Monthly Archives: December 2009

New Year’s Survey

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Once again I am doing Linda’s year’s-end survey. I’d link to my previous entries, but they are buried with the old blog. Feel free to do this on your own blog or answer any questions in the comments if you are so inclined. I mean, who doesn’t love a good survey? If you do it on your blog, please post a link in the comments so I can read it!

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?

I started running road races (two 5Ks, a 12K, and now training for a half marathon) and I love it. I also traveled to Las Vegas for the first time and hosted (and cooked) Christmas dinner for the first time.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Last year, I claimed I would pay more attention to healthy eating, exercise, and making my house and office more environmentally friendly. I did manage the first two, but didn’t really do much about the third. My new office doesn’t even have a recycling bin! Must work more on this.

For 2010, I would like to get another article published, present at at least one conference, complete the triathlon I signed up for (June 5th, baby!), and waste less money on entertainment.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes! My BFF Mel in Las Vegas gave birth to her son in January — he’s almost a year old now and cute as the dickens. Also, my friends Dangermoose and Zabaglione had a little boy, whom I have yet to meet. Pictures reveal him to also be as cute as possible.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Unfortunately, this one’s also a yes. My grandmother passed away on St. Patrick’s Day this year. The date seems significant because of her proud Irish Catholic heritage. She was my last living grandparent and an all around lovely person.

5. What countries did you visit?

In the U.S., I traveled to Las Vegas, NV; Louisville, KY; and San Jose, CA. Also in and around Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia, but that hardly counts.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

Once again, a tenure track job. C’mon now. Let’s do this thing.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

January 7th – birth of my friend’s son
March 17th – death of my Grandma
June 9th – Day I officially quit smoking and started losing the grad school weight (almost done now!)
December 12th – ran my 12K race, something I thought I would/could never do.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Taking control of my health and fitness is a big achievement, as is getting my first scholarly article accepted at a journal.

9. What was your biggest failure?

I’ve found myself getting too irritated too easily with people lately — indulging in silent grumble fests in my own mind and then praying no one notices my disgruntlement. Even though I generally keep my crankiness to myself, the negative thoughts make me feel like crap. This needs to stop. More yoga? I don’t know.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

A couple of colds and then the whole champagne bottle explosion thing. That was over two weeks ago and I’m still not completely healed yet! WTF!

11. What was the best thing you bought?

My beautiful Raleigh Alysa FT1. I love that bike, man.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

I’m grateful for the patience and high tolerance for exercise talk my friends have shown this year. I count myself lucky to know such a supportive and wonderful bunch of people. Much appreciated.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Occasionally a student’s behavior will appall or depress me, but the feelings have now faded quickly enough to have been almost forgotten. A few politicians’ behavior, naturally, but both of these things are true every year.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Bills, bills, bills! Any discretionary spending went toward my shrinking wardrobe, exercise gear, and movie nights.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

The birh of my friend’s son, hanging with my two BFFs in Vegas for spring break (where I got to meet the baby), teaching my special summer writing course, and getting back in shape. There’ve been many good things this year.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?

There are few I’ve listened to over and over again this year because they’ve been MVPs on my running playlist. Among these, I think “Smooth Criminal” by Michael Jackson is my pick here.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

a) happier or sadder? Happier.
b) thinner or fatter? Thinner.
c) richer or poorer? The same-ish.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Yoga, probably. I need a lot of stretching and a lot of chilling out. A lot.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Having hypothetical, imaginary fights with people in my mind. Not with THE PEOPLE IN MY MIND, but with people, in my mind. Oh boy.

20. How did you spend Christmas?

A few days before Christmas itself, I hosted my dad and brother for the holiday at my house — it was lovely! I loved my tree and making dinner (two things I’ve never gotten to be in charge of before) and having them just chillin’ in my apartment. Then, for the holiday itself, I went to midnight mass with my friend Brunbec, which was my first church service in probably 15 years or more. No comment on that.  Then on the 25th, B. and I had sushi dinner and saw Sherlock Holmes. Great way to spend Christmas, in my opinion.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?

I remain blissfully love-free this year, thank dog.

22. What was your favorite TV program?

Probably Dollhouse. SO ANNOYED it is getting canceled. This season has been amazing.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

No! Thank dog! I ain’t need to be hating.

24. What was the best book you read?

Hands down, Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. I still think about that book, like, daily. I also really enjoyed Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, which I will probably post about soon.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

One can hardly call Neko Case a “musical discovery” at this point, but this was the year I really started listening to her stuff. I’ve had a few albums rattling around the hard drive forever, but this was the year it all stuck. Love her newest one, Middle Cyclone.

26. What did you want and get?

A bicycle, improved health, a publication, a great vacation.

27. What did you want and not get?

A tenure-track job. I shall keep on trying.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?

You can see my 2009 film post below, but out of the best ones I saw, I think I am going to have to go crazy and pick Whip It. I wasn’t expecting that either, but it’s the one I really can’t wait to see again.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Ran my 12K, took the longest nap ever, dropped champagne bottles on my feet, and then hung out with all my local friends for a great party at the home of my friend S., who shares my birthday. With the exception of the champagne explosion, it was a perfect day. I turned 32.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

A really great local vegan restaurant, so when my friends wanted to go out to eat there would be somewhere I could suggest.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?

My clothes this year came mainly from Target and Old Navy – since my clothing size kept changing, I didn’t want to spend any more than I had to on pants that would soon be too big. This year I’ve needed, um, five different pants sizes. Eeek. So my concept was basically just cheap.

32. What kept you sane?

Working out, writing, talking to my close friends.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Barack Obama and Tahmoh Penikett.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

Health care reform, hands down.

35. Who did you miss?

All my far-flung friends. I wish they all lived near enough that I could just pop by any time, but if that were true they’d all be living in Alabama. I wouldn’t wish that on them.

36. Who was the best new person you met?

I met the usual batch of new hires in my department at work, and this time I kind of love all of them. They’re pretty cool.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.

Once again, qui patitur vincit. Also, stretch after every run.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Next day’s function: high class luncheon
Food is served and you’re stone cold munchin’.
Music comes on; people start to dance
But then you ate so much you nearly split your pants.
A girl starts walkin, guys start gawkin’;
Sits down next to you and starts talkin’.
Says she wanna dance ’cause she likes the groove,
So come on fatso and just bust a move.
— Young M.C.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY!

Eating Animals – Jonathan Safran Foer

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I recently finished Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals, and I stayed up for hours thinking about it.  I read it with certain expectations about what I’d find (I had already researched animal farming pretty extensively myself) and curious to see how someone who is a novelist by trade (and not, say, a nutritionist or animal rights activist) would present the information.

I wanted to tell you that this book is meticulously researched, incredibly compassionate and thoughtful, convincing, and an engaging read. It is all of these things. But as I found myself approaching the end of the book, as the number of pages in my right hand dwindled and became thinner and thinner, and Foer still had not even once mentioned dairy farming, my respect and admiration turned to disgruntlement and disappointment.

Later I wondered why my reaction to this omission had been so violently negative. Generally I am a big believer in making small choices, in striving to make better choices more of the time, in the idea that even imperfect efforts are of significance. I will gladly cheer on any friend who has a day or even just a meal without meat. In Foer’s case, he has not only become a vegetarian, but he is also spreading the news about this cause in an incredibly convincing, approachable manner. Why was I so mad about the fact that his great case for vegetarianism did not become a great case for veganism? Maybe because it felt like something that is incredibly important to me had been forgotten, neglected, or otherwise deemed unworthy of comment.

Why had Foer left this out? It can’t be because he failed to consider it. He considers seemingly everything else: Foer not only makes the best and most thorough case against eating fish that I have ever read — he resolves a lot of the lingering questions I had even after reading several books that didn’t deal much with this topic at all — but he also gives plenty of time and thoughtful consideration to the case for small family farms and the argument of the selective omnivore (à la Michael Pollan). Foer seems like a man willing to look at all the angles. Why not this one?

It can’t be because there’s any reason why the discussion of dairy is unimportant. The atrocities he chronicles in poultry farming in the cases of both “broilers” and “layers” (eating and egg-laying chickens, respectively), fishing and “aquaculture” (fish farming), and hog farming (almost the most horrific of all) can all be found in the dairy industry and are just as nightmarish and horrific, beyond even our imagination. While Foer wrings his hands about even the most humane cattle ranchers, who still castrate and brand their cattle and necessarily send them off to the slaughterhouse, he spares not a word for their dairy cohort.

I will refrain from giving you all of the details here, though if you are curious about the diary industry, there’s more out there about it than even you or I have time to read, but here’s a starter. After reading Eating Animals, I am 100% certain that Foer was/is aware of these not insignificant issues. If he refuses to eat even the most humanely raised beef, why would he still continue to eat dairy? The only reason I can come up with is the same empty, filler “reason” given by nearly every person I know: Cheese tastes good.

If Foer avoids discussing where his cheese, milk, and butter come from, he is guilty of the same forgetting, the same neglect, against which he argues so convincingly in the book. This frustrates me, to say the least.

On the other hand, Foer is not only making a difference through his individual choice not to eat meat (and not to feed it to his son), but he is making an even bigger difference by putting this information out there. I can wholeheartedly recommend Eating Animals (while at the same time I cannot recommend eating animals) to anyone who’s curious about where the meat on their plate comes from. In fact, I can recommend the book even more strongly to those who aren’t curious about the source of their food. Maybe that’s who needs to read it most.

The book is beautifully written and presents a considered response to the issues of animal farming — both factory farming, which represents over 99% of animal farming, and the increasingly rare practice of small family farming. So go read this book, yes, and then when you’re done, go read about the dairy industry.

2009 at the Movies

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I have never been to the movie theater so much in my entire life as I have since I moved to Alabama.  I’m not sure if it’s just that I have a lot of friends who are fond of moviegoing (I do), or if it’s that we don’t really have that much else to do around here (we don’t).  While some of the movies I have seen this year turned out to be pretty great, I think over all it seems I have wasted a ton of money at my local multiplex. One new year’s resolution: do that less.

Without further ado, here’s the list of what I saw, loved, hated, missed, and still want to see.  Please add your own thoughts in the comments: what movies did you love or hate this year? Best money spent on a ticket? Biggest waste? Which will you be adding to your DVD collection? I must know.

Movies I Saw and Loved, to the Point where I Would Like to Own them on DVD as Soon as Possible:

Whip It
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
New Moon
Zombieland

Movies I Saw and Liked or Felt Pleasantly Neutral About but Will Likely not be Seeing Again or Purchasing on DVD:

Where the Wild Things Are
District 9
Sherlock Holmes
Avatar
Precious
Star Trek


Movies I saw in the Theater Foolishly, as I Should Have Waited for DVD:

The Hangover
Fame
Dance Flick
The Time Traveler’s Wife

Movies I Wanted to See in the Theater but Did Not, For Various Reasons:

(500) Days of Summer
Jennifer’s Body
Coraline
The Road
Julie & Julia

Movies I (Thank Dog) Narrowly Avoided Having to See in the Theater, or, to My Great Relief, at All:

2012
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Up
Bruno
Inglourious Basterds
Couples Retreat

Terrible Movies I Saw on DVD and (Thank Dog) Did not Spend Significant Money On, because I Don’t Even Know What I Was Thinking Here; Apparently I Hate Myself:

The Ugly Truth
The Proposal
Angels & Demons
Knowing
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
Bride Wars
New in Town
17 Again

Somewhat Bad Movies I Saw on DVD that Turned out to Be Pretty Okay:

Adventureland
I Love You Man
Confessions of a Shopaholic

Movies I Would Still Like to See:

Up in the Air

—

Your turn: GO!

At the Movies: Detectives and Aliens

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I realized recently I’ve been spending a lot of time and money at the movies this year.  It’s been pretty ridiculous, to be honest.  At any rate, I have a post coming up soon with lists of everything I saw in 2009, what I wish I hadn’t seen, what I didn’t see that I wish I had, what I’m lucky to have escaped seeing, and so on.

For now, however, I thought I’d share my thoughts on two of the big holiday blockbusters I happen to have seen recently. Should you see them, too?  Well, maybe.

Sherlock Holmes: I saw this one on Christmas Day with my friend Brunbec. We are both big Holmes afficionados and had been anxiously awaiting it. To anyone who has read any of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories and who has also seen the trailer for this film, it will come as no surprise when I reveal to you that the Sherlock Holmes in the film bears very little resemblance to the one in the stories. The film does carry on certain elements of plot and character from the stories, but the over all effect is to produce a violent, flashy rogue whose tendency toward fisticuffs nearly outweighs his logical abilities. But we knew that going in and it was fine.

The film was very visually entertaining. I mean, come on, you get to spend the two hours staring at Rober Downey Jr., Jude Law, and Rachel McAdams. These are very pretty people. The overall look was stylish as well. Plot-wise, eh. The story seemes too episodic, composed of interesting nuggets that didn’t always cohere — at least that’s the impression I got. Robert Downey Jr.’s fake British accent was also fairly awkward. Other than that, though, it was pretty good.

Avatar: I went to see this film with my dad and brother while they were visiting. I’d had no intention (NONE) of seeing it myself, but I was outnumbered on this occasion.  I was pretty excited about seeing a movie in 3D, which I never had before (Did you know the 3D glasses are actually these plastic sunglasses-looking things now, and not those paper glasses with red and blue lenses? This was news to me.), but I wasn’t terribly interested in the plot. In terms of story, you can cash in on basically every single cliché in the White Man and The Natives genre. My brother called it Dances with Aliens.

Nonetheless, I thought the movie was fairly entertaining. It was pretty. I wasn’t as wowed by the style and effects as most seem to have been, though. Honestly, I’m not sure seeing it in 3D was even a significant factor, as the 3D effects were so subtle as to not be noticeable most of the time. Also, the glasses hurt my nose after two and a half hours.

The highlight of the movie: My dad, brother, and I got great amusement out of the trailer for the new version of Clash of the Titans, in particular, the moment where Liam Neeson grandly and dramatically screams, “RELEASE THE KRAKEN.” This became our rallying cry for the following days. It’s quite a useful expression, particularly when your crass younger brother, not accustomed to fine fake meats, overindulges in the tofurkey and becomes a bit gassy. RELEASE THE KRAKEN! Yes, we are fancy people.

Have you seen either of these? What did you think?

Mysteries of the Tofurkey: UNVEILED!

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As I have mentioned a hundred million times both here and on twitter, I had big plans to make a tofurkey as part of the Christmas dinner I was doing for my visiting family.  Why have I mentioned this so many times? Why will I not simply shut up about it? Well, just think about it! First of all, this involves the word “tofurkey,” which is incredibly fun to say.  I want to work that word into my life as much as possible.  TOFURKEY.  Second of all, I have never made nor eaten one of these strange plant-based “birds” before, so the mysteries of this tofurkey loomed large in my imaginings.  What would it be like? Look like? More importantly, taste like? Could I prepare it properly? Would my family eat it?  To learn the answers to these and other important tofurkey related questions, read on.

First of all, I learned that while “tofurkey” is a non-trademarked catch-all term for meatless turkey substitutes, Tofurky (TM) is the brand name of this specific food item, made in Hood River, Oregon.  Holla, Hood River! I like your style!

I pulled out this nearly empty bottle of bourbon to aid me in my cookery adventures — just in case it was needed.  Who knows, right? Things could get weird.

First step: read instructions.  As you may be able to read below, the first line says, “Cooking instructions are for a THAWED Tofurky! Plan ahead!”  So, basically these Tofurky-brand people have no patience for those of us who might forget to thaw our fake bird in time to cook it.  Well, never fear, I had PLANNED AHEAD! The bird was thawed and ready to go.

I opened the box and this is what I found:

More stern instructions and, well, a not-so-promising blob of vaguely turkey-toned substance wrapped in a plastic casing.  I should also note that this thing is approximately the size of a small coconut and cost me $14.79 + tax at my neighborhood natural foods shop.  Is that an appropriate price? I can’t really tell anymore.

Moving on.  I followed the basting instructions, plopped the tofurkey into a roasting dish along with some sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, and parts of a clementine.  Things still did not look promising, did they?

I had no choice but to follow through on the instructions.  During the time when the tofurkey and its attendant veggies were roasting, covered, in the oven, I was left to wonder how the scene was developing in there.  Instead of fretting, I spent the time readying the other courses. I figured as long as everything else turned out well, my family would have something to eat and all would not be lost.  Here’s what we had for our pre-tofurkey courses:

I made butternut squash soup — the same one I made for Thanksgiving — and it was awesome, as expected.  I really love that recipe (found here).  It’s easy and it looks far more impressive than it should.  Also: salad, rosemary bread with roasted garlic to spread on it, wine.  Gotta get the guys all happy and full of wine before the tofurkey comes out, I thought.  Then maybe they won’t notice if it is terrible.  Right?

Well, here’s what the tofurkey and veggies looked like out of the oven.  The carrots and potatoes look great, but, well, the tofurkey still looks like a strange, round, definitely un-turkey-like blob. Okay then.

But then, something magical happened when we sliced into it and the slices all fell over in a line just like they should and the stuffing spilled tantalizingly out of it’s fake-bird container.  It smelled great, and even looked generally all right. Nicely browned on the outside, tender on the inside.  And basically everything looks nice alongside sweet potatoes, in my opinion. A sweet potato can do no wrong and if it chooses to associate with some fake-turkey dinner made out of magic and science, well, that’s fine by me.

Here’s what the bountiful plate looked like:

Also pictured: mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy, roast asparagus, cranberry sauce. It was approximately four times more food than I should have eaten, but it was all delicious and Christmas, so I don’t care.  I am also bound to tell you that my dad and brother both went back for seconds and thirds, getting more tofurkey each time, and thereby redeeming the fake meat through over consumption. Victory was mine!

And, since I had been working in the kitchen all afternoon, I happily left the aftermath to my dad:

Oops.  It was kind of a horrible mess in here, and I think there may still be traces of butternut squash soup spattered everywhere due to a blender mishap, but I did not care. Why? Because I was stuffed with tofurkey and wine. That’s why.

I declare operation tofurkey a success! It’s definitely not something that will become part of my regular cooking repertoire, but if you are vegetarian and have omnivores coming over for a holiday-dinner-type scenario, it’s definitely a solid option. I will, however, be eating leftovers for approximately ever.