revolushuneyz

I just say ''because I`m better than you'', and keep on doing whatever I was doing before. No explanation, no conversation. If someone tries to be serious about it, just keep it going.

So I emailed Mountain Equipment Coop here is Canada to ask about veganizing their stores, both in terms of labelling vegan products and, because MEC has it's own line of products, about making more vegan products. For example, MEC sells a decent quality duffle bag, but the handle has a leather grip. For those who don`t know MEC, it is Canada's most well-known outdoors shop (certainly for climbing). It is a 'co-op' in that you pay 5$ for life­. But MEC also has a very strong stance on sustainability, both in developing products and in their stores themselves. www.mec.ca Here is MEC's response (I was actually somewhat shocked): Thanks for the comments. My name is Jeff Crook and I manage the Buying and Design departments here at MEC. Sustainability is both a risk and massive opportunity for anyone who builds products. It is also very complex. We have been working hard to understand how we can manufacture and produce products in a more "thoughtful" manner. Right now our focus is raw material inputs and manufacturing processes. In fact we partner with a Swiss company called Bluesign as we move towards auditing more of our raw material suppliers - audits for energy, water, toxicity as well as our usual array of social, labor and health & safety audits. Our mission around Sustainability is to get more "good" elements into product and less "bad". For example; removing PVC from our products; only using Organic Cotton; increasing our use of Recycled Polyesters; trying to switch all our DWR chemistry to Carbon 6 molecules instead of Carbon 8... These things take an enormous amount of time to understand and action. At the end of the day, people buy products from us because they need those products to do a job. We are very mindful of the fact that our members expect great performance and value from our products. Given that approximately 85% of the carbon footprint of an apparel product is energy embodied IN the product, we believe in building products for the long haul...this directly impacts our material choices. Getting the performance side of products right takes a lot of time but it is vital. As an organization we are not pursuing a Vegan strategy in product creation. As you pointed out there are times when products come to fruition as vegan friendly but it is not something that we set out to do per se. Your comment about the leather on the duffle is an interesting one. I have received comments from other members who want MEC to stop using synthetics as these are derived from crude oil, a non-renewable resource. They would prefer that we use only natural fibers and animal based materials. As a retailer and a brand MEC needs to strike a balance between all the differing views that make up the MEC membership. I really do appreciate you taking the time to send us a comment. Good luck on all your adventures, ------------------ So here is my question, which I was coincidentally discussing with another friend, does anyone have an idea of the comparative impact of producing 'natural' (read: non-vegan) products vs synthetics? I have typically taking a long-tail approach to it in discussing the impact of farming, but from an emissions, chemicals, toxins (from synthetic products) and the relative waste that ensues (both in off-shoots and the degradability of the product).

I'm actually heading to MacKenzie Pond on Saturday with a small crew. We usually head there on weekends. As the summer progresses, we'll start going to Québec as well. I'm hoping to take a long weekend to check out The Gunks. With only day trips right now, you loose too much time trying to figure things out. I don't do much rope, but I'm hoping to change that this season. I know a couple strong boulder who are looking to switch over so I'm hoping to head out with them. Most of the people I climb with are at the 5.12-13 level, so it can be intimidating to intro to ropes on that, not because of the climbing, but the belaying, I've watched them throw hard and dangerously, I get super stressed about scrwing up. Where are you at ...dave?

DISCLAIMER: This is in no way to a generalization of ALL people, just my observation of many, especially non-vegans. I know a number of people who are wonderful caregivers to non-humans. ------------- I think the definition and understanding of "aminal lover" in our day-and-age is a little skewed. People are considered animal lovers if they want to pet, coddle and ownanimals. But save a few examples, what that really means is that they purchase an living being (very often bred [i won't get into that rant]), they then cage that animal for the vast majority of its life (most people really only play with their animals a couple hours out of a 24-hour day) and do not spend much time thinking about how a pet actually wants to be treated/handled. Moreover, people in the city who own pets that are allowed to be outside, most often have them on leashes. And domesticated pets are trained and beaten to be subserviant and act according to human desires and rules. So when people say "animal lover", it begs the question, what do you mean by lover? What I think most people mean is: I like to own things that make me feel loved and are soft and cuddly and allow me to have the power I want. It's not necessarily the animal they love, but rather the relationship. Whenever a non-vegan tells me how much they love animals (awww...look at the cute puppy), I say, me too, I love it so much I won't breed, beat, enslave or eat it. RC, I don't think it makes you less of an animal lover, I just think it makes you a different kind of lover.

So I work for the Government of Canada. It's a massive bureaucracy of generally non-vegan types (I know of 2 of us on my floor, but I work in "arts" so it's seemingly more "common"). At work they started having these "pizza party" lunches to discuss various policies. They give the option of buying pizza. So the next coming up relates directly to my job. T he guy who was organizing was asking who would be contributing to the pizza fund. I emailed him back to say that I wouldn't be contributing because I am vegan, which also meant there was no risk of me trying to eat free pizza. End of story...or so I thought. He just emailed me to say that he spoke to the Pizza place and they would be providing vegan pizza, so I could eat too. Seriously. I was dumbfounded. Super stoked on it. This will be the maybe the second time that I can actually participate in a work event that involves food. And, it's a small step, but they would only be offering vegetarian pizza (for the Government...and Hull, Quebec, that's a HUGE step).

IYM, you have chosen an extremely rare case. You are talking about 35 out of 100,000 abortions. Third trimester abortions in Canada are generally refused save for medical purposes (the birth would pose a risk to either the baby or the mother). Where did you get your info from? What was the reason for the abortions? You selected an example from 1988. You're being extremist. It's equivalent to saying that some people go vegan to mask an eating disorder so veganism is a symptom of an ED.

I explained the situation to my friends and just told them I was over doing certain things. If a friend nagged at me for not being around, I would invite them to do the things I was doing, as a compromise. Do their activities once in a while and my activities once in a while. I also find you have to make suggestions and offer alternatives, not just say "hey, wanna hang out", because everyone will default to what they're used. If a friend really got on my case, for example, for not going out for PHO (meat-based soup) with everyone, I would say, we could go somewhere vegan-friendly. If they refused to eat a vegan-friendly place (and therefore exclude me), I would let them know that they just decided that it was more important to them to eat meat than it was to hang with me. But it's true, if your friends require you to only interact within "their" space (bars/getting hammered/eating meat), then it's not you they're interested in, it's the lifestyle. If it's you they are interested in, some compromise can be reached. With most of my friends, I will go out and party occasionally, or go grab dinner at a veg-friendly place before they go out. That way we can see eachother but I don't feel the pressure of staying out all night. It has also meant that I have lost some friends. But really, if someone can only interact with me through meat or alcohol, I'm not interested. It sucks and it's frustrating, but it's also reality.

I think it's interesting that the vast majority of the people debating the issue are men. The reality is that men cannot have babies and men are the ruling class, you therefore come at the issue from a different perspective WobbyLifter is completely on point. The question should be about a person's self-determination with respect to her body, not a question of how you "feel" about abortion. Vivalasvegans, your comments on the realities of women as primary caregivers is spot on, imo. It is important to make that clear. Birthing a baby and having a child are only theoretically seperate; women are statistically responsible for both, and as such, the two cannot be separated. I would retort, the anti-abortion argument that a woman who has an abortion is making a decision "for the child" doesn't follow because to render abortion inaccessible is to make that choice for women.

Thanks y'all L&G: I'm actually terrified of falling from heights. So terrified that I couldn't walk over a bridge until I was 12. My heart still races on creaky suspended bridges and I white knuckle drives through mountains. Oddly, climbing is how I am working to overcome it. I have been working on progressively higher rock. It's an amazing challenge. My mom laughs at it, I would definitely be the last person she'd imagine climbing (due to the heights). But it's an amazing experience, very soulful, and physically challenging to the core. My climber friends definitely laugh and then cringe at my dealing with it all (I once got stuck on the top of a 25-foot boulder for a solid 30 minutes), but that's part of the process. Eventually, I came down and have never feared that boulder again; it's now my warm-up.

the other way to go would be through a more DIY organization (like your friendly local anarchist shop, AK Press). Those types of info shops would be far less capitalist (less bs, less $). You can also make the cookbook a zine. Get the zine out there. When you've somewhat established yourself, try for a full cookbook. I don't work in publishing, but I work for the Government department that funds publishers, so I know a bit about how it works. Feel free to ask away and I'll do my best.

http://www.publishers.ca/publishing-get-published.htm It's Canadian info, but the markets work similarly. In reality, getting published (if you're unknown) is all about cold-calling and marketing. The best advice I've heard thus far, first, find a publisher that publishes what you're writing. There are publishers that specialize in cookbooks, find them, contact them. If you can figure out a way to meet the person (i.e. stalking), do it. If not, contact the publisher and just ask them how they want manuscripts submitted (some want paper, some electronic, etc). Then follow-up. From my knowledge, you do really need to know your market. Know how many vegans are out there, how many cookbooks, know the success (if you can) of those other books. In your proposal, be able to use $ figures to demonstrate how your book is different from everyone else's.

So everyone has them: those moments when you think "YEAH!", totally stoked on being vegan. Today, I had one, I work for the government, and well, it's not so vegan. I am that freak. Today, I met "the other" vegan on my floor, who is actually raw vegan. He's been vegan for years and he's my age. I geekishly said to him "yeah, it's awesome that there's another one". That was my top vegan moment. Other people have moments? Moments when you just love being vegan (other than every moment of your life)?

I finished my first "dedicated" climbing season in 2008, and I don't know many folks on here, so here is my intro to you all. You can't actually notice, but I managed to lose 10 pounds over the summer (including adding a whack of climber muscle). This season, I have high hopes of getting down to 15% of less body fat and sending some V6s. In chronological order, this is what I do: http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z63/revolushuneyz/phoar1.jpg At a beach in Spain in March 2008. http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z63/revolushuneyz/phoar2.jpg XXX (V3) in Gatineau, Quebec. http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z63/revolushuneyz/phoar3.jpg I don't remember the title, but it's a V4 in Vald David, Quebec. I didn't send it that day, but got it first try later on in the season. http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z63/revolushuneyz/phoar4.jpg Enter the Wagon (V2) at MacKenzie Pond, New York. http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z63/revolushuneyz/phoar5.jpg Great roof of China (V4) at MacKenzie Pond, New York. I didn't send it, the top-out scared the bee-gee-gees out of me. But I made that throw, which was a big coup for me. http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z63/revolushuneyz/phoar6.jpg haha...this is a joke, I tried a V7 and could do moves 2-5. But the first move is the crux and it was fun to try. http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z63/revolushuneyz/phoar7.jpg This is me.

throwin' it down for the Canadians. Ottawa, ON.

Hey Lena, I'm in Ottawa. I don't need a roommate but I could direct you to neighbourhoods and restaurants. My opinion is that the Green Door and the Table are garbage, over priced stuff that I'd make at home. But they are very popular. Govinda's = amazing (cheap and delish, but it's the same food every day and run by a religion) Perfection Satisfaction Promise = awesome (a little pricey, but the best quality food in the city, and run by a religion). They also have the best vegan deserts in the city, hands down. Wild Oat (organic bakery and sandwich/coffee joint) = awesome. good sandwiches and amazing deserts. everything is labeled. Bread and Sons bakery (organic) = best vegan pumpking muffin in the city and best vegan cookies (imo, but that is highly controversial). Apparently they have vegan pizza at lunch. Saigon Pho = they have lots of vegan food, all with seitan (only place in the city that i know of). the food is acceptable, but very saucy. So Good = the most highly praised veg*-friendly "chinese" restaurant. It's not "traditional" but it's all delicious and cheap. And you can just ask about vegan food. Ceylonta = pricey but awesome Sri Lanken food. you can just ask the server what is vegan and they will tell you. Eri Cafe = cheap vegan eritrean food. epicly amazing. Horn of Africa = cheap vegan ethiopean food. not as good as the Eri but more popular due to location. The Manx = best pub in the city, and has vegan food and booze on the menu. A MUST TRY. It's a upb with quality food (brown rice, smoked tofu, and all that. but also the best fries in the city). Pancho Villa = it's half-decent tex mex. well-priced and the servers/cooks know what "I'm vegan" means. Ahora = best mexican joint in town. Herb and Spice = organic grocery store. over-priced but organic and tons of vegan food. Rainbow Foods = same idea. There are a million other places, so feel free to PM me when you know what area you'll be in, for specifics.

awww..thanks. The goal for today is to finally learn how to make good vegan hot and sour soup! And eat lots of vegan hemp-seed brownie.

+1 (in a big way) Though I wonder if its important to define semantics (because it always is). Richard, it sounds as though what you are talking about is the issue of controlling a person's body. Which I think is different from meeting the desires of a partner. The difference: Control = a partner telling me that they won't be with me unless I lose 10 pounds (recognizing the existing pressures of women's body images). Desire = a partner having a thing for nice calves, thus me toning those puppies up. Richard, when you say you wouldn't change, do you include the concept of changing for a partner's "desire"? (I'm just curious, no judgment).

"Abortion is used like many surgeries and medications, it prevents people from taking responsibility for their own actions." This is in fact a myth. I went to a conference on sexuality and women a couple year's ago and the morning after pill was a hot topic, and the use of abortion as bc came up. I don't have the studies with me (so I won't berade the facts of the argument), but less than 50% of abortions result from lack of use of contraception (so more than 50% of abortions results from the failure of contraception). And, for example, in New York, the rate of repeats is only at 4% (so that's 4% of women who have abortions get repeats) and that does not mean that those 4% are using it as bc (though it would statistically be the most reliable marker). But 4% of the abortion-getting female population doesn't even come close to qualifying as "women using abortions as bc". But as I said, I don't have the stats, so I will make my argument based on common sense. In Canada, getting an abortion can cost up to $500 (though most are free). Wait times are up to 3 months (but generally 1.5 months). Getting an abortion is an invasive procedure that includes pain, spotting, clotting, and no sex for weeks afterwards, it is a surgery, so to speak. Getting an abortion also generally requires counselling of some sort. In addition, abortions are not accessible in all areas of Canada. Although the majority of Canadians live in urban settings, abortions can be extremely inaccessible in rural regions (affecting 30% of the Canadian population). So until aobrtions are widely accessible, it will remain a primarily "urban" surgery. Also, getting an abortion (secretly) requires availability for the procedure (if you're doing it secretly, that could be difficult) and a safe space to recover (even a great task). There are also social/religious pressures to contend with. This "form" of "bc" is in opposition to say: putting a condom on, using pill, IUD or the morning after pill. Although no all women are intelligent, the realities of each option generally suggest that abortion will not become a form of bc. As well, xjohanx, just to clarify, the morning after pill does not cause an abortion, it prevents conception. It ensures that conception does not happen (it is actually just a really strong dose of the Pill). So while you are welcome to be against the morning after pill for whatever reason you like, your reasoning is factually incorrect.

Emmybear, really good points. My mom is the head of a provincial abortion rights council and she says when talking the legality of abortion, your first points (on classification) are the most important. We have a tendency to talk ad-noseum about this issue. The morning after pill is an ideal solution to ensuring access (if it were affordable and over-the-counter). As mom was saying, the "morning after pill" was able to become offered without prescription with little to no valid legal argument from anti-abortionists because it effectively works in the way you describe. It circumvents to arguments relating to "murder". When you can legally circumnavigate emotional/moral arguments, it doesn't matter who is in power. The attempt to reclassify abortion or aspects relating to abortion is a very serious issue. In Canada, they're working on passing bill C-484, which will include pregnant women in the list of circumstances when a judge can increase the sentence/punishment of a person charged with assault. It is a very subtle inclusion of a "fetus" as a secondary person (being attacked). These small changes go almost unnoticed for a long time, then progressively become the norm, then you are suddenly hit with abotion laws be re-opened full steam that are supported by precedents.

hey Mark, thought I'd introduce myself, Marcie (Marcella), I'm an old friend of Ian's. I know who you are solely because you are Ian's "other" vegan friend. He may or may not have ever mentioned his "other" vegan friend to you, but in case he had, hi, that's me! Hope the training is going well.

Hey everyone, I've been on VF for a minute so know some of the folks. Boulderer, writer, photographer, activist living in Ottawa. I also run quite a bit, but I'm not a "runner". I also ride a bicycle a lot, but I'm not a "cyclist". Grew up in Manitoba and northern Ontario. Was a competitive gymnast, now all that's left is the flexibility. I've been vegan for 4 years and there's no turning back in sight. .bisou. revolushuneyz a.ka. Marcella