The wealth gap in America has grown bigger than ever before and the Middle Class is disappearing.  We can’t just sit there while we become two Americas, the rich, prosperous, powerful 1%, and the poor, unhappy 99%. We realized that 99% of Americans, united against the exploitative 1% have the real grassroots power.  I feel the Occupy Movement is important and sophisticated in its ideals and dreams of a better America.  Maybe unrealistically so, but it is a movement I want to support.

This is why I got excited when my local branch, Occupy Milwaukee organized a second movement.  Back on November 17th, I participated in Occupy Milwaukee’s take over of the North Ave bridge over I-43.  This was the National Day of action and the Occupation was organized to show support for Obama’s Jobs Bill to help America’s unemployment rate and economy.  It would specifically create Infrastructure Jobs so we can repair America’s outdated highways.  The action was not outside of a bank or at the heart of Downtown Milwaukee, it was on a bridge over a highway.  We all had the Occupy spirit but aimed to direct it in a positive message for an achievable goal.

Here are some pictures my girlfriend Alison took that afternoon:

March

Me with a fellow Occupier

Everyone was enthusiastic

Even this baby is sick of unregulated capitalism

This drum line provided a bunch of grooves

As the sun began to fade, this young poet spoke out about unequal oppurtunity

It was really cold that day, but I was really excited to be there.  We all hung out together supporting an initiative to help the economy.  All of us want to be more comfortable in America and financially stable; especially us college kids.  One of the kids there had a sign that said his future was robbed from him.  And I agree.  College kids have tons of debts to pay off when we get out of school.  Our immediate future will be spent paying back tens of thousands of dollars of loans.  So many things that are out of my control in America really get me down, but that’s why it was important for me to get out on the North Bridge and participate in Occupy, a true humanitarian, egalitarian grassroots movement.

Some of the Occupiers sat down on the bridge, ready to get arrested.  The police were present but didn’t make any arrests.  Luckily they just wanted to make sure everyone was safe and that the situation was under control.  This is what the police chief had to say about the event:

http://soundcloud.com/justin-cleveland/milwaukee-police-chief-on

While he had valid points as a police officer, he seemed pretty mad that we were bothering the people in the neighborhood.  He justified his statements saying “There’s 35% unemployment in this neighborhood, who are they disrupting?” but those 35% of unemployed people were probably with us on the bridge protesting!  We were on the bridge to support the infrastructure Jobs Bill that was being passed around congress.  Also it was the National Day of Action.  Occupy Milwaukee gathered there to get attention and that’s what happened.  We were successful.  I felt good that I was actually on the ground participating in Occupy, something that I strongly believe in.

-Nicky D

Growing Power Storefront (Google Images: Photobucket.com)

There it is.  That’s Growing Power.  Humble yeah?

Located in North Milwaukee on Silver Spring Rd. in what has been classified as a “Food Desert” where there are little fresh produce options, Growing Power’s Community Food Center is an extraordinary urban farm and sustainable food market for fresh vegetables.  Hosting thousands of volunteers every year, the organization aims to teach young adults and adults alike about ecosystems, composting, and the importance of sustainable food resources.  Their mission statement reflects a simple goal: “To grow food, to grow minds, to grow a community.”

I’m Nick Donalds, a sophomore at UWM studying Interdisciplinary Arts ad Technology at Peck School of the Arts.  I was excited to volunteer here for my service learning component of Introduction to Conservation and Environmental Science 210.  I was learning so much already about a whole host of relevant subjects in class and in the book Principles of Environmental Science.  Chapter 7: “Food and Agriculture” describes sustainable agriculture as environmentally-safe alternatives to producing agriculture as opposed to the synthetic fertilizing and industrialization of agriculture.  Sustainability is key for our future; that we can continue to grow crops with little to no harm to the environment.  The end of the chapter also stresses the importance of being a “locavore” and buying locally produced food.  This is also part of eating low on the food chain because your food has minimal transportation involved so minimal energy was needed to get that food into your hands.  The meat and processed food industries however, seem to be high on the food chain and have a disastrous ecological toll.  All of this in Chapter 7 is directly relevant to Growing Power, a local sustainable food market.

It was the brainchild of Will Allen.  A former basketball player and successful marketer, he purchased a foreclosed plant nursery in Northern Milwaukee that became Growing Power.  He also purchased a 100-acre farm in Oak Creek that is Growing Power’s second site.  The organization has expanded to a third location in Chicago run by his daughter Erika.  This is Will:

When I first showed up on a warm Saturday for a 30 minute orientation in late October, I got to experience exactly what I thought I would.  After a short introduction we started our tour.  After checking out the pea shoots in the first greenhouse (I’ll talk about those more soon) we were introduced to their vertical aquaponic system.  A canal dug into the ground is home too many fish including Yellow Perch (a population that has decreased in Lake Michigan 80 percent since 1990) and  African Tilapia (growingpower.org/aquaponics).  The fish are farmed and sold to chefs.  Right above the fish is a shelving unit made of wood that holds various plants.  A pump in the fish canal pumps their dirty waste water up and into the plants so they can get special nutrients like nitrogen.  The system represents a Symbiotic relationship as identified in Ch. 3 “Evolution, Species Interactions, and Biological Communities”.  The fish’s waste help fertilize the plants and the plants filter out the waste so clean, habitable water can re-enter the fish canal.  Maybe Jordan Stone can give you a visual of aquaponics.

I then saw a few more greenhouses with different vegetables growing.  The guide also pointed out that the gigantic piles of dirt all around the outside area of the farm was mostly composted soil.  I just remembered being absolutely impressed with all that was going on.  There were volunteers and staffers working together and they all seemed to know what they were doing.

I was surprised at the variety of projects they had going on in such a small space.  I wasn’t expecting livestock at Growing Power, but at the back of the farm they had goats!  They raise goats for their milk.  I also saw their turkeys which are apparently being kept as pets?  Maybe they lied to me to spare my feelings.  To top things off, they also keep bees.  Luckily they keep them way in the back corner of the farm so workers can feel safe.  The bees are crucial for pollination, workers also collect their honey (150 lbs a year), and at the Chicago location, beeswax is gathered to make lip balm, soap, scrubs, and candles.

About 2 weeks later I came back to volunteer.  Geared up in work clothes and hiking boots and gloves, I was ready to get dirty.  I met with a delightful staffer named Chris who put me to work emptying trays of harvested pea shoots into a wheelbarrow to take back to a greenhouse where I would compost the remaining shoot-roots/dirt.  Here’s a picture of the shoots:

GP produces about 200 trays a day.  They sprout up and when they grow their leaves, they are harvested (cut off from their stems).  The rest is composted.  It’s a simple process but its a ton of work.  This is one of the main jobs volunteers handle.

The mixed up dirt and pea shoot remains sits in a large container where it gets plenty of oxygen to help it break down.  As I learned in Chapter 13: “Solid and Hazardous Waste”, composting is an excellent way of reusing the Earth’s organic waste to make a nutrient rich soil.  In fact, composting is a huge part of Growing Power.  Everything is planted with composted soil and when it is harvested, it can all go back into the compost-soil pile.  It is part of a cycle.  Everything in nature tends to work in cycles.

Growing Power also has a famous Vermicompost, or Worm Compost area.  There are many worms in this section of compost that help break down food waste in the soil and essentially poop out extra nutrients.  Worms provide an essential service for the soil.  This can also be seen as an example of Symbiosis as well, where the compost helps the worms, and the worms help the compost.  A source for much of the food waste here is the organic scraps from many local restaurants.  I thought this was one of the coolest parts about GP, is they partner with restaurants in the area to collect their food waste and compost it.  (Another one of my volunteer jobs on a different day was to clean the restaurants’ compost buckets so they could return back to the kitchen.  Not so much fun).

And I went, cheerily about my business, composting away.  I got some great exercise doing all that shoveling and carrying the wheelbarrow around.  I realized I kind of loved it there and would certainly keep volunteering even after this class is over.  I returned another day and helped plant Kale, a big project they do there before winter comes.  Kale is a very hardy plant and can grow throughout the winter months.  I’ll certainly be back there very soon since I have enjoyed my experience there so much.

Kale (Google Images: Blogspot.com)

Growing Power has been acclaimed and recognized nationally for a reason.  It’s that, while GP is not only an urban farm, it is integrated with the community to have a very positive impact.  It provides a message that we can not only feed people who need food, we can provide healthy options, especially when this nation is in the midst of a major health/obesity crisis that doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.  And hey, it’ll help the environment as well.

We depend on the environment.  I wouldn’t call our relationship with the environment symbiotic like the Growing Power’s vertical aquaponic system because the Earth’s environment doesn’t seem to “need” us around, but its similar.  We require plants’ oxygen to breathe and we need vegetables to live.  It’s like, in our constant development as an intellectual force, we forget we’re animals and we forget about where we came from.  As we deplete our natural resources, pump chemicals into the air, cut down trees and artificially feed ourselves, we compromise the safety and survival of our species and others.  Chapter 9: “Air: Climate and Pollution” is all about humans’ effect dramatically increasing the effects of global warming by burning fossil fuels on a mass scale (Transportation, Energy), causing the release of toxins like methane (Meat Industry, Landfills, Natural Gas), CFCs (Aerosols), and nitrogen oxide (Fertilizer).  With this in mind, it seems we’ve been neglectful.  To survive, we must change our destructive ways.  It will be our sole responsibility to not only live with nature, but to embrace it for the health of our species.

Growing Power shows us the humble, grounded future we should be striving for.  Hopefully it will serve as inspiration for more urban farms to pop up nationwide and more environmentally friendly ideas.  It is time for the common American people, politicians, and media to focus on sustainable food resources, diet, and the environment.  For a mass movement of urban farms to come into development giving people the option of fresh vegetables as opposed to meats and processed foods, we could tackle more than problem at a time.  Hopefully a local-sustainable food source initiative could provide healthy food for starving people in desolate climates.  We could save the world and help each other if follow Growing Power’s model.  They’re doing everything right.

“Hey I just woke up from a very vivid dream. You were there!

I joined your students in the Mahone band room to warm up before a band concert. Walked in and passed some kids kneeling on the floor pulling out their trombones from cases. I realized everyone was in their concert attire and I forgot mine! Typical haha. I didn’t stress it because I knew I would have time to drive home while the choir and orchestra played before us. So I pull out my instrument and sit down next to a small squirrely kid.

And you’re in the front talking to all of us before we rehearsed. You’re just as charming, funny, delightful and inspirational as ever. Like you had gotten even better with students since the 5 years I’ve been gone (which I didn’t think was possible). They loved you and you had us all laughing, I was convinced you were a stand up comedian you were so clever! Then you said something really inspirational and got us ready for the concert like it was the last concert we’d ever do. You continued to thank us all for being great and we all cheered. It was intense. I was smiling the whole time and then started to cry small tears of joy. Then I woke up.

You were one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. You care about your students so much. Not only their success but their growth as a good person. You made me feel like I could do anything and I appreciate that. I miss Mahone this morning. I would do 6th-8th grade over again. College is hard (:”

]]> http://fearless2def.wordpress.com/2011/11/20/521/feed/ 0 fearless2def http://fearless2def.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/unplug-and-rewind-our-lives-are-dramatically-different-than-the-ones-our-ancestors-lived-even-our-parents-generation/ http://fearless2def.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/unplug-and-rewind-our-lives-are-dramatically-different-than-the-ones-our-ancestors-lived-even-our-parents-generation/#comments Sat, 19 Nov 2011 04:29:01 +0000 fearless2def http://fearless2def.wordpress.com/?p=515 ]]> Today, kids my age, we just talk about things other people have done or made or said. We reference youtube videos, stand up comedians and movies. We ask each other if we’ve heard the newest songs and seen the latest tv-show. We don’t really do anything important or creative anymore. I asked my friend today if he would pick up trash with me at Downer Woods, something I think is a worthwhile venture and a character-building activity. He laughed in my face and continued playing his video game. Mind-numbing.

I’ve been feeling so alone. I want to sit and talk with someone deeply about things that aren’t pop-culture references. Or school. Or jobs. I want to sit and talk to someone about everything we usually aren’t talking to our friends about. Maybe toss ideas and discuss our period in history which is a phenomenal place and time. This could be the subject of a whole blog later.

This article got me thinking about Tea Houses. About the event of sitting across from another person to not only for tea, but for conversation. http://www.uqpu.net/teahouse/

I’ve been overwhelmingly lonely. And appropriately so, at a time when I’m gearing up to put out my album One of a Kind. The cover will be me standing in a white void. Sometimes I just feel I’m not anything like the people that I know. I realized I don’t even fit in with the band geeks and I refrain from calling myself one because that’s not my clique. I’m always thinking something deeper. And others are right on the surface. And it’s probably not good that I isolate. I’m probably doing it to myself. I apologize to people that have felt ignored by me, I truly don’t mean to do that. Depression is a hell of a state. I’m sure you’ve felt this way before.

Let’s go to that Tea House. I’d love to journey there, I really would. Or maybe we can just recreate that here in Wisconsin. Sit with me for tea and open your heart. Use your kindest words and speak freely. We’ll have a great time. Let’s not follow our fellows on their path into media-madness. Take a break once in a while. I think some of the kids my age might have a breakdown if they were stuck in a beautiful Tea House with another human being for a few hours. No phone and no computer. No music or TV. Forced to be respectful and speak slow. It’s interesting to me.

And you wonder why we watch Kung Fu flicks,

Nick

Waning Crescent – Third quarter – Waning Gibbous – Full Moon – Waxing Gibbous – First Quarter – Waxing Crescent

(I learned the trick “Light Right, Waxing” in High School Astronomy. A phenomenal class)

Sleep deprived state. I should be doing homework. I should be sleeping.

But I feel like writing. I fucking like it. My style is short sentences.

HAHAHA. I’ve been up to a lot recently but I won’t dive in to that at all. There’s a lot going on tomorrow. But I won’t go into that either.

I am interested in place and time. What I am doing at any given moment and, more importantly, where I am. Especially when I’m drunk or high. I’ll just sit there, often times in someone else’s bathroom and think, “Where the fuck am I? How did I get here in life? What has happened?” I’ll just look at my surroundings and feel completely out of place simply because it’s not familiar. But I mean, that’s not always the case; I’m not always drunk or high. Sometimes it’s walking up a desolate, industrial staircase to class or something. Just like, “What is this place and and why is it devoid of beauty?” It’s just a thought; consider it sometime.

Some of my favorite words are “Priorities”, “Influences” and “Circumstances”. Not at all because the last word looks like “Circumcision”, don’t be weird. I like what those words mean and how giant they are.

Priorities

I’ve thought about this as a tattoo word. I’m not even a tattoo guy, but I like it that much. Priorities are what get people to where they are. It decides everything from what they will do at any moment, to what they will do in their day, to what they will do in their lifetime. If your priority is to have fun, then you will take the steps to have fun as often as possible. And if your priority is to get a popular blog or an acclaimed mixtape, then you will network relentlessly and make it happen. But on the daily, if your priority is set out to watch a movie, get to class on time, or make a grilled cheese sandwich, then that, my friend, is your near future. Its simply a word describing how we manage our time and our goals. What we put first on our list in life.

Influences

I happen to be influenced by a lot of things. This is, admittedly, a troublesome and unavoidable character flaw. And I’m usually influenced negatively. And by saying I’m “easily influenced” can also be a cop out. An excuse to not take responsibility for myself. But I think we are all influenced all the time. By others. By what we see on the tele. And by god, consider music! Someone starts doing something new and then others are influenced and start doing similar work, building off of what was just made. Soon enough, you have a new genre and possibly, a subculture. Someone did the dubstep wub years ago, and now, it seems to be an unstoppable force. Everyone my age loves dubstep now. It’s become a thing. There are dubstep remixes up the butthole and tons of people are making them! All influencing each other. But yeah, influence is a big word. We (Me and certainly the children of today), need more positive influences. We need to inspire and build up each other. Be an inspiration to someone you know and love. That could be a tattoo-able. If only it weren’t so serious..

Circumstances

This word I don’t like as much. It’s a little limiting. People might be quick to use it to define where they’re at and use it as an excuse. “These are the circumstances that put me where I am. I’m depressed, from a bad area, I’m poor, my parents split up. This is my culture, these are my circumstances, don’t blame me for how I act.” Ya, I retract this from my list of interesting, conceptual words.

“Motherfucker I’m ill, not sick”,

Lil Wayne has a little brain (He has a staff of writers),

Nicky D.

for more lol http://www.quickmeme.com/Rasta-Science-Teacher/

I’m satisfied with what I’ve written :0