The trials of being greener.

I feel it is my civic and human duty to share the experience I had to attempt to remove just ONE companies junk mail (for credit cards of all vile things) from my mailbox.

The Criminal: Citibank

Citibank has sent me dozens of mail items to entice me into opening credit cards with them that I do not want nor need. Rather than allow them to continue, I today upon receiving the mail decided that enough was indeed enough.

Step 1: Research..

I browsed through the internet briefly doing google (and bing) searches for citi bank junk mail opt out ...stop citi junk mail...citibank junk mail...etc. etc. Never did I turn up a phone number to address mailings or marketing opt outs. Sooo... I dialed the only thing I could really come up with that might be close ...the Enrollment number 1-800-374-9700.

Step 2: Action

After speaking incoherently to the automated system and punching wrong numbers in with my face...I finally reached a human being. I let him know my goal to save some trees/save the planet and he said sure and directed me towards 1-800-950-5114 where a lady with a pleasant voice offered to help me. I informed her again of my goal but she informed me that there was nothing she or Citi could do to remove my information from their systems. She informed me that I would have to contact my bank to have me eliminate 3rd party sharing. I directly asked her if I did that, would I not receive future mail from Citi, she assured me that I would not. Back to more research...

Step 3: More Research

Back on the internet to try and hunt down a phone number for USBank. Once again, no discernible contact information on opting out of marketing was available so I contacted the straightforward 24hr help line for St. Louis 314-425-2000.

Step 4: More Action

I jumped through NUMEROUS menus at this number and eventually settled on account information. I punched in my social security information and ended up choosing option 0 to speak with a specialist. I waited on hold somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 minutes, not great, not terrible (watched some eco trip as I waited...highly recommend it). Finally a very nice (and possibly cute) woman assisted me and somewhat chuckled at my plight. She said that she removed me from any further mail or phone marketing and said that she would think Citi would be able to remove me from their system as well. I asked her if she knew that my actions with her would eliminate future mailings from Citi...she said she was unsure. (at least she was honest).

Step 5: Wait, See, Share

Total time invested in this project (including time spent typing this): 1.5hrs

1.5 hours to ATTEMPT to remove just ONE piece of junk-mail from my mailbox. At this point all I can do is wait and see what happens when I get the next piece of Citi mail ...which I'm near certain I still will. I'm sharing this with you to hopefully educate you on how absolutely corrupt and ridiculous our simple day to day lives are. What ELSE could the resources (paper...transportation..etc. etc.) that are used in this junk mail be used for? The lives we live are designed to keep us trapped and helpless. You can say/think I'm being dramatic, but I challenge you to start looking at how difficult it is to change the things you think should change... Try to do something about it.

I am.

Back to school, back to school!

I feel like some crazy times are ahead of me. Meeting with an academic adviser tonight about completing an associates in Horticulture. Yay! All the nervousness of quitting a job and rolling down a completely different life path are certainly there. I've never been the type of guy that has really known what he wants to do in life. I always wanted to have a moment where everything just made sense and I knew what I wanted to do. 28 feels perhaps a little late to realize that (as my earlier years in college could have possibly been better spent working towards this end) ...but when looking back... who is to stay I would have gone to school at Truman (most likely not) and then I never would have met my wonderful wife. Thinking back on all the decisions in my life seems pointless sometimes. All the mistakes and wrong turns I've made have led me here, and I am so thankful that I have the love of such a wonderful woman. I honestly get the feeling sometimes that everything has worked out exactly as it should. Seems as though some people really question my leaving a decent paying job and striking out down a different road. There are several good reasons to do so (not the least of which being that I'm stuck in a dead end job in a department that will most likely be eliminated in the next few years by the company that bought us out). I'm still young, surely there is still time for a career I think would mean more to myself and the world. Excited, nervous, nay a little scared, but for quite possibly the first time in my life I feel like I've got the faith and belief in myself that I can do this and be successful. I'm game, lets do this!

It's been a long time coming...

Well, it looks like life is going to take a drastic change. Career change, life change. Work change. Without change something inside us sleeps and seldom awakens. Horticulture. Plants duuude. I have realized that it is not in my best interest to waste away this one life I've been given working in this shitty salmon pink cubicle for the next 20 to 30 years. Time to escape the rat race a bit. Work has been far to unpleasant to have any desire to even show up to work anymore. Glad I have a loving wife that cares and listens.

Thoughts on Gay Marriage

At the end of the day, all of you against gay marriage are not worth arguing with as you cannot see the issue for what it is at its very core. Say what you will, but as has been said before, you are most certainly denying the rights of one group that another has. I am fairly confident this will change sometime in the future, but it will take time and understanding. Actually spending some time with gays helps a lot, as you grow to appreciate them for the PEOPLE that they truly are. They're not out to rape your children and destroy the family structure, they just want to be able to live their lives free of the hate and inequality that many of us enjoy. Haters are quick to point out the choice of inequity based on religion but thankfully this country isn't ENTIRELY run by the Christian religion, we have the FREEDOM to become who we want, to ask the questions of life and the meaning of it. The questions between choice and genetic disposition that ultimately we can never really answer 100%, just like what happens when we die. These questions are BEAUTIFUL and awesome and give my mind a never ending source of wonder. I am just fine with not knowing what happens when I die, it makes things interesting. It doesn't really matter what you think God thinks, it matters what YOU think. So ask the damn questions, think for yourself, question authority. Who knows if there is a gay gene or if it is purely choice, or a combination of both, or brought about by developmental patterns of life? Not I, and not you. Bottom line is that we can't say it is one or the other, the human body and mind are far to complex to simplify the matter. When it comes down to it, it all points back to freedom. The freedom to be who you are and not be made fun of, beaten, killed, and denied the rights of your fellow man. You are and should be free to disagree that Homosexuality is right/wrong a sin/not a sin whatever you want. That opinion, however, should not detract from the freedom of expression and civil rights that you yourself enjoy, isn't that fair? Sadly most of the people that will read this have already made up their mind and will never reconsider (...the worst and most dangerous kind of ignorance). But by getting this out for myself, I can at least assure myself that I have thought about it in a rational and logical manner in the spirit of which freedom rings.

Enjoy your day all.

Existential Friday

As you probably already know I'm a fairly dug in Agnostic...but that doesn't mean I have never investigated the Christian faith and find interpretations of the bible intellectually stimulating. I was raised Mormon after all and went to early morning seminary before school everyday for all of my high school years. I've had lots of exposure to Christianity, and can say that I think that the true forms of Christianity, even Islam, are rooted in good principles and ideas. I think it is man (or woman..ahemm Bible...heh) that tends to go overboard and warp some of the very principles they are charged with upholding. I'm a very empirical type mind and can't honestly say for myself with any kind of conviction that there is or is not a God and/or afterlife. As far as what I can verify in the world around me, both could be a possibility. Where I can see how the unknown becomes a fear in many people, I try to embrace it and rejoice in it. I've often thought, even if there isn't an afterlife, does that really detract from the beauty of life? While we live we send ripples throughout the world that we can never fully comprehend. And we live on one tiny planet among possibly billions of them. I have a hard time thinking that humanity is the only form of life in the universe, and I also have a hard time accepting that we are the "pinnacle" of evolution ..either in this universe or on this planet even. I think as a species we are often very arrogant in believing that we know how best to use this planet (obviously we are destroying it). If we can't figure out how to live in harmony on our own planet, and with our own species...how are we more intelligent than any other organism on this planet that lives in balance. Sadly, I often times think WE are animals...

Anyways, I ramble a bit I realize and go off topic. That was more of a stream of thought thing. A path my mind seemingly takes...

Different

I've had this conversation recently, but wanted to get some of it down on "paper." Lately I have been a little troubled by peoples reactions to differences of opinions and/or beliefs. I've been looking at my own self and questioning my own reactions as well. Of particular note is that Maine has shot down gay marriage legislature today. It did not fail by a large % either, 53 to 47, I believe. But regardless, over HALF of the state does not want gays to be able to marry. I look into my own self and I think of that as just absolutely wrong. I feel that I see it for what it is, keeping a minority group of our society from having rights that the majority does. I look at the issue, and from its very root, it is what it is. We are basically denying the ability of one group of people to do something another group can. Seems pretty logically sound to me when viewed in this manner. Is my logic wrong? That question is what I keep running through my head. I question why I have such a strong and polarizing BELIEF in something myself. One problem I see with such a zealous belief in anything is that it tends to break down any kind of rational argument and discussion towards to manner. I hopefully don't want to be guilty of the same line of thought that I protest.

NOW comes the bag of worms. I try to think about what kind of people would vote against such an act, and why they would do so. Surely these people cannot be "bad" people. I can't really consider half of Maine just a bunch of assholes, right? Yet something inside me still feels somewhat angry, annoyed, and disappointed at the inability of my fellow countrymen/women to see an issue of civil injustice when it is right in front of them to think through. Several outcomes as to why people would do such a thing have crossed my minds.

1. They just haven't thought it through (ignorance or indifference)
2. They have thought it through and reached the conclusion to the opposite through some logic that makes sense to them.
3. They just go along with what is expected of them or taught to them without questioning.

I start to look inwards at myself, after asking these questions. I wonder what kind of major public issues are out there that I am either not education on at all, or have the wrong conceptions about. I think about some of the daily actions of my life that violate such rights in others, not directly, but by my support. I think I'm being too serious all the time. I think I'm not being serious enough. I think my head might just explode from the complications of it all.

Sometimes, at the end of such thoughts, as now, I feel like just giving up. This whole pursuit of "truth" and "meaning" sometimes seems so pointless. I never seem to run into an argument that can't just as easily have some kind of truth towards the opposite. If morality is supposed to connect me with some kind of truth...

I'm very confused.

Hiking

Since last fall, Niki and I have been avid hikers. We started out smaller trails, some paved ones even at Powder Valley. Since then we've been looking for longer and longer trails. Highly recommend everyone own a CamelBak. Get only a CamelBak brand as the others just are not made the way a CamelBak is. Just this summer I finally got a pair of shoes better designed to do some hiking and I must say that is also a huge help. Some of our favorite spots are Rockwoods, Cuivre River, Young Preserve, and of course the family ranch. It really helps me to forget that I spend so much time in the city with its terrible smells and pollution and commotion. Crisp air, the smell of leaves, life and death, all extremely important to my peace of mind of late. We really try to get out about every weekend at this point, if we don't have anything else going on. I figure for that 1/7 of the week I'm actually getting to enjoy the things in life that living the other 6/7 of it is helping to destroy. It seems very difficult to just leave behind the parts of my life that I know, and I think many people do, are really unsustainable and destructive for ourselves and the rest of the world. What do I have to give up, what haven't I that I could? Is it really fair for me to have an XBOX when there are entire countries that probably have only a handful? Because I was born here...could have been anywhere else, but it was here. I guess I would be happy about that if I didn't know that having the things I have and living the way I do hurts someone else. Hard to deal with sometimes and somedays...

Monday,
Back to Work.