PSA: Guess What's Terrorizing Your Barbeque?

A recently taken poll asked frequent barbeque hosts what their least favorite pest was.  The answer might surprise you.  While the proctors were looking for an answer like ants or flies, they were given the overwhelming consensus that vegetarians were the most dreaded of the barbeque crashers.

Ok, ok, I just made that up.  But from the looks that I get from people when I say I am thinking about going vegetarian, you'd think that this scenario couldn't be too far from the truth.  I was talking to my friend Kellen on the matter just the other day, and he basically asked me if I had gone off the deep end.

This is a testament to just how dependent our society is on animal products.  We love our steaks, hamburgers, and thanksgiving turkeys.  And it's no wonder, they are delicious!  However, when we begin to focus more on what tastes good than whether the practices we use to get this food are ethical, then we begin to engage in what Matthew Halteman calls "Unrestrained Omnivorism" (385). 

According to Halteman, unrestrained omnivorism results in a slew of bad things, including "poor stewardship of resources, environmental degradation, the marginalization of the poor, and the decline of health" (393).  For example, raising cattle takes up a lot more land and water than raising the same amount of calories that come from some sort of plant.  If we used the land to grow plant-based foods, we would have more for people that cannot afford to buy meat.  Cattle also belch methane that harms the atmosphere, plus red meat is not as healthy as vegetables in large quantities.

The problem is, we are so far removed from the source of our food that we don't realize the negative impact of our diets.  All we see is a slice of meat that doesn't look anything like a cow with its big brown eyes and long eyelashes.

This ignorance of where our meat comes from has allowed the producers to get away with a lot.  Let's take the pork industry, for example.  Peter Singer and Jim Mason tell a heart-wrenching tale about how mother pigs are exploited on many farms in their book The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter.  When the sows farrow, they are put in crates that force them to lay on their side, so that the piglets can feed (49).  The crates are too small for the sows to roll over, for fear that they will roll on top of the piglets and suffocate them.  Then the piglets are taken away at a very early age, which leaves the mothers anxious and depressed.

Did you notice the words "farrow" and "feed" in there?  There is a theory that humans have used words like these instead of "give birth" and "eat" to make our livestock seem less like us (46).  That way we don't have to worry about the feelings of our food, and can exploit them in whatever way we see fit.

This revelation horrified me.  It seems so plausible that we humans could use our language to trick ourselves into allowing such violations of animal rights.  And it's interesting because I think most people would say that their dog or cat eats and gives birth.  We don't have to use the dehumanizing language against them because they are part of the family.  So why do we do it to another animal that is just as smart as a dog?

So all of these things lead me to believe that I should become a vegetarian.  But I was also concerned about getting enough protein; as an athlete, could a vegetarian's diet affect my performance?

It turns out, according to a study by Angela Venderley and Wayne Campbell that as long as I eat frequent snacks or meals, along with plenty of dairy, beans and nuts, that I will get plenty of calories and protein (295).  In fact, they find that most athletes don't need more protein than the average non-athlete (297). 

Even if this was not the case, I think that I would still try to become a vegetarian.  I don't think that after reading about all of the problems with this "unrestrained omnivorism" that most Americans participate in that I could put my athletic career before the suffering of animals and the environment in good conscious.  That is why for the first month of Spring Term I have decided to go on a meat free diet.  I think it is the ethical thing to do, and I would encourage all people, if not to become a vegetarian, to at least look at their diets and see if they reflect the values and morals that they believe in.


Bibliography

Halteman, Matthew C. “Knowing the Standard American Diet by Its Fruits: Is Unrestrained

Omnivorism Spiritually Benificial?” Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology

67.4 (2013): 383-95. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Jan. 2015.

Singer, Peter, and Jim Mason. The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter. Holtzbrinck

Publishers, 2006. Print.

Venderley, Angela M., and Wayne W. Campbell. “Vegetarian Diets: Nutritional Considerations

for Athletes.” Sports Medicine 36.4 (2006): 293-305. Web. 21 Jan. 2015.

Why "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of LaGrande Jatte" Is the Story of Us All





http://www.getuncorked.com/2010/06/a-sunday-in-the-park-benefit-for-rsm-historical-society/



George Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of LaGrande Jatte is one of my most favorite paintings.  It has such bright, vivid colors, and when you realize that the entire painting is made of individual dots of paint instead of strokes, you realize how much time and effort Seurat put into his masterpiece.  Truly, it is an amazing sight to behold when you see it in person, as I did a few years back when I visited the Art Institute of Chicago.

My favorite thing about this painting, however, is the wide variety of characters represented.  No matter what age, gender, or economic status you are, you can find yourself in this picture.  Not only that, I think it is possible to relate to everyone in this picture.  Each character is an individual, it's true, but they all show something about themselves that is intrinsic to humanity. 

 

Man with Pipe and Man in Top Hat

 

 





These two men have little in common at first glance.  The man in the foreground seems to be of the working class, and has no qualms about a few grass stains on his practical, comfy clothes as he reclines, smoking his pipe.  The man in the background seems to be a gentleman on holiday, and he perches forward in his fancy suit.  While these two people would have little cause to ever meet in an everyday occurrence, here they are, sitting in companionable silence, watching the same scene, reminding us all that our economic background has little to do with our ability to enjoy a day out.

 

Quiet Man and Music Man

 

 





 These two men struck me a foils as well. In the foreground, we see a man hunched over, hiding beneath his umbrella.  The man in the background stands proudly in the sun.  Although it is difficult to see exactly what he is doing, to me it looks as though he is playing a trombone or trumpet.  Perhaps on their day off from work, one chooses to shut himself off from others while the other chooses to play his music loud and proud for all to hear.  Either way, both the introvert and the extrovert have their own ways of enjoying a nice day at the park.

 

Dancing Girl and Sitting Girl

  





 

Here we have two girls, one dancing freely on the grass, and the other watched over by perhaps her mother and her governess.  Perhaps the two girls envy each other, one wishing she was allowed to frolic about, and the other wishing that she had a mother in her life who paid attention to her.  Don't we all want to have a little freedom as well as someone to look out for us at the end of the day?

 

Embracing Couple and Somber Couple

 

 

Here are two fairly different couples.  In the foreground, we have an upper class couple that seems to be tolerating each other, but not exceedingly thrilled to be in the other's presence.  In the upper left-hand corner, there is a couple leaning towards each other, with the woman's arms flung around the neck of the man.  These stories, one perhaps tragic and the other sweet, show love gained and love lost, both stories abundant in human history.

 

Coming of Age and Loss of Innocence

 

 

My final series of people contains four different stories.  It adds up to a continuum of age.  It begins with the young girl, holding the hand of her mother as they go for a walk at the park.  She gazes at the preteen girl, perhaps wishing that she was old enough to have her own parasol.  The preteen girl looks at a bouquet of flowers in her hands, perhaps given to her by her first crush, and contemplates what it means. Her governess or older sister watches the mother and the child, perhaps caught in the throes of wanting to be young and carefree again and wanting to start to raise her own family.  And the mother looks out at the lake, remembering what it is like to be all of these ages.



 





As my friend Sara Hovren pointed out to me, each character is like each individual dot of paint. Separately, the characters have their own specific life stories that are beautiful in their own way. But put together, they create a richer, more colorful communal story.  To take this one step farther, each of the characters has a foil, like colors on opposite sides of the color wheel.  From this, we can see that everyone is truly connected, not just on a beautiful Sunday afternoon on the Island of LaGrande Jatte, but in the infinitely colorful world that we live.

 



My E-dentity

I'm not going to lie, googling yourself is a disconcerting experience.  Even with a pretty sub-average on-line presence, I was surprised to find about three google pages with links to me.  However, once I got past the initial shock of how visible my life is to the world, I realized that the information reminded me of a garbage dump of sorts.  There were remnants of high school projects, including a half finished Prezi about the transcendentalism of Disney princesses and a music video that my friend Katie and I made for our Spanish Class.  There were results from swim meets both from recent college meets and distant past club meets.  There was even a Vine that I had created during the one month that I used the site as well as a Pintrest account that I have never used.

 Of course, there were also links to social media accounts that I do use on a regular basis.  The first that came up was my twitter account.  Although lately I have not been much of a "tweeter", in high school I used the site quite a bit.  According to my profile, I have tweeted 974 times and favorited 1774 tweets.  I have 118 followers, and I follow 111 people.  Reading through my tweets, I still find some that make me laugh, but some are rather cringe-worthy.  Sometimes its easy to forget that these thoughts that seem so important or hilarious at the time will stay on the internet forever, even once they've lost their context.

Some Examples

How riveting Kristin, tell me more!

Ok, I still find this one funny

#wut



Although I did not find any links to my instagram page on Google, there were links to it from my twitter, so I decided to look through that one next.  I use instagram more than twitter now, for the most part.  I've never been much of a selfie person, and most of my pictures are either with a group of of my friends, of food, or swimming related.  My top three "liked" pictures are as follows:

 



Interestingly enough, the second picture went viral in the swimming world just recently.  Our coach decided that he wanted to take a picture of us "dying" during our winter training sessions.  He then sent the picture to SwimSwam, a multimedia news organization for all things swimming.  They put it on their instagram feed, and other swimming twitter accounts subsequently picked it up and tweeted to the world.  I even got a special shout out on the SwimSwam account, as you can see:

Yep, that's me in the green suit
http://instagram.com/p/xzdqwTBj6K/?modal=true

I could also look at my Facebook page, but the only things that I really post on it are my instagram pictures, plus I get tagged in all of my friends' photos.  And because most of my friends are swimmers, nearly all of my pictures are somehow swimming related. 

After spending far too long looking through my social media history, it is obvious that my two top trends for posts are swimming and school.  And, honestly, those are the two most important things in my life thus far.  I have made all of my friends and spent most of my time in these activities during my young life.  Although the information about these things might be a little random online, they are still the most prominent things about me that are available, and I am ok with that.  Other people I know might have more pictures of them going to parties with a lot of friends, or selfies of themselves, but that isn't really who I am.  I'm also not one of those people who posts really artsy photos with an intellectual caption.  There isn't anything wrong with these online personas, but I like that my "e-dentity" shows me doing the things I like best: learning, swimming, and hanging out with my friends.


*If you want to watch me embarrass myself in some old Spanish class videos, click on these links.  You will not be disappointed.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=2037151945588
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp1jtc1r8jQ





            











Wanna be a Princess? Lose the Frizz!

I think I speak for just about every girl of my generation when I say that after watching the Princess Diaries, I waited with bated breath for the day that my grandmother would tell me that I was to become the next Princess of Genovia.  I absolutely love this coming-of-age movie; the dorky, awkward nerd-girl turning into the graceful, lovely young woman by the end of the story.  There is only one tiny little detail that gets my goat every time: THEY TAKE AWAY HER CURLS!!!



http://blogs.disney.com/disney-style/fashion/2014/08/03/lets-talk-about-the-fashion-from-the-princess-diaries/

While I am as anti-frizz as any other girl, I take offense that the stylists completely hijacked Mia Thermopolis' curls and gave her a full blow-out.  After her "transformation", Mia has some of the sleekest, straightest hair that I have ever seen.  Why is it that Mia is only seen as desirable and fit to rule a kingdom after her hair has been tamed to within an inch of its life?  And beyond that, to maintain this façade, Mia will have to damage her hair with heat and hairspray everyday.  It's simply not healthy!

Like Mia, I had MAJOR issues with my hair growing up.  If I did not put my hair in a pony tail everyday, it looked like an albatross had built a nest on my head.  Fortunately I got my act together in high school and learned the value of hydrating conditioner and curl crème.  Unlike Mia, I decided to work with my hair instead of fighting it.

Here I am as the albatross carried me off after finding out that I was not, in fact, a tree.

This prejudice against curly hair in Disney Princess movies runs deeper than just this movie, however.  While many of the princesses have wavy hair, there is only one princess that has the wild curly hair that I identify with.  Merida, from Disney-Pixar's Brave, has some of the coolest hair I have ever seen.  She is fearless, smart, funny, and, for much of the movie, seen as unfit to rule.  Her wildly curly hair is seen as un-ladylike, and she is forced to hide it under a hood.



http://www.insidethemagic.net/2013/05/exclusive-disney-bravely-responds-to-merida-makeover-outrage-says-2d-new-look-was-for-limited-use-only/
http://healthfulmd.hubpages.com/hub/princess-merida-brave

Why is it that Merida and Mia are both seen as unfit to rule when they have curly hair?  People should not be judged on their competency to lead by how they look.  I have often wondered how I will have to style my hair after college when I am on the job market.  Will I have to cut my hair short or straighten it in order to look responsible to prospective employers?

Society simply holds women to too many standards when it comes to appearances, even in Disney movies.  Most people recognize that Disney Princess waist lines are unattainable to the real human being, but even their hair has created false expectations.  I know way too many girls who hate their hair and feel the need to straighten, curl, or otherwise change it everyday.  I'm not saying that these are bad things, they can be fun and make you feel pretty! But if girls start to feel ugly when they leave their hair to its natural texture, then something is wrong with how they are viewing themselves. And it is probably due in part to how their role models, aka Disney Princesses, are portrayed.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/307792955755121280/

 

I hope that people start acting more like Mia's friend Michael.  He recognized Mia's real inner beauty long before everyone else because he could see through what everyone saw as her "ugly" outside appearance.  And as the movie shows, it goes both ways.  The pretty, popular kids in the movie turn out to be total jerks, showing that my Grandmother's old saying is true: "Pretty is as Pretty does."  In other words, you are only beautiful if your actions are too, so Mia was beautiful when she was "ugly" after all.

 

Judge people by their actions instead of their looks?

http://cdn29.elitedaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/giphy12.gif

Stop Smiling?

I know that many of you are probably thinking that my blog has been hacked after seeing this title.  What happened to the girl who wrote "Seven Ways to Never Stop Smiling"?  I am asking myself the same question right now, after reading the first chapter of Barbara Ehrenreich's Bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermining America.  The first chapter, Smile or Die: The Bright Side of Cancer, is all about how breast cancer patients are expected to take their treatment with a positive attitude and an almost child-like disposition inclined towards sparkly pink things for distraction.  Ehrenreich takes the stance that it is unfair to hold the patients to this expectation; she believes that they should be allowed to feel cheated and upset about their condition.

At first, I felt that Ehrenreich was being absurd.  Why shouldn't we try to make breast cancer patients as happy and optimistic as possible?  I have always been a big advocate for happiness, and who hasn't heard that a positive attitude helps drive sickness away?  But Ehrenreich exposes this as a myth; even those who smile the most don't always get better. 

I also realized that, unlike Ehrenreich, I have never been diagnosed with cancer.  How could I possibly argue with her about how it felt to have people telling me to turn that frown upside down even as I vomited and lost hair during chemotherapy?  As I looked back on my life, I realized that I am not the most pleasant person to be around when I only have the common cold. 

Ehrenreich also tackled the notion that breast cancer will make you a stronger, more vivacious person in the future.  For one thing, it could kill you.  And if it didn't you could get a mastectomy or chemotherapy that would leave you very weak for quite a while.  I really did not want to hear this because I have always gone by the saying "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," but then I realized that she isn't saying that breast cancer won't make you stronger in the long run.  Instead she is saying that we shouldn't treat cancer like it's some path to a better life.  It should be seen for what it is, a nasty, horrible disease that has more risks than benefits.

I think I finally began to understand Ehrenreich's whole message and stop taking offense to it by the end of the chapter.  In the last few pages she talks about how if the patient doesn't want to be cheerful, they are often seen as outcasts and blamed for their feelings.  She says that is simply wrong, and I can definitely get behind her here.  People shouldn't feel forced to be optimistic, if a breast cancer patient feels discouraged about their illness they should have every right to express that without feeling that they will get their head bitten off.  While I might not agree with everything Ehrenreich has to say about happiness, I now understand her viewpoint a little better.  Endless optimism when it comes to breast cancer is extremely limiting and unfair to all involved; it is a terrible disease that will usually do much more harm than good.

Seven Ways to Never Stop Smiling





As an avid smiler, I often get the questions "Why are you always so happy?", "Have you ever actually been angry?", and, my favorite, "Can you even frown?".  This last query ends with me being forced to hold a grimace until I simply can't hide my pearly whites any longer.  I just can't help smiling, it's part of who I am! And while I can't explain why I have such a cheerful disposition, I can share with you, dear readers, some of the little everyday things that make me grin.  Hopefully they will brighten your day as well, and allow you to become happier, smilier people in the long run.


1) Search for a smile in unexpected places

One of my favorite twitter accounts is called Faces in Things (@FacesPics).  In each of their tweets, they feature a picture of a random object and find a face in it.  I have done this my whole life, and every time I see a doorknob, car, or coffee stain smiling at me, I can't help but smile right back. 

Some of my favorite pictures from @FacesPics
 

2) Step on something that crunches

In this season of gloomy, chilly weather, sometimes it's hard to find something to be happy about when you're outside.  My favorite thing to do when this happens is to find the nearest crunchy leaf and stamp on it as I walk to class.  There are few more satisfying sounds than this crinkly noise, and I can often be spotted taking a zig zagging path along a sidewalk just to hunt out the most promising leaves.

Look at that leaf! It has the perfect curl and color to be a first-rate crunching leaf!
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFBx0Vdx_rNl7EMQzJswh6gpVud2Ens6qbyWF_55Fj0_isvaOy4BePn1CYBRnXQx6FLZMrAWGlLuHQuTmKzDK6RpsMqCpqqJqBKxzA_dIYDVDG2fzN7aq9ScJ6rZ0QKcwd1zAtIM6ohRM/s1600/crunchy+leaf.jpg

 3) Make yourself a creative little treat

So maybe you had a bad day, and all you want is a cupcake to cheer you up (a bad idea if you read my previous post, but we all have our guilty pleasures).  However, who wants to clean up the mess of baking, and, more importantly, who has an oven in their dorm room?  You can get around these obstacles if you have my favorite cookbook, Mug Cakes: 100 speedy microwave treats to satisfy your sweet tooth.  That's right, you can make cupcakes in your microwave!  While I have only done this once or twice, just looking at all the cute little recipes never fails to make me smile.

http://www.catchingfireflies.com/products/mug-cakes-cookbook.html

4) Let your feet have some fun

Another way to turn a frown upside-down is to add some joy to the place where you end up looking when you are feeling down: your feet!  How do you do such a thing, you may ask?  Why, only by wearing the quirkiest, zaniest, awesomest socks you can find!  They don't even have to match if you really want to go the extra mile.  Trust me, not only will fun socks make you smile, but everyone around you is sure to get a kick out of them too.

Just a few favorites from my extensive collection

5) Say something funny

This could mean intentionally, if you are gifted in the way of comedy, or unintentionally, if you are sort of an awkward, unfiltered person like me.  And if it is unintentional, don't be afraid to laugh at yourself!  No one laughs at my jokes nearly as much as I do, and I don't laugh at anyone else's jokes as much as mine.  Just think of yourself as the funniest person you know, and you'll never be able to get that smile off your face.


http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/71/94/87/719487ba853328be4b44ec204e2493fb.jpg

6) Have some awesome friends

Seriously though, while laughing at your own jokes is great, it's even better when you have some other people to laugh with you.  Well, maybe they won't laugh, but you still know that they love you even when they are shaking their heads exasperatedly and leaving you at the table by yourself to go refill their drink.  Which was already half full when they left.  Oh wait...

I've made a lot of friends since coming to Augie, but the best have been my fellow freshman swimmers.

7) Spread the love

Finally, the best way I know to make yourself smile is to make someone else smile too.  Make someone a mug cake, tell them they look ravishing in those knee-high whale socks, laugh at their jokes; it's easy to make someone's day a little brighter.  It's just like that old saying, "Giving is better than receiving". So go out there and make the world a happier, smilier place to be!

http://www.eco-generation.org/ambassadorReportView.jsp?viewID=1536

 

Cupcakes: The Dessert of Discord

http://passionpending.typepad.com/.a/6a01157163b531970c0177445301dd970d-pi
 

Cupcakes: they're sweet, colorful, bite-sized...and they're taking over the world!  In the past few years, stores selling these sugary little treats have popped up in towns all over the United States.  While they seem unassuming, don't be deceived; this takeover is hostile.  The cupcake promotes seclusion and selfishness.  The consumer doesn't have to wait to host a party to buy a cake, she can have a party for one with her own personal dessert.   The cupcake argues that other people aren't necessary to celebrate life events, when in reality celebrating has always been about people coming together. 

Even if you do invite guests to your cupcake party, you are basically saying to them that you don't want to share with them. Your cupcakes argue that you would rather do without delicious leftovers just so that no one else will touch your own personal dessert.  Also, instead of compromising and baking a cake that will fit everyone's tastes, you divide people into groups of those who want the chocolate cupcake and those who want the vanilla.  Some would argue that this allows people more options, resulting in a more satisfactory party, but I believe a marble cake could have solved this problem and kept the unity alive to boot. 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrWqozP4n37sLGm-r86wrHEt1FjcO5bX4wh0zxBk-A0HvTf7QSjxdIoLhjdLLuaAjQkjMO6kQTJywy0S7Kg9lPQ_ahuTmwLttrkf_c-wgSKvM4j2H24hNbagxrRiD9z9TDKaUvYMzKpFc/s1600/everytime-i-get-dp-my-precious.jpg

Some of my very favorite memories center around my birthdays growing up.  Whether they were family or friend parties, there were always lots of people around to celebrate my special day and eat a community dessert. Some desserts were made by my mom, including a sandcastle cake for my under-the-sea themed party and a double-chocolate raspberry cake for my chocolate-obsessed stage.  Some were made by a bakery, including a cake that looked like a hamburger and a cake with my face printed on it with edible icing.  One wasn't even a cake; it was an ice cream pizza.  Regardless, I never had a birthday party in which I served cupcakes; even as a small child I saw the value of creating unity through a shared snack.

Unfortunately, I have been to one birthday party in which cupcakes were served: my father's.  We were too busy to hold an extended-family birthday party, so we just ate a nice meal at home and bought a couple of cupcakes from The Cup, our neighborhood cupcake bakery.  While I appreciated being with my mom, dad, and sister, having one solitary cupcake staring back at me made me feel kind of sad that I wasn't with my grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins as well.  In the future, I will always try to avoid resorting to cupcakes as a celebratory food, and I encourage you, dear reader, to do the same.  Cell phones are small potatoes compared to cupcakes when it comes to the real cause of deteriorating social skills in America; we must do all we can to resist their delicious temptations!

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j234/theVowels/CupcakePicC2.jpg