A month to go

G'day all!

Well it is a month to go before I turn *mumble* Eeek! Ack! How on earth did this happen to me? Remember the party is on the 4th, not on my birthday.


(About 600m of variegated purple laceweight with the odd smidge of plum and black)

I've been doing a little thinking whilst knitting and dyeing yarn and spinning and gardening and generally futzing around.


(Same laceweight, all ball(s)ed up)

I spent 8.5 years in the insurance industry. It was a job and it ended up paying well. The grief associated with it was not worth it though. So I moved on, and here I am without an income.


(yarn dyed in the ball to get a gradient. This one had a black base with blue added for some interest)

Now I have to find work. But I'd like to do some more study. More, I hear you ask! But you've already got a Certificate IV in Workplace Training and Assessment, a honours degree in science and a PhD.


(The same as previous, only in ball form that shows the gradient from blue/black through to grey)

Yep, I do. But they won't necessarily get me the sort of work I want to do.


(Peeve has snaffled these already)

I will blame Nathan's report for Merredin for starting me on this path. I have not been using my brain for plenty long enough. It is a fine brain, or it used to be (I call it Mr Brain - students of psychology can probably make a lot out of me calling various body parts Mr: Mr Fingies, Mr Brain, Mr Knee...). I had to go do reserach for the report and find out about things. Some of it I got totally backwards, some of it was spot on - depends on the quality of the research material. Garbage in, garbage out.


(I particularly like the way the sun appears to be glowing from the dunny vent pipe)

So I want a part time job that lets me study a bit and get a different sort of job.



What do I want to study?



Sustainability. A big word with a lot of implications. I would like to look at natural resource management, carbon dioxide abatement, permaculture, something that has a chance of helping maintain our natural environment and reverse the damage our activities are doing. I've been watching "Two Men in a Tinnie," which looks at the terrible state of the Murray Darling (particularly the Darling River), all induced by the way we use/misuse water. I've been watching the news and reading the newspaper. I watched Al Gore talk on a local interview program. Just like we are reaching a crisis point with terrorism, we are reaching the point of no return for our environment. We have to do something, so I am starting with me.



Will I stop driving across town on occasion? Nope. The way things are set up, I have to drive if I want to get to places without having to catch two trains and a couple of buses/trams. I'll just be careful with the way I use water, the amount of driving I do and the way I use resources.


(That really is a bird there. Tawny frogmouths pretend to be tree stumps during the day. At night they hunt small prey such as mice and bugglies. Their flight is soundless - you don't hear their wingbeats.)

BTW, the scarf is coming along nicely. I decided to add an extra couple of panels to it so that I use up as much of the yarn I spun as possible. Knitting it makes my hands burn and my head reel so I will be glad to see the end of it.



(And America? Do away with guns - they seem to be used far too often to hurt people. The news tonight here led with the shootings of those poor little Amish girls - what did they do to harm that man? He had 600 rounds with him! 600! What on earth was he planning to do? And that is the third school shooting in the US in what one or two weeks? Guns don't make places safer.)

Pictures today are courtesy of a trip to check out Braeside Park (possible site of a mumblieth birthday picnic), a dry cool change (grump) and some recent dyeing. Let me know if you want to bags anything.

anon!

Comments

  1. Anonymous7:46 am

    Lovely pictures and sharing of thoughts. I think sustainability is a great avenue, since it's something we all need to be focusing on and, to be pragmatic, which may provide loads of up and coming business opportunities.

    How nice it would be to have a job that makes you feel like you are making a difference for the better!

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  2. I do understand why you want to get more education into Mr. Brain. I would love to get some more myself. It does sound like an interesting job.

    We've been wanting to go more green ourselves. It's a very expensive undertaking, but we think it would be worth it in the long run. Solar panels and a windmill would provide enough electricity for us and more than likely be more reliable than our power company as well as saving us all the ridiculous charges they add to the cost.
    A propane heater for water would not only save us money, but space too since you can get them in panels that fit on the wall. You simply run the water line through it and it heats the water as it passes through instead of heating an entire tank full. Also crazy expensive, but saves a fortune in the long run as well as conserving energy. It's also harder to run out of hot water with it.
    So much that each household can do to go green, so little green to do it with.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Such beautiful yarns...and your fleeces from yesterday! Oh my goodness!

    As to moving into sustainability, maybe research internships to get a foot in or learn more about it? Even if for only six months, while researching classes and what have you? When i moved the Cali, I started as an intern to learn about the State environmental laws, a different but related field than what I had been working in. With a base of experience and a steep learning curve, I was fully emplyed in less than a year in this new field! Good luck!

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  4. Yes, go for something you feel passionate about! You're much more likely to enjoy the training and the work, and be able to put up with the inevitable cr*p all jobs contain, if you're passionate about what you're working for.

    (Love the blue/black yarn, btw. Not a colour combo you see often. What weight is it? How much is there?)

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  5. I loved the flow of your post between your thinking and your doing and seeing.

    I know what you mean about the gun thing. It's scary. It's sad. Several years ago, our state legislature passed a law allowing concealed carrying of handguns. Now places that don't want guns on the premesis (schools, shops, etc) have to post that. It's SO STUPID.

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  6. Anonymous9:39 pm

    Yay sustainability!

    Have you got a particular course in mind?

    I'm just curious because I'm in a vaguely similar boat - I'm finishing up an Honours degree in environmental philosphy and looking to the future (as in, oh, a couple of months from now), I'm trying to make a path for myself that lets me put my interests to a more practical use.

    Further study is looming, possibly in the shape of a course from the Office of Environmental Programs at Melbourne Uni, which is worth checking out, I think, if you haven't done so already

    ReplyDelete
  7. Im glad you saw, Two Men In a Tinnie!!!!
    I was born in Bourke,and raised near Louth on Dunlop Stn(part of),the river is absolutely disgusting,I can remember when the weirs were built and the start of the cotton farming.
    The river actually flow backwards when the big pumps started ,my husband reckoned he saw one at least five to six foot across.
    Imagine the volume sucked up,the river will die as it cannot sustain this kind of 'abuse'.The DArling and the issue of cotton farming in that area is one of my pet hates....

    ps sorry for the rave....

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  8. Wow, those are some beautiful colors, hopefully someday I'll be able to do that!

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  9. I often see a mopoke or a slightly smaller owl hunting when I am walking the dog late at night. Completely silent and very beautiful against the sky. Sometimes I see them sitting on the telegraph wires - where they are still doing the 'I'm a tree' routine even though they are obviously NOT a tree!

    I WANT that cake. As my many and varied creative talents (hmmm) do not include cake decorating I guess I will just have to dream about it.

    Good luck with the sustainability thing - a very worthy life path at this point in the universe, I think. We're currently involved with a sustainability project at the local primary school, with the aim of teaching it the children so that they see sustainable measures being done in small, achieveable steps as a part of everyday life.

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  10. Anonymous4:38 am

    If you are ever free for a Northern Melbs knitfest, I think you need to meet Liz (she also hosts the Yarraville-ish one). She is very much into the sustainability, Greens thang, lives the life, and writes articles for Earth Garden pretty often. Might be a handy person to get to know. O, and did I mention she's pretty ace?
    Darrow

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