I have a post coming up to recap the Cleveland Day of Dot Net (CDoDN), but I wanted to make sure to blog about the beginning of 30 days of vegetarianism. For a while now, I've been having some thoughts about how eating meats fits with my life. I've been contemplating how the animals around us are related to me. Genetic evidence shows that we all have a common ancestor. What makes me that much different than them? Yes, I have self-awareness, which the animals we eat don't have, but that is just a fluke of evolution.

The higher-order animals that make up our diet, while not necessarily self-aware, most assuredly feel pain, have feelings, personalities. Now, these qualities may not be as strong in some animals as in us, but they still have them. So, if this is true, and I accept it, I feel a bit hypocritical supporting an industry that is notorious for cruelty. It isn't really that I feel bad eating them, it is more that I feel bad with the circumstances that lead to my dinner; I started feeling a bit hypocritical. This always bothers me.

The way I see it, I had two choices: stop eating meat or switch to a diet of verifiably humanely raised and slaughtered meat. Now, thinking about it, the second option just seems like a lot of hassle, not to mention very expensive. That certainly helped my decision. Of course, I hate plants, so eating vegetables seemed like a good option.

I've been fooling with this for a few months now, but, the timing was right at the CDoDN this weekend. I was lucky enough to sit next to Alan Stevens at dinner. He is a vegetarian, and we had a nice conversation about it. I don't remember exactly what was said, but, during the course of the conversation, I determined that I would try to be a vegetarian. Alan was very cool about his reasons, not really overbearing about it. That's super cool. So, coming back from the conference, I determined to see if I could do it. One of the things they say about making a habit is to try it for a certain amount of time. So, I decided to try it for 30 days. At this point, I certainly hope that the 30 days will be enough for it to become part of my day-to-day life, but we shall see.

The other thing they say is to make sure that the people around you know. Don't be obnxious, but just let people know. This will make it more likely that you will keep it up. So, consider this letting people know.

Everyone says that switching to a vegetable diet will help you lose weight, too. That's a definite plus.