April 9th, 2008 12:09pm
Lon
A couple Sundays ago (March 30th) I started a little vegetarianism experiment. This was mostly inspired by a post by Mark on his blog, and also a follow-up conversation with Mark at lunch. This is the portion that triggered my experiment:
By fasting from particular foods, I become more conscious of the food I do eat. How much am I eating? Why am I eating? In the same way, I can limit my indulgence in TV and I start asking “Why am I watching this? How much have I watched?’
So, I’m a fan of meat. I have no moral objections to the wholesale slaughter of cows, chickens, etc. I think meat is a necessary part of a great meal. But I also think my diet could use a little more rounding (what? a bag of beef jerky isn’t a meal?) So, here is my experiment:
- Go vegetarian for 2 weeks (minimum)
- Dairy and fish are okay (I’m not that crazy)
That’s it. Pretty simple. So, I’m a week and a half into it and I thought I’d share some observations:
- I haven’t had a huge craving for meat, unless it’s thrown in my face (ads for a delicious looking cheeseburger, people eating tasty chicken wings at a restaurant)
- Meat-substitute products (Morningstar crumbles, burgers, etc) are surprisingly tasty, but more expensive than their meat-original counterparts
- One can be a vegetarian and have a lousy diet. Pizza, chips, cookies—lots of junk food falls under that vegetarian umbrella.
- I’ve been eating better not because I’ve gone vegetarian, but because I’ve been overall more conscious of the food I’m eating/preparing. This goes along with what Mark said in his post. The corollary: A diet that includes meat is quite healthy, given the correct balance and well-reasoned choices are maintained.
- All the good sandwiches need meat. Walk into a deli for a sandwich and your vegetarian choices are tuna salad or what amounts to a tossed salad between bread slices. I did the tuna a couple days, the other option doesn’t appeal to me.
- Eggs without bacon or sausage? Not the same.
- I’ve been forced to expand my culinary repertoire. When cooking, it’s so easy to fall into a rut of the same tried and true dishes. Most of my go-to meals, I’ve found, feature some type of meat. Some of those I’ve converted using the faux-meat choice (tacos with the Morningstar crumbles for instance) but generally I’ve been hitting the cookbooks and trying some new stuff. I hope to document some of those on the Great Taste Coaster blog.
That’s it for now. I’ll have more updates as the experiment continues.
Entry Filed under: General Rambling
February 29th, 2008 11:49am
Lon
Ran across this list of “The Twenty Science Fiction Novels that Will Change Your Life.” The list skews to the more recent spectrum of scifi, I think I’ve read about half of the list. Life changing may be pushing it too far, but of those books I’ve read that are on the list I’d agree that they are excellent choices. Certainly a good starting point for people who are looking for new scifi to read.
Entry Filed under: Books
February 20th, 2008 06:16pm
Lon
John Scalzi, over on his blog, wrote some advice to writers about managing their money. I think a good deal of that advice makes sense for non-writers as well, so I’m linking to it. You never know when you could pick up some nugget of wisdom that changes your life!
Entry Filed under: General Rambling
February 13th, 2008 02:46pm
Lon
One of these days I will actually blog more often than the current quarterly or semi-annual schedule. But in the meantime, check out a new group blog I’m involved in called… well, we still need a good name. Call it Random Food Blog for now. We’re going to post recipes, share adventures in dining, and various other food-related topics.
Oh, and if you can think of a catchy name for the blog let me know.
Entry Filed under: General Rambling, Site Updates
July 12th, 2007 12:10pm
Lon
I stumbled a across a website called Shelfari, which may be of interest to the book lovers among you. It’s site, similar to LibraryThing et al, where you can share which books you’ve read/bought with others. Of course it’s got all sorts of social Web2.0 goodness like tagging and building a friends list. One handy feature is that it can import data from Delicious Library (and others) so that you don’t have to build a collection from scratch using this service, if you’ve already started cataloging with other software.
You can check out my Shelfari profile here. I imported a few from Delicious Library and added some I could think of just off the top of my head. Once I get a new Mac with a built-in camera I want to go to town with DL, which can scan the barcodes and lookup using the camera, and get my collection logged and online.
Entry Filed under: Books
July 6th, 2007 12:22pm
Lon
The are few things more satisfying than the crack of bat on baseball. The sturdy plastic of the Whiffle (not your cheap imitation) variety bat & ball makes a surprisingly good substitute.
Entry Filed under: General Rambling
July 5th, 2007 09:36am
Lon
So now Pownce has entered the fray among services like Twitter and Jaiku. Yet another social medium to keep tabs and share with your friends. And then there’s more full-featured services like Facebook, Vox or Virb–I won’t mention the M-word. All have the pros and cons.
They’re social, so you want to keep up with your friends or feel like part of a community. But how do you pick just one? You may have friends partial to one or the other, how do you choose? You might end up trying to update with multiple sites. Which then leads to the overload mentioned in the title. Then you realize you should just stick to email.
This is just like competing IM networks. So I guess we need multi-protocol clients to tackle this problem, like Adium/Trillian/gaim/etc did for IM.
Entry Filed under: General Rambling
April 17th, 2007 01:54pm
Lon
What with Leopard being delayed until October and my trusty Powerbook turning 3-years-old this month, there doesn’t seem to be a good reason to delay my next Mac laptop purchase any more. So now I really need to decide between a Macbook, or a Macbook Pro. I’ve configured two roughly equivalent systems: The Macbook comes in at $1,643 and the Macbook Pro at $2,174. They share the following features:
- 120GB drive
- 2GB RAM
- 4MB L2 cache and 667MHz FSB
- USB, GigE, Wifi, Firewire, Bluetooth yada yada
So what does the extra $531 of the MBP give me?
- .16 extra GHz (2.16 vs 2.0)
- 2.1 inches of screen (15.4″ vs 13.3″)
- 272,000 extra pixels (1440×900 vs 1280×800 screen resolution)
- ATI Radeon X1600 3D Accel. (vs the MB’s integrated Intel gfx)
- Illuminated keyboard
- Firewire 800
- Expresscard/34 expansion
So, is that worth the $531? The biggies for me are the screen size and 3D accel. A 15″ Powerbook G4 is what I have currently so the MBP would be the same machine but with much more ass kicking. On the other hand, the 13″ MB is smaller and more portable. And even though the screen size is smaller, 1280 x 800 is the same screen resolution I’m used to with my current Powerbook.
So I’m torn. Spend the half-grand and get the uber-laptop, or try to go with something more portable and still a heck of a lot more machine than my G4? Help me decide! 
Entry Filed under: Mac Stuff
March 15th, 2007 10:49am
Lon
I can ignore the bad acting, incomprehensible accent and cheesy plots if it means I’ll see decent action–not to mention splits. So, what’s your favorite Van Damme movie? Consider a “best of the worst” type of choice. Show some love for Jean-Claude.
My choice would be Hard Target, with Bloodsport as a runner-up.
Entry Filed under: Movies, That's Entertainment
February 28th, 2007 09:30am
Lon
I’ve been following Ruby on Rails from the sidelines for a couple years now. Now I’m finally putting all that lurking into practice as I re-imagine my company’s primary business app in Rails (we’re currently using Siebel.) So far I’m having a lot of fun, learning new stuff and stretching the long-dormant programming brain-muscles.
Since I’m jumping into the Ruby and Rails world, I figured I should take advantage of some upcoming events. First I’ll be attending the Gotham Ruby Conference in NYC (at Google HQ) on April 21st, along with Nate and some of his cohorts. Then in May I’ll be jetting to Portland, OR for Railsconf, which should be a blast.
Now I just need Apple to make some announcements about Leopard or new laptops so I can upgrade my Powerbook to a Macbook (Pro) in time for these conferences. Not that the trusty Powerbook can’t cut the Rails mustard, but why not break in a new laptop with some really geeky travel?
Entry Filed under: Rails
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