Posts tagged ‘blogging’
Camping, Puppies and Work… Oh My!
We’re back from camping. It was stupendously awesome, except the air mattress got a hole and I had to sleep on the very hard ground. The ocean and the sunshine more than made up for it though. Gorgeous, relaxing, local – I loved it.
Beautiful beaches, so close to home!
I’ll update more on that soon.
We’re currently dog/cat/turtle-sitting. So we’re currently responsible for one turtle, five cats, two ancient dogs and one very bouncy puppy. Think Marley from Marley & Me. Really. Bouncy.
Crazy puppy at Pride Day earlier this year... he hasn't changed much, just bigger!
I’m back at work (leave is over… alas) and it’s insane as usual. I’m working very long days. But we had birthday cakes today and I set the cake out on crockery plates with proper forks/spoons, in spite of some suggestions that we use paper plates and plastic cutlery. So it’s not all bad. No-one even really complained!
I’ll start doing proper updates again soon. O_o
Quick Update
The posts might be a bit sparse this week and next week. Here’s why:
Mr Teeny-bop has been going a bit mad on YouTube and our internet got shaped.
YouTube of Internet Speed Doom.
As of this morning it’s finally back to normal – yay! I usually write my posts on the weekend though, as I’m short on time during the week. Work, you know. The weekly blogging session didn’t happen this weekend though, as we were back to dial-up speeds (fast dial-up at 128k, but still). I don’t know how on earth we ever lived with dial-up, in pre-broadband days. I don’t ever remember being that patient.
Work is *many expletives deleted*. I’m working on it. We’ll see how that goes.
Next week we’re going on holiday – camping again. We’re a bit more prepared this time (bigger tent, better tarp, a location with toilets and showers, more lighting – very important with a Deaf camper), and I’m hopeful it won’t rain every single day. When we get back I’ll share more details. Right now I’m too busy craving the break. I can’t wait for long days at the beach! I love that we have such awesome places local to us. I was hoping to set up some posts this weekend to auto-post while we’re away, but I don’t know if I’ll have time now. Fingers crossed!
Anyway… maybe you’ll hear from me, maybe you won’t. I can usually manage 140 characters even if I am very busy, so you could keep up with me on twitter instead or as well (not when I’m camping though).
Oh, and I forgot to say it last week – happy Spring everyone! (Or Autumn if you’re in the northern hemisphere.)
Spotlight: Green Jobs
I’m on the job hunt at the moment, so I thought I’d check out green jobs. Not that my job is ‘un-green’ now… I’m just a boring old office worker. I don’t work in a particularly destructive industry (although lots of metal is used, and metal mining is bad). I would like to actively contribute to making the world a better place environmentally though, rather than just maintaining the status quo.
I want a green job too!
Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be much I’m either qualified for or that’s available in Brisbane. I’m not really entrepreneurial so I don’t want to create my own start-up solar power company. I just want something basic I can do. Surely someone needs some workplace training created for all those new folks who are building wind turbines and solar panels, right? Currently… not so much.
I did find some interesting articles in my search though, including:
Ten Best Green Jobs for the Next Decade
This article lists the kinds of industries that will be in high demand as climate change affects us even more. It’s US-centric but the basics are there. The top ten green jobs are: farmer, forester, solar power installer, energy efficiency builder, wind turbine fabricator, conservation biologist, green MBA and entrepreneur, recycler, sustainability systems developer and an urban planner. I have friends with some of those jobs! But not me.
Green Gigs
This is really a blog, not an article. There are lots of posts about looking for sustainable jobs, many of them telecommuting jobs. Telecommuting is often overlooked as a way to make a job sustainable. It’s something I could do in my current line of work quite easily, and something I keep in mind when looking for jobs. It’s not really getting out and actively making a difference though.
Ten Green Jobs to Stimulate Your Career, the Economy and the Planet
This blog post is related to the first one I mentioned, but instead of focusing on the those ten jobs, it reasons why they’re important. Better yet, it lists the top ten green jobs that will earn you over $100,000 per year. Hey, I don’t want to be greedy, but I would like to own a house on a decent plot of land one day, with animals and children and one of us as a stay-at-home mother. If only one of either myself or Yankee Elv is working, then that person better be making a decent salary!
Green Gold Rush
This article, on the Australian Conservation Foundation‘s site, talks at a high-level about how green-collar jobs can stimulate a fading economy, and how Australia can be a leader in the green industry. It makes sense the way public works made sense in the depression of the 1930s. You’ve got to get people out there earning, so they can be spending, so the economy will thrive. A booming green economy will achieve this, while at the same time encouraging sustainability. You want to be earning and spending, but on the right things. And maybe we don’t need to spend quite as much as we do now… or rather, maybe we need to re-evaluate what we spend our money on.
I know I also saw a site where you can search for green jobs, globally (as opposed to the green section on CareerOne, an Australian job site I hate… it never gives results matching my search strings in an effective way, no matter what I do). Can I find that site now though? I think not. If anyone comes across it, could you please send me the link?
What kinds of green jobs do you recommend?
Op-Shop Art and Puppetry
We (the whole human Elvish family plus the Dyke Mike) went to see a marionette show tonight at the Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Arts. It’s called The Grimstones (watch a trailer here) and was presented in English and Auslan. Yankee Elv is Deaf, so this was particularly cool as she could understand everything that was going on- mostly at least, as Auslan is different to ASL after all – which is not often the case with live theatre. I was extremely impressed, it was so well done. I really liked the way the humans (puppeteers) and marionettes interacted with each other, but not in a creepy ventriloquist way. The movements of the marionettes were life-like, and the sets were incredibly intricate. It made me imagine what watching silent films must have been like, but with voiced/signed narration between scenes, rather than text appearing on screen.
Marionettes from The Grimstones
Another thing that really impressed me was that most of the sets were made using reused materials. For example, an old candlestick was revamped (cushion added, painted etc) to make one character’s sewing stool. A bottle in the apothecary was made from an old bottle top. I liked the sustainable nature of it all.
It wasn’t commercial, the way so many types of mass-produced forms of entertainment (like movies) are, which also appealed to me. Afterwards there were drinks (including a really nice Cabernet Merlot from Kissing Bridge) and fancy nibblies, such as cute, tasty cupcakes. We wandered around backstage, looking at posters outlining the production of the sets and marionettes, and at the book the artist published. We also had time to chat with the artist, Asphyxia and co-star/partner, Paula (they met as circus performers in Melbourne years ago), while Dyke Mike was cornered by a lady talking very determinedly about perfume, and Mr Teeny-bop vacillated between the snack table and the posters. We rounded off the evening with a rather expensive tapas dinner (a send off for DM, who is leaving the country on Thursday), some fruity sangria and a silly train ride home.
When I got home, I briefly looked up Asphyxia’s blog, only to find out that she’s a big environmentalist. No wonder the show was sustainably produced! We’re everywhere, I tell you.
All in all, a good night was had by all.
Preaching to the Choir
I read a couple of interesting blog posts the other day, written by the Change.org bloggers.
The first is a post called Animal Rights is a Mainstream Movement, by Stephanie Ernst on the Animal Rights blog. She discusses how she doesn’t like the way people, including herself, dismiss her concerns about animal rights as too extreme or radical to take seriously. I know where she’s coming from – I do it myself sometimes, playing down the seriousness of veg*nism and other animal rights issues because it’s too confrontational for most people. I had a rant the other day about how people were all wigged out about cows loose on the Gateway bridge after a cattle truck turned over. Considering they were probably going to be slaughtered for meat anyway I found that incredibly hypocritical, (not that I can talk, what with the cheese I still eat), and I said so to my co-workers. The got a funny glazed look in their eyes and sort of nodded and smiled until it was over.
It’s not normal to talk about things like that, and I know I often try to present the friendly veg*n face as I’m of the opinion that you catch more flies with honey, so to speak. I understand where Stephanie is coming from though, and empathise with her frustration. I also find it interesting that it’s far more socially acceptable for me to be an outspoken tree-hugging leftist greenie lesbian than it is to be a hardcore vegan, even though going veg is one of the most important things you can do for the environment, and you would think it would be standard for ec0-friendly folks. I guess we’re a fringe group within a fringe group.
Pigs should live happily, like this cute piggy I saw in Mooball, NSW. He came when I called to him! So cute.
The second post is called Living the Animal Life, and it’s by Natasha Chart on the Sustainable Food blog. The topic is different to the Animal Rights post, but having read it immediately after Stephanie’s post, I got a similar message from it. Whether that was the message the author intended to convey is debatable, but one particular line sounds so like something I have said in my ‘carrot or the stick’ approach that it kind of hit home to me, especially in contrast to the horrible descriptions that followed. Natasha was talking about a law that would limit the use of anti-biotics in cattle, which Obama supports, and she said:
‘It won’t pass. Even that’s okay I suppose, considering how the discussion is off to such a good start.’
Later in the same article, she talked about how the animals are living in their own effluence – conditions so bad the anti-biotics are all that’s keeping them alive – and so introducing laws limiting anti-biotics really means changing the way animals are farmed, which is why the bill is so contentious. Now, remember the line from the start of the article? She doesn’t think it will pass, but that’s ok because it’s sparked off good discussion. Isn’t that awful?
At the same time, that’s so something I would say. (I promise I’m not dissing you, Natasha).
Taking the middle road is a valid action in some cases. I’ve been known to tell people who are against same-sex marriage that all I want is my legal rights. That’s not true. I want to get married – I want the social status that comes along with marriage, all those intangible things that have nothing to do with law. I’m not going to convince anyone with that argument though, so I water it down. I do the same with the environment at work. I tell people if they have to print, to at least do it double-sided. Really I want to tell them to read on the screen, gosh darnit, since they have their computers turned on anyway. There are some people who still review on paper. Seriously. I tell people it’s a great effort if they just cut back on meat one meal per week, when I really wish everyone would give it up for good.
I’m very good at taking the middle ground, and there are times when that’s appropriate. When we’re preaching to the choir, however – even just talking to ourselves – why can’t we be upfront? Sometimes, I want to have the freedom to say what I mean and not get that funny, glazed, nodding and smiling look.
So! Onward to same-sex marriage, reading on-screen and giving up meat for ever!
Aussie ELV gets her Arnie on
I would like to make a confession. I forgot my line. It was some line out of a Terminator film. ‘Hasta la vista, baby’? Nope, not that one. Oh yeah, that’s right – it was ‘I’ll be back.’
Arnie says: 'I'll be back.' Sorry I forgot.
Sorry I forgot that. I did just disappear of the face of this blog without so much as a by-your-leave. I apologise. Look, I’ll say it now:
I’ll be back.
Too little, too late huh? Well, how about we start over, with a clean slate? That’s kinda how I’m going to be approaching this blog.
You see, I took an unexpected break because it was break from the blog or break from work, and this blog doesn’t pay me. I was so keen when I started blogging here. This blog was going to be a success, it was going to have a wide-audience, and there would be comments and discussion. It would give me the chance to start writing again, about stuff I was interested in, instead of just reviewing other people’s work (which is what I do for a living). I was going to foster this blogging ecstasy by posting everyday! To help motivate myself, I made categories and set up a schedule. I was going to be in blogging heaven! It was going to be sweet!!
Except it wasn’t. What happened instead was that I burned out. I felt stifled by the categories. Having to write a Spotlight every week was so much work. I found myself looking for easy things to write about, instead of stuff that I was really interested in. The Weekly Round-ups were a repeat of what other sites are already doing, took ages. I doubted myself. I spent more time struggling to write than I did trying new things I could write about, which meant I had nothing to write about, so I spent ages trying to think of something. Can you say Catch 22? Sometimes I struggled to fit what I wanted to write about into the three Rs, so I’d just write about boring stuff. It was hard to find pictures to include, and I had to include them, cos in my mind blogs without pictures are boring. The only thing I liked was Friday Feast, and that’s only because I already had those recipes typed up so it meant a day off. I felt like I was preaching rather than sharing or questioning. My writing felt flat. Discussion didn’t really happen the way I expected it to. I became obsessed with my blog stats. I discovered that roughly the same number of people turned up at the blog whether I wrote that day or not, regardless of what my topic was. More people got to this blog using the terms 90s cartoon and stuffed capsicum than any kind of eco anything. I’m not even going to go into some of the weird search terms that have lead people here. Clearly some people are kooky. My attempts to boost readership only worked temporarily for the particular post I linked to, then my readership would drop sharply again. I only had two people RSS-ing. I felt like a blog-tastic failure.
Basically, it all got too much. Too much pressure, which I put on myself. I’m not blaming anyone else for this. I think I just approached this blog the wrong way. I mean, when you start thinking in terms of taking a day off from something that is supposed to be fun, then you realise you lost the joy somewhere. Eco Lesbo Vego was never supposed to be a chore. I tried slowing down but it didn’t work, so I just had to go cold turkey. Absolute. Complete. Stop.
Lately though, I’ve been missing it (what ‘it’ was supposed to be), so I wanna give Eco Lesbo Vego another try. This time though, things will be a bit different.
- No schedule – I’ll write what I want, when I want
- Categories are ok, but they’ll fit what I write, as opposed to me trying to fit my writing into them
- New categories might pop up to fit new stuff I’m writing about
- No pressure to write every single day
- Write to make myself happy, about topics that interest me
- Write when I have time
- No such thing as a day off – blogging will no longer be a chore!
- Only check my blog stats once a day at maximum (preferrably less often – and yes, this should indicate how obsessed I was getting)
- Weekly Round-up will be less structured, less news obsessed, and might disappear altogether… we’ll see
- Maybe the blog will end up more lesbo and vego, instead of mostly eco – but it will all still be related to the environment. But don’t blame me if the odd picture of Marlee Matlin, Lucy Lawless or Jennifer Beals recycling or digging in their garden occasionally appears…
- Less obsession with building readership
- More time doing new stuff, rather than writing about it.
So that’s my new deal with myself. I guess we’ll see how it works out.
P.S. Thanks to everyone who did check in on the blog regularly, comment and was generally supportive. Without you guys, I would have burned out way earlier. I really appreciate your support and hope you’ll give this gig another chance!
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