Sitting in my fridge is a cold bottle of the nectar of the gods, aka Coca-Cola classic. This month, after seeing my daily dosage of black sugar water increase to three bottles a day and being inspired by Darren Barefoot's month off from the soft-drink (a successful month off it turned out), I drank a lot of juice and coffee (oh and beer), but no carbonated beverages. Coca-Cola, the company, has its greedy little fingers dipped into the fruit juice honey pot as well, so while they didn't get my money for the soft drink, they got it because they own the Minute Maid brand.

I pledged $100 each to Creative Commons, which is designed to give artists more flexibility in how others use and reuse their creations, and Vancouver Community Network, a non-profit Internet services provider for low-income Greater Vancouver Area residents and non-profit organizations. In the next couple of days as I sort out my finances for the upcoming tax season (and it being the first and therefore bill-paying weekend of the month coming up), I will donate to both organizations.

Not drinking Coke for a month wasn't hard. It most certainly wasn't as hard as quitting smoking. At least not from what I've heard, never having been a smoker myself. I'm looking forward, in a weird way, to the rush of self-loathing that will come with the first sip. Naturally I'm reminded of the episode of The Simpsons where Homer quits beer for a month and finds that he has improved health and a hundred bucks in his pocket. I don't really feel a lot healthier or more energetic after drinking mostly orange and apple juice. I'm also less well-off financially, since I drank more bottles of juice than I did Coke, and juice costs more. A lot more: a 591 ml bottle of Coke costs about $1.80 or 30 cents per 100 ml, where a 398 ml bottle of apple juice costs about $2.20 or 55 cents per 100 ml. That said, I'm happy with myself, and I know that resolve combined with announcing it publicly helps if ever I know I need to quit something.

Or if I need to start doing something.