Late one evening, I was having dinner with some vegan friends of mine at Comet Cafe in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Comet is a relatively punky-style small diner in the Lower East Side. We stopped in Milwaukee for dinner after spending about 16 hours on the road. The three of us had all rode together to a small vegan get-together in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Sticker-covered paper towel dispenser

While we were having dinner, I had been thinking about creating a website that listed restaurants, stores and other places that may be good knowledge for vegans. After a visit to a sticker-covered restroom, I had my inspiration. Now, almost a year later the fruits of my (so far, little) labor are live on the internet: VeganMSP.com.

What took almost a year?

This is embarrassingly simple: I just got done thinking I have to build all of my projects from scratch. (In terms of this project, that would have involved creating a CMS.) I have finally come to realize that the important thing was the data, not the presentation of the data. Thus, I have settled on using Wordpress for now. If Wordpress happens to be a wrong choice a year later, I'll reevaluate.

Want to help?

This is a side project of mine. I have a few other projects I'm working on right now in addition to a full-time job. I would greatly appreciate any help you could offer! That could mean you contribute regularly, or simply send me a quick note letting me know I got something wrong, or any other improvement you might suggest. Simply use the contact form on VeganMSP.com.