Things not to say to anyone

Just today I was told that I should read a book x to figure out why or how I got my tumor. So that if I do find out I can avoid those things/circumstances (nutritional deficiencies, environmental factors etc) and it wont happen again.

I mean in theory it sounds like a the right thing to do, but in real life, why one gets tumor/cancers is highly speculative, unless there is a direct connection with something. And we already went crazy trying to find answers the first year post surgery, with no luck. The obsession to find an answer, any answer to several questions, took a toll on my recovery.

And are you kidding me by reminding me that something so crappy and so out of my control can happen again!

I am sure I might have said something similar to someone going through something in their life as well. It is amazing how difficult it is put yourself in someone else's shoe and say the right things.

I don't know why I am cribbing really. Indians in general are known for throwing out advice about what one should do to cure or avoid getting sick with anything and everything. Everyone around always seems to have the answers. Kapal bharti breathing right now will cure me. SOS diet will too. miraculously cure my damaged nerves.

Sure, there is finally studies now about how plant based diets do slow cancer, but that doesn't mean that vegans or plant based people cannot get cancer.

anxiety

It is difficult to think logically when I am anxious. We've been trying and trying since the last 2 years for hubbs to be able to go overnight hiking or elsewhere overnight. Getting a satellite phone so he is always connected by messaging, planning well, practicing etc. He hasnt left me alone at night in 9 years. Through the entire surgery, ptsd, vertigo, anxiety and everything, he has become my safe person. Someone who makes me feel calmer and that everything will be ok.

The activity during the day keeps me occupied so it works well. But nights are very difficult to spend alone. Negative thoughts stay at bay during the day.But at night if I am alone, I havent found a way yet to keep them out. And it just gets worse if I cannot fall asleep.

Maybe one day, I will find something that works or with practice it will be a more approachable thing. Maybe one day, I will be able to let hubbs do what he wants to, all the trips he wants to take, the overnight hikes and everything else.
He did do a ton of day hikes and spent a night at Base Camp on Rainier, which was something I wouldnt have imagined happening last year!

Dairy

India is the largest producer of dairy, with an annual production of about 120 million tonnes using about 35 crore (350 million) cattle.

Cows are forced into body-breaking cycle of pregnancy, birthing and milking throughout their life (either through common bull or an equally torturous process called artificial insemination) in all the dairies. The semen for the insemination is taken forcefully from bulls by electrocuting them. 

The mothers also endure a lot of misery in not being able to spend time with their babies since the calves are taken away soon after birth. Male calves are often sold for slaughter or left to die of starvation. 

More than 10 million calves are slaughtered per year in India, that is 1 every 3 seconds....

Dairy comes from grieving mothers and dead babies.. 

Do Vegans hate others

This excerpt from Bite size Vegan's video sums it up.
"I believe that is where so much of what is often seen as vegan “hate” really comes from- a devastating sense of loss, a profound mourning, and a feeling of utter powerlessness. when your eyes are opened to the extreme enormity of unnecessary animal suffering and death at the hands of our species, it’s hard not to become overwhelmed with anger and disgust. 

of course, this passion can sometimes overwhelm us and come out sideways in petty aggression or arguments. but to my non-vegan friends out there, know that this almost always comes from wanting so bad to save the lives of innocent animals and feeling powerless against what often seems to be a losing battle.

It is equally important to note that many non-vegans honestly and truly don’t know any better. We were also non-vegan at some point...."

Read more here

Acceptance

Its hard living with limited abilities. More often that not, I have to make peace with the fact that I wont be able to do something and that the rest of the family can. Most of the time, its just hubbs and me and he tries to make sure that we do some other activities that I like and I can do, to balance out his other activities, which he does alone. But when family is visiting, the things that I can do with them outside home dwindles to almost nothing (usual tourism = crowd + noise = not for me). It sucks sitting at home and it sucks more. It is hard for regularly abled/active people to make time and adjustments for the limitedly abled, and that is understandable, though often frustrating.

Is the key to happiness with any situation just acceptance?. Acceptance of what things are and not wanting more. And if that is so, how do I get there....

Fridays

Fridays are Fridays. I always want to start the weekend early. So I call hubbs after 6 pm to check when he will get home. And he is always in some kind of get together. And every time its a new reason.

- someone is leaving the group

- someone is leaving the company

- someone just joined the company

- someone has been there for too long so he is celebrating

- someone completed their first year so they are celebrating

- its an intern party
- it was sunny

- the product shipped

- the product did not ship

- the demo went well

- the demo did not happen and everyone was there

- we got a new kegerator 

- the kegerator had not been used in a week, so we had to do something

- met someone after 5 years, so had to have a drink

- fought with someone so had to cool down

- the week went especially well

- met someone in the elevator who was leaving the company

- there was vegan beer

- there were vegan cup cakes
- the recent most. it was sunny, went on bike, bike died in the middle of I-90

and it continues!

Indifference

I have not visited India in more than a decade now and have forgotten how difficult it can be to look at everyday life and try to find one cause to do something about.

Everything exists in parallel in India. There will be affluent neighborhoods, people who can afford most of what is needed. Outside the same neighborhoods, will be a slum where people and children barely survive, live in poverty, have diseases, and work longer than 12 hours of the day. The problems range from not having the right color shoe to wear, to no shoe at all, to no food for the day either.

I remember being like most Indians growing up, trying to block out everything most days. It is hard to open yourself up to care about each and every living being, human or not as there are so many of them who need immediate help, surrounded by poverty of all kinds. This explains why most of us Indians project an air of indifference about everything.

Living in the US, the problems are generally only seen on tv, online or heard of from a third person. Things are never right in front of your eyes. There are causes we can choose to pursue and others we can choose to not know about.

In both situations, there are always some of us who go against the norm and do something. Here in the US, we pursue some causes and do much more about them without being bogged down by every other thing. In India, it is easier to get overwhelmed with the enormity of the many issues that are always right in front of the eyes, but we can choose a few to pursue and keep doing something till we can pursue more.

Why this post you say? Yesterday I read Eileen's write up about her trip to a bunch of cities in India. Eileen is the founder of Help animals India which is a 501 c3 based in the US. Her charity writes up grants for several animal welfare, rescue and sanctuary organizations in India. Every few years she also visits them to see the progress and the use of the financial help.

Her trip write up is eye opening. To read about so many people, most of who have their own problems and needs, who are not rich, who work or volunteer to help the animals in distress, work tirelessly for long term solutions for the strays and other animals, is humbling.

Most of these people are Indian, they also grew up in the same country, are faced with enormous number of issues every day, and they still go out of their way to take a cause and work selflessly for it. It is people like them who don't have much, who care and help, and now the younger generation who also see the work and compassion and get inspiration on social media, that end up helping. Most of the developed class, middle class, tech and other people think of the problems (strays, animal issues, poverty) as nuisance rather than something they themselves can help solve.

Indifference because of over exposure to something, or no exposure (ignorance) of something, is hindering the path to any change for the betterment of people, society, animals, and the earth.

threads

I have these random threads that keep going on in the back of my head which suddenly show up out of nowhere. Hubbs cleaned up the living room and kitchen over the weekend. Everything is all cleaned, no clutter and good. Monday, we are driving to somewhere and I suddenly ask, where is the cheesecloth that was drying on the chair? hubbs.. what cloth? Me: ok another one probably thrown away during the cleaning. :)  

Holidays

Lol, you knew a holiday rant post was coming right.

Holidays are just not fun really. But anywho. I would like for everyone to read this PSA.

By not being cognizant of other people around you, their needs and requirements and not making an effort towards being inclusive. (it obviously needs a step or 2 out of the comfort zone), what one is teaching their kids is that clique behavior, callousness, and self serving behavior is a-ok to learn and continue to do.

Nuff said.

Be inclusive for a change, be nice, be sweet. I mean seriously, I do not want to dread holiday gatherings. Be my friend this year?

Oh well, a ton of other things to think about and do something about.

Say Nothing at All

Lets make today a Compliment/praise day. Take the response that you were going to say, write or express (at work, elsewhere, somewhere online), if it is mean, judgy, preachy or negative, chuck it. Say nothing at all. or if you do have to say/express, say something positive, encouraging or just a nice thank you for being you. :)

Why? Because people are getting more and more unabashed about expressing the first thing that comes to their mind on the web. There is a level of anonymity and being able to not put any rules on yourself when speaking anonymously to strangers, that seems to be bringing out the worst is us.

How? More cases of bullying and cyber bullying, more mean spirited exchanges, more name calling, and other things. all of which you would never do if you were face to face with the person.

This affects everyone at some point in life. it is detrimental to happiness, to sharing, community and support systems.

and lately it has been detrimental to the vegan movement.

Why?

Because everyone on the web seems to know the stories of anyone being discussed and loves to offer an opinion. Its like everyone is a celebrity online, whose lives, choices, and everything else can be dissected and commented upon. Even the celebrities for that matter should not have to deal with it.

Because, one small group based on empathy and compassion keeps calling out other small groups instead of offering support.

Vegan-ism is based on empathy, compassion and reducing suffering of all animals. The whole concept and way of living is based on empathy and compassion, and should also extent to the non animal humans.
Then why all the bashing in the Vegan community.
Most of the yelling happens because of the concept of "more vegan than thou". I am more vegan that you because "fill in the blank". which is ridiculous. We are all on the vegan journey and we are all on it together. some might be just starting off, some might be in coach number 1 and some coach 100, but we are all on the same train.

Accepting Disability - post 1

What I Cannot do/WICND : Stand and talk for more than a few minutes. Talking to someone needs looking at a moving face. With the standing still already a big issue, this doesn't work out at all.
What I Can Do/WICD : Stand for an hour or longer in the kitchen and cook, move around, cook multiple things, write it down, take pictures, and also talk. This I have developed over the past years with practice. From being able to stand for just 10 minutes at a time to now.

WICND : watch most action movies or go to a theater
WICD : watch hindi movies coz they are usually light, and use stable camera work.


WICND : walk more than 2 blocks on flat concrete ground
WICD : walk 4 blocks on grass or slight elevation or climb stairs

WICND : go out and eat in a restaurant, because most do not have sofa type seatin and usually have too much noise
WICD : go out and eat in some few restaurants or go out for coffee that do have sofas

WICND : read anything farther than 4 feet. it's basically like trying to read things which have 10 shadow images.
WICD : read on the machine. I do need new glasses to help though.

WICND : fly out for a vacation to a beachy town
WICD : drive out to a beach in the PNW

sucks, but thats life. I can do a lot more than what I could do one year back. :)

Why a Sustainable Plant Based Diet?

This year saw a trend in big money investors like Microsoft's Bill Gates, Twitter Co-founders and Google co-founder Sergey Brin all investing plant based fake meat/eggs companies. 

Why We Must Shift to Sustainable Plant-Based Eating

These investors recognize that the planet cannot sustain its current level of industrialized animal farming. There’s a big problem with our reliance on meat, dairy and eggs, and it’s only going to get worse.

If you’re an animal lover, you already despise the grinding, horrifying cruelty of today’s factory farms. Gone are the bucolic, rolling pasture lands dotted with roaming farm animals that our grandparents remember. Farmers just can’t meet the staggering worldwide demand for meat, eggs and dairy by doing business that way anymore.

To make raising livestock profitable, chickens are caged together so tightly they can’t spread their wings or walk around – ever. Pigs are jammed into gestation crates they cannot turn around in, their teeth and tails cut off without anesthetic to keep them from chewing at one another out of madness or boredom. Cattle are kept constantly impregnated so their milk will never stop flowing, while their newborn calves are carted off to become veal.

If the plight of farmed animals isn’t enough to turn you plant-based, have you taken a close look at the effects of today’s farming practices on the environment? The statistics are sobering:

• 76 percent of all U.S. farmland is used only to graze livestock. That’s 614 million acres of pasture, 157 million acres of public land and 127 million acres of forest.
• In addition to the above, if you also factor in the land used to grow feed for animals, a staggering 97 percent of U.S. agricultural land is devoted to sustaining livestock and poultry.
• Animals raised for food create 89,000 pounds of manure per second, causing extensive groundwater pollution.
• 30 percent of the entire land surface of the Earth is used by livestock.
• 70 percent of Amazon deforestation is directly due to clearing land to provide livestock grazing area.
• 33 percent of the world’s arable land is used to produce feed only for livestock.
• More than 70 percent of the crops we grow in the U.S. are produced just to feed meat-producing livestock.
• 70 percent of available water is used for growing crops, most of which feed livestock, not people.
• It takes 13 pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat.
• 
  

Despite all of the above, worldwide meat production will explode from 229 million tons in 2001 to 465 million tons by 2050, while global milk output will increase from 580 million tons in 2001 to 1043 million tons by 2050.

“There will not be enough water available on current croplands to produce food for the expected 9 billion population in 2050 if we follow current trends and changes towards diets common in western nations,” according to a report issued in 2012 by Stockholm International Water Institute.

Our current system simply won’t enable us to feed 9 billion people a the current rate at which we consume meat, eggs and dairy. Crunch the numbers and it becomes disturbingly clear that something must change – soon.

That’s why smart, high dollar investors are eyeing companies which understand this coming crisis and are offering solutions. They’re out in front, paving the way for a plant-based future. 

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/the-skyrocketing-business-of-vegan-food-aims-to-save-the-world.html#ixzz2ph9QOCYp

Adjustments

I have been thinking about how we humans seem to be programmed to choose to be surrounded by the most similar people, make close group friendships around close to the group equilibrium of common behaviors. It makes sense in a way, because it is the least effort path. No adjustments and life goes on.
It is a bit different with family because we dont have a choice who we are related to. Luckily, my family adjusts very well around me. So sometimes we are forced to adjust, but friendships and other relationships are a choice.

There are a few(or probably lots) instances this does not work well. For me, I am the not so normal individual in our friend circle, who doesn't conform to the least effort state.(I need a minimum of good back support seating, decent lighting and limited moderate noise if I have to spend anything more than 5 minutes anywhere). For this reason, most times we (hubbs and me) or me depending on the event, dont get invited to things. Though I am not even sure I want to keep getting invited to things I cannot do. And when we do get invited, there is hardly a thought put into if the event actually works for us (and I am not even talking about food). More often than not, a little thought would provide an answer of how to make the event more not normal people friendly. Each event for that matter for me is different levels of adjustment, that i do for several reasons including being with hubbs, for myself, for everyone around.

I dont know how this translates to how we all deal with other issues like kids in a group who have slightly different needs like food intolerances or other bigger differences.
I can maybe understand the frustration faced by parents when no one.. friends, schools, relatives, are open to changing something or adding options or generally even giving a thought to the not so normal needs or requirements of the kids. This is probably a bigger question too. The way we deal with anyone with a different interest(creative arts versus science), different lifestyle, with the non conforming lot.

I dont know the answers to these questions. I dont know if I would want to take the easier route if I was within the easy equilibrium circle, maybe I would too. In a way, it makes sense that why would you want to make the changes, take extra steps when those extra steps might make the event or change not as enjoyable for you. For example, changing a venue or an activity of your birthday or celebration changes how you want it to be. It is your birthday after all. The change though means that the not normal someone can participate. But then do you really want the person there? It is probably a hassle to keep adjusting(eg. food allergies). And if you are thinking probably not, did you ever stop to ask why not?. Some Close and strong relationships happen when people spend time with each other. Do you see the irony here. Its a cycle, if we dont spend time with each other, we dont get to know each other well and develop a bond. Maybe after the closeness, we automatically choose options that are friendlier to the not normal set.

Isnt all this related somehow. If we cannot take that extra effort to accept, be cognizant of and adjust with certain issues with our fellow family and friends, how will we take the extra effort to change something for the animals. Though both can be done mutually exclusively, the changes someone makes for any living being gives a window into the compassion that is there even if stronger for certain people/species, but its there.

Till we find answers, there will be loneliness.

my last year's thanksgiving post here. my ponderings seem to happen around the holidays.

As Isa says and I hope more people follow" A larger tradition for Thanksgiving is inclusiveness. Or, at least, that is what we’re supposed to tell our children. Let's keep that tradition by providing something out of nothing. Or, more specifically, cutlets out of chickpeas. Here’s to new traditions!"

Plans and babies

As I mentioned some time back, there has been an explosion of babies being born around us. Most of our friend circle and extended circle around got married between 5 to 8 years ago. There were only a few babies in the years till last year and few and far between. And then pretty much everyone that was left got pregnant one by one and the deliveries are still going strong. 5 done and a few more to be this year.

With the first few kids, no one really asked us about our plans, because I was still trying to figure out the health issues, the diagnosis, the solutions and waiting for unknown things to heal and get better.

Now after a bunch of years, we know that some of the issues are here to stay and that I have to live with them. Both me and hubbs have realized and accepted that. Life goes on. 
Hubbs has lately been getting more comfortable thinking about an addition to the family.

I dont know what I feel about reproducing or caring for a baby though. Whenever I do spend time with any baby or toddler, I have done so in not familiar and high stimulus environment(different home, levels of noise and activity which keeps me far from getting  comfortable) and hence constantly struggle to associate any comfort and joy with the baby. I think for a few months last year, I would go into a mixed set of emotions. I would try to be happy because it is a joyful occasion and at the same time feel depressed because I dont know when, if ever, I would be able to experience it. 

Then I accepted the fact that I am getting depressed for no reason, because there are other options(adoption). Most likely I did not even want a baby right now. I was getting depressed about something I cannot have, but dont even necessarily want at the time.

Most days I am worse than a kid. You can leave a kid at a day care, but you can't leave me anywhere. I dont let hubbs get too far away from me. He is my safe person because of my PTSD. If he is around, I feel less anxious. I dont know how he handles my clingyness. 

It probably stems from the experiences during and post surgery. The helplessness a day after the surgery where your body doesnt listen to what you tell it to do and there is no way you can get up by yourself, walk or do anything, is the scariest thing ever for a control freak. 
Whenever people tell me I am brave and strong, I think to myself, that I am not. If i really was that brave and strong, why would I get post traumatic stress disorder. Why would I be so shit scared of something similar happening again or even another vertigo episode. 

And to think that I can be responsible for another life during a vertigo attack is incomprehensible. I remember I got an attack once while in the car. Hubbs had to pull over and then he got down to take a pillow out of the trunk so I could stabilize myself, and chewie got out with him without him knowing. The only thing I could do was yell to alert him, which he heard only after 4-5 yells. I couldnt move to catch chewie. He is my 4 legged baby and if something happened to him I would be devastated. But when I cant even crawl during an attack to stop him, how in the world will I cater to the needs of a baby. Forget the trips to the hospital. every trip is a panic +vertigo attack in the making. And all the responsibility will again fall on hubbs.

Sure, all the mommy oxytocin might just make me do things. But who knows. 

If I get to the point when I can either go through a pregnancy or adopt and care for a child, I think I would rather use the ability to get a bit more independent, to accompany hubbs on travels(its been 8 years since i stepped foot on a plane and he hasnt either because I get panicky if he is more than a few hours away from me), to fly and meet parents, parents-in-law, brothers and sisters and everyone I havent met in 8 years., and so on. but maybe my priorities will change. 

This year is about finding, moving into and setting up a new home. That postpones this difficult discussion by another year..

Humane - what humane

When I first started about changing up my diet after reading a few things here and there.. I gave up meat and then I went about trying to find more "humane" options.. cage free eggs. Milk from Pasture fed and happier cows.
Then after finding out more and more about those farms and reading stories on vegan food blogs, I decided to replace each of the products which used animal ingredients one by one..

Whenever I read a detailed post, the questions that would come to my mind were "what the heck.. Why are these people doing all this." and not questions like " Where will I get my protein and nutrition" or " Omg I love cheese, I have to give it up?" Or "surely this is all made up information by hippies and I cant care about each and every extreme post out there"(Real questions by people in discussions).  

I just knew that I couldnt cause that much pain and suffering and there would be ways to either substitute some or just change up my taste buds.. It took a while to sub out everything especially the milk in our tea, mainly because I was not cooking breakfast for a long while. Once my health improved enough to take that over, milk was out the door. 

As for "Humane". to this day I dont understand the meaning of the term. By definition it means having or showing compassion and inflicting the minimum of pain.

Who decides how much compassion and how much pain?

Are cage free eggs "Humane" because the hens have some space to move around, even if their beaks are cut off so they dont peck at each other?

Are low calf cull rate dairy farms "humane", because the cows are not impregnated every few months and their calfs not killed(they all grow up and end up in the beef industry instead).

If there any such thing is "humane" slaughter. How about humane murder.. the notion of "humane slaughter" is at odds with the physiological reality of concussing, electrocuting, slashing open the veins of, and/or violently decapitating an animal, the idea that one can be "humane" while killing for profit is self-contradictory.

I just dont get the usage of the word humane. It seems like a band-aid term to band-aid our conscience and continue eating whatever we want to. 

Read more from a farmer's perspective here
http://www.humanemyth.org/haroldbrown.htm

and more here
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/sue-cross/humane-slaughter-a-contra_b_2220480.html

Why Vegan videos

Offensive or not

So I posted this yesterday on my Fb status.
'If you can respect "my personal choice" to "pick any currently not acceptable by society behavior", then I will "respect" "your personal choice" to eat meat/dairy/eggs. - via Several sources.'

It is a quote with several interpretations. What I am talking about is "a choice", not the person.

For example, while growing up, several of us made decisions and choices that our parents did not agree with, disliked, got offended by, or even hated. Did that mean that they did not love us anymore. It is the choice they do not like.

My brother is currently a big carnivore. I love him as my brother, but I do not have to like or respect his choices in food. In fact, he hears exactly that from me every time we talk. But I love him, the person. 

To put it in better terms..please see the Extract below from Colleen's post. Entire post here

“Eating meat is my personal preference, and since I respect your desire not to eat animals, I would appreciate your respecting my preference to dine on them.”

The problem with this justification is that it assumes there is no victim, no other.

As a society, we collectively decide that certain behaviors, certain actions, certain personal preferences are inappropriate or morally reprehensible, particularly when they cause injury or harm to another. When confronted, abusive parents or spouses often protest that it is nobody else’s business how they treat their child/wife/husband, that people should not meddle into their affairs, and that they can do what they like in their own home. Though there was a time when the law protected such people and practices, this is no longer the case.

As conscious consumers, we make choices every day about the products we buy — we choose those that do not contribute to child labor, those that use the least amount of the Earth’s resources, those that do not exploit indigent farmers. How, then, can we possibly ignore the animals whose miserable lives have been so violently cut short because we hold onto a particular taste preference or habit? The animals whose bodies we have locked up, used up, and cut up for our enjoyment are no different than the victims of domestic abuse who, if they had a choice — if they had a voice — would choose not to be tormented or killed.

A choice made from personal preference might be the color I paint my bathroom, the kind of car I buy, or the way I style my hair. But a personal choice to hurt someone else???"

Sure, my fb post is probably not the best way to put things, it is offensive, distasteful, and other adjectives. It got the attention though, didnt it.


How is it a personal choice of someone who is being abusive to their family, children or their pets?

A personal choice that someone is getting hurt and tortured so bad as a direct result of someone else's action.

Does it matter that the "someone else" we are talking about is not someone's family or friend but an animal. That animal is a sentient being. That animal is my family. My family is being hurt. How is it "a personal choice".
And How do I "respect" that choice.

Please watch Earthlings here if you havent.
Or under cover videos at MFA here

---------------------------
Update:2018
It is interesting to read old posts back and see the transition journey. Transition into veganism takes years with several stages of understanding, evaluating that understanding and feelings, the helplessness, the anger, the motivation to do more and so on.

In the bigger picture of things, everyone including me, vegan or not, makes certain choices (personal or otherwise), that will not be a good one. Those choices made unknowingly, knowingly or however, can affect just me, or can affect someone/some living being somewhere to any extent, small or big, and tey would still be personal choices (unlike my interpretation above). Every small choice that I make is going to affect some living beings. Who farms my food, processes it, distributes it, markets it. Farming inherently will displace/hurt/kill some small animals. So many sentient living beings are part of the whole process that is life.

We dont however use this information(this overwhelming information that everything is going to affect someone or the other) as an excuse to Not do things. There is always more information to be found,more options to be found, changes to be made based on the current options and information. We haven't stopped at changing our diet. There is more things to be done, for fair treatment of people employed in any food or commodity field, and more to be done to protect our environment, and this planet.
Every step takes its own time. The point is to keep doing something for some step/cause/issue for this planet. This singular planet full of life in this vast universe, there might be more but we havent found any yet. So this is our only home. 

Predictability

As I mentioned on my food blog.. My eyes are being very ridiculous since the past week and I am ready to learn to walk blind folded.. I couldnt stand in the kitchen for more than 2 minutes for 2 full days last week..gaaah... finally I realized I can walk easier on the carpeted area, so we put a thick rug on the tiles and I made it to the 15 minute in the kitchen mark. I dont know when they will get back to a the normality i know. 

Thats the frustrating part of this messed up eye, brain, legs, balance.. There is no predictability really. 

Some months I will be running around, over working my eyes, walking 10 blocks, taking 300 pictures in a day.. some other months, just a block, or not even to the elevator in the building or to the kitchen and back..

Midway The film - Effects of the pacific garbage patch

The MIDWAY film project is a powerful visual journey into the heart of an astonishingly symbolic environmental tragedy. On one of the remotest islands on our planet, tens of thousands of baby albatrosses lie dead on the ground, their bodies filled with plastic from the Pacific Garbage Patch. Returning to the island over several years, our team is witnessing the cycles of life and death of these birds as a multi-layered metaphor for our times. With photographer Chris Jordan as our guide, we walk through the fire of horror and grief, facing the immensity of this tragedy—and our own complicity—head on. 

Production of the feature film "MIDWAY" continues through 2013.
Please go to midwayfilm.com for more information.

Read the blog here. Please watch the short trailer below.

MIDWAY : trailer : a film by Chris Jordan from Midway on Vimeo.

Shoes

Hubbs' everyday wear shoe sole broke at office the other day, so he dropped by the puma store to pick up a new shoe. He liked a few shoes, looked inside at the material label, read the insanely tiny print, then selected a few from them, tried, found one, confirmed the materials and bought one.

Several things to note here.
He searched for the label inside the shoe and read it.
eliminated all the obvious materials he wouldnt wear.
Confirmed the materials with the salesperson to be sure. how many guys would know what polyamide or rayon are or if the fleece is cotton based or wool or synthetic.

He came home and was beaming coz he found something he really liked and could buy.

You know you are vegan when you look at the materials before looking at the price tag.

There are always more things to learn and change.... like child labor practices or eco friendly ness of the companies... finding local, all vegan and green companies.
It is one step at a time.. and I am so proud of hubbs that he remembers some of the points I keep harping about, takes time to understand why and unknowingly applies them even when he is alone..:)