The Greenhouse

The Farmer

01:56

0

Q: What anesthesia should I request for my mole removal? (VEGAN)

I'm planning to get a mole removed from my face. I'm vegan, and I would like my dermatologist to use anesthesia that doesn't contain any animal products. I know in the US all medicine is tested on animals and is therefore never cruelty free, but I just want to find the best option out there. For ...

David S

09:36

Morning

@Malavika Hi, sorry I had left for the day.

David S

13:09

That question about anesthesia sounds reasonable but I think they're going to struggle to get an answer here.

But it does seem like we're saying everything is off-topic recently, perhaps it's just artificially inflated by that Colin chap asking a lot of random questions.

Zanna

@Malavika I have a story about that

David S

risks eating lunch that's been in the fridge two days and is mostly rice

tastes good, with a hint of fear of food poisoning

Zanna

I'll tell later... too tired

David S

hi Zanna (I've never been too lazy to type the whole name so I'm not going to start now) :)

Zanna

I like 'Z'

David S

13:17

:)

What does that mean?

Is it a sort of honorific like Japanese have? (kun for an undetermined comparitive status)

Like Domo Kun !

Challenge accepted

Zanna

@Malavika :)

David S

oh, older sister?

though I would guess it's more notional than chronological

Zanna

I got it

David S

I'm not surprised.

Zanna

I first met Bharatanatyam in 2010

I was doing a subject knowledge enhancement course at the University of East London

for people who were not physics specialists but wanted to by physics teachers

the cohort was very diverse in age and background

one of the group was a Bharatanatyam teacher

the course ran from January to July

it was the first time I lived in London

I come from a small town, but I always preferred city life. I had been to university for my first degree in Leeds

David S

13:26

first degree....

shakes his head

I couldn't summon the energy to get one.

Zanna

when we all graduated, the Bharatanatyam teacher invited us to her dance school's performance. Her name is Anusha so I will call her that

@DavidS its value is dubious :)

the performance was in a park somewhere very far from where I was living

I can't actually remember where it was, but anyway it was a long ride on the tube and then quite a long walk from there

it was July as I said, there was a heatwave in UK, it was more than 30 degrees, full sunshine

I was the only person from the course who came to the performance

I think Anusha had more than a hundred students

they were dancing all around this park in amazing costumes

and I had a completely new and very strange experience.

I had a feeling something like nostalgia

I felt as if I were remembering the past

or anyway finding something familiar, do you know what I mean? Somewhere in time

It was a very happy feeling

I was overwhelmed by joy

I found my friend Anusha and asked her if she taught only South Indians or if she would teach me also. She said if there is space I teach others, you can come

but I could not come because I had to go back to my home town to take my post graduate education course

So I went and took my course and then I came back to London in 2012

David S

@Zanna considered getting one part time but it wouldn't do anything except correct a regret, and my bank balance, and my time for <n> years

Zanna

hahaha yeah

David S

That's a great story

Zanna

Maybe it was 2012 or 2013 I went to an experimental performance of Bharatanatyam in Camden. Actually I had been to the venue before. I first saw my favourite cellist, Ayanna Witter-Johnson there

David S

13:34

haha, not meant in a way to sound like "that you made up"

Zanna

it was a small venue... there were only 4 performers... they did scenes of dance interspersed with scenes of scripted dialogue

there was a form for audience feedback

I wrote a long comment on the form

because the script was awful

but the dance was transcendental. It was endlessly eloquent. No words were needed. The meaning was transparent

The leader of the group emailed me gratefully and discussed with me. We exchanged emails for some time

Eventually she invited me to another performance... they had put together a Bharatanatyam version of the Shakespeare play, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Again I went far far far off the beaten track to see it

this time the integration was much better

Shakespeare was luminous in Bharatanatyam

each time I saw Bharatanatyam I had the same uncanny feeling of connection and understanding

as if I belonged inside its field, its language

then in 2017 I came to Tamil Nadu to meet my favourite person and I realised that Bharatanatyam is a Tamilian dance form. Next week, I hope, we will get married, and I will stay in Chennai. So maybe it was the future I remembered in 2010.

@DavidS I didn't take it that way haha

I am all about stories!

I agree with Thomas King

> The truth about stories, is that that's all we are

David S

I was going to say 'true' but that's literally what the quote is

Zanna

hahaha

David S

I agree with your agreement with Thomas King

Zanna

:)

David S

13:44

Also congrats.

you sneaked that bit of info in

Zanna

I just got that info today!

happy!

David S

wow

That's great news, I'm happy for you.

Zanna

on another note, TVK (The Vegan Kind) online supermarket keep sending me emails about all the wicked treats they have like "caramel shortcake & smores doughnuts"

David S

Is that likely to be a very long wedding (I'm thinking that traditionally they tend to be)

Zanna

gah can't bring myself to unsubscribe

@DavidS nah none of that. Just the registry office stuff

David S

13:47

We might not see you for a while

Oh okay :)

Zanna

lol you will, no worries about that XD

David S

caramel shortcake and smores doughnuts don't strike me as Zanna food though.

Zanna

might take a few hours of wading through British legacy bureaucrazy

David S

I can't imagine imaginary you eating doughnuts

I mean, imaginary to me, I know you're not imaginary

Zanna

you're right, I don't eat doughnuts, but still, it's good to know they're out there and they're vegan!

David S

13:49

have I done any work today? ...

haha it's good to know they're out there

Zanna

the day is young, right?

David S

so they say

avazula

shuts her mouth not to remind everyone it's 2PM in the UK

David S

TEN to two

I have ten minutes to do some work

then it's a write-off

Zanna

you can do it haha

David S

13:51

back in ten

Zanna

@avazula feel free. It's 19:30 here, so, I can really be sad about not doing any work... I did two loads of laundry, a bit of food shopping, a lot of recipe-writing, a lot of cooking, and a lot of washing up

time to sweep the floor!

avazula

@Zanna darn, I thought you were across the pond too! Sorry friend

Zanna

@avazula no problem! :)

avazula

:)

Zanna

would you like to share this cinnamon tea?

my mum gave me an advent calendar with a different herbal tea for each day!

avazula

13:54

@Zanna oh, that's so cool!

Zanna

ikr

it's so colourful and fun

avazula

I stumbled upon a vegan chocolate advent calendar the other day but it was only black chocolate and I don't like it as much as the "milk" one

What's the point of making it vegan if you don't offer milk chocolate alternatives xD

Tea sounds fun though

Zanna

hahaha yeah dark chocolate is already vegan so the label is just a cash in

avazula

Right? That doesn't sound fair

Zanna

my mum bought a box of dates from a health food shop and it says "vegan friendly" in big letters

I was like "who thought dates were an animal product?"

avazula

13:57

lol

Zanna

it's fun to laugh but really I think it's great that things are getting labelled vegan even if companies are just doing it to grab the market

anything that increases visibility and makes it easier for people is positive I think

avazula

it's true that sometimes you find animal products in the least expected things ... like sugar ... or toothpaste

Zanna

yeah true!

David S

14:13

i'm on a roll!

nope screw it

I ran out of energy

avazula

?

David S

@avazula exactly

@Zanna People ask stupid questions though like, is broccoli vegan?

b please.

it doesn't get more vegan than broccoli

avazula

yeast?

:p

David S

plants have feelings too

makes a fist just thinking about it

turns it into success kid emoji because it's more positive

David S

14:38

did someone star 'back in ten'? that's odd

avazula

14:53

@DavidS hides

there aren't enough stars in here anyway :D

2

I can remove if you want to. I just found the conversation funny :)

David S

no it's okay :D

avazula

:)

David S

Are you in France then?

If you don't mind my asking.

avazula

15:10

@DavidS I am indeed.

you're in the UK right?

David S

I am indeed.

avazula

:)

And if you don't mind me asking, what do you do for a living?

Zanna

15:30

@DavidS what do vegans actually eat?

David S

@Zanna argh! :D

@avazula I'm a linux sysadmin at a university

Zanna

Lettuce. We eat lettuce. Only.

David S

Yes, and if served something like just lettuce, we're happy

even though the person serving it would consider it not a meal

we do

and are fine

Zanna

🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬

avazula

Lettuce <3

David S

15:34

@avazula and you?

Yes, I do secretly like salad but you can't let them know

avazula

@DavidS Neat! I'd have loved to be a sysadmin.

David S

but not the salad of my childhood

lettuce, tomato, cucumber, sliced potato, sliced egg, salad cream.

avazula

I'm a developer in healthcare, and I was a R&D engineer in data science before that (still in healthcare)

David S

@avazula When I was a youth I always said I wanted to be a programmer, but then I realised every time someone else told me to program something (in school or whatever) it was boring. And that doing it as a job would likely kill my interest in programming.

@avazula ah data science..... so what sort of development do you do?

I was a 'developer' of sorts in my last job, in the legal sector though

avazula

@DavidS I get that. I ended up being a dev by mistake (I graduated in electronics and processors engineering). What was most important to be was to be working w/ medical devices. But my #1 passion is infrastructure management

@DavidS rn I do full stack, I should go back to deep learning by 2020

Zanna

15:39

@DavidS salad was actually my favourite meal. My mum's salad consisted of little piles of single separate ingredients. Grated carrot, grated cheese, raisins, etc

@avazula what is infrastructure management?

avazula

@Zanna oh, maybe that doesn't translate well in English, sorry. That's like system administration plus being in charge of all the hardware and stuff

David S

15:55

Luckily for us all our servers are virtual on infrastructure managed by the Windows folks, because they existed first

so I don't have to go to the data centre (though I'd like to)

just open up vmware and create stuff

avazula

@DavidS i feel like a super hero every time i have to go check a server :D

David S

@avazula Yeah!

slightly compensated by being able to rm -Rf / on all 800-odd servers at once using configuration management, perhaps...

avazula

haha

David S

I'll probably only get to do that once :D

so I'm saving it

Zanna

16:24

@avazula lol :D

David S

18:21

jpegtastic

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