Tuesday, September 11, 2007

2 memes and 1 plea



A big thanks to Jackie from The Vegan Diet who bestowed the title "Creative Blogger" on me. This was totally unexpected, and I'm very thankful. Now I'm supposed to tag creative fellow bloggers. The two names that immediately come to mind are:

Peggy the Veggie (of
Vegan Teen Cuisine) - this talented chef is literally half my age, and already more fearless with cooking than I am. Homemade injera, anyone?

Hannah (of BitterSweet) - I recently discovered this blog, and I love it! A double threat: talented crafter *and* talented cook- vegan meringue anyone?!

The next meme comes to me courtesy of Hannah herself:

Curious to learn more about me?

Here are the “official” rules:

# Players must list one fact, word, or tidbit that is somehow relevant to their life for each letter of your first or middle name.
# When you are tagged you need to write your own post containing your first or middle name game facts, word, or tidbit.
# At the end of your post choose one person for each letter of your name to tag.
# Don’t forget to leave a comment telling them ,they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
# If I’ve tagged YOU, please join in on the fun!

I think I will use "Bazu" because while it isn't my real name, it is a nickname and now a word I identify with deeply. So here goes...

B
- Basic. Our family's first computer was a crazy Samsung. There wasn't much fun to be had on it, but you could listen to a song about... computer programming. Sung to the tune of "La Cucaracha" it went something like this: "La cucaracha, la cucaracha, Archie is a friend of mine. La cucaracha, la cucaracha, a finer friend you'll never find! If software bugs you, if software bugs you, you can give yourself a break. Use Structured Basic, use Structured Basic, do it right for heaven's sake!"

A
- Anywhere. I want to travel, and there are a lot of places I want to visit, experience, and even live in. Anywhere means I'm not choosy- if you want to give me a ticket to Nigeria or Laos or Chile, or a place closer to home like Maine, I will not decline!

Z
- Zanesville, Ohio. One of the scariest places I have ever spent the night. However, this also makes me think of my love of road trips and travel, and how it's worth it to stay in a few creepy places because of all the possibilities and discoveries that getting in a car without a map or a plan allow.

U
- United Nations. Ever since I was very little, I've had a fascination with the U.N. My dad used to go to conferences there and bring me back t-shirts with the logo. If I could pick any fantasy career outside my chosen field, I would choose to work at the United Nations. I believe in the ideals that it represents, and that The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the closest humanity's come to real justice. In a cool twist of fate, I ended up living right across the East River from the U.N. and got to look at it from my window every day for almost 2 years.


Bazu, 1984


View from Bazu's apartment, 2002 (The U.N. building is the flat blue one in the center)

For this meme I tag:

Emmie of VegBitch
Jackie of
the Vegan Diet
Vegan_Noodle of
Walking the Vegan Line
Veganista of Veganista

* * *

Finally, a plea. I went to see a talk by a wildlife rescuer and rehabilitator last night, and she said one of the biggest problems facing wildlife today is... house cats! She gave us a statistic that astounded me- how many birds do you think are killed by house cats in the United States every day?

(a) 2,300

(b) 23,000

(c) 230,000

(d) 2,300,000



If you guessed (d) 2.3
million birds a day, you are right! Isn't that horrible? The speaker said that cat owners are being urged to keep their cats indoors at all times. Not only does this save all those millions of birds from being needlessly tortured and killed, but it extends the life and health of our cats too.

Now before you say that it's "natural" for domestic cats to hunt and kill, consider that there is nothing natural about cats being kept as pets. They are safe, well-fed, and long-lived. They do not need to hunt to survive, and indeed, they don't really eat the birds and rodents they kill. To me, that argument is akin to saying that it's "natural" to milk cows. As vegans, we should know better than anyone that there is no "natural" when it comes to our interactions with animals, and that it is our responsibility to decrease suffering wherever we can. If you have a kitten or young cat, please train it to stay indoors. The little birdies will thank you!

P.S. Here is an added incentive. I don't know about other states, but in New York, there is a law on the books that says that any cat caught killing (or even stalking) a protected species can be put down! Now, obviously, this law isn't put into practice very often, but wouldn't it be horrible if this happened to your beloved kitty?



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17 comments:

Anna said...

Bazu, you were such a cute 4-year-old! And so completely recognisable.

The other good thing about having indoor cats is you never have to worry about them running out on the road and getting hurt. All our three are indoor kitties and they're happy--they catch watch the birds from behind the screen or window!

Anna said...

Gah, that is the second time today that after posting on a blog, I realized a mistake. Of course I don't know how old you were in 1984, just got four stuck in the brain from the year I guess. Very cute at whatever age. :) Sorry to clutter up comments.

bazu said...

Veganista, you were close! I was 5, so you are either very astute, or psychic! No worries. =)

Anonymous said...

a good way for people who insist on letting their cats out but still avoid having them hurt the wildlife is to have them wear a little bell on their collar. that way, the birds and other animals can hear them coming long before they're too close. ;p

man, you were already way cute at 5! give me some of your genes?

Jackie said...

What a cutie you were.

Thanks for the meme. Wow they are coming fast and furious LOL

Talking about cats, I was horrified to hear that they are killing and eating feral cats in the Outback of Australia. Even publishing recipes. So sad, I bet the Animal Rights and Vegan people there are having a fit.

urban vegan said...

ALways fun to learn more about you, Bazu--and what a cute childhood photo!

I used to work near the UN in NY, and traffic was always stopped on 42nd St for the motorcade of one dignitary or another.

Vegan_Noodle said...

Okay, now I'm going to have that song stuck in my head all day....hopefully it's not some sort of premonition that I'll see a cockroach (I've had this fear of them since here in Texas they can actually FLY and are at least 2 inches long...seriously). I have a huge love of traveling as well... every new place is an adventure waiting to happen! So nice to hear a few more details about the amazing person you are Bazu!

I have now been doubly tagged for this meme, by you and VeggieGirl! Hmmm, does that mean I have to do it twice? I'll work on it today :-)

Can't believe that stat about cats....

Anonymous said...

About cats...my daughter eventually moved out of her house when her roommates kept letting her cat outdoors. I agree completely, and I hate to see cat lovers who think they're doing their cats a favor by letting them out!

Meanwhile, a study in Australia says that dog walking may be harming birds as well, by scaring them from their nests!

Oh dear. The dog's not going to like that!

theONLYtania said...

Haha, La Cucaracha. I love the little Bazu picture!
Uhm.. that is a lot of birds. What the heck?

Teresa said...

How great to learn a little more about Bazu. And interestingly just a few hours ago I learned a little bit about the UN. One of the squares in SF is called "UN Plaza" and idiot me never actually considered that it was the original home of the UN.

I hope that you continue to get to travel- I'm a travel lover myself.

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

I can't get enough of these types of posts - I LOVE learning more about my fellow vegan bloggers!! that picture of you when you were younger is priceless :0)

Anonymous said...

What fun facts! The picture of you in 1984 is adorable. You look exactly the same. Ok, maybe not exactly, but I would totally win a match this adult to childhood picture game with you in it!!

A (also in my name) - anywhere - I am with you. I will, one of these days, travel and be more adventurous. I have had fantasies about living in a foreign country for a long time now. At least once a month I look into "teach English" programs around the world. Unfortunately Marty is a homebody and will shrivel like the Wicked Witch in Wizard of Oz if he has to go without high-speed internet access. Everytime I tell him about a new place/country I want to visit the first thing he asks is if they have high-speed. Ugh!

Peggy said...

Aw, thanks so much for the award! That just made my day. :) And, I've been inspired to try making injera again!

That picture of you when you were little is so cute. You look like one of my cousins!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing a bit about yourself- Adorable picture, by the way! :)

Emmie said...

I love travelling too and I plan on going many many places before I die. You should come to Sweden and let me cook for you, I swear I'd make you so fat :D

Both my kitties are indoor cats, it's very unsafe to let them out unprotected, who knows what could happen, kids around here aren't very nice either and they can be pretty nasty to cats. The cats don't seem to mind though, we play a lot with them all the time.

Unknown said...

ba-ar, you have been sooooo cute your whoooooooole life! i love that picture.

xoxo liza!!

dreamy said...

Congrats on the creative blogger award! :)

I agree, the cats like to pounce on the birdies, I have seen a few cats trying to do so but the birds always seem to escape, thankfully.