Sunday, September 24, 2017

Pretty hilarious

Most of our lives we are told that we have to look a certain way. Men are supposed to be stoic and show little emotion. Women (at least from my experience) are told that a smile is their daily required mask. As a child anything less than simple grins and you'll have men and women yelling at you from their backyards about how a smile doesn't cost anything or how you're going to look so much prettier if you smile.  I find it so odd having complete strangers insisting that they get a smile out of me.  I have no emotional connection to them and yet they feel they are personally put out that I'm not giving them the comfort of a smile.  I'm not a very confrontational person (for the most part), so I tend to give in and smile. I've had people come out of their yards and talk to me about how I need to smile because "it isn't as bad as it seems"... as if they know how a stranger's life can go from day to day. Let's keep in mind this is when I was a kid walking to and from school so I had to be in front of a lot of monitoring busybodies the whole way.

 The only expression should be of a pleasant disposition without being overly emotional.  To this day I find my default emotion is a smile. This has been a problem at times when a grin isn't really appropriate but it is my go to facial expression. The only time that I would feel free would be making funny faces.   I would stand in front of the mirror and make funny faces at myself. I would crack myself up laughing for as long as I could. So let me tell you how excited I was to find a group of women exactly like me.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PrettyGirlsUglyFaces

These women understand how fun manipulating your face can be. The standards of beauty are tossed  aside for a while to make something of pure joy. It reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously and we get to see the spectacularly different ways our facial muscles can move.

I highly recommend this to anyone that is feeling down about themselves or how they look.  You can always make yourself look like you're happy. Or you can make a funny face and be happy.  Good luck finding a new way to move your face today.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Closing tabs

My main source of mess in my life is paper clutter. My main source of online clutter is open tabs.  I have a to do list a mile long (if not longer). I use Chrome and they don't even tell you how many tabs you have when you push over 100. They just give you a smile :)

Which frankly I love. But I'm giving up my smiley face in favour of a streamlined life. Most of my tabs come from a place of distraction. I'm looking around for interesting things in life and find out about 13 new ones.  So rather than loose track of any of these new experiences I start delving into the minutia. Today I was doing 'A' which reminded me of 'B', so I had to make a note of 'C' because it is directly related to 'A'.... and so on until you find yourself at 'F' and feeling really pleased to have finished 'D' and 'E' today because you were going to need to do that before doing 'C' to change your 'A'. 

Right now I'm pleased to say I'm down to 79 tabs from my 81 earlier today. Everyday a little more by having a little less. 

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Reunited roommates

I'm so glad to have everyone home. Yesterday, after spending a month visiting family, my roommate Maddy returned home to Nova Scotia. During her absence the house has felt a bit out of whack, awaiting the reemergence of her bombastic shouts. 

We started out as 5 strangers thrown together by fate to rent a house, and have become a family. A great place to find all sorts of wonderful people visiting, supporting and encouraging each other through life, and chatting about a variety of topics.  
You know it is a good day when laughter and music increases in the house 10 fold. 

My living arrangement sounds terrible to some people but works for me.  I love the noise, shared ideas, and all the new and exciting distractions that come with this many roommates. And yet there is still time to find a quiet moment alone with your thoughts.  Somehow our schedules just work out to give us enough time apart that we don't get sick of each other. 

We all have a common goal of making every dollar count so we join forces when buying food and house supplies. The house doesn't need much restocking because we will buy most things in bulk to last. Often we set aside money at the beginning of a month and then see how long we can go without collecting again. Longest run so far was 8 months, February-September.  By pooling money everything is equal.  We have a similar approach to food. We discuss some possible meal ideas and pool money every week-2weeks to pick up supplies. We not only save by sharing expenses, we also ensure we have no waste of spoiled food.  When buying fresh fruits and vegetables we can buy a variety and quantity that would go bad if left to one person. Humans tend to get tired of the same thing (or thrive on routine so who knows) so by getting a wide range we ensure that everyone is getting an assortment of nutrients and manageable proportions. A lot of us have tight work schedules, so when we have a bunch of left overs we make up ready to grab lunches for the morning rush (whenever our "morning" happens to be).

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Ocean drives for inspiration **Updated** Photo of paintings added

Today I went for a drive with my friend Adrien and my roommate Maddy to the ocean. We saw some spectacular waves coming in from the North Atlantic that made me so happy. 

We basked in the wonder and majesty that is our beautiful world's powerful wind and waves.... then scampered back to my place to have a paint night. We gave ourselves an hour to come up with and finish a painting.  We had such different works in the end that it was fascinating and wonderfully gorgeous. 

Adrien's painting was inspired by futuristic military with a dynamic background. Mine was a reflection on the various shades of blue we saw and the extreme white of mist and white caps. 

Sunday, September 17, 2017

Getting serious about saving money on water bills

I may be wrong but most of the population spends a great deal of time bathing.  I know I'm no stranger to spending hours basking in warm water, #BathsAreLife,  but let's face a harsh reality, we do a lot of stuff in the shower that does not require the water running.  While some people might not feel clean enough being under the water for a short amount of time, it might just be the chemical bases in your soap or shampoo that are clogging up your pores.

Try shutting off the shower for a minute or two while you let your hair conditioner sink in.  Brush your teeth during the water off time and rinse when you wash your whole body. 

As part of a promotion for water conservation in Saskatchewan I was given a small sand hour glass (looks like an egg timer) for my shower that times out at four minutes.  It is stipulated as enough time to have your pores open up from warmth and steam, wash your hair and step out.  If you take a long time in the shower stop the water for intervals that you are not actively using the water.  You'll be amazed at how your water bill shrinks.

For those with a green thumb that find themselves wishing for a rain barrel to keep up their watering schedule without the water bill, invest in a large basin that is manageable to stand in and then tote around.  Use products that are safe for the environment so your plants don't get a shock and die on you.

So lets say you're about to start your shower.  You don't have a timer.  What do you do??
Close your drain.  Use the water level to gauge how much you have used. Stop before the water makes it to your ankle.  When you get into the habit you'll figure out for yourself exactly where on your foot is your four minute mark.  You'll probably eventually be done before you even get to it.

Couples are lucky to be able to halve their water bill right away by having an instant shower buddy.  Be sure to work on developing communication so one of you isn't always freezing and never wanting to experience it again.  Kind of hard to save water/money if someone resents the experience.

Baths are a bit tricky.  Begin by sitting in the tub as it fills up.  Your body will displace the water and fill up the tub with just enough to your desired level.  No more water splashing out as you get in.  There isn't really any way to avoid being wasteful except to limit the number of them that you have.

If you have control over the temperature of your water heater you can turn  down the maximum temperature.  A few degrees (or a lot) need to be tested over a few days to allow temperatures to drop.  By having a lower temperature you will be using less energy to warm the ever ready tank.  Setting a lower maximum temperature will also help to prevent scalding yourself in the future.

Good luck and have fun, be it for the better conservation of the planet's resources we use or your pocket book.

PS If you don't have low flush toilets then open up the lid on your tank.  Grab a brick or a sand filled one liter plastic jug (trust me when I say that a water filled one will not be heavy enough to stand up against moving water), and put it in any open area in the tank.  This will disperse the water and you will save with every flush.

Thursday, September 14, 2017

Clean up for cash

I've been noticing around the city lately that garbage has been collecting all over the place.  I'm a huge fan of this planet and usually look at the larger impact of things.  I've embraced that classic of "Think globally.  Act locally."

Thankfully I'm living on the edge of the Atlantic ocean so in many ways I feel like my actions have an immediate impact globally.  Mainly that at least the trash I pick up will not get into the storm drains and then into our ocean.  Also there is something satisfying about pulling garbage away from a wave that is about to sweep it out to garbage island.

It amazes me how trash ends up in some areas, humans really are ingenious for getting their trash everywhere. I've found old TVs in all manner of places from forests to sea sides. Among the garbage strewn along the highways I have found larger bits of trash, like oh I don't know... a pile of bumpers! These were presumably from some massive pile up that never got cleaned up.

I got some plastic gloves and started picking up more manageable trash, focusing on debris that will be tossed about by the wind and picking up the little bits that are breaking down but will never really disappear, such as plastic cups that shred into strips.  I will stop everything if I find Styrofoam that is compressed balls.  That stuff is the worst for breaking apart but never really going away.  The goal is of course for everyone everywhere to take on the responsibility and hopefully sort their trash into recyclables and not throw it out their car windows for it to become a heap of junk.

Try asking for drinks without straws or lids. Straws make up one of the largest contributors of plastic waste.

I got distracted by my own life and stopped picking up garbage for a while.  At the beginning of this month (Sept 2017) I went to the beach and started picking up trash.  Some lady made a comment that I must work for the city and I replied "I just couldn't take it any more" and we talked a bit about their own garbage picking ways up the beach! Fantastic!

 I've been picking up garbage ever since.  I'll find myself out for a walk and thinking "Oh nuts I forgot a bag for garbage" and one just floats towards me... because there is that much garbage!
I've incorporated it into my day. I'll drive to work and see a particularly bad street and walk over after my shift is done and spend half an hour picking up stuff and have a full garbage bag.  I have to limit how much I clean with large bags because we don't have that much room in our house garbage containers for it all. So I'll usually go with any number of individual grocery bags to gather garbage that is around larger garbage bins around the city.

Try it for yourself.  Find a garbage can and figure out a 10 foot circle around it and just pick up the garbage that is sitting around the can and actually put it in the can.

I have already started to see benefits in my life.  At almost zero cost to me (if I don't drive out to visit the ocean) I walk around the city and find that people don't just throw out garbage, they throw out money.  Sure there are bottles that are a lot easier to spot from a distance, but actual coins at times.  It has become a fun challenge to see how much I can pick up depending on how much time I have.  It has encouraged me to walk a lot more places, cutting down on my gas use and almost always find a few bottles to return.  The best parts have been meeting people along the way and getting to see more of the city.  I have found that if I walk anywhere for long enough I will find something interesting.  Sometimes I even have an amazing walk and don't find garbage for a while.

For large items I'm sort of at a loss for what to do. If anyone has any suggestions for what government department I should be alerting, that would be appreciated.  At the end of the month I'm going to put up how much money I've found along the way.

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

When unrealistic dreams come true

When we were asked in elementary school what sort of job we wanted I always thought that being paid to sleep would be the best job.  I think I feared that my answer would be seen as a joke or unrealistic.  As I like animals I would instead say the generic kid answer of veterinarian (I knew even as a child that surgery and blood was not for me, but they wanted an answer).  As far as career development went, I could never really get past the back of my mind where the truth would be and the little voice of doubt that such a job could even exist.

Jump forward +20 years later, I have a BA in psychology, and I have my dream job.  I now work for an organization that transitions individuals who have been institutionalized for a variety of mental illnesses into group homes and independent living.  I love my job.  I work mainly alone but occasionally with great coworkers who care about and for the well-being of our clients on numerous levels.  I get to see my clients develop new skills and confidence, at the end of my shift I get up in the morning, go on random adventures for the day, and go back to work at night.

I have always seen that life becomes a question of money vs time.  The rich (like doctors and lawyers) who have no time to enjoy the money they have, or the jobless who have ample time but no money to do things... and then the millions who are working 3 jobs to make ends meet so have no time and have no money.  This seems wrong to me.

I have seen some depressing/unsettling graphs that show our lives broken down into dots, either day to day or month to month.  It really showed me what was lost when we dedicated our daily lives to work.  While it might not be the most lucrative job I gain 8-9 hours in my daytime life that would normally be devoted to work.  1/3 of my life has been given back to me.  I'm aware that my job is not for everyone, and frankly I'm glad or I might have missed out.  I have the luxury of not having kids at home to tuck in (so there isn't any guilt on that side of things) and I still have a body that doesn't care about sleeping on a cot.

Now it is just a matter of how to make the most of each day to the best of my ability.