Talking Soup

So I was playing Pandemic II yesterday. And I get everyone except Madagascar. Bastards close their ports as ever. So I start ignoring the screen and figure I'll just annihilate the rest of the world.

I look back like ten minutes later and I see this:




Oh my god. What. What. IT'S MAGIC. IT'S FUCKING MAGIC. THEIR PORTS WERE CLOSED. HOW DID THAT SHIT GET IN?

So now the whole fucking world is infected and it's all THIS BEAUTIFUL TOXIC SHADE OF RED and I start buying things like Hemorrhaging and Insanity (LOL! I LOVE PARASITES) and soon they're all dropping like flies, but it's a parasite so it takes about a year. And I look back awhile later and:




THAT'S RIGHT MOTHERFUCKER! JUST AS FUCKING PLANNED! HAHAHAHHAHA TAKE THAT MADAGASCAR!!

And then for the first time ever:




WHAT NOW, BITCH? WHAT NOW? I JUST WON THAT SHIT!

WHERE IS YOUR GOD

NOW?!?!


Oh, and the name of the disease?

Edward Cullen.



P.S. LOL

Warning, TMI incoming.

AKA Kate Syndrome. Kate who has been known to break her tailbone and then get pneumonia and then a kidney infection. Everything EVER will go wrong, medically.

So about two weeks ago I broke out in hives. Epically. Sounds gross, right? That's because it is gross. Sounds funny, right? No. Not funny. Was late to classes due to the not funny of oh-my-god-the-itching-kill-me-now-pleeeease.

Went to Health Center. Gave me prednisone and claritin and hooray, I was feeling better by the first day. Think it might be soy milk. No more soy milk.

Then, a few days ago, sore throat. I can track this by now. Sore throat, gross nose, coughing, it's how all my colds progress.

Two days ago. Random extreme dizzy spell that happens to me very rarely--vision and hearing go skewy, dizzy, almost fainting. Even threw up this time. What the fuck. Went to Health Center again, but apparently it's nothing to be too worried about, something brought on by a combination of things.

Yesterday, the hearing goes in my left ear. I figure it's just my ears refusing to clear cause it's a cold and that happens. But it was achy and not going away today. So went to Health Center again. Turns out it's an ear infection. A bad one. Like, really bad. Pus bad. Implication is that there's a chance I might not get full hearing in that ear back. And now it hurts like a bitch. Am on amoxicillin for it.

Slept all day, skipped classes and work. Will have to call in to work for the whole weekend. Hope they don't fire me.

Just got a call from Julie saying she totaled her car on the way to Syracuse. She's completely fine, but the car is dead.

This is on top of my brother dropping out of college, Elwood getting sick and needing pills forced down his throat, everyone in the house having a cold, and Kate having another kidney infection.

You'd think this stuff would have all happened on Friday the 13th. Go figure.

So.

Everyone who knows me well knows I'm a chocoholic. I love the stuff. Me and about 75% of the population of women in this country, really. I've been hearing over the years of some of the issues with chocolate--mostly that the plants are running out and the genetic strain for natural chocolate is fading because they so rarely replant the beans.

This is one I hadn't heard, though.

The majority of chocolate (I don't know the exact percentage) consumed in the First World is produced in West Africa, specifically Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire. Which is odd enough when you consider that cacao is originally from South America. The rest of the chocolate does indeed come from South America and Indonesia. But the West African chocolate is the focus here.

Why?

Because the cacao plantations in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire utilize child slaves to harvest and refine the chocolate.

I won't go into the details of what exactly happens to these kids. You've all hopefully paid attention in your American history classes and know what slavery was like in North America in the 17-1800's. So you have an idea.

Now. I didn't know this until my professor brought it up today in class (we're on Marxism). It bothered me so much that I decided to go home and research it. And yes, the child slavery is a true fact. There have even been lists generated of which companies actually utilize slave-grown chocolate and which don't.

The following are the companies that use slave-labor, know they're doing it, and don't care:

Hershey's--no surprise here. They even have a non-disclosure policy that says they can't reveal where their chocolate comes from.
Mars
Cadbury
Nestle
Lindt--this includes Ghirardelli.
Godiva
See's
Kraft--includes Toblerone.

A couple of these companies, particularly Ghirardelli and Lindt, also utilize cacao from South America. You can usually tell because it will say so on the bar--from Ecuador, usually. This chocolate has a much lower likelihood of slavery, but of course that doesn't rule out exploitation.

The following companies are known to not use slavery, though for a few the issue of fair trade still looms:

Green and Black's--owned by Cadbury, but the company itself is both fair trade and doesn't use slavery.
Ithaca Art Bars--for you folks in the area.
Rapunzel--a brand I've never heard of.
Newman's Own--they've always been good about organic and such, and the chocolate is slave-free, but it's technically not fair trade.
Endangered Species--also in a good cause. Completely fair trade and slave-free
Cloud Nine--another company I've never heard of.
Dagoba Organic--fulfills all three.
Equal Exchange--does what it says on the tin.

There are a couple of companies where there's not enough information to tell what they're doing. Vosges is one of these companies (they're the producers of things like the Red Fire Bar and stuff). They have a page on their website about fair trade and child labor, but the thing is wishy-washy. They do seem committed to other things, particularly women's issues, so there's a good chance that they're doing alright, but they even state on their website that there's no way for them to confirm that their cacao is fair trade and slave-free--or rather, they just don't go to the lengths needed to confirm it.

So, what does this mean exactly? Well, if you're eating a Snickers, Milky Way, Reese's cup, M&Ms, or Lindor truffle right now, it's pretty damn likely that the cacao used to make the chocolate was picked, processed and refined by an eight-year-old slave in Cote d'Ivoire.

Well, I can tell you right now, this is a blow to me. Not only because it means the majority of the chocolate I eat is produced by slaves, but also because the companies have been doing this for years and have made no effort to stop.

So.

As of today, I'm adding Hershey's, Mars, Cadbury, Nestle, Lindt, Godiva, See's and Kraft to my list of companies to boycott. There's only one exception--where Lindt and Ghirardelli are concerned, I'll still be willing to buy their chocolate if I see on the label that it's from South America.

Other than that, this is a complete boycott, not just of their chocolate bars but of their other chocolate products as well. Brownies, cake mixes and so on.

Which means Green and Black's, Newman's Own and Vosges for me from now on.

The only other companies on my boycott list are Coca-Cola and sub-companies (including Vitamin Water) and Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is obvious, but Coca-Cola has a rather lengthy explanation for it that I won't go into now.

I'm also going to make more of an effort in general to buy things that are fair trade because it's just a good idea.

And as a last note, this isn't meant to pressure anyone. It's just something to think about. Also, if anyone wants links to my sources, leave a comment and I'll link you.

Reason #436 why Steve Jobs and his Apple products should DIE IN A FIRE:

I was under the impression that selecting "sync only checked music" meant that...you know...it would upload the songs you want and leave the ones already on the iPod alone.

That's what I remember learning.

Nope.

I haven't been plugging in my iPod because my iTunes library got corrupted a month ago and lost a hundred or so songs--I don't know which, and until I fixed it I was going to leave the iPod alone. Since the iPod syncs as soon as you plug it in. But I figured that syncing only checked meant that I could upload this one...stupid...song...and the rest of the iPod would be intact.

Nope.

So I currently have...one...song on my iPod.

It took about 30 seconds to delete every single one without a trace.

And now it's going to take about 6 hours to upload the ones on my iTunes library.

Minus those hundred that are missing.

So pretty much, thanks to a really stupid move on my part, and the idiocy of the Apple people, I have been forced to do the exact thing I didn't want to do.

Excuse me while I go throw up.

What I can't eat when the Ithaca Health Center doesn't get me my acid reflux drugs in time:

Tomatoes, tomato products (soup, ketchup, etc.), meat except turkey, aged cheese (everything but cottage cheese and mozarella), pizza, potato chips, tea, coffee, Thai food, Mexican food, Chinese food, Indian food, spices, herbs, salty foods, sugary foods, oils, alcohol, chocolate, salad dressing, onions, garlic, butter, vinegar, curry, hot liquids, orange juice, apple juice, grape juice, any other kind of juice, all fruit except cantaloupe and honeydew melon, soup of any kind, teriyaki, soy sauce, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, any and all junk food/snack food, any sauce that isn't white sauce, popcorn, BBQ, noodles except plain, hummus, most cooked foods, nuts, artificial flavoring, dark green vegetables/vegetables high in alkalides, sour foods, any and all dessert foods, ginger, yogurt, and pickles.

Which leaves me with:

Bread (don't have), some cereals (don't have), plain rice (don't have), plain non-Asian noodles (don't have), some fish (don't have), a few raw vegetables (don't have), and milk (running out).

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Fuck you, IC Health Center. Fuck you.