Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch: It's Real and It's Bad

I heard just a little bit last year about the enormous island of garbage in the Pacific Ocean and I furrowed the brow for a second, but it took a random appearance of the Patch in a dream last week to prompt me learn more about it.

The following is part 1 of a video series documenting a research voyage led by Charles Moore, leader of the Agalita Marine Research Foundation. Charles Moore discovered the garbage patch in 1997, and has since devoted his life and family fortune toward research of and education about the Pacific Garbage Patch. The images are astounding.


(source)
I suspect there are lots of people like me: we care, we reuse/reduce/recycle yet aren't "environmentalists" hardcore. We're aware that plastic is bad for our planet, but thought that buying fewer plastic bottles and recycling was enough to absolve us of personal responsibility. I think not.

I'll be changing more of my consumer habits and deliberate actions as a result of learning about this mess. I'm not sure exactly how, but I do know I don't have to turn into a one-note environmentalist in order to have impact.

Thomas Morton, a member of documentary video crew provides an insightful and revealing commentary on his transformation as a result of the voyage:

All the journalism I’d read about the patch had carefully danced around physical descriptions of the trash, leading myself and the rest of the shooting crew to fanciful visions of a solid, Texas-size barge of discarded Coke bottles and sporting goods. The idea that people had managed to fuck up a part of the world that nobody even visits, much less inhabits, and on such a monumental scale struck me as interesting and, to be honest, slightly awesome-sounding, but at the end of the day the impact of the mess on the rest of the world failed to register. I mean, sure, sea birds choking to death on deflated balloons and sea turtles whose shells have been completely deformed by soda can rings (click here for a picture of this if you want to ruin your day)—all this definitely sucks, but so do a lot of things, you know?

Needless to say this whole journey ended up overturning my expectations about the Garbage Patch, as well as just about every misconception I’ve ever held about the sea, environmentalism, consumption, knots, pollution, humanity, and myself.
(Thomas Morton)

Learn more: Wikipedia, video series

Mother's Cookies Circus Animals to Return

frosted animals
Originally uploaded by JeanineAnderson

Like Oreos, Mother's Circus Animal cookies are a staple of my childhood and of my parenting years. So sad to read in early October that Mother's Cookies closed abruptly and filed for bankruptcy. Although it's been years years since I bought these cookies, they were always there on the shelf just in case.
Anyways, Bonnie spotted some bags at a Grocery Outlet (she calls it "the used foods store") and bought some for me. Nom nom yum!

Good news for Mother's cookies fans: in early December Kellogg announced that they have acquired the trademark and recipes from Mother's Cookies. We could be seeing these little pinks and whites back on the shelves later this year. Yay!
Check your used food store in the meantime, or get this t-shirt to let the world know about your cookie love.

Don't judge me, it was for charity

Not sure how to explain this, so I'll just get to it. I bid on a Strangercrombie auction item. Strangercrombie is an annual fundraiser organized by The Stranger, and is known for very clever groupings of donations into ingenious packages. This year's beneficiary is Treehouse, a worthy organization which provides for childen in foster care. (Yes I'm stalling a little, working up the nerve to tell you what I bid on.)

So...I passed on all the music-related packages cause I got me a pretty good hook up for music events already. Besides, they were going for a lot more than my budget.

Instead, I bid on this: Chicks with Guns. The package includes a visit to Wade's Gun Range with the female managing editor of The Stranger and a female photographer to learn how to shoot a gun and take some shots at the practice range, followed by dinner at Redwood. (A neighborhood joint where you can throw peanut shells on the floor. They supply the peanuts in-shell.)

I've never shot a gun or rifle -- or really, any firearm --and I am to-the-core afraid of the power of firearms. I figure what better way to better understand that power (and respect it) than try it once with sympatico chicas. (And bonus: chicas I suspect I have some things in common with.)

Drat those auction sniper bots: I lost out in the last minute. Oh well. Must be a sign I shouldn't be allowed to handle a firearm. I'll have to kill zombies a different way.