Gone Indie.

** I've decided to bring this blog back from the dead. **

Over the past year, I’ve gradually switched over to using just about entirely indie cosmetics. Before last May I had no idea indie brands even existed – no kidding. I’m not a makeup snob, but I own a fair amount of stuff (mostly eye shadow, I almost never wear lip stuff aside from balm) from the big “mid range” brands, i.e. Urban Decay, Hard Candy (when it was part of Urban Decay and not the Walmart stuff), Ulta, and Sephora’s own line, to name a few. I didn’t even know LOOSE eye shadow existed until I finally wandered over to the Bare Minerals display in Sephora one day. To be fair, I purchased a lot of my cosmetics off eBay and never spent a lot of time at makeup counters.

The accidental discovery:

I was browsing Etsy one day (I’ve had a shop since June 2009) using the keyword “pokemon,” because I’m secretly still an eight year old, and I came across a blue eye shadow called ‘Squirtle.’ Whaaaaat? After I browsed around the shop (if you haven’t figured it out yet I’m talking about Shiro Cosmetics) and had a minor geek out over the pokemon themed eye shadow, I placed my very first order with an indie company. Lucky for me it was a company that has consistently had good quality products and good customer service.

Expansion Pack:

I’m not sure I would have EVER found other indie brands if I hadn’t looked at the blog run by Shiro’s owner. She had reviewed Concrete Minerals and Fyrinnae, I read the reviews, and then a whole new world appeared in front of me. I had additional orders coming in from Shiro, HiFi, Concrete, and Fyrinnae within a couple of weeks. I was amazed at how cheap everything was (I mean compared to what, $16 for an Urban Decay shadow?) and shipping was totally affordable for these beautiful complex colors.

I really liked the personal touch that many indie companies give to their customers. Most of the owners have blogs and an online presence, and for the most part whenever I’ve had questions I get a response back really quickly. And more importantly the quality of products is generally better than anything I’ve bought from the store. After doing my own research on cosmetics ingredients I realized how it did not make me happy that my store bought stuff was packed with stuff like talc to stretch the coloring ingredients as far as possible. Talc is laaame (and I am allowed to say this because I have a degree in Geology) and if I’m paying top dollar for a little pot of eye shadow it better be top notch ingredients.

For the most part I’ve been extremely pleased with all of the indie cosmetics I’ve purchased. I quickly expanded from just eye shadow to lip balms (I am a lip balm whore apparently), body scrubs, soap, and more recently shampoo and foundation. I’m still testing out one shampoo and conditioner combo, and I’m comparing an indie primer to UDPP (the only one that’s ever consistently worked for me, sad face, it’s too expensive). Next up on my list is the foundation (Geek Chic’s Codex). I’m very pale with a definite pink tint – almost all store bought foundations are too yellow for me, and I was just intimidated by the number of color choices on Meow Cosmetic’s site (although in the future I hope to purchase foundation from them). Unfortunately I still suffer from bouts of acne at age 22 and haven’t had a consistently clear week where I felt OK with not wearing liquid foundation, so I haven’t worn much of Codex yet.

Why indie?

I like small businesses. I think large corporations will be the undoing of humanity, but that’s just me. Also indie cosmetics are for the most part better quality and more affordable… so why not buy indie? A lot of indie companies also offer vegan products. I’m not vegan (I’m not even vegetarian… tried it for 5 months but couldn’t stick with it), but I see the “vegan-ness” of products as a nice bonus. I actually don’t like carmine at all and if products are labeled as “vegan” I know I don’t have to worry about it. It’s in your strawberry yogurt, you know. Crushed up cochineal bugs. Mmmmm. So many bugs have to die for like an ounce of the colorant.

Here is a list of indie companies I have purchased from and enjoyed, because I like lists.

Aromaleigh (placed my first order only a few weeks before the announcement of the site closing, boo)

Concrete Minerals (I really liked the samples I bought last summer, jury’s still out on the primer.) [concreteminerals.com]

Detrivoire (I only bought one eyeshadow, a matte called Glacier, but it’s really nice.)

Ethically Engineered* (I haven’t used their products yet, waiting to move into new apartment, but they use solar power, therefore they have already attained a level of awesome) [etsy.com/shop/Ethically Engineered]

Fyrinnae (probably the pinnacle of indie cosmetics – super affordable and WOW colors) [fyrinnae.com]

Geek Chic (haven’t used eye shadows yet, foundation seems nice) [geekchiccosmetics.com]

HiFi Cosmetics (The owner even took the time to answer my question about shade recommendations!) [find on ArtFire or Etsy]

Linnaeus Cosmetics (colors look great, haven’t used yet, owner is very friendly!) [Linnaeuscosmetics.com]

Shiro Cosmetics (very helpful owner, great color selection and nice eyeshadow formula) [shirocosmetics.com]

^This is not inclusive, I’ve definitely forgotten some.

Corporate Sponsored Eco-cide: Mountaintop Removal

So I added a mountaintop removal badge to this blog because I want to make it known that I support the fight to end this mining style across Appalachia.

So what is mountaintop removal, anyway? It's an environmental cause that, in my opinion, is not publicized enough. I had never heard of it until about a year ago, and considering that it directly involves my field of study, that's pretty bad. To quote Mountainjusticesummer.org, Mountaintop Removal "has been called strip mining on steroids...mountaintop removal/valley fill mining annihilates ecosystems, transforming some of the most biologically diverse temperate forests in the world into biologically barren moonscapes."

Sounds pretty detrimental, huh?

That's just the tip of the iceberg. In addition to the fact that entire forests are clear-cut, the top 800-1000 feet of these mountains are literally blasted to bits in order to reach coal seams buried farther down in the stratigraphy. This airborne debris from the blasting further endangers the local wildlife as well as any houses, towns, manmade structures in the area. All the rubble left behind is then simply dumped into nearby valleys, burying streams that create the headwaters of important rivers as well as burying and destroying any living thing beneath it.

That's not even the end of it. All of this fill is unstable land cover and as soon as heavy rains pass through the area, it can mobilize into extremely destructive debris flows, similar to ones caused by volcanic eruptions. These bore down into the surrounding area endangering the lives of people as well as animals, trees. etc. The mining companies frequently ignore these liabilities or try to pass them off as "acts of God" for which they are not responsible.

The by-product of coal "washing," that is readying it for sale, is a slurry of carcinogenic chemicals, coal dust, and toxic heavy metals such as arsenic that leeches out of the coal directly. This sludge is kept in poorly monitored holding pools with simple earthen dams, typically built into the headwaters of a watershed area. Spills and dam breakages are frequent, causing catastrophic flooding as well as extensive polluting of any water downstream. This kills fish, fouls drinking water, and destroys ecosystems. The contamination caused by this type of mining has been measured over the years - many water sources are balancing on the brink of being completely undrinkable.

Coal companies would have you believe that this version of mining creates jobs. This is a lie. Traditional high-wall mining, which involves reaching the coal seams from the outsides where they are exposed on the mountain flanks instead of blasting away the top, is at least LESS detrimental and creates hundreds of more jobs. There are actual people involved in high-wall mining, not simply dynamite and a few guys to haul debris around and dump it into valleys. Looking beyond coal, building wind-power plants and other forms of alternative energies would create jobs too, of course - then the mining companies would be out of business.

This practice is an entirely preventable TRAVESTY to all of the ecosystems in Appalachia, as well as the negative impact it has on the health of people who inhabit the region. Coal companies are destroying beautiful mountain scenery, old forests, biologically diverse ecosystems, and the lives of people unlucky enough to be in their way. All for a bigger profit margin at the end of the year.

I implore everyone to educate themselves more about the issue. Please take the time to visit ilovemountains.org (click on the badge at the top of this page), mountainjusticesummer.org, or appvoices.org. There are so many other issues that I do not have the time to address in this post, please read some more and learn how you can help support the movement to end this dangerous and destructive practice.

Or watch this video. It will make you upset. Props, credit, and thanks to Kyle for finding it first.

http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2198

Climategate?

This whole climategate issue seemed to fall out of the media eye pretty quickly. I haven't heard anything about it on a major media outlet in several weeks, although since returning home from school I have certainly been watching less of the news.

Several other university students I've talked to in my department expressed concern about how this would impact pending climate or environmental legislation. I have to say, it weirds me out that even in a state as liberal as Massachusetts I kept seeing ads that were anti-environmental legislation (notably all paid for by the American Petroleum Institute).

Personally, I think this whole climate scandal was an attempt to darken the skies over the Copenhagen summit. American and foreign oil companies want to block any legislation that might have an impact on their profits, and they don't see too far beyond the next fiscal year in my opinion. Taking email correspondence out of context is a very dangerous thing, and I hope that people don't read too far into this scandal without knowing the whole story.

Unfortunately, I think that won't be the case. The public appears to be very skeptical of science in general, not just climate science. It's important for scientists to make their information more understandable to the public so that people can form their own opinions instead of blindly following the twisted propaganda that they're fed.

The bottom line is that these oil companies and other polluting industries are about to get their way, and everyone who believes in keeping this world healthy and safe for future generations absolutely HAS to step up and help keep pro-environmental legistlation on the table. If we lose this battle and keep emitting carbon like we've been doing for the last 100 years, things are going to heat up real fast. We have to look beyond the next 10 or 20 years and see how our behavior will impact the next 100 to 200 years and farther. Climategate or not, we have to accept the reality that our behavior may be and most probably is drastically altering the world we live in so many ways.

Growing up Girl Scout... not really

So I thought I'd do a short post on one of the biggest aspects of Geology, field work. Last semester I took my first field class. I didn't really know what to expect, except it was a 4 1/2 hour time commitment every Thursday. I soon learned that I'm pretty ill - equipped for that sort of thing.

I spent 13 years in Girl Scouts. I went 'camping' and hiking and did outdoorsy stuff, but I was never prepared for making a pace and compass map in a foot and a half of snow on uneven terrain. Or scrambling up a blocky basalt slope at a 70 degree angle and clinging to a tree for dear life. I fall all the time while hiking and I'm usually the one holding up the group. I've even had to slide on my butt down the side off a cliff because I couldn't figure out where to put my feet and have a 50 year old man assist me back up. I suppose I'm a little bit of a geologist failure in that regard.

I do understand the importance of fieldwork though. It's much easier to imagine the local geologic history of an area when you're staring at a massive wall of conglomerate instead of a little chunk in the lab. Topographic maps are pretty helpful as well, even though I greatly disliked having to map outcrops on them for my class. The little lines are so TINY and close together! I hope that my second fieldwork class coming up next semester will be a little easier on my legs and balance skills. It's nice to get out and explore the area surrounding UMASS, especially since i'm not a Massachusetts native.

And hey, in a year, I went from only having "hiked" on national park trails (and a snowcap out on Mt. Rainer) to clmbing down steep waterfall gorges and being chased off an exit ramp outcrop by the state police. I've even had to trek through underbrush! But, I've gotten to see 2 snakes (and pet!), a salamander, a millipede (ew!), porcupines, and a random chimney in the forest.
Successful? Yes.

And Now For Something Completely Different

So even though this was intended to be primarily a Geology related blog, I've decided to post about something completely unrelated in a late night caffeine fueled rant (and hopefully get some more views).

As some may know, I'm a fairly successful seller on Ebay. I have been selling since I was 18 and working hard to build a good reputation with my customers. The not so brilliant minds behind the corporation have also been working hard to undermine small time sellers like myself with weird, useless, and expensive changes to the listing policies. Aside from only giving good visibility in search results to sellers who ALREADY have high volume sales and don't need it, now Ebay is taking away optional shipping insurance. Sellers are now REQUIRED to pay for the insurance instead of leaving it up to the buyer (and out of the 300+ transactions that I've been a part of, maybe 12 of them have involved purchasing shipping insurance). Ebay's answer to this: just raise your shipping costs or start your items higher. Well, geniuses, buyers already complain about shipping costs even when they're well under the true cost, and if people start their items higher then less people will bid on them. Once again, only large scale businesses can absorb these extra costs. Thanks a lot, Ebay, eventually only large businesses will be able to sell and Ebay will become another Amazon.com.

I'm going to do some skillful cross promoting here - this links to my Ebay My World page if anyone's interested to see what I'm selling (changes weekly of course) http://myworld.ebay.com/karajaco

Just to tie this into geology, here's a nice picture of some rock from my Petrology trip in May. (fault shatter zone in Maine with some feet for scale bars)

"What are you going to do with THAT?!"

So the most common question I get asked after informing people of my choice in majors is "What are you going to do with a degree in THAT?!" I decided I'd do a short post on potential jobs that I know about in my field.

I'm currently on track to get a bachelor of sciences degree in Geology, but I'm focusing on more general earth systems instead of strictly geology. I am able to bypass classes like Structural Geology and Computer Mapping by taking Climatology and Astronomy, for example. This track was designed for people who are going into teaching, but it also works for people who are interested in Pre-Med/Dental and like geology, or Pre-Law (like me!)

So, for future reference, I can get a job in environmental law or as a consultant for companies who need knowledge of the law combined with practical knowledge and skills. Vague, I know. I can also work in the field on various projects having to do with mineral content or location of groundwater or my personal favorite, using the history preserved in rocks to piece together what the ancient world looked like. Or I might want to get a job in the Seismology field so I could help predict earthquakes and the evil minions that go along with them.
So for all you naysayers, I have Options! (it's always good to have options)

PS. I'd like to post a relevant link - a compadre in the Umass geosciences department is spending several weeks in Svalbard, this sad little island above the Arctic Circle where it's still only like 40 degrees even though it's summer and the sun won't set for another month or something like that. He's got a blog too, so since it's relevant to geology AND he's a pretty chill guy check it out: http://researcharctic.blogspot.com

Pilot - First Post

So this is my first post. Yay. Since this is the beginning of my blog, I thought I would talk about where the beginnings of my interest in Geology began.

Dumont, NJ. A humble backyard on a small plot of land. Obviously not my house, because we have a less than small plot of land.
I used to dig up my aunt's backyard day after day looking for 'dinosaur teeth.' For years, I thought I was totally weird, but since I've grown up and gone to college I've met a couple other people who used to undertake large archaeological excavations in their backyard before they were old enough to register for Neopets.

Actually, it goes back a little farther than that. I was three years old the year that my parents took me to Bushkill Falls, the self-proclaimed "Niagara of Pennsylvania." Obviously, it has some merit to its title since the park has such a profound impact on my life. After that trip, I became obsessed with waterfalls. Even 17 years later I'm still not entirely sure what it is about waterfalls that I love so much, it has something to do with the whole water/gravity interaction though. My parents even considered taking me to a psychologist because they were concerned about my fixation. Apparently, all I ever drew were waterfalls, and not just imagined ones - I reproduced ones that I had seen, and rather accurately for a little kid.

I still love waterfalls, but it blossomed into a love for the field of geology itself. I love how complex the inner workings of the earth are. I spent my childhood reading every book in the Cresskill library about volcanoes and earthquakes when the rest of my classmates were reading Freckle Juice. Since I'm loaded with free time at the moment, I am bringing my joy and wit to the world. Yes, you should be grateful.