So I've been on a quest of sorts lately to eat more mindfully. Not to improve my health, but more because I'm concerned about the health and welfare of what I'm eating. I love meat and I'm not looking to give it up. But, for some reason, all of a sudden, the circumstances my meat (and dairy and eggs!) finds itself in before it ends up on my plate has really started to bother me. I would like to eat meat but I would like my meat to be living its best life until then.

I've been referencing this egg scorecard when buying my eggs. I had been buying Vital Farm eggs for a while and I was happy to see they score high. I've also been buying OrgaNick Farms eggs, which score even higher. I'm pretty comfortable with my egg consumption and that the hens are treated well.

Oher than that scorecard, I've been relying on food labels to make me feel good about my beef, pork and dairy. It's like I don't live in a capitalistic society and think that manufacturers have anyone's well being in mind aside from their own bank accounts! That particular illusion was shattered after I listened to the Search Engine podcast episode Can I microdose veganism?. Did you know that adhering to the requirements to keep the "organic" label on a product has drawbacks? Did you know that a lot of the labels out there are pure marketing and don't mean anything anyway? There are some truly horrific things that happen on farms, even the ones that are trying to follow the rules to be organic and do well by their animals.

I've been making some changes as far as where I shop and what brands I'm buying. I am still trying to figure out what I want to do about my dairy consumption. I like ice cream! I like cream in my coffee. Cheese is so delicious. But it seems like out of all the food animals, dairy cows have it the worst not least because they are forced into repeated pregnancies which shortens their lifespan. It is such an exploitative process. Remember, I want my food to be living its best life and right now I'm not sure I can have that and dairy products, too. Did I have cream in my coffee this morning though? Yes, I did. I used Kalona cream. This company buys milk from small family farms using sustainable farming methods. It's USDA organic, which is one of the labels that means something (although, as noted above, maintaining that organic label has drawbacks). I also bought some butter today that is plant-based, made from cashew milk. I'm looking for a mouth-feel and a taste. If I can get that with cashew milk instead of dairy, I'm all for changing. I'm trying. This is a process.

I came across a bin of cheap DVDs while I was out shopping the other day and found some movies to add to my collection. Check out the haul! (Sorry, not the greatest picture - took it outside for the lighting and got too much light!)

I was most excited about 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag. It was right on top of this huge bin of DVDs. Clearly the Media Gods wanted me to have this. Is this a good movie? Well, I'd say it's more a fun movie. I'm not a Trekkie but the Star Treks are also fun movies. I wish they had Wrath of Kahn but I couldn't find that or the 5th and 6th movies. Pitch Black is one of my very favorite movies so I was so excited to find it! This DVD has Chronicles of Riddick plus Dark Fury as well.

Reading

Well, I did end up starting the 2nd book in the cat wizard series by Diane Duane, To Visit the Queen. I've just barely started that. I also bought a book this week that I saw mentioned on one of the sites I follow, Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. Mostly that site deals with romance in one form or another but they do occasionally talk about non-romance books. Last week they posted about The Rook by Daniel O'Malley. I saw the TV series and just loved it so I'm really looking forward to seeing if I like the book as much.

Watching

I've been watching a lot of YouTube stuff this week. I've been trying to teach myself to crochet something other than a single chain so there are lots of crochet tutorials in my feed now. I've been watching a lot of sets from a comic I really like, Josh Johnson, and also watching a lot of Girl with the Dogs' cat grooming videos.

One really cool thing that isn't related to any of this, which the algorithm threw my way, was a deep dive into the eye test image mystery. You know, you go to the eye doctor and they have you look through a machine and the picture is either a hot air balloon or a farm in a field and you are supposed to keep looking at that while the machine takes measurements. He broke down where the picture(s) come from and it was a really interesting journey.

Well, my weekend is coming to an end so I'm going to go enjoy the rest of it.