So up until recently, the only thing I knew about CD Baby was that their website was converted to Ruby on Rails. I learned this in from the wonderful website A List Apart. Recently (yesterday) I had an urge to buy CDs from a vegetarian musician I heard perform twice last year, Kyle Vincent. Gotta spread the love, you know, I like his music, I like him, so why the heck didn't I own any of his CDs?

So today I return home and I've got the following email from CD Baby. It's the coolest "your order has shipped" email I've ever gotten: (**stuff** mine)

Joshua - 

Thanks for your order with CD Baby!

Shipping Address
================
Joshua Warchol
**Top Secret Military Instillation, Please Ignore**
Wallingford, CT 06492-1753
Email: *************

Qty    Description                                    Price    Total
===    ===========                                    =====    =====
 1    KYLE VINCENT: don't you know                   $9.99    $9.99
 1    KYLE VINCENT: solitary road                    $9.99    $9.99
 1    KYLE VINCENT: gathering dust                  $13.97   $13.97

                                                 Sub Total   $33.95
                                                 Shipping     $5.00
                                               Grand Total   $38.95



Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with
sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make
sure they were in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over
the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that
money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party
marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of
Portland waved 'Bon Voyage!' to your package, on its way to you, in
our private CD Baby jet on this day, Tuesday, March 7th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. 
 We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as "Customer of the Year".  
We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!


Thank you once again,

Derek Sivers, president, CD Baby
the little CD store with the best new independent music
phone: 1-800-448-6369  email: cdbaby@cdbaby.com
http://cdbaby.com

Later today I am going to be holding my second screening of the powerful film Peaceable Kingdom. I'm quite excited/nervous/eager at this point. The screening has come together because of the teamwork of a number of people. No formal organization, no budget, no meetings. Just people who care about animals working together to make this happen.

I'm the lead organizer of the Southern Connecticut Vegetarian Society. One of our members, Ravleen, was interested in helping me get a screening going in New Haven. Last year at this time I organized one in West Hartford... not exactly "southern Connecticut" eh? Ravleen knew John at the New Haven Free Public Library and after a bit of going back and forth over the date we locked in on today, March 11th.

A local activist, Julia, was kind enough to take up the task of soliciting donations from vegan-friendly companies. She managed to get a ton of food! Soy ice cream, faux deli slices, faux brats, faux jerkey, cookies, etc. She did a fantastic job and I couldn't have been luckier than to have her be involved.  A relatively new local vegetarian cafe, Duck's Soup in Hamden, is donating an entire tray of vegan baklava too. I've got to pick that up soon and try to get it to the library uneaten ;-)

I'm hopeful the screening will be well attended and some people viewing it will begin to question why they eat animals, and if I've done my job well, maybe eat less of them, or none at all. Last year, following the discussion of the movie, an elderly woman approached me and told me that she was going to go vegetarian after seeing the movie. That was touching to me, and I knew that anyone could adopt a compassionate diet and lifestyle at any age, if she could.

Later this year, Tribe of Heart will be coming out with a new version of the film. When they do I'm going to do more screenings in different parts of the state. I'm also encouraging all the activists I meet to contact their local libraries and ask them to stock the DVD. Library DVD collections are very popular. I got the Wallingford Public Library to buy a copy and now I check their website often to see if it is checked out. Delightfully it often is. Unfortunately the libraries won't be able to get Peaceable Kingdom right now. Sales are on hold while the new version finishes post production. But Tribe of Heart's other film, The Witness, is a great choice for libraries too.

I'll post again after this weekend and discuss how it went.

Peas & Love to Everyone

Tuesday night I attended my first yoga class. Tonight I attended my second. Deepest thanks to Jess for inviting me to come attend the classes she teaches.  I met Jess just a few weeks ago at the birthday dinner of my ex-coworker, ex-roommate John. She had already signed up for Zaadz. She's even sharing the word about it with those around her, and we couldn't be more grateful.

Yoga seems to be a very strong connection in the Zaadz community. I'm glad I've started to explore and develop my interest in it. I'm sure more posts on this will come in time.

Thanks Jess! *hugs*

March 21st isn't the first day of spring anymore, not for the United States anyway.

According to NASA, Spring started yesterday, on Monday, March 20th.

That's OK though. It's all good as long as Spring is here. Spring means new life, new hope, rejuvinating sunlight and most importantly, ROLLER COASTERS! Tracy & I haven't made plans to visit any parks specifically this year, but I'd like to see us get down to Six Flags in New Jersey. Last year we went but the worlds tallest, fastest roller coaster was busted. Which sucked. It sucked doubly much because a year or two earlier we had gone to Ohio to go on the then tallest, fastest roller coaster. And it was busted. Both days.

But I will not be denied! My coaster count must include a 400+ foot monster.  It's a moral imperative.

I'm in L.A. for the rest of the week visiting the Zaadz team. I'll post more as I get some work done and see L.A. in the daylight. Zaadz World Headquarters is everything I thought it would be :-)

While I enjoy fiction quite a bit, especially if it's set outside normality, I tend to spend most of my time reading non-fiction. Often it's stuff about veganism, animal rights, or technology books. But when I'm lucky, I get to read history. I'm not talking about remember this date, remember that name middle school history books. The books I want to spend my time with tell stories, share emotion, and have more to offer than a chronology.

On the way from Connecticut to California (who knew that flight path passed through Canada?) I was able to finish such a book. Rynn Berry is a vegetarian historian. That is to say he's a historian, who is vegetarian, who writes about the history of vegetarianism. Specifically he's a raw food vegan, but that's just trivia. There won't be a quiz. The first book of his that I read was Famous Vegetarians and their Favorite Recipes. I'm not writing about that book today, though it's quite good. During my cross country flight I finished Food for the Gods, a look at vegetarianism in the world's religions.

The format of the book is chapters on Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Taoism, Islam, and several Christian sects. Each chapter has an excellent essay introducing the religion and specifically focusing on how vegetarianism is tied to its foundation. Without question the eastern religions share
 vegetarianism deeply. Be it the ahimsa and reincarnation inspired vegetarianism of Jains, Buddhists and Hindus, or the health and longevity inspiration of the Taoists, vegetarians of eastern faiths are not hard to find. Of course not every Hindu is vegetarian, for example. But the wisdom that forms these eastern faiths clearly calls for a diet which excludes other animals.

The essays on western religions are very interesting. Was Jesus vegetarian? Does it matter? Is vegetarianism the simplest way to keep faithful to the rules of kosher food? I was skeptical that there was any connection between Islam, one of the religions I've studied the most, and vegetarianism. But Berry does make the case, and points to the mystical Sufi sect as a modern day reminder.

Following each essay is an interview with a leading vegetarian in the faith. Insightful questions from Berry bring forth deep, thoughtful answers. Hearing, or at least reading, directly from faithful of each religion on why vegetarianism is part of their connection with their beliefs was very inspiring.
The final part of the book is a series of recipes from each of the faiths, with a good number of raw, "unfired" dishes thrown into the mix. I haven't had a chance to try any of them, but I intend to. 

While I don't profess any faith, having alternately told people I'm a non-practicing atheist or a believer in the FSM, I do seem to be spending more and more time these days studying religion as a matter of history. Clearly faith is a part of the dynamic course of human development. I look forward to more books, and more stories, as I continue reading.

Thanks to a terrfic Zaadzster named Jessica, and maybe others I didn't know about, I was able to attend a get together of Zaadz members, and a few people who better be applying as I write this ;-) We met for a meal at California Vegan. Young coconuts are now on alert, when Zaadzters get together, watch out! There where 13 people total, including me and Obi. He was keeping up the fashion sense and style, I was holding down the geek chic. I wish someone had brought a camera so we could have gotten a group photo. Next time!

It's remarkable to me that not only did I get to meet the members of the Zaadz team this week, but I've also had a chance to connect with some of the people we're building all this for. The people who believe, who are not afraid, and who together will change the world. I have no doubt.

After dinner about half the crew went to see "V for Vendetta". Amazing film, see it, see it many times.