Yay!

New /dev/random post!

Sidenote

I've returned to LJ: vitruvian dan. I will now be simul-posting to both locations (here and there). To learn more about the revolutionary new technique known as "simul-posting" visit the simul-posting FAQ at en.wikipedia.org.

On the desire to ride my bicycle, and other musings...

Making the decision to buy a new bike (my previous one was stolen) and ride it to and from work every day was one of the best ideas I've had lately. It was prompted by the threat of sudden removal of my automobile (my dad's broke down and he needed to get around RI). Rather than be frustrated or angry at this prospect, I decided to get really excited about breaking my dependence on the cute, Swedish, petroleum-fueled machine. I am, of course, talking about my Volvo, and not a sex toy. Well, to make a long story short (too late!) I ended up getting to keep the Volvo, and also acquire a beautiful new bicycle. The result being that not only does my brain get an all-natural injection of happy chemicals on the way to work each morning, but I also have time to muse and wax poetical on myriad philosophical concepts on the way. Or just zone out and enjoy the amazing view.

Today's philosophical musing began a long time ago when I was first discovering the amazing amount of homosexual interaction between various members of the animal kingdom. This was my first introduction to the fact that homosexuality was not exclusively a human behavior, and could not be considered unnatural by any stretch of the imagination. Recently, this internal dialogue has progressed to include thoughts about gender, for it has been my general feeling, as of late, that gender ranks up there with time on the list of less meaningful societal constructions.

This is one of those things that when people ask me how exactly my life has changed recently, I am unable to articulate. Now I'm finally able to put it into words. Recent discussions with Vikki, who just read a book considering gender in the animal kingdom from a scientific point of view, have led my mind to entirely new vistas of thought.  These new ideas have been so effective in their persuasion that they managed to goad my mind into leaping off those high, high Bluffs of Prior Thought, and even convinced it that rather than splattering spectacularly on the rocks below in a mess of grey-matter-goo, it will, in fact, soar. And it has. So now I give you:

Dan's Soaring Mind
A Whole Bunch of Things That Many People Before Me Have Pondered, and Many People After Me Will Surely Ponder, But That Have Become Exciting In My Current Life For Whatever Reason or Another and Certainly Bear More Thought and Study to Follow

Cheif among these is the idea that binary gender is not biologically innate, something that I had always taken for granted up until very recently. This book, the title of which I will soon procure and pass along, discusses in detail that there are very few (if any) species in the world for whom a binary gender system adequately describes social or sexual interaction. Vikki cited examples to me of amphibians, such as certain species of frogs, to whom you would have to assign at least five genders (two "male" and three "female")  in order to give an accurate representation of their natural behavior. So it is clear that a gender binary simply falls short of providing meaningful information about the lives of these animals.

If this is something that is true of frogs, what must this mean for humans, who have so many different modes of sexual and social expression, and the will to choose between them! Humans, who, in addition to the animal attraction, explore the complex emotion of love, which can be universally applied and understood. So what keeps us from breaking down barriers and allowing ourselves to love and interact sexually with all humans, regardless of percieved gender? I am willing to say at this point, barring further evidence, that it is psychological conditioning and the bias of preference. I do experience this preference, even after attempting to rationally consider the issue at large, but I find that it is slowly dissolving, and I am now very comfortable with thoughts and feelings that may have weirded me out not a year ago.

Anyway, before I descend into cryptic pyscho-babbling about things that I don't yet fully understand, I will conclude. I mean to think about this more at length, and I plan to read that book as soon as possible. It sounds terribly exciting. One more thing before I go. I think it can be just as fantastic to celebrate gender as it is to fuck with it, and the two are often one and the same. I believe the realization that gender is primarily an illusion does not diminish its fun qualities any more than the fact that believing that time is a human construct will prevent me from staring at the clock, wishing I was at home, for most of this work day.

As an addendum to yesterday's post (I did say much remained unsaid), to all my vegans out there. I love you, you're fantastic. I continue to respect and admire your food choices. All my other friends: same thing goes. I think you're all mature and intelligent enough to make your own choices about what to eat, and I think that's beautiful. Go spread some food love.

Thinking Globally, Eating Locally, or: A blog post long overdue.

For a little over three weeks now I have not been eating strictly vegan. Am I ashamed? No. Did I give into temptation? No. Will I stop doing this stupid Q and A format and start explainging? Yes.

It all started about a month before the semester ended, when I spent the evenings scrubbing pots for Saga, and would ruminate and philosophize for hours as I scraped off the bits of food. One day I asked myself the question that usually comes up at least once a year. Why am I still vegan? Does it still feel like the right thing to do? Does it still feel important to me? For the first time in three years, all I came up with was: "I don't know." So I spent the rest of that shift, and most of the rest of the following shift, thinking about it. Really putting my mind to it, coming at it from every possible angle, to see if a vegan diet was still something I wanted for my life.

On a practical level, veganism was not fulfilling my needs. I was perfectly healthy and my mind was as sharp as ever, but the little activist inside me was starving, crying out meekly for some envigoration. I soon came to the source of this: I no longer felt like I was making an impact. When I was the only vegan in high school my dietary habits roused curiousity, interest, and, yes, insults. It provoked my peers out of their day to day habits long enough to consider something else. That something didn't have to be veganism or even vegetarianism, per se. But it was enough to get them wondering where their food came from, something of which every living person should be aware. I struggled to get by without making judgments about my meat-eating pals, and everything was swell.

When I arrived at Hampshire, I was no longer alone in my food-awareness. I soon formed solid friendships with two other amazing people who just happened to be vegan as well, and a whole lot of people who weren't. What I came to realize months later, up to my elbows in dish soap and dining hall leftovers, was that while my eating was still in line with my general "do no harm" philosophy, it didn't really cover much else. How could I think myself any better than others who supported factory farming of animals while eating food from Kraft, Nabisco, Coca-Cola, etc. Just because something mass-produced, processed, and pre-packaged is vegan, that doesn't mean everything is a-okay. This was a fact that I chose to shunt aside for most of my first year at college.

And then there were the philosophical changes I'd undergone. As I peeled caked-on lasagna and crusted-over gravy from pots and pans I thought about how I no longer felt as if I lived in a world of absolutes. I could no longer say for certain that some things were always bad and some things were always good. Rather than feeling lost and confused, I felt very comfortble with this view of the world. But I was still following a dietary pattern that proclaimed, "Thou shalt not kill." I came to realize that people don't interact with the world on one great moral scale. The world is just people making choices, some based on their own personal ethical compass, some with no guide at all. Good and evil? Empty words. The world is people making choices. Some choices cause pain, some cause comfort. I thought, "If I can avoid the choices that lead to suffering and choose the ones that cause joy, I can feel good about the choices I make from day to day."

As I waded through dining hall slop I allowed myself to imagine my life with less dietary restrictions. I thought of all the wonderful cultural food traditions in the world. I thought of the Italian harvester plucking the tomato from European dirt, the Dutch farmer milking his cows by hand and artfully aging his cheeses, and I thought of the Japanese with their carefully fed, groomed, and cared for Kobe beef. I realized that if I did end up doing all the traveling that I hoped to do, that I would not want to experience the world as a strict vegan. But what to do till then?

Then I thought of the brave New England farmer not a mile away from where I was standing, plowing and tilling the stony Amherst soil, treating his animals with care, refusing to use pesticides or herbicides, but still unable to pay the thousands required to become organic certified. And then I understood.

Eating local would not only allow me to experience animal products without guilt, but it would make a powerful statement, and a real difference here in my community. Now I drink non-homogenized, non-pasteurized whole milk from a farm mere miles from my front door, and I buy fresh eggs from a man who has the most amazing beard I have ever seen every week at the Amherst farmer's market. We buy fresh bread and vegetables when available at that same open-air market, and always get fruits and veggies in season.

The result? Eating in Amherst actually means something now, because I have a connection to the people who produce my food. I breathe the same air as their animals, walk the same earth that nourishes their grain, and delight in every new eating experience. So there you have it: my great confession. If you'd like to look at the past three years of my life and call me a hypocrite, there is nothing stopping you. But know this: I do not regret my food choices of the past. Being vegan was one of the best things I ever did. It was what first allowed me to examine what I was eating, and to give a damn. So yes, when I visit you now, I may eat some ice cream, or make you scrambled eggs on toast. But it's not because I'm admitting defeat, rather it's because this whole experience has led me to realize that I no longer feel that making a difference must mean adherence to strict diet, way of life, or way of thought. Everyone has the ability to make change in the world, from wherever they are, whatever they are.

Much remains unsaid, but this post is already long enough.

Snippets

Scaled Norwottuck with Vikki and Theresa in the 90 degree heat that was yesterday afternoon. Dove into the reservoir completely devoid of clothes shortly thereafter. It was amazing.

Watched Restless (buffy episode) with Wendell last night. Was amazing, as usual.

Picking up my new bike today after work. Much excitement.

New /dev/random post tomorrow. To all folks who read /dev/random and like it, I want to hear your comments! It's the only way I can really get a sense of if people are reading/enjoying. Thanks.

Excited for Thursday (jon and deena) and Friday-Saturday (RI and everone else).

Pretty red things.

A lot of nice things in my life right now are red (I realize as I look around my room.) A Feast For Crows is red, the issue of Mother Jones that I bought yesterday is red, my bass is red. Yes, I'm actually going to try to learn the bass (finally). This sort of arose from a discussion I had with Nick Chandler back at Hampshire before the semester ended. Nick is also a drummer and we got to talking about how fun it was to be in a band, and how we missed just jamming with people, playing covers, and being really silly. This prompted me to inform him that if I had the time and dedication that I'd try to pick up the bass over the summer (as we had one at home from a few years ago collecting dust). It's nothin' special, just a Squire P-Bass, but it's fun to mess around with.

I just spent a couple hours looking up tabs. My Name is Jonas by Weezer is really fun, and pretty easy, but what I really want to learn is El Scorcho. :P All the tabs I found though didn't really sound quite right, or maybe I'm playing them wrong. Museum of Idiots by They Might Be Giants is ludicrously fun, though hard.

I just had a thought: The Strokes. Fun music, good basslines. I should check that out. I'd really like to be able to take lessons and get into reading music again and actually playing. But I'm not really sure I have the time or money to find a teacher. And I don't know if I'm that serious about it. Maybe I can turn up some online manuals or books from BitTorrent. Much cheaper.

Commencement '84

This is something I've been putting together on in my spare time at work. This poster has some of the most beautiful artwork I've come across in the Hampshire media that I've seen. I absolutely adore this illustration, and I'm going to ask my boss if I can have one of the spare copies of the poster that we have lying around.

I had to scan the picture in four sections and merge it in photoshop because it was so large. I had a hard time matching it up in places, but it worked out in the end. I regret that I cannot share the full-size image with you, but blogger will have none of it.



In other news, Vikki and I hiked up Mt. Norwottuck yesterday afternoon. It was a short pleasant hike (read: I am wildly out of shape and felt like my chest was going to explode multiple times) and a gorgeous view from the top. Altogether a fantastic experience. We resolved to do more outdoors things on a daily basis.

Also, I'm almost finished with Storm of Swords, and it is fucking brilliant.

I have a webcomic now, apparently.

http://d3vr4nd0m.blogspot.com

Webcomic! Check it out.