blergh

I went to the gym last night, and did weights for the first time in 5 weeks. I took it relatively easy; I did much fewer pushups than I usually would, and when i did my weights, I used 1/3 of the weight I normally would have. That seems to have been about right; my shoulders were stiff afterwards, but the good stff that comes after working out instead of the ache of reinjured muscles. I'm going to have to continue to be careful over the next month or so, but at least I can start doing something again.

I ran into the guy who organizes special classes at the gym. He asked me where I'd been at jujutsu (he's in that class), and let me know that another session is starting this weekend. He said something to the effect of "Oh, well, another session is starting this weekend, but if you've got a shoulder thing...".

I'm feeling kind of down about the state of my body (not just my shoulder), and kind of down in general.

food

I'm reading Fast Food Nation right now. It's a scary book. I'm mildly irritated by the partisan US politics that show up here and there in the book, but that seems to be kind of inevitable with most of the left-wing non-fiction I've been reading lately.

I've just gotten to the part of the book that covers the meat industry. Like many people, it's got me wanting to eat less meat; we had a vegetarian meal last night (well, nearly; we snuck some chicken stock into it), and I'm planning to have daal and rice some night in the near future as well, since night__watch has got me craving lentils and rice.

I don't have any illusions about my ability to go vegetarian, though. My parents tried, repeatedly, when my brother and I were kids. I can't convince myself to eat enough tofu/tempeh/wheatmeat/beans/etc to provide enough protein. I am, inevitably, going to continue to eat meat.

As a leftist socialist (as opposed to a leftist libertarian), my tendency is to want the government to intervene more strongly. Mandate testing of each and every cow for e. coli, BCE, etc. Put stronger safety regulations in, both for workers and for the product, etc.

There's a rant floating around about economic systems, but since I have no better alternative to offer, and may nto know what I'm talking about, I'll just leave it there.