Author: admin

Categories
news Self-sufficiency

North of 60: Dog Sledding, Ice Caves, Snowboarding and Mountain Summits with Mandy

Back in January, I went on a climbing trip to Mexico. I had a great time climbing the amazing multi-pitch limestone walls out there, and enjoying the beautiful Mexican landscape. But I also met someone, and ultimately fell in love with this person, over the course of several months, writing e-mails and letters and postcards and talking over Skype. That person, Mandy, decided to come visit me in Whitehorse for two weeks in late March / early April. Wanting to impress her, and convince her that the Yukon is a fantastic, magical place, we jam-packed our days with winter…

Categories
news Self-sufficiency

North of 60: Dog Sledding, Ice Caves, Snowboarding and Mountain Summits with Mandy

Back in January, I went on a climbing trip to Mexico. I had a great time climbing the amazing multi-pitch limestone walls out there, and enjoying the beautiful Mexican landscape. But I also met someone, and ultimately fell in love with this person, over the course of several months, writing e-mails and letters and postcards and talking over Skype. That person, Mandy, decided to come visit me in Whitehorse for two weeks in late March / early April. Wanting to impress her, and convince her that the Yukon is a fantastic, magical place, we jam-packed our days with winter activities…

Categories
news Self-sufficiency

Jamie Stewart from Xiu Xiu Recalls His Father’s Suicide

I was visiting the Xiu Xiu website, since every now and then Jamie Stewart will write something of interest: either dramatic life stuff, or fun silliness, and came upon a really intense post about his father’s suicide which occurred 10 years earlier. Here it is in full: On November 13th, 2002, 10 years ago, my father, Michael, killed himself. He may have actually died on the night of the 12th, but my mom found his body on the 13th. Her own mother had died only 6 months before. I have never told anyone my entire experience of those days or of the funeral. …

Categories
news Self-sufficiency

Jamie Stewart from Xiu Xiu Recalls His Father’s Suicide

I was visiting the Xiu Xiu website, since every now and then Jamie Stewart will write something of interest: either dramatic life stuff, or fun silliness, and came upon a really intense post about his father’s suicide which occurred 10 years earlier. Here it is in full: On November 13th, 2002, 10 years ago, my father, Michael, killed himself. He may have actually died on the night of the 12th, but my mom found his body on the 13th. Her own mother had died only 6 months before. I have never told anyone my entire experience of those days or of the funeral. At the time I …

Categories
news Self-sufficiency

Japanese Dance-Art: Butoh

I can’t recall where I ever learned about Butoh, the japanese dance/performance/style of movement that uses white body makeup and slow hyper-controlled motion, that verges between the playful and grotesque. It’s…utterly fascinating. I don’t know if it’s beautiful, hilarious…or better left un-described. I have a couple of youtube videos I’d like to share that highlights Butoh dancing, and a documentary link for those who are really interested. The documentary linky link

Categories
news Self-sufficiency

What’s the Longest Mountain Range in the World?

Were you going to answer the Rocky Mountains? The Himalayas? The Andes? Turns out it’s neither of these. I wouldn’t have known that, mind you. I didn’t even know the relative length of any of those mountain ranges (4,800kms, 2,400kms, and 7,000kms, respectively, by the way). The record actually belongs to a mountain range that’s underwater…and stretches from Iceland, down under Africa,  below Australia, up the Pacific to Baja California where it shoots up the west coast of the United States to end up in Alaska. Hawaii is actually the tip of this mountain range. It doesn’t have a name, but goes by ‘…

Categories
news Self-sufficiency

Vegetarianism, Anarcho-Primitivism, Permaculture, Sustainability, and Ted Kaczynski

As you can probably tell from the title, this post is going to be a clusterfuck. I don’t know where to start, so I’ll just talk about a book I’m currently reading, that got me back on some of these ideas I’ve been introduced to before, and go from there. The book is titled The Vegetarianism Myth by Lierre Keith. You can read the first chapter from her website here. This book is chock full of both good arguments, and full out bat-shit nonsense. The main point of the book is that a vegetarian diet is unsustainable and unhealthy (at least for veganism), and that if you really want to save the world and so on, …

Categories
news Self-sufficiency

Sustainable, Self-Sufficient, Off-the-Grid Houses: Earthsip Biotecture and Mike Reynolds

I talked about this in my last post, about Mike Reynolds the ‘Garbage Warrior’. He builds houses that are essentially made of garbage (about 45{660353129f8d892044c993645a1c75194301fec6786a7f617c15adde0b0011e9}), relies largely on the sun for heating (and dirt-filled tire walls to keep in heat), grows plants inside and outside for food, catches rainwater and recycles the water used through grey water recycling and plant purification. I want one of these house so bad! And you can watch the full documentary Garbage Warrior about Mike here:

Categories
news Self-sufficiency

Jamie Stewart from Xiu Xiu Recalls His Father’s Suicide

I was visiting the Xiu Xiu website, since every now and then Jamie Stewart will write something of interest: either dramatic life stuff, or fun silliness, and came upon a really intense post about his father’s suicide which occurred 10 years earlier. Here it is in full: On November 13th, 2002, 10 years ago, my father, Michael, killed himself. He may have actually died on the night of the 12th, but my mom found his body on the 13th. Her own mother had died only 6 months before. I have never told anyone my entire experience of those days or of the funeral. At the time I was working at East Side San Jose Child Development Center. The student population was largely impoverished or…