Sorry there was no post for last week. I suppose I could blame it on the holidays, but that's not really the reason. Mostly I was just lazy and unmotivated last week. I still am this week, but I'm trying to make myself be productive. Anyway, to make up for my lack of posts last week, this week I am going to share with you some of the crazy, unrealistic ideas I come up with to make myself feel more motivated.
My sister and I have been talking a lot lately about moving away from West Virginia, specifically moving to California. Actually I have wanted to move to California for as long as I can remember. I used to talk about it all the time when I was a kid.
At first this was all just talk, because obviously I can't just pick up and move to the other side of the country. I have Riley and Petunia now, and I have no money. Then I started thinking about how nice it would be to start the sanctuary I've been wanting to start in a place that stays warm all the time, and how much easier it would be to sell animal rights T shirts in a place where 90% of the population doesn't like to go hunting. The more I think about it the more I'm able to convince myself that it actually makes sense.
Another (mostly insane) idea I have that would work much better in California than it would here is starting a sort of self-sustaining community. My dad has been talking, for a while now, about building "tiny houses." For those who don't know, they are exactly what the name implies, very small houses with basically just enough room to live and that's it. They are extremely efficient and very cheap to build compared to normal houses. Plus I just think they're cute.
So here's the idea; get a bunch of vegetarians/vegans together, buy a piece of land in California, stick a bunch of tiny houses on it, put up some solar panels, and there you go. We could have a fruit/ vegetable farm that would go along with the sanctuary. It would allow us to grow our own food and also make some extra money. Everyone who lived in the community could sort of share in the work of growing the food and caring for the animals at the sanctuary. We could have a little shop/cafe where we could have food made from the vegetables we grew and we could sell the T shirts and whatever else we wanted to.
So who's in?
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
Plans
So I mentioned, in a post a while back, this feeling I've been having of urgently needing to do something more with my life. I talked about feeling like nothing I was doing was making any sort of difference and how it all seemed so pointless. Well, it's only been getting worse. Lately I find myself not caring about anything anymore. I show up late for work every day. I don't even bother to do anything on my days off, most of the time. I ignore all of the things that need to be done around the house. I just can't make myself care about any of it anymore. I have to make some changes.
I also mentioned in that post that I had a tentative plan for changing my life. I would like to tell you all that plan now and I welcome any suggestions, criticisms, comments, anything you have to say. I want to get as much feedback as I can from everyone because I NEED this to work. I need to do whatever I can to make this happen because otherwise I don't know what to do.
So here's the plan. I am going to start a business. I want to sell environmentally-friendly, animal rights t shirts. The ultimate goal is to eventually make enough money from the t shirt business to start a small farm animal sanctuary, but for now I just want to stick with Riley and Petunia and focus on getting the business up and running.
I know this may not seem like the most original idea. There are quite a few places out there that sell animal rights t shirts, but I think I have some pretty good ideas that other people haven't come up with yet. Also, there aren't very many places to buy environmentally-friendly, animal rights stuff. I always feel just a little guilty when I buy things with animal rights messages, because I do care about the environment too and it seems sad that I can't support both of those things at the same time. I have decided that all of the things I sell will be either organic or recycled and printed with water-based ink.
I want to call the company Flying Pigs Clothing. To me the idea of flying pigs has several different meanings. First of all, it indicates a belief in things that may seem impossible to most people, you know like "Yeah, everyone will stop eating meat when pigs fly." Second, it relates to the fact that pigs, and all other animals, have so much more to them than people give them credit for. They can do, and feel, and know so much more than most people would ever believe. Sometimes I think they could fly if they really wanted to. The third meaning that is has for me is sort of as a memorial to all of the animals who have died because of our selfishness. As I have mentioned before, I am not a religious person. Still there is something very comforting about imagining all of these pig angels flying around somewhere. The biggest reason for calling it Flying Pigs Clothing though is that it was Riley and Petunia who really inspired me to do this. They are my flying pigs.
My sister has agreed to help me with this, because she is a much better artist than I am. I have this long list of ideas for t shirt designs, but they weren't really doing me much good since I couldn't actually draw them. So far she has drawn me an adorable logo and four shirt designs, which I think is a good place to start. The logo is two happy, smiling, flying pigs (a boy and a girl who look very much like two other pigs you might recognize) pulling banners behind them with the company name. We have one design that has a picture of a piece of cheese with the "no" symbol over it that says "Happy cows come from sanctuaries." There is another one that looks like those superman t shirts that I'm sure you've all seen, but instead of the S it has a V and underneath it says "You don't need superpowers to save the world. Another one is much more basic. In the center it says "Did your meal feel?" and in the background are all of these words like pain, fear, loneliness etc. The last one is the one I'm most excited about. It has a picture of a fox mask and it says "Ⓥ for Vegan". I'm not sure how many people will get it, but I hope a fair number will.
Anyway, as I said, I would love to hear any input you all have about any of this. Are there designs you do or don't like? Do you see any problem with the idea overall? How do you feel about the name? Do you think it gets the point across? please especially let me know if you have seen any of these designs, or ones very similar to them, elsewhere. Obviously some of them are sort of playing off of other things, but I don't want to steal someone else' ideas. Thank you in advance for any advice you can give, and thank you for reading.
I also mentioned in that post that I had a tentative plan for changing my life. I would like to tell you all that plan now and I welcome any suggestions, criticisms, comments, anything you have to say. I want to get as much feedback as I can from everyone because I NEED this to work. I need to do whatever I can to make this happen because otherwise I don't know what to do.
So here's the plan. I am going to start a business. I want to sell environmentally-friendly, animal rights t shirts. The ultimate goal is to eventually make enough money from the t shirt business to start a small farm animal sanctuary, but for now I just want to stick with Riley and Petunia and focus on getting the business up and running.
I know this may not seem like the most original idea. There are quite a few places out there that sell animal rights t shirts, but I think I have some pretty good ideas that other people haven't come up with yet. Also, there aren't very many places to buy environmentally-friendly, animal rights stuff. I always feel just a little guilty when I buy things with animal rights messages, because I do care about the environment too and it seems sad that I can't support both of those things at the same time. I have decided that all of the things I sell will be either organic or recycled and printed with water-based ink.
I want to call the company Flying Pigs Clothing. To me the idea of flying pigs has several different meanings. First of all, it indicates a belief in things that may seem impossible to most people, you know like "Yeah, everyone will stop eating meat when pigs fly." Second, it relates to the fact that pigs, and all other animals, have so much more to them than people give them credit for. They can do, and feel, and know so much more than most people would ever believe. Sometimes I think they could fly if they really wanted to. The third meaning that is has for me is sort of as a memorial to all of the animals who have died because of our selfishness. As I have mentioned before, I am not a religious person. Still there is something very comforting about imagining all of these pig angels flying around somewhere. The biggest reason for calling it Flying Pigs Clothing though is that it was Riley and Petunia who really inspired me to do this. They are my flying pigs.
My sister has agreed to help me with this, because she is a much better artist than I am. I have this long list of ideas for t shirt designs, but they weren't really doing me much good since I couldn't actually draw them. So far she has drawn me an adorable logo and four shirt designs, which I think is a good place to start. The logo is two happy, smiling, flying pigs (a boy and a girl who look very much like two other pigs you might recognize) pulling banners behind them with the company name. We have one design that has a picture of a piece of cheese with the "no" symbol over it that says "Happy cows come from sanctuaries." There is another one that looks like those superman t shirts that I'm sure you've all seen, but instead of the S it has a V and underneath it says "You don't need superpowers to save the world. Another one is much more basic. In the center it says "Did your meal feel?" and in the background are all of these words like pain, fear, loneliness etc. The last one is the one I'm most excited about. It has a picture of a fox mask and it says "Ⓥ for Vegan". I'm not sure how many people will get it, but I hope a fair number will.
Anyway, as I said, I would love to hear any input you all have about any of this. Are there designs you do or don't like? Do you see any problem with the idea overall? How do you feel about the name? Do you think it gets the point across? please especially let me know if you have seen any of these designs, or ones very similar to them, elsewhere. Obviously some of them are sort of playing off of other things, but I don't want to steal someone else' ideas. Thank you in advance for any advice you can give, and thank you for reading.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Non-violence
I, like many vegans, pride myself on my non-violent lifestyle. I have never in my life been in a physical fight with anyone and have been in very few verbal fights. I try my best to approach every situation with as much patience and tolerance as I can, even when I'm dealing with someone who is not showing any patience or tolerance to me. As much as I have wanted to, many many times, I can't really imagine myself actually hurting anyone. It's just not who I am. There is one situation where I can imagine it though, and it's a bit frightening how angry I get just thinking about it.
I have seen an insanely high number of cases lately of police officers shooting dogs, frequently dogs who weren't trying to hurt anyone. In many cases the dogs were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. A while back, my cousin told me about a cop threatening to shoot his dog. My cousin was at a friends house and his dog escaped and was just running up and down the street. My cousins neighbor called him to tell him that the dog had escaped, but by the time he got home someone else had called the police. There was a cop waiting at his house when he got there. My cousin called for the dog who was right up the street and he came running back, obviously having caused no real problem for anyone.
After my cousin got the dog safely back inside the cop said to him "I almost had to shoot your dog." When my cousin asked him why, he said "I saw the murder in his eyes." I have met this dog. He is a sweet, friendly, happy dog. The idea of him having "murder in his eyes" is completely absurd. My cousin replied "If you're going to shoot my dog, you better shoot me too." My sentiments exactly.
I also saw a story recently about Mike Tyson, who you may know is now vegan, which said that the first time he ever punched anyone it was a neighborhood bully who had killed one of his pigeons. Personally I'm pretty surprised that he didn't do more than punch the guy. I'm fairly certain I would have.
These may seem like weird things for me to worry about, and maybe they are, but I know how a lot of people feel about animal rights activists, especially where I live. Despite the fact that I am not in the habit of being involved in illegal activities, I never rule out the possibility of the cops randomly showing up at my house. I also never rule out the possibility of angry backwoods assholes deciding to do something to get back at the vegan girl for having the audacity to keep pigs at her house without slaughtering them.
I hope these fears are completely unfounded, but I'm not sure they are. I especially worry about Riley and Petunia. It's hard to keep an eye on them all the time because they're not in the house. I feel like they are completely exposed and it worries me, a lot.
Anyway, the whole point of this post is that the one situation in which I can imagine myself actually hurting someone is if they hurt someone, human or non-human, who I care about. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I would actually kill anyone. I don't think I could ever do that. I can see myself beating them to a bloody pulp though.
Some people would probably think "You're just some vegan girl who has never been in a fight. What are you going to do?" Well, I'll tell you right now, I am fairly certain that in that situation I could take on the biggest, dumbest, camouflage-clad meat-enthusiast in the state of West Virginia and send him home with even less teeth than he had in the first place.
I have seen an insanely high number of cases lately of police officers shooting dogs, frequently dogs who weren't trying to hurt anyone. In many cases the dogs were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. A while back, my cousin told me about a cop threatening to shoot his dog. My cousin was at a friends house and his dog escaped and was just running up and down the street. My cousins neighbor called him to tell him that the dog had escaped, but by the time he got home someone else had called the police. There was a cop waiting at his house when he got there. My cousin called for the dog who was right up the street and he came running back, obviously having caused no real problem for anyone.
After my cousin got the dog safely back inside the cop said to him "I almost had to shoot your dog." When my cousin asked him why, he said "I saw the murder in his eyes." I have met this dog. He is a sweet, friendly, happy dog. The idea of him having "murder in his eyes" is completely absurd. My cousin replied "If you're going to shoot my dog, you better shoot me too." My sentiments exactly.
I also saw a story recently about Mike Tyson, who you may know is now vegan, which said that the first time he ever punched anyone it was a neighborhood bully who had killed one of his pigeons. Personally I'm pretty surprised that he didn't do more than punch the guy. I'm fairly certain I would have.
These may seem like weird things for me to worry about, and maybe they are, but I know how a lot of people feel about animal rights activists, especially where I live. Despite the fact that I am not in the habit of being involved in illegal activities, I never rule out the possibility of the cops randomly showing up at my house. I also never rule out the possibility of angry backwoods assholes deciding to do something to get back at the vegan girl for having the audacity to keep pigs at her house without slaughtering them.
I hope these fears are completely unfounded, but I'm not sure they are. I especially worry about Riley and Petunia. It's hard to keep an eye on them all the time because they're not in the house. I feel like they are completely exposed and it worries me, a lot.
Anyway, the whole point of this post is that the one situation in which I can imagine myself actually hurting someone is if they hurt someone, human or non-human, who I care about. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I would actually kill anyone. I don't think I could ever do that. I can see myself beating them to a bloody pulp though.
Some people would probably think "You're just some vegan girl who has never been in a fight. What are you going to do?" Well, I'll tell you right now, I am fairly certain that in that situation I could take on the biggest, dumbest, camouflage-clad meat-enthusiast in the state of West Virginia and send him home with even less teeth than he had in the first place.
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