After flirting with varying degrees of seriousness for nearly ten years, I seem to have finally become a vegetarian. I think reading Collapse might have been the thing that finally pushed me over. It left me thinking what kind of things I could be doing as an individual to prevent impending suckitude, and then I was sucker punched by this and this (this second one is not for the queasy). It wasn't new information, but it was a timely reminder.

I tried becoming vegetarian once a long time ago, but didn't seem to quite have the willpower for it. But this time is totally different; I just don't feel like eating meat anymore. It's suddenly easy now. Whereas before it was an intellectual decision that I was trying unsuccessfully to force on my body, this time some deep, visceral part of me made the decision without consulting my analytical brain. But my analytical brain is cool with that. He's been trying to get the viscera to go along with this for a long time, you know.

So I've had some of the classic vegetarian experiences so far, like showing up to a dinner party where the hosts didn't get the memo that I was vegetarian, or getting asked why I became a vegetarian and then having the asker get all defensive when I answer. It's a big party.

(Oh, did you see The Meatrix, by the way?)

I seem to have managed to get into the lab I wanted. It felt like trying to get into Project Mayhem at times, but here I am. I think. Next step: figure out what the hell I'm doing. I'm still not really comfortable there, and I've pretty much been left to my own devices without anyone in particular in charge of overseeing me. Which is a good thing, but it will continue to be a little stressful until I figure things out a little more.

The good news is that I'm going to be growing cyanobacteria. This will involve green liquids in strange glassware, and bubbles. It's just what I always dreamed science would be like when I was a kid! (Or it will be, once I get it going.) And I've even got a secret lair for performing my mad science experiments! But I better not tell you too much about that.

I've got kind of a crazy-sounding project, but I'm actually more worried about getting scooped than I am about it not working. I'd rather try something cool and fail than do boring crap any day. Let's face it, there's a lot of other things I could be doing besides science. I just want to do something fun. But getting beat out in making the cool and fun thing would suck.

I listened to The Real Thing by Faith No More again today. I've talked about it in here before, but it's the single album I've listened to more than any other in my life (I listened to it at least once a day in seventh grade), and yet I never seem to get tired of it. Apparently the band wrote all the music for it first, and then hired Mike Patton to write and sing the lyrics after the fact. That seems to have resulted in a magical combination of old-school Faith No More metal-funk overlaid by Mike Patton's spacey, tripped-out, disturbing vocals. Things went downhill fast after that when Patton got involved in making the music, too, but The Real Thing hits just the right balance between the old Faith No More and the new, and is awesome.

Another album I've been listening to a lot lately is Neon Bible by The Arcade Fire. It is pitch perfect in capturing the zeitgeist. My zeitgeist, at least. And it has a great overall sound. I love it. Highly recommended to anyone who might read this.

Oh, this blog's eighth birthday was last month. I totally forgot about it. Go read old entries.

In closing, I was hit in the face by a bird while walking down the street the other day. That is all.

the lions and the lambs ain't sleeping yet,

greyarea

Diaryland