Do I need a blog gimmick?

I wonder if I need some sort of blog gimmick? Something like daily pictures of food molding on the counter, or analyzing how bad Heroes is; an acquaintance just started a clever blog called "Semi-Circular Vegan," consisting of different vegan dishes that she makes in her "As Seen on TV" half-circle sandwhich making machine. Something like that.

I was just wondering about this because I realize that, while I keep fairly busy, I repeat myself a fair bit, and really, how often do people want to read about dumpster diving or pick-up soccer. Or as this weekend had it, lack of pick-up soccer. Only 3 other people showed up to the snowy, permafrosted field on Sunday (first snowfall!). The rest of the members... wusses. We passed the ball around a bit and then played soccer-ball four square before giving up and going for hot chocolate and lattes at a nearby cafe.

The thing is, I already am trying to start another gimmicky blog called "Bachelor on a Budget" just to keep track of all the cool cheap/free activities and deals I find that make poor, single life bearable in the city. So having another themed blog would be kinda redundant. Though really, having two blogs period is redundant anyway. Like, where do I write about the live karaoke I did last Thursday - here or on BudgetBachelor? Do I copy the post? Meh... I'm having Internet angst from 2002.

What I should really start doing is just start Vlogging all this so I can appease my 2 fans on YouTube with more consistent video uploads. And then promptly lose them when they realize how incredibly boring I am.

Speaking of dumpster diving, I went on another outing with the Freegan.info crowd and got a nice little haul. There were tons of perfectly good food leftover from last week's Thanksgiving overstocking being tossed out, in clean, clear garbage bags. It's really no different from just tossing them in a regular shopping bag. Check out the haul.



Towards the end I was interviewed by MTV3 from Germany or Sweden or something. One thing they asked was how I respond to the stigma of eating "dirty" rescued food. I said that anyone who's ever worked in a New York City restaurant knows that there's no such thing as "clean" food.

I don't necessarily agree with the politics of the Freegan group - I don't think capitalism is evil. It just needs very rigid social controls, and that's where we run into problems. (And by problems, I mean Republicans and Libertarians. Put down the Ayn Rand, kids, it's FICTION - corporations aren't PEOPLE.)

But the Freegans' point regarding the wastefulness of our consumer-driven society? Dead-on. We definitely need to improve the efficiency of our food chain and distribution. No one should be starving here. It's ridiculous - the local food banks are reporting a horrible year, having to dip into their emergency funds, and LOOK at all this stuff that's getting tossed. Madness.

Here's a quick recap of what just I pulled - meaning there was at least 10 times as much stuff, not to mention what we had to leave behind. And this is what is thrown out every night. From just two grocery stores and one bagel shop.

• 4 1-lb bags of new potatoes
• 3 bottles Stonyfield Farm organic yogurt drink
• 5 boxes of Weight Watchers Santa Fe Style Rice and Beans
• 3 Bell Peppers
• 1 Bunch of mint
• 1 3-lb bag of Soup Greens (turnips, dill, carrots, onions, parsley, radish)
• 1 dozen organic eggs
• 3 8-oz tubs of triple-creme cream cheese ($8 each)
• 1 8-oz tub of Philadelphia cream cheese
• 1 pre-wrapped ham and provolone sandwich, sealed.
• 1 box blueberry muffin tops
• 2 rolls of blueberry muffin dough
• 1 1lb package of string cheese
• 1-lb of mushrooms
• 2 summer squash
• 1 grapefruit
• 1 package deli sliced turkey
• 1 loaf artisan bread
• Half dozen bagels
• 3 bananas

My menus will be:

• Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
• Vegetable Stew
• Triple-Creme Blueberry Cheese Cake
• Banana Nut Bread
• Lunches for the week

More Dumpster Diving Success!

This past week I found an Inversion Table just down the block from my apartment. Some physical therapist or the like had clearly just gone out of business. It was disassembled and missing a pin and a few other parts, but nothing that couldn't be jury-rigged via Home Depot. I've always wanted an Inversion Table - unfortunately there's just no room in my apartment for one. So I sold it on Craigslist for $50! Financial windfall - whoo hoo!

And, of course, there's always the continuing stream of free flowers on my street - a fringe benefit of living in the flower district.


Oh, and if you're wondering if I regret getting rid of the inversion table before I used it for some other purpose... the answer is Yes.

Dumpster Diving and Freeganism.

I've always been a big fan of dumpster diving/trash picking. This city in particular provides wonderful finds in furniture, clothes and collectibles. Half the furniture in my room has been dumpstered and I've found things like an 1891 copy of Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare and a first printing of To Catch a Thief.

So about a month ago I went on a Freegan tour in Murray Hill.

http://www.freegan.info

The Freegans state their mission best on their website, but to sum up they recover food and items that are wastefully thrown out by major chain stores and food distributors.

Grocery chains apparently receive set deliveries of inventory, regardless of their sales numbers each week, so they have to make room for the fresh foods by simply throwing out food which may still be good.

The Freegans lead these tours in various neighborhoods and recover tons of foodstuffs, then hold Freegan feasts made from the scavanged supplies.

On my first trip out I got eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, pasta sauce and lady fingers. I ended up making ratatouille and tiramisu!

Last night I went for my evening run and then embarked on my first solo mission in my neighborhood of Chelsea. Their website lists a bunch of stores in different neighborhoods with good finds. I had planned mainly on getting bagels from Murray's; bagels and breads are one of the food items you can pretty much count on being able to get daily. I ended up getting not only fresh and warm bagels, but from the Eckhard drugstore across the street I found 24 bottles of fruit punch Gatorade (expired), 3 boxes of Granola bars, Colgate toothpaste, a bag of Butterfinger miniature Crisps, a flashlight, a curling iron and a bar of Cadbury chocolate. I left an additional six pack of Gatorade and one of those huge cans of Maxwell House coffee, still vacuum-sealed.

So, what do you all think? Is this cheapness taken to an extreme, or a viable means of stocking one's pantry?