misc.

Yet to be categorized.

summer volunteering PSA

| Betsy

As you may or may not know, Chapel Hill is a very dog friendly town. They go where people go, except for restaurants with no outdoor seating and grocery stores. It’s nice.

Most of my friends have dogs, and somehow I end up at the dog park with them atleast once a week. Last Friday, however, I did feel like a dork when a woman with a golden retriever sauntered up to me and asked,’ Which dog is yours?’ All I could reply was, ‘I’m a friend of that dog over there,’ turning bright red and deferring to my friend whose dog we were watching romp around. The women got quiet after that, I guess because it seemed wierd to play Auntie Mame to my friend’s 4-legged companions?

After realising that I wanted to try and get my PhD, and that if accepted it would most likely mean living in various locations for a number of years (doing research in various places), I’ve been looking into fostering dogs. Even if I am not granted a place on a course for 2005 (or 2006!), I move great distances with such frequency that for the time being, owning a dog is not the best option for me- or a dog.

I grew up with dogs and after I went away to college did some sporadic volunteering in various animal shelters in order to still be around puppy love. There are few things more heartwarming that spending a little extra time with a dog or a cat who is desperately craving attention. I still get warm fuzzies everytime I think of the time I entered a shelter enclosure in Boone full of month-old puppies, and giggle at the thought of their squirmy, unfettered joy of human contact. A few were trying to untie my shoes, one was peeing with excitement on my sock, several were trying to lick my face, and the remaining puppies just vying for TLC.

The other day I was hanging out with my friends’ Australian shepherd mix, Nestle

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and was thinking about how it never ceases to amaze me just how much pets enrich our lives.

In recent local news, there was the Sanford puppy mill bust, which is simply abominable.

So I’ve decided to try my hand at fostering as a way to not only help socialise animals who need a little extra attention, but also as a way to keep animals in my life. There are some possibilities in the works now, but if they fail, then I will be signing up for shifts at the local shelter.

Happily, my move uncovered several charity blankets I made last winter for a local animal shelter and then promptly lost in the shuffle. This website will help you find a shelter who could use your knitting/crocheting/sewing prowess by creating warm blankets for lost and lonely dogs and cats. The site holds a wealth of information, including appropriate patterns and blanket sizes.

But if needlework isn’t up your alley, this post is a little reminder that it’s almost summer and the time to be outdoors taking in the sunshine. And what would be a better way to spend a few free weekend hours than volunteering at your local shelter? Because even if you can’t currently own a pet, that doesn’t mean you can’t help one.

friday dispatch v3.0

| Betsy

Even though I woke up with the Blue Oyster Cult song, “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” in my head, I am going to continue on with thinking positive thoughts for today. Because after all, it’s Friday now, isn’t it?

Time for the 3rd of my 12-week installment of “how to waste time (and learn something, too) in your rather unfulfilling office job!”

*Go read The Endless Scarf by Blythe Toll.

*Get your craft on at M & J Trimming (or atleast just have fun daydreaming about what you would create if you had the cash!)

*Herd some virtual sheep here (No, really.)

*Once you’ve mastered the game above, learn more than you ever thought possible about sheep (and other livestock) in the largest livestock database. Ever. (I think my new favorite animal is the Racka.)

*If you’re still feeling nerdy, here are more links than you ever thought possible about owls. (Owls are cool!)

*Read No Good For Me and then as a direct result, start dressing better.

*Go check out the ethical library at Downbound Yay!

*Not sure what to make for dinner tonight? Go have a look at Cooking By Numbers, cooking made easy!

*I heart No Media Kings.

*I met Pil and Galia Kollectiv in London, and am constantly inspired by their work.

It’s raining in North Carolina today, therefore, I can’t stop listening to Joy Zipper. BOC be damned!

on the road again.

| Betsy

Some days I feel like a professional mover. I am moving, yet again. Long story short, I am moving somewhere for the summer. I may stay past August depending on what happens in the PhD department.

The best thing about moving is the ideas you have before moving: how you’re going to decorate your new place, how you’re going to stock your kitchen, how this time you’re going to finally designate a space for “work.”

The worst thing about moving: actually moving.

So I’ve decided to take it easy this go-round and load up the Honda with the necessities: clothes, yarn, books, music. Sometimes I feel like some sort of eccentric urban nomad, but then realise that that would be giving myself too much credit.

I also realise that everytime you move you can never move the most important thing: your support network of friends and family. If only I could pack them up, too, into assorted boxes my life would be complete.

Writing about the ethics and politics of craft has made me realise that this whole kooky aura around the idea of craftivism lies in decision-making. Why am I doing what I am doing? Could someone benefit more from this scarf/doll/afghan than me? Do I really need all these craft supplies, materials, excess?

Each time I move (which is often), I am reminded of why I keep what I keep. And how with the power of the internet, I can hold people dear to me closer than ever before.

Now that I’ll finally have a “workspace” in my new digs, I have no need for it. These days my so-called “office” (for complete lack of a better word) is my laptop, headphones and a hot cup of coffee. But I am sure that it will be filled with reams of paper covered with scribbles of stories and queries, skeins of yarn peeping from behind cabinets, and book after book after book.

I have some new projects in the works as I’m trying to crossover from a blog that was created to promote an idea I believed in to something with a bigger scope. I feel like I need to take a step back and look at it all from a wider angle. Because while this whole ‘craft thing’ is tiny, I believe that embracing it has reminded many people of the power of uniquity.

By realising how easy it is to make our own wares, we have simultaneously come to realise that not only is this allowing us to reconnect with our creativity, but also our issues with abundance. In a world of too many choices, we have finally figured out that every decision we make holds power and helps to create change. The thought of people out there making conscious decisions about the way their money and time is spent enlivens me to no end.

I think I’ve gotten to be quite an expert with this moving thing. One day, one day soon perhaps, I’ll have more than just a workspace to fill and more to work on than a laptop that’s heavy. But until I find that place to alit my wings, I will continue to be making each choice carefully and with the best intentions.

friday dispatch v2.0

| Betsy

It’s Friday! Rock on! Which means a little bit of crafty linked randomness for the cubicle-kept and bored…

.check out the work of Fundacion Solidaridad, truly inspiring handcraft from Chile.

.if you ever wanted to learn how to sculpt a Lionel Richie head from clay, this link is for you.

.make your desktop even more badass with Pixel Girl Presents. (Currently the Fury Cow is presiding over my laptop…)

.read about the evolution of hot pants here.

.check out Design is Kinky (Be sure to check out the theory section. To a dork like me, such geekery is hot…)

.read about why my (occasional?) adopted town of Carrboro is cooler than yours in this recent article on zines.

.become as obsessed as I have with Obsessive Consumption.

.learn how to revolutionize your belongings (and get rid of the crap) over at the wonderful DeMaterialiZe. (Who didn’t love the Fugazi lyric “You are not what you own?” Ironically enough, in high school, I wrote that on my forest green Converse…)

.uncover more about the new documentary Jericho’s Echo: Punk Rock in the Holy Land. (More here.

.see how felt is a force to be reckoned with thanks to Hut Up Berlin.

bizarrely, everyone’s favorite fake Russian lesbians, T.A.T.U., has been helping me compile this list. they also helped me get through the last 2,000 words of my dissertation. i don’t quite know what the allure is, either.

Plan B never seems to work for me…

| Betsy

So I’m back at the grind next Monday. But Tuesday-Thursday I’m going to see my grandparents at the beach and hang out with their fellow retiree friends. There will be no canasta or golf, but bike riding and happy hour will be in full swing, I’m sure. As I’ll soon be back in the cubicle, this may be my last time to drive down the coast to visit them for awhile. Plus, I try to never turn down an offer of visits from people who tell me lovely stories all day while also encouraging me to knit.

Lately when looking at job listings, wondering what the hell I’m going to do if the PhD programme I applied for (yesterday!) doesn’t work out. Most of you will recognize this as “Plan B.” I have no Plan B. I have never had a Plan B, which is most likely why I have a resume full of temporary jobs.

I think it’s time to start brainstorming, however, possibly for both a Plan B as well as a Plan C. I actually thought about whether or not I should make a real list on paper or just ponder. Then this made me realize why I’m sometimes slow about things, normal people would just pull out pen and paper and not think about the most efficient way to make a list. Only people like me (the Plan B-less) would fritter away such extravagant time on such a ridiculously trivial matter.

The majority of my problem exists in time management. I have none. I think that difficult things will take no time at all and that simple things will take ages. If only I would think back to year after year to every Science Fair I ever participated in- when the sun would rise and I would furiously be stapling my title (one year it was “Which Fabric Burns the Fastest?” No lie.) onto the board, racing against time and inevitably piercing my finger in the process.

What destiny awaits the procrastinator?

I’m not sure, but I’m pretty sure it probably won’t be grand.

I”m not proud either, but happy that in the end, despite an occasional night of lost sleep, everything gets done. Before the school bus arrives or the deadline passes.

Which brings us back to Plan B, or lack thereof. You would think that seeing all the projects I have lined up craft and writing-wise, I would have no end to careers I could pursue- as lists are my most favorite things.

But there’s something that’s stopping me from making that foray into a possible future into an unknown, outside from the even greater (and more imminent) fear of starvation, the fact that there are too many choices. I could come with plan after plan after plan of what I could do. But that doesn’t mean that any of them illustrate what I want to be doing.

Maybe that’s where I’m erring.

And just need to shoot for something that doesn’t make me want to fall asleep at my desk or run from the building daily screaming in frustration. While I’m plotting and planning something grander and more tailormade.

Even though I see many of my friends who run crafty businesses having difficulties with different aspects of their practice, they make me hopeful of the day that everyone who’s working ‘just to pay the bills’ will step away from their cubicle and live the kind of life they choose, making the world a better place with their creativity and genius, instead of running the cogs of a giant corporate wheel.

Maybe it’s just a pipe dream, but I’m strengthened everyday by your stories and your triumphs and your emails. Strengthened in the knowledge that maybe today, someone somewhere is quitting their 9 to 5 to make their dreams come true.

Thank you.

Many thanks to Belle & Sebastian for fuelling this moment of simultaneous mawkish introspection, revelation, annoyance and rejuvenation….