RSS Feed and Mutual Funds

Two random and very different subjects. This post is more a test of the RSS feed then anything else. I heard the subscription for the blog was not working so I am testing the RSS feed which is located in the bottom right of the page. I use live bookmarks which is part of firefox or is an add-on. It seems to be working fine.

On a side note, I just opened a retirement fund. In order to receive a retirement tax credit I had to contribute twice the credit to a Roth IRA. Investing is another place to think about the bigger impact of your actions. When you invest in anything you are giving your money to some person or company and they are taking it and making changes (probably very small if you are contributing to a Roth IRA) to the world you and everyone else currently has to live in. Almost all publicly traded companies primary concern, by definition is making money. It’s concerns are not keeping people safe, making the world a better place to live or even keeping the world a decent place for humans to live. By investing in a company there is a good chance you are shooting your self in the foot. Companies could very well be taking your money and using it to change the government to allow them to put more toxins into the air or water that you need to live. That is just a very basic example but there are many many things that business, in the pursuit of higher profits, do to make your life worse. Just another thing to think about before you invest. There are some mutual funds that specialize in companies that do not do strive to make a profit with no regard for actual real cost. I will let you know what I find!

Food Inc

I just watched the movie Food Inc which was nominated for an Oscar this year. It is a very interesting documentary about what has happened to our food supply in the last 50 years. It briefly talks about many of thing things I have been been posting about here. I highly recommend it for anything who eats food! I have added a link to the official web site under links on the right.

Off the wagon

After a very poor week in general and topped off by a unmotivated day of work, a very frusterating game of basketball and blowing out my car tire on a curb I decided there would be no better way to end my day then with a quart of ice cream. I have a sweet tooth and often get cravings for sugar in the evening. Looking on the bright side of things the ice cream was made locally (Marianne’s Ice Cream) and packaging was mostly cardboard (had a little plastic on the top). The not so bright side was that I ate the whole thing that night! Can’t be perfect all the time, but I don’t recommend eating a quart of ice cream at once 🙂 My stomach did not feel good the next day.

New Links

I just added two links on the right side of the page. No Impact Man and End of the Line are two documentaries I watched shortly before getting serious about changing my consuming habits. They are both really interesting, informative and inspirational. The biggest impact they had on me was reminding me why I try not to eat meat. Since watching those two films I have reduced my meat and fish purchasing to almost nothing. It has been about four months now and the extent of my meat purchases have been one trip to the fresh choice buffet. I love buffets and it’s very difficult for me not to try everything on the menu! In a moment of weakness I ate some clam chowder, turkey chilly and a small piece of peperoni pizza. Not too bad for 4 months. I highly recommend both of these movies.