• Daniel DiGriz
• Daniel DiGriz has a variety of interests and broad experience in lots of things, including writing and publishing for about 28 years (mostly under pen names). He's (Eastern) Orthodox but prefers not to talk about religion, is interested in social and ecological justice but doesn't like to talk about politics, and he likes theatre and film a lot. Daniel runs Market Moose, a company that helps small businesses grow through internet marketing. He writes a blog about work, called The Rules of Work, one of several self-authored manuals for his life. Before that, he spent a lot of years as a corporate trainer and teaching overseas, has three degrees - including a Master of Education in Instructional Technology - though he prefers to leave such things in a drawer along with the deed to that postage-stamp-sized patch of Florida or the Moon (he can't remember which) that he bought out of the back of a comic book as a kid. His lovely wife also runs her own business, and Daniel provides accounting and marketing for that.
• Googling: Daniel is a dedicated citizen of the Google Nation and Google evangelist. Running his office on at least a baker's dozen (at any given time) of Google's applications, if Google has a native solution, Daniel is likely to be using it for business.
• Reading: Bordertown Series (it's a lot of books). Finishing up Dune. Elder Macarius of Optino: Russian Letters of Spiritual Direction. St. Ephraim the Syrian: Spiritual Psalter. St. Nikolai Velimirovic: Prayers by the Lake.
• Writing Currently working on a novel under nom de plume, and loving it. Keeping several other novel concepts warmed up. Blogging and podcasting on social and political topics under yet another pen name. Writing an anonymous religious blog - another self-authored manual for Daniel's life.
• Listening: (Most of the same stuff he loved during the early 1990s) - Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos, Loreena McKennitt. Any woman with a penchant for honest wailing. Jewel. NPR. New things, as well: has Jenny Wood's CD in the car. Whatever is in his Youtube playlist. Also a man who likes showtunes.
• Watching: Films too numerous to quantify. Daniel has a deep fascination for film and served some years as film editor for a literary publication.
• Attending: A couple of dozen theatres in Oklahoma. Lots of local troupes, college theatre, and also things like the Lyric and Heller.
• Acting: On behalf of human rights and humanity toward animals, ethical consumerism, poverty, and making peace. Daniel thinks the key attitudes appropriate to living in the world are mercy, justice, and compassion.
• Travelling: Manhattan and Chicago have been frequent destinations recently. Portland is on the agenda, and San Francisco. Daniel loves teeming cities with lots of mom and pop coffee shops, ethnic immigrant neighborhoods, street vendors, and mass transit, where a car is superfluous, and pedestrian or commuter bicycle transportation is normal. He misses Seoul, for the same reasons, though it would be foolish to commute on a bicycle there.
• Being Fit: Daniel rides a hybrid bike from Giant, which he thinks is an appropriate name. He wears a helmet but no spandex (audience applauds) - Daniel is goal oriented, and only rides to go places, not for its own sake. He does yoga for stretching and flexibility, and lifts hydraulic weights in a circuit at a local gym (he's lost 23 pounds since leaving corporate life).
• Eating: Daniel is a vegetarian, a part-time vegan, a lover of both coffee and tea, and focuses on organic, sustainable, and ethical foods. He says that all of life is an ethical or moral consideration, or both, and what we take or consume is probably the most telling indicator of what we care about, what we think about the world and its creatures, and what we consider to be the meaning of life.

• Walmart (100%)
• Blockbuster (100%)
• Horizon organic and other Dean Foods dairy products, and all factory farmed milk (100%)
• Starbucks (100%)
• TGI Fridays, Applebees, Chilis, Olive Garden (and similar places - for what they've done to food) (100%)
• McDonalds and all other fast food joints (100%)
• All products considered food but containing MSG (or other excitotoxins), even when it's not called MSG - including anything hydrolyzed, autolyzed, glutamates and other components of MSG designed to reconstitute into the body killing, idiot-producing drug, including nebulous "natural and artificial flavors (which the FDA allows to contain MSG replacers)"
• partially hydrogenated oils, modified food starch, high fructose corn syrup. casein(ate), aspartame, dough conditioners, disguisers of toxins like boullion, gelatin, and yeast extracts, and the other flavor enhancers and hiders that make the Augustus Gloops and their children say the food is "gooood". (95%)
• Rap music, even if it's called hip hop, top-40 country music, and top-40 pop (100%)
• Beverages with less than 100% food value - e.g. Coke and Pepsi products, "juice cocktails", "sports water", "energy drinks", etc. (the exception being an occasional organic or home-made rootbeer or cola)
• All television with police, crime, military, spy, detective, inspector, special ops, black ops, special forces, murder, and uniformed professional themes
• All "reality TV", if not specifically contributing to a good cause (like "Whale Wars")
• Art museums, ballet, tourist attractions, resorts, and resort cities
• Factory-farmed meat (including eggs and fish)
• Clothing with big box store logos or designer labels
• Gasoline with ethanol (where possible)
• Places that charge $50 for a plate of raw food, because it's chic.
• Frozen yogurt, "Slabs" of ice cream, non-alcoholic dessert coffees, and other over-sized, fashion-inflated confections and sugar-delivery systems.
• Non-refrigerated or imitation dairy products, including miniature containers of cream, powdered "creamer", "butter flavor", canned "whipped cream" (corn syrup) - even if "made with real dairy", and all other food products that utilize the word "real"
• Microwaved popcorn, boxed "cake mix", canned fruit, instant box, foil pouch, or frozen container 'meals' (pasta, potatoes, whatever), "flavored" frozen vegetables, white bread, white sugar, and enriched "wheat" products
• Iams pet foods and all supermarket or other pet products using rendering plant 'meal' (rotting roadkill) or containing nebulous "meat" and animal "byproducts" (waste)
• Yahoo, anything avoidable from Microsoft

People sometimes ask if it's hard having to think so much (as if thinking weren't delightful in and of itself), or if it's difficult to live or get anything to eat this way. Nope. Life is much easier and freer ignoring crap and eating real food (whether for body or soul). Peaches from the farmers market are picked just before ripe, not green and then artificially chilled into eternal sawdust-flavored, non-ripeness. Whose doing it simpler, the guy that buys stuff the farmer picked, or the person that buys it at the supermarket, when it's changed hands 20-times, got sticky pesticide embedded in it, and been shipped across the continent? Hard is choking down a bad piece of supermarket fruit, or watching your veggies rot prematurely in the crisper.

At any given moment: