Chicago: Beef, Love and Understanding

Vegetarians in this thread. I may have asked this before, but what are your main reasons for not eating meat?

My reason was an inability to remedy the cognitive dissonance between enjoying the company of some live animals and then being willing to eat other animals. Plus I don't know that I could kill a pig or a cow, so I figured I shouldn't be eating it.

My reasons for being such a conflicted meat eater now are those plus the horror of factory farming and what that does to animals, human workers, the environment, and our other food. And also because it takes so many resources to support such a meat heavy diet and maybe if we ate lower on the food chain we could redistribute some resources, assuming of course a total paradigm shift as far as leadership goes.

Like, I have a general rule that I can't eat anything I've ever had as a pet. But then, I've known some pretty great ducks in my life and duck is really, really good. But how can I eat duck after knowing that ducks are kind of funny and interesting when they are alive?

I do like Amanda's approach to meat-eating, though. 2/3s vegetarian, 1/3 bacon-eating.

Jeff obv. already knows this, but I wanted to answer as a show of good faith that this isn't a meat eater's demand for vegetarians to JUSTIFY THEIR PERSONAL CHOICES but an attempt to learn things about stuff and junk.

Also, RTX is playing the Empty Bottle on May 7. No one cares about this except me.

yes, what Jenny said.

I am a vegetarian because Sarah told me to.

You see, that's a perfectly valid question, but I always hate answering it, because it puts me on the defensive. Also, it makes me feel like I'm preaching and tends to put other people in an argumentative mode, when I didn't feel like discussing it in the first place. At least you aren't bringing this up at a table where people are already eating meat. That's the worst. I guess my point is that I don't feel like turning it into THIS THING.

Never-the-less, I'll say that I honestly became a vegetarian out of peer pressure. I was 16 and had just started on my third new high school in a row. All my new friends were vegetarian. I'm talking at least 10 new friends were all vegetarian. They were really into it. Also, I found them all to be dazzlingly intelligent (I was in the International Baccalaureate program at that school) and took what they said seriously. And one day, one of them happened to show me one of those horribly graphic brochures that would make anyone want to kill themselves.

Also, I didn't eat much meat before that anyway, at least not for several years prior. I really wanted to be vegetarian in middle school, but my mom flat out wouldn't let me because she was worried I just wanted to diet. My inner urges to be veggie first flared when I saw Bambi in the theater (as a wee one). Then they came back full force in 8th grade when I had the popular teen obsession with death and my part in it and how crazy the world is... yadda yadda...

So fast forward to 16-year-old me who had basically been veggie for a few months before meeting these friends with the exception of the occasional slice of pepporoni pizza or piece of fish. It was easy to make the transition.

That said, I was not a healthy veggie to begin with, because that wasn't the point for me. It was more about animal rights. In fact, it was all about animal rights. So I ate a bunch of crap (french fries & coke played a big part). In the past few years, my diet has taken a 180 in that I've been paying a lot more attention to what I put into my body, but I think that is all about GROWING UP and has little to do with my vegetarianism.

Mostly it's habit now and it's easy and I believe in my reasons for doing it, so I don't see why I'd change that. Also, our society has become a hell of a lot more vegetarian friendly. Most restaurants, for example, have at least one, but usually a few more, vegetarian entrees. Vegetarian groceries (ie: veggie soup with no chicken stock for example) are so much easier to come by. Also, my knowledge of food, especially ethnic vegetarian foods, is a lot bigger now, so I have a lot more healthy options.

As I said, I dont' like talking about it. I don't like arguing about it. I think everyone should just make their own food choices/ decide for themselves. I have been constantly amazed at how many people talk to me about vegetarianism as though I'm trying to change them.

Like, I have a general rule that I can't eat anything I've ever had as a pet. But then, I've known some pretty great ducks in my life and duck is really, really good. But how can I eat duck after knowing that ducks are kind of funny and interesting when they are alive?


this is why i always imagine cows as having little hitler moustaches. it makes the steak taste that much better.

I imagine RTX would be pretty fun at the Bottle, but I've never really checked them out. How similar/not are they to Royal Trux?

For the record, I'm a meat eater. Hard to grow up on a farm in central Illinois and not be, but I've grown to be more conscious of my choices.

one of those horribly graphic brochures that would make anyone want to kill themselves

They got me, too! They still get me.

RTX is probably closest to "Accelerator," the super-distorted overcompressed yet poppy version of Royal Trux (and probably my favorite Royal Trux album). It's a little hair-metally as well. OK, very hair-metally. Transmaniacon was my favorite album of 2004, and everyone here was probably really sick of me talking about it.

(not that I think you think I'm trying to change you, Jeff)

Also, I just said I don't like to talk about it but LOOK AT THAT POST. ha ha

Don't read the following if you're queasy:
I forgot to reference all of my encounters with death, especially animal death, when I lived on the farm in middle school. During my few years there I saw dead birds, parts of deer (and had to pick them up), dead cats (had to move them out of the road/usually not ours! or would find one trampled by a horse or one killed by a dog...), dead rodents and squirrels and such killed by our cats and dogs, a dead pony, dead snakes (didn't mind that one), dead fish, and a few dead kittens. Also, I had to deal with the deaths of a couple of relatives during this time. This made me feel even more protective of animals, which would include not wanting to eat them.

The only time I tried to go veggie was in high school. My mom was such a horrible cook that all the meat she prepared was dry, under seasoned, and tasteless. I thought that was how all meat tasted so I wanted no part of it.

Once I left home, I learned how wonderful well prepared meat can taste and have never looked back. I like vegetables too.

I got a book about animal cognition for Christmas. I need to start reading that, I wonder if it will change any of my current beliefs about animal consciousness.

I'm willing to go veg again! It will be easier if we both try it.

i want a steak for breakfast.

hey, is it payday this friday? if so i'm going out for a steak.

No way sister, I'm still in my meat renaissance.

CHICAGO: Meat Renaissance.

It would make a logical follow-up to "Beef, Love and Understanding."

Chicago, give me one good reason why I should go to class today instead of going home and studying for the MPRE and possibly doing some laundry?

because the sidewalks are covered in snow and everyone seems disagreeable today and it's still that soul-crushing grey wasteland and.... i got nothing. stay home.

Kevin's reasons sound OTM and good enough for me. Too bad I've already left the house.

Anyone else have problems with artwork randomly not showing up for songs on their iPod? I've searched all the forums and all the answers revolve around unchecking the album art option and rechecking it again, but mine keeps getting errors when I recheck it again. So now I have cover art for like, 1/32nd, of the songs on there.

i think i only have artwork for the two songs i bought from itunes and they always show up.

I did mad laundry yesterday. It was satisfying. Clean undies + clean sheets + cat-hair-free duvet cover (for about a minute) + clean fluffy towels + clean socks. All these things are awesome things.

Kenan, I love that feeling.

I'm pretty meticulous about the cover art for all the albums I have, but then, when I think about it, why? It's just one more little administrative duty concerning my music files. I am starting to think that administrative duties concerning your music files are for big nerds.

considering my ipod is in my jacket pocket 98% of the time i don't care what's being displayed on the screen.

this is why i always imagine cows as having little hitler moustaches. it makes the steak taste that much better.

Deserves to be repeated, in italics.

I tried being a vegetarian once. It lasted for about 3 weeks. I love meat, and I while I've grown soft, I could probably slaughter my own animals, though I would probably have a hard time with a duck (but not a chicken so much). This is probably because my dad was a farmer and we always had animals around that we were killing and eating (chix and sheep anyway).

I sort of do what Amanda does--I eat and enjoy meat, but I love non-meat as well, so I will often order or cook non-meat options. Plus part of the time I buy free-range meat, and it is a goal to do so more often.

Exactly.

Ok, you know why I do it? For the screensaver on my desktop. You can set it up to display all the artwork in your iTunes library, tiled. And the tiles flip around and change one at a time, randomly. It's hypnotizing. I look at it and go, "Man, I'm so cool."

uh, xpost

I only got an iPod that can display covers last week, but like Kevin I never look at it anyway.

I fired up Slsk this morning for the first time in, like, a year. It was kind of nostalgic.

I know, I only fire up slsk for single tracks, and on special occasions. Like the other day, when I suddenly HAD to have the theme to The Third Man.

Let me tell you about my dream. I was living in the town Freddy Kreuger lived in, but we were kind of friends, but YOU HAVE TO KEEP A CLOSE EYE ON THAT FUCKER! Anyway, there was a guy in the town who was known for being a womanizer and beating his wife, so we got Freddy to hang out with him. We thought he'd kill him, but instead he either invaded his body or he followed him around anywhere, because when he was at work as a cashier he stood very still and spoke in a monotone.

fascinating.

Thanks, dream journal.

I keep getting exciting messages about people that want to be my Myspace friend, and then I find out it's just another wild young college girl. WILD YOUNG COLLEGE GIRLS, LEAVE ME BE.

This last one had a picture of her sitting on the toilet. I did not need that. No one ever needs that.

yes, "college" girls.

They are in college! And they are wild! And young! And apparently they use the toilet from time to time! It's fucking amazing!

I got one the other day that was just a picture of an ass. That's all, just an ass.

i just get spam from "girls" and their spartan profiles usually include a link to their "photos". i have never once clicked one of those links but i'm willing to bet i'd need a credit card to see anything interesting.

you're ahead of the game. You are one click up on me.

I almost always report friend requests from people I don't know as spam. Fuck that shit. Myspace is annoying enough on its own.

Hum's "Why I Like the Robins" just came up on shuffle. YESSSsssssss...

Hi peeps

sometimes I get friend requests from strangers that are record labels or something like that. Those I don't mind.

Whoa. Hum. I haven't thought about that band in forevs.

i just fucked up my netflix queue and now i'm getting easy money instead of we jam econo in time for the weekend. though i suppose if i blow through a dvd tonight (unlikely with it being lost night and all) i could get the first disc of the two in time for saturday viewing. assuming my mail carrier decides on delivering mail this weekend.

For a while we had a myspace friend named "Luna" who would post animated gifs of her slapping her thong-clad ass as comments. I just assumed that this was ILX's Luna, which is why I felt bad about blocking her comments. Then we figured out it was just some random myspacer, so now I just ignore her comments.

I'm used to requests from people I don't know through the band myspace, but the hot girl ones are almost always spam.

i don't have the "block requests from bands" thing turned on (though i'm tempted sometimes) but i would say about 95% of band requests are denied. and 95% is probably conservative. there are a whole lot of really bad, popular bands in chicago. apparently.