I've been researching cooking, recipes and food lately because I'm interested in expanding my cooking abilities and eating better. Since I live with two vegans who don't want meat in the house and since I have no real interest to learn how to cook meat, I've been examining a lot of vegetarian/vegan recipes and cookbooks and researching protein and how to get all your daily nutritional needs without eating meat. Some of the books are amazingly helpful and really great, but occasionally I find shit like this:

Milk is an excellent source of growth hormones, fat, cholesterol, allergenic proteins, blood, pus, antibiotics, bacteria, and viruses, and what the dairy industry touts as "the perfect food."

Stuff like that makes me want to punch vegan people in the face. I'm honestly, genuinely interested in learning more about veganism, not because I'll probably ever be 100% vegan or anything, but because I think I could benefit from including more vegan food in my diet. But I hate that radical "ANIMAL PRODUCTS ARE THE TOOL OF CORPORATE DEVIL-SPAWN AMERICA'S AGENDA TO TURN US ALL INTO MINDLESS ZOMBIE SOLDIERS" opinion.

Sure, the food industry has its share of issues. But when people try to win me over to veganism by claiming that my milk has BLOOD and PUS in it? Sorry if I write off all the other "facts" you spout. I'm not saying milk is perfect, but there are options out there. You can buy organic, for one.

Also, animal products are not the spawn of Satan. The food industry might be, but if you went out and got a farm and bought a cow and treated it well and--gasp--milked it and drank the milk, then I hardly think the cow is being abused and/or you're going to die and go to hell for being a sinner.

Aggressive vegans suck.

Watch this trailer. Seriously.

HAPPY PIE PI DAY!

In celebration, I actually did my math homework! Well, most of it. Go me!

QUICK POLL:

I'm going to the video store today to rent season two of Doctor Who. Since today is Wednesday, it's a two-for-the-price-of-one rental day. Except neither my brother nor I can think of what to get. So--tell me your favorite TV shows (and if you want, why you like them)!

Don't worry about commenting too late. If I don't watch it now, I'll probably watch it later.

A couple of you know already, but I got back from Europe. The conference I went to--focusing on leadership and hosting about 460 students between 15 & 19 from around the world--was fanastic. Not only did it really enlarging my sphere of political understanding, but the cities were all beautiful and the people I met were awesome. I was really nervous leaving because I had no idea what to expect, but after John dropped me off at the airport, I sat down with some fellow kids from the program and started talking to them. I found that it was pretty easy to talk to people after I realized that, like me, almost no one knew anyone else at the conference before that first day.

( Cut for pictures; I promise to keep the explanations pretty brief, and not put all the pictures I have up here directly. )