So I made the switch to Soy Milk in the past 2 weeks. I was having organic milk for a while, but was influenced by some people over the past couple years and decided to give it a try. For some reason I thought Soy Milk would be all nasty and stuff. Then it occurred to me that it's basically just bean and water. What's nasty about that? Beans are legumes, which are fruits. It's fruit juice. It's just that it tastes and looks like milk instead of oranges. It really does taste like regular milk. They add sugar and salt to it to ensure that. I've actually been adding water to it because I don't like the taste of fatty milk. I did pick up a half-gallon of unsweetened soy milk, but I'm waiting to get through the current half-gallon before giving it a try.

The first thing I did when I got it initially was drink a small glass of it. I drank it, and I thought "Hey, it really tastes just like regular milk." Then the aftertaste hit me, and that's one bitter aftertaste. I had some cereal with it anyway. No more aftertaste. So, while I wouldn't drink it straight, it's great for cereal. It's a perfect substitute for regular milk.

There are several reasons I switched to soy milk. One is that it's healthier than cow milk. Another reason is that I wanted my dad to try a kind of milk he doesn't need to take pills to have (he's lactose intollerant, but I don't think he's tried it yet). Another reason is that it doesn't use cows at all. Now, I don't have a personal problem with cows, but they do produce quite a bit of air pollution. You'd be surprised to find how many cows there are in the world. Most of them are packed into small areas, either harvested for their body parts or used like machines to produce milk. It's not a good existance. Soy crops go through the same thing, except that they naturally don't move around, they naturally don't mind being crowded around other plants, and they probably don't mind being harvested, what with their lack of sentience and all. As long as the farmers growing the soy plants aren't using harmful fertilizers and methods of farming that cause erosion, it should be rather beneficial to the environment... you know, aside from all the machinery involved in processing it... Well, it's still better than the cow route.

The thing about the switch is that it wasn't something I was pressured into. It wasn't even something that was recommended to me. It was just that I knew some people who were having soy milk instead of cow milk, and they were quite happy with their choice. There's something about confrontation that really puts me off, like how those religious people come up to you asking if you've found Jesus Christ and leave you feeling like you shouldn't believe in God or else you'll be an arrogant prick like them. So, the opposite treatment may be slow, but it has proven effective. You know, that's how the Indians took back India. If you didn't know that, there's a good movie about it called "Gandhi".

Anyway, give soy milk a try... unless you're allergic to soy, then don't give it a try. And if you're diabetic, make sure to pick up the unsweetened kind, because otherwise there is sugar in there.

So a lot has happened that I could've written about here that I didn't write about. I'm going to try to go over a few things all at once now.

I got a Fretlight guitar. This is a guitar that plugs into your computer and has LED lights built into the fretboard. They light up based on whatever. There's lessons, and the fretboard lights up chords and scale bits and such. There's a program that does a few things I don't know about, but it also lights up the frets as it processes tablature, which is madd kick ass. It's got another program that plays shitty background midi music and it lights up all the frets that match the scale of the song so you can do improv guitar work to it. The music there may suck, but it's actually kinda fun. There's one program that came with it that doesn't seem to do anything, and there's another program I can't remember. It's pretty cool. My only complaint is that the open fret bar is all connected, with no seperators, so you can't tell exactly which string it's lighting up for since the whole bar glows. I got the guitar new on eBay at a discount price because there's a cosmetic problem with the fretboard. It's barely noticeable, but it was apparently noticeable enough to get me a $170 discount.

Rush is coming back to town in June. I don't know when they're coming by your town, but they're playing VA on June 23. I haven't bought my ticket yet, but you can be sure I'm going. Unfortunately there's a club meeting that day, so I'll have to leave that early to go to the concert. It'll be worth it, though.

I got a new girlfriend. I was actually debating whether or not I should mention this here, but then I decided that I've really only been restricting myself from talking about work, and she's definitely not work. Rather, she's awesome. You might not think so, but she's not your girlfriend, she's mine, so my opinion matters far more than yours. Ah, but you haven't even met her yet. You'd like her. She's fun. She sends me things like this. She's also very cute. A little insecure about herself, but not to the point of annoyance. She's also a demolition expert. Yeah. She splodes. Actually, I've been dating her for over a month now. I guess this is still early enough to make mention of it.

I barely play WoW anymore. The only reason it's taking so long to get to level 70 is that I haven't been playing much. This probably has a lot to do with the release of the Planar Chaos expansion for Magic: The Gathering Online. The small set release events are always good to me. Except Ravnica, that one wasn't. That set hated me, at least when I was drafting it. Planar Chaos was good, though. I got my limited rating up about 50 points that week.

Before I put up my review of Pan's Labyrinth, I went to Katsucon. It was in the same hotel as it was last year, the Omni Shoreham in DC, but this year they decided to take all the furniture away. One of the great things about Katsucon last year was all the hang-out area. That was basically done away with this year. This made the convention much less pleasant. They did put some couches in the video game room, but you can't hang out there. I had a guy standing 3 feet in front of me, talking loudly to me, and I couldn't understand what he was saying. He didn't have an accent or anything, there was just too much background noise. That's the example of why it wasn't a good hangout place. I couldn't chill with my woman and have a conversation there. The background noise was also less than pleasant, so I disliked being in there anyway. The other game room with the old-school arcade machines was cool, though. Marbe Madness kicks ass in the arcade with the trackball.

Aside from my complaints about Katsucon, I had a good time. Not as good as last year, what with the removal of the furniture, but still a good time nonetheless. I had my woman there with me, and that certainly helped a lot toward that end. I hope they don't take the furniture away next year. Sitting on the floor is both uncomfortable and demeaning (mostly uncomfortable). Of course, Katsucon isn't exactly known for pandering to their attendees. Still, it's a worth-going event.

I've got a new job. I've got this thing where I don't like to talk about work on my website, so that's all you get on that.

My next-door neighbor cut down the tree in front of my house on Thursday. I'm a bit upset about that. He didn't consult with me on it at all. Didn't let me know that the tree was going to be cut down (probably because I would've stopped it from happening). Just, one day, I went to work, and the tree was there. I came home, and the tree was gone. Despite having gone to work, I was actually having a good day until I got home. I want to get some kind of compensation for this, but I don't know how to proceed. My father seems to think that, even though the tree is directly in front of my house, that it's actually on his property. Even if it is, it does damage the value of my home, and I would like to seek compensation for this. Anyone know anything about how to pursue this? Let me know.

That's all I've got for you at the moment. I don't know when you can expect another post from me, but I'll try to do at least one more this month.