Starting My Vegan Journey by Christy Reynolds

Living in a rural area, in the south means, at least for me, being surrounded by fast food, steakhouses, bar and grills, all you can eat Chinese food, and an occasional Mexican restaurant.  Growing up, it wasn't a meal if it didn't include meat and potatoes.  As a teenager, I tried going vegetarian, but with little to no information, and no one to turn to for advice, i actually got sick.  I'm not sure why, but my best guess is a vitamin deficiency or not getting enough calories...who knows?  As an adult, I have never really consumed a ton of meat, but I did still have it fairly regularly.  I had already switched to meat substitutes from Gardein, Morning Star Farms, and Quorn when cooking at home, and talked about trying vegetarianism again, but for some reason still hadn't made the switch.  One day, for whatever reason, I started doing internet research on the meat industry, the impact on our planet, and what the over consumption of animal production does to our bodies.  What I found on animal cruelty alone pushed me to make the switch.  While my surroundings haven't changed, I still live in rural Alabama, and I've hit a few bumps along the way, I'm fully Vegan now.  I still have to navigate eating in restaurants, the holidays, and I'm currently suffering from a B-12 deficiency, but through all of this I'm learning to overcome obstacles and becoming healthy.

Logan the movie review

Let me start off by saying this was a great movie. With that I will also say it's probably not for everyone. Logan, or Wolverine has been a part of our lives for the past 17 years or so due to the X-Men films. Since this is going to be Hugh Jackman's final time playing the role it is an appropriate farewell to such a prolific character. This is only movie in the entire franchise that has portrayed Logan in a light that truly feels right. The Wolverine was not a nice character. As a matter of fact he was pretty hardcore as far as Marvel comics goes. With this I have to say this is not a kid friendly movie. Even though one of the main characters is a child, it still a blood bath of a film. It's not like the rest of the X-Men films that are PG13, it's rated R and for definate good reason. The language alone made it that way, and the gore also contributed to the rating. If you are a fan of Hugh Jackman's character Logan and a fan of how the Wolverine is supposed to be played you will probably love it.

The characters in this film are really the driving force behind it. Patrick Stewart, along with new comer Dafne Keen round out the stars of the film. We have a few other characters, that really support the story but our three main characters are going to make you feel all the emotions of the movie. Patrick Stewart reprised his role as Professor X  and has reported that this will also be his final time playing the role. Jackman and Stewart are so familiar with these characters that it comes through every emotion in every scene from the beginning until the end. The best part of this rollercoaster ride is that it is all raw. Even the cinematography in this film seems mostly stripped away to just focus on the story. This is not to say that there are no special effects, but it seems to just be enough and not overly so to make the film more exciting. Seeing Logan and Charles Xavier being more relatable to regular people than heroes is an awesome ending to such a great part of the franchise. Even though Jackman and Stewart carry the bulk of the film, Keen holds her own against the powerhouse of talent in the former.

The plot starts out in a not too distant future with an ailing Professor that is being cared for by Logan. Actually we soon find that mutants are vanishing and that even the Wolverine is having his own problems with health, which is something we never thought possible with his healing abilities. The adventure begins from the outset and rolls right on through to the end, but not without some of the most gut wrenching of emotional situations peppered in there with them. If you don't choke up a little bit throughout this film you probably weren't a fan to begin with.

To recap, this probably the best movie from the X-Men franchise. It's not a film for younger children and maybe some uptight adults, because there is language, one nude scene and a whole lot of killing. If you are looking for a more human version of a hero movie with superheroes this is for you. I have said in the past that I wished I had gone to see this one in the theaters, but either way I am glad I own it now for my personal collection.

How to make yourself happy

I have never planned to make this blog a self help type of thing. I can't fix anyone, especially myself. I can offer up some discoveries about life I have learned in my 41 year trek on this planet. One of the things I have learned is that life is much happier if you don't worry about what people think about you. The people that matter to you will keep loving you, and the ones that don't keep loving you don't matter. I know we all have parents, husbands, wives, friends, and probably a list of people we don't want to hurt with the things we want to say about how we feel about things. If I love you enough to tell you how I really feel about something, then you should know that you are important enough for me to trust. I trust you enough to handle whatever it is I am willing to tell you. If I am wrong about someone, and believe me I have been wrong, and they take off, that's on them. I have grown comfortable with the fact that I am an awesome person and people should be jumping at the chance to know me. Say what you will about being conceited or whatever but if you don't know your own self worth, that's not my problem. Another thing that will get you farther in life is to stop waiting on folks. You can't waste your time waiting for people to change. It's hard for most people to do it so be prepared when folks don't. I can't tell you the number of times I've heard people tell me that such and such is a good person, they just have problems. Nowadays I just smile at these people and walk away wishing them good luck. Here's the skinny, if such and such isn't willing to give you what you need, then you shouldn't be with them. Maybe you should just go live your life and do your own thing. Lastly, don't be afraid to be alone. For some reason a bunch of folks are afraid that they can't make it like that. I can't do it by myself is bullshit. If you can't make it alone, you can't make it with someone. Learning to be independent is what makes us know what it is that we need in other people. The best mates complete us, not compete with us. Anyway, take it for what it is and do what you want with this information. I'm not here to tell you how to live your life, but this is how I do it for now. Remember, we are never to old to learn something new.

Check out this video of me blowing people's minds!!!

the journey begins

Kicking a hornet's nest...

Racism, is just something that we have lived with in my part of the country for a long long time.  It's actually more than that, in the fact that we just live with hate in a big time way around here.  I have been told that it's a southern thing, or more accurately an Alabama thing.  I tend to think that it's more than just regional, that it's a worldly issue.  Everywhere you look in the world today someone is hating on someone else.  If it's not some kind of color or creed thing, it's a gender issue, religious issue, or sexual preference issue that drives all this hate all the time thing.  It's like being at a super-center warehouse discount store of hate and bigotry open 24-7.  We as a civilized society love to hate.  It makes us a happier people if there is someone that we can collectively hate.  It helps to bring us together.  It helps us have something in common that we might not have in common under any other circumstances.  It's like a big rivalry or gang type situation.

Now it may not be as big and as organized as a big hate group such as a Ku Klux Klan, Nazi party, or skinhead movement.  It can be as subtle as an off color joke or an under the breath comment, or just a good ole boy water cooler stand around.  Hate doesn't always have to be all in your face and blunt force trauma to the head type stuff.  This is the stuff that makes it more dangerous in the long run.  It's the underlying hate that is all around us like a minefield.  One wrong step, one wrong move, one wrong word, and the hate explodes in your face like a bouncing Betty. The boss treats you differently because you are of one ethnicity instead of another.  You may get more free time, the easier job, more pay, or any other number of perks than someone else of the same qualifications of another race.  Most folks might not even realize that this is going on around them.  They may not see that they are being treated better than someone else and it's a big surprise if someone points it out to you.  They just see this as day to day life and think that everyone is being treated equally when they aren't looking.  Then there's the person that thinks that anyone that brings it to their attention is just jealous of how good they are at doing their job.  Then there are the other people that think that they are entitled to some kind of treatment.

Now there are all kinds of laws against discriminating against people in the work place for all kinds of reasons.  Some examples of types of discrimination are sex, color, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability, pregnancy, national origin, or genetic information.  All of these are reasons provided by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).  So with these laws we can say that the government is nondiscriminatory in the work place.

We can also say that the government doesn't like discrimination in the law.  Remember all those Jim Crow laws in the south from 1876-1965?  Let's take a little stroll down history lane and give everyone a little reminder of Jim Crow.  Another name for these laws were the separate but equal laws.  They were basically laws that said whites could separate themselves from black by making facilities that were designated for each group, and therefore this generally led to inferior treatment of blacks in the south.  These laws were basically declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court with the 1954 Brown v Board of Education, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.  Looking at these steps taken by the federal government we as a nation don't like discriminating against folks for their color.

Now you are probably thinking, what's the point I am trying to make?  If we as a nation don't like to discriminate in the work place or for that fact the law, why are we trying to do just that with the law?  Now you are probably saying racial discrimination is alive and well, but we have made leaps and bounds trying to make it right.  That is to say, we have all these laws in place just for those situations.  Most Americans would agree that we don't like to hold people down, but regardless of the facts about that one, the federal government doesn't like it either and basically says it's illegal to do it.  Here is the skinny folks, if we don't want to discriminate against people for their color, or their sex why is it alright to discriminate against them for being gay?  How is it a state's rights case when the federal government has already struck down such laws before?  Why is it that we can say a "straight" marriage can, and is reciprocated from one state to the next, but a "gay" marriage is not.  Why should it matter?  We reciprocate driver's license.  Now, I know that people are reading this and maybe turning red with anger.  They are ready to stop reading and just say he's some kind of gay agenda guy and liberal.  Well, those that know me, will know that I'm far from liberal, and that I'm not one to push anyone's agenda.  I'm sure you have your own idea of how this should work so here's mine.  I don't care how you feel about it from a moral stand point, discrimination is discrimination.  Whether it is racial or whatever, it's wrong.  We as a culture have been raised to believe it's wrong.  Land of the free still means we have the freedom to choose to live the life we choose.  You can stand from your soapbox and say how wrong gay marriage is and how the Bible says you will go to hell for it, but your moral soul is not the business of the state or federal government.

In closing, this blog has taken me about three weeks to write and publish.  I've had to do some research that actually only took me a couple of hours at the most.  My problem has been the fact that I have been wondering about whether or not to even publish it because of the stance it takes.  Down here in the land of the good ole boys, this shit doesn't fly over too well.  I have to worry about the repercussions that I may have coming at me for this stance.  It may go from losing a few friends to much harsher circumstances.  I have to believe that no matter how you feel about the issue from a moral stance, who are we to dictate to someone how to live their life.  I've heard from so many different sources that this isn't something that the fore-fathers intended for the United States of America.  I think this is exactly what they had in mind for us as a country.  A land that people can make their own decisions without anyone telling them how to think.  You had better realize that those men came from an oppression of their own from under the English crown and didn't want that kind of control over them again.  Our government is not in place to tell us how to live and what to think, it is there to stay out of our way and allow us to live life within a basic set of rules.  I am not making a judgement of moral or immoral lifestyle, as I am in no such position to do so, but I am trying to say that to discriminate against someone just because they are different is wrong.

blah de blah

Nothing really worth writing about tonight.  I'm sitting here with my wonderful wife watching the last episode of Dawson's Creek.  I wanted to work on my story, but thought I'd write here instead for a bit.  The thing is though, I don't really have anything to say.  I thought that maybe, just maybe if I started writing some kind of profound hand of god type thing would reach into my head and run itself through my hands and into this keyboard.  I really don't have that kind of thing going on tonight so there's that.  I know that I'm actually just repeating myself over and over, but that's how we fill the page.  Sometimes it's not about content as much as it's about filler.  Ha! Now that's a funny statement.

This is actually turning into a comedy piece I suppose.  The fun part of writing I suppose is the fact you get to put complete bullshit into words.  Sometimes we get to be heavy and real, but sometimes we get to try to make the planet laugh.  When I look at some of the stuff I write here, I often think that I am trying to be a comedian all the time, even when I'm actually being serious.

Then again, I don't know how the rest of you see it, but then again should I really care?  The whole purpose of this blog space was for me to tell the world about myself and then let them deal with it.  I don't mind the feedback because I can pretty much do whatever I want with it.  The funny thing about me is the fact that I actually believe in freedom of speech, even the speech I don't like or agree with, because that's the most important stuff to protect.  I have plenty of unfavorable speech to speak and if I'm not protecting someone else's unsavory point of view, who will be protecting mine?  Isn't this number one on the Bill Of Rights that so many Americans have fought and died for over the years?

• Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Now I've gone and done it, now I've opened up a can of worms that will have people arguing and hating on me forever.  I mentioned the first amendment to the Constitution and I didn't talk about religion first.  Well, that's not what I'm talking about in this blog, so I'll just have to get to that one at another time.  So what I think I'm going to do is just use the parts that I want and leave out the rest.  I'm not saying it doesn't have a place, but just not here at this moment.  Plus how many lawyers and political folks just use the parts they want and throw away the rest, lol?

• Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech

Okay, now that it says what I want it to say let's continue.  I'm not here to play lawyer, because that's just not my bag baby, but I do like to think that I'm smart enough to read and comprehend.  No where in this line does it say only the stuff that people like to hear is protected.  No where in this line does it say only the popular consensus is protected.  No where does it say that only the Right Wing Republican, Left Wing Democrat, or somewhere in the middle Independent is protected.  So in my own interpretation of the line, it means everyone has the right to say pretty much whatever they want.  So if you want to sit around and talk about how much you love living in the United States of America, that's okay.  If you want to sit around and talk about how much you hate living in the United States of America, that's okay too.  If you want to sit around and talk about how much you hate gays, Mexicans, Blacks, Muslims, Jews, redheads, blondes, brunettes, midgets, trolls, unicorns, rainbows, or smurfs, it's okay too.  The thing is, you better be ready to have the folks that love all of that stuff come back at you with their opinions too.  Just like it's your right to hate, it's someone else's right to love.  In the end, it basically comes down to this, no matter how you feel about something you have the right to speak out about it, but so does everyone else.

Man, did that just get deep really quickly or what?  This went from a mindless ramble about watching Dawson's Creek with my wife to what I thought was becoming a comedy piece to a full blown freedom of speech soapbox.

You got an opinion, well I would love to hear it.  You may not like what I have to say about this subject, so type away.  You might very well love this and want to chime in with agreement, so type away.