The Experiment Begins

After my long hiatus away from the blog, I'm back again to type in a final entry for the year 2007. Many of my readers out there (all 4 of you) are probably wondering what happened to me recently. Did I get eaten by an escaped San Francisco Zoo tiger? Did I fall off my bike into the mouth of a volcano? Did I run away to a hippie commune and change my name to Moonbeam? All good theories, I must say. However, the real reason for my absence has been that I've been rethinking how I write this blog.

After posting about 25 entries, I've realized that I'm not providing much value to the entire blogosphere. Most of what I've said is not earth-shattering or new... it's been done before. During my month-long absence, I've continued to adopt better, greener practices with my life. But how exciting is it really to hear me talk about switching over to organic milk? Or buying non-toxic deodorant? Or reading another depressing environmental book? Not exactly the kinds of topics that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Blogs should serve one of two purposes: 1) to provide information, or 2) to entertain. Although my blog somewhat honored those two principles, it wasn't enough to grow an audience. There was no incentive for new readers to keep returning to this blog, because it provided no new information, and it only mildly entertained. Even though my blog might have been better than most of the garbage you find out there in the blogosphere, I don't want to add to the growing pile of useless content on the web.

So, after some thought, I've decided to try something different out with this blog. Instead of lightly touching upon random topics in the overwhelming world of environmentalism, I decided to devote the next month to one topic only and see what happens. I've always been curious about veganism, and know absolutely nothing about it, so for January, I'm making it a challenge for myself to go completely vegan. I really don't know what to expect from this. Everyone I've talked to says I'm crazy to even think this, but I beg to differ. Shoot... if Les Stroud from "Survivorman" can last for days without eating anything, I should be fine on fruits, vegetables, grains and beans for the next month. It's not like you're eating absolutely nothing with veganism. You just have to be more creative with what you CAN eat, and really think about WHAT you're eating.

Here's to a new year filled with healthier living. I hope you enjoy reading this blog over the next month. It should be rather interesting. I'm looking forward to February 1st when I can eat a hamburger again.

Brian