Vegetarianism

I am vegetarian.  Usually I try not to make a big deal out of it, but I am just seriously squicked out by the concept of meat.  And don't worry, this rant is not going to be some appeal trying to get you to stop sticking cow parts in your mouth.

Well, that's not entirely true.  There's one product that just... utterly disgusts me, and that's the hot dog.  Basically taking pig organs, grinding them up into paste and sticking them inside one large organ, and then twisting it up a regular intervals so that the paste is under pressure and sort of solidifies.  I don't care how it tastes, I just don't get how people could put that in their bodies.  I'm not even talking about the health part of it, because I have a pretty crappy diet.  Hot dogs just strike me as just about the most disgusting thing an animal could produce (yes, out of anything) and we've chosen to eat it.

I actually might overlook that, except that the sausage has existed for millennia.  They may have had them as early as 1000 BC.  This means that "ground up organ goo inside one large organ twisted up" predates all of the following:
-radio
-women's suffrage
-the steam engine
-the seed drill
-the violin
-feudalism
-gunpowder
-indoor plumbing
-paved roads
-the longbow, and
-democracy

They say "necessity is the mother of invention".  Apparently at some point a pre-Hellene gentleman was looking at a pig and thought, "Hm, I've already stripped it everything edible, but there must be some way to get more of it inside me!"  He then set to work, running experiments, creating hypotheses--at least, I imagine something along those lines, since this predates the scientific method.

This rant is concerning vegetarian food.  See, I have come across some problems at my school's cafeteria.  While there is a medium-sized salad bar, that gets boring quite quickly.  The school does not seem to consider that, just maybe, not everyone who wants pasta wants it thickly coated in meat sauce.  There is also that possibility that fries can exist without chili.  I've watched the process, I've seen the point at which they add meat sauce or chili, but for some reason it is prohibited to interrupt it even once.

I'm not the only vegetarian, of course.  However, they seem to fall prey to another annoying fallacy.  Their thought process, as far as I can determine, runs along the track, "This dish does not contain meat. We should try to cover it in as many different spices and as much spice as we can possibly manage.  Johnson, check the saturation point of oregano for this sauce."  No, some people don't like that.  I'm not sure if you've realized this, but some people don't like that.  They've made a few stews that looked appetizing, but from the smell seemed nothing short of noxious.  The cooks seem to believe that just because someone discovered a plant with a particular flavoring, it would be a shame to let it go to waste even for a single meal.  Perhaps they accidentally misordered very large quantities earlier in the year, and they feel it would be a shame to let any of it spoil.

I try to expose myself to new things--film, music, nature--but when it comes to food, I have very bland tastes.  I don't particularly care for sharp flavorings, odd spices, the sour or spicy.  I'd appreciate it if they would at least offer a little more variety in that way.  My preferences may be bland, but I will eventually get tired of cereal, salad, and waffles.

Also, their orange juice is perhaps the most disgusting vile thing I have ever tasted.  Signing out.