A friend of mine, Mr. Y went to East-Africa. He brought some souveniers from there:
After applying some vaseline, that little bulge opened up and this one came out:
Tumby fly larvae is apparently not a myth, but actually real. And it left a nasty hole:
A picture of another larva, this one is a big one:
A family portrait:
If you go to Africa, remember vaseline.
Pictures by Mr. J. All rights reserved.
It's noon. And I can already think! Might be that my first day at the new job is not going to be a sick day! Yay!
I think I need to stay low today. Still got sour throat (maybe there's a frog inside?) and a head full of fluff. Otherwise I start to be ok.
I have slept most of past 3-4 days now, so it would be worrying if I wouldn't be feeling better.
Just reading my friend's blogs, and noticed the huge winds here have a name. The storm "Emma" is wiping Europe.
Very good name for the storm. Since the real Emma I know reminds me of Neil Young's lyrics...
"You are like a hurricane. There's calm in your eyes. And I'm getting blown away."
[expletive deleted]
*plenty of f-words*
I finally cave in. All my friends are in Facebook. Had to open an account. F! FFFFFFFF!
Don't even bother to try to add me as your friend if you don't know me in real life. I won't answer.
LinkedIn has a purpose.
I went to take the trash out last night and noticed I got stuck in a comic book.
I took a picture of it:
I think it's time to open a Flickr account.
In the morning when I came home, I noticed Ronsu / Ephelant was still doing the same song:
My housemate Ronsu was doing some music - again. Too concentrated to even notice I took a picture of him.
I like Legos. Haven't played with them for ... I don't know, 20 years?
A friend of mine had a houseparty. I went there right after work. I start my work usually a bit earlier than others, so I finish an hour before the rest of the city finishes. I went directly to my friend's place. No-one else was there yet.
But there was Legos.
A lot of Legos.
I made a castle. Had to. If you have almost unlimited amount of Legos and they have been sorted that gray and blue blocks are in one box, misc in one, space Legos in one and so on.
It was cool. When the other guests arrived, they had funny faces. A guy, almost 30, is playing with Legos on a small children's chair.
I didn't care.
I like Legos.
This is a reply to my friend Xen for his writing: "Can a non-vegan and a vegan have a relationship?"
Originally I planned to answer to Xen on his own blog, but as it happens more often than not that my reply keeps on expanding, I think I have to answer in my own blog and send a link to Xen. (What a sentence that was.)
My reply to Xen:
Very good writing, Xen. I have dated vegetarians, but no vegans. If I date a vegetarian, as a result my meat eating drops down. One big reason for this is that I like to cook, but I won't cook different menu for everyone who eats. As an omnivore it is no big deal for me to adjust my diet.
I have to admit, even if I eat a lot of vegetarian food, I still crave for meat every now and then. I would not have any moral issues against eating meat, if the conditions were even a bit more humane for the animals. (I'd like to raise, butcher and cook my own meat.) I eat virtually no chicken due to the massively inhumane conditions they are grown in, and try to find bio/free range/non-torture eggs when I buy them. I don't use eggs that often in my food anyways. More over I refrain from eating chicken because of the growth-hormones they use. Of course cow has all different things, including stress-hormones when they sense they are being slaughtered. But chicken is especially bad.
Pork I just don't like because of the taste, unless it is done from good parts of the animal and prepared properly. That's why I don't eat that much pork either. Cow I like. Game I love - any game. Phesant, deer, reindeer... tasty. And they had a good life.
Main reason why I have cut down meat eating is not my morals, although they play a small part in it, but the main reason is the quality of meat. Especially in the Netherlands veggies and meat are mostly water. Spanish strawberries taste like sour water. Oranges taste like water with citric acid. Fry meat (especially minced beef) and see how frying turns into boiling when 50% of the mass is released as water.
I will not go into a discussion about how we, as consumers, are the cause for such crappy products, including food items. In a nutshell: People want everything as cheap as possible, and they want good quality. Price is the main thing. Quality loses. We are being sold brand-stuff as quality products, but in action we buy crap and think it's quality.
If I have a farm-house close-by, like in the previous country where I was living, I buy all my meat directly from the farmer. Morally it's better than super-mega-hormone-monster-cattle in megafarms, but my main concern is the taste. Beef still has some taste, but pork and chicken... they don't even taste like anything anymore.
Enough intro. Back to the original question:
Can a vegan and a non-vegan have a relationship?
I have no clue how to do vegan-food. This would pose problems in the beginning, before I learn. Actually learning to do vegetarian food has been a learning experience for me, too. "How can you make food without food ingredients? Isn't salad something that food eats?" - How wrong I have been.
As I mentioned earlier, I have no problems dating a vegetarian. I can refrain from eating meat in vegetarian company, if they have moral issues with meat. I won't pretend to be vegetarian, though. I won't push my meat to vegetarians, and respect their decision as long as they respect mine. Discussion and pushing ideas are two different things. Vegan as a friend is also no problem. But to be completely honest, I think I would run into problems with a vegan, should I date one. Living apart would be easier, since me eating vegan food is no problem, but as I do want to eat meat every now and then, and couldn't do it home if I'd be living with a vegan. And I do not eat in restaurants that often.
It used to be that you eat out when you want something good. Nowadays I eat out if I'm lazy, and cook home if I want something good. Decent restaurant charges more than €20 for a dish. I cook for days with that money. And in many cases, better food. So living with a full-on vegan (dating or not) would be complicated for me. I would not want to offend, but I want to eat meat. I can cut down meat eating, but I do not wish to stop it. (The reference with human meat was a bit waste on me, since I would try human, if there would be a place where to order it. - Non-German-style, just that all y'all Armin fans know... I just have a personal rule: Try everything. Food is never bad. There's food I don't like, but it's not the food's fault. It's all in my head.)
I know how to cook vegetarian. (First you ask the vegetarian home, skin the vegetarian, chop... Naw, just kidding...) Vegan I could learn. But if my diet is offensive to someone. That would be the complicated part. I could live with a vegan, but I'm afraid a vegan could not live with me. The tolerance would have to go both ways. I would eat more vegetarian food, naturally. But the vegan should tolerate my meat, or other animal products every now and then. Not eating them, of course, but to accept that I do eat meat. I don't see it as impossibility that I'd quit meat all together, and become a vegetarian in the future. At the moment it just doesn't seem that likely, though. Converting to full-on vegan - I just don't see myself in this scenario at all.
On the other hand, if I make 5 litre pot of chili-con-carne by meself, I use perhaps 150-200g of meat in it. And it lasts me a week. If I make 3 litre pot for me and my friends, I have to use something like 500-700g meat in it for the carnivores to be happy. I don't notice the difference that much, as the rest I put in the pot will substitute meat enough for me. This gives me an idea. Maybe I need to practice chili-con-veggie soon.
Hope this blabbering is understandable enough.
Summa summarum:
I have no problems dating or living with a vegan, and would actually in certain extent adjust my own diet to match.
Vegan could have problems dating or living with me, if all animal products would be offending.
Ah... Evelyn Beatrice Hall said that. Thanks. That is one of my favourite quotes of all time. (Another favourite is Einstein's quote about two things infinite.) And I support that idea behind the quote more than 100%.
(Apropo, I'm designing a pizza for you at the moment. Got an idea for one few days ago when I was making one for myself and I just feel like inventing a pizza for you. I'm omnivore meself. If it's on my plate, I eat it. I just need a bit of time to find the internal harmony. [insert sarcastic remark here] The name of the Pizza is Green Katana (reasons for will become obvious later) and I would like to know what can be used instead of cheese - my only animal-based ingredient in this pizza? I thought you were vegetarian, not ovo-vegan. So only animal product you eat is eggs? Not milk... Hm... need to find a cheese substitute.)
My housemate and I were going shopping and were just talking about the Dogtanian I just got. How close to the original story (sans main character's promiscuous behaviour which wouldn't fit into a children's cartoon) the cartoon is.
My housemate said: "Yeah, but you can't really change the story on these classic stories."
Me: "Oh yeah? Like little mermaid where she lives at the end? Besides, how can you have a Hollywood sequel if the main character dies at the end?"
Housemate: "Right. Like Passion of Christ II?"
Me: "Exactly! A Hollywood producer would be like 'wait wait wait! Romeo can't die at the end. That's too depressing. Besides we have already started to make the sequel - Romeo II: Massacre in Verona.' So how do Romeo survive to the second part if he dies? ...unless he turns into a zombie!"
And that conversation earlier today was basically the base idea for this story:
Chapter 1
This journey begins where Romeo's and Juliet's end. You all remember a story about Romeo and his fair Juliet?
When Romeo was bitten by a zombie and he was placed in crypt, Juliet couldn't bear life without him. She surrendered to a Zombie attack, got bitten and sealed herself in the same catacomb as her beloved Romeo. But Juliet did not know Apothecary had already given his last antidote to Romeo. Antidote had knocked Romeo out, rendering him lifeless on the outside. But inside a battle was brewing. It lasted for hours on end.
The remedy finally worked and Romeo began to feel once again. Gasping air as he jumped from his grave just in time to see Juliet turn. Trapped in the crypt and armed only with his trusted dagger he knew this won't end well. "Juliet, my love. Fight against the turning. I try to find a way out!" Romeo shouted trying to unhinge the gate at the crypt entrance. "I'm afraid I cannot. I feel ... it has already... takeeehn my ... ... braaaaaaiiinnnnssshh..."
Trapped inside with no escape Romeo laments. But the time is running thin. Romeo quickly turns his mind and decides he must kill his beloved Juliet. A struggle ensues. Zombies are slow, but Juliet is still in the middle of turning, making her even less hasty. Romeo, holding his tears, slings himself behind Juliet and with a swift move of a blade decapitates her.
Or so he thought. A dagger may cut flesh, but bones are another matter all together. Using both hands Romeo must pull harder he has ever pulled. Romeo holds his lover's head in his hand, staring into the empty eyes. "Don't you even think about saying it!" he hears from the darkness. Recognizing the voice he shouts, "Hamlet, my good friend! How did you ever find me?"
"No time for that now. Back up a tad, I'll shoot the lock." Both men, running upstairs. One handing arms to the other. Hamlet looked grim. "My parents have been bitten. We have very little time. We must find Desdemona." He barely blinked when they came to the light from the catacombs right into the arms of a zombie. *bang bang* he fired his pistol, without missing a step. "But what good is Desdemona to us?" Romeo asks. "She is the one who gave the antidote to Apothecary. She is one of the three witches who know how to brew it. But alas, MacBeth is behind all this. He has killed the other two witches after gaining the secret of the potion. And now he wants to kill her, for then MacBeth is the only one with the antidote."
"We need to get more help. Hamlet, lets go to the Castle of Elsinore and see if we can gather more gallant companions."
In the castle of his father Hamlet sees Ophelia staggering towards him. "Zombie or not zombie, that is the question." says Hamlet. "Wether 'tis nobler without the mind to suffer, or to release this haunted soul. To die, to sleep; no more, and by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the craving that her decaying flesh is heir to."
"Stop blabbering, Hamlet! We got company!" Romeo shouts. Zombies pour into the hall. Romeo takes a Beretta and releases the fury. Zombie after Zombie they fall, until Romeo's Beretta cries *click click click* "Yo, Hamlet! I need to reload! Can you start shooting now?!"
"'Tis a consumption, devouring she wish'd. To die, to sleep; in that sleep what dreams may come when I have shuffled off her mortal coil. For I must give us pause, there's the respect that makes calamity of so long life." goes Hamlet on and on, unaware of his surroundings. For only Ophelia is filling Hamlet's universe now..
Hamlet stares in the eyes of his beloved. Ophelia still staggering towards Hamlet raises her arms as to hold him, embrace him. "Graaaaaaa! Brrraaiiinnssshh." she says. *Kabloom!* Sound like thousand thunders when Hamlet pulls the trigger of his shotgun. "Not Zombie." he says as Ophelia's headless corpse falls to the ground.
"Come on Hamlet," shouts Romeo, just finishing reloading his Beretta. "We must get to Desdemona before MacBeth! We need her to make the antidote before your parents are all turned into Zombies!"
Romeo leaps up and tries to run towards Hamlet, who is standing by the gate. One, thought dead, but yet alive - undead - grips Romeo's ankle, knocking him down. "Escape my friend! Should I remain in this world, I shall see you under the bridge leading to Verona!" Hamlet vanishes through the gate after a short pause, a tear and a reluctant nod.
All seems lost for poor Romeo. Zombie holding his leg, unable to move, more coming in. Suddenly, a large blast, flying shrapnel and limbs. A figure in the darkness and smoke. "Richie! How on earth did you get here?" Romeo feels hope rising its head. "I was visiting Claudius and Gertrude, but they are in grave danger. They have been fallen under the bite. I gave some herbs to slow the change, but we must be hasty. Time marches on." With this unforeseen help Romeo is finally outside the castle, heading for the bridge.
"Wait here, I'll go and see if the coast is clear." says Romeo.
Romeo rendezvous with Hamlet under a bridge. Romeo shouts "Hamlet, you made it alive!" But Hamlet was of the grim sort. "And why not death, rather than living torment?" he asks. "To die is to be banish'd from myself; and Ophelia is myself. Banish'd from her vessel, banished from this world."
"But I need you now, Hamlet!" Romeo cries "What fight is fight, if Hamlet be not by? What slaughter is slaughter if zombies be not seen? Unless it is to think they are near. Feeding upon the shadows of our path." Romeo pauses for a moment, only to continue "But I have managed to even the score." Romeo points to the shadows in the shrubbery. "I found Richie, who knows where Desdemona is."
"I see you came not alone. To arms, my friends. We have trapped ourselves under this bridge, and I'm afraid the only way out is now taken over by the Zombies." Hamlet shrieks! "Dagnabbit! I'm all out! A hand-grenade, a hand-grenade. My kingdom for a hand-grenade!", Richie shouts. "There you go, mate." Hamlet replies tossing one. Another huge explosion, and the way has been cleared.
"So how about that kingdom, Richie?" Hamlet asks while they run over the bridge.
...perhaps I'll post the second chapter if I decide to continue with this... Most likely not... Out of ideas now. Perhaps they meet Rosencrantz and Guildenstern on the way, who turn into Zombies and eat each others brains and they have a link between each other. So they see what the other one sees or something.
Instruments (from left to right):
1. Trashcan and some X-mas string made out of small beads tied around the trash can 3 times. Moving the beads makes the sound.
2. Two spoons.
3. A flatscreen monitor and a pen. Makes washingboard sound with the airholes at the back.
4. Trashcan, string and a piece of a cubicle. Washingdrum bass. Adjust the sound by adjusting the angle.
As I'm trying to find a new job, had to fix my face. Well, given the outfit I still look like a goddamn tree hugging smelly hippie.
(Nice country, Netherlands. You can smoke ciggies inside the company. Yay! ...but not for long.)
And yes: Employee who's drunk on company's expense doesn't complain.
I was checking out my friend's blog and found a link to a news article. I try to avoid posting news article links on my blog, unless it's related to my rantings but this one had to be linked:
World's most infamous cannibal becomes a vegetarian
My housemate, Jussi Niemi a.k.a. Ronsu had an idea. We were writing An Universal Peace Treaty between us, and this is the second clause in the peace treaty.
"All humans have the right to be super-heroes, as long as they don't hurt any innocent people."
I think this can be a tagline for the Watchmen movie...
A very special friend of mine, Anu Vironmäki is a graphical designer. One day we were on a terrace, and I was - as always - concentrated on discussion. She thought my hands were funny, so she took a picture collage of them.
Visit her web page for more images.
www.vanun.com
Just found out that a friend of mine, Jeremy got to DJ Mag's top 20 VJ list 2006, in position 10.
Nice one Jeremy! Next year #1!
