Matthew Brown

I decided to watch Earthlings today because I've been rather miserable and figured that I could stomach it, considering the things that I've heard about it. I listened to a One Animal World podcast recently (about reuniting ducks that were lovers where the female was suffering from the toxicity of the rivers) which started by talking about how our non-human counterparts tend to endure far more suffering than we as human beings ever know of; my misery obviously pales in comparison to the tragedies inflicted onto many such animals. I felt that the narrative was strong in some places, however I felt that the narrative at times implied a message that was either somewhat strange or counter-intuitive. I felt that there was a lot more that could be said in the segment about companion animals in particular. I knew a great deal about the events that the film covered previously, and had seen graphic footage at times of such things happening. I was expecting the film to be far more grotesque than it actually is- that isn't to understate the graphic quality of the film. I felt that the film did particularly well at showing the most heinous forms of speciesm- from footage of elephants being trained to perform in circuses to an elephant escaping and being shot by a person screaming, "Die animal!" (or something similar) -- most of the world is unbeknownst to the reality of the callousness that humans inflict on animals around the world; a particularly good example of this would be in the Amazon where forests are cleared (mostly to make more room for agriculture). This generally implies creating forest fires or clear-cutting forests, where all of the life within it is incinerated or killed and disposed of. Overall the film got me thinking more deeply about certain issues and considering more deeply the emotional implications of such tragic events.

I'm thinking about watching another documentary before this challenge is over!

According to this challenge I may have saved ~13 pounds of CO2!

Challenge is going well. About to eat a pizza; tomato sauce, spinach, onions and red peppers!

I realized yesterday that I have constantly failed to complete my challenge to eat without distractions, considering that I live with a cat that is constantly a distraction!

Mmm... Challenge is going well. Today I made a stir fry with some delicious noodles that I found at Uwajimaya. The kale at my local grocery looked really amazing, so there's some of that in there, mushrooms, red cabbage, red onions, spinach, carrots and garlic. Yesterday at VegFest there was a presentation about cooking without oil- I'd like to do that. I used some teriyaki sauce with that. I also had a cheeseless pizza this morning (it's a health food if you think about it) and I made a kale and red cabbage smoothie with some marionberries, apple and ginger. At VegFest there was a delicious apple, pear and ginger juice- I'm still thinking about how great it would be to have a juicer.

I went to Vegfest today which was quite fun and interesting. I sat in on a presentation about the inner lives of animals, a board of people working at animal sanctuaries, and one about investing money in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. The food there was yummy, of course- there was a sample of Wildwood Tofu that surprised me. I'd seen it in the stores but figured that tofu is just tofu, but not quite so; this tofu was de-lic-ious!

Woops forgot to write in yesterday, but I figured out how to report my daily actions.

I watched the rest of Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. I don't have anyone to talk with it about although as I've mentioned I did talk about it with the person who recommended that I watched it. The results of a juice cleanse are miraculous! Pounds and pounds shed off within the matter of weeks- very impressive. That sounds like something that I'd be interested in doing myself, although it did seem quite expensive for whatever reason. In any case I would love to have a juicer- I'm sure those juices are very good, in addition to being very healthy!

I've started watching Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead today- very interesting. But I'll finish that up tomorrow.