Calla's Seventy-Forth Post

Now this is another important idea. It is about BDSM and animal welfare (and probably also animal rights since this is Calla typing.) Tabby made up the idea and I am not trying to take credit. This is just a post about it in case anyone wants to help because we don't really have the means to implement this, but you might no someone who does. Or maybe you work for PETA and want to add a campaign of this. Tabby says he doesn't want it to be a campaign and he wants it to be a whole nonprofit organization. But honestly, I have no desire to really start my own nonprofit, and I don't think Tabby will ever be motivated enough to try. SO, therefore, it follows, that if PETA wants to steal the idea only for a campaign, well, if that's the case, I say go for it. It is highly creative.

SOOOOO. Here is what it is called. It is called Consensual Cages. The concept is that only those who want to be in cages, such as submissives or masochists or what not, should be in them. We do not shove piggies, and chickies, and calve-ies in cages! So, the deal is as follows (there are two ideas to follow): The one is a basic outreach/activism/leafleting thingy. You gotta get a cage and put hot people in bondage in those cages. You do this in crowded public places to get people's attention. Then you just hand out lit explaining how evil factory farming is. It is really quite simple and straight forward. And it sounds like something PETA would do.

Oh and also, Lit. wouldn't be limited to farm animals. This is a good idea to promote adopting companion animals because kitties and puppies shouldn't live their lives in cages and also puppy mill mommies live their miserable little precious lives like dairy cow mommies. :( :( :( OH THE WORLD IS EVIL EVIL EEEEVIIIIL I SAY!

The other idea is for a black-tie and/or Gala event. It is like a regular fancy-shmancy party except you have all these submissives serving everyone all night. They have like trays strapped to their mouths and maybe on their backs and stuff. They have to crawl around on all fours all nights serving people. You can also have people serving as physical human coat racks for when people come in. So because of that, you might wanna maybe do it in winter or fall. You can also have people in cages as decorations. There could be other more sexual things too as long as you read the laws in whatever state you are in about sex and what not. Obviously there would be no physical sexual intercourse. However, there could conceivably be floggings if someone messes up a drink order or whatever. Use your imagination. This is a good idea. Tabby is smart.

Consensual Cages. You heard it here first and don't you forget it!

Love,
Calla and the Kitties (who are happy they do not live in cages!!)

Calla's Seventy-First Post

I haven't written a post in a super long time but then Jamie made a post and it was rambly and it had a picture so it was similar enough to my own craziness to inspire me to write a new post. Know what's dumb? hypocrisy. I am starting a series of visual art pieces entitled "artistic critiques of hypocrisy." I'm gonna scan them all into a computer and make another Lulu book like I did for my poetry book. http://www.lulu.com/content/1514999 There's a link to it. I made a facebook group when I made it called "Calla Self published a book, you should buy it." I think that's how it was. With the typo and all. . . But all these people joined and none of them bought it. Probably because not so many people like poetry.

I can't figure out how to comment on or follow Jamie's blog. http://jamieoksenhorn.blogspot.com/ There's a link in case you were curious.

Oh, so back to the books: I will post the cover of Poems here as a guest cat cause I drew a cat on it. I doodled it in a boring class one time during my Junior year and then drew it big and made aliens too for a cover. You will see. It has a cute kitty.

I cannot tell you about the hypocrisy project as you are expected to buy my book when it is self-published. But I can just tell you this: there will probably be a lot about animal abuse. (Like you didn't know that already.)

I went to Arizona and it was hot.

That's all for now. This is short because it is a "getting back in the swing of the thing" post. I wrote "swing of the thing" instead of "swing of things" so that the rhyme would be more precise.

GUEST CAT VII This is a visual approximation of the Fuff cause I didn't have Mama yet. . . otherwise it would be a visual approximation of both of them. I already explained it above.

also this is blurry if you make it bigger cause I had to rip it off of Lulu cause I can't find it on my computer and will have to re-scan it in and do a "do-over" guest cat.

Love,
Calla and her kitties

Pictures3

HAPPY EASTER
So, today it is Easter. I did not go to Church today because I went for 2 1/2 hours last night for the Great Easter Vigil and it was so exciting when everyone rang bells when Jesus rose! It was like a big party. I danced in my pew. I was also there for over two hours on Good Friday and Maundy Thursday. So all and all I was there like 7 hours for Easter Church. I didn't want to have to deal with an overcrowded church of people who only go to church on Holidays. It seemed unnecessary. So, here are some pictures about Easter.

I made Easter cookies on Maundy Thursday after Church. I made A LOT. Like 30 or something.

They are all trapped inside!?

:( [this picture is sideways. tilt your head]

This is what I got Tabby. It is two cookies. One like a bunny and one like an egg and they are both pink. A crispy cat mint coconut candy bar. It is vegan but still thick like how one thinks candy bars should be (like snickers, twix, three muskateers, etc.) The company makes two other flavors. A Luna Bar that is peppermint. A little baby dark chocolate bunny. And eggs filled with vegan gummy bears and vegan hard candies that are pomegranate flavored. And ALSO A STUFFED LAMBY. You should buy your stuffed animals from this company called stuffington because it is still in the United States. But it is in Phoenix. So, it might be filled with non-union undocumented workers who are still abused. . .

This is Tabby with Resurrection. (That is the lamby's name.)

This is what Tabby got me. That is a lamby named Lamb of God.

In the basket are lots and lots of dark chocolate eggs and ONE GIANT dark chocolate egg. He told me they are fair trade. Then there is a cookie shaped like a butterfly and a cookie shaped like a turtle. "AN EASTER TURTLE!?" I said. And there is mini brownies. And super cute salt and pepper shakers who love each other. This man on Union Square sells them and I always want them cause I'm obsessed with cute kitchen stuff. See, they are hugging.

It turned out the lambys are sisters! They were very happy to be reunited because they are sad they were pulled away from their mommy at such a young age.

MAMA IS THE SAME SIZE AS THE LAMBS!! She is so little! AHHH SOOO CUTE.

This is Fuffers smelling flowers that ARE GROWING OUT OF A BUNNY! Tabby's mom gave them to us for Easter. She gave them to us last Sunday though. The bunny's name is Bun-Bun No Nose because she has no nose! The flowers are named Yellow Flowers.

Calla's Sixty-Seventh Post

CHECK OUT John Allison's March 19th comic. (As in the one from today.) scarygoround.com. I kid you NOT, this is him at his pinnacle. Oh Shelley Winters! What would I do without you in my life!? Tabby says i AM Shelley Winters. Because I act like her and sort of look like her because of my green eyes, and even though my hair is boring brown (everyone knows red is the best hair color in the world, followed by black or dark dark brown, then boring brown and last is blond because blond hair is ugly.) it actually has a redish tint in the summer. When I was in England, it was really red. Here: Here is the picture of me looking most like Shelley Winters. Alright. So it turns out this isn't the best picture of me because I look greasy and what not. BUT when we got these pictures (cause Tabby's parents had taken them) we were both like "OMGOODNESS I look like Shelley Winters." It has to do with the vacant stare in my eyes. I have an idea. I will put a cute picture of me at the end of the post so that you know I am not ugly. And then you can imagine the vacant stare with the more reddish hair on the cute picture and perhaps you will think it is more like Shelley since she is oh-so-super cute.

SO, you should look at that comic strip of today. It is pretty much to die for FUNNY. No, for real, it made me laugh three times!!! AHHHH! I love it.

On an unrelated note, I have some pretty horrible news to announce. I am more than half-way done with Spring Break. . . and far less than half way down with my assignments I have to do over Spring Break. Pretty much, I think that this means I am no longer allowed to do what we call, SLEEP. Nope. Pretty sure it will be off limits from here on out until like Next Wed. Can we do it? No, of course not; that's like a week. But, I'll probably have to limit it.

So, HAIR. YES HAIR. AHHH Greatness and a half for positive! I tried to see Hair this summer in Shakespeare in the Park. And it got rained out. Yes, one of the only three performances, which got rained out, was the one where I waited in life for hours and got all super excited and then had to be so upset that I'm pretty sure I cried. And with good reason because this show was so unbelievably intense that it actually moved from FREE Central Park Performances to $100 + per seat Broadway. It is currently in previews. I had to pay $60 for a ticket. (No i didn't. Tabby's parents paid for it because they don't know what to do with their money besides spoil myself and Tabby and they felt bad I hadn't gotten to see it this past summer.) And man oh man oh man oh man! If I HAD paid the $60 myself, it would've been MORE THAN well worth it!!!!! This was quite possibly the second best show I've ever seen (we all know #1 in my heart is Cry-Baby!!). It made me cry. Not just tear up, CRY. It was that well down. Seriously, when Claude died, I had to hold back, keep myself from losing it, because the acting, singing, and atmosphere were so right on I felt as close to him as Berger or Sheila. I kid you not, it was like losing my best friend. MAN CAN THEY SING. Sometimes you go to shows and you go, well, I could do that. Why am I supposed to be impressed? (maybe most people don't ever say "I could do that," but I had like 5 years of high school, was President of my high school choir, did musicals growing up, etc. etc.) But this musical made me say "OH MAN! I wish I could afford voice lessons again, because I would probably give almost anything to be able to sing like that." And some shows or movies about hippies pretty much make you say "wow, what a bunch of well-intentioned yet misguided youth who didn't really accomplish much of anything, huh?" Not this performance of Hair. I felt like they could enact social change, and I felt like that's what they wanted more than anything else. When Claude said that all he wanted to do was be invisible and perform miracles - well, I, for one, believed him. And I felt like their protests wouldn't be in vain but would actually catch the government's attention. And I felt like their free love was well placed within their social movement, not like their social movement was a decent excuse to practice free love. And then the ending. Well, it was the best ending to a musical EVER. PEOPLE GOT TO GO ON STAGE AND SING AND DANCE. I did not get to, because I was in the Mezzanine. But we had like a sing-a-long after the curtain call. It was fairly brilliant because it made the whole hippie-spirit thing real and not just contrived for a two hour show. Oh it was so amazingly great. I have to go see it again. I need $$$ but I also really need to see it again. With the speed at which Cry-Baby closed, I can't trust this to stay around forever. Granted it is doing better than Cry-Baby, but with the economy in its current state, who can afford Broadway tickets? Godspell (for which I was so psyched!) didn't even materialize. It was announced, and then it just fell through because no one had $$$$. But I guess we only need one hippie musical with a fairly Christian Message at a time on Broadway, right? They'd probably just compete for an audience and both close even sooner.

Alright, so that was my obsessive musical freak rant. We should do a Galactica rant. The people who watch that show are moronic. And I TOLD YOU that Daniel was a plot device to clear up the missing #7 and to show Cavil's personality. Well, in the podcast for the last episode RDM confirmed that all these stupid people babbling about "Starbuck is Daniel's son" are just that, stupid people. Ron Moore was all "I didn't realize Daniel would develop such a following. I shouldn't have put it in there. It was to demonstrate the Cain and Able - like story b/w Cavil and Daniel and nothing more, etc. etc." Well no Ron Moore, you were smart to put it in because I woulda bitched up a storm if that series ended with a MISSING number 7. And all these other people don't have cognitive reasoning or critical thinking skills. Ellen SAYS "its not like D'Anna is permanently disabled, not like what happened to Daniel." Point blank, that should've been enough for fans to understand that Daniel was not COMING BACK. PERMENANTLY DEAD. Furthermore, with opera-house mysteries, and head characters, and the significance of Hera, and "dying" leader that is still not yet dead. . . WHY would they introduce some random character mystery at THE END of the series. . . unless it was to clean up these other secrets. But Galactica is too smart to be forced to utilize deus ex machina devices. Seriously, way too intelligent a show for that.

Alright, there was a mini-galactica rant. I don't think I'll rant too much before the finale ends since I've only seen one of three hours of it. BUT I do want to tell you that I'm especially interested in Baltar. I am wondering if he is similar to Starbuck. Everyone has always questioned his ability to survive the nuclear blast on Caprica seen in the mini-series and theme song with barely a scratch on him. He may yet be a lord of Kobol. Perhaps THE Jealous lord? I hope they make Starbuck's answer conclusive. And I'm also hoping the answer is that she is Aurora because that is what I've been saying from the beginning. But either way, I hope it's not left ambiguous, just because I don't want to deal with fans freaking out about it and continuing to speculate unreasonable theories. (Like SHE'S THE SON OF DANIEL. For Frak's sake, whoever started circulating that rumor shouldn't even be allowed to watch the series finale. It should be their punishment for not understanding how to properly make use of one's reasoning center.)

Alright, more rants? Maybe more rants. Maybe not because I should actually get working on some homework. BOOOO


Alright, here is a better picture of myself. (Though many of you may disagree with that statement. I LIKE my silly face.) It was taken in honor of THOSE BOOTS. I love those boots. I bought them LAST Feb. as in February 2008 not 2009 and thought they were the greatest thing since sliced bread. They are getting sort of beat up now. :( That makes me sad. UM, they are the brand Novacas (as in no vacas as in no cows as in NOT abusive to animals). Which is verifiably the best brand of shoes ever. I'm not lying and it is not up for debates. I love them. If I was super rich, besides getting voice lessons, I would buy like 17 pairs of Novacas shoes/boots/sandals.

Here's your inanimate animal friend for the day. He is a foxy-woxy cutesy-wootsy animal cracker! I LOVE his bushy tail!!! (I guess I do eat animals!!!! OH NO!)


Love, Calla and Her Kitties.

P.S. Fuffers went to the vet today, and he has lost 2 oz since last year! I will take whatever small victories I can from fatso over here! I love him. He is so heavy (17 lbs 15 oz) that Tabby and I must take turns carrying his carrier and we have to switch like every other second. I LOVE THAT FUFF. The vet said he needs his teeth clean. I'm scared he's gonna die under anesthesia :( I will probably never recover if that is the case.

Calla's Sixty-Sixth Post

Remember when it was like 1996 and I was ten and everyone and their mother was on AOL chatting it up in chatrooms and IMing and forwarding crap e-mails, half of which asked you to fill out a survey about yourself? Well, pretty much with the expansion of facebook into a full fledged stalking device, the survey things are all over the place again. They're even sillier now though because we have such handy-dandy high-tech-ness; so we are able to "put your ipod on shuffle and answer these questions with the name of the songs that play." Well, I only have an ipod shuffle (from the first generation like 4 years ago), so one step is done FOR me. Anyway, it's pretty ridiculous and humerous that we all act like we are 10-14 yrs of age again. This is not to pretend like I am not guilty of it myself. In fact, I rather enjoy filling out the surveys. Everyone loves to be egotistical now and again. (some more than others.) I enjoy wasting my time talking about myself so much (that I created this blog! hahaha) that when I discovered the take a survey application thingy-ma-bob, I answered a whole lot of questions. These are the answers to them.

What is your favourite word?	Edit | X
What a stupid question. alright I'm done. Tabby said, "that's not a stupid question." I said, "it seems dumb."

What makes you cry?	Edit | X
animal abuse

What makes you laugh?	Edit | X
GHOST BANDS!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA. Seriously, you have no idea!

If you won the lottery, how would you spend your millions?	Edit | X
Donating to animal welfare groups. Buying an apartment or house with outdoor space so I could adopt chickens.

If you could travel back in time, what mistake(s) would you want to correct?	Edit | X
Gone vegan in eighth grade the first time I tried instead of putting it off for five more years. For how much veal am I personally responsible?

Do you believe that the cup is half empty or half full?	Edit | X
Either way, I'm gonna drink it

What do you do for fun?	Edit | X
Play with my cats. haha. No, it's true. I am a crazy cat lady.

Are you an outdoor or an indoor person	Edit | X
Both

If you had only six months to live, what would you do first?	Edit | X
Quit school. LOL

Where do you see yourself in five years?	Edit | X
Graduated, still living here, trying to convince Tabby it's time to adopt children, hopefully having an additional rescued pet, working for an animal rights group.

Do you own any pets, and if so what do you have?	Edit | X
YES YES YES. I have a fuffers baby kitty meow love who used to be my grandpa's, and I have a little tiny Mama Kitty facey who used to be my mom''s. (hand-me-downs)

Who do you admire most?	Edit | X
Gene Baur and Aaron Weiss. They have to share the "most." And my sis is up there too!

Do you have any tattoos, and if so what and where?	Edit | X
no

When do you plan on getting married?	Edit | X
Soon-ish but whenever.

Romance or Kinky?	Edit | X
Depends on the moment

How do you feel?	Edit | X
stupid for answering so many questions. Man, am I addicted to myself. Can we say, "narcisistic." (Can we spell "narcistic?" No.)

What size shoes do you wear?	Edit | X
7

Water or 100% Juice?	Edit | X
Water. Juice is too sugary

Would you rather be hot or cold?	Edit | X
HOT

Would you rather lose an arm or a leg?	Edit | X
How about neither? But I guess an arm since it'd be easier to get around. Can I choose the arm? Can it be the left arm?

Favorite Place to Eat?	Edit | X
hmmm. Baby Cakes. lol, does a bakery count? If not, Caravan of Dreams, but its oh so expensive.

Opera, Musical, Concert, Play, Performance, or Other?	Edit | X
MUSICAL. Oh i love it!

If you had to pick one car, which would it be?	Edit | X
EWWW. Public transportation or a bike!

Your favorite Disney Films?	Edit | X
Lion King or Pirates or Wall-E. (I just admitted to liking Disney. Someone's gonna use that against me later, I'm sure.)

Why did the chicken cross the road?	Edit | X
To escape the evil bastards trying to cut off her beak w/o anesthesia and shove her in an 18 inch cage with ten other abused lovies:(

What was your last thought?	Edit | X
"It's strange how I just said I hate the taste of milk and then said I would drink soy milk and cookies". . . But notice it is CHOCOLATE soy milk. Chocolate = yum.

Juice and crackers or milk and cookies?	Edit | X
YUM. LOL *I just love food.* Make it a chocolate soy milk and I'll eat both. . . one right after the other!!

Favorite fruit?	Edit | X
avocado. But I don't eat them much 'cause they're shipped all the way from Mexico. :(

Are you a cat or a dog person?	Edit | X
ANIMAL PERSON. But I have cats 'cause they were hand-me-downs. I want a doggyfriend so bad too though!

Would you rather be blind or deaf?	Edit | X
BLIND no doubt. (And then I would get a puppy friend to lead me around everywhere hehehe)

Define yourself in 3 words...	Edit | X
Stubborn, Christian, VEGAN

Do you eat cold cereal at night?	Edit | X
When I am craving soy milk. I hate the taste of all milks but sometimes crave it anyway. This was true of me during vegetarian days too. I would eat cereal if I craved mi

What is your favorite TV show?	Edit | X
Battlestar Galactica. Followed by: my so-called-life, Wonderfalls, and Mad Men

Kill the spider or let it out?	Edit | X
LET IT OUT. Why are people so senselessly cruel?

Do you shower every single day?	Edit | X
Yes.

Walking past a beggar, spare change or ignore?	Edit | X
Spare change for positive. I feel guilty if I don't have any.

Where do you want to travel next?	Edit | X
Watkins Glen, NY to visit the babies at Farm Sanctuary

What would you do if Michael Jackson asked you out	Edit | X
Say, "sorry I am in a serious and monogamous relationship."

What is your favorite food?	Edit | X
Cake. haha. MMM. I made delicious chocolate pudding cake the other day and Tabby and I ate it all in like 3 days. hmmm.

Do you read harry potter books?	Edit | X
Nope

If you could have one super human power what would you choose?	Edit | X
Mind manipulation. None of ya'll would think animals were food anymore!!

Have you had a beer in the last week?	Edit | X
I don't like it.

Vitamin Water or Gatorade?	Edit | X
How about pure H2O. Vitamin Water is like drinking a soda and taking a vitamin. Not so very good for you.

Flip flops or sandles?	Edit | X
Both.

What do you do on fridays?	Edit | X
Watch BATTLESTAR GALACTICA twice in a row and freak the frak out about how great it is!! Alas, the series finale is this Friday, and then I will be at a loss.

Do you like bananas?	Edit | X
Yes, but feel guilty buying them 'cause there's no way to get them local

They went in backwards order. Well, that was just a quick post. It's over now.

P.S. I just noticed that the person who wrote this is not from the U.S. because of the word "favourite"

Love, Calla and her kitties.

P.S. that first P.S. doesn't really count as a "post" script because I had not signed my name yet.


This is a puppy friend from Rye Playland. I told my friend Angel I wanted a bunny, and he couldn't find any, but said this dog kinda had bunny ears. Which is maybe a little bit tiny bit true.

Calla's Sixty-First Post

Hi. It's Calla. (As it ALMOST always is.) Tabby is writing a blog post. I'm going to write one also! But I don't think I have any kitty cat pictures. This is bad news bears. I will make do somehow. He is writing in his ethical journal, which he must keep for school. He is always confused about what to write in it. So, I am always trying to help him. He seems to think my ideas are always silly-face!!

For example, about a week and a day ago, (no, exactly a week and a day ago.) we ate at Sacred Chow in the West Village near Washington Square Park with Tabby's parents after Church. Now, my food (vegan blueberry French Toast, which turned out to be more like a huge chunk of blueberry bread that happened to be warm and a little bit fried.) came out super-de-duperdy LATE. And the waitress said, "I'm sorry. This is way too late. I'm going to take it off the bill." Now, we came home and Tabby was all "Ahh, I've only written two ethical journal entries so far and I'm supposed to've written 4!" (btw, he is on his third as of present.) So, as I am an extremely helpful girlfriend/fiancé/life-partner/whatever-I-am-considered-after-living-with-him-for-over-two-years, and I am also oh-so-good at noticing how almost every action we make involves an ethical decision, I said "Oh, write about how that waitress took my food off the bill." He thought this was dumb, and not an ethical decision. But it was. That was not her food. It belonged to the restaurant. By taking it off the bill, she essentially stole it. However, by making a customer wait an exorbitant amount a time for her food, the waitress was ethically inclined to right this wrong. She chose to do so by offering me a free meal. . . that, in reality, wasn't hers to offer. This is an ethical decision. Tabby thought it was dumb. So here was a list of other things about which I told him to write. (None of which he did.)

1. Buying things in sweatshops - to support a poor family's livelihood, or to boycott the abuse to which family members are subjected?

2. Eating at restaurants that serve meat - to order vegan food, thus showing the manager there is a market for it, or to spend your money supporting restaurants that do not spend money to support cruel practices?

3. A related note: Tom's of Maine was bought by Colgate and The Body Shop by L'Oreal: Do you buy from them since they've signed pledges to continue their ethical practices? Are you indirectly supporting animal testing, or are you showing the parent companies that cruelty free products sell better than that other crap they produce?

4. Donating to cancer/aids research - obviously these products are tested on animals. Many people would argue it is ethical to do so. They value the lives of humans above the lives of animals. However, with documented cases of the gov. testing phase 1 and phase 2 drugs on FOSTER CHILDREN, one cannot be sure that there money is only going to animal tests (which I oppose anyway.)

5. Organic vs. local? - Organic local food is ideal, but when you can buy local food that is not grown organically, or food shipped from across the country or globe that is, which do you choose?

6. When you give money to church or a homeless outreach, or nearly any nonprofit that is not associated with animal welfare, that money is probably going to some items (food and cleaning supplies for SURE) that are in opposition to your own morals.

7. Is it better to buy non-vegan food from a company that is dedicated to promoting healthful and sustainable diets, or vegan food from a company that processes all sorts of crap, but happens to have made something that is vegan? Probably it is best to avoid BOTH of these situations, honestly. [This was not a suggestion I gave to Tabby. I just thought of it now. Well, no, I had a conversation with Tabby about it one time in a grocery store, but re-thought about it now.]

Um, I don't know if I suggested other things. Maybe I did. It was over a week ago, so I don't remember. But regardless, he did not like any of my suggestions. HOWEVER, now he is writing about vegetarianism and Christianity, specifically is it pertains to Bartian theology. So clearly, he cannot escape the animal rights activism! :) I love what I created in him. hehehe. He had said how he didn't want all his posts to be about animal welfare, but I think they will be. Once you are this deep into something, you cannot pretend like it does not consume all of your moral opinions. I don't think there is anything wrong with that. I know there are other pressing issues, such as racism, homophobia, sexism, genocides, etc. And I do not think people should ignore these. And I, myself, stand up against these and often offer financial support to groups attempting to rectify these wrongs. However, my heart, and thus my time, is spent on animals. When a society has gotten to a point where sentient beings are treated as commodities, stripped of basic care, subject to hostile abuse simply because they are less evolved. . . Well, that attitude and culture taints the rest of society's assumptions and values. It is not OK to say "oh it's only a horse, who cares if it is abused?" That is one of GOD'S CREATURES. One should not treat it as though it were an OBJECT of PLEASURE created for MANKIND. Um, no. And to view the world through such a lens is DANGEROUS and TROUBLE (with a capital T that rhymes with P that stands for Pool. haha. No. The Music Man has nothing to do with this. . . at all. But it's pretty good, right?)

Alright, so that was one of my animal rants for the week. It is almost like I have a quota for those things, huh? And it's ridiculous, because I'm pretty sure they are kind of repetitive.

BUT, for lent I decided I need to do something for the animals EVERY DAY. Seeing as I should be doing more than whining about injustice every day anyway, I'm hoping this conviction sticks long past Lent. Well, I didn't think of this until Saturday night, unfortunately. And so I missed two days! But Wed. I went to a Farm Sanctuary Activist Meeting. Saturday I protested Foi Gras again at two different restaurants. And one of them is looking good. The other guy (Fork and Knife) is pretty much going out of business at this point, [Yet another ethical decision.] which is pretty sad, but also his own fault. Sign the pledge, and the protests will stop, you'll get more customers, less ducks will suffer. Everyone wins. Sunday I delivered literature about Farm Sanctuary to S'Nice. BUT I also left some at my church. Now, I am a fairly anti-social human being, as we have discussed in prior posts. So, though I have been attending St. Luke's for approximately an ENTIRE YEAR, I don't talk to anyone and I don't get involved. Well, I said in the morning, to Tabby I said, "Do you think I can leave some of these at Church?" And he said "I don't know." And then we got to church and all that was out on the table and bulletin board were church related items. So I thought, no. No point in asking. It will just be embarrassing. Well, I noticed in the announcements they had started a new "community' bulletin board that posted items unrelated to church in which people could get involved. And I had to get courage to ask about leaving some Farm Sanctuary lit. So, as a side note, I've been feeling so super guilty for not doing more in the realm of animal rights lately. God has given me this passion. It has been indwelt since I was four. . . or perhaps earlier. But four, the age I went vegetarian without the prompting of an adult or a group of peers, is a clear indication of such passion at work. My 6th grade persuasive essay against animal testing is another. Clearly, this is something that has been with me since a young age. God has also BLESSED me with both creativity and intellect. I have both the brains and the visionary-drive to really amount to something. Unfortunately, I was also given an unnatural anti-social tendency and an uncanny ability to get embarrassed at the drop of a hat! So, these character-flaws (if flaws are what they are) prevent me from using my gifts to their fullest. And lately, that has been plaguing at my soul. OK, well, I had to get courage. And this was a rather distracting revelation. I thought about what I would say all service. I was pretty glad Mother Mary was not giving the sermon, 'cause I had been weird and friended her on Facebook. I was already embarrassed about that fact, and didn't want to draw attention to myself by asking her strange questions. So, Mother Caroline was giving the sermon, and I, for some reason, am less comfortable around her than around Mary or Hugh, so it was still going to be strange asking her about the Farm Sanctuary Lit. Well, in her sermon, she briefly mentioned how saints and Christ and such were friends of the animals. Biblically speaking, a friend of the animals is someone who is Godly. So, I figured that was good. Even though it wasn't the POINT of the sermon, I figured she couldn't possibly say "no" after mentioning that fact. So, after service, I held up the line to leave to ask her about the Farm Sanctuary Lit. And she said, "Well, we can't post every worthy cause, but I don't see why we can't pin one up and leave a few." YAY! So, I only gave her a few. Like 7 probably or 8. I didn't want to overwhelm her or seem unappreciative or pushy. But, if she is pinning on up, even if the Lit. disappears, people will see the flyer and can still visit the website. So, I did that for the animals. And it was hard and SO EMBARRASSING. But I did it. And, unfortunately, it did not relieve me and make me feel like it would be easy to interact with people if it was for the animals. I think, instead, this will be a life-long struggle because of my weirdness. Like Moses, thinking he can't talk in front of people.

So, anyway, today I wrote Obama for the animals. I thanked him for cutting subsidies to factory farms, and encouraged him to give subsidies to farms with "humane" and environmentally friendly practices. I suggested he look at the farms certified by the nonprofit Humane Farm Animal Care. (I don't think any animal should be slaughtered, but raising animals humanely BEFORE you brutally, and with no regard for their feelings, take their lives away is a step in the proper direction.) So, if you like eating carcass, but are feeling either guilty or disgusted about the way that carcass was treated when s/he was a living, breathing being, check out this website. www.certifiedhumane.com/

This is now going to be unrelated to animal rights, at least this little part: I HAD A SNOW DAY TODAY! It is the only one I had during my undergraduate career. And snow days are a BEAUTIFUL thing. It is so so so so so so cold and SNOWY outside. I had to go out to buy my kitty cats food. But instead of going to the pet food store to which I like to go because it is a small business, I went to whole foods because it was closer. If I have to support a Big Box store, I guess Whole Foods is the way to go, right? But other than that trip, I have been INSIDE. I drank co-co, and it was yummy. I pretty much ENTIRELY wasted the day. Like it is nearly 11:00 p.m. and I didn't do anything productive. This is probably bad. But oh well.

SO, my sister has been a vegetarian since, like, I dunno, 2 months? It is good good good of her. She is having trouble giving up eggs, so I told her about the humanley raised people. And, actually, I don't know, for sure, what would be wrong with eating eggs from chickens humanley raised? Perhaps something to do with male chicks that hatch? I don't know if the nonprofit looks at that. I think I'll write to them asking about male chicks on layer-hen farms and veal calves on dairy-farms. Yeah, I have to go do that. But it was wonderful chatting with you. BYE.

Love,
Calla and her kitties. (NO PICTURE!?) I will find a picture of SOMETHING to put here. . . hmmm. . .



This is a GORGEOUS butterfly friend from the Ren. fair this summer. Can you believe people kill bugs instead of capturing them and letting them out the window? (Probably, 'cause probably you do that.) It makes me sad to go in the laundry room in the basement because there is fly tape hanging from the ceiling with dead bugs on it. :( IF YOU LIVE IN THE SUBURBS OR COUNTRY NEAR BATS, NEVER USE FLY PAPER. The wonderful batfriends get stuck in it. :( This makes me want to cry because bats are my most favorite animals. (Yes, I play favorites, but I treat them all with respect and love.)