A few days ago, Chris directed me to an article on Radical Honesty, perhaps because of my recent tell-all endeavor of laying my inner childhood thoughts bare for the world to see. Radical Honesty is a small movement headed up by Brad Blanton. I read one of his books years ago. I was struck by the simplicity and potential life-changing power of committing to always speaking honestly in personal relationships. I was also struck by the high degree of woo-woo espoused by this guy, and the bulk of the book didn’t appeal to me as much as the basic idea of speaking honestly. I was interested to read this article and revisit the idea.

Blanton advocates removing the filter between your brain and your mouth. If you’re in a conversation with someone and you’re bored out of your mind, he might suggest that you say it exactly how you’re thinking it. For example, “You’re boring the shit out of me right now with your inane little ramblings, and I’m going to go do something else.”

As of tonight, two little pigs live at The Wallow!

When I went to buy them, the only surprise was that the pigs aren’t as big as I thought they’d be. The guy I was buying them from put them in the back of my truck, so that went smoothly. When I got home, it was my job to get them out of the truck and into the barn stall I’ve made up for them. Getting them out of the truck was a bit of an adventure. Little pigs do not want to be gotten! It took some determination to get hold of them, and there was a lot of squealing.

Just a quick note to let you know that I’m going to be doing some template edits on this site over the next couple of days. That means there might be some weird things going on here from time to time, but in a couple of days it’ll be all sorted out. Thanks!

But what is this economy thing? Often, it’s talked about in terms of GNP, which is the total dollar value of final goods and services. We’re told this number is supposed to be big. In grade school, I remember hearing about the GNP of different nations. Ours was great. For other countries, we laughed at their little numbers.

In what way does this system measure the health of a nation? Since GNP only looks at things that have a monetary value, it seems possible that it risks measuring the non-health of a nation. The truth is that many of the things that indicate a quality of life, a richness and fullness of life, and a reflection of basic values simply cannot be measured by money. On the other hand, illness – both mental, physical, and spiritual – can be measured financially.

I love restaurant food. I love my food to be covered in cheese and grease and contain magic-restaurant calories and be made by someone else and brought out to me. Increasingly, I’m less interested in the part where it’s made by someone else. I really enjoy being at home, and I really want to know what’s in my food (even if it’s cheese and grease). I want to save money by making things at home. All sorts of reasons. Sometimes this leads to frustration, though, as the stuff at home tends to be “healthier”, and doesn’t always satisfy me when I have a craving for junk food.

The other night, I was hungering for something restaurant-y, but I didn’t want to head out to an actual restaurant to get it. I opened up my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook determined to make myself something yummy. I don’t have very much experience cooking, but I was sure I could find something. The very first item in the very first section (appetizers) was pizza rolls. Ah ha! Cheese! Meat! Bread! Hard to go wrong.

A friend recently asked me about why I was living in a van. Didn’t I like living in a house? I said, yes, I had liked my house okay, but I was never there. Between work, being at my boyfriend’s house, etc., I was only there a couple of nights a week, and then mostly to just grab some stuff or to sleep.

I had an odd little moment where I realized that that’s mostly what I’m doing with the van, too. With temperatures being so high, I’m mostly just in the van to grab some things or to go to sleep. I spend my time at my boyfriend’s house, working online at Chick fil A, or spending all day at the gaming bar on free ladies day. So why the van, if I’m not living in it any more than I was living in my house.

I realized that expectation is the difference in what makes the van more comfortable for me. Having a whole house creates a certain set of expectations just by its being and by your having it.