Vegetarian debate and hitting targets...

Is this a vegetable?

My cousin who is 19 in the summer has been a vegetarian for nearly 2 years. The other night we were having dinner with family and relatives when a dish arrived and he was offered some... oysters. In a Chinese tradition, oysters are classified as a vegetarian food. But in the western world it is a meat.

At this point I started to ask him what he would and would not eat. He said he would not eat meat. Fair comment coming from a vegetarian and one that is quite correct. However this statement is based solely on the basis of the way western world has labelled different foods and placed them into categories. My cousin is 100% against eating meat but I argued that meat is just a word. A word that has been used by humans to describe things of a similar structure. So in this world an oyster is a meat, but in a Chinese society an oyster is a non-meat food.

So are vegetarians just avoiding meat? Yes... so does that mean if we relabelled our beef, chicken, pork and lamb into vegetable classifications then vegetarians will eat them too? My cousin then argued that he only eats 'primary' food source. Vegetation from when the world began. But then I questioned why he ate eggs and cheese and milk which are not primary food sources.

I have come to my own conclusion that humans have too many issues in the written and spoken language which can give rise to many problems in communications. We all do what we choose and we have to try to justify it with words that do not and can not explain what we really feel to another person. In most cases actions are louder and clearer than words.

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He shoots, he scores!

One of my long term targets was achieved on 29th March 2007. I attended my MBA graduation ceremony. I would say it was 3-4 years from when I first considered doing the MBA to completion. It seemed somewhat surreal but I really felt I had finally acheived something of my own through my own hard work.

This was followed the next day by smashing through my target set at work which meant I will be getting a bonus next month! Although I cannot stake a claim to doing this by myself, I do know that my contribution to the team effort was significant and I can see how the way different people work achieve different results too.

As long as we set ourselves a target we normally achieve it. Our targets have to be clear and attainable and we have to believe in ourselves. I feel as though I am comfortable in setting myself a goal and getting there in the end.

On that note I am off to complete the next goal I set myself... finding a wife! Only joking... It's a Saturday morning and the weather is great.. I am off to wash my car. It deserves a good clean after its 100,000mile mark....