My new life plan, and why

I have decided to go vegetarian. This is not a whim; I have actually been thinking about vegetarianism for over 10 years. Back in high school it was mostly because of my obsession with dieting and weight loss. But as an adult I have a couple other reasons:

First and foremost, I find it unnecessary to slaughter animals for meat when there are other sources of protein and iron easily available. I don't think it's morally wrong to eat meat--carnivores are everywhere in nature and it does suit our nutritional needs--I just don't think it's needed. I have no problem with hunters. I think if all of us had to hunt and skin our own food, instead of finding it neatly packaged and seasoned in the grocery store, that we would be eating a lot less meat, and appreciating it more.

Secondly, I'm just not all that wild about the taste of meat. Anything can taste good with enough garlic on it. But the flavor of plain beef, plain chicken, plain pork, etc., is actually kind of nasty to me. So if I'm going to flavor something, I might as well make it plant based.

I'm not going vegan. I am open to the possibility someday, but it seems unlikely. I also will still eat meat in meals prepared by other people. Throwing food away doesn't make the animal any less dead. But any meals that I prepare will be meatless. This is a little tricky for me, since I'm a single mom living with my parents. I don't expect my parents to become vegetarians. I also don't expect my son to eat vegetarian when he is eating a meal fixed by other people. But, again, any meals that I fix for him will be vegetarian.

I will still be taking fish oil capsules because I have like a million of them leftover from when I worked for a vitamin company. (I will also take a daily multi-vitamin to make sure I am getting enough iron and other nutrients.) I'm not going to scour ingredients on prepared foods to see if there is some trace of some animal-related byproduct. It has also occurred to me that I will probably be eating less fast food because I can't think of very many vegetarian fast food options. But that's okay, right?

So that's why I don't want dead animals in my food anymore.

Hit me with your best shot

So…I haven’t blogged in a long time. I have some sort of writer’s block. And, still lacking a subject, I’m just going stream of consciousness here.

Um, okay, now I’m blank again.

So, I suppose this is me asking for suggestions. We’ll make it a contest, a contest where your only prize is that I will blog on the topic of your choice. I also reserve the right to select more than one winner if more than one person, well, a) actually responds to this, but b) if more than person actually gives me an entertaining enough topic to pique my interest.

Okay…go!

If I hadn't blown the whole thing years ago

Tell me do you think it'd be all right
If I could just crash here tonight
You can see I'm in no shape for driving
And anyway I've got no place to go
And you know it might not be that bad
You were the best I'd ever had
If I hadn't blown the whole thing years ago
I might not be alone
Tomorrow we can drive around this town
And let the cops chase us around
The past is gone but something might be found
To take its place...hey jealousy
And you can trust me not to think
And not to sleep around
If you don't expect too much from me
You might not be let down
Cause all I really want is to be with you
Feeling like I matter too
If I hadn't blown the whole thing years ago
I might be here with you
Tomorrow we can drive around this town
And let the cops chase us around
The past is gone but something might be found
To take its place...hey jealousy

Gin Blossoms, Hey Jealousy

Ugly Chair

I have the ugly chair at work. I love it. Nobody tries to steal my chair because all they can see are the ripped armrests and worn seat. They see that it's not new and shiny like everybody else's chairs.

Well, joke's on you, everyone else! This chair is amazing. It's way less uncomfy than the shiney new chairs with zero back support. Yeah, it looks like crap, and that's just fine with me because it means nobody will sit it in. Because I'd hate for someone else to realize how awesome this chair is.

Suckers.

For the love of penguins

Dear Earth,

What is happening to you? Are you sick? Is it that whole ozone depletion thing that’s throwing all of your systems out of whack? Earthquakes in Haiti, Chili, Mexico, and China; volcano explosions in Iceland. I’m starting to wonder if it’s a mental breakdown you’re having, or a temper tantrum.

Let’s see…natural disaster in North America? Check. South America? Definite check. Europe? Check. Sounds like Africa and Australia are next. Or maybe Antarctica -- watch out, penguins!

So, Earth, what do I need to do to make you all happy again? Recycle more? Stop using aerosol hairspray? (*sigh* Yes, I know that makes the ozone layer mad at me, but my hair has never been happier. You’re saying I have to choose?)

I’ll do what I can to be nice to you. I do appreciate you, I promise. I much prefer living here over, say, living on the moon. Or Mercury; that whole hot/cold thing would wreak havoc on my Earth-based carbon life form.

Happy birthday Earth! I didn’t get you a present, so I hope you accept this letter as a somewhat decent substitute.

Sincerely,
Amanda

PS: Penguins really are cute. Please don’t earthquake Antarctica.

You picked what you picked, and you can't go back and change now, so shut up and live with it

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost, 1915

The ones who create civilization

The romantic hero is invariably one who is going through the adolescent phase of human life. The child phase…is the time of complete dependence on others to create our identity and our worldview. Little children gladly accept even the strangest stories that others tell them, because they lack either the context or the confidence to doubt. They go along because they don’t know how to be alone, either physically or intellectually.

Gradually, however, this dependency breaks down—and children catch the first glimmers of a world that is different from the one they thought they lived in, they break away the last vestiges of adult control themselves, much as a baby bird breaks free of the last fragments of the egg. The romantic hero is unconnected. He belongs to no community; he is wandering from place to place, doing good (as he sees it), but then moving on. This is the life of the adolescent, full of passion, intensity, magic, and infinite possibilities; but lacking responsibility, rarely expecting to have to stay and bear the consequences of error. Everything is played at twice the speed and twice the volume in the adolescent—the romantic—life….Who but the adolescent is free to have the adventures that most of us are looking for when we turn to storytellers to satisfy our hunger?...

Only when loneliness becomes unbearable do adolescents root themselves, or try to root themselves. It may or may not be in the community of their childhood, and it may or may not be their childhood identity and connections that they resume upon entering adulthood. And, in fact, many fail at adulthood and constantly reach backward for the freedom and passion of adolescence. But those who achieve it are the ones who create civilization.

Orson Scott Card
Greensboro, North Carolina
29 March 1991
Introduction, Speaker for the Dead (excerpt)