The Snackafark of Emar

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Except this one was more of a nightmare. There were zombies! They hadn't completely taken over, but they were out there, and at one point a zombie caused me to flee a house via window. I ended up in a truck with a girl, driving through downtown Boston. An anaconda suddenly appeared in the cab with us, and the girl freaked out a little, but I told her it was fine, I'd handle it. I gathered up the snake and told the girl to open the window. Suddenly, zombies attacked! I threw the snake at them and the snake swallowed one of them while we made our getaway.

Did I mention that I hate zombies? They scare the daylights out of me. Or maybe this dream was a metaphor for swine flu.

Happy birthday, dragonwhishes! I hope you had a wonderful day!

I am in the mood to write about the movie I saw last week -- Food, Inc.

Oh, on a slightly related aside, I have been a pescetarian for a year now. I had planned to just do it for a few months, but I guess it stuck with me. I still don't feel deprived.

The movie is a documentary about the food industry in the United States, and how it really isn't healthy for the environment, the animals, the farmers, or the consumers. Who is benefiting from the way things are currently? Why, giant corporations, of course.

( A total tangent about corn. )

I was surprised by this movie. I thought I would be the most upset about what they had to say about animals, but what really pissed me off was what they had to say about how people were being treated. The farmers are bullied and persecuted by the corporations. Monsanto, in particular, likes to squish soybean farmers under its heel. It patented a genetically-modified soybean that is resistant to its pesticide. 90% of the conventional soybeans we eat are this kind. Monsanto sells the beans to the farmers, but due to patent law, the farmers are not allowed to save any beans. Monsanto sues the crap out of anyone they suspect might be saving beans, even if they have no proof. One farmer is trying to grow another kind of soybean, but because all his neighbors grow the Monsanto kind, there is cross-pollination. Monsanto wants to sue him, claiming he is stealing their beans!

I'm not even going to go into how the illegal immigrants are treated by slaughterhouses, but it was really heart-breaking. In the 1970s, there were thousands of small slaughterhouses. Now there are only 13. Thirteen for the whole country! That means that all the tainted meat out there goes through these thirteen. A pound of hamburger from the grocery store literally has thousands of different cows mixed together. It's a recipe for disaster. The worst part is, the USDA doesn't even have the authority to shut down a slaughterhouse if it has too many cases of e coli or salmonella.

Anyway, this movie was pretty much preaching to the choir for me, but it was still an eye-opener.

Steven says some odd things in his sleep. Early this morning, I was treated to this gem:

"Let's try the positive nuclear radioactive experience."

I asked him to elaborate, but all I got afterward was gibberish.

So, the kitchen is more or less operational again, and with a really awesome new bento set from Laptop Lunches, I was back in the bento-making mood.

FYI, I did not order my laptop lunch online, a local store called Cambridge Naturals was selling them. They're a little pricey, but their plastic is food-safe, colorful, and the perfect size for me!

Onto the bentos!


Bento #68: marinated mushroom pasta salad with mini heirloom tomatoes, an apple/hummus/chedder cheese sandwich (my new favorite sandwich), apple pieces and kumquats!

( Rest of the bentos behind here )

There you have it, folks! It feels great to be making bentos again.

Out of all the tribute stuff, this is by far the best:

http://www.eternalmoonwalk.com/

(thanks to descant for finding it.

I'm in the paper today. :)

http://www.metro.us/us/news/boston/

I hope you all are not getting sick of me writing about my new bike, but I really love it!

Today, Steven and I rode to MIT and saw some baby geese along the way. After a brief lunch at the food trucks (more on that later), I headed to Bicycle Bill's because my handlebars were loose. The same guy who sold me the bike tightened it back up, then put a front and rear reflector on my bike. And he didn't charge me anything! Then I rode home.

For those of you who have never been to MIT, there are a couple of food trucks on campus. The most popular is a thai food truck called Gooseberry's (the truck used to belong to a catering service. There's a bear holding a pie on the side of the truck that has zero to do with thai food). The food is cheap, but it is NASTY. It doesn't help that there's a lot of it, either. Steven eats it nearly every day, of course. Yuck!

Well, there is a new food truck in town! It is called Cloverfood lab and it is awesome! It's vegetarian, local, and organic when possible. I had a brown sugar lemonade with some rosemary french fries, and Steven had a BBQ seitan sandwich. Everything looked good, and it wasn't much more than the other food trucks. The only downside is that they run out of food fast.

You can even follow them on Twitter to find out if they have run out of anything or are having specials. Too cute!

The dream started out a little scary -- I was on a spacestation with several scientists. One of the scientists was infected with a virus that made him possessed by an evil alien. He attacked me and bit my hand, but I managed to wrap my other hand around my wrist so the virus couldn't spread. I pressed an alarm and told everyone to escape while they could. One woman wanted to stay with me, but I made her go on with everyone else, leaving me alone with evil guy.

Evil guy taunted me, telling me to give in and let the virus take over, but I wouldn't listen to him. Somehow I got him locked in a glass cabinet, and then I began rummaging aorund a medical supply closet, because I had an idea on how to remove the virus from my system. Evil guy then got upset because his plan to infect the whole space station was ruined.

Fast forward a few months. Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock (from the new movie) were investigating the death of a high level-spy. We were returning to the space station, because the virus had something to do with the spy's death. I tried to make small talk with Spock but he was uninterested.

We arrived at the glass case where Evil guy had been locked up, and I warned that he might still be around somehow, perhaps as a spider. He was a spider, but fortunately he was dead. There was a bowl of soupy goup that was the remnants of the virus. Kirk took a sample and then we went back to the Enterprise. There were drops of red stuff in the goup, like oil drops on water, and Kirk was somehow able to extract these drops and turn them into film. We watched the film, and it was about the man who became possessed and then killed the spy. The film showed him going crazy and then staring at a bag full of maggots. The maggots had eaten into the bag and made it look like The Scarecrow's mask. Somehow this was significant.

I woke up at this point, but I thought that was a pretty exciting dream!

At the Kendall Square T stop, there was a man wearing a hat, dress shirt, black sneakers...

AND NO PANTS!

Also, he was smoking a cigarette.

I have tried not letting a lack of a kitchen stop me from making bentos, but honestly, this might be my last batch until the kitchen is finally done.

( I eat a lot of peanut butter and bananas )

My favorite of this batch, probably because of all the orange. Leftover lobster ravioli, baby carrots, and grapes.

I loved it!

You don't have to be a fan of Star Trek (or know much about it) to enjoy the film. It's action-packed and has good timing. The plot is a little weak, but there aren't any glaring plot holes, and the premise of the story itself allows for, shall we say, continuity errors. I think it's more fun if you are a Star Trek fan, because then you can giggle a little whenever one of the characters says a catch phrase, but it's not a necessity.

The casting is AWESOME. I loved Chris Pine (Kirk). I didn't think about Spock cutting people's heads open or Sulu driving the Enterprise to White Castle (much). Simon Pegg was SO CUTE as Scotty, I wish he had been in more of the movie. The guy playing Chekov looked about twelve years old, but he's supposed to be seventeen, so I guess that makes sense.

There are REAL aliens in the movie, not just humans with prosthetic foreheads. Thank goodness for CGI.

TYLER PERRY is in the movie, WTF is he doing there. He's just playing some random Starfleet Academy guy, too.

Anyway, I really liked it, and I think people who enjoy action-packed science fiction will like it, too.

Spoilers will probably be in the comments because I want to hear what other people who have seen it thought!

I first heard saw Tricycle Guy when I was a graduate student at BU. He rode down Commonwealth Ave, yelling "OOOOH AAAAAH OOOOOH AAAAAAH" the entire way. It was quite the sight! Since then, I've seen him on Massachusetts Ave in Cambridge and near the end of the E line in Jamaica Plain. I never knew anything about him, though, until this little documentary popped up on Universal Hub:

http://www.universalhub.com/node/24881

Of all the eccentrics in Boston, he's my favorite.

This has been on my mind for a little while -- bloggers.

I don't consider myself a blogger because this journal is mostly friends only and I only write about my day-to-day life. Until recently, I haven't felt a pressing need to have my Voice heard, or to try to Make a Difference in the blogosphere. I'll admit, I'm toying with the idea of writing a completely public blog, perhaps about animals, but I wouldn't write a public blog about my personal life.

I don't know if you remember the entry I wrote several weeks ago about finding a new blogger to read, only to be turned off by her negativity. Well, my "psycho" radar was working very well, because it turns out she isn't just negative -- she is nuts. She spends her days insulting and spreading vitriolic about other bloggers, and has been doing so for several years. I don't know how she got embroiled into an endless flame war with other bloggers, but really, after several years, I don't think it matters who started it anymore.

It turns out, the internet is full of crazy bloggers. The most common kind is the crazy mommy blogger. These are women who write about their children in way too much detail, offering information that borders on inappropriate. In response, there are several blogs that tear apart these mommy bloggers, exposing their foibles. Their comments can be very hateful. The whole thing is set up like a drama machine.

I think I know where their hate comes from -- they are jealous. I have a theory about jealousy -- we aren't often too jealous of people who work really hard to get what they have. People usually see their talent and appreciate that. People get REALLY jealous of people who didn't do anything special to earn their fame and/or fortune. Consider how many people try to tear Paris Hilton down. She's a celebrity only because she's wealthy, and she didn't even earn her wealth.

In the case of the mommy bloggers, they happened to become famous just through writing about their kids. Now, I'm sure the really popular ones worked hard in their own way, designing their websites and promoting themselves to get noticed. I think there are a lot of unsuccessful bloggers (and mommies) who look at these women and think, "What's the big deal? I write a blog, too. But I don't have thousands of people reading me and I don't get free stuff. GRAAAR I HATE HER!"

Now, you all know I love internet drama. So when I first discovered these sites, I read and clicked and surfed and read some more. But you know how it is when you have a big bag of candy, and you really love the candy so you keep eating and eating, but eventually you feel sick? That's how I feel about all this blogging drama. I gorged myself and now I feel gross.

Ultimately, these are just people writing on the internet. They aren't DOING anything. They probably don't deserve their fame, but at the same time, they don't deserve endless vitriol.

That's my 2 cents. Now, where's my free stuff?!?! ;)

Read the blurb entitled Caught Mash Potato Handed.

I used to read the Daily Free Press police blogs when I was in school. It was my favorite article.

Young man to friend: "Samurai attack?" Did I do this last night? Why would I search for "samurai attack" on my cell phone?

I took this bento to the aquarium, and thus wanted something that wouldn't need to be refrigerated (the fresh 'n fit does come with an ice pack, but I was worried it would make the sandwich mushy). That's a PB&J with carrots, mac 'n cheese, bananas on skewers and mini-waffles.



This is my attempt at an Easter bento. I used my new rabbit egg mold for the hard-boiled egg, and it worked great! Mr. Bunny is in a magical garden of grape tomatoes, mushrooms, carrots, avocado, and spinach (along with some mint chutney). There's more mac 'n cheese on the left, a peanut butter egg and prunes on top of candy grass on the right.

But... where's the ham, you ask?



Not gonna lie. I touched it. ^o^

I think this show is awful, but I was flipping channels yesterday and watched a few minutes of one episode.

Miley's brother is being "stalked" by a girl, which I found creepy and not funny at all. The stalker girl was very rude and a little scary. In an age when tweens and teens are sometimes stalked online and in person, I don't think adding a laugh track to the situation made things funny.

But anyway. The stalker girl is environmentally conscious and refuses to serve anything on plates or in cups at the little snack shack where she works. The lights on the snack shack flicker and she sighs and says, "Must be the new generator. Well, you get what you pay for."

The "generator" is Ed Begley Jr. on a stationary bike! I have to admit, I chuckled at that cameo.

Then, a little later in the episode, Miley's friend is wearing a vest that I own. Seriously. It's my heart argyle vest that I bought at H&M, and this 16-year-old girl is also wearing it. On TV! I said, "Hey, that vest looks familiar..." and then guffawed. Does this mean I am cool?

The show really is awful, though.