Not endorsing this book in any way – but the cover is funny.
Month: December 2017
My 2017 Top Ten List
2017 was a difficult year in many respects. But for me, personally, I had a pretty good year. Below is a top ten list of things that happened or that I discovered in 2017. (And yes, I know that top ten lists are corny – but it’s an end of year internet tradition, and when in Rome…)
10. Green Party Politics – I became the secretary of the Delaware County Green Party and have a taste of what real grass roots democracy looks like. It’s not easy. In 2018 the mission is to grow the party and for us to be a lot louder.
9. Rise of vegan restaurants and vegan items on restaurant menus. Dining out in Philly is getting much easier as more and more vegan restaurants are popping up. And if you haven’t tried Dottie’s Donuts, put that on your bucket list.
8. Public Transportation – Public transportation is relatively predictable, it has considerably lowered my transportation costs, and provides a stress free commute. The trolley is warm and comfy.
7. Family clean Saturdays – we clean on Saturdays. It’s kinda fun.
6. Martindale’s in Springfield, PA – This place is fantastic. No longer do I have to order yerba mate from Amazon, I can pick it up here. And they have a bunch of other good, hard to find stuff as well.
5. Vegan Doc Marten’s and Vegan Birkenstock’s – I wear my Docs all day, and when I get home I slip into my Birks. Happy feet equals a happy day.
4. Tempeh – enough said. Tempeh is fantastic.
3. Yoga, Aikido, and Iaito – All three activities are new this year. They keep me out of trouble and off the streets after the school bell rings.
2. This blog – Owning what I put on the internet and not being followed by ads seeking some love has been refreshing.
Honorable mention:
A. Bach – Since this is the best of list, let’s focus on the love part of my love/hate relationship with Bach. I love listening to Bach’s compositions.
B. Nutritional yeast and liquid amino provides wonderful seasoning to any dish.
1. New job – Very happy at new job, and as a bonus, there are even other vegans that work here.
2018 should be very interesting. We might see an FBI investigation against the president heat up, a war, maybe some new tech–who really knows. I will try not to get to lost in that stuff.
My goal for 2018 is to be as present and as in the moment as possible.
Happy New Year!
Tiger Tattoo
Look what Bernadette drew on my arm…
Vegan Cornbread Recipe
No chili is complete without the cornbread to accompany it. At least that’s what the wise ones say that sit atop the tallest mountain of Veganazia. The Oracles, as they are often referred to, hath doth provided me with this recipe that I shall share with you.
Click here for full recipe.
Enjoy.
Distractions from Space
In the past few months there has been chatter about space debris, planets, and UFO’s.
- New planet found in the Kepler-90 Planetary System (article)
- The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program (article)
- Oumuamua: the tumbling dart from deep space (video)
It’s impossible that we are the only planet with life on it. It’s just a matter of time before we make contact with other lifeforms–or rather, they make contact with us.
Powerful telescopes and technology brings us closer to what’s been there all along. And that is the greatest mystery isn’t it, what exactly has been there all along?
Here’s a funny thought, what if President Trump was the first to greet an intergalactic messenger?
Blog Update: 2017-12-19
Made a few changes recently to the blog. The biggest one being that I will now use Disqus for comments, and I’ve activated ad space above the comments. I wasn’t crazy about the native WordPress comment section so this is an improvement. I’ve used Disqus previously and it’s a good fit I think for this site.
The other update is that I’m going to begin migrating the content from the BlackBeansandBikes.com food blog here. The first was the chili recipe (which is an award winning recipe btw). Recipes will have their own category.
That’s it for now.
Peace.
Vegan Chili Recipe
It’s that time of year. After a hard day of delivering presents to children around the world, Santa likes to come home, sit in front of his fireplace, put on a pair of cozy slippers, and have one of his little minion elves bring him a nice, heaping bowl of chili. It’s true. Little known fact, Santa is a vegan. That is why he is able to do so many amazing things that night. Through several connections I have, I’ve been able to source the recipe for Santa’s chili. Here it is. I probably won’t be receiving anything this year for posting it, but I’ll take that risk because the post was well intended.
A Snowy December Day at the Park
Here are some photos from a day at the park Bernadette and I had. She wasn’t feeling good the following day – it must have been the pencil rolls in the snow.
Sensei says….V2
Slow is smooth, smooth is efficient, efficient is fast.
Nuts and Wrecking Balls
Destroying is easier than building. The current administration is learning this. The only piece of original legislation passed is the tax bill. But that was a layup. All other accomplishments involve gutting regulations and undermining the previous administration’s accomplishments. The whole stock market is booming rhetoric–come on–eliminating consumer protections and regulations–any monkey can do that. Let’s get real. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to solve for x. The long term harm in exchange for short term gain caused by this administration, however, is something the next administration will have to grapple with and we will have to suffer through.
We elected somebody that proclaimed he was good at building. If this is the destruction portion of the project, we might want to consider a new project manager because whatever this is, it seems to be late and over-budget already.
Oh yeah, and this tax bill… The only real thing he passed… I hope the next administration demolishes that. Because like everything else this administration has done, it’s a bill that really isn’t in the public’s best interests–remember, all those regulations that are being gutted exist for a reason.