MrsBrown's philosophy of life and stuff

There seem to be a lot of things I both want and need to do and I need to work out a hierarchy, so I can make decisions on the fly that work with my intentions.  I also need to get a lot more strategic about doing stuff that maybe I need to delegate.

Here's what's currently on my list of things that are important to me;

Hanging out with Grandchildren
Hanging out with children
Getting Rose through VCE in a way that maximises the result, while keeping her happy
Gardening
going to Festival
Making things projects including clothes for Tam (started), wicking bed for Tam (started), thermal pants for A, my clothes projects
Regularly cooking interesting meals for people who enjoy them
Leading the Neighbourhood House committee
Being an active participant in my local community - North Richmond Reference Group, nifty grant opportunities
Keeping up to date and suggesting fabulous new things for the local community
Keeping my clients happy while avoiding being overwhelmed by work
Hanging out with my parents
House renovation
regular exercise
Active travel advocacy
Getting enough rest, both physical and mental, when I need it

Work has a bunch of urgent things, as well as a couple of important, non-urgent things that I'm just not getting to.  The important, non urgent thing was employing someone to reduce my workload, but has become rearranging my accounting systems so that I can easily manage employing someone .  The change in problem is because  my brain has almost processed the way to do this, so I should be able to start soon.

 
I also have a couple of life admin things that I'm not getting to, and it's starting to get me down that I haven't done them - my will, my dad's (updated) will and power of attorney, working out how to negotiate and approach care for my dad and step-mother.

In the past week, I've started doing some time blocking stuff that's working pretty well.  I'm working on one or two non urgent , important things each morning, the afternoon involves sitting in bed regularly working on a weekly deadline, then Rose comes home and we do homework.  Some days I've also gotten up earlier and done some work in the garden before I start work or I've done garden for 20min after Rose's homework. I also have regular commitments to grandchildren some evenings.  I'm a bit surprised that the time blocking thing is working - I often get quite rebellious about rules about when to do things, even when I made the rules.

Another thing on my list is to find a way to move my family into more of a mutual aid community, rather than me as the provider of all support.

This has become urgent because I need to work out if I have the time/energy to do a Diploma of Governance course, which has a scholarship available for women like me and fits well with my special interest in community. Can I allocate 5 hours a week to this?  Could I do it by going away for the weekend once a month and doing it intensively?  I keep putting myself into positions where this would be useful, but have been putting off doing it for the past 10 years.  If I don't do it soon, when will I have the time?

Actions: 
1. Expand the time blocking concept (without stressing myself out) and make a weekly timetable for me.  It will include allocations of "pottering time" when I don't have a regular schedule to do things.
2. Dedicate some extra time to the "employ someone" action item.

I went out to the second industry event in two years today.  Yesterday, I went to the first.

I hadn't been keen on them in 2018/2019.  I kept feeling like I just didn't want to interact with people, or to flick the switch in my head that puts me into social mode.  When ever I went to one, I expected myself to be sociable and go hang out with the "cool kids", but I just couldn't drag up the enthusiasm for it.

Here's the thing though.  I have stuff to contribute.  At yesterday's event I asked a question and then the forum leader and 2 other people came to talk to me afterwards about my perspective and contribution. And today, I failed to ask my question/put my point of view at the event and now I'm sort of busting to write a blog post in response to the topic.

If I genuinely want to change the world using my professional skills, I have to engage in this industry stuff and I probably need to make the connections that I can make at these sort of events. 

My work is currently a thing I do when I feel like it, usually for 2-3 days a week and less than 6 hours each day.  It's pretty comfy, but it doesn't involve much personal growth or learning.  I do what I do really well and I don't make the time to stretch that.  I wonder if I need to go out to industry things, to push myself to look outside of the stuff I'm already really good at?

I started writing this a month or two ago for my work blog but it got really long and I think it's actually 3 work blog posts or a magazine article (with a LOT more work).  It was still here when I came to write my next update and I've published it so I don't lose it.  


I'm a member of the Urban Coup and we're currently involved in the collaborative design process for the co-housing development in Nightingale Village.  I'm finally able to put my interest in food waste systems in apartment buildings into practise!

I've had a food waste system at home for the past 20 years.  I don't call it composting because my focus isn't about making a beautiful fertilising system for a beautiful permaculture garden, it's just about reducing what I'm sending to landfill and having a system that's not too smelly and doesn't take up too much room or require a lot of time and energy from me.  My system has mostly worked but got much better after I did my volunteer work with Food Know How, collecting cafe food waste and taking it to Collingwood Children's Farm for processing into real compost.

The biggest problem faced by the Food Know How project, was finding enough carbon to help the decomposition into fluffy, pleasant compost, rather than anaerobic, smelly slime. Carbon seems to be the factor in food waste systems that gets left out.

I've started putting all of the food contaminated paper into my food waste bin - butter wrappers (I only buy butter that allows me to compost the wrapper), flour bags, brown paper bags that I buy bread and mushrooms in, used tissues etc.  That's still not enough to make happy compost, so I've recently put a paper shredder near the food waste bin, and line the bucket with shredded paper each time it's empty.  The paper also makes the bucket easier to clean.  

We have a bin inside that gets emptied about 2-3 times a week, depending on how smelly it is and/or how full it is.  The appearance of vinegar flies is also a prompt to empty the bucket.  The bucket is probably bigger than most people would be happy with but we have a good tolerance for the smell/flies, so our laziness is best served by this bucket. I have previously used a pair of stainless steel bowls that needed to be emptied more often than we were up for, but it was good to be able to put one bowl in the dishwasher, while filling the other one.  The bucket gets a quick rinse outside and a thorough cleaning every couple of weeks.

The outside bin gets occasional attention, mostly when it's my turn to empty the inside bin.  When I think of it (about every 6 weeks or so?) I add some more carbon to the outside bin and give the waste a turn with my screw compost turner.  About every 2-3 years the bin is full enough that I need to move it and I put it somewhere new in my front garden, put the compost onto my fruit trees, put the un-composted waste back into the bin, add some more carbon and then ignore it for a couple of years.  

We have a similar process for the dog waste bin.  It's in the backyard in a shady spot, the dog waste is put into it daily, I add sawdust to it regularly, the worms do their thing and every couple of years I take out the compost, put back what hasn't broken down and keep using it.

A few weeks ago, I met up with a several of the Urban Coupers including Bron who is a resident at The Commons.  Bron has an interest in permaculture and has been one of the residents looking after their worm farms.  It was useful to collect the experiences that people have had with food waste and look at a building that already has a communal food waste system, to see what works, what doesn't and what our ideal system would look like.

The Commons has 24 households and started with 4 worm farms, 8no comingled recycling bins, and 8no landfill bins.  They now have 6 worm farms, 6no recycling bins and 4no landfill bins.  Bron felt they needed more worm farms, but when we went and took a look at them only one was working effectively, with a healthy worm population and only aerobic breakdown.  The worm farms are Hungry Bins. Until recently, they were also composting food scraps that can't go into the worm farms, but that's not currently available.  The refuse room has a blackboard, plenty of signage and a cleaners sink.  The residents supply their own containers to carry waste, recycling and  food scraps and to the refuse room.

Based on The Commons, and our experiences, this is what our ideal waste system (for 30 households) looks like;

• 5 landfill bins
• 8 recycling bins - based on the "recycling crisis", we talked about using these bins to separate our recycling more thoroughly than the current co-mingled systems.
• 6 organic waste bins (similar size to standard 240L bins) - either hungry bins or aerobins and maybe a mix of both.
• Shredder for paper and maybe cardboard.  This will be added to the food wast
• Grinder to reduce size of organic waste (wishlist item)
• Bin washing area
• Sink for residents to wash personal food scrap bins (same tap as bin wash?)

I've also reviewed many waste reports, including those for apartments and it feels like waste consultants have no idea about how to deal with food waste.  They either leave out any mention of options for food waste, or they design systems that are too small and have insufficient maintenance.

OTOH, most people who aren't me are pretty crap at getting these systems to work well.  Here's a study  of a bunch of people in an apartment building and some of the issues the food waste system had to deal with.

Anyway, hHere are the things I think make a food waste system accessible for people;

1. The inside container needs to match the lifestyle of the people using it - how often it gets emptied, how clean it needs to be, what food waste the household creates.
2. Some people won't like cleaning the container, and they will need some sort of bag system to line the container.  "Compostable" plastic bags don't compost and shouldn't be used - a paper liner would be better for these people.
3. Organic waste disposal in a compost or worm farm system doesn't mean just food waste.  Paper and cardboard are an important part of a successful system and can include paper food packaging, tissues, paper towels (if you use them) and shredded paper.    Side note - offices could be including paper towels from bathrooms in their organic waste streams.
4. It needs to be easy to shred paper, so maybe shredders should be included in apartment waste rooms?
5. Waste rooms should also include facilities to wash the kitchen bucket.
6. Aerobins don't need turning and can accept most food waste
7. Hungry bins use worms to process food waste and need careful and educated use.

I lost my job today.  Actually, I know where it is, it's just not mine anymore.

This may be a good thing.  I certainly feel unenthusiastic about corporate life and working 9-5, 5 days a week. So I'm not inclined to be in a hurry about finding another one.

Maybe this is what I needed to get me to go into business on my own, but OMG so much to do!

I still need to write my presentation for the conference that I'm now going to, I need to change my flights so I can go to the conference and then I need to investigate and do all the things associated with being a sole trader in my industry, as well as the extra business/money making ideas I'd like to pursue.

Perhaps I'll start by writing the super list of doom so the stuff in my head has somewhere else to go...

Sneetch and I have had quite a few conversations about exhaustion lately and I realised that he's busy complaining of something I remember being aware of for myself for as long as I can remember. 

I am always tired unless I have forced myself to do a particular thing.  And when I finish the thing, I'll sit down to work out what next and I'm tired again, and I need a large amount of self will to get moving again.  Except for the time between getting up and 11ish, then I'm awake and can do anything.  On days when I have a really good nap I can get a similar feeling going into the evening.  It was really weird going out to one of mr-bassman's night time gigs after one of those naps.  Socialising is so much easier when you're awake. [1]

Sneetch complains that he's always exhausted.  I'm not saying that he and I are tired in the same way, but I do wonder. 

OTOH, he manages to get up and go to school on time every morning (so far, but its only been a fortnight) and he will usually be able to go and hang out with his friends.  He does frequently go to bed at 10pm and then complain of being tired in the morning.   I've been wondering if he just need to develop som eof the coping mechanisms I've got, or if he should see a doctor, or eat more food.

Anyway, I can't think what to do so I'm off to read a book in bed, like I did last night.

[1] The socialising thing is a bit different in the last few years.  Since being the Baroness I've discovered a switch in my head that lets me be vivacious and sociable with strangers regardless of how I'm feeling.  Its been quite useful for work functions, I hand out lots more business cards these days, but it only works while I"m standing up.

What a day!  Thanks to some timely pep talking and really good coaching from sjkasabi my paper is finished enough for me to stop until early tomorrow.

I "just" have to fix up my references, write up a missing paragraph or two and incorporate any changes from my reviewers and all by lunchtime tomorrow.

Sometime I'll also work out how worried I am about going over the nominal 3000 word limit - by about 1000 words.

Next!  The presentation!

And then!  Getting up in front of people!  (Which I'm looking forward to actually, I like that sort of thing)

******

And in garden news, I've decided to abandon the cabbages and devote my little patch of garden to salad leaves and a perpetual spinach plant.  If I don't fall over after dinner I might make a start and plant some seedling trays - just need to find some potting mix.

*****

Oh yes!  What's the current advice for dealing with an email from your ISP with a letter accusing you of illegal downloading?

This morning I glory in sloshing with tea, contemplating my future and working out where to put stuff.

So many solutions to the problems of last night!

I love my intuitive brain.

Now to find a job that I
a) want
b)pays $20k more a year and
c) allows me to work from home, work a 9 day fortnight and understands that sometimes I can't be ***ked

If they have somewhere I can nap that would also be good.

Also:  sore throat and stress about technical paper/presentation

Text of an email I sent to a recruitment company today;

MrsBrown
HR manager

Edit:
Just arrived:
 

I am sorry to hear that you had such a negative experience with [recruiting company]. Whilst I cannot comment on things that occurred before I joined the company I can assure you that as a recruiter I treat all candidates on their merits.

As much as I would like the opportunity to change your mind it appears that past sins have left such a bad impression on you that  I will respect your decision and will update our records accordingly.

Kind Regards,
Recruiting flunky 

I'm being interviewed for a national idustry magazine and I'm crafting my answers. I'd really like some feedback on getting the feminist line right, while making sure I don't come across as either a weirdo, hard liner or that I compromise my ideals.

I particularly hate this set of questions:

What inspired your career choice, especially as the industry is one that is traditionally (perhaps notoriously) male dominated?

I get asked this question all the time and I have to answer that it didn’t occur to me that male domination would be an issue. I was a very idealistic feminist when I chose to do an engineering degree but I was also looking for a job which used my maths/science talent. I knew I didn’t want to be in a lab, or a teacher; I wanted to be doing something real. Then we pulled apart a single cylinder engine in my first thermodynamics prac and I knew I wanted to be a Mechanical engineer! Building Services came later, after working at the Gas and Fuel New Technologies division where I learnt about co-generation, ice storage and dessicant based air conditioning. I realised that the way I wanted to make a difference to the world was by designing building systems that use less energy.

Is this changing, or is it still Blokesworld?

Gender is not really an issue for me in my interactions with people. What people do and say is much more important, so I haven’t spent a lot of time counting and estimating what sort of minority I’m in. I’ve just gotten on with things and made sure I introduce myself to the women I meet at industry events..

Has the profession reached the point of post-feminism? Are you treated differently than men? Victimised or marginalised?

The industry almost certainly hasn’t reached the point of post-feminism, but I’m not a good person to ask if I’m treated differently from men. My best friend and I shared a physics class in year 12; she complained bitterly of discrimination and I got all excited about learning to solder. I keep a postcard above my desk which says, “It’s not because you’re a woman, it’s because you can’t urinate standing up”. I keep it to remind me that some of the things that I experience might be hidden discrimination

How do we expect an employer to treat a man who has 4 children and regularly arrives late or leaves early due to their family priorities? Or a man who arranges their work deadlines around having dinner with the family? Or chooses to work a four day week? Or has his partner bring the baby in to work every day for bonding time. In comparison to that man, I am not treated differently. Everybody is treated differently from others in some respects. We all have our own foibles, ways of working and day to day needs.

If I’m treated differently from men there are good things and bad things that come from that and just like anyone else I take advantage of the good things and work around my disadvantages.


Do you feel you’ve had the same opportunities for advancement as men?

Yes.

I woke up at 5.30am (helped by the Rose) and couldn't stop thinking about a work project.

3.5 hours later and I've done enough work to legitimately avoid going to work until Monday lunchtime - and found a whole lot of cool stuff and written the outline of a report. In fact, I've has such a good time that I'm thinking about working in Asia in a few years, instead of Europe like I thought I would.

It must be nearly arvo nap time now though.

...and I need a work icon...