My weekend

...as a series of Facebook status updates and snapshots of happenings...

Jess would like to go to dancing tonight, but thinks that staying home, packing, and getting a good nights sleep before the 7hr drive tomorrow would be a much more sensible idea. (5.56pm Fri)

Jess is "on the road again" (~10am Sat)

Jess : still on the road. Sigh :-/ (~4pm Sat)

Jess is in Kalgoorlie (5.30pm Sat)

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Sunday morning:
Time = too early - wake up as Thia get up and leaves bedroom, considerately pulling the curtains behind her and shutting out unwanted light. Promptly go back to sleep.
Time = later - wake up to smell of someone preparing a full cooked breakfast in next room. Decide it's definitely time to get up now. Yum!

Jess is finding this being cooked for thing rather novel and very pleasant, especially when said cook is as good at it as Thia is. (all weekend)

Jess is valiently - but not entirely successfully - resisting the urge to check her email and go on facebook this weekend. It's meant to be a holiday from regular life damnit. (ditto)

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Jess is soaking up the sun and the 30 degree heat next to the pool in Kalgoorlie. Nice. (Mon arvo)

Jess is wondering what the hell is she doing swimming when it's only September. The water quite nice actually. Once you get past the getting in stage anyway. *eep* (ditto)

After dinner we played Carcassone. This is a brilliant game of strategy, plotting and other nefarious plans. Be warned - it may cause you to fall out with your friends when they sneakily take over and steal your points winning castles.

Thia: 48 points! I can't believe I finished a 48 point castle. Wow.
Me: Die! Die cruel and horrible deaths for you hath stolen my castle ridiculous.

Thia is spotted plotting nefarious plans
Me: Aha! I see your nefarious plans and counter with some nefarious plotting of my own.
Thia: I see your nefarious plotting and raise you 2x nefarious plans
Me: Noooooo! Not again! *Counters nefarious plan once more*
**Repeat from above

Later...
Thia: This tile's not useful at all.
Me: Hah suffer! suffer cruel and horrible... cruel and horrible things.
BB: Her heart's not in it anymore.

Brightbear was surreptiously quiet for the most part, but did manage to take out the 2nd game by a huge points margin. Sneaky. :-)

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(Tues 11am)
Me: "We're on the road again"
BB: Will you shut up with that song?
Me: Sorry.

Many many hours later:
Jess is glad to be back.

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NB. I may have possibly taken a little creative license in recording some of the exchanges above.

For slightly more coherent perspectives of our weekend you could try here or here. Brightbear has yet to comment.

Status updates

Because yet again I have way too many choices but can't decide.

Jess is wrecked.

Jess would like her friends to stop her from to Fast Eddies in future because she can't handle any more sleep deprivation

I am so tired. Really, so tired I actually feel sick. Not an unexpected result - the odd times I did allnighter for a uni assignment, I used to feel sick the next day.

Jess needs someone to come round this evening. Anyone. Please bring a compassionate ear, lots of hugs, good sense of humour and a willingness to ignore the messiness of my flat.

This morning I felt like this. But I didn't put it up because, apart from not having internet access, I was worried that the wrong person might reply. There are a few people on my f-list that... well... wouldn't have helped - not that they aren't great people. They are - they just not right in this case. And of all the people I know, the one who I really wanted is working tonight, and of the others I'd prefer - well - half of them are either on facebook or not in a position to come round to my place. And I was also worried that even worse, no-one at all would want to come round.

But now:

Jess is surprisingly ok, all things considered. Well apart from feeling half dead from exhaustion

This is still true:

Jess would give anything for someone to come round, do the dishes and make her dinner tonight.

And then I was going to put on facebook:

Jess has thought of too many status updates, so she put them in her blog instead.

But I went with a combination of the first two.

I had some others as well, but I can't remember them. And anyway they're kicking us out at the library so I'd better go.

Jess is not sure what to write...

I dragged myself down to the library this evening to write in my blog, because I knew I'm not likely to get another chance to do so until next wednesday at the earliest. But now I'm here I'm not sure what I'm going to write about. I could, of course, hang around mindlessly on facebook instead, but I do that often enough anyway. I guess I also felt kind of compelled to post something because I didn't want to leave my latest update as my last post for too long. At the time the pain was real - very real - but as it fades with time and distance, it's... no longer such an accurate representation of who I am at this moment. A blog post is a lot more permanent - or rather, a human being is a lot more changeable than this written record shows. Even facebook status updates can't keep up :-)

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So with this space, how is my life now?

Um... it's ok. Generally things are fairly good (fri night/sat morn excepted), but I often have this nagging sensation that something's missing or not quite right. I can't really put my finger on what it is, I have a few ideas but none I am willing to mention here and now. It's like the feeling of being in limbo in a way. Why? I don't know. I feel like I need a holiday too.

Work has signed me off my probation period and on to permanent, or whatever they call it. It's um... good. People often ask me how it's going and I'm never really sure what to say... It's a good job. I like it. A lot more than any of my previous jobs. The people are nice. The hours are good - I really like working only almost fulltime, having every wednesday off is good. Um... Not sure what else to say really. Possibly it's not challenging enough or something... - it's pretty easy-going - which I liked at first but now I wonder. Maybe I am starting to get bored. I mean there are always interesting books to look at but... *shrugs* I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to do this for the rest of my life, but at the same time I don't know if I am any closer to working out what I want to do. I told myself I'd give this a year at least and then re-evaluate so yeah. I think I'd want something that stimulates me more. I know that there are some parts of it I like a lot more than others. Things like creating posters/displays, doing up the new booklists. Discussing ways to get people more involved with the library. The idea of maintaining a library blog. I also like it when I'm learning new things but then when it becomes routine, I'm not so enthused. I like variety in my work. And yet I've considered, and tried many different things but still can't work out what I want to do. Yet again I'm trying something I thought I might want to do, and once again it's not quite right.

well... I'll work it out one day I guess.
And really, it's not a bad job for now. Not in the slightest.

Some alternative facebook status updates...

...that I considered in light of the past 24 hours, but ultimately didn't use.

Jess hurts.

Jess can't bear this pain anymore.

Jess was having a good time last night, up to the point where she went home in tears.

Jess wishes it wasn't illegal to run over stupid pedestrians.


I went with: Jess is really not having a good day.
I think that said enough really.

I am kind of ok now. Relatively speaking.

on dance

Last Wednesday night I fell in love with lyrical hip hop.

Second last performance of the night on the American So you think you can dance, Chelsea and Mark danced the most amazing hip hop routine. It was just so beautiful - and that's not something I ever thought I'd say about hip hop dancing. Energetic, fun, crazy, impressive, sexy even, but beautiful? I never imagined I'd say that about a hip hop routine and yet this time I can't think of an adjective better suited. Hip hop isn't my thing really - generally I think it's impressive and all that, but I'm not inclined to rave about it. Well until now.

I can't do justice to it writing about it. Not in the slightest. But just for a second, imagine using your hands to move a lifesize model of a human standing in front of you, as if you're manipulating their limbs, turning them around, etc. Now instead of that picture, imagine it's a real human being standing there and move your hands out 30cm or so away from their body. As you move your hands they move - just as before, but without any contact between you - almost as if they were a puppet and you're pulling the strings.

That part, which took all of about 30 seconds on the show, was my favourite part of the entire routine. And the whole thing was amazing. I guess one of the reasons I found it so awesome because the dancers did such a brilliant job of bringing the piece to life. It was a love story between a workaholic and his girlfriend who didn't want him to leave. Quite a simple story really, and yet Courtney and Mark made it so believable, so real. They were living it right there up on stage.

That's what make good dancing great. That's what takes something from "Hey that's cool/that's impressive" and elevates it up to realm of "Wow..." of sheer brilliance. and of that feeling that you'll never be able to see things in quite the same way again. That's why I watch So you think you can dance. Because sometimes (just sometimes) you do see such brilliant dancing. And I'd probably never see it anywhere else.

The meaning of Lif

I dunno

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I was going write but now I can't be bothered. Life is ok. I've been a bit grumpy yesterday and today - mainly in the morning before work. Being busy or having stuff to do at work seems to shake me out of it mostly.

My 3 month probation period for work is up this week. It's going well, most of the time I enjoy it. Today was not so good what with crazy asian guy going spac over something. But generally it's good. Most of the people are really nice and the work itself generally has enough variation to keep me interested - and if not there are always interesting books to look at. Unfortunately I don't have time to read them all. *sigh*

Arrgh!

I had a bit of an... ...unusual... ...experience this morning.

I was driving along when I looked down and saw a spider the size of a 50c piece on my arm!
Arrgh! S***! OMFG! really doesn't do justice to the shock I got. I nearly jumped out of my skin! Of course at the time I was wearing 5 layers of clothing and a pair of gloves, but that's not what you think of when something like this happens, is it? Thankfully I am not the sort to panic at the sight of a spider - especially as I was going 60km/hr down a fairly major road near my place at the time. After unsuccessfully trying to get it out the window, I pulled over onto the grassed median strip and jumped out the car and stripped off my jumper as fast as possible. A bit of shaking and flicking later and it was all over bar the wondering "how the hell did it get onto my jumper in the first place?" I really hope it was from the outside of the car not the inside and it hasn't left any friends (or babies) behind.

work rest play... but no mars

I feel like I could use a holiday. I don't know what it is exactly - working a bit more than usual, having more social things on than usual, not getting enough sleep...

Actually it's probably the last one mainly. I've been eating more junk food than usual recently too. Not taking enough time for myself etc, etc... Fallen off the horse a bit, as Jason would say.

I don't understand how people fit everything in. I don't even work fulltime and yet it seems like I don't have time to work, and have a social life, and cook/do the shopping, and keep my flat tidy, and have time to relax, and sleep enough. I can really understand now why so many people just go with the ready made meals or take-away option. In my case, usually it's my flat that suffers. I would like to keep my flat in a decent state but... Well take monday night - by the time I'd got home from work, bought some food, cooked dinner, washed up, hung out some washing, and handwashed some more, it was around 9.30 and I was pretty much ready for bed... and yet there was still more to do and I hadn't had any time to relax either. sigh...

I haven't had any time to write in my blog recently and I regret that. I would like to be able to do this more often, I think it would be good for me. I guess I ought to get organised and connect the internet at home. Now that uni has finally closed my account my only internet access is either at my local library or at work during my break or tues/fri after I finish. Generally this is not enough time for much more than keeping up with emails/messages (somewhat) and internet banking. Getting the internet connected seems such a lot of hassle - trying to work out which of the hundreds of options to go with - and of course there's the additional expense as well. I've also been putting it off because I know I'm likely to waste a lot of time if I have internet at home. But without the easy availability of uni internet access - open til late, 5min down the road - I find not having internet at home a bit awkward. So I'm getting around to it (very slowly).

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So what have I been doing with all my time then?

Well, last week, as well as my normal work roster (M, T, T, F, alternate S):
I cooked dinner for mum + my 2 brothers on Mon night
Went to dancing on Tues
Worked an extra shift on my day off and had family over for dinner again (and cooked again) on Wed
Thursdays are my late shift at work (until 8pm)
Friday I went dancing again - until close (midnight)
It was my Saturday to work, after which I had lunch and went to the Da Vinci exhibition with Dad, my Aunt, and my brother.
Sunday - day off (thank god) and got to sleep in. Yay! In the afternoon Mum and I went the So You Think You Can Dance tour.

Bleh, no wonder I'm a bit worn out. It was good though. Well mostly.

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I also went to see Mamma Mia the week before last which was great fun :D
It's just my kind of movie - light-hearted, fun, and nothing remotely scary, gory, or cringe-worthy (well maybe Pierce Brosnan's singing). And I like ABBA songs, so what's not to love? I'd like to see it again, but I figure I'll wait for the DVD - to save money and so I can watch any behind-the-scenes at the same time.

The link to the stage musical was very overt - in that there would often be only a couple of lines of dialogue and then someone would burst into song:
Lack the money for some much needed renovations... Express your frustrations with an ABBA song
Want to tell your ex he's a bastard... Say it with an ABBA song
Planning on asking some to marry you... Why not use a ABBA song
Trouble finding a band for your daughter's hens night... just dig out your crazy 70s costumes and perform an ABBA song instead. They'll love it.

It was cheesy and over-the-top, but I loved it.

So this is who i am

Having a bad case of writers block right now. The main reason I came down to the library was so I could write in my blog, but now I've got here I can't think what to write. I have been feeling better at least :-) these past few days. Thanks are due to Mum for listening to me on Sunday and Monday nights. In fact this morning I was practically chirpy. I was singing along to some Michael Buble songs (rather loud and silly) while driving to my chiro appointment. I wish I had been able to go see him when he performed in Perth a few weeks ago, but unfortunately I didn't find out he was coming to Perth until after tickets had sold out :-( Oh well hopefully next time. At least I am going to see the So You Think You Can Dance Tour in a couple of weeks. YAY!

Other things I want to go to are:
The Imperial Ice Stars in Cinderella on Ice
The Da Vinci Machines exhibition
Mamma Mia (the movie)

I also wouldn't mind going to see Peter Combe at the Fly by Night this weekend. (Go on, go ahead and laugh. But if you fancy reliving your childhood with classic songs like "Toffee apple nice sticky..." give me a call - it's only $25 or so)

And dare I admit to maybe wanting to see Damien Leith too. Well possibly. Except I probably won't end up going.

I have just notice on BOCS that there is something called The Jungle Book and other Dances - hmm... the jungle book in various dance styles... could be interesting, or just really odd.

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I feel kind of.... um... odd having what I wrote on Sunday up here. Actually I haven't gone back and read over it again at all, which is pretty unusual because normally I read over every post at least once. And usually I make some minor changes for the benefit of "readability" or whatever.

I guess in a way I'm not really comfortable with what that post says about me. Of course I could take it down, but I don't want to do that. However true for me it may or may not be now, on Sunday the pain was real. The trouble with a blog is that it's a snapshot frozen in time of how I am or what I'm thinking about. Looking back sometimes I think what was all the fuss about.

I think the reason I now feel awkward is that I worry that maybe other people will think it's silly or a stupid thing to get upset about. Well actually, what I really worry about is that they'll think less of me for it (or other things like that). Which is in itself a bit silly really.... If someone doesn't like me for who I am (the good and the bad) than why am I bothering about them. Also someone wise once told me that if something upsets you (no matter how small or trivial) than it's not stupid. Sure it may be something that wouldn't bother someone else, but that's not the point. I am not someone else.

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I was going to write about another point, but I forget what now.

Hello darkness my old friend

I made myself come straight to my blog as soon as I got on to the internet because I knew that if I didn't I would just end up wasting time doing distractive things - such as checking my email, facebook, reading other peoples blogs etc... Which are all very well and that but they don't really help. They just distract me for a while but there's no lasting effect. When I have too much time to think, I can just as easily get down again.

It's really sad to admit this but recently I'm often happier when I'm at work than when I'm not. That's sad. And the novelty of working in a library has worn off - so although I do enjoy my job, it is in a way still just a job. Admittedly it is a job that I like better than any of the other jobs I've had. But it's not like it's incredibly fulfilling and I jump out of bed wanting to got to work each morning. I like it, that's enough.

The reason I've been down often is I've been feeling lonely. Not really in the sense of 'I miss having a boyfriend' but just generally. I miss having someone to talk to; and I miss having someone to do things with. I don't seem to catch up with friends as much anymore and/or I feel out of place. I also don't think living on my own is good for me anymore. I used to love it, but I think it has the tendency to increase my tendency to withdraw into myself when I'm not feeling good. This does not help matters.

The trouble with getting down about it though, is that I'm in a sense paralysed. I don't do anything about it, I just feel bad. I don't know, I feel like I should do something. Arrange to catch up with people or something, but...

A few weeks ago, I tried to arrange to catch up with two different friends (separately), and in both cases the arrangements fell though (for various reasons). At the time I was really disappointed. Actually that's a bit of an understatement. Since then I haven't tried to arrange to catch up with anyone.

I can't believe I'm still hurting out this, but I am.

gtg back later.

Thoughts

Today I am tired. I don't know what to write. Going to the fruit and veg markets in Subi has worn me out. They were so busy - even more packed full of people than they are normally. It was really quite stressful. Last night was good. I went out for dinner with friends who I hadn't seen for a while. I haven't laughed so hard in ages. It was good for me. I needed that.

I have been a bit up and down recently. More down than up, unfortunately. Yesterday went towards addressing that imbalance but only a bit. I worked on my day off (wed) this week. That wasn't such a good idea. I would have benefited more from having the day off.

My original plan in coming in to use the internet, was to write about this book I read over the past few days. The book's called The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman. Basically it starts by saying that different people have different ways of feeling/showing love and then it discusses these 5 "love languages" as he calls them. Everyone has one main love language which is the key to feeling that other people care about them. If their need for emotional love is not being met through their love language then it doesn't matter what else others do, they still won't feel loved. It's like giving someone a bunch of flowers, when all they want is a hug (or some help around the house, or...).

These are: (I'll use his labels for them)
1. Words of Affirmation (telling them you appreciate them, any positive comments)
2. Quality Time (doing things with them, quality conversation - ie listening)
3. Receiving Gifts (self evident, surely)
4. Acts of Service (doing things for them, helping them with stuff)
5. Physical Touch (also self-evident - hugs etc)

In this book he approaches it from a marriage counselling point of view, but I think it has much much wider applications than that. So many things in my life suddenly made a whole lot more sense. Reading the chapter about my love language (quality time) on Friday night actually upset me a lot because I realised how badly I wasn't getting what I need. But awareness is at least the first step.

I don't think I am doing a very good job of explaining the concepts but I assure you it was excellent - go read it! I found so many things fell into place as I read it.

I'd love to write more and edit this post so it's better written, but they're kicking me out so I gtg.
Au revoir.

Stuff

Recently I'm finding it harder to make time to write posts for my blog. Working takes up a fair portion of the spare time I used to have, but there are other less obvious obstructions. The first of these is I am trying to wean myself off using the internet at uni, as I am officially unenrolled now and it's only a matter of time before my internet account is locked. This means that I'm restricted to using the internet during public library opening hours which are mostly during the times I work. Also I'm now earning enough to have more than a bare bones survivalistic existance, which means I can actually go shopping in my spare time that otherwise could be used for blogging.

It's rather novel to be able to go shopping again. Ironically now that I can actually afford to buy things (well... within reason), I don't seem to have much spare time to go shopping. This is probably a good thing however as I don't want to get in the habit of wasting the money I earn. But on the other hand, I've been on a student sized income for so long, that I have a huge backlist built up of things that "I'll buy when I have some spare cash". For the kitchen alone:
griddle pan, proper chefs knife, bread knife, wok, salad spinner, second chopping board, another wooden spoon, more cutlery, a pan (or several) that can go both on the stove and in the oven, roasting tray, simmer ring, the list goes on...

Other areas of life have similarly long lists of things that cost money.
Clothing (all kinds)
Things to go to (So you think you can dance tour, Cinderella on Ice, the Da Vinci machines exhibition)
Things to do (ballroom dancing lessons, singing lessons, language classes, travel, massages)

Are these things absolutely necessary? Well clearly the answer is no, as I've lived without them so far, but...

It's really cool having a real income. I'm not quite used to it yet and in a way I hope I don't get used to it. It's nice to have this feeling of earning more than I need to survive (As a comparison measure, I'm earning a little under double what I used to earn from casual work while studying). However I know that it's very easy for one's "necessary" expenses to expand to fill up any increase in your income, that's why people (typically) find it so hard to save money. It's often quoted that people generally believe that the amount of money they really need is 10% more than they're earning, regardless of whether they earn $300/week or $3000.

To avoid falling into the pattern of spending everything I earn (or more), I'm following some of the recommendations laid out in the book The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason. Excellent book - I highly recommend it. I'd also recommend How to get what you want in life with the money you already have by Carol Keeffe. In some regards, it's rather dated (ie the cost of a block of land in one of the examples she talks about), but most of the advice is timeless and excellent.

Every fortnight direct after getting paid, I immediately transfer a fixed percentage of my income into online savings account where the money is not immediately accessible. Another percentage goes directly toward paying down the credit card debt built up from periods when I wasn't working. It's not a big debt but as the interest on it is simply money down the drain, getting rid of it is a priority. (And for the record: if you don't have a credit card I don't recommend getting one, it's too easy to spend money you don't have, even when you're determined not to. Go debit mastercard or debit visa instead.)

Then I live off the rest of my income. While I still have the experience of getting to the end of the fortnight without any money left over, I'm not worried about that because I know I've already taken care of putting aside money for the things that are important to me.

Keeping busy

I haven't written a blog post for ages. I've just been busy doing stuff, really. So I thought I'd put down a brief summary of the past few weeks. I really should go home and cook something for dinner but if I don't write something now, who knows when I'll get round to it.

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Over the long weekend Brightbear* and I drove up to Kalgoorlie to visit Thia*. This is really quite a long drive. (Well... by my standards at least which typically involve stopping for break at least once on the way down to Busselton). Despite that it was good and I enjoyed the time spent up there.

*If you don't know who these nicknames refer to, you probably don't need to know. BB & T if you want me to remove the link, just let me know.

Thia cooked us lots of yummy food (stuff that I could eat too without feeling bleh - bonus!), and introduced us to the joys of two word games called Bananagrams and Bookworm Adventures. Racing Demons (like competitive solitaire) was also played, of course. I really enjoyed this, as recently I'd been thinking that I miss playing cards and board games.

We were entertained by dvds (Enchanted) and Thia jamming on the cello we brought her. "Name a song. Any song..." got Waltzing Matilda, Away in the Manger and the Lord of the Rings theme, among others.

Meeting crazy entertaining teachers was cool. Overly loud dance music at Kalgoorlie pub not so cool and reminded me why I don't like 'going out' in the usual sense of the phrase. There's essentially two reasons: 1) generally I don't really like dance/techno music. Give me oldies (70s/80s/90s) music to dance to any day. 2) when the music's too loud it really grates on me after a while. I don't know if I'm just more sensitive to noise than most people or what, but I prefer my music at a volume that you can still have a conversation with the person next to you if you raise your voice a bit. I know, I know, I'm a bit of an old grandma in this regard.

So if anyone wonders why I prefer to stay home or going to Gilks rather than going out dancing/clubbing with you, that's why. It's not because I don't like you or (non-ballroom) dancing. Really :-/

Right now back to the weekend. All in all it was a really good weekend. Next time though (assuming there is a next time), I'd like to have more time off work to do it in. Only having three days off meant we spent a significant part of two of those days driving. But it was worth it nonetheless.

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The weekend before last I went to the Circus. Silver's Grand Magic Circus, to be precise. Having been to both Cirque du Soleil and Circus Oz in the past two years, I wasn't expecting that great things of Silver's but they were way better than I thought they'd be. They've moved their big top down to Rockingham now, and I'd recommend them.

gtg I'll finish later.

Shorts

Target is selling organic cotton clothing. This is cool. I bought two organic cotton t-shirts yesterday and nearly got pjs as well. Yes, I know organic cotton is not all the answers, but it is one step in the right direction.
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The prime minister was on TV last night. I discovered this accidentally when I went to put a dvd on and I found Mr Rudd on the ABC's new show Q&A. Rather unusually I kept on watching it until the end of the show and I continue to be impressed by our new prime minister. While it did at times seems a little on the lines of a "bag the last lot session" with frequent references to the Howard government's lack of policy on all the things people were asking him about, Kevin Rudd is slowly eroding with my previous political apathy. Wow!
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I got paid today properly for the first time. Yay! Now I can actually afford to go visit Thia in Kalgoorlie over the long weekend.

Books, books, books...

One of the great things about working in a library is that you come across so many books that otherwise you probably wouldn't have discovered even existed. I've borrowed 13 books in the past 2.5 weeks I've been working there, and that's being quite restrained really.

One of my jobs at work is making little booklets of all the new books we've had come in over the past month. This month we had over 400! Although strictly speaking they're not all new releases - a reasonable proportion of them are donations from readers, and some will be are second copies of ones we've already got. But still, that's a lot of books.

I also box up unwanted donations to take down to Save the Children Fund who then recycle them through their massive book sales. Most of the books that fall into this category... well... let's just say it's clear why they are unwanted. But every now and then I turn up something cool in the piles of books and next thing I know I'm taking home half dozen or so books for which I paid $1 each. Technically I didn't have to pay anything for them, as they're being given away, but I felt I should, taking so many.

Another job I do is process local stock, which basically means getting the local stock books (books that don't come from the state library - ie reader donations or ones bought with the local councils' money) ready so that they can go on the shelves. Spine labels, date labels etc... I'm getting lots of practice at book covering. Of course if it's an interesting looking book, it's necessary to look the book over a bit while you're doing so - read the blurb and so on. *grin*

I was going to list and review some of the books I've borrowed recently, but I'm out of time so it'll have to be later.

A trip to the tip

I am so tired. It's been a long day, and it certainly doesn't help that I've been burning the candle at both ends recently. I need to develop a good habit of going to bed early rather than staying up until I can't keep my eyes open any longer. But I always say that and never do...

Today, as part of the Earth Carers Training course, I went on a trip to the tip. Or to put it more eloquently, we did a tour of the Tamala Park landfill site and the Balcatta recycling station. Then we had lunch at the Stirling Civic Gardens, which is a rehabilitated landfill site. Not that I would have known, if they hadn't told us.

This was a rather more enjoyable experience than I expected. The stuff we learned at each site was both useful and interesting if a bit sobering at times. I will certainly be thinking twice not only before throwing anything in the bin, but also before buying things. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

I think part of what makes this Earth Carers experience great, is hanging out with a group of like-minded people. Everyone else is also concerned about the current state of the planet, but not just that, they are proactive in doing something about it. It's great to be able to discuss and brainstorm ideas about everything from council recycling systems to community gardens, to biodegrable plastic bags, and green power.

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This month, May, is Mobile Muster month with the slogan "old phones, more trees". From the 2nd May to the 5th June for every mobile recycled through the mobile muster campaign, Landcare Australia will plant a native tree. So if you've got an old mobile laying around don't sent to landfill, drop it off at an official drop off point and congratulate yourself on planting a tree for the environment without having to do any of the hard work. Click here and enter your post code to find your nearest drop off point or go down to Australia Post and pick up a free recycling satchel.

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At the first training session we had (on tuesday night) they showed us a video called "The Story of Stuff'". This is a brilliant little animated movie that takes a look at the dark underside of our production and consumption patterns. It was really good - informative while still being entertaining - and I encourage everyone to watch it. In fact, no, I don't just encourage you to watch it, instead I'd like to ask you on behalf of everyone who wants to create a more sustainable future, please take 20mins to watch this short film and recommend it to your friends.

You can download it for free at:
www.storyofstuff.com

It's a simple little thing, and you may think that they're over-simplifying the issues or that you already know this stuff, but watch it anyway. If nothing else, I'm sure you'll find parts of it entertaining. I've drawn the following comments off the website because I agree with them:
The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

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After we got back from the tour of the tip, I discovered that our meeting point for the bus trip was right next to West Leederville community garden. Naturally a number of my fellow "tourists" were involved with the community garden so I went in to have a bit of a look around. It seemed pretty cool so I'm thinking about getting involved.

Life update

I was going to write a post tonight but...

oh well. Better luck next time.

Work = bonafide cushy government job.
Possibly I am just not used to the concept of a job where you get paid holidays... but it's also the fact that as well as a 45min lunchbreak (generous by my past experience) we also get a 15min tea break for both morning and afternoon tea each day. This means it's impossible to work more than 3hrs at a stretch (and frequently time between breaks is less) Not that I am complaining about this.
I'm enjoying it (not really because it's easy-going) but because the people are nice, the customers are almost always nice and... well...
books! lots of books! yippee! :-D

One downside is finding so many books to read that I'll still be getting through them years later, and ending up with hideous overdue item fines. To avoid this fate, I'm trying to limit myself to taking home no more than one item per day. Ok so it's not really a downside. It's actually pretty cool because I run across books I probably never would have found otherwise.

If there is a downside I guess it would be that my feet usually get sore by the end of the day - I think I need some better shoes.


In other news...
I have no other news. Not much else has happened to me lately. Went to the movies with Mum and my brother yesterday to see "Miss Pettigrew lives for a day". It was cute. I liked it (but brother didn't). The story was a little light on substance but I didn't really care. Frances what-ever-her-name-is who played Miss Pettigrew was very good in the lead role.

Happy Mother's Day to Mum for yesterday. You are awesome and I love you.

Job update

I'm having a bit of trouble with expressing what I want to say at the moment. I came in to use the internet specifically for the purpose of writing a particular post - the one I wanted to write on Sunday - but I keep putting off getting started. I've been here for over an hour now and I told myself I'd go home at 7pm. I have done a few other things that I needed to get done - like send off my registration form for the Earth Carers Training course - but mostly I've been browsing randomly through the New Scientist blogs.

They have about half a dozen all up, devoted to specific things (technology, space, invention,... etc). You will probably not be surprised to hear that my favourite is the environment one.

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The new job is going well. I've done 2 days so far and today I have the day off. After monday I was feeling a bit uncertain about it, but I enjoyed yesterday a lot more. There's a lot to learn. I had no idea how much behind the scenes stuff goes on in a library. From a borrowers perspective you'd think it's just checking out/in books and helping people find information but actually you mostly only do that when you're rosted on the circulation desk - which is usually only 2hrs per day (or sometimes 4hrs). Also they've got probably the most complex computer systems (plural emphasis) I've ever used. And to think I thought Booknet was complicated when I was in my previous job.

I think I'm getting the hang of the circulation desk stuff fairly quickly - but I reckon it'll probably take weeks/months to learn all the other stuff. That's ok though, because I like learning. Also the backroom tasks are divided up between the library officers on a roster system, which means that you do the same set of tasks for 6 months and the everyone rotate to another set. This is good because it means I only have to learn 1/6 of the things immediately (there's a new rotation starting next week) and the rest can wait until later. My background working in the bookshop, being a regular library user, and as books on wheels volunteer helps quite a lot. I would be really lost without it instead of looking forward to all the new things to learm. (but I probably wouldn't have got the job without it, anyway.)

I'm still feeling a little like I don't quite fit in. I think this is mostly because of being so new there but there are a few other factors:
1) I am, I estimate, at least 2 decades younger than the combined average age of the other people working there. I haven't met all the casuals yet but so far I've only met one other person who's within a decade of my own age. Well... possibly within a decade, given that I don't actually know how old he is. Everyone seems really nice and friendly, just... I don't know what I'm trying to say. They are all really nice.
2) I don't follow the footy and it appears that the footy is one of the major bonding factor between most of them. I am lost in conversations about football - apparently something really tragic happened last weekend...?

I expect the sense of not quite fitting in will disappear once I've got used to things. And I'm enjoying it regardless. I think I will enjoy working in a library. I guess it's just a little odd being younger (by a long way) than almost everyone else I work with. But it's not really a bad "odd".

I need to get some more work clothes too. Apparently denim is not acceptable. Nor sleeveless tops. Other than that we can wear what we want, but I only have 2 pairs of pants that seem suitable. And most of my jumpers are old and a bit too scruffy looking to wear to work I think. Good Sammy's, here I come... :-P

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It's late. I don't know if this "sunday's post" is ever going to get written. I need to get home and make dinner (quite very probably ratatouille) before Spicks & Specks and going to dancing.

Hey cool, Gilkison's have got themselves a new website.

-blank-

Arrgh! I need more time. I came in here with about a dozen things to blog about, but am clearly not going to get them all done before the library shuts in 25min. And then I got distracted by Avaaz's petition about the world food crisis and wrote a post about that instead. Which is a good thing because I think it's important, but also was not what I had planned to write about.

I started out blogging about one of the topics, but wasn't really getting anywhere with trying to express what I wanted to say, so I ditched it. Guess they'll all have to wait until later - if they get done at all.

Also there are people talking nearby which always gets to me a bit, because I find it distracting and hard to focus on what I'm doing. More frequently nowadays, when this happens, I'll go over and politely asks them to go talk somewhere else, but with the library closing in 10mins, there doesn't seem much point. It also annoys me that the library staff rarely do anything about it even if the people making noise are near them. One of the reasons I like using the library is because it is quiet (mostly).

World Food Crisis

I just signed an Avaaz petition to G8, UN and EU leaders regarding the world food crisis.

If you'd like to sign the petition too, here is the link:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/world_food_crisis/9.php

Before I followed that link and watched several of the videos on the Avaaz site, I had no idea that the crisis situation was so severe. I watched two videos, the one that comes up immediately when you follow the link, which has Sierra Leone's foreign minister, Zainab Bangura, who explains that 90% of the people in her country cannot afford the price of a bag of rice. A bag of rice!

Then I watched the second video which was a 10min interview with Raj Patel, the author of Stuffed and Starved - the hidden battle for the world food system. This interview was interesting yet scary (because of the issues we're facing) at the same time. I've decided to chase up his book after listening to him.

I encourage you to inform yourself on this issue, and sign Avaaz's petition if you support their position.

About Avaaz: (taken from their website)
Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Paris, Washington DC, and Geneva.

I support them because I think what they do is important and I believe they get results. Across the world, international decisions are often shaped by political agendas or unaccountable corporations rather than human rights, or sustainability considerations. Avaaz aims to close the gap between the world we have, and the world most people everywhere want, by being the "voice" of the people in the ear of global leaders. So when I agree with what Avaaz is campaigning for, I add my voice to theirs by signing their petition and telling others about it.

You can read more about Avaaz here

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And just for the record in case anyone's wondering, they don't spam you with emails, if you join their mailing list. I get roughly one or two per week from them about their campaigns.