Dear Irresponsible Dog Owner,
So.
You think leash laws don't apply to you, huh? You think you're exempt? You think that if you put your dogs in the back of your truck parked in your front yard in a kennel that they have chewed off the door that they won't attack me and my dog on our daily walk. Surprise, they will.
Luckily I'm the kind of dog owner that is prepared for this kind of thing. I know that my dog has problems with aggression so I NEVER let him outside the house without a LEEEEAAASH. I had the common sense to scoop my dog up (who weighs sixty pounds, I'll have you know) and carry him out of the situation. But here's a little nugget of advice for you, LEASH YOUR DOGS! Because if one of your dogs HAD bitten my dog or my lovely leg as I dealt a warning kick to him, I would have felt obligated to call the popo on you and then where would we be.
Not to say I'm insensitive. It wasn't as if I was in your yard. I was minding my own business on the streeeet. That's why we have these laws. So that when people like me are minding our own business, and chimps like you are leaving your dogs unnattended, people like me don't get eaten. Thank you. Have a nice day.

We could learn a lot from the way young things live. Every new experience is an adventure. Every afternoon can be perfect for a nap. Cautiously, they can make friends with anyone. They hold their family close. They trust indefinitely.

Through long years of animal rights activism and food snobbery I've learned to love expirimenting making dishes until they're perfect and free of things I don't want to put unto my body. I love the satisfaction you get after you create a dish that really hits the spot. These are my latest creations.


Arugula Mango Mushroom Salad with Avocado Lemon Dressing. The salad is arugula, mango, mushrooms sauteed in olive oil with garlic, a stalk of celery, diced, and a green onion, thinly sliced. To make this dish completely raw you can just replace the sauteed mushrooms with marinaded mushrooms.
For the dressing you just mix half an avocado with the juice of a lemon to a pinch of basil and oregano, a teaspoon of Braggs Liquid Aminos or soy sauce, a table spoon of coconut milk, and a half teaspoon of minced garlic. This one is good with arugula, but baby spinach might lend itself better to the freshness of the dish. Try it out for yourself!

This is Mango Strawberry Coconut Ice Cream, born of a night of ice cream cravings and no desire to use dairy. I made it by blending one mango, a cup of frozen strawberries, two tablespoons of coconut oil, half an avocado, a fourth cup of coconut milk, and four tablespoons of agave. Just put it in the freezer and stir it every so often as it forms ice crystals. It's sooo good!

Love and healthy-deliciousness, -Max <3

Um, today was pretty much the greatest day ever.
My day started like this.












I'm dabbling in raw foods for the first time. It's fun!
Then this happened.









And then this. I'm like a sushi junkie. Can't get enough!









Yeah. It was amazing.
-Love and new life, Max.

Why? Why do I do things I KNOW make me feel bad. It's not like happiness is a mystery to me. I know exactly what I have to do. So why don't I do it? My psyche is pretty simple. There are only a few things that trigger crap mode. From this point onward I will:
-Show up when I say I will.
-Keep my word.
-Only buy things I NEED!
-Eat well.
-Be nicer.
-Exercise
What things do you do that ALWAYS make you feel good? Do them! Let's be smart together.

HAPPY FREAKING EARTH DAY!!!
Happy Earth Day, everyone! In the spirit of conservation and minimalism this Earth Day, I have undertaken a little project for y'all.
If you didn't know it already, in the past, I have had a bit of a clothing...addiction? I couldn't seem to get enough. But this Earth Day I decided that I have had enough. I have always admired minimalists, especially the ones the get rid of practically everything. I didn't get rid of everything, but pretty close.
Here is a picture of ALL THE CLOTHING I OWN. Everything. I held nothing back. This is every coat, jacket, shirt, and shoe that I have worn over the last couple years.

Click to enlarge it! I know. I'm gluttonous and horrible. Aside from the monstrous laundry days I've had to face, it is just hard to keep a clean room with all this stuff! Having a dirty life is emotionally, spiritually, and physically straining. So i decided to make a change. I sorted through my things, gave my Dad his socks back, my brother his pajama pants, a whole heapa stuff to DI, finally separated out my scout uniforms from my regular wardrobe, and put the rest in my "Holding Pen". What is a holding pen you might ask? Well it's a garbage bag filled with clothing. If I can last a couple months without my things, they get to live with someone new. If I can't... well let's cross that bridge when we get to it. I narrowed my things down to a manageable, comfortable amount. Please observe.

Nine shirts
Five pairs of pants
Ten undershirts
Ten pairs of socks and underwear
One pair of dress slacks
One white dress shirt
One wetsuit
One pair of swimming trunks
One pullover
Two ties
One dress belt and one casual belt
One ranch jacket
One pair of work gloves
Ten handkerchiefs
One pair of work boots
One pair of dress shoes
One pair of flip flops
One pair of slip on shoes
Two sets of PJs
It's amazing how it feels to have so few clothes. It's odd. It's the opposite of what you think it would feel like. Instead of being restricting, it's actually really freeing. So I challenge you, do something that scares you. Conserve. Get rid of your junk. Peace and tranquility! Happy Earth Day!

I always find it fascinating how many counterfeits for love there are. Our world is full of them. Lust, pride, greed, addiction. We believe with all our hearts when we are entangled in their deadly grasp that they are our whole world. We can't live without them. It's so hard to see past our obsessions when we are in the midst of them. So often I wonder how I ever began to truly see clearly, or at least more clearly. How do we ever fall out of jealousy's poisonous fingers whole? How do we ever make it out alive? From a person who used to be plagued by counterfeit loves, here is a piece of advice : Love breeds love. Unlike lust, love lingers on and waxes stronger. Unlike pride, love withstands hearty blows from adversaries. Unlike greed, love is easily satisfied and always swelling with joyous content. Unlike addiction, the more love we attain, the bigger our hearts grow and the stronger we become.

Love breeds love. Love never seeks to be hidden. Love never pleads to be horded or rationed to a select few. Love expands exponentially. Love begs to be spread. Love makes us feel GOOD when other people find it. So many things in our lives we want to keep to ourselves for the fear that those things will run out or will be taken over by other people. But when we find what we love to do, we WANT people to join us. We don't care how many people do it with us. It makes us pleased to see that other people love what we love.

So spread your love. It is harder than spreading hate. But the rewards ALWAYS outweigh the doubts we feel about expressing our love. So LOVE! LOVE! LOVE! <3

I love this picture. It so embodies the feeling of being at the stable. Everything is so orderly and relaxed. This is one of the dogs out there. His name's Taz. When he's feeling really peaceful he'll just come up and lean on me or take a quick nap at my feet. Animals teach us so much about what it is to be human.

This week I am working to love what's around me. Embrace what Idaho has to offer. Look for the rich culture that surrounds me. Bring ancestors back to life by reading their journals.

This week communicate the love you feel. Do something you've been putting off. Tonight I finally went to Wal-Mart and got my grandpa's watch fixed. It took less than a minute and now I can keep him closer to me. Take that extra effort. It always pays off.

I've been thinking about writing this post for many days now and I just wasn't sure how to put what I wanted to portray into words. This is probably the biggest thing that keeps me from posting. I know what I feel and I don't want to botch it up putting it across. This post is inevitably long. I have a ton of things I've wanted to say for such a long time I have never said. I've conveniently split it into three parts for easy readability. I hope that some of this will help you.
As many of you know I recently started volunteering at a stable near my house. I don't hesitate in saying it has literally changed my life. For most of my life I thought the whole cowboy scene was pretty lame, maybe it's because it's what I grew up with, maybe not. At first I thought it would just be a lesson but when I was invited to 'hang out' sometime I found myself itching to go to the stable. I wasn't sure what 'hanging out' entailed, but I found that wasting away in front of the computer just didn't cut it for my life anymore. I had to move. I had to act. I had to get myself to that stable!
I gathered what was left of my bank account, went to CAL Ranch Store (a place I went to once as a vegan and was thoroughly appalled). I bought some boots (which I know list as one of my prized possessions) and went to the barn. At first I was apprehentious. As I mentioned before, I wasn't sure what my day would bring. I figured it would be a lot of crap work, which I have to admit, it was. But I also got to work with the horses. I got to groom them and help exercise them and feed them, and that wasn't the crap work! It was invigorating. I had to go back the next day! And the next day. I spent every day there when I had no prior engagement.
For most of my life I dreamed of the sea. I longed to live by the beach and learn to surf. I thought it would fulfill me and fill me with vitality and happiness. I'm not saying that I never will live by the beach because for all I know I will and I will love it. But after going to this , I just feel like I found myself. For the first time, I didn't need to dream about the beach or New York or being an actor. I didn't want to distract myself from what was happening right in front of me.
Which brings me to what I really want to talk about. Our whole lives we are told not to wish our lives away, to live right now, to stop dreaming and live. I always thought I was. I said that if I can just get over this crappy childhood, go on a mission, move to New York and become an actor, I can really live in the now! I know it sounds stupid, but isn't that what so many of us do? We wait for college or a career or a relationship. I know it can be hard to look at what our life is and decide that it is something magical, but that's what we have to do. The only way we can change our surroundings is by our perception of it. Our routine might not change, but we can chose to be enthralled by it. I heard a quote once that went something like "We look to the future, regret the past, and disregard our present." We wait for our dream body, regret bad eating habits, and turn our minds off while we are on the treadmill. We wait for our dream person, hate our exes, and overlook those that are right in front of us. There is so much to be spectacularly grateful for, we just have to open our lives and look for it.
End of thought one.
Beginning of thought two.
This was hard for me for a long time. I heard another quote that said "We can never be happy if we don't acknowledge the reality of our own feelings." I was a champion feelings unacknowledger. I was sad and I pretended I wasn't, I was happy and I thought it was fake, I was angry and I thought I had no right. Only when I allowed myself to admit that I was happy, that I had the right to be mad, that sometimes I just have to mourn the loss of something that would have been really great; did I really start to live. Strength is not the absence of emotion just as courage is not the absence of fear. One can not live without embracing the other.
Acknowledge the reality of your own feelings. This entails a lot but one of the biggest things it meant for me is that what you think is fun, might not be fun for someone else, and vice versa. I thought that every one liked reading so it seemed like waste of time. I thought everyone enjoyed music like I did so it felt like idle time. Find what you love and do it! As long as it doesn't hurt someone else, it's the best thing you can be doing right now! It means something totally different to you than it does for anyone else. It's best to be a first rate version of yourself, than a two bit version of someone else.
End of thought two.
Beginning of thought three.
Don't feel trapped into a future you feel destined for. I can not even express how trapped into a future I have felt. It's no ones fault but my own. No one ever told me I should be an actor. Quite the contrary some of my friends did nothing but try to explain what a irresponsible creature an actor is. I felt that I had no choice. I have talent for it. I like to do it. I wanted the fame. I wanted the satisfaction that comes with performing. I thought I had no choice. The truth is, I would be good at it. I would make money at it. I would be successful and happy and content. So why don't I do it? I don't really know. Perhaps it's because I had pigeon holed myself into it and this is twisted rebellion. Maybe it's because I had a (obvious) revelation that we can do many things and be happy. The measure of a life is not how many hear about it, appreciate it, or want to live it. It's how awesome it feels to live it, by yourself or surrounded by a million screaming fans. We don't HAVE to surf, we can horse ride. We don't HAVE to act, we can write. We aren't destined to be one thing or another. And above all else, we are allowed to change our mind mid-stride. I was ready to move to New York and hit up Broadway when I all but fell into a pile of hay. Part of me told myself not to go. I already had a destiny! I can't go changing now! What will people think? They will say I'm flighty, flaky, uncommitted. I will lose relationships that I have forged because of this aspect of myself. The truth isn't that people that don't like us if we change were never true friends. The truth is that we change. As we change, often everything about us changed. Our clothes and friends and sleeping patterns change and that's completely OK. Acknowledge the reality of your feelings. Allow yourself to change. Don't feel trapped. Do what you love. You can do anything you want and it really doesn't matter what it is. Count your blessings. Live now.

I've been searching for something fulfilling; looking for stress relief that seemed so out of reach. It's like I have been missing this piece of me for so long: something that would drain the poison out of me and fill me with peaceful completion. I think I found it, and it feels real good. c:

The key isn't having your day made, it's remembering it for the rest of the day. c:

I don't have much to say but I haven't posted in a while and I miss you guys. :c
Scout camp gets closer and closer every day. I'm like a giddy school girl. I just can't freakin wait!
Also I've done probably my most angsty thing this year. I signed up for horse riding lessons. Just out of the blue. I read somewhere that when looking for a hobby you should look to what you spent your time doing when you were ten. Since I spent basically my whole childhood sneaking into horse fields and hanging with the steeds, I figure this will be a lot of fun. I start Thursday. I'm so excited!
Anyway, just thought I'd check in. What's up wichu?

Almost went Godzilla on people today. But I didn't. Mission Accomplished.

My heart is so full tonight... I used to hate it when people said that. It sounds so pretentious but that's how I feel. If you're having a sad day I hope this makes you feel a little better.
Most people know that if you have self confidence you will treat yourself and others better. It makes sense but sometimes it's still really hard to remember. But if we think about Jesus and how he died for us and God and how he would let his son get killed, it makes it easier to realize how incredibly special every one of us are. I used to wonder the same thing. Why would God think I'm so special? What's so great about me? The truth is, it's all of us. All of you are so amazing. You have the potential to be happy and perfect. Just remember how short life is. Live it up people! Don't squander your time on your problems. There is so much to take in and if we waste our time on the crap of life, we will miss soo much! Just forget your problems because focusing on them doesn't make them go away. Acknowledge you have problems, everyone does! Now wrap them up in a big black sack and put them out for the garbage man. It's time to have fun.
<3, Max

Love and lots of clean laundry, happy Thursday. c:

Spring might just be here.

This week was pretty uneventful. I found the charger for my phone, a package I had been expecting finally came, and my eardrum collapsed. Actually, to be honest, I don't know why I never thought to look in "The Junk Drawer". The charger wasn't even hidden. It was just sitting at the top of the junk.
OK, OK. I'll tell you about my ear. It was quite an interesting experience. The funny thing about having your ear drum pop is you think that you would have to be assaulted with a screw driver or narrowly survive a venomous snake attack, but the truth is that it can pop for virtually no reason.
From what I could gather from the doctor that I visited (I was a little preoccupied with the steady flow of blood coming from my right ear), if a person gets an infection in just the right area of the throat, the tubes that release the pressure from your eardrum are unable to do their job properly and pressure builds inside your ear (this happened to me at work. It was not fun.) The pain and pressure continues to build until one can barely stand up straight. Then your ear drum explodes.
This is where most people would imagine the pain climaxes, but the case is actually the opposite. Once your drum has drummed it's last drum (for two to three weeks) the pain stops. You can tell it's ruptured because you are suddenly deaf and you're not ninety.
From there- or, here, we wait until my hearing comes back and I take antibiotics. I know. It's a thrilling story.
In other news I experience love at first sight with this camera at Walmart. As is customary when one finds a new love, you have to drop the old one. If you want it I'm selling it here on eBay. It's in perfect condition. I'm just not smart enough to use it. I have honestly only used it seven times. Take it off my hands for me?
anyhew, hope this finds you well. hugs and hot kisses, Max.

For a long time I was very unhappy. I mean VERY unhappy. I don't like it when people say stuff like that because it sounds so whiny. But I'm not feeling sorry anymore. I am so happy now. Like REALLY happy. I love my life a LOT. I stopped wondering why some people's life seemed to be free of the troubles that plagued mine. One day I realized that they weren't as trouble free as I thought. There is pain and suffering everywhere. But there is happiness, beauty, love, friendship, and charity everywhere also. To be happy is a simple attention shift.

Yesterday I read a post by another blogger. It was basically an outline of the things that were so spectacular about her life at the moment. I liked the idea so much I had to do it to. So...

Reasons that I love my life right now include St. Tropez and the amazing smell that accompanies it, a really cheap bottle of Acqua Di Gio I found on eBay, a great circle of friend's and family, a healthy body, a great job, fiscal freedom, a religion that answers the questions I have about life, great music, AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER, my boss's really cute puppy, an impending audition, and soooo many other things including this picture:
I love everything about it. It's from the Sartorialist, one of my most favorite blogs. I am dying for shoes like his.
Anyway, not much else to say. Just had to let some of my happiness spill out. <3
What do you love about your life right now? What's that thing right now that just makes you want to jump for joy?

Hugs and warm puppies, Max

Lately something has been nagging at my thoughts. I have been trying to get more organized. I've been revisiting things that I seemed to have forgotten lately. (Nanowrimo.) Things like regular room cleaning, daily showering, and more precisely, journaling. I've always liked journaling. I stuck with it for a very long time. I love how it helps you organize your thoughts and work out problems without even meaning to. But there has always been one aspect of the journaling scene that I have been not so good at. To incorporate journaling into your daily routine, you really have to...write. This doesn't sound very difficult, being born in the techno generation, my handwriting isn't what it should be. And my handwriting speed is DEFINITELY not what it should be. My habit really died at scout camp. After a long, long day at camp, when your head hits the hay, the last thing on your mind is putting pen to paper. The nights that I actually did ink those pages, what I wrote was hardly legible. I lost hope.
But never fear! I resolved this problem this week. Now I'm sure that NONE of you have thought of this so I decided to share. Brace yourselves.
Google Docs. I know. None of you had ever even thought of this. It takes a great mind. It's so simple that I can't believe I never thought of it. Journaling had always been frustrating because my thoughts happened so much faster than I could put them down on paper. But with my (above average) typing speed, journaling has become almost convenient.
For those of you who don't know what Google Docs are, they are simply an online document that you can find under the More tab on the Google home page. If you have a Google account than opening one is effortless. The document saves itself to the web as you type so even if your computer dies mid sentence, your thoughts are saved. Or if a comet flew through your ceiling, narrowly missing your head and fingers but devistating your beloved computer. Considering the fact that if the afore mentioned comet found contact with your leather bound journal, the afore mentioned journal would be toast, we can see which is the more reasonable option.
I encourage you to try it. Creating a Google Doc takes seconds. The benefits are numerous. It is way faster to type your journal. If your house burns down, gets swept away in a typhoon, or is bandited by bandits, your journal will still be safely stored on the interweb.
Your welcome for this knowledge. Use it wisely.

I know I've been ranting on a lot about resolutions, so I hope this won't sound redundant. But I felt like I should share this with you guys and hopefully it will touch one of your hearts.
I'm in my third week of keeping my exercise routine resolution. Supposedly after three weeks your actions become a habit and I can already see my attitude towards fitness changing. I don't have to force myself to do it so much anymore. I like doing it. The thought came to me the other day that if we can change our habits in such a short period of time, would the same work for our attitude? If we thought only happy and uplifting thoughts for a certain amount of time, would our personality change? Is it possible to change our outlook on life by a mental effort?
Following this train of thought, I thought about how many people are struggling in life. So often I have heard (often out of my own mouth) "I don't know how much longer I can do this." or "I just can't take it any more." There are so many people who feel like they are just going to collapse under the burden that they have to carry. If you have a struggle you are trying to deal with and you feel like you can't take it any more, think about your heart like a muscle. If we deal with this sadness for long enough, it will become easier for us. We will be able to bear more and more of the sadness until we can't even feel it anymore and all we can feel is happiness.
If your having a hard time, just know that there are people that love you and that your pain will get easier the more you deal with it. Just don't give up! Fight the fight and if you fall, get right back up again.
<3 Max

I've been thinking a lot about resolutions lately. I've made quite a few this year and everybody knows how hard they are to keep. But I heard a great quote sums up what I think about keeping resolutions. It said something like "Just because we forget to brush our teeth one day, doesn't mean that we'll never brush them again." It's so true. So many people think that because we fall off of the wagon that's taking us to the place we want to go, that we are totally left behind. It's not true! If you screw up your resolution, start it again the next day like nothing ever happened. You are an amazing person for even trying to change in the first place! I've had a resolution not to eat sugar except for the weekends because it makes my eczema go crazy and the person I want to be doesn't have scabby skin. I ate some (delicious) carrot cake tonight. And, though it was decadent, I feel bad. But that doesn't mean I'm going to drop my resolution. And neither should you. You are such a powerful person I know you can do anything you put your mind to. Don't get discouraged. Don't let other people tear you down. Get right back up! I encourage everyone to try their resolution for three weeks. I've heard this is the time it takes to form or break a habit. At least try it for that long and I promise that the satisfaction will be worth all your hard work. Once you change something better in yourself, when you look back it will be like you can't even beleive you didn't do it before. Don't be afraid to sweat towards the person you want to be. It will always be worth it.

I haven't posted in so long and I know I always say that and I always apologize, but an absence of this magnitude warrants an apology.
In retrospect, 2010 was a rough year chuck full of self discovery. There are some things that you can't find out about yourself and blog about at the same time. But (not that I have everything figured out) I wanted to share some things I learned this year. Plus, I love blogging. In the early dawn light of 2011 I decided it was time to pick it up again, so I Googled my way through a blog revamp and here we are. Snazzy, no?
I wanted to post my new year's resolutions before the first of the year was a thing of a past. But I don't want to rush through into the new year with out giving respect to the old one... because 2010 was awesome. I learned some incredibly valuable things last year. Such as:
1. Just because other people have fun doing things, doesn't make them fun for you. Strangely enough I had to be taught this by a book called the Happiness Project. Once you make this self discovery, it seems so obvious, but it is fabulous to know. Just because other people like parties, doesn't make them any less painful for me. Just because others want to grow up and make a living in dentistry, doesn't make it any less disgusting to me.
2. Is similar to one, but just as important. Don't belittle the things that you do love to do just because you don't think that it is right for you. Namely: I love to sing, something I never did because it just wasn't was normal people did. I love to swim, something I never explored because it was for 'fit' people, something I had never classified myself as. And I never spoke my mind about things, because I thought that no one wanted to hear what I had to say. I've come to realize that what other people think doesn't effect me. We have to do us and the friends that we are truly need to have will appear.

Although it might be difficult, I'm determined to make 2011 even better than 2010. So without further adieu, my New Year's Resolutions:
1. Exercise at least five days a week. I've always told myself (or been told by others) that I was 'to thin', had no muscle and would never pull out of my condition because of my Vegetarian life style. These past few months, however, something changed. I realized that the only thing keeping me exactly the way I am, was me. Nothing other people said changed me, but if I internalized their words, then I would never accomplish my dreams. I've come to realize that I've spent to much time dreaming about the person I will be when I grow up and not enough time becoming that person. I am fit in my heart, so this year I will become it on the outside too. If the person you see in the mirror is not what you see in your head, never change your self perception to match a lesser version of yourself. This will only hurt you. Always raise the bar and make yourself better.

2. Get over my fear of singing in public. I love to sing. I love it so much I don't even realize I love it. I sing non stop, even if it's not always out loud. This year I will let my passion take form. I want to share my love with others that appreciate it as much as I do. This year I am going to audition for a major theater where I live. If I get in I will be singing on stage six days a week. Not something you can do if you're afraid to belt Happy Birthday to a friend.

3. I will regret less. Working to change the future is not the same as regretting the past, yet it takes up the same amount of energy. This year I will think only of the positive things that I and others do. I will use my energy to love others and see the incredible bounty that God has given me. I will try to take for granted less and appreciate my blessings more.

I hope you will continue to read my blog. Leave me a comment and tell me what you think. I hope you have the happiest new year of your life.

<3 Max