The Vitamin Supplement

Aside from the corporate headquarter's ploy to monitor the spending habits of all its customers, I really enjoy the health food store (http://www.thebetterhealthstore.com/) where I work. In general, the other employees are fun, the discount I get is rather fantastic, and there are tons of aged hippies to laugh at.

Other benefits of employment: the obvious pay check; breaking my frightening addiction to television (Lost, in particular); eventual health insurance; lots of free food (all the expired yogurt you can muster!); and we generally get to play the music we want.

Setbacks: living at home and working in a grocery store.

Things to live for: the World Cup (June 9, baby); the eventual time and money to head to LA to visit Brother; working out at the YMCA and the knowledge that I will be so buff someday it blow your mind; possibly getting into grad school (assuming I can get all my freaking letters of rec back and sent off).

Up for a challenge: what if I became a vegan? I mean, just for the hell of it. Just to see what it's like. Benefits: pretty healthy living and increased knowledge of the food industry and what makes what. I'm not a vegetarian for any reassons in particular (though I find the longer I am one, the more I feel strongly about it and find it ever more difficult to even think about eating meat).

In other news, I've been rather consumed by the Prophet cartoons controversy (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/4677976.stm) (remember, I've got link issues with the blogger and ibook). I feel strongly that it was the wrong thing to do to publish these cartoons. The initial offense - publishing a picture of the Prophet - is pretty offensive to Muslims (of which there are many in Europe - get used to it). Added to this, though, is the portrayal of the Prophet as a terrorist, implying that terrorism goes straight to the root of Islam, is an inherent part of the religion, that Muslims are, innately, terrorists. This particular image is not all that different from, say, a cartoon of Moses as the head of a bank, rubbing his grubby hands over a pile of money. In other words, it's racist (for lack of a better term) and hate-filled. Those are, in brief, my thoughts on the subjects.