Responsibility Response

While Claire and I were out to lunch today we saw something extraordinary.  If you are a server, or have ever worked in the restaurant industry you're going to love this one.

Beside us there was a young couple eating lunch with their little girl.  She was probably about two years old, was super cute, and couldn't stop staring and making faces at us foreigners heh.  We made faces right back at her! :)

The couple finished eating, and while the father took the daughter outside, the mother stayed behind.  Here's where things became awesome to the point of disbelief.  She actually grabbed some napkins, bent down, and cleaned up after her daughter, wiping the floor of crumbs and pieces of noodle. She didn't wipe up where she and her husband were sitting, as there was only an arbitrary piece of food or two.  She made sure to clean up after her daughter, completely.  She even did it with a smile.

There was a pile of food under that chair before she cleaned. 

Can you believe it my server friends?

A parent, doing the hardest and most painstaking duty; taking responsibility for their child.  What a big difference...



Wow.

Living on a Seed

Hemp!

Did you know that hemp seed is one of the most nutritional and highest/most digestible protein sources that exist?


And the best part? It tastes amazing! YUMMMM


I know what you’re thinking. Either, come on dude, you’re just a hippy who likes to get high and eat at the same time; hemp seed just kills two birds with one stone. Or, c’mon dude, shut up and pass it.


Well hear me out happening hipster, because hemp seed might just end up blowing your traditional diet right out of the cosmos. First, hemp seed will not get you high. Industrial hemp itself contains extremely little THC (.05% – 1%), the compound that destroys food pantries and makes CSPAN hilarious. Most commercial hemp products, like Nutiva brand hemp seed, contain no THC at all. As a comparison, ‘marijuana’ has a THC content of somewhere between 3% and 20% (depending on if your dealer is James Franco or your cousin’s smelly roommate). Although marijuana and hemp are both cannabis plants, they are only relatives. To say they are the same is like saying a grey hound and a shih tzu are the same dog. The bottom line is that no matter how much hemp seed you pour down your gullet, it won’t make you high, just healthy.


And speaking of health, hemp seed is downright full of it!


Here is a list of what makes hemp seed so great, found on this fantastic site here:


Hemp contains:


* All 20 amino acids, including the 9 essential amino acids (EAAs) our bodies cannot produce.
* A high protein percentage of the simple proteins that strengthen immunity and fend off toxins.
* Eating hemp seeds in any form could aid, if not heal, people suffering from immune deficiency diseases. This conclusion is supported by the fact that hemp seed has been used to treat nutritional deficiencies brought on by tuberculosis, a severe nutrition blocking disease that causes the body to waste away.
* Nature’s highest botanical source of essential fatty acid, with more essential fatty acid than flax or any other nut or seed oil.
* A perfect 3:1 ratio of Omega-6 Linoleic Acid and Omega-3 Linolenic Acid – for cardiovascular health and general strengthening of the immune system.
* A superior vegetarian source of protein considered easily digestible.
* A rich source of phytonutrients, the disease-protective element of plants with benefits protecting your immunity, bloodstream, tissues, cells, skin, organs and mitochondria.
* The richest known source of polyunsaturated essential fatty acids.


And guess what? It gets better!


Hemp seeds are 25% protien, second only to soy in the plant kingdom.  The reason hemp is preferred over soy is because soy contains a high amount of phytic acid, an anti-nutrient that prevents your body from absorbing certain minerals.  Hemp seeds contain NO phytic acid! (phytic acid is actually a really interesting compound.  It has a great amount of health benefits and detriments, and is a source of controversy regarding its proper level of intake in my own mind. For more information start here.)


Furthermore, hemp seeds contain vitamin E, phytosterols (cancer fighting), fiber, magnesium, iron, zinc, and potassium.  


This article has even more amazing information. It states that because hemp protein is 65% globulin edistin, and also contains albumin, it is very similar to the blood plasma already coursing through our bodies. This makes it the most easily digestible source of protein that we have ever found.




Why is that so great? It means less waste and greater efficiency. You can eat less and get even more out of what you put into your system.


The article explains that:


"Hemp is not unique in having all the essential amino acids in its embryonic seed. Flax seeds also contain all the essential amino acids as do many other seeds in the plant kingdom. What is unique about hemp seed protein is that 65% of it is globulin edistin. That is the highest in the plant kingdom.


Globulins are one of seven classes of simple proteins. Simple proteins are constructed from amino acids and contain no non-protein substances. Globulins are in seeds and animal blood. Edistins are found in seeds: serum globulin is in blood. Edistins are plant globulins. And globulins along with albumins are classified as globular proteins. All enzymes, antibodies, many hormones, hemoglobin and fibrogin (the body converts fibrogin into non-soluble, fibrin, a blood clotting agent) are globular proteins. They carry out the main work of living.


Albumin, globulin and fibrogin are the major types of plasma proteins. Plasma is the fluid portion of blood that supplies nutrients to tissues. And the three protein types: serum albumin, serum globulin and fibrogin, compose about 80% of plasma solids. These plasma proteins serve as a reservoir of rapidly available amino acids should any body tissues be in need."




Here's the break down chap:




The Hemp Formula:




hemp seed= healthier cells= healthier tissue= healthier body= healthier + happier YOU!






To wrap this up, I'd like to share a list of information provided by the North American Industrial Hemp Council found here. I'm not 100% positive how accurate all of this information is, but it is interesting nonetheless and worth further investigation.




I would also like to add to this list, and to your ideas for further investigation, that hemp oil has been showing a great deal of results in not only preventing many forms of cancer, but also curing it. Here are some great sites and videos to get started: 1…2…3…4


Go!




HISTORY FACTS


*Hemp has been grown for at least the last 12,000 years for fiber (textiles and paper) and food. It has been effectively prohibited in the United States since the 1950s.


*George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp. Ben Franklin owned a mill that made hemp paper. Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper.


*When US sources of "Manila hemp" (not true hemp) was cut off by the Japanese in WWII, the US Army and US Department of Agriculture promoted the "Hemp for Victory" campaign to grow hemp in the US.





INDUSTRY FACTS


*Henry Ford experimented with hemp to build car bodies. He wanted to build and fuel cars from farm products.


*BMW is experimenting with hemp materials in automobiles as part of an effort to make cars more recyclable.


*Much of the bird seed sold in the US has hemp seed (it's sterilized before importation), the hulls of which contain about 25% protein.


*Hemp oil once greased machines. Most paints, resins, shellacs, and varnishes used to be made out of linseed (from flax) and hemp oils.


*Rudolph Diesel designed his engine to run on hemp oil.


*Kimberly Clark (on the Fortune 500) has a mill in France which produces hemp paper preferred for bibles because it lasts a very long time and doesn't yellow.


*Construction products such as medium density fiber board, oriented strand board, and even beams, studs and posts could be made out of hemp. Because of hemp's long fibers, the products will be stronger and/or lighter than those made from wood.


*The products that can be made from hemp number over 25,000.


SCIENTIFIC FACTS


*Industrial hemp and marijuana are both classified by taxonomists as Cannabis sativa, a species with hundreds of varieties. C. sativa is a member of the mulberry family. Industrial hemp is bred to maximize fiber, seed and/or oil, while marijuana varieties seek to maximize THC (delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol, the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana).


*While industrial hemp and marijuana may look somewhat alike to an untrained eye, an easily trained eye can easily distinguish the difference.


*Industrial hemp has a THC content of between 0.05 and 1%. Marijuana has a THC content of 3% to 20%. To receive a standard psychoactive dose would require a person to power-smoke 10-12 hemp cigarettes over an extremely short period of time. The large volume and high temperature of vapor, gas and smoke would be almost impossible for a person to withstand.


*If hemp does pollinate any nearby marijuana, genetically, the result will always be lower-THC marijuana, not higher-THC hemp. If hemp is grown outdoors, marijuana will not be grown close by to avoid producing lower-grade marijuana.


*Hemp fibers are longer, stronger, more absorbent and more mildew-resistant than cotton.


*Fabrics made of at least one-half hemp block the sun's UV rays more effectively than other fabrics.


*Many of the varieties of hemp that were grown in North America have been lost. Seed banks weren't maintained. New genetic breeding will be necessary using both foreign and domestic "ditchweed," strains of hemp that went feral after cultivation ended. Various state national guard units often spend their weekends trying to eradicate this hemp, in the mistaken belief they are helping stop drug use.


*A 1938 Popular Mechanics described hemp as a "New Billion Dollar Crop." That's back when a billion was real money.


*Hemp can be made in to a variety of fabrics, including linen quality.


LEGAL FACTS


*The US Drug Enforcement Agency classifies all C. sativa varieties as "marijuana." While it is theoretically possible to get permission from the government to grow hemp, DEA would require that the field be secured by fence, razor wire, dogs, guards, and lights, making it cost-prohibitive.


*The US State Department must certify each year that a foreign nation is cooperating in the war on drugs. The European Union subsidizes its farmers to grow industrial hemp. Those nations are not on this list, because the State Department can tell the difference between hemp and marijuana.


*Hemp was grown commercially (with increasing governmental interference) in the United States until the 1950s. It was doomed by the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which placed an extremely high tax on marijuana and made it effectively impossible to grow industrial hemp. While Congress expressly expected the continued production of industrial hemp, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics lumped industrial hemp with marijuana, as it's successor the US Drug Enforcement Administration, does to this day.


*Over 30 industrialized democracies do distinguish hemp from marijuana. International treaties regarding marijuana make an exception for industrial hemp.


*Canada now again allows the growing of hemp.


ECOLOGY FACTS


* Hemp growers cannot hide marijuana plants in their fields. Marijuana is grown widely spaced to maximize leaves. Hemp is grown in tightly-spaced rows to maximize stalk and is usually harvested before it goes to seed.


*Hemp can be made into fine quality paper. The long fibers in hemp allow such paper to be recycled several times more than wood-based paper.


*Because of its low lignin content, hemp can be pulped using less chemicals than with wood. Its natural brightness can obviate the need to use chlorine bleach, which means no extremely toxic dioxin being dumped into streams. A kinder and gentler chemistry using hydrogen peroxide rather than chlorine dixoide is possible with hemp fibers.


*Hemp grows well in a variety of climates and soil types. It is naturally resistant to most pests, precluding the need for pesticides. It grows tightly spaced, out-competing any weeds, so herbicides are not necessary. It also leaves a weed-free field for a following crop.


*Hemp can displace cotton which is usually grown with massive amounts of chemicals harmful to people and the environment. 50% of all the world's pesticides are sprayed on cotton.


*Hemp can displace wood fiber and save forests for watershed, wildlife habitat, recreation and oxygen production, carbon sequestration (reduces global warming), and other values.


*Hemp can yield 3-8 dry tons of fiber per acre. This is four times what an average forest can yield.


HEALTH FACTS


*If one tried to ingest enough industrial hemp to get 'a buzz', it would be the equivalent of taking 2-3 doses of a high-fiber laxative.


*At a volume level of 81%, hemp oil is the richest known source of polyunsaturated essential fatty acids (the "good" fats). It's quite high in some essential amino acids, including gamma linoleic acid (GLA), a very rare nutrient also found in mother's milk.


*While the original "gruel" was made of hemp seed meal, hemp oil and seed can be made into tasty and nutritional products.

Frankly, Fuck Fluoride

Well not really, the cosmos would be a bit hindered if it was suddenly missing a basic element. But it certainly doesn't need to be ADDED to our water supplies.

Here is some AMAZING information of what fluoride is all about, and what we can do about it! :)

No Fluoride!!!

Please tell us we are wrong...

A very close friend of mine, a beautiful seeker and a madman, posted on his blog, asking anyone reading it a simple request, to tell him he is wrong. I would like to share his post here, and my responses, equally reminiscent of the same request. I want to share it because there are so many like us, hundreds of million, no billions, and there are only 7 billion humans on this planet. I am sharing because I don't care who comes up with the solution, who begins the rallying first, just let it be done. I will give all of myself, if that's what it takes, to that which strikes change and unveils our true potential out of the rubble pile that has amassed around us, creeping toward our heart, etching toward our breath.


Nothing else matters.


Of what good is the light if there is no one that can see it, if there is no one that cares to see it.


SpiralofThought: http://lucidtranslations.wordpress.com/

"Please tell me that I am wrong"

"this is what i realized. this is kind of a summation of what i believe about how this country is run and how it is never going to change. nothing around me is ever going to change because they same old fucking shit has been going on for fucking ages. nothing new has been done, thought or said in hundreds of years, really. this is how i see it:

we have no rights and we have no fucking choice in the matter. we are presented with distractions and smoke and mirrors that give us the illusion that we are in control, and safe and secure but really we have nothing at all. my rights could be stripped from me at any moment and there would be nothing i could do about it. what the fuck would i do if i was jailed and held without a right to a lawyer or due process or fucking anything on the grounds of “terrorism” or any other justification? nothing. i could do nothing. for this reason i feel like they dont exist.

i have no freedom of choice. miller lite or bud light is just about the only choice i really have. the “right” to vote (which i have presupposed to not exist because it is a right, if you can remember) is total fucking nonsense. politicians do not run this country, business interests do. the business interest controls the media, and the legal system. politicians are just the self serving turd sandwiches who get in the club by sucking the proverbial dick of the very wealthy. we are given the illusion of a choice to distract us from the fact that voting for any candidate will not do a damn thing. first of all, they do not give a shit about us. they are fucking wealthy, connected, will remain wealthy. business interest pays for their campaigns too. not only that, suppose a genuine, honest, altruistic candidate gets voted in. say that he is actually jesus christ and say he is the president; so he is an awesome dude in the highest political position (which does not hold the most power in this country). well fuck, the congress and the senate is still always gonna be filled with the same shit spewing douchebags and douchebaguettes and gridlock and bureaucracy will prevail in favor of the $$.

i am fucking angry and i cant do a fucking thing about it. this is why. i am not the only one who thinks this shit is fucked up. i am not the only one who is angry. but what can i fucking do? people believe what they are told, what they see. i dont blame them, the media has a profound affect on the way we perceive things (advertising is so fucking effective its fucking stupid). so many people just go along with it and will just go along with it because fuck it. they dont care and they dont see a problem. fuck them. there are plenty of people who are as angry as me. there have been millions of people who have lived and died, perhaps lived in much worse conditions than me but just fucking went along with it. in some years ill have a family, kids, responsibilities. i cant be risking my life, my livelihood, my career. and then theyll have me by the fucking balls cuz that will all be more important to me ya know? thats what happens man, thats what happens.

we need a revolution dude i am fucking telling you. things are just gonna get worse dude. we are gonna be stuck with shittier and shittier jobs under shittier and shittier condidtions and were gonna work all our lives till our fucking dicks fall off and then our pension will be gone. social security will be gone. the rich will get richer, thats the way it fucking goes; thats the perpetual nature of capitalism. they will yield more influence. we will continue to get fucked and fucked and fucked, and i wont give a shit. ill do what i need to, to get by. ill take the crumbs right off the table, if it gets me to the table to eat at all.

im not fucking special. im just a human being god dammit. FUCK

-angryman "

My responses:

1. "A guy named Elliot from Canada showed Claire and I around town around our apartment here. We went to dinner, and got on the discussion of the United States. He told us how boggling it is to Canadians that Americans don’t do anything about the hipocrysy going on in their own goverment. Mind boggling that you are thrown in prison for something like marijuana. The thing he was most mind blown about whas the fact that if you get hurt, or sick, you consider not going to the hospital, because it costs so much money. He doesn’t pay a cent for healthcare, not a cent. He said “hell, we go to the hospital when we’re fucking bored, but you guys, if you break your leg, unless you pay 6000 dollars a year for insurance, you’re totally fucked, and either way you’re totally fucked, because you still have to pay 6000 dollars for insurance whether you break your leg or not!”

For a seven night stay in the hospital here in korea, if you have pneumonia or something, for absolutley everything included, food, fluids, medicine, being there for 7 days, and top notch health care with superb technology, it would cost about 400 dollars, half of that being paid for by your employer. 200 dollars for all that. 200 for a 7 night stay. Insurance costs 3 percent of your total income, half paid for by your employer. So if you have 1.5 percent of your income taken out for health insurance, that 400 dollars is paid for, otherwise if you don’t have insurance, you pay,….. 400 dollars..

You’d pay tens of thousands in the wealthiest/strongest nation in the world. The kicker? The men and women who vote on this ridiculous health care system don’t have the same healthcare, theirs is much cheaper and far superior in quality! bahahaha!! It is disgusting and infuriating the way America treats its citizens, its own blood… they have tricked and trapped us.

Dude I just heard that it was just made public that citizens pay 400,000 a year in taxes to cover the cost of congresses personal barbers. We pay 400,000 a year so congress can get a fucking hair cut. Fuckers.

http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=68937

You are not wrong. Sadly, sadly…

You are right. We are not going to change the system. When we voted for Al Gore, what happened? There were like 7 recounts, and suddenly Bush won, and yet, if you look back at the final numbers for the popular vote, Al Gore still won. To this day, it is recorded that the people of the United States voted for Al Gore, and yet Bush was in office for how long? 8 years. Rated the worst president in the history of the United States and he was in office for how long? 8 years.

It didn’t make any sense that congress, up until only 3 weeks ago was legally allowed to practice insider trading!!! These fucking assholes voted many years ago that it is illegal for anyone but them to do insider trading. When this came to light a few weeks ago, and people started to cry hipocrysy, they made a new law: Congress cannot practice insider trading, but they are still allowed to buy and sell stock of the companies they pass laws on….???? That is the very definition of insider trading…!!?!!?!?! The fucking people ate it up. Issue resolved. Ignorant bastards!

This nation is the biggest drug cartel in the world. This nation allows gangs to exist, raping, killing, and inciting fear into its citizens every moment of their waking lives. This nation wages the most wars in the world. This nation has military bases in more countries than any other nation in the world. This nation spends more money on its military than it does on the well being of its citizens. This nation is fascist. This nation is hyperbolic hypocrisy incarnite. This nation is demonic. This nation beleives its own lies. This nation is utterly, schizophrenically psychotic. This nation’s backbone is constructed of prisons.

I cannot express to you how much more clearly I think and feel being outside of the US. Its energy is hampering, destructive, and merciless. Especially Illinois, a hub of poison and corruption, politically, agriculturally, culturally, economically, via traffic laws, via water sanitaiton regulation via all…

I feel so bad for its people. So bad. They are the very worst type of slave, one that beleives it has freedom.

People are afraid, AFRAID to go to the doctors when they have chest pain, because it might be nothing. If it is nothing, they just wasted their money. If it turns out to be something, they will be destroyed financialy. They are better off dead than losing everything they ever worked for. This nation is a grind, blind servitude, lies, disillusion. This capitalism has set asunder the soul of the land. It is long gone. Long gone. It is not coming back. It does not want to.

Vote all politicians out of office. Return to local governments. Sever the hand that feeds and feed ourselves.

You are not wrong. Somehow things got to this point. Somehow this is the reality that persists. You are not wrong.

Their lies and deciet do not end. Even in death, they will lie to their maker for a few more measley bucks to invest into death. They invest in sure things, and make sure their investments see returns.

you are not wrong. FUCK

-flusteredman"

2. "http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57323527/congress-trading-stock-on-inside-information/"

3. "bahahhahahha

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45612773/Why_Is_Eric_Cantor_Blocking_the_Congressional_Insider_Trading_Act"

4. "It’s a circus. They are on top of the world. The make the rules for themselves and everyone else. And when everyone else doesn't like it, they make a rule that silences them.

Bahahahahha.

Just vote, that’ll get the job done."

5. "we need a revolution… we have been usurped…"

6. "I can’t come up with anything…. We need a revolution, a political, economical, industrial, agricultural and total revolution, but I can’t figure out how to do it… Our species is stagnant and lagging horribly behind where we would be had we the power to throw away our reigns and buck our masters off our backs. The only thing I can come up with is personal changes (permanent alterations in diet (no processed foods/ vegetarianism), using a car only when absolutely necessary, taking food supply into my responsibility through indoor/outdoor gardening, permaculture, aquaculture, eventually moving and ditching the system that not only fails us, but tells us to sit down and shut up when we attempt to alter it, etc.), but my mind, pondering the future, cannot help but think it’s all just not enough. We are growing so rapidly as a species, our needs growing too, and the political/industrial megoliths are distorting that growth into something weak, handicapped, ignorant, and wasteful.

We have infinite potential, infinite. We have the information, the understanding, the power, the imagination. We have all the makings to be beings wrapped in strength and altruism, health and enlightenment, and it continues to be hampered by beings that never grew out of preschool playground politics, who constrict and tax the blood supply of their own consciousness, all consciousness here and now.

We can leave all of it in the past, rebuild properly, grow stronger and more illuminating from the ashes of our own burnt flesh… but I can’t figure out how DAMNIT! I CANT FIGURE OUT HOW….. It all depends on us, those aware, and I can’t figure it out…

There is a psychotic voice gnawing at the synapses of my struggling mind, laughing, and choking on its own bloody spittle, whispering that it’s too late, make your individual changes, be the change you want to see in the world, but it’s too late, we have run out of time…

That voice is me.

Please tell me that i am wrong"


I don't believe in doomsday theories, I don't believe in maybes, I don't believe in anything but here and now, and here and now, it all must change.

In Buddhist philosophy there exists three poisons of reality; greed, anger, and ignorance. The world is so saturated in all three.

Here and now, it all must change, we all must change, decide right now, to change. I will beg:

Please.


I reiterate, like a mantra.... TELL US WE ARE WRONG

A Deep Look into the Deep Sea

Here's a fascinating look into the microcosm of water. To think that we are an intrinsic part of it all, to know that it is all an intrinsic part of us...

Whoa!

The essence of the self is in the whole: The essence of the whole is in the self

The Danger of Dairy

Here is a link to some excellent information on the dangers of dairy in a person's diet! Alter what you ingest, and alter yourself!

The dangers of dairy!

Gardening Gadgets

Here's a really cool way to do some indoor gardening. Looks like some lush, tasty food to me!!

360 degree garden

Insight! and Info! Morality, Agriculture, and the Cosmos

"Garden of Earthly Delights"

Here are some TED talks I watched today. A variety of awesome information:

Morality in Animals

It is so interesting seeing animals behave in ways that philosophers have always imagined to be strictly 'human.' This may help shed light on the disgusting ways we treat other species, and our own. Why do we have zoos again?

The Effect of Agriculture on the Planet

This is such an important video! So many people, including myself, do not realize the effect that something as vital as agriculture has on the planet. We need to practice more efficient agriculture, and we need to act quickly. Some examples are vertical farming, buying more locally grown foods, dramatically altering our diets, and growing our food ourselves. Even in urban settings, more and more people are realizing that not only is growing their own food fun, it is healthier for themselves and for the Earth.

Cosmic and Existential Theory

This is just plain cool. Its subject matter might not be practical in a physical sense, but neither is pondering existence, both of which are just plain awesome and enlightening.

K-Pics

For all you non-Facebookians, here are some links to albums that Claire and I have posted on Facebook depicting our adventures in Korea.

Eric's photos:

Fun times and meet up with friends in Daegu

Mountain climbing and Spring Festival near Busan

Claire's photos:

Moving to and arriving in Korea

Bamboo forest and river walk near our apartment

Spring fest and mountain climbing

Life Lessons Through Improv

Here are two episodes of a very popular show that Brett Wallace and I made before I left for Korea. I believe everyone will find the subject matter relevant and inspirational:

Hero's Journey

Episode 1

Episode 2

hey There-it-is!