Gasland

We need to protect the environment: for us and the animals.

Gasland is the name of a documentary I saw recently.  I had an idea of what it was about, but watching it was an eye-opening experience.  It's about hydrofracking, which is called fracking for short.  It's unbelievable that this process is allowed to happen.  Apparently, during George W. Bush's administration, natural gas companies were exempted from having to pay attention to things like the clean water act or the clean air act.  This meant they were allowed to frack.
Fracking is a method that involves pumping a lot of water, that has been contaminated with hundreds of chemicals, some of them known carcinogens, into the ground for the purpose of getting to the natural gas. Unfortunately, it seems like they frequently don't clean up after themselves very well.  Fracking has led to a lot of pollution here in the states.  People who live near fracking sites are very unlucky.  Many of them have to deal with their water supply being completely contaminated with dangerous chemicals and natural gas.  Some of these people are able to hold a flame up to their faucets, turn on the tap, and literally light the water on fire.  It seems like plenty of these people can't use their tap water for anything: definitely not drinking.  They have to go out and buy all their water; some have huge tanks. 
There were also reports of workers dumping one of the results of fracking, toxic waste water, into streams.  It was very sad to see a few streams that were obviously heavily polluted.  Someone said that all the fish died in at least one of these streams.  Additionally, animals died because they drank the polluted water.
Many people who live near these fracking sites have become very sick.  One of the guys thinks that it gave him cancer.  That's what we can expect when companies are allowed to pump carcinogens into the ground that can get into the water supply.  It's a shame that, for some people, money is more important than life.  They don't care what they do to other people, animals, and the environment.  None of that matters to them as much as cash does.     

I Love Animals

Bumpkin with her mama, Sheila (standing)

I really do.  I like animals more than people.  An animal has never insulted me.  An animal has never taken my job away from me.  An animal has never treated me in a condescending way.  I have had problems with depression, but it always cheers me up to look out my window and see a groundhog.  It's hard to feel like shit when I'm looking at a chubby little groundhog nibbling on grass.  Today I looked out my window, and right in front of me, a robin, who was perched on a telephone wire, took a dump.  "Thanks," I said.  "Right before I eat breakfast."
I like them all.  Mice are cute.  So are birds.  I love to look out my window and see rabbits.  It's very sad that someone would look at a rabbit and want to hurt or kill her.  I can only assume that such a person is evil.  The other day, I watched a rabbit approach a particularly bushy clump of grass.  Then she pawed at it with her front legs.  She moved both of them in a circular motion.  I have no idea why she did that, but it was very cute.
I like watching robins too.  They stand with their head up high, then they duck down, walk briskly for several steps and stop.  The head will pop back up again, and it will all be repeated. 
The love I feel for all animals is so strong.  I don't understand why so many people don't feel the same way.

Birds Are Driving Me Crazy!

Please keep it down!

I have dealt with birds living in the space behind my kitchen fan before.  They probably discovered it and thought, wow, what a great place to live!  What a great place to raise some babies!  It all began with a bird who tweeted in the morning.  Sometimes, he woke me up.  I knew that the time adjustment for daylight savings time was approaching, and I hoped that it would improve the situation.  If he began tweeting at the usual time (for him) after the clocks had been moved forward an hour, he'd now start an hour later (as far as the clocks and I were concerned).  That's pretty much how it turned out.
However, today, things have exploded!  It seems like the loudest bird family in the world moved in to the space behind my kitchen fan.  They have been chirping and tweeting loudly all day long.  They've been making all sorts of weird noises. I kept telling myself, they have just as much right to be here as you do (even though they're not paying rent and I am).  I wanted to yell at them to shut up, but I resisted the urge.  I didn't want to scare the bird shit out of them.  I love animals.  How can a bird, who's chirping constantly, realize that he's being annoying?  I resisted the urge for so long.  I finally said, "that's it."  I marched over the the kitchen fan and said, toward it, "quiet please!"  I showed some restraint.  I didn't yell.  I just said it clearly and sternly.  I don't think it had much of an effect.  I tried it again.  I've said it a total of three times so far.
Currently, finally, it is silent behind my kitchen fan.  But how long will it last?  For how long must I endure this chirping Armageddon?    

I Love Metal

One of my favorite Black Sabbath albums: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

I'm referring to the music: not steel or aluminum.  I own many CDs, but against all common sense, I'm in the midst of shopping for even more, because there is a big sale going on at a website that sells metal CDs.  I really, and I mean really, shouldn't buy any more, but sometimes I can't help myself.
Ever since I was a kid, I've listened to hard-rock bands like AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, and Van Halen.  I was one of the last to switch from cassettes to CDs.  Similarly, I still listen to CDs, and I don't have an MP3 player.  I also don't own a cell phone, so I'm always at least a step behind.  Although, I don't own a cell phone because I hate them.  When it came time to buy my first CD, I chose a greatest hits album by Black Sabbath, because I had always liked Paranoid and Iron Man.  I wasn't very familiar with them beyond those two songs.  I was blown away by the CD I bought.  I now have 16 Sabbath albums.  I also had remembered liking a couple of Iron Maiden songs when I was younger.  So I bought their album Number of the Beast.  Again, I was blown away.  Now I have 12 of their albums.  There are many metal bands, and quite a few very different-sounding styles among them.  But, in my opinion, Sabbath and Maiden are the Beatles and the Stones of metal; they're the best.
It's a shame that people stereotype metal and their fans.  It's as wrong to stereotype a metal fan as it is to stereotype someone because of their race, creed, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation.  Some people assume that all metal bands and their fans are satanists.  That's ridiculous.  In my collection, there are satanic bands and christian bands.  It doesn't matter to me; all I care about is the music.  And I believe in neither God nor Satan.  Although, if I found out that a band went so far as to sacrifice humans or animals, then of course I would not buy their albums.
Metal is a worldwide phenomenon.  Metal fans exist in nearly every nation: even in countries where they might cut your hands off if they caught you playing metal.
Why do I like it so much?  I didn't really choose it; it chose me.  I love the energy and the power of it.  Even when I buy a metal album and it turns out that I don't like it very much, at least I can usually exercise to it.  I also find a lot of truth in metal.  Much of it is dark: just like life.  So many people happily bring people into this world, gleefully ignoring the fact that EVERYONE is going to die.  There is a whole sub-genre of metal called death metal, so, obviously, this sort of music isn't sweeping death under the carpet, which is something that so many people try to do.
Since I'm a vegan, this sometimes clashes with my tastes in metal.  For instance, I like Judas Priest.  They're a great band.  I just wish they hadn't fetishized leather as much as they have.  There's nothing cool or sexy about leather; it's just dead innocent animal skin.  At least the guys in Judas Priest admit that they are a metal band.  I've read that Ozzy Osbourne was irritated at the suggestion that he was a metal artist, claiming that he was "rock and roll."  If that's true, then he should be ashamed of himself.  Metal fans have made him a very rich man.  I won't buy anymore of his albums, because he has bitten the head off a dove and killed a bunch of cats, among other cruel things he's done to animals.  Of course, he was probably out of his mind on drugs when he did these things, but that's no excuse, and, even worse, he seems to think these things he did are funny; he doesn't seem to be apologetic about it at all.  In my opinion, Ozzy is the luckiest man in the history of metal. Right from the beginning, he's been surrounded by great musicians.  He, of course, established his name with Black Sabbath, which I think is a situation where the music clearly overshadowed his vocals.
I was watching TV one day, and they were talking about the video for Faith No More's "Epic," which ends with a fish out of water flopping around.  Then they mentioned that PETA had complained about that.  Scott Ian, of Anthrax, appeared on the show.  His response to all of that, to the best of my memory, was f--- the fish and f--- PETA.  My immediate thought was f--- Anthrax.  At that point, I already had an Anthrax greatest hits album, so not buying any more of their albums was a very easy thing for me to do.
I love metal, but I don't care how great you are, if you f--- with animals, I won't buy your records.