I had a long day at work that extended 2 days. First I worked at Target, cleaning all the bathrooms and vacuuming and all that stuff. 6 hours and no break with no time to even sit down. Its not all that bad, but I do have to kind of hustle to get everything done. So thats 4 am to 10 am. Then I had a break in the day before a new catering job at 3 oclock. I used my break to go to salvation army to get clothes for the catering thing. Then I went to the catering thing, a wedding. It was my first day and it ended up being an 11 hour day, I didnt get out till 2 in the morning. I think I was sweating the entire 11 hours, Im pretty sure I was. Thats not an exageration. Well then I had work again at 4 in the morning and I wasnt feeling up to it really. So I stayed there just to get the bathrooms done and left at 6.

Anyway, I was kinda tired and slept most of the day. When I woke up I watched this documentary called No Impact Man. I had heard about it maybe a year ago and wanted to see it. Well I did and liked it. Also got some ideas from it. And of course they relate to sci-fi...of course.

The movie is about a man who decides that he wants to live a year in his apartment with his wife and child, making no negative impact on the environment. So he doesnt drive or buy new things and doesnt produce any garbage, gets all of his food locally and all that stuff. It was great. In the movie there were shots of him being on tv and talk shows and good morning america and being in newspapers and all that stuff. It was a big deal, I mean I even watched the movie. He also had a blog and there were tons of comments and things written about him all over the place saying how he was stupid and dirty and that they didnt like what he was doing and hated it and thought he was rediculous or something. This all made me think of sci-fi.

Watching the movie, especially the parts where he was in the news, made me think of how this is such a sci-fi thing. A sci-fi thing is something that I often find myself thinking about. To me, finding a sci-fi thing, is something that is now common but once wasnt. It can also be the exact opposite however, for example in this case, something that once was common, but no longer is. I call this sci-fi and point it out cause it really stands out to me as a reflection of ourselves today and the way people have lived and the general outlook of our own lives and society and individuals throughout history. I call this sci-fi because I believe that the purpose of good science fiction is to broaden the spectrum of possibility and observation of ones self and ones society. This along with scientific evidence help to bring about the idea that perhaps there could be some merit to these ideas that seem so radical and unrealistic. Its sort of like this term used in acting and science fiction, its whats called the willing suspension of disbelief. It is clear when watching a play, that the people you are watching arent actually kings and queens, or street rats or actual cats. You have to willingly allow yourself to fall into this world in order to understand the story. Its the same with science fiction, clearly the idea of itnerstellar space travel isnt something that is possible for people the way we read it in books. But we have to willingly allow ourselves to believe the things we read in order to understand the story and the point or moral of the story.

So watching this made me think of sci-fi because I have this thing in my head that pops up when Im reading or watching or thinking about sci-fi...stuff. And that thing is the people who sort of dont allow themselves to become interested, or the people who see science fiction and fantasy as childish things that are a waste of time. It seems to me like the mindset of this person is one who might watch a space movie or some futuristic city film and just laugh at the flying cars and interstellar travel, thinking that its a stupid movie just because of the setting. Now I definetely find humor in most movies, based on a lot of things such as the setting and the dialouge and props and acting, basically the stuff that youre not really supposed to notice, but I point it out and laugh at it. However, this doesnt mean that the point of the story isnt relavent or important. Just because the effects of a film arent on par with spielberg, doesnt mean that what the film has to say isnt as good as something much better than spielberg. Most of his movies have a basic cookie cutter plot anyway, its just the effects that make a movie "good" today.

This movie, No Impact Man, and its tv and radio spots, made me think of the people who dont like sci-fi. In this case, Ill call them the insiders, and theres a reasom for that name. I call them that because they are the kind of person who cant seem to understand concepts outside of their realm of imediate impact on their life...in a way. Thats kind of saying a lot but it works in relation to this post and to the No Impact Man. All of the people who were disregarding this man and saying how much they hated what he was doing, they were the insiders. They are the same people as the ones who disregard science fiction as good works of literature.

What was so funny about this movie were those parts where he was on tv and in the news, because that was the total sci-fi part. People were baffled by what he was doing, and it kept coming up in the movie, the question of is it possible to lead a healthy happy life, while producing no garbage. What a silly thing. Its as if he were an alien and people had no idea what to do, they didnt understand it and werent used to it, so they basically came up with reasons to not like it, because it wasnt what they were doing. People seem to just be too involved with the way they have always lived. Something that is new might actually be a better choice than the way things are typically done today. After watching the movie I talked to Kristine on the phone who liked what I had to say about the movie. She is very picky about her food, and I think my talk about people disliking this man and his way, made her think about herself and her food habits. She told me about how her mom put frozen food in a microwave for a few seconds and that she got grossed out by it, because she didnt put it on a plate. She also told me about how her mom dropped some meat on the garage floor and came back in to wash it off to prepare it, but Kristine said that she wasnt going to eat it because it fell on the floor where theres dirt and probably gasoline.

In this situation, I thought of the things that people have been lead to believe are acceptable and healthy and safe. So in this case, microwaving food is safe, but without a plate its not. Having this device in our house which sends microwaves back and forth in order to produce heat which, after long term exposure is proven to have carcinigenic effects is safe. But frozen food with no plate? And the same with dropping the food on the ground. Its perfectly safe and smart to drive a car to work everyday which releases carbon emmisions and to then yourself walk around these vehicles that produce the material which then goes into your lungs, but washing off the food that fell on the garage floor isnt good enough to go into our bodies. The same hipocritical sort of logic goes into my job, of cleaning Target. What my employers and costumers are looking for is a clean Target, and by that I mean a store that doesnt have any pieces of garbage on the ground and one that has little garbage in the garbage cans and a shiny floor. This doesnt mean that its clean or that Im making anything clean. It just means that Im spreading chemicals all over the store and then flushing these toxic chemicals down the drain to go back into the water system. This means that Im just collecting all of the garbage produced in one day, garbage that probably adds up to 200 pounds, maybe more, I dont think I could lift all of it up if it were in one bin. Then Im throwing it in a bin to be sent to a place where there is nothing but mounds of garbage. And this is whats seen as safe and clean and heathly. But a man that tries to have no harmful effects on the environment is critisized?

Its hard to get all of my thoughts together when writing something like this because clearly there is a lot that goes into my thinking process, at least on this issue. Its also hard to write something that makes sense when Im somewhat angry at these people who I cant even really give a face to. Its the closed off mindset, the outlook which doesnt allow for progression as a more healthy functioning society. Its the in it for yourself mentality which breeds stagnation and closed off ignorance when anything new arrives. Im sure there are more things I want to say about this, and I know that it would just branch out to more and more things, but I think I should leave it at this right now, because ultimately I want to have a positive atitude when it comes to everything. Its hard to see a chance of a successful society of intelligent people living for eachother when I live and work on this planet. But I always want to have a positive outlook on everything I do, and I know that there is always something useful out of every experience. So that is the sort of mindset that I eventually want to go with in terms of this post. However Im a little torn right now with my feelings of agression to the bulk of people who are still insiders. So Im just going to leave this post as concluded.