Okay. Right off the bat I’m sure you’re wondering why I didn’t say chicken. Well I’m a vegetarian now. Yes, Sarah was of course a contributing factor [thanks for being perfect ♥] but not nearly as much as you probably think. TOK was the beginning. During discussions in Herbert’s fantastic class, I came the the realization that eating meat it wrong. Not for everyone, and certainly not for every animal, but as humans in a first-world country, it is absolutely wrong. The only thing that ever made killing animals okay was for survival [and even that can be a gray area]. That is no longer a factor. Killing animals for food and shelter is no longer a necessity and hasn’t been for thousands of years in the developed world. In fact it is a luxury [a luxury which is subsidized to an absurd degree by our government...]. Since we have other sources of the nutrients we need whether that be plants, synthetic supplements, or genetic engineering, anyone who eats meat today is not only needlessly killing an animal, but also supporting the disgusting practices like factory farming that make it possible.

Unfortunately, like most others, this feeling was so compartmentalized from actually eating meat that it was difficult to stop [yes, they are delicious]. Over the course of post-TOK high school I ate less and less meat but I never made a huge effort. However, when Sarah and I went out west for school, out of cost, convenience, and curiosity I started eating less and less meat until finally this spring, while I was eating tofu teriyaki, I realized that I hadn’t eating any meat for a couple weeks and I just decided that I was done. It’s been about two months and I literally haven’t missed it once. Sure it’s harder to find vegetarian options but I’ve been eating much healthier and I haven’t craved meat a single time. I’m very proud of myself.

Yep, that was abrupt but I couldn’t think of a good segue, sooooo…

Gizmodo has a  weekly shooting challenge for photographers. Anything from shadows, to candids, to macro, to bugs. You have 5 days to take such a photo and at the end they choose some featured photos and a winner among the 200-400 submissions. Last week the challenge was, predictably enough, fireworks and as you may have heard for Louie on Facebook or Twitter already, I won! [with the above photo]. I’m in Hawaii with Sarah and family this week so I haven’t been keeping up with blogs like I usually do. I was taking pictures on the beach this morning when Louie called me up to tell me. Needless to say, I was stunned and excited. I was very pleased with the photo but I thought at best I would get a featured spot. Well usually the winners are somewhat contested in the comments but the community seemed happy with mine:

• “…the winner totally nailed it! Kudos!”
• “The winner was certainly justified. Well done, beautiful photo!”
• “Wow! When I finally scrolled to the bottom of the gallery and the winner photo came up, I was stunned! What a fantastic shot.”
• “The Winner is definitely deserving. Very very cool.”
• “…the winner is well deserved, that photo inspired a bit of awe in me.”
• etc… click here for all the comments.

Anyway, sorry if this just sounds like a super self-centered post but I’m really excited about it.

Finally, photos from the first 24 hours in Hawaii:

Click here for captions and more photos.