Dallas: Manatee Eating Lettuce, Modern Art, and Bull Riding

I'm still planning a few posts involving Dallas, but this will be the last about what we've been doing. We're about to pack up, take a quick vacation, and move to our next city! I could stay here longer. Much of Dallas is like a good poem. I could enjoy many of its parks and environments regularly and still want to return to them. This doesn't mean I want to live here forever though, just that I don't feel entirely ready to go. Here are some things we've done recently.

Luche Libre Wrestling (above): Cinco De Mayo festival! We were enticed by one of the biggest festivals at nearby city hall. It had everything from big name performers like Nelly to Luche Libre Wrestling. The event was entirely free and was tied to the immigration march of thousands of people through downtown. Si Se Puede!

 

Arboretum and Botanical Garden: A short drive or bus ride from the downtown area, the arboretum was a beautiful experience. If you're not particularly into intentionally sculpted landscapes or interested in the labeled trees and flowers, I'd recommend exploring White Rock Lake first. Walking around the lake is just as beautiful in many ways as the garden. Avoid $10 parking by walking from the nearby lake parking or taking a bus.

Crow Collection of Asian Art: Right next to the Dallas Art Museum and just as free. If I had known how small it was, I would have stopped in much sooner, but I kept putting it off because of time I thought I'd need. Now I want to go back and we're out of time! A Tantric art exhibit grabbed my attention as it related to a book I'd just finished. Interesting exhibit for people of all maturity levels as it can be viewed spiritually/abstractly, carnally, or both.

 

World Aquarium: This "Aquarium" has everything from ant-eaters and monkeys to snakes and panthers. Instead of a bunch of tanks or even just a bunch of really big tanks, multi-level green

Dallas: The good, the bad, and the annoying

Before leaving Philadelphia, I wrote about problems I saw and experienced while living there: Philadelphia: The rough and tumble. Similarly, our time in Dallas has been great overall, but the city has shortcomings that we'll consider when deciding where to live long-term. Dallas issues are different from Philadelphia issues. What I didn't like about Dallas sprouted from people and mindsets while much of what was problematic in Philadelphia surrounded aging infrastructure, overcrowding, and entrenched organizations. Many of the things I didn't like about Philadelphia, were handled great in Dallas. The differences make me look forward to experiencing the next city and seeing what's working, and not working, there.

Transportation

Drivers: Dallas drivers are terrible. I don't care what the insurance companies say. It's a mixture of big city recklessness and aggression mixed with small-town incompetence. They can't merge, don't know how to politely assert, turn left on red, pull into crosswalks, drive slow in the left, tailgate in the right, sit at greens, and run reds. They often weave in and out of traffic despite having a clear left lane. I ended up on a hood when a taxi took a turn into the crosswalk. Pedestrians have the same disregard. Insurance studies are based entirely on reported collisions and don't consider weather, ice, traffic density, or frustration level.

Traffic: Lots of it, but it's a city. What do you expect? No complaint here. Some grid-lock in uptown areas but I love how the downtown lights are timed so you can cruise 15 lights without getting a red.

Confusing and faded road lines: On the highways old line aren't completed erased and new ones are fading so it creates confusion at high speeds among slanting lanes. Downtown, lanes change position after intersections so when you get to the other side cars are straddling lanes and have to make sudden adjustments to get back in place.

Valet Parking: Excessive and out of control. (I wrote a whole post on this one!)

Crime

(White powder scare next to our apartment)

Street Harassment: Again, this is something I expected from from Philadelphia having lived there years ago, but didn't experience. I have yet to leave our apartment in Dallas without being asked for money. It's not even the kind of passive requests received in New York by someone camped out on the sidewalk. It's all types of people passing in the street or approaching to interrupt what I'm doing in a park or restaurant.

Chicken Bones: Chicken bones all over downtown! This isn't a real complaint, but I see them everywhere as does my dog. It's generally a clean city-- just cut it out with the

Dallas: So what is actually bigger in Texas?

During our three month stay in Texas, I've kept an eye out for big things. It wasn't intentional as much as an unavoidable result of the unforgettable slogan, "Everything is bigger in Texas". See something big in Texas? It must be because, "Everything is bigger in Texas". It almost gets annoying. 

There are a number of tourists traps in Texas that capitalize on over-sized objects, but that's not just a Texas thing, ridiculously sized anythings exist in states all over the country. What is bigger in Texas that might have led to the creation of the saying, Everything's bigger in Texas", that wasn't merely a result of the saying? Besides, state-pride, I'm honestly not sure.

What's true about Texas is that it's expansive. The feeling comes not only from a large amount of flat land and the size of the state, but also the way its roads and cities are designed for expansion. This, coupled with a spirit of independence, confidence, and state-pride, makes Texas feel big. The attitude is great when it comes to passing an 85 mph speed limit increase law, but not so great when twisted into small-minded egotism.  Besides that, what's actually bigger is a lot more boring than you'd think.

Highway Intersections:  Within minutes of entering Texas from the east, I noticed the intersections or "highway stacks". Not only are many of them stamped with a Texas icon, but they're massive. I've seen plenty of these large "spaghetti intersections" in other cities, but in Texas they are everywhere. Many are in the middle of nowhere. Supposedly it's cheaper and less complicated to build these stacks than to regrade.  Pictures don't do justice, but below is the High-Five Interchange outside of Dallas, the first of its kind ever built. 

Dallas Airports: After research, I learned that the Denver Airport is larger than DFW, but having never been to Denver, DFW felt huge. After going through the toll-booth to

Stephen Colbert??

First saw this photo, here. (Rare historic photos)

Completed Vegetarianism Series Index

Knowledge: Digital wisdom, guide to introverts, and simple lessons from scientists

1. The unaided human mind (i.e., the mind without our rapidly growing technological enhancements) is increasingly limited. It cannot deal with trillions of data points or extreme complexity. It is subject to unconscious biases. It works relatively slowly. It forgets a great deal. In the past, these limitations were not necessarily constraints... today our unenhanced minds come up against more barriers in dealing with many of today’s challenges, from space travel, to proteomics to surviving in an interconnected world. So we are busy extending, enhancing, and amplifying our minds by combining them, symbiotically, with 21st century technology. Why We Need Digital Wisdom (Spark Salon)

2. If you only had a single statement to pass on to others summarizing the most vital lesson to be drawn from your work, what would it be? Seed asked eleven scientists this question. These are their answers: Single Most Vital Lessons from Scientists (Seed Magazine).

3. Because [their] energy is a limited resource, they tend to see extroverts as obnoxious predators out to steal their sweet, sweet energy juices. That's why they have the hamster ball of personal space. A Guide to understanding introverts (picture).

If you only had a single statement to pass on to others summarizing the most vital lesson to be drawn from your work, what would it be? Seed asked eleven scientists this question. These are their answers. - See more at: http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/starting_over/#sthash.iWW4WhA7.dpuf

If you only had a single statement to pass on to others summarizing the most vital lesson to be drawn from your work, what would it be? Seed asked eleven scientists this question. These are their answers. - See more at: http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/starting_over/#sthash.iWW4WhA7.dpuf

Going full cyborg

I recently bought a pair of wireless headphones. I can leave my cell phone or get up from the computer and walk around the apartment without having to remove the headphones or stop what I'm listening to. This slight increase in convenience doesn't seem like a big deal, but I've come to define these headphones by more than their lack of cord. They are my first step towards becoming a cyborg. In the near future Google Glass and others similar will only increase this cyborgity.

A cyborg is usually defined as an organism that has enhanced abilities due to built-in technology. Yes, headphones and Glass aren't built-in, but for all functional purposes, they may as well be. Disregarding medical and surgical details, the difference to the end user between headphones with a cord and that without are more numerous than the difference between wireless headphones and an ear implant. It's all about the cord and the control mechanism. By not being tied to a computer which is stuck on a table or plugged into a wall, the headphones become a part of me as much as my clothes or a tooth filling.

The image of cyborgs being human flesh grafted with steel causes us to miss the reality of cyborgs that exist now. Research is being done on brain control of foreign objects, but in the meantime, Google Glass and similar devices will push us towards being a different type of cyborg. Putting computers between the world and someone's perception of it, and allowing remote control of computers is more than enough.

Currently, I use hard disks for much of my long-term memory. I store the memories of trips, events, people, and more in the form of pictures, sounds, and writing. Because I know these memories are stored and easily accessible, I spend less time maintaining them than I would otherwise. My memory is poor, but I'm not afraid about forgetting because I have the disks. Something cataclysmic could occur to destroy these disks, but this is no different than the risk to the brain.

Like the wireless headphones, eventually devices will create a direct link from computer cloud memory to an attached device and this will further convince my brain to rely on an external device and memory. Growing up I dreamed of having a photographic memory. Before long, it will be as if I do.

Art: Seven works of art from high-school and earlier

I was looking through a backup hard drive recently and found these images from high-school and earlier. I know I wasn't very skilled and some of the concepts are heavy-handed, but having made them myself, I still find myself attached. My short-lived life as a visual artist:

Pencil sketches, scanned and computer colored.

Your life: Paradise or Dump? By Leland Sapp

Your life: Paradise or Dump?
By Leland Sapp

(It's been a month since I posed the following question and wrote the below story; the changes are profound. I feel more peaceful, eat healthier, read more, play more chess, meditate, workout, and am trying to learn a couple of languages. I am confident that this same question, when reflected upon throughout the day, will move the world (and me) toward paradise.

A little over two years ago, I had the not so distinct privilege of working with the laziest man in the world. After observing him for several months, I asked

Quick Quotes 35: Cyborgs

Late twentieth-century machines have made thoroughly ambiguous the difference between natural and art)ficial, mind and body, self-developing and externally designed, and many other distinctions that used to apply to organisms and machines. Our machines are disturbingly lively, and we ourselves frighteningly inert.

--Donna J. Haraway

By the late twentieth century, our time, a mythic time, we are all chimeras, theorized and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism; in short, we are cyborgs.
-- Donna J. Haraway

My body is an electronic virgin. I incorporate no silicon chips, no retinal or cochlear implants, no pacemaker. I don't even wear glasses (though I do wear clothes). But I am slowly becoming more and more a Cyborg. So are you. Pretty soon, and still without the need for wires, surgery or bodily alterations, we shall be kin to the Terminator, to Eve 8, to Cable...just fill in your favorite fictional Cyborg. Perhaps we already are. For we shall be Cyborgs not in the merely superficial sense of combining flesh and wires, but in the more profound sense of being human-technology symbionts: thinking and reasoning systems whose minds and selves are spread across biological brain and non-biological circuitry.
--Andy Clark

I'd rather be a cyborg than a goddess.

--Hye Yeon Nam

**More quotes about non-humans on Reluctant Chauffeur.**
**More great quotes on Reluctant Chauffeur.**

Vegetarianism: The journey to improve more than just diet

I recently read an article by someone who said the reason he stopped being a vegetarian was that vegetarians don't see the big picture. The writer went on to say that not eating meat wasn't solving bigger problems like the destruction of animal habitats or the depletion of resources, so he was done with it. Obviously, the author has a few shortcomings in sequential reasoning, but his point is valid to the point of inspiration.

Not eating animals doesn't create new habitats, plant trees, or reduce overpopulation. It doesn't mean that vegetarians have a positive net impact. This is particularly true if someone is a vegetarian who buys products with genetically modified, unhealthy soy or supports other examples of bad business. 

As the evidence rolls in, it's clear that the average vegetarian is healthier, happier, and harming less than a carnivore. But outside of killing, the overall impact has less to do with eating or not eating meat and more to do with the source and process of creating either. There are meat-eating farmers who are less destructive than vegetarians living in a city. There are vegetarian farmers who use pesticides and

Beer pictures from around the world

 Mediterranean Sea from Greece 

(back when Corono was still independently owned)

At my last job, it was tradition to send co-managers a beer-centered vacation photo to let him/her know what a good time he/she was missing out-on back at work. The key was to send it mid-shift (thoughtful, I know). Here are a some of my favorites from that time and a few similarly themed from other vacation pictures.

Links: Happiness, the future of employment, and what 7 billion people look like

1 The Spectator:  Interview with a writer: Jaron Lanier.

Identify almost any human role in our current society, and imagine that being aggregated into a software scheme in the future where the people don’t get directly paid anymore.  We can already say that there are virtual editors of newspapers. In the future nearly every existing job will be gradually weakened because of cloud software. The only one left standing at some future date is the owner of the largest computer on the network. Whoever has the biggest computer wins in our current system.

2. Life Hacker:  Want to Be Happier? Stop Doing These 10 Things Right Now.

No one likes you for your clothes, your car, your possessions, your title, or your accomplishments. Those are all "things." People may like your things—but that doesn't mean they like you. Sure, superficially they might seem to, but superficial is also insubstantial, and a relationship that is not based on substance is not a real relationship.

Genuine relationships make you happier, and you'll only form genuine relationships when you stop trying to impress and start trying to just be yourself.

3. The population of earth (7 Billion people) shown on a single web page, here.

Dallas: The Art Museum @ Midnight, Revolving Restaurant Views, Roller Derby, and Daiquiris from a Drive-Through.

It's been an eventful week in Dallas! Yesterday we tracked, on foot, a hit-and-run driver from the scene to further downtown where her battered car was being pushed from the road by some friendly citizens and the safety patrol (who didn't know what she had done yet). Wednesday night, Obama stayed in the Omni across from our apartment for the dedication of the new Bush Library. Early in the week, police cars and camera crew raced down our street every couple hours clearing the way for the driver and camera crew filming an Infiniti car commercial. There is a lot going on that we only saw in passing: Jazz festival, Earth festivals, and Taco festivals. Here are some of the other things we've been doing in Dallas, lately:

A View From Reunion Tower: The tower's observation decks are closed for renovations, but the restaurant is still open. Not wanting to bother with reservations and expensive non-vegetarian Wolfgang Puck food, we took the elevator up and got a drink by the bar. This was

Quick Quotes 34: Vampires

The vampire craze is kind of fascinating. We're interested in the idea of immorality and I think we're drawn to people or creatures who can give in to those base impulses and just be bad and not feel bad about it.
-- Benjamin Walker

I know not everyone starts out reading high literature. If you read enough you might be drawn to some other things, so maybe those vampire books are what they call 'gateway books.' I just coined that term. I don't know if there's a thing called 'gateway books.'
-- Josh Radnor


Becoming a vampire is forever. You don't get to change your mind about it later. For me, I think that's one of the big drawbacks with anything that's permanent. How do you know how you're going to feel in five years or 10 years? Even with a tattoo.
-- Stephenie Meyer

**More quotes about non-humans on Reluctant Chauffeur.**
**More great quotes on Reluctant Chauffeur.**

The Dive

by Tyler Avery Barnett

He runs towards the surf
pulling off his noose tie,
ripping at his clothes.
He dives naked into a wave,
leaving behind beach umbrella and
tie, caught in a bush,
blowing in the wind.
He becomes the ocean,
the waves breaking
on the backs of dolphins,
uncountable pieces
breathing through the gills
of a million wild creatures.

Father, protector, he nurtures the world
and flows in the veins of a billion thirsty children.

**More poetry on Reluctant Chauffeur here**

Dallas valet parking: Excessive and out of control

I've enjoyed Dallas a lot more than I expected. Having been here only two months, we've found a number of vegan restaurants and all types of ongoing events. I feel like we're watching the city progress in front of us. Despite this, I like to be realistic about the negatives. I have have fun criticizing what I deem to be stupid. This post's target: Dallas Valet Parking. It's excessive and dare I say, wrong (I do).

Before moving to Dallas I never gave valet parking a second thought. I understood it. Valet parking shows a touch of class. In other cities, it exists in places where parking is scarce or distant. Valet parking for restaurants in crowded cities is great because you don't have to drive around for an hour and then get towed or pay a fine when you don't make it back in time (I'm talking to you Philadelphia!). Valet parking is used at hotels to make it easier for people to get their bags to their room. It's used for the elderly patrons at old-school Italian restaurants with big parking lots. Currently, our apartment building mandates valet because the spaces in the attached garage are too tight. I understand the need, but even in the case of our apartment, it's almost always more of a hassle than a luxury and I avoid it when possible to save money, get the exercise, and protect the car.

Dallas doesn't understand any of the above. They stick valet nearly everywhere because, apparently, many people here are too lazy. They have valet at the movie theater-- a regular movie theater, plenty of spots. But they have valet! They have valet at the mall-- not a special mall, the kind with JC Penny's  and a Macy's. Again, plenty of spots, but valet parking! Dallas isn't short on space like other cities, there is usually plenty of street parking within a block and good sized parking lots attached to most restaurants-- but guess what? Many still have valet!

It's not that all restaurants have valet or even that most restaurants have valet. It's just that I've never seen so many unnecessary examples of valet in one city. Surely there are others and I'm just inexperienced, but what does this say about the people who live in places like this? What type of person doesn't see the frivolity in paying $10+ to avoid walking 50 ft? Sure, it helps the economy. NJ mandates full-service gas stations. Other states build toll-booths. But aren't there better ways and better things to spend money on?

Valet like this screams, "I'm too selfish and ignorant to figure out how to better spend my money."

Vegetarianism: Eating people, dogs, and at least lets be genuine, shall we?

Most carnivores are disgusted by the idea of eating dogs or people, so its ironic that as a vegetarian imagining life as a meat-eater, I have very little issue with it.

Many responsible carnivores justify their diet by pointing out that farm animals have a much better life on a farm than they would in the wild because, despite being killed for food, they live longer and are free from the fear of predators and many diseases. I can understand that. I think eating meat is unnecessary, but I respect people who buy local meat and make sure the animals they're eating are treated well.

Because animals don't speak English and perhaps don't have the ability to compare complex options, we can't ask them if they'd rather live and die on a farm or be in the wild, but I can imagine some humans might even choose a shorter life of comfort if presented with the same options.

If a human agrees to live on a farm and be eaten, would it really be wrong to eat them? Would it be more, or less, wrong than eating a non-human animal against their will? Certainly it would be more moral than the torture and drugging many animals currently go through?

To be clear, I don't think anyone should be eating any animals, humans included. It's entirely unnecessary for survival, it's generally unhealthy and in so many ways. But, if it came down to my survival I'd eat meat again, and that includes all kinds. I'd at least be genuine about it.

If you're a carnivore and willing to try an empathy exercise, image search, "eating dogs" on Google. If you feel disgusted and appalled, understand that this is how many vegetarians feel about other animals you eat. With more and more studies showing how smart animals are, they are more justified in their perspective. Last week I shared a great article called One of Us that summarizes this beautifully.

**This is part of a series of posts on vegetarianism in which I'll try to avoid the cliche topics of the lifestyle. New posts on Thursdays. Click on the "eating animals" tag above for more.**

Knowledge: Robert Ingersoll

Maybe it's where I get my iconoclastic tendencies. Supposedly, I'm a descendent of both Robert Ingersoll and 19th century poet Amy Lowell. Lowell known for smoking cigars and pushing gender roles. Ingersoll being known as "The Great Agnostic".

A few points of interest from a book on Ingersoll that  I recently started. First, he is not the abrasive, argumentative, personality I imagined. He is, above anything else, a humanist who fought for women's rights and against slavery. The evil of religion was his focus because he cared about people. Here is his creed as printed in The Best of Robert Ingersoll: Immortal Infidel.

To love justice, to long for the right, to love mercy, to pity the suffering, to assist the weak, to forget wrongs and remember benefits, to love the truth, to be sincere, to utter honest words, to love liberty, to wage relentless war against slavery in all its forms, to love family and friend, to make a happy home, to love the beautiful in art, in nature, to cultivate the mind, to be familiar with the mighty thoughts that genius has expressed, the noble deeds of all the world; to cultivate courage and cheerfulness, to make others happy, to fill life with the splendor of generous acts, the warmth of loving words; to discard error, to destroy prejudice, to receive new truths with gladness, to cultivate hope, to see the calm beyond the storm, the dawn beyond the night, to do the best that can be done and then be resigned.

Despite being known as "The Great Agnostic" he uses the word agnostic interchangeably with "atheist". Susan Jacoby, Author of another book on Ingersoll says in an interview 

...Robert Ingersoll – the person who was called “The Great Agnostic” by others in America – said in the 19^th century, there is no difference. The word “agnostic” was invented by Thomas Henry Huxley specifically because he was looking for a softer sounding word than atheist, which is a much older word and was always a pejorative word, well into the 19^th century.

The whole interview with Jacoby is worth reading.

Google has a large portion of The Best of Robert Ingersoll: Immortal Infidel available online.

Also,  Robert Ingersoll on Wikipedia

Quick Quotes 33: Isaac Asimov and robots

Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know - and yet not wise enough to control our learning and knowledge, so that we use it to destroy ourselves? Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance.
-- Isaac Asimov

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
-- Isaac Asimov

A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value.
-- Isaac Asimov

**More quotes about non-humans on Reluctant Chauffeur.**

**More great quotes on Reluctant Chauffeur.**

Music: New Bring Me the Horizon -- O-R!

I'm just going to start using O-R as an abbreviation for "On Repeat". Actually, probably not since it's annoying already, but at least for the length of this post.

The new Bring Me the Horizon is this month's O-R; Sempiternal, it's amazing. Toned down from the mayhem of their first two albums, it has strands of what sound like Thrice, Brand New and even the Deftones. They still use the computers, but... just check it out if you enjoy heavy music.

A heartfelt confession of a song, "Can you Feel My Heart", kicks off the album and seems to say, I'm not perfect, I'm searching as well, I don't have the answers, but--

New Mexico Diner

by Tyler Avery Barnett

So what? I borrowed a wheelbarrow
a few nights before
leaving for Hollywood
and decided not to leave
a forwarding address.

A pain,
always paining me
with stories of God
and gays destroying
America.

I breathed through my mouth until
the county border and after, spent 24 years
forgetting that wheelbarrow in the pines.

**More poetry on Reluctant Chauffeur here** 

Free ideas for the taking!

When I was a child, I used to keep my ideas secret so I could one day patent them and reap the wealth. Now, I'm more realistic (and perhaps lazy). Here are nine ideas I hope are in development somewhere. If anyone has seen these in use or wants to add to them, feel free to comment.

1. Electronic music with coded variables: Instead of words, lyrics would be written in computer code. Thus, the lyrics would change depending on environmental variables. Each and every time the song was played, it would be different. Not only could lyrics change, but tone, rhythm, and other characteristics. Possible variables include time (day, season, time, daylight level, month) place (city, building, country, gps coords, nearby attracts), and characteristics of listeners (number of listeners, names, other info). The music would require some type of app that reads computer or profile information to be played. People in an audience could be required to activate the app on their phone before admission.

2. Urban zip line for transportation: You take the elevator to the top of your high-rise and whooooosh! Flying over the heads of traffic and busy crowds to the nearest transit center. What better way to wake up? And talk about energy efficient.Plenty of ideas involving gravity and transportation, but someone needs to use this, at least as a gimmick for a new apartment complex. What spirited person wouldn't love this?

3. Interactive television: I already wrote about this here. Why isn't it in use, yet!? A television experience that the viewer controls from home. A viewer can switch from one live camera to another during a sporting game or reality show. Eventually, a device measuring the movements of the viewers head and eyes links to the perspective and focus of a shot being filmed in a wider angle and higher resolution (to eliminate the need for every viewer to have an individual camera at the live event). The view then zooms in or moves to give the viewer control of their experience.

4. A store that buys used lottery tickets: The chances of someone incorrectly reading lottery ticket numbers, or messing up the dates are so much higher than actually winning the lottery

Vegetarianism: We are animals, slaughterhouse webcams, and Morrissey

My weekly series on vegetarianism is winding down. I'm exhausting the ideas and reasons I have for being a vegetarian that I haven't seen written elsewhere. Next week I'll write about eating people and what circumstances would lead me to start eating animals again. In the meantime, here are some other articles and links.

1. Laphams Quarterly: One of Us. A good article for Christians and the religious. This article takes"humans are animals" to new levels with religious tie-ins further into the article.

In the New Testament... there’s that exquisite verse, one of the most beautiful in the Bible, the one that says if God cares deeply about sparrows, don’t you think He cares about you? One is so accustomed to dwelling on the second, human, half of the equation, the comforting part, but when you put your hand over that and consider only the first, it’s a little startling: God cares deeply about the sparrows. Not just that, He cares about them individually...

2. NY Times: Open the Slaughterhouses. New laws might make it illegal for people to investigate slaughterhouses by posing as workers. This editorial suggests transparency.

Opponents might compare this proposal to bills that require women to view images of their fetuses before having an abortion. The resemblance is misleading. Those laws intrude on intimate, difficult decisions involving a constitutional right. In contrast, open-slaughterhouse laws would not force anyone to look at anything. They would just increase our resources for thinking and arguing. A teenager debating her parents at the dinner table, or a parishioner discussing the ethics of eating meat with fellow church members, would be able to pull out a cellphone or laptop to support his or her arguments.

3. Morrissey Quotes on animal activism

(Eating meat) is really on the same moral level as child abuse. It’s the same thing. Animals are like children, they look to us for protection. We should protect them. I really feel quite smug about mad cow disease and foot and mouth and so forth, and I just think ‘Well, what do you expect? People have been saying it for years.

4. Not necessarily about vegetarianism, but my wife (who is a vegan) is in the first stages of health coaching. See her page here. Interesting fact, BetterYou.com is for sale starting at $9,500. My wife bought BetterYouHealthCoaching.com for... (drumroll)... $1.

Music: Four songs I've kept on repeat this month

New music from March that I have stuck on repeat + two more recently discovered favorites:

Dodge and Fuski -- Never Let Me Go -- Sucker Punch EP -- March 25

Opinion: John Cage, Silence, and pop music

Containing small print, unique punctuation, lists of questions, and other means of presentation, Cage's writing, like his music, is often dense and unconventional. One benefits from taking it at whatever pace is necessary for understanding. It's anything but "pop" which may be creative and somewhat rebellious, but is rarely unconventional. "Pop" being defined here as a type of music that is easy for a majority of people to listen to (popular). If music is created for simple pleasure, it follows that pop music is great. If, however, music, is more and does more, isn't pop mostly just music's form of stagnation?

“What is the purpose of writing music? One is, of course, not dealing with purposes but dealing with sounds. Or the answer must take the form of a paradox: a purposeful purposeless or a purposeless play. This play, however, is an affirmation of life--not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we’re living, which is so excellent once one gets one’s mind and one’s desires out of its way and lets it act of its own accord.” 

I had the privilege to attend part of a recent John Cage city-wide event in Philadelphia earlier this year. A thought developed between hearing the music and rereading Silence that involved the evolution of musical taste and tolerance. Certain Cage compositions are produced by chance operations that don't always result in harmony. They sound unpleasant to many. His music is meant to, among other things, represent the same combination of sounds created by seemingly chance operations in the world.

If Cage is correct in his assertion that music is everywhere and life can be better enjoyed by reducing the barriers we create about what music is, shouldn't we push ourselves to progress by abandoning that which we find easy to listen to? Isn't growth and progress usually preceded by discomfort? If we avoid pop music and push ourselves to enjoy less typical rhythm and harmony are we doing ourselves a favor or denying a simple pleasure of life?

Like, most things it appears to be a balance. Cage's music wasn't all random and displeasant to unaccustomed ears. We like music because it is a human creation, a celebration of us. Unlike contrived music, the music/sounds of life and nature are bigger than us. A little of both and the recognition of the differences; not of sound and music, but of human contrived music and the music of life, could be a good thing.

Vegetarianism: Why vegetarianism is good for relationships

 (Post card from a Veg Fest 2013 in Austin)

I never realized how great vegetarianism was for my marriage until I looked back on the first year of being a vegetarian. Being vegetarian creates a common interest in recipes, education, and news. We're able to share in conversations with meat-eaters and become excited about the same restaurants and food-related discoveries. It sounds small, but common interests are vital to the success of any relationship and being vegetarian is an engaging interest that impacts multiple areas of shared life.

I don't know if I'll be a vegetarian forever, but having a wife who feels as strongly as I do about it, makes it easier and more enjoyable to continue. It's hard for me to imagine being a vegetarian with a girlfriend or spouse who isn't supportive. It reminds me of growing up in the church and hearing how important it was to find a Christian spouse or to attend a Christian school.

Vegetarianism becomes something that is shared. Grounded in social responsibility and healthy intake, it creates a common passion that brings people together. I wouldn't suggest becoming a vegetarian solely for these reasons, but it's a great benefit.

While religion has worked for the relationships of people like my grandparents who have been married over 50 years and attribute it entirely to religion, vegetarianism, for many people, is one part of a new foundation-- a new belief system based on social/environmental responsibility and self-care. It's something that couples can do together to make a difference in the world, to their health, and to strengthen their relationship.

**This is part of a series of posts on vegetarianism in which I'll try to avoid the cliche topics of the lifestyle. New posts on Thursdays. Click on the "eating animals" tag above for more.**

Excerpts: 30 Lessons for Living from the Wisest Americans

I first mentioned the Legacy Project in regard to some life changes that were happening at the time. Now that I've finished the book based on this project, here is more advice from the seniors in the book:

1. Stop using "I don't care how long I live" as an excuse for bad health habits: Behaviors like smoking, poor eating habits and inactivity are less likely to kill you than to sentence you to years or decades of chronic disease.

It's about quality of life, not length. This argument can be used in the opposite direction, but are unhealthy habits really worth decades of unhealth misery? Modern medicine can keep you alive, but it can't keep you young, functioning, and free of costly medicines and treatments.

2. Parents are often only as happy as their unhappiest child: This might be common knowledge held by parents and certainly has exceptions, but I'd never thought about it.

3. Don't hit your kids: The book claims that many elders regret physical punishment. I was sold on this point after reading the book, then I saw a very young child on a local trail trying to run into a busy road despite his father's verbal warnings. It made me reconsider. A spanking could save that child's life. After all, natural selection sounds good until it comes to your own child. Still considering my position.

Here are three repeat points from my first post on the book:

3.  Say “Yes” to Opportunities: When offered a new opportunity or challenge, you are much less likely to regret saying yes and more likely to regret turning it down. They suggest you take a risk and a leap of faith when opportunity knocks.

5. Travel More: Travel while you can, sacrificing other things if necessary to do so. Most people look back on their travel adventures (big and small) as highlights of their lives and regret not having traveled more. As one elder told me, “If you have to make a decision whether you want to remodel your kitchen or take a trip—well, I say, choose the trip!”

7. Time is of the essence: Live as though life is short—because it is. The point is not to be depressed by this knowledge but to act on it, making sure to do important things now. The older the respondent, the more likely they were to say that life goes by astonishingly quickly. Said one elder: “I wish I’d learned that in my thirties instead of in my sixties!”

Dallas: Downtown lights of Reunion Tower and Omni Hotel

President's Day 2013

We moved to  Dallas without seeing our apartment first. The description of the apartment we chose read "views of the lights on Reunion Tower and Omni Hotel". We decided "view" was a good thing and left it at that. It wasn't until our first night in our new place that we discovered what the description was actually describing.

Valentines Day 2013

 

Both Reunion Tower and Omni Hotel are covered in LED lights that are controlled by artists from remote locations. Designs are changed on a regular basis to reflect city events and holidays. The Omni Hotel will occasionally display in its lights a convention or other large event that is being held at the hotel, but otherwise the lights are purely decorative-- no ads. I started taking pictures of each new design, but gave up after seeing how often it changed.

February/March 2013 Pictures

Vegetarianism: Calling out the "forgetting what good food tastes like" myth

A go-to statement for critics of vegan and vegetarian food is that "vegetarians have forgotten what good food tastes like". Browse vegan restaurant reviews and you'll quickly find someone stating how great a particular restaurant is-- but only for vegans. This perspective, expressed by meat-eaters conveys that vegans have become accustomed to tastes of mediocrity.

This seemingly benevolent type of valuation makes sense when talking about meat substitutes. Vegans who tell a meat-eater how much tofurky or veggie bacon tastes like real bacon or turkey are deluded. But, this attitude has migrated from talking about meat substitutes to the notion that all vegan food is a compromise and meat eaters should avoid these restaurants. It's a myth propagated by a misinformed majority dependent on salt and fat.

Try this experiment at home or along with me in your head. Think of (or try) the taste of chicken if it was not fried in oil or seasoned in any way. Imagine the taste of beef without any added marinade or spice. What flavor is it that you like so much about your favorite meat dishes? Compare the flavor of the plain meat to the range of flavors in the pictures above. Certainly, farm-fresh, properly fed, non-drugged, cleanly slaughtered animals have taste. Certain types of fish and a quality steak have taste, but for the most part, particularly with fast-food meat, flavors come from spices and other additives that are vegetable based.

It's many meat-eaters who have conditioned themselves to appreciate a narrow variety of food, not the other way around. Viewing thousands of diverse flavors only as a way to enhance a handful of often bland meat varieties is silly.

Yes, there are meat eaters smart enough to avoid low-quality meat who enjoy their food like a fine wine or coffee. But, in general, the perspective that vegan restaurants serve bland food is only for meat-eaters with over-stimulated and numbed out taste buds, and should be recognized as such.

**This is part of a series of posts on vegetarianism in which I'll try to avoid the cliche topics of the lifestyle. New posts on Thursdays. Click on the "eating animals" tag above for more.**