They have no idea

I despise reality shows and I cannot tolerate reading nor watching anything that has to do with celebrities, wannabe "celebrities", and rich, spoiled kids. There are some exceptions of course such as Joaquin Phoenix or Bob Barker, who have dedicated their time, donated their money, and utilized their "celebrity-ism" in campaigns against animal cruelty.

Back to my rant. Jersey Shore is stupid, Khloe & Lamar is stupid, The Rich Housewives of {insert city here} is stupid, Keeping up with the Kardashians is stupid, Kate plus 8 is stupid, The Bachelor is stupid. It's ALL stupid. These people get paid to create drama and to show the world how materialistic, ignorant, selfish, lazy, apathetic, and clueless they can be. Their lavish lifestyles are SO different from what many Americans live. Why do people watch that trash?

It sometimes is close to impossible to go on the interwebz or turn on the television without having to hear, see, or read about celebrities and rich heiresses, rich prince and princesses, who have NO IDEA what it is like to live out in the REAL WORLD. 

In a nutshell, my blood boils when I read about this :

A 20 something year old heiress who has never worked a day in her life buys a $150 million dollar mansion:

photo credit: here 

while the rest of the US has to deal with this:

photo credit: here 

and this....

Then I hear about 4 year old Suri Cruise's $3.2 MILLION - to rumored up to $13 MILLION dollar wardrobe....

While OTHER children in the world endure this until they die....

photo credits: searched on google images

This is yet another post as to why I turned agnostic......

It's just not fair.

Native Foods Vegan Chocolate Pie

I wish I could have one of these right now. Perhaps I shall dream of it tonight.....

Awwwww....

Yesterday, DB surprised me with some roses. I love you DB!

The Lake

I jogged/walked 10 miles yesterday. Here's a pic of The Lake that I go around. Pretty eh?

Reaction to Financial Crisis

The Pimienta Family

James Richard Verone (bank robber) & Alfredo/Georgina Pimienta (suspected of murdering their 2 children before both committing suicide. What do these folks have in common?

The failing economy caused them to act in drastic ways. 

Let's back up. James Richard Verone, age 59, robbed a bank for $1 in order to get medical care that he desperately needed. He handed the bank teller a note demanding $1, waited for the police to arrive, and asked to go to jail so that they could address his medical concerns. He had worked for Coca-cola for 17 years, was laid off, and due to physical ailments, could not perform at his part-time job. 

Mr. Verone, suffered from back pain, pain in his left foot, arthritis, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and a protrusion on his chest. He had no healthcare insurance, and news report indicate that he did not qualify for social security nor disability. His health plummeted and became unbearable to the point where he decided his only way to receive the health care he urgently needed was to rob a bank.

The Pimienta Family

Alfredo, 44, and Georgina Pimienta, 38, shared their single-story home with their daughters, Priscilla, 17, and Emily, 9. San Diego police found the family all dead in their home last month. Further investigation has many suspecting that Mr. Pimienta killed his wife and children before committing suicide. Suicide notes found in the home indicate that the parents may have planned this murder-suicide. Why? Family have reported that the family, along with experiencing personal tragedy, were also struggling financially.

I could continue. But I won't. There are many more similar stories of how financial despair have caused many people to commit suicide. They have caused others to rob banks, burglarize people, and turn to crime.

I urge you to read this article from 2009: The Financial Crisis Is Driving Hordes of Americans to Suicide

and also read some of the comments by others in response to article: Rising suicide rate worldwide linked to economic crisis, experts say. Their comments only confirmed my belief that this world is a mess and that there is no god.

The rich run America. The rich run the world. The rich also don't have to worry about not having enough money to see a doctor, or not having enough money to pay their mortgage. This world is evil.  More importantly, how can America allow this to happen?

In my opinion, Mr. & Mrs. Pimienta did their children a favor. Out of love, they selflessly ended their children's lives so that the children would not have to suffer and endure the unfairness and atrocities of this world. 

Loving Hut

I went to Loving Hut again today and ordered some items "to go".  I fully support 100% Vegan restaurants. I noticed the ingredients of most items consist mainly of soy. They offer a wide selection of Asian Food and also offer a "Western Specialties" section of the menu which includes hamburger and sandwiches. To view the menu at their San Diego location, click here.

The menu for Loving Hut varies at different locations (they may offer some dishes at one place and not on another place). I must also say, their Thai Ice Tea was UBER tasty!! I ordered their Pho last weekend. It was satisfying, but at the same time, it didn't live up to the hype. Regardless, here are some of their delicious Vegan food!

Pandan Cake

Spicy Cha Cha: soy "shrimp" served with brown rice

Cheese bread

Tiramisu

Closer look at the soy "shrimp"

Cheesecake

Vegan food is so scrumptious! Loving Hut was inspired by Supreme Master Ching Hai. A book called, "From Crisis to Peace", written by Supreme Master Ching Hai, was placed on top of each table at the restaurant and anyone could take it home if they wished. I took it home and read about 70% of the book. I had never heard of her before, so I did some research on Supreme Master Ching Hai and found that although she has dedicated her time to charity and humanitarianism, some "controversies" exist surrounding this individual. I have yet to do more research on the matter...

Anyway, i suggest if you come across a Loving Hut, to give it a try!

Ginger

Meet Ginger. She's our diabetic cat. A former stray turned spoiled kitty. We give her insulin shots twice a day. 

Mt. Woodson Hike

Just wanted to share some photos of a hike DB and I did on New Years Eve 2010.

Located in Poway, CA. Mt. Woodson has 2000 FT Elevation gain (compared to Mt. Cowles @ 1,591 feet elevation). Apparantly there are a couple ways to hike up Mt. Woodson. We decided to start at Lake Poway.

Beginning of the hike...

Moving along... 2.9 MILES TO GO TO REACH THE TOP!!!!

Scenery was beautiful. Take a look at the next few photos....

Things I'd like to share about the hike..

*Along the way, hikers TWICE my age sprinted past us!

*Fellow hikers were really friendly, saying "hi" as we passed them. (note: with the exception of college aged hikers, they just ignored us)

*There were also quite a few RUNNERS running up and down the hill

*We did make it to the top and saw the famous "Potato Chip Rock" and the cell phone tower things.

Hiking down, my knees took a beating, but it was worth the hike.

So the pedometer says....

20,000 STEPS AND 1126 CALORIES BURNED!!!

We started the hike at 10AM and finished at 2PM.

We are NOT carnivores

So you think Humans have canines??

THESE are canines!!

I was overjoyed to have come across this article. Below is an excerpt of the article taken from the Celestial Healing website. I urge you to read the entire article ;)

When you look at the comparison between herbivores and humans, we compare much more closely to herbivores than meat eating animals. Humans are clearly not designed to digest and ingest meat.

Meat-eaters: have claws

Herbivores: no claws

Humans: no claws

Meat-eaters: have no skin pores and perspire through the tongue

Herbivores: perspire through skin pores

Humans: perspire through skin pores

Meat-eaters: have sharp front teeth for tearing, with no flat molar teeth for grinding

Herbivores: no sharp front teeth, but flat rear molars for grinding

Humans: no sharp front teeth, but flat rear molars for grinding

Meat-eaters: have intestinal tract that is only 3 times their body length so that rapidly decaying meat can pass through quickly

Herbivores: have intestinal tract 10-12 times their body length.

Humans: have intestinal tract 10-12 times their body length.

Meat-eaters: have strong hydrochloric in stomach to digest meat

Herbivores: have stomach acid that is 20 times weaker than that of a meat-eater

Humans: have stomach acid that is 20 times weaker than that of a meat-eater

Meat-eaters: salivary glands in mouth not needed to pre-digest grains and fruits.

Herbivores: well-developed salivary glands which are necessary to pre-digest grains and fruits

Humans: well-developed salivary glands, which are necessary to pre-digest, grains and fruits

Meat-eaters: have acid saliva with no enzyme ptyalin to pre-digest grains

Herbivores: have alkaline saliva with ptyalin to pre-digest grains

Humans: have alkaline saliva with ptyalin to pre-digest grains

What a terrible shame that because humans have been accustomed to eating meat their entire lives that even after they read this article, the animal eaters still will NOT believe it! The evidence is right there! I guarantee that "meat" eaters who have read this have read it with a closed mind....I DARE them to eat an animal RAW. 

If humans were "evolved" to eat "meat" (i quote this because "meat" is a disguise for ANIMAL), there would be no need to cook it, cut it with a butcher knife, and put salt, pepper, A1 sauce,  etc to "season" it.

As long as speciesism exists, there will always, always be this false belief that "animals were put on this earth for humans" to eat.....

Foreign Aid

I read this article on yahoo yesterday. It may or may not be relevant, but it brought to my mind the subject of foreign aid. I am against excessive foreign aid. I am against foreign aid completely to countries that don't need it.  If you do enough research you will find that the USA spends about 19 BILLION dollars annually on foreign aid. The current public debt of the USA as I write this is $14,344,559,511,924.92. That's over 14 Trillion dollars. Why the aid when we are clearly already in debt?

We have prison overpopulation, teachers getting laid off, public schools with the ratio of 40 children to 1 teacher. When I was a child, there were 20 students in my class. Not anymore. Public schools have become places for teachers to baby-sit. There is no way that teachers can effectively teach 40 children. Our children are getting stupid. We have increased crime rate, constant lay-offs, and our country is in a state of economic crisis. The state I live in is in a recession. Tuition for public universities have increased. USA has problems with homelessness, not enough jobs, and home foreclosures. There are children and families living in dilapidated neighborhoods. We need welfare reform and illegal immigrants are coming in the country at an astounding rate and lack of funding in the appropriate sectors to stop it. 

We have the rich getting richer and the poor getting more poor.  People driving with no car insurance because they can't afford it. Americans with NO medical insurance. There are greedy CEO's and big companies that lay off thousands of hard working employees, forcing the remaining employees to work even harder. Louisiana still has not fully recovered from Hurricane Katrina yet we send aid to Japan? It's a nice gesture and all except I'm confident that Japan (whale killing country) is fully capable of recovering and rebuilding after the tsunami without the help of the USA. I can go on and on and on....

My point: Before the USA should be giving out money to foreign countries. Perhaps Mr. Obama and crew should be using that money and fixing the problems at home first. And America, has A LOT of problems. 

Native Foods Cafe

This past weekend, I discovered (actually, it was my husband, DB) a "hidden gem" while on a mini vacation in Palm Springs. It's called, "Native Foods Cafe" . How weird that I had never heard of this being that it was founded in 1994. If you are a fellow vegan, you may share my frustrations in the lack of vegan restaurants. Lucky for me, Native Foods Cafe has a location in Palm Springs and Palm Desert AND is 100% Vegan. It was so delicious. It was founded by chef Tanya Petrovna. What a genius! The dishes are SO GOOD!

Being that there aren't any Native Foods Cafe restaurants where I live, I went absolutely crazy! I went a total of 5 times in 2 days between the 2 locations, even going twice a day for 2 days straight. That was all I ate! The dishes include tempeh, seitan, and quinoa. What I like about Native Foods was that it didn't emphasize on "soy". The dishes were eclectic and varied. Below are only some of the many dishes that I happily consumed at Native Foods.

For starters we had, Sweet Potato Taquitos: Crispy corn tortillas filled with coconut mashed sweet potatoes

My favorite: Baja Surf Tacos: A "fish taco". Crispy battered Tempeh, homemade surfer sauce, and grilled soft corn tortillas

The Soul Bowl: native "chicken", red beans, rice, steamed vegetables, and cornbread. The cornbread was soft and moist! 

The Oklahoma Bacon Cheeseburger: Seitan, "cheddar", caramalized onions, "bacon" and other sauces...

Just only one of the many desserts I tried. PB & J "Cheesecake".

The Peanut Butter Parfait

I loved their watermelon fresca drink, the regular cheesecake, and the chocolate love pie (all not pictured). DB, who is a MEAT eater, admitted that he was very impressed with Native Foods. Native Foods, great for vegans and non-vegans! <3