Mentions of vegetarianism

Fish eggs

After seeing most all varieties of being proselytized at through my life, a friend (fishpi) is to be congratulated for finding an argument to which I really did respond "Hm, yes, you're right, I hadn't thought of it like that. I'm going to change my conviction on that topic."

Specifically, I'd never thought about fish eggs, just assumed without thinking they would be non-vegetarian. Fishpi pointed out in passing that they should be equally as acceptable as hens eggs, and he's perfectly right. (To be accurate, I think he just posed the question.) ( ="Of )

Contamination

When I was willing to eat food that's touched meat may seem inconsistent, but when I considered it, it wasn't particularly logical, but nor was it very unusual: it conforms exactly to when I'd be willing to eat food contaminated by, eg., a probably-clean table or floor.

That is, I'd not eat food that's been mixed with contamination, and would always prefer not to eat food that's been touched by contamination. And if I were more scrupulous or fastidious, I wouldn't, but as it happens, I'm happy to just ignore touching if it looks ok.

That's not a golden rule, it's just a self-analysis of how I happen to feel, which changes over time, but if you've ever wondered why on earth I did think like that, that analogy might provide intuitive if not analytical understanding :)

Vegetarian majority

I still notice, in passing, whenever a group of friends chances to be majority vegetarian. Tonight at bridge was 4:3 in favour. It's nice that it's common enough that I rarely do notice, I certainly can't remember very precisely who else is vegetarian.

Aura photography

For a couple of days I begged her indulgence to crash on her sumptuous couch, and dragged us both out of bed at dawn. She was always tightly controlled, so unused to company, but so lovely, dressing completely before coming down and making us both a cup of coffee and, as we quickly fell into the habit of, some French toast, finally unwinding enough I dared speak to her as we ventured out of the front door into the cool bright light of the pre-dawn.

To the east, the best horizon was to go out into the street and shoot down the length. She would stand, thawing, in the brilliant light, and I'd frame her head in front of the sun, in the least approved lighting orientation imaginable.

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Aura Photography

I barely had to try, the photos fell magically into place. The orange red sky quickly grew to overwhelm the image, until I had bold streaks of colour sliding across it, toward a small, bold silhouette of her head and shoulders.

Then the streaks of gold began to congeal into shapes, and one vast shape screaming down across the picture to envelope her. Different angles and different pictures showed the shape as different things. A broad ship, bucking wildly as streaks of canon-light fled sideways from its ports, blurry sails twisting in the sun rays above it.

An orange golden dragon, long as a street, bulky and elegant, made of thousands of parallel streaks… a splodge here were claws, and a stroke here wings, and here the silhouette of a head, mawing down to engulf the black silhouette of the woman.

A train, an old fashioned brass locomotive streaked with metallic pipes and golden piping, spewing hot plasma ash from two chimneys, and a couple of flares suggesting many many wheels stretching into the distance, and at the front a pointed cow-catcher driving hard towards…

I shuddered. But I still didn't know what this thing was. Maura might have sensed it, before asking me for a reading, but it might be something new coming, or something that had been with her all her life, she had never yet admitted. I liked her, and didn't know if I hoped this showed some long-standing tragedy in her own personality — which would be sad, but probably seem normal — or a disaster approaching, which would vindicate my positive impression of the lady, but I did not relish admitting to her…

xxx.

On the way to work

The guided busway now extends off to the horizon in both directions.

They have a sikh to wave at people when they cross. (Presumably to make sure no pedestrians wandering across, or green-lit vehicles, catastrophically intersect construction traffic going sideways.)

A guy was leading a horse, following by its foal, out of the science park. (The other day, there was a pony trap trotting round the park.)

I cycled to work and was overtaken by a learner driver. It's very sweet -- you can always tell, even if you can't see the markings, as the car always comes up, pauses, carefully pulls out, then moves past, then swings carefully in again. I always salute politely.

Reviews -- Zohan

I've decided to start saving myself a lot of pain and reviewing movies before I've seen them. In the first few seconds of the trailer, Don't Mess With The Zohan looked pretty promising, but then I realised:

* I'd confused Adam Sandler with Ben Stiller. (Both can play the same sort of nice-but-dumb jock/nerd, but Ben Stiller had been really good in several movies I hadn't even realised were him, on account of his acting, whereas Sandler always did ok, but I didn't really like anything he was in.)
* Zohan was not after all an Arab counter-terrorist special forces agent, but an Israeli one. That's still much more interesting than one from a pure Anglophile country, but much less interesting than I'd thought
* There was a lot of painfully embarrassing negative humour.

I might watch it on DVD, it looks like it has funny things in. And I'd still like to see the movie I thought it was. But judging from the IMDB reviews, it's an exquisitely Sandlerest movie, and you'll love it if you love Sandler movies, and vilify it if you don't.

ETA: If you haven't seen the movie, Sandler plays the top Israeli counter-terrorist agent, who retires to America to become a hairdresser. (And his old life catches up with him, and much juvenile and slapstick hijinks ensue.)

Hellboy II: The Generic Subtitle

Hellboy II is out! The trailer did not inspire me, but I still want to see it. Would anyone else like to join me on Friday, probably with dinner?