Tuesday, June 30, 2009

I *heart* dystopias

Logan's Run, Soylent Green, Mad Max, Gattaca, 1984, Equilibrium, Idiocracy, Children of Men, Fahrenheit 451 (though that one reminded me too much of Dr. Who), The Island, and Wall-E.
They do not make me fearful of the future because I find part of the philosophy behind them flawed. For one I believe in rebellion. As long as there are teenagers on the planet there will be rebellion, and thus someone undermining the system. Secondly, there is a streak of contrarianism that flows though many of my associates and friends, which makes me believe that whatever grand scheme a government, super-corporation, Baptist theocrats that manage not to break up after the first year (Handmaid's Tale), or other large power that takes over the whole world, will be challenged, undermined, or ignored. Brave New World had the Savages, Fahrenheit 451 had the folks out in the woods reciting books to no one in particular, Gattaca had the love children (people who were not genetically designed), and so on.
The environmental hellfire and brimstone tv or cinematic bits showing a hellish Waterworld (yes, I watched it), or NYC of Soylent Green have their own problems. Humans are wonderfully adaptable. Yeah, a whole bunch of us will die off with any great change. But there are Eskimos (can't spell the proper native name) in the Hell I call Alaska and northern Canada, Aboriginals in the Outback, Arabs in the desert, Isrealites in the desert, and other people in places that are too cold, too hot, and just plain crappy.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Well that's depressing

Yes, many of you who actually know me, know I have a small vein of distrust against the government, yeah the same one that writes my paycheck. There is also a small, but not as strong distrust of large corporations. Mainly because no matter how big, corporations legally can't shoot you. I would say they can't take away your property or rights, but with lawyers, anything is possible, except the shooting. Maybe.
So I was poking around on the blogosphere and saw this diagram of large food corporations and their relationship to organics. Then I picked up my box of Truvia, the natural no calorie funny tasting sweetner, and it's made by Cargill.
I like the idea of small businesses and small farms, or mid-sized farms, and my food coming from them. Maybe I'll come to the day where I buy my chicken from small producers. But I'm not there yet.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Sister well and the search begins

The funny thing I guess about housing the poor is, when the Feds threaten to kick em all out and the people have no where to go (really give people time to house hunt), the government finds a way. So for now, sis is safe. Because really, in the paper they were saying that all with no criminal record and good credit would be placed in alternative housing. We all know my sister's credit is crap, so in that scenario the family would be living under a bridge. Part of me knows that my sister may screw me with the whole house buying proposal, because of what stems from the bad credit. It's not like she doesn't have or can't get the money, it's just that she finds other things to spend the money on.
Anyway, the Realtor thinks if I buy a short sale I'd be getting a really good deal because the bank would be eating a lot of the value. Let's say for fun, I was looking at a house listed at $40K. The house might be valued at 85K. It's up to the bank to decide if they want to eat $45K. The bank may take 3-4 months to decide that. Knowing sis is in no rush to move, I can wait.
I also found it humorous what the agent calls, needing work. New carpet and updating. My goal, something better than the rat hole mom lives in. The same rat hole mom refuses to leave. Of relatives willing to leave rat holes, is my sister's family, so for her, I look for housing. Besides they are all young enough to do improvement work. Mom, not so much.
Hopefully, this week the relatives will be shown the inside of one house I can afford. As far as I'm concerned, if the roof doesn't leak, the electricity doesn't spark and the water runs clear good enough. Stoves, fridges, carpet and A/C units can be bought. So I await to hear from them.