Deja-Vu Recycling

I've noticed that everything is beginning to look the same.  The whole world seems to be growing increasingly generic.  Is there no originality left?  Or is it that items which are at first unique, are copied over and and over until they become commonplace?

 

Or....is it me?

I'm all for recycling items to prevent waste, but some things can only be repeated so many times before they become insipid.  I work at a library, so of course one of the first things I noticed was book covers.  Pick a theme - any theme- and I'll show you a jillion copies of the same thing.

Take the original book cover for Twilight by Stephenie Meyers for instance:

 

The popularity of this series has spawned endless copy-cats. This theme is used to sell new books as well as revamping (pun intended) the look of older classics.

 

It's even used to sell products and services.

 

 

But, wait a minute...did this theme really originate with Twilight?

 

 

Pick another book cover theme...

 

BUTTERFLIES

 Girls in Beautiful Dresses

 EYES!!!

Doesn't matter what book cover you choose, there are a thousand others that look virtually the same.

 

 

Everything is similar.  Look at these new cars. 

Can you tell the BMW from the Honda from the Mercedes from the Subaru?

 

Hard to do, isn't it?  Now look at the cars from the 50's below.

 

You may not know which is which, but you can tell a Ford from a Maserati from a Chevy from a Lincoln from a Cadillac.

We weren't so bland back then.

We eat the same things too - and at the same places.

 

The Five Major Food Groups seem to be Burgers, Chicken, Sandwiches, Donuts and Pizza.

 

Where do we go to eat them?

Burgers:  Burger King, McDonalds, Hardees, Wendys

Chicken:  KFC, Chick-Fil-A, Bojangles, Popeyes, Churchs

Sandwiches:  Arbys, Subway, Blimpie, Quiznos, Jersey Mikes, 5 Guy   

Donuts:  Dunkin Donuts or Krispy Kreme

Pizza:  Dominoes, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns

 

Someone comes up with a sucessful business model and it is copied endlessly.

 Our neighborhoods all look the same.

Notice how much the site map looks like a computer circuit board?

 

We work in the same places, doing the same things.

We wear the same clothes.

 

 

 

 

 

 I want to be around individuals

who are not afraid to be themselves.

Who live an independent life.

Who can provide for themselves.

Who take pride in their abilities.

Who can express themselves creatively.

Whatever else you are, you are unique.

Don't blend in.

 

BOOKS AVAILABLE AT CHESAPEAKE PUBLIC LIBRARIES - Click Links Below

Green Equilbrium: The Vital Balance of Humans and Nature by Wills, Christopher

Tree of Life: The Incredible Biodiversity of Life on Earth by Strauss, Rochelle

Front Cover: Great Book Jackets and Cover Design by Powers Alan
 

Hottest Muscle Cars by Woods, Bob

The Visual dictionary of Cars by Dorling Kindersley

Guide to Wild Foods and Useful Plants by Nyerges, Christopher

    

Dangerous Garden: The Quest for Plants to Change our Lives by Stuart, David C

 

Design and Landscape for People: New Approaches to Renewal by Cumberlidge, Clare

 

Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream by Duany, Andres

 

Living Large: From SUV's to Double D's, Why Going Bigger isn't Going Better by Wexler, Sarah Z.

 

Unbuilding: Salvaging the Architectural Treasures of Unwanted Houses by Falk, Robert H.

                      

Junk Jewelry: 25 Extraordinary designs to Create from Ordinary Objects by Elershaw, Jane

 

Sewing with Fabulous Vintage Fabrics by Franklin, Arden 

 



 

 

 

 

The Garden of Earthly Delights

When I was young, we lived in Texas next door to my Mammaw.  She had a pasture behind her house with cows and a chicken coop in her back yard.  On the other side of us was our neighbors big "truck garden".  They raised vegetables to sell.  My sister and I played with the little boy who lived there and we would cut through the rows of tall corn going back and forth between our houses. It was a wonderful, comforting childhood.

When my father's job transferred us to the desert of Utah, where he worked at a lab that made rocket fuel for NASA, I thought we’d left all that behind.  But, I was wrong.

In Utah’s tightly cloistered community of ranchers, there was no housing available for the influx of "outsiders" that invaded their turf, so we had to live in a trailer court for awhile - where my Mother planted rows and rows of tall zinnias in our dirt "yard".   It's still my favorite flower!

Farmers there grew crops of hay and sugar beets. Ranchers raised cows and sheep and the mountainsides were covered with fruit orchards.  In the summer, girls earned spending money by picking cherries while boys baled hay. 

Later, when we got our own place, my Mother would escape into her vegetable garden as soon as she got off work and supper was done.  We didn't bother her when she was out there plucking weeds and hoeing. When it became too dark to see, she would come in bringing a couple of tomatoes or some squash. 

On Saturdays, we rode our bikes along the dirt road to the cemetery armed with a paper grocery bag to fill with wild asparagus that grew along the sides of the irrigation ditches. When we came home, my Mother would steam it and serve it with a squeeze from a lemon. 

In those days everyone could connect their food to the land.  Our eggs were delivered in big cardboard canisters by Mr. Bott and our milk came from a local Dairy. Fresh vegetables could be bought from Leona Yagi. We canned peaches from Nielson’s Fruit Stand. Old Mrs. Bisek paid the neighborhood kids 25 cents a pail for dandelions that she turned into wine – which she would later give as gifts to our parents at Christmas.  Summer in a jar! 

Everyone rented a meat locker in town. It worked like this: Families would purchase a cow or pig  (sometimes sheep) from a farmer and it would be butchered for you. They’d cut it up any way you wanted- chops, roasts or ground up.  Then you stored the meat in your locker along with any deer or ducks you’d shot during season, or any fish you’d caught. Once a week Dad would go to the meat locker and pick up whatever Mother had written out on a list for cooking. We all knew where our food came from. 

Our Mother worked and so we ate store-bought bread, but the majority of our Mormon neighbor ladies baked their own.  In the summer, we used to hang around Bartley Hansen’s house on baking day so we could watch his mother slide pans of fresh bread out of the oven. The smell was heavenly! She would cut up a hot loaf, smear it with butter and use it to chase the kids outside. I envied him at school as he bit into his homemade sandwiches while I “suffered” through a purchased “hot lunch”.

Decades later, when my husband and I bought our place here in Virginia, we planted a garden every year.  It was so much fun to watch the plants come up and see our daughter toddling about with her little bare feet and straw hat “helping” us.  It was another Eden.

Once, while I was busy fixing supper, I sent my 4 year old outside with a basket and instructions to pick 2 cucumbers and some cherry tomatoes.  When some time had passed and she hadn’t returned, I went out to the garden to see what had happened.  I found her leaning against the garden bench chewing a tremendous mouthful of cherry tomatoes.  In her basket was one lone cucumber with several bites taken out of it corncob-style.  Somewhere along the way she had forgotten her purpose was to gather and simply began to eat.

I could never get enough peas together to make a pot because she at them raw.  Same way with the strawberries! But, who could blame her? One year we planted a wheelbarrow full of pumpkins, another year a row of cotton, and the next a patch of peanuts just to see it. We grew old favorites like tomatoes and squash and discovered new ones like kale and peppers.  I planted Zinnias for color and Sweet Basil for smell.  We fostered huge stripped caterpillars on the parsley and provided soft ground for turtles to lay eggs.  Birds loved our Sunflowers.

I’m hoping that all these beautiful memories of gardens and people and community (though my own memories and not yours) will entice you into wanting to be a part of something similar with Central Library’s Bookworm Garden project.

You may recall our big planting day at Central last October with volunteers from the Master Gardeners as well as other individuals? 

We got the shrubs in, planted some vegetables and herbs on the back patio and were able to have some gardening programs for the children.  Since then we’ve had some mulch and woodchips delivered, and we have a group of Boy Scouts coming in to work on some building projects with us.  We also have some Book Garden signposts being made by a volunteer.

What we need is for interested groups to come in and “adopt” a portion of the garden to claim as their own – planting and maintaining vegetables, herbs and flowers. From this we hope to develop relationships that will allow us to sponsor some garden-related programs and activities for patrons.

Surely, there are many talented people out there who love nature and are interested in bees, butterflies and birds as well as plants and flowers – and who wouldn’t mind sharing their expertise!  If you have any thoughts along those lines, please don’t hesitate to call (757) 410-7121 or email adyer@infopeake.org

Thanks!

I'll be dipped!

Last Summer we repurposed some wooden pallets from the library's loading dock and turned them into vertical gardens behind the Children's Department.

 

Since that time I have seen thousands of projects using recycled pallets.  Who knew?

 

 

It's amazing the creativity that some people have.  When I think of recycling, reusing or repurposing something it is usually something along a much simpler line.  Like this from Mindfully Frugal:

Instead of buying expensive disposable paper cleaning pads for the Swifter, just use old cloth diapers soaked in a little soap and water - throw them in the washer when you are through and reuse. Of course I'm even more frugal...I don't buy the Swifter.  I just get down on my hands and knees and scrub the floor with a bucket of soapy water and an old rag. 

 

I've noticed a another repurpose "fad" having to do with cans.  When I was coming up we recycled cans in three ways.

1. We used them to cut out biscuits (or sugar cookies).

2.  We used them as stilts we called "Tom Walkers" - I don't know why we called them that.

3. We used them - along with a gob of Dippity-Do Gel - to curl our hair.

Now, however, people are doing all kinds of crazy things with cans.  Again, who knew?

Starting at the top left and working my way across each row : 

 

Okay, cans as planters isn't a new discovery and I can see how it might be practical to start a plant in one.  Once the plant was thriving, I'd want a pretty clay pot though.

Cans screwed into a piece of plywood and used for storing cooking utensils...I'm not liking. However, I use a big ceramic cookie jar with no lid that just sits on the counter by the stove - so what do I know?

Cans for a kids bowling game? well, kid crafts are usually pretty tacky anyway so who cares.

Painted cans used as planters pegged to a brick wall might be alright if you didn't have the yard space.

Empty - what? paint cans? - used as a chandlier....oh, good Lord.

Painted tin cans bound together with fabric and used as a pencil caddy...not practical because the fabric would eventually become undone and you'd have cans scattered everywhere.

Painted cans as candle holders?  Kinda pretty, but how hot is that tin can going to be if you light the candle?

Soda and beer cans turned into bracelets?  Cool .....if you are eleven years old!

Tin can lids used as wall covering?   Do you WANT people to know just how bad your cooking is?
You'd be telling the world "I only eat out of cans!" This is not to mention the safety factor.  How nasty do you think you'd be cut if you tripped over your little dog and fell into the wall?

 

Now I'm going to show you 4 can projects I don't want you to ever do.  Seriously.  Because if you do, then everyone will know that you have waaaaayyyyy too much free time and they will start asking you to volunteer on fundraising committees or to chair your civic league. You will thank me for this.

 

1.  Knitting or crocheting a cover for a tin can.  Even if you are just cutting off the sleeve of an old sweater you already own and are wrapping it around the tin can - it's too much.

2. Taking an empty tuna can and sticking wooden clothespins on it and then planting grass seed in it.
Really?  By the way, what is it with all this planting of grass seed too?  What about a flower?

3.  They are selling this painted tin can on Etsy for $6.25  ....but wait don't buy it because

you can get FOUR of them for $23.00 .....a savings of $2.00! 
Somebody has hit upon a money-maker!  Are there really are enough foolish people out there who would pay that much money for a painted tin can that someone else ate beans out of.  Please tell me NO.

And finally this ...

That's right, a dipped can.  Everybody is dipping everything.  I say if you dip it, why not just go ahead and paint the whole thing.  Dipped - to me - just looks unfinished.

So go ahead and dip your wooden spoons, your teacups, your hair, salad bowls, dressers, planters, shoes, chairs, wedding dresses, candle holders, necklaces and every big block of raw wood you find.  The only thing that can be improved by dipping is strawberries in chocolate!

Finally, the last part of my rant about repurposing fads is MASON JARS.  Mason jars were invented to hold and store food.  (If you want to make a shelf out of a pallet, go ahead.)

 

Once the food is eaten from jar, you can wash it and drink from it too.  And that's alright.

 

 I've had many a glass of ice tea or lemonade from a Mason Jar --- and YES something stronger as well.

 

If you want to pay $8.00 on Etsy for a mason jar that has been wrapped with a strip of burlap that's been stamped with a pink heart -go ahead- just don't let me see it. 

 

If you want to put your buttons in a jar and make a little padded pincushion on the lid that's kind of cute and I can see where that might work on a shelf next to your sewing machine. 

 

The soap dispenser is silly though - why not just refill the plastic one you already have.  It won't break on the tile floor.

 

Why waste your time dipping mason jars in metallic paint to stick your flowers in...just use a tin can. (see above)

 

Lamps and Chandliers should be elegant.  Go ahead and use a jar for cut flowers or to plant a group of bulbs - a jar is like a vase. 

 

But really - besides food and drink - the only thing a mason jar is good for is to keep matches dry on a camping trip.

 

 

NO, IT'S NOT!!!



Who would do this



 



When you could do this?

                             

 

 There ARE some things that should not be recycled, repurposed or reused.  Just throw it away.

 

From Regretsy Website


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For me, nothing escapes being a paper weight at least once.
 THANK YOU!

 

 

 





 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Evolutionary, my dear Watson!

Most people think "evolution" means the same thing as "progress.  It is even defined that way in the thesarurus - listed with other synonyms like "growth" and "advancement". 

 

However, evolution is NOT a process where species improve themselves.

Evolution is simply an indication that something has changed.

Something somewhere went terribly wrong!
 



With a world as diverse as ours, it would be odd if change didn't occur. In fact, change is inevitable! Nothing stays the same. When something new evolves, it is always built out of old parts. Nature recycles. However, when we change the old forms just a little bit, they may suddenly develop into something entirely unexpected.

" Change is at the very core of evolution and without it,

all creatures would look alike and behave in the same way."  Martin Dansky

 
In medieval times the nobility had large hunting reserves set aside for them. No one else could use the land or build on it.  This policy had the unexpected benefit of preserving these green spaces throughout England and Europe for us today. This is good.

However, an unexpected drawback happened when rabbits were first brought to Australia and New Zealand for food. The rabbit population grew so large that it became a major uncontrollable pest.

"Species evolve exactly as if they were adapting as best they could to a changing world,

and not at all as if they were moving toward a set goal."  George Gaylord Simpson

We are all bound to each other in a million ways. The food we eat is really just Earth, Water and Sun mixed for us by the plants that grow here.  Think about that!  Everything that lives on this planet - animal or plant - is related. We are all siblings descended from that first dividing cell. Therefore, what happens in one place, will have consequences in another.  

Change in one thing leads to change in another.

In science, this is called the Chaos Theory.  It says that when a butterfly moves its wings somewhere in the world, it can cause a tornado in another part of the world!  Or more simply put, that it is the seemingly insignificant moments that alter history and shape the future. And, we aren't always able to predict what will happen!

A road less traveled?

Flash flooding and seasonal droughts are an unintended consequence of people draining or filling in wetlands to plant crops. Wetlands are needed for water purification, flood control, and shoreline stability. Wetlands are a home for a wide range of plant and animal life. We need to protect them. People didn't always understand the importance of swamps and believed that filling them in made "unproductive land" usable.

Thanks to http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Wetlands

Even when we are actively trying to do something good, there may be unintended consequences. Such as, when the French government offered money for ghost nets (nets that have been left or lost by fishermen) in order to help save wildlife, the result was people began to vandalize the nets to collect the reward - creating a problem where none had existed before.

 

"Today, the theory of evolution is an accepted fact for everyone but a fundamentalist minority,

whose objections are based not on reasoning but on doctrinaire adherence to religious principles." James Watson

Humans are always looking for just such "Cause and Effect" type of answers to solve their problems. But, sometimes the problems are just too complex - and no matter what we do or don't do, we can't seem to win!


This is known as a "Revelance Paradox".  It happens whenever we gather information in order to make a good decision, but our choice fails because we also excluded other crucial facts that we thought were irrelevant or unnecessary at the time.

 

In other words, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.



 To help us figure out what to do, I've listed some "Laws" below as a guide:

 

Murphy’s Law – Anything that can go wrong, will—at the worst possible moment.

Hanlon's Razor - Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Hofstadter's Law - It always takes longer than you expect. (Even when you take Hofstadter's Law into account.)

Hindsight Bias - The inclination to see events that have already occurred as being more predictable than they were before they took place. (I KNEW that was going to happen!)
 

Parkinson's Law - Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. (Subcontractors know this one.)

Segal's Law - A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.

(It refers to the potential pitfalls of having too much conflicting information when making a decision.)

Sod’s Law - Bad fortune will be tailored to the individual. (Example: Ludwig van Beethoven's loss of hearing)

Sod's Other Law - The degree of failure is in direct proportion to the effort expended and to the need for success. (Ain't this the truth?)

Cope’s Rule – Population lineages tend to increase in body size over evolutionary time. (WHY I'M FAT EXPLAINED?)

Dollo's Law – An organism is unable to return, even partially, to a previous stage already realized in the ranks of its ancestors." (Evolution is not reversible.)

Herblock's Law – If it's good, they'll stop making it. (Twinkies!)

Humphrey's Law – Conscious attention to a task normally performed automatically can impair its performance. (Driving the speed limit when a Police car is directly behind you.)

Kranzberg's First Law of Technology – Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral. (Okay, I give up - what the hell is it?)

Muphry's Law – If you write anything criticizing, editing or proofreading another, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written. (Hence the "mispelling" of Murphy's Law)

Shirky Principle – Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.

All of this leads us to the most profound law of all:  Sturgeon's Law –which states that 

" Ninety percent of everything is crud."

 

Amazed by and unable to explain both the universality of the genetic code, and the narrow window of time between the date the Earth cooled enough to be inhabited and life first appeared, Dr. Crick proposed his theory of "Directed Panspermia" - the idea that Earth may have been seeded with life by a rocketship from another planet.

Life is full of surprises. We must expect the unexpected.

Francis Crick

 

However we got here, this we know for certain: We eat from the Earth, we drink water from its rain, and we breathe in its air. We need to take care of Earth. All Earth things live in us and we live in all things on Earth. You can't get more connected than that.

 "The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood,

the carbon in our apple pies, were all made in the interiors of collapsing stars.

We are made of starstuff.”   Carl Sagan