I Qualified for States!

Whenever I get the changce to point out that vegans are good athletes, I like to do so.
On Friday, I qualified for the Connecticut Class S State Championship Meet in the 55meter dash and the 4x200meter relay with my team.


In the 55m I qualified WITHOUT blocks, because the meet organizers wanted the meet to run faster so we couldn't use them for the trials.I ended up getting 7.9s, but with blocks I'm sure I will improve upon that time.


In the 4x200m relay, my team ran 1:98.2, which is really good considering the meet was poorly run and the third leg runners (lucky ol' me) were not told where to receive the baton until the second leg runners were on our heels. Either way, I'm happy just to have qualified with my girls!


I'm a little disappointed that they cut out the 300meter dash to speed up the meet, because I was only 0.2s away from qualifying the last time I ran it, and I cut 0.1s off my 55m from the previous meet! Oh well, there's always next time!

So, do you have any athletic accomplishments that you are proud of? Leave a comment and let everyone know that vegans kick butt :)

Winter Pet Safety Brochure

As promised, I am sharing the Winter Pet Safety Brochure that my Students For Animal Advocacy club made. I'm really proud of my group and the brochures were pretty popular among the students in my school. The brochure didn't take too long to make, maybe like around an hour and a half or so. It also wasn't hard to make, we just found facts and added pictures.As an added touch, we put the phone numbers to local shelters and national hotlines on the brochure alongside the general information. To help increase credibility, we included our sources on the back (and also to cover our butts because the school administration doesn't like new student groups after last year's short-lived GSA pulled some pretty weird stuff.)



I'm mostly uploading this to show off my hard work, since much of it pertains to my town only. However, you are more than welcome to use it. The file is in Microsoft Office 2007 Publisher format. Since I don't have Publisher at home, I was not able to remove anything from the original document. Also, I wanted to show it as we presented it. So, if you want to use this, you will need to put in your own local phone numbers and club information. I do ask that you put the link to my website (http://aveganlife.blogspot.com) on it somewhere if you use it at all (put it anywhere you want, just somewhere please.)


The pictures and the text are all black and white because there are no color printers at my school, and this brochure will look good if you put it on colored paper (we were delegated to green paper by our admin.)


Whether you use this to help promote animal safety in your town or just want to see what I did, enjoy!!


Click here to download the file from MegaUpload.com

Post Holiday Post (Get it?)

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, I know I sure did! (minus writing a 30-page paper on Joseph Heller's Picture This)

Since Christmas dinner was not at my house (and I didn't find out in enough time to make something), I was afraid that I'd have nothing to eat. Boy was I wrong! My family is Italian so we have pasta for Christmas instead of a giant slab of carcass. While everyone else had cheese and meet ravioli, I had three plates of spaghetti with homemade red mushroom sauce. There was also plenty of fruit, salad, and guacamole & chips. Instead of eating the regular dessert, I ate the vegan candies left over from the gingerbread houses (I still have some leftover LifeSavers in my purse)

I also got some pretty cool vegan gifts that I'd like to share :)

• TONS of Swedish Fish. One of the few gummy foods that are vegan! Also, they are made with mostly real sugar, and no high-fructose corn syrup!
• Hot Wasabi Coated Green Peas. One of my favorite snacks because they're hot, spicy, and crunchy. Plus you can't eat too many of them before your nose starts to burn up.
• Pinapple dark chocolate bar. Can't recall the name because it's loooooong gone now, but it was vegan and tasty. My big problem with vegan dark chocolates is that they aren't smooth enough, but this one was very creamy and not too bitter!
• Are you hungry yet? Well this one isn't food. With my Christmas money I ended up buying myself a lovely acrylic & nylon grey/black striped sweater from Target. It was on clearance for $12 and it feels softer than any wool or cashmere sweater I've felt. Best part is that since its not wool, I don't have to wash it by hand or line dry it. Can you say, "That was easy!"?

So, I want to hear from you! What did you eat for your holiday dinner? Also, did you receive any vegan/animal friendly gifts? Leave a comment so we all can be jealous :)

Winter Pet Safety

This winter my Students For Animal Advocacy group will be making winter-pet safety brochures to pass around the school!

I am really excited for this, because our adviser, a vegan, has sort of steered us in the promoting veganism direction. As much as I like promoting veganism, I'm really afraid it has alienated us from people who like animals but aren't vegetarian.

Winter pet safety includes using nontoxic ice melts, storing antifreeze away from pets, banging on car hoods, and keeping dangerous plants away from pets.

Our plan is to pass out the brochures in the morning with people dressed as our school mascot (a bulldog) and as another dog costume we have. When the brochures are finished (on Wednesday) I will post the file so everyone else can use them!

EDIT 01/05/10: Sorry the file hasn't been posted yet! I wasn't able to get the file off the school computers before winter break and these past two days back have been super busy. I plan on getting it sometime this week when I have a free period, sorry again for the delay!

Easy Way to Be a Cruelty Free Shopper

Thanks to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, now there is an easy way to see if the beauty and skin care products you buy are tested on animals. Peta2.com, the youth activism portion of PETA, had launched a page that makes finding which companies are cruelty free and which are not much easier than it used to be.

The page consists of three drop down menus. The first allows you to see the names of companies that DO test on animals, grouped by name.

The second lets you search for cruelty-free brands by product type. I absolutely love this menu, and it is very complete, it includes listings for items such as deodorant, bleaching cream, pregnancy care, healing salve, insect bite treatment, massage oil, Rosacea treatment, first aid, massage oil, feminine hygiene, and Ayurvedic supply, just to name a few.

The last drop-down menu is a list of cruelty-free companies, grouped by name.

Finally, in the product and brand listings, the letter "V" has been placed next to the name of any company that makes vegan-only products. (Though many of the companies that are not marked do offer some animal-free items as well).

Ready to really check everything you own? I know many vegans have put this off because of the daunting task it is to look at a giant list or search product-by-product on a search engine, so now you can stop procrastinating! Click here to begin!