The time I would normally run, change the scenery to ease this troubled mind. I’m learning, I’m learning fast how to use this stubborn head. They call me El Burro Blanco, the white donkey. What started as a nickname for the business, seems to describe more than just one of my muscles. The collapse of mindset, the by the book ways don’t work in this skull. When my mind is clear I struggle, when life get’s easy I struggle. Hard to keep going on such a boring path, my ideas lay numb in my brain. When I have nothing left, when I have no explanation for the words is when I get past just thinking. I build, I create stories and ideas that take my opportunity to the next level.

A college drop out can only survive on his ideas, a steady job means little to me. Waiting two weeks for a fresh start is no lifestyle for me, get me a paycheck on a Tuesday. The same thing every day, I am no career man. I never wanted to be just one thing, I never will be. Learning to create my own change, learning to create change in the city I live. I’ve seen enough already, eleven homes in three years; its time for a break. The constant moving took its tull on every strand of my being. Learning how to chase the dreams I can catch, it’s all at the tip of these fingertips. I can’t find it anywhere else, creating the new is better than finding it. This entrepreneurial mind knows how to flow, the ideas run as the intensity grows.

Experiences we have change our perspective of the worlds we know. Limiting ourselves to the comfortable, the familiar, only limits what we can become. Being uncomfortable, being scared allows you to grow stronger as a person. You learn to resolve the negative forces in your life and figure out how to take care of yourself. The hardest thing is figuring out that you were wrong. Sometimes your biggest mistake and your best decision are the same thing. Life can always teach you something, and that can be the most valuable thing we get from life’s experiences. You learn, you love, you grow. You grow into the person you want to be. Never limit yourself to a location, time frame, or job. The world is limitless and always finds a way to work for those prepared to put in the work. Every house, every street corner, and every block has something you can take away from it. Keep your head up and your eyes open because there is always something to see. At some point we should all see the world, there’s no fun in being content.

I have the itch to move, the need to flight this town. I am used to this feeling, I’m always ready to go. Sometimes you just want to get rid of everything for that chance at something big, the experience of a lifetime. I feel minutes from filling my pack and seeing how far my thumb can get me across the Americas. Once you taste adventure, you need to have more. It’s about time that I get myself out of this town for a bit, get out the way I know how. A strip of cardboard and a magic marker aught to do the trick for me. I haven’t decided if I want to move or just an adventure, a city this isolated traps you in. I need to be somewhere I can’t get stuck. Europe sounds good to me, I could take the train to whatever town I was feeling that day. The various cultures in such a small area really tickles my fancy. With so many worlds so close, why wouldn’t traveling or staying in Europe be a good idea.

What it all comes down to is money; money to go money to stay. Having money takes the stress off the little things in life. Once that worry of money is gone you can really look at the real issues. Entrepreneurship is my main focus, so the question is where should I move and what should I open there. I could open a bare-bone restaurant almost anywhere. I have a decent ability for making beers and wines which would be a good start up, and the medical marijuana business in California is booming, although that bubble may pop if it’s legalized. I got the ideas, now where do I want to go and start up again, I have the option to go anywhere. This world is so interesting I would hated to get trapped in another town, I always need to see more. I need to be able to wake up smell that breeze and smile, to be happy in whatever I am doing, wherever I am at. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, a lot of mistakes, but the next morning the world is still spinning. I need a solid plan of action, a plan B, and a door number 3. I need this next one to really count, to all work out so the next step is even easier. It’s in the moments like this that we really test ourselves to be our bests.

This town has come and gone, there are no tomorrow’s, just today’s. Every day is a new today, a new day to grow slowly. The humid air keeps you focused, slows you down. You can’t waste time in this air, you live life with intent. With no sense of direction it’s hard to feel lost, the old men invite you into their home. Their beautiful home filled with the leftovers of the world; it’s hard not to feel comfortable. Time moves slow here. The steamy air pulls the life out of you, the old life. The old men don’t appreciate your cynicism, they pull it from you with the stinging air. Walking, talking and breathing make you sweat, sweat out everything you’ve ever known. It leaves you empty, empty of hate empty of loneliness, empty of every emotion that isn’t true. The old men smile at you politely as you walk by. Their frail beards flow in the wind, absorbing the evils of this ghost town. It takes a toll on these forever aging beings. Their beards gray, gray from the evil that has happened. Gray from the loss of hope, from the tragedy, from the storms that passed.

The old men surround the tombs of the dead, the tombs of the undead. Legacies built of concrete and mortar, all that remains is a name and a date. The old men quietly guard these places of unrest, these trapped souls. Not trapped by the mortar or the iron that surrounds their homes, trapped by this town. The old men watch quietly, protecting those that have passed from our world and stepped into theirs. The tombs can only protect the remnants of the past, the bodies of the dead. The iron is a beautiful facade that surrounds their forever homes. Souls are not kept in by the gates or the walls, these barriers cannot keep them safe.

The old men watched these souls before they met their fate. They watched closely as the children of their town lived and breathed. It must sadden them to see us go, to see us step into their shadow of a world. When we go we are free, free from the madness of this world we live in. The ghosts are safe from this world. The old men watch these leftover souls like they are still the children that walked the streets before. The old men keep them safe from harm, safe from emotion. A town like this makes you fear nothing, a town constantly in survival. What can you fear when you know that you are safe even when you leave. The history of yesterday lingers in this town of the past. It’s hard to understand that you are here today when this history surrounds you.

Life has seemed to stop, surrounded by the memories of what was. The humidity stings you, shocks you like that first kiss. It brings you back to the beginning of everything. The teal french shutters are a remnant of another time, surely not today. A town of history, a town of loss; it shrouds any love, love cannot escape those shutters. The shutters are just an idea of safety and comfort. The shutters hold back the wind and the rain but that’s all they can provide. The old men are the truth, married to the lady of Orleans. The old men love, it’s the only way they know to protect their children.

They absorb all the evil so we can rest, so we can sleep safely. They absorb the bad that clouds our minds and blocks the truths we know. All we can ask for is love, it’s the old men’s job to help us see that. Without love we have nothing. Love makes the bad things seem small. Love slows us down, helps us focus. The lives we had and lived no longer matter, what matters is today. Love drains us of everything we have ever felt. The confusion of our world seems to disappear. We are left empty of every emotion that never belonged. Love diminishes evil and loneliness. Like the souls we are left vulnerable, but love will keep us safe. When we leave this place all that remains is a name and your love. Love will always keep you safe.

The developing countries of the globe need to quickly come to a water revolution. Without an adequately design water infrastructure, developing countries will find it impossible to feed the people of their nation. These countries are already experiencing vast shortages of their own agricultural needs. Their inability to produce food leads to increased imports for these nations. In-turn, money is lost from taxation and tariffs and instead is invested on the infrastructures of other countries. These developing countries need to industrialize and step into the global market. Industrialization of large developing countries will facilitate the means to strengthen each countries systematic needs.

With an industrial revolution comes the need for increased food and water. In order for developing countries to expand their agricultural sectors they will need to vastly improve their current agricultural system. A second agricultural revolution will be necessary to facilitate a larger population. Utmost efficiency is how these countries can step into the global market place, while increasing the overall health and welfare of it’s people. There has been speculation that a vegetarian society would help to increase food production while cutting water use, this is highly implausible and is a nice thought rather than an effective one.

Many vegetarian advocates who have taken a biology 101 course have used the argument of biomass transfer, and the amount of food required to feed meat production. Although not all meat production is advantages, certain types are required to utilize land that would not otherwise be usable for crop management. Most pastureland in the U.S. has a higher productive value than it would otherwise have with crops. Meat production has the ability to be utilized in many different types of ecosystems with limited impact. The water use of cattle has been said to be very high, but in pasture fed or grazing situations, cattle utilize the rain-water fed grass systems that would otherwise just become ground water. Pastureland that is inadequate for crop production is able to be utilized in food production most efficiently by livestock.

Areas such as Africa specifically have large areas of grassland that are used for permanent pasture farming. The advantage of permanent natural pasture farming is the ability to take advantage of the opportunity costs of rainfall. Permanent pasture farming has very few costs financially and costs to the environment. Unlike agricultural crop, pasture farming helps to sustain other ecosystem services. Grazing creates fodder and improves biodiversity from competition between flora and fauna. Unlike livestock, a crop system would use more water and would require destruction of the previous habitat.

Sure livestock can be produced in certain areas that crops can’t, but do we need cattle? If we have enough land to produce crop for the world, we wouldn’t need the niche tendencies of livestock agriculture. Cultivatable land expansion is limited in Asia and it is unlikely that any expansion will take place in Europe, North America, Russia and Oceania. Currently, half of all cultivatable land available lays in one of seven countries in Africa and Latin America. These countries are: Angola, Congo, Sudan, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Columbia (Falkenmark Rockström). We have little room to expand our crop output currently, in order to facilitate the population increase that is expect to occur in the next fifty years we need livestock agriculture.

Africa, home to some of the largest pastureland, is also home to the largest malnourished populations. Developing countries typically eat much less meat than developed countries do. In the U.S. about 35% of the average diet comes from meat based products (FAO). Developing countries have substantially lower meat intake, typically below 15%. An increase in livestock production in developing countries could have a great impact on global health as well as the global economy. Many developing countries could greatly benefit from an increase in meat production from naturally efficient ecosystems. The lower cost of operation would allow for higher overheads by farmers. In conjunction with a free-trade service for livestock industry, developing countries could quickly enter the global market while remaining self-reliant on their own natural resources.

One could easily argue the same point for vegetable production, for developing countries enhancing crop production is only efficient in places where there is arable land readily available. The countries listed earlier contain the majority of this space, if they were to expand their crop farming, it could be very much help their their economy. However, in nations that have natural pastureland, it is advantages for their economy and land use to practice grazing livestock. In order to turn this natural pastureland into a usable resource in crop production, there is a large amount of land development required that would destroy current ecosystems and divert the natural water flow. It is most cost effective for livestock production in many developing countries than it is to alter the landscape for crop production.

To see the whole paper look Right for my Box and download the document “Fresh Water” on the side of the screen. Any thoughts or suggestions, send me a message or a comment

Ego is a powerful tool that can be used to achieve great things. This is not to say that our ego is necessarily good. Bad things have many times come from cocky people, see beer bongs. As we all know, ego has harsh consequences when mis-used. Most major wars can be seen as a battle of ego, the battle to win, to be the best. To be a celebrity you need to be good, good at something. Really, just be good at one thing. It is through ego that we show the world what we are capable of. Volunteering is great for the community, it saves the taxpayers millions of dollars. It is hard to think that ego is probably the essential reason why someone would volunteer. Volunteering makes a person feel good about themselves, little Chatty Kathy picked up trash all day at the beach, makes her feel warm and tingly inside. It is in doing good that we can feed our ego. It is being recognized for doing good that we stoke the metaphorical fire that is our ego.

If people in this country had a bit more pride we would be number one in education instead of obesity rates. Instead our country floats somewhere around fifteenth in the world in reading, math, and science. Ego drives us to be the best, to strive to be something recognized. If our brightest students out of school were becoming teachers, having pride in our future and our ability to be the best, our next generation would help progress our country to a level that very few could compete with. It is the apathetic nature of the individuals in our country that limits progression. We are a nation of individuals, we currently do not have the ability for change. Throughout the entirety of our day we think as the self, this is the ego. As a nation we need to start thinking how the ego of self can reach proportions raising the status of our people.  By working to become the best we can be; we will collectively raise the standard for which our nation holds it’s values. Getting straight A’s in school means nothing unless you can apply that to the real world. When we slack or settle, we are unable to raise the standards of our self-worth. It is through the drive of the individual ego that we can progress as a society.

I have seen and met women all over the world; that isn’t a statement of dick size, but rather a statement of fact. There are no women that I have intentionally avoided much like these North Park girls. I have started to lose hope and am wondering where a person goes in this city to find an honest and realistic girl that is single and not a lesbian. I think it may be time for me an Jon to head down to DePaul and find some nice girls. I hear Columbia has it going on too, bunch of indie chicks and gay dudes at that school. No competition from the men and the women have that nice Seattle style that I have grown to love. Even the cool girls at North Park I have little interest in. The cool girls are often the more godly girls, the girls that stand no chance in a relationship with Agnostic me. I need a way to deter those good christian girls. It seems people make the most assumptions about who I am based on the stickers on my laptop. Many times now girls have mentioned how they thought I was Canadian because of the sticker that says “maple leaf for life.” Ew gross, me a Canadian? I’m just representing Seattle and our coffee. What I need on my computer next should probably be something like the Star of David. I have the curls, people would assume I was Jewish. It would work perfectly for my wants, deter the girls who just aren’t right for me, and attract me some kosher girls. I have many theories about kosher women, most of which should not be spoken of due to their awesome nature. Hell, if people thought I was Jewish, I would be the balls in this neighborhood. Head to java every morning and get me a bagel and shmear. I figure the jewish girls at North Park are probably on the same page as the higher than normal percentage of crazy ones. Regardless of if I meet someone I like or not, odds are I will probably have to play those classic pre-anything games. You know the ones where the guy has to make every move. They call it playing hard to get, but in reality it’s like a knife in the foot. Let’s use that metaphor to describe relationships now. Would you date a girl if it required getting shanked in the foot, I think not. That is how I feel about playing games in order to get to know a girl. Getting stabbed in the foot is a pain in the… Foot. I have never gotten into a relationship that had games from the start. Maybe it’s because the women who aren’t playing games and are honest get my respect. I can’t date a girl who I don’t respect, it’s just natural. We Flemish Italian kids hold ourselves and the people we associate with in high regards. It takes time to be besties with a Paulus. My high standards and more than cocky nature make it difficult to find the right woman, I guess that’s why I tend to duck out before it gets too serious. I just see myself as realistic, I don’t want to have a relationship that I look back on and regret the girl who I was dating. I need ultimates, the girls I have dated I still hold plenty of respect for, the circumstances of the relationship are what end it. I am just not the type who is going to settle with having someone. Now the worry of becoming a ‘Sexless Inn-Keeper’ is kicking in, but it seems this is probably the healthiest resolution for my personal and social lives.