Sunday, January 30, 2011
RPM Challenge
The RPM Challenge starts Tuesday. I'm excited and ready to go. And I've got draft cover art done. If anyone out there reading this is better at photoshop than I am, let me know. I know my work is a little ghetto.
Ignorance vs. Indifference
So, I recently read Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.
No, wait, hold up. This isn't going to be your average privileged middle class rant about how everyone should be vegetarian, I promise.
It was an interesting read, and spent ample time discussing the horrors of factory farming. Foer is seemingly a snapshot of the guilty meat-eater who goes back and forth between being a vegetarian, and, well, not. He's vegetarian as of the writing of the book.
He makes a Swiftian case for eating dogs using the same logic most people use to justify eating other animals, which is revealing. He loves his dog. What he doesn't discuss is what he feeds his dog - vegetarian diet there, too? It's pretty hard to find a dog food without animal byproducts like chicken fat and other terrible stuff. I suppose you could always make your own dog food.
Foer emphasizes the notion that free-range, as a term, is bullshit, because all it requires is access to the outdoors. A huge chicken coop of the regular type of cruelty is allowed as long as there's a door that's open sometimes. So, yeah, bullshit, generally speaking. He does being up an existing true free-range, minimum cruelty, happy pigs and cows and chickens type of farm as a shining example of what farming should be like. He neglects to mention that (on my own research) a package of four eight ounce pork chops from said farm runs about $60. Not exactly within reach of the average person. So, the thinking person says, either I have to pay through the nose to avoid cruelly-rasied animal products, or just get out.
A key point late in the book is pleading ignorance vs. just being indifferent. I've read more than a couple of books on food and the industrial food system. Knowing what I do, I can't plead ignorance as a reason for eating meat, I can only claim indifference to the cruelty built into the system. Yet, here I am, still eating meat. It's a source of cognitive dissonance for sure. I still eat meat knowing the chicken I am enjoying probably had its beak sliced off by a laser while it was still alive, conscious, and feeling. It probably spent its life in a cage with the square footage of a piece of printer paper. But I'm not going to rail on this stuff, because if you have a pulse and have heard of the name PETA, you probably know at least some of this stuff. I am emphasizing eating less meat, chosing vegetarian options when available (most of the time, eating out in the twin cities), and phasing shrimp out of my diet, shrimp trawling being one of the more awful and destructive processes out there for gathering animal products (shrimp trawling yields about 2% shrimp and 98% other marine life - which is then killed and thrown back overboard). But I don't cry myself to sleep over having bacon with Sunday brunch or enjoying the occasional burger. So what am I supposed to do with that?
I do disagree with some of Foer's points - I think that eating less meat is better than emphasizing meat in the diet, but he makes no such distinction, indicating it's an all or nothing thing - and, as these types of books tend to do, weasel words and phrases do sneak in there (he emphasizes the point that the CEO of a large factory farming operation's surname, Luter, is pronounced "Looter"). I find it interesting that Foer is vegetarian and not vegan, because the logical conclusion of most of his arguments would lead to being vegan (where does one think eggs and milk come from, some kind of magical cruelty free realm, just because it's not animal flesh?). Generally, though, it's a good read that, generally speaking, avoid the pitfalls of such literature, e.g. michael pollan's class blindness (the solution to factory farming is to just spend more on food, silly!). It's a worthy read if it's a topic that interests you, but as always, maintaining a skeptical point of view will yield richer rewards.
No, wait, hold up. This isn't going to be your average privileged middle class rant about how everyone should be vegetarian, I promise.
It was an interesting read, and spent ample time discussing the horrors of factory farming. Foer is seemingly a snapshot of the guilty meat-eater who goes back and forth between being a vegetarian, and, well, not. He's vegetarian as of the writing of the book.
He makes a Swiftian case for eating dogs using the same logic most people use to justify eating other animals, which is revealing. He loves his dog. What he doesn't discuss is what he feeds his dog - vegetarian diet there, too? It's pretty hard to find a dog food without animal byproducts like chicken fat and other terrible stuff. I suppose you could always make your own dog food.
Foer emphasizes the notion that free-range, as a term, is bullshit, because all it requires is access to the outdoors. A huge chicken coop of the regular type of cruelty is allowed as long as there's a door that's open sometimes. So, yeah, bullshit, generally speaking. He does being up an existing true free-range, minimum cruelty, happy pigs and cows and chickens type of farm as a shining example of what farming should be like. He neglects to mention that (on my own research) a package of four eight ounce pork chops from said farm runs about $60. Not exactly within reach of the average person. So, the thinking person says, either I have to pay through the nose to avoid cruelly-rasied animal products, or just get out.
A key point late in the book is pleading ignorance vs. just being indifferent. I've read more than a couple of books on food and the industrial food system. Knowing what I do, I can't plead ignorance as a reason for eating meat, I can only claim indifference to the cruelty built into the system. Yet, here I am, still eating meat. It's a source of cognitive dissonance for sure. I still eat meat knowing the chicken I am enjoying probably had its beak sliced off by a laser while it was still alive, conscious, and feeling. It probably spent its life in a cage with the square footage of a piece of printer paper. But I'm not going to rail on this stuff, because if you have a pulse and have heard of the name PETA, you probably know at least some of this stuff. I am emphasizing eating less meat, chosing vegetarian options when available (most of the time, eating out in the twin cities), and phasing shrimp out of my diet, shrimp trawling being one of the more awful and destructive processes out there for gathering animal products (shrimp trawling yields about 2% shrimp and 98% other marine life - which is then killed and thrown back overboard). But I don't cry myself to sleep over having bacon with Sunday brunch or enjoying the occasional burger. So what am I supposed to do with that?
I do disagree with some of Foer's points - I think that eating less meat is better than emphasizing meat in the diet, but he makes no such distinction, indicating it's an all or nothing thing - and, as these types of books tend to do, weasel words and phrases do sneak in there (he emphasizes the point that the CEO of a large factory farming operation's surname, Luter, is pronounced "Looter"). I find it interesting that Foer is vegetarian and not vegan, because the logical conclusion of most of his arguments would lead to being vegan (where does one think eggs and milk come from, some kind of magical cruelty free realm, just because it's not animal flesh?). Generally, though, it's a good read that, generally speaking, avoid the pitfalls of such literature, e.g. michael pollan's class blindness (the solution to factory farming is to just spend more on food, silly!). It's a worthy read if it's a topic that interests you, but as always, maintaining a skeptical point of view will yield richer rewards.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Big, dumb, fun music
I have a soft spot in my heart for big, dumb, fun music. Currently occupying that space are:
Sleigh Bells: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhYYd5adVY4&feature=fvst
Wavves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjdfEvzBPz0
Best Coast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sj5_WITMpA
Step 1 in my pursuit to be inked seems to be coming together.
Other than that: working, class, reading. Tonight is the current's birthday party show, which will be great.
Sleigh Bells: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhYYd5adVY4&feature=fvst
Wavves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjdfEvzBPz0
Best Coast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sj5_WITMpA
Step 1 in my pursuit to be inked seems to be coming together.
Other than that: working, class, reading. Tonight is the current's birthday party show, which will be great.
Monday, January 3, 2011
This one goes up to '11
Ok, so it's time for my annual laughable goals in review and goals for the next year. So, here's 2010 in review. Some things turned out not to apply due to... life changes? It's a hard sell taking the bus when work is less than 5 miles away. <>
-Finish the bathroom remodel.
Done.
-Release Stress Test. Give 100% of sales to United Way of Kansas City.
Done. No one bought it, though. It's the thought that counts...?
-Volunteer 10 times in 2010
1. KCUR spring funding drive
2. Pilgrim Chapel easter egg hunt
3. Pilgrim Chapel children's film festival
Fail!
-Paint the porch and deck
Fail
-Get involved in the KC Fringe Fest
Fail
-Read at least 25 books
1. Haruki Murakami - Sputnik Sweetheart
2. Chuck Klosterman - Fargo Rock City
3. Benjamin Wallace - The Billionaire's Vinegar
4. Chuck Palahniuk - Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk In Portland, OR
5. Sarah Vowell - The Wordy Shipmates
6. Banana Yoshimoto - Kitchen
7. Jake Adelstein - Tokyo Vice
8. Guy P. Harrison - 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God
9. Michael Largo - Genius and Heroin
10. Bret Easton Ellis - The Rules of Attraction
11. Lydia Peelle - Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing
12. Stig Saeterbakken - Siamese
13. Jack Kerouac and William S Burroughs - And The Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks
14. Sam Tanenhaus - The Death of Conservatism
15. James Howard Kunstler - The Geography of Nowhere
16. Brian Epstein - Good Without God: What A Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe
17. Tom Robbins - B is for Beer
18. Chuck Palahniuk - Tell-All
19. Matthew Latimer - Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor
20. Michael Muhammed Knight - Osama Van Halen
21. Miranda July - No One Belongs Here More Than You
22. Sherry Lamb Shirmer - A City Divided: The Racial Landscape of Kansas City, 1900-1960
23. Haruki Murakami - The Elephant Vanishes
23. Melissa Febos - Whip Smart: A Memoir
24. Hans Keilson - Comedy in a Minor Key: A Novel
25. …fail!
-Run at least 7 races
1. 3/14 St. Patrick's Day Run
2. 4/11 Brew to Brew
Fail!
-Build a linen closet at the end of the second floor hallway
Done!
-Either substantially complete my thesis or switch to a non-thesis degree for the sake of getting it done.
Switched to Master of Engineering. My last class is this spring. Assuming I can pass Cryptography, I'm actually finally going to finish my Master's!
-Take the bus or carpool for at least 50% of my commutes
Fail, and also N/A now. My commute is so short that I don't feel bad for driving it. Though I want to try biking when the weather is nice.
-Pay of Rikki's low student loan and substantially pay off my student loan
Rikki's is paid off. We paid off our second mortgage instead of my student loan.
-Expand my musical tastes beyond what Pitchfork sells me. Listen to more Jazz, Neoclassical, and Soul music.
I would say The Current has helped me along those lines.
And for silly things I would like to do in 2011:
Get a tattoo.
Read 25 books.
Make gravlax.
Make cheese.
Make more beer.
Make ice cream.
Make sorbet.
Go to a firing range.
Run 5 races.
Volunteer 10 times.
Give 1% of my income to charity.
Do an album for RPM Challenge.
Do a novel for NaNoWriMo.
Finish grad school.
Pay off one outstanding line of credit (e.g. student loan).
Travel somewhere new.
Buy a pass to SXSW for 2012 for my 30th birthday.
Cook 10 challenging new dishes.
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