The unfortunate outcome of a charitable perspective

So I live downtown. Every Thursday night or Friday (recycling day) early morning, a number of people wander the streets with shopping carts, going through recycling bins for bottles they can reclaim for the refund. I don’t mind this, because you gotta make money somehow, and in a way it allows some independence and initiative. I have a lot of bottles from all over the place that I don’t need for brewing–screw top bottles or those with labels that won’t come off–and since I don’t go to the beer store much, since I brew my own, sometimes I throw a few in the bin knowing they’ll be taken, and the bottle takers will get some money.

Last night I put about ten pint bottles in the bin. I figured, well, this will net 80 cents for someone, and I won’t have to take them in. It’s win-win, right?

(I should note that this is not my only, or major, charitable activity. In fact, it’s not charitable. It’s just a thing I do. I’m not trying to make myself seem like some selfless hero of the underclass. I just don’t see anything wrong with what they’re doing, although some would disagree).

Well, this morning I woke up and looked outside at the curb. Something seemed amiss with my collection of bins and boxes.

Then I realized what it was: someone had removed all of the non-bottles from the recycling bin, and taken the bin, with the bottles.

So much for minor gestures of goodwill.

It made me want to put broken bottles in the bin (how’s that for a blind rage reaction?) but I will not do so. I will likely put a sign on my (new) bin from now on (saying “I put bottles in here and you thanked me by stealing my bin: fuck you”). That will probably result in the next bin being nicked, too. I also feel like sitting at the local beer store seeing who arrives with my bin and having a conversation, that would probably also end with “fuck you very much.”

But knowing me, I’ll probably just never put bottles in the bin again.  I guess if I was still feeling generous I could put them out in a separate box, but that would be nice, and you see where that got me.  It’s a minor thing, but insulting none the less.

Tech for dummies

Bought an iPad2. Have not used Apple products in years. Am very frustrated with the assumptions and insistences that iTunes places on you. You can’t sync your individual components to more than one computer. I tried to sync to a different computer than the first one I did this with and lost all my installed apps and data. Could never restore the data. Now, every time iTunes alerts me to something (the most recent is a scary and strange alert “”This computer is no longer authorized for apps that are installed on the iPad” (which is not true, it’s the only computer I’ve been using) I get panicked. I’m not sure if the shit with iTunes facism is really worth the iPad. As a result, I just avoid connecting it to my computer at all.

I guess I’m not surprised. I suspect that iTunes works in such a way as to avoid conflicts and crashes on the various devices. As a result, there has to be very little flexibility and everyone has to fit into quite specific ways of doing things. My guess is that this is why Macs are more stable, but PCs are not. PCs allow more flexibility and are much more open. But as a result, all sorts of crap gets on your system, messing up your registry, and takes your computer out of the hands of those who envisioned its stable operation.

I’m just not sure which is better.

(My sync is done and I haven’t lost everything. This time. Whew.)

How easy it could be to be mistaken as a self righteous vegetarian

So I don’t eat meat. It’s not a moral choice, and I don’t care what you eat. I don’t proselytize, and I don’t judge (though for some reason I can’t stand watching people eat lobster). I don’t call myself “vegetarian,” because frankly to me it seems that the term, for some people, is loaded with the sort of smug judgementalism I’m desperately trying to avoid.

But there is one thing that really sets me off. This is when, at events with buffets or some kind of communal eating situation, meat eaters eat up all the vegetarian options. I don’t actually blame the meat eaters. Just because you eat meat doesn’t mean you have to do so all the time. Vegetables are good, and we are constantly bombarded with health messages that claim a meatless diet is good for you (though I can’t see how a grilled cheese sandwich could be considered any better than a grilled chicken one).

No, I pin this problem on event organizers who think something like this: “well, there might be a few vegetarians, so well order a bit of vegetarian food.” I don’t blame them, but I’d like to enlighten them: you see, since meat eaters do, can, and often like to choose the meatless option (and why not?) vegetarians might end up with nothing to eat.

This is why I am usually rushing for the front of the buffet line at events. Not because I’m desperate to eat, but because I don’t want to be left with meat lover’s pizza when everyone else is noshing on the mediterranean. In other words, I don’t want to be left hungry.

This is why it might be easy to be mistaken for a self-righteous vegetarian. Asking simply that people leave something that I can eat can come across as demanding special privileges. When all I want is the same crummy meal opportunity that everyone else gets.

So if you’re an event planner, go ahead and over order vegetarian options. I don’t think that there is a dietary choice that requires people to need to eat meat, so you’re not really disadvantaging anyone. I refuse to play either the “it’s healthier” card (because often it is not) or the “I’m better than you because I’m vegetarian” angle (because I’m not). I just want everyone to be able to eat.