On Casaubon's Book today, a great quote from Carla Emery:

"Life is always a struggle, whether or not you’re struggling for anything worthwhile, so it might as well be for something worthwhile."

By the way

I'm on the planning committee (well, sort of - except that I keep flaking for exams, etc.) for this event that's coming up in May. It's a make-your-own-festival festival, and it will be delightful. Check you the Mudder's Day website and bring yo mama to the Commons on 11 May!

Are you artsy?

In the advent of the big move, I've been feeling sickeningly domestic. And I'm trying to choose a paint colour for the walls. Problem is, I'm not terribly visual - and the condo is a bit challenging. I'll post some pictures soon, but here's an idea of what we're dealing with: a remodeled unit in a very old building, with an open concept kitchen and living room area. The front door and kitchen cabinets are two different variations on a goldish wood stain; the floors are mahoganyish; the countertops are medium gray; the fridge, stove and light fixtures are metal and the kitchen wall is done in brick behind the stove. The walls are currently a variety of builder's beige, which goes quite unoffensively with everything but isn't terribly interesting. It's a big, airy space - which is great, but it would be nice to make it feel more cozy, especially since right now our furniture is so, shall we say, minimal.

No doubt the other elements of the room will evolve organically, as we get donations from friends, family and Freecycle. Right now we have a mishmash of hand-me-down furniture: two grayish-blue armchairs, an antique trunk for a coffee table and an ugly gold floor lamp, plus some chocolate brown bar stools that The Boy's parents bought last summer. The most substantial art we have to speak of is a giant poster of The Great Wave of Kanagawa. As you might imagine, I tend to gravitate towards Earthy and spicy colours as well as jewel tones like turquoise, and natural materials of all kinds. I also really like the orange and gray look but I fear it wouldn't mesh well with my general style or the several mismatched shades of wood that pepper the condo.

Any ideas? Suggestions from creative types are always welcome!

Love in my tummy, vol. 3

Warning: unless you're a sushi fan, you're probably about to go "ewww, SEAWEED?" But yeah! After years of snubbing it, I've suddenly fallen for dulse.



So far I've only tried it on salads - just snip it into small pieces using scissors, then sprinkle them on top. It's salty, delicious, subtly ocean-y and very PURPLE! I think it also adds to my Nova Scotia cred.


Photo taken from http://www.seaweed.ie/algae/seaweeds.lasso

If you'll be in Halifax on Tuesday 27 April and if you eat food, you should come out to a public forum entitled "Crops, Cars and Climate Crisis" that will be held a 7:00 that night in the Rowe Building at Dal. My friend Nicole has been hard at work organizing the event, which will feature speakers from Argentina, Canada, Colombia and the UK, talking about the very real effects that the agrofuels rush is already having on people's lives all over the world. Expect some really thought-provoking discussion of why we might want to think twice about using food crops to feed cars rather than people in a world of increasing scarcity.

Oh, and admission is free. For more information see cban.ca/agrofuels.

Love and bicycles,

A

Spring Clearing

Photo by ranhar2


I think April is vastly superior to January in terms of making resolutions and a fresh start. For example, this year I actually called a do-over on my New Year's because school started up so suddenly and got so overwhelming, so quickly, that I fell into old patterns almost right away in the name of surviving the school year. Then I felt guilty about it - not good.

Spring, on the other hand, is so effing inspirational that I can't help but WANT to make changes. Exercise is suddenly fun because it's a matter of going for a walk or bike ride outside rather than hauling ass to the gym and sweating all over some retro elliptical while reading a copy of Good Housekeeping from 1988. Everything's coming to life and you don't want to be left out. Plus, you're probably going to do some spring cleaning anyway - so why not do it right?

At this point you probably, like me, have lots of junk to clear out of your home, body, mind and spirit. How you deal with it depends on your style and schedule, but how about some inspiration?

Real Simple has zillions of cleaning and organizing tips, plus printable worksheets for keeping track of anything you can possibly imagine. There's even a feature for e-organizing your favorites.

Apartment Therapy's Kitchen Cure at TheKitchn.com - make a space where you'll actually want to eat, and figure out what to do with that leftover barley, clam juice and moonshine jelly.

The icing Transformation Challenge with Gala Darling, your purple-haired cheerleader.

Get some perspective from Kris Carr, creator of Crazy Sexy Cancer, who's delivering an ass-kicking to cancer with whole foods and positivity.

Laugh!

Personally, I'm cleaning the bejeezus out of the condo in preparation for moving in all my stuff (!) and just generally being really good to myself. I'm replacing processed crap with fresh, whole, mostly-local veggies; doing yoga every morning and meditating every night; going to bed early; getting outside as much as I can, and catching up on all the life I let pass me by during the 1L exam insanity. Aaaannd...wasting time blissfully, guilt-free, because I finally can!

Gah - please help

I may or may not have blogged about this before, but in case I haven't - or in case you've forgotten - there's an organization in Hants County, Nova Scotia called the Avon Peninsula Watershed Preservation Society who are opposing an open-pit gypsum mine on the peninsula. There's already one gypsum mine in the area, and the company is applying to dig another one. They recently submitted their environmental impact assessment, which means that public input has to be received by early next week - I think Wednesday, but possibly even by Monday. So I shouldn't have put off writing this post until today - bad girl. Anyway, there are a number of problems with the proposal.

1) The environmental impact assessment process is notoriously soft. There's a desperate need for full and independent assessments of projects like this, but no dice.

2) The area is covered with valuable farmland and farming communities, which we need more and more as fuel prices rise, the need to curb global warming becomes more dire, and the public increasingly demands locally-sourced foods. It's also a big tourism area because it's ridiculously beautiful.

3) The topography is karst, making the watershed particularly vulnerable to contamination (say, from mining runoff...).

4) The proposed mine would destroy forest habitat which is home to a number of rare and endangered plant species and which protects the watershed by filtering out contaminants.

5) Even the possibility of a mine (and definitely the construction of one) destroys property markets, so retiring farmers who need to sell their land to pay for their retirement have little choice but to sell it to the mining company, making it even harder for the rest of the community to make decisions for their own future.

6) The company started clearcutting and doing other pre-mining activities even before the environmental impact assessment was completed, and local residents are already seeing a degradation in their water quality and forest resources.

7) Gypsum is 100% recyclable. Loads of it are taken to dumps every day, but builders are beginning to source recycled gypsum - calling into question the long-term viability of gypsum mining as a profit-making enterprise

8) Mining companies...aren't exactly rockstars when it comes to cleaning up their mess after they've raped and pillaged a piece of land. It's the local residents who will be left to clean up the mess...well, at least the ones who haven't left town in search of jobs once there's nothing left in Hants County...

It goes on. So please take a moment to go to the APWPS website (at the top of this post) and sign the petition. maybe even send a message to the Premier and to your MLA. We're talking about food, water and the ability to make a living without being beholden to some foreign company that doesn't give a shit about the big toxic hole they're digging in your backyard. These things are fundamental, and the consequences of one mine flow far beyond the immediate area...

Apologies for my failure to post regularly or to cut the excess white space off the above photo. But y'all should go to the next M4F - it's Saturday the 23. I'll be there, and so will a whole bunch of yummy food. besides, law school is eventually going to drive me over the edge and I'm going to become a farmer. So by supporting the farmers NOW, you're supporting my future. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Thought so. See you there!

Yikes - according to Carbon Zero, for Adam and I to fly to Calgary and back will create 1.65 tonnes of CO2. Gah! Instead of buying offsets, I used Carbon Zero's calculator to find out how much the offsets would have cost (just under $40) and I'm going to donate that much to the Ecology Action Centre for their ongoing work to create a more sustainable (or, as Sharon at Casaubon's Book prefers to say, "regenerative") society.

Battle of the Beasts

Bigfoot said:
TOMORROW. 3 PM. THE TUNDRA. WE PLAY MILLE BORNES. DECIDE WINNER ONCE AND FOR ALL!

Holy crap! It's a Japanese teen-girl ska band! And they're making a movie!

Freedom! Almost.

The last of the winter exams was Friday, which means that this lady has engaged in some high-quality brain rot over the weekend. I'm not out of the woods yet, however. The Christmas shopping has yet to begin in earnest.

What's a hipster to do when the consumer-whore season hits? Giving charity donations in lieu of gifts is fab, but it really depends on the person - and you can't do it ALL the time. I think a good strategy is to reserve that for the people who live far away, who will understand that you want to get them something more meaningful than a card but don't want to ship a bulky gift. And, of course, the treehuggers and social activists in your life will always appreciate it. But in terms of gift-gifts, there's lots of room for creativity. I happen to come from a really practical family - most years I'll ask my Mom and stepfather what they want, they'll tell me, and the surprise will be either a little something extra of a variation on the theme of whatever they wanted. For other people, it's generally a good bet to think of something they'd get for themselves anyway - soap, coffee, snack food, etc - and get them that, except of a higher quality than they'd normally get for themselves - and with a little hippie flair. The key to responsible gift-giving is quality over quantity. Most people have too much crap anyway, so if you get them a smaller gift that's obviously of high quality (bonus points if it's one-of-a-kind or has a neat story behind it), chances are they'll be just as happy, if not more so, than if you had gotten them a pile of cheap stuff.

Another option is something you know they could really use but won't get for themselves. This year my stepsister and I got our parents a digital camera (I can publish this now because we already gave it to them). For years Mom has been using disposable cameras, and she was totally thrilled to have a real one. As for me, the thought of all the plastic that will stay out of the landfills makes me want to dance.

And finally, I might be a little biased, being a member and all - but any chefs on your list might like a copy of the Ecology Action Centre's Food Action Committee cookbook. And your significant other would look fantastic in a pair of the EAC's brand-spankin'-new Radical Undies (get it? I said spankin'...and they're underwear...um, never mind).

The point is, have a wonderful and safe holiday season. Eat some pie for me!

Are you STILL checking back here? oh, my. So dedicated. Well, I should warn you that exams start tomorrow so there will be no new posts until at least the 15th. So save your time, get away from the computer and go have coffee with a friend, silly.

You know what's good? red wine, Italian food, chocolate and girl talk with your roommate. Not so good? Trying to do legal citations and make sense of finders' rights cases afterwards. Oy.

Correction

Re: my post of 15 October: The Chebucto Neighbourhood Association has until October 31 to drum up enough public support to STOP the (stupid, shortsighted, stupid, asinine, stupid) widening of Chebucto Road. Or at least to have it reconsidered by City Council. Please act. Seriously.

Post-Apocalyptic Skills Training

I'm learning to knit! My lovely amiga Angela has started a knitting club - we meet every week for beer and craftery...we had our first meeting last night. So now, if global climate change end up making it disastrously cold here, I'll be all set in my cozy socks and scarves and mittens and sweaters and legwarmers. Guess what you're all getting for Christmas...

It's that day when bloggers everywhere write about the environment - something that, you know, I definitely never do...

OK, first of all I want to call all Haligonians' attention to an urgent issue that's staring us in the face right now. The Chebucto Neighbourhood Association has until October 31 to drum up enough public support to start the (stupid, shortsighted, stupid, asinine, stupid) widening of Chebucto Road. In case you haven't heard of this issue, all the information is here. Basically, while other cities are responding to ecological realities by trying to DECREASE traffic in and out of their urban cores and to promote human-powered and public transportation, our illustrious Council wants to displace residents so that they can build more roads. So please, sign the petition on their website, and write to the mayor and your councillor to let them know what a colossally bad idea this is.

Next - and I'm not going to spend as much time on this as I had planned, because I am sleepy and also a little ill and still have 25 pages (legal size) of Public Law to read for tomorrow morning, and I'm also hoping to get some research done for my Pro Bono placement before I collapse. But I said i would blog about the environment today, and I like to think that I'm a woman of my word. So without further ado, allow me to introduce Sassy Tortuga's Guide to Saving the World for Poor Students and Cheapskates.

There has been a huge surge in interest in environmental issues lately, and that's fantastic. The problem is that, in adopting these fabulous new environmental values, we haven't questioned some of the social values that prevent us from making real progress - namely, the drive to consume. My understanding is this: during WWII, governments urged frugality so that resources would be available for the war effort. But once the war was over, capitalists needed to find another market to keep their businesses going, so they turned their gazes to Jane and Joe Everyperson. All of a sudden the frugality message was turned on its head, and modern-day consumerism was born. It's a tenacious ideology that has managed to subvert countercultures ever since (witness, for example, the pseudo-punk being sold at the mall). I've spoken to a lot of people who are discouraged about their ability to make a difference, because 'environmentally friendly' consumer products cost so much more than mainstream ones do.

The fallacy, of course, is the belief that we need most of these products to begin with - or even that they enrich our lives in any way. It's an attitude of "Buy the change you want to see in the world." And I'm sorry, but you're not saving the world by buying an organic t-shirt. It may be less polluting than a conventional one, but it most certainly has an ecological impact - there are still fossil fuels involved in the growing, harvesting, processing and shipping. It may be coloured using high-impact dyes, and it may be made in a sweatshop. Honestly, save your $50 and get a vintage one for $3.

The mistaken belief magical powers of consumption is the target of the "voluntary simplicity" movement. My favourite description of voluntary simplicity is that it aims for a "high joy-to-stuff ratio." Consuming less is not only better for the environment, it's better for your health, your sanity and your bank account. I didn't make a lot of money when I was working last year, but by curbing my spending I was able to take an entire month off at the end of the summer in which to do whatever struck my fancy. I spent some quality time with my Mom, went to the beach, got some fresh air on the South Shore and engaged in some high-quality sloth - and I still managed to keep a decent financial cushion to sit on. Voluntary simplicity isn't a doctrine of self-denial - it's a path towards freedom from the machine.

I promise to write some more about this later - I have some delicious and realistic ways of incorporating it into real life - but in the meantime I recommend the No Impact Man and San Francisco Compact blogs (see sidebar).

Nighty-night, greenyheads!

So. Yum.

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

On the sidebar, click on "Baking Porn" and drool your face off.

Miscellany

I know! I've been so very neglectful, breaking promises to post about various subjects and just generally being MIA. It seems that vacation, and then law school, have gotten the best of me. I had planned a post about the scrumptulous Equinox fest that The Jenn and I made, but then reading, etc. happened. And I've been at Adam's for the past several days so I haven't gotten the photos on to my computer in order to show them to you. I'm still at the Boy's so we'll have to put off that gratification for a bit longer, but in the interim here are a few things for you to ponder.

First, a small tribute: if you haven't already heard either from me or from Jenn's blog, we lost out baby girl Kali. It was all very sudden - she had a particularly vicious and untreatable kitty disease which we just found out about recently, and the vet advised Jenn that the best thing to do was to have her put down so that she wouldn't suffer. Love and kisses, Buddha Kitten. I miss you.

Second, I've been reading Casaubon's Book faithfully, and Sharon has some fascinating insights into myriad issues such as the the environmental crisis and sustainability, feminism, religion, family, etc. etc. if you didn't explore her site after I posted that last link to it a little while ago, I strongly encourage you to do so. There's one recent post that made my heart stop, both in its imagery and its implications. So often we think of issues like, war, poverty and climate change as abstract issues with no real consequences in our own lives. But as a woman, I was actually physically pained to read this piece. It spells out, in brutally human terms, one of the consequences of our actions and inaction, of the choices we make to either remain complacent or to work for change and demand it of our elected representatives. Can we sit back and let these things happen to human beings? Can we stubbornly refuse to change our habits until they start happening to us, or to our loved ones? I'm suddenly compelled to DO SOMETHING, having let myself get lazy and comfortable for too long.

And finally, not to end things on such a gloomy note...Gala Darling's blog is my daily fluff, and this post cheered me up somewhat after reading Sharon's dire warnings. I don't see myself going out and buying any Disney accessories, but maybe a whimsical trip to Frenchy's (or even just to the dark recesses of my own closet) might be in order...