Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Book: The Big Questions by Lama Surya Das

this was a good book. it gave guidence on how to find your own answers to about 12 of life's biggest, most asked questions. from a Buddist perspective. i like the SELF GUIDED aspect of it. it doesnt come right out and give you the answer to any of the questions but rather aids in joggin your brain and thinking power in drawing your own answers. For example the question for chapter 9: How Can I Integrate Spirituality in to My Daily Life asks self evaluating questions

Monday, September 27, 2010

20 Steps To A More Natural Life

Adapted from The Druidry Handbook, by John Greer (Weiser Books 2006).

You can comfortably reshape your life using simple methods like these. They are logical, doable, inexpensive, and all together combine to help you live a life as a caretaker instead of as an exploiter of the earth. What better way to live?

1. If you have room for a garden, or can join a public garden, grow some of your own food using organic methods.

2. Buy organic, recycled and other Earth-friendly products instead of conventional ones, even when they cost more.

3. Set the heat 10 degrees cooler and the air conditioning 10 degrees warmer, replace high-wattage light bulbs with efficient ones, and make a habit of turning off anything that doesn’t actually need to be on.

4. Improve your home’s heat efficiency by adding insulation, installing insulated window coverings, weather-stripping doors, and putting gaskets behind electrical outlets.

5. Put flow restrictors on your faucets and showerhead to save water. If you can’t replace existing toilets with a low-flow version, place a half-gallon jug full of water in the toilet tank to reduce the amount used in each flush.

6. Never buy anything on impulse. If you think you want something, wait at least 24 hours and see if you still want it then.

7. Plant trees whenever and wherever you can, and tend and water them until they can survive on their own.

8. Take a hard look at the electric or gas-powered devices you own. How many could you replace with low-tech equivalents, or simply get rid of? Gather up any that can be replaced or discarded and donate them to charity.

9. Contact your local water, electricity, and heating fuel utilities to find out what conservation programs, rebates, and incentives they offer, and use of them.

10. Shop at a local farmers’ market or join a community-supported agriculture program.

11. Learn how to entertain yourself and your family and friends instead of letting an energy-wasting machine do it for you. Television and computer games are no substitute for life!

12. Instead of a grass lawn, landscape with plant species are native to your area. Local conservation groups can tell you which plants support native butterflies and birds.

13. Whenever you possible can, walk, bicycle, carpool, or take public transit instead of driving a car.

14. Replace chemical cleansers, laundry detergents, and garden compounds with natural or biodegradable equivalents.

15. Take care of as much of your everyday health care needs as you can using natural methods. Modern medicine is among the most wasteful and polluting of all industries.

16. Live as close as possible to work or school so that you minimize the time and energy wasted in commuting.

17. If you’re building a home, include as many Earth-friendly elements in its design and construction as you can.

18. Compost all your yard waste and vegetable kitchen scraps in a composter or worm bin, and return the compost to the soil.

19. Recycle everything you possibly can.

20. Donate old clothes, housewares, and appliances to charity, or find other uses for them instead of throwing them away.



Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/twenty-steps-to-a-more-natural-life.html##ixzz10ntFx2S9

BOOK: The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah

i started reading this book when i was in high school but a little less then halfway through it i put it down because of what i felt was too much profanity and sexual content. fast forward 8 or 9 years and the wool has been pulled from my eyes. i LOVED it. it REALLY isnt much cussing and sex.
of course i took the liberty of casting who i felt would play the roles well in the movie adaptation of the book. ill post that laater. i wont do a review on the NOVEL its self, i dont want to spoil the story for anyone. but i will speak on the interview questions and the character analysist by Souljah.In this section, a section seperate from the novel, Souljah really hit the nail on the haed with the discription of the life of her characters. Putting into perspective the life of african americans and what the positive African oposite would be.

I dont know....

y i dont keep better track of the books i have been reading lately. at least jotting down my feelings on them. i have read sooo many books. i keep my eyes open for good titles. the library has been such a refuge for me lately. i feel happier, lighter. idk, maybe its the book s combined with my change in eatting habits. but i like it. Praise be to Jehovah for blessing me with a level of peace. i promise u if i didnt get any i was gonna LITERALLY have a heart attack

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Watching Roots

last week at the library i got the dvd Queen by Alex Haley. i have always read about slavery and the civil rights movements ect....but reading about it never effected me as much as actually SEEING it. it has instilled a different kind of pride in me, a kind of pride that was'nt there growing up reading about slavery. it was there as i learned about the black kings and queen in the khemet and africa and i learned that africans were the first to have a CIVILization. it wasnt even there when our first black president was elected. dont get me wrong, there WAS pride...but nothing like THIS. although slavery in america was only such a SMALLLLLLL slither of our history, its still our history in THIS COUNTRY. this is what AMERICANS know as as, primarily. SLAVES who just happen to come up and get some rights during the Movement. ok, so i watch our beginning history in THIS country andi feel ashamed for not SHOWING my pride. iv said, done, and not done things that my ancestors would greatly frown upon.
since last week i have gotten the original Roots. i will follow with Roots: The Next Generation and Roots: The Gift

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Book: Dont Play In The Sun : one women's journey through the color complex

i read this book and i have to so much to say. i love reading and writting here lately. i have probably read more books in my lifetime then most people my age have seen. this habit has has greatly increased in the past few months. leaving me, not knowing what to do with the information and knowledge i am picking up. i love being self taught. but i feel like no one is benefitting from my knowledge. i want to talk about it, i want to have deep weekly discusions with people about issues. i want to go to forums,a dn sermons. i want to give speaches in front of crowds and have open ended discussions on matters i read about. on matter EVERYONE reads about. i want to go ploaces and be a activist. and read, and share, and change people's lives. i decided i would like to change my major to somethng that feels good to me, like womens studies, or african american studies. ill probably do women's studies. i want to help people and talk to them, counsel then. i want to volunteer and help people get through life.
i want to fast and be a vegetarian. a afro- christian activist. speaking of which i watcheda documentary by Pan- Africanist John Henrick Clarke the other day. it was wonderful. its about the history of africans in america. and how africans started civilization. civilization meaning people lving together in a civil enviroment. civil meaning PEACEFUL. there is nothing peacul about riding over and conquoring and snatching up OTHER people's land and people. Our African ancestors didnt do that.
speaking of african. the book i read is about a dark skinned women's journey through accepting her dark complexion. the women we are speaking about and author of the book is Marita Golden. i have never equated a person's complexion with thier beauty. i personally have always looked at a person's facial features and bone structure and determined rather or not i appreciated thier look. i believe this is greatly because of being raised a jehovah's witness. and living in a home with a mixed race marriage. i was never taught to see color. i partly believe this is ALSO because i was born and still am what many would consider light skinned. maybe my mother thought i dodged a bullet in that dpartment and didnt feel the NEED to discuss African color and beauty with me. my mother is dark skinned and beautiful, long hair, and those big ole black women hips coupled with the booty. she is, the epitome of what i feel a African women is and what i feel african beauty is. maybe she felt she escaped a lot of her dark skinned "woes" by having a light skinned daughter (i take after my father) and a white husband.i do remember hearing her say things that were not so favorable about her complexion. physically, my mother was
i on the other hand have always been "cursed" with the complete OPPOSITE. and whehn i say COMPLETE opposite...i mean COMPLETE. i was never black enough. i wasnt blessed enough to share in my mother's inherant "blackness". EVERY gene that my mother possessed for that juiciness that is physically everything a black women is...was somehow skipped by me. my light skinn, long hair, and proper speach was never shinned favorably upon. but y? how can there be such a STARK contrast in the black community, or yuj are either too black, or not black enough?