Why I Couldn't be a Vegan, Part II

Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP)...you could use this as packing material if it was wet and in large pieces. It just doesn't seem natural. The sad thing is that if you added enough spices, a pretty delicious equivalent to Sloppy Joes could be made.

I really think that using fake "cheez" to duplicate macaroni and cheese is wrong. Its not real food, and I have more of a problem with preservatives and additives than a piece of beef.
If you want to be vegan, get rid of all the dishes you want to copy that have meat in them and decide you want to create really great food that doesn't need a meat substitute. Don't get me wrong, there are wonderful entrees that have tempeh/tofu/beans, etc in them that have merit on their own accord.
I just found a chile-beer marinade for a vegan dish that would be great for meat..maybe there is a double-standard here.

Whenever I think about food for too long, at least in a practical sense, I think of the store where got started in this industry. The older I am, the more I work with people, (to be honest, I didn't have to deal with many strangers/customers/guests before I turned 24), ]the more I realize that that place was flawed. They didn't treat people in a way that made them feel comfortable, unless they were regulars, meaning people who spent a lot of time and/or money. In fact, a lot of the time I felt really uncomfortable and forced to fit into a mold based on who they thought I was.

I'll stop now. I don't miss the place, meaning the city, I miss the lifestyle. And that is shallow, but honest.

Why I Couldn't Be a Vegan

So I got this vegan cookbook from the library called Veganomicon, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I'm gonna ask for it for my birthday because I think a reduced amount of animal products is really healthy. I'll never stop eating meat because of the enjoyment factor....could never give up seafood and sushi.
Anyway, I tried a recipe with agave nectar in place of a refined sugar or honey (which isn't vegan) and really really didn't like it. I don't mind foods that taste fake..Diet Coke, which is alright or pretty good, depending on my mood and Splenda, which I deal with when there's no alternative.

Agave Nectar tastes fake and is real. This I have a problem with. Take some honey, add water until its really runny and add a slight bit of lemon. There you go.

In Case You've Lost Faith...

Weezer's Rivers Cuomo released a solo album back in December...I either overlooked it as crap or just didn't pay attention, can't remember. Its pretty good stuff. The video for Lover in the Snow kind of reinforced my opinion that Rivers is a big...jerk.

Maybe these are the beginnings of me seeing Weezer like I did back in 1999. That was a good year. 2006 was better ( not for them, for me).

I digress. Check it out. I'm not actually paying any money for it. Made that mistake with Maladroit. I'm going to have to hear the 6th album in its entirety (when its released in June 2008) and then might, maybe, perhaps I'll purchase it.

Here I Am, Rock my Bracket like a Hurricane

Its March Madness! My favorite time, other than my birthday, and...Fridays, in that order. I love it because it sneaks up on you. After Valentine's Day (which, I'm sorry, is Hallmarktastic) a few months until Memorial Day and then approximately 35 days until my birthday, I don't have a lot to look forward to. Unless you count moving and no vacation until September.
And then, all of a sudden, there is Bracketology, conference tournaments and chances for thousands of dollars that you and I, quite frankly, have a snowball's chance in hell of winning. But just the games, the times when you can watch to see if your team or that Cinderella (Georgia, Drake and UMBC, in that order) can pull out a victory, are worth it.

It brings me back to the days when my mom and dad would post a wall-sized bracket on the closet door and fill it out as the games were played. We'd watch the Big 8, and now Big 12 tournament and cheer for KU every step of the way. So there is a certain amount of nostalgia and family ties that go into this.

All I'm going to say is this: If you have no idea who a team is, you've never watched their opponents and aren't even sure who their best player is, please do not put any money on this team. I don't even care of your best friend's uncle the bookie says to. Just don't. Its March Madness and anything can happen.

except if this team is Kansas. You should put all your money on Kansas.

Portmanteau

I guess i could say, "Its been awhile since I posted a word of the day" but instead I'm going to just post one without further discussion.

Portmanteau. noun. plural: portmanteaux. A a word that fuses two or more words or word parts to give a combined or loaded new meaning.

I think my dad said this word to me. It seems familiar. He also taught me quite a few words throughout the course of casual conversation that I will maybe list here.

A portmanteau you might be familiar with: spork. Not a spoon. Not a fork. But something different. And when I got them from KFC, less useful.

I looked up the word blaxploitation, when it came up on Wikipedia regarding an ODB song. The song itself came from a movie of said genre.

Blaxploitation is an portmanteau of "black" and "exploitation" and refers to movies set in the early 1970s, usually in the ghetto and dealing with pimps, drug dealers, Afros and/or SHAFT.

A Hat

I'm not really big into hats, unless its cold outside. However, when I saw this jewel, I had an intense urge to purchase it.

I resisted the temptation but wouldn't that be a lovely accessory to a certain ivory dress??