Newsblog
Thoughts and opinions on current events, WOC news, and other topical items.
02.05.10 - Where We're Headed
Some time ago, I mentioned that I would be sharing a relatively new (for me) way of looking at the world that I thought might be interesting to some of you. Well, here it is. Rather than attempt to explain anything about it here, I'll just let you follow the link and see what you think. Feedback welcome. --Posted by Joey 01.18.10 - Sick of being taken advantage of? Move your money.
Remember 2008? Remember how all those large financial institutions almost went down the tubes due to really, really inane business practices? Remember how they were deemed "too big to fail", and thus received a "bailout", which was really just a fancy way of saying that the taxpayers (you and me) would pay to keep those institutions in business? Yeah. Well, just over a year later, those same institutions are feelin' good, but instead of even thinking of returning the favor to us taxpayers, they're back to giving out obscene bonuses to their idiot leaders. After all, if they were so smart, they wouldn't have needed our help in the first place. A certain unnamed institution which with I currently bank has nine billion dollars to give out in bonuses this year. Arbitrarily assuming they control 10% of the personal money market, if they were to split up those bonuses among their personal account holders, I'd be seeing a $400 deposit in my account. That would be a nice thank you token, right? Heh... when pigs fly. So instead of getting too bent out of shape about this, I've decided I'm just going to move my money to a local bank. After all, I've always kept my meager savings in a local bank, up until about two years ago, when my frequent travel (for work) made it quite difficult to use a local bank. But I don't care about that nearly as much as I care about being taken advantage of, no matter how impersonally, so once we move to Santa Barbara, my current bank will lose my business. Just by happenstance, after I had decided on this, I stumbled upon a site called Move Your Money, which is dedicated to this very idea - encouraging the public to, en masse, remove their money from large financial institutions and place it in smaller, community-oriented banks and credit unions instead. They even have a "Find a Bank" feature, which uses your zip code to recommend small, responsible financial institutions in your area. Check them out. Finally, in case you're thinking that your account balance can't really matter in the grand scheme of things (after all, I deemed my savings "meager" above), consider the potential effect if many, many Americans did this same thing. If billions of dollars suddenly moved from large, overwrought institutions to smaller, community banks and credit unions, the large institutions would certainly have to get the message - "You're doing a poor job!" Let's all send it loud and clear. --Posted by Joey 01.13.10 - FireSpeaking - Natural builders on the West Coast
When we were in California for the holidays, we took a day trip up into the mountains past the Santa Ynez valley, about an hour away from Santa Barbara. Eleven miles or so off the highway, up almost to the top of Figueroa Mountain, lies Spirit Pine Ranch, a small community of people interested in natural building, organic farming, and the like. Two of the folks we met, Max and Eva, run a natural building business, which they call FireSpeaking. You can check it out at www.firespeaking.com - they have done work in many places in the western hemisphere, including the West Coast and Argentina. The above picture is of an oven they constructed at Riverfront Farm in Spokane, Washington. They're experienced with ovens, barns, houses, and many other types of structures. Check them out! --Posted by Joey 01.06.10 - A new decade, a new place
We're back in town after spending some time with Sandhya's family in California. It was a nice trip overall - the general pleasantries of being near family, on vacation, in a nice warm spot. I spent a lot of the trip thinking about our current world, humanity, and how things may or may not work out for us as a species. That's basically a pretentious-sounding and way-too-abbreviated way of saying that I was lost in my own head for a good amount of time; I also was trying to reconcile the necessities of living in this modern world with the life-long ideals I hold. My ideals say I should be able to be happy and productive almost anywhere, but since returning from Europe last year, we've been searching for what's next, unhappy with Colorado Springs for several reasons and trying to decide on a course of action. Over the past four months, we've looked seriously at Asheville, NC, Durango, CO, and my hometown of Madison, IN, which almost worked out but in the end didn't. Santa Barbara, CA, never entered our minds as a possible place to live - too many people, too many cars, too California. But a series of unexpected events and thought processes during our recent trip led to a snap decision to move to Sandhya's hometown and take a shot at living there. Her family is there, it is beautiful, and there are cyclists everywhere. We needed to leave the Springs and somehow it just worked out. It's a new decade (I know there are 2011 sticklers out there, but 2010 does it for me), and while I usually disregard such arbitrary distinctions, the almost-inevitable self-reflection process that comes at such times has placed me in a slightly different way of thinking. I'll be writing more about the thought process and what I think it means in the near future. Soon we'll be in Santa Barbara. For better or worse, I'm sure we'll still be plugging away at trying to change the world, even if it is just in our small day-to-day way; hopefully we'll be able to continue some of our community programs in SB. I wish everyone a great 2010 and encourage everyone to do what they can within the confines of their life's framework! --Posted by Joey Newsblog Archives: 2009
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