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Jul. 1st, 2006
Massive Update Of Doom
Jul. 1st, 2006 05:05 pmWell, where are we? A lot has been happening. I don't think I can hit more than the notes which stick in my mind right now, but let's give it a bit of a try.
I'm back from the permaculture course. The permaculture course was awesome. We've got that already. I have the vocabulary to talk about permaculture in more detail right now, and so I can discuss it with people. I can grab Juggler and say, at the course there were people who agreed with me, for various reasons, that eating local might be 'better' than eating organic stuff from California like this Earthbound Organics salad mix here. Let's talk about that and then we can. I can bring up principles -- small is good, use appropriate technology, etc. Juggler brings up real-world things: the RAM factories of which there are two or three in the world, but which are too expensive to do many of, a local blacksmith shop vs a global widget supplier. We talk. I say things like, this is where we're getting into the distinction between people-energy, which is a resource that actually improves the society to use, and fossil fuel energy, which messes with other resources when you use it. It's crazy that people sit in offices all day and then expend useless energy in the gym. and make weird references to batteries and the Matrix. So, permaculture, check. Good.
I also went to a showing or two of The Future of Food with Lynda, which made me happy. I hooked up with an email for someone from the Strathcona community gardens there, saw Ceren again, and ran into Gabe on Commercial Drive as he was heading up to Kelowna and I was en route to meet Bob and CrazyChris at Stormin' Norman's. I love these people. Having them there makes me happy. Seeing them makes me even happier. Happiness all round. Good.
I have been moving and working a bit extra. Moving wasn't bad by my standards -- I only zombified in the last two-three days of the process, so I didn't lose a ton of time due to stress. I did some pretty intense cleaning, which was the hard part -- I was mostly packed, and have only 1 pickup load of plants and 1 1/3 or so of furniture (I want to reduce this to one load of furniture, likely through the acquisition of a laptop, so I can get rid of my desktop and computer desk and thhus a lot of my belongings-volume. I did end up cleaning for a total of maybe eight hours, and it was kind of nice to do it, to see the house all shiny when I was done, and to have the landlady say hey, you guys cleaned, thank you so much and then to have her open everything and look in it and say wow, you really cleaned. This is beautiful! and then for her to look the other way at the hair-dye stains on the carpet in thanks. Feels good. I get the key to the new place on Sunday, so I'm not officially in it yet, but my stuff is there and so the hard part's done.
This is sort of vacation time at work -- I was off for two weeks, then I covered for a co-worker while she was off (well, we all covered, but I did a five-day week rather than my usual four) and this week I'm covering again while my boss has his parents over, for him, but I'm doing long days rather than an extra day. After that things may get back to normal, but who knows? I know another co-worker is going on vacation in early August and we'll be covering for him then... The thing is, we all take care of these living things, and so you can't just 'not go' for a week -- someone has to go in once every week. In the winter you can water 'em heavy and skip a week over Christmas, but you can't do it often, and never in summer. It feels good to do my work-- I like my plants, I love takng care of them, I'm very attached to many of them. It's like having a distributed garden. And my bosses like me. It's good. So moving, good, and work, good.
I've been keeping quite physically active. I work at a carrying-weight sort of job, but this week I've been to Wreck Beach three times and kayaking once and moving and extra housecleaning, and the exercise and the sun together make me very happy, and the cardio makes me feel strong and just generally good. There's a track to run on literally across the street from my new place, I know people who want to run, I have my bike, I plan on continuing to go to Wreck Beach (for those who've never been to Vancouver, it has a really extreme set of stairs down a cliff. Going up them is an amazing workout) and so I will likely keep doing this. Good.
Kayaking today was amazingly wonderful, as always. I learned to do a wet exit, which means ya flip the boat upside down, pull off the spray-skirt, and get out while it's upside down. Then, ya get back in, using either a partner or a paddle float. This means I could kayak by myself if I wanted, or I could go out with someone who doesn't know how to kayak. I was trerrified of doing this -- being underwater and attached to something scares me a bit, but it turns out it's eary, one has lots of time, etc. I can see how in heavy storm conditions you'd need all the time you have in a held breath, but on a beautiful sunny day like this it was just fun, fun, fun, and you almost got out of the water too quick. I do cordially disapprove of the clothing concept behind one-size-fits-all wetsuits, though. Juggler's chest fit him, but my hips and my breasts are not one size. Oh, well. I definitely plan to shell out for the yearly kayak rental thing down at Granville Island, though the idea of going in the ocean there is scary. I definitely need to practice soon, to set the things I learned today in muscle memory. Juggler's kayak is coming along, but mine will be awhile. So, good. Very good.
Gardening? Hell yeah. Tomatoes planted at Juggler's, the ornamentals there amazing (clematis flowering now, etc), my potted plants now in more sunlight so they don't die. Need to track down another community garden plot or two though.
Interpersonal? Hm. It has been a bit confusing for awhile, with the big shift that accomoanied the permaculture course. My priorities have been slowly altering for maybe six or eight years now in a slow movement towards career (permaculture/gardening/self-supporting) and activities (things I like to do, like dancing and wandering around the city and sex and socialising) and away from Ye Grande Relationship and that sort of a model. I think that, having been through the One True Love thing with Kynnin, I've had enough of that for a bit, and the shift means that I'm having trouble with any sort of the constraints that come along with serious relationships (as opposed to the common decency involved in loving people and friendships, which I do sometimes struggle with, but which I care about getting right still). So I'm freer now than I used to be, and what that means for the people I love is mostly sorted. It's not done, but it's mostly sorted. Freedom and lack of weird sticky bits is becoming the deciding factor in my relationships. And my god, do I ever love people so much right now. I'm bigger, there's more of me to go around as I do the things I need to do, so there's more of me to love them. I feel particularly close to CrazyChris lately. We're twins. It's good. Yes, the people in my life are pretty serious treasures. All of them. And more keep coming into my life all the time, like breathing.
I don't know, what else is there to talk about? That's where I'm at. I'm suntanned darker than I've ever been, I feel happy and powerful, I walk down the Drive without shoes on and meet people I know on the way. I try not to schedule too much, to allow myself to go with the flow, and I succeed generally. I talk about permaculture, and I talk about relationships without too much bitterness. Lately, I look at everything and I think, how has the rise of the specialist in society caused this to be taken away from me, and sold back to me? and it's great. I realise that both music and thinking are activities that everyone can do even without money. I miss my rats, and get them back Sunday. I'm happy.
So, there's me, right now. Love you guys. Be well, and there'll be more in this space when I have a regular computer. Till then - call me if ya wanna hang out. :)
I'm back from the permaculture course. The permaculture course was awesome. We've got that already. I have the vocabulary to talk about permaculture in more detail right now, and so I can discuss it with people. I can grab Juggler and say, at the course there were people who agreed with me, for various reasons, that eating local might be 'better' than eating organic stuff from California like this Earthbound Organics salad mix here. Let's talk about that and then we can. I can bring up principles -- small is good, use appropriate technology, etc. Juggler brings up real-world things: the RAM factories of which there are two or three in the world, but which are too expensive to do many of, a local blacksmith shop vs a global widget supplier. We talk. I say things like, this is where we're getting into the distinction between people-energy, which is a resource that actually improves the society to use, and fossil fuel energy, which messes with other resources when you use it. It's crazy that people sit in offices all day and then expend useless energy in the gym. and make weird references to batteries and the Matrix. So, permaculture, check. Good.
I also went to a showing or two of The Future of Food with Lynda, which made me happy. I hooked up with an email for someone from the Strathcona community gardens there, saw Ceren again, and ran into Gabe on Commercial Drive as he was heading up to Kelowna and I was en route to meet Bob and CrazyChris at Stormin' Norman's. I love these people. Having them there makes me happy. Seeing them makes me even happier. Happiness all round. Good.
I have been moving and working a bit extra. Moving wasn't bad by my standards -- I only zombified in the last two-three days of the process, so I didn't lose a ton of time due to stress. I did some pretty intense cleaning, which was the hard part -- I was mostly packed, and have only 1 pickup load of plants and 1 1/3 or so of furniture (I want to reduce this to one load of furniture, likely through the acquisition of a laptop, so I can get rid of my desktop and computer desk and thhus a lot of my belongings-volume. I did end up cleaning for a total of maybe eight hours, and it was kind of nice to do it, to see the house all shiny when I was done, and to have the landlady say hey, you guys cleaned, thank you so much and then to have her open everything and look in it and say wow, you really cleaned. This is beautiful! and then for her to look the other way at the hair-dye stains on the carpet in thanks. Feels good. I get the key to the new place on Sunday, so I'm not officially in it yet, but my stuff is there and so the hard part's done.
This is sort of vacation time at work -- I was off for two weeks, then I covered for a co-worker while she was off (well, we all covered, but I did a five-day week rather than my usual four) and this week I'm covering again while my boss has his parents over, for him, but I'm doing long days rather than an extra day. After that things may get back to normal, but who knows? I know another co-worker is going on vacation in early August and we'll be covering for him then... The thing is, we all take care of these living things, and so you can't just 'not go' for a week -- someone has to go in once every week. In the winter you can water 'em heavy and skip a week over Christmas, but you can't do it often, and never in summer. It feels good to do my work-- I like my plants, I love takng care of them, I'm very attached to many of them. It's like having a distributed garden. And my bosses like me. It's good. So moving, good, and work, good.
I've been keeping quite physically active. I work at a carrying-weight sort of job, but this week I've been to Wreck Beach three times and kayaking once and moving and extra housecleaning, and the exercise and the sun together make me very happy, and the cardio makes me feel strong and just generally good. There's a track to run on literally across the street from my new place, I know people who want to run, I have my bike, I plan on continuing to go to Wreck Beach (for those who've never been to Vancouver, it has a really extreme set of stairs down a cliff. Going up them is an amazing workout) and so I will likely keep doing this. Good.
Kayaking today was amazingly wonderful, as always. I learned to do a wet exit, which means ya flip the boat upside down, pull off the spray-skirt, and get out while it's upside down. Then, ya get back in, using either a partner or a paddle float. This means I could kayak by myself if I wanted, or I could go out with someone who doesn't know how to kayak. I was trerrified of doing this -- being underwater and attached to something scares me a bit, but it turns out it's eary, one has lots of time, etc. I can see how in heavy storm conditions you'd need all the time you have in a held breath, but on a beautiful sunny day like this it was just fun, fun, fun, and you almost got out of the water too quick. I do cordially disapprove of the clothing concept behind one-size-fits-all wetsuits, though. Juggler's chest fit him, but my hips and my breasts are not one size. Oh, well. I definitely plan to shell out for the yearly kayak rental thing down at Granville Island, though the idea of going in the ocean there is scary. I definitely need to practice soon, to set the things I learned today in muscle memory. Juggler's kayak is coming along, but mine will be awhile. So, good. Very good.
Gardening? Hell yeah. Tomatoes planted at Juggler's, the ornamentals there amazing (clematis flowering now, etc), my potted plants now in more sunlight so they don't die. Need to track down another community garden plot or two though.
Interpersonal? Hm. It has been a bit confusing for awhile, with the big shift that accomoanied the permaculture course. My priorities have been slowly altering for maybe six or eight years now in a slow movement towards career (permaculture/gardening/self-supporting) and activities (things I like to do, like dancing and wandering around the city and sex and socialising) and away from Ye Grande Relationship and that sort of a model. I think that, having been through the One True Love thing with Kynnin, I've had enough of that for a bit, and the shift means that I'm having trouble with any sort of the constraints that come along with serious relationships (as opposed to the common decency involved in loving people and friendships, which I do sometimes struggle with, but which I care about getting right still). So I'm freer now than I used to be, and what that means for the people I love is mostly sorted. It's not done, but it's mostly sorted. Freedom and lack of weird sticky bits is becoming the deciding factor in my relationships. And my god, do I ever love people so much right now. I'm bigger, there's more of me to go around as I do the things I need to do, so there's more of me to love them. I feel particularly close to CrazyChris lately. We're twins. It's good. Yes, the people in my life are pretty serious treasures. All of them. And more keep coming into my life all the time, like breathing.
I don't know, what else is there to talk about? That's where I'm at. I'm suntanned darker than I've ever been, I feel happy and powerful, I walk down the Drive without shoes on and meet people I know on the way. I try not to schedule too much, to allow myself to go with the flow, and I succeed generally. I talk about permaculture, and I talk about relationships without too much bitterness. Lately, I look at everything and I think, how has the rise of the specialist in society caused this to be taken away from me, and sold back to me? and it's great. I realise that both music and thinking are activities that everyone can do even without money. I miss my rats, and get them back Sunday. I'm happy.
So, there's me, right now. Love you guys. Be well, and there'll be more in this space when I have a regular computer. Till then - call me if ya wanna hang out. :)