Did I mention that my last post was the 69th post?

Chyea. Beat that.

I really need to vacuum my room and change the bedsheets. I forgot that leaving the window open allows pollen and other miniscule things to enter my room. All of that might be affecting my sleep negatively.

Today bored me, which was expected since I kinda set aside the day to rest. Yesterday we had a barbecue, and there were a lot of random kids running around in the backyard. I have no idea who the majority of them were, and the same goes for their parents. They played a baseball game in a small amount of space. I wasn't very impressed with their ability to work the count. Come on; none of you kids make Kevin Youkilis your idol?

Right now I'm reading a book by Lily Tuck called Interviewing Matisse, or, The Woman Who Died Standing Up and it's really hard to get through because it consists entirely of a conversation between two women. And yes, it's realistic. That is a problem... It looked fun to me when I picked it up. Maybe the wave of my attention span has subsided again, and evaporated, leaving a really big, sandy beach of I CAN'T READ THIS RIGHT NOW. Maybe I'm just tired somehow.

I wrote the sentence "Whatever." at the end of the first two paragraphs (that one-line one doesn't count) of this entry, and I think that's Avril Lavigne's fault, although I say the word a lot anyway. Yes, I really do like "Girlfriend," which is I think currently #3 on the US charts. Did you know that she recorded the chorus in 9 or so different languages, and not the rest of the song?

Holla at me; I'm around.

Keane and summer writing projects

Wow. I love summer. I LOVE summer.

Choice listening:

· india.arie - Summer (feat. Rascal Flatts on guitar) [I know it annoys Greg if her name has the period in it, but I prefer it with the period and with the lowercase so PBTHHH)
· The Offspring - Hit That
· T-Pain featuring YUNG JOC - Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin') [HIP-HOP HIT OF THE SPRING BABY YEAHHHHHH]
· モーニング娘。- 愛の種
· The Killers - Uncle Jonny
· Barenaked Ladies - It's All Been Done
· Passion Fruit - Sun Fun Baby (Looky Looky)
· Annie - Chewing Gum [They played this randomly in between acts at the Keane concert and I couldn't believe it. This song is pretty hilarious.]
· Lil' Mama - Lip Gloss
· Lil' Bow Wow featuring Fabolous, Fundisha, and Jermaine Dupri - Basketball [Even though it's the worst summer sport.]

I love summer humidity. My left leg wasn't humidity-caused-sticky today but my right leg was humidity-caused-sticky and that was cool! Plus, I love summer temperatures. You can just give your body right up to the climate. How great is that?

Forgive me for being really elated now. I wrote a brief freewrite in my summer journal about the greatness of the Keane concert I just went to... holy shit, holy shit.

They're playin' bas-ket-ball...
We love that bas-ket-ball.

I plan to put that song on my DDR/Stepmania/whatever setup here at home.

Oh yeah, summer writing projects. I'm doing a summer journal this year too, but I started a short story in it. It's about a guy who keeps both the ticket stub and, uh, the other ticket stub after he goes to events. What do you call the thing that you don't get to keep?

I am shameless...

I'm sure you've heard the old addage, "Hollywood is shameless." You may ask yourself "what is the origin of such a phrase?" Surprisingly enough, it's not because Hollywood is a God-less void of un-Christian values where amoral heathans go to share their dangerous, libel and progressive ideas! Someone gave Hollywood that label because in encapsulates the manner in which they promote their art; shamelessly. The Paris Hilton sex tape, the Spider-man logos on bases in Major League Baseball stadiums, and Shrek advocating exercise to kids while his face is slapped on dozens of sugary confections are all prominent examples of how shameless Hollywood can be when it comes to promotion.
Therefore, if I am ever to become part of Hollywood, I must become shameless in my promotion as well. Now, you may ask yourself "Greg, you have a college education. Why on Earth would you ever want to become part of Hollywood?" The answer is simple. I require two things that I can never get enough of in my lifetime; attention and money. And Hollywood is able to provide me with a hundred lifetimes of fame and fortune (or so I hope.)
So, without too much further ado, I submit to you a few short films I have made using "The Movies" game produced by Lionhead Studios. In your unlimited inquiries, you must be asking "Greg, you fool, why would you need such a game to make movies?" The answer is simple. This game rocks, and reality sucks. In this game, I can control every aspect of my art. In reality, it is hard as my erert dick to make a movie (which is very hard, I assure you.) Of course, making movies using this game isn't like having sex with a drunk fat girl, but it's easier than trying to score with Alizée, which is what it's like trying a make a film in real life.
Our first film is a dark exploration of the human condition. It's a mystery with more twists and turns than the Autobon. It will elevate the craft of filmmaking to a level you've never seen! It's...

"CASE CLOSED"


Now, if you consider "Cased Closed" original, you've obviously never heard of "The Usual Suspects." And if you haven't, I envy your ignorance.
Next is a hilarious romp where one man must choose between his hectic life and home, and his more interesting one out on the town. It's...

"ISLAND IN THE SUN"


After seeing it, my brother pined that it was "just one big cross-dressing joke", to which I responded, "Right. You're absolutely right."
And finally, we have a fusion of genres that has never been explored to such an offensive degree. Yes, the kung fu/blaxploitation movie has never been touched by Hollywood, until now. If you hate racial slurs, excessive violence, explicit sex, and foul language, you haven't seen anything yet. It's...

"N**** POW!"


I'm sure I could get away with the previous film if I had something to say about racism, violence, or language. Unfortunatly, I don't.
So there you have it. Three prime examples of why I'll never set foot within ten miles of Hollywood. But I'll be damned if I'm not going to try.

I would like to call attention to BASEBALL HISTORY!

Nobody noticed THIS HISTORIC GAME between the Buffalo Bisons and the Pawtucket Red Sox. Because it's a minor league game. But it's still pretty funny.

So the PawSox scored 5 runs in the top of the 9th to increase their lead to 14-6 over the Bisons. Sounds pretty safe, right? No. The PawSox lost the game 15-14 after the Bisons scored 9 runs in the bottom of the 9th to win it.

Here's the thing. The Bisons put out Trent Durrington (a hitter who was once in the majors with the Devil Rays) to pitch part of the top of the 9th; they had basically given up the game. He ended up getting the win.

Who gave it up for the PawSox? Craig Hansen and Manny Delcarmen. Craig Hansen couldn't even get an out. It's too bad because he's pretty good-looking. But that's why you may not see either of these guys with the Red Sox for a looooong time.

Gardening the Earth

The evolution of humans towards highly cognitive creatures who domesticate animals and farm crops produced a philosophical schism between mankind and nature. Once humanity fully harnessed these skills of agriculture, it sought to dominate nature and separate itself from the very thing it evolved from. Presently, society considers itself fundamentally opposed to nature. Leaders speak about “natural disasters” and blame a personified nature as though it willfully caused destruction. A large portion of the history of the United States pitted man against the elements in remote frontiers which urged to be settled and conquered. While some believe mankind should control nature, others, who still view humanity as uniquely different from nature, believe nature should be left to its own devices. According to this group, nature knows best and large sections of land should be dedicated towards natural preserves where nature can be allowed to flourish without intervention from humans. While these two viewpoints might have been valid during a time of relatively unlimited resources, a new philosophy must be formed in order to cope with the depletion of natural resources and the severe impact humanity's wantonness has had on the environment. With virtually every place on the Earth already put to use supporting a rapidly increasing population of over six billion, mankind must form a more symbiotic relationship with nature. In order to continue existing without an enormous decrease in the quality of life or population, humans must accept the role of a conservative steward of the Earth very similar to a gardener.

Advocates of strict conservation of nature and of complete exploitation of land both hold potentially dangerously and inaccurate views of nature. Author Michael Pollan, in his book Second Nature: A Gardener's Education about gardening and its philosophy, advocates a middle path between the two extremes society leans towards. From his experience as a gardener, Pollan concludes that a philosophy of nature rooted in ethics a gardener would develop is preferential to the view points adopted by naturalists and capitalists. After discussing the differences between routinely trimmed lawns and wild growth forests, Pollan claims that:

Gardens also teach the necessary if un-American lesson that nature and culture can be compromised, that there might be some middle ground between the lawn and the forest – between those who would complete the conquest of the planet in the name of progress, and those who believe it's time we abdicated our rule and left the earth in the care of its more innocent species. The garden suggests there might be a place where we can meet nature halfway. (Pollan 64)

When compared to an advocate of strict conservation or of laissez-faire, a gardener develops a unique relationship with nature that allows the gardener to simultaneously take care of and exploit nature.

Like Michael Pollan, Henry David Thoreau also experimented with gardening as a way to develop a philosophy about man's relationship with Nature. During his stay at his small settlement on Walden Pond, Thoreau decided to grow beans in a controlled garden which he fought daily to protect from intrusive weeds. According to Thoreau, nature represented a place for spiritual development and a way to cleanse one's soul after mucking it up dealing with the hassles of an ever growing industrial society. At the end of the bean growing season, Thoreau reflected upon his garden management policies:

These beans have results which are not harvested by me. Do they not grow for woodchucks partly? The ear of wheat (in Latin spica, obsoletely speca, from spe, hope) should not be the only hope of the husbandman; its kernel or grain (granum from gerendo, bearing) is not all that it bears. How, then, can our harvest fail? Shall I not rejoice also at the abundance of the weeds whose seeds are the granary of the birds? It matters little comparatively whether the fields fill the farmer's barns. (Thoreau 120)

After making around $9 from his bean growing experience, Thoreau claims that gardeners and growers should not concern themselves with the products of their labors. The beans, according to Thoreau, grew mostly from nature, taking only minor aid from his persistent hoeing, and as such other elements of nature, such as woodchucks and birds, should delight in their growth just as he should. Michael Pollan reacts to a similar thought from Thoreau's friend and mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson: “When one summer I came across Emerson's argument that 'weeds' (just then strangling my annuals) were nothing more than a defect of my perception, I felt a certain cognitive dissonance” (Pollan 3). Weeds, in actuality, are as much a member of the plant family of life as more pretty growths such as daisies or oak trees. However, they are quite validly named for their ability to become pests which counteract the efforts of gardeners, farmers, and the every day suburban homeowner who maintains a tidy lawn. The label weed is not so much a defect in perception, but stems from a disagreement between man and nature over usage of land.

Thoreau and Emerson argue too idealistically for the isolation and preservation of nature as something which humans have neither the right nor the capability to properly interact with. Thoreau even believed that one could absorb “higher laws” from nature and evolve the spirit through interaction with nature. While Thoreau is somewhat accurate in these claims, his theories on nature should not and physically cannot be implemented. The world's population cannot simply decide to stop growing crops due to a moral dilemma of pest control as he did with his beans. Furthermore, farmers and gardeners, by combating pests and making as efficient use of the land that they have as possible, ensure that mankind has as little an environmental impact as possible. For example, if corn growers in the Mid-West did not employ some kind of pest control, similar to but not necessarily biological weapons through the form of insecticides, then more land than is used now would need to be used to reach the needed food supply for the United States. With a need to create new corn fields, an increasing number of acres of land would be clear-cut in order to create room for crops. In effect, the relatively pure and untouched nature that Thoreau argued for would eventually disappear due to inefficient land usage. A gardener, unlike a pure naturalist, would believe that “it is possible to make distinctions between kinds and degrees of human intervention in nature” and, unlike a capitalist, “is not likely to conclude from the fact that some intervention in nature is unavoidable, therefore 'anything goes'” (Pollan 194). Following the example of the Mid-Western farmer, a gardener might suggest limiting the effects of pests but prefer an organic method involving using nature against itself through the use of thousands of inexpensive ladybugs or praying mantises (Pollan 51). The gardener, in the spirit of a naturalist, holds nature as a mentor and hopes to learn from the advice millions of years of evolution has produced. This philosophy aims to produce the greatest amount of happiness for both man and nature. A farm using organic pesticides would be beneficial for humans who consume the unaltered produce, the ladybugs and other insects involved in negating pests and the general ecosystem because harmful chemicals with potentially unknown side effects are not introduced into the environment.

Although gardens are usually small, preset, enclosed environments, the ethic developed from working with one applies everywhere in nature. For example, the stewardship view of nature would have been appropriate in dealing with the overpopulation of deer in the Quabbin Reservoir located in western Massachusetts. In 1991, the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC), after encountering harsh resistance by environmentalist groups, allowed a large number of hunters to enter the reservoir area and shoot deer in order to deal with the population problem. The creation of the Quabbin Reservoir formed a paradise for deer in which they flourished and eventually posed a threat to the quality of the reservoir water by eating too many tree seedlings and eventually decreasing the ability for the ecosystem to naturally filter the water. When viewed through a gardener's perspective, it is evident that man, at least in this situation, belongs in nature. Historian Jan E. Dizard wrote about the complex relationship man has with the Quabbin Reservoir:

We are, after all, part of nature too. We can no more stand aside than can the wolf or the goose. Each of us acts and interacts with the others – there is no possibility of being innocuous. This doesn't mean that we should be noxious. Being ineluctably part of nature doesn’t give us free reign to do whatever we want. Rather, it obliges us to think about what we do in the context of the system as a whole... We should behave as if there were a tomorrow. (Dizard 22-23)

Instead of advocating a complete removal of human interaction, the gardener recognizes, accepts, and acts based on his/her effect on nature. Historian Roderick Frazier Nash summarizes the sentiments the early environmentalist George Perkins Marsh holds about nature: “Anticipating the ecological perspective of the twentieth century, Marsh warned that the interrelatedness of 'animal and vegetable life is too complicated a problem for human intelligence to solve, and we can never know how wide a circle of disturbance we produce in the harmonies of nature when we throw the smallest pebble in the ocean of organic life” (Nash 38). Marsh's claim is valid in that ecosystems are extremely interconnected and difficult to understand. For example, whalers neglecting the trophic level whales occupy have in the past unintentionally severely harmed seemingly unconnected species of fish far away from where they whale. However, in most cases, the past actions of humans, including the vast expanse of humanity and its damage to the global environment, demand intervention from mankind. Dizard concludes that, given all of the beneficial and negative affects humans caused, humanity has an obligation to become responsible stewards: “For better or worse, we are in charge. If we abdicate, we are likely to hand over to the generations to come a much less richly diverse planet than the one we now have. We'd be fools to put the fate of the environment, at this late date, in the lap of nature” (Dizard 211). Unlike naturalists who prefer to ignore the constant impact humanity has on nature, gardeners have the ability to accept both the shortcomings and accomplishments of man and then acts upon these affects hoping to produce a mutually agreeable and beneficial outcome.

Because naturalists and capitalists view themselves as opposed to nature, they create a situation in which only one party can win. The Quabbin Reservoir owes much of its amiability to its ability to provide the greater Boston area with superb, naturally filtered, drinking water and foster an environment in which many species of animals, even ones on the endangered species list, can thrive and live without constant interactions with humans. When presented with both of these goods, a naturalist would prefer to allow the fauna to interrupt the reason their beloved environment exists in the first place – to provide water. Meanwhile, a capitalist would ignore the endangered species in favor of a much more aggressive logging policy. Both parties, due to their limited ability to perceive the potential of man's interactions with nature, end up upset with the conditions of the Quabbin. Michael Pollan argues that a gardener can support both viewpoints: “The gardener doesn't take it for granted that man's impact on nature will always be negative. Perhaps he's observed how his own garden has made this patch of land a better place, even by nature's own standards. His gardening has greatly increased the diversity and abundance of life in this place” (Pollan 193). Dizard acknowledges the increase of wild nature in the artificial and exploited Quabbin through the increase of populations of bald eagles, peregrine falcons, and rare fish, along with increases in the quality of air and water (Dizard 208). Because gardeners are not obsessed with and stuck on absolute ideals of nature, they have the ability to create and appreciate actual positive environmental change alongside positive human growth.

Modern day society needs to adopt the stance of a gardener in relation to the planet as a whole in order to survive. If humanity continues with its current trend of excessive polluting, unsustainable and irresponsible use of resources, and an ever rising demand for these natural resources, the Earth will no longer be able to sustain mankind. Fortunately for the Earth, humans are ultimately completely reliant on having favorable and stable conditions. Even if these environmental problems continue, Earth will, over a great deal of time, overcome the problems humans have caused and return to the uninterrupted wilderness that Thoreau and many other naturalists idealized. While hope remains for the survival of the planet, humans continue racing towards a point in time when the environment will no longer support such a large population consuming with such excess. As a whole, humanity resembles an irresponsible gardener who continues rapidly sowing and harvesting nutrient intensive plants into a plot of soil which only contains so much. Over time, the gardener's plants will no longer grow as the land used will become depleted and the gardener will die or move onto another bit of land. Humanity needs to learn to be a responsible gardener and care for the land because if the Earth becomes barren, it is much more probable that humans will become extinct than move to another plot of land located somewhere else in our solar system or beyond.

Works Cited

Dizard, Jan E. Going Wild: Hunting, Animal Rights, and the Contested Meaning of Nature. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press. 1999.

Nash, Roderick Frazier. The Right of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. 1991.

Pollan, Michael. Second Nature; A Gardener's Education. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. 1991.

Thoreau, Henry David. Walden and Civil Disobedience. Ann Arbor, MI: Borders Classics. 2004.