This Journal Has No Title

( Mod Cooperative - a place where players and mods come together to help each other out! )


( Old School RP - a place to advertise games that follow old school rules of RP. )

• spnroundtable: Workshop: Faking It: Pretending You're An US Citizen When You're An Ocean Away - In the following we'd like to give you an overview of a range of things that might give you away as an non-American and that might ruin the flow of your fic for any readers that are US Americans/very familiar with the USA. -
  
  
  (tags: spn writing)

Uh-oh.

My requestee for sga_santa requested a rarepair which I couldn't resist.

And it's ending up with a totally different rarepair in the final scene. Shit.

Any volunteers for a beta? I've been chopping at this fic rather ruthlessly trying to solve quite a few problems.

• recessional: Plagues in your Postapocalypse: - Disease is a huge part of any landscape except maybe our own. Disease in a landscape that used to look like our own should be even more shocking. -
  
  (tags: writing)


• thelana: The Genius Wranglers: A Rant - Personally, I think the appeal of those relationships has very little to do with people yearning for an old fashioned woman supporting superior (genius!) man dynamic or people getting stuck on some Oedipal trope. I think it comes more from the side effects of the trope. The typical Wrangler personality, especially of this chiding mother sorts means that they are being cast with motivations other than just looking for hotness. -
  
  (tags: trope media)

I love sga_storyfinders.

And cheesecake.

And look, I have both.

In fact, every sentence ends better if you add "... with cheesecake."

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SuperVegan/~3/n7C3bAqK70E/entry.php

[Foer is not actually shilling for the dairy industry, but should he be doing more to chase people away from it? (Original photo by David Shankbone.)]

Writer Jonathan Safran Foer's been getting a lot of media attention lately for the just published Eating Animals, his first book-length piece of nonfiction, which is very much against the eponymous activity. I haven't read it, and I don't expect that I (or most SuperVegan readers) will learn much from it that we don't already know about what's wrong with eating animals. This is not a book written for vegans. But it's a book that vegans ought to have some understanding of.

For better or worse, an established literary novelist like Foer can get people to pay attention to what's wrong with factory farming in a way that more academic or of-the-movement authors such as Peter Singer or Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson cannot. And Foer is relatively folksy and accessible (if not artless) compared to someone like J.M. Coetzee, whose arguments in defense of animals are unapologetically over most people's heads, and who isn't about to do a bunch of press interviews.

Foer finds lots of problems with industrial animal agriculture, and with eating meat in a general ethical sense, but he does not come down against non-meat or non-food animal products. This is a book about meat. That's got a lot of vegans understandably perturbed--an influential guy sets up a strong argument for many tenets of veganism, yet fails to go there. Mainstream media may not care, but it's important for us vegans to understand why Foer isn't vegan, and how he feels about veganism.

Josh Hooten of Herbivore attended a talk by Foer last night at Powell's Books in Portland, OR. Hooten is the right kind of vegan, and he wrote a great report/defense on the talk (which he posted on Facebook, and graciously allowed me to republish here.) Here's the first and last sentences, and you can read the whole thing below.

Foer isn't an animal rights person, he is coming from outside our community and perhaps that is why he is getting the attention he's getting for his new book Eating Animals.
...
As a messenger getting people to think about this stuff for the first time, I think he's amazing.

The only published interview I know of that specifically asks Foer why he isn't vegan is Katie Drummond's at True/Slant. The upshot is he's "transitioning to veganism." (No doubt it's better to become vegan slowly and mean it, rather than rush into it and drop out again, as Foer's done multiple times with vegetarianism.) The interview also reinforces that the book is a primarily a personal essay: "I was just trying to record my own thoughts – as a father, not as an activist or an expert."

Indeed, it's this arational approach that's so off-putting for many committed vegans. Foer's writing about feelings more than he's writing about science or even ethics. It's a loosey-goosey, touchy-feely, "truthiness" approach to coping with animal exploitation. It doesn't appeal to me personally. But I have no doubt it's doing good in the world.

And of course feelings are important, if only (especially for rationalist ethical hardasses like me) in how we interface with other people over these issues. An excerpt Elizabeth Kolbert plucked from Foer for her review in this week's New Yorker (which you should read all of):

Two friends are ordering lunch. One says, “I’m in the mood for a burger,” and orders it. The other says, “I’m in the mood for a burger,” but remembers that there are things more important to him than what he is in the mood for at any given moment, and orders something else. Who is the sentimentalist?

That's certainly a scenario I can relate to. I may no longer face a dilemma in how I relate to animals, but I bump into trouble all the time in relating to other people about animals. And this is what Foer's book seems to be about, in addition to detailing the horrors of factory farms and all that stuff we already know about.

Here is Josh Hooten's full take on Foer's talk at Powell's last night:

Foer isn't an animal rights person, he is coming from outside our community and perhaps that is why he is getting the attention he's getting for his new book "Eating Animals." I saw a lot of people I recognized at the talk, but out of the couple hundred who were there, I knew probably a dozen of them. Which means most of his talk was to people outside the AR community. The people who can actually use the information he has.

I feel like a lot of the frustration people are having with Foer is that we want him to have the AR philosophical line and tell people that animals are not for us to use under any circumstance, and he doesn't do it. But he's not an animal rights person and his book isn't an animal rights book, so I feel a bit like he's being criticized unfairly for that. As much as I want him to say animals aren't ours to use for any purpose, it just isn't what he's about. At least not yet.

This is probably why he can get a few hundred people to come see him speak and we can't consistently get a dozen people to come to AR events. What he said to the few hundred people there was about food production, mostly, and not about philosophy. And what he said to those people was probably the most radical stuff they've ever heard about the food they eat. The fact that he hasn't completely gone vegan yet seems trivial to me considering how short of a time he's had this information, how he is coming from outside of the AR community, and how despite those two things he is writing article after article and on a speaking tour perhaps reaching more people than all of us combined ever will.

He said:
- Eggs cause more suffering than beef and if you're going to give one thing up, make it eggs.
- Fish farms are horrible for the environment and fish always die horribly.
- Turkeys we eat are so fucked up they can't reproduce naturally and in fact there is nothing natural about them. And that not have a turkey at all on Thanksgiving is a much better celebration and giving of thanks.
- The "good" farms, where the farmers love their animals could never supply us with enough meat to satisfy demand.
- There are farmers who treat their animals well. He jokingly said some treat their animals better than he treats his dog, however, he doesn't kill and eat his dog and there is something weird in there. And he still wouldn't eat those animals regardless of how nice their lives were.
- If you still want to eat organic, "humane" meat (quotes mine, not his) you're going to have to pay a lot for it and your best bet, if you don't think you have the money, is to eat way way less.
- He said countless euthanized cats and dogs make their way into our food supply because they are ground up and fed to the animals we then eat.
- He described in detail the living conditions of so called "free range" and "cage free" operations and made a point that neither of those words meant cruelty free.
- He described how little space chickens have to live in by holding up his book, and saying "they have about this much space and cannot move and have their appendages cut off." (i assume he meant debeaking.)
- He said the only way to know about your animal products is to go to the farms yourself because "free range" and "cage free" and "humane" pushers are lying and taking advantage of the public.
- He said if you eat meat you can only be an ironic environmentalist.
- He spoke about how much global warming comes from agriculture
- He said how much greenhouse gas would be saved if we all went vegan one day a week and how many animals would be saved

He said a lot more very informative stuff, the logical conclusion of which is veganism. He didn't advocate for it, and he didn't advocate for vegetarianism either really. He just layed out facts and ideas and let people do with it what they wanted. As self-congratulatory as I would have felt if he said "so you're all going to go vegan after this right?", I am certain his approach is far more effective.

I think sizing him up through an AR lens is a mistake. I think sizing him up as someone outside this community with a massive, massive audience who he is giving very radical information to and very clearly not preaching to, makes me think he is going to be very effective in alleviating animal suffering, be it by getting people to cut down on meat, eggs, and dairy, or going vegetarian, or going vegan, or at some point going vegan himself.

I also think he has the kind of reach none of us do. If he gets them to think about this information for the first time, many of them will look deeper. The second source of information they get will be from someone a little further down the vegan line hopefully. As a messenger getting people to think about this stuff for the first time, I think he's amazing.

[Comments (42) | Read Comments and Add Your Own ]

Thanksgiving.

I was just informed that mom and her roommate were expecting me to do the Thanksgiving turkey. Along with pumpkin pie (crust from scratch) and my cheesecake.

Whut-?

This is going to be one of those weeks, isn't it?

Good thing it's 9am.

Here's a fanfiction heart attack.

Midway through my sga_santa fic, the borrowed laptop suddenly freezes.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SuperVegan/~3/42-XKZa6dZE/entry.php

[Got Pizza? We do now! (Photo: courtesy of Daiya)]

As most vegans know, the biggest thing to hit our culinary universe this year is Daiya. It's a totally yummy vegan cheese that melts and shreds just like dairy cheese. (Check out SuperVegan's love-letter, er, review.)

We thought we'd take a look behind the curtain and find out more about the wizards behind this new Canada-based cheesy phenomenon. Here they are, the Daiya Dudes. Andre Kroecher is the mad-scientist inventor of Daiya, and co-founder of the company with business-savvy Greg Blake.

SuperVegan: Why did you set out to create vegan cheese and what were your main criteria?

Andre Kroecher: I have always really loved dishes such as pizza, lasagna, quesadillas, burritos, which typically have cheese in them. Being a vegan though, I found that simply removing the cheese from these left me terribly disappointed. I tried replacing the cheese with extra salt and olive oil, but to me the taste and texture is just not nearly as satisfying.

Having a background of more than 10 years experience as a product developer, I had a real passion for trying to invent a vegan cheese that might actually have the properties of real cheese. I also love imported exotic cheeses and other European cheeses like havarti, so I decided to just start experimenting to see if I could make something that would satisfy me more than the other [products] out there. I tend to naturally approach things in an unconventional way and this yielded some unexpected results. Eventually, I developed a block of something quite like a soft havarti style cheese.

Greg Blake: When I tried the havarti style cheese Andre made I was convinced that it had commercial potential, but what would be even better would be to create a cheddar and mozzarella style vegan cheese that actually tasted, shredded, sliced and melted like dairy-based cheese.

We wanted chefs and food preparation staff to be able to use Daiya just like cheese - on a pizza in a conveyor oven running at very high temperatures, in a salamander [broiler], in a sauce, baking - you name it. All things considered, it was a pretty tall order. Andre and I set up R&D kitchens in our own homes and went to work. Eventually we ended up with some exciting and unexpected results, but both of us know that the R&D has just begun.

SV: How is Daiya different from the other products on the market?

AK & GB: There are some great products out there and all categories of vegan food are constantly improving as is demand, which is good for everyone. People like Bob Goldberg from Follow Your Heart are real pioneers who actually helped create this category and should be applauded for all of the great products he and Follow Your Heart provide to vegans [such as Vegenaise and Vegan Gourmet cheeses - C.C.]. As for our products compared to others, Daiya differentiates itself in that it brings together all of the desirable attributes of dairy-based cheese in terms of taste, shredding, slicing and melting without casein, soy or any common allergens.

SV: How did you settle on tapioca as a main ingredient?

AK & GB: Tapioca is actually only one part of the puzzle. It works in concert with the other ingredients. But a large part of what gives Daiya its unique properties has more to do with our proprietary manufacturing process.

SV: What's up with the name 'Daiya'?

AK & GB: Daiya is a play on the word dairy - it's like dairy but different. We didn't want to try so desperately to say some version of the word "cheese," especially since there are quite a few of those in the market already. We wanted to create a distinct brand that can stand on its own - and thanks to all of the early vegan adopters we've made a good deal of progress given that the company is less than one year old.

SV: When will Daiya go mainstream retail - meaning, when will folks be able to buy it at their local grocery stores?

AK & GB: We anticipate launching our retail product in spring of 2010. Many consumers have wondered why it is taking us so long to get to retail and we certainly understand their frustration. Our approach is based on our corporate philosophy of creating the very best tasting and performing vegan products we possibly can. We concluded that the only way to achieve our goals without compromise was to produce the retail products in an entirely new manufacturing facility which is, of course, both time consuming and expensive to get up and running.

SV: Are there ready-made food brands or national restaurant chains that are - or will be - using Daiya in their products?

AK & GB: Gardein and The Higher Taste Vegan Buzzito are products using Daiya that are currently available. We are working with a number of other well known manufacturers and expect more products using Daiya to be released very soon.

SV: What's your favorite way to enjoy Daiya?

Andre: I love to make pizzas and quesadillas. My favourite, however, is to prepare a mixture of sauteed black or pinto beans with onions, garlic, and peppers, add fresh tomatoes and cilantro. Turn off the heat and cover with shredded Daiya and leave the lid on the pan. After a few minutes, the residual heat and steam [will] make a nice cheesy topcoat on the beans.

Greg: Nothing resonates with my idea of comfort food like a Daiya grilled cheese sandwich. When I serve grilled cheese sandwiches made with Daiya to my non-vegan friends and family they have no idea that it isn't made with dairy-based cheese - I still get a kick out of that.

SV: When did you go vegan and why?

Andre: I grew up on a strict vegetarian diet as both my parents were vegetarian. It was a logical progression for me to go vegan for so many reasons. We had a miniature dachshund or "wiener dog" and I figured that if I wouldn't eat him, how could I eat other animals which are easily as emotionally developed? In the early '90s my wife and I started going vegan and pretty much phas[ed] out the last remaining dairy (cheese) from our diet. This was largely in response to all of the information relating to [the] ethical and health aspects of vegan diets. I remember waking up and realizing that if I had to be born a livestock animal, a modern dairy cow would have to be the worst because of the prolonged torture these animals have to endure before their eventual slaughter. When T. Colin Campbell's The China Study came out it really reinforced my feelings on the health aspects relating to animal product consumption.

Update: Due to a technical error, Greg's answer to the vegan question was omitted from the original post. Here it is.

Greg: I became a vegan in 1978 when I first moved to Toronto. I had read Peter Singer's Animal Liberation and it had a profound effect on me. I remember feeling disappointed with myself - it had never occurred to me how food magically appeared at the grocery store and how that might impact an animal's welfare. Back then, it was pretty slim pickings for vegan restaurants and grocery options so I was compelled to learn about cooking from cultures where vegan dishes were staples. Although my parents were very good cooks, they stuck to traditional North American fare, so veganism exposed me to a whole new culinary experience. Still, I missed some of the traditional comfort foods and longed for the day when great tasting vegan alternatives would arrive on the scene. That day has come and we now have so much wonderful food to choose from, and with great chefs like Tal Ronnen to guide us, it's the advent of a whole new era for vegans.

To stay on top of all things Daiya, visit their website www.daiyafoods.com.

[Comments (12) | Read Comments and Add Your Own ]

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SuperVegan/~3/nOSfRDDzAKA/entry.php

[I will eat these, then write about it ]

The sharpie tattoo on my arm reads: Eat Chocolate. Review for SuperVegan.

Before me, a mini tower of BlueStocking BonBons by Lagusta's Luscious and a glass of water (to y’know cleanse my palate and be all methodological yo). My mission, simple: eat, type, eat, type, etc.

Selma's Peppermint Patties

Wow. Wasn't expecting this texture at first glance; they are not soft at all. They're damn good though. Simultaneously luscious and robust; they strike a perfect balance of mint and chocolate where neither overpowers the other. You go Selma!

Vandana Shiva’s (Ancho Chilies, Maui Vanilla Beans and Mexican Cinnamon)

Ooooh. Texture! Spicy, smooth and Savory. I must say the texture of this piece really brings the whole experience to another level. It's as though every flavor shines independently and dance together in your mouth. You can really taste every bit!

Pauline Benjamin’s Peanut Butter Cups

Whoa. Not sweet. The Peanut Butter Flavor definitely dominates. A bit dry but the dark chocolate acts as a nice undertone to the heavy peanut butter flavor. This is for you if you like your peanut butter with a little chocolate and not the other way around.

Furious Vulvas (bittersweet chocolate, pink peppercorns and salt)

Mmmmmm. Spicy and Salty! The pink peppercorns and salt add a special dimension to the chocolate piece. This is definitely the smoothest of the four. Melty, luscious and smooth. The salt makes this bonbon sing. Oh. Yeah. These things totally looks like vulvas too. Ha.

The Verdict: Lagusta can throw down some damn tasty chocolate; interestingly flavored, with great packaging and would make a great gift!

[Comments (4) | Read Comments and Add Your Own ]

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SuperVegan/~3/cZpTrJrcFHk/entry.php

[If you follow us on Twitter, you may have already seen this picture.]

On Tuesday night, Moo Shoes (New York's favorite vegan shoe store) played host to the cookie event of the year.� Veteran vegan cookbook authors Terry Hope Romero and Isa Chandra Moskowitz were on site for the official release party of their latest joint effort, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.� Festivities began with passed finger foodstuffs from Brooklyn's own Foodswings, including various chick'n sandwiches and the cutest mini corn dogs you ever saw.� The feature food, though, was of course cookies!� Baked by the guests of honor themselves, offerings of at least eight kinds included a soft and chewy rocky road cookie, a mouthwateringly moist sweet potato blondie, and a classic New York black and white shrunk down to bite size.

After a doting and thorough introduction by longtime friend Eric "the awesome guy" Weiss, Terry and Isa took the makeshift stage to thank the crowd for years of support.� More than a few who were in attendance have been following the duo since the days of their public access cooking show, "The Post Punk Kitchen," and their following has grown astronomically with such hits as Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World and Veganomicon. When asked what's next, Isa responded without a second thought, "more books!"

The ladies then retired to a very professional table at the back of the store where enthusiastic fans literally lined up for the privilege of a signature.� The space was packed with friends and admirers who spent a few happy hours munching the amazing cookies, sipping wine and Almond Breeze, and discussing all things vegan.� The party went on until well after 9pm when we were kicked to the curb - left to dream of cookies past and plan for cookies future, signed books in hand and ready for action.

[Comments (7) | Read Comments and Add Your Own ]

So it's that time of year for wish lists and such. I'm trying to save them as I go, but feel free to link me to your wishlist as I would like to do something small for any of you if I can. As usual, because I'm poor, I tend to keep my list fannish/creative because that's all I really can return. And it's the small things that always make me happy anyway.

so onto it...

( wishlist rules... )

( And my ten wishes - know that world peace is always an understood wish... )

Again, I wish I could do things like buy y'all books and such, but I'm broke as broke could be, so I try to stick to the small things and don't ask more of that than anyone else.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SuperVegan/~3/7DAMFmnc38M/entry.php

[Holy craft, Batman!]

If your mom ever made an excellent treasure hunt for you and your greedy, unappreciative siblings, you remember how tingly your toes and fingers got when you finally reached the treasure chest full of whoknowswhat. Now you can have that transcendent shivery feeling and a box of crafty vegan surprise in the mail, and you don't have to share them...or fish clues out of the toilet.

It's All in the Bag is providing that service. Buy a bag of vegan, handmade crafts for $15 (small), $25 (medium), or $35 (large holiday bag, now sold out) from their website and receive a mixed bag of vegan sample stuff donated by crafters on Etsy. All profits from the bags go to Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary out in Deer Trail, Colorado. (Oh, check out their site! It is so pretty and soft and delicate and just like being in the womb!) So what's not to like?

The generous organizers at It's All in the Bag sent me a medium-sized box of mine very own. First thing I saw when I opened the priority mail box is a handmade tote bag hiding all the goods. This one, I am SO sorry to say, looks like something I might have made before taking that gender role-affirming eighth-grade home ec. class. At the top of the bag were some sort of confusing coupons and business cards for things like reusable menstrual pads, dressmaking and alterations (send my baggy-in-the-ass pants to Etsy?), prayer beads, and various cosmetics. I dug a little further and found:

• A beautiful penguin holiday-themed card
• Teeny tiny soap samples
• Yummy lip balms, salty scrubs, smelly lotions, and other miniature cosmetics
• Doggy biscuits that expired just a couple days after I received the box
• Single servings of tea
• A necklace and pair of earrings made of plastic beads
• Hella-lotta packaging, most of which was decorative/unnecessary
• More coupons for Etsy stores I probably won't visit

By no fault of It's All in the Bag, most of the Etsy seller participants didn't label their cosmetics with ingredients, so I probably wouldn't rub them on myself. I also don't like smelly things. I definitely would've rocked the jewelry back in second grade, but plastic beads don't do it for me anymore. The doggy biscuits, too, lack an ingredients list, so even if they hadn't recently expired, I wouldn't have fed 'em to my family's allergy-prone canine companion. Obviously this bag would never work for a dude (and many women).

Again, not much All in the Bag can do about this, but — because the samples are so small, they don't justify all the packaging around them. Also: so much advertising for other Etsy stores just takes away from the real products.

So maybe I am a greedy, unappreciative treasure hunter. But truly I really like this idea and want it to succeed! All in the Bag, your path is rocky. Getting people to donate time, effort, and products is HARD. Getting good stuff is way harder. But start with some better tote bags and a lot less packaging, and I think you will make it.

[Comments (23) | Read Comments and Add Your Own ]

My mom has been talking about this for weeks:

500,000 animals to be ritually slaughtered?

On Tuesday, November 24th the Gadimai animal sacrifice festival will take place in southern Nepal. It is said that 500,000 animals including buffaloes, chickens, goats, pigs, rats, and birds will be tortured and slaughtered during this Hindu festival.

Write to the Nepalese Embassy: info@nepalembassyusa.org

In India, the ritual slaughter of animals in such rites as the Agnicayana has long been replaced with effigies. There is no religious reason for this throwback. Despite the detailed instructions in Leviticus, Judaism no longer sacrifices the fatted calf. Like that.

I'm tutoring high school students, prepping them for the SAT.

I think what they need as much as good SAT scores are some good college strategies. Share yours here.

So here it is:

What no one will tell you about college (until you get there).

1 - Want to increase your scores 5% without doing anything?

( Sit in the same seat every day )

2 - Talk to your professor outside of class.

( Disagree with your prof? Good! Take it to her/him at the end of class. )

3 - Bored? Ask a question.

( Every time I found myself zoning out during a class I would raise my hand )

4 - Avoid clock-watching.

( Avoid the clock-watching tick by sitting where you can't see the clock. )

5 - High school is for taking the classes you hate. College is for taking the classes you love.

( Don't be a masochist -- if you can avoid that hated math class by taking a much more interesting astronomy class, do it.  )

6 - Know thyself. Work with your habits rather than against them.

( If you suck at mornings, don't take that 8:30am Japanese class. )

7 - Avoid schizophrenia and be efficient: Take related classes at the same time.

( You can use your readings from Indian history as sources for your Indian lit class and vice versa. )

8 - If the class you want is booked, show up anyway, books in hand, and participate vigorously.

( The professor would rather have you as an extra student than the disinterested slackers in the back. )

9 - Give yourself flexibility: Plan, plan, plan.

( When you're not sure of your major, take classes that apply to all three of your most likely majors first. )

10 - The one I learned too late: Build a relationship with professors who are top in their field by taking more than one class with them.

( If they're a bit of a name, their opinion carries weight. )

Reason number 211 why I love my high school tutoring students:

A student wrote his SAT essay. He detailed how, scientifically speaking, the planet doesn't need humans.

<3

• irana: On BDSM, Part II - Today we're going to look at some other terms - negotiation, limits, contracts - break those down, and hopefully provide those reading with a better understanding of what those terms mean. -
  
  (tags: kink)


• irana: On BDSM, Part I - Consent is a vital element in all psychological play, and consent can be granted in many ways. -
  
  (tags: kink)


• the_minx_17: Hi! My name is Minxie...¦ - [...] if a piece of fiction disregards the basic principles of safe, sane, and consensual they really are more trouble than they're worth. -
  
  (tags: kink fanfic)

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SuperVegan/~3/Cj_bX--1jIQ/entry.php

If you haven't watched Morgan Spurlock's ingenious show 30 Days, at least watch this fantastic episode from June '08, in which he plants a hunter in the gentle, competent hands of a family of vegan animal activists. It's got EVERYTHING: Face-to-face interactions with rescued factory-farmed creatures? Check. PETA demos? Mmmmhmm. The insides of a dairy production facility? Yeah, they've somehow got that. Animal rescue in action? It's all here. You gotta watch this. And send it to at least 50 of your closest friends. (Via VegWeb. Yay, internet revival of this.)



And on the topic of vegan TV exposure, anyone else see Dr. Oz turn a cowboy vegan? Now THAT guy knows how to scare folks into a healthy diet.

[Comments (2) | Read Comments and Add Your Own ]

The music awards:

Shakira has women ninjas!

Good news on the work front: My tutoring job is going to give me 16 hours a week as of Dec. 1, which is great. It's an improvement.

The pay rate is good, and it gives me the required experience I need for teaching. (90 hours is the magic number. I'll have it by the end of December. Then I need a year of school for the teaching certificate.)

Unfortunately, it's not quite enough to live off of.

I don't have a car in car-dependent Maryland, so I'm having to ask "mommy" for rides to work, to interviews. I have all the time in the world to write -- yet can't find the space because I have to write around other people's schedules.

It's been four months and I'm getting the feeling she's burned out. As am I.

I want my life back.



Quantifying a life.

( When I drove across country to Seattle in 1996, I had a car. )

Aside from the degrees, how did I end up with less than when I started?

Mousie report.

Some of you may recall this post wherein a family of mouse babies took up residence in one of my fleece jackets (in a box that happens to be outdoors). I discovered this when I pulled my jacket out of the box, scattering mouse infants everywhere. I removed my other jackets, packed the box with newspaper, and used newsprint to scoop the littles back in the box.

A week later I discovered I'd missed four mouse babies, who'd fallen into a box I took inside. Noooo....

Then the temperature dropped and I thought the outdoor mousies were history.

Three weeks later ...

I'm happy to report that the mouse babies survived, and have moved on. But the nest is clearly there, and there are no apparent corpses.

Proof of life: the fleece jacket was not so lucky, sacrificed to the cause. The Mousies chewed a few holes.

Unless Rainy Pass can fix it.

People always ask me about Buddhism ... and I'm caught flat-footed. You should ask a good Buddhist!

Well we're in luck. And online, too.

Tulku Orgyen has offered to help anyone with any questions about Buddhism: http://twitter.com/TulkuOgyen

Retweet, tweeters.

And thank you, Tulku Orgyen, for letting me pass the buck.

The Olympics are coming! The Olympics are coming!

If you're like me (in years past) you probably tune in to these winter sports, oh, once every four years. You get a general sense of who the favorites are from the announcers and interviews, roll your eyes at the inspirational life story clips, and root for the home team.

Now you don't have to be in the dark. You can be knowledgeable long before the Olympics hit.

At least about figure skating. (Everyone, feel free to correct me. I'm not an expert, I've just been following skating to the best of my ability for a couple years.)

Right now the horse race is on. It's the Grand Prix. As we speak, world class skaters are competing in a series of competitions Russia, France, Canada, the U.S., Japan, and er, I think elsewhere. Right now they're trying to earn points to get to the Grand Prix final -- and prove themselves worthy of the Olympic teams.

You see, last March at the World Championships each country won the number of slots they'd have at the Olympics based on how their skaters did. (The max is three.) China was very disappointed to not win any for men's figure skating. In a real shocker, the U.S. women's figure skating only scored two slots as our current National champ fell apart.

But our men are doing fab. Evan Lysacek won the gold at Worlds and we have a "deep field," namely, many guys running neck and neck for the same titles.

Let's have a look at our boys.

The Americans.


The ever-hot gentleman, Evan Lysacek. (The belt buckle is Batman, with cable and bat-grappling hook.)

( Evan has the quad. He has the fire. He's a skater who starts pouring it out in the last 30 seconds of his performance.... )

Finally, there's Mabanoozerabadahblbrghf. Graceful, fluid, fun to watch. I don't know if he'll keep moving up, he's still inconsistent. But he has a musical sense that makes him figure skating eye candy.



Only three will make it to the Olympics.

Which three? We'll know at Nationals in Spokane, January 2010.


Tomorrow: those other guys, yeah, them foreigners.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SuperVegan/~3/5MSga-iK_K8/entry.php

The November 19th installment of Vegan Drinks featured a solid lineup. Fresh faces mixed with the very familiar ones. DJ Lil Ray kept the crowd in steady beats. Angels & Kings bartender Jesse replenished drinks effortlessly. And, David from Farm Sanctuary helped us all to adopt turkeys, pigs and cows just in time for the start of the winter holiday season. We owe a special thanks to our friends who donated Farm Sanctuary memberships and adoptions for us to give away to three lucky folks in the crowd.

The people lined up to spread their messages during "Shout Outs." David announced a plethora of upcoming Farm Sanctuary events. Joyce introduced us to Pets for Life NYC. Kneel revealed that Vegetable Slut has a new Web site and vegan-friendly designs for sale. Abby made an appeal for one of the dogs on Friday's euthanasia list at Animal Care & Control and offered her assistance to anyone who could foster the dog. We plugged Isa Chandra Moskowitz's and Terry Hope Romero's new cookbook, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, which will get the book release party treatment at MooShoes this Tuesday, November 24th, at 7pm. (Free cookies and sandwiches, y'all!) And, the über talented Mascha returned to Vegan Drinks with her completed photo project, VEGAN NY, which was projected on one of the bar's walls.

If you would like to get in touch with any of the folks mentioned above, please email info@vegandrinks.org.

The next Vegan Drinks NYC is Thursday, December 17th, at Angels & Kings Bar from 7pm to 9pm. (Note: This isn't the last Thursday of the month.) We'll have many more items to give away and DJ Lil Ray will be back! We can't wait to see you again! Get on our mailing list!

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• albumsontheside: I wasn't trying to get you to like me. I was trying to get you to love me. - what makes certain fics popular? - why are some fics so unbelievably popular in certain fandoms, and why do the fans often react so personally to any criticism levied against said fics? -
  
  (tags: fanfic fandom criticism)


• thefrogg: Muses and Fic Nicknames - Am I the only writer who happens to actually...give a personality/name/body/whatever to their muse? -
  
  (tags: writing)

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SuperVegan/~3/PYxx47kFj9M/entry.php

[SuperVegan's Patrick Kwan is a Tofurky fan.]

Thanksgiving is a devastating time of year for vegans, when we cry into our bland veggie soup while meat eaters feast around us, knowing deep down in our souls that we're missing out on one of life's great pleasures...

Oh, wait, no. That's just the lie that meat eaters tell themselves to justify their refusal to take responsibility for their own destructive choices.

In fact, with its wide array of freshly harvested delights, Thanksgiving is a cornucopia for vegans. Even the New York Times is getting in on the act, blogging about Going Vegetarian for Thanksgiving and posting recipes (I'm making the Fiery Sweet Potatoes).

As usual, many of New York City's best vegan restaurants have risen to the occasion. Here's SuperVegan's round-up of where to eat vegan in NYC for Thanksgiving; make your restaurant reservations asap!

Angelica Kitchen</a> is offering a five course prix fixe menu for $50; BYOB to save money. Thanksgiving is the only night Angelica takes reservations, so folks won't have to queue up in the cold like usual. The dinner will also be available for take out from the juice bar. Say hi to SuperVegan's own Olivia Lane, who will be hostessing in the afternoon.

Blossom and Blossom Uptown (the former Cafe Blossom) are offering the same three-course menu for $68, with reservations available between 3-9pm.

Candle 79's four course prix fixe is $70, while sister restaurant Candle Cafe gives you four courses for $52, plus a la carte options.

Caravan of Dreams will have Thanksgiving options in addition to their regular menu.

Counter's got seatings from 12pm-9pm for their $50 four course prix fixe, plus an optional $25 wine pairing.

Curly's will be serving a four or five ("depending on how you count them") course prix fixe menu for $26.95.

Hang out with Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Peter Max, and Ally Sheedy at Farm Sanctuary's Celebration FOR the Turkeys this Sunday at Tavern on the Green. You can even get the latest word on author Jonathan Safran Foer's not-quite-veganism from the man himself. The event is currently sold out, but you can call to get on the waiting list.

NYC's all-vegetarian grocery store, Integral Yoga Natural Foods, has many prepared vegan Thanksgiving foods. It's currently offering a 10% discount on holiday desserts, pies, cakes and brownies (most are vegan; they've got a list with ingredients on their website).

Organic Grill will have a special Thanksgiving menu in addition to their regular menu.

Chef Ouiya has both prix fixe and a la carte options for delivery or pick up. Check out the menu here and make sure to get your order in by Saturday the 21st.

Perelandra Natural Food Center has a selection of prepared vegan Thanksgiving foods.

Pure Food and Wine will once again be serving the most expensive vegan Thanksgiving meal in NYC. Their four course prix fixe is $72; select items from their regular menu will also be available.

Red Bamboo will be serving their regular menu and a $21.95 Thanksgiving prix fixe menu. Red Bamboo Brooklyn will offer a three course prix fixe after 4pm at an as-yet-undecided price. (Jeez, people, Thanksgiving is less than a week away!)

'sNice and 'sNice Brooklyn are both closed Thanksgiving day, but we recommend you stop by in the days before or after to try their awesome Thanksgiving Leftovers sandwich.

WholeFoods has their same old Vegan Thanksgiving Dinner for one. At $19.99, it includes curried apple pumpkin soup, a stuffed holiday roast, green beans with almonds, and mushroom gravy. Dessert is now sold separately, packaged with bread.

You already missed the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary's 2009 Thanksliving, but you can sign up for their mailing list to make sure you don't miss out next year.

If you love to cook, want to save money, or just want to skip the formality of dining out, host a potluck! Here's a "Gentle Thanksgiving" recipe guide, complete with menu suggested by Alicia Silverstone. Hit your local farmers' market for ingredients, or check out one of NYC's vegan-friendly grocery stores.

If we're missing anything good, please let us know!

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( SPN: About last night.... (of course there're spoilers) )

The real "oh no"? SPN's not coming back until the end of January?

Oh no!

Wait, wait. Don't panic. There's still Merlin.

Dragging this SGA Santa story out of me, one sentence at a time.

I whimper at every NaNo post I stumble across. I stalled out early. Too much going on in RL, from temple, to work, to the job search, to WG not sending me my things, to the difficulty in finding time to write, to being several months out of the writing vein from having my life turned completely turned upside down.

This doesn't stop me from hoping that I can write something on this story once I get my mental pen to work.

Working tonight (yay!). I've also received my first paycheck.

• trobadora: All-Human AUs? - Someone explain this trope to me. You have characters who aren't human: aliens, vampires, demons, angels, gods. What they are is an important part of their character, and writing them as ordinary humans takes away something essential to that character, and I just don't get it. Why is this so popular? -
  
  (tags: fanfic writing au)

• alixtii: AoOO Thoughs - I'm very uncomfortable with the implication, given by the existence of the primary warning tag "noncon/rape" that dubcon isn't rape. -
  
  (tags: warnings archiving ao3)


• smallbeer: my random morning thought processes - So, tell me how you would define "manpain" in a fannish context? -
  
  (tags: question terminology)

• just_katarin: But Katarin, you just posted! - I distinctly remember, when Heroes fandom started talking about the problematic aspects of the show, the racism, the sexism, how uneven storylines and deaths were, all of it, we all maintained it was unintentional....We thought they meant well but now I see that that was a lie. That was... they never intended good things for the People of Color on Heroes or the Women on Heroes. -
  
  (tags: sexism racism heroes)


• hradzka: Donny Osmond RPF. By pros. - Mike Sterling has an interesting post that touches on on for-pay RPF from the 1970s. He points out that teen magazines included fictional stories about celebrities, mysteries and adventures and romances and -- yes, *exactly,* it was totally RPF. -
  
  (tags: prowriting rpf history)


• melannen: Statistics! - But when I was going through all the Dear Writer posts being linked in the yuletide community over at lj, I kept noticing that there were actually quite a *lot* of people who were linking their letters from their DW accounts instead of their LJs, and I was wondering if there really were a lot, or if it was an illusion based around what I wanted, and was expecting, to see. And then it occurred to me that this might actually be a pretty good metric of how fandom actually *is* moving: yuletide participation is probably as close as we can get to a real cross-section of people who are active in the sort of fandom that is on journal sites, and it seems like the site people link in their letters would be the site they consider their primary home, regardless of whether they crosspost and how. -
  
  (tags: migration lj accessibility dreamwidth statistics)

Merlin fanart must-see.

Morgana + Edmund from Narnia.

Startling how perfect they are together. I see trouble brewing right on the page.

*sings* They say it's my birthday!

Since it's my birthday, could someone tell me what the really good fics are from the SGA Big Bang? A few Merlin recs wouldn't go amiss either. ;)

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SuperVegan/~3/K-1HjAL3Gwo/entry.php

Since we are forced to hold Vegan Drinks one week early because of the Thanksgiving holiday, we hope that you will join us this Thursday, November 19, at Angels & Kings bar for some drinking and turkey adopting. David from Farm Sanctuary will begin accepting your Adopt-A-Turkey sponsorships ($25 cash or check only) at 7:30pm.

DJ Lil Ray will be there to help us get rid of our tired iPod playlist.

As always, the drinks are cheap ($3 domestics, $4 imports and $1 off well drinks) and the crowd is rad. Plus, we will give away some items of nominal value. Just in time for the winter holiday season!



We'll turn down the music around 8pm and encourage people to promote themselves, their groups and/or causes for 30 seconds. If you represent a veg*n or animal rights group, come prepared with your (very short!) spiel and literature.

Check out our map of restaurants near Angels & Kings where you can grab a bite after the event. And if you haven't already, link up with Vegan Drinks on Facebook and MySpace.

Vegan Drinks is held from 7pm-9pm at Angels & Kings, 500 East 11th Street (btw Ave A & Ave B), New York, NY 10009.

The last Vegan Drinks for 2009 will be on Thursday, December 17. (Please note: This is not the last Thursday of the month; some major holiday got in the way).

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octopon - Pirates of DarkWater fandom asylum. Completed!

gotham_gazetteCompleted!</i>

vagrant_story - Vagrant Story fandom asylum. Pending/WIP.

Please keep in mind that I will be retiring Vagrant Story and Gotham Gazette if no further interest is shown.

And,

Please feel free to join commedia; a personal project of mine, aiming to review and analyze comics (and other selected media) that feature DC Comics' The Joker.

It is currently a WIP because I am still going through my 500+ hardcopy!issues collection. I do not download torrents/scans.

Two important polls need to be voted on, as seen here explaining two routes the asylum's project can take. IE: spoiler free reviews, spoilerific reviews, etc. This asylum will continue to be WIP until further interest is shown.

I am also open to affiliating with other comic book and/or Batman related asylums, except for RPGs.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SuperVegan/~3/Uxc3uwFh8Dg/entry.php

[Food Not Bombs shares meals in over 1,000 cities world wide every week.]

The Long Island Food Not Bombs (L.I. F.N.B.) chapter gets sh*t done. They coordinate three food shares (Hempstead, Huntington and Farmingville) each week; redistribute clothes, toys and books; and many L.I. F.N.B. activists also carve out time in their busy schedules to volunteer with the Food Not Bombs chapters (Bed-Stuy, Bushwick and Manhattan) in New York City.

Naturally, L.I. F.N.B. did not balk at the prospect of redistributing a 2,000 pound donation from Soyatoo. So, if you want to see what 2,000 pounds of vegan whipped cream looks like, get thee to Long Island this weekend for the start of "Long Island Food Not Bombs Thanksgiving Bonanza"!

The "Bonanza" starts Saturday, November 21, at 7:00pm with an all night cooking party to prepare 50 vegan entrees, plus appetizers, soup, bread, salads and desserts, including five different kinds of vegan cheese cake. All of the food prepared will be distributed the following day, Sunday, November 22, at 2:00pm at the Hempstead Food Share Bonanza. Show up to share good vegan food and take home a bag of groceries, including a portion of vegan whipped cream, that would otherwise go to waste if L.I. F.N.B. did not collect it from area grocery stores and redistribute it.

The remaining "Bonanza" events include:
Monday, November 23, at 9:00pm - Dumpster Scavenger Hunt/Olympics
Tuesday, November 24, at 6:30pm - Huntington Thanksgiving Food Share
Thursday, November 26, at 11:00am - Thanksgiving Lunch in Farmingville
Thursday, November 26, at 6:30pm - Farmingville Food Share

Learn more about L.I. F.N.B. and the Food Not Bombs movement at www.lifnb.com. If you've never participated in a Food Not Bombs share, then next week is a very fine opportunity to get involved as more hands are always needed.

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http://asylums.insanejournal.com/labyrinthfans/

For fans of either David Bowie and Jennifer Connolly and Jim Henson and Brian Froud.

I am Colleen (ninetieschic) on this and Sam will probably choose some outlandish un.. no doubt lol.

1) For anyone looking to buy a laptop or netbook, you may be interested in the results of this study which indicated Asus and Toshiba are the most reliable models, but that regardless of brand, 1 in 3 laptops fails to last 3 years. I wish they'd also done a study on desktops which are presumably less vulnerable to accidents. Aside from the fact that these expensive purchases are exceedingly unreliable, what most made me blanch was the idea of the monumental amount of waste being generated by so many short-lived machines.

2) In more optimistic news, health care costs may go down if successful vaccines are developed, and apparently there are a lot of major ones in the pipeline.

"Among other possible vaccines out in the coming years: herpes simplex, rheumatoid arthritis and a better seasonal influenza vaccine. A malaria vaccine -- a development that would revolutionize public health around the globe if successful -- could be on the market in the next several years."

3) When looking at the tags being used so far at the AO3, I got the immediate mental image of the classic comedy/tragedy masks (Angst! Humor!). However, I was also quite struck by how many stories are apparently carrying the humor tag – far, far more than for some other stories we commonly see like an AU or crossover. It's not that we rarely see funny stories in fandoms, but I rarely see stories advertised as such (whereas, by comparison, people label their stuff "crackfic" quite often). So I just thought I'd throw the question out there: what percentage of what you read or write would you consider to be a humor story?

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SuperVegan/~3/X8WLnTf_FUE/entry.php

The third installment of Veggie Conquest took place this past weekend and it was another smashing success.

In case you missed the introductory blog post, Veggie Conquest is an amateur cooking competition similar to Top Chef... except that it's not televised. Oh yeah, and it's ENTIRELY VEGAN! The event is held monthly, and you can buy a chef ticket in order to be part of the competition or a taster ticket for an excuse to stuff your face. There are generally about six chefs participating and sixty-five tasters in attendance. One week prior all ticket holders are notified of the "secret ingredient" and course to be prepared so that menus and taste buds can be primed.

This time around it was cranberry dessert and the submissions were incredible. Though not normally a big fan of cranberries, I was surprised to find how sweet and delicious they were incorporated into such delights as "Double Cranberry Cinnamon Oatmeal Nut Bar," "Almond Crusted Chocolate Cranberry Mousse," "Cran Velvet Cake," and the inventive (and winning) "Rice Crepe with Cran-Ginger Sauce." I was not as much of a fan of the raw submission, "Cranbanapple Parfait"; the texture was too much like a runny pudding for my taste. Neither was I impressed by the "Swedish-Style Charoset," submitted more as comedic performance art than recipe contender.

Per usual, while the votes were being tallied from the tasting portion of the evening, all guests were treated to a second course of assorted dishes prepared by the event's plentiful volunteers. This time, Match Meats provided an array of products to be used in the recipes and Raw Ice Cream Company was on hand to give everyone a taste of their offerings.

Thus far, each event has been presided over by the creator of Veggie Conquest, Jessica Mahady, and emceed by the incomparable Joshua Katcher, The Discerning Brute. The friendly volunteers keep the night running smoothly, and a live DJ is on hand to set the mood with music. The judges vary but have included chefs, cookbook authors, writers, restaurant owners, etc. I was a little disappointed this time around, however, that the judges were quite harsh on the contestants. They came across as nit-picky know-it-alls and that doesn't fit with the friendly and communal veg atmosphere Veggie Conquest works so hard to achieve. Hopefully future judges will keep their criticism constructive and will be more encouraging, as has been the case at previous events.

Overall, I find the cost of the tickets to be a steal for a full evening in a beautifully decorated space featuring countless tasty goodies, great company, and door prizes. Sign up for their email notifications or follow them on Twitter so you will know as soon as the tix for the next event go on sale; they are limited in number and don't last long.

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