I miss my caffeine monkey

I think we can safely add gluten-free porridge, honey, and hot brown basmati rice (I actually didn't mind it when it got cold, but eating it fresh was rough) to the list of things I don't like. I already knew about the honey thing, but here I am, giving it a go anyway. It really does taste like bee puke (tm Jo).

The headaches from my caffeine withdrawl have subsided. That was a rough few days, I'm not going to lie. If I weren't determined to see if this diet thing will actually really do all the stuff it says it will, I'd have just added coffee in, and done everything else. As it is, I'm scoffing at the success stories from people who claim they stayed off the sauce when they finished the three weeks. I LIKE being addicted to coffee. I'm not angry that I'm a slave to my caffeine habit; it's my vice, my hipster affectation, my security blanket. There are plenty of worse things I could be addicted to. And life without some kind of sugary treat, a cup of hot black coffee and a book? NOT WORTH LIVING.

Well, two and a half more weeks to go. It's becoming an exercise in will power; if I can make it, I'll have practiced enough self-denial to know that I can do it at any time, and will thus relish the good things in life all the more. Or so I hope. In the meantime, it's certainly forcing me to eat a lot more green vegetables.

And now for something completely different: this article in The Star caught my eye. It's kind of weird that there are all these controversies swirling around Knocked Up. I really liked the movie; I didn't see it as having a hugely conservative message, nor did I find the pairing of Heigl and Rogen out of the ordinary. Howell even says (in the above article) "What would be far more unbelievable onscreen, frankly, would be a situation where a good-looking guy gets a homely girl pregnant and then decides to stay with her." I don't find Rogen unattractive; my taste runs towards the "Brittanical," as some have pointed out, but he's no monster. Also, he's funny and sweet, and that's something that most women look for. I thought it was pretty realistic that Alison gradually fell for Ben as she spent more time with him, and that they both fumbled the ball while trying to figure out and supply what the other wanted.

As for the abortion thing, well, some women decide to keep the baby. I probably wouldn't have, in that situation--and to be honest, I think Apatow could have avoided some of the believability issues by giving Alison a different job. An ambitious woman who just got a promotion to being an on-air personality probably wouldn't jeopardize that with an unplanned pregnancy. And besides providing a few laughs, Alison's job isn't really that important to the plot. It also would have been nice to see some of her reasoning behind keeping it; she lives in a guest house at her sister's place, she barely knows the father, and her bosses already told her to lose weight. But having an abortion is not a decision to take lightly, and Apatow does make it clear that she puts thought into it and struggles. I liked that Ben just stepped back and let her decide; few things make me angrier than a man trying to impose any decision about pregnancy on a woman. Basically, my body, my rules, screw you.

Well, I have to choke down more porridge now, and tidy my apartment. I know, you're thrilled.