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Atlanta Farm Sanctuary Walk, 2006

Originally uploaded by moria.

My very first FS walk was a great experience. Lots of people turned out from all over the Southeast, many with their dogs. It was hard to tell who was more excited, actually.

The rallying point was the parking lot of Sevananda, which (if you’re not familiar with it) is a completely kick-ass co-op that has an almost entirely vegan deli — and everything vegan is clearly labeled as such. Lurrrve Sevananda. Anyway, after the official t-shirts were distributed and donations collected, we started off on what was rather a longer walk than I’d expected: winding through the Highlands a couple of blocks past my flat, then back up into Little Five Points and down Euclid before winding up back at Sevananda. I’m not sure how far it was, exactly, but it did take close to an hour and a half.

Sadly, the “lightweight cow costume” mentioned in the organizer’s e-mail did not make an appearance. Alas; I was rather looking forward to that. I didn’t carry a sign, having brought Nigel along; I felt that I needed to concentrate on keeping him from wandering into traffic, even on a short leash, and didn’t want the distraction of carrying a sign. For anyone close enough, I figured my “Praise Seitan” t-shirt would make my stance clear.

I wish I’d gotten a photograph of some of the kids, who’d brought homemade signs. I think my favorite was a little girl’s “Peace to All Animals” sign, of which she seemed quite proud — and rightly so.

It was particularly nice that quite a few people honked their horns in support as we walked along. Okay, one guy yelled “Fuck you!” but that was honestly the only hostile incident I witnessed; we just smiled and waved back. The best bit, I think, was when this guy sitting in an outdoor cafe started yelling, “Yeah! Right on! I support you!” as we passed, perplexing the other patrons but making all the walkers grin like maniacs.

Nigel had a great time, bounding along and sniffing everything; he kept up beautifully. People kept asking how old he was, and were astonished that an 11-year-old dog has so much energy and stamina. (It’s partially his nature, and partially his thyroid meds, but I also think his veg diet helps. He loves it, and the vet says his bloodwork is the best it’s been in years.) On the other hand, though he kept up better than a lot of the younger dogs on the long walk, he was clearly in the “I’m sooo happy, but soooo tired” stage by the time we got back to the flat. He’s currently conked out on the futon, completely insensible to the world.

Thanks to everyone who donated, either to my fundraising attempts or to anyone else’s! Your contributions will make a real difference in the lives of animals who’ve already been through amazing ordeals. Yay us!

• HSUS Take Action: Ben & Jerry’s: Thank You!
  B&J is phasing out use of eggs from caged hens. It’s at least a step in the right direction; write them and say thanks! (And you might encourage them to work on vegan desserts while you’re at it. Market forces, you know.)
  (tags: hsus benandjerrys chickens eggs cagefree)

My lovely new MacBook arrived today. I’m still getting used to the keyboard — I keep putting my right hand one key too far over to the left, so if I make any more typos than is usual, that’s why. (Yeah, that’s it.)

Still trying to get used to the new OS and the funky layout, as well as the usual new-computer “What crap did they put on this thing that I’ll never, ever use?” adventures. Also can’t get online without a cord — my building has Mysterious WiFi, but it’s not very reliable (not surprising, because no one knows why we get it, or from where). I’ll have to go to Starbucks tomorrow over lunch and try connecting from there.

I did find the whole process of taking the user picture for my account to be endlessly entertaining, though. I mugged my way through several shots of varying badness, until I finally settled (for the moment, at least) on one of me rolling my eyes. Might as well look the way I usually do, after all. . . . I think I’m really going to enjoy the built-in camera, especially if I ever find someone with whom I can iChat.

By the way, why do all my computers — well, both of them — have remotes? I suppose it kind of makes sense on the PC, because it’s also set up as a video recorder, but I hardly think a 13-inch* notebook computer is going to be all that usable much beyond arm’s length. What am I overlooking here?

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*Um, where’s the calculator on this thing? never mind, found the mobile phone, and can use that . . . okay, so 13 inches is roughly 330 mm. Good to know.

• Tennant Eps in One Week!
  SciFi starts showing series 2 of Doctor Who on Sept. 29, just in case you haven’t been flying to the U.K. weekly to catch the original airings. (David Tennant is adorable as the Doctor. Go watch!)
  (tags: scifi television tv doctorwho geek fun)
• Doctors Without Borders: Refugee Camp Exhibit in Piedmont Park
  In Piedmont Park’s meadow, Sept. 27-Oct. 1: an exhibit on what it’s like to be in a refugee camp. Also, a Congo photo exhibit at the Tula, until Oct. 7.
  (tags: politics doctorswithoutborders humanrights humanwelfare refugees)

• The Local - Ohly apologises for one-fingered salute
  Hey, at least Swedish politics seem interesting and lively — even though the centrist party won the recent elections.
  (tags: sweden politics)

• Take Action: Urge POM Wonderful to Drop Deadly Animal Tests
  Not only expensive as hell, but mean, too.Why exactly is it necessary to do animal testing on freakin’ fruit juice? (Via Sarah Kramer.)
  (tags: animaltesting activism)

P. Ole Fanger died today. He was a prolific researcher and quite brilliant in his field — and of course had the added distinction of being the only engineer, to my uncertain knowledge, who was mentioned by name in a Dave Barry column.

Rather sad. It’s almost akin to how I felt when I learned that B.F. Skinner had died: someone who made outstanding contributions in his field is no longer with us, and even if you’ve never met the man, you somehow feel poorer for the loss.

I seriously need a minion to take care of this sort of thing for me. All I want is a room somewhere, far away from the cold night air[1] — but convenient to public transportation, preferably within walking distance of at least one or two vegan-friendly restaurants or grocery stores (and a pub nearby wouldn’t hurt, either). Internet access, please; preferably WiFi, but I’m not too picky. Parking is irrelevant. Cheap is good, though the more I look the more okay I find myself becoming with “more than I pay for a month’s mortgage”; I’m okay with dingy and kind of sad-looking, because most of the time I’ll be in the room, I’ll be asleep, or possibly whining about how sore my feet are. On the other hand, I’d rather not be out in the ‘burbs, and a handy location can cost a bit. Ensuite, if at all possible (go ahead, call me a wimp; I’ll live). I can live without fancy-schmancy interior design, and could hardly care less about whether there’s a gym, spa, or restaurant in the hotel. Just a bed, Internet, bath and assorted related fixtures, and a door with a lock on it. Doesn’t even have to be a particularly good lock.

Of course, there’s also the seductive appeal of the Good Story Hotel. There’s the LÃ¥ngholmen Hotel, which used to be a prison. That would be kind of cool. However, I’m kind of leaning toward the old: possibly this one (even though one of their room photographs includes leather-upholstered chairs, the point of which I have never seen), which is apparently in Gamla Stan (the particularly old bit of town). It should be convenient to the Medeltidsmuseet and transportation . . . or maybe I should go with something more in Södermalm[2]. . . .

Whoever provided Glorificus with her minions in series 5 of Buffy, would you please send a few along to me?

(Aside: Please, would somebody else please donate to my walk for Farm Sanctuary? Please? Anybody? I know it says my goal is $500 and I’ve only got the $50 I donated myself; it was in a fit of unbridled [ha] and foolish optimism that I typed that. I’ll take spare change, really. Canadian coins. Old bottlecaps. Pocket fluff, even.)

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[1] Great, now I’ve got that song stuck in my head. Sorry if I’ve inflicted it on anyone else.

[2] Wasn’t sure until tonight whether Swedish subs an extra e for an umlaut when you’ve got an umlautless keyboard and can’t remember the ASCII code[3] for the letters you need. It appears that what I’ve been viewing as be-umlauted characters are, in Svenska, actually treated mostly as letters in their own right. Thus, I’ve been screwing it up badly. Yipe. ö = ATL + 0246; Ã¥ = ALT + 0229. Yet more stuff I must remember now. (On the other hand, while trying to find out the answer to this burning question, I discovered that Wikipedia has a link that lets you listen to the German alphabet read out loud. In my present weakened state, I found this endlessly entertaining.)

[3] Favorite ASCII code of all time: ALT + 0254, which makes the thorn character: þ. As was pointed out on the BBC news magazine page yonks ago, it’s very useful for emoticons — :þ.

One of my beloved Saturday rituals is listening to Wait, Wait — Don’t Tell Me live streams. In the past, this has been a fairly simple process: go to NPR Web page at 11:00, click “Streaming Media,” wait for the separate media player to open, and cross my fingers that Mo Rocca will be one of this week’s panelists.

No longer. For some reason, NPR has changed their media setup so that you have to have the Windows Media Player plugin to listen to live streams. There is, of course, no such plugin for Firefox, or at least not one that FF or I can find, and I’ll be damned if I use Internet Explorer more than I absolutely have to. The new “Listen Live” link also resizes your window — the entire window, not just the active tab — to the most impractical size imaginable, with a big ad for Pike’s Nursery in it.

Why, NPR, why? This is cruel and inhumane.Yes, I can listen to the podcasts at my convenience, and those are great for when I miss a show or am otherwise busy at the appointed time, but there’s something satisfying about listening to it as it goes out over the airwaves. It’s just what I do if I’m at home late on a Saturday morning. (No, I can’t just listen to it over the regular radio, because my reception sucks; streaming media is much clearer, without the static, volume bursts, and interference; I could go out and sit in my car to listen to it live, but that would just be silly.)

Gah. I’m all sulky now.

Now that my leukocytes have mostly beaten back the Dread Germs Roberts and I’m more or less in the land of the living and semicoherent again, I thought I’d briefly revisit “Rock Against Floyd,” the free CD sent with my order from the Secret Society of Vegans. At the time, I’d been somewhat nonplussed — it seemed to be a leftover from a 2005 tour, which seemed rather odd — but now I’ve had time to absorb the content a bit, and it’s actually become one of my favorite CDs. (To give you an idea, I usually listen to Fenric the iPod on shuffle, but more and more I find myself just switching to this album instead. The people along my usual commute path are probably getting pretty sick of it by now.)

The weirdest thing is that I actually like pretty much every song on the CD. That hardly ever happens; in fact, I don’t recall a single other album that didn’t have at least one song that sent me lunging for the fast-forward/skip button. This might be a small problem, because there are 10 different artists represented, and if I’m going to buy CDs from all of them, that adds up to a considerable expense that I don’t really need right now (what with the upcoming MacBook and other Sweden-trip-related purchases). The songs range from what I’d consider fairly standard but good alt-rock, through metal, and into punk — for what my opinion’s worth, at least, because I’m hardly a music classification expert.

The top contenders right now for early purchase, though, are probably the artists whose songs I find myself craving periodically: Rise Against, the Real McKenzies (Quicktime link to audio), the Soviettes, and the Epoxies (Quicktime link to video). I particularly like the last one, because, you know, you just don’t get enough social commentary set to heavy synthesizer music these days. :D