OCCUPY WALL STREET, NOT STARBUCKS

I'm just so full of sass. 

Here is the email I fired off today using the Starbucks.com contact section:

Please see to it that this messages reaches the desk of Howard Schultz.

Mr Schultz, I recently read an article describing your call to end corporate funding of political campaigns. You said that corporations should be, in summary, putting all those piles of money to better use. Well, being that you earn over 12 million dollars a year and I earn $8.00 an hour while going to school full time, I think it would be super if you could help me out and toss a few pennies my way to help me finish paying for college. You'll be interested to know that I am an undergraduate at NMU - your alumni. In the mean time, while waiting for your check to come in the mail, I hope I don't have to read anymore about your great ideas on how to better society as they come to you in your billion dollar house. What's it like to be part of the 1% controlling 35% of the nation's wealth? I bet it's real cool. Thanks for your time, don't forget to send those pennies Howie.

Sincerely, Erin

Surprisingly, I got a reply that wasn’t totally generic:

Hello Erin,

Thank you for contacting Starbucks Coffee Company.

Thank you for your feedback in response to the pledge taken by Starbucks chairman, president and ceo Howard Schultz. We will share your feedback. If you'd like to offer further feedback or suggestions, we encourage you to continue the discussion at www.upwardspiral2011.org. Thanks once again for your interest.

If you have any further questions or concerns that I was unable to address, please feel free to let me know. 

Warm Regards,

Ryan H

I posted my first email on facebook as my status and received a lot of feedback. Which is awesome. It is my opinion that more people my age need to be engaged in discussions on the actions of our political and corporate leaders. This mini social outburst of mine was no doubt inspired in me today by two things: 1. I read an article yesterday about Howard Schultz’s call to end corporate backing of campaigns and instead using the money to create more jobs. And 2. I’ve been closely following the Occupy Wall Street protest that has been going on in New York since Saturday.

On the first issue, you might ask me why I’m so against a CEO actually taking a public stand against something negative that nearly all large corporations do. Well, I’m not. Actually, ending corporate funding in political campaigns is a big issue for me. I’m happy to hear that Starbucks will no longer be doing this. However, Howard Schultz is not breaking any major ground here. People have been calling for this action for years. It is fairly new for a CEO to say that they will accept this call and choose to end the practice, and for that I offer my respect and support. The problem I have here is hailing the Starbucks CEO as a great guy who has all of our best interests at heart because of it. I followed the link included in Starbucks' response and it lead me to a spankin new website devoted to Schultz’s noble cause. Here we can see softly glowing black and white photos of millionaires smiling. A thoughtful quote from old Howard and a taupe background gets us all warm and fuzzy inside as we can see, by evidence of this here website, that corporate America is really ready to do some good. Now let’s pump the brakes. To me this is yet another exercise of power and coercion by the wealthy 1%  over the rest of us. Let’s not be sheeple. Are we going to get off the backs of these enormous money gobbling, human rights exploiting corporations just because they make a pretty website? Fuck no. This is our revolution and I refuse to let is be one more thing that corporate America takes away. Which leads me to my second point.

For the past couple of months, the #occupywallstreet campaign has been gaining momentum across the internet and social networking sites. I first heard about the idea in the August issue of Adbusters magazine. The idea is simple: Thousands of people show up on Wall Street, set up camp, and don't leave until we make our point. But what is our point?

1% of the nation holds 99% of the wealth. While corporations enjoy rights equivalent to people, CEOs earn more money than their company pays in taxes, the wealthiest 1% receives tax breaks, politicians run million dollar campaigns, and corporations report all time high profit margins, the rest of us, THE OTHER 99% OF US, lose our jobs, pay higher and even more unreasonable tuition to get an education, rack up loans that will take decades to pay off, pay more taxes, enjoy less funding for public programs, and have to sift through the endless stream of lies, manipulation and general bullshit that our politicians and corporate world flood us with daily. There have been multiple arrests, videos showing potentially excessive force being used by the NYPD (which baffles me considering that police officers are most definitely part of the middle class), and at least 1,000 people protesting, occupying and sleeping the park renamed "Liberty Plaza" at all times. Yet most people haven’t heard a peep about it. Mainstream media is intentionally not covering the story. Can you guess why? Main stream media is controlled by multi-million dollar corporations who have totalitarian control over what does and does not get reported on the news. Disturbing isn’t it?

I think I’ll wrap this post up as it’s getting a bit long and a bit ranty and I have more homework to do. I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions.

Erin 

What I'm Listening to: The Whole Love - New album by Wilco
What I'm Watching: Harold and Maude
What I'm reading: The Small-Mart Revolution  by Michael H Shuman

MINTY MINT TEA

I just fell in love with mint tea all over again.

     I'm wrapping up my labor day weekend doing some reading for class and making lists for the week ahead. The newly revealed fall weather inspired me to brew a pot of tea and a recently abandoned bag of bulk tea by a customer at the coop provided me with some "morrocan mint" loose leaf to try. The first few sips were so delicious that I developed an overwhelming urge to tell someone how tasty it is. My solitude in the learning laboratory (my bedroom) nearly lead me to scribe a proclamation of affection onto facebook. Fortunately, before firing off the first sentence of this post into a status and subjecting my network of friends and acquaintances to such trivial information, I remembered: nobody cares. Not to be melodramatic, but seriously, other than showing off in some weird way over the fact that I drink mint tea why would I put that on facebook? If I did, a couple of my fellow snobby tea drinking friends would probably "like" it or even go so far as to recommend another tea that they especially enjoy. The whole thing would have been quite pretentious I'm certain. HOWEVER, my sharp little college brain prevented that tragedy from unfolding. And then something amazing happened: I REMEMBERED THAT I HAVE A BLOG. I actually have a place to write about things that I think make me cool and people only have to read about it if they want to.

That being said, if you're interested to know- I had a wonderful summer full of wonderful people and wonderful adventures. It was so ful of wonder that I didn't even slow down to brag about it on the internet. I won't try to make up the gap between this post and my previous post. Instead, why don't we just march ahead into another season of the thoughts, qualms, ideas and interests that I feel compelled to write about on the internet.

Cheers,
Erin

What I'm listening to: Panda Bear's album Tomboy

What I'm watching: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

What I'm reading: City of Thieves by David Benioff -- highly recommend this novel for an easy, totally enjoyable weekend read

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

My little brother posted this on my facebook:

If you were going on a trip to the moon for a year, and you could only take 10 cd's. What would you take?

Challenge accepted. I decided to add another element to it, which was that you only have 5 minutes to decide. Here's what I came up with: 

 
Evil Urges - MMJ
Swoon - Silversun Pickups
We Are Pilots - Shiny Toy Guns
...A Mouthful - The Do
Louder Than Bombs - The Smiths
The Moon and Antarctica - Modest Mouse
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco
The Ruminant Band - Fruit Bats
The Ugly Organ - Cursive
On Letting Go - Circa Survive

I feel like those would keep me pretty happy for the year.

 LIFE UPDATES:

-Semester over. Finally. Grades pending.
-Moved into a new house with 3 roommates. Love it.
-The moving process - slightly insane. Basically I got off work at ten, took a nap, packed all night, had to be out of my apartment by noon but wasn't supposed to move into my house until 1...oh and I had to work at 1:30 at the coop. My friends totally saved me. Thanks guys.
-I have my first pet ever....My friend Stephanie is letting us keep her cat at our house! Love you Syd.
-I'm delivering for Jimmy John's this summer...On my bike! Never thought I'd be getting paid for going on bike rides. 
-It snowed today. I wish it would stop doing that. I'm itching to get my mountain bike out.

Hopefully I will have some interesting posts this summer. Keep an eye out for recipes, music, movies,  books, what I'm doing to become a bigger hippie, brilliant thoughts, plans, ideas and oh so much more.

Erin

What I'm Listening to: Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
What I'm Watching: After School   Dug it.

 

 

My opinions are like onions; some people don't like them and they will probably make you cry.

Erin

INDIE STIR FRY

Tired of the same old stir fry recipe? Try out these new ingredients that you've like, probably never even heard of.

Garlic
Ginger
Toasted sesame seeds
Kale
Bok Choy
Zucchini
Fava Beans
Broccoli
Onions
Heirloom tomatoes

Throw on some hot sauce, soy sauce, or whatever sauce you please and put over rice or rice noodles.

Best stir fry I've ever made.

Erin

What I'm listening to: Interpol
What I'm watching: The Graduate
What I'm about to do: Clean my apartment

RAW VEGAN QUINOA RECIPES

Here's a couple of tasty recipes that I concocted this weekend. I apologize in advance for not including measurements...I don't measure, it's not my style. Just add  till it tastes good!

SASSY SPROUTED QUINOA (keen-wah)
First sprout your quinoa: Soak in water for a few hours, move to a colander, rinse every few hours with cold water. When they start to grow little tails your sprouts have sprouted! Once they have grown to the desired length store in the fridge.

Then add:
diced tomatoes
diced cucumber
minced fresh jalapeno
minced garlic
minced fresh basil
minced fresh cilantro
apple cider vinegar
lemon juice
spinach

Eat it right away or let it sit over night to absorb the flavors. Tons of protein and iron, great post work out recipe!

And another variation I enjoyed:

Diced cucumber
minced cilantro
minced jalapeno
minced garlic
lemon juice
apple cider vinegar
finely chopped kale


Finally, a delicious snack recipe I found on Vegweb

KALE CHIPS

cut fresh kale into chip sized pieces.
mix 1 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp apple cider vineger
coat kale. add salt.
bake at 350 for 10 minutes.


Holy pants! I may be addicted.


Erin


What I'm listening to: Fang Island
What I'm watching: Teeth. I definitely do not recommend it.
What I'm enjoying: Mountain biking, longboarding, beautiful weather.
What I'm bitching about: 10 more pages to go on my research paper.

Vapid Narccissim

It's been a minute since my last post. I've recognized the need to update a few times in the past weeks, but I haven't felt that I had anything worthwhile to write about. To get the ball rolling I think I'll just do a general update. I try to make this blog about more than the little joys and tragedies that make me who I am, but I guess even the most interesting of us hit blah patches. Let's see where this goes.

On the economic front, I've landed a vegan's dream job. I am now a part time produce clerk at the Marquette Organic Food Co-op. Responsibilities include treating the fruits and vegetables with tender love and care, arranging them in pleasing displays, wearing an apron, and smiling. I've never worked with so many friendly people. Fear not though, I will continue to be a corporate minion at Jimmy John's in order to fund my eccentric lifestyle.

I recently joined a boxing class. I funking love it. Just what I needed to get back on my feet (literally?) after my goals and dreams in the sport of running took a grenade. I also bought a used full suspension mountain bike for a good price at Switchback with a little guidance from my friend Charlie. Can't wait to get it out on the trails. Hopefully a summer of boxing, mountain biking, yoga, and rock climbing will be enough to take the edge off not being able to run competitively.

Some of you are well aware of my love affair with baking soda. I've found a couple new uses lately: In the bath to make my skin soft, combined with apple cider vinegar to unclog a drain, on the carpet to remove a hot sauce stain. <3 you baking soda.

Lots of sauna-ing lately. I made an announcement at work the other day: No matter how rich or poor I am when I am grown, I will have a home sauna. It should work out considering I plan to never own another car. The thousands of dollars spent per year on car costs will easily cover the sauna costs...especially since I plan to start dating men in the construction management major. Saunas improve my quality of life in so many ways.

There are 3 more weeks of class, I'm the last living person in Marquette who is under 21, I miss my bff Kyla horribly, I have a cold sore, and my hair is growing.

 (I feel weird taking pictures of myself on a webcam...I don't know where to look? But the point is basically a hair growth update.)

And I think that about covers it.

Erin

What I'm listening to: Secret Cities
What I'm watching (well, about to watch as soon as I post this): Brick