A Meatless Existence.

Well, not really. Y'see, I've decided to give up meat for Lent. Partly as a way to learn self-control, partly as a way to recognize that I'm a rich North American, and partly as an act of piety. In any case, there are various caveats and addendums to my meatless existence:

1. I can eat cheese and eggs. (this just makes sense -- going vegan would be way too hard).
2. I can eat 'meat essence'. (this one's for my housemates, so that I can make chicken cacciatore and other dishes without having to eliminate the meat, which would make them sad. Especially Kobuta, who loves her carnivorous ways. Basically, I'll just remove the meat and eat the dish, without having to worry about the juices. Ditto for using beef or chicken stock in recipes).
3. Fish is allowed. (this one I have the hardest time justifying, for some reason. Basically, the idea is that if I'm about to start gnawing my own arm, I'll crack open a can of tuna and keep the animal within at bay. Also, again, it makes things simpler for me and my housemates and our communal food preparation)

So far it hasn't been too hard, but that's because I'm only a day into things. Who knows, Kobuta and Wnd could find me gnawing on one of our frozen 'meat cookies' by 11pm tonight, with juice dribbling down my chin and a crazed look in my eyes. But we'll see.

As with many things about my faith, I'm not exactly sure why I'm doing this. I just know I want/need to.

In other news, I realized how terribly addicted I am to Penny Arcade when the site went down for two days and I nearly went crazy. I hadn't realized how much I depended on those bizarre geeks with their profanity and hilarious linguistic references to games I know nothing about. But the site's back up now, so I guess the crisis has been averted.