Wow, I just watched Imax Deep Sea, and it was awesome. I loved it, the ocean is so amazing to me. It didn't hurt that it was narrated by the uber sexy Johnny Depp, oh yeah and Kate Winslet, too. The soundtrack was right on track, and it was even a little funny (keep your eye out for the shrimp). If you have little kids please go rent this, even if you don't it's worth a look. (It's only 40 minutes long.) Although I have to say when my toes are dangling in the ocean off my board, I will be thinking very different thoughts from now on.

I stumbled upon this today, quite seperately, but it has relevance here in this litle post.

Let's not forget our natural resources.

Happy Earth Day!

Earth Day

Earth Day, finally a holiday we can get behind. To me Earth Day means to remember the planet that sustains us, remember that it can be used up, remember to be good to it so that future generations will also be able to enjoy what we do.

I have been doing a little reading, An Inconvenient Truth, to be exact. (Yes, I saw the movie, but I am one of those people who learn more by reading than by watching. I retain way more information that way.) Here are a few interesting facts that I gleaned from the book.

Fact #1- Global warming affects all aspects of the Earth, from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the ocean.
What this means is that not only are we warming our air, but we our warming our oceans and everything in between. This means that coral reefs are dying, which means ocean life will be dramatically effected. It means that the delicate balance of our ecological system will be drastically re-structured, for example: warmer weather means more mosquitoes, in more areas of the Earth, for longer periods of time. And finally because we are warming our air, all of our glaciers, and even our permafrost, (so named because we thought they would be around permanently) are melting. This will result in higher sea levels and the displacement of millions of people. (Including, but not limited to the whole bottom half of Florida)

Fact #2- There have always been changes like this on our Earth, but none have been at this drastic of a rate.
I believe in evolution, I also believe that it is inevitable. But do I believe that we should sit back and watch the world as we know it come to an end. No.

"An astonishing number of people go straight from denial to despair without pausing on the intermediate step of - We can do something about this."

-Al Gore

There were many interesting facts but I will leave it at three. Not to go all political on you, but in fact this has become not only a moral issue, but a political one as well.

Fact #3- Phillip Cooney. He was the chief of staff of the Environment Office, hired by George W. Bush in January 2001. His previous job for 6 years before being appointed, American Petroleum Institute lobbyist in charge of global warming disinformation. His qualifications to head the Environmental office for the U.S. you ask? None, "even though he had no scientific training whatsoever he was hired by the Bush administration to edit and censor the official assessments of global warming from the EPA and other parts of the government." What happened to him? He was ratted out nationally through the New York Times for "diligently editing out any mention of the dangers that global warming posed to the American people." He resigned due to embarrassment of the White House Administration, the very next day he went to work for Exxon Mobil.
I don't know what you want to make of your President, but it's no secret that he profits greatly from the confusion of the American people in regards to global warming. Now I know I said only three facts, but let me talk about one more thing.

I made mention above of Cooney's role as a lobbyist in charge of global warming disinformation. Al Gore relates this role to one we are all aware of now, the dangers and effects of nicotine. He goes on to state that there was a similiar group of lobbyists back in the day who tried to convince, confuse, and understate these effects to the American people. Sound familiar? So does this mean in another 50 years we will all get to sue Bush and his cohorts for the misleading information he is propagating concerning global warming. Or does it just mean that it will take us that long to react to this concern as well?

" The era of procrastination, of half measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences." -Winston Churchill, 1936.


In this age of reason, I find it atrocious that one could even think it beyond humans to cause the mass destruction that we have to our planet. The whole of the scientific community is in agreement as to what is causing this change to our environment no matter what facts our administration is distorting, .... it is us. We have a responsibility as a people to change our habits. We will be leaving this planet to our future generations and they will be inheriting nothing of worth. We as a country have recently shifted our attitudes and opinions towards the obesity crisis, we are doing as much damage to Earth as we are to our bodies. We might get ourselves back in shape, but it will do us no good if our planet's health is faltering. It is not a cliche , Earth Day is every day.

Teach: anyone and everyone about the harm we are causing.
Inspire: people by living your life "green"
Look Up: ways to become more active, it's as easy as a few keystrokes away
Pledge: to make one "green" change
Watch: An Inconvenient Truth, Who Killed the Electric Car?, and yes, even 300
and hopefully these movies will inspire you to be more than you already are, they did for me.



And for all your kiddies, if you haven't found the site already.

Books are rad.

Why we didn't celebrate Easter.....

so this year we did no egg dyeing, no chocolate bunnies, no baskets. (although my mother-in-law couldn't stand it and brought us a family basket last night, what are you gonna do, right?)
My kids asked me why we didn't celebrate Easter this year and here is the reason, it goes back to a little post about Xmas I did awhile ago.

We are not a religous family, we don't go to church, we do however have values.

Values that we, as a family, feel passionately about.

One of them is the keeping up with the Joneses philosophy.

In short the commercialism and consumerism of well, everything.

I say poll a child and see what the answer is when you ask them:

"What happens on Easter, Xmas, etc...?"

I'll bet that at least 75% would say something to the effect of "we get stuff"

And the other 25%, hopefully, will tell you their family values on the holidays.

(which are religous holidays)

and us not being religous, well where does that leave us?

that leaves us as hypocrites,right?

because really we are just celebrating getting stuff.

There was no real meaning behind the holiday for us.

and in light of the fact of this.....

Feb. 25, 2007 — New scientific evidence, including DNA analysis conducted at one of the world's foremost molecular genetics laboratories, as well as studies by leading scholars, suggests a 2,000-year-old Jerusalem tomb could have once held the remains of Jesus of Nazareth and his family.
The findings also suggest that Jesus and Mary Magdalene might have produced a son named Judah.
The DNA findings, alongside statistical conclusions made about the artifacts — originally excavated in 1980 — open a potentially significant chapter in Biblical archaeological history.

I mean really, even if I did hold a little bit of my Christian upbringing, what do I make of this?

I could argue the fact , as I'm sure many Christians will and have. I can even think of a few rebuttals myself, but the fact is I stopped believing in Christianity awhile ago.

My "religion" if you want to call it that,

has a lot to do with Mother Nature,

and giving back what you take, kharma, and all that.

Would that classify me as a wiccan?

who knows, I don't like labels, it is, what it is.

So in truth I told my kids pretty much what I've told you,

that Easter is celebrated as a religous holiday.

Since we are not religous, then we will not celebrate.

So what did I do when my daughter asked me if we could dye eggs and hide them all over the house, so she could get up and find them?

(with her sweet, beautiful, expectant face looking at me)

I looked up the origins of Easter to try and give myself an out. I mean after all, since I do believe in Mother Nature, couldn't we really in fact celebrate the arrival of spring and new birth, which is what the rabbit and the eggs actually symbolize? Yes, I could have given myself that out, because it would have been a harmless ritual. No buying anything, satisfies the value of commercialism and consumerism that we have. Celebrating the spring, satisfies the belief of Earth and Nature. But no, I had to give up on the idea and be adamant damnit, No Easter!

You know what, they really didn't miss it.

Maybe it was the fact that their grandma gave them a basket and that was enough,

or maybe it was the fact that they understood deep down

that they didn't need chocolate and hidden eggs to have a great day.

We got up, they cleaned their rooms.

I made them brunch :) while they had a water balloon fight with their dad.

And now as I write, they are out riding bikes

and finding friends to hang out with.

None the worse for not having celebrated a "traditional holiday."

BY THE WAY: here is the link for the video they did on finding Christ's tomb.

I have to admit that I haven't watched it yet, so hopefully it is good. I'll be watching it later today. Have an awesome Sunday everybody.

Our Spring Break!

So I was going to take pictures of every outing, because I know you all wait on bated breath for new and exciting information from me and mine, and post daily about our Spring Break adventure. Well that obviously did not happen, I kept forgetting the camera, or would forget to take pictures, I know! Me forget to take a picture. Anyways, I did take a few and put together this little album here for everybody, hope you like.

Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs, everywhere.

And for the grand finale of our break, Ash tested for his blue belt. He is moving right along, he is now in his 6th geup (that's rank, for you layman out there). You can check out the videos below, for all the excitement. Sorry about the quality, you love it anyway.

Friday, March 30, 2007

And receiving his belt. He rocks.

Thursday, April 5, 2007