Ben from Idaho

I'd like to give a little respect to my friend Ben, who I have known since high school, and only by some random chance ran into this year in Boise. Luckily there is evidence that people from Idaho really do occasionally escape for awhile and learn about other cultures and peoples. Ben is a wonderful example of this. Please stop in and say hello on his blog sometime... weblog.bmgeisler.com Here is his bio:

I am currently a foreign scholar studying at Sichuan University, PRC. I enjoy travel, adventure, wine, reading, brazilian jiu jitsu, woodworking, bowyery, the smell of pavement when it rains, writing, languages, enlightened discourse, horses, plotting and subterfuge, winter, boxing, blacksmithing, avante garde jazz, coffee, working with my hands, and most likely, you.

29 days without meat

Well, so far so good. I haven't eaten meat in 29 days. I don't really notice, except when I'm at a barbecue and there is tritip steak.... or ribs... Mmmm... ribs... Okay, I notice, but it's not that difficult.

So I'm still learning how to develop a meat-free diet. I think it will be a positive change though. The most interesting thing is the way perceptions have changed about vegetarians. I remember in college, just 6 years ago, my roommate always being questioned about being vegetarian, as if she was an alien. Now, I've not had anyone really argue with it. In fact, more often people are congratulating me, and giving signs of respect. That has surprised me.

School started for me. So far I'm learning a little more than I expected to. I really like my law classes the best. I have 2 of them, and 1 more next semester. This semester my two law classes are about ethics and about special education. It is interesting to study what federal laws say and what my state law says.

I also have a diversity class, a standards class, and a finance class. I think that the finance class COULD be really interesting but so far is a lot of reading. We will see though. I at least see value in all of these classes, which is different from the majority of undergrad courses. Yay!

Happy Labor Day, everyone!