Calla's Seventy-Seventh Post Update

Here is a good news update: I found this:

greenvegetarian.com

It is a restaurant in Tempe that supposedly Gene Baur is speaking at on Thanksgiving. (Though I've heard nothing else about it) It is vegan. It is happiness, I'm sure. I am going. Here is the menu.

Seitan Turkey Breast with Vegan Giblet Gravy
Sun Dried Cranberry and Toasted Walnut Stuffing
Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Corn with Smoked Paprika
Brown "Butter" Asparagus and Brussels Sprout
The Picnic Salad
Cranberry Sauce
Assorted Artisan Breads

Desserts:
Pecan and Pumpkin Pie with Soy Whip Topping
Winter Berry and Oat Granola Cobbler

yummy and not mean!!!

Calla's Seventy-Seventh Post

What is one to do with a $481.00 non-refundable ticket that one doesn't wish to use? I suppose it could be transferred to another time and place, costing $180.00 in the process. I could take a $301.00 trip on the $481.00 ticket and it could all be fine and dandy.

And I would consider it too if it weren't for Callista. I don't want to miss her.

There is a logic somewhere in this madness; and I'm the one who has it, despite accusations that I am unreasonable and wrong.

And it may be unreasonable from one perspective. We are all, after all, subject to our positionality. And if it is unreasonable, that does not make it wrong. You can continue to 'reasonably' destroy the planet while I remain stubbornly unreasonable until I contribute to a definitive difference in the world around me. Those who aspire only to what is reasonable seldom enact positive social change.

Gandhi was unreasonable.

I am sick of being held hostage by the dominant social norm. Hegemony, I will not be your submissive.

Though I will be labeled "selfish," "bitchy," "childish," "immature," and I'm sure the list goes on, how am I more of these than those on the other side? I am not. I appear so because the common discourse is not on my side.

Baltimore public schools: Meatless Mondays. Lou Dobbs says it’s a political storm in the making. Glenn Beck says its indoctrination. Why are the "Got Milk?" posters decorating our school cafeterias not accused of the same?

Oh right, dominant social discourses . . . Meat is not murder. Milk is not theft. And these products will not cause diabetes, cancer, obesity, high blood pressure, colon problems, global warming, water shortages, world hunger, deforestation, pollution, community destruction, avian flu, swine flue, mad cow disease, E. Coli, workers' rights violations, exploitation, or death. (by the way: they already do.)

I do not want to fly across the country. Sitting on a plane for over 5 hours is not a pleasant experience. I do not want to be called "psycho" or "a brat." (I will be.) I do not want to spend my days off of work and school away from my home and my things and my cats. I do not want to have a screaming and crying match with the people I love. (I will.) I do not want this headache, these stomach cramps, these shaky hands or nervous thoughts that have been following me since Sunday night. I do not want to fly across the country.

And if I don't? Others will have leverage to refuse to do the same come January. And if I do and we resort to fighting? I will be the one at fault by hegemony's law.

Some background information: Thanksgiving is on my birthday. I prefer not to be around symbols of the fallen world on any given day. But I assumed birthdays had leveraging power. (BTW, I was wrong. People are more sentimental about Thanksgiving than Birthdays. You may need that information in the future.) I asked if we could not have a turkey, but could have other items made with animal products. This was shot down. I asked if we could have a turkey and no other items contributing to the problems outlined in a ramble above. This was also shot down, despite my offer to do the cooking. Some people were worried some other people wouldn't come unless they could indulge all their destructive sentiments. And if I am threatening not to come, that is crazy. That is unreasonable. That is unfair.

And that is your background information. This is the last time I will be using my Birthday to ask for a gift.

I will also be a brat when I refuse their birthday cake or gifts that someone may have bothered to get me. (I will accept something from Callista. Something from Chris. Everyone else needs to stop kidding themselves . . . If they ever were.)

If this wretched holiday of gluttony and greed had not fallen on the marginally less wretched (though much more vain) holiday of my birth, I never would have thought to ask for such an apparently unreasonable gift.

I think my family is harder than most. I say this not only because I've had my fair share of stepmoms, so the rules are always changing, but also because I know other people's families. I know a couple that is getting married this weekend, and they are cooking an all vegan Thanksgiving for their families on Thanksgiving. (This is something I didn't even consider asking. I know people hold deadly sentiment too dear.) I know people who have gotten family members to go completely vegan for a week or a month in honor of birthdays. My husband's extended family has gone to vegetarian restaurants to celebrate birthdays that weren't even ours just to be respectful. People have suggested I offer to cook the meal if I want it to be vegan, as if this would solve the problem . . . Because to reasonable people, it would. To a normal family, having all the sides vegan would not be a big deal . . . especially if Thanksgiving fell on a vegan's birthday and that vegan offered to do all the cooking.

(This is what is unreasonable: I wanted to spend the day doing something I don't enjoy and have that be my sole birthday present.)

Gluttony, gluttony--the deadly sin that kills (see rambling list above if you would like to know how.)

I hate this situation. I don't want to even fly across the country. This would not make things better. People would still say, "Where's Calla?" and the response would still be, said in a snarky tone, "Oh, she refused to come because we didn't make the side dishes vegan." (For the record, I didn't ask you to make the side dishes vegan. I asked you to let ME make the side dishes vegan.) So, this would not make things better in terms of call and response . . . but at least I wouldn't have to see these people. No one would come by my sister's house before or after the meal, see me there, and lecture me about how stubborn and bitchy I am.

I am stubborn. I am not bitchy. I am quite the opposite of bitchy. I care too damn much. I care about animals, and people, and the environment, and this makes me unable to take part in the dominant social discourse. I won't sit down at your selfish table of gluttonous lies. "

"Thanksgiving." Can you imagine giving thanks for global warming? For an unsustainable use of land and water? For cancer? For diabetes? For theft? I can't. And I won't. And I won't be a part of this dinner. And I will bear the brunt of, "Stop acting crazy and just COME" because I have a $481.00 ticket and a 5 year old to visit.

These nerves and shakes and pains are making it hard to get through the days. And I don't want them anymore. And I don't want to fly across the country and watch others soak up sentiment.



Too upset to find a picture.

Calla's Seventy-Second Post

I HAVE A REALLY GOOD IDEA. If you have the ability to implement it, by all means, please oh please oh please steal my really good idea. . .

So, it is about not eating meat. It is inspired by the fact that, on average, it takes 10 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of flesh for consumption. So, here is my idea. Someone needs to start a program where people can pledge to eat less meat. So it can either be like once a week, like someone not eating meat on Sundays, or it can be like around a holiday season, whatever. And then, in the place of that person not eating meat that day or days, hungry families in developing countries get fed.

I know it sounds a little nutty because the food that the person is giving up isn't actually connected to the food that will feed the people in Africa, or South America or whatever. But I know that at Yale they do this program where people can donate one of their swipes in the dining hall (if you are like me and didn't go to school on a college campus, you will have to use your reasoning to figure out what that sentence means.) to a food bank. So it's not like homeless people would come eat in the dining hall or anything, just that Yale would donate money to a food bank. I don't know why or how often Yale did this, but I know they did.

So, it is entirely plausible that a non-profit could start this. Or a non-profit could be started for this purpose. Really, we need to stop eating meat and start feeding starving people.

Also, if you have a dog, you can feed your dog vegetarian with no problems. They are not tricky the way carnivorous cats are because they omnivorous in nature like us people. I may have said that at some point in time on here, but I am saying it again so that you all know so that you can stop polluting the earth.

OK, that's all. thanks.

Bye.

Love,
Calla and the kitties.


hiding in the closet from the booming rain

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-Eighth Post

These are the Exquisite Corpse poems Tabby and I made. We did every other word w/o knowing what the other person wrote. Also, I am eating an Easter cookie. I made them yesterday and now I am fat because I ate like 7 today. They are really super good and really super fattening because they are butter cookies (fake butter) with frosting on them. . . and the primary ingredient in the frosting is crisco. So, now I am fat. And it is weird cause I made them shaped like animals and I always think everything that has a face is alive (even though in my head I know this is not true) but I still enjoy eating the cookies. I will put pictures of them up soon.

So here are the poems.

They do not have names.

And also, they get better as they go.

Buttocks happily melt a short tube.
Noses blankly jump blistered fig blossoms.
The frame absolutely trembled gruesome wild flowers.
Peanut butter tentically tickles lily like belt buckles.

(That one is not so good, we were just getting the hang of it. . these next ones are better)

A speckeled stomach postively censed a crunchy tumolt and bones.
Cunning rings sleepily bewilder the drenched squirrels and the lover.
The streaked chauffeur necissarily licks a broken Calla and stilts.
A farcical ribbon frankly scratches a vigourous glass and command.

(They still get better.)

The cute apples ran.
A silver sodomy clearly resorted to an orange pluto and euchatist.
A final tongue asks;
the slippery offense passionately brought around long lips and body.

The blessed forest hopes;
broad life prayfully gives anachronistic Mondays and substantives.
The whimsical cathedral waits.
Interlaced scabs meanly color a monochrome freedom and jewel.

A perfumed Autumn studies
piercing chimes lawlessly corresponding to the fierce whip of a nightmare and undersides.
An origami example sleeps.
Purple fear subserviently escapes the blatent hands of the analyses and souls.

(This next one got bad again because Tabby messed it up. He did the wrong words for half the lines and then had to make up new ones on the spot to fit his parts of speech.)

The painted blind constructs saw into half chasms.
The darkest of choices prophecies freckles into the sun.
The dark, trembling river forgets the premoridal dark bloom.
The least likley of oracles purges bread between text.

(The first line of that is actually good. . . That is the one Tabby did NOT screwed up.)

(This is the last one.)

Yellowing pillowed fingers blown above the slim clouds.
The most alive of secrets climaxes words onto crates.
A white delerious locamotive spoke from mythical skin.
The weakest of berries througs the Lord through summer.

I am not spell checking.

Here is your inanimate objects I think is alive.



This is from not this past Easter but the one before that. . .so TWO Easters ago. Tabby and I always get each other Easter Baskets. That green bunny is named Mint Car. I ate that maple syrup bunny which was maybe a little bit mean. Last Easter Tabby got me a chocolate bunny and I ate that too. It was dark chocolate cause I don't abuse cows.

Love,
Calla and her kitties (And Tabby helped)

I am not spell checking today.

Post no. 13

Long time no chat,

I was recently accused of using emotion and no reason when arguing my passions. I would first like to direct the accuser to a discussion I had with myself here, in order to explain the way I think and feel about "reason versus emotion" in the first place. Second, s/he should visit the paragraph under the kitty picture of this post to understand that this is not school. It is a blog. Thirdly, I will now demonstrate that I do indeed have supreme reasoning skills in addition to my overly-emotional core: *ahem*

Eating meat is morally wrong. I do not believe this is a matter of opinion or subjectivity, and my reason dictates so (not my emotions.)

It takes 16 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of beef. It takes 3 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of chicken. On average, it takes 10 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of meat.

Consider the following: There are people all over the world going hungry; they eat literal mud cakes to fill their stomachs. Many would argue that this is not a problem of food production but a problem of food distribution. However, as developing countries consume more meat, the cost of grain is rising. Why? Because wealthier people are using that grain to feed animals, and essentially losing 9 pounds of food in the process. This higher demand for grain increases the price of it. It is a simple economics question of supply and demand. The result: people who could once afford grains no longer can.

Now, one could argue that meat consumption IN THE UNITED STATES does not drive the cost of grain up overseas. And they would be right in the most literal sense. However, the reason developing countries are consuming more meat is largely because of Western influence. A vegan I know from school who is from India and who is in my Fundraising and Developing class explained how McDonald's is popping up all over the place in India. (McDonald's is so successful because it brands itself as a "family restaurant.") You cannot tell me, with a straight face, that the "convenient," fast-food, excessive meat-consumption culture did not develop in the West. Therefore, indirectly yes, consuming meat even in the United States raises the price of grain overseas. This in turn, causes the starvation of human beings. Causing the starvation of a human being through negligence is immoral.

Furthermore, one may not be worried about a food shortage in the United States, but one should worry, I argue one is morally obligated to worry, about the effects one's food choices have on other people. With respect to the amount of grain used to produce meat, field upon field are devoted to government-subsidized corn. (see the original rant here.) This corn is used to feed animals. (I think this is also immoral as the animals eating corn cannot digest corn properly an we are commanded by God to take care of animals, not abuse them. . . but I will leave the Christian and animal argument out. Those can be found elsewhere on this blog anyway.) This makes both corn and meat CHEAP. So, anyone who, either through necessity or their own decision, buys inexpensive food is buying either products full of corn syrup or meat. The diabetes and obesity rates in this country are absurdly high, largely because of meat and corn syrup consumption. (The human digestive track was not meant to consume animal products in large quantities leading to a whole slew of other health problems as well.)

Every time you purchase meat (or something with corn-syrup in it for that matter) when you have the spending power to purchase something else, you are essentially approving the government's corn-subsidy policy. Healthful foods are more expensive, in part, because not enough of the public is willing to stand against this government policy. Instead, people exasperate the problem by purchasing inexpensive animal products. Healthful foods remain costly, and those who cannot afford to spend a lot of money on food, those living in poverty, pay the price with their health.

Meat does not just hurt other people's health directly through consumption, it harms people indirectly. Industry Factory Farm jobs are some of the most horrendous jobs in the country. Because workers are largely unable to unionize, the pay is awful and the conditions are dangerous. Granted, one could argue it is better to support these farms so that these individuals have SOME employments; clearly it is better to work in dangerous conditions than to be better employed. First, I would argue that many of these same people are opposed to sweatshops overseas, yet the same logic about employment applies. Until they figure out their argument, I won't listen to them. Second, job creation is indeed a problem in this country, and I will not deny that. But there are countless USEFUL jobs that should be created that could easily replace the jobs lost in factory farms. (I am thinking of 'green-collar' work, improving infrastructure work, safer factories that produce inanimate objects that won't act out and ram you in the gut so that we CAN stop importing all our products from sweatshops in China.)

In addition to the workers, communities located near Industry Factory Farms suffer. They are, without fail, polluted. They do not have clean air or clean water. This inevitably leads to health problems.

Speaking of water, according to most estimates, it takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef. According to the beef industry it takes 441 gallons to produce a pound of meat. Now, let's be civil and give the beef industry the benefit of the doubt and say it takes "only" 441 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat. Is this justifiable? Is it morally acceptable to waste 441 gallons of water for one hamburger when clean water is a problem across the globe? When innumerable children are dying from diarrhea because they do not have clean water, can you use a product that wastes so much without a nagging at your conscious? I can't. And I won't.

On a global level the problem of climate change, while stemming from a variety of sources, is effected by meat consumption. Studies show that meat production is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all of the world's transportation combined. For starters, factories naturally emit a lot of pollutants into the atmosphere. But there are many other reasons for these emissions not as readily understood.

Billions of animals produce a lot of methane. This is through both digestion and because of the cesspools of waste created by factory farms. (the same cesspools polluting local waterways) Methane is more than 20 times as powerful as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. In the United States, animal agriculture is the number one source of methane emissions.

Nitrous oxide is another problem. 65% of the nitrous oxide emissions worldwide come from animal-product industries. And nitrous oxide is a lot more potent of a global warming gas than carbon dioxide is.

Brush, including the RAIN FOREST, is cleared so animals can graze in places like Brazil. Granted, this is not industry factory farming, but this post is about consuming animals. When Brazil recently decided to double their output of cattle, this problem became even worse. Anyone who went to the zoo as a child has learned about the importance of the Rain Forest and the necessity of protecting it. While, consuming meat causes the destruction of the Rain Forest, and, in turn, causes an increase in greenhouse gases as the Rain Forest is not able to absorb as much carbon. (Furthermore, and beside the point of the post, how can destroying God's creation to feed one's gluttony be considered anything but immoral in the first place?)

Additionally, animals are shipped all over the world for consumption. These factors make the meat industry the number one industry in greenhouse gas emissions. For the sake of all humanity, it is better not to contribute to this problem by supporting this industry. In fact, I argue, it is immoral to knowingly contribute to a problem that may cause countless deaths. (Some argue that global warming is already killing people. See Jessica Williams's 50 Facts That Should Change the World 2.0)

To summarize, eating meat supports a dangerous industry. It contributes to global warming, community pollution, the food shortage and the clean water crisis. Knowingly engaging in these acts, without doing everything reasonable to prevent them, is both negligent and immoral.

As alluded to earlier, I have many posts relating to animal welfare and Christianity and vegetarianism if you are interested. Feel free to explore the labels to the right.

May I remind you again, that this is not school. So, I know I do not have many hard statistics or citations. This was only an exercise in reasoning, and a demonstration of my ability to do so. Statistics and citations could easily be copied and pasted if I had the time to re-research all of this information–– which I do not. It is late.

Also, because it is so late, I do not want to proofread this. And so if I have made a fool of myself by not demonstrating my ability to use logic because my arguments are incoherent, feel free to point and laugh. Perhaps I will revise it later.


These are goat friends who live in Arizona at this weird Western-themed amusement park. THEY ARE SOOOOO CUTE. I wanna take them home. :)

P.S. I don't know why all those words are underlined, or how to get them not to be so.

Calla's Fifty-Sixth Post

hi.

I'm eating edamame because there's 20 grams of protein in every cup and I didn't eat enough protein yesterday. . . but I'm wondering how much protein the body can take in during one sitting, and wondering if this protein scheme is not actually doing anything. . . I mean, it is being yummy. . . so it is doing something.

So, I don't understand why people think of animals as food. As I may have mentioned on here, I stopped eating animals when I was four years old. Animals just never seemed like a viable option for food. (I regret to say, though I attempted to go vegan in 8th grade, I did not succeed at this endeavor until a little more than 2 1/2 years ago.) Anyway, food shouldn't think and feel. This belief may have come from growing up with about a 100 pets. Which is why I really don't understand people. If one grows up with a cat, dog, lizard, hamster, whatever, how can one think it is ok to eat animals? Do people just turn off their cognitive reasoning skills? If one loves his/her dog, and pigs are more intelligent, just as social, and as likely to form bonds with humans as dogs are. . . how could that person eat a pig!? I really need someone to explain this to me. Seriously, someone needs to explain why some animals are viewed as companions, and others are viewed as food. I really, for real, do not get this. And it is not as if I recently became a vegetarian and am now perplexed by an opinion I held a year ago. That would make me rather stupid, wouldn't it, to forget the logic of last year. No, I can't remember a time when I thought animals were supposed to be food. I have one memory of eating a McDonald's chicken nugget happy meal from when I was 3 or 4. I was with my older brother and Grandma Davis at McDonald's in those red booths. And, I can remember eating tuna fish sandwiches from Subway when I was the same age. However, I cannot remember the logic of a 3 or 4 year old child. . . So, I really need someone to explain this to me.

And SPARE me the whole "God gave them to us to eat" argument that is not biblically based. . . Therefore, I don't know from whence it came. In the story of creation, Adam and Eve were instructed to eat a FRUITARIAN diet. Get that! Even more extreme than vegan, even PLANTS weren't allowed to die. Death hadn't entered the world and what not. So the whole "dominion" argument is obviously bullshit. Dominion does not mean ruthless killing. I think a monarch who practiced dominion in such a way would've been overthrown pretty dang quickly. (I woulda lead the revolt myself.) Furthermore what is this "GOD gave them to US to eat" thing. God didn't "give" us animals. God created animals for his (for lack of appropriate ambiguous pronoun) own pleasure. Just as the rocks would cry out if people stopped praising God, you don't think animals were created for God's own glory and honor? They were created BEFORE people, so yeah, they were created for God, not for humanity. God didn't "give" them to us. God ENTRUSTED us to watch over them, and all nature, and use God's resources wisely and respectfully. Most of us have SCREWED UP. Humans are the most highly evolved of God's creation. We can think and reason. Therefore, it makes sense for us to be "in charge" of creation. But as previously pointed out, people too often choose to turn off their cognitive reasoning skills.

So, then death enters the world because of the fall of mankind. All of nature is fallen, and yes, animals start to eat each other. For example, my cats are carnivores (though they don't understand this and our constantly asking for samplings of my herbivore diet). And yes, some people feed their cats vegetarian or vegan diets, but this is dangerous for their health. (You can do it to a dog though, because they are omnivores.) So, I feel obligated to feed my cats dead chickens, and this saddens me, but it is part of the responsibility I have as their guardian. (I feed them chickens from small, non-industrialized farms. It is also human grade meat. Which is good, because a lot of pet food is made from animals that were too sick to even stand at the time of their murder, so that's dangerous too.) OK, anyway, death entered the world. So, people use that as an argument. Just because we are fallen, however, does not mean we need to participate in everything that makes up this fallen world. I don't murder people, I don't rape or steal, I don't punch random people in the face, etc. As a Christian, it is our job to try to live "in the world, not of the world" (to be as CHEESY as possible)!!! In other words, living in a fallen world does not give you a justified excuse to go against God's ideal plan. So, why eat animals just because other people and animals do!? NO SENSE!

But, people argue that the new testament changed the laws. Not only was KOSHER meat allowed, but all meat. However at the same time that Jesus effaced dietary laws he effaced all Mosiac law for Christians. (Women can talk to other people while on their periods and Jews and gentiles can now visit each other.) That doesn't mean that we commit murder. It means that we have to come to moral judgments based on the spirit of scripture, not the letter of the law. "The letter kills but the spirit gives life." (2 Corinthians 3:6) The point is that we were no longer bound be legalism. This actually made life more difficult, because now people have to use their MINDS to perceive right from wrong. (Imagine that.) Industry factory farms ( and most of you eat things ONLY from industry factory farms, and those of you who do buy local probably buy baked goods with eggs from factory farms in them) are immoral operations. They treat God's creatures like they are mere commodities put on earth for humanity's convenience. The act like these creatures have neither minds nor central nervous systems.

I got in a whole long argument with this high school boy on Valerie's facebook status once. . . I don't know if I can post it here. But pretty much I won. No, you can only copy and paste one response at a time. . . So it would take too long. But oh well. If you have objections to my argument I will just argue with you personally (and win). Summary: We weren't meant to abuse God's creation.

Eating animals is one way we do. Know what else I hate!? There's this person I happen to think is unintelligent. He graduated from some Ivy League College and then got his graduate degrees from another one. . . So, there is no doubt that he is "book smart." But he doesn't reason well. And he was all "I avoid industry factory farm meat." BUT THE GUY EATS CHEESES. Fancy cheeses imported from all over the world made from cows who were abused and separated from their babies who went on to become veal! :( :( So, he's a huge hypocrite because he was all trying to be like "see, you can eat meat and not abuse animals." But whatever, stop eating your cheeses or don't be all holier than thou!

Anyway, I like farm sanctuary's stance that slaughter and humane are antonyms. You can't have "humanely slaughtered" animals. It is inhumane to slaughter.

Well, that was a rather long rant. I didn't expect it to last so super long. I wanted to finally talk about the fictional kid! But I don't know if I have time right now. I also wanted to talk about the sanctuary movement, where churches and such are granting undocumented immigrants sanctuary and how idiotic Bill O'Reilly is. Let me just leave you with this snipet "So you're putting love thy neighbor as thyself ABOVE give Caesar what is due Caesar!?" That is what he said!? Now, beyond the theological ambiguity of what Christ even MEANT by give Caesar what is due Caesar, OF COURSE! Christ said to love your neighbor as yourself is the second greatest commandment!!!! OF COURSE that is more important than giving the government what is due the government. Additionally, many laws NEED to change. Ever hear of the underground railroad? They were breaking the law too. But no, O'Reilly actually had the nerve to say, and I QUOTE, "You're putting the law of God above U.S. Immigration law!?" (maybe he said American Immigration law.) How dumb is he? Of course God's law goes above U.S. law. Just like the early Christian martyrs were killed for not sacrificing to other gods. Would O'Reilly have suggested they obey that law above God's law? (Probably. He's not all that smart.)

Ok, so that was a summary of it. BYE.

Love,
Calla and her kitties


FUFFERS IS SIDEWAYS!?

Calla's Fifty-Third Post pt. 4

I'm not done with complaining about that movie yet. . . but not the entirety of this post will be dedicated to it. Only part of it will be. It will be this part. OK, so what's with the sun thing? That had NO RELEVANCE to the plot whatsoever. Additionally, most of the movie seemed pretty light. So, they introduce this concept because, the writer or the director or some other moron thought, "hey wouldn't it be cool if they call night day and day night in the future!?" No. In fact that would be a rather uncool thing to do. . . unless, of course, it furthers your story. . . which it does not. So, no.

Also, there were all these random ALMOST themes. I am calling them that because every single theme in this movie is underdeveloped. So much so, that they can't really be called themes. They are more like ALMOST themes. So, one that they attempted was about how our DNA does not define us or whatever. I forgot about this point in my original "better" list from pt. 3 because it was an closer to an ALMOST ALMOST theme than an ALMOST theme. . . and know what does that WAY better!? Guess!! JUST GUESS, because if you can't get this one right you really don't know me at all. Galactica does that a trillion times better. Seriously. It has done that better since Athena fell in love with Helo in the beginning of the first season some time. That is how good at life (and by life I obviously meant story telling) Battlestar Galactica is. (And by Battlestar Galactica I obviously meant the creators of Battlestar Galactica.)

Speaking of which, I owe you a list of things we still need to know:
1. The opera house
2. What Roslin, Hera, and company have to do with the opera house
3. Hera
4. The nature or Starbuck (though she is obviously Aurora)
5. Tigh and Caprica's love child
6. The nature of Baltar (if there is a special one.)
7. The Head Characters
8. More details about the exodus from Kobol (though those may have been deleted from the episode we just saw, cause I think they had to cut some of Anders's dialogue.)
9. More details about the Temple of Hope/Temple of the Five
10. The colony that Cavil mentioned this past episode
11. Is the colony the final resting place of our characters?
12. The Bob Dylan Song (Tori forget to ask Anders about that Frakkin song or we would know already!)
13. How the final 4 got "turned on"
14. What the heck is gonna happen to Caprica when Ellen come back next episode? (Tigh isn't gonna choose Caprica over Ellen. Not in a million years. . . considering he's been with Ellen for a few thousand!)
15. Will the cycle be broken?
16. Miracle from the Angels that Anders spoke of just before surgery.
17. What's gonna happen with the stuff Chief is putting in the ship? Probably there's more. . . This is all I got at right this minute though.

So, what else? My mom sent me a card today with $10 in it. The reason she sent this card was because she thought I might like it cause there's a kitty on the cover and the inside says "cats are people too" and I think my cats are my children. Well, so the weird part is she didn't write on the card. She just wrote a note on a separate piece of paper (which also had kitties on it) and put it in the card in case I wanted to give the card to someone else or something. She is super random sometimes.

So, speaking of kitties, I made cookies shaped like cats. I need a pastry bush super bad because it is always hard for me to ice the cookies I make. I just made them plain vanilla and chocolate that wasn't dyed with chocolate sprinkles and colored sprinkles. I didn't take any pictures of them, but I will do a re-run of my cat pictures to show you the shape. I can do that because one other time when I made cat cookies I spent an exorbitant amount of time making one look like Fuffers and one look like Mama. It was already on here once, but I'll put it on again. I'll do a guest cat to make up for it.


So, Foie Gras is evil. I protested it today and this restaurant actually signed the pledge to stop selling it!!! YAY!! Save the duckies, save the duckies, oh I love to save the duckies. That is a song I just sang in my head. It has never ever been song out loud. Probably no one will ever hear it, not even my own ears unless I sing it sometime. . . which maybe I will.

OH! I forgot to tell you a thing about the card my mom sent me. Guess who was on the outside? Abraham Lincoln!!! He was on a stamp on the envelope. That is an important fact to mention because he is one of the main subjects of this blog, as you well know by now, I'm positive.

UM, I have to tell you more about that fictional kid. But I also have to clean up the mess from the cookies in the kitchen. So I think that will be for story time tomorrow. It is really exciting. HE HAS NO IDEA HE IS FICTIONAL.

Love,
Calla and her kitties.
Guest Cat V This is the Kaylee Cat. She lives with the Fluffy Wuffy Queen Moggy and Tabby's parents. Her favorite past time is, for positive, drinking out of the sink. She will cry for you to turn it on for her!!



oh p.s. I also have to write more about dollhouse and complain a little.

Calla's Fortieth Post

Wow, is that really how you spell 40th? It looks a little dumb. It should probably be more like fourtieth.

May I ask you a question? This is the question: How come everyone is so stupid!? Tabby's dad put on that show "are you smarter than a 5th grader?" and the answer, seems to be, yes. But then you think about how smart and educated are not exactly the same thing. It is not fair to say I am smarter than a fifth grader because I am 22. So, I might know more than them. But that doesn't make me smarter automatically. I bet when I was in 5th grade I was smarter than most people who knew a lot more than I did. OK, but that's beyond the point. The point is that most of the people on this show are just dumb. I'll admit I didn't know what organ produced insulin (the pancreas, by the way, in case you also didn't know.), but these people don't know really simple things like which vitamin is absorbic acid. Now, if you've ever read the ingredient list to anything you know that. So, it makes me wonder whether or not these people ever went grocery shopping in their lives. Like seriously, a lot of it seems to be knowledge people have to acquire in their daily lives if they plan on functioning in society. But, people don't know that "own" is the root word of disown, and that McKenzie is a proper noun. . . not a preposition. "In" is a preposition. It is just kind of confusing to me that these people exist.

Ok, second example of stupidity is CNN. I told you before they make me brain dead or something. But seriously, I was listening to it today while I cleaned, and they had "some of the smartest economists in the world" or whatever on the show being all like, "We have a trade deficit. We import too much oil from the middle east and too many goods from China." Uh. . . no shit Sherlock. I, who have taken exactly one economics class in my entire life, and this wasn't even a real economics class, it was about urban economies, could've told you we import too much! Oh wait. . . I DID tell you that. STOP BUYING ALL YOUR SHIT FROM CHINA AND LEARN TO RIDE A BIKE DOWN THE STREET.

Furthermore, these people on CNN (not the economists necessarily, just everyone at the news station probably) had never heard the terms NIMBY or "green collar jobs." And they had this other stupid chick on who was all, "We can't have big government telling our cities what to do. If they want more urban sprawl it is their prerogative." Right, and it is also my prerogative NOT TO DROWN when global warming causes the ocean to flood the island on which I live. So no, they aren't allowed to continue urban sprawl stupid bitch. I don't get it.

Also, people hate kitties and puppies. That is my conclusion. The humane society is trying to raise money to spay and neuter animals, and I tried to get all these people on facebook to help. But nope, they all want to get bit by a stray animal and die of rabies. Whatever, I guess that's their right. (http://photocontest.humanesociety.org/contest.html?page=viewIndex&contestId=1&clearSearch=1&paging=0 type in "Baby Kitty" and "Mama Kitty" on the search button.) Seriously, though, five dollars. They can't give five dollars to prevent the birth, and then death of, millions of unwanted lovey-faces.

Ok, so what else is happening in the world? CHRIS IS TEN TODAY! WOO-HOO PARTY. Except I can't party with him because I don't live near him. This is sad sad news. I have been babysitting children for a decade now that means! Someone hire me to watch your children. I need money.

Um, also what is happening is I don't understand the logic of lots of people. OK, so there is always like nude artwork or whatever. Alright, I have no problem with it. And a few people do, but as long as the piece doesn't look sexualized, most people will think of it as art. They won't throw some hissy fit about obscenity and objectification of the female body. (Let's face it, most of it is women.) Um, did I miss something here? Isn't the female body being objectified for the sake of art? Yes. Yes it is. Try to argue otherwise and you'll probably sound dumb. . . but you can try. So what? Now it's ok to objectify oneself for art but not for sex? 'Cause, face it, these same people who will like nude figures in art will be all up in arms if you show them some soft-core porn where the woman has a bra and panties on but is posed all sexual and her nipples are hard. I'm not kidding. Show these people real porn and they'll be all, "stop objectifying women!" "This is smut!" "Women's rights" "blah blah blah." Objectification is objectification. And if no one is coerced into this "objectification" I don't care if they are nude so men and women can look at them and go "hmmm. . . I love the way the light bends across the breasts here." Or so men and women can look at them and go "Wow, that's hot. I'm gonna masturbate now." Your body is being used for something apart from your mind to pleasure other people in either of the situations. And they are the exact same thing. I really want someone to argue with me. If you hate them both, ok, fine. If you like them both, ok, fine. If you are against porn but ok with nude art, you're stupid.

It's the same thing with manual labor even. If you need to make money, and you are strong, you are going to go be a mover or a construction worker or something. Your mind is not involved in this in any real way. You want money, you use your body. So, if someone who is hot, not necessarily strong, needs money, why can't s/he pose nude for someone? It's the same concept. It's just that everyone's afraid of sex. We live in such a sex-negative country. I don't understand why. There is nothing wrong with talking about sex. (In fact, there's something right in talking about it. Talking is the only way people can become informed. Information leads to well thought out decisions. Well thought out decisions are just better than decisions which are not thought out.) There is nothing wrong with nudity. Everyone has a body.

Probably it's Paul's fault. Why that man got to write half of the bible is beyond me. The man is asexual. And some people are asexual. That's fine. But don't expect everyone else to be. Just like if you don't like the taste of chocolate. . . well, many people, myself among them, are gonna disagree with you. Chocolate just tastes good. (hmmm. . . . dark dark chocolate. . . ) So, Paul, with his asexuality, somehow convinced us all that bodies are bad and disgusting. If bodies are nasty, how come Christ had one?

Then this leads us to the whole Christ never had sex. . . and if you're Catholic to some weird "neither did Mary" argument. First off, why wouldn't Mary have sex? If Jewish people were commanded to procreate, uh, I think Mary and Joseph would've had sex. And about Christ. So what if he didn't have sex. Maybe he was asexual. Maybe he was gay and couldn't because then he would be unclean according to Jewish custom. Maybe he knew he would die at age 33 and be unable to provide for a family. Maybe he was just too dang busy performing miracles and being God and what not. The fact that Christ didn't have sex is really no evidence that it's a bad thing.

I love tangents. OK, so what else is dumb about the world? Karl Barth. Well, I don't really know. Tabby knows. I guess there's all these people that don't understand the analogy of being. I will tell you what it is though. I maybe will paint it and scan it in here one day, and I will maybe not. But, picture this. There is a picture and it is pure purple in the center and pure red at the edges. The in-between is fading from purple to red. Get it? (If not, just re-read that until you do.) Now, here is the color code

red = grace/God
blue = nature/the world

So, that is the analogy of being as I understand it. I said so to Tabby and he said "yeah! You get it! That's a perfect description." But then we modified it a little like an hour later to say there are some spots that are redder than the purple around them.

Jesus is impossible to put in the picture because He would be fully blue and fully red. . . NOT PURPLE. Just fully blue and fully red simultaneously. This is why Christianity is like nuts.

I would just also like to say that I am bad at interpreting the world in a standard way. I don't have expectations that most people have. This causes me to not understand a lot of jokes and to often become confused by "human nature." So, I have two examples of what I mean. The first one is a commercial. And there are these cowboys talking all manly about what a tough winter it is and how so-and-so lost half his herd. Then they zoom out and they're both eating these pancakes with candies and syrups all over. And they say "hey hun" (to the waitress they say this. The waitress in the commercial.) They say, "hey hun, can I get some more. . . " And I forget what they say but it has something to do with giggles and happiness and what not. And Tabby laughed. And I said "I don't get it." And he informed me that I don't get things because I never have expectations. He explained the joke to me. These were "manly men" eating breakfast and we zoomed out and they were eating like "girly" foods. So, turns out the commercial was for Denny's. And I guess the point was that if you want "real" breakfast you have to abuse pigs and chickens. How on EARTH, would I be expected to have that expectation? I don't think anyone should abuse animals.

So, I started thinking about what he said about how I don't have expectations and I thought of a really humorous example. It was a PETA shirt and it said "woof, woof, woof" all over it. And in the bottom corner was a pig saying woof. I didn't get it. Christin was the one who had to explain that one to me. She said we were supposed to expect a dog. . . but INSTEAD there's this pig. . . So, it's being all like "we need to think of pigs the same way we think of dogs." I guess the problem is I ALREADY think of pigs that way. (CUTE GIANT LOVEFACES!!)

I think this lack of expectations helps me to appreciate scary-go-round. Most people don't get it. But I get it perfectly. It is always so funny. John Allison is bad at regular expectations too. He just must be. (BUT OH MAN IS HE AMAZING AT GHOST BANDS!!!!!)

I think that is all I have to say for now. I start school again tomorrow. That makes me want to puke. Yucka-yuck-yuck.

Love,
Calla and furry friends.

Post no. 11

So, I have never read The Omnivore's Dilemma. I am not an omnivore, so I assume I have no dilemma. (haha. Most of you have a dilemma and I don't!!) OK, well today I was with a fellow vegan at virgin megastore who happens to be insecure about all of his/her beliefs. (Not just to do with food. This particular person has the tendency to NEED to be right about everything, so if s/he reads something which goes against his or her beliefs s/he freaks out that s/he may be wrong and needs reassurance.) So, this friend was browsing Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, and s/he demanded that I read about two pages of it and then justify my position on veganism and animal rights.

OK, so this guy is either a complete moron or I am missing A LOT. What I gathered was his argument against veganism from the 2 pages I read (and I am admitting I only read two pages. . . but I don't care to read the rest because, like I said, I am not the one with the dilemma.): point 1: Vegans are just crazy idealists who can't actually make a difference because people will always eat meat.
point 2: We would kill more animals if everyone stopped eating meat because of all the field mice that die during the harvest of crops, all the birds that die from ingesting pesticide laced grains, and all the earth we would have to turn into fields thus stripping other animals of their habitat.
point 3: In parts of the world where people rely on meat because their land is not conducive to growing crops, the amount of food which would need to be imported would cause mass pollution.
point 4: We would be ever further removed from nature if we stopped eating flesh.

Alright, so I am sure there is more that he wrote that is interesting. Additionally, I have been told his main overarching point is that everyone should eat locally grown or raised organic food and that everyone who eats meat should be willing to kill the animals him/herself. And also, he does not like factory farming. So, it turns out I agree with him on all these points. (Though I am guilty of buying bananas and some food that is not organic. I prefer to buy organic and I buy all other fruits/veggies and my bread from the local farmer's market. Also, I eat at restaurants that do not buy local.) But, I still think he is a moron because:

My response to point 1: Most likely child molestation, murder, rape, theft, abuse, etc. will not ever be eradicated in my lifetime. So, should I just engage in these practices because I am being too unrealistically idealistic if I don't participate in the evils of the world? Um, last I checked, no. Just because I choose not to participate in something I deem immoral doesn't mean I am naive. It means I am living what I perceive to be an ethical lifestyle.

I am reminded of a conversation that took place before class one day. I was talking to this other vegan and she was telling me about the "chicken" salad sandwich she had just bought that she would soon proceed to eat. She said, "It actually tastes like chicken, which I personally like." Her friend interrupted us to respond with, "If you like the taste of chicken, why don't you eat a chicken?" To which the said vegan rejoined, "hmm, crack tastes good. . . I better go smoke it. UM NO THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS." (ok, this is a little off topic, but I love love the anecdote. She responded so quickly it was so funny.)

But basically, my point is that I shouldn't be unethical because "everyone else is doing it." How old are we? Oh I forgot we must be 13 year olds and we must be talking about nicotine use.

My response to point 2: Does anyone else think this is just stupid? Last I checked, (and maybe things have changed since then. . . maybe we feed cows more dead cows than we used to. . .) it takes ten pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat. If we simply stop raising animals for food, milk and eggs and stop breeding them, we have more than enough fields in place to feed the nation. We don't need new fields. We need to remove some of that government subsidized corn for shizzle and diversify the fields. . . But we don't need anymore fields! Thus, no excess birds and field mice need die. Seriously. I was just downright confused by this argument. He neglected to mention we must FEED the animals that omnivores proceed to eat. I don't get why he thinks there aren't enough fields if the population of farmed animals is dramatically decreased.

Now, this was, thankfully, not one of the points that I read in the two pages of Michael Pollan's book. However, it is worth mentioning because the argument I just made will naturally lead some people to this point that I have heard reiterated mindlessly more times than I can count. That is, farmed animals only exist because humans eat them. If humans ceased to eat them, they would go extinct. And isn't it better to exist than to not exist? I have a response to this which I feel I must share in case someone who reads this jumps to that conclusion.

OK, so firstly, I don't think it's fair to assume farmed animals would go extinct if we stopped breeding them. Many people have grown to feel about pigs, cows, chickens, turkeys, etc. the way people feel about dogs and cats. Naturally, some people who have room for chickens or cows will want chickens or cows. (Consider that farm sanctuary is always finding homes for their animals with loving vegetarians and vegans.) Thus, the argument that they will cease to exist is void.

Secondly, I don't get it. Farmed animals are not a necessary part of our ecosystem, why do all these people care so much about their potential extinction but I don't see them trying to conserve animal habitats elsewhere or trying to prevent global warming which is wiping out many species of plants and animals. This is clearly just a (really crappy) excuse. "I eat the animals to save them. . . drrrr." WEIRDOS.

Thirdly, animals ARE INDIVIDUALS. If an individual chicken isn't ever born, guess what there is no way for the nonexistent chicken to care about not existing. Think about this, something that doesn't exist DOESN'T EXIST. There are no feelings. There is nonexistence. I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW THIS IS AN ARGUMENT. There is not like a mass chicken consciousness just as there is not a mass consciousness for humanity. When a person is not conceived because a couple was intelligent enough to use a condom, YOU DON'T KNOW AND YOU DON'T CARE. Chickens will not care if they go extinct. They will have no way to know because they will not exist. I don't know how else to explain this to you. If farmed animals went extinct, which they wouldn't even if people stopped using their flesh for personal gain, it wouldn't matter. The ecosystem wouldn't be effected and also the animals wouldn't be around to care.

That has nothing to do with Michael Pollan as far as I know. (just in case you forgot.)

My response to point 3: I would just like to point out that, according to most studies, people who do not eat meat and do not buy locally do more for the environment than people that both eat meat and buy locally. Additionally, how many people do you know that buy locally? I am not going to say it doesn't happen. I know a few who only buy local. But most people ALREADY buy a mix of local and non-local. (Like I said, we buy bananas.) So, I don't really get the argument. You are not going to have a sudden surge in people who were buying strictly local buying only imported foods. It's just not going to happen.

Furthermore, uh, CHINA. How many people who "only buy local" buy everything that is not food from ACROSS THE WORLD? (A lot.) If Michael Pollan is so worried about people needing to import items why isn't he lobbying to bring industry back to the United States so we can stop polluting the earth with things made in China? That would probably be more beneficial than arguing we should eat meat. (Do you know how many resources go into raising animals for meat!?)

My response to point 4: So what? That is honestly my response. Go on a nature retreat. Lobby for community gardens so more people can experience growing their own food. Push for green space in cities. Go apple picking and berry picking. Eat raw food. I dunno; go get chased, and potentially mauled, by an abused tiger trapped in a circus act. There are better ways to "get in touch with nature" than eating innocent and abused animals. That's it. That is all I have to say.

So, that is my response to the two pages. The guy seems ignorant for sure. I can only imagine what I would have to write if I read the whole book. It woulda been yucky for positive.



Now, this is unrelated. It has recently been brought to my attention that most people EDIT their blogs! They like write rough drafts of things and proofread and weird things. Well, I don't do that. That doesn't sound like fun. I mean, what is this? School? No. It's not school. BUT just so you don't think I am a complete moron, I would like to point out that I do have some school papers as blog posts on here. If you don't believe me that I can write well, you should read one.

Another unrelated. There is a commercial with cute little monster friends!! They are small and little! And I want one to be my friend. I would kiss her/her facey for sure!! Tabby said s/he would be named Lizardo. (The commercial is for some job search website called ladders or something.)

That's it. That is all. The end.

Calla's Thirty-Third Post

Alright everyone,
This calls for a resurrection.

I tried really hard to resurrect it before like it was a humanoid cylon model, but to no avail. Rica finally figured out a spell for me by spying on a witch fairy who knows how to bring stuff back from the dead because this was just TOO TOO TOO TOO MUCH. . .

. . . . (which is called an ellipsis, the guy at the made up musical insists.)

So anyway, as I was typing, . . .

THE FREE CREDIT REPORT GUY IS LIP SYNCING. Or so I was told by some online answer thing when I went to figure out precisely who this amazingly talented song singer man was. And I googled, "free credit report guy." And this was the first result: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/726312

And as you can see, assuming the link works and the question is still present, the answer given by one "silverkyle" reads as follows: http://www.ericviolette.com/ his name is Eric Violette and he is French canadian he did not sing the song he was the actor the song was dubbed over.

OK, um, what? OK, so ok. . . this is NOT ok. So, I am so sad. These are like the best commercials ever. I especially love the Ren. Fair and the Biking ones. (I don't know how to spell the word which I have abbreviated as Ren. I hope you can figure it out.) I find myself wanting the CD, but now I am crushed. My dreams are shattered. I had this ideal of this great song singer man who is actually not a song singer man. It is like Milli-Vanilli. Is that how their name is spelled?

Well, that is all for now. Hopefully this blog can continue trucking along. This was bad bad news.

ove, Calla and her kitties


Also, my fuffer kitty briefly turned into a zombie and tried to eat the little pixie kitty's brains! Don't worry; we found a cure. Lightning works just like it did for Shelly Winters.

Also, my chocolate sorbet has corn syrup–– at least it is not genetically modified. It reads, "NON GM CORN SYRUP," and I can only assume this means non genetically modified because I am too lazy to look it up and therefore not just assume. Um, how gross is it that we must specify that our corn syrup is "NON GM."? I think it's gross. Corn syrup is one of the devils. Did I tell you ever? If not, I must say, you are in for a treat when I finally feel the urge surge within. (haha. URGE SURGE.)

Calla's Twenty-Eighth Post pt. 2

This other part of the post is to tell you about the way that India sucks just as much as the United States. So turns out India produces enough grain to feed its entire population but instead they export it to make money and then throw the rest of it into the ocean because it's easier and cheaper to throw the rice away then to build the proper infrastructure to get the rice to all the starving citizens. This is what Tabby told me because he is taking a class called "India: A Modern History." So now he knows about how much India sucks. He told me lots of other sad stories too like about how half of India's currency is black market money. So yeah, don't buy rice grown in India. Just don't do it. At all costs. Because that rice is supposed to go to the citizens of India. It's supposed to go to all those starving children you see on those TV commercials. . . See, those children from India shouldn't be in those commercials because the Indian government actually made a program to have enough rice. But then because everything is privatized and capitalistic people don't want to feed all the starving children. So here's the deal, I'm not gonna buy rice from India anymore because if everyone stopped buying their rice maybe they still wouldn't give it to the people who need it, but at least they would eventually stop growing such an excess that they had to throw all the waste of it into the sea, and then these people would have to find a new way to make money. . . But maybe that way of making money would be even worse. I hope not though. I hope it would not be even worse. Everything makes me sad.

Calla's Twenty-Fifth Post

They're setting it up
They're setting it up
They're setting it up
THE CHRRRIIIIISTMAAAAS FAIR!
They're setting it up
They're setting it up
They're setting it up
THE CHRRRIIIIISTMAAAAS FAIR!
They're setting it up
They're setting it up
They're setting it up
THE CHRRRIIIIISTMAAAAS FAIR!

This is the song I sang all the way home from Union Square because I saw them setting up the CHRISTMAS FAIR!! Ohmeohmy you have no idea how much I love Christmas time!! I love the decorations and I love decorating. I love baking cookies and decorating cookies and eating cookies and giving cookies away. I love buying gifts and making gifts. I really love wrapping gifts. I love getting a tree and naming my tree and decorating my tree. I love when the kitties sit under the tree like they are God's gift to humanity. (hehehe) Oh CHRISTMAS TIME. I even love the stupid movies on T.V. I love Christmas time celebrations. Christmas is such a good fun time. I used to not care about Christmas so much. Even when I was little I didn't care so much, but ever since about three years ago I really started loving it. I get super excited for anything that has to do with Christmas. And I say "LOOK!! It's Christmas time, that store is decorated for Christmas!" So today when I walked by Union Square just now and saw the beginning of the wooden vendor thing-a-ma-bobs I went "" and Tabby went "WHAT!?" And I said "They're setting up the Christmas fair!!" And then I started singing the song that began this post.

Now, here, this year, there is a downside to the Christmas fair. . . They sold all this big section of the park (the part with the pavement with the labyrinth on it) to some fancyshmancy restaurant and so there is not so so much room. So I do not understand how the Christmas Fair and the Farmer's market can coexist peacefully!? Now, in the winter it is true there is less for farmer's to sell. . . But some farmers still have all their stuff to sell, like if they have milk or bread or something. . . . BUT YES, the farmer's market is smaller in the winter which is why the Christmas Fair and the Farmer's market could live together before. Now, See, I don't know. Plus right now, like right this second, still lots of farmers have things to sell. On Wednesday guess what I bought from them. Did you guess? I will tell you regardless. I bought two different kinds of apples, concord grapes (YUM! I WILL MISS THEM SO SOON), tomato, zucchinis, bread and a knish. I think that is it. But also there was a lot more I coulda bought. Oh, I also bought potatoes, the big red kind of them that are called something with the word purple in their title. So see, still a lot is in season even now. So, I don't know how this will work.

I protested that restaurant business with the Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. I really like those people. They are great at what they do and they have such a good message. But the protest didn't work and also I never expected it to work anyway. But I still like Reverend Billy a lot. But I like Christmas time more than I like Reverend Billy.

I will put a picture of Baby Kitty under the tree last year. I don't think Mama liked the tree. I don't remember for certain though, but I don't have a picture of her under it, so I would have to put up a different kind of picture even if she did like the tree. What Mama likes is attacking things, not sitting under trees.

Oh also, the tree in the picture is named "Sister Tree." Now she is living at Tabby's parents house on the edge of Queens and Nassau County. If you are in the area you should drop by and say "hello Sister Tree." I don't remember why her name is Sister Tree. I tried to see if I could donate her to the city parks department so they could plant her, but they did not respond to my question, so then she moved to Tabby's parent's house.

Also, I thought also this about the Farmer's market just now. If there is no room for it, who will sell me my Christmas tree!?

Love,
Calla and her kitties.

Calla's Sixth Post

So I did not write a post yesterday because I am sick! My throat hurts like woah. It is bright bright red. Whenever I have a cold I have such bad post-nasal drip that my throat feels like it's on fire. . . continuously. (Haha. How much did you love that bit of knowledge?) It sucks.

Everyone says I get sick more often because I work with kids. But I think they're'll full of it, 'cause I for sure didn't get sick at all this summer. I don't really remember when the last time I was sick was. . . but it was at least four months ago. . . probably longer ago than that. I don't think getting a cold once every four months (ie: 3 times a year) is that much. Maybe I'm wrong. But seriously, if I get sick people say it's 'cause I work with kids. Whatever. The kids I work with aren't sick. . . so. . . yeah, whatever.

The debate yesterday. . . I had class from 8:00-9:50 last night. So I didn't watch it. I was gonna stay up late and watch it again. . . but I am sick! So I couldn't stay up that late 'cause I was so so sleepy. (Then, I woke up all night 'cause I also couldn't sleep 'cause my throat hurts like woah.) Anyway, I'm sorta glad I missed it because everyone says it pretty much sucked. I guess they didn't get my memo about what they should discuss. . . I guess they also missed the memo that the debate was about domestic affairs. I guess they also forgot how to tell voters anything of interest. However, this is all hearsay. I don't really know what happened.

Tabby's making soup.

We don't feel good.

My kitties are ok though. One of them is fat and I am afraid he will die soon because of that. :(

I hate Lou Dobbs. He's not smart

Love,
Calla and her kitties.