Reasons I love Baltimore: Otakon

Every year, the world's foremost, exciting, awe-inspiring, mind-boggling, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious people watching convention comes to town.  When you first start to get glimpses of the convention arriving on Thursday, you find yourself thinking "hmm, it's not Halloween yet is it?  Why, no, it's August..."  Then you find yourself staring far too long at each pedestrian that crosses your path for hints of a costume. 

Friday rolls around and you're in the office far before most convention goers awake.  You stare out the window, and see the masses start to trickle into the city.  By lunchtime you're filled with giddy schoolgirl anticipation.  You run out for what is sure to be a very long lunch while you people watch your heart out.  At first, as you sit down with your meal at one of the various convention-friendly hot spots like Five Guys, California Tortilla, or Wharf Rat you may find yourself initially wanting to judge the ever-loving crap out of the convention folk.  But after a few INSANELY ornate outfits you just can't help but be in awe.  The detail and amount of work that these folks put into gearing up for this event is pretty impressive.  If you keep your eye peeled, chances are you'll even see one of your favorite childhood video game characters. 

I'd explain what this convention is all about, but the couple photos I got this year do it way more justice than words ever will.  I scoped out the "picture-taking" etiquette this year so next year I promise to have many more.  This time around I pretty much just tried to sneak photos like a creepy stalker when folks weren't looking.  But after observing from afar it became very clear that not only do these ladies and gents not mind photos being taken of them; they LOVE it.  If you ask, most of them will happily stop everything and get into a genre appropriate pose.  How great is that!?  Another point to remember when looking at these photos is that this is August in Baltimore.  It. Is. Hot.  And disgustingly humid.  And yet, these folks keep their full getup on no matter what.  That's dedication.

So without further ado, my photos:

Holy crap.  If only I knew they'd probably have taken a picture with me if I asked...next year you will see me smooshed in between these fellas.  Helloooooo facebook profile pic gold.

Yeah, no idea.  But cool nonetheless.

Dinosaur!  With a leash!  Yoshi maybe?

They got the boots with the fur but they appear to have forgotten their apple-bottom jeans.

Good heavens, can't even imagine how heavy/hot that thing was to wear all day on her head.

I. Want. That. Sword.

In closing, even if you don't appreciate the spectacular people watching the convention attendees give us or the extreme dedication they show each year in making their costumes, I promise everyone can enjoy the looks on the faces of the other folks visiting Baltimore that weekend.  You'll see them stare in abject horror with no knowledge that one of the largest and longest running anime conventions in the world is in town.  And then you'll think of how these poor, uninformed tourists will describe their exciting weekend to that strange place called Baltimore.  Sweet.

Who loves "regulating their digestive system" but doesn't love dairy?!?

Okay, in all fairness here, I LOVE dairy.  Love it.  Cheese, milk, pudding; all so good.   But in addition to the animal lovers arguing that the dairy industry is cruel, I've heard arguments from numerous people that dairy affects their system in ways other than simply being lactose intolerant.  The most common anecdotal side effect I've heard of from people is that cutting out dairy cleared up their acne.  And who doesn't want to look like an "after" picture from a proactive commercial!

So, in my attempts to live a more healthy lifestyle one of the first things that I decided to try (again) was to find a non-diary yogurt substitute.  For starters I don't really like yogurt, even dairy yogurt, it's my one dairy love exception.  Texture is a huge issue for me and yogurt and applesauce are hard to stomach texture wise even though they taste great.  I usually add in granola to help.  So why do I even bother with yogurt?  Well, as the infamous Activia ads will tell you, there's no arguing that the probiotics in them make digestion and just your whole system work much better.  So I figure if I'm going to go through the trouble of trying all these disgusting dairy free yogurts, I may as well document it so y'all aren't forced to "enjoy" all the nasty ones searching for the best.

My biggest challenge in trying to eat less furry things or animal biproducts is getting enough protein .  I'd tried soy yogurts before from Trader Joe's and they tasted terrible to me.  So this time I went to Roots Market, a granola hipster market in the Maryland area that has anything healthy you could possibly want and breaks out sections for vegan, glutein free, etc.  I got four different nondairy strawberry yogurts to try out.  You'll notice there are no coconut milk yogurts here and the reason is because they have only 1g protein per serving so I ruled them out.  Here are the results.

Strawberry amande cultured almondmilk
Well the first word of advice, it takes a LOT of stirring to turn this into a creamy smooth goodness blob like dairy yogurt.  Like, might as well throw it in a blender or your stirring breaks apart the deceiving creamy smooth goodness it looks like when you pop the top and turns the prior smooth blob into a lumpy blob.  Maybe you can just not stir?  Anyways, after many grueling moments of much stirring I was able to get it back to a normal consistency and dove right in.  I was pleasantly surprised that it was a nice creamy pink color as opposed to the weird greyish color of TJ's soy yogurt.  I know the whole "all natural with no coloring" is a huge fad, but if it looks like cultured swamp water it makes it a lot harder for me to commit to the dairy free option.

First bite: it tasted fine but the texture was a bit off-putting.  It felt like a bunch of small creamy (but separate) particles.  Similar to cream of wheat but smaller globules is probably the best way to describe it.  However, after a few more bites, I couldn't notice it anymore and the yogurt was just as enjoyable as my normal dairy yogurt.  Adding in some granola would probably get rid of the "first bite" texture anxieties and I would definitely buy this again.  Another usual texture problem for me is the half rotted fruit in most yogurts...why is this appealing?!  While this had real fruit in it, the slivers were very thin and weren't off-putting in the least.  Cost:  $1.39.  Nutritional: Vegan, Dairy Free, Soy Free, Fruit Juice Sweetened, Gluten Free, 6 Active Cultures, No GMO.  Nutrition Facts: serving size 170g (3/4 cup), 150 calories, 50 fat calories (6 grams), 23g carbs, 2g dietary fiber, 3g protein, calcium 30%.

WholeSoy & Co. strawberry soy yogurt
Upon opening the container I was sad to see the color is reminiscent of the TJ's soy "cultured swamp water" coloring.  But I took that first bite anyways.  The texture was very pleasant, I'd say almost exactly like freshly stirred dairy yogurt.  The taste was "fine" but not as good as the strawberry amande.  It's not as sweet and you can actually taste the soy a bit for the first few bites.  No actual fruit in here and frankly it barely is flavored like strawberry at all, more like random fruity hints.  If it was the only non-dairy option I'd definitely buy it again because it's good, just not as tasty as the strawberry amande.  But it clearly beats the amande on texture, it's a very nice creamy consistency, has twice the protein, and is slightly cheaper.  Cost:  $.99.  Nutritional: Dairy Free, Verified Non-GMO, Probiotic Cultures, Vegan, Casien/Whey/Gluten Free.  Nutrition Facts:  serving size 170g (3/4 cup), 160 calories, 25 fat calories (3.5g), 30g carbs, 2g dietary fiber, 6g protein, calcium 30%.

Silk Live! soy yogurt
Awesome.  So awesome.  Creamy texture, not a horrendous grey color, and tasty too.  This one could enter a contest with dairy yogurts any day.  Bonus, it's tied for cheapest and has a decent 4g of protein.  Cost:  $.99.  Nutritional: 6 Live Active Cultures, Lactose and Dairy Free, No Artificial Flavors or Preservatives.  Nutrition Facts: serving size 170g (3/4 cup), 160 calories, 20 fat calories (2g), 31 carbs, 1g dietary fiber, 4g protein, calcium 30%.





Almond Dream Yogurt
Um, ew.  The texture on this one is definitely better than the amande but the taste is gross bordering on disgusting.  It tastes basically like coffee with a hint of strawberry flavored yogurt.  Ew.  But just in case you're interested...not only does it fail in taste badly, but it also has the pleasure of being the most expensive, the most carbs, AND the least protein.  Epic. Fail.
Cost: $1.59.  Nutritional:  Non-Dairy & Lactose Free, Gluten Free, Live and Active Cultures, Non-Genetically Engineered, Soy Free, etc.  Nutrition Facts:  serving size 170g (3/4 cup), 160 calories, 25 fat calories (2.5g), 33g carbs, 3g dietary fiber, 1g protein, calcium 20%.


So in summary, sorry, soy yogurts are still better than almond or coconut imho so I hope you're not scared of the whole "eating too much soy will give you girl parts from all the estrogen" rumors that I have yet to look into.  amande is a decent substitute, but stay away from Almond Dream.  And Silk Live! is hands down the winner.  Anyone have any other brands I should try that they think can beat Silk?  Or do you think I should give Almond Dream another chance because you love it and I must've gotten a bad batch?  Let me know in the comments :)

Welcome

So, as some of you may know, I started a blog about my attempts at gardening and proceeded to let you all in on my many failures (and a handful of successes too) while trying to create the world's most awesome garden.  I figured blogging about it would help keep me accountable and force me not to ignore the garden for a week or two leading to the whole thing dying when I have a bunch of friends tuning in to see how I do.  But I digress, this is not my gardening blog.  So why did I start Abby's Attempt at Everything?  Well, you see, I have a tendency when I get onto a project to go all in and research the crap out of it.  I'm an attorney, and thus an overly type-A OCD nutcase.  As my friends pointed out, however, this odd tendency of mine to over-research the crap out of everything often benefits them when they decide to say--go buy a fish--and it turns out I've spent 8 hours researching dwarf pufferfish alone not to mention all the other fun types! 

So they convinced me to start documenting my many over-researched projects spanning things far outside of the realm of gardening.  As an attorney, I find I'm forced to provide disclaimers:
1.  I enjoy grammar and spelling a lot, but I also have a life and will not be overly proofreading the crap out of every post.  I'll try my best, but I'm also a product of public school education and if you start talking split infinitives at me, I might go check out my copy of Eats Shoots and Leaves but I'll just have one global sorry for typos now. 
2.  I am not an expert.  On anything.  Not even the type of law I've been practicing for years (because calling yourself an expert on any subject matter is banned by the ethical rules, otherwise I totally would be because I rock).  Certainly not on anything I'm putting on my blog.  So feel free (and please do) comment and add your experiences or correct me if I get something wrong.  I love constructive criticism!
3.  Why yes, I AM totally self absorbed!  Otherwise, why would I be writing TWO blogs?  In all honesty, I just really enjoy writing and journaling and this is an extension of that.  I have grand plans for a scifi novel someday but I'm too lazy for that at the moment.  Some people paint, or garden (me), or needlepoint to relax.  I write!

So sit back, enjoy, comment away.