Clean houseee!

Phew, house cleaned after 4 weeks. It feels so good. I think I should call the house cleaner every week... I have to use a translator though and speak in bad spanish :) It would be so much easier if she understood English a bit more

If anyone wants to drop by, it is a clean house weekend!

Early morning!

Good morning! Woke up early today coz i was already getting hunger pangs at 7!

And then mr chew fluff retched up some undigested biscuit.. Time for clean up!

Its a rainy saturday and the house needs a major deep cleaning.. so off we start off.. now if only hubbs has some time off his builds..

Hungry already at 11:30!

Friiidaay!

yeah that time of the week again.. Hubbs is busy with his releases.. and getting all worked up.. then he realizes that all the stuff he reads and tells me to apply, he can apply to himself too..

the time space continuum.. When you step back from the small problems in the bigger time picture or bigger space picture, they are not really that important to cause so much stress..!!

Had my appointment with the PCP today.. so a bit doped up on Valium... It takes some effort to get to the hospital. I should probably move the PCP to the new UW family clinic 2 blocks from home!

Thats the good part about living in downtown. Everything within 5 blocks.!

I remember when Vivek had his knee surgery in Oct 2009 and was not driving for a week and I needed some stuff on the 4th day. I was so tired, I was sleep walking and the stress and the tiredness meant I couldnt have driven a car without risking a dizzy spell. But I walked 4 blocks and found a Rite Aid!

Seems like that was a different life..

Foggy Thursday..

Woke up late to a fog here in a seattle. And my mind was also foggy. I usually am in a bad mood if i dont get good sleep in the night.. And thats how last night was. I have no clue why.

And then the stupid fire alarm testing started. The test was supposed to be only in the lobby, but started in the house too. I made hubbs call the concierge to check, coz i would have blasted his ears for the morning annoyance. and sure it was a mistake.. as usual!

Now the rest of the day finally starts.. write up the pet of the day   and bringing Fido home series on my other blog. Read up posts from my foodie blog roll. a lot of breads and some amazing new dishes. Facebook, twitter, news... youtube videos.. recipes.. exercises..

Look at the positives!

Is such a difficult thing. People like me, need to constantly find something positive, to motivate them to get out of the funk. And what do I do? I read a piece of news about some person or animals getting hurt or abused somewhere and get upset and back into the funk.

Isn't it amazing how everything we humans do whether in the name of entertainment, fun, romanticism or beauty.. always hurts someone else...

So either I shut down my hyper feelers and use ignorance and out of sight out of mind to just see all the happy stuff in the world .... to self.. hello .. probably quite  impossible.

Or Use that to motivate myself to make some small efforts to help some of those who are hurt. And I know there are a lot of us out there, constantly striving to make a change, find ways, to reduce the hurt and the pain. That is what is a much bigger motivation. I know of these hurts, because someone found out about them, someone made an effort to get them out there, someone started a small movement to find solutions and alternatives, someone like you and me questioned it.

We, with our big brains, cannot claim ignorance and live in our own bliss. We, will have to reply to our own heart some day. That day, will you be at peace with yourself?

Sunny Wednesday

Its sunny in seattle today. I am sounding like a weather blog!
A big Yay for Mom and Dad taking time to read my blogs.. though most of it is such blabber that they probably think that I am going nuts :D:D

I realized some days back that I get too aggressive when I talk about topics that I am passionate about.  And I want to blabber a whole big deluge on information onto anyone who is listening.. Cant help it.. Sometimes people just have not been given that kind of information. So its difficult to just stop and prioritize what message you want the person to get, instead of the message just getting lost in the humongous amounts of blabber.  
Its quite a difficult challenge for sure.. Thats why a lot of the very passionate activists end up getting a bad name. We all have that passion, but not everyone understands our point of view. So we have to stop and think as the other person and then give them more than one reason to agree with our thinking.. phew..

Oh yeah, If you do encounter me in one of the information explosion modes, wait for a few minutes.. I will be back to normal and logical speaking in a few .:):)
Thats one thing we both have, hubbs also has information explosions in his head and only some of it gets out, when I get the explosion, most of it gets out, but I get too hyper in the process. In both cases, I think the main point does not always get across!

My passions..
Please dont buy or breed pets, while shelter pets die. 6-8 million pets are euthanized each year. Thats more than 20,000 per day!
Be kind, whether it is food or anything that you use, look for things that have not caused pain and suffering to anyone in the process of getting to you.

Analogies

I was thinking about some ways to get me and my counselor on the same page and decided to use analogies. Since she loves to use them while explaining her point.. but usually she takes a bit too long and i get impatient :)

Its like I am learning to swim in a pool and am scared of water, and she is my trainer, but she is always on the pool side, never inside the pool. If she cannot even extend her hand a bit to help me and get a tiny bit of the water splashed on her in the process, then I dont know if she will ever be able to understand. It also indicates too much indifference I would think..

Do counselors and other doctors like surgeons eventually exhaust their supply of understanding, sympathy and empathy.. ? because of their constant exposure to so much pain every day every hour.. and hence the indifference?

A World apart!

Here I am trying to to talk about being compassionate and kind, knowing what you use and eat everyday how it affects other living things, and looking beyond my own selfish existence and a conversation back home at relatives place goes like "Fire the kaamwaali (dish cleaning lady) coz she is a Harijan (Dalit)". Duuhh.. reallly

Decisions decisions

Its raining again.. and I keep getting doubts about my counselor. Sometimes we are just on such a different page, that we are not even on the same book.

Will think about that a couple more weeks down the line. Gotta get my PCP appointment done and out of the way.. then we will have some holistic Yoga sessions...  Ooommmmmm.. :)

Oh well, the breathing exercises do help to calm you down. Regular breathing exercises also help with the allergies. At least they do help me. Otherwise the sinus congestion and headaches are just bad!
The irony of the situation is, mom taught me all the exercises and mom and sis were doing it then and would badger me into doing it. Now they have all become lazy about it and I keep telling them to pick it up! :D

Taking a weekend off!

I took this weekend off from all my regular plans and things to do or try. Most days esp weekends usually end up getting filled with some or the other plans.
No not really any big plans like normal people. No big parties.. no long drives:)

Plans for me are just simple things like being able to go for a drive and increase the radius by a couple of blocks, or be able to go to the grocery store and get something, or be able to walk chewie more than 2 blocks, or be able to have people over. All the things that you never ever think about because they are just a natural schedule, become a big thing for me to handle.

So until we can figure out whats causing all the crazy anxiety.. its small steps to get used to each and every small thing.. small steps to get back to a semblance of a normal life.

Its so difficult to take the weekend off and do nothing, because obviously I do nothing most of the other days as well. But what I now know about myself  is that The person who is the hardest on me, is myself. I apparently expect too much out of myself. I better give myself a break. As breaks are quite refreshing.

Money, money, money

is the one thing that make me super uncomfortable.. I just cannot deal with money issues..

That is probably a big reason why I married a Marwari.:):) He takes care of the numbers!

Where the numbers are coming from, where they are headed, where to save, what to manage..
People defining you by how much you get home, relatives and friends envy or pity, fights, yours and mine..
the world just keeps revolving around it..
Its understandable in a way, because a lot of us come from a background of hard work, limited spending and limited privileges. But when it becomes an obsession, to get more and more,  its just not right.

I think i have a phobia of this obsession. I have seen too many obsessed people who cannot think logically and prioritize the important things..

There is so much more to life and happiness..

Its that day of the week again!

And I finally remembered to fix my Recipe Index on the cooking blog ! Heres the index now!
http://hobbyandmore.blogspot.com/p/recipe-index_21.html
Chewie is sleeping away beside me. I can hear his calm and regular breathing. He is such a cuddle bug. His hair is growing away to fluffdom and he needs a good brushing this week to remove the tangles!
What next.. make facebook pages for the blogs.. I think I am gonna get the wrist pain again. I need to find a good office chair( the one without wheels) and sit in the home office on the ergonomic keyboard.. 


I like it when hubbs gets in touch and responds almost immediately. of course dont like it, if there are any delays in meetings, elevators and people not letting him go! He is my safe person after all!

6 pm on a thursday

I am trying to keep myself occupied these days.. So people might keep getting disturbed on chat:)

Reading up. writing on all 3 of my blogs, thinking of things to write, thinking of things to bake. and so on.

Its a grey day again today.. who am I kidding.. Seattle has more than 300 grey and or rainy days! bleh.

Listening to Jayne Anne Krentz- Truth or Dare today.  and baking some russet potatoes..

Walked chewie in the cold and now my balance is off.. another bleh.. these random changes in weather just dont gel well with my sinuses. Time to move to Alaska or CA with mostly the same temperatures all year round!

I tried to watch Idol yesterday. but my nerves are too edgy to deal with the really bad singers.. I'll wait till they have the final good ones...

Maybe Sun does matter!

It sunny here in Seattle today..

Yesterday was a horridly grey day after a number of grey and rainy days.. And I was ready to snap at anything. One of those days when you get irritated or frustrated at just about anything and want to break something!:)

I remember once trying to bread an old chipped plate by throwing it in the garbage bin. Yeah coz who will clean up the mess if i throw on the floor:D. It dint break. I tried 3 times. Then I gave up, and my irritation had disappeared by then!

Today, I woke up in a surly mood because my sleep was disturbed. But the sun is shining now and the mood is slowly getting better!

Why is it a good day. Coz I got some extra hugs from hubbs in the morning... or coz its sunny.. either way.. lets hope it stays this way!

Gotta make a blueberry orange Bread today... I had some wrist pain yesterday, probably coz of too much typing on the laptop.. :) trying to rest it today .. lets see..

Another week another session!

Monday today!

I started working on the new blog this weekend. Most ideas I get, either require a lot of work out of my comfort zone, or I lose the passion behind the idea really quickly. Lets see how long this one continues. The new blog is http://find-me-a-happy-pet.blogspot.com/ . It is currently a collection of points to go through before adopting a pet, points to help you choose the right pet and then prepare your home and family for the care and a lovely life together!

Now heading to another session with the counselor, who has some weird belief that something happened to me when I was an infant or still in the womb.. hmm.. maybe i should get a different one.. i dont understand psychology anyway. Another thing I dont like about her is how she keeps trying to associate my progress with what I do in the sessions for every small thing. I think thats the problem with psychoanalysis. They want you to stick to them for years to introspect and alter your personality....

TGIF!

Its friday already!
Yay!

Our nanny quit, so we found a new one. I dont even know if it is a good idea. It takes so much time to just get used to another presence in the house and that too someone you dont really know.

Though in the nanny quest, we did find some people who just had this calm and non judgmental presence. Its nice to know that there are people I can be comfortable with out there.

Random thought moment.....
For anyone using "humans are omnivores" argument to completely ignore the ethical implications of eating factory farmed meat. Think of this. Humans are quite the sexually active living beings too, but that does not mean we can use 2 year old sex slaves to satiate that need.  Get the point!

Pet finder!

Maybe I should become this agent/broker who helps people find best matched pets from the nearest shelters or rescues.

Not sure if anyone is doing that already.

I think a lot of people, even though they do want to adopt a pet, get overwhelmed by the choices or just the idea of meeting 10 dogs at the shelter or any small things esp if it is their first pet.

and then sometimes they will just find a puppy on sale somewhere and buy it, because its just one choice and its a puppy! Not the way to go for sure.

I was committed to adopting, but i remember getting overwhelmed at the shelter and eventually, we adopted chewie after days of search on petfinder.com from a rescue. Not everyone has that kind of time really..

Lets see if I can make something of this idea..

Snow here and gone..

It snowed all evening and part of the night yesterday.

I usually like the snow, but the last time it snowed in seattle, life just got stuck for 3 days. Ice on the roads, traffic snarls, people stuck for 10 hours on highways.. Not a happy event to remember.

Nowadays the first hour of snow brings in happiness and beauty of the flurries.. and then the only thing i can think about is how seattle is so ill equipped to handle it. I cant imagine hubbs driving on the slick roads filled with inexperienced drivers.. or getting stuck somewhere and me all alone. He is my safe person. I should probably train a couple more people to be the safe persons...

Luckily, its warm in the morning today and all of the snow is turning into slush.

And we are also going to try some yoga and Tai chi. Soon we will be talking in holistic and therapeutic and yoga jargon!

Sometimes I think, the quest to find answers is like someone trying to stay afloat in the ocean surrounded by dispersed hay, and then grabbing at each of the straws in the hope to make a boat someday!.

An old friend and a thick headed brother!

Just connected with a really old friend today. Catching up on old times!

I always wonder why we women dont have these set of old friends, who we can connect with any time after any number of years and continue on. I think we girls end up moving here and there and get scattered after weddings and eventually settle and have to come up with a new set of friends.

And whoever came up with "You cant fix stupid" is a genius. Yes, that's you younger bro.

I have to learn to not be bothered by people who just dont want to open their minds to certain things!. I am too sensitive a person(twing, sudden understanding of self!) and too passionate about some things. (twing 2).

I am so much better than sooo many people :) My happy thought of the day for myself! Note to self: Keep it up!

uggh day!

Work schedule still not settled yet..

second week of hubbs at work.. and my stress is all up there after a nice and calm december.

hubbs got lost in the car garage adding 10 minutes to the usual 4 min of not in touch time.

and the bundle of nerves also has counselling today. which i keep getting doubts about.

ugghh

time to give chewie a hug.. He has changed over the years. He dint like being hugged hard and cuddled. Now he sits and likes being cuddled for hours!

Keep facing the past or move forward and forget about it

Is the question..

Psychoanalysis keeps making me face the past and the fears. And of course look at it from outside and deal with it.

CBT will make me move forward and learn to deal with things and eventually the positive loops will help me forget it.

But I have tried the forgetting style before, but things always have a way of coming back in different shapes and forms. So better just deal with them!

And the struggle begins again

The struggles and stresses of work life balance.. for hubbs of course.. after a month long break

and the stresses of work for me.. coz I am continuously jittery when hubbs is at work. I cant even eat properly, hence the weight loss.

Its a frustrating problem to have. And keeps leading to discussion about solutions, faster solutions, complete solutions.. medications, alternatives etc etc and etc. And mostly not finding answers in those discussions is even more frustrating.

I think I should just stop trying to find answers. The quest for elusive answers is always just disheartening and even more stressful..

Ahh if only things were simpler.

My blog is becoming my personal diary again!

Green Tea, GABA and nannies

So what have we been upto these days..

We tried Homeopathy for 2-3 months (july-sept) .. we've been on a constant quest to find alternative treatments. And we are now trying Naturopathy.. Green Tea, Kava, vit b-12 shots anyone?

Green tea helps in the formation of GABA which is responsible for creating calming electrical impulses in the brain. You can read up more on links found on any search engine.. so well dope on a lot of green tea. Lots of whole grains , beans and nuts too with all the GABA, vit-12 and omega-3 fatty acids.. all necessary for a calming balance!

The sudden turn of events started up in May when I had my 3 year MRI. Everything is clear.. Yayy for that!.. But I think the break from docs and all the progress and confidence from a great 2009 hit this wall of reality and fell off a cliff because all the memories came trotting back happily into my head.. Damn them! and bam Panic disorder!

But eventually this i something that needs to be handled, and better now than later in life!

We also have been looking and trying out nannies, to just have someone else present with me in the house. Its like trying to find a hubby for an arranged marriage.. A few minutes of one meeting or a few meetings to decide if we both are compatible or not and if the Nanny's presence gels with the energy of the house! We found some really sweet people who genuinely are nice and want to help and some unreadable and creepy ones too. But thats life!

Time for a shot of green tea!

Conversations with hubbs 12/29

We keep talking about the effectiveness or lack there of.

Here is one of the conversations from today

Hubbs: Homeopathic coffee is coffee diluted past 10^6 and potentized. There are no molecules of coffee left in the mixture, but the water remembers the informational vibration of the coffee molecule. When ingested, this mixture alters the vibration in the water, which composes 70% of the human body. The body is instantly given information on a new vibration which will keep it awake and compensates by putting you to sleep. Sounds far-fetched?

Me: yeah i read something like it before. atleast 1 in 100 or 1000 might have some of the original compound.

Hubbs: its about vibrations

Me: dont know.. there r so many people who do see a difference

difficult to prove one way or the other

something like a placebo

but a bit better odds

Hubbs: yups. this is why it is like faith and religion

:)

Me: guess i should become a fanatic of something

will automatically get cured

Hubbs: scientology is a good one

they have aliens

We have been trying to find solutions, any kind of solutions to help make my agoraphobia better, hence these discussions. Its been 7 months now and counting. Things are moving forward but extremely slow and there are always better days and bad days.. life goes on..

Veganism

Veganism as defined in Wikipedia

Veganism is a philosophy and lifestyle whose adherents seek to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose.Vegans endeavor not to use or consume animal products of any kind. The most common reasons for becoming a vegan are human health, ethical commitment or moral conviction concerning animal rights or welfare, the environment, and spiritual or religious concerns. Of particular concern to many vegans are the practices involved in factory farming and animal testing, and the intensive use of land and other resources for animal farming.

A Vegan diet excludes all animal products such as milk, dairy, eggs, any meat and so on. It is definitely a difficult lifestyle to choose. Because you definitely can find ethical alternatives, like certified local farms who will provide you with organic and ethical milk and meat. And in most discussions with aggressive vegans, the question of humane slaughter for meat always comes up. In my opinion, there is probably no way to kill an animal humanely. But if you look around other carnivores around you, you will see that the way a carnivore lion or a tiger kills a deer is not pleasant either. What I support about these ethical farms is that they try to give their flock a happy life before they are eventually killed for food like the life they would have had in the wild before eventually getting hunted by a carnivore. Most ethical dairy farms infact have a really low kill rate because they are not necessarily in the meat industry.

This knowledge however does not necessarily give me any prolonged solace about continuing to use these products ! Who really ensures that the farms and suppliers stick to the requirements for them to be certified ethical, humane, organic and cruelty free. How frequently are the requirements checked? There are several believable organizations who do take up the charge, but I find it difficult to keep believing that the model will be sustainable. Eventually, if the demand for ethical and organic food increases, these farms will end up becoming industrialized to meet the demand. It is like an endless cycle.

Like every person in the process of converting to Vegan-ism, I am going through a transition phase, trying out new things, substitutions, being confused some days and so on. Even though it is such passionate cause, it is always difficult to convince everyone around you to just give up and change their entire food and living habits. So I am trying to figure out a process of change. A small change in every aspect, a change to find other options for people who cannot completely give up yet, options which are ethical, options that make sense to someone who cannot grasp your passion about the cause, options that will eventually help them understand and slowly move towards a better, a right, direction. The mantra..Just be as kind as you can be.. be it what you eat, what you use, what you see and what you do..

If you have some time, please do read up some great write ups about why Veganism and how being Vegan is just an extension to being human, here

http://tumyumtreats.blogspot.com/2010/09/vegan-and-why.html

and

http://earthvegan.blogspot.com/2007/07/why-am-i-vegan.html

Fur..

Heather Mills McCartney has issued a consumer alert about several top fashion brands whose fur garments may be made of dog and cat fur. At a news conference inside the New York Fashion Week tents, Mills McCartney—wife of former Beatle Sir Paul—screened a graphic video of animals in China being skinned alive for their pelts and unveiled her new PETA ad campaign, “If You Wouldn’t Wear Your Dog, Please Don’t Wear Any Fur.”

Tommy Hilfiger, DKNY, and Sean John manufacture fur or fur-trimmed garments in China, whose fur industry has just eclipsed all other countries combined to become the world’s leading supplier of fur to the United States. Millions of foxes, raccoons, minks, rabbits—and, yes, dogs and cats—are killed in China in ways that would shock unsuspecting consumers because there is not a single animal protection law in the country.

“Consumers who find themselves favoring fur because it’s cheap are in for a shock when they find out that it’s at the expense of animals who are literally skinned alive,” says McCartney. “Buying anything with fur supports one of the most gruesome industries on the planet.”

A year-long undercover investigation concluded earlier this year captured video footage of fur farmers in China swinging raccoons and foxes by their hind legs and smashing their heads into the ground—breaking the animals’ necks or backs but leaving them completely conscious, panting and blinking as they are skinned alive.

Raw fur pelts from China often move through international auctions where their origins can be mislabeled as other types of fur. Dog and cat fur is indistinguishable from that of other animals—only a DNA test can reveal its real source—so the best solution is to avoid wearing any fur.

Please, please just do not buy anything made of Fur. We dont need such cruel embellishments to look good!

Vegan Resources/Factsheets/Essays/Blogs (Nutrition & Ethics)

Articles about veganism, factsheets, essays, documentaries/videos or related blog-sites for the purposes of outreach and informative commentary collected by David Catherine


VITAMIN B12:

* "B12 and the Vegan Diet: All You Need To Know About Vitamin B12 in Vegetarian and Vegan Diets" by Dr Justine Butler:
http://www.vegetarian.org.uk/factsheets/b12factsheet.pdf

* "Vitamin B12: Are you getting it?"
http://www.veganhealth.org/b12/

* "The Vitamin B12 Issue" by Dr Gina Shaw:
http://www.living-foods.com/articles/b12issue.html

* "Vitamin B12 Importance" by Dr Gabriel Cousens:
http://www.living-foods.com/articles/b12article.html

* "What every vegan should know about vitamin B12" by Stephen Walsh Ph.D:
http://www.vegansociety.com/lifestyle/nutrition/b12.aspx


PROTEIN:

* "The Protein Myth: Why vegetarian and vegan diets contain all the protein that you need" by Amanda Woodvine, BSc Nutrition:
http://www.vegetarian.org.uk/factsheets/Protein-vegetarian-vegan.pdf

* "Vegan Protein Sources" by Thomas Stearns Lee:
http://www.naturodoc.com/library/nutrition/protein.htm

* "Protein in the Vegan Diet" by Reed Mangels:
http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/protein.htm

* "Protein"
http://www.vegansociety.com/lifestyle/nutrition/protein.aspx

* "Quinoa: A Great Vegetarian Protein Source":
http://www.vegathletic.com/quinoa-vegetarian-protein

* "The Queen of Protein, Quinoa!"
http://vegancampus.com/2009/03/16/the-queen-of-protein-quinoa/

* "Hemp Protein" by Jennifer Walker, BSc (Nutr.):
http://www.alive.com/4490a12a2.php


IRON:

* "Ironing out the facts: Why plant iron is best" by Dr Justine Butler:
http://www.vegetarian.org.uk/factsheets/Ironing_out_the_facts_2008.pdf

* "Iron in the Vegan Diet" by Reed Mangels:
http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/iron.htm

* "Iron"
http://www.vegansociety.com/lifestyle/nutrition/iron.aspx


CALCIUM:

* "Boning up on Calcium! Why Plant Calcium is Best" by Dr Justine Butler:
http://www.vegetarian.org.uk/factsheets/calciumfactsheet.pdf

* "Calcium":
http://www.vegansociety.com/lifestyle/nutrition/calcium.aspx

* "Are you getting too much calcium?" by Micki Misiaszek, RD, LDN:
http://www.aakp.org/aakp-library/too-much-calcium/

* "Health risks from excessive calcium" by the National Institute of Health:
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/calcium.asp#h8


VEGAN ETHICS / ANIMAL RIGHTS / ENVIRONMENT:

* Vegan Ethics (various booklets)
http://www.veganoutreach.org/advocacy/resources.html

* Abolitionist Approach (pamphlet)
http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/media/pdf/ARAA_Pamphlet_A4.pdf

* "The Dark Side of Dairy"
http://milkmyths.org.uk/

* "Environmental Degradation"
http://www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan/environment.html

* "Greenhouse Emissions and exacerbated Climate Change"
http://www.veganoutreach.org/globalwarming.html

* "UN urges global move to meat and dairy-free diet"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/02/un-report-meat-free-diet

* "Expanding Our Compassion Footprint: Minding Animals As We Redecorate Nature" by Marc Bekoff:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animal-emotions/200906/expanding-our-compassion-footprint-minding-animals-we-redecorate-nature

* "Why 'Good Welfare' Isn't 'Good Enough': Minding Animals and Increasing Our Compassionate Footprint" by Marc Bekoff:
http://www.animalrightsafrica.org/Archive/Berkoff_ARBS_2008.pdf

* "The Problem of the 'Welfarist' Approach: The 'humane' myth of effectively regulating ongoing abuse"
http://humanemyth.org/

* "Minding the Animals: Ethology and the Obsolescence of Left Humanism" by Dr Steve Best:
http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/journal/vol5/vol5_no2_best_minding_animals.htm

* "Revolutionary Environmentalism: An Emerging New Struggle for Total Liberation" by Dr Steve Best:
http://www.drstevebest.org/Essays/RevolutionaryEnvironmentalism.htm

* "The Misleading Language of Species-ism" by Joan Dunayer (intro by David Catherine):
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=407211014765

* "First Strike: The Connection Between Animal Cruelty and Human Violence"
http://www.hsus.org/hsus_field/first_strike_the_connection_between_animal_cruelty_and_human_violence/

* "Empathy is What Really Sets Vegetarians Apart (at least Neurologically Speaking)" by Daniel R. Hawes:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolved-primate/201005/empathy-is-what-really-sets-vegetarians-apart-least-neurologically-speak

* "Rational Ignorance and Rational Irrationality" by Dan Cudahy
http://unpopularveganessays.blogspot.com/2009/03/rational-ignorance-and-rational.html


GENERAL:

* "The Comparative Anatomy of Eating" by Milton R. Mills (MD):
http://www.earthsave.ca/files/anatomy.pdf

* "A-Z Of Hidden Nasties! Alphabetical Glossary of Animal Substances" by Juliet Gellatley, Director of VVF and Laura Scott, MSc Nutrition:
http://www.vegetarian.org.uk/factsheets/hiddennastiesf_sheet.pdf

* "The Safety of Soya" by Dr Justine Butler, VVF Senior Health Campaigner:
http://www.vegetarian.org.uk/factsheets/safetyofsoyafactsheet.pdf

* Vegan Factsheets (various):
http://www.vegetarian.org.uk/factsheets/


BLOG-SITES FOR VEGAN / ANIMAL RIGHTS :

* "Unpopular Vegan Essays" by Dan Cudahy:
http://unpopularveganessays.blogspot.com/

* "Abolitionist Animal Rights" by James Crump:
http://abolitionistanimalrights.blogspot.com/

* "Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach" by Gary Francione:
http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/

* "On Human-Nonhuman Relations: A Sociological Exploration of Speciesism" by Roger Yates:
http://human-nonhuman.blogspot.com/

* "My Face Is on Fire: Abolitionist vegan education, animal rights issues and the misrepresentation of veganism in pop culture or mainstream media":
http://my-face-is-on-fire.blogspot.com/

* "Thomas Paine's Corner: Comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable" (various authors/editors):
http://thomaspainescorner.wordpress.com/

* "Vegetarianism, Environmentalism, Animal Rights, and Social Theory" by Dr Steve Best:
http://www.drstevebest.org/essays.htm

* "The Earth Blog: Giving The Earth A Future " by Keith Farnish:
http://earth-blog.bravejournal.com/index.php

* "The Permavegan: A conversation at the intersection of plant-based nutrition, permaculture, and vegan ethics" by Jonathan Maxson:
http://permavegan.blogspot.com/2010/05/bare-bones-outline-veganic-permaculture.html


ONLINE DOCUMENTARIES/VIDEOS:

* "Earthlings" (3 trailers, plus full version)
http://www.earthlings.com/earthlings/trailer-streaming-2.php

* "Meet Your Meat"
http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming.asp

* "The Milk Documentary"
http://www.milkdocumentary.com/Site/About.html

* "Dr. Jay Gordon: No one needs meat for health"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD3QWtoGQ14

* The Witness" (trailer excerpt)
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1059070815082&ref=share

* "The Witness" (full version)
http://www.tribeofheart.org/sr/sr_witscreeningroom_english.htm

Ethical Omnivore!

Ever stop and think , can we live a single minute of our lives cruelty-free?

• We wake up, brush our teeth. -That toothpaste and the ingredients were tested on animals.
• Have a bath..- That soap, facial cleanser, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel were tested on some poor rabbits.
• Get ready, wear some nice clothes, shoes - The wool, fur, silk came from animals who lead a tortured life. That leather shoe could be that dog, your neighbor lost as a kid, which ended up in china.. for its meat and skin and any possible use that can be made out of it.
• Fix hair..do some makeup/shave..- The sprays, mousse, foam, cosmetics were all tested on animals.. There are labs out there, with tons of animals, who have to live a horrid life of getting things injected in their body, eyes, ears and more, just so we can get that new lipstick from this seasons new collection.
• Cook up some breakfast..some nice eggs and bread with some hot tea..- The eggs come from factory farmed hens and the milk from cows who have udders 5 times the size of what they actually should be. With that much milk in their udders, they are in constant pain and have constant infections and hence all the hormones and antibiotics which end up in our system.
• Get to office, get coffee and eat and drink meat, cheese, butter and milk and other combinations of the same. - All factory farmed.
• Get home, cook dinner, clean the kitchen, do the dishes or the laundry..- The household cleaners, dish soap, laundry detergent.. and their ingredients were all tested on animals and still are.. for every new one that comes out.
• Watch something for entertainment like some animals in a circus, animal fights etc( oh yes, the supreme court thinks that dog fight videos are not cruel. They overturned a ban on those videos just last week) Animals in circuses have the worst life ever. Always chained and tortured to perform for our entertainment.
• Eat some desserts, ice creams, and head to bed..- all the creamy cakes, the frosting, cream, butter, eggs, milk.. all factory farmed. We consume so much dairy in a day.. ever think , out of the milk a cow produces..how much does its calf get?

It sounds like a really big deal to change so many things to be cruelty free. But it isn't really that big. One small step is good enough. That one small step will give you so much happiness that the next step will seem like an effortless extrapolation of the first. It is just about the first step. And If you are reading this, you cant even claim ignorance anymore.

For the bath and body, there are a lot of vegan products which are also animal testing free which are available in Whole foods, PCC or metropolitan market. The complete list of cruelty-free companies here http://www.leapingbunny.org/shopping.php . Some of the once I have tried are Hugo Naturals, Lush, Body shop, Organix, Pureology, Paul Mitchell and more. A lot of the brands are very comparable in terms of prices.

For food..We can try to be an Ethical Omnivore.. It is difficult but not impossible to find ethical, humane and organic meat. Whole foods and PCC is where you can find a good number of options. The Farms, brands, and places to get ethically raised meat here

http://www.certifiedhumane.org/

You can find the milk farms with ethical and organic practices below. All other dairy products like cheeses, butter from these farms also follow the same guidelines.

http://www.cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html

Do change the meat, milk, eggs, cheese to these humane brands and those happy animals will send a big thanks to you. There is hardly a difference in the prices and some of the brands are readily available in the regular grocery store. The big difference is that these are from an animal who had a decently happy life till its eventual slaughter.

For household cleaners, dish and laundry, you can find the complete list at http://www.leapingbunny.org/shopping.php. I have used Seventh generation and Method and most products are very comparable in terms of price and performance.

The post is of course is preachy and my views extreme, but we all know that all this pain and cruelty is totally unnecessary and easily avoidable. Let us take those few minutes from our life to move in the direction of eliminating this pain.. just a few minutes and just one small step. Try it...

Why foster!

Because if you do

• The cuddly little scared thing waiting in some kennel at a shelter somewhere will get a chance to live in a warm home and a chance at adoption.
• The little thing who is scheduled to get that injection which will suck the life out of him, will get another chance to find someone who he can call home
• The scared and confused thing will be calmer and happier, and will give you and everyone he meets, all the love back and hence be more adoptable than the scared and snappy one he is at the shelter

Fostering is NOT difficult. A crate, food and toys, and some time from the daily schedule and some love is all that is needed. You can foster for as little as 2 weeks in a year to all the 52 weeks. After fostering once, you realize that it does not really affect the daily routine much.

I know foster parents who have fostered 100s of dogs. It has become a part of their life and it is difficult to imagine a schedule without a foster dog in it!. Foster parents become a bridge between the adopters and the dog. That dog might end up spending a good part of its life in a kennel, because the family who wants to adopt a dog like him might not know that he exists. The dog might be put to sleep because of a simple reason like lack of space in the shelter, even though the right family is waiting out there somewhere.

Our rescue gets a lot of small dogs from California Shelters with a kill rate as high as 80%. A lot of the small dogs are chihuahuas. That's because everyone in and around Hollywood wants a chi. So there is always a chi explosion in all California shelters. But in this state, we have more of bigger dogs in shelters and the smaller dogs usually get adopted within days. There is always a demand for small dogs and families who don't find one in shelters or rescues end up buying puppies from bad breeders or pet stores!. By getting some of the small dogs from California, the rescue tries to meet some of this demand. But there are only so many dogs that we can get here and we have only so many foster homes for those dogs.

Most of the foster parents in our rescue are seniors. They all have their own problems. One of them I met recently had had a bypass surgery and she was back to fostering 3 dogs at a time within a month. Most of the others have seen some or the other pain to realize that, life lived without trying to help others is not as meaningful. I don't know if it has something to do with sudden realization of mortality that makes one think about what good he/she has done. But It definitely is a different thought process, as I have not been able to influence and inspire anyone in my friend circle! I have at least influenced some people I have met here and there, and that is keeping me on track. It is very easy to lose hope and get depressed. A small step at a time, one life saved at a time and that happiness you get is something you would have never felt before. Hopefully, someone will read this and look at the sad eyes below and give up some of their time to doing something, anything !

I recently got a mail from the rescue with a list of 71 dogs with their pictures, and only 14 of them would get a chance to fly to Seattle into foster homes and then get adopted into forever homes. I will never be able to make such a decision. Those 57 pairs of eyes who will be left behind will haunt me forever. But this is what the rescue team does, every other week. Save a few and find them great homes. I hope some of you think of those lonely and scared eyes and decide to help some of them.

If I can, So Can You!!

I have been meaning to write this one for a really long time now. I wasn't so sure if I should on the account of sounding too preachy. This blog has had its interesting turns over the years, and now has definitely started getting a bit preachy. I cant really help that, because that is what I read and practise day today!

After a couple of years of selfish living(couldnt help that either, I was on the road to recovery and if I cant help myself, I cant really help anyone else)! I tried to get back to some semblance of work/job, but I am not into my pre-recovery career anymore. It is just difficult to spend excess amounts of time reading anything or even browsing. That is one big reason my hobby blog is also not as out there and as visible. I cant really read all the food blogs that I like everyday, leave comments on them, spend time beautifying my own blog and so on, leading to a in my own world existence of the blog! But hey, I do love to cook, bake and experiment and I am happy with just that!!

Last 3 months we have been fostering dogs(taking care of them till they get adopted). We have had 4 foster dogs, right now taking a break of a month so chewie can get over his cough. He is going to shed his infection for 2 weeks after his cough stops, so we can't really expose other dogs to him, esp the fosters, since they are already under a ton of stress and hence their immunity might not be as great!

Enough of the rambling..The whole purpose of the post was to motivate everyone to take some time out of their daily busy schedules, to do something for someone!

When I, with my hardly a quarter of a normal person stamina, with my balance problem, with my limited bending abilities, and so on and so forth, can be a foster parent, so Can You!

It does not have to be anything spectacular or even related to animals. There are always living beings.. animals or humans.. out there, who need a little push, a little love, just a little bit of your time! So find them, and give them a few hours, a few smiles, a few hugs, a few cuddles!!

Fostering definitely is a bit stressful, because the first day or two, you have to be on your toes. Even if your foster dog is house trained, it is a very new environment for him and he might not know where it is acceptable to pee/poop. Once that is established in the first 1-2 days by taking them out more frequently, they will settle in your house. And then of course it is difficult to let them go if they get adopted. I try to always keep this in mind that I am just a pit stop for them on their journey to find their forever home! If I adopt the foster dog, I can only save one, but if I continue to foster, I can keep being this link between families looking to adopt and adoptable dogs who would either be euthanized or spend even more time in just a kennel!!!!

Of course, it is difficult to foster puppies who are not house trained and usually would like to pee/poop every 2 hours. But eventually, everything settles down. Getting pooped on by a terrified puppy puts the priority and importance of so many things in perspective:). Its not really his fault that he is terrified and he is just a baby , and its not yours either. What would you do if it was your own baby doing the same thing, you would give him some hugs and sweet talk to calm him down and clean everything up. Thats what you do with the puppy :)

This post is not to scare anyone thinking about fostering. But there are some realities to being a foster parent. And things like these dont necessarily happen. 3 of my fosters were older(2 year old+) and were already house trained and the only thing some of them did was pee in the house on the first day because I did not take them out on time!. The day they get adopted, I go through a multitude of feelings. Usually a bit of pain, but a lot of happiness as well. These abandoned dogs would still be living in a cold kennel, in a filthy puppy mill or waiting on a table to get that fatal injection, which would suck the life out of their eyes. A foster parent gets them out of there, gives them some love, some socialization, training when necessary and then passes them along to the loving families, who would have not found this dog, if he was not rescued and fostered!

6-8 million pets are euthanized each year .. that is 17000 to 22000 pets A DAY!! Every day in the US, life is taken away from those 22000 animals for no fault of theirs. Some of the pets are given up for the silliest reasons like they are not puppies anymore. People will keep getting puppies and because of that demand, other cruel people will keep producing puppies in their puppy mills!. Did you know that apart from the regular horrid conditions of living in puppy mills i.e living in tiny wire cages with no food or water and continuously producing puppy litters and then being killed or just dumped in a garbage bag once the dogs cant reproduce anymore, There is also a concept of rape stands, where the female dogs are tied so the male dogs have all the advantage. Even though they are animals and you would think that once the female is in heat, both the female and the male will want to mate no matter what, the females have already been so abused, that they do object. And what they get when they object, is a rape stand!!!!

If you do ever want a dog, PLEASE ADOPT, NEVER BUY.

You can even find puppies in shelters and rescues. You might have to drive 50 miles to get them, but they are worth the drive!

The Seattle Humane society has an awesome foster program. They also have a Weekend foster option where you can foster the dogs on weekends to give them a break from being in the kennels all the time. some 3 or 4 weekends in the whole year helping these stressed dogs is not too much to ask!

There are so many other options at the humane society like playtime with the animals once a week.month, trainers, cat fosters, tour guides, volunteers for the fund raising events, photographers, admission assistants and more!

There I went all preachy again.. But I hope atleast one person gets motivated, to take some time out, to give out a little love and a little help to those who need it!!!