Billy the Brick

Human Dietary Habits

Sat, 02 Sep 2006 06:10:00 -0700

"Then God said, 'I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has seed in it. They will be yours for food...l give every green plant for food.' And it was so." -Genesis 1:29 This biblical quote says nothing about dairy, eggs, fish, grain, meat, oil, poultry, or sugar. From the evolutionary standpoint the dietary advice comes out the same. Our remote primate ancestors evolved over 56 million years living in trees where the food supply was mostly fruit, leaves, and nuts. Most of our physiology developed on these foods. Three million years ago our hominid ancestors descended to the ground and began adding meat to the diet as a survival strategy, but all the essential amino acids, fatty acids, and vitamins in the human diet are still synthesized by plants, not animals. Milk was never a large part of the adult human diet until the agricultural revolution ~ 12,000 years ago. Oils were never part of the diet until ~ 5500 years ago and that culinary disaster known as "frying" first appeared in the English language ~ 1100 AD . Refined sugar did not enter the diet until ~ 400 years ago. From an evolutionary standpoint, these are short time periods and humans are poorly adapted to animal source food, vegetable oil, and refined sugar. Most of the degenerative diseases of our time are at least partly due to our departure from the diet on which we evolved.

Gone crazy?

Sat, 12 Aug 2006 06:29:00 -0700

Nope, just gone vegan. I know, I just totally blew your mind. Will, the meatasaurus turning vegan? That's right. We decided last weekend to go vegan. For lots of reasons. Treatment of animals, health of ourselves...I thought it would be a nightmare to transition, but so far it's been surprisingly easy. We had a couple of meat substitutes, all of which I enjoyed. There is a "California Vegan" restaurant nearby and I had Pad Thai with soy chicken that tasted exactly like the Pad Thai I used to get. To make the transition easier we decided to actually finish the stuff we already had otherwise not only did we help kill the animals but then we would be wasting that death, so we're finishing our milk, not throwing away our shoes with leather, etc, but going forward we won't be buying anything like that. Shouldn't be too hard because we already eat a lot of veggies and things. The hardest things for me will be my Omaha Steaks and cheese, but I'm pretty sure I can deal. I've also lost about 5 pounds this first week and I'm pretty sure cutting out meat and dairy had something to do with that.

Living Room Redecorating

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 22:08:00 -0700

We decided to redecorate the living room this weekend. We got pretty far, but didn't quite finish.

More front yard work

Tue, 06 Jun 2006 22:52:00 -0700

Planted my California natives this weekend. More full front yard update

Pee on Bush

Mon, 05 Jun 2006 21:52:00 -0700

So at my work the other day, I went to the bathroom and found this stuck in the urinal: While I didn't put the sticker there, following it's easy instructions to "relieve my frustrations" really worked. I highly suggest trying it, by hopping over to Pee on the Prez. You'll feel much better.

Official Wedding Photos

Thu, 18 May 2006 06:42:00 -0700

You can check out our wedding photos in 1 of 2 ways. Shutterfly - which will allow you to view and even purchase prints from 4x6 to 20x30, plus a bunch of other crap - mugs, puzzles, coasters, anything! My site - I was lazy so I just used a little html album maker thing... good enough for now :)

New digital camera

Wed, 17 May 2006 22:42:00 -0700

This thing is friggin awesome! I love my old Rollei and this is a brilliant idea. I'd love one but won't ever get one. But it's awesome just the same.

Wedding/Honeymoon Slide Show

Tue, 16 May 2006 22:11:00 -0700

The Wedding Story

Tue, 16 May 2006 21:36:00 -0700

(Sorry, still no photos, I'm still working on the galleries but they'll be up soon). So the entire story for those who don't know it went something like this. Saturday, May 06 Get up, pack car, drive to San Luis Obispo. Walk around, wine tasting, fancy dinner, nice hotel, sleep Sunday, May 07 Get up, check out, drive to Hearst Castle. Go on tour, have lunch. Continue drive up coast to Big Sur. Check in to Post Ranch Inn (PRI) Treehouse room, finalize marriage certificate paperwork, ooh and aah over our room. WAY too fancy dinner at restaurant at PRI Monday, May 08 Get up, have free breakfast, go on hike. Drive up to Molera state park and do a 3 hour horseback ride. Skip fancy dinner and have cheap dinner instead. Walk around, play Stratego (E's first time) Hot tub fun and champagne. Tuesday, May 09 Get up, have free breakfast, go on even bigger, longer hike. Go to PRI Spa for 2 hour facial/massage heaven. Bellhop swaps keys with us and takes us to new Ocean House room where all of our belongings have been transferred during spa-citement. Get ready for wedding. 6pm wedding celebrant and photographer show up. Have ceremony and photo shoot. Now we're married! wooo! Go to fancy restaurant again.* Back to fancy room, champagne in hot tub Wednesday, May 10 Wake up, early morning dip in infinity basking pool free breakfast. 2 masseuses show up at our room for 1 hour massages on our patio in the sun and fresh air checkout and drive home (with 1 hour delay for clean-up of landslide on Highway 1) *Wedding night fancy restaurant anecdote: So as we are sitting having our fancy dinner (the reason I keep mentioning how fancy this place is becomes relevant shortly), I see come in the door (I'm sitting sort of facing the front door) a guy and girl. The girl is wearing black tights and short white shorts. NOT the proper dress for this restaurant in the middle of nowhere. So I'm sort of looking at them thinking "who the hell would come in here dressed like that?!" And then I realize its Zooey Deschanel and Giovanni Ribisi. Now some of you will recall that we always have weird star sightings. This one definitely takes the cake, Zooey and Giovanni at a fancy restaurant in the middle of nowhere?! And to make it an even more spectacular sighting, Giovanni happens to be E's most favorite actor... and he walked into the same restaurant as us... on our wedding night! Anyway, it was pretty amazing, especially to E.

Front yard Work

Sat, 13 May 2006 15:28:00 -0700

I've been working on the front yard of the Murrieta house for quite some time and I'm now approaching getting it done, but only because I paid for some help, but it was worth it! Take a look! Front yard

Married

Wed, 10 May 2006 22:16:00 -0700

So as of 6:30 pm May 9, 2006, Elizabeth and I are officially married. Just got home from a long drive (which included sitting parked in the car for an hour while a landslide was cleared). More details and photos coming soon.

haha

Sun, 16 Apr 2006 09:49:00 -0700

Always Relevant

Thu, 23 Mar 2006 14:06:00 -0700

"The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And even if he is not romantic personally he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are." -H.L. Mencken Smart Set Magazine December 1919

No Abortion in South Dakota? Fuck you!

Wed, 22 Mar 2006 17:49:00 -0700

So I'm sure most of you know about the ridiculous anti-abortion laws recently passed in South Dakota. Well, this article is great: Go Sioux! The president of the Sioux Tribe reservation in South Dakota is going to setup a Planned Parenthood on the reservation which the state has no jurisdiction over. Booyah! Take that right wing neocon douche bags!

Fireplace

Sun, 19 Mar 2006 20:35:00 -0700

So the fireplace is pretty much done and the final photo is up. Fireplace and mantel