Chocolate!

With Valentines day less than a month away I want to put a plug in for my friend Wendy, who runs a one-stop shop for vegan chocolate! She has flavoured truffles, creme eggs and chocolate hearts, among other things. Oh, and keep the site bookmarked for Easter as she also does large eggs and chocolate bunnies, if you can bring yourself to eat animal-shaped chocs which I never can.

New Year Veganicity

I'm not keen on the idea of new years resolutions, but a few have occurred to me regarding veganism so here they are!

• To be less guarded about my veganism and the reasons for it when among non-vegans, and not interpret questions as jibes unless they are really obviously meant in that way.
• To try to rise above jibes, assume that the person is either masking genuine curiosity or else not worth my energy getting angry with.
• To join in discussions at work about food and cooking even if it is sometimes very frustrating to hear about meat etc.
• To get involved in activism again, although this may have to be after submitting my thesis!
• To make myself available to people who are curious about veganism (eg through formspring)
• To be more proactive in raising the subject of veganism, although I may stick to 'safe' situations for the time being.
  
• To make more effort to share food, subject to affording to do so, in particular to make more from-scratch food for parties and so on since (amazingly) no-one in my life (apart from my friend's pre-teen daughter who now avoids meat herself) has ever objected to chocolate cake or pizza even when they know it is vegan.
  
• To avoid factional bickering in the vegan/AR movement - I do have a horrible tendency towards morbid curiosity about these things, not to mention getting embroiled in them (particularly when my personal feelings about individuals get into the mix), and this isn't healthy. Negative energy is the most painful sort to expend. Pretty much every approach is useful and necessary, and I need to remember that regardless of feelings about the individuals concerned.
  

Vegan pledge

This is a bit late for new years resolutions, but still worth posting now as it can be done at any time of year. The Vegan Society is running a Vegan Pledge initiative encouraging non-vegans to swear off the animal products for 7, 14 or 30 days. You will be sent a special vegan starter pack and linked up with more experienced vegans to get advice. I would recommend that people starting from complete omni-ness should probably do 7 days - vegetarians might like to consider starting with 14. Of course there is nothing to stop you doing one after the other, or indeed sticking with veganism afterwards.

At a more personal level, I can be found on formspring if anyone has vegan-related questions.