inherently different

With the help of The Defective Yeti, it’s time again to pick your 2004 film favorites. Who you got?

If for some reason that doesn’t work for ya, you can also go to: The Defective Yeti’s Oscars Page and enter this ten-digit number:

4321053817

NOTE: The winner of my pool will win something… not sure what yet, but it will be something either really tasty or cool… possibly even both. So enter now or miss out.

In case you’re wondering, here are my pics: Read the rest of this entry »

Man, I am really lacking in focus today. I have an two articles due on monday and I should be cranking them out right now, but what am I doing? Going on a hike on the Waihe Valley trail. It’s a relatively short hike (2 miles each way) and only moderately difficult (uphill most of the first half-mile or so), but it will probably take about 3 hours total. That’s what I’d rather be doing, but not what I should be doing. Pics later. Enjoy your saturday.

I gained a great deal of weight after my move here and found myself with very little motivation to exercise regularly. Of course, once I started to see myself in the mirror, I knew it was time to do something. I’ve lost a few pounds in the last few months and I didn’t really do much more than change my diet. Did I eliminate meat and saturated fat? Nope. I just ate less and cut out fried food. That was all it took to drop almost 15 lbs now.

Once, a friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, told me that I should become a vegetarian. “Vegetarian’s are much healthier than carnivores,” she said matter of factly. “Look at me, I’m healthier than most people I know.”

I looked at her. All 5 feet, seven inches & 98 lbs of her, standing on the street, fighting a stiff wind by holding onto a stop sign. I imagine her “friends” whom I’ve met a few times. They’re all emaciated, really slow-witted, and tend to sleep a lot. They are the least healthy people I’ve ever met and I spent some time in third-world countries. One of her roommates (his name is Charles but goes by Che, like the revolutionary) even has vitamin D deficiency disease).

“Aren’t I the only person you know who still eats meat?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she mumbled as she averted my gaze.

“Well, then aren’t all the rest of your friends and co-workers either vegetarian or vegan?” I continued. She was just out of college and had recently taken a job at a Whole Foods.

“So?” she defended.

“So, then what you’re saying is that you’re healthiest person among a bunch of other vegetarians.”

She’s been a vegan for about 12 years or two years less than we’ve been friends. When we met she weighed about 135 lbs, had bad skin, and would have to stop and rest climbing halfway up one flight of stairs. She attributed her weight, skin and physical fitness to her steady diet of meat. I might not have been the only one who counseled her to cut out the fast food, eat less and exercise more, but she didn’t listen to me either. Prefering to jump into a vegetarian diet her roommate suggested.

Over the years, she’s tried to convince me that being a vegetarian is far healthier than being a carnivore. She has also told me stories about how inhumane animal farming is and how pesticides are killing us slowly. She might have once told me that wearing a tin hat prevented the CIA from tuning into your thoughts, but I could be imagining that. Either way, she’s one of those people who always has a stat or figure, wholly unsupported by medical science, about how much healthier vegetarians are. Mostly I just nod my head benignly and politely ask her to pass me the A-1 sauce. The few times I’ve tried to talk to her about why I choose to eat meat, the discussion invariably sinks into an argument about evolution, famine cycles, overpopulation, and animal cruelty. All of which are valid concerns, but aren’t going to convince me to stop eating bambi if the mood for a lean steak strikes me.

When it comes to healthy diets, there is very little medical evidence to suggest that cutting meat out of your diet completely will make you healthier. You know the food pyramid we all saw back in gradeschool? It is still true today. A balanced diet consisting of vegetables, grains, dairy products and meat in moderation, will do wonders for your physical, emotional and mental well-being.

These days when she sends me a link from some meat-is-murder website or a piece of pro-animal propaganda from some patchoulli sniffing hippie, I just respond by sending this link which has some good information about vegetarian myths. Of course, there are rebuttals and in the interest of fairness, here’s a link that refutes the previous link’s findings.

I think really it all boils down to common sense. Eating a Carl’s Jr. Double Star, super-sized fries, and a 32-oz coke every day is going to kill you. Not because of how much meat you’re eating, but what and how much your eating.

Moderation in all things, yeah?

The ever lovely Ursula of Ursala’s Not So Secret History pointed out that the IRS is offering tax payers a bevy of FREE tax preparation and filing options. There are a number of companies (from H&R Block to TurboTax) offering free online tax preparation and filing based on income (more than $X, less than $X) and some that have no restrictions whatsoever. Well, there is one restriction and that is that you must access the tax preparation company through the IRS.gov website.

Who said nothing is free?

There really are only two kinds of people in this world. Predators and prey. You can live in a blind panic all you want, but it won’t change the fact that you’re either eating or being eaten.

Me? I’d rather partake of the feast than be the main course. I’m too fatty anyway and since people started cutting down on carbs, any chance that they’d want to take a bite of my tasty bits pretty much flew out the window. Perhaps it took wing with my compassion, which seems to have left me for greener (and more hospitable) pastures.

Yeah, I know. I’m an asshole, but at least I’m an honest asshole which is more than you can say about the current leader of the free world.

On a completely different tangent, the Red Queen and I went for a hike with our friend Rachel. We went to a place called Fishbowl, which a protected little cove that is loaded with various creatures in various levels of predation. Some eat, those that don’t are eaten. Which brings me back to my original point: Predators and prey. Which one are you?