The flooded road and our land after severe rain

Videos of my animals...

Twitter (my chihuahua mix) and Fat Head George (quarantined in my bedroom due to being FIV+ and FeLV+) always play with each other - very, very cute! (Forgive my unmade bed; I have 3 cats in quarantine in my bedroom and three dogs that often sleep on the bed... I have given up making it.)

Big Tabs is a semi-feral. He was neutered and vaccinated and released back into my neighborhood (he eats every day on my porch). Unfortunately, he seems to have run afoul of another male cat in the neighborhood, who managed to maul Big Tabs on the neck. While I had him inside to clean and treat his injury, I discovered that he had a tickle spot...

Mr. Snaggles likes to snuggle with the kittens Zephyr and Eva

Koala and the puppies "play fetch" :-)

Epigenetics, BPA, and Can I really live without plastic?

A couple weeks ago, the cover story in TIME magazine was on epigenetics. The whole concept of epigenetics is really fascinating and quite distressing to think about. We all know that evolution is a process which takes a very long time to change a species, so if you think in grand evolutional terms, nothing you do (smoking, drinking, eating a poor diet, etc) will affect your DNA or that of your children…. right? Well, this whole epigenetics thing says pretty much the opposite. There are apparently genetic markers, or switches, which tell certain genes to turn on and others to turn off. Genetic markers for certain things – good and bad – can be turned on and off in response to things such as smoking, drinking, poor diet, etc. And here’s the kicker. If one of these markers is switched on/off in *your* DNA, you will most likely pass on that “switch” to your offspring, and they in turn will most likely pass it on to theirs. It can take several generations for this “switch” to work its way out of your family’s DNA. [Here's what wikipedia has to say on the subject.]

I am certainly not an expert on epigenetics after reading one article, and it does seem to be a rather new field of study, so there’s much in that area still to be learned. However, after reading it, I began thinking very seriously about ways to change things in my life to keep my body healthy – mainly along the lines of eating more fruits and vegetables, keeping in line with my first New Year’s Resolution. Two of my closest friends recently had children, and I guess my biological clock is ticking, because I’ve been wanting to make sure I’m not going to pass on any bizarre DNA switches to any kids *I* might one day have.

Recently I listened to two different podcasts of NPR news shows, both of which addressed the issue of BPA (Bisphenol A) in plastics and its effects (or potential effects) on human health. (The podcasts were Diane Rehm's second hour on January 20, 2010 and Talk of the Nation Science Friday from January 22, 2010. To read about BPA on wikipedia, click here.) Scientists are only just now beginning to understand the effects of BPA upon the human organism, which makes one wonder what *other* chemicals in plastic negatively impact human health. I went grocery shopping right after listening to one podcast, and was in the middle of the other when I pulled into the parking lot. Inspired (or perhaps frightened) by what I’d heard, I decided to try to cut back on the amount of plastics that I purchased.

And I pretty much failed. My one success was buying cream cheese in the cardboard packet, instead of in the plastic tub. Everything else…. well, take a look:

Cookies, in a plastic container, wrapped in plastic.
Should I start baking??

Organic Spinach....
encased in plastic, with the evil number 7 (explained below)

I *love* trail mix. But if I'm not carrying it on the trail (or to class, work, etc) in this bag, what should I carry it in? If I'm ruling out plastic, that rules out Ziploc!

Yogurt.

When you buy veggies at the grocery store,
you're supposed to put them in these bags.

Granola and Triscuits. Should I empty the contents out of the plastic bags and directly into the cardboard boxes?

Again with the organic veggies encased in plastic

One of the scientists I’d heard interviewed on NPR had a tip for finding the “healthier” plastics: Many (but definitely not all) plastics have a recycle symbol with a number in the center. Take a look at the number and remember this little rhyme, “Four, five, one, and two, everything else is bad for you.” Of all the plastic products I’d purchased, only *two* had a recycling symbol with a number: The yogurt had an acceptable 5…. while the organic spinach was encased in a BPA-bearing 7! Additionally, after returning home I was shocked to upend my Nalgene water bottle to discover that it bore a number 7 as well! Nalgene was supposed to be the environmentally healthy way of drinking water, avoiding the waste of plastic water bottles… although apparently it’s been poisoning me with BPA! (A quick google search shows that Nalgene is now marketing BPA-free water bottles.) Then there’s the fact that I cannot drink tap water at my house. Not only do I have city water, but I have old, rusty plumbing. The stuff that comes out of my tap tastes pretty foul. As a result, I use a Brita filtration pitcher – all plastic, with no number on it to give me a clue as to whether or not it’s got any BPA. (According to several sites such as this one, Brita claims its products are made of BPA-free plastic.)

My Brita pitcher and Nalgene bottle

So what do I replace my Nalgene bottle with? Do they make glass or ceramic Brita filtration pitchers? What about Tupperware? Or those new Ziploc super-cheap alternatives to Tupperware? What about plastic wrap? What about all the food I bought, encased in plastic? What about all the plastic Christmas “tins” that I use for my cat and dog food bowls? (Surely if it’s bad for me to ingest, it’s bad for my critters, too, although they bear the number 5, one of the “acceptable” numbers.) Gah! And let’s not even think about the fact that almost all canned foods are in cans that are lined on the inside with a BPA-containing sealant.

If you start thinking about all of the food/beverage related plastics, it suddenly gets really overwhelming. Would it actually be possible to eliminate all of these things from my life? And if so, would it be something affordable, or would I have to spend much, much more in order to do it? (My friend Brenda sent me this link to a place to buy all sorts of glass storage containers. I am going to slowly start collecting them.... too bad I'm so poor!!) If these chemicals are in everything and are so pervasive, would I actually be able to make a difference in my health (and my epigenetics) by getting rid of them?

I know, I know

Ok, so I'm falling a bit behind on my New Year's Resolution to blog more often... I freely admit that Facebook is definitely a contributor to my blog-slacking! If you're interested in following me on Facebook (which is updated at least once a day, if not more), my facebook profile is located at http://www.facebook.com/janekeeler - The profile is set to private, so you'll have to send me a message and a friend request. (I don't accept anonymous friend requests, so if I don't know you in real life, be sure to include a note letting me know you're a reader of my blog.)

Some other Facebook pages you might be interested in are the Brierpatch Cats FB Page and the American Home in Vladimir FB Page, both of which I administer :-)

Additionally, I'm working on redesigning the American Home's official website. The current version (not made by me) is here, but the *new* version that I'm working on (it'll replace the current site as soon as it's finished) is online here.

And of course, there's the Brierpatch Cats website. Whew! No wonder I'm not blogging much!

Waycross College Remodeling

During the Fall Semester of 2009, Waycross College began a massive remodeling job in its A Building. The A Building houses the library, and the library was the focal point of the remodeling. The other major aspects of the remodeling were The Pit (a sunken commons/study area in the center of the A Building) and the addition of a coffee bar. Additionally, the administration and faculty suites were to be re-painted. The whole project was projected to be finished by January 1, 2010 and to cost $1.5 million. In theory, this all sounded like a great idea... except for the part about remodeling THE LIBRARY while school was in session. This was what the A Building looked like throughout the fall:

Keep in mind that there was noisy construction going on behind this plastic sheeting and that there were classes being held in rooms off the left wall. Not to mention that the library used to be located behind that plastic sheet. So what did the school decide to do about the fact that it was essentially shutting down its library for an entire semester? Well, they set up a temporary library: ONE ROOM. There were a few computers and a couple of books, as well as a few chairs. And that was it. If you wanted a particular book, you had to ask one of the librarians, who then had to venture into a storage room to locate the book you requested. No book-browsing here!

Finally, the 2009 Fall Semester ended, and the remodeling job was (mostly) finished. The faculty suite has been painted various shades of depressing grey, all of which looked to have come from either prison or Navy surplus. The coffee bar is not yet in operation. It's actually my favorite part of the whole renovation, even if it does give off a seedy hotel lounge vibe. The Pit and Library entrance taken together look very much like the Starship Enterprise crash-landed onto a Southern plantation... and then there's the Library.

It would seem that the architect did not at any point in the project consult with actual librarians to discuss which architectural aspects make a good library and which are simply terrible ideas. He also seems to have missed out on one of the fundamental tenets of architecture: Pillars Support.

Coming out of the faculty suite.
The coffee bar is to your right, The Pit is in the fore.

Coffee Bar to the right, The Pit to the left, Library entrance in rear.

Cashier's office, overlooking The Pit.

Pillars in the Library.
Note how they all end several feet shy of the ceiling.
They support nothing.

This is the worst part. Here is the Circulation Desk in the Library.
Guess where the books are....
Behind the wall, where the Librarians and Library staff can't see them!!

The Pit is not yet finished, although it doesn't look like anything they do will return it to a cozy hang-out-n-study spot as it was before.

Pet Owners: Support HR-3501

Check out this bill, sign the petition, and spread the word! If it passes, pet-owners would be able to deduct up to $3500/year off their taxes for pet-related expenses :-)

New Year's Day Puppy

How long have I been saying that I will be taking in no more animals? Good thing I didn't make *that* one of my resolutions, or it would be broken already. I was driving home from my mom's earlier today, and out in the middle of road, in the cold rain, was this:

2009 was a very dark year for me. I’m not going to go into the details. If you know them, you know them. If not, well, I don’t want to re-live the moments by writing about them, and besides, reading about it would just depress you.

I’ve never been one of those people who does the New Year’s resolution thing. The demarcation of a new year is just so arbitrary. So we say that January 1st is something new and wonderful in comparison to December 31st – so what? A day is a day is a day. Why should December 31st be so different from January 1st? Except that I feel different about it this year. 2009 was such a terrible black hole, and it’s only now that the year is ending that I finally feel like I’m clawing my way back out of it and into the light. And believe me, I want to stay in the light.

As such, I’ve decided to make some New Year’s resolutions.

1. Eat better. So much of 2009 I spent eating things that came out of the freezer and were microwaved inside of their packaging. Blech. And the times I wasn’t doing that, I was eating things which were cooked for me, by someone with a preference for hormone-laden, oversized chicken breasts. The goal is to stick to foods that contain fewer preservatives, are home or locally grown (when possible), and which are actually cooked (not merely nuked) by me.

2. Get janekeeler.com back in order. I used to obsessively design and redesign my website. While it’s gone through several incarnations this past year, none of these versions was ever finished. Such as what’s online over there right now… a pretty shell with no content. Must straighten that out.

3. Blog often. For someone who blogged obsessively for years, 2009 was… what? Blog burnout? Writer’s block? Unwillingness to write about the nastiness of my day to day existence? Inability to write about things that were secret and/or confidential? Yeah, all of those. Time to work past that and get back into this blogging thing again.

4. Finish all the paperwork and file for 501(c)3 tax-exempt status for Brierpatch Cats. I’m actually pretty close to done with all the paperwork, although it’s a rather tedious slog. I get to the point where I’d rather be playing with kitties than typing up all the necessary forms, but at this point, I need to stop slacking and get the paperwork finished and turned in.

5. Number 5 is predicated upon Number 4: Get Brierpatch Cats up and running, including working on the facilities out at the land, getting started on grant-writing and fundraising, and working on community outreach and education. But Number 4 has to get finished first.

6. Clean my car.

7. Work on my house. Specifically, get the front part of my fence installed, get the gate fixed, pull up the carpet in my bedroom and put down vinyl flooring, paint the door to my carport, and paint the interior rooms. (I think I’ll put off tackling the bathroom and its myriad of problems until 2011…)