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Purrsuit of Catness
February 1-28, 2013
TaborSpace
Hello Miss Sarah,
I know you are vegan. I've tried doing this diet twice before with little success. It is difficult to read product labels with my vision and each time I've tried I later discover I've been consuming dairy and eggs without even knowing. I would think I had not and find out I was mistaken. How long have you been vegan? How do you do it? How do you find things to eat at restaurants? Aren't dairy substitutes bad tasting? Isn't too much soy bad for us?
Thank you,
Sue
Unfortunately label-reading is pretty much a must, unless you insist only on fresh produces and grains and avoid all packaged items.
I have been vegan since 1994, so it is well over 18 years. The best approach that worked for me was to understand that vegan food is a distinct form of cuisine just like any other culinary culture. This way it would make no sense to limit yourself to substitute or imitations of meat-based diet (It is also a very expensive way to be vegan, since those items are often pre-packaged and overpriced).
When I am travelling I would look for a Chinese restaurant (remember these very useful Chinese words: 罗汉齊 luo2 han4 zhai1, 素什锦 su4 shi2 jin3, and 白饭 bai2 fan4.). You will have a pretty good chance of finding one in any small town even in the middle of nowhere. If this fails, try an Italian restaurant. Of course I am blessed to be in the Pacific Northwest: Portland, Eugene, Seattle, and Vancouver, B.C. are all considered some of the best vegan cities on earth. Even in a smaller town in Oregon or Washington, I can usually find something at Safeway or Fred Meyer (or QFC, Smith's, or Kroger, depending on where you are) if all else fails. As for fast food, Subway's veggie lovers sub can be made vegan. American-Mexican chains such as Taco Del Mar, Qdoba, and Chipotle [but avoid Taco Bell or Taco Time] can also make vegan meal if you tell them (mostly cheese and sourcream are the only problem, which can be easily eliminated from your order).
"Too much soy" is not bad, contrary to some misinformation, unless of course if you are allergic. Perhaps one thing you might want to watch out is whether the soybeans are genetically modified (GMO), in which case, it is a good idea to avoid it. Of course not all vegan food contains soybean products; there are wheat protein (called seitan) and, if you do not mind soy, tempeh (Indonesian fermented soybeans). But again, perhaps the most economic choice is to avoid them altogether and cook your own beans from scratch. Lentils and garbanzo beans are some of my favourites, inexpensive and fast-cooking.
Indeed many dairy substitutes are bad-tasting. The only product I recommend is Earth Balance, butter-like spread that can be helpful for baking. Even that can be substituted with olive oil, though, in most situations. Again, my advice is not to just simulate meat-and/or-dairy-based diet, and creatively explore what you can make, almost like an Iron Chef.
This year has been very special for me on many levels. Being the year that marked my 15 years in Oregon and 20 years in the Pacific Northwest (the first five years being in Seattle), I made a conscious decision at the start of this year that I would do "things differently" in 2012. In fact, as of January 2013, I will have lived in Portland longer than in any other places ever in my life. Many activities I had long turned them into my "annual traditions" -- which gave me a sense of comfort in an illusion of stability -- has been eliminated. Most notably, my long-time volunteering with the Art in the Pearl (has done every year from 2001 to 2011) was no more, and also my annual Camp Adams retreat was something I did not do in 2012.
Much of this decision was initially made because of the deep anxiety I had about my uncertain future. For too long, my life had been too focused on passing time and killing time -- a habit that I acquired when I was newly homeless back in 2003; being bored, lonely, and having no place to go, I learned how to waste hours at a time in order to tune myself out of the misery (which was something I was really in denial about). For me, a hope that next year would be there for me to do the same thing, was a great comfort -- and the more I age the shorter each year has come to be felt.
At the same time, I was seeking to be a more authentic person. Until last year, my life had been largely superficial. I was a loner with very few acquaintances and even fewer genuine friends. Although I had long been active in both religious and political activist communities, my social interaction was mostly prescribed, artificial, and did not develop into a real friendship. I had long defined myself by religious creeds and political ideologies, even though none of them really felt real. Since my early teen years, church played a fairly central role in my life (regardless of changing beliefs). This year has been perhaps the first time in which I had a largely secular life that was not necessarily connected to a church. Speaking of community, this was also the year I made a departure from the homeless/poverty community. For a long time I was deeply embedded in community organizations that interfaced the skid row, but this year I made a clear separation from this, mostly to overcome my own deep-seated poverty mentality and overall bad vibes inherent in such communities. The year 2012 also began as a continuation of my very active involvement in Occupy Portland -- and a significant part of my life this year had been dedicated to the Occupy movement even though personally I began developing doubt -- disappointment, disillusionment -- in Occupy as early as in summer. Nonetheless, Occupy became my community and the diversity of its people opened the door for me to meet people that I would not have otherwise met if not for Occupy Portland.
2012 was also a year I got to do lots of things I never was able to do in the past. During summer I went to both Timothy Lake near Mt. Hood for a week-long camping, and to Hagg Lake (by bicycle from Forest Grove). I also have enjoyed ecstatic dancing and sex-positive parties, both of which really put me in touch with my own sexuality.
The year, however, had its own downsides. I took a six-month-long hiatus from my artistic activities, which ultimately became a full year-long. Since the start of Occupy Portland, my graduate studies had also been disrupted -- and due to professor illness and Hurricane Sandy this year this was further exacerbated. Likewise, my life was losing balance when I was still deep entrenched in Occupy, with a now-false hope that it would have led to a real "revolution." In a way Occupy might have become my new substitute religion, a cult of a sort. Toward the end of this year, I had to come to terms with the inevitable fall of Occupy and the collapse of my illusion.
One of the greatest treasures of 2012 for me was that I made genuine, personal -- and sustained -- connections with several people, beyond the superficiality. Some of them I met this year, some were old acquaintances reconnected, and some were from Occupy Portland.
I am giving thanks to this year's blessings.
In late January this year, I was at a small ecstatic dance group, and afterward someone approached me and told me that happiness was finally on its way. In retrospect this is right on.
PAST THREE YEARS (2009-2011)...
I have written about this phenomenon in 2011. Now the University of California system, one of the most esteemed universities on earth, which includes UC Berkeley and UCLA, fell for this.
University of California Identity from University of California on Vimeo.
The reactions are very negative, to say the least.
Newser reports: "When the University of California unveiled its new logo, it probably wasn't expecting students and alumni reacting by Photoshopping it onto pictures of toilets about to be flushed. But that's exactly what happened."
And it unfortunately looks like a toilet with swirling water as it is being flushed.
What is interesting about this university rebranding trend of recent years is that (as amply illustrated here in the video) universities keep striking out symbols of learning (the book), intelligence (the rays of light), and tradition (1868, the founding year -- which is ancient by a West Coast standard) and coming up with the kind of designs only appropriate for mass merchandise (in the video, this is perhaps subconsciously demonstrated by a tote bag, flip-flops and a mug).
To make it worse, the colour scheme makes it all cheapened.
Perhaps in the brains of designers, the swirling "C" might have represented the moving circle that symbolizes a dynamic movement; but where does one see this moving, swirling, spinning "C" symbol? On a computer screen, it is a symbol of "loading please wait." In this age of broadband access and fast computing, such a symbol represents frustration.
University of California Identity from University of California on Vimeo.
The reactions are very negative, to say the least.
Newser reports: "When the University of California unveiled its new logo, it probably wasn't expecting students and alumni reacting by Photoshopping it onto pictures of toilets about to be flushed. But that's exactly what happened."
And it unfortunately looks like a toilet with swirling water as it is being flushed.
What is interesting about this university rebranding trend of recent years is that (as amply illustrated here in the video) universities keep striking out symbols of learning (the book), intelligence (the rays of light), and tradition (1868, the founding year -- which is ancient by a West Coast standard) and coming up with the kind of designs only appropriate for mass merchandise (in the video, this is perhaps subconsciously demonstrated by a tote bag, flip-flops and a mug).
To make it worse, the colour scheme makes it all cheapened.
Perhaps in the brains of designers, the swirling "C" might have represented the moving circle that symbolizes a dynamic movement; but where does one see this moving, swirling, spinning "C" symbol? On a computer screen, it is a symbol of "loading please wait." In this age of broadband access and fast computing, such a symbol represents frustration.
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