Saturday morning coffee: Learn about Henry Beston

November 30, 2013 scottmcnamara Leave a comment

For those of you that may not know this yet, Henry Beston was a kick ass naturalist, author, and animal rights advocate. Crazier still, he fought for animals back in the 20s and 30s – a time that the term “animal rights” hadn’t even formed in the general consciousness.

Unromantically, I learned about Henry Beston from a quote that was framed in the bathroom when I worked at Alaska Wildlife Alliance. I am going to share this quote below, but I ask you enjoy it slowly, and perhaps even read it twice. It is so full of truth, and interesting ideals that those are the instructions. I added bold sections for my faves:

“We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate for having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein do we err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”

Learn more about Henry Beston here, and also I suggest the book this excerpt was taken from: The Outermost House: A Year of Life On The Great Beach of Cape Cod

Community

Fur Free Friday Demonstration in Portland

November 29, 2013 scottmcnamara Leave a comment

Today, instead of joining the throngs of people in the malls, 150 fellow animal rights activists marched in Portland against fur.

Protesters wait to march outside Nordstrom’s in Downtown Portland.

We met outside of Nordstom’s in downtown Portland at 10:30, and hit the street an hour later.

The walk took us on a loop up Broadway and Taylor, back down 12th, then up 6th to Macy’s. We ended in the park blocks and enjoyed cupcakes donated by the phenomenal PDX bakery, Sweetpea Baking.

The group pauses at Macy’s to spread the message.

It was a successful march as many spectators seemed to appreciate the message.

There was a variety of signage available.

Protesters chat with a woman passing by, about the truths of the fur industry.

Free cupcakes from Sweetpea! I think I will.

Please visit In Defense of Animals (IDA) website here.

Food Porn

#Thankful for so much

November 28, 2013 scottmcnamara Leave a comment

For all the reasons I appreciate being vegan, Thanksgiving is an especially awesome time. I am not sure if it’s the ability to make (and eat) delicious food, start new traditions, or reflect on all the wonderful holidays in the past with family.

Regardless, one thing is for sure – Melanie made an amazing feast!

Homemade vegan sausage stuffing (Grand Central recipe).

A new arrival this year! Pumpkin garlic knots. Amazeballs.

Community

What are your Vegan Sins?

November 28, 2013 scottmcnamara 7 Comments

I like to think that as a vegan, my life is totally animal-free. But sometimes it just comes down to making the best decision at any given moment.

I will NEVER eat meat (at least not deliberately) but, sometimes I cheat on the other stuff.

Bless me, vegan world for I have sinned. It will soon be zero days since my last confession:

Leather shoes. This is a biggie for me. I hate ordering shoes (usually work shoes or for hiking) online, so I want to try them on. Most shoes I see have at least a small degree of leather on them, and Portland does not have much for men’s vegan shoes and boots.
Toothpaste. I just can’t bring myself to using the chamomile-agave-cornstarch hippy toothpastes. So, I grudgingly use Crest. Melanie always claims I am using the one that “gets rubbed in baby bunnies’ eyes.” So that helps.
Papa John’s Pizza. I am not sure if this is an annual thing or maybe even once every two years (is that bi-annual? I always mess that shit up). But as infrequent as that may be, something inside me just breaks and I need a cheese pizza from these ass clowns once every two years.

What are YOUR vegan sins?

Please share yours in the comments. You’ll feel better, trust me.

Helpful Tips

Finding a vegan concealed carry holster UPDATE!

November 28, 2013 scottmcnamara 11 Comments

UPDATED! I have purchased another vegan holster, from Bladetech and included it at the end.

I’ll save the whole “Wait…you’re a vegan and you have guns!?” discussion for another day. Yes, yes I own guns and enjoy self-defense and target shooting. Moving on.

One of the hardest things to find for me, is a vegan concealed carry holster. Most brands, made by companies like Galco and others are made mostly with leather and polymer.

BLACKHAWK

Fortunately, when I recently purchased my Springfield XDS .45, the store had an ample supply of vegan holsters made by Blackhawk.

It is important to note that these holsters are not marketed (for obvious reasons) as a vegan holster. They are basically an inexpensive option for people that can’t afford (financially or morally, I guess) the leather versions.

I’ll take it! This puppy was $12.00 and works like a charm. It’s like the Payless shoes for vegan gun owners (vegans will get the joke)!

The holster material is already forming to the shape of the pistol in only 2 days.

The nice part about their website is that they also organize the holsters by material. So you can quickly identify which are vegan and which are not. The nylon options are here.

My only complaint is the tapered section (as you see in the image) leaves the grooves on the rear of the slide exposed. When seated, this presses those metal grooves into your back which is not the most comfortable. Eventually this may affect the gun’s finish, but we’ll see.

For a $12.00, non-leather holster you cannot go wrong with this option!

BLADETECH

In December, 2015 I was strolling the aisles of my local cabelas, and looked at the plastic CCW holsters they offered. I found this option for the XDS, priced at $23.

Unlike the Blackhawk above, I wanted something that offered more positive locking of the pistol. The holster from Bladetech was inexpensive, solid plastic, and has a positive “click” when the gun is fully seated.

23574157996_53084d9f6d — The Bladetech offering.

The belt clip also has a much better “barb” that provides more secure carry in the belt.

I have not spent a ton of time with the holster, but the past few days I feel it is comfortable and easy to carry.

UPDATE #2! 12/18/2016

I added a beautiful Sig Sauer P320 to my arsenal and added a Streamlight TLR-1s tactical light to it. This is a full frame pistol, so I gave up on CC.

I added a kydex Multicam holster for it, which accommodates the light. Holster is from TR Holsters. It’s an OWB configuration and so far, so good.

Drive Over this Stuff

Trail Report: Steelbender [Utah]

November 28, 2013 scottmcnamara 2 Comments

October 14, 2013

We started out pretty early, arriving at the trailhead about 8:00AM.

Quick group photo. Yours truly is taking the picture.

The team posed for a quick photo at the trailhead and we met up with a couple that asked if they could run the trail with us in their Cherokee.

We drove in about 2 miles of pretty easy gravel road with a minor creek crossing, and took a break for a quick driver’s meeting. This was also a great opportunity to meet our new friends.

The area we stopped at was a “Driver’s Choice” section with many different lines of attack. I chose what I thought was a challenging ledge and was able to get up reasonably easy, even though the rock surface had some damp sand.

The trail continued to have a series of ledges and stairs peppered throughout its length.

Me trying to get Frank up a slick ledge.

Eventually, the trail opened up with a long ledge essentially splitting the trail into an upper and lower section. Mark led the pack up through a narrow “V” which seemed to be the best line, with the least potential for tippyness.

After this section, the trail turns to the left and climbs up for some elevation gain. There is a great spot for pictures on the ledge above.

From this section on, we navigated some different ledges and couple of tight sections.

Jesse navigating a tight spot. That’s what SHE said!

The trail also opened up and followed a very narrow ridgeline of slickrock. Any missteps here would be a rollover.

We broke for a quick lunch spot when the trail settled down and opened up, to allow for others to pass us as needed.

After lunch, we made our way toward the fabled “Fall.” The Fall is a 6-7 foot near vertical drop. At the base of this drop, the driver must turn an immediate left, as there is a ravine to the right. Maintaining full control of the vehicle is critical, especially since once gravity takes over, it will slide down the face of the Fall with little control.

Richard taking on the Fall, with Frank the Tank on his 6.

After the Fall was behind us, we were able to appreciate the scenery of the area. The desert floor opened up to some amazing vistas and rock formations.

At this point, the trail began to descend back to the creek drainage we crossed earlier in the day.

The ground became more sand than rock and presented more tree growth which added to the scenery.

Once over the creek, we decided to check out some ancient petroglyphs/hieroglyphs on a wall. The natural and human history of this area amazes me.

Once on the road, we stopped at a local pub on our way home for a cold, malted beverage.

WHAT CAME IN HANDY:

WHAT WOULD HAVE MADE IT BETTER:

OR-FAB Tube Doors

Look what I found

Pretty amazing stuff coming from the nut-milk cheese front

November 28, 2013 scottmcnamara Leave a comment

Here is the link from Food + Wine.

Some highlights:

Days later, Ronnen was in Boston promising to put his life savings into the project. He and Brown convinced Casino to move to California and lined up investment from Khosla Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm specializing in green technology. Jean Prevot, director of operations for Laura Chenel’s Chèvre, also joined Kite Hill to help them design and build a production facility in Hayward, California, just a few hundred yards from the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay.

Cathy Strange, the global cheese buyer for Whole Foods Market, tasted the Kite Hill lineup earlier this year. “I loved it instantly,” she says. “I could taste the culture, the rind. I’ve never, ever seen this kind of texture in an alternative milk product.” As a result of that tasting, Kite Hill reached a deal to retail exclusively through Whole Foods.

Look what I found

Shut the front door: A New Menu at Veggie Grill!?

November 27, 2013 scottmcnamara Leave a comment

Veggie Grill is a vegan’s dream come true. Relatively healthy, reasonably priced, consistent quality vegan food. It is so great to have an entire menu to choose from.

I am especially excited with their new menu just released today!

The mini-wraps look awesome (I prefer Buffalo), and Yukon Gold french fries!? Yes please.

Check it out for yourself (PDF)!

Veggie Grill's new menu. — Veggie Grill’s new menu.

Buy (or don't) this Stuff

Food Review: Field Roast Frankfurters

November 26, 2013 scottmcnamara Leave a comment

When I was a kid, I never really liked hot dogs. Even then, I knew what they were made of and it really grossed me out.

Fast forward a shit ton of years, and I am loving them all over again. Why? Because now I know what is in my hot dog…but more importantly I know what is NOT.

Vegan hot dogs are plagued with balancing two distinct needs of people: make your product as close as a match to the meat version (for the ex-meatheads like me) but not so close as to freak out people that don’t like meat.

Many of the brands out there are rubbery analogs that do the job, but not well.

Enter Field Roast’s Frankfurters.

Don’t hate on my mustard and ketchup application skills: It’s actually performance art and you are missing the point.

These are a “drier” dog, that I prefer to grill or boil while in the plastic “skin.” These dogs will not have a ton of water in them like traditional franks. They have a wonderful flavor and texture that perfectly balances the like-meat-but-not-too-much scale.

These travel incredibly well (keep them refrigerated) are easy clean up, and deliver plenty of protein and food to your gut on those long days of wheelin.

Eat & Drink Here

Bar Review: Bye & Bye [Portland]

November 19, 2013 scottmcnamara Leave a comment

Personally, I have a top 5 list of places in Portland that I simply could not live without.

The Bye & Bye is in that group’s top 3.

The drinks tend to be on the fruitier side than their sister bar (The Sweet Hereafter). Their Mojito is decent, the Stockholm is a popular choice for Melanie. I prefer the Three Liars, with mint and cucumber infused gin. Especially on a hot Portland day.

Their beer list is ever changing and okay. They could stand to get a few more taps and expand the variety a little more. That being said, they do a good job with the taps they have. Their IPAs are usually top shelf.

The ambiance is nice and chill. You never know who you may see while at the Bye and Bye – I have seen small families, older folks, the typical hipster, and all people in between.

Food wise? Phenom like penh.

The Eastern Bowl and their new sammy loaded with buffalo soy curls and amazing candied almonds are both amazing and make me want to get all Touretty. Notice how I forgot the name of the damn sandwich? That’s because it was named after something abstract and cool. It doesn’t matter, just get it and love it. (EDIT: The sammy is called “Frank’s Wild Years” and I assume there is some backstory there). It is the yin to the Sweet Hereafter’s Buffalo Soldier’s Yang, and I would say it is a tie for the best sammich.

Another thing to grab is their new(ish) pretzels. It’s good these come 2 on a plate, as I think I could eat an entire platter of these damn things. Skip the mustard and plunge that puppy right into their homemade cheesy dip. They come out warm, and with just the right amount of salt on them to make them addictive.

The biggest (albeit the only) complaint I have with them is that they are too damn cool to answer the phone. I’d love to place a quick to go order and grab an Eastern to go. But they never answer. Ah well, such is the price for awesomeness, I suppose.

You would be perfect to me if you just picked this up. It's even vintage! — You would be perfect to me if you just picked this up. It’s even vintage!

The pros far outweigh the cons (I only counted one con) for the B&B though. Great ambiance, awesome service, beautiful atmosphere. Combine that with great vegan bar food, and good drinks and we have a Portland establishment.