Listen Up

The radio informed me today that there is some sort of belief that is starting to gain traction that walking while either listening to your mp3 player, talking on your cell phone, or texting your friends can be a distraction. I have no doubt that the latter is true, as it is very hard to both look at your cell phone as you type and pay attention to the traffic, but I question the first two. Granted, I imagine it does matter how loud you listen to your music. If you listen too loudly, you aren't going to hear the ambient noise around you. However, I also wonder what is to explain all the people out there that don't do any of these activities yet still seem incapable of navigating traffic.

It seems every single time I go through parking lots, there are people walking down the middle of the lanes reserved for automotives. Because, after all, it's not like there are cars in parking lots, right? Parking lots are built for pedestrians - so that they can spread out and meander and walk three to four abreast. That's safe, right?

Would the limited number of peopler that were involved in some sort of accident while listening to their mp3 player or talking on their cell phones have avoided the incident if they had been walking or running sans auditory technology? One of the people the news story talked about to support their position was walking down the middle of train tracks. Another person failed to notice the bus coming at her. Sure, you could say it was the technology but I see people without any technilogical devices to their ears behave this way nearly every single time I drive through a parking lot. Maybe it's just a complete lack of common sense. However, we can't say that there are just dumb people out there can we? We have to say that they are "distracted." That sounds so much nicer; it implies that these people are otherwise quite bright - if only this damn technology had not distracted them. However, I question its validity, maybe not in every case but certainly in quite a few.

I suppose if the issue really is a problem, the government has an interest in protecting the poor folks having to contend with these technology fiends (as well as the fiends themselves, I guess). However, what about all the other folks? Is there a way we can legislate to eliminate stupid?

I am Middle Eastern?

This past week or two, the food I have been making has taken a decidedly Middle Eastern direction, as I have been perfecting hummus and tabbouleh recipes. Growing up, I was taught you are what you eatbut if that's the case, I am beginning to doubt my heritage.

For the past few months, i have been trying to see how many meals I could comfortably eliminate meat from. There's no vegetarian or higher purpose to this goal. (Perish the thought - a life without bacon is simply not one I want to live.) It's more a matter that I am exceedingly lazy and I do not feel like I consume enough vegetables each day. There are two choices, as I see it, to rectify this. First, I could cook more vegetable side items, which is ok but, again, I am lazy. Second, I could simply make the vegetables the entire main course or an interagal part of it. Well, that's how it all started but now it has sort of become a goal. What healthy thing can I make from vegetables? Does fried eggplant count as healthy?

I seem to know how to do lots of things with meat, but now I want to branch out and do more with vegetables. I have to do something to keep myself busy other than working all the time, and clearly, blogging is so not one of those things. Did you see me post twice last week? Me neither and I am not sure this week looks much better. However, I have added two new recipes to my repretoire and as long as I am eating, things cannot be that bad, right?