Monthly Archives: June 2005

When I went to CVS today tto pick p my Epi-pen(s) I played with the blood pressure machine a bit while I waited.

Surprisingly, my blood pressure was low! This is actually ‘normal’ for me (well, not for some time now, but it was normal, once), as in, when I’m reasonably healthy, I have blood pressure so low that I can’t safely donate blood.

I guess this is yet more proof that exercising is doing something good for me (despite the fact that since Marchish I’ve only lost about 5 pounds [though I surely put on a lot of muscle]). At least now having a heart attack can move down on my list of worries (though my arteries are probably still so plaqueful I wonder if any amount of low blood pressure can actually help…).

I biked to college town today to try and find something I’m allowed to eat for lunch. Unfortunately, about the only thing I found that almost worked was Chinese food, and that had soy sauce :(

Also, it had chicken :( :(

I think for these three weeks if I actually do avoid eggs, beans, nuts, and dairy, I’m going to have to eat some other proteinaceous food in order to maintain life function. And I feel much less guilty about eating chicken and fish than mammals, so that’s what I’ll have to do :(

A more carnivorous person would possibly see this whole diet of avoidance thing as an easy way (as in, you have no real choice) to get on the Atkins diet. For a vegetarian on the other hand, it seems to be more of a really good way to become anorexic (as in, the nurse even told me that most people lose a lot of weight over these three weeks).

Without dairy, pasta, eggs, soy, and potatoes, I am lost :(

After seeing this post on linuxchix live, I just felt the need to comment on the following bit:

I’m actually not suggesting that the American Dream should become a reality. As you might imagine, I question the basic premise of upward mobility – that being rich will make you happy and secure. I think Buddhism (and, actually, most religious traditions) has all sorts of good lessons and wisdom about what happiness and security really is.

Religion is the opiate of the masses, it teaches those ‘less fortunates’ to be happy with their current state of misery, and for the very fact they are, at the moment, alive. This at first may seem to be a good thing- being happy is better than being miserable, obviously; but I think that in this case the ends don’t justify the (IMHO, deceitful) means. Wouldn’t it be better to give people a real reason to be happy? For instance, by paying them enough wages to live without forcing them into indentured servitude, or by promising them aid when they are sick?

I believe that one of the main reasons religion was invented (besides being a way to make people follow laws because an omniscient $DEITY always knows when you’ve been bad, while a merely human police force only sometimes [or rarely] knows) was to protect existing class structures, keeping the rich in power and the proles happy enough to (usually) not rebel. It’s not a coincidence that those who are often the most religious are those at the top and bottom of society (this is admittedly a sterotype, but when considering the current administration at least the first bit seems likely to be true)… the former wants to preserve their position while that latter just needs something to get them by.

Don’t get me wrong- I agreed with most of Michelle’s post (and I definitely don’t think money is a guarantee for happiness, or that lack thereof guarantees that one will be unhappy), it’s just inherent to my nature to question and be suspicious of authority, especially religious authority.