Questions from ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
simonb
Feb. 17th, 2004 09:59 am1. Which band's (or bands') music is guaranteed to get you bouncing on the dance floor ?
Gosh. Lots :-) REM, Helen Love, Pixies, Elastica, Ramones, Buzzcocks... I'll think of half a dozen more in a minute or so, but that's a good start.
2. When did you start following a vegan diet ? Why did you decide to do it ? Is there anything which could cause you to stop following a vegan diet ? Under what circumstances would you eat animal products again ?
Started being vegan in summer 2001 (after having been vegetarian since, er, summer 1992 or 1993, I think, can't quite remember). Broadly, my reasons for being vegetarian were moral ones - I didn't want to kill animals. After a little investigation into the dairy etc industries, I discovered that they involve a lot of killing as well (too many calves need to be produced every year to keep milk yields up, & so forth - that's before we get into the more general welfare arguments), so by extension I figured I shouldn't eat those foods either. However, my vegan-ness is slightly different, morally, from my vegetarianness. For me, eating dead animals is Just Wrong. Eating dairy, however, is wrong only because it funds the industry. The killing isn't an intrinsic part of the foodstuff; it's just the way in which it is produced commercially. If I had my own cow, or my own chickens, that would be fine. So I'd eat dairy again if I could know all about its provenance, that there weren't excess calves/male chicks being produced & killed, that sort of thing.
Having said that, I wouldn't particularly *want* any more to eat butter, milk, or eggs (cheese, now, cheese is a different matter :-) Though I'm not missing it *quite* as much as I used to... [sigh]). They're all fatty & icky. The once or twice I've inadvertently wound up with food cooked with butter/cream in restaurants, it's made me feel pretty ill.
I can't imagine any circumstances (I'm ignoring the if-you-were-washed-up-on-a-desert-island type stuff) under which I would eat meat again. As above, I'd go back to just vegetarian if I could have non-killing-type dairy. I guess if I was putting my health at serious risk I would consider eating dairy again. (I *guess* I might have to consider eating meat, if I was endangering myself for some reason; my morals, sadly, do not overwhelm entirely my sense of self-preservation. But I've been veggie for over 10 years with no trouble, so I guess I'm fine :-) ).
3. You've got cute rats - have you lived with any other animals ?
Retired greyhound called Hickey when I was tiny. I used to try to learn to walk by pulling myself up on him :-) He was lovely. Unfortunately, he'd been badly treated when he was racing, and his stomach was screwed, so he had to be retired again to a farm where he could live outside (yes, when I was older I thought "hmm yes, the 'farm' trick", but my parents stand by the story to this day, & I *do* remember going with him in the car. I was very upset). After that we had Max, who was a 6 month old rescue, & very very overexcitable. Not good to have around little kids - he wasn't reliably behaved. He took off out the front door one day, Mum ran after him, & I fell down the stairs & cracked my head on the baby gate while she was outside (I was about 2 or 3). Hospital & x-rays & stuff; no damage done, but it was the final straw, so Max had to go back to the shelter.
After that we had rats: Beauty, Scamp, & Wriggler, then Trouble & Mischief, then another pair whose names have temporarily escaped me. We also had rabbits - Topsy & Smokey. Topsy escaped, & we never saw her again - other than her tail. Got by the local foxes, we assume.
When I was 11 - the week after I was 11, in fact - we got our dog Sugar. She was a Battersea dog - Dad told me we were going shopping. I grumbled. He was suspiciously amused about the whole thing, then told us when we were in the car that we were off to Battersea to look at dogs. Having been bugging them about getting another dog for *years*, I was ecstatic. We got there to discover that they'd had such a good response to their post-Christmas appeals that there were scarcely any dogs there, so they were letting people in free. I still have our tickets, though, in my Box of Things. Wandered around, & all of us separately noticed Sugar, "the scruffy dog" - only brought in 8 days before, so on her first day for rehoming. She looked a bit old, though - white hairs in her coat. But we'd all liked her, so we queued up to enquire anyway, & it transpired that she was only 2. So off we went home with her.
She was a fantastic dog. Looked a bit like an Alsatian in colouring, but smaller (mid-size sort of dog). She had the most ginormous ears when she pricked them up, and a hound-type beard. She died in summer 2000, & I still miss her, & still expect her to come bounding up to the door when I go back to my parents'.
I've had other rats, as well, since I got to university: Spice & Truffle, then after Pete & I moved in together, Holly, Kali, & Shana, along with Myste & Storm, & of course Bramble, Nutmeg, Arwen & Luthien since then.
4. Coding or systems administration ? Or a bit of both ?
Prefer coding. Currently settling for a bit of both, for practical reasons more than anything else.
5. What is your favorite language to code in and why ?
Not sure I know enough of enough languages to answer this atm :-) I am fond of Perl, because you can do quite a bit with it quite early in learning it, & it was the first language (other than BASIC many years ago) I learnt. I know a little C++ and Java, & I like OO generally. I dunno; come back to me in a couple of years....
Hmm, have wittered greatly. Anyone want questions from me?
Gosh. Lots :-) REM, Helen Love, Pixies, Elastica, Ramones, Buzzcocks... I'll think of half a dozen more in a minute or so, but that's a good start.
2. When did you start following a vegan diet ? Why did you decide to do it ? Is there anything which could cause you to stop following a vegan diet ? Under what circumstances would you eat animal products again ?
Started being vegan in summer 2001 (after having been vegetarian since, er, summer 1992 or 1993, I think, can't quite remember). Broadly, my reasons for being vegetarian were moral ones - I didn't want to kill animals. After a little investigation into the dairy etc industries, I discovered that they involve a lot of killing as well (too many calves need to be produced every year to keep milk yields up, & so forth - that's before we get into the more general welfare arguments), so by extension I figured I shouldn't eat those foods either. However, my vegan-ness is slightly different, morally, from my vegetarianness. For me, eating dead animals is Just Wrong. Eating dairy, however, is wrong only because it funds the industry. The killing isn't an intrinsic part of the foodstuff; it's just the way in which it is produced commercially. If I had my own cow, or my own chickens, that would be fine. So I'd eat dairy again if I could know all about its provenance, that there weren't excess calves/male chicks being produced & killed, that sort of thing.
Having said that, I wouldn't particularly *want* any more to eat butter, milk, or eggs (cheese, now, cheese is a different matter :-) Though I'm not missing it *quite* as much as I used to... [sigh]). They're all fatty & icky. The once or twice I've inadvertently wound up with food cooked with butter/cream in restaurants, it's made me feel pretty ill.
I can't imagine any circumstances (I'm ignoring the if-you-were-washed-up-on-a-desert-island type stuff) under which I would eat meat again. As above, I'd go back to just vegetarian if I could have non-killing-type dairy. I guess if I was putting my health at serious risk I would consider eating dairy again. (I *guess* I might have to consider eating meat, if I was endangering myself for some reason; my morals, sadly, do not overwhelm entirely my sense of self-preservation. But I've been veggie for over 10 years with no trouble, so I guess I'm fine :-) ).
3. You've got cute rats - have you lived with any other animals ?
Retired greyhound called Hickey when I was tiny. I used to try to learn to walk by pulling myself up on him :-) He was lovely. Unfortunately, he'd been badly treated when he was racing, and his stomach was screwed, so he had to be retired again to a farm where he could live outside (yes, when I was older I thought "hmm yes, the 'farm' trick", but my parents stand by the story to this day, & I *do* remember going with him in the car. I was very upset). After that we had Max, who was a 6 month old rescue, & very very overexcitable. Not good to have around little kids - he wasn't reliably behaved. He took off out the front door one day, Mum ran after him, & I fell down the stairs & cracked my head on the baby gate while she was outside (I was about 2 or 3). Hospital & x-rays & stuff; no damage done, but it was the final straw, so Max had to go back to the shelter.
After that we had rats: Beauty, Scamp, & Wriggler, then Trouble & Mischief, then another pair whose names have temporarily escaped me. We also had rabbits - Topsy & Smokey. Topsy escaped, & we never saw her again - other than her tail. Got by the local foxes, we assume.
When I was 11 - the week after I was 11, in fact - we got our dog Sugar. She was a Battersea dog - Dad told me we were going shopping. I grumbled. He was suspiciously amused about the whole thing, then told us when we were in the car that we were off to Battersea to look at dogs. Having been bugging them about getting another dog for *years*, I was ecstatic. We got there to discover that they'd had such a good response to their post-Christmas appeals that there were scarcely any dogs there, so they were letting people in free. I still have our tickets, though, in my Box of Things. Wandered around, & all of us separately noticed Sugar, "the scruffy dog" - only brought in 8 days before, so on her first day for rehoming. She looked a bit old, though - white hairs in her coat. But we'd all liked her, so we queued up to enquire anyway, & it transpired that she was only 2. So off we went home with her.
She was a fantastic dog. Looked a bit like an Alsatian in colouring, but smaller (mid-size sort of dog). She had the most ginormous ears when she pricked them up, and a hound-type beard. She died in summer 2000, & I still miss her, & still expect her to come bounding up to the door when I go back to my parents'.
I've had other rats, as well, since I got to university: Spice & Truffle, then after Pete & I moved in together, Holly, Kali, & Shana, along with Myste & Storm, & of course Bramble, Nutmeg, Arwen & Luthien since then.
4. Coding or systems administration ? Or a bit of both ?
Prefer coding. Currently settling for a bit of both, for practical reasons more than anything else.
5. What is your favorite language to code in and why ?
Not sure I know enough of enough languages to answer this atm :-) I am fond of Perl, because you can do quite a bit with it quite early in learning it, & it was the first language (other than BASIC many years ago) I learnt. I know a little C++ and Java, & I like OO generally. I dunno; come back to me in a couple of years....
Hmm, have wittered greatly. Anyone want questions from me?
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simonb