Going Vegan

now that this blog is really no longer part of an assignment i feel freer to post about different things and to not use capitals and stuff. when i email i typically forgo capitals. i think it's because i am too lazy to hit shift.

i have been thinking more and more about going vegan. currently i am a lacto-ovo vegetarian but i have slowly been cutting out milk and eggs from my diet. when i think about eating eggs - god it's so gross. i won't eat eggs on their own but i still eat things with eggs in them. and i still love cheese. but the more i think about it the more grossed out i get. the other thing is the leather issue. it is nearly impossible to find fine handbags or shoes that are vegan. plus before i started leaning toward going vegan - i must admit that i bought my fair share of leather handbags and shoes. so what am i supposed to do with them. i still really like them. but i can't think about it or i get grossed out. which makes me feel like a hypocrit. Plus i still feel it would be hard to adopt a strictly vegan diet because it is so limited.

i mean when you think about eating meat - that was once a living thing and now you've gone ahead and killed it, skinned and cooked it. yuck. i can't say this to friends and family - i've never been militant or anything but it is so disgusting. the thought of eating meat - blech.

Web Final (ugh!)

I just wrote out what I would like to do for the web final and Blogger couldn't publish it - ahh! Now I am going to have to remember what I wanted to do.

For the web final - I am definitely doing my web page on being a vegetarian. I would like to have my homepage (in earth tones, reds, browns, creams, taupes etc) with a little information about me, why I am a vegetarian and how it is a lifestyle choice and not just a fad.

I also want to list the topics for my subpages (along with links to each) with a little explanation about each.

Sub-pages:
Vegetarianism and the impact on the environment - this page would contain info about the beneficial impact being a vegetarian has on the environment, possibly links to other webpages and hopefully some other sources to support information provided.

Cruelty free products/Vegan clothing - I am very excited about this page. Because even if you choose not to go meat free - you can still make ethical choices when purchasing everyday products. There are a lot of options and a lot of companies that are cruelty free - which means no animal testing.

Vegetarian Recipies - provide some easy - emphasis on easy, fast, and nutritous vegetarian recipies that also taste great.

Vegetarian Restaurants - provide a list of restaurants in the South Jersey and Philadelphia
area that either offer only vegetarian choices or offer a good selection of vegetarian options.

Meet Your Meat - this might be the most underhanded part of the website. I would like to post cute pictures of cows, pigs, ducks etc and then denote which meat comes from which.

This is what I have so far. My concerns are this: I hope my ideas are not too ambitious for my skills. Also after doing the reading I am hoping that I can make the website as usable by as many people as possible but again I don't want to be too ambitious and not be able to deliver.

Clarification of last post

I just want to know where we are supposed to look for sources for our web final. Can we use only other web pages or do we need to look for scholarly articles and such. That's basically it.

Sources for the web final

I have a quick question regarding the final project.

But first I don't think I ever mentioned what web page building experience I have - which is none.
Now that that is out of the way...

Ok I have been tooling around the web looking for inspiration regarding the web final. It was in that way that I was able to come up with some color palette ideas - rethinking the green hues to more earth tones with some reds and golds and creams. My question is sources. Are we primarily using other web pages as sources for our own web pages? Or are we supposed to have multiple sources?

The Onion

Hi All,
I know this is supposed to be about our websites and all but I read an "article" in The Onion that I just HAD to pass along: http://www.theonion.com/content/news/mead_releases_new_grad_school

If you need a little break while doing your homework I strongly suggest reading the above!

Color Ideas

I was playing around with Colors on the Web and found some colors that I am interested in using. I can't seem to get the little color palet to copy into my blog it's very frustrating. But it is a variation on the earth tone theme I've been thinking about using. It's now kind of coral, black, white, Brick, gray. But I am still working on it. And I know the colors don't sound great - which is why it's so frustrating that I can't get the colors to paste into this!!!!

Sub pages cont...

Another idea I have for one of my sub pages is the positive impact being a vegetarian has on the environment. I have to do more research on this topic but it is a topic that I am very interested in and is also very topical at the moment with the emphasis on "going green."

Final Project - sub pages

I was really thinking about doing a review of cookbooks or sites that offer recipes such as: Vegetarian Kitchen & VegWeb.

I would also like to include a sub page on Vegetarian clothing - this plays into the whole "philosophy aspect." I know that as a vegetarian one of the reasons I don't eat meat is the inherent cruelty involved in prepping the meat - the animals are not treated humanely. I don't intend on posting any traumatizing pictures. I for one can't take that so I would not inflict it on anyone else. However, another aspect of being a vegetarian is to make sure your clothing is cruelty free - no leather, wool etc.

Final Project

I have been giving some thought to my final project and I am thinking about color schemes. I had originally thought hues of green and white/cream. But now I am thinking about earth tones, browns, taupes, greens, with splashes of vivid colors like fuchsia or pink.

And as for original content. I am not sure how chatty our websites can be. But I was thinking about explaining why I became a vegetarian, how long I have been a vegetarian and how that has impacted my life. I also wanted to detail how it's not just a fad but a way of life so I was thinking about changing my title from the capricious Vegetarian's Rule to something along the lines of A Vegetarian Way of Life - or something like that.

I am also hoping to make the website as accessible as possible. I am paying more attention to the websites I visit now and I would like to make sure that my website is usable by all.

My Lily cat

I realized that I couldn't possibly post a picture of Jeremiah without uploading a picture of my Lily. As you can see she likes Pringles!

Jeremiah

This is Jeremiah (pre-ICH). He's still spotty and I know this picture is a little blurry - it's from my cell phone.

other blogs

I have added links to all the blogs for this class. Hopefully this will make linking to other blogs easier.

Vegetarians Rule

I have been giving a lot of thought to my web final. And I think I have just about decided to go with all things Vegetarian. My blog title is a tentative title for the web page. I wanted to make sure I am hitting all the marks for this assignment so I've done some handy cutting and pasting. The readings said that blog postings are supposed to be pretty short and I know I tend to run on... Which I'm doing right now. So here we go:

• Why you are considering and/or discarding certain topics - I had three possible topics: Vegetarianism, Why NJ is great and possibly knitting or crocheting. I have pretty much decided on Vegetarianism. It is partly for selfish reasons that I am doing Vegetarianism - I would like to broaden my own horizons and I have been thinking about the different subpages and I think the whole vegetarian thing lends itself to that well.
  
• Links to resources you might use in FW -
• Vegweb.com
• Vegetarianism in a Nutshell
• Vegan Action
• Vegan FAQ's
  
• Ideas for color palettes - I am thinking hues of green and white. I KNOW this is obvious but it just makes the most sense to me. I might choose different color palettes for the more serious topics - see subpages.
  
• Possible topics and titles for your 4-5 subpages -
  
• Vegetarianism and the environment
  
• Animal rights/PeTA info page
  
• Cookbook reviews/recipes
  
• Impact on health - Vegetarian lifestyle=healthy lifestyle
• Vegan clothing
  
• Links to good examples of similar websites
  
• Peta
  
• Possible original text for FW - I am still working on my original text.
  
• Possible graphics or sources of graphics - I was thinking about using the websites mentioned above for graphics ideas or possibly scanning in some pictures of my own because I am not sure about copyright infringement - that is something I will have to look into.
  
• Challenges you may face - just creating the website is going to be a challenge! This is all so new to me. It is exciting but I am also so nervous about this.
  

To blog or not to blog

I honestly can't believe how much I have been updating this site. If it had not been for this class I would NEVER have considered blogging. I always felt like it was way too public. Not that I for one minute expected anyone to be avidly reading my insignificant little blog but still there is the potential...

I am even considering keeping it up after class is over but I am not sure it is kind of a great place to vent.

To those of you that responded to my post about Jeremiah - I am happy to report that he is doing well. I went on to a couple of sites about Betta fish(Betta Fish Forum and Aquarium Guys) and then went to my local Petsmart and got some medicine for him and he seems to be doing fine. He's happily swimming around his tank right now. He had Ich (I think) and Ich to the best of my knowledge is a parasite he was covered in little white dots.

I am also stressing about our projects because I have had some family issues the past week - my aunt is pretty sick - she had surgery and then had a stroke. I knew strokes were devastating but it is really shocking to see it up close. And thank goodness she didn't have a major stroke but even so, she's lost the use of her left arm. So it's been very stressful. I admit I haven't been as diligent with my schoolwork because of all of this.

Boy this blog is really like a confessional. I will try to limit my posts to all things school (and maybe a little about Jeremiah) in the future.

New Jersey is great

I am thinking about changing the topic of my final project from all things Vegetarian to either gardening - which I love but don't get to do much because I am an apt dweller or to New Jersey. I want to highlight all the great things about the Garden State. I'm a Jersey Girl (aside from being born in Philly) I was raised in South Jersey and went to school in Jersey. And I know Jersey is an easy target - people are confused by circles and jug handles, etc. But there are a lot of really great things about New Jersey. So I am debating between those three topics.

Fish tales

I know we are supposed to primarily be blogging about our final project and I did. I think I am going to do something about being a vegetarian.

I just got a Betta Fish - he is blue and his name is Jeremiah. I keep him at work and he is a great stress reliever. He is so mellow - just swimming around his tank and looking cute. However, I think he is sick and I am pretty bummed about it. I think he has Ich. I went to the pet store and got him medicine and am just hoping that he gets better.

I never knew how involved it was to take care of a Betta fish there are a ton of websites that offer advice on the care and feeding of your betta fish - that's how I found out he probably has Ich. I thought I was doing everything right and I've only had him a week and half but I feel very guilty like I must have done something wrong that he's now sick. I know it seems silly to obsess about a fish but I really love him.

Final Project

I have been thinking about the final project and trying to decide on a topic. I am not exactly an expert in any subject. I love to knit and crochet but I haven't done that in a while and am pretty much a novice. I love to read but let's face it who in this program doesn't? I have also been a vegetarian for the last 15 years. I am a lacto-ovo vegetarian which means I will eat eggs and dairy products, I don't eat any fish, poultry or red meat. Although lately I can't seem to eat eggs and have switched to soy milk. Which if you haven't tried soy milk I highly recommend it. So to make a long and rambling story short, I have been thinking about doing my final project on Vegetarianism/Veganism (sp?). It will give me an opportunity to explore different vegetarian/vegan options - vegan clothing, cruelty free make-up etc.

PDA???

Ok I have seriously been thinking about purchasing a pda. I was tooling around the web and was looking at a few options - the Palm (which I guess is pretty much the standard) and HP. I really like the HP 111 iPAQ. It has Wi-Fi and Windows which is pretty much all I want. I've been reading customer reviews and even went on Cnet. Does anyone have an opinion on PDA's? I would love to know!!

Introduction

I am an MLIS student at Drexel University. I am in my second year and hope to graduate in December - right in time for Christmas Whoo hoo!! I should be able to send out Christmas cards this year.
Day Job: I work for a major rental car company as an in-house rep. I don't want to get too detailed.
Career Dreams: I hope to get a job in a library in Washington DC or locally - really I will just be happy to have a job in a library. I think I want to concentrate on either Government Librarianship, competitive intelligence or corporate librarianship.
Websites
The websites I use every day are Yahoo, MSN and Amazon.com.