How long is a cookie lifespan?

At my job a few days ago we had to swing by Garden Ridge to get some decorations for my job. So while I waited for my co-worker to purchase some cheesy hearts and such, I come across these little beauties of modern human design. Well, more or less. Spongebob Squarepants cookies. You know you have seen them, admit it. Well, there are also King Kong ones too, to promote the new Peter Jackson masturbation released last December. (I could not find a picture of this cookie on the Web, unfortunately.) Can you imagine how empowering it must be to be a kid and have a Kong Cookie in your mitts AND be able to bite his head off? Whoa!

But have you ever thought to give those cookies being fed to youths across the planet a good inspection? The icing looks almost petrified onto the shortbread, and the shrink-wrap is almost as if it were melded to the cookie by Brundle Science Experimentation. As I further inspected it, searching for a bakery, lo and behold it's distributed by some company out of some mid-western state, but in nice all CAPS font, so obvious and therefore almost incognito are the words: PRODUCT OF CHINA. Wow. Even our cookies come from China. So this cookie was created way over on the other side of the globe. By the delicate touch of a bakers hand? Probably not. Oh, how that $1.99 bit of shortbread must have traveled, hell it's seen the world! The things it must have seen. That is one world traveled cookie. I'm not too sure I would want that bit of globalization in my mouth. Imagine all the preservatives in that sucker. It would probably outlive me! Cookies aren't supposed to do that, damnit. Anyway, as I further investigate the pseudo-delicious Kong cookie, I see the expiration date: 11/01/06. Wow! This thing is built to last too! And considering how it was probably made in August of 2005, in preparation for the movie release, this is one well aged cookie. How long is a cookie lifespan anyway? I wonder what the cookie to human years ratio would be? 30 = 1? 40 = 1? 7 = 1? That is something for a scientist to figure out.

I then think of some family in line, with a cart full of fake plants and flowers and crafts, trying to satiate their kid who is hollering "gimmie gimmie" and eyeing that Spongebob or Kong sugary goodness. Without even thinking the parent buys it, unwraps it and stuffs it into the kid's mouth. Instantly pacified. It seems like we are okay with all of this. What's next? Microwavable meals for our kids because we are too tired from a long days work to cook a simple 3 ingredient dinner? Oh, wait, too late huh?

A link regarding WTO and NAFTA . I recommend watching the video of Lori Wallach.

Movie: A Tale of Two Sisters. A wonderfully creepy Korean fairy tale set in modern times that will surely be an American remake and then totally suck.

Consumer addiction

I am an addict. I don't know why, I shouldn't be, but even those of us who feel Capitalism is the downfall of the world cannot resist the sensation of a new purchase. I myself fell to it a few days ago.
Lying around the house in the morning, watching the kid play video games, I had the sudden urge to buy a book I have been wanting about Carny Folk. You see I was already losing a bid on ebay on another book about Sideshows.
(By the way, my interest is Sideshows is spawned by a movie everyone must see at least once.) I figured I would zip up to the Barnes & Noble, since massive bookstores give the illusion of having EVERYTHING. Yeah, that's what I would do: just pop into the bookstore, MAYBE across the street to Best Buy for some fine Japanese horror DVD and then back home to read! Of course, I get there, and NO, they do not have it. Well, maybe the mall bookstore, on a slight chance, would have it. (Stupid thought, I know). I get there and NO! of course not, you dolt. By this time all my sensors are worked up into a lather of materialistic desirous foam, oozing at every pore. Sounds like smut doesn't it? That's Capitalism! Okay, so I bag the whole deal, but wait! On the way home, there are clearly 4 more stores I could visit. Hmmm, okay bag the Carny book, because we have come to terms that it won't be found at a Walmart or Target either. BUT! I did buy potatoes for dinner. Finally on the last leg home, I thwarted the temptation of reducing myself to buying Young Frankenstein (pronounced Frahnkensteeeen) on the cheap at a K-mart. Okay, so 3 hours later what do I have to show for my shopping habit? 9 dollars worth of product, them being : a hiking book (initially bought at the B&N), potatoes, mushrooms, and worstershire sauce. So, despite my desperate attempt to satiate some sort of consumer monkey, I wind buying a helpful book on the outdoors and food. Pretty basic and necessary things. Now I understand our problem in this culture, I have felt the urge that some people probably feel everytime they go out into the stores. I think in the most evolutionary way, through years of buying and buying, modern people, particularly in the U.S., are cultivating an addiction to the need to shop. We may very well be in trouble as a species people. Maybe that's also why our government has been hijacked and we don't even care, as long as the sales are good. And you know what I found out visiting all these damn stores? They all have the SAME THINGS and the price of those things are the SAME everywhere. I'm still looking for that damn Carny book though however. Which is available online at a fraction of the cost!

Listening to : Candy Machine "A Modest Proposal"

Reading: okay so I gave up on that damn Quicksilver book, for now, so I am looking for that Carny Book!