Update and such

Enough of the controversy for a bit. I was considering posting my rather lengthy Geography 207 essay on some articles we had so read, but 1) it was long, 2) I was not satisfied that it would sum up my point of view, and 3) I felt that people should read the articles themselves, which I know no one would do unless they had as much time on their hands as I do. Not to mention, being passionate about a cause or angry about a problem can be exhausting. There's so much I want to say, and I want to persuade people to see as I see. I guess I could sum up the conclusion I came to over reading for and writing this essay:

The United States economy system is capitalism, and it will fail without constant growth, profit, etc. Corporations created the risk-assessment approach to the regulation of emissions and pollutants, which basically asks "what is a fair trade-off of impacts on people versus dollar value?" or, even more basically--how many people can be sacrificed in order that we might make a profit? This is the reason pollution, especially air pollution is such a problem. Everyone knows the government is a bit twisted and often bends in the direction of the group with the most money--this is why Big Coal is still a problem in West Virginia. It runs our state. And so, with corporations guiding government decisions, emissions cannot be further reduced because it is likely to hurt those companies. Meanwhile, we are all breathing/ingesting mercury (methylmercury), lead, PFOA, pesticides, flame retardants, aerosols (very small solid particles), dioxins, and other harmful chemical compounds. The solution? We need to create large public demands for changes, because just making your own individual sacrifices is not enough. Stop these pollutants at the source or we will never escape them.

And that's all I'm going to say about that. In other personal news, I switched to seasonal at the bookstore because every week I dread going into work, probably because Thursdays stress me out and Friday mornings are the last time of the week that I would want to work. I know I'm probably a huge pansy for not wanting to work those particular hours, but it doesn't help that all I do is stand in front of a cash register for 5 or so hours. I try to clean or do other things to make the time go by, but on test days, I'm stuck ringing up a billion scantrons and I can't get away from the register for 5 minutes. Yeah, I guess I'm complaining. I'd just like a job with more responsibility. I like working when I'm actually WORKING the whole time and doing something I enjoy. This will probably happen this summer and next fall/spring when I work for one of my profs in the propagation lab and/or work at the greenhouse.

So it's nice not having to work right now. Money is always tight but the relief that comes with having free time is definitely a huge plus for me. When I have significant lumps of free time, I don't sit around on my butt (unless I'm doing homework), I usually get into some personal project that turns out to be rather lengthy. When I start working on something interesting, it's hard for me to stop and do other things. For instance, Sunday I spent a good 2-3 hours researching all my current houseplants and making tags for all of them with their scientific names and care requirements. I figured learning lots scientific names on my own would be a good idea since I can't fit the herbaceous or woody ID classes into my schedule before I graduate.

Speaking of graduating, I only have one more year of school! Scary. I really have no idea what I'll be doing after May 2011 as far as a job goes, but I know God will take care of me and lead me in the right direction. I'd like to open my own retail greenhouse/nursery some day, even if it's just a small one, because I LOVE plants.

AND this is why you should watch Community. Right here.

-K