Archive for September 2008
Deja……vu? Something similar, yes.
I adopted a dog. She’s a five year old pitbull, and she’s absolutely adorable.
And that’s what they’re counting on.
I walked into the grocery store to buy her food, and I about went insane. Does 97% fat-free matter? What is BHA? Those were just a few of my many, many….many questions. So, where did I go for my research? The internet, obviously!
The internet is filled with really great info, but how do you know what is actually the good stuff and what isn’t. One website says that dog food is bad. Another says dog food is good. One says my dog can eat rice, another says she can’t. And do you know what it came to?
Whether or not the sponsors were related to the dog food industry. Obviously. Even the website of a vet said that dog food was good, and not even what is considered to be a “good” brand. A brand that had the perservative BHA (apparently, along with everything else now, it causes cancer)! It’s frustrating to be unable to trust the media. Especially when it seems like such a simple, yet important, piece of information to obtain.
And in case you are wondering, I bought Jennie O lean, ground turkey to cook in the morning for her.
“He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling.”
Currently, I am reading Lord of the Flies by William Golding, and it’s actually stirred up a bit of frustration for me. I read it once, in high school, along with Romeo & Juliet, How to Kill a Mockingbird, and Animal Farm, among others, and along with the others, I was unable to comprehend what the real messages of such literature are. I was bored in high school with the ridiculousness of reading books that seemed to be spewing out thoughts that I could never appreciate, and I was letting it all fly right over my head.
Words can be so strong, and so powerful, but if they’re given to the wrong audience, they are misinterpreted and unappreciated. At the age of 15, I was completely unequipped to understand the feelings of confusion and loneliness that filled Holden Caulfield, and definitely too young to understand how a pig named Napoleon was a metaphor for Joseph Stalin, or even what communism was.
My point is, I guess, that just like trying to build a house without the foundation, it is useless to put such brilliant pieces of work infront of people who don’t have enough information or experience to appreciate them fully.
“Are you talking to me?”
As a waitress, I can say, without thought, that bluetooth has become one of the most annoying contraptions ever created. I walk over to a table, smiling, and politely (even though I’ve already burned myself with hot water, had a small child rip open sugar packets and throw them on the floor, and have been shouted at by someone because they ordered something, and it wasn’t what they expected, amid other things) ask, “Hi, can I get you something to drink?” in which the response is one finger in the air implying that their time is much more important than mine. However, I know that people with cell phones are like this, and had I been able to SEE the phone, I would not have wasted my time going over there in the first place. Fighting the urge to grab that thing in her ear, throw it on the ground and jump up and down on it, I smile and walk away.
After about 5 minutes, this SAME lady approaches me and says (very rudely, I might add), “This is the worst service ever! Where is my waitress?!” Acting as though she had no idea that it was me (which, is a debate amongst servers. Do they really just not care enough to remember whether their server is the tall, black guy, or the short, white girl?). Once again, I smile, replying, “I’m sorry, how can I help you?” While in my head, I’m thinking, ‘Your waitress is running around helping people that don’t put their fingers in her face, that don’t appear to be talking to themselves, and make it quite known what they want, when they want it. Take that damn thing out of your ear!’ And I proceed to take her order.
Once she orders, I feel relieved, and never again, not once, do I go back over to her table…but that’s okay, she doesn’t notice. She is too busy chatting about something really, really important (I’m sure) on her bluetooth.
“If your dog tasted like pork, would you eat her?”
That quote came to me thanks to PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).
I am a vegetarian, and everytime I go out to eat with friends (all of which are ravenous meat eaters), I have to explain to them why it is that I don’t eat cute little animals. Usually, after arguing for a few minutes, one of them would say, “yeah, I feel guilty, but I just LOVE to eat meat.” At this comment, I usually respond with, “the only difference between pigs and dogs are the ways in which we treat them,” which also came to me through PETA. A few more tidbits of information I thought I would throw at you:
-”Pigs outperform 3-year-old human children on cognition tests and are smarter than any domestic animal, and animal experts consider them more trainable than cats or dogs.” (goveg.com)
-”Pigs are sociable. They like to cuddle and snuggle up, nose to nose, with one another as they sleep. ” (goveg.com)
-”As piglets, they are taken away from their mothers when they are less than 1 month old; their tails are cut off, some of their teeth are cut off, and the males have their testicles ripped out of their scrotums (castration), all without any pain relief. They spend their entire lives in overcrowded pens on a tiny slab of filthy concrete.” (PETA.org)
These, for me, are just a few reasons why I opt not to eat meat. Now, I realize that there are people out there who think PETA is a joke. They bash PETA and vegetarians because of their compassion for animals. They think that we’re all mal-nutritioned tree huggers. Well, I suppose I’d rather be a mal-nutritioned tree hugger than a meat-eater. And for those people that respond to facts about high blood pressure, obesity, and other health issues related to eating meat by saying, “well, people have been eating meat for years, and they’re doing okay,” I say this: I have been a vegetarian for years, and I’m doing okay, too…without having to murder defenseless animals.
Still craving that hamburger? Next time you take a look at little Fido, picture him skinless, castrated, and/or caged up. Does it make you uncomfortable? Now, replace him with an animal that’s been proven to be just as cuddly as Fido, and more intelligent than your 3 year old neice, nephew, brother, or sister. Now, look in the mirror.
