Oh hell yeah, what a great excuse to write more! And the prize money is not freakin shabby. Like I could put a sizeable chunk towards creating the kind of future I want to write about.
Hey, good for you! I wish for all of the success in this project, community centres are so important.
The other morning my dogs woke me up way too damn early, but it meant I got to watch a very fat pigeon on the power line behind my house, and I got to see the finch population rapidly increase around it. (I swear I saw one little bird and by the time I got out of bed there were 5 jetting around. Pigeon did not move.)
I agree that these are luxuries for a lot of people. Some of them can be found with mindset shifts (from "fuck you dogs" to "oh look, pretty birds" for example) but it's also hard to shift your mindset to positivity when our society tries its damnedest to beat happiness out of you.
A friend literally just gifted me a copy of this because I've been feeling so burnt out by capitalism, and let me tell you, I devoured that book. It spoke to my weary soul. And made me want to quit my job (I already was wanting to quit my job)
Dang, I’m not religious, but I think you met Jesus
So a perspective I haven’t seen here yet: in many places, Starbucks is the only suitable third space left. I.e. place that is not work/school or home. I have non-Starbucks cafes nearby, but due to astronomical and increasing rent for all the independent cafes in walking distance, they are in smaller buildings and they can’t afford to have people sitting for hours on laptops using the WiFi/talking to friends/reading a book. I still support my local cafes for food and coffee, or really short meetings with folks, but if I need to get out of the house and spend time in public where I’m not obligated to speedrun my coffee, Starbucks is The Choice.
And that’s why i might be inside of a Starbucks while hating capitalism. Because capitalism made Starbucks the only corporation able to afford proper cafe space.
(There is a library nearby, yes, but not with good space for sitting down and working on a laptop. And even having THAT Is a massive privilege)
(Also I actually do have a MacBook that I do my personal stuff on, because of various bits of software i need that are OS specific, which is annoying as heck but i got used to my work mac anyways and then found a nice one used… so yeah.)
I'm so interested in this subject, but I have no societally-wide answers. I'm coming at this from the perspective of someone solarpunky who will have a child soon, and then as someone who will be educating that child eventually. I know what I WILL NOT do is send them to American public school, because of my own traumatising experience in that situation. Also because I live in the UK now. But I don't want to send them to UK public school either, if I can help it. Still too much focus on rule following and "behaviours" as things to be changed, instead of behavior as communication.
In the years before kiddo goes to school, or if I choose to home educate, I'm gonna try pulling in some inspiration from montessori/waldorf/reggio emelia styles. (I'm realising now that I know those names but not exactly what they stand for anymore. Gotta redo my research, because I know they're all a mixed bag)
But I think the ideal for school is time in nature, problem solving, finding answers over memorising them, etc. Big emphasis on time in nature, too-- I very much love tech and that should play a part in education too, but learning how the world in its most basic state works is so important. Especially with regards to where food and utilities come from.
UK based Senior software engineer here (by title anyways, I have a little over 3 years experience iirc so I’m more a mid stage-wise). I kinda use indeed, mostly use linkedin and recruiters though. My last two jobs, a recruiter just reached out to me with companies I’d never heard of or looked for. But I got on their radars by applying to postings on linkedin.
Oh I feel you on the “how do I afford living” bit. I’m a senior software engineer—arguably the career people say makes some of the best money—and I still feel broke as fuck constantly.
(I mean I’m in the UK so it’s not Silicon Valley Monopoly money but STILL)
Seconding the question on what kind of PT stuff you’d go for, because I often consider the same.
We’re not talking about hair colour though, this is obviously reducing a pic of some friends to “haha big booba small booba”. That’s kind of textbook objectification.
I have a few conditions that affect my spoon usage, like autism/ADHD and mild chronic fatigue. But I’m also pregnant, which means every day I put N+1 spoons into the “avoid nausea” drawer, and there’s a steadily increasing multiplier on any activity that means I have to walk places. Lately being vertical too long costs a bit o spoon.
All this to say that yesterday my husband sent me this comic and I immediately replied “that’s me”.
(A good percentage of his messages to me consist of Foxes in Love comics, and they are ALWAYS incredibly accurate)
This makes me so happy because at least half of the things in community sufficiency column are things I see happening in my city. Saw a flier for a fermentation course recently as well as general veg growing, not to mention the community gardening initiative where people plant edible plants in public spaces. I still need to find a day I can help out with that one. Then we have a local mattress store that sells bespoke and/or handmade mattresses for affordable prices, and specifically employs disabled folk so they can be paid a living wage while upskilling. Then there’s the tool library that’s saved many a DIY project of mine…
I live in a chronically underfunded part of Scotland. In the past i lived in an underfunded part of England. Don’t get me wrong, no city should be underfunded to start with, that’s a government crime imo. But the Scottish city took underfunding and went “fuck the government, we have each other” while the English city just kept crumbling.
All of this said not to brag, but because it proves that this shit can work, does work, and is working. And i find that inspiring.