Daniel Greene

Category: Lifestyle

My views on politics, religion, health, intimacy, and more

  • Blog 2014: The Lifestyle category

    Blog 2014: The Lifestyle category

    Me, hiking
    Me, hiking by the North Mountain Visitor Center in Phoenix, Arizona

    I was looking for a category for my blog posts about accessibility, ethics, politics, human rights, love, relationships, and family, so I Googled some of those terms together, and the top result was lifestyle. A very nice definition I found on Wikipedia was:

    Lifestyle may include views on politics, religion, health, intimacy, and more.

    This sociological definition helped overcome my reservations about using the term lifestyle. You have to understand that there is a historical tension between straights and gays about lifestyle. You may have heard the expression “the homosexual lifestyle,” as if there were just one lifestyle for all gay people, and as if everything that made up a person’s sexual orientation and entire way of life outside of the bedroom could be reduced to the a lifestyle. I remember a gay activist saying, “so they [straight people who condemn “the homosexual lifestyle”] have a life, and we get a lifestyle” (as if a lifestyle were somehow cheaper than a life). Well, maybe it’s time to let go of those old connotations and embrace the definition of lifestyle as simply a way of living, minus the judgment.

    Another reason I picked the word lifestyle for this category is that some people classify blogs as either lifestyle or niche. Since my blog is a combination of niche and lifestyle, I chose lifestyle for those posts that do not fit a niche (like interpreting), but instead are about, well, “life.”

    I might change the name of this category, but for now, that’s why I’m calling it Lifestyle.

  • Healthy meal on Valentine’s Day

    dinner
    Grilled salmon with broccoli and crispy new potatoes

  • Happy Valentine’s Day!

    Photo of multi-colored heart shapes
    I took this photo of holiday lights with a Lensbaby Composer using a heart-shaped wide aperture. The manual focus ring was adjusted to place the lights out of focus and create spectral highlights that appear as heart shapes.

    Wishing you love and beauty, both within and without.

  • Why I’m boycotting the 2014 Winter Olympics

    I won’t  watch the winter Olympics this year because I am disgusted with the Russian government’s homophobia, corruption, and abuse of its citizens. I don’t know what difference my lack of media consumption will make as a political statement, but I don’t even want to watch, I am that turned off.

    I admire Olympic athletes, and I can understand why they would compete instead of boycott; they have spent their lives preparing for the  games not knowing where they will be hosted, and if they back out now, they forfeit their chance to win. It is unfortunate they are participating in a country that flies in the face of the Olympic sprit, but I wish them luck! I just won’t be watching.

  • Google posts Doodle in support of gay Olympians

    Google posts Doodle in support of gay Olympians

    In support of LGBT athletes at the start of the 2014 Winter Olympics, Google sported a rainbow-colored doodle on their search page and quoted from the Olympic Charter:

    The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic sprit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.

    –Olympic Charter