Ask

Why do I always have to ask?
Paralysed by racing thoughts, I can't do anything;
Loss of self-worth, but of course
I always have to ask.
Otherwise,
How am I going to get them to
Lade their lives
With a moment with me?
Fearing something, fearing truth:
That thing that makes us ill.
And that is why
I'll always have to ask,
And why they never will.

This work is licensed under Creative Commons.


This is a poem about anxiety disorder, ADHD, loneliness, and being cast away, and how much of a struggle it is to live with.

Using Bath Products in a Cost-Efficient and Ecologically-Sound Manner

Hello! I know I have not posted in what appears to be forever (okay, it was actually six months), but I am now and I would like to talk to you today about something that bothers me very much: wastefulness. It's all around us, and even the best of us (even the environmentalists, and maybe even the freegans) partake in it. Everyday, we are bombarded with the wasteful troubles of the world. We sit in front of the television while saying something along the lines of, "Oh, that's too bad," but yet we still continue living without making positive changes for both ourselves, other people, and the planet. When we want to change, we feel so overwhelmed because we try to pack in a million changes at once, rather than making gradual steps toward the goal. Believe me, I'm on a diet, and I didn't start eating very healthy without making some positive changes for my health. This transcends to all types of behaviour in life. And so, today I'm prepared to add several categories to Flora's Spot that may hopefully help some of you out there (and you can give tips, too!): Environmentalism, Wise Spending, Waste Reduction, and Making a Difference. This post, awesomely enough, fits into all four categories. Now, for today's "lesson"...

Today's lesson is about making the most of bath products. Not only do you save money because you use less, but you do less harm to the earth because you're decreasing your carbon footprint. Sure, you're putting the same stuff into the ocean (unless you buy organic or biodegradable products). And just how do we do all of this? Mixing your products together! It's really very simple... in fact, here's the steps:

1. Make sure you have permission to do this so that you don't anger anyone for "ruining their favourite product." Or, look at step ten here to find out how you can mix their products without them noticing at all.
2. Grab all of your bath products.
3. Take the shampoos, and see which bottles of shampoo have small amounts in them.
4. Find the biggest bottle or the bottle with the biggest opening at the top (the latter is preferred, unless you need more space than the bottle can contain).
5. Get another bottle, preferably with a smaller opening than this one.
6. Take the lids off of both bottles, but wash the one for the second bottle I mentioned and put it in a plastic bag for recycling (at least over here in Canada, it will not be recycled if there's anything on it).
7. Take the second bottle I mentioned, and with the first bottle handy, turn it upside down on top of it with both openings sort of "connected" so that the second bottle can pour into the first one. Make sure the stuff is in an area where they cannot be knocked down.
8. Repeat the above steps for conditioners, shampoos, liquid soaps, and just about any bath products you have.
9. Have patience.
10. If you're tired of a person's wastefulness and they won't let you mix, you can do this: if they have a lot of product in their bottle of whatever, add a bit of something that you could mix into it, and then shake their bottle. And I mean just a bit. I did this with body wash today and it smells and looks the same. No one can tell the difference.

A short guide for bars of soap:

You guys probably know this one fairly well, but I have a bit of an addition to it that I have not heard of previously. So anyway, you know those little slivers of soap that you just leave lying around and cannot use? Well, you're wrong! You can use them if you have another bar of soap. And here's the steps:

1. Grab the bar of soap you currently use. It would be preferable if this bar is already used, and if you're currently using more than one, get one that has the most light spots. These are spots that come from using the soap, and are soft. The reason why this is preferable is because a. you're being less wasteful and b. the soft spots make it easier to mould the sliver into the bigger bar of soap.
2. Grab the sliver.
3. Look for the biggest soft spot on your current bar of soap. This tends to be at the bottom.
4. Take the sliver, and embed it into the soft spot until that spot mushes, so you can get some of that and put it on top of the sliver for better moulding.
5. Preferably, allow it to dry.

Note: you can use a new bar and embed your sliver at the bottom (which is also preferable since it will not fall apart from the rest of the bar, and allows it to become fully moulded into the bar over time), but again, used bars are preferable for the soft spots, so feel free to wait until your new bar is used enough to make this process work a little better.

Remember...

1. Ask for permission first.
2. If you can get away with mixing using the method above or a method you come up with without risking your house mate's safety (they may use this product for medical reasons or may be unable to properly style their hair without it), do it. People are too wasteful nowadays, and as undemocratic as it seems, sometimes you have to find ways to work around their wasteful habits.
3. Bars of soap can be used in place of body wash. If you have some that you haven't used in forever, use them to replace your body wash once it's finished. That bar of chemicals is going to end up somewhere, so you have nothing to lose. All you can do is save money, which is always good.
4. Don't buy something you don't need. I'm not sorry; you do not need that new shampoo because of the coconut scent, nor a new body wash, conditioner, etcetera. The only ingredients proven to be useful in these products are the detergents and conditioners. These are universally found in lots of products. I don't know if there are any outliers, but for the most part, this is true.
5. Find alternatives. There's probably stuff in your house that you can use as an alternative to body wash, soap, shampoo, and maybe even conditioner.

Thanks for reading! Please add your own tips if you'd like. You could even list some good alternatives that are environmentally friendly and cost-efficient!

Mohawk Moon

This was taken at West 5th and Fennell in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Click on it to make it larger.

If you'd like to purchase this as a print for some crazy reason, click here.

Video Blogs #5 & 6 - "My Cat Oreo" & "Mortimer, Mojo, and Samir"

These two video blogs today are dedicated to three lovely cats: Oreo, Mortimer, and Mojo. And the other animal is my older brother Samir.

My Cat Oreo

Mortimer, Mojo, and Samir

Thanks for watching! Please leave some comments.

"How would you envision your ideal world?"

“How would you envision your ideal world?”

My brother Sam said this to me last night as I laid down on the sofa next to his bed in his room. Sometimes I like to crash at his place to get a sort of mental break from home. I gave him my answer: I would change nothing. With persistance, he repeatedly said things like, “So, you wouldn’t want to look like, let’s say, Natalie Portman?” Well that just changed the question entirely. That would mean he was asking me about how I’d envision my ideal self. And do you know what I would change? Still, nothing.

He kept asking the question a few more times before I gave him an added response. The first part consisted of myself telling him that without good or evil, the world would be a rather boring place. I then added, “What’s the point of existing if there’s nothing to overcome?”

“Ouch,” he said. He then left the room.

Video Blog #4 - Camera Test

Hey guys! Just thought I'd give you all a little sample of the video quality you should expect from hereon Flora's Spot. Thus, this is video blog number four - the camera test.

Video Blog #3 - "Feminism and Twilight"

Hey guys! I made my 2nd video blog today and I think it turned out pretty alright (minus my untidy appearance, but hey). Tell me what you think.

Feminism and Twilight Pt. 1 of 2

Feminism and Twilight Pt. 2 of 2

New Template

There's a new template for the site. I thought I needed something that didn't look too blogger-esque, since I did put in the money to get a domain name. I looked online for Blogger templates, and this one was just perfect. Here's to a truly great country - Canada!

Domain Name Purchase

florasspot.blogspot.com is now florasspot.com. I purchased the domain name for about $10 U.S.

Flora Korkis' 2nd Video Blog - "Internet Advertising"

My 2nd ever video blog. Please do add your thoughts here.