Go Veg!

I have finally started announcing to the world that I've become vegetarian. Officially it didn't happen until about a month and half ago. Unofficially I had started giving it thought sometime in 2004 and didn't take the idea all that seriously until last year. It may seem like an easy thing to do, but not for me. I really like meat. In fact, some of my closest friends are still skeptical about the whole thing because they know how much I enjoy treating myself to a good stake or a beef burrito. Though I didn't tell anyone, last year has been a 'transition period'. The transition has been painless by following the habits of people like Nathan and Sharon. Thank you both.

In the last few weeks I've been asked "Oh! You are vegetarian? Why?" I'm not used to this! People back in Eugene seem to know the good reasons for being vegetarian inside out. No surprise: every other person is vegetarian or vegan back there. Well either that or there are so many vegetarians that the whole thing goes unquestioned. Either way, things here are different and I've gotten the question more than a few times. I have a few good reasons.

Food Efficiency

It really seems unlikely that raising a cow produces more food than it takes to raise it. I don't have hard numbers on this right now else I'd be stating it as fact. I think the same is true for most kinds of meat (with fish being a possible exception). This seems like an undue luxury in a world of finite resources where way too many people live through famines.

Health

I normally don't keep track of my health in any 'scientific' way. In my last year of 'transition' and these past couple of months I've felt better and I think I've lost a few pounds. That along with a bit of common sense are enough for me for now. I do intend to look into this more 'scientifically', though.

Specifically I have one experiment I'd like to try on myself. Is it possible to do weight-training and get enough protein without eating meat? Certainly it is possible to stay in reasonable shape, but I'm talking a little bit more than that here. Say, follow a relatively rigorous lifting programme. I haven't worked out like that since I was 18, but I think 'berto and I will try (if the profs allow). I'll let the results be known if it happens.

Animal's Rights

Meet your meat.

I'm a Food Snob

Sharon had a hand in this...

While it is true that I will eat just about anything, I enjoy fine dining a bit too much. For me, food tasting "just right" has a high value. This is not compatible with eating meat regularly unless you are planning on spending a bit of money and/or time preparing it. Bad produce can be ok. Bad meat is just not ok.

Cost Efficiency

I spend no more than $4 on tofu every week and most often I spend less than $2. Back in the day my two roommates and I used to get steaks from Winco in order to eat a steak once a week. It usually ran us $10-$15 for three mediocre steaks. Buying 'all natural' turkey breast for sandwiches used to cost me around $8 every week. Enough said.

Easier to Cook

Meat is a pain (specially if you are a food snob).
First there is the thing about storing it: it needs to be either fresh or frozen. If you keep meat in the fridge for too long it'll go bad. If it is frozen you need to plan the meal ahead of time (defrost on the microwave doesn't work very well). If you know me, you know that planning my meals simply does not fit my lifestyle and I like it that way.

If you decide to cook meat, you really need to do it right. Specially for a stake or salmon and a bit less so for chicken.

Tofu could not be any easier.

Save a tree: no homework!

It is going to be a late night tonight. I have to write up my stat mech homework. No, I don't have to do my homework, just write it up. All the problems have been thought about, worked out and solved. It has been quite a bit of work, I tell ya. The thing is, though, that the solutions consist of blackboards full of equations erased long ago, pieces of scrap paper and thoughts that have not been written down because they were "trivial" details. Some of these details took me months or years to learn back in the day and now they are trivial. Ha! But, I digress.

I miss the good old days. In freshman physics to write up a problem you just had to write a couple of lines about the information given in the problem and then the formula you were going to use. Finally, a couple of lines of algebra and voila. I used to be able to fit ten problems to a page! Now the figure is more like four pages to a problem. I think this is bad for the environment. Too many trees die to make paper so that we can turn in a well-explained, fully-developed and poorly-written treatise on how to solve certain problems for homework each week. I say we do the rainforest a favor and stop assigning homework! ;-)

Strungout

Dissing string theory seems to be in style nowadays.



Comic courtesy of xkcd.

Mucho de uno, poco del otro

Things don't seem to be all that well back home. Reading that along with the conflict in the mines and how the constituent assembly is going left me with even more mixed feelings about Morales' government. The previous 'white-elitist' governments were definitely comprised of highly educated people who looked after their interests more than anything else. They also happened to sell half the country to foreign investors while getting very little return (LAB for example). So, it seems they had technical know-how (ie could get things done) but an 'incorrect ideology'. This government seems to be the other way around. How do you start with 80% approval rating and dip to 50% in just 10 months of you attempting to do what you promised?!? That sounds like a feat only dubya could pull. It seems that the current Bolivian government has as a more 'correct ideology' but not the technical know-how. Of course, they are probably also looking out for their own interests as usual. Oh boy... poor Bolivia.

Teaching Physics

My undergraduate arrogance has just rambled in my mind and blog about how I'd teach a junior/senior/grad class in Physics. The thoughs probably apply to other exact science classes as well. The idea behind writing this down now is that my perspective on this is bound to change as I progress and it seems more important to know how I feel right now in the shoes of a student than later after I've finished my PhD, etc (if I finish and am able to continue! ;-).
You know... the answer is obvious once you know it and it is hard to remember how not knowing it was like afer you do know it. Remembering how it was like to not know is a lot more important to teaching than just knowing the answer, though.

Please leave comments on this one! The only reason behind my making this post on here also is to have it serve as an RFC of sorts.