Meh

This is a time of the year that I normally love, but I am struggling a bit at the moment. I think it’s because I have been stressing about the lack of job, stressing about starting uni and just generally stressing.

I am a bit of a stress head.

I now have a little job – weekend working in a bar – the irony being that I don’t actually drink. I am trying to keep that one quiet! But it is not enough for stretch my career development loan to last until the end of my course. So I am still hoping that some supply teaching/tutoring comes through, but so far there has been none.

Uni is fine – a little frustrating as we have a three hour lecture on marketing. The first two were fine, as it was talking about the reasons people are involved in the arts and quite frankly a spiritual/emotional/intellectual/social connection is not a reason for people to buy IT products (which is what I used to market) – so that was new. After that it has gone onto strategic marketing etc. I have a Professional Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, so I am fairly on top of that!

But the rest of it is interesting, but we have a lot of visiting lecturers who talk to us about their thing. Which is great, but so far there hasn’t been one which is talking about my thing. One of my friends was totally rapt with what we were being told the other day and I was mildly interested for the first hour and then bored as we went onto the next hour!

A big part of my problem is I don’t know what I want to do – I am open to options, but I don’t like not knowing what is coming or what is happening – I am a bit of a control freak. We need to start thinking about what we are going to do for our internships (I am opposed to them on priniciple, but it is  short term thing and an important part of our course – a 6000 word essay is to be written). And I don’t know.

Lots of the people on my course are practitioners, they do things – like run drama workshops with kids/dance/sing/play etc etc. I don’t do any of that. What I do is GET SHIT DONE. This is my main skill. It doesn’t sound like much, but trust me, it is. There are always lots of people who have ideas, but few people who can pull everything together, use their amazing powers of organisation and make it happen.

So I want to be in a creative enviornment, where I am the person who makes stuff happen.

Not sure I have seen that in a job title anywhere.

So, all of these things combined have left me stressed and exhausted. I can feel myself tipping onto the edge of my downward depression spiral. But this is the first time I have noticed myself at the edge before I have slipped down the spiral. So I am continuing to meditate, my OH suggested a walk in the woods before I start work on Saturday and I have bought lots of smoothies and soups. Yes, I know I could make them myself, but I know that is not going to happen and I need to make sure that I have healthy food that required no effort to eat.

Oh and I have just reorganised my Filofax and rewritten all of my to-do pages. Yes, I know it is neurotic, but I do feel so much better and in control.

 

Mr Spock vs Homer Simpson

I have recently read “Nudge” – a book about ‘liberal paternalism’, as the authors put it. This is where we are guided towards the better option for us, but not cutting out other choices, nor making it hard to take other options.

For example – the food in school canteens have to be laid out in someway. Liberal paternalism would have the healthy food at the front, in the eye line and easy grab-ability of students. The unhealthy food is still there, they still have the choice to take it and it is not difficult to do so, it’s just easier to get the healthy food.

They apply this principle to a whole range of topics, including the environment and being green.

They also talk about Mr Spock vs Homer Simpson, your logical side vs your irrational, easily led side. You may plan logically to get out of bed early and do some exercise, your Mr Spock will set the alarm, in the morning your inner Homer will turn off the alarm and continue to snooze. Needless to say Homer is responsible for a lot of what is wrong with my life and I am sure you can think of some examples in your life too.

Nudging is all about helping people to control their Homer.

The authors raise some good points and provide some very good case studies and examples of how this can be used to cut traffic accidents, help people save more money, get the right health care and make the right choices for them, without descending into a nanny state which impinges our free choice. More often than not in the examples they give someone has to make a default choice for everyone and this book talks about making it easier for people to make the best decisions for themselves, the country and the environment.

I realise that sounds very grandiose, but I really think that if more politicians were to read this book and put its theories into play then we would start to live in a better society.

I dont want to give any of the book away – for an economics book it is highly interesting, engaging and thought-provoking. The  strapline for their website is

improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness.

So, if you have read it – what do you think, if you havent – are you going to now? If so, let me know!

Why is this not on the news?

I received a mailer from Friends of the Earth on Friday talking about climate change and asking for some money to support their campaign to attend the UN Conference on Climate Change at Copenhagen in December.

Reading I came across this horrible fact:

Please help us to promote the voices of people who are being totally ignored. Take Maria Tiimon from the Kiribati Islands in the Pacific – the eastern-most point in the world that was the first to welcome in the new millennium… Now her beautiful homeland is facing complete destruction. Sea levels are already rising to engulf the island, with high tides flooding the capital, contaminating water supplies and killing crops. It’s likely the islands will soon be submerged and more than 100,000 people will have to evacuate. If climate change continues, this is likely to be the first of many mass migrations across the world.

Why on earth are we not hearing about this in the news every day? 100,000 people are going to lose their homes, livelihoods and communities. And this will not be the last of it, but just the beginning.

Why is the mainstream media not discussing this on the main headlines?

Why is everyone not aware of this and trying to do something about it?

Well, I know at least one answer on why they are not covering this in the media. There are no horrific images to grab our attention. There isnt an easy soundbite which can be used by every station from some poor wretch who has lost everything now. It doesn’t tie in with our short attention spans and instant gratification which we need to have now and so they wont tell it to us. People aren’t aware of it because they don’t want to be and are more interested in the latest X-factor/Pop Idol/Football/other opium of the masses.

I don’t know what the answer is, I have signed their petition and donated a small amount of money on top of my usual monthly donation, but what else can I do? This comes back to my previous post about taking action but where do we focus our action in the most effective way? Do any of you take a more active role and how do you do it?

Quick little bags

After work I was feeling a little down (I work in an office one day a week to help fund my study) and I wanted to do something to cheer myself up, so I decided I was going to make bags to keep my dusters, rags and dish cloths in. In my kitchen I dont have a single drawer and 3 of my cupboards don’t have doors on them, as such everything looks messy. It doesnt help that I throw all these cloths in, along with tea towels, all into a great big heap. I do try to keep it neat and tidy, but this doesnt come naturally to me, so why not make it easier, as well as prettier to look at?

So I cut a length of fabric and roughly divided it into two. This is one of my cheap Ikea fabrics and is quite a thick canvass type cotton. I cut it with pinking shears so I didnt have to edge anything.  I wanted to label each bag, so it was clear which was which. So I used extremely expensive stencilling, specialised material and fabric pens.

Expensive labeling system

Oh, all right I wrote it on paper, used some beige light cotton which I have no idea where it came from and raided my OH’s Sharpie collection to trace the lettering with. It seemed to work well! I also cut the label with pinking shears, so as to avoid edging it.

The channel for the cord

I folded the top over, on this piece this is the selvedge, so I didnt even cut that with pinking shears. This is to thread the cord through. I then sewed this down – quickly! I decided to use this as an opportunity to practice speed sewing in straight lines. This skill maybe needed in the not too distant future!

Rough edges

While I was sewing the channels I just sewed them straight over, this was a quick and dirty one, right?

Smooth edges

Well, I decided that even for a quick and dirty project I could make it a little neater, so I just tucked in the edges before I sewed it. As I hadn’t even measured the fabric I didnt need to worry about this messing up a seam allowance or simillar. Of course, on a proper project I would have edged everything to make it neat and tidy!

The labels got pinned on and then whizzed around the edges to secure them. Then I just had  to sew along one side and the bottom, the way I cut the fabric meant I kept one edge joined together.

Finished bags

So, here they are, all three bags finished, aside from the cord. I havent got any at the moment and I will keep an eye out when I go to the charity shops, but for now they work even if I  cant do them up! I am very pleased with these for 45 minutes work, they are bright and cheerful and make me smile. Which is very important!