Pollywogs!

So why the pissy face you may ask? Well I’ll tell you. This suburban family of 4 were so freaking wasteful it was unbelievable. I could barely stand to watch as the the dad proclaimed that “it is what it is” with regard to the amount of trash they produce in a 6 month time period (I believe it was 2.2 tons)…and that they once had one recycling bucket but that it blew away (no doubt it was empty) and they never bothered to retrieve it or replace it. Arrrrg. And it gets worse. This family of 4 has a total of 9 tvs in the house….NINE! Are you freakin’ kidding me? The mom does between 3 & 4 loads of laundry per day, that is 21 to 28 loads of laundry per week! What the hell, how is that even possible with a family of four? This mystifies me. And they do not use real dishes, instead the use Styrofoam cups and plates every day, every meal, every drink. They were spending $400 per year on Styrofoam! How freakin’ wasteful is that? And where does all this Styrofoam go? If is was stuffed up their butt they would know. But they admitted that they did not think about where there trash ends up, once it left there house it wasn’t their problem.  Absurd!

I must add that by the end of the show the family was convinced that they will begin to recycle, they stopped using Styrofoam and they began turning lights off in rooms that weren’t in use. The mom did cut back on her laundry, she now does only 14 loads per week…

Unfortunately this family’s habits are the norm for too many Americans. We are the most wasteful country, we use the most oil and we eat the most food. Too many people are simply lazy and not willing to change the slightest, they just don’t even think of the environment aside from what they can see right in front of them: a green suburban lawn. And the truth is…(reduce, reuse and) recycling is not hard, it does not take much effort…yet its results are very beneficial to the environment AND the future. Many communities offer curbside pickup, they will give you the buckets for free (you may have to pay a small fee for pick up, some places it may be free) and there are drop off locations all over the place. Once you get the buckets, make room for them, find out about the pick up day or locate a local drop off place…the rest is soooo easy and takes little effort on your part. So why doesn’t everyone do it?  I just don’t get it…

Recycling should be mandatory. Everywhere!  Anything that can be recycled should be recycled. And municipalities should take every possible thing that can be recycled (you may already be aware that some places do not take paperboard (such as cereal boxes) or plastic bags labeled #4 or PP which is #5 (yogurt containers, for eample)). Junk mail, aluminum, tin, glass, plasttic, cardboard, newspaper, magazines, plastic grocery bags and much more…none of these items should be put into landfills. There is no excuse.

The world has come very far over the past two decades, but we have so much farther to go.  Please do your part…recycle, future generations will thank you.

I wrote this as an email to a work colleague earlier today, and realized that it ought to be made public and saved for posterity.  Comcast can lick my left nut.  They’ve been blocking our legitimate email from our work because they are lazy, retarded cunts.  To wit:

The problem is Comcast is blocking emails on a server level, rather than on a user level //on your end//.  Email should be filtered, not blocked.  When I get email, not a single message is ever blocked, it all comes into my email client software, where spam filters are run.  I can then adjust the filters myself on the fly, tweaking things as necessary, marking ’spam’ messages that get through and marking ‘not spam’ messages that are accidentally filtered as such.  I don’t know where Comcast got this 1996 mentality all of a sudden, but it will never, ever work as a long term solution.  Simply black-listing an entire IP address or bank of IP address is ridiculous, it would be exactly like me setting up a filter to block every @comcast.net email address just because I got spam from one Comcast user…

No serious email provider today ‘black holes’ email: they forward the email to a spam filter for human review.

A Small Orange is a hosting company, just like any other hosting company.  Each PC in a rack of servers hosts a large number of services (web, email & others).  Each PC would have an IP address, and each location that ASO operates would have a bank of IP addresses.  For Comcast to request that we have our own server moved to another PC in the rack is the very definition of asinine.

GMail is compatible with POP clients, you simply enable it in the settings, and then enter the information into your email client (if you’d like to continue to use a conventional client with your email).  They properly (and effectively) filter email, they never block it.  I can’t see any way to continue to send you messages to a Comcast email address reliably in the future, as long as their default behavior is to simply ‘black hole’ email on their server side.

For more information, read what Stanford University has to say about the situation: http://www.stanford.edu/services/email/antispam/blacklist.html

Why is rejecting mail that comes from a blacklisted machine bad?

Blacklisting causes problems when the administrator of an email system decides to simply block all messages coming from a machine on a blacklist. Blacklists are not intended to be used this way. Competent email service providers usually filter spam, employing methods that consider multiple factors before deciding whether an email message is spam or not. Most email administrators don’t reject mail just because an email server is on a blacklist, but will tag or quarantine suspicious messages and provide the intended recipient with ways to view the message safely. Even SpamCop advocates this method of using its blacklists.

Still, there are overzealous service providers who simply reject messages based on blacklists. This is bad because it prevents people from getting perfectly good email. It happens because many service providers are lazy. Using blacklists alone against spam is basically a cost-shifting exercise: instead of spending the necessary time and money to configure an email system correctly, the service provider pushes all the work for dealing with spam onto the administrators of remote email systems like Stanford’s.

I’d send that to Comcast myself, but obviously they’ve hired Bozo the Clown (or worse, an accountant) to head up their anti-spam departments, probably not much use in trying to instruct them better.

31 Days as a Vegetarian, 28 Days (and counting) as a Vegan
By Kelley

Ugh, OMG, I’m dying, gimme a hamburger, I’m starvin’ over here…weak, so weak, must eat animal flesh…bacon, cheese…
Just kidding.

Some of you already know that I was a Vegetarian for 3 years when I was younger (I recently remembered that it was the movie City Slickers which convinced me) …unfortunately I let society (and my own selfish wants) get to me and became an animal eater again (looking back on it…an unfortunate decision).  So the past 59 days really have not been that bad.  I have to admit that once you make your mind up about something like this, sticking to it is very easy (at least it has been for me)…except for one slip up which was a result of the incompetence of a local Italian restaurant.  I seldom have any cravings and when I do I just simply nip it in the bud by telling myself it is not an option…that food is not in my diet anymore (same thing I had to do when I quit smoking).  Yes, I had a love affair with a certain BLT at a certain local watering hole but…it’s dead to me now, literally…it’s dead, pig flesh, dead.  The cravings vanished with the relationship.  The same can be said for my love of ham, pepperoni, turkey clubs and most recently, ice cream and cheese. See ya later alligators!

I’m not sad, I’m not grieving for the loss…in fact, in a strange sadistic way I feel powerful, I feel like I am in control, I am calling the shots.  I am getting an odd pleasure from restricting myself…it feels good. Seriously. I suppose that sort of thing could be bad, say if I was anorexic but I’m not (been there, done that) and the pleasure I receive from restricting my diet mainly stems from the fact that I feel like I am making an important decision, a humane and empathetic nod towards animals in general, not to mention the environment. Sure I also derive pleasure from knowing that I am (mostly) eating healthier and I am not being loaded down with saturated fats and cholesterol. But mainly the satisfaction comes from the feeling that I am being truer to myself.

I am a huge animal lover. Anyone who really knows me should know this about me…I have a very big soft spot in my heart for animals of all sorts, and not only animals but birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, even insects (okay, I don’t love insects but I feel they have just as much right to be alive as me). I break for anything that is on or crossing the road, I try to save mice from my cats, I don’t kill spiders or ants (okay I do admit that occasionally I put out ant poison when they come in the house and get into the cat food and recyclables), flies..Mi casa es su casa basically. I truly feel that we humans have invaded this land and I would be a an egotistic fool to try to keep the natural habitants from living as they normally would. Deer, sure it pisses me off that they eat off the trees we are trying to grow…but it’s their land as much as it is ours. If I really really had a problem with it, there are safe, environmentally, humane ways to deal with it..but it just doesn’t rile me up enough.  I feel terribly sad when I see a dead animal along the road, even if it is an opossum and especially if it is a cat.  I love bears (could care less that they have the potential to maul me) and I would love to see a mountain lion.  A few years ago I saw a porcupine waddling down the road and I just thought it was the cutest and neatest thing…I would hug it if I could. If I could, I would take in every stray cat that came across our patio and I would end up the crazy old cat lady with 50 cats.  This is me, this is who I am, who I’ve been all my life. I love animals, all of them…and eating them just doesn’t seem right to me, it hasn’t seemed right to me for a long time (probably starting when I was a little girl and got to witness the horrifying event that was my parents slaughtering chickens). And the more I thought about, the more mature I became and the more I sought out and read about factory farms…it all just clicked.  Sure cows, pigs and chickens are not cute and cudly like cats or dogs, but to me this does not give me the right to eat them.  They are life, sentient beings who have thoughts (perhaps not language based thoughts), feelings, sadness, pain and most of all they fear. Fear, terror, pain…imagine for a moment (please just indulge me)…the absolute fear and terror an animal goes through just before and while it’s being slaughtered…and then the pain, some being skinned while still alive. Being skinned, scalded or sliced open while still alive!  It’s outrageous!  I can’t justify it and I can’t continue to wear blinders and supress my true feelings on this devastating matter.

I apoagize for that digression, hopefully you are still with me.  I have been trying to look at the good side of vegetarian/vegan eating.  I am constantly thinking to myself how much healthier my diet has become…how most (if not all) of the food I am unable to eat was really stuff I should not be eating anyway (if I want to eat a healthy diet that is).  I mean, we all know how bad bacon is and pepperoni, cheese…full of saturated fat. Hamburger, hot dogs (weird I don’t even miss hot dogs, and I used to love them!), butter…all bad for your health.  When I think about all the money I’ve been putting into my body via vitamin & mineral supplements (serioulsy, you should see our cupboard…it is overflowing), then think about some of the foods I had been eating…it just doesn’t make sense.  We had been eating pretty healthy especially in the past year or 2…we’ve nearly entirely switched to 100% whole grain bread items, added more fresh fruits and veggies to our diet, fish, and only ate bad snack foods at get togethers (well, except for the occasional ice cream or potato chip splurge).  So we were doing all of this in an effort to get healthier and loose weight yet we were still eating meat and dairy…which is not healthy for you.  No it’s not. Really.

Okay, this is probably where some may argue about needing to get adequate protien and calcium.  I respect that concern but it’s not really a valid concern. It would be if I was not eating a healthy diet filled with a variety of good foods, but I am. I have done some research and have found that most Americans eat twice as much protein as they actually need on a daily basis.  This likely is referring to the meat and potatoes people who eat steak and chicken that is 3 times bigger than the suggested serving, people that eat meat daily, several servings a day.  (Why is America so fat?)  I can eat the suggested amount (50.4 grams) of protein per day by eating such things as:  1 bagel (9 grams) w/ peanut butter (8), 2 slices whole wheat bread (5), 2 cups cooked broccoli (8), 2 TBSP almonds (4), 1 cup pinto beans (refried) (14), 1 banana (2). This equals 50 grams of protien.  Not a single meat or dairy product to be found.  And calcium, lets see. It’s recommended that a person my age should get 1000 mgs of calcium per day. I’ll see if I can find the amounts of calcium in the items I just listed, same serving sizes: whole wheat bagel (104 mgs), whole wheat bread (100), broccoli (124), almonds (70), pinto beans (refried) (79), banana (8). A total of 485 mgs. So I can add 1 cup raw spinich (30), 1 cup leaf lettuce (13), 1/2 cup raw carrots (21), 1 cup soymilk (300), 8 ozs orange juice (300) for an additional 664 mgs, a total of 1149. Ta Da. In your face non-believers!  ;)   These are things that I eat regularly, sure not everyday, but this was just to give an example and to inform others that proper protein & calcium intake is quite easy to acheive on a vegan diet.

Once again, I digressed.  I am finding that I don’t miss the meat so much as I miss the dishes that it’s in.  For example, as a vegetarian, I would be happy to eat any pasta dish with out meat…it’s not the meat that I crave it’s the pasta and marinara sauce, I would be perfectly happy eating cheese lasagna, no meat required.  Same with Chinese or Mexican food  Gimme some nicely seasoned stir fry veggies and rice or a bean & cheese burrito…. Meat is not a necessity.  Now, as a vegan, it is a bit trickier…a bit of a pain in the ass if you will.  Technically I can’t say that I terribly miss cheese yet, or eggs for that matter…I don’t like milk and had been using soy milk for years now (except for cooking) but I feel that living as a vegan long term will be much harder to adjust to.  I want so badly to not want, not have cravings for dairy…but there are so many items out there that are made with dairy…  I’ve become much more diligent at reading ingredient labels and have noticed that milk, milk products (such as whey) are in practically everything!!!  And recently I noticed that the sunflower seeds I had been eating contain gelatin…freakin gelatin!  The label does not say whether it is vegetable or bovine (it should say!) but I have stopped eating them anyway (a big F-U to Plantar’s). I was at the store the other day and I got a serious craving for powdered donuts…turns out there is milk & eggs in the ones I looked at, didn’t know this before.  Meh, who needs donuts anyway? (Why is America fat?) I had a craving for a grilled cheese sandwhch yesterday but it passed and I’m glad I did’nt succomb to Garrett’s insistence that we must go out for luch (to our favorite water hole) so I could support the fact that they had a grilled cheese as the special for lunch (it’s not on their daily menu. As a vegetarian, I wished that it was). Overall, I can say that my cravings have been very minimal, and like I said, as soon as a craving starts (say for pizza, my all-time favorite food) I just nix it out of my mind and give myself a mental pat on my back for being true to myself and the animals I care about.

To leave you with one last thought, I love this quote:  “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” ~Gandhi

The end.